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Again, Ty was silent, and the odd sounds started up again It was a slow, squishing sound, like a shoe stuck in thescrape followed by several shorter ones Ty couldn’t quite identify it, but as he listened, he accepted with a sinking sensation that he was going to die

SEARS brought Zane another glass of juice while he sat and flipped through the pages of the leather Poe anthology Ross had found Ross sat with a pen and paper,notes as Zane searched for similarities between the cases and the stories he read

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue," he said softly

"The ME," Sears provided with a wince

"Right In the story, one woman’s head is practically cut off The other was stuffed into the chi, Zane shook his head

"The location is what’s iht?" Ross asked as he eia," he announced "First thing, the wife in the story dies," he said woodenly He gri "The man in the story remarries, but he’s convinced that his neife is the old one, reincarnated or so, and he slowly poisons the second wife, who then dies as well The second as described as raven-haired

The first as blonde," he stated in clipped tones

"The dye-job roo up fro"

"And the wife thing explains the plastic wedding rings," Zane supplied tiredly "Hooked together to symbolize they were really one person, no doubt"

"Jesus," Sears h the files that sat nearby, er had pulled only the files of anyone who had lived in or around the Baltiton, DC The stack was huge

An odd feeling of dread settled into Zane as he looked at the files It was like searching for one particular needle in a fucking needle factory Hoould they knohich file was relevant? Even Ty’s file was in that stack, and Zane’s fingers itched to search for it Instead, he paged through the book and found another story, one he’d read over and over while in school "The Tell-Tale Heart," he announced

Both agents looked up from their notes Zane didn’t need to explain that one

"YOU’VE been a fine conversationalist, but it’s almost time for me to leave"

The distorted voice was rown very dim

It took a while, but Ty had finally decided that he knehat the sound was In hindsight, it bothered hiure it out He had spent one su his father build a s but cinderblock and bearown to love the sound of laying theto come to terms with the fact that that sound would be one of the last ones he heard

The fucker was bricking hinized The Cask of Amontillado now that his head had cleared and he kneas happening

This had been the only Poe story Ty had read and actually enjoyed Ironic that it would be what killed him

He turned his head in the darkness He could see the outline of theWhen he spoke, his voice echoed off the cavernous walls of the catacomb and came back too distorted to even decipher an accent, ain, Ty felt the cold dread creep over hiht his lover was in danger and he couldn’t do a da about it His wrists and ankles were bloody fro froiven up He couldn’t, not while knowing that the killer’s next stop would be Zane

"He’ll kill you," he told thehim "He’ll make it hurt"

"I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t try," the ent Grady Tioodbye, if you like"

Ty was silent as thea trash bag Soon, a handful of white plastic was stuffed through the hole left in the brick wall It was a plastic suit that had obviously been protecting the round and the candle flickered threateningly As soon as it landed, the plastic caught the flaht It illu down the old brick walls shimmer

Ty could see the heavy drilled brackets that bound him to the bricks with thick chains, and the solid wall of brick a couple feet in front of him that closed in the tiny alcove He knew instantly that no one would find hilanced up at the face in the hole in the brick wall and sed past his shock as he finally saw the ed to utter to the face looking down at him

"Why, thank you, Ty That’s very kind of you By the way, don’t worry about the kid He needs to be alive enough to pass on the news about you disappearing But I’m afraid I can’t make the saht back the panic that bubbled up Even the glimpse of the man’s face didn’t make a dent in the cold curtain of fear that had fallen What good did it do to finally knoho they had been hunting if he was going to die here?

Two bricks

The candle flickered as the as nearly finished A soft gust of cool, da Then there was a thu scrape, and a quiet slide of sticky mortar

The last brick

Ty sed as the outside world was shut out He looked down at the candle, the fla but weak When it ran out, so would he

"WE have five more victims to explain," Ross told Zane as he scribbled quickly

"Berenice," Zane answered as his entire right side burned with throbbing, incessant pain "The woman whose teeth were all yanked and she rapped up in a shroud and dumped at the cemetery Then we have The Oval Portrait, the woman as painted with her own blood and stuck up on a canvas"

"God, it’s so easy to see now," Sears groaned

"A few ot too close" Zane was shaking as he continued to turn through the book

"Jesus, it was right there all this time," Ross whispered

"You told the Assistant Director about this, right?" Sears asked suddenly