Murder by Numbers
Copyright© 2026 by Rycliff
Chapter 5
The Investigation had moved into its fourth month, there was not any new victims, and many believed the killings had finally stopped. The newspapers no longer carried it as a front page story, and it wasn’t the lead on the evening TV news any longer. The killer just appeared to have stopped and as long as there wasn’t anything new the murders were looking like they would go unsolved.
Mike received a phone call in the middle of the night it was from headquarters.
“Mike, the killer has done it again, we have another body, It looks like the same person, same MO and well maybe you ought to come down and have a look. Could you call Ms Jacobs and ask her to come as well? We might as well get this thing completed before the killer gets too far ahead of us.”
“That was an understatement if I’ve ever heard one Mike thought as he rolled over and tapped Andrea on the shoulder to wake her up.”
“who was that?” she asked sleepily.
“It was headquarters, our murderer has struck again.” as he said theirs he was already out of bed and getting dressed to get out the door.
Andrea was wide awake now. And was also gathering her clothes that were in a heap at the end of the bed. Mike and she had been working together for almost a month and ever since that afternoon at the restaurant with Christie, they had been dating, unofficially, Mike kept saying, at least until this evening, tonight was the first time he had admitted his real feelings for her, and she was overcome, she had come to feel very close to him and was also still feeling a little guilty about using Christie behind his back as bait, but in the month that they had been dating she, genuinely started to care for him, she wasn’t at “LOVE” yet, but she was no longer ruling it out either. She finally said “Look just because we had sex doesn’t change how we work. We are professionals and a team, we can not allow this to change how we act in public, so please let me drive myself to the crime scene it would look very improper to show up together at this time of night, well I guess it morning, but still, I would feel better about us if I drove alone.
Mike looked confused, but simply replied “Okay.”
So after he was ready to go he told her the address and told her to drive carefully. Andrea got into her car and started for the location, then she noticed the time 2:30 am.
She called the overnight supervisor and asked to be transferred to the agent in charge of guarding Christie Hammond. She was put through to him and she confirmed that Christie was ok and that there was nothing to report and all was normal. She hung up the phone and thanked God for small miracles. She was so afraid that the victim was going to be Christie, that she couldn’t trust herself to be in the car with Mike and not give away what she feared, She had hoped that there would be some positive results from her little experiment but as of yet there were only a few nibbles.
Christie had reported that she had gone out with Mr Drake a couple of times just innocent little things: a movie, a midnight run to a all night burger joint and the like, she even was taking the offensive and started to become physical with him, no sex or anything like that, she reported. Just a few passionate kisses and some whispered promises. Which of course leaves us right where we were, Andrea thought.
Mike arrived at the scene and was shocked. Here again horrific, gruesome, disfigured body. The 5 was as large as the girls entire torso, but there were some very different and subtle differences as well. The body was shaved but it appeared to be a hack job. Gone was the precise cuts of the body, the 5 was not detailed and for certain not cut by a professional. The blood was not cleaned up the site was dirty. The young girl was not especially pretty or even good looking for that matter, she appeared to have been a drug addict by looking at the needle tracks on her arms. This young girl definitely would not be a student in one of the local universities, or colleges.
Near the body was a large hatchet that appeared to be the murder weapon, and the butchers knife that was used to carve the numeral 5 was found in a trash can outside wrapped in some cloth and newspaper. This was obviously a copycat murder, trying to get some attention.
By the time Andrea arrived at the scene the body had been photographed and the murder weapons found, the coroner was taking possession of the body and Mike was completing his notes.
“What took you so long?” Mike finally asked after he gave her a complete run down if the scene, and told her that in his humble opinion, that it was a copycat case.
“I needed to think about us for a second.”
“Kind of a weird time to stop and think about romance.” Mike stated rather matter of factly.
“I know but I wanted to really think about how I feel before I say something out loud and make it official. Mike I am beginning to fall for you, but we haven’t spent that much time together, and I am afraid that something might stop us from being happy together.”
“What would that be?” Mike asked, genuinely intrigued by her line of thinking.
“We are both cops, before we are anything, we both enjoy being a cop. And usually that spells trouble for a relationship.” Andrea was unable to continue, she really felt trapped, she wanted to tell mike the truth she wanted to explain why she had convinced Christie to become bait, but she could not bring herself to do it, She knew it would forever ruin any chance she might have at having love.
“Well I could always retire after we solve this case.” Mike stated, not understanding what she was getting at, and ignoring the silence she was now giving, as a sign of hoping for an answer.
Darlene came home in the wee hours of the morning. Charles was in bed asleep with a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels on the nightstand. She was actually happy about that for a change. She got into the shower, and cranked up the hot water. She let the hot water cascade over her, enjoying its soothing effect. She vigorously shampooed her hair, nails digging into the scalp. She needed to cleanse herself, sanitizing her body and mind, and soul.
She especially needed to after this evening’s activity. This was her sanctuary; this is where she found her redemption. The shower would wash her sins away. She needed to take the stink off. She scrubbed her private regions vigorously, and then she rinsed the soap and shampoo off. She took the baby oil, and rubbed it into her body. This was a vain attempt to keep her looking younger. She looked older than the 42 she was and nature was not being kind to her, 50 was right around the corner, and she knew it.
Oh, how she hated Charles. She gave him everything, hoping for a family, only after fifteen years there was no baby. There would never be a baby; the doctors told her it was not his fault. His sperm count was fine, no the idiot doctors told her that the reason she was unable to conceive was due to scarring of the uterus. Which was probably caused from the trauma she endured throughout her childhood. So Charles became the object of all that she hated in men.
She began to treat him with indifference and stopped trying to be close to him emotionally. She figured the guy would just leave and find someone else. But the guy was worse than a stray puppy dog, he stayed. No matter what the abuse. He even tried to sell her on adoption, or taking in a foster child. That would never replace the emptiness of her barren womb. She agreed to adoption in the end. They found a baby too bring into their lives, only for it to die mysteriously. The doctors later told her it was SIDS. After that dark day, her life was never the same.
She knew he was screwing the girls in his classes, and that he went to other places to get his fix. His libido was still that of a much younger man. She hated that about him too; she had no libido, none. She did not care about sexual intercourse at all; she was never able to find the mystical G-spot that was so widely advertised as the answer to all women’s problems. No she figured that that was missing from her as well.
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