Serial Affair

The whites of Marina Santos' mahoganybrown eyes shone bright in the bathroom mirror as she skillfully thickened her lashes with mascara. Quickly lining her lids, she filled in her eyebrows. Grumbling in frustration, she gave her thick hair one last impatient brush. Why hadn't she been blessed with easycare hair like her cousins Janisa and Carmen? Maybe her hair would be easier to manage with a permanent. Her full, berrycolored lips twisted ruefully. With the dense, moistureladen July air, her shoulderlength hair would be even thicker before she got to work. She would have pulled it back, but she hated the drab, toneddown, buttonedup look that most sported at her job. Wearing her hair down was one of the small ways she rebelled. Straightening the casual navy pantsuit that she'd brightened with a multicolored camisole, she inserted a pair of ruby studs into her ears. In the background she could hear the Channel 9 news. Brushing lint off one sleeve of her jacket, she froze as she listened."Early this morning the body of twentysix yearold Elliot Washington was found floating in the pool at the Hartford Hotel. The family has been notified. The cause of death has not been determined and police are not releasing details, but there are several reports that the body had been mutilated. Washington was last seen partying with friends on the North End last night. You may recall that Washington was a close friend of Mayor Dansinger's daughter, Jade. He was a press favorite at several events featuring the mayor and his family. Police are asking that anyone with information that might lead to an arrest contact them."Marina stepped out of the bathroom in her lowheeled sensible shoes in time to see a television screen closeup of a tall blond man shown with the mayor's daughter. She recognized him from stories she'd seen on television and in the newspapers. A stockbroker, he was young, goodlooking, and known to be a bit wild. Washington appeared often on the arm of the mayor's daughter and many speculated that things might have been heating up. Eyes narrowing, Marina reached for her purse. Working under Lowell Talbot, the FBI's violent crimes expert, had so honed her instincts that she'd never look at life the way she used to. Now she saw patterns in everything. Leaping in anticipation of a new puzzle, the analytical part of her brain took in the news information, dissected it and searched for comparisons with things she'd seen and heard. Reaching back in her memory, she recalled reading about a similar homicide several months ago. Hadn't there been another young man found dead and mutilated?Yeah.They'd found his mutilated body in a stall at Union Station. And she was betting that he hadn't been the first. It usually took three similarly patterned murders before a murderer was considered a serial killer. Could Chicago have a serial killer on the loose? Washington's body had been mutilated, according to the reporter. Just what did they mean by "mutilated"? Working with Talbot she'd seen it all. Murder and mutilation were disturbing enough, but in general the damage was more visceral when a serial killer was involved. The victims were usually women. That made the possibilities in this instance even more intriguing. If her instincts were on target, this time a group of men was in danger. Settling the strap of the purse on her shoulder and palming her car keys, she exited the front door of her remodeled brownstone. With the alarm set, she carefully locked the door. She took the steps in brilliant sunlight, then opened the door of her red sports car, at which point she allowed herself to wonder. Has anyone else even noticed the two murders enough to tie them together? Of course, the Chicago Police Department had noticed, but that wouldn't be on the news.Dunbar, Natalie is the author of 'Serial Affair ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373275403 and ISBN 0373275404.