Chapter 2

It's been 3 days and we still haven't been able to find whatever that was used to kill Katy.

Her autopsy reports came in the following day after the murder, and just as I guessed, it was a sharp tool used to kill her.

She had died at 8.30 that night. The burns on her fingertips were from a cigarette, like all the others. And that officially proved we were dealing with the same killer from 12 years ago.

There was no sign of sexual assault, and the scrapes were a result of her clash with the killer. But still there was no DNA of his on her body.

Her makeup was smudged. Her nails were wiped clean. No fingerprints. No shoeprints.

Just nothing.

All the blood in the scene was hers.

"Did you meet Ned?" I asked Max beside me.

"Apparently he's out of town. His grandma died on the day of the party, and he had left right away. At least that is what James had to say."

"So he doesn't know about Katy?"

"He does. But he was not able to come because of the funeral."

"What did James have to say when you questioned him?"

"He had texted Katy asking her to get there soon because it was her boyfriend's party after all. They had planned some surprise. But because of everything that happened, it was forgotten."

"Is that all you got?"

"James Anderson. 25 years old. Best friends with Katy. Has known her since kindergarten. Lives a few kilometers away from Katy's apartment. Was at the party since 6.30 in the evening."

"What about Ned?"

"Ned Thomas. 25 years old. Katy's boyfriend. Has been dating her for 3 years. Lives with his parents in Tribeca, NYC. Grandma died on the day of the party, so he left before Katy could even get there."

Maybe it's just me, but if I knew that my girlfriend was murdered, I would've rushed…

But why was she killed?

Thinking back on the past cases, there was nothing odd about Stacy either. She was a single mom living in Greenpoint with her daughter, and her files showed she was a diligent worker. She worked at a bar and had left after her shift ended at 7.

She was killed the same night in her house after being stabbed with a kitchen knife and died at 9 p.m.

Fortunately, her 10 year old daughter was away at the time and was staying at a friend's place.

It was the friend's mom who called in the police after discovering Stacy the following morning, surrounded in a pool of blood.

She had gone to drop Stacy's daughter at home after their sleepover the previous night.

The case reports also say that the neighbors hadn't seen or heard anything suspicious at the time. There were no signs of a forced entry and no evidence for sexual assault.

Her autopsy reports revealed excess bleeding as the cause for her death, and the gory pink circles on her fingertips added her case to the others that happened the previous year in 2008.

There was nothing much to work with back then, and the cases had been left aside for 12 long years.

But now, with new ones resurfacing similar to the past, I wonder what made the killer stop?

Did he suddenly know we were re-investigating the cases? But there's no way that information would've been leaked out. Even the press had been blocked from any information about our team….

Lost in my thoughts and sleep deprived, I suddenly jumped for the ping on my phone.

'Do you want to get dinner together?'

Just that one sentence was enough to put a smile on my face.

'Sure baby. Where are we going?'

Charlie and I have been engaged for almost 3 years now. We had been dating since I was 18 and he was 21. But a year before that we were just friends. He was with me during one of the hardest times in my life and helped me get through it.

Honestly, if it weren't for him, I would've given up on life a long time ago.

When my dad died, I felt as if my whole world came crashing down. My dad and I were a team, and we stuck by each other ever since mom left us.

Even though he was busy working in the force and hardly had time to spend at home, he still made sure to make time for me. And when he died, I was not sure of what I had to do anymore and what I was living for.

But that was when I met Charlie.

'Wherever you want. I'll pick you up. Drop me a message once you're done.'

Okay :) I love you

I love you too <3

"Susan! Susan! Pick up the phone, Susan!" yelled Dave from his table.

"WHAT?" I asked annoyed at the caller.

"Susan, is that you?"

"Yes Mike. Now what do you want?"

"Well, excuse me for ringing at the wrong time! But we got a call-in report from a person in Brooklyn. She claims to have found an axe stuck deep into a tree at the local playground"

"Well Mike FYI, we have a crazy murderer on the loose and I have no time for a stupid axe on a tree. And shouldn't you be reporting this to someone else and not the cold case team?"

"I would've but the axe has blood on it and it was found in the same neighborhood Katy was living in."

"What! Why didn't you say that at the beginning?"

"I was going to—"

I cut him off by slamming the phone.

"Max we got to go Brooklyn, Katy's neighborhood. An axe with blood was found. Dave?"

"Get there and report on what you find. I will ring up the forensic team and have them there right away."

Just then, the phone on Dave's desk started ringing. Three rings and he picked it up. Like always.

He once told me that back when he was just a rookie, he used to pick up the phone as soon as it rang and every time he did; it was bad news.

"That was Harry. Ned seems to have returned for Katy's funeral. Try to meet up with him and get a statement before it's too late," said Dave.

"Harry? You have someone following Ned?"

"Por supuesto. The first suspect in a murder case is always a boyfriend or a husband or someone else close to the victim…"

Well, I couldn't argue. It was almost a fact in many cases.

In a cold case we solved a few months ago, seven people in a house were murdered brutally by the eldest son in the family. He had stabbed them several times in their rooms and arranged the corpses as if they were sleeping with a blanket covering their body, but their eyes were left open.

What was quite odd in the entire case was his signature of turning the body to face a mirror, as if it was watching its reflection.

The bodies were discovered by the lady next door who had just moved in and decided to give out pies to her new neighbors.

I felt sorry for the poor women who must've had dreams of starting fresh only to walk into a house with dead people!

While working on cases, we had come across all sorts of weird signatures of murderers. But this one was such a sick thing to do, especially because it was the murderer's own family and not strangers.

After that case, I wasn't able to look at a mirror without being triggered by the images I saw in the case files.

Sometimes for people on the outside, cops may seem like steel, but I know how each one of us ends up changing after every case we solve. It affects us more than anyone else, especially being the ones at the frontline.

I wonder how this case will end up turning our lives around…

"What did you mean by funeral? Are you talking about Katy's funeral?"

"SÍ."

"So soon?"

"Katy's parents want to be done with it today. We've got her autopsy reports too. So they don't think there's any reason to delay. But make sure you drop by there, Niña. See if you can find anything more on Katy. She's our only lead for now."

"Was Jay able to dig up anything on her?"

"Her laptop was clear. There was nothing much except for some movies and assignments. She didn't have a credit card and there wasn't much money in her bank account either".

"What about her phone?"

"He's working on it."

"Dave…why do you think he's started again?"

"No lo sé Niña. I don't know. But… there is something you need to know about this case." He traced a line on the paperwork in front of him and avoided my stare.

"What?"

"It's related to your papá …Jeff…But first you need to get going. We'll talk later."

My heart dropped. He was being serious.