The Crucifix Killer(64)

D-King kept his steady eyes on Hunter.

‘So,’ Hunter continued, ‘you just gonna sit there and pretend you’re still cool, you’re still in command, you’re still the King? We’re only asking you for her name, if only to let her family know what’s happened to her.’

Hunter waited for a reaction but it never came. He knew D-King had recognized the girl on the computer-generated portrait and that had been a huge step in the right direction. He could easily find out who she was now that he knew where to look. D-King’s cooperation wasn’t that important anymore. Hunter got up and joined Garcia.

‘Detective,’ D-King called as both men reached the staircase. Hunter turned and faced him once again. D-King made a hand gesture towards Jerome who quickly produced a picture from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table next to the computer-generated one. Both detectives sat back down and compared the pictures. The resemblance was uncanny.

‘Her name is Jenny Farnborough. I’ve been looking for her since last Friday.’

Hunter felt his blood warming. ‘Was that the last time you saw her?’

‘That’s correct. Last Friday, in here.’

‘Here?’ Garcia asked excitedly.

‘Yeah, we were sitting at this same table. She excused herself and said she needed to go to the ladies’ room to retouch her make-up or something. She never came back.’

‘What time was that?’

D-King raised his eyebrows at Jerome.

‘Late, around two or a quarter past two in the morning,’ Jerome said.

‘So you think she was abducted from this club?’ Hunter asked calmly.

‘It looks that way.’

‘Maybe she knew her abductor, someone that she’d been with before.’

D-King shook his head. ‘Even if she had bumped into someone she knew, she wouldn’t have just walked out of the club, she would’ve come back here to talk to me first. Jenny was a good girl.’

Hunter paused for a second, measuring how much he wanted to reveal about the victim. ‘She was drugged. GHB, have you ever heard of it?’

D-King gave Hunter a car-salesman smile. He knew Hunter couldn’t be that naive. ‘Yes, I know of it. Is that what was used?’

‘Yes.’

‘You said she was tortured?’ Jerome asked.

‘Yes.’

‘What exactly does that mean?’

Hunter’s gaze dropped to the pictures on the table. The image of her naked, mutilated body tied to the wooden posts flashed in his mind.

‘Whoever killed her wanted her to suffer as much as possible. There was no mercy kill, no shot to the head, no knife through the heart. The killer wanted her to die slowly.’ Hunter saw no point in hiding the truth. ‘She was skinned alive and left to die.’

‘She what?’ Jerome’s voice went up half an octave.

There was no response from either detective.

D-King tried to conceal his rage, but his eyes burned with it. His mind immediately created a grotesque picture of Jenny, alone, tortured, pleading for mercy, crying for help. He tried in vain to shake the image from his head. When he spoke, there was inimitable anger in his voice. ‘Are you a religious man, Detective?’

The question surprised both Hunter and Garcia. ‘Why?’

‘Because if you are, you better pray to God you find whoever killed Jenny before I do.’

Hunter understood D-King’s anger. While Hunter had to do things by the book and follow protocol, D-King didn’t. The idea of D-King getting to the killer before him was somehow appealing.

‘We’ll need to see a list of all her . . . clients, all the people she’d been with in the past six months. The killer could be someone she knew.’

D-King gave Hunter another cheesy smile. ‘I like you, Detective Hunter, you amuse me,’ he paused. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. Clients . . .?’

There was no way Hunter would be able to force a list of Jenny’s clients out of D-King and he knew it.

‘You said you needed her name, you’ve got it now. I’m afraid there is nothing more I can do for you,’ D-King said gesturing towards the stairs. Both detectives got up without saying a word. Hunter grabbed both pictures from the table. ‘One more thing,’ Hunter said, retrieving a piece of paper from his pocket.

D-King looked up at him with a ‘what now’ expression.

‘Have you ever seen this symbol before?’

D-King and Jerome both stared at the strange-looking drawing. Jerome shook his head.

‘No, never,’ D-King confirmed. ‘What does it have to do with Jenny’s death?’

‘It was found close to her body,’ Hunter lied.