It's scary how close to the Wattys it's getting and how much I don't want to finish this story! This one is dedicated to my lovely dad who recently read TCAK =)
I couldn’t really remember how I ended up at yet another crime scene, but it was a rather disorientating experience. I reasoned that I must have gotten home and fallen asleep before receiving the call. I had then somehow operated on autopilot since I had been still half asleep, and so I didn’t really register anything until I arrived.
I arrived on the crime scene, face already set into a grim expression. This was bad, way worse than what we had before. What was worse was that we were now dealing with two new murders in addition to the two we already had. This wasn't good. Our killer was now officially a serial killer. People were going to start noticing and panicking. In the space of two short hours, two women had been murdered in cold blood. The last thing we needed was for the whole town to become overrun with paranoia.
Fortunately for us, there had been a slight difference in the second of these two new murders that could potentially lead us to our killer. This murder occurred on the same floor as the Sanders murder and the markings on the body were consistent with the other victims. However, there had been a difference, it being that this victim had bruising around her mouth, which did not appear on the other three bodies.
When I arrived on scene, Turlock was talking to Dr Setwell. “Could it be the work of a copycat?” I heard him ask in earnest.
The doctor shook her head. “No.” She stated flatly, “The only difference is the facial bruising. Everything else is the same." I saw Turlock's face fall slightly before the doctor continued.
"The shape and size of the bruising matches that found on the other three.” She had a grim look, not too different from the one I wore, on her face.
“Well, now we officially have a serial killer on our hands. Great, just great." I said bitterly.
"But at least we finally have a description that we can actually work with.” I added relief somewhat present in my voice.
One of the neighbours at the crime scene of the first of tonight’s murders had seen a man almost running from the house around the time of the murder. She described him as tall, well over 6 feet, with light brown hair and a long face. Her exact words were “A shifty looking tall bloke with brown hair. He sorta looked like a horse with good cheek bones.” We sent her to see our profile artist to get a sketch in the hope that we would finally have a solid lead on our killer's identity.
Back at the hotel room, things didn’t seem to be getting any better; in fact they were only getting worse by the second. Not only had a second murder happened within a week at the same hotel on the same floor. No, as if those conditions weren't bad enough, but the murder had happened right under the nose of a police officer in the corridor. It was an embarrassment and a media disaster that we did not have the time for, especially now of all times.
“There will have to be a press conference ASAP, especially now that the serial killer has a double murder under his belt.” Turlock remarked as he glanced at the body covered in white nearby.
I groaned, rubbing my hands over my face. “Don’t remind me! At least you two don’t have to deal with talking to the Gov’ about this. Shine a light, the man’s going to blow a gasket!” I knew for a fact that I was definitely not going home within the foreseeable future.
“Where’s Peters?” Jane asked with a hint of a smile caused by my apparent doom.
“He’s at the other crime scene. I put him in charge of it whilst I came over here. ” I answered, looking briefly at my watch to see that it was well after 10pm. “He should be back at the station by now though, relaying all relevant information to Carter.”
She nodded in response “I’m guessing that you’re going to keep her away from the action as much as possible now, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
“Well, she needs to know how to run the incident room and man the board so that we get accurate information anyway,” I said defensively.
Jane raised an eyebrow in a manner reminiscent to Mr Spock from Star Trek. “That’s usually done by whichever PC that has the least paper work and doesn’t have a beat to go on.” Her stare bored into me and I knew that I had been caught. Damn her Vulcan logic.
“Well,” I said sheepishly, my eyes flitting to the intrigued look on Turlock’s face as I shifted uncomfortably. “Until the last victim, she fit the basic profile, young, female, Caucasian with long hair-”I began to defend myself when the doctor cut in.
“And so, naturally, you wanted to keep your newest as far away as you possibly could.” She concluded, all the Vulcan smugness disappearing from her completely “Oh Tommy! You know that she’ll have to come into contact with these sorts of things eventually. She has to get used to them.”
“Yes but preferably after she officially joins the department. I don’t want to lose her before we’ve even gotten her, so to speak.” Turlock chuckled a little at my words. “And you can stop that or I’ll send you to talk to the Gov'!” I said irritably in a warning tone which caused Turlock to shut up immediately as I gave him a pointed look. “I didn’t think so.”
I said good night to Jane and left, putting Turlock in charge of tying up the loose ends. I was headed back to the station to talk to the Gov’ about a press conference with the media. Just the thought of it was giving me a migraine. I sighed, resigned to my fate.
It wasn’t a nice talk, but in the end an arrangement was made. The PR department was going to arrange an eleven o’clock conference with the press the next day. My department and I were to be the speakers and Mr Denver, along with Mr Sanders, were going to make an appeal for information if they were available during that time. We were going to keep the latest murders under wraps to the best of our ability until we had more information. We had to solve the case soon. Too many people were dying, too many.
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To Catch A Killer
Mystery / ThrillerFour years after the death of his Ex-wife DCI Thomas 'Tommy' Smith is investigating a murder that is extraordinarily similar and not just because the victims were both women. Questions arise when another woman is found strangled by her hair. Was the...
