*Ring! Before the phone had a chance to ring again, Claire picked it up.*

Hello?

~This is Officer Dauterive, with the New Orleans PD. We've been showing your boy's photo around, and we've had two reports of him being spotted headed out to the bayou.~

*Claire's heart skipped a beat. She almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. If only they'd had pictures of him sooner, maybe Becka would still be alive.* We're on our way, Officer Dauterive. What's your address?

*The officer dictated the address, and she quickly scrawled it down in her notebook with the rest of her information on the case.* Thank you. *Hanging up the phone, she turned to Tim.* Let's go.

~W-Why? What's going on?~ New Orleans PD thinks they've spotted him headed to the bayou. *As she spoke, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door. Tim had to hurry to catch up with her. ~Really? Maybe we can get him before he leaves town.~ I hope so, but I doubt it.

*She wasn't going to let herself be optimistic yet. If it really was the Lucy killer that had been spotted, he could be halfway out of town by now. Maybe this area was his hometown, in which case it could be next to impossible for them to find him.

As they approached the car, Claire unlocked the doors automatically, and climbed inside. She buckled her safety belt, and Tim did the same. Then, in a squeal of burning rubber, they drove off into the night, chasing a madman.*

---------------------------

on a small boat at the edge of the swamp, a lantern hangs faintly lighting the surrounding area. atop the lantern, a woman's face. young, maybe late teens, and dangling from it her spinal column. clean, but fresh. 'Lucy' carved into her forhead. beneath the lantern, a mass of human flesh barely visible from a distance and mostly hidden by the sides of the boat. a rope extends from the bow and is tied to a tree beside the road, keeping the small boat in sight of passers-by.

the mass of flesh, upon closer examination (which would actually be as soon as you started looking hard at it), was that of two bodies sewn together. a man and woman, face to face... or what would have been face to face, if they weren't sewn together. they were dressed in wedding clothing, the man in a traditional tuxedo, the woman in her gown. their clothes were also sewn together at the side seams.

if one, say a police officer or FBI agent, were to check the bodies and really examine them, it might make them a little uneasy. without removal of the clothes from the bodies a couple of things were clear. whoever had done this had done so with perfect precision. it must've taken hours upon hours of tedious work.

their faces were flat against each other, and the skin from each was pulled and sewn to the other, forming one hideous head, if it can be called that. beneath the stitched together clothing, their entire body follows suit of the head. their arms, their fingers (individually), their abdomen, their legs... even the male genitalia had been fixed into the female semi-permanently. the bodies were flat against each other, leaving one to believe that some body parts had to be sliced off in order to make it work.

nowhere was this more obvious than at the feet. they were cut off halfway down the foot and sewn together, and at the ankle was the only part of the bodies that were not sewn together.

the man was laying on top of the woman in the boat, and with the state of their sexual organs, it seems as if the killer had positioned them this way purposely to simulate sex... perhaps this was his way of giving them their honeymoon.

on the back of the woman's neck (the woman sewn to the man), 'Lucy' was carved. similarly to the forhead of the other woman's head. on the back of the man's neck, 'Danny'.

the body that belongs to the severed head and spinal column is nowhere to be found, and one can only assume that american alligators have already taken care of it. there is no blood in the boat, and no blood on the bodies. these murders had been done elsewhere, then cleaned and placed at the scene.

the killer was obviously a madman, but compared to his previous murders, his latest two are far from similar. it seems as if he's changed the rules, but is letting it be known clearly that it's the same guy.

-------

*She sighed heavily, and turned to Tim.* I want you taking pictures, as many as you can. Get them to Annie, ASAP.

~Yes, ma'am.~

*With that, he took the camera from his bag and got to work. She walked slowly and steadily toward the boat behind Tim. It was a ghastly, ghastly sight. She turned on her flashlight and began inspecting the bodies. She read the word 'Lucy' and was surprised to see 'Danny'.*

Tim!

~Yeah, Claire?~

Get pictures of both names. *She pointed them out so there would be no confusion.* The freak may have just told us who he is.

~Ok.~ *Tilting her head to the side, she examined the bodies in the boat. It appeared they had been almost completely sewn together. Claire could see many small stitches in just her brief inspection. They were dressed as groom and bride.*

Happy honeymoon..*Claire said in a voice dulled by shock and revulsion.*

~It is rather creepy.~ Tim said, coming up behind her.*

Annie's going to be busy, that's for damn sure. *She didn't envy Annie the hours she would undoubtedly spend up close and personal with this grotesque performance art. *Straightening up, she noticed what had escaped her sight until now. The lantern itself was covered by the face of a young woman, mouth open in a wordless, eternal scream. The glistening white of her spinal column seemed to glow in the meager light the lantern produced, and Claire felt her stomach lurch again. It was a good thing all she'd had to eat for the past twelve hours was coffee.*

Officer Dauterive? *He appeared beside her, his rubber-soled shoes making no sound.*

~Ma'am?~ We're going to need all of this sent back to HQ. ~Of course.~ *Business dispatched, her mind returned to the mystery that was the Lucy killer. He may be this Danny, or the unfortunate couple he killed could be Danny and Lucy. Once again, the game had changed. Now, three more were dead where it had always been one before. Two women, one man. Both women were named Lucy. Perhaps he saw all women as Lucy..but what did Lucy mean? It had to mean something, something of great importance. It was probably the key to the mystery. Claire checked her watch, it was after midnight. Of course, she would not sleep tonight either. There was too much work to do, and she suspected her dreams would be haunted for many nights to come by human jack-o-lanterns and flesh masses dressed in wedding clothes.*

~*~Back~*~