It ain’t over till it’s done Who: Theodore Laberenz, Daniela Diaz, and a mystery guest! Where: UMCB, Dani's lab and elsewhere What: Dani gets into a tight spot and Theo gets her back out of it When: 9/7/18, starting in the morning and lasting throughout the day Warnings: threats and acts of violence, but it's really not a gruesome thing when all is said and done
It turned out to be a damn good thing Dani had planned to come into work that day. She didn't always, since she was supposed to be keeping a safe distance from the UMCB and carrying out whatever work she could handle away from the lab instead. Or at least, that was the plan. In practice, Dani could barely force herself to stay away, danger or no danger. And so, after spending the day of September 6th completing paperwork at the Capitol, on the 7th she decided to go in.
Meeting with her guard detail bright and early, they were just about to set out when one of the men -- she didn't know his name -- received word about the fourth murder.
After that there was no doubt left in anyone's minds about Dani's plans for the day. She belonged in the lab, processing evidence, so that they might actually catch the bastard responsible this time. As soon as their group arrived at the hospital and had checked in with security, she went straight to work prepping the tests. At this point Dani knew the routine quite well, and when the first samples showed up, she launched right into running everything. There might as well not have been a captive audience for how little she noticed the presence of her protection detail once the work began. Dani was focused, entirely, on the task at hand, working at a steady pace calculated to produce results as quickly and efficiently as possible without hurrying herself into an error.
It took the guard who interrupted her several tries to get her attention. They'd already taken a suspect into custody: Leo Chandless, some kitchen worker who'd been caught on the recently re-activated security cameras entering the victim's room, and leaving bloody footprints in his wake when he emerged again later.
In the face of an arrest, most people would have walked away, happy to have the situation finally resolved. The Annihilator had made it personal by leaving Dani those messages, though, and she was determined to gather every piece of evidence necessary to guarantee that when the Capitol threw Chandless in La Quinta, he wouldn't come back out again.
Dani needed to get her hands on the culprit's blood.
Luckily Laberenz provided. And with the sample in her possession she went to work again, barely registering the emptiness in the lab now that her ever-present band of Shadows had been pulled off her detail and reassigned. There was no need to for her to be under guard now that the APD had their man. Dani was only double checking, confirming what they already knew.
Except that she found herself standing over a set of test results that simply didn't make sense. Chandless' blood didn't match the sample from the unknown male suspect that had been found at the scene of Andrea Salazar's murder. Dani checked every step of the process, but the science wasn't wrong.
Either Leo Chandless hadn't murdered the scouts, or he hadn't worked alone.
Dani stared at the results without really seeing them as she turned this information over in her mind. She needed to call Laberenz.
Setting down the report, she dug her phone out of the bottom of her bag, right where she'd tossed it after texting Laberenz to get him to send over Chandless' blood. His number was still at the top of her list of recent contacts. Selecting it, she raised the phone to her ear and waited for it to connect, hearing only the ringing on the other end of the line.
---
Another girl had been killed.
Luana Araullo. 27. Minister’s daughter. Sol’s old flame. Latest victim of the Supply Scout Annihilator, except she wasn’t a scout. She did lead Theo to the arrest of Leo Chandless, but he wasn’t going to give himself a pat on the shoulder anytime soon. He didn’t solve the case quick enough to prevent another death. That knowledge was going to weigh on him.
He also didn’t believe that it was over. Or at least something in the back of his mind refused to believe it. Even though the recording on the security cameras showed Chandless exiting the scene of the crime, Theo felt it was too easy. Everything about Leo Chandless was too easy, from his history of violence and stalking to his obscene behavior towards women. He might not have ruled him out completely, but he never believed him to be the culprit. Chandless just didn’t fit what he knew about the killer. He didn’t have the intellect or the patience needed to methodically plot and carry out the individual murders.
It almost felt like Chandless was a scapegoat. Getting caught by the security cameras was far too careless. The killer should have known better, would have known better.
Theo was in the interrogation room with Chandless when his cell vibrated in his coat pocket. He had been staying at UMCB since the second row of photo threats, so he had managed to arrive at the crime scene, review the recording, and arrest the kitchen help fairly quickly. He didn’t have a whole lot of desire to stare at Chandless’ face for any longer, so he excused himself to answer the call – especially when he realized that the caller was Diaz. She must have the results from the blood sample she had requested earlier that morning.
Entering the adjacent room, Theo watched Chandless through the one-way mirror as he lifted his cellphone to his ear. “Hey, what do you have for me?” He asked, straight to the point.
---
Theo picked up promptly, cutting right to the heart of the matter with his opening question. Dani had come to appreciate that about the detective. Yes, he had moments where that odd sense of humor peeked through, but when it mattered, he wasn’t joking around.
“Something strange,” she replied. Turning to where she’d left the report, Dani picked up the paper and skimmed over the results again, just in case they’d somehow magically altered the moment her back had turned. No, it was all still there in black and white.
There had been so many people coming in and out of the lab in the days since the Annihilator sent his first round of threatening messages, that the sound that came from behind her didn’t even register as something unusual. Shadow or one of his friends back to check on her, probably, or some colleague or other. Without looking up to see, Dani raised her index finger in the direction of her visitor. One moment. The phone call with Laberenz wouldn’t take more than a minute or two.
“Now, I’ve checked this several times, so I know the results are accurate, but the blood you sent me from Chandless just doesn’t match that original sample from the first-- Hey!”
Strong hands seized Dani from behind. She made a noise of indignation, struggling to pull away from whatever asshole thought this was a good time to play a prank on her. Except that whoever it was didn’t let go.
Dani twisted in his grip, saw a flash of something out of the corner of her eye -- shit, was that a knife? -- and then he backhanded her across the face. Letting out a cry as she was knocked to the floor, Dani threw out her hands to catch herself, sending her phone skittering across the tiles. She scrambled for it, her only lifeline, but he got there first, smashing the device with one solid strike from his heel.
Fuck. Sitting back on her haunches, Dani looked up into the face of the man who’d attacked her, eyes darting to the all-too-familiar knife he held. She’d seen it before, in the photo left for her here, in the lab.
He was The Annihilator.
---
His expression remained blank as she started to give him his report. Chandless’ blood sample wasn’t a match to the one found at the first crime scene. He knew where she was going with it and he wasn’t surprised. The results only confirmed that he was right. Leo Chandless wasn’t the serial killer. He was an accomplice at the most. It wasn’t until her exclamation mid-sentence that caused a reaction from him. “Diaz?” He said into the cell, his brows furrowing in concern, “Diaz, are you there?” He was already making his way out of the room as he listened to what was happening on the other end. There was a noise, a cry, and then a clatter.
Ignoring the calls behind him, Theo jumped into one of the patrol cars, telling the driver to get him to UMCB as quickly as possible. “Diaz?” He repeated her name one more time before the momentary sound of footsteps filled his ears and the line abruptly cut out. “Shit.” Calling the hospital, he got one of the nurses there to alert the guards in the building. How the hell was this happening? Wasn’t her security detail with her? She shouldn’t have been left alone.
By the time the vehicle skidded to a halt at the main entrance of UMCB, Theo was halfway out the door, heading straight for the laboratory. He wasn’t even a part of the way there when one of Diaz’s guards rushed up to him to inform him that she couldn’t be found in the lab.
“Where’s Zeckendorf?” He could hear himself asking a nurse in the vicinity, “Where’s Dr. Desmond Zeckendorf? Is he in his office? Do you know where he is?” The startled woman shook her head. “No. No, I-I don’t know. I think he might be with a patient right now.”
Zeckendorf was his top suspect. Had always been his top suspect. But he didn’t have time to track him down. He needed to find Diaz and where she would have been taken. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the real killer got to her. Racking his mind for an answer, Theo returned to his theory on the second murder. Exam bed blocking the door from the inside. No way in and out of the room. Zeckendorf claimed that he had to barge his way into the room. He knew that Chandless was an accomplice now, but he was too inebriated the previous night to help the killer stage an elaborate setup. That had to mean there was a way out of that room, a way to travel the hospital without being seen. He had an earlier speculation, but it was a bit outlandish. Or at least he had felt it was outlandish when he was first examining the crime scene. Now it was all clicking into place. It had to be it and it damned well pissed him off.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered to himself as he ran over to the laboratory, “I should have known. How typical. What kind of an idiot am I?” Once inside, Theo scanned the ceiling before he hopped onto a desk. Opening the vent right above it, he pushed his way up to examine the interior. He could see what appeared to be a couple of dents and blood, a line of it. “Of course it’s the ventilation system. They always go for the ventilation system,” he cursed under his breath before he called down to the guard who had followed him, “He’s using the vents. Do me the favor and call the APD to track my cell because I’m about to crawl into a ventilation system and follow a trail of blood.”
Without waiting for an answer, Theo climbed the rest of the way inside, his mouth fixed into an unamused slant. He couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. It was a weekend too. Squirming his way through the shaft, he followed the indentations and the traces of blood until the trail stopped cold at another vent. Unlike the one in the lab, it was left opened. He quietly moved to the edge, peering down at the scene below. It was the basement. Same basement that Andrea Salazar had been murdered in. He could make out two figures below, one male and one female. It didn’t take him long to determine who they were.
There was Diaz and then the Supply Scout Annihilator – Dr. Desmond Zeckendorf.
---
Desmond Zeckendorf was a sharp dressed man, and he looked good even when he was planning to get his hands dirty.
He was standing over Diaz in a clean black suit, that knife glinting in his hand as he considered her with eyes of predatory hunger. He liked the position he was in. Power. She was his to command in this moment, stripped of her own authority by the threat of the blade that she had to know was coming to her anyway, whether she bowed to his every whim or battled against him tirelessly. Being compliant hadn't saved any of the other girls. Neither had fighting tooth and nail. Nothing could save this bitch, but he would decide when she’d die. That was the ultimate power.
"I knew they would take the bait," he was telling Diaz, circling her slowly with that knife held in such a way that it could strike at any moment. "Chandless. Those cops must have been real desperate if they honestly believe it could have been him the whole time. He could never pull it off. He didn't pull it off. And oh, he was vile. A vile idiot. I'll be much better off working alone."
--
If Satan ever made house calls in the modern era, Dani thought he’d look a lot like Zeckendorf did now: murder and fury dressed up in a nice suit. It had been years since she’d said the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, but the words still drifted to mind as she watched her attacker stalk around her. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and the snares of the devil. The plea for intercession failed to bring her any comfort whatsoever.
The trip through the vents had not been an easy one. Zeckendorf dragged her, sometimes catching onto her hair and yanking her along by that method, and the blade of his knife had never been out of sight, never more than a few inches away. Dani emerged at the end of their journey battered and bruised, the side of her face still smarting from that first hit, and bearing a nasty gash on her forearm where she’d caught it, purposefully, on the metal lip of the entrance to the vents. Whether the trail of blood smears she’d managed to leave in their wake would lead anyone to them, though, seemed doubtful.
The realization of her imminent death hit Dani hard, bringing with it a wave of regrets, starting with the fact that she should never have let her goddamn guards leave without being sure the case was closed. There were other things, people she’d miss: Max, Pete, Sol, Nina, Doctor Singh, even Olivia Jensen. Dani took a deep breath, an act which sent a muted twinge of pain down her ribs and nudged her free of the despair.
Last moments, Diaz. Make them count. Somehow.
“Detective Laberenz knows Chandless didn’t do it all without help. You heard me tell him,” she said, and her voice shook but didn't falter. This was no act of defiance, just a simple statement of fact. Dani's head swam and her heart pounded like it knew any beat might be its last, but she had the truth to hold onto. Even if the scant information she’d barely been able to relay to Laberenz wasn't enough to save her, he was closing in nevertheless. Zeckendorf could -- would -- kill her, but she would be his last victim.
---
Though she wasn't wrong, Zeckendorf couldn't be very concerned that the results of her tests would amount to much. As soon as he was done with her here he'd destroy her samples and her work, and if he had to take care of Laberenz when he came sniffing around he'd do that too. He circled around to Dani's back and stopped there, and it was hard to tell how close he was until he spoke-- right beside Dani's ear, bent over her from behind.
"But how will he prove it when he comes here to find your lab painted with your blood? All those little vials smashed. All your results on fire." Zeckendorf chuckled softly, sliding the blade of his knife against Dani's shoulder, scraping gently along her collarbone until it came to rest against her throat. "I can't wait for him to see. Another lamb slaughtered."
---
Of course Zeckendorf wanted her to flinch, but even knowing she was playing right into his hands couldn't stop Dani from startling as he spoke. The threats to her work, to the lab hit home, too -- she tried to calculate how much time has passed, whether Laberenz could have made it to the hospital already, whether he might, even now, be reading her results. Her mind couldn't focus, her thoughts racing, yet leaden with fear. Still, she started to shake her head, to argue, but then the blade touched her, and Dani froze.
As the knife slid across her skin and pressed against her throat, her only movement came from the increasingly shallow and ragged breaths she took through her mouth. Dani closed her eyes, thinking of the other women: Andrea, Joselyn, Catherine, Luana. She hadn't even known any of them while they were alive, except from a distance. After they'd been murdered, only as blood samples, pieces of evidence. Yet they'd all been here in the end, at this monster's hands. And that, oddly, was comforting, to think that she wasn't the only one, wasn't alone.
Dani opened her eyes again, accepting that there wasn't anything left she could do. "Fuck you, Zeckendorf," she said. When had she started trembling? "I always hated you."
---
He think he had heard enough.
He had definitely seen enough. Zeckendorf was holding an awfully large knife against Diaz’s throat. He didn’t want to surprise Zeckendorf too much since it could potentially risk hurting the good lab assistant in the process, but he didn’t want to give the man the full control of the situation either. Guessed that meant he was going to have to do a combination of the two, give the doctor both a lovely surprise and a heads up. Accessing the situation below, Theo carefully positioned himself in the vent at an angle ready to jump.
He took in a deep breath before an easy smile slid onto his face. “Now that isn’t the way you’re supposed to treat a lady, Dr. Zeckendorf,” he called out from above, waiting for the doctor to look up before he promptly proceeded to use him as a landing cushion.
---
Zeckendorf had been quite distracted by his own amusement, laughing at Dani’s confession of long-standing hatred as his blade skimmed along her throat, when Theo's voice came from above. Zeckendorf's chin jerked up as he blinked through the darkness just in time to see the Detective drop from the vent directly onto him. The knife clattered to the ground as the both of them hit the cement floor of the basement, and even with the wind knocked out of him Zeckendorf had his wits about him enough to grapple madly for it. His fingers closed around the handle and he brought the blade up, slashing blindly towards Theo.
"Don't mind tying up two loose ends at once," he grunted as his knife came towards the Detective's chest.
---
Theo had expected retaliation. His hand reached for the gun at his side the moment he knocked Zeckendorf over, pulling it out of its holster. But it appeared the doctor was quick on the offensive himself. He managed to avoid the first slash that came his way – it was frantic, uncoordinated – and it prepared him for the subsequent one. Blocking the incoming blade with his arm, Theodore quickly cocked his revolver and aimed it at the doctor’s forehead. “Drop the knife,” he warned, his intonation flat and cool, “We can do this the civilized way or I can decorate the floor with your brain.”
The smile on his face had disappeared, his features settling back into its usual indifference. He no longer had to act, not in front of this man. Zeckendorf had taken the lives of four innocent women and now he had almost taken a fifth. He didn’t deserve the courtesy. “I’d like you to humor me by answering a couple of questions I have,” he continued, his finger fixed on the trigger, “Promise it won’t take too much of your time.”
---
Zeckendorf, despite his appetite for carnage and brazen cruelty, was still a man with a powerful instinct for self-preservation. With a pistol to his head, the doctor could do nothing but set that knife down on the cool ground. He eyed Theo sideways across the barrel of his gun, jaw set and eyes defiant in a way that suggested that he didn't believe Theo would actually pull the trigger. Zeckendorf was now unarmed, and he was sure that Theo wouldn't break from protocol. Protocol was what made cops so damn predictable.
"And what of my Miranda rights, Detective?" Zeckendorf asked casually. "I don't wish to answer questions without my lawyer present."
---
When Laberenz spoke, for a moment Dani thought she'd begun to hallucinate in her last moments, dreaming up the rescue she so desperately wanted to come. But then she felt the knife shift against her throat as Zeckendorf reacted to the sound too. Before she could process it, he stumbled, knocked to the floor by the impact of what she could only assume was the detective falling on him. As they grappled Dani moved, instinctively putting as much room between Zeckendorf and herself as possible.
Now that the two men stood frozen, Laberenz with his gun aimed straight at the doctor, she shifted again, sticking to the edges of the room as she slowly circumnavigated the pair. All she wanted was to establish the detective as a barrier between herself and Zeckendorf.
Personally, Dani wasn't sure why Laberenz was wasting his time with questions. Fuck questions. She would've learned to live with any remaining mysteries if it meant the end of Zeckendorf. As long as he survived the man was a danger, and she didn't like that the knife still lay so close to him on the floor. It wasn't her call, though. Laberenz was the one with the gun.
---
The appeal of a homicide to Theo had always been the motive and reasoning of the perpetrator. He lived for the mystery and intrigue that surrounded it. A serial murder case had been uplifting news upon his arrival back at Austin, disregarding the guilt he later felt at not being in town near the start of it. Now that he was at the climax of the investigation, he couldn’t let the few lingering unanswered questions go. It would nag at him if he didn’t at least try.
Once Zeckendorf set the knife down, Theo reached over to pick up the weapon, his eyes never leaving him. He continued to aim the gun at him as he slowly rose up and took a couple steps back from him. “Get up,” he motioned, tucking the blade away, “Hands in the air.” He made sure he positioned himself between the doctor and the lab assistant. No matter what remaining questions needed to be answered, Diaz’s safety was the main priority.
“Oh, did you not get the memo?” He asked blandly, his brows raising at Zeckendorf’s inquiry, “It’s the end of the world. The Miranda rights just isn’t all that relevant anymore, so that kind of leaves you in the good graces of me, my gun, and Miss Diaz over there, who probably isn’t very sympathetic to your plight.” He gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulder. “So, since I don’t want to waste valuable time, I’ll cut right to it,” he continued, craning his neck slightly to the side, “Why those girls? Was it fantasy? Obsession? You certainly have a type, except… Kennedy. She didn’t fit the M.O. Not 100%. Did you murder her because of the Rembrandt or did she actually fit the bill? Same with Araullo. She wasn’t a scout. Why her?”
---
Zeckendorf's eyes never left Theo as he obeyed his orders, the glare in his gaze that of a caged animal who would destroy everything in sight if let out of his confines. Maybe he was watching Theo so closely so that he wouldn't miss a chance to escape if it arose, or perhaps he was just trying to intimidate the Detective. Either way, he listened to the questions with a hard and furious expression in his cold eyes, a look that made it clear that his answers wouldn't be the most reliable.
"I chose my girls," Zeckendorf growled, as if the question exasperated him. "All this talk of being a supply scout killer. It's just like your department to get diverted by red herrings. It was never about their job. My girls were special." Zeckendorf shook his head, turning his hands up slightly as if to remind Theo that they were empty. "I'm not answering any more questions. Arrest me. I won't be forced into some kind of confession here."
---
He didn’t think Zeckendorf would comply easily. It wouldn’t be like him. But Theo was just as stubborn if not more so. “Chose?” He pressed, unmoving, “Chose how? How were they special?” His mind went back to the M.O. They were all healthy, young women in their twenties with dark hair and brown eyes. Appearance played a definitive factor. Next would be character. “Is it their personalities? They’re all capable and strong. Do you enjoy the dominance over them?”
All this talk about an arrest and the law. Theo knew that he should just cuff him. He could interrogate him in the department. There wasn’t any need to dig for answers straight away. He had all the time in the world. But then the conversation with Rodeo surfaced at the back of his mind and he knew why he was hesitating, why he wanted to fill in the gaps now. He didn’t want Zeckendorf to leave this basement alive. It was a dark thought. It chilled him, yet he also felt eerily calm.
But, disregarding his intent, Theo knew he couldn’t do it. Not with Diaz in the room. It wouldn’t hold up.
Taking in a deep breath, he nodded his head after a moment. “Fine,” he motioned for the doctor to turn around as he approached him, “Hands behind your back. You’re under arrest.” He reached for his handcuffs. “Can you at least tell me where the Rembrandt is?” A pause and then, “No. Scratch that. The boot. Salazar’s brown boot. Where is it? Is it in the vent?” It had to be in the vent, right?
---
Now that the danger was seemingly past and her adrenaline was beginning to wear off, the full extent of everything she'd been through began to hit Dani. Her arm and her head both ached and she felt like the temperature in the room must've dropped by at least five degrees. And Theo was asking about a boot, like that actually mattered. Dani wrapped her arms around herself and hunched her shoulders slightly, only holding back by force of will the criticism that wanted to snap out her.
"I'll need a blood sample," she ground out, clenching her jaw. Any sane person would argue that the last thing she should do right now was go back to the lab, but Dani just wanted it to be over. She'd even let Shadow come with her, if that was what it would take. "The special thing about me is I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure his ass never sees the light of day again."
---
Zeckendorf was growing impatient himself. He’d been waiting for Theo to come closer, and in the dark of the basement he slid his hands around to his back, deftly removing a second knife from his pocket as he did. “You’re the detective,” Zeckendorf said, brow arching. Behind his back he unfolded the knife to reveal the blade, ready to strike. “Why don’t you find it yourself?”
Dani spoke of blood samples and of making sure he never sees the light of day again, and Zeckendorf only smiled. Yes, she was special. And she could still be his. Zeckendorf waited for Theo to get close enough before he finally made his move, twisting around to lift the knife and jab it viciously towards Theo’s throat.
---
It looked like he wasn’t going to get his answers. Not today. Not if he decided to send out that text to Rodeo. “You’ll have your blood sample,” he reassured Diaz as he neared the doctor. Preparing to snap the cuffs on him, Theo was caught slightly off guard when Zeckendorf suddenly spun around. He should have known that the man wasn’t going to go along for the ride so compliantly, should have done a better job at seeing it coming. But all he saw coming now was the sharp end of a blade.
Barely managing to dodge it, Theo didn’t have to think about what to do next. He raised his arm and shot the killer right in the chest – twice. His jaw was set as he watched Zeckendorf collapse onto the floor of the basement. Didn’t feel the breath rush out from between his lips until he saw the life drain completely from the man’s eyes. He lowered his arm and tucked his gun slowly back into its holster. Reaching up to massage the side of his neck, Theo crouched down to check the doctor’s pulse.
He finally looked over to Diaz at its confirmation, giving her a small nod. The Supply Scout Annihilator was officially dead. “Come on,” he said with a bit of a sigh, standing up, “Let’s get you upstairs and patched up. APD should be here any minute. We’ll let them take over the crime scene.”
Pulling the first knife back out, Theo set it on the chair that Diaz had been occupying earlier. “We’re going to have a lot of explaining to do. Then, I’m going to climb the vents.”
He might not have gotten any of his answers through Zeckendorf, but he’d be damned if he didn’t find that missing shoe – and Rembrandt’s The Standard Bearer, of course.
---
Despite the fact that she hadn’t taken her eyes off Zeckendorf for even a second, Dani didn’t see him draw the second knife, not until he was turning with it in his hands and it was too late to even cry out a warning. The gunshots echoed in the basement, the noise practically deafening, and then he fell. Dani had retreated back against the wall without realizing it, and she watched, heart pounding again, as Laberenz knelt to check Zeckendorf’s pulse. He wasn’t going to be dead. There was a vest under that suit. He was faking. As soon as the detective was close enough he would try again and this time --
Laberenez looked over at her and nodded. Dani pressed the heels of her palms against both eyes for just a second, dimly registering that words were being said to her.
Pull it together, Diaz.
Lowering her hands, she automatically straightened her clothes, and then walked over to stand next to Theo, looking down at Zeckendorf. She needed this last memory of his body lying on the floor, the dark gleam gone out of his eyes. After a moment her lip curled in disgust, and she spat on ground next to his corpse.
“The Supply Scout Annihilator. Thank you, Detective, for taking out the trash.” Though she couldn’t quite look away yet, Dani reached out to touch Laberenz’s arm, both in a moment of unspoken comradeship and to reassure herself that he was real, despite everything.
Another moment and she made herself turn away. “Ok, let’s go.”