She was his world after all; even if he never wanted to acknowledge it. Getting into his car and taking a minute to process the events that had unfolded, Sean Stein picked up the file in the passenger seat where he tossed it, while the distant image of a wailing Anna didn’t seem to baffle him one bit. He would focus on the file and know all he needed to about her death. The Captain’s words blurred out and the gory images came into better focus and he fixated his entire senses and awareness on them. They looked nothing short of beautiful, even if others saw them as the work of a twisted mind.
Slowly, he perused the cut marks, the sliced fleshes and the dismembered body parts of every single victim until he came across “the one”. The one body he couldn’t account for in his memory and which haunted his nights until now. He couldn’t help but notice the seemingly perfect cut marks bearing striking resemblance to his.
“It is impossible”, he thought.
The idea that he might have sliced up the body in the manner the killer did looked too real to be true, but the memory remained absent and that was the major problem. Sighing out loud and looking away as a slender, tall lady with perfect physique walked across the floor and towards the screen, Detective Jake found his interest piqued for the second time in the same day; it never happened often.
Something about her had stuck out in his head from the day they met. She looked better now; cleaner and definitely drier than the last time they met.
“Listen up guys…
Chapter Two
S
even days; that’s what it has taken for the department to spiral into chaos following the revelation at the underwater dump site their new killer chose to keep his secrets hidden. Captain Luke like always had begun channeling his frustrations out through those in the building and the demand for the killer’s head on a silver platter was no different.
Like a man void of strength and understanding, and rightfully so, Detective Jake stepped out from the elevator and began the slow, yet extremely lengthy and uncomfortable walk towards the conference room which was subject to be his destination about twenty minutes ago. Seeping through the doors were the Captain’s words in heightened tone and rough decibel.
“Eleventh body!” Detective Jake thought to himself for the umpteenth time like the news had just hit him.
Had he not been there while the bodies were being escalated from beneath the water, he would make a case for it being a mistake or some confused mix-up occurring during their transport of the bod parts to the morgue or coroner’s office. The truth was ripe in his face and right there in documentation too as every lip in the station had begun murmuring about it.
“Eleven dead bodies”, many had whispered.
Straightening himself and his suit until his face barely bore a wrinkle of worry, Detective Jake pushed open the glass doors and graced the conference room with his attractive presence. Staring in his direction with a hint of desires were the feminine officers who had found comfort in the handsome and seemingly attractive face of the young detective.
The men leered in envy and snorted at his penchant for disregarding time and appointments, but Detective Jake could care less for what they thought or what issues they had with his cockiness. He had a job to do, as did they even if his bordered around covering his own ass from imploding while his colleagues did the exact opposite.
“Keep your calm buddy… you aren’t the only one in this”, he mentioned to himself with tender, whispers before occupying the empty seat at the back of the group.
Captain Luke tailing the young detective around with his eyes, cleared his throat loudly. “It is always nice to have you here on time Detective Jake! I appreciate the punctuality!”
The room tore into laughter and even more from Detective Jake’s enemy and sole competitor; Mike Rondon. Watching Jake soak up the sarcastic criticism only seemed to brighten young Mike Rondon’s face with the evil grin on his lips and his staunch and hawk-like gaze refusing to look elsewhere.
“Simmer down everyone! We shouldn’t allow Detective Jake’s penchant for lateness to forget the sorrowful week we have had thus far with these inhumane killings”, Captain Luke warned.
The entire room fell silent once again, going dark, as the projector got switched back on to the gruesome images of the dead bodies now spread out across clinical tables with tags on them and names of the victims correctly labeled as he would have done, with the exception of one. His eyes narrowed and his lips twitched as he felt memories associated with each kill slowly coursing through the entirety of his body.
“I wonder if they’d get to see things as they truly occurred”, he said to himself. “Can they appreciate art for what it is or the beauty of having a lifeless body so meticulously dismembered?”
The words taunted him but he couldn’t see past the mistake in the fact his work had come to light. It would spell not just doom but even more turmoil should the right connections be made even if he had done everything as perfectly as possible.
“We’d like to welcome Ms. Connell, our profiler for this case to help us give an insight into what we have on our hands”, Captain Luke left the floor for the stunning lady to take her spot.
All eyes remained glued on Sarah Connell who remarkably seemed undaunted by the fact she was standing before men driven by alpha egos. For one, Detective Jake found her bold but with a hint of cockiness as she strolled across the floor and left them all waiting for what she had to say.
Sarah turned around and nodded at
