Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Undercover at the BDSM Club
“Look at those choppers .” Jimmy Price bent over the table to examine the plaster casts Zeller had created based on the bite marks left on the Great Red Dragon’s victims. The teeth were twisted, gnarled, feral. “Somebody forgot to wear his retainer at night.”
“Jimmy,” Bev groaned, leaning back on the exam table and crossing her arms.
“What? This is exactly what my mother always said would happen.”
“Shoo,” Zeller ordered, flapping his hand at them in a kind of sideways karate-chop so Jack and Will could get a closer look.
“The Dragon’s mother didn’t give a damn about him, orthodontia or… otherwise.” Will bent to examine the plaster cast of the killer’s jumbled, inhuman teeth, letting his empathy pulse whirr and absorb their disorderly rows.
“Will’s profile of the Great Red Dragon suggests he was abandoned by his parents and dumped on relatives that didn’t want him. Most likely, an older female, like an aunt or a grandmother,” Jack explained as Will picked up the dental cast gingerly, holding it up to the light, trying to imagine the snarling smile in his own mouth, the way such a set of teeth would feel on the underside of his lips.
“That explains the compulsion to annihilate happy families,” Bev said darkly, tossing her long hair over her shoulder.
“And the ‘special attention’ paid to the mothers,” Zeller added.
“You should send these to a dental surgeon to be sure,” Will said, returning the cast to the tray. “But I don’t think these are his real teeth. These are… some kind of appliance he wears over his natural teeth. It’s part of his… costume .” He thought for a moment, running through the Leeds crime scene in his mind as the fluorescent lab lights buzzed overhead. “Wasn’t there a piece of cheese in the fridge with a bite out of it at the Leeds place?”
“There was. A little wheel of Babybel,” Jimmy confirmed. “I love those things. Oliver knows that after we have a fight, I don’t want flowers – I can be won over by cheese.”
“And those teeth marks didn’t match the dental records of the Leeds family, or the choppers, as Jimmy calls them.” Zeller motioned to the casts. “You think they’re the Dragon’s real teeth, Will?”
“He left that cheese for us to find,” Will murmured, eyes glazing over as he receded deeper into his empathy mindset, playing absently with a loose thread on his flannel shirt.
“Deep down… he wants to be caught,” Jack reasoned, folding his large, blunt hand over Will’s shoulder.
Will had to actively stop himself from shying away from the unexpected touch, but nodded. “He wants to stop. But he won’t. Not until we stop him.”
“The teeth are fake…” Zeller muttered, then sighed. “That was our big lead. Those memorable teeth. Now what?”
Will moistened his bottom lip and grazed his own teeth against it as he gazed at the plaster casts. “He does have some kind of… mark on him. Could be a facial scar. More likely… something he did to himself.”
“Like… a tattoo?” Bev suggested.
“Let me guess.” Jimmy tapped his chin. “A Care Bear on his left buttcheek. But the question remains; Funshine Bear or Tenderheart?”
“I am going to slap you ,” Zeller warned, gripping the edge of the metal table as if he were about to Hulk out.
“Promises, promises.”
“ Shut up ,” Jack ordered, and everyone fell silent, waiting to see what Will would say.
Will scoffed, shaking his head. “A dragon, of course. A dragon tattoo of some kind. A big one.” His face split with a self-deprecating smile. “It’s so fucking simple, why didn’t I see it?”
“ The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo !” Jimmy squealed, clapping his hands. “Is he a hacker, too?”
Will started, looking at Jimmy with sudden realization. “He… has technical skill. He knows how to disable security systems, mess with phone lines… he jacked into Alana Bloom’s office phone to call Freddie Lounds to give his interviews.” As a result, Alana had gone into witness protection until the Dragon was caught, which was part of Will’s motivation to lock the bastard up. “How did you know?”
“It’s a movie,” Bev said, rolling her eyes.
“It’s a book , thank you very much,” Jimmy fired back. “A book series, even. Some of us are actually literate.”
“The chick who played that goth girl in the movie is so hot,” Zeller added, as if that was helpful. “Weird bangs, but hot. Proof you don’t need eyebrows to be hot, but I guess Whoopi Goldberg proved that in Sister Act .”
“And Sister Act 2 ,” Jimmy added. “Oh, and Star Trek: The Next Generation . Anyway, the Swedish versions of those Dragon Tattoo movies are way better than the American version–”
“FOCUS!” Jack thundered. Everyone went silent. “Will. You think he has a tattoo?”
“A big one. A physical embodiment of the creature he feels possesses him like a demon, forces him to act out his violence.” Will crossed his arms, looking from face to grave, serious face. “The Mark of the Beast.”
A weighty silence descended on the BSU’s crime lab as they all stared at the fearsome teeth on the metal tray that rested on the autopsy table.
“Oh my God!” Jimmy shrieked suddenly. Will jumped a mile at his sudden exclamation, his nerves spiking out like thorns under every inch of his skin. “Oh my God, OH MY GOD!” Everyone stared as Jimmy half-collapsed into Zeller’s arms, a hand to his forehead like the heroine on the cover of a romance novel.
“Oh your God what, you goddamn drama queen?” Bev demanded, hauling Jimmy out of Zeller’s arms and shaking him so hard his laminated ID badge rattled.
“I have a lead!” Jimmy cried. “I have a LEAD!”
“Spill it!” Jack yelled.
“Okay, so sometimes Oliver and I go to this club – when we can get a babysitter, but we’re older now so we can’t stay out as late – adulting, am I right? Anyway, it’s called Heironymus , because there’s all these Hieronymus Bosch paintings on the walls…”
“Price, you better start making some fucking sense,” Jack growled, poking his index finger into Jimmy’s collarbone as Bev held his arms.
“It’s a BDSM club!” Jimmy squealed. “It’s like, this bar, and people in the scene come there to, like, mix and mingle and meet people, but in the back there’s this dungeon and you can rent a room and some gear and play out your scenarios – it’s definitely illegal, cuz I mean, nobody’s signing a waiver and people are definitely having sex in there–”
“Whoa, Jimmy, I didn’t know you were a freak,” Zeller said with a snarky grin, hands on his hips.
“Don’t you dare kinkshame me!”
“Jimmy!” Bev shook him again. “What does this have to do with the Great Red Dragon?”
“So the last time I was there, I heard about a new dom on the scene. Huge guy… with a big ass dragon tattoo on his back! The tail wraps around his leg, and get this… he’s a biter !”
“A biter?” Jack repeated.
“Yeah, it’s part of his whole schtick. Some doms specialize in, oh, whips, riding crops, spanking, or mix-and-match… but he’s a biter. Very popular with the vampire and werewolf kink crowd.”
“Gross!” Bev cried.
“Kinkshamer,” Jimmy scolded.
“That fits,” Will piped up, excitement building in him. “It fits, it all fits the profile. H-he h-has… little tastes. Lets the Dragon out in a semi-controlled environment with partners that aren’t going to complain – that are there to be restrained and bitten. It takes the pressure off between kills. W-we already knew that the corpse biting was psychosexual.” He paused as Bev slowly released Jimmy’s arms. “People… actually agree to being treated like that? He has willing partners ?”
“Oh yeah,” Jimmy said as Jack shook his head disbelievingly. “That’s the thing about the BDSM scene – we’re awash with subs, lousy with ‘em, but a good dom is very hard to find.”
Will felt a tiny flash of heat in his gut for some reason he didn’t totally understand. He ignored it. “If we can get one of his partners to let us examine their bite wounds, we can match it to the cheese,” he said eagerly. “Jimmy, do you know who he’s been with?”
Jimmy scoffed. “What do I look like, his personal secretary? I’ve never even seen the guy. People were just talking last time we were there, probably three weeks ago. Gossip, rumors, that kind of thing!”
“Well, who were you talking to?” Jack demanded.
“Um, let me think… it was… Mistress Raven and her slave, Dingo. And I want to say Countess Bathory was there.” Jimmy whipped out his phone. “I’ll text Oliver, he’ll remember.”
“Wait a sec – Mistress Raven…? Countess… these can’t be these people’s real names,” Zeller pointed out.
“Oh, yeah, that’s true.” Jimmy put his phone back in his pocket. “Nobody uses their real names. Because of kinkshamers like you two,” he accused Bev and Zeller.
“So we post some surveillance,” Jack reasoned.
“Monitoring people coming in and out isn’t going to help,” Will argued, stripping off the latex gloves he’d been wearing to handle the casts and tossing them in the wastebasket. “The tattoo won’t be visible unless he’s shirtless.”
“We need somebody in the club. Somebody undercover. Somebody looking for his… services, if you want to call them that,” Jack said. “They get bitten, and then come back here and we can analyze the bite pattern while it’s fresh. Jimmy, do you think you could recruit some of the club patrons to help us?”
“Uh-uh, no way,” Jimmy said, holding up his hands. “I told you, the place isn’t exactly legal, and Joe Schmoe President of the School Board and Mary Sue Soccer Mom do NOT want to be outed as part of the BDSM scene. Nobody’s going to cooperate.”
“So we need to send somebody in to establish themselves in the social scene,” Jack reasoned. “Multiple someones, even. Someone to get close with the employees, and maybe a couple to get close to the patrons. Are there more singletons or couples there, Jimmy?”
“Single people,” Jimmy said, rolling his eyes. “I will say, though, a couple would be approachable. People feel safer around them and want to tell them things. I swear, sometimes when Oliver and I go we’re just sitting there in nipple clamps playing therapist to some college kid who doesn’t know how to tell his girlfriend what he’s into.”
Jack looked them all over one at a time. Will didn’t like the expression on his face. It seemed like he was… appraising them. “Bev? You think you could lure this guy into a scenario where he could leave some teeth marks on you?”
Jimmy guffawed. “Bev? A submissive? Nobody would believe that in a million years.”
“But I really want to go undercover!” Bev begged.
“Why don’t you go in as a dominatrix?” Jimmy suggested, hopping up on the autopsy table and swinging his legs like a delighted child. “Oh, even better – a dominatrix in training. You can ask to sit in on sessions and assist, and get to know some of the subs. Keep an eye out for the Dragon. Maybe he’ll take you under his leathery wing or something.”
“Yeah, but we won’t get bite marks out of that,” Zeller pointed out. “Why can’t Jimmy just do it?”
“No way,” Jimmy said firmly. “I always go there with Oliver, and I’m not putting him in danger by getting tangled up with a known serial killer.”
“That makes sense,” Jack relented. “You two ought to keep far away from that club until this is all over.” He tapped his lower lip with his finger. “Well, who do you recommend, Jimmy? Who do you think the Dragon would want to sink his teeth into?”
Jimmy grinned. He looked at Zeller.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me.” Zeller backed away, holding up his hands in a ‘no way’ gesture.
“Psych. I actually think Will would be the best choice.” Jimmy winked at him.
Will felt a tremor clench his entire body. He prayed his cheeks weren’t red; they certainly felt flaming hot. “What?” he growled through gritted teeth.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe I forgot – they’re hiring a bartender!” Jimmy said. “You could get a job there and focus on the employees while Bev focuses on the patrons.”
“That’s perfect!” Bev exclaimed, clutching Will’s arm. He pulled out of her grip immediately. “Didn’t you say you were a bartender in college?”
“Yeah, for about six months,” Will shot back. “I got fired for not being… sociable . I don’t have the temperament.”
“Well, you better develop it,” Jack said, slapping his hand down definitively on the metal table where so many corpses, including those victims of the Great Red Dragon, had lain. “Sounds like we have a plan.”