John checked the street before closing his eyes. "If I don't see it, then I don't know what's going on."

"You're such a baby." Talbot popped the lock. "It's only a little B&E."

"I'm supposed to arrest people for this."

"Aren't you the police?" Talbot shrugged, "Make up your own rules or something and fix it all in post."

"That's not at all fair."

"Play nice boys." Anna followed Talbot into the building and John checked that the coast was clear before following them into the warehouse. "We need to work together and that means we'll need to learn to share."

"Share what?" Talbot turned over his shoulder to speak to them. "There's nothing to share here."

"Information might be worth it." John trailed the duo further into the warehouse as they moved along the side wall toward a set of metal stairs. "Like how you even knew to look here or what you know about our killer that you're not sharing with us."

"And give you an edge?"

"And let us do our job." John argued, grinding his teeth a bit as they assembled on the catwalk above the warehouse. "I need to trust that if we run into Green somewhere you're not going to blow him away before we can question him."

"Because there are corpses moldering in some field and you want to know which field?" Talbot folded his arms over his chest and John nodded.

"Those families need closure."

"And they'll get it when they see his dead body."

"Just because you're the Reaper and-"

"Gentlemen," Anna stepped between them. "I understand there's a bit of bad blood here and we've… We've stumbled on the wrong foot for awhile now but this isn't the time or the place to hash out our problems."

"True." Talbot pointed down the catwalk. "You first, Guard, or will you allow the risk that I might shoot someone?"

"Better you as the human shield than me."

"Funny." Talbot turned back down the catwalk and John barely managed a smile before Anna shook her head at him.

"What?"

"Can you not antagonize one another?"

"He's threatening our whole operation."

"And you're not giving him reason to help us." Anna pivoted to follow Talbot. "Leave him to me and I'll keep him under control."

"Can you?"

"All we've got to do is give him a chance at Green. Let him beat the shit out of the bugger and then call it settled."

"You think he'd go for that?"

"He can hear you and yes," Talbot twisted to face them, "He'd like that very much if the option is open."

"And you'll not put a cap in him before he's served his purpose?" John eyed Talbot as the other man put a hand to his chest.

"Scout's honor."

"I've got my doubts on whether or not you ever served in a scout troop."

"I was an Eagle Scout, I'll have you know." Talbot pulled them to a halt. "I think that's our office."

"If I may," Anna put a hand up as they crouched together. "I'd say we split up to cover more ground."

"That's a terrible idea." Talbot shook his head. "There could be other people here and-"

"And Anna's got a point." John shrugged, "If there are other people here then they'd get the drop on us if we all charged in there at once."

"This isn't a movie."

"And I'm the only one with the right to be here… Now that you technically broke into this place." John sighed, "I'll go to the office and the two of you can flank the place. Make sure we're alone."

"I still think it's a bad plan." Talbot pursed his lips before nodding. "But you've got a point. Which gives me the catwalk, you the office, and Anna can take care of the immediate vicinity of the warehouse."

"Perfect." Anna stood up and moved from their position to take a far set of stairs down to the floor.

"Better get moving." Talbot clapped John on the shoulder before taking another bridge on the catwalk to leave John alone near the office.

Taking a breath, John descended the stairs and paced slowly to the first window in the office. He peeked in but saw nothing through the half-drawn shades. The quiet of the warehouse tingled up his spine but John continued to the door and tested the knob. It turned with ease and he pushed it open to wince at the weak creak of the hinges.

His hand froze on the door, keeping himself out of direct sight of the opening, as John waited with bated breath. But when no one came to investigate, he breathed out and moved into the room. What he found left him frozen in the doorway.

Sagging slightly, John crossed the room to where a woman sat in a rolling chair. But as John approached the seat he recognized that "sat" was the wrong word. The body slumped there and dark stains accompanying the vague, sickly-sweet scent of death had John shaking his head slowly.

He barely looked up when Talbot entered the room, a gun drawn. "Everywhere else was…"

"Like this?" John pointed before turning a small circle to take in the room. "Whatever our killer wanted to find here he already ran with it."

"After killing everyone." Talbot's body relaxed a bit but tensed the moment when Anna's voice called out to them.

Both men exited the office and wove between shelves until they found Anna. She stood, arms folded, under the hanging bodies of at least ten men. Each strung up by their ankles with their bodies bearing the killing strokes John recognized from the files on his desk.

"He did this?"

"Not while they were conscious, if you think he's inhumane." Talbot pointed with the barrel of his gun. "Look at their skin. They were knocked out before he bled them like pigs in a slaughterhouse."

"What'd he hope to gain here?" John gestured back toward the office. "He trashed the place and left Vera bleeding out in her chair."

"Given the depth of the cuts to your ex-wife's throat, it probably took her less than a minute to die." Talbot holstered his weapon, shrugging as John stared at him. "If it's any comfort to you. I don't think she suffered much."

"Except the fear that froze her in place."

"She's not a cow and we're not planning on eating her so it doesn't matter what fear did to her when she died." Talbot pointed toward the men hanging above them. "I'm worried about why he did that to them."

"A warning?" Anna suggested, walking carefully around the edge of a dry pool of died blood coagulated on the cement. "Telling us to stay away."

"He could've done that with the body in the office chair."

"He's making sure they can't come after him." John shook his head, "This message isn't for us."

"It's not his style at all. No matter who his message is for." Anna jutted her finger toward the men above them. "He's never done anything like this."

"This was hunting for purpose, not sport." John kept his gaze on the men hanging by their ankles over his head. "Those women, the ones he killed, he did for his compulsion."

"You mean for fun?"

"I don't want to speculate about that and I don't care what his emotional state is when he guts women like fish. But this," John moved out of the way of Anna as she continued pacing the circumference of the pool. "This was hunting for purpose. He was eliminating competition."

"Other serial killers like him?"

"No." Anna narrowed her eyes, taking in John a moment before casting a final look at the men above her. "They knew something about him. Something he didn't want anyone to know or use against him."

"Then this message is to whatever other scum he interacts with when he slinks between his grubby little holes." Talbot snorted, shaking his head. "Wonderful. Now we've got the whole of a criminal underworld to interrogate."

"We already know he's killed prostitutes and that put him on Albert Mason's hit list." John took a step back toward the office. "If Vera was still running her end of things and he got in with her, that aligns him, however vaguely, with her work. This could've been a signal he's cutting ties."

"Is that the message you think he's sending?" Anna moved past John, working back toward the office.

"I think this was clean up and a warning." John followed Anna back to the office and watched as she picked her way carefully through the debris to Vera's body. "A warning to whomever else knew he had dealings with Vera's operation to keep it to themselves."

"Someone on the take, maybe?" Talbot leaned on the doorway, only shrugging when John eyed him. "Don't tell me you didn't think of it."

"I'd hate to think that anyone I work with would have any connection with a serial killer."

"Even when the statistics of your profession show that you're only ever three steps removed from committing a crime yourself?" Talbot made a face, "It's not so different for men in my line of work. The barrier between the good guys and the bad grows thin and, for some, it gets harder to see."

"Not for me."

"It wasn't an accusation about you. Just about the job we do." Talbot shuffled against the door, as if trying to find a better position to fit the doorjamb against the groove of his back. "When you spend your days thinking like they do or killing people or hunting those without emotion it gets to you. It plays with your mind and can leave you damaged."

"Maybe your government should've thought of that before they made him their little toy."

"Maybe they should've. But, as I said, the line is thin and sometimes it's as hard for them to delineate as it is for you and I." Talbot turned to Anna, "Find anything over there?"

"I think I did." Anna motioned them both over and they tried to keep their steps as light as possible to where Anna held up a picture. "I pulled this from your ex-wife's pocket. I think it's a signal."

"To us?" John wrapped a handkerchief around his hand before taking the photo and holding it up to see better.

"Or to whomever on your side has worked with him." Talbot only gave the photo a cursory glance between turning back to Anna. "Sorry the address turned out to be a dud for you."

"I don't think it was." Anna straightened, nodding toward the photo John studied. "That might be a message for whomever knows Vera but it's meant to be passed on to someone else."

"How'd you mean?" Talbot frowned but John answered.

"Because this is Jane Moorsum." John handed the photo back to Anna.

"Who's Jane Moorsum?"

John and Anna exchanged a look before Anna spoke. "She was… She worked as Chief Crawley's secretary for a time. They had, or almost had, an affair. She resigned shortly after and took another job."

"Is Chief Crawley associated with Green?"

John shook his head. "Never. But whomever knows about this knows about that. It narrows the field of possible traitors."

"To those who knew about the almost affair?" Talbot pulled another face. "Does that mean you two are in the running?"

"No." Anna sighed, "I was in England then and Mary was the one who told me. I wouldn't count."

"And I wasn't working this division then. I was on a task force in Cork for almost six months." John chewed the inside of his cheek, "Whatever this means, Chief Crawley'll need to see this scene for himself. Make up his own mind about it."

"And how'll you explain how you came to find this?" Talbot shook his head slowly as Anna and John turned to him. "Because, as I said, I'm not helping."

"If you don't then the next body that drops'll be Ms. Mooorsum and-"

"And that's not my problem. That's yours." Talbot stepped back, raising his hands as if to keep them off the incident. "Whatever ghosts come of this, to haunt either of you or your Chief Crawley, they'll not haunt me."

"You'd abandon this women to her stalking and murder?"

"I'm here for one purpose." Talbot held up a single, quivering finger. "A purpose, I'll remind you, about which I was very clear."

"I didn't realize when you referenced that line you were talking about yourself." John almost growled but all three of them cut off as they heard a sound.

Talbot drew his gun, holding it up and taking a step toward the door. But John's vantage point had him recognizing Branson through the door as Talbot raised his gun to fire. It took less than a second for John to bring the blade of his hand chopping at the back of Talbot's head.

The taller man buckled, his lanky body rigid in a second, and slumped to the floor as his gun clattered away from him. John stepped over, grabbing the gun with his handkerchief-covered hand, and sighed as he looked down at Talbot's prone body. "Fair is fair. No hard feelings and we're all paid up now."

"What are you doing?" Anna hissed but John had no time to answer her as Branson and another Guard, one older than John, entered the room.

They all stared at one another until John laid the gun on the nearest table and Branson holstered his weapon. The other man kept his weapon at the ready but John only noticed him by sidestepping to block Anna before addressing Branson. "What are you doing here Tom?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I wasn't the one who got married yesterday."

"My official leave isn't until the end of the week so I was called in to handle this." Branson made a face, "Not that I think the Chief didn't take a little bit of pride in making the call himself."

"What are you two doing here?" The other man spoke before motioning to where Talbot twitched for a moment on the floor. "And who the bloody hell is that?"

"I could ask you what you're doing here Vyner." John's lip curled slightly but he relaxed at the twitch in Vyner's gun. "I was following a lead."

"From whom?"

"A trusted source." John stood straighter, "Why are you here? This isn't a case for your department."

"I was nearby and came to assist." Vyner barely relaxed. "I thought I'd lend a hand since you left your partner in a lurch."

"It doesn't matter." Branson put out a hand and Vyner finally lowered his gun slightly. "What does matter is the bloodbath that happened here. We were thinking rival gangs but-"

"But they don't do this." John nodded his agreement, "We think it's a message to someone to stay the hell away."

"Message to who from whom?" Vyner cut in and John eyed the man as Anna cut in to answer.

"From the serial killer we're hunting to whomever in this organization gave him refuge or help in the past."

Vyner's lip quirked for a second and John barely caught it as the man finally holstered his weapon. "That's ridiculous. One man couldn't do this."

"If he caught all of them off guard and arrange this after the fact he could." John went to move but Vyner stepped in his way. "Is there something you want to add to that thought?"

"Who's he then?"

John looked down at Talbot, "Our source."

"Seems convenient that he told you about this place." Vyner moved around John and, before John could do anything, had ziptied Talbot's wrists together. "I think we may want to bring him in for questioning. Especially if that's his gun you were picking up off the floor."

"He's not the man we're looking for."

"Then why'd you knock him unconscious?" John turned to Branson as his partner shrugged with the question. "You don't usually try to beat your witnesses John. So who is he?"

"He's…" John looked to Anna but her face gave away nothing. "He's not the one who did this. I'm not his biggest fan and I can't even rightly say who he is or what he's doing here but he didn't do this."

"Then, if he didn't," Vyner lifted Talbot to his feet and pushed him toward Branson so they supported Talbot's half-sagging weight between them. "He'll tell us all about why he's here."

"He's-" John went to say as Vyner addressed a uniformed policeman fresh to the door in a checkered vest.

"Bag that gun as evidence and then get people to sweep this room."

John's whole body sagged as they took Talbot away, the constable taking the gun in a bag and moving off to gather more help for the room, and turned to Anna. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"What could I say?" Anna kept her voice low. "They won't have enough to hold him. Even on suspicion of killing those men they'll know he's not Green."

"And you think that'll be enough?"

"Won't it?"

"If it were just Branson and I, sure. But Vyner…" John shook his head. "That man's a bull. He'll run toward a target and crash through a wall to get what he thinks he wants. Right or wrong, he'll do what he thinks is best."

"Then we'll just have to see if we can stop him." Anna patted John's shoulder, "But I think we should warn Chief Crawley about Jane Moorsum first. Talbot'll fend for himself until we get him out."

"I'll be honest, I don't like his odds."

"You've not served with him."

They wove through the mess of officers and evidence teams to reach the street. There they found even more crowded conditions until John got them through to where Chief Crawley fended off questions and tried to direct the mess. His eyes settled on them and he pushed his way free to come to where John and Anna waited at the edge of the swarm.

"What are you two doing here? I didn't…" Chief Crawley shook his head. "Never mind. Why are you here?"

"That's a long story." Anna cut in, "And not one that really encapsulates why you need to take this seriously."

"Excuse me? I don't-" Chief Crawley stopped when Anna held up Jane Moorsum's picture. Enough for Chief Crawley to see but not for anyone else around them to really get their eye on before Anna tucked it away again. "Where'd you get that picture? Why do you have it?"

"We found it on Vera's body." John kept his voice low, "We need to talk about this elsewhere, sir."

Chief Crawley took stock of his surroundings before nodding. "Back at the office. Let me get this sorted here and we'll… We'll continue this back in my office."

John watched Chief Crawley leave, vanishing into a crowd of confused people, and turned to Anna. "I guess we go back to the office."

"If only we could have a day where we're not at the office, that'd be nice." Anna sighed and followed John to the car. "I feel like all we've done is work on this case. Day in and day out."

"We've done some other things too." John shrugged, opening the door for Anna to get in. "One of those things we did in this very car."

"Those things aside," John tried not to laugh at the reprimand in Anna's voice. "This is our life now. You do realize that, yes?"

"This has been my life since before this case." John paused, his hands on the steering wheel. "Probably explains why I lost my marriage to it."

"I thought you lost your marriage to the drug lord you unknowingly married." Anna paused, "I am sorry. About how you found her body."

"So am I." John stroked his fingers along the steering wheel. "We didn't care about each other. Not really and definitely not anymore. But… I never thought I'd find her like that."

"It's not how we want to find anyone." The drumming of her fingers drew John's attention and he watched Anna open her mouth to speak twice before words finally accompanied the motion. "Do you think Henry was right?"

"About?"

"About how we're close to being what we're trying to put away." Her voice grew quieter. "How we're only a few steps away from being them."

"No." John shook his head, "I can't believe that and you shouldn't either."

"But think about it." Anna turned slightly in her seat to face John. "Henry's willing to kill Green on sight. No remorse, no regret. Just bang! And that's it."

"We won't let that happen."

"But we found ten men hanging from a ceiling and what did we do? We immediately tried to understand the mind of someone who'd do that. You found your ex-wife and…" Anna faltered and drew back into her seat, John only then noticing they had leaned toward one another in the course of the conversation. "Maybe we're not as affected as we should be."

"Would it be better if we vomited every time we saw a body? Or were overcome with nightmares about what we see and do?"

"No. But I want…" Anna inhaled a shaky breath. "I want to know that the years I've spent studying horrible people won't turn me into a horrible person. That trying to understand them won't make me like them."

"Is that…" John stopped himself, cleared his throat, and tried again. "Are you afraid that's what happening to you?"

"Yes." Anna brought out the photo of Jane Moorsum again. "The first thought I had, when I found this photograph on your ex-wife's body, was that maybe we could learn something more from her about Green."

"Sometimes we've got to think that way or we get consumed by what we do."

"And if not?" Anna's hand covered John's on the wheel as he went to turn the key. He raised his head to look at her and noted the edge of panic to her expression. "What do we do if we find ourselves succumbing to it and try to pull back only to notice that there's nothing to pull back to? That we're already too far gone?"

"We find people who ground us." John turned his hand to hold hers and force her to look at him. "We find people who know who we were and will help get us back to being those people again."

"Do you have those people?" Anna shook her head, "Because I don't know if I do. I don't… I don't know if I have anyone who could help me back."

"You have me." John pressed a gentle kiss to her fingers. "And, for now, I've got you. Maybe, between the two of us, we can weave our way through all this."

"And if we can't?"

"Then we get your friend Talbot out of his cell so he can do us in before we become anything like Green." John shook his head, "I may not agree with much about Talbot but I do, honestly, think he's got the right idea there."

"He'd be tickled to hear you say that."

"He'll be more so when we get him out of Vyner's custody." John turned the key to start the engine. "First things first, Ms. Moorsum."

"Yes," Anna buckled herself in, "Let's save Jane."