Page 120 of Brainwashed

“If you hadn’t killed him…” Johansson asks in more of a statement.

“I didn’twantto kill him,” Felix grumbles. “Ineededto. There’s a difference.”

Templeton watches the EEG.

“Who did you want to kill?” Johansson asks.

“Tom Kline.” Felix’s smile goes wide; wicked. He’s smiling, but I can imagine the anger in his eyes.He hated Tom Kline.“Dan Benton… He was the one they found in front of the church, remember? Yea, he was fucking creep. Liked to touch little boys, but he was never charged. You know, the whole Catholic Church deal.” Felix sighs and shakes his head. “Kurt Hamlin… That prick roofied two guys in clubs in Manhattan. I followed him for three weeks. He was a real pervert. So I chopped off his head and left it on the hood of his BMW.” He lets out a chuckle.

I don’t think my eyes have ever been so wide.

“I wanted to ask you about that, Felix,” Johansson goes on. “Your disposal process.”

“Mm.” Felix nods enthusiastically.

“For three years, cops in New York were going out of their minds. Bodies were turning up all over the place, some intact, some extremely dismembered. Can you tell us about your process?”

“Well, the easiest way to do it was to chop them up. For the first year or so, I would put one body part in a bag with a bunch of regular trash and just throw it out on the curb. The city would pick it up and no one found the pieces for like months. But then there were the guys I posed… And that was much harder.

“I planned it out for times when I knew I was going to drive home to see my family. Or at least pretend to. I’d rent a car, cover the interior with plastic, and then transport them that way.”

There was never any DNA evidence linking Felix to the crimes. That wasn’t how they caught him, which is miraculous with so many victims. I remember how much the FBI hated Felix. You could tell during press conferences and on the news. They were so pissed off that he was so active yet so meticulously clean.

“On occasion, I would throw a body part into the river, or bury it somewhere. I got cocky after a while because I was killing forso long, so many people, and the cops weren’t even close.” His amusement falls away and he jerks at his wrists. “It became sort of frustrating. I mean, part of me loved it. I was doing what I was meant to do. I finally had a purpose. But then I was still invisible. Even the FBI didn’t see me…”

Johansson and Templeton share a look. Johansson glances at me.

“Are you saying you… wanted to get caught?” he asks Felix.

He chews on his lip for a moment. “I just wanted someone to fucking notice me. No one wants to go to prison, but I knew it was where I was supposed to be. I was a fucking terror. I still am…” He lets out a slow exhale. “I deserve to be here. I know that.”

The way he’s speaking makes my chest feel heavy, like there are bricks stacking up behind my ribs.

“So, did you let Henry Liu go on purpose?” Johansson asks carefully.

“No.” Felix scoffs. “I didn’t just set him free and saygo tell the cops who I am. But I was maybe a little… tired with him. I had pieces of Nick’s body in the closet. I’d barely cleaned up the bathroom when I brought Henry home. And I just… I don’t know, I was exhausted.”

Johansson peeks at me for a moment before asking, “What made you want to kill Kieran O’Malley?”

Felix hums. “Kieran O’Malley was a gift.” He pauses and some mild nerves bound through me. They might not know what he means by that, but I do.

He means that I gave him Kieran O’Malley. The kill was a gift fromme.

“He deserved to die, and I deserved to be the one killing him,” he goes on. “I knew the moment I laid eyes on him that I was meant to take his life. And that was even before I learned of his crime. He was handed to me on a silver platter…” He smiles fondly.

I feel like if that blindfold weren’t in the way, he’d be looking right at me.My stomach flips and flops, and I grip the doorway, trying my hardest to ignore it.Johansson and Templeton are looking at me. They must know that I’m the one who gave Felix the keys. Or at the very least, they suspect it.

“My Want is so painfully interested in me…” Felix purrs. “I know he is.”

Fuck this shit.

I turn fast on my heel and stomp away, powerwalking to get the hell away from this shit before I freak out.

That little psycho doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s batshit crazy.

I’m not hisanything. And him giving me the same name as his weird mannequin friend is purely idiotic.

Storming out of the prison, I smack my hand on the window of the nearest SUV. Kent is already sitting in it, and he startles as I hop into the backseat.