Attn: I don't own John or Natalie or any other OLTL character. I do own everyone else though.

Chapter 5

John lay in bed trying to sleep. For the first time in more than a week he had a whole 8 hours to himself and he intended to spend at most, if not all of it catching up on the sleep he had missed. The motel that he was staying at didn't have the most comfortable mattress on the bed but it would do.

More than 4 hours later the shrill ring of his cell phone jerked him out of his restful sleep and into full alertness. Swearing profusely he reached for the phone and flipped it open, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Hello?!" He snapped, his voice still rough with sleep.

"John? Sorry to bother you. This is Bo Buchanan." Bo's voice was tentative, as if he hadn't wanted to call John but didn't know whom else to call.

"Bo? What's the matter? Something wrong?" John wasn't sure why Bo was calling but the mere fact that he was showed that something serious was going on. Despite the guilt John felt about being the one to tell him that his niece Natalie was dead he knew that Bo harbored no resentment so the reason for his hesitation was not clearly understood.

Bo hesitated for another second then said, "We have a murder here that fits the MO of the killer you are chasing. A young woman was killed in the same way that Na... Natalie was killed." He stumbled on the name Natalie.

John cursed under his breath and then said, "I'll be there in 30 minutes." He hung up the phone and then got his things together. There would be no more sleep today.

As he drove to Llanview he was oblivious to the passing scenery. He mind was trying to work out why the killer (He refused to call him the Forest Defiler) would suddenly switch areas. Maybe he thought they were getting too close to finding him. But that didn't make any sense he thought with a shake of his head. It had to be something else. Something he was missing.

On the surface all the murders seemed the same but to John the last 3 had a different feel to him. He couldn't explain it; something in his gut told him something had changed. Sure the last three had been killed the same violent way but the firsts hair had been died. The second one had been a natural redhead but the knife hadn't been left with the body. It had been several feet away and that wasn't normal. The third had been identical to Natalie's murder, right down to the position and placement of the body. They were such small things yet to John it was as if they were screaming at him that something wasn't right. He sighed to himself and then called Bo to get the location of the scene then told him he would meet him there.

He pulled up to the crime scene and immediately noticed another small deviation in the MO. The scene was indeed in a clearing in the woods but it was much closer to the main road than any of the other murders. Filing that thought away he got out and approached Bo, who was standing off to the side while his CSI's collected evidence.

"Who is it?" John asked, not looking at the victim yet.

Bo looked at the younger man and noticed the fatigue around his eyes. The past days hadn't been easy on him and it showed. He then looked at the body a minute before answering. "Her name was Marcy Walsh. She was my assistant."

John then looked at the body and immediately noticed another deviation from the Killers MO. This woman was short and heavyset. Not at all the usual medium height and slim that the killer always killed. John narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He was beginning to suspect that there was a copycat out there and that this was not the work of the same man as the others. "What's her story?"

Bo told John everything he knew about Marcy then frowned and asked, "I don't understand. Why pick women that are close to the police station. I mean, Natalie... she was out best forensic annalist and Marcy she was obviously connected to the police. I don't understand why both were targeted."

John heard the sorrow and confusion in his voice and didn't know what to tell him. It was odd that both women taken from Llanview were connected with the police but it could just be a coincidence. He wasn't sure yet. He needed more information to know if it was all connected. "I don't know," he finally answered then went over to get a closer look at the body.

Bo watched John work. He was confident and competent. Moving with an easy grace that was impossible to fake he moved around Marcy's now lifeless body examining everything he saw, his eyes moving constantly taking in all aspects of the scene. Seeing this Bo was glad that John had agreed to be the new Chief of detectives for the LPD. A man of his skills would definitely be useful.

Bo felt sad though, this was the kind of thing Natalie would have been so great at. He had repeatedly tried to get her out of the lab and into the field but she had always said she didn't have it in her to work the actual scenes. Bo knew she could though, she would have been really good at it giver her observation and logical skills. He felt tears threatening at the thought of Natalie. She would never be around at all thanks to this murdering SOB.

John glanced up at Bo; he seemed to be lost in thought at the moment. He was just staring off into the trees with a pained expression on his face. John knew what he was probably thinking, he was probably thinking of his niece. This would bring those thoughts right to the surface. It had only been a week since she was murdered. He wondered how the Buchanan's were handling the news. He didn't think he could take it as well as they seemed to have. Though he wouldn't stop working, just as Bo had not stopped. He would do everything in his power to make sure the bastard paid for his crime, just as he had done with the White Rose Killer. He had killed his Fiancé 5 years ago and though he had been put on suspension and had also been shot he had tracked down the killer and dragged his ass in to jail.

A part of him had just wanted to kill him on the spot but he hadn't been able to get past his morality enough to execute him. Mores the pity he thought to himself with a slight shake of his head. He shook off his distracting thoughts and went back to work.

Meanwhile back at Carlo's hideout...

Natalie watched as Carlo took the report that Griffin handed him and read it. It was an internal FBI report on the last three murders. In it John McBain noted the deviations in the pattern and this enraged Carlo. He surged from his chair swearing at Griffin.

"You idiot!" Carlo screamed at him. "They are going to figure out that the real killer is dead! You need to stop right now. No more killings! Let them stew on it for a while! We cant afford to have it known that the recent killings haven't been the work of the Forest Defiler!"

Natalie was amused when Carlo reached out and backhanded the other man, hard. Having been on the receiving end of that blow several times during her confinement she was happy to see it used on someone other than herself. She still didn't know what Carlo wanted. After he had tricked into marrying him and then had tried to take her inheritance he had expressed an absolute hatred of all things Buchanan but had never said why. He had tried to blackmail her family after that but she had been rescued by Todd of all people. When she asked Vicki, her mother, about it she of course got her answer as to why Carlo hated the Buchanan's.

Knowing what the hatred was about didn't help her understand why she had been kidnapped however. She knew it was to hurt the Buchanan's but if he wanted to do that he just had to kill her and let them find her body and so far he hadn't done that yet. So he must have some other plan up his sleeve. She just had to figure out what it was before he either put his plan into action or decided to kill her outright.

Of course she couldn't do that as long as she was locked in this room with those two. Hopefully they would leave her alone sometime so she could work on getting away and back to her family.

TBC...