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Speaker 1: I pulled up to the address, engine running long enough

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for the radiator to tick and protest. The buildings stood

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four stories high. Concrete worn down to a graze so

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lifeless it blended with the sky. Cracks ran up the facade,

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and narrow diagonal patterns. Someone had patched over the larger

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ones with foam ceilant, but the rest looked untouched. A

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handful of rusted window units buzzed on the upper floors,

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and thin faces hovered behind curtains peering out of the street.

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Some disappeared when they saw me in plain clothes, others

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didn't bother hiding yellow tapes stretched across the entrance. Two

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uniforms stood beside it, looking like they hadn't slept in days.

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One of them nodded when he saw me approach and

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lifted the tape. Detective Hanley I said, flash my badge

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before he could ask. Yeah, upstairs, third floor, Unit three C.

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You'll want to see it yourself. I didn't say anything back.

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He looked relieved by that. The stairwell reeked of mildew

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and detergent cheap industrial cleaner. From the smell of it,

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someone had made a half baked effort to mop the

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blood trail that leaked from under the victim's door and

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ran down to the base of the steps. Rat scurried

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and ran deeper into the building. As I made my

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way through, Unit three C was open, held that way

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by a folding wedge jammed under the hinge. Two more

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officers stood inside. They didn't bother with pleasantries. One was

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busy writing in a small flip notepad. The other looked pale,

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his arms crossed tightly over his chest. I stepped in

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and scanned the room without touching anything. The air in

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the room was thick and humid. She'd been thrown into

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the far corner of the living room. Where used to

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be a human body was now a crushed heap, limbs,

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neck flattened at an angle that suggested a spine had

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snapped half way down, her jaw hung off by the muscle.

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This was done by a blunt object. Blood covered the

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vinyl floor in white splashes and thick streaks. Some had

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dried at the edges, some were still tacky. She was

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missing an arm. I kept my breathing slow, and even

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the walls were intact, and there was no overturned furniture,

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shattered lamps or picture frames. Nothing suggested she'd fought back.

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She died exactly where she stood. This didn't seem like

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a fight bad, more like a one sided beat down.

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Who found her? I asked one of the uniforms. Spoke up.

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Neighbors two doors down. She called when she heard screaming.

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Time ten twenty six. Front door locked. Yeah, no sign

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of fourth entry. The chain was still set when we arrived.

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We had to kick it rats. We're in the apartment

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when we kicked it down, though. Can't be sure how

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much damage they did, but she was definitely dead way

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before that. That narrowed things in a way I didn't like.

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I moved closer to the body and examined the hands.

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The fingers were intact, no defensive wounds. I checked the mouth,

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gently lifting a chin with my gloved hands to expose

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the teeth. Some blood, but that was from impact, not

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from or being gagged. Nothing under the nails, no debris,

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no hair or fibers clinging to her clothes, No bruising

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on her remaining hand to suggest a self defense attempt.

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It was, by all means, just a normal apartment, one bedroom,

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open kitchenette, books stacked neatly on the TV, stand a

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wineglass drying beside the sink. She had been living here peacefully,

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though a fridge looked ransacked. Whoever did this, who was

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definitely planned? I stepped back and let forensics take over.

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I needed to talk to the neighbors and potential witnesses.

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The hallway was quiet when I stepped out, but not empty.

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A man in a great tank top leaned against his doorway,

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arms crossed. His eyes looked sunken and wet. Sp to

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buy him first, You the one who called? He shook

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his head. No, that was Flora end of the hall.

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But I heard it too, Tell me loud fast. I mean,

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there weren't any words shouted, but I think I heard

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a silence screaming, but I'm not sure, definitely like thudding

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and crashing. Was that normal noise like that? He scoffed. Nah,

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she was really quiet. Never even heard her on the phone.

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Don't even think she had a partner. Rarely brought people over.

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I checked his hands for any signs of bruising, just

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in case. I asked him for an alibi. He gave

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me a cell phone log with a delivery timestamp. Peta

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arrived at ten nineteen. I moved on the next Two

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neighbors off similar stories. One woman heard thumping, thought it

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might be a domestic fight, but wasn't sure. The guy

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across from the victim was out working the night shift.

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All of them knew her by first name. None of

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them had complaints about her, let alone hated her enough

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to kill her. Then there was the older woman on

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the floor above. She had a house dress on, bare feet,

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and a smell that told me she hadn't done laundry

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in a long time. I knew something would happen, she said,

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standing halfway behind a door. There's something in the walls,

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always scratching, always moving. You mean rats, I asked her.

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Eyes didn't change, no worse than that. I nodded, but

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I didn't write anything down. I choked it up to

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age isolation, a mind that had been left alone too long.

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The last apartment I visited was the one directly above

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the victim's apartment. He opened the door, still holding his son,

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a boy small enough to barely talk, face streeked with tears.

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The father didn't look much better. His hair stuck out

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in uneven clumps, and his fingers trembled as he lifted

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the toddler from one hip to the other the other detective.

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He said, they said someone would come talk to us.

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Did you hear anything unusual, I asked. He nodded slowly.

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It was bad. We heard her scream, I mean really scream.

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It was sharp quick. Then there was this pounding, like

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it was vibrating up into our bones. He looked toward

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the stairs. My son started crying immediately, then it stopped.

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Did you see anyone, No, we didn't leave the apartment.

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Do you have cameras? No, but I've got a security

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cam in the baby's room with audio. It's on loop.

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I can send you the clip. I took his info,

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got the file, thanked him, and headed back downstairs. Nothing

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was adding up. I asked around to see if we

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had any footage. The landlord had installed a half broken

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DVR system five years ago after a string of bicycle thefts.

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One camera pointed at the building entrance, another covered the

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third floor hallway, focused on the victim's door. The third feed,

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meant to show the stairwell, blinked between gray screens and

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frozen frames. That one was useless. I reviewed the footage

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from the past twelve hours in silence, running it at

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four time speed. Pausing whenever I saw movement. Ten people

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came and went through the front door. Four were delivery drivers,

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three you were residents I had already spoken with, and

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the rest were building staff or uniformed officers who arrived

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after the nine one one call. When I finally closed

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the laptop and returned to the apartment, the frametic's crew

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had already packed up. The room was stripped of evidence

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bags and markers. The blood had dried in most places.

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I stood in the center of the living room and

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let my eyes sweep over the corners, furniture, and ceiling.

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Something sat wrong. I didn't know what, only that it

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hadn't left me since I first stepped inside. I shifted

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back towards the entryway and looked again. Above the living

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room center, near the light fixture, something was pressed into

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the white stucco. I stepped closer. Among the specks of

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blood that had reached high in the walls and ceiling,

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next to the ace vent, there was a single handprint.

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It stood out from the splatter. It had a clean form,

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but it looked to be smudged. The thumb sat at

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a strange angle, like whoever made it rotated their hand outward.

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I stood there, trying to make sense of it. I

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walked over to the far wall, stood on the couch

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beneath it, and reached upward with my full height, but

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couldn't get within eight inches of touching the ceiling. The

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woman who lived here was five foot four according to

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a license, she couldn't have left that print even if

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she stood on the furniture. I stepped down and stared

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at it again. It felt deliberate. Killers who left signatures

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weren't new. It was uncommon, but not unheard of. The

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FBI maintained the database of those who used them symbols, poses, words,

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even objects placed at the scene. There was a chance

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this was meant to be a message. I tried taking

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the fingerprints from the hand, just in case, but I

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knew it would be fruitless. I took photos from three

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angles and left a notation in the case file. I

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told the uniforms outside that I wanted a patrol unit

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to do regular sweeps of the building, especially at night.

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No one had seen anything. That didn't mean it wouldn't

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come back. As I headed out the door, I couldn't

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help but take one more glance at the ceiling. I

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spent most of that night at home, glued to my desk,

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the lamp's buzz crawled into my ears, and the glow

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of the monitor drained the rest of the room in shadow.

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Samantha Ortega, aged thirty two, no criminal history, worked day

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to entry for a mid size insurance firm downtown and

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lived alone. She paid rent on time and didn't have

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a boyfriend listed on a tendency records. Social media pointed

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to a quiet life. She posted about a cat, pictures

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of coffee and the occasional meme. No hungry exes, no

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unhinged common threads, nothing that hinted her trouble. I pulled

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her work records next. Her supervisor said she was consistent,

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kept to herself, and always polite. Co workers said she

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skipped happy hours but always brought cupcakes to office parties.

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She'd been caught stealing milk from the staff ridge, but

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that was the most scandalous thing anyone could offer. I

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went through a message records, which yielded more silence. Her

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parents had texted her the night before her death about

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a recipe. Her father made a joke about finally learning

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how to poach an egg. There wasn't a single name,

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and a life that raised a red flag. The only

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thing I had to go off now was the hand

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print left at the scene. I flagged the precinct's patrol

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schedule and ensured the forty third Street walk up was

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assigned nightly drive bys. Then I closed everything down and

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tried to sleep. Didn't get much. A week passed. The

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finger prints I attempted to get I turned nothing. The

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blood sampled from the handprint was Samantha's. It was early

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afternoon when my phone went off. Detective Hanley, the officer said,

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we've got another one, same building, Unit four Sea. I

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didn't ask any more questions over the phone. I grabbed

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my coat and left. When I pulled up to the building,

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the entire front entrance was flooded with activity. Two squad

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cars blocked traffic. Their flashing lights lit up the cracked

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facade of the structure, painting it in bursts of blue

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and red. I spotted off as a Gella near the stoop,

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holding a bundled infant close to his chest. The child

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was shrieking, eyes swollen and face stained with tears. Gella

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wasn't built for this kind of thing. I looked more

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panicked than the kid. I stepped out and headed up.

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I was already getting sick. Inside the building, I was

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immediately met by rats again. The rodents seemed to be

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multiplying greatly each time I came here, perhaps because of

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the bodies a new food source. Regardless, the scene was

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already controlled by the time I got there. The door

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to for Sea stood wide open, A uniform stationed at

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either side, neither looking up. As I passed inside. The

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walls held the same stale yellow as the floor below.

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The carpet was old, stretched out in places. The body

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lay against the bedroom wall. I recognized the man immediately.

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He was the one who had entered the door while

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holding his son. His neck had been snapped and driven

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downward with so much force that it had cracked the

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floorboard beneath him. One arm had been dislocated and bent

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behind his back, the other stretched outward, twisted at the wrist.

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His ribs had been crossed inward. One shoe had come

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off and lay across the room. But the worst part

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was that his entire head was missing. A second officer

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walked over, adjusting his gloves. There were rats everywhere when

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we came in. We counted dozens Before they scattered. They

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came pouring out of somewhere. We couldn't keep track. Did

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you make sure they didn't contaminate the crime scene? I asked.

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For the most part, we arrived here quickly, so it's

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safe to say the killer is the one who took

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this poor guy's head off. The apartment itself was undisturbed,

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no forced entry, no sign of struggle, exactly the same

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as the other scene. I subconsciously glanced towards the ceiling,

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expecting to see a handprint. For this time, I didn't

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find one. I made my way deeper inside the apartment,

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looking for any clue that might have been left by

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the killer. Inside the living room, above the couch, right

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next to another ac vent, sat another handprint. This one, however,

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wasn't smudged. It was as clean as a bloody handprint gets,

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unlike the previous one. I stood beneath it and stared,

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my jaw clenched. I hated it. There was something that

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felt smug about all of this. It was set there

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like punctuation. The sentence had ended, and this was how

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they signed it. I wanted to drag a chair over

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and scrub it off with my bare hands. I wanted

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it gone it felt like a taunt. It was impersonal,

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and this confirmed it. These weren't crimes of passion. I'd

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00:18:17,799 --> 00:18:21,000
stood across from this man days ago. He'd held his

237
00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:23,559
son and tried to stay calm well. I asked if

238
00:18:23,599 --> 00:18:28,359
he heard anything strange. Now his body was broken and

239
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,359
cooling on the floor. If this was the game he

240
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:39,039
wanted to play, I'd play it. I dragged a chair

241
00:18:39,079 --> 00:18:41,480
over and reached up to the handprint to collect the

242
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:46,559
blood samples and fingerprints. I stared at it briefly, then

243
00:18:46,599 --> 00:18:50,559
shifted my attention to the vent beside it. The grill

244
00:18:50,759 --> 00:18:54,319
was crooked. One of the screws nearly halfway had the wall,

245
00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,000
but it looked more like it was ripped out of

246
00:18:57,039 --> 00:19:01,559
the wall rather than unscrewed. The rest wobbled when I

247
00:19:01,599 --> 00:19:07,279
tapped it. It had been opened. There was no dust

248
00:19:07,319 --> 00:19:11,119
anywhere to be found. Some one had definitely tampered with

249
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:17,240
it recently. The opening wasn't large. No person was squeezing

250
00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:21,599
through that unless they could fold their ribs, but something

251
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:26,799
had definitely pushed its way through. I reached up, pinching

252
00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,440
the side of the cover with two fingers and pulled

253
00:19:31,839 --> 00:19:35,240
The vent gave with a low pop. A draft of

254
00:19:35,279 --> 00:19:41,079
cold air moved against my face. Inside, I saw darkness.

255
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:46,119
Thin ridges of metal tubing ran along the bottom, but

256
00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:50,079
nothing else stood out at first glance. I leaned in.

257
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:56,960
The smell hit me hard, dry urine fur something deeper

258
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:04,000
behind it fungal where something had been nesting inside the shaft.

259
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,799
My flashlight couldn't reach the bend in the ductwork, but

260
00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,400
I could hear movement further in a soft, shifting sound.

261
00:20:15,279 --> 00:20:19,359
I narrowed my eyes, took a breath, and slid my

262
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:27,039
hand inside. Almost immediately, something bit down. I yanked my

263
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:31,160
arm back hard. Pain flared from my wrist. My glove

264
00:20:31,319 --> 00:20:33,839
was torn near the edge, and blood welled up in

265
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:39,319
a thin line across my forearm. Goddamn rats, I mumbled

266
00:20:39,319 --> 00:20:45,640
to myself, feeling stupid for even bothering. I reviewed the

267
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:50,480
security camera footage, knowing I'd find nothing. I leaned back

268
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:53,039
in the chair and watched the grainy loop for another

269
00:20:53,079 --> 00:20:57,880
few seconds before killing the monitor. The neighbors had come

270
00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:03,640
and given their testimonies willingly. Now none seems suspicious. Back

271
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,039
at the precinct, I printed both photos of the handprint,

272
00:21:07,519 --> 00:21:10,880
lined them up side by side. I heard some one

273
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,519
knock gently at the open door behind me. One of

274
00:21:14,559 --> 00:21:19,720
the officers leaned inside. That hand print again. He said,

275
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,279
we saw it in the first one too. That one

276
00:21:23,279 --> 00:21:29,559
looks cleaner though. You got the finger prints, the officer asked, yeah.

277
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,400
Waiting for the results, I responded, you think it's a signature.

278
00:21:36,759 --> 00:21:41,680
I didn't answer at first. I pointed to the photos. Look,

279
00:21:42,079 --> 00:21:45,200
I'm not sure what it is, but the first victim

280
00:21:45,279 --> 00:21:47,759
was in three C, the next one in four C.

281
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,480
Now we're looking at two murders, same layout, right on

282
00:21:52,559 --> 00:21:55,720
top of each other, and this sicko keeps leaving a

283
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:59,319
handprint on the ceiling. Is it supposed to be pointing

284
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:03,799
toward the next time murder? The officer leaned closer to

285
00:22:03,799 --> 00:22:08,319
get a better look. You think there's a pattern, I

286
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:14,680
think so, He looked at me, puzzled. I folded the photos,

287
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:18,640
took them into the case file, and stood, give me

288
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,759
the contact for the tenant in five C. I want

289
00:22:21,759 --> 00:22:27,000
them out by tomorrow. The results from the fingerprints came

290
00:22:27,039 --> 00:22:30,720
back before I could arrive at five C. It was

291
00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:36,000
human female. The software matched it against the national database

292
00:22:36,599 --> 00:22:43,440
and the ID pinged immediately. It was her Somemantha or taker.

293
00:22:44,319 --> 00:22:48,839
The first victim. I sat with a phone in my lap,

294
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,279
eyes forward, staring at the dashboard, but not really seeing it.

295
00:22:54,759 --> 00:22:59,160
My first thought was a mistake, some lab teck mislabeled

296
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,240
a sample, or the swap had been contaminated by the

297
00:23:02,279 --> 00:23:08,279
crime scene itself, But that wouldn't explain the location. She

298
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,880
couldn't have reached that high up on her own ceiling,

299
00:23:11,519 --> 00:23:17,559
let alone another apartments. She'd been dead a week it

300
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:22,599
started to settle in. Someone had taken her arm and

301
00:23:22,839 --> 00:23:27,039
used it, pressed it into the wall, forced her dead

302
00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:31,599
fingers flat, made the hand print themselves. It had to

303
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,519
have been done shortly before we arrived, too. The detail

304
00:23:35,559 --> 00:23:40,400
in the print the residue. It wasn't from a week ago.

305
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:50,359
This psychopath was mocking the investigation. I knocked on the

306
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,359
door of five Sea that evening. A tired man answered,

307
00:23:54,759 --> 00:23:58,559
eyes sunken, shirt stained with something brown near the collar

308
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,839
at me and didn't ask why I was there. He

309
00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:06,519
held the door open and said his sister had room

310
00:24:06,599 --> 00:24:10,079
for him and his wife. They were packed in ten minutes.

311
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:14,400
I didn't have to push base on what had been

312
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,559
happening here. I'm sure he was happy to get out

313
00:24:17,559 --> 00:24:22,160
of the building once the unit was empty. I called

314
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:26,079
it in, got clearance from the department, told them I

315
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,319
had reason to believe the following incident would happen there.

316
00:24:30,559 --> 00:24:33,799
They gave me approval, said I had a week on sight.

317
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,759
The only things I brought were a note book and

318
00:24:37,839 --> 00:24:41,799
a loaded side arm. I kept the door locked behind me,

319
00:24:42,319 --> 00:24:44,799
left the lights on. I stayed in the living room

320
00:24:44,839 --> 00:24:47,839
with the radio on the counter and my badge within reach.

321
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,400
I didn't know if this psycho would come. I only

322
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,400
knew he or she had come twice before, and that

323
00:24:56,519 --> 00:25:01,440
both times no one was ready. If I were wrong,

324
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,240
i'd waste a week. But if I were right, maybe

325
00:25:06,839 --> 00:25:10,920
I could save a life. All I knew was that

326
00:25:11,039 --> 00:25:14,160
there was some kind of pattern here, a very clear

327
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:21,000
move vertically, and I hoped I was right. I stayed

328
00:25:21,079 --> 00:25:23,880
up in the chair most of the night, legs stiff

329
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,759
and resting near the grip of my side arm. The

330
00:25:27,799 --> 00:25:32,359
patrol outside checked every two hours, radio brief, no sign

331
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:36,720
of anything moving in or out of the building. I responded,

332
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:41,200
each time, short and clear. I watched the door, then

333
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:49,039
the ceiling, then the door again, every hour stretched. At

334
00:25:49,079 --> 00:25:52,200
around three in the morning, I stood once to stretch

335
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,799
my back and walked to the window, not to look out,

336
00:25:56,319 --> 00:26:00,359
but to move. I circled the kitchen poor a cup

337
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:06,119
of cold coffee and drank it without tasting anything. It

338
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:10,000
was right after I sat down again that I heard

339
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:15,680
the noise. It came all at once, a crash, loud

340
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:21,599
and sudden, something breaking against the wall, then screaming, short,

341
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:27,480
clipped human, a voice trying to call out beginning pulled under.

342
00:26:29,079 --> 00:26:33,640
I froze for a second, listened. The ceiling didn't shake.

343
00:26:34,079 --> 00:26:37,400
The hallway was quiet. I leaned closer to the wall

344
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:42,599
and heard it again, another crash. The screaming had stopped.

345
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:50,319
Then I understood it was next door. I stood fast,

346
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,720
nearly knocking the chair over my hand, went to the radio.

347
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,519
I pressed the button as I moved to the door,

348
00:26:57,759 --> 00:27:02,839
Unit five D. Movement next door and breaching. I didn't wait.

349
00:27:03,559 --> 00:27:07,359
I unlatched the door and stepped into the hallway. The

350
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,920
air was colder outside the apartment. The hallway lights flickered faintly.

351
00:27:12,839 --> 00:27:16,680
Rats poured from everywhere, but I had too much adrenaline

352
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,720
coursing through me to care about rats. They rushed along

353
00:27:20,759 --> 00:27:24,920
the walls in waves, scurrying across my boots. I stepped

354
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,799
into them and made my way to the unit. Police

355
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:34,640
open the door, no response. I raised my leg and

356
00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:38,480
kicked at the lock. It gave. On the second try,

357
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,400
the door slammed inward and bounced off the wall. I

358
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,559
stepped through, gun, raised badge, lifted half a warning on

359
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:54,799
my lips. Then I saw it. It wasn't a person.

360
00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:02,039
The thing in front of me was a shifting mass cans, hundreds,

361
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,279
maybe thousands of them, packed into rough shape, a mound

362
00:28:06,319 --> 00:28:09,480
of matted fir and bone that stood taller than a man.

363
00:28:10,559 --> 00:28:14,000
Their bodies moved and sink, their limbs prushing and pulling

364
00:28:14,039 --> 00:28:19,160
together to mimic the form of a torso arms and legs.

365
00:28:19,759 --> 00:28:25,880
It was a body made from bodies. The head wore skin,

366
00:28:26,759 --> 00:28:30,799
A human face stretched across the front, torn at the edges.

367
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:36,880
I recognized it the single father, His jaw hung open,

368
00:28:37,279 --> 00:28:41,880
lips sagging from the sockets of his eyes. Dozens of

369
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:47,759
smaller eyes blinked, each one black and glassy. The right

370
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:52,000
arm was human, too, pale and thin, bruised at the

371
00:28:52,079 --> 00:28:58,400
shoulder where it had been ripped from another corpse, Samanthas,

372
00:29:00,039 --> 00:29:02,279
who was kneeling on top of the man who lived there.

373
00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:06,920
It struck the man with ridiculous force. The body bounced

374
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:12,200
beneath each strike. The sound was sickening, bones breaking wetlea.

375
00:29:12,759 --> 00:29:16,680
The floor beneath them shook with each impact. I stared

376
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,359
dumbfounded as it ripped an arm off the man's corpse,

377
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,720
and the rats started to bury themselves inside the arm,

378
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:29,039
adding it to their sick form. I emptied the clip

379
00:29:29,079 --> 00:29:33,759
into it each round hit, but there was no visible

380
00:29:33,839 --> 00:29:38,680
break in the skin. Instead, a thick black vapor hissed

381
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,839
out from the impact site and drifted upward in thin,

382
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:47,119
rising trails. It moved slower than smoke should of hanging

383
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,640
in the air, before thinning and disappearing into the ceiling.

384
00:29:52,119 --> 00:29:55,039
Rounds tore through the air and buried themselves in the

385
00:29:55,160 --> 00:30:01,480
thing's mass. Rats split apart and fell some screen. Others

386
00:30:01,519 --> 00:30:05,039
swarmed in to fill the gaps, dragging there, fallen inward

387
00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:10,359
and disappearing into the body again. Its shape shifted and

388
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:14,039
the face twisted. The mask tilted to look at me,

389
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,000
and the eyes inside the sockets blinked in unison. I

390
00:30:19,079 --> 00:30:22,640
fumbled for another clip. My hands didn't want to cooperate.

391
00:30:23,359 --> 00:30:25,759
My left wrist was still bandaged from the vent bite,

392
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,920
and the blood pulsing through it made my fingers weak.

393
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,039
The magazine slipped clattered to the floor. It moved fast.

394
00:30:36,759 --> 00:30:39,720
One of its limbs swept sideways and caught me across

395
00:30:39,759 --> 00:30:42,799
the upper chest. The force was enough to throw me

396
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,720
sideways into the door frame. The corner caught me behind

397
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:50,480
the shoulder. My arm went numb, and I hit the floor,

398
00:30:50,599 --> 00:30:54,359
with half my vision fading out. I tried to raise

399
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,000
my head and couldn't tell if the wetness on my

400
00:30:57,079 --> 00:31:02,440
temple was blood or sweat. I stayed like that for

401
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,880
a few seconds. The sound of its breathing had stopped.

402
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:11,039
I heard its scrape across the floor once, then everything

403
00:31:11,079 --> 00:31:16,759
went quiet. When I lifted my head again, I saw

404
00:31:16,799 --> 00:31:20,119
it at the far end of the room. It slid

405
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,359
and scraped across the floor, more like a tide than

406
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:28,000
a body. They gathered at the fresh arm, bulging with blood,

407
00:31:28,519 --> 00:31:32,720
twitching in their hold, and now fully made it part

408
00:31:32,799 --> 00:31:37,559
of the mass. It lifted itself with reverence, gripping the

409
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:44,400
ceiling with Samantha's hand, leaving behind a hand print. It

410
00:31:44,519 --> 00:31:49,759
flowed into the docked work, vanishing section by section. The

411
00:31:49,839 --> 00:31:53,799
last thing I saw before it disappeared was the father's

412
00:31:53,799 --> 00:31:58,559
head pulled upward by the neck as rats vanished behind it.

413
00:32:00,279 --> 00:32:05,559
The patrol burst in seconds later, guns raised, shouting, They

414
00:32:05,599 --> 00:32:10,880
called in others, cleared the room, searched the building. There

415
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,160
was no clue as to where the killer had gone.

416
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:21,920
The apartment above was undisturbed. They kept me in the

417
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:26,079
hospital for observation. I was stitched up across the shoulder,

418
00:32:26,559 --> 00:32:31,039
bruised along the ribs, and concussed nothing that needed surgery,

419
00:32:31,599 --> 00:32:34,880
but enough to take me out of the field. The

420
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:39,039
department put me on leave without asking. Most of my

421
00:32:39,119 --> 00:32:41,759
time there passed in a haze of blood pressure checks,

422
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:46,599
threescent lights, and voices. I didn't speak when they asked

423
00:32:46,599 --> 00:32:50,279
what I saw? What would all these seasoned officers and

424
00:32:50,319 --> 00:32:54,039
the rest of my colleagues say? Of course, they wouldn't

425
00:32:54,039 --> 00:32:59,720
believe me, regardless, I had guessed wrong about everything in

426
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,759
this situation. The man had died a few feet away,

427
00:33:04,359 --> 00:33:08,680
one wall between us. If I'd been paying attention, I

428
00:33:08,759 --> 00:33:11,319
might have taken more time to figure out the details,

429
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:16,599
and perhaps I could have acted sooner. I didn't. I

430
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:20,240
assumed I understood what I was doing. I thought I'd

431
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,640
figured it out. But was there even a way for

432
00:33:23,759 --> 00:33:26,799
me to have figured it out. At the very least,

433
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:31,519
I had to put an end to it. Now, the

434
00:33:31,519 --> 00:33:37,319
building hadn't been sealed. The neighbors were still inside upstairs, downstairs,

435
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:43,400
across the hall, families, oldert tenants, students, night shift workers.

436
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:48,519
I knew he would strike again. I didn't know if

437
00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:52,680
he was following a pattern or choosing randomly, but I

438
00:33:52,759 --> 00:33:57,160
didn't care. I made a few calls until I got

439
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,000
the owner's name. He ran a property with a voicemail

440
00:34:01,039 --> 00:34:04,759
that never got checked. I drove across the city to

441
00:34:04,799 --> 00:34:08,719
a cafe he was known to visit. I waited until

442
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,400
he walked in and blocked his path. Before he could

443
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:16,000
sit down. I showed my badge, lowered my voice, and

444
00:34:16,079 --> 00:34:19,440
told him the building was a liability waiting to burn down.

445
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,159
I told him pest control records and a few more

446
00:34:23,199 --> 00:34:28,039
outright lies were falsified. Lastly, I told him that if

447
00:34:28,079 --> 00:34:32,440
even one more incident happened at his entire management team

448
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,599
in front of a grand jury. I had no authority

449
00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:39,480
to say any of that, but I said it anyway.

450
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,800
He asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted

451
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,320
the building emptied. He said that would take weeks. I

452
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:55,280
told him he had Until the morning, tenants were told

453
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,639
there had been a confirmed gas leak. People evacuated, which

454
00:34:59,679 --> 00:35:02,519
on Trey Shore is due to the murder cases and

455
00:35:02,599 --> 00:35:06,800
not the reasons they were actually given. Patrol officers sealed

456
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,760
off the building. A few argued and demanded compensation, but

457
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:16,920
no one stayed behind. By the afternoon, the pest control

458
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,440
team had arrived. I paid one of the crew leaders

459
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,719
a few hundred dollars out of pocket to keep me updated.

460
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:30,039
They pumped every floor with fumigant, every room, every vent,

461
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:35,000
every closet, They opened every crawl space, broke through every

462
00:35:35,039 --> 00:35:39,760
wall that felt hollow. For two days, the building was sealed.

463
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:44,920
No one went inside except for exterminators in hazmat suits.

464
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,880
On the third day, I got the call. They said

465
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,760
I needed to see it for myself. I met them

466
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,639
at the loading dock behind the building. Two contractors stood

467
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:02,119
near an open dumpster, their face pale masks hanging from

468
00:36:02,119 --> 00:36:09,320
their belts. Inside weren't dozens of plastic biohazard bags. Instead,

469
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:15,679
it was one huge bag. Inside was a mass, swollen

470
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,800
disease looking. The stench clung to my nose and throat

471
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,280
even through the mask. They claimed it had a name,

472
00:36:25,639 --> 00:36:29,440
rat king. It was explained to me that a rat

473
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,960
king is a collection of rats or mice who were

474
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000
intertwined and bound together in some way. They also found

475
00:36:36,039 --> 00:36:38,719
the limbs of the victims of the serial killer in

476
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:43,440
the rat's nest. Later that week, the local news ran

477
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,440
a segment on the building. They called it the worst

478
00:36:46,559 --> 00:36:50,360
rat infestation the city had seen in years, cited health

479
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:56,679
code violations. The building was finally clean, However, the murder

480
00:36:56,679 --> 00:37:01,519
case itself sat unresolved. The killer had never been caught,

481
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,559
but I knew better.