16
While Daniel took Scipio outside, Tean set to work transforming the sofa into a bed. At some point, they would need to buy a bed for the spare bedroom, but for now, it was just extra storage space.
As Tean shook out a sheet, Jem said, “You realize that leaving probably saved his life.”
Tean paused as he fitted the sheet. Jem stood at the counter, his attention focused on slicing an onion. Finally, Tean said, “I can’t believe you think Ammon would do that.”
“Huh? Oh. No, not Daniel. Although yeah, the sooner he’s out of that house, the better. I meant the guy on the phone. Scott.”
Tean hesitated. Then he finished tucking in the sheet.
“Think about it,” Jem said. “The dad has that mysterious fall in the barn. The mom has a mysterious fall at home.”
“People do fall. It’s a common household injury.”
“You think I forgot about that ladder conversation?” But before Tean could respond, Jem went on, “There’s no way it’s a coincidence. They’re just lucky they didn’t end up like Rydel.”
The image of the burned and broken body, soaked in his own blood, floated up to Tean. He had to pause. And when his hands moved again to crease the edge of the sheet, they were trembling.
“What I don’t understand,” Jem said, “is if he thought his dad was such hot shit, why did he kill him?”
“Stepdad,” Tean said as he got to his feet. “And maybe he didn’t.”
Jem was giving him a you’re-full-of-baloney look across the cutting board.
“Like a lot of gay men, I think Kai has a complicated inner life,” Tean said.
“So, you think he’s gay?”
“It’s the most likely answer. I don’t know if he identifies that way, but I think if he were bisexual, he probably wouldn’t feel so conflicted about it. If nothing else, it might be easier to hide the part of himself he doesn’t like.”
“He’s gay,” Jem said. He moved on to slicing a bell pepper, and now he bit into a strip.
It crunched between his teeth, and the smell of it rose on the air.
“And he doesn’t want to be gay. So, he kills gay guys.
That’s what I meant about Scott. If he hadn’t left, I think he would have been the first one to go. ”
Tean slid a pillowcase over a spare pillow.
“What do you think?” Jem asked between bites.
“Save some of those for the stir fry.”
“Remember when he found out about Rydel? Found out he was banging dudes and then killing them? He was angry.”
“We don’t know that. We didn’t see his reaction.”
“Well, he killed Rydel. I think that means he was pretty angry. And he wasn’t angry that Rydel was killing those guys; he was angry that Rydel was out there smashing dongs. That’s a repressed gay guy who doesn’t want other gay guys getting any wiener of their own. It’s classic.”
“Do you think he’s killed other people? Besides Rydel and River, I mean?”
“One hundred percent. Don’t you?”
Tean sighed. He sat at the breakfast bar and took off his glasses. After a moment, he said, “I think it’s likely.”
“Tess told us that Rydel molested Zeb when they were younger. And that it messed Zeb up. So, that’s part of it too. Remember how they wrote ‘groomer’ on the wall at Rydel’s house.”
Tean nodded.
“That’s his angle. We kill gay guys so they don’t hurt kids.”
“I don’t know if it’s unusual or not that Kai may be gay and is targeting gay men.
It’s certainly not unusual for a gay man to internalize a lot of self-hatred if he’s exposed to it growing up, and what Scott told us about Dale and Kai suggests that Kai must have absorbed a lot of homophobia at home. ”
“What Kai got at home,” Jem said, pointing with the knife for emphasis, “was fucked up. Like, seriously fucked up.”
“That’s true too.” Tean tried not to think about the pictures that Scott had mentioned, but they were there, half-formed images that his brain simultaneously tried to fill in and block out. “Whatever happened to him, it shaped who he is today.”
“But I’m not wrong that he secretly wanted to bang his dad, not his mom. Right?”
Tean rubbed his eyes.
“I just want to be clear,” Jem said with a laugh.
“From what Scott told us, I suspect even Kai doesn’t entirely know. He was exposed to sexualized images of women being harmed, and that must have had some sort of effect. He was probably also attracted to his stepfather to some degree. One might have served as a pretext for the other.”
“But dressing up in his dad’s clothes and jerking off on the bed, that’s definitely about wanting somebody to cornhole him and spank him and send him to bed?”
For about five seconds, Tean sat there, hands frozen on his eyes mid-rub. And then he said, “Jem, please.”
Jem laughed about that for a while. But when he spoke again, his voice was serious.
“The paranormal stuff is interesting, right?” He slid the onions into a hot pan, and a moment later, the kitchen smelled wonderful.
Over the sizzle of the vegetables cooking down, he added, “They were all working at that paranormal campground when we met them. And that goes back to his dad.”
“His stepdad, yes. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. Many serial killers have vivid internal lives. Fantasies, typically, of paraphilias.”
“Like getting boned by their dad while their mom is tied up.”
“Oh my gosh.” But he had to add a moment later, “Something like that. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kai’s fantasies also included some connection to the paranormal.”
“Like he’s getting boned by aliens, and his dad is watching.”
Tean put his glasses back on. He stared at Jem.
Laughing, Jem held up the knife in surrender.
“It’s not uncommon for serial killers to have delusions of grandeur. Delusions being the key word. Yes, he might believe he has some sort of paranormal connection, perhaps even a power or ability.”
“The wolf masks.”
Tean hadn’t even thought about it until Jem said it, and it was like someone turned a key. He studied his fiancé. “Yes. Yes, Jem. My goodness, that’s brilliant.”
“It’s not brilliant. Every time we see him, he’s wearing a mask.”
“But I didn’t even think about it. I mean, I assumed— I don’t know what I assumed. That he was wearing it to terrorize. And to hide his identity.”
“Werewolves.” Jem ticked the list off in the air. “Space wolves. Skinwalkers.”
Tean ran the idea back and forth. There was something there, but he couldn’t catch it.
“Is it normal for a serial killer to have a bunch of friends?” Jem asked.
“No. But it’s also not as uncommon as the media would like it to be; as Amy said, the brilliant killer who works alone is what Hollywood uses.”
“Hannibal Lecter. Norman Bates. Oh shit! Vampires!”
“Exactly. Well, not the vampires part.”
“They kill a lot of people, babe.” And then, as though proving his point, Jem added, “Remember Angelus? From Buffy?”
Tean chose not to respond to that. “There’s a long history of people killing in pairs and groups.
Sometimes, they truly are partners. But often, there’s another dynamic.
A leader with a strong personality recruits people who are either less intelligent or more passive or, frequently, both.
Those people then assist with the killings out of a shared fantasy, a belief in a larger purpose, or a fear of the leader. ”
“Or all three,” Jem said as he dumped the peppers into the pan. Steam wafted up, and the smell in the air changed. “Zeb never would have killed Rydel on his own, not even for revenge, but Kai got inside his head.”
“And what Scott told us about Kai confirms that. Kai knows how to manipulate people. He’s demanding and insistent. He withdraws affection if the other person doesn’t do what he wants. He uses their fears and insecurities—like Zeb’s history of abuse—as leverage.”
“You know what I keep thinking about?” Jem gave the vegetables a poke. “We met him. We looked right at him. And he was such a drip. I mean, no personality, nothing. Just those freaky eyes.”
Pale eyes. Pale eyes that had watched Tean, unblinking. And yes, for lack of a better word, they had freaked him the fuck out, even if he hadn’t been able to identify the feeling at the time.
“So,” Jem said, “what now?”
“We could call the police.”
“Okay.”
“And tell them what Scott told us.”
“About Direwolf Ranch.”
“Yes, about the ranch.”
“And these are the same police who just arrested some back slope country bumpkin for River’s murder? The same guys who are convinced they’re looking for a single person who killed Rydel, not a group, even though we told them what we saw.”
“Yes.”
Jem wrinkled his nose.
“How about this?” Tean said. “I’ll call the detective in charge of Rydel’s case. If it doesn’t seem like he’s going to take this seriously, we can drive out there and—”
“And see for ourselves?” Jem asked dryly.
“It doesn’t sound like a great plan when you say it out loud.”
Jem gave the vegetables a half-hearted stir. But then he said, “Fuck, Tean, they’re going to kill Amy, and we still don’t know why.”
“They’re not going to kill her. She’s safe. And she’s going to stay safe until we can figure this out. We’ve got an actual lead now. All we have to do is snap a picture of Kai or one of the others at this ranch, and we can send it to the police. They won’t be able to ignore it.”
Jem didn’t shake his head. But the tightness of his body was disagreement, even if he didn’t want to show it.
“Do you want to stop?” Tean asked.
“No. No, it’s just so fucking frustrating. I want those assholes to do their job, that’s what I want.”
“Maybe they will. Maybe I’ll call, and they’ll be excited for the tip.”
Jem nodded. “Call them tonight.”
“Do you want me to take Daniel to Rainbow House?
“I got it.” And then, as casually as he could, “Did you reschedule your session with Hudson?”
The sizzle of the pan.
When Jem looked over his shoulder, Tean’s hands were closed at his sides. He must have realized because he relaxed them again, and his voice was even when he said, “I forgot.”
Jem nodded.
“I was dealing with my dad,” Tean said, “and then I started reading River’s notes, and— It’s been nonstop.”
“If you don’t want to keep going to therapy, you can just tell him.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to keep going.”
He gave a shrug. But he said, “You’ve missed the last three times.”
“I missed the last three times because we had something for Daniel, and then I was busy at work, and now we’re dealing with a gang of murderers.” Jem turned his attention back to the vegetables, but after a moment, Tean said, “Why are you keeping track of when I do and don’t go to therapy?”
“I’m not keeping track.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I was asking a question.” Jem held up the spatula in surrender. “It’s none of my business. Forget about it.”
Nothing.
He scraped the pan back and forth over the burner, sliding the veggies around.
“I’m going to call that detective,” Tean finally said.
“Great.” Jem kept his gaze on the food. “I’ll take Daniel after dinner.”
“Great.”
Jem’s jaw was tight. But he made himself say over his shoulder, half-plan, half-sideways apology, “If they’re just going to bullshit us, we should go out to the ranch tomorrow.”
Tean nodded. And then he left.