Kneel

Case 34

  "Lieutenant, what brings you here?" Chloe asked the man standing next to the convertible with two bodies in it.

  "I had a gut feeling about this case. I wanted to see if I was right."

  "As much as we appreciate your digestive feeling, Lieutenant, the Detective, Imp, and I had this utterly under control. So, if you don't mind-"

  "I don't mind at all." Pierce stepped back from the car.

  "Ella, what do we have?"

  "Meet Robbie Matthews and Rachael White. Looks like they were drugged unconscious, and then someone literally smashed their chests in."

  "Do we know how they were drugged?"

  "Uh, best guess, maybe the killer used some form of anesthetic, liquid or aerosol." Ella shook her head while shrugging.

  "And then crushed their ribs. And their sternum."

  "And finally, their hearts. Well, it's not hard to figure out what the desire was here."

  "Well, the killer was clearly trying to send a message." Chloe said.

  "Wait, are the hearts still there?" I asked while looking up from the bodies to Ella.

  "I won't know until I can actually get a look in there."

  "Let me know if they are. This could actually be ritualistic if they've been removed." I pointed.

  "See, we've got this, Lieutenant. No need to mess with success." Lucifer smiled at Pierce.

  "Which one of them was married?"

  "Well, no wedding rings, so neither of them, obviously. But good on you for participating."

  "Has anyone checked their chest cavities yet?" Pierce questioned, and I looked over my shoulder at him.

  "What do you know about this?"

  "In the '50s, there was a guy named Clarke Hoffman. He was known for making his victims swallow their wedding rings."

  "Right. The Broken Hearts Killer." Chloe nodded.

  "By the time they'd caught him, he had killed seven cheating couples in L.A. His crime scenes were about as gruesome as this."

  "Wow. You really know a lot about this."

  "The cop who solved the case was an old mentor of mine."

  "And didn't, uh, Hoffman die a few days ago in prison?"

  "Making him a particularly useless addition to this conversation." Lucifer popped off.

  "Unless his death inspired a copycat." Pierce put his hands on his hips.

  "Or maybe they're using this as an MO to throw us off."

  "I hope that's all it is."

  "Alrighty. I guess we'll get out the old chest spreader and go fishing for some wedding rings." Ella nodded.

~

  Seeing Chloe, Lucifer, and Pierce coming out of the interrogation room, I got up from my desk while holding a file. They looked like they were arguing judging from Pierce and Lucifer's expressions. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it was probably about something the victim's wife had said.

  "We got another couple found dead while holding hands." I spoke up while waving the file. "This time in a cheap motel, the Safari Inn." I passed the file to Chloe to let her look over the quick info I was able to get.