As Maggie's eyes widened, a stumbling from the bed indicated that Alex had enough of waiting on the sideline and had struggled to walk up behind the pair with a concerned frown. "What's going on?"
Holmes ignored Alex completely, and turned to Maggie once again. "Sawyer, you need to come in."
"Are you going to arrest her?!" Alex scowled indignantly, but Maggie turned around and shook her head. "It's fine, Al. Let me handle this."
She turned back to the man in the doorway. "Give me two minutes to get dressed."
Holmes nodded, and turned around to wait in the hallway. As Maggie closed the door, she was met with a confused glare from Alex. "Maggie, what the hell is going on?"
The detective took a shaky breath, and looked down. "Just… Go back to sleep."
Alex wanted to walk up to her. She knew that something was bothering her, this wasn't just work, this was something else. There'd been a murder, but Maggie seemed to know the victim, from what she could interpret.
She cursed her injury for not being able to move properly, and decided to surrender and drop down onto one of the stools at the kitchen aisle, keeping an eye on her girlfriend, who was now walking towards the dresser to grab a set of clothes.
"Mags, talk to me." Alex pleaded once more, knowing that she was on thin ice. She knew Maggie. And if their spat at breakfast was any indication, Maggie was pissed and defensive.
And a murder would have probably made her mood even worse.
But instead of lashing out, Maggie turned around in the middle of buttoning up her shirt, and looked Alex in the eyes. "Promise me you'll stay here."
"Maggie, you're freaking me out." Alex admitted, seeing how pale the detective had become by talking to the detective in the hallway. Her girlfriend licked her lips nervously, and shook her head. "I don't know what's going on. But I'm going to go look into it."
"Hey…" Alex grabbed Maggie's arm when she passed her on her way to the gun safe in the cupboard. She looked her in the eyes, cupping her face in both arms. "Just… Tell me that you're safe."
Maggie's stomach dropped.
Because after all that happened, the last thing she wanted to do was worry Alex, and tell her that some serial killer was after her. Alex would straight up forbid her to go to the crime scene, or to even leave the apartment for that matter.
But Maggie couldn't stand around and do nothing. Ian Hayes, as proud as he'd served National City, deserved a proper burial. His wife and kids deserved to know who murdered him. And the force deserved to lock up the asshole that had murdered those women and now one of their own.
And Maggie wasn't going to stand on the sidelines. She was going to fight.
Because Ian had trusted her with his concerns, and she'd laughed at him.
And now, Ian was dead.
And she was probably next.
Returning the gesture, Maggie raised her arms to pull them around Alex's neck, looking her in the eyes. "Don't worry. Everything is okay. I'll text you and keep you posted, alright? Just… Go back to bed, you need to rest, this stress isn't good for you."
Alex chuckled weakly. "Your first day back and you're already off to save the city again."
"Yeah. What else is new, Danvers? It's what I'm good at." A lopsided smile, as she leaned forward to kiss Alex passionately.
"I love you." Alex said, as Maggie finally made her way to the gun safe to grab her holster. As she locked it again, she reciprocated. "I love you too, Alex."
"Be safe." Was the last thing Alex said, before Maggie disappeared into the hallway.
The nervousness gnawed at her, and she didn't know whether it was concern over Maggie's disheveled state, or the fact that for the first time in three weeks, she had to sleep in a bed without Maggie by her side.
She scolded herself for being ridiculous. She was a grown woman. A field agent. She could survive a night without needing someone next to her, she'd done it for years before she met Maggie.
Alex popped another painkiller, switched off the lights in the living room and flopped back down onto her bed, folding her arms underneath her head.
She'd willed herself not to think about anything that had happened at the cabin. Her session with Fisher had started off small, with how she'd felt before the trip, how the flight had been. Everything that happened before their evening had gone horribly wrong.
But now, the images and flashbacks came fast.
And they quickly blended in with the thought of Maggie, all alone in National City, and that godforsaken alien coming back for round two.
Holmes didn't even wait until Maggie was two steps out the door before starting his explanation.
"Two girls on their way back from a party found his body in a dumpster in an alley off Rivera. The coroner should be on site right about now…" He sighed, trailing off. Maggie noticed his stoic expression cracking slightly.
Holmes was a good detective, from what she could tell from the few cases they'd joined forces. A bit of a rule enforcer, who disliked coloring outside the lines, but it did get him results. He was far from a bad cop.
"…Any idea on why your name might be on that crime scene, Sawyer?"
So he'd skipped the 'taking her to the precinct, sitting her down in an interrogation room and taking her statement' part of the evening. Good.
Maggie hated that part.
"I have a pretty good idea, yeah." She hummed, as they walked down the stairs of Alex's apartment building, and headed into the street.
Before she could get into what she recognized as his car, Holmes put his hand on the door, blocking her path. "Look, we both know what's going on here."
Maggie took a step back and crossed her arms.
"You're being threatened. Which means you had something to do with the murder. And I know that you're a good cop, Sawyer, but you do tend to stick your nose into things that don't concern you."
Maggie had half a mind to be offended at the statement, but Holmes continued. "... You never worked this case, so it can't be because the guy knew that you were onto something. Unless you were."
The last part was more a question than anything. So this time, he did expect a response.
"I had nothing to do with it."
"Then why would they target you?" Holmes fired back.
"Look." Maggie stepped forward again. "Hayes came to me this morning. He said that he was worried. He had a note, the same that was stuck to that dumpster. Same lines. 'Retire or face the consequences'. He said nothing about any breakthroughs on the case, just that he'd been going through the evidence at storage."
Holmes seemed more frustrated than anything else about the lack of story. "So you have no idea why they'd murder him?"
She rolled her eyes. "Obviously not. If I would, I'd be sure to pass on the message. Now, are we going to the scene or are we going to stand around here talking all night?"
Holmes grunted. "Get in the car, Sawyer."
Crime scenes were nothing new for Maggie. She'd been to countless murder sites, aftermaths of attacks and invasions, and she'd seen firsthand how cruel both humans and aliens alike could be.
But somehow, this crime scene made her want to throw up.
Or maybe that was the concussion still lingering.
Either way, it was clear that something was off.
As she slipped under the yellow tape, guided through by flashing her badge and nodding at the officers securing the perimeter, she felt a chill run down her spine. But she shoved it down, burying it deep inside her. She was detective Sawyer now. It was already hard enough to be taken seriously as a woman in her field without her throwing up in front of everybody.
"Sawyer!" She heard a voice call out her name, and walked into the alley for the first time. Three CSI's were scouring the area, photographing and marking evidence, and the ME was already near the dumpster, rummaging through his kit. But the voice had come from a person standing further down the alley.
She walked towards the figure, flanked by Holmes, and recognized the woman immediately. Julia Goodwin, the District Attorney. Maggie had a lot of respect for her, but knew that it meant trouble if she saw her at a scene.
"Detective." Goodwin continued. "I assume you can make sense of this?"
"Barely, ma'am." Maggie sighed. "But I might if I get a closer look at it."
"By all means, take your time. I've sent someone to the victim's house to inform his family."
The victim. As if he hadn't given his life and heart to protect this city.
But Maggie bit her tongue and nodded politely, as she made her way over to the dumpster, meeting up with the ME – Sheldon Merbon. A graying old man, yet the precision with which he wielded his scalpel was unrivaled.
"Doctor." She greeted him. He looked up and smiled, before focusing back on the task at hand: investigating the body.
Maggie willed herself not to look into Hayes' lifeless eyes.
"At first glance… It seems like our victim was poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Maggie repeated with a frown. Poisoning was a very controlled and cunning way to murder. It required careful planning, not like the brutal way of strangling or clubbing a victim to death.
Merbon nodded. "I'd have to do an autopsy to be sure. But based on the markings around his mouth, and the spots on his skin, I'd say poisoning. Time of death would be between 5 and 7 pm."
"He must have been taken while he was heading home. Okay." Maggie closed her eyes for a second to think. If Hayes' murderer was the same man that killed all those women, sure enough, there was a reason behind it. He motivated his killings.
And sure enough, today was a Friday.
So if he'd stick to his schedule… That meant she had one week until she herself would turn up dead in a dumpster somewhere.
7 days to solve the murder.
"There's something else." Merbon drew her attention again, as he moved towards the body. "The note left on the dumpster had your name on it, but Hayes had a note on him as well."
He moved towards Hayes' jacket, and fished out a letter. Maggie quickly grabbed a pair of gloves from Merbon's kit, before receiving the piece of paper, unfolding it.
She frowned, as her eyes flitted over the paper.
Maggie Sawyer
270 - 1802 - 0015
It was a bunch of random numbers. She assumed that they had something to do with the case, and that Ian may have actually been onto more than she'd anticipated. But unless he had an evidence board in his garage filled with tangible clues, Maggie couldn't make sense of most of it.
As she looked around the alley, something else caught her eye.
Something on the rooftop above her.
She was sure she'd seen a figure standing above them, watching them. But it had disappeared as quickly as she'd seen it, so it could have been her mind playing tricks on her.
"You done?" Holmes walked up to her. "Got anything?"
"Some clues." She said, as she showed him the paper. "…But I only recognize the first one. 270. It's my badge number."
"Why did he know that?"
Maggie shrugged, but her mind was racing. Those other two numbers. She needed to know what they meant.
"Listen. Go back home. Get some rest. The last thing we need is another cop being found in a dumpster. Make sure you're not alone for the next couple of days, and I'll keep you informed on the progress."
Maggie frowned. "You're cutting me off?! Holmes, I need to investigate this!"
"You don't need to do anything." Holmes countered. "You're science division. I'm Homicide. This has nothing to do with aliens, this is just a cop killer seeking attention. And we won't give him any, we're going to throw his sorry ass in jail for the rest of his life. But I'm not letting you walk into the line of fire."
"Fuck off, Mike." Maggie hissed at him. "I'm the reason he's dead, I'm not going to sit at home watching TV while that fucker is still walking the streets."
"I don't give a damn how you keep yourself entertained, Sawyer." He took a step closer so that they were almost touching noses. "You're not getting this case. And if you pulled your head out of your ass for two seconds, you'd agree that you'd be better off sitting this one out. The Lieutenant lets you stick around because you get results, but if it were up to me, I'd have kicked you off the force a long time ago. You're not a hero, Sawyer. You're just a self-destructive maniac that runs into trouble head first without thinking."
Maggie didn't back down from his macho pose. She raised an eyebrow, glancing him up and down. "Well, then, let's hope it works out for me this time."
After that, she snatched Ian's note out of his hands and tucked it into her leather vest, ignoring the protests of a nearby CSI about contaminating evidence. Without another glance back, she walked out of the alley.
She didn't want to show how much Holmes' words had stung. Self-destructive maniac.
She had been insistent on leaving Alex alone in the cabin, praying that the monster would come after her and not Alex. Praying that he'd leave the agent alone. She'd been ready to die if it meant saving Alex, in a heartbeat. Without thinking.
She angrily wiped at the tears in her face, determined not to show them to anybody.
Because she'd be damned if Holmes was taking the investigation away from her. She owed it to Ian Hayes to find out the truth.
And the Homicide department hadn't had any luck in finding the killer for five years.
Maggie had one week to figure it out.
She didn't have a choice. NCPD or not, she was going to find the killer.
And put a bullet between his eyes. For Ian.