A/N: Standard Disclaimers Apply

Chapter Three: Ten Months Too Late

I sat with the others at dinner, and only ate half of what was in front of me. I supposed it tasted good, Vic's cooking usually does, but my mind focused on the case. I couldn't get the faces of those three girls out of my mind. Worse still, they merged and I saw what that killer wanted me to see: Raven. I glanced over to her, but I didn't look her in the eyes. Kory smiled softly and patted my thigh under the table. I forced a grin, but she knew my heart wasn't in it.

"What is wrong, Dick?" Kory asked.

My eyes turned back toward Rae, and she nodded slowly. I told the others everything I knew about the killings, which was frustratingly little.

"No way," Garfield gasped.

"Don't worry Rae, we're all on the case now," Cyborg said, wrapping his heavy arm around the petite witch.

"Yeah, I never knew you were that popular," Beast Boy quipped.

We all glowered at the green shapeshifter.

Garfield frowned, "Okay, bad joke, worse timing."

"No kidding, Gar," Vic said flatly.

Kory took Raven's hands and said solemnly, "Be at peace, Sister of My Heart, I promise I shall not let any danger befall you."

"Thanks everyone, but as uncomfortable as the killer's fixation on me is," Raven said bravely, "it's his victims and their families that concern me the most."

No one said anything after that as a pall settled over the table. I finished first, got up, scraped my leftovers in the trash and turned to wash my plate. Kory was right there.

"I will clean," she said taking the plate from my hands. "You have a killer to catch."

I kissed her cheek and lightly patted her on the rear, "Thanks, beautiful."

I went back to my workroom and hovered over the files again. MacDonald was good, and the crime scene work was very thorough. I would have liked the detailed lab reports or a sample of the carpet fibers, and I made a mental note to ask the sergeant about that the next time I saw her. And on cue, my communicator buzzed. I pulled it out of the pouch on my left hip and answered it.

"Nightwing, it's Detective MacDonald. We've found another dead Raven."

…..

I crouched next to the body. This one was discovered in deep in the Crady Park Greenbelt, and unlike the others, was buried in a shallow pit. My eyes narrowed trying to take in as much info as I could. The girl couldn't have been older than fifteen, judging from the breadth of her hips. What little skin she had left had leathered, and her muscles had all but been consumed by parasites. The spandex costume was preserved well, with few boreholes. I hoped to get some good physical evidence, even though it wasn't likely.

Her makeshift hood kept her scalp and forehead from decomposing, and a dirt covered stone was burned into her skin.

The crime scene photographer hovered around, taking detailed photos of the corpse and the surrounding area. I smelled the smoke of one of MacDonald's cigarettes drift in from over my shoulder. I blocked it out and scanned for ligatures around the dead girl's wrists.

"Right now we're calling her Raven Four until we find out who she is," MacDonald said after drawing in a long drag. "You're little friend looks greener than usual."

"How long do you think she has been here?" Kory asked.

"From her state of decomposition, I'd say about nine months to a year," I said.

MacDonald nodded, "That's what we came up with as well."

I stood and looked back to my team. "Cyborg, I need you to access missing persons reports over the last two years. Use Raven's general description as search criteria."

"On it, Boss."

"Raven, tell me everything you can about the psychic signature of this place."

She nodded solemnly and stepped near the body. I watched Raven close her eyes slowly and hold her hand over her unfortunate double. Kory hovered nearby and made sure no one came within ten feet of our little demoness. One of the uniforms gave Gar a bottle of water, and MacDonald was right, he really did look like he was about to lose it.

"Tell me about the fibers," I said to the detective.

"Those? They came from car trunk upholstery, mid ninety's GM sedan, based on the chemical analysis on the dye and materials." She looked down the trail and muttered, "Oh wonderful."

I followed MacDonald's gaze and saw a news crew from Channel Seventeen come jogging up the road. They sent Maggie Hollis, their lead anchor, out. She smoothed her blouse and her eyebrows as her cameraman set up. One of MacDonald's team finished his coffee and strolled out to meet the press. One thing was definite, the world was about to find out about the killer.

"Titans, we're done here," I said before turning to MacDonald. "Let me know what the ME finds."

…..

Cyborg sat down at the mainframe and started to sift through the various missing persons databases at incredible speed. I patted him on the shoulder and nodded. Beast Boy flipped through the channels. It wouldn't be long before the story made national headlines, and that would only make our killer bolder.

Kory brought Rae a cup of tea, while I stared out the large window overlooking the city. The detective part of me said be patient, be methodical, get it right, but the half of me that likes to jump from building to building and take on eighty foot tall, four eyed demons was screaming to get out and do something. I leaned back and stretched.

"So, what do we know?" Gar asked.

"We know the killer probably isn't Meta," I said.

The four superpowered Titans traded slightly confused looks.

I sighed before explaining, "First, all the victims were drugged with Rohypnol. It's one of the classic 'Date Rape Drugs' and is now banned in the U.S. Second, carpet fibers found on the body are consistent with upholstery found in the trunks of General Motors sedans between 1993 and 1997. Our perp drives a car. Third, the sexual mutilations of the victims indicate that the killer is probably male."

"So what does that mean?" Kory asked.

"That means that our perp can be one of about four million men living in the general area."