Pt. 3

Peter set off for the crime scene with Paul's enigmatic visitor in tow. It surprised him that Blaisdell had agreed to accept her assistance even grudgingly. The woman seemed to take no notice of the police captain's hesitancy, moving quickly towards the door to the parking lot. The two men moved towards the precinct door at a slower pace. "A wise man once said keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Paul had whispered to his foster son as the woman moved out of earshot. "Keep her and her brother as close as you possibly can, Peter. At least until I can pull in some favors and find out what's really going on here." He watched them leave together, a worried frown on his rugged face.

Peter glanced at the woman at his side, trying to decide what it was about her that made Paul so nervous. It certainly wasn't her looks. If anything, she looked almost nondescript. There was nothing from her primly braided dark hair to her conservative dark suit that would scream of danger. Even her nails were short and bare of color. He couldn't tell what color her eyes were since she wore dark sunglasses, similar to Kermit's but of a more fashionable style. She had the right credentials, though experience told him that those could be forged. She even came with an introduction from an old friend of Paul's, although that in itself had seemed to put Paul on his guard.

"Didn't anyone tell you that in order to drive an automobile, one must keep one's eyes on the road?" Miriam's asked, amused by the detective's searching stare. She could almost hear the thoughts as they raced inside the young man's mind. Who is she? What is she? Wouldn't you just like to know? she thought with grim amusement. Miriam had made it a point to study the people related to the case, especially one Detective Peter Caine. He had made for interesting reading, almost as fascinating as the dossiers on both his foster father and his biological father, Kwai Chang Caine. Caine especially had been of interested to both her and her brother. His family history had been too familiar to her male counterpart.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to stare." Peter replied, smiling his most winning smile.

"Yes you did, detective. You're curious what it is about a plain little ex-FBI profiler that would set your associate on edge. I'm afraid I can't help you with that. Profilers may appear to be working some form of witchcraft when we make our determinations about a possible suspect, but our deductions are based on science fact not fantasy." She watched the road unfold before her, mentally matching the landmarks with the map she had studied before her arrival. "We're not going to the hospital?"

"How did you know that" Peter asked suspiciously.

"We just passed a sign for it back a few blocks. Unless you are taking a short cut, than we've either missed our exit or are going somewhere else." She shifted in her seat, tucking the portrait more securely in her jacket pocket. "I take it we are going to the crime scene first."

"Yeah, I thought we might show your sketch to the people in the area first. If our survivor is in as bad a shape as the one's we didn't get back alive, I don't think she's going to be in any condition to answer questions. At least not for a while. You didn't finish your story in Paul's office." Peter commented, changing the subject. He pulled his car into a tight turn around a traffic light, causing passing cars to screech to a halt. "You said there had been other murders."

"Yes. My brother and I had the reports of these other homicides faxed to me along with the personnel files of the other Bureau operatives I would be working with. I like to know something about the people I'm to work with so that I can assign them to areas where their talents can be best used. And my brother is a touch possessive of his sister's time and life. It was while reading through these files that I find a disturbing piece of information, a connection that would eventually lead me to our killer."

"What was the connection?"

"One of our investigators had been in each of the towns where bodies had been discovered at the same time as the killings. The murders stopped when he left the town."

"Kind of circumstantial, don't you think?" Peter pointed out, pulling his car into the only open parking spot in site of his father's studio.

"Yes, it was. But I dug a little deeper, looked into the agent's past. What I found convinced me that he was our man." Miriam pulled herself out of Peter's sports car with a frown. They were parked in front of a building surrounded by police cars and news vans. The front area of the building had large windows where she could see people practicing a form of martial arts. "What is this place?"

"My father teaches Kung Fu here in Chinatown. Looks like our latest victim was found in the alley behind his studio." Peter started down the crowded street, moving with confidence past the hordes of police, news media and bystanders who had gathered to watch another tragedy unfold. He didn't look to see if she had followed, assuming that she would approach the scene in her own way.

Miriam stood for a moment looking into the crowd, searching for the faces she knew must be there. Her brother – the darker half of her soul – would have come directly to the scene of the crime, the better to get a scent to track. HE, the evil she was seeking, had never been able to resist being there when one of his victims had been found. It must have given him such a feeling of superiority, she mused, to stand there in plain site beside his handy work and not be suspected. She doubted he would have changed his ways, even after all that had occurred since they had last met.

"He is here, hidden in the shadows." A soft voice at her elbow stated mater-of-factly.

Miriam turned slowly, startled at being walked up on without her knowledge. The man beside her was tall with dark hair streaked with gray that he kept tied up. His clothes were drab, meant for function not fashion. Yet his eyes made him stand out to her, eyes filled with wisdom and sadness. Kwai Chang Caine looked as non-threatening in person as he had in his file photos. "Who is here?" she asked softly, knowing the answer before he spoke.

"The man you seek. The one whose darkness had led him to commit these terrible crimes."

"And you are?" she asked, pretending ignorance of his identity.

"I am Caine." He replied quietly, his eyes never leaving her face. "You seek this man?"

"You have seen him?"

The man shrugged, then turned to look at the ever-growing crowd of people. "I have not seen him. But I have felt his presence many times in the last few days. He stalks the streets like a hungry wolf, ravenous for his prey."

"Wolves kill for food. This monster kills because it amuses him." She turned to walk towards the police investigators when the man lay a gently hand on her arm.

"Why then do you kill?" he asked gently.

"Because we can." A male voice replied. She turned and smiled in the direction of the newcomer.

"There you are my dearest, darkest knight. I was wondering when you would catch up with me."

The man laughed and stepped out of the shadows, a cruel smile on his lean face. A face familiar to anyone who lived in Chinatown. The face of a younger Caine. He motioned for his sister to pass him, gestured jauntily at the older version of himself, then turned and disappeared into the crowd.