by Ross Homer
“Yes. It’s in my bag. I found a shirt in his hamper. But let’s not jump on this right now. You honestly need a solid night’s sleep before we move on. There’s an all-points out on him so he won’t get far. Plus, there are several patrols driving around randomly in your neighborhood. It’s safe here. Relax.”
She was right, of course. “I’ll make me a potion that’ll knock me out and let me sleep all night. That way I won’t worry about Bob or Elsa. Him I don’t give a shit about. Elsa is in good, safe hands at the hospital.”
“That she is. She has two round the clock guards. Bob can’t get to her.”
I nodded as I stood and started to close up the house. “The remote for the TV is there,” I pointed at it. “You can watch television or whatever you wish.”
“I wish to go to bed, too.”
With one more check on the ground floor, we went up to our bedrooms. “Nissa, good night. You’ve been so good to me and you saved my life. Thank you.”
“Good night to you, too.” She jiggled a little. “And thank you too. My husband will be thrilled when he sees these.”
I had to laugh with her. All hell was breaking loose around us, and she was concerned about what her ol’ man would think about her newly improved breasts. There wasn’t anything ‘new’ about them, of course. But laughing like we were helped me, too.
I forgot to make the potion as I undressed and crawled into my empty bed. This was the first time is six years I’d slept alone, and I didn’t like it. Taking a breath, I caressed my body and imagined Elsa was doing it like she did when I was upset. That was all I did, and, in another moment, I was deep asleep.
<<<<<>>>>>
That godforsaken woman had stymied him, and he hated that. Knowing it was probably futile, he went ahead and took a shot at her in her house. Nothing happened. He knew she was dead in the crosshairs, just like her slut dyke girlfriend. He nailed that bitch twice from the same distance so her head should have come apart with the shot. Her harping about being a witch was true, no matter what he wanted to believe and that made his desire to kill her twice as strong.
Well, she couldn’t stay cooped up forever. His chance would come.
He saw Nissa arrive and gave some real thought to killing her just for the fun of it. But caution was the watchword, so he packed his gun and left.
His next stop was St. Anne’s and putting her girlfriend out of her misery. The sight of three patrol cars in the driveway of the hospital made him drive on past. A couple of blocks away, he parked and walked back. When he was close to two men standing in front of the main doors, he heard them talking about him. He wasn’t getting in this way.
Turning on heel, he quickly moved to the entrance to the emergency room and saw two more cops. His anger at this was making him less than careful and he almost ran square into yet another cop.
He took all this as a sign from God to give up on this particular endeavor. He could always kill her later and if he was lucky, maybe he could get both of them at the same time. Lezzies dying in each other arms. How fitting.
The anger kept building and he needed to vent it. His opportunity was walking down the street towards the hospital. She was perfect; late teens, cute, nice body; probably a volunteer. He stood beside his car as she approached and as she got beside him, he lashed out and hit her in the chin, knocking her down. Since this was a medical park and late, there was no one around to see him hustle the stunned woman into his car and handcuff her hands behind her.
Later, when he was done with her in a cheap motel room, he realized that his temper had gotten away from him…again. Badly. Sure, she’d been a pretty good piece of ass, but the beating went beyond his usual style.
Her face was almost unrecognizable and the bruises on the rest of her torso were amazing even to him. His right hand hurt, and he had a bad scratch on his left one. That came from a tooth. Surprisingly, in spite of it all, she was still breathing. He took care of that by driving his elbow into her throat and crushing her larynx. He grinned as she writhed on the bed, fighting to breathe. It didn’t take long for her to die.
Getting her into his car was no problem as he’d gotten a room on the backside of the motel. Instead of going up to his property and the possibility of getting caught, he went into a small park and dismembered her like he’d done the others.
As he hacked at her left arm, he stopped in mid-swing and wondered what it would be like with a live woman. Then he finished what he was doing.
Back at the motel, he showered off her blood and dressed in clean clothes. He didn’t care now if they had his fingerprints or not. Fuck ’em. He was one of them and like their asses, he knew they wouldn’t be able to find him with both hands and a roadmap.
As he drove to the other motel he had, he began thinking about doing a live woman. Then he grinned and laughed so hard he almost drove into the back of the car ahead of him stopped at a red light. He knew exactly who he’d love to do and wondered if he could figure a way to snatch that bitch from the hospital.
<<<<<>>>>>
Relentless knocking on my bedroom door pulled me out of an intense dream about Elsa. It wasn’t as sexual as the one the other day but still, I didn’t want to wake up.
Nissa’s voice shattered the rest of my sleep.
“Jo! Get up. Your Bob has struck again! C’mon girl, up and at ’em.”
She didn’t give me a chance to reply because she came into my room and got on the bed. Then like a teenager, she shoved me towards the other side. If I hadn’t moved, she would have pushed me onto the floor.
I glared at her and said, “Alright! Alright! I’m up. Gimme a chance to go pee. Then coffee. Then you can tell me what’s so damn important.” I sat up.
“Another body was found just a few minutes ago. Now…get up and get moving. I’ll put together a thermos and we can have some on our way.”
“Slave driver! Alright! I’ll be down in ten or fifteen. Okay?”
She was already on her cellphone as I went into my bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, I came downstairs in jeans and a pink flowered blouse. Nissa looked pointedly at her watch. “Let’s go. They’re holding the scene for us.”
I nodded and pulled on my hiking boots. I was expecting a hike in the woods again, not a short ride to the park where they found the body.
We were out the door and into my car in another minute with neither of us thinking about the danger we were in. That didn’t happen until I turned on the main street not far from my house. It seems that sometimes everyone’s a little telepathic. In this case I stopped at a light and we stared at each other in shock.
Nissa shrugged. It was all the emotion that needed to be conveyed. We’d fucked up and got away with it…this time. I immediately cast a ward to protect us.
A jogger and her dog had found an arm lying in the bushes alongside the jogging trail that wound its way through the park. Actually, the dog found it and took it to her. From what she was trying to say to an EMT through her terrified sobs, was that she knew it wasn’t a stick because of the hand still partially attached. It took her three tries to hit 911 on her cellphone.
While we were listening to her, another arm and leg were found. It’d be an hour before the rest of the poor young woman was found. Brenda took one look at the arm and knew Bob Albertson had struck again.
She looked up at Nissa and me and sighed. She was kneeling beside a young woman’s head as it lay in the weeds. “She was quite pretty and far too young for this shit. Can I take her now?”
Nissa replied, “Yes. You have all the pictures you need?”
“I think so. Like he did up in the mountains, he threw most of her around. All that’s still missing is her left foot. A cadaver dog is on the way. We’ll have it soon. I’ll take this poor child back to the morgue then call you with the results.”
“Then go ahead,” Nissa said. “We can come by in a couple of hours, too, if that’s enough time.”
“It should be. I’m sick of this guy. Ca
tch him and put him away.”
“We will. Trust me on that.”
I nodded in agreement. Both Nissa and I had an even greater reason to find him. Our lives.
We got back in the car and drove without conversation to her precinct. There was a murderer on the loose and not only were attractive young women in his sights, so were Nissa and I. There was nothing we could say. I cast a protection spell but again, wondered if like the house, if it would stop a bullet. I, for one, didn’t want to find out. I didn’t know at the time that he’d already found out that yes, my wards would indeed stop a bullet.
Walking in, we drew the usual leer from that other cop…Detective Chan. Abruptly, I seethed in anger and wanted to deck his sorry ass.
Nissa grabbed my arm just in time to stop me from shoving my fist up his sexist nose. I normally enjoy the looks I get but not now.
“Jo!” she snapped at me. “Chill.”
She dragged me into Sorcha’s office and unceremoniously shoved me into the guest chair. Yeah. A guest chair that was hard as rock and terribly uncomfortable and it didn’t feel none too good when I landed.
Nissa then leaned down and got into my face. “Now, take a breath, Ms. Palmer. The last thing you and all of us need, goddamnit, is you in a cell for assaulting a police officer.”
She was right, of course. When she stood and glared at me, I bent forward and put my head down and breathed exactly like she told me to. When I’d recovered enough to be civil, I said, “I’ll apologize to him later. But Goddess! Neither of us need that right now.”
“True and we don’t need it at any time. But we aren’t going to change him, or others just like him in an instant. Jo, we have to catch Albertson and not snipe at every other arsehole out there.”
I felt like I was ten years old and getting a chewing on by my mother. I threw up my hands and yelled, “Okay! I got it! Get the hell off my back!” And started bawling again. This shit was getting old for sure.
Sorcha came in just then and closed the door. “What’s going on, ladies?”
Nissa beat me to answering her. “Jo’s having a bit of a meltdown. She almost took a swing at Chan.”
“I wouldn’t suggest it because he’s a fourth-degree black belt in karate.”
I glowered at her. “I’m sick of this! All this!” I stood. “My fiancé is in the hospital and may live or die. The man I loved years ago is killing women and wants to kill me. I’m scared half to death. And that fucker out there staring at my boobs! Sometimes it’s too much!” I stormed out of her office and went to the Ladies restroom and stood in front of the mirror, staring at me.
Breathing heavily, I leaned on the sink and fought for control because I knew I was on the verge of an honest to goodness breakdown. Tears streamed down my face and dripped into the sink.
It took a good ten minutes, but I managed to pull myself together. At the moment, I couldn’t do anything about Bob or Elsa but by the Goddess I could do something about Chan. I took off my bra, folded the cups together and pushed it into the back pocket of my jeans. I left my shirt closed but not buttoned.
Leaving the Ladies, I went straight to his desk. “Detective Chan,” I said, “take a good long look because you won’t get another one.” Then I pulled open my blouse and let him look for a few seconds.
I thought the poor son of a bitch was going to swallow his tongue before I buttoned up and went back into Sorcha’s office feeling quite a bit better.
She stood behind her desk, mouth open and completely stunned. Nissa was facing the wrong way and missed the whole thing.
“Jocelyn Palmer,” Sorcha said accusingly, “that was amazingly mean and oh so damn funny.” She collapsed into her chair laughing.
Nissa asked, “What did I miss?”
So, I told her, and she agreed with Sorcha that it was indeed, amazingly mean and yet oh, so funny.
When the three of us recovered sufficiently to talk, Sorcha said, “While you were in the restroom, our IT guy brought something to my attention. On the dark web are scenes from something similar to what happened at Sato’s house. Want to take a look?”
I wasn’t so sure but Nissa said, “Yes. Will it help us?”
“I can’t answer that one,” replied Sorcha. “I haven’t seen it yet, but he was definitely rattled.”
“Then go ahead and show us.”
Sorcha turned to her monitor and hit the link that IT had provided.
It was video of exactly what happened at Sato’s but with different people. It was just as bad but now it had a voice-over telling the viewers that if they borrowed money or other items from certain people, they will pay it back. Or this would happen.
The last person destroyed by the nightwalkers was Roy Bob Miller. It was ghastly to see what was happening but the three of us maintained our breakfasts.
Sorcha shut off the video and said, “I’ve called the state police in Idaho to verify this and it’s true. One of the victims was the county sheriff and a close friend of this Miller guy. When you put this with the men who told us about working with Sato, it explains why we haven’t seen any rise in organized crime here. His competition is dead.” She looked at her dark monitor. “I wonder who in hell Miller pissed off this badly. Wow! I hope we never encounter him or it or whatever it is. It’s not Fae to be sure.”
Nissa replied, “I have to agree. Since there are two nightwalkers involved, it’s from another realm. That means we have no idea how to fight it.”
We kicked that nasty idea around for a few minutes and then I said, “Look. We’re not going to figure this out right now and I need to go see Elsa. I’d like Nissa to come too if it’s alright.”
Sorcha nodded. “Yes. Both of you go see her. When you leave the hospital, the ME may have something more on last night’s victim. We know it’s Albertson, but she’ll need to make the call about the weapon used and TOD. If the weapon is an axe and she can tell it’s the same as used on the other victims, then we’ll have solid evidence against him.”
As I began to stand up, Nissa suddenly yelled “Down!” and kicked my chair. That knocked me off balance and I started to fall. I felt a sting in my back as she dove for me and pulled me to the floor.
Sorcha screamed, “Gun!” She grabbed her radio as she dropped to the floor, too.
I heard something about SWAT when I saw a starred hole in Sorcha’s outside window. Another suddenly appeared! I felt my blouse flutter.
I wrapped my arms around Nissa and rolled us across the floor to the wall below the window. I ended up on top of her. It was a nice position but totally the wrong time. My back stung, too.
SWAT was on the way. The outer office emptied as the cops flooded the street. Nissa pushed me off her and said, “Jo! You’ve been shot. Take off that blouse.”
I didn’t argue as I did what she said.
“Whew, mate! You’ve been barely nicked but I’ll get the first aid kit and clean it up a little.”
Since it was my back, I couldn’t see the damage. Later though, when I could, I saw how very close I came to joining Elsa in the hospital…or how close I came to residing in the morgue.
Had Nissa not knocked me off balance and making me twist, that bullet would have hit me in the left side and quite possibly my heart.
At least I was alive!
It took over an hour to sort everything out, to fill out a report. The SWAT team had found where Bob was perched in a tree across the street when he shot at me. Of him, there was no sign other than the spent cartridge. I thought it was odd that he would just leave it. Teasing us? Catch me if you can? For some reason, that didn’t feel right to me.
Once we were done, Nissa and I drove to St. Anne’s and Elsa. Her doctor met us at her room and shook our hands. “That’s one tough woman,” she said. “She’s awake and wants to see you and here you are! But…no more than five minutes no matter what she says.” She snorted. “And I thought men were demanding patients. Five minutes, not a second more.”
We nodded and went in.
We were there ten minutes, having cried for the first five. Both of us shot by the same man, one of us critically injured. Then we talked as Nissa and I helped Elsa’s healing process. Nissa was right; I could feel Elsa drawing it from me. Nissa pulled me away and took my place. I pulled her away just before the doctor came in.
Timing is everything. We’d helped Elsa heal a little faster but not so much as to make it like some kind of miracle to someone who didn’t know about magic. She’d still have weeks to fully recover but at least it wouldn’t take months.
After a gentle kiss, we left her with a promise to be back tonight. Then we took the elevator down to the basement and walked to the morgue. Yeah, I swiped at tears, but these were tears of happiness because I wasn’t going to the morgue to see Elsa. Then it hit me that I was going to see someone else’s child or daughter or lover.
“Nissa,” I whispered as we walked along the cold, bleak hall, “I’m not sure I can do this anymore. Seeing bodies like we’re going to.” I looked over at her. “I said the same thing the night this all started, come to think about it. To Dewey, in fact.”
She replied, “There are times like that for me, too. But we soldier on because someone must stand for the victims. That would be men and women like you and me.”
Nissa was right, of course, but once this young woman was identified, her family would be facing the same thing far too many did. At times, this job truly sucked the big one.
Brenda Hall met us in her office. “You don’t need to see her unless you need to for some reason. For your reports?”
Nissa said, “No, we don’t. Jo here had a very close encounter with Albertson this morning.”
“Oh? What was that?”
I turned and pulled up my blouse.
“I see.” She ran a finger across my eagle tattoo and said, “Interesting. Nice tat. And here I thought you were a good girl.” To lighten things some, she added, “Just think, Jo, I could be right now hacking you up just to see what kind of shitty life you led. And just for the hell of it, I’d find out if your boobs were real or aftermarket. They seem awfully perky for being so big.”