"Eeee!!! Kit!" Sloane ran to her sister and gave her another bone-crunching hug at the conveyor belts where they waited for their luggage.
"I've been away for less than a week, heifer." Keats said, disentangling her limbs from that of her sister's. Sloane glanced at Ryan and gave him a friendly wink.
"You're so romantic. Chasing after her like that…" Sloane smiled at him. Keats cleared her throat uncomfortably.
"Sloane, Ryan is just my mentor. We had a one-night-stand a while back and we've decided to keep things professional from now on. Right, Ryan?" Keats said, cutting him off at the pass. It was one thing to tease, but it was quite another to hold back.
If this is the way you wanna play it, lover boy…you're on.
"Right." He replied. His face was blank and Keats wondered whether he truly felt that way all along.
Keats entered Miami Dade P.D. with renewed vigor. The case back in Las Vegas had been just what she needed to clear her mind and clarify her perceptions.
She walked into the Lab and found Eric Delko jotting down some things in a file. He looked up at her and beamed. She crossed the distance between them and embraced him affectionately.
"I missed you, Remington Steele." He said, eventually pulling her away so he could look at her face. Keats laughed at his offbeat joke.
"We need your help in a bad way. We've only got 24 hours left on the Ladykiller case." Eric said after the joy of the reunion had died down. Keats nodded, throwing herself into the case if only to ease the pain of her loveless joke of a marriage to Ryan.
Keats reviewed the list of victims over and over again. She gave a heavy sigh and checked her watch. She was due for a fifteen minute break and she used it by getting on the computer and accessing the internet. She typed in 'serial killer' on a search engine, eventually reading over the definition on Wikipedia. She browsed through a list of serial killers over the last century and stopped when she came across the name Ted Bundy.
Upon closer inspection, the profile of the Ladykiller seemed to be identical to that of Ted Bundy. She browsed over the list of victims and what was most commonly known about them. She compared them to the known list of Bundy's victims and her eyes widened when a clear-cut connection was made.
"Calleigh, get this…the Ladykiller is creating a pattern." Keats exclaimed, showing Calleigh her notes and all the tie-ins between every victim.
"Well what do you know? Ladykiller has an Achilles heel after all." She murmured, thoroughly studying the notes.
"For example: Sharleen McNamara, the bride in the bath, was known as a wanderer by all her friends because she never stayed in one place for too long…constantly taking road trips and mini-vacations here and there. Put that beside of Brenda Ball, Bundy's seventh victim in Washington, who was a reportedly compulsive traveler, and you have a solid link." Keats said triumphantly.
"Tell me about his eighth victim. So we can find her before he does." Horatio had been listening at the door and entered the room.
"Good to have you back, June." He added as she filled him in on Bundy's eighth.
Georgann Hawkins was abducted from an alley as she was leaving her boyfriend's fraternity to go home to her sorority 90 feet away.
"Is that enough of a clue to go on?" Keats wondered.
"If he's continuing with his original pattern, we should be looking for a newly married college girl that still belongs to a sorority…Let's find her." Horatio said with a glint in his eye.
"Candy Steadham…you're a recent pledge of Pi Kappa Sigma, Greater Miami Chapter, correct?" Calleigh asked, looking down at a document of Candy's collegiate information. Keats sat beside her, making notes in her composition book.
"Actually I'm a full-fledged member now. I've been through the hazing and everything." She said proudly.
"And you're married?" Keats asked, finding a parallel between her current case and her current predicament with Ryan. Oh, the irony.
"Yes. We got married a few days ago. We haven't really gone anywhere to celebrate, yet, but we were going to wait until Spring Break…Classes, you know." Candy said with a cheery smile.
"Your husband, is he a student of Miami U as well?" Calleigh asked. Candy wrinkled her pert little college nose.
"Eck, no…please…he's way older than dumb college boys. He's a man…He actually…well, I really don't know what he does now that I think about it…" Candy glanced up at the wall as though trying to remember something she'd never been told.
"And there's a party both of you will be attending later tonight at the frat house you live next to, correct?" Keats asked. Candy nodded, her blond ringlets bouncing up and down. Give me a bucket, I think I'm going to puke…
"So what is this about, anyway?" Candy asked, popping her gum. Keats and Calleigh glanced at each other.
"How would you like to have a bodyguard accompany you to that party tonight?" Calleigh asked, leaning closer. Candy gave a confused smile.