The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller by Jared Paul Read Free Book Online

Christmas.
                 
    Now, Heather was a bloated, barely recognizable mass of a human being, the subcutaneous fatty tissue oozing out of places on her body where the decomposing gases had torn the skin open were yellow and reminded Cory of honey. The wound in her chest was the obvious cause of death, a star-shaped brand marking where a gun had been fired point blank at her. The bullet probably shredded its way through the chest and then lodged somewhere within the body. It wasn’t a nice, or pretty way to die, but at least it had been quick.
    Dr. Willis took his frail looking arms and lifted Heather so that she would then roll over onto what appeared to be her side. Cory moved in closer, interested against her better judgment, to see if there would be that strange little hole in her shoulder. She couldn’t imagine that it would be there, since the victim found in the parking lot had been strangled and Heather had been shot. If there was a serial killer running on the loose, they would stick to one method of killing and only one method. Right?
                 
    Cory had to blink as her eyes took in the splotchy colors of the skin of Heather’s back. She’d been found lying against the far wall of her apartment facing the door, her eyes wide open looking to greet anyone who ventured in. The way she’d sat had formed the discoloration on the bottom side of her showed where the blood in her body had settled. It would prove that Heather hadn’t been moved after she’d been shot, that someone had gone into her apartment and murdered her.
                 
    “What is that indentation there? Dr. Lance, come shine a light where my finger is resting.”
                 
    There on Heather’s back, obscured by bloated tissue, was a small circular hole with smooth, surgical edges. Cory could tell what it was even before she found a pen light to do as Dr. Willis had commanded.
                 
    “Hold it still, woman.”
                 
    Cory hadn’t realized that her hand was shaking or that the bottom of her stomach had given way so that her insides now resided on the tiled floor. The room itself was spinning, warning her that something significant was about to happen. As she thought this, Willis pulled out a small pill-like plastic object from the hole in which she’d illuminated for him.
                 
    Willis pulled his tape recorder, pressed the record button and began speaking, “Small cylindrical foreign object located in the upper deltoid muscle of the right shoulder. Possible projectile.” He then pressed stop on the recorder and dropped the plastic object into a sample bag.
    “Take this and see if you can scrape off a slide for me. I want to know what that is made of and what it might be or have belonged to.”
                 
    Cory took the bag from him, not bothering to tell him that she already had a good idea of what it was and moved off to the slide table. Instead of picking out a magnifying glass of a slicer, she removed the little object from its bag and pulled it apart. As before, there was a message inside. As she read it, her breathing began to speed up.
     
    Number two, coming for you.
     
     

CHAPTER 6
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    Jon drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his brother’s cruiser. The atmosphere inside of the station was too heavy. He’d wandered out to the cruiser to keep from going on a killing spree to murder duck tarts. Louis was sitting next to him, keeping his eyes directed out at the parking lot.
                 
    “What do you want to do?”
                 
    Louis’ voice had calmed down somewhat, but Jon could tell that the man, despite his predilections with women, was a fierce friend and a good man. Louis had been partnered with Travis since they’d both joined up two years ago and Louis was more like an adopted brother than a