{"id":316,"date":"2025-01-20T00:04:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T00:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/?p=316"},"modified":"2025-11-07T02:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:29:22","slug":"fun-killers-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/20\/fun-killers-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Killers – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThere is a broken tea cup,\u201d Grace said. There was a small delegation of officers, coming and going. It felt like a small circus with the common denominator was badges. Grace was a fresh faced officer. Her dark hair cut short, dark blue eyes set in the whitest pupils Colin had ever seen. She was short and stocky. He knew she could hold her own in a fight with a perp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim sniffed the air around it. \u201cWhat is that smell?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace breathed in deeply, \u201cCamomile tea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another smell too\u2026can\u2019t quite make it out.\u201d Grace said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRosemary,\u201d chimed in Jim and they looked at him in shock. \u201cI use it for my steak marinade. Not exactly a drink for a hostile meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnless she was trying to calm her nerves,\u201d Colin replied. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t she finish it?\u201d He looked closer at the cup\u2019s handle. It was sticky, with a faint residue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to get the fingerprint people into this room too. Get that tea cup into a bag for evidence and off to the lab. There might be something other than tea in that cup and maybe some trace amounts of DNA, who knows.\u201d Colin had moments of clear commands. He hadn\u2019t started out that way, more timid than commanding. He knew Jim had worn off on him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another officer with a notebook stood in the door way, trying to get their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is it officer?\u201d Jim asked him and he jumped. He cleared his throat and started to read from his notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe victims name is Cassandra Marks, a well-known medium. She had a stall here at the convention, quite popular with everyone. Preliminary shows that there is no signs of a struggle, but signs of petechiaei in her eyes, indicating strangulation. There was no defensive wounds to her hands, but we will check under her finger nails too. She may have been unconscious already when she was killed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust like the last one. This one had the sage though. I wonder what that is about,\u201d Colin said, his arms were folded across his chest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tarot cards are the only thing that seems to link them together as a serial killer\u2019s calling card. We need to look closer at the victims background. The bell may have been the first mistake.\u201d Jim almost sounded elated. He closed up his gray trenchcoat, tightening up the belt. \u201cThe weather out there has certainly changed.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin scanned the room, an unlit candle, green and embedded with herbs, sat on a side table. Grabbing it, he smelled it. \u201cThis is the source of the rosemary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRosemary is used for rituals,\u201d Grace said. The officers wrote it in his notebook. \u201cRosemary is for protection. Looks like someone brought it with them and forgot it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr the victim did,\u201d Colin replied. \u201cBut why light a candle for protection, then get killed anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim gave him a concerned look and laughed, \u201cbecause it is nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, yeah, I forgot,\u201d Jim turned away and rolled his eyes. Skeptic<\/em> he thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin turned his attention to the desk. A planner laid to the side, some pages were smeared with ink. \u201cOh, this is something.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe entry for yesterday is: 8 PM \u2014 E.G. private meeting, office<\/strong>.\u201d Jim read it aloud. \u201cE.G.,\u201d he murmured, his mind immediately jumping to Edward Grant, the convention manager. He flipped to some previous pages and found more notes referencing \u201cE.G.\u201d A second note unlined: \u201cDon\u2019t forget payment<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooks like someone had a side deal going,\u201d Colin said, peering over Jim\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo you said there is no cameras near the offices, but what about other areas. Anything on those?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a few security cameras, we can get access to them this way.\u201d Grace led them down the hall into a security office, the desk filled with keyboards and a line of monitors in front. \u201cThe closest one is outside the main hallway.\u201d She sat down and started scanning the feed from the previous evening. Jim and Colin discussed evening plans while they waited. Jim had a game he planned to watch. Colin could see him in his boxer shorts and t-shirt on the sofa, popcorn bucket in his lap, and beers littering the table. It was seared in his mind from last time. Colin had dinner plans with his girlfriend and hoped to be on time, but she had gotten used to waiting for a little while till he could escape his job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got something,\u201d Grace said, her voice sharp. \u201cVictor Hayes. He\u2019s on camera pacing outside the door, the time stamp says 7:45 pm when he decides to head down the hall. What does the schedule say for that time, does it confirm an appointment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin flipped back to the page, \u201cYes, V.H. 7:45 pm. Interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wonder what went down at that appointment?\u201d Jim said. \u201cBut the hallway does lead to other offices and outside down the side passage to the right.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that is too much of a coincidence,\u201d Colin replied. His phone vibrated in his pocket. His eyebrow shot up. \u201cAsk Lila about the bell. She knows more than she\u2019s saying<\/strong>. Who\u2019s Lila?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe is Cassandra\u2019s mentee,\u201d Grace said. \u201cShe told me she left early that day because she wasn\u2019t feeling well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho sent the text?\u201d Jim asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a random number, doesn\u2019t even look like a phone number. Anonymous tip?\u201d Colin queried. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooks that way,\u201d Jim said. \u201cBut it feels like someone is toying with us. Let\u2019s find Lila and the others, bring them back here. We need some answers before someone else ends up dead.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for Part 3\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Rachel D. Knepp<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 Rachel D. Knepp.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author\u2019s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means\u2014including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods\u2014without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews or critical articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is a broken tea cup,\u201d Grace said. There was a small delegation of officers, coming and going. It felt like a small circus with the common denominator was badges. Grace was a fresh faced officer. Her dark hair cut short, dark blue eyes set in the whitest pupils Colin had ever seen. She was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detective-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebyrk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}