Wednesday 14 May

Lieutenant Ostand showed his shield to the young officer guarding the crime scene, then clipped it, visible, to his suit lapel. He took a set of latex gloves and surgical foot coverings from the supply at the taped-off barrier and donned them before ducking under and continuing towards the body. Extraordinary procedures like these were used to preserve forensic evidence only on the most highly visible and important cases.

This one qualified.

"Andy, Phil," he greeted the two detectives that were on site already. "Tell me this is all a mistake."

"Sorry, Loo," replied Andy. "No mistake. This is number eight. It's the same M.O. as your guy. Crime scene's identical. Genitals gone, internal organs gone, body naked, no real signs of a struggle, no incisions except at the ... uh ... crotch."

Ostand winced. "The Deputy Mayor," he said softly, shaking his head. "The fucking Deputy Mayor is vic number eight. As soon as the press gets hold of this, the whole thing's gonna come out. And what do we have for suspects? Nothing."

Tuesday 13 May

He had sworn to himself he wouldn't ever visit the park again.

Then he swore to himself he would only stay for a minute.

Then he swore he wouldn't sit down at the benches nearest the swing sets.

But ... oh, they were lovely. Little girls, six, seven, eight years old. So pure, so fresh. He couldn't help himself. Even if someone recognized him, really, what was the harm? He wasn't doing anything wrong.

So when he noticed one of the most lovely little visions off a bit, by herself, it really wasn't much of a stretch for him to go over and see if she needed some help, or something. And she was so compliant, so ... obedient, when he suggested that maybe they could go into the woods a bit farther, where it wasn't so noisy.

And it was like his every fantasy come true. She was willing to do what he wanted. She was almost eager, such a sexy young thing! So small, but so keen to please a man. She didn't say anything, but she seemed to sense exactly what he wanted her to do, and she didn't resist at all when he guided her mouth towards his unzipped crotch.

It was only after a few moments that he realized he was having a little trouble drawing deep breaths, and by then the anesthetic had spread enough that he couldn't do much more than make soft gasping sounds in nearly mute terror as his body parts were devoured.

Friday 9 May

"And most of you know Lieutenant Tom Ostand, who will be heading the task force. I have great confidence in Tom, and many of you remember his excellent work on previous serial killer cases. Tom, you want to walk everyone through what we have so far?"

"Thank you, Chief." Ostand stood and placed the first transparency on the overhead projector. "There have been seven murders in the past two weeks. Each victim was male, with ages ranging from early thirties to late sixties. The locations of the bodies has been plotted on this map. Each victim was found with specific, identical body mutilations. In each case, the genitals, both testicles and penis, were removed with near surgical precision. There are incisions that extend into the lower abdominal cavity, penetrating the peritoneum. The contents of the entire abdominal cavity are missing."