The Tangerine Killer

by Claire Svendsen

  Olin hadn’t been able to track down Harvey so I sure as hell would. I’d show him that I didn’t need his help. But first I needed sleep, in my own makeshift accommodations at the Golden Sun Motel. I was actually starting to miss the place. It was beginning to feel like home. My night on Olin’s couch had not been the best of my life. He could have at least made an effort to give me his bed.

  My room was clean and quiet. No mysteriously bleeding packages or exploding bombs. I fell onto my bed fully clothed and drifted off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep after numbing the pain with some more pills and a chaser of booze for good measure.

  In my dream I walked through the woods, carrying something heavy. A dead weight. A dead body. I carried it easily with arms that weren’t my own. Looked down at the blood stained nightgown and smiled. One arm hung out. A hand with two bloody stumps where fingers should have been. I woke up screaming.

  The room was still dark, only lit by the flickering orange glow from the giant neon sign outside. I felt stiff and sore and strangely wet. I shifted gingerly, knowing something was terribly wrong. My fingers skimmed the surface of the pool I lay in and I rubbed them together. It was blood, thick and sticky between my fingers. Suddenly scared I frantically tried to imagine which part of me was bleeding. With the amount of blood it had to be pretty serious. Damn it. Olin was right. I should have gone to the hospital after all. I must have been seriously injured in the explosion and now I was going to die laying right there in my orange motel room, all alone at the end of my life. If Olin hadn’t pissed me off then I could have been with him. He would have noticed something was wrong and called an ambulance but it was too late for that now.

  As I lay there panicked and too scared to move, it dawned on me that I wasn’t in any more pain than I had been before I fell asleep. Surely I should have been in agony at the amount of blood I had lost or at least light headed and delirious. As I slowly turned to sit up I bumped into something lying next to me on the bed. My breath caught in my throat and I had to clutch onto the mattress to stop from falling as I scrambled to get away from the dead body that lay beside me.

  I didn’t call Olin. I refused to give him the satisfaction of being the first one on the scene so I dialed 911 instead. I knew it would really piss him off to find out that the deputies in the nearest squad car would be the ones to get there first and not him.

  After I got over the initial shock, my nightmare flooded back. It was him. I’d been him. Carrying Jill to my room. But how the hell did he get in? The door was still locked just as I had left it. How on earth could he have got into my room and why didn’t I wake up? My gun still lay on the table by the bed where I left it before falling asleep. Why hadn’t he killed me or at the very least abducted me right then and there? After all I was his next victim, I had been alone. What had stopped him from taking me?

  “Oh God!”

  The two deputies who arrived in a flash of lights and blaring sirens were both younger than I was and clearly fresh on the job. I could tell this was their first murder by the way the shorter of the two turned a violent shade of green and the other put his hand over his mouth.

  “Step away from the victim and put your hands where I can see them.” The shorter of the two finally managed to speak.

  Vasquez and Watson, according to their nametags, were clearly overwhelmed at the amount of blood that covered the body, the bed and me. I knew their first instinct would be to assume I had committed the murder.

  “I didn’t do this,” I warned. “I’m the next person on the Tangerine killers list of most wanted victims. He’s baiting me.”

  “Put your hands where I can see them or I’ll shoot.”

  Watson drew his revolver and pointed it at me. I didn’t bother and point out that the safety was still on. He was young and nervous. I wouldn’t put it past either one of them to shoot me out of sheer panic. I didn’t need a bullet wound to add to my growing list of injuries.

  “Just relax guys.”

  I put my hands on top of my head and Vasquez surged forward. He grabbed my hands and thrust them down behind my back to handcuff me. I cried out in pain at the way the torque in my body set my ribcage on fire. Vasquez apparently didn’t care. I think he was just relieved that I was finally detained and not going to kill them.

  “Sit down. Shut up.”

  “Where is it you want me to sit? On the bed with Jill and all the evidence? In case you hadn’t noticed there are no chairs in this room.”

  “Jill? Jill who?”

  Watson had a high pitched voice and a freshly grown goatee, which he pulled on nervously.

  “Her name is Jill Hatchel. She was recently abducted by a serial killer. I’m sure you guys have heard about the case. Everyone’s working on it.”

  Everyone may have been working on it but street cops like Watson and Vasquez were clearly out of the loop. They looked from me to the body and back again. I had to admit that I had a hard time taking my eyes off the body as well.

  Jill had been posed on the bed like a clothes store mannequin. She lay in the same position I had been in when I woke up, on the left side with her arms crossed over her chest. The hand which was missing two fingers had been placed on the white cotton pillowcase beside her face. She was wearing a white lace nightgown. It was stained through with blood and so was the bedspread.

  My entire left side was also covered with blood where it had seeped through my clothes. I had to admit it looked pretty incriminating but I had left everything exactly as it had been when I woke up. Damned if I was going to disturb any evidence. Once I got over the initial shock of finding a dead body in my bed I was sure the killer had made a mistake. In leaving this gift for me, he must have left some incriminating evidence somewhere.

  “What’s your name?” Vasquez said.

  “Sam Weber.”

  “Sam Weber you are under arrest for the murder of Jill Heichel. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say and do will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to you.”

  As Vasquez read me my rights I wondered how long it would be before Olin appeared and released me. I guessed I should have called him after all. That’s what I got for my own foolish pride.

  “I can’t find a murder weapon,” Watson said.

  “That’s because I didn’t kill her,” I said.

  “Shut up. Vasquez, put her in the squad car.”

  “Come on.”

  Vasquez shoved me in the back of the car and I was left staring at the metal grill which separated the backseat from the front. I wondered how much force it would take to kick it out with my feet but only for a second. I just had to be patient. They would have to release me eventually and I wanted to get all the brownie points I could for my martyrdom.

  THIRTY NINE

  Watson and Vasquez called in back up. A lot of it. Police cars were arriving at an exponential rate. It seemed every cop in the area wanted a piece of the action. They obviously didn’t get a lot of murders in town. Or perhaps they thought the infamous Tangerine killer had been caught and wanted to get their dues. They were all going to look like idiots by the time I was done with them.

  Finally Olin’s Escalade swerved into the parking lot of the motel. He knocked over orange cones and drove straight through the police tape that the cops had spent ages tying to random trees and lamp posts. It snapped as he squealed through it and one of the cops who was standing out on guard duty waved his hands in the air frantically to stop him.

  Olin didn’t seem to care. He left his vehicle running and bolted into my motel room. He was either really eager to see that I had finally met my demise or he actually did care about me after all.

  I closed my eyes and waited, shifting awkwardly as I tried to find a position which was comfortable with my hands secured behind my back. The pain in my ribs from the torque of having my hands restrained was becoming unbearable but I bit my lip and tried to concentrate on my
breathing. I wasn’t going to give Olin the satisfaction of knowing I had suffered by playing this silly game. A few moments later he walked out of the room towards the car and every muscle in his face was taught. I could tell he was pissed. He flung open the car door with such force I thought he was going to rip the sucker off.

  “Good God Sam. Just what kind of an idiot are you?”

  “I told them I was an innocent bystander.”

  I squeaked with pain as he pulled me roughly out of the car. I guess I deserved it.

  “If you had just called me then we could have avoided all this mess.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s a murder investigation. They all would have come flocking anyway with their flexible cameras and ultraviolet lights.”

  “Yes but you wouldn’t have ended up handcuffed in the back of a squad car.”

  I didn’t answer him as he unlocked my cuffs and set me free. I spun to face him angrily. He pulled me into him, wrapping his arms around my blood stained body. He was warm and safe. I felt myself melt into him. In his arms the gravity of the situation was real. Tears pricked in the back of my eyes and I knew that I couldn’t let myself go there if I wanted to survive. I pulled away.

  “Why do you even care?”

  “Why do I care? He was in there,” he flung his hand in the direction of my motel room. “He was in your room. He laid a dead body next to you on the bed. How the hell did he get away with that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I ran a hand through my hair, realizing too late that it was covered with dried blood.

  “I was asleep but I don’t sleep that heavily, especially when a crazed killer is after me.”

  “How many painkillers did you take?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I thought about the pills I’d chased with alcohol. It was stupid. I’d handed myself on a silver platter to the killer, having been practically unconscious. Not that I was going to tell Olin that.

  “I don’t understand how he got in?” I said, changing tactics. “The door was still locked and the safety chain was on.”

  “I don’t know but I have to be honest Sam. This scares the shit out of me.”

  “You? Scared?” I grinned. “Please.”

  “It’s not funny,” he frowned.

  “But don’t you see? He didn’t kill me or abduct me. Maybe he doesn’t want me anymore.”

  “That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. That just means that he’s not done playing with you.”

  Deep down I already knew but hearing Olin say it brought the actual horror of the situation crashing over me. The black velvet night stretched out from the circle of lights in the parking lot. He had to be out there in the dark, watching us running around like chickens with our heads cut off and having a good laugh. Then there were the nightmares. How I was suddenly inside his head. I was keeping that little tidbit of crazy all to myself.

  “Come on. We’d better get back inside.”

  Olin must have read my mind. He looked around nervously before ferrying me back into the motel room. It was now full of various officials performing their required duties. I noticed the motel desk clerk hovering nervously on the fringe of the crowd, his pitted face pale as he glanced in the direction of Jill’s body. Someone had covered her with a sheet but they hadn’t done a very good job. Her bare feet stuck out from the bottom and the hand that was missing two fingers poked out from the edge. Her skin was gray and waxy and a bluish tint spread up from her toes and remaining fingers. I hoped beyond anything there was some shred of evidence in the empty shell that was once Jill to lead us to the killer. I knew I couldn’t die like that.

  “I’ve never seen a dead body before.”

  The desk clerk sidled up beside me and eyed my blood stained attire with what appeared to be awe.

  “Did you, you know, kill her? Like, in a lover’s quarrel or something?”

  I gave him a withering look but it seemed to just slide off his pitted face like butter. He was obviously far too keen to find out any gritty details of the murder to notice.

  “It’s too bad,” he continued on. “She was hot. Always hanging around with the cool guys and foxy women. I would have loved a piece of that firm, ripe body.”

  “She’s dead, asshole,” I said.

  My gaze shifted from him to the corpse in revulsion. From the way he spoke about Jill, her decomposing, mutilated corpse was still as hot to him as she had ever been. I knew it was a small town and there probably weren’t that many women as free spirited as Jill had been but the longing in the jerk’s eyes was beginning to freak me out.

  “I’m Gary by the way,” he reached out to shake my hand. “I’ve been keeping that stalking boyfriend of yours at bay.”

  I looked at his hand, disgusted that he thought I would actually shake it. Silently willing the dumb jerk to stop talking about Joe as Olin materialized beside us.

  “Well Gary, it seems I need to ask you a few questions.”

  Olin pulled Gary away with such force I thought he was going to pull the puny jerk right off his feet.

  “Hey man! What the hell?”

  “You’re coming downtown to answer some questions.”

  “But I didn’t do anything wrong. Am I under arrest? You can’t force me to answer any questions. Just because I said Jill was hot doesn’t mean I did anything wrong.”

  Olin still had Gary by his spindly arm. His pale gray eyes that had been filled with lust only moments ago now flashed fear. He looked as though he only weighed about a hundred pounds and coupled with whatever he was smoking, there was no way he had the brawn or the brains to be the killer.

  “You were here on the desk all night. You might have seen something. You might be able to assist us,” Olin coaxed.

  “Oh yeah man, I was in charge. I run this place most nights you know, all by myself.”

  “And that is why you are a valuable asset.”

  Gary’s chest puffed out like a little bird and I imagined the story he would tell all the ladies he ran into in the future about how he helped the police catch a serial killer.

  Trouble was I had a feeling the only thing Olin wanted Gary to help him with was finding the rogue boyfriend he had been keeping at bay and that didn’t thrill me at all. I knew he was talking about Joe and Joe was not someone I wanted to discuss with Olin. He was a mistake, a stupid drunken mistake I had already dealt with. It wasn’t fair to drag my past through the mud just because some jackass wanted to kill me.

  “You’re coming too,” Olin pointed at me.

  “Wait Ma’am, we need your clothes.”

  One of the investigators handed me an evidence bag and stood expectantly, waiting for me to change out of the blood stained clothes I was still wearing.

  “What, now?” I asked. If he expected me to strip naked in a room full of cops he had another thing coming.

  “Yes. Sorry. We’ve taken over the room next door. You can change in there.”

  Olin looked torn between staying as my personal bodyguard and pumping Gary for information. I guess his curiosity finally won out because he turned to leave.

  “Fine. Come down to the station when you’re done here.”

  He left with Gary in tow. Obviously afraid if he waited too long his high might wear off and he would have second thoughts about assisting the police in a homicide investigation that may very well target him as an accomplice.

  “Is it okay if I take a shower?” I asked the evidence bag guy.

  “Sure. Put your clothes in the bag and give them to Harper, he’s holding down the fort in there. Then I guess Olin wants you downtown.”

  “Thanks.”

  The bag man smiled sadly. “Rather you than me.”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant.

  FORTY

  His laugh fills the woods, echoing up into the starry sky. They can’t hear him over the sirens and the commotion they make setting up their boundaries and chattering excitedly on their radios. He knows
they have never seen anything like this before, at least not in this backwoods town. He has brought a whole new level of pain to the people of Tangerine.

  Getting the body moved was easier than he expected but there have been unforeseen complications. He waits ages for Sam to finally return to the motel and each hour that passes, the body in the back of the truck begins to stiffen. He needs Jill to be pliable since he wants her final position to mirror that of Sam’s. Finally, when the time is right, he makes his move and everything has gone just as he imagined it would. Except when it came down to it he found he wasn’t ready for the final act.

  He had intended to leave the sluts body in place of Sam’s. He’s been ready to make the switch but standing there in the dark, watching her breathing slow and shallow, he realizes he’s not ready at all. He knows he wants her skin, desires it more than any victim he has ever coveted before. Even standing just a few feet away from her the arousal he feels is almost unbearable but he doesn’t touch. His self-control only increases the pleasure he knows will eventually come.

  He has power now. Over the players. Over the police. Even over himself. He is conducting them like an orchestra and he now sees a far bigger plan falling into motion. By the time he is done with everyone in this stupid, narrow minded town he will have his revenge. Then he can have Sam all to himself for as long as he likes. Maybe even forever.

  Crouched in the moist, dank sand amongst the saw palmettos a lone spider crawls across his sandaled foot. He swipes it up in one smooth swoop and puts it inside his mouth. It sits on his tongue for a moment, stunned to find itself in a foreign environment but when it starts to run, he swallows.

  Beside him in the moonlight, the tarp in the back of the truck moves gently and a growl escapes into the air. He already knows what he will do next. The power is intoxicating.