Alliance

by S. R. Franklin

  “I think they’re in the car with Max and them.”

  Another car arrived. Before Sam could get impatient, Max, Lisa, and CJ were hiking through the trees and over the rough terrain to the grave sites.

  Max came forward with Lisa. He handed out brushes and shovels. They started digging near the edge Samantha and JJ had found. The ground was hard and packed. Several minutes later, they uncovered what looked like a piece of plywood. It fit tight in the grave. Max removed his jacket and got down on his knees. CJ got on the other side and Morgan went to the top of the grave. Stevens knelt at the bottom. They took pry bars and scraped around the edge until they could get their hands under the plywood. The four of them lifted the plywood out of the grave and laid it on the side. Samantha and JJ moved to the side and looked inside. There was another body.

  “I was hoping you were wrong, Sam.” Lisa shook her head.

  “Me too.”

  Lisa turned to the crew. “Let’s gather everything for her before we see if there is another body underneath.”

  The work was slow and tedious. Under Lisa’s direction, they split up into two teams. One team worked on the body and one on the grave.

  Samantha wanted to make sure they didn’t miss anything else.

  It took an hour to get the second body down the hill to the coroner’s vehicle. Once again, Samantha and JJ moved dirt to find yet another piece of plywood. And a third body.

  It was almost dark by the time they had removed the other four bodies. Now there were nine found here and one in the morgue. Ten young women had been killed by this man and Samantha knew there were more. She began to walk around the graves looking for any sign there were other graves.

  “Does anyone know how far apart graves are usually?” Samantha stopped and looked around.

  “Usually between eight and ten feet, why?” Morgan spoke first.

  “Because, this is not a dump site it is a grave yard.” Samantha turned and began to step off eight feet from the graves they had found. “I need a shovel.”

  Max walked over to her. “Let me. Where do you want me to start?”

  “Right here, go slow just in case I’m right.” Samantha walked back to the team. “We need aerial views and thermal imaging. I am sure there are more bodies here.”

  “We’re not going to get much further today. It’s almost dark.” Morgan spoke up. “Why don’t we go back and get everything ready for first thing in the morning?”

  “Hey,” Max yelled. “I found something.”

  Everyone crowded around. Almost two feet down, he had found another body.

  “Get lights and tents. We have a lot of work to do.” Samantha walked back to the first graves.

  JJ followed behind her.

  Kirkland approached. “What do you need?”

  “I’ll need to get Lisa and Diane to tell you that.” Samantha’s voice was solemn. “I know we need more people and tents. Other than that, I’m not sure.”

  JJ stared at the latest body found. “This is bad, Sam.”

  “Yes, JJ, this is bad. I just hope not as bad as I think it is. This is a very big field. There could be dozens of bodies here.” Samantha had her hands on her hips, looking across the field. “I know for sure he’s been doing this for a long time, and I just hope this is not the family business. This is a big place. We have to find out where he’s coming from. There’s no way he’s keeping these women too far away from here. With the torture and all the blood; he has to be close.”

  “So are we going hiking?” JJ sounded almost excited.

  “Not yet. We have too much to do here first.” Samantha looked towards Morgan. He was standing in the middle of the field looking around. He had his hands on his hips and he looked disgusted.

  It took hours to get the lights and tents set up. The team was going over the field with thermal imaging machines.

  Sam was pleased with the team’s progress, but she hated the monster that had done this. So far they had marked ten graves. Lisa put teams of three around each grave marker and had them start digging. If he stuck to the pattern, there could be thirty women in this field.

  She now understood part of this man’s thinking. He had to be young enough to make these women want him and to flirt with them. They had to trust him, at least enough to get into a car.

  This was a game to him. Her stomach recoiled at the thought. And he loved the thrill of the kill. He got off by watching them suffer. That’s why he took his time. But then he took time to bury them. They were his. Like family. He wanted family.

  Was that a missing piece of this psycho’s inner world? He wanted a family?

  By dawn they had uncovered twenty-six bodies. One of the graves only had one body. That is where Sarah was supposed to go. That made fifteen graves and twenty-eight bodies. Sarah made twenty-nine.

  Everyone was exhausted and silent. None of them had ever worked a case with this many bodies. It was going to take months to ID all of them. Then there would be the heartbreaking process of notifying all of the families. This case would be going on for a year or longer. But the only thing Samantha could be concerned with was catching the monster that did this and making him pay.

  Lisa and Diane came over to the rest of the team. “We’ve done all we can do here. We need to get these bodies back to the morgue and start figuring out how long they’ve been dead.” Lisa crossed her arms. She was pale and dirty. “Have you ever had so many?”

  “No,” Sam said.

  “So many families destroyed by this man.” Lisa removed her gloves and wiped tears from her eyes.

  “How long do you think he’s been doing this, Sam?” Diane asked.

  “Probably fifteen or twenty years, at least. I think you’ll find some of the older bodies were not clean and organized kills like the others.” Samantha tried to keep them focused.

  “You’re right about that, Sam. And I think he has a partner.” Alexis said, looking grim. “Someone like this, this is the whole focus of his life. This is his reason for living. So he has to let someone know what he is doing to gratify him for his accomplishments. Someone else as psychopathic as him.”

  Sam nodded her head. “These women are no better than cattle to him. He must’ve lived through something very violent in his childhood or as a young adult. He probably killed as a child, too.”

  “Wait, so you are saying this man has no conscience? You think he kills just as a release or to fulfill a need?” Morgan looked at the dirt on his hands as he reached for a towel. “So all the stuff about how he gets these women to trust him is a game. But why? Why kill at all?”

  “Yes, it is part of the game,” Alexis said. “And he’s the only one who can answer why. Most of these people don’t need reasons or the reason they have makes no sense to anyone but them. Mama made me wear a blue shirt when I wanted to wear red. Something that stupid and simple can send some people over the edge and they kill. Maybe by accident the first time, but then they are hooked by the adrenalin, and they need no more excuses. They like it and can only feel alive when they kill.” Looking disgusted, Alexis walked away.

  Samantha threw the towel she was holding on the ground and started walking back to the car. “Let’s get everyone back to town. Diane, make sure these bodies are secure until we can get them all picked up. Get the sheriff to post guards with them and then get some rest. That goes for everyone. Kirkland, I want a lid on this. Nothing to the media yet.”

  The rest of the team followed.

  Morgan caught up to Samantha. “I put your bag in the room with mine. I hope that’s okay.” He smiled and walked ahead.

  Samantha didn’t respond. All she wanted was a bath and bed. She didn’t care who was in it with her. Her mind was cloudy. There was so much that needed to be done, and they still had no idea where to find the Handyman. But she did know one thing. He would definitely be back. We have all of his property, she thought. He won’t stand for that.

  They reached the mouth of the road. There were dozens of cars lined up
to take all the bodies back to town. Kirkland and Stevens were directing traffic. Lisa and Diane were cataloging the bodies and loading them into each car. Lisa had a member of the team ride in each car.

  Diane was on her cell. “Hey, Hannah. You ready for this? We found 28 more bodies.

  “Are you kidding me?!”

  Chapter 34

  Hannah had been working to ID the other bodies they had found earlier. She’d been at the morgue since about 6 am. 28 bodies.

  She had never worked a case with this many bodies.

  To prepare for the incoming, she moved everyone out of the morgue except the primary medical examiner for the county.

  They were both exhausted.

  It took three hours for all of the bodies to arrive. Hannah arranged them as they came in. By the time Lisa and Diane arrived, the morgue was packed.

  The four women stood in the center of the morgue and looked around at all of the poor souls that this man had taken. Each of them knew there was nothing preventing them or someone they loved from being one of the victims.

  Samantha walked in. “Listen, I know all of you are tired, angry and overwhelmed. There is nothing we can do to help these women except ID them and get them back to their families. This will take months. We need to do the best we can, but we are human and we have to take care of ourselves or we’re going to start to make mistakes. Diane, Lisa, I need you two to get some rest. At least get a couple of hours of sleep.

  “Hannah.”

  Hannah was staring at the bodies, her eyes darting from one to another.

  Samantha walked over to her younger sister and put her hands on Hannah’s shoulders. “Do you need any help?”

  “No, I don’t need more people in here. Just give me a few hours and I’ll have something. I don’t know what it’ll be, but it’ll be something.” Hannah turned and walked to the back of the morgue.

  Samantha turned towards the door and motioned for Diane and Lisa to follow her. They left the morgue, feeling solemn and tired.

  Samantha walked out of the morgue to find the entire population of Forrest Ranch standing in the street. Sheriff Taft was trying to get control of the crowd but not having any luck.

  These are the things of which nightmares are made, she thought. Especially to people who live in a world that doesn’t like outsiders. Samantha heard someone behind her and turned.

  JJ walked up. “I sent everyone to the motel like you said. Do you want to do a press conference before we leave?”

  Sam gave JJ a look. “Are you crazy?”

  JJ laughed. “Well,” she said, pointing to the crowd, “they think you’re having one.”

  “Get these people out of here. If the sheriff can’t do it, I want you to do it. And keep armed deputies here around the clock. Anybody who approaches gets sent away or arrested. It’s their choice.

  “Yes, ma’am. With ya 100 percent.”

  “Then tell our hapless sheriff to meet me back at his office. We’ll have to tell these people something, but we’re doing it on my time table, not theirs.”

  Samantha walked ahead of everyone. She grabbed her cell phone from her jacket and called Kirkland. “Kirkland, we have to set up a press conference for this town. Press only. Nothing national yet. I’ll be at the sheriff’s office.” She hung up.

  Someone grabbed her from behind and shoved her toward a small alley. Samantha jerked and twisted toward the assailant, trying to get his feet out from under him.

  He was very strong. He grabbed her jacket.

  Samantha knocked his hand away and grabbed for her gun. She got the man in a hold and shoved him against the wall. Pulling his arm up behind him, she pointed her gun in his face.

  The man tried to move away from the gun, but he was pinned. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot. I just have a package for you. I just have to give Samantha Thomas a package.” The man was shaking. He looked scared. “He told me to give the package. That’s all. Just the package.”

  JJ grabbed him from the other side.

  Together, they threw him to the ground.

  Samantha cuffed his hands behind him.

  The team had crowded around by this time.

  The man was yelling and fighting. Samantha pulled his arms upward, hard. He screamed in pain. She held them there.

  “Stop fighting and hold still,” she said. “I will let your arms down if you stop fighting.”

  The man stilled.

  Samantha turned and sat down on the large man’s back. She took a deep breath.

  JJ was standing over them. She put her hands on her hips and laughed. “You know this is not the guy. It can’t be that easy.” JJ reached to help Sam up.

  “Easy, where were you?” Samantha grabbed for JJ’s hand.

  CJ and Max pulled him off the ground.

  A crowd of people started gathering around the man.

  Sam rolled her eyes.

  Samantha motioned for CJ and Max to move the man to safety. “We have to get out of here. Take him behind the buildings on the back street to the jail.”

  The crowd came closer, defying the police’s orders to stay. They were yelling and demanding answers.

  Samantha tried to calm them down. Sheriff Taft formed a line in front of the crowd between Samantha and JJ. He knew everyone in the crowd by name, but that wasn’t helping. They would not listen. The crowd pushed closer and closer.

  Samantha could tell Sheriff Taft had never dealt with anything like this before. She grabbed a bullhorn out of the nearest car. “If you do not leave the premises immediately, you WILL be arrested. Starting now! I don’t want to, but I’m going to have to because you are endangering the integrity of this investigation. JJ, get your cuffs ready, please. And your taser.”

  JJ removed her taser and her cuffs from her belt.

  The crowd became silent. People began to turn and shuffle away one by one.

  Samantha pulled the bullhorn away from her mouth.

  Thank God, she thought. I really don’t want to arrest any of these boneheads.

  She and JJ turned to follow the rest of the team to the sheriff’s office.

  JJ took a step forward and noticed a brown box that had been kicked up near the building. She picked it up.

  “This must be what he wanted to give you.” JJ held the box towards Samantha.

  Samantha took the box from JJ and examined it as they walked to the sheriff’s office. There were no markings on the box. It was small, brown and taped with brown paper tape.

  They turned the corner, expecting there to be dozens of people crowding the doors. they walked through the back door. It was quiet. Only the receptionist was in the office. She didn’t even look up as Samantha and JJ walked through the room. They turned towards the conference room that was in the back of the building.

  Samantha could hear Morgan talking. He sounded angry.

  Samantha entered the room. She looked to see who was there.

  He was on his cell. He hung up when she entered. “What’s in the box?”

  Diane walked in behind Sam.

  Sam turned. “Diane, take this and get everything you can from it. And I don’t need to say I need it yesterday.” Samantha handed the box to Diane.

  She focused on Morgan. “Do we have anything from this man yet?”

  “No, he won’t tell us anything. He didn’t see the man who asked him to deliver that box. But the guy paid him a hundred bucks.” Morgan folded his arms. “We put him in the holding cell. Maybe a couple of hours in there and he’ll talk.”

  “No. We can’t wait that long bring him to the interrogation room. See if Sheriff Taft knows him. JJ, it’s your turn. You know what we need. Get him to talk and don’t be nice about it.” Samantha folded her arms.

  “This man killed, raped, and tortured thirty women. You don’t actually think he’s going to just walk up and turn himself in? He’s not that stupid.” Morgan walked towards the door.

  “Yes, I think he is that stupid. He’s already made a mistake. Maybe finding
all those women has made him just crazy enough to do something else stupid.” Samantha walked out of the conference room and went into the adjoining interrogation room.

  CJ and Max brought the man into the room. He was dirty and unshaven. He smelled like alcohol. He was slinging his arms to fend them off and cursing.

  CJ pulled the chair back from the table.

  Max pushed him down.

  “So, did you enjoy killing all those women?” JJ smacked him on top of the head.

  “What women? I don’t know any women. All I did was deliver this box. The guy paid me a hundred bucks.” He spat as he spoke.

  “So then let’s start with your name. Who are you?” JJ sat down across from him.

  “Bob, my name is Bob. Everyone knows that.” He dug under his filthy nails with his teeth.

  “Bob what?” JJ grabbed a pen. “Who is everyone? Are you from here?”

  “Davie, Bob Davie. And yes I live here.” Bob hit the table.

  “I didn’t ask you if you lived here. I asked if you are from here.”

  “I ain’t tellin’ you.”

  Sam cut in. “We can find that out easily enough.”

  JJ continued. “Now I want to know about this man that gave you the hundred to deliver that package. What did he look like? What did he say? Word for word.”

  “I don’t have to say anything. You do not have anything on me. I didn’t do nothing.”

  “Max, CJ, why don’t you get Mr. Davie some coffee.” JJ stood up and followed them to the door. She walked behind Bob. “Once more. What did this man look like?”

  “Go to --.”

  JJ grabbed his face hard and slammed his head down on the table. She took her forearm and held him down. “I don’t like what you were going to say, Mr. Davie.” She pushed harder. “Do we understand each other?”

  “Now let’s start again. I want to know everything, what color was his hair, eyes, clothes, everything.”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything. You can’t hold me. I didn’t do anything and I don’t know anything.” Bob belched. “That’s what I think of you.” He laughed.

  She grabbed Bob by his hair and pulled his head back. He was looking up at the ceiling and cursing. He grabbed at her hands. JJ pulled tighter. Bob jumped up from the chair and swung at JJ. She used her forearm and hit him in the throat. He fell hard to the floor. JJ put her foot on his throat. “I bet you expected little ole me to be like all those other women you killed, huh? Now are you going to talk or do I have to get mad?”