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“Detective.” A soft voice approached me from behind. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Officer O’Neill hesitantly approach the scene.
“Katherine, just in time.” I held the yellow tape up and let her proceed underneath. “It seems that we have a budding serial killer on our hands. Did you discover anything with the task I gave you?”
She shook her head, and the dark curls of her ponytail bobbed and swayed. “I’m going to need more specifics; there’s a lot of cases to comb through,” she declared as Eddie gave her a nod and moved around her with plastic evidence markers. “However, I did get a response from the homicide department in the next town, Cape Haven.”
Eddie’s camera flashed through the darkness, and I pulled Katherine off to the side. “Promising?” I whispered.
“Well—” She hushed her tone. “The lead detective said there was a case or two that he’s had issues solving foryears, Bishop. When I gave some of the basics you approved, he was definitely interested. He wants to meet with yousoon.” Her eyebrows rose on her final note.
“Tell him to give me a call later and we can set something up,” I said, releasing a sigh. “I need you to take pictures of people showing interest, the crowd accumulating at the tape.” I scanned the faces myself, looking for anyone familiar from the days I went to the campus.
“No problem, sir.”
“Thanks. Everyone else is a little busy with the mess of this and I need the extra eyes. Lunch is on me today,” I said as I clapped her shoulder and sent her away from the thick of it.
I approached Eddie from behind, stepping around his markers and carefully avoiding anything that might not have been marked yet.
“Do you want my unofficial assumption, detective?” he asked with a coy half-grin. He was bagging pieces of some kind of plant or tree debris.
“I’ll take anything at this point, Eddie.”
“Yes, it’s the same suspect. No, these aren’t his first kills. And you know, I had suspected it with our first victim, but he definitely has done the performative showcasing before. This setup was done fast and without much flaw from the first; despite the more…dampconditions.” His eyes flicked down to the tech.
It really was a mess this time around.
“Spitball with me, any reason why this was so chaotically organized this time? Why leave this scene far messier than before?” I looked to the trail that was left behind.
“I’m not quite the expert in that field, Noah. But it does speak volumes about patience at the least. His patience has devolved tonight, but the methodology is the same. Her wounds and posing mimic Trisha’s. As for the break in temperament, I can't say. We know he arrived from that end, which means he used motor transportation, walked her to a certain point, and then pulled her across the concrete.” He dropped to a squat beside her body. Pointing to a partially visible area on her arms, he rattled off his observations. “She has these abrasions that have smaller gravel embedded in the scrapes. I’d also be willing to bet that after we get her body cleaned and I can see beyond the obstructions, her face will have similar scrapes.”
“Her face? You think he—”
“Dragged her across here facedown?” he interrupted. “Absolutely. Everything is still very wet and not completely coagulated, but yeah, I’d bet on that.” His fingers tapped on his camera as he looked over the area.
“Did you find her bag or wallet?” I asked. He shook his head. “Do you think she could be a college student?”
“It’s likely? She’s young, like the last victim. There’s no way she’s beyond her mid-twenties.”
I agreed with a nod and looked for the officers who were together earlier, but I only managed to find Katherine wrapping up her photos as other officers began to dismiss onlookers.
“Thanks, Eddie, take it easy on the techs,” I offered as I walked toward Officer O’Neill.
“Any new information?” she asked, looking past me and grimacing.
“Nothing helpful, but I do have missing evidence at this scene,” I added. Her eyebrows shot up as her eyes widened. “Last crime scene, we found Trisha’s belongings hidden in the woods. Only found them because concerned people started texting and contacting her. Nothing that can identify this young woman has been found as of yet. Did the beat start their canvassing?”
“Well,” she started with an eye roll. “I tried to talk them out of it, but the captain told them to go door-to-door by the campus.”
“They fucking left?” I was a little more reactive than usual, evident by her stifling a laugh. “Sorry, that’s just stupid. Why didn’t anyone consult me?” She didn’t answer, but I didn’t need one. “Let’s just hit up these trash bins, bushes, and darker spaces. I wouldn’t say it’d be far away since he made a quick escape.”
She quickly rushed over to the bin closest to her, and I worked my way through the bushes that lined the outer perimeter of the square. There was all kinds of litter squished into the branches and bunched in the dirt and soil beds. I was on the far corner, off to the left of the woman’s body, when I came across a trash bin with a woman’s bag inside.
“Hey, O’Neill!” I shouted; my deep voice echoed through the empty city street. Her head popped up like a meerkat. “Grab your camera!” I called as I waved. That caught Eddie’s attention. They watched as Katherine sprinted across the brickwork and I began to take pictures. Hope told me it was barbeque or ketchup smeared by a small child, or another innocuous circumstance of a ruined bag. My gut told me it was more sinister. “Bloody fingerprints, you think?” I vocalized the last part of my assumption.
Eddie collected his equipment box and headed over. I photographed the opening with the trash bin before I motioned for Katherine to remove the lid. I snapped the camera as she did, showing a leathery black bag covered in sticky, dark residue, lumpy chunks of grossness, and a broken strap.
“Found it.” I grinned over the camera.
October 19, 2020
