Chloe got out of her car and popped a stick of gum in her mouth. She'd passed her detective exam five days ago and quit smoking two days later. As she surveyed the scene in front of her, she was suddenly regretting both those decisions. She tugged at her jacket, still not comfortable wearing street clothes while on duty. The white starched shirt gave her a sense of comfort but the jeans felt wrong on her. On the other hand, the cold, misty night was kept at bay a lot better with a leather jacket then the standard issue police shirt and vest.
She closed the door to her new Tesla. It was a little gift to herself, purchased in celebration of passing her exam and getting her promotion. She loved it already. She told people it was because going electric was better for the planet. Deep down she knew that was only half the reason. The other 50% was because it was just so damn cool. The sleek lines. The near silent acceleration. She'd fallen in love with the car when her last boyfriend had bought his. That had been a year ago. A long, lonely year. She shivered at the thought of Ray's touch, thinking about how much she'd missed it. Ray had disappeared mysteriously. Just taken off though Chloe was convinced it was worse. She'd thrown herself at the case despite the warnings she'd gotten from her bosses. His disappearance had provided the kick in the ass she'd needed to finally buckle down and go for detective. It was good that it had provided some motivation even if the case had brought no satisfaction to her. He was gone from her life just as mysteriously as he'd come in. Everyone said she should have seen it coming but she refused to accept that he'd just up and left.
That was in the past. Chloe forced herself to focus on the current situation, surveying the scene before her. Blue and red lights were everywhere and it seemed that half the force was here. The 10-53, person down, had changed to a 10-55 as she was driving in. That meant there was a coroner on the way and a body to be examined. None of that explained why 20 cops were here and seemed to be arresting the entire fraternity. Delta Omega Mu's had always been a problem. Loud house parties, drunken revelry. But the one thing they'd actually been good at is weeding out the underclassmen. It was kind of a running joke at the college and amongst the local police that busting their parties never lead to citations for underage drinking. Given that, Chloe couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about over a girl that, reports indicated, had fallen over a balcony.
Chloe made a beeline to the officer in charge, Gerald Bentley. She liked Gerald partly for his unusual history and partly because he wasn't a jock like a lot of the other guys. He tipped his hat to Chloe as she approached. Two weeks ago, he'd been her superior. Now he was answering to her. The other detectives had warned her that was the hardest part of the transition. All the more reason she was grateful Gerald was the one in charge here. He was finishing a call with Dispatch as Chloe approached. She caught the tail end of the discussion about a search of the campus.
"Hey there, Gerry. What's with all the arrests? Do we not think this was an accident anymore?" Chloe's smile faded as she saw the older man's expression. Gerald had come over on a liaison program from the UK. He'd liked LA so much that he'd asked to stay permanently and eventually joined the force officially. The guys joked that it was because he just enjoyed carrying a gun. But in reality, he loved the weather and, inexplicably to most, the people of Los Angeles. Like a lot of British men, Gerald kept his emotions close to his vest, which is why his nearly ashen face stopped Chloe cold.
"You need to see this," he said and gestured for her to follow.
"What's up?" Chloe asked. When Gerald didn't respond, Chloe reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Seriously... Gerald... what the hell?"
Gerald gestured to the pavement where a woman's body was being examined by the ME's assistant. The woman's head was busted open and blood was everywhere. It was a horrible, unfortunate sight but it wasn't anything that they hadn't seen a dozen times before. "Name's Addison Jiminez. She's a sister at Sigma Upsilon Beta. Got drunk, came over the railing and died on impact."
Chloe looked, watching as Beverly was examining the body. Beverly had only been with the ME's office for a couple months. Why was she doing the examination? Where was the Medical Examiner? Before she could ask, Chloe noticed the dark woods behind the building. There must have been half a dozen flashlights flicking through the woods. Gerald kept walking, going right past the dead body as if it wasn't the reason they were there. "The girl that called it in is a pledge for the sorority," he said as he glanced to his right.
A scantily clad blonde was being tended to by a couple cops. She looked cold and terrified. What the hell had happened here?
"A pledge? Not like the Delta's to let an underclassmen in. Not a good reason to arrest everyone though, Gerry." Chloe studied the shaken girl, she didn't look like a freshmen.
"She's not. She's actually a senior, over here on exchange from Oslo. She thought it would be fun to pledge a sorority and she chose the Sigma's."
"Sure... tall, blonde, athletic Swede sounds like their type." That was essentially the opposite description of Chloe who barely topped 5'4", had dark brown hair and was very top heavy. In a different line of work, those might have been assets, but not for police work. Not that she had a chip on her shoulder or anything.
"Norway, Detective," Gerald said, correcting her with a shrug. "She called in freaking out. The 911 operator didn't get much from her." Gerald led Chloe into the woods, towards the flashlights.
"When we got here, everything seemed fine but our guys noticed that a bunch of the frat members were rummaging in the woods. The brothers tried to distract them, focusing on the dead girl but one of the rooks got curious. Thank God he did I guess, but Jesus what a thing to find."
Before Chloe could ask, her still forming questioned was answered by her own eyes. The scene was macabre. Body parts were strewn across a small clearing. Multiple arms and legs formed a rough circle. "Holy fuck," Chloe breathed out, "How... how many?"
"ME's trying to figure that out. My rough guess is 10 but we won't know for awhile. Maybe never. Decomp looks pretty bad on some."
Chloe looked around. She was confused, appalled and horrified all at once. "We think the Deltas did this?" she asked turning back to the Sergeant.
He nodded, "Yeah. Looks like it, love." It was a testament to how disconcerted Gerald was that he called her that while on duty. He called all the women he worked with that but never while wearing the uniform. Normally he was all business but tonight had really shaken him. Chloe could understand why. She turned her eye towards the grisly scene, trying to figure out what in the world had happened. Gerry continued from behind, "When Jacob, the rookie who found this, called out, the brothers all tried to take off. Our guys tased a couple and there happened to be two units next door breaking up another party. They caught a bunch of other runners. We started rounding up the ones that were too drunk to run and that's what you see. I figure about 15 took off and I got central to pull every patrol unit in the area to start knocking on doors and searching campus."
Chloe nodded her head. She couldn't worry about that right now. She walked over to the ME, a nice, middle aged man named Bob. Chloe had dealt with Bob several times. Every time she'd been left with the impression that he might be the world's most average person. Average height, average build. Brown hair. Brown Eyes. If you drew a generic white guy, Bob would be what you got. "Sorry this is your night, Bob," Chloe said as she walked up, "Anything you can tell me?"
"Not much. I heard Gerald say he thought there might be 10 bodies. I think that's probably right. I'll know better later but it's a fair guess right now," he stood up and gestured around the clearing. "The limbs form an oval around here," he said indicating the area in front of them, "and they're in a variety of states of decomp. This one," he said pointing at a nearly skeletal leg at their feet, "I couldn't even guess the age of. But the next one over," he said, pointing now to an arm. It was severed at the shoulder, blood and sinew dangling out. There wasn't much sign of decay, just some dirt smudges.
"Looks like it's from today?" Chloe said, aghast.
"I thought so too but it's definitely not. Too much rigor and the blood has been rain smeared and it hasn't rained since Tuesday."
"So... what... it's three days old?"
"And it's been sitting here that whole time. See how the leaves underneath it are stained with the runoff of the blood?" he asked as he knelt down again.
"No way. Animals would be all over it," Chloe protested.
"I don't know what to tell you. It's all very ritualistic. Alternate leg, arm, left, right the whole way around. Maybe they had someone out here keeping the animals away."
"Or maybe something else kept them away. Ghosts or demons maybe?" came a voice from behind her. Chloe stiffened. She knew the mocking tone of her ex-partner. Brett was a real piece of work. A womanizer par-excellence. He was a perfect example of the kind of asshole jock that pervaded the LAPD.
Chloe forced her expression to remain neutral and turned to see the tall, well built man that walked towards her. It would have been easier if he wasn't so damn good looking. Unfortunately, he knew it. His cocky grin was awfully sexy despite his utter lack of humanity underneath. "Hello, Brett. Hey, weren't you in Delta Omega Mu?"
