Checkmate

Understand your Opponent

Emma opened her car door and immediately stepped into a puddle. She cursed under her breath and crankily trudged towards the home of Seamen Hayes. Alex laughed silently behind her, not wanting to bring her wrath down upon himself.

Inside the house they found pictures. Lots of pictures. One caught their eye. Michael Hayes was standing next to a beautiful woman, about 25 years old. She was red-haired and blue eyed. Both of them were smiling with their arms wrapped around each other. “Did we talk to her already?” Emma asked Alex. “Absolutely not. I would have remembered that one.” They collected the picture and finished their walk around the house. After finding nothing new, they returned to the navy yard to give the women’s picture to Samantha.

They found her sitting on her beanbag with Clara close by. Clara was whining about the amount of work while Samantha looked close to suicidal. “Alright Clara! We get it! Why don’t you go review your autopsy report or jump off a bridge or something? Just do it somewhere else!” The medical examiner stood up in a huff, giving everyone an accusing glare on her way out. “What?” Alex exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything!” Clare tipped her head and gave him a hug instead. While he was being hugged he gave Samantha a self-satisfied look. She shook her head and snatched the picture out of his hand. “Alright everyone, whenever you are done cuddling, would you mind telling me what this is?” Alex disentangled himself from Clara. Clara stuck her tongue out at Samantha before leaving the room, large pink bow bouncing on top of her head. Emma continued. “We found this in Michael Hayes’ apartment. We were hoping you could tell us who it is. We already interviewed his girlfriend and she has a solid alibi. But these two seem like more than friends to me.”

Samantha raised an eyebrow at the picture. “Yeah they sure do... I will get it in the system now and call you when I get a hit.” Emma thanked her and left, but Alex lingered. Emma turned to give them a knowing grin and left, closing the lab door behind her. Alex reached down to hug Samantha, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t you need an assistant or something? You are too busy.” Sam sighed and shook her head. They both knew she wasn’t good at teamwork as they had just witnessed with Clara. Alex reached over with a smile on his face to pluck a dog hair off her shoulder. Flustered, Samantha smoothed back her long brown hair and looked at her shirt for more. She found she was covered in them.

Alex laughed at her and grabbed the lint roller and handed it to her. “I guess I was a bit preoccupied this morning. Something about this is really bothering me.” Samantha tried to explain. “And now I guess I have to apologize to Clara at some point… I just can’t wait for this case to be over and solved.” Alex nodded his agreement and with a final squeeze of her hand ran out to catch up with Emma.

Samantha turned back to her computer and watched hundreds of women’s pictures flash over the monitor, the computer quickly looking to see if they matched the pictures of the mystery redhead. Taking a short break from her evidence review, Samantha sat down on her beanbag and pulled out her files on Athena and Cecilia Capris. She began to build of a psychological profile.

These were two messed up chicks. They hated being controlled by others, for obvious reasons. At some points it seemed they felt no remorse towards the suffering of men. Samantha suspected that they did not have the same attitude towards women. Most victims of human trafficking spent the rest of their lives shy and nervous, or working towards saving others in the same situation they were once in. But not these sisters.

 In their unique case, they had almost been forced to take a more violent route in order to protect themselves and avoid recapture. Then, when given the chance, they broke free of the government system and used their new skill set to remain free. Who knows how many people they killed in their escape and subsequent journey across the country. But none of their known victims were women, except one, Diana Fisher. None of their victims even had women who were close to them. No wives, sisters, or mothers nearby. One, Michael Hayes, had a short term girlfriend but nothing too committed. That was definitely something. And that pattern continued up until their final known murder, Petty Officer 1st class Quincy Ford. He not only had a wife, but also a young daughter. Had that been what threw them off? Killing their first woman and then a married man? It was a start.