Sandra followed the two women she'd been on the plane with into the
building, grumbling under her breath. Twice in the last 24 hours, she
thought bitterly; I'm tired and I just want to go to sleep. But no: I have
to come here again, to get new orders, new assignments....
>The agents filed in... There was Woods. He smiled at the younger man, who
>seemed to be ill at ease. He nodded to the others, equably.
>"Welcome back to DC, sir, ladies. I realize that this has been very
>confusing -- we apologize for that. I've pulled what strings I can, and
>your next flight isn't until late tomorrow, so you'll have a little time to
>rest and to get to know each other." Damien stood, towering easily over
>everyone else, and suddenly making his small office seem tiny. "For those
>of you who don't know me, I'm Damien Cunningham. Normally, I serve as Chief
>of Forensics, but due to the sudden, untimely death of the previous UD, I've
>been pressed into service. Several of you were in training with my wife,
>Agent Xavier."
>Woods, Calloway, and Kelly all nodded.
>"Now... Let me introduce you to your Team Leader. This is agent Sarianna
>Kelly -- her record has been exemplary, and I'm sure that she will take good
>care of the lot of you in the field. Agent Kelly, this is Agent Calloway,
>Agent Llywelyn, Agent Woods, and Agent McCormick." He gestured to each
>agent in turn. "They're your team... Now, to get to your case..." He
>pulled out a stack of identical folders, passing them out to each agent.
>"There have been some strange deaths at Karellon University."
At the sound of the case, Sandra perked up. This was more the norm for her.
"Eleven young women have disappeared. Four of these were found, clothed in
wedding dresses. Each had her throat slit, the ring finger of her left hand cut
off, as well as the thumb of her right... Each girl belonged to a
sorority... Any questions?"
"Did any of the girls know each other?" Sandra asked, almost smiling. She'd
missed this type of thing.
"Beside the usual cursory knowledge of the other, none knew of each other.
We interviewed just about every girl in each sorority," he pulled out
another folder from the stack, "and asked that same question. The girls
there said that they were pretty sure the girls hadn't known each other."
"Pretty sure?" Sandra mused to herself. "What about the slit throats
themselves? Were we able to find a weapon, or determine the shape and/or size?"
"Autopsies on each of the girls shows it to be the same knife; the blade is
extra thin and razor sharp, cutting easily into the throat. However, the
cuts themselves weren't immediately deadly. I mean, the girls slowly choked
and bled to death before they actually died; it's also shown that their
fingers were removed while they were still semiconscious."
"Sadistic bastard," Sandra heard behind her, but she didn't even bother to
notice who said it as she asked, "Were any molested?"
"None of the girls were sexually molested in any way."
Sandra thought about it for a moment, then asked, "Did you say the left ring
finger?"
"Yes."
"Which is the ring for a wedding band. And with the wedding dress...."
Sandra lapsed into a pensive silence as others around her began firing
questions.
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