2 Borrowed Information

Alaina's daily dose of coffee allowed her normal routine to be accomplished much more efficiently. She entered her room and approached her rickety wood dresser, and from there she foraged for a pair of dark jeans and a cotton t-shirt. Achieving her goal she was soon dressed and ready in front of her cracked mirror hidden away at the edge of her bathroom door.

She washed her face to get rid of the crust burdening her eyes only to see her shockingly ugly face staring back at her. Her lips twitched as she stared back at her reflection; revealing a pair of brooding black eyes somehow matching her auburn curly hair. Everything was tied together with a pair of chapped lips crying out for help atop an extremely pale face. Alaina pinched her cheeks to add a bit of color but ultimately decided nothing would fix the large dark circles under her eyes nor her muted complexion.

A loud banging on her door roused her from her self-pitying thoughts with a flourish. Alaina snagged her old trench coat on her way to stop the abusive banging upon her door. She ripped the door open to see her good ol' partner in crime Hayes. Hayes glared at her with annoyance and said, "About time."

Hayes was a man with looks that implied he could've chosen the career path of a model or a famous entertainer, yet had chosen a different path. His rich brown skin and faintly hazel eyes drew people in to listen as he spoke. Currently his flaming rage gave off the vibe that one should be on tip-toes around him.

He harshly pushed past her, his aura of anger almost palpable.

"Who's the one who said to calm down earlier?" Alaina grumbled under her breath at the mistreatment towards her.

"What did you say?" Hayes refuted. His eyes expressed his desire to fight.

"Nothing. What'd the precinct say? You get any info?"

Hayes expressed his discomfort at both the question and Alaina's disgusting apartment. With a sigh he sat down on her plastic lawn chairs in her kitchen saying, "None. Apparently one of the other private detectives leaked some of the details of the case to the media. Now none of the officers are even willing to look at us straight in the face, much less be willing to share their investigation."

Alaina's eyes grew dark with his comments. "They gave you nothing at all? What happened to your..."friend" in the agency?"

Hayes eyes lit up a bit when she asked. His anger almost seemed to abate a bit. "While it's true I got no official information, my "friend" did indeed gave me at least an overall analysis-though lacking a bit of detail."

From within the messenger bag Hayes always carried around he pulled out a beige file. Carefully he set it on the fold-up table, where Alaina soon opened the file with intrigue in her eyes. The file was greatly redacted after the initial summary, and if all redacted information was true it seemed the officers were actually capable of doing their jobs. Disappointed at not being able to look past the overall summary Alaina finally started to read.

"It seems exactly like the same homicide as the other victims. The mutilated bodies, the distinctive lack of blood, and the sudden attack seemingly without warning. Hayes, what I can't understand is what connects the victims together. This fourth victim is distinctly different compared to the other three. This one is clearly a Caucasian male teacher with no particular qualities that stand out. The other three had vastly different profiles; for example, the African-American female teenager, the Asian male twenty-year old, and the Caucasian female mother."

Hayes face scrunched up a bit at Alaina's analysis. "There has to be something. Most serial killers don't pick their victims randomly."

Alaina rubbed her forehead with stress. At the back of her mind she casually remembered her peaceful days where she would only have to deal with petty disputes like missing cats or slashed tires. The most she would ever have to deal with was trying to find someone's mother from hidden adoptive records, or dealing with small domestic violence claims. And before this week started with these horrific events, her biggest concern for the town itself was whether its industrial businesses would become greener.

She pinched her arm to help wake herself up from her reminiscing. Now she had to deal with a psychotic serial killer, and dreaming about the old days wasn't going to help anything.

Suddenly, a light bulb appeared to go off above her head as she came to a brilliant conclusion.

"I know! Why don't we head over to the crime scene? It's only been a few hours, and according to the area the victim was attacked it's not extremely populated. I would have my bets on the body still being there. Rather than try to draw conclusions from half-baked evidence, why not attempt to understand what's going on more?"

Hayes said, "I'm not quite sure if that's a good idea..."

"Come on, the two of us are pretty efficient at being quiet. We can wait it out till the investigators take a break to sneak a quick peak at the body. The files from the other victims the precinct gave us were also heavily redacted, so there could be a lot of things that we don't know about," Alaina encouraged.

"Alright. But we need to make sure that we're back by 2:30."

Alaina looked at Hayes quizzically. Hayes smirked at her in response. "Forget the day of the week again Alaina?"

"What do you mean what day of the week-" Alaina stopped herself then slapped her forehead, "Jesus it's Monday isn't it!"

Hayes sighed. "Good thing your little sister is much more responsible than you, she woke herself up all by herself and rode the bus to school. Yeah, we need to pick her up after the school day ends. West Minister Elementary gets out at 2:30, remember?"

He stood up reluctantly while stretching his muscles, shaking his head at Alaina's stupidity. "We better head out to the crime scene then."