Brian and team were still in a team huddle, knowing full well that they had indeed stumbled onto something of significance. Even if the DNA and Fingerprint sweep did not yield any real results, they could still follow up on the person who rented the apartment under the name of John Doe. Bambee had indeed served them well - and Brian had to control his impulse to get serviced by aforementioned Bambee.
The nightclub had been an interesting break for the cops and I wanted to know what they had learned. I had already downloaded an app that let me control Marcus’ laptop and I now had ready access to the camera on his laptop. It was plain for me to see that he was sleeping at the moment, as the stream was coming in now on my SmartPhone. For the moment though all was quiet and I could expect it to remain that way for the next couple of hours at least.
Reaching the club just before 8 pm saw one of the bouncers having a quiet smoke outside the club. This must have been his last smoke before he got busy with his duties. I walked-up to him, ‘I know you’ve got to get to work, but… I’ve got a piece of information that I need from you, this is yours if you give it to me.’ I said pulling out five crisp hundred dollar bills. ‘What’d ya’ need?’ ‘The cops were here yesterday, who did they talk to?’ ‘They spoke to this chick man, what’s her name… hold on, let me think. Yeah, this chick man… Bambee Fox… or Cox or something like.’ Looking into his eyes revealed that he was not bullshitting. I gave him the five hundred dollars and told him, that I will be waiting near the corner. If he should spot her coming into the club, that he point her out to me and there was another five hundred bucks in it for him.
She was expected to be in by 9 pm, I was waiting by the corner when a car pulled up, and three girls got out. This was when the bouncer pointed out this buxom beauty to me. I took note of the way she looked and walked up him, handed over the money and said ‘What time will she be going home?’ ‘After about 3 in the morning.’ ‘I'll be back at 2 am, come to the corner exactly at 2 and I’ll have another five hundred for you. Keep it to yourself, if you want the money to keep flowing.’ Clearly he was impressed and probably didn't care who I was, so long as his pockets were being stuffed with crisp hundred dollar bills.
I checked my phone and noticed that it was time.
23. Blood Dance
It was about 10 pm now and the night had started to become cold and quiet. The time had come, time to finally finish what I’d started. That air was cool and there were no more noises in my mind or heart. Everything had fallen silent, and a strange calm and peace began breezing all around me. It was time. All the running around and all the planning was going to come to a conclusion tonight. There was not a single doubt in my mind now. It was going to be Blood Night once again, I had waited long enough. Too long in fact, the hunger and need had only been growing and the universe had taken care to provide me with a kill. All the pain deep down inside just seemed to disappear, it was the peace that passes all understanding. Blood did that for me. The night was singing a song to me, a sweet and enduring tune. I was dancing in my mind, to the melody that had begun to churn all around. Into the night I was going, brave and strong and the night was responding. We were dancing together, a dance fueled by blood. The wind kept softly blowing the hair from my face.
Reaching Marcus’ house I could see that only a dull lamp was on in the bedroom. Even he was playing into my hands. Reaching the back as silently and as carefully as possible, opened the door and walked-in quietly with my backpack on my shoulders. His time had come and his home was quiet. I reached his bedroom and could see him still lying down, eyes closed, rubbing his temple with his right hand. He had no idea what awaited him.
I took the gloves from my backpack and wore them on, thereafter pulling a hunting knife from my bag, knocked on the side of his door. ‘Who’s there?’ he asked still half asleep. ‘Moses, come to take you to the Promised Land.’ His eyes came to life in an instant and he tried to get up in a hurry. Too slow, I was too quick for him, slapping him hard across the face; he fell over sideways, which allowed me the time to stick the knife in his spinal cord. I hit the bone and pulled the knife slowly along his vertebrae, effectively slashing his lifeline. Something disconnected and he fell back - eyes open staring up at me in disbelief. I rolled him over onto his back and he kept gazing up at me trying to speak. There was no use in him trying - his body, mind, and heart had started to function separately. ‘Don’t beg for mercy, there’s none coming, only misery, for all the murders, all the killing, all the raping, and everything. You are going to die slowly… at my mercy.’ The knife was in my hand as I positioned it above his chest. Slowly and with great determination I began to push downwards. The knife went in deeper and deeper, as the blood began to escape his chest and spill out, all over and onto the bed. The knife finally started to puncture his heart and spilt it in two. I had hunted for this kill for a long time and I was finally rewarded with a Blood Thrill. His body had started to vibrate and shake and I had to move away, so as not to get any blood on me. His body was finally doing that thing they call the death rattle; that last song - the song of death, the body dancing as it gave up the ghost. He had lived long enough on earth and needed to be gone.
His cell phone which had been in my possession - I took out now and turned it on. Anyone was free to call him; anyways he was not going to be answering. He was lying in a pool of blood, which was still slowly seeping out. His heart had been cut in two; otherwise his heart would have pumped the rest of the blood out through the insertion.
It was time to make my next move - looking in the mirror located in the bathroom, did not reveal any blood on my person. I was a precise and neat killer, not getting lost in the moment but taking my time and killing with accuracy. You might think of me as a monster but hey, someone needs to be taking out the thrash.
I was back at the club before 3 am and saw the bouncer standing at the entrance. As soon as he saw me, he came to the corner and handed me a small piece of paper. ‘Do you have it?’ ‘Yeah, but you need to call after she leaves man.’ he was saying. ‘Yeah, no problem,’ I said while taking her phone number from him. I went back to Marcus’ house and waited. I placed a call from his phone to hers. ‘She answered it on the third time that I’d dialed her number. ‘Who the fuck is this?’ I could hear her saying. ‘Fuckin’ bitch, you ratted me out… whore. I will find you and kill you. I’m waiting for you at your place, motherfucking cunt.’
She didn't say a word, realizing who was on the other end of the line. She cut the call and started dialing Brian’s number frantically. He had just fallen asleep and was finding it difficult to wake up. ‘Hey Babe,’ he said accidentally. ‘Brian… BRIAN.’ She was in hysterics. ‘He called me; he’s waiting at my house.’ ‘Calm down and tell me who called you.’ ‘John Doe, he called me, he’s waiting to kill me… I talked to the cops.’ ‘Where are you?’ He asked, ‘Outside the club.’ ‘Okay wait there, I’m on my way.’
Brian reached the club in less than 20 minutes and pulled up, followed by Greg in another car. She got into the car and they dashed back to the PD. Andrea, Jackie and the rest of the team had also turned up. They were going to call the number and trace the call, when all their systems were up and ready. A call was placed from her phone; they were all able to listen-in on the call. She called, it rang, but there was no answer. ‘Run a GPS trace.’ Andrea called out. It was on the third try when the GPS trace had been successfully established. ‘We’ve got a trace and location.’ Dave called out; he was the specialist Tech guy from the FBI. ‘Let’s move,’ Brian ordered. Brian, Greg, Andrea and Jackie moved quick to reach the specified location without any further delay.
I had left the place and was now headed out to the boat that had been housing the mayor for the last couple of days. Reaching the hull of the boat found him fast asleep. The whole world could be going up in flames but this guy was fast asleep. I shook him up giving him a rude awakening. ‘It’s time,’ I told him, ‘Time to go home.’ On the way back, I gave him the story that he w
ould need to repeat to Brian and team, also showing him the video on my phone of him and those gay prostitutes. I had taken this from Marcus’ laptop and was using it now to keep the mayor in check. This should serve him as a reminder just in case he should feel like losing his nerve and telling the cops the truth.
Brian and team entered the house, after knocking down the door. The battering ram in Greg’s hand was a very potent weapon. Inside they were all in for a big shock, Marcus lay bleeding in bed with a knife lodged in his heart. Brian, Andrea and Jackie exchanged glances. He had called Crystal on her phone and now he was dead. The first thing that Brian commented was ‘It’s not the phantom - this is not his M.O, he sticks a knife in the throat. This is someone else.’ It was Jackie who said, ‘Are you sure.’ ‘Nothing is certain,’ Andrea commented, ‘Maybe he changed his M.O.’ ‘No,’ Brian said. The phantom is not involved. ‘I think Phantom has moved on,’ Greg said.
It was then that Dave announced, ‘We’ve got Tech here,’ he pointed to the phone and laptop. Little did they know that this was going to change everything! All the data on the laptop and phone now pointed to Marcus as the Cop killer, a.k.a Snake.
The next morning a little after 10 the team was again in a huddle. Brian and Andrea were with Ellen, updating her on the latest developments. ‘Let me know, what you find from the phone and computer,’ she was saying. ‘Later Boss,’ Brian said as they got up to leave.
Back in their private room, the team was waiting for them with excited faces. Dave had indeed got the motherload of data from both gadgets. He had hooked up his laptop to a giant TV in the room and had now begun to take the team through all that had been recovered.
‘Firstly we’ve recovered video from all the original murders, all the working girls.’ Dave began. ‘They were all killed, because someone had paid for it. We have all the bills and receipts. Snake had been offering his Kill Services on the internet and people had ordered kills, as though they were ordering takeaways. The Kill rates were listed in various categories and offered up as a menu. The cheapest kill a person could order was that of a street hooker, sometimes there was also a discount being offered. After each kill was made, the customer was sent a very graphic video that could be kept as a collectable. Murder is en vogue and was being seen as some sort of fashion statement, giving the owner of the video his own sense of personal satisfaction and street cred. All the bank transfers and bitcoin payments have been traced back to Snake and yes, we got him.’
“Let’s keep at it and dig a little deeper,’ Brian said. ‘Ellen is not going to the press, with this just as yet. I want all the blood reports and forensic evidence before we call the final results on this case.’
‘We also need to check for trace evidence on the knife and see if it links back to all the other five.’ Andrea was saying, ‘The previous five knives had blood and DNA evidence pointing to the preceding murders of the working girls. There were six murders and five knives have been recovered, and as yet there is still one missing. This phantom or ghost or whatever you guys call him. If it was actually him, that killed Snake, then his M.O suggests that he would have used the last knife for this kill. If we don’t find that knife, then there must be something more to all of this than meets the eye.’
‘Case in point, we need to get down to the blood work and trace DNA before we can come to any definite conclusions.’ Brian was saying as he had all sorts of doubts freely roaming through his mind. He dismissed the team to rejoin only after all the results from the lab had come back in.
Brian went outside for a smoke and began to work things out in his mind. As he pulled a long slow drag on his cigarette, he received a call on his phone. It was the mayor calling from his wife’s phone. ‘Detective Brian, this is Mayor Derrick Carpenter,’ Brian was hit with a shock and almost choked on the cigarette, blurting out something stupid. ‘I believe you were missing and we were looking for you.’ ‘And we can both tell that your department has not made a good job of it. My wife is now driving me to the station and I would like to give you my official statement.’
Brian and Andrea were in the interrogation room, when Jackie ushered the mayor in. He sat down opposite Brian, and Andrea began sympathetically ‘We are so sorry, that you have had to go through whatever you did.’ ‘It was a shame but it’s over now and without any further ado, I would like to give you my official statement.’ With this his began to recount the horror he had been through. ‘It was late one night when I received a call from this person Marcus a.k.a Snake. He asked me to come down to the pier near the marina, it was important that I come alone as it was related to the chief. He had a video that I was shown - the video showed the chief having sex with a prostitute and then killing her. He had the recording and had been blackmailing the chief for some time now. Millions had gone from our chief to his account, this however had not been enough and he started demanding more and more and when the chief refused to pay, he killed him. Snake was now asking me for money which I flatly refused. People like this you know; their greed can never be satiated. I told him that nothing could make me part with my money and he asked me to follow him to his car. I know that… that was the biggest mistake that I made that night, and totally regret it. He drove me to a cottage he had out in the country, and kept me there for all this time. Apparently he had a very special clientele, that paid him to murder people and they were auctioning off me head to the highest bidder.
But as you may know, my mental state is very strong and steady and nothing was going to make me change my mind. You pay these guys once and they keep coming back for more, it just never ends. The price on my head kept increasing everyday and he was speaking to people in front of me. Last night something very strange and unusual happened to me though. I think it was a middle aged man, he was wearing one of those things you know… what are they called? Ah right, hoodies. Under that hood over his head he had on a mask… that black cloth mask. He had managed to open the door and asked me to follow him. His voice was very calm and non-threatening and so I obeyed. Without saying a word, he opened the passenger side of the car and allowed me inside. “I’ve seen all that has been happening to you.” he said. “You are free to go home now, Snake and his entire operation is finished. He is done for, all the best and God speed.” This Good Samaritan dropped me near my home and I was free. Just like that the entire ordeal for me was over.’
Brian and Andrea were quiet and just kept looking at him. ‘Can we have the video please?’ Brian asked the mayor. ‘Sure, it’s on my phone,’ he said while handing over his phone to Andrea. She got up and left with it - Dave would quickly do a search on his phone and see what he could come up with.
I had wiped all call records from the phone and it was clean except for the video. Dave searched and searched but in such a short period of time, there was only that much he could do. Andrea made sure he collected the video and then went back to hand the phone over to its rightful owner. ‘We got it,’ she said softly to Brian.
‘Thank you Mr. Mayor,’ Brian said while getting up and shaking the mayors’ hand.
Later that day results from the lab were back and as the entire team had now begun to suspect, there was no blood tracing back to what should have been the sixth knife and sixth kill. Brian by now had a deep frown on his brow; this did not make any sense, as it had been the phantom that had been in control up until now. What had happened? It would have been a prize kill for the ghost, why hadn’t he taken it? For the moment though, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. He was not restful with the entire situation. One thing to be happy about was the fact that Snake, a.k.a Marcus, a.k.a Cop Killer, was now dead. The city could now begin to breathe a sigh of relief, after a long and arduous wait; there was now some respite to be found.
Ellen was reading her speech to the press; she would announce that the COP Killer was dead and by default, now out of circulation. This would get the press off her back and stop them from hounding her. She was just praying to god that it was well and truly over and th
at no one else would get murdered in the near future. She was secretly hoping that the Phantom had done them a favor and would now disappear into the background. He had done them a service and a kindness that she was deeply grateful for.
After her meet with the press, she was going to order the team to stand down and move on. The FBI would be thanked for their service and allowed to depart in peace. This whole thing had gone on for far too long and she wanted to be rid of this mess as fast and as soon as possible.
24. Smoke and Mirrors
The next morning, the private conference room that Brian and team had been using needed to be vacated and returned to its normal daily uses’. Brian, Jackie and the rest of the team had begun to work again out of their regular office cubicles. Acting Chief Ellen had made sure that the past was quickly put behind them and had asked the entire PD to not look back. ‘Shit happens; we learn from it and move on.’ With that the team was back to their regular duties. Andrea and her team did not have enough time the previous night to say goodbye, as they packed and returned to their HQ.
The real Snake however was now all mine, we were free to duel and do battle without anymore interference from the cops. I had for a long time now claimed his heart. No one else was going to be able to win his heart over because it was soon going to be taken out, torn in two and fed back to him. Let’s see how this ruthless killer reacts when his own heart is beating outside of his chest.
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