Little drops of water

By Arvesen

Red liquid dripped from the holes above the gutter, falling into the mainstream of waste. The stark metallic odor of blood was so pungent that bile rose up my trachea. Drowning in the darkness, amongst the murky substance, lay a figure so pale it was the color of a dove's breast. I diverted my eyes from it for a few seconds to scan the surrounding.

There was minimum light in the dark underground passage of sewage waste. My eyes reached out, back to the body. I could hardly see any skin even though the body had been placed nude. There was skin on the face, soles of the feet and palms but none anywhere else. I was used to this kind of posting. Serial killers normally posted bodies after the kill in remote areas where most people would not visit and in different styles too. This one was a rape victim type because there were no clothes to be seen.

Bringing out my oak wood clipboard and thin bal point pen, I began to jot notes on the body and the surroundings. I would format it later.

The blood from the body had coiled itself around the body itself. The question was-how did it get up to the gutter holes. "Serene," I signaled my colleague to come over, "Take a sample of the blood there" I pointed to the puddle around the body and then at the gutter holes from which it dripped, "and there".

A piece of fabric, fluttering in the air, was spotted by a detective. He stuck it into a polithin sheet cover. Walking over to him, I jotted the noting on the cloth. Soon the inspection was over and we all headed back to the center.

Things like this were quite common. I mean, serial killers often decided to kill at night-the most unsusceptible time. We normally took around 2-3 weeks or a month at the most to catch these nasty creatures but this one was different. He seemed to know what to do and what not to do and didn't pass his limits. He was going to take more than just a few weeks to catch.

The bodies he posted were in remote areas but were discovered very fast. The forensic lab noted that they were found between 3-5 hours after their deaths. I sighed; this was the second murder that week. And 2 weeks had passed since he had struck. The new body was the 5th victim. Things were not looking good.

"Elaina," Martin called me. "Yes?" my question was answered by a smooth gesture of the hand to follow. I complied with much curiosity. "Wait till you take a look at this," Anything that martin wanted to see was disgusting. Of course, he wasn't disgusted in the least as I normally was-seeing as he was a forensic scientist after all. I was a detective not an anatomy freak.

"I am sure I can wait," I said, backing up when we closed in on the lab's door.

"Oh come on, don't be so scared"

"Not scared, just disgusted but fine…ill come"

Martin led me into the lab. I realized that the specimens of the new killer were out. The forensic new that I didn't like to see anything more than what I had to so he normally put most of the debris into the tin bin things. But for some reason, today, he had them all out.

All five of them. The dead beings had names-we found them out.

One was Eloris Accen-27 year old female with mane like hair. She was single and didn't have an immediate family-except for her 52 year old mother. She was a total antisocial and lived alone with no one except a puffy little poodle named Griffion-after a famous book she had read.

The second, was a woman named Diana Blunsmith. She was 32 at the time of killing and had suffered dearly by the loss of her husband and her two twin daughters who had died in a house fire prior to her death. She had spent most of her time in the library, drowning herself in books or at work. The woman didn't eat well and was probably a little underweight when she was taken. Easy target too-she usually came home somewhere between 9pm-1am.

The third was Levis something something. I couldn't remember her sir name. She was 21. Very young and pitiful age to die. The thing with this one was that she was married and her husband had become the main suspect until some time ago when they found out that he had had an affair and they had been separated. They lost touch about 3 years ago and she had been living alone since.

The forth was the most peculiar. She was a 17 year old girl with a plasticy face (out of what we could see). Her name was unknown. Most of her face had been eaten by the maggots, where she had been placed. She was actually posted in the night, on an open side walk where she was dumped under a titan of maggots. Of course, the maggots had devoured her after she was skinned.

As for why the killer had put her there of all places-was a mystery. She had little amounts of hair left on her pink head. She must have been quite fit because her muscles seemed strong and must have given a good few blows at him before she was murdered. When she was posted, she had a few of her belongings. The black purse in which she kept her makeup set and a picture of her African sponsored child. How could a teenager sponsor an African child? It was a processing question.

Martin walked past the bodies to the last one. The latest victim. "So martin…" I enquired, pondering on where to sit. Certainly not anywhere near martin because he was sitting on the right side of the body. I found a high stool and placed it behind martin, a little to the side.

The nude body lay on a metal bed like board like the rest of them. It was covered fully-except the face. I wished it was covered on the face as well because it looked white, pale and patchy. I didn't know what to say; afraid that if I opened my mouth, only bile would rise. We had washed out hands with germ repellant and worn double gloves. I had also worn a full length white coat with an amazing number of small pockets. There were so many but so minutely small that I didn't know what one could possibly place inside them.

My face was covered with a white cloth like material. It was thick and smelt strongly of disinfectant.

I finally managed to squeak out a few words at the man and smacked him on the head to signal him to tell me what he wanted to. Martin had a way of brining people into the lab and just staring at the figures. I think it was a forensic scientist thing.

"Right umm…," he thought for a few moments while I just stared dejectedly at the body.

"Any information?" I edged him on, trying to make him more productive and it worked.

"Of course, there is. That's why I brought you here,"

"Alright then, get on with it," I told him.

"All the victims of out dear serial killer are nude," I didn't really think he was dear. "Yes I can see that they are martin," I informed the scientist. "Moreover… they are all in their 20s to 30s. Except for one of them who is seventeen"

"oh come on Martin, you didn't bring me here to tell me the things I already knew did you?"

"Wait-wait…I'm getting there. Anyways. They were all posted in remote areas. Most are antisocial or living alone. They are all women…" I really didn't get this so I cut in. "Ok forget the victims…what do we know about the serial killer?

"He likes to kill women in their 20s-30s. And he doesn't like people who are really skinny." "Why do you say that?" I asked quizzically. "Because none of them are skinny. He is a skinner. Why else do you think he skins these people. He wants a lot of skin so he doesn't like skinny, tiny, shriveled up folk. Elaina…you'll live." He joked at me. There was a common joke with me. I don't mean to brag but I'm rather fit and slim. People call me 'the stick' although I'm really not that thin.

I laughed at the joke. "If you were a girl martin, I'm sure you would be the next victim," I joked back. Martin was slim as well-he went to the gym every day after work. The guy was an oversensitive weight watcher. He touched the front side of his abdomen with one hand and his back with the other as if to measure how flabbatty he had grown. We laughed and then turned our attention back to the victims.

"I know all that martin but is there anything else about him? Other than what he likes to kill or how he does it?"

"Nothing," Martin said, without the least bit of remorse. Then he did one of his disgusting scientist things. Holding a pair of tweezers in his gloved right hand, he stuck it into the latest victim's mouth and pulled out a sticky thing with rod shaped sticks pushing out of the brown substance. If the bodies I had seen had been horrible to look at…this thing had no status in my book of disgust.

There were two beady round circles that stuck to it and its body was covered with the substance. All I could see of its body through the slush was patches of brownish-gold circles covering a yellow cylinder shaped thing.

I looked at martin skeptically who in turn was watching the thing intently. Then he opened his mouth and told me what I wanted to know.

"We know nothing else about the killer…except that he loves Daifaisa insects"

Hope u liked it!