As it would turn out though, tonight was something different. Special, even. Once you’ve been living in the cesspit for a while – the countless break-ins and robberies and gang violence wears down one’s excitement. Once you’ve stepped over body after body – once you’ve locked eyes with killer after killer – the behavior almost seems normal. You get to a place where you forget what true evil really looks like. Because it’s there every time you turn around.
BUT THEN –
“Detective Shields, I’m after Detective Shields!”
Sal opened his eyes. There was some commotion going on down the hall at reception.
He glanced round to his right, waiting for the others.
There was still time.
“Where is Detective Shields, I’m telling you I need to speak to her!”
Sal got up from the bench and rubbing his hands together, quietly proceeded down the hallway.
There was a boy standing in front of the main desk. He couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen years old. He was wearing a bicycle helmet and waving something about in his hand.
“Detective Shields is presently unavailable,” the stationed officer was explaining. “If you give me your details, I can –”
“Hey,” Sal spoke up. “What’s this about Detective Shields?”
The boy turned to him. “Do you know her?”
“You betcha.”
The boy hesitated. “Like, how well?”
Sal shrugged. “Well enough. Is there something I can help you with?”
The boy stepped away from the desk. He presented Sal the object he was carrying. “I need you to give this to her.”
“Alright.” He turned it over. Blank. “What’s it for?”
“She needs to see it as soon as possible. Call her up. Get her to come in and look at it. It’s of the utmost importance.”
Sal blinked. “Alright then. I’ll see that she gets it.”
The boy nodded. Then turned to leave.
“Aren’t you going to tell me your name?” he called after him.
“I’m finished,” the boy replied glancing back. “It’s in her hands now.”
Then he ran out the doors.
Sal watched him go, a sense of unease befalling him. The right kind of unease.
“You ready to go, Sal?”
Sal turned around.
It was one of the guys from Homicide. A young one.
“Uh…” Sal trailed off.
“What’s the hold up?”
Sal clutched the tape.
“There’s something I need to look into,” Sal muttered, walking past him.
“Sal?” the detective called after him. “Where are you going, Sal?”
“To find a VCR.”
CHAPTER 7
The Precinct, and its inhabitants, were like something out of a dream. There was so much going on. People moving this way and that. Mice clicking. Emotions freezing. Behind doors, the innocent and guilty cried as one. There was nothing human-like about the employees. Every gesture, every word uttered, was propelled by systematic instruction. They were robots. Nothing more.
And Detective Nadine Shields was one of them.
The door to Detective Leoncelli’s office was wide open, with the light off. Nadine peered in, casting her gaze across the shadowy clutter. Although she could see he wasn’t in there, it was not beyond the realm of comprehension that he might be hiding underneath the desk.
“Detective Shields.”
Nadine took a step back into the corridor.
The Precinct Captain, Rose McGuiness, was halfway down the other end.
“He’s not in there.”
Nadine walked over while the Captain waited. “Do you know where he is?”
“Downstairs. Come on, he wants to see both of us.”
Nadine followed the Captain’s lead. She stayed just a few steps behind her as they moved through the passageway.
“Are you feeling better then?”
“Uh…” Nadine mumbled. “I guess.”
“You don’t sound certain.”
“It’s uh – it’s just my anxiety. Comes and goes, you know.”
“Oh.” They reached the elevator. McGuiness pressed the button. “I thought it was something serious.”
“No, of course it wasn’t,” Nadine said sarcastically. “I just like taking days off for the hell of it.”
McGuiness turned as the elevator doors opened.
Nadine went inside the elevator first.
McGuiness’s hand went straight for Basement 4.
Nadine felt the woman’s gaze as they went down.
“I apologize if you feel I made light of your condition,” McGuiness said. “But in future I’d prefer it if we kept the sarcasm to a minimum.”
“Of course.”
Rose McGuiness was new. She’s only been at the Precinct for about a month.
Nadine didn’t like her any less than the last captain. McGuiness was inexperienced and still finding her way, but she was trying to be as professional and by the book as would be expected. So Nadine didn’t hate her guts.
“So do you know what this is about?” Nadine asked.
“What did Sal tell you?”
“That there was something I needed to see. As in, me, personally.”
“Well, I’m not sure if I can add to that.”
The doors opened.
Nadine followed McGuiness out across the car park area.
They walked past a series of garbage skips till they were standing outside a door marked ‘STORAGE’. McGuiness swiped her keycard and they entered.
“Sal?” McGuiness called out. “I brought Detective Shields with me.”
“Yeah, over here,” Sal called from the back.
They moved past row after row of shelving till they reached a seating area. Sal was standing next to an old TV on wheels positioned over the chairs facing.
“Rose, Nadine, thanks for meeting me here,” Sal said. “Please, sit down and uh –”
“What have you got?” McGuiness asked.
Nadine found a chair that was suitable for her.
“Well, it’s serious,” Sal said. “I’m not sure how serious just at the moment, but… Well. It’s best you just sit down and see it for yourself.”
He held the VHS tape out.
A flutter stirred within Nadine’s belly.
She touched her glasses just to make sure they were on.
Pressing hard against her sockets.
Hard enough that they would leave an impression.
Hard enough that no one would see.
“Everything alright?” McGuiness said glancing back at her. “You seem a little anxious.”
In another part of the room, Sal switched the light off.
“Ask me in five minutes,” Nadine said.
CHAPTER 8
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Nadine’s gaze drifted from the blank screen, around the room. Was the clock in here, or was the sound coming from the TV? White lines faded in and out around the edges of the video. They were about fifteen seconds in. And the clock would not shut up.
White.
A white room lit up the frame.
There were white walls, a white floor, a white ceiling. The picture was blurry. Shadows in the centre of the screen distorted. Nadine watched the shapes move. Until it settled.
There was a figure sitting in a chair, facing away from the camera. The chair was a good twenty – twenty-five metres away in the background, so it was hard to see much of him.
He was wearing a blue hood.
“Hello Nadine.”
A voice.
A computer generated, rasping, mechanical voice.
“It’s been a long time since we last had a chat.”
Nadine got up from her seat. She knew the other two were looking at her. She couldn’t quite discard them.
“Of course, we never really talked much, did we?”
“What is this?” McGuiness blurte
d out.
“Quiet,” Sal said. “Just –”
“Where are you right now, I wonder? How are things in your life? Are you doing okay? Have you learned to cope? Have you moved past this? Have you grown as a human being? Your journey is one I have some interest in.”
TICK. TOCK.
TICK –
“The truth is we’ve never properly met, have we? Or perhaps we have but neither or one of us didn’t recognize the person they were meeting. It’s a strange world we have before us. I learnt that from you. I think.”
Nadine could feel her fingers curling.
Something dancing on the back of her neck.
“Anyway. Enough with the formalities. It’s important you take note of what the time is. If this has reached you as I anticipated it would, then it should be around eight pm. Perhaps a little earlier. Perhaps a little later. In any case, you’ll have until midnight to solve the puzzle.”
An email address in plain text flashed in the top right-hand corner.
The figure’s arm shot up pointing at it.
“Write that down.”
“It’s okay,” Sal said before anyone complied. “I’ve got it.”
The figure’s arm lowered slowly as the text disappeared.
“By now I would think you should have a pretty good idea who I am. But my question to you, Nadine, is: What is my name? Do you know what it is? If you think you do, please send me your answer to the email address. I repeat you have until midnight. And if you guess incorrectly, or don’t have the right answer in time … Something bad is going to happen.”
Static.
The tape was over.
Nadine looked down at her hands.
She couldn’t get them to open.
“Is that it?” McGuiness asked.
“Yeah,” Sal said. He went to the VCR and ejected the tape. Shut off the screen.
There were a few moments of darkness as he went across for the light.
“Well,” McGuiness’s figure stood from her chair. “Who is it, Nadine?”
They were words Nadine could barely hear. The shadows drowned around her. Images flickered in her mind. The robot’s words wouldn’t leave her.
“At least have a ‘guess’.”
Nadine punched her in the face.
CHAPTER 9
A fifteen-year-old girl had gone missing on this road three weeks ago. Perhaps, maybe not this road exactly. This was just where she was last seen. Near the school.
It was about this time of night. Or a touch later. Nobody knew what had happened to her. The word ‘abduction’ had been sprinkled about a few times. But then there was also ‘boyfriend’ and ‘runaway’. In truth, the world was so large and filled with so many people, that any outcome could have been possible.
It wasn’t going to stop Elsie Bird from getting to where she was going.
Hell no.
Elsie used the school as a shortcut after hours when getting place to place on foot. Sometimes by bike. She didn’t have a car yet, didn’t really want one, and was pretty enthusiastic about getting exercise in the great outdoors as much as possible. Her interests included – but were not limited to – hiking, camping, running, sports, dancing and sometimes consuming large amounts of ice-cream when everyone else in her house was asleep.
She thought of herself as a philosopher. Someone wise beyond her years. She dreamed of great things for herself. She wanted to have an impact on the world.
Tonight though, there’d be someone with other ideas for Elsie.
Someone who didn’t know Elsie’s story, or the things that had happened to her growing up.
Someone who didn’t even know Elsie’s name.
She was nothing more than naked arms and legs in the pitch-black schoolyard.
Vmm, vmm.
Elsie’s phone was vibrating. She stopped by the school gate, taking it out, putting it to her ear.
It was her brother.
“Hello? Rupert?”
“Oh good. You finally answered.”
“It’s on vibrate,” Elsie said putting one leg over the gate. “I mean, silent. Everything okay?”
“Well, you’re not home, are you?”
“Settle down. I’m on my way.”
“It’s like every day now you’re staying out. When is this going to end?”
“It doesn’t ‘end’,” Elsie scolded landing on the other side of the gate. “I’m sixteen now. I go where I want, when I want.”
“I think we need some boundaries.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
“I’m just worried about you is all. It’s not safe out at night.”
“Bro, seriously. I’m safe.”
“Come home soon, please. Mom’s starting to worry.”
“Yeah, just for you.”
Elsie hung up and tucked the phone away. She couldn’t believe how much of a dick her brother was being at the moment. Elsie didn’t have time for it. She was too busy inhaling the night air.
Looking side to side, she crossed the road and started down the footpath. She carried on for ten seconds or so, before the faint outline of headlights emerged on the road from behind her.
Elsie glanced at them with a pang of unease. They weren’t moving that quickly.
She decided not to look back and continued walking faster.
Eventually the car’s engine revved and then it carried on past her. False alarm.
Elsie stopped. Fumbled about with her phone. Glanced behind her.
Darkness all around.
It was time for a video post.
“Hey guys,” Elsie beamed into her phone. “I’m just out here for a run tonight and I started having one of my epiphanies. Wanted to get it off my chest before I forget.” She cleared her throat. “Excuse me.”
Elsie smiled.
Her feet edged forward a little.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about time, and the possibility of false memories. What’s a false memory? So say for instance you wake up this morning, and I asked what you did yesterday or the week before. You’re going to have some recall. You’ll have plenty of memories that go back beyond that as well.”
She pinched her lips.
Stared earnestly into the lens.
“But have you ever asked yourself, how you know those memories were real? You can go back to those days, those moments, those people, places and things. I’ll ask you to recall what happened, and I’ll get the basics, but when we delve further, you will surprise yourself with what you can’t remember.”
Deep inhale.
A flutter across the grass.
“Dreams feel real when we’re in them. Sometimes even after we wake up. But how do we distinguish between the memory of a dream, and a memory of real life. Hasn’t there even been a time and place where you’ve gotten the two mixed up –”
Smashed.
Jolted.
Pummeled.
The phone spilled from Elsie’s fingertips as she absorbed blows to her stomach, her chest, the back of her head.
There were so many she couldn’t even count.
Her vision distorted, she hammered her feet out into the road, her arms flailing about wildly.
There wasn’t a moment to catch her breath. Despite all the pondering, the calculation and theorizing – Elsie had not been prepared for the sudden force of violence that had rained down on her.
Her gaze falling now, she looked down onto the road’s cold, hard surface and saw…
Nothing but blue.
CHAPTER 10
He was out there somewhere. He actually existed. Nadine could feel his hand reaching out to her. Holding her cheek, ever so gently. Removing her sunglasses with his other hand. Her eyes were closed underneath, but his fingers were prying them open. Until there was nothing else for her to see…
Except his eyes staring…
Into hers…
The lights were now on in the storeroom. Reality was crashing back in like a tall wave off the beach.
Na
dine let the tide take her.
Sal’s giant arms had pulled her off her feet, as he battled to fend off Rose McGuiness’s vicious lunges.
Somewhere. Somehow.
Nadine had forgotten where she was.
It was time to wake up.
“Stop it!” she cried. “Back off!”
“You know I can fight too, you stupid cunt –”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”
Sal forced her along the side wall so that there was a table between her and McGuiness.
“Well, that’s it then!” McGuiness barked. “Get your fucking things, it’s over for you! You’re finished!”
“Alright, alright, I will,” Nadine exclaimed. “But first hear me out. I didn’t mean to hit you. I just … I was in shock.”
McGuiness’s face scrunched up. Blood continued to trickle from her left nostril.
She turned to Sal. “Ouch…”
“It’s okay,” Sal said calmly. “Everyone take a breath. Okay?”
There was a pause.
He looked at Nadine. She was nodding.
Back to McGuiness.
McGuiness swallowed. “Fine.”
Sal lowered his arms and moved past Nadine. He went to a first aid kit mounted in the corner and pulled out some tissue. He walked back over and handed it to McGuiness.
“Thank you,” she said, turning away from them.
After a moment, he looked to Nadine. “Do you care to explain what just happened there?”
Nadine’s eyes darted around. “I lost it. I just lashed out. I was … that video…”
“Where the fuck did it come from?” McGuiness demanded. “That’s what I want to know.”
“A boy handed it in a short while ago. Said it was for Nadine. I knew there was something strange about it, but I didn’t –”
Icy Stares (Guess The Killer Book 1) Page 2