False Witness

by Worthington, T. S.

  He wondered how long it would be before he received another phone call. Would he receive another call? He knew the man was watching and waiting. He knew that he was being monitored still. Just because he hadn’t heard anything did not mean that he was not being followed and stalked by this psycho still. Declan just hoped it was all over.

  But what if it wasn’t? What if this was just the tip of the iceberg? What if he was going to have to keep killing random people to keep this guy quiet? When would it end? When would it all be done?

  It was done now. He was through with it.

  And he was going to find this freak. If it was the last thing he ever did he was going to find this bastard who had taken control of him and his life. The guy was good, he was clever, but he was not better than him. No way. No how.

  “You are not smarter than me!” Declan screamed at the top of his lungs.

  The rage was coming over him. He could feel his foot getting heavier on the pedal even as he tried to pull back and stay calm. He had to drive safe and cautiously until he got to the woods. He just had to be cool.

  He would have plenty of time to think about this prick and take him down. And he would take him down. There would be no failure.

  When he caught him he was going to torture him. He might keep him alive for days and toy with him, giving him a total beating one day, removing his nails one by one, pulling his tongue completely out of his mouth with a pair of vise grips, maybe taking his eyeball out of its socket.

  A giggle erupted in Declan’s throat just then as he drove along, thinking about all of the wonderful fun he was going to have with his mystery caller when he caught him. The man (or woman) was going to pay like they never dreamed a person could pay.

  A woman?

  He had not really entertained this idea before, but what if it was a woman? What if this whole thing was orchestrated by a woman?

  Well, then. There were even more ways he could have fun torturing her.

  Declan burst out into a loud fit of laughter right then. He wanted to stop laughing, but he couldn’t. It was just so damn funny how full of crap this person was and how they thought they were going to get away with antagonizing and controlling Declan Pierce like some sort of stupid puppet.

  The whole thing was hilarious. They had no idea who the hell they were really dealing with, did they?

  Declan turned onto the street that led to the park and breathed in deeply as his laughing fit ended. He suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness. He wasn’t sure what was going on but tears were starting to pour from his eyes and he was having a bit of trouble breathing.

  He was losing it. The pressure of everything was starting to break him down and he could almost hear his mind cracking in half like a loud clap of thunder that suddenly came out of nowhere to signal an approaching storm.

  And a storm there was going to be.

  This realization only made him cry harder. He just wished he could go back and erase everything he’d done. He wished to hell he’d never killed John Farnsworth. Instead of getting rid of a problem it had only created an entire life’s worth of other problems. He was now a shell of a man and he was on a downward spiral that might never stop.

  As he pulled up to the edge of the park and stopped the car he sat there for several minutes. No one really came to this park this time of night, especially on a Monday unless they were up to no good. He was not worried at all about anyone like that seeing him. It was more of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of policy.

  But looking around he saw no one. He just had to get a grip on himself. All of this was now over. Just one final task left to take care of and then he would be done.

  He hoped. He prayed that it would be over. But the thoughts would not stop screaming in the back of his mind about it. They just kept reminding him over and over again like a broken record screaming at him that this was in fact just the beginning. This was his life now. He was a pawn in a madman’s scheme and he had no way out of it.

  But he was a damn good cop still. He would dig and dig until he found out who this person was and he would destroy them in every way there was possible to destroy someone. It was all going to be ok.

  Or maybe he would just end it all and kill himself. Maybe that would be the best way and possibly the only way that he would ever find peace. No! Get that thought out of your mind. You didn’t go through all this and kill an innocent man just to off yourself at the end over something that is still unknown.

  Declan took several deep breaths, getting a grip on himself. No matter what he decided to do, he had to finish this first. Then he would be on a platform where he could actually decide what he wanted to do next. He would sleep on it and then he would debate it calmly and rationally. It was just his old demons coming to the surface. Those demons fed off pain, anguish, and chaos.

  Declan popped the lever for the trunk, got out of the car, and walked to the back of the car. He looked around once more and saw no one around still. Then he opened the trunk lid and saw clearly for the first time the body of Ted Bennet.

  He was dead, lifeless. His eyes were wide as saucers with no light, no emotion in them. They were like the black, glossy eyes of a stuffed animal. It was by far the creepiest thing he’d ever seen. Was it the bleach he’d injected into his body that did it? He did not remember John’s eyes looking quite that way and that had been in broad daylight.

  He felt his stomach starting to flip and for a second he considered vomiting. But after a few more deep breaths he got his body centered again and the nausea passed.

  He needed to carry Ted to the spot he’d prepared ahead of time. Hopefully no one had been wandering aimlessly through the woods this time of night and fallen in the grave he’d dug, or stolen his shovel.

  Declan pulled Ted out of the trunk of the car and began to lift him up on his shoulders. The one hundred foot walk seemed so far away knowing he was going to have to carry the body that far. But he was going to suck it up and get on with it. The more he dwelled on it and thought it over, the more it was going to weigh on his mind. Everything in life always seemed to be that way.

  Ted felt heavier than he had before. Perhaps he wasn’t quite dead the first time he’d lifted him and it was not total dead weight. Now it felt like someone had placed a bunch of heavy bricks in Ted’s clothes, his weight was pressing down on Declan’s shoulders making every single step more difficult.

  His knees wanted to buckle. His back wanted to give out. His spirit wanted to be done and over it all.

  “Freeze!”

  The voice came from behind him.

  Well, this was going to be interesting.

  Chapter 14

  “Revelations”

  Rachel held the gun in her hand tightly, pointing straight at the figure standing before her. He was carrying a body over his shoulder, but in the darkness she could not yet get an accurate description of either one. Only the dim light from a nearby street lamp in the park and the bright silver moon above provided any sort of relief from the pitch black night.

  The man was standing frozen in place. She could not totally see his hands to tell if he had a weapon on him or not. But he was preoccupied balancing the weight of the body on his shoulders. There was something familiar looking but she could not say what yet.

  “Drop the body, slowly,” Rachel commanded.

  The man did not respond automatically. He was still standing there as if he was not sure what she wanted or what he should do. He was most likely in some sort of shock at the scene unfolding before him.

  “Drop the body!” Rachel yelled, stronger still.

  The man responded and let the body drop from his back. It hit the ground with a sickening thud causing Rachel to jump slightly. She could not tell if the person was still alive or not. She needed to get closer. She had radioed for backup, but it would take them a few minutes yet to get there. Meanwhile this was still a volatile situation she had to contain.

  She t
hought it was a joke when she received the phone call from that strange, deep, half whispered voice. It was unlike anything she’d ever heard, almost funny. It sounded like a kid with some toy voice disguiser. She didn’t even pay attention at first, but when the voice said that that they had just witnessed a murder, she became a bit alarmed. Although she convinced herself it was some idiot pulling some kind of prank. She had no idea how they had gotten her private number, but she was going to get that changed really fast.

  A few minutes later they called again. She was ready to tell them to go to hell but when they said that someone she loved was in danger she started to get scared. She called home and her mother said her father was not home yet from the dojo. He was usually home by that time. So Rachel told her mom she would check it out. When she got to the dojo it was locked up and there was nothing out of the ordinary, but then she noticed her father’s car was still there. That was when she went against her better instincts and decided that she at least had to check it out. He had probably gone to grab a beer with a student or something. He did that sometimes. Or he was with another woman.

  Her father was not exactly known as being Mr. Monogamous. Everyone knew it, including her mother. But her mother was raised to keep her mouth shut about such things and she had carried on her own affairs over the year. Rachel tried not to know any more about these things than she wanted to, but it was hard to deny what was so obvious sometimes.

  The voice on the phone told her that it had seen an abduction and possibly a murder and that they had followed the car to the park. The person on the phone was too scared to get involved, but Rachel had to get there now. Rachel kept asking how this person knew her or how they had her number, but they kept ignoring the question. It was not out of the question that her father had finally pissed off the wrong person and they decided to do something drastic. Rachel disagreed with her father and his choices about a lot of things, but she loved him. She couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him.

  When she got to the park she saw nothing, but waited for several minutes thinking she might be missing something. Or that this was all a prank, which she’d figured anyway, but something about it seemed odd. There was some reason she decided to stay as long as she did. It was just a feeling she had. She couldn’t explain it.

  She was about to leave when she saw the car pull up.

  “Turn around slowly. If you try anything I will shoot you!” Rachel yelled.

  The figure waited a few seconds, but slowly began to turn around to face her. As his face came into view and his body shifted into the dim light she could make out who she was looking at.

  Nothing could have prepared her for this.

  She was looking into the face of Declan Pierce.

  Rachel did a double take and found her weapon beginning to lower. What the hell was going on?

  “Declan?”

  He sighed heavily. He looked tired, or doped up. Maybe both.

  “Yeah,” Declan said. “Funny meeting you here,” he joked.

  “What the hell is going on?” Rachel asked.

  Declan looked down at the body at his feet.

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” Declan said.

  “Who is that? Are they ok?” Rachel asked. “What have you done?”

  Declan began to break down slightly then, tears rolling down his eyes, yet he seemed almost relieved.

  “I’ve done some very bad things, Rachel. I’m sorry. I just want it all to be over,” Declan said.

  “What to be over? What are you talking about? Talk to me, dammit!” Rachel yelled. She raised the gun back up to point it right at Declan again. Had he really did what she thought he’d done? Had he killed a civilian? Some random person? No that didn’t make any sense.

  “The voice. That damned voice put all this together,” Declan said. “I thought I could outsmart him, but he has been two steps ahead the whole time.”

  Declan began to laugh hysterically then. He was losing his mind. He was having some sort of a meltdown.

  “Declan, you’re scaring me. What are you talking about? What voice?” Rachel asked.

  He was hearing voices? Was that what he was saying? He would not have been the first cop to have suffered a complete nervous breakdown, but had he just committed murder? She could not see the body on the ground or if that person was still alive.

  “I’m sorry,” Declan said. “The voice on the phone told me to do this. I didn’t have any other choice. He threatened to tell them about John.”

  “Wait, who’s John?” Rachel asked.

  “My partner, John Farnsworth.”

  “That wasn’t your fault. Is that what this is about? You blame yourself?”

  “No, it was my fault. He wasn’t dead, but I wanted him dead.”

  “What? What are you saying?” Rachel asked.

  “That loser was porking my wife. So, when I saw an opening I took it. He was shot and hurt badly but he was not dead. He might have had a good chance, but I took care of it,” Declan said. He was laughing his head off now.

  “We need to get you some help,” Rachel said.

  “I had no choice. I couldn’t let this man breathe after what he did. So I smothered him to death right there in those woods. I killed my partner.”

  “Oh, my God…” Rachel began.

  “Wow, it feels so good to get that out,” Declan said. “I should have done that to begin with, but then that damn voice began to call me and call me. It ordered me to kill someone. I had to do it. In fact I think I really liked it. It feels good to take another life.”

  Declan was beginning to ramble almost incoherently.

  “Did you say you killed this person? Who are they? Why did you do it?”

  Declan looked at her right then. “Haven’t you heard a word I said? The voice on the phone told me to! It said it would expose what I did! It had me on film killing that pig John Farnsworth. It told me to kill Ted Bennet! So that’s what I did! I had no choice! I had—“

  “What?” Rachel asked. She could not believe the name that had spilled off Declan’s lips.

  She stepped forward right then to get a better look at the body. She forgot all about her safety protocol or the fact that Declan was now within arm’s reach of her. Her father was the only thing on her mind right then. She had to see. It couldn’t be. He had to be talking about some other Ted Bennet—

  But he wasn’t.

  Her father was lying dead at her feet. His skin was gray and lifeless, his eyes glassy and black. His mouth hung open in a grotesque fashion as if emitting one last silent scream that would never end.

  Rachel felt sick. The world spun for a minute and she felt the grip on her gun getting weaker. This was not happening… this was not happening…Why? Why?

  “I’m sorry. I had to kill him. That was the only way I could get rid of that damn voice on the phone. That’s the one who has to pay for this!” Declan said.

  Rachel snapped back into cop mode suddenly. She pointed the gun at Declan and placed her finger on the trigger. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to put him down right where he stood. He had killed her father. He had killed his own partner. He did not deserve to live. She could just kill him and say he attacked her. That was all she had to do. This was justice… true justice… she had no choice.

  “You killed my father!” Rachel screamed.

  Declan looked like he’d been slapped in the face. His expression was one of shock and total awe. He looked down at the body on the ground and then at Rachel and she could see a look of genuine concern washing over his face. She knew that he was sorry. He did not know, but that did not make it any less tragic in her mind. He had to pay.

  “He is your… father?” Declan said.

  “Yes! He is my adopted father! The only real father I’ve ever known or wanted to know. And you killed him!” Rachel yelled.

  “I’m sorry… I didn’t know… I just did what I was told—“

 
“Shut up!” Rachel yelled.

  She could hear the sirens in the background getting closer. They would be here soon. They would stop her from doing this. She had to. There was no way she could go on living knowing that this man still had a breath left in his body.

  A look of true fear crossed Declan’s face a split second before he suddenly lunged at her and grabbed the gun, knocking her to the ground, the gun flying out of her hand. He outweighed her by close to a hundred pounds; she could not get him off of her. She had been stupid in getting that close to him. All of her training and her instincts had been completely ignored for just a few seconds and that was all it took. Now she might be the next to die.

  Declan’s strong hands wrapped around her throat right then, cutting off her air supply. The pain was sharp and biting, as if her entire head was being twisted off her body. Her lungs began to burn as they gasped for precious air that was being denied. She was going to pass out soon. How the hell did she allow herself to get in this position?

  Declan’s eyes were wide with anger, madness, and total death. He was going to kill her; there was no doubt. He was a man who had nothing left to lose.

  The gun was close enough to grab. She just had to reach for it…

  Rachel extended her arm as far as possible, clawing at the earth with her fingers. She was so close…so close…

  “AAAAGGGHH!” Declan screamed as he shook Rachel’s whole body, slamming her neck against the hard ground.

  Suddenly her fingers were touching the metal of the gun. She curled her fingers repeatedly bringing the gun closer. Declan was not seeing any of this. His mind was totally focused on killing her.

  Her vision was starting to get dark as she grabbed at the gun. She was almost…

  Got it!

  She swung the butt of the gun with all of her might connecting with the back of Declan’s head. He grunted as his body fell to the side of her.

  Rachel scrambled quickly to her feet, staggering, holding the gun steady on Declan.

  He got back to his knees and then realized he was done. She was standing over him with the gun pointed inches from his head.