by Jet MacLeod
“The obvious?”
“From your notes and thoughts, lesbian victim, beautiful, late twenties to early thirties, lives on the lake, some sort of water approach, escalation with each new case, not much evidence, but the perp had a hurt leg, possibly from recent injury or fight with the latest victim, but this scene isn’t much different, except for the dead couple that had no explanation or reasoning for being here.”
“Anything jump out at you?” Grace asked Sam.
“No mud?”
“No mud.”
“You think he was friends with all the victims?” Sam questioned.
“Maybe, I’m not sure, but that would explain a lot.”
“Anything jumping out at you?”
“The lack of mud, the insane amount of blood, and no drag marks.”
“Drag marks?” Sam inquired.
“His leg must be better and he didn’t drag the bodies from the boat.”
“Cormack says they weren’t killed on the boat, “Sam replied.
“Then he picked them up off the boat and dropped them in the yard.”
“But, why? Why dump them here? Why take the IDs?” Sam asked.
“We don’t know that he did take the IDs. I don’t know why he would dump them here, either. It doesn’t make any sense. What do they have to do with the case? We have to find out,” Grace said.
“And, fast, but what about Tabitha?”
“I’ll deal with it, Sam. Get the pictures printed. Meet me at CSU at five.”
Chapter Six
Reagan sat on the couch watching TV. It had been a long day and she just wanted to veg-out. She knew that when Gracie got home, Grace wasn’t going to be in the mood to do anything. Reagan got more comfortable and sat back. She smiled down at Catie, who was playing on the floor.
Reagan had to admit that she was happy here with Grace. Grace had done everything she could to make Reagan feel at home. She did feel at home, especially when Gracie told her that they could make room for Catie. She had to admit to herself, she was beginning to think of them as a family.
“Catie, dear, not so close,” Reagan told her.
“Sorry, Mama,” Catie replied, scooting back from the TV.
“What do you want for supper tonight, baby girl?”
“I dunno,” Catie answered.
“How about some pizza? Does that sound good? You want that?” Reagan asked her.
“Okay, Mama.”
“You want pepperoni or just cheese?”
“Definitely cheese,” Grace said, joining them in the living room.
“Gracie!!!” they both yelled in surprise.
“Heya, Beautiful. Hey, Squirt. So, cheese and only cheese, okay?” Grace asked.
“You hear that, Mama? Gracie called me ‘beautiful’,” Catie stated.
Grace and Reagan smiled at each other. Neither of them wanted to tell Catie otherwise. Who could blame them when she was so cute? Grace thought to herself. Reagan finally let out a snicker about the situation.
“What?” Grace asked Reagan.
“You’re amazing.”
“I try,” Grace replied.
“Want me to call Papa John’s?”
“Nah, I’ll do it,” Grace said.
“You okay? Something bothering you, Baby? What is it?” Reagan asked, getting more worried with each question.
“I’ll tell you about it later. It’ll keep, trust me. Right now, I just want to order some pizza, hang out with my two best girls and not worry about work for a while. Sound good?”
“Sounds awesome,” Reagan answered.
“Awesome!” Catie called from the floor as she resumed playing.
Reagan and Grace laughed again as they both headed into the kitchen. Grace grabbed the phone off the wall and they both sat at the kitchen table. Grace dialed the number to Papa John’s and ordered two pizzas.
“You wanna talk about it?” Reagan asked after Grace finished ordering.
“Yeah, I guess,” Grace answered.
“So, you gonna?”
“Probably not.”
“Why?” Reagan inquired.
“You know I can’t discuss the case.”
“I know. I just hate seeing you like this. Is there anything I can do?”
Grace stared at Reagan from across the table. It was a loaded question. Grace could answer it in so many different ways. She didn’t know who to answer Reagan as right now. Should she be the detective working on Reagan’s case or should she be Reagan’s lover?
“Gracie?” Reagan asked bringing Grace’s thoughts back to the table.
“Well-“
“Yes?”
“I really just want to cuddle with you and forget today. Then maybe later, I just want to touch you, make you feel good until you beg me to stop. But, I need to ask you something, something that I don’t want to as your lover, something that I should ask of you as the detective on the case. I don’t want to upset you,” Grace explained.
“Too late, now ask,” Reagan commanded.
“We have a consultant working with Sam on her computer program.”
“Not me?”
“The consultant is an artist,” Grace replied.
“Oh, okay, go on.”
“She has a good touch for us with sketches and seeing things that we have missed or may have missed in photos. She seems to give them more context and depth and it can help us and has helped us break cases. She would like—“
“Yes,” Reagan answered, interrupting Grace.
“You didn’t let me finish,” Grace replied.
“Don’t need to. This artist wants me to sit again or let her take more pictures for sketches. If it might help, then the answer is yes.”
“But—“
“But, what?” Reagan asked.
“I don’t want it to upset you.”
“I’m not that delicate.”
“I know that, but—“ Grace started.
“Gracie, look. I know you are trying to protect me, but it already happened. I was raped. It was terrible and I’ll never forget it. I want to do anything and everything that I can to try to catch this guy. If that means I have to meet with your artist consultant, so be it. I’ll do it, willingly.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Baby, I’m sure. I need to do this. I have to do this.”
“But, you’re sure?” Grace questioned.
“Yes, Gracie, it’ll help me heal.”
“I don’t want to push you.”
“You’re not, Gracie.”
“Do you want me there with you, this time?”
“If you would like to come. I don’t want you to be upset by this. If you would like to work on the case, then do that. When did your consultant want to meet?” Reagan questioned.
“I don’t know yet. I need to ask her. I wanted to make sure you were okay with it, first. I’ll call her after dinner to see when a good time for her to meet with us is. Is there a bad time for you, Baby?”
“No, just tell me when and I’ll clear my schedule.”
“Okay, Baby, if that’s what you want,” Grace replied.
“The sooner, the better, too.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I have to meet Sam at the lab in the morning. I want to review some things with her first. Why don’t we try for the afternoon? Does that sound good to you, Beautiful?” Grace asked.
“Sounds as perfect as it can be,” Reagan answered.
Chapter Seven
Sam sat in the lab, waiting on Gracie and Cormack. She has already spread out the photos from the day before. She was trying to match them up with the photos from the original shoot at the crime scene. As she was laying out the photos, Sam was trying to see if anything from either set jumped out at her. She couldn’t see anything yet. She put the photos that were shots of the lake in separate pile.
“Anything jumping out?” Cormack asked, as she came into the lab.
“No, not yet.”
“Damn,” Grace stated, coming in as well.
; “Grace, I only have one question,” Sam told her.
“Shoot, Rookie, what is it?” Grace asked her.
“Do we have shots from the other scenes?”
“Yeah, Kiddo,” Cormack answered.
“No, not just from the scenes, but lake shots too. Do we have lake shots? You know the ones like we took yesterday. Do we have any like that?” Sam inquired.
“No,” Cormack and Grace answered in unison.
“Can we get those?”
“Yeah,” Grace answered.
“I’ll send someone out when the lab opens to each scene,” Cormack stated.
“Okay,” Sam said, as she went back to the photos.
“Cormack, can you do me a favor?” Grace asked.
“Sure,” Cormack told Grace.
“Will you go out to Reagan’s and take the shots personally?”
“Absolutely, just tell me when,” Cormack told her.
“I’ll call Reagan later. Sam, keep looking over the photos. Cormack, let’s review everything that we have so far. I’ll wait until eight, and then I’ll make all my phone calls. I want you, Sam, to keep working on the program, but only after eight o’clock. Got it?” Grace asked her.
“Got it. What do you want me to do if I find something? Flag it?”
“Yeah, flag and tag it, but make sure you know which date it is from, too. I want to be able to read a report and find the right photo. Make any other notations you think that we might need,” Grace instructed.
“Will do,” Sam answered.
“Come on, Cormack. I’ve got a question about the reports. You ready?” Grace asked and they left Sam in the lab.
Sam looked at each photograph with a magnifier. She compared both days, but there were only differences in the lighting. There were no other things that really stood out, in any of the photos from the main parts of the house. She picked up the shots from the bedroom.
The main difference that she saw in the bedroom photos was the lack of the body. It was to be expected so she didn’t notate it. It was then that she noticed a dark stain near the bed. It was in both photos, but it stood out more in the newer ones. She was surprised that she actually saw it because of the amount of blood everywhere in each photo.
She pulled both photos to the magnifier and stared at the spot.
“Nothing is going to just materialize on the photo, you know?”
Sam turned on her stool, quickly. She had been stunned by the statement. She wasn’t surprised by the person voicing it.
“Cormack isn’t here,” Sam told the ME.
“What about O’Shea?”
“Nope, they went to get some reports and such.”
“I hope they aren’t at my office. I told Cormack I’d bring my results here. Oh, well, you working on the Cove murders?”
“Yeah, I’m working with O’Shea on it.”
“You want my findings?”
“Cause of death, stabbing, multiple times, no brainer,” Sam stated.
“Fifty-eight times.”
“Frenchy was right, over kill city.”
“Not a single one was fatal,” the ME stated.
“You’re sure?” Sam questioned, grabbing the results from the ME’s hands.
“Your perp didn’t even nick a major artery or vein.”
“Then how? How did she die? If not stabbing, how?”
“She bled out because she had no clotting factor.”
“Well, there’s a twist,” Sam added.
“From the depth and rage from each of your perp’s attacks, it is likely however that she would have eventually died from the stabbings. His luck would have run out and he would have nicked something major. It looks like he took his time with Jessica, like he was trying to punish her for something,” the ME explained.
“Nice.”
“Well, I’m off. Got another cold one on the slab, waiting to tell me their story. Don’t want to keep ‘em.”
“Bye,” Sam replied, slightly creeped out by the ME.
Sam read over the report. She didn’t want to miss anything. It didn’t tell her anything that the ME hadn’t already. She held the report next to the photos of Jessica’s bedroom.
The spot near the bed still caught her eye. She tried to match the angles and the pools of blood from the body and its position. The cast off was easy to identify. The pools were easy, too. That spot however didn’t line up, with anything. She went through the photos and the report three more times. The spot was an anomaly. She wanted to go back out and look at it, again.
Sam was about to call Grace when Grace and Cormack came back into the lab. Grace could tell that Sam had found something. It was something big, Grace thought because of Sam’s body language.
“What is it?” Grace asked, joining Sam.
“First of all, the ME is creepy as Hell.”
Grace and Cormack laughed.
“Well, he is, but anyway. I did find something in the pictures. There is a spot near the bed that I can’t account for.”
“Show me,” Grace commanded.
Grace and Cormack walked over the table. Grace looked at the piles of the photos. She could actually follow Sam’s breakdown in the piles. It reaffirmed in her mind that she and Sam were going to be good partners.
“I was working the blood spatter and cast off against the ME’s report and match it to the photos.”
“Yeah?” Grace commented.
“I’ve got everything to line up except this spot,” Sam answered, pulling the photo out of the piles, “There is no reason for that spot except one. It’s an anomaly. It doesn’t make any sense with the rest of the spatter. It isn’t cast off, either,” Sam told them.
Grace and Cormack studied the photo for a moment and then looked at Sam.
“Shoe print?” Grace mused aloud.
“My thoughts exactly,” Sam replied.
“We need that carpet,” Cormack stated.
“Field trip, number two?” Sam asked.
“Let’s go. Good job, Rookie. Good eye,” Grace told Sam.
“You may have found us a break,” Cormack added.
Sam smiled, reveling in her accomplishment. She only hoped that they were right and it would help them capture the maniac. She gathered up her investigation kit and followed Cormack and Grace to the lab door.
“Oh, Cormack, here,” Sam stated, handing her the ME’s report.
“Anything interesting in it?”
“You could say that,” Sam replied.
“Good, you can tell us on the way,” Cormack stated as they walked out of the lab to the parking lot.
“We’ll meet you there, Cormack,” Grace stated, abruptly.
“Okay,” Cormack answered, knowing that Grace must have something to talk to the Rookie about, “See ya, there.”
Sam stopped walking and watched Cormack get into a CSU SUV and drive off. Grace hadn’t made a move towards a vehicle. Sam didn’t know what to do or think. Grace’s comment caught her more off-guard than it did for Cormack. Sam was stunned.
“We’re gonna take a cruiser,” Grace finally said.
“Okay, Lieutenant.”
“Wait, here. I’ll be right back. I got to go get one,” Grace replied.
“Alright, Lieutenant.”
Sam stood on the sidewalk. She wasn’t quite sure what just happened. She knew they were going back out to the scene to look at the “spot,” but she didn’t know what was preoccupying Grace’s mind. Grace had quickly become short and quick with her movements and answers. Sam was still trying to figure out what happened when Grace came pulling up in the unmarked cruiser.
“Ready?” Grace asked, through the open passenger window.
“Yeah.”
“Get in, then and let’s go.”
Sam got in the cruiser, still wary of Grace’s mood.
“So, what did you get from the coroner’s report?” Grace asked, as they drove.
“It seems that our victim was being punished.”
“He seems to b
e getting madder with each victim,” Grace stated.
“Yeah, well, fifty-eight stab wounds is a little excessive.”
“Fifty-eight, huh?”
“Not a single one was fatal, though,” Sam replied.
“Come again?” Grace questioned.
“Seems our vic had some sort of blood disorder. She bled out before a stab wound could have been fatal. According to the ME, all the wounds were shallow and were torturous. The perp completely missed everything vital.”
“How the Hell does that happen?”
“I haven’t the foggiest.”
“You think he has some sort of medical training?” Grace mused.
“A butcher, maybe?” Sam countered.
“How do you stab someone fifty-eight times and miss anything vital?”
“That is our million dollar question,” Sam replied.
“We need to find this guy.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” Sam stated.
“Frenchy is retiring.”
Sam didn’t know what to say. She figured it was the other reason behind Grace’s crankiness. Sam looked at Grace. She didn’t know how to reply. She didn’t know what to ask. She didn’t know how to make Grace feel better.
“You okay, Rookie?”
“Yeah.”
“Look, Sam, I know I’ve giving you a hard time, but I mean well.”
“I know that, Grace,” Sam replied.
“I mean, I like you. You’re a good cop. And, when your mom told me that you were joining our squad permanently, I was glad for you. You’ll do good here, if you can take the cases and deal with them,” Grace told her.
“Well, this sure as shit ain’t computer crimes,” Sam responded.
“Yeah, but I’m sure you’ve seen some things…in pictures, at least,” Grace stated.
“Yeah, I have, but it isn’t the same,” Sam said.
“I bet.”
“Grace, can I ask you something?” Sam questioned.
“Go ahead, Rookie.”
“What are you going to do for a partner once Frenchy retires?”
“I dunno. Depends on the outcome of the case, I guess. I really hate breaking in new partners. I sure as shit don’t want to be partners with either Gregor or Smith. I was kinda thinking…Nah, never mind.”
“What?”
“Well, since you just transferred in, I could talk to your mom about you becoming my new partner,” Grace offered.
