This was the fourth body found in three weeks, once found every week, except this week there were two. They were all females, all under one hundred and thirty pounds, none were taller than five foot five, and they were all brunettes, with brown eyes. It was startling to see the resemblence they all had to me and my sister Robin. This body, the latest body we'd found, almost made me feel I was looking into a mirror. One that showed what I would look like in death, I didn't like the picure. Didn't like it at all. It was disturbing to see yourself dead, while you were quite alive.
A hand clasped down on my shoulder, it was my uncle Mac. I straighted up from crouching to see the woman better and faced him. "They say she was killed two hours ago, the Quartermaine confirmed he saw a struggle from his window. Dante has already went over to take a statement."
"Good, everything is taken care of here, why don't you-"
I cut him off, I already knew what he was going to say. "And head home? I am. Lucky is taking care of everything else, and the media has been handled and kept at bay. I'll leave the rest to you."
Mac smiled and ruffled my hair like he used to do when I was years younger. "Soon enough you're going to be after my job, huh?"
"Nope, I like being a dectective too much to take your job away from you."
"Yeah I-" He caught on to what I had said. "What the hell did you just say?"
I smiled, "I said you're the best at what you do, and I'll never want to even try to feel your shoes." I tipped myself on to my toes and kissed his forehead. " I'll see you at the station, I'm going to just head home and go directly there."
Mac nodded his approval and that was that, I can't say I was reluctant to leave the crime scene. Since I wasn't, I wanted to leave as quickly as I could. I'll face it later, once I showered and got myself together. I just didn't feel right, something deep inside me was telling me that something wasn't right in Port Charles. The women that were being murdered resembled myself, and my sister, I knew it wasn't a coincedence. Didn't I, or was I just being paranoid? I didn't know, but even my partner had made a note on the resembence.
Spinelli had jumped back from the last body- Selene SImmons- and looked at me with wide eyes. "Wow, you two could be twins..."
Twins.
Once I had gotten home I couldn't even open my front door, there was something blocking it. I knew exactly what it was. One of Elizabeth's paint aprons that she wore all the time. I knocked my shoulder into the door a couple of times and it rolled over the apron and hit the wall. I kicked her apron towards the wall, and saw the mess she had made. There were art supplies almost everywhere, because when Liz was hit with inspiration, she painted. It didn't matter where she was, she would whip out her handy dandy brush and go at it. And leave the mess she made where ever the hell she made it and go about her business. The life of an artist was mesy.
"Elizabeth!" I hollered her name.
She poked her head from her painting room slash my damn office, "I'll pick it up Sam."
I rolled my eyes, "Pick what up, hm?"
"Uhh, whatever you're about to bitch about." She said, she hated to be interrupted while painting.
"I wouldn't have to bitch if you actually cleaned up after yourself." I snapped kicking her apron against the wall.
She shrugged he shoulders, her tank top strap fall off of her shoulder. "Watch where you're walking."
"Pick up your shit." I yelled.
"Watch where you're walking." She said walking back into the room she'd come from.
"Liz!" I hollered, all the anger I had bottled up coming out in that one little burst.
Liz jumped a bit, and turned around to face me again. Her eyes narrowing, she crossed her arms. "I don't have time for this, Sam. I need to finish my painting for the art gallery later this month."
I isghed, my anger and energy draining. "I'm sorry."
Liz realized I was upset about something else immeditatly, she walked to me until she was a feet away. She stroked my arm, "What's wrong?"
I exhaled heavily, "It's going to be on the news soon enough, we found another body." I walked away from her and dropped down on the couch. I let my head settle into the cushions, and I closed my eyes, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand. I always got stiff in the shoulders, and neck when I was on a case.
I felt the cushions sink in a bit, and knew that Liz was on the couch with me. I opened my eyes and she was looking at me. "Strangled to death?"
"Yeah."
"Are you guys any closer-"
"No."
"Sam-"
"I don't want to talk about it, Liz. I really, really, fucking don't want to talk about it right now. I only have like thirty minutes until I have to head back into the department."
"Has Mac noticed how the victims kind of...you know."
I glanced away, decided to focus on the cieling instead. "Look like me?"
"Yeah, look like you. Sierra was the-"
Something clicked in right then, it was something I should have noticed before. "They all have my initals."
Liz shifted beside me uncomfortably, "What? no they don't."
"Yes, yes, they do! Shit I have to call Spinelli, and tell Mac right now." I grabbed my keys from the kitchen counter where I had dropped them when I came in and took off out the door. Almost running into my cousin Nicholas who was just about to knock on the door. I dodged him, and continued down the hallway.
"Where's the fire!" I heard him holler down the hall to me.
With a lot of speeding, I made it down to the PCPD in record time. I burst through the door of the briefing room, and regretted it. Everyone turned to look at me, and Dante the smart mouthed guy that he was had to comment on it instantly.
"So you finally decided to grace us with your precnese Cassadine?"
"It's Scorpio." Mac corrected him irately, he didn't really like my Cassadine side. "He is right Sam, I texted you almost as instantly as you had left we found something on the girl-"
"Found what?" I hadn't gotten any text, so I was glad I had rushed down here. If I hadn't realized the name signifigance I would have still be dilly daddling at home.
"She had a note in her pocket, it said that 'Not All Secrets Can Be Buried'."
"I noticed something, and I'm pretty damn mad that none of us has noticed this before. -"
"Mind telling us sometime soon?" Dante butted in, but he shut up when Spinelli jabbed him in his side. He looked at me, concened, he knew something was up.
"All four victims share my initials, Mac. Selene Simmons, Shelly Sanders, Shonda Singleton, Sierra-"
"Sierra's last name is Washington, Sam." Lucky noted.
I nodded, agreeing. I was suddenly feeling self-consicious, I wasn't the type to revel in the spotlight. " Her middle inital is S, she fits."
Lucky shook his head, he wasn't sold on it." It's too far fetched."
"What do you mean? The girls looks like me, the initals fit, I'm connected to the Cassadines for christ sakes there are plenty of people who-"
"Sam, Lucky is right on this. It is a unlikely that these cases are connected to you, who would want you dead?"
Everyone looked at me, waiting for an answer but I ididn't have one. Didn't have one explanation of who would want to kill me, who would go after all the trouble to get my attention, who'll want me dead so damn bad. Nothing. No one. I should have kept my mouth shut, I should have left my hunch go. Wouldn't be the first time that I was wrong about something. Lucky caught my eye again. Definitely wouldn't be the first time.
I shook the snow out of my hair as I waited for someone to answer the door. I had just left the PCPD, embrassed, when I got a call from my dad. He was out of town, on a job but that didn't stop him from checking in on his children.
"How are you dear?" He asked, his voice calm, and familiar. I missed it.
"Not good dad, not good at all." I admitted, if it was anyone I could admit my feelings to it was my dad.
"I knew as much, I could feel it, and your sister told me you were having a rough time lately. With that killer in Port Charles."
I was at my desk, fiddling with the ring on my finger that he had given me. It was a symbolism to us; dad, Robin and I. I sighed tiredly, "I should have known she would tell you, I just have a bad feeling about all of this."
"Tell me what's going through that head of yours."
And I did. I told him everything that I had wanted to tell my bestfriend Liz, and my sister Robin but couldn't. All the things I should have been telling Spinelli but wasn't. I was even keeping my mouth shut when it came to my mom, and she was usually one of the first I ran to when things got heavy.
"Something I have always done was listen to my gut, dear. It's never wrong, never. Trust yourself, you haven't gotten this far in your career without doing just that."
"I know, I know."
"If you know why are you so unsure?"
I didn't know.
The door opened to the Quartermaine's home and a man answered. He was tall, with blue eyes, and blonde hair. Good looking. But I didn't come here for that, I stuck out my hand and introduced myself.
"I'm Detective Scorpio, I wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened here earlier this morning. If that's okay?" I gave him one of my best smiles, one thing about being a Cassadine was that I knew how to turn on the charm. They'll smile in your face while they were secretly planning to ruin your whole life.
He smiled pleasantly, and shook my hand. "I'm Jason Quartermaine, come in." I walked in, and looked around as he locked the door. My first impression was that the Quartermaine's were definitely doing well, but that was well known in Port Charles. The Quartermaine's swam in money. He led me to the living room, and nodded to a chair for me to sit. I did, and he sat infront of me.
I looked around, and I felt uncomfortable. The place even smelled of secrets, and wealth, and emptiness. The room was empty except for us, but I felt like I was surrounded. I mentally shook those thoughts away and turned a page in my pocket tablet. "What were you doing before you saw the altercation outside your window?"
I watched as he strectched his arm over the armrest of his chair, I could easily see the defined muscles that was under his long sleeved button up. He looked over my shoulder out the window, "It was six-fifthteen. I was just getting into my office upstairs when I looked out the window."
I wrote that down as he talked, I looked up when he stopped. "And you saw?"
He shrugged, a lazy draw up of his shoulders. "It was hard to see, I already told the other little guy that came in here."
"Detective Falconerri." I corrected him, Dante and I might go at it at time but he was a fried. And I respected him enough to correct someone who called him 'little guy'. "Tell me what you saw, please." It wasn't much of a question then it was a demand, and if he was paying attention I wasn't really asking nicely. My dad told me to follow my gut, and that was what I was going to do.
He shifted again, this time a tad bit uneasily. "I saw a man, standing over a body."
I looked up from my tablet, "Keep going."
"That's it, that's what I saw."
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from pouncing on this guy from irking me. He was being difficult on purpose, I could see it in his eyes. He wanted to get under my skin, typical Quartermaine. "Was the man tall, short, skinny, fat? I need a description."
It must have been the way I said 'need' because his whole expression changed. And he began to talk, "The man was tall, it was pretty light outside so I'm sure he had dark hair. He, uh, had a coat on, a black one. Looked like leather but he was way to far away to notice. He was tan, too." Jason shrugged again, that's all I can give you for a description."
I smiled, "Thanks, that's good enough. What happened next?"
"I ran out of the room to go outside...once I got out there he was gone. And before I could call the police, my maid had already been dailing. She followed me." He didn't look shaken up, like this wasn't the first dead body he had seen. This wasn't the first struggle he had witnessed. I wouldn't doubt it, the Quartermaine's had their secrets just like any other family. Not all secrets can be buried.
"Do you want to see my office?" He offered, standing up.
Did I want to look out the window where the victim was last seen alive? My mind told me no, but the dective part, the part that wanted to know what was going on stood up and followed Jason up to his office.
Jason walked into his office, and opened the shades revealing the front of the Quartermaine estate. He pointed where he last saw the killer, and the victim. I looked around and saw something. Jason's office wasn't that far from the stairs, and he was a young guy. Around my age, so to run down the stairs and out the house and not see the killer running away isn't really believable. Unless the man went through those tree's, but that lead to the woods and it would be hard to find your way out of there. And the team had searched through there, not very far, and found nothing. "Is there a cabin, or something a person could hide out in through the woods?"
"No we don't have a cabin, but there is a shooting range we have out there."
"Shooting range?"
"Yeah, my dad I sometimes go out there and shoot. It's our property so we have a shed out there too, to lock up the guns when they aren't being used."
"Show me?"
He grabbed his jacket from where it hanged on his office chair and I jumped a bit when his arm brushed aginst my side to reach it. "I'll love to."
