InsaneJournal

RP: Various people and a serial killer
Who:Nate, Eliot, Vance, others?
Where:Chicago
When:February 1-3 (email early am Sunday)
Summary:Nate and Eliot find a serial killer

The last week Nate had spent all his free time doing research into the Chicago serial killer. He’d read every newspaper article, watched every news report and studied various maps of Chicago so intensely it felt as if he knew each street and bar in the city, or rather in the demographically interesting parts of the city.

That, at least, was an easy pattern to find. All the victims were blond, petite, white… He certainly had his type. The victims had other things in common too, most of them were addicted either to drugs or alcohol, making them an easy pick up for someone like this guy. Other patterns were harder. Locations for one; other than them being in areas of town with a mainly Caucasian population, the only obvious linking factors were the type of place. A bar, an alley and a very distinct lack of cameras anywhere close to the place. They might seem picked by random when looking at the map, but Nate was sure they weren’t. They must have been scouted first, and carefully so. What was more, not a single bar had been visited twice.

It wasn’t until a second look that Nate discovered another link. All bars were located just a few blocks from the El train line, which meant that had to be the way the killer transported himself around town. It made perfect sense. It was easy, it covered a lot of ground and it made the locations seem more random, since the El had several routes that spread around the city. It was not hard to see where the cops would be out of luck. Even going with the El train and the obvious blind spots in cameras, there were plenty of places to pick from and it wasn’t as if this guy was the only criminal in town, especially with an increase in shootings in black neighborhoods at the moment.

Finding the right alley at the right time in one night was even in Nate’s mind, a hopeless task. Like looking for a needle in a haystack, only this time there wasn’t even a way to know that the needle was even in the haystack yet, or which haystack of several it would be put in. Still April – and therefore Eliot – was adamant that they’d get only one try. She did, however, concede to the entire weekend and not just one night though she left plenty of conditions for that to happen.

Frustrated, Nate found himself crossing off bars and alleys and finding routes to drive which would take them past as many as possible. Still this wasn’t his preferred method of doing things. He liked planning, strategizing, having contingencies and outsmarting the criminal. This was none of that. This was driving around and hoping for blind luck.

This was the second night they were in the car. Yesterday had been as fruitless as Nate had expected and feared and tonight he no longer had even a faint hope of luck. In fact he was about to finally concede defeat after hours on hours driving around when Eliot grabbed his arm and told him to stop the car. Looking in the direction Eliot was staring he saw nothing but a wall, but he knew the layout of these streets and he knew that behind that wall was one of the alleys on his list.

As tempted as he was, Nate didn’t drive around the corner so that he too could see inside the alley; instead he kept the car still for what seemed like forever. What that forever entailed he tried not to imagine, though April had told him too much for him not to be able to know what went on and it took all his willpower (and Eliot’s iron grip on him) not to move out of the car. He knew Eliot must hate sitting still when someone was killed as much as he was, but Eliot wasn’t moving, and wasn’t letting him move either.

Finally, Eliot motioned for him to drive again, and though he never saw the man himself, Eliot never lost sight of him. A couple of streets further down they parked and left the car, following on foot, always staying far away, letting Eliot’s vision do the work of keeping an eye on him.

Nate first spotted a glimpse of the man as they got to the El, but it was short lived as they boarded another car to avoid detection. With a man this careful not to be seen by cameras, and so good at avoiding the cops, it was vital that he never suspected for a moment that they were following him and Eliot’s vision allowed them to keep a greater distance than they otherwise would have.

The train ride seemed to last forever, though forever was only about an hour. An hour in which Nate was feeling a lot more antsy than he normally would on a mission, while Eliot just sat almost motionless, staring ahead of him. Eventually, however, the two of them were standing on the street looking up at an apartment building. Or rather he was looking at it, Eliot inside it.

“Do you know which apartment?” Nate asked.

Eliot grunted his yes and turned around, his jaws tight the way they always were when Eliot was frustrated and had to make an effort to control himself. “Let’s go!” he said, and as much as Nate hated to do so, he knew there was nothing else they could do at the moment. Or rather, nothing else that Eliot would agree to doing at the moment. The sooner they got back to the hotel downtown, the faster they could inform Vance.