Chapter Six
Night Two
Edrisa comes back to the loft around 11:30pm. After having inconclusive results, she wasn't in the best mood.
Her mood lifts lightly when she enters Malcolms loft and sees a key on the counter with a note.
So you don't have to worry about being locked out.
Edrisa chuckles and pockets the note fondly, adding the key to her own. She searches the room but already knows before looking where Malcolm is. Sure enough he's secured in bed, fast asleep.
She's is quiet as she goes into the bathroom to shower the day off. That woman's face fills her mind.
After her shower she tries to drown out her feelings of despair with ice cream and Netflix. She turns the volume down low to not wake Malcolm and savors her chocolate purchase. She sits through a few episodes of "Glee," singing along softly to some of the musicals when nose catches her attention.
Malcolm.
He turns back and forth, the restraints pulling against the frame of the bed. He was having a bad dream, not quite a night terror but close.
Edrisa sets her bowl down and rushes over to his bedside.
She cautiously leaned over and slotted her fingers in his hair, gently massaging his scalp. She hummed a gentle tune under her breath, Glee inspired.
His movements stalled and he eventually relaxed back into a deep slumber.
Edrisa noted the time, 1:30am, and decided she should go to bed. After making sure Malcolm was comfortable and peaceful, she cleaned her bowl and laid down.
The tune she had hummed, still going in her head.
Day Three
Malcolm is surprised when he is first to wake. He's even more surprised that he slept without any terrors.
Edrisa is snoring softly on the couch, glasses dangling from her hand with her keys and phone on the table. He notes that she's added the one he made for her.
He feels warmness fill him when he thinks about her having a key. Someone aside from himself having a key. Someone that wasn't his mother that is.
He changes quickly and after using the bathroom heads to the kitchen. Edrisa had been cooking and baking her heart out since staying with him. He decided the least he could do was make breakfast at least once.
He's halfway through the second omelette when his phone chimes. It wakes Edrisa.
"No!" she shouts shooting up. Malcolm sends her a worried glance as she collects herself.
"Sorry, I-I'm just-" she gestures towards the bathroom and scurries into it.
Malcolm watches after her in unhidden concern. While she gets ready, he makes some chamomile tea for them and waits for her to come back out.
She re-emerges a few minutes later, dressed and ready for work.
Oh! You made breakfast," she says with interest. She takes a stool at the counter and examines the omelette.
"Thanks Mal, you didn't have to do this," she says with a smile. Malcolm decided he'd do it every morning if it kept that smile there.
"It's just eggs Edrisa, no problem at all," Malcolm says pushing her mug of tea towards her. She smiles at him and takes a sip, her eyes lighting up.
"Chamomile?" she says surprised. Malcolm smiles.
"It looked like you needed something calming. Anything you want to talk about?" he gently pushes. Edrisa ponders it for a moment. They both know there's something she hasn't told him. Something that added to the stress of her week but was too much to rehash.
"Maybe another time? I'm really enjoying breakfast," she finally answers. Malcolm smiles in understanding and leaves her alone to check his phone. His smile falls.
It was Gil. They had another victim. Exactly 24 hours since the last one.
After Malcolm takes his pills with his omelette and tea, they arrive at the crime scene. Edrisa heads for her team and Malcolm meets Gil.
"A couple found her on their way home from Andre's" Gil explains, gesturing towards the italian restaurant across the street.
"I used to love going there," Edrisa recalls from down the alleyway. Malcolm and Gil walk towards her.
"It's another doctor. Another female in her mid 30's with ligature marks… it's all the exact same except her name is Dr. Renee Alderman and she's an OB from St. Mark's Hospital. She's wearing her coat with her credentials," Edrisa says.
"What's been changed about her that you can tell?" JT asks after arriving on scene.
"Well, he didn't clean her up as well as the last victim. Her hair has been cut, judging by the hair around the collar of her white coat. Which is also odd, normally doctors leave their coats at the office or locker," Edrisa states.
"He definitely has a thing for women with short, dark hair that have a professional title," Malcolm says. He hates that there's not more information coming to mind.
"I'll take her back to the lab for more info but it looks like she was killed here, again. Probably between 1:30am and 3:00am," Edrisa says putting her tools away.
Malcolm nods, watching as she struggles to close her equipment case.
It was going to be another long and hard day.
This time Dani and Malcolm interrogate a suspect. Dr. Alderman apparently had an ex-husband that was known for his explosive behavior. While he had no connection to Dr. Baker, it was one of the only leads they had.
Dr. Alderman, unlike Dr. Baker, had been lured out to the parking lot before being taken. Her kidnapping was reported, but failed to be reported to the precinct. Gil was not happy about that information.
They had reports of a man coming in, fitting Alderman's ex-husbands description, claiming that a woman was in labor in the parking lot and Dr. Alderman was the doctor. Turns out it wasn't the husband. Dani tracked down the guy, a homeless man, who was paid to give the false claim. He said the man who hired him wore a hoodie and glasses to conceal his identity. The only description he could give was "he seemed like a nice guy! He said Dr. Alderman was a friend and he wanted to surprise her." He claimed he didn't know it was a setup.
So, hitting another deadend, Malcolm went to check on Edrisa.
He found her scribbling furiously on her padded notebook.
"Edrisa?" he asks cautiously. She looks at him exasperated.
"I have checked every inch of the victims, I have ran every test, I have thought inside-outside and all over the box and-" she throws her pen down in frustration.
Malcolm approaches her.
"This guy, whoever he is, knows something about forensic science. Every time I think I found something my tests come back inconclusive or the results don't make sense!" she groans.
Malcolm sits on her desk.
"Walk me through it. Maybe it will help," Malcolm tries. Edrisa looks at him unbelieving, but humors him.
"Everything has been cleaned and wiped down. Even the victims' shoes, so I thought that had to mean something important. Why else spend so much time? So I tried to locate the cleaning agents, but it's your run-of-the-mill cleaner found in any convenience store. Then, I thought about the hair dye, I tried to trace the brand back and again, just a generic brand. After that I dusted for any potential prints and everything came back clean so he had to have worn gloves. And not any gloves, medical grade. The only thing I found was latex powder from gloves but even that could be because both victims are doctors," Edrisa goes through.
"The only matches between the victims is that their last meals included red wine and chicken Kare with rice. Which is odd since that's traditionally a Japanese style curry dish. My mother used to make it," Edrisa shares.
"That's something to go on," Malcolm pushes.
"I tried that, but the ingredients are easy enough to find," Edrisa says defeatedly.
"But what if it wasn't made? What if it was bought?" Malcolm asks. Edrisa brightens.
"There's not many places that make that type of dish! Since it was adapted from Britain in the Meiji period, some Japanese owned businesses don't make it because they don't consider it a traditional dish," Edrisa rambles rushing to her computer. She pulls up a few restaurants and Malcolms relieved to see there's a short list.
"See, that's a start," Malcolm says smiling at Edrisa. She smiles back.
"Thank you Mal. We make a pretty good team!" she grins.
"Yes, Dr. Tanaka, we do," he smiles back.
Night Three
Malcolm talks Edrisa into returning home with him at a 'reasonable' hour. They arrive at the loft around 10:30pm with plans of what they want to do tomorrow. Edrisa has a new hope in her and her mood shift is noticeable to Malcolm. This case was weighing on her.
They sit together on the couch and watch a movie. Edrisa chooses Lady and the Tramp as she also made spaghetti for their movie night. Malcolm chuckles at her choices but enjoys everything all the same.
By the time the movie ends, Edrisa is fast asleep at the end of the couch. Her feet extended into his lap where he was apparently unconsciously rubbing them. He gently moves them to get up and head to bed himself. Turning everything off and double checking the locks, he put on his restraints and swiftly fell asleep.
Day Four
Malcolm wakes up to his phone ringing. It was Gil with another body.
Edrisa was already up and making breakfast when the call came around 7:00am.
Their killer was shortening his time frame with the victims. Meaning he was almost done.
Malcolm takes his pills and eats breakfast, egg and cheese burritos to-go.
Like last time, Edrisa and Malcolm break apart. She goes straight to the body and he meets Gil to be briefed.
"Another young woman, doctor, found around 6:30am," Gil says, shaking his head in frustration.
Malcolm sighs. Today they stood in the parking lot of a theater.
"These places have to have some special meaning to the killer," he tells Gil. First the park, then a restaurant and now a theater.
"Dates! These are all dating locations. A park, a restaurant and a theater," Malcolm shouts out.
"Pretty manila locations, everyone goes to those places," Dani interjects.
"Yea, I've gone to all of those. Not the most memorable necessarily," Edrisa grumbled. Malcolm shot her a small amused smile.
"This victim's name is Iza Koenig. She's a psychiatrist at the same place as the first victim, Dr. Baker. And this time she's Asian-American, different from our first two caucasian victims. And the time frame has definitely gone down. She's been dead for less than an hour," Edrisa says, slightly excited to have a break in the case.
"That's odd. Why change the profile? Up until this point he's had a certain type and now-" Dani asks confused.
"It is strange. But there could be a list of reasons. Opportunity change? This is his third victim and the news has caught onto his type. More women are probably being extra cautious," Malcolm says for one way.
"Or this was his intended profile the whole time. The medical field is predominantly white men, so it would be harder if the object of his obsession didn't fit that mold," Malcolm adds.
"Tell me about it," Edrisa huffs. The team all look at her as she continues cataloging her findings.
"What?" she asks defensively, catching them all staring.
"I'll go check security. A busy theater has to have some surveillance or someone who saw something," JT says heading towards the entrance.
"I'll go check too," Dani joins in, following him.
Leaving Edrisa, Malcolm and Gil with the body.
Malcolm kept staring at the woman. There was something familiar about her that he couldn't place. She very well could have been a past family psychiatrist, but her experience doesn't line up with when his sister and him were in therapy.
When they meet back at the precinct. Dani and JT were able to come up with a rough sketch of their suspect.
Gil and Malcolm ran down the restaurant lead that him and Edrisa had come up with.
"Dani sent me a picture of a sketch," Malcolm told Gil showing him the picture. Gil looked it over before showing the shop owner.
He recognized the man.
"Oh! Thats Mr. Tanner!" the cashier says.
"When was the last time Mr. Tanner was here?" Gil asks immediately. The cashier looks behind him at the clock on the wall.
"It was only about 15 minutes ago. He got his usual chicken Kare with rice for two," the man explained. That was all the confirmation the team needed.
"Where does Mr. Tanner live?" Malcolm questioned.
"Oh, umm, he usually picks up his order but in the past his girlfriend's place? It was the Berkshire apartments on Elm St. I don't remember the number, it's been awhile since they ordered in," the man explained.
"I know where that is," Malcolm says to Gil.
"Do you have any photos of Mr. Tanner? Or his girlfriend?" Gil pushes. The man shakes his head sadly.
"No, we don't have money for functional cameras in the restaurant. And his girlfriend only answered the door once, poor thing looked terrified. I suspect he was abusive, Mr. Tanner," the cashier said seriously.
"Did you ever file a report?" Malcolm asks. The man shook his head again.
"No, the girlfriend was a nurse or something. She was wearing scrubs. When I asked her what was wrong she told me it was a bad day at work. I didn't totally believe her but, I didn't want to cause any trouble," the man admits a bit ashamed.
"Thank you for all your help," Gil says, turning to leave. They head straight to the apartment complex.
Edrisa is comparing her list of all three victims when her phone rings.
"Hello?" she asks, not necessarily recognizing the number on her cell.
"Edrisa, it's Malcolm," she hears Bright on the other end of the line. She lets out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
"Hey, Mal, what's up?" she asks twirling her pen around.
"Weird question. You live at the Berkshire apartment complex right?" Malcolm asks.
Edrisa sighs.
"Formerly, since I've basically moved in with you," she grumbles.
"Okay, well the case led us here and I was wondering if you needed anything from your apartment or wanted me to check on anything," Malcolm asks. She smiles at his thoughtfulness.
"I think it's all cleared out, unless you wanted to see how much longer maintenance would take before I'm out of your hair," Edrisa teases. Malcolm chuckles.
"You can be in my hair all you want Edrisa," he teases back. Edrisa feels her jaw snap shut at the unexpected turn.
"I'll check for you though," Malcolm responds to her silence.
"Thank you Mal," Edrisa whispers.
"My pleasure, Edrisa," Malcolm responds. She hears the tap as the call ends. She feels elated for the following few hours, until she gets another call from Malcolm around 8:15pm.
Gil and Malcolm couldn't find an apartment listed to anyone named "Tanner." And in their continued search a new body was found. This time it was beside a bar, the same one the team had been at a few nights ago.