Hartley took out her badge and pressed it to her window so the officer could see it.Then she got out and asked to speak to Detective Nolan.
"Yeah, follow me," the officer said.He led them to the front of the building."Just wait here while I get him.You might want to prepare yourself before you go in there.It’s not pretty, and…you know."
"Oh, no!"Hartley gasped."Is there like blood and everything in there?"
The officer glared at her before entering the building alone.
Hartley turned to Alison with a horrified look on her face."Did I just say that?"she grimaced."I really tried to bite my tongue."
"I really hope there’s no blood," Alison said."I might faint."
Hartley laughed, but quickly stopped when the officer emerged with a suited man.
"Detective Nolan," he said, holding out his hand and shaking Hartley’s hand first before shaking Alison’s."Thank you both for coming.We’re all sure this is the same killer you’ve been dealing with, but we wanted to be sure.Nothing’s been touched yet, and we’d appreciate it if you could be quick in there so we can get the body down."
"Down?"Alison asked.
"Yeah," the detective said."Follow me."
He led them into the darkness, but as soon as they were inside, the small room brightened as their eyes adjusted.A door to their left was closed.A hallway led straight ahead of them.
"The Butcher," Detective Nolan announced as he led them into the hallway and down it."He was active five years ago.He strung up his victims by hooks and then cut them and let them bleed out.No connection butchery of any kind, no connection to the victims, nothing to tell us why he did it."
"Nothing to tell you why he did it?"Alison asked."So, you caught him?"
"We did," Nolan confirmed."Three victims over a period of a few months.We managed to catch him after he’d abducted the fourth, but before he had the chance to harm them.He came willingly when he was caught, but didn't say a word to us about the murders after that.He would talk for hours about everything else, but not a word about why he did it.We knew it was him, but we never knew why."
They were led out of the hallway and into the large warehouse area.
The sight took Alison by surprise, but not in the way the officer outside might have envisioned.She was used to grizzly crime scenes, but every so often she encountered something different.
A dead body was hung from a large hook attached to a pulley system.The deceased wore a harness that had been attached to the hook, making it easy to hoist the body up.The head of the deceased hung forward, with the chin touching the chest.The arms hung limply to the sides of the torso, and the entire body swung ever so slightly back and forth.
The feet were bare.The feet were covered in blood.When Alison noticed that, her eyes immediately moved down to see the shoes and socks placed neatly to the side of the large pool of blood beneath the body.Then she looked back at the body.
"The dorsalis pedis artery was cut on both feet," Nolan said."At least, that’s what they tell me.Apparently, it’s a major artery on the top of the foot.If the killer is recreating the Butcher murders, then the victim was left to bleed out."
"Do we know who the victim is?"Hartley asked.
"No," the detective replied."We’ll lower the body once you’ve both taken a look, and then we can check for ID and get started on examining the body."
Alison stepped forward first.She got as close to the body as possible, where she could still see the face without craning her neck at an extreme angle.She looked up at them, likely another innocent victim chosen by their killer.
The one thing that differed from the three previous crime scenes was the lack of photos attached to or arranged around the body, but when she looked down at the large pool of blood and spotted what she thought was missing.The photos weren’t missing, but hidden.Alison couldn’t see any of the people in the photographs, but she could make out the square shapes in the blood.They would need to wait for the blood to be cleaned up before they knew who was blamed.
"It’s horrible," Nolan said, now by her side."The photographs were placed before he was cut.He was probably still alive when the killer placed the photograph on the floor, possibly conscious even.There’s no one around here for miles, so the victim could have screamed, and no one would have heard him."
Alison took one last look at the body, noting that both feet had been cut.She had no idea how long it would have taken for the man to pass out from his wounds.She took a step back and watched Hartley as she circled her body.There wasn’t a lot either of them could do other than confirm it was the same killer.That was, unless the photographs didn’t turn out to be of people from the original case.Alison doubted that.It was almost certain that the same killer was involved.
She looked over at Hartley as she came back around to the front of the body, avoiding stepping in any blood.
"Yeah, you can bring it down," Hartley said.
She and Alison stepped away from the body to give the forensic team room to work.The hardest part would be lowering the body, not into the pool of blood below.They were dealing with two halves of a crime scene that were best not to mix: the body and the bloody photographs.Detective Nolan joined them at a safe distance from the body and blood.
"What was the mistake?"Alison asked."In the original case, what mistakes were made?"
"I thought you might ask that based on what’s come before this," Nolan said."I went through the original case files myself this morning, and there are possibly some mistakes that I’ve missed or went over my head, but there was a pretty big mistake at the time."
