Although David had not planned to stay at the precinct for so long, the next time he took a look at the clock, five hours had passed.

He and Stella had gone through all the case files from all the three murders, taking notes, looking for similarities and patterns. Although Stella wasn't ready to dismiss the idea that those murders had been committed by several people, both worked with the basic idea in mind that this was a serial killer. But everything else they found out about this didn't really add up. The crime scenes, the victims... it all seemed too random. But after hours and hours going through the papers, and Stella starting to lose her concentration, David decided that it was time for a break. They left the office and went into the break room to get some coffee.

Curiously Stella looked around. "You know, I hardly come here," she said. "This is a lot different from my usual work."

David smiled faintly. "Maybe this is something you could do more often."

"What, working as a detective?" Stella shook her head vehemently. "No, I do love my job. It's sometimes just lacking the variety. Having a change now and then can be really refreshing. But this..." She waved her hand in a wide bow that included the entire squad room. "Boss, I want to help you find this killer, or those killers. But I don't intend to make a career out of it."

The coffee machine hissed and bubbled and finally dispensed two mugs worth of steaming black liquid for David and Stella. He grabbed the mugs and put them on a table where they finally sat down. "I guess then there is no point in asking you if you would be my partner for this case. The captain told me to pick one."

Stella almost choked on her coffee, and for a minute she could do nothing but cough and gag. When she finally found her voice again, she asked: "Partner? Me?"

"Why not. You are perfectly capable, and we work well in a team." David took a sip from his coffee, watching her reaction. It came pretty quickly.

"No offense, boss, but I'm no partner material. On the job or... anywhere else. I'm a lab rat, and I'm proud of it. If you want to do research, examine dead bodies, go through paperwork, then you can come to me. But if you are out there in the streets, you need someone to watch your back, and you don't want a partner by your side that has never fired a gun in her entire life. Or even wants to."

"Yeah..." David did his best to not sound disappointed, but it was obvious that he failed. "Captain Faulkner said about the same thing. Guess he's right."

"So why wouldn't you pick one of the real cops up here?" Stella asked curiously. "I mean, there must be someone who can work with you. Someone with an actual badge and a gun."

"There probably is," David admitted. "But... I don't know, this whole case seems so disturbed that there might even be something to this idea of mine. I mean... I asked you about demons earlier, right? You remember?"

"I do." And judging by her voice she seemed to have calmed down on that matter. "But I don't understand what you're on about."

David took another sip, worked this idea around in his head again. It felt like a piece of a puzzle tumbling around in his mind, that he thought he could fit anywhere in the big picture, but whenever he started to grasp it, it vanished again. "I'm not sure either," he then said. "It's something that I noticed last night about my wife. She's a psychologist working with inmates of the State Prison, and for the last couple of days she had this one guy that totally rallied her up. Last night however she hinted at the idea that there are some sort of demons involved in... the murder this inmate had committed."

Stella looked at him, listening anxiously. "What murder?"

"Gent van Villeke."

Her eyes widened. "You're kidding!" As he shook his head and gave her an honest look, she laughed. "This was the first real case I ever dealt with, back in my studies of criminal forensics. It made a lot of newspapers back then, and they allowed us a glimpse on the body, so that we gain experience from it. You can't believe how many of my fellow students skipped lunch that day."

"I can," David answered, trying not to picture it. Gent van Villeke took a dive from the seventh floor, allegedly pushed by Simon Weisa. Whatever the coroners back then had to scrub from the pavement, it couldn't have been much. He noticed that Stella regarded him with newly found fascination.

"So your wife is talking to the murderer of Gent van Villeke. Wow! Has he ever told her about the reason why he did it? Because this is something a lot of people are trying to figure out, including me."

Again David shrugged. "I don't know. And my wife is not at liberty to talk about this. Her talks with the inmates are strictly confidential. I know nothing about it for sure, I just figured things out from her behavior. And we agreed a long time ago that I don't push her into revealing things from her work, cause it's none of my business."

"So how do you figure that this is connected to our cases here?" Stella put her hands around her mug on the table - just to retract them a second later because it was so hot.

It was really tough for David to point a finger on it. But those symbols... They had to mean something. So he just threw his idea out: "Yesterday we watched a movie, and afterwards my wife asked me whether I think it's possible that... demons sort of inhabit or possess human bodies, to make them do horrible things to themselves or others. And come to think of it, this must be what has been eating her up inside for the last two days. It must have to do with this inmate she was talking to."

Stella sat there for a second, considering it. Then she shrugged. "Sounds far fetched to me."

"Yeah, I guess so," David agreed. "To us normal people at least. But whoever committed those murders... what if that killer believed in this whole thing? Running around, killing people who he thinks are demons. That would explain why those victims seem so random to us. They don't have a connection except for him."

"And those symbols?" Stella inquired. "I mean, if they do have some occult meaning, at least in his head, maybe... they are designed to kill the demon inside the human body. Turning those household items into something that can actually get the job done."

"And that explains why running the victims over with a car wasn't enough..." David grimaced. "You know what? This is crazy! We should forget about it."

"Yeah, but it makes a really weird kind of sense," Stella replied. "And hey, it's maybe not that crazy for the person who did this, because this person is crazy, too. You said yourself that we need to figure out how and what he thinks to catch him."

"You notice something?" David smirked grimly. "We are talking about the killer like it's supposed to be a male one."

Stella snorted in response. "Women are not capable of such a thing. And if they are, I really don't want to meet them." After another careful sip from her mug, she continued: "The other two victims may have died by the hands of a female killer, but our victim Mr. Keller... This took a lot of force to put this pole into him. Now I know that there are strong women in this world, and it is said that madness can at times even enhance your strength, but this was excessive. If there was a woman capable of doing this running around in the city, someone would have noticed her, and we would have a lot more witnesses. And at least one suspect."

"And that's the other thing that is bothering me in this case." David started to think out loud. "Three murders, in three different places. Nobody saw or heard anything. No real traces of the killer, except for the mess he leaves behind. No finger prints, no DNA, not even on the murder weapons. He knows how to get through the city unseen, steal or buy his murder weapons without anyone noticing, and disappearing afterwards without a trace. Like he knows our procedures."

"Oh, come on, everyone knows our procedures who just happens to watch the right cop shows," Stella countered. "How do you think I got this job in the first place?"

And the idea that David had in this second was gone again, blown away by Stella's remark. He leaned back on his chair and groaned. "I need someone who can help me make sense of this whole thing. And I don't think anyone in this department would qualify for that."

"Yeah, demon hunting is not in the job description, I guess." Stella snickered. "But since we're on the topic of crazy ideas... You know who might be able to make heads and toes from this? Who is probably capable of giving you the right hints?"

David looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. But then he understood. "That's a joke, right?"

"No. It's a crazy idea." Stella brought this comeback in such a relaxed way that David couldn't really take her serious now.

"This... Nah! There is some other way. There must be. Doing this is just... It's wrong!" He shook his head time and time again. "It would abuse the trust my wife has in me, and it goes against every common sense, even for people who haven't seen..." He stopped himself before another crude movie reference passed his lips. But judging by Stella's amused look she knew exactly what he was about to say.

She waited patiently until his rant was over, and then said calmly: "Boss, if you are right, then we have a serial killer on the loose who is ready to strike anywhere at any time, and we cannot tell one or the other before it is too late. Now, I know I am new to this whole detective business, but shouldn't you review all the options you have and do what's in your power to prevent the next poor soul landing on my table?"

She was right. David almost hated her for that. He took up the mug and emptied it. "Guess I will be going now. Thanks for your help!"

"Anytime, boss!" Stella broadly smiled. "This was a really cool Saturday shift, if you ask me."