6 City of Death

As James makes his way down the oak staircase and into the open plan kitchen/diner, where his wife, Scarlett is waiting with a mug of tea for him, "Cuppa honey?"

"How did you know?" James asks and carefully takes the mug from her and sits on the breakfast bar stool next to her.

"Long day?"

"I went involuntarily swimming."

"Oh that type of day. What's the case today?"

"Psychotic, author, serial killer with a giant car collection."

"So bigger than yours."

"Mine is a little group compared to his."

"Okay so, how are you doing this one?"

"I'm… undercover as a motoring journalist."

"I thought we talked about this! No more undercover work because of George." Scarlett shouts with emotion and loudly puts her cup down.

"It's my last one I promise, then we move to London."

"Okay… last one. Where are you with the case anyway?"

"Well his name is Arthur Barnes, and George gave me an idea."

"Oh shit that author, James be careful… like so careful you put dust back where it was." Scarlett answers with a shaky tone and her face loses all colour.

"Honey, what do you know? I know you're a support worker, but what's appeared?" James asks and rests a warm hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"A woman, in her mid-20s, came into the clinic all shaken up with blood dripping down her face. She needed a doctor, ASAP. So Doctor Sing came out and treated the bruises and stitched the cut in her hairline, I had to ask her the dreaded question… 'who did this?' she said…"

"Who Scarlett?"

"She said 'the author, Arthur Barnes'."

"Oh shit. Where would she be right now?" James questions and gets up in a quick-paced fashion.

"At home."

"What would the address be?"

"Hang on," Scarlett answers and opens up her laptop to pull up the woman's address, "Ah Jessica Lorde, Apartment C, Colour box flats, on Main Street, City of Orange."

"Okay honey, I have to go. Thank you!" and before Scarlett could say bye, James was gone with his gun and badge in hand. The next thing that was heard was the garage door open and a rumble of a matt black, Indian Scout Bobber fire up and shoot out of the garage.

"Oh, he's in a rush." Scarlett says to herself and pours a glass of red wine to then wrap herself in a blanket and wait for James to come home.

As James gets into the section of 'City of Orange' he dials Captain Connors, hoping he picks up, "Silver you better have a reason for calling."

"Connors, stop what you're doing and meet me at the address I pinged you."

"At this time?"

"Do you want this Victim dead or alive?"

"On my way." Connors ends the phone call and James nears Colour Box Flats, hoping Jessica is still alive.

"David Connors! Do not take the Shelby!" Sandra, Connors wife, shouts at him from the living room, over the sound of a documentary on the TV.

"Sandra. There is a woman's life in danger!" Connors shouts back, over the sound of the TV so she can hear him.

"Your life will be in danger if you take the Shelby." Sandra replies as she gets up and walks to the front door where Connors is standing.

"I don't have my Crown Vic." Connors answering as he remembers putting that in the precinct garage for some repairs.

"Here take the minivan," Sandra tells her husband bluntly, to then hand him the keys that have a pink fluffy pom pom attached to the end of the key fob.

"Right. The minivan. I'll make sure not to burn the clutch as I speed into the city." Connors tells his wife and exits before she changes her mind, and suggests one of the kid's bikes.

"The flats. Apartment C must be the loft box. Three levels. Three large apartments right?" James wonders and rides his bike onto the wide sidewalk to switch it off, get off and leave his helmet on a handlebar end. Walking up to the entrance door to discover there are more than three apartments… "SHIT!"

"I'm here, how are we doing this?" Connors questions as he gets out of his wife's minivan.

"You take the left side of C and I take the right side? And I'm guessing Sandra didn't want the kids to be woken up."

"Okay, and Just don't James."

"Great." James answers and shoots the door lock knowing there isn't time for ringing for someone to open the door. The two enter the building and rush up the stairs to floor C, to look for Jessica, the Victim of Arthur Barnes.

"Who are we looking for?" Connors questions and unholsters his personal revolver, to be ready for anything.

"Jessica Lorde, mid-20s. My wife is pretty resourceful." James answers hoping for no more questions from his captain, as the two split ways in search of Jessica Lorde.

The two knock on doors and ask residents questions, but no one knows who they are on about. Not one resident… until, "James!" Connors shouts loud enough to shake the whole floor awake.

"David? David!" James shouts back as he runs down the other corridor and into an open room, that wasn't forced open, "Oh shit…" and there in the living room was a female body with jumper cables attached to her earlobes. She was dead, from the electrocution caused by the giant car battery attached at the other end of the cables.

"I'll… I'll call the CSI team. See if they can find anything else other than a body." David answers, still stuttering over the way of torture and aimlessly wandering around the apartment.

"David, go home. I'll deal with it from here, you need to sleep. If you can." James tells his shaken up captain, who hasn't been like this since the Ripper copycat case.

"I'm okay."

"David. It's 1 am."

"Fine, just be done quick, you have a family. Remember?"

"I know, now go. Before CSI gets here and you're stuck with Luna." James explains as he remembers how David hates dealing with the 27-year-old, girlfriend switching, M.E, Named Doctor Elizabeth Luna.

"Fair point. I'm out." David quickly answers and before James could even say bye, he was out of the door and down the stairs, quicker than a robber on the run. But James didn't mind, he liked talking to Elizabeth, he in fact, though he'll never agree, likes listening to what drove the new girlfriend of her's away.

An hour later and, James having a small nap, he is awoken by the smell of a strong brewed coffee that has been waived under his nose by Elizabeth, the M.E. "Hello Liz, is that for me?"

"Well duhhh, and I have a fantastic thing to tell you too!" Liz answers and hands the black coffee with three sugars to James and picks up her matcha latte.

"Oh do tell." James quickly replies like a gossip girl from high school and sits up eager to hear what's new.

"So you know about Lilly, my girlfriend, well she asked how my day was yesterday and I explained that I pulled heavy-calibre rounds from a 35-year-old's chest and she was like, 'what?'. I reminded her I am a medical examiner and it's a part of my job to do such a thing, she wasn't the happiest with it…" Liz explains to a very intrigued James Silver.

"So what's your plan, Liz? She can't just hope for you to quit, you're an awesome M.E… you aren't thinking of quitting are you?" James wonders and edges closer on the sofa he's sat on and hoping Liz isn't planning on quitting.

"No, you idiot, I am not quitting. Who would I tell my drama to? I don't know what to do with Lilly that's all." Liz answers and lightly pushes James shoulder emphasizing she won't leave. She then gets up to grab her camera to start taking photos of the crime scene.

"Right, so tell her what you really want to say." James suggests, while putting a pair of blue gloves on to help with the scene and search for clues, hoping for something that will lead to linking Arthur Barnes to the case.

"Well true… I think you're gonna need to see this though." Liz answers and pulls a note from the dead woman's pocket, reading 'THE RACE IS ON…', "any ideas what this means?"

"I wish I knew, put it in an evidence bag for later. Tell me about the body." James politely demands, hoping Liz has some useful information about what happened.

"Well, to begin with, the woman was moved here. I can tell by the drag marks on the wooden floor leading to where she was left. There are lacerations all up and down her body from the torture she endured, this killer is very much killing for pleasure, if it was a simple killing, we would have found her days ago."

"How old is the body then?"

"From the discoloured skin to how rigid she is… 1 to 2… weeks."

"Weeks?! She was here for at most 2 weeks?!"

"Woah James, sip your coffee. Because it gets weirder… that car battery is a lead-acid battery, no new car uses a lead-acid battery."

"Get the crime lab team in here, find anything that is useful, from loose hairs to shoe dust. I want this apartment looked at twice over." James tells Liz with a very blunt tone and begins to walk out of the apartment.

"You seem like you've seen this sort of thing before…" Liz asks James wondering about why he reacted in that way, to how the murder played out.

"I'm not completely sure, thanks for the coffee, I have to make a trip to the cold case archive." James explains and before leaving he tells Liz, "I don't care what time it is, get the crime lab here. They can complain later."

"It's 4 am… they are going to be so pissed with you!" Liz shouts with a little laugh at the end, knowing James won't care.

"They are nerds! What are they gonna do? Throw a toy battleaxe at me." James shouts back knowing none of them will have the guts to challenge him against his 'requests'.