Secrets and Oaths✓

Fleshing Out a Killer

I needed to make sure I did something really nice for Steve. He sent someone out that day and by the next morning, I had all the files and evidence from a series of murders in Memphis from seven years ago. As I laid out the photos of those first six victims, I couldn't help but flinch slightly. This was my first major case as a detective and I knew it would haunt me for the rest of my life.

I set up the boards in the conference room and placed the previous victims' pictures up in the order they were killed. My hands paused over the last file in the box. The last victim. This file was thicker than the others. Probably because there had been an eye witness that saw the killer with the murder weapon before he fled. Releasing a shaky breath I hadn't realized I had been holding, I took her picture out. Her frozen smile looked up at me with eyes that matched my own. Everyone always said that we looked exactly alike, with the exception that she had beautiful golden hair. Hair that I had been envious of my whole life. Hair that I begged her for years to let me try and achieve. She had finally relented and what a mistake I had made.

This is where Andy and Walker found me when they came, grabbing the coffees that I brought for them. I didn't hear them come in so when I turned around and there they were, I jumped out of my skin. "What is all this?" Andy asked.

"This is from the precinct that I worked at back in Memphis. That number cut into her ankle. I've seen it before, on a string of killings seven years ago. I called in a favor from my former captain to get the files and evidence sent here. Don't worry, I went through the proper channels. You won't have any problem in court. I was new to the position, I had just gotten promoted so I was mostly shadowing. By the time we had put together that it was the same guy, he had already killed five women, all with the corresponding number carved into her ankle. The sixth and seventh victim were killed a month apart. The last victim, she was actually found the quickest."

"How?" Walker asked.

"I walked in and found her on the floor, the killer standing over her." I confessed, taping her picture on the board in the timeline I had created.

"Is that...?" Andy tried to ask but got stuck on.

"Yes. That's my mom. The man, monster, we're looking for is my father." I confessed as there was a knock on the door and Charlie appeared on the other side. "Crap. Try to cover that up. I don't want him to see this."

"Doesn't he know?" Andy asked.

"No. He was so young when it happened, I don't know how much his mind let him remember. Thankfully he had been at a friend's house when I found our parents but I couldn't ever bring myself to tell him. I pulled him out of school right after and home schooled him for two years before we moved here. I was already being harassed enough. I didn't want him to face the same thing from kids who didn't know what they were talking about." With that, I walked out of the conference room and led Charlie over to my desk. "What's up kid? You're looking a little pale."

"What's going on in there?" He asked, trying to see through the closed blinds.

"Nothing that you need to worry about. A case came up yesterday morning. Now what's up?"

"Some guy came by the house a couple of days ago. I didn't think about it until I overheard you talking to Jimmy this morning about keeping an eye out for anything weird."

"What did the guy want?"

"He said that he was our dad. That he'd been away for awhile but was back and wanted to see me. I told him that was crazy because my dad was dead and that he needed to leave but he seemed pretty adamant. A cop then drove down the street and he took off pretty quickly after that. But he was pissed."

"Watch your language. When did this man come to the door?" I asked, starting to panic internally.

"Like two days ago." Shit!