by Tyler Porter
Now I understood. For most of our partnership, he had been worried about being caught up in my shadow. “Listen to me. I know it seems that way now, but it won’t always be like that. Trust me, one week dealing with you instead of me and Neil will be doing backflips in his office.”
Hunt chuckled.
“You are a great detective, and a great cop. You are going to do this city proud. Just like you always have. Besides, I’ll come back and kick your ass if you don’t.” I punched him lightly on the shoulder.
Our moment was broken by a knock at the door, I turned to find Captain Connors in the doorway. He had an unsettling look on his face and, at first, I thought maybe he had heard my backflip comment, but I soon learned that my snide remark had nothing to do with the expression. There was a very different reason for his discomfort.
“We got another body,” he said.
“Let me guess. Stab wounds, stapled eyelids and fingers missing?”
“This is different Norris, you two need to get to the scene now.”
Chapter 5: Chasing the Kill
Normally I would have argued just for the fun of it, but something in his voice told me I shouldn’t. Hunt and I got the details from him before heading to the scene. The location was in an alleyway right off of the main drag downtown. The first body was found in an abandoned warehouse with a ton of privacy. The second was left in the middle of a playground where I was sure to be discovered, but the killer still would have had some privacy to unload the corpse. This time, he would have had to drive right into the heart of the city and drop it with zero privacy at all.
“So many things about this don’t make any sense,” I said as we rolled toward our destination.
“What do you mean?” Hunt replied.
“This whole thing has been accelerated and I can’t figure out why. The first murder was quiet and hidden. The killer tried to pin it on some drug dealer and it took two months to come to light. Then within a week, two more bodies show up. They accelerated the timeline drastically and moved disposal to places where the bodies would absolutely be found.”
“You think maybe there are more bodies we just haven’t found yet? Maybe the timeline has always been faster than we knew?” he asked staring out the window.
“It’s possible, but then there’s the first one, Melanie Green. If that was the first kill, it would have been sloppier. It wouldn’t have been so precise and detailed.”
“So maybe that wasn’t the first kill is what you’re saying.”
“That’s what I’m saying, but I can’t be sure. Too many pieces aren’t fitting together.”
We arrived at the crime scene and were met with a barrage of flashing blue lights. Six patrol vehicles were parked along the entrance of the alley, which had been taped off with yellow caution tape. Hunt parked and we walked toward the taped off area. As we approached, an officer in uniform walked toward us. I recognized him as Officer Jerry Preston. He knew me well and addressed me quickly.
“Morning Norris, congrats on the last day.”
“Yeah, thanks. What’s going on over here?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure. We received direct orders that aside from the first officers on the scene, no one is to touch it before you get here. All we know is her name, Tiffany Blanch.”
“Delayed just for me? Don’t I feel special? Guess that means I ought to have a look.”
“You want a bucket?” he hurriedly said.
“A bucket? A bucket for what?”
“Like I said, I don’t really know what happened in that alley, but Officer Haas was the first to arrive and he hasn’t stopped puking since.”
“I think we’ll be alright, what do you think Hunt? You gonna be alright?” He nodded and we started toward the alley.
As soon as we stepped foot into it, it became abundantly clear why the officer had gotten sick, why everyone else had been directed to stay out and why Captain Connors wanted me to come so quickly. There was a third body, and a couple things were consistent with the first two.
There were still thirty or forty stab wounds in the torso, arms, legs and neck. There were also two fingers missing from each hand. This time, however, was also very different from the others. Three fingers had been left on each hand, but the body had been completely separated into three parts. Bottom, torso and head.
What was slightly more disturbing was that each piece had been secured to the wall of the alley somehow. Head, then torso, then bottom. The torso portion of the body had been positioned with the arms secured up and out to the sides like Jesus Christ hanging from the cross. Aside from this new display style, two things were different. One, the face of the woman had been completely removed. It appeared to have been scratched off. The second thing was the message that had been written on the wall in what I could only assume was blood. It read Count to 3 Lieutenant.
We quickly relinquished the crime scene to the Crime Scene Technicians and drove, in silence, back to the precinct. I was rolling the details over in my head and Hunt knew better than to interrupt my thinking. We parked out front and walked inside. Hunt took a detour to the vending machines, but I wasn’t hungry. Sure, we weren’t vomiting like the poor bastard who found the body unsuspectingly, but I sure as hell couldn’t believe that Hunt was hungry after that. I continued on and closed the door behind me when I entered my office. I sat down and went over everything again. I went over my previous cases, wondering if there was something I had missed or overlooked. There had to be more that I just wasn’t seeing.
I called my prison list to make sure none of the killers I’d put away had been recently released. There were none. I pulled out all of the crime scene photos again, including the ones I had just taken at the most recent location. I was missing something. I knew that I was missing something, but I couldn’t figure out what. It wasn’t the first time I’d had a challenging case, but it had never taken me long to find something. Some bread crumb to follow. Some clue we hadn’t thought of, but right now, there was nothing.
The clock showed 4:45pm. My official shift was over at 5:00pm and this would all be over. It would be Hunt’s problem. I put a small brown office paper box on my desk and began piling in all of my personal belongings from my office. The couple pieces of cheap art I had only brought in because I was sick of the bare, white walls.
My framed, original badge from when I first joined the force. My Silver Star that I had earned for, what the higher-ups called, extreme heroism, which I never thought much of, but my mom had liked it before she passed away so I’d kept it. I also packed away my Law Enforcement Purple Heart, which my mother was not a fan of because it was awarded to me after I was shot in the line of duty and almost paralyzed.
I would have preferred not to see Captain Connors again before leaving, but it wouldn’t have felt quite right to leave without messing with Neil one final time. I strolled down the hall to his office, knocked on the door and entered after seeing him wave me in through the glass window that made up the top half of the door. He still had that same look he’d had on his face earlier in the day when he sent Hunt and I to the scene. Completely unsettled and anxious.
“Alright Neil, no tears or hugs, but I wouldn’t be a proper gentleman if I didn’t shake my boss’s hand before leaving for the last time.” He looked up from his computer in confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he said. I looked at my watch to make sure I hadn’t misread the time.
“It’s five Captain, time to close the curtain on this old show.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Neil…I said no tears.”
“Stop joking around you shit! This is serious!” It was only then that I started to realize what he was thinking.
“Captain…I have to go.”
“This is three murders Norris! That makes this perp-”
“A serial killer,”
I finished his sentence. “And a serial killer that Hunt and the team are more than capable of handling.”
“This isn’t just some serial killer. This is an accelerated serial killer on a spree who is taunting you! Not the department, not the team, you! They have some sort of fixation on you and you have to be involved here!”
“It’s not going to happen,” I said sternly.
“Casey, something doesn’t feel right here. I’ve dealt with seral killers before, this is different. I am asking you to stick this one out.”
“I’ve stuck it out for thirty years. After this case there will be another and then another. It doesn’t ever end. I’m getting old Captain, and it’s going to catch up to me one day. I’m not gonna stick around long enough for it to start blurring my judgment or abilities. That could get someone else killed and I can’t have that on my conscience.”
“There is nothing I can do or say to change your mind?”
“Nothing you can do or say that I haven’t already tried myself. I really don’t know what I am going to do with myself, but I trust my gut and my gut says its time.”
He reluctantly shook my hand, and I left his office. I stopped at my office, grabbed my box of belongings and walked into the lobby. A group had formed made up of officers, detectives, supervisors, admin staff, and, of course, my team. The group began clapping as I walked through the lane they had formed by standing on one side or another. I nodded my head to each as I passed them. My team stood at the end closest to the door, with the exception of Hunt. We had already said our goodbyes and I sent him back to the scene to consult with CSI. Cooper was the first to hug me.
“I’m gonna miss you boss.”
“Hey now, no mushy gushy stuff Cooper. I’m gonna miss you all too. I know it hasn’t officially been announced, but Hunt is gonna be taking my place. Give him your respect. He’ll make a good leader. You all have my number if you ever need me. Get out there and keep making me proud. Stay strong kids.”
I left without giving them an opportunity to say anything more. They seemed to understand as they all scattered in different directions off to the next thing on the agenda. They understood. I didn’t want to get into a bunch of hugging and sad goodbyes. Probably because I really was going to miss them, and I only realized it in that moment. I walked out the front doors, put the box in the passenger seat of the Jeep and walked around toward the driver side. But as I did, I got an old, familiar feeling. The goosebumps. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
There was a swirl in my gut that someone was watching. I looked around slowly as I stood on the road next to my Jeep being careful not to draw attention. I studied the parked cars, and they were all empty. No civilians walking the street or on the block. I figured I was just letting the case get to me or that Captain Connor’s anxiety had rubbed off. I got in the Jeep and pulled away from the curb. I got three blocks down the street before I noticed the old, beat up pick-up that was following four car lengths behind.
Chapter 6: Strike the Heart
I could see him staring at me through the rearview mirror. I wasn’t surprised. Three decades in his line of work, I was sure he’d had people follow him before. Still, I wasn’t quite ready for our little game to be over. I was having far too much fun. I was certain it wouldn’t be long before the news would spread that Detective Norris had decided to delay his retirement to pursue an open investigation. I knew in my heart and soul there was no way he would be able to resist.
I pulled down a side street, ending my pursuit of his black Jeep. I didn’t need to follow him. I knew his routine better than he did. Friday afternoons he always stopped at Maverick’s Bar and Grill for a beer with some other off duty cops. Then the binge would continue once he got back to his apartment. Tonight would have been different, if his retirement had occurred as planned, but I knew this could not be the case.
I took several side streets working my way toward the bar. As I approached the front of the building, I spotted his vehicle parked right out front where it always sat. Every Friday it sat in that spot for the better part of two hours as I sat in the public parking area across the street watching. This day would be no different. I pulled into the public parking lot and parked the truck with the nose toward the back fence so that I could see the entrance of the bar in my mirrors.
It would be a while, so I let myself reflect on the most recent kill. What a rush. I had learned so much about the human anatomy over the past few months, but I had never separated a body before. It was like a science experiment. Seeing the saw bounce in reaction to tearing through flesh, bone and muscle. I’d been nervous when I made the first cut, but by the end, I was really enjoying it and ever since I’d been filled with an endless desire to improve in that act. It was so much more methodical than stapling eyelids and removing fingers.
I wondered what it would be like once Detective Norris was gone. After I’d killed him. Would it be as much of a rush? Men didn’t seem to emit the same fear that women did, anyway. The killing was fun for the moment, but it didn’t make my heart race. Not like playing cat and mouse with someone who was hunting me. Hunting me, but none-the-wiser that all the time I was three steps ahead, and that I was hunting him. Of course the game wouldn’t go on much longer. I was purposely leaving more and more clues for him to follow. Soon, the climax would come and I would destroy the ultimate target.
Would I continue killing? Would I find a new opponent to play with? Maybe I would move to a new city, somewhere harder. Helena was a great stepping stone, but it wasn’t New York or Los Angeles. It wasn’t the challenge that I would find in cities like those. Hell, I could even head to D.C. and play with the F.B.I. I pondered these wonderful things until my daydream was interrupted by a car engine turning over. It was close. I jerked my eyes back to the mirror just in time to see Norris’s Jeep pull away from the curb.
I look at the time on the dash, 5:37pm. It was so early! Every other Friday, he’d always stayed until at least 7:00pm. What was different? I turned the key, backed out and sped out of the parking lot. There were two cars traveling between us. Perfect. It was almost a straight shot from the bar to his apartment complex, which the exception of one right turn. Just before his turn, I took a right down the street just before his. There was a connecting road that exited just passed the pull-in to his complex where I could watch without being noticed.
I pulled out of the small neighborhood and stopped just shy of the stop sign. His parking spot was visible from here, but to my surprise, there was a different car parked in his assigned space. A blue Dodge Dart. The Jeep pulled into the lot and parked next to the dart. I observed as a beautiful, blond haired woman got out of the dart and fell into his arms. They kissed and caressed each other. It was the same woman from the coffee shop. Who was she? They must have been being very careful for me to not have seen them together before.
As he held her and their moment of passion continued, I noticed the bottle of Champaign in his right hand. I hadn’t seen him leave the bar with it, and I was almost certain that they didn’t sell bottles there. Maybe he had gotten it there, but why? Were the two of them having a special night? A secret anniversary? I thought hard until a terrible thought worked its way into my head. No. He didn’t retire today. He didn’t go through with it. He couldn’t have. Not with everything I had done! I watched them walked inside the townhouse apartment as anger pulsed through me.
There was no chance he had ignored me, I knew this, but I had to make sure. I waited in the area until 2:30am. He would be fast asleep by now. I parked the truck on the street across from his building and jogged across to his front door. I pulled the lock-picking set from my pocket and worked some magic on the deadbolt. Like a charm, I worked it to the left and pushed the door open carefully. I slipped inside and shut it behind me.
I knew the layout well. The front door opened into the kitchen of the townhouse apartment. There was a wall of cabinets on the left a
nd a small dining area on the right. Heading straight, a narrow hallway had a bathroom on one side and the door to the basement on the other. This hallway led into the living room and at the back of it, a staircase upstairs to where the bedrooms were. I walked through the hallway and quietly worked my way up the stairs. I pulled the Glock 19, 9mm pistol from my waistband and held it in front.
I did not want to kill him yet, but this kind of thing could be very unpredictable and if it came to it, him or me, it would have to be him. I measured my steps, stepping softly down the hall to the master bedroom. The bedroom door was almost always left open when he slept at night, but tonight it was closed. This woman was causing changes in his behavior. I had waited and watched for several hours. She hadn’t left yet. I turned the handle and pressed the door open enough for me to slide in. The T.V. was on, as it was every night. It made it so incredibly easy for me to be in the room and not wake him.
There were clothes, shoes and undergarments all over the place. On the floor, the dresser and the bed. I ran my eyes over the bed and there they were. Naked and sound asleep. He was laying on his back with one arm around her as she slept half on top of him. The Champaign bottle was empty on the ground next to the bed. What had they been celebrating? I saw his cell phone on the night table next to him. Maybe they had texted about their plans for the evening. I walked over, picked it up and pressed the home button causing the screen to light up. All of my worries were confirmed in seconds.
What met my eyes from the screen were dozens of congratulatory text messages and emails congratulating him on his retirement. They all talked about how much they would miss him and how tremendous his career had been. I squeezed the phone in my hand in a fury. He had done it! He had completely ignored me and retired anyways, passing me on to be someone else’s problem. I would not be ignored! I pulled the Glock back out of my waistband and pointed it at his head. I could end this right now. He was the only one who would ever be able to catch me. If was going to ignore me, I could show the entire world what would happen.