Thanks for those of you who read/reviewed the first chapter! It really means a lot to me, since this is my first story. TW: violence, blood.
2.
Nico watched as the dark brown liquid dribbled from the coffee container and into his cup, casting ripples across the surface. He imagined the color of dirt turning to blood-red shades of crimson, gathering in his cup the way it gathered beneath Jason Grace's chair. Sometimes, he felt as if his imagination got the better of him, but people say that was what made him a good agent.
"Di Angelo, Solace," came a sharp voice from the opposite side of the room.
Will and Nico both looked up from their coffee cups to see a familiar woman with jet-black braided hair and high heels deliberately walking towards the coffee station with the ever-present air of formality. Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, or the bearer of bad news as she was commonly referred to by those she supervised, had an uncommonly long name to fit her time and title at the FBI, being the Executive Assistant Director for Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. It was a mouthful to say, and her job was even more difficult to handle. Over her years of holding the title, she had earned a good deal of respect along with a reputation of being stern yet thorough with every case.
When she reached him, Reyna handed Will an even thicker file than the one he held. "You two have been reassigned to a new case."
"We just got a new case this morning," Nico told her. "Why are you reassigning us so quickly?"
Complaining to the assistant director had the same effect of complaining to a rock wall. She sighed, flicking a strand of loose hair away from her face. "Believe me, I didn't ask for this. Topside wants more investigators on this case, so I had to put you guys on it instead of the one you got this morning."
Topside. Nico knew that Reyna was referring to the deputy director and, by association, the director himself. If they were involved in this, it must've been serious.
"And the case we're on now?" Will asked. "What's going to happen to that?"
"It hasn't been reassigned yet," Reyna replied, taking Will's previous case file away from him and tucking it under her arm in an exchange. "From what I see, we will probably need to abandon it. This was a one-time kill as of what we know so far. The case you're getting transferred to is much more important, especially to topside."
Nico must've been visibly displeased because his superior took one look at him and added, "Look, topside thinks it's serious enough to assign me to help the investigation in addition to overseeing everything else. We need new eyes on this case. Try to see it from a different perspective, and come to better conclusions than the ones we have now."
With that, she walked away briskly, high heels clicking as she left.
"Well, the day just gets weirder and weirder," Will commented, bringing his attention back to his coffee.
"Guess we can't really complain if it's topside that assigned this," Nico told him. "Let's sit down and look at it while I still have the mind to. My coffee's getting tragically cold."
Back in Nico's office, Will opened the file. Sitting on opposite sides of the desk, Will placed the pictures and paperwork sideways so that they could both read.
"Why do they call him the Harpy?" Nico asked his partner, pointing at one of the forensics analysis papers with a label written at the top in sharpie. "Isn't that a bird?"
"Guess it's the way he kills his victims," Will supplied. "Harpy eagles pierce their prey's skull with their talons."
"That's all kinds of messed up. And just this morning, I thought beheading was the weirdest it was going to get for me today."
Will chuckled, but the expression faded away quickly as he scanned the summary of the case. "Whoever this guy is, he's been dropping bodies for some time now. Look at this—" he pointed at the report, angling it so Nico could read, "—he's killed five people already, all within the same two weeks."
"It says he just dropped three of the five bodies in the past three days," Nico pointed out, taking a sip of his coffee. "They're becoming more and more frequent. That's probably what's gotten topside all ruffled up."
Will threw his empty coffee cup into the trash can next to Nico's desk. "These victims are all either in their twenties or thirties, but other than that, there's no connection. He's targeting people of all ethnicities and occupations."
"Even the age range is a bit sketchy to call a connection," Nico agreed. "Yet they say there's always a connection."
Will nodded in agreement. "You just have to know where to look."
Nico di Angelo stared at the pictures. The victims were always leaning against something, propping them up to give the illusion of sitting, just like how Jason Grace was propped up in his chair. Looking at a picture taken from a different angle revealed that the same victim had a puncture wound at the base of their skull, acting as a tap or a spout for their blood to pour through.
"The cause of death in every single one was brain trauma," Will informed Nico, showing him the forensics reports. "The weapon this guy used pierced through every victim's cerebellum and brainstem, but never went as far as penetrating the other side of the skull."
"This guy must've been a surgeon. Or have decent knowledge and experience with the human brain."
His partner nodded in silent agreement.
"And they don't have any leads after two weeks?" Nico asked, incredulous. "All they know is that he's got a history that's associated with brains or medicine?"
"Apparently so." Will held up yet another report out of the many papers stacked on top of one another. "From this map I'm looking at, it says that the bodies were found sporadically over the city, some towards the center and some towards the outer regions. There's no rhyme or reason to any of this."
"Intelligent psychopaths," Nico muttered under his breath. He finished the last of his now-cold coffee. "They know how to not get caught."
"What's the point of topside assigning more agents to this case if there aren't any leads to begin with?" Will grumbled. "There are literally no traceable patterns this killer has left except for the way he kills his victims. Without that, we wouldn't even know that these murders are associated with each other."
"If I were supervising this case, I would tell everyone to start at square one." Nico tapped at the picture of the first victim, a pretty girl with black hair and blue eyes who didn't look to be older than twenty. "It can't hurt to talk to the people who knew our first victim."
He tossed the empty coffee cup into the trash can and stood up, grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair. With the new autumn chill, he was going to need the extra layers of warmth.
"Let's go."