Hypothalamus

Chapter 7 Notice me

I stare up at the displayed man in front of me wondering how long it took our little pyromaniac. The man's head is all shrunken and burnt his eyes sunken and hollow but somehow preserved along with the rest of him. His stomach split open from the middle sternum to the pelvis, all its contents spilling out. Written behind him in dripping blood is a simple phrase:

He didn’t have the guts

I chuckle to myself, seems like they have a sense of humor.

“Why are you laughing, detective?”, an officer ask using my title with such a derogatory tone, “Is there something funny about a public murder?”

“I just like how there's a sense of humor in every profession.”

“Murder isn’t a profession it’s a crime. Now could we actually do some work. ”

“First of all, murder takes a lot of work especially a murder like this. Second. Who shat in your cheerios this morning?”, I ask him upfront.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“What's your name?”

“William.”

“William, let me work. You are distracting me with your irrelevant comments and I like to work without distraction”, I calmly explain to him.

“Charles was right, you are an asshole”, he scoffs.

“Thank you, now leave. Shoo. Shoo”, I wave him off making him leave.

Taking in a deep breath I look back at the hanging body. Hmm, someone’s craving attention. But why now?
Did he want more public attention? Or did he just get bored?

I lay down on the pebbled itchy grass perpendicular to the body and the tree it was hung from. Hmm, the blood it pretty dark. Congealed. Been out here for a while. Wait a minute, the intestines have been cut. Looking back up at the ribs, so cleanly cut pyro knew how to do this. So he couldn’t have possibly mistakenly cut open the intestines. Why did he then? I continue to search and yet another question appears. Why take the time to preserve the eyes?

I need another perspective.

Standing up I try to follow the hanging man's line of sight seeing a graffiti filled wall. Hmm  I walk straight towards the wall simply ignoring the passing cars screeching to a stop. Arriving at the wall the corners of my lips perk up without my permission.

Hello detective Vance — Typhon

Well hello to you, Typhon. The little pyro finally has an official name.

◇◇◇

All the forensics evidence has been collected and an autopsy is being performed by Evelyn. I'll have to comb through all the evidence again once its done being analyzed by the others.

Spinning is my chair I take a moment to clear my head. Hmm, okay. Typhon has been murdering people, simply torturing and burning them alive. Now he switches it up with a more theatrical murder. Attention is what he wants.

But why now?

He's been getting a decent amount of attention, through media and such. Though he hasn’t gotten much from the law. The public has paid some attention but not the police. I dive into my thoughts trying to see as he does.
Take notice of me. I'm not one to be played with or ignored. The other killings have gotten boring. Let's show something interesting. I haven’t gotten the attention I deserve, so I'll make you look. I'll force you to look. You can't ignore me.

Mmm, no there's more to it than that. There must be more reasoning, sure there's obvious boredom and attention seeking. What else is there though? Is there a purpose?

“Detective Tustavostki, the chief wants to speak with you", Naomi, the front desk officer informs.

“Thank you, Naomi.”

What does he want from me now. I've been well behaved, so he shouldn’t want to yell at me.

Heading to his office I give a knock on his door before entering. “I was told you wanted to see me. Are you going to yell at me?”, I question genuinely. I don't like to be yelled at without a warning, its disruptive to my set expectations.

He gives a hearty chuckle leaning back in his chair. It looks like a comfortable chair. Very cushy.

“No, I'm not going to yell at you. Though I might upset you with the news I have.”

I squint, now suspicious of the news he’ll present me. “So, what’s the news?”

“I've given you a team to catch this uh…pyrodeviant. I know you're a bit of a lone wolf but the department is making this case top priority”, he explains.

“I don't like dealing with people –they're annoying– and now you are making me work with people. You’re right this news is irritating.”

“Figure out how to work with them. They’re in the room left and down the hall from my office. Get to work”, he says waving me off.

I leave without a word just a simple grumble of dread. Hope I didn’t get paired with idiots. I hate idiots.

Following the chief's directions I walk into the room viewing all of them. The annoying one from this morning is here. As well as the basement lady, Charles, and Mel. Hmm. Okay.

“Oh hey!”, Mel smiles and waves enthusiastically.

“Hi Mel, and the rest of you.” Charles and William stare in disdain.  “Anyway, lets get to work.”

“Okay”, Alina begins, “I did some research into the NeuroCarte and the newest victims have worked there. Still background checking the rest but seems like you were onto something. A good bit of them had investments or work at NeuroCarte.”

Of course, I was correct. That’s no surprise.

“We should get to work we have a serial killer to catch. We should all do our research and meet back here tomorrow to collect our perspectives on the case”, I instruct. “Anyway, It's late and I'm leaving. I'll see you all tomorrow.” With that I leave the room grabbing my coat from my desk as I head out.  Mel said I shouldn't stay late at the station. So, I’m going to take her advice for a week or two before reverting back to my own late night habits.

Finally making it home I slip off my shoes flopping onto the coach. Hearing a knock at my door I let out a deep sigh as I go to answer it. I swing the door open coming face to face with Giovanni.

“Hi!”, he says cheerfully, “Can I use your shower, ours broke?”

“Um, sure", I say stepping aside to let him in, “Second door to the left, the bathrooms in my room.

“Thanks Vance.” He goes in seemingly finding his way as I hear the shower running.

Laying back down on the couch, I turn on the TV putting on ‘House'. Wonder what happened to their shower, maybe a burst pipe or something?

I take some papers from the station out of my bag placing them on the table. Clicking my pen I begin writing notes on each case details scanning for any mistakes, missed info, or new perspectives originally unseen. I loose myself in my work tucking the pen behind my ear as I read over the reports of the burned victims. I have to be sure all of these victims were murdered by Typhon.  Ugh! This is frustrating yet so interesting. I've never taken on a case involving another deviant, there's only been cases about hate crimes and whatnot.

Basement Lady said most of the recent victims had some connection to NeuroCarte. The connection has been found now I just need reasoning and motive. I need those three pieces.

Typhon wants attention, that's obvious but is he bringing attention to himself or those who he killed? Or is it both?
How am I gonna figure out who he–
Giovanni walks in with nothing but a towel resting low on his hips. Oh lord his abs make me believe in God. I can’t help but let my eyes trail from his defined chest to his v-line.

“Do you want me to do a full 360⁰, just to let you have a good look?”, he teases a cocky little smile across his face. He runs his fingers through his wet hair moving it out of his face.

“Damn you look good with your hair wet", I say aloud my thoughts pushing through my mouth without permission.

“Hmm, and to think you said you didn’t like me. But here you are gawking and complimenting me”, he comments stepping forward.

“I said I don’t think of you”, I correct, “However I did not deny the fact you are very attractive.”

“So, you do like me, hmm?”

“I never said that.”

“Well, you never said you didn’t”, he smiles looking down at me, “Come on Vance, give me a straight answer, would you?”

“That’s a very hard thing to do right now”, I say as I realize that I’m eyelevel to his waist. “Is your shower really broken or did you just need an excuse to be half naked in my apartment? Is this some kind of planned seduction?”

“I don’t know is it working?”, Giovanni says with that cocky little smile of his. It’s working…just a little bit.

“No, no it is not.”

He gets down on his knees between my legs making my heart skip beat. “Vance don’t make me beg for your attention; you know I’ll do it .”

“N-no, no. Stand up and walk yourself out of my apartment”, I instruct hastily.

“You’re no fun”, he says rolling his eyes though following my instructions with a wave goodbye.

As soon as the door closes behind him I grab a pillow slamming my face into it and letting out a frustrated screech. God fucking damn he is trying his best to break my restraint. Yet another reason I hate being a deviant, so much restraint. Before I never had to hold back and god is was lovely indulging myself in anything or one I wanted. I should go to sleep before I die of frustration.

◇◇◇

I lay sprawled on my spinny chair upside down as I look over the crime scene pictures.

“Are you going to start now or are you just going to waste our time?”, William complains.

Turning myself upright the blood rushing from my head as I roll myself over to the board. I believe Typhon is a hedonist serial killer, a thriller. A possible thrill killer, and power killer, a common archetype overlap. I don't know for sure, his killing style has evolved. He takes the time to torture his victims to death”, I explain.

I stretch leaning back in my chair. “In every case none of the neighbors have heard any sound indicating the torturing of the victims. This leads me to believe he takes them to a second location before bringing them back–torturing them some more–before killing them of course. Probably used a gag for the last stage of his plan. Or possible the whole plan but that doesn’t sound as fun, someone like this would want to hear the screams.”

“Fun?”, William scoffs. “How do you know the most recent murder was his doing and not another person?”

“Besides the fact he used a name that the public and media have been calling him? The burning, lack of hands, signs of torture, and removal of the eyes. It fits his memo, all of the aspects of his usual killing are present just presented with flare.” A pause for a moment collecting my words. “As I said before he's evolving. The first killings were messy and obviously amateur but now that he's got practice, he's making it a show.”

“Why would he start making it a show? Why not just kill quietly and leave the bodies like he was doing before?”, Mel asks.

I sigh. “Tell me when you do a good job here Mel, don’t you get rewarded with donuts?”

“Yes”, she says eyeing me like the rest, trying to figure out where this is leading.

“You do something and get something in return, making a routine. It’s almost addictive.” I begin leading them like ducks in a line to my obvious conclusion. “It's positive reinforcement. Typhon kills and gets public attention. However, after the first few times he's no longer the top subject but now just a mention. So in order to get the same attention he once received he has to do better. He has to make it flashy. He has to grab the attention of everyone.”