Coming Back

by Tabitha J Arment

  Without even glancing through the peephole, Natasha opened her front door to find one of her friends standing outside. She threw herself into his arms and sobbed. When she had finally calmed down enough to speak, she pushed away from his chest and looked at his face.

  “What are you doing here? Has something happened? Have they found her?”

  Natasha thought she caught a look of amusement in his eyes, but dismissed it when she took a closer look at him and could only find concern and fatigue.

  He placed a hand on her shoulder. “No. We haven’t been able to find her yet. I was sent here to get you and bring you back to the station. We’ve been thinking about the killer’s previous patterns and some of us have been concerned with your safety. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you on top of everything else.”

  Natasha paled as he spoke.

  She had never considered the possibility that she was also in danger.

  Natasha knew that accompanying him to the station was the best option, so she did not argue. Besides, if no one was worrying about protecting her, more people could be out looking for Veronica.

  She turned from him to collect her purse.

  She would never be able to say what triggered her suspicions, but at that moment she felt alarm bells going off in her head.

  She was not given a chance to respond to this alarm as an arm wrapped around her with the hand settling on her face. A strong smell was emanating from the cloth in that hand and she fought for freedom.

  Disbelief and betrayal rose up in her as she desperately tried to break his hold. But it was no use. She could already feel herself starting to become dizzy and she remembered that the killer Veronica had been hunting used to abduct women by knocking them out with chloroform.

  She could hear him starting to hum behind her and tried to bring her elbow back into his ribs. Clearly she did not strike with enough force because she did not even feel him flinch.

  As a last ditch effort, Natasha brought her hand up to the face to scratch at his eye. Before she could even get her hand all the way up, she felt the dizziness intensify and darkness descended upon her.

  She slumped back into him and felt herself being moved out of the house and deposited into his car. She fully lost consciousness before the engine even started.

  ◆◆◆

  It was official. Ben had lost his mind.

  That was the only thing that could explain what he was seeing.

  He had to be hallucinating.

  Unfortunately, if he was hallucinating, so were five detectives from IA.

  They had all worked together for hours to go over the service logs for Blake, Mark, Jack, Ryan, and Tyler trying to find out who had the opportunity to pull off all of the murders and take Veronica.

  Ben had gone into this knowing that they were going to find out one of his best friends was a murderer, but he still had not been prepared for the reality of it.

  Hoster could tell that Ben was having trouble digesting the information. He placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder to offer his support.

  “He’s the only one that fits. He was either off shift or working alone every time that there was action from the killer. Obviously, we’re going to need more evidence to get a conviction, but you and I both know this is our guy.”

  Ben nodded mutely and then stood up. Heading towards the office door, Ben mumbled on the way out. “I need a minute.”

  The IA detectives all nodded in understanding as Ben fell through the door and into the hallway. None of them could imagine what they would do if they found out their friend had murdered so many people.

  Ben did not make it far.

  He leaned into the wall a few feet from the door and slid down it. He collapsed onto the ground and hung his head between his legs. A few heart wrenching sobs escaped him as he tried to gain control of his emotions. Knowing that Veronica was still in danger, Ben only allowed himself the luxury of a few seconds to mourn the loss of someone he had thought was a dear friend. Once that was over, he pulled himself up off the floor, squared his shoulders, and walked back into Hoster’s office.

  When he returned, Hoster and the other detectives remained silent.

  Ben walked to Hoster’s desk and braced himself on it. With his fury barely in control, he knew that he could not be trusted to make decisions from here on out.

  He would rather have his own team in charge, but there was no time to convince them of what had been found. As much as it went against everything he had always believed, he knew that the best chance of this ending well was to let Hoster and his IA colleagues handle it from here.

  He hoped that they would allow him to remain involved. In an effort to show that he planned on cooperating with whatever they decided, Ben spoke.

  “Okay. We don’t know how much time we have. Veronica could already be dead… And we have no idea what he’s going to do next. What’s your plan?”

  They all shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. They knew what Ben was trying to do, but they had not come up with a plan yet. They all would have felt better with Ben taking a step back if they could tell him they had a strategy.

  A young detective named Sue Jenkins was the first one to speak. “Do we know where he is right now?”

  Hoster answered, “No. Like everyone else, he’s been out ‘searching’ for Officer Taylor. He’s alone, so we can’t be sure where he is.”

  Jenkins nodded. “Alright. I think our first move should be to call a meeting at your precinct, so we know where he is. We can set it up so the superintendent visits them to give a speech or something. Not only will that pull him away from whatever he’s doing right now, but it will give us a chance to follow him once he leaves. Once we find where he’s keeping her and can assess the situation, we can decide what to do from there.”

  It was not exactly a foolproof plan, but nobody else offered a better option.

  After a moment of silence, Hoster picked up his phone to start setting up the meeting at the precinct.

  Jenkins turned back to Ben. “Five IA detectives showing up at your precinct will not go unnoticed. We need you to be our eyes and ears there. If you could plant a tracking device on him as well, it would help.”

  Ben did not argue with this plan. “Supply me with the device and I’ll get it on him.”

  One of the other detectives left for a few minutes and then returned carrying a small box. Once the box was passed to Ben, he opened it to do a quick inventory, then left without another word.

  ◆◆◆

  Veronica heard the click of the lock again.

  Holding her breath, she tried to prepare herself .

  Once again, she was momentarily blinded by the light from outside.

  She could hear his thumping footsteps and something dragging behind him, but was afraid to look at it.

  When she could focus her eyes and had built up her courage, Veronica looked down at the body before her. A small sob escaped when she did.

  She did not need to push the hair off of their face to recognize Natasha on the ground. Some of the hair puffed out and Veronica sobbed again as she realized that her oldest friend was still breathing.

  Their captor leaned down and levered Natasha up so that he could deposit her into the chair sitting across from Veronica.

  Natasha was unconsciously splayed back in the seat and he quickly bound her the same way that he had bound Veronica.

  Veronica strained against her chair, but between the bindings and the pain of the three bullets she had taken in the vest, she knew that she would never be able to get loose. With venom in her voice, she spoke to their captor.

  “What have you done to her?”

  He responded casually, as if they were talking about work. “Chloroform. I couldn’t have her making a scene when she realized I wasn’t taking her to keep her safe. This way, it looked like she was overcome with the news about you and I was helping her.”

  Veronica stared at him as she started to understand the calculating, murderous nat
ure that he had been hiding for so long.

  When he was finished tying up Natasha, he turned to Veronica.

  “We’re going to wait for her to wake up, and then I’m gonna have some fun. You are going to watch. Once I’m done with her, I’ll go get another one of your friends. I’m going to save you for last.”

  Veronica’s horror grew with every word he said.

  She could not understand how she had not seen his insanity before.

  She heard the familiar ring of his cell phone and was shocked when he pulled it out of his pocket.

  Before answering, he pulled out his gun and aimed it at Natasha’s head. His meaning was clear; if Veronica made a sound, he would kill Natasha.

  Not willing to give up the small hope Veronica had of someone finding them before Natasha died, she kept her mouth shut as he chatted with whoever was on the other end of the call. Watching him seamlessly switch into his police officer and friend persona, Veronica began to understand how everyone could have been fooled by him for so long.

  He was the best actor she had ever seen.

  When the call ended, he turned to Veronica. “Looks like you’re in luck. You and your friend here are going to get a short reprieve. I’ve been called back to the precinct. But don’t get your hopes up. Whatever they’re doing, it hasn’t bought Tasha much time.”

  With those words, he holstered his gun and left the building.

  Veronica sat in silence again, watching her best friend breathe, praying that someone would find them before it was too late.

  ◆◆◆

  Ben felt rage boiling under his skin as he sat in the briefing room at the station.

  He only hoped that anyone looking at him would mistake his anger for annoyance at everyone being called into a pointless meeting while Veronica was still missing.

  Ben fingered the tracking device in his pocket and attempted to regain his poker face. For this to work, his target could not have any idea that Ben knew what he was.

  Ben was not listening as the police superintendent spoke at the podium. It did not matter what she was saying.

  Instead, he studied the people in the room around him.

  He spotted Cheyenne looking grim and desiccated by grief. Her ponytail had loosened to the point that she might as well have pulled it out, and her uniform looked so wrinkled that it was clear she had been wearing it ever since she put in on when she dressed Monday morning. She rested her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. Here eyes were red rimmed and she chewed on her bottom lip as she took the opportunity to tune out the world and relax for a few moments.

  Her partner, Ryan, was sitting next to her and would glance at her every thirty seconds or so to see how she was doing. He looked as tired as Cheyenne did. It was obvious that he was trying to pay attention to what was going on around him, but with his head bobbing up and down it was clear that he was having a hard time staying awake.

  Ben wondered when the last time either one of them had slept.

  He let his gaze drift and landed on Jack. Like the rest of them, Jack looked as if he had not sat since the call of an officer down came over their radios. The bone deep weariness on his face made him seem older than he was. At forty-three years old, he was still many years away from retirement, but he looked ready to walk out today if it meant that he could get some sleep.

  Jack was sitting next to Tyler, who looked as heart-broken as Cheyenne had. Ben remembered that he and Erica had been hours away from their first date when she was murdered and felt his eyes start to smart with tears. Tyler’s eyes were drooping as he crossed his arms on the table to use as a pillow.

  Ben shifted and looked at the man standing next to him. Mark was leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed over his chest. There were dark gray circles spreading out below his eyes and his normally crisp dress shirt was partially unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

  Mark caught his glance and nodded towards the podium.

  Ben was meant to be listening to this.

  Pretending to pay attention, Ben observed Blake as he stood next to the superintendent. Even when his daughter was in the middle of cancer treatments, Ben had not seen him this bedraggled. He knew that Blake had taken some browbeating from his superiors over this case, but he never imagined it was this bad. Blake looked so fed up that he was on the verge of demoting himself so someone else could be in charge for once.

  The overwhelming emotion that he saw on the faces of everyone in the room was pain.

  Ben knew now who was responsible for their pain.

  It made his skin crawl to be in the same room with him and act like nothing had changed. The only thing he wanted to do was grab him and beat Veronica’s location out of him.

  He could not do that, but he did entertain himself by imagining it a few times.

  His only comfort was knowing that they would be able to follow him and find Veronica. After that, they would prosecute him so that he would spend the rest of his days in prison.

  Ben could not imagine he would have many days. Even disgraced, murderous cops did not last long in prison.

  Ben would personally make sure that he wound up in general population. He might even let a couple of his snitches know who he was so word spread fast.

  Ben had not been paying any attention to the superintendent’s words, so it came as a shock to him when he realized she had finished speaking. People were standing and starting to stretch their muscles.

  Ben quickly made his way around the room and either hugged or shook the hands of all of his friends.When he reached the killer, he used all of the skills he had acquired in his time on the force and slipped the tracking device into his pocket.

  Confident the killer had not felt anything, Ben pulled away and continued around the room.

  When he finished with everyone, he was pulled aside by Blake. “I’m sorry Ben. With you being here and the superintendent seeing you, I have to take you into protective custody this time.”

  Ben shook off the hand that was holding onto his arm. “Actually, I got a call before I got here. IA wants to talk to me about the independent investigation I ran while the case was inactive. I have to report to them now.”

  Blake had never wanted to take Ben in, so he let him go with no further explanation.

  When Ben reached his car, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Hoster to let him know that the tracking device was in place. He then drove back to the building where IA was housed so he could be there while the detectives were watching the monitors to see where Veronica was being held.

  ◆◆◆

  What was the point of that? Such a waste of time!

  Nobody was listening to anything that was said in that room. I actually caught a couple people napping in there.

  It’s no wonder they haven’t even come close to catching me. Even if any of them were smart enough to find me, they would get stuck following the orders of people like the superintendent.

  Why in God’s name did they think it was a good idea to pull everyone off the streets to give a speech when there was an officer missing?

  I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining. Them doing shit like that confirms that I have nothing to worry about.

  I have two women trussed up in my garage, but they’re still never gonna catch me.

  ◆◆◆

  Ben was only watching the screen for about twenty minutes before he jumped up and started yelling.

  “That arrogant, fucking son of a bitch!”

  The men and women around him all flinched away at his outburst.

  “I know exactly where he’s keeping her! The fucking bastard!”

  Hoster forced him to sit and calm himself. “I need you to explain what you’re talking about.”

  Ben breathed deeply for a few seconds and then spoke again; thinly veiled fury lacing his words. “He took her home. He’s at his own goddamn house!”

  Hoster looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Are you sure? If we get this wrong we�
�ll lose our best chance at finding Veronica.”

  Ben nodded confidently. “This is the same man who used to email us videos of him abducting and burying women alive. He obviously thinks he’s smarter than us and we’ve given him no reason to believe otherwise. Besides, he’s still on shift. Why else would he go home if he wasn’t keeping her there?”

  All of the detectives concurred with this statement and Jenkins pulled out her cell phone. “We were planning while you were gone. I’ve still got a few people on the force who will talk to me even though I joined IA. One of them is in SWAT. I’m gonna call him and get his team to meet us over there. I had a feeling we were going to need their help. I already let him know what was going on while we were waiting for you to plant the tracker. He’s with us for whatever we need. I just have to give him the location.”

  She spoke to her friend for a moment, giving him the address and then hung up.

  They collectively took a second to settle their minds and consider what they could find in that garage. Simultaneously, they stood and moved towards the door.

  ◆◆◆

  Veronica had been silently crying for an hour when Natasha woke up from her chloroform induced sleep. She watched as her best friend tried desperately to break free of the zip ties holding her to her chair and eventually gave up.

  Guilt washed over Veronica as she realized that Natasha would be safe now if they had not been friends.

  She was in the middle of sobbing out an apology to her when Natasha cut her off.

  “Oh, shut up, Ronnie! You and I both know this was not your fault. Nobody could have predicted any of this happening. Besides, imagine how much both of our lives would have sucked if we weren't’ friends.”

  In spite of the situation they were in, Veronica started laughing. “I swear, if you start singing that Kelly Clarkson song, I’ll start screaming!”

  This got Natasha laughing as well. “You know you love that song!”

  Veronica was going to respond, but they heard the door unlocking again. All laughter died instantly.

  Looking at each other, they knew what was about to come.