Detective Jake Peralta walked out of Captain Holt's office. He'd just been assigned a case. Now normally he would be happy about this, excited to go and get working, finding all the evidence and solving the mystery. But today was different. Today he had been assigned his worst nightmare.
This wasn't the first time he'd been assigned this case. The last time, however, hadn't gone so well. The case was about the 'Love Doctor' as he (or she) called themselves. They were a murderer, who killed couples all around Brooklyn, and had been especially active in the 99th precinct. They were flamboyant in the way they left the scenes: after they killed the couple, they would leave handwritten Valentine's cards, written in a special pen that couldn't be traced, with his/her non-dominant hand so that the handwriting couldn't be recognised. The cards always said something insane about love and murder and Jake was sure they made some sort of puzzle, but he couldn't figure it out quite yet. This case was the first case he had worked with Detective Amy Santiago. They had spent months working the case, following all the clues and evidence, but eventually, their quarry just disappeared. Now they were back at it again, and this time Jake was even more determined to catch them.
"Hey Amy, we got a case." Jake walked out over to her desk.
"Ooh, what is it?" Amy asked. She loved cases, and, though she wouldn't tell anyone this, she especially liked working them with Jake.
"You're not gonna like this one," he responded, "actually, you know what, maybe I won't tell you. Yeah, I'll just take Charles instead." His teasing was incessant.
"Just spit it out Jake!" she begged, starting to get annoyed.
"Fine," Jake gave in, "it's the Love Doctor."
"Seriously? That guy? Damn this case is going to suck!" Amy realised why Jake had said she wasn't going to like the case.
Jake and Amy walked out of the precinct. They had gathered all the evidence they needed and were on their way to the most recent scene of the Love Doctor's crime. They walked over to Jake's car and got in.
"Ugh the seat's sticky!" Amy exclaimed as she sat down.
"Yeah sorry about that, I spilt orange soda there yesterday."
"Damn it, these pants are ruined. We need to stop by my place, I have to get a new pair."
"Okay if you say so." Jake said, turning at the next intersection to head towards Amy's apartment.
Amy walked out of the apartment, clothes changed and towel in hand.
"I'm not sitting on that again." she said, putting the towel down on the seat.
"Title of your sex tape! Okay, can we finally head to the crime scene?" Jake asked. Amy death stared Jake until he looked away, then the smile started breaking through. She tried to hide it, she really did, but it wouldn't go.
The apartment was a mess, but that was just part of the lifestyle of the victims. The living room, on the other hand, was perfect. Everything was tidy and in place where it was expected to be. The things out of place were the bodies. Sitting in two armchairs, holding hands, were the dead bodies of the victims, Daniel and Lili Adams. There were clear signs of death - slits across both throats - but everything had been cleaned up, not by police, but by the murderer. On the table between the two armchairs stood a Valentine's card. Jake and Amy looked at each other. They knew this was the closest thing they would get to a clue as to who the murderer was, though they still asked for the apartment to be searched completely.
Every time he read one of these, Jake would feel like his mind had been scarred. This was the 6th card he'd read since he was assigned the case the first time, and it still wasn't any less haunting. It read:
Dear Murder,
There is nothing and no one I love more than you. You complete me, you make me happy, you make me free, you give me a sense of purpose. I hope you will stick with me to the end of time, just as you have all these years.
With love,
The Love Doctor
Jake put the card back down on his desk with the other evidence he was looking over. He sighed. He had been going over the evidence for hours, hoping there would be something new, something that would change the case for the better. A single lead is all it would take for Jake to regain hope, but there was nothing.
"Got anything?" He asked Amy, hoping, pleading that something would be found.
"No, sorry." Amy responded, looking up from her pile of documents and records. She looking almost as dejected as he did. Jake's heart sank. If anyone was going to find evidence in a pile of papers, it was Amy. His mind ran wild. Surely there was some way they could find something, some method they hadn't thought of.
"AHA! I've got it!" Jake exclaimed suddenly, startling Amy.
"What is it? Have you solved it?" Jake was examining a board of photos. They all showed the security footage of the apartments where the victims had been killed. Except there was no footage because it was black. At first this had been a dead end, but then Jake noticed the time stamps of the footage. They were all the same time in the evening. He also remembered that all the victims had been with the same insurance company. This hadn't seemed like much, because it was a pretty big company, but then Jake noticed how there had been a company fundraiser held on each of the nights the couples were murdered. Each of these fundraisers had a sign-in sheet, where the people attending would sign their names in when they arrived, and out when they left. The leaving times on these sign-in sheets were all exactly one hour before the time stamps on the security footage. Jake explained all of this to Amy.
"So you're telling me," Amy said, catching on to what Jake was leading up to, "that this murderer went to these events, targeted specific couples, and then followed them and killed them."
"Yep"
"But why choose those specific people?" Amy had an epiphany. "Maybe the time they left is some sort of code!" She looked at the times. "It must be! I'm thinking that it's just a simple a=1 code. Which means that 12:15:22.005 A.M. would mean…love! Now we just have to find someone to do with love who would do this."
"Amy you're a genius!" Jake was getting excited. They were finally going to crack this case.
"Don't give me all the credit, you got most of the solve." Amy watched as Jake agreed with her, beginning to gloat. As he turned away, she smiled fondly. She couldn't help but love his antics.
