Stalking the Predator (Ashton/Quincy/Vicente)

"So, just so we're clear, Archer. This is your first crime scene for MRC. Your first murder scene. I'm sure you've handled things like this before on the beat, but here... it might be a good idea to watch and learn."

Ashton's knuckles were white on the steering wheel as his black Taurus coursed through the night streets. The call he'd gotten had vaguely detailed the situation. People, dead. Someone, injured. At a church. Whoever had done the deeds was a pretty terrible mutant. An even worse human being. Made his skin crawl.

"Learning, got it?"

Jorge sighed as he made his way to the front doors of the church. Again he checked his phone and again he saw that there were no calls from Ashton. The man was supposed to be here aid in this case and he hoped the man actually show up. But, deep down, Jorge knew better than that. Ashton was a good cop who knew how to work a scene. The only real reason that the detective was irritable right now was because of who was involved.

Andrea was a sweet girl and she did not deserve in the least anything that happened to her. She was pinned down, had her snakes cut off or murdered and was all around terrorized. Whoever this madman was that had done it, really had a sick mind.

The detective only shook his head as he paced near the front doors, once more surveying the scene inside. All he really had to go on was Andrea’s account for the events of the night and most of it was blurred out because she was drugged or simply could not remember. He did not want to push her to remember either but all the information he could get would be helping. Coroners had deduced that the priest inside had died of a knife wound to the throat, while the man who was found a few blocks away was severely tortured before he was killed.

Jorge shuddered to think if that fate had also befallen Andrea. She should not have had to go through that. There was no reason for it. She was good young woman who seemed to refuse to harm anyone, even though she had a pretty terrifying and dangerous ability of her own. Even though he did not know her all that well, nobody deserved this terror to befall them.

They needed to find this “Lion Man” now, before this happened to anyone else.

As he stood there, Jorge finally decided to step back out into the cool air. As he did, he began to relax a bit more but that was when he noticed the car headlights of a black Taurus come rolling up into the parking lot. That was Ashton’s car. Jorge was glad the man finally arrived but as he began to descend the steps, he usual gruff expression on his face, he noticed a new comer with the man. The redhead detective-in-training Quincy Archer. He really hated had a chance to talk to her yet. He hoped she was ready for the job though.

“Drake,” He nodded to the man once he got out of the car. “Ever hunt a lion?”

Quin kept her mouth shut and followed Ashton out of the car. There really wasn’t any need for her vest at a crime scene, but she always felt kind of naked without it, so she grabbed the thing as they got out of the car. It wouldn’t hurt…and she felt more secure. Besides, she thought, stuffing it into the backpack she’d brought along for investigation. Nobody would really know.

As she approached, Quin noticed Ashton look at the building. She’d never thought to ask him what his religious leanings were, and figured it was out of reluctance to discuss her own. Her parents had been..eccentric and the red-head figured it had rubbed off a bit. It wasn’t that she had a problem with religion in general, she just didn’t see the sense in trying to pick one over another. Still…the building was pretty, and very special to a good number of people. This was sick.

A figure approached on the stairs, and Quin recognized him from around the precinct. They hadn’t been officially introduced, but she knew his name was Cervantes. He was a veteran like Ashton, and looked just about as grumpy. Erring on the side of caution, the redhead kept her mouth shut.

Short conversation was exchanged about lions and tigers. At least there were no bears.

But seriously. ”Seriously? A lion?” Whoops. So much for keeping her mouth shut. She’d have to ask about the tiger business too. MRC was sure interesting.

Archer couldn't believe they were dealing with a lion. That was funny. Hadn't he told her that every day was different? No? Maybe that had been some other dame.

The detective listened to Cervantes story seriously. Because serious were lions. And lions... were serious. And tigers. And bears. And him. Thank God nobody had already made that joke.

It seemed a girl Cervantes knew had been tormented by a lion man. Nearly mauled. Was in the hospital. A witness to a murder.

Ashton followed the other detective towards the scene, quietly.

Yeah, this was serious. He had on his serious face.

"Come along, Archer." He said.

>> "Come along, Archer."

>> “On it…I hope the girl is going to be okay.”

Jorge heard his fellow officers follow him up the stairs but he said nothing in response. The truth was he was just as shaken up about the incident and he was not even related to the young, tortured mutant. But he did feel responsible for not being there to protect her. No one should have to go through what she did. But at least that sense of responsibility give him all the more reason to track down this psychopath as soon as possible. Two dead bodies and one tortured victim in a single night: monsters like that needed to be taken off the streets as soon as possible.

Stepping inside, he stood for second in the main room and simply surveyed the scene again. Debris was all over the floor, broken benches were littered about, yellow crime scene tape illuminated the dark corners, across the way he could see the crime scene unit looking over the dead body of the priest; the whole place looked more like a warzone.

To commit these acts was atrocious enough, but to pull them off inside of a church was…just sacrilegious. Detective Cervantes was not the most religiously minded man, but he did believe in some kind of higher force. He was raised to be more open minded when it came to religion and he really believed that “to each their own” was the best course of action. But no religion, he didn’t care which, could allow such crimes to be committed within their own walls. Somewhere, in some plain of existence, some god was crying over what happened in these hallowed walls.

He sighed as he stood there and waited for the pair of other officers to join him at his side. Once they did he pointed out as many of the facts as he could find so far.

“The victim said she ran in from the back room, crawled in through the window, then made her way to one of the pews to pray.” he said as he made the motion with his finger as to where the victim’s path took her. “From there, she hid herself when she heard the back door smash open. Not long after, he followed her in as she attempt to crawl through the pews to hide. It’s obvious there is more to him,” he said as he nodded to the uprooted benches that had been tossed as if they were nothing. “She ran, seems like around the church before…” he walked to a spot that had several dead snakes lying lifeless on the ground, “He somehow tackled or caught her here. And…did the rest of the job.”

With that he began to pace a little, looking around the destroyed room. He really did not know what he was looking for but he wanted something, anything that would point him in the direction of the killer. A business card, a candy wrapper, a receipt, anything that could help, he wanted to see. But, Jorge knew he was getting agitated by the situation and took a second to calm himself. He needed to think on this case with the head of a cop, not a concerned friend.

He then nodded back to where the dead body was.

“Seems the killer left the way he came in. Priest probably interrupted him and the killer slashed his throat.” He placed his hands in his pockets as he looked around the room once more. “Any thoughts?” he asked the both of them. Hopefully some new people here could see something, anything, he may have been missing.

Quin listened and followed, followed and listened. The scene was bad, really bad, and the redhead’s stomach turned a little at the absolute devastation the predator had wreaked on the two individuals who had been unlucky enough to cross his path.

Cervantes laid out the facts, and Quin could see that he was struggling to put the pieces together a bit. Ashton offered his opinion, and Quin shrugged her shoulders.

”Or he could have been in a hurry for some reason.” she said, letting the train of thought run away with her a bit, and forgetting that she was probably supposed to be a silent observer here.

”Maybe the girl shook him a bit when she stunned him? Someone sadistic enough to torture someone like that is probably a control freak. Getting shaken out of his routine like that…might have freaked him out.”

It wasn’t much…but it was a train of thought to follow…maybe.

Oh. He'd misheard. Yeah. Quin's suggestion was much better than his imagination. The priest had been an afterthought. In the wrong place, wrong time. There was a third body.

The call came in. The third body's identity was confirmed.

Yeah, so he'd been a little off. Distracted by the situation. Still. Ashton had been right about one thing. The man was a hired killer. It really wasn't a positive thing to be proud about being right about that. So he wasn't. Ashton's face was like a rock. It showed no emotions.

"If he's a partial shifter, his face might not be a lion's face for every hour in the day. We should see if one of our sketch artists or computer techs can get a better description from the snake-haired woman, or grab any video data off any nearby surveillance cameras. Hopefully, there will be cameras. Our sketch artists or computer people might be able to do a reconstruction to see what he'd look like with more human features. If we haven't already, we should get a BOLO out on this guy." Ashton said.

Until they got better leads, a Be-On-The-Lookout announcement was the best they could do. Aside from keeping working, that was. And catching the son-of-a.