The Perfect Woman

by Abundis, Jesse

  Klecko debated with himself, wanting to be with his mistress seem like the best thing in the world, but he knew he needed to be ready for the oncoming storm that was waiting for him at the corner. “ I do too, I’m just really tired, “ That was no lie, he spent all night cleaning up the mess that had come back to him, this was his first good hour of rest. “ I promise, tomorrow, we can talk all we want.”

  “ Ok, I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.” She hesitated for a moment in whether to tell him that he loved him, but decided to leave it for another night. “ Get some rest.”

  He blew a sigh of relief after hanging up the phone. He laid in his bed, closing his eyes for a few moments.“No, no, no.” He could see that strange man in the shadows tossing something into the fire, “it all has to burn, it all has to burn.”

  He opened his eyes quickly, still hearing those same words fumble in his head, he rose from the bed looking around his room, he could of sworn that man was inside his room. He took a deep breath before laying back down, remembering to what his blackmailer told him before leaving him. “ It all goes back to those sleepless night, detective.” He knew what night that was, but it still made no sense to him. “ Who are you ?” Klecko said to himself, as he gently tilted his head to stare at the window, knowing somewhere he was out there watching him.

  The phone beside him began to ring, he turned around and saw it was Harkness, probably out to bring him back into the field. “ A cop shouldn’t have a day off, we work to serve the people.” He would say day in and day out, a brainwash detective who focused on two things in his life, family and his job. No outer ambition outside that great wall of China lodge in his head.

  Klecko let the phone ring a few times, wishing Harkness would hang up on his own and leave him be. Though, that didn’t seem to be working. “ Harkness ,” He made his annoyances known. “ you better have a damn good reason for calling me.” How his stomach ran cold as Harkness explained the situation.

  Chapter 44

  LESSON ONE: KNOW YOUR VICTIM

  Was this a nightmare, had he lost his mind, it had to be, why would Denise Hillshire eyes be staring at him? “ I have your back, you have mines.” words out of the blackmailers mouth, all that rang false in this darkest hour. He could only imagine what bone his blackmailer had to pick with him, what wrong did he do to him to earn such attention?

  His entire career was built in apprehending the worst of the worst, he was the golden boy everyone praised and thanked, but now his blackmailer held the cards of exposing to the world what he really was, just another freak, like the same ones he put away.

  “ The woman on this photo is named Denise Hillshire.“ A young female Hispanic detective was the one that gather this small staff meeting, she never gave her name, she bolted off the gates with the case, what her history was and the power she wield to call such a meeting was beyond Klecko‘s comprehension. But her mere presence brought Commander Mario Angelo to her side, there was no doubt the bone she carried was a dangerous one.

  Photo’s of Klecko’s victim were passed around, taken in a time when her body had yet to be abused by the drugs she poured into herself and when she still had a soul. With such attention, Klecko only wonder if Denise Hillshire wasn’t something more than she seemed, a politicians daughter, or even worst a police officers child, so many inquires ran through his mind, with so many scenarios, each one ended with him running for his life.

  The detectives in the conference room had been called out of the blue, none knowing what this was all about, none of them really caring, they were getting paid one way or another, some of them were just yearning to head back into their warm beds. Klecko was the only one on edge, he was a bit curious how they came to ID the body so quickly without a head. “ Ten hours ago her body was left in a playground in Harlem, with a note pin to the body.” Vazquez seemed to choke up as she passed the copy of the letter to everyone. Klecko was the first to get his hands on it.

  I LIE IN THE ROAD

  SHOW MY SINS TO THE WORLD

  A HEADLESS WENCH

  WITH NO PROMISE OR LIFE

  HOW I’VE SIN

  HOW I'VE SOLD MY SOUL

  THERE’S NOTHING LEFT

  AMEN

  “ This guy a fucking poet, or what?” Harkness muttered to Klecko as he read the note.

  Klecko flinched reading every word of the letter, a letter he knew was written by the same person that was hiding in the shadows.“ Hate to erupt,” His voice crackled, the fear was seeping out of him. “ but who are you exactly?” He needed answers quickly if he wanted to stay alive.

  “ My apology, how rude of me. I’m Sgt. Rita Vazquez, I work Vice.” She said to him.

  “ This is why you need a home town boy.” He could hear Harkness mutter to someone behind him. Klecko felt the urge to ram his fist into Harkness skull, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shit, but he did recall them having a conversation about Rita Vazquez a while back, it was when they were running the Angela Dennings case.

  “ My bad, “ Klecko smiled at her. “ But, can you tell me why we’re all here, for one dead girl, in a city like this, she can’t be the only one?”

  Rita whispered something to the Commander before continuing to speak, how his body ran cold. “ Denise Hillshire was an informant in a critical case.”

  “ That‘s what I thought.” Harkness joined in the conversation.

  Before she proceed to say more, she closed the doors to the conference room, whatever needed to be said was for their ears only. “ Coming here today isn’t easy for me, some of my colleagues actually tried to talk me out of it. But, I can’t continue to let this happen.” She took a deep breath and proceed to confess and come clean. “ How many of you are familiar with Hector Pardo.” Every detective in that room knew the name well. Hector Pardo was the drug king of NY, a man that spat in the face of the law and continued to peddle his drugs to the youth of the city. A man with a long rap sheet that made Satan himself jealous. “ I can tell by the looks on your face that you know him well. In the past two years Hector's business has grown and expanded, he doesn’t deal with just drugs anymore. He’s reached into internet porn, credit card scams and prostitution .” The light in Klecko's head went on, it was all starting to make sense. “ While I was undercover I got word from some of the girls that Hector was peddling in some very young product into the N.Y streets.” Young Product was just a nice way of saying he was smuggling in child sex slaves.

  “ Mother fucker.” Harkness said from under his breath, him being a father, this type of issue hit home.

  Vazquez continued. “ Some people testified that he sold the product to the highest bidder in black market auctions, to some wealthy investors in New York, we‘re talking about wall street players, even some Senators.” Everyone in that room began to listen. “ I needed to find people who could get me close into Hector Pardo’s dealings, it took me sometime, but I did. The first one was Denise Hillshire and then four others came forward,” Her eyes seem to drift back to the days of old. “ Each one wanting to end what they were seeing, girls as young as six being sold like a piece of meat, being forced to take drugs just to get them through the day, I can go on, but it just get’s worst.”

  “ You have four moles within the walls inside Hector’s kingdom and you still couldn’t bring him down?” One pissed off female detective said in the back room.

  “ Someone‘s word won‘t hold up in court, not against Pardo, we need evidence and every time we came in inches from having it, it would slip through my grasp, making Pardo a free man.” She pulled out a photo of the dead body that had a note pinned on it. “ This is what happened to Denise and she isn’t the first.” Klecko's ears perked. “ Two other informants turned up dead, one in Jersey and another in Harlem. Headless and with a sadistic little poem left on them. For some of you who don’t know, Hector likes to think of himself as a true to life poet, he pretends to feel what others don't, it also works as a taunt to us, letting us know we'll never be able
to touch him.”

  Klecko’s mind began to race, why would his blackmailer mimic the same style left by Hector Pardo, why would he go to these lengths. It made no sense, the heat wouldn’t be directed at him, everyone would be watching Pardo. He could feel the tension slowly break away, in the mist of the dark corner he could see light, he had no time to let his mind wander, he needed to stay focus in the here and now. “ So, Hector made out your informants, that still doesn’t answer why you’re here.” Klecko said to Vazquez. “ This is Vice or DEA problem, not homicide, you want to share something with the group Detective?” He knew the reason for her showing up here so unannounced, he could see the paranoia in her eyes, but he wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth.

  “ I. .” She just shook her head, it was hard for a cop to admit it out in the open, cops had to watch one another officers back, you never bad mouthed or spread rumors, It was an unspoken rule. “ I can’t trust the people I work with, I have a feeling they’ve been compromised.” Words that made any cop uneasy.

  “ And you turn to us, why not go to internal affairs, Detective ?” Klecko pressed on, acting like a cop, anything to keep up appearance.

  “ I convinced her not to, Lieutenant ,” Angelo said to him, protecting her at the first sign of danger, Rita was well connected. “ Ms. Vazquez is a damn good cop, she’s proven it with her record, she’s a bit like you.” Everyone exchanged stares. “ I advise her to keep her suspicions to herself, this group and no one else, let me advise anyone of you, if you dare breathe a word of Ms. Vazquez true nature of being here I will end you myself.” The tension set quickly in the room.

  “ So, we’re pretending she’s not here because she can’t trust her own team and we’re not helping her with the pending Pardo case?” Klecko asked.

  “ Bingo.” Said the commander. “ This is all under the table, if anyone ask, she’s lending her assistants to a new case up in the East Side of the Bronx, asked for by Klekco and Harkness themselves.” They both stared at each other. “ Your names alone is enough to stop anyone from asking questions dead in their tracks.”

  “ What happens to me if everything goes to shit.” Harkness raised his voice, so quickly to protect his career from any backlash.

  “ Then,” He looked over at Vazquez. “ Ms. Vazquez ass will be in hot water, with mine included.”

  “ We won’t let it come to that.” Klecko spoke up. “ We’re all on the same team.” Those words alone made Klecko seem like the champion and savior people always perceived to believe, it also made Harkness seem as the narcissist type who was only looking after his own ass, he'd win no brownie points with the crew or Vazquez over it. Judging by the smiling faces around the room it worked better than he had hoped for. Harkness was crumpling the paper in his hand, losing face was a bruise to his ego.

  “ I won’t take up your time, I won’t take up your resource, I just need time to figure out who I can trust.” Rita turned to Klecko. “I didn’t know who else to turn to. I know you’re good at what you do, I’ve seen your rap sheet, you have a knack for catching the guilty.” She didn’t know the half of it. “ The team you command is at the top, you’re the only group I can trust right now. I need to catch the bastard that killed her.” The bastard was a few feet away from her. “ I need to know if you‘re behind me, sir.”

  Being on a case that he was the prime suspect of, how divine was that. Hector Pardo was going to take the fall for the death he committed. “ Detective, you don’t have to ask twice. We’ll help you catch this bastard and hang him for you, count on it.”

  Chapter 45

  PROTECTING ME FROM WHAT I WANT

  Klecko clocked out of work at nine, Vazquez was still pouring through the files running down leads with Harkness, who was hoping to win some brownie points with Vazquez and the commander when review time came around. As for himself he acted the most interested as he could, through out the day, but his mind was preoccupied with other matters than trying to boost his career. So he had to call it a night.

  “ That's a Boston Cop for ya, feels a bit under the weather has to act like a girl on her period.” Harkness poured on as Klecko grabbed his things. Vazquez didn't seem to listen as she was huddle in her corner rifling through the papers.

  He returned home to find it as he left it, no more surprises left from his blackmailer, the hello kitty phone safely tucked in a shoebox under his bed, he checked to see if anyone had called, no such luck.

  He laid in his bed still in his work clothes, fumbling with everything that had happen, asking himself why would his blackmailer dump the body he promised to get rid of in front of a playground, what was the angle, was he sending him a message that he could do as he pleased, or perhaps show how easily he could end his entire life at drop of a hat. “ Is that it?” He mumbled to himself. Only to have another fact dawn upon, perhaps his blackmailer was teaching him a lesson, one of picking his pray more carefully. “ That's it, isn't it, you sick mother fucker?” Klecko shouted before he kicked his foot at the banister of his bed.“ I won’t screw up next time.” He was shocked to hear himself say that. You’d think after this scare, he would hang his shoes and just find a way out of this storm, instead deep inside he hungered for one more hunt.

  The Hello Kitty cell phone began to ring from underneath his bed, he wasted no time in dropping to the floor answering the call. “ I get off work and you call, that isn‘t a coincidence is it?!” Klecko said

  His blackmailer distorted voice chuckled.“ Anything interesting happen at work today ? ” His blackmailer asked him.

  “ Headless girl turns up in a playground in Harlem, “ Klecko walked over to his bedroom windows and began to bring down the shades. “ a nice little poem attached to her dead cold body, nicely done. “ Klecko applauded nice and loud for him to hear.

  His blackmailer chuckled once more. “ I need to make sure you got the lesson, did you?”

  “ Don’t kill like a fool, learn your victims inside out?” He said.

  This time it was his blackmailer to applaud. “ Bravo.” He proudly said. “ You study them inside out, carefully as can be, then you move forward.”

  “ You could have gotten ridden of the body, then tell me who she was?” Klecko suggested.

  “ No, then you wouldn’t have gotten the lesson. Besides, aiding in such way would only keep you from finding the answers you're looking for.”

  Klecko was jolted back by that.“ What answer am I looking for ?”

  “ When was the sleepless nights, detective?” Klecko refused to answer. “Speak detective.”

  “ The Casey Miller investigation.” Klecko bitterly spit out.

  “ That’s right,” His blackmailer’s voice seem to smooth as he heard the words come out. “ and what do you remember about that case detective?”

  “ Just an endless loop of nothing, girl runs away from her family, end of story.” He could tell his words seem to upset his blackmailer, his silence was too eerie to bare.

  “ Is that so.” He coldly said.

  “ So, where do I go from here?” Klecko took a seat at the edge of his bed. “ What's this stupid little game we're playing?”

  “ A game you say.” His blackmailer voice deepen. “ I promised to keep you safe, unharmed. If you did things the way you wanted, you wouldn’t be standing in your bedroom tonight, you’d be locked behind bars, your future down the drain, your name dragged to the mud. “ A deep sigh. “ You have a lot to learn.”

  Klecko scoffed at the blackmailer, he knew what he was doing, he wanted to force feed him lies of hope, so that in some sad twisted way he would have control over him. “ I don’t need your help, I know how to stay off the radar. ”

  “ Is that why you killed an informant from VICE?” Klecko was silent, the blackmailer had made his point. “ You’re too green, you’re killing anything you can find, but if you don’t watch out that will be your down fall.”

  “ But, I wanted her.” Klecko spoke to the blackmailer like a child throwi
ng a tantrum in the middle of the store. “ No one else.”

  “ I was like you once, killing anything I could find, I was a wild animal looking for his next prey. Anything to silence that dark urge inside me that wouldn’t let me sleep.” Klecko fell back into the bed as his blackmailer spoke. “ No matter how many lives you take, it will never be enough, you need to find a purpose, or you risk being a wild animal that needs to be put down.” He sighed heavily. “ You were looking for answers Detective, but you don’t even remember it, you’re lost, you need to find focus back into your life.”

  “ What are you?” Klecko asked.

  “ Think of me as your guardian angel, Detective, I’m going to show you the road that leads to many ends, where you go it’s up to you.”

  How God like those words sounded to him at that moment. “ And this Pardo thing, how do I deal with it?”

  “ You won’t be alone, trust me.” His Guardian spoke calmly to him. “ Get some sleep Detective, tomorrow is another day.”

  His guardian was gone, Klecko was left alone once more, he curled up into a ball, holding the phone to his ear, hoping to hear his guardian speak once more. “ What answer am I looking for?” Klecko asked himself as he slowly drifted to sleep.

  Chapter 46

  A Dog Without A Chain

  Three Years Ago

  “ I told you to keep that urge quiet, boy.” The prophet looked at his disciple with shame, as he stood there cover in blood of the poor mother he had gutted. “ You came to me, you sought a way to free yourself from that demon.”

  “ It pounds in my skull, I needed to stop it.” The disciple stood over the dead woman, still slumped on top of her, refusing to stop bathing in the blood of his prey. “ All you do is talk, you give me chores, but none of it does anything.”

  “ There's no doubt in my mind, brother, that you are my test.” The prophet walked closer, reaching out to his disciple. “ You enjoy what you have done tonight, but let it be the last, it's time I walked you down the path to your freedom.”