by Lilya Myers
Loneliness could do that too. Or maybe, he just couldn’t take any more of the punishment that guilt dished out all these years. Maybe it was time to start living the life he was in, instead of watching it go by from the outside.
***
Rachel and Sarah had already boarded the plane in Naples for their return flight home. They were leaving earlier than planned. Rachel was relieved when she asked Sarah if they could change their flight. Russ hadn’t called in a couple of days and missing him began to overwhelm her relaxation and enjoyment. Trying not to worry Rachel, Russ had been pretty closed-mouthed about the investigation while she was away. When leads began rushing in, Russ didn’t notice how long it had been since he spoke to his fiancée. But Rachel had. She made Sarah promise not to breathe a word to anyone back home so she could surprise Russ.
The strange man whom Sarah had first seen in Cairo seemed to keep turning up like a bad penny the whole time they were in Capri. Her feelings about this were mixed in an odd way. Warning bells told her that there was something to fear, yet she didn’t feel afraid.
Perhaps, she should confront the man head-on. Strangely, with her curiosity, she would have liked to convince Rachel to stay the extra days just so she could do that. Her father’s advice was always to pursue her curiosity with rational caution. She could make the argument that calling out the stranger was rational. Attorney in her thinking there. However, her loyalty to her best friend was the winning chip surely – Rachel needed to go home to see her fiancé.
***
Russ shouted into his phone to his partner, “He’s gonna run! If we don’t start tightening the noose right now, we’ll lose him! Airports, private airstrips, ferries, trains – whatever and whoever it takes to ground all of it out of New York.”
“Hey man, I’m on it but you know that my finger snappin’ ain’t gonna cut through all the red tape to get us there! You can bet I’ll do everything to make it happen–”
“And get the damn roadblocks up at the state lines, if he hasn’t managed to cross over already. We’d better pray he hasn’t.” Those were Russ’s last words to Joey before his battery eked out its last bar of life. He wished the pilot could put the pedal to the metal. This was going to be the longest damn hour he’s ever lived. Plugging his phone into a charger, Russ slumped back into the soft leather. All he could hear was his heart beating in his ears above the roar of the plane’s engines.
***
The sun was low and would soon be disappearing. The plane Sarah and Rachel took from Naples had dropped its landing gear as they made their decent onto the landing strip at the MacArthur airport in Islip. Both girls had been dozing for a few hours; Rachel had pleasant dreams about getting home to Russ and Sarah awoke disturbed by images of the man who peaked her curiosity in Naples.
On the ground below, a man was rolling a small bag behind him with one hand. Looking like the all-American guy, dressed in khakis, a golf shirt, and loafers, and wearing a blonde wig, the Mutilator walked through the doors at the lower level of the terminal.
He took a seat in the waiting area by the baggage claim. His plane wouldn’t be leaving for over an hour. Taking a seat in the row alongside the wall by the restrooms was a tactical move. He’d make a trip to the men’s room to lose the wig right before it was close to boarding time. In the meantime, he’d be just another inconspicuous traveler reading a book while he waited.
With a little help from the magnetic siren he slapped on the roof when he left the station, Joey was waiting in their official car at the Islip Airport for Russ’s plane to come in. He knew approximately when it was expected to land.
Leaving the car in idle, Detective Scenza watched the small jet make its landing. Russ knew that they didn’t have a minute to lose. He was up and out of his seat before the plane completely came to a stop. Joey had already gotten clearance to pull up on the tarmac and met Russ as he came flying down the steps and jumped in. Joey fishtailed out of there, right over to the main terminal.
There wasn’t a soul in sight outside except for a man stacking luggage onto a cart. All the outdoor ticketing kiosks had been closed for the night. The two detectives made it to the attendant before he had a chance to look up and see them approach. They showed him a photo and the man simply shook his head. Detectives Roma and Scenza were aware that there were only three outbound flights leaving in the next three hours. Only one of them was departing outside the U.S., to Mexico City. In thirty-five minutes. By all accounts, that was the flight they knew the Mutilator would be taking. If the killer was going anywhere, it would be out of the country.
When it came to timing, it was a crap shoot. The killer could already be milling around the airport or he hadn’t arrived yet. Backup hadn’t come, so the two men decided to split up. Joey made tracks up the escalator to departing flights. Russ went below to the street level, the same floor as baggage claim.
Sarah and Rachel had been standing by the luggage turnstile for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Sarah turned to Rachel. “I don’t think I can wait another minute. Will you be okay to watch for the suitcases while I run to the restroom?”
“Sure, go ahead. You’ll probably be back before any bags start coming down the chute,” Rachel answered in a sleepy voice. She was still groggy despite her excitement to be home. She turned back to stare at the shiny metallic sections of the baggage conveyors as though she could will them to start moving.
The Mutilator had been keeping his eyes trained above the book, watching the throngs of travelers move about the area. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. He should know. He’d spent more time in airports than the Minister of Travel. The clock on the wall alerted him that he needed to get ready to start making his way toward his gate. So far so good.
He felt confident that no unusual activity meant he had not made it to the police radar. Remaining at ease, he turned into the men’s room where he ditched the wig and the cap. He hated to part with the gun just yet. There would be plenty of opportunities to get rid of it on the way to the gate.
It was as he was exiting the restroom that life spun out of control, from slow motion to warp speed. A woman coming out of the ladies’ room collided with him, knocking the book out of his hand. She was looking at him, still apologizing. At the same time he looked up to see another woman pointing their way from a distance. The man with her was all too familiar. There was no mistaking that he was the detective whose face had been in the news a million times over the past months, the chief detective on his case.
When he first spotted Rachel in the baggage claim area, Russ couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She wasn’t due back for two days and she had to be here now, of all places! In the middle of the hunt for a killer!
Backup was nowhere to be seen. Russ knew he had to get Rachel and Sarah into a taxi or something – just out of there. And fast. The situation could go down at any moment. But where was Sarah?
At that point, he had hustled over to Rachel, and in as few words as possible, made his case. It was then that Rachel pointed her finger in the direction of the ladies’ room just as Sarah came out and bumped into a solidly built man leaving the men’s room. For a split second, the eyes of the Mutilator and the eyes of the detective locked like laser-guided missiles.
Everything came back into focus at lightning speed. A powerful arm spun Sarah around and pulled her against his large frame as a gun came up to her temple. The smooth motion was so quick and forceful that Sarah was too startled to react. At the same time, Russ pushed Rachel to the ground as he drew his weapon and trained it on the killer. Rachel crawled behind a turnstile as the rest of the baggage claim area turned chaotic.
When they saw the guns, people began screaming and running in all directions, out of the line of fire, out the door, as far away as they could get from the unfolding scene.
Both men stood their ground but neither had yet spoken. Russ prayed silently that the news had traveled to his partner, and if backup arrived, they would stay out of sight. The M
utilator began to edge closer toward Russ before speaking.
“This is a friend of yours, yes?”
Russ didn’t respond. He had finally come face-to-face with the evil who held one more woman’s life in his hands. And he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“Your silence is confirmation enough. Then I also take it that you would prefer her brains stay inside her pretty little head. Set your weapon on the ground, Detective, and back away. Then you will see to it that the woman and I can board a flight out of here. I’m due for a vacation. I think your little friend here could use one too.”
A shot went off that hit Russ square in the shoulder and sent him sideways to the ground. The second shot followed immediately, sending blood and brain matter flying. Without thinking, Rachel ran from her hiding spot to Russ’s side. Sarah had crumpled to the ground and lay there, still as death, while Joey barreled down the escalator and back-up rushed through the doors.
EPILOGUE
HASHIM NEVER SAW the young woman again after that day in the marketplace. It was probably for the best. He had begun to believe his own fantasy, that she was his Sarai. The decision to leave Naples was bittersweet. There could never be a fresh start in life for him there. An integral part of his memories were buried in Capri. He wondered what he had been thinking, that settling anywhere near this place would be a good idea. Switzerland was crossed off the list, too.
Making Belgium his new home was a wise choice. Hashim’s business continued to flourish. The international presence in Brussels was only second to New York and it made for a short trip to a number of international capitals. He heard someone say that it was a country to eat, drink, and be merry. He desperately needed the merry.
Meanwhile, across the ocean in a small town on Long Island, the desperate prayers for the end to a reign of terror had been answered. Every local channel, and most of the major national networks, was running continuous coverage about the Mutilator. Lena, the snarky, older waitress from the local diner, was in the kitchen when she heard the hoots and hollers coming from the dining area.
She made it known to the owner that he was going to give those detectives and their department, and the victims’ families a celebration party. Not that he would have complained or disagreed; he knew that Lena had already taken charge of organizing it. Having had experience with the guys in blue, she knew that they needed time to decompress. Besides, that good looking one was getting married and it gave her time to pull everything together. In the meantime, a huge jar graced the front counter by the register where patrons could deposit donations to the families of the victims. Lena could be very persuasive about customer participation when doling out change from their bill.
As life began returning to normal again, the diner announced it would be closed to the general public for a day. They were holding an open house to honor the detectives and everyone whose lives had been directly affected by the Mutilator. Lena was in rare form, as usual. Her bravado was the shield that protected her soft heart.
Russ came directly from the station with a few of the others earlier in the day. Sarah rode with Rachel. She’d had a lot to cope with since the night she was in the grips of the Mutilator. Sarah wished that the victims would have had someone to fight for their lives the way Russ and Joey fought for hers. A small consolation, that evil had been slain, gave the families peace. Knowing that the very same evil murdered the man who was about to propose marriage to her gave her little peace, though.
Guilt was the larger issue. On the flight home, Sarah confided to Rachel her misgivings about a permanent relationship with Catello. In her heart, she knew he wasn’t the one and had decided to break up with him soon after they returned from their overseas trip. When Dan and Marie broke the news, it sent Sarah into a spiral of depression. She spent long hours talking to Rachel about Catello and getting her friend’s reassurance. It was a long road when Sarah finally came to terms with the fact that it would have been more unfair to commit to a one-sided relationship. Still, the fact that death would race up and take him away forever was a wound that would take a long time to heal.
The day went by quickly with both tears and laughter. Most everyone had come and gone from the diner, except for Russ, Joey, and the Chief. Lena got busy with clean-up, leaving the three men in the far corner booth free to stay until she was ready to go.
“You were an angel of mercy that night, Joey. I don’t think I can ever say it enough. I don’t know if I could have risked the shot you took from your position on the floor above us,” Russ said in a solemn voice.
“Hey, he was going to kill you and Sarah. I had to take a tactical risk shot, regardless of the consequences,” Joey said looking at the floor.
“Nahab calculated so many minute details. To think that for so many years so he was planning for the murders to be pinned on one of Aswad’s sons,” the Chief added.
“Yeah, well, we learned a lot when Omar agreed to waive his patient rights so we could read the transcripts from Dr. B., the psychiatrist he was seeing on Long Island. He and his brothers lived beyond a nightmare with Aswad. No wonder Nahab was able to manipulate Kafele into believing that he was his savior and best friend. For years, Kafele had been feeding information to Nahab about Aswad’s business activities and every move they made. He coordinated his killing trips around the globe so they coincided with the whereabouts of Aswad’s two older boys. All of Nahab’s vics happened to be adopted from the Middle East. We’re not sure of why he chose them that way unless it deepened the connection to Aswad’s boys.
“Nahab was a nobody, whereas Omar and Saib were directly connected to the reputation and rumors about their father and had a level of notoriety.”
Russ continued, “Given the explicit details from Omar’s records, we suspect that Nahab was the boy Omar thought he saw running away from the shack on the night Aswad tortured and violated his mother, and killed that peasant man. And brutally molested him. Aswad was a monster who used any sick means to control, both mentally and physically.”
“If it wasn’t for Catello’s work in tracking Nahab’s activities, the cooperation of Aswad’s sons, and some others, there would be a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle,” Joey offered.
Referring back to Russ’s comments, the Chief asked, “Did you question the psychiatrist about that – how one boy could turn into a twisted killer while the other, well, all of the sons really, suffered directly under the likes of Aswad’s perverted abuses – would become sane, respectable businessmen?” the Chief asked.
“Dr. B. could only make some clinical assumptions. To get a clearer picture, she also started seeing Saib and Kafele. The FBI also made her privy to some of their files while she was working with the profilers. She drew the conclusion that, for one thing, Nahab was of extremely high intelligence. Genius, or close to it, as a matter of fact. That may partly explain how he was able to elude discovery for decades. His desire to inflict the kind of torture he performed on his victims is another matter. We don’t know anything about his childhood that could indicate why he turned into a sadistic killer. One of the profilers suggested that the mutilation may have been practiced in his family. He had several sisters. He may have been molesting them. Or, maybe it was just in his psychological makeup,” Russ said. “His mother and father were both dead and none of his three sisters could be found.”
“Then it’s a good bet we’ll never know,” Joey finished.
Everyone was quiet for a minute until Russ spoke up again. “I’ve been back over the transcripts from all the interviews the FBI did in Cairo with Aswad’s sons a number of times – something seemed off. There’s enough on the news to tell you how crazy politics and government are in some other countries. Apparently there was some whole revenge theme against that guy, Hashim. Supposedly, he was mainly responsible for thwarting Aswad’s attempt at a coup in Egypt after Sadat was assassinated. Aswad, being the kind of guy he was, decided that the best revenge was to have Hashim’s only kid killed. His daughter, a two-year-old
! Her name was Sarai. Supposedly she died in a plane crash with her grandparents on the way from Switzerland to Italy.”
“When Aswad found out that Omar didn’t obey his orders to kill her, all of his focus went to finding the child. You see, Omar was already going for therapy so he handed the job off to his brother, Saib. That gave Omar the feeling of absolution. Saib just wanted to collect the cash for offing the kid and could care less about his father’s obsessions. He had a lot of hate stored up against Aswad but he wasn’t himself a killer. He, too, felt absolved of the child’s murder by handing off the job to some small-time hoods.”
“While their father was in prison, they both became upstanding, successful businessmen. Omar owns pharmacies in several countries. Saib works for one of the largest engineering firms in the country. No charges were filed against them because of their help with the investigation and the abuse they were under at that time. As far as Kafele goes, Nahab was so intent on using him as a spy, he ended up giving the guy an invaluable education in business. I’m glad the Egyptian government allowed him to keep all of Nahab’s holdings. All three men have given generous donations to the victims’ families.”
“I got off track. What I was going to say before about that man’s kid who died in the plane crash was that someone at a hotel in Italy thought they had seen the child with an American man, fitting the child’s description not long after that. Supposedly, the last time they were seen was boarding a plane for the U.S. Here, to New York, to be specific. That intel couldn’t be confirmed. Somewhere in that time frame, Aswad went to prison and so did his search for the child. Given the year and some of the other details, I got curious, you know? I found some interesting stuff.”
The Chief and Joey looked at each other, then back at Russ, and answered simultaneously, “Yeah. We know. Curious.”
“Thanks, you guys are real funny.” Russ said with feigned annoyance. “Soooooo…,” for their benefit, Russ held a long, drawn out pause before finishing the sentence. “I did some digging on my own.” He stopped there, leaving both men to glare at him. Then, he threw them another bone. “Did you know that the American version of the name Sarai is Sarah?”