Page 34 of Watch Me

“She hasn’t been dead that long then,” I informed her. “Wait until you have one that’s a week old.”

Shawn leaned over. “Don’t puke on the body.”

Reagan snorted. “Not planning on it.”

“Stay close and don’t touch anything,” I instructed. “After you get a quick look around, you’ll need to go back to the car.”

“Got it,” shereplied.

Just like Amy’s crime scene, everything seemed in order except for the blood-soaked couch. Reagan went back to the cruiser while I looked for anything out of place. Whoever this guy was, he had serious angerissues.

I moved to look at the pictures on the fireplace when Shawn walked up to me. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Same guy as Amy’s?”

“Yeah.”

I was about to respond when something on the fireplace caught my eye. It was a wood plaque in the shape of a heart with a name on it. “What’s the vic’s name?” Iasked.

“Daisy. Daisy Witt.”

I pointed to the wood carving.

“Yeah?” Shawn questioned me. “You can get those made at—”

“I know where you can get them, but Amy had one of these on the wall at her apartment.”

“Really?” Shawn questioned. “Maybe they went to the same fair or amusement park?”

“Maybe, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. There was no blood on it or anything, so it wasn’t put into evidence.” I fished a glove from my pocket and used it loosely to pick up the plaque that was leaning against the back wall of the chimney and turned it over. A #9 was written in black marker on the back. “If this is connected, do you think this means Daisy’s the ninth vic and we’re dealing with a serial killer?”

“We need to speak with Heather again. Check out the plaque you saw there,” he responded. “Maybe she knows where it came from.”

This could be the break we needed. If we were dealing with a serial killer, then we’d have more to go on and databases to scour looking for any similarMOs.

“Detectives,” a crime techcalled.

“Yeah?” Iturned.

“You two need to see this.”

Shawn and I followed her back and into a bedroom. Every form of sex toy imaginable was on the bed next to an empty vodka bottle that looked to be smudged with blood on the neck of thebottle.

Before Shawn and I left, we interviewed the roommate who had called it in. She had no idea who would have done this to Daisy and wasn’t much help except to establish atimeline.

I drove Shawn back to the station and then drove Reagan home to drop her off before heading back to work on the case. “Thank you for taking me tonight,” Reagan beamed as we walked inside herapartment.

“So, you think you can handle it?” I asked as I closed the door behind me. It was her first dead body, and I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to sleepalone.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me lightly. “Yes. The dead body was creepy at first, but I think it will get easier as you mentioned before.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“I’ll be the low man on the totem pole.”

“Only for a few years until you can get your degree.”

“Tru—” She dropped her hands from my neck as she stared pastme.