Love, Killa Parasite.

Chapter 2: The missing man

Place: The precinct, in a small town, Fairview, near Laceyville.

Time: 20:00 hours, 23 rd March.

A frantic woman and her daughter rush to the police station at eight in the evening.

“Sir! My husband has been missing since last night! He went out drinking with his friends, and hasn’t returned!”, the wife tells the policeman.

“Please fill out the details and wait! We will need to ask you some questions!”, the officer says in a tired voice.

It has been a long day, for Samuel Rocks, the Local Chief of police of a small town, he missed his kids dearly, for they live separately from him, after his wife filed for divorce due to his absence at home, he was supposed to take his son and daughter out to dinner but he was being held up at the precinct, due to a mugging, and now a new case has come in, a missing person at that. He looks at the worried wife and tired daughter who are now filling the forms. And hopes the husband is lying somewhere too drunk to move.

“Mrs.Bloom, does your husband have a usual spot wherein he hangs out with his buddies? Please provide a list of their names!” Chief Samuel says.

“He hangs out at white elephant, my husband and his friends drink, and gamble! But he always comes home in the morning, or by noon! This has never happened, officer, and last night, he took off with most of our savings, saying he was going to win tonight!” The wife tells with tears in her eyes.

“We will look into it Mam! Please do not worry! We shall do everything we can to look for your missing husband!” He says, trying to be as assuring as possible.

“My husband wasn’t the nicest man, you see! He drinks a lot, gambles all our money away, but I couldn’t break away from him! He used to threaten us that he would kill us if I divorced him! And he hangs around with this crazy gang in white elephant! I don’t know what he was up to these days!” The wife says almost blubbering with tears.

Samuel was not expecting this, he hands her a box of tissues. “Mam! This is a small town, nothing big happens here! I am sure we will find your husband! Please take care!” As he guides her out of the station, and oh boy! Was he wrong!

Afterwards, he sinks into his chair, and makes his calls, to set up a search party to search for Mr. James Bloom. He makes his way straight to the white elephant, a dirty quaint pub, in the middle of the town filled with drunken idiots, who gamble away their lives. After he questions a few inmates, the bartender, and the waitress, he finds that Mr. Bloom had won a round, and called it a night, and was on his way home from the white elephant. According to the barkeep none of his friends left the table. Chief Samuel was hoping he would get a lead, or find this James Bloom passed out on the road somewhere, as he retraced Mr. Bloom’s steps. Something in the back of his mind didn’t sit right. He felt uneasy. He went back to the police station, and waited for a call. A call he wouldn’t get until three days after.

The station phone rang with its usual shrill. One of Officer Samuel’s subordinates Gary answers it. And says, “Boss! They found Bloom! Patrick found him by the dumpster” Samuel makes his way to the location. They had found Mr. Bloom, but he was in a plastic bag with a bloody yellow rose, and a phrase on his chest that read, ‘Love, Killa Parasite’, along with a pentagram. Samuel and Patrick share a look. For, there is a new serial killer on the loose.

“Get ready Lieutenant Hall, it looks like we are going to the big city with Mr. Bloom here! Ask Gary to inform the wife and daughter.

Along with the victim’s body, Samuel and Patrick make their way to the big city near their town. “The state police will mostly take over the investigation from us!” Samuel says with a tired sigh.

“Those bloody leeches, don’t they have enough cases, them and their fancy personnel and equipment, we barely get cases like these!” Hill huffs.

“Which is a good thing, Lieutenant Hill!” Samuel says, in an angry tone and stare. He was never a huge fan of Patrick Hill, Samuel felt that man was not honest. He waved it off, as Patrick Hill was new to town, who has only been in town for the last three years, whereas his other people were all from Fairview.

They make their way to the coroner’s office, with the body. Max receives them and says, “You are the guys who called right from Fairview? My name is Dr. Max Carter, I have called Detective Miller, he will be down here shortly”.

Patrick interjects him, “Are you sure you up for it kid?

Samuel gives Patrick a long hard stare and says to Max, “I heard that the Forensic Pathologist was Dr. Katherine Hyde?”

Max laughs, “ Oh yes! She is the boss, she is actually at a conference, she will be down as soon as possible, I have called her, she is on her way! I’m her assistant! She asked me to only receive the body. No cutting for me without her supervision!”

Samuel nods to it.

As they wait for Detective. Luke Miller, Samuel stands by the body with Max, while Patrick moves around the room, examining things, he picks up a photo of Katherine and Luke off her table and asks, “This your boss? She is hot! Must be nice working with a hot lady!”

“Uh… yeah that’s Dr. Katherine! Please don’t touch her things, she doesn’t like people touching her stuff!” Max says, with an annoyed tone, while in truth Kate didn’t mind, Max never liked people invading someone else’s privacy.

“Lieutenant Hill!” Samuel yells. To which Patrick just raises his hands, and puts the picture down after a second look.

“Hello! Chief Rocks and Lieutenant Hill, I’m Detective Miller with the state police, I am here to get details from you regarding Mr. Bloom”. Luke says entering his girlfriend’s office.

“It’s a Pleasure meeting you!” Samuel says shaking Luke’s extended hand.

“Why are you all young? Chief I don’t think these young kids are up for it, I don’t think they will find the killer!” Patrick says and Luke ignores his extended hand and walks to the body.

“I will need Dr. Hyde, to confirm things for me! But this is definitely Parasite Killa’s work! Dr.Carter, please hand over the rose to Forensics” He says examining the body.

“Let’s hope your hot girlfriend is better at her job than you, Detective Miller!” Patrick says laughing.

Samuel was done Patrick, and he yells, “Go get coffee right now!”

Patrick extends his hand, and Samuel hands him some cash for the coffees.

“I am sorry! Detective Miller and Dr. Carter, Hill is a difficult person to deal with!” Samuel says with an embarrassed yet angry look.

To which Max just shrugs as he proceeds to collect samples, and Luke says, “Oh no! Chief! You shouldn’t be apologising! Believe me it’s not the first time I’m hearing it!”

“Well! You are young to be a detective! You must be good at what you do!” Samuel says.

To which Luke laughs and says, “This is the first time, I have heard that as a compliment!”

Patrick makes his way back to the coroners office, with a cup of coffee in his hand, and hands it over to Samuel.

“What about them? I gave you enough for four cups of coffee!” Samuel asks.

“Well.. I had mine in the shop, along with two muffins, and the waitress was hot so I gave her a huge tip and got her number!” He says.

Samuel wanted to punch Patrick’s face.

“Oh no! It’s ok! We just had our coffees here before you told us you were coming! I had to meet with my superiors and let them know, that is why I was late!” Luke says.

Just then Luke receives a message, “Babe! I am running late! Huge traffic pile up on the 45! Can you keep an eye on Max? He gets squeamish sometimes! Poor kid! I hope he can switch next year! Are the officers from Fairview here? God! I hate making others wait! Please tell them I am incredibly sorry! Missing you! It’s boring waiting!”

Luke smiles at the text. Typical of Kate to care for her assistant and he texts back, “He seems to be doing ok love! Don’t rush, Max has got all the details and I still have a few things to discuss with the chief! The lieutenant is a character, so glad you aren’t here! I miss you too! See you soon!”

Max’s phone dings, and it reads, “ I don’t know if Luke is there! Please don’t throw up on the body!”

To which Max replies, “Oh no! Too late!” With a laughing emoji.

“Dr. Hyde, apologises for not being here! Chief Samuel, can we move to the station? I have some questions for you and Lieutenant Hill!” Luke says adding a bitter tone when he mentions Hill’s name, pointing to the entrance.

Samuel follows Luke, while Patrick says, “Damn! Too bad I was looking forward to meeting the hot doctor!” Earning a glare from three pairs of eyes.

Place: The precinct in the city.

Time: 26th March, 20:30 hours.

It was chaos at the precinct, Luke’s boss Chief. Martin Rogers, a 49 year old man, who was known to be aggressive in the field and in the office was fuming! He hated serial killers, they were difficult to catch, and they inspired jobless idiots with anger and frustration to start killing. They were all psychopaths almost every time.

“Chief! This is Chief of police Samuel Rocks, and lieutenant Hill from Fairview! They brought in the second victim!” Luke says gesturing to the two officers behind him.

Chief. Rogers nods towards their direction. He was never known for being polite.

“Miller! Did the profilers draw up a profile? Anything from the forensics? Has Dr. Hyde found something in the new body?” Rogers barks.

“Yes sir! The profilers have a profile! Forensics was inconclusive! But the blood on the first rose was from the previous victim’s! Other than that no new prints or DNA samples!” Luke tells his boss.

“Ughhh!” Rogers yells, holding his forehead.

Samuel looks at Luke, who looks unfazed.

“Sir! Do you want to meet with the profilers? They are ready for you.” Luke asks, to which Roger makes a shooing motion.

The profilers set up in the conference room. And Rogers enters and sits on this chair. And claps his hands, “Let’s get this over with!”

Place: Kate’s office.

Time: 26th March, 21:15 hours.

“Max! I’m so sorry! Traffic was the worst!” Kate says rushing in throwing her bag across the room, and tying her long brown hair into a bun. She wears her face mask, sanitisers her hands, and wears a pair of rubber gloves as she takes the body out of the cabinet.

She makes a clean ‘Y’ incision after asking if the photos and samples were collected for forensic processing.

This body had the same markings and lacerations as the previous victim, the same wording, ‘Love, Killa Parasite’ in the same location, that was fresher than the other wounds on the victim’s body, along with rat bite marks. And inside the victim’s stomach a rusted 10 blade!

She calls up the precinct to let them know it is the same MO as the Parasite Killa. She closes up the body and whispers “Mr. Bloom, hope you find peace!” And looks at Max, who was now staring at her!

She raises her eyebrows at him and he says, “No! It’s just that you work so fast! And you are precise! I wonder when I can be you!”

“You will get there! I have been cutting open bodies from my third year of Med school! So years and years of experience! I used to volunteer at the morgue from my first year! I learnt from the best too!” She says removing her gloves.

“I have one more question! Why do you say ‘Hope you find peace!’ They can’t hear you!” Max says.

“We just opened a man, without his permission! Though he is dead, he was a person with a family, no matter how bad, he was a living person at one point. But now, he is dead, and we violated him, he has suffered a gruesome death, and I say that hoping he finds peace after his death!” Kate replies.

As she heads over her table, to write up the autopsy report.

“How were the officers from Fairview? You didn’t vomit or make faces when you saw the body in front of them right? Gives me a bad reputation!” Kate says smiling.

“I will have you know, that I was on my best behaviour, very professional! The chief was a good guy! But the Lieutenant I didn’t like him! Lieutenant Patrick Hill, He called Luke and I kids, and almost said incompetent!he was a character!” Max said, rolling his eyes. He hated Patrick. Hated the way Patrick spoke about Luke and especially Kate.

“And he looked at your picture and called you Hot! That sorry excuse of a man!” Max continued.

But, to his surprise, Kate, who was always attentive, had stopped listening and her pen was frozen as she stared at him with a pale look on his face.

“Patrick Hill? He was here? He saw my picture?” She asked slowly to Max and Max slowly nodded his head ‘yes’.

Kate slowly looks at the picture on the table, the one with her and Luke from a few years ago, in a mountain lodge. And her hands begin to shake.

Patrick was here! He has seen her! He knows she’s here! And her blood runs cold.