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Nick and Brian rode up to the seventh floor on the elevator. Service to the residents had been put on a momentary halt so the police could conduct there investigation. The elevator soon stopped on the seventh floor and Brian and Nick stepped off. Nicks eyes roamed over the area. He really wasn't sure what to expect. He had never been on a real crime scene before and this made him totally oblivious towards what he should expect.

Officers were walking in and out of the apartment where the crime had taken place. Nick quickly glanced over at Brian who was walking towards the apartment without so much of a slight bit of nervousness on his face. He'd obviously been to scenes like this one before Nick told himself. Brian walked straight into the apartment with Nick right behind him.

Nick let his eyes scan over the apartment. It was kind of small, but not to small for one or maybe two people to live in. Everything seemed untouched and in its proper place. Pictures were hung on the walls of the living room. Nick forced himself not to look at them. He wasn't sure if he would become upset if he looked at the people who had lost someone important to them so he kept walking, keeping a close distance behind him.

Brian stepped into the bedroom with Nick behind him. His eyes immediatly went to the body of the young woman. She couldn't have been much older than Nick, which would make her somewhere in her mid-twenties. Which in Nicks mind made her too young to die. He tried to remain calm even with the overwhelming smell of blood filling the room. The sheets of the bed were covered in blood. Her t-shirt was stained a dark red and she was naked from the waist down.

There was no way that things could get much more violent than this. Whoever did this was some sicko and Nick had a sinking feeling that he would strike again. Don't they always? It was only when they were caught that they stopped. That wasn't so in all cases. Nicks mind wandered to the decades old unsolved case of Jack the Ripper. He was never caught but his murders ended suddenly and no one was ever able to figure out why or who this guy actually was.

A modern day Jack the Ripper, that can't be possible, Nick told himself. The world had advanced so much since that time that whoever this guy was, he'd be caught. At least Nick thought so anyway. Though he couldn't think of any other notrious killer that was never caught, he was still somehow frightened by the murder. It's scary to think just how brutal some people are and how heartless and angry that they must have been to do anything like this.

"Definatly a rape," Brian said to Nick, "see, she has nothing on below her waist, that's a dead give away. Other times, its not so obvious. Either this guy was in a hurry to get out or he thought this would be somehow amusing to leave her like this."

"Who do you think did it? I mean does it fit the style of other cases?"

"No, this one is completely new. None of our other rape victims had anything in common with this case other than the obvious fact that they were rapped. I think we have a new rapist on our hands."

"Do you think this guy has a record?"

"Who knows? We could try and run DNA samples but they don't always work because if this guys was smart, he wore a condom so that we couldn't trace it back to him."

"And if we didn't we might have something, that is if he as a record."

"Exactly. It's all a guessing game at this point until we get some results back from the lab to see if this guy left any trace behind on the body and then we have to work from there."

"Officer Littrell," a voice came as an officer came walking into the room with urgency in his voice, "Detective Richardson said that you were in charge of this case so I thought that you might want to see this," he said handing Brian a piece of paper. Brian took the paper and opened it up.

"'Catch me if you can,
'Cause this game has just began
But can you figure it out before its too late
And another woman suffers the same fate
The futures in your hands
But can you handle it?'" Brian read aloud.

"So our rapist is a poet?" Nick asked not impressed by the rapists work.

"Or at least he's trying to be," Brian replied. Nick looked at him and nodded. At least they had one clue. It was more than what they had just seconds ago. "Where did you find this?" Brian asked.

"It was in the living room," he answered, "sitting on the coffee table."

"Was it there when you guys first came in?" Brian asked.

"I don't know sir," he answered, "we came straight to the bedroom to see if the victim was savable. We just started a complete comb of the apartment."

"Alright, get back to work," Brian replied looking back down at the piece of paper in his hand. Nick looked over at him, a little stunned about the letter.

"So what are we going to do about that?" Nick asked nodding his head towards the letter.

"Hold it as evidence. This guy thinks that this is all some sort of game," Brian told him as he folded the paper back up and placed it in his pocket. Nick stepped to the side at the parametics stepped into the room to remove the body. Nicks eyes remained on the form until it was completely removed from the room. He still couldn't believe what he had just seen. Nick had been positive that they weren't going to let him get out on the field right away and let him get involved with cases like this. I guess they figured that since he was with Brian that he would be able to handle it.

"What do we do now?" Nick asked as he turned his attention back to Brian and shook the thoughts of the lifeless body that he had just seen.

"We wait for the lab results," he said as he walked out of the bedroom. Nick quickly left the room. The smell of the blood was becoming way too much for him to take. When he stepped out of the room, he surpressed the urge to take a deep breath of the air that was around him. The walked down this time.

Nick was relieved to feel the cool night air on his skin when he stepped out of the building. It hurt him to see that girl dead. Killed in her own home. It made him think about his sisters and girlfriend. They could be hurt if they were ever home alone. He would never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to them.
"Carter," Brian said, snapping Nick from his thoughts, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said suddenly stepping back into reality.

"Come on, I could see by the look on your face that something was up," Brian told him, "I'm a cop, I'm supposed to know these things."

"I was just thinking about my sisters and girlfriend," he confessed.

"I understand," Brian replied, "I have a wife and it kills me to see this. You keep thinking that she could be next. I know what that's like. That's what went through my mind the first couple of times that I saw this, but nothing is going to happen to them. From time to time, I even have a car drive by my house just to make sure that everything's alright."

"There's never been a problem?" Nick asked.

"Nope. She's always been safe," he told him.

"I just don't want to see anything happen to them," he told Brian.

"And nothing will. A car can drive by there if you want them too just to be on the safe side you know," Brian replied, "but there's really nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right, I'm just a little paranoid."

"Hey it's alright man," he assured, "it just shows that you care."

"That and I'm over reacting," he replied.

"You'll learn how to deal with it don't worry."

"Yeah," Nick said softly, "so what are we going to do about this guy? I think he wants us to play his game."

"It's going to be a lot harder than that," he replied, "we're going to have to stay one step ahead of this guy at all times and that's really not possible since we don't know how this man is going to strike. Meaning we don't know what, if any, relationship there is between the victims or if he just choses them randomly."

"So what are we supposed to do to catch this guy?"

"Like I said, we have to wait for the lab results and if that doesn't give us anything then we're just going to have to wait until this guy makes some sort of mistake."

"Like what?"

"Like any number of things. We just have to wait for more clues. If the guys find any more at the scene, we'll be the first to know about it, don't worry about that. This is our case kid," he told Nick.

"I just can't believe that they're letting me work on a case like this," he confessed.

"Why not? I was able to take a look at you while you were in training, you looked like you knew what you were doing and was pretty damn good at it. I guess the big guy thought that you could handle it. I think you can."

"Yeah, I'm just going to keep an extra watch on my sisters and girlfriend I mean rather be safe than sorry right?"

"Exactly," Brian replied, "so here you go," Brian said stopping outside of Nicks house. Nick looked over at him really quick.

"Thanks for the ride," Nick said.

"Hey, it's no problem. I don't live too far from here myself," he replied.

"Alright so I'll see you in the morning alright?"

"Bright and early," he responded as Nick shut the door and started walking to the front door of his house. His girlfriend, Angela's, car was still in the driveway and the light was on. He smiled to himself, glad that she was alright. He knew that he was just letting things get to him, but still, a man has the right to worry.

"Hey baby," Nick said as he walked into the house.

"Hey how are you? How was your first day at work?" she asked giving him a peck on the cheek as he walked into the living room.

"It was okay I guess. I mean they gave me a big case already, my partner's kinda a big shot so he usually gets a lot of good cases," he told her.

"Well that's good, he probably has a lot to teach you," she replied.

"Yeah, he's a good guy."

"That's nice. So what's this 'big case' that you have huh?"

"It's a murder/rape victim. The guy left a note at the scene. It was kind of freaky," he told her as he looked up into her eyes. He was so glad that she was alright.

"Wow, was it really bad?"

"Yeah, she was shot. There was so much blood all over. The worst thing is, I kept thinking that something like that might happen to you. I was so nervous the whole time."

"Baby," she said putting her arms around him, "I'll be alright you don't have to worry about me. I'm a fighter remember, I always come back."

"I know, but I worry 'cause I love you," he replied.

"I know and I love you too," she answered.