Chapter 53: Tony: Whoa, Are You Here to Arrest Me?
"You gonna cut 'em open?" Lynn asked, swirling the drink in his glass as he looked at the two alien corpses on the lab table.
"Let's run a scan first." Tony was already moving, passing a scanner over the two bodies.
He stared at the readouts. Skin density seven times that of a human. Tony was silent for a long moment. "So, are we just the weakest species in the universe, or what?"
"I doubt it. Universe is a big place. Gotta be someone weaker than us out there." Just as he spoke, Lynn's phone started ringing.
He picked it up. It was George. "Lynn, we got him. The killer. The guy cutting off heads and stuffing bodies with butterflies."
"Where?" Lynn said, instantly alert. "I'm on my way."
George rattled off an address. Lynn hung up and turned to Tony. "Duty calls. Gotta go."
As Lynn turned to leave, Tony called out, "Hey, right, the money for that 'calm-me-down' potion is already in your account."
"And hey, you need anything, you call me."
"Got it." Lynn nodded and was gone.
Outside, he started his car and glanced at his phone. A new transfer: two million dollars.
Lynn slammed his foot on the gas and tore off toward the address George had given him.
'If this NYPD gig wasn't so damn useful for finding spirits...'
'...with this much cash, I could just check out and spend the rest of my life partying.'
'Tsk. Too bad this is the goddamn Marvel universe. Gotta keep leveling up.'
***
He met George in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
"M.E. ran the tests," George started, all business. "The wood carving from the first vic's eye socket? It's antique. Hasn't been produced in over twenty years."
"Vic two, the decapitation... the saw blade analysis traces back to a single woodworking family, right here in Brooklyn."
"Our guess is the killer is one of them."
Lynn racked the slide on his pistol. "And? You get a name?"
"While you were in Europe, I paid them a visit. We also ID'd the butterflies from vic four. They're a rare import from India. Only one place in the state brings them in: a local conservatory."
"And guess what? The conservatory recently pressed charges against a guy named John Kost. For stealing butterflies."
"And John Kost... he's a member of that same woodworking family."
Lynn nodded. "Sounds like our guy."
He looked at the house in front of them. "He in there?"
"It's his address. File says he's got a history of mental illness. Sees a female psychiatrist every week."
As he spoke, he and Lynn moved up to the front door.
George knocked. Waited. Nothing.
Lynn motioned for him to step back, then kicked the door clean off its hinges.
Pistols raised, they entered the house and swept the ground floor, eyeing the stairs.
"Lynn, I'll take upstairs," George said. "You clear the ground floor."
"Right." Lynn moved toward the rooms off the main hall.
His Super-Sense was already screaming at him. The house was empty.
He lowered his weapon, relaxing his stance.
He pushed open the door to one room and froze. The walls were covered, floor to ceiling, with photos of a blonde woman.
"George! Get down here!"
George thundered back down the stairs.
He entered the room, saw the shrine, and cursed. "That's her. That's the psychiatrist."
"Shit, we're too late. Lynn, let's go. We gotta get to her house. Maybe we can still save her."
***
They sped to the psychiatrist's home. The front door was splintered, kicked in.
Inside, the place was a wreck. Signs of a struggle. Traces of blood on the floor.
"Goddamn it, we're too late." George scowled. "I'll get a BOLO out on Kost's car, alert all patrols."
"Maybe she's still alive."
"No time." Lynn didn't sense any spirits. He pulled out his phone and dialed Tony Stark.
Back at the villa, Tony was scanning the alien rifle when the call came in. He grinned. "Whoa, not even two hours. You miss me already?"
"What is it, Detective? Did I commit some heinous crime? Are you here to arrest me?"
Lynn ignored his bullshit. "Tony, I know you have eyes in the sky. I need JARVIS to find someone. Now."
"NYPD's system is too damn slow."
He gave Tony the rundown.
"On it." Tony, instantly serious, had JARVIS tap the satellites and hunt for John Kost.
Ninety seconds later, an address pinged on Lynn's phone.
"Thanks, Tony." Lynn hung up and showed the phone to George. "That's his last known. Twenty minutes ago. He's driving her car."
"Let's move!" George floored it, the unmarked Chevy screaming toward the location.
***
Inside a warehouse. "Ah!!!"
The psychiatrist, Maria, woke with a gasp, her eyes wide with confusion as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
Then she saw it. To her left, in a glass jar, a woman's severed head floated in formaldehyde. She screamed and scrambled backward.
She tried to run, but her ankle was yanked short by a heavy iron chain.
Across the room, a workbench was laid out with knives, saws, and an axe.
Pure terror flooded her system.
"Don't be afraid, my dear Dr. Maria."
The voice came from behind her. She whipped her head around and saw John Kost, staring at her with a look of pure adoration.
Her heart seized.
This was the man who had broken into her home, who had knocked her out and dragged her here.
"John... p-please, don't hurt me, I…"
"Shh." He crouched in front of her, smiling at her pale, terrified face. "My dear Maria. I love you. How could I ever hurt you?"
"To show you how much I love you, I even... created the world's most beautiful four-line love poem... using four other women."
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