2014 Novel Series: #10: Senses

We're winding down to the end of the series which still doesn't have an official series name. I should probably work on that. Anyway, this is book 12 of the 13 part series. I won't have book 13 finished by the end of August 2014 as I'd planned but hey, I've worked on this series for less than a year even though it has more than a year's worth of books. That's freaking good enough.

Senses was the second book I did for July Camp NaNo which brought my total up to 148,522 for that month, 3-kish more than April's Camp. I finished it the last possible day and like in April, my cabin didn't reach the goal. We came close though, like within 100K or something. Unfortunately I wrote most of it. It was sad. ANYWAY. ONWARD!

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Word Count: 67,511

Prompt: Killer taking away all five senses. No seriously, that's all I had. No motivation, no nothing until book 10 (Bloody X-Mas) and I figured out the motivation and why he had that motivation.

Main Characters: James Reeves, Mia Liu, Lucy McGregor, Michael Brown, and our killer

Minor Characters of Note: Patterson the Chief of Police who still doesn't have a first name, David Jones and his boyfriend...again. They're such fun characters...Oh, and Jasmine, McGregor's sister.

Summation: Killer takes the five senses of his victims in order of taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing.

High Points: Michael and Karma (Gavriila) in general. Plus Michael going "God Mode."

Low Points: David and his boyfriend. Oh and random new sub-plot when I thought I cleared them all out...

The World: Ours. Again, I'll be really happy when I can write "Ours but with MAAAAGGGIIICCCC" or something.

Memorable Lines:
Sable would compliment McGregor well in the future and McGregor mentally smirked. (Foreshadooowwwwiiinnngggg...)

"The eyes have been gouged out and there's a steel pipe through the head running from one ear out the other. I'm pretty sure the tongue is missing and there's burn marks around the nose. I'm thinking hot glue." McGregor answered.
"Huh, four of five senses." Sable said.
Sable didn't give herself enough credit. McGregor smirked.
"Yeah. I bet the hands will either be removed or corroded which would get rid of touch. We'll have to really look hard to see which injury happened first. That'll mean something to the unsub." McGregor said.
...
"Detective McGregor, a word?" one of the reporters called out as she passed.
"Nope." McGregor said.
The reporter stared at her for a few seconds. Technically "nope" was a word.
...
"Detective McGregor, what's the situation?" the same reporter asked.
"Messy." McGregor replied. (I love her)

"Videos came up with jackshit. Camera angles are bad all around and the fucker covered his license plate with something. We do have make and model of the car." Brown said.
"And I am looking through DVM to see how many there are." Gavriila said.
Brown looked at her for a second and grinned. He took a huge bite out of his burger, got it into manageable chunks, and shook his head at her. She raised her eyebrow at him.
"DMV, kitten." Brown said.

"An actress." James said.
"Yeah. Taking out the tongue first, eyes and hearing last makes sense now." McGregor said.
"An actress would interrupt any kind of ranting the unsub was doing." James said.
"Yeah, you can't get more extroverted than an actor." McGregor added.
"Does that mean the perp's an actor?" Mia asked.
Brown looked at her. Sometimes she came up with the coolest shit.
"He could be, yes." James said.
"That's an interesting angle. Hm," McGregor muttered.
...
"I am taking online criminal psychology courses. Help me to understand why there are so many crazy mother fuckers in the world." Gavriila said.
She was hot. She was into him. She could cook. She was fucking brilliant at computers and making herself brilliant at criminal profiling. Brown wondered what he'd done to deserve her. (D'awww)

"It's sad that I need body guards." James said.
"What's sad is that you're a guy and all your body guards are female. No, that's not sad. That's pretty cool actually." Mia told him.

"He's got a snake tattoo. I'm calling Michael so he or Karma can start looking for this guy." McGregor said.
"We'll go get lunch. That doesn't sound productive." James said.
"Nope but hey, you can't interview family members you don't know about." McGregor said.

"Hello, this is Detective James Reeves with the, hello?" James asked.
He pulled the phone away from his ear in wonder and looked at it. Mia waited. She'd learned that from James. He stared at her, stunned.
"They hung up on me." James said. (Hahaha)
Mia had no idea who the Hell would hang up on a detective. They didn't have time to ponder it as they caught movement out of the corner of their eyes and turned to look. A pudgy man in gray slacks, a billowing white shirt, and a baseball cap came running to the doors and unlocked them.
"Detective Reeves, hello, hello! Come in, come in, it's nice to finally meet you in person!"
Mia wasn't sure if she should walk into the building or run screaming. James looked unsure himself but the shorter, wider man had grabbed James' arm and was pulling him into the theater. James followed because he was nice and Mia followed after James because she was worried as fuck.
They entered the cool theater and the pudgy man guided them to a door marked "Office" while talking about seeing James on Channel 6 and how brilliant James was, how good-looking, how young, and a mess of other things Mia didn't catch. The man was talking too damned fast and waving his free hand around like it was some kind of device to help get his point across.
...
"I'm sure. Detective Liu and I are here on official business." James said.
If there was ever a phrase that could make a person go from 60 to 0 that was it. (snickers)

"We need to sleep after this." Brown said.
"Too bad we cannot sleep together." Gavriila said.
Brown grinned at that. A comment like that used to make his fingers mess up on typing but he'd gotten so used to the comments (and typing this fucking list into DMV files) that he was fine. He'd missed an r. Fuck.
...
"You almost made me miss a name. Knowing our luck it'd be the fucker doing this." Brown told her.
"Ah, sorry. I will take off my top later for apology." Gavriila said.
He'd missed an f. God damn it. Brown glared at her and she giggled. Brown couldn't stay mad at her for long and typed in the name again. That one was a bust.
...
"Stretch kitten." Brown said.
"You too dorogaya. You have been sitting for as long as me. I get food now." Gavriila said.
(He gets up and stretches)
"Wow. She's got you whipped from across an ocean." McGregor said.
"She shows me her boobs of course I'm going to do what she says." Brown told her.
"And she's got great boobs. Anyway. We're going to watch James walk around the files like he's doing some kind of pagan ritual. Have fun." McGregor said.

"Good morning." James said.
"Nothing is good about the morning until I've had coffee." McGregor said.

"Ranting involves talking. He can't ASL (American Sign Language) their asses." (I shouldn't snicker so much at that but I did.)

"I'm retiring at the end of the month." Anderson said. (Why is this important? He's the Head of Forensics and told McGregor in the past than when he retires, she'll get his position. Yep. ;) )

McGregor took five minutes to get her apartment door opened then almost face planted because she forgot she had a cat that blended in with shadows really well.

"Anderson's retiring." McGregor said.
"Yep. JD?" Sable questioned.
She was offering a shot glass. McGregor downed it. Booze was good.
"My sister, Jasmine, is moving here." McGregor said.
"That's good." Sable said.
"We're buying a house together."
"Cute."
"She's giving up her salon and renting out the house we grew up in to move here."
"That's sweet."
"I'm not sure if I want her to."
McGregor downed the second shot Sable poured into her glass. Booze was excellent.
...
"You know what I think?" Sable questioned.
"I wish I could read minds. Wait, no, then I'd go Professor X fucked up in Days of Future Past when he takes the serum to stop, I'm going to stop." McGregor said (Ha)
...
"I'm not a fan of change." McGregor said.
"Says the one who moved five hours out her home town, moved twice once here, got a cat, started letting people in, switched offices, and joined a team. Oh yeah, you're totally uncomfortable with change." Sable said.
The sarcasm was strong in this one. McGregor laughed. It was nice to laugh...
"Okay, okay, you're right. I'm just nervous." McGregor said.
"I would be too if I was you, hell anyone would be. I mean there are going to be men in the house sharing a bed with your sister when you're there." Sable said.
McGregor smirked at that. Sable didn't give herself enough credit.
"You're going to make some guy really happy one of these days and if he's an ass I'll go Michonne on his ass so bad that we'll have to hide the body together."

"Boss, I've known everything about you before you even met me." Michael said.
That was a frightening thought. It made sense in some weird way as Michael had come to the force slightly after James.
"What?" James asked.
"Technically you and Bossette were the whole reason I wanted to come here." Michael said.
That was flattering and scary at the same time.
"And if we're going to be honest or whatever: I'm the only reason Patterson paired you two together."

Thanks to the DMV they had gotten a picture of what Timmons looked like so McGregor didn't have to walk up to the waiting area and ask for him by name. They weren't some kind of doctor's office though technically she was some kind of doctor. Her patients were all dead when they got to her though.

"Tracking, tracking, got 'em. 5432 Hedge Street, it's a house that's been abandoned since two years ago, actually foreclosed, used to belong to a Donna McDellen who was an animal hoarder and um, died inside. Her cats ate her. That's fucking creepy."
...
In the middle of the room was a black phone (what Michael tracked to find the unsub).
"Don't move." James said.
Mia didn't have to and James only shifted when McGregor came to stand beside him. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. The cell phone in the middle of the room began vibrating and playing a song James didn't recognize.
"Faku. Kuso." Mia muttered.
McGregor scowled as James hung up his phone. They could do a check but James knew they would find nothing. Because of the media, Michael had been kicked off the team. The unsub had outsmarted them.

"Media's fault. The fucker knows who we are and how we find our perps. The bastard's taken out Michael." Mia said.

"Fick. Not it. And he's (David) hot." Agent told them.
"And living in America." Double D added.
"I know. It makes me sad." Agent said.
"Dude, we're looking for his boyfriend." Double D said.
"Supposed to be anyway." K broke in.
It was funny how K was the youngest in their group but the most focused. Brown had a theory that the longer a person spent on the internet as they got older, the less focus they had unless they literally grew up immersed it in like K was. Either that or K was part cyborg.

"ON THE GROUND!" Mia screamed.
Her gun was out and up but the unsub hadn't even looked at her before taking off. She got a shot off and he let out a pained sound. She'd hit him in the shoulder but he kept running. Mia had two choices. She could stand her ground and shoot him while he was still within the 10 foot range or she could run him down and tackle him. Mia liked the second approach. (Of course she does. She's badass like that.)
...
Okay, maybe she'd gone a bit overboard. Unsub's SUV was half crushed in a pole. Hell, the one side and the front end of her SUV was smashed to shit. Not to mention the post box one of them had knocked over, the various skid marks on the asphalt and, how the fuck was there broken glass on the street? (LOL)
She'd busted a window, her SUV's passenger window somehow. Damn. At least the station would pay for the repairs. She just hoped she didn't get some crappy car as a replacement till hers was fixed. (I love Mia too.)
...
"Ready?" James asked.
"Yep. We'll use your car to meet up with McGregor and Abella. Mine's a bit beat up." Mia said.
"A little? I forgot how great you are at take-downs. Don't let me forget again, okay?" James asked.
"You got it partner. See you at the station." Mia said.
...
"Detective," Mia started.
"Fucking awesome Bossette! That was better than the movies!" Michael exclaimed.
"Thanks. You're pretty fucking awesome yourself, Michael. I couldn't have done that without you and your online team." Mia said.
"Aw, thanks Mia. I'll see you later. Dragon-God out."

Mia joined him and James heard her curse when she locked the SUV. It had been an amused curse.
"My window's busted out, why the Hell am I locking it?" Mia asked when she got close to him.
"Rhetorical question?" James returned.
"Yeah..."

"We're going down stairs." Mia said.
"Have fun." McGregor told her.
(They're looking through a completely blacked out cabin for the potentially living victim of the unsub)

Part of their job dealt with touching dead people and cutting them open. Another part of the job was taking apart a scene which Sable had found meant anything from digging around in trash or looking through a creepily dark cabin in the middle of the night. It had been a bad idea to binge watch The Walking Dead with Lucy the past 20 or so days. Sable kept thinking a walker was going to jump out at her.
...
"I know it's late but wake up." McGregor said.
"Sorry, I was thinking about walkers jumping out of dark corners and surviving the zombie apocalypse if it happened (ha, oops)." Sable said.
McGregor grinned at her.
"I have successfully converted you..."

"You are one strong chick." Jameson said.
"Hey, you dead lift, oh bad pun. Anyway, you start lifting corpses as a career and tell me how easy it is." McGregor said.

"Both are still in surgery." James said.
"Sucks to be you." McGregor said.
"I know, I know." James replied.
Sable covered her mouth to keep from laughing but McGregor didn't bother.
"Yes! You took me up on the song lyric game." McGregor said.
"Song lyrics?" James asked. (Of course. :P)
McGregor groaned and would have knocked her head off the steering wheel in frustration if she wasn't using it...
"Do you need me there for intimidation?" McGregor questioned.
She was grinning. Sable had a feeling McGregor liked being the intimidating one on the team.

"I'm getting something to drink." James said.
"The punch isn't spiked." McGregor offered.
"Too bad." James muttered.

"Since when do you like Sable?" McGregor questioned.
"Since she offered to make me food." Michael said.
"So, I can have my chair back?" Sable asked.
McGregor had meant to ask Michael why he'd taken Sable's chair (in his office) away but they'd been too busy with other things. Michael smirked.
"Sure, Chiquita." Michael said.
Sable's eyes went wide and her mouth popped open in shock. McGregor couldn't help but grin. Hell, James and Mia were smirking. Sable had a nickname, a tad bit racist of a nickname but Michael had accepted her into the team. This made the night better no matter what else would happen.
"That's, oh fine." Sable said.
"Good. So I'll kill Ranger once I get back upstairs." Michael said.
"And we'll hide the body." McGregor offered.
"I guess I should get the bleach." Sable said.
"We'll need gloves." James added.
"And we can use that stupid Jeep they loaned me." Mia mentioned.
"I got some extra bed sheets and a shit ton of plastic drapery from the old salon." Jasmine pointed out.
McGregor laughed along with her friends and her sister. You could count on someone when they were willing to help you hide a body.