Hey lovelies! I've been working on coming up with stuff for a story that I've been trying to write, called Mirrorworld. I'll post the first chapter this weekend!
Songs for the chapter are:
Numb by: Marina and the Diamonds- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylLpplWSrNk
And.... Silent Storm by: Carl Espen (one of my favorites)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LBOjxBty8U
“Here are some crime scene photos. I should warn you that they are very graphic,” Chris said, placing a folder on Hex’s kitchen island. They were sitting around it with mugs of lemon-chamomile tea. Hex reached over and slid the folder toward her. She flipped it open and gagged, closing it quickly.
“The kidnapper’s modus operandi is a Chelsea Smile paired with a Colombian Necktie?” she whispered.
“Well, yes, but there’s more… The person also leaves a message written in the victim’s blood and bile every time,” Sterling said, cringing.
“Will someone explain to the idiot over here what a Colombian Necktie and Chelsea smile are?” Bo asked, pointing to himself to indicate his stupidity.
“A Colombian Necktie is when someone slits the throat and pulls the tongue through the slit. A Chelsea Smile, or Glasgow Grin, is where they slice the corners of the mouth and beat the face to make the muscles more malleable and they curve the face into an actual smile," Chris explained.
"Fuck," Bo said. He looked like was going to yak all over the floor.
“So, what do the messages say?” Hex asked, changing the subject.
“The first one was ‘SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB,’ the next was ‘Catch me when you can,’ the third ‘here comes a chopper to chop off your head,’ and the last message was ‘I cannot control myself.’ Do any of these mean anything to you?” Sterling asked.
“I… I recognize them all. The first was the Zodiac killer’s confession letter in 1966, the second was Jack the Ripper’s “From Hell” letter that he sent along with half of a victim’s kidney, the third was from the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme, and the last was William Heirens’s message that he wrote on the wall of one of his victims,” Hex said, biting her lip. Everyone looked at her with a look that was a mix of amazement and pity. “What? I want to be a criminologist, okay? I read about these cases for my senior thesis on sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies for my psychology class.”
“You’ve got some issues,” Bo told her. She smacked him on the shoulder and he rubbed the bruised area and scowled.
“I have to say, I’m impressed. You’ve gotten further than we have in a day, while we’ve been working for weeks on this,” Chris said. Hex blushed with pride and fiddled with the handle of her mug.
“I made copies of the crime scenes for you to keep, just in case you need to look at them,” Sterling told her. She nodded and smiled. “It was nice seeing you both again.”
“I wish I didn’t have to leave, but duty calls,” Chris told Hex. He bent over and hugged her with one arm before making his way to the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow to discuss more.”
“Bye, you two. I’ll take a look at these photos and try to straighten things out in my mind for tomorrow,” Hex replied, leaning against the door. The father and son duo left the building and Hex spun around, closed the door, and grabbed the folder. “Bo, come on, you’re going to help with these photos.”
“I- I didn’t realize you needed my help. I thought I’d just go home and take a long, hot shower,” he said.
“Nope, I need you to research a list of famous murders and killers and connect them to these,” Hex said, holding the folder up and tapping it.
“Will I get to use every technological resource you have?” Bo asked.
“You can use everything but my laptop and two monitor desktop,” she replied.
“Okay, fine, you have a deal,” he told her. She grinned and headed for her computer room. The room had a two monitor computer on one desk with a large leather seat pushed into it, and on another desk, an x86-64 workstation and a game programming computer were set up, with a black rolling chair pushed out from the desk. Hex had set up a scanner, printer and copier beside the simple PC that was in a corner. A couch had been pushed against the wall. On it, a laptop had been set on a pillow. Hex immediately headed for her laptop and flipped it open. Pulling out the pictures from the folder, she moved to the floor with them in one hand and her laptop in the other. She spread the photos out around her on the floor and opened a new document. She began to type up names of cases and killers that she had already connected to the case. She printed that and handed it to Bo.
“These names are some of the killers and cases you can search. Print all of the information you find out,” Hex told him, using a detached voice. She had to think logically. She couldn’t break down, otherwise she wouldn’t help anyone. Control, defense, awareness, was the mantra that kept cycling through her head. She sat back down and began shifting the photos around. The images of slit throats, disfigured faces, and wretched words written in blood were scattered in her mind. Hex brought the images together in her mind and began to sort them. She picked up the actual images and sorted them by identity, making rows of each murder, then moved them around, sorting them by the subject of the photo: the quotes, blood spatter patterns, and bodies. Her eyes flicked from picture to picture. She began to profile the murderer.
-First degree murder (murder with kidnapping)
-Sociopathic tendencies
-Modus operandi- Chelsea Smile, Colombian Necktie, calling card (quotes in blood)
-Victims- white females- between ages of 14-25- all blonde haired
-Evidence - weapon used (same razor blade for both Colombian Necktie and Chelsea Smile)
-Motive-Both for power and lust (Hedonic motive)
-Possible mental disorder-Possible Schizophrenia, Antisocial, or Sadistic Personality Disorders
-Probable suspect- white male- late twenties or early thirties- possible abuse and isolation in the past
Hex heard the printer spitting out some of the research Bo had found. She rolled her neck and stretched. She read over the profile she’d written up, and then printed it out. She set the laptop aside and stretched out on the floor to examine the photos. She picked up the photo with the Jack the Ripper quote on it and looked closer at it. The blood had been painted on with fingers while wearing gloves, so fingerprints were impossible to retrieve. Hex squinted and then she saw it. There was a small symbol right below the message. It looked like a smaller version of the Zodiac Killer’s signature on most of his letters, and below it were tally marks. Four of them, for each victim. It was a calling card of sorts, keeping track of the people that had been murdered and signing the piece of art that the murderer had made. This was another clue in a collection of puzzling evidence, and Hex had no clue what it meant, but she vowed to figure it out.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
