by C. Soto
He was careful washing the women too, not leaving behind evidence when he disposed of them. He had a few ladies buried and dumped a couple too. Those women didn’t make the cut for a new makeover. He wasn’t happy with the final product when he was done, so he couldn’t show them for all to see. When the women were displayed, it needed to show a masterpiece of his work. The last two he found, had quality, and he was able to showcase them along different benches in the city. His work showed the amount of time and delicacy he put into each of them. He had quite a few discoveries underneath his belt that he was proud of. Elisa’s spot was on the bench along her bus route. It added a nice touch to leave her where he grabbed her at.
As the bus pulled over for its next stop, he saw Sara get out. He looked around in aggravation, this was not her workplace. She couldn’t change up her schedule this late in the game. Trying to come up with the answer, he thought, Did she have an interview or an appointment? He swerved out of traffic, pulling over. He needed to watch her, he thought, Is she going into the steel building? Why, it’s a research facility?
He found her social media account awhile ago, so he knew she had a medical billing background, so she wasn’t a researcher. Was there was a position for billing? He would look later through the classifieds to see if they were hiring. He had to find out why she was there, making sure her schedule wasn’t going to abruptly change.
As he was waiting for her to finish and exit the building, his phone rang. It was his wife. He answered, hiding his aggravation at being interrupted on his stake out, “Hey honey, how are you doing?”
“Good, the day camp called, can you pick up Jeffrey? He isn’t feeling well, and I can’t leave work today?”
His aggravation going away once he knew it was about his son, “Yea sure, no problem. I was out running around, nothing that can’t wait. I’ll be on my way to get him now. Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious, his team has the playoff games this weekend.”
The wife sighing, “Yea, I know. I’d sure hate for him to miss it. It would crush him. Well, I have to get to a meeting, see you guys later.”
“Okay, bye sweetie.”
He put the car in gear and drove off, thinking, Damn I won’t be there to see if she goes to work. He hoped his wife would get off on time, then he could catch Sara when she left, confirming whether she went to work today.
He reached the park where his son’s day camp was held, parked, and walked up to the pavilion. Seeing a few camp counselors as he went, he waved and gave a friendly greeting. He walked up to the bench to sign his son out. His son already waiting, ran to him the moment he saw him.
“Hey Dad!” His son’s joy evident that it was him that came and got him.
“Hey Champ, I hear you’re not feeling well. Let me get you signed out and we can head home.”
While walking back down to the car, he asked his son, “What’s wrong buddy, mom said you're not feeling too hot?”
“Yeah Dad, my stomach’s hurting.”
Responding to his young son in a fatherly tone, “That doesn’t sound to good, I’m sorry bud. I’ll stop by the store real quick on the way home and grab you some ginger ale and some meds in case you start getting a fever. Then we’ll go home and lie back and watch some cartoons while you rest up.”
“Thanks Dad”
Chapter 16
John and Derrick arrived at Dr. Hutton’s office. They’d pick Emily up later. This wasn’t something she would typically do, gather case files or going to see autopsies. She was lucky, even though she was a part of the team, she got to choose whether she wanted to tag along for these tasks. Most times, she didn’t, unless she was already with them, and they had to stop by. When Derrick left her that morning, she was still snuggled in bed while the rest of them had to get up. That was where her work flourished, the dreams, so they needed her to stay in bed if possible.
The Medical Examiner’s office was down the street from the police precinct. It was perfect, when they were done, they’d stop there next. They hoped that Dr. Hutton would have the preliminary reports completed so they could copy them. John also hoped that Dr. Hutton had time to find those old case numbers that were connected to their case. It would be even better if he made copies of them as well.
They walked into his office since he knew they were stopping by. Derrick and John were thankful they were getting to skip the morgue section. Not that they weren’t used to seeing dead bodies, but they still liked to avoid the room when possible. The smell of death would linger with you for the rest of the day, so it was always good to skip if you could.
John walked in with a smile, “Hey Dr. Hutton, what do you have for us?”
The doctor matched John’s enthusiasm, “Hey guys, I have case notes for you right here. Unfortunately, it’s only a quick synopsis for you, the husband had street drugs of Ketamine in his system. That would paralyze his body to where he couldn’t move. That’s probably how he took control of the husband. Their TOD, I put around 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. in the early morning of Saturday.
Both the husband and wife’s COD was Exsanguination, in which they bled out. The husband as you saw, had his throat cut. It was a clean cut with no hesitation marks. The wife, bless her soul, had cut marks all over her body, totaling 36 stab wounds. All but one was superficial. The killer’s point wasn’t trying to kill her only torture. The fatal stab wound was through her heart.”
The doctor scooted his glasses up, “I included pictures in my report so you can look at the damage. Thankfully, we have a bite mark from one of the other girls, so I have a mold I made from before, so you find the killer and I can match it up.”
Derrick replied, “Thanks Doc, we really appreciate you getting these reports to us so quickly. I know you’ve been swamped. Did you have an opportunity to review your old cases to see if any other victims match this killer’s M.O?”
The doctor replied, “Yes, thank you for reminding me. I had my assistant go back through our records and I found three victims in my district matching from the last four years. I have a good suspicion these are all related, due to how the bodies were found and the clothing they were wearing when discovered, and a trace amount of Ketamine found in their systems. I have a call in to the other ME offices in the County and all our local surrounding counties in case this killer isn’t using Tampa as his only dumping ground. I let them know to contact your office if they had any bodies resulting in a match.”
John responded, “Thank you, we appreciate you running down some leads for us. You never know Doc, you keep that up and you’ll be an honorary member of our team.” John giving him a laugh of gratitude. “We’ll take your case numbers and get the detectives’ reports from the precinct down the road, so we can review the whole case with everyone’s notes. We really appreciate your time Dr. Hutton and looking these up for us.”
“No problem, anytime.”
“If you find out anything else, give us a shout.”
“Will do, bye guys and nice chatting with you again.”
Derrick and John headed towards the car, so they could drive down the road to the precinct and grab the files from them.
As they hoped in the vehicle, John pulled out his phone to show Derrick a funny meme he created about the FBI. Derrick laughed, grabbed the phone out of John’s hand, shaking his head. “John you do realize you are the FBI right? That you’re making fun of yourself.”
John responded, “Yea, but you have to admit, I have more swag than a lot of the other agents. I think it’s funny and I’m going to share it. Hey, I’ll tag you in it too.”
Derrick shook his head thinking, One day he’s going to get himself fired, but only said “Please don’t. I don’t need that crap on my page.”
Derrick amused by John’s latest antics. At least he could bring laughter if nothing else to his day, where there otherwise wasn’t any.
John growing serious, “What do you make of this situation with Tammy? I mean that’s creepy as fuck, someone looking through her window. We
all need to show up tonight, the whole gang sitting, waiting on that mother fucker to pull up again.”
Derrick pissed that someone was messing with his teammate, “I can’t believe someone has the balls to mess with one of our own. I’m going to have Emily check it out later and see if she can get anything off Tammy’s house. We’ll swing by Tammy’s house once Emily is with us.”
He thought for a moment, “Maybe we should all have dinner over there with her tonight. I know James said he was staying with her. However, I think it will help her if we all went over there for a while at least, to show solidarity. Who knows it might scare off the creeper if he sees us all there?”
“I’m in, you don’t have to ask twice.”
Derrick and John arrived at the precinct and walked up to the front reception area, showing their badges. John addressed the cop working the desk, “Hi there, we’re hoping you can point us in the right direction? We need to pick up file copies for a case we are working.”
The cop replied, pointing in the direction they needed to head, “Sure head on down to the basement and check in with evidence. They’ll get ya taken care of.”
“Thanks man, we appreciate it!” John replied as he tapped on the desk.
They headed towards the direction the cop pointed and found the door that led to the basement. They headed down the stairs and once reaching the bottom they saw a Lieutenant sitting at the window, where evidence was held. Walking up to the window they addressed the Lieutenant who oversaw evidence. Derrick speaking to her, “Hi, we’re hoping you can help us out.” As he showed her his badge and John also showing his.
She greeted them back, “Hi, well depends, what do you need help with?”
John responded, “We need to get copies of these case numbers.” As he scooted the paper towards her.
She took the paper from John, looking it over, “Sure, if I can get you two to sign in and a copy of your badges, then I’ll show you what section they’re at and you can get them pulled and copied.”
“Great thanks, that will be a huge help.” John responded.
After signing in, she led them in the direction of the case files. John looked around, feeling eerie seeing all the old cases. Each box represented a crime, a victim, and a suspect. The stories that each box held. Each person reduced to a box on the shelf after their story was told. The weight of the room could be felt immediately as they entered the cage and began searching for the cases they needed.
Once John and Derrick found all their boxes, they retrieved the lieutenant to witness them breaking the seal and signing off on it and then made copies of the records. They then resealed the evidence after they were done and signed out.
Chapter 17
Derrick and John stopped on the way back to the office to pick up Emily. She looked well rested, unlike the rest of them that didn't get to sleep in. Derrick leaned over and gave her a kiss, greeting her as she got seated in the car. She asked, “Were you guys able to get all the case files from the precinct?”
Derrick replied, “Yea, Dr. Hutton found the case files that he remembered from his old cases. We pulled the files of the two girls we already knew about from a month ago and then his three. Hopefully, Tammy and James were able to pull the other four from ViCap. The three victims that Dr. Hutton pulled were also on our search results. At least we know we are on the right track and the victims are connected.”
“That’s good. We’re making progress.” Emily sighed, “All we can do is take it one step at a time in identifying all the killer’s victims. Hopefully, it will help us gather more information about who he is.”
Derrick replied, “Yes, we need to find some answers soon. He could be holding his next victim right now, who is waiting on us to find her.” Derrick taking a deep breath trying not to get worked up with the pending doom he was feeling. “I wanted to see, do you mind if we head over to Tammy's house? Someone was peeking through her window last night. She found mud prints near her bushes, which is right outside her bedroom. Do you think you’d be able to pick up on anything?”
“Oh my god, are you serious?!? Is she okay? Yes, anything she needs. I’ll see what I can pick up. I don’t know if I can pick up anything besides a feeling or an energy. I don’t know how helpful that will be.”
“At least you can get a feeling for whoever it was. We’ll go tonight, if you are feeling up to it, to Tammy’s house, and we’ll all have dinner with her. James is going to stay with her until we get this resolved with the peeping tom.”
“I’m glad to hear she won’t be by herself. Obviously, someone peeking through her windows at night wouldn’t have good intentions. Poor Tammy, she’s probably a nervous wreck right now.”
“Yea, we’ll see her in a few, so we’ll make sure she’s doing okay through this. She knows we’re all here for her.”
They pulled up to Tammy’s house, all getting out of the vehicle. They saw a utility van that had a security company’s logo on it. John took out his cell phone and called Tammy, making sure the people were supposed to be at her house.
“Walls speaking.” Tammy answered her phone.
“Hey Tam, this is John. We stopped by your house so Emily could check out the spot. There’s a security company’s van parked in your driveway. They're supposed to be here, right?”
“Yes, I want more cameras surrounding my house. Thanks for checking, with what happened last night, it's good to double check all information.” She replied. Tammy took a deep breath releasing her nervous energy that still hasn’t left her from this morning. “Has Emily checked out the spot yet?”
“No, not yet. We just pulled up. When I saw the van, I wanted to check in with you right away, in case I had to kick someone’s ass.” He tried to say in a joking tone to try and help her relieve some of the stress he knew she was feeling.
“Okay, we’ll meet you guys back at the office so we can go over everything. James and I were about to pick up lunch, do you want us to pick you guys up anything?”
John gave her the team’s order and let them know they would be there shortly.
Emily, Derrick, and John walked to the main focus spot in the yard. Emily immediately felt the trail of dark energy that was left behind. It tried surrounding her, attracted to her energy. She felt it as it prickled her skin. Emily didn’t like the recognition she felt from it. She stood still, letting it surround her. She tried to grab hold of the images attached to the energy, but it blocked her from seeing anything, like it had a mind of its own. All she was able to get from it was the recognition of it being the same person that killed the couple.
Emily turned towards John and Derrick, “Guys, we have a serious problem. This energy belongs to our killer.”
John shocked, he was not expecting that, “Shit, how in the hell does our killer even know Tammy or for that matter where she lives?”
Derrick pulled out his phone calling Tammy and the chief on three way.
“Tammy, Boss, as you know we're at your house, Tammy. Emily identified the person stalking you last night, it was our killer.” He remained silent for a minute, then continued, “For whatever reason, he knows who you are and most importantly where you live.”
Eric responded immediately, “That’s it, Tammy you will have protective detail around the clock until we catch this killer. I think we should also get you moved to safe house. I will not have one of my agents being harmed by this psychopath.”
Tammy left stunned, tried to formulate a response. All she could muster to say was, “Okay.”
Eric replied, “Everyone meet in the conference room in thirty minutes and let’s review what we have, and we’ll formulate a plan for Tammy’s safety.”
Derrick replied, “Sounds good Sir, see you then.”
He relayed what Eric said to John and Emily.
The three headed back to the car to return to the office. Their concern was growing by the minute, weighing them down, felt by their silence. This was more serious than some random peeping tom. They now knew it was
a serial killer who had their eye on Tammy. Was this killer targeting her to be his next victim?
Tammy, James, and Eric were all in the conference room when Derrick, John, and Emily returned. They picked up their lunch from the table and sat down. Emily started the conversation about what she felt at Tammy’s house.
“The killer’s energy was consuming the area. You could tell it was left recently. When I was close enough, it started coming near me, swirling around, prickling at my skin. It was the same energy I felt when we went to the couple’s house. Somehow he knows who you are, Tammy.”
Eric jumped in, “Tammy have you noticed anyone following you lately or meeting anyone recently that was too friendly or had a weird vibe?”
“No, nothing like that. We only got back in town last week, so what two days after we got back in town we had this case. I went to the bar and to James’ house since we’ve been back. I can call the karaoke bar and see if they have any surveillance. Maybe the killer was there?”
Emily chimed back in, “I wonder if the killer was at the scene? Remember Derrick, me telling you it felt like someone was watching us. Maybe he spotted us and for whatever reason, he followed you Tammy, or perhaps he is following all of us and keeping tabs?”
Eric groaned and rubbed a hand down his face, “That’s it, I don’t want anyone on this team going anywhere by themselves. I’m calling the Police Chief and having units sit on all your houses around the clock. We don’t need this psychopath stalking any of you. I want everyone to be alert and watching everything around you. Same for you Emily, until we solve this case, you need to be always with Derrick. So, in the mornings Derrick if you and John have somewhere to go, you drop Emily off here first.”
Derrick still on edge. The thought of someone trying to harm his team, especially Emily, made his anger rise to the top, getting ready to bubble over. This was personal, the killer was targeting them.
John speaking to Tammy, “All of us are coming over tonight. I think we should all stick together until this guy is caught. We’ll stick around your house until it’s time for bed then head home. James, are you staying with Tammy until this is over?”
