A/N I sincerely apologize for how much is being posted today, but it is my revenge on They ban me for a week, I come back with twice as much as I would normally write. So for all of you who have me on author alert, I am truly sorry for all this, but I'm getting my revenge.
She sat back, trying to piece together the murders. The only thing they knew as that it was a blonde man who had some knowledge of how to butcher something. Could be anyone though. A hunter, a butcher, even a good chef would have some knowledge of how to butcher meat. No other evidence. He was good, whoever it was was very good at what he did. She had no doubt that once they found him that Renee would be out for blood and get it, but right now they needed to find whoever this guy was.
All their jobs were on the line with this case. Renee had been doubted and questioned when she chose to bring Garret back, and she knew that although the press would never mention it, that her friend's involvement with the ME in question had been something that made the decision even harder. The press knew better than to print that, but there was enough insinuation in the papers that anyone who could read between the lines knew that part of the reason Garret was back was because Renee had screwed over their relationship.
But she had seen him work first hand, he was a damn good ME, he knew what he was doing, he wasn't an idiot. He did his job well, professionally. He never let pride step in, he never gloated about breaking a case. When she had been back in New York there were ME's who rubbed it in to the cops whenever they figured it out before the detectives did, there were quite a few detectives who weren't too fond of that either, one of her ex boyfriends sprang to mind.
She flipped through the files, staring at the crime scene photos, trying to find something else that would tie them all together. Forget the crossword, this was her idea of fun. The first one was the only one to have been found where he was killed, the others had all been butchered someplace else and dumped. The only similarity between the two butchering victims was that they were strung up by the ankles. The only thing that tied the three together was the hair and the knife.
The two butcher victims had been gutted before death and beheaded. It was gruesome, even Fejes meats had killed the animals before gutting and bleeding them out. It was important to do it as close to death as possible, but she had never seen someone as inhumane as to do it to something alive, much less a person. It sent chills down her spine to think of it.
She read and reread the case notes on the first victim. Max Merrit, he had been found at home having just returned from vacation. A neighbor had come over with his mail to find him dead just inside the doorway. A bolt of inspiration hit her, and she all but leapt up, as close to leaping as her old bones would allow, cringing as she heard her knee pop. She really needed to find a good doctor, but not until her insurance kicked in. Which was still three weeks away.
She headed up to his office and knocked twice on the doorway before walking in. She found him sitting at his desk, his feet propped up on the corner finishing off what had been her sandwich. So he had taken her up on her offer. "I see hunger got the better of you."
"Where did you learn to cook?" He asked, and she could tell he was impressed. She grinned, that was always a good thing.
"Mamma Fejes always said that good looks and success can only attract a man, to keep him you must feed him." A smile crossed his face. "But that's besides the point. I know you guys are supposed to be doing the crime solving but I've got a problem with sticking my nose, as large as it is, where it doesn't belong." She tapped the side of the protruding feature with a smile. "Have a look at this. The first guy was killed in his house, with the same knife, and he had just been on vacation. When you butcher someone, you drain all the blood from the body, any blood left taints the meat, you need something to drain that blood into. What if our killer killed the first two in this guys house and killed him when the guy came home and found him?"
Garret looked at the files, donning a pair of reading glasses. He looked older with them, fitting the stereotype of glasses making you look more intelligent. But he was bright to begin with, he didn't need to look it.
"I think you might be onto something. I'll call Woody." He said, impressed with her, this time not for her culinary skill.