The Skull Collector

The Skull Collector

1 Skull Collector

Levi lay on the lawn enjoying the concert and playing visual games with the clouds passing overhead.  Once in a while one would trigger a memory.  He was slowly thinking through and visualizing the first time.

He remembered his fascination with Heather.  He was always standing just down from her locker so he could get a look at her when she was getting ready for the next class.  It was during the late summer football practice when the cheerleaders came out for their practice that he finally went over the edge.  Heather was thrown in the air and then landed on the shoulders of the guy that had thrown her up.  Her hair had flown back, and her perfect features had been exposed.  Her smile that he was sure was meant for him had closed the deal.

It was the moment that his mind seemed to clear, and he knew what he wanted.  He wanted Heather to be with him forever.

He spent the next few weeks figuring out how that could happen.

He found a place in the forest that was at one end of the farm.  He prepared the grave.  He made sure it was dug neatly and to the proper depth.  He wanted it to be a perfect place.

He then waited patiently.  The school session started, and he kept watch as he waited for the right time.  Then one day Heather came to her locker alone to put her books away.  She had just locket it and was going toward the gym with her gym bag.

He walked up and said hello.  She stopped, smiled, and asked what he wanted.  He replied that he wanted to take her out on a date.  Her smile caused his heart to beat twice as fast.

He knew she was going to turn him down, so he took the next step.  He pulled out his hunting knife and pressed it against her side and told her to walk out the door and guided her to where he had his old pickup parked.

She said he was hurting her.

He told her to be quiet and walk.  He put his arm over her shoulder, and they walked slowly to the pickup.  He told her to get in and he slammed the door shut.  She tried to open it, but he had removed the inside handles for both the door and the window.  He hurried to his side and got in, started the engine, and drove slowly away and headed toward the farm.

Heather reached for the steering wheel trying to make him go off the road.

He pulled the chloroform-soaked cloth from the plastic bag and clamped it over her mouth.

Heather went out as she tried to pull his hand away.

He drove down the lane toward the house and then took the small gravel road that led to the lake and pulled in next to the grave.  He looked to make sure his dad was not fishing.  He heard the tractor and knew that his dad was most likely out pulling the John Deer multiple row hoe that cleared five corn rows at a time.  He knew that he had all the time in the world, and he should enjoy what he planned to do next.

He pulled on his hip high fishing waders to make sure he didn’t get any blood on his clothes.  He then lay Heather face down and with his hunting knife he cut her throat.  He was amazed at the amount of blood that kept pumping out.  Every year his dad butchered at least one large pig, and he always hung the pig up and then cut its throat to bleed it.  He had not expected so much blood from such a petite body as Heather’s.

Once the pulse bleeding stopped, he reached down and cut off her head and rolled the body into the grave.  He threw her gym bag down after her.  He kneeled down and skinned her head and threw all the fleshy parts down into the grave.  He rolled the skull around so he could get a good view from the front.  He threw it into the plastic five-gallon bucket that was half full of diluted lye water.  He put on the lid and made sure it was against the back corner by the tailgate.

He walked to the lake to wash the blood that was on his waders until he was sure that it was all off.  He then took them off and put on his sneakers.

He then filled in the grave and put a layer of leaves and several limbs over it to camouflage it.  He stood back and admired his work.  It looked like the rest of the forest floor.  He figured that by spring it would be unnoticeable.

He drove back to the small barn and looked around to make sure no one was looking and carried the bucket in and took it up to the loft and put it behind some old hardware that had been untouched for years.  He would come back in a few days to see how Heather’s skull looked.

He went into the house where his mother asked him how school had been.  He replied that it had been a great day and sat down for his afternoon snack that she always had ready.

He realized he had been daydreaming when the concert music he was listening to ended and the crowd gave a thunderous applause.

He sat back up and once again looked at the two women he had scoped out.

He gave up on his first selection when it was clear that she had someone with her.

He kept his focus on his second choice.  He followed her out of the park and watched the direction she was walking in.

Lisa was walking home after the free concert in the field and didn’t realize the mistake she had made until it was too late.  It was a long walk home and it was getting dark when she accepted a ride.  The driver of the black pickup seemed friendly and as she got in; he asked her where she needed to go.

She put on the seat belt as he requested and gave him her address.  She was about to thank him when he sprayed something at her.  It was the last thing she saw as the world slowly went dark.

Levi smiled and opened the window on the passenger’s side to let the fresh air in.  He had perfected using the spray bottle to deliver the chloroform.  It sometimes made him woozy, but he had learned to hold his breath while he was spraying his prize with it.

He reached over and pulled the young woman’s hair back so he could get a good look at her profile.  He liked what he saw and imagined what her skull would look like once he processed and mounted it.

He headed straight to the processing center where he would sell her body for a cool fifty thousand dollars.  He would keep the head.  This was a deal he had set up with the Body Parts manager that would have her chopped up and sell her body parts.  He was sure the he was only getting about ten percent of what her body was worth but for years he had to do the hard work of burying the bodies.  Now he was getting paid a nice sum and he walked away with a clean skull.

He had called and let them know he was at the door.  The warehouse door opened, and he drove in.

He followed as they took her to the next room, put her on the table and undressed her and cut off her hair and bagged it.  They said that he was in luck and the doctor that did the dissecting was expecting her in the next room.

He would take the scalp, the ears, eyes and tongue and facial skin and they would bring back the head for him.  They said the boss would bring out the money.

This was his third delivery.  He was now doing about one delivery every other week.  He knew that it was risky to be harvesting so many skulls, but he was strategic about it and made sure he picked up his targets in different county jurisdictions and from quite different venues.

He had picked up one guy by mistake but decided to collect him anyway.  Most of his skulls were of women but he had accumulated three of young men.  He actually thought the three male skulls were appealing because they were noticeably larger than the rest of his trophies.

Delivery to this local facility was very convenient, and the money was more icing on the cake then he had ever dreamt of.

He had made what he had at first thought was accidental contact at a nearby bar with the person running the operation.  He learned later that he had actually been targeted to be a victim to become some of the body parts but somehow during the conversation he had connected with the person who ran the operation he had asked if the body parts business needed any bodies.  He had been invited to bring in a body.

He had been surprised by the change in the conversation but the person making the invitation promised that it was a legitimate offer, and the money was substantial.

He had taken his next prize in and had gotten a tour of the operation and an offer of fifty thousand per body.  The arrangement was not only financially attractive, but it was even more alluring because he did not have to go through the effort of digging a grave and preparing the skull.  It saved him time and a tremendous amount of work.

His father had died a couple of years before, and his mother had passed away the previous year.  He missed them both.  They had been good parents.  He had fond memories of the many family outings and vacations that they had taken him on during his early teen years.  But their passing made it much easier to pursue his main interest of collecting skulls.

He moved from the family farm to an old mansion that he had renovated with the money he got from his parents.  He thought it was remarkable that they had saved three million dollars to pass on to him.  He smiled as he thought about the fact that they were not only good parents but amazingly frugal.

He hired a professional farming group to run his farm and he had the farmhouse refurbished and then had a rental agency manage it.  This provided him with a steady cash stream that allowed him to invest all of his inheritance with a local investment firm.

He figured he would not have to work for the rest of his life and could focus on his fishing trips to Lake Cumberland, hunting in the fall and going to concerts, plays and sports events as he hunted out his next victim.

He felt that he had been rewarded for being good in his early youth.

Hunting for the next victim was the sport that he liked the best because it was done in different venues and the selection varied significantly.  He always kept his eye out for that exceptional looker that had great hair and was gullible enough to accept a ride from him.

He knew that his good looks and a reassuring smile were key in getting them to accept a ride.

He was now at the Cincinnati River front attending a concert in the park.  He was hoping to get his next prize that evening.

He had an eye on a young Black woman sitting out on the lawn and a young blond sitting almost to the top back of the inclined lawn.  They both had the look that he wanted.  He liked the Black woman the best and figured he would make a move on her when the concert ended.

Alex was sitting next to Matt and enjoying the concert that had been sponsored by one of the large Cincinnati companies.  She let him know that she felt that someone was watching her.

Matt asked her if she wanted another iced tea and that he would see if he could spot anyone that seemed to be watching her.

She thanked him and said she would love a refill.

Matt got up and walked slowly to where the portable refreshment stand was parked.

Levi took note of the tall rather handsome Black man standing up and walking toward him.  He remained seated but made sure not to look at him or the young woman who he had been sitting with.  He wondered if he had been made.

Matt walked by and went over to the refreshment stand and purchased two iced teas and two chocolate ice cream cones.  He casually scanned the crowd on the way back.

When he sat down, he let Alex know that he had spotted three potential guys that were alone and looking over the crowd.

Alex thanked him, took a sip of the iced tea, and said that the ice cream cone was just what she needed.

Levi decided that the blond sitting by herself would be the one he would try to intercept.  He would invite her to a treat and if she accepted would then invite her to one of the local clubs for a drink.

He made sure not to look at the Black lady again.

It was his lucky night.  The young woman took him up on his offer of an ice cream cone and afterwards a drink.  She said that she had a club in mind.

He knew he had scored when she selected the place to get a drink.  He needed to play it low key and to be as invisible as possible at the club.

Alex had a feeling that something was wrong.  She walked out scanning the crowd trying to see if anyone seemed distressed.  She saw several young people mingling and talking.  Everything seemed to be OK.

Levi seemed to sense that he was being looked at and made sure to keep his back to the departing crowd.  He focused on getting the young lady to accept him as someone she wanted to have a few drinks with.

Alex asked Matt if he would later be able to identify the three guys that he had observed.

Matt replied that he thought so.  One had red hair and lots of freckles.  One had blond hair and was rather young looking and the other had dark brown eyes and he thought brown hair, but that person had his sweatshirt hood on, so it was hard to tell hair color.

Alex nodded and took his hand, and they walked back to their apartment.

Levi and the lady that had identified herself as Elsy walked to a local night spot that had a small dance floor where they drank and danced until close to closing time.  Levi did not want to be the last to leave the bar, so he offered to drive her home.

She accepted saying that it would save her a walk up to Mount Adams.

Levi was thrilled.  Once in the truck he sprayed Elsy with his chloroform spray.  She went out like a light.

It was three in the morning.  He had been drinking iced tea in a whiskey glass, so he was ready for the drive up to Cleveland.  He would get there early in the morning and be home to have a late lunch.  He had been disappointed when the Body Parts operation moved to Cleveland, but the drive was a minor inconvenience relative to doing everything himself to collect the skull.

He figured when he got back to Cincinnati, he would do Chinese carryout for a late afternoon meal and then spend the rest of the evening preparing her skull.

He drove a little over the speed limit but made sure there were other cars driving faster.

The timing of the delivery went off as planned.

He parked in the alley on the side of the house opposite the main street.  Two new guys came out and took her in.

He had a short wait, but he soon left the operation with the money and his head that he put in the large toolbox in the back of the truck.

He was just getting back to Cincinnati when a cop turned on the red lights and pulled him over.

He briefly entertained making a run for it and if he had been out by his farm he would have because he figured he knew how to out fox any cop on the roads there.  But he pulled over and kept his hands on the steering wheel.

One cop shouted for him to get out and stand behind the pickup.  The other walked up to the passenger window and looked in.  He then went around to the driver’s side and examined the inside more closely.

Levi hoped that he would not get inspected too closely.

He presented his driver’s license and listened to the officer that said he had been doing sixty-five in fifty-five-mile zone.  He was asked if he had any alcohol in the pickup.

Levi was glad that he had not stopped to stock up on beer.  He only had an iced tea from the big Mac in the pickup.

The officer looking inside of the pickup said it was clear.

He was asked to close his eyes and touch his nose with both index fingers.

He did that with no problem.

The officer nodded and said OK and wrote out the speeding ticket and advised him that he should stick to the speed limit.

The two cops got back into their unit and waited for him to go on his way.

He was so glad that he had no outstanding tickets.  He had only one ticket in his life that he had gotten when he was sixteen.

Levi got back into his pickup and drove away doing fifty-five and being passed by every car on the highway.  He figured that the cops were getting in their quota of speeding tickets.  He knew that the ticket would cost him somewhere around three-hundred dollars, but he was so relieved that no detailed search had been done that he smiled and thanked the lord for small favors.

He then focused his thoughts on the upcoming processing of the head.  This was the part he especially enjoyed.  He was pleased that the body processing group always wanted the eyes, the tongue, the ears, and the scalp.  That made his cleaning of the skull easy, and he did not have to deal with a bunch of waste to dispose of.  The disposal had been reduced to scraping the flesh off the skull, boiling that residue, and then putting it down the sink through the garbage disposal.

The rest of the processing involved bleaching the skull and the mounting it.  He enjoyed making the small plaque that had the young lady’s picture a brief description of his time with her and the date of her beheading.

When he moved into his current home, he had converted the entire third floor into his display floor.  It had a beautiful wood floor that had star patterns positioned strategically around the rooms.  He had display pedestals made that were then positioned on each star.  He had organized all the skulls in order of the date and had put each skull on its own separate pedestal.  He was proud of the way he had arranged the layout and the spot lighting for each pedestal.

He wished he could give tours of his collection.  He thought of the collection as a show of high art.

Many of his evening hours were spent walking the third floor and recalling the events leading to him getting each of his trophies.

The first floor had an entry area that he had arranged using the same pedestals as on the third floor but instead of heads he had put fake statues of Greek and Roman nude women.

The morning after the conference at breakfast, Alex shared the fact that she had a nightmare about the feeling of being watched the day before.  She shared that she had one of her premonitions about the situation and was going to be extra careful for a few days until she could sort out what was going on.

Matt said he would be sure to keep a watch to make sure none of the three guys were around.

She took her bike down as usual and met Johnnie at the elevator.  She asked him to pick a route to work that they usually did not take.

Johnnie asked what was going on.

Alex briefly shared what had happened.

Johnnie nodded and said he would pick a different route.

Once in the office, as they all sat down for their morning coffee and rolls Johnnie asked Alex to go into more detail about the concert in the park.

Alex described the situation and said that she had a dream about it and woke up in the morning with a premonition of trouble.

Trevor shook his head and said he hated it when she got her premonitions because so far, every time, she had one the team was faced with a major gun battle.

Trey said that he agreed but that every time they had all been prepared for the resulting gun battle and they, working together, had weathered every one of them.

He added that in every one of those situations Alex had taken the point and led them to victory.  He also highlighted the number of times when she had been attacked while by herself and she had taken out her attacker.

Alex shook her head and said that this premonition was different, and the difference was what was bothering her.

The Chief came out of his office and joined them.  He shared that he had just gotten off the phone with their friend, the Chief of Police of Loveland who wanted to see if Alex and Trey would be able to stop by around lunch time.  He wanted the two to meet a friend that was dealing with three missing young women each who had gone riding or hiking alone in different parts of the county and had never returned home.

Alex shook her head as she wondered if the lunch meeting would lead to what was bothering her.  She said that she and Trey would go to Loveland for lunch.

She looked at Johnnie and asked if he was willing to come along to hear the story because she had a bad feeling about the meeting.  She said that she wanted him to look for any missing women who had not returned from the concert in the park.

2 A Nagging Feeling

Alex sat in the passenger seat of her car as Trey drove to Loveland.  She went through each of the previous cases where she and the team had intervened in situations where young women were about to get abused before being killed.  It haunted her that during the time it took to break each of those cases young women had faced the situation by themselves, had been brutalized and then killed.  This fact always came up when she engaged in a new case and the desire to solve the case as rapidly as possible became a key consideration.  She had that feeling now.  She was sure that in some way she was going to be presented with some situation that would have her driving the team to move fast.

She smiled as she realized that Trey had detoured to her favorite store and said that he would go in and buy the bags of candy and that he only wanted to know how many bags to buy.  She asked for at least a dozen bags, but she insisted that she pay.

She looked back at Johnnie and let him know that one was for him.  She wanted him to scan the missing person reports for Hamilton County and every county that bordered it and gather all the ones about missing women.  She asked him to keep an eye out for one that had happened in the last couple of days.

Johnnie nodded and said that he would do it, but he wondered if he could negotiate for a tray of her cookies instead of a bag of candy.

Alex smiled and nodded but stipulated that a tray of cookies would mean he would need to set up breakfast each morning for the two of them for the rest of the week.

Johnnie nodded and replied that was an easy ask.

She enjoyed their close relationship and thought of Johnnie as her second father.  Johnnie was a few years older than her father.  Older but she knew Johnnie was in great condition and was exceptionally strong.  He had demonstrated his physical strength when he had lowered a reel of wire cable from the bed of a maintenance truck.  He had backed her up when Trey had been in the hospital recovering from near death after being brutally beaten.  He had demonstrated his strength by lowering a roll of wire cabling from the back of a maintenance truck and then his bravery by pulling the wire cable off that reel through the legs of the helicopter and tying it to a fire hydrant.  When the copter went to take off to shoot at her it crashed to the ground as it tried to take off.

Trey returned with the bags of candy, and they drove on into Loveland.

They arrived at the police station where they were cordially greeted like a part of the Loveland unit.

Alex looked at Trey and commented that a few bags of candy went a long way in making friends.

Sheriff Williams greeted them, thanked Alex for the bag of chocolate, introduced his Friend Arthur Milster, Sheriff of Missteer and asked whether they were ready for lunch.  He said that he preferred to have them listen to Sheriff Milster after lunch.

Alex handed Arthur a bag of chocolate candy and introduced Trey and Johnnie.

She then said that she was not sure that ready was the condition she would find herself in, but she was willing to have lunch first and then return to hear the details afterwards.

Johnnie spoke up and said that it sounded like a good plan.  He wanted to enjoy the lunch and watch the Little Miami to see if there would be any logs floating downstream.

Alex smiled at the reference to logs floating downstream because this was a Johnnie euphemism for thinking deeply about a case.  She knew that he was probably already figuring out how to get the information she had requested.

A short time later they arrived at the restaurant, and they sat at an outside table that indeed had a great view of the Little Miami.  It had not rained for a few days, so the river was running calmly by.  She figured no actual logs would be floating by.

Alex made sure that Johnnie had a view of the river.  She was sure the only floating logs would be in Johnnie’s mind.

Sheriff Williams volunteered to order for all of them, and everyone agreed to let him do it.  He put in an order for three of his favorite tacos and made sure the waiter knew that he wanted one for each person.  He also ordered one tostada for each person.  The final order was for three orders of donut holes with chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled over them.  He reassured Alex that donut holes would be more than enough for all of them.

Alex joked with him that he would need to let them sleep in his van after lunch to recover from all the food he had ordered.

He nodded and replied that he wasn’t worried about any of them falling asleep when they listened to what Sheriff Milster shared with them.

Johnnie nodded and said that he already had a premonition of the story and he planned to enjoy lunch.

Alex agreed and added that she was especially looking forward to the dessert.

Sheriff Williams made sure that the conversation remained light.  He asked each person to share a highlight about themselves.  He knew that his friend was feeling down and concerned about the fact that he had come up empty handed in trying to solve the cases of three missing women.  His friend had worked for almost three years and had come up empty handed.  All three cases were now cold, and they hung heavy on his friend’s mind.

He knew how that felt because he had carried a similar weight for more than fifteen years when Annie, a young teenager, had gone missing, and the case went cold.

He also knew how he felt when Alex, against all odds, had solved the case and had rescued Annie and her two kids from the forests of Pennsylvania.  Alex had become a person who he thought about often as he followed the cases, she took on that had stumped other agencies and then marveled when she solved them.

He was an ultimate Alex supporter.

Alex enjoyed the lunch, but she would have liked not to be anticipating some horrific case from Sheriff Milster.

After lunch they all rode back to the Loveland police station, to a conference room and sat around a large meeting table.  Sheriff Williams had iced tea and lemonade brought in and when everyone was seated, he asked Sheriff Milster to share the situation he faced.

Alex asked Johnnie to connect his computer to the Cincinnati police computer and see if there would be anything like what Sheriff Milster was about to share.

Sheriff Milster said that he liked how fast Alex was planning to try to help.  He added that he hoped she would be successful where he had failed.

Alex nodded and replied that she figured he had only bad news to share and that every case in the past that she had taken on had a sad or horrible beginning and she was only trying to be prepared.

Sheriff Milster then described having three missing persons reports about three young women that seemed to have no connection to each other.  Each had occurred several years ago but almost exactly one month apart in his jurisdiction.

Each young lady was reported missing, but each had a very different disappearance scenario, and the three did not know each other.  The only similarity was that each had gone out alone and had never returned.

He then described the first situation where the young lady had gone by herself to an outdoor concert and had never returned home.  She was last seen by some of her friends talking to a young man that was described as dark haired and rather handsome.  They had interviewed several additional people that had been at the concert but did not come up with anything.

The second young lady had gone out hiking along the country roads that were around her farm but never returned home.  He had his men follow several hiking routes her mother described but again there was no additional evidence.  He had driven each potential road that the young woman might have hiked and had not seen anything.

The third had gone to a night club where she often went, and she was last seen leaving as she chatted with a person that one of the waitresses said was a slender dark haired rather good-looking guy.  She had looked out the window as the two got into a black pickup truck.

When she was asked about a license plate number, she said that she had no clue, but she did comment about the license plate holder.  She described it as bright silver with red devil horns on each corner.  He had his men look for black trucks, but none had that type of license plate holder.

Alex felt a shiver go down her back.  She asked if the sheriff had the names of the friends and of the waitress.  She also asked if he knew the hiking path that the other young woman had taken.

He said that he had the names, but he had no knowledge of the exact hiking path that the young lady had taken.  He had walked out to the first country road with that young lady’s mother but even the mother was not sure which way she would have gone because there were several more crossroads that she may have chosen to go down.

He added that he had one of his units travel every road looking for any clues but after a week they had come up empty.

Alex nodded and added that it was most likely that she had been whisked away and was not to be found.

She looked at Johnnie and asked if he had any additional questions or information.

Johnnie nodded and said that he had only enough time to search Hamilton County and Warren County records.  He said that he had two more counties in Ohio and then counties in Indiana and Kentucky to search.  He said that so far, he had six additional missing person reports that met her search criteria.  He speculated that the number could double.

Alex nodded and let everyone know that she would go back and see if her boss would let her take on the case.  She added that it appeared to her that a serial killer was at work.

Sheriff Milster asked why she thought it was a serial killer.

She shook her head and said that it was just a premonition.

She then asked Johnnie to shut down his search and they would go back to the office and once the case was officially agreed to, they would dig deeper and see if they could find who was doing the killing.

Both Sheriffs thanked her for coming out and listening to them and asked that they be contacted if the case was going to be taken up.

Alex said that she would of course do that.  She then suggested that they give her Chief a call and request that he support making this an official case.

Sheriff Milster shook her hand and said that he was already feeling better and hoped that she would take on the case.

Once they were in the car Alex asked Johnnie how far back in time he had gone in his search.

Johnnie responded with the fact he had only searched back one year.

Alex asked him to do what he had done in the Pool of Blood case and determine when the serial killer had started his journey.  She was not sure how long he had been at work but most likely his early years of his killing habit would have been at a low level.

Recent events may have triggered an increase in his activities.  She asked Johnnie to identify the first victim and to chart out the hockey stick pattern she was expecting to see.

When they arrived at the station, Alex led the way to the Chief’s office.

The Chief’s door was open, and he waved her in.  He asked whether he should call Bill and Trevor in.

Alex nodded and said that if he accepted the case she was about to describe, the case might cover the tri-state area and that would require a significant amount of coordination that would require their help.

The call from Loveland from the two sheriffs had prepared him and he had already alerted Bill and Trevor.  He stepped to the door and signaled for them to come to his office.

Once everyone was in, he closed the door and asked Alex to fill them in on what she had learned over lunch with the two sheriffs.  He shared the fact that both of them had talked to him and asked that he take up the case.

Alex positioned her chair so she could face the rest.  She then took them through the details of the case and made the point that Johnnie had already surfaced six additional missing person reports that fit the description of the three missing person reports that Sheriff Milster had given them.  She was relatively sure they were dealing with a serial killer who lived somewhere in the area and had recently increased his kill rate.

Bill asked why she thought the killing rate had gone up.

Alex replied that Johnnie had only gone back one year in his initial search and the number seemed high not to have been noticed earlier.

She had asked Johnnie to go back as far as possible to determine what the killing hockey stick data looked like.  She commented that this was the approach that had helped her solve the case where she had dealt with a serial killer in Hawaii.

She added that she had promised Johnnie a tray of oatmeal raisin cookies for him to define the hockey stick for this case.

Trevor asked what he had to do to get a tray of her cookies.

Alex smiled and replied that Johnnie was checking the missing person reports in Hamilton County and all the surrounding counties and that they would need to interface with the seven counties that surrounded Cincinnati.  She would like him and Bill to be the face of the team to each of the organizations involved and get them to give the team legal access to their missing persons reports.

Trevor gave a groan and asked why Johnnie got the easy work and he and Bill got the hard stuff.

Alex smiled and said that to make the deal a little sweeter she would add a tray of brownies to the deal.  She added that this case gave him a chance to be in the news and she was doing this because she wanted to flaunt his superior capabilities.

Bill smiled and added that he knew that it was because, “she loved them too.”

Alex smiled and said that the only person not getting any cookies promised to him was Trey, but she planned to bring a batch over to his house as soon as she received his next invitation to a back yard cook out.

The Chief spoke up and said that he was officially launching the investigation into a potential serial killer, and he would let the hierarchy know.  He wanted it all kept low key until they were close to capturing the killer.

He did not want the news speculating on a potential serial killer operating in the Cincinnati area.

Thank You for reading this far.