A courier showed up with Avery’s files, and handed them to Nick. He spent the rest of the day going over them, and comparing them to information that he had. Most of it was the same, except for one thing. The cops’ files did not mention the tongue being severed from the victim’s body, and the autopsy reports did. Cops were meticulous and noted everything, especially when they feared it may be a serial killer type situation. It was an interesting development, and the cops’ files were all dated earlier than the autopsy files.
Nick called Max. “Hey, I’m onto something interesting. None of the cop’s files for these three brunette murders show a cut tongue. Any idea why?”
“No, I do my reports independently. Don’t ever compare them to the cop’s files. How did you get access to cops files?”
“A certain someone came to ask for help.”
“Who?”
“Not important right now, Max. Hey, does Natalie happen to have an E on her right leg?”
“Indeed.”
“Tongue sliced out after death?”
“Indeed.”
“Okay. I don’t think I need to stop by tonight. Have a good one, Max.” Before Max could say anything Nick hung up.
There were a few things he was fairly certain of in regards to these murders right now. The first was that these brunettes were naïveté’s, foolish girls who didn’t assume anything bad could happen to them in a cop’s company. The second thing that Nick knew for certain was that Mr. Gleason was just an odd duck, not someone that had anything to do with the murders. He just didn’t accept controversy in his personal life that may taint his or his family’s name. Yes, he was an ass, but he wasn’t guilty.
The big unanswered question was Avery. It looked like Nick would be participating in a night of surveillance, something he wasn’t particularly fond of. It would help cement just how truthful Avery had been to him, though.