Tuesday, December 10th

When Sofia got the call to her new crime scene, her guts told her, it was related to the scene she saw yesterday. Again a street off Hollywood Boulevard, again in Little Armenia and again a rape victim. Too many details fit the case of yesterday to be a coincidence.

"Where's the vic?" She asked Lynn, who was the officer on scene again.

"Taken to Hollywood Palms ten minutes ago. She was in a critical condition, he cut her, she lost a lot of blood and needs surgery. They couldn't wait for you and from what the EMT told me, you don't have to rush after her, if they can save her, it will take some time. He doubt we can talk to her before tomorrow."

"Not the best news."

"No, sorry. It's a déjà vu. The street light is off again, the dumpster, a quiet street."

"Maybe he is the one, who shoots the street light, make the street darker."

"There's broken glass, might be from the street lamp."

"Who found her?"

"The woman over there. Was on her way to work when she heard something coming out of the dumpster. First she thought somebody dumped a dog or cat in there, although we have these cases more often after Christmas, when people realize, pets do require some work, time and money. She opened the dumpster to help the poor animal and found our vic. No wallet, no ID, covered in her own blood."

"What about the suspects on the list we made yesterday?"

"Kyle is working on them, he has some help, all of the men, they talked to yesterday had an alibi. Whoever did this to the vic, he might have promoted from rapist to killer."

"Let's hope she survives."

"Do you want me to go to Hollywood Palms?" Juana asked Sofia. The whole time she stood quiet next to the two friends, listened, watched the crime scene.

"Not now, when they have to perform an operation first, it will take some time. I assume you told the EMT what we need?"

"Yes."

"Good, I give the hospital a call, remind them of the SAFE kit and to get me the clothes. Hollywood Palms is very cooperative. Sometimes." Sofia pulled out her cell phone and typed a message.

"Who are you writing?" Lynn wanted to know.

"Doctor Bendler. If she's on duty, she will make sure we get all we need."

"Very handy to know the surgeon."

"I've no idea if she's the surgeon on duty, what I know is, when she gives instructions nobody dares to question or disobey them." Sofia herself had learnt the hard way it was the best to do whatever the energetic woman wanted.

"I remember her from two years ago, she was… she told you what you were supposed to do and you did it."

"Exactly. Okay, time to start." Sofia walked towards the dumpster. "Juana, tell me what you see."

"The dumpster, black, five foot high, eight foot long, four foot wide. No chains around the lit, means everybody can open it. It has wheels, but wasn't moved."

"How do you know?"

"The area around is dirty, no traces of the wheels in the dirt. I do see various shoe impressions, from the EMT guys, the witness, maybe even the rapist and the victim. It won't be easy to get them all, too many people were on scene before it was secured. No blood on the dumpster from here." They were on the middle of the street, facing the dumpster. "People don't pay attention to a dumpster when they walk along in the night or early morning. Nothing interesting to see, a lot of folks listen to music, don't hear in case the vic tried to alert somebody before. You hear the traffic on Hollywood, not that much at night, then again, when it's dark you hurry home, don't spend time to look around. It's Tuesday, last night weren't too many people here, no pub, no club, no twenty-four/seven on this street.

I have no information about the newest vic, the last one was five foot tall, less than one hundred pounds. Our suspect needs a certain strength to lift the vic up and dump her in the dumpster. No reported second attacker, no reported companion. Skinny guy with some muscles, maybe he works out. There's a cardboard box, when it's not empty, he might have used it to step on it."

"In which direction did he run?"

The younger CSI looked in both direction while she tried to remember if the last victim said something about this. "I have had no idea, victim number one didn't mention a direction. She didn't see him leave."

"What do you think?"

"Sometimes you have to go with your guts to get evidence."

The dark haired woman looked up and down the street. "South. To Sunset. Easier to get away from there, there're no buses on Franklin, you go on Sunset, there're always people, a risk because they can see you, then again, nobody pays attention. You get into a bus, change to Metro on Sunset and Vermont."

"He raped her behind the dumpster, skinny guy, probably skinny woman, there's about a yard between the dumpster and the wall, also a perfect place to hide. Doesn't take long, he sees her coming down the street alone, has the knife in his hands, knows she's his, makes him hard. Grabs her, pushes her down, knife to the throat, in front of the face, makes her shut up, tears apart the clothes, there are two buttons, I bet they belong to whatever the vic wore. Rapes her, comes, messes with her, pants up, gets the vic into the dumpster, maybe throws something on top, something that lays around. The dumpster gets emptied today, if nobody had heard the vic, she'd be dead by now. The truck was due to be here ten minutes ago. Very handy, it's almost impossible to tell where a body was picked up once it ended on the waste disposal side."

"She and we are lucky."

"I'm not sure if she's lucky, she won't feel like she's the lucky one. We're lucky because this makes it easier for us. Easier not easy."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Start at the dumpster, work your way down to Sunset, pay attention to the street light. Like Lynn said, there's broken glass around. He can be responsible for it. We do need to check other street lights on parallel streets. I'll let the police know, they can send an officer. If this is his comfort zone, he'll strike here again. He stroke two nights in a row, he's out of control. I doubt these were his first rapes. If we don't stop him today, he'll come back tonight and rape another woman." Sofia narrowed her eyes. She had to contact her boss, he needed to contact the chief of police, they needed more police officers in this area.

Most school classes came during the warmer seasons to Angeles National Forest. Now in winter, when there often was snow, only a few school classes found their way into the mountains although it gave the children the possibility to play in the snow, ride a sled. To Sara it was the best part to work with young children, who were so excited and amazed by the forest. They were full of questions, ideas and fun to be around. Today she had two dozen second grade and two teachers with her. While the children enjoyed the snow, throwing snowballs (which they were of course not allowed) at each other, the teacher were busy telling their students off and feeling cold the rest of the time.

"Ma'am, can we see animals?" A young girl asked Sara.

"If you're all quiet and take a good look around, you might spot one."

"The bears are asleep, aren't they?"

"Yes Honey, they're asleep. It's too cold for them."

"How about Mountain Lions?"

"They don't hibernate."

"Are they dangerous?"

"They can be, especially now that it's winter and some of the animals they eat, isn't here or hard to catch. You're safe as long as you stay with the group, alone in the forest, a Mountain Lion might attack you."

"Will you shoot it when it attacks us?"

Sara looked at the gun, she was carrying. "As long as we all stay together no mountain lion will attack us. You don't have to worry."

"Are there any squirrels around?"

"Most of them sleep during winter because they can't find any food, but they wake up and look for nuts they've buried in fall."

"How do they find the nuts? Do they mark the place?"

"They don't find most of their nuts, that's why they have to bury so many."

"Why don't they find them."

Sara bent down and whispered: "They're too stupid to remember. Don't tell them I said this." The children laughed.

"My grandma also forgets everything, she's a squirrel." One boy laughed.

"My dad too."

"Why can't Mrs. Teapot be a squirrel? She never forgets we had homework to do." A girl wondered and her face turned deep red when she caught the eyes of her teachers.

"We won't tell her, one of the goof things in the forest is, things you say will stay here. The trees don't tell anybody your secrets. They're pretty good company to talk to, unfortunately they don't answer, but when you hug them, they share a little bit of their energy. Why don't you try it? Hug a tree, it's fun, even when it looks weird." Sara hugged and tree and put a wide grin on her face. Actually she felt some energy running through her when she hugged a tree. It was crazy, but it was what she felt.

"Does Santa Claus come to Angeles National Forest?" One boy asked.

"There is no Santa Clause!" Another boy laughed.

"There is!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"You're such a baby!"

"Why don't you have a look for hoof prints? If you find some, he might have been here. He needs a place to stay, right? Can't go all over the world without giving his reindeers a break." Sara stopped them before the teachers could react. The question if there was a Santa Claus or not wasn't hers to answer. It was something the children learnt sooner or later, Sara herself liked it when they believed in Santa. Wasn't it nice to believe there was a kind man, who brought you presents? Who loved you although you never met him.

Next year Susan should be old enough to understand about Christmas, to understand there was a holiday people came together, spend time together and presents were around. She'd make sure her daughter knew about the history of Christmas although she wasn't a Christian, but when you celebrate something, you need to know what it is and what it means. If her daughter ever wanted to go to church, experience a Christmas mass, Sara would go with her to it. It was important to keep an open mind to everything, when Susan found comfort in any kind of religion, Sara had no problem with her daughter being an active believer.

"Ma'am, I think an animal hurt itself." A boy pointed down the dirt road into the forest. Sara went to him to see, if there was an injured animal. Instead she saw a large red spot in the snow.

"Is that blood?"

"Did somebody die there?"

"What did happen?"

"What that a mountain lion?"

"Children, do me a favor and stay on the dirt road, I'll have a look what happened." Sara looked at the teachers. "Please stay here with the children, I'll be back in a minute." Carefully she slipped down into the forest and went to the large red spot. Blood. She could smell it. A lot of blood. There was no body around. No animal and no human remains. When she saw the blood she was reminded of the serial killer, who dumped his victims in Angeles National Forest. Here death was around. The blood wasn't too old, there were boot prints around, two pairs. No other signs of human activities.

With a deep breath she pulled out her radio and called her boss. "George, I've got a lot of blood here. The kids and I got maybe half a mile away from San Olene Road, you know where we started. Here's a large blood pool, I mean seriously large. Deadly large."

"Is there a body?"

"No. I can't tell you if it's human, but whatever it is, whoever died, you should send somebody out to check it." There had been a killer around, the question was, did he or she kill an animal or a human being?