The girl's throat was slit, blood all over. She was hidden in an alleyway in the center of London among the crowd, nobody finding her for days. When she finally was, there was only a necklace left for recognition. Her hair, teeth, fingerprints gone, just like the others.
"Jesus.." the detective muttered as he read through the file of yet another murder. There was a clear pattern among them, most probably done by the same person. Whoever it was, he was smart. He knew exactly what was needed for a DNA test, and also knew how to get rid of it without a trace. This had been going on for months, murder after murder, all with the same routine to them: No DNA, traces of weapon, left in an alley in plain sight for anybody to find.
"I got you coffee." a soft voice interrupted his thoughts. His daughter, Elaine. "Oh, thank you, darling." Lorenzo said as he accepted the cup from her hands. He sipped the coffee and smiled gratefully at his daughter. Ever since Elaine's mother had left, they mostly took care of eachother, while the grief was still tough, it was a nice feeling to know they always had each other. "Still working on the Andersson case?" Elaine asked, sipping her own cup of not coffee, but hot chocolate. "Yeah" Lorenzo breathed out. "It just doesn't add up. How can someone just magically remove every trace of DNA of themselves and also the person they killed?" he continued. Elaine just sighed, sipping her drink. Lorenzo sipped his own and smiled down at his daughter, thinking about how happy he is he stayed with her mother fourteen years ago when she told him she was pregnant. He was young back then, only sixteen. Yet he decided to stay and support his girlfriend, loving her every step of the way. Elaine reminded Lorenzo of his ex and her disappearance, yet he stayed more than happy to see her face in Elaine's every single day years later. "Dad?" Elaine snapped him back to reality. "Hm?" he looked at her like a deer in headlights, leaning back on his desk. "I was asking if I could sleep over at Lana's friday." she repeated. "Oh. Yeah, sure. You know the rules." Elaine nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. No boys, in bed by 12, treat the parents with respect." she said as she walked out of the office and closed the door. Lorenzo stayed leaned on the desk, coffee in hand and chuckled softly. He was pretty sure she was breaking the first two rules, but he didn't feel it was necessary to intervene. He was a teenager once too, after all. And look where he ended up. He shook his head to himself, sitting back down and muttering, "I swear that girl will be the death of me.."
Hours later, he was still sat by his desk, reading through the files, looking for something, anything missing. A knock on the door caused him to look at the clock sitting next to his computer: 01:23. Elaine opened the door slightly and poked her head through. "I'm getting ready for bed, you should, too." she spoke softly, which caused Lorenzo to smile. "Okay, love, I will. Goodnight, sweet dreams." Elaine smiled as well. "Goodnight. Love you." Lorenzo blew her a kiss as Elaine closed the door to his office once more, and a smile just sprawled over his face for a hot minute. She really was the light of his life. Lorenzo leaned back in his chair with a sigh, running his hands over his face and through his dark, fluffy hair, finally resting on the back of his head. He closed his eyes for a minute, collecting himself before closing his computer and standing up, walking out of his office and up the stairs to his bedroom, and over to his bathroom. He leaned forward on the counter and looked at himself in the mirror, his eye bags very obvious, his hair messy, shirt partly unbuttoned. He had been overworking himself and he knew it, he just couldn't bring himself to let this case go. He sighed and started brushing his teeth, keeping intense eye contact with himself in the mirror in the meantime. He spit out the toothpaste after a minute and looked at himself one last time before going back out to his bedroom. He walked to his closet and got changed.
He took off his shirt and socks and switched to a pair of gray sweatpants. Once he was changed, he walked over and crouched by the chair in the corner of his room and puffed up the pillow on it. It used to be Elaine's mother's chair back in their old apartment before she passed. When the pillow was all puffed up, he plopped down on the bed, his head against the headrest as he grabbed his phone from the bedside table and opened one of the many dating apps he had installed during the years. He sat and swiped for a moment, mostly left, when a particular girl caught his eye. Evelynn Lawrence, 24 years old. Her bio read: My boyfriend left me so ig I'm back in the game! (Jkjk) Anyway, I work in service, I have a very creative soul in general, but I really like art in particular. I also have a cat (third pic) called Asher, and when he's around I love him more than anything.
