Please note: I do not own these characters. I merely take them out to play with from time to time.
The woman sprawled on the bed was at first confused. How could she be surrounded by liquid warmth yet feel so cold inside? Why was everything- red? She opened her eyes again and looked at the man standing over her. He was smiling. She started to smile and realized that she couldn't. It took too much effort. She noticed the towel in his hands. It was red, too, and he was wiping something off with it. It was a knife- in the towel- stained with blood. She suddenly knew that it was her blood. All the red and the warmth was her blood. She looked around saw the cell phone on the other pillow. She tried to reach for it but couldn't quite get there.
The man chuckled and shook his head, "My, my, you are a very determined creature, aren't you!"
"Why?" she asked using all her strength.
He gave her a reptilian smile, briefly looked at what remained of her slim nude body, and explained in a gentle voice, "As a public employee you served me very well and as for the rest, well, you were quite adequate, but it's time for me to move on."
She shook her head ever so slightly and he saw a tear slide from her green eyes through some of the blood on her face before vanishing in her dark hair. He hated needy women who wanted reasons for everything, but at least this would be over soon.
He sighed and his tone was almost regretful. "My dear, I know you believe that you wouldn't betray me, but we both know that eventually you would. You betrayed the man who loves you by coming here and you betrayed the ethics of your position by giving me information. I'm afraid you simply can't be trusted."
He stood back up and walked into the bathroom. "Now you just close your eyes and it will all end quite soon."
My God, she thought. He was right. She had turned her back on people who cared and loved her for this man. He really was an evil monster and she had given him a very important key to getting his revenge. She heard him in the bathroom starting the shower and humming quietly to himself. He was done with her now and wouldn't give her another moment's thought. She didn't have much time and very little strength left. She needed to give a warning. No one knew what she had done or what he was going to do. Someone needed to be told.
The cell phone seemed to be miles away and even if she reached it she probably wouldn't be able to make a call. She moved her hand through the crumpled sheet. Forensics people usually tore the scene apart in cases like this. If she could leave something there, maybe.
She stopped and listened to him in the shower. He was now singing. His complete disconnect to her humanity hitting her so hard that she almost couldn't continue. She moved her hand under the sheet and moved it along the bedding. As she heard him finish his shower and step out she continued. She had just moved her hand back out on top of the sheet when he returned.
He stopped and looked at her with a slight frown. "Are you still here? Well, it can't be much longer now."
He made one more pass through the room with the cloth to get rid of his fingerprints before he left. He knew he was leaving DNA but given the backup that existed in crime labs today, he would be out of the state before they got the results.
With one last look at the scene to satisfy himself that everything was perfect, he closed and locked the door of his little studio apartment. He hadn't wanted to make it too obvious so he went subtle. Less is more, he joked silently. Besides, he thought to himself, no one will even think to go in there until the body starts to smell.
Inside the room, the woman continued to fade away. There was no pain and she felt very calm. Her eyes slowly lost focus and the arm closest to the side of the bed slipped gently down, blood dripping from her fingertips to the wooden floor and between the planks.
Six hours later, a young programmer named Kyle Larson came home from work and was pleased to see that the neighbor that lived above him was obviously out because his car was missing. Hope the next time you get lucky you'll go back to her place, he thought to himself. He had been dead tired all day thanks to all the noise the guy and his girlfriend had made last night. He would have complained but to be completely honest there was something about the guy that made him want to keep his head down and not make eye contact.
How could any woman want to screw a guy like that? he wondered and put his fast food down on the desk next to the bed. He started to sit down but noticed something wet on the seat. He touched it and was startled by the thick stickiness of it. He looked at his fingers. They were red.
"What the hell?" he said out loud and looked at the chair as if it would give him answers.
Reaching out to move it, something dropped on his arm making him jump. It, too, was red. He looked up at his ceiling and saw a dark round stain about six inches in diameter that was periodically dripping.
"Oh my God!" he said frantically and ran upstairs to knock and the door. "Dude! Mister! Is everything okay? Do you need help?"
Kyle got no response and could hear no movement from within, so he pulled out his cell phone and pressed 9-1-1.
"This is 9-1-1, what is your emergency?"
"Um, yeah, I'm outside my upstairs' neighbor's door and there's no answer and I can't hear anything inside but there's blood leaking through the floor into my apartment."
Three hours later, Sacramento Police Detective, Chuck Hinsdale, was still making notes at the crime scene. The forensic specialists had taken all their photographs, bagged evidence, and dusted for prints. Officers had interviewed the neighbors and Chuck had talked to the downstairs guy that had called in the emergency.
The team from the coroner's office had waited patiently for the okay to remove the body. Chuck gestured that they could come in and they lifted the woman off the bed. As they did so, he noticed something odd with the blood on the bed.
"Wait a minute guys," he said with a frown to the men with the gurney. "I need to see her right hand."
The coroner's assistant shrugged and opened the body bag so that the detective could see the hand. The index fingertip was almost clean with just a hint of smudged dried blood unlike the rest of her which was covered in spatter or nothing at all.
"Okay, thanks," Chuck said and gestured for them to continue. He turned to the forensic tech and said, "Be careful with the sheets. I think she tried to draw something on them."
Slowly they worked through the top sheet and carefully removed it from the bed. With it gone, they could see what was there.
Chuck stood at the foot of the bed and tilted his head first one direction and then another before he shook his head. He walked to the side and looked at it from the view looking down from the headboard. It might be letters, but what did they mean? Making sure plenty of pictures were taken, he still pulled out his phone and took his own.
Chuck had worked as a Sacramento detective for over twenty years. He had seen a lot of violent crime scenes and this was certainly one of those. He couldn't quite put his finger on what this reminded him of, but it definitely had some kind of familiarity.
"Chuck, we've got preliminary time of death for you," the assistant coroner was standing with his small tablet in his hand inputting data.
"Okay, what was it and what else can you tell me? Do we have an I.D. yet?" Chuck was still trying to rack his brain but pulled out his notepad and pen to jot down the findings so far.
"No identification found. However, her prints are in the system. Her name is Jessica Pate. She worked at the state employees' records office. She died at about 0930 this morning, about nine hours ago. Cause of death appears to be multiple stab wounds from one instrument. There were no signs of drug use but we'll do a toxicology report when we get back," the young man reported.
Chuck nodded and finished writing. "Got it, let me know when the full autopsy is completed."
He saw the officer who had been in charge of interviewing the other tenants and the building manager. "Arlene, what do you have?"
Officer Arlene Pettigrew sorted through her notes and gave her report. "According to the landlord, the man who rented this apartment is Jack Dodge. He's been living here alone about 6 months. Pays in cash and the landlord has heard no complaints. The other neighbors say he never spoke to anyone and that he was very quiet until last night. Apparently, they heard a lot of noise coming from here. One neighbor said - and I quote - "He was making the woman damn happy. Never heard one make those noises before.'"
She stopped and stared at Chuck, waiting for him to catch up with his notes. Chuck finally looked up at her and said, "Did anyone think he might be hurting her?"
Arlene shook her head. "No. Even the women who live nearby said it definitely sounded like very passionate sex. Could be that this was the result of something that happened afterward?"
Chuck shrugged. "Who knows yet? Do we know where we're supposed to be able to find Mr. Dodge? Where he works? Or what he drives?"
Arlene had a disgusted look on her face as she answered, "The landlord isn't too interested in particulars with his tenants, especially ones that pay cash up front and don't complain or cause problems. He didn't bother to get a copy of Dodge's driver's license and it turns out the information regarding his vehicle was bogus. Neighbors say he drove an old rusted dark blue Honda and on the tenant agreement he said he drove a black Ford. The license plate is bad too."
Chuck stared at her for a minute. "So what you're saying is that we don't have any idea yet where to find this guy? Do we have a description of him? Has anyone seen a woman here before?"
Arlene grimaced as she went back to her notes. "Mr. Dodge was a loner. The neighbors never saw anyone visit him including the victim. He has bushy long black hair, a big black beard, wears sunglasses and a baseball cap. No one could see any tattoos or scars on him because he was always completely covered. When he spoke he whispered so no one knows what his voice sounds like."
Chuck scratched his head and held his hand to his forehead. "This gets better and better. Okay, thanks Arlene. Be sure to get me a full copy of all your notes as soon as you can."
Officer Pettigrew nodded and moved back out of the room.
He turned to the lead forensic tech and asked, "What interesting things do you have to tell me, Dom?"
Dominic Palamo and Chuck had worked many scenes together and Dom knew that Chuck liked to get as many items as possible in his notebook first thing on a new case.
"I got a few things, Chuck. First, we have bodily fluids, semen on the sheets so I think it's a safe bet they had sex. Whether or not it was consensual, well, hopefully the coroner will tell us. Second, some of the blood splatter is missing so I'm guessing the killer was covered in blood at some point. Third, the killer most likely showered after the attack. We found damp towels in the bathroom. We're taking them to the lab to be tested. Fourth, there were almost no prints in the room. Just a couple bad partials in the bathroom so the killer wiped the place clean."
Dom stopped and Chuck caught up with his notes, looked at them and said, "He wipes off the prints but doesn't worry about leaving DNA on the towels or the bed? Does that make sense?"
Dom shrugged and said, "Maybe he decided that he didn't have time to do everything so he did the one we could check first."
Chuck nodded slowly, "Well, that could make sense. Thanks Dom. Let me know what you find."
As Dom was leaving Chuck stopped him. "Dom, this is bugging me. Does this crime scene remind you of anything? I keep thinking there's something missing."
Dominic looked at him and at the scene. He hadn't noticed it before, but Chuck was right. It did feel eerily familiar. Suddenly Dom stopped and looked around at all the walls. Except for splatter and a couple of cheap prints there was nothing there but it chilled him to have thought of it even for a split second.
Chuck was frowning, "What is it?"
Dominic turned to him and said, "I was double-checking to make sure we hadn't missed a Goddamn smiley face."