New Case

"I certainly find them interesting, Chief." I smiled.

"Now here is the file Detective, I will leave the rest to you." She said

There was a silence as the Chief left the office. It was soon disrupted by a chorus of yelps and "Good morning, Chiefs" from the hall.

"And she's gone." Said Liz with a sigh of relief

"You should get going soon too" replied Sam

"Yeah, yeah bye guys, do a good job on your case!" she called as she left, blonde ponytail swinging.

I sighed, knowing she'd be back around lunchtime, because her partner Joe Anderson was on leave for a shot. They were on Riot Control, and had been transferred to the city as backup. She was on desk jobs and filling until he was able to come back.

"Well," I said "we'd better get started on this case!" I rubbed my hands together excitedly, and opened the case folder.

The photos glared out at me from under their paperclip. Pictures of three people dead, laying in a mixture of their blood an their loved ones blood. A little girl, no more than six or seven, with her throat cut so deeply her neck half severed, and deep lacerations on her limbs. Her parents had been obviously tortured before they died. They had slash marks across their backs, the mother had been tied up, beaten, and raped. The father had been killed first from a blow to the head that cracked his head open, and his stomach had been slashed open, with his guts everywhere. The child had died last, likely forced to watch her parents suffering. The images didn't bother me though I'd seen so many murders, so it was just another job. But Sam, he was another story.

"If you're going to run out of the room, Sam, just tell me, I'll leave the door open, then you won't run into it ." I said testily.

"Sorry, Solar, but seeing all of those people just cut up their blood everywhere. I just don't know how you do it." Sam said apologetically. I gave him a sideways glance and saw he was looking a bit better. I showed him one of the tamer pictures, one of the woman's back, the deep lacerations that tore her down to the bone.

"See how the strikes ripped through the fabric? The scene report says it was a heavy muslin, so only a knife could have done this. A whip or something like that would have left bruising first, but these cuts don't have that. It looks like the fabric and skin were ripped with the same strike." I told him

"Ok but what about the father?" Said Sam, "he shows signs of bruising."

"I think he's different, there was a bloody crowbar found out side the house, so I think that was used on him." I stated

"Oh, so the sharp side was used to beat him and then the bent bit killed him?"

"Bingo!" I said "and the variety of weapons and the way they were killed leads me to believe there was more than one person that killed them. They would need at least two, but I think there were at least three. Two to hold the people down, and one to do the killing. This was probably planned, let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"We have a crime scene to visit."