Tortured Dreams

Chapter Twenty

Chapter 20

My room was quiet. There was the whooshing of a heating vent. Somewhere down the hall I could faintly hear a TV. Xavier, Gabriel and Lucas were all very quietly staring at me. Michael was busy comparing maker's marks. No one could find Alejandro.

We were staying at a Hilton. I found this irritating, but at least I had a balcony. The rooms were old fashioned in build. Large ceilings, lots of lights, and big furniture were the dominating features.

The men were unwilling to speak; afraid I'd pounce on them or something. They just stared, quietly, burning holes into me. I didn't know exactly how to say what I wanted to say without sounding like an idiot, so I hadn't started yet.

"If this is going to take a while, I'm ordering room service," Xavier finally said.

He stood up when I made no comment, went to the phone and ordered up food for the four of us. At least, I thought it was for the four of us. It might have been for eight or nine people. I had seen Lucas and Xavier eat before. They could put it away. I was guessing that was why Lucas worked out like he did.

"Lucas, I'd like you to go to the museum tomorrow and interview Doctors Samuels, Leon, Baker and Pickerd. There was something off about one of them, but I want to see what you think."

"Ok," Lucas said blandly.

"I think I'm looking at it wrong. I know that the devices are the key to finding the clues, but I haven't thought much about the person doing the torture."

"And that's important?" Lucas asked.

"Yes," I blinked at him. "What does it take to torture someone?"

"It used to be a sense of righteousness." Lucas said.

"Exactly. Torturers might be the first documented serial killers when you really think about it. The difference being they were supposed to do it, it was their job. Saying that though, your average person couldn't have done it, even back then. They could watch as long as they weren't directly involved. The average person could sit and watch an execution, but they couldn't partake in them. If they had been the hangman, it just wouldn't have happened."

"So you think we need to figure out more about the torturer." Xavier said.

"Sort of. It dawned on me while I was talking to the others that the Iron Maidens would have had to be ordered way in advance. Probably more than a year ago. This means that the maidens were ordered long before he actually started killing. Each kill is a progression. The first was drawing and quartering. It is violent and painful, but aside from tying the victim up, you don't really do anything except get the animals moving. Impaling is much more personal, but you don't sit there and watch them die, it is too slow. That's why the maidens are so wrong. Like impaling, it can take days. However, these maidens wouldn't take more than a few minutes..."

"But he dined while they were impaled." Xavier commented.

"That's the thing, he did, but either he impaled them and then ate or he came back for the meal or it was completely staged. I don't know. I just know that he didn't sit there for two days and watch them die. That would require a special kind of crazy."

"That would explain the tongues." Lucas said.

"What?" I asked.

"The impaling victims and the drawing and quartering victims were missing their tongues," Lucas said.

"That's kind of standard practice." I dismissed it.

"Removing the tongue is standard practice?" Gabriel frowned at me.