Eyes that do not Open

by Claudio Hernández

  “Well, yes. You’re partially right. We don’t know anything about the killer or why he does what he does.” Landon added who was now standing straight and rubbing his mouth with his hand. His hand was now ready to be kissed. The foamy spit was dripping from his fingers.

  “What is this? A child’s argument?” Herbert was all smiles and nobody knew why he took the liberty of saying something like that.

  Then Andrew went back to Hannah’s body and saw something.

  A nail was stuck on a bag that had been trapped in the victim’s hand.

  “Is that one of her nails?” Andrew pointed while frowning his sweaty forehead.

  Herbert woke up from his stupidity and checked it out.

  “I’ll see what I can find.” He said.

  While Landon and Andrew were going back home, Herbert had discovered that it wasn’t her nail but, in fact, the killer’s.

  Alleged killer.

  81

  “They’ve been calling the house nonstop and I had to leave the phone off the hook,” Clarice explained with her dismayed eyes. “I didn’t know what to say to them.” In her eyes, you could see the fear and tears.

  “Who called?” Andrew was trying to take off his trench coat, yet, he didn’t. His back was sweaty, and his Ford Mustang made a thunder sound through the muffler that came out with a blue smoke just a minute before.

  “I don’t remember if he said Luke or Lukas. I don’t know. I’m nervous.” Her hands were likes blades spinning in the wind and she was starting to get hysterical, feeling an anxiety attack.

  Andrew tried to hold her with his chubby arms and Clarice could smell the sweat but she didn’t wrinkle her nose. She felt protected. It was as if she could remember her own father or maybe grandfather.

  “You are speaking about Luke, one of the Sheriff’s henchmen.” He whispered to Clarice’s ear. “He’s a funny guy.” Andrew realized that he may have provided too much information and it was nonsense. He only had to say: ‘yes it’s Luke, one of the police agents.’ “What did he call for?”

  “They found another woman.” She said with a shivering voice and despite the sweaty smell, she hugged Andrew’s big body. “I know he’s here and I’m the next one.” She whimpered with a tear drop rolling down her cheek.

  “Don’t think that. I’m here to protect you.”

  “I’ve spent nearly the entire night by myself and I’ve been very scared after that call.” Now, Clarice was crying, and snot was hanging from her nose.

  “You’re safe and sound here. I’ll have to leave you alone for a tad longer, but you’ll be ok, nothing is going to happen to you.”

  “How can you be so sure about that?”

  “I just know.”

  Clarice had all her snots on the trench coat’s sleeve.

  It was Friday already.

  82

  Landon was already there. Kevin was there kissing his boss’s ass too. Luke and the rest of them were there as well. The blue lights matched the blue sky that beautiful morning. The sun rays were caressing that poor woman’s face. She looked as if she were sleeping. The sun made Bob Henderson’s visible now. Landon was making him a bunch of questions and had a folder with all the pictures of the seven women of the reopened case. He had recognized her. One of them, the one on the right-hand side of the image. It was Emily Butler’s last known smile. Whereas those poor bastards appeared in the order they had disappeared, this paper wasn’t complying with that premise. Andrew did have them in order, he was very meticulous about it.

  “Have you seen anyone?” Landon tried to hide his eyes behind an even darker pair of sunglasses and his toothpick was in his mouth once again. That guy could be smoking one cigarette after another screwing up his fucking lungs if it weren’t for the toothpicks.

  “No, I was walking and then all of the sudden, I ran into her. I fell into the water.” Sponge Bob showed off his already dry hands, thinking they were still wet.

  “Did you hear any noise? Any noise coming from a car?”

  “No. Everything was silent.”

  “Did you touch her?”

  “Nooo. Not that Sherriff, she’s there just like I found her.”

  Landon arched his eyebrow. He didn’t believe him.

  Luke turned around with a scornful smile. He was thinking of all the attributes that Mother Nature had left, of a nude woman. It was a big temptation, obscene on all counts.

  The questions continued, and his hangover was clearly noticeable on Bob’s face, the rest was like copy and paste. She was covered in petals; her blue hair and makeup made it seem like she was an offering.

  There was nothing new and it all seemed monotonous.

  Everything was fleeing from Landon’s mind and, in the meantime, Andrew crossed off the picture of Emily. He was on his way to the crime scene.

  The sun kept spinning in the middle of the beautiful blue sky.

  83

  “Where is Emily? Zoe asked with her eyes wide open, with panic drawn on her lips. They were trembling like two sausages.

  “She is nearby, in her place.” The sicko replied while leaving the daily breakfast tray: a glass of milk and a bit of orange juice to help with the digestion and cream. There were no scrambled eggs or bacon.

  Audrey grabbed her bed sheet and put it against her chest and said:

  “Not only Emily is missing. Also Hannah, Madelyne, and Ava. Are they all in the same place?”

  “Yes, all four of them are together. They are very happy.” The sicko left the tray on a table near Zoe and said: “you will be with them soon enough.”

  “Does that mean they are in another room?” Kilye asked with her mouth open wide.

  “Of course, my children.” The sicko whispered while he turned around to get another set of trays.

  The sound of the song ‘Life in Mono’ crept through the hole on the rusty door like a spring of water. The song was annoying and heavy. During their four years in captivity, the same song played over and over. The sicko still got turned on by it. That had Audrey thinking, and she asked:

  “Doesn’t that music make you sick?”

  The sicko looked around to find Audrey’s face with a smile on his lips and with a perverse and lunatic stare. He wanted to be nice, but he only transmitted insecurity and fear.

  “It’s the best song in the world. I’ll never get tired of listening to it.” He explained with a bright look in his eyes. Those eyes that reflected the deep green color, even under that single yellowish light hanging from the ceiling like a hangman.

  And when he left the room, the door made a squeaky sound before it closed shut. Seconds later, Audrey, Zoe, and Kylie were stunned when they realized he had raised the volume of the music, turning the walls into cardboard making them feel like they were inside a giant speaker.

  It was insidious to hear that.

  Zoe Green was the next one.

  84

  “Do we have any idea of what’s going on?” Andrew asked. His voice was sarcastic but his facial expression was serious.

  Landon had his back turned to him folding his arms, and he jumped on the grass. His sunglasses moved down to his nose while his heart was pumping like a hammer. It was as if a ton of rocks fell upon him. He turned completely around and his dark glasses were looking for Andrew’s reflection on them.

  “Do you always scare people?”

  “I just wanted to know if you knew what was going on...”

  “Well. I was just focused on my own thoughts, just thinking about it and your voice was like the sound of thunder.” Landon interrupted letting his arms fall to both sides of his body. His heart was pumping normal again.

  One of the agents let out a laugh, but Landon did not hear it, fortunately. Andrew even made a childish smirk.

  “Did you find out anything about Hannah’s car?” Andrew asked a second question.

  Landon, who was sweating under the implacable sun that morning of warm rainless spring, put his head down as if he were depressed and his mo
uth let out a sound like a forced burp.

  “Yes. I know about Hannah’s damn car. Now they are looking for the fingerprints. They only found hers and her family’s prints on it. Nothing new. I’m starting to get tired of all this. I mean, it’s not like we are the FBI agents from the X Files.” Landon wanted to laugh but was left with an ugly smirk.

  “Did you open her eyes?”

  “For what? Everything indicates that I’ll find the same thing again.”

  “Yes, of course.” Andrew murmured his hands were playing in his trench coat’s pockets looking for nothing.

  “By the way, is it true that the girl who was attacked by the killer is staying in your backyard?”

  Andrew nodded and his bald head shone under the sun like a hot lamp.

  “Yes. Is there something wrong with that?”

  “Nooo,” Landon said quickly scratching his neck. His hat was to the side, like an old western gunman. “I was just thinking that maybe she could reveal something else. Even an insignificant detail.”

  “She’s really scared and will soon be going to California or maybe further away.”

  “Right. There is no more use with this situation.” Landon looked up at the sky that morning, while his back was against Emily’s body.

  There were still agents hovering over her body, looking for clues or better yet acting like idiots, because the crime scene was always the same and all they could find out was all they already knew.

  “I think this is getting out of hand. They have been showing up frequently. And they are in chronological order according to their disappearance.” Andrew explained as he was getting closer to Landon. At the same time, his shoe soles stepped on the dirt trail before getting to the grass near the shoreline. Could there be anything else they didn’t know about?

  “I must admit,” Landon said, resigned. All the cockiness that he kept from the very beginning seemed to have been swallowed by the earth.

  “Did you find out anything about the nail that was found on Hannah?”

  “It’s a porcelain nail. It’s being analyzed, but for the moment, it doesn’t look like that nail can talk either.” After that, they just forgot all about that damn nail.

  Andrew clenched his teeth and bit his tongue. He instantly tasted something sweet as he swallowed his saliva. He rose his eyebrows and his forehead was wrinkled like a paper ball.

  “Fuck!” He said. “So why the hell do they all have their hair dyed in blue?” He pointed at Emily’s hair that was just like the other women’s, blue.

  Landon shrugged his shoulders while Kevin just stared.

  “You think it’s a Fetish?” His eyes lit up behind his dark sunglasses.

  “That’s for sure. In just a couple of days, four out of the seven women that were kidnapped appeared. All of them with that fucking blue hair, their eyes down their throats, and all made up with makeup as if in some pharaonic tomb; and these goddamn abandoned cars miles away from here. I don’t understand anything.” Andrew barked like a rabid dog.

  “There’s something that makes me uneasy,” Landon said as he stared at the floor.

  “Is the killer playing with us?”

  “That and... do the other women share the same fate?”

  “I think you just put the stopwatch on Landon.” Andrew’s voice was hoarse and he closed his eyes for a moment because the sun rays were blinding him. He put his hands over his eyebrows. And right then, he saw something else.

  Another face.

  It wasn’t only Sponge Bob’s, but another woman’s face. And he recognized her; it was Zoe. He memorized all the names in chronological order.

  “Is there something wrong Andrew?”

  “No, I just think we are running out of time. We’re fucked.”

  “But you know who is really fucked? Parker.” Landon stated.

  Andrew moved his head and looked for some shade.

  “We’ve sent an innocent person to hell.” He said a dozen times.

  The sun and the few clouds that looked drawn by brush upon a blue sky were the witnesses to another blue-haired victim.

  The fucking stopwatch kept jumping from second to second.

  85

  She was sitting on the couch with a cold glass of milk in her hands. Her eyes were teary, uneasy looking for Andrew’s face who was walking around like a lunatic in front of her. He was huge and heavy but still could walk. About to retire thinking he wouldn’t until God called upon him. His feet would let him drive, or go to the toilet or plant a tree, even though they weren’t the same that he planted when he was in his youth. It was as if all the shit accumulated with age.

  “Another woman appeared. Seems to follow the same pattern as the others. Nobody has a fucking clue as to who is behind all this.” Andrew stood in front of Clarice for a moment lifting up his hand to say: “Pardon I shouldn’t be telling you these things because it can provoke a crisis for you because you were face to face with him.”

  “But I feel safe with you,” Clarice explained with her white milk mustache on her upper lip.

  Andrew signaled to her.

  Clarice wiped the milk off her lip with her index finger.

  “Well, it’s true,” Andrew replied to an unspoken question.

  “Besides, I think there’s still more to come.” She said with almost watery eyes.

  Andrew stood like a rock for a moment. An instant later his lungs were filled with air and oxygen again.

  “Why do you say that?”

  Clarice closed her eyes and said:

  “I’ve had a lot of spare time on my own. I’ve been looking at all those pictures you have on your wall, looking at them like when someone stares at a spider on the ceiling. After all that has been happening, I’ve figured what can actually occur. The killer gives up those poor women. I’ve even thought that the next one after the last one on the list can be me.” Her hand was on her pink dress and Andrew could see her breasts.

  “I several reasons to believe the killer won’t be going after you, Clarice,” Andrew said with a convincing tone.

  “How can you know?”

  “The killer started a race against the clock just for the victims that he has kidnapped. There is something strange about him. I think he has been taken good care of those women, and he shows them off like real works of art. He must be obsessed with beauty. The eyes, however, throw me off.”

  “I’ve read about cases in novels that have been crueler and more terrifying that have inspired serial killers,” Clarice explained before she took another sip of her milk with her right hand shaking. “The human mind is infinite and we know nothing about it.”

  Andrew thought; if you knew what I do you would bolt out of here and would call Grayson, my shrink. That’s when he remembered his appointment and the reasons he didn’t attend. He was wondering why he hadn’t called him back. He also thought that maybe he just didn’t hear the call. The atmosphere was treacherous and heavy. These past hours choked him as if huge hands squeezed his neck.

  “His calls annoyed him.”

  “Yes, I’ve seen many strange cases too, trust me,” Andrew said coming back to reality. “What do you say if we go back to my office? Did you close the caravan?”

  “Yes, that’s fine.”

  Clarice left the half-filled glass on the dusty table in front of the sofa and stood up so fast that Andrew thought she was flying.

  They walked together down the hallway towards the messy office full of pictures and files. Each of those files brought back some terror and fear, and Andrew had been dealing with them his entire career as a Detective.

  When he got closer to the wall, he lifted up his hand and with his chubby index finger pointed at the picture on the wall.

  “Do you see that picture?” Andrew asked while he was about to divulge something nobody knew.

  “The one on the right?”

  “No, the one next to that, the one that’s crossed out.”

  Clarice got closer to the wall and pressed her eyel
ids as if that could let her see better.

  “This one?” Her finger, with a long fingernail painted in pink, pointed at the picture where a red-headed woman was smiling to the camera that seemed as if it had been there all along.

  “That’s Zoe Green. I just saw her.”

  Clarice at first didn’t hear the last words he said, but with the passing of seconds, her expression changed to show awe as she understood his words, her eyes and mouth were wide open.

  “What do you mean you just saw here? What are you referring to?”

  “There’s a trick I have in order to see them,” Andrew explained not sure about what he was doing. He sat down and his chair creaked under his fat ass.

  Clarice began to smile even though she could not understand, she was confused.

  “Does that mean the killer is gone?” Her face was filled with hope.

  “No, I just want to say that shit has hit the fan.”

  Clarice, taking a moment before she spoke, asked: “what do you mean by that? How is she?”

  “Dead.” That horrible word that we hear every day was like a cold splash of water for Clarice, while Andrew showed off some seriousness trying to maintain his good manners and understanding towards her.

  “You’ve seen her dead this morning?”

  “This morning I saw Emily. Zoe will appear in one hour or maybe two, who knows.”

  Clarice didn’t know what to make of what she was hearing.

  “I don’t know why it surprises you that much. As soon as I got here I told you that another dead woman had appeared.”

  “Well, because you told me exactly that she had appeared not that she was going to appear.”

  “Yes, that’s true. I have something to explain.” His voice was tense and hoarse but he was trying to whisper, it was inevitable.

  “Yes, you are right. I told you I had time to think and that they would all be found.” Clarice reminded him, now with her eyes in shock. The blood was running through her veins like adrenaline from jumping out of a plane. “Now I think I get it. Are you telling me you just saw her dead?”

  Andrew nodded.

  “You think this is crazy, right? That I’m the strangest old man in the world. And that you’re in a big mess. I think maybe it’s best if you leave as soon as possible. I don’t this to affect you.