by Richard Awe
“I promised you an explanation Samantha, and I always make good on my promises. So, let’s see. Where do I begin? Might as well as start with my dear friend Mr. Rush. Who is that you ask?” laughed Gene. “Well I tell you. I know you recognize the name. You surely read the article in the City Heat Gazette. I mean, you had a copy sitting on the end table in the living room.”
Samantha could feel her heart skip a beat. “How did he know that?” she thought.
Gene sat laughing look at Samantha. “Wondering how I knew that? Of course you are! Well don’t worry. This is the first time I have been in you apartment. But I have peered in your windows on many occasions and have seen some pretty interesting shit I might add! The bushes, our esteemed landlord Mr. Banner planted, gave me the perfect hiding place. Speaking of Mr. Banner, a shame he up and left his wife like that. No note. No call. Just up and left. Or did he? Well I’ll get to him in a minute.”
“What does he know about Mr. Banner? thought Samantha. He went missing several months ago and was believed to have run off. Banner suffered from chronic alcoholism and had done this kind of thing before. Samantha was stunned to think that Gene had something to do with his disappearance.
Gene began, by telling Samantha how he lured Rush to a hotel room, by posing as a “John” and offering him twice his fee. Samantha felt ill as he explained how he was able to unsuspectingly inject curare into Rush’s penis while he performed oral sex on him. “I’m not gay!” shouted Gene. Samantha found that statement particularly puzzling. She did not know how a man could perform a sexual act on another man and consider himself not gay.
Gene told her how he placed Rush’s limp body in the hotel bath tub and removed his glands. He told her how he used to work in a butcher shop and knew how to use a knife developing surgeon like skills that had misled police for a time.
He explained the pain he feels and how he had been in several hospitals and the doctors could not help him. He told her he was left to his own devises to find a cure. He knew he needed to consume the pain of others to kill the pain felt by him.
Samantha could not believe what she was hearing and was mortified as he continued to explain how he dumped his body at the park for someone to find and how he brought the glands back to the apartment, cooking the testicles and trying the different excrements until settling on tears as the remedy.
Samantha felt so dirty and helpless. She had no choice but to lay there naked while this demented and twisted killer confessed his crimes. She wanted to zone out and not listen but she knew she had to listen. She had to hear every detail and commit it to memory. She needed this information to give to Rick, should she be able to free herself.
Gene told her how he stalked Watterson to her work and home for several days until he learned her patterns. He told her how he let himself in an open window during the day and napped on her bed along with the cat while she worked. He explained in detail how he made her cry and captured her tears and how he killed her.
He went on to tell her how things in his life were finally taking a turn for the better since he found his magical cure of human tears. He explained the importance of the tears being cried out from the victim feeling some type of pain be it physical or emotional pain. He assured her that he was not here to harvest her pain. He was not interested in her tears of pain. He wanted Rick’s tears and once he had Rick where he wanted him he would use her bring about Rick to cry, harvesting his tears.
Samantha was right. He was setting up an ambush. Rick would never suspect the killer to be at Samantha’s apartment and would show up for dinner out of uniform and not have his gun on him. She had no idea how he intended to subdue Rick. He was out of curare and Rick could easily over power Gene. She kept trying to move but was still under the effects of the drug.
Gene continued to talk as Samantha contemplated her escape, all the while hanging on every word he said. She listened and took mental notes as he described how he killed the Swanson couple and how Rick brought that on himself. Samantha found herself becoming overwhelmed by all that Gene had to tell her. He went on to describe how he started killing before Rush, looking for the answer, picking up the homeless and prostitutes. Killing them and experimenting on them in the old dump trucks in the woods.
He described in detail how he lured Mr. Banner to the pit in the woods by promising him a party with plenty of booze and some hookers. He killed Banner for no other reason other than he knew he could lure him to his killing hole. He told Samantha the killing hole worked well until horse back riders started using the trail that lead past his opening. He had entertained the idea of killing the riders but felt that would draw attention to his hidden area.
He decided that he would start leaving his victim’s bodies behind to be found by the police. It was easier that way. He did not have drag them up the ladder after he hit them over the head. He also explained how he needed a drug to “knock out” his victims and learned of curare on line. He told of his drug dealing roommate at the state hospital and how he was all too willing to obtain it for Gene when he flashed the right amount of green in his face.
Gene finished his gruesome story and sat back looking at Samantha’s naked body. How beautiful she looked to him. He wanted her so bad but had promised her that he would not rape her. He would not back out on his promise, especially since it was Samantha. He was in love with her and in his sick and twisted ass mind felt that once Rick was dead and out of the picture she would become his woman.
But still he was tempted by her naked body. He was a man, and his convictions were under an assault as he sat staring. He got up from his bed and walked over to her and began smelling her breasts again. Samantha’s chest began rise and fall rapidly as her respirations began to increase from fear. This turned Gene on even more. It made him feel as if she were breathing heavy because she was becoming aroused her self.
He grabbed her left breast with his right hand and gently began squeezing it as he kissed and licked her nipple and areola. After a few minutes he stopped and sniffed her abdomen down to her navel where he lingered a few seconds sticking his tongue in it briefly. He went on to her pubic region. He took his hands and carefully spread her legs until her vagina was exposed more. He pressed his nose tight against it and drew long deep breaths through his nostrils savoring her scent. After sniffing her vagina several times he stuck his tongue out running it up and down the sides.
Gene could take no more. He jumped up and ran back into the bathroom and began to masturbate vigorously. Samantha laid there, tears streaming down her face as she listened to him moaning and calling her name. She did not think she could do it anymore. She was breaking down and losing hope. There was nothing she could to save Rick or put this sick son of bitch in prison. He was pure evil and would continue to torture and kill long after her and Rick was gone.
Samantha was emotionally exhausted and had just about given up all hope, when suddenly her eyes blinked. It felt so good to have her eyelid able to keep her eyes moistened again. Her eyes had burned so much from not being able to blink. The simple movement of her eyelid brought on more then relief to dry and burning eyes. It brought on a renewed sense of hope. Her eyelids were moving. The curare must be wearing off. She had to be careful that he did not notice. She wanted him to think she was still under the effects of the curare as long as she could. She was hell bent to escape and was willing to do what ever it took to save Rick.
Chapter 20
Rick and Dan had been in the war room since 6:30 this morning, and were still hard at work when they decided to order lunch in at noon. “Feel like ordering some burgers from Tee Gees?” asked Dan.
“I’m having dinner with my neighbor, Samantha, tonight so nothing to heavy.”, replied Rick.
“That little hottie from across the hall?” teased Dan.
“As a matter of fact, yes.” answered Rick as he threw a crumpled piece of paper at Dan.
Rick and Dan settled on ordering take out from Wah Yee Cantonese Kitchen, a local Chinese tak
e out restaurant in town. They sat picking at their fried rice with chopsticks as they continued to pour over the evidence collected from the day before.
Most of the M.E. reports had not yet been completed. Deputy Coroner Schauer and Dr. Martin had given Rick their best educated guesses. They guessed the time of death for the victims found in the dump truck to be 8- 12 weeks ago. They think the murders took place in the other dump truck where the bloody mattress was found. It was hard to tell if the victims came willing or if they had possibly been drugged and carried in.
They were able to identify some of the clothing found as that belonging to Mr. Rush. They found a wallet belonging to Roger Banner, a village resident, believed to have deserted his wife and family. Some of the clothing they found indicated that they may have belonged to prostitutes or the homeless. They also uncovered a dead cat that fit the description of Mr. Watterson’s missing cat, Mr. Jinks.
Rick had placed a call to the Kane County States Attorney’s Office pleading to find a judge that would issue an order to unseal Martinez’s patient files. Rick was eager to find out who this mysterious roommate was and where he could find him. It was the only lead he had right now.
Dan cleared the table of the empty Chinese takeout containers and fortune cookie crumbs and got back to work checking missing persons reports from the area over the past 18 months. With the exception of finding Mr. Banner’s wallet they had no idea who the other remains belonged to. There were only six missing persons reports made in that time period. One was Mr. Banner. Three were no longer missing and incarcerated in either a county jail or state penitentiary. One had returned home and one was deceased. Dan decided to increase the search radius including Cook County. He resisted including Cook County, in his initial search due to the high volume of people reported missing in that county.
The war room had grown quiet with the occasional turn of a piece of paper or tap of a computer key. Rick’s cell phone’s ring pieced through the air like a knife. It was the states attorney. They were able to reach a judge that was willing to issue a subpoena for Martinez’s medical record. The scope of the court order was very limited and only allowed the name and contact information for Martinez’s roommate to be released.
Rick was elated. He told Rick to call Chief Grash, of EMHC campus police, and have him meet them at his office ASAP. They jumped in Rick’s squad and sped off to the state hospital.
Chief Grash was at his office when Dan called and congratulated the two on getting the subpoena and told him that he would be waiting for them to escort them to patient records. Chief Grash advised them that there were staff working in patient records until 1:30pm and would hold them if needed.
Rick pulled his car onto the hospital grounds and was met by Chief Grash in his patrol car. They followed Chief Grash to a large red brick building deep in the confines of the run down facility. All three ran up the steps leading to the main entrance of the building. Once inside, Rick saw a tall thin campus police officer arguing with an employee of patient records who was clearly upset that she was being prevented for going home.
Rick introduced himself to her and thanked her for waiting. He explained the importance of her staying and handed her the subpoena. The fifty something African- American opened the door without saying a word and sat down at a computer terminal. Once the computer had rebooted from the recent shut down, she typed in the name of the subpoena. She clicked through a few screens and then wrote down some information on a piece of paper and handed it to Rick.
Rick picked up the paper and read it, Gene Mathew Harrison, 321 Orange Street, Elgin IL. “Can I go now?” asked the records employee. Rick thanked her again and gave her $20 for her trouble. They thanked Chief Grash, got in their squad car, and left.
Rick called Elgin Police to have them check the water department records to see who lived at that address. The address belonged to Roger Timmerman. They decided to drive to that address and see what they could find out. If Harrison used to live there maybe he left a forwarding address for mail.
They were not far from the address. Just a few blocks and they were there in only a few minutes. They pulled up in front of the address and got out of the car. It was a large old house and was kept in fairly good condition. There was no garage and the driveway ran along one side of the house and widened into a six space parking lot.
Rick could tell that this was previously a house that had been converted into an apartment building. He walked up the front door. The front door was a screen door that led into a large screened in front porch. He opened the door and entered the porch. Once inside the porch they pressed the buzzer.
A few seconds later an older gentleman appeared and opened the door. Rick introduced himself and Officer Keyes asked for Roger Timmerman. The man replied that he was Roger Timmerman. They explained that they were looking for Gene Harrison.
Mr. Timmerman told the officers that he ran a halfway house for patients, when they were released form EMHC,, and that he knew Mr. Harrison and had an address. Mr. Timmerman excused himself and went to his office to get the address.
He returned a few minutes later and handed Rick a piece of paper that read, “762 Pleasant Dr. Unit 3A, South Elgin.” Rick could hardly believe what he was reading. He just stood there staring at the address for what seemed like an eternity. He knew the address all to well. The name also made sense now. Dan saw all the color drain from Rick’s face. “What is it Rick?”
“That son of bitch lives in my building!” exclaimed Rick.
“What the hell do you mean?” asked Dan
“His address,. It’s my building! He lives on the third floor. Two units above me! He moved there a few months ago. I only knew his first name, Gene!” explained Rick.
The two investigators jumped into their squad car and left. Rick activated his lights and sirens. Dan contacted the states attorney and explained that they had located the person of interest and was able to get a warrant for his arrest for questioning. Rick called Lt. Jones at home. He explained what was going on and that he needed to activate the departments Special Response Team, SRT. If that was their man, he was not going to come willingly. Lt. Jones agreed and activated the SRT unit and told Rick he would meet them and the team at Clinton Elementary School. They would stage there and make their plans.
Rick’s stomach sank. Samantha! He thought. She was probably at home. He needed to call her to tell her to stay in her apartment and lock the doors and whatever she does, stay away from Gene!
Rick kept calling Samantha’s phone but got no answer. He left her several messages to stay in her apartment if she was home and to not go home if she was out. He told her that Gene was a person of interest and to stay away from him and to call him if she knew his where abouts.
Rick worried about Samantha, as he sped down Rt. 31 headed to the school. He hoped that she was out shopping like she told him she had planned. He figured it was too late in the day for her run and that she must be out shopping. The sooner they got this guy the better he would feel.
Chapter 21
Samantha could hear Gene doing something in the kitchen. It sounded as if he were setting the table for dinner. She could hear him whistling and singing a tune. It was “Paperback Writer”, by the Beatles. She had always liked that song and now she hated it.
She was now able to move her lips some as well as her finger tips. She still lay naked on the bed cuffed to the headboard. Gene had been in the other rooms for the past forty five minutes. He had stuck his head in from time to time checking on her.
She wondered what he was up to. She could here dishes clanging and silver ware being placed on the table. At one time he ran the vacuum in the front room. She could hear the cabinet doors opening and closing as well as the refrigerator. “Maybe he’s making himself lunch.” she thought to herself.
Samantha was getting more and more movement in her arms and hands with every passing minute. She was able to move her right arm the most. She could see that Gene did not have the cuff very t
ight on her right wrist. Samantha squeezed her right hand making it as small as she possible could. She pulled against the cuffed and began to twist is it back and forth. After a short time she was able pull her hand free from the handcuff.
“I’m out!” she thought. She quickly began trying to free her left hand but the cuff was too tight. She reached down to the pair of scissors that Gene left lying next to her. She tried to use them to pick the lock but was unable to. She could not let him see her like this. She quickly put the scissors back on the bed. Using her right hand she pushed the open handcuff shackle all the way though so that it was now in the open position. She closed it again making it plenty big enough for her to pull her wrist out quickly if she had to. She placed her hand back through the cuff and let it hang against the cuff giving the appearance it was on tight.
She lay on the bed, working on a new escape plan, now that she had a free hand and a weapon. She ran several scenarios through her head on how she could use the scissors to stab them in his neck when he was not looking. She needed him close. She found herself wishing that he would return and begin kissing and licking her breasts again. This would give her the opportunity to act and drive the scissors deep into his throat.
Samantha’s planning was interrupted when she heard what she thought was the creaking of the stairs from the hallway. She could always tell when someone was coming or going when she was in her bedroom. She could hear the creaking it made as their feet hit each of the steps. When steps grew faint she knew that they went to the third floor.
The steps started out from the first floor and were going up both flights of stairs which lead to both the front and rear doors to each unit. The creaks were coming from both sets of stairs simultaneously and several creaks could be heard. It sounded as if several people were going up both the front and rear staircases slowly.