by W L Knightly
He got to the bottom, relieved to find the entire room was in much better shape than he expected. He called Lizzy down.
“Come on, baby, it’s safe.” Taking special care to help her, he covered his face with his shirt. “It’s pretty dank down here, but on the plus side, I don’t smell the decay of human flesh.”
“No,” said Lizzy. She shined her phone around until she found the light and turned it on. “What is all this?”
Boxes lined the most part of the room, but there was some kind of examination table and a contraption that reminded him of some of the shit he’d seen back at the sex shop ages ago.
“Sex toys and torture devices?” Darek narrowed his eyes. “He must have been into some pretty weird shit to have all of this.”
Lizzy looked grossed out at the thought of Max being into it. “That’s an understatement, clearly.” Lizzy let out a breath and stepped around the sex swing contraption. “I think we have to go through the boxes.”
“Oh, great,” said Darek. “As if I wasn’t traumatized enough. I used to sit upstairs, watching TV. What if he had someone tied up down here?”
The last time Darek had been here, Max had acted a fool over Darek being in his house. He had told Darek that he had a friend coming over. Maybe they were locked up down there all along.
As Darek continued to search, Lizzy backed into a box and sent it tumbling to the floor with a crash. “Shit!” she said, covering her mouth. “That scared me.”
She looked down at the stuff that had come out of the box: a bunch of leather and chains. Darek reached into the pile and held up a black leather thong with a long tail. He also found a matching mask. He had seen people wear those things at Taunt, and he had to wonder how many times he had been there when Max was there too.
“I can’t imagine him wearing this,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I don’t want to imagine it. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
“Let’s just hope he cleaned it after he last used it,” Lizzy said.
Darek grimaced and quickly dropped the thong back on the pile. “Okay, now I definitely threw up a bit.”
Lizzy turned around to another stack of boxes and found a keyring with a single key. “What’s this? It was just sitting here like it wanted to be found.”
Darek turned around. “Does the keychain say anything?”
She flipped over the little plastic square attached to the ring. “It’s from Benny’s Storage across town. I wonder what’s in it.”
“Only one way to find out,” Darek said.
Lizzy studied the key. “There’s no unit number or anything. How do we know which one is Max’s?”
“We go down there and search each one?” He didn’t have a better idea. Sometimes you just had to do the grunt work.
She gave Darek a defeated look. “That could take all day, and what if it’s just more storage for sex shit?”
“With Mia’s life on the line, we can’t take any chances.” He had little hope that she was still alive at this point. Even if she was tied up in one of those storage units, enough time had gone by to do her in, especially if she was bleeding or without water.
“Of course,” she said. “I’m just saying it’s not going to be a quick trip.”
“Then let’s get out of here. I don’t see anything else but a cold coming on.” He could feel his throat itching from the wet, moldy cellar.
“Fine.” Lizzy took another step and tripped over something that clanged against the floor with a metallic sound. “Dammit.” She jumped back. “Wait. Is that what I think it is?”
Darek walked over and shined his phone light on the long metal rod. “Holy shit. It’s a branding iron.” He looked down and saw the symbol. It was one of the unused ones, which bore Alan’s symbol.
“I don’t know what that symbol is,” she said, narrowing her eyes at the object. “Maybe it’s for another victim?”
“He must have had one for each of the Zodiac signs.”
Lizzy took a few photos with her phone, and Darek found a stack of old newspapers. He grabbed one from the middle of the stack. It was still folded, and the dust hadn’t touched it. He took it over and collected the branding iron. “We’ll need to take this in, but I’d say it’s about as close to a murder weapon as we’ll get this trip.”
Lizzy nodded. “Yeah, there’s no denying it now. Max is our killer.”
The words echoed in Darek’s brain. Even though he knew that already, it still didn’t seem real when he heard it. The man they’d been looking for all those months had been right under their noses. He had even taunted them with the same kind of sentiment in one of his texts to Bay. Darek wished he knew where to find that burner phone. It would hold the key to everything most likely, and then he’d know exactly what had happened to his friends without any doubts.
“I can’t believe this,” said Lizzy, snapping a few more images with her phone. “I think we need to get the hell out of here.”
“I agree. I’ve seen enough.” He had a horrible feeling that Lizzy would want to talk to Max about the things they’d just found. He couldn’t let that happen. “Let’s keep this to ourselves for a day or two, okay? We should let him think we’re moving slow.”
“We are,” Lizzy said. “I’ll be up all night at home, working on these reports. I still don’t know about this key.” She held it up, and Darek took it.
After a good look, he put it in his pocket. “I’ll take it and see what I can find,” he said. “A storage unit is a great place to stash a body. Or a murder weapon.”
She shrugged. “Only if we can actually find the damn unit.”
“I’ll find it,” Darek said. “Are you coming to my house tonight?”
She walked over to the ladder and started to climb. “You’ll only distract me, Darek. I have to make notes on everything we’ve seen and found, and I don’t want to miss a single thing.”
“I’ll help you remember,” he said, climbing up behind her. “My mind is like a steel trap.”
Lizzy made it to the top and dusted off while she waited on Darek. “You’re just saying that to get me into bed, and while I find that totally intriguing, I know better.”
She had turned him down a lot lately. “You know, you’re starting to worry me, Lizzy. I mean, one might think that you were done with me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would you even say a thing like that?”
“Because you don’t sleep over, and you don’t want to stay and fuck. You seem to find a million excuses lately to not be with me, and I don’t feel like it’s all Reed’s fault.” He hadn’t thought that Reed was ever the problem when it got right down to it.
“Darek, don’t make it into something it’s not.” She walked to the door.
“See? You’re always doing that. You duck the conversations about us.” He walked out onto the stoop behind her and then shut the door, securing the police tape back into place to ward off any trespassers.
“You’re way off,” she said.
By the time they got to the car, he could tell that her temper was flaring, but he didn’t care. “I don’t think I am. Are you mad at me? Is there some kind of problem with us? Did I do something wrong?”
She let out a short breath. “As of right now, yeah, I’m getting pretty annoyed. I wonder when you’ll actually start to have faith in me and in this relationship.” She slid into the passenger’s seat.
He hopped into the Rover. “Me? Have faith in you? Come on. Faith is all that’s keeping us together, it seems. If you say we’re good, I’ll believe you.”
“We’re good.” Her tone was insistent, but somehow, Darek didn’t believe her. All signs pointed to no.
Chapter 13
Bay
The alarm on Bay’s bedside table sounded a bit off, and as he went to shut it off, he realized it was because the sound was coming from his phone. He had changed the sound of Darek’s ringtone, and realizing it could be news about Mia, he sat up and quickly answered it.
“Darek? Did you find her?” He didn’t mean to sound so desperate, but he was sure Darek wouldn’t be brave enough to wake him up at two in the morning for anything else.
“No. Sorry, there’s no word yet.”
“Then why wake me up in the middle of the goddamned night? You better have a good reason.” He got to his feet and walked to the bathroom to take a piss.
“I found something earlier, and I thought you’d be interested, so I didn’t think it should wait.”
“Then why not call me earlier?” Bay asked.
“Because I had a certain FBI agent in my bed, and I was too busy with her. She just left.”
“I don’t give a fuck about your love life. Tell me what the fuck it is.” He didn’t have time to fuck around with Darek, and he couldn’t believe the asshole had waited to get his rocks off before calling. If it was something important, he was going to castrate the fucker so it never happened again.
“Lizzy and I were at Max’s. We found a bunch of shit down in his basement, mostly old household goods, but there was a box of sex toys, and we found a branding iron there. It was Alan’s Taurus one.”
Bay let that sink in. “Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, especially since the knife we found in his house came back clean.”
Bay gritted his teeth. That wasn’t the best news of the day. “Well, at least you have enough to keep him locked up.” It would probably be easier for Bay if he got turned loose. He’d put a bullet in his head before he made it to the first car.
“Yeah, believe me,” said Darek. “I’m just as frustrated about that as you.”
Darek had no idea how he felt. “Somehow, I doubt it. You know where Lizzy is. You’re not in my shoes, so don’t pretend you are.” The cop was getting on his last nerve. They should have found Mia by now.
“Right, sorry,” Darek said. “You’re absolutely right, man. I didn’t mean it that way. I did find something else; a key to a storage down at Benny’s.”
“Well, what did you find in the fucking unit?” There had to be something in there. A clue, evidence, something to make it worth calling him up in the middle of the night.
Darek cleared his throat. “Um, nothing yet. The problem is, no one is there, and we don’t have the number for the unit. Lizzy and I are going down first thing in the morning.”
Bay wanted to scream. He did the next best thing. He lashed out. “Holy hell, Darek. Do you literally have shit for brains? You should be there looking for Mia! Instead, you went back to your place for a quickie?” Bay wanted to cave in Darek’s skull with his fist.
“Without the number for Max’s unit, we’ll need a warrant to check them all,” Darek said. “That’s the proper procedure, and Lizzy will be involved with the search.”
Bay raised his voice. “So, get a fucking warrant, moron! You call and wake up the fucking judge. Not me!”
“You’re not listening to me, Bay,” Darek said. “Going through the proper channels means every cop in the department will be at the scene when we open up Max’s storage unit. Which could have anything in it. Like evidence linking us directly to all of this.”
Bay growled in frustration. “If you have a point, fucking get to it already.”
“Jesus, Bay. My point is that we can’t let that happen. We need to check this shit out first before the department does. Do you want to go with me or not? That’s why I called.”
“Oh, well thanks a fucking lot for telling me that in the first place,” Bay said.
“You’re fucking welcome,” Darek said. “I’m down the street from your house. Meet me outside.”
“Fine.” Bay hung up and quickly got dressed in dark clothing. Even though he was angry with Darek, Bay’s thoughts were focused on what Max might be hiding in his storage unit. Had he stored enough evidence to pin the Zodiacs to the wall if something happened to him? Or did the unit hold Mia’s remains?
He reset the house alarm when Darek drove up. Then he went out and got into the car. “How fast does this thing go?” he asked.
“It’s not as fast as your fancy car, but it’s fast enough. I don’t want to draw any attention to us if we don’t have to.”
Darek’s shitty car certainly wasn’t going to draw any attention. “What if Mia’s in that unit? You can’t get there fast enough.” It wasn’t that he had any hope, but Darek’s blasé attitude was about to make him lose his mind.
Darek put the pedal down and didn’t let off until they exited the freeway on the other side of town. “When we get there, we’ll have to talk to the night guard. Explain to him what we’re doing and why we didn’t want to wait until morning to do things through proper channels.”
“I have enough money in my wallet to get us in,” said Bay. Money had always gotten him anything he wanted.
Darek rolled his eyes. “My badge works a lot of magic on its own.”
Bay gave him a blank look. “Well, it must be nice to get by so cheap in life. At least that piece of metal is good for something.” Bay was in a shitty mood, and he had a feeling it was only going to get worse.
When they got to the gate, Darek shut off the car. “I hope you feel like walking. We’ll be lucky to get in, but I don’t think the car is getting past that gate without a warrant.”
“Where is this night guard?” He looked off into the distance. The units stretched on for what seemed like a mile or more.
“I’d guess he’s over there.” Darek pointed to the tiny guard shack, but when they walked over, the place was empty. “Well, looks like I’m wrong.”
“Fuck it. We’ll have to deal with him when we find him.” Bay walked over to the gate and took out a lockpick kit. “I got this from a good friend of mine. I guess I can consider it my inheritance from old Lou.”
“Sorry about Lou. I know you guys went way back.” Darek sounded sincere, but Bay knew that Lou being on the wrong side of the law made him nothing but a casualty to Darek; one more thug off the street. To Bay, the meatball-loving old man was family.
“Yeah, if Lou were still around, we’d have already found Mia, and Max would have a slug in his skull. I’d be a happy man.” Bay jimmied the lock and then slid the gate open enough to get them inside.
“Where do you want to start?” Darek asked.
“Let’s split up. You take that row, and I’ll take this one. We’ll make our way around.”
“Text me if you run into the guard. I’ll bring my badge.” Darek gave a smug grin.
Bay patted his pocket. “Don’t worry, officer. I’ve gotten by without a badge for years.” He didn’t think Darek needed to know about the gun in his pants. That was something he usually had on him that he kept to himself. He was used to being discreet, and Darek would only know about it if he needed to use it.
Bay walked away and went down his row. He carefully listened at each one, knocking softly and calling Mia’s name. When he rounded the corner at the end of the row, he saw Darek had run into a bit of trouble.
Bay pulled his gun and walked out into the opening. “Don’t move,” he said.
Darek breathed a sigh of relief. “I tried to tell him I’m a cop.”
The guard held his gun on Darek, and Bay kept his trained on the old man, who looked like he was about to shit his pants. “I don’t want no trouble,” he said. “You two ain’t got no business here.”
“I guess you didn’t get a chance to reach for that badge of yours.” It was Bay’s turn to give Darek a smug look.
“He’s really a cop?” The security guard did not lower his weapon as he asked. He wasn’t going to give either one of them the easy shot at him.
“Yes, you old bastard,” Bay said. “He’s a shitty cop, but a cop nonetheless.”
The old guard still looked skeptical. “And who the hell are you?” he asked Bay.
Bay shrugged. “I’m the grim fucking reaper, old man. If you don’t put that gun away.”
Darek was growing increasingly irritated. “I’m a detective. If you
lower that weapon, I’ll show you my badge.” Darek kept his eyes focused on the muzzle of the man’s gun.
The old man’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll lower it, but don’t you make any sudden moves, or I’ll bust a cap in your ass.” Bay knew he meant it, even though he was shaking like a leaf.
Darek still had a chip on his shoulder. “This wouldn’t be a problem if you had been in your shed.”
“I had to take a shit,” said the old man. “And you know you ain’t supposed to be lurking around here in the night. Coming through my locked gate.”
Darek put his hand down and reached into his pocket to show his badge. “We have a key. We’re looking for a missing person, and we wanted to check the unit, but we don’t have a number.”
The old man looked at the badge and then looked at Bay. “Tell your friend to put down his gun.”
Tired of wasting time, Bay put his gun away, and the old man did the same.
“Look, is there any way to find out which lock that key goes to?” Bay asked.
“No, not unless you want to go into the office and look through the computer. But you’d need a warrant and the password for that.”
“Shit,” said Bay, raking his fingers through his hair.
The old man spat on the ground and then gave him a sideward look like he might know something. “I can tell you how to find the name, but you’ll have to check each unit. It could take you all night.”
“Someone’s life is on the line,” said Bay. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
The old man walked them over to the nearest unit. “Look here. This label is on every unit. There is the number of the transaction, and this is the name of the person who registered it.”
Bay reached into his pocket and took out his wallet, pulling out two crisp hundreds. “Here, take this for your troubles, and we’ll just take a look.”
The old man took the bills. “Take all the time you need.” He put the money in his pocket. “I’ll be in my shed if you need me.” He strolled away in a much better mood than when Bay found him.