A/N: As I'm sure you guessed, the last chapter was a "scene-setter". Here begins the investigation. Er...and the nasty bits with the corpses. No G/S in this chapter, I'm afraid. Just vital info.

Chapter II: Litany of the Dead

The Commissioner escorted the CSIs to their temporary laboratory in New Scotland Yard. He showed them into a spacious area, with a large conference room in the middle, and smaller laboratories separated off the sides by large windows. In the middle of the conference room was a big glass sheet, onto which ten photographs had been attached. The team spent a few minutes scanning the room, while the Commissioner disappeared for a minute, returning with a tall, blond man in a police uniform.

"Welcome to your new quarters, ladies and gentlemen. This officer is Sergeant Robert Hitchens, and he will be your escort and main contact while you're here. This space is for your exclusive use for the duration of this case - no one will disturb you, and the labs are equipped with all that our Scene of Crime Officers usually use. If there is anything you need that isn't here, let Sergeant Hitchens know and we'll try our best to get it. I have also obtained authorisation from the Home Office for you to carry the identification our SOCOs usually use, and for you to question any witnesses, suspects or other members of the public informally as you wish. If you need to formally question anyone within the station, obtain warrants, or arrest anyone for these crimes, then Sergeant Hitchens will aid you with that. He will also serve as your contact with myself, and will update me on your progress on the case."

"Are these photographs of the victims?" asked Grissom, pointing at the glass partition.

"Yes, including the latest victim. She is currently with our Coroner, who is conducting the autopsy. If you would like to speak to the Coroner, she is one floor down from here, to the left of the lift entrance. The Coroner's reports on the other bodies are in these files, as is everything else we know about this case. The earlier bodies have been buried, and if it is absolutely necessary, exhumation orders can be gained for you."

"I understand the media are going to be all over this," said Catherine, "is there anything we ought to know?"

"The media have started a feeding frenzy over this. Once it became clear that this was a serial killer, there has been little else in the news for months, and we've been accused of incompetence over this case over and over again. They're calling the killer the 'Godly Ripper' because the bodies have all been found in the same place - Charing Cross. I'm afraid they will probably try to target you to find out more information about the case, and especially to see whether you think the Met has been incompetent or careless. I will be announcing your presence at a press conference in half an hour, but I will deal with the press statements. I'm sure you will meet journalists, however, but I assume you've probably dealt with press intrusion before. Naturally, there are particulars about this case which we do not want made known, in case our killer confesses, and also to try to preserve the dignity of the dead, at least until the killer is caught. I would advise you not to walk anywhere, otherwise you will be swarmed by the paparazzi, I'm afraid, and Sergeant Hitchens will drive you to anywhere you need to go, so hopefully you should be able to avoid them as much as possible. I have to prepare for the press conference shortly, but do you have any questions?"

The team said that they didn't, and so the Commissioner left them with Hitchens.

"Hi," he said, "I've been assigned to you because I worked on the first two cases, though the CID took over from there. I think everything you need to know should be in the files, but I can always get some of the other officers to come and talk to you if you need it. Call me Bob, by the way."

"Hi Bob, I'm Gil Grissom," Grissom said, shaking his hand. Gesturing to the team, he continued, "this is Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, Nick Stokes, and Sara Sidle. I'm sure we're all very keen to get going on this case, so we'll get started on the files first. Can we write on this glass board?"

Bob indicated they could, so Grissom quickly scanned through the précis document, and started to write underneath each of the photographs.

"Okay, this was the first victim, discovered by a passer-by at Charing Cross station on November 28th of last year. Her name was Jane Evans, and she was 45. According to the notes, she was strangled with some sort of garrotte. Cause of death, asphyxia."

They all stared at the photograph of a pretty woman with shoulder-length brown hair, with a bruise round her neck indicating how she died. Looking along the row, it was immediately evident that all of the victims were pretty, white women who looked vaguely alike, and all had shoulder-length brown hair and were in the same age bracket.

"There were...other things done to her besides strangling," Bob interrupted, "really horrible, they were."

"Yes...the notes indicate that she was restrained for some time before she was killed. According to her friends, she had left her home in Lincoln on Thursday, and her corpse was discovered on Sunday in London. He cut off her breasts using a wide-bladed instrument - probably a kitchen knife - and also cut down her sternum, leaving a distinct 'cross' shape. He then strangled her before she could die of her wounds, and then had sex with her corpse. Several times, from the evidence. The Coroner indicates that she probably died that Friday, and her killer kept her corpse before moving it to his dumping spot. The good news is that the killer did not wear a condom; however the bad news is that his DNA does not match any on profile. He also removed her heart after she was dead."

"That's disgusting," said Warrick, quietly. Everyone was disturbed by the actions of the man they were hunting, and vowed to catch him before he could kill anyone else.

"The strangulation, mastectomy, cut down the sternum, removal of the heart and necrophilia appear to be the 'signature' of our killer. The only difference between this first killing and the rest are that there is evidence of hesitation marks on her chest. It seems he got good at his job quickly - he didn't hesitate again. The women were all from different places in the country, but, as I'm sure you have noticed, they look alike."

"Perhaps he had a girlfriend or a wife who looked like they do, and he's getting his revenge on them?" Sara guessed, "or a religious fixation, with the crosses?"

"It's a possibility, but let's keep an open mind at this point. There was very little forensic evidence recovered from the body - some traces of nitrogen-enriched soil, but nitrogen appears naturally in soil from decaying plant matter. The soil in this case had a large amount of nitrogen in it, but nitrogen fertiliser is used both in farming and home gardening. The victim had no defensive wounds, and nothing was recovered from her fingernails, indicating that she was subdued quickly, and restrained during the time the killer mutilated her."

"The soil might mean she was killed on a farm or in an isolated garden," suggested Catherine, "there would be a lot of noise, and that would attract the attention of neighbours in a town."

"True, but it is also possible that she picked up the soil elsewhere, perhaps in her own garden before she was abducted, it is very common," said Grissom, "but keep that idea in mind.

"The other victims also bear the killer's signature on them. Remember that a serial killer is driven to leave psychological markers on the bodies of his victims, things which arouse him or satiate his desire to kill. We use the signature of a murderer to tie his cases together and to prosecute him in court. The British police must have guessed fairly early on that they had a serial killer, his signature is developed and distinctive - perhaps indicating a long-term fantasy about committing such acts, or that he has killed before. On the evidence of the hesitation marks on the first body, it might be more likely that he has fantasised about committing a crime 'just-so' for some time. Now, let's look at the other women this man has killed." Grissom pointed at each of the photographs in turn.

"All the victims were much the same height - around 5'10", and range in age from 32 to 48. All of them have shoulder-length brown hair, and all were white. The second victim was Sarah Ashwell, aged 38, who was married and lived in a place called Grantham in Lincolnshire. She is survived by her husband and small child. She was killed in the same way as Jane Evans, and her body was also discovered at Charing Cross. Due to rainfall in the night, no trace evidence was recovered from her body.

"The third victim was Tessa Cardy, age 40, a divorced woman with no children. She lived in a place called Stamford, again in Lincolnshire. Traces of nitrogen-enriched soil were recovered from her body.

"The fourth woman was Alice Dodd, age 47, who was separated and lived with her two children in Geddington in Northamptonshire. Her body had been washed with a common brand of soap before being brought to Charing Cross - by this time I would imagine the press were talking about the cases.

"Fifth came Heather Farn, a 42 year-old woman from Yorkshire, but abducted from the town of Northampton, where she had been staying with a friend. Again, the body had been washed with the same soap - in fact traces of Alice Dodd's skin were found in the soap, definitely tying these crimes together.

"The sixth victim was Laura Goddard, aged 32 and the youngest of the victims. She was from Stony Stratford - which is not the Stratford of Shakespeare, but a market town in the county of Milton Keynes. Small particles of leather were found on her skin, perhaps indicating that the killer wore leather gloves while washing his victims.

"Seventh is Catherine Kilpatrick, aged 39 and a single woman who was not reported missing, but identified after police made a public appeal. She was from Woburn in Bedfordshire. Again the corpse was washed before disposal occurred.

"The eighth victim was a Lynda Roberts, aged 41 and a married stay-at-home mom. She lived in Dunstable and was hunted for quite extensively by the Bedfordshire police once she was reported missing, but her body was found in the same place as before. It seems that from this point on the killer discontinued his practise of washing the corpses, as traces of a copper sulphate mixture were found on her body. Copper sulphate is used to treat algae levels in fish tanks and ponds, to remove certain pests from gardens and farms, and also to treat certain conditions in animals. Perhaps the killer grew complacent, sure that the police would not catch him.

"The ninth victim was Bridget Light, aged 48 and the oldest victim. She was a single mother from St Albans, Hertfordshire. Traces of both nitrogen fertiliser and copper sulphate were found on the body.

"The victim from today has been identified from a missing person's report as Rachel Melton, aged 47 from Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire. She was found two hours ago at Charing Cross by a policeman."

"Are there any cameras in Charing Cross which might have picked up the killer disposing of the body?" Sara asked Bob.

"There are some CCTV cameras, but not where the bodies were placed. The bodies were all found under the actual cross from which Charing Cross gets its name. The CCTV cameras in the area are trained behind the cross, at the railway station which is there. Charing Cross is just slightly up the road from Trafalgar Square, and is at one end of the Strand."

"A busy place then? Did anyone see anything," asked Nick.

"No. The Strand has become well-known for the numbers of homeless people who congregate along there, because many of them live on the Embankment which is just behind the Strand. The cross is a popular place for some of them to sit and to beg. I'm afraid most Londoners have become so used to seeing beggars in the streets that they just ignore them, never look at them, and don't really see them. We think that the killer may be dressing as a homeless man to take advantage of this - many of them carry sleeping bags full of accumulated junk, and no one noticed the body being dumped. All the bodies were dumped in sleeping bags, so that people would assume they were simply the homeless. But the police find them because they move the homeless on when they see them in one place for a long time."

"So, to recap: we have ten victims of one killer, with a well-developed 'signature' he uses. He performs a double mastectomy, and cuts open the sternum using a kitchen knife, and later removes the heart after death. He also indulges in necrophilia, leaving semen at the scene. Several bodies have been found with copper sulphate and nitrogen fertiliser traces on them, though other trace evidence is lacking. All the women were of roughly the same age, the same height, and all have shoulder-length brown hair. They come from various different places - though all within a day's drive of London, and all have been dumped in the same place. Other than physical appearance, little seems to tie the women together - they did not share the same job, income or social class bracket, nor were they members of any club or society in common. Three of the women knew one another slightly - Tessa Cardy, Heather Farn, and Bridget Light had met briefly at a party for divorced women seeking new parties. They had not become friends, and knew one another only slightly.

"Warrick and Nick, I'd like you to start going through the trace reports from the previous cases and processing the trace evidence gained from the latest victim; Catherine and Sara, check up on this dating agency in case it has anything to do with the case, and I'm going to talk to the pathologist."

The CSIs took their copies of the case files and headed off in various directions. Warrick and Nick divided up the cases between them and headed off to two adjoining labs to start to sift through the forensic evidence to see if the London police had missed anything. Grissom, accompanied by Bob, headed down to the morgue, while Catherine rang the 'Divorcees Unite' dating agency and Sara checked out the company on the internet. It was going to be a long night, gaining a thorough knowledge of the crimes, but necessary before they could begin investigating.

TBC...