The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  "Snap out"

  "I can't let go"

  "Just like watching a movie"

  "What the..."

  "Man in black is..."

  "What lies behind"

  "Colorful Mr Zhu"

  "Break her out"

  "Trusting you"

  "Worst nightmare"

  "Fifty mud pots"

  "This is Will"

  “What have you done, mother!”

  "Number one suspect"

  “Welcome, Ronald Casity”

  “You see the dilemma”

  “The Message”

  “Like your father”

  “I know you’re there”

  “I am…”

  The Mind Hunter

  “I AM…”

  Mir Quadri

  Copyright © 2015 Mir Quadri

  All rights reserved.

  Mom, this one’s for you!

  “SNAP OUT”

  ***

  ***

  It was never as easy as it had seemed - driving in the thick dark alley in the time of the wolves. The car splashed the water sideways as the rain violently showered on the windshield and the wipers fought it out. This was a dark and cold night. An old man was driving this car at full speed in the middle of the woods. The radio was on and in full volume. There was a person sitting in the back seat, wearing a grey colored outback hat, staring at this old man, as if he was trying to pick up some of his driving skills. It was raining so heavily that even with the car wipers turned on and at full speed, there was hardly any visibility.

  “The storm is expected to be devastating in the southern part of Miami and a code red hurricane warning is issued to all people living around the area” said the man with a thick voice on the radio.

  “Now he tells me!” yelled the old man while pulling over to an unpaved road. In about two hundred feet, he parked the car in front of a big house. Looking at the heavy rain, he got out of the car with his right hand covering his bald head. On seeing the driver get out, the man sitting in the back seat followed him, walked some distance and continued his gazing spree.

  “In this line of work, you got to do everything yourself” complained the old man as he popped the trunk and took out a big iron rod from the trunk.

  “I am getting too old for this job” he ranted. He then took out a small bottle of whiskey from his back pocket and drank from it. He then shut the car trunk and walked towards the house door as the other man followed behind him.

  The old man took out a keychain from his side pocket and started shuffling some keys around. He stopped as he got to the red colored key.

  “Alright,” he said as he tried to put the red colored key into the lock when suddenly it slipped through his fingers.

  “Damn it!” and he bent down to pick up his keys from the puddle of stagnant rain water. As he looked through the water to find anything that is of red colored key like structure, he suddenly saw a flash of a young girl, laughing loudly as she ran, thrashing the stagnant rain water with her bare feet.

  “Catch me, daddy” she said. “Fiona…wait…you’ll hurt yourself” said the old man, while he ran after her.

  Just then, an unknown voice screamed through the sky — “come back, Jon. You’re at the door. I say come back”

  On hearing this, the old man came back to the scene at the door. He was breathing heavily as he looked around anxiously to see where he was, and how for a moment, he had gotten lost with that little girl. On realizing that he was back to his senses, he slowly proceeded to pick up the keys. He then inserted the key in the door lock, unlocked the door and got in. The other guy followed him into the house, silently.

  The old man walked through the living room as he turned the lights on. It was a big house, with huge black colored couches arranged to form a perfect circle in the front. The floor, made up of brown colored shining marble, with elegant and expensive lamps formed the outer layer of this circularly structured massive house. A big glass aquarium to the right overlooked a huge fireplace. A gigantic round shaped glass table held a bottle of expensive champagne with empty glasses beside it. There was a round, metallic brown, shining staircase to the left. The old man walked to the couch and sat in one corner, still carrying the metal rod with him, while the other guy walked around and sat in the couch opposite to his. The thunders were loud and one could see the bright shade of white through the window pane every few seconds, as the bursting sound of thunders crushed the ears.

  The old man jarred open the bottle and poured some champagne into an empty glass. He then took out the remote control from the bottom shelf of the glass table and turned the music on — Classical Opera. He took a sip from the glass while closing his eyes, and started to sing along.

  Suddenly, he saw a flash of him dancing with a beautiful woman in a group. The woman was wearing a bridal gown and the old man, who seemed very young at the time, was enjoying dancing with her.

  “Come back, Jon. You’re in the house now. I say come back” an unknown voice screamed.

  The old man came back to the scene of the house while the music still played in the background. He started crying loudly as he threw the glass of champagne away.

  “I still miss you!” he said as he got up and went up the glass stairs. The other guy followed him upstairs.

  The old man went into the bedroom and went straight to the closet, which had a mirror on the front. He then looked at himself in the mirror while the other guy stood behind him, looking at him anxiously. He opened the closet and pushed the hung clothes to the left.

  There was a woman, with both hands and feet tied, mouth taped, stuffed to the corner, crying to let go. The old man pulled out a metal rod from the top shelve of the closet.

  “It still hurts, I still miss her” he said angrily as he raised the metal rod and smashed her head thrice with it as the other guy, shocked, stared from behind. The woman died instantly as her blood channeled out of the closet.

  The old man then, calmly and clinically, held the dead woman by her feet and started dragging her body out. As he dragged the body down the stairs, spurts of blood gushed out of her head, leaving behind a puddle of blood stains across the floor. The other guy followed him out the door and continued watching silently.

  The old man continued to drag the body behind the house, towards an open grave, which seemed to have been dug recently. The grave was half filled with water from the rain. The old man slowly pushed the dead body into the grave as the water splashed out. He then started pushing the mud into the grave through his bare hands.

  At this moment, the other guy, who was watching the old man all this while, screamed loudly “Snap Out”.

  Suddenly, there was a loud howling sound of an elk bellowing in a forest. The old man looked around and found a twister, a big twister, which appeared from nowhere, coming furiously towards him, destroying everything into it’s circumference.

  “What the hell!” screamed the old man as the twister took him, the other guy, the house and everything present, and shredded them to pieces.

  ***

  The ‘other guy’ was actually sitting in a conference room with the ‘old man’. He was a tall, willowy, blonde haired, brown eyed, rugged looking, mid forties, White Irish man. His eyes were deep and tired as if he had not slept in ages. He was holding the old man’s hands with their eyes closed.

  “On a count of three, you’ll open your eyes” said the ‘other guy’ as he continued “one, two and three”

  Both the old man and the other guy opened their eyes.

  “How do you feel?” asked the ‘other guy’

  “What the hell was that? What happened to me?”
enquired the old man as he looked around in the room.

  “Look at me, come on, look at me” asked the ‘other guy’ as he blew a small torchlight into the old man’s eyes and checked his pupils. He then raised three fingers. “Alright, can you tell me how many fingers I have up?” he asked.

  “What…you have three fingers up. I am not blind. What the hell is going on?” asked the old man impatiently.

  “Great, well Mr Jon Hendricks, you have been subjected to a Hunting Session by the authorization of the District Attorney. And I, William Ross, hereby confirm that you’re completely back now” he said as he turned around to the camera at the corner of the room and continued “and this completes my Hunting Session. He is all yours.”

  Suddenly, a bunch of policemen stormed into the room. Amongst the crowd emerged a White, slim, long haired, brunette, Special Agent Evelyn Monroe.

  “Alright, so?” she asked.

  “He is guilty” answered Will.

  As cops started to put handcuffs onto Mr Hendricks, he screamed “what nonsense, I did not do anything!”

  William recollected the event he had just witnessed in his mind— “you will find the body in the south entrance of his house. As he was dragging the body down the staircase, he was breathing heavily and I saw some saliva drop from his mouth onto the poor woman’s hands, cheeks and ears. You can find his DNA all over her” said Will.

  “That’s great. Anything else?” asked Evelyn.

  “Yeah, the best part - while he was putting the mud into the grave with his bare hands, his gold ring slipped off his index finger and fell into the grave. You can find that in there too” said William as he got up and started walking towards the exit door.

  Mr Hendricks looked at his index finger and realized that he was indeed missing the ring. The impression of that ring was still very visible on his finger.

  “Damn it!” he said in disappointment.

  Just as William was about to exit the door, he turned around to look at Mr Hendricks and said “I am sorry about the loss of your daughter, Fiona, I believe was her name. And your wife, who’s name I could not get” and walked out the door.

  Will walked out to the building patio. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and lighted it. He then looked down at the street while he took out his wallet from his back pocket. He opened the wallet and looked at the picture of his daughter and wife, who were murdered almost ten years ago. Their bodies were found in his house garage, and the murderers were still at large. As he continued to look at their picture through his watery eyes, he got interrupted by Evelyn.

  “Good job, Will. I just spoke to the officer onsite. We found the body and the ring just like you said. The body is sent for postmortem and I am sure we will find his DNA on her” she said. Will didn’t respond. He put his wallet back in his pocket as he continued to gaze down the street.

  “How are you holding up?” she asked.

  “What?” Will asked back.

  “I asked how’re you holding up? I realize that tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of… your family passing away” she explained.

  “You mean how I feel about not catching the murderer who murdered my family ten years ago? Well, I feel fine” he responded sarcastically.

  “You know I didn’t mean that” she clarified and continued “I am worried about you, Will. You don’t look good. Have you been sleeping lately?”

  “Well, I just can’t believe it’s been ten years already. Why don’t you put me on that case?” he asked.

  “It’s not my call. You know that already. I requested Harry but he feels, and I must say I agree, that it’s better you don’t work on that case” she responded.

  “You don’t understand, I need to be on that case. I need to know what’s the progress. I need to know if they found anything new. This is personal” he explained.

  “That’s exactly why you should not be on the case. Because it’s personal” she replied. “Anyways, I have told Harry to let us know as soon as they have something new. Don’t worry, we will find the murderers soon” she assured him.

  “Yeah, sure” Will responded as he threw the cigarette onto the road from the patio. The cigarette went tumbling down, first hitting the black window pane on the first floor, and then getting stuck into one of it’s beams. “I got to go now” he said as he turned around and started walking inside.

  “You know you have a big meeting tomorrow morning at nine, right?” Evelyn asked.

  “What meeting?”

  “I think I told you already. The FBI Director, Chief of Police and the Chief of Internal Affairs are going to meet you tomorrow. I think we have gotten some negative publicity recently and they would like to understand how you do, whatever you do” Evelyn said.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot. Yes, I will be there” he said and he walked through the door.

  “I CAN’T LET GO”

  “In a very short span, William Ross, Will as his friends call him, has become the new world super hero. Some call him a miracle worker, while others are doubtful about his actions and call him a ruthless and evil Mind Hunter, who hunts people’s minds for fun. Though the police or Mr Ross have never come out in the open and describe the entire process, it is believed that in order to perform the so called ‘Hunting Session’, Ross has to put the suspect’s life at risk, which some people deem as inhuman.Yet, you cannot take away his contributions in helping the police solve an astonishing forty nine cases which were considered unsolvable” said the black haired, British woman on the TV.

  Adjacent to the TV was a glass table that had a few empty cans of beer, a box of some leftovers pizza slices with dropped food scattered all over it. There were clothes scattered around in the room. The window blinds were all closed and the room was pitch dark. Though there was a huge bed in the room, the man lying down, Will, was sleeping on the floor with the same clothes on him as he was wearing the day before.

  The phone rang and after about seven rings, Will slowly woke up and picked up his mobile phone from his pocket.

  “Hello” he said lazily.

  “I knew it. Do you know what time it is? We were suppose to be at the office by now” said Evelyn anxiously while driving her car.

  “Hey Evelyn. There is still time. There is still an hour to the meeting” countered Will. He looked up his watch which showed 8 AM. He continued “see, I told you, we have an hour”

  “We can’t be late for this meeting Will. We need their approval if you are to perform any other Hunting Sessions. We still have five pending cases that we may need your help with. I am coming to your house to pick you up. Meet me at your door in five minutes” she said and disconnected the call.

  As Evelyn continued to drive, she got a call. She pushed a button on her steering wheel and answered the call “this is Special Agent Evelyn Monroe”

  “Hey, boss, we are at the station. You sure you need all of us?” asked a musky voice of a woman. Her name was Kate Keller.

  “Yes, Kate. The board would like to meet my entire team. So please ask Dan and Sarah to come as well” Evelyn responded.

  “Sure boss, we are all here” confirmed Kate.

  “Listen, did you talk to Harry about Ross’s family murders?” enquired Evelyn.

  “Yes, but he did not give me any information. I think something’s up boss. I saw a lot of excitement in that team. A friend told me that they have found a new lead” said Kate.

  “What new lead?” asked Evelyn.

  “Not sure, boss. He didn’t know. I asked Harry but he refused to share anything with me. He said he would talk to you about it directly” said Kate.

  “Okay. I will talk to him later today. Thanks Kate. We will see you guys soon” said Evelyn and hung up the call. She then pulled into a private driveway and parked her car at a carport. She got out of the car and rushed straight to the door. Just as she was about to ring the door bell, Will opened the door.

  “Hello beautiful” he said while clearing his eyes as if he had just woken up. “Come on
in” he continued.

  “You’re still sleeping? Come on, Will. We have this meeting with them in less than forty five minutes. Put some clothes on and let’s go” she said angrily.

  “Just give me five minutes, I will be right with you out the door” he said as he invited her in. Evelyn got into a dull and dirty living room of the apartment.

  “Well, there is some orange juice in the refrigerator if you’d like which I think is still good to consume” he said while running inside his bedroom.

  “No, I think I am good!” she said as she frowned and looked around the living room. “Please, hurry up” she shouted as she heard the restroom water running.

  She then started walking around in the living room as she saw some pictures of Will with his wife and children. She smiled as she kept looking at these pictures when she noticed a small room adjacent to the bedroom. She proceeded and slowly opened the door. This was a completely dark room with no light whatsoever. She looked for the switchboard on the wall by massaging the wall with her hand. As she continued her search, she found a hanging rope in the middle of the wall. She pulled it down and the light turned on. As she stared at the wall, her eyes popped out as — she saw that the walls of the room were covered by paper clippings, pictures of dead bodies of his family and a few unknown pictures of men under the heading ‘suspects’. There was a big map of ‘United States of America” and some of the locations were marked with a thick black colored marker pen. As Evelyn gazed the walls, astonished, she got interrupted by Will.

  “What are you doing here?” Will asked her angrily.

  “What is all this, Will?” Evelyn retorted.

  “It’s nothing. You should not be here” countered Will as he pulled Evelyn out of the door and shut the door behind her. “I think we are running late, let’s go” he said.