“I can’t believe someone…killed him like that,” Elizaveta said softly, even though Rosa wouldn’t be able to hear her over the rain and wind. “Nitro thinks it was a serial killer. Do you believe that too?”

Jack nodded. “Lucinda didn’t take the eyes. Neither did kidnappers.”

“Kidnappers?”

Jack explained Nitro’s previous theory.

“You’re right,” she said. “There’s no reason Lucinda or kidnappers would do something like that. Still, a serial killer…?”

“Think about all those movies and stuff when the serial killer pins pictures of victims to his wall, and they all have their eyes cut out.”

“Those are movies, Jack.”

“But they’re probably based on fact,” he said. “Besides, there’s a name for it. Dehumanizing or something. The eyes are windows to the soul, right? Or to the personality or whatever. Serial killers cut them out to make their victims less human, to make them easier to kill.”

Elizaveta considered that, then said, “You know what Pita thinks?”

“That the ghost did it?”

Elizaveta nodded. “She was…how you say…flipping out? She even quoted Jesus—of Nazareth. I knew she was religious, but I never knew so much.”

“It’s her upbringing. Her whole family is super religious. Jesus is named Jesus after all.”

“But Jesus isn’t religious.”

“Apparently his mother’s death changed him. You know the details?”

“Of her death?” Elizaveta nodded again. “After Jesus’s and Pita’s younger sister died, their parents tried to have another child. There were complications with pregnancy. Their mother died along with unborn child.”

“That’s only half of it,” Jack said. “Her death wasn’t sudden or unexpected. She had pulmonary hypertension. Doctors told her if she had an abortion, she would live; if she didn’t, she would die. Their father, Marco, forbade it. Abortion went against his beliefs. So, yeah, their mother died along with the unborn child. But it didn’t have to happen. That’s why Jesus changed his tune toward religion.”

“Pita told you this?”

“Marco did,” he said. “We were pretty close. He eventually came to regret his decision not to save his wife.”

“But Pita, she never changed?”