Poet of Blood

 Poet of Blood: A Noir story of Detective Jonathan Walker in the gritty, other worldly city of New Orleans. A serial murder styling themselves as an artist of sorts is killing beautiful female performers around the city and writing poems in their blood. The poems claim that the killer is doing a service to these women and the world by taking them at the height of their glory and beauty so the world will always celebrate them that way.

The grisly and bizarre murders starts to trouble various members of the police force and psychologists are brought in to give counseling. Dr. Ellen Sinclair and her assistant, the young Dr. Gwen Parsons. They begin giving counseling to the department. Walker having a lifelong distrust of 'shrinks' avoids them both. He has a tense conversation with Dr. Sinclair where it clear each is trying to read into the other's thoughts. There is a sense of mental power struggle between these two each time they meet. Detective Walker's interactions with Dr. Parsons are quite different. She is disarming and friendly. The two end up talking but Walker still refuses any sort of counseling. He has to focus on his case.

The killings continue, but Walker pieces together a thread. Something about each new murder resonates with Walker with a sense of deja vu until he realizes that each murder has been predicted by the poems from the previous murders.

With this, Detective Walker is able to give the precinct a tighter net to cast in attempts to catch the murderer. He is able to narrow down the field to three prospects. The killer still gets their mark, and Walker is more determined than ever. He pleads with Molly Minx to go into protective custody, believing she is the next target. She states that she refuses to live in fear and will continue living her life as she sees fit. She is killed at the end of her performance, but is not able to get away from Walker.

Walker is shocked to find that the killer is a woman. They have no identity to this killer, but Walker at least has the killer behind bars.

All seems well, until the killings begin again. A conversation with the killer in custody reveals that she believes her legacy is immortal and will far outlive her. Walker deduces that this is either a copy cat, or the Poet has outside help. Walker starts leading stings on potential hide outs for the killer. The killer always seems one step ahead.

Detective Walker is playing through messages at a friend's desk when a strange tone emits. It leaves him light headed, but he notices that Officer Davis has wandered off. Walker follows and narrowly keeps Davis from killing another girl. Walker discovers that the tone he heard was a cue from some advanced hypnotist. He traces it back to Dr. Sinclair, but when he goes to confront her she is lost to the wind.

He goes after Dr. Parsons and finds her still in her office. He presses her for information and threatens to arrest her. Dr. Parsons claims innocence and no knowledge of these actions. But she does say that she knows how Dr. Sinclair thinks and how to track her down. With the entire precinct potentially compromised, he leaves with Parsons quietly, on the hunt for Sinclair. 

On their hunt from office to apartment to hotel, a cop on the street fires on them. They find themselves being hunted by officers under Sinclair's control as they try to hunt her. The story finishes with a thrill ride/chase with Detective Walker and Dr. Parsons on Sinclair's trail while rogue officers hunt them until the shoot out where Walker finally kills Sinclair and Parsons is wounded in the cross fire.

Later, in the hospital, Walker sits at Parsons' side and talks with her as she comes to. They talk about Sinclair and the aftermath left in her wake. He asks if there is any chance that the mental cues given to the officers could ever accidentally be triggered even now that Sinclair is gone. Parsons muses that Sinclair might have even had contingency plans like that in place after her death.

Their conversation is interrupted by Detective Mathers walking into the hospital room and pulling a gun. Walker fights and subdues him. He orders a nearby officer to take him into custody and rushes to the jail. The Poet is being prepped for a lethal injection. Walker begs for a stay of execution. The judge on hand asks why.

Walker stares through the one way mirror, the Poet looking back at him hauntingly as he says, “God help me, I need to know what she knows.”