Truth and Deciet, The New Crime of the Century.

Chapter 1

                She walked down the poorly lit street in high heels and a low cut skirt. To anyone she clearly looked like she was a asking for pleasure. But she just likes the style; at nineteen the hottest way to dress is the naughtiest. She was a bit nervous walking down the street after hours but she had just gotten out of a party and was too impaired to drive. She had no money for a cab and her house was only a few blocks down the street. No reason not to walk, it was a nice night. Until she heard the feint sounds of footsteps behind her. She quickly looked back giggling and shouted "Jeremy, if that's you, you're not funny!" The footsteps stopped, and she turned back around only to run into a man's chest. "Oh, I'm sorry." She slurred "Jeremy?" The shadowy man struck her down with a quick strike to the face. As she tried to scream the man quickly placed his hand over her mouth, silencing the crying teen. He quickly gagged her and dragged her by her hair into the woods. He placed her under a tree and took out a knife A small carving on the side that read 'To our only son'. He reached down and ripped open her shirt. He had no attention for her naked chest. Only for what lay underneath. He pressed the blade against her chest and made an incision down the middle of her chest. The screaming woman lets out one last scream before falling to silence. Without hesitation the shadow of a man breaks the woman's sternum and makes a couple more incisions to the heart then removes it. Leaping off and away from the bloody corpse he disappears into the night. 

                At that moment Travis shot up hitting his head on the lowered ceiling. He reached down touching his naked chest, and sighing in relief. It was only a dream, a strange dream that he had never had. He has never had his heart broken before. Travis was confused as he thought more about it, not only had he never had his heart broken, but he had never been in love. Quickly he shrugged the thought off and got up out of bed putting his pants on as he stood. The curtains to his windows were closed to prevent the sunlight from waking him. Most often than not he tends to sleep in, he doesn't exactly have a job, nor does he have any educational pursuits. Although he does dream of joining law enforcement, he thanks his aunt for that. Fortunately he makes his living by his wealthy aunt, who adores him to death. She happens to be a very successful lawyer, and Travis is her only nephew. Gradually he pulled the curtains open and the blinding light made him close them faster than he had opened them. Groaning he made his way downstairs to the living room, grabbing the remote to the television off the back of the couch. Flipping on the TV and then moving into the open kitchen, he grabbed a bowl of the finest of cereal, in his opinion. He proceeded to pour the dry food into his bowl when suddenly something on the TV caught his ear.

                "Last night a young woman from Seattle was brutally murdered, her body was found here in these woods early this morning. Police are saying the cause of death is her chest cavity was opened and her heart was removed. Police have no leads at this time, if you have any information that could help please call the police. A fire devastated a house near... "

                The box of cereal slammed into the ground spilling the contents. Travis stood there in awe as the news reporter just described the dream he had that very night. His mind went blank as from the thoughts that were now pouring into his head. Had he killed this woman? Or had he just witnessed a vision of her death? The facts were clear to him, whichever it turned out to be, he saw this woman die. He tried to regain his consciousness and think about his dream. He knew she had screamed out a name, but he couldn't remember. He thought it only a dream so he put it passed him, now he's forgotten what she exclaimed. Knowing he could potentially help solve the case he began banging his head against the fridge in hopes to remember what the teen had yelled.

                The doors to the police station opened fast with a thud as the stressed Detective walked though them. She had been on this case for forty seven hours straight with no leads. "You have got to take a rest Riley; you've been working yourself ragged." Riley Jacobs had been on the force for seven years now, and her partner, and secret lover, Dimitri Madison had been working together for four of them. Jacobs rubbed her brow as she relieved herself of some stress. The mug of coffee was steaming next to her and she could smell the intoxicating aroma. She picked the glass up and took a deep breath just smelling the hazelnut with Irish crème, non sugared coffee. Finally she tipped the mug and took a sip. Sighing in a small amount relief, she placed the mug back onto her desk looking back up at Dimitri. "I've been on this case for forty seven hours straight now with no leads Dimitri, what am I supposed to do?" He looked around the room to see if anyone was watching, placed his hand on her cheek and moved in for the kiss. First her eyes closed than his as their lips touched and her body relaxed immediately. He always knew how to get her to relax during a long day. She wasn't very comfortable with showing their affection in the station, but her office was pretty well concealed and she wasn't bothered by it this time. Their lips pulled apart but still remained close as he whispered softly to her. "Stop worrying about this case, I have a new case for us." she pulled away and looked at him astonishingly. "You want me to forget the family of the murdered eight year old boy?" she was struck with feelings of anger and resent that he would even offer such an appalling act. "No Riley, I'm just asking you to take a load off and take this case with me." She looked at him slightly offended, but knew that working a case with him would ease her stress. She now smiled at him "ok, give me the details."

                Steam rose over the foggy glass door of the shower. Travis just stood feeling sick about what had happened and that he had seen it. Before getting in the shower, he knelt over the toilet vomiting. He didn't know how this happened to him, or why. The water trickled to a stop as he turned the valve to shut it off. Opening the door of the shower he felt his stomach become upset again. He threw himself to the floor and hurled violently into the porcelain toilet. As he stood he walked over to the sink and opened the medicine cabinet. A toothbrush and the toothpaste were casually set on one of the shelves. The green paste with sparkles oozed out onto the brush, and he began to brush his teeth. Spitting out the sparkly green paste into the sink. He reached to the mouth wash and poured some into a cup and rinsed. Downstairs his cell phone shook and rang. Travis ran out of the bathroom and down the stairs into the kitchen where his phone lay on the island counter top. When he answered the voice on the other end was hesitant to reply. But a voice finally rang through the phones speaker. "Her, her body... it was so... bloody." Travis' face turned pale and he screamed back into the phone. "Who is this you sick freak!? What do you want with me!?" the soft click of the call ending made Travis' heart sink. He quickly checked the phone for a return call, 'restricted' read the phones directory. His fear overcame him and he threw the phone across the room. Hitting the wall the phone spilt in three and broke. He leaned against the fridge and sunk down to the floor. Hands on his head he began to cry.

                The black SUV pulled up to the scene of the crime, Dimitri stepped out of the driver's side and Riley out of the passenger. The yellow crime scene tape blocked their paths so they lifted it and went under. The coroner was just finishing up his examination of the body. He stood up, looked at Dimitri and sighed. "The young lass had her heart broken, well rather cut out. There's pre-mortem bruising on the right cheek consistent with a male hand. The blood originates around the victim's body, so my guess is she was struck then dragged here then was killed. She also has a hand print over her mouth." he smiled slightly. "So the bastard made that mistake, and he gagged her, we may be able to pull a print from her cheeks, and maybe some fibers from the gag." Riley stepped forward to get a better look at the girl. "Any Identification?" riley asked leaning in. "No, only what you see there. Time of death was approximately around two thirty. Once I get her back to the lab I can perform further tests." Dimitri nodded at the coroner, Frankie, and walked passed him to Riley. "So what's a pretty girl like that wandering out here that late at night?" Riley thought quickly and smiled "She was at a party, explains the attire, I remember dressing like that during my teen years to go to parties." Dimitri's brow shot up in shock as he smirked "Oh really? You wore stuff like that?" "Oh yes all the time." she smirked and walked away leaving Dimitri to his fantasies. "Whoa whoa! What else did you wear?" He exclaimed as he raced to catch up to Riley. "Thongs? G-strings? You never wore a bra did you?" Riley chuckled at his questions. "Come on Dimitri, you think this is really the place to do this? Near a dead body, and near our coworkers?" He stopped and looked at her as she kept walking away smirking. "Well, it wouldn’t hurt to know." He said to himself then ran up to her again. "So we're knocking on doors looking for a party that happened last night… shouldn’t be too hard. Let's go find the elderly; I'm sure they’ll be able to tell us where it was at." Riley laughed at his suggestion and got into the vehicle.

                Travis reached up for the home phone, and dialed the police. "911, what's your emergency?" "Well I think I might have information regarding one of your cases, the one with the blonde teenager who had her heart cut out." Travis tried to remain calm not to raise any alarm.  "You have information on that case?" the operator sounded concerned. "I don’t know how credible it may be, because you see… I had a dream this morning then when I woke up and saw the news that talked about the exact same thing I saw in my dream." "Please stay on the line while I transfer you to the proper authorities." the line went dead for a few seconds. "Hello? Thank you for holding you’ve reached Edmonds county police station, how may I help you?" The voice finally said. "I may have information regarding the case of the girl who had her heart removed." Travis' voice was beginning to waver and he knew the policeman on the other end could detect it. "Ok sir, would you mind coming down to the station for some questions?" A sure sign he could hear Travis' shaky voice. "Uhh no I think I'd rather not." The policeman insisted yet again. "Please sir for a better and more accurate statement it would be better to do this down at the station." "No I don’t think that’s best, listen before she was killed she screamed something, a name… I just can't remember what that name was right now." "May I ask how you came upon this information?" The policeman now seemed irate. "Uhh well, it… it was in my dream last night." "Oh ok let me just write that down, very funny kid, go waste someone else's time!" The policeman hung up. "Great… just what I need." Travis stood up and looked outside, terrified that his little chat just now would end up in them sending a squad car over anyway. As much as he wants to join the force he didn’t want a smudge to damage his record. He went to his room and grabbed his wallet, and sure enough when he went back downstairs a knock on the door confirmed his suspicion. He slowly opened the door to see the tan garbed man standing there with his hands on his hips. The policeman reached up and took his sunglasses off. "Sir, we received a tip that someone at this residence has some information, I'm here to bring them to the station for questioning." Travis stood there speechless staring at the man. "Oh, oh! … Yes you see, that was... Oh that was nothing." he tried to smile and lie. "Sir, please come with me down to the station." The officers' hand moved back slightly to his taser. "Oh that won't be necessary I really don’t have any information." The officer pulled out the taser and aimed for Travis' chest. "Sir, I insist that you come with me, before this turns ugly." Travis jumped back throwing his hands in the air. "Hey! Now that, that is very unnecessary!" "Then please sir come with me." Travis sighed. "Alright I'll go, sheesh." The officer escorted Travis back to the squad car and opened the door for him. Travis sat in the back seat regretting his decision to contact the authorities.

                Riley sat in the passenger seat of the black SUV looking out the window. Dimitri had his eyes locked on the road; Riley had just gotten a text message that they had a suspect who claimed he knew something about their case in custody. They were about to go door to door trying to find the party but a solid lead was a much better option. They raced back to the station to begin interrogating their new suspect. They pulled up, exited the vehicle and walked into the building. "Alright where's our suspect?" Dimitri asked walking passed the arresting officer. "In room three." The man replied. "Oh I do hope he has some good info for us." Dimitri said smiling. "Don’t get too far ahead of yourself Dimitri, he may just be a kid who wants publicity." Riley replied walking past Dimitri and opening the door. Travis sat at the table with his arms folded on the table and his head resting on them. "Alright punk! Wake up!" Riley looked over to Dimitri with a glare. He shrugged back at her, and then slammed his hands down on the table. "Start talking! What 'information' do you have for us?" Travis arose and looked at them both and sighed. "Like I told the guy on the phone, I forgot the name I had. So really I have nothing, except how she was killed." Dimitri looked over to Riley happily. "Alright kid start talking" Riley said softly pushing her long brown hair back over her shoulders. "Well I'm not sure if you'll want to hear it, I'm sure it's not even credible information anyway." Travis said shrugging. "How about you start with how you killed her." Dimitri was trying to test the kid. Travis' eyes shot open. "Wait what!? I didn’t kill anyone!" "Then how do you know how the victim was killed?" Dimitri was getting the reactions he wanted. "Ugh ok ok, it was… it was in my dream last night." Travis said sinking into his seat and slinking his head down muttering the last of it. Dimitri's slight grimace vanished as he became infuriated. He glared at Travis and got closer. "You mean to tell me you dreamt how she died? Great! Close the case we know how she died and who did it, this kid dreamt it all. Why the hell did they call me in here to question this moron!?" Dimitri stood and went for the door. "She was slapped." Travis said slumping more into the chair. Dimitri froze, and then turned "What was that?" "She was slapped… then before she could cry she was gagged. He dragged her by her hair to the point where he took a knife and killed her… it some had kind of inscription on it. He cut her open, and took her heart. Then jumped off her. And ran into the forest." Travis said looking up at Dimitri. Dimitri paced back and forth with his hands cupped over his mouth, stressing how this kid knows so much. "How did you know that? Who told you?" Travis looked up frightened. "No one told me, I told you it was in my dream." Riley steped over to the table, and calmly asked. "You claim she screamed something before she was murdered, what was it?" Travis looked over at her with misty eyes. "I don’t remember! It was a name… she cried out a name then said it wasn’t funny." Dimitri spoke up once more. "How could you remember all of those other details and not remember that important one!?" Riley glared at Dimitri again "Please Madison, be calm, anger won't help. Now if you could remember that name it would help us out a lot." Travis sighed. "I don’t know if I can. It was something like... fairy. "He gives a slight chuckle."No… that’s not it, I think it was Joshua. No that’s not it either; I know it started with a 'J'." Dimitri became irate "Come on! You're wasting our time, now what was the name!?" Travis closed his eyes and shouted. "I don’t know!" "Now boy tell me what the name is tell us!" Travis' eyes clench tighter as he exclaimed. "Jeremy! His name was Jeremy!"

Chapter 2

            Dimitri climbed out of his messy bed, practically having to force himself to get up. It had been a long night last night and not being able to sleep didn’t help him. All through the night he laid there staring at the ceiling or the wall. When he finally managed to get some sleep, he tossed and turned violently causing him to wake up several times. Bringing himself to his sore and tired feet he proceeded to walk into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. Before he could pour the steaming liquid into his mug the phone rang. He groaned and went to answer. "Hey Dimitri it's me, I thought we could go out and try to find that party today. Get dressed and meet me near the crime scene." Riley's voice sounded eager, vivid and full of spirit. Clearly she had gotten to sleep last night incredibly well. "Riley, how… how do you know I need to get dressed?" Dimitri's voice came back crackling and groggy. "Dimitri I know how you sleep, I know that you probably just woke up and by the sound of it you haven't had your coffee, now come on get down here!" after finishing her explanation she hung up leaving him standing there confused and naked. He grabbed the pot of coffee and tilted it so the contents would pour out into the glass he had gracefully chosen. Meaning he had grabbed a mug slammed it on the counter and poured the coffee quickly. Drinking it quickly he wandered into the bedroom to get dressed. After having misplaced his badge he tore apart the room looking for it, only to find it in his inner jacket pocket.  Dimitri buckled his utility belt and headed for the door, but stopped and placed his hand on his hip, feeling the empty holster. He sighed and knew he didn’t have time to look for it; Riley was already pumped and ready to go. She usually tends to get that way when they get a breakthrough in the case.

                Riley was standing at the border of the woods looking into it and examining the crime scene. She had with her the young twenty four year old informant, Travis. Travis was shyly kicking the ground trying not to stare at Riley's chest. He found her incredibly attractive and found himself staring at her more oft than not. Riley turned to Travis asking him if the crime scene was how he saw it in his dream. Travis crooked his brow and looked up at her. He looked around and became very confused. "This is where she was murdered?" to his astonishment the actual crime scene was nothing like that of his dream. The area where the man had confronted the young teen in his dream was on an overpass of a small river. Here at the real scene no river had even existed. He looked down the street and saw no houses. In his dream the young promiscuously dressed teen was walking down a street that had several houses just up the road. Travis looked back at Detective Jacobs. "No, this is nothing like that of my dream, there was a bridge here and a river under it. Up the road there were houses, like four of them I think." Riley became very confused, Travis had accurately described how she was killed but not where. 

                The sound of a motor off in the distance paused Riley's next question. They both turned and saw the black SUV round the corner. Riley smiled and knew that her partner had finally arrived, and they could proceed with the investigation. The massive truck halted and Dimitri got out. Seeing Travis, he rolled his eyes and quickly became enraged. "What the hell is he doing here!? Are you telling me were actually going to listen to this kid Riley!?" Riley stepped forward and put her hand on Dimitri's chest to stop him. "He knew how the murder happened, but he says that the real scene of the crime doesn't match the one in his dream." "Oh well that’s some high quality information. He is one hell of a lead Riley." he pushes her out of the way and leaps towards Travis. Riley interjects once more. "Dimitri stop! We are going to do this as a team. Why can't you see him as help? He's not getting in the way; he called to give us his knowledge. So let's go find that Jeremy kid. He is our suspect, not Travis." 

                Up the road at least a few miles the first door opened, the homeowner looked at the detectives confused as to why they were standing on his doorstep. He asked them softly if he could help them. Simply Dimitri stated that they were looking for a man by the name of Jeremy and if the homeowner had any information about his whereabouts. The man gave them a slight scowl and replied angrily that he didn’t know anyone and slammed the door. "Well that went well. I thought the elderly would gladly give us the house that would be playing loud music all night." Dimitri stated turning about to leave the house. Travis quickly added. "Well you didn’t ask him about a party, only about Jeremy." Dimitri smiled and thought to himself what a good little junior detective they brought along. He turns and knocked on the door once again. There was no reply this time, the man inside did not want to be bothered by foolish questions. Dimitri pounded on the door and cried out who he was. The owner quickly came back to the door apologizing. "Sir, do you know about a party at one of these houses two nights ago?" Travis quickly asked, trying to show off.  "Yeah those damn kids always blasting their music!" the man pointed down the street to a blue house. "And what about Jeremy? Do you know him?" Dimitri quickly added trying again now that the man knows who they are.  "No I'm not sure who you're talking about. But the damn party was just right there, go ask them." The man lost his temper again and shut the door.

                 The group walked over to the other house and banged on the door loudly, making sure whoever was inside could hear them. A young hung-over man came quickly to the door. "God did you have to knock so loudly, you know that I'm hung-" He looked up and squinted at the group. "Wait, you're not Bobby." his speech was slurred and hardly understandable. "Listen kid, were investigating a murder either you comply or we bring you down to the station." Dimitri was always quick to jump the gun. But Riley quickly butted in. "We are looking for someone named Jeremy who attended your party last night. Do you know him or know where we could find him?"  "What? Jeremy? Oh yeah, yeah I know Jeremy he's pretty badass you know." he gives a small chuckle. "He likes to bang the really hot chicks." he looks at Riley. "Like you." Dimitri's face shot red. "Watch it kid!" Travis knew what the guy was talking about, detective Riley Jacobs was something else. He'd daydream about her if he could but he was afraid of her knowing he was attracted to her. "Anyway, at the party the other night he hooked up with this really hot girl, they went upstairs and didn’t come back down till the party ended." the man was smiling and looking up and down Riley winking at her. 

                Suddenly the back down creaked and slammed shut as someone was running away from the house. Dimitri heard the noise and quickly told Riley to go around the other way. He reached for his gun only to remember that he lost it last night. He ran around the house anyway looking for the fleeing suspect. Riley screamed over to Dimitri that she had him, when Dimitri reached detective Jacobs, the man was pinned on the ground with Riley's gun to his back. Riley recited his Miranda rights and picked the man up roughly pushing him back up the hill to the car. 

                The ride back to the station was very awkward for Travis; he had to sit next to the man who tried to run away. He smelled strongly of tequila and seemed very edgy. Travis didn’t want to keep looking over at him but couldn’t resist the urge to do so. Yet every time he looked over at the man, he always had the same thought. If he was at the house then how could he have killed the girl? He didn’t have any blood on him, and from the phone call he received yesterday, the girl's body was covered in blood. This would stand to reason that whoever killed the girl probably would be plastered in this girl's blood as well. But it had been a day since the crime; easily time enough for someone to clean themselves off. Upon arriving at the station Riley climbed out and took the reeking man into the station. It was clear on her face that she did not want to be near this man. She withstood the abuse to her senses and pushed the man into the chair in the interrogation room. Dimitri walked in next closing the door before Travis could enter. He sat on the bench in the hall next to the room. Occasionally he could hear Dimitri lose his temper and begin yelling at the man. Inside the room Riley stood at the back, she never really liked interrogations. She never felt a good enough wordsmith to be able to break someone. So she let Dimitri play the bad cop. The man still had not given his name, and Dimitri was trying to get one out of him. Casually the man just sat there saying nothing, but staring at Riley. Riley stared back with a slight glare in her eyes. She thought that if this freak was trying to play games best not to let him know it was working. She was freaked out by this guy, but she held onto her will and fought back. Finally Dimitri got his attention by stepping in front of and blocking his view of Riley. The man looked up at Dimitri and said nothing. Dimitri glanced at him then to the gash on his left forearm. "Pretty nasty wound you have there. Did you get that when you killed her?" Dimitri's patience was spreading thin. The grimy man simply said. "That’s a nice looking lady you got over there." Riley's will broke; she stepped up to him and shouted while slamming her fist on the table. "Enough! Tell me why you killed her." She opened the dossier and slid out the photos of the mutilated girl. "Why did you take this girls heart?" Her quick outburst startled him to the point where his silence broke. "Whoa man chill, I didn’t kill anyone! I don’t even know this chick!" He looked over the pictures and his smartass attitude dispersed. "Wait… I do know her. Man, this chick is my best friends' girl you know." Dimitri stepped back into the argument. "Who's your best friend?" Dimitri thought that they were making a breakthrough, until the man decided to play the quiet game again.

                Travis was getting bored and his foot started tapping to the song he had in his head. He began whistling the tune and patting his knees. Some of the officers were looking at him and laughing. Travis didn’t mind though. It wasn’t the first time he'd been ridiculed for being himself. High school wasn’t his greatest social experience. Being one of the top students in his class earned him some popular enemies. So he just ignored the giggling officers and continued his little dance. Just before he finished his tune the door of the interrogation room shot open and Dimitri burst out and paced quickly down the hall. Travis leaned up and over watching him quickly rush away from the room. Before the door closed completely Travis takes a quick peek in and sees the man badly beaten and Riley standing behind him with her arms folded. The doors clicked shut, and Travis wondered what had just happened. Moments later Riley walked out. "Thank you for your help today." Travis looked up at her quickly but felt his face blushing so he looked back down. "No problem. Hey, I was thinking about joining the force, have been since high school. You think you could put in a good word for me?" Riley smiled and walked off. Travis sat there puzzled why she didn’t answer the question. He got up swiftly and chased after her. "Hey what happened in there?" "Dimitri has a short temper when it comes to scumbags like that guy who likes playing games." Riley stated as she entered her office, Travis shortly after her. "Did he give you any information?" He sat in one of the chairs near the wall. Riley was distracted by the dossier but she still managed to quickly say "uh no, no he didn’t. Oh you're free to go anytime Travis, I don't think we'll need you anymore today. Thank you." He looked at her than his eyes fell to her chest. He couldn’t resist taking that one last look. He smiled and stood up walking out of the office.

                Dimitri had gone home to relax, finding his media device he played his favorite song for relaxing. The soothing sounds of flutes and Chinese guitars filled the bathroom as he slunk into the steaming tub of hot water. He leaned his head back against a small bathing pillow, and closed his eyes. The stinging sensation he got from the water was penetrating his skin. He felt his muscles relax and the tension release. His body slipped further into the water until it was up to his chin. He began becoming so relieved that he wavered in and out of consciousness. He was still exhausted from not being able to receive any sleep last night. As he finally succumbed to his fatigue his mind started playing back what had happened in the interrogation room. The man sit quiet, after hearing his best friends' girl had been murdered. Dimitri tried again to recapture his attention by explaining how it happened. To no avail the man in spite of everything Dimitri tried remained muted. Dimitri paced back and forth, then grabbed the greasy man by his lapels and threatened to put him away for obstruction of justice. The man calmly states to do your worst. And Dimitri first pounds the table, and then holds his fist back ready to hit the man. Dimitri shouts once more to cooperate. The man only shakes his head. As Dimitri loses his calmness he swings forward with his fist. Just as his fist makes contact a loud knock on the door downstairs makes him jump and regain consciousness.

                Riley stood outside waiting, unaware that Dimitri had fallen asleep in the bath. She knocked again and waited another minute. Then she pounded on the door one last time, finally she heard movement from inside the house. Having no time to get dressed Dimitri covered his lower half with a towel and rushed to answer the door. When the door opened and Riley saw the dripping wet half naked man standing before her, she gets a little hot. "Why detective Madison, what an unusual way to answer the door." She smirked then places her hand slowly on his chest pushing him into the house, kicking the door closed as she entered. "The way you lost your temper today was very hot." Her heart raced as she was embraced by her lover. Dimitri moved down to kiss her. As they became lip locked, they stumbled back into the sofa falling down into the plush. Dimitri's hand moved up her blouse hesitating on her hips. Riley grabbed his hand and moved them up to her chest. His softened hands from the bath made her moan. His hands moved to her back as he unclipped her support. Moving back to her front, his arms raise up moving her shirt up over her stomach. His lips meet with her bare stomach and she let out a small whimper. He removed her shirt completely and slowly kissed up her side, groping her in his left hand and rubbing up her side with his right. His mouth comes to her breast, his tongue teasing her nipple in circles. She let out another moan this one more loud then before. As he continued his ascent to her lips she begins undoing her pants. They become lip locked once again as she moaned once more. Her tension was being released in more ways than one right now. Her stress seemed to just melt right off her, and the sexual tension that had been building between the two of them was now relieved. They both stood up and her pants slid down her slender legs. Green had always been her favorite color and her thong was proof of that. They moved towards the bedroom as she kicked of her shoes and then her pants. She gave one quick tug to the towel that hid his body and the towel unfolded off of him. They entered the bedroom and he threw her down on the bed and kissed up her leg as he crawled over to her. He reached her inner thighs and wrapped his finger around the green lace of her thong, and gently slid it down exposing her. His lips touched every inch of her body as he went down on her. He pulled himself inside of her and held one of her legs over his shoulder. Their bodies began to sweat as the heat in the room intensified. She let out loud moans as she was penetrated. Her lower lip was suffering abuse as she bit it in pleasure. Every thrust into her made them both forget about the hard days work. For the time being all that mattered was the passion that fueled their bodies desires.

Chapter 3

                She walked down the poorly lit street in high heels and a low cut skirt. She was a bit nervous walking down the street after hours but she had just gotten out of a party and was too impaired to drive. She had no money for a cab and her house was only a few blocks down the street. No reason not to walk, it was a nice night. Until she heard the feint sounds of footsteps behind her. She quickly looked back giggling and shouted "Jeremy, if that's you, you're not funny!" the footsteps stopped, and she turned back around only to run into a man's chest. "Oh, I'm sorry" she slurred "Jeremy?" Without making a sound the figure of the man shook his head.  Slowly he reached in to his jacket, pulling out a nicely sized knife. The knife looked expensive, though it was hard to see in the dark, she could see the ivory base and a slight glimmer coming from the steel ends of the base. Her eyes widened in confusion as she faltered backwards. She took a deep breath in attempt to scream but was silenced when the sudden strike of his hand knocked her down. Her knee hit against a rock and spat blood a few inches away. As she caught herself she looked back up at her attacker, he was moving closer. She managed to scream for help only just as he was on her tying a thick coarse rope around her mouth gagging and silencing his victim. She tried getting up and running away but was met by failure as his grabbed her hair and yanked her back down to the moist ground. With another quick jerk, he tugged her over to the nearest tree, kicking and screaming. He once again reached into his black dress jacket and took out his knife. Her eyes were half open and filled with tears but she was too weak to fight back. He quickly opened the knife revealing the insignia of an eagles head facing the point of the blade. And underneath the eagles head was the inscription: 'To our only son'.

            The lamp fell off the nightstand and shattered. The sound of the ruckus caused the body in the bed next to the fallen lamp to make a quick jolt. The blankets fell to the floor and detective Madison arose alert and confused. He took a quick survey of the room and found the lamp lying in pieces on the floor. He let out the breath he was holding in and relaxed. A cold presence shook him as he quickly shivered and looked around the room once more. From behind a mysterious hand reached up and grabbed his shoulder firmly. He felt a slight tug as detective Jacobs rose next to him covering herself with her arm. She put her arms around him and relaxed her chin on his shoulder and let out a long drawn sigh. Dimitri stared down at the lamp thinking only of how much his grandmother loved it. His thoughts were disrupted as Riley's soft voice whispered into his ear. "You sure move around a lot in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream?" She kissed his neck waiting for him to answer.  His dream was strange but normal, but it still caused him unrest, enough so to bump the lamp off the nightstand. He turned and simply replied 'no' meeting his lips with hers. His alarm suddenly sounded, sending a screeching buzz through the room, causing both of them to jump in fear. His alarm was set for four-o-clock in the morning. His unrest caused him to again lose sleep. Moments later his phone rang; reaching under the blankets on the floor he finally found it. He looked at the ID before answering, the one calling was the coroner, Frankie, and he had finalized his tests. Dimitri quickly told detective Jacobs and they both rushed up and got dressed.

            The seal to the frigid compartment broke and hissed softly as Frankie opened the door of the girl's temporary coffin. Explaining to both detectives what his tests had found. "She was incredibly drunk; her blood alcohol levels were through the roof, at one point three. But anyway that’s not why I called you down here. I got a positive ID off of her finger prints, the name is, Alice Cowley." Dimitri was fascinated with the body, and couldn’t stop staring. He usually becomes a bit 'distracted' without proper sleep and his cup of coffee in the mornings. Riley was focused on the name Frankie read out. "Cowley? I've heard that name before…" her pause caused Dimitri to snap into the conversation. "It was the name of the guy we interviewed. After finally beating the snot out of him he revealed his name. Heath Cowley." Riley's eyes widened and she bolted out of the room, leaving Dimitri standing there puzzled. She ran up to the detention cell, they were still holding him on charges of resisting arrest. "You lied to us. You said you didn’t know the girl." She stopped at his cell and stood arms folded across her chest. His reply came more swiftly than that of his previous remarks in the interrogation room. "Ma'am I'm afraid I don’t know what you're talking about." He stared at her; her stare back was more intimidating. "She was your sister!" She noticed his small smile wipe across his face. "Why are you grinning? Your sister was murdered and you know who did it. Just tell us and we will go get the guy." Dimitri finally walked in and saw the prisoner weeping into hands. "She just didn’t know when to stop. She was working on a project in school, a study. To see how fast she could gain friends and become popular if she just played the social trend. Hang out with cool people, attend their parties. I wanted her to stop because she was staying out so late and coming home so wasted she could barely stand. She started hooking up with my best friend..." Dimitri grew irate, "Why did you lie to us!? What was so hard about telling us she was you sister?" "I didn’t know what had happened, I was afraid if you guys knew she was my sister than I was going to be the primary suspect." Dimitri rolled his eyes and stepped back. "Who is your best friend?" Riley softly stated. At the same time both Riley and Heath spoke up. "Is it Jeremy?" "Jeremy"

            Travis woke up with a pounding headache. He rubbed his eyes and sat at the edge of his bed staring at the floor. The nightmare visited him again last night this time with more details. He didn’t know if he should call and tell the detectives or just let it pass. He groaned and rubbed his forehead, then slowly laid back down. His eyes slowly started to close to his exhaustion. Light begun swirling around, standing off in the distance was a dark silhouette. It was blurry and undistinguishable, but was clearly a person. The figure slowly began moving closer, taking its time at first but soon was at a full gallop. Halfway between where it had stood and Travis, it was overtaken by shadow, just before it was recognizable. Travis did notice however that it wore a dress jacket, unmistakably like the one from his previous dream. His thoughts were mocking him, showing him over and over again the killer. But never making it apparent to whom the mysterious man was. The shadows finally spit out the figure right in front of Travis. Staring him right in the eyes, Travis didn’t have time to look up as the sudden appearance made his body go into a quick convulsion. He woke instantly before he saw the face of his haunter. Dashing from the bed into the bedroom he turned the faucet on and cupped his hands to wash water over his face. Walking slowly out of the bedroom feeling like a zombie his knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor. He never was one to handle such mental stress; his aunt always said 'if you want to become a law enforcement agent you need to toughen up!' His weakness didn’t derive from anything that happened to him during his younger years, he has just always been a little on the pathetic side. His pants lay on the floor next to him, he grabbed them stood up and pulled them on. In the kitchen the phone chimed out ten times then rang. Travis knew he had to share the newly discovered information with the two detectives. After ringing six times and no answer Travis hung up shook his head threw the phone into the couch and walked out the door.

            Riley rushed into the truck that was already warm and ready to go. Dimitri had been out waiting for her to collect her things out of her office and meet him in his vehicle. She got in slamming the door behind her. "Hey carful, carful, this is a new ride, take care of her." Dimitri had only gotten the new SUV four months ago. After his old police issued vehicle got shot up in a standoff with some of the local gangs. "Just drive Dimitri we have to find Jeremy before he can get away." Riley didn’t want to play anymore games, she just wanted to catch the guy and close this case. The engine growled and leaving a black trail of burnt rubber the truck raced off. The address given to them by Heath had checked out with their records. Jeremy had apparently been living there alone for the last three years; since his mom died and his dad abandoned him. He got a job as a mechanic and slowly learned to take care of himself. The house they arrived to was not at all what they expected it to be. The window panes had all fallen off. Most of the windows were cracked and broken. The yard looked like it hadn't been maintained in over a year. They got out of the truck ready for anything; they walked around the chain link fence into the yard. A loud thump made them look to each other than to the door. It had come from inside, they moved slowly as they upholstered their weapons. Guns drawn and aimed for the poorly painted wooden door they proceeded to move upon the house. Another loud thud made Riley jump slightly and caused her to scream "Police! Open the door immediately!" The sound of a small click had Dimitri cocking his head to the door. Four deafening explosions tore through the door, splintering the redwood. Riley quickly took up her firearm and kicked the door open seeing the man standing in the hallway ducked under a cardboard box. She quickly knelt to the side of the door and yelled to the man. "Drop the weapon now!" Another earsplitting shot assured her that this man was not giving up without a fight. She looked down the hall than swiftly shot three times on the hidden mans position. She looked up again and fired once more when she saw his leg move. As the man was hit one more shot ripped from his gun. The grunting man almost made it impossible to hear the falling of the second body. Riley turned horrified when she saw her partner on the ground losing blood rapidly from his abdomen. She jumped up and rushed into the house kicking the gun from the wounded man. Flipping him over disregarding his injury she cuffed him to the banister of the stairs behind her. She ran back out checking Dimitri's vitals, he was alive; his heartbeat was weak and slow. Riley moved as fast as she could to take out her phone. Before she could call for help she fumbled her phone. Picking it up and calling for backup she told them to hurry, officer down. She placed the phone on the ground next to Dimitri and kissed him softly and began crying.

            Travis walked calmly down the road. A slight breeze was wisping through the trees calming his troubled mind. He thought about how to tell the detectives he had another dream. He knew Dimitri probably wouldn’t take too kindly to it. Travis didn’t think Dimitri liked him too much. From the start he knew Dimitri was disregarding whatever he said, only on the premise that he was a civilian claiming he had a dream. Travis softly chuckled to himself, he found the thought of him being mildly 'psychic' as he thought, was amusing. His laughter was promptly silenced as he heard the screeching of sirens howling through the trees. His movement slowed then stopped as he heard them getting closer. He turned confused, maybe it was the detectives he thought, but why would they need so many cars? When the first squad car rounded the tight corner and was followed by an ambulance his heart sunk. He knew either someone was hurt, or killed. He kept watching the screaming vehicles pass him in hopes to find Detective Madison's SUV. After the last squad car had come and gone he turned eyes wide. Maybe they're already at the scene, his mind raced with thoughts as to why the massive truck wasn’t leading the convoy. His pace picked up as he dashed to keep up with the speeding vehicles. His breath was stolen from him and he couldn’t keep up, he still managed to follow them though. As this was the only road, and it didn’t split for three miles. He still walked fast and every time he felt like he could he ran a short distance. He came up over a small hill and finally saw where the commotion had brought him. He pushed his way through the tan sea of officers. When he came to stand in front of the trashed house he noticed the paramedics moving onto the lawn with the gurney. He looked to their destination and saw detective Riley on the ground, her swollen face moistened by her leaking eyes. A black trail of mascara showed where her tears had fallen. A glance down revealed the man soaked in his own blood; Dimitri lay unconscious at Riley's knees. Travis stood shocked that the man he thought to be invincible was now on the ground bleeding. The blood rushed from Travis' face and he felt woozy. He leaned against the chain link fence to support him in case his mind gives way to the trauma that presents itself. Three armed policemen ran into the house, moments later escorting a limping man out, placing him into the back of a squad car. Dimitri was lifted into the ambulance and Riley shook her head to the paramedics. The door to the back of the ambulance closes, and then it drove off. Riley watched it until it fades out of sight then walked to Travis. "Come on, I'll take you home." She put her arms around him and walked him to the SUV. "But I've just arrived, aren't you going to tell me what's happened here?" "Maybe some other time."

            The truck came to a slow stop but the occupants lingered inside. "I, I may have new information that might help solve your case." Travis stared at his thumbs, trying not to look at the broken detective. Riley looks over to him. "Well, let's hear it." He looked up out the front window than to her. "It's mostly just more details. The knife he used, it was ivory. And the inscription, 'to our only son.' It had an eagle head on it facing the point of the blade…" Riley stared at him a little bit longer before thanking him. She got out and walked around to his door and opened it for him. "Come on, I'll walk you to the door." He climbed out of the car with grace. He walked by her side slowly. It was the first time she had seen his house. By her standards it was a little big for someone without a job and to be so young. She didn’t let the thought bother her though. "Thank you detective." He looked up at her and blushed slightly. She noticed his flush face and smiled. "No problem and thank you for all of your help on this case." He smiled back at her and turned to the door. Pausing a moment before turning back around. "Detective, what happened back there? Will he be alright?" Her smile faded and her eyes lost focus. She zoned out thinking about how the incident played out. "Detective?" Travis asked again trying to get a response from the unresponsive husk that stood before him. He stared into her blank eyes. "Detective?" She finally came to and blinked. "He was shot. He was shot and I failed to protect him." "Oh no detective, you did protect him, had you failed, he would have left in a body bag." Travis felt a strong urge to smile as he thought he made a clever joke. But he fought it off trying not to be insensitive. "The suspect opened fire when we announced who we were. We didn’t even get a chance to brace ourselves." She shook her head fighting the urge to cry again. "Thank you Travis. I'll see you later." She turned and walked back to the truck. Travis watched her climb in and after it rolled away he turned and walked inside. He walked over to his fridge to get a drink. Grabbed the jug of juice and poured it into a cup. After placing the juice back he picked his glass up, took a sip then thought he wanted ice. He opened the freezer and his hand twitched and the glass dropped to the floor.

Chapter 4

            The round door knob turned slowly until the door burst open. Her body collapsed through the doorway onto the floor.  Riley lay on the floor, her mind whirling with images of her fallen partner. The overwhelming emotions flowing through her took over as she began to blame herself for failing to protect Dimitri. Her exhaustion started catching up to her, her eyes damp and weak, and her body worn and beaten. Time was lost to her; she laid on the floor for what felt like days to her. Only a few hours had passed, before she received a call. Unwilling to get up she let it go into her voicemail. The phone rang again and kept ringing until she finally grudgingly got up. Her irritancy was present in her voice as she answered the phone. The conversation left her shocked; the hospital had called to inform her that Dimitri had checked himself out. It had been only two days since he was admitted. Nevertheless she had to talk to him, find out why he checked himself out. She picked up her cell but before she could dial one number, Dimitri was standing in her doorway. She saw the shadow on the floor next to her knees. Her heart raced as she looked up slowly to see him there before her. The only thing she could think about was that he was alive. She leapt up and ran to him, slamming into him embracing him. He let out a loud discomforting grunt. His wound ripped open as she rammed into his broken body. She didn’t care much for his disgruntled pain. She let her emotion of joy take control. Her body was a puppet to her minds will. She took him in, kissing him wildly. His shirt was already missing revealing the blood soaked bandage on his torso. She quickly ripped off her shirt and pressed her body against his, feeling his warmth. Her sigh of passion told him she was ready for anything. He knew that she was already going too far, he wasn’t in the physical stature for an intimate encounter. He tried protesting to her advances, only resulting in her lips pressed against his. She looked deeply into his eyes, fearing that if she ever lost him again she would forget the color. His face became blurry and began twisting she jumped up confused and scared. He was swallowed into the floor shortly followed by the entire room. The darkness that befell her frightened her as her body jolted from the floor to a kneeling stance. Her weary eyes fought to focus as she attempted to look around the room. Feint amount of light was pouring in through the windows. The moonlight offered small and subtle relief as she saw the room still in existence. She looked out the opened door and stared at the stars. She had been out for hours, her mind had played a trick on her, teasing her with own feelings. She closed the door slowly and leaned against the wall and let her fatigue take her again.

            Travis stared into the freezer at the horror that befell him. The juice soaked into his shoes but he didn’t care. The sick feeling hit his stomach hard as he saw the heart laying there. He didn’t know how to react at the sight of the disembodied heart. On the side of the heart was a note specifically addressed to Travis. "A very special gift, for a very special man."

            The following morning had her scrambling to get ready. She slept in far past what she had scheduled. She was going to go to the hospital to check up on Dimitri. She rushed out the door into his SUV and sped off to the clinic. Upon arriving at his room she stared in at him, unaware of the doctor approaching behind her. Dr. Hansen stood behind her for a moment then spoke. "I have some bad news; his kidney was heavily damaged when he was shot. He is going to need a transplant." His sudden outburst startled Riley; she jumped and turned to him. "Oh, oh god doctor, you just came out of nowhere." He looked at her confused then replied. "No, no I came from just down the hall there." He pointed down from where he was once standing. "Never mind, you said he is going to need a kidney transplant?" "Yes, yes. His kidney was too heavily damaged to repair. Does he have any siblings that would be willing to perform the operation?" He looked down at his chart. Riley turned and stared into his room once again. "No doctor, he doesn’t." "Oh, how unfortunate. This could take much longer then." Dimitri turned his head, his eyes slowly opened and he smiled as he saw Riley standing there. He signaled her to enter the room with a slight turn of his head. "Excuse me doctor." She walked passed him and into the room. Dimitri smiled as she entered the room, she always made him better. He thought to himself how much he loved seeing her eyes. "Thank you for coming Riley, it's good to see you." He lifted his hand to hold hers. He winced when the pain shot up his side, his arm fell back to his side hopelessly. She quickly raced to his side pulling the chair in the corner to his bedside. He groaned in pain, and then mustered up the strength to smile again. She felt devastated that this had happened to him. He saw her guilt in her eyes. "Hey, don’t blame yourself for this. Just part of the job, I'll be fine. You go out there and catch that bastard who killed that poor girl!" Riley stared into his eyes with her own misty eyes. She bent in and kissed him softly. "Ok, you get some rest. I expect to see you better in the coming days." She got up and waved at him as she left the room.

            Travis sat at home, flipping through the list of suspects. He had put together his own list of people connected to the main suspect Jeremy. He ran his fingers through his short blonde hair. Thinking about which of these guys would have a knife. Clearly the man who shot detective Madison didn’t, he wasn’t afraid to use a gun. Plus he was a sloppy person; he'd never kill with a knife. The guy in lockup down at the station, well Travis didn’t know much about him, only that he liked running from the authorities. He thought that if he had access to the real case files and if he were a real cop then he could be of greater help. His frustration got the best of him, and he cursed out loud. He reached for the phone on the end table, he thought he could offer his service to Riley maybe be a temporary fill in for her partner. Dialing the number for the station he waits for an answer. When they finally answer they tell him that detective Jacobs is out. Thankfully he hangs up and goes to the door. In his frustration he punches the door. On the other side detective Riley Jacobs pulls her hand back from knocking. She stands confused looking at the door. She leans in slowly and listens; Travis lost control as he went into a rage frenzy. He began Throwing glassware across the room, and cursing at the top of his lungs. By sheer coincidence he happened to glance outside to see the black truck in front of his house. He took a second look and saw the driver's side empty. The driver had to be near the house. He quickly dashed to the door opening it and almost being taken out by the tripping detective. His face shot red as he saw her listening to his blow out. "Detective Jacobs!? Wha? How? … isn't there some law about my privacy or something!?"  "Well I was just about to knock when I guess you punched the door or something, and then I heard shouting so I decided to listen." "You are a cop, don’t you guys come in guns ready if there is shouting going on in a house!?" "Not when it’s the house of a friend! Or when it’s a one person argument!" his face blushed once again. She considered him to be a friend. "Look Travis I'm sorry, I was just stopping by to…" her eyes came across the coffee table littered with everything has put together about the case."Check up… on you… what's all of this? Is this all on the case I'm working?" He shut the door and walked over to her. "Uhh, yes… I put it all together to try and figure out who was the most likely suspect. I wasn’t planning on a surprise home invasion." He said and she punched him softly in the arm. "Listen kid, this stuff is good. You’ve already ruled out the man who shot detective Madison?" "Uh yes, he used a gun, and he was very sloppy bout it from what I saw of the crime scene. He wouldn’t use a delicate tool such as a knife." He took the papers from her and gathered them all up to put them away. "You want to help me on the case? Only while Dimitri is out of course. I could use a distraction to keep my mind off of what happened." She looked to him almost looking through him. He choked up and replied nervously. "Of course, I'd love too."

            The ride back to the station was more awkward than the last time he rode with her. Granted there was no crazed man sitting next to him. This time there was only him and her, and he was incredibly attracted to her. Seeing him panic like she did back at his house only attracted him to her more. It was silent in the car, both of them trying not to be awkward but neither of them could think of anything to say. Travis felt if he talked first she might think he was annoying and ditch him. They had only known each other for the past four days, and he definitely didn’t want her kicking him to the curb so soon. He had just gotten officially on the case, so he kept silent. She was feeling awkward for intruding on him like she did. She knew she should have knocked but she found his argument with himself to be rather amusing. She let out a slight grin as she thought more about it.

            The room was slowly getting warmer, condensation dripped slowly on the outside of the glass of water. The perspiring man sat in the chair with no intent to drink the glass. He knew the tricks; he had been in this situation before. He stared his own reflection down, knowing that whoever was behind the glass would eventually come in and try to get him to break. Travis stared back at him feeling the anxiety of being close to this man. He looked up at Riley; she had the will of iron. She watched the man's every muscle movement. She waited until the man finally broke and took a drink without thinking. She moved into the room took the glass and handed it to a rookie who followed her in then left as soon as she had the glass. "I can put you away for several things." Her face never showed any emotion. "First things first, I want you to tell me why you killed this girl." She took out the photo of the bloodied corpse and slapped in front of him. She waited for his reaction, though it came much different from what she was expecting. As he saw the picture of the girl he began sobbing softly to himself. "She, she's dead!? She was the woman of my dreams! Why, why would I kill her!?" "Well that’s what I'm trying to find out. Why you killed her." She kept pressing the subject. "Jeremy, you're going to be locked up for injuring an officer, if you cooperate, maybe I can strike a deal with the D.A. but you have to help me out." She looked at him almost pitying him. She knows the feeling of losing a loved one, well as close as you could without actually losing them. "No! I didn’t kill her! We were going to run, her dad didn’t like me, and he never let me see her. So we were going to jump states! I didn’t kill her!" Riley sighed; she got all she was going to get out of him for now. If she had Dimitri she could play the good cop bad cop routine.

             She thought to herself about Travis. Maybe he could help her out. She turned and looked into the reflection. She nodded her head trying to get Travis to come in. Travis stood there in the other room confused. He didn’t know what her signals were. She got up and came into the other room where Travis stood. "That means come in." she grabbed him by his arm and dragged him into the interrogation room. "Ask him about the knife." Travis became very afraid and his voice showed it. He stuttered and couldn’t think of what to say at the moment. "Uh, do... do you kn… know about a... a knife with with... an eagles head on the blade?" Riley stood in her usual corner, when she wasn’t doing the interrogating, arms folded. "What? No man, what the hell are you talking about?" Travis looked back to Riley for help. She smiled at him and waved him on. "No further questions." Travis ran out of the room having trouble breathing. Riley came out shortly after him. "You alright Travis?" she rubbed his back and his eyes widened. "Let's go over the case in my office." She directed him to the office and they reviewed everything they knew about the case.

            The moons reflection off the small lake glimmered like a gem. The clear night sky was quickly blocked by dark ominous clouds. The lakes calm waters were disturbed by the loud bellowing thunder. The shockwave sent ripples through the lake. Arcs of lightning ripped through the sky lighting the area temporarily. With each flash the trees seemed to get more eerie. The dark shadows that possessed them along with the wind from the storm seemed to bring them to life. After reviewing the case files with detective Jacobs Travis thought it would nice to walk home in the calm air. He always loved walking past the lake at night; the silver reflection of the moon always put his troubled mind at ease. As he walked down the rocky shoreline he thought of all the girls he had dated in high school. How many times he brought them to the lake at midnight to share with them how the silver light could calm any troubled soul. It was so surreal watching the trees moving back and forth swaying violently in the wind. His mind lingered on a thought, one of detective Jacobs. More like a fantasy he couldn’t stop replaying in his head. Detective Jacobs enters her office stressed and sweating after a long and difficult interrogation. She removes her hair band and her brown hair flows out of her fingers like rushing water. She wipes her bangs out of her eyes as she sits down removing her overcoat. His mind liked to play games with his attractions. The thought of her undressing was enough to drive him wild. The thought was quickly turned away as thunder rolled across him. He snapped out of his fantasy and looked at the clouds. He knew it would soon rain and then the mud would be a nightmare to tread through. He quickened his pace to near power walk before the rain started. The flash of light followed by the immediate boom caused him to jump. The mud was getting deeper and harder to walk through. His foot sank into a small pocket of deep mud and lost his balance. The log seemed perfectly positioned as he fell onto it. A limb of the log tore a gash into his calf and his arm. His blood spat into the mud and washed down into the lake. He screamed out in pain and reached to his pocket for his phone. Only to realize that he had thrown it and broken it. He was alone out here, stranded and bleeding. He looked down in his despair and cried softly. His tears mixed in with the rain, disappearing as they fell from his face.

            Detective Jacobs stayed in the office later than usual trying to finish up her paperwork for the day. When she heard the thunder clapping outside though she thought of Travis and how he said he was going to walk home. She put the papers in her desk and grabbed her coat and left. She drove all the way back to his house, checking the road along the way. She pounded on his door to no avail. She got back in the SUV and drove back up the road. By mere chance a flash of arcing lightning lit up the lake as she drove over a bridge. A small figure walking along the shore caught her eye. She veered of the road onto a path that led to the lake. She got out and yelled to the figure. "Travis! Travis!" the rain was coming down too hard; she would have to get closer. She ran as fast as she could through the trees to get to him. She glanced over to his position often to make sure he was alright. Not too far from him now, she saw him collapse on the shore. A soft scream is barely heard through the rain. Another quick flash reveals a second figure standing not far from Travis.  Her heart raced as she tried to get to him. Only a few more yards away, the second figure moves closer onto Travis. Travis tries to fight the man off but is already too weak from his stumble. Riley stopped and upholstered her firearm and shot into the air. The second figure looked up and quickly jumped off and fled. Riley reached Travis who is badly hurt. A cut across his cheek, and on his arm and leg. His shirt ripped and three slashes across his chest. It wasn’t long before she noticed a blood trail coming from up the hill a bit and from the woods. "Travis, take my gun, if he comes back. You know what to do." She hands him the gun and walks up the hill into the forest. Following the flowing blood trail to the point of origin. She took out her flashlight but before she could turn it on the area lights up for a split second. Enough time to see what was the source of the trail of blood. Her flashlight lights up but falls from her hand. Landing in the mud it shone on the tree above the body. Slowly the weight of itself brought the light down to the young females face. Riley picked up her light and directed it at the full body. The light reveals the horror of the opened chest. Riley moved in closer putting her hand under her nose. She looked into the opened chest and noticed that the heart had been removed. She was now dealing with a serial killer.

Chapter 5

            Frankie walked around the soaked corpse of the young female. He examined the way her chest was cut. Just like the previous girl, it was done with a sharp enough object to tear through her skin. Her sternum was broken and removed, nowhere in sight. It had most likely washed down the slope in last night's rainfall. He stared at her thinking of his own daughter, if this had happened to her, he would be beyond devastated. The sound of fallen tree limbs snapping behind him made him turn slightly. Riley had returned to the scene. She had taken Travis home and got him bandaged and taken care of. Most of his cuts were minor and needed no medical training, a simple wrapping and a little peroxide would suffice. She stepped over a moderate sized log and shook her head at the body. She was disgusted that someone in her quiet little town could be so troubled as to become a serial killer. She looked to Frankie and smiled. "Frank, pleasure seeing you here on this glorious morning, aside from the, you know." She gestured to the corpse. He smiled back as he got her joking disposition. "Hm, yes, well just like the previous vic, her chest was cut open using a knife of some sort. Chest cavity broken into and the heart removed. I don’t see many defensive wounds, I did however find this." He reached into his bag and pulled out a small cloth. "I guessed it was the gag that bound her mouth, it’s the only bruising I did find." "Any identification?" "Uh, no. The body was clean, nothing indicating as to who she was." She looked at the body one last time, then nodded at Frankie and left. Her mind was riddling over who the killer could be. She rubbed her forehead as she walked away, her migraine was getting worse.

            Travis sat on the couch watching TV since he woke up. The journey from his bed to the couch was a painful one. During his encounter with the killer, he sprained his ankle, cut his knee, and had several lacerations on his chest from the madman's blade whipping across his torso. He tried moving his arm to get the remote and winced in pain. His jaw clenched and his eyes shut tight. He let out a small grunt before reattempting to grab the remote again. He changed the channel and slid down on the couch; put his feet slowly up on the coffee table. His eyelids became very heavy as he was hit with a sudden force of exhaustion. He couldn’t deny his body's desire to rest for much longer. His eyes closed slowly and his mind went blank. A reassuring tap on the window made sure that Travis was out cold. The door slowly opened and a finely dressed man walked in. He straightened his dark jacket, and closed the door softly. The loud click of the door closing made Travis snort slightly, but he didn’t wake. The man who just entered his house went into the kitchen and began searching through Travis' cupboards, drawers, and pantries. At last he came to the fridge. He paused before he opened it, turned to look at Travis who was still asleep. He breathed a small sigh, and turned and opened the fridge. A look of confusion crossed his face for a short time. He shut the door and reached for the freezer door. As the door opened he held his breath. Sure enough what he came for was inside the freezer. He reached inside but winced, and drew his hand back to his torso. He was clearly in pain, he overcame it and reached back in and pocketed what he had taken. He didn’t care much for stealth anymore as he got what he came for. He let the freezer close itself with a loud thud. He ran to the door and quickly left the house. Travis didn’t wake up to any of the noise. He didn’t sleep well last night due to his pain. So he slept through his home invasion.

            Riley decided she'd go check on how Dimitri was doing; it had been two days since her last visit. Maybe seeing him again would clear her mind and might alleviate her headache. She climbed into his SUV, she had been driving it around because she liked it, and knew he wouldn’t mind. She sat and rested her head in her hand. Her head was now throbbing in pain, it hurt just to look out at the road. She pulled her shades out of her side pocket and gently put them on. She started the vehicle and drove off for the hospital. When she arrived at his room, she paused a moment before entering. Thinking about the case and how it went from bad to worse. Dimitri sat up in his bed as he watched Riley enter. "Riley! Oh man it's good to see you, I was getting so lonely." She smiled and chuckled at his charming statement. "It's good to see you again too, how are you doing?" The smile on his face vanished, "Doc said it aint looking too good; the damage to one of kidneys is causing the other one to fail."  Her smile followed his; she felt her heart sink and the weight of the guilt she had blamed herself with pressed down on her. "Oh god, Dimitri… haven't they found a donor yet?" He looked down at his hands, as he looked back up; his face gave Riley another shock. The scowl in her eyes became very noticeable and Dimitri couldn’t help but laugh. "You dick!" she ran over to him and smacked him on the shoulder and giggled at his crude joke. "It's nice to hear you laugh again. I thought I'd never hear it after what happened." "Oh come now Riley stop blaming yourself, it was purely an accident… well kind of." He looked up at her and brushed her cheek. "The doctors said that the damage to the kidney isn't as bad as they originally thought. I can return to work tomorrow" Riley's eye lit up. "Really? That’s great news! The case just went from bad to worse. We found another body, same MO. Last night Travis left the station and he walked home during the storm. I went out looking for him and luckily found him at the lake just as he was attacked. Shortly after I reached him I discovered the second body. Dimitri, we are looking for a serial killer now." The light from his eyes faded, he looked at her, shocked by the developments. "You're certain it’s a serial killer now? Wow, I never thought this little town could ever see something so serious. How's Travis doing?" "He's fine; I took him home and cleaned him up. His injuries went too severe, nothing a little rest wouldn’t heal." Her hand touched his and gripped it tightly as she leaned in to kiss him. "You should get your rest. I'm sure Captain McCormick will brief you on everything that’s been going on, you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." She smiled at him and was met with the same; she left the hospital and headed home.

            A small dark figure sat at the porch of Riley's home. As she approached closer the figure looked up to the SUV. Travis stood slowly holding his arm against his chest and grimacing in pain. Riley stepped out of the oversized van and walked over to him. "Travis? What are you doing here?" He gave a slight grunt. "I was waiting for you. I needed to talk to you." The urgency in his voice sounded dire. "Is it about the case? Do you have any more information?" they walked inside and she got him a glass of water. He sat down on the sofa and waited for her to return. She came in holding two glasses, the water for him, and a glass of scotch for her. "About the case, I don’t know, but I guess I should tell you. A few days ago, before I came to the cops about my… uh… dream, I got a phone call from an anonymous male. His voice was heavy and sounded like he had been running." She took a quick sip and responded. "What did he say?" Travis looked down at the dark sage carpeting. His long pause came to abrupt halt when he suddenly looked back up to her. "He said her body was so bloody." She looked at him as if puzzled by the statement. "That’s all he said?" "Yes, but that’s not all I need to tell you. After that a day later, I came from home from helping you guys, and I opened my freezer, and a human heart was inside." Riley choked slightly and coughed for several seconds. "You withheld that from me why!? Is it still there!?" "Well ya, I was too afraid to touch it, and I sort of forgot about it." "That’s very important evidence! Do you know what would have happened if I would have found that instead of you? It would look very bad for you. Now come on lets go get it." She stood up and threw back her head swallowing the last of her scotch. He reached out and took his glass took a few drinks and stood with her help. He softly muttered thank you. Her sudden response to the matter confused him but he understood why she was upset. He had withheld crucial evidence from her, and had anyone found it in his possession it would have been much worse than a minor scorn from Riley.

            Riley bursts through the door to Travis' house, in a hurry to find the evidence. Travis followed behind her quite angry that she just kicked his door down while he was standing right there and could have opened it for her. She looked around really quick and found the freezer and dashed to open it. Travis walked in stepping over the wooden splinters. "You know, I'm right here, I could have just opened the door for you." "No time!" He admired her, was smitten by her feminine charm. The only thing that threw his love for her askew was first and obviously, Dimitri. Second, her masculine way of doing her job. She sometimes over preformed and tried to outdo whoever is with her. Coincidently her forward approach got her partner shot. She opened the freezer and looked around. "You can't miss it, it should be right there in front." She dug around for a minute than turned to him. "Travis, if you're playing a joke on me, this isn't funny." He hurried over to the box where he expected to find the frozen organ. "It was… right here. I haven't touched it since I found it!" Riley's scotch was beginning to kick in; her tiny body could never hold too much alcohol. She was always a lightweight when it came to drinking. "Listen Travis! This is a very cruel joke! Now where is the evidence!?" Travis looked at her and was quite aroused by her temper, her drunken temper no less. She pulled out her gun and Travis jumped back. "Whoa! Ok, now look, detective, I swear, it was in there." She carelessly tossed the gun aside. It slid across the floor gracefully before coming to a stop under the couch. She glared at him, he stepped back now afraid of her. "Detective Jacobs, please you have to believe me. I promise the heart…" Riley interjected quickly "The heart isn't there now Travis. Where did you hide it!?" her lack of an interrogator was made up when she was drunk. She was much more determined to get the answer our Travis at any costs. She reached behind her back, the clinging and clanking of metal made Travis become very uncomfortable. She held up the pair of cuffs and dangled them in front of him on one finger. "You going to tell me where you hid the heart, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?" "Oh god detective Jacobs, you're drunk, I'm just gonna go… over here" Travis made a run for it, darting away from the drunken detective. He didn’t get far before she caught him and tackled him to the ground. She cuffed his hands behind his back then dragged him up around looking for the bedroom. When she found it she tossed him on the bed, uncuffing one of his arms and fastened him to the bed post. "Now Travis! Tell me where you are hiding the evidence!" He pulled at his bondage, his wrists became irate. "I told you! I don’t know it was there!" She began unbuttoning her blouse. "Wait! Wait wait! I know, I remember!" She paused and cocked her head slightly. "I knew you'd…" Her hand went to her stomach, "Oh god, where's the restroom?" Travis' eyes shot wide open. "Over there that door! Hurry!" She ran in and let her stomach purge itself of the intoxication.

            Dimitri turned over and stared at the ceiling, his days were exhaustingly uninteresting. Nothing on the television could keep his attention for more than a couple minutes. He daydreamed of getting out and catching the bad guys again. Being by his loves side, seeing the outside, breathing the fresh air. The doctor walked in holding his chart and looking it over. "Detective Madison, I'm very pleased to inform you that your kidney is actually doing quite well. Your recovery is astonishing; then again, the bullet did only graze your kidney. But it did enough damage to cause it to react poorly. But you will be stable tomorrow morning. I've already signed the release forms." Dimitri shook his head out of surprise. "That’s excellent! Oh man I get to fight crime again!" "Glad to see your doing better. You will have to finish signing the paperwork tomorrow morning but after that, you're free to go. Oh I also should mention that I am going to have you have a few medications for a couple weeks, standard procedure I'm sure you are aware." "Oh yes doc, thank you." He leaned back and let out a sigh, he had been in here for almost a week. It was driving him crazy not being out doing his job. His mind danced off into fantasy thinking about chasing down criminals running from the law. He chuckled to himself just thinking about himself thinking about his fantasies. He looked over to the table and saw his phone. He couldn’t hold his excitement in, he had to call Riley. He reached over and picked up the phone and dialed for Riley. It rang the length of the call until it went to voicemail. "Hey Riley, the doc just came in! He said I'm definitely going home tomorrow! I can get back on the case!" he tossed the phone back down on the table and rang for room service as his stomach bellowed.

            The suns light came in through the window at the precise angle and hit Travis in the face. He moaned and squinted his eyes at the light. He attempted to move his hand to block the light but remembered what had happened last night when he felt his hand stop. He looked up at the problem, when Detective Jacobs groaned and got up off the floor. Holding her bangs back up over her forehead, she looked at Travis. "Oh god, did I?" He replies fast to shoot her down. "Oh no, no… no you tried interrogating me, and decided that the best way was to handcuff me to my bed and try to seduce me." He smiled. "It was however, very sexy." "Ugh, damn it drinking was not a very good choice. Wait, did I at all ever take my clothes off?" he laughed at her question. "Well you started undoing your top. But your stomach objected, so you ran into the bathroom and was in there for like half an hour before you wandered back out and passed out on the floor leaving me cuffed to the bed. I tried yelling to wake you but you kept mumbling something about Dimitri and…" she jumped up and winced at her headache. "Oh no! Dimitri, he might be released today. I need to go pick him up!" she raced into the bathroom and fixed up her appearance. "Do you happen to know where my phone is?" "I think I heard it ringing downstairs. You might have dropped it when you tackled me." "Oh yah, sorry about that." She ran downstairs and found the fallen phone close to where she had tackled Travis. She had missed one call last night, and two this morning. She quickly called Dimitri. "Oh finally!" his irritancy was very clear. "Dimitri I am so sorry." She ran out the door slamming it as she left, but it didn’t stay closed as she had broken it last night. "Hey! What about me! You can't just leave me cuffed to the bed!" Travis called out as he heard the door close. "Dimitri I'll be there in ten minutes." "It's fine Riley. I called a taxi, I'm already home." "Oh, ok well I'll come by and see you then. How does that sound?" "It sounds nice." "Ok I'll see you then."

            "Damn attractive women. Always leaving me. God, this one is the worst, not only did she leave me, but she left me tied to the bed! …then again we were never together… but that doesn’t change the fact you left me tied to the bed!" Travis pulled at his restraints until the back board broke. The small wooden pole snapped in half and Travis was freed. He ran downstairs, but was too late she had gone. He thought to himself; in her haste did she grab her gun? Did she even remember she had tossed it aside? He walked over to the couch and looked under. Sure enough the metallic pistol was there. He reached under and grabbed it; the cold heavy metal gave him a slight shock. He pulled it out and looked it over for a few seconds. Then stood and quickly pointed it at the wall. "Freeze!" he yelled. His imagination was taking him to what he wanted to become. Seeing the action in real life made it all the more interesting to him. He turned and pointed the weapon at the other wall by the freezer. That’s when it hit him. If someone had broken in, then surely they must have left fingerprints. He had to get to the detectives and tell them to sweep the house for any evidence of fingerprints.

Chapter 6

            Dimitri walked slowly into the station. Most of the black and whites welcomed him back to work after his incident. He waved them off with a smug grin, and proceeded to his desk. He sat down gently and straightened his jacket. He looked around the small station. Only a handful of uniforms wandered through the halls. He made a quick glance into his partners' office. Detective Riley Jacobs sat on the corner of her desk looking up at the tack board of evidence she had created. She tapped her pen against her chin and occasionally bit at it. Dimitri continued to stare into her office. Riley turned and bent over to get into her small bag. Without fail, Dimitri quirked an eyebrow and leaned back slightly to get a better view. She continued searching her bag franticly. Dimitri's grimace slowly faded as he noticed her panic. He stood and walked to into her office, putting his hand on her back. "You ok Riley?" She came up and frustratingly pushed her hair back, "I've misplaced my firearm." She said slowly and worrisome. "Misplaced your firearm? How did you manage that? You are one of those cops who have it bolted to the side of their hip." She cupped her hands over her mouth and thought. "I don’t know where I could have left it." She looked to Dimitri for support; he picked up on her distress and moved in to embrace her. "Listen, let's go out and catch us a serial killer before we find another body to deal with." He looked in her magnificent green eyes and smiled. Riley nodded and picked herself up out of her despair. "Well currently we have no witnesses, no evidence, no leads, nothing. This case just keeps turning around and around." She sat in her chair and sifted through the papers on her desk angrily. "I don’t even know where to begin!" "Riley, take it easy, you're working yourself ragged." "Don’t tell me to take it easy! I've been working nonstop for three days while you’ve been…" She halted her speech before her anger did more harm to the already tense situation. "I'm sorry, it was my fault." "Riley we are not here to apologize; we are here to stop a monster that is out there killing the people you swore to protect." Riley had her arms folded looking out the window watching the cars drive by subtly.

            A knock at Riley's office door disrupted her trance. She turned, and was greeted by a policeman informing her that she was needed on line three. She picked up the phone on her desk and answered the call. "Detective Jacobs speaking how may I help you?" The voice coming from the other side sounded familiar. At first Riley was puzzled, but as the conversation continued she figured it out. "Travis! Good work I'll be right there with forensics!" She slammed the phone down and raced out grabbing her jacket and swinging it on as she left her office. Dimitri stood in her office completely lost as to what had just happened. He turned and followed his partner attempting to catch up. "I need a forensics unit at this location as soon as possible." She handed a slip of paper to a policeman and walked out the door. Dimitri followed closely behind her confused. "So did Travis have another 'vision'?" Dimitri asked mocking Travis. "No, don’t be so demeaning Dimitri. Travis has been a viable source of valuable information in this case. I wouldn’t be so far into the case without him." Dimitri felt a bit of jealousy sparking, during his hospital time he felt like Travis had moved in on his territory. "Alright, so what's he got you chasing head over heels for?" "Dimitri, when are you going to accept his help?" Dimitri didn’t know how to answer the question, so he didn’t. "He called telling me that he had an idea. The killer placed one of the girls' hearts into Travis' freezer a few days ago. Then the killer came back and took the heart out. Or at least he thinks the killer took it. He said he didn’t tell anyone the heart was in there." Dimitri looked blankly at Riley until her patience wore and she gave up.

            Travis waited for the next morning to call in and inform the detectives about his plan to dust for fingerprints. He figured that they might need a night alone. As the sun rose the next morning Travis had slept in. he woke in a hurry, scrambling to get his things together and find the phone. Travis dialed for the police station and got the attendant "Thank you for calling Edward county police station how my I assist you today?"  Travis replied still scurrying to collect himself. "I need to speak to detective Jacobs right now!" "Ok sir ill let Detective Jacobs know you called." "Can't you patch me through to her phone or something?" "Well I still have to let her know that she has a call sir." The attendant put Travis on hold and went to Detective Riley's office. He noticed that she was having a heated argument over something. He softly knocked on the door and informed Detective Jacobs she was needed on line three. When Travis heard Riley's voice he began to tell her his plan. "Detective Jacobs, I know how we can find the one who took the heart! I never told anyone else about the thing so only one person could have known it was there, the one who placed it there in the first place, the killer. All we have to do is dust for fingerprints! They should be all over the freezer door." After the conversation was over and Travis finished gathering his belongings, he went outside to wait for the detectives.

            When the car skidded to a stop Riley was the first to jump out. She was overly excited about the new lead in the case. This new piece of evidence was going to break this case wide open. With the killers fingerprints all they needed to do was identify and locate. The second car pulled up shortly after Detective Jacobs, and the forensic team unpacked their gear. Travis went to Riley to greet her, but stopped suddenly when he noticed Dimitri getting out of the car. He hadn't seen Detective Madison since before his accident. Travis backed off and stood to the side as the detectives did their job. Riley approached Travis to speak to him. "Very bright idea thinking of the fingerprints. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Most likely because of all the stress I've been under. Well anyway I wanted to thank you for helping with this case. You really have been a great help." Travis looked at her and blushed as he tried not to smile to wide. "You are most welcome detective; I hope you find that bastard who is responsible for all of this." Riley put her hand on Travis' shoulder and nodded. Dimitri walked out of the house and glared at Travis. Travis became very uncomfortable, and turned away and walked inside. "The CSU is almost done with their sweep. We should get back to the lab and wait for the results." Dimitri stated to Riley as he watched Travis leave. "Alright, you go ahead. I'm going to stay here and finish up." Dimitri looked back at Riley. "What's there to finish? CSU is almost done and the kid doesn’t know anything else." "Okay, okay. Travis we're pretty much done here. Once we find the guy behind all this I'll let you know." Travis smiled "That sounds good, Thank you detectives"

            With the fingerprints found and the sweep of the house finalized, all of the authorities departed from Travis' house. Travis let out a long drawn sigh; his day had already started out to be a long one. He shut the door and walked to his sofa. He then remembered he had completely forgotten to give Detective Jacobs her gun back. He ran to the door, and outside but it was already too late. He didn’t want to call her again, as he already felt like he was annoying the detectives. He figured he'd wait until the next time he saw her. He picked up the cold metal object from his end table and examined it. Travis noticed some words etched in the side, reading, 'R.J. Finest.' He didn’t quite understand what the phrase meant but he didn’t really worry himself over it. He placed the heavy iron down on the kitchen counter and looked out the window. The dense accumulation of darkened sky rolled in down off the mountains. Travis stepped outside to look at the storm. An unsettling feeling made his stomach cringe. His mind was filled with thoughts of the night he was attacked by the killer. He became anxious, sweat rolled down off his brow. A slight and quick chill sent a shiver up his spine as the air began cooling and a breeze wisped by. He shook off the memories and walked back inside. As he closed the door a loud crackle startled him, he screamed and winced. He slammed the door shut, leaned against it and slid down. His cuts on his arms began pulsating. He held himself close together as the light from the sun was devoured by the gloominess the overcast created. He sat in deep thought about how Detective Jacobs had come to his side. Had found him in the most unlikely place at a very unlikely time. He heart slowed, and his nerve calmed as he thought of his savoir.

            "Davis, do you have the results of the fingerprints yet?" Riley walked into the lab reading her file she had on the case. She hadn't a lot of evidence pointing to who this Serial killer was. They had gone through several false suspects and ran back and forth only to find more and more bodies. So far four women had been killed. She could only think that it was a matter of time before the next body showed up. "The results came back, yes." Davis replied breaking Detective Jacobs thought, "Well whose ass am I going to kick now?" She smirked but Davis found her sense of humor dry. "Mr. Douglas Goodfellow convicted twice for B&E." "Address?" Davis wrote down on a small note and handed the paper to Riley. As she turned to leave Davis called out to her. "Go get 'em girl!" She chuckled to herself softly and left.

            Dimitri sat in his car, parked a few houses from Travis', waiting for something. He didn’t exactly know what he was doing only that he wanted to prove this kid to be some kind of liar. After all the other policemen left he stayed to do a little surveillance, maybe gather some dirt on the kid. Dimitri never trusted Travis, how could some random kid know so much about a case, a killer, and not BE the killer? This question plague Dimitri's mind since he met Travis. He reached into his back seat and pulled out a pair of binoculars and peered in through Travis' window. Travis was standing at his kitchen counter, he looked exhausted. Dimitri watched as he walked to his couch then suddenly gained energy as he ran outside. Not sure what to make of this Dimitri continued watching. Travis walked back inside and to sofa, Dimitri was about to give up when Travis picked something up that caught Dimitri's eye. Travis had lifted a gun from his end table and just looked at it. Dimitri had seen enough. The kid possessed a weapon; Dimitri had the dirt he was looking for. A loud buzz from the passenger's seat gave Dimitri a shock. He picked up his phone and opened the message. 'Fingerprint results, Douglas Goodfellow. Meet me at the station, we will go together.' When Dimitri looked back up Travis was standing outside again. Dimitri didn’t care why, he started his car and backed up and drove in the opposite direction, avoiding Travis.

            Riley waited under the canopy of the stations front entrance out of the rain. The second night now in a row that a storm had blocked the night sky. Flashes of lightning lit up the dark and damp ground as thunder rolled through the clouds above. A light in the distance separated into two lights as they approached, Detective Madison pulled up and ran to Riley with an umbrella. "Hey there gorgeous, out for a rainy night stroll?" Riley smacked him softly and giggled as they both walked to the car. "We are getting closer to catching this son of a bitch, I just know it. Every suspect, every little piece of evidence. It's all leading up to him. He can't hide forever. And now, we have his name, address and evidence against him." Riley seemed over confident in herself. A good thing despite the past few days of having completely nothing on the killer. When the first girl was killed it was simple, one victim, and one killer, find the connections and find the killer. But when all the connections of the first girl led only to false suspects, they were forced back to ground zero. When the second girl was killed, it was unclear if the cases were at all connected. Until the third girls body was found, Then it was evident they were still looking for the same one killer. This guy was a crafty one, cutting open the chests and taking the heart. What kind of sick game was he playing? Riley had gone over the case files numerous times looking for things she might have missed. She was still missing so much, until she got a breakthrough with the fingerprints. Travis had done well to report to the prints, even if he did withhold for a small amount of time. Riley was still happy with what they got, a major piece of evidence tying someone to a crime scene.

            The storm had gotten heavier and the rain was falling harder. The booming sounds of thunder were louder and longer. Winds whipped the trees back and forth swaying them wildly. Riley watched the forest move violently as the force of the wind ripped through. An arc of lightning struck mere feet from the vehicle, followed by a tremendous and deafening explosion. Riley screamed as she was sent into a panic. Dimitri tried to remain calm keeping the vehicle from losing control. Another flash ahead rumbled the car, "Dimitri, slow down!" Riley shrieked. A small light could be seen flickering in the distance, a fire. A tree had been struck and had fallen ablaze onto the narrow road. Dimitri slammed on the brakes and lost control of the massive SUV. The vehicle spun and hit the fallen tree sending the car rolling into the forest. Mowing down several smaller sprouts, the rolling vehicle finally came to an abrupt stop as it hit an old redwood, smashing the rear of the SUV almost completely. The overturned car lay at the base of the giant redwood as muddy rain water poured in through the broken windows. Both detectives unconscious in their seats, blood spilling from their cuts and mixing with the murky water now filling the vehicle slowly.

            Travis locked up his house and sat on the couch listening to the thunderous rain pour down. He dimmed all the lights in his house and covered himself with a blanket. He didn’t want to attract any unwanted company. If the killer tried to kill him once maybe he'd try again. He sunk in and out of sleep, his eyelids feeling too heavy to carry for much longer. He took a sip of the steaming coffee he had made before relaxing. Hoping not to fall asleep. He wanted to keep his guard up, but with the doors and window locked he had too much feeling of security. He let his eyes rest but the thunder jolted them open again. He thought about Riley's gun, and jumped up to get it. After grabbing it he ran upstairs to his messy room and placed it under his pillow and got in bed. The gun had saved his life once on a stormy night. "I hope the detectives get their guy this time, who broke into… my house?" he yawned and fell into slumber.

            A loud burst of thunder woke Detective Jacobs; she had a raging headache and had three broken ribs, a broken arm, and a dislocated shoulder. She rubbed her eyes with her good arm and grunted in pain as she tried to move the other. She looked over to the driver's seat, and was astonished to see it empty. She looked around and called out for Dimitri. Her voice was hoarse and crackly; she could barely mutter his name. But Dimitri was nowhere in sight, his door was still closed but his window was shattered. Maybe he had crawled out? Well that was all good for him, but for Riley she was trapped. She tried calling out his name again, but couldn’t raise her voice. Blood tickled down her cheek from the cut on her chin. She knew the only she was getting out is if someone found her, she would have to wait and hope Dimitri would come back.

Chapter 7

                A swirl of light filtered in from the shattered windows. Nature’s song began ringing through the forest. The flash flood slowly trickled away leaving dense pockets of mud. A cool mist flowed with morning breeze, chilling the air slightly. A shiver ran down Riley’s spine as the brisk morning caught her off guard. She squinted as she looked around at her current situation and winced in pain as she remembered what had happened. Her eyes befell the driver’s seat; Dimitri had abandoned her shortly after the accident. She had hoped he had gone for help, but he still hasn’t returned. Anxiety consumed her and worry took over her mind. Delusions danced from one end of the vehicle to the other. Her body was fatigued, the blood had been pooling in her head. She wanted to scream, but her throat was too sore. She was trapped, if she removed the belt that held her in place she would fall and possibly receive more injuries. At that time she didn’t care, she reached over slowly trying to unhinge the seat belt. It finally clicked and she fell before she could even attempt to catch herself. The pain washed over her as her body contracted into a ball.

            Travis had just rolled over in his bed, half nude and half hanging off the bed. His bed covers were already crumpled on the floor during his active sleep cycle. With most of the case rapped up and good enough evidence to track down the killer, he was able to sleep well. He even had deactivated his alarm to allow him to sleep even longer into the day. His sleep deepened as his mind awoke. A vision blurred to life, seeing two figures. Off in the distance, a third ran to join the two. Coming into focus, the figures cleared and turned to each other. The older couple looked back to the third running out of reach, crying as he ran. Travis was in plain sight as he reached the other two. He looked almost thirteen years younger, he was just a boy. He jumped onto the woman holding his face into her dress sobbing. When the woman asked what the problem was the only thing the weeping child could exclaim was, mommy, daddy. He looked up to meet her eyes; he had cuts and bruises all down his body. Prior to running away his dad had beat him severely while his mother sat in her chair drinking and watching the local programming. Travis ran to the only person he knew would protect him, his aunt. The dream ended just as his aunt bent down to tell him, everything will now be alright; I'm going to take care of you.

            As the dream ended Travis felt a sharp pain on his left side. A place where his father had beat him. The pain was all mental, but the reminder in the dream had resurfaced the pain. He woke with sudden burst of energy, jumping up and sitting on the bed. He rested his head in the palms of his hands. He had suppressed the memories of his parents for so long, since he started living with his aunt that he almost forgot that they even existed. He rubbed his eyes quickly and got up looking for his clothes. His room was a disaster, unkempt due to his irresponsibility. He found a shirt under his bed sheets and pulled it on, unaware it was backwards. He meandered downstairs to get something to eat when he saw Riley's gun on the counter. He hadn’t thought too much about it, he was planning on giving it back to her the next time he saw her. But now with the case closing he didn't know when that would be. He decided to try and call her to inform her about the gun. He dialed for her on the phone, and waited until the voicemail. He repeated this three more times before giving up and leaving a quick explanation of why he had her gun. He hadn’t even thought about calling the station. He did so and was met with the same fate. She wasn’t at the station either; the attendant had simply told Travis that she had gone out last night to investigate. Travis didn’t think twice before hanging up. He put the phone down and went back to the couch to finish watching the local news.

Chapter 8

            After a few hours on the sofa, Travis got up and called for Riley at the station again. He received the same answer as the last time. He became curious and pressed for more information concerning her new lead. The operator refused to discuss the matters of the case and hung up. Travis' concern grew, detective Jacobs' investigation never lasted all night. He dialed her cell number hoping to reach her that way. The phone rang seven times and went to voicemail. He shook his head and dialed again. Ringing only 4 times this time before an answer. Travis' heart sunk, he yelled a hello into the phone, but there was no answer. He called out again "Hello!?" still no answer. He sighed and gave it one last chance, "Hello!? Riley!?" finally a soft broken voice could be heard. "Travis?" "Riley! Oh thank god. I called the station and they said you’ve been out all night." "Travis, listen." She's interrupted by her own coughing. "Listen, there's been an accident." "What! Where are you?" "I don’t know exactly, we were driving down Hilton Avenue, it all happened so fast. Please Travis call the station, tell them where I am. I need immediate help." "No problem, I'll call them-" His attention was sideswiped when he heard the middle of the breaking news story on the TV. "…This makes the fourth woman killed in a series of murders that started last week. The girl's body was found outside her own home late last night by a neighbor. Police have one suspect and say they are moving in on them-" "Travis?" "Oh what? Oh sorry, yes I'll call the station right away." He hung up and dialed the station again. The operator was short tempered with him until he relayed the information. "Thank you very much sir we will send a search party at once!"

            Travis sat back in his chair, relaxing that Riley was ok and was soon to be rescued. She'd have to be on leave for a small amount of time to recover. But her case was nearly complete anyway, only thing left was to go get the suspect and bring him to justice. They have the name and address and the damning evidence. Travis knew it was all over, he helped catch a serial killer, maybe now he could have a good chance at joining the force. He thought it would be better if he was there to be with Riley when she was found and rescued. He got up, grabbed her sidearm, and ran out of the house racing to get to her location and find her roughly at the same time as the search party.

            The thoughts of Riley danced through his head. He knew it was wrong as she was clearly in a relationship with Detective Madison. But his fantasies raced as fast as he was running. Ever since that night when she intended to interrogate him, but instead passed out due to intoxication, his feelings for her couldn’t be silenced in his head. They grew as they worked more and more with each other, trying to solve this case. The fear of Dimitri though kept Travis' feelings under the radar. Dimitri hadn't liked Travis since the beginning, a kid 'seeing' a murderer, a serial killer in his dreams just oozed of suspicion. Dimitri was watching Travis trying to prove some kind of hostility, some kind of guilt. Dimitri spotted Travis with a gun and thought it enough to pin the crime on Travis.

            Travis arrived at the forest entrance. The road described by Riley to Travis to find her. He began walking down the road looking down both sides of the forest scouting for any sign of the accident. He looked far ahead trying to see if the search party was there. He didn’t see any lights, or hear any sirens. He looked back looking for the same thing, nothing, no sign of any search party yet. His immediate reaction was excitement, he would get there first. But then the worry sank in, they wouldn’t have forgotten already would they? He pressed forward looking, searching, hoping to find her, get to her in time, be her hero.

Chapter 9

            Dimitri limped into the station half conscious and rambling. He kept going on about Riley and how she was in danger, close to the killer but defenseless. He managed to get far enough into the station that he was noticed by another policeman. The man ran to Detective Madison calling out for help. He lifted Dimitri to his feet and carried him to a bench. The men could barely hear what Dimitri was spouting. Muttering under his breath hardly loud enough for even himself to comprehend. He tried speaking up to warn the officers that Detective Jacobs was in danger. Finally speaking loud enough he got the word out clear enough to understand. Two of the four men ran off to inform others, the other two stayed and tended to Dimitri's wounds. Last night's storm had caused Dimitri to lose control of his vehicle, sending both Riley and himself hurdling into the forest. Riley was knocked unconscious almost immediately, Dimitri managed to escape and wonder off to find help once the storm had calmed. "I have to save Riley!" Dimitri shot up and winced, his broken leg seared with pain. He cringed and sat back down. The two cops ran off to get some medical supplies; Dimitri took this opportunity to stand up, enduring the overwhelming pain, and quickly exit the station in search for Riley.

            Travis continued down the road looking for Riley. He was worried that she might bleed out and he'd be too late. He feared to lose her, but as much as he tried to put those thoughts back they always resurfaced. She had been trapped out here several hours in a terrible storm. The cold of night playing games on her body, chilling her. Travis could only think that she was in a deep stage of hypothermia by now. His paced quickened to a brisk jog, he wanted to find her, fast. 

            The police station wasn’t too far from the forest; Dimitri arrived just in time to see Travis already inside the forest. He grimaced and began to walk faster. Now was his chance to catch Travis and end the case. But in his current condition, he wouldn’t stand a chance. However, Dimitri knew that Travis would respect his authority. Plus Dimitri was armed, his hand touched his gun at his hip and he smiled. If anything goes bad he could scare Travis into submission. Then Dimitri remembered that Travis had a gun, what if he brought it with him? What if he called Riley found out where she was and knew that Dimitri wasn’t with her? Dimitri's smile quickly faded and he tried to walk a little faster.

            "Ok I know you all are concerned about Detective Jacobs. We have a search party on the way to find her and treat her injuries. Until she is found and even after, we are going to finish her case. They found evidence that pins this 'Douglas Goodfellow' guy to the scene of a crime. We have his home address let's go catch this bastard before he kills again!" The officers rally a quick cheer and head out. 5 squad cars, two men per vehicle, left the station knowing justice would be served today. The streets would be much safer with a serial killer off of them. Squad leader Lieutenant Mario Dawson announced to the group that even if they don’t find this guy at his house, they will keep searching. Dawson has proudly served the force for 17 years, denied many promotions. He liked where he was, the right amount of authority for what needs to be done.

            The convoy arrived at Goodfellow's house, most of the men got out and shielded themselves gun drawn behind the car doors. Dawson slowly approached the house. Quickly he stood and kicked the door in. the men that were following him rushed into the house. The remaining officers that waited outside kept their eyes on all sides of the house. Moments later a man with his hands cuffed walked out of the house followed by Dawson and the others. Goodfellow had a sinister look on his face, he knew his guilt. The officers didn’t expect him to give in so easily. Goodfellow looked out at the crowd of policemen staring him down. They could see in his eyes that his mind wasn't right. Dawson opened the door to his squad car to push Goodfellow in. Here is when Goodfellow decided to make his stand he leaned down as if to put his head in the car, but instead flung his head back slamming into Dawson's chin. Goodfellow jumped back and pulled a knife from his back pocket and lunged into Dawson. Several shots were sent flying into Goodfellow's chest as he collapsed. The officers ran over to secure Goodfellow and check on Lt. Dawson. "Officer down, shots fired, need ambulance!' One of the policemen radioed in. Dawson was losing a lot of blood fast; the knife wound tore into his liver. One officer pressed on the wound applying pressure to slow the bleeding. They would have to wait for proper medical supplies to arrive to fully treat the injury.

            Goodfellow lay lifeless on the ground. Five bullet holes in the chest. The serial killer wouldn’t see a proper justice trial, but at least the streets were a lot safer than before. The ambulance arrived on scene and the paramedics jumped out to aid Dawson. "Sir, you're going to be alright, we're taking you to a nearby hospital for surgery." Before the paramedic could finish his sentence Dawson had blacked out. His heart rate slowed but the medics were doing all they could to stabilize him. The amount of blood loss had sent him into a catatonic state. If he didn’t receive proper medical attention soon he would die.

            "The suspect has been shot and killed, after he assaulted and critically injured an officer. No sir, the suspect is confirmed dead. Yes sir the ambulance has him now; he is being transported to a hospital. How's the search party coming along sir? Called off? Why? Oh I see, Detective Madison found her and she's safe? That’s good. Alright over and out."

            Detective Madison knew they would send a search party. He didn’t need any more attention to on the matter. He was going to take Travis in and have him arrested for three counts of murder. He called in and told the search party that he had found Detective Jacobs, and no assistance was required. Dimitri was going to close this case and receive partial credit, the other going to his partner. He knew where she was, and could make sure Travis didn’t find her.

            Riley breathed slowly to keep her heart rate down. The faster her heart beat the faster she would bleed. She knew she could rely on Travis to call out for a search party. His affection towards her wasn’t hard to miss. He worshiped her and quite frankly she was flattered. Even though she was romantically involved with Dimitri she liked the extra attention. She quickly remembered that Dimitri always kept a flare gun. A perfect way to be found out in the middle of nowhere. Although she didn’t know where he kept it. She reached up slowly, trying not to move wrongly, underneath the passenger seat first than the driver's seat. It wasn’t stored under the seats, she looked back into the rear seat quickly examining for a case that looked like it could house a flare gun. She turned slowly and reached up to the glove box. When she opened it everything fell out into the small puddle of water that had accumulated on the ceiling of the overturned SUV. She caught a glimpse of what looked like a flare gun. She became excited and frantically searched in the water for it. She grabbed a hold of something and pulled it out. She looked at the object slowly, and then read it. 'To our only son.' Her heart sank when she realized what she was holding.

Chapter 10

            Riley blinked slowly, time seemed to freeze. Her heart had jumped momentarily but now was in a slowed state. She stared at the engraving on the cold steel. 'To our only son' the blade that was described to her perfectly by Travis was in her lovers' car. The man she trusted with her life had deceived her. Thoughts scrambled through her mind as she tried to sort out why he would do this. Even if the blade wasn’t his and only a piece of evidence; why didn’t he tell her about it? Her eyes pooled and dripped into the accumulation of rain water left from the night before. Her trance was broken when she heard rustling in the bushes, footsteps of in the distance. She turned quickly to face the sounds. They were getting closer, she didn’t know what it was, or who. She stashed the blade away underneath the passenger seat so she could come back later and collect the evidence. Right now she needed to focus on what was approaching her. She reached backed into the puddle and searched frantically for the flare gun. If she was in any danger she'd have to use it as a weapon. She felt the gun and pulled it up, only too late. She was pulled swiftly out through the window, cutting her side on the way out. She dropped the flare gun as she was hoisted up and dragged away from the vehicle. She screamed and tried to fight, not getting a good look at her captor.

            Travis was running now, past a jog and just short of a sprint. He knew he'd have to be getting closer now. Off in the distance he could see a scolded patch of shrubs and a fallen tree in the road.  The location Riley told him about. He was about to become her hero, all he could think about was her smiling up at him as she was rescued by him. A snapping sound ahead of him caused him to glance into the forest. A figure disappeared running through the woods. Travis only thought it could have been a dear, he didn’t think anyone else could have known about where Riley was. That is, until he heard screaming a few moments later. He then realized the only other person that knew exactly where she was, was Detective Dimitri Madison. The man who abandoned Riley at the crash had now returned. But why was Riley screaming? He began sprinting into the forest where he had seen the figure. He came to the overturned SUV and slowly moved closer. He peered into the broken window and saw the vehicle empty.

            Sirens could be heard off the distance. The search party had been reinstated when Detective Madison failed to report in. The squad moved in on the forest road, and was upon the scene in a matter of moments. No one was in the area; some of the men cleared the road of debris while others searched the immediate area. No sign of either detective or the civilian consult. Forensics began sweeping the car for evidence. On the ground outside of the driver's side door they found the flare gun, canister still loaded.

            Travis heard the sirens but decided to chase after and hope to find Riley. He knew they couldn’t have gotten far; especially with Riley kicking and screaming. He found a splotch next to where the ground had been disturbed. It was the only lead he had, so he followed it. As he continued tracking the blood path, the blood traces increased. Riley was bleeding heavily. Fear and anger fed Travis' passion to find her. He was so close; he would have saved her and been her knight in shining armor. He looked up out into the forest. The sun was shining through the tops of trees, showing off its golden rays in the mist that covered the forest. Travis pressed on even though the light made it difficult to see very far.

            Dimitri stopped. Travis was running too fast. He thought if Travis got to Riley first surely he would kill her. There was no way of knowing what Travis would do. Dimitri knew exactly where Riley was. He knew how to get to her faster. Dimitri looked into the forest, and then cringed. He started running through the woods to get to Riley first. Dimitri knew Travis was armed. Travis had brought the gun he was examining just the night before. As he came upon the crash site he slowed his pace. He hoped and prayed that she was still alive. He slowly walked up to the vehicle and saw she was still inside. He had to get her out quickly before Travis found the site. He reached in grabbed her leg and pulled her not thinking of the consequences. The glass still on the door from the broken window tore through her side ripping a large gash in her skin. Riley screamed but was silenced by Dimitri's hand covering her mouth. At the forests edge Dimitri saw Travis, who still hadn't noticed the vehicle. Dimitri didn’t have much time to get away before Travis happened upon the vehicle now that Riley had given their position away. Dimitri walked backwards into the forest quickly attempting to get away from Travis.

            Riley was feeling lightheaded and was losing focus on what was happening. She knew someone had her and taking her from the car. That thought made her happy. But the joy didn’t last. As she looked back at the overturned SUV she noticed a man coming from around it. She blinked and tried her best to focus. Clearly she could Travis frantically searching the surrounding area of the car. She felt a heavy lift then she was sat against a tree. Dimitri knelt down in front of her. "Riley! Riley stay here I've got to go back really quick. I will come back for you." "Dimitri… The knife, the killers' knife. I saw it. The one Travis described. I saw it the car." Riley slowly muttered out. Dimitri looked at her then stood up and walked deeper into the forest. Riley was applying pressure to the wound on her side. She was losing a lot of blood and she had to fight to stay conscious.

            The trail was getting progressively harder to follow. The blood spots were fading and the ground was less shifted. Travis would never give up hope. He would find Riley and sweep her away. But with the trail going cold, thoughts of finding her were fading. His heart beat quickly, adrenaline pumping through his body. He stood straight up and glanced over the area. Hoping he would see movement of a figure or anything. A small click perked his interest. In a matter of seconds Travis was face down on the ground in burning pain.

            Tears rolled down Dimitri's face, his love was in so much pain and he wasn’t fast enough. He wanted to go get help and return to her before anything happened. But by the time he got back to the forest an unexpected visitor had arrived. Luckily he was able to secure Riley, now he would go back and finish off Travis. Dimitri came around a tree and saw Travis knelt down looking at the ground, a perfect opportunity to stop him. Dimitri slowly crept back behind the tree to hide himself. His gun was already in his palms. He slowed his breathing to steady his aim. Turned around the tree and noticed Travis standing peering off into the distance. Dimitri smiled and cocked his gun softly causing a small click to be heard. He knew Travis heard the click. Dimitri didn’t have much time before Travis would turn and see him. He swiftly squeezed the trigger and sent a blazing bullet into Travis' shoulder blade. Travis fell quickly onto the ground. The burst rang through the forest, getting the attention of the curiosity of the search party. They drew their arms and proceeded quickly into the woods where the shot had come from.

            Dimitri rushed over to Travis and kicked him over to stare him in the face. "Listen kid, I don’t know how you found you way out here. I don’t know how you saw all of those murders. But I do know one thing; you won't be able to stop me from killing her." Dimitri grinned, stood and aimed his pistol. The search party had found them. "Detective!" Dimitri looked over at them. "Oh thank god you guys arrived, I've caught the killer. I don’t have my cuffs so if you guys don’t mind." He lowered his weapon and placed back into its holster. "What!? No! He is the killer! He just admitted to me he is going to kill Riley!" Travis kicked and fought the policemen who lifted him and cuffed him. "Stop! You're arresting the wrong guy! NO!!!" The officers dragged Travis away from Dimitri, who was standing just staring at Travis with a cynical grin on his face. Dimitri ran back into the forest toward the car. "NO! DIMITRI! RILEY!!!" Travis roared as loud as he could, hoping to warn Riley.

            Dimitri smiled softly as he got back to the overturned car. By accident his shot cleared out all of the cops in the area. He looked under the car into the window looking around for his blade. Working with Riley he knew that if she found it she would have hid it to come back later for. He felt up under the seat and found it. He smiled and softly whispered to himself. "Riley Riley Riley, you are so predictable." He looked at the blade, 'To our only son'. His parents were murdered by an escaped female convict. He was only a boy at the time. But he knew what had happened. He spent the better part of the rest of his life grudging females. Knowing that if they did have a heart it would have to be ice cold. When he felt like he had planned enough and was physically and mentally ready, he tore the hearts out of women. Looking into their frightened eyes. Seeing their demeanor change dramatically before their death. Slowly he would cut open the chest with the knife his parents gave him the night before their murder. He would cut the rib cage enough to break it open with blunt force. Stare at the heart and have no compassion for the woman he had just killed. Grabbing the heart and ripping it from the chest cavity he severed all the arteries connecting it to the body. He felt solace in the deed, a slow relief from his past. But the comfort could not be kept down. His anger would rage again and he'd kill again.

            Dimitri had been working with the police to become a better killer. He'd know exactly what they would look for and he would be able to plant evidence to frame someone else. A perfect crime, working as lead detective on his own murder cases. Being able to lead the case in which ever way he wanted. He planted the heart in Travis' freezer to scare him, maybe keep him from returning to the station. But when that wasn’t working he had to remove the heart before Travis reported it. He got the fingerprints of a local criminal and planted it on the freezer when he took the heart out. Dimitri knew that Goodfellow would resist arrest and make it seem like the perfect suspect. He couldn’t waste anymore time dwelling on past memories. His hunger for a female heart needed to be satisfied and a perfect candidate lay deep in the woods awaiting the operation. Dimitri took off to where he left Riley. He called out her name, trying to comfort her. She wasn’t up against the tree where he had left her. She had crawled a few yards away, but didn’t have the strength to continue. He walked over to her and flipped her over. "Riley my sweet, where do you think you're going?" he leaned down and kissed her softly, her lips were dry, cracked and bleeding. He tasted her blood, and licked his lips. "This is going to feel so good." He felt her chest, her heart was racing. Fear coursed through her veins. She looked up at him eyes spilling over. Her tears rolled down her dirty face, cleaning a portion of her cheek. "Dimitri, Please."

            Travis struggled to get loose the four officers had him tightly in their grips. He was being taken away from where he desperately needed to be. Riley was in danger and no one was out there to save her. "Please! You have to let me go!" He winced in pain as they pulled him along to the squad cars. One of the officers got tired of listening to Travis scream, and threw his fist into Travis' gut. "There, maybe that will shut you up." Travis looked up at the man and spit the blood in his mouth at him. "If we don’t go back out there then Detective Jacobs will be killed! I am not the killer!" Travis pressed his foot firmly on the ground and pushed up slamming his head into one of the other officers' jaw.  The man fell and so did Travis as another officer ran to secure him, Travis lunged his foot into the man's groin then another kick to his face. Travis scooted back to the first officer, who lay unconscious, and found the keys to his bindings. He scrambled to unlock the cuffs as he fought off the third officer. By the time the last officer was upon him the cuffs were unlocked and he was able to knock the man back and run into the forest.

            Dimitri grabbed Riley's shirt and ripped it in two, exposing her chest. It was obvious she had broken ribs; her skin was badly bruised and bloody. He took the knife and placed it under her bra and lifted cutting the bra off. He pushed the broken bra aside. Normally he wouldn’t waste time with sexual matters but as this was his lover he couldn’t help but examine her breasts one last time. She struggled to get out from underneath him but his weight was too much for her broken body. He groped her softly and kissed her chest. He positioned the knife at the top of her sternum. She cried out "Dimitri! Don't do this!" Her face moistened by her tears. He pressed firmly into her skin breaking it. She let out a loud yelp as the pain surged into her. She was a tough one, taking all of these broken bones, cuts, gashes, bleeding out and still having just enough strength to go on. The only reason she felt the added pain from the knife was from the fear of death. Before she knew she could live, but now at the hands of a monster she knew she would die. As the blade slid down her chest, she grew weaker. A loud crack from behind them made Dimitri jump off her. "Dimitri! Get away from her!" Travis had found them. He ran over and tackled Dimitri to the ground. Dimitri dropped the blade upon hitting the ground. Travis was able to land a few good punches into Dimitri's face before Dimitri threw Travis off. Dimitri rushed to get his blade and turned and threw it. Travis had just stood up when the knife penetrated his leg. He screamed and fell back to the ground.

            Travis pulled the knife out slowly and tossed it aside, his leg pounded with pain. Dimitri was already up and about on Travis again. Travis thought about the knife and how he shouldn’t have thrown it so carelessly away. Dimitri stepped on Travis where the knife had punctured his leg. Travis screamed and punched Dimitri in the gut. Dimitri stumbled back and saw a shimmer in the brush, the knife. While Travis was distracted by his wound Dimitri ran over to the bush and grabbed the blade. Before he would continue with Riley, he would deal with the pest. He put the knife in his pocket and pulled out his gun. Riley looked over and saw Dimitri closing in on Travis. "Travis!" Travis manages to move just as the first shot is fired. Travis forgets about his leg and hops up limping behind a tree as two more shots are fired. Dimitri fired three more shots into the tree Travis was hiding behind. Travis stayed behind the tree in protection. "Travis! Come out! You coward!" Dimitri yelled as he fired five more shots at the tree trying to scare Travis out. Dimitri walks out over to the tree and behind Travis. He placed the gun against at the back of Travis' head softly. "Wrong way." Travis breaths in slowly, and closes his eyes. Dimitri pulls on the trigger softly. Click. Travis exhales quickly and throws his elbow back breaking Dimitri's nose. Dimitri staggered back holding his bleeding nose. He tripped on a log and fell back. Travis ran over to Riley to make sure she was still alive. She was breathing but she was unconscious. Travis looked back to where Dimitri was; Dimitri was gone. Travis stood up and turned around and met the knife in his gut. Travis gasped and held Dimitri's hand on the blade. He strained himself to breath, but only tasted blood. Dimitri ripped the blade out of Travis, and Travis fell to his knees. Dimitri quickly backhands Travis to the ground, getting him out the way. 

            Dimitri was finally alone. Travis was out of the way and no one else was around to stop him. He knelt back over Riley to continue opening her chest. As Travis fell he felt a jab in his back. He didn’t know what it was, a rock, or a twig. But it was cold, and hard. He remembered that he had brought Riley's gun. He reached slowly behind him and grabbed it. He looked at it for a few seconds then attempted to stand. The pain soared through him, but the motivation came back to him. He had a fighting chance. He could win. He stood slowly behind the oblivious murderer, and discharged the weapon once. The bullet flew into Dimitri's back causing him to jolt in shock. Travis fired two more rounds into Dimitri's back. Dimitri stuttered in his actions. His hands went numb and the blade fell from his hands. He stared at his lover as his vision blurred. He blinked, but it didn’t help. A fourth then a fifth burst dashed into Dimitri. Dimitri's eyes let out a single tear when he realized what he had done to the one he truly loved. He wobbled and fell over dead. Travis exhaled and dropped the gun. Once again Travis was on his knees. Too weak to move, too drained to call out for help. He fell forward and laid on the ground, gasping for air.

            The Search party had regained their feet; the five echoing bursts led them straight to the battle. By the time they had arrived it was too late. One radioed in demanding an ambulance. Another ran to Detective Jacobs side, the other to Detective Madison. Travis was still conscious, but only just. He saw the four men run up to them, and then everything went dark. Within ten minutes the ambulances arrived. All three bodies were placed on stretchers and carried out of the forest. Dimitri and Riley's bodies were covered; Travis regained consciousness and looked around to see where he was. He saw the two bodies covered and knew one of them had to be Riley. His eyes misted, and he wept. He was too late; he wasn’t the hero Riley needed him to be. She had saved his life on several occasions, but he couldn’t return the favor. As he was placed in the ambulance he looked out at the others, watching them place the other two in as well. The doors closed and the engine started, he cried out again "Riley!"  The paramedic next to him looked down at him, "Detective Jacobs is in critical condition, but she is still alive son." Travis' heart leaped and he looked up at the paramedic. "Will… will she be alright?" "It's too early to tell, she has lost a lot of blood, but personally I think she'll pull through."

            The sound of machines filled her thoughts. Riley woke up to a blinding light. She squinted and when she reopened her eyes a dark figure stood over her. The image cleared, and Travis stood, staring into her beautiful eyes. He had the biggest smile on his face to see Riley alive and well. When she saw him she smiled too, but she was confused. "Travis… What happened?" He smiled and took her hand. "I love you."

-Written by Shaun Carter.

-Dedicated to fans who stood by my writing, and to the friends who got me through a very tough time in my life. Thank you.