Chapter 1
It was one of the worst scenes he'd seen, even with his many years in the NYPD. Mac Taylor stood surveying the body that lay broken on the bed, with his friend and colleague Stella Bonasera behind him snapping pictures of the crime scene. The room was silent as the two worked neither one able to understand what had happened here.
"Seriously Mac, a criminal profiler?" Stella stopped beside Mac, still unable to understand why he'd invited a complete stranger in to help with their case. Removing his gloves Mac turned to his friend, smiling wryly as he nodded towards the body,
"This is the third killing in 2 weeks Stella, despite what little evidence we have been able to collect we're still no closer to catching this guy. At least with their help we'll be able to build a picture of exactly who we should be looking for."
"We've never needed one before though Mac, I guess I just don't see the point in one now." Stella admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. Placing the camera in her bag she turned back around to Mac with her hands on her hips, "So when does she get here?" she asked, watching as Mac stopped what he was doing,
"She's being flown in right now." He told her, with a glance at his watch. Stella nodded before following Mac out of the room. The two headed downstairs, "Lindsey, I want you to head back with the body find out if there's anything else Sid can tell us about our Vic."
Lindsey Monroe nodded and headed outside as Mac turned to Stella, "Stella can you..."
"Go and talk to the husband...got it," she finished backing away and heading back outside, Mac couldn't help but smile as he watched her go. With a small shake of his head he turned around to see Detective Don Flack, "You and I will..." again he found himself cut off.
"Show me the crime scene and tell me what you've been able to figure out so far."
Both men turned towards the voice, and found a leggy woman of about 5 ft 6 stood in the doorway to the house. Removing her glasses she stopped looking around and smiled at both of them, "Bethany Stevens, I'm your new Criminal Profiler Detective Taylor." She stepped forward her hand outstretched towards Mac, who in turn with a small smile shook it.
"Nice to finally put a face to the name." He commented, Beth smiled and nodded before turning towards the stairs,
"Crime scenes this way I assume." She said out loud not waiting for anyone to answer before she began heading up the stairs, her brunette, mid length curly hair bouncing over her shoulders. Flack watched her go, before turning to Mac in slight shock.
"What the hell was that?" he asked, watching as the older man merely smirked and followed after their new profiler, shaking his head Flack quickly gathered himself and followed.
Meanwhile Beth had now stepped into the master bedroom, her eyes resting on the body lying across the bed only briefly as she stopped in the centre of the room. Dropping her case at her feet she did a quick survey of the rest of the room, her eyes tracing the blood splatter on the walls and floors.
From the bedroom door both Mac and Flack stood watching her, a frown etched into both their faces as they watched the young woman in front of them. Mac watched her and was wondering what she was thinking whereas Flack being ever the sceptic thought it was a long shot her being here.
"Where was the point of entry?" Beth asked, finally acknowledging their presence, Mac indicated behind him,
"From the looks of things it was the window in the laundry room." He answered. Nodding her head, Beth headed out the room and down the stairs, before finally heading out the front door. From a position on the landing both Mac and Flack watched the younger woman go, a moment of silence settling between them before Flack laughed and turned to Mac,
"And here I thought you were sometimes a little strange."
Outside, Beth walked around the house, letting her gloved hand trail along the stone walls before reaching the laundry room window. Stopping she turned to once again assess her surroundings, frowning at the adjacent gate, before turning back around to the window. Removing her glasses, she tucked them into her front pocket before hoisting herself up onto the window ledge, and swinging one leg through the open window.
"Well I don't have much room to manoeuvre, meaning I must be athletic." She whispered to herself, talking about the killer. Letting out a breath she climbed through the window and dropped into the laundry room.
Walking through the kitchen she continued her assessment noting that no objects she could see were out of place. In her mind she could see the intruder as thought he was actually living and breathing in front of her, following him up the stairs, she paused when he did, glancing up towards the bedroom. Heading past Mac and Flack she walked back into the room and looked around, heading into the bathroom for a moment before coming back out and looking at the two men.
"He surprised her in the bathroom," she told them, "He knew how to get in, he knew when she'd be home alone, just how long her had with her." Crouching down beside the body she cocked her head to the side before continuing, "He made sure she'd be the first thing the Husband would see upon walking through the door. Her eyes were sewn open just like the others."
Mac stepped forward, "He makes them watch." He said, Beth looked up at him and nodded,
"Yeah." Standing up she picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder, "So is there somewhere I could build up a proper profile of this guy?" she asked, Mac smiled and nodded,
"Yeah I'll head back to the lab with you." He told her and began to walk out before stopping after seeing Flack ready to say something.
"Come on Mac you don't believe we can catch this guy like this do you?" he asked, Beth smiled and stepped in front of Flack,
"Are you a sceptic Detective Flack?" she asked, readjusting the bag on her shoulder before folding her arms across her chest. Flack laughed slightly and turned to face her fully,
"I believe that what we need is good solid evidence, guess work isn't going to catch this killer." He replied, frowning ever so slightly when Beth merely nodded, her hazel eyes sparkling brightly as she looked at him, as though looking right into his soul before she began to speak
"You come from a long line of cops, so never once questioned your future. Your techniques although borderline are quite effective. You almost always use wit or sarcasm. You were badly injured a while back on your left side, and still suffer occasionally with it. You're fiercely protective of your friends and extremely loyal." Turning her head to the side slightly she smiled, "And although quite the smooth talker with the ladies, your relationships never seem to pass the three month mark due to your overwhelming fear of commitment."
With one last smile, and a small wave at Flack, Beth turned on her heal to face Mac, and nodded once before heading out the room. Mac who had found it terribly hard to hide his smile, watched Flack for a moment before speaking, "So how'd she do?" he asked. Flack adjusted his tie before shrugging and heading out the room, clearing his throat
"Lucky guess!"
Sometime later back at the crime lab, Beth stood in front of three boards, each one headed with pictures of the three victims. Underneath their info, and crime scene photographs filled the rest of the space on the boards. There was also a map of New York taped to a separate board, and marked in the 3 different locations that they'd found their victims.
There was a severe lack of evidence to add to the board, chewing on the bottom of her pen, Beth let her eyes dart over each board, taking in the information they had been able to gather again and again.
"Hello?"
Turning around, Beth found the owner of the voice stood in the doorway of the office a small smile playing on her lips. "Can I help you?" Beth asked, the woman smiled and stepped forward her hand outstretched,
"Lindsey Monroe, I'm working on this case as well." Beth smiled and shook the outstretched hand,
"Bethany Stevens, it's nice to meet you." She replied, glancing down at the envelope Lindsey held in her free hand, "Is that something new for the board?" Beth asked, somewhat hopeful. Lindsey nodded,
"Well I've tried everything I can think of, and I keep coming back to the same conclusions. No DNA from the killer found on any of the victims clothing, bed sheets, etc. It's like he wasn't ever there." She sighed, looking tired and defeated. Beth sighed and nodded,
"And there's a perfectly good reason for that," she replied, taking the results as Lindsey handed them over to her. Danny Messer, Sheldon Hawkes, Mac, Stella and Flack all entered the room and began taking seats around the table. Lindsey gave a small smile to Beth before sliding into the seat beside Stella.
Turning towards them, Beth removed her glasses before speaking, "We're looking for a white male, ageing between his mid twenties and forties...he's extremely athletic, he's intelligent and there will be a woman in his life that he's afraid, this is why he feels the need to control his victims, he wants them to be scared of him for a change. He carry's what's known as a killing kit around with him, which in turn lets us know that he's a n organized killer. We know only because nothing from the house has been taken, or found on or around the victim, he brings his weapons and takes them away with him. Now organized hold steady jobs, usually something technical where he's required to use his hands a lot," pausing she looked at the boards before turning back to the people in front of her. "He knows his victims; he's studied them for a long enough time to know when they'll be home, when they'll be alone and for how long. He's an exploitive rapist, women close their eyes during rape, and this action ruins the fantasy, so therefore he subdues them, sews their eyes open leaving them with no choice but to watch."
"So this isn't just some sort of signature then?" asked Lindsey who happened to be the only one in the room taking notes. In answer to her question Beth shook her head,
"No sewing his victims eyes open isn't a signature that's really necessary for this killer, but it is necessary for his emotional release. Gives him the power of control,"
From his position at the table, Flack frowned, "Any chance you can guess exactly at what technical job we should be looking at?" he asked, Beth looked at him raising an eyebrow before she smiled,
"I'd say he's somebody who works on computers, these women happened to keep their whole lives up there, so Detective the sooner you find out if they received any technical help on them then I'm sure you'll be 3 steps closer than you are now to catching this guy." She told him, confidence in her voice. Another beat went by before Flack tore his eyes from Beth and looked at Mac, who nodded,
"Let's get on it then."
"You did well."
Beth turned away from the board in front of her, and looked at Mac, smiling slightly as she shrugged, "I'm not sure everyone else shares your opinion." She replied. Mac shook his head and stood beside her,
"I wouldn't worry too much about Flack." He told her knowingly, Beth chuckled and looked at the older man,
"Oh don't worry I'm not, I know how to handle cops like him," she said with a smile, Mac nodded before turning back to the board,
"Well I have one question for you...from the state of third victim can we agree that our killers growing more erratic?" he asked, Beth turned to look at him more closely before nodding,
"We can, I can say with absolute certainty that if we don't get him within in the next 6 hours he's going to kill again." She told him sadly, Mac frowned and turning on his heal he headed for the door,
"Well let's go find him then."
The sun was setting on New York City as a woman in her mid twenties struggled with her grocery bag down the hallway to her apartment. After a few moments wrestling to get the keys into the front door, she finally managed to step into her small apartment and use her foot to shut the door behind her.
Not noticing as she hurried into her kitchen that the front hadn't in fact closed, and the dark figure which had followed her up the hallway now stepped into the apartment closing the door quietly behind him.
Seconds rolled by before an ear piercing scream echoed from inside, and all down the empty hallway.
"You seriously expect me to believe that one of my guys is a killer? I think I'd have noticed something like that." Scoffed the manager of the computer company Flack had managed to trace each of the girls, or rather their computers back to.
"Believe what you want to believe Mr Ford, but what we need to know is exactly which one of these guys worked on these women's computers?" Beth replied, holding out the list to him again. Taking the list off her the manager sighed,
"Well I don't know off hand I'd need to look it up in our records." He told them, looking between Flack, Beth and Mac. With a shrug of his shoulders Flack stared at him and nodded to the computer,
"Well make it quick." He said, causing both the manager and Beth to frown at him.
"Nice." Was all Beth said, as she brushed past him and followed the manager to the computer at his desk. Flack watched her go a smirk playing on his lips before he turned back to Mac,
"You really think our guy works here" he asked, watching as Mac looked around,
"It fits what Beth has said, and it's also the only thing that connects our 3 victims." He replied. Flack nodded and looked back around, somehow his gaze landed on Beth again. Flack had to admit it to himself, she'd caught him off guard earlier on and he'd been surprised she'd been able to figure out so much about him in such a short time. Smiling ever so slightly he let his eyes wander over her, and wasn't ashamed to say she was hot and could definitely hold her own.
"If this works out, I'm buying her a drink." He told Mac, who merely chuckled and shook his head, before snapping his attention over to Beth and the Manager.
"No, no, no Jeremy is one of my best employees, guy keeps himself to himself, I mean he doesn't even go to these houses he's just the guy who fixes the computers when they're brought here." Exclaimed the manager as he hurried after Beth, who stopped in front of the other two,
"Jeremy Banks, repaired the hard drives on each of our vics computer, this gave him complete access to their lives." She told Mac.
"Are all their names on that list?" Flack asked, peering over her shoulder at the list she held. Beth nodded and handed it to him before turning to the Manager,
"Where's Jeremy now?" she asked.
"He called in earlier saying he couldn't make it in as he had some things to take care of." He answered straight away; Beth frowned and looked at the sheet in Flack's hand,
"The only other female on this week's list is a Catherine Jones." She looked up at Mac and Flack, her eyes widening. Flack growled and turned to the manager,
"We need her address now!"
There's the first chapter of my re-write of this story, hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think.
I'd also like to thank Donna for encouraging me to go ahead and rewrite this. Your support and advice is what made this happen so thanks xxx