Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

33. Internal affairs

"In a minute we'll know if the blood from the tower matches what Vincent tracked in," JT says over his shoulder, writing down what he sees in the blood samples.

Cat had come with Vincent and a sample of the blood right after he confessed he might be the killer. He was worried, pacing back and forth. Cat looked up from the case file when he reached the table and sits down. "Hey - " he starts.

"Yeah?" she looks at him.

"Hey, I'm so sorry about this weekend."

She shakes her head. She's already forgiven him. "That doesn't matter right now. You didn't ask for this." He sniffs and nods, looking down.  "Vincent, you did not murder Derek." He looks back. "Even when you're not yourself you do the right thing."

"I've killed people too, and you know it." He sits forward. "Look, I wish that I could tell you that normally this wasn't my life but - "

"I'm not going anywhere," she assures him. "Trust me." He looks into her clear, amber colored eyes and nods his head. "Okay." She opens the case file to some of the crime scene pictures. "Derek was on his way across campus. We think that he was sent there by someone at the party."

"One of his fraternity brothers?"

"Or at least one of the pledges. Derek was brutal during hazing. Tess is running all their profiles." Vincent nods at this.

"Good, 'cause one of them is your perp," JT says and turns to face them. They look at him. "Most likely. The blood samples don't match. Vincent didn't do it."

Cat looks at Vincent. She knew it. He sighs and drops his head in relief. "Okay," he gives a small smile. Then he shakes his head. "But I had someone's blood on me, whose was it?"

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

Evan couldn't drop it. He knew he'd seen that marking somewhere before.
He drew up older case files and went through them one by one.
It would have been a lot more peaceful if Peter hadn't been sitting there the whole time.

"What's that?" Peter asks, having left his textbook to look at what Evan was doing.

Would it be considered wrong if Peter were to be found with tied to a chair with a rubber glove in his mouth? Probably. Evan looks at the screen again. "Scanning through old cases from last year. I know that I've seen that strange checkmark somewhere before." Peter sits closer. "Ah, huh," Evan hums.

"My gosh, you were right," Peter says, looking at the photo with the same marking on its foot.

"Another body, found on campus almost a year ago. Looks like we're no longer talking about one isolated homicide."

"You got all that from one checkmark?" Peter asks in awe.

"Obviously the checkmark is a calling card the killer is leaving behind, targeting college students," Evan says as he types what he sees and finds into the system log. "No, hang on," he says, enlarging the photo. "She wasn't even officially a victim. She was a cadaver from the campus anatomy lab. Campus security found the cadaver lying on the steps of the old Science block with a fresh checkmark carved into her embalmed flesh..." Evan looks at Peter, who had been reading along. He turns in his chair and digs through one of his drawers.

"That's amazing that you remember that photo."

"So the cadaver was practice perhaps," Evan goes on.

"For a real murder..." Peter huffs. "A year later?"

"You never know what triggers these guys to take the big step." Evan reads through the file he took out. A thought occurs to him. "I need you to check the ETA on those lab results," he tells Peter, getting up and taking off his labcoat.