The Eustice Murders (Complete)

*Chapter 22*

Hank took a step back and glanced over the body once more. He felt the anger building up inside him as he contemplated the sheer waste of life that lay on the floor in front of him. Who was this man? What was he capable of? And of course, what was he leaving behind? Who could do such a thing? And for what? A little fun? His absolute disgust only strengthened his desire and determination to catch whoever was responsible for such carnage. He looked over towards Sam who, for some reason, had an entirely different look on his face. He wasn't looking angry at all, in fact, he had a rather pleased look about him. Just as he was about to question his partner he heard the voice from behind him.

"Good afternoon detectives. So, what have you got for me this time?" Hank looked over his shoulder just as Emily, the local coroner, was setting her briefcase down on the floor. Sam immediately greeted her and began to take her through the grisly details of this latest discovery while Hank watched on. They were both maintaining absolute professionalism but there was no denying they were both happy to be in each other's presence, even in these circumstances. The conversation ended and the coroner turned her attention to the body on the floor while Sam made his way back toward Hank.

"Told her we'd leave her alone to do her stuff while we check the rest of the area for anything out of place." Hank raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in response as if he was waiting for further details of the conversation but Sam wasn't biting, instead, he walked straight past his partner without saying a word. "Are you coming?" Sam finally called over his shoulder after creating quite a space between himself and his partner causing Hank to have a little chuckle to himself. A few short steps later Sam stopped abruptly with a startled look on his face. "Erm, should we have removed the ball? And the paper?" he pondered.

"The pool ball? Ah, I wouldn't worry too much," Hank responded calmly.

"But she won't know..." Sam said but trailed off.

"She wouldn't have known about the ball itself, no, but she'll know they're connected for sure. She determines the cause of death so she'll soon realize it was exactly the same as the last one. And if she also dealt with the number seven victim before we got here then that'll be three identical scenes. If she hasn't linked them all together yet she soon will do. Besides captain Beesley is planning on bringing Brookes and Moorland in on it now so it's slowly beginning to get out there anyway. As long as the press doesn't get hold of it then we should be fine. No harm done," Hank told him.

Sam nodded his agreement and slowly began to relax. "The wording on that piece of paper was interesting though," he added, his mind still not completely focused on the task at hand. "Notice they put ME instead of US on the top."

"Well, they would do," Hank explained, smiling to himself at his seemingly love-struck partner. "Even if it is two of them, they would be trying to make it look like a lone killer, so would deliberately put ME in an attempt to mislead us. I did notice though they used a plural when addressing it."

"Yeah, detectives," Sam added emphasizing the 's' on the end. "Makes you wonder if they are watching us. Don't forget they've already struck once on our predecessor's wife."

Hank closed his eyes and shuddered before replying, "Oh, trust me Sam, I haven't forgotten that!" His brow was furrowed and his jaw was beginning to clench. "I wish I fucking could," he told him.

They both remained silent as they finished searching the area immediately surrounding the crime scene. Just as it was on the previous occasion, nothing at all had been found. Everywhere they looked, everything they checked, had been completely spotless suggesting that once more the entire place had been cleaned. Forensically cleaned even; something that wasn't sitting well with either of them. Whoever had left the place like this knew exactly what they were doing.

Sam and Hank both returned to the scene of the crime to find that the coroner had finished her immediate duties and was waiting for clearance to send the body off to the morgue. They both agreed and Sam signed all the necessary paperwork. As he was doing so, she handed him two forensic bags, one containing the number nine pool ball and the other containing the piece of paper found on the stomach of the victim.

"You might want to hang on to these," she suggested with a slight wink. "I'm guessing you don't want the whole world knowing that you're tracking down a serial killer just yet."

"Well, no, not if we can help it," Sam told her with a slight blush. Both of them held eye contact for several seconds before Emily finally turned towards her assistants, providing them with the go-ahead to load the body into the ambulance ready for dispatch. She smiled at Sam before following he assistants.

Back at the station, Sam logged the two new pieces of evidence and then sent them down to the forensics department for testing and examination. Given how clean everything was at the scene and how much care the killer had taken previously, he was convinced that nothing would come of it but the process needed to be completed all the same. He returned to the office to find Hank mid-conversation with captain Beesley.

"I've set up a meeting at nine am tomorrow morning in my office with you two and detectives Brookes and Moorland. If you're happy with that, we'll see if we can get everybody up to speed and working together on the same team," The captain told him.

"Sounds great to me," Sam agreed, joining at the end but having caught enough to understand. "I'd love to think we could finally get rid of all these bad vibes and maybe even get a little help or back up now and again."

"Excellent, glad to hear it." The captain smiled. "I'll see you all in the morning then. Have a good evening detectives."