by Dale Mayer
“Otherwise,” he said, “it doesn’t make any sense.”
“The heads are decapitated and removed from the scene, and that same tool makes a single cut down the breast bone, then shears off the skin from the ribs, pulling the torso back and off.”
“Opening them up? Exposing them for something?” Damon said, tossing out ideas.
“It could be either or could be anything,” the coroner said. “When you think about it, that’s your department. Mine is just trying to figure out what happened.”
“Was she alive when they did this to her?” Jake asked.
The doctor looked up at him and nodded. “I’d say that the chest was done first and then the head.”
Jake added, “We can’t confirm ID yet, but I think this is another one of the roommates.”
Damon stopped and stared. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. It looks to be Liz. Her boyfriend just called her phone, which rang here, looking for her. When we asked when he’d seen her last, he said he had dropped her off here for a couple hours, while he went to the pub with his friends. I could hear pub sounds in the background. He was calling to see if she was feeling better and wanting to come join him.”
“So this is his place?”
“It is. They’ve been back and forth for a few months trying to decide if this is the direction they want to go, but she was still living with the women, figuring it out. They had just decided that it was a go for them, and she knew it would be a problem because it was hard to get roommates, and the women were all needed to pay the rent.”
“Ah,” he said, “that’s fascinating and bizarre at the same time.” He stopped, looked around, and said, “So two of the same original five.”
“Yeah. So what shape is that girlfriend of yours in?”
“Hardly a girlfriend,” he said, “and she’s pretty unnerved. I took her to Dr. Mica today.”
“Good. If anybody can sort that out, she can.”
“Maybe. She wants Gabby to see a specialist.”
“Oh, good. Who is that?”
He knew this would cause quite the reaction, so he gave a half smile and said, “Stefan Kronos.”
Jake stopped and said, “Wait? As in the psychic, the guy who helps solve all those police cases?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit. Maybe we should use him.”
“It’s not a bad idea, but I doubt the captain would okay it,” he said, “and you know how he feels about ugly publicity.”
“Well, he’ll get a shit ton of ugly publicity when the media gets a hold of the fact that now two dead women have been brutalized like this,” he said, with a hand motioning at the body in the room.
“And, of course, nobody was here at the time. The boyfriend knows nothing, and nobody heard anything, correct?”
“Well, I’m not sure about the never heard anything part. I haven’t had a chance to canvass the other apartment dwellers here,” Jake said. “So why don’t we do that now?”
Damon nodded, and they went apartment by apartment, knocking on doors to see if anybody had heard or seen anything. Without giving too many details, the same answers kept coming back. No, no, and finally, no.
When they got to the very last apartment, not expecting anything different, the door opened to an older man with a cane. When Damon asked him the same questions, he nodded and said, “A horrible ruckus came from that corner of the apartment,” he said. “It butts up against mine.”
“What do you mean, it butts up against yours?” As he walked in through the apartment, he saw it was L-shaped, and the tenant was correct that part of it would have been close to the apartment in question. “What did you hear?”
“Well, I didn’t have my hearing aid in, but I still heard that,” he said. “Like some screaming or roaring. Very animalistic.”
“Ah, and how long did it last?” he asked.
“Not very long, maybe a couple minutes, and then it stopped. I wondered if it was some of that newfangled music all these young people are putting on. Aspen used to be a nice little town. Then it got rich and popular, and now it’s just this drug-infested mess.”
“Have you lived here long?”
“All my life,” he said. “But all my life means a different thing when you’re my age. Never heard anything like that before though.”
“Any idea what it could have been?”
“Young man, if I didn’t know better, I’d have said it was some supernatural being torturing the poor girl. You better find out who it was, so it doesn’t happen again. I’ll cheerfully go to my grave never hearing that sound again.”
“And you didn’t see anybody?”
“No. I opened the door and looked out,” he said, “but I didn’t see anyone.”
“Are security cameras here?”
“Sure,” he said, “you better check them too. Because, if he got in, he had to get out.”
“True enough,” he said. He thanked the man, took his name and number so he could add it to the file, and said, “If we have any more questions, we’ll come back.”
“Well, if you expect me to remember anything, don’t take too long,” he said with a cackle. “My memory is not exactly what it used to be.”
“Got it,” he said with half a smile. He stepped back and looked at his partner. “That was interesting. Same MO, same creepy sounds.”
“Yeah, and no luck with the security cams. Nobody caught on tape. Our team will go over them again, just to be sure.”
“So what do you know about this Stefan Kronos guy? It would be nice to know more. I’ve never met the man.”
“Neither have I,” Jake said. “I always wanted to though. He’s legendary.”
“That’s because you’re from what, Oregon? Is that where he’s from?”
“That area anyway, but he has started to really branch out and help more PDs. Usually long-term serial killers are who he’s focusing his time on these days.”
“Sounds lovely,” Damon said, and he meant it. Because any help they could get, as long as it was legit, was worthwhile. He didn’t know about using psychics though, and that just brought back thoughts of Gabby and her tarot card sessions. “Hell, if he’s willing to take a look at Gabby, I mean, do you think it would help?”
“I don’t know,” Jake said, “but it’s more a case of whether the doc thinks so.”
“Funny thing to suggest though.”
Jake stopped and looked at him and said, “Does Dr. Mica think there’s anything about the ghost stuff Gabby’s talking about?” he asked Damon directly, as if the light had suddenly come on.
“I have no idea,” Damon said. “It didn’t make any sense to me either.”
“Interesting,” he said.
When they were done here, Damon turned and headed back to his vehicle. He wasn’t even sure where to go with this now.
Dr. Keto called him over and said, “I’m hearing rumors about other cases with similarities.”
“I’ve heard of some but haven’t checked into them yet. Surely it’s just town gossip, right?”
He said, “I went to some of our records, wondering the same thing. I had to go back many years, but I did find some similar cases. You have to pick through all the murders to find those like this.”
“And that means what?”
He snorted. “I have no clue. That’s for you to figure out.”
At that, Damon rolled his eyes and said, “Thanks, and if you want to forward me the case numbers, I’d appreciate it.”
The doctor nodded and said, “I can do that.”
“Great, thanks.” With that, he walked back to his car to find Jake standing there.
“Plan of attack?” Jake asked.
“Well, for one thing, the other three women are in danger,” Damon said succinctly.
“Yeah, that was my take on it too. This is personal.”
“Not only personal but it’s also vicious,” Damon said. “I don’t understand the chest being flayed like that.”
> “Neither do I,” he said. “If the victims are all females, it makes you wonder if it is sexually motivated or whether it’s jealousy or something along that line.”
“More questions for Dr. Mica, and I haven’t even brought her in on this death yet.”
“Well, you did bring her in, just not about the perp,” he said. “You’re too busy taking care of the victim.” And he waggled his eyebrows.
“There is something about her,” Damon admitted. “I don’t understand the attraction, but it’s there.”
“That’s dangerous talk,” Jake said, yet he was smiling at his buddy.
“The coroner will send me some case file numbers he was looking into. He said he has a couple that have similarities in a few of these aspects but not to all of it.”
“Good. That at least will give us something to go on. Notification of next of kin?”
Damon winced at that. “You want to?”
“Hell no, I don’t want to, but I will,” he said. “But, if I do that, you take notification of the roommates.”
He sighed. “I can do that. Besides, we have a hell of a lot more questions we need to ask them.”
“That’s the truth,” Jake said. “And not only do we need to start with what the hell is going on but who do they know who is even capable of doing something like this.”
“You know that they’ll all say they don’t know anybody capable of this, right?” he said. “We’ll also take into account that these women worked in multiple service industries in town. So they knew hundreds of people between them. And, even if they knew just one, or if somebody was friends with just one, that didn’t mean they weren’t watching them all.”
“Why these two victims?” Jake asked, leaning against the car’s rooftop with Jake. “Why these two? Why not the other three?”
“Opportunity perhaps,” Damon said. “When you think about it, did the killer even know that the other two women were in the apartment that night? Not only that, I think he was on his way to check them out,” he said and told Jake what Gabby had said about the footsteps coming down the bedroom hallway.
“But that would imply that the guy was there, even as you arrived.”
“I know,” Damon admitted. “I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around that. Did I see anybody? No. But that doesn’t mean somebody wasn’t just ahead of me. Somebody who went out the window or went down the hallway and darted into another apartment,” he said. “For all I know, he was still hiding in the apartment, and I might have missed him. That’ll eat away at me, while I think about it, because that would mean this death was on me.”
“Don’t even go there,” Jake said. “Do not. We can’t start taking on that kind of guilt. We can only do the best we can do for the victims and try to keep as many alive as we can.”
“I know. I know,” he said. “But, Jesus, did you see what they did to her?” He stared at his partner.
“And I’m thinking from that alone we’re probably talking male, huh?”
“The trouble is,” he said, “I was reminded of Wendy’s girlfriend, who has a history of violence and is a fitness trainer. It’s possible that she could be quite capable of doing something like this.”
“And the dead women are not her girlfriend, so maybe she’s attacking those who opposed their relationship?”
“In which case,” he said, “that would put Gabby at the top of the list.”
“And why is that?”
“Apparently she helped rescue Wendy from that relationship once. She was very unhappy to hear that Wendy had gone back. So much so that Wendy had kept it a secret from Gabby until now.”
“Until before this?”
“No,” he said, thinking back onto the conversation. “Gabby just found out because of the first murder, when we were looking at places for the women to go for the night, to get them out of the crime scene. Wendy admitted then that she was back with Meghan again.”
“Interesting,” he said. “I wonder if the other victim already knew about Wendy and Meghan and had expressed some kind of negativity over the relationship.”
“I suggest we go talk to Wendy first.”
“I agree,” he said. “Are you okay to leave Gabby alone for the moment?”
“I have to,” he said. “We don’t necessarily have the manpower to put a guard on her.”
“We could always call the captain and suggest it anyway,” he said. “You never know.”
“Good idea.”
Jake offered to drive them in his car, while Damon contacted the captain. Captain Meyer hemmed and hawed and said, “Talk to the other roommates and see what we have for motivation that led this murderer to go for those two women. I get that we have two victims, and there’s a group of five potentially, and, if we only appoint one guard, then that’s possible too,” he said, “but you know what our budget is like.”
“Sure, but we’ve never hesitated whether to spend money versus to save a life before,” Damon argued.
“Talk to me after you interview this third roommate.” And, with that, he hung up.
“Same old, same old,” Damon said, shaking his head.
“But you know he doesn’t have a whole lot of choice,” Jake replied. “He’s got his hands tied too.”
“I know. It still just pisses me off,” Damon said. “We shouldn’t be arguing over saving a life.”
“Nope, we shouldn’t,” Jake said, as he pulled up to the apartment. It was one of the chic new contemporary-looking places, two blocks from where Meghan worked.
“This is a pretty decent place,” Damon said. “Much more high-level than the place the women were sharing.”
“Maybe that’s part of the problem,” he said. “When you think about it, one has money, and the other has none.”
“Right, so it easily became an abusive situation, a controlling environment.”
“Well, it can be. It can also easily be viewed as simply a step up in her living space.”
“Right.”
They knocked on the door, and Damon checked the time. “It’s already nine o’clock.”
“I know. It’s been a very long day.”
When Meghan opened the door, Damon studied her face, seeing a strong jaw, high-bridged nose, and high cheekbones. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. Damon introduced himself and his partner.
She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is this to do with Tessa?”
“Well, we certainly need to talk to you and to Wendy. Is she in?”
Meghan hesitated, then nodded. “Yes.” She backed away and said, “Come on in.”
She led them to a small living room with a gas fireplace, where Wendy was curled up under a blanket. She looked up at the police, and immediately her skin blanched. “Do you have any news?”
“We have some, but more than that we have more questions,” Damon said instantly.
Her shoulders sagged. “Of course. What do you need to know?”
Damon started in, asking about Tessa’s family, friends, relatives, or anybody who knew where the five women had lived. Had they had any male friends over? Had they had anybody over? And then he started in on the latest victim’s family and relationships.
Wendy answered those questions about Liz almost blindly.
But finally Meghan stepped in and asked, “Why are you asking about her?”
Damon looked at Meghan, then at Wendy, and said, “Liz was found dead tonight.”
Immediately Wendy cried out and bolted to her feet. “What?”
“Yes, she was murdered,” he said.
She stood there, almost hyperventilating. Meghan walked over and wrapped her arms around Wendy in a big strong hug and said, “It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay.”
“It can’t be okay,” she said, crying. “How can this ever be okay?” She stared at the cops. “Please tell me it’s not the same man.”
The two detectives shared a look and hesitated. Then Damon nodded. “It looks to be the same killer. Yes.”
“Oh, my God,” Wendy said, and, with that, her knees buckled.
Meghan helped Wendy sit back down on the couch, while Meghan glared at the cops. “Wasn’t there an easier way to tell her?”
“No,” he said succinctly. “Not really.” There was never an easy way to share this kind of information.
“Jesus,” she said, rocking Wendy, who sobbed uncontrollably in her arms.
“How long have you been here tonight?”
Meghan said, “All evening. We brought in Chinese food. We were just sitting here and enjoying the fire. We were talking about the future and where we wanted it to go,” she admitted.
“That sounds like a deep talk. What was the decision?”
“No decision,” Meghan said. “We don’t really have answers at the moment. And now that Wendy’s dealing with so much trauma, I’m not sure she’s capable of making the decisions that need to be made.”
“Right,” he said. “So, Meghan, what is your relationship with the other women in the group, the other roommates at Wendy’s apartment?”
“Rough,” she said. “I made some mistakes early on, and they haven’t forgiven me for that. But then they’re Wendy’s friends, and so they’re very protective of her. I wasn’t a good influence at the time.”
“What happened?” he asked.
She gave him a lopsided smile. “I drank too much, got angry and frustrated, and took it out on her. I’m bigger, fitter, and stronger, so it became a difficult scenario. Wendy ended up telling the others about it, and I think she actually called Gabby for help, so Gabby came and ‘rescued’ her,” she said, with a mocking eye roll. “Gabby took Wendy to the hospital, and there was a big stink about it all. Wendy here didn’t want to press charges, and we’ve been slowly making back up again, as I try to find a way to have her forgive me.”
“It seems like she has forgiven you, if she’s here now.”
“I’d like to think so,” she said. “I certainly haven’t crossed that line again, and I don’t want to.”
“Is anger a big problem for you?”
“I didn’t think so, but I don’t know. I’d never really been in that position,” she said. “I just saw red.”