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The body was located in the park behind Rainier. The work lights and activity of the crime scene units created an oasis of commotion amid the darkness. Jim and Blair pulled up behind the coroner's wagon and parked the truck. Jim turned to Blair and asked, "I guess there would be no point in asking you to wait in the truck, Chief?

"No, Jim, I'll at least come part of the way with you. You know what might happen if you concentrate your senses on examining the body you could zone. I'll be all right, don't worry."

"Whatever you say. There's Simon, with the M.E., in front of that storage shed. Jeff Abrahms, the captain of forensics, just walked over to them. Maybe he can give us a preliminary report." As they got out of the truck and started to walk up the low hill toward Simon and the other men, Jim kept a cautious eye on Blair and wished for the thousandth time that he didn't have to involve him in this side of police work.

"What do we have?" Jim asked, as they drew near. The doctor handed Jim a clipboard. As he gave him a quick summary of his findings, Jim leafed through the preliminary reports.

"Young woman, early twenties. From all indications, I'd guess that she's been dead less than six hours."

"From the appearance of the scene the victim apparently wasn't killed here. There is very little blood." Captain Abrahms said.

"Who found the body?" Blair asked.

"Park security," Simon answered. "They patrol the park 24-7. This place used to be a haven for drug deals and prostitution. Security has been beefed up and the grounds patrolled at night with dogs. One of the security guards was making his rounds in this area when the dog started barking and ran up to the building. The guard followed and found the padlock had been broken. When he went into the building he found the body and called it in. According to him, she had to have been placed in the storage shed sometime between 10:00 P.M and midnight. When he made his rounds at 10:00 the padlock was secure. He found her when he made his midnight rounds."

"Was the cause of death multiple stab wounds?" Blair asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Yes, and she was also disemboweled, just liked the others." The M.E. replied. "I can't tell you anything else at this point."

Blair shuddered. "Any idea who she was?"

"Yes, her personal effects were left beside her. Her driver's license and her student ID were in her purse. She was also a co-ed at Rainier. Her name was Margaret Simpson," Simon answered.

"I'm going to pack up now," said the M.E. "I'll give you a full report ASAP."

"Any chance you could have the preliminary reports today? " Jim asked.

"I'll get on it as soon as I get back to the lab; I should have something later this afternoon."

"I'd like to go over the body before you move it," Jim said.

"I'll be waiting in the van. Just give me the nod when you're done."

Jim finished reading the notes the investigating officers had made about the scene and their report from the security guard. He handed the clipboard back to Simon. "OK, let's have a look," he said, turning toward the building where the body had been found.

The storage building was large. Inside was a riding lawn mower and other gardening and maintenance tools used by the groundskeepers. The doors had apparently been fastened by a large padlock and chain. The murderer had cut the chain to gain entry.

Jim paused in the doorway and turned to Blair. "You don't have to do this, Chief." Blair looked at Jim and was touched by the look of love and concern he saw on Jim's face.

"No, it will be all right. I can do this. I want to be with you in case you need me. I just won't look at the body."

"OK, but if you feel you can't take it I want you to promise me that you'll go outside. I don't want you to try to stick out on my account."

"I promise," Blair replied.

"OK, Chief," Jim said, putting his arm around Blair's shoulders and giving him a quick hug. "Let's get this over with."

The body lay in the middle of the room covered with a coroner's blanket. Jim went over, lifted the blanket and took a second to let a feeling of sorrow pass through him. He looked at the woman closely opening up his senses to see if he could detect anything unusual, anything that might give him some clue as to who the perpetrator might be. He was quiet for so long that Blair began to worry. Jim felt Blair place his hand on his arm and heard him quietly whisper, "Jim, you okay?"

Shaking his head, Jim glanced over at Blair. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't understand how could anyone do something this horrible?"

"I don't know, Chief, I just don't know. I see rope fibers on her wrists and ankles, she was tied up with what looks like a hemp rope."

"Hmmmm," he mumbled to himself.

"What, Jim?" Blair asked.

"I see something that looks like a pinprick on the bottom of her foot."

"What does that mean?" Blair asked.

"It may mean that she was drugged. Or it could mean she was an addict. Sometimes drug addicts inject themselves between their toes or on the soles of their feet so the marks don't show. When we get the M.E. report we'll know if she has any drugs in her system. Come on, let's go talk to the officers that arrived on the scene. And if that Security Guard is still here, I'd like to ask him a few question."

As he and Jim left the building Blair asked, "Then what?"

"Then," answered Jim, "we go back to the station and begin going through the files on all the victims until you have to go to the U."

"That sounds like fun," Blair said wryly.

"Yeah, but right now it's all we have."

"I know," Blair responded. "I just wish there were something more that we could be doing to catch this monster."

Jim's drew in a deep breath, then exhaled it slowly and deliberately. "Oh, we'll catch him," Jim said, "I can promise you that."

As he and Blair approached the two uniformed officers, Jim repeated to himself, "I can promise you we will catch him."

*~*~*~*

Jim and Blair got to the station at 5:00 A.M. They read each of the victims files carefully looking for any clue as to the identity of the killer. While Jim read the forensics report on each of the victims, and the reports of the officers that arrived on the scenes of the murders, Blair went over the missing person reports filed by the victims' families. At 8:00, time for Blair to leave for his first class, the only thing they had found that each of the victims had in common was the fact they were all students at Rainier.

"I just don't know if it means anything," Blair said as he rubbed his eyes. "With the U. being so close by most of the women in that age group are going to be students there."

"I know, Chief, but right now it's the only lead we have."

"I'll ask some questions today; talk to some of the kids and instructors see if I come up with anything."

"I'm going to talk to the families of the other victims see if they have any further information. Maybe I can come up with something there. I'll come by your office about one and we'll have lunch."

Just then the phone on Jim's desk rang and he picked it up.

"Ellison"

"Detective Ellison this is Sharon Maxwell."

"Yes, Ms. Maxwell, what can I do for you?"

"Well you said to call if I thought of anything else."

"Yes, Ms Maxwell, did you remember something," Jim asked anxiously.

"Well, I don't know how important this is and now it seems silly to have called."

"Ms. Maxwell, please feel free to say anything no matter how unimportant it might seem. You might be surprised at how seemingly insignificant things can lead to a major break in a case."

"Well the day Mary disappeared..." she broke off. "I'm sorry I have to learn to face it. The day Mary disappeared she got a large bouquet of flowers. There was no note just a playing card, the jack of hearts. We were puzzled by it. We couldn't think of anyone that would have sent such a thing. We decided it must have been a mix up at the florist."

"Do you still have the card Ms Maxwell," Jim asked

"Yes, I do. That's why I called; I just found it."

"I would like to come by and pick it up, if that's okay. I doubt the lab could get anything off it now but we can try."

"So you think it's important?"

"I don't know, but we definitely want to follow up every lead. If you're going to be home I'll come right over and pick it up, I can be there in about half an hour."

"Yes, I plan on being here all day."

"What is it, Jim," Blair asked as they headed for the elevator.

"That was Sharon Maxwell, she remembered something. It seems the day Mary disappeared she got a bouquet of flowers with a playing card attached, the jack of hearts. I'm going to go over to pick it up. I doubt we'll get any prints off it now but I'm going to check it out. Come on, the U's on the way, I'll drop you off."

Jim dropped Blair off at his office and drove to Glen Wood apartments. Sharon Maxwell answered the door as soon as he knocked.

"Come in, Detective Ellison. I was going through Mary's papers on the desk looking for her address book. I thought there would be some people who would like to get together for a memorial service. I know the body won't be released for a while, but I thought her friends would like to get together and say goodbye. I found this," she said as she handed Jim the card. "Mary was going to call the florist to see if she could find out who sent the flowers. She never got the chance," she finished sobbing quietly.

Jim took the card and small envelope holding it by its edges to keep from adding his own prints to those already on them. The flowers had been delivered from "Westside Florist" there was nothing inside the envelope except the playing card. He looked closely at the card. He could detect several different prints. But he had no way of knowing if any of them belonged to the killer.

"Thank you, I'll take this to the lab and see if they can come up with anything. We may need to get your prints for elimination"

"Detective Ellison, is there any word? Do you have any idea who could have done this?"

"We're working on it. We're following up on every lead we get. We hope to have a suspect in custody before long," Jim said trying to reassure her.

He put the card in a plastic evidence bag and sealed it.

*~*~*~*

Jim used his cell phone to call Rafe. He told him about the card and asked that Rafe and H question the families and friends of the other victims to see if they had also received flowers and cards, and if they had to find out what florists had delivered them. He informed Rafe that he was going by the lab to drop off the card and envelope that he had gotten from Sharon Maxwell, on the off chance that there were useable prints. While he waited for Rafe to call him back with any results, he planned to go to the Westside Florist to see if he could get any information on who had sent the bouquet to Mary Hughes.

*~*~*~*

Jim questioned the florist and her assistant but neither of them remembered the name of the man who ordered them, only that he was about average height and weight appeared to be about thirty and had sandy colored hair. He had paid for the order in cash and left.

As Jim was on his way to the University to have lunch with Blair, Rafe called.

"Jim, I just left the Cramer's. Their daughter Julie was the second victim. Mrs. Cramer said she didn't remember until I mentioned it but Julie had told her that she had received a large bouquet of flowers the day before she died. Julie told her mother that there wasn't a regular florist card with the flowers but a playing card, the jack of hearts. Mrs. Cramer had picked up her daughter's things from her dorm room and she let me go through them. I found the card the flowers were from Bentley's Florist and Nursery. H and I are on our way now to see if we can get a clue as to who sent them."

"Thanks, Rafe," Jim responded. "Just keep me posted if you find out anything."

*~*~*~*

When Jim got to the university he found Blair in his office.

"Hi, I brought food," Jim said as he sat the bag down on Blair's desk.

"Wonder Burgers are not food, Jim."

"Those are not Wonder Burgers, Chief, I brought salads and ice tea. I didn't want to spend the entire lunch having you lecture me about my eating habits."

"Any leads?" Blair asked as he began eating.

"Well, something has turned up but I don't know what it means. We have found that another victim received a bouquet of flowers with a jack of hearts playing card attached. Different florist, though. Rafe and H are checking it out now. I hope they come up with more than I did when I questioned the florist that delivered the flowers to Mary Hughes."

"They don't have any records of who sent them?"

"None, the guy paid in cash. The only thing the florist or her assistant remember about him was that he was around thirty, average height and build with sandy colored hair. There are only a few hundred men that description could fit."

"So where do you go from here?"

"We're going to question the other families see if we can find out anything from them. But I think it will turn out that every one of the victims received the flowers and cards."

"That's really strange Jim. You know psychologically speaking... now don't give me that look, I really wasn't going to give you a lecture."

"Yeah, right!"

"As I was saying, psychologically speaking it sounds like in this guys mind he is courting them before he kills them. I'm starting to wonder if he has tried to date the victims and they have turned him down. Maybe he has a worshipped-them-from-afar thing going and build up a fantasy around them, and when they didn't play along he killed them."

"But according to the friends and families of the other victims, none of the women have been stalked or received threatening phone calls. The only thing they seem to have in common is being students here at Rainier and getting the flowers and cards."

"It doesn't have to go down that way, Jim. They don't have to be stalked or receiving harassing phone calls. He could have been building the fantasy up in his mind and didn't decide to try and play it out until he actually kidnapped the victims."

"You're the psych major Chief, I'll take your word for it. Did you get any info here?"

"No, nothing except everyone I talked to was very upset by the murders, the co-eds especially. Which is understandable. The usual warnings came out in the student paper and were posted to the bulletin board. Never go anywhere alone, travel in groups, if you notice anything suspicious call campus security, if you have any information regarding the murders contact the police; that sort of thing. But no one I talked to so far had any real idea who might have been the killer or even remembered anything unusual about the victims.

Well I better get back to work. The fall semester starts in a couple of weeks and I need to get my course outlines up to date plus get my syllabuses in for all my classes. Man, those should have been turned in last week. It looks like it is going to be a late night."

'Okay, Chief, I'll leave you to it. I've got to get busy myself. No matter how late it is, you call me and I'll come by to pick you up. I don't want you out waiting for a cab or bus."

"Hey, Jim, in case you haven't noticed I'm not a co-ed."

"Yeah, I noticed, but humor me on this okay?"

"Okay, man, whatever you say," Blair replied kissing Jim goodbye. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Call me."

*~*~*~*

Just as Blair was packing up his notes from his last class he was approached by one of his students, Jenny Stone.

"Mr. Sandburg, would you mind walking me to my car? I know how paranoid that sounds but I live off campus and after everything that has happened I'm really nervous about walking through the parking lot after dark. Besides I would like to talk to you about something."

"Of course I will, Jenny. What do you need to talk about?" he asked as they left the classroom.

"Well, I know that you work with the police and I've thought of something. I really didn't want to come forward with it, but the more I thought about it the more worried I got. You see, I was a friend of Patsy Shields', she was the first girl that was killed. She told me something in confidence and I sort of hated to say anything. Besides that I would be causing a lot of trouble for a member of the faculty. And, really I can't see him doing something as horrible as these killings."

"What is it, Jenny? If you know something that could shed some light on who's doing this, then the police need to know."

"Like I said, I really don't think he did it. But I thought I would tell you and then maybe if you thought it was important you could tell the police."

"Why don't you just tell me what's bothering you and then we'll take it from there."

"Patsy was seeing a member of the faculty, you know, romantically. He's married. She got pregnant and she was real upset. Said she couldn't afford an abortion and she was really afraid to tell him; afraid that he was going to be really angry."

"Were those her exact words, Jenny, that she was afraid to tell him?"

"Yeah, I mean she was really worried. Would you talk to the police, Mr. Sandburg? Would you tell them what I said? I'd really rather not get involved."

"I'll talk to them but they will probably want to ask you some questions."

"Okay, if I have to talk to them I guess I can. But I mean my name doesn't have to be in the papers or anything does it?"

"I'm sure the police will do everything they can to keep your name out of the press but you could be called on to testify in court."

"I never thought about that. I'm going to have to think about this."

"Jenny, you need to tell me the guy's name," Blair said as they reached her car. "You could be charged with withholding evidence in a murder investigation. Beside that what if he is the killer, and another girl dies because you didn't come forward?"

"Okay, she was seeing Professor Goldberg in the English Department."

"Thank you. I'm going to call the police now and let them know what you've told me."

When Jenny drove off Blair started walking back to Hargrove Hall. As he looked around he noticed how poorly lit the student parking lot was. He made a mental note to talk to the dean about getting more lights installed. Before he was half way across the parking lot someone grabbed him from behind and he felt a pinprick in his arm. Before he lost consciousness he looked back and realized he recognized his attacker.

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