Chapter 11: Another Day's Work: Ω
We went to work (the police station) like any other day. But we knew things were different. We walked in and kissed each other on the cheek like routine, except this time it meant something. we both smiled and went in different directions. I headed to my office and stopped by Catherine's desk on the way. She was concentrated on a file of papers she was holding.
"Catherine!" i whispered loudly to her.
"AHH!" she jumped out of her chair startled, letting go of all the papers and they were thrown up in the air.
"Jesus Catherine! Sorry about that!" i laughed
"Goddamnit Zo! DON'T DO THAT! I'm going to put a bell on you or something!"
"Why so jumpy?" I winked. i knew exactly why. she's paranoid that she's in The Pack again (the name we gave the four of us back when we were younger).
"Ugh, go away or help me clean up my desk." Catherine said. I went over behind her desk and bent over to pick up a few papers off the floor. one caught my eye, it was a photocopy of a newspaper with a headline that said Body Found on Shore of Carulus Lake in Mortisville, California. it was dated two days ago.
"What is this?" i asked her pointing at the paper. Catherine looks at me and then at the paper.
"Research. You guys have been sloppy!" she said taking the paper. "Oh! that reminds me. John is looking for you and Sean, he's in the Chief's office."
"Okay, thanks." i said turning around and headed toward Sean's office. As i walked in the door i could hear Sean saying
"Lieutenant, out of the chair i'm back." Sean teased
"Hey man! welcome back!" John said
"Hey John, Catherine said you were looking for us?" I said, interrupting their bromance moment.
"Yes….we have a problem...follow me" John said heading out the door. Sean and i followed him downstairs to my work place, the place where me, a forensic anthropologist, it's where they kept dead bodies for me examine. A perfect job for a serial killer. We entered the room to find a body bag on the table.
"Zoe, open it, you are the only one who kind of can anyway." John said. i walked over and put latex gloves on from the box next to the table. I then unzipped the bag to find a dead white man who was about 30 years old. The man was the same man on the newspaper. But i didn't recognized him. This wasn't one of our kills, i remember ALL of our kills.
"Suspected cause of death?" i asked in a serious tone.
"drowned by another hand" John said. i examined the body
"There is marks on the neck, the way they are parted it most likely are finger marks, he was choked before he drowned." i then felt on the back of the corpse's neck. "Broken spine in the neck. Someone must have also broke his neck." i said
"Murder!' John said. "Check out the inside of his right arm"
I rotated his right arm to see an Alpha and Omega Symbol carved into his skin. i gasped and dropped his arm.
"What is it?" Sean Asked
"Remember when we were 19 there were a group of serial killers? Who killed those convicted of crime but proven innocent?"
"innocent should be taken lightly" I thought.
"...They would carve these symbols in each of their victims and-" john began
"Yes John. Alpha, Omega and Beta. I remember. that's why we all moved out of Falls Church Virginia." Sean interrupted.
"And who ever they are i know they are after us!" John said
"Why do you think that?" i asked
"Because they tried to frame you and the Chief" John explained
"What are you talking about?" i asked
"While you two were taking your break, we found traces of blood of a reported missing person and tracked it to your house." John laughed. "Which is a stupid move because you two are cops, so we scraped the evidence. now we are looking for the missing person."
"But are you sure it's them John? They were in Virginia, Why would they be here in California?" Sean asked
"They followed us here! We got this case. we can finally catch these lunatics! I'll get Cathrine to file a report right away and get everybody hip." John said about to walk out the door when Sean grabbed his arm.
"Let's keep this on the down low for now lieutenant, okay? We don't want to alarm everyone. besides you should get the credit for this. you have been wanting this case since we were 19." Sean said
"Yes Chief! Thanks Sean!" John said walking out the door closing it behind him. Sean and i looked at each other.
"I don't recognize him" I said
"yeah I don't either."
"And this isn't our style. it's to…...clean" i said
"Someone is mocking us, i don't like it."
"Not just that. look at these marks! We don't carve it anymore we burn it using a metal design Bella made us. This is so sloppy. We haven't done it like this since….Beta…" i said realizing who could have done this.
"Text Catherine right now! she needs to do research on this man" Sean ordered
"Got it!" i said pulling out my phone
Catherine, research dead man on newspaper. suspect: Bryan Coswell aka Beta.