Killing Roses

12__Death in a drop

Valerie could barely move. With her feet glued to the spot and her eyes wide in fright, she turned her gaze up to the man’s face.

A stranger. She had absolutely no idea who the stalker was.

“W-who… who are you?” Valerie muttered quietly.

The man’s mouth curved softly and he raised one hand as though to calm her down. “Hello, there. May—”

“Who are you?!” Val demanded and dropping the weight of her bags, launched herself at him with a high cry of war. “Who are you?!” she screamed, bashing the man’s head with an overnight bag as hard as she could.

“Wait!” he cried, attempting to defend himself from the blows.

“What do you want?!” she screamed, hitting him harder. “Tell me!”

The apartment door flew open and Officer Kingston ran into the room. “Ms. Quinn!”

Val glanced back at him and, taking the chance, the stranger attempted to straighten.

Panicked, Valerie pulled back her foot and delivered a hard kick to his exposed groin, making the man topple to the floor with a deep groan of pain.

“Jesus…Christ!” he groaned, curving into a ball.

Michael silently hissed, watching the scene from over Kingston’s shoulder and shuddering at the pain the man on the ground was probably feeling.

Valerie stood panting, looking down at him with wide eyes. “It’s him!” she told Kingston, turning to him in urgency. “H-he has… he has a knife and there’s blood… there’s blood on it.”

“That’s not him, ma’am…” said Kingston quietly.

Valerie frowned. “What? What do you mean…?”

Kingston pursed his lips together as he scratched the back of his head. “This, Ms. Quinn,” he said, approaching to help the stranger stand. “… is Dane Smith.”

Valerie backed away, looking at them in puzzlement. “Who?”

The man clenched his jaw as he straightened. “Dane Smith,” he groaned out, extending a hand out to Valerie. “I’m a close friend of Roman Parker. Nice to meet you.”

Slightly shrinking back, Valerie eyed his outstretched hand and then turned her gaze up to his face with a cringe.

Oh, great. She’d gone and assaulted an innocent man. That too with a cop present. Bloody fantastic.

*******************

Roman watched his fingers tapping on the surface of the heavy oak table, his brows drawn together in a deep frown. Cooper hadn’t shown up to the station since morning.

Roman was disgusted at his lack of work ethic and made it clear but, of course, Davis had something to say to excuse Cooper’s inexcusable behavior.

Davis turned around from the sparse writing board that he’d been studying. “How much longer? Where is she?”

Stark glanced at his watch. “Should be here in—”

“I’m here!” announced Doctor Kacey Louis as she hurried into the room. “Apologies, gentlemen. Had one come in the minute I was about to head over here.”

“Finally,” said Davis. “Grab the lady a coffee, Tanaka. Go on, Louis, what’ve we got here?”

Nodding at Davis, she set her files on the table and looked at them with a heavy exhale, her gaze passing over Stark’s, Tanaka’s, and finally Roman’s.

They all looked rather grim. As, considering the circumstances, they should.

“Here you go,” said Detective Tanaka, passing KC a coffee.

“Thanks, Adam.” Kacey set her cup a safe distance away from the documents and files she’d spread out and then sat back with a grave expression. “Alright now. Gentlemen, we have ourselves a madman.”

Roman set his elbows on the table and leaned forward, reaching for one of the documents she’d laid out. “What did you find?”

“The victim was in a state that made cause of death seem like anything from excessive bleeding to strangulation,” stated KC as she distributed the documents she’d prepared.

“He definitely knew what he was doing,” said Tanaka, analyzing her notes.

KC nodded as she spread a poster-sized image over the board and held it in place with large magnets.

“So what did you get as COD?” Roman asked as he frowned at the diagram and notes of a small image showing the small puncture on the victim’s neck.

Turning to face them, KC set her hands in her lab coat pockets. “Asphyxia due to paralysis.”

Davis swore. “He suffocated her.”

KC tilted her head. “Not physically. The bruising around her neck was clearly visible but upon further examination, her larynx was found to be whole, without so much as a fracture which is very uncommon with victims of death by strangulation.”

“So he’d strangled her for a little while, but not enough to kill her,” said Roman.

“Exactly.”

Davis’s eyes darkened. “Bastard was playing with her. Taking her to the brink of death and back.”

Glancing at the image behind her, KC pursed her lips. “Because he’d already ensured her death anyway. He had nothing to risk by biding his time with her since he had a sure plan in place.”

Tanaka’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that?”

“Some method of suffocation,” said Roman. “The discoloration of the victim’s flesh, as well as her eyes, clearly indicate such.”

“Yes,” agreed Detective Tanaka. “But what manner of suffocation?”

KC sighed. “Fish.” The room went silent for a moment and KC raised a brow. Shocked them silent, didn’t she? “Blowfish.”

Tanaka’s eyes filled with suspicion. “You don’t mean… TTX?”

Roman’s frown eased as he realized and his heart constricted in his chest for a minute. “Tetrodotoxin?” He asked in a dark tone. “You’re talking about Tetrodotoxin?”

“Sonofabitch,” said Stark.

KC gave them a single nod. “That’s right.”

Davis crossed his arms. “So you’re saying, the bastard used some toxin from a fish, that right?”

Tanaka released a breath. “Not just a toxin, Lieutenant. TTX is deadly. Lethal!”

“Far deadlier than Cyanide,” said Roman. “The smallest amounts can paralyze in minutes, a little more and you’re dead.”

KC released a breath. “TTX was injected into her system in minuscule amounts at a time, just enough to paralyze her, with the final dosage being the lethal dosage. This,” KC pointed at the image, indicating the puncture on the victim’s neck. “…was one way he got it into her. Now we all know that the toxin is carried by marine life such as blowfish, starfish, octopuses, etc. The question is: how did he get it into her? This puncture is clearly too large to be a needle.”

“He could really be crazy enough to carry fish around,” said Stark. “That puncture looks about the same diameter as a blowfish spike.”

“Possible,” said Tanaka seriously. “Or, he could have extracted their poison and used it with some other instrument.”

“Is it possible to extract the toxin from these creatures?” asked Davis.

Tanaka nodded. “In Japan, Fugu is a blowfish dish which is considered a high-class delicacy. All who eat it are very well aware of the dangers that come with eating the dish as the smallest mistake in preparation, such as failing to properly remove the fish organs containing this toxin, can result in fatal consequences.”

“And they still eat it?” asked Stark, wide-eyed.

Tanaka nodded. “They sure do. Although only the most highly trained chefs are legally allowed to prepare the dish. If the perpetrator has access to these fish, he could easily extract the toxin using multiple methods.”

Roman looked at Davis. “TTX itself could never be legally sold anywhere. So the only way he got his hands on it…”

“…is if he has the fish themselves,” completed Davis with a raised brow. “What a crazy motherfucker.”

“That’s all very likely,” said KC. “The toxin was the only thing that allowed him to do all that he did. If he’d attacked her as she entered her home, he could have rammed no more than for slight paralysis into her neck and he was home free.”

“That’s why there was no sign of struggle,” said Rogan, feeling like his insides would spill out of his mouth at any second. “She couldn’t do a thing to save herself from that bastard.”

KC looked at him, her gaze gentle as she thought of the Rose Killer case where Roman’s mother’s killer was never caught. If any of them were getting triggered by this case, it was Roman. “The toxin does also cause loss of sensations with the onset of paralysis, so our vic could have been spared the torture of feeling pain.”

The room grew silent for a moment and KC knew they were thinking what they always thought. The ordeal the victim had gone through and the state she’d ended up in and if it had happened to their sisters, wives, daughters, or girlfriends. The thought never failed to present itself with every homicide case.

And that was the reason they, as cops, never ceased to do what they did.

“So that was the cause of Asphyxia in the end,” stated Roman.

KC nodded. “Eventually all her muscles were paralyzed and her lungs could no longer inhale oxygen. She became brain dead from lack of oxygen in a matter of minutes after the lethal dose.”

Tanaka raised his gaze to hers. “When we entered the crime scene, the victim’s body had been cleaned of any evidence of poisoning, like vomiting and such, but the bed where he’d laid her…”

“He didn’t clean that, did he?”

Tanaka shook his head and indicated the image on the board. “As you can see, he’d wiped her face clean, leaving her body drenched in her own blood as he laid those roses around her. But the bodily fluids and excretions that had seeped into the sheets, he did not clean.”

“He didn’t care that we’d find evidence in it,” said Roman. “It’s fairly easy for us to detect that he’d used the poison, but he doesn’t care that we could. Why?”

“Perhaps he thinks there’s no way for us to trace him through that,” said Stark.

KC crossed her arms and sighed. “I’ve documented all my findings for you as best I could, considering how little time I have on my hands. Ms. Crawford was not sexually assaulted in any way, all harm to her person was physical, so those tests came out negative.”

“Thank goodness there’s at least that,” muttered Davis. “Even if it means we have zero DNA to work with.

Roman rubbed his eyes. “Let’s go. Bastard’s still out there.”

Davis looked at Stark. “You’re finding every single place someone can get any of those damn fish from. I’m talking market stalls, aquariums, the local supermarket, ponds in the damn park. Every place, son.”

Stark nodded, gathering his things. “Got it, Lieutenant.”

“Ms. Quinn’s ex-boyfriend’s been located. I’m gonna be paying him a visit,” said Roman, gathering his things. “Also, there could be dealers of the poison itself. I’ll look into it.”

“You do that, Parker,” said Davis. “Then make sure Ms. Quinn is safe 24/7. I’ll be damned if that bastard will get anyone on our watch. When Cooper clocks in, let him know I want to see him.”

Roman nodded as Davis rose to leave. “Got it, chief.”

“Back here at seven!” called Davis on his way out.

Tanaka and Stark left the room, leaving Roman to toss away their coffee cups and KC to gather her documents.

She paused, studying Roman as he flipped closed the wastebasket.

“You okay?”

Roman raised his head, looking at KC and her eyes of concern. “Well… as good as I can be, under the circumstances.”

KC nodded. “Yeah. Glad you made Detective. If anybody can find the bastard, Roman, it’s you.”

Roman looked at her for a silent moment, receiving the praise that was so familiar coming from her. Kacey was a great woman. One who deserved to be worshipped by whichever man she decided to be with.

That man was not him and luckily, Kacey had known it. Their brief affair was what both of them had needed at the time and it had left them with nothing more than an easy friendship.

As far as Roman was concerned.

Sighing, he nodded. “Thanks, Kacey.”

Kacey pursed her lips. “Where’s Detective Cooper? I thought he’d definitely be here.”

Roman shrugged a shoulder. “He didn’t clock in after seeing you this morning.”

“This case seems very important to him. He wanted me to give him permission to transport the body.”

Roman blinked. “What? Did he say why?”

“Something about his old colleague taking a look. He did, however, tell me… not to tell you.”

Roman narrowed his eyes. “Oh? Did he now?”