by Tom Clarke
“So, you think that Ripper is being possessed by this demon and King is his number two guy?” Darrel asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying!” I replied.
Darrel sat up in his chair, his brain obviously fully engaged, “Okay Jim, let’s look at this through the lens of a regular criminal organization, how would we go about dismantling it?”
I rocked back in my chair and said, “Well we know who the two top players are, and we know some of the mid-level players. Jeff for example, that goofy bastard is ass deep in it! We have to show an ongoing criminal enterprise and the involvement of at least three to make a conspiracy case.”
“Gentlemen, wait!” Cowley said. “You are talking as though you are dealing with common criminals, you are not! Did you not hear anything I said earlier?”
“Of course we did Professor” I replied. “You said that this thing needs a support structure to operate, right? Well let’s dismantle its support mechanism and then go kick it in the nuts!”
Professor Cowley sat back in his chair and just stared at Darrel and I. I could see the wheels turning in his head. “Jim, Darrel, my friends you may actually be on to something.”
“Of course we’re on to something Professor” I said, “were the Police! It’s our job to be onto something….so what’s our next move?”
Professor Cowley thought for a second and then said “I would very much like to take a closer look at that carving you found in the basement of that house.”
My blood instantly ran cold, I knew that at some point we would have to go back to the basement on Hollow Crest, but that did not make the idea any more appealing.
“Don’t worry bro” Darrel said sensing my anxiety, “now that we have an idea of what we are dealing with I think we can pull it off with no problems.”
I looked back at Darrel, nodded my head and said, “Okay professor, when do you want to go, it’s an abandoned house so...”
“Jim, there is no time like the present, besides by the time we get there it will be well into the day, lots of daylight to light our way” the Professor replied with a sense of conviction.
“Okay, you and Karen follow us” I said.
“Very good!” Professor Cowley said, “just let me get a camera and some tools; Karen can you grab the video camera from the equipment room please.”
As Professor Cowley and Karen gathered some equipment Darrel and I headed back out to our car. “Listen Jim, at some point in time we are going to have to tell your boss Rick about this shit.”
“I know” I replied. “I’ve been thinking about that, with a little bit of luck I will have a good cover story when I go back to work on Monday.”
“What about Keith?” Darrel asked.
“The less that Keith knows about this the better right now. I mean this shit really unnerved him, which is strange for all the horror movies he watches, you would think he would be all up in it.”
Darrel and I got back into his SUV and waited for Karen and the Professor. “So, listen” I said, “Monday let’s get together with Stevie and start working on getting some phone tolls. Let’s also see if Stevie can have a DEA analyst work on money flow and start putting together some criminal history on the folks that we know.”
“You got it” Darrel replied. “I don’t think that we are going to be able to hit the federal threshold for dope, but the gun aspect is a very solid possibility” Darrel said.
I shook my head in agreement, “I would agree, maybe stack the deck a little by putting some weight on them historically, but buying some guns from them and maybe catching them dirty carrying a gun during a deal is the way to go. What about a prosecutor?”
Darrel thought for few seconds and then said, “I know a good one at the U.S. Attorney’s Office that would jump at this.”
“Outstanding!” I replied, “sounds like we have the makings of a plan. Listen I’m gona call dispatch and create a call for reported drug activity at the Hollow Crest location. Give us a reason to be up there.”
Darrel nodded as he started his SUV, “Cool, good thinking. Okay here they come.”
5. Hollow Crest
The drive to get to 1414 Hollow Crest took about 30-minutes, Darrel and I spoke very little the entire way. I was pretty nervous and the closer we got I could tell that I was starting to make Darrel nervous.
The entire trip I was thinking about the last time I had been in this basement with Keith and Danny, I played the entire contact back in my mind thinking about how I am going to deal with it if the same shit goes down again….only this time I have just Darrel, an old professor and a young college kid.
As we started to get close I told Darrel that we would be entering through the rear of the house, I gave him a quick layout and told him about the VARDA. We agreed that as we moved into the house I would take the lead and Darrel would cover the rear with the Professor and his cousin between us.
Once we got to the stairs I would go down first, then Darrel.
Once the basement was secured the Professor and Karen would come down. The same sequence would be repeated when we left, the Professor and Karen would go first, then Darrel, and then me. The feeling in our car changed to one of stark professionalism, it was the same vibe that officers get when they are preparing to hit a house or move towards a potential violent encounter, game faces on. We were now open for business!
As we pulled around the back of 1414 Hollow Crest Darrel said, “Looks like we have some company.”
I looked up and saw a marked police cruiser sitting behind the house. Darrel pulled up behind the police car and parked, “That’s Dan Swanson’s car” I said. I got out of Darrel’s SUV and walked up to the patrol car from the rear, I could see that the driver’s door was standing open, “Hey Danny” I started to call out and then stopped.
As I got to the driver’s door I could see a portable radio lying on the ground next to some keys.
“Jesus Christ!” I blurted out, the air bag was deployed and the front of the car looked as though someone had jumped all over it. There were dents all along the hood, the headlights were broken out and it looked as though something had hit the windshield.
I picked up the portable radio and turned it on, “Dispatch 1432.”
“1432 go ahead” the radio crackled back at me.
“1432, is 1-Charlie-25 in service?” I asked.
The dispatcher replied, “1432 dispatch, 1-Charlie-25 went out of service about 45 minutes ago. I show you transmitting from his portable.” Every hair on my body stood up, I looked at Darrel who was now looking at the damage to the front of the patrol car. Then I looked at the back door to 1414 Hollow Crest, it was standing open. Darrel, who had heard the radio traffic, looked back at me with a sense of panic in his eyes.
“Hey guys, is this the…oh my God!” Karen said as she and Professor Cowley walked up to Darrel and I.
Darrel looked back at his cousin and said, “Get back in your car right now!” Karen did not move, she just stared at the front of the patrol car, “NOW!” Darrel barked. Professor Cowley grabbed Karen by her arm and led her back to their car.
Darrel put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the back door of the house, we could see what appeared to be fresh disturbance in the dirt and spent shell casings on the ground. It took me a few seconds to understand what it was I was looking at, the spent shell casings were the slap to my face I needed, Danny had been in a gunfight!
I drew my handgun and moved behind Danny’s patrol car for cover, “Go get your vest!” I told Darrel. AS Darrel ran back to his SUV I covered the back door to the residence.
Darrel opened the back hatch and then out of a built-in gun locker pulled out his body armor marked with POLICE across the front, he then retrieved his M-4 rifle and came back to my side.
“1432, dispatch” the radio squawked, “what’s your status?”
“Dispatch, 1432, I’m on scene at 1414 Hollow Crest Drive, around the back. 1-Charlie-25’s unit is here, it’s been involved in
some sort of a collision with airbag deployment! 1-Charlie-25 is not on scene, some of his equipment is on the ground.”
“Dispatch copy” was the very tense response that crackled back.
I took a deep breath, attempting to calm my mind, “Dispatch, 1432, be advised that the back door to this residence is standing open and it appears that there has been shots fired, requesting back-up units.”
“1432 this is 1-Charlie-1, units are clearing from an armed robbery on the other side of town, ETA to your location about 20 minutes.” “1432 copy” I replied to the shift supervisor.
“1432, dispatch, I have two units from Highway Patrol that are enroute to your location, they will be on radio TAC-3, ETA is about 10 minutes as well, ambulance is enroute, they will stage for a secure scene.”
I reached into Danny’s patrol car and hit the switch releasing the magnetic lock which was holding his M-4 patrol rifle in place between the front drivers and passenger seat. I then reached into his patrol bag, which was still sitting on the floor on the front passenger side and removed an extra magazine for the rifle and a flashlight.
I ran over to Karen’s truck, “What’s going on?” Karen asked.
“Listen to me very carefully!” I said. “Darrel and I are going into that house. Do you have Darrel’s cell phone number in your phone?”
“Yes” Karen replied in a shaky voice.
I looked at Karen and Professor Cowley, the expression in my face grabbed their full attention, “You two stay here! Do not get out of your car for any reason, there will be uniformed officers arriving in a few minutes, you do exactly what they tell you, do you understand me!”
“Yes” Karen replied, again her voice shaking as though she were on the verge of breaking down.
“I want you to pull up Darrel’s number as if you were going to send him a text, if you see anything out here you text him…DO NOT CALL! Do you understand?”
Karen stared at her phone, “Yes, we understand” Professor Cowley replied.
I didn’t say anything else and moved up to where Darrel had positioned himself behind the front of Danny’s patrol car and was covering the back door of the house with his rifle.
“Dispatch, 1432” I said into the radio, the tone in my voice moving from concern to all business.
“1432, dispatch go ahead.”
“1432, advise responding units that there is an older red Toyota truck parked in the back occupied times two, they are friendly.”
“Dispatch copy”, “1-Charlie-1 copy as well” the shift supervisor responded. I could hear his sirens running in the background of the shift supervisor’s radio transmission and knew that they would be there soon, but not soon enough.
“Dispatch 1432, I have an ATF agent here with me, we are in plain clothes, be advised we will be making entry into the back door of the residence, hold the air.”
“Dispatch copy” I then heard the alert tones, a series of three high pitched beeps. “Attention all units, be advised, emergency traffic only on primary, non-emergency traffic switch to TAC-2, air is closed for 1432 making entry at 1414 Hollow Crest.”
“1432, we are making entry” I said into the radio as I stepped around the corner of the back door and into the back of 1414 Hollow Crest. I went to the right and started moving forward, close to but not touching the wall. Darrel followed me in and went to the left, both us moving with the muzzles of our rifles up ready to fire if needed.
As we moved through the house I started feeling that overwhelming sense of dread that I had felt last time.
That oppressive heavy air feeling, a feeling that I quickly pushed to the back of my mind bringing my focus back to the task at hand, finding Danny and crushing anyone who opposed me.
As we got closer to the doorway leading to the basement it became harder and harder for me to push the feeling of dread out of my mind. I looked over at Darrel and I could tell that he was feeling the same thing. He looked back at me, tightened his grip on his rifle, and rolled his shoulder forward to re-seat his body armor across his chest.
After moving through the rest of the house we reached the doorway leading down to the basement. I heard the radio transmission from dispatch into the ear piece I had put in before entering the house. “1432, 10-60?” Speaking back into the radio at almost a whisper to answer the status check I said, “10-60, we are getting ready to move down into the basement.”
“Copy” was the only response.
As I stood there looking at the door to the basement it seemed as though Darrel and I had been inside that house for hours, when in fact it had been about 5 minutes, if that.
As I was facing the door, Darrel was facing to the rear of us covering the short hallway we had just come down. I started to reach for the door handle when Darrel turned and grabbed my shoulder. “I will go first” Darrel said in a low voice, he then tapped the rifle plate in the center of his body armor. “Next time we do this you be sure and bring your vest, got it!”
I smiled, nodded and then switched positions with him so that Darrel was now standing to the right of the door, and I was facing to our rear.
Darrel pulled the door to the basement open and took a quick look down the stairs. He then moved down the first set of stairs and onto the small landing which lead into the basement. “I see him!” Darrel said.
“He’s standing facing that side wall at the bottom of the stairs.”
I moved down the stairs and stood at a crouch with my back to Darrel, and the muzzle of my rifle pointing back up towards the open door, “That’s the wall with that circle on it” I said. “Go ahead and call to him.”
“Danny” Darrel said loud enough for him to hear, but not loud enough to announce ourselves to everyone in the house. “Danny, it’s the police!” Darrel said again.
“He’s moving Jim, he touched the wall and is now moving into the basement” Darrel said with a real sense of urgency in his voice.
“Okay” I said, “let’s get down there!” Darrel started moving down the stairs in a very methodical fashion keeping the muzzle of his rifle pointed in the direction of his eyes. I waited until Darrel got about half-way down the stairs and I followed, covering the directions that he was not.
As he got to the bottom of the stairs Darrel grunted as though someone had just punched him in the gut.
He took a knee, covering the openness of the basement as best he could while I finished coming down the stairs.
“Are you okay?” I said as I got to the bottom, putting my left hand on Darrel’s right shoulder.
“Do you feel that?” Darrel asked. “And that smell, it smells like…death.”
“I do” I said. “Come one, let’s grab Danny and get the hell out of here.” I looked up and could see Danny standing in the back of the basement, I started moving towards him, “Danny, brother it’s Jimmy, are you okay?”
Just as I got within arms distance of Danny, who was standing still and facing the wall, I saw another figure appear out of the darkness to my right. “Contact right!” I yelled. “POLICE, get down on the ground!”
Darrel moved up to my left side, “Darrel grab Danny, POLICE SHOW ME YOUR HANDS AND GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!” I yelled again.
Darrel grabbed Danny, who, as soon as Darrel touched him started to go limp. Darrel dropped his rifle, which thanks to the tactical sling he was using just fell to the front of his body. Darrel then picked up Danny in a fireman’s carry and started moving back towards the stairs. I could hear Darrel telling Danny that “We got you bro, you’re going to be okay.”
Keeping the muzzle of my rifle pointed in at the figure in the darkness I reached across with my left hand and keyed the transmit button on the radio, “Dispatch 1432, we are in the basement, we have 1-Charlie-25 he appears to have been injured. Be advised I have one….make that three suspects at gun point, non-compliant!”
The one person I was looking at had suddenly turned into three. “Dispatch copy, units will be arriving any second.”
“Get down
!” I ordered as the three figures started slowly walking towards me. “Darrel, get Danny up the stairs!”
Darrel yelled back, “Jim, I’m having a hard time breathing over here!” I looked over and could see that Darrel was again to a knee, and then I saw that Danny was standing next to Darrel, staring at the circle carved into the wall.
I started walking backwards towards Darrel and Danny, keeping the muzzle of my rifle pointed at the three figures moving towards us. “Darrel get up, get on your feet!” I yelled.
Darrel started to stand, he turned and saw that Danny, who had gone limp just a few seconds ago was back on his feet and staring at the circle carving on the wall. Danny reached out and touched the carving placing his hand in the center of it.