Cutting Room

by T. S. Worthington

  And she considered it very unethical to get involved with someone in a case. It was a recipe for disaster and it could very well hinder her ability to do her job well. That was how people got hurt. And she was not about to let that happen.

  After the shower she put on her bath robe and sat down with her cup of tea to watch a bit of television before hitting the sack. It was the perfect way to end the day and she often ended up falling asleep in front of the television. She had just selected the next episode of Army Wives on Netflix (she’d recently been turned on to the show and she could not stop watching) when her phone dinged loudly beside her. She casually glanced down to discover that she had a Facebook message. It was from Emily.

  Gellar excitedly clicked on it.

  Hey, I’d love to chat. Can you skype tomorrow? I just laid down for the night and I have an early day tomorrow with a busy morning. But I could chat around two. Would that be cool? Talk to you then!

  Emily

  Gellar wrote Emily back that it would be fine to talk then.

  Now she was getting somewhere. She wondered how the interview with Emily was going to go. If this didn’t break anything in the case then they were going to have to go back to the drawing board again. She had to admit that this case was starting to wear on her a bit. She was starting to feel a bit annoyed with it all and she just wanted to find out who was behind it.

  Gellar sipped her tea and started her show, trying to lose herself in the characters. But the problems with this case were wearing on her mind and she could not bring herself to let it go. There was some sicko out there who was terrorizing residents in her town. Albeit the bastard had a personal vendetta against a specific group, but what if he/she got bored and decided to branch out and just attack random people?

  One thing she’d learned dealing with criminals and especially psychotic ones is that you never knew what they were going to do from one moment to the next. They might appear to have a very defined code of conduct or a very fine code of disorder that they were very much invested in, but that could all change at the drop of a hat.

  After watching a few episodes of the show Gellar decided to hit the sack. Her head hit the pillow and she was asleep within minutes. She was not sure how she’d gotten quite so tired or why she did not realize she was as tired as she was, but the second she climbed into bed she felt her whole body starting to relax in a way that it never had before.

  She just wanted to sleep away all the problems of the world and not think about this damn case for a bit. Was that too much to ask? She didn’t really think so, but again it came with the territory and she had to once again remind herself of how much she loved what she did and how much she wanted to find this psycho.

  Chapter 9

  “Closer”

  “It’s almost time,” Max said as he looked at the clock on Gellar’s computer. He was starting to get a bit impatient, as was his nature, but he supposed that most of this was just because of how nervous he was.

  “Yea. Won’t be long now,” Gellar replied. She actually sounded as nervous as he was, or maybe she was just faking for his benefit.

  When he called her that morning to ask how things had gone with Henry’s sister she filled him in on everything. Max had the feeling he’d actually woke Gellar up out of bed. The thought of her lying in bed made him feel instantly hot and he had to struggle not to let on how he was feeling.

  Gellar told him exactly what Haley told her and about the message from Emily. Max was surprised when Gellar invited him to come to the skype session. He thought if anyone she should have invited Jay. After all, Jay was the one who actually knew Henry, but he was damn glad that she had extended the offer to him.

  Ever since Jay had spilled the beans about Henry and the script Max was chomping at the bits to find out as much as he could about the whole thing. He was so pissed at Jay about it, too. He felt used and betrayed. It was truly like the movie they’d worked so hard on was almost a total lie because it wasn’t their story. Even though Max was ok directing a script that his friend had written it was still all about them being partners and working together. That was the way they’d always done things and now he felt that he couldn’t trust Jay. If he would lie about something that big then what else would he lie about?

  Max had spent a good portion of the morning finding out as much as he could online about this Emily Holden girl they were supposed to be talking to in just a few moments. She seemed pretty normal with a lot of great friends. She was athletic and popular at her school. She reminded him a lot of Lori actually, only Emily might have been a more natural beauty to her.

  He wasn’t sure what this skype conversation was really going to prove, but Gellar seemed to think that she might be able to gain something from it. Max had seen enough serial killer documentaries to know that you couldn’t tell that someone was a murderer just by looking at them. They weren’t all crazy looking or nuts acting. And some of them were the best actors you would ever see. They were actually able to pull off Oscar winning performances. It was damn scary knowing that anyone you passed on the street (though unlikely) could be a deranged psychopath.

  Max had actually gotten a bit into this abnormal psychology area and done a bit of research on it when they were doing prep for the movie. The main character was loosely based on a real life serial killer. Somehow he thought it might be more authentic if he could find a way to make the character more likeable and relatable on screen when the audience realized that the man was normal—most of the time. There was just that one small part of his personality that was completely out of whack. That was the thing that really intrigued Max. Psychopaths were interesting.

  Gellar’s computer dinged just then as the skype call came through. Max readied himself instantly snapping out of his macabre thoughts. Gellar looked at him to make sure he was ready to do this and that he had his game face on. Max felt like he was ready to do some acting. He was not the type of guy who was comfortable in front of the audience or in front of the camera, so it was a bit of a twist for him. They both had to act like they did not suspect this girl of being the psycho who had killed three of their friends in the past week. It was going to be a challenge. But Max, never too shy to accept a challenge thrust in front of him, smiled and got ready.

  He was starting to feel a bit nauseous again, but he chalked that up to the nervous factor. He had been released from the hospital that morning and he probably should have stayed at home and rested as much as he could, but when Gellar suggested this he jumped at the chance. It was great to spend time with her and he felt exhilarated at the thought that he might play a small part in nabbing a lead on this case.

  “Hello,” Gellar said to the pretty girl who was suddenly on the screen.

  Max felt himself getting nervous. This girl was hot. He continued to smile, but felt awkward.

  “Hey, I’m Emily. You are Detective Gellar?” The girl on the screen said.

  “Yes, I am. Thank you so much for speaking with us, Emily. This is my colleague, Max.”

  Emily waved at Max. He smiled and waved back feeling really stupid all of a sudden. Had Gellar just referred to him as a colleague? That was interesting. He liked the sound of that.

  “No, problem. I’m glad to help any way I can,” Emily said.

  “Great. Now as I mentioned in the IM we wanted to ask you a few questions about Henry Moran,” Gellar said.

  Emily’s face grimaced a little bit as if Gellar had just pinched her. Max figured that it was still a strange thing for Emily to talk about. She supposedly had feelings for Henry and this would be difficult.

  “Yea, I knew Henry pretty well. At least I thought I did.”

  “What do you mean that you thought you did?” Gellar asked

  “Well, with his accident. I just never thought he was that emotionally unstable.”

  “You were supposed to meet him that night?”

  “Yea, but something came up and I couldn’t really make it. I texted him
and told him, but he really freaked out. He accused me of lying to him and pretending to like him. When I tried to calm him down he just texted that I was a fake and that I was probably catfishing him or something.”

  “Wow, those are some strange accusations. How long did you and Henry speak to each other online?” Gellar asked.

  “We were talking for the better part of six months I would say. He was just a really nice guy and a good friend to have to talk to. I miss him,” Emily said. She dabbed at a tear in her eye with a tissue.

  “So, what did you say to him when he started to flip out on you? This was by phone or text?”

  “Phone. I called him to let him know that I wasn’t going to be able to make it down. I was having some issues with my car and I had to get it fixed. He took it the wrong way and thought I was lying to him. I couldn’t afford to fly either, so it just seemed like a few circumstances came together to keep us apart, you know?”

  “Yea, I can see that. But what was the last thing you said to Henry?”

  “I told him that I hoped he would be able to calm down, but I couldn’t talk to him if he was going to act that way. I mean, he was really going psycho. I got flustered and turned my phone’s volume off so I could take a nap. It had been a really long week. Henry told me he didn’t want to talk to me anymore and I didn’t know if that meant ever or if he just needed to cool down. So I decided that I would sleep on it and we might hopefully talk the next day. Apparently he tried to call back a bit later and he texted several times, but I was asleep and he took that the wrong way too. He must have thought…that I was through with him.”

  Emily was crying pretty hard now, her tears rolling down her face as she tried to keep up with the box of tissues she must have had sitting beside her computer. Max felt bad for the girl; she really seemed to love Henry, but he still kept his guard up. He was not going to let this girl con him. It was very possible that she was just hamming it up and that she might very well be the one who poisoned him or the one who killed his friends. Of course, that meant she was not in Nashville, as she claimed to be.

  “I’m sorry to drudge up painful memories,” Gellar said.

  “It’s ok. I am curious as to why you are investigating Henry’s death. It was ruled an accident. Has that changed?” Emily asked.

  “No, his death is still considered to be a tragic accident caused by public intoxication. Henry might have been somewhat involved in another case we are working on right now. It seems that you and Henry were pretty close. You know that he was in film school right?”

  “Yea, he wanted to talk about movies all the time. I love movies, myself. That was one of the things we bonded over. We were both into really old black and white classic monster movies and so forth.”

  “Did Henry ever show you any of the scripts that he wrote?”

  Emily’s face remained unchanged. She looked into the camera with those beautiful blue eyes, somewhat streaked by mascara and tears. Max felt his heart going out for her even though his gut told him it was some sort of a trick.

  “No, I asked him, but he wouldn’t let me see anything. He told me that he was working on something, but he never told me anything else about it. I was hoping I could help him overcome some of that shyness, and I do think I was getting through to him. But he never let me read anything. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, we have a few unsolved murders here and it seems that the murders might be connected to a script idea that he had. So we are just examining every possible angle trying to come up with a motive.”

  “Oh, I see. Wow, that sounds terrible,” Emily said.

  Max was trying to gauge whether or not the girl was lying to them. After several moments of studying her face and gestures he was completely baffled. He couldn’t tell a damn thing about it. He was definitely not cut out to be a cop. But it was fun to pretend for a day anyway.

  Just then Max saw the small television in Gellar’s office flash something on the screen. It was a missing child abduction a few counties over and they were issuing a statewide emergency Amber alert. Max expected the television to start the loud grinding noise that usually accompanied such an alert, but it did nothing. The volume must have been turned down completely. It was just a reflex action he had when these alerts came on television. It was the most annoying sound in the world and it was always about five times louder than the show he was watching.

  As he turned back to the computer screen to see Emily dabbing her eyes with a tissue, yet again he saw something else disturbing. In the background of Emily’s room was a television. He had hardly noticed it before, but now he took a great deal of focus on it.

  The television was broadcasting the same amber alert.

  Emily was not in Nashville. She was not at Vanderbilt right now.

  She was in West Virginia.

  Chapter 10

  “Homecoming”

  Max waved at Emily as Gellar signed off on the skype call. Max waited until the screen went blank and Gellar exited out of the app before exploding with enthusiasm about what he just discovered.

  “Did you see that?” Max asked.

  “She’s here,” Gellar replied.

  Max felt his heart sink a little bit. A part of him was hoping that only he saw it so that he could be the one who discovered this piece of evidence and maybe impress Gellar just a wee little bit. But no dice. She was too damn good. He never noticed her noticing anything. She kept her head flawless the entire time. Max never even saw her glance at the television. He was the one who was super impressed now.

  “So, she’s the one? She is the one who is doing all of this?” Max asked.

  “I’d say it’s a fair assessment, but we don’t have actual proof yet. There is nothing concrete that ties her to these crimes.”

  “Come on, we know she’s guilty,” Max said. He felt like he was about to crawl out of his skin. He wanted to run out the door and go apprehend this scumbag.

  “Easy,” Gellar said. “We have nothing that absolutely ties her to any of this, but we do have a lead to investigate. It’s a nice thread and I’m sure if we pull it long enough it will unravel beautifully. Then we will have her.”

  “Great. So what do we do first?”

  “We don’t do anything; this is my job. You stay home and start working on your next masterpiece of terror,” Gellar joked.

  “Very funny,” Max said. “But I want to help. Don’t brush me off. You know what this person has done to me, what they’ve taken from me. Three of my friends are dead. I just got out of the hospital, a mosquito’s prick away from death myself. I want some damn justice,” Max said. He could feel himself getting hotter by the minute. He was no longer attracted to the cute girl that was Emily Holden; he now wanted to cut her head off and use it as a soccer ball.

  “I know what happened to you and your friends. If she is guilty, she will not get away with this. You have my word. But if you want to tag along then you will be putting yourself in harm’s way. I can’t do my job effectively if I’m protecting you the whole time,” Gellar said.

  “Are you trying to castrate me? I’m sure you can find a knife or something that will be faster. I don’t need protection. I can take care of myself. I’m not sitting this one out. Either take me with you or I’ll go on my own,” Max said. He started to head for the door.

  “Wait,” Gellar said. “Fine. You can have it your way, but if I tell you to stay in the car then you do as you’re told.”

  ***

  Four hours later Max was bored out of his mind as they sat in front of the Pine View Motel out on Emerson Avenue. It was the oldest and most run down motel in town. A lot of illegal things such as drug deals and prostitution went on there. It was a disgusting shit hole. Somehow he couldn’t see a sweet looking college girl like Emily hanging out there, but then again if she was a psycho killer then maybe she just didn’t care where she slept. She had business to attend to.

  Gellar and Max spent the entire afternoon going f
rom hotel to hotel trying to get a bead on Emily. So far they had failed to locate which one she was staying at. After checking with every hotel and motel by phone to see if someone named Emily Holden had checked in there they finally decided that they had to hit the pavement. That was the only way this was going to work. It was unlikely that Emily was using her real name to check in somewhere anyway. She was trying to keep a low profile and that would have been a dead giveaway leading right back to her.

  So they went hotel to hotel, asking the desk clerk if someone matching the picture that Gellar had from Emily’s social media accounts. Finally after several hours of searching they found a match. Max wanted to pound on the door to Emily’s room and just arrest her on the spot, but he knew that was not the way things were done and Gellar was right; they didn’t have any real proof that Emily had done anything. They just had to wait and watch for her to do something.

  So that’s what they were doing. Max had never seen time move more slowly. He was fighting the urge to sleep. The only thing that was keeping him awake was Gellar and her conversation. The more he talked to her, the stronger his feelings of attraction became for her. She was actually starting to open up to him a bit and he really appreciated that. He could tell that it was not easy for her to do that and he wanted to be as supportive and as non-judgmental as he could. It sounded like she’d lived a bit of a hard life, which was probably what made her such a great cop and such a great reader of people. It was a skill that Max sorely lacked.

  But she seemed to find him charming and funny, laughing at all of his jokes no matter how lame they were. He had to keep fighting the urge to just lean over and kiss her and take her in the back seat. He realized he had seen far too many late night movies on Cinemax, but it was possible, right?