You know why I had to take a break from writing this series? IT WAS FREAKING EMOTIONAL. Seriously, every book dealt with some new horrible thing my characters had to work through and this one wasn't any different. And you know how I took a break? I put them all into a post zombie apocalyptic world and killed them all. Yeah, that's how I take mental breaks.
Anyway, this was novel 7 of the year completed on May 24th. This is also novel 9 in the series which at the time of this writing I still don't have a name for. May also marked six months I'd been working on this monster. ONWARD!
Genre: Mystery/Thriller fiction
Word Count: 65,777
Prompt: This one's actually such a bit spoiler that I can't mention it. Sorry. ;)
Main Characters: James Reeves, Mia Liu, Lucy McGregor, Michael Brown, Sable Abella, and the killer
Minor Characters of Note: Patterson Chief of police who still doesn't have a first name, James' mom.
Summation: Kids are ending up with teeth pulled out stuffed in trash cans with angel wings carved onto their backs. Each kid is a bit older and each one looks like they could be related to the ones prior
High Points: I, huh. WAIT! James calling Sable by her first name, meaning they're friends now and her calling him by his first name. I knew there was something good in this thing. Oh and Michael and Karma become more than friends. ;)
Low Points: Everything else.
The World: Ours
Memorable Lines:
"Okay. I'll complete the cycle." - The Killer
"Are you okay?" James questioned.
"Ask me that one more time and I'm sticking this pen up your ass." Mia told him.
"Um, okay. If you need any, um, feminine things," James started.
"I'm fine. Drop it." Mia broke in.
Boy Scout Detective of the Year was an understatement when he was willing to get one of his female partners' pads or tampons. More men should grow up with a single mother if they turned out like him.
"Dropping it." James said.
"I think we're dealing with two unsubs or an unsub that has multiple personalities."
"Stupid question time: you okay, Boss?" Michael ventured.
"Your mom really needs to learn time management skills or something." James said (about Mia to her cat).
Marty meowed in agreement. At least James liked to think the cat was agreeing with him. For all James knew Marty could be tossing insults at him in cat. (Ha)
"Can we not talk about boobs?" Brown questioned.
"I thought you like boobs. And hey, I like boobs so why not?" McGregor asked.
"He's spending more time looking for a victim that resembles him almost completely. It takes three days for him to be done with the victim and then he disappears. How can we catch a man with nothing?"
Death was a fact. Everything that at one point had taken breath would die when the body could no longer support it. Sometimes death wasn't the fault of the body and was the fault of outside sources. McGregor knew it was her job to determine what outside source had caused the death of 12 year old Simon Haley.
Simon Haley had died en route to hospital after being found by a young woman who had stepped off to one side so she could answer a text. That was when the woman had seen the blood, screamed, and alerted the five or so people around her to a problem. Every one of those people would have nightmares for the rest of their lives.
McGregor tried not to think about how one murder could affect so many lives in an instant. Haley's parents and younger brother were destroyed. The half dozen or so people that had seen Simon in the trash might never be able to look at a trash can or walk down that street again. The paramedics would go to sleep tonight and every night with the knowledge that they had not saved a 12 year old boy.
It was up to her to finalize the death, to figure out why he had died, and to witness how horribly he had suffered. McGregor let out a final breath, snapped her protective gear into place and approached the body of Simon Haley.
"You don't have to work so hard to impress any of us you know." Reeves said.
Sable couldn't think of what to say. He knew. It figured he would know. He had gone to school to learn how to dissect a person's brain while they were still breathing. All her knowledge of dissecting a dead person meant nothing to that kind of education.
"I, well," Sable tried.
"Lucy's all ready got you on a first name bases. That's impressive enough since it took her a year to start calling me by my first name. We bonded after she got hit by a car." Reeves said. Sable tried not to laugh but couldn't help it. Trust Lucy to bond with someone after one of them got hit by a car.
"That was during the Chopper case, right after we managed to chase down (unsub) and just before we brought him in while he tried to get a seventh victim. It took her longer to call Mia by her first name and longer still for Michael. You don't have to impress us. We all know what you're capable of and it's good things, really." Reeves said.
Sable could only nod. He gave her another grin and suddenly he was James. Sable wanted to tell him but kept her mouth shut. She was still Abella to him.
"We should head back to the station, Sable." James said.
Karma: I need your help with something.
Brown had figured that. Normally he wouldn't mind but this was potentially FBI stuff. Karma had been recruited by the FBI because he had said she was ready. If she needed his help this early in her recruitment than Brown hadn't been thinking straight.
Drag0n: FBI?
Karma: No.
That was good.
Karma: I think someone's hacking into my system.
That was bad.
...
Karma:: You're fast.
Drag0n: It's probably why I'm single.
...
Karma: Outside graphics suck, the smells are sometimes shitty, but there are a lot of interesting things out there. (I totally agree with her.)
"It's difficult, not education wise. I can handle that. It's the mental and emotional part. I had to sit there and listen to parents talking about how their dead little boy went missing last month. I can't stop thinking about how tough it was for them to tell their younger son that the older one wasn't going to come home ever again.
"Before that I had to listen to what the unsub went through as a child, how his parents abused him and how he suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder because of the abuse. The whole reason the unsub's doing what he's doing is because of his father beating him up as a kid. I don't know if I can keep hearing about all this stuff."
"Yes, yes I know. I like that you know how I feel every time you go out running late at night." (James') Mom said.
"I'm running. If anyone could catch up to me while I was running it would be a feat." James said.
"Oh please, you can't outrun bullets," Mom started.
"And I can't outrun a car. I know. But you're," James broke in.
"Older, less fit, and an easy target. You tell me that enough and I might start believing it" Mom finished. (They've obviously had this conversation before...haha)
...
"What don't you know?" Mom asked.
James frowned. There was a lot he didn't know. Where (unsub) was hiding was at the top of that list.
"Too much. Good night." James said.
"Don't think too hard. No one can know everything. Good night."
"You're working with James Reeves and Mia Liu to find the Tooth Fairy, right Ms. McGregor?" a reporter asked.
McGregor looked at the woman and the young, blonde, too pretty, reporter gaped before taking half a step back.
"That's Detective or Forensic Specialist McGregor. That's also Detective or Doctor James Reeves and Detective Mia Liu. Back off. I've got a dead body in a trash can to saw free." McGregor said. (This is why she has a shirt that says she doesn't play well with others ;) )
"It's going to be okay."
"I'm not so sure about that."
"Why did (unsub) take the teeth?" McGregor asked.
"(unsub) didn't take the teeth. He took the teeth." (unsub) said.
"Who's he?" McGregor questioned.
"The other one. The bad one. He suggested giving away the pain but it worked."
...
"So, why did he take the teeth?" McGregor asked.
"He wanted to keep them." (unsub) said.
"Why?" McGregor questioned.
"I don't know. He buried them in places around the city. A different place for every tooth in a place that could be dug up with his hands. They're in flower pots, parks, school grounds, everywhere in the city. No one will ever find them all." (unsub) said.
That was a little over 100 teeth buried throughout the city. McGregor felt a chill race down her spine but refrained from acting on it. The look in (unsub)'s eye had changed. Unsub had become him. He was grinning now. It was a grin that made McGregor wish she had more than just Raven to cuddle up with tonight. She caught Sable shiver out of the corner of her eye. This was going to give them both nightmares.
"Why?" McGregor asked.
"Because it was fun." The voice said.
...
"So you're the one who hurt those kids, killed two and hurt my partner?" McGregor asked.
"Yes. But I won't be in court. The new one, maybe (personality one) or (personality two) will but I won't come out." The voice said.
"I'm alive. That counts for something, right?"
"Yeah but there's a difference between being alive and living."
"Yes, well, how do you live after something like this?"
"You keep putting one foot in front of the other and remembering that despite everything you're still capable of doing a lot of good. We're all here for you."
"I know. We all did. I wish I was good at profound shit so I could help you better but I'm not." Brown said.
"It's enough that you're here, really."
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