Sirens reverberated right below the nearly dilapidated building as a squad of technicians rushed in to eliminate any hindering objects. I had Mitchelle come in to investigate with me while the team alongside doctor Ezra Gray looked for biological evidence. "This Queen was too rebellious. Not worthy of being mine," I read aloud the writing at the back of the card.

Mitchelle and I noted the similar pattern in the killings, except this time, the killer stabbed the victim first instead of head-smashing her. "Hey, doc?" I called out to Ezra inspecting the wounds on her body, "The last body," I walked over to him before continuing, "Did she go through sexual assault?" I questioned. "Yeah," he replied, shifting the pale-faced girl to the side as he examined her over, "But reports say that happened after she was unconscious."

I squatted next to him, making my research. "She has bruises similar to Lisa, but I believe she wasn't unconscious when being forced. The caller below said there were loud thuds and arguments coming from here. Could it be she was aware when it happened?" He sat in silence for a while before turning to me. "Look," He stood up, "That is most probably what happened, but I think you should head to the station as quickly as you can because the sooner you face Romero's wrath, the better. He won't be as mad as when you'll be late to get a scolding. I have Mitchelle here, we can look at the CCTV footage and go door to door... questioning," He said squinting an eye, "That's what it's called right?"

"Yeah...  no-"

"Moving on," He cut me off and pushed me out of the apartment. I shook my head and rushed towards the station with my car covered in a three A.M. fog. I mentally prepared myself before entering his office where he sat in his worn out leather chair, arms folded, a vicious glare painted on his sweaty face. "Reeves," He snarled. "Captain," I gulped, taking a few steps forward. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" He stood up with a slight jump in his movement.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm completely at fault," I hung my head, preventing any eye contact. "I should have reported to the location immediately and I should've taken the call seriously, especially at a time like this and I know It's my fault the poor girl lost her life." I ranted off sincerely. He leaned forward, his glare still fixed upon me. I was expecting him to lash out, but from in between my bangs, I saw him quietly shuffling through his drawers and pulling out a paper upon which he started scribbling, puffing out air from his nose.

He shoved the paper into an envelope and handed it over to me without another word, opening his office door and gesturing me outside. "Understood," I whispered and went outside to get a puff of smoke, away from the gawking eyes of the precinct. Once I finished the cigarette, I drove back home. I threw the unopened envelope on the dining table and hopped into the shower, already knowing what its contents were. "My first day back at work and I already messed up," I chuckled bitterly. I slipped on my pyjamas and set an alarm for tomorrow morning before getting a much-needed sleep.

The next day was even worse. People all around me were whispering low to each other while giving me odd stairs. "Come on sis," cheered Aisha, giving me a soft smile. "Everybody gets a warning letter once in their entire lives. It doesn't matter," she said, dropping an arm over my shoulders. "Besides, it wasn't your fault," James interfered, "We get a lot of noise complaints these days. Anyone could mistake them for a Karen neighbour," propping a cup of coffee on my desk. "Yeah, but there's a serial killer on the loose," I rolled my eyes, "Any sensible police officer would be cautious, let alone a detective who'd know better."

"True that," sniggered a loathing voice from behind me. "Shut up, Meyers," she snapped. "If they assigned a sensible leader, he would know how to handle even the smallest of situations well. Like the time when he trusted his instinct to follow a certain grey Mercedes into the heart of a drug den," he smirked, laying back in his chair behind me. "You mean the one time you were successful with a case, and that too stealing it last minute from someone who worked their butt off for it?" Aisha retorted, her patience finally running out.

"Just leave him," I sighed, rubbing my forehead. I could still sense his annoying, smug stare boring into my back. A little while later we all started working into our divided parts of the case, me searching for information on the victims. As soon as I could collect some data, I held a briefing in our briefing room. The post control had finished some parts of the precinct upstairs with fumigation, so we had more space than before. "So, what have we gotten up till now?" I asked and one by one, they started interjecting points.  
"We found notes referring to an imperfect royal relationship written on a king of hearts card. The two victims, sexually assaulted, scarred and bruised with a heart engraved on their left chest," James read his report aloud, "Knew the killer because both the times the doors were open from the inside. So it means that they invited him, or her inside and just like that, he- or she- left, leaving the door ajar. As seen from the nearby security cameras." He laid a photo on the table.

"See," Mitchelle spoke up, pointing to the pictures sprawled across the table. "That's what happened the first time, but in the second case, looking at the CCTV footage," she circled the opened door of the apartment and then the time lapses, "The killer didn't enter from the door, he sneaked in through the window. You can see it's him," she circled a shadow holding the knob of the door, that blocked the view of the culprit as the door opened outwardly. "Because of the height and broad built. His posture is impeccably straight, which means his undercover profession must be of high importance."

"Anyway," she continued, "He opened the door to leave but didn't come out," she put another picture on the table with a missing shadow, "Which means he left from the window again... I think this was a speculated move because he entered from the window knowing that there was a security camera. So why would he suddenly forget about it and leave through the door?" I looked at her appreciatively, "Brilliant observation Mitchelle,"

"What did you get?" Myers asked, eyeing out the papers in my hand. "Well, I tracked their phone calls and found something interesting through their connections," I laid my reports on the table, "They both were in a previous relationship with Jack Antoine who turns out to be the principal's son but seeing that Charles is too young to have a son this old, I'm saying he took Jack under his care, seeing that he even has a darker complexion. That or he had a child at eighteen, which is less likely because he moved here around the age of twenty-seven and was still not in parenthood."

"So?" he cocked a brow. Irked, I replied in a sharp voice, "There is no record of the adoption papers in the American database, so to get the full information we might have to search for the adoption papers or interrogate them both. I'm ruling Jack a suspect because in his texts, they both supposedly betrayed him, therefore he ended their relationship," air quoting, I continued to reason, "Which gives us another motive to interrogate him and search their house."

From the hovering silence in the room, I could sense their agreement. "Well, we know one thing for sure and that's they both were home alone when it happened," butted James, "What happened to the parents of the second victim?" asked Aisha. "Unfortunately, Sandra Pullman was an orphan, and she has an Aunt in Brazil who paid for her tuition but didn't cover her living expenses, so she worked at a Seven Eleven store right around the corner of the old building."

After the meeting was over, James called Jack in for interrogation whilst Myers and Aisha went back to the university to unearth his character. To finish work faster, I headed over to his extravagant, Victorian-styled house for further investigation with the help of some other people in the station. While we ransacked through his room, I discovered a diary under the mattress of his canopy bed.

Climbing down the stairs, I peeked into the principal's study where he sat behind his exclusive mahogany desk, skimming and frequently ticking and correcting some papers. If Mitchelle was here, she would have been head over heels to have a tour of this house. In fact, we both had a huge soft spot for this aesthetic. Unfortunately, an emergency came up, and she had to leave immediately, what was more confusing was that she pleaded for excuse without handing in an early leave application which she has never done before, but the Captain got the better of her fussing and that's how we wasted half an hour.

"May I come in?" I knocked on the door, "Yes detective," said Charles, flashing a full-on bright smile. "If I'm not disturbing you... I'd like to ask you a few questions," I entered his grand study and stood right in front of him. "Can you tell me more about your relationship with Jack?"

He confidently answered my questions and complied with my request to show the adoption certificate, proving that my theory was right. "Why did you adopt him?" I let my eyes travel through the documents as he replied with a soothing, velvety voice. "I was living in France before I came here," he chuckled, "And I moved here after my pregnant wife... died. Ten years ago I was in a desperate need for company and I was unsuccessful with my past relationships so I adopted him to fill that void of loneliness," he shied his gaze away from me, "I'm sorry it must sound pathetic," he apologized, running a hand through his hair. "No, that's okay-"

"Detective Reeves?" One of the officers called me. I strode towards him with a nod. "Two things," he said, handing over two decks of cards and an iPhone, "Both these decks are missing a King of Hearts and Detective Noor wants to talk to you." 

"Hello Aisha?"

"Geisha, come here immediately," she said in an urgent high pitch amongst the distinctively loud background chatter.

"Why? Is everything okay?" I said, motioning the officer to follow me outside.

"We found the Janitor's closet filled with blood."