Mr. Ballin

At this, detectives Manning and Ash walked away from the table and huddled together in a corner to whisper to each other, occasionally taking a look back to make sure nobody, especially not Joseph, was listening.

They did this because what they were discussing was incredibly upsetting.

Manning and Ash knew that medical schools and hospitals had a hard time acquiring dead bodies for research through legal means, so these institutions often turned to the black market and grave robbers for their supply.

In fact, during the initial investigation, they had worried that Carrie might have been the victim of grave robbers who were known to occasionally commit murder in order to increase their supply of dead bodies.

Now, the detectives knew they were going to have to step into this dark, bizarre world of grave robbers to get answers.

And there was one man in particular they were going to have to talk to.

His name was Rufus Cantrell, but the media and the police called him the King of Ghouls.

Rufus Cantrell was actually already in jail, so it was easy for Manning and Ash to find him.

In just a few hours after they had stood over the corpse in the operating theater, they walked into an office in the jail and sat down at a table across from the man they thought could break their case open for them.

Now, Rufus had a reputation for being violent and sort of unhinged, so the detectives were surprised that he was in a very relaxed, almost jovial mood when they met him.

He told Manning and Nash that he would help them in any way he could.

Manning was suspicious of this level of cooperation, but he still told Rufus all about the dead woman in the operating theater, doing his best to describe the woman's appearance and her teeth.

Rufus nodded along as Manning spoke, and then when Manning was done, Rufus said he knew exactly who the detective was talking about.

That was the woman who'd gone missing from the psychiatric hospital over two years ago.

Manning looked at Rufus skeptically and asked how he could be so sure.

And then he watched as a wide, unsettling smile spread across the King of Ghouls' face.

Rufus said he was sure because members of the grave robbing gang he was a part of had murdered her.

At this, Manning and Ash just stood there, staring in shock at the grave robber in front of them.

The detectives had come here expecting a very confrontational interview, not an immediate and creepily cheerful confession.

They actually didn't even know what to say.