Faith stepped into her office and immediately went towards the coffee machine, brewing a pot. She knew it would be a long week -- they had a big case on their hands, and were so close to catching a man who had been on an 8 year killing spree. She'd packed a bag so she could just stay in her office for as many days and nights as she needed, and still manage to be sanitary.
"Hey, Faith?" Rob peeked his head into his partner's particularly clean office.
"Yeah," Faith replied, sounding distracted as she sorted through a stack of papers.
Rob chuckled, "Look, Faith. You do realize you can take a break for just a moment to talk to me? Y'know, look up at me... I don't think the deceased will mind."
She looked up at him, a stern expression on her face. "Rob, we are this close to catching this guy," she gestured with her fingers. "I don't have the time to sit around, cracking jokes, and I don't think you should be either."
Rob cleared his throat, "Faith, I see slaughtered people every day. You see it every day. We see people, children, babies murdered in the most disgusting ways possible. And it never gets easier. But if you don't learn to joke around a bit, you're gonna go insane. That's what we're forced to do here ~ crack jokes, laugh about things, or we go crazy! You have to learn not to take it personal."
Faith felt tears form in her eyes, but she ignored them, "We have to catch this guy, Rob. We don't have a choice! We have to."
Rob felt a shudder go through him at the firmness of her voice. He replied with nothing, not knowing how to respond.
Faith cleared her throat, walking over to the coffee pot and changing the subject, "So what did you come in here for?" She poured herself a cup of coffee and gestured to the pot, offering some to Rob.
He declined. "Just was gonna tell you there's someone on line 1 for you, but they're probably not there now."
Faith nodded as she watched him exit her office. She walked over to her phone to answer the call, but was met with a dial tone.
~ * ~
"I just don't understand why he's suddenly being so sloppy in his murders," Faith sighed, feeling overwhelmed. "I mean, we've been following this guy for quite some time now... We know it's the same guy, by the path he's been taking across the country, and by the way that he murders his victims the same. But he was always so careful before... and now to suddenly begin leaving things on his crime scenes... it just doesn't make sense. It's almost like... he wants to be caught."
Rob and Jen sat in silence, pondering what Faith had just said.
"Maybe..." Jen spoke up finally, "Maybe you're right... Maybe he does want to be caught."
Rob looked up at the two women he worked with, "Maybe he's getting tired."
~ * ~
Faith sat down at her desk, opening her lap top and pulling up an article from 1994. She gazed at the picture of the young man and three little girls, her eyes sad. Hearing her office door opening, she quickly closed the old newspaper article and shut her lap top, looking up to see Jen.
"Hey, Faith... Someone's on line 5 for you."
Faith nodded and watched as Jen left the room. "Hello?" she asked, picking up her phone.
"Yes... um... I don't really know what I'm doing calling you," a man spoke hesitantly on the other end of the phone line.
Faith's heart began to pound against her chest, "Well, may I ask who this is?"
"Yeah, um... my name's Nick Carter. I was just, uh... watching TV earlier this week, and... I've been trying to get ahold of someone since, because um... well, a couple years ago my aunt was murdered... and when I was watching America's Most Wanted last monday, they were talking about this serial murderer who's been going around the country for the last 8 years. Look, I don't really know why I'm calling. Um... I guess just that my aunt's case was really similar to the other victim's of this man. But... there was something extra, something that was different from the other cases. Or at least, the show didn't touch on the subject."
Faith leaned forward in her chair, her phone pressed tight against her ear, "You have my attention, Mr. Carter."
"Well... my aunt's body wasn't there... but there was a key, in a pool of blood. And the key had the letters X-M-G, followed by the numbers-"
"-254," Faith whispered, before Nick could, her blood running cold. "Mr. Carter... would you mind... meeting with me somewhere?"
Nick took a deep breath, "Sure."
