"Why?" Elizabeth muttered mostly to herself as she was buzzed into the gates.
Elizabeth ignored the loud and mocking jeers at her as they were trying to get a reaction out of her, but was very much failing at that. She walked confidently through the hall and to the end of it where held a dark cell.
"Special Agent Elizabeth Graham," Dr. Abel Gideon told her as he came out of the darkened corner and into the light's beam. "So lovely to finally meet you after all these years."
"Years," she mused. "Nice touch on the nerve tactic, doctor, but I don't get scared that easily."
He smirked. "From the things I hear about you, I have no doubt about that. You best watch your steps for they may falter if you get too close."
"I know you're not the ripper and so does everyone else so why am I here?" She asked firmly.
"So much like Will I see. Similar minds…you're protective of him."
"That's not an answer, doctor, only a poor way to drive my mind away from the subject at hand which is my question as to why you called me here-actually demanded my presence is the more accurate way to say it." Elizabeth reminded him.
Dr. Gideon smiled widely. "Please…sit. Welcome to my humble home. Cozy, isn't it?"
Elizabeth sighed lowly and sat down on the seat planted in front of his cell where they could see each other perfectly. "Yes, very now tell me why I am here?"
"Alright, Sherlock Holmes," he mocked then crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the bars of the cell. "You intrigue me."
"I only draw interest from you because I was brought specifically by Special Agent Jack Crawford. My first case was the ripper one and you know what my last case was?"
"Ah, The Bayard Butcher case," he drawled out. "Intriguing man. You say he was a sociopath path and yet the ripper is a psychopath if I'm correct."
"The ripper is trying to draw us between the two. He's careful, doctor. Very careful of what he does because in one case, it was set up like a psychopath did it, but in another he made it into a sociopath."
"What do you think he's trying to do to you all?"
"He's trying to confuse everyone," she answered immediately. "You seem very interested in the case, Dr. Gideon."
"No, not the case." He admitted, his eyes in thought then they cut to her. "You however…I am deeply interested in. That's not a good thing, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth tilted her head to the side a little and asked, "Are you warning me?"
"Yes," he snapped calmly. "I am because if you've drawn my interest so quickly, who's to say that you haven't already drawn the ripper's? You're making him feel threatened by you, did you know that?"
"Threatened? How do you know this?" She asked intrigued.
"Look at his most recent kill and then the one before you came. You can tell so many things just by a picture," Dr. Gideon teased. "But don't listen to me if you think that I'm wrong."
Elizabeth stood up and said, "Good-bye, Dr. Gideon."
"Perhaps we will meet again, Elizabeth," He told her, his voice withholding any doubt inside of his words that she hoped was there. Elizabeth smirked and gave him a nod then walked away from him and out of the lion's den.
"Am I too broken to date?" Will asked her on their way to the crime scene.
Elizabeth chuckled in amusement. "Why?"
"I don't know. It's just s-something Alana said to me this morning," Will explained. "I joked about dating her actually."
She gave a mocking hiss. "Oh, brother, bad move."
"What do you mean," Will requested curiously.
"Well," she drawled out. "Alana seems like the kind of woman that wants a serious guy, you know? From what I can tell from her, she's intelligent enough to see through people and their words most of the time. She wants a man who will let her be her own person, but also teaches her some new things as well. Alana likes to learn, but is guarded when she first meets people like you and I."
"Us? What, mental cases?" He joked with a tight chuckle.
"Not mental," she disagreed. "Although she does find you very intriguing, Will. She's a doctor all the same and has already analyzed you. She likes you in case you're wondering since she can't seem to stop looking at you, but it's very well guarded even I must admit that I almost didn't even catch it at first."
Will was silent for a moment as he thought it over then said to her, "Do you always go to profiling people the moment you meet them?"
"Yes, I do." Elizabeth divulged to him. "But I have every right to doing what I do. I tend to attract psychopaths, Will so it's not exactly a confidence booster for a gal these days."
Elizabeth walked inside of the auditorium and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw what was planted on stage for them. She walked down the steps as she put on the elastic gloves that were handed to her by Will. "Hell…this guy must've done something to piss him off."
"Yeah, no kidding," Will muttered beside her as they stepped onto the stage and closer to the body.
Elizabeth lightly touched the strings and fingered them softly as the man was posed as some makeshift cello. His vocal cords, luckily still inside his corpse, were treated with chemicals and played through his gaping neck wound. Everything looked neat and done perfectly as if cleanliness was a factor in this. He was dressed to impress so either whoever did this made him dress like a performer or he was one, she calculated.
"The killer is obviously a male judging by the precise way the skin is cut and how the neck of the cello is sticking out of the jaw and his head his being rested which means that he doesn't want the body a.k.a his work to get ruined," Elizabeth told them. "This is his first murder publicly. A fantasy that he's been playing in his mind for a long time."
"What? The cello in a guy," Beverly Katz asked her.
Elizabeth shook her head. "No. Taking a life, this was just a spontaneous thought he had and he soon had to act on it before he probably lost interest or something got in the way, but if he really wanted it, he wouldn't let anything stop him. He's going to kill again definitely."
"The victim is Douglas Wilson, a member of the Baltimore Metropolitan Orchestra's brass section, a trombone player. He was killed shortly after his last performance. Blunt force trauma to the back of the head," Jack explained to them.
Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "So he killed his victim first and then disfigured the body…that really complicates things now, but at least we know that he's skilled is what he is judging by the way everything's been planned."
"His killer brought him here to…put on a show," Will examined as he circled the body.
"A show for who exactly is the question here," Elizabeth added on. "He wants someone's attention badly enough to kill for it. Desperation probably."
"Will, is it me, or is it becoming easier for you to look," Jack scrutinized.
"I tell myself…" Will started then took out a pill bottle. "It's purely an intellectual exercise."
"Well, in the narrow view of forensics, that's exactly what it is," Jack reminded Will.
"They're not any easier, Jack." Will responded. "I shake it off, keep on looking."
"Good." Jack said firmly. "You shake it off. Get to work. We'll come back in when you're ready for us."
Elizabeth watched Beverly and Jack walk off the stage and she softly said to Will, "Don't. If you feel yourself slipping, I want you to tell me and I'll make sure he backs the fuck off of you, do you understand? I'll go all ape on her period shit on him if he pushes you too way."
Will's lips held a tiny smile and he nodded. "I know. That's why I'm glad you're my sister."
"And you my brother," she answered him then walked away from him and out of the auditorium.
Her cell phone rang and she knitted her brows in confusion as she answered it, "Hello?"
She stopped as she heard heavy breathing on the phone and glanced around, finding that she was alone in the hall. "Who is this?"
No answer and only breathing.
Elizabeth immediately hung up and Jack asked, "What happened?"
"I got a call from someone who was heavily breathing on the other end," Elizabeth told him. "It was an unknown caller ID. Just this morning, Abel Gideon warned me about the ripper."
Jack became immediately interested as he stepped closer and asked, "What did he say?"
"That I was catching the ripper's eye basically," Elizabeth explained to him. "That I was causing a stir in his plans or something. Dr. Gideon said that the ripper is sending me a message by the escalation of his kills."
"The arm," Jack realized.
"No, I think the arm had nothing to do with me, but mostly humiliating you. It appears that I am next on his list probably," Elizabeth said, thinking of it as she talked.
"Is there anyone close to you besides Will?" Jack questioned.
"Hannibal," she answered lowly. "He's one of my friends…kind of."
Jack nodded. "I'll tell him about what happened and have police with Will and Hannibal."
"Thank you. I'm going to head out and scope my place out just in case it is the ripper."
Elizabeth turned and walked out of the building towards her car. As she put her keys in the slot, she felt eyes on her and quickly whirled around. She looked around the area and saw no one, it was completely empty. She quickly stepped inside of her car and drove off, every so often looking into the rearview mirror.
I'm being followed.
TBC…
THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS, FOLLOWS, AND FAVORITES! So Gideon warns Elizabeth…but why does he? Elizabeth is becoming a pawn in a chessboard that she is forced to play while another killer strolls into town and as the game begins; Elizabeth gets a taste of what the ripper has planned for her. I hoped you liked this chapter.
REVIEW. FOLLOW. FAVORITE. Until next time…