Cold Corpse

Prologue

1989, February 4th

She presses the shutter button with her index finger, a beam of light flashes before the chopped body parts rested on the ground. The rotten corpse stench whirl in her nostalgia, a vague whiff of the smell that can make her feel light headed. Above all this mess was a slim crescent moon which illuminated the caliginous, starless sky as if the stars establish themselves behind the dull clouds.
The heavy dark clouds starts creeping in front of the moon when a thunderstorms come to break the silence of the evening.
She inspect the horrifying remains of cadaver that gaze upon her.
"Any luck, Mr. Vorperian? We've been staring at this corpse for at least an hour. We better head back before the rain starts to pour in and call the forensic team." Andee Hortox uttered to a coltish bloke.
He was leaning down close to the dead corpse, he softly sighed and stood up. "We'll examine the images at a nearby hotel. We're running out of gas." Sasha Vorperian assisted, he flick the tip of his Fedora to uncover his gloomy glasses.

Andee nodded in agreement and headed back to their silver painted car. He take another glance at the body then followed the small female. He hopped in the driver seat and started the engine. As they drove down the streets, Andee let her eyes course over a construction small shop. It didn't bother her much as it was covered in sack of cement and bricks. She sat still on her seat as the thoughts of several killing spree invaded her mind, she bite her lower lips hard and her fingers intertwined. She felt her anxiety rise up like a calm wave of ocean that become passive aggressive in a mere second- enough voltage to kill but sufficient to keep things uncomfortable. She rationalized and viewed the problem from different viewpoints. Multiple missing people had been reported from the past few weeks and they still don't have any leads. A town with a few population yet the killer still gets away from their crime.
Sasha noticed her behavior yet he let this slide by, as he doesn't want to disturb her analytical process.

It was a short drive to a hotel and there was silence between the two detectives.
As they arrived and order themselves rooms, Andee was scanning at her galleries containing the bodies they've been seeing lately. The night has been completely dark from the thick clouds covering the moonlight. Any second, the water starts pouring down that there is an instant covering of water on the street. The water washes the leaves that was lying down on the ground to a drainage. Even inside the rooms the howl and beating rain was louder than any conversation. There were a few people sprinting to the hotel for some shelter, which will warm them up for tonight.

"I called your brother to check on the body and take care of it. Forensics might find any finger prints on the body or anything that could help our investigation." Sasha smiled down at her. "So, don't you worry about a thing. Though we need to find that killer as soon as possible before they can kill another young soul."
Andee delivered a crooked smile to the man "Do you think this killer is in some sort of cult? They've been repeating the same action. Since last year of February till this very day, two young ladies are being killed separately either in a forest or close to a lake. But I don't think they murder them at that place, there was no sign of blood stained on the ground. I bet they put them in their truck and set them there."
Two of the detectives walked down the hallway slowly approaching their rooms, their footstep have resounded that looks like an endless hallway, at the far end the lights were dim and it seems like nobody has ever come to that part of the hallway. It looks abandoned, Sasha thought.
"You might be correct. Their attire was nowhere to be found in near sight. There were also sign of slashed at the abdominal part and nowhere else." The detective plug in the keys and turned in the knob, he pushes the wooden door wide open for both of them to enter. He tosses another key to Andee "Here's your key for your room."

"Back to business," Andee flop down at one of the soft, wine couch. "Maybe we could use the sem-... Scratch that. I believe it's already impossible since that corpse is weeks old." She pouts her lips.
The curtains are linen, the kind of royal violet that is untouched by hands and devoid of dust. Sasha pulled them open to be greeted by the loud strong rain tapping at the glass that was led by a cold wind. The picture of the crescent moon is quite fuzzy, the rolling grey clouds rapidly made the whole sky dull but the air still feels humid.

He didn't replied to her statement.
Sasha draw off his leather gloves and moves toward his partner. The young lady is scrolling through the images until an idea hit her harder than a bat. "Sasha..." She muttered under her breathe. "This might be a Morse code."
His eyes broad under his glasses and snatches the camera from Andee. "That's..." he holds onto his hat and dropped it on the stainless glass table.
"Get a pencil and a paper." He demand, the young lady jumped off her seat and searches for any capable paper and a pen they could use. Luckily, she found both pen and paper close to a velvety rotary telephone. She handed it to her fellow detective.
Sasha rushes to write down the code in a silky paper. The killer uses the arms, legs, intestine, and other long materials to use as lines and the smaller parts was used as the period.
.. ·----· -- .-- .- - -.-. .... .. -. --. -.-- --- ..-

The detectives gaze down at the paper trying to figure the output of this message.
The adrenaline come drifting in their system like it's within a vein as they both catches each other's eyes, they felt their throat dried up when they finally solved the answer. A thunder boomed just outside, fog rising seemingly just beyond reach, just past of the window, as the scenery outside were an abandoned town, the two detectives said their thoughts in sync.

"I'm watching you."