Hacking Love (Book One, Eye Candy fanfic)

chapter 3 - hbtu

Nate kicked in the door to Reese's apartment, a gun and flashlight raised. "Reese Hennessy? It's the NYPD." 

Tommy and Nate led the way in for Lindy and me.

Lindy tried to turn on the lights, but none of them worked. 

I stepped over broken glass, making in crunch. 

We walked into the living room, looking around. 

We saw dummies like the one the killer had set up at the apartment and in the car dressed up as if playing house.

"What the hell is this?" Tommy asked.

I looked at the TV. It was playing static. 

Lindy looked up at the stuff hanging down around her head. "Guys?" 

Tommy and Nate shone their falshlights toward them. 

The tings hanging down from the ceiling by wires were blood-stained teeth. 

Lindy started to breathe heavily, backing away. 

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We went back to the Cyber Crimes Unit, looking over all of the teeth that were now on the table next to its number. 

Shaw was standing with us. "What do you think?" 

"I don't know," I told her. "What am I supposed to think? Pulling out someone's teeth sure isn't a great character trait." 

"He feels powerful, arrogant, but sometimes it's not about power," Shaw told us. "Sometimes it's about the desire to be understood." 

"By who?" Lindy asked. "Me?" Shaw looked at her, but didn't answer. "Look, Reese gave me the creeps. He did, but he doesn't deserve to die this way. It's my fault."

"No, it's not," I told her. 

"He targeted Reese, and now he's bragging about it, because of me," Lindy told me. 

Tommy and Nate walked closer.

"That was the crime scene tech," Tommy told us. "The teeth we found aren't Reese's. They belong to a woman."

"So Reese could still be alive?" I asked.

"Yes," Tommy answered. 

"We need to find him," Lindy told us. "Time is running out." 

"Lindy, the NYPD is out, looking for any side of him right now," Nate told her.

"A sign?" Lindy repeated. "What kind of sign?" 

Shaw looked at Tommy and Nate. "Find out who those teeth belong to now." 

"Got it," Nate told her, walking toward the computer with the big screen, searching. We followed. "New York's got a big database of open homicides." I walked closer to Nate, standing next to him, looking up at the screen. "But a victim with all her teeth pulled is what you call a very distinct search criteria." 

Up to a hundred of pictures were zooming by.

"Wow, there are so many of them," Lindy told us. 

"We got a match," Nate told us. Flashes of a woman's body went on a slide show on the screen. "Jane Doe. Missing teeth, couldn't ID her. Body was sent to Hart Island." 

"Hart island?" Lindy repeated. 

"New York's Potter's field," Tommy explained. "It's where all unclaimed bodies are sent."