Cleansing

by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

  Cleansing

  A Novel

  Roy A. Teel Jr.

  Cleansing

  A Novel

  Roy A. Teel Jr.

  The Iron Eagle Series: Book Eight

  An Imprint of Narroway Publishing LLC.

  Copyright © 2016 by Roy A. Teel Jr.

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher. ®The Iron Eagle Logo is the copyright and registered trademark of Roy A. Teel Jr. and used by permission.

  Narroway Publishing LLC.

  Imprint: Narroway Press

  P.O. Box 1431

  Lake Arrowhead, California 92352

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First Edition

  ISBN: 978-0-9904748-2-1

  Teel, Roy A., 1965-

  Cleansing: A Novel, The Iron Eagle Series: Book Eight/

  Roy A. Teel Jr. — 1st ed. — Lake Arrowhead, Calif. Narroway Press

  c2016. p. ; cm. ISBN: 978-0-9904748-2-1 (eBook)

  1. Hard-Boiled – Fiction. 2. Police, FBI – Fiction. 3. Murder – Fiction.

  4. Serial Killers – Fiction. 5. Mystery – Fiction. 6. Suspense – Fiction.

  7. Graphic Violence – Fiction. 8. Graphic Sex – Fiction.

  I. Title.

  Book Editing: Finesse Writing and Editing LLC.

  Cover and Book Design: Adan M. Garcia, FSi studio

  Author Photo: Z

  For those fortunate enough to have escaped

  Also by Roy A. Teel Jr.

  Nonfiction:

  The Way, The Truth, and The Lies: How the Gospels

  Mislead Christians about Jesus’ True Message

  Against the Grain: The American Mega-church

  and its Culture of Control

  Fiction:

  The Light of Darkness: Dialogues in Death: Collected Short Stories

  And God Laughed, A Novel

  Fiction Novel Series:

  Rise of the Iron Eagle: Book One

  Evil and the Details: Book Two

  Rome Is Burning: Book Three

  Operation Red Alert: Book Four

  A Model for Murder: Book Five

  Devil’s Chair: Book Six

  Death’s Valley: Book Seven

  “From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”

  — Denis Diderot

  “Fanaticism comes from any form of chosen blindness accompanying the pursuit of a single dogma.”

  — John Berger

  Seal of The Iron EagleTM

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rampage

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “A three-month-old abducted from

  her bedroom. No other information

  other than what the kid was wearing,

  which in this case was a diaper.”

  The mid-July air was still, and nothing was moving in the predawn hours on Sharp Avenue in Arleta, California. The street backed up to Interstate 5, and the large sound wall that had been constructed by Caltrans didn’t work as well as had been promised to those families living in the lower income blue collar neighborhood. Emily Swan lay asleep on her stomach in her crib. She had just turned three months old. The small three-bedroom, one-bath home had no air conditioning, the windows were open, and a small box fan in the far window circulated the air.

  The streetlights over the freeway sent a partial light onto the street and houses. There was a light glint of steel as the blade of a knife cut through the screen leading into Emily’s bedroom opposite the window with the fan. A slender figure slid its fingers in, unlatched the screen, and removed it. There was the occasional sound of a semi on the freeway, outside of that, just the fan. The figure stood over the crib looking down at the sleeping child’s partially lit face. “You are too perfect. You will serve our master well,” a voice whispered into the child’s ear as two arms scooped Emily up and slipped out the window and into the darkness.

  The sun was just beginning to rise when Annette Swan went to the nursery to check on her baby girl. George awoke to his wife’s screams.

  The sun had risen and was casting its glow on the floor of the bedroom where John and Sara Swenson slept. It was a quarter to six when their cell phones rang out with a loud burst of alarms. John reached over and grabbed the phone. It was a statewide AMBER Alert issued for a missing child. Sara asked, “What’s going on, honey?” “It’s another AMBER Alert.” John slid out of bed. Sara sat up on her elbows and said, “Another one? God, that’s three in the last week.” John nodded, walking nude from the bed to the wet bar and pulling a Coke Zero out of the refrigerator. He sat down on one of the chaise lounges, and Sara grabbed a bottle of water and joined him.

  “Jesus, John. What’s going on?” He took a drink of the soda and said, “Hell if I know. We get the alerts, but none of the children have been recovered alive.” “Is your office involved with the alerts?” John shook his head and said, “Not our area. Everyone in the state gets the alerts on their cell phones. It’s part of the emergency broadcast system.” Sara sat looking out at the sea and asked, “What about the child killings your office is working? Are they connected?” John took another swig of the drink and said, “Yes. Someone is killing babies and doing it for some sick religious purpose, but hell if I know who it is or why.”

  John stood up, jumped into the pool off the deck, and swam several laps as Sara looked on. He pulled himself up from the ledge, his massive forearms and biceps rippling as he pushed up onto the pool decking, and Sara smiled at his magnificent body. She offered him a towel, but he shook his head and laid back down on the chair. He picked up the Coke and said, “I will get to the bottom of it, Sara. I just need a break.” Sara slid over onto the lounge next to him and said, “I know you will, honey. I know you will.” She slid her hand down his chest and abdomen until her hand was firmly grasping his penis. “Want to play?” She was smiling up at him. He looked at her with a look of surrender and excitement and said, “You bet!” They ran back into the bedroom, and he picked Sara up and laid her on the bed to ravish her.

  Jade Morgan had gotten to her office at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office at half past six a.m. She had the remains of three young children that she needed to autopsy for her reports for Sheriff Jim O’Brian. She pulled open the cooler drawer, pulled out the steel body tray, and looked down at the remains. The air in the autopsy
room was warmer than the air from the refrigerated unit, and a light fog rose above the charred remains of the child. “I can handle a lot,” Jade said to herself as she moved the body onto a gurney and over to the autopsy table, “but kids are the hardest.” She wiped a tear from her eyes as she washed and dressed for the autopsy.

  Jim and Barbara were sitting in their sunroom off the kitchen, looking out over their swimming pool and the Pacific Ocean off their deck. Jim had a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He took a sip of coffee and then a hit of the smoke. Barbara was dressed in her U.S. Marshal’s uniform, sipping her coffee and smoking as well. “Did the AMBER Alert wake you?” she asked Jim as he took a sip of his coffee. “No…I was already up. It went off while I was in the shower. I’m sure that I will hear about it when I get to the office. Did it wake you?” Barbara took a hit of the cigarette and said, “No…I was reading the paper when the phone went off. I checked it out. Another alert. Same as the others in the past few weeks. A three-month-old abducted from her bedroom. No other information other than what the kid was wearing, which in this case was a diaper.”

  Jim nodded, stubbing out the cigarette in the ashtray on the table and finishing off his coffee. Barbara looked at him in his Sheriff’s uniform and said, “It’s July, Jimmy. Four months until the election. When do you officially hand over the keys to the new Sheriff for Los Angeles County?” He got up and poured another cup of coffee and said, “January, sometime, I think. Have you put in your retirement notice?” Barbara nodded and said, “As of January 1, I will be a retired U.S. Marshal.” He sat down with his coffee, and Barbara looked at him and asked, “They know you’re not running again. Have you given the department notice that you’re retiring?” Jim laughed and said, “Yep…I told them I’m hanging up my guns and badge after the new sheriff is sworn in.” Barbara laughed and said, “I can’t imagine you without police work.” Jim nodded and said, “Neither can I, Barb. Neither can I.”

  Chapter Two

  “I know how these

  religious nutjobs work.”

  The praise and worship was hopping at Agape Trinity Blood of the Savior Church, ATBSC Ministries as it was known and incorporated in California, but the members just called it Trinity Blood. The congregation of followers was small but growing. They lived a communal life. Everyone who joined the church pledged their allegiance and sold everything they owned and gave the money to the church to support all of the members. Pastor Erick Walton was a young twenty-something evangelist and a handsome and charismatic preacher. He came from a long line of ministers and splintered his church off his father’s very successful mega-church in the San Fernando Valley.

  Erick started the new movement only a year earlier, and while it was small with only twenty members, it was growing more powerful. The ministry of the church was focused on outreach and spreading the good news of Jesus and his imminent return.

  Lisa Farmer was on nursery duty. As one of the newest members of the church, she was also one of the youngest at sixteen. Walton had picked her up six months earlier on the streets of Van Nuys where she was a prostitute and drug addict. Lisa told everyone how God sent Pastor Erick to save her from her sinful life. As she was caring for the young ones, Pastor Erick walked in.

  “Good morning, Lisa. Praise the Lord. You look lovely today, my child.” Lisa grinned and blushed at the same time. At five foot three and a hundred pounds, the bulk of her weight was in her breasts. She had a voracious appetite for all things God and the bible, and her natural red hair and blue eyes could be disarming. She said, “Thank you, Pastor. How are you this blessed day?” “Well, child, well, and how are our tiny parishioners?” Lisa laughed and said, “Filling up with milk and honey, Pastor, and drinking up the salvation of our Lord.” “Amen, sister Lisa, amen to that.”

  Erick started to walk out the door when Lisa asked, “Pastor?” “Yes, child.” She motioned for him to come closer. “Is it a sin that I lay with you in your bed every night, and we fornicate?” “We don’t fornicate, child. In the eyes of God, we are married. I have taken you as my wife.” Lisa looked on at the children playing in the nursery and asked, “Will I bring forth a child for you, Pastor?” Erick got a somber and serious look on his face. “In these times of unrest and Godlessness? Bring forth a child? No, Lisa. We will have no children. I shall not waste my seed on the final generation of adulterers, heathen, and those who will face the wrath of our Lord in his second coming.” “Isn’t it our duty to propagate the next generation of Christians?” “We are living in the last days of this world, Lisa. This is not a time to bring forth a child. It is a time to work to save the living children and those who gave them life.”

  Lisa frowned, and Erick grabbed her face and said, “We must be obedient unto the Lord, Lisa, and you, obedient unto me. Remember, Ephesians five, verse twenty-four. As I submit myself unto you. Ephesians five, verse twenty-five.” Lisa knew not to argue with Erick especially in public. It would bring a sound thrashing when they went home at night. “Yes, Pastor,” she said quietly, and he kissed her cheek and walked out of the room.

  John was surprised to see Jade Morgan in his office when he arrived. She was sitting in a guest chair across from his desk when he walked in. “Jade, if you wanted to see me you could come up to the house.” She smiled and said, “I don’t want to bring work into our private lives. We have so much on our plates. I like to try the best I can to keep work at work.” “So, what can I do for you?” John said while hanging up his suit coat.

  “I have been doing some comparisons of the autopsies on the child victims that we have in the burning sacrifice cases, and I have to be honest, John, they have been hell.” “I know. I’ve read the reports, and from what you have found, the bodies are too badly burned and brutalized to get a cause of death.” Jade nodded and said, “That’s why I’m here. I finished an autopsy this morning on the latest victim, and I found something.” John sat down in his chair and said, “Oh?” “Yes…the victims’ hearts are missing.” John looked on at Jade as she pulled three folders from her briefcase and handed them to him. “These are the last three cases. I went back over the autopsy reports as well as my notes, crime scene and autopsy photographs, as well as my recordings, and one thing fits with all three of these killings…the cause of death was not burning. The cause of death was the removal of the children’s hearts.” John read over the reports and her summation in support of her findings and said, “Pre or post mortem?” Jade shrugged and said, “That’s the million dollar question, John. I can’t answer that because I just don’t know!”

  John stood up from his desk, took the files in his hands, and said, “Follow me.” Jade followed him into the crime lab. He took out three separate photographs of the victim’s chest cavity and placed them under a magnifier. He snapped a USB cable into his tablet, hooked up a photo-reading program, and began to scan the pictures. The photos were displayed on a big screen in front of Jade, and John moved slowly over the photographs until he stopped at the lower sternum. He said, “Look at the breast bone above the stomach.” Jade looked on and said, “What am I looking for?” John said softly, “Something that you would never see because you have never done it to another human being.” Jade got goosebumps on her arms and shivered. John continued, “You see these very, very minute flakes of bone?” “Yea!” “This kid had his chest opened up with a hand saw and then his ribs spread and his heart removed.” Jade looked at John and said, “You got all of that from a photograph?”

  “He gets a shitload of information from photographs, doesn’t he?” Jade turned to see Jim standing in the doorway to the lab. “Jesus, John. You could have shut the fuckin’ door. You’ve got people puking out there, and some of the women are crying. I figure they’re thinking of their own children being grilled to death!” John looked on and said, “As always, it’s good to see you, Jim, and thanks for the graphic blow-by-blow.” Jim let out a laugh, taking a cigarette from his top left pocket an
d said, “Blow-by-blow? Ain’t that what you get from Jade and Sara?” John looked up at Jim and said, “Don’t start!” Jim laughed and put the cigarette behind his ear and said, “Hey, I’m jealous, and so is Barbara.” “You’re starting, Jim!” Jade said. “You don’t want to go there because you will catch the wrath of hell from all of us.” Jim sighed and said, “Yeah, yeah, so what do we have here?” John explained what he and Jade had found, and Jim said, “So…human sacrifice? We have been right about that from day one. As for the hearts being removed, if it’s for a deity, then it is pre-mortem. If it’s just a sick twisted fuck, then post-mortem.”

  John looked at Jim and asked, “How the hell could you know that?” “I went to college. I studied world religions and other sick ass shit later when I became a sheriff’s detective. Plus, I have been doing this shit for a lot of years, and this is not my first human sacrifice case in LA.” John and Jade stood staring at Jim’s smiling face.

  “What? I know a lot of shit. I’ve seen a lot of shit…and I know how these religious nutjobs work. You forget that I’ve been around a lot longer than you two. I was involved in protecting Bruno Richards when he was in custody. I also talked to the dude.” John and Jade looked on mesmerized. John asked, “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?” Jim laughed and put the cigarette between his teeth and said, “It never came up, and who wants to talk about a nutcase from forty years ago?” Jade asked, “So…who is Bruno Richards?” That got a laugh from both men. John looked at Jim and asked, “Do you want to do the honors?” Jim nodded.

  “Bruno Richards was a cult leader in Southern California in the early to late sixties. He had what he called a ‘family’ of parishioners, mostly young men and women, who he guided in his ministry. At the time, he was one of the more outspoken voices against the war in Vietnam, civil rights, and the list goes on.