[ WP ] The man with the tattoo .

There he was. Face covered but his sleeve torn open by one of his victims. Some old security guard had put up a fight and now they had an identifiable mark. 
 
 The man with the tattoo. 
 
 Detective Sam Wells stood in front of his action board, eyes fixed to the still shot taken from the bank security video. The board was a wheeled dry-erase-board he kept near his desk in the homicide division. The board was separated into three sections - a spot for each of his three highest priority cases. 
 
 Photos, names, lists of suspects, time and date, even what the weather was at the time of the crime. Sam was thorough and everything he deemed worthy made it to the board. 
 
 The tattooed perp had walked into a bank late yesterday afternoon and unloaded a machine pistol - a Mac 11 with an extended clip - into the tellers and the people waiting in line. He was well covered. Unidentifiable. 
 
 An old security guard - Sam's eyes moved to another photo: former United States Marine, Franklin Howard-Yates; victim twelve - with a bullet in his gut tackled the attacker whilst the perp reloaded. Franklin was a brave man. The perp managed to get a fresh mag in and shot Franklin through the chest as they rolled around the floor. 
 
 `` How's it lookin' Sam?'' Patty said, Sam put out a hand and she put a coffee in it - no sugar, no cream. 
 
 `` Not pretty. The guy did n't even ask for money.'' Sam sipped the lava-like coffee without a wince `` Looks like he was just looking to do some killing.'' 
 
 `` He going to hit again?'' 
 
 `` I'm thinking so, yeah.'' 
 
 `` Can we shut any suspected locations down? Head him off?'' 
 
 Sam turned his head from the action board to her. Her name was Patty but she looked like a million bucks. Sam, much older than her, always thought she belonged out in the sunshine, in the happiness - not in homicide. He did n't like seeing kids come in to this division. All the death changes you. Darkens you. Each case kills you a bit. 
 
 More so if you ca n't bury it. An unsolved case aches and annoys you like a bad tooth. 
 
 Kids should n't be coming in to this... 
 
 *But, * he thought, *I guess I was a kid when I got started, too. She ai n't a bad detective either. * 
 
 `` No, no way to head him off short of closing down the entire city.'' Sam said, his eyes back on the board `` We've got all the local precincts a copy of the photo, it should be in today's paper as well, so all we can do is hope someone spots him and his tattoo. That and chase leads and hope we nab him before his trigger finger gets itchy again.'' 
 
 Patty nodded. `` I'll check on forensics, see where they're up to with the bullets. If we can match the bullets to a gun we might find him, or at least someone he came in contact with.'' 
 
 Sam smiled `` Go easy on the Brains, kid. You wo n't do yourself any favours gettin on their bad side.'' 
 
 `` I wo n't kick'em too hard in the pants, Sam.'' And then she left. 
 
 Sam stayed and looked at the tattooed man again. He'd already emailed all the local tattoo parlours as good a copy of the tattoo that he could blow up from the photo. No responses yet. No guarantee that it was a local artist either. No guarantee that they'd help if it was. 
 
 Sam grabbed his keys, put on his suit jacket and left the office. 
 
 `` Figure I'll ask around in person.'' 
 
 And so the Detective started his hunt. 
 
 A hunt for the man with the tattoo. 
 
 *** 
 *Edit: Typo* 

