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The second victim was found in an alleyway not too far from the first crime scene. This time, the victim was a young man, in his twenties. Possibly homeless. Sam and Nikki were able to confirm that this attack was related to the previous attack due to the multiple stab wounds the victim received, much to Lincoln's chagrin who was forced to release Ben Williams from custody. They also found the tip of the knife that was used in both attacks in one of the wounds but unfortunately they were still yet to find the rest of the knife.
Jack and DCI Lincoln watched from the observation room as Sam and Nikki continued the post mortem.
"Is there any way we could track this guy's movements and possibly predict what his next move will be?" Lincoln spoke, breaking the current silence in the room.
Jack shook his head, "There's nothing that I can do. But there is someone who can. I can try and get her on board but it might be tricky."
Lincoln looked at Jack, "Why's that?"
Jack breathed, "She's not so easily persuaded."
Nikki finished up the post mortem whilst Sam went to get changed first. She cleared all the equipment away ready for the others to put the body back in the fridge and clean the room down before heading to the changing room herself.
Placing the earrings back into her ear she made her way to return back to the offices. Thoughts running through her head, were they going to find who was doing this? How many people had to die before we'd have a suspect? She was momentarily distracted by the rumbling that was coming from her stomach, she'd skipped breakfast again.
As she reached the hallway she called out, "Jack. I hope you've brought something for us for lunch, I'm starving."
"Uh Nikki," he tried to grab her attention from where he leaned on the doorway of the lab but she was focusing too much on the paperwork sitting on her desk.
She sighed, standing up again and walking over to him. Reaching out she pulled the bottom of his shirt, "I was thinking we could order some pizza for later whilst we sort everything out."
She went to lean up on her tip-toes but stopped when Jack took hold of her wrist pushing her away from him slightly. She pulled a face, shocked at Jack's sudden rejection. He tilted his head to the left to which she quickly looked in that direction. Her face turned a bright shade of red as she saw who was there.
"Clarissa?" She spoke, confused. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I had a phone call from someone about half an hour ago begging me for my help," she chuckled, bringing herself closer to Nikki. "Seems you two really can't survive without me."
Nikki laughed, bending down to hug Clarissa, "Well, I do hope you'll be sticking around for a drink later. Things really haven't been the same since you left."
"Clearly," Clarissa quipped, a smirk on her face.
"I'd better leave you two to it, those reports aren't going to write themselves," Nikki smiled awkwardly, feeling her palms becoming sweaty. She shook her head at herself as she made her way back to her desk.
"And when were you going to tell me?" Clarissa asked, eyeballing Jack.
Jack scoffed, turning back to the table, "There's nothing to tell."
"Right okay, whatever," she rolled her eyes. "Shall we get back to what you dragged me here for?"
"It would be my pleasure," Jack teased, leaning down onto the table to look closer at the laptop sat in front of Clarissa. As she clicked through, a map soon evolved with red circles surrounding the areas in which the killer had attacked.
"You know," Clarissa started as she clicked in various places. "If Thomas was still here, he would've won."
"Won what?" Jack snapped his head to her.
"He said that you two would have finally had some sense knocked into you," she paused, taking a moment to concentrate on the task in hand. "I had you down for at least another year."
"That makes me feel a lot better," he huffed. "How much?" He questioned out of curiosity.
"That is for me to know," she winked. "Ah hah. Here we go."
A smile washed over Jack's face as he dug his hand into his pocket revealing his phone, "You little beauty. I'll just give Lincoln a ring, be back now," Jack headed towards the reception of the Lyell holding his phone to his ear.
Clarissa let out a breath before joining Nikki who was sitting at her desk, "Go on then, tell me all the gory details. And what happened to Matt?"
Nikki glanced up to Clarissa as she came into the room, "It's really not that exciting."
"Oh come on. You and Jack have been dancing around each other for so long now, it's the most exciting thing to happen in my life for months," she grinned. "So tell me, how did it happen? I want everything."
"How long have you got?" Nikki joked. "No, me and Matt broke up and a couple weeks later we went for dinner and well, it just happened. Not much else to say."
"Just like that?" Clarissa questioned, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"Just like that," Nikki shrugged.
"And are you happy?"
"Couldn't be happier," Nikki's face lit up. She opened her mouth to say something else but stopped as Sam came into the room. "Ah Professor Ryan, this is Clarissa Mullery, our ex-forensic examiner," she spoke, standing up to meet Sam.
"So this is the alustrious Clarissa Mullery?" Sam raised an eyebrow, reaching a hand out to shake Clarissa's. "These two don't stop talking about you," she flicked her eyes to Nikki and Jack, who had just walked back into the room.
"Talk about what?" Jack asked, looking around all the faces in the room, bewildered of some sorts.
Clarissa chuckled, "Seems I'm going to have to start signing autographs."
It wasn't long before Lincoln was joining them once again. They had set themselves up in the observation room as Clarissa walked them through the map that she had made.
"So this is the best I can do at the moment," she started. "Unfortunately, it's hard to predict someone's next movements when not many movements have been made in the first place. And obviously we don't want more people to be murdered. But if I am correct, there seems to be a pattern forming already, so it's mostly likely that he or she will strike either in the next street over from the second murder or they will try to deter us and strike in the street before the first murder. But with cases like these I can't be sure. If they're a spree killer then they could go anywhere and kill even more people."
"Well it's a start at least," Lincoln huffed. "Has anyone found a link between the victims?"
Jack shook his head, "There's absolutely nothing to suggest the two of them are related. I mean come on, middle-class woman in her forties and a homeless man in his twenties? There is no way they're related, they can't be. These are random attacks, they have to be."
"Have you ever thought that you could be wrong?" Lincoln began, sitting up straighter in his chair. "They're killed one street apart from each other, that can't be a coincidence? Most spree killers have victims much further away from them and if they have victims close together they'll usually attack within minutes not two hours."
Jack raised his eyebrows, leaning forward on his elbows, "Excuse me?"
Nikki's eyes flicked to meet Clarissa's who knew exactly what was about to happen should Lincoln continue trying to wind Jack up. Lincoln stood up, cracking his back.
"I want to take another look at the crime scenes, see if you missed anything," he remarked. "Dr Alexander I want you to come with me please."
Nikki looked to Jack who was subtly shaking his head, his face like thunder. She didn't want to go with Lincoln for many reasons, one of them being for Jacks sake. She really wasn't in the mood for dealing with jealous Jack, he was protective enough as it is. And secondly, she didn't trust Lincoln in the slightest, it was obvious that he had taken a fancy to her and there was something about him that she didn't entirely feel safe with. However, not wanting to seem unprofessional she had to agree to go with him. Trying her best to ignore the glare Jack was giving her she stood up and followed Lincoln out of the Lyell, picking up her jacket and bag on the way out.
"She couldn't exactly say no could she?" Clarissa pointed out, watching Jack who hadn't taken his eyes off the doorway. "You can trust her, nothing's going to happen."
"It's not her that I don't trust, it's him," Jack breathed. "He's so determined on being right when he's clearly wrong."
"Right and you're nothing like that are you Jack?" Clarissa scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Pulling up towards the first crime scene, Nikki left the car with Lincoln close behind.
"What exactly are we looking for here?" Nikki queried, heading closer to where the body had originally been found.
"Anything to link this murder to the other," Lincoln answered, squatting down to the floor, looking out for any clues that may have been missed upon initial inspection.
"So why have you asked me along and not Jack?" Nikki folded her arms, staring down at Lincoln. "He's the forensic scientist after all. I just deal with the bodies."
Returning up to his full height, his eyes somewhat level with Nikki's, "Can I be honest with you? I don't like him. Besides, where else am I going to get the opportunity to ask if you'll go for a drink with me later?"
Nikki's face dropped, almost feeling as though her jaw was on the floor. She was aware that he'd taken a liking to her but she was not expecting that at all, "Sorry, what?"
"Seriously? Me and you, you must've picked up on that tension," a hopeful grin on his face.
Nikki couldn't help but laugh, causing the smile on Lincoln's face to drop, "Well if that's all you wanted then can we go back to the Lyell because this really is a waste of our time. Jack is the best forensic scientist I've ever known, he's not going to miss anything. You know as much as I do that the only thing linking these cases are the killers so please, let's get on with some real work." She turned and headed back to Lincoln's car, leaving behind a very stunned detective.
"I'll take that as a no then?"
They were soon returning back to the Lyell, Nikki making her way in first. Placing her bag on the desk and her coat on the back of her chair again, she tried her best to ignore Jack who was staring at her. She went about making herself a cup of tea.
"Do you want one Clarissa?" She called out, making a point of not including Jack.
Clarissa looked to Jack before facing Nikki again, "I won't say no, thank you."
Nikki sighed as she poured the hot water into the two mugs in front of her, "You know, it's a real shame you're not sticking around. I've really missed having you here."
Jack pulled a face at Clarissa and mouthed 'what did I do?' holding his hands up in the air to which Clarissa simply shrugged her shoulders. Standing up he joined Nikki by the counter, pulling out himself a mug and placing it loudly on the counter before setting about making his own cup of tea. He was waiting for Nikki to say something but she just handed a mug to Clarissa and went to sit down at her desk, another cup in her hand.
He watched as she turned the computer on and continued working on the report she was writing up. He knitted his eyebrows together, completely baffled. Clearing his throat he walked back to his desk and sat down in the chair, "How did it go with Lincoln? You weren't gone very long, did you find anything?"
Nikki glanced up at him, "No," she replied, quickly switching her focus back on the computer.
"Right," Jack breathed, standing up again. "Can we have a word please? In private."
"Sure," Nikki nodded, following him out of the door and into the hallway.
"Do you want to explain to me what's going on?" Jack asked, folding his arms.
"Nothing."
"There's something wrong," the tone in his voice softened as he grabbed hold of her hand. "Did something happen when you went with Lincoln earlier?"
"What about Lincoln?" She snapped.
Jack nodded, the penny dropping, "He asked you out didn't he?" Dropping his hand from hers, he spun on his heel, his back to her. With an arm supporting him he leaned against the wall.
Nikki reached out and ran her finger up and down his back, "Please don't overreact about this. I knew you didn't like him but I couldn't say no earlier and then when he said that the only reason he wanted me to go with him was to ask me I made sure he drove me straight back."
"What a prick," Jack remarked.
Nikki chuckled, "Tell me about it. Just please don't do anything stupid when he comes back, I've made it quite clear to him that I'm not interested so he won't be asking me any stupid questions again."
Jack faced her once again, "Can't say I blame him mind."
"Jack," she rolled her eyes, hitting him in the chest with the back of her hand. A smile spread across his face as gazed down at her. He leaned down to kiss her but he was stopped as a cough came from down the hallway. Lifting his head he looked to where the sound was coming from. The grin dropped as he realised who it was.
Nikki's head darted between the two, making a note of how Jack's fist clenched slightly. She placed her hand on Jack's face and pulled him back to her. Standing up on her tip-toes, her lips brushed against his. She didn't miss how Jack's arm snaked around her waist, bringing her closer to him as the kiss deepened. Knowing that she had done all she needed to do, she pulled away from him and headed back towards the entrance.
"DI Lincoln," she smirked as she entered the code and held the door open for Lincoln and Jack to follow behind her.
