A pair of scrap collectors had discovered some neatly wrapped human arms earlier whilst they scavenged the area for any items of value. Upon discovering there grim finds they had immediately called the police and now the on looking crowd watched from behind a fence as these newly discovered treasures where being systematically removed from their secluded and unmarked watery grave. The horrifically familiar scene of soaking wet human remains that had been systematically dismembered only differed from the previous Cuyahoga homicides scene in that the body parts where wrapped and frozen solid, making them hard to the touch. There frozen exterior still retained the distinctive bruise markings from both the restraints around the arms and feet as well as the harsh brush marks from the deranged Mad Butchers frantic cleaning attempts.
Since the previous double homicides the increasingly confrontational newspapers had criticized Ness for his overly excessive use of force to disperse the rowdy protestor crowds by the Cuyahoga River. He had ordered the use of baton wielding policemen to vigorously disperse the protestors after he had a failed meeting with the mayor and the leaders of the group. Many of the public deemed his methods of using teams of baton wielding policemen as overkill and a totally inappropriate use of force but Ness was so seething with rage after his confrontation with Merlyo that he had wanted to lash out at the defiant protestors. Not only had this harsh use of violence created chaos and panic within the striker’s ranks but also caused over one hundred strikers to be hospitalized, a resulting physical manifestation of Ness’s internal rage which had leapt from troubled mind and into reality. Ness however deemed his methods upon this dark day as entirely appropriate due to both the unrealistic demands of the strike leaders and the rotten eggs that were thrown on both his beloved silver Scarab and coat.
The two Cuyahoga river homicide victims were still predictably not identified and now this new macabre find was located ominously close to Ness’s own office, just two hundred yards away in fact and so close that he could just about see the homicide seen from his window. Both detectives knew what this unspoken message meant and also knew that the Mad Butcher was sending the brutal safety director a personal message that he could simply not ignore. This was a defiant challenge from the killer directly aimed directly towards Ness and both detectives worryingly pondered his opioid infused reaction to such a challenge, concerned over how he may overreact to this public display of defiance.
The detectives pondered this worryingly new development as the lonesome search diver disappeared once more into the murky waters depths, leaving only a few solitary bubbles in his wake. Both Merlyo and Zalewski where comically dressed like transient hoboes as they stood over the rancid murky swimming pool and keenly observed the diver’s bubbles pop with alarming irregularity. Both wore dirty old brown and shabby looking trousers whilst there ill-fitting brown jackets were pleasantly adorned with a complex multitude of filthy muck. Their equally dirty shirts where filled with a complex and comprehensive multitude of thought out variations of food stains as there tatty old brown shoes sat awkwardly upon their feet.
Merlyo had surprisingly accessorized with a small brown felt hat that sat awkwardly upon his head and had even gone to the lengths of adding a thin wooden stick which had a small polka dot sack tied to the end of it, supposedly represented all his worldly possessions. Zalewski and the rest of the detectives back in the department headquarters had found this hilariously funny because Merlyo had so many unique clothes of eccentricity that such a small sack was found to be exceedingly inadequate for a man of his uniquely acquired tastes. By now both undercover detectives where well versed in working undercover within the notorious Roaring Third area of Kingsbury Run and had hoped to gain some valuable insight into the local’s nefarious activities. Nothing else had worked so far and all the leads had long since dried up, just like the ancient riverbed that now lay hidden beneath them.
Both jaded detectives stood there looking miserably depressed at the sight before them as there grimy faces and shabby outward appearances could not hide their disheartened feelings about the Mad Butcher investigation. The abusive locals reprimanded them for their inferior detective abilities as well as their undercover appearance that was supposed to be representative of the average local inhabitant. All of a sudden the choppy yet unbroken murky waters surface was invaded by a few more bubbles that originated from the deep within its murky interior, indicating that the unseen diver may have located something of interest. The reluctant surface was then again broken by the diver as he then shot up from the concealing green shroud below him and was this time triumphantly clutching the lower half of a wrapped dismembered leg, judging from its shape.
The victoriously smiling diver looked at both the on looking hobo detectives as he placed his treasured find on the nearby dirty white sheet before then once again returning back into its uncharted murky depths to probe for other grim finds. The gloomy sky above was representative of both detective’s mood of despondency because of the lack of progression within this conundrum of a case. The gently falling rain saturated the already moister laden atmosphere that surrounded them all within an encompassing blanket of mist. Both miserable detectives looked on in grim disbelief as the wind effortlessly buffeted the turbulent surface within its almighty power, tossing up the occasional small wave which remarkable contained a large assortment of floating trash and bottles.
The swimming pool itself was located deep within a disused vacant lot of land that had not been used for its original purpose of creation for a very long time, now looking less like a pleasant swimming pool and more like a dump site. This disused swimming pool and its surrounding land where now being used by the local community, and apparently the Mad Butcher himself, as a large open sewage dump as litter and garbage pervaded all as far as the eye could see. It was well known throughout the local community as the East 9th Street Lakeshore Dump and the surrounding land was filled with all manner of discarded refuse, garbage and household waste which gave the distinctly foreboding impression of a desolate landscape that did not wish to be disturbed. The putrid smelling water itself was incredibly murky, had low visibility and produced a horrendous odour whenever the diver broke its turbulent surface with his accompanying bubbles.
Both detectives had been instructed to go here early this morning after the junk collector’s initial report of their gruesome find and whilst the police cordoned off the immediate area and searched it, they found nothing else except for this disused swimming pool. It did not take a detective to determine that there might be some more of the Mad Butchers macabre secrets hidden within its foreboding waters. Both silent detectives continued to look at the depressing sight with an uneasy familiarity as they starred ominously into its murky green depths whilst the occasional bubble broke the oily surface and slowly yet reluctantly popped, seemingly unwilling to release its dark contents into the world outside.
A tired Merlyo looked at the bubble as it reluctantly shed its putrid gaseous contents into the surrounding atmosphere and felt a sudden feeling that he had not felt before in this entire baffling case, that of a despondent learned helplessness. It was as if this simple bubble had showed him the ugly truth about this strange case in that nothing was as it appeared to be because the bubble was not simply a bubble but housed a dark secret which emanated from its unknown origins at the pools unseen bottom. A bubbling lure to entice only the bravest into its unseen depths which masked the horrendous truth that lay within its dirty water, thankfully concealing the true horror that lay below.
Merlyo felt depressed because no matter what he or his partner did, the Mad Butcher always appeared to elude them and it was as if he was some sort of ethereal phantom whom constantly clouded their minds with his unholy power. They could only ever see the results of this phantoms work, such as the body parts being brought back up through the murky water, and never seemed to actually see the culprit who performed the macabre actions. This annoying obscurity gave the infamous Mad Butcher an almost legendary status no
w within the newspapers, turning a true horror into mere entertainment for the masses and diluting the tragedy that he was actively creating. Both detectives felt like the case was like looking into the raindrop riddled depths of the murky pool before them in that they could not seem to differentiate between the killer and his concealing environment. Even now the depressed Merlyo was secretly beginning to think that perhaps this killer was more than a mere man, a monster perhaps which was more grotesque than he could have ever conceived within his own worst nightmares.
The wily detective then looked depressingly down at his trusty notepad’s last entry which showed the most recent homicide within all its gruesome clarity, further pushing him into the arms of the a newly discovered learned helplessness that now beckoned to him on a daily basis. His notepad’s page contained a small photograph which was taken by Gerber of a decomposed torso with the word Nazi carved into its rotten flesh. A backwards ‘z’ was noticeable in its odd appearance and instantly made the detective recall this latest troubling murder.
Recently a homeless vagrant had accidentally come across the grim find of a decapitated body of a middle aged man while taking a short cut through some boxcars near New Castle, Pennsylvania. New Castle was well connected to Cleveland’s Kingsbury Run train hub through the Baltimore and Ohio railroad line link, causing many to speculate that the victim could have been killed whilst in Kingsbury Run and disposed of within the boxcar. The unknown victim had been dead for a significant amount of time and his head was surprisingly also found within the boxcar along with a pile of bloody clothing. Judging by the enormous quantity of blood that had seeped into the surrounding wood this victim had apparently been killed where his body was found and Gerber had stated that the head was cut off after death had already occurred.
Gerber suspected that it was either a copycat killer or an indication that the Mad Butcher’s already fragile mental state was further deteriorating. Due to these variations in the killing method it was speculated by Merlyo and others that this homicide could possibly have been done by a copycat killer because the Mad Butcher would usually kill within the safety of his own abattoir, scrub the victims clean and drain there blood rather than kill them on the spot. He would also subject them to hours of prolonged torture prior to their eventual murders and no restraint bruises where discovered upon the victim’s decomposing flesh, further pushing the copycat argument towards acceptance. This was yet another alarming possibility for Merlyo’s troubled mind to ponder and he paged past the homicide entry to get to a fresh new blank page which he starred at despondently, reluctant to start a new chapter in this gruesome series of unsolved homicides that plagued his nightmares.
He then looked down at his fresh new page as the light rain saturated its virgin surface, pondering the relevance of his being there at all and knowing that no evidence would be found because of the Mad Butchers obviously superior intelligence. The preoccupied Zalewski then finally broke his sombre viewing of the mesmerizingly turbulent waters, glanced at the local onlookers of the macabre spectacle and broke the deathly silence “There must be like seventy people watching us wouldn’t you say? Geez! There’ll probably be two hundred by the time we finish! You think one of them is the killer?”
The depressed Merlyo did not look up or break his vison from the notepad as he continued to reluctantly stare at his blank page, still hesitant to start it. He then replied after a brief moment of mulling over the complexities of his despondently negative feelings “Probably! Who cares anyway because it’s not like we’ll ever know” A concerned Zalewski had been with his partner long enough to realise when he was feeling low and so he turned to him in consideration and spoke in an uplifting and more positive manner, wishing to break his partner out of the prison of hopelessness “Listen man! I know this case appears to be somewhat stuck in a quagmire so to speak but you know what? At least you’ve got Poppy back in your life so things are looking up aren’t they!”
Just by hearing her magical name the sombre detective felt re-energised and recharged as new life came back to into his body as he excitedly thought about their numerous secret rendezvous at both Wohl’s café and his own home. It was truly amazing to think about how over the course of the a single year, since that initial kiss at the Great Lakes Exposition, everything had changed for the better which was in sharp contrast to the unsolved homicides. They were secretly seeing each other now on a regular basis and even more since Ness’s apparent momentary foray into madness that infamous evening of ordering the protestors to be violently suppressed.
Merlyo appeared to have benefited both within his love life and work after Ness had apparently faltered in both of his, changing the wily detective into a more determined gumshoe whom had arisen from the ashes of solitary lonesomeness. Because of her renewed romantic interest in him he now felt fully reenergized within his undercover work with Zalewski, seeking out dubious characters within the shadowy streets of Kingsbury Run on an almost daily basis and following up on any leads in hope that they may discover the Mad Butcher’s whereabouts. It was not all good however because Poppy was still unfortunately seeing the reclusively troubled Ness due to her work commitments as Evaline’s bodyguard and this highly irritated him, causing him to spend many sleepless nights speculating on why she so desperately craved love from the both of them.
He thought the she probably saw him as the simplistic, intimate and caring person whom she would call if she needed some emotional tenderness and warmth whereas Ness was the man she would call when she needed some expensive new gifts, be taken out to the latest fashionable restaurant or simply required raw and uninhibited sex. He knew that such a complicated woman as Poppy could love both men separately because love in itself was an irrational construct that was unimpeded by humanistic boundaries and saturated with unruly contradictions.
After contemplating his troubling theories about his complicated love life, he verbalised his discomfort with an uncharacteristic groan and shrug of his shoulders as he finally replied to the awaiting Zalewski “Whatever!” Zalewski appeared to have a huge smile permanently edged upon his comically dirty looking face, eager to see the results of his compassionately uplifting remark about Poppy and slightly disappointed with Merlyo’s negatively deflated and defeatist response. Any other day and Merlyo would have laughed at his amusing face but today he did not feel like expressing joy in anyway due to this newly discovered homicide victim whom they were both currently looking at. The Mad Butchers tally was now an eerie eleven, excluding the Nazi carved torso which would bring him up to a terrifying twelve if this dubious homicide was added, and this horrifying total was made all the more troubling because they still had no good suspects to investigate.
Merlyo then reluctantly followed up on his uncharacteristically defeatist response and vocalised his discomfort with both this troublesome case and his chaotic love life “I don’t think we’ll ever catch this guy because he’s murdered eleven to twelve people now and that’s only the ones that we know about! We still don’t even have a solid clue or suspect. We don’t have anything! Absolutely nothing! I feel like a useless bandage on a cancer Zalewski! This guys like a phantom! I don’t even think that he’s a human! He’s something else, something much darker and more insidious, a true life monster incarnate!” After a momentary pause the jaded detective continued “And as far as my relationship with Poppy is concerned, I feel like I’m being used by her as if I’m like I’m some kind of? Oh! I don’t know? Some kind of ‘dirty whore’ or something like that?” Zalewski briefly laughed at this amusing comment and all the imagery that it unwittingly implied but soon quietened down upon seeing Merlyo’s serious looking facial expression which oozed an achingly unspoken pain.
All of a sudden the search diver conveniently broke through the turbulent waters surface at this awkwardly silent moment and triumphantly held up another wrapped treasure within his dripping hand. Miraculously he had discovered what appeared to be a frozen hand within the zero visibility at the botto
m of the unseen and green tinged pool. This ghastly find was dripping with the familiar thick mud that the other body parts where found in and he then carefully placed it upon the white sheet before then proceeding to submerge himself once again within the murky depths, leaving just a few bubbles in his wake. Zalewski was thankful at the diver’s speedy intervention which had broken his awkwardly ill-thought out and humorous response to his sad partner’s obviously troubled plight.
He then looked up at the dark swirling clouds that surrounded them above and paused for a moment as he contemplated his next remark with extreme care. The light rain became slightly harder now as it continued to drizzle around them which caused the turbulent waters surface to ripple more so with the ever larger raindrops that now assaulted it. After a moment’s silence whereby both mesmerized detectives watched these ever larger raindrops impact the water’s surface, Zalewski once again broke the silence in an attempt to uplift his obviously troubled partner “Listen man! the only whore around here is P…” he instinctively paused as he saw that Merlyo’s angry face now look at him with an immense disapproval and he then looked away towards the crowd and bit his lip hard, disappointed of his second ill though out remark.
The Noir Evil Page 34
