Or she could get the police. The police were a much better option, she thought.
Before she could stop herself, she flipped open the metal lid and peered inside.
A small living room dominated her view with a mound of mail pooled underneath the door. Janice Hollebeck had been gone for a while.
She tried the door handle and, to her dismay, found it open. You can walk away, she thought. Don’t open the door. Go back to film and leave Johan with this mess he’s created for himself.
His amazing help and support flashed through her mind. He’d been there for her during all the weeks of physical therapy she endured after the coma. Johan was the love of her life since high school. And she let him go because of a promise she made a demon. A demon that most likely killed her parents. She owed him this much.
She closed her eyes and opened the door.
The smell of rotting meat assaulted her nostrils. Something died in this apartment.
Stacks of actors and actresses headshots littered the surfaces of the dingy furniture. The room was bright and colorful but cluttered and messy. And small. A tiny kitchenette took up the right wall. Two doors occupied the left wall. One led to a small bathroom and the other to the bedroom.
The darkness beyond the bedroom door moved and a buzzing sound grew louder as she moved closer to the door. She knew what she would find there. A dead body.
It took several days for the eggs to hatch and for the larvae to change into flies. The person in the bedroom had to have died at least five days ago. She pinched her nostrils closed to protect against the smell and pushed the door open. Flies buzzed above the bed in an ever-shifting cloud as maggots ate away at the corpse on the bed.
She gagged and struggled against the vomit that filled her throat.
She backed out of the apartment.
“Freeze. Put your hands above your head,” a man’s voice commanded from behind her. She obeyed and put her arms up. “Turn around slowly, keeping your hands up where we can see them.” She obeyed and turned to find two uniformed LAPD officers, guns up, flanking her on either side.
“I came to speak with Janice. I’m not armed, officers. And, I found a dead body inside.” She said and pointed behind her. The cop to her left nodded at his partner who pushed past her and went to the darkened room. They heard his partner gag, and he was back at her side within seconds.
“You can put your hands down now. What is your name?” He asked, little notebook already out.
“My name is Sara Caine, and I got Ms. Hollebeck’s name from a friend of mine. She does headshots for actors. I need new ones and the price was right. I knocked but heard an odd sound. The door was open. I smelled something, and I found her like that,” she lied. The uniformed officer was already on his walkie-talkie calling for backup and the coroner.
“Can you come down to the station right now to file an official statement?” He asked her, holstering his weapon. She nodded and the wave of panic crested around her. Not now, please not now, she thought. One of her walls slipped, and she took all her focus to bring it back up, allowing the panic to overtake everything else.
She grabbed the wall for support and did breathing exercises like the physical therapist had taught her to do when the panic came. The officer grabbed for her as she slid down the wall to the ground.
“She must be in shock,” the second officer said from some distance.
The floor dropped beneath her and the blackness descended.
6
“Explain to us what you were doing inside Janice Hollebeck’s apartment again?” Detective Hernandez asked Sara Caine. She had been sitting in the interrogation room for over four hours and they were sweating her. Asking for water was an exercise in futility. And, to complicate matters even more, she needed to pee. TV cops used this tactic on suspects and, apparently, so did the LAPD. Sara found it hard to wrap her mind around the idea she was a viable suspect for this.
“As I’ve told you already, I’m an actor and my friend, Denise Lynch, gave me Janice Hollebeck’s name. Janice is brilliant at capturing a specific look for commercial headshots at a reasonable price. I’m not a successful actor yet but I still have to get photos done every year. I couldn’t wait to meet her and that’s why I went to her apartment today.”
Thank goodness she had enough actor friends to make the story somewhat believable. She doubted Johan killed Janice but wasn’t about to give them a reason to go looking for him. Instead of telling them why she was really there, she’d play dumb. Her job on set gave her the perfect alibi.
Sara was about to say exactly that when she realized her firing would come out. And the man who had caused it.
“Could you explain your movements on Wednesday, November 5?” Detective Fernandez asked.
“That was four nights ago? My day wasn’t scheduled, as I didn’t have any auditions or callbacks. I stuck around the house all day,” she said. Detective Hernandez’s partner, a Detective Jones, didn’t look like she was buying Sara’s story.
“Weren’t you part of the Torso murders investigation that was wrapped up about six months ago?” She asked. Sara nodded.
“Detective Eva Murphy pulled me in to help profile the killer.”
“Profile? Is that what you’re calling it? I heard you’re a psychic. Weren’t you there to talk to dead people?” Detective Jones sneered.
Sara’s heartbeat sped up as she took a deep breath. The LAPD took a big hit on the Torso murders, a gruesome string of killings. Eva could not keep Sara and Johan fully out of the reports since they were the ones that found her and Eddie Larson. At least they hadn’t mentioned Johan.
“I was a paranormal investigator. But the Torso murders made me go to my plan B which was acting. I wanted nothing to do with investigating after that case. As an actor I can use my skills and understanding of human emotion and psychology in a more artistic way.” At least that part was true.
“Did you have an appointment with Janice Hollebeck? Or you were just showing up at her apartment?” Detective Jones shifted closer to Sara.
Sara didn’t blink. “I did not have an appointment, but I was in the neighborhood and wanted to introduce myself.” Detective Hernandez seemed satisfied and nodded. Detective Jones reluctantly got up.
“Would you like something to drink, Ms. Caine?” Detective Fernandez asked.
“Yes, please. Am I under arrest? Don’t I get a phone call or something?”
“You are not under arrest. We want to ask you a few more questions though. Your finding of the body puts you in the center of our investigation and we need to cover all of our bases before you can leave.”
“All right then. Can I call my friend to let her know where I am?” She tested them to see what they would say. Detective Jones shrugged. Sara had grown to dislike the woman.
“Be our guest.” Detective Hernandez said, and both cops laughed at a joke that Sara didn’t get. They got up and left the room. Sara glanced at the two-way glass wall that took up most of the wall in front of her.
No way was she going to get privacy in this room. She dared not call Johan not that he would pick up, anyway. She took her cellphone out and dialed Eva’s number. If there was one person who could get her out of this, it would be Eva Murphy. Hopefully, she’d pick up the phone and wasn’t holding anything against her.
“Hello, Sara?” Eva answered and Sara thanked her lucky stars that the woman didn’t hold a grudge.
“I didn’t listen to you when I should have and now I’m in trouble. Janice Hollebeck is dead, and I discovered her body. Two LAPD detectives found me at the scene and I’m sitting in an interrogation room at the downtown police station. They’re holding me for questioning.” She blurted out. Eva stayed silent for so long that Sara wondered if the call disconnected. Eva sighed on the other end telling her she was indeed listening.
“I’ll come right down there and get you out. But I told you to leave this alone, Sara. You didn’t listen.” she admonished her.
“Joh
an left Janice Hollebeck’s name on that sticky note for me. That obligated me to investigate that for him. I had every intention of dropping the film off with the police right after I spoke with Janice. I didn’t think that, oh crap,” she said and clapped her hand over her mouth. Did they hear her say his name, or that she was investigating? She was such an idiot. She waited for the cops to barge in but the door stayed closed.
“Just get me out of here please. Get me out of here before I let slip something else.” She said and hung up the phone.
She broke out in a cold sweat as she waited for the detectives to come for the next round of interrogations. But the room remained empty, and she checked her phone for the time. It was 7 PM. Maybe they hadn’t heard her after all. Was it illegal to eavesdrop on a phone call? They had put her in an interrogation room and she bet they heard every word, legal or not.
What a stupid mistake, Sara, she thought. She hung her head in shame and waited for the detectives to call her bluff.
Instead, the two detectives came in with scowls on their faces. Eva Murphy must have made some phone calls already.
“Seems you have friends in high places,” Detective Hernandez said.
“Are you done with me then?” Sara asked.
“For the time being. Don’t leave town and leave all of your contact information with us. I’m sure we’ll be talking again.” Jones added.
Sara smiled at them and stood up. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather wait in the waiting room than sit here.” Detective Jones gestured towards the door.
“Be our guest,” she said and Sara brushed past them out into the hallway. She took a deep breath and couldn’t believe she had such bad luck. She dialed Johan again but voicemail picked up. He never turned off his phone, she thought.
She hoped he had nothing to do with the corpse she’d found and wished she were just another lowly PA on a film set.
7
Sara Caine didn’t have to wait long for Eva Murphy to find her at the police station. As Sara suspected, Eva looked less than pleased. The woman hardly spoke until they got into her car. Sara wanted to say something, to apologize or to even explain what she had been doing there but Eva didn’t give her the chance.
“I don’t want to say I told you so, but I told you so. I understand the reasons you did it, though,” Eva said. Sara knew what was coming next.
“Since you won’t stop investigating this and if you go it alone, you will get killed,” Eva continued. Sara opened her mouth to protest but one look at Eva told her to keep silent. “I will help you. Johan is important to me as well and I believe you when you tell me he’s in trouble.”
Sara was so relieved she was afraid she’d cry.
“Thank you, Eva. You’re right. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing and I need help. I need YOUR help.”
“You have it but you need to listen to me at every turn. You can’t do what you did today and go off on your own without telling anyone. That’s foolish and I don’t want your death on my hands. I’m the point person on this. That’s the only way this is going to work.”
Sara nodded. “Absolutely Eva. No problem. I hear you loud and clear. What do we do now?”
“Most likely the crime scene investigators have finished with the scene and the coroner has picked up the body.”
“So we go back to the crime scene?” Sara asked. Eva didn’t know the crime scene was at the Alexas Hotel and was afraid to tell her.
“Yes, we need to go back there and start chatting with the neighbors. In most apartment complexes, neighbors will give amazing insight into a victim’s life. We can hope that she wasn’t a recluse. Ritchie found her address for you?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Could he do a full background dossier on her?”
“He’s probably done the background search already. I asked him for one when he called and gave me her address.” Sara said and got an approving nod from Eva. For whatever reason this made her feel better. “We’re breaking into her place, aren’t we?”
“I’m thinking about it. You didn’t tell the police the whole story about the film that Johan gave you?”
“No. I didn’t want to mention his name at all.”
“We will find clues there that my former colleagues missed because they didn’t have the full story.” Eva turned to Sara and looked into her eyes. “I will ask you again. Are you sure you want to do this? If not, then we march back in there and you tell the police everything and let them deal with this mess.”
Sara nodded. “I want the police investigating this, believe me. I wasn’t lying when I told you I didn’t want this case. However, Johan didn’t bring the film to the police. Instead, he brought it to me. I trust him and I worry we don’t have all the facts yet. We don’t even have proof the woman was murdered? There’s no body, nothing indicating what we saw on the film is real. Does that make sense?”
“Do you think Johan murdered Janice Hollebeck?” Eva asked her point blank.
Sara stared back at the police station. A part of her wanted to run back inside and tell them everything. You can’t do that to Johan, she reminded herself and turned back to Eva.
“He didn’t kill her. The only way Johan could hurt a human being is if a demon possessed the person. Sometimes, the only way to vanquish the demon is to kill the host it’s feeding off of. I’ve never heard him say he’d done such a thing but I know other demon hunters have. Johan is not a killer.”
“When you speak that way, I find it hard to believe you. I’m not convinced there are such things as demons. You don’t need demons when you have human monsters wandering around.” Eva said.
Sara knew Eva had never believed in the paranormal until the case at the Sunshine Assisted living facility over a year ago. It was how they met. But since then Eva had seen things she couldn’t explain away. And then there was the ghost of former LAPD Detective Anderson occupying her body.
Sara didn’t want to pry but Eva didn’t exactly look stable to her. Her hair was disheveled; she didn’t look like she’d showered in days and her attention kept going in and out. Eva was having a hard time dealing with the consequences of the Torso killer case and she wasn’t telling anyone about it. And every now and then, Sara could swear that Detective Anderson was peering out of Eva Murphy’s eyes. The thought made Sara shudder.
Eva turned on the ignition and the car roared to life. “So where are we going? What’s the address?”
Sara gulped down the lump in her throat. “The Alexas Hotel.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Eva turned the car off and gripped the steering wheel. She inhaled and exhaled quickly and her eyes unfocused.
“Don’t. I can’t. Please stop. Please go away,” Eva whispered. She was having a conversation with Anderson, Sara thought. She tried not to stare, but it was hard to look away from the train wreck that was this former LAPD detective. Eva turned to her with a wild look in her eye.
“You can’t expect me to go back there. Not after all that happened there. I almost died there... I won’t do it. You need to find someone else to help you. It’s only been six months.” She pleaded with Sara.
Sara couldn’t tell her that the Alexas was just a building. She knew better. The echoes of violence and death stayed in the places they occurred in. Souls got trapped within the confines of buildings all the time. She respected Eva’s fear but it didn’t change anything. Sara needed her desperately.
“If you do this for me, I will do everything in my power to get Anderson out of your head.” Sara offered.
“Can you do that?” Eva whispered tears running down her face.
“I’ll find a way.” Sara said and took Eva’s hand in her own. “I promise I will get him out.”
“Fine.” Eva whispered.
“Is that a yes? You’ll help me?”
“Yes, and God help us.” Eva said and started up the car. She’d stopped shaking but the whiteness of her knuckles against the steering wheel told Sara all she needed to know.<
br />
They drove to the Alexas without saying another word.
8
Sara and Eva entered the Alexas Hotel lobby. Sara braced herself for Eva’s reaction but Eva stayed stoic. As earlier, the lobby was deserted, and the doorman was missing from the front desk.
“Janice’s apartment is on the second floor. It’s room two hundred and twelve, if that helps any.” The Torso murder case had ended in blood on the fourth floor.
“If we went up to the fourth floor would you be able to communicate with Eddie?” Eva asked.
“It depends on if he stayed or passed on. I don’t do that anymore though. The last case troubled me as much as it effected you and I haven’t communicated with anyone on the other side since.”
“I see,” was all Eva said.
By the time they reached the second floor, Sara knew this whole escapade was a terrible idea. Eva shook like a leaf and Sara wasn’t reacting much better. Eva pushed away the police tape and tried the knob for Janice’s apartment. It had been locked. Eva took her kit out and worked on the lock as Sara stood behind her glancing left and right. The hall stayed empty.
“Where are the uniforms guarding the door?” Sara whispered to Eva.
“They must have gotten everything they needed. What would a uniform protect now?” Eva whispered back. “I got it.” The door squeaked open.
Eva stepped inside, Sara right behind her. It had been twelve hours since Sara found the body and she could still hear the buzzing of the flies. The crime scene techs worked Janice’s entire apartment. Sara could make out fingerprint powder everywhere and the place had been gone through thoroughly.
“They finished with this place fast,” Sara remarked.
“This is typical for murder scenes,” Eva said. “The crime scene shows distorted what the techs do. No one spends days at one crime scene. Unless, the crime involved multiple victims. If techs spent so much time at simple crime scenes, the backlog would be tremendous. Do you know how many murders happen in LA on any given day? There were two hundred and sixty-one homicides so far this year. Granted, many are gang related but still. Crime scene techs work fast. They have to. Plus, this apartment is a controlled environment. It’s easier than a city street.”
Silent Death: A Chilling Serial Killer Thriller (A Caine & Murphy Thriller Book 3) Page 3