Previously…

Domino was approached by SHIELD to head the Mutant Affairs Division, a joint venture by the UN and the US government that dealt with mutant issues. Her first case is the pursuit of the Butterfly Killer, a psychopath who was stealing the wings of young mutants. She’s put together a team, consisting of private detective Dakota North, NYPD Detective Jake Ramo, and FBI profiler Lewis Ruttin.

THE BUTTERFLY KILLER

Part III: Putting a Pin in This Bitch

By Aaron Stanley

0900 – New Ridge Medical Clinic

Domino was one of the first people through the door in the morning, and grabbed a number. Unfortunately, due to the clinic and some of the services it provided, she waited almost an hour before she heard her name called. She walked up to the front, and smiled at the woman behind the counter.

“How can I help you?” the woman asked, in a tone that clear that she really didn’t want to help anyone. Her name tag read Matilda, and she didn’t look up once as Domino continued to smile.

“I need a look at the records of these three people, who were all patients here. This is the warrant, before you ask,” Domino said, handing the woman the piece of paper. She’d called in to a judge this morning, who had approved the warrant quickly. Domino no doubt felt that the notoriety of the case helped expedite the process.

“I’ll have to talk to the doctor about this, please have a seat,” Matilda said, taking the warrant. She got up from her seat and disappeared down a hallway. Domino sighed, and took her seat back.

It was four hours later when a man who must be the doctor appeared, with a man who had to be a lawyer.

“I’m Doctor Lewis Sullivan, and this is my attorney. I won’t answer any of your questions.”

“First, you ain’t under arrest. Secondly, where are the files which were the only reason for my coming here?” Domino asked. She was well past the point of being frustrated.

The lawyer handed them over. “Here. Those need to be returned, by state law.”

“Yeah, except it’s a shame that this is a federal case, and state law doesn’t apply. So you can shove it up your MBA,” Domino said, moving past the doctor and lawyer. She bumped into the doctor accidentally on purpose, and planted a small listening device under the sleeve of his arm.

“Sorry,” she said, as she turned to leave the building. She placed the files in the backpack she’d brought, and got on her motorcycle, and started it. She pulled into traffic and disappeared from view. She clicked the button on her listening device that allowed her to hear what the microphone was hearing. She pulled around the corner, and parked in the alley right behind the building that housed the medical clinic.

“What the fuck am I going to do, Donald?” the doctor asked. “How do they know?”

“Relax. All they know is that you treated these people for depression,” replied the lawyer. “So, as I mentioned before, shut the hell up, do your job. Trust me, it’ll be ok. At this point, the evidence they have will be circumstantial. We’re fine.”

Apparently the men parted ways, as the only conversations after that were all medical related. Domino made a note that she’d have to raid the lawyer’s office later.

1200 – Mutant Affairs Offices

By the time Domino made it back to the office, it was noon, and Dakota and the other personnel were sitting in the conference room, working on the case and eating.

Domino played the recording of the conversation for them all.

“Thoughts?” she asked the group.

“Well, obviously they’re hiding something, probably the murders. We have enough to put a tap on the phones for both places, and maybe get a surveillance package on both of for a day or two. But that generally never works. I know the lawyer, he’s a scumbag, but he knows enough to not say anything over the phone. Other than that, best advice would be to just sit on the doctor. It’s obviously him that’s the killer here,” Jake Ramo said. He was the detective that Dakota had handpicked, and he brought a good sense of how to handle a case to the team. Plus his contacts had proven valuable.

“Then what the hell is the wait? Shouldn’t we just arrest him and interrogate him, see if he breaks?” Domino asked.

“That might work. Honestly, Beatrice, this is a tough one. We know he’s doing it now, but the evidence that tells us what we know is thin. It’s enough to get a warrant, and then we can bring him in for questioning. But after 48 hours, we have to let him go, and he’ll definitely know by then. And we don’t have enough to keep him from travelling, and this guy is a flight risk. We’re in a bad spot,” Jake again replied.

“I’d say we pull as much info on the two of them as we can. Where they live, where they eat, track their money, cars, phones. Find out as much as we can about them now and their pasts. From that, I can work up a revision to our profile on the doctor, and a profile on his friend. That’ll help determine when he’ll have to take another target. Given the fact that he killed his latest victim last week, then I’d say he’s going to be sated for a few weeks. That gives us time to work,” said Doctor Helen Jamieson. Domino had brought her in to help with the case, thinking that between the FBI profiler and the psychiatrist, a good profile would be filled out.

“Ok, so we have a few things to do,” Domino said, counting items off on her fingers. “We need to get a surveillance team to squat on these dirtbags. We need to run down all the paperwork to subpoena their records. Ramo, you see if PD can shake loose a team, or some equipment, anything they can for watch duty. Dakota, get the paperwork going. Helen, Lewis, can you two figure out, given the profile, what he does with the wings?” Dakota ordered.

“Sure. Most likely, he keeps them, and displays them, for lack of a better term,” Doctor Jamieson replied.

Domino didn’t want to contemplate that for too long, so she finished the meeting, and went into her office to make a phone call to S.H.I.E.L.D agent Gabriel Jones. He was the man who’d put her in this position. The sat-phone connected, and the line rang a few times before she got a response.

“What?” came the reply. The man on the line sounded like he’d been woken from a deep sleep.

“What the hell you mean, ‘what?’ Where are you that you’d be sleeping at noon eastern?” Domino asked.

“You know the drill, classified. I haven’t got a brief that the Butterfly Killer is in custody, so this is a status update, or a request for something,” the super-spy said.

“Status update. We have a suspect, and we’re going to take a hard run at him. I just had a question. I know you wanted him found, but you never mentioned what I should do with him once I found him. I imagine something like this, the media and your bosses want an arrest and a very public trial. But what are my mission parameters here?” Domino asked. Until last night, the thought hadn’t occurred to her, but now that she felt they were close, she figured she should clarify her orders.

“You know the story of Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac killer?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah. Two pretty infamous serial killers, neither was ever caught,” Domino replied.

“You sure about that?” Gabriel queried. “Sure they didn’t get disappeared?”

Domino understood what she was being told. “Roger that. I’ll call you when I need pickup for him. We just going after the primary, or are we to haul in any associates who helped facilitate this?”

“Just the primary. Now, I’m going back to sleep,” Gabriel said. The line disconnected, and Domino hung up on her end.

1630 – Mutant Affairs Offices

Domino had been filling out paperwork that she’d been putting off for a few days when she heard a knock at her door. She looked up, and waved in Jake Ramo.

“What’s up?” she asked, focusing on the detective.

“Well, I called in a favour or two. I had a friend in SIU break us a team of five with a van for a week. Also, another buddy is putting an electronic tap on the offices and homes of the lawyer and his friend. Figured you’d want to know. It should all be up and running by tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the update. I’m glad you signed on, you’ve been quite the asset,” Domino replied.

“Stop it, Bea. It’s getting better, but you don’t need to give me a ‘atta boy’ like you’re a paper pushing suit. You’ve got a shovel like the rest of us on this case,” Jake said, moving his not inconsiderable size out of the chair with a groan from him and the chair. He moved out of the office and went back to the conference room as Domino shook her head and smiled.

1945 – Mutant Affairs Offices, Two Days Later

For two days, the entire team had been poring over the conversations being recorded by the surveillance teams. They’d also got all the records and were going over them, when Dakota sat up straight.

“Holy shit, look at this,” she said. The team had set up an electronic database of all the files they’d got on the doctor, his lawyer, and the entire case. She pulled up the document she’d been looking at, and zoomed in to a specific line.

“See? The doctor rented a van on this day. This same charge shows up a bunch of times, all of them two days before a murder. The van’s always returned, and each time, the rental agreement shows that it’s been cleaned,” Dakota said. They’d found the rentals when they’d gone through the financial records of the doctor. Nobody had noticed that it was more than once until now. Domino kicked herself for not seeing it, but then realized in the course of three hours, all the documents had come in, and there was about 10,000 for this calendar year alone on each man.

“So, you think he’s using this van to do his work in?” Jake asked Dakota.

“If not, it’s transpo to wherever he does it. That would also explain how he gains entrance into their homes. All this time, we thought he got into their home somehow, when instead he took them on the street. Then he had access to their keys,” Dakota continued. She felt like they were really closing in on this murderer.

“But some of the bodies had blood all around them, matching the victims,” Lewis Ruttin pointed out. “And you can’t fake that.”

“What if he saved the blood when he killed them, and splashed it around? It’s not entirely uncommon,” Jake answered. “Or, he grabbed them, knocked them out, took them to their place, then did the deed.”

Domino leaned forward, and addressed the group. “Anyone think that we should hold off on arresting this guy still?” she asked. Jake and Dakota both put their hands up. “Why?”

“Well, because he’s going to say just because he rents a van around the murders doesn’t mean anything. We don’t have proof that he ever grabbed any of the victims, and put them in the van, or that he did anything to them.”

Domino had to agree, much as she didn’t want to. She yawned, and looked at the clock. “Are the vans themselves of any help?”

“Well,” Jake began. “If you’re up for some serious paperwork, and your lawyers are good, we can do this. Most of them are lojacked against theft, so we can see if the company keeps permanent track of the vans, which is very unlikely, or if they just track them when they’ve gone missing. The other thing we can do, is get all the mileages of the vans, and subtract from them the mileage of the other customers that rented them, and then find the mileage they had before the first time he rented them, we can pretty much see how far he drove each time We average the mileage of each rental period into fourths, and we have the drive from the rental to his target, target to wherever he does his work, then back to the vic’s apartment, then to the rental agency again. Gives us a rough area.”

“That ever work before?” Dakota asked.

“Well, not a lot of people use vans for murdering people, but a lot use them for other purposes, so it’ll be a matter of hoping that any trace evidence hasn’t been destroyed, if there was any to begin with. But, I’ll call the company, and talk to them, see if they’ll be willing to let the reports go,” Ramo finished.

“Ok everyone. We made a lot of progress today. Let’s call it a night, and pick it up tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll be at this for that much longer,” she said. The group gathered their things and slowly trickled out. Domino moved to her office, and sat down. The pile of paperwork had only gotten bigger. She had pay cheques to authorize, as well as requests for surveillance equipment and, personnel. She also had the great job of having to keep track of hours. Even mighty S.H.I.E.L.D had to answer to accountants. It had been a real hot day, and she’d opened the window in her office. She went to it now and listened to the city, wondering if a victim was being snatched up right now. She moved back inside, and closed the window. She left the office, and went down to the parking garage, and then realized that she’d forgot her helmet. She rode the elevator back up, and opened the office.

Domino cursed under her breath as the breeze came in the window and scattered papers all over her office. It wasn’t until she knelt down and felt the knife on her neck that it clicked in she’d closed the window. She stood up and turned around.

“A gun? You’re going to kill me with a gun?” she asked. She’d known it was the doctor when she’d felt the knife. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

The doctor seemed different, more agitated than when she’d first met him. “I do, I do…you’re a mutant, you’re that Domino. I’ve got friends too. Good friends.”

“Congratulations. So, you going to kill me, or give me a diatribe, where you talk for an hour about how you’re going to kill me, and give me time to escape?” she asked. She was tensing her muscles for the moment when she’d make her move. She was calmer now than she’d been the first time she’d had a gun to her head.

“If you were prettier, I’d take the time to add you to my collection. But you don’t have the requirements. So, a bullet it is,” he said, as he pulled back the hammer on the revolver.

Many people didn’t realize that Domino had to act in order for her power to truly work. Many thought it was latent, she just had to wait for things to break her way. So, if he’d got a description of her powers, it was probably inaccurate. Even still, she liked to hedge her bets.

“You know that you’re supposed to have bullets in the gun, right?” she said. She waited for the instant when he moved the gun to make sure that it was loaded. She dove at the doctor, pushing the gun towards the ceiling, wrapping her hands around his as he pulled the trigger. The gun roared as the .357 tore a hole in the ceiling. As it did, Domino kneed the man in the groin, and then kneed him in the face when he dropped to his knees.

Domino checked herself for wounds after she’d cuffed the doctor. She sat on his chest and slapped his face until he woke up.

“Listen up dumbass, I got some questions. You answer, you live for now. You don’t, I put you out the window you came in, and see if you can fly half as well as the people you killed. Sound good, ok, so why’d you come here tonight?” she asked.

The doctor at first refused to answer, so Domino got up and dragged him to the open window. She grabbed a microcassette recorder, and turned it on, tucking into her pocket, as she made her way onto the fire escape.

“Last chance, doctor. Why’d you come here tonight?” she asked again.

“Fine. None of this well ever be used in court anyways. I figured if I killed you, the investigation would stall. I was going to kill you, take you to the swamps.”

“Ok. Did you kill the 18 people that were killed by the person referred to as the Butterfly Killer?” Domino asked. It was the only question that really mattered.

“Yes. I am the Butterfly Killer,” he said. Domino was surprised at how easily he was giving up the information.

“Why did you kill them?” she asked.

“To cover a debt. It’s stupid. Just take me to the deal brokers,” he said. Despite further threats and questions, he didn’t say anymore. After another ten minutes, Domino cuffed him to the heater on the wall, and called Gabriel.

“Domino, how can I help you? Ready to turn over the suspect you have in custody?” he asked.

“How the hell did you know I had someone?” she asked the spy, who sounded like he was in a better mood than when she’d talked to him earlier.

“Well, let’s just say a certain little spy satellite delivers real-time video of your location, including your little stunt on the fire escape,” he answered. “I have an agent watching that feed 24/7. I figured eventually you’d get someone trying to do something drastic, and thought it’d be good to keep you covered.”

“Covered? You asshat, where was my phone call to let me know I had someone in my office.”

“Check your satphone. I called it, and it rang and rang, then it stopped ringing.”

Domino looked around the office, and found the satphone in the corner, smashed to pieces. She shrugged. “Fair enough. Anyways, I need pickup on this piece of crap.”

“They’re on their way. We’ll get to the bottom of this, we have ways of making him talk,” Gabriel said menacingly.

“Stop it, Gabby. You’re not good at it. Nick, I could believe. Dum dum, I would buy it from. But not you.”

“Pickup in an hour. Talk to you tomorrow,” Gabriel said, and the line went dead.

Two Days Later

For the first time since the doctor had been taken by S.H.I.E.L.D, Domino’s new satphone rang. “Yeah?” she said into it.

“This is agent Terry Friesen. I was asked by Gabriel Jones to tell you that an audio clip was just uploaded to your computer,” said the man on the line, before it went dead.

“You bastards need to stop hanging up on a lady. It isn’t polite,” Domino groused, as she pulled up the file. She found it and loaded it into the media player, and pressed play.

“Audio recording follows. This is Gabriel Jones. This is a sample of the audio clip from the interrogation of the serial killer known colloquially as the Butterfly Killer.”

There was a pause of a few seconds before Domino heard the killer say “Oh hell, you know I couldn’t stop, after what I’ve already told you. If I do, I might as well cut my own throat, you know what those people will do to me. They always say it’ll be the last one, and then they call again.”

It was Gabriel Jones that spoke next, as Domino let the statement digest.

“At this point, we continue to interrogate the prisoner. I’ll make a full brief when that’s done, but Domino, this goes bigger than one sick man and his lawyer.”

Domino marked the clip read, and made a call to Gabriel.

“Hey,” came the answer.

“So, whose ‘they’, and what they doing with the wings? And what hooked them to the doc?” Domino asked. She still wanted to know the reason why all this happened.

“Well, that’s kind of tricky. At this point, I can’t really tell you, you know the deal. But apparently the wings are being used for some purpose that involves the synthesis of some form of narcotic. We picked up a pharmacist that the doctor gave the wings to. And as stupid as it sounds, the doctor gambled himself into a great big pile of debt. Well, the debt got sold to some people that sold it to some people, and they put the doctor to work rather than put him to sleep,” Gabriel said, laying out the scheme.

“That’s just stupid. Well, ok, I’ll talk to you in a few days,” Domino said, hanging up before Gabby could respond.

She left the office, making sure the newly repaired window was closed and locked.

It was about an hour later when she got home, and heard her phone rang. “Go ahead,” she said, when she picked up the receiver.

”Hey D. Remember what you had me look into for you?” the man on the other end of the conversation. “The rumours were true for once. Found him hanging out in a bar for the last few nights up in the Great White North. Small town, mostly for loggers and their families. Name of Golden River, Alberta. Real small. His type of place. And it took me a bit to find him. Cost’s $10,000.”

“Shit, Barry, I wanted you to find the guy, not put the down payment on a fucking Maserati,” Domino said, moaning. She’d also forgot about the job she’d asked her P.I. friend to look into 6 months ago.. “Ok. I’ll get the money, going to take some time though.”

“Fine. And Domino. Get to him. He’s different somehow, he’s not being as obvious as he was, but it won’t take long for a secret this big to get out,” the man said, before the line clicked and went dead.

“There goes my free time,” Domino said.