FBI Damsel: Foreign Affairs

Sixteen: patterns arise

The plane landed, but it was never soon enough for cases like this. A detective met them, bearing the terrible news that since they called this morning there’s already been another death. The team knew they didn’t have very long before another girl was taken.

“Something happened to make him feel the need to hurry and kill again.”

“Their stressor either got worse, or this sick bastard is determined to get as many bodies under his belt before we catch them,” Parker growled.

“I think we know what to do. Parker, Eddie, go to the latest crime scene. Mitch, Valerie – sorry, Mitch and Victoria, you two go to scene of the survivor. Valerie and I will work on victimology, and Simone – you do your thing,” Vaughn ordered. Everyone nodded before going their separate ways.

Eddie and Parker soon arrived at the park. The crime scene tape waved in the wind. The gruesome sight of a mutilated body made the pair pause, but only for a minute. Never fully deterred, the boys took a deep breath and made their way towards the dead girl.

“What happened?” Parker asked.

“She died.”

Eddie frowned at the coroner. “I don’t think now is necessarily the right time for jokes, don’t you?”

“Sorry. It’s just that these girls all remind me of my own daughter. And they’re so young…”

“How old was this one, you think?” Parker asked.

“From what I can tell, she appears to have been in her early twenties. Can I take her, now?” the coroner answered.

The two sighed. “Yeah, go ahead.”

Pieces of the girl were scattered everywhere. Her head was by the swings, along with a foot and some intestine. An arm was at the top of the slide, while her torso was at the bottom. The rest of her body was either in the sandbox or led towards the giant tree by the parking lot.

Parker got closer to the head, staring at it for a second before searching the rest of the area like a dog hot on a scent.

“What’s up?” Eddie asked.

“Her tongue and eyes are gone.”

“The last scene I was at she didn’t have hers, either,” the coroner offered.

“Was anything else missing? An organ, like the kidney, heart, or perhaps a brain?”

“No, not that I know of, just the eyes and tongue. Most of the organs were found in a bag in a nearby trashcan, though.”

Eddie nodded. “Thank you, you can continue with whatever you were doing. Parker, this means something.”

“They probably didn’t want whoever these girls represent to see something or tell anyone what they saw,” he agreed.

“Most likely. I’ll call Vaughn.”

Across town, in what was technically Henderson, Victoria and her fiancé entered the house where the teen and her younger sister were both kidnapped.

“What do you think about this?” Mitch asked. He pointed to the strange shoe print just outside the house.

“It looks like half a shoe print, like they were standing on their toes,” Victoria noted.

“No, look at what’s behind it. There’s an impression. Could it be a heel impression?”

Victoria bent down lower to the dirt to get a better view. “You’re probably right. And look where it’s at; right in front of the window. She probably stood here to get a good view inside before ringing the doorbell.”