"You just know your day's gonna be shit when you start it in the morgue," David sighed, as he slipped into the room to stand beside his partner. Killian was already staring down at the mutilated body on the gurney in front of them.

"All of my days start in the morgue, Special Agent Nolan," Gold declared, as he made his way out of his office, and over to the table with a file in hand. "Very few of them turn out to be shit."

"Point taken," David conceded.

"This one, however, just might live up to your beliefs," the medical examiner continued. "I am here to officially confirm to you both that you are indeed dealing with a serial murderer."

"Of course we are."

Killian had known it was coming. David had known it was coming. Hell, most of the department had known it was coming. But Gold making it official meant that things were about to become a lot tighter for their case. The Bureau hated to use the term serial offender. They hated the press terrifying the American population with the news that a serial killer was loose on the streets. And Killian knew that this meant his day would soon involve a trip to his supervisor's office, to listen to the guy yell all of that at him for a few hours.

"As we noted at the scene, the M.O is the same for this victim as the previous two. She was tortured prior to her death. The aim seeming to be more disfigurement, than to cause extensive pain. She suffered the same pattern of wounds to the torso." Gold paused in his explanation to note the cuts made, which were almost identically placed to their first two victims. "Her left ring finger was removed post-mortem, and the injuries to her face were also made after her death. The lab has already confirmed that the note placed into her mouth was written on the same paper, in the same hand, using the same ink as your previous victims. The cause of death is once more exsanguination due to a singular wound at the throat."

Killian and David had been expecting that too. The large gash on her neck had been incredibly telling.

"I'll need more time with the body to be certain, but my preliminary examinations suggest the wounds inflicted to the body were all made with the same instrument as your first two victims, and by the same hand. Which all leads me to conclude that you have three victims whose lives have been taken by the same individual."

"Thanks, Gold. Any news yet on what weapon we're looking for?" Jones asked hopefully, as the older man passed along the file containing his current findings.

"I'd guess a standard kitchen knife, but I can't be sure, I'm afraid. The weapon was used to slash, not to stab. So we don't have a clear impression of the blade." Gold looked a little disappointed in himself for not having the answers the two agents needed, but they both knew it wasn't his fault.

"No worries, Doc. You're already given us more than enough to go on," David assured him. "A couple more things before we go..."

Gold cut him off before David could get his remaining questions out. "No, I don't have an ID yet, and no, there was no foreign DNA traces on the body. Enjoy the rest of your day, Agents"

"So, what are we thinking?" David asked, as he placed two mugs of coffee onto Killian's desk, and kicked the office door closed behind himself.

His friend looked up from where he had been tapping away on his computer, and released a hefty sigh. "Obsessive fan seems to be the best bet," Killian suggested, as he reached forward to grab his drink. "But I don't know… something about this doesn't sit right with me."

"In what way?" David had been working with Killian since he had joined the Bureau, and throughout that time, he'd come to trust his partner. If Killian suspected that something was off, David would back him up as he followed through the investigation. "Do you think the Swan girl is responsible?"

"No. I don't. She's far too vulnerable and emotional for all of this to have been an act." When David raised a brow in question, Killian added, "If she's the one committing these murders, she's one hell of an actor. And I'll resign on the spot."

"Okay. Then what are we thinking?"

"I don't know…. yet. Have we heard back from the security team?" he asked instead.

"Yeah. That's actually what I'm here for," David chuckled, as he set the file that he'd brought through with him down in front of his friend. "They said that we can have access to everything that they haven't been through yet. But they also warned that every day, they get bags of stuff to sort through, so there's a lot of it."

Killian nodded his head in understanding. He assumed that like most celebrities, Emma would get her fair share of fan mail. Thankfully, the FBI had far more staff to sort through it, and at a much faster rate, than she did.

"As we expected, they reported back that they pass along everything friendly to Miss. Swan, but everything deemed inappropriate is destroyed. They burn it, so there's no traces of it left."

"Of course they do," Jones sighed. Nobody ever recycled the stuff they needed. "Well… send a team to go and pick it up as inconspicuously as they can, and let's hope that maybe this guy decided to be nice before he went down the murder-for-love route."

"What about the stuff Miss. Swan has kept?" David asked.

Killian paused what he was doing to think his partner's question through. Emma had suggested that she kept a portion the pleasant fan mail that had been sent to her. And maybe, if they were lucky, their killer had sent her something sweet in the past that just might have some kind of identifying information on it.

"I'll stop by later tomorrow morning and pick it up. She'll probably appreciate a friendly face over complete strangers, given what she's been through. I'm just waiting for Isaacs to chew me out over this shit first."

David chuckled a little as he stood up to head back to his own desk. "I don't envy you that, Mate." He paused at the doorway, lingering for a moment before he finally asked, "Hey, Killian… do you find her attractive?"

"Find who attractive?" Killian asked, lifting his head to cock a brow up at his friend.

"The Swan girl. I mean, last time I checked, her age wasn't a necessary requirement for this investigation. You could have Googled that."

"What do you want me to say?" he defended, a little too fiercely. "She's a pretty girl. I have eyes. Of course I find her attractive. Are you saying that you don't?"

"I'm married," David countered.

"Yeah. And you also have eyes. Being married doesn't mean you automatically stop finding other people attractive."

David conceded that point with a sharp bob of his head, before opening his mouth to ask something else. Unfortunately for him, their supervisor beat him to it with a yell of, "Jones. My office. Now!" from the other side of the bullpen.

"And there it is," Killian sighed, as he gathered up everything that he had so far on the investigation.

"Good luck, Mate," David said instead, as he moved aside to let Killian pass.

He was halfway around the room before a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he called out, "Hey, Dave? Find out who her lawyer is for me? I want him or her brought in for questioning."

"You think the lawyer did it?" David asked.

"No. I just wanna know what law school in this country thinks that they should be teaching their students to advise their clients to destroy evidence in a criminal case."

David nodded his agreement as he watched his friend knock once on the door to the office of their supervisor, before heading inside to present their case so far.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Special thanks go to my gust reviewers, hookedmom, Luna, Alexa, Nuggett and all the others. I'm sorry I can't reply to you all in-person.