"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."
- Katherine Hepburn
Detective David received an unlikely call from a kidnapping victim on an eerily cold morning, the girl on the other side mouthing words in his ear in a terrified voice, identifying as Beth...
"I believe the only way to reform people is to kill them."
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Detective David was not well. No, he wasn't sick. He was terrified. His 'boring' morning had been suddenly transformed into a tense one, all because of the phone call.
Who was Beth? Beth Wand? He had found out almost all the details about her life. She previously worked as a waitress at a small Cafe, but was fired a week ago, due to some mishap with a guest, and was currently unemployed.
Nobody had seen her since she got fired. Her family lived in Finland, and he hadn't been able to contact them in any way yet.
She was described to be a timid girl, innocent, a brunette, her height around 5'9. Nobody, nobody had seen her last, before she was kidnapped. And the same fact made David's blood boil with anger.
It was not right. His life wasn't on track since the last year. Since the first murder. Almost a year ago. Yes, Anthony wasn't the only one. He was the nineteenth one. Nineteenth!
And the most terrifying thing? The killer. Of course, all murders were done in the same way. Kidnapping, leaving no clues at all for the next few days until the body itself turned up mysteriously somewhere. The killer was still on the loose. Still.
No one knew who he was. No one knew what his motive was. No one would know. No one would notice even if they brushed past the serial killer while going to work, while simply taking a brisk walk in their beloved park while eating in their favorite restaurant while standing in the long line for burgers, no one would know.
Ever since David had been with the police, no case, not a single one under his charge had gone wrong. Sure, cases had gone wrong. But not his.
He was brilliant at his job. And that was the same thing which made him seethe with anger, the nineteen cases.
He was not paranoid. He was merely afraid for Beth because every case had the same pattern. Kidnapping, torture, and death. It was not done. Just not done!
With the help of 10 more officials, David had practically searched all the areas that had to be searched according to Beth's description, but to no avail.
"Ah fuck," David put his hands on his crinkled forehead as he sat down in the coffee shop after 7 hours of roaming around, investigating, and finding nothing. He raised his head up and looked around the cafe, his eyes moving across the bare, boring sights of a couple, a young woman typing on her laptop, a few high-school-age kids, and an old man sitting all alone at the table beside his.
"Sir, here you go," David's thoughts were interrupted by Jim's meek voice, as he handed him his hot coffee and sat down.
"I- Jim," David said in a soft voice, closing his heavy eyes for a moment, "How- however do you think we're going to find Beth...like...like this..."
