A/N – ff.n still seems to be a bit hinky and since I can't tell who is or isn't receiving eMails from me, I'll use this space to say 'Thank You' to everyone who is sticking with this story, and especially those readers who take the time to review and give feedback. You keep me going!

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Chapter 12 – Vengeance

"So what are you thinking on this, Bobby?"

Eames was navigating along Interstate 80 in New Jersey, headed toward White Haven in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. State Troopers were scheduled to meet them at the crime scene in Hickory Run State Park at 4:00 p.m. and they were going to have to push it to make it there on time. The interview with Moreno's parents had not gone well, and had taken longer than Bobby anticipated.

Mr. and Mrs. Moreno were horrified – and abusively angry – at the suggestion that their son's murder was in any way related to child molestation. Which, of course, only served to further Bobby's suspicions that there was something to it. It seemed to be a case of, 'Methinks thou doth protest too much…'

But they weren't going to get anything more out of them, at least not that day. Bobby had also noticed that one of the sisters seemed particularly withdrawn and, although she'd been intently studying Bobby during his questioning, she suddenly averted her eyes once he'd asked about Thomas' potential link to children.

"I'm thinking the Morenos know more than they're telling us, particularly Sarah."

"I agree," Eames stated before she abruptly swerved to miss a large piece of peeled off re-tread lying in the middle of the passing lane. Bobby swayed against her shoulder and back again as she smoothly straightened the vehicle. "But I was asking about the whole case. Five hangings in four states within two months of each other. They have to be related."

"Well… we won't know if toys were found at the ones in Vermont and Rhode Island until the detectives call back."

"C'mon, Bobby. You're dodging my question," Eames complained. "What made you think that we should look to see if this was happening anywhere else?"

Bobby smiled. He wasn't sure why he sometimes took pleasure in frustrating her, but he could always tell when it was working. Her cheeks would flush and there would be an extra spark in her eyes. Her usual smart aleck comments could become even more sarcastic, amusing him no end. But still…

"It was your suggestion about the internet, and Deakins' comment about… how the killers could be from anywhere," he started to explain. Eames glanced at him with flushed cheeks and a frown of question on her brow. Bobby decided he'd had enough fun. "What do you think the odds are that two child molesters… who aren't publicly known as such… would be identified, targeted, and murdered in the same manner?"

Eames shrugged.

"If it's random… nearly impossible. But… if it's, uh… solicited…" Bobby let the suggestion hang in the air.

Mouth agape, Eames' head swung to look at him then quickly turned back toward the road. "Contracted killings?"

"It's a real possibility," he answered as she shook her head in disbelief. "Think about it, Eames. Just suppose… that these individual victims of unreported abuse find each other through the internet. A chat room… where they can share their stories…" Bobby's voice softened. "Where they can finally… talk to someone… who understands."

Eames calmly nodded, but Bobby's gut again roiled as he remembered the pain in her eyes when she related her own experience. "You were right Eames," he said gently.

She looked at him in confusion. "About what?"

"This is about justice… or at least the promise of it," he conceded. "That chat group of victims is the source of motivation for these killings."

"You think they all banded together to murder each other's abusers?" Alex sounded doubtful.

"That's possible. But I think it's more likely that there's a group… contracting itself out… seeking justice on behalf of these unavenged victims."

Eames was silent for a while, seeming to consider his theory. "So what about the religious angle?" she suddenly questioned. "The positioning of the bodies? How does that figure into this?"

Excited to share what he'd found, Bobby held up his left hand, index finger extended, as with his right he reached to retrieve his binder from between his feet on the floor. Flipping to the paper he was looking for, he quickly read from the page he'd printed earlier that day.

"Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a… cosmografia del minor mondo…" he pronounced the Italian perfectly then looked at her and further clarified. "A cosmography of the microcosm."

"A what?"

Smiling, he continued. "The concept of macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos. With Pythagoras, the… discovery of the golden ratio and its philosophical conception called the Golden mean… the Greeks saw that this golden ratio is repeated in all parts of the ordered universe, both large and small."

Ending his recital, Bobby added some of his own explanation. "The golden ratio is the basis for Vetruvian Man. And in Leonardo's drawing, the circle represents the spiritual realm… the square, material existence. So the human body represents the perfect marriage of matter and spirit."

"Oka-a-a-y…" Eames nodded, hanging with him so far.

"The Greeks were very concerned with a rational explanation of everything and… saw this repetition of the golden mean as a pattern that was reproduced throughout reality. It is a product of the ancient Greek mentality of… of seeing reality as a whole and noticing patterns that are repeated throughout all the levels of reality. In short…," and here Bobby began to place emphasis on the remaining words of the article, "it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population."

"So… da Vinci's portrayal of Vetruvian Man can be used as a symbol of… what? Innate human traits?"

Bobby nodded, once again impressed at how well Eames could grasp his sometimes unconventional thought processes. Holding up his left hand one more time to read the end of the article, he continued. "Today, the concept of microcosm has been taken over by sociology to mean a small group of individuals whose behavior is typical of a larger social body encompassing it. A microcosm can be seen as a special kind of embodiment."

"All of which means what?"

"All of which means that I was also right. These murders are vigilantism," he said cautiously, not willing to entertain another argument with Eames on the topic of justice versus vengeance. But to his surprise, she only nodded encouragement for him to continue. "The molesters – our hanging victims – are seen as a group, unique unto themselves with their proclivity toward harming children. The murderers see themselves as… avengers. Targeting this microcosm of humanity and… displaying their bodies in such a way as to… symbolize their collective connection. They see themselves as cleansing the larger social body of this small group of individuals."

They rode in silence, both lost in their own considerations of Bobby's far-fetched conjectures. Finally, Eames spoke up.

"I don't know, Bobby. This all seems pretty 'out there.' I mean, without any evidence of this…" her voice trailed off.

He nodded, fully understanding her reservations. Bobby looked over at her. "We need to get back and do some research on the computer."

TBC…

A/N2 – I… ahem… borrowed heavily from Wikipedia for all of Bobby's gobbledygook.