Just a Serial Killer

Prologue:

It was too early in the morning to be tagging bodies in dark alleyways, but that was exactly what Trowa Barton was doing. There was a thin layer of water over the ground and lightly dusted the cold body laid out in front of him. As a city coroner, he dealt with the body while detectives worked around him.

It was a dark morning in New York City, broken only by the red and blue of the police cruiser lights.

Detective Wufei Chang knelt on the cracked wet ground beside a steel green dumpster, white gloves moving along the ground in front of him.

"The ground is filthy everywhere except where the body was laid out. The killer respects the victim's body enough to clean the ground where he lays them."

Wufei's boyfriend and partner of two years was sitting half in and half out of his police cruiser. His fingers moved surely over the keys of his laptop as he filed a preliminary report to headquarters about the new body. He grunted a "Hn," in response.

"God damn it!" Wufei's cursed. Trowa didn't bother looking up from the body; he was just as exasperated as Wufei.

As Heero stepped out of the cruiser he walked past the body and put a hand on Wufei's shoulder. Feeling the small squeeze, Wufei closed his eyes and lifted his right hand to cover the one on his shoulder.

The sound of high heels striking the pavement made both men stand. Une made her way past the small line of yellow tape and bypassed the cadets watching over the crime scene. Her pissed off facial expression made Heero and Wufei mentally prepare them for her onslaught. This was their boss, the Chief of Police for New York City.

Chief Une stopped dead by the body, and Trowa just ignored her presence. He opened his field pack and began to gather the body properly into the body bag. He lifted the head off the ground, sliding out a vidtape that the head had been pillowed on.

"Yuy, Chang. This is number twenty-three. If our best agents cannot find a serial killer, just one man within city limits in the past two damned years he's been killing, I don't know who can. You have one month until the anniversary of his first killing, and one month before he lays another body out for Barton to tag. After the scene is processed, take the rest of the day off. You have a whole month before you need to find him."

With that she turned sharply on her heel and left the crime scene, most likely off to make a public statement for the press.

As she walked, she called over her shoulder, "And Wufei, go get some sleep. That's an order."

Heero grabbed onto Wufei's jacket as his lover turned around and smashed his fist into the dumpster behind him.

"Twenty-three, Heero. We've fucked up twenty-two times now. This woman is dead because we couldn't find him in time." Wufei's normally sharp voice had an edge of anger and maybe sadness to it that pained Heero to hear. Heero wrapped both arms around him.

Trowa looked up at them as he zipped up the body bag. "You guys are good; I just need to transport the body to the morgue."

Heero nodded, thankful for Trowa and his expertise. He didn't have to worry that the coroner was overlooking evidence needed to catch the killer. Trowa bagged the vidtape and passed it to Heero.

This was a long night for all three of them but especially so for Wufei. The two partner police team had been put on assignment nearly two years ago to find the serial killer that plagued the streets of New York. Since the first two victims had been found, exactly one month between them, the team had put every other case aside when they realized there was a pattern.

Wufei had been the first to realize the victims were reported missing exactly two weeks prior to finding their bodies.

This continued at a pace of one missing person per mid-month. Going through all missing persons cases from that time period Wufei and Heero frantically searched for any information from the public and the sparse evidence that had been left behind. At the end of the month there was one of these missing persons whose body was laid out dramatically somewhere in the city, always.

Trying to determine which missing person was the victim was the hardest part. Family members went frantic, knowing because of public statements issued by the police that the serial killer kidnaped the victim first. Wufei and Heero not only had to deal with these families, they also had to deal with paperwork and video that came with the bodies.

Heero touched Trowa's shoulder as they walked by and said, "Meet us at the diner?"

Trowa's hands continued his work as he nodded. "My boss will want to process the body, so I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

Heero and Wufei left the academy cadets and Trowa to finish with the scene as they took the video to their squad car. They pulled off their white gloves and tossed them into the small medical waste bin in the dash, a routine they'd done a hundred times before.

Heero snatched the keys off of Wufei's utility belt and slid into the front seat. Wufei snorted and got into the passenger's side, too tired to put up a fight.

Heero watched his lovers face as Wufei pulled off the band holding his hair up. The black hair fell around his face, hiding his bloodshot eyes. The closer it came to the last day in the month, the less sleep Wufei tended to get. He would stay at the office all night long, tempting Heero to stay with him. Even when Heero convinced him to come home at night they would end up with files strewn all over their bed.

As Wufei's hands moved to retie the ponytail, Heero's arm shot out and buried itself in Wufei's hair. They shared a knowing look, Heero's more sympathetic as he couldn't seem to get too emotionally involved with the cases, but knew just how much it affected his partner.

"We'll find him." His fingers massaged Wufei's neck and his lover closed his eyes, moving a hand over the police laptop to rest on Heero's thigh.

"We say that every time this happens, but we don't seem to be getting any closer."

Heero looked out the front windshield as Trowa and an assistant lifted the body covered in a black bag up into the back of a coroners van. Wufei's voice almost startled him.

"Put the tape in."

"Wufei..."

Wufei clutched at Heero's hand and repeated, "Put the tape in."

Heero sighed, knowing how stubborn his lover could be and slid the vidtape from the package. If he was worried about fingerprints he would have put on more medical gloves. However, in the many times they had done this the killer never left behind a print.

The laptop screen was a bright light in the police cruiser as Heero hit the outside siren lights off. The video was crisp and very well made. The background behind the woman was a flawless black but both Heero and Wufei's expert eye searched for clues, anything that the killer had missed that might show his whereabouts.

The woman was sitting in a comfortable chair, not bound in any way. It looked as if she were there voluntarily, which irked Wufei to no end. As the video went on, his grip around Heero's hand grew stronger. She began talking, her voice just a little strained.

"I know that this looks like a bad way to go, mom and dad. Really it's not all bad. He said it wouldn't be painful, that he would kill me before he did anything like what they're going to say on the news. I just want you to know that I love you so much." The woman's voice was cracking. Her eyes flickered to the right of the camera, showing that he was in the room with her. Her eyes showed a little fear but she kept talking.

"I always had trouble at work. I didn't think anyone really liked me there. He says he'll help me get to the other side and that I was worthy to be chosen to go. This is the best way I could imagine, I think, other than maybe going in my sleep. I've only got a second left, so I just want to make sure that you know that I'm happy. I'm waiting for you in heaven."

At this point she signed the video as if it had been a letter.

"Love, Anne."

The woman had gone missing two weeks earlier from her workplace in the downtown core. At first they had thought it was a fluke, maybe a woman who ran off with her boyfriend. With a few interviews with coworkers and family members Heero and Wufei realized that she was a perfect target for the serial killer.

Her coworkers said she was quiet and shy, that no one bothered to talk to her. Her family members said she was a quiet woman that no one gave a chance to befriend.

This serial killer didn't kill for fun, he tried to choose a victim according to their worth. His main goal was to kill those who he deemed ready for the afterlife. Unfortunately, the media played up on this and started calling him the Shinigami, or the God of Death.

Wufei bit his lip and held onto Heero's hand as his lover shut the computer off and started the cruiser. He maneuvered the cruiser around the cadets and police cars to get onto the main road.

They were both silent as they made their way back to headquarters, both detectives lost in thought.

Heero dropped Wufei off at the front entrance and made his way back to the motor pool to sign in the police cruiser. As he made his way through the steel doors he waved at the security Sergeant and walked through bright halls down to the very first level of the building. Here there was a small café and diner built for off the street patrons and police officers alike. It operated twenty-four hours a day, just like police work. There were always officers milling about the place, and it was probably the safest place you could be.

Trowa was sitting in a booth opposite Wufei and Heero made his way down the orange steps to sit next to his partner. He slid one arm around Wufei's lower back and felt him lean against his side. A cheery voice accompanied a loud mouth as their server almost bounced over to their table.

"I'd give you guys menus but I really doubt that you'll use them."

Heero watched as Duo took in their mental state, and saw that they were more sullen than usual.

"Long day, guys?"

Wufei nodded, resting his defeated head on Heero's warm shoulder.

Duo's face was apologetic, twirling his braid in one hand. "I'll get you guys some coffee and cake, on the house."

As Duo bounded away again Trowa looked over the table at Wufei and Heero's exhausted faces.

"You two should get some sleep, like Une said, there's plenty of time."

Trowa might not spend all his time trying to find Shinigami, but all his victims ended up on his metal slab at the city morgue. Knowing how emotionally attached to the cases Wufei could get, and how attached Heero was to Wufei, he knew that they both needed sleep badly.

Wufei snorted. "Does Maxwell even know that it's 5am, and that he's trying to feed us cake at this ungodly hour of the morning?"

Trowa shook his head and Heero reached over and kissed the mop of black hair that Wufei hadn't bothered to re-tie. Maybe sleep wasn't such a bad idea. They continued their small talk with topics that had nothing to do with the case, waiting for the coffee their friend had promised.

In the back room of the café, Duo leaned against a wall with his head in his hands.