News of the fourth murder came the minute Kay and Tim showed up at the precinct, which, ironically enough, happened to be the last day of the month.
"Four murders in one month." Kay shook her head in disgust as she crossed the tape; Tim and I followed as she continued. "If this is the same guy, he's escalating."
"You think?" I asked dryly. "You heard that bastard the last time around, 'They're only children. Their parents can certainly always have more…'."
"He said that?" Tim asked, and I nodded, starting to continue, but Kay cut me off.
"We don't even know if it's him, as I'm sure Abby's already told you," she said. Suddenly, I remembered the note from Danielle's crime scene; it was still in my coat pocket. I pulled it out and handed it to her.
"You read that and tell me it's not the same son of a bitch we almost had last time," I said. Kay took it and started to read; I motioned for Tim to follow me and we walked over to where Melinda was, bent over our latest victim's body.
"She's sixteen," she told us, "CSU found an ID." I pulled on a set of gloves as she handed a keychain up to me; on it was a school ID card. Our latest victim's name was Claire Fisher.
"Cause of death?" I asked. Melinda glanced at me for a brief moment before sighing.
"Blunt force trauma," she said. "Someone hit her over the head."
She went on, but I was no longer listening. The charm that had been left glued to Claire's lips was a shooting star. I glanced over to where Kay had been, reading the note I'd shoved at her, but she was no longer there; rather, she was sitting on the swings, another envelope in hand, just waiting.
"Where'd Kay go?" Tim appeared beside me and glanced in the same direction I'd just looked in, frowning. "She was just there…"
"She's on the swings," I said, "Come on." We crossed the tape again and walked over to where Kay was, absentmindedly pushing herself back and forth with her feet. When she heard us, she looked up.
"Whoever this guy is, he knows we're here," she said, more to Bayliss than to me. I waited and she pushed the envelope in her hands at me. It was addressed to her.
"How the hell would he know we're here if we just got here?" Tim asked. I sighed.
"Abby's been here longer than you," I said. "There's no question now that this is the same guy…he's probably watching us to see what we'll do." Kay shuddered.
"God," she said. "I don't even want to think about that." As odd as it was to see her so affected by this, I knew better than to say anything about it and so did Tim, so both of us remained silent as she continued.
"You sure it's only the three of us on this?" she asked me. I nodded.
"Yeah, it's just us. The unit…" I hesitated here; both Kay and Tim gave me a look and I continued. "They know. About the first time. The captain said if I wanted them off, I had to tell them everything."
"I'm assuming they all know why this guy got a walk the first time around," said Kay. "If they had a problem with it, they're all a bunch of hypocrites. I'll bet even they would've done what you and Meldrick did."
"Which was?" Tim's question startled the both of us and we looked at him; it wasn't altogether surprising that he hadn't been told why this guy had walked the first time, but now that it had been mentioned, he needed to know.
"Coercion," I said flatly. "So-called 'police brutality'. Stuff that could have happened in a holding cell but actually took place in the Box. Meldrick and I beat a confession out of him the first time and it got thrown out in court."
"Oh. Is that all?" Tim glanced over in the direction that our latest victim's body had just been and shook his head. "Can't blame you."
I hadn't really expected anything less, considering that this was the same man half the first shift had watched force someone's head up against one of those hot pipes in the box. He seemed to know what I was thinking, though, and didn't continue, placing the three of us in a silence that was starting to leave us quite unsettled. I reached for the envelope in Kay's hands; she gave it up easily, and I pulled another note out.
"These Manhattan girls are a lot smarter than the Baltimore ones. I haven't met one yet who hasn't fought me. Guess New York isn't as trusting as Maryland. Can't say I blame them, though. In a city this size, I'm surprised that one can trust anybody. But it's obvious, Detective Howard, that you can still be trusted. Otherwise, why would you be here? It's not the new one I'm so worried about; he knows nothing unless he's been told. But I wouldn't put that past you. I've heard rumors saying that the Special Victims Unit has just been pulled from this investigation. If this is really the case, then, Detectives, you will have your work cut out for you. The stakes have risen, as I'm sure you've noticed. Catch me if you can."
I reread the note a second time, this time silently, before glancing over at Kay, who was still pushing herself back and forth, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Bastard," she muttered, when she noticed me looking at her. Her voice was shaking. "Stakes have risen...what the hell does he think he's playing at?"
"He's set a new pattern," I told her. "The even numbers fetish...last time it was two a month, this time it's four."
"That's great," Tim remarked sarcastically, "So, if he gets off this time, the third time you deal with him, it'll be six a month?"
"There's not going to be a next time," Kay replied flatly. "We'll nail him. I don't care how long it takes, but we'll nail him."
None of us really cared how long this was going to take, but neither Tim or I said anything. Kay got off the swings and sighed, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the rising sun as she looked towards us.
"Abby bring you those old files?" she asked, and I nodded. She looked at her watch and sighed.
"Sixteen murders," she said, almost inaudibly. "What kind of man goes around just killing innocent girls?"
"A sick one," Tim replied, before I could say anything. "What I don't get is how he knew you were even up here."
"Obviously, he's been keeping track if he knows you and I are up here," Kay said dryly. "Think we should tell the Crime Scene Unit about this note?"
"No," I said, "They don't need to know about it. All they need to worry about is forensics...if this guy wants to play games, we'll play."
Then again, playing mind games wasn't exactly the greatest idea. All of us had done it at one point or another in our careers...and never had it gotten us anywhere that we wanted to be.
"Catch me if you can." Kay had taken the note back from me, and was staring down at it, shaking her head. "You can't tell me he's honestly forgotten the last time."
"I doubt anyone would forget something like that," I said dryly. "Don't worry about that note, Kay. You said it yourself. We'll nail him."
It was said more to convince myself than it was to convince them. When Kay had left Homicide the first time around, she was the only one of us with a perfect clearance rate. I had no doubts in her ability to close this case, or even in Tim's. It was myself I doubted. And in a job like this, self-doubt was the quickest way to fall. Tim walked off towards CSU to see if they'd found anything. Kay and I watched him go.
"They're not going to have anything." she said. "New York might be more advanced than us in some places, but they're not going to have anything."
"The one thing they don't have is you and your perfect clearance rate," I said. "But you're probably right."
"Seems like perfect crime, you know?" Kay asked in reply. "There's never any physical evidence, never any fingerprints...how does he do it?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to know, either. All I need to know is that this guy is a perverted bastard."
"Think we'd get off on a justifiable if he ended up dead after we found him?" Somewhat startled by the question, I cast an amused look in Kay's direction and shook my head, trying not to laugh.
"You're the last one I expected to hear that from," I said. "But I think it might be a possibility...so long as no one else was watching."
"He's lucky he didn't end up dead the first time, shooting you and Meldrick like he did." Kay glanced over towards where Tim was and sighed. "Why do I have the feeling that if he does that again, no one's going to give a damn?"
"Because none of them will," I said. "My partner might, but the other two...they're pissed that I asked for them to be taken off the case, so if something happens, I wouldn't put it past them not to care."
"Funny, I was always under the impression that all squads were somewhat like a family no matter where they were."
"Things aren't the way they used to be. This unit...we've come this close to ripping each other's throats out more times than I can count."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it's not working, Munch."
"It wasn't. But can you really blame them for being pissed off at me? They were right, I should have told them before."
"This isn't any of their concern .They're not the ones who've had to live with this for the past twenty-odd years."
She had a point there. I'd learned a long while ago not to argue with her in certain cases, and this was one of them. Footsteps caught our attention and we turned to find that Tim had come back from talking to CSU.
"Let me guess," I said, before he could speak. "They didn't have anything."
"You're better at this than you think," Tim replied mildly, "They didn't. No fingerprints, no DNA...nothing."
"They didn't have anything at the other scenes, either," I said. "Just these notes." At this, Kay looked back down at the one in her hands and sighed.
"Four murders," she said. "Last time we got a break after two...maybe we'll get one with the next body."
"We already have a sketch," I said, suddenly remembering the press conference from the night before. "Some girl came in and told us her friend was worried about a man following her home from school."
"You still have that?" Tim asked. I nodded, taking the folded portrait from my coat pocket, and handing it to him.
"The only thing about it is that the unit had a press conference yesterday," I said. "The sketch was released to the public."
"Of all the idiotic..." Kay sighed and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. "Tell me you at least tried to stop them."
"What kind of cop do you think I am?" I asked in reply. "Of course I tried to stop them. You think I wanted this compromised any more than it already is?"
"Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere," said Tim, cutting in before Kay could retort. "We have two notes, four victims, and an estimate of what our guy looks like this time. Now all we can do is wait."
Wait. That was the last thing any of us wanted to be doing, but he was right. Moving without physical evidence was going to get us nowhere. I glanced back towards the area that CSU had just been in, only to find that they were gone. It wasn't surprising: they had no reason to stay if they weren't going to find anything. I was starting to think they were going to stop coming at all to any of our crime scenes if this was going to keep happening. But Kay had had a point. Maybe we would get a lead with the next murder. If our guy was still following a set pattern, it was more than likely.
"So...what do we do now?" Kay asked, choosing to ignore Tim's remark and turning to face me, instead.
"We wait," I replied faintly. "It's all we can do."