Chapter 1 - Cinderella
"This is a nasty one guys, and this is personal to me. There's some quite awful pictures here." Zeke Mount informed his group as everyone gathered together in the conference room. Everyone sat down on their chairs and leaned back, some of them with coffee in their hands. Zeke began to put up pictures over the wall, as they always did when it was something heavy going on. Everyone in the room looked in silence as he put up pictures of seven dead people on a local bus from last night.
"All these people were shot in the head last night on the bus. Execution style, and we're definitely dealing with an excellent shooter. A window was shattered in the bus and there was a purse with identification of none of these victims lying on a seat."
Zeke put up another picture of the wall, and everyone in the room immediately felt sick to their stomachs.
"The purse and identification belonged to this woman, who was found by an anonymous tip to the police station this morning. Her name is, according to the id on the bus, Catherine Jones. She's a waitress, originally from Lexington, North Carolina, came here to try and get somewhere as a lawyer. She ended up working at a diner and she's been there since. Dental records are being checked to make sure it's the same person but the police thinks it is."
"What the hell happened to her?" Mica whispered, breathing through her nose.
The picture showed Catherine Jones, or what was left of her, lying on her back on a bed. Huge parts of her body was missing, and there was blood absolutely everywhere. The light dress was colored red, and even through all the mess, everyone could clearly see the glass shoe on her foot.
"When the police got there the room was crawling with rats and mice. She was eaten. This note was in our mail this morning." Zeke said, holding up a note that he read out loud.
"Meany, sneaky. Jump at you. Bite at you!"
"What does all this mean?" Tommy asked, just as confused as most of the others.
"Well, the glass shoe is probably some correlation with Cinderella, and I've done some research this morning. That sentence in the note is a direct quote from the movie." Jenny answered.
Silence fell over the room for a few seconds as everyone looked at the pictures, trying to put themselves into the horror and pain the young woman must've gone through. All of them shared a shudder before Mica spoke up.
"So why Cinderella?"
"I think that's for me to answer." Jenny continued. Zeke had asked her to bring up all the information about a Catherine Jones and she had the file lying in front of her on the table. "Her mother died when she was born, and her father died when she was 12. She grew up together with her father's new wife and that woman's two daughters."
"Cinderella." Everyone agreed.
"Yes, but she had a great relationship with her stepmother and her sisters." Jenny added. "At least as far as I can tell."
"Zeke?" Tommy asked, making Zeke turn around towards him.
"Yeah?"
"Why is this personal to you?"
"The girls father used to be a very close friend of mine, before he died. When she moved here I looked after her, and I have been since."
Everyone nodded slowly, looking away awkwardly from Zeke. He looked away for a minute, and everyone could tell this case had hit close to home. Zeke took a moment before turning around to his group, clearing his throat.
"José and Mica, I want you two to fly to Lexington and see her stepmother. The jet leaves in two hours."
Mica and José nodded both to Zeke and to each other.
"Kris and Joanna, go to her apartment and see if you can find anything useful."
"Are we looking for something special?" Kris asked.
"Clues." Zeke smiled, and Kris and Joanna nodded as Jenny handed Kris a file with Catherine's address. Kris opened it up and eyed through it before closing it, smiling to Jenny.
Kris nudged Jenny's arm and Jenny looked up at her. Kris put her head to its side as she observed Jenny. Jenny seemed distracted, and Kris put in her mind to talk to her between four eyes later.
"Tommy and Peter, go through everything Jenny knows about this woman and the other victims. Go through this woman's life, her bank account and her friends, try to find something of value. I bet the killer is someone she knew, or at least had kept an eye on her for a while. He or she must've known that she grew up without a father but a stepmother and sisters. Otherwise she wouldn't have been chosen."
"Yes sir." Peter and Tommy nodded.
"Anyone find anything, call in to me immediately." Zeke finished before everyone rose to their feet and walked out of the room, splitting up two and two.
"I'll be with you in a second Jo." Kris smiled as she grabbed Jenny by the hand and pulled her into Kris' office.
"What it is?" Jenny asked as Kris closed the door behind them, walking over, leaning towards her desk.
"You tell me. You're distracted by something."
"I'm fine Kris." Jenny smiled.
"No, something is bothering you, I can see it."
"I just don't feel so comfortable with this case. There's something telling me that we should skip it. Leave it to someone else."
"What tells you that?"
"I don't know. It's just a feeling I have, I bet it's nothing. Come on. Let's go." Jenny smiled as she grabbed Kris' elbow.
Kris wouldn't drop it that easily.
"Jenny, if you don't want to work on the case, let us know. No one can force you to work on it."
"Don't worry Kris. It will be alright. I'm just wondering if this line of work is the right for me. It's so much pain and hurt along with it."
"But you're so good at it. You helped us solve so many cases, you're a gift to the team."
"You keep telling me that, and maybe I have the brains and talent for this job, but I'm not sure I have the heart."
Kris nodded, she understood what Jenny meant. Maybe it was time for her to move on.
Kris drove to Catherine's place with Joanna in the seat next to her. They both sat in silence during the entire drive, which seemed to take forever. They were both lost in thoughts, the pictures of the woman who had been eaten to death my rodents were stuck on their corneas. It was a picture they knew would take some time to forget, and they were right. The pictute would haunt them forever.
Kris stopped outside the small apartment complex and the two women walked outside. They had gotten a key from Zeke and Kris unlocked the door as they stepped inside.
The apartment was a small one roomer with a small kitchen and small bathroom. It was neatly cleaned and the bookshelves along the walls were filled with books, maps and files. Kris looked it over, noticing everything was neatly placed in alphabetic order. Kris pulled out some files and eyed through them, but found nothing of interest. Most of it was freelance work or material for law school.
Joanna was over by a drawer, where pictures were placed on top, together with a glass bowl of different things. Joanna searched through it lightly with her hand as Kris came up from behind her.
"Anything interesting?"
"No, just spare keys, some dollars, key chains. Nothing in particular. Just ordinary stuff."
Kris nodded as she looked over the pictures on the drawer. There was a picture of the girl along with two other girls and an older woman, whom Kris guessed were the stepsister and mother. They all seemed friendly and happy, nowhere near Cinderella's upbringing.
There was also a picture of Catherine and Zeke, hugging in front of a big lake. Kris felt sadness come to her when she wondered what emotions Zeke had gone through when he found out about her. The emotions of losing someone close was something Kris never wanted to find out about.
The third picture on the drawer, showing Catherine with a young and dark man. They were sitting on a park bench, softly kissing each other. Joanna had obviously seen the picture too, cause she raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat.
"How's that young man?"
"I do not know, but I think we might need to find out." Kris smiled as she grabbed the picture, turning it around. It was dated last summer, and a small note saying "Ian and I" on the backside.
"We'll bring it and find Ian." Joanna smiled, and Kris nodded.
Before they left they checked through her mail, but there were just bills from the electric company and some ads, and Kris and Joanna left back for the office with the picture frame only.
Getting back inside the building, the receptionist stopped them just as they walked by.
"Miss Munroe!"
Kris still listened to that name, and turned around with a smile.
"Mrs Smith actually." She smiled with a wink and the receptionist put an embarrassed hand over her mouth.
"Oh, I'm sorry, of course."
"Don't worry about it. Do you have something for me?"
"Yes, this came earlier." The young woman smiled, handing Kris an envelope.
Kris looked at it as caught up with Joanna. The envelope was addressed to their department, not to Kris personally. It was adressed and had a stamp on it, but no return address. Kris carefully pulled it up in the elevator, pulling out a single sheet of paper with a note on it.
"She has eaten her last bowl of porridge, she has sat in her last chair, and she's resting in the last bed she will ever rest in." Kris read out loud to Joanna as they stepped out of the elevator.
Joanna pulled her eyebrows together as they walked, looking over to read the note better.
"What does that mean?"
"It must be a reference to Goldilocks and the three little bears."
"I haven't read that." Joanna committed.
"It's about a blond woman who walks into a house where she tastes three bowls of porridge, try to sit in three chairs and then tries three beds, falling asleep in the third one." Kris explained. She remembered the story well, she used to read it to her twins.
Kris and Joanna walked over to the bullpen where Zeke, Jenny, Peter and Tommy were sitting. Kris sat down next to Tommy as they arrived, handing the note over to Zeke.
"This was in our reception." Kris said as Zeke read it out loud.
"Goldilocks?" Tommy said, looking at Kris who nodded.
"A new victim?" Jenny asked, and Zeke nodded as he rose.
"Could be, and if a feeling I have is correct, I might know who's the next target."
"You do?"
Zeke walked over to a phone and dialed. There was no answer in the other end and he hung up the phone with an unsteady hand.
"I had a feeling that someone wanted to get to me by killing Catherine. If that's the case, I have a feeling that Goldilocks is a young girl I helped get away from her abusive parents."
"Mona York?" Jenny asked. She had also helped that girl out.
"Yes." Zeke nodded, his voice filled with dread.
"How does she fit into the Goldilocks story?" Kris asked carefully.
Zeke looked away, so Jenny took over. "She has three Karelian bear dogs."
Thanks for reviews guys! You all know reviews makes me upload faster! I have six more chapters uploaded to the site already but I'm being a mean girl and won't upload the next chapter until I see that people like this story ... No appreciation, why even bother to post? I know lots of people are reading so .... :P
