WE FINALLY MADE IT PEOPLE! HAPPY 2020! Only to have a friggin' pandemic.

Jeezus, 2020'S SOOOO GREAT, AIN'T IT FOLKS!

Hope you're ready for more, 'cause here's Chapter 4.

Chapter 4: Black Seeds of Conspiracy

Leaning forward, Nick eyed the Bent Brick surveillance with intense fervor. He and Hank had been going over the surveillance for the past 45 minutes and the only thing they were seeing so far was the victim chatting up a bunch of women at the bar.

Clearly the manager wasn't wrong about Welmar being social.

Hank shook his head. "I've got nothing here. No one eyeing him funny, no threats, nothing." He sighed. "What about you? Did you find anything?"

"Well, it looks like Welmar was a real lady-killer," Nick said. "He was chatting up a lot of girls before he was killed."

Hank rolled his chair next to Nick. "Hmm, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say we've got a crime of passion. Another guy killed him after he talked to the wrong girl."

"And that wrong girl is our redhead," Nick added. "I haven't seen her on the surveillance so far. Let's see."

Pushing a button, the surveillance started to speed up, during which Welmar chatted up a few more women–a blond, two brunettes.

And a redhead.

"Hank! There she is!" Nick said.

Leaning in, both Nick and Hank peered at the screen.

Welmar and the redhead downed a few shots and laughed. While Nick and Hank could easily tell that Welmar was having fun, the redhead was much more difficult to read, for her back was facing the camera, though she was leaning close to Welmar, her shoulders swayed along with her body.

Then, after waggling her right finger rather suggestively, the redhead downed another shot before quickly strutting out of the bar. At that point, Nick and Hank could clearly see what she was wearing: a low-cut, floral-patterned, bluish-black cocktail dress with high-heeled sandals.

With a rather ecstatic look on his face, Welmar downed his shot and rushed out the bar.

Hank chuckled. "She's a hell of a woman."

"No kidding" Nick replied. "Anyways, that puts our redhead directly in the witness ballpark. She could've seen what happened to him."

"Love triangle gone south?"

"Starting to look like it. We need to look for this redhead."

Hank rolled back to his side of the desk. "I'm sending a copy of the surveillance to the techs."

At that moment, Nick's phone started to ring. Looking at the screen, the caller was Wu.

"Wu, what have you got?"

"Hey, a 911 call just came in. We found two bodies a few yards away from Washington Square, same M.O.," Wu said. "We're sealing off the area."

"Got it, we're on our way." Hanging up, Nick turned to Hank."Two more bodies were found near Washington Square. They were cut up the same way as Welmar."

"Well, this oughta be good." Hank grabbed his jacket as he and Nick rushed out of the precinct.

Nick's Land Cruiser pulled up near the crime scene and as soon as he and Hank got out, they made their way through the small pool of crime scene gawkers and entered the area.

It didn't take long for them to realize that they were in for a doozy.

A girl–a brown-haired girl with a tan–lay sprawled across the sidewalk. There was a large gash on her stomach-or at least where her stomach used to be-leaving a pool of blood beside her body. The rest of her body was covered in cuts of various sizes.

Hank whistled. "Damn. That's a nasty way to go."

"That would be victim one: Danielle McCoy." Nick and Hank looked to see Wu walking briskly towards them. "I ran her name through the system. She's clean."

"Look at this." Putting on gloves, Nick lifted Danielle's right forearm, revealing a very red and swollen wrist. "Where do you think you she got this?"

"Looks like she was in one hell of a fight," Wu quipped.

"Is she the one that called 911?" Hank asked.

"No." Wu pointed to a nearby tree, where another girl–with long blonde hair and a fair complexion–lay in a dead slump against the trunk. "That honor would belong to victim two: Lucy Skye." He led the two detectives towards the tree, where Nick and Hank observed the body.

Aside from the usual signs of a struggle–bruises and scrapes–Lucy had a large slash across her chest, which had spilled blood all over her white shirt. Eyes as wide as plates, the back of her head was bleeding; Nick and Hank could see some of her head blood on the tree trunk behind her.

Hank shook his head. "Are we thinking our killer got to both of them?"

"Seems like it." Nick turned to Wu. "We're gonna need to get the details on that 911 call."

Wu nodded. "I can do that."

"We need to find a connection between these two and our killer," Nick added. "Or the killer and their victims. We need to establish a motive."

"Alright," Hank said. "Let's let CSU have it."

And with that, the three men walked away, with Wu giving the OK to the officers clad in dark blue and yellow. Nick and Hank followed in suit, venturing from out of the bloody scene and into the endless possibilities of their killer's identity.

The crime scene was still full of people after those two detectives and that sergeant had left. Whether it was the CSU-clad officers or just the curious crime scene gawker, there was no shortage of people around the usually deserted park.

But that was no problem for Jenna Biscoe.

Hidden between a nearby tree, Jenna drew in a long breath, taking in the strong scent of blood that had been spilled hours before; the scent of the girl by the tree was especially powerful, but she could also pick up the other girl lying on the sidewalk.

There was no mistaking it: the girls were Blutbaden.

Jenna drew in another breath, the metallic scent of blood filling her nostrils once more.

But this time, there was something else. It also had metallic whiff to it, but it wasn't blood. It definitely reeked—probably paint or something—but there was something else present there.

At that point, Jenna knew exactly what she had found. Leaving the scene, she dialed a number on her phone.

After the dial tone rang for a few more minutes, a man's voice finally spoke up from the other side.

"Hello?"

"It's me," Jenna said. "She's in Portland. I'm sure of it now."

"Did you see her?" the man said.

"No, but I'm at Washington Square. There's are two bodies here, slashed up by what looks like a sword." Even as she spoke, Jenna's gaze was firmly planted on the crime scene. "They were both Blutbaden."

The man sighed on the other line. "That could have been anyone with a sword. We need to be sure."

"I am sure," Jenna said, voice starting to rise. "There's more. Nick Burkhardt was just at the crime scene.

"The Grimm? What did he want?"

"Apparently, he and his friends are investigating the deaths in Washington Park. There's that, and the Grimm mentioned another name: Welmar. I'm assuming he was killed the same way as the girls in the park right now."

A silence followed for a while before the man finally said, "If that's the case, then we need to act. You need to find out if she's actually in Portland! As long as that woman is still alive, no Blutbaden is safe!"

"I know. I'll see what I can do."

Hanging up the phone, Jenna began to stride—practically skip—back to her house. She could have sworn that she felt a weight disappear from her chest. Letting out a slightly anxious giggle, Jenna skipping quickly died down to a mere stroll. The weight on her chest slowly trickled back before dissolving into nothing.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't full of anticipation.

The lie was that she would see what she could do about her target. She didn't need to. When it came to her target, Jenna only needed two things: a trap and bait.

A trap was simple. Her target was a rowdy one, willing to fight through anything. But she was still human; all she needed to do was to crush her with the power of Wesen united.

But what Jenna really needed was bait.

And she knew just who to turn to.

Hmmm, it seems that Nick and company aren't the only ones looking for our killer. Hmmm...

Sorry it took me so long to update. I got caught up in school and everything.

Hope you enjoyed! :)