A Killer's Game

by Amy Andrews

  Detective Thorne slowed the vehicle, and pointed out a dark colored mid sized vehicle that appeared to be abandoned at the entrance to Seminole State Park.

  Slowing down, he eased the SUV along side the sedan, and saw that there was no one in the car, and no note posted to the windshield. Glancing over at Leopold, he directed her to stay in the car. Keeping the Jeep running, he undid his seatbelt, and hopped out. Placing his hand on the hood of the car, the coolness of the metal felt good to his palm, on this hot and sticky night.

  Thorne jumped back into the Jeep, looking at Leopold with a stern gaze. With a cool and collected tone, he lied right through his less than perfect teeth, “the hood is still warm, so we probably need to go in and check it out.”

  Leopold wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans, and nodded to agree. “Let’s go,” she said.

  Thorne clicked his right turn signal on, and pulled into the State Park, pulling his vehicle all the way in to the rear of the parking lot, underneath a burnt out lamp.

  He and Detective Leopold exited the vehicle, with the faintest click of their doors.

  Leopold walked around the rear of the vehicle to where Detective Thorne stood motionless.

  Leaning over towards Leopold, he whispered, “I think we should split up, and look around,” knowing damn well that there was no one around.

  Leopold looked at him with a bit of confusion in her eyes. “Shouldn’t we stick together?”

  Thorne brushed her question off by replying in a demeaning voice, “Leopold, we’ll get more ground covered if we split up. We need to canvas this area, and if it’s clear, we need to get back on the road. Do you want this guy to get away? Is that what you want?”

  Leopold stammered, “well, no…..but”

  Thorne cut her off. “Look, Leopold if you’re too scared, or don’t have what it takes to do the job, then,….” letting that hang in the air for a moment, knowing his last statement would play on her mind.

  Leopold didn’t agree with Thorne, but the Lieutenant put her with him for a reason. She was fairly new to this, and he was her superior in a manner of speaking. Not in rank, but in seniority. “You’re right,” she resided. “Sorry, Thorne.”

  He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “That’s a girl,” he said.

  They walked together, down a cedar planked walking path, that was lined with forestry on both sides. Coming to a clearing at the end of the path, Thorne signaled her by pointing his finger to go one way, while he started moving in the opposite direction. Clicking on their respective flashlights, they moved out.

  Thorne walked about fifty paces, killed his beam of light, and circled back around. Leopold was far enough away, and too busy engaging her senses with her immediate surroundings to notice.

  Thorne moved quickly back to the parking lot to grab some necessary tools of his alternative trade. Lifting the rear hatch, he reached into his black duffle bag, and first pulled out some blue latex, surgical quality gloves. Snapping them onto each hand, he flexed his fingers to loosen the snug fit. He decided to skip the hair net cover, because he was associated with Leopold. She was riding in his car, so it would be conceivable, and even probable to find his hair and car fibers on her. Before zipping the duffle back up, Thorne grabbed the half used roll of grey duct tape, a pair of steel toed boots, and a small cylindrical metal tube, which he tucked into his front pant’s pocket. Snugly tucking the roll of tape into the back of his pant’s waistline, he removed his wingtip shoes and put the boots on, then closed the rear hatch inaudibly.

  Using the trees as cover, Thorne crept quietly closer to Leopold. From behind his bark covered shields, he observed her. She held her flashlight in one hand, and had her other hand resting on the butt of her gun. He stood still, now only ten feet away from her. Patiently he watched, and waited for the perfect moment to present itself to him, while his gloved fingers danced over the small cylindrical metal tube in his pants pocket.

  Oblivious to the danger she was actually in, Detective Kate Leopold’s nerves had stilled. She was calmly observing the area for any signs of movement, or life, with her eyes peering beyond her beam of light, into the infinite expanse of dark wilderness. There was nothing out here. She didn’t see a suspect, and she didn’t hear a sound. Not a bird, not a lizard, not a squirrel. It was almost eerie. Was the wildlife aware of something she was not? Was there a top predator around, like a bear, or a panther? Maybe a coyote? Stop it, she thought. You are the top predator, Kate. You have a gun. Her hand tightened it’s grip on the butt of her gun, and she felt reassured.

  Shining her light on the ground, a glint of shimmer sparkled, as it refracted the light. Keeping her light trained on it, she walked closer to it, and saw that it was a glittering length of white-gold chain, with an attached rhinestone encrusted butterfly. Not exactly what she was supposed to be looking for, but as long as she was here, what the hell.

  Leopold removed her hand from the butt of her gun, stooped over, and outstretched her hand to pick it up. As the chain dangled off the edge of her fingers, Detective Thorne rushed up behind and tackled her, with the force of a lion taking his prey. The impact caused her to loose her grip on the flashlight, and it sailed through the air in a spinning motion, causing a kaleidoscopic strobe light effect.

  Leopold’s breath expelled from her lungs in a heave, when the heaviness of her assailant landed on top of her, as they hit the grassy floor in a tangent thud.

  Having time, not to think, but only to react, Leopold sent her fists flying, as they rolled around viciously. Throwing a right hook, she felt the sting of flesh being ripped from her knuckles, as they grazed her assailant’s teeth. She was struggling to get up off the ground, to disengage from the hand to hand combat, but he was just too big, and too strong.

  “Thorne,” she screamed frantically, as the weight of the man crushed her. Her assailant had her lying flat on her back. He sat atop her chest, with his legs straddling her sides. Holding her tightly by the wrists, he had her arms outstretched, and pinned firmly to the sides of her head.

  “Thorne,” she screamed again, more desperately.

  Leaning down, she felt his hot breath, as he whispered in her ear, “Yes, Kate, I’m here.” He took a deep breath to take in her scent.

  Leopold’s gamut of emotions fluctuated between relief that it was Thorne, and anger….that it was Thorne. What the fuck was he thinking? Whatever it was, this was NOT funny, and she WOULD be reporting him for this.

  “Thorne?” With her anger rising above her feeling of relief, she said, “get the fuck off of me!” as she tried to buck him off.

  Thorne thought her spunk was cute. He didn’t release her, but shifted his grasp of her wrists to one of his hand. He normally didn’t play with his victims, but he was nearly bursting out of his jeans. The more they fought, the more turned on he always became. It was when they cried, begged, gave up, and/or pleaded for their lives, that ruined the moment for him. If the moment was ruined, there was no reason to keep them around, because that was just simply boring. This turned out to be the case more often than not.

  “Now, why would I do that?” he said, taking his free hand and running it down her olive skinned cheek, in between her perky breasts, over her tight stomach, and down her hip towards her gun holster. Removing her gun, he set it back behind him, well out of her reach.

  Leopold did not flinch a muscle at the feel of his touch, even though it made her want to vomit. She showed no sign of weakness, and maintained eye contact with his ice blue glare. She could feel her heart racing in her chest, as her breathing quickened. “What the hell are you doing,? Why are you doing this, Thorne?” she asked in a frightened tone.

  “I’m sorry, Kate,” he said slyly. “The “why” is not important, at least not for you to know. What you do need to realize is that you have no chance against me. I’m bigger, I’m stronger, I have your gun, we’re in the middle of no where, and you left your cell phone lying on the dash of the car, which I conveniently removed the battery
from,” he gloated. “There is no use in screaming. No one will hear you. I’m going to let you up, and you’re going to do as I say. If you run, I will catch you, even if it’s with a bullet. Do you understand?”

  Leopold’s eyes grew wide, as she realized that this was no joke. She slowly nodded in affirmation, as she suddenly knew that she was about to confirm first-hand, the unknown reason to all of the tension between Thorne and the rest of the team.

  Detective Thorne reached behind himself, and grabbed her gun, before letting go of her wrists. With her Glock firmly in his grasp, he released her and quickly stood.

  “Stand up, and turn around,” he commanded, while waving her own gun at her.

  Leopold did as she was told, nice and slow. She kept her hands up, to show him she was not going to try any funny business, and was in full cooperation.

  Detective Thorne directed her to walk in the direction of a covered picnic area shelter.

  Upon reaching the shelter, he forcefully grabbed a fistful of her shoulder length brown hair on the back of her head, and marched her towards one of the cream colored plastic picnic tables. Thorne’s stride was much larger than Leopold’s, causing her tennis shoes to scutter across the ground. Without thinking, her natural reaction to being manhandled was to give Thorne an elbow to the gut. Her heart sunk, as it did not faze him or slow his stride. All it did was make him grip her hair even tighter and more forcefully.

  “All right!” she exclaimed. “I’m going, see? I don’t know what your angle here is,” she continued, “but, you’re out of your fucking mind if you think that you will get away with any of this! Lenny, …I mean, Detective Shane will have your head on a fucking stick! And if not him, then Layne or one of the others!”

  Thorne growled, “shut up, bitch! Do not say his fucking name!”

  Leopold wrinkled her brow in confusion, as she wondered what the hell that was all about, but she wasn’t in the position to worry herself about it at the moment. Her mind was already too busy spinning in different directions.

  They reached one of the tables at the back of the shelter. There was a dim light streaming in to that corner, from one of the lamps outside the shelter. Nudging her against the table, he took several steps back.

  Taking his phone out of his back pocket, he said, “smile for the camera,” as he snapped several photos of her, and then tucked his phone back away.

  Leopold eyes were no longer adjusted to the dark, thanks to the black sun spots dancing around in them from the flash of the camera. “Take your clothes off. Slowly.” he ordered, while waving her gun around.

  “Thorne, think about what you’re doing. I won’t tell anyone what has happened so far,” Leopold pleaded.

  Thorne sighed loud and audibly in exasperation. It was always the same ass thing. “Listen, honey, I know exactly what I’m about to do, and I’ve thought about it for a very long time. Just shut your mouth, and do as your told, or I’ll tape it shut for you.”

  Diverting her emerald green eyes towards the floor, Leopold tried to stable her trembling hands, as she reached for the buttons on her blouse. Her fumbling fingers didn’t seem to want to work. The harder she tried, the more she shook, at the realization that she was about to be raped.

  Thorne grew impatient, and stepped into her space with one large stride. He had no intention of sexually assaulting her, even though his body’s response to the stimuli would enable him to. Removing her clothes would make for a cleaner kill. Less chance of evidence being transferred onto the victim. He enjoyed her growing terror, so he would just let her mind continue to create its own hell. It was a sick game, within another sick game. Maybe he would indulge. A little. Rolling his eyes, he said in a bored and blasé tone, “you’re taking too long, Kate.” Using his long and nimble fingers, he undid all of the buttons on her oxford style shirt with lightning speed.

  Leopold leaned backward, and her breath grew ragged, as Thorne’s hands opened her shirt completely, and ran over her bare skin. “This is nice,” he said while slipping his finger under the strap of her lilac colored lace strewn bra. Victoria’s secrets were not going to be secrets for much longer. “I bet Layne would have liked to see you in it.” Moving his hands to the front center clasp, he popped it open, and moved both full B sized cups to the side, exposing her soft pink nipples.

  Sounding disappointed, he said, “I see you’re not as excited as I am.” He rubbed his crotch. “I’ll have to fix that.” Stepping into her, Leopold leaned away from him, as he cupped both of her breasts, and ran his thumbs over her nipples. It did not excite her sexually in the slightest, but she had no control over her body’s natural reaction to stimuli. She turned her head to the side, and closed her eyes. Her nipples grew hard, and protruded erect with his touch, which elicited a smile to spread across his face. “Now that’s more like it, Kate.” His mouth watered to take in her bosom, but he would not. No matter how he would try to explain it, there was no explanation for having his saliva on the victim’s breast. Moving one hand down to the buttons of her jeans, he grabbed her face with his other, and cranked her head to face him. “Look at me,” he commanded. Leopold felt a lump forming in her throat, and her eyes starting to well up, but she suppressed it. She was not about to give him the satisfaction of seeing the reaction he was seeking from her.

  Leopold closed her eyes, and kept telling herself to just picture someone else. Picture Layne, picture Layne, she kept repeating inside her head. It seemed to help somewhat, but she was not that open minded. No matter what she kept telling herself, she knew who it was…and she knew who it wasn’t. She came to conclude that she could always just pretend that she was getting a bad Gyno checkup. The one good thing was that he was wearing gloves. At least he wasn’t actually touching her flesh with his.

  With Leopold now glaring at him with an evil hatred in her eyes, Thorne moved down to the button of her jeans. He unsnapped the button fly’s, and tugged the jeans down over her hips. Running his palms over the hourglass figure of her waist, he slipped them underneath her matching panties, running his hands over her nicely rounded buttocks, and yanked them down to her mid thighs. Glancing down at her, his heart sped with anticipation, and his shaft stirred. As he lightly brushed her clean shaven skin with his gloved fingertips, her face contorted in revulsion. This really made him ache for release.

  Thorne took a few steps back, and Leopold sighed a breath of relief, because she thought that this nightmare was all over. Maybe he was just some pervert getting a cheap thrill at her expense, and it would be her word against his, and nothing more. Stopping mid reach to redress herself, Leopold’s gut wrenched in despair when Thorne spoke.

  “Turn around, and pull your pants, and your panties off,” Thorne ordered.

  Turning around slowly, with her back to him, she stripped to be completely naked. Standing there, she crossed her arms across her chest, and covered her bare breasts.

  While Leopold was getting undressed, Thorne removed the roll of duct tape from the back of his waistline. Grabbing Leopold’s hands from behind, he pried them from her breasts, and cranked them behind her. A small whimper escaped Leopold’s lips. Thorne brushed her hair to the side, and grabbed her by the chin, firmly, but not forcefully. “Shhhh. You’re gonna help me make it all better, Kate. Don’t you want to help me make it all better, Kate?”

  Leopold couldn’t speak through her quivering lips, as Thorne bound her wrists with the tape.

  “Sit down,” he ordered her, pointing at the seat of the picnic table. Leopold was utterly confused, but also relieved. Sitting hunched over, with her breasts covered from Thorne’s line of sight by the table top, she furiously dug at the tape trying to get her hands unbound. She watched in confusion as Thorne picked up her tennis shoe, and removed something from his pocket. He inserted whatever it was into the groove of her shoe tread, then pounded the sole of the shoe on the table, forcing whatever he took out of his pocket, to become lodged within the treads of her shoe. With her police instincts kicking into high
gear, she thought that it might be a tracking device?

  Leopold was perspiring tremendously, and not just because of the current dire situation she found herself in. It was an exceptionally sweltering July. Lows in the eighties, even when the sun went down. Under normal circumstances, she would curse her antiperspirant for not working effectively. Tonight, the slick moisture permeating her skin helped her to slide her hands out of the tape. Balling it in her fist, she threw it behind Thorne, over his head. He fell for the distraction, and looked behind him. Without any hesitation, Leopold grabbed her shirt and her shoes off the table, and took off like a bat out of hell.

  With her bare feet pounding over the dry grass, her arms pumped like two well oiled machines. She ran for the cover of darkness, amidst the trees and shrubbery. If she could just loose him and hide until daybreak, she might have a chance. Glancing quickly behind her, she saw that Thorne was not too far behind. Giving it all she had, she darted into the tree line, and weaved in and around the native fauna. She did not stop at the first good cover she came across, because she felt that would be too obvious. It would be the first place he would look. Her lungs were burning, and her feet were now stinging from slight abrasions caused by her naked pedicured feet racing over the unkempt ground.. She didn’t want to stop running, but the sharp pain in the side of her abdomen, demanded she did. Stopping briefly to catch her breath, she took short, fast breaths through her nose. She slipped her tennis shoes on, and crudely tied them before taking off again.

  With her feet protected, she could move much more quickly. She was able to slip her shirt back on and button it up, although it was like trying to get dressed while doing jumping jacks. Her pupils were fully dilated, as she scanned the area ahead for some cover. She would have to scan, and make a split second decision as to whether to hide or continue running. There was no time for indecisiveness.