Note: Okay, here's the deal. The computer situation has not, I repeat, not been remedied. The hard drive will eventually be sent to my brother, the computer expert, for a bit of maintenance, but not as of yet. We need to ensure that someone will be around to pick it up when it arrives, and other such complications. So, in the meantime, I decided to go ahead with another update, maybe two if time permits and we procrastinate on sending the computer off. It's driving me crazy, not updating. It's just so… wrong. And writing by hand is unpleasant.

Ch. 11

Heartless

Alicia's apartment spoke volumes about who the young woman had been. And what it spoke of was innocence bordering on her being very much in touch with her inner child. It also made her seem unlike the type who would go club hopping every night on a whim, but then Mac supposed that a bad enough break-up might have that effect. Even the most innocent tended to have a wilder side.

The young woman's living room was plain white, but flecked with the color of fake flowers placed in corners and on shelves in hand-painted pots of fired clay. Her walls were decorated with paintings of gardens, kittens, and birds. In the corner china cabinet were crystal figurines of animals, wind up music boxes, and hand-painted china plates. Topping off the array of sweetness was a white rabbit plushy nestled in the corner of her couch with a pink ribbon around its neck.

But there was a flaw to the sweetness, and that was Alicia's choice of movies; all action and adventure. Guy-flicks for the most part with a romantic comedy here and there to offset the pattern. Part of her 'wild side'.

" This girl really liked animals," Flack said from Alicia's bedroom. He stepped out, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder. " Her bed's practically buried in 'em. You know, if I hadn't heard Hawkes' tox report for myself, I would have sworn this girl never took a drink in her life."

Mac set his kit down on the floor and opened it. " That's why we know better than to base all thought on first impressions."

" Kind of sick if you think about it," Flack went on. " I mean now that we know Alicia a little more. She seemed really nice. I knew this girl in high school once named Annabelle. She was kind of like Alicia I think. Quiet, really friendly to everyone, kind of shy. And I think she had a stuffed-animal fetish thing going on too. The thing was she was so nice that you never wanted anything to happen to her, you know? She became kind of like everyone's little sister. She hung out with my group a lot. We weren't super tight or anything, me and her, but I watched out for her like the rest. I'd say Alicia was that type but - and no offense to her friends - it doesn't seem like anyone was watching out for her all that much."

Mac had set about searching for prints, though he was certain that all he would find would be the prints of Alicia and her friends.

" People can't be watched forever, Flack," Mac said, opening the door to dust the knob. " Do you even know where this girl is whose back you always had?"

" Yeah, she got married to a buddy of mine."

Mac smiled as he took some tape to lift the prints. " She was lucky. One friend was a future cop, the other a future mate. Alicia was watched, just by the wrong kind. She was in trouble and didn't even know it. No amount of 'watching' would have saved her."

Mac focused his print gathering mostly on the door, but then attempted to gather what he could from the glass coffee table, then from the glasses on the counter and in the sink. After the prints, he searched the bedroom with an ultraviolet light, seeking out semen, then the living room in search of unseen bloodstains. But everything was clean down to the invisible spectrum level.

There was little else to be found or done; though Mac continued to glean the apartment for nearly two hours.

" So" Flack said after an extended period of silence, milling about in his causal but observant way. " You think she let this guy in?"

" So far," Mac replied, " seems that way. She probably met him at the club, he followed her home, waited until the friend left, and knocked on the door. Drunk as Samantha said Alicia was, she wouldn't be difficult to persuade."

Flack nodded. " And poor Alicia, none the wiser, was whisked away to the renovated building, probably under the pretense that it belonged to her charming caller and he wanted to show it off… or something like that. SOB. That's just freakin' sick."

Mac placed the gathered evidence back in his kit and closed it up.

" Well, I got all we could get. Let's head back and process."

CSINY

Next Day

Between the late nights and early mornings, Danny was fairly certain that he was pushing it. He had stayed overtime processing the blood used for the snake to match it to Alicia, then practically scoured every inch of the table for anything remotely useable. All he got was a manufacturing serial number a techy was running for him now. Following Stella's example by finding the manufacturing company, he could trace the table to a store and hopefully discover who purchased it.

He came in early today in hopes of snagging doctor Hawkes. The mortician had gone home before Danny had gotten around to speaking with him.

So Danny made his way to the cold steel and concrete chamber that was Dr. Hawkes' 'lair'. He was startled on arriving to see Dr. Farrone already there, watching as Hawkes pulled their male victim from the locker.

" And I thought getting up at the crack of dawn was early," he commented. " You get here when it was still dark?"

Anita grinned at Danny as he joined her and Hawkes. " This may sound unusual, but I'm a morning person. And I've never been much for sleep. Besides, I just got here four minutes after you, give or take."

" That's still early. So, doc, what've you got? Besides the lack of a heart and a crap load of missing blood."

Dr. Hawkes' lips turned up in a slight smirk. " Couldn't have put it better myself. Although I wouldn't have said quite so…"

" Bluntly?" Farrone finished.

" Exactly." Hawkes then unzipped the body bag and folded the two halves to the side. The vic's chest had been stitched closed, giving Danny the impression of a science experiment that hadn't worked out too good.

Dr. Hawkes pointed to the vertical incision along the breastbone. " The cut was made the entire length of the bone, separating the ribcage in what, I must admit, was a very neat and tidy fashion. No splintering, jagged ends, or veering. Just a clean, straight slice. Either your killer has some experience in surgery, or works as a butcher for a living."

Danny frowned in a slight grimace. " That sounds wrong on a lot of levels, Hawkes."

Hawkes shrugged. " Sorry. As for where the heart used to be, that ended up a little messier. What wasn't cut was torn. But I guess that's what comes about when you can't see what you're doing."

" Well," said Anita," we at least know what he's using to hold the blood for his next masterpiece. Was he hung or was the rope just there for looks?"

" Strangled, actually," Dr. Hawkes replied, then pointed at the red and blue mark around the throat. " The bruising on the neck is positioned too low for it to be a hanging. It would be higher up and not so centered in the throat had it been a hanging. See? This man's killer appears to have been pretty strong. He really laid it in."

Danny stuck his cast-less hand into his pocket. " This man's killer ain't too fond of men."

At that moment, Anita's phone chirped. Snatching it from the pocket of her gray jacket, she flipped it open with an apologetic smile to Danny and Hawkes.

" Farrone…" She moved away from the two men to talk in private. Hawkes zipped the bag back up.

" Man hater, huh?" he asked as he shoved the body back into its temporary crypt.

" Farrone says it has something to do with jealousy. They get in his way, he kills 'em."

Hawkes closed the hatch of the locker with a resounding thump and click. " What would you call what he does to the women then? Love?"

Danny took a deep, uneasy breath and let it out slowly. " I do not even want to go there." He took his hand from his pocket to point at Farrone. " That's her department."

They heard Farrone say good-bye then snap her phone shut. She walked back over to the two men, wearing a look of pale bewilderment over her usual cheerful features.

" That was Detective Taylor. Guess what, they found another body."

Danny went rigid in alarm. " Little early, isn't it?"

Anita could only shrug, then hurried away to go meet up with Mac. Danny looked at Hawkes, and Hawkes sucked in a hissing breath through his teeth. " Love, hate. If you ask me, it sounds like there's no getting on this guy's good side."

Danny nodded uneasily. " D--d if you do, d--d if you don't. That's a lot of hell-bent fury he's dishin' out."