alone. He worked hard when he worked. He didn’t talk much. He kept to himself. He took on the occasional student if they could pay or if they worked for him in some capacity. No one stayed around him long because he expected them to work the way he did, using the same brutal conditions he’d trained under.
“A year?” Transporter said. “She lasted an entire year training under him?”
Code nodded slowly. “It appears so. She returned to the States and took a job a hundred miles from her hometown as a librarian, and a few months later the first of the frat boys, Beau Cabot, died an ugly death.”
“How?” Reaper asked.
“Someone went into his home, taped him to the bed, shoved sawdust down his throat, packed it in deep and taped his mouth closed and waited for him to suffocate. His parents were sound asleep in the other room. They never heard a sound. Found him the next morning.”
“Classic,” Maestro said. “An easy one. Where did the sawdust come from?”
“His father’s a cabinetmaker. Right out of his very classy, high-end workshop. Not a single sign of a break-in. No tampering with cameras. Not at the shop. Not at the house and they live in a gated community and have security everywhere,” Code said. “The cops looked hard at the father and his employees, especially because the son was a screw-up and constantly got good workers fired. Frat boy also made very costly mistakes. The father didn’t want him working there, but the mother always made it the employees’ fault and insisted her husband fire the workers.”
“They found nothing that could connect Scarlet to the murder?” Lana asked.
Absinthe glanced at her sharply. He knew what she was thinking. Scarlet had managed to slip past them. Neither of them knew how she’d done it. He still hadn’t figured it out.
“No. The cops assured both Cabot and Holden Sr. she couldn’t have been involved. They’re wrong,” Code said.
Absinthe’s heart dropped. If Code found some trail leading back to Scarlet, the police could find one.
“Your reasoning?” Czar snapped.
“Several.” Code picked up the eight-by-ten photograph. “Her eyes when she looked at the Holden kid. She was taunting him right back. She believed absolutely those boys raped her little sister. She knew they did. Something they did. Something she saw that no one else did, but she knew, and she was telling him she was coming after him. He thought he was too out of her reach, but he didn’t realize what he’d unleashed. He should have. There were three of them that night. Scarlet was drugged when they’d tried to rape her. She fought them off, managed to get a knife and nearly killed them. But no, the suffocation is one of the many ways we were taught. But both the other boys are dead too.”
Absinthe thought those were all very good reasons. He was glad none of those were reasons the cops would be able to trace the killings to Scarlet. “How did the next one, I presume it was Arnold Harrison, die?”
“Two months later, Harrison was found in a bathtub. Again, very fancy mansion. Lots of security guards with dogs patrolling the very ritzy neighborhood. Mommy and Daddy were home entertaining their club friends including Robert Barnes-Holden Sr. Whoever killed him was in the house when they were all downstairs. The maid found him the next morning. He was hung upside down over a tub full of water on a pendulum-type device. He was hog-tied, hands and feet tied together behind his back. Again, his mouth was taped shut so he couldn’t yell out. He controlled the pendulum. If he didn’t hold the trigger balanced, his weight dropped his head toward the water. He was looking straight down the entire time.”
“Total mindfuck,” Gavriil said. “Adrik loved those.”
“Eventually, the kid slipped up, and his nose went under. He struggled to right himself, but of course he couldn’t. Every bit of the device was made from pieces from the art gallery the kids’ family owns, right down to the pulleys and screws. Again, security all over that gallery. Paintings there are worth a fortune. Absolutely nothing on camera and no prints anywhere,” Code said. “You have to admire this girl.”
“Was Scarlet looked at for this murder as well?” Steele asked.
“Holden Sr. insisted. He threw his weight all over the place. Went to the press. Demanded the cops do their job. Demanded she be put back in prison. Told everyone she was a killer.” Code placed