The Cleansing

by Shane Crosby

  “Got that right.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  FAMILY CONNECTION

  SOUTHSIDE

  Trevor

  After we left our witness, I replayed the conversation, not just what was said during our sit down in person meeting, but the words she spoke the night she called dispatch. She mentioned our victim was tattooed in Amsterdam. I keep thinking that’s a long way to go to get a tattoo. Then I started to put together reasons that would have taken her to that part of the world. A woman going to Amsterdam isn’t unheard of, but for someone on the Southside of Gochian, that’s not a usual vacation destination. It’s bitterly cold here during the winter months. We don’t have spring like normal places, our spring begins when the calendar says it’s summer. Amsterdam has the same type of weather. Going there wouldn’t be a reprieve from what you left and that’s usually the reason people go on vacation. Someone from Gochian wouldn’t want to go spend any more time in the deep freeze they just left. What other reasons could make someone go to another freezing cold region of the world? A job could be one reason. And, a military career could be the other. I don’t know what her face looked like, but she had a slim body, not at all like someone who was in the military. The woman in the military exercise. Depending on their jobs, some lift weights. Her body didn’t look like there was any additional muscle gain or definition. I’m betting she was a spouse, if there was any type of military experience in her background, it wouldn’t be as a grunt. She was there as a dependent.

  Since I know her first and last name now, the first thing I would normally do is do a background check. But, since I have military connections, I’ll check that first.

  Calling Don Cole..

  “Cole.”

  “What’s going on big bro?”

  “Nothing much here man how’s things stateside?”

  “It’s good. What about in Uncle Sam’s stable?”

  “Same old Sam; just as controlling as he ever was.”

  “I hear that.”

  “Don’t you miss him?”

  “Hell no, but I do miss the camaraderie.”

  “Yeah, that brotherhood is hard to duplicate.”

  “Can’t be duplicated. The bonds you build in the military can never be reproduced out here in the civilian world. They’ve never had to rely on someone to keep them alive.”

  “True. The main reason why that war bond is unbreakable.”

  “It extends beyond color lines.”

  “Never a truer statement. What do I owe this call other than catching up with fam?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Name it.”

  “I have a body here and I think she may have been connected to the military in some way.”

  “How so?”

  “I think she was probably married to a soldier.”

  “Okay, name.”

  “Sloane Navarro.”

  “You mentioned body. Is she dead?”

  “That’s right. Body dumped along with three others. I got ‘em piling up all over Gochian.”

  “Wow, that bad, huh?”

  “Worse.”

  “I’ll look her up now. The name again.”

  “Sloane Navarro.”

  “One second.”

  “I hope you can find her name.”

  “I got her, but you’re not going to like the results.”

  “What?”

  “She was logged coming onto the base three days ago.”

  “What? No way, she’s been in the morgue at least a month.”

  “You must have gotten a wrong ID. It happens.”

  “Our witness was dead on. I know this is her.”

  “Send me the fingerprints. It’s easy to clear up.”

  “I would love to, but they cut her hands off.”

  “What the heck kind of nonsense are you running over there?”

  “Man, I wish I knew. Like I said, I have more than one. I really need you to check on this from your end.”

  “I just told you. She’s on base.”

  “No, Don, she isn’t. I’m telling you. I got her in the morgue, man. Something’s not right over there.”

  “Trevor, why is it us? Your witness could’ve easily been mistaken.”

  “No, she gave her, her name. I have the right person, just check on it, D.”

  “Blood samples?”

  “Of course. I can get you the DNA profile. I had to give one when I was in the military.”

  “Send it. I’ll start there just to make sure we have the right person.”

  “D, I know I do. I’ll send it today.”

  “Okay, if she matches I’ll follow up over here to see what’s going on.”

  “What do you mean, other than the card? Anyone could have stolen her card.”

  “No, I mean it says she’s married. Her sister is over here as well. The strange part is we haven’t received a missing person’s report from the family.”

  “Uh oh, now that it’s a problem forget strange.”

  “Right. A soldier’s wife ending up dead in the states. Her hands cut off. They don’t report her missing to this office that’s sounding all kinds of alarms.”

  “Oh, did I mention her head was cut off?”

  “Now, this is sounding more and more like a pending investigation.”

  “Thought so. I know you need confirmation to begin investigating to cover your butt. I’ll get it to you today. Don’t leave.”

  “I’m here until I hear from you.”

  “Give me a few.”

  “Love you bro.”

  When I left the precinct this morning, I felt better about the direction of the case. When Don makes the connection, I can gather more information from him on the husband.

  A dead wife discovered by the police without any prompting from the husband equals a murdering husband. And, if this was a normal case, he’d be sitting in a jail cell right now. But, even I have to admit there’s nothing normal about this case. Unless he’s made some trips to the states, we’re going to have a great deal of difficulty proving he killed his wife.

  BREAKING NEWS

  WEN News..

  Tonight, the nation is dealt another blow as we’ve learned the Vice President has been killed while visiting Italy. The Vice President and Italy’s Prime Minister were standing on the balcony greeting Italian citizens when shots were fired, with one hitting the Vice President in the head. Two Secret Service Agents were injured as well but are said to be in good condition and will make a full recovery. As you know, the Vice President wasn’t scheduled to go on this trip, but an ailing President couldn’t make it and called upon the Vice President to attend in his place. Witnesses have said, people around the Vice President acted swiftly in getting him medical assistance. However, the damage was too extensive and he was pronounced dead at 6:20PM in Italy.

  Currently, they don’t have any suspects related to the shooting.

  We’ll be providing coverage regarding the next steps for the White House right here all day tomorrow and next week.

  Jack calling...

  “Alvarez.”

  “Hey kid, you see the news?”

  “Yeah, I was just tuning in. The Vice President is dead.”

  “I can’t believe it. I always felt like he was a better person than this douche of a President we have now. I looked to him to make this fool act better.”

  “I think a lot of people did. I guess we’ll find out what happened in time.”

  “Oh yeah, the CIA doesn’t play when it comes to stuff like that.”

  “Obviously the secret service was asleep. The guy gets killed on your watch. They need to be investigated.”

  “And, promptly, too.”

  “Someone in law enforcement who has a case that’s worse than ours. Never thought I’d see that day.”

  “Ha! Neither did I kid. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Bright and early.”

  (Click)

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE NEXT DAY
<
br />   NOT WORTH MY TIME

  PRECINT

  Trevor

  Since the day Jack and I partnered up, I’ve yet to beat him into the house. I got up at four this morning and I was certain I’d be here before he arrived. The thought of beating him almost had me skipping a beat into the percent. When I stepped through the front door my mood was dashed.

  “Hey kid. What took you so long?”

  “Man, do you sleep?”

  “Why yes, quite well.”

  “I don’t believe you. If you do, you’re using the locker rooms at the precinct.”

  “Ha, it’s killing you, isn’t it kid? Killing you cause the young bull calf can’t beat the old bull.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  I kept walking to my desk. I wanted to go over the locations of the dumped bodies again. I keep looking for something to jump out at me but haven’t found it yet. My wife says I’m looking too hard. I have to walk away from it for a few days and come back fresh. I’m not disputing her logic. I’m just saying, it’s easy to come up with all these solutions when you’re at home leisurely planning bake sales, parent teacher conferences and play dates.

  I hadn’t made it to my desk before I was stopped by a frantic looking woman. She looked like she’d lost her grandchild.

  “Sir, detective, officer.”

  She reached out and touched my arm.

  “Yes.”

  “Please, please help me.”

  “What’s wrong ma’am?”

  “My daughter, I haven’t heard from her in weeks. I keep trying to get someone to help me. Please officer, help me find her.”

  “I’ll take you to missing persons.”

  “No, I want you to help me please. Don’t push me off onto someone else. They won’t help.”

  “Ma’am, I think you have it all wrong. I’m helping you. You don’t want my kind of help, ever. I’m a homicide detective. Do you know what that means?”

  “Homicide? No, uh, what, dead people or something?”

  “That’s right. When you see me, it’s not good. So, thankfully, that’s not the case here. I’ll walk you over.”

  “Detective, officer, they won’t help me. I’ve tried.”

  “Why? I’ll take you to someone who will.”

  “None of them will. I’ve tried.”

  “Whose your daughter again?”

  “I didn’t say a name.”

  “Please give me her name.”

  “Luvenia Washington is my name. My daughter is Shana Washington.”

  “Okay, what’s going on with Shana?”

  “She’s missing or well something’s wrong. I just need you to help me look for her.”

  “When is the last time you saw her?”

  “Two weeks ago.”

  “Um hmm, what’s her occupation?”

  “Just because she’s not June Cleaver, doesn’t mean she’s not worth something to me.”

  “Occupation.”

  “Prostitute.”

  I was aggravated and let her know it with my expression. She’s wasting my time on a ghetto prostitute.

  “Prostitute. Let me guess, she’s a junkie, crack addict, prescription pills?”

  “She’s on drugs, yes, but she always comes home in a day or two to see her kids. She promised me she would and she’s kept her promise all these years.”

  “Years? Meaning she’s had a child addicted?”

  “She got clean in her fifth month. Kawan is doing fine, nothing wrong with him. She’s just had a hard time staying clean that’s all, but she’s not hurting nobody, but herself.”

  “What about her kids? Are they hurt? You don’t look to peaceful right now. You look worried too death about a daughter who doesn’t even care enough about herself not to sell her body for a hit.”

  “She’s sick. It’s a sickness. If I can find her, I can help her, please.”

  “You can’t help her and neither can I. She has to want to help herself.”

  “Officer please.”

  “It’s detective. I’m currently working on something ma’am. If you need help with a missing person, you’ll have to go see that department.”

  I started to walk away.

  “You’ll regret this. You’ll remember my face one day. You’ll hear my please in your head one day. My daughter is valuable, just because she doesn’t know it, doesn’t mean it’s not true. I forgive you detective, but you’ll have trouble forgiving yourself one day. You’ll see. You’ll be sorry.”

  She spoke those words through the anguish and tears only a mother could produce. I didn’t care, though. Her daughter has turned herself into garbage. Only she has the power to reverse that. I had better things to do.

  I made it to my desk, sat down and wouldn’t you know it, the murder Gods were with me, no new cases today. I can focus on the Body Dump Case.

  “Hey kid, how’s our case going?”

  “You know how. It’s not.”

  “Yeah, I’ve poured over everything we have on the locations of the dumps and the women can’t seem to make a connection.”

  “They know police procedure in some form. They know if they dump the bodies within the same mile radius we could at some point make a connection.”

  “By dumping them all over the city we have no place to start. Make it difficult for us to identify them and we have a mess.”

  “All of which they were well aware of. Now, they’re not even leaving us a body. It’s just a delayed pile of ash.”

  “We have got to make some headway on this thing or I’m afraid I’ll be retired going over this case.”

  “I do have something to give us some traction.”

  “You do? What?”

  “She was married to a soldier.”

  “How did you find that out?”

  “I have my connections.”

  “One of those brothers of yours, right?”

  “Something like that.”

  “What did the husband say when they told him?”

  “He hasn’t been told.”

  “Why not?”

  “Jack, aren’t you missing something here? Why didn’t the military call us about a soldier’s missing wife?”

  “That’s right. How is it we’re informing them? The husband on deployment or something?”

  “Yes, deployment, but I wasn’t told when he left.”

  “So, a soldier’s wife ends up dead in the states and the husband never reports her missing to his commanding officer or military police, interesting.”

  “Not interesting, suspicious.”

  “All of the above, yes.”

  “I had to send over a DNA profile.”

  “Just like the military, they need confirmation of everything. They can’t even flush the toilet without confirmation that it needs flushing.”

  “Hey, we’re not that bad.”

  “Time away must have helped to erase some of your memory Kid.”

  “Military protocol, I can’t say I miss it, but I understand it.”

  “You and the rest of those killing machines the US grooms to commit murder.”

  “I’m not going there with you today Jack. I will say we’re the reason why you were able to sleep soundly at night without someone dropping a bomb on your house.”

  “Oh, like you did to someone else?”

  “I don’t intend to defend my actions to protect this country and its citizens with the make love not war generation. Let’s just stick to what’s going on with the case, shall we?”

  “Humph.”

  SIMILAR, BUT NOT THE SAME

  PRECINCT

  Trevor

  Between being a husband, father, detective and picking up dead bodies all over Gochian and now two more states and cities, I haven’t had time to work my theory.

  I got up early this morning and began to map out my thoughts at home. What I didn’t get finished before the family awakened, I’ve brought with me into the station.

  After our unpleasant encounter with the owner
of Club Hedonist and my visit to Wisconsin, my wheels started turning. The victims were women street hustlers as we used to call them when we were kids. It was a better way to say prostitute in front of our parents. My mom was very religious so anything ugly in God’s eyes were the same in hers. We had to find creative ways around that and those terms have stuck with me to this day.

  All of the victims were addicts except the one we found here. She’s the shiny apple. I’ll put her to the side for now. The other girl from Amsterdam was recovering from a former life of street hustling, but they were all linked together in that type of life. Since the manager, from his expression, knew our girl, I thought it would be interesting to see how many of these clubs were around this area and Wisconsin just to start off.

  I learned there are four clubs in and around the Gochian area. They are positioned in areas that wouldn’t make the average citizen feel comfortable walking through, but not bad enough to make you scream as you ride past it. There were clubs on each side of Gochian; north, south, east and west. They all started within the last eighteen months to two years. The ownership of the clubs, are listed as different owners, but when I drove by them, they all looked like the same architect designed them. To add another check on my list, I got out and visited the other three. As they did at Club Hedonist, they were reluctant and some downright refused to allow me into the club area. They didn’t need to though, I’d seen enough. They weren’t identical, but they didn’t stray too far from the original design or concept.

  The two in Wisconsin, were listed as a different owner as well. I was so set on proving my theory, I took a drive up there, alone; something you should never do as a homicide detective. I just had to feed this hunch. When I visited those clubs, wouldn’t you know it. They had the same two well-dressed men out front. The club entrance was a little different, but they all made you think of the others. I know the owners are different for each, but it sure is amazing that they all consulted with the same builder and designer.

  Today, I’m back in the office and back on the grind.

  Jack enters the office...

  “Kid, been looking for you for the past two days. Where you been?”

  “Trying to prove a theory.”