Chapter 2 – Goldilocks
"What's a bear dog?" Tommy asked as they sat in the car.
"It's a Nordic hunting dog, basically from Karelian, in West of Russia, just by the Finnish border." Zeke explain. "It's bred to hunt bear."
Zeke, Joanna, Peter, Tommy and Kris drove in two cars to Mona York's house. Zeke had told them that the house actually belonged to him, and he helped the girl out with pretty much everything. He had gotten her out of her family, and managed to get custody of her. He had taken care of her for a few years until she was legally and adult. Now she had just turned 22.
The gang walked inside, Jenny had decided to stay back at the office. If this murder, if it was a murder, were as gut wrenching as the last one, she felt no need to be there and see it.
Zeke unlocked the door with his own key and they all walked inside. The house was quite small, three rooms plus a small kitchen and bathroom. They all walked around, calling her name, without getting a response. Kris was the first one to walk inside the living room.
"Guys!" She called as she stopped in the doorway. Everyone came up behind her, and gasped. Zeke turned his head away and walked away a few steps, leaning against the wall with his hand.
They all stared at the scene in front of them. All of them could easily see that this was the tale they had discussed earlier. There was a table in the middle of the room, with three bowls standing on it. Two of the bowls were containing porridge while one of the bowls were empty. There were three chairs around the table, with one of the chairs broken into pieces. There were also three beds in the room, and a young woman was lying on her back in one of three beds. They could all see signs of suffocation in her face. Her eyes were wide open in horror, and the blood vessels in her eyes had burst, making the eyes look completely red. She also had red marks in her face, especially below the eyes.
In the room were also the three dogs, all three black and white, with the pattern that would make most people think of border collies – the black behind and back black ears and black face, with a white blaze and a white collar around the neck, down to their stomachs. The race is more used to hunt moose than bears, mostly because it's more popular to hunt moose. A good bear dog is in excellent physical condition, 22 to 24 inches at the withers, and would put a bear to flight, or even attack it. Most bear dogs would sacrifice their lives for their masters. They have very quick reflexes and have a very fearless nature, which also has made them very popular when it comes to hunting wild boar. But because of their instincts to hunt, they are not very common as a pet.
The three dogs looked over at the people as they stood in the door, and all three immediately jumped up into the bed, protecting their master. Zeke took a deep breath as he walked inside, and gestured for the dogs to follow him. The dogs knew him, and they didn't mind following him out of the door. He put them out into the kennel outside before walking back inside.
He walked up to the bed and looked over the young murdered girl, putting his hand towards his face he covered his mouth with his hand.
"I'm gonna go and call it in." Zeke said, taking a deep breath as he walked out of the room. The rest of the gang began searching the house to find any traces of who had been there, but they came up short. However killed these women knew what he or she was doing.
Another few hours later, they all meet up in the bullpen as usual.
"So what do we got?" José asked in the speaker phone.
"We got two dead girls. Both of them with connections to me." Zeke said, sitting down in a chair.
"Have you gotten any treats recently?" Kris asked Zeke.
"No, none. I have no idea who could be doing this."
"We'll go through your record and see if anyone with anger towards you shows up."
"Good."
"Messages has been left for both girls, with notes connected with their 'story'. Catherine's were left after the murder, but Mona's came before. It was like the unsub was warning us that he or she was gonna kill her." Kris added, thinking out loud.
"That means he wants us to find them before he gets to them. He's giving us a chance to stop him. He's the kind of unsub that subconsciously wants to be caught, he will not fight back when we do catch him, but he will not stop killing until we do."
"The unsub just gave us the note a little too late, the coroner said she'd been dead for about an hour when we got there." Joanna added.
"I think she knew the killer." Zeke said out of his mind, and everyone looked at him.
"Why would you say that?" Tommy asked.
"The dogs were inside. Those dogs protect their master to ANY limit, the could kill to save their master, without hesitating. Those dogs knew and trusted the person killing her, and I guess that means she trusted that person too."
"Well, then we can narrow it down a little maybe. Someone who wants to get back at you and knows Mona York." Peter said, as the others nodded.
"How's things over there?" Tommy asked to the phone.
"We've met her stepmother and sisters, but haven't gotten anything. They had a great relationship and they were all very sad to hear about what had happened." Mica answered, her voice cracking through the phone.
"Are you on your way home?" Zeke asked.
"Yeah, plane leaves within the hour."
"Good. We'll go through their phone lists, bank accounts and see if they met anyone or booked appointments with anyone while we wait for you." Jenny said, the others nodding around her.
"We'll check up Catherine Jones could-be-boyfriend too, Ian, was that his name?" Joanna asked, looking towards Kris.
"Yeah, that was his name." Kris nodded. "We'll try to find him tomorrow."
"What a day." Tommy sighed as he and Kris got into his car. Kris sank down into the passenger seat, agreeing with him. Not only were they most likely dealing with a deranged serial killer, they had no tracks what so ever. The killer hadn't left any trace, and they hadn't found any connections between the girls except that they knew Zeke. That left them with the scary conclusion that someone was attacking people around him.
Tommy and Kris stopped and picked up their twins at the day care center before heading home. Opening the front door, they immediately realized someone was cooking dinner, a weird smell spread through the house.
Kris and Tommy looked at each other before with worried eyes.
"Jill." Kris mouthed and Tommy nodded.
Ella and Sarah suddenly came out into the hall, the now Ella hugged Kris closely. The almost 10 months old Labrador dog Oscar was hurrying behind them, saying hi to Kris and Tommy as well.
"Hey girls, are you here?"
"Yeah, mum, Rory and Aunt Jill is cooking dinner."
Kris and Tommy got into the kitchen, the twins being placed in their playpen in the living room, Ella and Sarah staying with the twins.
"Jill, if you eat all of it there won't be any dinner left!" Kelly said as she tried to get some cucumber out of Jill's hands. "Although…"
"But I like it!" Jill smiled, snatching her hand holding an entire cucumber away from Kelly. She grabbed a knife and smeared peanut butter all over the cucumber, happily taking a big bite from it.
"Now you can keep it. That's disgusting Jill!" Kelly cried out as Aurore laughed from her seat by the small kitchen table.
"That really is disgusting." Aurore agreed as she tore off a small piece from the loaf of bread lying on the table.
"It's not!" Jill smiled, taking another bite.
"No, she doesn't have any type of cravings…" Kris giggled as she looked into the kitchen.
Jill, Kelly and Aurore immediately turned around, Kelly being knocked to the side as Jill's huge stomach hit her at her side. Kelly grabbed onto a chair to keep herself from falling as she rolled her eyes, giggling in Aurore's direction.
"What's cooking?" Tommy asked.
"I don't know, Jill wants it to be a surprise." Kelly said, once again rolling her eyes.
Everyone turned towards Jill who was smiling happily as she took another piece of the cucumber. Jill was five months pregnant, but had already gained a lot of weight. The reason to that was easy, Jill was eating like a horse. Kris couldn't even remember the last time she saw her big sister without something in her mouth.
"Where's Damien?" Kris asked as she walked over to sit down at a chair next to Aurore.
"New York." Jill said, pouting her lower lip.
"He left you alone? What if anything happens?"
Jill rolled her eyes at her sister. Kelly, Kris and Damien were extremely over protective of her. They watched her every move with wary eyes and it drove Jill insane. She could take care of herself, even though she was pregnant.
"He's coming home day after tomorrow. And besides, I'm not alone, I have you guys." Jill giggled, in the same time as she hitched a breath and put her hand towards her stomach. Kris was instantly on her feet as Kelly took a hold of Jill's elbow. Jill sighed loudly as she rolled her eyes.
"It's just kicking. Babies are supposed to do that." Jill smiled as she stretched her back, patting the top of her stomach as she looked down at it. "Hey, little gnome, please don't kick so hard. I don't want my skin to break."
The others laughed in the same time as the food alarm went off. Jill happily turned around, ordering everyone to gather up around the table. Kelly called for the girls as they walked out into the dining hall, and Ella and Sarah joined them by the table. Oscar snuck in underneath the table, prepared to catch any pieces that fell to the floor. Jill arrived a second later with the big casserole that she put down in the center. She had a huge gleaming smile in her face as she removed the lid. Everyone looked down into it, their eyes growing wide in disgust.
"What… what is that?" Tommy asked, swallowing hard.
"Octopus stew!" Jill smiled proudly. "I've had such cravings for octopus the last days!"
"Jill… It's purple. It's very, very purple." Kris said carefully, she too swallowing hard. It looked absolutely disgusting, the purple color, and the big chunks of suction cups from the octopus' tentacles.
"Oh, it's not that bad." Jill said as she filled her plate, happily beginning to eat the purple stew as everyone just stared at her.
Everyone stared at Jill in both amazement, shock and disbelief for a few seconds before shaking their heads, turning to each other.
"I'll put on some pasta." Kris then announced, leaving the table.
"Girls, you can go and play again if you want to." Kelly smiled, and Sarah and Ella left the table, Oscar following them, everyone relieved that they didn't have to eat Jill's food.
Kris returned a few minutes later, telling them that the water was boiling. Kris sat down next to her sister and husband, rubbing her knuckles. She was not really hungry. Today's pictures were still replaying in her brain.
"What's wrong Kris?" Kelly asked gently, she could of course immediately see that something was bothering her friend.
"Oh, just started a rough case today."
"What's it about?"
"Nothing that should be discussed by the dinner table." Kris chuckled.
"Well… We can't be more disgusted than we are due to that stew…" Kelly smiled, and Aurore, Kris and Tommy agreed to that while Jill filled up another plate.
"A woman was killed last night, she was kidnapped, dressed in a dress and a glass slipper, then attacked and eaten to death by mice and rats." Kris said.
Aurore, Kelly and Jill froze in shock and stared at Kris.
"Then a woman was killed today, lying in a room with three bed, three chairs and three bowls of porridge. She lived together with three bear dogs." Tommy added.
"Zeke knows both girls and he's worried that someone is attacking people around him."
"Do you think you're in danger?" Kelly asked worried.
"I hope not, but we'll keep ourselves on our toes." Kris said, the others agreeing.
