It was early evening when Hunter received an email with an attachment containing the latest lab results sent from the LACDC. The combination used on Amanda Reilly’s face to produce the melted wax effect was similar to what Doctor Winston had suggested, but not quite. The killer had created a mixture of rubber and petrolatum that was of a soft jelly consistency. The jelly, when mixed with a small amount of lead oleate, creates a gelatinous plaster that is readily adhesive to the human skin and it doesn’t run or soften. When exposed to intense heat, the entire mixture melts away. Depending on the strength of the adhesive property of the plaster, it can rip the skin clean off a person’s body as it melts. The wax-like clumps on Amanda Reilly’s face were actually a mixture of her torn-off skin and the melted rubber petrolatum combination used by the killer.
‘Where would the killer get hold of that stuff?’ Garcia asked after Hunter read the printout out loud.
‘Petrolatum is really just petroleum jelly,’ Hunter explained. ‘It can be bought over the counter at any drugstore. Lead oleate can be easily ordered over the internet, and the killer could’ve gotten the rubber simply by melting a common Halloween mask. The amount needed to create enough jelly to cover Amanda’s face would’ve been distinctively small.’
Garcia accepted it but still looked unsettled.
‘What’s bothering you?’ Hunter asked, placing the printout on his desk.
Garcia pulled his hair into a ponytail. ‘The conversation we had with Mollie this morning and everything she told us. It’s like she was there when it happened.’
‘And what do you think?’ Hunter pushed for an opinion.
Garcia paced the room. ‘She knew too many details about both crime scenes for her to be a hoax. She knew about the numbering. Her whereabouts on both nights checked out.’ He lifted his hands as if giving up. ‘I’m gonna be straight with you, Robert. I never really believed in any of this psychic crap. But unless she knows who the killer is and he’s been telling her stories, I think you’re right. She’s the real deal. And if so, she’s told us something we didn’t know.’
‘The killer showed the victims a piece of paper,’ Hunter admitted.
Garcia nodded. ‘And as you suggested before, it could easily have been a drawing or a picture of somewhere or someone.’
‘Whatever it is,’ Hunter said, his eyes fixed on Garcia, ‘if Mollie is right, that piece of paper links the victims together.’