by BL Burke
“What?”
“The station wagon,” Kyle said. “It’s him.”
“Who?”
“The witness… Nutty Professor.” Perry looked at the registration and saw the name of Dante Foley.
“What’d he say he saw?”
“I have to call the Captain.” Kyle said. “If he’s telling the truth then.”
“Then what? What did he say in the interrogation room?” Perry said. Kyle picked up the phone and punched in some numbers.
“It’s not called that anymore.” Kyle said. “Hey Captain, looks like our witness was there.” Kyle paused.
“Yes, been running for all of them just in case.” Kyle listened for a few more minutes, “yeah, I mean some registered, some not… but nothing sticks out.”
“What are you looking for?” Perry asked. He felt his pants buzz, reaching in his pocket he pulled out his cell. Kieron’s name popped up again, I can’t answer in the station. Perry pressed silence.
“I’ll pull them all up and send them to him.” Kyle said to the phone.
“Who doesn’t belong around here?” Perry said, “You don’t pass through this place, you take the long way around.”
The phone buzzed again, Perry answered it. “What?”
“Yo… it’s Kieron where you been?” His voice seemed excited, but quiet. Perry’s eyes kept jumping toward the license screen as names and pictures kept coming up.
“At the station.” Perry whispered cracking the fingers on his hand.
“We got a description of the guy,” Kieron said, though it was hard to hear with the buzzing fans of the processors.
“Will do,” Kyle said to the phone and hung up.
“You’re gonna tell me what the Nutty Professor said?” Perry said pulling out his notebook. He took a couple of steps toward the door.
“Nutty what, who you talking to?” Kieron said. Perry glared toward Kyle who didn’t look up at him. He needed the full list, but he didn’t even know what the list was about.
“Never mind, what do you have?”
“I want to be there…” Kieron said, “it needs to be us when we get this bastard.”
“Hold up,” Perry said to the phone. He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. His voice dropped to a whisper. “You know I ain’t okay with that,”
“I know you ain’t gonna want other cops around when you get this guy… you’d do what you need for your family. I do too, you’re my family.”
“Don’t act like it no more.”
“Still pissed at you for bailing.”
“It was the army or prison, and you know I can’t take you with me…”
“I ain’t letting you go alone, and you aren’t going to bring that pasty cookie cutter partner of yours.” Kieron said. Sounding more like the kid he was when they weren’t around the others… including Eddie.
“If I say no?”
“Then you don’t have the guy, I’ll look for him.” Perry thought for a minute, he looked down the hallway. Empty, no one to see him, to help him.
“I can’t do this.”
“Not as a cop, meet me at ‘Best New Chinese Restaurant’ in two hours. I know someone that can help.”
“Which restaurant?” Perry said, if the offer meant what he thought, he didn’t know if he could go there.
“On Capital, I wanna help…”
“You’d help a pig?”
He could almost hear Kieron smile through the phone, “Bros before kidnapping dick heads.”
“Kieron, come on.”
“You want the description we got, you gonna have to promise me.”
“Fine,”
“Alright… white boy… six feet, it was dark but I think he had either blue or… maybe hazel eyes.” Perry jotted it down in his notebook shorthand. “He had like dark blond hair or maybe brown hair,” Perry sighed to himself… this wasn’t helpful at all.
“Nose was normal maybe a little pointy… I think I saw a scar on his cheek.”
“That could be a thousand of people in the city, let alone the county.”
“Man I see you guys stick portraits of suspects that look like they were drawn by my Goddaughter.”
“You have a Goddaughter?”
“The one named after your sister, Sadie.”
“You never met her.”
“Always have your back man… always.” Perry smiled, remembering staying up late and watching documentaries at Kieron’s house, eating terrible food and talking about their grand plans. “The China place in two.”
“Anything else?” Perry said as he closed his notebook, he couldn’t bring Kieron in on this could he? He’d go back on his word.
“Carlito said he had something metal in his arm, went off with the detector.”
Perry opened the door to the IT room. “Okay thanks, I’ll see you,” Perry said and hung up.
He glanced at the monitor with the licenses pulling up and dropping off. One caught his eye.
“No way,” Perry whispered. James, the man so familiar to him had his face on screen before disappearing.
“Perry, you got to leave, Captain’s orders.” Perry barely registered it. Couldn’t be him, could it? Every monitor went dark and Kyle stood up.
“I have to see the Captain, you did your job… we found the witness.” Kyle walked past him and out the door. He remembered where he knew James from, so long ago. The night that changed his life.
Seconds later his phone buzzed again, ‘Kieron.’
“Yeah.” Perry said awed.
“By the way… we think he’s doing it cause of the dogs.”
Chapter 28
“Okay I sent you the link,” Zeta said. Keyboard snaps echoed through the phone like a chattering jaw. The phone buzzed with a quick glance and saw the email, no subject.
“So why are you sending me this?” Marshall asked rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“I have a client… he asked me to set up a dark site for him on the deep web.”
“Again… why are you calling me?”
“Some of the stuff he’s written… go to your computer.”
“What stuff?” Marshall said walking to his desk. He put the phone on speaker mode and opened his laptop. Rubbing his head, he wondered why he still put up with this guy.
Zeta’s voice came through scratchier, “I thought it was a underground fight club.”
“Is it?”
“I didn’t know anymore, it’s a little too...” Zeta said, his voice quietly drifting away.
“Too what, is he like a terrorist,” Marshall said half joking.
“Depends, what’s your classification of terrorist?”
“Someone causing terror.”
“Maybe.”
“Did anyone tell you you’re a drama queen?” Marshall said to the man who supposedly only hacked the police to delete his file so big brother couldn’t track him. A bit conspiratorial like Foley.
“He’s uploaded pictures… and descriptions,” Marshall the laptop’s main screen popped up.
“So?”
“I think… they fight to the death, there was a video that wasn’t exactly uploaded… I saw it.” Zeta said. Marshall opened his email, clicking the blue link with a numbers and symbols he sat back in his chair.
“You hacked him?”
“A little…”
“So where is this, Milwaukee?”
“I think so… and I think the fighters… aren’t volunteers.”
“Think, think, think… do you know anything?”
“Yeah… they’re criminals, scumbags I checked them out.”
“Like you?” Marshall said, Zeta sighed and his browser opened. “I’m online.”
“Are you in Tor, the download I gave you.
“Hold on.”
“When in, paste the site from the email I sent you.” Marshall cracked his neck as the new site loaded. It started appearing slowly. ‘The Animal Abuser’s Gate to Hell’ read the headline at the top.
“
What is this guy a witch or something?” He started to scroll down. He saw hyperlinks of dates to the left side and an essay in the center, like a 20-year-old website.
“No, he isn’t crazy either.”
“You bring me crap like this almost daily, I can’t get anywhere with it. You just trying to bog me down with crap so I don’t go after you?”
“You know me, I ain’t like that,” Zeta said, “we’re friends?”
“Not sure about that,”
“Come on, I scratch your back…”
“You only help me so I let you do some of the semi-legitimate things you and your organization do… if you didn’t I’d throw you in jail.”
“But I ain’t a rapist or shit like that, I wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“You’re a hacker,” Marshall said.
“So,” Zeta said, “I do good, my hacks are targeted towards corporations and big government… you know assholes.”
“Your version of assholes,” Marshall said, he started to read under the headline ‘Mission Statement.’
‘Animals have been abused and neglected by humans since the dawn of creation. They are beaten tortured and left for dead for no reason. Yet we rely on them for everything, food, shelter, companionship, partners. We have all seen abuse and done nothing, what is there to do against the perpetrator. Sometimes it’s a family member, sometimes a friend or a stranger and we sit back and don’t move. We can’t be bothered to take a stand against the evil that is coming from these bastards to harm, abuse and humiliate precious living creatures.’
“Nice little rant,” Marshall said as he skimmed another few paragraphs, “I don’t see anything about killing people. Also, not sure why I’d care if they’re criminals”
“Scroll down.” Marshall did.
‘It’s our inaction to stop these monsters that causes the animals real harm. Our looking the other way is just as bad as the ones who strike, who burn, who cause unending suffering to them. We can blame their upbringing or their status in life, but they have no empathy, guilt or sorrow. I am not a psychologist and couldn’t diagnose their malfunction. But it is our malfunction to try and put ourselves in the place of these people, to see as they see that allows them to either escape punishment or to give them such a small deterrent that they will have no problem reasoning that they could do it again. We need to be harsh, we need to carry the large stick and show no mercy. Join me in denouncing these beasts for that is what they are. Do nothing or give it lip service and when this happens and you’re looking for someone to blame. Look no further than the mirror.’
“It’s a bit harsh.” Zeta said. Did it really matter? This could be a good thing, less criminals on the streets, less monsters to try and shoot him in the back.
“You’re not sure if they fight to the death, or if it’s even in Milwaukee.” Marshall said.
“No… but I set up a few wireless routers around town.”
“So it’s here?”
“Not necessarily, he could have multiple routers throughout the city… county or even state, bouncing the signal from place to place. Added security over Tor’s.”
“I’m not in the cyber crimes department, I can’t do anything.”
“When I installed cameras, the guy blindfolded me and took me to the place… we drove I don’t know… maybe forty-five minutes, never on the freeway.” Zeta said in a more reserved tone.
“You got in a car blindfolded? You’re an idiot.”
“He paid good and seemed normal.” Marshall clicked a blue hyperlink on the side of the page with a date 4-11-17, ‘Page not found.’ He clicked a second one, 4-8-17. Same.
“I’ve got nothing but a manifesto.”
“It’s for videos, he hasn’t uploaded them yet.”
“Call me when he does.” Marshall pulled the phone away from his ear.
“Wait what the hell.” Zeta said.
“What now?” Marshall said.
“I don’t know… traffic to the site is increasing.” more loud clicks came through the phone. “Wait a new link was added… reload and click the Live link. Zeta said. Marshall did.
It took him a second to realize what he was looking at. A room, brightly lit, the floor was concrete, he could see two walls, looked to be cream city brick.
“It’s an empty room.”
“Just wait,”
A scratchy voice came through his speakers. “Tomas a convicted criminal with a history of animal abuse, he beat a multiple cows, one until the thing could no longer stand and had to be put down… we don’t know what else he did to that sow…” There was a pause and Marshall got the impression that the abuse could’ve been more. “Then we have our reigning champion. Eddie Jefferson, he’s been a dog fighter and murderer for twelve years. Today, these two fight to the death.” Jesus
“Shut it down.”
“I don’t have that type of access.” Zeta said.
“Can you do anything?”
“Just watch…” Marshall heard a can opening.
“Did you pop a beer?”
“Yeah… this is messed up, but I don’t like these monsters who hurt animals either.”
“You’re not gonna go kill people though.”
“You know how much I love Otter and Chance,” Zeta said referring to his black lab and border collie, Zeta liked to show off the pictures. “These guys ... they kill dogs, they kinda deserve it.”
Marshall hung up the phone and pulled up contacts. He looked at his Perry’s name. Does he call him? Does he have his partner watch while his brother might get killed?
“Today, these animals will fight to the death, because their soft punishments by weak judges they never really did the time… they were given vacations after taking lives.”
Marshall’s finger hovered over the number. He looked at the screen, suddenly he could see a man appear on the left of the screen. Black with a buzzed haircut. He looked skinny, like he hadn’t been fed in weeks. His mouth was moving and his finger pointing at something to the right. He seemed to be shouting off camera. It was Eddie. “Dammit.” He said and shut down his phone.
“It seems Tomas is a little camera shy, Eddie give him some encouragement.” The voice said.
Eddie walked across the screen yelling and disappeared. A few seconds later a man stumbled into the center of the camera. The man got up, started to yell back.
“This is fake, it has to be,” Marshall said shaking his head, “who would do this?”
Eddie took a few casual steps out, like he knew how this was gonna work. Tomas started to raise his hands and step backwards… he could see trembling in the fists.
Eddie jumped forward throwing a superman punch. Tomas was caught in the side of his head, he stumbled back but caught himself on the wall. It was on.
Tomas pushed himself off and kicked. It hit Eddie in the stomach. He tried following it with a punch. Eddie ducked to the side, his fist flew upward as he countered with an uppercut. He followed with a punch to the side, then another punch hit his jaw and staggered Tomas. Eddie was good.
Tomas looked up, few drops of blood started coming down his face. His eyebrows dropped. He pushed forward. Eddie tried a hook but Tomas blocked it and punched to Eddie’s nose. Eddie stumbled back, Tomas pressed on. He swung again hitting Eddie in the side of the head, then tried a jab. It reminded him of a MMA match. All he needed was Rogan commentating and it could’ve been fun. Except for someone dying.
“Come on Eddie,” Marshall said quietly. He was routing for Eddie, he had to. Tomas jabbed, but Eddie blocked it and spun around to Tomas’ blind side. Am I cheering for someone to die?
Eddie kicked at the leg, Tomas collapsed to a knee. Eddie tried to move in, but Tomas was quick to his feet and dropped a hammer strike onto Eddie’s skull. Marshall jumped back in his chair.
I am.
Eddie pushed himself up and moved forward, he raised his foot like he was going to kick. Tomas went to block it. Eddie pulled it back and punched. Tomas stumbled. Eddie ran up with a
jumping knee. It caught Tomas. His head snapped back too fast. Tomas’ body crumpled on the ground. Eddie started to yell at the camera… no the blind spot next to it. A wall?
Eddie ran at it, he pulled back his fist ready to punch. The video went black. Marshall sat back in his chair and looked out his window into downtown Milwaukee.
Is Tomas dead? Was he a criminal? He wasn’t sure what to do. The sun was setting in the distance, he liked this view. Like he could watch over the city like the superhero he wasn’t. Marshall got up and went to his bar cart. He grabbed the bottle of Dickell and a glass. As he sat back down sure of one thing. He needed a drink.
Chapter 29
James released the trigger and spasms stopped from Eddie’s unconscious body. He looked at the camera, the little red light was gone. Was it shut off in time? Did it catch him?
Eddie couldn’t be the last, not by far. They need to go, all of them. But if his face was on the camera... he shook the thought away and grabbed Eddie’s leg. He started dragging him back into his cell, a few aftershocks flowed through them both. A hint of burning flesh followed. He lifted a foot to stomp on Eddie but something held him back. He shut the gate and walked to Tomas’ body. His neck was snapped and his ear was kissing his right shoulder.
He checked the pulse, though really had no reason to. Still warm. The thick iron door squeaked open behind him.
“They really need to stop trying to escape,” Renee said pushing the gurney into the room.
“Human spirit I guess.”
“Wouldn’t call these beasts human,” Renee said. A socialist hippy in her younger days, she said she grew a brain but her love for animals always stayed with her.
“Is the pickup close?”
“Ten minutes.” She said. James nodded, he bent over and grabbed Tomas’ wrists. Renee grabbed the ankles.
“On three,” James said. They lifted the recently deceased up, James’ muscles shook.
He looked again at the camera again. He needed to watch the video. There couldn’t be anything that could give him away. Though quality wasn’t great. He knew some of those IT guys may be able to pick up on something that could give him away. People like Zeta, James hoped the money was enough to keep him quiet. James pushed the back of the cart as Renee pulled it. They went through the large steel door and went to the corridor.