A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing, it's always good to get some feedback and to know that someone out there is enjoying my work!
CHAPTER 4
'What do you make of this guy, El?' Seeing the newest crime scene had just made Olivia even more confused, and seeing the husband at the hospital hadn't helped much either.
'I don't know,' replied Elliot thoughtfully. 'I would say that the husband is almost incidental for him, but he seems to play a pretty important part in the whole ritual.'
'I know,' agreed Olivia. 'It's as if he wants to punish someone, but isn't quite sure who.'
'I disagree there, I think he's trying to punish the women for something.' Elliot took a sip of his coffee. 'You saw what he did, the men get a quick death, the women have theirs drawn out painfully.'
'But he makes the husbands watch,' said Olivia. 'You saw the note they found at that crime scene. He hates the men for being weak, so he punishes them by torturing the wives they've allowed to control them. It's his own way of making the women subservient again.'
'I thought Warner decided that the husbands were probably dead before the wives were killed?'
'She did, but symbolically they have to watch,' said Olivia. 'He actually cuts off their eyelids so they can't look away. Plus you heard what the husband said today, the perp was enjoying telling him everything he was going to do. He wants the last things these men think of to be what is about to happen to their wives. The removal of the eyelids is just a taster of what's about to happen.'
'That's if you take the husband today at his word,' muttered Elliot.
'Why, you don't think he was on the level?'
'It's not that so much as it doesn't sound like our guy,' said Elliot. 'There was no staging of the scene, no mirrors, the husband escaped almost completely unhurt... and the wife was shot through the head, with her husband's own gun, no less, and not tortured. I say it's either a copycat, or this guy's been following the news and decided he didn't much care for his wife any more.'
'I get the feeling we're missing something here, El,' said Olivia slowly. 'I just don't know what. There was something he wasn't telling us.'
'I know. There's this grey area around the time where his wife was killed. I suppose you could chalk it up to trauma, but... it's just another reason why I'm not sure the case today is related.'
Olivia paused thoughtfully. 'Did you get the feeling that he felt guilty, El?'
'Well, if he killed her, he has every reason to feel guilty,' replied Elliot.
'The guy was almost mute with shock, El. I don't know that it's possible to fake that.'
'I've seen enough to know that perps can fake anything if they need to.'
'True,' agreed Olivia. She finished off her coffee. 'Or perhaps it was guilt, or shock at what he'd done?'
'Maybe.' Elliot looked at his watch. 'Want to head on to the gas station, talk to the witnesses there?'
'Sure, El.'
Elliot had remembered enough to figure out what must have happened to them. First he must have used the stun gun to incapacitate them, then some kind of drug to sedate them for long enough to bring them here. The main thing that made no sense to him was why'd the guy bother? This guy only went for married couples, and always in their own homes. This was the first time Elliot knew of that he had actually abducted victims from their homes and moved them to a secondary location. Then again, who was to say he hadn't done this before and they just hadn't found them yet... Elliot shook it off. That wouldn't help them. Olivia had stopped shivering and fallen asleep, exhausted from having spent much of the previous four hours weeping inconsolably while he stroked her hair and held her. He knew that if Olivia was crying over it, it must be bad - she was the strongest, most determined person he knew.
He used the silence to think carefully about the situation they were in. He wasn't sure what the guy had planned, but figured it must be something more than they had previously assumed - otherwise he could think of no reason why he would have been left alive so long. Clearly there was some other aspect of the couples' relationships that the perp enjoyed exploiting and turning on them, but the question was what it was. They already knew that everything was about this big power trip the guy was on, that he needed to have complete control.
He and Olivia had argued about which of the couple was his main target, the woman who was raped and tortured before being killed or her husband who was forced to watch it. Now Elliot thought about it, it wasn't about one or other of the couple at all - it was the relationship itself the perp hated. Above all else, he would want to destroy it, even more than he wanted to destroy the victims themselves. The rape and torture were, if not incidental, secondary to his main desire, which was to break apart strongly bonded couples and turn them on each other. Then, and only then, would he torture and kill them. This, Elliot thought, was where he and Olivia had an advantage - they knew what he wanted and, to an extent, how he achieved it. He wasn't sure how, but Elliot believed he could use this against the guy.
He was startled out of his thoughts by a loud clang. He looked up to see a small hatch open in the opposite wall at floor level, but before he had a chance to jump up and run to it, a small box was thrown across the floor towards them and it was slammed closed again. Olivia was awake again, sitting up looking dazed. 'El?'
'It's OK, Liv, I'm here.' He moved quickly over to where hatch had been, felt around the wall and found an almost imperceptible gap in the mirrors coating it. He pushed on it, first softly then harder. It didn't move. He sat back and kicked it harder and harder. Still nothing. 'Damn it...' Behind him he heard a sharp intake of breath and turned quickly. Olivia had the box in her lap and was holding a small card. 'Liv? Liv, what is it?'
Olivia looked up at him, her eyes wide with horror. 'El... it says we have to choose.' She lifted the pistol and single bullet out of the box to show him.
