I'd switched the television on more to fill the silence than anything else. I wasn't even really watching it; rather, I was flipping channels, not really paying attention, either way. Abby hadn't called back at all since the first time she had, but the memory of the first trials lingered. And it hurt. We still hadn't gotten anywhere on Makayla Lawrence's case. The captain had shoved it to the back burner after four days without getting any leads. We'd all then been put on the next high-profile case...some tourist. I could have cared less. But that was probably because I hadn't really been sleeping lately. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see Makayla lying there in front of the playground, almost like an offering. I wondered what she'd been like when she was still alive. And as I was contemplating this, the phone rang. A cold feeling settled over me, but I answered it anyway.
"There's been another murder." Olivia's voice was breathless, as if she'd been running, and she continued. "Same M.O."
I sat there in silence for a full two minutes, struggling against the sudden, mad desire to cry ,before finally regaining my nerve and speaking.
"Where...where are you?" I asked. Not that I really wanted to know. She could handle this one with Elliot, or even with Fin, for all I cared, one murder was enough for me. But I rose to my feet anyway. Call me a glutton for punishment if you want; I didn't want to handle this myself, but I didn't want anyone else doing it, either.
"Another park." She rattled off a specific name, and I listened, numb. This time, I was the one who hung up first, probably startling her, since I hadn't even bothered to say goodbye. I hoped she understood, even though I knew I was going to get an earful for it once I got to where she was.
Sure enough, she looked annoyed when she finally saw me, about half an hour later. It had started raining by the time I showed up; neither of us had thought to bring an umbrella or anything else to shield us, not having expected it, so we stood there, letting ourselves get soaked. CSU didn't look too happy. I couldn't blame them, even though I knew without seeing the body that this was the same sort of case, and they wouldn't have found anything but a letter, anyway.
Melinda was bent over the sheet-covered body when we crossed the tapes, flashing our shields at the uniforms that had moved forward to make us go away. Even with the sheet there, I could tell that the body was smaller than Makayla's had been...younger.
"She was six," Melinda said heavily, and my worst fears were immediately confirmed. It had been like this the first time. And if I was right and this wasn't a copycat, as I'd told Abby, none of the victims would ever be close in age.
"Cause of death?" Olivia asked, without looking at me.
"Gunshot wound," Melinda replied, figuring that it would bother all of us less if she got it out quickly. "There are at least a hundred smaller cuts, probably from a knife, but I can't tell in this light...I'll know more when I perform the autopsy..." She trailed off then, and none of us said anything. What seemed like an eternity passed before Melinda motioned to her assistants and they left, taking the body with them.
"I'm assuming CSU hasn't found anything yet." I said. Olivia shook her head, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the rain as she looked up at me.
"Nothing," she said. "This...you don't think it's the same guy, do you?" Had the question been coming from anyone else, particularly from someone who'd been there the first time around, it would have been incredibly stupid, but she hadn't been and so I hesitated, debating on whether or not to lie about it. Finally, I nodded.
"Yeah," I said, "I do." It couldn't have been anyone else. Ever since the first round, nothing like this had ever crossed my path. It was almost as if no one was stupid enough to try and imitate what was still considered to be the worst string of murders Baltimore had ever seen. And that was saying something...Baltimore wasn't referred to as 'the city that bleeds' for nothing.
"Why do I have the feeling that there's something you're not telling me?" Olivia asked. Startled, I looked over at her before sighing.
"Liv...if I knew anything, you would be the first to know." I said. It wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't a lie, either. I'd tell her if anything popped up...she just wouldn't be the first one.
"There's no one here," Olivia remarked finally, motioning to the area outside of the crime scene tape. I looked, and sure enough, she was right. No one was there. In fact, other than CSU, we were the only ones left, and that hardly counted.
"You think we should help them?" I asked, motioning to the technicians. "There aren't that many of them here."
"Considering that it's..." Olivia paused to look at her watch and then looked at me again. "2:49 in the morning, I'm not surprised." But even as she spoke, she was moving to see what she could do. I followed. The technicians looked up upon hearing us through the rain, startled looks crossing their faces.
"Looks like you're shorthanded," said Olivia, and the one closest to us nodded.
"We are," he said. "You mind giving us a hand?" Olivia glanced back towards me; I shook my head, already reaching into my pocket for the gloves I knew were there. One of the other techs handed Olivia her own set, and she put them on before looking at me again. We walked off, then, leaving the techs to the task in front of them.
"Where should we look first?" Olivia asked, and then, "Never mind. We'll split up."
She walked away from me, then, and I remained where I was, frozen in place and watching her go. The minute she disappeared, my thoughts came sliding back into focus, going at what seemed to be a million miles a minute The last note we'd found had been on the underside of one of the slides. But we were in a different park now. That hadn't changed from the last time. Suddenly, I knew exactly where to look for the next note.
Sure enough, when I reached the monkey bars all the way on the other side of the playground, there was a plastic bag stuck to one of the rungs, a white envelope clearly visible inside of it. No one was looking in my direction. Even if they had, it would have been near to impossible to see me through the rain. With this in mind, I took the plastic bag and stowed it away in my coat, to read later.
Fifteen minutes later, Olivia came towards me, looking more than slightly disgruntled about the whole situation.
"Nothing," she told me. "CSU hasn't found anything, either...not that they could with all this damned rain. What about you?"
I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak, for fear that if I did, I'd tell her about the letter. A guilty feeling started inside me as we walked back towards the cars that had brought us to the scene; when we reached them, I turned to face her.
"You heading to the precinct?" I asked. Olivia eyed me for a moment before nodding.
"You're not," she told me, in no uncertain terms. "Go home and sleep, Munch. You look like hell."
She hadn't seen anything, yet. But I had the feeling that she would, soon, regardless of whether or not I slept. Even so, I was still glad that she'd told me to go home: at the moment, I wanted nothing more than to do just that...if only to find out what was in the envelope this time around.
By the time I finally got home, it was almost three-thirty. I'd left the television on; the voice of someone in an infomercial greeted me; I looked towards the screen, blankly, not really seeing anything. I'd lost count of how many times my hands had started shaking without my noticing, but they were doing it again as I drew the plastic bag out from where I'd stowed it.
The envelope had my name on it, addressing me as if I were still one of Baltimore's. Oddly enough, it didn't annoy me like it normally might have. Pulling open the bag, I drew the envelope out and stared at it for a long while. As much as I hated to admit it, even to myself, I was afraid of finding out what was inside. Irritation overcame the fear, more at myself than at anything else, and I opened the envelope. Several strands of red hair fell out, along with a note.
"So...you do remember. I was wondering whether or not I should have left this in a more secluded place, considering that someone other than yourself might have found it. I must admit that I was going on the assumption that no one here in this new unit of yours knows about the first round of murders. Looks like I was right. And it looks like you've accepted the challenge this time around as well. I have to say, Detective, I admire your determination. Now all you have to do is see if you can stop me again before too many murders are committed. The last time I looked, you still had the blood of twelve other little girls on your hand. Oh, wait. My mistake. There are fourteen of them now."
As soon as I finished reading it, my first thought was that I wanted to tear the damn thing into pieces and leave it for someone else to handle. Two things kept me from doing so. One of them was the fact that the note was evidence, even if no one else knew about this second one. The second was the fact that my tearing it to pieces would signify that the perp had gotten to me this time, like he had last time.
The sound of the phone ringing jolted me out of my thoughts and I reached for it, hoping against hope that it wasn't Olivia. Luckily, it wasn't.
"Have you heard anything else?" Abby's voice was almost a comfort, even if I didn't really want to hear from her, either.
"There's been another murder," I said heavily. "The victim was six...there was...there was another charm."
I knew then that she was fighting to keep from giving me the classic 'I told you so' lecture, so I waited. Surprisingly enough, she managed not to. Instead, she sighed and when she spoke, she sounded close to tears.
"Do you know who she is yet?" she asked. I shook my head, and then remembered that she couldn't see me.
"No," I said. "We don't. There wasn't any ID left with the body this time around." I didn't need to add that we'd probably find it later, at the next crime scene, if there was one. She already knew that.
"Any leads on the first case yet?" she asked.
"You know I'd have called if there had been," I replied. "We're doing everything we can up here, Abby."
"I know," said Abby. "I just...it's not that I don't think you're going to nail the guy, it's just..."
She trailed off then, but I knew what it was. I also had the feeling that we were going to end up needing her sooner than I'd thought we were going to.
"Are you handling any cases right now?" I asked.
"No...why?" she asked in reply. "You thinking you're going to need the old files sometime soon."
"Yes," I replied. "I think it might help establish a pattern, if our guy hasn't already decided he wants to try something new."
"Fine," said Abby, "Let me know when you need the files; I'll see what I can do to get them to you."
"I will," I said. Silence fell and lingered. I waited for her to say something else, and when she didn't, I went on. "We'll get him this time, Abby."
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Call you tomorrow?"
"You've got my number." We waited for exactly three seconds and then hung up at the same time, some random 'tradition' of sorts that we'd started a long time ago. I set the phone back down on the receiver and stared blankly at the television screen for a long while, waiting for sleep to come. What seemed like forever passed before it finally did.
Not that it really helped. As soon as my eyes closed, I found myself back in Baltimore, a rookie who'd just caught a red-ball that no one in the department knew what to do with.