by Tyler Porter
“I’m retired kid, it’s just Casey.”
“Oh, well uh Casey, I think there’s something inside the house you need to see. In the basement.”
Chapter 35: The Basement
The smell was as close to unbearable as it could possibly be. I had serious doubts I would be able to stay in the space long enough to see what was causing the stench and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I lifted my shirt up and covered my nose, focusing on not allowing the vomit to rise up my esophagus. Blood stained the cement floor, more of it than I had expected. This was clearly where she’d kept her victims and where she’d killed and dismembered them. She must have suggested Hunt come here to clear his head, knowing it would lead me here for the finale she’d been planning.
There was a structural pole in the center of the basement, chains wrapped around the base of it. A workbench was secured to one wall, a hammer and a staple gun sat on its top. Each of the other walls were bare and the windows in the space were covered so that even if someone did happen onto the property, there was no chance anyone would see them from outside the house.
I walked the space no sure what I was looking for. The case was closed. We knew who our killer was and we knew with absolute certainty who our killer wasn’t. So why the hell was I here? For fuck sakes, I wasn’t even an active officer. I had no reason to stay, yet something was pulling at me. Something told me there was more that I wasn’t seeing. I walked the floor, doing another visual sweep of the space and the workbench.
Nothing. I went to the pole in the center of the room. Looking at its base. The blood was the obvious part, but there was something more.
Hair.
Human hair stuck to the ground in blood and mucus. I looked away quickly, feeling the bile rising again. I’d seen enough. I turned and began walking to the stairs, but the same young officer who’d brought me down to the basement called out.
“Casey! This isn’t everything sir…the door,” he said pointing to a closed door to a boxed off area of the basement.
“Fuck me,” I said under my breath, frustrated that this couldn’t just be done.
I walked over to the door, reached out, turned the knob, pushed and let the door glide open revealing the contents of the small room.
“Oh my God.”
Bodies was the first word that came to mind, but only because I’d been dealing with so many of them lately. The correct word would have been skeletons. Remnants of previous victims. Melanie Green had not been the first. She’d been sixth. Cooper had been practicing way before we found the first body, perfecting her craft and ensuring that she knew exactly what she was doing before she got me involved.
She’d worked out all the kinks, figured out every angle, ironed out every detail. She wanted to get as close to perfection as possible because that’s what she believed her work would have to be to beat me. To defeat me. To show the world that she was better and that I wasn’t what everyone thought. Just to do that, she’d taken twelve lives. The five decomposed corpses, Melanie, Sophia, Tiffany, Shelby, Marty, Karen, and Hunt. It had eventually cost a thirteenth.
Her own.
I dropped my head, turned and left the basement, leaving the young officer to deal with the clean-up. I walked out of the house, past all the officers, not stopping to talk to anyone. I arrived at the car I’d come there in, got in and backed out of the driveway to head for home, but before I could get two miles down the road, my cell phone rang. I looked down at the screen. Neil Connors.
“It’s done Captain,” I said. “It wasn’t Hunt; it was Cooper…she was The Optometrist. They’re both dead, but I’m sure you’ve gotten that report already.”
“I have…are you alright?”
“I will be.”
“Good. Listen, I need you to swing by the precinct before you head home,” he said.
“Come on Neil, it’s been a long couple of days. I can email you my statement and report in the morning. I need to sleep.”
“Norris, it’s important. I promise I will make it brief and get you on your way home.”
“Fucking hell,” I muttered. “Fine, I’ll be there in twenty, but with God, Allah and fucking Buddha as my witnesses there will be a third corpse tonight if you don’t keep it quick.”
I hung up the phone and tossed it into the passenger seat slamming my hands back onto the wheel. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to drown in a bottle of Jim Beam and not think about this shit anymore. I couldn’t. Now, after all this shit, after Hunt, after everything he wants me to come in for a fucking meet and greet? The anger swept through until I finally arrived in front of the police building.
I told myself that if he kept this shit going for longer than fifteen minutes I was just going to turn around and leave. He wasn’t my boss anymore and even if he was it wouldn’t have made a difference. It never did when I was active and it sure as hell didn’t now. I had a retirement to get back to. I walked in, through the bullpen, not making eye contact with anyone out of fear that I might get sucked into a conversation meaning more time before I could go home. I opened the door to Neil’s office, closed the door behind me and sat down the chair opposite from where he was sitting on the other side of his desk.
“Christ make it quick or I swear I’m gonna lay down on your desk until tomorrow morning,” I said.
“You’re gonna sit there and tell me that you had no doubts that our killer was Hunt? Not the slightest feeling about him or Cooper?”
“I’ve had a lot of feelings Captain. A lot. They were similar when I think back about it. If I’d applied the profile to her like I did to him, I probably would have seen what was right in front of me.”
“But you didn’t,” he said.
“But I didn’t. I was wrong and a good man is dead because of it.”
He nodded his head agreeing with my statement before continuing.
“You were wrong,” he said still nodding. “I want you back Norris.”
“What?” I said almost falling out of my seat. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I want you to come out of retirement and I want you to go back to leading the team,” he said clasping his hands together, intertwining his fingers and resting them on the desk in front of him.
“With all due respect, are you out of your damn mind? We just had a conversation about me being wrong and about how that resulted in the death of a good detective and your answer to that is to ask me to come back?”
“Norris, you and I have gone back and forth for a long, long time. The main issue that I have had with you from day one is that you were never willing to admit you made a mistake. You were never willing to accept that you might be wrong, or that someone might know better. That’s changed. That much is obvious. If we can take one good thing from all this tragedy, it’s that.”
“Why don’t you have Perez do it? He’s more than capable and he’s done his time.”
“It needs to be you. They are a mess. They’ve just lost three members of their team not to mention you with the retirement. Asking them to get used to new teammates and a new leader is going to put them all at risk, at least for a while until all of this settles down. You are the only one who I wouldn’t worry about breaking down under all this shit, as much as that hurts to say. Look, I’m not sitting here asking you commit another thirty years. Just come back for the time being until we can get things back on track,” he said.
“What team are you even referring to? You got Hall and Perez left, that’s it. That’s a long way from a full team. Why don’t you just assign them to a new unit?”
“They’ve worked together since Perez got here and they are all each has left in this job, unless you come back. We can work together on rebuilding the team over time. Norris, I’m asking you for a favor here. I truly don’t think they are okay and you coming back just might minimize the fallout from this case
. Please.”
I thought about it hard, returning his gaze. I sat there not saying a word for several minutes before I answered.
“…One condition.”
Epilogue
“Alright everyone quiet the fuck down, it’s early and I am far from through my first cup,” I said raising my coffee in the air as I addressed the briefing room. “Hall, Perez, you’re both familiar with Jim Cullen. As of this morning, he is going to be joining our team.”
Cullen waved to the group with a beaming smile planted on his face. He couldn’t be happier, and it was obvious.
“I trust you’re all observant enough to notice that there is also a young lady in our midst. You will not be familiar with her, but you will become familiar very quickly because she will be stepping in as the fifth member of our team. Kathy Proctor. Just transferred in from Billings. Her record is gleaming, you can all do your research later if need be, but in the meantime make her feel welcome. Otherwise I’ll kick your ass.”
“Or I will,” she said making her presence known.
I smiled to myself as did the guys. She was going to fit in just fine. “Good. We can save the formal introductions and pleasantries for later; we got another case to dig into. Just landed on my desk this morning and I suggest that everyone take a good, deep breath before opening these files,” I said passing out one to each of them. “It’s a rough one.”
READER REVIEWS
Hello again and thank you so much for reading my forth novel, Eyes Never Lie. This is the first in what is set to be an exciting new thriller series following the cases of Detective Casey Norris and his team. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the story and that you will consider reading the future books in the series.
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TYLER’S OTHER BOOKS
Love Before Law – Book 1
Vengeance Before Virtue – Love Before Law Book 2
Rage Before Redemption – Love Before Law Book 3
