Disclaimer- Consider yourselves disclaimed, again.
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Fin stopped Becca as the elevator doors opened.
"First, we talk to the Captain. I don't know how things run in your squad, but here, we clear stuff through Cragen."
Becca leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.
"You're right. Sorry, I guess I'm running three steps ahead of my self on this."
"You're running blind is what you're doing, girl and you're never going to catch him that way." Fin put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let him wind you so tight you miss the clues. Sounds to me like this hump wants you to find him, so I'll bet he's left plenty. You gotta slow down to see them."
"You're right, Fin. Let's go get ready for this briefing. By the time we're done, the lab should have a head start on processing the evidence, and I can see how the dots connect." Becca smiled slightly. "If you ever decide to switch coasts, I could use you. Sometimes I get in to deep. Ben used to bust my balls on it." Her smile faded. "Guess I'll have to warn my new partner about that."
The two detectives headed back to the interview room. Fin helped Becca sort through the notebooks, and then left her to prepare for the briefing.
Becca sat with the case notebooks in front of her. She'd looked through her own, but hadn't yet brought herself to open Ben's. She stared at the cover of the first one; dated three days before Carson's first victim had been found. One finger traced the date on the cover as she braced herself to open it.
Ben's small, neat handwriting swam in front of her eyes. Tears threatened to fall as she pictured him scribbling away, intent on his thoughts. She was the only one who could decipher his notes, because she understood how his mind worked.
Becca turned the pages until she reached the page dated October 17, 2003. The date Carson entered their world; the day things began the insane downward spiral that led to Ben's death. A spiral that had yet to reach its end.