by JJ Holden
“Go get started,” he said. “Maybe I’ll join you…”
Melinda giggled. “Todd, you’re so bad.”
He smiled and looked into her eyes before she turned around and entered the kitchen.
“I try,” he said.
He heard her sandals clap against the Pergo flooring in the kitchen as she walked to the refrigerator. Outside, he heard the occasional gust of wind and the chatter of seagulls. He took a deep breath and thought for a moment of how happy he was.
His thoughts of happiness were stopped cold by a horrifying scream. Todd raced to the edge of his porch and peered down the beach in the direction from which the scream came. His heart raced at the sound that reminded him of the horrors of his old life, the one he had left back in Edinboro.
For a moment, he thought his symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder were reemerging. Perhaps the scream was a figment of his imagination. He had come so far in his treatments and meditation, but perhaps a small sliver of his past had come back into his mind in the form of a sickening scream.
Then he heard Melinda’s voice behind him. “What was that noise?” she asked. “Is someone in trouble?”
The fact that she heard the same sound confirmed that it wasn’t an auditory hallucination. Someone was in danger.
Todd turned around and looked at Melinda, who had a concerned look on her face. “Lock the door,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
Her voice was quelled with fear. “Be careful, Todd.”
Todd returned to the warm sand and surveyed his surroundings. His arm instinctively moved towards his side where he normally holstered his beloved .38 Smith and Wesson Special though it was not there. He reached into his pocket, but all he found was his cell phone. He knew there was no time to waste in running up to their bedroom and grabbing his gun from the lockbox. No time when someone was in trouble.
The beach was empty since most beach-goers were fixing dinner after a long day of uninterrupted sunshine. Before he could move, he heard a second scream, this one more blood-curdling than the first. He ran in the direction of wretched sound, unsure of what he’d discover. In his mind, he thought of all of the possibilities. He prepared himself for an atrocious scene, one out of the nightmares he used to have on a nightly basis. The nightmares that had been becoming more rare.
He expected to hear a third scream, but it did not come. As he ran, he looked for any sign of life, but there was none. A few people ran onto their back porches and looked around, but none joined Todd to search for the source of the terrible screaming.
On his left, large dunes separated the beach from the sandy street. He alternated his gaze between the vacant beach and the dunes. The beachgrass swayed in the increasingly hostile wind. Perhaps a wicked storm was brewing, appropriate for the storm in his mind that had been pacified for so long. Part of him hoped the scream would be from a couple who was fooling around, maybe from a day of drinking too many martinis on the beach. He knew that was wishful thinking. He knew that it wasn’t as innocent as that.
He continued to scan the dunes, and noticed something dark in the sand. He ran closer and saw a dark human form lying amongst a plethora of beachgrass. A body.
He ran towards the body and, in seconds, realized it was that of a woman facedown in the sand. Her right foot was buried in the sand, with only the top of her pale ankle visible.
Todd spoke with caution. “Ma’am. Are you okay?”
No response.
He stepped closer.
“Ma’am?”
Still no response. He crouched down next to her and saw blood dripping from a gash in her throat. Drop by drop, it reddened the sand below.
He studied her face and saw something sticking out from her closed mouth.
His voice was quiet. “What in the world?”
He stood up, retrieved his cell phone from his shorts pocket, and dialed 911.
After a single ring, the operator answered. “Is this an emergency?”
Todd looked at the woman who lay motionless on the sand. Then he quickly turned his gaze to the dark clouds near the horizon. “I found a dead woman along the dunes,” Todd said.
“Are you sure she is dead? Please use your—”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Todd said. “Her throat is slashed. Blood is everywhere.”
“We’ll send someone right away. Please stay where you are.”
Todd pocketed his cell phone and waited. He looked at the body, hoping to see any sign of life from her. No movement from her torso from breathing. No twitching from her extremities. She was motionless, and he knew she would remain that way. There was no doubt in his mind.
Five minutes elapsed before he heard distant sirens growing in volume. A minute after he heard the first sign of help, an ambulance and an unmarked cop car arrived at the scene.
A single medic, wearing all white, rushed from the ambulance and crouched down next to the woman. Todd looked at the thin, blond-haired man who looked no more than thirty-five as he viewed the gaping wound in her neck. The medic moved towards the woman’s feet and brushed the sand from her right foot. Todd stepped back in horror when he saw the stump where her foot used to be and the fresh blood that flowed from it. “Looks like her foot was cut off recently. How long ago did you find her?” the man asked.
“Less than ten minutes ago,” Todd said. “I was at my house when I heard a scream. Then I rushed over and found her like this.”
Todd heard a car door slam and moments later heard a deep voice from behind. “I’m Detective John Markley and this is Officer Sam Riley. We need to ask you a few questions.”
Todd turned around and his mouth opened slowly, but before he could speak, the detective’s voice began: “Please state your name.”
“Todd Williams.”
The detective’s eyes squinted and he cocked his head slightly. He wore thick-framed glasses and donned a bristly mustache. He scratched the top of his balding head and left out a great sigh. “Todd Williams, where do I know that name?”
“I was an officer in Edinboro—”
“That’s right. Remember that, Riley? That was a mess up there,” John said.
“Yeah, a big mess,” Todd said. “I’m retired now.”
“I don’t blame you after that charade,” Riley said, his voice a bit higher than John’s. Unlike the detective, his head was covered with thick, blond hair that flowed over his tanned forehead. His bright blue eyes looked out of place.
“So tell me, Mr. Williams,” John continued, “did you see anyone other than this woman? Perhaps someone running from the scene.”
“Only a few people on their porches on the way here,” Todd said. “I heard her scream twice and found her just the way you’re seeing her now.”
The detective crouched down and viewed the body. “The foot was cut off post mortem,” John said. “No way she would only scream twice while being cut apart.”
The medic lifted the leg. “This isn’t a hack-job,” he said. “This guy knew what he was doing. The cut is very clean.”
“How long did it take you to find the body after you heard the first scream?” John asked.
“Not long. Five minutes at most.”
“That’s quite a quick amputation,” the medic said.
“Premeditated,” John said. “Like the perp targeted his victim and knew that he wanted to take her foot…but why?”
Todd heard another vehicle arrive at the scene. Riley looked at the medic. “The coroner is here,” he said.
The medic stood up and walked towards the arriving coroner. Todd looked back at the detective while the coroner pronounced the woman deceased. Riley walked away and began securing the scene and ensured that anyone on the site was properly logged and finger and shoe-printed. Todd heard the clicking of cameras and saw more people arriving on the scene.
Todd saw John walk towards the woman’s head. In moments, he heard his voice. “Well what do we have here? Riley, come check this out.”
Riley ran over to the detective and
wringed his gloved hands together. “What’s up, sir?”
“Fish this…whatever it is…out of her mouth.”
Todd watched as Riley pried the woman’s mouth open and retrieved a soggy slip of paper.
“What does it say?” John asked.
Riley stared at the note for a minute and then let out sigh. “I haven’t seen anything like this before.” He cleared his throat and read the letter out loud.
Todd listened carefully as the officer spoke.
“It says ‘And so here begins the bloody game, the one I was destined to start. Blood will spill once daily until you stop me, if you can. Let the games begin.’”
“Good lord,” John said. “We have a sick bastard on our hands.”
John, Riley, and Todd stood in silence as several men and women continued to comb the scene for clues. Todd heard the waves crashing down in the distance as the seagulls continued their rant. He thought about the letter and felt his stomach turn. His new life of serenity and calmness would be no more. Not with a killer on the loose.
Finally, with a somber tone, John repeated the last line of the note: “Let the games begin.”
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