vigorli

Title: Deadly Connections (1/25)
Authors: Alex ( rangergirl0301@gmail.com ) and Carol (ambrelin2@yahoo.com)
Rating: PG – NC17 (R this chapter)
Characters: Viggo/ Orlando/ Sean B/OMC/Various others
Beta: The wonderful Namarie120, whom we would be totally lost without
Disclaimer: We know no one in or associated with this. It is purely fiction. No harm intended.
Warnings: AU, Minor character death, Violence, M/M sex,
A/N: A large thanks to our artists-Cat (dreamerswings42) for the icon, and both Cat (dreamerswings42) and Tina (taz34) for the lovely banners

The phone ringing at 2:00am woke Sean out of a deep sleep. Rolling over, he snatched it up and growled into the receiver.

"This better be damned important."

"Detective Bean, sir? This is Officer Pennyworthy, Sir. There's been another one. The Captain told me to call you and ask you come down to the station as soon as possible."

Grumbling under his breath, Sean said to give him a half hour and he'd be down. Slamming the phone back in the cradle, he crawled out of bed and headed for the shower.
By the time Sean arrived at the station, his bad mood at being woken up had worsened, and he barely had the chance to visit the break room for some of the sludge that passed as coffee before Charlie Pennyworthy was at his heels. The youth had obviously gotten himself worked up already in the excitement of his first big case, and was practically jumping up and down.

"They found him by the water, Sir. It's a popular spot for-for boys like him to be after dark."

The detective nodded tiredly and took the file, glancing through the papers while saving the pictures for a time when he was more awake and could study them with a clear head.

"Who is 'they', Pennyworthy?"

"Two men, their-names are Jim Kelly and Benjamin Wayne. They were walking their dog along there like they do every night when they found the body. The victim hasn't been identified yet; the lab is still waiting on some things to come back."
Shuffling through the papers a little more, Sean closed the folder and looked at the excited officer.

"Why don't you save me some time here, Pennyworthy, and fill me in. I can see this looks like the work of the same person as the last two men we've found. How about a brief description of the victim this time. Age, height, weight, a guess how long he's been dead?"

Sean knew this early on, there wasn't going to be much information, but anything to make the younger man calm down and think would help.

"While we talk, what say we take a trip down to the crime scene and see what they've found so far?"

Grabbing his cup of coffee and jacket, Sean headed for the side entrance to the station, Officer Pennyworthy in tow.
"Well, he's 5-9, about 185 pounds, and looked to be middle twenties. We don't think he had been there longer than a few hours...the killer might have been in the crowd watching for all we know!"

Sean glanced at the other officer over the top of his car before he slid into the driver's seat. "That's not exactly a comforting thought, Pennyworthy."

"Um, right, Sir. Of course not, I didn't mean it that way, just that...considering the amount of time the body had been there, it, um, wouldn't have been unusual for the killer to be in the crowd, watching everything. That's all I meant, Sir."

"Mmmmm..." Sean murmured, mulling over that for a moment, but it really was a hopeless endeavor. They had hardly any clues which identified the killer, and only a slowly growing profile that said he was probably male, probably somewhere between twenty-five and fifty, probably fit, probably homosexual, but he could also be straight and, if so, was probably committing hate crimes...there were a hell of a lot of "probably's" and almost no actual facts.
As they arrived at the scene, there was still a fair sized crowd watching the activities. Stepping out of the car and pinning his badge to his jacket, Sean muscled his way past several onlookers. One looked familiar, a middle-aged man with shaggy hair and an old army jacket. Sean couldn't quite place him until he was stepping over the police line and it came to him. He'd seen this guy before, in the crowd when the last body was found. Turning back to see if he could locate the man again, he realized that he wasn't there anymore.

"Pennyworthy, did you see that guy, the one with the long hair we just passed? Any idea where he went or who he is?"
When there was no response, Sean turned around only to find Pennyworthy off to the side, being interviewed by a young reporter in a short skirt and high heels who looked more like the fifteen year old daughter Sean hadn't seen in nearly a month than a professional woman doing her job.

"Pennyworthy!" He barked, setting a hand on the man's shoulder and yanking him away. He yelled to a uniformed officer to get the reporters off the beach. "There was a man. I've seen him before. He's got brownish, shaggy hair and was wearing an old, green army jacket with these patches all over it, about my height and build. Find him!"

He pushed the young officer away, then finally turned back to the scene, crouching down next to the sheet that still covered the body. Cate Johnston, the medical examiner for the county, came over and smiled tiredly. "We have to stop meeting like this, Detective."

"Funny," Sean remarked dryly, looking up at her. "What do we have?"
"Well, young Caucasian male, mid twenties, nice looking, dead. What we can put together so far is that he'd been dead less than an hour when he was found. Looks like he was a working boy, from his outfit. Whoever killed him roughed him up a little first, looks like he struggled to get away before being stabbed. Can't say for sure until I do an autopsy, but I'm certain cause of death was a punctured artery. He bled to death."
"Not my chosen way to die. Any evidence of sexual abuse?" Sean looked almost hopeful; none of the other victims had been raped or even touched around their genital area, and if this one had, then that meant possibly it wasn't connected to his case. He would take anything; one murder was considered almost normal for California, two might have been just a coincidence, but three victims killed with almost the exact same M.O. was just about the time people started to panic.
Looking down at Sean still squatting next to the body, Cate stooped to his side in order for others to not hear them.

"I can't say for sure, not yet. But his clothing is intact, except where it was torn during the scuffle. I'll be checking for any evidence I can find, Sean. Maybe we got lucky and this one scratched the guy. Maybe we'll find a little DNA somewhere on him. But I'm betting whoever it is, it's the same guy, and he's cleaned up things pretty well."
"He always does," Sean sighed softly, slowly standing and rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Thanks, Cate. Just get the results back to me as soon as you can, all right?"

"Of course. And you get some sleep."

"Sleep? Ha." Sean shook his head, turning away just in time to see Pennyworthy slipping on the sand as he ran back, a small sheet of paper clutched in his hand.

"I couldn't find the guy," he panted out, leaning his hands on his knees for a moment, out of breath from his haste to please the detective. "But I asked around and I might have gotten some leads. Here's the names of a few people who live in this area. Some said they thought they might have seen him around, others had no idea who I was talking about."
"Thanks," Sean said, taking the paper and frowning at it.

"Excuse us, Detective, we need to move the body now," one of the men from the morgue said, touching Sean’s elbow.

"Yes, yes, of course."

Stepping out of the way, he watched as they placed the body in a bag and loaded it onto the stretcher.

As he stood watching the hearse leave, he shook out a cigarette and lit it. Inhaling deeply, he blew a long stream of smoke into the air, and headed back to his car, calling for Officer Pennyworthy to hurry up.
~tbc~

Deadly Connections Cast:

Detective Sean Bean-Sean Bean
Medical Examiner Cate Johnston-Cate Blanchett
Officer Charlie Pennyworthy-Sean Astin
Psychic Viggo Mortensen-Viggo Mortensen
Potential Victim Orlando Bloom-Orlando Bloom
Killer-Keanu Reeves
Sketch Artist Elijah-Elijah Wood
Viggo's friend and mentor Johnny-Johnny Depp
Sean's superior officer-Tommy Lee Jones
Henry-Bernard Hill
Margaret-Miranda Otto
Madam-Kate Bosworth
Neighbor Mr. Davies-John Rhys-Davies
Officer Urban-Karl Urban
Officer Parker-Craig Parker
Reporter-Liv Tyler
Doctor-Ian Holm
Location-Santa Cruz, California
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