The Eyes Tell No Lies

by Marquaylla Lorette

  Arie followed Cris’s voice as he called out her name over and over again. She was about to step off the cliff when she heard him yell out, “Be careful, Arie, there is a cliff over here.” She quickly stepped back, turned her flashlight back on, and shined it over the cliff.

  She dropped down to the ground onto her stomach and leaned over the cliff slightly. “Cris, I need for you to find a steady spot so you can put your feet in it and then reach one arm out to me. I am going to help you pull yourself up. Find more steady places to put your feet as I help you pull yourself up,” Arie said.

  “No, go get Mike and have him come help,” Cris said, he didn’t think Arie could help pull him up alone.

  “Look, we don’t have time for that, now do what I said before the tree branch breaks.”

  He felt around with his feet carefully until he found two steady holes for his feet. He gave his left hand to Arie since he needed his right to help pull himself up. As Arie pulled him up with his left hand, he used his right hand for leverage. Arie gave one last tug when he was at the edge of the cliff as he pushed himself up with a little jump. They went flying backwards, both landing on their backs. They both laid there for a few moments to catch their breaths.

  “Thanks, I would be dead or paralyzed from the rocks below if it wasn’t for you,” Cris said as he helped Arie up.

  “No problem, let’s go back to the cabin, he is long gone by now,” Arie said with disappointment laced in her voice.

  “Alright, we are going to the house to get a few hours of sleep and then it is back to the drawing board. By that time, Mike should have some evidence or useful information for us to go over,” Cris said as they walked back to the cabin.

  “Where were they when we needed them?” Arie grunted out when she noticed four officers heading toward the cabin from their spot in the woods.

  “Probably on their way from the station. Mike came straight here from home and he lives close by. So he beat them here by like thirty minutes,” Cris said just as they exited the woods.

  They headed straight for the car when they exited the woods, both feeling as if they let each other, Kylee, and her family down as they drove back to the house.

  ****

  After pushing Cris over the cliff, the man ran toward the other side of the woods. He had to get out of there quickly or else it would be all over, and he couldn’t let that happen. He was pissed they had found his first lair already. He wished he had time to stay and kill them both, but he couldn’t risk it. His latest victim was already in the van on the other side of the woods.

  A voice in his head while he was at work had told him to move her. Something had told him to get the girl out of there and don’t park close to the cabin no matter what. He was glad he listened to the voice because if they would have come an hour earlier, they would have found her.

  Muffled groans could be heard coming from the back of the van as he got closer. The man flung the back door of the van open as he pulled out a bottle of water laced with sleeping pills. He took the cloth out of Kylee’s mouth and replaced it with water bottle. Kylee was so dehydrate she welcomed the water not knowing it was laced with sleeping pills, which quickly took effect on Kylee’s system and she was knocked out before he could reach the front seat of the van. He could see a flashlight sweeping back and forth through the woods as he pulled away, driving to his next lair.

  ****

  Arie let her mind wonder to nowhere in particular as she laid awake in bed. She was putting so much pressure on herself to find Kylee. Her body felt as though it was tied in knots and her nerves turned her stomach. She had tried for over an hour to calm her body enough to where she could get some sleep, but nothing she tried worked. It was hard falling asleep knowing your best friend was out there all alone with a psychopath. She just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry all her anguish out as Cris held her. No matter how bad she needed it or wanted to, she wouldn’t let herself break down now. Not when Kylee needed her to be strong enough for both of them, and she wouldn’t let herself seem weak in Cris’s eyes. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind, knowing she needed a few hours of sleep. She needed a clear mind before she tried to find Kylee again. She couldn’t risk finding her and getting them killed because she was too tired to fight or focus.

  An hour later, she finally let go of her torturous thoughts and let her mind drift into darkness as she fell asleep.

  ****

  Kylee woke dazed and confused. Her head was pounding, the intensity greater than it was a few hours ago. She knew her head was hurting and nausea was turning her stomach from whatever that psycho kept giving her. Her vision became clearer the more she blinked her eyes and the room stopped spinning. The first thing she realized when her vision focused was she was no longer in the cabin from earlier, although she was on the same kind of metal table.

  Her eyes focused on steel walls instead of wood like the cabin. Medical instruments hung from the ceiling and different machinery filled the room. A metal staircase with a steep incline was directly in front of her that led to an opening in the ceiling.

  “Good, you're finally awake.” She heard the same chilling voice from earlier say. “Now there will be no interruptions and we can have all the fun we want.”

  He leaned down and smiled as he stroked the side of Kylee’s face. “Damn, baby, we are about to have the time of our lives.”

  Kylee just stared at him as if he had lost his mind. Which evidently had happened by her calculations.

  “Don’t look at me like that, baby, you will enjoy this just as much as I do,” the man said as he flicked his wrist up drawing Kylee’s attention to the scalpel in his hand.

  She didn’t realize she had a new shirt on until she saw him slicing it down the middle. “You’re so sexy and yet so stupid.”

  Kylee was confused, she didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. “And you’re a psychotic, pathetic bastard. Lucky for you I am locked in these restrains.” Kylee couldn’t hold her anger back any longer she was so fucking pissed.

  Kylee fought against the restraints, she needed to reach his face so she could scratch his eyeballs out.

  “Umm, feisty, just how I like my women,” the man whispered in Kylee’s ear as he made the first hack.

  Aaaah, son of a bitch! Kylee screamed in her head as she closed her eyes tightly. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he hurt her.

  Goddammit, it hurts so fucking bad I just want to scream. No, you can’t scream, it’s what he wants, Kylee thought as he pressed down harder into her wound.

  “Open your eyes and scream for me, bitch,” the man said as he pressed harder and further down in her wound.

  He needed to hear her scream out in agony or see the fear in her eyes. He couldn’t get off if he didn’t and he was getting pissed off that she wouldn’t. Medical supplies went flew all over the room as he kicked the small metal table over.

  “Open your fucking eyes and scream, do something!” the man growled out as he pounded his hands on the table Kylee was laying on trying to get a reaction out of her.

  Her eyes didn’t open until an hour later when she knew he was coming back. Kylee knew it was best for her not to react to anything he did. She knew it was pissing him off that she wasn’t giving him what he needed to get off. She knew without a doubt that she was right when he stomped out of the room she was in and up the stairs. The first thing she did was try to get out of the restraints she was in. Pain radiated throughout her wrist as she tried to break free. It felt as though her wrist was breaking but she still pulled harder and harder until exhaustion took over her. She dropped another ring on the ground under the table she was on just in case he moved her while she was asleep. She then fell into a deep exhausted sleep.

  The man was conflicted since he was pissed on one hand he wanted to feel the ecstasy he felt earlier before going home while on the other hand he loved that she didn’t give in when he wanted her to as well.

  Dam
n, I am going to love breaking down the feisty woman, he thought as he climbed into van and made his way home.

  Without a doubt in his mind he knew he was going to dream tonight about it. How he was going to break the feisty woman down until she couldn’t take it anymore and screamed for him to stop. He just needed the right tools and he was going to bring them tomorrow night. Tomorrow I am going to have her begging me to stop when I bring out the big guns. A bright smile took over his face as he let his thoughts wonder to what tomorrow would be like.

  Chapter Eight

  It was one week after the chase in the woods. Cris and Arie had been going over the evidence they found at the cabin. Cris was shocked when he entered Arie’s house that she had been at it all night. They had been going through all the abandoned buildings on the list with Jordan and his buddies from his Navy EOD technician team. They had found the exact same things they found in the cabin, but there was no evidence that Kylee had ever been there.

  “Did the forensic specialist call you back yet?” Arie asked Cris without looking up from the evidence she was looking over.

  For the past week, Arie had studied the evidence from Grace and some from the Captain. She noticed there was a substance on all the victims’ bodies that wasn’t on the autopsy report.

  “No, we will hear back from them soon. How about you eat something and lay on the couch to get some rest. I will wake you as soon as they call with the analysis,” Cris said as he warmed them pizza from the night before and started another pot of coffee.

  Arie nodded her head, took a slice of pizza, and made her way to the couch. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate in the last few days. A few minutes later her eyes got too heavy for her to keep open as she drifted off to sleep.

  After only four hours of sleep she startled awake with a possible connection between Kylee and at least two victims. She was pissed at herself for not finding the connection sooner. She jumped up out of her seat, headed to the kitchen table, and started throwing notes all over the place, looking for the notes that matched the flashes of the notes she went over went through her mind as she sat out to look for them.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked with concern in his voice. He looked at her as if she was crazy as she tossed papers aside.

  “I think I found a possible connection linking Kylee with a couple of the victims,” Arie answered, without stopping nor looking up from what she was doing.

  Cris didn’t say anything else; he knew how it was to connect a case out of nowhere. He had done the same thing quite a few times himself. It didn’t matter where you were or what you were doing that when a possible way to connect or solve a case you had to strike while it was still fresh in your mind.

  Arie came back into the living room where Cris was sitting with a pile of victim photos and some more thumbtacks. “At least one relative from the first two victims told authorities their ex-husbands were abusive and they thought it was them because the victims had left them,” Arie said as she tacked the victims’ photos to the board.

  “Kylee told me she knew the next two victims from the women’s shelter she ran to when she escaped from Level, her ex-husband, when we saw their pictures on the news,” Arie said as she put up two more photos.

  “On the autopsy report, it notes that these four women had bruises and fractures before their kidnapping that were still healing,” Arie said as she posted the four photos on the board next to the other four.

  “What I am trying to say is it seems like each of the victims had an abusive past.

  “What if the killer is targeting them for their abusive past? Maybe he was abused by his mother and is repeatedly killing her off by killing these women. Or he may have watched his mother being abused and she never left her abuser.

  “Hold on a second, I am on to something,” Arie said as she held her hand up and began to pace as she thought more on this development.

  “I think the Daytime Killer’s mother was being abused by either her husband or boyfriend and either took too long to leave or never left. She may also have let him be abused as well and never did anything to prevent that. He may have tried to protect her as well, but all he got was caught up in the middle.

  “I believe he is picking women who were in a similar situation as his mother and is killing them. Killing them could be symbolic for him as he is killing his mother over and over again,” Arie said more to herself as she continued to pace back and forth with her head held down and her hands on her hips.

  “What I don’t get is how he is picking them all out. Some of them went to the different shelters and some didn’t go to a shelter at all,” Arie thought aloud.

  “Some shelters recommend the same counselor after the women leave their shelter and the others could have found the counselor on their own,” Cris said.

  “Okay, all we have to do now is figure out who the counselor is and how did the killer get his hands on her client list,” Arie said as she picked up Kylee’s picture and looked at it.

  “I will call Captain O’Kelly and have him put someone on it,” Cris said as he picked up his cell phone and dialed the captain.

  Cris’s other line beeped as he was hanging up with the Captain; he quickly clicked over when he saw it was the forensic specialist.

  “Sucrose, hydrochloric acid, decolourizer, antifoam was some of the substances on each body,” Cris repeated back into the phone to the forensic specialist to make sure he had everything right.

  “Sugar factory!” Arie yelled out as she jumped up and headed to the computer as Cris hung up the phone.

  Arie’s class had gone on a field trip to the sugar factory a couple weeks before her accident. She could remember everything about the factory from the way the sugar smelled to the sounds the machines made. It was one of the last times she was out having fun with her classmates. Often times as she laid in her bed in total darkness she pulled up the memory of the sugar factory as well as sailing with her father.

  When she made it over to the computer, she quickly typed in ‘closed sugar factory.’ She waited for what seemed like minutes but was only seconds for the results to come in. Cris came up beside her as she wrote down the address and entered it into his GPS.

  “Should we call Jordan and tell him?” Arie asked him as they both put their guns in their holsters and made their way to the car.

  “No, I don’t want to get his hopes up again just in case this does not pan out,” Cris answered as they drove off toward the factory.

  ****

  Arie’s heart dropped and her palms itched as they drove toward the sugar factory. They only had six more days to find Kylee if he hadn’t already killed her. She didn’t know if she could take it if this was another dead end or Kylee was already dead. The past week had already been filled with enough disappointment to last a lifetime. Along with Jordan, his brother, and their Navy EOD tech buddies, they had searched almost every abandoned building in their city. Jordan and his friends from the EOD decided to expand their search and were now checking anything abandoned in the last few years close to their city.

  Her eyes fluttered shut a little bit before she snapped awake, her body felt like it was on its last leg. The only thing holding her up was the hope in finding Kylee—and Cris. Cris had kept her going the past week; whenever she needed something, he was there with it prior to her even knowing what she needed. There were times when she just wanted to grab Cris by the collar then passionately kiss him until her pain evaporated away. She always felt guilty after those thoughts ran through her mind since her best friend was out there with a killer.

  “Arie, if your mind is not into this, I am making you stay in the car,” Cris said when he noticed Arie hadn’t realized they were at the sugar factory.

  “No, I am fine, just getting my head ready for this, let’s go,” Arie said as she exited the car and headed toward the front entrance.

  “Since you are coming along, the first and only rule is you stay behind me at all times,” Cris said as he wa
lked ahead of her. They realized the front entrance was locked up tight so they walked around the abandoned sugar factory looking for a way in. When they finally noticed one of the locks on the door at the old employee entrance was busted.

  Cris held his hand up to Arie signaling to let him go first and to stay behind him. They both raised their guns at the same time as they entered the building.

  Arie stayed directly behind Cris as they searched floor by floor, room by room, looking for Kylee. They even climbed the ladders on the side of the large machines to search through the openings for her. That was where they found a pile of women’s clothing.

  “I am sorry she isn’t here, Arie,” Cris said as he pulled Arie into a comforting hug.

  By the way Arie was biting her lip and her body slightly tremble he knew she needed the hug. He knew she was doing her best to hold it in. There was nothing left for him to do but let her know he was there for her. He pulled back slightly from the hug, tilted her head back, and lowered his mouth for a kiss. Arie pulled back to some extent just as their lips were about to touch.

  Cris was disappointed by her actions until she spoke. “Did you hear that?” she asked him as she began to walk to the left side of the room.

  He stopped her from going any further since her steps were echoing throughout the steel room making it hard for him to hear anything. A small cry for help could be heard as they both stood still.