The Assassin

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 12 (Investigator's Turmoil)

Trina's internship desk was cluttered with paperwork that some of the detectives had her helping with. The computer beside her was turned onto the desktop which bore an image of a badge with L.A.P.D. across the middle in blue.

In front of her was her father, standing with his back turned to her. His hand rested upon his chin, and his body was still as he studied a large board in front of him. Atop the board were photographs of each victim, from Uncle Benito to Andre's grandmother.

"The commonality, they've each been killed with a blade," David said. Trina raised her head from the papers and nodded, having come to this conclusion herself already. "They've been murdered in the night, each within the comfort of their own home."

"Benny wasn't murdered in his home." She poked a pen at the photograph of Benny. Her father's index finger slid along his left jawline and his had nodded gently. "His apartment was nearby, though. Maybe he ran from his attacker?"

"Possibly."

"Do we focus on him, Dad? I mean, what if he holds the key?" After all, he was the one victim not associated with Hollywood Arts. His death looked the most personal as well. "Could he even truly be a victim of the Shadow?"

"Has to be." He lowered his hands behind his back and raised his head and shoulders. "The coroner's report suggests that like the other victims, he was killed with what looks to be a long blade. A sword possibly. He also has a strike through the chest and heart."

"What about Elba? She was cut across and down the torso, then stabbed in the mouth. Can we attribute her to the Shadow?"

"I believe so." His head rolled to the right and he began to hum. "There's something to the way they were murdered. I can see it, but I can't pinpoint it." Trina stood and made her way over, looking at the crime scene image of Henry West.

His ex-wife had been cleared as a suspect, since doctors at the hospital confirmed she'd been undergoing corrective surgery on her hip that day and had been kept on overnight observation due to a reaction she had to the anesthesia.

"What about Henry. He has the least wounds. A slash on his arm, and a stab through his chest." The slash on his arm looked like had been reaching for something, perhaps a weapon or a phone. "Let's think about who these people were too, if that'll help. Henry West is a divorced husband that took custody of his daughter. He's been abused most of his life by his wife, then there's his daughter."

"Jade is a rebellious teenager, and an angry one at that." David walked towards the board and as he focused on the photograph like it was the only one there, his eyes began to narrow. "The way his body's positioned makes me think the killer was showing him mercy. If he was truly abused and already in enough pain as it were, then would the killer have shown mercy?"

Trina shrugged, then pointed to Elba. "Then we have Elba's death scene. It looked like she fought with her attacker, you said. She's stabbed through the mouth, and the divot in the wall suggests she was standing at the time."

"Merciless kill." He scratched his chin and turned sideways. "What if the Shadow Slayer knew about her history?" Trina raised her eyebrows and smiled as David paced to the left. "What if Elba's murder was more about vigilantism?"

"It could suggest that the way our victims are dying is based on how that person lived their life."

David poked Lane's photograph with his finger and started to hum. "Lane was having an affair with his wife. He was beheaded. Then there's Principal Eikner, who doesn't appear to have anything 'bad' besides greed and a love of wealth."

"I was looking at some files on our victims, and there is something." Principal Eikner didn't have as clean of a slate as everyone thought, and David wasn't far off on the greed aspect. "I read somewhere that while in college, he was arrested for stealing fifty dollars from his roommate. Then in his late twenties he was suspected of robbing a convenience store. He has a pattern of greed."

David started to laugh and he hurried to the board with a sharpie marker, writing down the attributes. "Eikner, guilty of robbery and a love of money. Also the principal of Hollywood Arts." As he wrote, his left index finger stroked his chin. "Lane Alexander, counselor for Hollywood Arts-guilty of cheating on his wife."

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. "With a news reporter no less." David clicked his tongue and moved onto the next.

"Henry West, abused family man that donated large sum of money to Hollywood Arts. The killer showed him mercy. Then there's Elba, a woman that murdered her entire family. She was also a donor to Hollywood Arts. Possibly fought with the Shadow."

"That might also explain why she hasn't been beheaded like Eikner and Lane." He jerked his head back and looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. "What if the Shadow was caught off guard? What if they didn't expect her to fight back? What if the killer was exhausted by the end."

David walked by her, tapping the marker in the air. "And didn't follow through with the decapitation." He stopped on a dime and chuckled. "I love it. It makes sense. If the killer was taken by surprised and exhausted, they may have wanted to rush out."

As she glanced at the row or victims, her heart began to sink. She knew this trend was a connection, and it meant only one thing. Just as David turned his head, she could see in his eyes he was speculating the same. "Your uncle. Uncle Benito." She dropped her shoulders and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my brother may have been involved in, I can't say he's committed any crimes or done anything with great immorality."

Trina opened her eyes and took a deep breath while looking at another detective's desk nearby. Gary had been sitting with his hands behind his head, listening to their speculation with sincere silence.

Gary met her eyes and his eyebrows gently rose. "There may be something," he admitted with soft undertones. David's brow furrowed and Trina's muscles began to tighten. "I was asked to keep quiet about it."

"You're a detective, you know as well as I do that you shouldn't withhold anything that could help a case."

"It was to protect you. Your brother may not be as moral or clean as you believe." David turned fully towards Gary, his eyes sharpened as he walked slowly. Trina gave the officer a nod and Gary lowered his hands, breathing in slowly. "On that board you have a murderer, you have a robber and an adulterer, but you also have an accused rapist…"

"Don't screw with me, Gary."

"He has the most mutilated bodies of all the victims, David." Gary pointed to Benny's photo, and the color in David's body began draining from him. "Benito Vega is an accused child molester"

"That's impossible." David's shout echoed into the air and he bellowed with a disbelieving scoff. "My brother?" Trina's stomach tightened and winkles formed between her brow as she struggled against the bile produced from the memories of her uncle. "I would have known, I would have heard something. He's never been picked up for anything like that."

"Maybe because nobody's reported it, but think about it Dave." David's fists began shaking and his lips spread apart, showing off his grinding teeth. "Forget he's your brother, if only for a minute, and think about all the times you've interacted with him." It could be that David missed something over the years, but Gary was right, the man was too smart not to have felt something was off. "You're a dad, you're a cop. So, you can't tell me there wasn't a single time you didn't feel something. Hell, even your wife knows something, she came in here declaring Benny deserved it-why haven't we considered her as a suspect?"

"You leave my family out of this." He swept his hand up, pointing at Gary while seething with rage. "No one in my family could be capable of this." Gary started to sulk and sigh. "But I see your point…and I agree." Trina perked up, genuinely shocked by her father's answer.

The man turned around and approached the board, and Trina could hear a growl just under his breath. "There have been times in the past that I've wondered, but I never wanted to think of my brother in that way."

"Think like a cop, Dave. I know you, you've told me in the past that you made the decision to stop going around Benny. You had your reasons."

"He disturbed me a couple times." David crossed his arms and closed his eyes. His broad shoulders flattened and his chin dipped momentarily. "It was always small things. Pictures of children on his computer desktop, magazines he would shove aside whenever someone entered the room. There were even those times he would act creepy around my daughters, and when that started happening, I just couldn't leave them around him without my being present."

"Never felt comfortable with him. So is it so hard to believe that he might have been accused of something?"

David rolled his head to the right, then raised his eyes towards the ceiling. His shoulders took a sharp decline and a large breath of air fell from his lips. "Shit." He marked the attribute down beneath his brother's photograph and capped the marker. "If that's the case, it might be good to know any victims he may have had…hell, if you follow profiling, sexual abuse tends to be a factor in the past of many serial killers."

Trina looked beyond the two officers, hearing the sound of a door latch opening. Across the room, three investigators made their way. "Mr. Vega?" David towards them just as they stopped a few feet away. "You and your daughter may want to sit down, sir." The one speaking appeared to be in charge.

This was a man from a different division of the police force. They didn't investigate homicides, but there were times when they might be called to the scene of one. "Is everything okay?" He obliged and moved to his desk. Trina did the same, folding her hands over her lap. The men shook their heads, and the one in charge pulled a stool up to sit near David.

"David your wife has been taking Cymbalta and Xanax for depression and anxiety. Is that correct?" Trina's eyes grew slowly and a sudden jolt of pain struck her heart as David nodded. "Does your wife drink as well?"

"She's begun to recently, yes." David's right brow rose and he turned his head, gazing at the investigator sideways. "Has something happened to Holly?" He gripped the arms of his chair and the knuckles on his fingers grew white as bone. "What's happened to my wife?"

"I'm sorry, David. We got called in on a probable suicide."

Trina's body froze as the oxygen in the room was swept away, her hand shot up to her throat and she opened her mouth as her lungs began to shrivel. On her desk, her phone lit up, and within was a text message from Tori letting her know the same thing the investigator was here to say.

The disbelief silenced her ability to scream, and the desire to do so pierced her, leaving a crater in her chest where her heart was meant to be. David lashed out in anger, slamming his fist down onto his desk.

If it was a true suicide, then at the very least the Shadow wasn't targeting David just yet, but it was a sign the nightmare was only going to get worse.

What thoughts do you have here? David finally learns what kind of a person his brother was-do you think there could be any victims of his that would turn to this? Rage and hatred seem to be the mind of the Caller, while we know vengeance and justice is in the mind of the assassin. There would be a lot of rage and hatred in a victim of Benito's abuse, but would there be any of his victims that could harbor hatred for Hollywood Arts or the people that have been targeted thus far? Think about these connections, are there any you can make?