The Screaming Room jd-2

by Thomas O`Callaghan

  “She’s a fighter,” said Thomlinson.

  “You’re a fighter, too,” said the priest. “It takes stamina to keep the sleeping tiger at bay.”

  In the course of a prior investigation, the detective had been ordered to drive to the young lady’s house, pick her up, and bring her to Driscoll’s office, where she was to provide a helpful statement. It was a routine assignment. On his way, though, he stopped to buy a Lotto ticket. While he was standing in line, waiting to purchase what he hoped would be a ticket back to the islands, the young girl was abducted. In an attempt to silence the voices of condemnation that riddled his brain, Thomlinson turned, again, to alcohol.

  In this man’s police department, very few get a second chance. He had Driscoll to thank for that, and he silently voiced his appreciation during the communal Lord’s Prayer that ended the meeting. After that, Thomlinson walked out into the brisk night air, made his way to his cruiser, slipped in behind the steering wheel, and repeated the prayer. This was, after all, his second go-round.

  Chapter 19

  Another hot and steamy Sunday morning in July greeted the first visitors to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. Among them was a wiry-haired man with his six-year-old son.

  “Permission for me and my son to come aboard, sir?” The man was addressing the sailor who was guarding the gang-way to the museum’s main attraction: the Intrepid’s flight deck.

  “Permission granted,” the sailor replied, firing a rigid salute to the little freckled-faced boy flaunting a white ensign’s cap inscribed

  USS IOWA.

  “Let’s go, Daddy!” the boy said.

  Scurrying up the steel-studded steps, they reached the carrier’s upper deck. It was immense. Gutted warplanes stood silent under a blistering sun. A semicircle of onlookers had formed around the exhibit’s newest acquisition: a Russian MiG-21.

  The boy’s attention was diverted to a loud commotion erupting behind an F-14 Tomcat. Filled with curiosity, he bolted behind the aircraft. A bare-chested youth, his wrists in handcuffs, was yelling at his girlfriend. Provoked, the girl lunged forward, striking her restrained Romeo on the side of his head with the heel of her shoe.

  “See that? See that? Why ain’t ya handcuffing her?” the youth screamed. “Ain’t that assault with a deadly weapon?”

  “Any more out of you, young lady, and you’ll be riding in the wagon, too,” the military guard warned. He barked orders into his handheld radio. “Reilly, here! We got ourselves a situation on the flight deck. Get a transport ready.”

  “What exactly we lookin’ at?” the dispatcher’s voice crackled back.

  “A domestic quarrel…with injuries. I cuffed the agitator after he slapped his girlfriend in the face. While I had him immobilized, she hauls off and tattoos him on the side of the head with her shoe.”

  The guard positioned himself between the two combatants to block another blow from the irate girlfriend.

  “Look, Jack! Over there! That’s a Fighting Falcon! Let’s get a closer look,” the father urged, hoping to distract his son from the fracas.

  “D-a-a-a-d. This is getting g-o-o-d.”

  “We came to see the planes, remember?”

  “But, D-a-a-a-d.”

  The father steered his son to the steps that led to the exhibits featured below.

  “Why was that lady hitting that man?” the boy asked, descending the steps ahead of his father.

  “I don’t know, son. The man must have done something bad.”

  “Was the policeman gonna take him to jail?”

  “Sure looked that way to me.”

  As the boy and his father were nearing the bottom of the steps, a prerecorded voice sounded from a loudspeaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, the USS Intrepid was used by NASA as the primary recovery vessel for the Mercury and Gemini space programs. Just imagine yourself returning to Earth and the first people you see are the sailors aboard this floating airport…”

  Reaching the hangar deck, the man led his son to the exhibit marked “Aircrafts of the Pacific.” He pointed at the Grumman F6F Hellcat, which was painted in the navy’s tri-color camouflage: sea blue, intermediate blue, and insignia white. He then read aloud from the aircraft’s polished plaque: “The Hellcat’s most successful day in combat came on June 19, 1944, during operations in the Mariana Islands. During this air battle, which became known as ‘The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,’ the Japanese lost over three hundred seventy-five planes. Eighty were lost by the United States… Wow! Pretty impressive, eh, Jack?”

  “Sure is,” the wide-eyed youth said, stroking the underside of the plane’s sleek fuselage. “Look! Over there! What’s that one?”

  A larger aircraft had caught the boy’s attention.

  “Let’s go have a look,” said his dad.

  They headed toward the next exhibit. The father depressed its red button, activating its tape.

  A prerecorded voice began its narration: “The three-seat TBM 3-E Avenger, with a wingspan of over fifty-four feet and an overall length of forty feet, was the country’s primary torpedo bomber during World War II. Loaded with two thousand pounds of bombs and armed with three manually aimed fifty-caliber machine guns, the Avenger had a maximum speed of two hundred seventy-six miles per hour and could climb over one thousand feet per minute.”

  “Wow! That’s almost as fast as Mommy when she’s out shopping, eh, Jack?…Jack?…Jack?”

  “I’m under here, Dad.” The boy had made his way below the fuselage of the plane. “Looks like this one sprung a leak,” said the boy pointing to a puddle that had formed under the belly of the plane.

  “That’s odd!” said the father. “These models have no engines…and that looks too dark to be fuel.” Bending down, he palpated the goo between his fingers, then brought the smear to his nose.

  As his father stood in confusion, Jack climbed the steel staircase to the plane’s cockpit.

  “What the hell is going on?” the man exclaimed, suddenly realizing what it was his son had found. “This plane is bleeding!”

  “Daddy!” the boy cried out. “This one’s got a pilot!”

  Chapter 20

  Larry Pearsol completed the postmortem on Tatsuya Inagaki, the tourist from Tokyo whose lifeless form had been removed from the cockpit of the American fighter plane.

  “Examination of the cephalic region reveals sharp force trauma resulting in a massive head wound, measuring seven-point-six-four centimeters to right parietal, causing fracture to the skull and bone splinters to penetrate the brain. Thirteen-point-two-centimeter linear penetration to the skin of the forehead noted. Irregular tearing of scalp…” said the ME, removing his surgical gloves. “Sure looks like the same handiwork that felled the last three victims, Lieutenant. But how would the killer pull it off with a twenty-four-hour police presence?”

  “That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.”

  Bill Heisek, Manhattan’s borough commander, had been hauled into the Mayor’s office along with Police Commissioner Brandon to explain why the officers of Midtown North looked upon these killings as a “Task Force thing.” One universal shortcoming of the department was that almost everyone was territorial. Where the hell were they while the killer struck and posed his victim? the Mayor wanted to know. Heisek was at a loss for an answer, much to the chagrin of Sully Reirdon and the commissioner. He could only assure both men that it would never happen again. It was a sure bet he’d make good on that promise, for if he didn’t, he’d be demoted to the rank of duty captain.

  The Mayor was particularly perturbed because the press had trampled all over the police department. The Daily News headline read: NYPD CAUGHT NAPPING, while the Post ran with COPS BLIND TO LATEST SLAYING.

  Driscoll, standing next to the corpse of victim number four, reflected on Pearsol’s findings. What am I missing? he pondered. And what’s with the scalping?

  “I do have some good news,” said the ME. “I found some scrapings under the vic’s fingernails. Looks like
maybe some skin with traces of blood. Could belong to your suspect. I’ll have the lab boys run the DNA and blood profiles right away.”

  Driscoll nodded. The skin tracings and the blood meant this victim had a chance to fight back. With any luck, the next one might survive.

  “Larry, what kind of psycho straps a Japanese tourist into the cockpit of an American fighter plane?” asked Driscoll, eyes fixed on Jasper Eliot’s eight-by-ten glossy displaying the newly found cadaver.

  “Could it have something to do with Pearl Harbor? Maybe your perp lost a loved one and is seeking revenge?”

  “But the other three appear to be random.”

  The two men exchanged a puzzled look.

  “Let’s see what we’ve got so far,” said Driscoll. “First, the hit on the German woman at the museum. Then Yen Chan, a Chinese male at Coney Island. Number three is Guenther Rubeleit, also from Germany. And now our Japanese friend here. One woman and three men. He, she, or they have crossed gender. That’s something your textbook serial killer doesn’t do. They usually target one or the other.”

  “Your whacko is killing tourists and tourism at the same time.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Three of the four victims were discovered by children, weren’t they?”

  “Aligante picked up on that. Although his murder sites are places where you’re likely to find kids, we haven’t ruled out there being some sort of correlation. Right now we’re thankful children aren’t his victims.”

  “I’ll bet Reirdon’s thankful. I’m sure, sincerely. But the media would go ballistic if a child were killed. Every parent in the city, too.”

  The Lieutenant groaned, reaching for his cell phone that was sounding in his pocket. “Driscoll, here.”

  A booming voice echoed through the unit’s tiny earphone, causing Driscoll to nod at Pearsol. “Him,” he silently mouthed.

  “That’s number four, John. I’m running out of patience.”

  “Mr. Mayor, we’re doing all we can.”

  “I just got off the phone with the Japanese embassy. They’re screaming bloody murder. According to them, the New York City Police Department has its head up its ass. And the family of the latest victim is suing the city for three hundred million dollars! They’ve been disgraced. The guy’s grandfather survived the Battle of Midway, for chrissake! Now he’s ready to commit hari-kari on his futon! He says it is the greatest dishonor of his life to have his grandson dumped in the cockpit of an American fighter plane. That was the plane that sunk three Japanese aircraft carriers in the South Pacific! And there’s more! Germany’s ambassador called me last night. He wants to know why New York is such an unruly town and why I haven’t caught the killer. You got an answer for him?”

  “Mr. Mayor, I’m staring into the chalky white face of that Japanese grandson right now. The thought of his life being snuffed out by some crazed killer sickens me. We will put an end to these murders.” Driscoll lifted the cadaver’s right hand and examined the underside of the nails, where the skin scrapings had been collected. “I believe our perp is getting sloppy, Mr. Mayor. Mistakes usually spell end of story.”

  “Soon, John. Make it soon. Like I said, I’m running out of patience.”

  Chapter 21

  Cassie and Angus were seated across from one another in the makeshift breakfast nook; Angus rearranged the letters in his Alpha-Bits, while his sister read about their murderous exploits heralded in the Post.

  “You think they’re on to somethin’, calling us savages? Savages, Indians, Indians, Savages,” said Cassie.

  A sly smile crept across her brother’s face. “Could be,” he said, an eyebrow raised.

  Cassie rifled through the pages of the paper, stopping when she came to the editorials. “I’m thinkin’ of maybe writin’ to the editor. Tellin’ him and his goddamn writers our side of the story. Savages? Screw him!”

  “It does piss you off, doesn’t it?” Angus leaned in, amused by his sister’s reaction.

  “What?”

  “Them callin’ us savages.”

  “They should only know,” said Cassie.

  “If they did, they’d be thanking us for riddin’ the world of scum. Take a look on Page Six.”

  “What am I lookin’ for?” Her eyes scoured the page.

  “The blonde cutie with the pouty lips.”

  Cassie zeroed in on a two-by-four snapshot of Debra LaFave. “Who’s she?”

  “Babe City!” Angus grabbed the paper from his sister’s hands. “Too bad it’s in black and white. She’s got blue eyes ya could swim in.”

  Men!

  Angus cleared his throat and read from the article as though he were auditioning for a play.

  “Debra Beasley Lafave, a former readin’ teacher at a Florida middle school, once charged with several counts of havin’ sex with a fourteen-year-old…” Angus shot his sister a grin. “And you thought female offenders were a rarity.”

  “I never said they were rare. Just unusual.”

  “Why couldn’t our pigeons look like that?” Angus’s eyes bored into those of the femme fatale.

  “It’s a good thing they don’t. The tomahawk wouldn’t be the only bulge in your pocket.” Cassie swatted him on the side of the head and tore the paper from his hands. “Stay focused!”

  “All work and no play…”

  “To hell with play! Who’s next?”

  “A Pakistani called. Very bad connection.” Angus put his thumb to his ear, finger to his mouth, and mimicked the caller. “‘Hello, Mr. Gus. My name is Abdur Rahim. I’m from Islamabad. I like your Web site. I’m in New York and have U.S. dollars.’” Angus held up a Post-it note displaying the caller’s number. The disposable cell phone rang. “Mmm…another lamb,” he said, answering it. After a series of “uh-huhs,” Angus jotted down a number, depressed the END button, and grinned at his sister. “That was Abigail from the good ole’ US of A. In town on business from California and said she could use some entertainment. Sounded more like she needed a fix. Maybe we oughta switch things round a little. Give the men in blue some domestic fieldwork. Whaddya think?”

  Cassie looked like she was mulling it over.

  “Wanna hear the Pakistani again?”

  “Screw the Pakistani. They’re always in a rush.”

  Chapter 22

  Blue skies prevailed over the city as Driscoll stood at the end of the dock in Toliver’s Point. The wooden landing, some three hundred feet long, jutted out into Jamaica Bay. It was commonly referred to by the locals as Sullivan’s Pier, named after the tavern that sat at its entrance. It had been five days since the attack on the last tourist and Driscoll was growing restless. He’d often come back to the Point to escape his demons, and today he found diversion by watching the playful antics of a handful of teens.

  The mixed gang, two boys and three girls, clad in bathing suits, were horsing around in the water. Driscoll watched as the tallest boy squatted down near the dock’s edge and clasped his hands together to form what appeared to be the launching pad. The three girls, their faces ripe with laughter, were lined up behind him. The girl they were calling Sally, stuffed into a skimpy one-piece, sashayed forward and placed her foot and trust into the hands of the squatting teen who swiftly catapulted the corpulent plum off the dock and into the air. She soon crashed into the water with a loud splash.

  Larry, as everyone was calling him, now got into the game, posing as the announcer.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the judges give that sad excuse for a dive a three-point-nine.”

  His makeshift microphone was a can of Diet Pepsi. Driscoll thought Larry sounded very much like W. C. Fields.

  “Sally, your boobs hit the water before you did,” Larry hollered. “Next time keep ’em in your top.”

  The embarrassed teen’s face turned beet red. She grabbed hold of her twisted bathing suit and disappeared under the water.

  “Way to go!” cheered the catapulter, giving Larry a high five. “Okay, Peggy. Your turn.” />
  “No funny stuff, Billy,” the freckle-faced teen warned, slipping her foot into the teen’s grip and closing her eyes.

  “Up we go!” Billy roared, launching Peggy into the air.

  The girl tumbled head over heels before neatly slicing the surface of the water.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the goose has touched down,” Larry whined, still in W. C. Fields mode.

  Driscoll reached into his linen jacket for a pack of all-organic additive-free American Spirit cigarettes. He lit one up and inhaled deeply. A Lucky Strike it wasn’t. It was a relief, though, to have his throat stroked by a feather rather than singed by a torch. He took another drag and glanced across the bay at the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

  Such a contrast, he thought. Here, high-spirited teenagers were at play, while only five miles away a murderous spree was holding the city in a vise of fear.

  He snuffed out the cigarette’s butt on the dock’s railing and watched dusk slowly blanket the metropolis. The neon sign of Sullivan’s tavern came to life in fluorescent blue, beckoning him. It was time for a drink. Maybe two.

  He walked toward the portal and ducked inside. The familiar scent of draught beer and oak flooring welcomed him.

  “Hey, John. Good to see ya,” a bright-eyed waitress said, scurrying toward the dining room, balancing a large tray of oysters on the half shell high above her head.

  “Likewise, Kathy,” Driscoll replied, heading for the bar.

  The walls of the barroom were made up of glass sliding doors. They offered a panoramic view of the bay and of the city that hugged its opposing shoreline. The bar itself was U-shaped and crowded. Casually dressed couples, awaiting tables in the dining room, sipped from their glasses of Chardonnay and absorbed the ambiance, while the bar’s regulars nursed Bass ale from frosty mugs, their eyes glued to the TV screen, where Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees was pitching a no-hitter against the division-leading Boston Red Sox.