by Gail Caban
“Alright.” Ness whispered and pushed her queen to d5. She heard the water turn off upstairs, so she picked up Travis’ phone and started going through his messages and social media posts. She didn’t want to make the mistake of ignoring an important message and someone unexpectedly letting themselves into the apartment. It appeared that practically all of Travis’ communications revolved around Nathan and Jarrod. There didn’t appear to be any long-term girlfriends that he had, so Ness’ main focus would revolve around his two friends.
“Find anything interesting on there?” Eddie asked as he came down the stairs.
“Porn . . . lots of porn. But nothing of particular interest. The only people that he really communicates with on a regular basis is Nathan and Jarrod, so that works to our advantage,” Ness said, placing the phone on the coffee table.
“That it does. Have you thought about how you want to take care of them?” Eddie asked as he looked at the chessboard.
“I have a couple of ideas, but we’ll discuss those after a few moves,” Ness answered.
Eddie nodded and pushed his pawn to the e5 square, and Ness responded by pushing her pawn to the c5 square.
“So, why do you like the French Defense, Ness?” Eddie asked as he played his knight to the f3 square—adding extra protection to his pawn on d4.
“I like it because it looks defensive, but it really attacks the center which can put white on the back foot if it’s played properly,” Ness pushed her queen to the b6 square.
“Bringing the bitch out early, I see,” Eddie smiled, moving his light-squared bishop to d3.
“It’s a normal variation for this defense. Besides it adds extra pressure onto white’s pawn on the d4 square. But now you’ve made a mistake by blocking the protection of your queen by moving your bishop to d3,” Ness smiled and took the pawn on d4 with her pawn on c5. Eddie didn’t comment and took the black pawn with his knight.
“You’re giving up your knight for a pawn?” Ness asked, taking the knight with her queen.
“No, Ness. I’m giving up my knight to win your queen,” he said, moving his bishop away from d3 and to b5, placing the black king in check while simultaneously attacking the unprotected black queen with his queen.
“Shit,” Ness uttered.
“You see, Ness, things aren’t always how they appear to be. In this position, you assumed I made a mistake by blocking the defense of my pawn by moving by bishop to d3, where in reality I was setting a trap—and a rather tempting one I might add. It appears that black can gain complete control of the center of the board by taking the d-pawn with their queen, but it’s really a crushing blow for black if they fall into that trap,” Eddie said sitting back into his chair.
“That gives me an idea for Jarrod and Nathan,” Ness said.
“Carry on.”
We lure them back to Travis’ apartment when they don’t expect it. We tell them that the police have discovered new evidence that can pin the rape of that 14-year-old girl on all three of them. However, Travis has an idea and promises a way out, but they need to come back tonight and meet him in his apartment. Once they’re inside, we take them out and disappear for good. That prevents the risk of them being on guard because their friend was murdered, and their bodies won’t be discovered for a few days because the apartment is only scheduled to be cleaned on Wednesday.”
“It could work. You up for another round tonight?” Eddie smiled. “It is risky going in the same way that we came in, but people are normally lazy on a Sunday night. Are you sure you’ve planned everything out that you need to?” Ness nodded and rose from her chair.
“It’s a good thing that I bought a few duplicates of the outfits that we wore tonight.” Eddie went upstairs and grabbed the change of clothes for Ness.
“How do you finance all of this?” Ness asked.
“What do you mean?” Eddie asked, handing her the clothes.
“All of this—the clothes, weapons, vehicles, modifications to the house. All of this is expensive and difficult to come by.”
Eddie smiled, “I’ve been doing this for a long time. You build up what you need to and gain experience in many different avenues of life. Go and get dressed. It’s almost midnight, and if there’s any hope of us pulling this off tonight, then we better get moving.” Ness nodded and went and got dressed. That done, they walked back into the garage. “Do you have hollow-point 9mm ammunition?” Ness asked.
“I do, why do you ask?” Eddie seemed very intrigued at that strange request.
“I’d prefer to swap out the regular ammo in the Beretta with hollow points.”
“Alright,” he said, grabbing the Beretta from the duffel bag, ejecting the magazine, and replacing it with one that contained the ammunition of Ness’ choice.
“So, why do you want hollow points?”
“It’s part of my plan,” Ness said as she climbed into the passenger seat.
“Fair enough,” Eddie said, climbing into the car and starting it up.
16
Wyatt pulled into his driveway just before lunch. He parked his truck in the garage but noticed that Lindsay’s car wasn’t there. He checked his phone, but there weren’t any messages from her. He walked toward the front door and went inside. Lindsay had scribbled a note for him and left it on the little table:
Hey Babe,
I went to my mom’s for the day. She called and was feeling pretty lonely, so I suggested that we go out for a little while. I’ll see you a bit later if you get home before me.
I love you lots!
Lindsay xxx
P.S. There’s some leftover pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry.
Wyatt smiled at the note. Lindsay was always old-fashioned and preferred sending letters instead of text messages. She was also a lover of flowers, so keeping her happy was pretty easy. All Wyatt had to do was write her love letter and buy her a bouquet of flowers, and she would swoon.
Wyatt was actually feeling a little peckish; he walked through to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of slices of the cold pepperoni pizza and a beer out of the fridge, and he walked to the den. He turned on the computer and took a couple of bites while he waited for it to boot up. Once he had accessed the database, he typed in 397 Riverview Road, Northbrook into the search bar and saw that it was owned by Edward Rose. He continued reading anything that he could find on this man, but it was the lack of information that got Wyatt’s mind racing. Why would Ness want to spend her time with a 54-year-old bar owner?
“Hang on,” Wyatt said to himself. “Northbrook is an expensive suburb to live in; this guy’s business must be extremely lucrative to be able to afford a house there.” He looked up the details of the bar that he owned, and he saw that the bar grossed around $330,000 per year. “That’s a fair amount, but I don’t know if he would be able to take enough from that to be able to support a home in that area,” Wyatt looked up if he had vehicles registered under his name, and he saw that he had a G-Wagon and a Ford Contour registered.
“Together, those vehicles would easily exceed $170,000. So, what do you do, Mr. Rose, to afford these types of expensive luxuries?” Wyatt said to himself and took a sip of his beer. Wyatt pulled out his phone and dialed Wilcox’s number, and he answered on the third ring.
“Hey Wyatt, what’s up?”
“I hope I didn’t wake you, Robert,” Wyatt said.
“Wake me?” Wilcox laughed. “I’m still at the office.”
“You know you do need to sleep at some point, right?” Wyatt remarked.
“Yeah, when my work is finished,” Wilcox smirked back.
“Is there any news on the DNA from the hair found on Martin’s body?” Wyatt cut to the chase.
“No, the results came back, but it didn’t match anyone in the system. So, we’ll have to start getting DNA samples from possible suspects, but the list is quite long with him being a dick and the son of a politician: it’s kind of a long shot.”
“Listen Robert, I don’t know if my sister is someh
ow involved in this,” Wyatt whispered into the phone.
“Seriously, you think Ness is capable of something like that?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore, but I tracked her vehicle to an address today that makes absolutely no sense.”
“What do you mean?” Wilcox asked. “Her car was parked at 397 Riverview Road, Northbrook. The house belongs to Edward Rose. He’s a 54-year-old bar owner.”
“The owner of Eddie’s Bar,” Wilcox commented quickly.
“Yeah, how did you know that?” Wyatt frowned.
“It’s one of the places that Henry Martin used to frequent regularly. I was actually going to head to the bar later today to ask if anyone had seen Martin recently,” Wilcox said.
“Well, that isn’t coincidental at all.” Wyatt said, facetiously worried.
“There’s no such thing, mate. Maybe there is something going on here. How do you want me to handle it?” Wilcox asked.
“Carry on with the investigation, Robert. We can’t make decisions based on ‘what-ifs.’” Wyatt said.
“I’ll let you know what I find out,” Wilcox said as he hung up.
Wyatt stood up and walked to the window overlooking the street with his beer in his hand. He took a few large sips. He was very worried of the outcome of this investigation because there was something deep inside of him that was almost certain that Ness was responsible for Martin’s murder.
17
Even with the lights of Chicago, the night seemed to be getting progressively darker as Eddie and Ness drove along the freeway returning to the apartment block on West 33rd Street. Ness remained quiet as they drove because she was still working through several details in her mind. She inhaled deeply. The previous high from killing Jones was quickly dissipating, and she was starting to feel absolutely exhausted. Combined with the stress of setting a trap for two more victims, Ness was starting to feel overwhelmed.
“Are you alright? You’re looking rather pale. And I can even see that in the dark,” Eddie asked, concerned.
“Yeah, just feeling tired,” Ness yawned.
“The stress will do that to you,” Eddie passed her bottle of water from the back seat.
“Drink this, it will help you feel better.”
Ness downed the bottle, and she could feel the coolness of the water revitalize her. “Thanks, that helped.”
“Good—because we’re here,” Eddie parked across the street. Because of the late hour, there was hardly anyone about, and those who were weren’t the types of people to intentionally cross paths with others. “Let’s go.”
Eddie and Ness half jogged back to the fire exit door. “Is the alarm still disengaged?” Ness asked.
“It should be, but I’ll still run the scrambler to be safe,” Eddie answered and attached the scrambler to the wires that he stripped earlier—the door popped open. “After you. This is your plan, after all,” Eddie whispered, and Ness led the way up the stairs.
When they reached the fifth floor, Ness peered through the window and could see that there was no one in the corridor. “Let’s go,” Ness said, but she could feel Eddie’s hand on her arm.
“How do you intend on getting back into the apartment?” Eddie whispered.
“Didn’t you bring your lock-picking set?” Ness gave him a look. “Hey, this is your plan, so how are you going to get into the apartment?
Ness smiled and dug in her pocket. She removed a key and held it up, “This is how.”
Where did you get that?” Eddie looked genuinely perplexed.
“I took it off Jones’ bunch of keys earlier before we left, just in case we needed it again.”
Eddie looked impressed, “Clever girl.”
Ness smiled and walked toward the apartment. She peered around the corner to see if it was still clear on the other side and—once she was satisfied that no one was around—she continued. She placed the key into the lock and unlocked the door. They were assaulted by the smell of blood and urine, and Ness had to cover her nose when they walked in.
“That’s the problem with death—the sphincter muscles relax and if someone has a full bladder when they die, they tend to make an extra-large mess of things,” Eddie said as she closed the door behind them. “So, what now?” Eddie asked.
Ness pulled out Travis’ phone and dialed Jarrod’s number. He answered on the first ring: “Hey, man. How’s the hangover?”
“Hello Jarrod.” Ness said with a soft voice.
“Who’s this?”
“A friend. Travis is rather indisposed at the moment, so I decided to call you,” Ness said.
“What do you want?”
“Well, you three made a rather large mess the other night when you raped that girl. You three thought you got away with it because there wasn’t enough evidence against you. But I have enough evidence to put all three of you away for the rest of your lives,” Ness scoffed at him.
“You’re bluffing, you bitch.”
“Well if you look at it, you don’t have much of a choice. You and Nathan need to come to Travis’ apartment tonight so we can discuss the terms of payment. Oh . . . and if you try anything along the way, all of the evidence I have is going straight to the police; there’s nothing that mommy and daddy dearest will be able to do to stop it. You have an hour to get here before I disappear,” Ness hung up.
Eddie had crossed his arms over his chest: “You sure you know what you’re doing? They have time to prepare now before they get here.”
“Yes, they do, but they’re also expecting to meet a blackmailer and not a murderer which still puts me at the advantage,” Ness walked to the duffel bag and pulled the Beretta out. She screwed the suppressor onto it, and she loaded the weapon. She grabbed a Ziploc bag and cable tie and pulled the bag over her hand that held the gun. She then zip tied the bag closed.
“Where did you learn that?” Eddie asked.
“Well, I would say that being in a family with a bunch of cops teaches you a few things. But really, I saw it on Dexter,” Ness laughed and moved to the apartment’s distribution board and flipped the main switch, cutting the power to the apartment. “Now we wait,” Ness said, moving behind the door. Eddie moved into the darkness in the kitchen to see how Ness handled herself.
Almost an hour later, Ness could hear hushed voices outside of the apartment’s door, and she got ready for them to come inside. They tried the handle, and the door opened.
“Travis? You here?” Ness heard one of them whisper.
“Get the lights you idiot,” Nathan said. Ness could hear them try the switch, but the lights didn’t come on.
“What is that smell?” Jarrod piped up as they walked into the apartment. He took his phone out and turned the torch on. He let it shine across the room, and then he saw Travis’ bloody body tied to the table. “Fuck!” He ran forward with Nathan close behind.
“What the hell?” Nathan exclaimed. “I thought this chick only wanted money.”
“That’s not exactly accurate,” Ness’ voice said from the darkness behind them. Suddenly, Eddie then flipped the main switch, and all the power in the apartment came back on. Ness closed the door and pointed the bagged gun at the two men.
“Woah, take it easy. We’ll give you whatever you want,” Jarrod said.
“I know. That’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Ness pulled the trigger, and the gun fired with a loud putt. The bullet hit Jarrod directly in the right side of his chest, and he flew backward, hitting the ground hard. Nathan squealed and then Ness pointed the gun at him and fired. The bullet hit him in a similar area where Jarrod was hit, and he also went down hard. The wounds bled profusely, and the two men were struggling to breathe. Ness walked up to them with the gun still pointing at them.
“You see, I loaded this gun with hollow-point ammunition which mushrooms on impact, creating a severe amount of tissue damage. The lungs are very spongy organs, and they can absorb a lot of blood—at this moment, your chest cavities are filling up with blood. The only proble
m is that it isn’t a fast death, being shot on the right side of your chest,” Ness moved as Jarrod started sputtering blood as he tried to exhale.
“But your punishment isn’t over yet. You see, Travis was completely castrated before he died because of what he did to that girl, and now you two will face a similar fate,” Ness aimed the gun directly at Jarrod’s groin and fired twice in a rapid succession. She then fired twice into Nathan’s groin, and both men squirmed and gurgled against the pain and the blood rising in their throats. Ness moved away and watched them bleed out. In two minutes, both of them stopped moving, and their breathing stopped.
“I’m impressed,” Eddie said from the kitchen. “And using that Ziploc bag was ingenious. It contained all of the gunshot residue and bullet casings. Well done on the execution of a good plan . . . and two rapists,” Eddie laughed at his joke.
“Let’s get to work. We need to be out of here before people start waking up to go to work,” Ness said, moving to the kitchen to grab the vacuum cleaner, mop, and bleach. Because there was so much blood on the floor now, Ness knew that it would have to be cleaned up before it soaked into the floor.
The cleaning process took much longer the second time round because the deaths were far messier than Travis’. It took them almost two hours to clean the area adequately.
“Do I need to dig the bullets out of the bodies to prevent the cops from tracing the bullets to the gun that fired them?” Ness asked.
“No need. I got this gun on the black market from a source I know well. It’s untraceable, so you don’t have to waste your time performing ‘surgeries’ on these cadavers,” Eddie said.
“Good, then it’s time to get out of here,” Ness said and checked the time. It was well after 3:00 A.M., and they had to get moving before someone noticed their presence here.