Kevin Corcoran had seen a lot of things in his time as both a soldier and a copper for the New York Metropolitan police. One thing that never failed to turn his stomach though was the crimes committed against children. This case however took on a more personal note as he looked at the tiny body lying on the dirty cobblestones. The small figure was clothed in nothing more than a thin white nightshift, the virginal material doing little to protect the body from taking on a slightly violet tint as it was exposed to the chilly night air. The sweet angel face with its delicate porcelain skin, blue rosebud mouth, and elfin nose was devoid of the spark that made children the enchanting creatures they normally were. It was as if the light has simply been drained out of her.
He heard his friend and partner's offers to take the body to the morgue but Kevin wasn't ready to let the angel out of his sight just yet. Stooping he scooped the ragdoll frame into his arms cradling it protectively to his chest the way a knight would a fallen princess, a part of his barbed wire heart breaking when his companions placed the blue and green plaid blanket over the girl's body, effectively obscuring her from any busybody's view. Starting toward the home of a person he knew he could count on for more answers to the numerous questions running unchecked through his mind, Kevin walked the lonely road with his broken charge.
Matthew Freeman knew it was never anything good when someone came to call at this time of night. Getting out of bed, his skittish wife already keeping a weather eye on the window of their bedroom, he located his pants and pulled them on over his sleeping gown, looping the suspenders over his shoulders as he grabbed a candelabra and descended the stairs. Sure enough when he opened his front door a crack he saw something that both came as a shock and yet no surprise at all to him really: Detective Kevin Corcoran carrying what appeared to be a small figure wrapped in an old plaid blanket. Sighing, he pulled the door open the rest of the way and stepped back to let his old war buddy enter. The two headed downstairs to the cellar where Matthew kept his medicines and other assorted hospital paraphernalia along with an operating table.
Laying the small body gently upon the grooved wood, Kevin reverently pulled the material away from the figure's face, revealing the fine features of what had once been a beautiful little girl. Her dark hair lay askew across her shoulder over her heart, the fine strands smelling slightly of rosewater, indicating she had been recently bathed before her demise. Her fingernails were clean, the white shift she wore starched a brilliant ivory shade. Even the bottom of her feet were the pale peach color they should be. The only thing he could see wrong with the child besides her blue tint caused by exposure, was the darkening bruise along her forehead above her left eyebrow. She had been bludgeoned.
After securing a fee for his autopsy services, Matthew led his friend out and began trying to discern just who and what had killed the innocent soul. Kevin meanwhile took back to the streets, looking for clues or witnesses or anything to lead him to the despicable being that had murdered such purity.