Felicity
When I got back from my run a hour or two from when I started—I grabbed my things from my car and walked into my house. It wasn’t anything huge, not like I could afford something luxurious with my cop salary, but it was mine and I loved it. It’s a one-bedroom house and one bathroom. It was my own place with no roommates, so it was perfect for me, I don’t have t to worry about people peeking around my things or if I bring work home, I don’t have to worry about someone finding something they weren’t supposed to. More importantly, I don’t have to hide what I was. I didn’t have to hide any wolfy traits that a roommate might be suspicious of.Putting my things down next to my door, I head into my kitchen and head straight for the fridge. After shifting and running for a couple hours me and my wolf were hungry. I didn’t let her hunt anything because I didn’t feel like cleaning up afterwards. I would have to clean off the blood and I always have the taste of whatever she ate...not always so pleasant. I make a face at that thought. Glancing at the fridge I take stock of what I have.I sigh, there isn’t much in here. I have to go grocery shopping soon. Hmmm... maybe I’ll order pizza. I felt a shift in my chest.....yep my wolf agrees. A huge meat lovers pizza. I nodded to myself and shut the fridge door before grabbing my phone from my bag by the door and I look up the closest pizza place before placing an order. I go into my bedroom to change out of my clothes. Once I get myself into something more comfortable, I move into my living room to wait for my pizza to arrive. I grab my remote, snagged a blanket from my blanket basket and sat down on my couch in front of the tv.I turn on some Netflix and scroll around to see if anything catches my eye. Right before I start a movie my doorbell rings. I grin and get up to get to the door to grab my dinner. Once I had everything settled and I was comfortable on the couch again I started my movie and munched down on my pizza. In the middle of the guy finally spiling his guts to his ex-girlfriend about his feelings for her, my phone starts ringing. I groan and pause my movie, setting my plate aside I pick up my phone and take a look to see who was calling me. I sigh and hang my head back to look at the ceiling to help control my attitude.I slide to answer and bring the phone up to my face, “Hey mom.” Immediately she responds back. “Felicity, I was calling to see how you were doing. Since you know... You haven’t called lately I felt the need to check up on my daughter. Especially since she gets into dangerous situations daily... against my wishes of course. “
I roll my eyes at her attitude. First thing she always does when calling is try to guilt trip me because I don’t call her enough. Which is one of the reasons why I don’t call her at all. I hate her condensing attitude. “Well mom, I’m usually busy. I’ve had a lot of cases lately and lots of paperwork to fill out.” She scoffs, “Well you wouldn’t have to do all that paperwork if you had just done what I suggested.” My mom always throws in my face my choice of career. She wanted me to work with her and handle the shop. She owns a clothing store; she sells things from companies that sell organicclothing. She wanted me to eventually take over after she wanted to retire. I’ve known since I was a teenager that I didn’t want to work in the shop. Every time I took my shifts on the weekend, I was miserable.
“Mom, you know that eventually I would have had to deal with paperwork. Especially, if I had to deal with payroll. “She starts rambling on and on about the shop and I just pretend to listen to what she’s talking about. While she was talking about complainants from employees, she had... not a shocker. I get a text from Michael
We have another crime scene. Its location is on the corner of NE Tillimook St. and NE 62nd St. Right by Rose City Park. Get here ASAP!
I read the text message and grinned. Oh, thank God I can get away from my mother chittering in my ear. I stop her from mid-sentence, “Mom I have to go.” She starts to protest but I interrupt her again, “I have a crime scene that I need to get to.” She scoffed, “Didn’t you already work today! Are you not able to spend the evenings off? “I sigh and pinch my nose. “Mom, I have to go. Bye.”
I hang up the phone, sometimes it’s best just to cut it short with her and not let her keep going otherwise I will never be able to get off the phone. I got up from my comfy spot and started getting ready to run out the house for my last-minute crime scene. Once I was done, I ran out the house, locked up, and started my car. It took about 20 minutes to get there, I wasn’t to far from the location really. It was mostly traffic. It was 7 at night on a Friday. People were wanting to go out and have fun. It was the start of the weekend so I couldn’t blame him.
I parked the car when I got there and walked my way over to the flashing lights and yellow tape. Michael was already in the crime scene talking to one of the beater cop, I make my way over. Michael noticed that I was walking over and nodded to the cop ending their conversation. Once I was close enough, I asked, “What do we have?” He gestured to the body. “We have a repeat of this morning. The victim looks to have been strangled. They are a male, he is under average height, he looks to be about 5’4” ft tall. He has black hair and looks to have either Chinese or Asian descent. He is dressedlike its winter, or he was trying to sneak around somewhere. “I nod and start walking over with Michael. I ask him, “Has anyone had the chance to search the surrounding are or trash cans? Find any thrown away clothing?”
Michael shook his head, “This crime scene looks similar to the last one, but there are some notable differences. Both this victim and the last were strangled to death, yet this victim has other injuries. We aren’t sure yet if they are from the one who attacked him or if they are from earlier in the day or perhaps the past couple of days. They looked like they haven’t healed very much so they are fairly new injuries. We haven’t been able to find any clothing discarded but that doesn’t mean that the perp hasn’t gotten rid of them elsewhere. It doesn’t seem like there is a pattern so far about how he chooses his victims. They are different ethnicity’s; we were finally able to identify who the last victim was and this one is known well already in the system. He’s a hitman for gang leaders, he works for whoever pays the highest. The first victim wasn’t in that world. He was an accountant. They have no connections that we can find with each other. “I cock my head to the side, “What if there is a connection in the accountant’s work? What if he was handling a side gig for one of the gangs? “Michael shrugged, “That is a possibility. We need to dig a little more into the accountant it seems” I nodded my head and turned towards the body, I walk and duck underneath the yellow tape keeping the area sealed off. The body was covered already. I took a deep breath in and didn’t scent anything other than the blood from his injuries and his own scent. There should have been other scents—there should have been a scent from the person who killed him. I slowly got closer to the body looking around the ground making it seem I was looking for anything left behind that no one noticed. I took another deep breath when I was a foot away from the body, there was a slight scent underneath the victim’s own. It was one I hadn’t smelled before. I felt my body relax a bit. My mate’s scent wasn’t anywhere on this crime scene.I made another round before leaving the scene and heading back to Michael. “We need to start putting out feelers. Maybe try to get our insiders word that we need information. “He nods,” I agree, but we need to get back to the station and start laying evidence and thoughts out to see if we’ve missed something. We walk away from each other to our own cars, and I head to the station.A few hours after looking at the evidence that we have laid out and sending out messages to the few people we have been able to get inside the gang scene. We think we have some sort of connection between the first and second victim. I lean back in my chair and look at the board that we have photos and notes written about things that may have popped out at the crime scene. I rub my eyes and look at Michael. “Ok, what if the accountant aka. Mr. Dale Homer was doing some numbers for a new drug venture and then the hitman aka. Lee Kain was hired to take him out. But in doing so there was a tie to the murder and the client, so Mr. Kain was then killed to tie up those loose ends.”11
Michael looked at board and cocked his head. “Yeah, I can see that being the case. But what I don’t understand is why the clothes at the scene. The blood on them don’t match either victim. Where did they come from? The blood was defiantly human, but we couldn’t determine who it belonged to. Is there another body somewhere that we haven’t found yet? Or is there someone in trouble? “
I shook my head, “This whole case is weird. The two murders line up with each other, yet it doesn’t seem like that’s right. Like someone set it up to seem like that’s what happened. “Michael sighs, “You’re right, something seems fishy about this. Have the druggies called back with any info or meeting times?” I shook my head. He groaned. “Let’s go home and get some sleep and come back to this with fresh minds in a couple of hours. We didn’t get any rest and that isn’t going to help us figure out what is going on in this case. I nodded my head; he was right I felt like I was going to fall over at any minute. “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
I got up from my chair and grabbed my things before leaving the station. On the drive home my mind was running a million miles a second. My mate’s scent wasn’t at the second crime scene, which was a relief. But why was his clothes at the first crime scene? Whose blood is on those clothes? His or someone else’s? Where is he now? Was he in trouble?