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locked her computer and picked up a stack of papers from her desk. We walked into the meeting room, where Tanya began to hand out the information sheets on the latest victim. Lieutenant Boyd was waiting at the front of the room, leaning against the desk with his arms folded across his broad chest and his foot tapping impatiently. Since the third body showed up, he’d personally taken the lead on the case. The fact we had almost nothing to show for our investigations was driving him nuts. He waited until the tiny room was packed, with the last few stragglers having to stand against the back wall, and the door closed, before straightening up.
“Right, let’s get started,” he said, and the quiet murmurs filling the room died down. A color photo of the late pastor prior to his untimely meeting with our killer flashed onto the screen behind the lieutenant. “Around two a.m. this morning, Robert Pearson became our perp’s fifth victim. As you’ll see from the information sheets given to you, our killer’s evolving. He’s now keeping his victims alive to torture them.”
He paused to pace across the front of the room. “We’re getting a lot of heat from above to solve this case, and fast. There’s already talk of bringing in the FBI.”
I clenched my fists. Murmurs of disapproval sounded throughout the room. Calling in the feds was just another way of saying we had failed. I wasn’t about to let that happen if I could help it, not on my first big case since being promoted to detective.
“All right, settle down. I don’t want the feds in on this any more than you guys, but that’s out of our hands. We need a lead, something to go on. Any ideas?”
Tanya’s hand shot into the air. After receiving a nod from the lieutenant, she stood to address the room. She explained our theory that the killer might be after suspected pedophiles, in particular those who had so far managed to evade the law, since not one of them had any prior offenses.
“That’s only two out of five accounted for,” the lieutenant replied. “I think we need to take another look at our other vics, see if any of them were ever suspected of pedophilia or child abuse.” He began to assign officers to look into each of the victim’s pasts. “Grissom. Beckman. I want you two to head down to the church where Pearson worked. See what you can find out from the people there. Anyone else have any ideas?”
“I got one,” Fernando said from across the room where he stood against the wall. He smirked at me as my eyes caught his. “He always cuts their junk, right? Seems to me like he’s trying to say something, you know? Deliver a message.”
I gritted my teeth, preparing myself for what was about to come. From the glint in his eyes and the sneer across his face, I already knew he was about to take another jab at me.
“The second victim was gay, right? Maybe he’s punishing gays for their sins.”
Tanya was on her feet in a flash. “Oh, you’ve got some nerve, boy.”
The lieutenant held his index finger up to Tanya, silencing her before she could go on another of her rants. He turned his eyes to Fernando. “You have any evidence to support this theory? One victim being gay doesn’t make it a pattern, and we’ve already looked into this before. We found no evidence from their family members suggesting any of the other vics were gay, or even bi.”
“Yeah, well, if it were one of my family that was gay, I wouldn’t be telling anyone about it, you know?” He shrugged. “Never mind. It was just a thought.”
“Thoughts without any evidence to back them up aren’t going to get us very far,” I ground out.
“Okay, that’s enough.” The lieutenant said, raising his voice. “Grissom, Beckman, you’ve got places to be. So let’s get on it, people.” With that, he left the room, followed shortly after by everyone else.
Tanya winced. “That could have gone better.”
I cast a final look in Fernando’s direction, only to find him smirking at