Bloody Roses

Drip.
Drip.
Drip.

Alicia Blue's house was deathly silent other than the continuous dripping coming from the bathtub tap.

"No breaking in entry, no signs of foul play other than the bruises across the victim's body and no indication towards how the criminal got here in the first place," Banes informed Tyler as they both stood outside the bathroom.

"Is the body in here?" Tyler asked, indicating towards the bathroom currently filled with policemen and other detectives.

Banes nodded, "Middle aged female, five foot and eight inches, blonde hair, blue eyes and was found in her bathtub this morning when her sister walked in after staying over at a friend's house all night."

"Her sister came to visit?" Tyler asked as they waited for the bathroom to be cleared of people.

Banes shook her head, "No, they live together. Miss Alicia Blue had only just broken up with her husband, she has been living with her sister for two weeks now."

"And her sister is here right now?"

Banes nodded, "Courtney Blue, 22 years old and works at a clothes store nearby."

"And how is Courtney coping with the situation?"

Banes paused for a minute, pursing his lips together. "She's... She's Coping alright," Was all he said before they entered the bathroom. "Sorry we called you in so suddenly Jack," Banes muttered, "The boys had a feeling this linked up to our previous case, so we were called back in on it."

"Linked?" Jack asked, staring at Banes.

Banes didn't reply to that in words, he only answered by nodding towards the bathtub, indicating towards the dead body laying there in the pale red water.

Tyler turn around, facing Alicia Blue as she lay face up motionless in the bathtub. Her dead pale blue eyes were open, staring up at the ceiling, bloodless blue lips parted as if she was trying to say something moments before her death. Her pale skin looked stretched, marble like and blue, decorated with small veins popping out from beneath the skin and wrinkling at the fingertips. Her lush long brown hair was plastered to her head, nails painted red and mascara running down her face. But Tyler wasn't focused on the body. He was looking at the red rose, bobbing up and down in the water like a float, surrounded by a cloud of red blood.

Tyler approached the body, kneeling down next to it and picking up one deathly cold hand, examining one arm before moving onto the next. There were various bruises up her arms, probably caused from banging them off the side of the tub while thrashing about at some point of the attack.

"Robert was here before you came, he said the body looked like it had been dead for a number of hours but he couldn't tell since she had been in water for so long: it's difficult to determine what temperature the water had been in. But he can determine the time of death after the autopsy," Banes paused to regain his breath. "They body is marked with several bruises. The most severe ones are by the neck where the girl was presumably strangled. The culprit looks like he has quite big hands, judging by the bruises on her neck."

"Did you pick up anything else?" Jack asked, "Maybe something that tells us a little about the killer?"

"We have nothing telling us that this was foul play, but there was an empty photograph frame lying on the floor in the living room, someone trod on it coming in so the glass has been cracked."

Jack looked up at the mention of the photograph, standing up. "About the photograph frame," He said. "You didn't happen to find the actual photograph did you?"

Banes shook his head, shrugging, "No, the photograph is nowhere in sight. Why?"

Tyler shook his head, "Nothing much really. Apart from I found another empty photo frame at Howard Jones' house."

Banes raised an eyebrow, "You think it's linked?"

Tyler shook his head, "I'm not sure. It could be just a coincidence. I'll ask Miss Courtney Blue what was originally in that photograph frame."

Tyler looked back at the body, staring up at the ceiling. The bathroom was cold, chilly in fact. The window had been left open, the curtain draping down to the floor fluttering in the wind. The grimy white tiled floor was flooded with water, probably bathwater but unlike the water in the bath, this wasn't dyed with blood. The rose had clearly been put in after Alicia was dead. Tyler studied her parted lips and wondered: What was she trying to say. What were her last words going to be? Or had she been trying to scream?

"The window is open?" Tyler asked Banes, raising an eyebrow.

"Judging on how neatly her clothes are placed, I'd say she was having a nice bath when the intruder walked in. I doubt he would have been able to climb in through the window without her noticing first," Banes told Tyler.

"I'm going to search the place," Tyler told Banes. "I'll see if there's anything we're missing."

Banes nodded, "Yeah, and then we'll talk to her sister, lets see if she has any clue on this investigation."

Tyler stood up, straightening his hat as he looked down at the body. "Oh and Jack," Banes suddenly said as Tyler turned to leave the room.

Tyler looked back. "Yes?"

"The blood on the rose isn't Alicia's," Banes informed him.

Tyler frowned, his thick dark eyebrows knitting together n confusion. "Again?" He asked. Where was this blood coming from? Was it the killer's own?

Banes nodded, "Miss Blue doesn't even have a single cut on her. She may have been severely bruised but no blood was shed during her death."

Tyler left the bathroom, proceeding back into the living room, out of the window he could see policemen down below on street outside trying to warn journalists and photographers away as they desperately kept on trying to climb over the barrier and get a better look of the apartment. A hoard of questions were being aimed towards the policemen who were refusing to answer anything until the detectives were finished with their work. But Tyler knew they couldn't say anything just yet, little details will be handed out but the rest of the case had to remain away from the public.

Tyler walked into Alicia Blue's bedroom. The place was a mess, expensive designer dresses and fashionable clothes were strewn across the floor. The bed sheets were ruffled and in a tangled heap while the place stank of expensive perfumes and strong smelling make-up powder. Tyler walked through the room, careful not to trip on a stray high heeled shoe on the way. The place was so messy, he couldn't decide whether it was because Alicia was an untidy person or if the killer had been searching her room. The second option seemed unlikely but Tyler would check with Alicia's sister just in case.

One thing in the room caught Tyler's eye in particular, it was a photograph on Alicia Blue's dressing table of Alicia herself. Tyler approached the framed photograph and picked it up to examine the picture more carefully. Alicia had been a very beautiful woman, stunning in fact. It was from a model shoot, her long brown hair curled around her face and those puckered plump lips were painted a dark colour, presumably red. She looked extraordinarily gorgeous. From what Tyler had heard, Alicia had been a model, 34 years old and quite successful though she had been on her way to retirement. And now she was lying dead in a bathtub.

The mirror of the dresser was smudged with mascara and several other cosmetics, jewelry boxes and many different various bottles of strong perfumes were stacked up on the surface hazardly. And several other photographs, mainly of Alicia herself but some were of her and another man, presumably a boyfriend or her ex-husband. Tyler began to pick up several boxes, flicking them open before placing them back down again. Alicia clearly had an expensive taste in jewelry, most of it being gold.

But it was the little charm bracelet she had on her skinny wrists in the photograph that had caught Tyler's attention. Not only was it a strange thing to wear to a stylish photoshoot like the one she had been modelling for, it was also in several other photographs. In fact, it was in nearly all of them. And Tyler couldn't find the actual bracelet anywhere on the dresser.

Going through the boxes on the dresser, Tyler finally put the last one down, glancing once more at the photograph before he turned back to the room behind him. And there it was. Lying on the bed along with several creased clothes and an empty open handbag. A single empty open jewelry box lying by itself. Tyler walked over to the box, picking it up and taking note of the store name on the box. He would check that up later. But more importantly, he wanted to know where that bracelet had come from. Alicia hadn't been wearing it before she died and it would have been picked up if anyone had found it in the bathroom.

Why was a simple thing like this bracelet important? When you become so attached to an item of jewelry like the one Alicia had been wearing, it usually means it came from someone important or special to you. Which meant Alicia had someone special to her. Someone who had given her that charm bracelet. She had recently broken up with her ex-husband so who was the charm bracelet off?

Who would give her something that meant so much to her? And now it was gone. Why would someone take it? Alicia had a whole collection of jewelry that was much more pricey and valuable than that single charm bracelet. So why was that the only thing to go missing?

They hadn't even questioned Courtney Blue yet and Tyler was already racking his brains for a conclusion. The charm bracelet didn't look like much, sure, it looked a little expensive. But it was nothing compared to the rest of Miss Blue's excessive collection.

So the killer had somehow gotten into Miss Blue's apartment. They had walked in on Alicia while she was in the bath, Courtney Blue had been out visiting a friend at the time. So it was either a coincidence that the killer had dropped in while Alicia was alone, or he had planned it. And once the murderer was in the bathroom, he had managed to walk up to Alicia without her even noticing.

It was only until his hands were around her throat when she realised what was going on and began to panic. She would have thrashed about, trying to resist being strangled. But the killer had been strong and Alicia's efforts were in vain, only resulting in her hitting her arms off the side of the bath as she desperately tried to fend the murderer off. And then she had died. And the killer had placed the bloody rose in the bath before leaving either through the window or the way he came in.

But Tyler knew one thing for sure. If this was the same monster who had killed Sally Gardener. Then he had definitely improved since his last kill. Two kills in less than a week. Tyler had to catch this guy before he got even better and struck again. This man was clever, he was plotting and he was sneaky.