A/N: Hi there! So I'm finally back! If any of you read the original first chapter of this story, you will notice that I deleted that chapter and replaced it with this one! I need to thank Tina, Loring, and Ceara for being kickass pre-readers! Thank you so much ladies!
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Edward (I wish!), Bella, or any other Twilight characters. But I do own my twisted mind that comes up with stories about serial killers!
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BPOV
"Jazz I don't wanna go!"
"Bella quit being a baby! It'll be fun. Come on, two whole weeks on a private island in the Bahamas with just a handful of other people. What more could you ask for?"
"A hole in the head," I said under my breath, "Seriously, I don't wanna go. And furthermore, I can't. I don't have two weeks' vacation time!" I argued, knowing he knew I was lying. Why Jasper and Alice thought I would want to be the third wheel on their vacation was beyond me!
"You're lying. And I know you're lying because our supervisor is my father-in-law! He's already approved your time off. Alice talked to him this morning!" Jasper gloated.
"I wish we never had that company party. Then I wouldn't have to put up with this shit!" I grumbled.
Jasper and I have been best friends since we were six. We went through everything together; every grade in school; college at the University of Washington. From there, he went on to get his masters in psychology while I got mine in criminology. We attended the FBI academy at Quantico together, graduating at the top of our class. We were both assigned to the same unit, a new one that was started two years before we graduated; the Special Crimes Unit. We've been agents for four years now; the youngest successful agents in the history of the FBI at 28.
The SCU was comprised of about ten agents, all specialized profilers, led by Tom Brandon. We investigated all kinds of crimes; murders, kidnappings, serials. You name it, we investigate it. But we're normally only called in when things are more complicated or unusual, to help other agencies or police departments
Jasper and I had been full-fledged FBI agents for about six months when Christmas rolled around. Our unit, the SCU, decided to hold a Christmas party at Tom Brandon's house. Jasper dragged me there, wanting to bond with our co-workers. And that's where he met our supervisor's daughter, Alice Brandon. Now, three and a half years later, they are married.
Our unit also travels around the country at least 200 days out of the year, sometimes more. Which is why I live with Japer and Alice; we're hardly ever there. No sense in paying rent when I'm not gonna be there. Once Jasper and Alice moved in together, they offered me the upstairs of their house. The two of them bought a really nice, two-story home that had the master bedroom and study/office on the first floor, with a guestroom and another study/office upstairs. It was the perfect combination for the three of us.
"Isabella, you're going and you're gonna have fun so suck it up!" Alice shouted from their bedroom where she was packing.
"And don't even think about taking any case files with you! We leave in two days!"
"I'm going to the office!" I huffed, grabbing my jacket and heading for Quantico.
Surprisingly, I wasn't assigned to a field office in another city. Tom and the director figured that since our unit travels so much, we might as well stay close to the main headquarters in Virginia.
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"Bells, you do realize what time it is right?" I heard Jasper ask from the doorway.
"Actually no. I've been nonstop since I left the house."
"It's six am. You've been here since seven last night. Go home and get some rest."
"I can't. I'm not even tired. Besides, I've gotta finish these reports for Tom before we leave." I said.
"You want some help?" he asked, before being interrupted by our supervisor.
"Hey, don't get too into it yet. Something came up," he said, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from my desk.
Jasper and I glanced at each other with knowing looks.
"What happened?" Jasper asked, dreading the call he was going to have to make to Alice.
"There's a case in Houston that I need you two on. Possible serial; very high profile. I'd take the whole team out there but I'm not sure it's needed yet. I'll have Jared finish those reports."
"Tom, I hate to ask, but what about our vacation?" Jasper asked quietly.
"Look, I don't want to disappoint my little girl any more than you do. But I need you guys out there. This guy has already killed two women and will probably kill again. The detectives on this case haven't found anything yet, but they're good cops. One of them, Edward, grew up with Alice and the other is married to his best friend, Emmett, who is your FBI contact from the Houston field office. Call him when you land."
I looked at Jasper with a small smile that he returned with a glare, waiting on Tom to finish speaking.
"The jet is standing by. Go out there and evaluate the case, call me when you get a handle on things."
"Alice is gonna kill me," Jasper groaned as we headed to our cars.
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EPOV
"You can't keep me here! I didn't do anything wrong!" the man protested.
"Sit down Scotty!" my partner shouted, roughly shoving the man back in his chair.
"I'd listen to her if I were you. She's kinda scary when she's mad!" I smirked, leaning against the door of the interview room and crossing my arms across my chest. My partner, Rosalie McCarty, leaned her hip against the side of the table in the middle of the room and leaned down to look Scotty in the eyes.
"You don't think you did anything wrong Scotty? You raped a twelve year old girl!" Rosalie growled.
"I didn't rape her! She was asking for it!" Scotty sneered.
I just rolled my eyes and looked up at the ceiling, bored with this interview. We already had more than enough evidence to put this guy away for at least twenty years. Rosalie was just having fun.
Rosalie and I have been partners since we got out of the police academy when we were 23. Her husband, Emmett McCarty, and I grew up together. We met Rose when we were freshmen in college. She took our breath away. Emmett and I had a little friendly competition for her, but in the end, we always knew her and Emmett were made for each other. Rose and I became just as close friends as Emmett and I always were.
After college, Emmett decided to go into the FBI academy, getting assigned to the Houston field office when he graduated. Rosalie and I went to the police academy. We were street cops for three years before we were promoted to detectives. Normally, cops as young as we were didn't get pulled up so quickly, but the Special Victims Unit, or the Sex Squad as everyone else called it, had just lost three members to retirement. So they pulled up their three best street cops to detectives. The other guy, Ben Cheney, was a good buddy of ours and teamed up with us every once in a while.
We've been there for three years now and Scotty is just one of the scum we've had to deal with.
"Rose, can we finish this up? It's getting late and I'm tired," I commented, playing my part of the good cop, even faking a yawn.
Rosalie turned her head and glared at me, trying desperately to hide a grin.
"You should listen to your partner, Blondie," Scotty said, apparently getting bold.
Rosalie's head whipped around and grabbed him by the back of the head. In the blink of an eye, Scotty's head was slammed against the table, a small squirt of blood flying out when he picked his head up.
"One more remark from you, Scotty, and I'll make sure every guy in prison knows what you did when you get there. You know what they do to pedophiles that rape children in prison, don't you?" Rosalie whispered fiercely in his ear, just loud enough for me to hear.
"That's assault! I'm gonna sue you!" Scotty screamed.
It was Rosalie's turn to roll her eyes. "Assault? Sue me? For what Scotty? You tripped and hit the table on your way down. Isn't that what you saw Eddie?"
I always hated when she called me that, but I shrugged my shoulders anyways.
"That's what I saw. No one will believe you Scotty. You're going to prison whether you like it or not," I grinned, opening the door and flagging down a uniform to take him back to a cell so I could go home.
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Heading to my car, Rosalie shook her head and laughed.
"Sue me? God that guy is an idiot!" she chuckled.
"You never get tired of that kind of shit do you?" I joked, leaving the police parking garage and heading towards the house I shared with her and Emmett.
"God no! I love it! Emmett's gonna freak when he hears what I did!" she laughed just as both our phones went off.
"Shit," I grumbled, looking down at my phone, "Captain, you?"
"Emmett," she replied, answering her phone as I answered mine.
"Cullen," I said, dreading what our Captain has to say at 11 o'clock at night.
"Cullen, you and McCarty get back here now! We got another one," he said, clearly upset.
"Where? We're still in the car, we'll go straight to the scene," I told him. The captain quickly told me where to go before surprising the hell out of me.
"Cullen, look, this case is getting too high profile. This is the third murder in as many weeks. Same MO and everything. I called in the Feds."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Cap, we can handle this without them!" I said before I could catch myself.
"I'm not saying you can't, but two more people to help can't hurt. I had already called them before we got wind of the newest victim; they have this unit that specializes in cases like this. They flew in this afternoon. Rose's husband is their Houston contact. He's on the way to the scene with them now. Emmett's gonna be helping with the case as well."
"Cap, come on!"
"Edward, don't argue with me! I personally pulled you off the street; I can put you back there in a heartbeat! Now look, they're not here to take the case away from you. It's still your case. You're still calling the shots. They're just here to assist us. So don't be a bitch to them, you got it?" he asked sternly.
"You sure do have a way with words, Cap!" I joked, making him laugh as he hung up the phone.
Rose hung up with Emmett two seconds later.
"Emmett tell you the news?"
"Yeah. Looks like we're not getting any sleep any time soon," she complained as we made our way to the scene, "Oh and he also said that you can stay in the guest room of the house so the two feds can stay in the pool house out back!"
"I'm gonna kick his ass," I grumbled under my breath. Rosalie's parents had bought her and Emmett their house when they got married. It came with a pool house that I moved into. And now it looks like I had to give up my place for Feds!
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"Great, just what we need, media!" I groaned, pulling up to the curb of a more upscale house in an affluent neighborhood.
The yard was filled with news crews. We got out of the car and started walking towards the front door, getting attacked by the press on the sidewalk.
"Detectives! Is this the same work of the killer that's killed two already? Should the wealthy people of Houston be worried for their lives?" one blonde reporter asked, shoving her microphone in my face.
I pushed it away, ducked under the crime scene tape that was just beyond the yard, and made my way to the door where a uniform stood.
"Get those fucking people off the god damn sidewalk and across the street!" I growled at him, pushing past him and inside the house, greeted by blood splattered all over every surface available.
"Edward, Rosalie, come in here," Emmett instructed, very professional.
We had worked a case or two with him before and he never acted anything but professional with us, even though he was married to Rose and best friends with me.
We were met with a gruesome scene and had to weave our way through the blood splatters to the kitchen – which was the only room that wasn't covered. My eyes met the deepest pair of brown eyes I'd ever seen. I was mesmerized. Along with the eyes were pouty pink lips, long wavy chestnut brown hair pulled into a high ponytail, and a curvy body covered by fitted black slacks, a white blouse, and a fitted black blazer. Definitely Fed. Definitely gorgeous.
"Guys, this is Agent Bella Swan, and Agent Jasper Whitlock," Emmett said, introducing us. I quickly looked away from the eyes to look at the man standing next to her.
"Whitlock?" I asked, tilting my head in curiosity.
"As in Alice Whitlock's husband!" Emmett chuckled.
I shook his hand with a smile on my face.
"How is our little Allie?" I asked, speaking of our childhood friend. She moved to Quantico, Virginia with her father when he was promoted to Unit Chief of the Special Crimes Unit.
"Pissed that I'm here. We were supposed to leave for vacation tomorrow," he answered, a small smile on his face.
"Sorry about that. She's vicious when she's angry!" Emmett joked, earning a laugh from us.
"So, you wanna bring us up to speed on this case?" the other agent, Bella Swan, asked, interrupting our joking.
"Two weeks ago, the first body was found in the backyard of the home, two blocks from here. Bound by rope you can buy at any hardware store, raped, sodomized, and mutilated. Cause of death was exsanguination. Last week, the second body was found in the same style in the bedroom of the home in the neighborhood across the main road from this one," Rose explained.
We all stood around the kitchen, the one room that wasn't covered in blood, our hands in our pockets.
"No DNA found at either scene. No hairs, no fibers, no semen, nothing. And I'd bet my next paycheck there won't be anything to find here either. Bastard is like a ghost. No forced entry in any of the homes, nobody saw him going in or out. No neighbors heard any screaming or anything," I said, disgusted with this killer.
"Victimology turn up any similarities?" Jasper asked.
Bella stood there listening intently.
"Not much. The only thing the first two victims had in common were they were both wealthy, single women living in upscale homes a neighborhood apart. As far as we can tell, they never even passed each other on the street. Neither were in a relationship or dating anyone. The first one was an attorney at a law firm downtown, family law. The second was a psychiatrist in her own practice. No living family for either one," Rose said.
"Well this guy isn't letting up anytime soon. Let's get to work so we can figure out who he is and stop him," Bella said, walking into the living room, not even flinching at the blood she had to step over.
Maybe this investigation won't be so bad, I thought, watching her squat next to the body that was lying in the middle of the living room.
