Chapter 3 "Rose Brand"

DETECTIVE SARAH MONROE

Sarah Monroe's phone rang at 4:32 AM, dragging her from the first decent sleep she'd had in a week.

"Monroe," she answered, her voice rough.

"Detective, it's Dispatch. We've got a suspicious death at Ravencrest University. 647 Fraternity Row. Requesting your presence."

Sarah sat up, suddenly alert. "Details?"

"White male, early twenties. Roommate found him unresponsive around 4 AM. Paramedics pronounced him at the scene. They're saying it looks like some kind of medical emergency, but..." The dispatcher paused. "There's something weird about it. Responding officers thought you should see it."

"I'll be there in twenty."

Sarah dressed quickly jeans, button down, her badge and gun. She'd been a detective for seven years, working everything from burglaries to homicides. Ravencrest kept her busy college towns always did. But something about this call made her skin prickle.

Something weird about it.

The fraternity house was lit up like Christmas when she arrived, squad cars blocking the street, neighbors peering from windows. Sarah flashed her badge at the officer manning the perimeter and ducked under the crime scene tape.

Officer Chen met her at the door. "Detective. Body's upstairs, second bedroom on the right."

"What am I walking into?"

Officer Chen's expression was grim. "You'll see."

Sarah climbed the stairs, her hand instinctively resting on her weapon. The door to the bedroom stood open, light spilling into the hallway. Inside, two paramedics were packing up their equipment, and a young man early twenties, athletic build sat on a bed, his face pale.

"Are you his the roommate?" Sarah asked.

He nodded. "Jason Turner. I'm the one who found him."

"Found who?"

Jason pointed to the far side of the room, where a body lay sprawled on the floor.

A dead kid lying helplessly, Sarah stepped closer, and her breath caught.

The victim was young twenty, maybe twenty one. He lay on his back, his eyes open and glassy, his mouth frozen in what looked like a silent scream. His clothes were soaked with sweat. His skin had a grayish tinge.

But it was his forehead that made Sarah's blood run cold.

A mark vivid and red, like a fresh brand marred the skin above his eyebrows. The shape was distinct and unsettling: a perfect circle containing what looked like a blooming rose, thorns extending outward like reaching fingers.

"Jesus," Sarah breathed.

"Never seen anything like it," one of the paramedics said. "We're thinking maybe an allergic reaction? Or some kind of chemical burn? But there's no sign of any substance on him, and the mark appears to originate from  inside the skin from his epidermis,not outside."

Sarah crouched beside the body, careful not to touch anything. The mark was still warm she could feel heat radiating from it without even making contact, it seemed like all his organs just decided to shut down.

"What's the victim's name?"

"Tyler Brett," Officer Chen said, consulting his notes. "Twenty years old, junior at Ravencrest. According to the roommate, he seemed fine when he went to bed around 3 AM."

Sarah turned to Jason. "You saw him at 3?"

"Yeah. I got back from my girlfriend's place. Tyler was in his room, on his phone. Said he'd had a good night at the party. He seemed totally normal."

"And when did you find him?"

"Around 4:15. I heard this weird sound like something fell then I heard him gasping, or choking. I came in and he was on the floor, seizing. I tried to do CPR, but... His pulse was already too weak " Jason's voice broke. "He was already gone. His skin was burning up, like he had a fever. And that mark on his head it wasn't there before, I have no idea when it appeared there. I swear it wasn't."

Sarah stood, processing. A healthy twenty year old male, dead within an hour of seeming fine. No obvious cause. And a mysterious burn mark that appeared post mortem or maybe during whatever killed him.

"Bag everything," she told Officer Chen. "I want toxicology, autopsy, the full workup. Have the forensic checked in. "No Officer Chen said hurriedly as he cleared his equipments placing them in his bag. And find out where he was tonight, who he was with, what he might have ingested."

"There was a party," Jason offered. "Delta Sigma. Tyler was there most of the night."

"Then that's where we start."

Sarah took one last look at the body, at that strange circled mark that seemed to pulse in the harsh bedroom light.

She'd been a cop long enough to know when something didn't add up. And this this was wrong in ways she couldn't yet articulate.she had no idea of exactly what to point towards as the cause of death but the party would be a good start since when that was his last place of contact.

But she'd figure it out. She always did.