I Am Death

Ninety-one

Two days later.

Police Administration Building

‘So he was copying everything, to be just like his captor all those years ago?’ Captain Blake asked. She was still completely stunned by Hunter’s report.

‘Pretty much,’ Hunter replied. His wrists were still bandaged. ‘Everything except taking a boy captive.’

‘And if nobody had stopped him, you think that he would’ve claimed thirty-three victims?’ Chief Bracco asked. He had been the one who had called for this particular meeting inside Captain Blake’s office.

‘Maybe more,’ Garcia replied. ‘What he wanted was for someone to stop him. To end his nightmare.’

Chief Bracco frowned at Garcia.

‘It never ended for him when he escaped all those years ago,’ Garcia explained. ‘All that happened was the second part of his nightmare began.’ He looked at Hunter, who agreed with a subtle nod. ‘If no one had stopped him, he would’ve just carried on going. Reaching thirty-three victims wouldn’t have brought it to an end.’

‘Forensics is still running tests inside that house of horrors,’ Captain Blake said. ‘They found all the video footage, together with a list of victims’ names. There were exactly thirty-three names on it but I think Carlos is right. If no one had stopped him, he would’ve carried on way past thirty-three.’

‘Nobody,’ Hunter added, ‘no matter how mentally stable they think they are, could go through six years of such torment and come out the other side unscathed, never mind a boy who was eleven at the beginning of it all. So the trauma was always there. Troy Sanders did manage to keep it under control for a hell of a long time. But finding out that the reason why he’d had to suffer so much for so long had been negligence, a series of mistakes made by the police and the FBI, tipped him over the edge. In a way, he had put his trust in those law enforcement agencies to keep him safe and to right him when he’d been wronged. Everybody does. And they —’ Hunter paused and corrected himself — ‘we failed him.’

No one said anything for a long while.

‘How did you find that godforsaken place?’ Captain Blake asked Hunter. ‘It’s not registered to anyone. It practically doesn’t exist.’

‘Sanders’ car,’ Hunter replied. ‘All LAPD vehicles are equipped with trackers. Once I found out that he was Squirm, I placed a call to Operations before calling Carlos and asked them to give me Sanders’ car location. I had to manually enter the coordinates into the navigation system.’

‘Well.’ Chief Bracco got to his feet. ‘All I can say is congratulations on a fantastic job.’ He shook Garcia’s hand, but Hunter just lifted both of his, showing the bandages.

‘Sorry, sir.’

‘No need,’ he said, approaching the door. ‘Now, back to work, or do you think Troy Sanders was the only psychopath in this town?’