Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long, but I have been very busy with school preparations and stuff like that! I start September 26, so I may be too busy to write as often as now, sorry! I hope you like this chapter! Nothing really happens, just a little explaining about the Surgeon case, which is different from the TV show. Oh, and no, Jane wasn't abducted by the guy. He prefers to stay in the dark. Or does he?
Anyway, enjoy!
"The Surgeon is back guys." Jane said with a wavering voice, sitting down in her chair when the importance of her words hit her.
He was back.
Korsak and Frost both had a look of terror on their faces.
"Who's the surgeon?" Maura asked, completely oblivious to the tension in the room. Korsak looked up at her, and cleared his throat. He opened one of his drawers and got out a box, which had many files, papers, photos, all staked on each other in it.
"The Surgeon's one of the most difficult to catch serial killers I've seen during my time here at the precinct. And believe me, it has been a long time."
Maura nodded wordlessly, starting to understand why the three detectives were so troubled by his reappearance.
Frost rolled the case-reconstruction board towards them, cleared it out of ancient case photos and information, and started writing things they already know about the guy, putting up photos of his known victims.
"We don't know who he is. We do not know his motive, we do not know what connection he has to the victims, nor what ties the victims together. In short, we know nothing about the guy. We do not even know if he is a guy." Frost sighed, and leaned on his chair. They all somehow silently agreed not to go home right then.
Maura nodded, examining the board. She already hated the guy.
"He somehow always is a step ahead of us. He knows our every move, so he can evade us easily, the son of a-"
"We do know that he has extensive medical and surgical knowledge."
"I guessed that. M.O?" Maura stated professionally, sitting in Frost's chair, waiting for them to continue.
Jane cringed. "Here's where it gets grim. He apparently has the medical records of all of his victims. He notices an illness, he cuts up the person 'to fix it up', then doesn't stitch back up. He leaves the person to bleed out."
"What the…" The young M.E frowned at the weird method, then shrugged. She has seen worse.
"How does he get the medical records? Did you check the doctors of the victims?"
"Yes, all of them had different doctors, who don't know each others. The victims didn't know each others either, and none of them has a common doctor."
"Then they were hacked. Did you try to trace it?"
"Yes. Guy's a pro. An IP address from Turkey, which led me to another IP address in Afghanistan, which lead me to another, and so on. I used an algorithm to try to get the original, courtesy of the NSA cryptology dept, but it was a dead end."
"How so?"
"A Lebanese IP address."
"How did he…"
"It's out of our reach. Plus, it was from an open wifi at a cafe, frequented by thousands of people."
"A huge dead end."
"Yes. We tried tracing calls made by doctors, surgeons, every single person that may have medical knowledge to Lebanon, but we turned up millions of results. No way to round that up. Before you can suggest that, we tried to see if the doctors of our victims have any ties with someone in the country, but they don't. We tried everything. Seems like our guy picks up his victims randomly."
"Okay so, if he does pick them up randomly, then he doesn't know their names. He would have to follow them or google them or something, then reach out to his contact in Lebanon, give him the names so he can get the medical records, correct? Assuming he doesn't make the travel back and forth every time, and that he has a contact, not a fake IP address." Maura noticed that it was a lot of assuming, which was so unlike her, but they didn't' have anything on the guy. She couldn't see the case advancing without a little supposition. Then, she thought back about the may-be-fake IP and wondered who is intelligent enough to evade a NSA cryptology department special algorithm.
"Yes, exactly. We tried CCTV footage, Google search history of every single we can think of, nothing. The guy's smart. And we tried to see if there are doctors, medical students, nurses on the planes to America from Lebanon around the time of the murders. Hundreds of people, all of them turned out clean. Then he either has a contact, or a fake IP strong enough to evade the NSA."
"Exactly what I was thinking. He's a genius, it seems. But so am I." Maura tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Did you try the cafe's search history?"
"Yeah, we tried. But the history is deleted every two hours. Plus, our warrants don't have any effect there. We would have to go there and ask the homeland security for help. Which they wouldn't be willing to give since they have enough on their plates already."
Maura nodded, understanding.
"Then, if he was not following them randomly, then he must have somewhere where he meets all of his victims. Did you see if they frequent the same bar, spa, anything?"
"Nope, nothing. Our victims do not have anything in common. And I mean anything. Each victim is different. Different age, sex, ethnicity, race, job. All of them were American though."
"It could be a coincidence."
"I'm a 100% sure it is a coincidence."
Maura sighed, and rubbed her temples. She looked at Korsak and Jane, who have been silent for a while. They had somber looks on their faces, their positions mirroring each other, both of them leaning on their desks with their arms crossed.
She glanced at the clock and found it was already 3:30am. She sighed.
"Guys, we should really go home. A good night of sleep will help us see this with a fresh perspective."
"The doc's right." Jane stretched, wincing when she heard her back pop. "We should go home and relax." The three nodded, and they started to gather their things again.
"May I take those with me? To get familiar with the case?" Maura asked, gesturing to the box containing all the evidence and files related to the Surgeon case.
"Of course."
The young doctor gathered the box in her arms and made her way to the elevator, but not before stopping and throwing a tired "Goodnight detectives."
"Goodnight doc." The three of them answered at the same time, heading to the other elevator.
Maura got home in a hurry, eager to start reading and documenting herself on the case. She already had a little idea on where they should look next, but didn't want to jump to conclusions before autopsying the new victim and making sure the detectives didn't already look that way.
She entered the house, and closed the door as silently as possible behind her, but jumped when she saw Charlie sitting on the couch, a glass of wine in his hand.
"Charlie! Why are you still up?"
He jumped too; apparently startled that he didn't hear her come in.
He ran towards her, and immediately hugged her. "I was so worried about you, god. Maura what were you thinking?!"
"What?" She asked him, confused, as he checked every part of her for injury.
"I was watching the news and heard about this crazy serial killer who's killed again! And you didn't come back when you told me you would and you weren't answering your phone and-"
"Charlie." She spoke gently, and took his hands in hers. "I'm alright. Plus, I do not see why this person would be interested in me."
"He chooses his victims randomly, Maur." He sighed, passing a hand in his hair. "Anyways, please answer your phone next time."
"I will."
He looked at her face, searching for any lies and smiled when he didn't find any, like usual. He looked at her neck, and saw it was pale, like the rest of her body, hives-free. So she wasn't lying.
The box she deposed on the counter caught his eye. "Do not tell me you're staying awake all night to read those."
She smiled sheepishly and muttered a "no?" that sounded like a question more than a statement.
He sighed. "Why am I not surprised."
She chuckled, and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'll be in my room if you need me."
She took her box, and made her way upstairs. She was determined to catch this killer.
Hope you guys liked this! Constructive criticism is welcome!
Reviews make me feel loved and make me write A LOT faster :3