I Will Never Let You Go (A Maxcer Fanfic)

Pink Carnations.

Tara/Luke

"Both women suffered from several slashes, bruises, and breaks in their bones." The mortician explained.
"What was the C.O.D?" Tara asked.
"Sepsis, coupled with the fact that these women were dehydrated and had major blood loss."
Luke leaned down to examine some of the wounds on the new victim's arms. There were slashes; they were all clean cuts, but some were deeper than others. There may not have been any hesitation, but this unsub wasn't trying to outright kill them. The bruising was various colors, showing the different stages of healing.
"This unsub is torturing them to death." Luke stated.

Back at the station... 

"So tell me about Julia and Sam." Spencer said to the young woman sitting across from him. She'd introduced herself as Lily Hawkins and had been friends with the latest missing pair for many years.
"Julia's sweet; she'd never hurt a fly. Sam is like her protector in a lot of ways. They've shared an apartment together for two years. From what I've heard, Julia was the first person in college to know Sam was gay, and from then on they've been inseparable."
"You told the police yesterday that they'd gone missing, what made you think that?" He asked.
Lily took a shuddering breath, feeling the panic rise in her chest again.
"Every Tuesday at one, I meet with them at our favorite book store. There's a coffee shop next door, so we usually go there first then sit in the lounge area of the bookstore discussing novels and whatever else was floating in our minds. Since we've all gotten new jobs, we don't see each other as much; but we all made a promise that we'd keep that tradition going. If any of us were unable to go, we would've texted to cancel. I called them both several times and neither responded. When an hour went by and they still hadn't said a word, I left to go to their apartment. It was locked and no one answered the door. Their neighbor heard me and said she saw them leave over an hour ago...I just felt in my gut that something was wrong."
Spencer nodded, knowing full well what that feeling was like.
"Do you mind giving me the address of the bookstore?"

After speaking with Lily, Spencer had Garcia look up the address of the bookstore and see how far it was from Julia and Sam's apartment.
"It's within walking distance, roughly five blocks." She said, staring at the screen as it brought up the directions.
"Julia and Sam probably always walked down the same sidewalks every Tuesday when they were going to meet Lily. It's possible the unsub was stalking them and knew their schedule." Spencer surmised. He thanked Garcia and hung up his phone, looking up to see JJ and Rossi standing before him.
"Fred O'Leary is the twins' older brother. He reported them missing two days after not hearing from them. Last he'd seen them was at a restaurant." JJ explained.
"Did the twins live together?" Spencer asked.
"No, but they lived in the same apartment building. Why, you got something?"
"Julia and Sam lived together but not romantically. They met with their friend at the same place on a weekly basis." Spencer stated.
"Well Fred didn't meet with them that often. He doesn't even live in Warren." Rossi said. While they waited for Emily and Matt, they tried to find any other overlaps and were coming up empty. The twins weren't together often, and neither was Julia and Sam. They lived in close proximity, but they had their own lives to attend to. It made them doubt their theory that maybe the unsub had stalked them.
"Alright so what do we got?" Emily asked as she and Matt entered their conference room.
"Not much, other than that we believe that these are victims of opportunity, evidenced by who he grabs and how frequent he grabs them." JJ answered.
"Well I just spoke to Tara; based on the ME report it looks like the women were tortured for several days. There's still no leads on where the men are, but it's possible he's still holding them."
"Were Erin and Terrance last seen together?" Spencer asked.
"Yeah, we were just speaking with Erin's mother. They were talking over coffee about wedding plans." Matt replied.
"And where was the coffee shop in relation to where they live?" Spencer moved over to the map that was posted on the white board. Based on what Matt said, he made dots on the map with a marker, marking all the locations where the victims lived and where they were last seen.
"All the places where they were last seen are within walking distance from their homes. It's likely the pairs walked together and were taken either on their way there or on their way home." Spencer concluded.