Chapter 1

Ted Garrets face was grim as he entered the bullpen early Monday morning. Everyone inside seemed to pick up on his mood and the noise stifled. Myles stopped bickering with Bobby about paperwork, Lucy stopped filing the endless amounts of paper stacked up on her desk, and Tara removed her head phones. Even Sue Thomas, who was deaf, managed to pick up on the absence of noise in the room and immediately ended her online conversation.

SUE: Sorry, that was David.

Sue was quiet, careful not to look at Jack as she spoke. She didn't want to explain the complications of her feelings, both for Jack and David, and the best way to ignore something is to pretend it doesn't even exist.

JACK: New case, Garret? Jack glanced over at Sue briefly, wondering about the hidden level of guilt she had laced in to David's name, before redirecting his vision to his tense supervisor. He, personally, hated David just because David was involved with Sue. But Sue didn't sound so happy with him either. Jack shook his head slightly and, again, tried to concentrate on his supervisor. Garret always looked tough and stern, it was part of the job, but now he just looked down right furious.

MYLES: Now where would you get that from, Jack?

Myles said sarcastically, his normal tone, but also shifted to look at Garret closer. He braced himself for a huge case, the kind of case that would take days to solve. He could just feel them coming, and this one felt like a freight train.

GARRET: Young female, early twenties, murdered in the park last night. Her body was found under a pile of leaves.

MYLES: While I am sure this is a tragic situation for her relatives, murder is police business. Why are we involved?

GARRET: Because the terms at which she was found, and what was found with her. She had been stabbed in the stomach and hollowed out, but other than that she had no other marks on her. She died of blood loss. But this was found on the body, pinned on her shirt in a plastic bag.

Garret placed a metal object on the table and Sue walked over to pick it up. She turned the object over in her hand and looked puzzled, not understanding the meaning.

SUE: It's a monopoly game piece. What is this supposed to mean?

She glanced around the bullpen and saw Jack's face begin to pale. Myles slammed his fist in to the filing cabinet and Bobby and Tara shared a long look, a look full of unhappy thoughts and horrible case file memories.

JACK: It's a calling piece left by the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper. He is referred to as "Slicker", because he has never been caught. He was last heard of twenty years ago.

MYLES: We studied this case in school, I remember it because I was fascinated by how many times this man got away from the law. The agents in charge of his case almost had him once, but he killed someone close to an agent on the team and diverted their attention.

SUE: What are you saying, that Slicker is alive and well and could be killing anywhere, at anytime? Do you think he killed this girl?

JACK: I'm saying that he is alive and well and killing again. That's his mark, his signature. He's back and just as dangerous as before.

GARRET: That's what we managed to conclude down at the office. We need to catch this guy, now. He has killed over forty men and women in his time and he needs to be caught before he can resume his pattern. If he rises back to his former level, he will be almost impossible to catch. He's smart, very smart and a slick and cunning as a cobra.

BOBBY: And if we don't catch him before he kills again, he will have alerted America that a serial killer is on the loose and some how it will slip that the FBI can't catch him. Anyone could be prey at anytime, because his patterns are unknown.

JACK: Everyone be careful, very careful. He likes to strike close to home, to confuse and diverse the law enforcement so he can continue on his way.

Jack looked at Sue when he spoke. He was speaking to everyone, but directing the most emotion to her. She blushed slightly and tried to pretend not to notice the extra emphasis.

D: We need to catch this guy, fast. All we know is that he kills on the moon cycles. A full moon was last night, so we have less than a week to track this guy down. Or another person will die.