Mangled

by Zachary Prescott

  “Stop this instant!” Mike Rondon ordered while Detective Luke found himself too perplexed to even mutter a word.

  Captain Luke brushed aside the blood forming through his slit lip before staring at his opponent in the face. “I didn’t know Sean… I swear it to you that I didn’t know!”

  He had underestimated the man’s madness but it was in full view now and there was just no telling how far off he had fallen off his rails. Sean Stein shook his head abruptly, reached for his back pocket slowly while remaining vigilant of his surroundings.

  “Everybody stay calm!” Captain Luke commanded with his hands raised.

  Mike Rondon pointed out the obvious immediately. “This man is dangerous Sir!”

  Captain Luke responded immediately. “You have no idea and for the sakes of your safety and mine, I order you all to keep your guns down!”

  Sean nodded pleasingly before folding his fists into balls. “Why didn’t you call me? What the fuck were you thinking?”

  His next punch met absolute air and the Captain showed good reflex to evade it and try to return his. His attempt, failing ultimately only heightened the professionalism in his opponent’s fighting skills as the man had begun moving like a butterfly across the floor while also ignoring the guns pointed in his direction.

  “What the fuck is this Sean!?” Captain Luke growled. “I just found out okay? I never knew!”

  Sean didn’t look or seem convinced as he led with some more punches, catching the Captain in the jaw and unsettling him as the entire room got filled with gasps and screams. Sean aimed for one more shot at the Captain whose insistence on not allowing his men shoot the assailant only baffled them some more, but something struck him first.

  It came hard and fast from behind and sent him stumbling to the floor.

  Captain Luke looked distraught and yelled. “What the hell did you do that for!?”

  Detective Jake could only respond with a perplexed look as the entire station seemed to share in his surprise.

  “You should leave here right away and don’t come back until I ask you to”, Captain Luke commanded. “Somebody should help get this man up and taken care of right away!”

  Unsure of what had happened and feeling rather left out, Detective Jake slowly exited the building, with the sound from the door swinging open behind him indicating he was being followed.

  “That was one weird shit!” Mike Rondon said to himself, ignoring his partner and heading to his own car.

  Detective Jake continued to walk away, looking like a man lost and equally baffled by his demons. Something didn’t feel right and he could feel it. The brewing storm was upon him and the husky wind it came with had slowly begun rearing its presence.

  ***

  In subtle groans and his hand reaching for the hurting spot behind his head, Sean awakened to the dim light seeping into the room. His skull felt like it was on fire and the events that preceded his black out slowly cleared back into his memory as he felt for the impact spot once again. The sting prompted him to take his hand away and look around the room for any clues as to where he was.

  Tossing an ice pack from the kitchenette in his office where he stood, Captain Luke spoke, “Welcome back buddy… you were out a while”.

  “I’m going to kill him… or her… whoever knocked me out cold back there!” Sean growled and felt the headache grow intense before reaching for the ice pack and helping his sore skull to it.

  Scoffing, smiling and heading for the mini bar with the hidden scotch, Captain Luke poured himself some into a glass and reached for another before hearing Sean groan and prompting him to stop.

  “Give me the damn bottle!’ he demanded.

  Obliging, the Captain handed him the bottle and halted. “Promise me no harm comes to the guy that did this”.

  Sean struggled to give an assuring smile, as he pictured himself falling flat faced to the floor and being the source of mockery to every single police officer on the floor at the time of the incident.

  “Who is he Luke?” he asked instead, pressing his ice pack against his skull while waiting for the bottle of scotch to be in his hand.

  Adamant and watchful, Captain Luke shook his head. “I need your word on it Sean or you and I are going to have ourselves some serious problems… he was only worried”.

  Sean scoffed, knocked the bottle of scotch aside and groaned. “How can any of them be worried for or about you? I mean, seeing you’re one backstabbing friend and a piece of shit”.

  Captain Luke gulped down some lumps of fright lodged in his throat while doing his best to keep his hand steady as he refused to back away with the bottle of scotch.

  “She made me promise, Sean”, he whispered in a subtle tone. “She made me promise and I would have given anything to tell you but you know Susan”.

  “Yes I know Susan”, Sean replied immediately. “I know her and I know you and you should have told me she was here before she went and got herself killed while working for you!”

  Fuming uncontrollably and almost getting to his feet, Sean fell back again as the stinging pain from the occipital region of his skull came rushing through.

  “I’m sorry and I was devastated too but you don’t need to worry yourself because I have this investigation covered”, the dejected looking Captain assured.

  Sean shook his head fervently, slowly getting to his feet from the seat he had been placed in before moving closer to the Captain. “I don’t think you have jack covered! I don’t trust you Luke… not anymore and I want to run point on this investigation”.

  The request didn’t seem in entirety as bad as it should, considering the circumstances but Captain Luke seemed rather perplexed by lots of things he dared not spill as he watched his old time friend grab the bottle of scotch and take a good gulp from it.

  “I don’t want any of your hillbillies on this case and I mean it”, Sean threatened some more. “It is the least you can do now isn’t it?”

  Petrified and too startled to speak, the Captain remain blank in face. “It is a well-publicized news and the state is demanding answers as soon as possible… I cannot have you doing solo vigilante on this”.

  Sean ignored him and began walking to the door. His rear view was equally as troubling as his front and the Captain couldn’t find the nous to get into his seat as he clenched his fists by his side and looked at the patch of bloodied wool on the ground which had been used to clean his friend’s head.

  “I wouldn’t have kept your wife from you” Sean whispered before yanking the door open and then paused.

  Captain Luke attempted to move towards Sean but took two steps and stopped

  “I will find whoever did this… just give me everything she worked on and her address”, he noted before exiting the room.

  “I’m sure you will”, Captain Luke thought to himself before hurrying around to reach for his drawer.

  Looking around the room hurriedly and slowly retrieving a key from behind the table clock on his desk, he slipped it into the lower drawer and slowly retrieved the burner cell lying in there amidst others. Feeling somewhat agitated and worried at the same time, he thumbed in the digits and waited for the call to connect before placing it to his ear.

  The beep before the voice came through seemed long but it didn’t matter, as he spoke immediately. “Are you crazy? What do you think you’re doing?”

  Ambiguous as the questions seemed, the voice on the other end of the line came in subtle reply. “You’ve seen him haven’t you? It was the only thing we could do considering all that is at stake”.

  “Bringing Sean in on this case is no different from mixing fire with gasoline… the guy is unstable and did well to show that on his first appearance in here!’ Captain Luke sounded rattled. “You should have told me before bringing him in… you should have told me!”

  The next seconds brought nothing but static sound and silence before the voice finally broke through. “I understand your po
sition on this but you cannot make things personal. We have a lot to lose and nobody else understands that woman better than Sean Stein”.

  Listening to the end of the line did nothing to calm the already agitated Captain who felt his lip continue to sting in reminder of the crazed fellow that came earlier.

  “Just play your part and let us fix this!” the voice ordered.

  Shaking his head in disbelief as the call came to an abrupt and rude end, Captain Luke looked ahead, swung hard and watched the burner crash against the wall before him in rage. He reached for the opened drawer and helped himself to another burner phone before scrolling through the dialed calls log which had one number on it over the past times it had been used.

  Slowly raising the phone to his ear as the receiver picked, Captain Luke whispered, “I have a job for you”.

  “What do you need done this time?” the husky, somewhat terrifying voice replied.

  Nodding his head, the Captain sighed. “I’ll fax you details of the job with further instructions”.

  He dropped the call immediately, leaning against his table while the entirety of his body felt drenched with sweat.

  Chapter Four

  C

  utting through the interstate line and headed right for the address dispatch had sent to him, Detective Jake helped himself into some more deep thinking. Having being at the investigation scene, nothing came through as regards his thoughts on who could have added the eleventh body which not only polluted his dump site, but also brought unwanted attention to his work since the eleventh body had been deemed the one the whistle blower saw.

  “Susan Stein!” he thought and mumbled the words incoherently before cutting into the close where her address led and where the dispatch had claimed she should be living in.

  Answers seemed scarce already from the crime scene but seeing two cars parked up front the same house he was about getting into prompted a smirk of curiosity on his face while he found his car a graceful parking position. The front door to the apartment was equally open, which wasn’t usual, seeing the cordoning tape had been torn off by someone.

  “Mike!” Detective Jake groaned upon seeing his colleague’s car.

  He had been beaten to the house and playing second fiddle to anyone on scenes weren’t his thing. The prospect of seeing everything in pristine condition and untouched had just been tossed out of reality. The house looked modest and barely able to hold its own against the other houses around. It was without doubt old with its garden overgrown.

  Neglecting the crying instincts within him urging him to turn around and chase other leads, he veered forward, climbed up the front porch and looked into the living room. The room looked nothing like the surroundings; it was neat, tidied up and like the owner still lived in there. In low cough and hopes of dragging out his colleague wherever he might be, Detective Jake proceeded towards the center of the living room.

  The startling sound from incoming footsteps suddenly aroused his worries, before the familiar voice came through. “I don’t think you’d find anything here”.

  It was Mike Rondon at his usual best. The one tagged “know-it-all” by fellow officers had swept every inch of the room and found nothing.

  “And the pictures?” Detective Jake pointed to the empty frames on the walls.

  In shrug and soft sigh, Mike replied, “Looks like our cop was a really private one… the empty frames on the walls are the closest thing you’d get to seeing any personal items in this house”.

  It sounded strange; to Detective Jake at least but not to Mike who seemed content with his discovery.

  “Do you have a picture of her with you right now?” he asked.

  Mike shook his head, turned to give the living room another look and sighed. “She must have lived in here like a freaking ghost… even the dishes look clean or at least not too dusty and the police database only gave me a blank image when I tried accessing it”.

  “Which means her identity is being covered for some reason”, Detective Jake thought to himself. “What makes our Jane Doe cop similar to the other victims?”

  Mike paused, frowned and thought long and hard but gave no response immediately as his colleague began looking through the room. He watched Detective Jake pick up vases and familiarize himself with the house without any luck before halting to think some more.

  “She was never one of my victims”, he thought to himself. “I’m sure she wasn’t but who would intentionally add a cop to my list and even more, one I know nothing about”.

  The conundrum didn’t settle nicely with the somewhat baffled detective. Mike wasn’t getting anywhere either as apparent by the startled look on his face. He wasn’t used to not knowing things and he definitely wasn’t one to enjoy being stuck.

  “What of the other victims? Are their places this neat too?” Mike Rondon asked.

  In a groan and disgruntled tone, his colleague responded. “How the hell do I know? This is the first victim I’m checking out since they placed you as my sidekick”.

  He got a good kick out of the word and smiled the way through while Mike looked displeased.

  “From what I understand, the Captain really needs us finding out what happened to this cop or we are screwed… something about her doesn’t add up and I can feel it”, Mike noted.

  Detective Jake couldn’t agree any less. They shared the next few minutes pouring through the house once again but nothing was in there. All the clothes were gone and the rooms were sparkling which was rather bizarre. Detective Jake paused just as they exited the inner bedroom and raced out the door as though he had an intent.

  Puzzled and lost by his colleague’s actions, Mike followed him immediately but stopped when the detective stopped just outside the door to take in deep breaths and exhale them intermittently. The action he continued with for the next minute enraged Mike who waited for his time to yell and vent in frustration.

  “That’s odd”, Detective Jake pointed out ambiguously.

  Mike whispered with a note of sarcasm, “Yes it must be… taking in fresh air must be a challenging thing for you my friend”.

  Detective Jake brushed past him rudely, walked over to the kitchen and gently leaned his nose closer to the dishwasher and the tap before picking up a glass cup and sniffing it irritatingly for Mike who had no choice but to watch.

  “Is this how you work? Sniffing things and weirding yourself out?” Mike queried.

  It didn’t stop the detective from having a good lick off of the mug in his hand before spitting out the residue in disgust.

  “You have to be kidding me… are you nuts? Is this some kind of mental issue you have going on with you which the department knows nothing about?” the baffled Mike continued.

  Detective Jake finally let go of the cup and turned to look at his colleague. “I knew something was off from the first sniff of air I took in that living room but it is even more apparent here”.

  He still didn’t make senses or wasn’t making any as Mike Rondon continued to cast him a bewildering glare.

  “Bleach! Can’t you perceive it even if it’s almost worn off?” he asked. “Someone bleached the darn house and I can bet the forensic team will find enough here to prove me right”.

  Mike remained skeptical while he looked around the room for signs to prove the crazy man’s theory. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary asides the exceptionally clean room and items. He helped himself to a good sniff of one of the mugs and got nothing close to the pulsating stench of bleach.

  “Dust has settled on it and possibly dulled the stench but I assure you that this house has been wiped clean”, the rather persistent detective tried to make his notion stick.

  Mike nodded but wearily. “Let’s say the house was wiped clean and that bleach was used. Might the killer have done the same thing to the other houses too?”

  Detective Jake shrugged, smiled at his forced partner as though he was glad to have him on board hut soon wiped the smile off
of his face and turned around.

  “Well, you’re welcome”, he grinned and headed for the door.

  Looking steamed in the face and barely able to contain his disdain for the rude fellow before him, Mike hurried forward with a clenched fist before halting as he noticed Detective Jake pulling out his firearm carefully.

  Absent minded of the danger coming from behind him, Detective Jake whispered, “Someone has been watching us the entire time through”.

  Mike responded with a raised brow and whisper. “You’re kidding right?”

  Silence aired as they both pulled out their firearms and released the safety with their backs against the wall just behind the door.

  “You go first and I’d cover”, Detective Jake spoke in hushed tone.

  Mike shook his head strongly. “I will not be your shield… you go and I’ll cover your scared ass”.

  Working with one another definitely wasn’t going to yield any result from what they could both tell. It was even worse when the sound of safeties being taken off guns in sync made them detach their focus from one another’s faces and to the south side of the room where the sound had come from. Detective Jake couldn’t believe his eyes and he definitely wasn’t happy to see the fellow… for the second time in the same day.

  “Holy smokes!” he exclaimed, gently held up his firearm and surrendered.

  Mike Rondon pinned his gun in the direction of the two pointing back at them with the intent to squeeze while his eyes remained solely fixated on the strange man whose strangeness wasn’t entirely comforting seeing they had met earlier.

  “I don’t know what kind of math you did in school or if you had any at all, but in my opinion, two is way better than one”, the cocky tone relayed.

  Detective Jake nodded, nudged on his colleague gently and urged him to put down his gun. “He is right you know?”

  “Shut up Jake! He wouldn’t be right if you didn’t put down your gun immediately”, Mike yelled.