Symbol

Carving symbols. This is usual for Halloween. But in pumpkins. Not people.  

Dr Karma Dymond and Detective Matthew Evans are the worlds youngest detective/pathologist duo. They've solved countless murders by the ages of 16 and have now been summoned to help solve the greatest mass murder case of the 21st century.  

But with the body count rising could this really be the work of a single man or a massive cult?

*****

Halloween. The time had come once more. For Kayla it was her favourite time of the year. Not only did she love Halloween, but it was also her 16th birthday. But instead of partying she had to go to work.

She had been planning to spend the day relaxing, then going to a Halloween party afterwards but she got a phone call. Picking it up and grumbling a bit she spoke into the receiver "Hello?"

"Hey Kayla, It's Matt. We gotta problem. It's the same as last year I'm afraid."

"The same thing?" She asked, inwardly pleading for him to be joking.

"I'm afraid so. Same symbols and everything." I sighed.

"Every. Goddamn. Year." She muttered to her self. "OK, where do I need to go?"

"Durward Street."

"OK, coming." She said, before hanging up.

She hurriedly got dressed into black leather leggings, a burgundy red jumper and black Doc Martens. She quickly but on a minimal amount of make up, pinned her jet black hair into a pony tail, put on her leather jacket, picked up her ID and bolted out the door.

*****

10 minutes later she was at Durward Street. The whole area was surrounded by yellow and black police tape and a white tent had been set up in the middle of the area. Ducking under the tape and flashing her ID she walked over to the tent and entered.

"Here she is!" A red headed person in the corner of the tent exclaimed. It was Matt, Kayla's best friend. He had bright blue eyes that shone as he spoke and red hair that seemed to glow when the sun hit it. He was quite tall, taller than Kayla by far, and was older than her too at 17."Our long awaited pathologist."

"Shut it Matt." She grumbled. "Why did he have to attack today?"

"Oh, happy birthday Kay." Matt said, his bright blue eyes smiling, as well as his mouth.

"What's so happy about it?"

"You're 16!"

"And I'm spending the day examining a butchered body!"

"Always the optimist Kay."

"Thanks. I try."

Matt rolled his eyes and walked over to Kayla and the body which was, as Kayla said, butchered.

The body, which was a woman, had been horribly mutilated. Her neck had been slit and her body carved into. But it was no ordinary mutilation. The carving were symbols such as pentagrams, ankh's, blair witches, 666's, crosses, and triangles.

"The victim is a woman in early 30's late 40's. Her neck has been slit and satanist symbols carved into the body." Kayla announced to the surrounding officers.

"Could it be a copy cat?" Matt suggested.

"Maybe, but it's not likely." was the reply.

"Why not?"

"The press never released the details of the symbols."

"Didn't they?"

"No. Dect. Marshall wouldn't let the details be released in case of a copy cat."

Matt's mouth formed an 'O' shape and asked "Shall I bring in a body bag?"

Kayla nodded "Yes please. Oh, and can I have the details of the last victims?"

"Sure." He replied, before leaving the tent.

Kayla trailed her hand around the body. "There's no blood..." She kept wandering the hand around and underneath, just to confirm, but her suspicions were true. "She wasn't killed here."

"Huh?" Matt said, walking back into the tent.

"Around the body. There's no blood."

"There should be, the amount of cuts on her."

"She was killed somewhere else." She said, her eyebrows furrowing with a hint of annoyance. "The body was placed here."

"Oh. They weren't last year."

"What do you mean?" Her head turning to look at Matt.

"Well, when I was working on the case last year the bodies were surrounded by blood. They were killed where they lay." He said, scratching his head "Are you sure it's not a copy cat?"

"Well now I'm not so sure. But he could have just changed technique?"

"Could do. Shall we carry on this conversation at the precinct?"

"Yeah, ok." Kayla said, moving out the way. "Bag the body please."