Petra was not happy to see me. She looked angry when I walked into the police station and even threatened to have me arrested. I sat down across from her.
“Look, we all agree we have been wasting time on this case, and we can waste more time in bickering and arguments, but we don’t have that time. I already have the lycans and the vampires searching the city for us; we need to get a hold of this situation and find this girl. Both our careers depend on it, and to be honest I don’t care about my career one bit … but if that girl dies and it is my fault I will not forgive myself, or you for that matter. Neither of us trusted each other, but can we get past that and just go and look for this girl now?” I was shouting, angered by her behavior.
“I should have seen that coming, and in a way I deserved that too,” she said. “Fine, we will bury the hatchet and get back to working together.”
I extended my hand and as she grabbed mine we shook hands.
“Let’s have another look over the previous victims; maybe there is a pattern we didn’t see,” I suggested.
Petra took the files from her drawer and opened them between us on the desk. “Okay, let’s see,” she said. “The names of the victims were Yasmin Green, Opal Salvin, Una Kite, Amber Jones, Ruby Winkler and Eka Nite. All we know about these girls is that each of them has a gemstone for name, and all were killed in the same manner: first choked to first death, and then when they got their second chance they were killed by a nail driven through the skull. All the nails were of the same make, same as the nail recently found by you and that lion man at the river head. Which could be another hint from this douche bag: a nail at another head. But we’re not sure about that.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that there was a connection between the nails in the head of the girls and the nail at the river head, but it made sense. This guy was brilliant for sure, he was still toying with us; even while dead he was still toying with us. How long had he been planning this, how much effort had he put into it? Had he known I would be hired for the case? So many questions were still out there.
I looked over at Petra. “I am afraid we need to do something drastic,” I told her.
“What do you mean with something drastic?” she asked, concern on her face.
I cleared my throat. “We need to get the press involved,” I said.
She stared at me with disbelief. “What do we need those roaches for? What good can they do for this case?” she asked.
I sighed. “I hate to admit it, but we need them to get this town talking about the case. We need to force the person helping the murderer out of hiding; if we do that he might make a mistake that we can use to find out who he is, arrest him and get him to tell us where the girl is. I don’t like it either, but the press can help with that just perfectly.”
Petra gave a reluctant nod. “You’re right. The Chief won’t like it though,” she said.
I had to agree: the Police Chief loathed the press, he wouldn’t be inclined to have this plan work, but if we went ahead and did it behind his back he would chew us up and spit us out. “How do you suggest we get him to allow us to use the press?” I asked Petra.
She shook her head. “I don’t have a clue to be honest. Maybe we should just ask him outright and explain to him why,” she suggested.
I bit my lip and looked at her. “Know what? Let’s go and try that.”  

Next Chapter: The plan