Chapter 1: Another Body

I thought of this idea during church (hehe, woops) and decided to write it down. Please tell me what you think!

          "The third body this month. Man, does this chick ever get tired?"

          "Don't know. But one things for sure; when she does, she never sleeps alone."

         The two forensic scientists got back to work processing the body. The Killer of Lust, as they had nicknamed the cerial killer, had struck yet again. The cheap hotel room was standard; a queen sized bed was in the middle, it's headboard shoved against one wall, with two small endtables on either side, each complete with a tacky lamp whose shade matched the bedspread and the window curtains. The pristine bathroom was on the right as soon as you walked in the door, nothing out of place or even vaguely dirty, except maybe the toilet, but those were always dirty. The right hand wall was covered by a shower/tub combination, the shower curtain clear plastic and pushed off the the left side. The toilet was on the far wall, and the sink was to the left, across from the shower with nothing out of place. The soap was centered perfectly in the holder, and both knobs were wiped clean of all fingerprints. It seemed every inch of the room was wiped.

          The main part of the room opened to the right as well, the bed and the end tables facing out from the right wall. A tv was across from the two beds, sitting on top of the dresser with two large potted plants on either side of it. The window shades were pulled closed, but the rattle of a climate control unit was heard from behind them and the thick fabric blew out slightly near the bottom from the vents.

         The bed immediatley drew the eye to it, showing off a handcuffed body completely naked. Dried blood laced over the mans body in complicated patterns of swirls and roses, small thorns and leaves gouged into the skin on the softly curving lines that led to roses. The forty something male was dead, but he didn't die from blood loss. The cuts were about as deep as a paper cut, and administered by a blade that was obviously sharp enough to cut through the toughest meat like warm butter. No, what killed him was the poison, barely noticeable in the stomach and body. It shut down the heart only 3 minutes after being injested, and seemed to be a private concotion, seeing as how none of the lab workers could figure out what the deadly liquid was. It matched none of their searches through databanks of dangerous herbs and plants, or even combinations that were deadly. Whoever had made it was either good at coverign their tracks or a genius. Or both.

         The only symbol left that wasn't a part of the victims skin was a single white rose in full bloom, the center dotted with a single drop of the victims blood. A wedding ring was slid up the stem, situated just beneath the only leaf on the stem. The investigators had over 30 of these roses, all dotted with a once married mans blood. They had the killers system, but had yet to find anything else.

         Careful to cover their tracks, there wasn't a single print in the room, not even on the body or handcuffs. The man, 33 year old David Parker, was married with three kids. His dirty blonde hair was a bit shaggy and shining in the soft light of the two lamps. His face was handsome, and his body was muscuar beneath the cuts. The only sign that gave it away were the family picture in his wallet and the ring on the rose. His dirty blonde hair was a bit shaggy and shining in the soft light of the two lamps. His face was handsome, and his body was muscuar beneath the carefully placed cuts. His wrists were handcuffed to either side of the headboard, and he was just long enough to cuff both his ankles to the footboard as well. Both his ankles and his wrists had red marks where the cuffs had dug in, and there was a sign of struggle on his part. This didn't surprise any of the scientists working the case. Every swirl and rose carved into his skin was inflicted post mortem.

          James Gregory had been working the Killer of Lust case for over 3 years, and was still no closer to discovering who it was. He worked night and day, analyzing evidence, going over crime scenes, running through database after database of possible suspects, mainly hookers. He had vowed to get revenge when he was only 10 years old, and had worked to becoming an investigator all through high school and college. He went through army training and police training, along with college courses in law, forensics, and a couple of extra classes that delt with the minds of cerial killers. Even with his training, he had no clue as to who could have commited the murders.

          He walked into the room, past the policemen standing Guard at the door and the scientists running over every inch of the room, looking for hairs or fingerprints, which he knew they would never find. The killer had stayed constant through the eighteen years they had been killing, he doubted they would slip up now. Approaching the bed, he couldn't stop the shudder from running down his spine. He still remembered the rose, now dried up and brittle, that held his own fathers blood on it, the wedding ring that his grandfather hd given as a blessing before he passed wrapped around the stem and lying just beneath the only leaf. He hadn't been allowed to see the maimed body that had once been his fathers smooth skin, but he knew it would've looked almost exactly like this man's, laced through with a delicate webwork of swirls and roses.

          Unable to stand the stench of death, James left the room as quickly as he could, gathering all the information he could from the scientists before he left, which wasn't much. He nodded to the Policemen littering the small motel on his way out, sitting in his parked car and mulling over the little bit of information he had recieved, which was basically the same as every other crime scene of the Killer of Lust he had been to.

COD: Poison. Type yet to be determined.

Injuries: Abrasions on the wrists and ankles from handcuffs. Cuts across entire body - Post Mortem.

TOD: Around 2 am. Sunday.

        

Author's Note

Whew, this one was long =] Please review and rate!