[Something wicked] It was the night of the 22nd to the 23rd. The night was dark, the sky overcast, hiding the crescent moon and stars. The city was as quiet as it gets, people were mostly in bed by now, clubs were closed and since it was thursday coming up, many had to work. Like other citizens of the city, two detectives were in bed. Like some, they were naked. Like part of them, they had another night of wild, intense, passionate sex. Unlike the majority, they were fit, extremely satisfied by the other, in love and in denial..mostly. They wouldn’t admit there was love between them, but they had at least admitted that they were now more or less a couple.
Derek was laying on his back, one arm surrounding Izzy. They might never have realized it, but it was very rare that his body didn’t touch hers in some way. Right now, they hadn’t been asleep for more than an hour an half, both hadn’t moved much from the position they felt asleep in. Right after sex and some short small talk.
Izzy’s hpone start ringing and it doesn’t stop until she picks it up. It even rings again if it goes to voice mail. Eventually she answers and the voice on the other end of the call is unknown to her. “Detective Montoya, I’m sorry ot wake you up, it’s Detective Russel from the 5th. Your partner sent an APB about a certain type of murders, asking to call you right away if another oen was found…well we just found one.. It’s in the forest”
He gives her the coordinates.
[Izzy Montoya] She is never much of a cuddler, so it is odd that she hasn’t realized it, but some part of her is almost always touching him when they are here, at home, in the safety of her apartment and bed. It might just be the incredible attraction, the way she physically reacts to having him so close to her – or it might be something else. But she is very much in denial. Very much so.
Even so, his arm is around her, and she is curled up with her back against him, her head on his bicep, her back pressed against his side, her resting on his. The phone rings, and she doesn’t hear it at first. It rings, rings, rings, rings, rings – goes to voice mail.
She pulls her body closer to his with a groan – and it rings again. she stretches with a curse and grabs at it, snapping into the phone. “Montoya. someone better be fuckin’ dead.”
…someone is. She sits up, scrubs her hand across her face and instantly the demeanor changes. “Yeah. I’m awake. Sorry Russel. Hang on…” She grabs a pen, paper, and writes down the location, and adds. “Be there in twenty. Yeah – I’ll grab him on the way.”
She smirks and turns off the phone, and reaches behind her to do as she promised, sliding her hand along Derek’s thigh, up his side, to his chest. “Hey. Wake up. They found another one. We have to go.”
then she’s up and getting dressed, quickly, efficiently, despite the need for caffeine. Adrenalin will have to do for now.
[Something wicked] He had heard the hpone but it wasn’t his ringtone. Yet part of him was slightly awake, feeling Izzy’s soft and firm body against him. He tried to turn around and fall asleep again while she was on the phone. But it wouldn’t be so. She gently wake him up with a hand moving along her body and despite the news of another dead body, he smiles slightly. A few nights before, she might jsut have smacked him on the shoulder to wake him up. Not that he would tell her that, she’d deny it.
“All right…” He mumbles, opening his blue eyes slowly. He sit on the edge of the bed, rub sleep off his eyes and head for the bathroom. After a quick pee and wate slapshed on his face, he puts on jeans and t-shirt, palce his gun in the small of his back and then walk out with her and down the stairs
“We should stop for coffee”He say, rubbing his stubbly cheek “Want me to drive?”He ask when they reach one of hteir cars. His, hers, it didn’t matter. He would let her drive his without hesitation. With or witohut a stop to a starbuck’s, they drive to the location Detective Russel gave her. Police cars were on the side of the road and once they step out and show their id, one of the uniformed officer ask then to follow him. With flashlights in hand, someone handed them one each, they made their way through the woods until they reached a group of 4 men with a small bonefire burning nearby.
A tall man getting on the heavy side was smoking was another, slimmer was crouched, small flashlight between teeth, hands covered in gloves was picking up something and dusting it off. The other 2 were regular officers, setting up a perimeter with yellow tape. The smoking man looked at Izzy “You must be montoya and this is Anderson right?”He offers them cigarettes from his pack.
“Kids found the victim. Cime scene is a mess…footsteps all over, empty bottle of beers, cigarette butts, puke, might even be some piss and shit from the smell of it…they were doing their after party here, with the intent of camping the night. One started digging, drunk to plant the pikes and they found her. They freaked out and bailed, calling us as they left.. She’s over thre, follow me”
He lead them to a hole in the ground where a very dirty, slightly decomposed body. They could see the stands of hair remaining look blonde and a mark on the died, ashen skin of her neck.
[Izzy Montoya] He suggests coffee, and she nods, slightly, buttoning her slacks and smoothing them over her hips, before slipping her gun holster into its place at the small of her back, and strapping the second, smaller weapon to her ankle. She tugs her shirt into place, and bushes her hair quickly, before she heads for her shoes and the door.
He asks if she wants him to drive, and she snorts. “I’ll drive.” She always drives – well, almost always. She has control issues. Shocking, right? So into her car, and she doesn’t light a cigarette up right away, though she’s jonsin. She does flip on her lights and make a u-turn into the coffee hut’s drive through, turning them off as she orders, knowing they’ve been rattled enough to get their coffee to them faster than normal.
Coffee in hand, first swallows taken, and she heads out to the woods and the location they were given.
Once there, she hangs her ID around her neck, and goes to the scene. A nod, as she’s identified, and she takes a cigarette from his pack, props it between her lips and starts the ritual search of her person for her lighter. “Jesus Christ. i hate kids.”
It’s muttered as she follows and grabs the offered flashlight, and studies the scene. “You call the ME yet?” She studies the scene, intently, as she listens to the report of what they know so far…. “ToD?”
[Something wicked] Derek declines the cigarette offer, drinking from his coffee. He follows Izzy and the detective as they talk, his brain stil lslightly fuzzy.
Russel answers Izzy “One has been called, he should be here shortly. As far as we could determine, the victim has been dead for a few months. How long we don’t know yet. The coroner i spoke to told me that if she was buried during winter, the fact might be blurred ofr the moment. The cold would’ve have preserved her longer. So best bet is between 2 to 6 months maybe. We have no id yet. ince it will more than likely become your crime scene, I did the minimun. The scene was inspected while we unearth the body, the ME was called, CSI is coming. I didn’t want to step over your toes.
Though we’re here if you need help, if not. I’m so going back to the station for the report then punching out”
[Izzy Montoya] Two to six months. She looks up at Derek, then back to the body. “Before Vivian then.” Sounds like they have a definite serial killer – perhaps as long as two years. She runs her fingers through her hair, briefly, then nods.
“Thanks. I don’t want anything touching anything until the ME and CSI have their chance to do their best work. Find out who those kids were that called this shit in – I want names, info and interviews to me by noon.”
Then, to Derek. “Need to set up a search parameter for the database – missing persons, blond, young, pretty, athletic – maybe going so far as to have gym memberships? – and see if we get any hits that will speed up identifying her.” a beat. “and any other possibles.”
She studies each person on the scene, then, and jerks her head toward the guy who had been with the smoker, digging something up when they pulled up. “What’s he got over there?”
[Something wicked] Russel nods “All right, will do that.” He picks his cell phone and starts dialing when Izzy speak to Derek “Hey Karren it’s Frank, can you trace the 911 call we got at 3:47? Yeah, the kids calling about a body in the woods. I need ot know who owns that phone. Yeah..thanks”
Derek nods to Izzy “Sure, let me make a call” He steps a little farther as he dial. “Hey Morris, it’s Anderson. I need you to check the computer for a missing woman, between 15 and 35 just to be sure, blond, fit, blue eyes. She’d gone missing between 2 and 6 months ago. I doubt it’ll say it..but check for missing gym members corresponding that description. Thanks man”
As Russel hangs up, Izzy ask him about the guy crouching “That’s my partner Levin.” He look at the man “Hey Lev, what you got?” The other man walks closer “It’s a ring. A guy’s ring. Though it could be one of the kid’s. It’s pretty dirty..might be someone else’s”
[Izzy Montoya] She nods as they both do what she asks them too, and then moves to meet Levin as he points out he has a ring. She snaps her fingers at a uniform and gets gloves put into her hands which she then pulls on, her cigarette still propped between her lips. She reaches for the ring, and studies it closely.
Just as she does the rest of the scene as the police go about their jobs, gathering what facts they can about the dead girl.
“How far away are we from the other one?” This, to Derek, almost softly, carelessly, without looking up from the ring.
Then, she sinks to a crouch, and seems to be watching everyone. She’s certain she’s not going to get anything later than the party – but she can at least know what she’s going to get herself into with those interviews…
and who knows. Maybe someone let something slip…
To everyone else, it’s montoya doing what she does. Watching. Thinking. Memorizing a scene. contemplating the meaning of life – something. Derek, though. He knows what she’s doing.
She’s listening.
[Echo, echo, kahseeno you whore gimme an echo!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7) [WP] Re-rolls: 1
[Something wicked] Levin let her take the ring and then move to speak with Russel. As they talk, the CSI unit arrives as well as the coroner. The 4 new persons wait as Derek raise one finger, knowing what Izzy was about to do.
Images flow into Izzy’s mind, flashes really, of a party, 7 young men and women, most seemingly really drunk. They seem ot be laughing, drinking, kissing, two left to make out, while two others were practically doing it in front of the others. A young man went further away, vomitting before coming back, wiping his mouth with his hand, then on his jeans, something glittering falling down around the spot where Levin had been, near where the body was discovered. Finally, another young man decided to put up a tent and shortly after they were screaming, packing things and running away.
She got names spoken in a very slurred way as the rest of their words: Miller, John, Donny, Lily, Prissy, Blue and Wrecker..also there seem to be a Miss Keller, who appears to be a btich, fat and smelly mentioned a few times.
Once she is out of her trance, Derek answer her question “We’re about 50 miles west of Vivian and 40 South of Katie.”
He motion to the the CSI unit and Coroner ot come closer now that Izzy was back amongst them. Quickly they started to do their things. They seemed to be all pros.
[Izzy Montoya] She closes her hand around the ring, and furrows her brow slightly, before she pulls out her notebook and writes down all the names she heard – just in case they miss one to interview. She looks at where Levin got the ring, and sighs. “Probably belongs to one of the kids.”
But she gets CSI to bag it anyway, and steps back to finally light her cigarette, and take another few swallows of her coffee as she watches the teams get to work. “And Carley? I know she was in the water – but still.” She’s trying to visualize the map on the board in her mind, still, always, forever searching for that one elusive thing that will cause it all to fall into place for her…
[Something wicked] “Carly was foud north of here, maybe a 100 miles from here. I odn’t know why she doesn’t fit the pattern, but my gut tells me she is part of all this.” He say, rubbing his stubbly cheek. He drinks form his coffee as he watches the CSI unit work. The coroner was kneeling beside the body, an uniform cop holding hte flashlight and following the man’s directives “Where’s Russel”The coroner ask, looking at Derek as he seemed to be the one in charge earlier.
Russle moves to the coroner and after a quick exchange of owrds he calls out “Montoya, Anderson, come here” They move closer and hte coroner looks at them “Russel told me you’re hte one in charge, so here’s my primary findings. This young woman was probably killed by strangulation. She has been beating…don’t know yet about sexual assault. I place the time of death during winter..she has been dead a while. For now that’s all I can tell you. Once CSI is done with her, she’ll be transferred ot the morge and I’ll do a more thorough exam of her later in the day. I should have results for you early afternoon”
He got up, waiting for answers as one of hte CSI team went ot the body for prints, and hten checking for clues on the ground, on the body, anything that could help them.
“Detective montoya, I’ll leave the scene to you and Anderson. I’ll have the info you wanted about the kids around noon tomorrow. I think there’s nothing more I can do here to help” Russel tells her. The coroner also look liek he’ll be leaving. The poor lighting wasn’t very conductive for an autopsy after all.
[Izzy Montoya] She nods, slightly. “Is there an access creek or something that might suggest she floated for any point in time – or she pretty much where she was dumped?”
She nods to the coroner when he gives his preliminary findings, and she pulls out her card. “Call me as soon as you’re finished and we’ll come by.” It’s too much to hope for that the perp got sloppy on this one, and left them a little hint.
She downs another bit of her coffee, and settles down to survey the scene again, simply thinking. watching. looking. All before she moves back toward where Levin found the ring – just double checking to see if there might have been something else that dropped, too.
[Something wicked] Derek shook his head “From what I gathered, she was dumped there by boat. She might have drifted a little but more than likely it wasn’t more than a mile or two.”He drank some more coffee as the coroner took Izzy’s card “Will do detective, good night”
Russel and Levin left the scene, wishing her luck, not taking a card. Russel had her number already. Izzy looked around, the darkness making hard to see anything, even with the help of flashlights. As much as she looks, there seem to be nothing of interest.
One of the CSI team member came to see her “Hello detective. So far we ain’t got much to tell you. The night is too dark and evne with hte bonefire, it’s hard to properly see. We haven’t found anything yet, but we’ll stay around until the sun come up. Then we can search more properly, unless you have other plans?”
[Izzy Montoya] Her brow furrows, slightly, at the news of the boat, but she nods. Likely only a mile or two. She needs to see if there’s a connection to where the bodies are being found, if there’s anything ritualistic at all – and right now, she doesn’t seem to have enough to go on.
CSI walks up and she shakes her head, slightly, at the question. She’s many things – but able to see in the dark is not one of them.
“No other plan. I’ll come by in the morning though – call me if you bail out before I get here, and take my card. I need the report as soon as possible.”
[Something wicked] The CSI woman nodded, taking her card “Will do detective” She nodded and went back to to her team, talking amongst each other as they start setting themselves up for a stay of a few hours at least. One of the uniform officers stayed with them, to lead them back to the road. The other one waited ofr Izzy and Derek to be ready and took them back to their car.
Derek leans into the seat as he finishes his coffe “What do you think? Should we expect more older bodies? And oyu think we’ll have a new one before this is over?” He didn’t seem to enjoy both options. He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking tired. It was his first homicide case after all. As strong and tough he was, it was taking it’s toll. His phone rings and after a short talk, he looks at Izzy
“dylan said that there are 8 possible woman who’s gone missing in the last 6 months that could fit the description I gave him. He’s sending me their files. I should have them in my e-mail box in a few minutes. We can always check them back ho..i meant at your place. Sorry..I’m tired”He says with a sheepish smile.
[Izzy Montoya] She studies the scene for a little while longer, watching the team ready themselves for their stay, before she nods to the uniformed officer and heads back to the care. She settles into the seat, and drags her fingers through her hair with a sigh.
“Yeah. I think there’s more bodies. And I’m afraid there’s someone already fuckin’ takin too, and got the feelin that we’re runnin out of fuckin time..”
She doesn’t enjoy either possibility, and shakes her head, slightly. He looks tired. She remembers her first homicide. It sticks with you – and by the end, you know for sure if it’s what you want to do… she has never wanted to do anything else, but she’d never fault him for being done after this first one.
She looks at him, and then reaches across the seat to slide her hand briefly against his thigh. Understanding. companionship. Something in the touch she’s not ready to define, or is unable to, or simply too far in denial. She moves her hand away when he takes the call, staring out the window for the duration.
Then, she nods, slightly, when he says he’ll have the files. And lips curl into a slight smirk as he slips up and calls her place home. And apologizes. She doesn’t say anything, just puts the car into gear, and heads them back into traffic, and towards ho…her place.
[Something wicked] “I’m afraid of that as wel. prolific bastard he is”
He had smiled at her touch and is silent during the drive, looking out the window, awake now with the mix of adrenaline and cafeine. Once they park, he get out, stretching slightly, moving to he side so they could go back inside her appartment building. They take the stairs and get back inside her place
“I’m going to get a beer, want anything?”He asks her as he takes off his shoes then walks toward the kitchen, taking his shirt off “And want to check those files right now or tomorrow morning?”He calls out as he dispears into the kitchen. He comes back out shortly with a beer for him and one for her if she wanted one
[Izzy Montoya] When they get to her place (or, as it’s commonly called it seems – home) she slips from her shoes and goes to stand in front of the murder board, her arms crossed in front of her. She hears him moving around, taking off his shoes and shirt, and…
“A beer. And tonight – I won’t be able to sleep without looking at them first.” She hasn’t even taken off her weapon yet, as she usually does in the little room by the door thats set up as a coat closet. She grabs the marker and adds in the desecript and location of the newly discovered victim, and drags a map from her drawer to add up there, marking where each of the girls was found – and if known, where they were taken, too.
[Something wicked] (pause)