Unexpected

Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.

***

It started as another day in what could only be described as the year of hell. It had been over a year since the murders had started and about four months since I had been appointed to head the new taskforce to bring this killer to justice. We had dubbed him the Black Woods Killer since all of his victims' bodies had been left in the Black Forest just outside the city. Five victims in 18 months had the task force working an average of 16 hours a day. Even though we followed up every lead no matter how farfetched, but so far, every one of them hadn't panned out and a killer was still loose in the city.

It was just after 8 and I was at my desk looking over the latest reports that my detectives had filed from their efforts the previous day when the phone rang. I picked it up and got the news that I didn't want to hear, victim number six had just been found. I dropped the reports on my desk and made my way out of the station and to my car. 20 minutes later I joined the other investigators that were already on scene.

I parked my car alongside the other police cars on the outskirts of the woods and made my way over to the rest of the team that was already there. As I walked across the small field to the woods, I noticed that the summer heat was already starting to crank up along with the humidity. By the time I got to the woods I had my tie loose and my shirt sleeves rolled up in an effort to be a little more comfortable. An officer met me at the edge of the woods by a homemade trail that lead into the woods.

"Morning Mr. Ryan." he said.

"Good morning." I replied.

"This way sir." he said, and I followed him down the ramshackle trail into the woods. "A couple of teenagers found the body while hiking in the woods about an hour ago."

About 50 yards into down the trail we turned and walked through the underbrush directly and I struggled a couple of times trying to keep up with the officer since my dress shoes weren't made for walking in the woods. I chided myself for not investing in a pair of hiking shoes to keep in my car for days like this. After walking in the bare underbrush for a few minutes we reached a small clearing where all I could see at first were all the CSI techs and other detectives. I approached the first face I recognized.

"Jeff." I said as I got beside him.

"Oh hi Matt." he said "Body was found about an hour ago by a couple of teenagers walking in the woods here. White male, approximately 6 feet tall and about 30 years old, Blood on the ground near his head suggests a bullet wound but we're waiting on the medical examiner to arrive for a closer examination. CSI is examining the ground for any trace evidence."

As Jeff finished his report, we made our way into the fray of cops and CSI techs, and I got my first look at the body. Even though I had been a detective for over five years the initial shock of seeing a dead body never dulled. It was just like Jeff had said, a white male looked like he died of a gunshot wound. He was laying on his back partially covered in leaves and underbrush. My initial instinct said that since the body looked relatively fresh (for lack of a better term) and wasn't completely covered by the forest that it hadn't been here long.

As other cops and detectives spoke to me and gave me reports and I noticed what looked like a drag trail on the ground going in a different direction than the way we came in. "Look at this Jeff." I said pointing. "Looks like this may be where the body was dragged in from. Do you know where this leads?"

"There's a lot of homemade trails that go in and out of this stretch of the forest." Jeff said. "You know there's a housing development only about a mile from here, so a lot of those residents use the woods for recreation."

"Let's see where this leads." I said to Jeff, and he nodded. "Spencer, Gleason, follow us." I added calling to a couple of uniformed officers. We followed the rocky ramshackle trail and noticed what looked like fresh drag marks and even a few spots of blood. You didn't have to be Sherlock Holes to figure out that this is where the body had been brought in from. I wanted to see where this trail led to but also needed to be on hand to hear the medical examiner's report and interview the two witnesses who found the body, so I decided to turn back.

"You three stay with this, I'm going to go wait for the medical examiner." I told them. Once I got back to the main crime scene, I was told that the medical examiner was still not there, so I decided to make my way back out to the rough command post in the clearing where other detectives were interviewing the two teenagers who had found the body.

Near where all the police cruisers where I saw two detectives and two teens in street clothes. I walked up and greeted the detectives,

"Jim, Dave." I said as we quickly shook hands.

"Morning Matt." they said in unison.

"These are the two who found the body?" I asked.

"Yes sir." Dave replied. "They were headed to the creek in the middle of the forest to fish when they came across the body. They live right over there in that housing block." I looked at the boys directly for the first time. I could tell they spent a lot of time outdoors and were pretty rugged youths, but they were clearly shaken by what they had seen.

"Hello boys. I'm Matt Ryan task force lead." I said and they nodded and gave me their names. "So, tell me what happened."

"Well like he said." one of them started we were headed to the creek to fish when we saw the body."

His friend chimed in when he stopped, "I saw it first and it took us a few seconds for it to fully click. Then we got out of there and called you guys as quick as we could." The two boys were clearly still in shock, so I figured it was best to leave it at that for the time being. I looked at my two detectives and said,

"You've taken down their statements and contact information? I asked. They nodded.

I pulled out a couple of my cards and handed them to the boys and said, "Ok boys I think we've got what we need from you for now. Why don't you go home and try and rest. I know this has been a great shock to you. If we need anything else from you, we'll reach out. And if you think of anything you can call the task force there. Thank you so much for your help." The two boys nodded and quickly left.

Later that afternoon after helping the team fully process the crime scene and getting some men to canvas the area around for any information, I was at the medical examiner's office listening to his report.

"Victim's name is Johnny Davis." the medical examiner told me. "Age 31, died of a single 22 caliber gunshot wound to the back of the head execution style." All of the Black Woods murder victims had been killed with a 22 caliber gunshot to the back of the head.

"Time of death?" I asked as I perused his report.

"Less than 24 hours ago." the medical examiner said. "Probably between 10 and 12 last night."

The medical examiner and I left his office and made our way out to the main room as he continued to give me details of his findings. As we reached the main entrance to the morgue itself a door on the opposite side opened and a woman and an officer entered. The woman was about 5 foot 8 with long chestnut colored hair that flowed down in ringlets past her shoulders. She had dark caramel-colored eyes and a round heart shaped face the clearly showed she was related to our newest victim. My first impression was that she was quite pretty despite the look of profound stress on her face.

She stepped up with the uniformed officer who said, "Mr. Ryan this is Kaitlyn Davis, came to identify the body."

"Hello Ms. Davis. I'm Matt Ryan, head of the Black Forest task force." I said extending my had.

"Mr. Ryan." she said slightly cooly shaking my hand very briefly. I was used to getting cold receptions from family members of murdered people.

"This way." I said as we all went to the observation room.

"Brace yourself." I warned and she nodded once giving me a sharp look. I gave my own nod to the medical examiner who then pulled back the curtain on the observation window showing the victim laying on the table in the adjacent examining room.

Kaitlyn's tough exterior melted instantly, and she gasped before looking away and saying in a strained voice, "That's him. That's my brother."

This was by far the worst part of my job. Having to see the grief of victim's family members like Kaitlyn and trying to reassure them we were working as hard as we could to help get them justice.

Kaitlyn had begun sobbing and wiped her eyes from a tissue offered by the medical examiner. Once she wiped her eyes, she looked at me with a fierce look on her face and said, "When are you going to do something and stop this killer?! How many more people had to die!" she cried.

"Ms. Davis I can assure you the task force is doing everything it can to stop this madman." I said calmly.

"Bullshit you are!" she screamed at me. "If you were my brother would still be alive." With that she spun on her heel and ran out.

I looked to the uniformed officer and said, "Make sure she gets out of the building safely." and he quickly took off after her.

I was used to getting drilled and yelled at by victims' family members, it came with the territory of being a homicide investigator. A good part of the last four months had seen me dealing with irate family members of all the Black Woods Killer's victims either calling me or coming to the task force command center for updates and not being happy with what I told them. I couldn't blame them for being upset, if I were in their shoes I'd probably be doing the same thing. It never really bothered me until now. For some reason it was different with Kaitlyn. Her anger and grief pulled at my heartstrings in a way that no one else did. For the time being I put the odd feelings aside and went about what needed to be done.

***

A few days later I was sitting at my desk trying to catch up on the mountain of new leads that had flooded in over the past 24 hours to the hotline. I needed to be at least partially up to speed on all the leads being looked at in case any of them really turned into something. I had dropped one file to the side in a pile that I had finished reading and was about to call the detective in charge of that lead when my desk phone rang.

I picked it up and said, "This is Ryan."

"Hi Detective Ryan, this is Kaitlyn Davis. We met at the morgue the other day when they brought my brother in." she said in a much calmer voice than the one I had heard before.

"Yes Ms. Davis I remember. What can I do for you?" I asked.

"Detective Ryan I wanted to..." she started but I cut her off.

"Please call me Matt." I said.

"Ok, but only if you call my Kaitlyn." she said.

"I'm sorry Kaitlyn, you were saying." I said.

"I wanted to apologize for the way I talked to you the other day." she started. "That was by far the worst morning of my life. First hearing on the news there was another murder and then getting the call from your department that it was my brother that was killed, and they needed someone to identify the body. It fell to me since my parents are out of town and seeing him like that would likely have killed them anyway. I was feeling so many things and none of them good. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"Kaitlyn you're far from the first person who has voiced a lack of satisfaction in one of my investigations in a less than polite way. I can't say I wouldn't have been the same way if our spots were reversed. Think nothing more of it." I said trying to reassure her.

"You're very kind Matt." she said. "Patience is not one of my virtues in fact I've been compared to a bulldog when I get my teeth into something. Detective Faulk can attest to that. I've probably called him over a dozen times the last couple of days asking for updates. He probably regrets giving me his card." I had assigned Detective Faulk to be the lead investigator on this most recent killing.

"Detective Faulk has been working homicide longer than I have. Trust me he's more than used to victim's family's constant attention." I said.

"My brother used to say I had the persistence of a bulldog when I got onto something." Kaitlyn said. "He said it would go a long way to helping me be a good journalist."

"Oh, so you're a journalist." I asked.

"I'm a journalism student." she said. "I'm almost done getting my journalism degree and want to be an investigative reporter. I've got an associate's degree as a pharmacy tech but found the work incredibly boring. I think investigative journalism will be much better suited for me."

"Well, if you show the same determination, I've seen in our few interactions I don't doubt you'll succeed." I said.

"Again, you're very kind Matt." she said. "Anyway, I won't keep you any longer I know you've got a mountain of work to do. I just wanted to reach out and say I was sorry about the other day."

"Like I said think nothing more of it." I told her. "And you can call me any time and I'll be happy to update you on our progress."

"Thank you Matt I appreciate that." she said. "You know you're a little easier to talk to than Detective Faulk. He seems so robotic sometimes. You seem more human. I know it's not his job to be a sounding board, but I would have thought detectives would be a little more sensitive to people in my position."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little before saying, "Detective Faulk is a good man and a good detective but he's old-school. He was in the army before joining the force. If you just need a sympathetic ear, again call me."

Kaitlyn and I said our goodbyes and hung up and I sat there for a second collecting my thoughts about the conversation we just had. She was definitely a smart young woman who would do well as a journalist. I now wanted to get this case solved for her as much as for justice's sake.

***

Over the next few months Kaitlyn was a good as her word as far as being persistent almost to the point of being annoying in demanding updates on her brother's case. She called me at least three times a week and sometimes or came to see me at the taskforce command center and I often struggled over how much to tell her.

The task force had to keep a good bit of the information on leads we were hunting down confidential so that we didn't end up tipping off the killer by the investigation itself. That never stopped Kaitlyn from pushing for more and more thinking she could use her skills to try to help us. It often led to heated debates between her and I and more than once I had to tell her it wasn't her place to help in the investigation. This didn't sit well with her, and I was treated to another round of what I got at the morgue that first day where she said if we were doing our jobs she wouldn't have to be trying to work on her own.

The day after that heated argument, I was sitting at my desk around lunchtime one day eating a sandwich and reading a National Geographic magazine and trying to clear my head. I had been at the command center since 5 that morning after working until about 10 the night before. This had become almost the norm over the last several weeks since victim number seven had been found about three weeks after Kaitlyn's brother. I was exhausted and thought if I ate something and tried to clear my mind for a few minutes I would feel a little bit better.

I was about halfway through an article on ancient Egypt when I heard footsteps and looked up to see Kaitlyn walking straight to my desk with a look of impatience on her face. Once she reached the front of my desk that was in the center of the large conference room we had turned into the taskforce command center she said,

"My brother's killer is still out there and you have time to sit here and eat and read about Egypt?!"

Normally I would be able to take such things in stride chalking it up to grief and frustration, but in my own frustration I slapped the magazine down on my desk and stood up. "Kaitlyn, I've about had it with your constant insinuations that I'm not doing my job. I've been working a minimum of 12 hours a day 5 days a week and half days on the weekends for over a year now. Yesterday I worked 5 in the morning until 10 at night and was back in here at 5 this morning. I know you're frustrated at the lack of progress but I'm doing the best I can, and I have feelings too."

With that all the pent-up frustration and fatigue crashed over me at once and I started sobbing. Not wanting to make any more of a scene than I already had I walked around my desk past Kaitlyn and out of the room. I walked down the hall as quick as I could ignoring all calls to get my attention until I reached an unused interrogation room and went inside and slammed the door behind me. I sat down at the table and put my face in my hands and just sobbed. After a few minutes of solid sobbing, I got myself under control again and wiped the tears from my face with my hands. A few seconds later I heard the door open and saw Kaitlyn standing there with a look of concern on her face. I stood up as she said.

"Are you ok Matt?"

"I think I will be." I said weakly.

"Matt I'm really sorry." she said. "I shouldn't have said what I said. It's just that my brother and I were really close and it's just so unfair that he's not around anymore. I'm just so angry about the whole situation. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I know you're doing your best."

I nodded slightly and she said, "Matt please don't be mad at me." When all I did was weakly nod again, she said, "I hope you feel better soon." Then she turned and left. I had little time to collect my thoughts before suddenly Captain Jones was at the door.

"You ok Matt." the Captain asked me.

"Yes sir." I said.

"Matt why don't you go home and get some sleep." the Captain said.

"I'm ok now sir." I said. "I just needed a few minutes."

"Matt that wasn't a suggestion." the Captain said. "You're exhausted and emotionally run down. Now I want you to go home and get some rest. Faulk can run things for the rest of the day. I don't want you thinking about these cases until tomorrow morning. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." I said.

"Good. Now go home and get some rest. I'll see you in the morning." the Captain said.

"Yes sir. thank you." I told him. With that I left the interrogation room and after assuring the rest of the staff in the command center that I was ok and just needed some rest I told Faulk he was in charge the rest of the day and went home.

I got home about 30 minutes later and after changing clothes sat down in my recliner and cut the tv on. After finding a good documentary on World War 2 I cut it on and soon passed out. I woke up several hours later to find that it was after 7. Since it was still summer the sun was still out, but I had slept most of the afternoon. My stomach started to growl at me, and I was just about to contemplate dinner options when my phone rang. I looked down and saw that it was Kaitlyn calling.

I picked it up and said, "Hi Kaitlyn what's up?"

"Hi Matt. I wanted to see if you were feeling better." she said.

I stood up and stretched as I said, "Yeah the Captain sent me home and told me to get some rest, so that's what I've been doing. I just woke up a few minutes ago."

"I'm glad you're doing better." she said. "I know we have a bit of a love hate relationship, but I do like you and respect you. And I know you're doing your best not just with my brother's case but all the others your taskforce is working on."

"Thanks Kaitlyn, that means a lot to me." I said.

My stomach then gave a loud growl and Kaitlyn giggled and said, "Sounds like someone is hungry."