Chapter One: The Victim
It was bloody scene.
Officer Gomez shook his head in dismay, "This is brutal..." he murmured to Detective Jackson. "Even for this guy! This woman has literally been sliced open!"
Detective Jackson nodded grimly; "That's seven women just this week! One for every day!" he ran a tired hand through his raven-black hair. "The Feds called and now the FBI is involved."
Gomez swore. "The Feds?"
Jackson nodded. "Luckily for us, I've requested Special Agents Johnson and Woods. They're the best on the force and two of my close friends. If anyone can catch this serial killer- they can."
As if on Que, a black Chevy-Impala pulled off the onto the curb. The driver was male and he seemed engaged in a conversation with his partner.
"That'll be them," Jackson said. "You'll like them," he told Gomez as the two made their way across the street to meet their new partners.
The driver's side door opened and a wide smile crossed his lips. "Hello Jackson!" he called and the two clasped each other on the shoulder. "Sorry it took us so long to get here. Some people take longer to get ready than others..." he shot a look at the slender female who exited the vehicle and came to his side.
She rolled her eyes; "Oh whatever, Johnson." A bright, cheery smile crossed her face as she reached out to hug Jackson. "Mike! It's been too long!"
The Detective smiled, returning her embrace.
Gomez coughed.
Jackson turned to his partner, "Right! My apologies. Officer Gomez, it is my honor to introduce to you Special Agents Daniel Johnson and Samantha Woods."
Samantha and Daniel exchanged handshakes with Gomez, introducing themselves and sharing a casual: "Hello, nice to meet you."
"This must be one of those years" Daniel muttered, "Seems like all psychopaths are emerging all over the country."
"Mike, have you seen anything like this before?" Samantha asked Detective Jackson. "Isn't this the Seventh murder this week?"
Jackson nodded. "It almost seems occult-like to be honest, Sam."
"Where did you find the body?" Daniel asked, skipping formalities and further questions.
Daniel was a tall, masculine man with dirty-blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He was handsome: the type of man that women swooned over and threw themselves at. His squared jaw was clean-shaven and rugged. All in all, Daniel looked like someone who should be in a Calvin Klein magazine or on posters in teenage girls' rooms.
Samantha Woods seemed to be the exact opposite of what you thought an FBI agent should looked like. She was tall and slender, her dark, wavy hair reached past her shoulders and her gray eyes hid behind long, thick lashes. She had smile lines on her face and a handful of freckles dotted across her nose. She had an innocent look in her eyes: the look that all men knew was that of a virgin.
"We found the body right around the corner from the ballet studio," Jackson informed them, nodding to an area swarmed with reporters and forensics. "We estimated the time of death to be around 11:45 pm."
"Lead the way, Detective," Daniel said, authority rippling from his voice.
The four made their way across the street and to the scene of the murder. Several of the forensics looked up but didn't say anything to the FBI agents.
One of the forensics, an attractive Asian man met Detective Jackson at the scene. "Hello, Detective. My team has scoped out the area and been through the murder scene with a thin comb. Anything- any DNA or evidence has been collected and will be sent down to the lab pronto."
"Thank you, Glenn," Jackson nodded. "Let me know what you find."
Glenn smiled. "Yes, sir. Good day."
Jackson led his friends and co-worker around the corner to scene of the grisly murder. "The garbage man found the bodies this morning."
"Bodies?" Questioned Samantha. "On the the phone you said it was just the girl."
"There was a second body found, but he doesn't play a much of a part in this story, Agent."
"He was still murdered!" Agent Woods protested.
"Please, the woman is the victim we need to concentrate on," Detective Jackson said slowly. "We need to put this freak behind bars before he kills again."
"What do you make of it?" Gomez asked, gesturing to the body enclosed by a perimeter of caution tape.
The body of the young woman was thin and lithe. Her collarbones and hipbones protruded from her body: the body of a ballerina. Her blonde hair was tied up into a bun on top of her head, secured with several bobby pins and a thin, silk ribbon. The girl was wearing a dirty white leotard and ripped, muddy white tights. The young woman's face was beautiful- despite the bruising under her eyes. Her heart-shape face was clear and unblemished, her lashes overlapped each other and her full lips accented her dimples.
Several feet away was a discarded, powder-blue rain coat.
Agent Johnson carefully stepped over the yellow tape, taking care not to step on anything that could be seen as evidence. "She's beautiful." He stated obviously. "I don't see anything that would say she was killed here."
"There's no blood or signs of struggle here," Jackson confirmed.
"You think the body was planted here?" Samantha questioned.
"Yes," Gomez answered. "The last three victims were planted outside their work places like these women. But the other victims had an alias: they were at home an hour before their deaths. All of which had their homes and apartments broken into and their bodies were found outside their work places or inside their offices."
Daniel turned to Samantha. "Take a look. What do you make of it?"
Agent Woods squatted down next to the body; "Jackson, had me a pair of latex gloves..." She furrowed her eyebrows before taking the gloves from her friend and stretching them over her small, skilled hands.
"What'd you find?" Gomez asked, curiously.
"Look right here," Woods ordered, pointing at the corpse's neck with long, elegant fingers. "See this red welt?"
Johnson nodded. "What about it? A site of entry for an injection?"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking!" Samantha smiled, "Hand me a syringe. I need a blood sample. Hopefully whatever was injected into her vein is still in her blood."
Johnson turned to Jackson; "What can you tell us about the murder? What sets this one apart from the others?"
Jackson shook his head; "It isn't the first... We've had two more just like it. Whoever this mad-man is, he's making a name for himself... He seems to be only targeting single women. The thing is, there isn't a connection between the murders. None of these women knew each other. All the murders take place in a 15 mile radius..."
"-But there is one thing that ties them all together," Gomez interceded. "Each of the victims has been branded with an occult symbol: some sort of rune. That's how we've tied them all together." He pointed at the clear symbol of a pentagram branded into the ballerina's right wrist.
"An occult ritual of some sort?" Agent Woods asked. "That's what you think this is?"
"That's what it appears to be. But I think there's slightly more to it than what we're seeing." Gomez gestured to a pair of EMTs hauling a second body into an ambulance.
"The forensics found the corpse of a local Taxi driver in the alley. The estimated time of death is about- 9:30 pm."
Johnson ran a tired hand through his hair; "Do we have any prints?"
Gomez shook his head; "Whoever this guy is, he knows what he's doing..."
Woods carefully injected the syringe into the corpse's neck and filled the tube with blood. "I'm going to take this to the lab and see if they can make heads or tails out of this..."
"Do you need anything else before we head down to the lab?" Daniel asked.
Jackson shook his head; "We can finish up here. You two go ahead and head to Headquarters. We'll call if we find anything else- and I expect you both to do the same."
****
The lab was located under an old warehouse that the Police Department had been using as headquarters for a new government program called UAA. Undercover Agents of America, it was a program for former FBI, CIA and other government agents, who were looking into reaching out to local police forces. The lab contained all of the latest equipment, weapons and medical research.
Rumored to have the best forensics on staff, the UAA seemed to be the one to turn to when full throttle sociopaths went on a spree.
Woods paced the floor, her head in a whirl, Who is this psychopathic? What did he want with these young women? Were they just sacrifices?
Agent Woods had completely exhausted herself with all possible theories. The most she could come up with was that this man was targeting beautiful women in society, kidnapping them and then planting their bodies.
Not a normal act in psychopathic behavior.
But there was nothing normal about these murders.
The intercom beeped, alerting Sam that the forensics had finished testing the blood sample. She was grateful that they finished testing it so soon, but the UAA was the most technologically-advanced chemistry lab in America.
Samantha hurried across the shiny linoleum floor; her black heels clicking across the ground. She pressed the down button on the elevator and stepped in as the doors closed behind her. She shifted her feet nervously on the grey-carpeted interior as the elevator descended into the crime lab in the basement.
The elevator opened with a soft ping and revealed a long hallway leading into the bowels of the UAA. She quickly made her way down the hallway and toward the glass door with the words: "Do Not Enter: Danger" written in white lettering above the door.
Beside the door was a shiny, metallic keypad and a blinking black security camera. Samantha typed in her six digit code and slid her identity card in the slot as the door unlocked in sync with her heartbeat.
"What did you find?" she asked as soon as she gained access into the room. Her tired grey eyes inspected Dr. Lee curious and eager for information.
The petite, Asian woman removed her lab glasses and calmly answered; "We found a large dose of chloroform in the blood sample you gave us as well as an outrageous amount of a heavy narcotic."
"He numbed her..." Woods marveled, shivering at the dropping temperature in her body. "So what? He didn't want her to feel anything?"
Dr. Lee shrugged. "I'm sorry to inform you that this woman was so drugged, I don't think she had a clue what was going on."
Samantha cringed. "Poor girl."
"Very unfortunate," the Doctor agreed. "But at least she didn't feel anything."
"What's that?" asked the lead forensic Dr. Hawthorn, from across the room. She was sitting at her desk, a microscope before her and half a dozen slides.
Dr. Signori Hawthorn was a fiery red head in her mid- forties. Her heart-shaped face was splattered with freckles and wrinkles she had gained from work. Her hair was tied back into a low bun, held into place by several clips and a handful of bobby pins. Her bright green eyes were red from many sleepless nights.
"Look here, at this slide under the microscope," Dr. Hawthorn ordered Samantha. "There is an exceedingly large dose of Benadryl and Oxycodon in her blood. He pumped her full of pills before he killed her..."
"With your permission, Dr. Hawthorn," asked Samantha. "I'd like to autopsy corpse once more. I just need to verify the fatal wounds... I want to see if the body has anything to say about her last moments."
The fiery-haired Doctor nodded. "Of course, Samantha. You needn't ask, anyway. You're actually one of the few young agents I actually trust."
Agent Woods didn't know if she should be flattered or not. "Thank you," she answered unsure.
Dr. Hawthorn led the young FBI Agent out of the lab and down the hallway to the "morgue", deep in the basement of the warehouse. Signori typed in a security code and opened the door; a cold blast of air hitting Samantha in the meantime. "She's right there," informed the Doctor. "In box 13... It's to be refrigerated until the body is properly ID'd and buried."
"I guess I'd better get started then. Have we had any luck in finding out her identity?" Samantha asked, turning to the doctor.
Doctor Hawthorn grimaced and slipped her hands into her lab pockets, "No, Sam, we haven't been able to ID her yet. We're waiting to see if anyone calls in a missing person- you know how it is. All forms of identification- including her phone and wallet were stolen. Because of her leotard and body type, we've concluded that she was a dancer. She probably danced at that studio on Main Street. "
"Right, well keep me posted and I'll get started on the autopsy right away..."
ψ
6:27 pm
Daniel knocked on the apartment door, the sound echoing down the hallway. In his hand he carried a bag of Chinese takeout, and in the other a manila folder. "Sam?" he called. "It's Daniel." He waited patiently for Woods to open her door.
"Just a minute, Dan!" he smiled at the sound of her voice.
He listened to her unbolt the door and drop the chain as the handle turned and the door swung open. Agent Woods was dressed in a pair of gray yoga pants and a form-fitting black shirt. "Daniel!" she exclaimed. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise?"
"Well, I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop dinner off," he held up the takeout bag. "I brought your favorite."
"I know you better than that, Danny," Samantha chuckled, gesturing for him to follow her. "You want to know about the lab results."
Daniel closed the door behind him and bolted the door. "You know me too well...What did you find?" Agent Johnson asked, setting the bag down on the coffee table anxiously eyeing Samantha.
She grinned girlishly; "First, tell me what you brought me for dinner... Then I'll give you the details."
"Fine, we'll do it your way," Danny pouted jokingly; "I brought you fried rice and beef with broccoli- your favorites. Now... about the case?"
Sam disappeared around the corner and he heard the cabinet door open as she removed two plates and returned with a set of silverware and two bottles of water. "Well, since you brought me dinner, I guess I can tell you." Sam smiled, placing the dishes on the coffee table and settling down on her couch. "My theory was right. He gave her Benadryl and Oxytocin before he killed her. Obviously he used chloroform to knock her out and then he injected her with the narcotics."
Johnson shrugged; "Why? This guy is a mass-murder- why take pity on his victims? And why haven't we found the COD?" he asked. "Is it a heart attack from the narcotics?"
"The COD is still undecided..." Woods said, with a frustrated sigh. "It would appear as if she died from an overdose- but Daniel, she had hardly any blood left in her body. From her shoulders down she was practically dry." (COD stands for Cause of Death)
"What about that welt on her neck?"
"I've inspected the body and I can't find anything... No broken bones, no sign of strangulation... It's as if she just... Died. It's unnerving, really..." she ran a tired hand through her dark hair, sighing frustrated. "If I believed in Monsters, I'd say that a Vampire had sucked her dry- but if that was the case, why did he leave the blood in her neck?"
"But she had a sign of injection..." Johnson protested, opening the lid of his orange chicken and emptying it onto his plate. "And Vampires aren't real."
"True..." Sam took a bite of her dinner, "I did notice, however, a discoloration in her heel... Any ideas?"
Daniel shrugged. "I honestly have no idea, Sammy..."
She sighed; "Unless..."
"Unless what?" Daniel asked.
"We need to head back to HQ. I need another look at the body... I think I might have an idea on the COD..."
"What about dinner?" he whined.
"Dinner can wait."
ψ
7:04 pm
"He carved a hole in her heels..." Sam breathed I shock. "The man actually carved a hole in the bottom of her foot... He drained her of almost all of her blood. That's why we couldn't find the COD. He sealed the holes with flesh-colored putty."
"Why does this surprise you?" Agent Johnson asked. "He's psychotic, isn't he?"
"Yes, but this is something you only read about- or watch in a horror movie..." she whispered, glancing down at the mutilated body in front of her. "Why would someone do this to an innocent woman?"
"Maybe because she was innocent," guessed Johnson. "That's what they dead thousands of years ago. Virgin sacrifices were made to false gods, right? Why wouldn't those traditions carry on through their decedents?"
The body of the Jane Doe had been identified only a few minutes ago as Bianca Young, the aspiring young ballerina. According to her family, she was finishing up practicing her routine late that night at the studio when she discovered that her tires had been slashed. The last contact they had with her daughter was when she informed them that she would be taking a Taxi and would see them at home. Obviously, she never made it home. The COD had been caused by the holes carved in her heels as well as an overdose from the drugs. She had bled to death in a matter of minutes.
The Police Department had labeled the killer as "Bleeder".
"I've been able to profile the killer," Samantha told her partner. "I believe we're looking for a Caucasian male, 24-40 years old, possible military background, a criminal record, access to medical supplies, muscular and occult activity-either current or past. He seems to be targeting women ages 18-23. The only connection I can make is that all of these women have bee physically active and they're all considered gorgeous by society."
"That sounds about right," Johnson agreed. "And they're all virgins as I can tell by the autopsies."
"All virgins?" Sam asked. "Are you sure?"
"Yep," Daniel held up several reports. "They all died without ever engaging in premarital sex. Angels really."
"Has the press gotten ahold of this?" Sam asked. "If this guy is really using virgin sacrifices the public will go crazy."
"Unfortunately yes, this is big news, Sam. Seven bodies in a week? That's gotta be a record." Johnson told her, running a tired hand through his hair.
Samantha grimaced "I wanted to keep this under wraps... If this gets out-"
"-It'll be Armageddon..." Daniel answered for her. "It's already out. There's absolutely nothing we can do about this now."
"The killer- what are they calling him again?"
"Bleeder."
"Right. Even worse, Bleeder knows that he's made a name for himself. He might get such a rush from the attention that he'll start increasing his killings!"
Daniel nodded, "I'll phone Kirk Peterson at the bureau and see if he can try to keep this under wraps as much as possible."
Sam smiled; "Thanks, I appreciate it..."
The two shared a long silence.
"I have paper work to finish at the office..." Daniel started.
She nodded understandingly; "It's fine, I can finish up here. go ahead..."