by Barry Smith
The music and dancing on stage ends, with the last participants sweating profusely. After careful deliberation and an exchange of opinion, Sage speaks into her microphone,
“Alright, thank you everyone! With Dax Brayton coming for a year-long Guest Star Residency at Quist, we are only looking to increase our dance ensemble by four more. Your amazing talents, during this audition, have truly made this difficult for us to decide. But at this time, we would like to see the following numbers stay; #27, 15, 32 6, 41, 8, 23, and 9. Everyone else, thank you for your time.”
“Ok, those numbers that we called, please line up at the edge of the stage…” begins another voice, as the dismissed numbers filed off the stage, amid curses. The dancers that lined the edge of the stage are a sexy group of women in their skimpy best and men, mostly shirtless, with chiseled physiques.
“Now that we’ve seen how you dance, we need to see what you got,” continues Sage, “Guys, face upstage and drop trou; show us those asses! Girls, stay facing downstage, and let us see those tits!”
As the panel deliberates on the bodily assets before them, Daphne, a judge, whispers to the Quist’s Dance Captain and another judge, Alexa, about a candidate:
“Psst! Check out number 15; it’s her third time auditioning, and she makes it to the final round every time only to be disqualified. Sad, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” replies Alexa, “She kinda reminds me of that Karen Alvarez girl, who auditioned ten times; amazing dancer, had great tits, but I couldn’t get past her face. But hey, I think she finally got the message; Ugly, isn’t it!”
“You’re so mean,” comments Daphne, “ I’m sure with better makeup, we can get #15 to our standards.”
“Absolutely not!” retorts Alexa, before turning to her right, “Sage, what are your thoughts on the matter?”
“Well, she certainly isn’t as striking as the others, but her tenacity charms me.”
Alexa lets out a tired sigh, “We usually agree on most, but just like that Alvarez situation, we have a tie vote again. We need to start having a 5th judge.”
“Wait! Maybe I can get a fifth opinion,” offers Alexa, before calling out to three passing performers in the show, “Hey, guys! Over here! I could really use your help.”
Chloe and Jett are backup singers, and Phoenix is the rapper in the Guilty Pleasures show; the trio are just returning from their vocal rehearsals.
“So listen, I’ll be brief and not take up much of your time,” begins Alexa, “We need an opinion of someone sexually into women. So that disqualifies you Phoenix. Jett, since you go both ways, I rather leave it up to the lesbian to make this call.”
“Ouch” exclaims Jett.
“So Chloe, I’m pretty confident that you know your flavors when it comes to women. Take a look at those four on the stage; say, if you could indulge in three of the four girls down there for the evening, which one would you give the boot?”
Without much thought, Chloe responds: “Definitely #15, great tits though, but everything else about her just aaiight!”
“And there you have it!” concludes Alexa, with a snarky look on her face.
Sage rolls her eyes while speaking back into the microphone: “#15, 32, 27, 23, please step forward and make a front row.” There is a long pause before Sage continues speaking, “Thank you front row for auditioning, but we’ve made our final decision, and will be procuring the back row of dancers. Please don’t give up auditioning; you’re just not what we’re looking for at this time.”
***
Meanwhile, at the police station, the Mission Patriarch, Joseph Covay, barges in with his two sons on the oddly tranquil department.
“Where’s Captain McCormack? I demand to see him,” he thunders angrily at the front desk. The Captain, having heard the rising commotion in the reception is already out of his office to remedy the situation.
On sighting McCormack, Covay unleashes an outburst of furious words:
”Captain, time and again, the Disciples have asked that there be more protection by the police on the streets. We have never seen eye to eye, but I’m sure now, you will give a listening ear; the Brothers of the Missionary were out yesterday, spreading the word, when they crossed paths with some hoodlums, the HB- whatever! The aftermath of that encounter is staring you right in the eye,” he says while pointing at Tyler and Mitchell.
One has a black eye, and the other has his arm in a sling.
“And they did not get the worst of it. There are several others, lying critically injured in the hospital, and some even missing. All because you…”
“Let me stop you right there, Father Covay!” says McCormack, cutting the enraged man off, “Despite the fact that I am truly sorry for the harm done to your boys, I must warn you do not threaten this force contemptuously. You must realize you are carrying out your missions in very dangerous neighborhoods, some with no police coverage at all. Even now, with the number of missing persons skyrocketing, we find ourselves short on staff. If however, you must continue on this route, then do so knowing it is at the peril of those sent on these missions. I’m sorry to say this, but the department has bigger fish to fry; so you either take the risk or stay in your churches! Feel free to fill out a police report form, good day.”
McCormack turns towards his office, while Father Covay snatches a handful of forms and marches out of the station with his boys saying,
“I will be speaking with Commissioner Munson about all of this.”
Ryan and Bryce who have been peering from his office door, come back inside after all the commotion in the lobby. After pushing the scene which has just transpired from his mind, Ryan takes a pen and a notepad, and begins to jot down notes regarding his trip to Quist.
The list he draws up read: no prostitution, drops of blood, a man in a lab coat carrying a box, enforcer with eye patch carrying a 12 gauge shotgun, a yell of ‘NO’, a scream, a locked door, room 7734. He stares at the sheet of paper for a while, completely blank, before saying to himself,
“There’s something, but I’ve got nothing.”
Suddenly, an officer knocks on his door before coming in and saying:
“We got another gift from the Numerical Slasher.” He hands Ryan a case file and then, walks out unceremoniously.
Ryan opens the case file to find a picture of another disemboweled victim, with her intestines spelling out the number ‘4’. While running his hand through his hair, Bryce replies. “Damn, another one?”
After a few seconds have passed, Ryan calls out,
“Gloria, please display the pictures of the other three previous victims.” Once Gloria displays the victims, “now, add in the latest victim.”
The computer complies, showing the face pictures of our alluring females, side by side, on the large screen.
“All young and attractive, with no careers, that’s all there is to similarity.”
“Gloria,” he calls out again, “Let’s take a look at the locations the bodies are discovered. I want to see if there is a pattern.”
“Here they are,” responds Gloria. The screen shows a map of the city, with four locations pinpointed, but even after that, Ryan and Bryce are still unable to connect the dots.
“I still cannot make any connection. Gloria, pull up pictures of all four crime scenes in ascending chronological order.”
Gloria rearranges the pictures by the dates the bodies of the victims were found, and as soon as that is done, an eerie chill shoots up their spines. Both of their mouths drop when they discover the revelation. The numbers formed by each human entrails spells out ‘7734’. Ryan soon reaches for his phone.
“Hey Cap, I believe our Numerical Serial Killer is also tied to A Wicked Haven. Get in here and see this!! This case just got turned upside down.”
***
It was yet another night, the kind that calls for all sorts of looseness and debauchery; many patrons seem to have felt that way as the line of thrill-seekers, waiting to be admitted into Quist, curls round th
e perimeter of the building, back to where it started.
High on the stage inside, Sage is making an introduction:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Quist Nightclub is proud to welcome, Dax Brayton!”
As Dax steps into the light, the crowd goes haywire; women nearly pull out their hair while screaming his name, and many others swamp towards the edge of the runway, hoping to touch the irresistible, dark wavy-haired man.
Dax, dressed like a dreamy doctor with an unbuttoned, rolled sleeves, white lab coat that flaunts his toned arms and abdomen, begins to sing a song about ‘giving his remedy’. One could say that the portrayed sexy doctor had medical assistance from male dancers dressed in blue nurse scrubs, dancing in the background on the main stage.
When the song has reached a particular point, Dax rips off his lab coat, while the other male dancers strip down to their bare essentials. This action causes the already hysteric crowd, with ladies and even some men, to scream for more.
While Dax Brayton is keeping his fans entertained within the recesses of the Quist Nightclub, Ryan has parked his vehicle on a dark road behind Quist, watching the only other entrance into the establishment beside the main. It is a red door, with a roseate pattern at its center; it has no knob on the outside, implying it can only be opened from the inside. Ryan sits in his vehicle, drinking a milkshake, hoping to see the doctor and the one-eyed man, whom he has decided to call ‘The Enforcer’, he had seen the previous night. About twenty-five minutes into his watch, he is not disappointed.
“Ryan, I believe that’s them, based on your description,” says Gloria over the car system.
The duo steps out the red back door, speaking briefly before getting into their respective vehicles. As they drive away, Ryan starts his car and begins to edge it onto the road to follow the Enforcer; there seem to be more to the man that intrigued Ryan.
“Gloria, set the target tracker; I don’t want to lose this guy.” The car’s windshield soon comes to life, with a digital display to track the Enforcer’s car within the traffic.
“Target locked” confirms Gloria.
~
Inside Quist, Bryce is gathering more intelligence. He heads to the showroom, where Sage takes the stage after Dax’s performance. A lone special light shines down on a bathtub placed on the center stage. Sage soon steps into the light and turns on the faucets, to prepare a bath. As the water runs, she sits at a vanity bathroom mirror, singing about the joy of being watched.
~
The Enforcer, with Ryan following a few meters off, drove a long time, before reaching a wealthy community up in the hills, with nothing but mansions along its streets.
“Wow, where are we?” asks Ryan.
“Ashton Heights,” responds Gloria. “This area is reserved for the elite, the rich, and the famous.”
“He can’t possibly live here,” Ryan thinks out loud, before seeing the Enforcer turn into a drive way. Ryan then parks his car around a corner out of sight. He pulls out his binoculars to see The Enforcer disembark his car, walks up to the front door of an estate, produces a set of keys, and goes in.
“Doesn’t look like he’s breaking in, so that must be his house,” concludes Ryan.
“Very observant, Captain Obvious,” responds Gloria.
~
Sage has gotten up from the mirror, and her lyrics suggest that a ‘Peeping-Tom’ is spying on her from a building, across the way. As she sings, she gracefully made her way back to the bath that has been placed center-stage; there, she slowly disrobes herself in the steam. From across the stage, in one of the showroom balconies, a male dancer portrays the peeping-tom with binoculars.
~
As the night is far spent, Ryan, still spying through his binoculars, assumes his suspect is retiring for the night; he was able to keep track of the Enforcer’s movements through the sequence in which the initially dark rooms are being lit. The lights continue steadily from the ground floor, up the stairs, to a particular room; the Enforcer’s silhouette is visible. There, he stopped, dead in his tracks, then he turns and stomps aggressively, back the way he had just come: back down the stairs, back out the front door, and back into his car. His car screeches as he reverses, knocking a hydrant over in the process, before heading downhill.
“Shit! He’s coming this way,” curses Ryan, as he quickly reclines his seat, and lay flat on it so he will be out of sight. The Enforcer’s headlights pass without notice before Ryan re-adjusts his seat, ignites his engine, and begins to follow.
~
Sage, now bare as the day she was born, is in the tub, with spying eyes still watching her every move. While singing, she reaches for a carafe on the tub ledge, and begins to pour water slowly, down her desirable body. Once her body is soaked and wet, she lathers herself sensuously with creamy, white body wash that she erotically squeezes from a bottle.
~
“Shit,” yells Ryan, as he wipes off his spilt milkshake, while in pursuit of the Enforcer.
“No reason for crying over spilt milk,” replies Gloria.
After another long drive, he is led to a residence back in Trouble Town. Noticing the Enforcer parks in front of an old building, Ryan pulls over, switches off his car’s engine, and hides in a bush.
“What are you up to, now?” Ryan says to himself, while looking through the lens of his binoculars.
Through them, he sees the Enforcer enter a building. And after several minutes of screaming and yelling, the Enforcer comes out with a young man over his shoulder, bound and gagged. He walked to his car, opened its trunk, and tosses his boy into it. As he brings down the lid, the boy raises his two feet and pushes upwards with all his might, so as to stop the trunk from being closed. In response to this defiance, the Enforcer delivers heavy blows to the man’s thighs, forcing him to lower his legs. Before the young man can be shut away, Ryan notices the pair of expensive two-toned, alligator skin western boots on his feet; they are a unique teal and brown, and Ryan thinks it’s strange for a boy, from Trouble Town, to own shoes of that value.
Contemplating whether to intervene or not, Ryan decides to hang back and see how things would play out, rather than jump in and reveal his identity as a police detective.
The Enforcer soon takes off in his car, with Ryan following closely behind, again; but as he drives, he notices a girl run after the Enforcer’s car, screaming and crying.
“Poor thing,” sympathizes Gloria, “It’s probably her boyfriend or husband in the trunk.”
Ryan then let’s Gloria take over the wheel while he resolves inwardly, that if things turn out well, he will arrest the Enforcer and return the kidnapped boy that night.
As the Enforcer leaves Trouble Town, he takes a long tunnel underpass haphazardly weaving between cars.
“Gloria, we’re going to lose this guy driving at this pace. Can we do something about that please?” exclaims Ryan.
“Relax Casanova. I’m engaging target now” digital computer sounds filled the car’s infrastructure as Gloria increases the car’s speed, “Maximizing speed and closing in on target”
As soon as they got close enough, the Enforcer exits a tunnel underpass, and turns onto a lengthy stretch of road with no overhead lighting, Ryan’s car increases the distance between himself and his target, staying a few cars behind him.
“Would hate to be noticed after all of tonight’s hard work.”
They have driven a considerable distance when the Enforcer’s car suddenly pulls into a side lane, and slowed down.
“Shit! Shit!” swears Ryan, as he becomes exposed to the Enforcer.
The Enforcer’s car suddenly makes a hard right turn, hitting Ryan, and pushing him off the road. As the car spins, Ryan fights frantically to gain control of the wheel to keep from ramming into a tree.
~
Sage’s bathtub is rotating by the stage’s mechanics, as she thrashes and whips her hair, splashing water upon the onlookers.
~
After he has successfully brought the c
ar to a stop, he gets out, looks around him, and says painfully:
“Damn. The fucker got away.”
~
Bryce gulps down his third beer, while watching the end of Sage’s performance. Many couples in the room become a little more intimate, sharing a moment of voyeurism. After Sage leaves a wet fantasy for her audience to remember, she slowly steps out the tub, and looks back at the audience to see who’s looking. As she bends to grab her robe, she wraps the robe around her and ties it at the waist.
~
The Enforcer comes round Quist, towards its red back door. After emerging from the vehicle, he reclaims his captive from the trunk before heading for the door which, after three knocks in rapid succession, is opened from the inside. He walks, with the captured young man still over his shoulder, down a series of hallways before coming to a stop, before the same steel blue door with the numbers ‘’.
~
At the end of Sage’s performance, she walks upstage to a lone blue door, walks inside, and begins to closes it.
~
The Enforcer goes in inside ‘’, relocking the door behind him. Seconds later, behind door, a blood-curdling scream echoed down the long corridor.
Chapter 4
“Come in!” shouts McCormack, in response to the knock that raps on his office door.
He looks up from the documents he is signing to see Officer Brown walking towards his desk, with a file in his hands.
“I hope you have something good for me, Brown!”
“Well, Captain, I have…something; and one could say it is both good and bad.”
Dropping the pen in his hand, McCormack knots his fingers underneath his chin and says,
“Hit me.”
“The HB-17 were found last night…”
“Not those dogs again!” interjects McCormack.
“Well, this time,” continues Brown, “They were all found dead, every single one of ‘em, down to their leader.”
