When she arrived there, Pat was already waiting for her, standing at the cemetery gate and, as always when waiting for something or someone, smoking a cigarette; at the sight of the witch approaching, she immediately started to smile, taking one last drag from the cigarette before she threw it on the ground and stepped on it to put it out, then bent down to kiss her girlfriend hello.
"I already found the crime scene", she let her know after the short, but tender kiss, "it wasn't hard to miss, what with the bright yellow tape again."
"Let's go there then", Willow decided at once, not wanting to waste any time, "and see if we can find anything… I hope we'll be luckier than last time."
"It wasn't a dingy side alley this time", Pat informed her while she started walking, her girlfriend right beside her, "but right on the sidewalk, so I figure it happened fast or the risk to be caught would have been too big. Plus, it seems as if our new buddy also has the hobby of burning down buildings, after your call, I checked the newspaper and one was burnt down last night, not far from here, a family house."
"Oh my God", Willow breathed, shocked, "did anyone else…?"
"Oh, no no", the demon hurried to reassure her, "the family's on vacation. They'll be thrilled to come home and find said home gone…"
"How awful", Willow grimaced, "just imagine that happening to us, or to Buffy… But at least they're still alive."
"I wonder if the culprit had a grudge against them", Pat thought out loud in reply, not commenting on how awful that had to be, "or if he just burned that house down randomly."
"Well", the redhead gave back, briefly distracted by the yellow crime scene tape appearing up in the distance, wrapped clumsily around the cemetery's high metal fence and a nearby lamppost to secure the area where the corpse had been found, "I thought about this before I came here, actually, after I spoke to Giles… He'll try to figure out if the victims had something in common, but I don't think they did, most demons kill randomly, just for the fun of it."
"Good point", Pat agreed, "and I think you're right, he does choose them randomly. He didn't stick to the MO we've seen in Jane's case for this unlucky fella."
"Now you sounded like some character from CSI", Willow giggled, growing serious again though as they finally reached the crime scene, the chalk outline on the ground quite similar to the one which had been made of Jane; clearly, the man had been taller than the small and thin first victim, but he had died in almost exactly the same position, curled up on the ground, making it clear that his death had been just as agonizing as Jane's.
"No cigarette butts this time", Pat observed, her gaze travelling over the concrete ground, "so he probably didn't wait here for a victim to walk by… Maybe he was just on the way to another hiding place or something and ran into that guy and figured hey, why not him."
"Could be", Willow agreed, ducking down and moving beneath the tape after a quick look that no one was around who might see them; while she studied the are around the chalk outline, Pat moved a few steps away, looking for any clues the police might have missed.
For a moment, the witch turned her head to watch her, smiling slightly to herself, then focused on the chalk outline again; moments later, she frowned as a small, circular object caught her eye, making her wonder how the police could have missed this while she bent down to pick it up, a queasy feeling spreading in her stomach when she recognized it as a button.
Telling herself that this was just a stupid coincidence, she quickly let the button vanish in her pocket, just in time before Pat turned around to look at her and ask her if she had found anything; not sure why, she shook her head, forcing herself to smile when Pat sighed and told her she hadn't found anything either.
"Giles won't be happy to hear this", the demon added, making Willow nod; she threw one last look at the chalk outline, then let her girlfriend know that she'd check the police file on the poor guy again before they both left the crime scene and headed back home, the redhead unable to stop herself thinking about the button she had found, no matter how often she tried to tell herself that it didn't mean anything.
Once they had arrived at their apartment, Pat made her way into the kitchen to prepare some snacks; and even though she had tried to convince herself that it meant nothing, Willow couldn't stop herself from making her way into the bedroom and getting the shirt which was missing a button from the cupboard, her heartbeat doubling when she held the button she had found against the ones which were still attached to the fabric and saw that they were identical.
"This doesn't mean anything", she whispered to herself, unable to take her eyes away from the small object in her hand; momentarily, she felt like fainting, then squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, feeling a bit calmer afterwards, telling herself again that surely, this meant nothing – that there had to be hundreds of stores selling that kind of shirt all over the US, and since the button itself wasn't all too special either, the witch figured that it probably was seen on millions of pieces of clothing every single day.
She almost had managed to convince herself that this nothing more than a coincidence, an unpleasant one, but a coincidence nonetheless; then, she remembered the small pile of cigarette butts they had found at the first crime scene and the fact that her girlfriend had carried quite the smoky odour the previous night – the same night during which a house had been burned down, according to said girlfriend.
"Now you're driving yourself crazy", she mumbled to herself, shaking her head as if to clear it; then, she let the button vanish into her pocket again and moved to put the shirt back into the cupboard, ending up being too slow this time though since Pat walked in just after she had opened the cupboard door.
"Oh, you gonna put on a new button?" the demon asked, sounding a bit surprised, her next words explaining that emotion. "I just made some sandwiches, as I thought you'd noticed."
"I did", Willow quickly reassured her, giving her best to hide the dark thoughts she'd had a minute ago from her significant other, and apparently succeeding since the demon obviously didn't notice anything, "I just thought I'd put it out so I won't forget, you know, I already forgot yesterday, so…"
"Well, it can wait until we ate", Pat smiled in reply, making the witch give her a more honest smile in return before she nodded and hung the shirt on the cupboard door's handle, making her way into the living room with the demon afterwards, where a plate with sandwiches was waiting.
At the sight of them, her stomach rumbled audibly, reminding her of the fact that she hadn't had much for breakfast and that she had left the campus before lunch; next to her, Pat just smirked knowingly, the sight once more helping to calm Willow down about her hidden worries – surely this woman, who was so kind and caring with her, wouldn't go out at night to kill innocent, random people.
Especially not now, after she spent years fighting the good fight, the redhead mentally added while she sat down and took one of the sandwiches from the plate, taking a huge bite from it afterwards, she's not evil, she's on our side…
"You alright?" Pat now distracted her from her thoughts, making her look at the taller woman, the questioning expression on her face prompting the demon to go on. "You just got that look on your face. The one you always get when you ponder something which is bothering you."
"I'm fine", Willow reassured her after a moment of hesitation, touched by how well her girlfriend knew her by now, "just thinking about that new baddie, whoever he is… We have to stop him quickly, or much more people will die, if he keeps up that rhythm of one victim per night…"
"And he probably will", Pat grimaced, helping herself to a sandwich as well and munching part of it down before she continued. "That kind of demon doesn't just stop some day or gets bored. Either he enjoys killing people that way or he feeds on something they give off when they die."
"Well, at least he doesn't feed on them", Willow sighed, then looked at her sandwich with dismay, suddenly not hungry anymore, but forcing herself to finish it anyway, knowing she had to eat, "at least it didn't say anything about that in the police file…"
"Would they note that down?" Pat wanted to know in reply, the redhead having to admit what she was making a good point with what she said next. "After all, they often label cases of vampire groups as attacks by gangs on PCP."
"Good point", Willow agreed, "but I think they'd add something like that… There weren't any photos, thankfully, but usually, they also write down the neck trauma after those vampire attacks you mentioned. One could think that PCP makes people hungry for necks."
"Usually, just weed gives you the munchies", Pat smirked in reply, making the witch giggle – before she threw her girlfriend a mock accusatory look, even managing to sound indignant when she replied. "You don't wanna imply that you've smoked weed before, right?"
"Nope, never", Pat reassured her at once, finishing her sandwich and grabbing another one from the plate afterwards, then speaking on, making the redhead giggle once more. "If I wanna experience munchies, I just demon out. Has the same effect and it's cheaper."
"Good to know", Willow giggled, then quickly finished her share of the snacks before she grabbed her laptop and made herself comfortable, eager to get into the police's database once more to see what information they had about the newest victim of their new, so far still unknown, foe.