CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
While Jake drove the car back to Hyland, he listened eagerly to Riley’s new theory. She was sure Brant Hayman had given her a hint during his final moments on the stand, just before she’d rushed out of the courtroom. And now she believed she knew what he’d been getting at.
She said, “Those words Hayman used—pain, shame, self-hatred, and ugliness. Those are characteristics of the killer himself. He’s been living with them all his life. And now he’s trying to escape all those feelings by inflicting them on others. The victims die an incredibly painful death—but more than that, they’re degraded, disfigured, even humiliated.”
Jake crinkled his brow skeptically.
“It’s an interesting idea,” he said. “But how did Hayman come up with it?”
Jake heard Riley let out a bitter
