Facilis Descensus Averno [REWRITING]

11. The Operator

A/N: New cover + new chapter. Also, big trigger warning towards the end of the chapter for potential visual/auditory triggers because the description gets quite intense there. Anyways, enjoy.

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"Why Toby?"

She slipped her now-cold coffee into the cup holder as Gilliam slid into the passenger seat beside her and slammed the door shut. She had asked where his fancy black sedan was—he was already at the police station, in the middle of processing the camera footage from the stores Jack had mentioned during interrogation, when the call for the new crime scene came in and he decided to hitch a ride with one of the other officers instead.

"I thought the kid had an alibi for the night of the previous murders." She plugged the key into the ignition and turned the engine on at the second try. "Plus, he's been in our holding cells since last night—"

"I'm not saying Rogers did it," Gilliam sighed with a strain in his breath as he secured the seat belt over his chest. "But he might know who did."

Her eyes rolled briefly to the back of her head as she released the parking brake and planted both hands on the steering wheel. "You know, maybe at this point in time, you'll stop speaking to me in ambiguous riddles and just go straight to the point—"

"It's his girlfriend."

She froze, then cocked an eyebrow as she turned to glare at him. "His girlfriend?"

The agent nodded but kept his gaze down as he fiddled with the strap of his watch. "Natalie Ouelette—otherwise known as the self-named serial killer Clockwork."

"Another serial—" Bishop paused to close her eyes, take a deep breath, before turning her gaze back forward as she began to put the car into drive. "Are they all part of some serial killing book club or something here?"

Gilliam tilted his head back and forth in uncomfortable uncertainty. "Something like that."

She scoffed, blinking several times in disbelief but kept her focus on the road as the car made a left turn to the direction of the main street.

"And she's about as crazy as they come—well, excluding Jeff, but she's pretty close," Gilliam continued. From her peripherals, she could see him gazing out the window, head bobbing slightly every now and then. "A thrill-seeker who kills for the sake of killing itself and just because she can. Like most of the others, we haven't been able to predict where she's going, or who she's going after next. One of the few things that we do know about her is the fact that she has ties with the one and only Tobias Rogers."

"Toby? Really?" She tried not to wince at the thought as she tried to maintain her focus on the road ahead of them. From what little she had seen from the youngest in the bunch, he seemed rather quiet and timid—didn't speak much unless spoken to. Never in a million years would she ever expect him to go for someone Gilliam literally described as 'about as crazy as they come'. "Why do you think it's her?"

Gilliam took a brief pause, then shook his head before finally responding. "I can't be a hundred percent sure about it, though. She has a signature killing style, but it doesn't come out cut and dry through the evidence. All we know is that she likes to leave a mess and enjoys toying with her victims. She can also be quite—" He coughed into an enclosed fist and cleared his throat. "—'artistic' with her work sometimes."

Bishop cocked another eyebrow. "Like pinning her victim up against the wall, painting the entire area in his blood and tearing his insides out for all of us to see?"

"Something like that," Gilliam admitted with a single nod. "Among other things. As I said, it is a weak connection at best, but it's an avenue worth taking a look at, considering the past two murders have been replicated to look like some of her 'mutual acquaintances', per se." He paused to take a deep breath and leaned his head back against the worn-out headrest. "If our suspect is emulating all these other killers from the same group of psychopaths, then—"