Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense by Fynn Perry (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📕

They walked into a long, open-plan living space, where the faint smell of floral-scented beeswax and old lacquered wood was also present. Oil paintings of various sizes jostled for space on the walls above yet more antique furniture and an imposing, marble-framed fireplace. A large wooden dining table marked the boundary between the lounge area and a sleek modern kitchen. A map of Manhattan was stuck down to its surface and below the table, files lay stacked on the varnished floorboards.

“I might have information relevant to what Hamilton uncovered at the fulfillment center. I got a late-night walk-in at the precinct some days ago and started doing some investigating of my own into the Spider’s Bite pills.” He recounted his meeting with Siobhan Kendrick and his follow-up on the case of her missing brother, Mark, the mysterious set of additional autopsy stitches and how his body had been cremated at a facility owned by El Gordito. He told them how, that same night, he had come across two of the Spider’s Bite pills at the scene of an assault. “I must have stumbled, quite by chance, upon two different types of the pill. They looked identical, but when I submitted them for testing, they gave dramatically different reactions in lab mice…” He paused, noting a glance of hopeful enthusiasm pass between father and daughter. “Both at first caused euphoria, but then one caused unbelievably violent behavior in the mice, followed by symptoms of brain-death. So that’s when I looked deeper into the case records to find any drug-related missing person cases—or deaths—that included a report of similar behavior.”

Jennifer looked at John and then at David with an expression of relief that they were not alone in their investigations anymore.

He led them over to the table. “I printed out a map showing the locations of all the nightclubs in Manhattan. They’re marked as red dots. I then marked the locations of DNA and Mayhem in a different color.”

Next to the map were two large rolled-up sheets of semi-transparent drafting paper. Lazlo took one of them and unrolled it. An outline of Manhattan, the same size as that on the map, had been traced onto it, and there was a scattering of crosses. He placed it over the map, marrying up the borders of the paper with those of the map below.

“Sometimes, the old ways are the best. No one can hack into this and see what we are doing,” Lazlo said, smiling, and John immediately remembered with curiosity The Accountant saying something similar about his ledgers.

Lazlo clarified that the crosses on the overlay showed locations where the Spider’s Bite overdose victims with brain-death symptoms had been discovered. Symptoms he believed were attributable to the second type of pill he had found and had caused the horrific and violent behavior when tested on mice. “Given the fact that Kendrick had been to DNA, I focused on cases in Manhattan to see if there was any match with the locations of El Gordito’s clubs.” He paused. “And there is a pattern. The concentration of cases is highest around clubs in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, and on the West Side.” He pointed to those areas on the map. “But the density reaches its peak only in two places where the number of cases is so large that they form rings around two clubs.”

“DNA and Mayhem,” Jennifer interrupted enthusiastically.

“Yes, the thicker ring is around Mayhem. It’s a much bigger club than DNA. The case files show that when questioned by officers, the relatives and friends of the victims found in these rings confirmed that these young people were known to be going to visit the club they were found closest to. In many cases, the same friends also witnessed them at the clubs along with other clubgoers. Those witness accounts all focus on the victim’s violent behavior at the club and removal of the victim from the public area by club security. There are no sightings of the victim from that point until the discovery of the victim’s body.” Lazlo pointed to the areas within the rings of crosses. “As you can see, there have been no cases reported in the clubs themselves and very few in about a block’s radius around them.”

“Logically, it’s impossible for there not to be any overdose cases in a nightclub,” said David.

“Especially for a club like Mayhem. It’s one of the largest clubs in New York City and can hold two thousand people,” Jennifer confirmed.

“I agree,” Lazlo said, raising an eyebrow at how well-informed Jennifer was. He unrolled the second sheet of drafting paper and moved it over the other sheet and the map below it. “This one relates to the missing person reports that I looked at.” He glanced at David again before proceeding. “I narrowed down the disappearances to those that had occurred in the last three months and which had taken place in similar circumstances and with similar behavior to Kendrick’s. I marked the locations of the last-reported sightings of each person.”

Lazlo, Jennifer, and David lined up the borders of Manhattan on the map with the second overlay. With the exception of a few strays spaced far apart on the sheet, all the crosses were tightly packed into one location in the Meatpacking District and a smaller one in central Manhattan. As the final alignment of the borders took place, they could all see that the two concentrations of crosses on the top sheet settled dead center within the rings of crosses shown in the sheet below and over the locations of Mayhem and DNA.

“So, all these people who are now missing,” David said, pointing at the clustered crosses over the two clubs, “were not only last seen at one of El Gordito’s clubs but exhibited the same behavior as the victims whose bodies were found in the streets?”

“Yes,” Lazlo said. “The witness accounts