An excerpt from a book I wrote...

Antoinette Valentine slipped gracefully out of her black BMW and walked up the steps into the building before her. Just another day at work. She took the elevator up to the fourth floor of the tall office building and bypassed security with a simple flash of her badge to the security guard. She opened the door at the far left of the hallway by sliding her card through the slot and entered into her familiar office space that she shared with her three other teammates: Ryan King, Noah Jimms, and their "leader" of sorts, Jake Freeman. She was the second person to arrive at work that morning, after Freeman. He was at his desk, actually doing his paperwork for once.
"Morning, boss," she greeted him with a smirk as she settled in behind her own desk and began organizing herself.
"Valentine. No coffee this morning?" he asked, with only a quick glance up from his desk.
"Traffic was awful today - I bypassed. Sorry, boss," she shrugged. She usually brought in coffee for the team, including herself, but hadn't had the chance, "No one else decided to show yet?" she enquired and booted up her computer.
"Not yet. You're second, as usual," he replied.
"One of these days, I'll have to be first," she sighed.
"Then you'll most likely have to stay here all night, but even then, chances are slim," he responded, signing a paper with a flourish and slamming it down onto an increasing stack before him. Antoinette chuckled. The scary thing was, it was true. Sometimes, Freeman never left the office. It was almost like he lived there.
The door beeped and in walked Ryan King, carrying a tray of four coffees.
"I assumed right!" he called over his shoulder and Noah Jimms sauntered in behind him, looking as mischievous as ever.
"Assumed right in what?" Antoinette demanded. He set a coffee carefully on her desk, then on Freeman's, Jimms', and took the final one for himself.
"That since there was so much traffic today, you wouldn't be bringing us coffee this morning," he answered, and sat down behind his desk that sat across from hers and next to Noah's, who's desk sat across from Freeman's. The boss' was situated next to Antoinette's.
Presently, Freeman's cell phone rang. He answered quietly, never taking his eyes off of his paperwork, said yes and okay a couple times, and hung up, grabbing his coffee and standing from his desk in one fluid movement. Antoinette grabbed her small back pack before he could even say "Time to go" and followed him out. Ryan and Noah scrambled after them, coffee in hand, back packs over their shoulders.
"I'm gonna' guess a double murder in an underground parking lot, each stabbed," Ryan said as they hurried to the elevator and descended to the underground parking where their team car awaited, "And I get to drive."
Freeman threw the keys and Antoinette caught them and headed for the driver's seat.
"Guess not, Ryan," she smirked, and unlatched the door and slipped in. Freeman got into the passenger side and the other two hunkered down in the back.
"And I thought my premonitions were on a roll...was I at least right about the case call?" he complained.
"No," Freeman answered simply, not bothering to elaborate. He gave Antoinette the address and fell into pensive silence, no doubt preparing himself for the crime investigation.
"Does the boss seem a little more moody than usual?" Antoinette heard Ryan murmur to Noah. She grinned.
"How would you like to do my paperwork all night, King?" Freeman asked slyly. The backseat fell silent. No secrets were kept from the Boss, "Better prepare yourselves this morning: triple homicide, two of the victims are children and the third is their mother. Ayesha is already on the scene."
"Great..." Ryan mumbled, already apprehensive. No matter how many times you saw or heard about it, you never got used to seeing murdered children. Not that it was any different with adults either. Children were just...harder to deal with as murdered.


Antoinette pulled up to the curb next to the blue gabled house labeled 330283 in black metal numbers on the side and cut the engine. Everyone removed their seatbelts and climbed out of the car. There were a couple police cars out front, two ambulances, and one black car belonging to Ayesha Malestre, their fifth team member who occupied herself with the dead bodies and what had caused their deaths. There was yellow tape lining the front yard. Freeman slipped under it, showing his badge to the cop on the other side, and Antoinette and her two co-workers followed suit. They entered the house and showed their badges to the cop inside the front door.
"Second floor, in the bedrooms. You can't miss it," he told them solemnly. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pretty, "And the husband and his daughter are outside," he added.
"Ryan, Noah," Freeman ordered.
"Yes, boss," they said, and headed back outside to question the remaining family members. Antoinette followed him up the stairs and down the hall to the bedroom where Ayesha had already started working. The sight of the body made Antoinette's stomach turn, but she managed to keep her expression neutral.
"Morning Ayesha," Freeman announced his presence to the deeply engrossed Ayesha.
"Morning boss. Antoinette," she called, barely glancing up from her work at hand.
"So...what've you got?" Freeman asked.
"Well, by the looks of precision and care and ritual appearance, we've got a homicidal maniac who had personal connection with this particular victim...but that's only premonition," she replied. Antoinette couldn't help but agree. The way the eyes and mouth had been stitched shut; the position of the hands over the chest. It was definitely ritualistic.
"Time and cause of death?" Freeman questioned.
"Sometime between 1 and 4 in the morning. Cause is yet to be determined, but I'd guess that it was the slit throat," Ayesha replied nonchalantly.
"Tell me when you know for sure. You've already checked the other two victims?"
"Yeah, they were in the other bedroom. I had them wrapped up already and just got to work here," she said, and resumed the pace of her work. Freeman nodded and led Antoinette out of the master bedroom and down the hall to the kids' bedroom. They'd also been assaulted in their beds.
"Remind you of anything, Valentine?" Freeman enquired.
"No, boss," she frowned, "You've seen this before?"
"This is how my sister was found," he responded simply. Antoinette stared for a minute. How could she have forgotten? Of course...and they still hadn't caught the murderer. That explained his silent behavior, "Maybe you can help me solve it this time, Valentine," he murmured, and headed out of the room. She followed him, after snapping out of her initial revelation, and descended the staircase on his tail. He led her outside towards where Ryan and Noah were speaking with a tearful man who was holding a young teenager close to him, who was also crying. They turned and walked to meet Antoinette and Freeman, leaving the crying ones behind them at a safe distance.
"The daughter came home at around eight this morning from a field trip with her grade ten class and found her mom and siblings in...the state they were in," Ryan recounted immediately.
"What about the dad?" Freeman asked.
"He came when she called him. He'd been at work all night. He's a surgeon at the hospital and he was on his break when the girl called. She'd already called the police and was waiting for them to come but she was panicking and all. He came down immediately and arrived shortly after the authorities," he replied.
"They said that they didn't know if it had anything to do with it, but the mother, the victim? She'd been receiving odd phone calls. All she would hear was heavy breathing at the other end of the phone. They reported them in but no one did anything about them," Noah added on.
"Well, you don't have to tell them yet, but that has everything to do with the case," Freeman told them quietly, "This exact scenario has happened before, except that there were no children involved and the woman was single living alone in the country. She got the same calls once a week - they started a month before she was found," he explained, "They never found the killer."
His light grey eyes bored into each of his team's meaningfully.
"It's time we did."