The young police officer goes to visit the house of one of the suspects in a Serial Killer case. Meanwhile, back at the police station, the detectives put together the clues to see who the killer is.
Simultaneously, the two parties figure out the truth — the detectives through the DNA test, the officer through finding the Torture Cellar or the Room Full of Crazy. The suspect is the Serial Killer. (If the officer doesn't find the lair, then at the very moment the detectives figure it out, the suspect - having pulled the wool over everyone's eyes up to now - will suddenly start acting like a serial killer.) The detectives try to contact them, but their mobile isn't working properly.
They're alone in the house with a serial killer. Will they survive? The answer to that is generally "yes", although The Cavalry almost certainly won't arrive until the very nick of time.
The house-visitor is most often female and attractive, although there have been male examples.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Happens in Haruhi Suzumiya, when Kyon is alone in a room with Asakura Ryoko who reveals to be a Stepford Smiler Psycho Knife Nut. She also uses her data manipulation skills to make the room inescapable. Luckily, Yuki Nagato, who is just as skilled with data handling, notices it from outside and busts in for a rescue. This is par for the course as he also knows a girl who may destroy the universe whenever she gets PMS and another who kidnaps the entire world just to be alone with him.
- A variant is done in Red River (1995). Just as Prince Kail and his men catch a servant who spills the beans on who The Mole is in their group, Yuri discovers that she's been alone with the evil queen's right-hand man, and had asked him to help her find the MacGuffin the queen was looking for.
- This happens in the sequel to Tokyo Ghoul, with the Quinx Squad split into two teams independently investigating the Ghoul Torso. Mutsuki ends up getting into a taxi cab, which happens to be driven by Torso and happens to fit the Ghoul's preference for victims. He's beaten unconscious after a brief struggle and kidnapped, but the rest of the team manage to separately discover Torso's identity and give chase.
- In the climax of the first arc of A Certain Scientific Railgun, Saten is put into a coma by the Level Upper, causing Uiharu to go visit Dr. Kiyama to analyze the data they've collected. While Dr. Kiyama is getting coffee, Uiharu notices some research papers sticking out of a drawer. Meanwhile, at the local Judgment branch office, Ms. Konori is accessing the Judgment database to see if they can find whose brainwaves are being shared between the victims of the Level Upper. Just as they discover that it's Dr. Kiyama, it cuts to her walking in on Uiharu reading the research papers. Realizing she's been found out, Dr. Kiyama kidnaps Uiharu and flees. The other characters try to call Uiharu, to no avail, before notifying Antiskill and giving chase. There's a bit of a twist, though, in that Dr. Kiyama is not evil, and even gives Uiharu the key to fixing what she's done to use after she accomplishes her goal, even as she has Uiharu handcuffed and held hostage.
Film
- An inversion happens in Kiss the Girls: the officer is visiting one of the victims and reveals himself to be the serial rapist/killer just as another detective is putting the pieces together back at the station. The killer manages to cut the victim's phone line just before the other detective tries to call.
- In Cruising, the cops' brilliant plan is to get their own man alone with the serial killer. Causes a moment of Fridge Logic later on. Burns allows himself to be tied up by a man he suspects is the killer. His cop buddies bust in to save him, and he tells them they have no evidence because they busted in too soon. But if they'd waited, he would have been sodomized and killed.
- The finale of Black Christmas (1974) has a young girl alone in the house with the killer. The Police arrive too late but find her still alive after having offed the killer herself.
Literature
- A variant is used near the climax of Otherland. Australian cop Calliope Skouros goes to an apartment on the trail of a Serial Killer after backtracking a suspicious Internet search. Knocking on the door, she encounters not Dread himself, but his unwitting conspirator, Dulcie Anwin, who has coincidentally just discovered Dread's secret and is in the throes of a Heroic BSoD over it. Skouros doesn't realize Dread is there until he stabs her in the back and subsequently shoots Anwin. Both survive, but it's a very close call.
Live Action TV
- Monk loves this trope more than his deceased wife. Usually it's Monk himself who has to be rescued, sometimes it's Natalie or his other sidekicks.
- Both "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", "Mr. Monk and the Magician," and "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" have variants of this trope with just Monk.
- "Mr. Monk Buys a House" has Monk and Natalie chained up to a bathtub by a killing handyman, and Stottlemeyer and Disher barely manage to save them in the nick of time, thanks to a Chekhov's Skill that Natalie has.
- This happens fairly often to Rosemary and Laura in Rosemary & Thyme.
- Zig-Zagged in the episode "Agua Cadaver". Rosemary is alone with Greg, when Laura finds handwriting evidence that points to Greg and rushes to save Rosemary, leaving Neil and Nicola behind. Greg didn't do it, and further analysis points to Neil. Greg, Laura and Rosemary rush back to save Nicola. They find her standing over Neil's body, claiming he attacked her. They then find evidence on the body of Neil's innocence and thus Nicola's guilt. Nicola is caught, and fortunately, Neil is Only Mostly Dead.
- This is a big part of Samara's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2. She enlists your help to kill her serial killer daughter, and the mission has you seducing her until she takes you home, at which point you're trapped alone in her apartment with her and have to keep talking to distract her until Samara can get there and save you.
