Third person

Detective Dacanery sat in front of his desk, the heaps of paperwork that had to be sorted from the last mystery. There was probably paper from previous mysteries. Killers, robbers, drugs, psychopaths, he dealt with them all.

Which made the everlasting mounds of paperwork grow higher and higher. He would have to deal with it some time soon.

The phone rang. It couldn't be good. But he welcomed any distraction from the mundane life of paperwork.

"Detective Dacanery?" The voice of Sally Jean, one of his co-workers who worked at the reception, rang out in the sharp and deadly silence.

"Speaking." He said.

"We have a new murder. Liston street. Bearing similarities to 'the spider killer' murders from two years ago."

This was bad news. The spider killer, as he was called by the news papers, had had a reign of murders, from 2003 to 2008, where no one and nothing was safe. He had disappeared in 2008 to anonymity. Now two years later, he seemed to be resurfacing.

Nobody ever knew anything about him, and no witness, if there was ever one, stepped forward. He was never caught on CCTV, and never left any evidence behind for the forensics to examine.

Almost nothing was known about him, apart from he left drained husks as the remains of his victims, and sometimes a spider or two could be seen crawling away in, well, a drunken disposition. The spiders had never been caught, as no one had never realised the significance of the spiders until it was too late.

"Is there a possibility it's a copycat killer?" The copycat killer would be a psychopath, and a very twisted psychopath, and dangerous, since if he could drain the husks of blood... That would make him a dangerous enemy. But better a twisted psychopathic killer than an evil mastermind who had evaded capture for seven years and dragged the police force through the mud, being an unsolved mystery. They probably had more chance in capturing a twisted psychopath too.

"We don't know, although a spider had been seen, and it seems that this murder is, indeed, connected to the murders of 7 to 2 years ago."

Well damn. What could they do but try and fail to solve the mystery?

"Thank you Sally. I'll be at the crime scene as soon as possible."

"Goodbye."

"Bye."

Dacanery put the phone down and sat staring at the mound of paperwork in front of him. Well, now he had the distraction he wanted. But at what price? The price of a mastermind killer returned?

The crime scene was an hour's drive from the station, too much time, Dacanery thought, for going over the mystery of the so called spider killer.

He arrived at the crime scene and saw the white tent set up to protect the body and surrounding crime scene from the elements. No one knew what new, hidden piece of information could be uncovered. That evidence might help solve the mystery, or could just lead to another dead end.

There was a temporary staff parking set up so he parked his silver BMW there before walking to the tent.

He pushed the worn flap up and stepped in. He wasn't surprised by the scene he was greeted with-it was the same every time. The forensic team in their white lab coats and the body in the middle. What surprised him was one of the other detectives Brooks, examining the body.

"Hello Harry." Dacanery said.

Harry Brooks was a middling man, about average on everything. There was nothing noticeable about him at first glance, but his razor sharp wit could get even the most trickiest of criminals into admitting their various crimes.

He was a world away from the other detective, John Stevens, whose loud nature meant he said a lot but those words meant precious little.

"Hi. This murder seems to be connected to the murders of two years ago. They even found a spider, but it disappeared pretty sharpish once it realised they were trying to catch it."

"So the spiders could have some higher degree of intellectual thought?" Asked Dacanery.

"Indeed they could. This one seemed to know what it was doing and how to evade capture."

"Interesting." Dacanery said, and this time he meant it. "So could the spider be a robot?"

"All evidence shows not. I mean, it's a possibility of course, but all the evidence points to the spiders being alive. Because, why would the killer leave a few robot spiders behind?"

"It makes no sense. But why would the killer leave spiders behind anyway? Or have spiders in the first place?"

"I don't know. That is why this is called, as they say, a mystery."

"Indeed." Dacanery said and their conversation slowly dissipated.

Brook's phone rang and he stepped away to answer it. Dacanery took the few minutes Brook was away to look at the corpse.

She was definitely female, and a teenager, probably 14 to 17. All that was left was a dried husk, no visible signs of death. But the post mortem would reveal more. Perhaps strangulation, suffocation, but that wouldn't explain the dried husk with no visible signs if bleeding.

Brook's stepped back in Dacanery's earshot.

"Detective? We have a witness. I don't know more than that, but he or she's down at the station. Chief Inspector Masterson wants us there to talk to the witness."

"There is actually a witness? Who will speak?" He almost couldn't believe his ears. Maybe they would get closer to solving this damn mystery once and for all.

They took their seperate cars and drove to the station. They arrived at 10 to 3, making it to chief inspector Masterson's office at exactly 3 'o' clock, and then waiting patiently for the bell to finish chiming. Dacanery knocked and the chief inspector told them to come in.

They entered the smart office. The chief inspector was a woman about 28 years old, not the youngest but not the oldest on he force. She had brown hair drawn into a bun, and was tall, tall enough to tower over most members of the force. Her piercing blue eyes could make even the best starrer on the force back down. She was impossible to withhold information from, and that success had elevated her to a position of power.

She had used that stare on Dacanery more than once, and he was not willing to feel the effects so soon. Or ever again.

"Detectives. I trust you both know why you are here?" She said. Her voice was sharp, and direct, never deviating from the point.

Dacanery hoped it was to do with the current mystery, but you never knew with Masterson.

"Yes." Brook's reply cut off anything he was about to say.

"I want you two to interview the witness. I think her name is Angelina Shaw. You two are the best detectives on the force, I know you two won't mess this up. She is in the holding rooms at the moment, try not to frighten her, this might be our one and only chance for a witness."

The detectives nodded.

"Well, that's all. You can go to her now."

They turned and left, closing the door carefully.

It took them ten minutes to reach the witness cells, after being stopped and their IDs checked. Ms Shaw was waiting patiently for them in a holding cell.

Dacanery and Brooks both stepped in, Dacanery taking a position up by the door and Brooks sitting opposite the witness. This was how they operated, Brook's asking the questions, with occasionally a few questions from Dacanery if there was anything he felt Brooks had missed.

"Hello, my name is detective Brooks and by the door is detective Dacanery. We are going to be asking you a few questions, but first we need some personal details. Can you state your name, age, occupation and address?"

The witness nodded. "My name is Angelina Shaw, I am 22, I work at a dogs trust centre and I live with my parents at 24 cotton close, Howarth, London. (This is not a real address. If it is, sorry.)"

"Thank you miss Shaw. I would like to remind you to be as honest as possible, and stick to the facts, no matter what the facts are."

"Of course detective. It happened yesterday, at 8am. The girl, I think her name was Angela, walked onto the street. She looked more jumpy than usual, as if she knew what was going to happen. She was cornered by a man who led her into an alleyway. I was getting ready for work at this time, and as I had woken up later than usual I was rushed and I didn't think much of it at the time. The man came out, half an hour later as I was walking to my car, and he looked like he wanted to murder someone, so I drove away pretty sharpish. I was the only one at my house, my parents had woken up earlier and already gone to work."

"Thank you miss Shaw. Can you give us any identifying features of the man?"

"Sorry, I can't. It's like all his features have faded from my memory, and I can't remember what he looked like. I can remember he was a man, and he was about average height. But I don't think I could even pick him out of a line up, I can barely remember anything about him."

"Never mind. Do you know the victim personally?"

"No."

"Do you know anyone who knew the victim?" Asked Brooks.

"No, sorry."

"No problem. Dacanery?"

"Have you seen the body?" He asked.

"No, but I've hear reports." She answered.

"So you know the body is a drained husk?"

"Yes." The witness said without turning around to see the detective now asking the questions.

"How do you think the murderer commited the murder?" He asked. She would have been fifteen at the time of the first murder, 20 at the last.

"It's connected to those murders two years ago, isn't it? I don't know, maybe draining the corpse of the blood using some scientific method." She gave the common answer, the answer everyone thought was the was the killer left the drained husks.

"That's what is suspected." He answered carefully.

"Is the murderer coming back? You didn't catch him did you? Oh my god, is everyone going to be in danger?" She started to panic and Brooks tried to calm her down.

Not everyone would be in danger. It was only teenagers who were targeted, for some obscure reason.

Brooks signalled for Dacanery to leave. He stepped out the door, and a few seconds later Brooks followed him out.

"Well, that was practically useless." Dacanery said to break the silence. "Well, I mean, we found out he is unmemorable, and that's about it."

"Hmm. Is there anything that could cause short term dedicated amnesia? That we have now and isn't some sci-fi theory?"

"Erm, we could check records, I think the only things we have is futuristic sci-fi. I don't know if anything of that is realistic or not." Dacanery said.

"Interesting. We have a serial killer out of a sci-fi movie."

"That's possible though. Of course, the killer hasn't come out of a psycho movie, but he could be impersonating a serial killer."

"Yes, but I don't think it's a serial killer impersonating anyone, because that kind of psycho we have caught lots of times. This is a mastermind, something we haven't dealt with before." They had been walking as they talked and now reached Brooks' office. "Do you want to update detective Stevens or shall I?" Brooks asked as he opened his office door.

Dacanery thought back to the mounds of paperwork he had to file. "Can you do it? I've got paperwork to file."

"Ahh, the old curse. Paperwork. Well, I'll see you tomorrow if I don't see you this afternoon. I'll send you the details of the briefing we'll be giving to the rest of the team after I've made the phone call."

"I'll look over it then."

They said goodbye and parted, each going their seperate ways.