The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online Page A

Although he’d only been in
     Denver one year, his living habits had returned him to the same restaurants, stores, and gas stations so often that he’d become
     a fixture in their worlds.
    If the Bride Collector was psychotic, truly mentally ill, he would have a harder time fitting into normal social contexts.
     Unless his intelligence compensated for the instability of his mind.
    Brad left Maci’s Café at seven forty-four, headed north on the Denver-Boulder Turnpike, and arrived at the scene off 96th
     at eight twenty-nine. He parked his BMW next to a patrol car, gathered his briefcase, and approached the officer on duty beside
     a yellow-tape perimeter.
    “Morning, Officer.” He flashed his identification. “Brad Raines, FBI.”
    “Morning, sir.”
    “All quiet?”
    “Since I took over at six. We’re a ways out.”
    “I want some time. No one comes in but Nikki, okay?”
    “You got it.”
    He stepped over the yellow tape and walked up to the shed, thinking the sound of his feet on the gravel would have been similar
     to the sound the killer had heard on his approach. But he’d had Caroline with him. Had she walked willingly? Had he carried
     her? There were no fibers on her person to indicate she’d been wrapped. No bruises on her wrists to suggest she’d struggled
     against restraints. Drugged, but enough for such complete compliance?
    What do you tell them? How do you win their submission?
    The room was as he’d last seen it, minus the body, the rough shape of which was now outlined in chalk.
    He scooted the single chair to the table, withdrew several books on mental illness, his laptop, a drill. On the wall next
     to the outline, he posted eight-by-ten photographs of each victim, placing the image of Caroline where her body had been.
     Surrounding each photograph, he pinned a dozen more, detailing their angelic forms and drilled feet.
    The drill went on the table.
    He wrote the Bride Collector’s confession on the adjacent wall using a fresh piece of chalk.
    The Beauty Eden id Lost
    Where intelligence does centered
    I came do her and she smashed da Serpent head
    I searched and find the seventh and beautiful
    She will rest in my Serpent’s hole
    And I will live again
    Brad set the chalk on the table, stepped back, gently pressed his palms together in front of his chin, and stared at his approximation
     of the Bride Collector’s work. The shed, the women, the drill. The confession.
    What had crossed through his mind, taking the drill for the first time, pressing the bit against flesh, feeling it hit bone?
     Like a dentist drilling for his goal.
    In this case, blood. He took a deep breath and settled. The roof creaked as it expanded under the sun’s heat. He let himself
     sink into the scene, in no rush to coax truth from what could not yet be seen.
    From his own mind.
    For a few moments, Brad felt himself become, however faintly, the Bride Collector. Or at the very least, he felt himself stepping
     first one foot, then another foot into the Bride Collector’s shoes.
    “I’m psychotic,” he whispered aloud. “No one knows I’m psychotic—why?”
    “Because you appear normal,” Nikki’s voice said softly behind him.
    She was early.
    He spoke without turning. “Good morning, Nikki.”
    “Morning. Sleep well?”
    “Not really, no.”
    “Me neither.”
    He’d wanted to be alone, but he felt comforted by her response.
    “I choose beautiful women,” Brad said, staying in the killer’s role. “Tell me why without thinking too much.”
    She stepped up beside him. “Because you’re jealous.”
    “I kill out of jealousy, why?”
    “Because you were made to feel ugly.”
    “If killing beautiful women makes me feel better about myself, why don’t I abuse the bodies?”
    Nikki hesitated. She had been the first to employ this form of rapid response, plumbing the mind for thoughts that sometimes
     only surfaced in a form of pressured speech.
    “You let them have their beauty but take their