SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part I}

A CLOSE SHAVE *7*

AGENT BLUE

"Hey, Lady Eddie, what's up?"

"I'm good, Byron!"

"Going out-?"

"In a rush, too!"

"Oh-ok, listen, I'm going offshore this afternoon, so, you recall The Papa talking about the back fence? Okay, so everyone is contributing towards it. The boy will fix it for us, next weekend, just, to give you a heads up, yeah?"

The busy day does not give Jessica time to consider her posh neighbors. In one fluid movement she kicks her door shut while dumping her tote bag on the settee. Now, somewhere in-between this economy of action, her stale clothes come off, decorating the hallway to her bathroom, gun in holster carefully laid out at a corner of her bed. If she is fast getting into a cold shower she is even faster coming out of it, thinking all the while, how their back fence keeps collapsing. This will be the third time that they would fix it, this year!

But then, her thoughts focus on her job. Canaan City has a serial killer. Its a creature of habit. So far, nothing about this monster case is simple... In the past nine months, her department has been faced with a modus operandi that is so unreal, half the secret service believe it to be non- human. Byron still hovers in the hallway, when again, she leaves the building. Every time she sees him, fat goose bumps race up her arms. Its just the air about him, maybe.

Jessica and her colour coded team, are tasked with the job of catching this dangerous predator, which lures it's victims to the outskirts of the city. Last night, Wednesday night, one of the toughest in the week, had her working a six hour stake out, sometime during the wee hours of the morning, she'd closed her eyes just once, immediately opening them again.

She suffers from Insomnia; often caused, in her case, by the sad memories of another kind of predator, one that always waits behind closed eyelids, denying her the rest she so badly needs. Red likes to joke about how nice it will be, for her to get a husband who finds it even more difficult, to sleep. This way, she'll always have some good company.

There was zero activity on Wednesday night. But then, not too far from designated stakeout zones, precisely on Radio Road, seven men lost their lives and then, their heads, before being dumped in the gutter. And oh... what a way for law enforcement to find out. Basement FM's News At Dawn, Thursday morning, with Nicholas Trombone.

She remembered when Dr. Jay called for a unit meeting on Wednesday afternoon, 3 p.m sharp, because he had a class to attend by 5 p.m. She remembered everything he'd said, and now, she wondered if she should call for back up. But everyone is stretched out busy and bone tired. She will have to do this, alone. She will just... have to do this all alone. She sighs a long sigh. As always, the busy day sets the pace. Seven hours back to back has her working the morgue and staking out the old cemetery with Red.

Trombone's sunrise news of the Radio Road Seven hit all of them hard, and saw every department of the city's law enforcement choking that aweful crime scene. Barely forty five minutes got slated for her quick shower break at seven twenty five a.m...

Jessica is beat. But she forces herself to keep moving. The next long three hours see her and Red combing through city records at population commission. Then Five hours rotating shifts along all ten major highways. Jessica understands, that they are flying blind. Shooting blanks in the dark. Clueless. Because they've never encountered a case like this before.

Something evil has the city in an iron grip, and the worst part is that most people have not noticed. This is her very first tip off. The victims, are usually people that nobody notices. At a few minutes to ten, she resists the urge to push back her seat, and stretch out her legs on the dash board. Her car is a standard black matrix, good for speed, not stake outs...