The Altercations with 24

Epilogue

Detective Clark felt like punching someone. One week later and they still had jack squat. Well, not jack squat, they had three new dead bodies in the morgue with another message. Their killer didn't even bother keeping his victims hostage this time. Three local teens were reported missing and the next night, Clark was called down to another alley to find them hung by a noose. All of them had died by having their throats literally ripped out. The writing on their stomachs were messy, clearly done in a hurry.

Clark didn't need a psychologist to tell him that these kills were done out of anger. And the newest message reflected that.

  Baltimore, be afraid. 

That was the sick message written on those poor teens. And one the press got a hold of it, the whole city threw a shit fit. Every night, Clark would have to hold a press conference or talk to the mayor on how hard the Baltimore Police Department was working to find the killer. But they had nothing. No evidence, no witnesses.

Clark thought he caught a break when one of the lower level cops found and brought in that missing girl from Philadelphia. He thought maybe, just maybe, she had escaped from the psychopath he was hunting and she would help them. But she hadn't said anything helpful to anyone. Clark went to the hospital where she was being kept and he got a cold, harsh attitude from her. It was like she was inconvenienced by the entire hospital and force helping her. 

When asked where she was or where the other girls were, she would shrug and say, "Beats me."
Clark would question her for hours on end, but she never gave him any real answers. All she wanted to do was go. He noted all her scars and wondered if she got that from wherever she was being held for over a year. When he asked, she snapped at him for looking at her body. 

Clark made the doctors run every test know to man to see if that would provide them with any clue, but the results were taking forever to come back. One day, Clark decided to confront her with pictures from the murder scene. 

"Do you know anything about this, Casey?" He asked her. She glanced down at the pictures for not even five seconds and then back at them. 

"How would I know? According to you, I was being held hostage for over a year."

So here he was, back in the meeting room, staring at the crime scene photos. Maybe the killer was mad that the police found his accomplice. But if that were true, then he would have been the one to kidnap Casey and the other two girls. But if that were true, then why leave Casey alive? Was finding Casey just a weird coincidence? Or was she helping someone kill teenagers? Could she be that type of person? Clark didn't know, but he had to find out fast. He was running out of reasons to keep questioning her as far as the mayor was concerned. If there was no evidence tying Casey to his case, then he had to leave her alone. All his attention had to be on finding the killer.

Another detective, Richards, walked into the room and handed Clark a cup of coffee.

 "Press is still on our ass about how much we suck." The man said, sitting on the edge of the desk. 

"They can kiss my ass. Get anywhere with the girl?" Richards shook his head. 

"Nope. She just rolled her eyes and gave me snippy remarks. Can't we just cut her lose?" Clark shook his head.

 "Other cops want to interview her. Besides, we have no hold over her. We can't connect her to our case. At least not yet." 

Richards shrugged and took a sip of his tea. "What if she doesn't fit in to our case?" Clark knew the other man had a point, but his gut was telling him otherwise.

"I don't know. I have a theory." Clark spun around to face Richards. 

"Shoot." Richards said, taking a seat in a chair. 

"The last victims, the three teens, were killed out of anger. That's what everyone is saying, right?" Richards nodded. 

"The day they were killed was just hours after that cop brought in Casey. What if the killer was angry that we caught his girl?" Richards thought about his friend's theory, trying to piece that what they had. 

"I mean, it's a possibility. But it could also be just a coincidence." It was likely. But something was just nagging at him that it wasn't.

"Hey, boss?" Another detective said, popping his head into the room. 

"What?" Clark snapped. "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we got more bodies. And another message." 

Clark let out a string of bad words and got up. The trio began walking towards the exit of the building when another cop stopped them. 

"We got the girl's blood results back." Clark gestured for him to follow. 

"And? I can't imagine anything interesting is on that." They walked to the parking lot and towards Clark's car.

"Oh, how wrong you would be." All the men stopped in their tracks, waiting for the other cop to speak. 

"She's pregnant." All three men dropped their jaws. 

"She's what?" Richards asked. 

"You heard me. Pregnant. Had the labs run it three times to confirm." Clark's phone started ringing in his pants pocket. He could only imagine who it was. 

"I can't believe this. Who the hell is the father?!"
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Hey, guys!! Just wanted to say thank you for everyone who read this story of mine! There will be a sequel, don't worry, and I will be writing it as soon as I can. I hope you all will read the sequel to find out what will happen to Casey and the personalities.