Chapter 6. The Mailman

Murder is an art. One can't help but murder any more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing.

|~| The Mailman.

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Kory stepped out of her car and into the blistering cold. It was snowing again and the streets were covered in a thick layer of white. Getting home was war. Hell she almost wished she had just crashed at HQ. But as she looked at the door of her slightly worn down apartment building, she smiled in relief.

It was a busy day at work and she threw in some overtime because dammit they were getting somewhere on the case. They finally figured out the connection between the victims, how he got his victims. Problem was, in all of the messages they accessed, he seemed to have been stalking the victims before making contact through the website. So the question remained, did he pick them from the site or stalk them even before seeing them on the site? Although logically the latter seemed the least likely, she was leaning toward it. He knew things about the vics from their pasts that he wouldn't have gotten from eves dropping on conversations since the vic started using the app. But she'd keep an open mind.

She was so lost in thought that she almost didn't notice Missy seated on the steps just beside her door as usual.

"Oh hey Missy. How're you doing?" She asked as she searched for her keys in her pockets. She found it and pushed it into the lock, twisted two times, then pushed the door open.

"I've been better" Missy replied.

"They at it again?" Kory asked even though she could hear the shouting from upstairs. Missy lived with her less than perfect parents who fought more than they breathed and completely neglected her. Sometimes they'd forget they had a daughter for weeks and she'd stay with Kory and just go to school from there. More often than not, Kory payed her fees and took care of all the things she'd need for school. Missy was a beautiful red haired fourteen years old with cute freckles dusted around her face and a little button nose and the prettiest blue eyes which were always hard. She was an independent girl who was more adult than kid. She didn't rely on anyone because if even her parents wouldn't be there for her, who would? Though Kory tried her best to show her that she always would.

"When are they not?" Missy asked with the typical teenager eye roll.

"Let's go in and get something to eat. Sorry I'm late, got caught up in a case" Kory said as she walked in and closed the door behind Missy who walked in after her.

"Are you gonna tell me about it or are you gonna claim I'm too young and I'll just have to go Google it again?" Missy asked. Kory sighed and opened the fridge. There was frozen Mac and cheese which she took out and put in the microwave. She set the timer then sat on the chair by the counter facing Missy.

"It's the Queens case" Kory said simply. Missy smiled one of her ultra rare genuine smiles.

"Omg I'm so proud of you. You finally got the case after those Douchebag feds stole it then bungled the whole thing. Bump it" she held out a fist which Kory reluctantly bumped hers to.

"I'd tell you no swearing but I feel like we're way past that now" Kory said.

"Hey, glad we're on the same page" Missy smirked.

"So aren't you going to set up a murder board at home? You usually do that" she said casually.

"Missy, it's one thing to tell you about the cases I'm working on. But I'm not gonna have you looking at a crime scene photo of how some psycho cut up an innocent woman"

"But.." "..no buts Missy" they stared eachother down, then laughed at Kory's poor joke.

"Fine fine. I know you think there are still stuff I can't handle.." "not can't, Missy" Kory interrupted softly "...shouldn't have to" just then the microwave dinged and she got up and took the food out. She didn't bother to dish it. Afterall, they were both too lazy to do dishes. She took the Microwavable disposable plate and dropped it on the counter between them. She stuffed two spoons into it and got herself a bottle of beer and a glass of orange juice for Missy. Voilà, dinner.

"You never let me have the good stuff" Missy complained with a fake pout refering to the beer.

"Because I'm the adult and all that stuff. Let's eat I'm starving. Haven't eaten all day" they ate and spoke about Missy's day at school which was spent putting the mean girls in their place. And learning lots of art. Despite her tough exterior due to the circumstances she grew up in, Missy was an artist at heart. And for some unfathomable reason, although she would never admit it to a soul alive apart from Kory, she loved school.

"Ok it's getting late. You're gonna go to bed and I'm gonna stay awhile and go over my case files and my report" Kory said, already anticipating the argument.

"No fair. You just got back. Don't I get time to hang out with my favourite human?" She asked with fake pity eyes.

"You mean Shaggy, Velma and the gang?" Kory asked dryly.

"You know me so well" Missy said with a smirk.

"Seriously Missy. It's eleven pm already. You have school tomorrow" Kory said. Missy rolled her eyes and sighed exaggeratedly.

"Fine. Good night" Missy said and walked down the short hall and into the spare bedroom they both called her room at this point.

True to her words, Kory closed herself in her room and threw herself into her case files and the ones from the other cases in which 'The mailman' which was what the public had apparently dubbed their serial killer, was a person of interest. After confirming without a doubt that the cases were connected, the commander threw his weight around a bit. He couldn't get the detectives and Lieutenants on the cases to just give them to Kory so he suggested they be added to Kory's team with her and Agent Douchebag still the primary and secondary respectively.

She didn't realize she was sleepy until she dozed off. She slipped from alertness into the darkness of sleep. And the horror of nightmares.

She was surrounded by six bodies. She could see they were the six victims of The mailman. They were all shouting at once.

"He killed us and you did nothing but stay and watch it happen!" Merry screamed.

"If you had just paid attention to my call, you would've caught him by now and this wouldn't have happened!" Queens screamed.

"If you hadn't let those damn feds take the case from you, you would've solved the murder in the beginning and we wouldn't be dead!" Mona screamed.

"I'm sorry! I'll do better!" She pleaded. Suddenly she was surrounded by all of them. All the people she had stood for as a cop. All the db's she had seen. The ones that were solved and the ones that became cold. All of them were chanting "Justice! We want Justice!"

"Kory goddammit please wake up!" It was the drop of moisture on her arm and the voice that finally woke her up.

"Missy?" She said. Missy sighed, wiped her tears and hugged Kory.

"You..... you were shaking again. And grabbing the sheets and screaming and I was so scared" Missy's voice was thick as if she was fighting back tears. Kory hugged her to herself.

"I'm sorry. It was just a dream" she said that to convince not just Missy but herself too.

"I don't wanna sleep alone" Missy said. That was her way of making sure Kory didn't sleep alone and still retain her womanly pride. Kory smiled and patted the space on the bed next to her. She cleared her files off and Missy got under the covers beside her.

"Thanks" Kory whispered as she slipped back into a dreamless slumber.

*******************

Kory stepped out of her car and took a deep breath. The cold didn't much register to her even though she wore a thick coat, hat, gloves and boots. Her mind was not entirely on the case as expected. No. She was thinking about coke. She hadn't been able to get a bottle on her way to work because she woke up late and had to drop Missy off at school and by the time she turned to go to work she was already late.

She strolled through her bullpen like a zombie and one of her detectives had to call her thrice before she heard him.

"Oh sorry. What's up Kendal?" She asked and stopped to let him catch up.

"You know that profile you gave me for that case I was consulting on?" He asked. They slowly started walking toward her office which was at the end of the hallway.

"The wife frame up case?" She asked.

He nodded. "You were right. History of neglect right down to when she was born and her parents forgot her in the hospital for three weeks" he said. That reminded her of Missy and she sighed.

"Good I guess. You back to working homicide now or are you still consulting for the Home Crises division?" She asked.

"Definitely homicide. I'd take a DB any day over whining wives and abusive husbands" he said. She smiled dryly.

"Anyone with sense would. Take it from me Kendal, dead trumps living any day" he laughed.

"Thanks LT"

She nodded and strolled to her office. On a second thought, she turned around and addressed her bullpen.

"I know I'm crap at remembering stuff but I could've sworn today's someone's birthday" everyone stopped what they were doing and began looking at one another.

"Mendez!" Macy screamed and everyone cheered and screamed "Happy birthday". Mendez received a lot of pats on the back that were slightly more painful than tradition demanded.

"I guess now we have to sing and stuff" Kory said. Everyone cheered, then began singing the birthday song in horrible unsynchronized voices with the occasional burst of laughter in between.

***************

He heard the noise even before he reached her bullpen but he was still surprised to see all the twelve detectives and officers in Hannagan's bullpen singing happy birthday merrily. He stayed in the shadows, where he preferred to be and smiled as he watched them all sing and cheer on their friend and colleague.

He could imagine they lived for little moments like these. Being a homicide detective couldn't have been easy, he knew from experience. Seeing dead bodies everyday, wading through the world's filthiest, seeing the heinous things man could do to his fellow man. It could burn a person out. It could bring someone down, suck all the light from their lives until all they were left with was darkness. So little moments of light like these were highly treasured. He tried to imagine the cops at the bureau spontaneously singing and almost laughed out loud. They were much too serious for that.

He found himself wishing, just for a split second, that he could join them. But he waited for them to finish and when they did, he walked in and went straight to Hannagan's office. She never locked it so he just strode in.

She was standing beside her desk. She had taken off her coat, gloves and hat so she was just in a beige coloured figure hugging shirt and washed jeans with her knee high boots and a black scarf. She had a look of orgasmic bliss on her face as she sipped from a bottle of Coca Cola.

"Good morning" he said. She choked on her drink and began coughing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you" he said, surprised that he could in the first place. The woman got so distracted by Coke he sometimes got worried.

"It's ok. My fault" she said, still coughing. He stood by the door awkwardly. He wasn't sure if he should pat her back or leave until she organised herself. He was saved from making the decision when Lieutenant Dover walked in behind him. He gave him space so he could attend to his partner and friend.

"Jeeze K, what happened?" He asked as he patted her back.

"Coke went down the wrong way. I'll be fine" she said and cleared her throat. The coughing spree was finally over.

"Ok so I came to update you but since you're both here I'll just suggest we go to the conference room and update everyone at once" Dover said. He looked at both of them in turn for their opinion. The look he gave Carter strengthened his belief that the guy didn't like him. He looked at Hannagan and the look melted to pure unadulterated love. He wasn't sure if the love was platonic or something more but he wasn't going to attempt to get between that. Sure he could take Dover if he was spoiling for a fight but he preferred to think that his fighting days were long behind him and if he was throwing a punch, it would be to a criminal that deserved it.

"Yeah let's go. I thought of a new angle that I wanted us to try" Hannagan said. She looked to Carter for confirmation and he nodded.

They walked out together although he walked a few paces behind them. They were talking about something private, he could see that and tried to give them as much space as possible.

His phone rang and he sighed in relief and escused himself.

"Agent Cross" he said simply.

"Cross. I've done it again" Carter immediately rushed down the hall and into the conference room. He knew who was calling even though the voice was robotic. He hooked his phone to the board at the front of the conference room and signalled to Dover who frowned but rushed toward him. He put his hand over the speaker.

"It's The Mailman. Begin a trace now!" He said. Dover nodded and ran to his fellow tech geeks. Carter took his hand off the speaker of his phone.

"What have you done?" He asked even though he knew.

"You know what I've done Cross. I told you I'd do it too. You were too slow to get me. Now she's dead and it's all your fault" Carter fought hard to keep his cool.

"Who's dead?" He asked. Everyone in the room was quiet except for the tech geeks who worked hard to trace the number and get the location of the caller. They could all hear the creepy robotic voice that couldn't hide the manic glee in the killer's voice.

"Should I tell you? Or maybe I shouldn't" he knew from experience that the man was talking to himself and didn't try to answer.

"Maybe I won't" the voice said thoughtfully.

"If you didn't want to tell me you wouldn't have called" Carter said calmly. Inside, his heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Keep him talking, we're almost there!" Dover said. Kory stood beside Carter, watching his face intently.

"You're right. Jolene Parker. Location and the rest is up to you. Tick tock Cross. Don't be too late for this one" and then the line went dead.

"Did you get a location? Dammit! Did you?" Carter screamed in the most show of emotion he had ever let these people see.

"No! Fucking bastard was bouncing our signal from tower to tower! We tried to..." But Carter didn't wait to listen to the rest of what Dover had to say. He dashed out of the room with Hannagan on his tail.

"Where are you going?! We don't even know where she lives!" She said as she caught up with him.

"She's still alive Hannagan! She's still alive, just at the brink of death. We need to find her!" He screamed. Everyone jumped out of their way as they ran, full speed. They forfitted the elevator and began jumping down the stairs.

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"Because he has been doing that to me since his first kill after Queens" he said simply. He was jumping so fast that Hannagan found it hard to keep up. They reached the garage and when Hannagan started for her car he pulled her toward his.

"Mine's faster" he said simply. She nodded and ran with him. They reached his car and using his remote, he unlocked it and they both slid in. She was making a call as he sped out.

She put it on speaker and Dover's voice came through. He gave them directions as Carter sped through the streets of Chicago, leaving unhappy road users in his wake. All he could think about was the fact that it would kill him if this one didn't make it too. If they didn't make it in time and she died. It would be his fault dammit!

They reached the apartment where Jolene Parker lived and he killed the engine and flew out. He heard the door to the passenger side slam and he pressed his remote to lock the car even as he ran. Hannagan ran beside him. They rushed past the receptionist who was screaming about privacy and confidentiality. He didn't listen.

Up the stairs they went to the second floor, last room to their right if Dover was to be believed. Since they had plenty probable cause, he kicked the door down without bothering to knock. He walked into the living room and saw they were too late even before they reached the body. She wasn't breathing. The knife was stabbed into her back with the normal letter. This one read;

A little variation, I know. But this was just for you, Cross.

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xoxo,

Mimi.