AN:
Alright new rules: Since I'm busting my but writing this in the little spare time I have, I would greatly appreciate reviews. I've kind of been posting a new chapter once I get a review of the old. I'm also going to be more tempted to write more revealing chapters if the reviews are in depth.
We have a cover! I drew this last weekend. For a better image go-
gallery/#/d5mz5zg
And yes last chapter we did get our first brief glimpse at the killer!
…
The paper calls it a "GRIZZLY, MULTIPLE HOMICIDE". What could be more obvious Mello thinks as he reads the headline. This is the first print on the murders and so far no major details have been given aside from the horrifying few that are so obvious there was no hiding them. The mutilated genitals are the first thing that gets latched onto, a crude diagram of the damage is shown below the headline in the absence of an actual photo. The diagram is sensational enough on it's own. The article might as well have been written by a Hollywood Screenwriter for all the flair it added. Sheriff Hunt is quoted, "It is a tragedy that in our world things like things still happen. My associates and I are working to our fullest capacities to identify whoever is responsible for this and bring them to justice." Mello ponders if that is true or not as he and Matt speed down the highway from Boise to Caldwell.
Matt procured a car for them on craigslist and had the man that sold it to them drop it off at the airport. They'd done this before a few times. It wasn't a perfect system but so far they didn't have to deal with any annoying cab drivers or police escorts. Mello sits with his seat pulled back as far as it will go with the seat at it's greatest incline. He's practically sprawled out with the newspaper over his face.
"Anything interesting or incredibly inaccurate?" Matt asks as he tries to find a radio station worth listening to. Mello finishes reading the article and folds up the paper.
"No nothing too crazy, they didn't let it sound boring though. There were lots of adjectives and adverbs.' Garfield waddled a crossed his dirty office toward the naughty female deputy, spanked her pink with a flat paddle and said I hate Mondays!'. That kind of junk." Mello rattled off without interest. Matt laughed lightly.
"Please tell me you're talking about the fat orange tabby and not mocking the nice sheriff that's been very helpful thus far?" Light scolded as he leaned up between them from the back seat. Matt considers slamming on the breaks and doing the world a favor but unfortunately Mello doesn't have his seatbelt on either. Damn he thinks. Mello just flips Light off in response and takes a swig of his Arizona Kiwi Strawberry tea. Light ignores him and goes back to typing on his laptop. Matt and Mello check out his face in the rearview mirror. As they suspected Light has that smile that goes to his eyes while not being creepy. He's talking to L, they both conclude. Mello makes a retching noise while Matt sticks two fingers down his throat. "Stop." Light says without interrupting his typing.
"Hey if you wanted us to stop you could have gone back to wherever L is holed up at the moment. Or jumped off a cliff, the latter would be preferable." Mello sassed.
"And if I wanted to be unproductive and let the killer live free longer, I would have." Light retorted without pause. Mello turned around and glared.
"What like we aren't capable of handling this case on our own?" Light finally looked up at Mello.
"Yes." The two of them share a long moment of knowing looks. Matt stays very quiet. Mello straights up and turns around. He stares blankly ahead for the moment.
"Matt?" Matt makes a noise of acknowledgment. "What's the worst he could do to us?" Matt thinks about the question for a moment before smiling. Light slowly closes his laptop not liking the sound of that. He looks between them curiously but not yet in a panic.
"Without our real names and without L's consent? Not much."
…
Mello and Matt howl with laughter as they drive away from the rock quarry/shooting range where they just left Light without his laptop, watch, cellphone, wallet, and shoes. In fact all he had was most of his clothes and a large water bottle.
Light takes a few deep breaths. After about twelve seconds of trying to be calm,
"Oh fuck it why do I bother!" He then proceeds to scream to his heart's content.
…
"Are you sure we're not going to get killed for that?" Matt asks as he and Mello walk up to the crime scene. Mello shrugs and gestures toward the yellow tape and cops swarming around the area.
"Who knows? Let's go introduce ourselves before the heart attacks start, okay?" Mello says casually. Mello strides over to the man directing the team that's currently unearthing the bodies. Men in hazard suits with shovels struggle with the ground inside decrepit foundations. Mello takes stock of them for a moment. The house was built sometime between 1920-1930 and had burned down some years ago. Animals and plants have long since taken over around the bare foundation. The dusty dirt is solid like drywall. The men digging scrape away at the ground stripping away layers inch by inch. Matt is occupied looking over the technology, the bodies are visible on a screen attached to a machine that can scan the ground and see what kind of material is in it. The corpses are obvious inside the ground. Matt takes note that this machine is probably the most expensive thing he's seen so far in this town. They must have had to make special calls to get ahold of it. He glances around and spots a couple of FBI men that may have been the ones supplying the expensive equipment.
Mello leans on the table the Special agent from the FBI sits in front of. The blonde studies the material on the table and quickly decides none of it is actually important, just a lot of bureaucratic American bullshit about jurisdictions and court orders. The FBI agent looks up and promptly takes off his sun glasses and extends his hand.
"They told me you'd be dressed oddly. You must be Mello and the red head eying Agent Kent's Ground Penetrating Radar must be Matt." Mello shakes the man's hand. He's happy to see someone who can think for themselves.
"I really hope that's not a euphemism or somebodies getting their ass kicked. Nice you meet you too, agent Robert Neuman." Agent Neuman smiles.
"And I'm not even wearing a name tag. Call me Neuman, my own wife doesn't even call me Robert. Or agent for that matter." He gestures for Mello to walk over to the hole in the ground. Mello is displeased to note that they haven't made progress.
"How long have you been trying to dig them up?" Neuman looks at his watch.
"About three hours since we got the order to go ahead. So far we've uncovered two feet of ground that had already been disturbed when we found the first girl." Mello nodded.
"I can tell why you didn't look deeper for others." Mello adds.
"There hasn't been a non-gang related multiple homicide around here in quite some time. Especially one involving a serial killer. We had no reason to think there'd be anything else down there." Matt strolls up next to Mello he caught the conversation so far while he was looking over the tech.
"You say we were you involved when the first victim was discovered?" Neuman nods and adjusts his FBI baseball cap.
"Yes, the nature of the mutilation threw up some red flags. The local office sent a request that I come out here and consult since the local folks didn't know what to make of it. We concluded it was sexual sadism and put a watch out for more like this. That's how our office and the folks over in Salem got in touch. We heard there were multiple bodies in the same place so we brought the GPR out to take a look. Sure enough, you know the rest. Don't worry about the slow work, we've got some better equipment coming from Boise, it's just taking a few minutes to be loaded and get sent out here." Mello and Matt look at each other and decide that the FBI agent is proficient enough for his role.
"Where is the eighth body now?" Mello asks. Neuman checks his cellphone.
"Right now it's waiting to be exhumed. The judge signed the order an hour ago and the family has been notified. The body will be back at the coroner's office tonight for you two to take a look at." He says. Matt grumbles and looks at Mello.
"That's alright, we'll check in once the other bodies are with it. But call us when you get done digging I want to see them as they come out of the ground." Mello says. He doesn't want to subject Matt to another bout of bodies without good reason. They walk off and Neuman waves them off without a goodbye. One of the local policemen walks up to Neuman.
"How'd you know who those boys was?" He asks. Neuman smiles and pats the man on the shoulder.
"They were described to me as too gay to be local."
