-1Hey,
A huge thank you to everyone that has read and reviewed so far. Hope you all enjoy Chapter Three.
Oh, Jim Steele is a character from Conviction I'm borrowing for this chapter.
Chapter Three
December 24th 0745
"Stella, what have you got for me?"
"We might have got a break here, Mac. Sid pulled this from the latest victim." Stella handed him the small sealed bag with the hair inside it. "I put it through the computer, thought maybe we might get a hit of it."
"And did we?"
"No such luck. We did get something though. The killer is a white male, aged 25-30, with dark hair." Her confidence seemed to slip away, leaving her exhausted, drained. "It's not much, though is it?"
"No." Mac stared at the vague results on the screen, seeming to mock him. "But it's a start. At least we got something to work with."
"I'm going to start going back through the latest victims. See if we missed anything the first time."
"Good idea. I've already got Danny and Hawkes working on it. I'll let them know what you found out."
"I'll get on the phone to Flack, tell him to see if any of the victims knew anybody that matched the description."
"It's a long shot, but it's worth a try." Mac shrugged. "Good work, Stella." He turned and walked towards the door of the lab.
"Mac. Wait. Have you heard anything from Lindsay today?"
"No. Should I have heard anything from Lindsay today?"
"Ah come on, Mac. I know where she is. I know she's gone to see Reiners."
"Fine." His shoulders seemed to slump, leaving him looking beaten and broken. "Fine, she's gone to see him."
"Shouldn't one of us be there? Back her up a little?"
"We can't do that Stella…."
"Come on, Mac. You can't ask her to go through that again." He looked away, reluctant to meet her eyes. "You are going to ask her to go through that again. You asked her to go see him."
"I had to, Stella. He knows something about these homicides, and he's only gonna talk to Lindsay. I had to do it."
"She's just a kid, Mac."
"No, she's not."
XxxXXXxxx
"I just cant believe she's gone." Laura Johnston daubed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Are you sure its her?"
"I'm afraid so, Laura. We found her purse and her student ID at the scene." Ali took the girl by the arm, leading her over to the seat. She sat down next to her. "Do you feel up to answering a few questions?"
"Okay. If it'll help catch the bastard that killed her."
Ali glanced at Flack, who shrugged and started to walk around the room, staring at the photos pinned to the wall and mirror. It was always hard, always strange to see a homicide victim when they had been living and breathing.
He kept seeing an image of them afterwards, when he met them, after the life had been snuffed from them like a candle.
"Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Lucy?"
"No." Laura shook her head. "Every one loved her."
"Anyone with a grudge against her? Old boyfriend maybe?"
"No. Nothing like that." She thought for a second. "Wait, there was this one guy. Almost seemed like he was stalking her. Kept turning up at parties, and her lectures, nearly everywhere she went"
"What did he look like?" Ali pulled out her note pad, pen hovering over the page
"White guy, dark hair, maybe thirty. He liked to dress younger than he was. He hung around with us for a while." Her face fell. "I just thought he was trying to hook up with her."
Flack pulled the photo off the wall, holding it out to her. "This the guy?"
"Yeah, that's him!"
"You got a name for him?"
XxxXXxxx
Danny reached out, lifting one of the crime scene photos, squinting at it through his glasses. "Sick bastard."
"I know." Hawkes sighed, staring at the photos and evidence arranged on the table in front of them. "Mac said he wants us to go through this, see if we can find anything linking a dark haired man to any of the other victims."
Danny sighed, glancing at the clock. "I guess we'd better get started then."
"I guess we'd better." Hawkes stared at the photos, remembering the trial and its aftermath. "Have you heard from her?"
"Who?"
"Lindsay."
"No. Why would I?" Danny's phone started to ring, loud and jarring in the silent lab. He pulled it out of his pocket, staring at the number on the display. "Shit. I better take this." He pressed the answer button. "Hey, sweetheart, how you doing?" He glanced at Hawkes, and walked away from the table. "No, I'm stuck at the lab still. I don't know how long I'm going to be. No…" He shook his head, glancing at Hawkes, who hurriedly looked back at the table. "I guess I'll be there when I'm there, okay? Bye." He hung up and walked back across the lab. "Where were we?"
"Just getting started. Who was that?"
"No-one."
XxxXXXxxx
Rikers Island
"You think I still think about you, after I locked you up?" Lindsay leaned across the table, her mouth curled in a dismissive smile. "I'm a cop, Aaron. I've dealt with worse shit than you."
XxxXXXxxx
October 13th
The knife, slicing across her exposed flesh with exquisite tenderness, drawing bloody red lines across her pale skin. And then the pain rushed in, dancing across her nerves, her world narrowed to the edge of the blade, drawing on her skin. She drew breath to scream…
Lindsay sat up in bed, her skin damp with sweat, gasping for breath. She ran her hand through her dishevelled hair, trying to control her breathing, shivering in the cold October air.
Her nightmares were getting worse.
Then she realised that the ringing phone had not been part of her nightmare. She snatched it off the cradle. "Monroe." She heard how raspy, how dry her voice sounded.
"Lindsay, it's Flack." She heard him pause, hesitate before he continued, and she knew what he was going to say long before he said it. "We got another one."
XxxXXXxxx
"You okay, Monroe?"
"I'm fine, Danny." She didn't look at him, concentrating on the scene, on another girl, tortured and murdered by a bastard they couldn't catch. "Just tired."
"Maybe you should go back to the lab." Danny jerked his head in the direction of their car. "I got this,. You handle the lab work."
"I can do my job, Danny." She flinched at her words, at how sharp they sounded. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. Lets just get to work, okay."
"Hey guys." Ali Convery walked over to them, her shield prominently displayed on her overcoat. She looked tired as well, worn out. "Victim's name is Jessica Mullins, 24. Boyfriend reported her missing when she didn't come around to see him tonight."
"How's the boyfriend looking?"
"Pretty solid alibi. Don's talking to him now."
Lindsay started to circle the body, the poor girl, slumped in agony, her arms twisted, bent out of shape by the chains he had used to restrain her. "Poor girl." The sudden flash of Danny's camera, blinding in the darkened room, brought tears to her eyes and she turned away, blinking rapidly.
"I count, ten, fifteen cuts on this poor dame. I guess he lost control on this one. Maybe we'll get lucky on this one."
Another flash, sudden and bright.
"Danny…" He looked up and she pointed…
….at the bloody handprint, left on the wall, almost invisible against the dark wallpaper. If she hadn't turned around, just as the camera flashed, she might never have seen it.
"We just got lucky."
XxxXXXxxx
December 24th
"I'm sorry, Detective Taylor. I cannot reveal who has visited Aaron Reiners."
"Warden, the man is a convicted killer. He's talking with one of my detectives now about a number of other homicides. We think this new killer may have visited him at Rikers."
"I understand that, Detective, but I cannot reveal the information. His lawyer got a court order suppressing all information regarding visitation to Aaron Reiners."
"Warden, this is ADA Jim Steele. I have a subpoena here requiring the release of those records, signed by Judge Hayden. I can have a copy with you in twenty minutes by fax. Now will you release those records?"
"As soon as that subpoena is there, you can have your records. I'm sorry, Detective, my hands are tied."
Mac hung up. "Sonofabitch."
XxxXXXxxx
Rikers Island
He looked shocked for a moment, then sat back in his chair, laughing. "Very good, Detective Munroe. Very good." He lit another cigarette, still laughing to himself, amusement still dancing in his eyes. "I'm glad you haven't lost your spirit yet. I'm sure he likes that."
"Who?"
"That detective you're screwing. You are screwing him, aren't you Lindsay?"
"You said you had information, Aaron. Talk. Otherwise I'm walking out of here and you can rot in hell for all I care."
"You wont catch your killer if you walk out of here, Lindsay."
"We will." She leaned across the table, resisting the urge to rub at her wrist. "I caught you, didn't I?"
He started to laugh again, smoke billowing around his face.
End of Chapter Three