Paper Hearts (Camren)

Prologue

Lauren settled the take-away bags down onto the table, she hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch time, and it was now past 2 o’clock in the morning. It had been another tiring night staying late at the police station, investigating the newly reported murder.

Late nights like these were unsurprising due to her job as a well-respected homicide detective and would often result in sleep deficiency but Lauren didn’t really care, she was used to it by now. She silently thanked the local 24 hour restaurant or she’d have to starve for the rest of the night.

She grabbed the remote and switched on the T.V just in time for the news anchor.

Listening to the opening theme, she took out the containers of food and opened each one of them before dishing them onto a clean plate.

“Tonight on CNN News, the body of a 23-year-old woman was found near the East River in the late evening with her right hand missing, along with a single pink origami heart. Police investigating the scene announced that she had been murdered and the body had been dead a few hours prior to the discovery. Police are currently searching surrounding areas for the missing hand.”

Lauren unconsciously clenched her jaws at the news report, the feeling of déjà vu clasped so tightly around her chest that it was almost suffocating. She took out a bottle of scotch from the cupboard and poured herself half a glass. She glanced at the brown transparent liquid before pressing the glass delicately against her lips. The first sip was a low burn. She stilled for a moment, adjusting to the fire that was spreading down her throat. She sighed in content as she continued to take small sips from the glass, feeling the alcohol gently infuse into her internal system.

She had already known about the murder a few hours ago although half surprised that the media had managed to catch up on the case already.

“Whilst searching her apartment for any clues, police once again, found the recurring gruesome messages on the walls written in what seems to be blood - some of which are too disturbing to be broadcasted. They appeared mostly on the victim’s bedroom walls, indicating that the apartment may have been broken into. Police found no signs of forced entry in the apartment thus far. The New York forensics team are probing for any fingerprints and clues at the moment. Police have high suspicions that ‘Ludo’ is guilty of breaking in and that the woman may have been stalked by him for several months foregoing her murder. Currently, there are no leads as to whom or where ‘Ludo’ is. The 23-year-old victim was last thought to be at-”

Lauren switched off the T.V and threw the remote aside. She had suddenly lost her appetite despite her hunger a few minutes ago. Everything was all too familiar.

‘He just loves to screw with us, doesn’t he?’

She lifted up the glass of scotch and downed the rest of it before slamming it down harshly on the table, ignoring the burning feeling at the back of her throat.

For two years, Ludo’s string of murders had been occurring throughout the city of New York. If this were any other normal criminal, Lauren and her team would’ve solved this case a long time ago but the frustrating thing about this ‘Ludo’ person was that he didn’t work systematically, all of his murders were dotted ubiquitously. There were no patterns, no trails, no finger prints and the murder weapons were never found.

The police force currently had no indications at all; ‘Ludo’ was a twisted person but highly intelligent. They knew what they were doing and they knew how to do it. They would even leave taunting notes to Lauren and her team sometimes, knowing that they had them wrapped around their little finger.

Lauren’s knowledge about ‘Ludo’ was limited, in fact it was little close to nothing, yet they seemed to know everything about the team. All they knew was that this killer was possibly a male – judging from the way the attacks were much violent compared with those of a female’s and that they only targeted young women between the ages 20-28 however not without tormenting them for a few weeks before their murder, ranging from blood written messages to scratches on their car. They had no way of predicting when and where the attack may be and despite the police force’s many attempts of protecting these young women, ‘Ludo’ would find a way to get to them.

The name was strange of course, and it remained ambiguous as to why the killer would name themself after a board game. Their best bet was the fact that this ‘Ludo’ person considered everything he had done so far to be a game and it sickened Lauren to the stomach.

She had to catch them, no matter what. She needed to stop the sickening killing spree before ‘Ludo’ got his hands on more innocent people. She needed to do it… for her.

Lauren binned her food and decided that she should get ready for sleep; she had to wake up early tomorrow and continue with the on-going investigation that had lasted over two years already. Despite this, she had no time to lose since there was no telling when Ludo would strike another innocent soul again. There was no telling when or where they’d find those hearts again.

Those damned hearts that had been haunting her for years. The ones that had told them that the similar death scenes of these women were no coincidence, that they were murdered single-handedly by some vile and twisted bastard. Those origami paper hearts that could’ve easily had been missed if it weren’t for the pale pink colour that seemed to glow mockingly under the moonlight at every crime scene. Those ironically innocent looking hearts that held a much darker secret - the answer to who had brutally murdered all those women was written in neat penmanship coexisting with the fancy black ink in the middle of the paper hearts,
Ludo.

An artificial bell brought Lauren’s attention to her phone, she’d never bothered to change her ringtone since it was a waste of time and thus kept it as default option. Checking the time, Lauren wondered who in their right mind would call at this hour and considered ignoring it, but after checking the caller I.D and founding out that it was Ally, the superintendent from the force, she picked up.

“Hello?”

“Lauren, we’ve just been informed that a girl’s been receiving threatening messages for the past few weeks.”

‘Straight to the point.’ Lauren thought, “From Ludo?”

“We have high suspicions but there’s no evidence that it’s from him. Chief has assigned us to keep a close eye on her while we investigate so she’s going to stay with us for a while. She’s coming to the station first thing in the morning.”

Lauren was not going to let another innocent girl die at the hands of Ludo. Whether the person who was threatening the girl was Ludo or not, she was not taking any chances. This girl may be the key to finding Ludo once and for all and Lauren was not going to let this chance slip by.

“Name?”

“Camila Cabello.”