Chapter 17

Jason and William had decided that the best course of action for their part of the investigation was to go to the morgue; with the most recent crime having just happened. It was not something that either one of them really wanted to do, but it was something that they knew had to be done. William told Jason that he never liked the idea of looking at a dead person, but that he would do it if it would help them catch the guy that was doing this to their town. Jason wondered what it was all about, but he figured that when William was ready to tell him he would.

William really despised the fact that “El Diablo” had found a way to rein terror on the town. He had always felt that he would be able to find a slower pace of life living here in Grangeville. It had happened until that fateful night three weeks ago when the first victim had been discovered. It was then that he realized that this town was just like any other town in America. It was not immune to crime and this had proven that the worst of crimes could occur anywhere.

When Jason had received that call earlier in the day that Becky Newsome had been found out in the cow pasture dead, he knew for a fact that it was “El Diablo.” He could not believe that he had murdered again so soon. On the last victims he had waited a couple of weeks between killings, now for some reason it would appear that he had escalated. He was not sure what had caused this to happen but it was very disconcerting. His initial reaction had been to get on the phone and have Grace and Veronica return home as soon as they could. He then realized that it would not make a difference, because they were looking into other leads that might help them solve the case. It was true that he had struck again, but calling them back into town early was not going to accomplish anything.

Jason was deeply sickened by the fact that they had not made a crack in the case yet, and he had struck again. He thought for sure that he would be able to make Grangeville safe and everyone would be able to sleep well at night without worry. Apparently that had not happened yet; and it made him angry. When Rosario Sanchez had become the second victim of “El Diablo” it had sickened him. He had really hoped that he would be able to catch this creep before he struck again. In fact, he had made himself the promise that he would do that. He would not allow him to take another victim and yet he had taken two more since Rosario. It made him hate himself for not being able to protect her.

He had heard the screams from her house, but he had thought that it was her television set. Rosario had always been known to keep her television way too loud. There was not a night that went by that Jason did not hear evening news as if he had it on in his own house. He could never figure out why she had it up so loud. When he heard the screams, he just figured that she had another one of her crime shows on. He was thinking about going over there and speaking to her about the fact that the entire neighborhood could hear her television, but then the screaming had stopped. He figured that she had realized how loud it was and decided to turn it down. Never had he thought that she was being murdered and that the reason why the sounds stopped was that she had been smothered to death. He would never have suspected that “El Diablo” would strike so close to him. In fact, he had struck right next door to the Chief of Police.

It was almost as if he was taunting him. Showing that he was the one in control and not the police; they might think that they were but in reality they had no control over him. He was a free spirit that was going to do whatever he wanted to do and to prove his point, he was going to take out Jason’s next door neighbor. It was something that was very chilling and that he was not sure if he would ever be able to get over. If only he had gone next door to tell her to turn down the television, he might have been able to protect her and save her life. Instead, he was going to have to live the rest of his life with it on his conscience and it was going to kill him if he is not able to catch this monster.



At the crime scene there was nothing that was any different than the other scenes that they had been on during this case. Jason hated having to go to the scene of any crime, but the crime committed against a celebrity was going to hit hard. It was already all over the news stations and in the paper. Becky Newsome had been a constant face in the morning doing her on the scene reports. Now she was on the scene but she would never report again.

“El Diablo” had thought that it would be funny to have her record her own death. That had been the most chilling fact about this case. He had always left some sort of calling card. All the other victims had had “El Diablo” spelled out in blood next to their body; not Becky Newsome, he had her interview him before he killed her. Jason played the tape.

“What is your name?” Becky asked.

“Well I won’t tell you my real name because I don’t want to get caught, but you have all taken to calling me ‘El Diablo’ however I am not a devil, I am an angel. I am here to cleanse the world of the wickedness that there is in this world.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I just told you that. Didn’t you listen to me or do you want me to finish this before you are ready. Remember I told you that you would be allowed to make your peace before you were killed.”

“I know that sir, but I am really nervous.” It was obvious on the tape that Becky was trembling; it could be heard in her voice. Jason wondered what this monster was doing to her, while he was making her interview.

“Now Becky, dear, is there anything else that you would like the world to know before you are properly cleansed for all of your wrong doings?”

“I am not sure I know what you are talking about.”

“I think that you will remember, just before you are cleansed. If you can’t remember I will remind you, but it is nothing that I want the rest of the world to figure out just yet. This game is way too much fun. The police think that they know what is going on, but they have no idea at all.”

At this point the tape came to an end. It was apparent to both Jason and William that it was soon after the tape recorder was turned off that Becky had been murdered. According to the crime scene investigators, she had been dead for approximately three hours before she was found by the farmer. What a terrible discovery that must have been for him.

The coroner had come and done his investigation and had taken the body back to the morgue. It was here that Jason and William were on their way to. They both were hoping that they were going to be able to find something that would give them so insight into what was going on in the mind of “El Diablo.”


At the morgue, William prepared himself for what was going to happen. It was not a place that he was comfortable at, at all. He had never liked having to come here. He had had to do it about three years ago to identify a young child that had been missing for about six months. He was the lead investigator on that case and so he had gotten to know her and her family quite well. The parents could not bring themselves to go to the morgue and so they had asked him to do it for them. He had agreed. It was the worst day of his entire career. To look down upon the face of a child that he had been trying to find and to realize that she was gone forever. A monster had taken her away from her family; the only solstice had been that they found the killer just twenty-four hours after she had been found.

As they walked into the corner’s office, William stayed behind Jason. It was harder than he expected, but he hoped that by staying behind the Chief of Police it would not be too evident to him. He had thought that he had made amends with the fact that he had not been able to save the little girl. Obviously he had not done as good of a job as he had thought. He did his best to keep his mind on the task at hand and to not focus on any other cases that he had worked on in the past; it was just too hard. Jason did not seem to really take any notice at all.

“Hello, Harold, we are here to look at the report that you have made on any and all the bodies connected to the ‘El Diablo’ case.” Harold was a large man and he looked like he did not put up with anything for anyone.

“Not a problem at all Chief. Let me go get them for you.”

When Harold returned with the four case files, Jason decided to speak with him while William looked through them. “William, why don’t you look though the case files and see if you can find any sort of consistencies between any of these cases, and I am going to speak to Harold and see what he can tell me.” William, looking quite pale, took the files and gratefully sat down at the desk.

“Harold, what can you tell me about these bodies? Are there anything of consequence between the bodies.”

“I have not noticed anything that I can think of. The one thing is that all of the bodies did have a small tattoo of a lion on their right ankle. I did think that it was strange but then again people get tattoos all of the time and it doesn’t mean anything.”

Jason made note of this fact. He did not see how this was going to play a role in the investigation but if Harold had noticed it then he might as well make sure to follow up on it. He asked if he had taken a picture of that tattoos and if they were in the files. Harold nodded and said that it is common practice to take pictures of any identifiable marks on a body. Jason asked if there were any other similarities between the four victims; Harold shook his head. He would make sure to see if there were any other photographs within the files that showed any other sort of connection.

Jason was grateful that he had spoken to the coroner. He thanked Harold for his time and asked if they could keep the files for awhile. Harold said that he did not see any problem with that at all, as long as they were returned to him at some point and time. Jason then made his way down the hall to where William was sitting looking through the case files. When William said that he did not notice anything, Jason decided to just collect the files and look at them on his own.

He hoped that he would be able to find something that would make some sense. It was true that all of the victims had a tattoo but so what. Did it really make sense that they would all have the same tattoo at the same place on their body, when there was no known connection to each of them? He was not sure, but he was bound and determined to find out. This might be the connection that he was looking for. If it was there, Jason knew that he would be able to find it. It would only be a matter of time before it was all understood.