The weekend flew by and the new week had arrived quickly. Sakura and I had gotten ready and were waiting at the airport at around 9:30. Boarding had only started for First Class, something the FBI would never invest in. Both of us were struggling to stay awake as a late night of drinking and other things were taking its toll on us this wonderful Monday morning. My head hurt like a bitch, there was no way Sakura and I could work at our full potential like this.
"Sakura?" I rasped.
"Hm?"
"I think I'm dying."
"Me too."
"Sakura?"
"Hm?"
"I think we drank too much."
"And who's fault is that?"
"Flight 101 to Baton Rouge is now boarding classes 1-5," the attendant said into the mic.
"Why is she yelling?" I moaned as Sakura took my hand and led me to the back of the line where I put my forehead onto her shoulder in an attempt to fall asleep. It almost worked until we had to move up, much to my dismay.
"I promise we can sleep on the plane, Sasuke," Sakura assured me.
"It's like an hour flight."
"Just be grateful we don't have to drive." We eventually boarded the plane and as soon as I hit my seat, I was out like a light.
"Sasuke," I heard Sakura say as I blinked my eyes open. "We're here." I looked out the window to see that we had indeed landed. My headache had gotten a little better, but it still bothered me. We got off the plane and attained our rental car shortly after. Sakura drove us to the police station. It was a large building, around 4 stories tall and pretty wide.
"Let's go," I mumbled to Sakura who followed me inside the reddish-brown building. We were met with a quiet environment, but not quiet as in calm, quiet as in an eerie silence, like something had shocked the entire department into hushed panic.
"Agents Uchiha and Haruno, welcome," a slender old man greeted, "I'm Commissioner Simon Colwell, thanks for coming."
"Part of the job," Sakura replied cheerfully as I shook the man's hand. Colwell gave her a kind, old-man smile, like the ones your grandparents would give after they baked cookies for you.
"Where are we setting up?" I asked the man.
"Top floor, that's where our homicide detectives are." I nodded and we made our way to where our office was located. The top floor was easily the smallest in the building, containing only 5 rooms in total, one for interrogation, three for the other detectives, and one conference room, where we would be setting up. Inside the conference room was a clear board as well all of the crime scene photos.
"I've been a cop for 30 years now and I've never seen anything like this. When I first saw the bodies I threw up, haven't done that since I was a rookie."
He looked at us and for the first time in any seasoned cop I saw a look of pure desperation. I've looked at desperate people before, but this, this was something else. Whatever this man had seen had shaken him to the core. Whatever this man had seen would give him nightmares.
"Never before has the entire city been scared like this. Barely anyone has walked the streets after dark for the past few days, it's like we've become a ghost town. I saw a news reporter cry on air after one of the body parts on the first victim, Joseph Demarillo. I'm begging you agents, find this guy."
Then, I did something that surprised even me. I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him right in the eye. "We'll do everything we can, Commissioner," I told him firmly. The gray-haired man smiled and nodded at my words.
"We've doubled patrols during the daytime and nighttime. The cops here are doing everything we can. If you need anything regarding evidence, just ask one of the detectives, they'll be happy to help," Colwell told us.
"We'll get to work right away," Sakura told the man, bringing a smile to his face. It seemed like she had a calming effect on everyone, not just me.
"Thank you," Colwell said gratuitously before leaving the room. Sakura turned to me and we shared a brief nod.
"Let's do this," she said as she handed me some crime scene photos.
That's when I saw it, why everyone in this station was so hushed and desperate.
A severed arm hanging from a tree with a hook through the palm of the hand to keep it secured against the bark. By the time the police had arrived at the scene the arm had gone completely white from lack of blood. The other arm had been found on top of a law firm where the first victim, Joseph Demarillo worked. His legs had been found at different construction sites. His body was found hidden in the middle school's boiler room. His head was found on a stick in the basement of the Baton Rouge Hospital, but the eyes were removed. The eyes were the only thing missing until they were delivered straight to the police station with a 2 notes attached reading: You can only see so much before the game starts again.
I saw Sakura close her eyes and cover her mouth with a hand. No one could blame her, these were some of the most gruesome photos I had ever seen in my career. She wasn't used to this kind of violence, she hasn't been exposed to it like I have.
"O-ok, I think we should start with evidence," she said shakily. She noticed the concern in my eyes and gave me a reassuring look. "I'll be fine, Sasuke." I nodded and we went to work. All of the body parts were cut cleanly off, most likely with an axe. As for the eyes, they were removed postmortem with knives judging from these photos. "I'd say the killer is a male," Sakura stated.
"Why?"
"Well if it was a woman who loved cutting people's bodies up then why didn't she remove the genitalia? Plus there was a bruise on Demarillo's left arm caused by a hand gripping it too tightly. The measurements estimate the hand size to be about 7.57 inches, around the average size of a man's hand."
"Ok so our suspect's a male. Definitely in control of his emotions because these kills are thought out and planned. So far there's nothing distinguishable at the crime scenes, all we have are riddles," I concluded.
"Well let's start looking through them." We each grabbed some of the riddles and got started. The first riddle I read was, "I drink, but not from a glass. I use thousands of fingers to eat. What am I?" The answer was a tree, which was where one of Demarillo's arms were found hanging by hook. The second riddle read, "I first came into this world here, now I will leave it in that same place." The answer to that one was the hospital, where Demarillo's head was found.
"This guy is really sick," Sakura shuddered as she put the pictures down. I thought about any possible angles we could use judging from the pictures, but all I could gather was that this man was a true sadist and loved riddles.
"Did the hospital's cameras capture anything?" Sakura asked me.
"No. There's no trace of anyone entering the basement except for one of the nurses, but she's already been cleared," I replied.
"What about the school?"
"Nothing."
"There has to be something," Sakura muttered while picking up another set of files. I picked up another set from where his left leg was found and scanned it for any possible clues. "Sasuke!" Sakura suddenly gasped.
"What is it?"
"There's camera footage of a blue Toyota truck at the construction site during midnight when no one was there."
"Can we get the plates?"
"I might be able to, the picture was taken from an awkward angle."
"The tech should be able to rotate the picture."
"Then let's go!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room. We walked down a couple floors to where the techs were working to gain any new evidence.
"Hey," I called out, "can one of you rotate this picture and clear it up so we can get the plates from the truck?"
"I can do it," A middle-aged man volunteered. Sakura handed him the picture and the tech pulled it up on screen from their case files. "It'll be tricky, give me 30 minutes and I'll get it back to you," the man said. I let out an agitated sigh before making my way to the door, a half-hour was a long time to be waiting. Sakura and I went back to our office and dug further into the files and evidence we were given. I reexamined every photo, every piece of evidence, but there was nothing. It was like this killer was a ghost, leaving no trace behind.
"There's no trace in the right leg and right arm of the second victim, Seymour Granjesca, either. Just two riddles. The one for his leg is 'What starts with P and ends with E and has more than 1000 letters?' The answer was the Post Office, where a severed leg was found in a package. The one for his arm was 'The maker doesn't want it the buyer doesn't use it and the user doesn't know it. What is it?' The answer to that one was a coffin. The killer dug up Demarillo's grave and put Granjesca's arm in it, Sasuke," She explained.
"Damn," I muttered, that last part was pretty disturbing. I made us some coffee as we waited for the tech to finish making our picture visible so that we could locate the killer. Other than that photograph there was no evidence left behind which didn't sit right with me. Even some of the most skilled serial killers left clues behind. The fact that this killer almost didn't leave a trace already confirms that this killer could end up being my hardest case. I've arrested ever killer I've been chasing while in the FBI and the only time someone went free was when Naruto and I violated a man's rights in catching a murderer in Jacksonville. However, we arrested the man again after linking him to another murder, sending him away for life.
"I think this is a guy who admires people like The Zodiac Killer, he loves that he can get away with taunting us with riddles, he gets off on it," Sakura theorized while we sat sipping on our coffee, waiting for that tech.
"Hello?" We heard a voice say while knocking on our door.
"Come in," Sakura replied. The tech walked in and finally gave us the news we were waiting for.
"I'm done," He said. We followed him down and stood behind him while he showed us the picture of the truck. The license plate was clear as day, a sequence of letters and numbers corresponding to someone, this is how we'll catch this killer.
"Run the plates," I told the tech.
"Gladly, sir."
The database did its thing and in a minute, we had a name.
"Belongs to a James Maybrick. Address is 22 Silver Avenue." I nodded to Sakura and we raced to our car. We raced towards the address with our siren blaring and our speed well surpassing the limit. I pulled up to the house followed by a couple police cars that had followed us to the house. Sakura and I drew our guns and knocked on the door.
"James Maybrick, this is the FBI, come out now!" Sakura yelled, but there was no answer. After about 10 seconds, Sakura nodded to me and I kicked the door off its hinges. We checked the house, which was small and barren. The walls were torn and the furniture was old and creaky, but there was definitely someone living here from the bag of chips opened and sitting on a coffee table. There was nobody in the house however, Maybrick must've known we were coming. Sakura checked upstairs while I opened the door of the basement and went inside.
It was cold and dark, every step creaked as I held one of my Brownings in my left hand and a flashlight in my right. There were no lights and smelled rotten, like something had died here. I pointed my flashlight around, but all I could see were some gallons of bleach, some lawn supplies, the usual things you would see in a basement, nothing too unusual. The walls were white with some dirt and grime stuck to them and the floor was littered with garbage.
"Sasuke?" Sakura called down from the doorway. I walked over and looked up to her. "There's nothing upstairs," she confirmed.
"Give me a minute," I told her before resuming my search. I holstered my gun and walked around with just my flashlight on, looking to see if I missed anything. I spotted something strange in the corner of the room so I walked over to give it a look. It was a picture of Seymour Granjesca and his wife at a local amusement park called The Great Escape. It was a little dusty, but not too old. Maybe Maybrick left it here as a reminder, but as I walked around and shone my flashlight onto the floor, I could see marks in the floor. The ground had been chipped in some places, like there was a table or chair here. The scratches were numerous, like the legs of a chair had been slammed down onto the floor.
That's when it hit me.
The picture and the scratches, couple that with the bleach, this is where Granjesca was cut up.
I was standing right where it happened.
I closed my eyes and imagined the scene. Granjesca was tied to the chair, his body still intact, but not for long. The killer puts the picture in front of Granjesca as he taunts him, breaking him down mentally. Then, he starts cutting, chopping the limbs clean off with one fell swoop of an axe. Granjesca screams, but shortly dies from blood loss after having his limbs cut off. The head and eyes are removed postmortem. All body parts are stored in separate coolers to keep them from decaying long enough so that they can be preserved for the police to find. The bleach is used to clean the blood and seal away the stench of death, concealing any visible evidence. The killer then goes upstairs and relaxes for a bit, only to be interrupted. He knew we were coming, most likely from tapping into the police comms. There is a possibility of a snitch in the department, but judging from the horror on their faces, it's doubtful at best. The killer packs everything up and leaves, aware that the police have found his location, but in a hurry, meaning he couldn't have gotten too far.
"Sakura," I called while walking upstairs. She turned to face me at the sound of her name. "Did you put an APB out for the truck?"
"Yeah, but there's something else, Sasuke," she told me.
"What is it?"
"James Maybrick is an alias, the real one's been dead for 6 years."
"Yeah I was beginning to think that as well, any clue as to who was using the identity?"
"None. But there's a note that was left behind."
"Let me see it." She handed me a folded piece of paper and moved next to me so that she could read it as well. I unfolded the paper and read the note. Immediately, both Sakura and I looked at each other in shock.
The note read: You almost caught me, Sasuke. Almost.
Signed, Sasori.