Chapter 8: Kink Gone Wrong

As darkness looms over the city of New York, Caine stands just beside his car's hood as Morrel gets out of the passenger's seat, both looking at the apartment complex that is now surrounded by uniformed officers. Even though it's in the middle of the night and the winds of winter are starting to get worse, neighbors of the complex surrounded the place, standing just outside the police line that had been set up.

"I guess the nickname checks out." Morrle observed the audience and commented. "The city that never sleeps."

"Mostly true, for better or worse." Caine made a humming sound. "Let's go."

Without wasting more time, the duo walked towards the scene, passing the line as they flashed their badges. A local police officer then went to talk to them, greeting the detective.

"Evenin' detectives." The cop extended his hand to Caine and Morrel, who both grasped it. "Name's Moreno."

"Evening, officer." Caine nodded, and the group then continued to enter the complex, heading towards the stairs to climb up the floors. "So, tell me, what's the deal?"

"It's bad..." Moreno stated solemnly. "When one of the neighbors noticed a strange smell coming from outside the window, she called 911. She stated that she looked outside and observed that the windows in the room next to her were also open, so she went there to knock, to see if there was something wrong, y'know? Turns out, the door wasn't locked, and when the neighbor went inside, she saw it."

"Saw what?" Morrel inquired.

Moreno let out a sigh. "You'll have to see for yourself, ma'am."

Then Moreno came to the end of the corridor and opened a certain door. Caine noticed a... horrible sight inside the room. There was a woman in the corner of the room; she was naked and hanging upside down; her body was tied up in a sensual manner if not for the circumstances; ropeburn marks were evident to the naked eye; and, worst of all, her head had been cleanly chopped off.

What happened to her head? It was right next to her dangling body, neatly placed on the floor; her eyes were closed, and her mouth was gagged with, well, one of those ball gags used during sex.

But Caine detects something odd about this situation. There was no pool of blood on the floor where the victim's corpse was hanging; there was only a thin trickle of dried blood, but that was it. It appears to be... clean. Too spotless.

"Jesus Christ…" Morrel mumbled, massaging her already creased brow from the sight.

Caine proceeded to go closer to the dead, cautiously wearing his gloves to avoid contaminating the scene. He inhaled deeply, surreptitiously sniffing the location; his senses were assaulted by the scent of fresh blood, sex, and sweat, yet in between all of that, he could smell citrus, most likely from cologne.

"You got id on the girl?" Morrel asked the cop next to her as she took out her notes.

"So far, no luck; there's nothing around here except a bed and, uh, toys." Moreno murmured awkwardly, pointing to the bed in the corner of the room, which was accompanied by a box.

"Nothing?" Caine inquired, his gaze drawn to a couple of marks on the floor, indications of older furniture.

"Yeah, the landlord said that the last time this place was filled with things was probably around a year ago."

"So this place is being rented out for prostitution instead?" Caine went on.

"Prostitution?"

"It's quite obvious, officer." Caine stated. "She was doing BDSM, in a room with only a bed and some toys, a desperate prostitute at the very least, an escort maybe."

The officer nodded. "I suppose so. You need to speak with the landlord again."

Caine then strolled around the dangling body, inspecting every inch of it for anything that could lead to something. He brushed against the vic's thighs, which were rigid and yet warm.

"Rigor Mortis." Caine stated. "She died at least 2 hours ago; her body is still a little warm, so she died at most 12 hours ago. Say, what does the neighbor smell that makes her want to check on this room?"

"Well, here." The officer took a note from his pocket. "She stated that she smelled an unusually strong metallic odor from the outside, so most likely blood."

"That makes sense."

Caine only hummed as he bent towards the floor beneath the body. He gently touched the wooden floor, and upon closer inspection, a circular hollow clump of blood had formed.

He stood up again and walked to the back of the body. Her hand was bound behind her back, and there are no obvious wounds that would indicate a struggle other than the rope burns.

"Are there any CCTV cameras around here?" Morrel inquired of the cop once more.

"Yeah, just around the corner; we're trying to get the recording right now." The officer nodded. "Once it's finished, I'll send it to the station."

"What about eyewitnesses? Apart from the neighbor, of course."

"My colleagues are currently questioning the other tenants, so perhaps we'll learn something from them."

Caine crouched in front of the separated head and carefully picked it up as Morrel continued to converse with Moreno. It was covered in dried blood, as if it had been showered in it, but again, no indication of a pool of blood could be found. There were no bruises or marks of a blindfold, but a blindfold doesn't leave many. Below it, a blood clot discolored the flooring in a circular manner, identical to the one beneath the body but much smaller. He examined the wound; it was clean all the way to the bone. Only a few weapons are capable of doing so. Caine opened the head's eyelids, and there was undoubtedly no response to the light or any corneal reflex, and she didn't appear to be in pain when she died, indicating that it happened swiftly.

Finally, he stepped up and put the separated head on the floor.

"Done?" Morrel inquired. "What do you think?"

"Well, obviously, the cause of death is decapitation. Her neck was cut clean, and even the bones didn't have any significant chip, so we can narrow down our murder weapon by a lot." Caine murmured. "As for her... She's at least a prostitute, and the murderer is her client; from the looks of it, he's into BDSM, or he just wants to make her susceptible... but it's odd..."

Morrel furrowed her brows. "What's odd?"

"It's difficult to bring a weapon as sharp as this one without the victim noticing." Caine stated. "Which means she actually let him in with the weapon itself. but there is no evidence if it is the case, there are no signs of struggle anywhere."

"Well, the killer could bring the weapon after he tied her." Morrel pointed this out.

"Perhaps, but she isn't wearing a blindfold; she will notice the killer bringing the weapon into the room. But, on the other hand, perhaps the killer removed her blindfold after killing her."

"Okay… What's the motive then? It's not every day that a man decapitates a prostitute. During the act, no less."

Caine scoffed. "You'd be surprised how many people were into that kind of stuff. Come here."

Morrel followed Caine's lead and crouched to see the floor beneath the body.

"See anything?" Caine asked.

"I see… Is it a circle? Formed by a blood clot, right?"

"Right." Caine gave a nod. "How do you think this clot shape could be formed?"

"Well, a bucket maybe?" Morrel responded. "Water used to form in the base of the bucket if we filled it. So the killer put a bucket below her? To drain her?"

Caine made a humming sound. "Possibly."

"But why?"

"Hard to say, really." Caine stated. "Easy cleaning, a personal kink, so the body isn't discovered quickly, so the blood doesn't spill downstairs, there are many reasons."

or harvesting their blood for consumption.

"This is... quite demented."

Caine chuckled and rose from his position. "Welcome to the homicide desk, Morrel. You've got plenty more to see. Come on, let the CSI look into this more thoroughly; we need to interview the witnesses."