They reached Maggie’s apartment, before they could knock the door was pulled opened. “Peewee, you came!” Maggie cradled her cell phone in her hands. “ Come in, who is she?” She was taken back by Karen‘s tattooed arms.
“ She’s my associate. Karen, this is Maggie, Maggie this is Karen.” He introduced one another.
Karen had seen the photos of Maggie, she had long blonde hair, a face that never seem to age. That drastically changed with the months. She could tell Maggie wasn’t getting any sleep, the bags and dark circles under her eyes were proof of that. She even had lost a few pounds, her face was much thinner from past photos. The clothes she wore seem to almost barely cling on her. She wore a stain pink shirt, and baggy sweat pants. “ Come in, come in.” She opened the door, inviting them to make themselves at home. The entire apartment was a pigsty, It was litter with garbage and old news papers, insects crawled at the corner of the living room, and the stench of old food roamed in the air. Karen could see the deteriorating of Maggie Donner mind over her missing daughter. The old photos of Lisa as a child were littered around the house, Maggie was clinging on to the past, unable to come to terms with a future without her only daughter. Karen wondered if any news they brought would ease this woman's already cracked psyche.
Both Peewee and Karen took a seat on a couple of boxes as Maggie sat on a wooden creaky chair. “ How’s everything, Mag?” Peewee spoke to her as an old friend.
“ Everything is fine,” She glanced constantly at the cell phone in her hand. “ just been working, trying to pay the bills.”
“ Do you need any money?” He asked her.
“ No, I’m doing fine, hon.” Peewee had loaned Maggie some money the last time he was here, she felt bad for not being able to pay him back. Her husband was the bread winner, but he refused for his wife to carry on the search. He like the others, thought Lisa had ran away out of her own free will.
“You just didn’t allow her to live her own life, you always kept hovering over her, why do you think she moved to New York, to escape you!” Maggie flinched in the seat, as her husband words replayed in her head, it was on the night he tossed away Lisa’s clothes in the fireplace, “ She’s not coming back, so stop all this right now!” No matter how hard she cried, he was willing to accept his daughter was never coming back, so he destroyed every last thing that used to be her.
“ I would offer you something to eat, but, I haven’t had time to head to the grocery store.” Maggie bit on her finger nails.
“ It’s alright, you texted me.” Peewee tried to keep Maggie focused. “ I’m guessing you wanted to know about the case?”
“ Do you know where she is?” Her voice was mixed with anticipation and fear.
“ Maggie, we think whatever happened to Lisa, is happening to other women as well.” Peewee cleared his throat.
“ Are you saying someone’s taking other girls, like my Lisa?” Karen could see it in the eyes of the poor woman, nothing was really sinking in, her mind just seem to wander back to her old life. “ I wonder if this phone works.” Maggie stared at the cell in her hand, losing focus on what was in front of her.
Peewee carried on. “ Another girl, went missing, her name was Janet Morales.”
Karen interrupted Peewee to ask her own question, something that would keep Maggie Donner with them. “ How would you describe your daughter, Mrs. Donner?”
Peewee looked over to Karen. “ What are you doing?” She never answered.
“ She was a sweet girl,” Maggie began to smile. “ everyone loved her, she could make you laugh, she would just love you with open arms.”
“ How was Lisa’s past relationships?”
“ They were good.” Maggie darted her eyes to the floor.
“ That’s a lie.” Karen shot at Maggie.
“ What are you doing?” Peewee asked once more.
“ She was too good for them.” Maggie spat out angrily. “ Those little fuckers never could love her, they just used her, they used my angel.”
“ Maggie,” Karen voice began to soften as she saw Maggie returning back to the present, stepping away from the past. “ the last phone call you received from Lisa, what did you two talk about?”
“ I could have told you.” Peewee pulled on her arm.
“ I want to hear it for myself.” She moved Peewee’s hand away. “ Tell me what you two talked about.”
“ She would always call me before heading to work, she asked me how everything was back home, I filled her in on everything, then she told me about him.” She let a out scream of pain, she couldn’t relieve that moment again, the last time she heard her daughter’s voice.
“ Cool it.” Peewee demanded. “ All Lisa told her, was that she met a guy.”
“ What was his name?” Karen asked, she cold see the hate in Peewee’s eyes, the last thing he wanted to do was bring harm to this woman, make her relieve that agony. “ Maggie, if you want us to help you, you have to remember every little detail.”
“ His name was Gerard,” She sobbed. “ She told me they met a few weeks ago, and that she felt he could be the one.”
“ Where did they meet?” Karen asked.
“ The metropolitan museum of art.”
“ Why would Lisa go there,” Peewee stood silent, he was wondering where Karen was going with this. “ was she a fan of art?”
“ She liked paintings at a young age, she even drew some masterful ones.”
“ Did she even describe Gerard to you?”
“ Yes,” Peewee was in utter disbelief, not once did Maggie tell him a description of the charming man. “ He was tall, he had dark hair, she said she was handsome.”
“ What does that say?” Peewee asked Karen.
“ It means he either was stalking her before they met, getting to know everything about her or he enjoys art himself, I‘m willing to place my bet on the second.” Karen bit on her lip, thinking of the description given from Maggie and the waitress at the Midnight Heat “ The description we have don’t match.”
“ So, what, the Midnight Heat is not our guy.” Peewee slumped in his chair.
“ No,” Peewee was puzzled as Karen spoke. “ It means he’s careful.”
“ Disguises?” There was doubt in Peewee’s voice, even he felt that to be a stretch. “ Impossible.”
“ He’s not stupid, Peewee, if he’s taken more girls, he’s not going to walk out in the streets looking like himself.” Karen looked back at Maggie who was still cleaning the tears from her eyes. “ Maggie, did you guys ever check Lisa’s phone calls from her cell phone provider?”
“ No,” She shook her head. “ The fake letter came in days before the cops could look any further.”
“ Why didn’t you check it?” Karen asked Peewee.
“ Not as simple.” He said.
“ I’m sure we’ll find a way to get that info.” She smiled at him.
“ Yes ma’am.” It was refreshing to see that old fighting spirit return back to his friend, that was the girl he fell head over heels for, that’s the one he needed now, the one Maggie deserved.
“ Why aren’t the cops doing anything?” Maggie said.
“ There’s no body, mag.” Peewee told her.
“ What about the dead girl you told me about, you said they found DNA?”
“ I was ahead of myself, Mag‘s. They found the guy behind that, he‘s dead.” There were times when Peewee couldn’t take the look of disappointment on Maggie’s face, every time he let her down there was a blow to his heart, she put so much faith into him and still he had brought her nothing.
“ Will you ever find him?” Maggie said to them.
Karen interrupted Peewee before he could utter a single word. “ Of course, you‘ve given us a lot to go on, before you know it, we‘ll have the son of bitch in our hands.”
Maggie blew a sigh of relief, it was a comforting notion, knowing retribution would be paid. “Just be careful.” Maggie knew as they did as well, the risk of hunting down
a serial killer. There could be repercussions.
“ He’ll never see us coming, Maggie.” Peewee reassured her by holding on to her hand, he smiled at her with that boyish smile.
“ Thank you.” She squeezed his hand back.
Even though they were complete strangers, they both had formed a bond that seem to be mother and son like, though they didn’t share the affection as openly as others, it was evident in the way they spoke to each other and the small grasps of affection. It made Peewee think of his own mother and how he should visit her more often. Perhaps when the case was over and when he could hang a good deed around his neck, in the mean time he had a promise to keep. “ If you need anything, call me. I’ll be here.”
After all the goodbyes, they were back in the car, driving home ready to pour a few more hours trying to figure the what, when and where. “ What was all that about?” Peewee asked, still upset with the way Karen forced herself on Maggie.
“ I had to shake her out of whatever hole she was in, “ She turned over to Peewee. “ I know the last thing you want to bring to her is pain, but sometimes you have to shake people out of the lie they’re living in, for better or worse, or they‘ll just end up running away their entire life.”
Chapter 24
YOU ARE, WHAT YOU ARE
“ This fucker was jacking off with his wife severed hand.” They all laughed hysterically at the story being told. “ I shit you not, when we asked the mother fucker why he did it, he said. Well, I just wanted to show my wife how to give me a proper hand job!” The six men at the diner table slam their hands against it, their faces bright red, enjoying the story of an old murder case a Detective Mark Reef was recounting with his fellow comrades. From ear shot they sounded insane, mentally disturbed individuals laughing at the most gruesome stories they could recount. The laughter was the only way they could coup with the insanity of the job, laugh so much and everything seem to lose it‘s meaning, death stop being so dark and became a humorists concept. “ Best case, by far.” rewiring the inside of their minds slowly and slowly with time.
Klecko sat beside the men, quietly, eating at the same diner that housed for years New York’s finest, today was one of the days the brass got together and had lunch and swapped old stories, Klecko was no doubt the odd man out among the group, a Boston native who came waltzing in with his shiny record, demanding a new fresh start.
The plate in front of him was never once touched, his ham sandwich and chips laid there on the plate growing older with each second, there was something about ham that always reminded him of a dead Asian, it wasn’t being racist, it was just that every race had a unique smell to it when they were dead, he couldn’t point his finger on it, but he was sure it was in the blood. Mexicans almost seemed to have a more potent smell of iron to their bodies. Blacks were almost the same as whites. “ Are you on your fucking period, Klecko!?” One of the detectives across the table asked, noticing the full plate of food sitting in front of him. “ Or we could get you a fruity little salad, you Boston fag!?”
They all laughed, waiting for Klecko's comeback. “ Shut your mouth, John, before I put the barrel of my gun down your throat and blow your fucking brains.” He finished his sentence with a smile. “ Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time you had something jammed down your throat.”
“ Holy shit, that guy has balls,” The detective chuckled. “ You ain’t half bad Klecko. That reminds me of another story.” Another tale from the mentally deranged minds.
What do you think when you see all that death? Klecko recalled the sound of his lovely mistress voice through the phone as they spoke in the morning.
“ I don’t know, it doesn’t scare me anymore.” He replied. “ I just do my job and move on, there’s no attachment. The first time you see it, you want it to go away, you pray to God you never have to see anything like that again, but now …” He was confessing his heart out to her that morning, telling her everything that lurked inside.
“ But what?” She asked.
“ I want the images to stay with me, I want to carry them with me wherever I go. I need them.” Those words struggled to come out of his mouth.
“ What do you need them for?”
“ I don't know why, I can't explain it, I can't.” He babbled on for hours. “ I'm losing myself, the things we say, are they right, am I crazy?”
“ Do you want us to stop playing like that?” They both indulge in dark sexual fantasies, ones beyond the norm. He knew if he ever told another soul, they'd had him committed.
“ No, I don't.”
He brought himself back to the present, all the detectives were laughing and coming close to falling out of their chairs, enjoying each story that got passed by. Apart of wished he could joy in the laughter like them, but then again, apart of him wanted nothing to do with people like them. “ Who among these are sane?” He quietly asked himself, holding up the fork, looking at reflection of himself. “Certainly not I.”
Chapter 25
JULIET SEEKING ROMEO
There were three sides to Caroline Carter, the intelligent book worm, the happy girl with the smile on her face, and the last which few got to saw, the lonesome girl that hid in the corner of a dark room, digging her nails into her skin, just to rip the flesh from her arms. It wasn’t to torment herself, it was all for pleasure. There was something about the throbbing pain and sight of her own blood which made her all hot and bothered, the sensation itself was better than sex.
Her early memories of how it all started, was when she was twelve years old. Always sitting in the back of the classroom biting the inside of the lip so hard, she wanted to scream, the tears would gently run down her eyes as she continued, feeling her teeth rip the inside, the blood slowly dripping in her mouth, letting her teeth squeeze the wound so more blood could seep out, it was intoxicating.
As she grew older it turned from playful biting, into her cutting herself with razors, escalating her hunger and needs. The lovers who came into her life and went never had that side of them, no matter how much they claimed to be wild animals. One peak behind the curtain of the true Caroline and they ran for the hills, they called her in the most polite way, “ too intense.” which meant, “ Batshit crazy.” leaving the poor girl without a way to unleash her true desire.
Caroline spent time chatting online with others that shared her hunger, but all too afraid to show their face in real life. They wanted to keep everything a secret, all they wanted to do was role play online, which had it’s thrills for a short coming, in the end it gets old and depressing. It's masturbating, while writing creatively. It was a draining process.
Tonight she placed an add on Craigslist, in hopes to find her partner. She was tired of repressing her true nature to anyone, she needed to discharge this animal inside of her no matter what the cost. Her add title read. “ Seeking Romeo, to unleash our dark desires .” The message inside the add read as
Tried of hiding who I am, I’m looking for someone to unleash this demon inside of me. Why must I repress who I am, to a world that is sicker and more disturb than I. The message might not be clear to some, but, it is to those like me. Please reach out to me, I feel myself slipping away.
She waited for a few minutes, then the messages came pouring in. With request from men and women, one asking if he could pump her ass full of his cum, another asking if she could suck on his cock all night, another from a shy bi-sexual mother wanting to explore her lesbian side. She deleted message after message, all from lonely men wanting to jack off on cam for her, women wanting to taste another women’s cunt, people failing to read the true meaning of the message. How this left her depressed, she could only think how many more nights she would spend alone with her hunger still looming there, how many more years till she could be set free.
“ You coming to the party?” Her roommate Shelly yelled at her from the bathroom, she was too busy glamorizing herself to even notice what Caroline was writing. “ There’s going to be a lot of cute guys, you
might get laid tonight.”
The mere image repulsed her, but she needed to play her role. “ Count me in girl, I need some time away from the books.” A new message appeared in front of the inbox. She sighed, knowing some horn dogs never gave up. She opened the e-mail, only to find a surprise.
The world’s view on right and wrong is blurred and up for much debate. I know how it feels to hide the true desire we have inside us. We‘re forced to play the part, just to fit in. I can unleash that demon inside of you, Juliet, only if you unleash mines as well.
My cell is 716-555-9990
My name is Jacob, let’s meet when you have the time.
She could feel the wet spot between her legs, and the sweat running down her forehead as she read the message over again. Caroline couldn’t believe it, she found the one person who knew the hunger that was inside her. “ Thank you.” She muttered quietly to herself.
Chapter 26
Play Karen, For Me
“ I’m warning you, he’s going to get stabbed with a fork in the eye.” Karen again reiterated to Peewee as she looked for something to wear, walking undressed through her apartment, letting the next door neighbors see every inch of her, Peewee not once glanced at her exposed body, he‘d seen it so many times, frankly there were times when he forgot Karen was a woman. “ In the end, you‘ll have no one else to blame but yourself.”
Peewee was far too busy glancing at himself in the mirror to even notice Karen discontent for the dinner, he couldn’t help but stare at the dashing devil looking back at him in the mirror, he was seconds away from having a love affair with himself. “ If I weren’t taken, I’d be so over you.”
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