"Oh my god."
The expression didn't escape her lips as often as it used to anymore, but this sight had taken her breath away in an instant- the accompanying odor had done the rest.
With her nose and mouth covered in the crease of her elbow, Beckett approached the small bathroom that was now crowded with uniformed officers, crime lab personnel and one clearly dour Perlmutter.
The victim was female again.
This time she had been placed in a bathtub, the water still clear despite the upper third of her body being in advanced stages of decomposition, whereas the lower portion wasn't. Remnants of a red scarf were tied around her neck and several stab wounds could be found on her abdomen, breasts and throat.
"Your guy is becoming quite the regular…", Perlmutter said from his crouched position by the tub where he was busy examining the victim's fingernails.
"She wasn't killed here. Just placed in this tub…", Castle muttered from a few feet behind her, his eyes glued to the disturbing sight.
"That would be accurate, non-detective Castle. This one was killed about two weeks ago as well. Seems like he managed to keep her lower body in the same type of cool environment as with the other girl. The top portion of her must have slipped his mind."
Even though the skin on her upper body had become slimy and soft over the course of decomp, Beckett was still able to see the bruises from prolonged beating before the victim was brutally murdered. Swallowing hard, she let her eyes drift over to the lower portion of her nude body, where she pointed at a wooden stick appearing between her legs.
"Yes, he's quite the headcase. This time he inserted a tree branch into her. I haven't gotten the size of it yet but suffice to say there's some sexual motif going on here.", Perlmutter reiterated and stood back up with a slight groan, "It looks like the same 5" blade was used, stabbing her approximately thirty times. One of the wounds is behind her ear, likely cracked her skull. He slashed her breasts multiple times and then proceeded to stab her in the chest and abdomen. Judging by the proximity, two of the wounds pierced her heart. He also cut her throat, severing the carotid artery, then wrapped the scarf around her neck. All in all, a very violence-driven murder."
A young police officer three shades too pale approached them with his notebook drawn, his bottom lip quivering as he spoke up.
"The apartment is currently not rented out. The tenant next door heard some commotion going on last night and contacted the landlord this morning. When he went to check it out an hour ago, he found the door broken into and the…the ehm…body in the tub."
Nodding, Beckett took a step back, studying the entire bathroom to look for any other clues left behind. As if to read her mind, the young officer shook his head in disappointment.
"We were unable to find any other evidence of tampering, but the lab crew might be able to lift some prints…"
"He could have dressed up as a maintenance man when he brought her in here…hidden the body in a tool cart or garbage can."
Despite his soft voice, Castle's words formed an image in her mind that was both, plausible and bone chilling.
Still keeping his distance to the bathtub, the writer's expression turned solemn as he met her gaze.
"He also must have known that this apartment was up for rent. That nobody would be in the way of his reprehensible plans."
He was right, of course, and his uncanny ability to accurately read their killer's mind had been a valuable benefactor since their unconventional partnership began. Beckett just couldn't help but wonder what Castle's increasing exposure to cases as bloody as this one would do to his soul.
His troubled blue eyes certainly painted a concerning picture.
"Two victims in the same time period and he waited until now to showcase them. That means there could be a lot more of them in his cooling room."
The depressing notion quieted much of the steady conversation that had been going on around them, some of the listeners nodding at her observation.
Sharing her dreadful thoughts, Castle stepped closer, hands tightly pushed into the pockets of his designer jeans.
"This man is a sadistic, power-hungry, methodical animal. And I think he just learned to like the taste of blood."
