Lilah
I was meant to have a day off, turns out even serial criminals can't give us a break. Will Soot had called me at about seven a.m., telling me we had a case and that he'd fill all of us in when we got there. 'All of us' meaning myself, Emily Sherman, Aether and Lumine Viatrix, and the newest member of our team that I hadn't met yet, Spencer Salmon. Emily was our media liaison, Lumine and I were Supervisory Special Agents, Soot was the Unit Chief, Aether was our tech analyst and to be honest I didn't know what Spencer was. I did know he had multiple different PhD's and could apparently remember everything he's ever read. That was all Emily told me and apparently that was all she knew.
"Fairchild." I glanced up and saw Will Soot heading towards me. "Have you seen Emily? She's not here and usually she's the first one here other than me."
"No I haven't, I'll call her though and meet you up there." I pulled my phone out and nodded to him.
He nodded. "Alright, thanks."
I quickly called Em, who said she was running late because her cat got stuck under the couch somehow and was heading here now. To be honest I wasn't really surprised. Bandit was a weird cat. I headed up to the conference area where Lumine, Aether, Soot and who I assumed to be Spencer Salmon. "Emily's on her way. Her cat managed to get stuck under the couch."
"To be honest I'm not surprised. We'll start the briefing when she gets here." I nodded to Soot as Salmon walked over to me.
"Doctor Spencer Salmon." He held his hand out.
I didn't take it. "Lilah Fairchild. Sorry I don't really do handshakes. Or really touching at all." I chuckled sheepishly.
"That's fair." He nodded, pulling his hand back and slipping it into his pocket.
Emily walked in, tying her hair back. "Sorry I'm here."
"That's alright it was only a minute or two." Soot sat down. "Aethee, present the case."
The rest of us sat down as Aethee passed out the case files. "Three bodies, all women. All in their mid to late twenties." I flipped through the file, glancing up when he clicked through the crime scene photos. "The bodies were found in a creek bed in Beaufort, North Carolina.
"Any other signature or definite MO aside from the dump site?" Spencer looked up from the file in his hands.
"All three women were naturally blondes and had their hair dyed black, as well as their nails painted grey." Aether nodded.
"That's a very specific victim pool. Usually natural hair colour doesn't matter if they're dyeing the hair." Emily had the end of her pen between her lips, flipping through the crime scene photos.
"Unfortunately there's no lack of blonde women in their mid to late twenties in the states. Even a small town like Beaufort. Everyone knows everyone so chances are, the unsub lives there." I hmmed, brushing a loose bit of hair out of my face.
"Didn't you used to live their Lilah?" Lumine looked over at me.
I nodded. "Mhm. From when I was seventeen until I was nineteen. I've lived here since I was nineteen."
"So you'll probably know at least some of the people there?" Spencer looked over at me.
"Mhm. Like I said, small town."
"Wheels up in twenty." Soot stood, picking up his case file. He nodded to us and headed down towards his office.
Everyone else stood, myself included, and headed down to their desks.
I shuffled through papers on my desk, using a pen to hold my hair back into a loose bun. I shuffled through the case in my head. At least three women, all natural blondes with their hair dyed black, nails painted grey. We haven't gotten all the crime scene photos yet, so I don't have everything.
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"They've IDed two of the bodies so far. Victim one is Lira Johanson, and the second is Cara Smith. We're waiting for them to ID our Jane Doe then I'll call you back." Aether hung up the video call after speaking.
I dragged the heel of my palm over my face. "The bodies were positioned with the fingers covering their eyes, and they were on their backs right?" I asked, mostly repeating what Aethee had told us a moment ago.
Spencer nodded. "The unsub took the time to position the bodies so they can't be too disorganized."
I chewed on my lip. "Its such a specific victim pool. Natural blondes with blue eyes? That's not hard to find."
Will nodded. "Viatrix, you and Sherman go to the crime scenes, I'll get us set up at the station. Fairchild, you and Salmon go see take a look at the bodies, see if theres anything you can find."
I looked to Spencer and nod, though I can't help but feel theres more to this case than we're realizing.
A/N: there it is! Chapter one of Love and Crime. Hope you enjoy!
