“How on earth did you get that past security?”
“I have a federal license to carry all over the United States. I just told them I was on a hot case,” he explained taking off his glasses, giving her a look she didn’t care to see.
She shot back a roll with her eyes and headed for the front door. “What’d I do?” he said, walking swiftly to catch up, while loading the gun. She went to put the key in the foyer door when it swung open a few inches.
“What the hell?” D’nae said, more to herself than to Grady. “This door is always locked. Mrs. Martin!” she called out. “Mary, the door’s open!” When she got no reply, D`nae started to go in, but Grady grabbed her arm and pulled her back out of the way. “Wh…” He put his finger to his lips and pointed at her to be quiet and stay behind him. He pushed his gun on the solid wood door, slowly opening it wide enough to see inside. He reached in with his free hand and felt for a light switch. As soon as it was flipped, it was more than apparent that something terrible had happened.
He tried to push D`nae back out of the door, but she had already seen the carnage that was once the sweet old lady who had greeted her with a cup of hot chocolate every night for the past three years. D`nae screamed as her body buckled into Grady’s arms, her mind threatening to blackout, while her body uncontrollably heaved almost losing everything she had consumed that day. The sight and smell were overpowering and far more than she could handle. The mere appearance of seeing a dead person was one thing, but to see one that had been decapitated and brutally torn apart was another. Remnants of Mrs. Martin’s body were spread throughout the foyer and halfway up the staircase. Her insides had become her outside and her head lay grotesquely upside down by her shoulder, looking back at the front door with agonizing fear still frozen in a death scream on her blood soaked face.
The torso of the woman was an empty shell, filled with the remaining fluids of her body and the torn cloth of her floral print housecoat. It was as if someone had reached in, ripping through cloth as well as her flesh, grabbing both hands full of her digestive system, and then standing to sling them in a circle, making sure to get a piece of her in every part of the small foyer. Grady got D`nae back out to the truck and called the authorities. He was about to turn around and go back in when D`nae reached out and took his hand.
“You can’t leave me out here by myself.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you going to be okay?” He stepped up to her and moved the loose hair that was hanging in her face.
She nodded and leaned out from the seat of the truck, lying her head on his chest. He stepped in slowly, wrapping his arms around her, finally holding the one thing that he had craved ever since the night her file slid across his desk. She had become the drive of this investigation in his area of motives, even more than finding the creatures responsible for the horrific string of murders that he had been tracking from the time he became a member of the A.A.D.F. Every part of his body carried a fine tremor as his hand massaged her back in small circular motions. D`nae sniffled, drawing in sharp breaths every few minutes, relaxing against his tepid body, not once thinking about anything other than the sight she had just witnessed.
“They’re gonna want to talk to you about the woman inside,” Grady said, lying the side of his face lightly on the top of her head, taking in as much of her scent as he could. “If you’re not up to it tonight, I can try and set it up for you to go in first thing in the morning.”
“I know I can’t handle this tonight, Grady. I can’t help but think about what would have happened if I would have been home. How can I think of myself when that poor woman is dead?” she said and began to cry.
“Self preservation is a natural element built in every creature, and it’s very normal to think of our own mortality when something like this happens.”
“Who would do something like this? She was just an old lady. She wouldn’t even kill a damn spider. She would just put it in the garden and laugh at me for freaking out,” D`nae proclaimed turning her head, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve.
* * *
The officer that approached them was none other than Officer Hernandez, only this time the expression on his face looked a bit like humble pie. As soon as D`nae noticed who was coming toward them, the nausea that had just subsided crawled right back up to the base of her throat. If he had just believed her in the first place, Mrs. Martin might still be alive. “I guess I wasn’t just being paranoid after all,” D`nae sarcastically commented.
He cleared his throat and shifted his waistband, then took out a small notepad and pen. “I need to ask you a few questions, Miss Creel,” Officer Hernandez nervously said.
“We could have skipped this whole thing, if you and your partner hadn’t been such assholes the first time you came out,” she angrily replied.
“D`nae there’s no need to take this out on the officer, he’s only doing his job,” Grady added trying to calm her down.
“His job! His fucking job, Grady? This is the son of a bitch that more or less laughed in my face when I told him someone had been in my apartment in the first place,” she profoundly exclaimed getting down from the truck. “Let me give you some good advice, Grady. Don’t you ever treat me like I don’t know how to handle my own feelings or you can get back on that plane just as fast as you walked off.”
“She’s right. We were way out of line. I’ll be the first to apologize for our actions, and Miss Creel, I swear to you that I will not stop until we find out who did this,” Hernandez promised.
“I appreciate that, and I’m sorry I jumped like that. This is way over the limit of a massive strain on my nerves… what do ya need to know?” she asked a bit calmer.
“Other than the murder, the first floor was pretty much untouched, but your apartment was completely ransacked. The door wasn’t merely kicked in; it looks like it was shattered by the force of a small tornado. I know I asked this before, but can you think of anyone that would want to harm you or the victim?” Hernandez asked.
“No, I swear I can’t think of anyone. She’s the… was the sweetest person that I’ve ever met and I can’t imagine even knowing someone that could do such a thing.”
“I’m not going to ask you to come down to the station tonight, but I do want you there first thing in the morning. As soon as the victim has been removed and the forensic experts are finished, you can go in and get whatever you may need for the next week or so,” Hernandez explained.
“Thank you, Officer,” she replied looking up at the house. She climbed back in the truck to wait.
Grady walked back up to the house with Hernandez and the two disappeared inside. Around thirty minutes later, Grady came out with a small bag that she recognized to be the one from her closet shelf. He went around and got in the driver’s side and asked for the keys. She didn’t say anything, just handed them over. Her nerves were teetering on the fragile point of breaking down and driving was the last thing that she wanted to do right now.
He pulled into the first place that he found. “Lock the doors as soon as I get out, this won’t take long.” He was out of the truck before she had a chance to respond. When he came back, he hopped in and drove around to the rooms that faced the back of the motel. He got out and walked around to her side, opening her door. He reached into the back, gathering both of their bags and headed to the room, with her at his heels.
When she noticed that he only had one key, she asked, “You only got one room?”
“I’m not about to leave you alone,” he replied. “You don’t have anything to worry about, D`nae, the room has two beds. Besides, do you really want to stay in a strange place all alone tonight?”
“No, but I’m not too sure I want to share one with you, either.”
“I know I can be a pain when it comes to how I feel about you, but you can consider me on the clock. Being with you is the last thing on my mind right now.” he said, giving her a salute.
“Good, let’s make sure it stays th
at way. Now, what did you get out of my apartment? The only thing I want to do right now is get into a hot bath.”
Just the thought brought a smile to Grady’s face that in turn added a rosy blush to D`nae’s. “This is going to be a long night,” she commented, pushing past him, snagging her bag from his grip as she did. As soon as the door was unlocked, she was in and closing the bathroom door. Grady shook his head and flopped down on the bed closest to the door. He waited, letting her have her alone time in what would be the only free space she would get without him, no matter how hard she protested tonight.
He was about to dose off and would have if the cell phone in his jean pocket hadn’t started vibrating. He took the phone out and sat up on the side of the bed, looking over to make sure the bathroom door was closed before he answered it.
“Yeah.”
“We got two on the south side, there’s no doubt,” the voice on the other end said.
“Give me a minute,” he replied and walked to the bathroom door. He placed his ear to the door and waited until he heard the water in the tub slosh about before he walked over to the window, moving the curtain just enough to peer out at the parking lot. He leaned back into the corner and put the phone to his ear. “Talk.”
“Looks like two teens, one boy, one girl. They were forcibly pulled out of their car, same M.O. as the rest. Probably just came up here to make out.”
“How long ago?”
“Couldn’t be more than two, maybe three hours.”
“Well, add another one to the list. Older woman, at priority one’s location.”
“And the main objective?”
“Secure. Don’t contact me, I’ll contact you.” He walked back over to the bed as he hung up the phone.
D`nae came out of the bathroom to find Grady propped up on the pillows on the bed closest to the door. She was wearing a light pink tank top and dark pink boxers with a white towel on the top of her head. Grady pretended not to stare by rubbing his eyes as she moved across the room.
“Hope that was okay, things were kind of all over the place,” he said sitting up and stretching his arms above his head.
“You did really good. It’s kind of weird because all I sleep in is tanks and boxers. Strange that you would pick these.”
“I figured most girls are alike and I have been known to have a girlfriend from time to time,” he said and started toward the bathroom.
“I bet you have, Detective,” she called out as he shut the door. She hopped onto her bed, brushed out her hair and fell sound asleep, all before he came back out of the bathroom. When he did, she was curled up on her side with the sheet draped over the bottom half of her legs, leaving the rest her body in full view of his already yearning eyes. He turned the television off but left the small lamp beside his bed on. He took the towel from around his shirtless shoulders and tossed it across the back of the chair.
He walked over and checked the parking lot one more time before returning to his bed and getting comfortable. He lay back, closing his eyes as his mind outlined the shape of her body under the pale glow coming from the lamp. His eyes slowly opened as his head uncontrollably moved to the side, watching her. She moaned and moved her shoulders back just enough to show the soft movement of her large breasts, and growth became a factor he could no longer deny. He reached down his grey sweatpants and adjusted his manhood as his eyes molested the nipple that lay in a perfect tantalizing peak under the material that he so wished he was at that very moment.
The night was indeed a long one, just as D`nae had said it would be; only she slept like a log. It was Grady who slept on the edge of a fantasy that was smeared with the flashback shots of dream piercing memories, which entailed night after night investigating brutal decapitations and dismemberments. He woke to a horrible thought of finding the woman he fell asleep masturbating to lying in a heap of crumpled flesh, missing one beautiful head. It was certainly enough of a thought to put the mind back on track.
* * *
Once they left the station that morning, Grady wanted to secure a safe place for D`nae to stay while he did a little of his detective work to try and find out if he could pick up any clues as to who, or what, was on her trail. He knew why they would go to such extremes as murder, and he also knew the reason they were going to drastic measures looking for clues of their own, and not just going straight to the main source. He knew their reason all too well, because he had been doing the very same thing for the past two years.
When D`nae and Danny were attacked that night, now almost four years ago, they had been attacked by vampires. The only reason that D`nae survived was because a passerby witnessed a commotion while leaving the restaurant and called the police. It was apparent by her survival that the sounds of the sirens and the flashing lights had scared the three away before they could secure their kill. Three years ago, after numerous murders across the southern half of the United States, all heinously brutalized before being decapitated and gutted like cattle in a meat factory, D`nae Creel’s file slid across his desk as the only living survivor, who just happened to live in the same area as the last four victims.
Grady O’ Brian started eight years earlier with a secret undercover service that started investigating unexplained deaths back in the late seventies. He never made it in the police force due to his lack of control in the temperament department, and his overwhelming disregard for those in authority. He started up his own private practice and began doing a little detective work to pay the bills. It was by pure chance that the job he now carried fell into his lap the way that it did.
The police had arrived, as well as the F.B.I., and still no one had a clue as to what could have happened to the old man that had been out walking his dog that night. Grady was on another case altogether when he drove by and saw all the commotion. He pulled his car over as soon as he could and walked back to the first suit he found.
He flipped his identification badge open and said, “Names O’Brian, Detective O’Brian,” and proceeded to go under the yellow tape.
“Excuse me,” the suit said, taking him by the arm. “This is a matter for the F.B.I.”
“I see. Then you’re the man in charge here, and the one who will be answering to the family?” Grady replied, pulling a black pad from his back pocket. The only thing Grady knew for sure was that whatever lay hidden behind this yellow tape had the word unexplained murder written all over it. There were way too many different breeds of law on this site for it to be anything else, and he wanted a piece of it.
“You need to speak to Special Agent Harvey for that, Sir.”
“Then I suggest you let me do my job and I’ll let you do yours,” Grady replied and without another word, left the agent standing with his mouth slightly ajar.
He could smell the victim before he could actually see him, but it still didn’t prepare him for his first trip to a ‘once you enter you may never leave,’ life changing experience. The scene played out behind the apartment complex where the older man had lived. It was more than apparent that he had taken the dog out to the bathroom, because the dog was still attached to the leash that remained in the man’s hand. It was where the man was, that made the whole thing so baffling to every eye that gazed upon the eerie sight.
He dangled upside down in a ghastly state at the very top of the dead oak tree in the back corner of the lot; one leg pointing toward the sky, held by some type of cloth, the other twisted at the knee, hanging toward the earth. His legs were spread so far apart that his toes were gruesomely pointing at the sides of his ribcage, like a broken puppet. His abdomen and lower torso were an empty case of jutting rib bones, torn flesh, blood soaked tissue of intestines, and what was left of the man’s clothes, all which led down a morbid rope of gore hanging between the man’s headless shoulder blades.
On the end of the chain that remained in his hand hung the German Sheppard that was morbidly placed to mimic his master. Neither head could be found and no explanation could be given as to how anyone could have c
arried a man and his dog up to that height and secured them on such small branches without braking them with all the extra weight, doing it all in the short amount of time that his wife said he had been gone. Grady was drawn to the case like a bear to honey.
That was the night that Grady met and became a member of the A.A.D.F.: Agents Against Dark Forces. A.A.D.F. was a group of elite men who had military or police training, who were willing to place their lives on the line to stop forces that the world didn’t want to believe existed. Grady had been working on a particular group of what he called ‘rogue vamps’ for more than five years. Two years into his investigation, he came across D`nae’s file and for the past three years had been studying her every move, hoping that her attackers would one day want to know what happened to Danny Gilmore’s body as badly as he did. His waiting finally paid off, but what he hadn’t expected was the unpredictable part that his heart would play.
* * *
Here he sat, not two feet from her, driving to a small house that a few of his fellow agents had acquired, that had been secured with new locks on all the doors and windows, and several cases of paraphernalia to share with D`nae once they arrived.
“How far is this place?” D`nae asked looking out the window.
“Not too much further. You’ll have everything you need, even a phone where you can reach me at all times.”
She turned in her seat, glaring at him the hardest she could and said, “You mean to tell me, you’re taking me all the way out here just to leave me by myself? Stop the truck!”
“D`nae,” he said smiling.
“Stop the fucking truck!” she screamed right at his face.
He slid the truck to a stop and no sooner than he had, she jumped out and started walking back in the direction of the city. He killed the motor, got out and ran up beside her.
Dark Knight of the Skye Page 5