Detectives Gary Dunn and Alan Fisher were in their office examining photographs of a brutal crime. In the black and white shots taken two days ago, a man and woman had their throats slashed. They appeared to be the latest victims of a serial killer whose modus operandi was to make deep cuts in the necks. There had been three other murders of the same manner over the past seven weeks. All of these took place in the suburban town of Grove. With a population of roughly one hundred thousand citizens, it was a somewhat large town for the killer to hide in and certainly big enough for the body count to grow.

“Christ,” remarked Gary. “I can’t believe all this time has gone by with this killer still out there.”

“I know,” replied Alan. “The sooner we find, apprehend, and put away whoever did this is, the better.”

Gary and Alan had worked together for eight years, first paired when Gary’s previous partner was transferred while Alan’s was killed in the line of duty not long after. They did resemble each other physically somewhat, as they both had darkened blonde hair, green eyes, and the same slightly pale skin tone. In terms of differences, Gary was forty-four years old and five foot eleven inches tall while Alan was fifty-three years old and six foot one.

Of all the cases they had handled, this was by far their most disturbing. They had handled more routine homicides before, but nothing to this degree. It had gnawed at them since the very first killing, as there was nothing to go on and any possible suspects in relation to the victim turned out to be clean. Then the next two murders occurred with the same aftermaths and now there were two more with likely the same story. They could not get anywhere with such limited clues. And the more they delayed the more chances the killer had.

“Let’s review the information,” said Gary. “Do these victims have any relation to the others?”

“No, they don’t,” answered Alan. “At least nothing that has surfaced yet, but I don’t think there’s anything.” With a decade more on the job, he was the expert between the two.