Progeny Read Online Free PDF

They didn’t keep those things—maybe for a year or two, but that’s about it. Keep in mind, this was before everyone started switching over to digital records,” Danes said.
    I nodded. “It’s still worth a phone call. So, Major, do you mind running through the case with us?”
    He let out a long breath. “As I’m sure the captain told you, I was number two on the case. It was around this time of year.”
    I interrupted. “It was exactly this time of year, to the date. Ed had the dates written in his file.”
    Danes nodded. “Well, unfortunately, I don’t have a ton to share with you. We didn’t know what we were dealing with when we found the first victim. We figured it to be some kind of gang thing or something. It wasn’t until we found the second and third victims that we put together what we were dealing with. We found those two on the same day. We found the fourth the following day, and then nothing. No more bodies. We had zero evidence. Redding would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for his wife.”
    “So she found out and turned him in?” I asked.
    “No. He took her to some little rat hole that he was working from and showed her what he was doing. She said that his face was filled with pride when he did. He wanted her to be a part of it. She was horrified but didn’t show it for fear of her life. As soon as she got out of his sight, she took their daughter and came to us to turn him in. Of course, you’ve heard about how the arrest went down with us raiding the house and him sitting there naked, covered in a human-skin blanket.”
    “I didn’t know he had a daughter,” I said.
    Danes nodded. “Yeah. What a shame. She went into the foster system after Cynthia Redding killed herself. Who knows, after that? She has to be in her thirties now if she’s still around.”
    “So there were never any signs that he may have had an accomplice?” I asked.
    “Nope.”
    “Well, I’m sure there is a log of each piece of evidence that we have on Redding. At least we’ll be able to go through that and make sure everything is still there,” I said. “Of course, it won’t account if someone copied things from it. Not really any way to tell that.”
    “This will probably sound macabre, but whatever happened to the skin quilt? Is it in with the evidence?” Hank asked.
    Danes shook his head. “Incinerated after the trial. We were worried that someone, sometime, would get to one of our evidence guys with hopes of trying to get it.”
    Captain Bostok spoke up. “Weirdos will pay big money for shit like that.”
    “Hmm,” I said.
    “Hmm what?” Danes asked.
    “I just thought of something I could put the tech guys on. Searching for anyone who purchased or sold any items related to Redding or the Quilter case online. It could give us some leads.”
    “Worth a shot,” Bostok said.
    “How did you identify the victim’s bodies?” Hank asked.
    “We found four driver’s licenses in the house. Our missing persons team matched them up with open cases. A dentist was brought into to confirm the identities via dental records.”
    “Major, what was Redding’s hunting ground? Do we know how he chose his victims?” the captain asked.
    “He was selecting them from Clearwater Beach. We found the victim’s cars there, a couple were last seen there, and Redding confirmed it. As far as how he was selecting them specifically, he just said that he chose them if he liked their skin.”
    “Makes sense,” Hank said. He flipped one leg up on his other knee. “If you’re looking for victims for their skin, the beach is the place to go, I guess.”
    “Do we know his process from when he selected a victim until he had them back at his house?” I asked.
    “He never did reveal the specifics. It was one of the things he wouldn’t talk about.”
    “Did you guys have a working theory?” Hank asked.
    “We tossed a bunch of ideas out there. We thought he may have been drugging them somehow, but the tox