The smell of death never got any easier for Nichole Potts. She had on a white lab jacket over her khakis and dark blue t-shirt. Her curly brown hair was tied back with a black elastic band, the sound of her brown boots on the stone floor the only sound echoing through the morgue. A man in his mid-twenties lay dead as a doorknob on her table. A white sheet covered from his waist down, but his chest was cut open, the flab of skin pinned back. He was a victim of a brutal shooting, the fourth one that month. That was his cause of death, but before he was put out of his misery, he was brutally beaten, his face beyond recognizable. Thank the heavens for technology they had today. A hair sample and she was able to determine his identity, Ronald Greene.

He was only twenty-six when he was attacked, married to Whitney Greene, no children, and he had no living relatives besides his in-laws. Whitney wouldn't be able to claim his body until Nikki was done with the autopsy, but she declared it a homicide at first look, and now the force was calling in the big guns- the FBI. Emma moved the lamp so it was positioned directly over the man's chest. There was no pulse to his heart. Very carefully and tenderly, she placed it in a small metal pan and found the bullet lodge deep in his heart. She was able to get it out, no doubt it would be used for evidence, and placed the flattened bullet in a separate pan.

After her work was done and his chest was completely stitched back up, she took a few notes before moving to examine his face. It looked like he was beaten with a hard object, a bat maybe? Sighing, she called her assistant over and together they placed Ronald's limp body on a different slab, a locker where the bodies were kept. She slid it closed and locked it. He'd remain there until police released his body to Whitney Greene. Nikki bagged the bullet in a evidence bag and set it aside, taking her bloodied gloves off and throwing them away, she washed her hands. Tomorrow, the FBI would be there in Las Vegas investigating the string of murders, and she'd be there to help if more and more bodies turned up like they had been. He was the fourth in the past two weeks. All the same- beaten beyond repair and then shot straight the the heart, dying almost instantly.

This murderer like to torture his victims before putting them out of their misery. What sick freak would the LVPD be dealing with now?

Nichole agreed with him. "Possibly. But there are no marks on his wrists or ankles, I already checked. He has a wound on the back of his heat, so it had to have been a blitz attack, and that's when the beating to his face occurred, and then he was put out of his misery. He wore gloves, we would've found some traces of something, partial prints, anything on his face, but he came up with nothing..." Nikki trailed off as a thought popped up in her head. "Maybe..." She held her finger up to silence him as she put on a fresh pair of gloves, going back to the body.

She gently picked up one of his hands and looked under his fingernails. Of course! It could be far fetch, but it also could be something. She took a small scalpel and dug under his fingernails. A few bits of skin landed on a plain white napkin. She grabbed a miniature bag and carefully wiped the skin in the bag. "This could be nothing, it could be something. I'll send it and the bullet to the lab first thing in the morning." She said, putting both bags back up. She put the body back in the freezer, locking it up as well.

She brushed off his question about punching someone, of course she hadn't. She had always been the good girl in school, never been into a physical fist fight. Of course he had, being an officer he would have to physical take suspects down. "But, like I said, your unsub probably blitz attacked. There wasn't any marks from ropes, chains, ect on any of the other victims, either. But all had similar wounds on the back of the head, like from a bat or a pipe." She explained, removing the blue latex gloves and tossing them in a nearby bin.

Nikki, once again, shrugged off the lab coat, hanging it by the hanger by the exit door. She checked to make sure everything was properly placed, put up, or that no dead bodies were laying around. "I've got a few. I'll start by giving you Ronald's, your victim, and the other three victims." She said, strolling to a filing cabinet where she kept all her reports. "They seem random. Three whites, one black. Three females, Ronald the only male. All around the same age, mid to late twenties." She said, putting down four light brown folders. Ronald's was on top, followed by Tiffany Holder, 25; Georgia Roadway, 28; and Olivia Branch, 29. "All murdered the same way. Beaten almost to death and shot in the chest. Ronald the most recent. I was able to turn the bodies of Tiffany and Georgia to the families, but I've still got Olivia in the cooler. The family should be here by the end of the week, flying in from Washington. From what I heard, Olivia was visiting extended family here. All found in the alley. All nice homes, but no ransom." She said, shrugging as she sat across from Brandon.

"I don't think I caught your first name?" She said. Before she could hear his response, the telephone in the morgue went off. Nikki excused herself and sighed loudly after hanging up. The phone call took only a few moments. She turned towards Brandon. "There's been another body. Beaten, shot in the chest. They're at the crime scene now and requested you. You can ride with me." She said, grabbing her coat, once again, and the keys to the morgue van, waving her hand for Brandon to follow her.

As Nikki drove to the crime scene, she went over a couple theories with Brandon. "One, I think the male, Ronald, was just in his way, to get to someone he did want. It's odd there were three females and him being the only male. Two, he seems... angry when he attacks. Like there's something going wrong in his life. And three, it's nothing to do with sex, none of the females or the male was raped." She said, shaking her head. "It doesn't really make sense to me, we're aren't even sure it's a male whose doing this, I've seen females do much worse. The face is so beaten, I can't even tell if it was done with an object or his fist." She said, sighing softly.

She approached the flashing blue and red lights. A yellow crime scene tape was up, blocking out the alley where the body was found. Nikki grabbed her black bag and got out of the car, heading to the scene. She flashed her ID to the officer standing guard and ducked under the yellow tape. She headed straight for the body, just like the others, but another female. "Any identification?" She asked, pulling on blue gloves. "Nope, like the others, her wallet is still here, her cards with her name all gone, but cash still left behind." The officer in charge said. Nikki nodded, moving the limp head side to side. She gently lifted the head and looked behind, another blitz attack it looked like.

She sighed as she examined the rest of the woman's body, bruises and scrapes all over her body. The last place she looked at was her chest, and sure enough, a bullet hole straight through the chest, more than likely through her heart, again like the others. "Looks the same." She said, letting out a long sigh. She stood up and removed her gloves. "Who discovered her?" Nikki asked the officer. "A homeless man. He's at the precient for questioning." Nikki nodded. "Alright, well whenever you are done with her here, I'll take her back to the morgue." She said. She was so tired, but it needed to be done, it was her job, after all.

Nikki waited patiently as the woman's body was out in a black body bag and loaded onto a gurney, then loaded up into her morgue truck. She crossed her arms, waiting until they were all done. Looking around, something struck at her. She waved Brandon over. "This is strange. The other bodies were murdered on the scene, you could tell from the blood splatter; but this one, she wasn't murdered her. See?" She said, pointing to the area the woman was at. "There's hardly any blood. I'll have to look more closely back at the morgue, but I don't think she was just murdered. There would be more blood, a splatter, something. There's hardly anything." She said, letting out a sigh.

"Do you want to ride back, or are you going to stay here and catch a ride with one of the officers?" She asked. Mason, officer in charge, was talking to a couple other officers about the crime scene. When he asked if she was alright Nikki was taken a little aback. "I'm alright, and yeah.. I am a little exhausted, but hey, I knew what I was getting into when I went to school for this. Lack of sleep, piles of dead bodies, more than likely some of them homicide. No big deal, at least I enjoy it." She said and stopped herself. "Which probably sounded extremely weird. I promise, I'm not one of this examiner's who prefers to spend time with the dead." She joked, smiling halfheartedly.

She removed the gloves and threw them away in a nearby bin. "I really should get the body back, do a little work on her, and head home. It was nice to meet you, Brandon. Come by tomorrow sometime and I'll show you my notes and what I've got on our victim, first thing will be identifying her. Poor girl." Nikki said sympathetically, frowning. She said another quick good-bye to Brandon and a few of the officer's before getting into the morgue van and headed back to get the body out. She wouldn't do much tonight, she'd collect some hair follicles, get her prints for back-up, and send it, along with the other evidence items she had, to the lab in the morning and start on identifying the poor girl.

Nikki was hoping they'd have some lead in these gruesome murders.