Just after midnight, on a Friday evening, Alice Ross pushed open the small window in her bedroom and deeply breathed in the summer air. It was refreshing and clean, unlike that of the city, some two hundred miles away. Sparkling stars filled the sky as she raised her face up to gaze at the vastness of the universe.
Alice was 23 years old, with dark blond hair and brown eyes. She had the sort of face that reminded some people of the girl next door, a combination of delicate features and cleanliness that made her simple face easy to forget in a crowd. And that was the way she liked it.
Once upon a time, in college, she had been a wild child... but now, on her own, away from city influences and old friends, she had grounded herself considerably, beginning with her present position at the Jenner Clinic. Alice was generously compensated for being so isolated from the rest of the world, including room and board and time off in the small, local town, but she was only an assistant nurse, assisting doctors in fertility testing. The head nurse said she showed promise, and a promotion was almost certain. With that promotion came an increase in salary, and Alice had massive tuition loans to pay. Although the job kept her away from an active social life, she knew it would not be forever, not if Doctor Jenner's pet project was as successful as she'd heard in the cafeteria.
Still, Alice longed to return to the hustle and bustle of life.
Her nurse's uniform lay carefully on the only chair in the room, the white, rubber-soled shoes set nearly beneath. Across the room, on the dresser, she could see her watch, a gift from her parents. In the silence of the night, the tick-tick echoed loudly in her ears.
She heard a door slam and tilted her head to survey the courtyard below. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light, scanning for movement. It couldn't be another patient; there was just one, in bed seven, and there weren't any more scheduled to come in until Monday. Perhaps one of the orderlies...
A figure, hunched over in the darkness, shifted into view, limping through the courtyard. In the stillness of the night, she could hear the shuffle of feet, moving back and forth across the cobblestones. Alice frowned, eyes squinting as she struggled to make out the face. Nothing. It was probably just a workman. There'd been a lot of them, suited up in dusty blue coveralls, wandering around the clinic lately; Doctor Jenner said they were there for routine maintenance.
Alice sighed, tugging a pink bathrobe over her nightshirt and shoving her bare feet into her nurse's shoes. Her curiosity would get the better of her one of these days.
She made good time, moving quickly down the back staircase that led from the nurse's dormitory wing into the kitchen area. It was quiet, as expected at such a late hour, and Alice knew she would have to avoid the lecherous sneer of any number of the orderlies. Doctor Jenner wouldn't be pleased that she'd been wandering through the clinic on her own again.
She heard a muffled scream and stiffened in the corridor outside the kitchen. Alice shifted back into the shadows, peering through the window above the sink. She could not see much from her present position so she took a tentative step toward the back door that led into the courtyard. If she turned right, she'd be behind the old house, where deliveries came in; if she turned left... there!
Alice froze mid-step. In the middle of the courtyard, she could see the white shirt and pants of an orderly. And beside him, the white stockings of a nurse. Their bodies were intertwined, not unlike a lover's embrace, if it were not for the large spatters of blood, drenching their starched clothing and spilling into nooks and crannies of the cobblestone walkway.
She stifled a scream, covering her mouth with her trembling hand. Her eyes darted about the quiet courtyard. Not twenty feet from the dead couple, she saw two additional bodies of orderlies, and another nurse. There were only seven people on staff for the weekend, with just one patient to care for. She quickly counted the staff... and then stifled another scream as panic set in.
Alice stepped back into the kitchen, her heart pounding. She walked quickly, afraid her legs would betray her and crumple beneath her body. Beside the old butler's pantry that led into the dining room, she saw the telephone, a fancy, modern piece of technology that connected the kitchen to all of the patient's rooms and to all of the offices and labs in the clinic. She picked it up, listening for the dial tone. Nothing.
She tried not to cry, but felt the hot tears sting her face. She had to get out of the clinic. If the killer was still there...
Alice fumbled in one of the drawers, searching for a weapon. She pulled out a narrow knife, gripping the wooden handle tightly in her hand as she crossed the kitchen into the dining room.
She could not hear anything but the sound of her heart, beating wildly in her chest. The blood rushed to her ears and face. Another twenty feet... there was a car in the garage, the keys in the ignition, if she could just get to it...
Alice did not see the shadow descend upon her until it was too late. She screamed, raising the knife in defense, then realized her screams had stopped... he had cut her throat, the precious blood spilling out of her body onto the nightshirt, robe, and down to the beautiful wooden floors.
Clutching her throat, Alice sank to her knees, eyes searching the killer's face. When she looked into his eyes, she tried to scream again... and failed.
Proceed via military helicopter to Havre de Grace in western tip of Maryland. The town is located some two hundred miles from the nearest big city, nestled between two valleys outside the Appalachian Mountains. Six members of the staff and one patient were found brutally slaughtered at the Jenner Clinic, a fertility treatment and research clinic. The whereabouts of the remaining staff member, a nurse, is unknown.
It is presumed that an animal rights group committed the crimes to protest experiments, and then released the animals used in the research lab. A propane tank also exploded, engulfing half the clinic in fire, possibly destroying valuable evidence. It has been alleged that some of Doctor Jenner's experiments involved the use of unknown substances, code name designated as "Purity Control." Said allegations remain unsubstantiated due to informant's reluctance to testify.
Chimera - ("Kai-meer-ah") A mythological creature who was lion in her fore-third, goat in her middle-third, and serpent in her hind-third. She was supposed to be invincible, but proved an easy contest for the hero Bellerophon, who, mounted on his horse, Pegasus, vanquished her with arrows shot from above. Today a chimera signified a grotesque, fearful creature of the imagination; an illusion. Chimerical means wildly fanciful or fantastic.
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