A Body With A Name
‘Marcus Voss. Aged 22. Homicide Victim. Work of Script.’ Detective Vance says, reading from the Homicide file. In front of me lies a body, cut to the throat using a knife.‘No connection to anyone?’ I ask.
‘He has a brother in the States, and his parents are both in England. So, no.’ I sigh and turn to look for the one item, a script. It always held all the information about the victim in the form of a production or film script. That’s why the killer has the nickname Script. My partner, Leo Vance, has been working on this case for 6 months already. These people have no connection to anyone here. That’s why we think they are being targeted. In the last six months, we have had 23 cases. No connection to anyone. Never helped.
‘Need a break, Morven?’ Vance asks. I nod and step outside.
I hated this. Every time. Michaela was working on my cases. My murder cases. Marcus had been a pain and was too damn close to working out that it was me. He had to go. Also, it made it easy that most of them had no connections to many people. He moved here about a year ago. I had flown in with him. The red-tipped knife sat on the table. My mask and jacket are next to each other. Folded nicely. My phone starts buzzing in my pocket.
‘Hey. I need your input on this case.’ Michaela says from the other line. I grab the mask, jacket, and knife and stash them into my bag. I grab the bag and swing it onto my shoulder.
‘I’ll be there in 10.’
‘Didn’t realise that we need to get their input.’ I shoot a slightly too aggressive look at the tall, mousy-haired guy standing there. Detective Leo Vance. My girlfriend’s work partner. Michaela comes over as I take off my helmet and place it on my bike. She hands me one of my scripts. The script I left last night.
‘Left by them. You work in acting, so I thought you might know something?’ I give her a questioning look. She looks slightly upset. Like she knows something but doesn’t want to say it to Leo. I open it. I know what it’s about, but I don’t want to give myself away.
‘I’m a videographer, but I’ll have a look.’ Michaela hugs me. She has mousy blonde hair. Like me. I have blue eyes while she has brown. We are mainly similar but have a few physical differences.
‘Hey, um, Ivy. Before you get lost in there, want to come and have a look around and tell us your thoughts?’ Officer Garret Knox. One of my close friends. One thing I hated about working with this, is that they all have weapons so I can’t even try and take them out.
‘Probably not.’ Ivy says. The sun was going down and we were rapidly losing sunlight. Not a good Idea. Ivy had never really liked seeing blood.
‘You suck.’ Garret and Ivy have known each other since Ivy was six and Garret was four. He knew how to get them out of their comfort zone. Ivy smacks Garret’s arm playfully. I smile. Vance places his hand on my shoulder. I forgot that he was there.
‘Well at least I got my dream job.’ Ivy gives him a skeptical look.
‘Just because I wanted to be an actor at one point didn’t mean that I wanted to be bullied for it.’ Garret places his hands on his hips.
‘You two can stay out here all day and argue but we won’t ever catch Script if you both don’t do anything.’ My partner makes his way to the house. I notice Ivy become tense at the mention of Script. Officer Knox follows Vance inside. Ivy puts their arm around me.
‘You, OK?’ I ask them.
‘Just don’t like the thought that there is someone out in the world killing people for fun.’
‘Yeah. Things like that happen.’
