Every Day is Exactly the Same

Prologue

"It's a bloodbath in here," the officer said as he stepped his way over the rubble of the building. He was taking care not to step on anything. Evie thought he was actually just new to the job and still squeamish. "It's the worst thing we've seen all year."

She barely looked at the man. Her focus was more on the chaos that surrounded her. It seemed as if the entire building would fall any minute. Beams had been splintered by the explosions. Bullet holes littered every wall. Dried blood spatter coated almost every surface of the room. It was as if an entire army had descended on one building and destroyed every living being there.

"Forensics found pieces of rats scattered on all of the floors. They have no idea how that happened," he babbled. "There's more upstairs though. The stairs were destroyed in whatever went down here so you'll have to climb the ladder."

Evie's attention turned to the dusty floor under her booted feet. A boot print caught her attention, next to another print that was slightly slurred. "Has forensics looked at this yet?" she asked, kneeling down to study it closer.

The officer scratched his head. "I don't know. I'll get them on it as soon as I take you up to the others."

Evie nodded and then stood up. She followed the officer across the floor, watching as people from the coroner's office zipped up anonymous black bags. There were so many bags to carry out. She had a feeling the officer was right; this was the worst crime of the year.

"The only thing that we know is that whoever did this came in through that back window," the officer said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the broken window. "All of the glass is shattered in."

"And all of the bullets in the victims?"

"Preliminary reports show that the bullets are from different guns. Forensics will go over them once the M.E. does the autopsies."

Evie merely nodded again.

"They're collecting all of the weapons. We're hoping that we'll be able to get some clear fingerprints for the murderer. Maybe the victims too. Coroner's having to rig up something to be able to get the vics from the top floor."

"There's more up there?" Evie asked distractedly.

"Oh yeah. Ten to fifteen more. The Captain's gonna have to tell you what we think went on there."

It didn't make sense. At least not to Evie. Not yet. For all intents and purposes this was just a mill. Pieces of the looms were scattered everywhere. From what she'd been told when she was handed the case most of the victims had been killed with a single bullet to the head. Execution style. Easiest way to ensure a simple killing. And yet the victims had only seemed to be plain weavers.

The officer led her through the rest of the destroyed ground floor to a ladder that had been placed against the top floor railing, what was left of it at least. From the ladder he led her through a room that could only be described as part of a meat packing plant. Now why would this be in a mill? And from there to a large library, book pages strewn across the floor. There were bodies still on the floor here, some bagged, some not.

Evie paused at one of the bodies that hadn't been bagged. The glassy eyes stared back up at her through a rivulet of blood from the wound on his forehead. She tilted his head slightly to study the wound on the other side of his forehead. "Clean shot," she muttered.

"Agent Thomas?"

Evie turned away from the body at her feet and stood up. A portly man stood in front of her, his short, graying hair unkempt as if he had been running his hands through it continuously. "Captain Evans?"

"I was told you'd be coming by," Evans replied, sticking his hand out to her.

Evie pulled the glove from her hand and shook his. "What do we have so far?"

"Multiple victims as you've seen. Right now we're assuming, hoping I guess, that we're looking for multiple suspects as well. Can't really fathom that one person could have killed all these people. We've got forensics going over this entire building. The shell casings, discarded weapons, hell, even the rat pieces."

"Any incendiary devices?" Evie asked, her eyes gazing around the bookshelves.

Evans shrugged. "Not so far. We've got no idea what could've gone off to cause this big of an explosion."

"And the victims up here?"

"So far as we can tell, and I know this sounds impossible, but only one shot's been fired."

Evie turned to him, her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"The kills were clean. One shot through the temple," he replied pointing to the man at their feet. "In and out. But yet there's no bullet hole in the wall. If a bullet had gone clean through like that it would've been buried in the wall next to him. But there's nothing here. We've found one bullet hole and that one's across the room"

"Only one?"

Evans looked at her, his eyebrows raised slightly. He seemed to be pondering whether or not she was going to be able to handle this case. "Yes ma'am. I'm assuming that's why my superiors wanted to hand this case over to you. Apparently it's too weird for us to handle. You've got a reputation for solving impossible cases. Figuring out the weirdest ones that no one else can solve."

Evie ignored the snide comment and pulled one of the books from the shelves. She inhaled sharply at the contents. "I'm going to need all of this bagged."

"Why?"

"I don't think this was a just a massacre Captain. This book by itself shows that there have been more killings than what went on here. I think that there's more to these people than meet the eye."

Evans looked around them. "That's going to be a lot of bags, Agent Thomas."

She turned to him again. "And?"

"Right," Evans said, a tight smile crossing his face. "I'll get my men right on that."

"Thank you Captain."

Evie turned away from him, accepting an evidence bag from one of the officers and tucking the book in it. She smiled at the woman and thanked her. Evie turned back to the room around her, her eyes scanning every destroyed shelf, every unmarked spine of a book. She had a feeling this was going to be a long case.

There were things she needed to check out on her computer. The murders in the books were familiar to her, cases from not too long ago that were never closed. Impossible killings that were never explained. Evie sat in the back of the unmarked police car, flipping through the book she had borrowed from the "library".

"Where to Agent Thomas?" the officer in front seat asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

"My hotel."

"You got it."

Evie barely paid attention as the officer merged into traffic. Minutes later she put the book aside and turned to look out of the window. She watched the people walking down the street, oblivious to what had happened only a few blocks down.

From the corner of her eye she saw him. He was curled up on the sidewalk, his back pressed against the wall under an ATM. He was bloodied and bruised, his clothes in tatters. Her head told her he needed help. Her head told her he needed to get to a hospital. But her gut told her he was tied into this case somehow. Her gut told her he was part, if not the cause, of the massacre a few blocks away.

She opened her mouth to tell the driver to stop, to turn around, as she twisted in the seat to look behind her. But it was too late. An instant later he was gone.

AN: So there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed it. I know it's kind of slow right now, but I promise it'll get better soon! Please read and review if you enjoyed. Hell, even if you didn't. I'd love to hear your thoughts!