𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗 | 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐄
SHE WAS A NIGHTMARE.
As in the woman who had been sent to work alongside me, my mandated help supposedly, ex CIA and FBI, Private Investigator, Sevda Nasrin. I was trying not to glare at her, especially while we were surrounded by other's in the office, and Jameson was clearly on the verge of drooling. Even I couldn't deny she possessed a certain authority, one that radiated off her waves of golden hair.
Peters should have sent Lee down, that would have been far more productive for me. He was incredible at what he did and he was possibly the only person I trusted at the BAU. Instead, I was having my emails bounced back from Peters and given the cold shoulder, while he pushed forward the apparent investigation into the mishaps during the Valadi case.
"Do you always have a frown on your face?"
Sevda casually approached me, coming close enough that I could smell her fragrance, it was too much for me and I considered turning around and heading to the file room, just to avoid the conversation we were about to have.
"Continue to ignore me and I will start to think that you're a misogynistic pig."
"Don't get it twisted." I immediately interrupted her. "That is far from the truth. I just don't know you and don't appreciate being blind-sided on my case."
"Your case?" She drawled. "We're in another jurisdiction, Agent Thayer. We're here to help Detective Jameson. I'd say we're working for him. Peters requested I use my skills and put them to work with you. He claims you're one of their best Profilers."
"The best." I muttered, not amused by her commentary.
"I'm inclined to believe that." Sevda hummed. "After all, Peters was the one who helped me reach my full potential. Whatever you say, SSA Thayer."
Kissass.
I glanced over her shoulder and saw Jameson addressing the dispatchers on duty tonight, who he needed to help fend off the group of women that were gathering outside, before concluding there wasn't really anything else to discuss with Sevda. My elbows were folded and resting behind me while my spine reclined on the desk.
She chose to join me, but she instead leaped onto the wood and sat down with her legs crossed in front of her. I could already sense that she was the type to have it her way, there wasn't going to be any reasoning with her and I was stuck working with her and had no idea how long the investigation and case would last.
We were both adults, we could work side by side, but I knew she did things on her own terms and was very particular about it. Still, I wasn't going to let her hijack the one thing I had an upper hand in. Jameson perhaps agreed, because he beckoned me towards his office, only Sevda trailed closely behind.
"Special Agent Nasrin, at your service." She introduced.
"I'm happy you flew out today." Jameson nodded at Sevda, acknowledging her with grace. "Glad you're here."
"Glad to be here, Detective." She returned, smugly glancing at me, while I attempted to keep my frown firm. "I've done a little research into the matter already. Both the trafficking issue and the murders. We're sure they aren't interconnected?"
"I already suggested that." I said through clenched teeth, trying not to lose my cool. "Apparently not."
They had to be connected somehow.
"Two things to note today." Jameson piped up, going around his desk as he pointed at a stack of files. "Another body was found last night at Terence woods, a hiker had to come across the corpse on a trail. It had been there for a few days. We know that the killings at first were sporadic, but lately it's become calculated and consistent. They are a few weeks apart and there's obviously a certain demographic that's being targeted."
He continued with a deep disgruntled look. "It's disturbing that this perpetrator makes a point of making a spectacle out of the bodies of the deceased, stabs them in the back, wraps them up in saran wrap and makes sure a vessel of theirs has burst to paint their skin with their own blood! As if tensions couldn't get worse in this melting pot of a town, another group of girls have been reported missing, within the course of a fortnight. That explains the mother's outside the building right now, all of them begging for me to help them find their teenage daughters."
Sevda quickly sat up straight and went into defence mode, building steel barriers around herself. Knowing what was going through her head, I focused only on the pile of papers adorning Jameson's desk. Although I had dealt with cases of human trafficking before, they were never enjoyable to deal with because they always involved grieving, broken-hearted families who pleaded for answers that weren't easy to give.
The reality was, missing teenage girls could mean one of two things. Either they were being held somewhere, tortured in ways hard to stomach, or they were gone, and no one was ever going to see them again. I didn't want to ever believe the latter.
Jameson sighed, as if he was firm on his conclusions. "I want you to focus on who's killing civilians. That should be priority. It is certainly mine. I know it's not what you want to hear, but Moors is on my back."
I exchanged a glance with Sevda, though she beat me to it. "Respectfully, I think we need to equally prioritise the literal trafficking situation. Balance both at the same time."
"Agreed." I bit out, trying to control my simmering rage.
"I understand." Jameson fumbled with himself. "Chief Moors calls the shots here though and he wants this kept under wraps for the time being. The town is already shaken up. There's only so much I can do."
"I'm not saying that we need to publicise this news to the media, yet. I think it's imperative that resources be distributed to this concerning cause. If Terence can't accommodate dispatching more troops, and trying to keep watch of what happens within its borders, I have friends up in places that can help." Sevda appeared pink around the edges and I for one, didn't blame her.
"There's a way to do things around here." Jameson groaned defeatedly. "But we have to work together and be transparent."
"Sure." I started to say. "While I agree with you that catching the serial killer is very important, we can't ignore the fact that a group of kids are missing. Chief might be able to hold us back from going to the reporters, but it's only a matter of time, before the parents out there all band together and riot. Who's going to stop them?"
"For now, Nasrin and Chief Moors will keep them at bay." Jameson nodded at her. "Thayer, I need you to come with me and collaborate with my team. We need to go to the hiking trail the last body was found and investigate further, before the final cleanup."
Kris Jameson wasn't playing. He was making use of his position, surnames and all. It was the only way to enforce that we were on Philadelphia soil, on his turf and had to play by his rules. Sevda would have argued, I thought a fuse was going to burst in her brain, but she also understood the urgency of the crowd gathering and excused herself.
The detective's interaction with me was abruptly cut short by the sound of his phone ringing. I scowled, but because I didn't need his counsel, I left the room and conversed with the Terence PD patrol Officers who were getting ready to investigate the most recent crime scene.
The drive to the hiking trail was a silent one, we were dispatched after Jameson set off in the car before us, once briefing the officer's with me what things we would be clueing in on. Tense, but eager to get down to it, I stepped out of the vehicle and breathed in the salted air, surrounded by skeletal trees that loomed over me.
The area was desolate, save for the bands of yellow and white that surrounded clusters of branches and trees, and even though the body in question wasn't there anymore, remnants clearly were. I harshly sucked in a deep breath and headed in the direction of crimson, splattering a bark, ever so faintly.
I caressed the timber while wearing gloves, feeling grit and filth under my nails as I skimmed what was unmistakably dried blood. Exhaling allowed me to smell the battle and desperation that had occurred here; the victim had certainly struggled and, based on circumstances, had made an attempt to flee.
"The victim hasn't been identified yet." Jameson gruffly said. "He was found with nothing on him."
"Not even a wallet?" I questioned, getting down on my haunches. "That's really fucking weird, excuse my French. I read through the files, weaved through each occurrence and it's absurd."
"If you think that's weird, wait till you hear how we only have one Coroner and ME that's on the case and trying to decipher things." Jameson said bitterly.
"I would think that the people of this town who are paying taxes won't be happy knowing their money is getting wasted on tourism attractions and infrastructure —rather than bettering crime rates." I frowned.
"Take that up with the Mayor." Jameson grumbled.
"Who would that be?" I said, sighing.
"Alba Khanum."
I stilled for a moment, alarm bells ringing in my ears at the name drop. Because it belonged to Elyas and Naomi's uncle. Though he had started out as a political figure of some sort, an influential one at that too, he had branched out to hone in more power.
Pleasantly surprised, I acknowledged the news and made a gruff sound, as if sounding my approval. I had never met the man, but if he was anything like the Khanum sibling's and their parents, he was a good candidate.
But even if their uncle was now part of the town's planning and order, I knew he still lacked power and it was everything to do with his skin colour. They may have voted him in to show diversity and inclusion, but that was the purpose, to tick a box and show solidarity. It made sense, after a woman who was his sister-in-law and a man that was his brother were slaughtered, and no justice had been served, they had to put a cork in his mouth somehow.
A promotion shut him up.
"What are you looking at?" Jameson called out, snapping me out of my trance.
I was looking intently at the tree marked by the victim's handprint before lowering my gaze to the leaf and gravel earth and looking for something that wasn't there. Come to think of it, the print was in a position which indicated that it was carefully put there, and not in a rush.
I couldn't help but allow some vulgarities escape through my wide lips as I ran a palm over my jaw. Even though I already knew Forensics had been here and completely destroyed the area, the idea that other evidence might have gone unnoticed, like fucking footprints, was making me angry.
"Don't sweat it." Jameson said through clenched teeth, at my side. "Forensics can be a pain in the ass, Moors is trying to get them to speed up the process. He's been taking on more expert opinions, since the last few months. This is the first time any wider resources are being used at all."
"After a year of murders left unresolved?" I burst out, startled.
"It was tactical, until it wasn't." Jameson exhaled. "Now it's overkill. Hence we called in the big guns. FBI, CIA, you name it. It's just covert."
"Crime scenes deteriorate rapidly, Kris." I frowned. "Fingerprints and footprints fade. Without even mentioning the extensive training in post-mortem lividity, ballistics, neuro-linquistics, and proxemics, which is itself highly expensive, the Philadelphia Terence PD lacks the means to take images, engage digital forensics experts, serologists, or blood splatter specialists. The main road cannot be closed for much longer; people need to get on with their life, especially if you're aiming to keep every shit that happens here under wraps."
"I hope you're not trying to patronise me, Blaze." Jameson flatly stated. "The initial walk through, documentation and recording has already been processed. A secondary look too. We've secured all evidence, it's a case of patience now. This isn't in our control anymore. Let everybody else do their job. Moors has already escalated it."
"What is in our control?" I rose from my position, planting a hand on my hip.
"We know the victim was a young, blonde male, in his mid to late twenties." Jameson shared. "That's not helpful on its own, but he's one of three within this month alone. When you look at the bigger picture, you start to realise, they were all nobodies."
"I disagree." I drawled. "All these murders are linked somehow. There's a reason they were picked. Targeted. This helps me establish victimology. I'd ask you speak to Moors about getting more patrolmen on the streets. We don't know how far this goes. I need all the files, not just the briefs. We need to start from the beginning, the first kill. This killer has a motive, we just need to backtrack, and make the connections, they'll mess up somewhere, that's when we'll catch them."
"Him." Jameson muttered. "It's a him."
"What makes you so damn sure?" I respond.
"Probably the size of the footprints." Jameson shrugged. "Or more so the fact that the people who live up the hill spotted the perpetrator scaling the area for a few days now."
"Why didn't you start with that?" I exasperatedly said. "Do we have any images?"
"No, we have multiple witnesses." Jameson stated, lips lifted ever so slightly.
"Then let's fucking get to it." I threw my hands out. "Now."
"It's going to be rough working with you." He chuckled.
"Glad you're humoured." I briskly said. "Today would be nice."
"Peters told me you're an impatient ass, he also told me to all but keep you on a leash." Jameson snorted, heading in the opposite direction. "Free thinker or not, just clue me in, whatever you do. There are procedures and protocols to follow. You need extra resources, let me know. I know you've always had that independent swagger growing up, saw it plenty. But we're a team."
"I need an extra pair of eyes." I admitted. "Lee Hwang."
"Who might that be?" Jameson pondered.
"A smart-ass Analyst, back in Quantico." I indulged him.
"Is he any good?" Jameson questioned, curious.
"I could bury him in evidence." I scoffed. "He'd resurface with material that didn't exist in the first place."
Detective Jameson merely nodded at me, as if he didn't need to think on what I was asking of him any longer, he had made up his mind after all. "I'll make it happen."
If I was actually an expressive person, I would have smiled. But I pressed my lips together and returned a nod of acknowledgment.
Jameson definitely wanted to let me act independently while Peters desired to keep me on a tether. Lee's arrival would provide me with more than enough assets, and the sooner this particular case was closed, the faster I could go back to my prior job and obliterate the Valadi case in my wake.
Samuel Peters was right about one thing, I did take that case seriously. By doing so I may have jeopardised the lives of many Agents of the Bureau, but it was all part of a bigger plan, to take down the bad guy that nobody could get —not until I came along.
I was hot on the trail, determined to meet my end goal, knowing my father had been the one on Valadi's back in the first place, and that was what got him killed.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
When I write, I truly just let things pan out on its own. So really, each chapter ending comes as a surprise to me. I'm right there with you, dear readers.