Lonestar Crime

'Are you sure you're OK?' I asked. 'I'm not planning to #defenestrate myself or anything. I just need to focus. Let's go through the police, crime scene, and autopsy reports and then we'll work on pinning everything down tomorrow.' I grabbed the first victim's reports. *** An agent brought sandwiches while we were reading. I saw Hannah grab one and start eating without conscious thought. Jaci caught me staring and said, 'Don't #groke at her. Get your own.' 'That wasn't what I was doing.' 'Really?' 'She's not even aware she's doing it.' *** 'Hannah, how's the sandwich?' 'Huh?' She dropped it on a napkin and then sniffed it. 'Do you smell something odd?' 'Nothing unusual. Do you?' I asked. She nodded. 'I'm #macrosmatic. I have a heightened sense of smell. Something in here smells and it's not the food.' *** 'Could be this book,' I said, holding u...

The #nudistertian day began with me moving everything I owned into storage except for what I needed for a cheap one-bedroom apartment, and now here I was just a few days later, pawing through the remains of someone else's life. I wondered if I would ever get mine back. *** 'Why is it always a post-#jentacular jogger that finds the bodies?' Jaci asked. 'Is no one else up that early?' 'Who else did you want to find them?' I countered. 'Dog-walkers? Little old ladies?' 'It's such a cliche.' 'There's a reason for that,' Hannah interjected. *** 'It's a cliche because it's true,' I told Jaci and held up an evidence bag. 'This is a hair sample, but it hasn't been tested. Why not?' 'They don't have the funding to test for DNA on cold cases,' Hannah said. 'According to the police report, the hair is #ulotrichous.' *** 'And?' 'All of their suspects had straight hair, not curly....

'We're not even sure it is a him. Pandora's Children were all women. The Oak Leaf Killer could be too,' Jaci said. 'That's kind of #transitive, isn't it?' Hannah asked. 'Maybe, but we know nothing about them. We need a timeline and victim profiles for both killers.' *** 'We can get started on that as soon as we get to the office,' Hannah said as we drove toward her house. 'As long as we can #permute the timeline in the right order, we'll be able to figure out what happened when, which will give us our best hope of catching them both.' *** 'I'm having the Oak Leaf Killer's evidence couriered over from the respective jurisdictions. We should have the full #set by the time we get there,' Hannah said as she pulled up to a nice house in the suburbs. 'Welcome to Casa Derricks.' 'Any wife or kids?' Jaci asked. *** 'Ex-husband, ex-wife, two kids,' Hannah answered. 'Is that the #metric by whi...

'We think she's training someone to kill. Her trophy is the atlas bone. The other killer's is the oak leaf. How many more bodies do you have with that signature?' '#Zero,' she said. 'Why?' 'So you just have the two with both signatures?' 'That I know of,' she said. *** 'You need to check ViCAP and cops in the local jurisdictions,' I said to her, all business. 'I'm pretty sure you'll find at least #one more. The media might even have a name for him.' She scowled and pulled her phone from her pocket, stepping away to make the phone call. *** We watched the crime scene unit work on the body and the scene, and I noticed a canister in the kitchen with an acorn on it. I walked over to it and read the label. "Acorn Coffee #Group" 'I need this analyzed now,' I told one of the techs. 'Check for drugs and poisons.' *** Hannah came back with an angry expression on her face. 'There are five bodies...

"Why did she go to Houston?" Jaci asked suddenly. "I have a #theorem," I said. "She must know someone there, or it has special meaning to her." "That's a theory. A theorem has been proven," Jaci countered. I grinned. "Well, let's find the proof to make it a theorem." *** 'We can't really do much until we land,' Jaci said. 'Your #logic is faulty. LaShonda Marcus was on that reality TV show, Ravens' Claws, about the wives and girlfriends of the players. There's a lot of information online about her. We can use that as a starting point.' *** 'Good thinking,' Jaci agreed as I typed.' 'We can lock her up this time #iff she doesn't escape,' I said emphasizing the extra "f" in that word but it flew over her head. I only knew it because of my teacher's lessons about math, and biology, because we had chemistry. *** Jaci looked at me blankly for a moment and then said, ...

We were in the elevator and I thought about my earliest days as a police officer. I had a #phobia about confrontation, but I became a cop to conquer that fear. Now I was an FBI agent. I had grown as a person and I was a better law enforcement officer because of it. *** "You're going to be #nostalgic for the police in about five minutes," Jaci muttered as the elevator doors opened onto the 34th floor of the brand new FBI Headquarters main building in Laurel, MD. It was already known as Forest Haven, on the site of the former asylum.  *** Maybe it was my imagination, but as I took in the sight of the executive suites I saw an #iridescence around me. The colors weren't institutional beige or off-white, but it was like looking into a kaleidoscope. "Stained glass windows. Affects everyone the first time." *** "Who are we going to see?" I asked as Jaci led me down a corridor. "Section Chief Richard Boring," Jaci answered. "He runs Behavior...

When I got home I pulled up yesterday's newspaper's headlines. I scrolled through and stopped when I saw one particular article. A young man had been found in a shallow grave. They didn't say how he died but I knew who was responsible. LaShonda Marcus was #anathema to me. *** I'd been reading about an increase in serial murders all over the country and I was pretty sure that the majority of them were being committed by the former cult members of Pandora's Children. It was becoming a #pandemic the likes of which law enforcement had never seen. *** At least I knew where I was going to be sent. Thinking about that made me think about leaving the Fort Worth Police Department. I hadn't been smart about it and kind of forced them to #ostracize me. I'd been mad at the time, but life was too short, and I'd made amends. *** I'd apologized to the captain and the rest of the detectives on the team because I have #empathy and I could tell I'd wronged them. I...

"Can't you tell me?" Jaci shook her head. "Not until you get your credentials tomorrow." I must have looked #skeptical because she sighed. "I'm sorry. I was told not to say anything." "Why?" She shrugged. "No idea. I'm just following orders." "That's ridiculous." *** "I know, but I don't want to break the law as soon as I start. I may be a #heretic, disagreeing with them over some things, but you're not technically an agent until you have your badge." "You're right," I said. "Was there something else you wanted to tell me?" I asked. *** We lapsed into silence as our meals were placed on the table and I had to give the chef credit, the dishes had an amazing #aesthetic look to them. We took the time to appreciate the culinary delights and I wondered what fresh hell I would be thrust into on my first day. *** "Yes, I did have something else to tell you. I changed my n...