She woke up in the hospital, her head still aching like mad, but no longer a splitting migraine. Her mind all fuzzy and her energy drained. Next to her sat her mom, holding her hand and a bit further in the room a man in a police uniform she did not know. “Sam, how are you, are you ok?” her mother asked.

What a stupid question, of course she was ok. But then memories came flooding back, the men, the alleyway, the boarded up building, the migraine, the scream and then…. Nothing. She froze. Was she ok? Except for her headache she felt tired but ok, nothing seemed to hurt. Her mouth tasted as if there was a 10 year dead rat in it, but otherwise she could not find anything wrong. She moved all her limbs and found nothing odd there. The fog that had held her mind was slowly lifting and she heard herself say “I am fine mom, really…”.

But while she was saying this her thoughts started to wonder. Why was she at the hospital?, what happened to the three men?, how did she get out of that building? and what time was it, how long had she been out?, As she looked through the windows she could see it was still dark outside. Or was it dark again and had she been out for days? And while her mom replied “Oh honey”, as if she was still 8 years old, she asked “what time is it and I would really like to have something to drink”.

The policeman who had so far been quiet got up and grabbed a cup with a straw holding it out to her. “It is a quarter past 3 am. You have been out for roughly 5 hours. Oh, and I am sorry, I am police officer Meijer”.

While she took some the cup of water she thought…. Police officer, yes of course, those men. “Have you caught the men who grabbed me? One about my age and 2 older ones?” she started.

“Yes, yes, we have, but don’t worry about that now, the most important thing is that you are fine and need to rest. I will let the detective know you are awake. He will probably be down here tomorrow morning with some questions, but until then I suggest you get some sleep”.

After some chit-chat he let her know he was glad she was not hurt, he also asked permission for her DNA so they could better understand what had happened at the crime scene and Sam indicated she had no objections. After ten minutes or so he stood up with a slight smile and said he would be back the next day. He turned around and left the room.

He closed the door and talked to the agent sitting on a chair next to the door. “watch her for me DT, while I go find Gerald”.

“Sure Dei”

He turned right to the elevator and set off on a brisk walk. He hated hospitals. Ever since his mother had been sick and ended up in the hospital. He had seen her deteriorate with every visit he made until she died. It was the smell of hospitals. The moment he walked into one that smell would bring up bad memories and feeling of sadness and loss.

Once out of the hospital he got in his car, turned up the music and drove to the crime scene. He could have called Gerald to tell him the girl was awake, but he needed to talk with him. There was something off in this case. Seriously off. Too many questions without an answer. He was first at the scene, the one that found the girl.

He could not shake the sight of what he had seen. It was bad. Worst he had seen in the more than 20 years he served on the force. He had seen the results of shootings, knife fights even explosions, but the gruesomeness of this scene has left him shaking. The three men had been beaten to a pulp. Broken limbs, crushed ribcages, shattered skulls. One of the heads had just barely hang on to the torso by a bit of skin and muscle. Blood and pieces of the bodies could be found all over the room.

And yet, no sign of any weapon used. Of course the coroner would be able to tell more details and maybe some weapon was into play, but no bullet wounds or knife cuts. Maybe it had been done with a blunt weapon, but he had never seen this before. It was like the men were hit so hard they were blown to pieces.

And why had the attacker not hurt the girl, did he, because the killer had to be male for such force to be used, protect her? And where had he gone? They had arrived just over 2 minutes after the first call had come in and he had not seen anything. Except for the loose board the building itself was completely sealed off. He had checked all the doors, windows and boarding. And there was no way the killer could have made it out any other way than the way he got in. He would check his bodycam to see if he had missed something and the killer had slipped by in some way, but through the many years on the job he had developed a sense of things. He would have noticed.

Assuming it had taken about one minute to get the call in, the killer must have done the carnage and got out in under 3 minutes. Impressive, if not to say impossible. If you would take a really strong man. Let’s say a Mike Tyson in his good days. He could put you down easily enough, but to beat a body to pulp like it had been done here. That takes time. Mike, could not have done that under 3 minutes and probably not even 5. And where did the girl fit in? No, there was definitively something off about this. He could feel it in his bones.