I spy with my little eye. ||on hold||

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

"You can change your world by changing your words...Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue."

-Joel Osteen

* * *

After we landed I did my best to avoid Mark and Jason, which wasn't easy considering we had to share the same car on the way to the local police department. The ride was mostly silent with only light conversation between Jason and Mark while I sat in my seat and sulked like a four year old.

The Denver Police Department was a small building with little to no work space. They had set us up in one of the interrogation rooms and frankly I thought it was genius.

"We can use this to our advantage," I stated, while the others complained about the lack of space.

"How so?" asked Hayden.

"Well if we have to interview a suspect in here we can always put false information up on the board to get them to confess. I read once that when you were interviewing Keith Jackson, the family annihilator, you switched around some of the pictures of the victims and he got so angry he confessed."

"That's a really smart idea," she agreed, "good job Aurora."

I smiled at Hayden, glad I had gotten something right. I told the others that I was going to get some coffee but before I reached the coffee machine I slammed into someone. They grabbed me before I fell and I hoped that the blind was closed in the interrogation room. Thankfully it was but what worried me more was who else was watching.

"Sorry," a gruff voice said gripping my shoulders.

"It's okay," I said reassuringly. "It was my fault."

I finally took in the guy's appearance. He was tall and well-built with blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He looked younger than most of the other police officers and his uniform was new.

"Sergeant Daniel Howard," he said holding out his hand.

"SSA Aurora Hayes," I said shaking his hand.

"Are you here about those murders?" he asked and I resisted rolling my eyes. Obviously we were here about the murders, I mean how many FBI agents do you know that just happen to be in the same place as a serial killer?

Instead I nodded then politely excused myself. I made my coffee and went back into the interrogation room; I guess I should call it our office now. Everyone was gone apart from Jason and myself. I rolled my eyes. How cliché!

"Your eyes are going to fall out of your head unless you stop rolling them," he said sarcastically.

"Is that a fact?" I asked, just as sarcastic as him.

"Yes it is actually."

"Well good to know!"

I took the seat next to him, the others had "conveniently" left their bags on the rest of them and I didn't want to touch them in case anyone got annoyed.

I took a breath and turned to look at him, "I'm sorry for ignoring you earlier," I mumbled before quickly grabbing one of the boxes and opening it. It was stacked with files, good thing I was a fast reader.

He smiled and cupped his ear, "I'm sorry what was that?"

"Don't make me repeat it!" I said laughing.

"I accept your apology as long as you do something for me!"

"Which is?" I said cautiously.

"Let me call you Rory, Aurora is so prissy!"

"Fine," I agreed, "Now can we get some work done? I want to catch this guy before it's too late!"

He nodded and we buried our heads in work. Reading through these files felt like I was reading the story of the girls' lives. Each was a straight A student, took the same classes and had squeaky clean records.

There were so many similarities it was hard to find what the killer was looking for. After the fourth hour my eyes were starting to sting. Where were the others?

As if reading my mind, Hayden burst through the door with a scowl on her face.

"Have you two seen the news?" she asked gruffly.

We shook out heads. She picked up a remote and switched on the television above our heads. A woman with flaming red hair and bright blue eyes appeared on the screen. She was wearing a tailored peach suit jacket and a matching pencil skirt. She wore a pair of low-heeled black pumps and had a serious look on her face.

"The Denver Police have issued a statement after the recent murder of twenty eight year old student, Vanessa Archer," she spoke in a monotone voice.

"Ms Archer was the third victim of the Slit N' Shoot killer, a man believe to be targeting red heads attending the local collage. As of today the FBI are following several leads and are close to catching the killer. We advise all young red haired woman to take caution when going out and to never travel anywhere alone. We'll bring you more when the information becomes available. This has been Jennifer Parker with Denver News."

I gaped at the screen. Who the heck had leaked the story? I looked out the window and saw a couple of the younger officers patting Sergeant Howard on the back. He pointed at the TV then back to himself, smiling to the officers. I shook my head and stormed out of the office.

"Did you release the story to the press?" I demanded, oblivious to the other officers standing next to me.

Mark and Francesca walked through the door and stood next to me. Jason and Hayden joined them moments later.

"Pretty brilliant huh?" he said, pointing to the screen. "Now this creep can't catch anymore girls!"

"You really don't realise what you've done do you?" said Hayden angrily.

"This is only going to make him angrier, he's going to feel under pressure and it'll force him to kill quicker." added Jason.

Sergeant Howard gazed at us in confusion. He really thought that he hadn't done anything wrong."I've helped to stop a murderer!" he argued.

I shook my head, "No you've helped this guy kill another innocent woman! When we were called in, you were all told to abide by our rules for a reason. The rules aren't there for fun. You were told no press releases unless we approved them and no releasing any names to the press. People base, what they think to be, relevant information on a name because it seems like the right MO."

Mark was about to add something else when Police Chief Cook rushed over to us. He was a short balding man with a beer belly and a bright red face. He had white hair and a white moustache to match. "We've got another missing woman." he panted "It's that news anchor Jennifer Parker, the camera guy said she went to her truck to grab her bag but never came back. When they went to check on her the driver's side door was wide open and her bag was on the ground. It looked like there had been signs of a struggle."

I grabbed the report from the officer's hand then turned to glare at Daniel. "Thanks to you we have no idea how long this woman has left,"

"I could call the news station to have it taken down," he stuttered.

"Don't bother," interrupted Mark, "You've done enough."

I turned on my heel and followed my team into the office, slamming the door behind us.

If there are any typos please let me know!