CHAPTER 1

My dreams were rudely interrupted by the constant buzz of my alarm, my dreams have been leaving me unrested as of late.  I was just about to hit the snooze button and try to get a little more sleep when my phone rang.  The caller ID said that it was my partner, Mack.  I inwardly groaned, what could possibly be so important this early in the morning?! I asked myself as I reached for the phone.  Only Mack would call me this early but only if it was something important.

“Rise and shine!  We have another one, so hurry up and get dressed and head down to the docks at Rice Marina.”  He commanded.

“Ugh…you bringing coffee?”  I knew that this was going to be a very long day, and everybody knows that I am not a morning person, well almost everyone.  Leave it to a serial killer to start the day off with a fourth victim!  “Mack, you know that I hate you when you are this cheerful at 5:00 am!”

Mack has been my partner for two long years, but we have been best friends for a little over sixteen years.  We became friends in high school, and it felt like we were friends for our whole lives, we just had a connection.  He joined the police force about five years ago in Nevada but transferred to Klamath Oregon two years ago.  There are only two people in my life that know what I have been through.  I keep my past extremely private; I don’t want pity for the trauma I sustained so I keep everything to myself.

“Oh, who are you kidding, you know that you absolutely love me!  I mean, who else would be able to put up with your shit?!”  Mack chuckled.

I could tell by the way that he talked that something had changed between his wife and him.  He usually wasn’t this cheery or make jokes.  I liked this side of him, he reminds me of how he used to be before the separation.  I decide to let it go.  “Give me half an hour to get ready.”

By the time I had hung up the phone with Mack I was already on my way towards the bathroom to take a quick shower.  Normally I would let the hot water run over me and wash away some of the tiredness but unfortunately, I do not have time this morning so I am going to have to sustain myself with large amounts of coffee to be able to deal with what the day would bring.

As I was getting dressed, I was doing a mental run down of all of our victims, what they all had in common. So far, the only tangible l**k between all the victims was the way the torture they endured, sometimes for hours on end! They had all been held and tortured somewhere secluded so nobody would hear them scream while being tortured, they were then dumped in a very high trafficked area, like the docks. After months of tracking this psycho, they had nothing to show for it! He was very skilled at what he did, no forensic evidence, no clear motive other than this guy really got off on torturing.

When I finally reached the Rice Marina docks I was an hour and a half late, partially due to traffic.  I had only made it a few feet from my car when the smell of decaying flesh hit my senses, making me feel like I was punched in the gut.  This crime scene was grotesquely worse than any I have ever investigated.  I pulled the sleeve of my jacket down and pressed it against my mouth and nose in hopes of dampening the smell.  As I neared the body, or what was left of it, something metallic caught my eye.  “Mack, what is that around the victim’s neck?”

The coroner was just finished examining the body.  “Doc, could you please grab that so it can be bagged or evidence please?”  Mack was inching towards the coroner, as not to disturb any evidence, to allow the doc to put the evidence in the open bag that Mack was holding.  “It looks like a necklace of some sort.”

I didn’t need to see it up close to recognize what it was.  I had that locket specifically made for my friend, Sheila Andercroft, for her birthday last month!  My heart seized in my chest and I could barely breath!  I needed to get away from the scene before I lost the contents of my stomach.