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“Who all has keys?”
“I do, and so does Bex. I texted Jai, and only Jai, where I moved the spare a few days ago after the first picture incident,” she explained while I scribbled the details down again. “Oh, and the landlord. Which I guess would be a liaison with the school at this hour.”
“Can you guys stay somewhere else this weekend? You need to remove the spare key. Give it to Jai permanently if you need, but it doesn’t need to be on your porch.” I shuffled through my papers; my hands were fidgeting for any distraction. “I haven’t nailed down an endgame yet. I won’t lie, Mariana. This escalation is rapid. The pictures at my office, the pictures and flowers on the body, the pictures and flowers at the house. Now he’s made it inside? This is dangerous for the three of you.”
“I can go to my grandma’s. B will likely go with Jai.” Her hands twisted together. “It’s better if she does.”
“I want to say, don’t stray from routine. Go to school, attend your classes. Just stay together.” She nodded, and I left her by the car to walk in the house. I saw the techs analyzing the scene at the staircase and a bit of mess in the kitchen.
“Eddie,” I called out to the forensic team lead who was crouched on the floor taking pictures and putting things in bags.
“What’s up, Bishop?” he asked, keeping the don’t-step-on-my-evidence part quiet.
“Is it possible for Jai and Bex to come down without disturbing evidence?” He looked from me to the couple perched on the landing at the top. She was curled in his lap. I narrowed my eyes, and he responded with a sharp nod.
She knows—good for them.
“I can have a tech clear a small path. Can he carry her? I don’t know how much forensics I can get from this evidence; I don’t want to rush a bigger space than I need to.” I looked back at Jai for their opinion. He nodded and pulled her closer.
“Alright, sounds good to me. When you get them down, let the squad on scene know to have them meet me at my office. We’re going to need statements.” I scanned the wall with the giant message. “Please tell me that isn’t blood,” I said with disgust as I pointed to the offensive mural.
“Doesn’t look to be. There’s no discoloration,” he explained as he snapped more photos. “If it were pure blood, it wouldn’t be as bright red. It looks like paint, but there’s no telling if our killer mixed anything. Still, I’ll test it onsite for human blood and double check a few samples back at the lab.”
“Thanks, Eddie.”
I sat in my office chair and swiveled while I waited for their arrival. I was anxious about the outcome of this case. My sleep was affected. I rubbed my temples as my head started to throb. There were zero leads and no promises from the behavioral unit. My expertise was limited here. College aged, white, male. The likelihood of him being a student was high given the proximity, victim pattern, and dates.But what am I missing?
Our most solid lead was messages exchanged with an account named “BJ.” I’d run those initials and wound up with more people than I could sort through in my lifetime. The last two victims were as close to random as you could get. The only key indicators were victimology and that Bex’s face was scattered amongst the bodies. The murders had been completely different. There was no sexual component this time. It looked like pure rage. He was devolving.
I looked at my watch; I’d been back almost two and a half hours now. My phone rang through the silence.
“Bishop,” I answered.
“Detective, Bexley Laughtery and Jaiden Wells are here to see you, sir.” Rebecca was chipper as usual, and most days I envied that the job didn’t completely dampen her.
“Thank you, Becca. Send them in.” I hung up the phone and straightened the papers I’d been flipping through. Their knock came quick, and when they walked in, the air was different. Jai was the usual brood, but Bexley had a hard look set on her face.
“Detective, thank you for coming this morning. Sorry for the delay. I asked Jai to take me to Sigma so we could get ready.”
“It’s my job to be there, kiddo.” I smiled at her sincerity. “So, I need your statements. Verbal first, written second. You’ll need to sign them as well.” I pushed over the forms and handed them pens.
“Around ten or so last night, I wanted to make brownies. I was bored and wanted to bake while I waited for Mari to come home.” She looked at Jai for the next part. “I saw the Polaroids and flowers on the windowsill outside. I called Jai and he came.”
Jai fought a smile as he rolled his lips.
“What’d you guys do after that?” I started making my own timeline.
“I don’t think you’re going to want to write this one down,” Jai quipped, and my head shot up. I looked at Bex, noticing a makeup-covered set of bruises, and I rolled my eyes and set down my pen. “We were upstairs from 10:30 p.m. until the phone call to you. We were in bed by eleven, woke up around three? Back to sleep sometime later.” He continued the details, and Bex’s red face dropped in her hands.
“Got it, I’ll just put ‘asleep’ here,” I muttered as I penciled in the times. Bexley moved to smirking as they reminisced.In my office.“Did you hear anything around three?” Jai shook his head, the lighthearted humor evaporated.
“I do wish we had more to offer. It was quiet, and nothing I saw on the way out was broken. I don’t think the glass was from my place.” Bexley grabbed her pen and started writing.
“We’re going to run an analysis on that as well. I have units searching your home for broken and missing items.” When I explained our plans, her pen stopped, and she looked at me with worry.
“Missing? You think he stole from me too?”
“Not in the sense of normal burglary reasons. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume he took a trophy of sorts,” I explained. Her face twisted in disgust, and she continued writing out her night. Jai did the same thing.
