Chapter 14
"Who is this again?" Dean asked.
"T.J. Donovan; stab wound to the jugular." Sam looked around him, "There are three alleys within running distance; he could have hid out in anyone of them. Probably used another fire escape."
Dean was distracted by something across the road, "What day was this?"
"Uh," Sam glanced at the notepad in his hand, "Tuesday around 8:00. Why?"
Dean nodded to the building he had been staring at, "Bet that class meets every Tuesday at the same time..." He could see the look of confusion on Sam's face, "Two of those alleys you mentioned a minute ago flank each side of that very open building. Lots of windows means lots of opportunity to be seen."
"So he probably chose the one over by the pet store; away from all the hubbub," Sam responded.
"Hubbub?" Dean gave Sam an odd look and shook his head before crossing the street to the alley. A quick game of rock, paper, scissors, and a climb up another fire escape; and Dean verified their suspicion. "Another pile of what used to be clothes. Extra large male; he's a big guy."
Robert Carlisle, the third victim was killed in a parking lot across from the gym at about 10:00 on a Friday night. "Knife to the chest," Sam said. "I guess it's pretty obvious that this time, he escape in a car. Big open lot like this one, it's not easy not to be seen."
"Isn't this where Emmett Hale was killed?" Dean asked.
"He was closer to the mouth of the alley. Jasper Morris, on the other hand was killed exactly where Hale was found," Sam responded. "Michael Patterson, 35, died on Saturday of a slit throat; first time this thing went all out. There's no way of coming back after a cut to the throat that deep."
"Escalation." Dean stared down the alley in thought, "Is it just me or is this seeming more and more like a problem for the cops?"
"Whatever it is, it's following a classic criminal pattern."
They were quiet for awhile until Dean headed for the mouth of the alley, "Who's next?"
"Brad Arnold; died Wednesday in his apartment. This one seems different; it didn't take happen in public place, he was stabbed multiple times, and there weren't any signs of forced entry," Sam told his brother as they climbed the stairs to the third floor. "3B."
Dean picked the lock of apartment 3B and glanced down the hall before entering, "Maybe this one isn't even related. Spurned lover, jealous coworker, plain old robbery maybe."
"Definitely not a robbery. He still had money in his wallet and there aren't any signs of rummaging or searching for anything."
"Multiple stabbing?"
Sam nodded, "I think 17 times counts as multiple."
"Psht, my money's on the lover," Dean responded. They looked some more around the apartment; but they had no idea what they were looking for. They both felt out of their element. "There is something off about this case. I can feel it," Dean said.
Dean was plotting each crime scene on a map in an effort to make some sense out of the mess of facts they had. Sam was looking in the files for some sort of pattern; neither of them were having any luck. Dean was growing increasingly frustrated every time he looked at the map, "I hate this case!" Sam ignored him, "There aren't any coins, amulets, symbols, residues, or giant pentagrams formed by the locations on a map! We're missing something. We have to be."
"Well, there inlays the problem. We have nothing until we find what we're missing, and we have no idea what that is," Sam didn't look up from the files as he talked.
"We have to try something new. This case is different somehow...maybe we need to look at it differently."
"Like?"
Dean ran his hand over his head, "I don't know... What ever this thing is, it hasn't been caught; so it must be smart..."
Sam nodded, "Have some sort of planning behind it, so... There has to be some connection..." They thought for awhile and then Sam stood up, "I have an idea." He grabbed a stack of blank and scrapped papers and started to write on them. "What things define a person?" Six sheets of paper with the six victims names on them, and then he stuck them to the wall in order from left to right. "Their name." He grabbed more papers, "Where they live," he wrote down their addresses and stuck them to the wall. "Their job. Weston was a teacher, Donovan a contractor, Carlisle owned a sporting goods store, Patterson was an EMT, so was Arnold, and Morris was a cop." He stuck them to the wall, "Their hobbies... Fishing, hiking, hunting, baseball, cars, and hunting."
"Two EMTs and two who liked hunting... Maybe this thing goes after people who save lives and those who take lives?" Dean stretched.
"This is Colorado, 90 percent of the state hunts. What kind of people are we left with?" Dean stared at the wall annoyed so Sam answered his own question, "A teacher, a builder, a...supplier, two life savers, and a protector."
"Things in a high school janitor's closet!"
Sam rolled his eyes, "The EMTs and the cop are the only things that could even go into the same category."
"The hospital is on the south west corner of the block kitty-corner to the gym; I'm sure the EMTs and Morris all frequented that place." Dean thought for a second, "A teacher probably goes to the doctors a lot with all the sick kids and I'm sure the contractor has had a few accidents on the job."
"It's a place to look," Sam conceded.
"For what though?" He gave a frustrated growl, "I'm stretching, making connections where there aren't any..."
"Maybe; but right now it's all we have...might have. I say we pay the hospital a visit."
"Cops or doctors?"
"Cops." Sam chuckled, "People work years making such a decision and we decide in a second."
"It's good to be us."
"Ha! Yeah, right."