The Torchwood Murders - Chapter Two

Author: Milady Dragon

Disclaimer: I don't own it, and that's just sad.

Author's note: Hi, everyone! Welcome to this, the second chapter of the Dragon-Verse rewrite of "The Keep Killing Suzie". Thanks for everyong reading and reviewing, and adding this to alerts and favorites. I hope you continue to enjoy!

24 November 2007

"So," Gwen said, "this killer is someone we gave Retcon to?"

They were all sat around the boardroom table, notes on the murders spread around on the tabletop and displayed on the large plasma attached to the wall for everyone to read. Jack leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of coffee and barely refraining to make his usual orgasm-like moan at the flavor. Ianto just made the best coffee…

"Question is," Owen replied, twirling a pen in his fingers, "is he remembering he's a serial killer? Or is he becoming a serial killer because of the Retcon?"

"Wait a minute," Gwen said, "I've been given Retcon." She glared at Jack, who simply shrugged.

"Then better stay away from sharp objects," Jack deadpanned. He turned to his Second. "Ianto, how many people have we given Retcon to?"

The dragon considered. "Two thousand and eight," he answered. "But that doesn't include any unrecorded dosages, and only after we took over." He sat forward, steepling his fingers in front of him. "The problem is, that while record-keeping has gotten somewhat better, we just have no way of knowing how many we've actually given Retcon to. Each of us knows how to use it – with the exception of Gwen, who hasn't been trained with that yet – but there's still going to be times when we're out and run into problems that need Retcon given at any one time. I myself always carry one bottle with me, and I know Jack does as well. Unfortunately I sometimes haven't taken the time to get names and numbers of those I've had to use it on, at the spur of the moment."

Jack nodded. "Ianto has a point," he said. "We don't always have the time or inclination to get the information we need when using Retcon out in the field. For all we know, our killer could have been a random witness to a Weevil attack and we dosed him without even figuring out who he is. I know I'm bad at that."

"You are," Ianto agreed, a slight smile on his face. "You didn't even record giving it to Gwen after she found out about Torchwood. The only reason it was written down was because I knew you were going to do it."

"Oops," Jack answered sheepishly.

"So, we potentially have thousands of people out there who've been given Retcon," Owen clarified.

"That's about the size of it."

"Hey, what if they all become psychotic?"

"Do you have to sound so happy about it?" Toshiko asked sharply.

"I'm just saying." Owen retorted. "Mean Streets!"

"Look," Jack interrupted, before the conversation could get out of hand," Retcon has been thoroughly tested, and no one has ever gone insane and killed people after they'd been given it." He didn't want to go into any details about the actual testing; he was certain no one really wanted to know about Torchwood One's methods.

"I've taken a look at the hair itself," Owen said, leaning forward to pick up one of his notes. "Tosh was pretty accurate about the time of last dosage."

"How can you tell that from a hair?" Gwen wanted to know.

"Retcon stays in your system," Jack answered her. "It leaves traces that can show up in hair."

"Yeah," the medic added. "Kinda like when they give you a drug test, and they use a hair sample to determine if you've used in the last several months. You can pass a piss test pretty easily, but unless you got a haircut after you used last time, it's gonna show up."

Gwen reached up, as if to check her own hair, but let her hand fall.

"Was there anything else you could get from the hair?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. Judging from the amount of Retcon in the hair itself, I'd say whoever doped him did it over a length of time. Course, telling how long can't be done because of the shortness of the hair, but there was quite a build-up."

The room was silent, and in Jack's case it was from shock. Who would do such a thing? What would be the point? It was just another mystery, and they'd have to solve it as well. There was no way he was going to accept anyone continually dosing someone with Retcon. Certainly, One had done significant testing but there was nothing that he could remember in the notes that said they'd checked for long-term effects of overdosing. "We need to find out if there's some sort of connection between the three victims," Jack ordered. "If we can find that, then maybe we can find the killer."

"Jack?" Gwen put in, "If there's a link, why don't we ask the victims themselves?"

The captain looked at her sharply. Certainly she wasn't suggesting… "Not the time for a séance, thanks very much."

She shook her head. "The first time I met Torchwood, you had that glove…"

Hell, she was.

"No way," Jack answered.

"Not after what it did to Suzie," Owen added.

"It brings people back to life," Gwen went on stubbornly. "We could question the murder victims."

"That thing drove her crazy," the medic added. "It as good as killed her."

"The glove stays in the Secure Archives where it belongs," Jack ordered.

Gwen stood, leaning across the table, a belligerent look on her face. "These murders are happening because of Torchwood! So, Torchwood has to do something!"

Jack couldn't believe this. He'd already told her that the glove would not be used, and she was still arguing about it. Her stubbornness might have been a good trait to have in an investigation, but having it aimed in his direction pissed him off.

Before he could answer, Ianto stepped in.

"Jack said no, Gwen," the dragon snapped. "We're not using the glove."

"But Torchwood is at fault – "

"And how do you assume that? Yes, there is evidence that Torchwood is being drawn into this, but we don't know if we're at fault at all. You can't make assumptions without all the facts."

"Ianto is right," Toshiko said. "I won't go anywhere near that thing."

"Neither will I." Owen threw his pen down with a clatter. "That glove made Suzie bat shit nuts. No way do I want another teammate topping themselves or someone else because of it."

Jack looked at his team, and it really struck him just how they were divided up: his old team, against Gwen, the new person. Even Owen, who was obviously shagging her, was against her, at least in this instance. He wondered if this division would ever completely heal, or was it too late for Gwen to integrate into the team.

He'd been so sure that Gwen had had something that the team would need; that spark of humanity that would remind them what they were fighting for. But, just from Ianto and Toshiko, he'd gotten a different glance at things. It wasn't that anyone in Torchwood wasn't human...only that it was a different kind of humanity, one born of loss and pain and having to fight for life and for the lives of everyone around them.

Gwen didn't have that. She hadn't suffered, and because of that she lacked understanding of the others and thought it was them being heartless and cruel. He remembered her arguing about letting Ianto just have bereavement time after Lisa. She could only see the danger that Ianto had seemingly put them into, and not the absolute loneliness and loss that the dragon had suffered, and why he'd fought for the female dragon instead of letting anyone know she existed. And why, in the end, he'd killed her rather than let the poor thing get away to wreak havoc on the ephemeral world.

She couldn't sympathize with any of them, simply because she had no frame of reference to do so. What made it worse was that Gwen didn't seem inclined to even try.

Now, Gwen was trying to once again force her own morality on a situation, wanting to use something that would only damage someone further. Jack felt like he'd failed Suzie…just as he'd failed Ianto, and in other ways Owen and Toshiko. It had been a mistake to let her experiment with the glove, and he should have taken it away the moment he'd felt something was wrong. And Ianto had warned him; the dragon had said he sensed that the glove was nothing good, and that all it would do was corrupt an already dark Suzie.

But then, Jack didn't really trust the dragon's extra senses. He was learning, though, it was just taking him nearly losing people for him to get the hint.

"We aren't using the glove," Jack said. "This is my final word on the subject. " Gwen opened her mouth to object, but he held up his hand to stop her. "Arguing about it isn't going to change my mind, Gwen. In fact, it's just going to piss me off."

"There are other avenues of investigation we can follow," Ianto added.

"Exactly," Jack nodded. "The coppers don't have the glove; how do they investigate murders?" He wanted to challenge her, to make her see that using the technology they had on hand wasn't always the best thing to do.

Gwen crossed her arms, her face a mask of anger. "But, if we have the means, we should use them."

He couldn't believe she was still arguing with him! "You're not going to get your way, Ms Cooper," he ground out. "So you may as well give it up. Keep on the way you're going and you'll be written up for insubordination and suspended. Is that clear?"

"You can't do that. You need me!"

"You keep saying that," he sighed. "But it's not true. No one is above the team, and right now you're working against that team. We need to work together to find out who's killing these people, and why they want Torchwood involved." He stared right at her, and she met his gaze squarely. "You're either with the team, or against it. If you're against it, then there's no place for you here. I once threatened you with Retcon; that threat still stands. Do you understand me?"

He could swear he heard her teeth grinding from across the table. Jack honestly thought she was going to keep fighting him, but Gwen nodded once, sharply, as if against her will.

"Thank you." Jack turned his gaze to each of his other teammates. "Now, we need to get working if we're going to find this killer. Toshiko," he addressed his technician, "I want you to run backgrounds on all of our victims. Go back as far as you can, and dig as deep as you can. Property records, financials, surviving family…the whole lot. The smallest thing they have in common…I want to know. Give me your best work."

Toshiko nodded in acknowledgement.

"Owen," Jack went on, "you've got medical. I want full autopsies on all the victims, as well as any and all medical records you can dig up. If they happened to sneeze on each other in queue at the bank, I want to know about it."

"You got it," the medic said.

"Gwen." The ex-PC stiffened at his brusque tone, but Jack didn't care. "You handle witness statements, and whatever reports and evidence the local coppers have gathered. Also, Toshiko has shown you how to pull CCTV; I want you to find the closest cameras to the victims' homes and search for anyone in common showing up on the recordings. Anything that looks wrong, you tell me."

"And Ianto." The dragon looked at Jack, his blue eyes intense. "You get to tackle the lovely Detective Inspector Swanson. She's a good investigator and she has good instincts. Also, get access to the scenes of crime. I want you to take a look around, poke that snout of yours into any corners you can find. Anything out of the ordinary could be a clue."

Ianto looked bemused. "I'll be certain to tell her you said that about her."

Jack snorted. "Please, don't. She might think you're insane."

"We know you're already nuts, Dragon Boy," Owen snarked. "There's no need for outside corroboration."

"You're right, of course," the dragon said dryly. "The last thing I need is Detective Swanson calling those nice young men in the clean white coats to escort me to Providence Park."

"They might even bring a comfortable 'hug-me' jacket with them," Toshiko teased.

Jack let the fantasy of Ianto in a straitjacket float across his mind. "I didn't know you were into bondage, Ianto."

The dragon smirked. "Only for you, Jack," he purred.

Well, shit. His tone went right to a part of Jack's anatomy that it shouldn't, not in front of the rest of the team.

"TMI!" Owen exclaimed. "I'm going to spend some time with those nice quiet corpses in the autopsy bay." He made his way out of the boardroom, Toshiko behind him with a broad grin on her face.

Ianto left next, winking at Jack as he walked past the captain. Jack chuckled, shaking his head. Yes, things were definitely getting back to normal between them.

"Jack."

Gwen's voice pulled him from his perusal of Ianto's arse in those very well fitting suit trousers. Jack glanced up; Gwen stood in the same spot, looking a bit less angry than she had before.

"What is it, Gwen?"

"Well, I thought I was the police liaison. Why is Ianto dealing with Detective Swanson?"

"Ianto and I both feel you're not ready for that sort of responsibility," Jack answered honestly. "Besides, as I'm sure you're aware, Swanson and Ianto are friends. He's liable to get more cooperation out of her than you will. She respects him."

"And you're saying she doesn't respect me?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," he replied. "To her, you're an ex-PC and a rookie on this team. Ianto has been dealing with her and her superiors for years. You haven't earned their good will yet."

"And I never will, if you won't let me do the job you hired me for."

In a way, Gwen had a point. But…"Gwen, I've seen how you act at the few crime scenes you've liaised on, and you take more after me than you do Ianto. See, we have a police liaison because I'm a bastard who rolls over everyone. I need someone who can be conciliatory, and to cover my ass when I irritate people. And really…you're not it. Ianto is. Now, I gave you work to do, and I suggest you get to it. After all, you're the one who's so convinced these murders are Torchwood's fault that you're willing to use a dangerous piece of alien tech despite your teammates' warnings."

Jack watched as she practically flounced out of the boardroom. He shook his head, then left to do his own task: reading every bit of information Torchwood London had come up with on Retcon. And to do a check on the inventory they had.

He didn't want to think that one of his people were responsible, but if Owen and Toshiko's estimation on when their killer had had his last dose, there was only one person he could come up with who'd died in the period of time the Retcon had stopped being administered.

Suzie Costello.