It was early, to early, she had hoped to sleep in a little but the call from the dispatcher shot that idea down. Yawning she rolled out of her bed and shuffled to the bathroom, thinking a shower would help wake her up. Twenty minutes later she walked into her kitchen, dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, the sun was just starting to rise. It’s yellow rays peaking in thru the half closed blinds, running a hand thru her hair she opened her fridgerator door and leaned down to pull a can of iced coffee out, turning she shut the door with her foot. She grabbed her keys from where she had last thrown them after coming home last night, and headed to her car.
The city was just waking up as she drove to the scene; the few people up were driving to work and every few minutes she would see a yellow school bus driving down a street going to pick kids up. At a stop light Kate opened her drink and took a long drink, lowering the can from her face something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was one of the many posters people put up for missing persons. She recognized the face. Sara Woods, seventeen years old, brown hair, brown eyes. Dead. Her body was found last week among several others left in a dumpster. Kate stared at the picture of the smiling girl, a week ago she was among the students going to school this morning, then the Collector found her.
The light turned green and Kate hit the gas a little to hard causing her car to speed thru the intersection. She arrived at the scene a minute later, the entrance to a park, which happen to be across the street from, a high school, already there were several dozen cops around the perimeter keeping the public away, the Crime Scene guys had set up dividers around what she assumed was the body, hiding it from any outsiders. She stepped out of her car, placing her badge on her belt and her gun on her hip she headed towards the yellow tape that gently swayed the faint morning breeze. “Harris..” a CSI named Frank nodded to her as she ducked under the tape, “Morning, is it another one?” she asked, already guessing the answer. Another girl had gone missing, and had yet to turn up, Frank looked to the ground and nodded, “Damn bastard is crazy,” he said, slowly walking towards where the body was.
She was expecting a body. Or body parts. Not this… this morbid display of what seemed to be a sick obsession. The girl was cut up, all the sections where neatly wrapped in butcher paper with a thin ribbon holding it together, she noted that the ribbon was red. He had arranged the “packages” in a crud shaped heart, the girls head being at the top. Inside the heart were the words ‘my love’ painted in a dark red. “It’s blood,” Frank said looking over her shoulder.
“Her blood,” Kate replied, taking her eyes from the image, she looked around the area he had left the girl, her eyes went to the high school across the street, there were several students watching what they were doing, while others moved on past and into the building. She thought back to the letter that had arrived at the Station a few days back, he had said he had found her. They didn’t have a clue who “she” was, all they had was a name. Annabelle. And living the the south, Annabelle was a common name. But he spoke of his Annabelle. That's what puzzled her. Who was “his Annebelle”?