Mangled

by Zachary Prescott

  Still feeling weak and drained with bags underneath his eyes, he stood before the mirror and yawned again.

  “Crazy night”, he thought.

  The memory of Sean dancing wildly to a sing along act with topless women in his arms made him scoff some bit before turning on the tap and scooping some water to his face. The usually tough man had become jelly and barely grumbled about anything until they left the watering hole. Jake sniffed and mopped his face gently with a towel while Sean groaned and fell to the ground in a loud thud.

  “That ought to wake him up”, he thought with a smile before exiting the bathroom.

  He walked over to the computer, which worryingly was still decrypting but was almost done.

  “All night long and you’re still on ninety five percent?” Jake shook his head.

  Sean rolled to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes fervently with both hands. “Trust me when I tell you this is faster than some”.

  Jake sighed and walked to the kitchen to get himself some water before returning with a bottle for Sean.

  “I don’t want this shit! I need some coffee”, Sean demanded.

  That was a tall order no doubt and Jake simply gulped down his water before dragging over a stool from the kitchen and helping himself into it. They sat in silence and continued to stare at one another with the occasional breaks when either of them chose to.

  “I didn’t mention this yesterday, but I’m truly sorry for your loss… for Susan”, Jake mentioned.

  Sean waved it away and simply nodded before stretching and dragging the laptop closer to himself.

  “I will have my justice soon enough”, he promised.

  Jake loved the sound of that and walked to the window to part aside the blinds to have a look outside.

  “Are you checking for the van that kept following us last night?” Sean asked without turning around.

  Shocked and too stricken by the man’s insight to say anything, Jake looked out once again and tried to gain some proper demeanor.

  “When would that be?’ he asked, trying to sound ignorant.

  Sean shot him a drowning look. “Don’t act like I’m a fool… I might have been drunk when we were coming home but it still wouldn’t stop me from noticing us being tailed to and fro last night”.

  Gasping gently and feeling himself suck in ample amount of air in shock, Jake shifted in his seat, looked around the room momentarily while he sought answers in his head. He had only noticed them following him on their way back. It felt crazy that he had not noticed earlier while Sean had, but the man didn’t say anything the entire time.

  “If you noticed, then why didn’t you say anything?” Jake asked. “You could easily have pointed out saying, oh, look, someone has been tailing you the entire night”.

  Silent and disinterested in whatever the young man was saying, Sean returned his gaze to the computer.

  “I’m no stranger to being tailed so I simply assumed you had your shit covered and I didn’t need to interfere”, Sean finally spoke. “More so, I will be out of your airs soon and I don’t have to deal with whatever crap you got yourself involved with”.

  Feeling the obnoxious and self-preservative as well as annoying personality he had noticed in Sean crawl back into existence, Jake frowned and slammed the window curtains back into place to get a seat opposite Sean in the smaller couch.

  “Yes!” Sean cried out loud and rubbed his palms together.

  Jake remained seated, still stewing but definitely curious as to what answers the decryption might have brought them.

  “Is it ready?” Jake asked.

  Sean nodded and began punching some keys into the computer. “All I need now is the password to unlock it and we are good”.

  Jake upped himself from his seat and approached to lend a viewing eye. The first three password trials yielded no positive response, prompting Sean to curse and swear aloud.

  “Isn’t there a hint?” Jake asked, pointing at the lower section of the password bar.

  Sean clicked on it and the hint sprung forth; “SILAS”

  “SILAS!” Sean muttered with a grin but slowly wiped the expression off of his face.

  Jake waited for some kind of explanation. “What on earth is that?”

  Sean punched in some more keys but each trial came with failure until the password bot indicated he had one last chance.

  “What happens if you put in the wrong password again?” Jake asked, while he had a good sense of what just might occur.

  “SILAS is what we code named out honey moon and for the love of God I cannot remember the date”, Sean explained. “If I get it wrong again, the entire program will self-destruct and we lose everything”.

  Jake soon walked away, restless and somewhat judging by his expression.

  “I don’t think I will forget such important day in my life”, Jake rubbed it in.

  Sean shot him an angry stare but continued to fixate his gaze on the computer screen. Jake walked away to get his cellphone atop the kitchen table while Sean hoped some part of his memory would get joggled and bring the right date. It was all or nothing and that moment would either mar or bring him the break he needed on the investigation about his wife’s killer.

  Jake toggled his cell and dialed the number he suspected to be Mike Rondon’s before holding it to his ear. He still had to deal with the man and whatever it was that he and Sarah Connell were planning against him. Feeling his heartbeat getting louder, he aborted the act and reached for his kitchen cabinet just around where he kept spare batteries for a burner cell he kept in there.

  Dialing the number once again and not wanting to risk Mike already having his cellphone contact saved, he heard the first ring as sweat poured from his face. He could see Sean typing into the computer boldly now and he hoped the man was making the right choice this time around. With Sean’s head bowed and Jake waiting for the person on the other end of the line to pick, he heard the call connect and his heart stopped momentarily.

  “Hello! This is Detective Mike Rondon, how may I help you?” the voice asked immediately.

  Without needing to mention who he was, Jake could very well tell by the tone of his voice. He slowly let clamped his thumb on the red button and brought the call to an end before holding the burner phone tightly in his hand. There was confirmation now and he would find a way to deal with Mike appropriately but he also needed more proof.

  “I need to get back into Sarah’s apartment”, he thought.

  Sean slowly looked up from his computer, bearing the coldest expression Jake had ever seen on the man. His lips barely moved and his eyes shone darkly of nothing as he fell his gaze on Jake and wouldn’t blink.

  Approaching with a few steps and stopping, Jake asked, “What’s wrong? Did you put in another wrong password?”.

  Sean barely flinched and remains till where he sat while his eyes continued to get darker.

  “You messed it up didn’t you?” Jake concluded and sighed. “Well, now that things are done, I have some personal work to do”.

  He turned around and motioned to head to his room when Sean finally spoke.

  “Why?” the man asked ambiguously.

  Halting and looking back without turning around, Jake asked, “Why what?”

  “Why?” Sean asked again, while slowly getting to his feet.

  Clenching his fists and grinding his teeth well enough for Jake to see, he took another look at the computer before leaning towards it and turning the screen around just so Jake could have a good view of what was right before him. Jake took some time to look down at the computer screen while still keeping his focus partly on Sean.

  The image was damning and so much so that he felt his lower jaw fall to the ground.

  “That’s not right”, Jake protested with his hand pointing in the direction of the screen.

  The image was precisely his, taken from a time he had stopped for a coffee by a roadside vendor not far from the
station. To make things worse, there were no less than five images of him as the slide continued to display them one at a time. One in particular was of him visiting the red light district a few miles from his house, unfortunately he had not been there to kill anyone but just to scout.

  “Sean!” Jake called out to the man. “I never met your wife before I never even knew she was a cop!”

  “So you killed her, thinking she was a hooker or you fucking murdered her after you found out she was unto you!” Sean pulled out his gun from his back and aimed it at Jake.

  The man was definitely a perfect shot and there was hardly any proper hiding space in the house.

  “I’m going to make you suffer!” Sean promised.

  Jake felt his heart go missing and his other organs begin to shut down faster than they would if they had been struck by a bullet. His airways felt clogged as his trachea wouldn’t permit ample air down his throat.

  “I swear to you man! I swear to you!” Jake yelled

  Sean pulled back the safety immediately, steadying his aim for a shot bound to wound Jake but not kill him. The man without doubt hoped to keep true to his words.

  Time was running out for him and Jake could feel it. “If I knew her, why will I hang around or even try to help you decrypt the darn thing?”

  There was no listening to reason and Sean pulled the trigger hard but the gun wouldn’t let out the shot as intended; the gun had jammed, granting Jake just the miracle he needed. He leapt for the floor and crawled towards the backdoor immediately. Struggling with the gun but to no avail, Sean tossed it aside and chased after Jake immediately.

  Jake had managed to get one of the two bolts on the backdoor off but Sean was faster in reaching him. Yanking Jake by his collar and dragging him backwards, Jake struggled to get himself free. The man was in beast mode and wouldn’t let go so easily. Jake shrugged, punched at Sean and hoped to get away but Sean was hell bent on getting the man back to the living room where he would hopefully do some justice.

  “You got the wrong man damn it!” Jake protested.

  Sighting an opening Jake kicked hard into Sean’s knee and sent the man screaming in agony as he fell to the floor. It wouldn’t be enough to keep Sean down for long though as he soon sprung back up, wincing in pain and limping while he blocked the exit leading to the front door.

  “I’m going to skin you alive! I’m going to fucking skin you!” Sean threatened.

  Jake took another good look at the laptop and still couldn’t understand why Susan Stein had his pictures or what she had been doing when she took them. The places differed, indicating she had someway managed to tail him around for miles without even making herself known.

  “Susan was a fine agent and always got her mark but I guess you couldn’t handle it when she began investigating you!” Sean lunged at Jake and managed to grab Jake by his jean and dragged him to the ground.

  Piling his weight on Jake, Sean clenched his fist tightly and jammed it hard into Jake’s face, “You lying snake!”

  Jake felt the first jab connect and send jolts of immeasurable pain through his skull as he struggled to get Sean off him. Sean wouldn’t stop though, threatening to wrap his hands around Jake’s neck as the duo struggled badly.

  “I swear… I never saw her! I never met her before!” Jake swore but Sean didn’t care.

  His eyes were blood red and his lips curled with anger. His hands wrapped tightly around Jake’s neck successfully while he managed to subdue Jake by kneeling on his hands on either side of his body, leaving him defenseless and at Sean’s mercy. Jake could feel himself lose the ability to breathe freely as Sean pinned down hard.

  “You need to get free!” Jake thought to himself inwardly.

  Managing to get his left hand out from Sean’s captivity, Jake searched around the floor for something useful to help him get free. His breath had slowed and his eyes watered badly, giving him a minute or less before he would pass out. In a feat of luck, his hand connected with the stinging cold metal he soon realized to be the gun Sean had tossed to the ground after it jammed.

  Groping it tightly, he lunged hard and fast towards Sean’s head, striking luckily against his temple and sending the man sprawling to his side, all passed out and cold.

  Struggling to get the remainder of Sean’s body off of him, Jake coughed aloud and began breathing in relief. “I never touched her! I never even fucking knew her!”

  He got to his feet, feeling his bloodied face dripping from cuts above his eyes and another just underneath his nose. Sniffing and wiping off his bloodied nose with the back of his hand, he jammed his foot into Sean’s chest and walked over to the laptop to have another look at the images with what appeared to be an attached document just underneath them.

  He connected his phone to the computer immediately, while Sean remained out and cold before heading out within minutes with some spare cash and hopes of finding someplace to lay low, far off from wherever Sean could find him. He unlocked the front door and felt the fresh air hit his face warmly. The feeling of freedom felt like nothing he could explain.

  Staring down the road and at the suspicious van parked away a few blocks from his house, he tucked his phone and cash into his pocket, wiped his face clean and waved down a taxi which had just happened to drop someone off a few blocks away.

  “Just keep going until I ask you to stop!” he commanded the man while looking over his shoulders.

  He needed somewhere calm to collect his thoughts and next cause of action. The world suddenly felt like it was closing hard and down upon him and he hated the feeling dearly. The taxi driver sped off immediately, granting Jake a sigh of relief but not for long, as Sean soon stumbled out of the house looking enraged as he stared down the street, unaware of the fact that Jake had boarded a cab.

  “Fuck!” Jake mumbled.

  ***

  Still bleeding from the cuts on his face as he arrived on the south end of town where those intending to keep away from the prying eyes of the modest public in New York resided, Jake stepped out of the car and paid the cab driver an extra fifty dollars to keep him satisfied enough not to rat him out should the case come to occur.

  Wincing in pain, he hammered his fist into the front door of an old looking hotel by the name “Kanto” bearing faded prints on the billboard atop it. The door cranked open slowly with a rather burly man standing on the other side staring at him blankly and with suspicious eyes.

  “State your purpose”, he said.

  Dipping his hand into his breast pocket and retrieving five hundred dollars which he handed to the man, Jake replied, “I am not here… you never saw me”.

  The man nodded, pocketed the cash and opened the door, granting him entrance without further questions. Jake headed to the reception to book a room before getting led to the last room on the second floor with no door number just like the others. He had spent a week in the same building years back while he ran some undercover operations.

  Hearing the door slam shut behind him, he had never felt such relief as he took a look at the modestly furnished room consisting of a single bed, flushed carpet, a wardrobe and one dining table situated not far off from the window so he could have a good view through the blinds. The beauty was being able to see through the window but not being seen from the outside.

  “This will do for now”, he sighed and headed to the bed.

  He wondered what Sean must be doing next. The man seemed awfully enraged with the need for revenge and wouldn’t be going to the station to make a report for sure, but that made him even more dangerous since he was living off the hinge.

  “I just have to find out exactly what the hell is going on”, he muttered, reaching for the cellphone he had managed to copy the decrypted information on.

  His pictures were clear and perfect, obviously taken with a camera which led Jake to wonder if the woman was moving around with one or if she had someone taking them for her while tailing him around. He flicked t
hrough the images and settled on the file bearing a short note.

  “The man in the above enlisted photos by the name Detective Jake Sullivan of the NYPD is my belief to be a serial killer who targets lowly prostitutes with over five reported cases of these girls going missing at various parts of the state with no clues left behind. I believe i have fund where he stashes the bodies and I hope to seek your assistance of the CIA in bringing him in as I bear no understanding of just how far this entire setup stretches with the NYPD”.

  Feeling himself gasp and read on as she dissected all the information she had gotten following him and how she found him stashing away his last kill in the swamp, Jake’s stomach sunk and his entire world felt nude. She had nailed him to the bones and had done everything right to get enough information with pictures about him visiting the swamp the last time he was there.

  “Oh my God!” he mumbled in guilt upon realizing just how bad the situation was. “This cannot be happening!”

  There were more pictures taken after the note and three showed a man of similar build as he was, in hood and well sheltered by the darkness as he went about his business. As much as his face remained covered, it still bode nothing good for the detective and he knew it was only a matter of time before anyone with the information would be able to put everything together.

  Enraged and fuming, he topped the table upon which he was reading over. He kicked against it and cared less about how badly his cut was bleeding. He had been careless enough to get caught and his seemingly perfect life was on the verge of coming to an end.

  “Sarah!” he thought. “I need to get over there!”

  He hurried to the tiny bathroom bearing a bath tub with hot water running. Standing before the mirror screwed into the wall, he took a good look at the cuts and the severity of Sean’s heavy punch before concluding that he would live. The wounds were bound to clot soon and all he needed was to wash them and make sure they didn’t get infected.