The Killer Copy

by Gail Caban

  Eddie walked to the tool section of the garage and pulled the light switch away from the wall. Behind the false light switch was a keypad. Eddie typed in a code, and the tool cabinet moved away from the wall, revealing a large furnace with several weapons, piles of cash, multiple passports, and plastic explosives on the side. “Woah . . . Bruce Wayne would be proud of something like that,” Ness commented.

  Eddie turned toward her but didn’t smile. He grabbed the folder from Ness’ hands and tossed it in the furnace. He turned on the gas and activated the pilot light. The folder was engulfed in flames in a matter of moments. “Whatever you take from the scene tonight, including your clothes and anything else you touch there, will need to be taken and destroyed in here when we return. Serial killers are always tempted to hold onto a keepsake from their victims, but you will not—that is the second rule that you will follow.”

  “Understood. Where did you get all of that stuff?” Ness pointed inside the hidden room.

  “That’s a story for another day,” Eddie answered. “What would you like to take tonight? I’m familiar with all of these weapons, but you’re going to have to take something that you’re comfortable with.

  Ness removed a Beretta M9 and a black carbon steel suppressor, a hunting knife, and a scalpel. “These.”

  “You certainly are full of surprises,” Eddie commented while looking slightly impressed.

  Ness placed the items in the duffel bag. Eddie added black latex gloves, a roll of duct tape, an alarm scrambler, a set of lockpicks, rope, plastic Ziploc bags, cable ties, masks, and safety goggles, and then zipped the bag closed.

  Ness frowned. Eddie noticed her questioning look and stated, “You’ll see.” He picked up the duffel bag, walked to the Contour, and opened the door with Ness getting into the passenger seat. Eddie pulled the visor down and the keys fell into his lap, and then he started the ignition. They drove in silence as they moved toward West 33rd Street and Ness watched the setting sun glint off the buildings in the city. She expected to be more nervous, but there was a strange sense of calm that had washed over her.

  “Are there any more rules?” Ness piped up as the sun dipped beyond the horizon and darkness enveloped the sky. “Yes. There are two more,” Eddie changed lanes and picked up speed. “The third rule is one that you’ve unfortunately already broken, and that’s that you must never kill someone that you know or can be linked to. If someone that you know is killed, everyone in their immediate circle becomes a suspect, and if the police start digging into your life, they might uncover something that you haven’t hidden well enough. If you have a possible motive for killing someone, then your secrets won’t remain secrets for long.”

  Ness looked at her feet and intentionally diverted her gaze away from Eddie in shame.

  “What’s the final rule?”

  “We’ll get to that. Here we are,” Eddie pointed toward the apartment block and parked across the street. Ness started undoing her seatbelt and unlocking her door. “Not so fast, grasshopper. Don’t be too hasty.”

  “Is that the fourth rule?” Ness asked. “Nope, that’s just a piece of friendly advice.” Eddie turned in his chair.

  “Listen, Ness, this is a dangerous game that you’re choosing to play, especially since you’re planning on taking on people that ‘deserve to die.’ Travis Jones and his friends are wealthy and that does bring about several more problems. Once Travis is killed, Jarrod and Nathan are going to be on guard, which is going to make your job much more difficult. Those are things that you’re going to need to consider. Now, if you look at this building, it will seem like it’s easy enough to get into but remaining invisible is another matter entirely. There are cameras in the underground parking area, through the foyer and in the elevators. There are a couple on the floors, but fortunately, Jones’ apartment is in a blind spot. The only way into the building that is devoid of cameras is in the fire escape, but there’s an alarm that’s attached to the door—once it’s opened, the alarm will sound, but I’ll show you how to work around that,” He leaned and grabbed two black caps from the backseat. “Put this on and ensure that your hair is completely hidden beneath. Your blond hair is something that people will remember.”

  “Should I wear a wig in future?” Ness asked.

  “It will be prudent to invest in a few; you’ll always be able to use them,” Eddie looked toward the sky. “The darkness has come—it’s time for us to go to work. With that in mind, now is probably a good time for the fourth rule.” Eddie’s eyes darkened: “If you fuck this up, or try and screw me over in any way, I will stop at nothing to destroy you, grasshopper. But, before you’re destroyed, I will tear everything that you love out of your life. All of your dear family members will meet tragic ends, and when there’s nothing left of you, then I will kill you. Is that understood?”

  Ness gulped and then nodded fearfully. She had finally seen the true monster that lurks beneath Eddie’s normal demeanor—she had seen behind the eyes of true evil.

  “Let’s go,” Eddie said and grabbed the duffel bag as he exited the vehicle. Ness followed his lead, and they went across the street and toward the back of the building. They approached the fire exit door, and Eddie dropped the duffel bag and donned a pair of gloves. He removed the alarm scrambler and a knife from his pocket. He pried the keypad off the wall and exposed the wires beneath. Once he stripped them, he connected the scrambler to the exposed copper on the interior of the wires, and Eddie turned it on. The scrambler beeped and lit up as it worked, and the door popped open.

  “Many modern fire exit doors are electronically activated, and if there’s a small surge, the door automatically opens to allow people to escape more freely in cases of emergencies. Definitely makes our jobs easier,” Eddie said as he removed the scrambler and pushed the keypad back into the wall. He opened the door, and they walked up the stairs. “What floor is Jones on?”

  “The fifth,” Ness responded without hesitating.

  “Good,” Eddie continued climbing the stairs with Ness closely behind him. They reached the fifth floor, and he peered through the glass window of the door. “The floor seems empty. The only camera on this floor is facing the other way because it monitors the people coming via the elevator. The fire escape isn’t monitored as well,” Eddie said as he went for the handle on the door.

  “Wait. Isn’t there an alarm attached to this door too?” Ness asked quickly.

  “No. According to the schematics of the building, there’s only an alarm on the exterior fire exit door,” Eddie said and pulled the handle. The door opened and the silence remained.

  “Well, that could have gone badly if I was wrong,” he smiled. Ness just shook her head:

  “Jones’ apartment is right down the corridor—apartment 504.” Eddie led the way and walked toward the apartment’s door.

  “Alright, Ness. knock on the door and make sure you tell him a story that he’ll believe.”

  Eddie moved to the side of the door and allowed Ness enough room to try and persuade Travis to open the door willingly.

  Ness knocked on the door.No response. Ness knocked again. “Travis, are you home?” Ness called out.

  “Who is it?” A distant voice responded.

  “My name is Sarah. Nathan asked me to pop by and cheer you up.” Ness said in a sweet and alluring voice.

  “He didn’t say anything to me about it,” the voice sounded closer.

  “What? And ruin the surprise?”

  She could hear the door being unlocked, and Travis opened the door. “Well, hello there. Nathan certainly outdid himself this time,” Travis said, smiling broadly and opening the door wider.

  “You have no idea,” Eddie’s voice sounded from around the corner. Travis tried to respond, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge Eddie’s powerful punch.

  Everything went black as Travis’ limp body hit the ground.

  Eddie looked up and down the corridor, and no one witnessed what had just happened.

  “Drag him in
side,” Eddie said to Ness, and he shut the door behind them. They bound him to the table using duct tape and the rope that Eddie had packed into the duffel bag.

  Once he was securely fastened to the table, Eddie handed Ness a mask and safety goggles: “Depending on what you want to do, this might get messy.”

  “You’re leaving this entirely up to me?” Ness asked, surprised. “He’s your victim. You choose how he dies,” Eddie responded nonchalantly.

  “Well, the gun and the silencer aren’t really needed now, but I would like to make him pay for raping that girl and possibly other girls,” Ness walked up to the duffel bag and removed the scalpel and hunting knife. “Let’s remove those pants, shall we.”

  Eddie’s eyes widened when he realized what Ness was intending on doing but didn’t stand in her way. Ness cut Jones’ pants around the groin area and cut through his underwear. With his legs being bound by the duct tape, it would be practically impossible to remove the pants without releasing him, so Ness found another way to expose his genitals.

  “It’s a lot smaller than I was expecting,” Ness said devoid of emotion. “But now we need to wait for him to wake up. There’s no point in this next step if he’s still unconscious. I want him to experience every detail of what’s about to happen to him.”

  Eddie nodded and walked to the faucet where he filled a glass of water and walked back to Jones. He proceeded to throw the water into his face.

  “What the fuck!” Travis Jones spluttered against the water, but Eddie caught his mouth with a firm grip.

  “Let’s get one thing straight, Travis. You are going to die tonight, so you might as well not fight it,” Eddie’s laugh was sinister. Travis’ eyes widened in terror as Eddie shoved a kitchen rag into his mouth and covered it with duct tape. “Don’t want you to disturb the neighbors,” Eddie said, slapping him on the cheek.

  “It’s up to you, grasshopper,” Eddie backed away from the table.

  “I see he has high-quality kitchen knives. Would you place one of the blades on an open flame on the stove? We’ll need to cauterize the injuries, so he doesn’t bleed out,” Ness said.

  “Holy shit . . . and here you thought I was the sicko,” Eddie smiled and did as he was instructed. He turned the flame on high and placed the large chef’s knife onto the flame. The handle was treated oak, so Eddie was careful not to get it too close to the flame. He left it on the flame until the tip of the knife started glowing: “The blade is ready when you need it.”

  Ness nodded and walked to the television; she turned it on with the remote and turned the volume up. It wasn’t enough to disturb the neighbors, but it was loud enough to drown out Travis’ muffled cries. That done, she walked back to the table and leaned over him: “So, Travis, which is more valuable to you? Your testicles or your penis?”

  “Mmmmm!” He fought against his restraints and tried to scream.

  “We’ll start with the testicles then,” Ness said, picking up the scalpel. “I’m not going to lie—this is going to hurt.” The scalpel cut into the scrotum like it was made of tissue paper. Travis screamed in pain against the gag in his mouth. The blood started pouring onto the table, but Ness didn’t stop. She calmly cut through the bloody tissue until the scrotum along with his testicles were lying in her gloved hand. “Bring the knife, please,” she said calmly.

  Eddie picked the knife up with a kitchen towel and handed it to Ness—he watched her carefully. This was, most certainly, not the type of reaction he was expecting. There’s a lot more to you than meets the eye, Ness.

  Ness pushed the red-hot blade against the bleeding wound. There was a sizzling sound, and they all were assaulted with a pungent burning smell as the wound stopped bleeding. Travis’ pubic hairs and hairs on his inner thighs curled and smoked as Ness held the blade against him. He moaned against the pain, but they were becoming softer. Ness could see that he was starting to fade out of consciousness. She slapped him as hard as she could across his cheek and grabbed his hair. She moved her face within inches of his. “No, no, no . . . you’re not going to get out of it that easily. Besides, we’re just getting started,” Ness smiled at him and handed the knife back to Eddie. “It needs reheating.”

  Eddie narrowed his eyes at her. Was there something within Ness that he’d initially missed? What type of monster was he creating? Was he even responsible for creating this? He took the knife from her and walked back to the stove, placing it on the flame. Within seconds, it was glowing again. “It’s ready!” he called out.

  Ness turned to Travis, “Now for the next part.” Ness grabbed his penis and gripped it as hard as she could. His eyes widened from the pain. Ness placed the scalpel against the base of the penis and started cutting. She was initially surprised because the penis was bleeding much more than the testicles did, so she sliced as quickly as she could to avoid the blood from pouring out over the table and onto her shoes. “Bring the knife, please,” she called out. Eddie brought the knife and Ness repeated the process on the bleeding wound. Ness could see that Travis’ eyes were losing focus from the blood loss, so she moved around to his head and held the scalpel to his throat.

  “Ness, wait,” Eddie said, stopping her. “The carotid arteries are under pressure, and when you slit someone’s throat, there is a significant arterial spray. You’ll most likely get blood all over you from that position.” He picked up the kitchen knife and pointed to an area on Travis’ chest. “Use this knife, and stab down as hard as you can. Once you’re through the ribs, you’ll hit the heart. Don’t pull the knife out because it will contain some of the mess.” Ness nodded and took the knife from Eddie.

  She moved around the left side of Travis and lifted the knife above her head. Travis used his last strength to turn his head and look at her. Their eyes met, and Ness held his gaze for several seconds before bringing the blade down with force. It pierced the tissue in his chest and penetrated his heart muscle. Travis’ eyes widened with the initial shock but then slowly faded until there was no life left in them any longer.

  “Good job,” Eddie said quietly. Ness’ hands started shaking now.

  “Breathe through the emotions. You’re going to experience many different ones, but you can deal with them later. Right now, we need to clean. Don’t worry about the body itself, but anything else that we’ve touched and places that we’ve walked need to be vacuumed and wiped down,” Eddie said walking to the utility closet. He opened it and removed the vacuum cleaner.

  “How did you know he had a vacuum cleaner?” Ness asked.

  “It’s something I always make sure of. Even though we’re wearing protection, we might still leave trace amounts of DNA on our crime scenes. Vacuuming helps lessen the chances of the police finding anything that they can use. You can never be too careful.”

  Eddie and Ness spent the next hour cleaning possible areas that they may have contaminated, and then they packed everything back where they originally found them. Ness picked up Travis’ phone from the sofa and walked to his body. She placed his thumb against the phone—it unlocked instantly. She went into the settings of the phone and changed the unlocking process to a pin that she would remember instead of his thumb print—that way she could access the phone whenever she needed to, and she needed it for the next part of her plan.

  “What are you planning on doing with that?” Eddie asked, looking concerned.

  “I’m going to need it to keep tabs on Nathan and Jarrod. I don’t know if they have access to this apartment, and if I can kill them before news of this gets out, then we can still be able to stay a step ahead of them.”

  “Fair enough. It is risky, but it does have merit. No one is going to stumble across this body tonight,” Eddie seemed impressed with Ness’ ingenuity. “Check the hallway,” Eddie said pointing to the door.

  Ness walked to the door and listened for a few moments before opening it. She popped her head out into the corridor: “It’s clear.”

  “Let’s go,” Eddie said, picking the duffel bag up and headi
ng for the door. They turned the lights off and locked the door behind them. They disappeared out the fire escape and into the night.

  15

  The Ford Contour pulled into the garage at 397 Riverview Road, and Eddie closed the garage doors. They got out of the car and started stripping their clothes down to their underwear. Ness thought it would be strange stripping in front of Eddie, but sex wasn’t his obsession; his gaze didn’t even wander over her body when she came around the car. He took the clothes from her, and he walked to the furnace, which he turned on high before throwing the clothes in. The clothes were engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds—even the rubber from the boots melted and ignited under the intense heat.

  “Go and shower in the bathroom upstairs. Scrub well,” he said, tossing a pair of disposable booties to her. “Put those on before walking through the house. I’m going to vacuum the car before I come inside,” Eddie said, grabbing the vacuum cleaner from a closet in the garage and going to work on the car.

  Ness walked through the kitchen and up the stairs after she grabbed her clothes from the living room and climbed into the shower. There was a new sponge waiting for her inside with an iodine scrub. Ness spent the next 20 minutes scrubbing as well as she could until her skin started feeling raw. She grabbed the towel that was set out for her and dried herself before getting dressed. She left her hair wet because it was a warm night, and she just tied it into a messy bun. She walked out the bathroom and could hear the shower running from Eddie’s en suite bathroom in his bedroom, so she went downstairs. She saw that Eddie had left Travis’ phone for her on the dining room table and grabbed it, sitting down in the leather recliner by their ongoing chess game. She went through the messages and saw that there weren’t any from Nathan or Jarrod, so she was off the hook for the time being. Ness leaned forward and saw that Eddie had played his queen piece to d4.