The Murder Show

CHAPTER 3

"Ok so let's lay this out." Maya says as they stand in one of the layout rooms, a huge board in front of them with the photos of each victim.

"Victim 1 - Natalie Morton, 31, latina, married, and no kids, murdered 18 months ago..." Andy reads out as Maya records the information under her picture.

"Victim 2 - Zac Bains, 27, African American, single, and again no kids. Zac was murdered 6 months after Natalie." Andy says.

"Victim 3 - Fiona Adams, 29, dual heritage, mom caucasian and dad African American, single..." Maya interrupts Andy. "Let me guess, no kids..."

Andy nods - I mean as links go, it's pretty tenuous - no kids. Anyway, Fiona's body was found 4 months after Zac's.

"Hmm ok so a shorter cooling off period between Zac and Fiona, than Natalie and Zac... anything else that stands out?" Maya asks.

"No, not currently. Ok so Victim 4 Thomas Steiner, 36, caucasian, married, oh wait Thomas had 2 kids so there goes that link..." Andy sighs.

Maya huffs in frustration. "Ok, so back to square one... Then we have the most recent victim, Heidi Genting..." Maya says starting to write down her information, not needing Andy to confirm... "34, caucasian, engaged, and no kids... Heidi would have been, what... 4 months after Thomas?" She says looking to Andy.

Andy checks the files "Actually this is working on almost exactly 3 and a half months... so not really an escalation as such but worth being accurate here, I would think that with the care taken, everything is methodical to this guy. Meaning victims 3 and 4 had almost the same latent period between them as 2 and 3... So again that doesn't help. Who the hell is this guy?" Andy talks through the timings and information.

"I wish I knew... So we have no obvious pattern here other than the ribbon and the snake? Men, women, married, single, different ethnicities, parents, not parents... Literally if not for the killer being brazen enough to leave a calling card these cases would never have even been linked! There is nothing similar here." Maya sighs in frustration.

"We also have the cars..." Andy says.

"Right, ok so what do we know about the cars? Anything there, other than them all being burnt out?" Maya asks as Andy looks over the files pulling out and flipping through papers.

Andy sighs. "I mean nothing of note I don't think... They were found anywhere from hours, to days or weeks after the victims were discovered..."

Maya sits at the table with Andy pulling at the files and flipping through them before pulling out the files for 3 of the victims. "3 of the victims were in same sex relationships..." Maya says.

Andy pulls the files toward her. "Hm, yeah, looks like. Victims 1 and 4 were married but yeah... Look, Natalie was married to a Louise Morton-Perez." She says.

Maya held out Thomas' file. "Yeah and here Thomas was married to Matt Steiner. And we know Heidi was engaged to Tammy... This has to be it right? This has to mean something, it's the only link." Maya says feeling a surge of hope that maybe they might be getting somewhere.

"I mean, sure it's something, but what about the other two victims Zac, and Fiona... They were both single. And all bar Thomas were childless so there's a bigger connection with no kids." Andy says logically.

"I know but come on... No one kills people who don't have kids, just because they don't have kids, but the other side of this... Hate crime - especially today, with how much hate is in the world. OH! The call... Where's the transcript of the call into the radio show?" Maya searches through the papers, finding the ones she is after.