Welcome to Lakewood

Allie was on her way to work when her cell phone rang. Bruss was on the other end.

"I'd say good morning, but it's not good. It's only morning."

Has anyone ever told you that you are a ray of sunshine?

"No."

I know why.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I just got off the freeway," she said.

"Well, get back on. A body was found in Lakewood. From what I've been told, it's bad."

"Damn it. I'll see you there," she hung up the phone.

Aren't all dead bodies bad?

"I prefer the word tragic. Oh shit!"

Why are we shitting?

"Dean is going to be there."

DEAN? Are we on a first-name basis?

"Each time you speak, my brain cells commit suicide."

That was good. I'll admit it.

"Is your ass aware your head moved in?"

Okay, that one deserves a trophy.

She rolled her eyes and got back onto the freeway.

Are you looking for a brain? I don't think you're going to find one.

"I don't know what makes you stupid, but it's working."

Someone needs another night in the back of a big black truck.

"What do you know about the night in the big black truck? You aren't allowed to watch me have sex. Remember?"

Holy shit! You had sex in the back of his big black truck!

"I thought you knew."

I do now!

"We do not speak of this. Do you understand? It never should have happened."

Was it good?

"I said we are not talking about it."

That bad, huh?

"No, actually, it was incredible. I would say it was in the top three of all-time sexual experiences."

Who has the other two?

"You don't want to know."

I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know.

"You most likely thought it was you. It wasn't you."

Well?

"It wasn't you."

You could have lied.

"I don't lie. It complicates things. And what is going on between you and me right now is complicated enough."

She arrived on the scene. There weren't as many cops for this body. Those who were there all looked despondent. They were moving very slowly, avoiding the body as much as possible. Allie showed her badge and was let behind the yellow crime scene tape. Makayla was talking to Bruss and Dean. The body was uncovered except for her midsection. She was using her pen to point out an area on the body. As Allie approached, the carnage came into sight.

"Oh, sweet mother of God," she mumbled.

She stood there, unable to say anything. Her heart fell. She stared at the bloody, beaten, torn apart.

She was standing in the dust and heat. She was walking her usual route. She came around the corner of a small house. She stopped in her tracks. At her feet were four girls. They were naked, battered, bloody, and void of life. She bent down and felt each one for a pulse. All four were dead. They had been kicked, beaten, mutilated, and most likely raped. Their faces were disfigured; one still had her eyes open, one had her skull caved in, one had the skin removed from half of her face, what remained were burn scars, and the last had a mutilated pelvis. It was done while all of them were still alive. You could tell by the blood pool around the bodies.

She dropped to her knees and keyed up her com. She cleared her throat.

"Malibu, get the guys over here. Now."

Two minutes later, she was joined by her fellow squad members. A couple of them had to look away and compose themselves. One, who they called Twizzler because of his red hair, vomited on sight. This was their first deployment, and they were young. They had not seen the true horrors of war yet.

She spoke with authority. Being the lead sniper put her in charge of the routes and the squad.

"We need to move them. We cannot leave them out here; they're just kids."

She motioned for help. Everyone but Malibu just stood there.

"NOW!" she said, raising her voice.

"You heard her. Move," Malibu said.

Her Marine unit began to pick up the bodies.

"Where are we putting them?" Falcon asked.

"We should put them back in the house," she said.

Malibu helped her pick up the girl with the broken skull. Her brain fell out and hit the sand.

"Mother of mercy," Cartman said, making the sign of the cross.

"Yeah, I think it's a little too late for that, but hey, thoughts and prayers, right?"

"Caretaker, come on."

She looked at Malibu. "This is retaliation, you know, for what we did. They knew I walked in this corridor every day. They knew I would find them. FUCK!"

"You don't know that Caretaker," Malibu said.

She looked at him with hatred in her expression. "Yes, I do. And so do you, Malibu.."

"You can't save everyone, so save the ones you can," he said.

"I would rather save these girls instead. I got them killed. I gave them the strength to stand up for themselves, and this is what happened."

The unit carried the girls back to their homes.

Allie has carried the guilt with her ever since.

"Kingston!" shouted Bruss.

She immediately came back from the place where the memory had captured her.

"Yeah. Yes. What exactly am I looking at?" Allie asked.

Makayla spoke. "You are looking at victim number three. She has been raped and cut open. She's not malnourished or dehydrated. The body seems relatively fresh. She was kept somewhere cold, so it slowed decomp. If I had to assume, I would say TOD a week ago.

"A week is considered fresh?" Dean asked.

"All I can tell you now is she was naked, beaten, and was cut post-mortem. Even though it's the same killer, this is so off-spec," Makala said to them.

"This poor girl went through hell," Dean said. "This was rage. Unequivocal rage. She did something to set this guy off."

I thought we left the war in the sand.

'The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.′ {Nietzsche}

"I am the wrong person to make your enemy. I am going to find him, and I am going to kill him, Malibu. I've done it before, and I'll do it again."

Caretaker, seek revenge, and you should dig two graves, one for yourself.

Makayla covered the victim.

"We need to move her. We can't leave her out here. She's just a kid," Allie said.

"I couldn't agree with you more," Makayla replied.

She waved her assistant over. He headed over, pushing the gurney. He laid the body bag down.

"Hey, Hercules, want to give me a hand?" the assistant asked, taking a backboard off the gurney.

He put the backboard and tucked it under her side. Dean was turning his signature shade of green.

He helped the assistant roll her over to the side and gently put her on the backboard. They picked her up, transferred her into the body bag, picked her back up, and set her gently on the gurney. The assistant nodded his head to signify a thank you and loaded the gurney into the van.

"We are going to get you used to being around dead victims. Unless by some miracle you catch the bastard before he kills again, and your services are no longer needed," Makayla smiled at him as she spoke.

"As much as it would suck to not work with you anymore, it is the most desirable outcome," he said.

"How about you, Allie? Will you miss Dean when he returns to the federal castle?" she asked.

Allie pursed her lips and stared at Makayla hard. She didn't answer the question; instead, she spoke to Bruss.

"Does Curtis know about this?"

"Yeah, he was at the station when the call came in," he said

"That's where we should be, too."

She got in her car and left for the station.

Bruss turned his attention to Dean. "She just completely ignored you. Did something happen?"

"If I did, I have no idea what it could have been."

"Want my opinion?" he asked.

"By all means."

"She's pushing you away. She's afraid to let you in. She likes you, Carron. I've never seen her like this with anyone before. I could be wrong, but I am never wrong when it comes to shit like this."

"Do you think it will be like this the entire time?"

"No. She's not going to keep a chip on her shoulder. She already has enough on her shoulders," he said.

"God, I hope not. Let's get back to the station. I'd rather have her ignore me where it's warm," he said.

The beeping sound echoed as the coroner van backed up to the office's back door. Makala and her assistant unloaded the gurney and wheeled it through the hall and into autopsy. She unzipped the bag. The victim's face had not changed. The two gently removed her body from the bag and slid her off the gurney onto the exam table.

"Thanks, Brandon, I got it from here," she said.

Brandon left, and she was now alone with the victim.

She put on a paper gown and latex gloves. This was the part of the autopsy that haunted her the most. It wasn't cutting her open or removing the organs; it was the rape exam. She needed to see and describe the extent of the trauma inflicted.

Makala turned on the recorder she used to document her findings as she went through the procedure. She slowly walked around the table, speaking into the small recorder.

"Cuyahoga County coroner Makayla Curtis starting the examination and the autopsy of Jane Doe. The time is 1342 hours. The date is Tuesday, March 17th."

She pressed a button to activate the table scale.

"The victim is a Caucasian female, 1.676 meters in length. She weighs 55.3 kilograms. Her hair is dyed blonde, and the roots of her hair appear to be medium brown. Her eyes are hazel in color."

She started by taking fingernail scrapings. She took the wooden scraping tool out of the kit and the small collection envelope. She slid the tool under each fingernail, depositing debris into the envelope. Next was the rape kit collection. She combed through the little pubic hair the victim had. It turned up nothing. Next, she examined the vaginal area. She took a swab from the inside of her vagina and put it in the plastic biohazard bag. After those were done, she took out another comb and combed through her hair. There was grass and dirt. She bagged up the debris.

"Victim has strangulation marks on her cervical spine. It appears to have been by hand. Finger-shaped bruises are evident. There is significant trauma to the posterior commissure, fourchette, vestibule, and the majora and minora labials. There is vaginal tearing due to forceful insertion. There appears to be a total lack of seminal fluid in the vaginal canal and trauma to the cervix," she said. "This must have been very painful for you to endure."

"Inspection of arms, wrists, and hands. Nothing remarkable was found. Examination of legs and feet. Nothing remarkable. Neck, ears, lips, external and internal, nothing remarkable. Her left orbital bone is broken. A nasal fracture is present caused by blunt force from a closed fist. Her left eye has a subconjunctival hemorrhage along with a blown pupil. The unsub used their hands," she took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and exhaled.

She turned the body onto its side and examined the back. "Significant trauma to the upper back around the scapular and interscapular regions exists. The victim may have been pushed, landing on her back on a firm surface. The back of her head has significant trauma. A break in the skull causes an indentation. The coccyx is broken. A broken tailbone, just like the others. This is getting more horrible by the minute."

Makayla stopped and rubbed her brow with the back of her hand.

She needed to take a break and get some air. She took off the gown and crumpled it on. She threw it, along with the gloves, in the bin. She had been sweating inside the autopsy room. She stepped outside and let the frigid air hit the moisture on her skin. It was a sweet relief.

After she had cooled down, she went back in for the internal autopsy. She put on a new gown and gloved up. She turned the recorder back on.

"Makala Curtis starting the internal autopsy of Jane Doe. A 12-inch laceration on her abdomen is approximately 4 inches deep. The adipose tissue is visible, and the intestines are still in tack," she said.

She opened her up with a Y incision. She removed each organ individually, weighing each one and notating the results. She moved on to the examination of the brain. After removing the scalp and the top portion of the skull, she severed the brain from the stem.

"The brain has severe damage. There are multiple hematomas. Repeated strikes to the back of the head cause these. It appears that it was not a hard object that hit the head. The head repeatedly struck on a firm surface, most likely the ground, due to the dirt and debris in the hair. I believe that after a close examination of the brain, damage to the skull and brain gray matter appears to have been deprived of oxygen. She died of asphyxiation before head trauma," she said.

She returned the organs to the body. With great care, she carefully sewed the incisions closed and gently washed the body. Brandon returned to help her put the body into the drawer in the refrigeration storage. He began cleaning up the room while Makala went to her desk. She called Allie and told her about her findings. She still had forty-five minutes left but decided to knock off early. She turned off the light on her desk, said goodnight to her assistant, and headed home.

Allie hung up the phone. Bruss and Dean had watched her during her conversation.

"Makayla found the cause of death. It was asphyxiation with repeated blunt-force trauma to the head. She deduced that her head was slammed repeatedly into the ground," she relayed to them.

"Asphyxiation and blunt force trauma? All the other girls died from loss of blood. Something happened to make him switch up his MO. She had a lot more physical damage done to her than any other previous victim. Either he's escalating, or that girl pissed him off," Dean said.

"Where are we on the ID?" she asked.

"I'm going through missing person reports. No one may have even realized she's gone," Bruss said as he held up a stack of papers.

"What about her prints we took on the scene?" she asked

"Nothing in AFIS. She hasn't been fingerprinted for employment or any other reason," Bruss answered.

"We need to figure out who this girl is. What can we do? We have to do more," she said

"Give me the print card. I'll take them with me when I head back to the castle," Dean said as he picked up the card. "There has to be a better way to get these faster."

Bruss waited to see if Allie would say something to Dean. After about 5 seconds, Bruss spoke up.

"That's a great idea. We were told we had use of your facilities if needed." Bruss said.

"You know I'm just going to head over now. The sooner we can get working on these, the better."

"All right, man. Let us know if you get anything useful," Bruss replied.

Dean grabbed his coat and left.

Bruss looked at Allie. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry. What did you say to me?" Allie asked.

He said what the hell is wrong with you.

"You should be sorry, and I know you heard me."

Yeah, you know you heard him.

"What are you talking about?"

"The way you're treating Carron. You're being more of an ice queen than usual," he said.

"I'm not treating him anyway. I haven't said anything nasty to him."

"You haven't said ANYTHING to him.," Bruss and Malibu said together.

"He thinks he did something wrong or has angered you somehow."

"He didn't do anything. I don't have anything to say to him, professionally or personally, and I don't need any new friends," she said.

"All right, I am about to say something to you as one of your two friends and your partner. You can't ignore him. We have to work with him, and he is a good agent. The more you edge him out, the more prone he will ask to be reassigned, and we will have to break in a new fed guy. So, whatever issues you have with him, all of a sudden, get over it. You don't have to be his friend, but you don't have to be a bitch. Don't let yesterday take up too much of today," he said

"If I do, will you get off my back?"

"You've got a very strong back."

"And when did you get so smart and philosophic?" she asked.

"When I started working with you."

"Kiss ass."

"While we are on the topic, you need to interact with some actual people."

"When did we approach that topic? I don't recall my social life coming up in conversation."

Want to visit the fact that you talk to a spirit more than you talk to people, living people?

"I talk to a figment of my imagination. Not a spirit. And I would LOVE to stop talking to you, but you are always here. You have yet to leave."

"It did. I told you I am one of your two friends. TWO FRIENDS!"

"Bruss, I went to 16 different schools in 12 years; I don't make friends. I leave people. And people leave me."

"Oh, Allie," he said with fake sympathy. "That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. Put your past behind you. We have to move forward. It's the only direction we have to choose from."

"Did you have Chinese food last night? Where are you getting all this horseshit advice?"

"I can do this all day," he said.

"You've got a powerful propensity to pester."

"I learned from Shelly,"