Chapter 1 - Knightfall

"Anyone see who brought this in? Anyone ask the person who brought it in who gave it to them?" he asks the other colleagues in the office.

While waiting for all that he calls Kim.

Vlax will wait until someone dusta the prints, but he calls for dispatch and asks they send a unit to Kim's apartment and do a welfare check, but for the patrol officer to call him first.

When they call, he explains that considering that there have been two murders in an adjacent to that building, and she's a person of interest, that if she does not enter the door look around and make sure there's no signs of blood, forced entry etc and if there is go in, and be ready for a fight, but also be ready to preserve a crime scene.

After he hangs up, he hopes upon hope that there's not been yet another victim, and this time is poor young lady who was so nice and helpful.

Vlax drops the envelope immediately, both out of a hint of shock, but also to preserve any evidence inside the envelope. He does manage to express and explicative as he does so.

Get that forensics team back in here, he blurts out to no person in particular, just whomever might be in earshot. He notices he's holding his hands up as if the thing was acid, probably a subconscious reaction to the shock.

He gathers himself, gets his notebook, and starts looking through to see the exact number of those trips that were missing from the girl's body, and comparing the size. He has little doubt that this is from her, but he just wants to make sure. Plus he can't remember exactly how many were cut off of her.

He waits to see if the forensics team can get anything from inside the envelope, be it latent trace evidence, or just something else. He didn't really take time to see beyond the skin. You might want to get the corner involved, as they will have a pretty good idea where this came from. Maybe they can run some tests and confirm it, he adds, when he speaks to the forensic team who collect the evidence.

Vlax leaps to his feet, making sure he has his gun, badge, etc and racist to his car. Lights, sirens, fret, he makes way to the scene already very much worried about what he's going to find.

Vlax sees that the patrolman is beyond help. He immediately starts looking for anyone else, but he does so very carefully, and very stealthfully.

If Kim we're in here and asleep, that blast should have woken her. Then there's the question of who called this in? As soon as he thinks it's safe to do so, he'll probably radio in and ask. He looks for footprints in the blood, or any trail that would show anyone coming to or away from this area. If it was a trap right to the back side of the door, someone called in ...officer down.

Vlax quickly calls on the radio. " Tell those medics to hurry, he's alive, but barely. And where's my backup? the detective kneels down beside the man, taking off his own shirt to use it as a bandage. He looks for somewhere safe to put it but is reluctant to put pressure on an exposed skull. Instead he tries to hold the man still and if he sees any spurting arteries, concentrate his efforts there.. We need help, he calls out! hoping someone nearby might be willing to help.

Okay guys, stack up. Just like we did at the academy. I know you probably haven't done it since, but we need to clear this apartment and do it properly. We should all look out for gun wielding thugs and I don't know if this was a trap but we'll know soon. As far as I know the only occupant should be a woman in her thirties who looks younger, named Kim.

He calls out on the radio, to dispatch, "I say again, who called in officer down?" Even before he gets a reply he start making hand gestures, dividing the crew into three teams of four. Instructing one team to go left, one to go right, and hos team the third, to cover.