Present Day
Inhale. Exhale.
Fucking paperwork.
Detective Black traced his calloused fingers over the stack of paper that lay before him; the same stack that had been taunting him the entire week. At the top of the page was the one word that had been seared into his brain for months;
Cullen.
The detective's sharp brown eyes slowly turned to the corkboard that had amassed enough candid pictures of Edward Cullen to induce a paparazzi's wet dream. Edward at a cafe. Edward on The Plaza. Edward at a bar. Edward in his driveway. Edward in his bedroom. Jacob Black felt as though he was slowly crossing the line between being a good detective and being a stalker.
Is there really a difference?
His massive hand grabbed the glass that he had been drinking from off of his oakwood desk, taking another deep swig of the watered down whiskey. He needed to be a little drunk in order to stomach the file that was in front of him.
14 year old female. Dead on arrival. Severe chemical burns covering entire body. Left eye missing. Genital mutilation.8 year old female. Dead on arrival. Severe chemical burns covering entire body. Left eye missing. Genit...
FUCK.
Jacob Black swiped his hand across his desk, spewing the papers all over his office floor.
"8 fucking years old..."
He quickly devoured the rest of his whiskey, contemplating only for a second before he grabbed the bottle from the third drawer on his right and filled the glass almost to the brim.
The sound of knocking forced the detective out of his inebriated mind.
"Come in." He made no attempt to hide the overflowing glass of whiskey.
"Detective, I..." Seth Clearwater staggered for a moment, his eyes quickly scanning the paper massacre on the floor, the glass of whiskey, and then the sunken face of a man who had forgotten that sleep was even possible. Seth recovered almost instantly.
"Detective, I just got off the phone with the tip hotline. Someone believes they spotted Cullen in a black Astin Martin exiting the city on 35-westbound."
Jacob straightened the navy blue tie that haphazardly hung from his neck, taking the time to remind himself to breathe in and breathe out.
"He wouldn't be dumb enough to drive the car that we know for a fact he has. Especially if his intent is to flee the city." Black sighed. "Besides, we receive close to 50 calls a day about various spottings of Edward Cullen. If you can explain how that monster gets to Portland 5 minutes after being spotted in Des Moines, I'll give you my whole goddamned pension and suck your dick for good measure."
Seth halfheartedly chuckled and turned back toward the door. "Get some sleep you cranky cunt."
"What the fuck is sleep," Black muttered to himself as his office door creaked closed.
The subtle amusement that filled the air dissipated as his eyes fell back to the face of the most horrific man he could possibly imagine. Ten murders over the course of three months. The murders consistently had five things in common: the victims were females, they were under the age of 18, they had severe chemical burns across their entire body, their left eyes were missing and their genitals were mutilated.
"Only someone who's severely fucked in the head could make this shit up."
Jacob closed his eyes, the alcohol-induced sleep had come at long last. The detective slowly released control of his consciousness and allowed the murderous nightmares to engulf him like they had done since he was first assigned to the Cullen Case.