Chapter Text
Tristan had been sitting at his desk all night, looking over Jaden's murder case files. It was about 8 AM when his phone began to ring.
"Hemingway," he answered, picking up the phone. He nodded, listening to the address Gil gave him. "I'll be right there." And with that, he hung up.
Tristan grabbed a fresh set of clothes, and went to take a quick shower. He scrambled to get his blazer and shoes on before grabbing his badge, keys, and wallet before going out of his apartment, and to his car. He drove to the crime scene, where he parked his car and walked past the tape and into the building.
"What do we have here?" he asked, standing next to Dani, who was walking alongside Gil and another male, who Tristan would soon know as Malcolm Bright.
"Victim's name is Vanessa Hobbs. Mayor's office keeps calling. We got a V.I.C. on our hands," she answered.
"V.I.C.?" the brunette haired male asked.
"Very important cadaver," Tristan explained, before getting into the elevator with them, along with three other cops.
"Medical examiner did a drive-by. Here's what I got." Dani continued, about to hand over the file to Gil when the still unidentified male said, "ooh, I'll take that. Thank you."
Tristan looked over at him with a questioning look, wondering who he was, before Gil spoke, looking at him and Dani.
"Dani Powell, Tristan Hemingway, this is Malcolm Bright: psychologist, forensic profiler, acquired taste." He said as the elevator doors closed.
Meanwhile, Malcolm was reading the file as Gil was speaking, seeming to take in every detail the medical examiner had written down. Tristan thought that he looked familiar, maybe he had seen him somewhere before, or perhaps he's just making things up. Also, the guy was cute as hell, Tristan thought to himself.
When the elevator doors opened, they were greeted by JT, another one of the detectives that was working the case. Malcolm put on a pair of latex gloves, as did Tristan, so they wouldn't contaminate the crime scene.
"Gil," he said, approaching the group of three, "housekeeper found the body this morning. Vanessa Hobbs. She was 43, unmarried, and rich. Just my type."
Malcolm gave JT a bit of an odd and questioning look before asking, "So you're a necrophiliac?"
Tristan stifled a laugh, earning a glare from JT, and a small smile from Malcolm. The lavender haired male kept quiet as JT continued to speak.
"What? No. Who's this guy?" he turned to Gil.
"JT, Bright. Bright, JT," Gil introduced the two as Malcolm was trying to look past JT.
Tristan had looked around at the crime scene, thinking that it all looked to familiar. Then it hit him, this looked similar to one of the Surgeon's Quartet killings.
"You're not going to like each other." Gil continued to speak.
"Good to know. Excuse me," Malcolm said, squeezing past the two and next to where Tristan and Dani were, crouching on the floor.
"So, you're a profiler like Tristan over here?" she asked, looking up at Malcolm, to which he replied with a simple hum of confirmation.
"Looks like our victim already filler out her profile. She was ready to bang." JT spoke up again, watching the three examine the body and the glass around it.
"Bang?" Malcolm questioned, "Do you always associate intercourse with violence?" He raised a brow at the other detective, who looked at him disapprovingly.
"Bro, right now you're the only thing I'm associating...--"
"Let him work." Gil interrupted, standing in front of JT.
Tristan began to block things out and examined the victim some more while the other detectives talked. It looked like Malcolm was about to say something, when Tristan spoke up.
"There'll be an injection point into her iliac crest and a third near her heart," he said at the same time as Malcolm, getting a surprised look from Malcolm, a look that appeared as if it was asking how the hell he knew that.
"How the hell do you know that?" JT asked, giving the two profilers an odd look.
Malcolm stood up, as did Tristan. Malcolm looked over at Gil and JT.
"Our killer's a copycat," Malcolm said hesitantly, licking his lips, "He's mimicking another serial killer.... Dr. Martin Whitly.. The Surgeon.."
Now Tristan had realized why Malcolm had appeared to be so familiar, him and his family had appeared in several articles he was supposed to look at for an assignment he had studied when he was younger. Gil sighed, a look of regret on his face.
"Yeah, and you know all about this Surgeon guy?" Dani asked, looking at him.
Malcolm approached Gil and handed him the file before answering Dani's question.
"Almost like he's family," he answered, walking away, seeming uneasy.
Dani looked at Tristan, "And how did you know what he was going to say?"
Tristan shrugged, "I had to do an assignment on the Surgeon's killings when I was studying to become a criminal psychologist." He walked out of the crime scene and back to his car before driving down to the station.