“The FBI, along with the United States Embassy of Sri Lanka, have released a statement confirming that the body of Abel Hart was located in the Maldives, a large cluster of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean. How he came to be in such an obscure location is still a mystery, but agents are expected to announce later tonight that in a covert operation, they tracked him across the globe. Sources say Hart travelled on a number of forged passports in his attempt to escape justice.
“Hart, a Texan native and former New York resident, had a long history of involvement in organized crime. Aged fifty-four, he’d served three prison sentences for a number of offences, including armed robbery, fraud and rape. In total, Hart had been incarcerated for over twenty two years. Agents are still working to determine his connection to the victims of his Blood Honey ritual killings. They hope to discover his motives, and to bring the families affected a sense of closure and peace.
“Detective Luke Posner from New York Homicide has kindly agreed to answer our questions. Thank you for joining us, Detective.”
“It’s no trouble at all.”
“We have to ask the question on everyone’s lips: are police still making inquiries into Mr. Hart’s alleged connection to Aeron Lore? We know now that he was never a suspect, but that notorious email certainly spread some doubts.”
“Aeron Lore is in no way connected to Abel Hart. I can tell you that straight off the bat.”
“There’s certainly a resemblance between the men. I mean, we’ve all seen photos.”
“It happens. There are billions of people in the world, Miss Elliot; you’d be surprised.”
“Do we know who sent the email? How it came about in the first place? And do we think it had anything to do with Abel Hart?”
“Nothing at all. Judging by the stamps on Hart’s passports, he wasn’t even in the same country as the email’s ISP address. This is a classic case of public interference in order to create panic. It won’t be tolerated. We’re working with the embassies involved to locate the sender of the email, and they will be dealt with accordingly.”
“And what about Hart’s motives? This is what we’re all desperate to understand, Detective—it doesn’t even seem like he’d previously committed similar crimes. He abused women in a horrific and intimate fashion; why?”
“Hart’s motives were likely very personal to him. I hate to say it, but now that he’s dead, it’s possible that we’ll never know.”
EPILOGUE
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Leontine
Cloverville Hospital, NYC
Turns out serial killers aren’t so hot on birth control.
Funny; the last thing on my mind in that ramshackle little water villa was did you bring my pill box, Mr. Wolf?
The nurse, who has freckles and thick blond eyelashes, guides the ultrasound wand across the soft curve of my belly. The jelly she applied is cool and slick; in front of us, an image forms on the screen in black and burning blue: a bruise with a heartbeat. A tiny, perfect skull.
“That’s the head,” she announces with a warm smile. “And the hands…one, two—can you see? I do believe baby’s waving.”
Beside me, Aeron shuffles in his plastic seat. Heat climbs his cheeks in clouds of pink, and he takes my hand between his cool palms, squeezing.
“I’m just going to take some measurements,” she murmurs, flicking swift fingertips across the screen. “Do you have the date of conception with you, Miss Reeves?”
I lower my eyes. “It’s on my paperwork. I think it’s on your desk—”
“February nineteenth,” Aeron supplies in a curt voice. “We think.”
When the sickness started, at first, my doctors put it down to PTSD. I agreed with them. I lied. I knew full well that I hadn’t taken a birth control pill since the night before our abduction, but just for a while, I needed solace from the truth. Aeron was trying to save his company; we were all busy trying to save each other. Another little brain didn’t quite fit that equation.