Chapter 1

Kasey Xenakis pushed her way through the already sizable crowd in the street. God she hated her height or lack thereof sometimes. Standing five one so didn’t help when you wanted to part a crowd like the red sea. Thank god for muscles. She finally made it to where she was needed.

As she ducked under the yellow tape, Detective Will Calhoun looked up from the covered corpse and turned her way with a look of resignation. Rising to his six foot four lanky frame, he made his way to her making sure to subtly flash his badge that was clipped to his belt so that she would see. He usually did that so she would remember this was police business and she was not a cop. Yeah, a flash of a piece of copper would stop her.

“Miss Xenakis, you seem to be lost again. Let me help you back over the Do Not Cross tape they make especially for people like you.” He said it loud enough for his fellow officers to hear.

Kasey quickly maneuvered her arm out if his reach before he could take it and said, “Come on Detective, just a little peak under the hood. What would it hurt?” And that million dollar watt smile to end it off.

“You know I can’t do that so please just this once, do what I’m asking you to do and walk back that way about five feet.” He pointed to the growing crowd. She didn’t want to do that.

“See, that’s not gonna work for me. If I’m all the way over there then I can’t possibly see the body under that sheet and that’s what I came here for. So be a good little detective and let me through so I can give a proper identification as to the cause of death as opposed to the slightly optimistic version your coroner is going to give. And detective, you know I’m good for it.”

Kasey could see him breaking and just when she thought he would, like he always does, Detective Calhoun held his stand.

He looked at her then sighed and said, “The usual place, ten minutes. And before you can say anything that’s all I can do on this one.” Kasey saw him glance over at Commissioner Davis Reeves and realizes he was right. So she conceded this time.

Reluctantly leaving the crime scene, she headed back the other way, around the block in the alley. To kill time she thought about what this murder meant. The third one this week. That was so not a good sign when your job was basically keeping things like this from the public eye. Kasey rolled her eyes at that one. Her job. Was that really the word to describe what she did for a living? That word made it sound so nine to five with health benefits and holiday time. And that was so not what she did. No, her ‘job’ was more of the twenty-four seven with health risks and no personal time ever variety.

Her mental rant was cut short when Will joined her in the alley ten minutes later. She really hated that he was precise like that. Today though, she was thankful for it.

“So, what do you have for me?”

Will took a flash-drive out of his pocket and handed it to her. “It’s a copy of the coroner’s preliminary pics of the vic. Abbegail Gallagher, female Caucasian, mid to late twenties, worked at the quickie mart a couple of blocks down. This was her normal route from work to home every night. It’s the best I can do for now so you’re gonna have to work with it.”

Glad for at least something, she pocketed the drive and thanked him.

“So, you think this latest attack is one of ‘those’?” Will asked her.

“I’d like to say there’s a possibility not but the MO reads the same. Sorry.”

“Yeah.”

As Will rubbed his neck trying to relieve some of the stress, she could see that the slew of murders lately was getting to him.

She closed the distance between them, replacing his hands with hers. “Tell you what; tonight we’ll do things a little differently. I’ll do the cooking while you do the relaxing then you’ll give me all the juicy details that you can’t right now.”

He looked at her then smiled at last, “That sounds great but don’t expect too much info. And you can't cook.”

“Oh, you know me I’ll work a molehill into a mountain,” she replied, smiling back. Then added, “And I can cook. Bad cooking is still cooking. But I’ll get takeout just in case.”

“I’ve got to get back before they think you’ve drugged me up or something.”

“Hmm, not a bad idea Detective,” Kasey replied seductively as she leaned in to kiss him.

Will returned her kiss then with a playful wink he left the alley to go do his job. Kasey followed him out but turned the opposite way and headed back home. Yep, sometimes it really was useful to be dating the Chief of Detectives.

As Will headed back to the crime scene he hoped that Kasey found nothing out of the ordinary because if she did then that would mean they had a serious problem, even more serious than she realized.