My Knight

The Break

The case of Dolores Maria Santana had sadly come to a standstill so we move onto more quick moving cases while working on Dolores Maria Santana's case when new evidence comes up. Unfortunately, this wasn't very often. Magnus and I had moved to help Kurt on the scalping cases, which was bringing all too many new victims and evidence, but none that made sense. The only connections found was that all the men were middle-aged and had some connection to police, whether they were ex-officers themselves or if they were just affiliated with the force. But according to Mats, our profiler, we don't have enough to make a profile of the killer.

I've been digging for anything I can find on Wetterstedt, one of the men killed in the scalping cases. And as luck would have it, I found something. When I go looking for Kurt, I find him with the group going over a few things. "Emily, you're late." Kurt addresses me when I walk into the room.

"I know I'm sorry, but I have a very good reason."

"Care to explain?"

I nod and glance around the group. "My father always told me that there are two kinds of reporters. Those who dig for the truth and the ones who bury it. And Wetterstedt always had enough of the second kind to keep his back covered."

Kurt nods and walks over to me, looking over my shoulder to the file in my hands. "So what did you dig up?"

"He used to have a girl delivered each week to some secret bolt-hole."

I hear Mats call out, I don't know why he is here if he can't help with a profile, but he is. "Fine, we're all grown-ups."

"But then one of them reported him for, er... assault. Said she'd had her feet slashed with a razor. She had the scars to prove it, it all added up. This guy was a Minister of Justice, he was the face of the Government, the good guy. So... they paid off the girl."

Magnus steps to the other side of me, "What about the police?"

"Well, it wasn't just the girl. Wetterstedt thought he was cultured. He liked to be seen among the wealthy collectors. Now, we've thought he was scalped as some kind of bizarre trophy, but what if it's not. What if it was some kind of sacrifice?"

Magnus takes a deep breath, I can feel his breath on my neck, as he looks over my shoulder, "Isn't that in the legend?"

I nod and glance up at him, "Yes, the Braves offered up the scalp as a gift to free another soul. A soul that has been violated."

Kurt sighs, "So we're back to this brutal attack being motiveless."

Magnus takes the file from me and looks it over, "I don't think it was motiveless. If Emily's right, Wetterstedt had enemies all over the place."

I nod and step forward, "It may be a long shot, but what if Dolores was involved in this somehow and that was the issue she had with police?"

As Kurt nods, I hear someone call out to him from behind me. "Erika Carlman's tired to top herself."

Kurt walks past me as I turn. "Christ."

"Definite suicide attempt, she's in a coma."

Kurt nods, "Yeah, I don't think it's the first time she's tried. I saw cuts on her wrist when she hit me."

I shake my head, "She hit you?"

"Yeah, when I asked her about a painting of her."

I cringe and shake my head, "You don't think that...."

"I don't know, but there is only one way we are gonna find out."

I shake my head and place a hand over my mouth as Kurt leaves the room. "My God, those poor girls."

I feel Magnus hand on my shoulders, "We have to do everything we can for them and make sure they're stories are heard."

I nod and turn to Mats. "Anything for a profile yet? It has to be someone close to one of these girls, a sibling, a parent. Someone, after all this you can't have nothing."

Mats stands and puts his hands out in front of him, "I am working on something."

I take a deep breath and feel as though I may be physically sick by the thought of what those girls must have gone through. I run out of the room and to the toilet, getting sick. The closest one was the family room on the floor. Once I'm in there for a few moments I hear a knock at the door. "Emily, are you alright?" I hear Magnus speaking in a soft tone.

I take a deep breath and lift my head from between my arms. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I hear the door creak open since I hadn't locked it when I came in. As I turn to the door I see Magnus poke his head in before stepping in. "Are you sure you looked almost green when you ran off."

"No, don't come in here," I say with a sigh as I reach up and flush the toilet before sitting and leaning against the wall.

Magnus comes over and sits next to me. "It's alright. Emotions run high when it a case has to do with abusive of children and teenagers."

I shake my head and glance over at him. "How could someone even think of doing that to someone else... especially a child. I mean, if they had done that to a woman who was able to file a report and was smart enough to do so, I can't even imagine what they did to those younger then she was."

I feel myself turn green again before I feel Magnus hand on my back, "it's okay. We'll find who did this and we'll make sure people know what happened to these girls."

I look over to him and nod. "I hope we do. Too many stories don't get told." Magnus nods, I can only imagine he is thinking about the conversation we had on my first day and the rather odd ending it had. I sigh softly and look over to him, "look, Magnus, we all have a history, some of us would like to keep more of it hidden than others."

"And yours gives you a personal connection to this case?" Magnus grey eyes meet mine, they are so beautiful. I feel as though I wanna tell him everything about my past, but I'm not sure I'm ready to admit it to myself. "Just know that if you ever need to talk or need a shoulder to cry on, I'd be more than happy to listen."

"Thanks." I smile wryly over to him.

The two of us sit in silence for a little while before we get up. I freshen up as much as I can, as Magnus leaves the room. It would be odd if we both left at the same time. I wipe the makeup out from under my eyes and make sure it isn't clear I had gone sick or had been crying before heading out and getting back to work.