Chapter Two: Dead On Arrival
The scene that greeted them was a gruesome one indeed. The floor of the living room was a deep shade of burgundy, punctuated by dismembered limbs and the bodies they belonged to.
“Fred, can you give us a minute?” the detective asked a slim man with a camera who was photographing the scene. The man nodded and slipped away silently.
“Three victims this time around, two roommates and a girlfriend by the looks of it,” the detective commented as the agents took in the scene.
“C.O.D same as the other victims?” Brown questioned.
“All three of these poor souls died from blood loss, or so it seems,” said a solemn voice emanating from behind them as a rather short man who looked to be in his fifties entered the room. “Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Doctor Frank Bennett,” the man said, introducing himself. “And you must be the FBI team who’s come to lend us a hand.” The doctor made his way around the bodies as he talked. “They were painfully aware, no pun intended, of the fate that was to befall them (for a few moments anyways) until they mercifully fell to the effects of cerebral hypoxia and felt no more.”
“What about the murder weapon? Any ideas on what it would be?” Walker asked.
“Perhaps a knife of some sort, possibly several different ones since these wounds don’t all appear to be of a uniform depth or shape. There’s definitely a method in this madness however. If you look closely you'll see that, as with the other victims, the major musculature has been fairly carefully removed, and the lower digestive tract seems strangely untouched.”
“Any chance this is just some wild animal?” Cooper questioned as he digested the facts that were being given to him.
“I highly doubt it. This seems far to precise to be just a run of the mill mauling, although the removal of musculature could suggest the killer may eat some part of his victims as part of his MO. I am, however, just a humble ME, so I could be way off base with that suggestion.”
Brown shuddered at the thought of this being the work of some kind of cannibalistic psychopath. “Just what I was hoping for: a cannibalistic serial killer,” she muttered, her words dripping with sarcasm. “Always wanted to play hide and seek with one of those…”
Greene made his way over the bodies, pausing at the first one. "Hmmmmm" he muttered, reaching down and dipping the tip of his little finger in the pool of blood. He lifted the blood-covered tip of his finger to eye level and looked intently at it, before lowering it to nose level and taking a deep whiff. After he finished his "analysis" Greene wiped the blood off on the sleeve of one of the DOA's. At this, Walker just snapped. He suddenly charged Greene, knocking him back a few steps. With a swift left hook and then a right he gave Greene a bloody nose.
As Cooper slipped out the door during the scuffle, he pondered the mysteries of the scene that lay behind him. As he paced outside, he noticed a faint trail in the brush behind the house. Intrigued, he set off along the trail to see where it would lead him…
"Walker! Get a hold of yourself man!" Garcia shouted, but he wasn't listening. As Walker cocked his arm back for another swing, there was a glint of steel and a flash of movement, and suddenly Walker found himself spun on his heels with a knife at his throat. "Calm down John," Brown said in a hushed tone, her blade mere millimetres from his jugular. There was fury in Walker's eyes for a lingering moment, but as he realized who he was looking at, his anger was dampened and he relaxed. "Sorry..." he murmured as he backed away, trying to calm his addled nerves.
"Whoa," Greene whispered, wide-eyed. "Note to self: never, EVER get on her bad side..." Doc Bennett, drawn by the commotion, began to tend to Greene's bloody nose as Garcia pulled Walker aside for a little 'chat'.
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As he was being reprimanded by Garcia, Walker noticed something was amiss. “Where’s Cooper?” Walker asked, realizing that he was no longer in the room.
“What do you mean? He’s right there…” Garcia trailed off, realizing that Cooper was in fact missing. The agents rushed out the door to try and find him, but he was long gone.
