By: Akkiko

Authors Note: None of these towns are real, I just made them up. It fits the story nicely though don’t you think? Also, no states are mentioned. Consider this a make belief world.

Chapter 1: Competition Reigns

Daniel Sidebacker took a deep breath in and sighed long and hard, from far within. It seemed as though he was taking a last breath, but instead he only wished that were the case. In front of him lay the body of a woman. She was pale, and cuts had been made on main arteries so that there was not a single drop of blood in her. It also appeared that the body had been dried out for several days before it was meticulously placed.

There was a pillow under the small of her back and neck, making the posture correct and the spine in almost better condition than it was while the woman was alive. The feet were touching and the arms were to the sides. She looked relaxed, but Sidebacker couldn’t help but wonder if she had been tortured. The blond hair made a perfect fan over the head and the body had been scrubbed clean, not a drop of blood on it. There was a black length of cloth covering her from her chest to her knees. Her body was covered in bruises, and most of her bones were broken showing that she had been beaten to death. Her spine had been left untouched.

Sidebacker looked at the nervous man that ran suddenly up next to him. He was a rookie, yet Sidebacker knew that he had earned his position in homicide investigation at the police academy. He turned to him and glared habitually. "What have you got for me Jackson?"

The man tried to keep his eyes off the body but he found it hard. There had been others, but this one disturbed him the most. His mother was a blond like this woman. "Nothing, absolutely nothing. There were no finger prints, footprints, hair, skin, or even a trace that anyone was here other then this girl. She wasn’t killed here either. Her body has been dried for at least a week and judging by the dryness of her skin and the slight burning around the cuts on the arteries, she was baked at a high tempiture for at least three hours. She died from blood loss though. It appears the broken bones happened after she died and the bruises came when she was being killed."

Sidebackers face contorted in disgust. This girl had not only been hung out to dry, but she had been baked like a turkey. Not only that, but there was no apparent motive and this went completely against the style of the killer he was after. There hadn’t been the normal two-week waiting period that seemed to come with all of the previous killings in this case, and the normal killer didn’t place his victims the way this woman was lying. His victims were always hung upside down, clothed in jeans and tee shirts that were thought to belong to him although there were no fingerprints or hair particles on them, and they had not been dried of blood. "Anything else?"

Jackson cleared his throat. "Yes sir, he has three more."

Sidebacker sighed and turned to him. The 'he' Jackson was referring to was a serial killer and kidnapper. This murder, along with three others, was not the mans style. Perhaps he had changed his calling card, maybe not. He had been termed "Jester" because he always carved a smiley face in the victims. The last three had had no smiley. Sidebacker thought about the three missing persons. "Tell me about them."

Martha Lesly was a blond. She was known to be intelligent and feisty. Janise Mingleton was dark haired, innocent and vulnerable. Finally, Lesa Cabra was in between, except that she had black hair and eyes. He seemed to like either extremely dark or extremely light women. A profiler came up behind him, scanning the scene. The woman was short, with brown hair and huge black eyes. She looked confused. "This isn’t Jester."

Sidebacker nodded slightly. His phone rang and made him jump as he signaled for the other officers to listen in on the conversation. There was a deep chuckle on the other end. Jester was a psycho, but Sidebacker had a feeling someone else was trying to out do him. "All the delicious ladies." Sidebacker shivered. That voice was filled with menace and anger that was masked with a thin facade of good humor. It was an odd mixture. "Aren’t you enjoying this Daniel?"

Sidebacker stiffened at such and idea. "No." The profiler looked up at him and narrowed her eyes at the dead body before them, her mind not thinking of the conversation. He hadn’t changed his calling card; there was a different killer. The other one was more dangerous, more controlled, definitely a pro at it.

There was a low laugh on the other end of the line. "Yes you are, this is the hunt man! I’m the quarry! So, where do you think you’ll look next?"

Sidebacker sighed at the question. Jester thought it was funny to ask these questions. Sidebacker was not amused. "We can’t tell you that and you know it." He heard another chuckle and then a small 'click' on the other end. He turned to his small crew. "Well, what do the crimes have in common? Also, isolate the inconsistencies in them and we can try to figure out why he’s changed."

The profiler looked around with a deep sigh. "Well, I hate to say it but I think we are dealing with two different people. These last killings have been too different from Jester’s style unless he is a multiple personality, which is highly doubtful. He doesn’t seem to have the IQ required. We need to think about the other killings then deal with Jester. I have a feeling the killer who did this is much more dangerous and troubled."

Sidebacker sighed again. "Well in that case, lets look at Jester’s killings only and see what we can glean so I can send a team on that case, than we can look for the other killer." Jackson took out five files. This excluded the last three. The first one had been the initial challenge. Jester had given them three weeks to find the girl and then he had killed her. The other four were done with two weeks to find the girls. His eyes went to the places they had been done at and then he saw the similarity. The towns were all named after birds. There was Hawk, Egret, Swan, Seagull, and Penguin. They were all in his district.

He looked at the profiler, and she saw it too. She set her hand thoughtfully to her chin. "He either likes or dislikes birds with a passion. Or he likes to make jokes."

Sidebacker sighed and rubbed the back of his head with his hands. "Well, in that case we should go to all the towns in the district and look for bird names." He said it in an almost joking manner. This made the profiler narrow her eyes.

"Look, there are now two killers out there, only one gives us a chance. The other we need to catch as well. The one who did this is more dangerous and controlled. He won’t mess up and we have to find him!"

Sidebacker knew she was right. He was interrupted as Samantha Rolon walked up behind him. "Sidebacker I have to go, my plane leaves soon." Sidebacker nodded, telling her to have fun and to be careful. She nodded and chirped a goodbye then gave Elias, her boyfriend, a kiss. They weren’t the best couple. Elias had a short temper and Sidebacker had more then once comforted Samantha after an argument.

The profiler walked up and examined the pictures that had been splayed across the table they had set up in the small field. There were nine killings including the one they were at. She rubbed her temples. "Well I have to look at the three that have shown up over the past few days."

Sidebacker nodded and stared at her as she looked at the pictures. "There is no sign that the victims were abducted except the broken bones and the bruises. There are no bruises around the wrists or ankles. No blood. The spine is never touched; it’s actually put in perfect position. He doesn’t kill for the fun of it. He has a definite purpose." She looked up suddenly as an idea hit her. "He’s trying to out do Jester. Jester’s in a competition he doesn’t even know about."

Sidebacker grunted. Generally a competition between serial killers ended with only one of them alive and the other in a mound that couldn’t be recognized as human because it was so mauled. "Good, maybe he’ll kill him for us."

The profiler looked up. "But if he does that then the other killer will be free to kill without stopping." Sidebacker looked at the pictures. It was all women, meaning the person had a strong hatred for women. None of them had been raped. Only one had been mutilated almost beyond recognition. The others had been severely beaten. He just didn’t understand it.

He decided to broadcast the Jester case over the news and radio. His hopes were that the killer would contact the police like Jester had but this was not a game to him. He was out to win in this gory and psychotic game and, Sidebacker feared, he most likely would.

Index