THE MIND OF A MONSTER

CHAPTER 2- The Second Murder

Tina's body had been taken for autopsy.

Dolores believed she must have been killed before her body was tampered with like that.

And also, they needed to know if there were any hand prints on Tina's body.

Rachael had been eager to know the results.

They had been to Tina's residence again, to question her neighbours but none of their testimonies were helping.

" Tina Maxwell was a lovely woman. She really loved kids and never missed an opportunity to treat them to cookies and wonderful stories."

" She never had children, nor even a lover but she was really nice."

" Everything changed a week ago. She started avoiding anyone, barely went out. The only thing she did was scream at odd hours, laugh like a maniac at the store. One time, she just stood out in the rain."

" She was probably mentally sick before she died. Tina acted so unlike herself."

Those were the only words they kept hearing from her neighbours.

None of them knew about her background, family, job, nothing.

According to them,Tina never had visitors but she always went out in the morning and returned before eight pm.

It baffled Dolores and Rachael how someone could live a life like that.

Presently, they were in the Sergeant's office, being yelled at.

" How could you have been so clumsy?" He yelled angrily, throwing a stack of papers across the room.

" We're really sorry sir. We hadn't anticipated for such twist of events. We'll be more careful next time."Dolores said, bowing.

" Well that's the thing Dolores...." The Sergeant said, suddenly calm as he walked toward Dolores, his big figure towering over her despite her 165cm height.

".... You're a freaking cop Dolores, you're to expect anything, anytime, even while you're asleep." He said, staring down at her.

'It wasn't our fault dickhead!' Rachael badly wanted to scream that out loud, pointing at the Sergeant's scarred face.

She felt he was unnecessarily being too hard on them despite their hard work.

It wasn't their fault someone had put off the police alarm and called them to Tina's flat.

It wasn't their fault they had met Tina's dead body.

Why wasn't this man understanding this?

Nevertheless, Rachael still promised herself to look into Tina's death. She felt like there was more than met the eye.

While they were still in the Sergeant's office, the police alarm went off.

Dolores and Rachael exchanged glances before simultaneously looking at the Sergeant.

His once angry scowled face had melted into something frightful.

The three officers just stared at the blarring alarm phone, like it was some disease.

Summoning courage, Rachael reached for the the alarm phone and picked it up.

Her hands were shaky but she managed to sound confident.

" Hello?"

Dolores and the sergeant gesticulated for her to put the phone on speaker.

" There has been a murder at block 68, Arch street." The masked voice said before hanging up.

" What was that?" The Sergeant asked no one in particular, shaking nervously.

Dolores would have laughed loudly right now at the Sergeant and call him a coward, if the situation were different.

" There has been a murder at block 68,Arch street." Rachael absentmindedly said.

" But how...." The Sergeant suddenly lost his words.

" We should investigate this." Rachael suddenly said, looking determined to get to the root of these deaths.

" Y.....y....Yeah....Of course." Dolores who seemed cut off guard said.

They saluted the sergeant before leaving the station.

On their way to Arch street, Rachael got even more anxious.

She couldn't believe there has been another death while they were still investigating the disastrous one on their table.

Unlike Tina's house, this one wasn't Crowded.

In fact, there was only one occupant in the whole compound. This only made their investigation easier.

They both rushed inside the house.

Again, there was blood stain on the door knob and the door wasn't shut.

Dolores and Rachael exchanged glances and brought out their guns before kicking the door open.

" Hands up!" Dolores said loudly, barging into the house.

Rachael followed suit.

Once they were fully in the house, they split up to search the house.

Well, their search wasn't for long though.

Dolores found a dead body on the couch in the living room.

" What the fuck?!" She yelled, attracting Rachael's attention.

Rachael hurried over to where Dolores was.

" Oh God." She covered her mouth in shock, staring at the dead body.

Just like Tina, her genitals had been tampered with, parts of her body were scrapped off.

And her face had been peeled off too.

" What in the actual fuck?" Dolores cussed silently.

" I'll get medic on their way. You know what to do." Dolores said, stepping away from the body.

Rachael gulped down nothing, irritated by the site before her.

She was surprised at how she had she had taken staring at such horror the first time, but now couldn't even look at it keeping a straight face.

Rachael's shaky hands got to work, searching for the camera in the yellow bag.

She put on her gloves and started taking pictures.

She moved closer to the body to properly take a picture of the face of the victim. 

Something suddenly caught her attention.

There was an inscription on the victim's neck.

Just as she was about to touch it, the door flung open with Dolores coming in.

" Don't tell me you're actually sniffing that." Dolores said, scrunching her nose in disgust.

" Fine, I won't." Rachael said with a straight face while Dolores just rolled her eyes.

Once again, they were in the car, on their way back to the station.

While Dolores was happy Sergeant Luke would be less mad at her, Rachael's mind kept going back to both dead bodies she had seen in the space of just three days.

She kept imagining how the victims would struggle with their killers while they had their bodies disintegrated into shit.

" You don't think this is a serial murder,do you?"Rachael asked as Dolores stopped the car.

" Why? Because they both got killed in the same fashion? Unbelievable." Dolores said, trying to get out of the car.

" They were killed in the exact same fashion. Why shouldn't it be believable to you that we're dealing with a serial killer?" Rachael asked, anger seeping into her voice.

She found it vexing that Dolores didn't seem interested in her perspective.

" How many deaths does it take before it became serial Killing?" Dolores suddenly ask, letting go of the door lock.

" What?" Rachael was taken aback.

" Answer the question."

" Five?"

" And how many people have died?"

" Two." Rachael answered, her shoulders dropping.

" Wait, you're not actually waiting for more people to die, are you?" Rachael asked Dolores.

" Listen kid, you're new here. You have no idea how difficult it is to come by cases like this in such a boring town. Just because two people died, having the same injuries doesn't count. Until there's actual evidence about a serial killer, this remains a fucking coincidence, you hear me! I'm the bitch in charge of this case, not you. Stay where you belong and you might just save your head." Dolores warned before leaving the car, slamming it shut.

Rachael was taken aback by Dolores' outburst.

" Well, I guess I'll have to work on my own now." Rachael said, staring at the camera,flashes of her mother's dead body flooding her head.