Prologue

She raised the gun, ready to end Mal's life. Natara felt her breath catch cold in her throat, she didn't want to do it…but she owed it to Mal. She had no choice.

One Day Earlier

"Nat!" cried Mal, at this point still alive. "Got another case!" he walked up to Natara, who was standing by the bullpen, and handed her a file.
"What else is new?" she said, scowling. She was already having a particularly bad morning, having spilled coffee on her shirt and getting stuck in traffic for fifteen minutes.
"Well good morning to you to" said Mal, his eyebrows raised at her angry outburst.
Natara couldn't help the smile creep on her face "Sorry, bad morning. Who was murdered this time?" she asked with the air of someone asking the weather.
"ID said she was 'Melissa Jones', age 21" said Mal "But she's really Alyssa Simmons, age 19"
"Well she certainly used her imagination when thinking of names. Find a reason for the fake ID?" she asked, peeking in the file.
"Yeah, she's a collage girl. Probably wanted to sneak into a club with her boyfriend. We got him here, he was the one who was with her when she died." said Mal "Interestingly enough, she died three days ago."
"Then why are we only getting called in now?" she asked "She's under eighteen, but why would he wait so long to call?"
"He claims they were kidnapped for three days" answered Mal.
"Can we talk to him?" asked Natara.
"Yeah, he's waiting in the interrogation room now" said Mal. Together they entered, and a young man, maybe twenty or so, sat in one of the chairs. He was in the corner, his knees up to his chin and his feet with him on the chair. He had visible scratches on his palms from digging his hands in, his eyes were filled with clear fear.
"Jimmy Davis?" said Natara, approaching the boy cautiously "I'm special agent Williams, and this is Detective Fallon. We'd like to ask you a few questions." The boy unraveled from his defensive position and looked at her.
"Are you gonna find him?" he barely whispered.
"We're going to try" she said soothingly. "But I need you to answer a few questions".
He nodded "Anything."
"Can you tell my why you and Alyssa had fake ID's?"
"Not what you're thinking" he said "Alyssa and I were taking art classes in collage. She submitted a piece of artwork to a public gallery. They took it, and wanted her to be there when they had an open house. Thing was, we weren't old enough to go, it was only supposed to be for adults and they had alcohol there. I swear! We didn't go for that!" he said.
He looked nervously at Natara, as if expecting her to accuse him of something. When she didn't, he continued "We got there, used out fake ID's to get in. Alyssa got nervous when this guy kept coming back, looked kinda shady you know? We decided to leave early. When we walked out, he followed us. We went into a local library, figured if this was some creep he wouldn't do anything in such a public place. I thought we lost him. When we got out, he just grabbed Alyssa when we walked passed and ally. Smashed her head against the wall to knock her out."
"But she was still alive then?" asked Mal.
Jimmy nodded "Yeah. So I couldn't just leave her there, so I ran in after her. Next thing I know the dude hits me over the head with something and I'm knocked out."
"Where was this?" asked Natara.
"48th street. By the library." he said. Mal left to send someone to check it out.
"Continue" said Natara.
Jimmy obeyed "Next thing I know I'm in this cellar or something. Dude come in, can't see his face, too dark, and tells me Alyssa made his suffer. That she's gotta pay. Hands me a knife, tells me he doesn't want her blood on his hands. Tried to take him out with it, left before I could try anything. Wouldn't do it, I wasn't gonna kil her." his voice broke, he was physically shaking. Natara put a comforting hand on his arm.
"It's okay" she soothed "Your safe now."
Jimmy was sobbing now, barely choking out the next few words "Alyssa's diabetic. I don't even know how she made it past the first twenty-four hours. She was gonna die. She begged me to do it, I didn't have a choice" he looked physically I'll now. "Her last word was 'please'. I made it quick" he sobbed. "I killed her." He put his face in his hands, completely overcome by tears. "ssshhhhh…" soothed Natara "It's all over now". Jimmy continued to sob. "Keep going when your ready" she said.
"Told me it was done" he cried eventually "Told me it was over, through this loud speaker thing. Slipped a blindfold under the door, told me to put it on. I did. Came in and tied my hands behind my back. Shoved me out, knew I was outside."
"How?" asked Natara.
"It was so cold in there" he whispered "When I walked out I could feel the sun on my face."
"Then what happened?" asked Natara, gently pushing for information.
"Shoved me into a car. Pushed me out by the side of some road. Next thing I know I'm here" he said, trying and failing to keep his voice steady.
"You never saw his face?" asked Natara.
"No, he always wore a hood or a mask." he replied, attempting to regain his composure.
"Thank you Jimmy, we'll keep you in the loop" she said, walking out to Mal, who was talking on a cell phone.
He ended his call, turning to Natara "Van Gogh over there told the truth. Found the ally he was talking about, both his and the victims blood on the walls and ground. So unless they were back there chopping each others ears off, I doubt he's lying."
With a slight smile, Natara said "Get ahold of who was on watching the door at the Gallery last night?"
"Yeah, he's there now. Wanna go pay him a visit?" he asked.
"Yeah, he might remember something. I doubt the UnSub used a fake ID. He's probably old enough to get in on his own." she said.
"Alright, let's go then" he said.
Ten minutes later they pulled up at a art gallery. Several people cleaned up liter outside, and man oversaw them, constantly looking at his watch. Mal and Natara approached him.
"Antony Wells?" said Mal. The man nodded. "I'm Detective Fallon, this is Special agent Williams, we'd like to ask you a few questions regarding last nights homicide."
", did you see anyone acting suspiciously last night?" asked Natara, getting straight to the point "Probably wearing dark clothing, a hood. Possibly with these two kids" she held out two photographs of Alyssa and Jimmy.
"Yeah, I seen 'im" he said.
"Do you know his name or remember anything about him?" she asked.
"No, real sketchy though, ya know?" he said.
"Yeah, we got that" said Mal "Did you notice anything unusual about him?".
"Now that ya mention it, he was hangin' outside for a while. Didn't wanna come in it seemed. The whole time he walked around like he was going through so kinda horror museum, real strange." he added "Saw 'im walk by a couple times."
"Notice anything specific about the kids?" she asked.
"Nope, looked awfully young though." he said.
"Yeah, that's because they were using fake ID's" said Mal aggressively.
"Look man, I didn't know. It was dark, the girl had a freakin' piece in there, she had a pass sayin' so!"
"Come on Mal, that's not our main concern. Let's go back and see if Amy has anything for us." Twenty minutes later they returned, pulling into the station and going downstairs to the crime lab. As they entered, Amy turned around excitedly "Natara! You said that Jimmy said there was a intercom system and camera in the cellar, right?"
"Yeah, I didn't day anything about a camera though" she said.
"Yeah, but he must have had one if he knew that Jimmy put the blindfold on or killed that poor girl" she said. "Anyways, I looked up several people who had those installed in their homes. I got four hundred people in San Francisco. After that, I found out this is a similar crime happening. Several art studio's and gallery's across the city have reported missing persons or murders. Each missing in two's, either one or both still missing. Most of the time one returns, but is refuses to corporate. Nothing alike in the victims, different occupations and everything. This guy never hits the same place twice. Captain Yeong has already left to get her wife home, she's an artist and the studio she goes to hasn't been his yet."
"Amy, cross reference people who have been institutionalized or have had psychological help." said Natara.
"I have twelve results, all male." she said. "This one's interesting, this guys been treated for Stendhal Syndrome"
Both Amy and Natara gave each other identical worried looks.
"Am I the only one that doesn't know what that means?" asked Mal.
"It's a mental illness where a person can't handle beautiful pieces of art or scenery" explained Natara "Persons with this illness often experience hallucinations when exposed to art."
"So, this guy is killing artists to lessen the risk of experiencing these symptoms?" asked Mal.
"There's a good chance of it" said Natara "But we won't know until we pick him up."
Amy handed Natara a recently-printed sheet if paper bearing the name and address.
"Thanks Amy. Come on Mal, we need to get there before he strikes again." They ran out of the building, past a shocked Captain Yeong and into the car.
"174 Westbrook Lane!" she cried as they hurriedly drove. Fifteen minutes later they pulled up to a small and run-down house in a poor neighborhood.
"How do you think we should play this?" asked Mal.
Natara glanced at the paper Amy gave her "'Alexander Reid, age Thirty-one. Record of small felonies.' All violence-related acts. He could be dangerous." she said. "Better play it safe. Looks like he's a Sadist, and that and any other mental illness is a dangerous combination. He could easily treat us the same as any of our other victims. Act like he's done nothing wrong. Don't accuse him of anything unless he resists".
"Sounds good enough to me" he said as they both got out of the car. They walked up to the front door, and Natara couldn't help but fell like something wasn't right. "SFPD! Open up!" yelled Mal, pounding on the door. They could hear a scuffle behind the door, but no one came. Mal nodded to Natara, and she returned it. Mal kicked down the door, gun drawn. Natara followed. "Come out with your hands up!" yelled Mal.
Natara gasped "Mal! Look out!" but it was to late. A dark figure had already smacked Mal with something heavy and metal from behind, a frying pan. Mal crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Natara went to fire at the man, but the figure batted away her gun unnaturally fast with his hand. He hit her on the side of her head, almost knocking her out to. Mal was feebly stirring, and the figure stabbed him once, twice, three with a kitchen knife before Natara's scream distracted him. He came over, giving her a second sharp blow and completely knocking her out.