Will looks in the mirror one more time before leaving for work. He runs a hand hopelessly through his curls to tame them, but they spring back up in a wild halo around his head. He is working a little harder to look presentable today. All patrol officers have been called for a meeting today to be briefed about a new killer in the area. The hope is that if the officers understand the profile, they will be able to more effectively find the killer. He has already murdered six tourists, three couples, and is showing no signs of stopping.
Will had been on the force since he graduated high school five years ago. His ultimate goal was to work for the FBI. His empathy disorder made it easy for him to understand the motives for the crimes and mindsets of the killers they investigated. He thinks he would make a great profiler, but for now, he is a beat cop in New Orleans. He spends most of his time trying to get drunk people home safely, writing tickets, and the occasional violent scene.
Satisfied that there is no taming his curls, but that he otherwise looks fine, Will grabs his wallet and keys from the large wooden bowl from beside his front door and heads to the precinct. Once he gets there, he heads to the conference room and scans the room for his partner, Henry. He sees the older dark skinned man seated in the middle of the room, empty seat by his side, and in the middle of a conversation with their sergeant and another man Will has never seen before. He walks over to Henry and, without looking away from Sergeant Miller, he pats the seat next to him, letting Will know he had saved it for him. Will sits down with a small grin and pulls out a notepad and pen.
"It's been a while since we have had one of these." Henry's slightly accented words punctuated by a wave of his hand around the conference room and all the officers milling around, waiting for the briefing to start. "He must be pretty bad."
Sergeant Miller runs a handkerchief covered hand over his glistening bald head. "He's a real sicko, Henry. I hesitated to do this. I didn't want all of our guys to have to see these scenes. Especially the younger ones." Will doesn't miss the way Sergeant Miller's eyes flicker over to him for a moment before meeting Henry's again.
"Oh, George. Give 'em a little more credit than that. They know what they signed up for when they joined. Take Will here," Will turns to face Henry at hearing his name. Realizing it is an invitation to join the conversation. Henry wraps an arm around his shoulders, smiling at the younger man in a paternal way. "He has a good head on his shoulders. He's gonna do big things. Just you wait." Will blushes a deep red. The other man standing with Sergeant Miller seems to notice Will for the first time in that moment. His amber eyes meet Will's ocean blue ones for the briefest moment before Will drops his gaze. The man is tall with broad shoulders that are emphasized by the cut of his three-piece suit. If Will wasn't so embarrassed, he would laugh. The man obviously wasn't from the area. This time of year, the heat and humidity were so bad you could cook an egg on the sidewalk. But if the man is uncomfortable, he didn't show it. He stands with the posture of a man very sure of himself. His face is sculpted with sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw. Will realizes that he has been studying the man and that he is being studied in return and looks away completely, but not before seeing the twitch of the man's lips into a small smile.
"I hope so," he manages to say through his embarrassment. Henry pats his shoulder before letting him go.
Sergeant Miller smiles unconsciously at the exchange. He is glad that Henry has taken Will under his wing. He knew he was right. Will could be great, but he needed some guidance. A father figure to guide and teach him some basic street smarts that most of their other recruits already brought to the table when they put on the uniform. Will had all the intangible things: instincts, bravery, a big heart, and a drive for justice. They could help him with the rest of it.
"If I am being honest. It was Doctor Lecter's idea to include everyone. The lieutenant called in a few favors so we could borrow him for a while, until we have a better grip on this guy." Sergeant Miller points to the tall, amber eyed man upon saying "Doctor Lecter." He must have introduced him to Henry before he joined the conversation, Will thinks to himself. "Thank you again for being here," Sergeant Miller says as he claps a hand on the doctor's shoulder.
"No problem at all, and please, call me Hannibal." His lightly accented words were unlike the usual accents Will heard. Not the French that he heard in the square, the Creole he heard from Henry and his family, or the general Southern twang found most everywhere else. He wonders where he is from. Hannibal looks at his watch before looking back to Sergeant Miller. "We should start the briefing before everyone starts to get restless. It was a pleasure talking with you all." Henry murmurs his agreement and Hannibal glances at Henry and Sergeant Miller. He meets Will's gaze again before turning around and walking towards the front of the room with Sergeant Miller on his heels.
Henry turns to face Will again, looking slightly over his shoulder, knowing Will doesn't like forced eye contact. "He's a trip isn't he?" he says motioning to Doctor Lecter discreetly. Will nods with a small huff of laughter and begins to fidget with his notepad. "You okay, kid?" Henry asks as the tempo of Will's toe taps reaches a fever pitch.
"Yeah. Yeah. I am fine. It's just a lot of people." Will hunches his shoulders slightly, as if the force of all the people in the room are causing him to fold in on himself.
"Did you bring the armor I gave you?" Henry asks with a cock of his slightly graying eyebrow. Will nods and pulls a pair of black plastic framed glasses out of his shirt pocket and puts them on. He pushes them up the bridge of his nose. The lenses do not hold a prescription. They are solely to give Will a barrier between himself and the people around him. It also gives him something he can adjust periodically without it seeming like a fidget. His toe tapping slows down after a few minutes and he grins at his partner.
"Thank you," Will says, and he is grateful. He does not know how he got so lucky with his partner. Henry never pushes Will too far out of his comfort zone or boundaries unless he is willing to stand on the limb with him. He doesn't treat Will like he is fragile or not capable of this kind of work. On the contrary, he shows Will how to use his specific skill set to his advantage. Henry knows Will's empathy disorder can be a lot for him to deal with, but it has been very helpful out on the beat. He is excited to see what Will can do with an actual profile and full details about a case.
Sergeant Miller stands behind the podium and calls for everyone's attention as his assistant is passing out briefing booklets with the profile, case information, and crime scene photos to each officer. "Alright, everyone. Thank you all for being here. As you know, we have a sicko on the loose. He has been luring couples away from the main strip to torture and murder them. So far we have 6 victims total. I don't want any more bloodshed. Our Lieutenant has called in some favors and brought in some help." He motions towards Doctor Lecter who has been standing silently by his side. "Doctor Lecter is a forensic psychologist who will be consulting on this case so we can try to pinpoint who we are looking for. He has put together a profile and will be going over the case as well as the profile with us now so we can hopefully catch this bastard before he does this again." Sergeant Miller wipes his sweaty forehead again with his handkerchief. "Without further ado, Doctor Lecter, show them what you've got."
Doctor Lecter steps towards the podium with a carefully detached, almost bored expression, unless of course you know what to look for. Will knows what to look for. There is a slight flicker of amusement on the man's face when he looks towards the Sergeant. As he clicks through his slides, Will can tell he is in his element completely. He enjoys having the crowd's full attention. The photos he chose do not shy away from the more gruesome aspects of the killer's proclivities. Doctor Lecter chose not to blur any of the crime scene and shows the violence against the female victims just as he shows the violence done to the male victims and Will surmises that he sees it as all the same. Violence is violence. There is nothing personal about it to the doctor. It takes Will a moment before he realizes that he is paying more attention to how the information is given than to what information is given. He takes a breath and refocuses.
From Doctor Lecter's presentation and profile they are told they are looking for a white man between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five years of age. He is charming and good-looking enough to get people to trust him, but not so much so that the partners get jealous or defensive and walk away. He will work in the service industry either as a tour guide, taxi driver, or something else in that vein which gives him the agency and authority to tell perfect strangers where to go and when without them second guessing the instructions. He is someone who knows his way around the city and knows when certain places will be abandoned which leads the Doctor to speculate that he is a native of New Orleans. Doctor Lecter also thinks these murders will continue and escalate until he is caught. He ends the presentation by saying, "This shy boy is perfecting his design. These three crime scenes are just the ones we know are his. I would not be surprised if he has done this before, but I am certain he will do it again with shorter cooling off periods and with more efficiency until he is caught."
Will isn't sure if he should clap or simply nod. The whole presentation feels like a performance to him. He looks around and the others are simply nodding and writing notes. A few officers in the back are asleep. Did no one notice how this man spoke about the killer as though he was a professor providing notes and critique? Did no one else hear the way his tone was schooled into the politely disinterested tone until his final words, where the control slipped just slightly. Will looks over to Henry as Doctor Lecter's presentation ends. "Yeah. What did you call him earlier? A trip? That's certainly one word for it." Will chuckles a little as he looks back over his notes as Sergeant Miller retakes the podium to give out assigned areas for patrol. Once everyone has their assignments, the conference room starts to clear out.
Will and Henry make no move to leave yet. Will is flipping through the booklet they were given. "What do ya got for me, kid?" Henry points at his notes. "Anything you want to talk over?"
Will nods. "Yeah. The victims are all over the map. The demographics are all over the place. That's why everyone is in such a rush to close this case." Will pulls out the photos of the victims. "Any of these people could be your neighbor or your kid's teacher. It shakes people. We know there is more drug related murders in this area and there isn't a special consultant that gets involved with those cases."
"That's true. So how do we find this guy so we can get back to working on those cases?" Henry asks to get Will's train of thought back on the profile.
"Doctor Lecter has a point. I think the reason we do not have a description of the killer is that he looks like any average Joe. All of these people were lured away from busy areas, but no one saw anything or more accurately, no one saw anything out of place. But I think this guy is younger. Look at this," Will flips through the booklet that they were given and tears out the wide shot of the second crime scene. "This is a mess. Look at the broken chair and all this glass. Look at the wrists of the male victim. Wait let me. Hold on" Will flips through the booklet again before rolling his eyes and taking all of the pages from the binder. He stands up at their table and begins rearranging the photos in a way that makes sense to him. "Here it is. Look at his wrists. There are not one, not two, but three sets of ligature marks. The first ones show that he pulled against them so much, they broke skin. I think he got free. He also has bruises on his fists like he tried to fight back. Will runs his finger down one of the data sheets. "He was by far the largest victim. This guy was what, 6' 2" and 250 pounds? Yeah. He got free. Our killer got cocky after his first successful hunt. The victims in the third murder were both of a smaller build. I think this guy isn't even thirty yet and I bet he is barely bigger than me." Henry smiles as Will continues to pour over the data sheets and arrange photos. Henry glances up towards the exit to see that Doctor Lecter is hanging back and is watching and listening as Will gives his take on the case with a little grin on his face.
Henry lets Will work in silence for a few more minutes before prompting him again. "Where do we start looking? Sergeant Miller has given us the southeastern part of the grid. Where do you want to go first?"
Will pulls out the map of the crime scenes. "What is the time frame between kills?"
Henry flips through his still tidy booklet. "Between the first and the second? A week. Between the second and the third? Three weeks. It's been a week since the last one."
Will looks up and meets Henry's eyes. "He's going to do it again tonight. I feel it. He lost a little confidence after the big guy got free and gave him a run for his money, but this last one? No. It felt too good. He's going to do it again." Will looks at his watch. It is 5 o'clock now. "I don't think we can stop him from taking the next couple." He sits back down and looks over the photos as he runs a hand down his face and shakes his head a little as if he is trying to clear it. "No. If we intervene, he will just take someone else. It's not the victims that he cares about. It's the act itself. We have to find the next place he is going to take them." He looks back over the map and frowns.
Henry kneels down by Will's chair. "Will, I know you hate it when I ask," Henry begins but Will interrupts him.
"I know. I know. It would help though. Wouldn't it?" Will asks, but he already knows the answer.
"Where would you take them, Will? Where would you go? Look. Really look. I am right here with you." Henry puts a hand on his shoulder.
Will turns back to the table and closes his eyes. The pendulum swings and his skin feels tight. He is on the main strip. He can hear the neon of the sign above his head and the faint sound of jazz get louder and then quieter as the door to a bar across the street opens and then closes. The pendulum swing once more and when he opens his eyes, he is in the warehouse that was closed for repairs that the killer took the third couple. Both victims are tied to wooden chairs with electrical cords. "I need a place that is quiet, but if you get loud," Will points a threatening finger to the woman before placing it over his lips as he steps closer to her. She is crying, but her sobs quiet down as he gets closer. Her whole body convulses with fear, but she makes no sound by the time Will runs a hand through her hair while looking at her husband. "If you decide to get loud, or more likely, if I decide to make you get loud, people may hear you, but no one would be surprised. No one will report it." Will steps away from her but then kicks at the leg of her chair causing the woman to shriek. Will smiles at her wide enough to show his teeth. He closes his eyes and when he opens them, he is gasping in the conference room.
Henry is right next to him. His hand still tight on his shoulder. Will leans into the touch letting it ground him as he catches his breath. "We are thinking about the locations the wrong way. The place doesn't need to be away from other people. Doesn't need to be secluded at all. It needs to be away from people that can or would report any sounds of violence. All of the places he took them were near areas where people were displaced from Katrina. Were there homeless camps nearby?"
Henry steps away from Will and looks over at the map with a smile on his face. "Yes. Each crime scene is near a camp or in neighborhoods where we know people are staying in abandoned homes."
"That's where we will find him tonight. We need to search through warehouses or homes that are either abandoned or are being repaired in parts of town where people are in unstable housing situations. He counts on the fact that no one can say anything. He feeds on the fear he creates not just from the victims we see, but also from the victims he leaves behind. The ones that hear it all happen and can't do anything about it." Will grabs the map again and his pen and starts marking circling areas and then marking out others. "Let's start here." Will points to an area in their assigned area near the docks where businesses are beginning to rebuild, but they aren't ready for the public yet.
"Are you sure? Do you want to pass the information on, or do you want to go check it out first?" Henry asks as he helps Will gather all the photos and papers that he has sprawled out during their conversation.
Will stands up and stretches before helping Henry pick everything up and organize it back into the binder with quick, jerky movements. "Let's go. There are other people in the area as well. If we think we found something, we will call in the others. It can't hurt right?"
Henry hears the door click quietly and he knows Doctor Lecter has just left and would probably be telling the Sergeant what he heard. If they were alone searching the area when they first got there, it wouldn't be for long. "Ok, kid. Let's roll."