Axel White stared at the files on his desk, each pertaining to a missing person. All three of them were young women in college, but that was the only thing connecting these girls together. Axel wasn’t even trying. All he's been doing for the past two days were dodging his superiors and working on murder cases. Especially the gruesome ones his coworkers couldn’t stand.

He leaned back in his office chair, determining if it was worth getting yelled at to start on yet another case. He was about to stand until another file was slapped onto his growing stack.

“We’ve got an update on Quincy Addams,” Detective Jefferson said, his hand retracting back to his own stack of files. “A girl claiming to be her friend, Julie Luther, found her dead in her apartment posed as if to look like she was reading.”

Axel sat up in his chair, snatching the new file and flipping it open to see the crime scene photos. “Hold your horses, slick,” Jefferson said with amusement to his best friend, holding out yet another file. “This one’s Quincy’s. That one is the start of a new missing person report for Julie Luther.”

“Wait, the one who reported Quincy?” Axel questioned Jefferson as he grabbed the report Quincy. He flipped it open and stared at the gruesome photos with excitement.

“That’s what I said. Julie’s roommate Evanie brought this one in. We don’t know much about her.”

“Is she still here?”

“Not for much longer. She was about to start crying so I left her in the break room. Can you finish this one, White?”

“Yeah, just a second though,” Axel said and he opened up the current file on Julie. “Should I ask her if she knows any of these girls as well?”

“If it helps you finally determine a suspect, go for it,” Jefferson said as he took a seat in his desk across from Axel.

“Is she cute?” Axel wiggled his eyebrows

“She’s underage, perve,” he said while tossing the notepad in his direction. Axel caught it with ease.

            “Have you seen any of these students around campus before?” Axel asked Evanie as he put the photos onto the table. She looked down at the photos with her bright blue eyes. Axel searched for any sign of recognition in her face, but found absolutely nothing.

“No, I haven’t. Could they be linked to Julie?” Evanie’s soft voice asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Axel muttered to himself. For the first time in weeks, he finally took notice of this case because someone had turned up dead. Maybe he really should be fired.

“How much time did you spend with Julie?”

“I give her rides all the time and we usually go everywhere together,” Evanie described, looking Axel in the eyes.

“Can you describe her to me? Or maybe you have a picture we can go off of?”

“I have a small one in my wallet,” she mumbled, causing Axel to narrow his eyes in suspicion for a moment. She pulled out the photo and handed the small slip of paper to Axel. He studied and memorized the platinum blond beauty.

“What makes you think she’s gone missing?”

“She hasn’t shown up at the apartment in two days or texted me once. And I know she didn’t just leave.”

Axel opened up his own massive file of the missing people and finally noticed something they each had in common. They each had a boyfriend. Unnamed, but each source claimed that they had a boyfriend at the time. Why didn't he think of asking the boyfriend? But why didn’t any of them tell the police their girlfriend went missing?

“Did Julie ever mention that she had a boyfriend?” Axel asked Evanie. She gave him her own narrowed eyes.

“Yeah, his name is Richard Geller. They’ve been together for a few months now.”

“Has he contacted you recently?”

“Just before I got here, yeah.”

“Can we have his number? Possibly even his address?”

“Uh...sure,” she hesitantly answered. “Will I have to go home after this?”

Axel was a little confused by the question, but as she chewed her bottom lip between her teeth, he realized that she was afraid. “You can spend the remainder of the day here in the department where it’s safe or with Jefferson and I as we figure out the case. We could really use your help.”

“I’ll stay with you--if that’s alright,” Evanie spoke fast and Axel smiled reassuringly at her.

“We’ll find Julie today. I promise.”

“Chicago PD, open up!” Axel shouted from outside the door, but he was ready to bust it down if there wasn’t a response. Evanie was standing off to the side, her fingers fidgeting with each other. “Richard Geller, we need you to open the door.”

“Pop it open yourself, White,” Jefferson muttered from behind Axel. Axel took a step back before stomping the door down by it’s hinges, the ground and walls shaking from the impact. The sight before them emitted a curse word beneath Jefferson’s breath.

“There goes your suspect, genius.”

Axel looked at the dead man posed on the couch with disgust. He was pretty old to be dating a young woman like Julie or any of the other victims, but he wouldn’t judge. He felt sick to his stomach, his face scrunching up in disgust at the smell emitting from Richard’s body. He’s been dead far too long. There was no way he was the one who apparently contacted Evanie this morning.

“He’s posed just like Quincy,” Jefferson pointed out, trying not to get too close to the body. Richard looked as if he was watching the blank television screen with a bottle of beer in his hand and a remote in the other. “Well, kind of.”

“Can--can I go back to the police station?” Evanie requested and Axel almost forgot she was here. He was too entranced in the sliced throat identical to Quincy’s.

“Yeah, of course,” Axel said, stepping away from the couch. “I need to go to the kitchen, but you can stay with me. We’ll leave as soon as the investigators show up.”

Axel searched the kitchen for any possible leads on a better suspect because Richard Geller definitely didn’t kidnap Julie Luther in the past 24 hours. But the killer was obviously linked to Julie and Quincy, and possibly Evanie soon. Axel scanned all the post it notes on the refrigerator that contained many addresses and phone numbers along with their names. He spotted an address on Chicago University’s campus with an E on the bottom as a signature. He turned around, spotting Evanie minding her own business as she looked at the photo on the wall. Could the E be for Evanie?

“We’re coming up to the apartment,” someone’s voice said through Axel’s earpiece. He turned back around and made eye contact with Evanie, nodding to tell her they were leaving.

Axel had tracked the phone number instead of following the address on the post it note, the sight of a warehouse coming into view. He had dropped Evanie off in the civilian waiting place as he spent his own personal time in the technology sector of the department to figure out the phone number’s location. The address was an apartment that has already been under the Chicago PD’s watchful care after being searched for any leads on Julie Luther’s case, but this phone number was new. Maybe it would lead Axel to nothing, but he was going to at least try for the first time since he’s started this case.

He left his car, silently shutting the door to keep from making his presence known. He pulled out his binoculars and found that there was a jeep outside the warehouse door with its trunk open. He put the binoculars on the ground and hurried over to the car when no one appeared. He looked into the front seat for any signs of blood or even a posed body. He walked around the car until he reached the trunk and looked inside while leaning against the side of the warehouse. A distinct smell he remembered from Richard Geller’s apartment entered his nostrils--death.

Axel heard a loud scream from inside the warehouse and immediately took action by cocking his gun and stepping through the doorway. A lamp was lit in the corner of the open warehouse, the light illuminating the horrific scene before him.

A woman was standing over a table, her silhouette making Axel shiver. A platinum blond women was restrained on the table while squirming and screaming. She didn’t seem to be in pain--but when the perpetrator raised their arm and a thick dagger was revealed, Axel’s blood ran cold when an ear piercing scream left the girl he assumed was Julie Luther.

“Chicago PD, put the weapon down!” Axel yelled out to her. She didn’t stop. She made a clean slice across the victim’s neck and the screaming ended abruptly. Axel pulled the trigger, the bullet landing in the murderer’s knee. She yelled out at the sudden impact and collapsed onto the ground. Axel raced over and froze when the serial killer raised her head at him.

“Evanie?” he breathed out in shock. She had a smug look on her face, even after being shot in the leg. She didn’t seem to be in any pain

“At least you let me finish the job,” she thanked Axel. He couldn’t seem to remove his eyes from her emotionless face. She didn’t regret a thing.