That was not the way to do it.
Growing up in Edison all his life, Luke spent most of it with his older brother playing street hockey after school or football at Edison High. Other than that there was nothing else to do but movies and underage drinking. After all, they were teenagers and left to their own devices. The other kids their ages had to rush home because of curfews but the Stanton brothers were left hanging out under the only bridge in Edison or staying up until morning. Then they would skip school to sleep. The school didn’t bother complaining because they knew nothing would be done about it. Somehow though, both brothers managed to keep great grades and graduated with honors.
He spent the rest of the time, before his brother arrived, going over cold case files, working out and paying bills. It was pretty much a wasted evening but Luke felt relaxed and rested by the time it got really dark out. He glanced out the window before running into the shower. If he hurried he could get a quick shower out of the way.
By the time he finished his shower, it was an hour later and the outside lights came on automatically. He sat down in his living room, lost in his thoughts again.
He had a terrible feeling something was wrong.
“Yo, Luke!”
Luke looked up to see his brother tapping on the front window of the house and wondered what Keegan was doing. Pulling the door opened he arched a brow.
“Door bell not working?” he questioned.
“It’s working fine,” Keegan stepped past his younger brother with a box of beer in his hands. “You just tuned out for a bit; I kept ringing but you just sat there.”
Luke frowned and followed Keegan into the kitchen and watched as his brother stocked the fridge with beer. “Something you want to talk about?”
“What makes you ask that?”
“Come off it, bro. I just stood outside your door ringing your doorbell over and over like a bloody stalker and you didn’t even hear it.”
A sigh left Luke’s lips and he sat down. “I don’t know, man. Lately I’ve been having this…this feeling.”
That got Keegan’s attention and the older Stanton brother stopped what he was doing to face Luke. “You working on a new case?”
“Nothing like…” he was cut off by the front door opening. Looking up, Michel walked in with another box of beer and Luke laughed and shook his head.
“Hey, boys,” Michel shared their mirth and placed the box on the counter before gently touching his fist to Luke’s and then to Keegan’s. “This is going to be one party.”
“Not that much for me,” Keegan grinned. “Got duty tomorrow. I don’t really have to go back yet but I think I’m gonna go nuts just sitting around doing nothing but the gym every day.”
Luke and Michel laughed. “Going nuts? I think you made that trip years ago!”
Keegan smirked and chugged from his beer.
Luke’s head went back to the strange feelings he had inside. He had been having them for weeks but every time he brought it up, they all told him the same thing; relax and breathe. Being a cop for so long meant he had developed a form of gut feeling and each time he got it, something cropped up that just made him want to cringe or hurt someone.
This time, the feeling was doubled and he ran a hand over his cleanly shaven head.
“You’ve been quiet,” Michel spoke up.
Luke turned to his friend and smiled. “Sorry, bro.” He walked out to the balcony but Michel followed him.
“Still getting that feeling?” Michel wanted to know as he lowered his muscular frame into a nearby chair and rested his beer on the glass table.
Luke nodded and sat down with his friend on the other side of the table. “Maybe Keegan and Riyu are right. Maybe it’s just morbid paranoia. Maybe it’s nothing at all and I’m just having one of those months.”
That got a chuckle from Michel. “Right. Nothing cropping up around the house?”
“Nah. The station is quiet. Maybe that’s why I am feeling this way, man. It’s been almost too quiet around that place. Normally there is something. I don’t know why I feel bored. I’ve got cold cases up to here.”
“You humans,” Michel grinned. “It's either too much noise or too quiet.”
The guys laughed.
They went silent for a bit just staring out over Edison at night. It was a beautiful sight from the second floor balcony on the hill. The city was nothing but lights and color at nights and Luke loved sitting in the dark on the balcony and just watch the city below him.
How quickly people moved about their ways.
“Then open a cold case,” Michel recommended. “Nothing big because you really need something major to officially crack open a cold case. But read over some files and see. You never know, you might find something the first cops missed, fresh eyes and all. “
Taking a swallow from his beer, Luke nodded. “Fresh eyes.”
Luke thought about what Michel said and the more he thought about it the better he felt, but then a thought cropped into his head. The rising crime rate in Edison just wouldn't go away and he knew it was because the city was getting bigger each year. Either that or people were just getting angrier or as Riyu had joked, “Divorces are getting worse.”
* * * *
Something moved between the trees of the large house over on Talmack drive; a dark figure peeled itself from the shadows and seemed to move with the grace and fluidity of a dancer and a predator; a lethal combination.
The dark figure moved soundlessly across the front lawn and tested each door.
Locked.
“There are so many people in this world and yet they don't trust each other,” the figure muttered before trying the door another time as though he expected it to magically unlock. “Why is that?”
Looking both ways, the figure went down on one knee and dug something from his pocket that glowed in the soft moonlight of the night. Sticking the long object into the lock, there was a slight click sound with just a flick of a wrist and the door slowly crept open.
Maneuvering through the large house was no trouble at all. He had broken into the house many times before and had a floor-plan drawn up to make this job go as smooth as butter. A smile creased the figure’s face as he removed his mask and stuffed it into his pocket.
Climbing the stairs, he was careful not to step on certain parts because he knew which one creaked and which ones didn’t.
Quickly enough, he was on the second floor and peering into the bedroom where the lone blond slept. A smile that lit up his face from ear to ear passed over his face and just as quickly as it came, it was gone. His heart beat steady as though he was meditating.
This was his meditation.
Slowly, he screwed on the silencer to the gun and moved into the room. He moved like a shadow over the floor, creeping silently up to the bed with a smile on his face and his gun raised ready for the kill.
He was close enough when his feet smashed into something on the ground and he yelped in pain. The blond flew off the bed and screamed.
Without even thinking, the man flew at her and slammed his fist into the woman’s neck to silence her then watched as her body slumped to the floor. That wasn’t the way he had planned it.
No.
She would pay for interrupting his pleasure. Picking her up, he carried her to the far side of the room and propped her up against the wall. He went to work as he hummed to himself, tying her hands and feet apart to the hook above the far window and gagging her. He sat back against the bed waiting for her to wake up.
What seemed like hours later, her eyes fluttered opened and when she lifted her head she tried to struggle. He loved the look of fear in her eyes as he slowly applied her lipstick to his lips. Her trepidation to him caused adrenaline to begin pumping through his body like a drug. Sweet euphoria flowed through him as he prepared for her. His eyes rolled back in his head as though he was on a high. A smile crept onto his face causing the sides of his lips to tug upward like a clown.
When he was f
inished, he cut the tip of the lipstick off and dropped it into his pocket before placing the lipstick softly on the dresser.
“You know,” the man spoke calmly as he worked. He placed his little bag down and removed a hunting knife. “They say that there is a test that can show the last thing that a person sees before dying. Do you think that’s true? I don’t know. Sounds a little farfetched to me, like something a crazy nut would make up to scare people.”
He looked back at her but she only shook her head.
“How rude of me. You cannot talk with your mouth full.” He proceeded to sit down on the bed while toying with the point of the knife. “See, just in case that’s true, I need to make it easy for the cops.”
The woman whimpered at the sound of his words and he chuckled. “Don’t fear, my pretty. You won’t feel a thing. I may be a killer but I’m not completely without feelings.”
He got up and placed the knife down on the bed and reclaimed his gun from where it was. Walking over to her, he kissed her softly against the forehead leaving an imprint of the lipstick there as she sobbed against the cloth gagging her.
“You can tell my mother when you see her in hell, that this is all her fault.” He stepped back, lifting the gun, aimed…and fired.
He felt something against his back and turned slowly. He saw across the way a woman by her window with her hand clamped over her mouth, binoculars to her eyes and fear written all over her face.
She has to die too.
Chapter Three
“Luke!”The voice called.
Luke stood up and glanced around him. The woman's voice, filled with love- true, pure love, called to his soul and made him shiver. He suddenly felt in love and all he wanted to do was find her. He felt a strange urgency to get to her; he wanted to hold her in his arms.
A sigh left his lips as he turned around and around trying to get a glimpse of her. “Luke! Come find me, Luke...I love you.”
Luke was jarred awake by the peeling of his cell phone. He was having the first beautiful dream in a long time and now yanked from it causing him to feel cheated. It was as though a sweet fruit was dangled before his face only to have it snatched away when reaching out for it. Swearing, gruffly he reached over blindly to the bedside table to find the phone without even opening his eyes. When his hand caught the small phone, he flipped it open and brought it to his ear. “Yeah,” he moaned into the receiver.
He paused and listened for a second and then flew out of bed. He was in his pants before the sheets landed back on the bed. Hurrying, he got dressed and dashed out the door with one arm out of his jacket.
It was just like Edison, when you want to take your time and drive leisurely, to enjoy the scenery there was no traffic on any of the streets. But on the day you are in a rush that is when everyone and their uncles are on the street. He honked to get the attention of a car that seemed to sit there long after the light changed to green. That didn't go over well with the driver ahead of him because the man simply turned and flipped Luke the bird before driving off.
If it was any other day, Luke would have just pulled him over and let him sit there for hours waiting for the cop to come to his window but not that day. That day Luke Stanton wanted to get to the station house and fast.
It was a good twenty minutes later when he walked into the chief’s office. Chief Chen was on the phone, yelling and swearing a blue streak and puffing for air as usual. His face was beet red and Luke knew that one day the man would fall over from the lack of oxygen to his brain or a severe heart attack – not that he was calling anything bad on Chen.
A jingling sound could be heard and Luke looked down to see the resident wolf trotting toward him. Luke went down to scratch the animal behind the ear. “Morning, Declin,” he smiled. The wolf was there because one of their officers was a native Indian who trained Declin as he would a sniffing dog. In fact, Declin was even better. Narcotics often came by to borrow the animal.
Declin lifted a paw and covered his eyes and Luke hid a smile. “I know how you feel boy.”
Standing up, he turned to face his superior again. “You wanted to see me, sir?” Luke asked once Chen hung up the phone.
“There’s a woman here to see you, she said it was important that she spoke with you. She’s waiting for you in your office.”
Before Luke opened his mouth to say something the phone rang and Chen was once again yelling at the top of his lungs. Shaking his head, Luke whistled and Declin got up from his little spot on the ground and followed him out the door.
Luke’s mind was going on overdrive as he tried to figure out who this woman could be and why she requested him. When he opened the door Declin barged in before him as usual and that sent the woman sitting in his chair leaping to stand on his desk, screaming. Luke smiled at the reaction Declin received all the time until people got used to the fact he won’t maul them to death. Declin hopped onto the sofa and curled up with his head on his front paws giving them the impression they were wasting his time.
Luke grinned as he looked up at her. She was African American with a slender body, long black hair flowing over her shoulders and legs all the way to the North Pole, “That’s Declin,” Luke spoke with a smile before grabbing the woman around the waist and lifting her gently off the desk. She gripped onto his arms and he placed her into the chair.
“Th-that’s a wolf!” the woman sputtered.
“Yes, that’s a wolf,” Luke said. “He belongs to one of our officers. Don’t worry, he’s trained so he won’t harm you.”
Declin looked up with a somewhat bored expression as if to ask “Why do they always do that?”
“Have you ever seen the show When Good Animals go bad?”
“They are no bad animals,” Luke spoke still watching Declin. “Just a few morons that believe taking an animal out of its natural habitat and treating it like dirt is a good idea.” Luke turned to the woman. “What can I do for you?”
“You’re Detective Stanton?” she questioned with a hint of surprise in her voice.
“The last time I checked,” Luke said, while wondering why his temper was so extremely short today; first the traffic, now this. Maybe it was his way of showing his disapproval for having to go to the station on his day off; a day off that he hadn't asked for but was thrust into his lap because he had too many vacation days saved up.
“Was there something I could do for you?”
“I’d like to talk to you about finding someone for me,” she spoke up still eying Declin nervously.
“Did you try missing persons? I work homicides and cold cases.”
“I tried them but when I told them that she might be hurt or worse, they sent me to another officer who sent me back to missing persons who sent me to you. Look, people have been passing me off all day and to be frank this is starting to get on my damn nerves.”
Luke sighed and glanced at the mountain of work on his desk and was about to send her back to missing persons but the look in her eyes told him not to. He mentally kicked himself for what he was about to do and could think of at least a dozen ways in which he would regret his decision later, but he picked up a notepad, pulled a pen from his pocket and faced her fully. “All right, let’s start with your name.”
“Kerry-Ann Kittrich,” she spoke with a sigh of relief.
“Who do you want me to find?”
“My neighbor…Priety Roshan.”
“Er- her name is Pretty?”
“No. Prie-ty – P-r-i-e-t-y.”
Scribbling down the information he tried to run over in his head the many ways in which this could be a simple mistake. In fact, he prayed it was a mistake because he really didn’t like to have to search for someone and when they turned up dead, he was the one who had to inform the family. He hated that part of the job. Most of the time the deceased was too young to even be in the places they were found, places like strip clubs, and dark alleys. A sigh left his lips and he looked at her. “Tell me what happened.”
He wanted to s
mile at the shy way Kerry-Ann shifted in her seat but the situation was too serious. “Well we normally meet for coffee at her place or mine but yesterday she didn’t show up. I tried calling her but no answer, so I went over to the house but the place looked as if a tornado ran through it.”
“A tornado? Explain.”
“Drawers were overturned, the bed ransacked, broken glass on the ground…something bad happened to her. I can feel it. If you know Priety her house is always immaculate—almost obsessive compulsively clean.”
Luke thought about his options. He could hand the case off to a rookie but that could freak her out since she went out of her way to find him. Then there would be one more person who believed cops were overpaid assholes.
“Something bad has happened to her. I just know it.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions—”
“How can I not jump to conclusions? She’s missing and it’s not like her. Even more strange her house was tossed. So my question again, Detective, how can I not jump to conclusions?”
“Maybe she had a party that got outta control. I don’t know. Maybe she met someone and left with him.”
The woman chuckled. “If you knew Priety you would know that wouldn’t happen in a million years.”
Luke arched a brow. “You saying she wouldn’t have a party?”
“I’m saying,” the woman countered, “she wouldn’t leave with anyone and not tell me—especially some stranger.”
Ripping the page he had written on from the notepad, he pushed it into his pocket and stood up. “I’d like to take a look at her place, would you mind taking me there?”
See No Evil Page 4