Chapter 52: The Illicit Lovers, Discovered
"Who found this?"
"Some junkie gettin’ his morning tweak. He’s already at the station."
Riley was right. As soon as death touched the ruined hospital again, life returned in droves. The area was now swarming with people—dozens of them. Half were police; the other half were members of the media.
Reporters pressed in from all sides, desperate to get closer to the scene. But the police had sealed off the entire perimeter. That didn’t stop the more aggressive journalists, some of them even climbed the fences—they didn’t stop even when one of them was tackled to the ground and cuffed.
The frenzy wasn’t unwarranted. The brief glimpse some reporters managed to catch had been more than enough to get them curious. The crime scene was brutal. Grotesque. But most of all—meticulously staged.
Whoever did this... wanted to be seen.
"Dios... it’s a damn mess out there," Detective Jake muttered, squinting through the crowd. "Remind me again why we’re even here, Dors? We already got our hands full with that Megaland desmadre."
"We’re here because of that damn reporter," Detective Dorothy replied, her voice dry. The bags under her eyes were deeper than when they last visited Riley at the Academy.
"She just had to run her mouth and suggest this might be connected to the Roman case," Dorothy added with a groan, shaking her head as she looked up at the ruined hospital’s new ceiling. "And why the hell haven’t they taken that thing down yet? Are they waiting for the family to show up and see her like—"
"Stephanie!"
And before Dorothy could finish her words, a loud, guttural scream cracked through the air. Dorothy immediately turned toward the commotion. A woman was being restrained by officers. The man beside her had collapsed to the ground, wailing like his lungs might give out.