Getting to know the prey

The way he took control of the situation was both relieving and worrying. The man had some serious control issues, I watched as he drove slowly through the snowy streets. He drove for about five minutes into a new neighborhood. The houses were all two stories, brick and mortar homes with chimneys blowing smoke from lit fires and double garages. He drove around to the circle and pulled into the driveway of a grey brick house. The right-side garage opened, and he pulled the car into it cutting the engine and closing the garage door behind us.

  "Welcome to my home. It's not as cozy as yours but it is home." He said unbuckling his seatbelt and opening his door. I followed suit getting out of the car too. I took my shoes off at the back door before following him into his house. The garage opened to a large butler's pantry there was a counter with his coffee maker and mugs waiting to be used and on the other side was a pantry with lots of canned goods. We entered into his kitchen, the large kitchen had all stainless-steel appliances and grey and white marble countertops. The walls were also a grey stone there was an island in the center with a large single sink and the bottoms of the counters was grey painted wood. The fixtures were all muted silver and functional, it was a beautiful kitchen.

The dining room had a simple dark wood table with chairs and sat in front of a large window and a chandelier that hung above the table. The living room was large with a grey stone fireplace, firewood was ready to go inside the fireplace and refill wood was stacked next to it. there was a front foyer area and a set of stairs to the right. The whole downstairs was light brown wood floors there was a large tv and grey couch in the living room. A carpet was spread out in front of the tv it was a shaggy grey carpet that was thick. I followed Nick to a room on the opposite side of the fireplace on the ground floor, the master bedroom was large with a fireplace of its own.

He had a king size bed, the oak sleigh styled bed was topped with a dark blue comforter and pillowcases. Nick was standing in front of me looking down at me with a lascivious look on his face his hands were busy unbuttoning his own shirt, "You want to take a shower first? Warm up in the bath?" he asked with that husky voice.

I nodded at him watching his hands as they moved effortlessly down the front of his shirt, his muscles flexing as he removed the shirt from his body. I watched as he placed his handcuffs on the edge of the dresser and undid his belt pulling it from the loops in a smooth movement. I knew my face was probably red, I turned towards the bathroom and darted off to start the shower.

I started the water and checked the temperature; I felt his hand travel down my back and then he brought it back up under my shirt pulling it over my head. I felt my bra unhook and let it fall to the floor. His warm hands groped me and sent a shiver racing through me. the shower was not going to get anyone clean this time. His lips found my neck and I curled my toes in anticipation for what was coming next.

It was a short shower, I ended up bent over the side of his bed taking his full force. I was thankful that I had birth control since this was second time we hooked up and had not used any protection, the sun slowly set as we entertained each other. I was laying in the bed wearing one of his shirts and my underwear just staring up at the ceiling, my mind replaying the events of the night and my body buzzing lightly from the pleasure.

"You hungry?" Nick asked as he kissed my hip, his hands massaging my legs

"Mmm, yeah." I said right as my stomach growled. "Sorry, my stomach has no sense of decency." I said embarrassed. I heard Nick chuckle as he got up and held his hand out to me. I took it and followed him to the kitchen. I sat at the bar and watched as he cooked up some chicken. He placed the cooked pasta into a pan and cut up the hot chicken threw some parmesan and Alfredo sauce on top and threw it in the oven then he cut up a lettuce and made a whole salad.

"You want a beer or something?" he asked.

"No, I don't drink. Do you have tea?"

"Texas sweet or Louisiana sweet?" he asked. I laughed at his references

"Louisiana Sweet." I said. Nick poured the tea into a glass and then handed it to me on the bar. "So, Nick, tell me about this place. Its decorated way too nice for a man to have done it." I giggled as I waved at his house.

"Yeah, no I would not have decorated this house. When I bought this house, it was supposed to be a wedding present for my wife, but she left me for my best friend a few months before the wedding. But I really liked the house, so I kept it as my bachelor pad. Then my mom took it on herself to come and decorate my house like it was her own. She wants to paint the walls too, but I like the grey color, so I got her to do the grey color theme." He said as he checked the food.

"Oh, I didn't know that you were engaged before. What happened? If you don't mind me prying if not you can just say pass." I said taking a drink of the sweet tea

"Twenty questions?" he asked.

"Sure."

"Then you already got one so now it's my turn." He said looking at me I smiled and nodded. "Any men in your past?" he asked.

"No, I never really got into relationships, I had a fling in college that lasted about a year, but I was too busy with the café and studying to have a serious relationship." That was part of the truth, the real truth is I was only interested in a few men, and they were all dead now. I had gotten laid before, but I never considered getting into any relationships, there was no point in a relationship. I knew better than to get involved too deeply with anyone, they would either end up dead or I would end up incarcerated.

Nick placed the plate in front of me with the chicken alfredo and handed me a fork. "Any more questions?" he asked sitting next to me at the bar.

"hmm, what was your ex-girlfriends name?"

"Samantha Taylor." He said looking down, "Why did you choose to move here?"

"I like the town; it has a picture like vibe. where is your ex now?"

"You really want to know all about my ex?"

"It's my question not yours, plus I am just trying to get to know you and part of you is the past you and then there is the present you and then there will be a future you. my questions will evolve once I get the answers I want." I said looking at him with a smile.

"Well, if that is what you are after let me just tell you. Samantha was my girl in high school and some of college, once I became a cop I asked her to marry me. but she had been seeing my best friend and broke up with me. she never really gave me a reason and I can never get one now. The year that I became a detective, after spending two years as a patrolman, that's when the executioner became an active serial killer. Sam became one of the executioners victims. She is the fifth victim. There was a whole different crew on the case prior to Sam's death. After they found her body they called me to let me know that she was a victim, I begged to work the case. Leadership told me I was unable to work the executioners case because I knew a victim.

"After the sixth and seventh bodies dropped I had gathered so much information on the Executioner on my off time that the higher ups didn't have a choice but to let me in on the case. Sam and Jay were both troubled people as it was, they were into drugs, and I had pretty much given up on helping them. Jay was behind bars for armed robbery when Sam was killed. I had to tell him in jail. That was hard, but he deserved to know. Sam was doing Meth and other hard drugs; she had been selling herself to pay bills. I don't know where I went wrong, she was a good person when we were together had a good job at the bank and then one day she started hanging with Jay and they just went down a bad road. And that is how I came to work on the Executioners case, and how I lost the woman that was supposed to be my wife to drugs and the Executioner."

"Wow, that's really sad. I am really sorry that you had to suffer through that." I said rubbing his back. I knew who Samantha Taylor was, she was my fifth victim, she had scars in her arms and her hair was falling out. A hit had come over the site for her, she had brought a little girl about twelve years old to the crack house and forced her to get high then she pimped that little girl out to a bunch of men. All the evidence was stacked against her. She was a sick, diseased dog and I put her down. the little girl was killed by one of those men and someone out there wanted the people responsible to pay. I hadn't been able to get to Jay since he has been in prison for other crimes, but he was just as guilty for the little girl's death in my eyes and one day I would add him to my collection of dogs put down.

"What hidden talents do you have?" he asked changing the subject.

"I actually went to school for business management so I could own the café, but I also have a degree in natural sciences and if I really wanted to, I could work at the coroner's office, but I never went through the like forty hours of residency to complete the medical portion. I think I could work with a coroner but not actually do autopsies until I finish the residency. And I have some IT skills too I helped my friend study for her Net+ certificate and we took the test together, but they require continuing education, so I never did that but at one point I was certified to work on networks, routers and what not." I said proudly displaying everything he would need to ask me for insight on his tricky cases. Honestly I could put myself into the case if I really wanted to, but I wanted him to ask me, I have a complex too.

"Wow, I didn't know any of that about you. you're a complete mystery." He said taking the two empty plates around to the sink on the other side of the island

"Yeah, I'm a jack of all trades! But I chose the café because it seemed like the right place for me. So, do you have any suspects that could be the Executioner?"

"Uh, I can't talk about the ongoing case." He said looking up from the sink a serious look on his face. "Why would you be interested in that case anyways?"

"Mmm, I guess since I hear a lot about it in the café, I was interested in what the lead detective would have to think about what some of my customers say about the case. Plus, it looks like the police and even the FBI have hit a brick wall with the case. Sometimes when you vent about things you find that in your ranting you come to a new conclusion or find a clue you didn't know you had to begin with. Like when I heard Karen talking to Julie she said, 'I heard its two killers, and they are having a war.' Or something like that." I said imitating the all-serious Karen.

Nick chuckled at my impression of Karen, "Yeah, we have heard that too, but I don't get that impression at all."

"What do you mean?"

"At first we thought the sloppy job was caused by an interruption but, it was clear when the second body was found that this was a different person. The Executioner drains all the blood from the bodies, that takes a few days at least, the copycat makes a bloody mess out of the bodies. The Executioner carves the body right at each joint, the copycat cuts through the bones like a barbarian. We believe the Executioner may be a doctor, the copycat is just some psycho trying to get the real executioners attention with all the bodies. But we can use that strategy to catch the executioner and the copycat, the executioner is bound to get pissed at the clear sloppy work of the copycat and that will make him mess up, we will swoop in and take them both out in one fell swoop."

"No offense but I don't think your plan will work." I said looking up at him.

"What do you mean?"

"The executioner doesn't seem like one to fall to the pride game you are playing. If anything, you should be looking for the copycat, my bet is that the executioner will put off all other killing until they find the copycat. The next body the executioner will drop will be the copycats. That's the only way for you to catch them both, honestly I am willing to bet that the executioner is already working on his plan to get the copycat off the streets as it is."

"It almost sounds like you know something the cops don't." his eyes narrowed at me, and I smiled back to him.

"Nah, it's just what I would do if I were in your position." I said not acting but with knowing if I can turn his attention on the copycat I will be able to kill that fucker.