The Noir Evil

by Richard Paul Caird

  Merlyo then keenly noticed that the door to the ongoing meeting was being slowly opened from the outside as a sleepily dishevelled looking Ness quickly and quietly snuck in, attempting to avoid the on looking gaze of all whom where present. He then quickly sat down where Cowles had been sitting because the talented lieutenant immediately stood up and loyally let the tired looking safety director take his place. The obedient Cowles then sat cross-legged on the floor as he warmly smiled and nodded to the newly arrived Ness whom reciprocated his warm welcome before he slouched down into his uncomfortably warm seat, not wanting to draw attention to his lateness and only wishing to make eye contact with the speaking Gerber.

  Merlyo instantly knew that Ness was high on opium yet again because he noticed that his unfocused eyes where finding it difficult to both focus on the speaking Gerber as well as stay awake. His unresponsive mouth would also not close as a thin bead of saliva began to escape it, easily creating a thin bridge from his lowered jawline down to his crumpled looking shirt collar. The opioid high Ness did not notice this unbecoming aspect of his visual profile and instead attempted to momentarily style his messy hair in a half-heartedly haphazard manner, giving up after simply pushing back his parted hair before then sloughing down some more. The nearby Ness looked noticeably thinner than Merlyo had remembered him and had an almost vacantly lost look about him as if he was expecting somebody to tell him why he was here and what he was supposed to do.

  The detectives attentions where instantly drawn back towards the door as he miraculously saw the elusive but sad looking Poppy as she entered it. She was wearing a long fitted black velvet jacket which was pleasantly accompanied by a crimson velvet ruching cape which hung around her neckline, naturally emphasising her golden hair. Her long scarlet boots disappeared under her impressively tailored velvet jacket and her black gloves masked her well-manicured hands underneath. She quietly closed the door and immediately went towards the back of the room whilst not making eye contact with anyone, curiously heightening the detective’s already keen interest in her mysterious appearance.

  The curious Merlyo watched her as she hastily made her way through the packed room and noticed how sad she looked, not even taking the time to smile at others as she passed them by and not acknowledging their presence. She had been mysteriously absent from the department since their illicitly secret night of passion at The Great Lakes Exposition and these last three months had driven the detective through a proverbial roller-coaster ride of uncomfortably extreme emotions. At first he suspected that she was simply ill but after a week of absence he had attempted to contact her without success until one evening he decided to go to her home after work. She opened the door and apologised for not contacting him sooner and surprisingly told him that she had left the department for good. She had reluctantly gone on to say that it was not because of him but other, more personal reasons and also that the night she experienced with him under the fireworks was a simply a mistake and that it should never have happened.

  He was obviously shocked and saddened by this terrible news, especially since he could not stop thinking about her after those blissful moments on that memorable night. He however knew her well and presumed that she simply required some personal time and space in order to work out whatever deep issues where troubling her, unintentionally giving the tired detective yet more unwanted reasons not to sleep. One day however he accidentally heard, through the departments regular gossip grapevine, that Poppy was rumoured to now be the personal bodyguard of Ness’s new flame, the socialite Evaline Michelow. Evaline was a talented young illustrator whom worked at the prestigious Higbee's department store and was a renowned socialite around Cleveland, notorious for her lavish lifestyle and flamboyant overuse of men’s wallets.

  He had thought that if these rumours where true, Evaline was a far better suited woman for Ness’s emotionally bland needs rather than the more deeply complex natured Poppy, whose character was far darker in nature. At first he did not believe these unbelievable rumours but when they persisted he decided to investigate on his own and went to their human resources department in order to check up on Poppy’s employment status, determined to prove the malicious rumour mill within the department was wrong. He soon discovered that she was still in the department’s employment but no longer working within its four walls, officially being transferred to another unknown section which further added questions to his already confusion mind.

  The lonely and tired detective spent many a long sleepless night speculating about her reasons for her apparent silence towards himself and came to the uncomfortable conclusion that she either she told Ness about what happened through some sort of regretful emotional reaction or Ness had simply discovered the truth by himself and given her an ultimatum. There was also the uncomfortably distinct possibility that she may of simply just used him to fulfil her carnal desires that night and once they were satisfied she simply returned to the opium fuelled Ness, attempting to forget about him and force there romantic encounter towards the back of her conflicted mind.

  Regardless of his collections of mind throbbing theories that constantly bombarded the grey matter of his brain, the cruel truth of the matter was that she did not seem to want to see him again. He knew her intimately well and felt that it was best to simply leave her alone and give her the valuable time and space that she needed in order to think about the entire situation. He was also scared of forcing her into a fateful decision about their relationship for fear of pushing her yet further into the arms of Ness and condemning his hard fought for friendship with her into oblivion. He also felt immensely guilty for barraging her with numerous telephone calls before he drunkenly waited for her to return home one night a few weeks ago whereby she had made her feelings for him quite clear. He felt ashamed about his behaviour that night and regretted his actions leading up to it and had decided not to contact her again unless she changed her mind about him, not wanting to further push her away because of his drunken ramblings about his broken heart.

  He missed there Wohl’s café appointments the most and did not want to ruin their friendship that they had both lovingly nurtured and crafted over the long months before The Great Lakes Exposition evening of lust. So he was happily surprised to see her unexpected return here to the department today and pondered her turbulent relationship with the dishevelled looking Ness, whom now was dosing in and out of consciousness as the projectors warmth nurtured his comforting thoughts of sleep.

  Merlyo thoughts became broken as he suddenly felt Zalewski’s finger tap him on his shoulder and as he turned he was instantly greeted by the distinctively inviting smell of fresh strawberry from his partner’s chewing gum. Zalewski raised his eyebrows whilst motioning with his head at Poppy’s surprise choice of standing location, which was at the back of the dark room and by the distinctly unpleasant Trunk and his dubious associates. Merlyo’s curious thoughts about her relationship with Trunk where then cut short as Gerber handed the stage over to Grossman whom instantly introduced an assortment of professionals to each talk about the Mad Butchers behaviour one by one.

  The Police Surgeon, Dr George O’Malley then went into depth about how he was convinced that the Mad Butcher was not necessarily a surgeon because his brutish technique indicated that he was more of a butcher or hunter. Then the Superintendent of the Cleveland State Hospital for the Insane, Dr Guy Williams, stated that he could not conceive that a typical insane person would perform such violent acts and deduced that whomever the Mad Butcher, his illness was not “a recognised pattern of insanity”. Dr Rubens Strauss then quoted an unnamed London colleague whom stated that a series of similar murders occurred along the Thames River in London. His secretive unnamed London source was quoted as saying that they were also most likely done by a butcher or hunter and not a surgeon. Then the psychiatrist himself, Grossman, stated that the Mad Butcher was not outwardly insane in appearance and could possibly mingle easily within society as a whole, cleverly hiding his true madness from
all.

  The numerous guests then eagerly continued to talk in immense detail about each of the seven victim’s wounds one by one whilst using the projector’s horrifying photographs and a thin pointer stick to further highlight the gruesome details of the individual homicides. Gerber was keenly listening and observing the projector’s gruesome images and occasionally stood up to comment on the various aspects of the victim’s wounds that he felt the guest speakers may have possibly missed. The room was now deathly silent as each professional had their turn at describing what sort of person they suspected that the Mad Butcher might be and his possible motivations for his heinous acts of unspeakable depravity.

  After a few more minutes of this the overheated projectors fan then started to make a terrible noise and struggled to keep up with the successive crime scenes and there accompanying professional’s opinions. Then as the final speaker finished voicing their opinion a resurgent Gerber eagerly took the stage again and began to speak in his confidently authoritative tone “There are commonly consistent elements within this so called ‘Mad Butchers’ behaviour which help us better understand him and these elements can help us build up a comprehensive character profile of the unknown killer. All the victims: Jane Doe aka ‘The Lady of the Lake’, Edward Andrassy, John Doe 1, Florence Polillo, John Doe 2 aka ‘The Tattooed Man’, John Doe 3 aka ‘The West Side Victim’ and John Doe 4 where all restrained, tortured, decapitated whilst being alive, drained of blood and thoroughly cleaned with a brush, and occasionally an unknown cleaning solution, before being dismembered and disposed of. It is almost certain that our unknown sadistic assailant derived gratification from their prolonged torture prior to their deaths and once death had occurred he no longer ‘desired’ the victim. This can be seen here, here and here with these numerous bondage restrain bruise markings on the skins arms and legs, revealing his hidden sadomasochistic desires”

  Gerber then used his pointer stick to indicate the numerous victims restraint marks as the slides rolled on by before he continued after a momentary pause, silently deliberation upon their hidden meaning “As we have heard for the professionals, after he had satisfied his dark sadistic fantasy, he then thoroughly brushed all their bodies and occasionally treated them with a some sort of powerful homemade chemical cleaning agent that caused the skin to harden and become leathery to the touch. This alone tells us that our unknown assailant is continually updating his methods to try and destroy any physical evidence and avoid detection, such as when he tried to set fire to one of the bodies found by Jackass Hill. Most of the post mortem wounds inflicted upon the bodies where for no discernible reason and I conclude from this that whatever injuries occurred after death were probably a result of his moving the body parts whilst in the process of dismembering or discarding them. There was no pleasure for the killer once his victim’s life had expired because no gratification could come from a scream less corpse” The diligent Gerber then skilfully flicked through the projected crime scene photographs and commented with such quick succession that some of the reluctant audience where becoming noticeably uncomfortable.

  After a while of this, the sickly “Gentlemen” Brown hastily left the room because he felt as though he was going to be sick upon seeing such a multitude of ghastly macabre sights, causing the amused O’Donnell and Kilbane to snigger amongst themselves like a pack of gaggling hyenas. They were amused at their associate’s apparent discomfort and lack of resilience, proving to both that he was a weakling in the sight of such horror and not as tough as he vigorously claimed to be. The slightly irritated Gerber paused for a moment to allow the disruptive sniggering to stop and gave O’Donnell and Kilbane a look of disapproval before he then put down his pointer stick and walked over to the chalk board.

  He then picked up some chalk and drew over the rough outline of the head with a question mark within its centre, wanting to emphases his next point whilst giving the disrupted room a chance to become silent again. He then put the chalk down and turned around to continue with his comprehensive conclusion about the unknown killer as he pointed at the crudely copied chalk board creation “This unknown suspect is a non-conspicuous and intelligent local man with knowledge of the surrounding area. This is because he feels comfortable to not only kill but also dispose of the victims within this particular area, showing a distinctive familiarity and comfort within this specific zone of influence. He is a large and strongly imposing man with an impressive physique because of his ability to physically tear off the victims heads whilst they struggle within their restraints. He also has to be strong in order to dismember them and dispose of these separated and heavy body parts in there different locations, easily being able to carry a full human torso from his automobile to the target disposal area.”

  He then continued after again having a quick glass of water “He is an intelligent man because of his constant requirement to continually update and improve both his methods and locations of body disposal. So you might find that he is not only well educated man whom is well versed in say, autopsy techniques or butchery, but also a learned man whom has a keen interest in forensic evidence investigation techniques. I suspect that he has the outward appearance of respectability but has an underlying psychosis as we heard from Dr Strauss earlier, possibly schizophrenia. He actively plans these murders well in advance by selecting his victims from a specifically vulnerable transient pool because no one will report them missing and they will probably not be missed. It is no coincidence that we have only identified three of the seven victims so far, further hinting at this Mad Butchers shrewdness and cunning nature of deception. He may incapacitate his victims prior to their torture by drugging there drinks or food but unfortunately so far found no drugs have been found within their various body parts. However I am convinced, as are my vast array of professional colleagues here, that this is what he does and we simply just need the evidence to confirm this theory”

  The attentively listening Merlyo took down a note of this requirement and added it to his notepads long lists of newly acquired information whilst he heard the nearby Cowles voice a question “Sorry for the intrusion but would there potentially be drugs within the undigested food remnants of the various torso’s stomachs?” The pleasantly surprised Gerber answered, impressed with Ness’s young protégé’s ability to actively analyse detailed information “Why yes! Very good question Cowles. We have tested all partially digested foods within the torso’s but as yet we have not discovered any drugs within them. There is a theory that this is also why he goes to the lengths of draining blood from their bodies because this is an attempt to eliminate this valuable trace evidence. Very perception question however Cowles, thank you!”

  Gerber made a point to remember the young Cowles whom was renowned around the department as somewhat of a genius in disguise before he then swiftly continued on with his analysis “This vampire like killer would also have to torture and dismember his victims in a secret location whereby he would not be disturbed so he must have some sort of private area in which to work, ‘a laboratory’ if you will. To perform such a noisy task as torturing someone and then such a messy task as dismembering the body over long periods of time, this ‘laboratory’ would have to be well hidden”. A satisfied Merlyo was impressed with the Gerber’s opinions and knowingly nodded at the equally impressed Zalewski whilst an ill-mannered O’Donnell shouted from the back of the room “You mean like an abattoir?”

  The entire room then curiously looked at the smirking sheriff and his equally smirking stooge Kilbane as both eagerly awaited the coroners reply. Gerber gave his answer instantly, slightly confused at their oddly smiling behaviour “Why yes! That term is probably more fitting sheriff, the Mad Butcher’s abattoir! Find this abattoir and we find the Mad Butcher himself!” Merlyo’s eyes then drifted from the immaturely smiling sheriff and his lackey to the nearby sad looking Poppy as he caught her covertly looking at Ness with the same look of longing that he had covertly given her for so long from behind his hidden desk. H
e then reluctantly returned his gaze towards the front of the room because he did not wish to intrude upon her private thoughts and had no intention of bothering her with his own yearning gaze within this tightly enclosed room.

  Then the agitated Sergeant Hogan voiced his disdain for the entire Torso Clinic proceedings, which is what a lot of people were thinking but did not have the courage to say “Gentlemen! Tonight we’re right where we were the day the first body was found!” This comment was soon followed by some jeering and applause from the crowd, all of whom were feeling defeatist about the entire unsolvable case which always appeared to lead nowhere. Everything within the tightly packed room was incredibly amplified in intensity, magnifying the startling effects of the disgruntled police and the humidity to almost unbearable levels.

  After a few moments this defeatist noise soon stopped and Merlyo refocused his efforts back upon Gerber’s soothingly familiar voice that strangely comforted him with the macabre topic, blissfully taking his mind off his achingly lonely heart “Thank you for that delightfully helpful contribution to this discussion Sergeant Hogan! Moving swiftly on, as we heard from Dr Grossman earlier, the killer is clearly psychopathic but probably not outwardly disturbed in appearance and there is disagreement as to whether he is a homosexual but considering the genital mutilation of the male corpses this a distinct possibility and cannot be denied. He also may possibly have access to either a green Ford truck or dark Sedan due to numerous witness’s statements that stated that they saw such automobiles acting suspiciously prior to the theorised disposal date of Flo Polillo and the Tattooed Man’s bodies. There is some speculation that he may have long blonde hair because of the six blonde hairs fibres that where found at the Lady of the Lake homicide scene but I believe that this hair could have been purposefully placed there as a form of misdirection. Regardless of this our talented police artist detective Trunk has been kind enough to draw a sketch of a suspicious blonde haired man whose been seen around the Kingsbury Run area and while I don’t think that it necessarily represents our killer, it would be wise to locate the man regardless just to eliminate him from or investigation”