Note: I give up. Every time we are about to send the computer off, we need it. Procrastination has won out. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this story before we mail the computer to my brother. Hopefully, but I can't say for sure. I'll try though.

Ch. 13

Deviations

It wasn't a copycat. The words were turning into a mantra around the lab. Stella had matched the blood used for the snake to the blood of the male vic. The news spread like fire on dry grass and tensions increased, especially since Dr. Farrone had yet to determine the reasoning behind this altercation. The real fear lay in the belief that this change would become regular, and that a body would be rolled into the morgue every other day. The populace was nervous enough as it was with bodies appearing every three days without the weekly respite. A body a day would create uncontrollable pandemonium, with people packing heat in purses or pockets, shooting at shadows and anything else that moved.

Then two days came and went with not a body to show for it. Every team was sent back to the crime scenes, picking at them, practically tearing them apart, questioning and re-questioning those in the area. They questioned friends and families of the victims. They went to the clubs where the female vics last partied. They searched their homes, asked around at the places they had worked, covered every base they possibly could. Yet it might as well have been busy work for all that they were able to uncover, which was practically next to nothing.

Nearing the end of his shift on the third day, Danny's body felt like led. The late nights and early mornings were becoming a bad habit for him. Coupled with the running around to scenes, bars, and clubs, asking questions and looking for what wasn't there, he was amazed that he was still walking, let alone thinking.

He was not the only one to be suffering the effects of the intensified search. He entered the locker room to see Aiden just as she slammed her locker three times before the door finally closed.

" Stupid piece of crap," she mumbled. She then began jerking the strap of her purse, trying to get it untangled all while murmuring more swears under her breath. Danny would have quipped something; he wanted to, but couldn't think of anything to say. His heart wasn't in it, or more accurately his state of mind. He had to be in a good mood to crack jokes.

He did stop to watch her out of weary curiosity to see if she could conquer the strap. When she finally did, flinging the strap over her shoulder with an exasperated sigh, she turned abruptly and gave Danny an impatient glare.

" What?" she snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Again, Danny wanted to quip, but was too tired.

" Nothing," he replied, continuing on. He could hear Aiden release another sigh, this one slow and thoughtful.

" Sorry," she said.

Danny shrugged. " That's cool." Then stopped, suddenly at a loss. " Why'd I come in here?"

He turned questioningly to Aiden as though she would have the answer. Aiden let herself fall back against the lockers.

" To get your crap and go home? It's why most people come in here at night. Except the night shift since they're usually coming in to dump their stuff off."

Danny shook his head, lining his brow in consternation. " No, that's not it. Someone told me something… Oh yeah." He turned again and headed to his locker. He heard Aiden's footfalls following a few paces behind him.

" You're losing it, Messer," she said.

" Someone said I got some letter. They stuck it in my locker, kind of."

Sure enough, when he came to his locker he found an envelope sticking halfway out the bottom. Danny leaned his shoulder against the door as he yanked the letter out and looked it over. The return address was from some law office, A Micheals and Falson only a few blocks away.

Aiden came up beside Danny and clicked her tongue. " Uh-oh. What'd you do now, Messer?"

The muscles in Danny's back went taut. He ripped the seal of the envelope with his thumb and tugged the letter out, nearly ripping it.

" Hope it's not from one of the clubs," Aiden said. " I mean they may have appeared pretty amiable, but I doubt they were actually happy about having cops crawling all over the place, spooking the customers, asking a butt-load of questions…"

Danny unfolded the letter and read it over out loud since Aiden would only nag him to read it for herself. " Dear Mr. Messer we request your presence at the return address of this establishment at the precise hour of 12:00 am, no sooner or later. Please comply or you may regret your course of inaction as it pertains to the well being of an ignorant individual who is, at the moment…" Danny straightened, " following the footsteps of misfortune. I am usually not so inclined to make known such unpleasentries, but certain measures must be taken to insure that all goes smoothly, yours truly… No One Important? What the hell?"

Aiden snatched the letter from Danny's hands. She lifted both her eyebrows as she read over the very last line, nearly laughing nervously out loud. " PS, do not, under any circumstances, be late. You're right, what the hell."

Danny took the letter back and turned it over onto the blank side. He then looked at the envelope. " Oh man I hope this is a joke. I mean it sounds like a joke." He stared at the letter for a minute. The letter was typed just like the envelope, but the vocabulary made him feel as though he had just been invited to some high-society banquet. He checked his watch. It was eleven forty right now, another night of over time. So if he were to go to this place, then now would be the time.

Yet everything about this gave him a sick feeling considering what happened last time a letter came. He looked at Aiden with a mixture of unease and confusion. " You think…?"

Aiden was staring at the letter as though it were a severed limb. She shook her head slowly from side to side. " I don't think I even want to go there. But, seriously, who around here would be that sick and that stupid to play a joke like this?" She flicked the corner of the letter as she said this.

Danny looked down at the letter, and realizing what it was he was holding gently set it and the envelope down on the bench in front of him.

Danny shook his head, his thoughts raging in turmoil as he became caught up in indecision. " It's gotta be another trap."

" Yeah?" Aiden replied. " Well what if it isn't? What if it's - you know - another killing?"

The sickness weighing in the pit of Danny's stomach increased until he had to clench his jaw to keep anything from coming up. Aiden had a point, but his own point was highly valid as well. He looked at Aiden helplessly.

" So… I should probably go, right? Just to make sure? I mean, none of the traps have actually killed anyone. I should play it safe."

Aiden winced apologetically. She was the picture of concern. " 'Fraid so. Just take back up. And I'll come with you."

Danny shook his head at this just as Aiden was about to turn around to grab her kit from her locker. " No. You deal with the letter. I'll go in, take who ever's around along for the ride. Should we tell Mac?"

Aiden opened her purse and pulled out a tissue. She then used it to lift the letter by the corners. " You go if you want to make it in time. I'll tell Mac."

Danny jerked his head down in an uneasy nod of assent, then hurried from the locker room. At the same time he pulled his cell and dialed Mavin's number. He was tempted to go with another detective, but knew Mavin would be riding his butt every chance he had if he wasn't called in on this.

After one ring, the older detective picked up. " Mavin here."

" Hey Mavin, it's Danny. Listen, I just got a letter and I think it's from our guy. He's asked me to be at this address at twelve exactly." Danny then read off the address.

" All right, Messer," Mavin said. " I can be there in thirty. Don't do anything until I arrive."

Danny checked his watch. It was now eleven forty-four. " Give me a break, Mavin. I'll do what I have to if it comes down to it," Danny curtly replied, then cut the connection before Mavin could say anything more.

There were plenty of officers around, and Danny went through five before he found two that were able to come with him. The sick feeling grew as he led them from the building. He wanted to give Mac the heads up, ask him how he should proceed, but time was too short, especially if a life was involved.

It took them fifteen minutes to arrive at the place. The law office was just one part of a larger complex on a corner street. And as expected, there was a sign on the front telling of the office's relocation due to renovations.

The older of the two uniforms, officer Bernard, tried the door and found it unlocked. He cast the beam of his light on the lock and leaned in close. " Scratches. It's been picked."

They went inside, heading right to a set of stairs winding upward. The offices were on the third floor at the far end of the building through a wide corridor. The corridor ended at a large room with a circular front desk with two narrow corridors branching off left and right behind it. Danny headed to the halls, looking down each. All the doors were open except for the one at the very end of the hall on the left.

Danny checked his watch. It was twelve o'two. He and the officers hurried toward the room.

" Hope we got the right place," the younger of the two said under his breath. Bernard reached the door first and placed his ear against it. His gray-blue eyes went suddenly wide.

" I hear something. Son of a…! I think someone's in there." He grabbed the knob, rattling and yanking it hard, but it was locked.

Danny could almost hear the noise too. It sounded like a garbled high-pitched mumbling, like someone sobbing but from a distance and behind layers of walls.

" Stand back," the older cop said. Danny and the younger officer complied. Then a thought struck Danny quick as lightening. Why would he be brought here if someone were still alive or around? What new game was this? And with that thought, Danny's heart slammed in his chest with alarm.

" Wait…!" he cried, but he was too late. The officer kicked at the door. It flew inward. At the same time, a high-pitched squeal of terror sounded, and Danny saw a form fall from the mantle of a fireplace. It jerked to a stop to hang inches from the floor and writhe in convulsions, kicking and struggling like a fish on a line.

" No!" Danny cried out, dropping his kit and camera and pushing past the cop. He did not think, simply act. He practically dove beneath the figure's legs then stood with the person now sitting on his shoulders like a large child. The person began falling backwards, but was caught by the two officers as they lifted the form up enough to keep the noose slack.

Still the figure jerked and kicked, gasping and choking as the heels and calves slammed into Danny's ribs and chest to reawaken old pains.

" Cut're down!" he yelled. He did not see what one of the officer's used, but could hear the sawing. Then the figure's weight increased and Danny knelt to slowly lower the form onto the floor, letting the suddenly limp legs slide from off his shoulders. He immediately doubled over, but ignored the burning in his chest as he turned and moved toward the form's head. One of the officers switched on the room's light.

It was a young woman, still writhing and sucking in air in rasping, choking gasps. Danny pulled the white nylon rope away from the woman's slit-free neck. Still acting on instinct based on the most recent of the killings, he took her bound wrists and lifted them up, holding tight below the slashes bleeding mercilessly. Blood that had been dripping down her fingers now traced red lines down her pale arms and over Danny's fingers.

" Call an ambulance!" Danny shouted.

" On it," said the younger officer, already speaking into his radio.

" I'll get something to stop the bleeding," Bernard said. " Anders, clear the place."

The younger officer, Anders, nodded as he continued to relay directions. Bernard hurried from the room.

The woman's blood was now covering Danny's hands, trickling down onto his own arms. He squeezed tighter until he could feel the woman's faint pulse struggling to get blood to her hands. The woman's breath continued to rasp, but she had managed to finally stabilize her own breathing enough to no longer be writhing.

" Ma'am, can you hear me?" Danny said. His own rapidly beating heart made a part of his mind believe that the woman's pulse was dangerously slow. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't, but it was still causing his worry to escalate too fast for him to handle.

" Ma'am, if you can hear me open your eyes, just a little. Come on, I need to know if you can hear me."

The woman's eyes twitched and opened a hairline crack. Danny let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding, then leaned in closer so the woman could see him better.

" Listen, my name is Danny Messer. I'm with the NYPD Crime Lab. I need you to stay with me, okay? Everything's going to be okay. An ambulance is coming as we speak."

The woman's head moved down in a nod. She heard as well as understood. There was no panic in her eyes, but then again she was barely conscious and probably thought this all some bad dream she couldn't wake up from.

Bernard returned a minute later carrying a plastic blue first-aid kit. He snapped it open and took out packages of gauze and rolled gauze strips. He and Danny then set about removing the bonds and bandaging the woman's wrists tight, keeping them elevated. All the while the woman remained in her semi-conscious state, her partially closed eyes darting here and there, visible by the light glinting off them. Danny was amazed, and kept encouraging her to keep her eyes open. He talked to her, telling her in as soothing of words as he could that she would be all right. He brushed back the strands of her short, amber-colored hair plastered to her face by a thick sheen of sweat, not so much out of comfort but to remove them from her eyes so that she could see better.

Suddenly, her eyes flickered and rolled back into her head. But Danny could still feel her weakened pulse as he held to her wrists. She had passed out, but Danny felt deep inside that she would be fine. The bleeding had begun to lessen with the pulse continuing the same slow but steady rhythm. Calling this woman strong would have been an understatement. She seemed to be holding out in a way Danny thought impossible.

The ambulance arrived in minutes though it felt like hours. Danny did not release the girl's wrist until a paramedic had knelt beside her and he was able to hand them off. He then pushed himself to his feet, wincing slightly when it aggravated his chest. The woman had a vicious kick.

Danny stepped back to let the paramedics work and took his first good look at the room. It was large, probably meant for conferences and the like. Turning to the fireplace he looked it over. It was actually a glorified heater, meant to look like a fireplace but with a screen instead of a flu. In front of the screen was a metal bucket flecked with several fat drops of blood.

Danny stared at it, hardly believing that it was right there in front of him, the thing used to collect the blood. They must have arrived minutes after the woman's wrists were slashed. Danny then looked up at the panel-less ceiling. The white nylon rope hung like a severed snake from a girder. Considering snakes, he passed he gaze about the room until his sights finally landed on the two-headed serpent slapped on the wall behind him. Blood still dripped from it, oozing to the floor as though the thing were melting.

The paramedics had moved the woman onto a stretcher and were now carrying her out of the room with Bernard following as escort from the building. Danny moved to the door just as the paramedics left. He studied the inside knob and found a piece of clear fishing wire tied there. Danny pulled out some latex gloves, snapped them on, then carefully lifted the thread to follow it back to the noose still connected to it. By kicking the door open, the thread had tightened and pulled the fading woman, most likely already on the verge of falling from blood-loss, off the fireplace mantle.

This didn't make a lick of sense to Danny, and the sick feeling remained in the pit of his stomach. Something was definitely messed up here. The woman would have fallen on her own eventually, so there was not much point in the string. But the killer had wanted them here, at this precise time. He wanted the girl found, near dead but still alive. Of course the question was why, but Danny could not begin to fathom any reasons for it, except to say that the killer was simply trying something new. Throwing the cops a bone, as it were, to keep their hopes up so that they could be crushed later.

" I hear you're the big hero here, Messer."

Danny's head shot up at the sound of Mavin's voice. The taller man's form nearly filled the doorway. He was wearing his overcoat and had his hands hidden in the huge pockets. He was staring down out Danny, shaking his head as though disappointed in the younger man.

Danny smirked, stifling a laugh. He looked down at the noosed nylon. He wanted to pick it up, but needed a picture first. " You jealous, Mavin?" He stood and headed to the door, but stopped short when Mavin refused to move.

" I told you to wait for me, Messer."

Danny's mountain of disbelief had now hit its peak, and his jaw went slack. " Oh, no way did you just say that. No freakin' way! Are you kidding me Mavin? She was gonna die! And you're telling me I should have waited!"

He shoved Mavin out of his way with all his strength, grabbing his camera from off the floor and checking it over to see that it had survived being dropped. He then took up his kit and went back into the room, shooting Mavin a look of utter disgust he now refused to hide.

" What the hell's the matter with you, huh?" Danny said, turning and stretching his arms out to either side. " What's you're problem? You told me to wait, I told you I'd do what I have to and I did. We heard someone in here, a uniform kicked down the door, and we ran in. You got a problem with that then you live with it."

He turned back and set his kit down by the bucket. He then began snapping pictures of it, the mantle, rope, noose, snake, and various splatterings of blood. All the while Mavin remained profoundly silent. Danny wanted to see that silence as a good thing, but found it to be getting on his nerves instead. He glanced at Mavin now and then as he took the pictures, but the detective was no longer looking at him. He was staring at the floor, burrowing an unseen hole into it with his eyes.

When Danny had taken the needed pictures, he set his camera on the other side of the bucket and opened his kit.

" What's happening?"

Danny barely heard the words. He turned his head, readying a nasty remark to Mavin, but the words stopped midway on his tongue. Mavin was shaking his head, and Danny saw something in the man's penetrating stare that he had yet to see until now; unease, uncertainty, confusion. The detective was at a loss.

Danny thought he had reached his shock quota for the day, but it had extended yet another notch. Mavin actually looked, for a brief heartbeat of a moment, weakened, vulnerable, older than his years. He actually looked less like a jerk and more like a regular human being.

And for an even briefer moment, Danny almost felt bad for the guy. Almost, but not quite.

" He's screwing with us, that's what's happening," Danny said. " You know, I think you really gotta stop taking this case so personal."

Mavin's gaze shifted onto Danny. The confusion and loss was gone, eclipsed by pure malice. " You're still freakin' clueless, Messer. You have no idea what's going down."

Danny turned his head back to his kit. " Yeah, Mavin, and you're just the resident expert on the whole thing. Face it, you know about as much as I do."

He was pulling out his brush and powder for fingerprinting, then heard the quickened, soft thump of footsteps coming up from behind him.

" What's going on?" said a calm, familiar voice.

Danny turned his head once again to see Mac now standing in the doorframe and Mavin only four steps away from Danny. Danny flicked his gaze from Mavin to Mac, then back to Mavin. Mavin looked ready to kill, and all his focus was directly on Danny. Then it vanished, and his visage became a blank, emotionless slate. He straightened with a jerk of his shoulders, and turned the corner of his mouth up in a smile.

" Don't overlook anything, Messer," Mavin said, then turned and strode quickly from the room. Mac stepped aside to let him pass, then moved in Danny's direction.

" Aiden told me the story," he said. " But I wanted to hear it from you. Need help?"

Danny looked up at Mac and nodded.

" You all right? You look a little pale. Not to mention that you don't seem to be holding that brush very steady."

Danny looked down at his hands in a kind of dazed regard. They were shaking slightly, and his chest was throbbing uncomfortably. He felt strangely light-headed, where only a second ago he had felt alert enough to take on three crime-scenes.

" Ah crap!" he said, setting his brush and powder down. His gloves were now stained red from the woman's blood smeared all over his hands.

" Adrenaline rushes will do that to you," Mac said. " They're good in the moment but they betray you in the end. Go wash your hands, give yourself a moment, come back and tell me what happened, then go home before you fall asleep on your feet. I'll handle the scene. It shouldn't take long anyway."

Danny nodded again gratefully, then pushed himself slowly to his feet. As he left the small corridor in search of a restroom he saw Mavin talking to Anders. Danny and Mavin exchanged looks, Danny's weary and Mavin's blank. Then Mavin looked away to continue his conversation. Danny had the feeling that whatever nerve he had plucked in Mavin, it had yet to be dismissed.

NOTE

No One Important is also the name of a twisted, rather ugly character in my twisted, rather disturbing story Dimensia. No particular reason for pointing that out except for the fun of it:)