When he walked into the kitchen, Arie was placing a plate of pancakes and warm syrup in the middle of the table.
“Have a seat, there is fresh coffee on the counter and some orange juice in the fridge,” Arie said as she grabbed her plate and filled it with pancakes.
“Thanks, you didn’t have to go through the trouble of doing this, but I am glad you did,” Cris said as he poured a cup of coffee and made his way back to the table. He took the rest of the pancakes that were in the middle of the table and drowned them in syrup.
“Do you mind if I turn on the news?” Arie asked.
Cris just nodded his head as he inhaled his plate of pancakes. The only home-cooked meal he got was when he visited his mother.
“These are the best pancakes I have ever had,” Cris finally looked up and said to Arie as she sat back at the table.
“Thanks,” Arie said as she sat down and began to eat the chocolate chip pancakes that she had been craving for a while.
“Breaking news: we have more information on the victim from this morning’s kidnapping. It all started when a witness called police early this morning around six-thirty a.m. to report a kidnapping. All we had earlier today was a description of the woman, but now we have her name and a picture of her. The Daytime Killer’s latest victim has been identified as Karlie “Kylee” Craig-Johnson.
“If you have any information regarding this crime please contact your local police station or contact us and we will get you in contact with the proper authorities.”
Arie didn’t hear the rest of the news after seeing Kylee’s picture and hearing her name. The world around her went blank as her mind tried to grasp it all. Her hands shook as she reached for her phone, which was turned off and charging on the table next to her. She let the tears fall and buried her head into Cris’s chest when he enveloped her into his arms. The more she shook the tighter he wrapped his arms around her. Arie couldn’t remember a time when she felt safer in her life.
Get it together, you cannot fall apart when Kylee needs you, pull it together, and find her, Arie thought as she pulled away and tried to compose herself.
“Are you okay?” Cris asked as she wiped the tears of her face.
“Yes, we have to find her now and I have to call the Craigs’ and Jordan,” Arie answered as she reached for her phone.
“Alright, I am going to call the captain and grab the keys to Grace’s storage. Knowing Grace, she will have more evidence in there that could help us,” Cris said as he disappeared out of the room to let Arie make her calls in private.
Arie took a deep breath and dialed Jordan’s cell phone number first.
“Arie, thank God. Where have you been?” Jordan stammered.
“I am sorry my phone was dead. I just saw the news.”
“We thought you were taken with Kylee or something. Listen, my brother and our buddies in the Navy EOD are due to arrive in a few minutes so I have to go. I will call and check on you in a little while and, Arie, don’t put yourself in danger trying to find Kylee on your own.” Jordan said right before hanging up.
Cris strolled into the kitchen just as Arie hung up the phone.
“I have the keys to the storage, let’s get out of here so we can find Kylee,” Cris said as he poured them a thermos of coffee. Arie was waiting in the car for him by the time he finished grabbing the coffee. Cris jumped into the driver’s seat after making sure everything was locked up, then they took off toward Grace’s storage unit.
Chapter Seven
It was only lunchtime and he was already anxious to get off work. He was having a hard time containing his excitement in front of his coworkers and focusing on his job. He had almost cut off his hand a few times as he used the Butcher’s meat saw and grinder.
He both hated his job and loved it since it was so close to his lairs. It was a far cry from being an investment banker. Buying and selling products was his life for several years and he loved it until one of their most valued customers pissed him off. It was one of those times when he was in the process of stalking his next victim and darkness was overtaking his mind. Trying to contain his anger and control the darkness was difficult. Especially when he had a customer who was yelling at him and pointing his finger in his face while insulting him with words he wouldn’t dare to repeat. Spit flew from the customer’s mouth coating his face. He couldn’t take it anymore so he pushed the client up against the wall and choked him until he passed out. The next day he was fired, and luckily, no charges were pressed against him. After that encounter, he knew he couldn’t work anywhere that had customers or required great customer care so he chose the meat plant.
He clocked out for his hour lunch, grabbed the brown paper bag lunch out of the fridge next to the time clock, and made his way toward the van. He looked so peaceful, unflustered, and composed as he made his way to the van, but on the inside, he was a mass of electrifying bliss. As he drove he planned the amount of time he was going to spend with his latest entertainment and what he was going to do to her. Just thinking about the screams she would make as he tortured her had his eyes closing in unadulterated ecstasy, bringing him close to orgasm. He was only moments away from reaching heaven.
****
Kylee woke on a cool metal table, unable to remember how she got there. Her mind was foggy and her mouth felt like sandpaper, she needed water. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t clear the fog from her mind. Her head pounded without mercy as nausea turned her stomach. The world around her began to spin as she tried to sit up. Her arm jerk and something tighten around her wrist causing her to cry out. She tried to lift her right hand to cover her eyes, when everything came rushing back to her, her mind started to clear and her memories returned.
She started thrashing around on the table as she tried to yank free from the restraints.
“It’s no use,” a deep male voice chuckled.
A man in a black mask approached her from the left as he ate a sandwich. She watched as he leaned over and picked up a scalpel, making his way toward her.
Don’t let him see fear, Kylee thought as she watched the man as he ran the scalpel down her shirt, slicing it down the middle.
Kylee tried to move as he brought the scalpel to her now exposed skin. She felt like someone just now waking up from a coma and realizing they were on a mortician's table. Instead of a mortician, she was on a psychopath's table out in the middle of nowhere. A lot of women in the group counseling for battered women she went to after leaving her abusive ex-husband said they saw their lives flash before their eyes as they were being beat within an inch of their lives. She didn’t see her life flashing before her eyes like them, all she saw were her parents’, husband, and Arie’s smiling faces looking at her.
A spark formed in his eyes and fireworks went off throughout his body as Kylee yelped as he pushed the scalpel into her skin while he stroked up and down his cock with his other. He exploded in orgasmic pleasure, his semen barely missing her as it streamed down the side of table to floor while she continued to yelp and blood poured from her wound.
“Yes, that’s right, keep squirming and yelping, it is like music to my ears and body,” he said as he pushed the scalpel further into her but not far enough to cause internal damage.
Kylee had heard of people like this and never thought she would meet one, let alone be in their clutches. In one of her psychology classes, they learned about sociopaths who could only and did get off on harming others. Whether it was by hearing a person scream, drawing blood, or inflicting pain on them.
I cannot react to anything he does no matter how painful it is or how much I want to scream and try to get away, Kylee thought as her kidnapper’s watch began to beep.
“Well it looks like our time is up for now. I am looking forward to spending more time with you after work,” the deranged man said as he tucked himself back into his pants, turned around, grabbed a cloth, and poured chloroform onto it.
Kylee began to thrash as he approached her with the towel extended in
his hands. He grabbed her by the hair to hold her head steady as he covered her mouth with the chloroform-filled towel. Within seconds her thrashing ceased, her body went limp, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
The man walked out of the room with a huge smile on his face and whistled an upbeat tune the whole way to work.
****
Cris and Arie stood in front of the bulletin boards with Grace’s notes on them, scanning over them, looking for anything that jumped out at them, as they sipped their coffee.
Arie picked up the thumbtacks and began placing blue ones over the abduction sites, red ones where the bodies were dumped, and green ones where Grace thought the kidnapper was taking his victims. As Arie looked at the board, she noticed a lot of the places the kidnapper was taking his victims were abandoned secluded buildings and homes.
She also noticed there was at least two abandoned buildings forty-five minutes to an hour away from each abduction. She quickly picked up a blue thumbtack and placed it where Kylee was abducted and placed yellow ones where ever there was an abandoned building thirty minutes to an hour away from the abduction sight. As she looked closely, she noticed there was already a dot on the board close to where Kylee was abducted. She pulled out her phone and typed the address into it.
Cris leaned over to get a peek at her phone when he heard her gasp. He could see a photo of a van in front of a cabin surrounded by trees looking an awful lot like the van the witness described. Without having to say a word to each other, he headed the car into the direction of the cabin. They were both going over in their heads the possibilities of what they were going to find when they got there.
Arie was trying to prepare herself for any and everything that she could possibly see. It was hard not knowing whether or not Kylee was dead, she knew he usually kept his victims alive for two weeks but with Kylee, she just didn’t know. Ever since Kylee left her ex, Lazarus, who everyone called Level, she didn’t hold back from anyone, no matter who they were. Kylee had a sharp tongue and wasn’t afraid to let loose any more.
Arie found herself on edge just like the night Kylee had left Level. That was one of the worst days of her life, not knowing whether Level had killed Kylee or she had escaped like they talked about. Level had showed up at her house and the Craigs’ looking for Kylee that night. He had sounded possessed and it scared Arie. It was the longest two days of her life until Arie’s father finally found Kylee in a woman’s shelter a few hours from their city. Needless to say, Arie’s father was pissed at Kylee and Arie for not telling him about the abuse she was going through. After finding Kylee, he found Level, no one knew what he had said or did to Level when he found him. All they knew was Level gave Kylee a quick divorce and no one had seen him around since.
Arie was so caught up in her thoughts she didn’t hear Cris talking to the captain on their way to the cabin. She quickly snapped out her thoughts when she felt Cris stop the car quickly. It was time for her to focus and get Kylee back alive. There was no time to dredge up the past when she was about to go head to head with a serial killer.
“We’re here, no matter what happens, stay behind me,” Cris said as he turned off the lights to the car as they got closer to the cabin.
“How did you know how to get here?” Arie asked since she was suppose to be giving him the directions to get here.
“I realized this was my family’s cabin when I looked at the address again. I didn’t recognize it when you showed me since my family hadn’t been here for over ten years. Grace was the only one who came up here and that was just to check on the cabin,” Cris said as he slowed the car down to a stop.
“Do you think she stumbled on the killer here and that was why she was killed?” Arie asked.
“That could be possible, especially since she was only found a few miles from here,” Cris said as he shut off the car.
Cris and Arie both slid out the car and quietly shut their doors as not to make too much noise and draw attention to themselves. He pushed Arie behind him as they walked closer to the cabin. As they approached the cabin, they noticed the front door was cracked a little. Cris gave Arie a hand signal letting her know he was going to go in first and make sure it was clear before she was to follow him.
Cris slid on his gloves, took his gun from his holster, and extended it in front of him as he walked up the steps. He slowly pushed the door open and made his way into the cabin. Arie walked in behind him when Cris cleared the first floor of the cabin. She stayed behind him with her gun drawn, covering his back, as they made their way to the basement. The only room in the cabin he hadn't already cleared. Arie was hoping Kylee was behind the basement door as they approached it.
Cris noticed the door leading into the basement had additional locks added to it since he had last been there. As he examined the locks more closely, he realized the lock only locked and unlocked from the outside. A slight chill ran down Cris’s and Arie’s spines as he cautiously pushed the door open.
The inside of the room in the basement looked as though it was an examination room just waiting for a patient for surgery to enter. The room was filled with medical instruments and an exam table. There was a table, which looked like the ones the morgue used for dead bodies, except this table had restrains welded into the side of it.
Arie noticed something sparkling when the light from the moon shone through. When she bent to examine the sparkling object, she realized it was Kylee’s ring.
“Cris, Kylee was here,” Arie said as she continued to look at the ring.
“How do you know she was here?” Cris asked as he continued to look around the room.
“This is the ring Kylee’s mother and father had given her for her sixteenth birthday,” Arie answered.
“Did you touch it?” Cris asked as he walked toward Arie and the ring.
“No!”
“Good, I am going to get the captain to send the crime scene manager out and only him. He is very methodical and if there is anything here to find, he will. Let’s get out of here so we won’t mess anything else up for him,” Cris said as he reached for his phone.
They made their way back to the front of the house where they waited on the porch for the crime scene manager. Both of them were consumed with their own thoughts while they silently waited.
Cris was wondering whether or not Grace was killed here and if so why. He felt like he was so close yet far from finding Grace’s killer. It was hard standing there knowing somewhere around here his sister may have taken her final breath.
Arie felt as though she had let Kylee down. If she had just gotten there sooner, maybe Kylee would have been found by now.
Cris and Arie silently approached Mike, the crime scene manager, when he pulled up thirty minutes later. They briefed him on why he was there as he suited up. He began to ask them questions about the scene as he got his tools out of the trunk of his car. Like did they smell, hear, or see anything when they first arrived. Was there any windows open when they walked in? How did they get into the house? Did they touch anything while they were in there?
Mike told them to stay outside while he examined the house and collected the evidence. He grabbed his portable radio and made his way to the house. He found he was more relaxed and spotted more evidence when he listened to Jazz.
As Mike walked into the house, one of the ghosts Arie saw regularly was pointing toward the woods. “Cris, I think we should check the woods.”
“Okay, let me just grab the flashlights out of the car and we can go,” Cris said, wanting to check the woods as well.
After Cris handed Arie one of the flashlights, they walked next to each other as they made their way into the woods. They noticed something or someone moving in the shadows and heard a rustling noise, as they walked deeper into the woods. Cris stopped in his tracks and grabbed Arie’s arm to halt her from moving further. He put his index finger to his lips as he turned to her and pointed to where he saw a human shadow moving at a quick pace. They both pulled out their guns and we
nt after whoever it was in the woods as Cris yelled out, “Police st—”
A bullet whizzed between Cris and Arie before Cris could finish his sentence. Cris fired back at the shadow figure as he headed after him. He couldn’t let the man get away, he knew it was the Daytime Killer, otherwise why would someone fire and run away from the police in the woods? The shadowy figure zigzagged left and right through the trees and bushes making it hard for them to follow him.
Arie took out the flashlight and tracked the figure’s movements through the trees as they gave chase.
Cris’s heart pounded and adrenaline rushed through him as he chased after this person. This man killed all those women, including his sister, and he had Kylee. He knew he had to catch him no matter what. He ducked and pulled Arie down with him as the killer turned around and fired at them. Before Cris could get up, Arie was up and firing her own rounds at the killer.
She quickly gave chase, not caring about the danger of chasing a killer. The only thing on her mind was finding Kylee and rescuing her.
Fog rolled in out of nowhere as they continued their chase, making it harder for them to see. Arie paused long enough to turn on the flashlight again so they could see in front of them. It was still hard to see through the fog even with the flashlight on since the fog had rolled in and covered the extra light from the moon. She quickly realized Cris was nowhere around her when she looked back up.
Cris was running after the figure, he wasn’t going to let him get away when suddenly he lost track of him in the fog. He was turning in circles trying to figure out which way he went when he felt a hard shove, sending him flying over the edge of a cliff he had no idea was there. He grabbed ahold of a large tree branch sticking out of the cliff praying it would hold. Some rocks fell off the side of the cliff knocking him in the head as the killer ran away. He waited until he couldn’t hear the killer’s footsteps any longer before calling out to Arie for help. The tree branch was starting to slip and wouldn’t hold his weight much longer. No matter what, he knew he had to hang on. He knew he wouldn’t survive the twenty foot drop from the cliff onto the big sharp rocks below.
The Eyes Tell No Lies Page 9