How To Catch a Killer

Candy Man

Camp's POV:

"Well look what the cat dragged in," Higgs announced smugly. "Where have you been? The captain's been taking out all his anger on me. You know you're the designated punching bag," he joked.

"I told you I was going out of town to follow a lead." Typical of Higgs to let that slip past him.

"You did?" He pondered for a while before coming to his senses. "Oh, yeah you did!"

I shook my head at his lack of seriousness. "How's it been over here?" I leaned back into my chair, fiddling with my pen.

"There's been another murder," he dropped a case file that he had tucked underneath his arm onto my desk.

"Ghost related?" I reached for the file and browsed it's contents.

"Nah, I don't think so, doesn't fit his M.O. See right there," he points to a picture of the vic's bullet wound. We're still working on possible suspects but right now we don't have much to go by. What about you? Did you have a better luck on your end?"

"I spoke to the sheriff at Lil Terich, he was a real help. You know Dr. Martin?" Higgs looked at me like I was speaking french. Any who, he's been working at NMH as a grief counsellor, some type of therapist I dunno.

"Ok? What's that gotta do with anything?" Higgs interrupted, skepticism all over his face.

"Can I finish Higgs," I asked annoyed, Higgs grunted in compliance.

"As I was saying, turns out this Martin dude isn't even a doctor. He's a fired pharmacist from one company in the city. And ok, that may not seem like much but it turns out he lost his nine year old kid last year, guess how," I looked at Higgs with a knowing look but he failed to return the expression. "Hit and run!" I responded like the answer was in plain sight but that's because it was. "Come on am I the only one getting this!?"

"I dunno man, I still don't know what you're getting at. So what the dude lied about being a doctor. You're telling me you never lied on your resume," Higgs shrugged, completely missing my point.

"Look, the dude has experience with drugs yeah? Gets fired and later works at his old man's farm. I heard from the towns people that he worked as a butcher for a while before the death of his son. You remember the Merrington case-file? The lacerations on her body, the odd number. How the killer gave the poor girl two double amputations, both hands and feet. The tools used and the killer's technique wasn't that of a doctor but -

"A butcher," Higgs finished. His eyes started to lit up with the sense of realization but he quickly shook off the addicting feeling. "But why though? What could that girl possibly have done to deserve this?"

"His boy that died from the hit and run, the sheriff told me that Martin would come into the department day after day asking if there were any leads. Apparently Martin had caught a partial license plate number but the sheriff told him that it wasn't enough. Now what if... just what if Martin managed to track down the driver of the car and decided to get his revenge. What if he tracked Julianna all the way from bloody Lil Terich and decided to take a job at her school, to get close and wait for his moment to strike."

Higgs just looked at me blankly, then he pulled a chair closer to him to sit down. Collapsing on it he let out a deep breath, lightly brushing his bald head, "I'm at a lost for words honestly Camp."

"Do you think it's enough," I asked desperately.

I've spent months on this case and I knew I was right about this. I felt it in my gut. Even if it doesn't go through I'm going to find out the truth for myself. There's just too much here to ignore.