The Perfect Woman

by Abundis, Jesse

  “ Fuck you, man.” Franklin barked at the pale Irish man. “ I’m just saying, I don’t trust a man that don’t do his dealings up front. I mean the shit we delivered for this guy, the people we killed for him, the fucking bodies..” He tried his best not to think of the bodies.

  “ Relax, he paid for the last time.” The Irish man said.

  “ I don’t want to remember that.” Said Franklin.

  The Irish male just rolled his eyes at him. “ I got a feeling this shadow has bigger plans for Pardo and that’s our focking ticket to run for it. When that wet bag comes looking for the truth, we’ll be on a focking on a plane heading to God knows where. So, let’s just do this job and get it over with. Last I looked, we don’t have a lot of options. It’s this or we start peddling dope on the street, like focking amateurs.”

  “ That’s the thing I don’t like, man.” Franklin said to the group. “ He knows we’re desperate, he’s using that to reel us in. It's like he studied us, inside out, he knows how we think, he knows what we'll fucking do.” The four men eyed each other once more. “ This ain't some two-cent hustler we're dealing with, this is the devil himself.”

  Despite all the bickering and scared psyches of everything they witness, they knew they would go through with tonight's plan, after all, desperate men do desperate things when there's nothing else left on the table.

  Chapter 75

  Where It Started

  Painted white fence, perfectly trimmed grass, even a rosy cheek garden gnome, it was like being transported back to a 60’s lifestyle magazine on how the modern family of America needed to look, and to add the cheery on top, there was a icy pitcher of ice tea on the patio. This entire blast of the past was enough to make Karen vomit a little in her mouth, it was new age and the black & white era clashing together, the only outcome could be chaos. “ Please tell me we jumped into some sort of wormhole.” Karen blinked her eyes repeatedly hoping to make the image disappear.

  “ Relax, Detective Hewitt.” Peewee elbow her ribs lightly as Doris Miller came walking into view with her bright sunflower dress, her gardening gloves smudge with dirt, and all the awhile keeping her face dirt free. “ Hope this works,” He whispered softly. “ Doris Miller? “ Peewee held out his fake badge they had bought from their mutual friend a very long time ago, he never wanted to hear the words a high school dropout couldn‘t do anything but flip burgers, because the one that made them their I.D’s was a sheer artist and an amazing burger flipper.

  “ Yes, that’s me, can I help you?” Her voice was crackly and dry, she wipe the sweat from her face, eying them suspiciously.

  “ My name is Detective Kathleen Hewitt and this is my partner Kyle Reese.” Peewee’s fake name was taken from the Terminator movie character, Karen was surprised on how many failed to grasp that off the bat, it was an improvement from his first alias, Bruce Wayne. “ We’re from NYPD homicide, ma’am, we were wondering if we could ask you some questions?”

  “ About what?” Doris body seem to tense up, she grip on to gloves nice and tight.

  “ Is your husband home?” Peewee asked.

  “ No, Mr. Reese, he’s not. My husband’s in Atlanta for a conference.” She pulled her gloves off and tucked them into her pockets. “ Would any of you like a glass of Ice tea?” She headed over to the patio never letting them answer.

  “ Mrs. Miller,” Karen walk behind her. “ we’re here in regards of your daughter's case.”

  Doris chuckled as she glanced at Karen. “ What case would that be, Ms. Hewitt , the one of the love stuck girl that ran and turned her back against her own parents ?”

  Karen could feel those words rang hollow, there was too much forced emotion into it, like it was scripted. “ Love struck, love,” She searched for the meaning of the word with a small chuckle. “ doesn’t mean running away from family and not even giving a call to let you know she’s alright. When’s that last time you’ve heard from her, I mean actually heard her voice.”

  “ That would be,” She paused to pour herself a drink before answering, took her time to take sip, letting sigh of pleasure as it hit the spot. “ over a year, since she went missing, she told us she was going to bible study and never returned.”

  “ What type of person was Casey?” Peewee asked.

  “ She was a shy girl, kept to herself, didn’t have much friends,” The mother stop herself from answering anymore. “ Why are you asking this, did you find something new, something that contradicts what that Detective Klecko found?”

  “ No ma’am.” Karen beat Peewee to the punch.

  “ Then why are you here, detectives, it’s an open and shut case. My daughter got in heat and ran away from us, maybe it is our fault, we pushed God into her life, never let her blossom into the person she wanted to be, never let the girl think for herself without forcing the good book down her throat. You two look young enough to know how that feels.”

  Karen wanted to believe the words coming of Doris mouth, but she couldn’t, there was something else going on, something she was keeping hidden. “ Yes, we do. But I just can’t..”

  “ Can’t what ?” Asked Doris.

  Karen would smile if she could, though that would just ruin the fire she had going, but she loved how her pause made Doris jump to react, she was so quick to cast down anything that should arise, why would a mother do such a thing, Maggie Donner never did. It was as if they were protecting someone. “ Get the feeling we’re missing a big chunk of a story with Casey, like we’re not getting the full picture.” That last part of the sentence must have made Casey’s mother thirsty because she wasn’t shy in chugging down another glass of ice tea. “ you see ma’am, my partner and I are trying to reopen the case.”

  The glass almost slipped from her hand. “ reopen, why?” Her eyes shifted back from Karen to Peewee.

  This was Peewee’s line to step in. “ We’ve gotten another missing girl who disappeared, much like your daughter ma’am, same style, same story. The people on top say we’re just chasing a ghost, but we think otherwise.”

  “ You two figure that my husband and I are the link to reopen the case?” She asked them, waiting for one of them to response, but they just nodded their head at her question. “ Shouldn’t you two ask the detective that was in charge of the case, Brian Klecko, why ask us, we told the police everything.”

  “ Are you sure that’s true ma’am?”

  Doris took offense to Peewee’s accusation. “ Are you two accusing me of something or my husband for that fact!”

  Doris was sweating in this cold weather, feeling the sting of each questioned thrown her way, she was an easy target to grill and play off, but they couldn’t bank that would give them the answers they needed. “ No, ma’am.” Karen stepped in. “ Sweet girl like Casey, it’s hard to think anyone would do a thing to her. That’s the reason we’re so enamored with this case. A love struck girl wouldn’t just run away from her parents, and we can’t wrap our heads around who would want to hurt her, what possible motive could they have to abduct your daughter?”

  “ Ms. Hewitt, sinful people didn’t need a reason to commit sins, they just did.” She took out her gardening gloves, meaning their time was coming to an end. “ My daughter got a taste for sin, something her father and I tried to keep her away from , but there’s only so much as parents we can do.”

  “ You still think she just ran away with prince charming?” Karen could smell the lies, this woman knew something.

  “ I think I’ll give your Lieutenant a call Ms. Hewitt, after all he was the one who opened this case, I’d think he’d be the one coming here asking questions, wouldn't you agree?” That was the dogs bark, warning her intruders if they didn’t leave soon, they would get the bite. “ Now get off my property.” She pointed them out.

  They weren’t going to overstay their welcome, they wasted no time in walking back towards the car. “ Tell me what you felt?” Peewee undid his tie and open the door to his car.

  “ She’s hiding somet
hing, I can feel it in my bones.” Karen could see Doris eying them from afar, waiting for them to vanish before she continued her gardening, anything to clam her nerves from their encounter. “ For now we back down.”

  “ You think she’ll call the cops to find out if we’re the real deal?”

  “ Not a chance,” Karen voice sounded so mellow, knowing the words out of Doris mouth were just a bluff, she wanted them to run away and never come back. “ She’s going to wait for her hubby to come back and tell him everything that happened.”

  “ What could they be hiding?” There was a hint of doubt in Peewee’s voice, he wasn’t on the same ship Karen was on. “ I mean, they’re her parents.”

  “ Just trust me, buddy, they’re hiding something, what it is I don’t know, I just got this vibe.”

  That was good enough for Peewee. “ Let’s get the hell out of here and head back home, maybe it‘s time I dug deeper into this little picture of perfection.”

  Chapter 76

  Water Gate

  It had been awhile since Karen had a pleasant dream, no blood, no death, just a clam gentle breeze in an open filed of green. She could hear somewhere in the distance Peewee’s roaring car, she turned around calmly looking for the road but it all was to bright and shiny to see where it was. She could just feel the smile on her face and the breeze of the air caressing her face. “ Karen wake up!” The garden filled paradise vanished in a haze as she awoke with Peewee hollering like a teenage girl who found the perfect prom dress. He ran towards a daze Karen in bed with the laptop in his hands almost toppling to the floor.

  “ Peewee, if this is porn related, I swear to God, I’m going to kick you in the nuts.” She pouted as her calm paradise escaped her finger tips.

  “ This has to do with Casey,” He jumped on the bed, placing the laptop on her stomach. “ this is something huge, I mean really huge.” He bit on his finger nails, waiting for Karen to read what was on the screen.

  It took a minute to scan through the page. “ Her birth certificate, how is this huge?” She yawned loudly.

  “ What’s the name of her doctor?” He tapped his finger on the screen for Karen to read.

  “ Darren Leaf.” She could see the look in his eyes, he had the answers but he wanted to see if she could take a wild stab in the dark and solve the puzzle.

  “ What year was Casey born?” He shivered with excitement.

  “ 1984,” She was too zombie like to be playing this game. “ Peewee, I don’t get it?”

  Peewee groaned, he wasn’t one to ruin a surprise. “ We’re too focus on Casey, what about the Doctor, we never looked into the man that delivered her into this world, the most important man in the world. There’s just one problem, there’s no way Darren Leaf could have been there to deliver Casey.”

  “ Why’s that?” Karen asked as she wiped the crust from her eyes.

  “ Well, seeing how the doctor was dead two years prior to her being born.” Peewee hopped out of bed holding his hands up in the arm like a champion. “ Click the next page and you’ll see Darren Leaf was killed in a drunk driving accident two years before.”

  That was all it took to fully awaken Karen, she pulled up every screen on the laptop, reviewing every spec of intel Peewee had dug up. “ I knew she was hiding something!”

  “ That you did my friend, that you did.” Peewee came back into the room holding a glass of chocolate milk, the drink every detective earned after a hard day’s work. “Question is, why would you forge a birth certificate?”

  They looked and stared at each other with their eyebrows raised knowing the answer to that. “ Because she’s not your kid to begin with.” They said in sync.

  “ We know for sure they didn’t adopt her.” Peewee took a seat on the edge of the bed. “ This whole cover up smells of something big, but what light does it shine into our killer?”

  “It means Cindy Hall connects us to Casey Miller and I’ll bet you my bottom dollar, that her parents know more then they let on.”

  “ She’s still their kid, some stranger comes to take her away from you, you’d do anything to get them back.” Peewee said to her.

  “ You work so hard to make a lie into the truth, you’d do anything to keep it from crumbling. In their eyes Doris gave birth to her, they’d be damn if they’ll allow anyone to tear that apart.”

  Peewee could see Karen had lived that life, he knew her past would always be a mystery to him, one he would never be able to see without losing a good friend. But her words were enough to show him the history of the tattooed girl who came into his life. “ So, we can assume they can I.D the killer?” Peewee asked

  Karen tilted her head over to him with a smile. “ Without a fucking doubt.” She put the laptop away. “You saw how Doris reacted when we said, there was another missing girl. Something tells me, they met with our charming man and he had all the details on their twisted affairs as well.”

  “ Meaning our killer blackmailed them, you keep my secret and I’ll keep yours.” Karen gave the thumbs up. “ Holy shit. What do we do now?”

  “We wait,” Karen said to him. “ We come at them tomorrow with this evidence, we blackmail Mrs. Miller and make her give us the psycho.”

  Peewee took a hard gulp. “ This is it, we’re at the end.” There would be no looking back for either of them.

  Chapter 77

  Where Is My Mind?

  Words can never describe how steel sounds as it cracks through bone with just sheer force, it’s not like in the movies, there is no big crushing sound, sometimes the only person to hear that impact is the poor fool on the other end of the beating, something Pardo’s men where learning at that very moment as the Irish man caved the pistol on top of some poor coked out thug who wanted to play hero. “ I fucking told you to stay down,” The women on the couch screamed bloody murder as the blood hurled in their face, another tidbit people seemed to forget was that the human body was like a water balloon filled with blood, one nice whack and it was ready to explode all over the place. “ Did ya think I was fucking around, boyo.” His eyes lit with fire as the women shouted Spanish prayers . “ You focking bitches better stop screaming before I put a bullet between your eyes.” He shoved the pistol in the first girls face. These three women were just brought in to entertain the boys, no one ever told them something like this could happen.

  Franklin was busy chopping off the heads of two of Pardo’s top Lieutenants that were hogged tied and gagged. Each time he caved the blade into their neck, the men squealed in horror, which drove the young man insane. “ Shut up, shut up!” He mumbled under his breath as he swung the blade back down into the back of their necks

  The white male and the cholo ran into the bedroom as the rest held down the fort, minutes later they came back with duffel bags of Pardo's dirty money. This was their lottery ticket, one painted with blood and mayhem.

  Franklin was scared out of his wits, he never thought once in his life he would have the balls to decapitate people, but their buyer edge them on with a simple first job, murdering a pedophile, then the stakes were risen with each job that came next, each one paying will, each one sending their souls to hell.

  Franklin didn’t want to be in this slaughter house anymore, he tried to block everything out, but he couldn’t take his eyes off this man swinging the machete, breathing out of control, he could see this man smiling, but he couldn’t believe who it was, this felt like a bad nightmare.

  “ Stop, “ The Irish man screamed at him, “ there not going to get any deader, you bastard!”

  Franklin's hand trembled with the machete held tightly, trying his best to snap out of the daze and let reality back in. “ What are we doing here?”

  “ Getting paid, negro.” The old cholo came walking out the bedroom with two duffel bags full of cash, with the fourth member of the gang behind him as well. “ We got the cash, let’s get the hell out of here.” He let out an mariachi style call.

  “ We hit the mother load, boys!” The Irish
man said as they flashed open the duffel bag of cash. “ Someone’s looking out for us.” He did a quick blessing.

  The next task for them was to vanish, never to be heard from again, neither man knew their names, they were just the white guy, the black, the Mexican and the Irish, so getting in contact would be impossible. Whoever hired these men wanted them long gone, out of the picture for whatever came next, and they weren’t going to argue with the shadow buyer.

  “ What do we do with the putas?” The Cholo said, as he eye the three women on the couch.

  These women felt death’s icy hand touch their cheeks the moment their eyes gaze upon them, they slowly began to crawl off the couch, trying there best to out run their captors. “ Please don't kill us.” One of the girls pleaded.

  Their plead was ignored, the men pulled their handguns and laid waste to the women. They wouldn't stop until the gun ran empty, their bodies jerked as each bullet tore into their bodies.

  Franklin could feel the smile on his face and the tears suppressed behind the corner of his eyes, with the same question hammering into his skull. “ Where is my mind?”

  LIFE IS ALL ABOUT GOODBYES

  Chapter 78

  Two Years Ago To Day

  This was nothing personal, there was no hate towards this man lying in the pool of his own blood, his eyes full of shock, fear, his mouth gagging for air like a dying fish out of water. He was just there. Had he been ten minutes late maybe he would still be alive, able to go home enjoy his meal with his wife, if he had one, sleep in his bed with his dog or cat beside his feet, able to continue his mundane life. Instead he met his fate with the man in the alleyway, the one begging for change, the one with the tragic tale, the sad worn out voice, the one looking for help. “ Anything will do, I haven’t ate in days.” earning his trust, just to get him close enough.