Heartbeats of a Killer

by Michael Merson

  He stopped and placed his right hand on the split rail fence that lined one side of the trail to rest and catch his breath. After a few minutes, he began once again, and before long, he found the crime scene. Yellow police tape still blocked it off from the trail. Jaxson bent down and ducked under the tape, and after he took about twenty steps into the dense brush, he found the murder site.

  Jaxson stood there as an eerie feeling swept past him that seemed to be carried by the westerly winds. The ground was still disturbed, and dark dried blood stained the pine needles that littered the ground. Jaxson opened the file and began reading Detective Axel’s report concerning his theory on what had taken place and when he was finished, he turned to the photos that accompanied the report that had been sent to the bureau.

  He tied you up to control you. It wasn’t part of his fantasy. But how did he first approach you? How did he get close to you? A ruse? Did he trick you into allowing him to get near you? No, you weren’t afraid of him, were you? You trusted him, didn’t you? Who would you trust? Someone you knew or someone else? What is this ‘X’ imprint from the knife? Jaxson thought to himself.

  ***

  It was later in the afternoon by the time Gary and Axel reached the office at about the same time. The two found Lt. Wilson standing at the entrance to Axel’s cubicle. The look on his face hinted to the two seasoned detectives that something was up.

  “Axel, I need you to do something for me,” Wilson said as the detective walked by him and started to sit down in his chair. Axel couldn’t imagine what he was about to be asked to do, but he knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  “What’s up?” He asked.

  “The press needs a statement, and it came down from the chief’s office that you’re going to give it. I told them I’d do it, but they said the press needs a fresh new face to discuss the PPK killings. Personally, I think the higher-ups believe by putting you out to the public it will get the media and others off the chief’s back,” Wilson said as he watched Axel turn his chair around while shaking his head no.

  “Don’t shake your head ‘no’ because you gotta do it like it or not,” Wilson ordered.

  “Okay…when?” Axel asked as he threw his pen across the desk in frustration.

  “I think they’re already downstairs waiting for you.”

  “What?! I thought I’d at least have some time to think of something to say.”

  “Damn! That’s not right,” Gary protested.

  “Move!” Axel said as he pushed past Gary toward the bathroom.

  “Hey, don’t get pissed at me. The Lieutenant is the one throwing you under the bus. Not me,” Gary said in protest and then looked at Lt. Wilson.

  “You’re lucky I didn’t have you do it,” Wilson said to Gary as he turned back toward his office.

  “You and I both know that you knew better than that. I’d just embarrass the department. By the way, a Mr. Lambert may call with a complaint,” Gary allowed the last sentence to slip out quietly as Wilson was shutting his office door.

  Axel stood in front of the mirror in the men’s bathroom, looking at his hair and teeth. He knew that he needed to make sure that he looked presentable in front of the camera. A few minutes later, Axel walked out of the bathroom toward the elevator with Gary right behind him.

  “Why are you coming?” Axel asked.

  “Well, the way I see it is when you fall on your face, someone needs to be there to pick you up,” Gary answered with a smile.

  “I won’t fall on my face,” Axel stated as he straightened his suit.

  “Who do you think will be here to interview you?” Gary asked.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t really care who it is.”

  “Hey, maybe it’s that fox from Channel Twelve News.”

  “I doubt it, and who uses the word ‘fox’ anymore?”

  “I do, and Amanda Crosse has been the reporter covering the killings since they began. It'll probably be her. Wow, are you lucky or what? Carol thinks Ms. Crosse goes commando,” Gary said excitedly.

  “Commando? What does that mean?” Axel asked.

  “It means that she doesn’t wear any underwear. You really should read a men’s magazine occasionally. I don’t believe you sometimes, Axel. It’s like you live in a bubble. No contact with the outside world and no women in your life,” Gary said just as the elevator doors opened.

  The news team was setting up their equipment in front of a large Colorado Springs Police Department badge painted on the wall. It was a familiar spot where other members of the department had addressed the city via the local news. An attractive woman standing alone looking into a compact mirror caught the detective’s eye. She wore a flattering pantsuit that fit tight over her body. She stood probably five-foot-four and couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred and twenty pounds. Axel recognized her as Amanda Crosse.

  Gary was right, Axel thought to himself just as Gary nudged his arm and winked at him.

  The two detectives walked in and stood next to the wall. They notified a cameraman that they were ready to begin the press conference. Ms. Crosse, after being informed of the detectives’ arrival, made her way past the news crew and walked up to the two of them.

  “Hi, my name is Amanda Crosse, and you must be Detective Axel Frost.”

  “Hello, my name is Detective Gary Portland,” Gary interjected as he moved around and in front of Axel, smiling at the reporter. Axel thought Gary looked a little like a little ten-year-old on Christmas morning.

  Amanda turned her attention from Axel and reached out to shake Gary’s hand. Axel did not stop his partner. He just smiled at Amanda from behind Gary’s shoulder.

  “Hello, and yes I’m Detective Frost. Gary, here is my partner. Are you going to be conducting the interview?” Axel asked as he stepped back in front of Gary.

  “Yes, I am. I hope that I’m not keeping you from something more important,” Amanda answered as she looked at the detective.

  Axel escorted the reporter over to a bench where the two of them discussed the questions Amanda was going to be asking. As they talked, Axel had trouble concentrating on what she was saying because he was drawn toward her beautiful face and friendly smile. He noticed that her blouse was unbuttoned near the top, and her cleavage was partially exposed. Axel tried not to look but found it a bit difficult. He wondered if she left a few buttons undone on purpose to distract the person she was interviewing.

  Axel politely listened to her as she went over each question. Some of the questions she had prepared for him, he told her he couldn’t answer, and although she disagreed, she accepted his request and removed those questions from the interview. The reporter then reached up with both hands and placed a microphone on Axel’s shirt collar, straightened it, and then ran her hands down the front of his coat. He thanked her, smiled, and she smiled back, which brought about an awkward silence between the two of them.

  “Amanda, can you come over here a minute?” One of the crew members asked from across the room.

  When Amanda walked over to the crew member, Gary stepped forward and stood next to Axel. He was about to say something when suddenly Amanda dropped her papers and bent over to pick them up.

  “See that? She definitely goes commando,” Gary said quietly. Axel shook his head and grinned sheepishly.

  “Seriously, there were no panty lines on that ass. I know you noticed,” Gary said.

  Before Axel could respond, he was motioned over by Amanda. The two stood in front of the camera as the spotlight came on, and the interview began.

  Axel was in front of the camera for less than five minutes, and Amanda stayed right on script with the questions she and Axel had discussed. When they were finished Axel returned to where Gary was sitting on the bench leaning against the wall behind him with his arms folded.

  “Man, why didn’t you look at me? I was trying to get your attention. You had a huge piece of something between your teeth,” Gary said.

  Axel was about to respond when sudden
ly Amanda Crosse walked over. She smiled at Axel and asked him if he thought the interview went well. Gary, in his usual fashion, made a few comments about how he felt the interview went, and what he would have liked to have seen and heard.

  “Well, thank you for your thoughts, Detective Portland, but I was really interested in how Detective Frost thought the interview went,” Amanda said as she removed the microphone from Axel’s shirt.

  “Amanda, we got to go,” a crew member said.

  “Maybe we could get together for coffee or something and talk about the interview?”

  “Like a date? Where exactly would you be taking my partner, Ms. Crosse?” Gary asked in a parental tone.

  “Well, wherever he’d like to go,” she answered.

  Axel, seeing how uncomfortable Amanda was becoming, gently took her by the arm and led her away from Gary who stood there, smiling.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Crosse. My partner has an odd sense of humor, but he means well.”

  “Amanda, call me Amanda,” she insisted.

  “Okay. Amanda, it is, but only if you call me Axel.”

  “It’s a deal, Axel.”

  “Where shall we go?” He asked.

  “I asked you out for coffee, so where would you like to go?” Amanda asked.

  “You know if it’s later in the evening why don’t we make it dinner? And I like steak,” Axel answered.

  “Well so do I. How about we go to Mike’s Steak House?”

  “I’ll see you there at say, eight o’clock?” Axel suggested.

  “Eight it is,” she responded.

  He watched as she walked out of the building and over to her van where the rest of her crew had assembled. Watching from the window, he noticed the entire group turn around and look back toward him and then start laughing. Amanda shook her head and quickly hurried the rest of them into the van.

  “Nice ass. I bet you could bounce a quarter off it.”

  Axel rolled his eyes and turned to Gary, who had quietly walked up behind him.

  “I wasn’t staring at her ass.”

  “Neither was I. I was talking about yours,” Gary declared, which made both of them laugh.

  Chapter 14

  “I can’t believe what happened. So many people. I couldn’t have planned it any better. She was just sitting there and wham her brains are on the other side of the car. No one saw anything!” Jeramiah said excitedly as he drove away from the park. He had stayed there for hours watching it all.

  Jeramiah had made sure to arrive at the park early in the hopes of getting to her first. He knew he had to eliminate any possible witnesses, and today the whole set of circumstances worked out perfectly. The chances of getting caught were high, but if that woman had seen him the other night, she could have identified him.

  She needed to die, Jeramiah thought to himself.

  Jeramiah had long ago decided that prison wasn’t an option. He would never go. He slammed his hand hard against the steering wheel at the mere thought of going to prison for the rest of his life. After the witness was killed, Jeramiah had been able to stay in the large crowd near the sidewalk, and then after the officers started to gather, he walked away without anyone trying to stop him.

  “It was so invigorating,” he said out loud.

  Jeramiah now began to smile as he thought about his victims and how he felt when the killing was complete. After killing his first victim so easily he had transformed into a man on a mission. He believed that there were many others like him in the world. They were the ones who were constantly ridiculed and made fun of by the popular, pretty ones in society. If they weren’t pointing or laughing in his face, then they were doing it behind his back.

  The constant shaming and the lies they spread hurt people. Making fun of him and putting him down made them feel better about themselves. Jeramiah had created a way of stopping them, those women, and their looks and lies.

  Bitches, he thought.

  He may never win their hearts through the power of love, but he would have them by any means necessary.

  He hated women. Jeramiah killed them because he believed that they humiliated him and others like him first as a boy, and later as a man. Now, it was time to return the hurt.

  Jeramiah drove through the mountain pass, thinking about the day’s events. The large rocks on both sides of the road tightened the closer he got to his house. After twenty minutes, he pulled off from the highway onto the gravel road that led to his hidden driveway. For Jeramiah, there were no neighbors to wave to, no pets running out to greet him, and no wife standing at the door wearing an apron asking how his day went.

  After parking his SUV, he walked into the large foyer of his home and removed his shoes. He then walked into the living room, sat in the recliner, and turned on the television. He was tired. It had been a stressful day, although it had ended nicely. He closed his eyes, and before long, he fell asleep.

  It was about seven o’clock when the music that seemed to blare from the television speakers woke the sleeping giant. There in front of him on the television, he saw the all too familiar image of the hunter on the screen. The hunter had been tracking Jeramiah for the past few months, and now Jeramiah sat just a few feet away looking at him. Jeramiah smiled as he listened to the hunter answer pointless questions about him.

  The smile soon faded, and Jeramiah became angry as the woman reporter referred to him as being insane or psychotic. She was humiliating the killer in front of thousands of viewers. Her accusations made Jeramiah furious, and he sat forward in the recliner, watching and listening to every word she said.

  As the interview closed, Jeramiah looked at the reporter and thought about what it would be like to have her in the woods or in his room. His mind began to squirm over the different possibilities, and he smiled at the fantasy that was now playing out in his mind. Suddenly from across the room, Jeramiah heard his father.

  “Why do you watch this shit, boy?”

  “I don’t know,” Jeramiah answered quickly.

  “You like to look at that girl on television, don’t you, boy? Get it out of your head!”

  “Yes, father,” Jeramiah said as he stood and excused himself from the room. He quickly tired of his father’s conversations, all of which eventually led to arguments. Jeramiah decided to end this one before it started by removing himself from the room.

  As he left the living room, Jeramiah listened to his father turn his attention and frustrations to his mother.

  “Don’t tell me how to speak to my son. I’ll say whatever I want!” Jeramiah heard as he reached the top of the stairs.

  In his room, Jeramiah closed his door softly and sat at the edge of his bed. He reached over quietly and slid the drawer to his nightstand open. He then turned and looked around the room to ensure that he was alone. He slowly removed the knife from its resting spot. The sun was going down, but a few rays of light from his west window peaked through and danced across the blade. He turned it back and forth, so the glare passed over his eyes.

  As he held the knife, he felt unstoppable. The power to end a life with this knife was personal, powerful, and exhilarating. Even his own father was useless against him when Jeramiah held it. Jeramiah had bought the knife at a sporting goods store and made some slight changes to it to make it his.

  Jeramiah had been lying on his bed for an hour with his knife in hand fantasizing about the reporter when suddenly he heard his father’s voice calling to him from downstairs. He quickly sat up and put the knife back in the drawer from where it once came from.

  Maybe I’ll go for a drive into the city. Maybe I’ll pay her a visit, he thought to himself.

  Chapter 15

  Axel and Gary worked in their cubicles after most people went home. For them, the day had been an eventful one. Both the detectives had completed their continuation reports concerning the investigations involving Tammy Johnson and Sharon Douglas. Axel took longer than usual dictating his report. Gary kept sending emails with pictures of Amanda Crosse in t
hem that he had retrieved from the station’s website. One of which Gary spent considerable time on by cutting her head out and placing it over the head of a soldier standing in the familiar camouflage uniform with the word "commando" written underneath it.

  As they rode the elevator to the main lobby, the friends talked about what they would be doing the next day. As the doors opened the two exited and walked outside toward their cars in the parking garage. Axel was unlocking his door when he heard Gary yelling from across the lot.

  “Is there a chance you’ll find out if she’s a true American Hero?”

  Axel smiled, shrugged Gary’s comment off, and climbed into his car.

  “Really, brother, I hope you have a good time tonight,” Gary yelled again from his car as he drove past his friend. Axel turned, smiled, and waved to his partner.

  On the way home, he started to worry about his dinner plans with Amanda. He had been too busy during the day to think about it. She was a beautiful woman, and when was the last time he had been on a date? His hands started to sweat as he drove. Butterflies took to flight in the bowels of his stomach as he thought about her face, her eyes, her hair, and her body, of course.

  “Hey, you’ve dated pretty women in the past. She’s no different than the rest of them. Now calm down.” Axel said, reassuring himself.

  When he pulled into the driveway, he saw Matt in his front yard, adjusting a sprinkler that was attached to a green hose.

  “Are you ever going to install that underground sprinkler system for your lawn? I mean moving that hose around all day must get tiring after a while,” Axel yelled from his front door.

  “Jill asks me that same thing every summer. Have you ever installed one?” Matt yelled back.

  “No. Mine came with the house. That’s one of the few things I negotiated into the price before closing the deal. Maybe you should’ve thought about that when you bought your house,” Axel added with a slight laugh.