Kagome sighed as she closed her fifth case file of the day. They had already handled several cases in the week since she joined but they had all been pretty straightforward, nothing too exciting. She supposed she couldn't complain too much. Nothing exciting was supposed to be a good thing but after a week she had hoped that she would see more action.
She had become close to her team during her first week. Sango and Kikyo had taken Kagome under their wings and Shippo was just like a little brother. Miroku continued to try and grope her but Sango was usually there to step in. Inuyasha became the older brother that Kagome never had, teasing her and making her feel like a part of the team. Kouga was constantly flirting with Kagome and calling her "his woman". Although flattering at first, Kagome had started to find it a little annoying.
Sesshomaru was the only one who still seemed indifferent to her. He was cordial enough but only so. At time she could have sworn that he was still watching and judging her, which he most likely was.
Inuyasha walked up to her desk and grinned. "Not all the action and glory that you were expecting, huh?"
Kagome grinned back. "Yeah, you could say that."
Kikyo walked up to them. "Hey guys, meet in the conference room. We have a new case. This one's pretty bad."
Inuyasha grinned. "Looks like you're about to get your action."
Kagome followed Inuyasha into the conference room and sat at the table. In front of them and on the board were pictures of five women who had clearly been strangled and had their hair sheared off. Kagome gulped. This was a little different than what she had expected.
"Five women in San Francisco have been strangled over the past 25 days. All of them had their hair cut off," Kikyo said. "Another woman went missing four days ago."
"That's one woman every five days, so this woman has until tomorrow," Kouga calculated.
"Five dead and one missing? Why weren't we called in earlier?" Inuyasha asked angrily.
"The San Francisco police department hasn't had the best track record with the FBI," Kikyo explained, "so they were a little reluctant to admit to needing help." Inuyasha snorted but remained quiet.
"It says here that all of the victims had their hair washed and conditioned multiple times before they were killed," Sango said reading the case file. She continued on the next page. "None of them were raped."
"A man who can't get it up?" Miroku guessed.
"Or a female," Kagome said out loud. The team looked at her and she could feel her face grow warm. She still had yet to get used to that. "The hair is clearly what the unsub is after and a female would be more likely to treasure hair than a male. A female could also easily overpower them if they were drugged. Strangling is an easy way to kill these women without damaging the hair, like poison or a bloodier method would. Also, the way that the unsub treats the hair points to a woman."
Inuyasha nodded. "The report does say that a date rape drug was found in their systems. Why would anyone use a date rape drug and not rape them?"
"To weaken them," Sango said quietly.
Sesshomaru nodded. "We leave in 20." Kagome was following the rest of the team out of the conference room to grab their travel bags when Sesshomaru stopped her. "Kagome, good call on the female unsub. It'll really help us narrow down our suspects."
Now Kagome knew that her face was definitely getting red. "Um, thank you sir, I mean, Sesshomaru."
Sesshomaru offered a rare grin and left.
Kagome was still in a slight daze from Sesshomaru's compliment when she boarded the plane. She sat on one of the couches and tried to refocus by looking at the case files again. After a few minutes Sango sat down next to her. "Are you okay Kagome? You've been looking at the same sentence for a while now."
Kagome broke out of her daze and smiled at Sango. "I'm fine. I guess I'm just a little nervous about my first big case."
Sango smile sympathetically and hugged her friend. "You'll do fine. You already have. Plus, you have us to back you up."
"Thanks Sango."
Kikyo came out of the cockpit and sat down. "The pilots are ready to take off."