Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

Chapter 38

Robin stared at his colleague in disbelief. “How did we miss such a crucial lead before?”

“The orphanage was a complex web, privately run with scant records, and years ago, it came to light that the director had been abusing the children, preying on those orphans for years, so he was sentenced, and the orphanage was shut down. Some of the unadopted kids were transferred to other foster homes, and the records of those who were adopted out are incomplete. It’s been tough to trace.”

His colleague filled him in. “I heard from the victim’s neighbors and some elders that the victim. was adopted. So I started digging in that direction and found that all the victims were adopted, none were biological children. Many of the victims‘ familles were reluctant to talk about it at first, but eventually, they all pointed to that same orphanage!”

“It looks like we were way off base from the start. We thought it was someone frequenting places like Nocturne, but it looks like that was just a coincidence.” Robin, agitated, lit up a cigarette.

I watched the policewoman, shocked. If all the deceased were women from that orphanage,

then that didn’t add up either.

I was the biological child of my parents, not adopted.

Could it just be my bad luck?

“Dexter! Melody… I remember Lilly mentioning that Melody was adopted! The Burton family, big on charity work, thought she was bright and took her home to keep Lilly company!” Hank suddenly blurted out, panic–stricken. “Is it possible that the killer was actually after Melody…”

So it wasn’t just any woman in a red dress that the killer targeted. After they were dead, he dressed them in red dresses.

I took a step back, a bitter smile on my face. After all this, was I just a stand–in for Melody’s death? That’s bitterly unfair.

Why me?

disappeared earlier, returned, carefully holding a picture frame, which

“Liar, you’re nothing but a liar, a madman, a murderer! Stop your act,

so many.

grab Colin by his collar in a fit of

could hear me, and that was a kind

deepest kind of

10

15:03

Chapter 38

the picture frame, looking up at the

red dresses. The families that took them always had them pose in red dresses

picture and then at

“Is this you?”

Colin nodded.

of her parents, not from the orphanage. Does that mean the killer might have spared her? So maybe her

we have to find her. She’s waiting for me,” Dexter

suddenly so humbly

with a sad sort of amusement; the contrast between his earlier demeanor and now was so stark it felt