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Cassie found the crime scene easily, with over a dozen uniformed officers milling around, fending off reporters on every side. She nodded at them and they let her through, recognizing the junior detective quickly, being the only woman on the force. Stepping over the threshold of the victim's apartment, Cassie braced herself, expecting a scene as gruesome as the others she'd witnessed in the last week.
Clancy, the medical examiner and one of Cassie's friends, was leaning over the victim's bed, momentarily blocking Cassie's view of the corpse. She looked around first, noting the plainness of the room, almost as though the victim didn't want to invest any time decorating once she'd moved in. The sole window in the apartment was ajar, letting the cold air permeate the room. Clancy moved away from the bed, instructing his assistant, and then turned to her.
The woman lying on the bed was naked, her body completely white, drained of any signs of life. Her auburn hair splayed around her head, her eyes closed, the strangest hint of a smile on her lips. Cassie took a deep breath and moves closer, her eyes roaming over the corpse. No signs of a struggle or any lacerations... except for the woman's inner thigh, where there are two oddly placed puncture wounds. The exact same ones they'd found on the other two female victims.
"Her name's Vivianne Woods. It's the same perp," Clancy told her. "Same time of death, same exact marks on her thigh. Exsanguinated. Not a single drop of blood left. No fingerprints, hair or semen."
Cassie nodded, scanning the body and the room again. "Brunette, living alone. I'll have to check if the neighbors saw them come in last night."
Clancy shook his head. "None of them saw or heard anyone come in or leave either. Said they were sleeping. He moved in and out like a ghost."
How right he was. The last victims had been the same. So far, they had little evidence, and no leads whatsoever, except for the puncture marks. Cassie had reason to believe the victims knew their murderer, which was why there was no sign of forced entry or a struggle. Maybe he had sedated them. It was clear there was a sexual aspect to this. Did he have sex with his victims before or after he killed them? Cassie's mind churned with millions of unanswered questions.
She needed to get a cup of coffee. Where the hell was her senior Detective Samson? It was totally unlike him to be so conspicuously absent from this crime scene, especially since this was predominantly his case.
"Excuse me, Detective?" a male voice asked. Cassie whirled around, finding a very attractive, dark-haired man in plain clothes standing with a pad of paper in his hand, a camera weighing heavily around his neck.
"Who let you in here?" she demanded, grabbing his arm to steer him away from Vivianne's body. "You're going to taint our crime scene."
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