Everything felt like a tornado. You knew what it was, but had no idea the destruction it would leave behind. I knew this case was eating at Ray. I knew he was beyond worried about me and what my being a witness would mean for me. But in all we’d been through dealing with these psychos, I never saw that look of utter devastation on Ray’s face until he realized all these victims looked like this guy Mikey Carter.

All I knew at this point was he was an escort and he disappeared. My mind was reeling. Was he still alive? Could they find him? Would Mikey know anything? It was like hope was battling with reality, and I didn’t know which was going to win.

Ray explained he had an important call to make. Worry creased his face and a glint of fear turned his soft eyes hard. Bradford said he was going home for the evening, but he would leave a man here to watch the outside and would speak with us in the morning.

As I sat on the couch, the silence was doing nothing good for my imagination, so I decided to call Elise, see how she was doing.

“Hey, Andy. So great hearing from you. How you holding up?” She sounded truly relived, and as sorry I was for getting her wrapped up in all this, I was grateful to have become closer to her.

“I dunno. It’s still dangerous, but I think they may have some solid leads.”

“Good. You must be going crazy not working or anything. Any idea when you’ll be back?” I was already past my week off and pushing into the two-week territory. I was sure Augustine hadn’t hired anyone else, Elise would have mentioned it, but I did know how tired she must be covering my ass. But that did remind me.

“I’ll talk to Ray about work, but you know what I wanted to ask you? Was Gabin having an affair? Have you heard anything about it?”

There was a fairly long silence, then Elise released a breath. “I didn’t want to say anything to you with everything going on, but there’s been some serious shit going on at the restaurant.”

“Like what?” Was it more than just Augustine’s affair?

“Apparently Augustine had an affair with Trenton because Gabin has been sleeping with someone for, like, years. Auggie told Gab that the only reason he did any of it was to hurt him for the years of humiliation he caused him.”

It was all so heartbreaking. Two men I looked up to, men I’d hoped to have a love like theirs, were a mess.

“Jesus. So what happened?” I asked wondering how all this affected the restaurant.

“Well, I heard yesterday that Gabin’s lover was killed and it looks like this serial killer guy. Andy, it’s such a mess. Auggie has been talking about closing down for a few week and taking Gabin away so they can try and rebuild from all this.”

“Wait….” Gabin’s lover was killed. “Who was Gabin’s side piece?”

“Chad something, I don’t really know more because Gabin was hysterical over it. He kept going on about how he had just seen him and now he was dead.” I could hear Elise sniffle and it was no surprise, hearing the pain Gabin was in had affected her.

“And you didn’t want to tell me because you thought I’d blame myself for this. Like this guy somehow did this because I work for Gabin or something?” Was that it?

“I didn’t want to bother you. This killer is wiping out young gay men, Andy. The news started showing all the photos. They all resemble each other. Andy, you need to be careful.”

“I am being careful Elise. Look, let me talk to Ray about work and let me know if Auggie really is going to close the restaurant for a while.”

“Okay. Be safe. Talk to you soon.”

After I disconnected my call I sat back and let all the information wash over me. It was horrible what happened to Gabin’s lover. Terrible their marriage was in shambles, but I was certain neither Gabin nor Augustine had anything to do with the killings. Why would Gabin kill his lover? And why would Augustine do it after all these years? It didn’t fit since all the guys had a message on their bodies for Ray. No, it wasn’t Auggie’s style. He didn’t even like to watch the chef tenderize the meat in the kitchen.

Ray was still in his office on the phone, so I didn’t want to disturb him. I’d tell him what I found out later. I wasn’t sure if it would be of any help at all, but ruling people out was always a good thing.

My stomach rumbling made me realize it had been awhile since I ate. Ray would probably be starving so I rummaged through the fridge and cabinets to see what I could make. There was fresh ground beef in the fridge, an onion, some peppers, yeah, I could make some kick ass burgers. We could have chips on the side. Cooking took me away from my thoughts all the time.

I mixed all the ingredients in the bowl, but I wanted it to marinate for twenty minutes, so I sauntered into the living room and looked over the board Bradford, Ray, Richie, and I made with all the victims and information.

Epiphany was the hunting ground, that was glaringly obvious. We had two killers, one that grabbed, one that killed. One or both killers wanted Ray’s attention. All the victims looked like this Mikey guy. Unless this phone call Ray was making led to the Holy Grail of information, something seriously drastic was going to have to be done. Every second these killers were on the streets another innocent life was brutally ripped room it.

The egg timer went off telling me the meat was marinated enough. I went back to the kitchen and began shaping the meat into patties. There were three kinds of cheese, so I shredded all three creating a mix. I reached over to wipe my hands and accidentally knocked the egg timer over making it crash to the floor breaking in two pieces.

“Dammit.” I gathered it all up, but the mechanism wasn’t clicking into place. “Crap I need the spring.” Grabbing a flashlight above the fridge, I turned it on and looked under the oven. There it was in all its glory. Just unreachable. I had to ask myself, what would MacGyver do?

On Ray’s fridge there were a bunch of flat magnets. I grabbed one, a piece of tape, and a straw creating a long handle. Slowly, I slipped it under the stove, excited when I saw the spring connect with the magnet.

“Yes!” I shouted in victory as I slid it out and grabbed the spring. “You thought you’d get away from me, Mr. Spring. Ha Ha. No one can resist a magnet…” It was like being hit with a ton of bricks.

“That’s it,” I whispered to myself. Quickly I put the egg timer back together. And while I knew Ray was still working, I also knew exactly how to lure out one of the killers. I may not get the one committing the actual crime, but if we got one, we’d likely get the other.

Without knocking, I opened Ray’s office door. “I got it! Use me,” I shouted at Ray who jumped and almost dropped the phone.

“Hold on,” he said to whoever he was talking to. “Use you, Andy, what are you talking about?”

“Epiphany. Use me as bait. He won’t be able to resist grabbing me.”

“Let me call you back,” Ray said and when he put his phone down, his expression didn’t show he was excited.

“It’s brilliant, Ray. You’ll be there, you won’t let anyone hurt me. I’m sure Bradford will help. He won’t use one of his guys, but the more of us there, the less chance of anything going wrong.”

Ray pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, Andy, I get it. You want this to be over but risking you is a bad idea. Not to mention, what makes you think he won’t see this as a trap?”

He had a point. I wasn’t the detective type. Sure, I saw a lot of shows but….

“You’re right, but what if there’s a fake arrest? Make Green arrest someone, maybe they’ll get angry or sloppy. Seeing me will be too irresistible to them.” I didn’t know why or how I became so brave. Honestly, the thought of going there to bait a mass murderer had me practically pissing my pants.

“It’s not a bad idea, Andy. I need to talk to Bradford and everyone in the morning.” He sniffed the air. “Are you cooking something?”

“Yeah, burgers. Okay, Ray, we eat and sleep, but you have to consider this as an option. They can’t be out there forever killing people. No one has come up with a better idea or anything yet.”

“Let’s just eat. I learned a lot tonight.”

I wanted to ask Ray a million questions, but his body was slumped in exhaustion and the circles under his eyes got darker every day. When Bradford and everyone was here tomorrow I’d toss out my idea with everyone else’s and see if I had more allies in what I wanted to do.