The next morning, early in the morning Ray sat in his car watching a pair of kids dealing drugs across the street and down a bit. According to the files these were the boys that would give Brooks and Burns the monthly cut so he watched and waited. It would be harder to take down both men but a footnote in the file mentioned that they would also take a little product and enjoy some on their lunch as they parked behind their favorite Cuban diner. Yes it was cutting it close, especially since it hadn't even been twenty four hours since he killed Matthews but he needed to make an example before moving on to the next area Atlanta, Georgia. While he waited he picked up an apple and bit into it while reading the extra folder he had taken from Matthews office on James Doakes. The man was dead, killed in some explosion, but his motive intrigued Ray since it was close to his own. As the Bay Harbor Butcher James had only killed criminals, the scum of the earth and for at least twenty five kills no one suspected a thing that was truly impressive.

Finishing up his apple Ray noticed the police cruiser pull up and the boys walk up to the window and discuss something with the men. After a few minutes the cruiser pulled away and the boys went back to where they had been standing for a few minutes longer before entering the dilapidated building they were in front of. Starting his car and pulling into the constant flow of Miami traffic Ray made his way to the diner. He lost the men in the rush of cars but knew where they were going and made his way to that same diner. Quickly stealing a spot from another car who was going to park to get some food Ray gave them the finger and he entered the restaurant, just another normal Florida asshole. Instead of going to the counter to order he went down a long hallway that led to the restrooms as well as a door where the cooks would keep open so they could take smoke breaks. Ray did his homework and ate here the past two nights, tomorrow they would be expecting him at the precinct so he couldn't hold this off any longer. Slipping outside he pressed against the dumpster for a second before peering over. The cruiser was there, it was idling and the two men where there. Brooks sat inside the cruiser, head on the wheel lazily. Burns was outside sniffing a line of coke from the hood of the car. Once he was done he stood up straight and wiped the remains off the car before walking, stumbling, to the other side and getting in as well.

Reaching into his pocket he removed his coil of wire and pulled it tight in his hands, he almost crept out of his hiding spot when a teen raced by on a bike hitting the side of the cop car this caused Brooks to snap up, hat askew a curse word bubbling off his tongue. Getting out of the car he looked after the already vanishing boy and waved his fist in the air. Ray took that moment to lash out, wrap the wire around the young man's throat and pulled him backwards off his feet. Cutting the air out of his throat Ray yanked Brooks over to and behind the dumpster without Burns even noticing. Not bothering to whisper anything to Brooks knowing that he was too far stoned to care, he barely put up a struggle and was soon gone. Laying him slowly down Ray risked going back to his car and getting his gear, he should have brought it with him the first time but just in case they did something differently he wanted to be able to hide easily.

By the time he came back Brooks' mouth dripped a little bit of saliva onto the ground which Ray brushed with his foot before pulling the body into sitting position against the dumpster with the hat pulled down. He finished in time as Burns had stepped out of the car and was coming around to where his partner sat . Dashing across the way into the shadows Ray watched as Burns walked up to Brooks and started to nudge him with his toe, trying to get him up. One hard nudge caused Brooks to slide sideways, hat falling off revealing dead eyes. Before Burns could react the wire was around his throat but now Ray wasn't giving him any time, he needed to finish this before the anything else happened. This wire was attached to a wooden handle and one it was around Burns' neck he twisted the other side around it and began to twist the handle over and over until he felt the snap and Burns slumped down, time to get to work.

Turning the key to his side of the apartment Dexter sighed and pushed his way inside. He was surprised to see Deb sitting on the couch with a beer in her hand.

"Tell me more about why you do what you do Dex," Deb called out without looking at him. Standing at the counter Dexter sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I don't think now is a good time Deb, we have Matthews' case to deal with as well as," he started but Deb cut him off.

"Fuck yes this is a good time. You know about these things Dexter and I thought it was a second sense, little did I know you were doing the same shit this asshole did."

"I do not," stated Dexter firmly, "I only kill bad people." There he said it, no hinted at it or paraphrased it he just said it.

"Deb I knew about Brian before you told me that day at Trinity's house. He contacted me when he had you and had me come to you," he almost stopped when he saw her reaction to what he was telling her but decided to follow through, "I went to him and he gave me a choice, a brother who would accept me or a sister who would deny me if she ever knew, his words. Yet I couldn't hurt you, not then and not now, he got away but if Doakes hadn't shown up I would have killed him for you. I gave him a chance to stay away Deb but he came after you again that night I had you stay at the hospital and it became clear to me."

It was then that Deb rose and walked over to him, ready to shout until he finished.

"I had to kill him to protect you, and that's what I did."

"He killed himself," corrected Deb.

"No I killed him, then hung him upside down to drain. I watched my brother die because I cannot see my life without you. I knew it then and I know it more now."

"Dex I.." but a beeping cut her off, cursing she looked at the text message from Quinn, "Looks like we have another crime scene to go to. Shit, two more bodies, blood and," she looked up at him, "Cops"

"He's officially a serial killer," said Dexter lowly as he picked up his kit again and followed Deb out.

Carla Santanos yelled profanities at Angel about how she wasn't going to make any money for the day if they kept her diner close much longer but Angel just assured her they would work quickly to find this monster, but she didn't care about that just money. Walking past him and holding up the crime tape for Deb who walked swiftly where Vince was taking pictures of the two men sitting inside a cruiser.

"What do we have?" asked Deb.

"There's blood on the ground by the dumpster Dex," said Vince with a rare amount of seriousness, no jokes because someone was targeting their own kind. "From the original look of the blood it looks like they were killed over there they placed in the car. Not only does the weapon look like wire again but look at what's placed in the window."

Walking to the front of the car and looking at the windshield Deb could read the sign there.

"We are Officer Clay Brooks and Michael Burns and we are dirty cops," she read aloud before nodding at the MEs, "If Masuka is done raking pictures you can take the bodies out and to initial reports." Walking over to where Dexter had his kit opened Deb knelt down next to him as he held up a q-tip with blood on it.

"Definitely traces of blood here maybe something else but I wont know till I get it back to the lab."

"Lucky break that it's the killers?'

"Sorry Deb probably one of the officers."

"Shit shit shit, this is not looking good for us, we need to settle this fast."

Dexter nodded nonchalantly as he unscrewed a small jar and placed the q tip in it upside down before snipping the stick off. Screwing the lid back on he looked closer where he found the blood and saw something else glistening in the sun, saliva. More then likely from the same officer but better safe then sorry. Standing up Dexter looked at the car trying to figure out how one man got the jump on two trained police officers in daylight, early morning but not dark anymore. There wasn't a second pair of tire tracks so the killer must have come up on foot. Moving behind the dumpster he crouched down and looked out seeing that he had a clear line of sight of the cruiser. Looking around for anything the killer might have dropped including seeing if he had touched the dumpster Dexter's concentration was broken because of a new car pulling up and LaGuerta getting out, preparing to talk to the press. Rising and watching her Dexter saw and moved over to Deb.

"High profile case you should be over there too Lieutenant," remarked Dexter who got a mean look from Deb before she trudged off towards the growing Media. Turning his attention back to Vince who was finishing up with the detectives he wandered back over and looked at him.

"What did you find Vince?"

"The reason the killer got the drop on these guys, they were stoned Dex. Traces of cocaine inside their noses and Officer Burns' eyes are dilated suggesting that he took some first followed by Officer Brooks. The ligature marks match the ones found on Matthews but these weren't hidden by another rope just there. Think he enjoys the splashiness of this all?"

"I think he's trying to get us to focus on the cops here, trying to reveal the evilness that we cant see."

"Are you saying that he was justified in killing these guys?"

"Not at all Vince but in his mind he is," replied Dexter whoever in the darkest part of his brain he could hear the Dark Passenger chuckle softly, because that's what he did. There was no way that this killer could know about Harry's code so he would have to do more research himself on all three men as well as dirty cops around the country, maybe there's a connection in the past that would lead to the killer.

"I'm going to take the blood I found and head back to the lab to process the results," and before Vince could say anything he was gone, already walking to his car. Slipping under the yellow tape he could hear what LaGuarta and Deb were saying to the reporters.

"The only evidence linking this killing to the one at the former deputy chief's house is circumstantial that they were members of law enforcement making the idea of a gang more then a killer. Until we have more information the names of the victims will only be released to their families. Any other questions can be answered at the official press release whenever we schedule that," explained Deb a lot more professionally then her first one with Travis Marshall.

Back at the lab Dexter swiped his card and went towards his office pausing at the door, that writer was here, Raymond Reed, sitting at Mike Anderson's desk asking the man a few questions about the past few days. Ray had noticed him and held up his hand in a greeting which Dexter merely returned with a tight smile and a nod before entering his office and pulling the blinds. Setting to work he removed the little jar and began running the DNA sequencing machine. While it ran he opened different windows and let them run and bring up information on all three dead cops. With all that in the background he opened the case file achieve and typed in the first four numbers followed by three question marks to see how many cases would come up. With nothing to do but wait for results Dexter opened a final window and searched for other dirty cop killings in the country minus gang related killings.

One of the few things that popped up looked like some sort of map of America with digital pins in them. He counted sixteen different pins starting on the west coast, they were all green except for three red ones, in Miami. Clicking one pin a shot of Michael Burns popped up, the crime was only a few hours old and someone already knew about it. Checking into the IP address he wasn't surprised to see that the address was run through several different locations, untraceable. Going back he saw that the most pins in one location was five so that could mean that the killer wasn't done with Miami just yet which gave him the ability to get revenge for Deb himself, maybe present the killer above the law so that she could see the good he did since if this site was correct this was an FBI case.

A beeping sound confirmed that the blood belonged to one of the officers so after logging it into evidence he closed that window and brought up the jacket on the pair of beat cops before pausing, closing those windows and Matthews' he logged into Internal Affairs database doing a search in there for Burns and Brooks this is where he got lucky. There was an investigation that was going to be into these men due to their involvement in a drug trade but the investigation was squashed by Deputy Chief Matthews. That's what the killer probably took from Matthew's office, any files about dirty cops in Miami. A knock at the door caused him to instantly close everything so his background of him and Harrison was there. Looking up he saw Ray standing there looking down at him.

"Hey Dexter, I was wondering if I could pick your brain for a little bit? The only other person here right now that's a detective is Mike and I've asked all I can from him."

"Technically I'm not a detective, I have a laminate."

"That's still cool, I don't look down on lab techs I mean you guys are the hearts of the police force without you guys the bad guys would go free. But if you're busy right now, it's almost lunch time and there's that food truck outside I could meet you down there?"

Without waiting for a reply Ray flashed Dexter a smile and walked off. Smiling himself on the outside but inwardly confused at Ray he returned to the screen. There were a lot of case files and it would take a little while longer so, taking off his labcoat and hanging it up, he went downstairs. Upon arriving he was waved over by Ray who had taken the liberty to purchase a pair of Medianoches which he was eating with slow bites. Sitting down Dexter picked up one of the water bottles, opened it and took a long sip almost choking on the words that came out of Ray's mouth next.

"Tell me about the Bay Harbor Butcher."