Pete nodded. “We can maybe find a match in that student roster we obtained yesterday.”
“Might be tricky with the um… obstruction in his mouth, but yeah. That was my thoughts too. Meet you at the house.”
“Right.”
Isaac pulled out his cellphone and took a picture of the victim’s face. Then he headed back to his car.
Back at the station, Isaac pulled a small stack of files from his car, then he and Pete entered the building together.
“Taylor. Vega.” Lt. Gavin Hayes approached them as soon as they entered the detectives pit.
“Yes, sir?”
“You both missed roll call. How was the crime scene?”
“It was a bloody, pukey mess.” The look on Pete’s face said he was still grossed out over it, and Gavin looked to Isaac for confirmation.
Isaac cocked his head. “Pretty much.”
“You think it’s connected to the case you caught yesterday?”
“No doubt in my mind, sir. Vic was castrated in the same way.”
“Yikes. Okay. Keep me posted.”
Isaac nodded.
“In the meantime, can I see you in my office, please.”
Isaac frowned, but he followed Gavin into his office and closed the door behind him.
“What’s up, Lieu?”
“I was just wondering if you’d had a chance to look over those employee files I gave you yesterday?” Gavin took a seat behind his desk.
Isaac held up the stack of files.
“Got ’em right here. And yes, I did look through them last night.”
He took a seat in front of the desk.
“And?” Gavin asked. “What are your thoughts?”
Isaac flipped through them and looked up.
“Well, there are two that I think might make great additions to our team. I like this one.”
He handed a file to his boss, and Gavin glanced at the name on the file.
“Jack Runyan. I liked him too. He’s experienced; got a good record.”
Isaac nodded. “On the surface, he’s the easy choice since he’s already a detective with the Violent Crimes division at the 5th precinct. He probably wouldn’t need a whole lot of training or hand-holding.”
“Right.”
“But… I also really like this one.” He handed over another file.
“Lonnie Spencer. Really? Why this one?”
Isaac shrugged a shoulder. “Impressive record. Both his sergeant and his lieutenant mentioned his quick mind, his natural instincts, and his deductive reasoning skills. Sounds like the building blocks of a good detective to me.”
Gavin nodded. “Okay. Thank you for your input.”
“Sure. Thanks for asking for it.” Isaac handed over the rest of the files. “Any idea when you and the chief might make a decision?”
“Hopefully by the end of the week. I’ll let you know.”
Isaac nodded and stood. “Well, I have an investigation to get to.”
He left the office and went back out to his desk to dive into this new case that was getting more gruesome by the minute. He pulled out the student roster they’d obtained the day before and went through it page-by-page.
“Huh. Didn’t see that coming.”
“See what?” Pete looked up at him.
Isaac handed over the roster to him. “Check out the lower left corner. Does that look like our second victim to you?”
Pete stared at the small image and then read the name beneath it out loud.
“Craig Wentworth.” He looked up and met Isaac’s gaze. “That’s victim number one’s supposed best friend from high school.”
Isaac nodded. “Yep. I think we need to dig deeper than social media and financials. Pick them both apart. You take Bobby; I’ll take Craig.”
“I’m on it.”
They got to work then, looking into every aspect of each of the victim’s lives. They’d been at it for well over an hour when Pete suddenly spread his arms wide, a look of surprise on his face.
“Whoa.”
Isaac looked up at him. “Rape charges when they were seniors?”
Pete’s arms fell to his thighs with a sad flop sound, and he stared at Isaac.
“Okay, how the hell did you know that? Did your psychic powers tell you that?”
“Nope. The computer did. Apparently, Bobby Cook, Craig Wentworth, and another boy… a Michael Rivers, were all accused of rape by a female classmate when they were high school seniors.”
Pete nodded. “Yeah. Just stumbled on that myself. And because one of the boys was 18, and the other two were nearing that age, they were all charged as adults.”
“So, our two victims, who we’ve already established go back as far as 4th grade, were both accused of raping a classmate in high school. Now both of them are dead.”
“Dead with their junk cut off,” Pete pointed out. “You thinking maybe we should look into the whereabouts of the other boy? This Michael Rivers?”
“I think that’s an excellent idea.” Isaac rocked back in his chair. “He could be our killer, or he could be next on the killer’s list. I also think we need to take a closer look at that old rape case. Obviously, the boys were never convicted. We need to find out the details because it’s starting to look like our case has everything to do with that one. I’ll start there if you want to track down bachelor number three. If we can locate him, we need to bring him in for questioning.”
“Okay.” Pete nodded and turned toward his computer.
Isaac got to work looking into the old rape case.
“Hey, Ike?”
He looked up to see Pete staring at him in a squirrelly fashion. Then a wave of nervousness hit him, and Isaac swallowed down the dread and wondered what fresh hell his partner was about to unleash on him.
“Yes?”
“I, uh…” Pete glanced around and licked his lips. “Well, it’s been brought to my attention that Jada and I have maybe been spending all of our free time together. Maybe to the detriment of some other important relationships.”
Isaac lifted an eyebrow. “Meaning?”
“Meaning that both Mateo and Charlie have been feeling a little neglected lately.”
“Ah.” Isaac nodded, relieved that this dilemma had nothing to do with him in any way. “Well, that’s understandable. But why are you telling me this?”
“Well… see, to counteract things, I was thinking that maybe it’s time Jada and I got the boys together to meet and hang out, right? But then I thought it
