by Gail Caban
Wyatt pulled his vehicle into the garage and walked toward the front door. He could smell the aromas of garlic and basil permeating the air, and he instantly felt ravenous.
“Hey, honey,” Wyatt called out as he entered through the front door. “Something smells delicious.” There was no response from the kitchen.
“Honey?” Wyatt called out again. Being a cop, Wyatt always had the paranoia that went with it, but something felt strange at the moment. He put his hand on his standard-issue sidearm and unclipped the holster. He moved toward the kitchen and could see the back door was open. Wyatt moved quickly toward the door and peered outside. There was no movement in the backyard, so he closed the door and locked it behind him.
“Hey, babe!” a voice said behind Wyatt, which made him turn rapidly.
“Shit,” he exhaled forcefully.
“Woah, I’m sorry. Someone’s one edge.” Lindsay said, walking up to Wyatt. “I thought I’d quickly pop in the shower before the food came out of the oven, and I didn’t hear you come in.”
“No, I’m just feeling a bit jumpy, that’s all,” Wyatt said and smiled at his wife. Her black hair was still wet from the shower, and her green eyes sparkled under the kitchen’s lights. Wyatt took a few steps forward and wrapped his arms around her. He could smell the citrus off her warm skin, and he instantly felt aroused by his wife’s body pressing against his. He pulled her away just enough that he could place his lips on her hers. His lips lingered longer than usual, and Lindsay was very attuned to her husband, so she could feel where this was leading. Their kiss turned passionate as her tongue entered his mouth and he lifted her with his arms around her waist.
“Hold up there, tiger,” Lindsay said, pulling away from Wyatt’s embrace and then smiling at him. “If we carry on like this, the food is going to burn.”
“Let it burn, I’d like something else for dinner,” he said, lifting her into his arms.
Lindsay laughed, “That’s just because you don’t know what we’re having yet.”
Wyatt narrowed his eyes playfully, “What are we having?” “Your favorite.”
Wyatt’s eyes widened. “Lasagna and garlic bread?” Lindsay smiled and nodded whimsically. “Damn. Sorry little buddy, you’re going to have to wait for a while,” Wyatt said toward his groin.
Lindsay laughed and tapped him on the shoulder. “Will you put me down so I can finish up?” Wyatt smiled and lowered her down.
“If you want to help, you can set the table and pour some wine,” Lindsay said. Wyatt grabbed a bottle of cabernet from their wine rack and popped the cork while Lindsay removed the baking contents from the oven. As soon as she opened the oven’s door, the kitchen was flooded with wonderful smells “I’m drooling, honey,” Wyatt laughed.
“You’re just going to need to wait for a few minutes while I make a salad. Besides, you can’t pour the wine yet until it’s breathed for a few minutes.” After the salad was made and the wine was poured, the couple sat down at their small dining room table. Wyatt even decided to light a few candles while Lindsay was dishing up in the kitchen.
“Someone’s definitely in a mood tonight,” Lindsay winked at Wyatt as she took her first bite.
“Hey! A husband is allowed to want his wife,” Wyatt jestfully retaliated.
Lindsay smiled, “That’s true. So, how was your day?”
“Same old, same old. Nothing much happened today. Had a few calls of public disturbances, but it just turned out to be some teenagers making some noise. Other than that, I mainly caught up on paperwork. And yours?”
“The shop was relatively quiet until about lunchtime, and then a customer came in and ordered several bouquets of roses and daisies for a party next Saturday. And, if they’re happy with them, they said they’ll want to use the florist to cater the flowers to their wedding in a couple of months. So that’s rather exciting,” Lindsay said.
“That is exciting! I’m glad that the shop is doing so well,” Wyatt took a sip of his wine.
“How’s it going with Ness?” Lindsay asked.
“I’m not sure. She hasn’t really been opening up to me of late, and I don’t like where her mind seems to be at.” “Maybe she should come stay with us for a while,” Lindsay said. “I offered, but I don’t know if she’ll take us up on the offer.”
After dinner, Wyatt offered to wash the dishes because Lindsay went out of her way to make such a delicious meal, and washing dishes allowed him the perfect opportunity to be alone with his thoughts. Once he was finished, he went upstairs and could see that Lindsay was lying on the bed in her purple, silk nightdress—the very one that she knew turned him on the most.
Wyatt smiled as he walked into the room, and Lindsay moved off the bed and stood in front of Wyatt. She started unbuttoning his blue uniform shirt and started kissing his neck. Wyatt moaned in ecstasy and growing anticipation. Lindsay moved lower and kissed him over his abdomen—she started undoing his belt. Lindsay dropped to her knees and removed his hardening member out of his pants and started kissing the tip.
Wyatt gently stroked his wife’s hair and touched her ears as she started to put more of him inside of her mouth. Lindsay started moaning, which aroused Wyatt even more. The growing ecstasy was bringing him close to climaxing, so he gently stopped her and picked her up. He started kissing her passionately. He could taste himself on her lips.
Wyatt moved her onto the bed and started kissing her earlobes—Lindsay exhaled passionately, and Wyatt moved down her neck and started caressing her breasts with his lips. He spent time on each nipple, gently teasing them with his tongue. Wyatt could feel the increasing wetness between Lindsay’s legs on his groin. He moved lower, kissing her stomach and moving his lips between her legs. Lindsay moaned as he started licking her clitoris. Wyatt moved two of his fingers inside of her and within a few minutes, Lindsay’s body spasmed as she orgasmed. Wyatt moved up, back toward her lips and they kissed passionately as he entered her. Wyatt’s thrusts grew in intensity until he came inside Lindsay. They both moaned in a pleasurable release when Wyatt rolled off Lindsay—they laid next to each other.
Lindsay touched Wyatt’s temple gently, “There is something bothering you, isn’t there?”
“Why do you say that?”
“You seem a little distant, and besides, you’re my husband. I know when something is bothering you,” Lindsay kissed him gently.
“It’s Ness. She came into the station today, and she asked me if I’d heard of any murders in Chicago in the last few days. I told her that there wasn’t anything noteworthy, and then she asked me to forget that she asked.”
“Do you think she’s done something?” Lindsay moved closer to Wyatt.
“I don’t know. I hope not, but with this strange change that has occurred in her, I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Babe, I’m sure it’s nothing. I do think that things will be better when she comes to stay with us for a while. We can keep a close eye on her then.”
“Mm-hmm,” Wyatt agreed.
Lindsay moved her head onto Wyatt’s chest, and he turned out the light next to the bed. He stroked her gently, and within a few minutes, Lindsay’s breathing had become deep and serene. Wyatt continued to stroke her hair. The feel of Lindsay’s naked body and the smell of her hair calmed him. But there was an underlying feeling of darkness growing in Wyatt’s mind. Something was happening, he could feel it. Through their bedroom window, Wyatt watched clouds move in front of the full moon outside in the night sky. Normally he loved seeing the night sky as he drifted off to sleep, but tonight it felt different—tonight it felt sinister.
7
Ness flew over the back of the recliner and landed heavily on the other side. She struggled to breathe because the force of Eddie’s kick was far more powerful than she expected. As she was moving into a seated position, Eddie was moving in quickly to carry on with his assault. He moved to kick again, but Ness managed to dodge his kick by falling back to the ground and landing on her back. Eddie
still continued to move forward, but he underestimated Ness’ strike range, and she kicked up, straight for his groin. Ness made a hard impact with the soft tissue of his groin, and Eddie fell to the floor with a loud thud. Eddie groaned in pain.
“You bastard,” Ness tried to scream above her inability to breathe and was quickly moving to her feet.
“You didn’t think I was going to make this easy on you, did you?” Eddie said moving swiftly to a standing position. Ness wasn’t sure how he could be up after an impact like that to his groin, but there he stood. “Why did you attack me?” Ness shouted.
“If you want to kill people then you’re going to need to understand that most, if not all, of them will fight back against you. You need to expect the unexpected,” Eddie stated.
“But I don’t want to kill people!” Ness retaliated.
“Then leave. But you and I both know that the darkness within you will want to be fed. You might as well know how to do it, so you don’t face the electric chair,” Eddie sat down in his seat. “There’s no point in denying it, Ness.”
Ness sat down in the same recliner that she was kicked over a few minutes before. “So, what do I do now?”
“Now you learn. You need to learn not only how to kill because that’s the easy part. You need to learn how to choose your victims carefully and how to clean up the scene when you’re done. Leaving any trace evidence behind will lead to your capture. And, looking at how you killed Martin, you definitely need to work on your killing and clean up techniques.”
“I can’t just kill anyone. Martin deserved to die, so killing him was easy,” Ness said.
“But who are you to judge? By killing Martin, you have made yourself equally as bad as he is,” Eddie cleared his throat, “was, so if you want to look at the philosophical viewpoints of your internal argument, then you also deserve to die.”
Ness sat back in the recliner, not knowing what to say. She knew that Eddie was right, and she was just as guilty as Martin was. She fiddled with a thread on her jersey, “I want to kill bad people,” she whispered.
“What was that?” Eddie asked.
“I said, I want to kill bad people. People that hurt others and monopolize on the weaknesses of others or use corruption to get what they want.”
“Ahh, the vigilante type. Noble of you,” Eddie smirked.
Ness glared at him, “It’s the only way that I’m going to do this.”
“Fair enough,” Eddie moved the coffee table back and moved the pawn in front of his king to the e4 square. “So, what now?”
Eddie sighed as he contemplated his answer, “Chess players need to see multiple moves ahead, and they need to predict how their opponents are going to move. Once you’re able to predict certain outcomes, you will be able to make the best decision for the scenario that you’re in.”
Ness started thinking, “There are still a few loose ends with Martin.”
Eddie tapped his nose with his index finger, “Tell me.”
“His car is still outside of your bar, and it will only be a few more days until it’s towed. That will raise several suspicions. A person can’t just disappear into thin air, and if Henry Martin is discovered missing, there will be a manhunt for him. The best outcome here is for him to die and people presume that it was an accident. Do you still have access to his body?”
Eddie nodded, “It’s in a freezer. That affects the body in multiple different ways, and any pathologist with half a brain will be able to figure that out.”
“Well then we have to make it look right. When is garbage day in your area at the bar?”
“Tomorrow,” Eddie responded.
“Shit. That only gives us tonight to sort this out.”
Eddie laughed, “Us?”
“You said you wanted to teach me, so now’s your opportunity,” Ness stated.
“What are you planning with this? Let’s see how those ‘killer cogs’ are working in your mind.”
“We go back and retrieve his body and his car tonight—we plant enough booze bottles in the car to make it look believable. There’s a road on a mountain pass on Devil’s Head which is around 200 miles from here. If we leave now, we might be able to stage the scene there and be back before morning.”
“Why Devil’s Head?”
“I used to go there as a kid. We used to camp regularly out there. I know the area quite well, and it has a road right next to a sheer cliff. If Martin’s car goes over the side of the cliff, it will be a few days until it’s found . . . most likely.”
“What about the car’s GPS? He drives a new Range Rover Sport, and all of them come equipped with satellite navigation. The cops may be able to use that to trace the car when he’s reported missing,” Eddie said, rising from his chair.
“Will disconnecting the car’s battery before pushing it off the cliff disable the GPS tracking?” Ness asked.
“It may. And this plan of yours may not be foolproof, but it’s certainly better than anything I expected you to come up with. You drive. We’ll head to the bar and get his body out of the freezer,” Eddie started walking toward the door.
“Wait. His body is still at the bar?” Ness walked behind him, but her sternum hurt as she moved.
Eddie nodded and smiled, “Let’s get this show on the road.”
30 minutes later, Ness parked her Civic across the road from the bar. Because it was almost 11:00 P.M., much of the foot traffic was reduced on the road. “We’ll have to go around back. There are some freezers that I have in the storage room that the employees don’t have access to. And since the bar is still running at this hour, it will be better that no one sees us go in,” Eddie said, climbing out the car.
Ness nodded and exited the vehicle. She saw the Range Rover parked nearby, and she could see at least two parking tickets under the windshield wipers. At least the car hadn’t been towed yet. They moved hastily into the alleyway and toward a large metal door. Eddie pulled out his keys and unlocked it.
“This is where you were when you saw me kill him?”
Eddie turned and winked at her. They went inside and closed the door behind them. Eddie led her down a long corridor that felt more like a hospital corridor than one that belonged behind a bar.
“The freezers are in here,” he said, unlocking another door. They entered the room and Eddie turned on the lights. There were five large chest freezers in the room, and Ness wondered quietly why he would need so many freezers for such a small bar.
“Put these on,” Eddie handed her a pair of thick, black latex gloves. You’ll have to tie your hair up and wear a mask too when you drive the Range Rover to Devil’s Head. There are many new forensic techniques and tests that the police can perform nowadays, so you’ll have to be careful not to leave any traces that you were in the vehicle.”
“I’m driving the Range Rover to Devil’s Head?” Ness looked slightly shocked.
“Of course, you are, grasshopper. Welcome to your first lesson.”
“I thought you attacking me was my first lesson,” Ness scoffed. “Nah, that was just a bit of fun,” Eddie laughed.
Sicko, Ness thought to herself. “Here he is,” Eddie opened the freezer, and the sight of Martin’s grotesquely injured body greatly affected Ness. “You alright? You look like you’re going to be sick.”
“I’m not used to being around death yet.” “Well, this is your handiwork. May as well be proud of it,” Eddie said.
Ness peered into the freezer and could see that Martin's face looked like frozen ground beef with hair on the top. She forced herself to look at the violence that she inflicted on him, and what she saw scared her. “Get his keys.”
Ness pulled a face and started patting his pockets. She was terrified that he was going to start moving, even though she knew that wasn’t possible. She remembered that he put the keys into his right jacket pocket when she was persuading him to come into the alleyway. She grabbed the lower end of his jacket and she could feel the keys in his pocket. She pulled them out and
turned to leave, but Eddie caught her by the arm.
“Not yet. Before you get the car, you need to check and see if he needs to check in with anyone. Grab his phone out of his pocket.” Ness continued to pat him down until she could feel the phone in his jeans pocket.
“Is it still working? The battery may have died because of the cold temperature of the freezer,” Eddie stated. “No, it’s still on, but how are we going to unlock it?” Ness asked.
Eddie held up his hand and wiggled his thumb, “Most new smartphones have fingerprint sensors. You might as well try and unlock his phone with his right thumb.”
Ness grimaced as she held the phone’s sensor to Martin’s right thumb, but nothing happened. She looked at Eddie in trying to figure out what to do. “Try warming his thumb up.”
Ness’ eyes betrayed her displeasure, but she held his finger for about a minute, and even though she was wearing latex gloves, there was enough heat to adequately warm the thumb up. Ness tried again to unlock the phone. “It unlocked,” Ness exclaimed.
“Now check his messages and see if there’s anyone that’s tried to get in touch with him. There’s one from his dad, but it appears they were arguing about something—I won’t respond there. He’ll probably just suspect that Martin holed up somewhere for a few days.” Eddie nodded.
“But there is one from an Ashley asking him where he is,” Ness said.
“Alright, read through some of the past messages, and ensure that you write a message like Martin would. If you write a message that doesn’t sound like him, it can raise suspicions very quickly,” Eddie said.
“He seems like he’s a real dick to her,” Ness said, scrolling through the messages.
“No shit. I don’t think you would have done that to his face if he was a nice person.” Ness just gave him a sour glare and started typing a message and pushed send.
“What did you say?”
“Just said that I’d be away for a few days. Didn’t give a reason: he didn’t in any of his other messages.”
“Good. Go and get his Range Rover and reverse it into the alleyway. We’ll be able to move the body to the trunk then without being noticed.” Ness nodded, tied her hair up, and headed toward the metal exit door. She peered outside to ensure that the alleyway was clear and walked toward the vehicle. Fortunately, the street was relatively quiet, and she managed to get into the vehicle without being noticed. Ness donned a mask before entering the vehicle. She was heeding every word of Eddie’s advice—even if he was a violent psychopath. She started the vehicle up and drove it toward the alleyway before turning it around and reversing in. The breadth of the Range Rover made it a rather tight squeeze, but she managed to get it right to the door. Ness climbed out and grabbed the tickets off the windshield and left them on the passenger seat and headed back inside.
