4 CHAPTER 3

EMILY

I Woke up to a text sent by Williams, reminding me of our little trip to New York today. I sighed, deciding to clean my apartment before we left. It was friday so I decided to wake up a few hours before heading to work and clean my apartment.

I dusted the furniture, vacuumed the floors, changed the sheets and scrubbed the bathrooms clean. I checked the time, finding it to read 7:15...I had 45 minutes left to get ready for work. So far I only had one lead on the case and I was determined to find out more about the victims and hopefully find out who killed them. This was going to be hard because if these murders were committed by gang members or the mafia, that would mean it would be almost impossible and dangerous to actually catch the killer or killers.

I grabbed 4 slices of bread, spreading them with butter and strawberry jam. After eating my breakfast, I took a shower and got dressed in blue denim jeans, a white tshirt and black ackled boots. I moved towards my mirror, fixing my neck length curly bob, applied my lip bulm to my lips and a mascara to my long lashes.

I grabbed my gun and badge from the dresser and my duffel bag on the bed. I decided to pack a few clothes because I'd be staying in New York for only one weekend. I scanned around my apartment, making sure to check if all the appliances had been switched off, I didn't want my apartment to catch fire. I nodded my head satisfied and locked my apartment.

I arrived at work just in time for the briefing.

I took a seat next to Williams.

"Goodmorning partner". I sighed at his happy tone.

"Morning Williams". He chuckled, clearly amused by my lack of enthusiasm of us being partners.

"I thought after that lunch two days ago we'd be tight". He pretended to look offended. I sighed and opened my mouth to answer him when Chief Stefanski's voice cut me off.

"Goodmorning everyone, its nice to actually see some of you present today." He said, glancing towards me. I rolled my eyes internally, avoiding disrespecting the chief.

"As you know we've been experiencing a series of cases, mostly murder cases. I don't know whats going on but people are being killed out there and it makes us look useless. People are starting to think we're slacking off and I don't want that. There's only one solution here, follow each and every lead you get. I don't care if its a dead end or a prank but do what you have to..

A woman was reported missing two days ago..Collins, I need you in charge of the case.. Stone, Williams, follow that lead of yours and make sure its something. Do not come back here without anything because if you do, I swear..."  He paused, taking a deep breath

"..Miles, you better find out who hijacked that woman as soon as possible.."

I practically zoned out during the rest of the briefing. My only concern was finding something or someone in New York that would help with my case. I didn't want to face Stefanski's wrath. I nodded to Williams and we moved to our office. I know, I'm not happy either..

"I think we should go over the clues and evidence of these victims, its possible that I may have missed something while going through them."

I sighed thinking about the tattoos. I wasn't sure why the first autopsies I had didn't have those details but I was determined to find out why. I was definitely certain that I had been given the wrong copies of the autopsies, meaning that the information I knew about the victims might've been half truths or false.

"I'm gonna head out for a sec."

"Huh? Stone..wait.." I left before he could say anything to stop me. I didn't want him to know that I was heading to the morgue where all of the autopsies of the six victims were.

After 30 minutes of driving, I arrived at the hospital where all of the victims were kept before they were buried. I walked towards the receptionist.

"Goodmorning, welcome to Saint Monica hospital how can we help you?" I flashed out my badge..

"Morning, I'm dectective Stone, I need to know about a victim who was admitted to this hospital's morgue a few days ago please." She nodded and I gave her the name of the latest victim. She clicked on her keyboard and nodded in conformation.

"Mr Santana's body has been claimed by a family member yesterday an.."

"Can I get the relative's name please." She sighed, shaking her head no but I quickly intervened before she could actually say no.

"Ma'am, I'm working on a serious case and Mr Santana is one of my victims. I need to find out who did this to him and why. This could help a lot in this case because maybe him and the other victims were killed by the same person". She sighed, complementing on whether to give me the information or not.

"Okay, his body was claimed by his brother, Kenny Santana." I thanked her and left the reception, making my way to the morgue. I flashed my badge at the security guard and made my way inside.

I didn't waste anytime, I immediately went through the steel filing cabinets, ignoring the dead bodies in the freezer. I searched through the records and finally landed on a name I recognized..Santiago Ferrell...one of the victims on my case.

I pulled out his file and took pictures, I scanned through the files and..Samuel Nermali...I took pictues of his file, and surprisingly Sanatan's file was next to Nermali's. I took a couple of pictures of his file too. I searched again through the steel filing cabinets and found the names of two victims on my case. I took pictures and landed on an unknown person's file. I pulled it out and found my John Doe's picture. I took pictures of the file. I sighed, satisfied with my work. I left the hospital and drove to a local cafe.

Odering a blueberry muffin and a latte, I sat down pulling my phone and notebook out. I went through each picture carefully, not wanting to miss any detail. So far the only truth about these victims were that they were killed in a similar way. They all showed signs of torture and strangulation. The waiter arrived with my food and I ate while scanning the pictures.

My eyes widened as I scanned through the the last victim's file..He had been killed a day before the 5th victim. His body had been frozen for a week before being dunped. Underneath his fingernails, there were traces of blood belonging to an unknown person. It might belong to who killed him...

That information wouldn't be of use because he was burried today if not yesterday. The first victim, Samuel Nermali and along with the 5 victims all had the name omerta tattooed on their bodies, these tattoos were about a week old on each victim...this was definently not in the copies of the autopsies I have...

Well that was definitely a clue. Why would new recruits in a gang or mafia be killed in such a short time of joining? That definitely questioned my theory. It might be someone luring his or her victims, giving them tattoos, killing them a week later and pinning it on a gang or mafia. If so, then he or she might be in dander because if those guys find out..I might never get the killer. After writing the new information and theories, I left the cafe around noon and drove back to the department.

I went straight to my and Williams's office..for now.. and found him going through the case file. I was happy to find him working on the case. It meant that he was serious about his job.

"Stone..where have you been? I've be.." I quickly cut him off.

"I'm sorry I went rogue on you Williams. I..I guess I was so used to working alone that I..But never mind that. I think I have a lead and another theory." He chuckled, shaking his head and got up from his chair. I handed him my phone. He frowned, not understanding but I told him to go through the pictures. After minutes of scanning, his eyes widened at the new information.

"Whoa.." I nodded in agreement. He seemed speechless for a few minutes, probably taking in the new information.

"This information probably changes everything. How did you even get this?"

"I went to the hospital where Santana's body was and I sneaked into the morgue." He chuckled.

"Well, I definitely knew that there is something special about you. I like how you work Stone." I smiled at the compliment.

"Now what do you think. Should we head out for New York or start with Santana's brother".

"I think New York should be our first stop. Let the Santanas grieve for now". I nodded my head in agreement. For the next two hours, we discussed about the new information we had on the case. We left the the office around 3pm as our flight was around 4:30pm.

"Damn Stone, I love your car!" I smirked and got in the driver's seat while Williams went into the passenger seat, dumping his bad on the backseat where mine was.

We drove to the airport with an hour to spare for our flight to New York.

We boarded the plane, leaving Miami in hopes of finding something that could lead us to the killer. I couldn't help but shake the feeling that we were going to stay a bit longer than we'd expected.