Seven

Monday

“The body was obviously beaten,” Detective Valery described to the three police officers, standing near where the girl previously lay, mangled. They were to aid him and his partner in finding anything overlooked, and needed all the information from the night before. “Her wrists were slit to write 'Pride' on the walls,” he continued, motioning to the words behind him. “Her mouth was cut in X's, her left eye was removed,”

“Don't forget she was stuffed like a turkey.” one of the officers commented. Valery just nodded clenching his teeth, recalling the disturbing picture in the back of his mind. His stomach still churned with his dinner as he attempted to swallow the lump in his throat.

“In the art studio,” Valery continued, coughing to cover up his discomfort and trying to get the image out of his mind. “there are drawings of models, they were the victims'. But, they were vandalized with words like 'fat', 'ugly', and 'unwanted'.” he held up on the drawings of a model in a short red dress. Written in black ink overtop of the girl was the word 'HELPLESS'.

“So, what? Do you think it was revenge?”

“That could be our best guess right now. But, we need more evidence, and until the body comes back from forensic's we won't know any more.” he explained. “This room and the kitchen seem to be the only one's that the murderer was in, but we can't be certain.” as Detective Cho walked in, Valery nodded to the officers, “I'll keep you posted,” and they departed. Valery turned to his partner. “Find anything?”

“Yes, actually.” he started, leaning himself against the wall. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and glancing around the room. “I was back at the station with Paul, the forensic scientist. He found some imprints on her body.”

“What kind of imprints?” Valery asked, hoping it would be enough put this person behind bars.

“Why don't you come see for yourself?” Cho walked out the door with Valery stalking behind. They climbed into the SUV and drove silently, but swiftly, back to the station. Valery locked the car quickly and sped off after Cho, who was already halfway to the building. He caught up to him while walking into the 'cold side' of the building, as some of the officers called it, referring to the masses of dead bodies that went through that part of the building every day. Paul, the forensic scientist, was quite peculiar.

The detectives walked through the doors to find the blonde girl laying on a table with a clothe over her body, covering from her breast to her thighs. Valery thought it looked much more disgusting when he found her on the floor, mutilated, but now her pale face in it's still state was more spooky than disturbing.

“Who goes there!” roared a man, he jumped out quickly from behind a blue curtain yielding an umbrella as a weapon. Valery jumped, slightly surprised.

“It's just me again, Paul.” Cho reassured him, he seemed a little startled too. The man who had jumped out from the curtain, Paul, lowered his weapon.

“Oh my, you startled me.” he said, suddenly sprouting a soft british accent. Paul looked at Valery. His large loopy glasses falling slightly off his pointed nose and the scarce gray hair on his head flying around wildly. Paul was short, though of course Valery was six foot three and Cho five foot eleven. He had a limp in his right leg and was slightly hunched. Valery first impression of Paul was that he probably forgot to take his pills that morning. Paul walked up to Valery, using the umbrella as a cane. “You must be Detective Valery.” he held out a clammy old hand to him, hesitantly Valery took it. Paul dropped his grip almost immediately and turned to the girl. “Well, here she is. Her name is Veronica Pink.”

“You remember the cuts on the girl's wrist?” Cho reminded his partner. “Well, after Paul cleaned then up, we found they were in the shape of a seven.” Paul flipped the dead girls wrist over to show a various number of seven's carved into her skin. This image of her blood covered wrist flashed in the back in Valery's mind, he blinked it away.