The Dog Torturer

Confucius once said, ‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves’

As Thomas squeezed his way through the crowd that had gathered around the crime scene tape he was greeted by a Detective who worked for the local police.
“Special Agent Ethan Thomas I presume?” the Detective asked.
“That’s correct, and you are?” Thomas asked.
“Detective Graham Swan, Carson City Police department or CCPD for short” the Detective answered. They shook hands before walking across the spongy grass towards the crime scene, they both talked while walking.
“Who reported the body?” Agent Thomas asked.
“A woman named Ashley McDougal; she was out with her dog when she saw the body. She said she never touched it and used her mobile phone to contact the police.” The Detective replied. The crime scene was located in a grassy area where people walk their dogs. The woman was lying on her back and her dog was lying nearby, covered in blood which originated from multiple cuts on its body. When Agent Thomas and the Detective arrived they both stared at the two bodies for a few seconds. The Detective broke the silenced by saying:
“This world’s filled with thousands of sick killers!” Agent Thomas nodded. After another moment of silence Agent Thomas’s mobile phone rang.
“Thomas” he answered. A live video feed was displayed on the phones LCD screen of a woman sitting at a computer.
“Hello Thomas, this is Lieutenant Lucy, I’m your lab tech once again on this one. Our wireless data transfer system allows you to collect evidence at a crime scene and then transmit it back to me at HQ to analyse.”
“Great. Right get ready for incoming data I’m going to try and determine the cause of death” Thomas clipped his phone back onto his bag strap and then opened his bag. All Serial Crime Unit (SCU) agents carry this same bag, in it carries all there forensic tools and equipment. The strap that goes over one of the agents shoulder and back has a torch clipped on it; it also has a holder for the agents’ phone. Agent Thomas rummaged through his bag before removing a UV light from it. He pressed the button on the side and a purple glow appeared from the long glass lamp. Agent Thomas slowly moved the UV light over the body while closely watching was any sign of bruising which would show up as a dark purple. After a few seconds Agent Thomas stopped over the neck which had illuminated in a dark purple.
“Found something?” Detective Swan asked. Agent Thomas reached into his bag and pulled out what looked like a digital camera but was really a 3D scanner. The scanner uses laser beams to scan the objects surface and reflect the light back onto sensor which determines the texture and other characteristics of the object.
“Just a sec. Hmm-Strangled by hand. Very forceful, finger marks clear. Except…Bruise intensity indicates the killer was right-handed. Sorry though I only managed to get a partial fingerprint off the neck, not enough to get a match in AFIS but if you could find another print I could compare them” Lucy explained.
“Thanks. Well that explains the cause of death. I’ll check when she died.” Thomas said. He brought out an electronic thermometer which read current body temperature.
“Data received. Current body temperature is 29.7oC and environment temperature is 9oC so if I input that into the computer I calculate the time of death was…four hours and 48 minutes ago” Lucy calculated.
“So she died at 6:23am this morning” Agent Thomas stood thinking for a moment before checking the current body temperature of the dog.
“What time did the dog die?” Thomas asked.
“Thomas you know that we can’t cal…”
“I know but still try” Thomas ordered. Lucy done so and it turned out that the dog was killed at 6:16am, seven minutes before the woman.
“Something on your mind?” Detective Swan asked.
“Maybe…Right, so, the dog was killed seven minutes before the women which would mean that she would still have been alive when the dog was killed” Thomas explained.
“The Dog Torturer” mumbled the Detective.
“What?” Agent Thomas asked.
“The Dog Torturer was the name that was given to a serial killer that tortured then killed dogs in front of the owner before killing them. I help another CSI about 13 months ago when the first person was killed, the killer was never found.”
“So we know who it is and his MO but what’s his motive?” Thomas asked. Thomas walked around the grassy park for a minute or so trying to put stuff together. At the far side of the park he froze then ran back to the body. He pulled out his digital camera and photographed the victims face and fingers.
“Lucy I want a full profile of this woman ASAP and all the reports from the previous Dog Torturer cases” Thomas ordered.
“I’ll get right on it” Lucy replied. Thomas hung up and clipped his phone back on his bag strap.
“So now what?” Detective Swan asked.
“We wait” Agent Thomas answered. While they both waited for the information Agent Thomas requested he asked Detective Swan questions about the first ‘Dog Torturer’ case that he helped with.
“Well at that time it wasn’t classed as a serial killer case but now that there’s been over 14 deaths that have possible links to ‘The Dog Torturer’. It sickens me to think that half the time they get away with it!” the Detective explained.
“Well this will be his last!” Agent Thomas said boldly. Just then Agent Thomas’s mobile rang, he unclipped it and held it in his hand, and Lucy appeared on screen.
“Go” Thomas ordered.
“Right, I’ve done some checking and at each other crime scene the time of death difference for both the dog and the owners was the same, the dog died first then the owner. Also each case had the exact same MO as the others, cut the dog in several places and let it bleed out before breaking its neck and then strangling the owner.” Lucy explained. A grin appeared on Agent Thomas’s face.
“So, every case that had this type of MO was ‘The Dog Torturer’ but what’s the connection between each killing?” Thomas asked. Lucy searched through the profile for each of the victims to see for comparisons.
“Well aside from the fact that they all have dogs…every victim is in the medical profession as vets” said Lucy.
“Who would want to kill a vet?” Detective Swan asked while scratching his neck.
“Someone that wants revenge, Lucy check the appointment lists for each vet within the past, say, two years and see if any names appear that each vet saw” Lucy typed away at her computer.
“Searching for appointments…narrowing search range from the 27/01/2005 to 27/11/2007…scanning for any names that appear at each vet…and got it! Carl Ian Anderson had an appointment with every victim and guess what…the order of his appointments is the same order of the murders. This is our guy!” Lucy said pleased.
“Slow down a minute; let’s not start pointing fingers yet! Did you get a profile for Carl Anderson?”
“Yep! Transferring to your cell phone now!” Lucy hit enter and within a second the Carl Andersons profile was being displayed on Thomas mobile phone screen. Thomas scrolled down until his criminal record was displayed.

POLICE REPORT

Number of Arrests: 13

Total time in local jail: 7 hours

Total time in prison: 21 years

Total time in juvenile hall: 3 years

Crimes committed:
• Murder of fellow school pupil Alexander William Right on the 23/11/1978 by stabbing him in the neck.
• 7 counts of assault, 5 on fellow inmates at prison.
• 2 cases of theft.

“Jesus! He’s all ready been jailed for killing a pupil!” the Detective yelled. Thomas scrolled down to his medical record.
“Carl Johnston was sent to Juvenile hall when was 15 for killing a pupil, it turned out he was the victim of bullying and he eventually cracked and killed one of his bullies. Then at 18 he was sent to a psychiatric prison for 21 years before being put in special mental care.” Lucy explained.
“So he’s psychotic, but why is he only killing vets?” Thomas asked.
“Says here that they gave him a dog as a friend and at one point it got sick and without an operation it would die. He asked vets to operate on his dog for free but they said no” Lucy answered.
“And now he wants revenge on the vets for not helping his dog by killing their dogs in front of them; hurting them mentally.” Thomas explained.
“Well that’s enough to at least arrest him I’ll contact the CCPD to get a team to raid his home” detective swan said.
“Lucy, get an FBI team to his house too to help the CCPD” ordered Thomas.
“Yes sir” Lucy replied. Thomas hung up and followed Detective Swan to his car.
“Control this is Detective Swan requesting a raid team to meet me and Federal Agents at 1834 Clover Street, Southpoint, Carson City ASAP!” Detective Swan ordered.
“Roger that ETA five minutes!” the women on the radio confirmed. Detective Swan climbed into his patrol car and Agent Thomas ran back to his black FBI SUV, they both sped off down the road.

When Agent Thomas and Detective Swan arrived they stopped at the corner of Clover and Stark where a FBI and CCPD SWAT teams was preparing to raid the house. Agent Thomas stepped out of his SUV and walked over to his boss, Special Agent Frank West.
“Thomas, just in time, we’re about to breach do you want to wait until the SWAT teams secure the building?” Agent West asked.
“Nah, I’ll go in with them because I don’t want them touching things they shouldn’t!” Thomas replied. The SWAT team commander whistled and called all this team over. Agent Thomas was about to run over when his boss stopped him and said.
“Leave you bag and take these” He handed Thomas some body armour and a M1911 Colt pistol fully loaded with six rounds in the magazine and one round in the firing chamber. Thomas dropped his bag, removed his phone and suited up before following the rest of the federal agents and police officers to the house. Agent Thomas and two other federal agents surrounded the door waiting for all the other units to go into place.
“Alpha unit in position”
“Delta unit in position”
“Serra unit in position”
“All unit in position, you have a go!” the commander ordered. Agent Thomas kicked open the door and let the two federal agents enter first before followed behind.
“Federal agents! Everyone on the floor with your hands behind your backs NOW!” Agent Thomas yelled. The other SWAT teams breached through windows and doors around the house. The nurses in the house screamed as police officers and federal agents removed them from the house. Agent Thomas grabbed a doctor and asked
“Where’s Carl Anderson?” Just before the doctor could answer everyone heard gunshots from the back door.
“Shots fired, shots fired all units report!” someone yelled over the radio.
“God *bunny*!” Detective Swan yelled. Agent Thomas ran to the back door where to police officers lay covered in blood dead. Agent Thomas ran to the fence at the back of the garden and looked over to see that his suspect was escaping. Thomas mounted the fence and chased after him down the alleyway. While running he pulled out his mobile and dialled Detective Swans cell number.
“Thomas? Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m in pursuit of Carl Anderson, he’s heading east on Stark Avenue, I need back-up now!” Thomas answered. He hung up and continued chasing Carl. Carl turned left and ran down a small alley up to a metal fence which he climbed over. Thomas followed him but instead of climbing over the fence he shot the padlock off the gate and barged though it. Thomas stopped and pointed his gun at Carl who was standing at the edge of a bridge that went over a metro line.
“Carl Anderson, you’re under arrest for the murder of Dr Louise Dryburgh! Please come off the edge before you fall” Agent Thomas ordered. Carl Anderson was about to until he heard the noise of a train horn in the distance; he edged closer to the edge.
“Please don’t jump! Just come with me and we can talk about this!” Agent Thomas ordered. As the train grew closer Carl moved closer to the edge. Agent Thomas turned the safety on the gun off.
“I will shoot you down Carl! You have to the count of three! One…Two…Th…” before Agent Thomas could yell three Carl jumped and landed on top of the subway car. Agent Thomas ran to the edge of the bridge before jumping onto the roof of the train landing belly first. Agent Thomas stood up and spun around to look for Carl on the roof of the train. Carl was climbing down through a hatch on the roof, Agent Thomas aimed his gun and fired two rounds, one missed and one hit his leg causing him to fall into the train. Agent Thomas ran towards the hatch but was launched forward by the train’s emergency breaks activating. He fell down a gap in between two cars and managed to grab a pole allowing him to swing round smashing through one of the cars side window. After shaking off the glass on his jacket he ran towards a double door that had been opened, he leaned out and saw Carl running down the other train tracks away from the stopped train. Agent Thomas, determined to catch him, climbed out of the train and followed him down the tracks. In the distance a trains horn blared which made Carl freeze. Carl was running out of options, he had Agent Thomas behind him and an incoming train in front of him. The only word that kept running through his head was ‘Suicide’ Just as he was about to kneel down for the train to hit him he spotted a maintenance door to his left. With the train only seconds away he dived over the railings and through the door locking it behind him. Agent Thomas fired twice but missed, he kept running towards the door but then he remembered about the train and diving over onto the opposite track and just narrowly avoided the oncoming train. After a couple of seconds the train past and Agent Thomas was back on the Serial killers tail. He climbed over the railings and shot the lock off the door allowing him to pass through the door and into the bowels of the train station.

The first room he entered was poorly lit with rusting pipes running across the walls and roof. Thomas pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tried to dial Detective Swan but all that kept appearing on the screen was ‘Sorry! Unable to contact cellular network! Please try again later!’ This was due to the hundreds of tonnes of concrete and thousands of girders above him reflecting the signal. With no hope of back-up and with the serial killing escaping he had no choice but to pursue him. He carefully he traversed the labyrinth of concrete tunnels that ran under the subway platforms. As he walked he constantly heard giggling, laughing and running. BANG! Thomas fired a shot at Carl who was several floors above him. Thomas ran to the nearest ladder and climbed up five levels and when he got to the top he was shot at. The bullet just missed his head and hit one of the power boxes behind him, the lights went out. Thomas climbed onto the metal walkway and took aim in front of him. He waited a minute to let his eyes adjust before heading in the direction that the shot came from. As he searched he heard a door open nearby and then he saw a slit of light that pierced through the darkness. He ran towards the door before slowly opening it with his gun drawn ready to fire. He emerged in the male toilets at in the Southpoint Metro Station.
“Attention. The 11:20 train to Metro Central is preparing to depart at platform two” a woman announced over the tanoy. Agent Thomas ran out of the toilets and onto platform to where he saw Carl on the 11:20 train to Metro Central that was departing. He ran up to one of the doors and tried to force it open but it wouldn’t move. He ran to the last car and jumped on the back of the car as the train sped off down the tunnel. He brought out his gun and tried to fire at the door lock but he had run out of ammo. As the train sped up to its top speed of 125mph Agent Thomas could fell his hands slipping off the handles. When he looked up he saw the serial killer running up to the window with a fire extinguisher in his hand, he smashed through the window and hit Agent Thomas in the face knocking him off the back of the train and throwing him into the ground knocking him out.
Agent Thomas regained conscious after his phone rang; he quickly answered it only to find out that it was just an automated message saying that a call was unable to be sent. After hanging up he checked the time and found out it was 1:23pm, he had been unconscious for two hours! He jumped up and cleaned the dust off his coat before walking down the subway tunnel trying to find a maintenance access door. When he found one, about half a mile down the subway tunnel, he climbed over the railing and walked through the door into the subway station lower levels. After walking around the lower levels for about five minutes Thomas was stopped by an engineer.
“Sorry but no civilians should be down in the lower levels” he said. Agent Thomas removed his badge from his jacket pocket and showed it to him while saying
“Special Agent Ethan Thomas, FBI, I was in pursuit of a suspect who stole a train and knocked me off it, could you show me the way to the surface?” The engineer nodded and told Thomas to follow him. Agent Thomas followed him through the labyrinth of concrete tunnels that ran under the subway platforms. Most people don’t know it but this is the most important place in the entire subway station, without the men and women that work in the concert tomb times like rush hour would be pandemonium. Finally Agent Thomas emerged into the ‘Liberty Station’ ticket hall. Agent Thomas thanked the engineer and called Detective Swan.
“Agent Thomas! Where the hell have you been?” the Detective yelled down the phone.
“I was chasing the suspect until he knocked me out and fled towards Metro Central in a subway train” Thomas replied.
“Alright, are you hurt?” Detective Swan asked.
“No but could you send someone to pick me up because I’ve got a job to do” Agent Thomas replied.
“Sure thing, see ya in five minutes” Detective Swan said before hanging up. Agent Thomas walked over to the pharmacy and bought some painkillers and a bottle of water to take them with; he paid his money before walking outside to wait to be picked up. When he got outside his phone started ringing, so he quickly swallowed the painkiller and answered his phone.
“Thomas” he said with a groin.
“Oh Thomas thank god your okay! What happened?” Lieutenant Lucy asked with delight.
“I was chasing the suspect when he hit me in the face with a fire extinguisher knocking me off the back of a speeding subway train” Thomas replied.
“Oh god! You hurt?” Lieutenant Lucy asked.
“No I’m fine, anyway could you get me CCTV footage of every station the 11:20 to Metro Station stopped at?” Thomas asked eager to continue with his case.
“No problem, it might take a bit but I’ll call you back when I get the footage” Lucy replied. Agent Thomas hung up and straight after that a police patrol car pulled up in front of him.
“Special Agent Thomas?” the police officer asked.
“That’s right, you my ride?” Thomas asked.
“Sure am, hop in I’ve been ordered to take you back to Carl Andersons home” the police officer replied. Agent Thomas ran down the stairs and into the patrol car, they sped off down the street.

The police officer stopped at the crime scene tape to let Agent Thomas out before driving off.
“Thomas! Hey Thomas over here!” Agent West yelled; Agent Thomas ran over to him.
“Jesus Thomas you okay? What happened?” Agent West asked.
“Ye I’m fine, I was chasing the suspect before he hit me in the face with a fire extinguisher which knocked me of the back of a speeding subway train” Thomas replied.
“Ouch, you sure you’re okay because I could call in another SCU agent to take the case” said Agent West.
“No!” Thomas shouted. Agent West stood stunned at the fact that Thomas would dare shout at him.
“Look sorry, I know your only looking out for me and I appreciate that but really I’ll survive” Thomas explained.
“Okay, well Detective Swans waiting for you at the suspect’s house, take your tool bag and go and get that *bunny*” Agent West ordered.
“Yes sir!” Thomas nodded. Thomas ran off across the street to the suspects house were Detective Swan was standing waiting for him.
“Glad you could make it” said Detective Swan.
“Same! So has anyone been inside since I left?” Agent Thomas asked.
“Nope, after the police and federal agents secured the house I ordered everyone out because I didn’t want anyone tapering with your crime scene” Detective Swan replied.
“Thanks” said Thomas.
“No problem, after you” Detective Swan insisted. Agent Thomas crossed the threshold that separated the serial killers home from outside, Detective Swan followed on after him. Suspect’s home was a single bedroom bungalow that was bought for him by his parents. There was various visitors to the house, physiatrists, social workers and home cares who came and looked after him, clean his house, make him food ect. But there was one room the visitors never saw, and that was the suspect’s bedroom; that was Agent Thomas’s first stop. The door was locked it had a padlock fitted; he franticly looked around the house for something to open the door. He went into the kitchen looking in all the cupboards, he found a crowbar, which he lifted and proceeded to unlock the door. He slowly opened the door into what resembled a dump. The room was darkened by the closed blinds hanging over the window restricting the amount of light entering the room. The carpet that was on the floor was barely visible through the piles of dirty clothes that lay where they fell. Plates, glasses and eating utensils lay on top of desks and drawers covered in filth. If Agent Thomas was ever going to find the evidence he wanted he would need something to illuminate the evidence, he reached into his forensic tool bag and removed an Alternate Light Source (ALS) Unit. Almost all organic material can be made to fluoresce, which means it absorbs light at one wavelength, and emits it at a different one. This allows SCU agents to see evidence that would be invisible to the human eye, different types of evidence appears at different wavelengths. Agent Thomas set his ALS Unit to emit light on a wavelength between 400-450 nanometres (nm); this allows him to see any blood, saliva, semen, urine and old bruises that would be undetectable to the naked eye. Agent Thomas began to slowly run the ALS over the suspect’s bedroom, things like saliva on the glasses and the suspect’s pillow illuminated. Just as Agent Thomas was going to increase the wavelength range he noticed something fluoresce just to his right, quickly he turned and pointed the laser light in the direction of the fluorescing object. He walked up to it and analysed it, first with the light then without the light.
“Blood” me mumbled. Thomas reached into his bag and felt around for a bit before removing his 3D Scanner. He held the ALS in one hand and aimed it at the key while he scanned the item with his 3D Scanner. After a second the process was over and Thomas removed his cell phone from its holder and contacted Lieutenant Lucy.
“I’m receiving the data now…got it…let’s see standard 12-pin key, widely used around the world, which is also covered in dried blood” explained Lieutenant Lucy.
“That doesn’t narrow the list down” said Agent Thomas.
“Wait a minute…analysing the writing at the top of the key…IPC, searching for key companies named IPC…got it! This key is used for industrial padlocks and the serial number bellow it shows that it was made for the Metro Central subway station” explained Lieutenant Lucy.
“How many padlocks are we looking at?” Thomas asked.
“Oh no…4383 padlocks!” replied Lieutenant Lucy.
“Damn we’ll never find where this key goes” Thomas sighed.
“Maybe we will, I’ve been scanning through the CCTV footage at Metro Central and I spotted our suspect opening a padlocked gate into a maintenance workers office” said Lieutenant Lucy.
“Great work! What about the blood though?” Thomas asked.
“The blood matched the owner’s dog’s blood which was on file in the US Pet Information System or USPIS for short” Lucy replied.
“Thanks” said Thomas before hanging up. Thomas put all this equipment back in his tool bag and walked over to Detective Swan.
“So what now?” Detective Swan asked.
“Now we go to Metro Central and see if our suspect’s still there, can you get us there?” Thomas asked.
“Sure! I’ll call a head and get someone down there to help” Detective Swan replied.
“Right, I’ll see you at your car” said Thomas. Thomas and Detective Swan walked away, Detective Swan went to his car and Agent Thomas went to speak to his boss Special Agent West.
“Well what did you find?” Agent West asked.
“We may have a possible location on our suspect, CCTV has him entering a maintenance workers office at Metro Central and never coming back out, Detective Swan and I are going to go and see what we can find. Also I found a key that was covered in dried blood which matched the victim’s dog’s blood” Agent Thomas replied.
“Excellent work, I’ll send in some other SCU agents to the suspect’s home to collect the evidence to be transported back to the lab for further analysis” Agent West explained.
“Agent Thomas, come on!” Detective Swan yelled.
“You better get going” Agent West ordered.
“Yes sir” Thomas nodded before running off towards Detective Swans car. When there he jumped in and they both drove off down the road towards Metro Central.

At Metro Central Detective Swan parked in the ‘Reserved for police use only’ parking space directly outside the front of the building. Agent Thomas opened his door and climbed out before walking through the revolving doors leading into the stations main hall, Detective Swan followed behind. The main hall resembled New York’s Grand Central Station with its large main concourse, hundreds of ticket booths and hundreds of shops and cafes. Thomas removed his phone from its holder and dialled Lieutenant Lucy
“Hello” she said.
“Lucy its Thomas, what platform is the maintenance office on?” Thomas asked.
“Ehm…Platform 9” Lucy replied.
“Thanks” Thomas hung up and began following the signs that lead him and Detective Swan down into the subway section of Metro Central. After being stop four times, taking seven wrong turns and nearly being arrested once they finally made it to platform 9.
“Where is he?” Detective Swan mumbled.
“Who?” Thomas asked.
“I called a head and asked for an undercover cop to meet us at this vending machine” Detective Swan replied. Just then a man wearing a brown leather jacket and blue denim jeans walked up to them.
“Sorry I was late, got caught up arresting a guy who was dealing drugs at Platform J”
“Right, well at least you made it. Oh and this is Special Agent Thomas, he works for the FBI’s Serial Crime Unit” Agent Thomas and the undercover cop shook hands
“Nice to meet you, I’m Patrick White Carson City Undercover Transport Police.”
“Same, right here’s the plan, Officer White you remove the padlock then I’ll kick open the door for you and Detective Swan to secure the room because I’ve got no ammo”
“Here, take some of mines” Detective swan handed Agent Thomas a full magazine; Thomas loaded it into his gun.
“Okay now I’ve got ammo I’ll kick in the door and we’ll all secure the room, agreed?” Thomas asked.
“Agreed” said Detective Swan.
“Agreed” said Officer White. Officer White pulled out a small container filled with a clear substance.
“What’s that?” Agent Thomas asked.
“Fluoroantimonic acid, the strongest acid in the world, it will cut through the padlock in seconds” Officer White replied.
“Cool” Agent Thomas remarked. Officer White poured two drops of the acid onto the padlock and in a matter of seconds the padlock had completely disintegrated. Agent Thomas slowly opened the gate and walked up to the door, Officer White and Detective Swan stood at the sides of the door.
“One…Two…Three!” Agent Thomas kicked open the door and all three of them ran into the room with their guns drawn.
“Federal Agent! Come out peacefully or I will use force!” Agent Thomas yelled; no one came out.
“Detective, toilets, Officer White, check the door down those stairs and I’ll secure this door” Agent Thomas ordered. After all three of them had secured the room they walked back to the door they came in through.
“The room’s clear, looks like he didn’t stay for long!” said Detective Swan.
“Okay, Officer White thank you for your help in getting us in here” said Agent Thomas
“Anytime Agent Thomas, see ya later.” Officer White shook Thomas’s hand before opening the door and leaving the room. Detective Swan closed the door behind him and walked up to Thomas who was staring at something on the wall.
“What’s all this?” Detective Swan asked. The wall in front of Thomas and Detective Swan was covered in photographs, maps and post-it notes.
“Pictures and information of all the victims, the ones with the black pen crosses through them are ones he’s already killed, including this morning’s victim” Thomas replied. Thomas reached into his tool bag and pulled out his digital camera, he took a couple of steps back so that the entire wall was in the cameras viewfinder which was displayed on the cameras LCD screen. After taking the picture he put the camera away and, while walking forward up to the wall, he removed his cell phone from its holder; Lieutenant Lucy was already on the line.
“Image received…processing…complete, well Thomas you’re right, this wall has pictures of every single victim, I ran the other pictures through our database and I’ve now got profiles on the other 23 to be victims” Lucy explained.
“There are still another 23 victims!?” Detective Swan yelled.
“That’s correct, I’ve also scanned the maps and post-its, the maps have different routes outlined for how to get to the victim and how to get back here or his home after killing them. As for the post-it notes they have detailed information on the victims, routes to and from work, times they go out shopping or walking their dog, this guy is extremely organised”
“Can you tell who his next victim is?” Thomas asked.
“Sorry I can’t help you” Lucy replied.
“Try comparing the forensic evidence collected at every crime scene with the information on this wall and the victim’s profiles to see if anything comes up” Thomas ordered.
“Okay but it will take a bit” Lucy warned.
“That’s fine just contact me when you have the results” Agent Thomas hung up and walked over to Detective Swan.
“So now what?” Detective Swan asked.
“Now I need to find some forensic evidence that will place our suspect at the crime scene” Thomas replied. Thomas reached into his tool bag and removed his ALS unit; he set it to 400-450 nm and began scanning for bodily fluids.
“Detective Swan can you hit the lights?” Thomas asked. Detective Swan ran over to the rooms light switch positioned by the door and flicked it up, the room was plunged into darkness. When Agent Thomas turned his ALS Unit on a violet light began to emit from it. Agent Thomas slowly started running the ALS across the surfaces of the room, first the toilets that showed up urine and faeces, next was the bed which was cover in saliva. After that he began to scan the sink for any evidence and he found some that would seal the case closed, the piece of evidence was a bloody knife. Thomas lifted it carefully and placed it on the table beside the sink before reaching into his tool bag and pulling his 3D Scanner out.
“Detective Swan, come and hold this for me” Thomas ordered. He handed Detective Swan his ALS unit and told him to keep it aimed at the knife, with the light shining on the knife Agent Thomas activated the 3D Scanner and four beams of laser light all at a 90 degree angle to each other ran across the knife and scanned every square nanometre of it. When it had finished Agent Thomas took the ALS unit back from Detective Swan and set it to a higher wavelength, 485-530nm, this allows fingerprints to become visible that would normally be invisible to the naked eye. When Agent Thomas pointed the ALS at the knife a full fingerprint began to fluoresce under the green light, he told Detective Swan to hold the ALS yet again before scanning the knife this time with the fingerprint visible. When he had finished he put his equipment back into his tool bag and removed his phone from its holder; Detective Swan also turned the lights back on.
“Lucy did you get all of that?” Thomas asked.
“What? Oh, sorry, ye, adding both of the scans into one three-dimensional model...complete. Looks like the blood on the blade of knife matches the blood on the key which matches the victims dogs, this knife was the murder weapon that was used on the dog” Lucy explained.
“What about the print?” Thomas asked.
“Ran that through AFIS and I got a match…Carl Anderson, our suspect. Also I compared it to the partial you retrieved from the victims neck and it was a match too, Carl Anderson slashed the dog before manually strangling the victim” Lucy replied.
“So now we have solid proof that Carl Anderson did kill Dr Dryburgh and her dog and we have proof that he also killed the other victims” Detective Swan butt-in.
“What about his next victim?” Thomas asked.
“Ehm hold on…oh my god!” Lucy replied.
“What?” Thomas asked.
“Jesus! The next victim is going to be a Dr Nicole Edwards and when I checked for patterns between each death one distinctive one came up”
“What?” Thomas asked.
“The time between each killing is the same time between his appointment with his victims and he saw Dr Edwards about nine hours after he saw Dr Dryburgh which means he going to kill Dr Edwards within the next 30 minutes!” Lucy replied.
“Jesus! Detective Swan, put out an APB for Carl Anderson, he is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous” Thomas ordered. Detective Swan pulled out his phone and dialled his HQ while Agent Thomas kept talking to Lieutenant Lucy.
“Lucy where does Dr Edwards stay?” Thomas asked.
“I’m doing loading her profile to your phone now!” Lucy replied.
“Thanks” Thomas hung up and ran over to Detective Swan who had also just hung up.
“All units have been informed and back-up is en-route to her house, ETA 20 minutes” said Detective Swan
“She may not have 20 minutes! Come on let’s go!” Thomas ordered. Agent Thomas and Detective Swan ran out of the maintenance room and up the multiple flights of stairs to the surface level before running outside and diving into Detective Swans car. When in Detective shoved the key in the ignition and started the car before speeding off down the road towards the next victim’s home.

After a 15 minute drive north into the Carson City suburbs Detective Swan and Agent Thomas pulled up outside the next victim’s house. Both of them dived out of the car and ran up to the door and began banging on the door.
“Dr Edwards, Dr Edwards, this is the FBI open up” they both yelled. They kept banging until a man answered the door.
“Who…who are you?” the very sleepy man asked.
“Sorry to disturb you, I’m Agent Thomas, FBI, and this is Detective Swan, CCPD” Thomas replied.
“Wha...what do you want?” the man asked.
“We believe your wife, Dr Edwards, is the next target for a serial killer called The Dog Torturer, is she home?” Thomas asked.
“She’s out with our dog at Adirondack State Park. Wait a minute, what do you mean she’s a target?” the man asked.
“Jesus, the state park’s the best place to kill someone, it’s quiet, isolated and it would take ages to find a body!” said Agent Thomas.
“Excuse me! Agent Thomas! Is my wife in trouble?” the man yelled. Detective Swan and Agent Thomas kept talking.
“What do we do?” Detective Swan asked.
“Are your car keys still in the ignition?” Thomas asked.
“Yeh, why?” Detective Swan asked. Before Detective Swan could get an answer Agent Thomas ran back down the path and got into Detective Swans car.
“Thomas what are you doing?” Detective Swan asked.
“I’m going to Adirondack State Park to try and save that woman’s life, in the meantime wait here until back-up arrives and inform the doctor’s husband of the situation. When the back-up arrives here come to the State Park” Agent Thomas replied before speeding off down the road leaving Detective Swan behind.

At the Adirondack State Park Dr. Edwards was walking down one of the many paths that took you through the deeps of the forest with her brown and white collie dog. As she was throwing sticks for her dog to catch she heard a stick snap to her right, she turned her head only in the direction of the sound. After looking for a second she shrugged her shoulders and continued playing with her dog. After walking a bit more she heard another stick snap and she saw birds flying away. She turned her whole body around this time and looked again in the direction the sound originated from.
“Hello? Anyone there?” she asked, there was no reply. She continued to walk on but this time she was slightly paranoid. She only took two steps before yet another stick snapped and she swung round sharply.
“Right if there’s anyone in there come out right now! This isn’t funny!” she ordered with a firm voice. She waited and waited but no one came out, was it her imagination or something more sinister; she turned and walked on.

Back in Detective Swan’s car Agent Thomas was doing 100 mph still heading towards the Adirondack State Park, while driving he was on the phone to Lieutenant Lucy.
“Thomas where are you?” Lucy asked.
“Ehm…I’m heading northbound on the 3A towards Adirondack State Park” Thomas replied.
“Why are you there?” Lucy asked.
“I tracked our next victim to the Adirondack State Park and I believe that our suspect is going to kill her. If he is then this is the only chance we’ll get at catching this guy!” Thomas replied.
“Okay what do you need?” Lucy asked.
“Ehm…I need…oh crap!” Before he could finish his answer his cell phone went dead.
“Thomas? Thomas?” Lucy yelled into her microphone, there was no answer.

Back at the park Dr Edwards was at breaking point, she had heard three more sticks snap. When the sixth snapped it didn’t come from the trees, it came from directly behind her, she froze. To her time seemed to slow down, everything around her slowed down, the birds, the trees and then sound of her dog barking. She slowly turned round and saw him; she was looking into the face of evil, no not the devil, Carl Anderson. Her body went numb, she tried to run but her legs were locked, she tried to scream but something was covering her mouth stopping the sound of her scream escaping. Carl Anderson pushed her to the ground and turned her over so that she was lying on her belly, Dr Edwards could feel something being wrapped round her wrist, she tried to struggle free but a powerful force was holding her down. After a second the force had gone but she was lying on the floor bound and gagged. She looked up and saw Carl grabbing her dog and forcing it to the ground, he pulled out a knife.

Agent Thomas had just narrowly avoided a head on collision with a giant beer truck, the force of the turning car was strong enough to knock Thomas’s phone out of the dashboard and onto the floor which disconnected the call. Agent Thomas, still driving, reached down and picked up his phone and redialled Lucy’s HQ number.
“Thomas! Thank god your okay, what happened?” Lucy asked.
“I’ve got no time to explain, I’m about three minutes from the park and I need back-up there now, Police, SWAT, FBI, CIA, NSA, US Army, US Air Force, anything!” Thomas yelled.
“Right, I see who I can get” said Lucy before hanging up. After three minutes Thomas parked outside the main gate that lead into the Adirondack State Park; he cut the engine. While sitting in the car Agent Thomas took off his forensic tool bag and removed his gun from its holster he checked the guns ammo clip.
“Seven rounds” he mumbled. He put his phone in his pocket and his gun in its holster before climbing out his car and running off up the path. When he was running he got to a junction with two paths to choose.
“Left or right left or right? Oh god give me a sign” he yelled, just then his phone rang, it was Lucy.
“Thomas, I’ve gotten access to a NSA satellite and I’ve found Dr Edwards” Lucy explained.
“Is she alive?” Thomas asked.
“Yes but our suspect is there with her, take the path to your right and hurry!” Lucy replied. Thomas hung up his phone and began running down the long dirt path towards Dr Edwards and Carl Anderson, he hoped he wouldn’t be too late.

When Agent Thomas found Carl and Dr Edwards he quickly pulled his gun out of its holster and yelled
“Freeze FBI!” Carl Anderson grabbed Dr Edwards off the floor and put a knife to her throat, the hunt for the serial killer had become a hostage situation. Carl was using Dr Edwards as a human shield, not only could agent Thomas get a shot at Carl, if he did the knife would still cut Dr Edwards throat.
“Drop the gun agent!” Carl ordered. Thomas shook his head.
“Not gonna happen Carl!” Thomas retaliated.
“Oh well you can say goodbye to your little vet friend” Carl laughed. Thomas could see the fear and terror in Dr Edwards face as it went chalk white, tears came streaming down her face as she began mumbling something.
“Wha…what was that? You don’t want to die? Hear that agent, she doesn’t want to die!” Carl laughed cynically. “Her fate is in your hands!” Agent Thomas stood firm in his place with his gun still pointing at Carl.
“You have to the count of three to drop your weapon,” Carl yelled, “One…two...” Before Carl could yell three a police helicopter shot over his head and made a sharp right turn into a hover position directly above Agent Thomas.
“Carl Anderson, this is the CCPD, drop your weapon and release your hostage now!” the helicopter pilot yelled into his megaphone. Carl Anderson was being blinded by the high power searchlight on the front of the helicopter. Agent Thomas took this advantage to take a shot a Carl; he fired two rounds at him but deliberately missed. Carl retaliated by throwing his knife at Thomas, he dived out of the way of the knife and land in the ditch at the side of the path. Carl then let go off Dr Edwards and ran into the forest trying to evade the helicopter. Agent Thomas quickly climbed out of the ditch and ran over to aid Dr Edwards.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
“Yes I’m fine but my dog, he’s been slashed badly” Dr Edwards replied. Just then two police officers and a medical team arrived to help Dr Edwards and her dog. With Dr Edwards safe Agent Thomas’s next priority was Carl Anderson; Thomas stood up and ran into the forest to catch the serial killer.

With the aid of the helicopter transmitting Carl’s location, Thomas was right on his tail.
“Agent Thomas the suspect has stopped about 500 yards ahead of you, be careful, god knows what he’s up to!” The helicopter pilot warned. Thomas acknowledged the pilots warning and continued to advance on Carl’s position. When he got there he was shot at several times with a pistol, Thomas took cover behind a fallen tree. Thomas began to try and negotiate with Carl.
“Carl, I know about your past, I know about the bullying, I understand why you killed that boy in high school and I know about how upset you were when your dog died but why did you have to kill those vets? They were only doing their job” Thomas yelled from behind the tree trunk.
“You could never understand what it was like when Eddy died, you could never understand what it felt when he died” Carl yelled back.
“Yes I can because I had a dog when I was younger, and he died when I was nine. I was heartbroken and I had so many mixed emotions but I managed to accept it, if a nine year old can learn to live with it so can a 42 year old man!”
“He was my best friend!”
“So was my dog, he wasn’t just a friend his was a member of the family, a brother, and I loved him so much but there was nothing I could do”
“Yeh but mines could have lived longer”
“For what? For him to still die? The vets had no choice but to decline your offer, they were doing their jobs. Now please just drop you weapon and we can take you back to FBI headquarters and talk about this!” Thomas ordered. For a minute there was a silence, Thomas lay there hoping that Carl would give up.
“What’s it going to be?” Thomas asked. His question was answered by a gunshot; Thomas leapt up and looked at Carl who was lying on the ground. Thomas ran over to his body to see what had happened, Carl lay face first in the ground with a bullet hole in his back. Thomas rolled him over to reveal that he was still alive but was coughing up blood; Carl had tried to commit suicide. Thomas removed his SCU jacket and placed it over the bullet hole in Carl’s chest, the bullet had ricocheted off one of his ribs and into his lung puncturing it. After a couple of seconds a medical team, escorted by some police officers and Detective Swan, arrived, they put Carl on a stretcher and carried him away. Thomas sat down on the tree trunk he was hiding behind and Detective Swan accompanied him.
“What happened?” Detective Swan asked in a calm voice.
“Carl learned to accept his past. He was just a man who was confused and his violent past came back and ruined his life” Thomas replied. There was a short silence before Thomas asked.
“Is Dr Edwards alright?”
“She’s a bit shaken up but alright, so is her dog” Detective Swan replied. There was another momentary silence before Detective Swan stood up and asked
“Are you coming?”
Thomas nodded,
“Sure” Thomas stood up and walked with Detective Swan out of the forest. Carl Jung said, ‘The healthy man does not torture others. Generally, it is the tortured who turn into torturers.’ That was the end of The Dog Torturer.

By Daryl Whitehall.