"Whispers in the Morning"
Stevensville, Montana; Saturday, 10:18 AM
"Hank, Hank!? Come look at this", Tina yelled for her husband from the living room. "Look, that girl from Channel 5 news’s wig flew off. She’s really a brunette! Ha! Hank, come look at her! Hank! Hank?" Tina got up from the couch that she was perched on and went to investigate what was keeping Hank. She realized she hadn’t seen him at breakfast a half hour ago. In fact, Tina hadn’t seen him all morning! Not a big surprise though, on the weekends Hank spends most of his waking hours restoring his prize ’68 Chevy in the garage. Maybe he just lost track of time as he often did…"Hank, ya there hon? Tina asked knocking on the bathroom door. She opened the door slowly. "Oh my God, Hank! Ahhh!" (Profiler theme song, season 4, the true season 4…)
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Stevensville, Montana; Saturday, 1:32 PM
"Hank Johnson. 38. DCDS(*1). Preliminary report indicates COD(*2) was strangulation. Found by wife, Tina Johnson." John informed Sam and Bailey who were hunched over the deceased in the late resident’s bathroom. Sam lifted the tarp covering the cadaver.
"Whew, what’s that smell?" Sam gasped, standing up quickly. "The perp doused the vic with perfume, post-mortem I hope", Grace piped in, appearing in the door frame.
"Imposter", Bailey said. "What?" the triunal(*3) voices of Sam, Grace, and John were heard, amazement present in their statement.
"Imposter. The perfume? Remember, I lived in a house with three women. I know the smell all too well…", Bailey replied smirking a bit.
"Why don’t we get back to the case, k?" Grace told the gang.
"What about the wife? Has she been in the house all day?" Sam asked John.
"She hasn’t left the house since last night’s grocery shopping", John informed her.
"And what’s the estimated time of death Gracie?" Sam inquired.
"Between seven and eight a.m. this morning. That’s just an estimate though. Don’t hold me to it." Grace told Sam.
"So, we can infer the wife was here when the killer was." Bailey said. "Could it have been the wife?" John said, more from instinct than thought.
"No, I don’t think so. I saw the wife outside. She’s genuinely shaken up. Besides, the vic is pretty big. His attacker would have been pretty strong to detain and kill him…" Sam said, talking to herself more than anyone around her. She bent down, lifting the tarp again, this time being careful to hold her breath. She examined his face. Lipstick smears on his cheeks and lips. [FB]*black & white: we see the attacker smearing the lipstick on his already dead victim. We also see him pouring a whole bottle of cheap perfume on and all around the limp body. This is occurring in somewhat of a fast speed.( as opposed to slow-mo?)*
"The perp defaces his victims, degrades them almost. This is almost a crime a passion. Probably against an individual in the killer’s life. This scene is very cold. It’s not the victim he’s killing, but what he represents in his mind. I don’t think he’s through in his killing spree. This is a small town. He didn’t live here. He’s on the move, Bailey. And he’s getting more confident…"
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*1 DCDS stands for "Deceased, confirmed dead at scene". True forensic word, believe me, I have reliable sources.
Ok, I know the name doesn't make sense and it probably never will. Its a Celine Dion song start and I thought it was cute...
by Elizabeth Vega
*2 COD means Cause Of Death. Sorry, I’m studying to be a forensic pathologist, it comes naturally.
*3 Triunal, even though one of my made up words, means 3 entities forming one, in this case voices.
