Cassidy's hotel room had been secluded off from the public by the police. The officers were searching the room for any clues in regards of a possible location of the violinist. Greg was standing outside of the room when he was approached by the same detective that investigated the scene at the Garfield house. The detective was an older gentleman for whom could be mistaken for Bill Dauterive's twin brother, except that his guy had a full head of blonde hair, wore glasses, and smelled like a box of cheap cigars.
"I thought I told you to stay away from my crime scenes, Stokes." The detective reminded
"Good to see you too, Louis." Greg greeted with a hint of sarcasm
"That's Detective Benson, wise ass," Benson said, "now give me a reason why I shouldn't lock you up for trespassing on my crime scene."
"I'll give you three; I'm the one who discovered it, this makes me a witness," Greg pointed out, "I was married to Cassidy Swan, meaning I knew the victim, and finally this is the work of a serial killer known as The Sphinx; a case that I worked on ten years ago back in Dallas, so you'll need my help if you want to catch him."
"Why the hell did you call him the sphinx?" Louis asked
"That's the name he left that the first crime scene," Greg explained, "from what I and my old partner pieced together, he would kidnap someone, hold them prisoner, and force them to answer riddles."
"Oh, like the Riddler?"
"Only in the love of riddles part," Greg said, "its how he deals with them that's different."
"Okay, how did he kill his victims?" Benson asked pressing for details
"There were eight victims, five males and three females," Greg informed, "all these people apparently failed to answer his riddles and in doing so not only got killed, but he devoured them."
Benson, who had been jotting down the details abruptly stopped and glanced up.
"He ate them!?"
"In Greek Mythology the Sphinx was a monster that devoured travelers who failed to answer her riddle."
"Perfect, first a werewolf, then some flying monster, and now a cannibal," Benson commented, "I'm quitting if a mummy shows up."
Greg continued reviewing the details of his old cases back in Dallas. He had hoped that any information could help Benson and the cops find Cassidy before it was too late.
"All the previous victims were found in old dining establishments," Greg added, "so check every place that's been closed for at least a year or more."
"We will," Benson promised, "do you have a picture of her we can use?"
Greg took out his wallet where he removed a picture of Cassidy that he kept behind his license.
"It's from a few months before we got divorced." Greg said as he handed Benson the picture
"Thanks, now go home and we'll contact you when we find her."
"I have confidence that you'll do everything you can," Greg said, "but, this isn't the first time the Sphinx had targeted her, that has me worried that he'll do everything he can to succeed."
(Tokyaki's)
The Sphinx was eating from a bowl as he sat next to the butchered remains of Cassidy Swan. He jabbed his fork into the bowl where he picked up a piece of her grilled flesh along with an onion. Someone entered the restaurant just as he drizzled on the sauce which he concocted from a mix of her blood and soy sauce. The person was a man, he was six feet tall with russet hair and blue eyes with a build of a heavyweight boxer. He wore a dark green bomber jacket over a plain grey long sleeve shirt; he also had on a pair of blue denim pants and brown shoes. He scanned the room and appeared to be unaffected by the amount of blood on the floor and the stench of cooked flesh.
"Eber, good to see you," Sphinx greeted after taking a bite, "you want any?"
"You know I'm a vegetarian," Eber stated as he walked towards him, "I'm here to make sure you're not forgetting why I brought you here."
"What local man unleashes his inner beast?" Sphinx asked
"That's a pathetic riddle, especially coming from you, Andrew."
"That was harsh," Andrew said as he set down the bowl, "and answering the question, yes, I know you called me here to kill the Arlen Werewolf, but once I found out that Ms. Swan was in town, I couldn't resist the second chance."
"Since you got that out of the way, its now important that you deal with the werewolf."
"Yeah, yeah, I understand, but why not do it yourself?"
"We've already lost one member of the Order of Caldrayt to him," Eber explained, "we're not willing to lose another at this time."
"Rumor is that you and your boy Vergil have a whole menagerie of supernatural creatures at your disposal."
"Your kind love challenges and this Guardian Wolf fits the bill."
"He better be smart," Andrew said, "I detest munching on morons."
"Get to it, once you're finished here of course." Eber ordered before walking out and revealing a pig tattoo on the back of his neck
"Don't worry, I know some great canine recipes."
Andrew had resumed his meal when he heard Cassidy's phone ring. He took out her phone from her blood-soaked pants pocket and smiled when he saw that she had several missed calls from Greg Stokes.
"Looks like your ex is worried about you." Andrew said to Cassidy's corpse before using her thumb from his bowl to unlock the phone
He opened her voicemail and listened to Greg which one of the messages got his attention. He tossed the cell across the room breaking it against a wall. He turned to Cassidy and smiled.
"This is perfect, not only will I get to kill the Arlen Werewolf, but your loving ex just gave me my next meal."
(Hill residence)
The sky was growing darker as the celebration was coming to an end. All the guests had slowly left leaving only the Hills, Garfields, and the LaRues to clean up with help from Boomhauer and Berry.
"This was a great birthday." Allison stated as she tied up a trash bag
"Yep, we ran out of meat, potato salad, and beer at same time." Hank agreed
"Well I was thinking more on the lines of how normal it felt after everything that has happened."
"Then I guess you don't want to go out dancing with Herve and Emma?"
"Hey, I bought those new heels for my birthday and I'm planning on wearing them tonight."
Hank softly chuckled as Allison went into the house. Honestly after everything that has happened, Hank agreed that they needed a normal night to themselves. They made plans to go dancing with the LaRues; normally he hated dancing, but willingly agreed just to make Allison happy. He then remembered the last birthday of Peggy's they celebrated. They had a small party earlier that afternoon before leaving Bobby at the Gribble's, they then went to eat That's Amore before going to a play based on the book A Dinner of Onions. He was glad that her last birthday went smoothly without any form of disaster occurring. He recalled how all her birthdays were prone to disasters from flash floods to being robbed, they had been disaster free since the incident on the train a few years ago. Allison was a little worried about leaving Cameron and Bobby by themselves, but Hank promised that they would be okay, and that Jade and Berry would also be there, but were to call Boomhauer if anything were to happen.
"Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Bobby asked as he walked up with several empty plastic plates
"Yeah, I'm just going to clean off the grill quickly."
"I hope you two have a good time tonight."
"As do I," Hank agreed, "so what are you and Cameron going to do while we're out?"
"Well, Cameron's helping me study for an English test for Mr. Murdock's class," Bobby informed, "then maybe catch a few episodes of Iron Chef America before going to bed."
"Don't exert yourselves too hard." Hank joked
Hank, Allison, Emma, and Herve left to go dancing an hour later leaving the wolf pack alone in the Hill house. Two hours passed and Cameron was sitting on the couch annoyed as Bobby and Berry were playing some two-player fighting game based around comic book characters.
"I've got this in the bag." Berry said after landing several lightning fast kicks against Bobby's fighter
"I have to disagree." Bobby commented having his character unleashing their special power followed by a series of kicks and punches
"Player One Wins." The voice in the game announced
"NO!" Berry cried
"You won, can we please study for the test?" Cameron demanded
"One more round." Bobby said
"You two have had seventeen rounds with the same characters."
"Fine, I'll use a different character."
"I want the person you were using." Berry decided as he and Bobby selected their characters
"That's not what I meant," Cameron yelled, "you're getting a D in English and C's in all your other classes except history, where surprisingly you're getting an A."
"I can't help that I've got better at history since middle school." Bobby said
"I love this game as much as you, but you need to improve your grades, so put down that controller and let's study."
"Whatever you say, mom."
A pillow then struck Bobby in the face causing him to yelp.
"What was that for?" Bobby yelled as he tossed the pillow back onto the couch
"Being a wise arse." Cameron explained before getting up and going to the kitchen
Upon entering the kitchen, she saw Jade sitting at the table eating a piece of leftover cake.
"Seriously, I just berated Bobby for playing video games instead of studying and then I come in here to find my best friend eating cake after brushing her teeth." Cameron complained as she sat down across from Jade
"Bobby's mom comment seems pretty accurate." Jade joked
"Somebody had to fill the role considering the weird things in our lives."
"I've always wanted my own personal Mary Poppins."
This comment made Jade receive a cold glare from Cameron.
"Well a spoonful of that sugar will make your blood pressure go up." Cameron jested regarding the large slab of frosting on Jade's slice of cake
Their banter was interrupted by Berry's voice from the living room as he accused Bobby of cheating.
"How weird was it?" Cameron vaguely asked
"What?" Jade asked in return after swallowing the last of her cake
"Seeing Bobby's ex-girlfriend."
"Fine."
"Please, you saw how they acted around each other," Cameron said, "your eyes were green."
"They're always green." Jade stated
"Not with jealousy; I wouldn't blame you, she's smart, musically gifted…."
"I'm not jealous of Connie; besides I'm prettier than her." Jade said mumbling the last part
Cameron laughed. She enjoyed it when Jade acted like a normal teenage girl instead of a ninja monster hunter. What bothered her was that both Bobby and Jade clearly had feelings for each other but haven't acted on them. After seeing Connie, Cameron was worried that some other girl might come along and ruin Jade's chances at a possible relationship with him. She gazed towards the living room where Berry could still be heard calling Bobby a cheater. She looked back at Jade with a smile.
"You want to go in there and kick Bobby's ass at his own game?"
Jade grinned. "I'd love to."