The Heart Has its Reasons
By Tracy2
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction, written, and hopefully read, strictly for enjoyment. The main characters of Mark, Steve, Amanda, and Jesse, as well as Alex, Cheryl, Captain Newman and Chief Masters and any others that you recognize are from the series Diagnosis Murder, and as such are the property of CBS/Viacom. All new characters, especially Detective Reagan Yeager, her family, Jo/Texas Walters, and Martin Robertson are mine.
This story carries on from Home is Where the Heart Is, which is on the R page. As always I had the help of my three wonderful beta readers who encouraged me, gave me a little push in the right direction when I wandered and were right there when I needed them. Ladies, as always I thank you from the bottom of my heart, this wouldn't have been as enjoyable without you.
This story is complete. I won't be able to post daily, like I used to due to work commitments, but I will post regularly two or three times a week.
01 Remembering the Past and Planning for the Future
The months since Rae and Jesse's Christmas party had been a mix of the fulfilling and the frustrating. The strength that everyone got from each other had been tested and reinforced but it had been those usually providing the support that had needed it the most.
Rae and Jesse had found each other again, their time apart seemingly bringing them closer together as each of them realised just how much they had missed the other. The vacation that Texas had suggested the Travis's take while Rae was recuperating from her near fatal gunshot wound had been a great success and she and Jesse had made a pledge that they would go away at least once a year with the girls and once without them.
It had always been clear to Jesse and Rae that their daughters needed to spend time with both parents, but because of the nature of their jobs that didn't happen as much or as often as they would wish. Anneya was gradually forgetting what the hearing world was like and, whilst in some ways her parents were relieved that she no longer looked as confused and upset as she had done on her return from the hospital after the accident which had robbed her of her hearing, they were concerned that she was becoming introverted and quite shy.
Eliana, who could never be accused of being shy, had blossomed even more under the watchful and adoring eyes of both parents. She had gone with Rae into a Barnes and Noble bookstore and while Rae had been looking for something for herself had pulled down two alphabet books off a shelf and proceeded to go through all the letters almost entirely unaided. Rae, unable to help herself, had bought not only those two books but also three other basic reading books and, over the course of the next three months, had begun to teach her daughter the rudiments of reading to the point where not only could she recognise her own name but also common words such as the, as, and but.
The abilities of their eldest daughter had put the limitations of their youngest into sharp profile and they had enrolled her in some pre-school classes at the Footprints in the Sand Centre where they had already signed up for some sign language courses themselves.
Both Jesse and Rae had decided independently that things must never be allowed to get back to the situation where Jesse had left and Rae had been unable to reach him. He had continued to see Lauren on a monthly basis, discussing any fears that reached the surface, as well as any everyday occurrences that stirred up unpleasant memories.
The addition to their household of Vicki had enabled them to have more of a social life and, apart from spending time with their children which would have previously been used up on household chores, they were also able to go out, either as a couple, or with Steve and Jo, and enjoy some of the facilities that a city such as LA had to offer.
Rae had kept some problems from Jesse, the main one being her almost overwhelming fear of returning to work. She too had been seeing Lauren and gradually, over a period of eight or nine visits between leaving the hospital and the start of her vacation, had begun to approach that part of her future with the same positive attitude that she had for the rest of her life.
Jo's pregnancy had progressed exactly as it should, and she had been able, for the most part, to push the fears about pre-eclampsia to the back of her mind. She knew that it wouldn't be an issue until the later stages anyway and so she had enjoyed the feeling of the child growing inside her, talking away to it, guiding both Steve and Daniel's hands so that they could feel it as it moved around, kicking and pushing knees and elbows out to make its presence felt.
As Jo had relaxed though, Steve had got more and more uptight. It wasn't the fact that his wife was expecting his first natural child that was concerning him, that he was, in a worried, over-protective sort of way, enjoying. What was eating at him was his inability to catch the Red Rose Killer. It had become personal when one of his waitresses had become a victim, but the day he had been unable to caress his own wife's hair, been unable to buy her red roses any longer, it had started to burrow away inside of him, and now, although he wouldn't admit it to anyone, it was invading his dreams and increasing his feelings of inadequacy by the day.
A week after the end of her family vacation Rae had boarded a plane to New York to check into the claims made by Rachael Collins that the Red Rose Killer had murdered a young woman in the Big Apple. Steve had been standing in for Captain Newman and so, although he had wanted to go, it had been decided that he would stay in Los Angeles.
She had been home for four months since the February visit and, although thankfully there had been no more killings, she had also travelled to Florida and Colorado to view photos of, and files on, victims there. It had been the New York trip though which had set off the trains of thought that she was still exploring, and although Rae knew it was frustrating she also knew that, little by little, she was learning more and more about their killer. The trip had put things into perspective for Rae too, helping her to make decisions on her own future as well as that of the case she was handling. It hadn't been easy, going to a strange city all alone, but thanks to a friendly colleague and her own deep desire to catch the Red Rose Killer, once she got started working everything had gone just fine.
Rae stood at the bottom of the short set of steps to the Central Park precinct and took a deep breath. She had paced the block in front of the station twice now, trying to calm herself, hoping that she could begin to understand why she was so scared and why she felt safer on the snow covered sidewalk than she did on the steps. Making the trip across country on her own hadn't worried her too much and she had passed the time on the plane by reading through the letters from Victoria to Elle that Texas had copied for her. The trip into the past had fascinated and absorbed her and the flight had quite literally flown by.
Then the plane had touched down and, ever since, she had been a bundle of nerves. Taking herself in hand she made her way up towards the brown doors, holding tightly to her purse, and stepped inside.
The interior of the station was a surprise. Rae had been bought up on Kojak and expected the station to be brown, dingy and not very clean, instead she found herself in a brightly lit temporary precinct house with a notice up apologising for the inconvenience caused while the original building was being remodelled. Somehow the unexpectedness of it all had calmed her, and she was able to walk up to the desk sergeant with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Detective Reagan Yeager, LAPD; I'm here to see Detective O'Connor." Rae took the seat indicated by the young man behind the desk and looked around her. She guessed that the station wasn't that different to her own after all. Smaller, but just as crowded, the posters were the same, but they had a feeling of transience, as if, at any moment, the entire thing could be packed up and taken back to where it belonged.
She noticed two interview rooms just off to the left of where she was sitting, the blinds pulled down and 'in use' stuck up on the doors. Next to them a large sheet of paper with a chart on it showing how the renovation of the other precinct house was going was prominently displayed. From what Rae could see there was at least another two to three years work to be done before the packing and moving could take place in reverse.
For a while Rae tried to picture what it would be like to have to move everything from her precinct into temporary premises and she realised that now she was actually sitting inside she could imagine herself doing the same in LA. She guessed that it had just taken a push to get her back on the road to where she belonged.
"Detective Yeager?"
"Yes, that's me. Oh, hi." She stood up and found herself face to face with a very beautiful, very blonde, female cop about the same age as herself.
"You were expecting someone else?" Detective O'Connor smiled as she extended her hand.
"No, yes, I'm sorry, I must appear very rude, but I expected a man." Rae could feel herself blush as she spoke.
"And you a lady cop called Ray, I'm shocked! I guess it goes with the name, most people think I'm a man but Charlie is short for Charlotte."
"Um, yeah, I guess so, that's short for Reagan by the way." Not wanting to admit that she hadn't even noticed the Christian name of the cop she would be meeting she smiled and explained her own name instead.
"I'm sorry about the weather."
"Oh, no, I love it. I haven't seen snow for a long time, this is just wonderful."
"Yeah, it's neat isn't it? You wait until we go into the park, it'll blow you away." Charlie smiled, and Rae realised that she was going to enjoy her job once again.
An hour later Rae put the details of the victim who had brought her to New York down on the desk. Rachael Collins had been right, there was no doubt in Rae's mind, this was a Red Rose killing. "She has to be the first victim, or the first one we know about who died, at any rate. What was found out about her?" Rae had the initial report from the patrolman open in front of her, along with the file she had read on the plane containing the personal details of Nicholas Large from when he had been arrested on assault charges.
"How do you know she's the first?" Charlie O'Connor was sitting, a steaming cup of coffee in front of her, watching the woman on the other side of her desk as she read through the notes.
"Well, I guess I don't, but it's sloppy, compared to what we have in LA, and what he's done elsewhere." Rae was silent for a moment as she looked at the dates on the two sets of information and was shocked to see that the young woman had been killed when their suspect should still have been in jail.
"He was back on the streets in a year, how can that be? He should have gotten longer than that."
"Let me see, it's a while since I read all this through." Charlie picked up the file and flicked through to the extra information in the back. "Ok, the notes I wrote here say that since he had no history of violence, and there had been no real physical injury, he was held for psych evaluation, and once he was found competent, he pleaded it down to a class A misdemeanor, and was out again with just a slap on the wrist. Did less than a year combined for the observation and the sentencing."
"He went after this woman with a pair of scissors on a subway train and he got a slap on the wrist. Jeez, sometimes I wonder why we bother." Rae shook her head and then ran her hand through her hair, "I'm gonna just love telling Steve all this."
"Well, initially he was busted for second degree assault." Charlie felt as if she had to defend her department.
"Assault with a deadly weapon, because the scissors are dangerous, right?"
"Exactly; it was the public defender who got the judge to send him for a psych evaluation. Apparently the guy just wanted the woman's long blonde hair." Charlie shuddered, and unconsciously moved her own hair behind her shoulders. "Can you believe that?"
"Oh, yeah, this guy is a trophy taker."
"He takes their hair?" Charlie looked scandalized and Rae began to explain.
"Yep, part of his ritual is to take things from his victims, that isn't uncommon." Rae paused as she saw her new companion nod her head, "For this guy the main thing is her hair."
"I knew it; I just knew this guy was a nut case. I tried to talk them out of copping a plea, but did they listen, oh no, I'm just a lousy cop, I don't know the type, I just arrest them." Charlie saw the look of agreement and sympathy on Rae's face and smiled. "I'm not telling you anything you don't know already am I? She wasn't hurt, not physically anyway, and he didn't actually get her hair so he pleads down to third degree assault, maximum penalty one year. Then they took his time in psychiatric lock up off of that. He spent nine months inside. What? What did I say?" Charlie had seen a spark in Rae's eyes, and she leant across the desk towards her.
"He saw a shrink; he was locked up and saw this guy. I need to see him too." Rae smiled, if she could get some more background on their killer maybe she could work out what his next move would be and catch him before he killed again.
It hadn't worked out quite that way, she had got some interesting information, but Nicholas Large, Dominic Little, whatever he was calling himself these days, was still out there, and until he was caught Rae knew that neither Steve or herself would be able to move on with their own careers.
The following day, before Rae saw the shrink she went to Central Park with Charlie and although the visit was for serious reasons she still had tucked away some memories of the places she had been, places where she would like to go again one day when she had the time, maybe on one of the vacations she and Jesse had talked about.
Central Park looked like a Christmas card as she carefully made her way along a cleared path; the snow banked slightly either side of her. She felt her foot slide from underneath her and grabbed at Charlie; a stab of pain reminding her that it wasn't that long since she had been injured.
"Arghhh, sorry." Rae let go of the other detective and attempted to straighten up, wrapping an arm around herself as she did so.
"Rae, are you ok?" Charlie looked worried as she realised that her companion was ashen.
"Yeah … I'm sorry. I just got off medical leave, I was shot at Thanksgiving."
"You should have said; we could have given this a miss."
"No, it's one of the reasons I came, besides, I'm getting fed up with being an invalid."
"I know what you mean; I was wounded when I was in uniform, drove my mom mad sitting around the house during the day picking holes in all the cop shows she used to watch. I don't know who was happier when I went back to work, her or me!"
"We make lousy patients, almost as bad as doctors." Rae smiled.
"Well, you would know more about that than me."
Rae had told Charlie all about her marriage to Jesse, how they had two young children, one of whom was deaf. They had spent a very pleasant time together the previous evening and Rae hoped that the two of them would remain in touch when she returned to LA.
They walked in silence for a little while, and Rae had known that Charlie was keeping a close eye on her, making sure that they were in the middle of the paths where the wintry sun had begun to dry out the asphalt. Finally, she paused and placed her hand on Rae's arm.
"We're a couple of minutes away now. I don't know that he brought our victim this way, but I thought you might want to look around a little more as we get closer."
Rae smiled, "Thank you." She did look, the trees were almost magical all around her and it was difficult to remember that it had been the early summer when the young woman had been found. "This is quite a wide walkway, mind you; all your paths and roads are wider than I was used to in England. But this looks like it would be a popular route." They weren't the only ones out in the park by any means; in fact Rae had been surprised how busy it was. Just in front of her was a man painting a picture of the snowy scene; he had an easel up, with a canvas resting on it. Rae could see the pinks and blues in the sky being added to the white background and, for a moment the two women had stopped walking and watched, with a few other people, as the artist carried on, oblivious to all but the small area of the world that he was interested in.
"It is. The Loeb Boathouse is one of the sights of the park; you can hire boats, bikes, even gondolas there."
"Really, wow, how romantic." Rae smiled, she hadn't seen much of the rest of America since she had lived in LA, it would be nice to travel to some of the cities with Jesse and her girls, to see the things that she saw on the television or read about in magazines. "So, if Dominic came along here with our Jane Doe he would probably have just melted into the crowds, a good looking guy out with a beautiful woman."
"How do you know she would be beautiful?"
"All his victims were. Blonde, leggy and beautiful. If you are the most stunning woman in the world but you have brown hair, or blonde hair which isn't natural, you don't stand a chance with our Dom, he only goes for the real thing." Rae had decided that she would carry on calling him Dominic, he had been that at the start, and would remain that way until they caught him. "I hate to say it, but you would be just his type." Rae knew that Charlie would be a little old for Dominic, but she decided not to add that nugget of information.
"Oh, well, gee thanks, he wouldn't be the first freak I've dated, though I don't suppose I would want him to be the last. There, look you can see the boathouse now." Charlie pointed forward and there in the distance was a white building, which, Rae had to admit, she would never have guessed was a boathouse.
"Where?" Rae turned back to Charlie, not sure she was looking in the right direction, "What that place? It looks like a restaurant."
"It is, wanna coffee?" Charlie looked at Rae's face and laughed, "Don't tell me, you were expecting something little and sort of brown."
"Well, yeah, I was actually, and a drink would be nice, hot chocolate maybe?"
"Sure, follow me." Charlie had begun walking again, and Rae did follow, watching a little enviously as a horse-drawn carriage went past and she vowed to come back with Jesse and do all the touristy things that she wished she was doing right now.
The hot chocolate had been a nice interlude, and sitting watching the sights and sounds of the park while she drank it had been even nicer. Once they had finished though, the atmosphere became a little more serious as the two of them visited the crime scene.
The scene amongst the reeds of Central Park had been almost surreal. The edge of the lake was frozen and a pair of ducks had been skating across it in a most disgusted manner, a little further over were two swans, huddled together, their beautiful plumage showing the snow to be a greyish white instead of the pure colour it had looked until that moment. Rae had seen a squirrel watching her from a tree as she stood waiting for Charlie to finish a private call, taking in the beauty of a park which could be in the middle of nowhere but was in fact in the middle of a bustling metropolitan city. As she had stood there, her eyes on the grey squirrel whose eyes were on her she was transported back to when she was a little girl, maybe four or five years old. Her mother had taken her to the park, it had been early spring and she had on a new coat that had only been finished the day before. She knew that the material was as grey as the squirrel with a pink line through it here and there.
Rae had sat on a park bench, her legs swinging back and forth, encased in thick black tights and lace up shoes. She didn't know why she remembered the tiny details but she did, and a smile played on her lips as she saw her mother in her mind putting the small block of ice cream into a cornet and then carefully folding the wrapper up and leaving it the other end of the bench. For a moment she wondered whether her own daughters would ever get to eat ice cream on a cold day.
The two of them had sat there in silence, Rae eating her special treat, her mother holding her hand and, after about five minutes, it happened. A squirrel had come darting down a nearby tree, round and round the trunk, checking all its exits. It stopped as it reached the ground, again its little head darting this way and that before it rushed to the bench, up the leg and onto the seat. It stopped again, and Rae remembered not daring to breathe as the little grey animal, still looking around itself all the time, picked up the paper, rushed back the way it came and then sat on a branch just above their heads, opened the paper up and ate the ice-cream off of it.
"Sorry about that, I play squash on Sunday evenings, my partner just cancelled out on me." Charlie had pushed her phone back into the pocket of her warm sheepskin jacket and blew on her hands.
"No problem, I could happily stay here all day thanks to you lending me a coat." The thick red woollen fleece was definitely keeping the cold out and was very comfortable and, as she had walked along, her hands in her pockets, Rae realised that it was the first time she had needed to wrap up warm for over five years.
"Ok, from the details in the file this is the place where our victim was found. Quiet, and in a busy place like Central Park if you are gonna kill someone and spend time with her while doing it you need it to be quiet."
Rae nodded her head as she looked around. She could hear voices, the sounds of laughter, but they were just far enough away to be unobtrusive, to be a pleasant background on a cold and beautiful day and she began to think aloud. "You know, all of the places where he has left a body, except one, are quiet locations near a busy one. I'd never realised that before." Rae was silent as she went back over the women who had died in LA in her mind. The prostitute, whose name escaped her for the moment, she had been different to the others, thrown down an embankment, and she had hair with her, that still bothered Rae, but she didn't know why.
"Ok, so that is part of his signature then, the place he chooses to kill his victims. Even in a popular place like this there are far more secluded spots."
"Oh, yeah, wanna tell me about it?" Rae smiled; there was no reason not to. The victim had been dead a long time; there was no body here to be respectful of.
"Ha, ha. You work this close to the park you do not want to spend your leisure time in it."
"No, I guess not. We'd better make our way back, thank you, Charlie, she, whoever she was, has given me some more insight into our killer, and I have to admit I didn't think she would do that." Rae looked back for a moment at the snowy scene they were leaving and hoped that the New York victim had found a peaceful place for herself for eternity.
The following day Rae sat in the waiting room of Doctor Cornelius Brown and went over what it was that she wanted to ask him. The murder scene from the previous day had set her mind going at full pelt, and she hadn't slept very well again, the noise of her thoughts together with the sounds of the streets conspiring to keep her awake.
Rae looked around her, apart from the fact that the posters on the walls were of New York and not LA, and the office wasn't in a hospital; there was very little difference from this waiting room and the one she sat in when she visited with her therapist, Lauren Yung.
"Detective Yeager, Doctor Brown will see you now." The young woman, who was sitting in a smaller office looking through a glass panel at the waiting room, smiled as she finished speaking and then indicated with her hand. "If you go through that door he will be waiting for you."
"Thank you." Rae stood up; picked up the red fleece she was still using and made her way through the door as she had been told. A little way down a cream and terracotta coloured hallway stood a middle-aged man, slightly balding with his glasses on a chain around his neck.
"Detective Yeager?" The voice wasn't unfriendly and Rae nodded her head as she extended her hand towards the doctor.
"Yes, that's me, thank you for seeing me at such short notice." Rae wasn't sure what she would actually be able to get from the visit; doctor-patient confidentiality was a difficult thing to gauge and Rae knew that different doctors interpreted it in different ways. She just hoped that the man now showing her into his office would be generous with his information.
"Can I get you a drink, Detective, maybe a coffee, or a tea?"
"No, thank you, I'm fine." Rae smiled as she made herself comfortable in the deep horseshoe shaped brown leather chair on the patient side of the desk.
"You said, over the phone, that you wanted to talk with me about a client that I had almost five years ago. I have retrieved the details on Mr. Large, but you must know that there is a question of privacy here."
"Yes, Sir, I know that, but I hope after you hear what I have to say you will feel able to let me know at least a little of your observations about this man." Rae watched as Doctor Brown nodded his head and then began to explain the reasons why she was there.
After she had finished explaining the details of the Red Rose Killer to Doctor Brown Rae had sat back in silence letting him take in the information she had given him. The folder that she had brought with her contained basic notes on each murder plus some of the newspaper clippings and a few photos which had been released by the LAPD for the press should they want to use them.
"And you're sure that this killer, this Dominic, is really Nicholas Large, you are absolutely sure?"
"Yes, Sir, we are. We have a print, there is no doubt that Dominic Little and Nicholas Large are one and the same."
"I see." The room was silent again, but then Doctor Brown leant over and picked up his telephone. "Ann-Marie, could you please move my next two appointments back an hour each and cancel the rest of my clients for today, thank you." He replaced the receiver and looked back at Rae. "You heard the instructions I gave to my secretary; I think you and I have a lot to talk about."
"You don't know how glad I am to hear you say that." Rae had smiled and taken her notebook out of her purse.
"I can tape this meeting for you, Detective, if you would like, then you can transcribe it later."
"That would be great, thank you. I can concentrate on what you are saying and not what I'm writing."
For a moment or two longer the doctor thought things through, switched on the tape recorder and, with an embarrassed clearing of his throat, he began to speak. "Nicholas Large was sent to me by the courts. His public defender felt that it would benefit his case if he agreed to receive counselling and after visiting me here in these offices I was the person he chose, although I actually saw him in a residential facility. I had no idea why I was chosen, not at the time, but I know now. In fact your coming here has answered a question I have wondered about for the last five years, but I will come to that in a little while."
Rae was intrigued but she just nodded, she didn't know yet whether Doctor Brown was a man who wanted to be prompted to speak or whether he would just begin talking and carry on to the end. She didn't want to interrupt at the wrong time.
"You know why he came here, he had attacked a woman on the subway and she'd pressed charges. There had been an off duty cop in the same car as them, he arrested Large there and then and took him to the nearest station.
"The young woman didn't come and see me, but I did get to see a transcript of the meeting she had with her own therapist. Obviously, I can't go into any great details about it, but suffice to say that she was extremely traumatised by the entire episode, and I think that the only reason she didn't sue him was because she wanted to forget the whole thing ever happened."
"I can understand that. It can be very scary to have someone else violate you in that way. People tend to think that you are only harmed mentally by things like rape or sexual assault, but something like that can be just as frightening, maybe in a way even more so, because there is no rhyme nor reason for it, you can't even try to explain it away." Rae ran her fingers through her hair, she had experience of being stalked, as well as being raped, she had, with the help of a loving circle of friends and her family gotten over it all, but it had still been a horrific thing to have happen.
"You speak as if you can relate to the young woman, Detective, I'm sorry to hear that." There was a short pause before Doctor Brown continued.
"Mr. Large gave me no reason for the attack; he said that he just suddenly had to have the woman's hair. He had scissors on him, because, apparently, as he was a hairdresser, he always carried them, and he leant forward and tried to cut away a huge chunk of the blonde hair which was, I believe, long enough to reach halfway down her back."
Rae nodded her head, the description of the woman fitted the MO. "I guess it might be that at the time he didn't know why he did what he did. It could have been an uncontrollable urge, but now, now he definitely knows what he's doing, I just wish we knew why, that way maybe we could stop him."
"I can tell you a little of his background, now that I know what has happened with him since it may make more sense to me, and I guess it would be the other way round with you."
"Thank you. I have a feeling that somewhere in his past we will find the answers to the reasons for what he does." Rae smiled a little smile; she was, for the first time in a long while feeling cautiously optimistic about their Red Rose Killer and their ability to stop him once and for all.
The reason for Dominic choosing Doctor Brown had become obvious, as he had gone into more detail about Nicholas Large. He had, apparently, visited three or four psychiatrists' offices before making his choice. Doctor Brown hadn't been privy to the reasons for his decision, but almost immediately after he had come to see him the psychiatrist's secretary had begun to get unwanted gifts and flowers delivered to the offices. There had been no way to discover who was sending the items, all of which had been paid for in cash, and in the end the young woman, pretty, with long blonde hair had felt unable to remain there. She had left Doctor Brown's employ and, Rae had a feeling, probably saved her own life at the same time.
By the time Rae left the Doctor's offices it had been almost three in the afternoon and her mind was so full of what she had heard that she'd let a rare empty cab drive past her without even trying to wave it down.
Rae was booked on the six o'clock flight out of La Guardia and, because it was non-stop, knew she should arrive in LA just after ten thirty in the evening. It was only a comparatively short journey from the airport to Beverly Hills, and Rae was hopeful that she would be in her own bed by midnight
The cassette tape in her purse was full of information she needed to get down in her own words but, until she was home, Rae knew that it would have to wait. The weather was better than it had been, but she still needed to get to the airport. Her bag was at the Central Park precinct, and so, finally climbing into a cab, Rae asked for that address.
Charlie was waiting for her when she arrived at the front desk and Rae could tell by her face that the news wasn't good.
"Hi, what's up?" Rae swallowed down her fear, praying that it wouldn't be Jesse or the girls, not when she was this far from home.
"I have something for you." Charlie had Rae's bag by her feet, in her hand was a file containing about twenty sheets of paper. "I double checked the records for a few of the surrounding stations. I didn't find anything to start with, but then on the last one I found this. I think our guy killed before the attack on the subway.
"Dammit. I don't have time to go through it before my plane." Rae looked at the folder. "Do you know who the victim was? Where did it happen? I'm guessing that the hair was cut."
"Rae … Rae, stop. I found this about two hours ago. I've put a basic outline on the first page, but, in order, yes, Sara Ann Miller, Staten Island and maybe. Now go, catch your plane." Charlie came forward and took Rae into a hug which both shocked and delighted her. "I am so glad we met. Take care, Rae."
"Thank you, and I'm glad too. I have to admit to being a bit worried about this trip, not that I told anyone, but you made it fun. If they ever send anyone to LA make sure it's you, ok?"
"I'll try. Bye, Rae."
Rae picked up her bag, slid the folder into it and then, with a slightly sad smile, she turned and left the building.
It felt good to be back in LA. The five months or so that he had been travelling around the country had put a serious strain on his finances, but it had also given him time to evaluate his life, and what he was doing with it. He had found jobs in most places he went, sometimes nothing more than washing dishes, other times he had worked as a hairdresser, or in a store, he'd even done three days as a catwalk model in New Mexico.
Now though, with the aid of a not too reliable car, Dominic was back where he belonged, his hometown, the place that had made him the man he was, or should that be the men he was? Dominic laughed, Matthew had been in charge quite a lot over the months because the memory of Krista had kept him satisfied and hidden apart from the Christmas Eve he had spent in Colorado and the day after Valentines in Florida. Los Angeles was different though, the call, the need to kill, was stronger here, but he didn't know why.
Maybe it was because he was born here, maybe because she had told him that she was leaving and going to Los Angeles to get away from him. Whatever the reason he knew that there was no shortage of victims for him here. The blonde hair he loved so much, the natural blonde hair, was common place, some of it wasn't suitable, but it was only one of a number of things that the woman had to have, and he knew he would never run out of women who wanted to be with him, wanted to spend their last hours with him, and that thought alone was enough to make him want to stay here forever.
The apartment, which he had kept on all the time he had been gone welcomed him back like an old friend. He had eagerly rushed to the third door, not even bothering to unpack first, and he had retrieved his treasures from their hiding places and carefully and reverently put them all back where they should be, on the walls and the shelves for him to look at, to spend time with, to enjoy.
A whole week had passed with him feeling satisfied with what he had, but then those familiar sensations began to return, the world became his oyster again, and as he ventured forth to do his grocery shopping, or to look for some part time work, he began to see things through the prism which would surely lead him to his next victim and the scenario he already envisaged for her.
The file hit the dining room table with a satisfying thwack, but that was all that had been satisfying for the entire afternoon. She must have read the notes from her New York visit ten times maybe more over the five months since she had been back and each time they made her more inadequate, more of a failure than she could ever remember feeling. With a deep sigh Rae made her way into the kitchen and poured herself another coffee. She had taken to drinking decaf because the smell of Jesse's morning cup had become very enticing.
She didn't know why but Rae was certain that there would be another killing soon. Maybe there had already been another one and they just didn't know it yet. The certainty that she felt worried her, it disturbed her and with a shiver, which seemed to reach to her very soul, she drained the cup of hot liquid hoping it would help her relax, refocus and prevent that which she feared the most.