Chapter 2 - The Killer

“Your boyfriend can’t save you now,” the strong, deep voice rang out in the empty apartment. A young woman’s whimper sounded out from the king-sized bed, where she was tied to the bedposts with barbed wire. Her wrists were covered in lacerations, and her blood was slowly dripping onto the bed. Her eyes were fixated on the body of her boyfriend, who was hanging from the ceiling fan, a noose wrapped around his neck.

“He got in my way, girlie; he had to pay the price,” the voice rang out again, as the source walked out from the bathroom, which was to the right of the bed. The young woman looked toward the man, and tears poured down her cheeks.

“Please,” she said. “Please, don’t kill me. I’ll do anything.” The man chuckled, and strode towards the bed. He reached out and ran his fingers down her cheek.

“Stupid woman,” he crooned. “I came here to kill you. It’s not my fault that you weren’t alone. You should’ve been alone.” He gently gripped her chin, and forced her to look into his eyes, which were a soft, brilliant green. She gasped slightly, and tried to pull away. His grip turned fierce as his eyes hardened.

“Don’t you pull away from me, girlie,” the man chastised. “Wouldn’t want you hurting yourself, would we? That’s my job.” The man chortled at his joke, and moved forward to kneel next to the woman. She tried desperately to pull herself free from the wire, but only succeeded in mutilating her wrists even further. The man shook his head slowly.

“You never learn, do you?” He leaned back, and pulled his knife off the side of his boot. The woman, startled at the sight of the knife, started to scream. The man growled, and leaned forward, slapping his hand over her mouth. The woman opened her mouth wider, and bit into one of his fingers. The man pulled away quickly, his eyes wide.

“Damn,” he said, as he slid his knife into her neck.

            “Benjamin! Your witness is still here,” a loud voice came pouring down the dark hallway. Ben groaned at the interruption, and turned to Deborah, who was accompanying him to the coroner’s office.

            “Damn, I completely forgot about that witness,” he said with a loud sigh. “Deb, I’d really appreciate it if you go ahead without me, I’ll be down shortly.” Deborah smiled at her boss, said that she wouldn’t start examining until he got back, and then started walking down the hall to the office. Benjamin turned, and walked towards the voice. As he neared the elevator, the voice spoke again, “Ben, I’m so glad you’re finally here. You literally have no clue how stressful it is to have a bunch of interns not listen to you because you’re not actually the head of the floor. Those damn interns, man.” Benjamin chuckled, and walked into the elevator. Inside, he looked down at his second-in-command, and said, “I’m sure you were just fine, Jay.” The short girl glared up at him, flipping her short black hair out of her face.

            “Ha! Yeah, right, Mr. Calen,” she mocked, her dark brown eyes flashing teasingly. Ben groaned, his cheeks reddening.

            “Don’t even start, Jay,” he grimaced. Jade laughed loudly.

            “Come, on, Benny,” she said with a big smile. “You know you love all that intern-attention. I’ve got to admit, I would love it, too.” Benjamin rolled his eyes at her forwardness.

            “Don’t roll those pretty eyes at me, boss. You know I want me some of that hot piece of a*s you have for an intern,” Jaylynn said with a smirk. “I mean, honestly, have you seen his eyes? And his flippin’ chest? Oh, god, just imagine what he can do with his-“

            “Stop right there, missy, I don’t want to hear it,” Benjamin interrupted his second-in-command. “If you want Dutch so much, why don’t you just talk to him?” Jaylynn snorted, and nudged her boss with an elbow.

            “Come on, Captain, you know me,” she grinned. “I’m the chasee, not the chaser.” Ben smiled despite himself, knowing that she was right.

            “But, anyways, Benny, the witness,” Jay said, finally getting down to business. “First of all, bear with her, she’s a little shaken up. The new profiler that was sent from D.C. is talking with her at the moment, but you should be able to talk with her when she’s finished. Which, should be soon.” Jay then grinned widely.

“Wait a minute, you haven’t even seen the psych girl yet, have you?” Benjamin shook his head. Jaylynn burst out laughing, and said, “Oh god, you’re in for a surprise.” Benjamin gave his second-in-command a look, and rolled his eyes. Ben then asked whether Jay wanted to be in the interrogation room or watching from the room through the mirror. She shrugged, saying that it didn’t matter to her. When the elevator reached the floor, Jaylynn and Benjamin stepped out, and walked towards the interrogation room.

            “I actually think I’ll stick to the mirror room for this one, Director,” Jay said. “The new profiler doesn’t like me that much.”

            “It’s probably because you have your Ph.D. in forensic and criminal psychology, already,” Ben surmised. “She only has a doctorate, right?” Jay nodded, and opened the door to the room full of equipment to record the interrogations. She took a step in, and grabbed an earpiece that she then handed to her boss.

“Just in case,” Jay said with a smile. She waved at her boss before entering the room and setting up the equipment. Benjamin walked to the interrogation room as he put in his earpiece, and knocked on the door that led to where the profiler was talking to the witness. He heard a female voice say he could go in, and he opened the door.

            Before he entered, he grabbed the paperwork from the file slot by the door. As he started looking over the paperwork, he said, “Ms. Manson, are you finished with the witness?” He looked up, and the girl sitting with her back to him turned around. Steven’s eyes went wide as he shamelessly ogled the woman who would be his new profiler. She was of small stature, with curly dark hair that reached the centre of her back. She looked younger than him, maybe around twenty-four. She was thin, yet still had the curves that most women her age had, and were accentuated by the blue dress she was wearing. He could see one of her dimples because she was biting the inside of her full lips as she looked over the paperwork. As she turned her head, he could see that her jaw line was definite. Her most striking features were her wide Bambi eyes, which were a dark, stormy grey. Though they were remarkably beautiful, they were filled with sadness, and a maturity that the rest of her features did not have.

            “Told you so, Director.” Benjamin shook his head, the voice of his second-in-command releasing him from the sight that was his new profiler. He could hear Jaylynn chuckle under her breath, and he gave her a look through the surveillance mirror. Though he couldn’t see her, he could tell she was rolling her eyes at him.

            “Director Calen?” A soft, yet clear voice filled the room. Ben turned his head towards the source of the voice, and saw his profiler looking at him with confused eyes. He realized that she had said his name a few times before he noticed.

            “Oh, um, I’m sorry,” Ben said. “You can call me Mr. Calen, Director isn’t necessary.” The young woman nodded slowly as she stood up, leaving the paperwork on the table.

            “If it’s alright with you, Mr. Calen, I’ll leave my notes here for you to look over,” the young woman said with a small smile as the approached the door. Ben stepped aside for her to get by, and smiled back at her.

            “Thank you, Ms. Manson,” he said. She turned to him, and chuckled softly.

            “Please, call me Mercy,” she chimed. Benjamin nodded, and Mercy left the room, leaving Ben with the witness. He strode over to the desk and sat where Mercy was sitting before he entered the room. Looking up at the witness, he frowned. The girl who sat before him was young, most likely a minor, and had tear-streaked cheeks. Her long black hair framed her heart-shaped face, and her blue eyes shone past her bangs. As Benjamin looked at her, he noticed that she looked distinctly small and fragile.

            “Hi, I’m Benjamin Calen, the head of the department. Who might you be?” Ben asked, even though he had her name on the paperwork in front of him. He wanted to make a good impression on the young girl, so she would trust him enough to talk to him.

            “Mary-Hanna Lee,” she answered in a low whisper. “M-my name is Mary-Hanna Lee.” As she said this, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Ben smiled at her encouragingly.

            “Mary-Hanna, did Ms. Manson have you call your family?” The girl frowned, and shook her head.

            “I don’t live with my family,” she sniffled. “I was kicked out last year. I don’t live anywhere, really.”

            “How old are you, Mary-Hanna?” Benjamin asked, slightly dreading the answer that she was younger than eighteen. Mary-Hanna ducked her head and murmured, “Seventeen, but I can pass for eighteen, usually.” Ben groaned internally, and set the paperwork on the desk while standing up.

            “Now, Mary-Hanna, I’m going to have to get you a lawyer, is that okay with you?” The young girl shook her head vehemently, and exclaimed, “No! They’ll make me call my family! They don’t want anything to do with me, and I don’t want to bother them.” Ben sat back down slowly.

            “Okay, I won’t call the lawyer, but you’re going to have to tell me everything that you saw yesterday morning,” Benjamin explained. Mary-Hanna nodded her head, and leaned forward.

            “I was going for a run, like I do every morning, around the motel. Going around it is an exact mile, you see, and I wanted to keep myself in shape, just in case,” Mary-Hanna added. “I was rounding the corner of the south side when I saw the back of this tall guy going in the employee entrance. He wasn’t wearing an employee’s clothes, so I knew he didn’t work there. I stopped to see what was going on, and realized that he was actually carrying a woman. I thought maybe she had passed out, and he was getting help, but…” Mary-Hanna cut off and wiped the fresh tears from her face. Ben reached over, took one of her hands, and smiled reassuringly. Mary-Hanna took a deep breath, and then continued.

            “I saw the woman’s neck,” she carried on. “It had a big cut across it, and the blood was still dripping down her neck. Then, I… I saw her eyes move up towards the man. She was still alive! There was so much blood, Mr. Benjamin, so much! How was she still alive?” Mary-Hanna curled into herself, tears streaming down her cheeks.

            “That was when I called 911, from a pay phone right near where I had been standing,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I stayed until they got there.”

            “Mary-Hanna, you did the right thing by calling 911,” Ben consoled. “You couldn’t have done anything to save the woman, and, if you had, we might have had two dead bodies on our hands instead of one.

            “Now, I know this may be hard, but can you describe the man for me? It would be a great help, and it could help us prevent more women being killed,” Benjamin leaned forward, and made eye contact with Mary-Hanna. She bit her lip, and ducked her head.

            “I only saw the back of him, and the side of his face. All I can really tell you is that he was tall, he was white, and he had all black on.” Benjamin nodded, and looked into the file to see whether Mercy had written it down. She had, in great detail. Ben looked up at Mary-Hanna, to see that she was looking back at him.

            “Mr. Benjamin, that’s all I know,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.” Ben smiled comfortingly.

            “Mary-Hanna, you don’t need to apologize, your description helps me more than you know,” Ben assured her. Mary-Hanna smiled at that, looking proud of herself, even if it was just for something small.

            “Now, Ms. Lee, I’m going to escort you to another room, and one of my interns is going to bring you something to eat and drink,” Benjamin declared as he stood up. Mary-Hanna stood up as well, tucking her ebony hair behind her ears.

            “Boss, by ‘one of the interns,’ do you mean me?” Ben was startled by his second-in-command’s voice in his ear, as she had stayed silent for most of the questioning. He looked towards the surveillance mirror and nodded. She said she’d meet him outside, and turned off his earpiece. Ben gestured for Mary-Hanna to leave the room before him as he opened the door. She walked out of the interrogation room, and nearly ran right into Jaylynn, who was standing outside. Mary-Hanna quickly apologized, and Jade smiled up at her.

            “No need to apologize, Darlin’,” she said with a big smile. “It’s not like I’m tall enough for anyone to notice, anyways.” She winked at Mary-Hanna, who smiled widely. “Now, if you’ll follow me, I’m going to get you something to eat. Is there anything you prefer?” Mary-Hanna shook her head, and followed Jay down the hall to the lounge. Benjamin smiled at his second-in-command’s tenor, and started walking to the elevator, on his way back down to the coroner’s office.

            The body was ashen, except for the long cut that adorned the young woman’s face, which was dark red in colour. A blanket, leaving the top exposed for the coroner to work on, covered the lower part of her body. She had a slice across her throat, which had been cleaned out and swabbed. If it weren’t for the colour or the gash on her throat, she could have just been anyone else, sleeping on the cold metal table. Ben carefully pulled the blanket back up over her upper body, as Deborah and the coroner walked in with clipboards in hand.

            “Oh, hello, Director, I didn’t know you had come back down,” the coroner said with a greeting smile. Benjamin smiled back uneasily, always surprised by the coroner’s cheerful demeanour. The coroner let out a booming laugh at Ben’s grimace.

            “Come on, Director, I know you can do better than that,” he said. “Don’t let the bodies get you down.” Deborah giggled quietly, and walked over to stand next to her boss.

            “Dr. Maxwell, you know Mr. Calen doesn’t like being down here. The bodies creep him out,” she teased. Dr. Maxwell laughed again, and approached the metal table. Ben rolled his eyes at his intern.

            “Okay, Director, let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns,” Dr. Maxwell sang, mimicking an old Disney tune. Deborah snickered at the coroner’s witticism at making Benjamin more uncomfortable than he already was. The coroner grinned, and turned to the body.

            “Here we have Darla Jacobs, the first victim of the Hash Slinging Slasher,” Dr. Maxwell said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “She has two cuts, one on her cheek, and the other on her neck. The cut on her cheek only slightly wounded her. The slash across her neck sliced her angular jugular vein, effectively bleeding her out. The second victim, a Ms. Jayla Kole, had similar wounds.”

            “So, the first two victims suffered, but not for long,” Deborah commented. “It’s the third that we should be concerned about.” The coroner turned to a second metal table, and uncovered the body. Benjamin’s eyes widened as he saw the extensive amount of wounds on the woman.

            “Miss Katherine Amos, the third victim we found this morning,” Dr. Maxwell said, his face falling slightly. “She suffered multiple lacerations, mostly on the left side of her face and body. She’s missing four fingers, two from each of her hands. She was also raped multiple times, no DNA recovered. This killer is an expert. He left absolutely nothing to assist us in finding him.” Ben nodded slowly as he walked to a counter, grabbed a pair of gloves, and pulled them on.

            “Missing four fingers, you said?” The coroner nodded at Ben.

            “Dutch and I were looking at the ages of the victims, and we found that they were all four years apart,” Benjamin commented as he carefully examined the left hand of the young woman. “Do you think maybe this has a correlation?”

            “Four years, four fingers,” Dr. Maxwell sighed. “It could be related.”

            “Are there any other fours that we can see on the bodies?” Deborah inquired as she slipped on a pair of gloves. The coroner contemplated Deborah’s question before answering, “Not that I’ve seen, but I haven’t finished examining the bodies, yet.”

            “Will you call us if you find anything, Dr. Maxwell?” Benjamin asked as he looked up at the coroner. Dr. Maxwell nodded, and smiled at Deborah as she whined a little at Ben’s question.

            “Director, if you don’t mind, Miss Deborah can stay down here with me,” the coroner said. “She’s been a magnificent help.” Ben smiled at the coroner, and nodded, saying that she could stay.

            “I’ll go, then. Keep me updated on anything you find; I have my cell,” Benjamin demanded as he left the medical room.

            His trip upstairs to his office was eventful, as some of the interns had had an accident, spilling coffee on a few files. The newbie interns were diligently cleaning it up as the more seasoned interns made sure they had everything cleaned. Ben stopped to make sure the files weren’t too important, and helped the interns get everything organized. Many of the interns thanked him as he made his way to his office. He opened the glass door leading to his dark blue colored room, walked around his oak desk littered with papers and pens, and plopped into the revolving chair, which squeaked as he sat down. He observed his cluttered desk with a frown, silently promising himself that he would clean it later, reminding himself also of his messy desk at home. He spun around in his chair looking at everything in his office as he passed it; cabinet, wall, picture frame, lamp, desk, cabinet, wall... It was then that the door slammed open, and Jade waltzed in.

            “Mister Boss-Man, we’ve got a problem,” she informed him as she sat on the edge of his desk. “There were two more dead bodies found in the motel. A man and a woman.”

            Ben pinched the bridge of his nose as he leaned back into his chair.

            “D****t, Jay. Why didn’t we think of this before? Of course he’s going to keep killing, because we keep finding his victims,” Benjamin groaned. “Who found them?”

            “The manager was checking out a disturbance call from a room next door to the couple. They said they had heard a banging on the wall,” Jaylynn answered. “I honestly thought that was a common noise to hear in a motel, but the people in the room next door were an older couple. They obviously have never taken a tumble in a motel room before.” Ben rolled his eyes at Jay’s candour, and she quirked a small smile.

            “Anyways, the man was hung from the ceiling fan, and the woman was tied to the bed with barbed wire, tortured, raped, and eventually killed by a slit across her throat, severing her jugular vein,” Jay reported, shuddering. “That crime scene has got to be a horrid mess, Boss.” Ben nodded slowly.

            “Jay, if you don’t mind, could you go down to the scene with Dutch? I need to handle a crap-load of paperwork, and I’m waiting for a call from the coroner,” Steven said.

            “And how is Dr. Smart on this fine day?” Jaylynn grinned. Benjamin gave her a look, and she laughed. “Come on, Director, have a sense of humour!” Ben tried to smile, but he knew it looked more like a grimace.

            “Keep trying, Darlin’,” Jay reprimanded. Her face then lit up. “Whoa, wait a second, you said I had to go down to the scene with Dutch? Are you for serious?”

            Rolling his eyes, Ben grinned at his second-in-command, and said, “Of course I’m serious, Jay. You and Dutch are going to go to the crime scene… together.” Jaylynn’s smile grew, and she jumped off Ben’s desk.

            “Awesome!” she exclaimed. “I’ll go let him know that we’ll be leaving pronto.” She skipped towards the door, then turned and bowed to Benjamin.

            “My liege,” she said with a giggle, before turning and leaving Ben’s office.

            “Don’t sleep with my intern, Jaylynn!” Ben called as she left. Laughing, Jay saluted her superior, and walked towards Dutch’s desk. Benjamin watched as she sat on the edge of his desk and grinned widely, before leaning down to talk to him. Eyes rolling, Ben turned to his computer, and opened up one of the case files that Dutch had sent him.

            Grimacing at the pictures that adorned his screen, Benjamin scrolled down and started reading what Dutch had written about the victims. As he read, he started to mark the small discrepancies that he and Dutch had noticed earlier. He then opened a new document, and started to write them all in chronological and themed order, so he could send them out to all the department heads.

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            Jaylynn and Dutch stood in the doorway of the motel room. It was a quaint little room with a low hanging ceiling, and a TV facing the bed. The TV was off and the black screen reflected the bloodied bed, whose sheets were scattered on the floor. The motel lamp’s warm yellow glow gave a calming atmosphere oblivious to the disaster that had occurred. A man’s body was hanging from the ceiling fan, held up by a rope noose. He was fully clothed, dressed as if he was about to go out on a date.

            “Damn,” Jay said quietly. “Look at his neck.” Dutch followed Jay’s gaze, and saw the long, thick bruise that adorned the man’s neck. As he looked, Jay walked into the room, carefully stepping around evidence markers. She approached the bed, which was soaked in blood. A coroner turned towards her as he zipped up a black body bag.

            “Well, if it isn’t Miss Jaylynn Collins,” the coroner said as he flipped strands of his long brown hair out of his face. The rest of his hair was pulled back in a hair tie, and his blue eyes gleamed as he looked down at Jay.

            “Geo!” Jay exclaimed. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen you, Beautiful.” She grinned up at him, her eyes twinkling. He chuckled under his breath.

            “Oh boy, I’ve missed you, Kitten,” Geo said with a big smile. Jay rolled her eyes at him, and then turned to the bed, grimacing.

            “How did she die, Doc? A knife to the jugular? Razorblade to the carotid?” Jay’s eyes lit up with curiosity as Geo’s darkened with disgust.

            “The b*****d sliced through every major vein and artery in the front of her neck, Jay,” Geo answered. “There was blood everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.” With that, he pointed to the ceiling. Jaylynn looked up, and gasped. There was a blood splatter on the ceiling, presumably from the cut that killed the woman. It spread from above the pillow to about a foot from the fan, which the man was still hanging from.

            “Well, damn,” Jaylynn said quietly. “That’s a lot of blood, Geo.” She made a face as she brought her hand to her neck, rubbing her fingertips over a long, pale scar. Geo looked at her sympathetically, to which Jay shrugged tensely and pulled the collar of her shirt up.

            “Hey, we all have scars, Jay. No need to hide them,” Geo smiled at her, and she smiled back timidly.

            “Jay, get over here!” Dutch said loudly. Jay jumped a little, and turned to him. She nodded to Geo, who nodded back with a wink. She smiled widely, and made her way over to Dutch, who was standing next to the man’s hanging body. As she approached him, Dutch pulled out his phone, took a picture of what he was looking at, and sent it.

            “S’up, Dutch? What’d you find?” Jay asked. Dutch looked to her, then pointed to the man’s pocket. Jay’s eyes widened as she noticed that his pocket looked like it was full of cylinders.

            “Oh, god, is that… Geo!” Jay quickly turned to the coroner, who was wheeling the woman’s body out of the room on a gurney. He looked back at her, cocking his head to the side.

            “The woman… was she missing four fingers?” Jaylynn asked as she quickly checked the man’s hands; he had all ten of his fingers.

            “Yes, four fingers were missing: the pointer and middle fingers of both hands,” Geo reported. “Why do you ask?”

            “I think we may have found another connection,” Jay said quietly.

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            Benjamin was sitting at his desk, about to eat a blueberry muffin, when his cell phone rang. He sighed loudly, and then remembered that Jay and Dutch were at the crime scene. He scrambled to get his phone before it stopped ringing. When he answered, he could hear Jay’s commanding voice.

            “Geo, my love, take that body to Dr. Smart, we need his expert opinion on her death right away. You’re beautiful, by the way. You! Get that body down after you take some more pictures of it. Focus on his pocket; we need some pictures of that. Be careful with his neck! We don’t want to mess with it too much; Dr. Smart needs it intact. Oh, I’m on the phone, one second. Hello? Benny?” Jay brought the phone to her ear. Benjamin rolled his eyes at his second-in-command.

            “Jaylynn, have I not told you to stop calling me Benny?” Jay barked out a laugh, then replied, “Haven’t I told you to stop calling me Jaylynn, Benjamin?”

            “Touché. Now, what’s up?” Benjamin asked as he took a bite of his muffin.

            “Found four of the woman’s fingers in the guy’s pocket, Boss,” Jaylynn said. “That other woman had missing fingers, too, right? Her name was… Katherine! Katherine Amos.”

            Benjamin slowly chewed the last piece of his muffin as he contemplated the continuity of the “fours.” He supposed that the killer was trying to tell them something, but he had no idea what it was.

            “What do you think he’s trying to tell us, Jay? Why four? What is the significance of that number?” Benjamin asked, not expecting an answer. He heard Jay sigh through the phone.

            “I don’t know, Boss. But, I can tell you one thing. He will keep killing if we don’t find and stop him,” Jay said definitively. Benjamin nodded slowly as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

            “Stop pinching the bridge of your nose, Benjamin,” Jaylynn said. “I know you’re doing it.” Benjamin snorted loudly as he moved his hand.

            “You know me too well, Jay,” he surmised. He heard Jay chuckle.

            It was then that he heard the telltale beeping of someone calling him from another line. He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. He frowned when he saw, “Blocked” in all caps across the top of the screen.

            “Jay, I’m going to have to call you back,” Benjamin said as he hung up, not waiting for her answer. He pressed the answer button on his phone, and brought it to his ear.

            “FBI Director Calen.” Benjamin waited for an answer. After a few seconds, he heard a deep, gravelly voice speak.

            “Ah, Director Calen. I wasn’t sure if you were going to answer. I do believe that you’re looking for me… I’m your killer.”