A Lead

Chapter Four - A Lead

Reyna's POV

The annoying buzz of my phone woke me from a dreamless sleep. My mouth was dry, and my hair covered my face. I wiggled out of my cocoon of blankets and blindly felt around my nightstand for the god-forsaken thing.

"I'm coming. Just give me a minute." I grumbled as I finally gripped my phone between my fingers. I squinted at the bright light as I slid over the green button.

"Killian, what'd you need?" My voice filled with sleep.

"Good morning to you too, Reyna." Piper chimed through my phone. Morning people were the worst kind of people. I could never understand how someone could be so chipper after waking up in all my years in the academy and out in the field. It just never happened for me.

I pulled the phone away and looked at the time, groaning as I put my phone back to my ear.

"It's five am. Do we have another body?"

"Nope, but we do have to prep for our debriefing. Figured you'd want to get a head start before the recruits get here."

Right, I forgot about new people being added to our case.

"Of course. I'll be on my way there in ten."

"I'm outside. Let me in. It's freezing out here. I brought some breakfast for the drive over."

"Of course, your outside." I let out a sigh before forcing myself to stand up. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and lazily headed for the buzzer, pushing the button to open the door.

"Thank you," she practically sang.

"Right, I'll be in the shower. Make yourself comfortable until I'm ready." I yawned, hanging up the phone before she could answer.

I walked into my tiny bathroom.

When looking for a place to rent, fresh out of the academy, I had came across this little gem. The only reason I took it was because it had a shower instead of just a tub like most small bachelor apartments did in Toronto. Even for the small fortune it cost me to live here. I was happy to have it. It was nothing fancy but felt like home on the nights I actually stayed here.

I turned on the shower and turned around to brush my teeth. I looked at myself in the mirror. A poor excuse of a woman looked back at me. I wasn't even 30 yet, but the dark circles under my green-hazel eyes made me look it. My brown hair stuck up in all directions, and my eyebrows were a few days away from forming a unibrow.

"Captain Kurt was right. I do look like shit. God, I need a miracle if Im going to look at least half put together." I groaned as I put my toothbrush away and rinsed out my mouth.

I stepped into the shower and quickly shaved my legs and armpits before washing my hair and body. The smell of wildflowers and peppermint filled the steamy shower. I let the water pour down on me until it started to turn cold. I got out of the shower and rubbed the steam away from the mirror. I looked at my makeup and tweezers.

My eyes watered as I plucked my brows. I applied enough makeup under my eyes to make them look bright and youthful again. I walked out of the bathroom and stepped behind my room divider, grabbing a pair of black jeans, a white blouse, and a black blazer. I strapped my gun holster to my hip and walked out to see Piper flicking through the channels on my tv.

"Finally, let's go." She said, standing up and taking me in, her blue eyes narrowing as she looked at my face.

"Not bad, a little heavy on the foundation, but I'd date you." I rolled my eyes at her as she handed me a bagel and a cup of coffee. I eyed up the coffee before she let out a sigh.

"Don't worry. I didn't make it. Picked up from the little coffee shop outside my place." I nodded as I brought it up to my lips and took a cautious sip. Still crappy but not as crappy as the one she made yesterday. I shrugged, heading to the door, slipping in my boots and jacket.

"Good enough until we get to the station." I teased. She rolled her eyes at me and headed out into the narrow hallway.

We walked in silence as we made our way to her car. It was a tiny blue Prius, not like my vehicle any fancier. However, it did good in the city and had enough room for the both of us to travel when we didn't have a cop car.

We got in and shut the doors. The engine sputtered a couple of times before it roared to life. The cold air always made it miserable. I wasn't one for the cold, and I couldn't wait for the warmer weather to come even though it had just left us. Soon there would be snow covering everything. Christmas was only a month away, and that was another thing I wasn't looking forward to.

"So, how do you want to play this out?" Piper asked.

"Not sure. Maybe we can have them look over the files we already checked out. See if they can spot any details or repetitions we missed over the last three years. Who knows, maybe there is something that wasn't able to be connected until now." I suggested taking a bite of my bagel. Piper nodded.

"We could even split them up and have one team look at surveillance while the other team looks at the paperwork. Then, have each team report to one of us." I nodded at the idea.

"Sounds good to me. We can get the files brought into the room and have Vitto set up a computer station to view the footage."

"Look at us acting like seasoned detectives." Piper scoffed. The rest of the ride was filled with us making more plans and talking about how much of a dick Captain Kurt is.

***

I pulled out a trolly and loaded the file boxes onto it. We had about twenty boxes worth of case files linked to this guy. Unfortunately, though, all the cases we did have led to dead ends and more questions.

When we found family members, some of them said they never talked to the ones they lost. Others completely denied ever knowing them. Most of the victim's families didn't even file missing person reports. Whatever these people got into scared the crap out of their families enough to stop them from ever talking. Also, the missing body parts of the victims never turned up either.

I stacked up the boxes and brought them to the debriefing room. Six tables lined each side, four chairs at each one. The fluorescent lights were flickering, threatening to go out any second. Vitto sat in the far corner setting up a computer station while Piper worked on our evidence board.

I set out the boxes and began taking out the case files and any evidence we had accumulated. A few pictures fell out. I picked them up, the pictures of the young woman stared back at me. She was one of the few cases where her family actually came looking for her. It was a sad day when we had to tell them that we found her body and she wouldn't be coming home again for holidays or summer vacation.

The next photo was of her with her throat cut open and her one hand cut off. Her face, different from what her parents gave us. Sarah griffin, only twenty-two years old, her face sunken in, and teeth completely rotten from a couple of years of drug use. I remembered her well. She was the first case I worked on. I remembered all the faces of the victims.

I placed the photos back into her file and moved on to the next one. Then moved on to the next person after that these people were brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. The only thing we could find they had in common was they all got mixed into something terrible and were rewarded with a brutal end.

I let out a deep breath, closing the folders in front of me.

"How'd I get here?"I whispered to myself.

 How did a little girl who once dreamed of helping people and saving lives become this? Become a woman who spends her nights looking at photographs of dead people, broken bodies, and bloodied corpses, wondering what could have broken someone so much that they had to become a monster to cope with it all?

I snapped out of my train of thought as more people started filling the room. I went to the front and stood beside Piper as we waited for the last recruits to join.

"You ready?" She whispered. I gave her a nervous smile before turning back to the ten people who sat in front of us.

"Okay, listen up. We are going to split you guys up into two teams. Each team will be given instructions on what we are looking for. Five of you will be with Sullivan looking over whatever surveillance footage we have on any of the victims. The other five will be with me going through case files. We are dealing with someone who is expertly trained at what they do. They hide their tracks well and make sure there isn't anything to lead back to themselves and whoever hired them. We have theories on who the killer might be, but it's your job to confirm that theory so we can work to track down the bastard who is doing this." I explained. I took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Do I make myself clear?" I yelled. Everyone nodded.

"You five are with me," Sullivan said, pointing at the table to my left.

"That means you five are with me," I said, heading to the back table where the case files were all stacked. Everyone picked up a pile and headed to their tables.

"Look over all the files. You're here as fresh eyes, so write down, circle, highlight, anything that sticks out to you. If you think you found a pattern, bring it to me, and we will go from there."

A couple of hours had passed I felt like my eyes were about to burn out of their sockets. I placed my pen down and stood up, stretching. We had gone through almost all the case files and were still left empty-handed. I walked over to Piper to see if she had found anything.

"Still nothing." Piper shook her head, her blonde hair now thrown up into a messy bun.

"Nothing, I get what Captain was trying to do, but we are still in the same place we started at." A frantic knock at the door grabbed our attention. Piper and I rushed out into the hall, shutting the door behind us.

"What is it, Clint?" I asked.

"You're not going to believe this. But we just got a call about a severed head being delivered on the south end of town. It seems someone owed someone some money and didn't pay up."Excitement flickered in his green eyes.

"How much you wanna bet it's the guy we found in the alleyway yesterday." For the first time in a long time, I felt a hint of excitement. If this was the head of the guy, we found yesterday. This would be the first significant lead we had in a long time. No one ever came forward with a body part before. Everyone kept their mouths shut and looked the other way, everyone until today.

"Well, what are we waiting for."