"We've got a match," said David stopping in the doorway to Chriseyda's office the next morning. "Former felon named Willis Smith. Arrested for forgery and stealing close to half a million dollars from fifteen different people."
"Greed," said Chriseyda, jumping up and grabbing her coat as she followed him out of the police station. "Let's go pick him up."
"He's already dead," said David as he got behind the wheel of his car. "The SWAT team is on its way, they'll be there a few minutes before us."
"So how does it play out?" asked Chriseyda.
"I'm not sure," said David. "This whole thing has been totally screwy. We'll either find him dead . . . or as close to death as possible."
"Move aside Detectives," yelled a member of the SWAT team that had already assembled at Willis Smith's house.
"They love this part of the job," said David rolling his eyes slightly to Chriseyda, who just nodded and watched the proceedings.
"One, two, three," yelled the Captain. At his mark, the door splintered and flew in as the team entered the house like a swarm of bees.
"Let's go," nodded David, taking off- gun in hand, into the house.
They entered the house and split off in two directions, following the two squads of SWAT. David followed the men heading toward the kitchen, family room, and garage, while Chriseyda followed the men heading toward the back side of the house- where all the bedrooms and living room was.
The team Chriseyda was following suddenly stopped, causing her to skid to a stop and almost bump into one of the officers. They slowly and cautiously moved into the room, instructing her to stay outside until they were sure it was secure. The leader of the team radioed to send David over. He was there within moments, standing beside Chriseyda, waiting for the all clear so they could enter.
"It's secure, Detectives," called one of the SWAT members. "We have a DB here."
Chriseyda was the first one into the room. She stopped short upon entering; a look of shock, horror, and disgust was plastered on her face. David walked into the room and stepped around her. He took in the scene and then turned to face her.
"Remind me to play poker with you when this thing is over," he said sarcastically.
"What?" she asked, snapping back into the moment.
"You have a terrible poker face," he said. "I could win quite a bit of money from you."
"I have a good poker face," she said as she scanned the scene. "When I need one," she added, after he raised his eyebrows at her. She walked around the room, scanning and taking pictures of everything before turning her attention to the body slumped in the middle of the room. David went straight to the body.
"Well this is definitely 'Greed,'" said David.
"Did the big bloody letters spell it out for you?" asked Chriseyda sarcastically, not turning to see the look on his face.
David sneered at her back and snapped, "No, actually the pound of flesh missing from his flank area and the scale gave me that idea. It's exactly like last year."
"I know," said Chriseyda, finally turning to face him. "I was just trying to relieve my own stress." She scanned the body and then got down for a closer look. "It looks like there is money stuck to him," she said, taking out her camera and snapping off a few pictures.
"Don't touch it until the coroner moves the body," demanded David. "I don't want some significant piece of evidence being thrown out due to a breach of protocol."
Chriseyda nodded and continued looking around the body. She stepped aside as the coroner and her assistant came in and bent over to examine the body. They finally shifted the body over, allowing the Detectives to see the chest and stomach of the man.
Chriseyda snapped on a pair of gloves and pulled a dollar off his chest and bagged it. "They tried to clot his blood with money?"
"It looks like it," said the coroner with a nod. "I'll know more in about three hours. I'll call you when the autopsy is finished." She lifted the man's eyelids and then opened his mouth. "There's something in his mouth," she said, grabbing the tweezers from her kit. She put them down into his mouth, and slowly pulled out a wad of dollar bills. "It looks like these were shoved down his throat to make a point." The coroner stuffed the bills into the plastic bag that Chriseyda was holding for her.
After another half an hour, the coroner and the body left the scene, followed shortly after by Detectives Mills and Jackson. Both detectives were silent, the case was screwing with both of them and neither liked it very much.
"What do you think?" asked David, sitting down across from Chriseyda. He took a long sip from his mug of coffee.
"I think, like last year, we'll either get extremely lucky or this guy will just finish his killings and slip through his fingers," said Chriseyda, slowly contemplating the situation as she looked at her cup of hot chocolate, decorated with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. "Unless he . . .or she . . . wants to be caught, like John Doe did."
"Okay," said David, counting off with his fingers. "So far he has killed Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Greed. That means he is missing Pride, Envy, and Wrath. I'm guessing that we'll find Pride next, and I'm probably going to be the target of Wrath again, simply because this guy will want to do what John Doe failed to do. Envy is the only thing that is a question. I doubt if this guy will say he envies my life, so it is the odd one out."
Chriseyda nodded, taking a sip of her hot chocolate and wiping some of the whipped cream off her nose with a napkin. "I don't know what to think anymore. I feel like this person is just toying with us. Like they purposefully mean to have us bent over and waiting- I hate that feeling. Or, maybe this person is Pride, but that just doesn't make sense. Maybe he or she isn't any of the seven sins, maybe they are just doing it for kicks. Like it's some sort a notch on their belt to be in charge of the situation or something like that.
"It would make sense that way. This person is doing things totally different than John Doe did. Maybe, like you said, they will go for you, and then kill themselves out of pride for completing what John Doe failed to do. Or they will kill you and 'Pride' and then just revel in it and go on living their life. In either case, I think you are right about Pride being next on his list- it only makes sense. If you are the target of Wrath, I'll have your back- and I'm a good shot."
"Thanks," said David. "It looks like we'll just have to wait and see how this thing plays out."
"You think this person might be some evil incarnation of John Doe?" asked Chriseyda, taking another sip of her chocolate- this time avoiding the whipped cream.
"No," said David, wrapping his hands around his mug as he thought about it. "Not an incarnation per se, but whoever it is . . . I don't even want to think about how evil this person is. It could be anyone with . . ." He sat there for a minute, his mouth agape in thought. "I have an idea. Stay here; I'll be right back!"
Chriseyda sat obediently and watched him leave the café. He left her sight- and as much as she wanted to follow him- she sat there, sipping at her hot chocolate, until he came back five minutes later.
"Follow me," was all he said before turning and walking back out of the café. Chriseyda jumped up and followed him out. She had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't going to be a step behind him.
An hour and a half later, a grungy looking man entered the pizza parlor, just another bum who had gotten enough change to buy a piece of pizza. But appearances can be deceiving, especially in New York City. He walked right up to Detectives Mills and Jackson. He handed them a list, without a word, and left.
"What exactly is this?" asked Chriseyda.
"It's a list of who borrows tagged books from the library," said David. "It's what helped us find John Doe in the first place, and it should help us now. But you don't know about this and neither do I, got it?"
"Know about what?" Chriseyda asked as she took one of the pages from him.
They began flipping through the list, looking for anything at all that might help them catch a break.
"I have one," said David. "J. Doe, could be another John or a Jane Doe. Wouldn't that be a situation?" He sounded as shocked as Chriseyda felt.
"Is that it?" asked Chriseyda, not sure if she had heard him right.
"The person who checked out all of the books John Doe did and more," he said. "And there is no home address for the person either. Now isn't that just a wonderful piece of news?"
"So what's our next move?" asked Chriseyda.
"Go to the library, see if any of the librarians remember seeing what this J. Doe looks like- maybe even seeing if they have an address somewhere in their files," said David, shrugging. "What else can we do?"
Chriseyda nodded and followed him from the pizza parlor. They drove to the library and looked around. They walked into the library and noted the coffee shop to the right and the front desk to the left.
"I'll go and check the coffee shop," said Chriseyda. "I'll see if any of them have had contact with a J. Doe. It's a long shot, but who knows- we might get lucky off a long shot."
David nodded and headed to the library. He walked up to the front desk.
"Hello," said the cheerful, blonde teenager behind the desk, wearing a nametag bearing the name 'Kelly'. She batted her heavily made eyes at Mills and, whether out of habit or on purpose, she started twirling her hair. "Can I help you find something?"
"Actually," he said. "I was hoping you could help me find someone. A person who has recently borrowed some books on purgatory; they call themselves J. Doe."
"Oh yeah, her," said Kelly. She sighed, not seeming happy that they weren't talking about her- but at least it was a conversation. She acted pleased to be needed by him, even if it was just for information on a library patron.
"Her?" asked David, he wanted to claim that it didn't shock him- that he had figured as much- but it shocked him just the same.
"Yeah," she said, batting her heavily made eyes at him again. He ignored it- again. "She comes here quite frequently. She's very quiet and keeps to herself for the most part. I wouldn't remember her, except for the name. I thought it was a funny name, like she wanted to remain anonymous. And the books she always checked out, they were so depressing. I would have thought a girl like her, who had probably never been laid, would get a romance novel every once in a while- but no, just those depressing books about purgatory and Danté and stuff like that. I once tried to suggest some books to her," she just kept rattling on. "But she didn't seem int. . ."
"Can you tell me what she looks like?" he asked, interrupting her.
"Well," said Kelly, obviously a little put out by being interrupted by him. "She had slumped shoulders but I think she'd be pretty tall if she stood straight, blonde hair, dark blue eyes, kind of a defined bump on the top of her nose" she said pointing to the bridge of her nose, "and she wears glasses- not stylish ones either. They look kind of like old lady glasses, but hey- if that's her thing, who am I to judge?"
"Anything else distinguishing about her? Crooked teeth? Does she have a mark on her face? Anything?" Mills was getting frustrated and trying desperately not to show it.
"No," said the woman. "Her teeth were straight, probably dental work- I've never seen anyone with teeth that were naturally that straight. The most noticeable feature was her eyes and she didn't try to play them up. She didn't even wear makeup," she sounded disgusted by this. "I don't know, she might possibly be considered pretty if she got contacts and dressed up a little."
"Would you happen to have her address around here somewhere?" he asked. "It's kind of important that I get in touch with her as soon as possible."
"Are you with the police?" she asked, her eyes widening.
"Yes," he said. "She isn't in trouble, we just have to speak to her about a tip she gave us a few days ago."
"I don't know," she said. She turned and typed something into the computer and then looked back at him. "No, I'm sorry. Her address isn't in the computer, but it might be in our back files. Would you like for me to check?"
"Sure," David nodded.
The girl turned and walked through the door behind her. She returned in a few moments with a self-satisfied smile on her face. "Here it is," she said holding up an index card. She handed it over to him with a proud smile. "Now, you can't keep it, but you can write it down."
David looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but then nodded his compliance and took his pen and a pad of paper from his pocket. He looked down at the address and his heart sank. His bad week just became worse, but he wasn't going to let this girl see it.
"No one has seen anything around here," said Chriseyda as she walked up behind David.
"That's okay," he said turning to face her. "I have the address right here."
Chriseyda's face lit up with that news. She and David turned and nodded their thanks to the young lady at the counter. They walked out of the library and to the car. Just as they got to the car, David's cell phone rang. He answered and was told to get back to the station.
"Where is Jane Doe's house?" Chriseyda asked as David pulled the car into his space outside the station.
David tensed and looked over at her. She could almost see the answer in his eyes. Her mouth went open and she slowly shook her head as if to say 'Please tell me you're kidding,' but he wasn't.
"She lives in John Doe's former apartment." He knew that he didn't have to say it- she already knew, but he had to verbalize it so that his own mind could grasp it. He didn't want to have to go back to that place, but it couldn't be avoided.
"You're not going there, are you?" asked Chriseyda, echoing what his logical mind was already asking.
"I can't avoid it," he said. "I have to solve this case now. I'm too involved- I can't just walk away. If I have to go- which I do, then I will go. It could mean making or breaking the case." He got out of the car and headed for the station.
Chriseyda nodded slowly. She got out of the car and followed him up the steps. This was not going to be a fun search and she knew that Chief Thompson was not going to be happy about it either.
She was right- he wasn't happy, but he approved the search of the apartment, and both David and Chriseyda were the first officers in the apartment. They knew it would be a long night, and they wanted to start as soon as possible. It was a long and draw out event, which yielded nothing substantial. Chriseyda had ordered that he go home and sleep, and, after arguing about it with her for over an hour, he finally conceded and left.