Bailey felt numb as he sat outside Grace's lab and waited for her to complete the autopsy. Lately all he ever felt was numb. Numb and old. Since Sam's disappearance last year, the burden of the years and all he'd seen weighed heavily upon him. Although he seldom discussed her disappearance anymore, he held little hope that she would ever be found. Murders with Jack's signature marks continued.
Initially Bailey lived in fear of the day Sam's body would be found. Now he lived in fear of the additional markings on each of Jack's victims. No fingerprints or DNA to link Sam; but in his heart he knew Sam was with Jack willingly and had joined him in every sense. Had Sam been unwilling, she would have escaped or been killed. Jack's murders had a newfound passion and a sense of intimacy that had been previously lacking. The truth looked back at him from every report and from Rachel's eyes as she assessed them, though the members of the VCTF seldom voiced their belief of Sam's betrayal, the current was always beneath the surface.
Today's murder wasn't exactly Jack's signature but was the closest to home of any killing since Sam's departure. Counting the tiles on the floor, he tried not to think of what Grace was doing to Arianna's body. His once vibrant daughter was laid open, her shell violated by instruments as organs were removed, weighed, documented and replaced. Few people outside of medicine or law enforcement would ever understand the devastation wrought on the human body during an autopsy. Above in his office, Janet and Francis were crying out their grief, blissfully ignorant of the necessary violation of Arianna's body.
After two hours, Grace finally emerged from her lab and Bailey looked at her expectantly, "Well?"
"Bailey, I'm not sure you really want to do this right now," Grace suggested gently.
"Just tell me, is it Jack?" Bailey asked, his voice hollow and tired.
Before Grace could answer, John and Rachel approached. Rachel inquired, "Should we maybe do this in the conference room? You might be more comfortable there."
Bailey agreed and they went to the conference room, but he didn't care about comfort. Acquiescing made his life simpler and since Sam left, he often went along with whatever the VCTF team wished. Argument required passion and caring that he no longer felt. Every day seemed more empty than the last. On the day he realized Sam was with Jack willingly, Bailey had become their victim and died as surely as if they'd actually killed him. His might be a living death, but the emptiness was a form of death.
In the conference room, Grace began, "I won't know for certain until I get the toxicology report back. My initial examination revealed that there was a neat surgical incision and her lungs had been removed with precision. There was little hesitation, the killer knew what they were doing. Death would have been almost instantaneous as the second lung was removed."
"Anything else you can tell us?" Rachel pressed hesitantly. It made her uneasy having Bailey present for the results of his daughter's autopsy, but she knew he wouldn't easily be dissuaded from remaining.
"Betadine. There were traces of betadine around the incision. Normally you wouldn't see something of that nature if it were a ritualistic murder. As near as I can tell, she was in someway anesthetized, prepared for surgery and operated on in a sterile environment," Grace stated.
"Was it Jack?" Bailey questioned. "He did surgery on Dr. Dexter Nelson on the dining table of his home and removed his kidneys."
Shaking her head, Grace responded, "No. Not Jack's work. There is some similarity but-"
Grace trailed off, she didn't want to have to say the next part aloud and not in front of Bailey. Ever since Sam left none of them had been the same. Investigation turned up a secret diary hidden in the floor boards of Sam's bedroom which detailed years of fantasies about Jack and her longing for the forbidden. Page after page revealed she had been as obsessed with Jack as he was with her. Some of the passages had been truly disturbing as Sam had written in lurid detail, fantasies of killing and sex with Jack near their victims. The diary was now part of evidence and every page was studied for Sam's profile.
"Go on," Bailey demanded gruffly.
"It could be the work of a woman," Grace admitted reluctantly. Then added, "However, Sam didn't have surgical skills."
Unless Jack had taught her, the thought passed through everyone's minds and lingered in the air. Bailey went to Janet and gave her and Francis a carefully edited version of Arianna's death. Two days later the toxicology screen came back and the body was released for burial. At the insistence of his superiors, Bailey took the next two weeks off from work while the VCTF worked vainly on the investigation. There was a strong sentiment that Jack was connected, but no one could come up with a logical reason for the removal of the lungs.
A year later, Arianna's case was cold and was just another bit of grief weighing down Bailey's soul when George summoned them to the command center.
"What have you got George?" Bailey asked.
"It's two months old and doubtless she's long gone; but look," George told them and brought a newspaper clipping up on the large screen.
Looking at them was a smiling photo of Sam. In the picture, she had on a frothy gown and held a mask in her hand. Beside her was a tuxedo clad gentleman who was wearing a mask, obviously at a Mardi Gras party. As Bailey looked at the screen he felt sick, he couldn't remember ever seeing Sam look happier. The way the couple's arms were wrapped around each other left no room for doubt they were together. Any last hope Bailey had that Sam was with Jack against her will, fled as he studied the picture.
"There's an article, shall I read it?" George inquired.
"Go on," Bailey murmured staring at Sam.
George read, "One of the highlights among the Mardi Gras parties and soirees, was the cancer benefit held in the Crystal room of the hotel, Le Pavillion. The charity dinner and dance was a staggering 50,000 a plate which raised an estimated 8 Million dollars for cancer research."
"Okay doesn't sound too terrible," John remarked.
"Is there anything specific about Sam?" Grace questioned.
"Yes," George admitted reluctantly. "The caption under the photo say, "Mr. and Mrs. Trades are showing having a cigarette on the hotel's terrace. When asked about if they concerned about smoking's affects on their health, Samantha Trades laughingly said, "I'm not concerned about it. My husband has the lungs of a 17 year-old-"
Bailey didn't hear the rest of the caption as George read it and didn't care. Sam had to have known the photo would eventually find it's way to the VCTF. Under Jack's supervision, Sam had removed Arianna's lungs while doubtless some foreign medical team stood by waiting to transplant. The files had suggested Jack had smoked for at long as he'd been stalking Sam and clearly she had saved his life at the cost of Arianna's. As Bailey looked up at the screen, the clearly contented and healthy couple seemed to watch him mockingly. Strangely it no longer mattered to Bailey, nothing did anymore.