Smoke and Glory

•19•

It's 1am In the morning, the moon is out and the street is silent and we've just potentially stumbled upon the killer, sitting now in Nola's bedroom with the small bedside light on but the rest of the room in darkness. We aren't exactly sure what to do, after all who's going To be awake at 1am and if we wake them up at 1am and then if this lead pans into nothing not exactly sure how they'll feel. We stand in silence as we debate each of our options and looked own on the computer screen showing the image of our potential murderer, "We should ring Captain Scarlet," Nola says referring to her new captain who has replaced Captain Quill. "yeah okay, and then I think we should get dressed and then I think we should meet her and some other officers at the address" I say referencing again to the address we now have thanks to the police database me and Nola have spent the last half an hour scrolling through. "Alright I'll make the call, you go collect your clothes and can you brew some coffee cause I really do need some energy right now oh and about last night" she says as she looks up at me referencing to the now second time we've made out in her bed, "I enjoyed it" she says smiling as she exits her bedroom and walks into the bathroom to make the phone call in private while I pick up the trousers that Nola threw onto the floor when we were undressing each other. I enjoyed it to and I'm so glad to know that she enjoyed it to, that makes part of me excited for the time when we get to do it again despite the subtle low lying voice that tells me what I'm doing is wrong. I think my top is still downstairs from where we took it off to begin with and I refasten my bra before running downstairs and grabbing my green shirt off the beige carpet in Nola living room and I button up the shirt rather quickly before running into Nola's kind of small kitchen and pouring a bunch of coffee beans into the machine, while waiting desperately for the noise to start and the coffee to begin trickiling down from the machine and allowing me to make 2 flasks of coffee for the road. I'm excited and nervous, if I'm correct and this is the killer then there's a chance we can catch him before he kills anymore people and if it is the killer and we are outnumbered then it could be the end. "Alright she's meeting us there in 15 minutes" Nola says running Into the kitchen and throwing me my lab coat and shoes that I quickly put on before screwing on the lids of each of the flasks before I run after Nola who beckons me out of her front door before she throws me her car keys and as locks her front door and we clamber quickly into the car and zoom down the mostly empty streets at 2am in the morning. The city of New York is strange at night, it feels so lively yet it's so empty, especially at a time like this where most sensible people would have returned home and would all be peacefully asleep while me and Nola are hunting a serial killer. "Turn here, no wait the next turn" Nola says pointing to a tune off I know wasn't the right one, "how often do you drive in the dark?" I ask as I pull dow the indicator and turn into the correct road, "basically never which is probably why I just messed up take this turn," Nola says pointing again to a wrong turn, "it's actually this one, let's just say it's a good thing I'm driving" I say turning into the correct road where the house actually lays. Its quite a small street but you get the sense of nominees and community spirit as I look at all the graffiti on the wall that looks like it's being washed away. We pull up outside the house which isn't actually to far away from Nola's house but on the complete other side of the city in comparison to mine. Captain Scarlet is already there when we arrive along with 2 unmarked police cars and a collection of around 10 officers. "Detective Griffin we've seen no signs of any activity around the house and there is no car in the garage. Doctor Snow good to meet you" she says as she shakes my hand and smiles at me, "yes just wish it was under better circumstances, should we advance?" I respond with as I look at Nola, then at Captain Scarlet and then back at Nola who gives me a reassuring look before saying, "let's go." 2 of the officers who accompanied Captain Scarlet break open the door as me, Nola and the Captain venture in. "Micheal Thames this is the police if you are here show yourself" Nola yells out to an empty room and much to our dismay, an empty house. The living room seems fairly normal, there's a large 50 inch tv, a blue sofa, a few oak cupboard with some
Photos and books laying on them and a desk that simply has a few items of stationary and some lose sheets of paper on. The kitchen is also normal with what you'd except to find in kitchen, there's a expensive looking gas stove however that makes me particularly jealous because it's meant to be the greatest stove for cooks and I want it bad. "I've found something" Captain Scarlet yells as me and Nola run out of the kitchen and over to where she's standing which is a black door that I can only guess will lead to the basement. "The door's locked" she states trying to open it but to no array but the 2 officers who broke down the door to get in to his house come running in to help us again. They shove the metal pipe against the door about 5 times before the hinges finally give way and the door falls flat onto the floor in front of us. Nola and Captain scarlet grab out their guns and I follow close behind them, having left my gun at my house and my other gun in my office, therefore i haven't had a chance to visit them since knowing that we were storming here. I however am entasked with holding the flashlight and looking for a light switch which I find almost immediately. I flick it. But words cannot describe what we see once the light is switched on. Pictures. Hundreds of pictures. Some of the victims with big red crosses through them, there are newspaper clippings, all of them about these killings or about the victims, and the pictures some of them are from the crime scene but some of the pictures are of me, some of them are of Nola and are taken at random points during our everyday life. "I would say he was last here 2 maybe 3 days ago because that photo there is of me doing the autopsy of Chief Harding, I recognise her and the autopsy suite, how in the hell did he take these there is 1 window in that autopsy room which is not great and the reason that we have so many lights in that and the window is at the top of the room right next to a cupboard and just let me remind everyone this is on floor 4 of my building. How is this even possible? How the hell did he take these photos?" I yell spiralling a little over this picture and all the other pictures of me, of me leaving my house, of me arriving at work, of me in my office, of me doing autopsy's, of me arriving at Nola's house. "I have no idea doc, I mean these pictures are so close up and someone clearly must have known what they were doing, how did we not see anything. God dammit! He's been following us for weeks have in the hell have we not noticed this is insane!" Nola yells as we continue exploring the creepy murder basement. "Hang on, I have this exact photo of me and Mia in this exact frame in my house, where they hell did he get this?" I ask picking it up before having a realisation, "shit! My house was broken into a few weeks ago and I didn't think anything expect 3 items of jewellery and some technology had been stolen" I say as Nola looks at me having the same realisation as me. "The killer broke into my house. The killer broke into my house. The killer broke into my
House" I repeat not wanting to believe it and finding it difficult to process. "Look around Doctor Snow anything you think belongs to you have a check to see if it does and if it does then, that gives us more evidence that this guy is after you and that he has been after you from the beginning." Captain Scarlet says as I nod my head and begin a look around, nothing really pops out as belonging to me, until I see 2 forensic books that I used to own but haven't been able to find in the last few weeks, "these are mine" I say grabbing them off the shelf, "how can you be sure, I mean surely that company makes thousands of copies of these books and just sells them in bookshops." Captain Scarlet says as I flip the book open and onto the second page where I have written in black writing property of Lucy Snow, after all I lend these books out to the people at the morgue and I like being able to know who has it and where it is. I show this to Nola and the Captain, who gives the two books to one of her team members who places them in a plastic evidence bag. We continue looking around, nothing else strikes me as belonging to me. "Look at this, could this be the phone you're getting called from, I mean that would make sense right, after all he does seem to be the killer. Anyone here know how to access a list of people who you have called recently on one of these phones?" Nola asks as over walks one of the police officers who helped break down the doors moments ago and this officer presses a few buttons while Nola stands watching and I feel the suspense and torment build up inside of me, time to find out if I'm really being called by the killer. "Lucy what's your phone number?" Nola asks and I shrug as I quickly grab out my phone from one of the pockets on my lab coat, and scroll along to my phone number "72994 710909" I read it out as Nola gives me a look that I know can only mean trouble, "it's a match, hes the one phoning you" she says and it hits me all of those threats, all of what he said, all of the taunts and the teasing it was coming out of the mouth who killed 6 police force members and I don't quite know what to do, but I can feel everything around me spinning. I feel like I'm going to be sick or I'm going to pass out, this can't be happening this can't be real. "Lucy hey hey sit down sit down it's okay, it's okay, can someone get a glass of water for the doc?" Nola says as she grabs my hand and helps me sit down, as one of the other officers passes me a glass of water. I don't want to believe it, I don't want to believe I've been threatened by the killer and that I've been talking to the killer; To this deranged psycho serial killer. "I'm afraid it's not over yet, Lucy let's look at this" Nola says as she pulls down a what i think is red curtain that reveals a black notice board underneath that's covered in pictures of me. But not just any photos of me, for all of them have big black crosses over them and there's a playing card attached by a little red thumbtack which has 7 diamonds crossed of and there's a post-it note at the bottom which has written on it in black scrawny handwriting. "Doctor Lucy Snow is next."