Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

31. Out Of Control

(A/N: Season 1 Episode 7 - "Out of Control")

Cat had all the essentials and necessary items of clothing packed and ready to go. She was excited. She and Vincent had a whole weekend planned, to get to know one another better. And she couldn't wait.
On her way out the door, she runs into her neighbor, who is smiling.

"Weekend getaway? Going somewhere fun? Romantic?"

"Yeah, actually, I hope...Fun, not romantic, really," Cat looks down.

"Have fun."

"Thank you," Cat smiles again, shrugging off the awkwardness.

Her good mood is a little spoiled but not by much, by the fact that they had a murder case so early in the morning. She arrived at the scene on campus, and smiled at Tess in passing. "Good morning."

Tess took the report from the officer she'd been talking to and runs after Cat. "Handbook chapter three, try not to look giddy when approaching a murder scene," she jokes.

"I seriously doubt I look giddy," Cat says, pulling her hair up into a bun so it would be out if the way.

"We'll get back to that," Tess points at the body. "Frat party. Couple sneaks out to make nasty in the bushes, finds a cut up fraternity brother."

"How long's he been here?" Cat kneels down, pulling on rubber gloves. Being a detective, one always has a pair somewhere on one's person.

"They're doing a prelim. Speaking of hot brothers - " Cat looks up at Tess. "The fire fighters' calender launch party's tonight," she grins.

"Okay, you didn't seriously just use that to segway did you?"

Tess holds up two fingers. "Two tickets to the party."

Cat nods in understanding. "Sorry but I have plans already." She moves around the body, stopping at the cut marks on the dead boy's back, trailing her fingers across it.

"Yeah, actually you do have plans and they're called Mister July and Mister October." Cat rolls her eyes at this. "Give me one good reason besides your old favorite 'I have to run an errand'. Or do you want me to start asking the tough questions about your elusive life these days?"

Cat stands. "It's just a casual thing right?" Tess nods. "I'll be back before nightfall?"

"Hopefully not alone," Tess winks.

"Alright," Cat sighs. "Wingman invite accepted." Tess smiles widely and then leaves Cat with the body to go and talk to some of the students standing around.

"Making out in the bushes just isn't what it used to be," Evan says with a smirk, walking towards Cat. He always shows up just when Tess leaves her alone. He dives right into his findings. "Vic is Derek Moore. Narrowed down the time of death between midnight and 1am. Found a short trail of blood on the sidewalk that veers off into the lawn."

Cat looks in the direction he is pointing. "He managed to make it this far after the attack before he died?"

"Yeah. But thanks to the extremely efficient sprinkler system the true crime scene is going to be next to impossible to find." Evan looks around them at the sidewalk. "Blood trail's been washed away."

*************

Vincent was getting exceedingly more worried. He'd woken up after blacking out again. Only this time he wasn't on the Brooklyn bridge, no, he was covered in blood. Again.
He'd taken a shower to get the blood off, staring at the pink water being gulped down by the drain. His body may have been clean, but the blood was everywhere. He'd trailed it in. He would have to clean it before JT got home.