by C. Soto
John asked the detective, “Who called in the bodies?”
He responded, "One of the neighbors called it in. The couple had been planning a day trip and the neighbor was coming to feed the cat. She noticed the couple's vehicle still in the garage and began calling out to them. She went room to room looking for them until she found them. Man, what a hell of a scene to walk in on."
John responded, “Man, I bet that was one hell of a shock.” He looked at his team, “We should go interview her first and canvass the rest of the neighborhood. Hopefully, one of the neighbors has a camera on their property and we can get this killer on tape.”
As the team started walking outside, John looked over at James, “If you're looking for some pussy, that cat needs a new home, probably the only pussy you’re going to get.”
James looked back at him and flipped him off, “I’m doing fine, you worry about how much you're getting now that you're in a committed relationship.”
James knew that word would trigger him. John was happy in his new relationship, but having a relationship phobia in the past, he thought he would rub it in for fun. John smirked in a cringing sort of way. James thought, That will teach him.
As the team all walked outside, Emily’s hair on her arms immediately rose and a tingling sensation ran through her body. She sensed somebody watching their every movement. She looked around, but only saw fellow law enforcement and other emergency personnel around. She couldn’t shake the eeriness of being watched. She tried to think, Am I being spooked by the scene and from seeing the husband and wife’s aftermath of their death? She decided she wasn’t since she didn’t have this feeling in the house.
She walked towards Derrick and mentioned she felt like they were being watched, which then put him on high alert. He immediately drew her in closer by placing an arm around her. Then he started examining their surroundings. After a few minutes, the feeling left her. Whoever it was, was no longer watching them. She chalked it up to a neighbor being nosey and looking out their window.
Chapter 7
The driver parked on the next street over to observe the house of his latest victims. He heard on his scanner, emergency personnel responding to a call at that address, and he had to come and watch the scene unfold for himself. He wondered, How in the hell were they notified so quickly? I mean shit, it was the weekend, and they weren’t even supposed to be home.
His vehicle was not anything spectacular. It blended in with all the other vehicles, which is what he liked. The windows were slightly tinted, so it was hard to see from a distance him sitting inside. He also had high power binoculars for the occasion. He didn’t want to miss any of the action going on.
He watched in fascination as the police started showing up in their unmarked cars, he assumed they were detectives. Then the CSI unit pulled up in their van and he watched as they unloaded all their equipment to bring into the house.
He laughed and spoke into the open air, “You think I’m that dumb to leave behind evidence?” He already burned the bedding material after he was done last night, so the evidence was already destroyed.
The outfit he bought for his victim; he did not handle without gloves on. He always had quite a few outfits ready to go, neatly pressed from the dry cleaners and hanging in plastic. If they did have any forensics, it wouldn’t be his, it would be from someone else handling them. He made sure not to use the same cleaners for all of them. He spaced them out, otherwise they might recognize a guy bringing in tons of dresses.
He continued watching as people came in and out of the house. He was giddy seeing the morgue’s van show up. He thought, Yes, I can see my work again, leaving the house one last time.
While he was waiting for the bodies, he saw a group of people walking out of the house. Their jackets stated they were FBI. He thought, They won’t know who they’re looking for any more than the police do.
His eyes widened in surprise when he recognized one of the agents. This was his passenger from last night. He pulled his book of transports up and made a note of what her address was.
He would keep a close eye on the investigation through her in case they came sniffing too close. He was excited, knowing he had a lead from the person on the inside, one they wouldn’t know about.
As he was sitting there watching the scene unfold, waiting on the big moment of the bodies being removed from the house, he noticed one of the agents kept looking in the direction of his vehicle. He knew being a block over and with his tinted windows that they couldn’t possibly see him. It made him nervous, nonetheless. He decided it was time to move on from the scene and make sure he kept a close eye on things a different way.
He would be keeping an eye on her and her activities the upcoming days.
Chapter 8
The team split up, James and Tammy taking one side of the street, while Emily, Derrick and John took the other side of the street. They were hoping that one of the neighbors had a video surveillance on their property, so they could watch what vehicles entered the neighborhood.
John, Derrick, and Emily went and spoke with the neighbor, Meredith, who found the victims. John greeted her, "Ma'am, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. I know the events from the day are very disturbing and with the loss you suffered of your friends."
"Yes, I don't think I'll ever be able to get that image of finding them like that from my head. I mean who would do something like that to them? They were such loving people. Oh my, in finding Jack and Angela, I forgot about the cat. He can't stay there, and he still needs to eat, can I bring him here?"
"Ma'am, we'll have someone bring the cat to you until we can notify the family. Do you know what their plans were supposed to be today?"
"They were going to spend the day in Orlando, go visit the parks there."
"Thanks, have you noticed anybody in the neighborhood that didn't belong? Any random cars driving past? Were the couple having any issues with anyone that they told you about?"
“Oh no, they got along with everyone. They were such friendly people, I couldn't imagine them not getting along with someone."
John thought, Was that what caught the killer's attention? If they met and one of them was too nice to the killer and he became obsessed.
Meredith responded, "I did notice, I think it was a red sedan driving by the other day. Maybe Monday or was it Tuesday? Well one of those days. I don't believe anyone on the block has that type of car. We're a pretty quiet neighborhood and don't get a lot of traffic this way."
"Wonderful, thank you so much that is extremely helpful. Do you by chance have video surveillance on your property?"
"No, sorry I do not, however after this I'm thinking of getting one installed now. This used to be a safe neighborhood."
"Do you have contact information for the couple's family? We need to notify them. Are they in town do you know?"
"Yes, I have the information in the house, let me get it for you."
Meredith came back out and gave John the contact information. John gave her his card and asked if she remembered anything further to contact him.
They walked towards the next house for the same round of questions. John’s hopes were high from the vehicle Meredith described being in the neighborhood that didn't belong. He was hoping a neighbor would have captured it on video.
That hope diminished as they interviewed a few more neighbors and got a couple different descriptions. He wrote them all down. He felt like they hit the jackpot when they found a neighbor who had video surveillance. The team would send it on to their Information and Technology Branch (IT) to watch for any suspicious vehicles passing by and see if they found the same one multiple times, or any that matched the few witnesses’ descriptions. They also wrote down all the cars and license plates that did belong in the neighborhood, so they could eliminate those vehicles.
They finished canvassing about an hour and a half later. They would meet back up with Tammy and James and see what they found out. While they waited for Tammy and
James to finish up, they called Eric on speaker phone and filled him in on the scene.
John speaking to Eric, “Sir, this is a malicious son of a bitch. He dressed up the wife and cleaned her body. Where she laid was all clean, no evidence of blood on the mattress. The husband was tied to the chair facing the bed, making the husband watch whatever he did to the wife.”
John paused running a hand through his hair, taking a breath, “CSI is combing through the house and seeing if they find anything in the drain since he cleaned her up in the bathroom. Hopefully, something went down the drain and can be found.
We are going to meet up with the detectives at the station and go over the neighbor’s testimonies and hear what the family said. The detectives are handling the notification of the family. We have surveillance from one of the neighbors and hopefully Tammy and James found more, so we can have different angles.
We’ll get the footage over to the tech department and see if they can start reviewing those right away. We need to get this sick bastard.”
“Sounds good, call me at the end of the day and let me know where you guys land.” Eric then hung up.
Chapter 9
The team arrived at the police department to meet up with the detectives and get copies of their notes from the family notifications. They wouldn’t be working out of the station since they were in town and could work out of their own FBI’s office.
They made copies of the detective’s interviews and retrieved a copy of the case files of the other two victims that were connected from the prior months. Derrick said to the detective, “We’ll review the cases. I’m sure we’ll be back pulling more case files, as these are probably not the only victims.”
“Sounds good let us know any way we can help.” The detective replied.
The team headed back to the FBI’s office. They convened in the conference room that they would be working out of. They first set up the white boards and began attaching the latest known victims and writing their timelines out, so they could get a clear picture of what they had so far.
The first known victim, Elisa, was found four weeks ago. She was reported missing after leaving the mall. Her body was found two weeks later, positioned in a bus stop sitting up and wearing the same type of ensemble as the female victim from that morning.
Victim two, Laura, was found two weeks ago. She was reported missing four weeks ago. Which was the day after Elisa was found. Her co-worker reported her missing after not showing up for work. The co-worker stopped by her house after she didn’t report to work and didn’t call and wasn’t answering her phone all day when they attempted to reach her.
He phoned the police right away to do a wellness check, as he was certain something must be wrong. The police entered Laura’s home. The home didn’t appear to have anything disturbed. Laura wasn’t in the house and the bed was still made. When they received permission from her parents, the police tried to ping her phone, but it did not have a signal, determining the battery must be dead or something more foul. Laura was missing for two weeks before her body was found. It was similar to Elisa’s body, posed at a public bench in the park.
The killer’s timeline with these latest victims was every two weeks, with his latest victims Mr. and Mrs. Nicks being this morning. The killer didn’t kidnap the couple though, he murdered them in their home. The single ladies he took, keeping them for two weeks at a time. This was telling John that the killer didn’t want to handle two victims at the same time.
The team read over the ME reports for the two victims that were found. Only one of the victims had bite marks in multiple places of her body. Some overlapped in areas, like the breast, as if he were biting her in the same spot repeatedly, with varying degrees of healing during the two weeks he had her. Both had the same for different stab wounds. Most of them were superficial and were only intended for pain. John could see from the pictures of the bodies that he tortured the women on end, during the time they were with him. The pictures were horrific due to the amount of mutilation done to them. He could see on their wrist and legs, marks from being restrained for a long period of time. The ME’s report stated they were malnourished and dehydrated. It appeared the killer hadn’t fed them or given them water regularly.
The ME was able to make a cast of the bite marks on the one woman’s body to use for when they found the match. John’s hope was they would find that match soon, as this killer was on a frenzy.
John looked over at Derrick, “How many victims do you think this guy has killed?”
Derrick replied, “Shit, who knows, but I can almost bet he didn’t begin four weeks ago. We need to find all his victims and find the common denominator on what links his victims and catch this bastard soon. Otherwise, the couple will not be his last. I mean look at his timeline, he didn’t kidnap the husband and wife, does that mean he already has another girl locked away somewhere, or is he hunting his next victim right now?”
Tammy jumped in the conversation, “How is he finding his victims? I’ve begun searching the two ladies’ social media and the couple, they are not associated in any way. I have searched friends of friends and groups they joined. The victims do not interlink in any way. Also, why alternate from taking single ladies to then killing married couples? What did this couple do to piss him off, to make him switch his victimology?”
John responded to her question, “He likes overpowering the husband and showing the wife it is he who is in control. It’s all about control, capturing them both. The trauma he inflicted on her body, while the husband could only watch, helpless to stop the terror. Sitting there knowing in the end they were both going to die that night. The killer gets off on that type of power.”
Once the team had the information displayed on the board and what they knew written, they called it a night. They hoped in the morning they would get results back from ViCap on prior victims. They would have to retrieve the files from all the identified cases. They needed to also meet with Dr. Hutton and see if he had any updates on the couple and see if he found the related cases that he thought were connected.
James looked over to the team and asked, “Hey do any of you want to go get dinner since we hadn’t eaten yet?
Tammy responded, “Yea, I’m in, I’m starving!”
John replying, “Sorry dude not this time, Samantha is expecting me over, so I don’t want to get there any later than it already is.”
Derrick and Emily looked at each other with a smile in their eyes, “No, not this time.” Derrick winked. They were still newlyweds, so they wanted to get home.
Tammy and James headed to one of the 24-hour diners. They walked in at almost 10:00 p.m., so it was not busy that time of night. Tammy looked over the menu and said, “I think I’m going with the Build Your Own Breakfast, what are you getting?”
James responded, “The Philly Cheesesteak sounds good with their steak fries. I know how you love your breakfast though.”
“Yes, I could have breakfast food for all my meals.”
The waitress came by, and they placed their order.
They talked over the prior night’s poker game. Tammy telling James, “Thanks for the invite last night, I won enough to finally buy that new game system I had been eyeing.”
James laughing, “Yea you stole the game away from me. I mean really Tammy what’s my tell, you have to let me in on what it is?”
“Nope, then you wouldn’t do it. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”
“I will, mark my words, I may record myself the next game so I can watch it back and see for myself.”
Tammy started laughing, “That’s a good idea, you should definitely do that.”
The funny thing was at first James didn’t have a tell. Tammy was a good player and had good hands. After playing a few times with her though he became nervous that he had one, and then developed one by trying not to have one.
He would appear more tense than he normally would have, trying to appear like he had nothing to show. That was now his te
ll, that he was trying too hard. Tammy was going to milk it for all it was worth until he figured it out. She had no doubt he eventually would.
The food arrived and they ate their dinner while joking and laughing. The two of them together made the best partnership. They had become best friends while working together and each other’s confidants.
Tammy’s personality was upbeat, devoted to her friends and family, and always willing to put herself on the line to help a victim or someone in trouble. Sometimes she dove in headfirst, damned the consequence, but it was better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?
Whereas James was mostly the cuddly teddy bear type. Sometimes when poked too hard he may let out a little growl. Quiet in his ways, an observer, which made him a damn good profiler. He had a protectiveness of his friends and anyone in harm's way. That is what made them great at their job. Their resolve for finding criminals and putting them away for good to where they couldn’t hurt anybody else.
They also worked well with Derrick and John. They had a competitive spirit against them and whose partnership was better. They all gelled as a team and were all good friends, but they did like to wager bets against each other from time to time. Just not against Emily. There was a new rule in which Emily was now excluded from all bets since she was more likely to win. She was also made to promise to not let Derrick in on any tips. So far she had kept her word. Derrick and John had to figure out all bets on their own.
After they paid and were walking out to their cars they discussed whose turn it was to bring breakfast in the morning. They agreed it was James’ turn. They said their goodnights at their cars and each headed home.