The Eyes of a Lamb

Lust

Clarice looked around the small dorm room patiently, not wanting to miss a single detail if it meant catching Mary's killer. The walls were painted a boring white, but over the months Mary and her roommate Beth had put up various posters and cork boards over the walls, decorating them as much as two college girls would. Clarice could see Mary's side was much more different than Beth's, her side being colorful and poppy, while Beth was more vintage and retro.

Beth stood with her arms crossed against the wall, her dark hair pulled up while she eyed Clarice's every move.

"Where was Mary supposed to be the night she disappeared?" Clarice said checking out the blankets on top of the bunk.

"She had study hall from four to six" Beth said "That's usually when I have friends over. But she never showed up and I just assumed she had gone out with some people."

"Was it normal for her to go out?" Clarice said turning towards Beth.

"Mary was sociable" Beth said "But it wasn't uncommon for her to not come home at night."

"Where do you think she went?" Clarice asked as Beth sat down in her computer chair, her back stretched out long as she rolled her eyes.

"Who knows" Beth said "She was always out. Sometimes I thought she was doing drugs or into some weird stuff..... She'd always come back with weird marks on her neck and wrists. I didn't think much of it until she didn't show up the next morning."

"Did she usually come home early in the morning?" Clarice asked, trying to figure out what kind of person Mary was.

"Usually" Beth said shrugging "She'd walk in, hair a mess, and kick off her shoes before crawling into bed. Sometimes she ranked of smoke and I would tell her to go take a shower."

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Clarice asked.

"One every other week" Beth said slightly smiling.

"Who was her last one?" Clarice said looking over at the photos again.

"Brian Fuller" Beth said rolling her eyes once more "But he moved out to St. Cloud last week."

"Did Mary work anywhere?" Clarice said turning towards the photos.

"No" Beth said shaking her head "But she always had money somehow."

"Did you ever think she might be a prostitute?" Clarice said coming to the edge of a formality.

Beth looked at her for a moment and then spread out with a wicked smile "She could have been" she said "I wouldn't put it past her."

"Why's that?" Clarice asked.

"Because Mary would bang the janitor if he had any interest in her" Beth said with a sneer "She blew half the guys in the next dorm not even a month into going here. Whatever Mary did to deserve dying like that, she probably had it coming to her."

Clarice thanked Beth for her time, knowing the frizzled roommate was only talking out of spite. But it did peek a new perspective into Mary. Clarice herself knew that any girl that slept around without any kind of protection or caution was an easy target for just about anyone, but who would target her specifically and then damage her the way he did?

Clarice walked out of the dorm, smelling the sweet night air as she steadily paced towards her car. She saw college kids riding around on bicycles while groups of them smoked in designated areas, the smell of pot drifting over the air as Clarice calmly climbed into the driver's seat of her car. She could remember college, remember toiling over books and studying non-stop until her eyes hurt. And now she was a FBI agent, and she knew that this killer wasn't going to stop anytime soon. He would keep going until someone stopped him.