Little Murders

"This brings the number to 11." said a very somber looking Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor as he stood over the dead girl's body along Canal Street in the Manyunk secrtion of the city....

Several police officers stood with him.....It was evening....It was just starting to get dark....He shook his head and moved to the side as CSI personell snapped photos...and searched for shells...

His wife, Forensic Investigator and Medical Examiner, Dr. Hazel Hunter-Baylor examined the body of the young woman....

"She was shot twice with a .357 magnum, judging by the size of the entry and exit...." said Hazel...

His partner , Detective Angela Belton-Barlow shook her head...

"But there is no blood splatter...A gunshot wound like this would cause a big mess in addition to the hole and there would be blood everywhere..." said Angie...

''Does that mean she was killed elsewhere and brought here?" asked Lt. Sissy Van Buren, who had called me out to this scene.....I'm Assistant District Attorney, Keith Wallace...I prosecute Major Crimes...These are some of the detectives I work closely with....The Criminal Investigation Division of the Philadelphia Police Department...

"I'm no detective...But what Angie says bares merit....This girl was killed somewhere else and dropped here...back here where there is no Street Camera or Business or ATM Camera....The perfect dumping ground..."I said.

"The officers and the CSI people just told me that they haven't found any shell casings either...Just like the others..." said Angie..

"This girl is 23 year old Angela Robinson...She's from Mt. Airy....Damn, so young...." said Duke...

''Duke, you said this brings the total to 11, What are you talking about?" asked Sissy...

"There have been 10 other unsolved murders in the past month....All of young girls...Aged 18-23 like this one...six were African -American, Three were Latina and one was white....They all were snatched from the area they lived in and dumped in some neighborhood far from where they lived and where no one knew them...And before you ask Siss..No they didn't know each other...Angie and I checked their families, close friends...Co-workers, Students...They had no one in common....We ran down their financials...paths didn't seem to cross.." said a frustrated Duke...

"I've been reading the 20's though...Some of those girls were strangled...Some were shot with a .38 , Another with a .45 and now this girl with a .357 mag , which is a pretty big gun to be using on a petite thing like this... They don't seem to be related..."I said.

"We didn't think so either...We were investigating them all seperately, but all were raped....Every last one of them." said Angie..

"Some of them had traces of spermicide in them, meaning the killer used a condom....others didn't..I'm checking now to see if we have a DNA match... He kissed them, because there is slurred lipstick and make up on some of them and there is saliva on their breasts and hopefully I can pull fingerprints off the skin...It's just that I've got 10, now 11 bodies in as many weeks..." said Hazel...

"Okay you guys keep working....Don't talk to the press, don't give anybody any idea that this may be a serial killer...If it is...It's the damndest thing...Most Serial Killers work in patterns and this is anything but a pattern..."said Sissy...

''We are done here...Release the body.." said Duke.

They packed the body of the dead girl up and put her in a body bag and carted her to the M.E.'s van...

"I'll contact Next of Kin..." said Angie...

II-

A playground in the Mt. Airy section of the city was the scene of the next murder, two nights later...When Sissy and I arrived on the scene...I saw my wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace and six uniformed officers, with Flashlights and Blood hounds searching the area..

Carlotta saw us and walked toward us and kissed me softly....sensually....

"Hi Honey Bunny....Hated to call you out here so late when you were so close to getting off.." she said.

"What we got Chica?" asked Sissy...

"She's 21, A sophmore in college.. Looks like she was sexually assaulted...Panties torn, bra nearly ripped off..Makeup smeared...Blouse torn...."said Carlotta..

''Cause of death?" I asked..

"Manual Strangulation.....Which brings this to 6..." said her partner, Detective Tyriq Pile...

"Six? ,What are you talking about?" asked Sissy...

"Siss, Five other girls have been sexually assaulted and strangled in this area in the past month or so..." said Jimmy....

"They didn't seem to be related...Me, Top and Jimmy  checked their families, close friends...Co-workers, Students they went to class with...They had no one in common....We ran down their financials...paths didn't seem to cross.. So we know they didn't know each other and they all lived in other areas of the city and wound up here or close...Always in the back streets and areas where there are no street, business or ATM cameras..."said Tyriq..

"They all had been raped....Panties and Bras nearly torn from them...and a large amount of semen in them...Well the first two anyway...."said Carlotta..

"The other three had spermicide in them, meaning a condom was used..."said Hazel...

"Duke and Angie have about 11 unsolved murders of young girls...Some were shot, others strangled...There is a presence of Spermicide in all of them...No semen, but Hazel says there may be saliva and a chance of pulling prints off of the girls bodies..."said Sissy..

"You think these cases are related?  Most Serial Killers kill in a pattern."said Carlotta....

"We don't want to use that word yet....but Duke and Angie couldn't find anything or anyone in any of their victims past and you three haven't found anything either and the common denominator is..All of these girls have been raped and taken from their perspective areas and dropped off far from where they live...That's the pattern...but this killer is unorganized....He strangles, and shoots with different guns..the fact that there are no shells tells me that whoever this killer is , he makes an effort to conceal himself.."said Sissy.

"Sissy , we are talking about a serious body count here..."I said.

"It's frightening to think about this...I don't want to say Serial Killer...but on the other hand....We have 17 unsolved Murders....Makes us look like we are slipping."said Sissy....

"With Lt. Tragg back...

That would be music to his ears..." said Tyriq..

"Is it true he started those Comstat meetings up again?" asked Carlotta...

"Yes...Everybody hates them.....He goes a little easy on me now of days.."said Sissy...

"If we hadn't of thrown him those Drug cases....He'd still be on the water..."said Jimmy...

"He made a fool of himself recently with that Eddie Queen prosecution..."I laughed... "Olivia Bennett-Alexander and her team actually solved the murder for him during the prelim...

He was pretty bummed out about that and he got an ear full from the Deputy of Operations..."I chuckled..

"I've done all I can do here....There is a lot of spermicide on the edge of the panties...Very greasy and saliva on the breasts....Bra ripped and panties ripped...Just like the others.." said Hazel..

Carlotta whispered to me..

"You ripped a pair of my panties off last week...Sure this isn't you?" she said and laughed....

"Nah, but I'd like to rip the pair you have on today, off right now....." I whispered and laughed...

"The funny thing is...You aren't kidding." whispered Carlotta to me...

"Okay guys..we can take the body.." said Hazel...

Once more we watched as a body of a young woman was loaded into a body bag and into a Medical Examiner vehicle..

III-

Three Nights later in South Philly, Detective Sirena Pile and her partner , Detective Tyriq Pile were looking at the bodies of three young women, all white , all 25 years old...

"Unbelievable....I can't believe it... A Triple..." said Sirena...

"These girls were killed somewhere else and dropped here..." said Hazel...

Sirena's partner, Detective Tony Hopkins walked up....

"Unis and CSI can't find a thing..No shells and there is very little blood... I'm inclined to believe that you're right Hazel..." he said..

"Lividity places two of these girls deaths at 24 hours ago.....This one here is fresh.It's still warm...These other two are stiff and cold...Rigor has set in..." said Hazel...

"Panties ripped...Bras practically torn off of these two...."said Sirena...

"Wow.....a lot of semen in all three of them and all over their clothing...It's practically running down this one's legs..."

Sissy and I drove up....

"What have you got Sirena?" asked Sissy...

"I'd like to say a Triple, but I've never seen anything like this...Two of these girls appear to have been dead for at least twenty four hours, Rigor has begun to set in while this one is fresh, the body is still warm.....They've been raped and shot..."said Sirena...

"Judging by the hole in those two..I'd say a .357 mag .."said Hop...

"This one....Whoooooo...a .38 and it's a fresh kill...body is still warm...."said Sirena...

"You ID them yet?" I asked..

"This one is from Cherry Hill....The other dead girl is from Mayfair and this one, the fresh body is from a few blocks away..." said Hop...

"Boss Lady...You think this is related to Lotta, My Husband and Jimmy's cases?? And Duke and Angie's?"asked Sissy...

"I don't know...Those were Black and Latina girls mostly..One was White...and younger than these three..who are all white....Some were strangled...Others were shot...None knew each other or each other's friends...And nobody can find anyone or any good reason why they were murdered.....I'll tell you what?  Work this case like it's a triple...I told the others to work their cases hard, individually until we find a connection.. Don't mention the word Serial Killer to anybody...because we don't know...All of these murders seem to be different...Serial Killers kill in patterns.."said Sissy..

"Okay..We'll work this like a Triple for now." said Sissy..

"I'll put a team on the Street,ATM,Traffic and Business Cameras."said Hop...

"Okay guys.. Pack them up.."said Hazel..

Duke had told me that she and her staff were working around the clock on all of the bodies and they were piling up....

If we did have a serial killer...He was very prolific....

"This is scary Sissy...I feel real bad about this.." I said.

"You and me both...and for more reasons than one.."said Sissy...

IV-

I knew trouble was coming and it didn't take long....I walked over to Headquarters , a week later to see how the investigations had been going...The Detectives, my wife included had been working around the clock...Interviewing people over and over again and searching credit card and debit card records, employee records, school records and trying to reconstruct 20 lives ,looking for a place where those lives intersected...

I was greeted by our FBI Liason...Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins..

"Hey Keith..Lotta is in the field..Boss Lady is just getting back from Comstat...She isn't too happy..."said Sharon..

"Oh? What happened?" I asked.

"You haven't seen the news have you?"

"No."I said.

"It's our old friend...Lt. Tragg...

"Apparently he's been reading the twenties and he has seen that we have an over-abundance of open murders right now...And I have to give it to him...He's pretty astute..He 's put two and two together and he is saying that a Serial Killer is on the loose and that he's targeting young women of all races and snatching them from different areas and dropping them in our streets...It's all over the news and he has asked the Deputy of Operations to convene a Special Murder Task Force..."said Sharon...

"WHAT???" I said....

Sissy walked out just then....

"That Bastard...Tragg...He brought this up at Comstat and grilled me mercillessly about the fact that we have 20 open murders..20 Unsolved...He said that it's obvious that we have a Serial Killer on the loose and yet we haven't said it...I wanted to shoot him...I didn't want this on TV or in the media.. He's such an asshole at times.."she said..She was so Angry, she was nearly in tears...

"At times??Let me make some calls .." I said.

"No Need For that!!!....I already took care of it...for now!" said Captain Ed Cantrell.. who was entering the building...

"What do you mean?" said Sissy...

"I called the District Attorney....He owes me a favor and then I called the Police Commissioner and the Chief of Detectives.. I told them about this unit's past history....Sissy, you got until the end of the month to close these cases....After that....Lt. Tragg takes over the investigation and appoints his Special Serial Killer Task Force....You don't want that and you know I don't want that...I have faith in you Siss and your guys...Don't let me down."said Captain Ed Cantrell..

Sissy hugged Capatin Cantrell...Her soft and curvy body was doing a number on him...I know it..

"Thank You so much...Thank You Captain.." she said..

"Lawd, If I wasn't Married....Whooooo!" he moaned....

"Close these cases Sissy...For all of our sakes.." he said as he left...

Sissy addressed her detectives as they returned from the street...

"Okay guys look....Pull every one of  the files on those murders you were telling me about...Duke and Angie...I want the case files on your 11, everything..

"Chica, Rico, Jimmy...I want the case files on your 6 victims...

And Sirena....you and Hop give me the case file on your triple...

We are going to the safehouse tonight and until we clear these cases...Whether it's a serial killer or individuals...I don't want those files in this office." she said.

"I'll pull my best people and meet you there Siss." said Sharon...

"Thank You..." said Sissy...

And So We all packed our bags and drove to our secret operating base....Known as "Copland.." The Government owned Apartment complex that doubled as a working base...Here we kept the press and prying eyes and ears away from our investigation...We hadn't compromised an investigation yet...

Sissy's husband, Eddie C. met us there ...He had food cooking...

"I like hanging out with you guys when you go underground.." he joked..

"Sometimes it's fun...I don't know about this time.."said Sissy...

"Aww...Lucky for you we like each other..."joked Angie..

Carlotta ,Sirena and Sharon were already playing cards with Tyriq, Hop and Jimmy...

While A weary Hazel was having her feet rubbed by her husband, Duke..

I rubbed my wife, Carlotta's shoulders as she played her hand..

V-

Meanwhile at a stylish bar....A 52 year old, Well dressed man with a beard was crying profusely while drinking his bear...A cute , pretty young woman sat next to him...

"Are you alright?" she asked..

He smiled slyly...

"Why yesssssssssssss.." he said.

(TO BE CONTINUED)