The Sleeping Girls

by James Hunt

  The door shut and sealed Susan and Chief inside. It was roomier but still claustrophobic. Susan wasn’t sure who was supposed to speak first, but she thought it best to let the chief start the conversation. She knew that she was already on thin ice.

  “I have a daughter,” Chief said. “She’s a junior over at Bellevue High. She’s on the varsity volleyball team. Made it all the way to state this year, but lost in the final. She wants to play for the Huskies when she graduates. She might even get a scholarship from them.”

  “Is she your only child?” Susan asked.

  “No,” Chief said. “I have a boy. He’s only twelve.” He smiled at her. “It’s a different relationship between fathers and daughters. I don’t think it’s better or worse than the relationship I have with my son, it’s just… different.” He smiled sadly at Susan, and she could only find the strength to nod in return. He sat on the edge of the table and crossed her arms. “When I first heard about the murders, and how they were all young girls, I don’t think I’d ever been more afraid in my life. I know you don’t have children, but you might want them one day, and when that day comes, your life changes forever. From that point on it’s all about them. Protecting them. Teaching them. Watching them grow so fast in front of your eyes that you’d think there was magic involved. Because that’s what it’s like. It’s magic.”

  Susan studied the chief carefully and saw that a part of the man believed that was true. But she didn’t know. She had no children, and she had no plans of bringing any into this world.

  “I can help, Chief,” Susan said. “I can help bring this to a peaceful end, or at the very least buy you some time. He’s waiting for me.”

  The chief was quiet for a while and then finally looked Susan in the eye. “I read your file after that pedophile bust. And I know about your past. Where you were from and what you escaped. I know the fire that fuels you.” Now it was his turn to study her, and Susan hoped that she hid her trembling well enough. “Lieutenant Williams said you’re setting a record for Vice arrests, and you’ve barely been on the job over a year. He says you’re one of the best that he’s ever seen.”

  Susan was surprised at the words. “I just want to help, Chief.”

  “Even if you’re successful, you understand that there will be an investigation in regards to your misconduct about the relationship with your informant,” Chief said, returning to his authoritative stature.

  “I understand,” Susan said, and she felt the tide of the situation beginning to turn.

  “I’ll do what I can to help mitigate the exposure,” Chief said. “But I can’t make any promises.”

  “It was my decision, Chief. My mistake. Let me try and fix it.” Susan straightened up, lifting her chin to portray a woman who was chasing her demons back into the hell from which they had crawled. She hoped that it would make him see that she was ready, but while he nodded, Susan saw the concerned look in his eye.

  “We’ll get you fixed up and ready to go,” Chief said, and then he stopped. “How old are you?”

  Susan didn’t want to answer, but she knew that he’d be able to look it up in his files anyway. “Twenty-four, sir.”

  And to her surprise, the chief didn’t scoff, or howl, or make any type of comment that made her feel inferior about her age.

  “Okay then.” The chief finally turned away and then instructed Susan to call everyone back inside. As the small command room filled, she stood off to the side, finding Palmer, who had also been let back inside as she walked to stand beside him.

  The chief informed everyone that Susan would be going in to try and buy them time with the killer until they found a way to neutralize him without loss of life.

  Susan had gotten what she wanted. Now it was time to deliver.

  42

  The bulletproof vest that SWAT had strapped to Susan’s chest had been rigged with a microphone and a small camera so that their unit would be able to see and hear what the situation was like to better assess their next moves.

  They had given Susan the smallest one that they could find, but it still didn’t fit her properly. The SWAT leader had informed her not to make any aggressive movements toward the subject, and to understand that her primary objective was to only buy them some time to figure out how they were going to bring the man down.

  And while Susan had no intentions of trying to play the hero and bringing the man who had not only killed a good friend but was now about to take a second one down, she didn’t trust herself to follow the sergeant’s commands. She knew what she was capable of, and she knew what Nate was capable of.

  Whatever happened though, Susan wasn’t going to let anyone but herself die in that room. No matter what. Protocol be damned.

  After Susan was strapped into her gear, she was then let through the barrier that had been constructed to keep everyone out of the building. Susan stared up at the towering structure and knew that those that hadn’t been evacuated were all in lockdown.

  Because the entire hospital couldn’t just be shut down, only non-essential personnel were able to be evacuated, but that was only for everyone that wasn’t on the seventh floor.

  The seventh floor was where Nate’s room was located, and anyone that could be evacuated was. It was also where the first SWAT unit was waiting, hidden out of view from Nate, who was in the room. But he knew the protocol for something like this. He had been a part of their team, a part of their unit, and he had betrayed their trust. He had revealed many things.

  It was different walking into the hospital this time. The receptionist that had been so friendly upon her first visit was nowhere to be found. And when she reached the elevator, she saw three armed officers watching the post, two of them with their weapons trained on the doors should someone try to leave that wasn’t supposed to.

  The radio of the third officer that didn’t have his weapon out crackled, and he nodded, opening the door with a key, then stepped into the elevator with her and used the stop key to allow them to head to the seventh floor.

  “First-floor unit heading to seventh with the negotiator.” The officer spoke into his radio with a mechanical indifference. He didn’t look at Susan, but she was too busy worried about what was going to happen next to care about anything that concerned the officer.

  It was dead quiet on the ride up, and the ping from the elevator that signaled that they had reached their floor was made even more ominous by the dead silence.

  They were greeted by another pair of officers, and only Susan stepped from the elevator as the doors closed behind her. She was already turned in the direction of the room, and she saw the SWAT team approach her from the corner of her peripheral in the opposite direction.

  “You Susan?” The voice was gruff, and when Susan turned, she only saw a pair of white eyes. The rest of the tactical officer’s face was concealed by a black mask and helmet.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “He’s in room twelve,” he said. “We’ll be on standby, but remember that—”

  “I’m just buying time.” Susan nodded. She didn’t need to go through the spiel again.

  “Are you armed?” The officer asked.

  He knew that she wasn’t, but Susan suspected that it was a question that needed to be asked based off of protocol. She was forced to surrender all her firearms to the tactical team that outfitted her with the bulletproof vest, and she was thankful that she had already ditched her secret revolver. If it had been found, it would have only added more trouble to the pile of shit that was accumulating around her.

  “No,” Susan answered.

  “All right.” The officer’s eyes looked back at Susan. “You’ll approach alone.” He reached into his pocket, and when he opened his palm, there was a tiny earpiece. “Wear this. It’ll ensure that I’m able to relay any information from command. I’m your point person up here, and you need to do exactly what I say when I say it. Understand?”

  Susan nodded, but when she reached for the earpiece, he clamped his oth
er hand over hers, and she looked up at the whites of his eyes, his pupils dilated.

  “I’m serious. The moment I get the call to go in, I’m not going to stop, no matter who is in the way.”

  “I got it.”

  The officer removed his hand and Susan placed the tiny piece into her ear. There was a beep, and then the SWAT team tested the device.

  Susan flashed a thumbs up, signaling that she could hear him, and then she headed toward the room. She glanced into the places she passed, finding all of them empty. She suspected that it wasn’t hard for them to move the patients on this floor since most of them were in recovery.

  The closer she moved toward Charlie’s room, the more nervous she became. She understood the risks that were involved in this. Hell, she’d been in more high-pressure situations in the past year than most officers would have experienced during their entire career.

  But that was the world of Vice. And she had long since been trained for it before she even joined the academy.

  Still, walking to that room, it reminded Susan of the times when she would walk to her father’s bedroom when she came home from school. She would creep down the hallway, the dirty carpet crunching beneath her feet and her heart hammering in her throat.

  She had always thought that she would find her father dead, lying in a puddle of his own refuse, and she would scream and cry and beg for him to wake up, helpless to do anything.

  Approaching the hospital room, that same feeling returned to her now. But she wasn’t that little girl anymore. She wasn’t helpless.

  Susan saw the nurse first as she turned into the room. She was up against the wall, crying, shaking, and she didn’t notice Susan until she was all the way inside.

  Nate smiled when she entered, one hand aiming the gun at the nurse, the other holding the syringe with his thumb pressed over the top, the needle already stuck into the flesh of Charlie’s neck. He gestured to it, that smile widening from the power that it gave him. Control over the entire Seattle PD. “It’s just air. But I’ve managed to already prick the carotid vein. It won’t take very much air to kill him. Just the slightest pump and poof.” His eyes widened with the sound effect. “Off it goes, speeding through his bloodstream until it reaches his brain and pop goes the weasel.”

  Aside from the gun and the syringe pressing into Charlie’s neck, Susan saw no other weapons on his person. But she knew that it wouldn’t take much pressure for Nate to send an air bubble into Charlie’s body. And she hoped that the SWAT team understood that.

  “I knew you’d come,” Nate said. “It’s why I sent you the picture.”

  “I know,” Susan said, then looked to the nurse, who only whimpered. “You and I both know that this is about you and me. Let her go.”

  “And give up the few bargaining chips that I have left?” Nate shook his head. “No. That’s not how it’s going to work.” He leaned forward a little and looked at the Kevlar on her chest as he raised his voice. “You hear me? You’ll have to kill me if you want to stop this, but I’m going to take as many with me as I can!”

  Susan lingered by the door, and then looked to Charlie. He was still, but she saw his one right eye staring at her. “It’s doesn’t have to be this way. You can still walk out of this alive, Nate.”

  Nate grimaced. “It’s not about walking out of this alive. It’s never been about that, haven’t you learned anything?” His cheeks reddened. “Why do you think I killed those girls? You think I did it because I wanted to? You think I did it because I liked it!” He was screaming now, and Susan watched the arm that held the needle jerk in his hand.

  “I think you’re a man of conviction,” Susan said, hoping to calm him down. “I think you’re a man with a purpose.”

  “Yes.” Nate relaxed. “I am.”

  “It was your sister that gave you the purpose?” Susan asked, trying to buy some time.

  Nate’s eyes watered. “She ruined everything. Destroyed my entire family.” His lower lip quivered. “My parents were so busy with her that they never bothered with me. They bankrupted themselves trying to get Kat clean. But nothing worked. Nothing would take. She just kept relapsing and relapsing and relapsing.” He rolled his head around on his shoulders to accentuate the point. “It got to the point where I nearly lost all of my money trying to help her. I loved her, you know. I loved her very much.” His expression softened, and he stared at the floor. “And it was through that love that I realized that the only way to save her was to kill her.” He sniffled, nodding, his eyes wide as saucers when he looked at Susan again. “I stuck her arm full of heroin after I found her on a bender. She was wearing that floral dress, the same one I made for the other girls. And as I watched her body spasm, her life slipping away, I knew that it was mercy. She would no longer travel through the streets like a whore. She couldn’t hurt my parents anymore. They were devastated about her death—I was devastated, but I did what needed to be done. I did it for love. All of this was for love.”

  Susan tried not to grimace or reveal how sick she thought he was. She remained stoic, waiting for him to collect himself, knowing that there was only one way that this could end peacefully.

  “So here we are,” Nate said. “How long do you think you’re going to last here, Susan? What’s the play? Do you think you can stop me? Convince me to give up my revenge on you for something else?” He widened his smile. “What have you brought?”

  Susan took one step forward but went no further. She knew that he was smarter than she was and stronger. He also had the advantage of weapons. But he wasn’t infallible. He could be beaten. He could be stopped.

  “Me,” Susan finally answered, then spread her arms wide. “I brought me.”

  Nate scoffed. “And what am I supposed to do with you?”

  She took another step and lowered her arms. “Whatever you want.” She kept her tone soft and sweet, keeping her eyes innocent so Nate could see she was no longer a threat. The damsel in distress was a well-worn technique, but as smart as Nate was, he wasn’t above his most basic instincts. He couldn’t walk away from the type of woman that he had spent so much time fantasizing about.

  “I’m a lot like those other girls,” Susan said, stopping when she reached the foot of Charlie’s bed. “You know that I have a problem. And you know that you’re the only one that can help me.”

  Nate swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down from the motion, and she leaned forward. His pupils were dilated, but there was still a focus in his eyes. She needed that focus to disappear.

  The radio crackled in her ear. “We have a bead on a vent. We should be able to have a shot within three minutes. Keep it up and stand by.”

  “And you think I want you?” Nate asked, his voice slipping into the glaze of desire. “You think that you can offer me something better than revenge against you?”

  Susan knew that she was wearing him down. “I’ve always caught you looking at me, Nate.”

  Nate gave her a good look up and down, but when the nurse whimpered, that raging focus returned to him and he snarled at the nurse on the wall. “I could have had you anytime that I wanted. But you think I was dumb enough to go after a cop? Even an addicted bitch like you?” He scoffed again, pretending like the situation was causing everything to roll off of his back like water on a seal’s skin. Nate flared his nostrils and then inhaled quickly. “If you want me, then why him?”

  The question caught her off guard, and she realized that he was talking about Charlie. He was jealous, and she had underestimated how much he had been infatuated with her.

  “I’m smarter,” Nate said, answering his own question for her. “I’m just as good looking. You think I could have coaxed those girls into talking to me if I wasn’t? I’m strong. I worked on your side of the law. So what was it? What made you pick him over me?”

  “Two minutes,” the SWAT contact whispered silently into her ear.

  Susan didn’t have time to lie, and she understood that she was being listened to by everyone
in the command room, people whom she would hopefully still be working with after all of this was over. But the only thing that mattered to her at that moment was making sure that Charlie survived. Because while she might not have loved him the way he loved her, she wasn’t going to let anyone else die because of her. She had enough blood on her hands.

  “I don’t do what’s best for me,” Susan said. “I’ve never done that. Call it self-destructive behavior, call it acting out, but I’ve never been able to do the normal thing. The right thing.”

  Nate leaned closer, narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

  “Because of my father,” Susan answered, the words coming out almost involuntarily. “Because of what I knew he could do to me, because of what I was afraid he would do to me.”

  “He hurt you?” Nate asked.

  “Not physically,” Susan answered. “At least not intentionally. He was an alcoholic. So I guess you could say that being an addict was already in my blood. It’s also why I wanted to join Vice. I thought that if I could fight against the people who targeted the weak, then maybe I could help fix myself.” She looked at Nate. “It’s kind of what you do.”

  She could tell that the answer surprised him, and she watched the arm that held the weapon lower, and his grip on the syringe loosened.

  “Isn’t that what you told me once?” Susan asked, taking one step from around the base of the bed, so she stood in front of Nate without any barriers. “That we fix ourselves by fixing others? I know why you killed those girls, Nate. I really do. They were lost, wandering around in the darkness, but you brought them home. You ended all of the pain that they felt.”

  Nate’s voice caught in his throat. “Yes. I did.”

  “Less than one minute until the target is in range, be advised,” the radio said.

  “But no one appreciated what you did,” Susan said, taking another step closer to him. “That’s why you had to keep doing it, right? You had to show people that this was the only way.”