Dreams and Reality Set 3: Cannibal Dreams and Butchered Dreams

by Hadena James

  “Aren’t they?” John asked.

  “If they were taken by the killer?” I looked at him. “Yes. But if he isn’t a victim of the serial, then who knows. It is better for the family to maintain hope.”

  Eight

  The evening was quiet. Xavier had gathered DNA from the feet and from articles given to the police by the missing boys. The samples had been sent to our forensics lab. We’d have DNA in a few days. Until then, we had feet in socks.

  The socks were a name brand available at just about any store. Since there were at least three dozen places in town that sold them, John had hacked into the stores’ sales database and was checking for large purchases of the socks.

  Honestly, feet tied into socks wasn’t much to go on. It might be related to the death of Sarah Anderson twenty-five years ago or it might not. We were sitting on our hands, my least favorite part of the job. My favorite cases were the ones where we went in, figured out the bad guy in less than a day and busted down doors. I wasn’t an investigator, I wasn’t a detective. I thought like a killer, nothing more.

  As I stared at the ceiling of my bedroom, I tried to think like this killer. Why boys? Why feed them to a predator? Was the predator just the means of disposal or was there something more to it? This brought another problem to the forefront.

  A pet required work and attachment. I was too lazy to have a pet and too emotional detached to attempt to bond with an animal. However, bonding with an animal was probably easier than bonding with a human, animals were more logical. Even their unconditional devotion made sense to me, it kept them from relying upon their wits and instincts, from being tossed into the cold to live the life of a wild animal. Creature comforts applied to animals, at least in my mind.

  This theory applied best to dogs. Cats were a little more hit and miss. True predators I couldn’t fit into it, no matter what way I turned the piece. A true predator was just as likely to kill you as lick you. That I also understood.

  If we were back to a sexual aspects of the killings, there was no way it was related to the Sarah Anderson killing and the link was coincidence. If it wasn’t sexual, I had no idea why the killer was abducting teenaged boys to feed to a predator. It seemed like a lot of work to look after something so large and wild, even one born in captivity. Sure, people did it all the time, but those people were not normally serial killers. Serial killers had pets, but they tended to be loving, loyal pets, meaning mostly dogs and the occasional house cat. The animals tended to be protective. Exotic pets might be protective, but they also had a feral streak.

  This circular logic engulfed me. It kept me from sleeping, not that this was a hard task, I wasn’t great at sleeping in general, but when my mind had a puzzle, it was much worse. This was a puzzle that I was pretty sure my hyper-logical brain was overcomplicating.

  Then a piece grabbed my attention. Was the foot alive or dead when it was bitten? That could make a serious difference. Sarah Anderson had been killed by the jaguar. Her body had been dismembered after death. The feet were being taken post-mortem. But were they being killed by the predator or simply disposed of using the predator? If the first was true, it explained the bite mark on the foot. If the second was true, it didn’t. Why take a foot after a predator has chewed on it?

  I called Xavier. He groaned instead of telling me hello.

  “About the bite,” I started.

  “No, I don’t know, the removing of the flesh and bone was done postmortem. I don’t know about the bite.”

  “But if you are going to put the feet on display, would it make sense to cut it off after the animal had feasted upon it if that isn’t the manner of death?”

  “No,” Xavier sighed. “Why?”

  “Well, Sarah Anderson was killed by a jaguar and then dismembered. I think we are looking for the same killer again.”

  “Sarah was a girl. These are all boys.”

  “I know, I haven’t figured that out yet. But I believe cause of death is traumatic injury from animal attack.”

  “Great,” Xavier hung up on me.

  I texted the thought to Gabriel. He responded with an “Ok.” Obviously, everyone but me was sleeping. I checked the clock. I’d been in my head for several hours, it was almost two in the morning. No wonder Xavier had hung up on me.

  We were set to go to the animal sanctuary in the morning. It was technically morning, but I was fairly certain that the guys wouldn’t like me waking them up to go out there now. I crawled under the covers and turned on the TV. There was a documentary on, the star of the show was a lion. I watched it and learned a little more about lions than I needed. It ended and was replaced by something on mermaids. My need to know information about mermaids was even less than my need of knowledge about lions. I changed the channel and found a movie. I set a sleep timer on the off chance I feel asleep before the movie ended and grabbed my Kindle.

  One of the nice things about eBooks, was that I didn’t need a book store to be open to grab a book on just about anything. I grabbed one about jaguars. It had lots of pictures and very little new information. I bought a second book. This one proved a little more useful, but again, it was mostly pictures. When I finished both, I had gained the skills to identify a jaguar, in all of its patterns and colors, but most of the information I had already known.

  My clock told me it was now five thirty in the morning. Going to the animal sanctuary was now acceptable. They might not like it, but it wouldn’t be the first time. I called Gabriel. He answered with a groan and informed me he was getting up.

  I climbed from bed, turned off the TV and got dressed. I could sleep later. Right now, I wanted to see what all was hidden in the animal sanctuary.

  I was in the hall, waiting, when the guys finally stumbled from their rooms. A Mountain Dew was already in my hands and I had drank about half of it in the last twenty minutes. Xavier gave me a look of pure irritation, so I smiled at him. Gabriel handed him a cup of coffee. Xavier perked up and stopped glaring at me. John was the last out of his room. He shoved a ball cap over his messy hair that had US Marshals embroidered on it. We all had a wardrobe full of Marshals logoed clothing, but rarely wore any of it.

  “I slept like shit,” he announced.

  “I slept fine, until Ace called me,” Xavier said.

  “Me too, until she texted me,” Gabriel added.

  “I didn’t sleep,” I turned and began walking down the hallway.

  “We know,” Gabriel and Xavier said in unison.

  “Tonight, I’m giving her a pill,” Xavier told Gabriel.

  “That might not be a terrible idea,” Gabriel tried to whisper.

  “I can hear you,” I rounded the corner and hit the button on the elevator. “I would take one, if we weren’t on a case. But I’m not allowed.”

  “You keep texting me at three in the morning and I’ll make an exception,” Gabriel shouted down the hall at me.

  “Good,” I smiled as the doors opened. I had to hold it for the others.

  Being in my hometown, meant Gabriel was letting me drive all the time. He made a phone call. The person on the other end was pissed. Gabriel kept trying to turn down the volume and I could still hear the person yelling at him.

  “Did you just tip off the sanctuary?” I asked.

  “No, but I did piss off animal control. It appears they have business hours and six in the morning isn’t part of their regular work day,” Gabriel snarked.

  “Ah, yeah, in Columbia, if you have an animal problem before eight a.m. or after five p.m., you better hope like hell the police department will respond, because animal control won’t. They don’t even have an emergency number. Some things never change.”

  “You’ve dealt with them before, I take it?” Xavier asked.

  “Yeah, Nyleena and I were leaving a concert one night and hit a dog. We got out to check on it, the dog went on the attack. I called animal control and they informed me I had to call the police. The police agreed to send out an officer,” I told him.

&
nbsp; “I hear a ‘but’ in this story,” Gabriel said.

  “Well, the cop took too long to respond and I had to kill the dog because he had nearly ripped off Nyleena’s arm. She still has scars from the attack and surgery. Thing was rabid. Not a good day to be her or me. We both had to get rabies shots.” I remembered the series of painful injections like yesterday. Maybe that’s why I didn’t own a pet. “Then the dog owner sued my mom and Nyleena because it turned out to be a pure bred whatchamacallit worth some money. Nyleena counter sued, my mom counter sued. The entire thing was a giant mess.”

  “How’d you kill it?” John asked.

  “I broke its neck,” I said flatly, turning off of Highway 63 onto Oakland Gravel Road.

  “Good grief, how big of a dog was it?” John pressed.

  “Small,” I answered.

  “Was it a Chihuahua?” Xavier giggled the madman’s giggle.

  “No, it was a cocker spaniel.”

  “A rabid cocker spaniel?” Xavier giggled even harder.

  “Vicious little beast,” I turned again onto a gravel road.

  “Do you know where you’re going?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yep,” I answered turning one last time and stopping at a large fence. “We’re here. They have expanded. You might keep your Tasers at the ready. When my cousin lived near here, one of the large predators got out of its enclosure and went on a rampage.”

  “Did it hurt anyone?” John asked.

  “No, just a Rottweiler, a horse, and a Great Dane.”

  “What the hell was it?” Xavier asked.

  “Something meaner than a Rottweiler and bigger than a Great Dane,” I shrugged and got out of the SUV.

  It was cold. The sun was starting to brighten the sky, but it hadn’t risen above the horizon yet. January in Missouri can be brutal. This year wasn’t an exception. Until this week, the temperature had been hovering around thirty-five during the day. I had no idea what it was now or what the wind-chill was, I just knew that my body was already starting to ache from the cold. I considered climbing back into the SUV and waiting for animal control, but that could be hours knowing them. Better to get it done and over with. If the sanctuary said they didn’t have a jaguar, I believed them and we needed to explore other options.

  Gabriel cut the lock on the gate and opened the door. Something stirred from an enclosure next to it. The enclosure was covered, keeping whatever was inside hidden from view. Surely, they wouldn’t put a large cat next to the gate, would they?

  Nine

  I pulled out my Taser. The others followed suit. Technically, I was the point man for our unit, so I took the lead. Gabriel held a flashlight behind me, I kept one hand free while holding the Taser in the other.

  The creature made a grunting, growling noise. John yelped. The crackle of electricity made me turn around. Tawny fur writhed in pain, making even stranger noises. I jerked the Taser out of John’s hands. The animal was still stunned and made small grunting bleats. I yanked the Taser prongs out of it.

  “You can have this back when you can learn to use it properly,” I scolded my coworker. The camel was pissed, but unable to stand yet. I searched through the pockets of my coat and pulled out a whistle. I handed it to John and tucked his Taser into that pocket. “If you get into trouble, blow the whistle.”

  “Why do you carry a whistle?” Xavier asked.

  “Some self-defense class I took taught me to carry a whistle. I’ve never used it,” I added the last quickly.

  “What if I’m being attacked?” John gaped at the whistle.

  “Hope we get there before you get eaten,” I started moving again. The incident had brought attention to us. The animals were all making noises, moving around in their enclosures. Some I could see, some I could hear, some I could just tell where there, in the dark. Camels weren’t my favorite animals, I thought they were nasty, but they didn’t deserve to be Tasered just because they were roughly the same color as a lion and a US Marshal was jumpy in the semi-dark.

  A low, chuffing noise caught my attention. I stopped, tilting my head to hear it better. My ears had trouble finding the sound, but it reverberated through my body. Few animals made sounds like those, most were auditory, without the bass needed to create pressure waves of sound that could be felt inside. As far as I knew, it was exclusive to big cats. Some memory told me that the noise was coming from a tiger. However, where there was one cat, there were probably more.

  “I’ve heard that before,” Gabriel whispered. “As a kid, my dad took us to India, we were staying in this small hut beside a game preserve and for a couple of nights in a row, I heard that noise. The locals told us it was mating season.”

  “I believe it’s a tiger,” I told him.

  “I’d like to know why you went to India,” Xavier said.

  “We’ll discuss it later,” Gabriel said.

  I started towards the sound. Gabriel’s light found the enclosure. It wasn’t a vibrant orange, but a dark, dingy orange with long black stripes to break up the color. The fur looked soft. Large yellow eyes with flecks of gold in them stared back at us. I’d seen tigers at the zoo, but I’d never been this close to one. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Logically, I knew we were fine. The tiger was in a cage. However, the eyes sent a twinge of anxiety racing through me. It could easily overpower us. The massive teeth would tear us apart.

  “What are we looking for?” Xavier asked.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. I had hoped to find an animal covered in blood that could be tested. The tiger was pristine. I realized most of the animals would probably be in the same condition. Cats tended to be clean animals, they wouldn’t have three day old blood on them.

  To our left, there was a growl. Another cat, the sound more physical than audible, it caused me to whip around to look at it. My gaze fell on another tiger. This one larger. I began to back away slowly.

  “What are you doing?” Gabriel whispered.

  “The way the cages are set up, we are surrounded,” I pointed at a third cage holding a tiger. “One gets out, we might not have time to react, because we will be distracted by the others. They will go nuts.”

  We went back to the SUV and waited for the sun to rise. It did nothing to warm the frozen landscape, but at least we could see. During the hour wait, no one had spoken. Each of us contemplating our encounter with the tigers. I had been up close and personal with a wild predator of the exotic type once before. The standoff had ended when the predator had wandered off.

  With the sun up, it was easier to see into the enclosures. Most were at least partially covered with thick tarps. Shelters could be seen within them. A few eyes peered out at us as we skulked around. The majority couldn’t be bothered by our presence and kept inside where it was warm and cozy.

  One enclosure caught my attention. It was easily the largest one there. A tree inside had a few ropes hanging from it and there toys strewn about the ground. The occupant or occupants were invisible, hidden within the depths of the enormous shed like building.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the licensed gorilla lived on the other side of the metal. The others waited beside me. They were quiet, although I was sure they were questioning why we were standing outside a gorilla cage.

  While part of me was standing there with the intent of seeing the creature that dwelled on the other side, another part had become trapped in thought. Not of gorillas, but of chimpanzees, chimps were notoriously aggressive and had large teeth. It was far more likely for a chimp to go on a rampage than a gorilla. There was always the possibility that the fang marks didn’t come from a predatory cat, but from something more apish.

  It was easier to obtain a chimpanzee than it was a jaguar. A chimp would have the strength to bite through bone. It would also be able to rip a teenaged boy limb from limb, which might be why we weren’t finding anything other than the feet.

  There was movement from the shed. A hatch opened and the first appearance of the large beast came int
o the morning sun. His face was black with large canine teeth that hung over his lower lip. His head was wide, one ear had been injured at some point and had healed into a grotesque curl that folded in on itself. However, the eyes were bright. He stared at us. I looked at the ground, trying not to stare at him.

  The large male came the rest of the way out of his home. It wasn’t a gorilla. The ape was orange with large cheek pads. He swaggered over to the edge of his enclosure and I felt the men with me step backwards. I was close enough to feel his breath upon me.

  I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He seemed non-threatening. He also seemed as curious about me as I was him. Of course, I knew better than to trust his curiosity. He could become aggressive if I moved wrong.

  “Ace,” Xavier whispered my name. I took a step backwards, then another. A hand shot from between the bars, reaching for me. The fingers brushed my coat, but failed to grab hold. I continued to back away slowly, eyes averted, until I was well and truly safe from the orangutan on the other side.

  “Communing with nature?” Gabriel whispered once I was back with the group.

  “It’s hard to explain,” I told him. The licenses hadn’t included an orangutan. “Was there any mention of the great ape?”

  “Not that I recall,” John answered.

  “Why?” Xavier asked.

  “Not now,” I turned and looked at the rest of the sanctuary. All of these animals were safe, I wasn’t going to ding them on having an orangutan. Especially since I was pretty sure I knew the gentle giant. If I was right, he was about ten years older than me, more than halfway through his life cycle. If he was happy at the sanctuary, I was fine with leaving him there. “Can we get them a license before animal control shows?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel answered.

  “Good, let’s get a license. Do you need a name?”

  “John?” Gabriel looked at our geek.

  “No, I’ll be in the SUV, faking paperwork should you need me to dummy up any more official documents,” he sulked back to the SUV. I thought he should be happy to be out of the cold. The SUV was running and warm.