Disclaimer: The characters of Mark Sloan, Steve Sloan, Amanda Bentley, Jesse Travis and Cheryl Banks do not belong to me but to CBS, Viacom et al. All other individuals are my own creation and any resemblance to any living person is unintentional
Sleep softly My Murder
Chapter 1 "He's Back."
"You've got to stop these late nights." Katherine muttered, leaning back in her chair and staring at the screen. The report was for New York and wasn't due till Wednesday. On the other hand she was due in court tomorrow, to testify in a rape and murder case. How she ended up as the first call when there was a rape case, she wasn't quite sure, but she had a good record for getting convictions in rapes.
"The life of a workaholic doesn't suit you."
She hit the send button and began to shut down the computer as the phone rang.
"Gere" she said with a sigh.
"The boy friend found her when he got in-"
"Any sign of rape?"
"No. just like all the others."
"You are aware that the chances are in favour of it been a copycat, if it's a killing with sexual motive and you know better than I do what the chances of that are."
"Not his time." Cheryl voice was full of the confidence that had made Katherine so certain that she'd do well all those years ago. But she was still cautious.
"You said the boyfriend found her, any chance he done it?"
"Uhuh. Got an alibi. At work till ten minutes ago and got a lift back with a friend."
"Interesting."
"Routine, apparently."
"Any sign of forced entry."
"None. Look, give me and Steve some credit."
"I do. I …I just want to be sure."
They reached the bedroom.
"They ID the quote yet?"
"Not yet. No sign of what's meant to have killed her either, but the Corner said that she was strangled."
"So the quote may not be Shakespeare, which would mean it wasn't our boy."
Cheryl smiled as she pushed open the door.
"I'm sure you remember Steve Sloan."
The sandy haired man in his late twenties got up from where he'd been kneeling by the body, talking to a young black woman wearing the blue jumpsuit of the medical examiners office.
"Katherine Gere, no relation to the actor." Katherine said holding out her hands.
"Amanda Bentley." The woman said, holding out her hand, then noticing the gloves and withdrawing it.
"The body found here?" she asked wandering over to dressing table.
"Yeah."
"She faints. My lady.
She is dead." She read off the folded sheet by the bed. "King Lear."
She wandered back over to the bed, her stomach churning with terror.
"This hers?" She asked, lifting a ribbon left across the chest.
"Not as far as we can tell."
Katherine nodded, holding the ribbon up to the light.
The gold embroidery caught the light, spelling out the words ELIZABETH ROBERTS.
The fear drying out her throat like a desert, she turns to faced Steve, Cheryl and Amanda.
"You were right Cheryl. He is back."
TBC