by Mark Tufo
“That must be it then. You got guy blood in you.”
“Get me coffee before I beat the estrogen out of your pansy ass.”
He actually snorted as he turned the cruiser around. “Code three?”
“Quick, but no lights and sirens. I don’t think there’s too much blood in my caffeine system.”
As they drove across town, Sheryn turned on the overhead interior light and flipped through her notes. “Usually there’s a thread that ties something together in killings like these, but I’m not finding it.”
Justin nodded. “Tell me about it. I’ve hit this case from every angle I can think of. The only thing that seems to be even close to tying them together was the fact that the perps were in the middle of committing a sexually violent act against a female vic when they were attacked.”
“And then the mist monster shreds them.” Sheryn tapped her pen against her chin.
“Yeah. Mist monster. That sounds better than ghost I guess.”
She sighed and closed her folder laying her head back against the headrest. “There has to be something else.”
“I’ve been officially 10-7 since you and I have been out. I guess I could check in and just see if anybody else may have found anything?”
She shrugged. “If you think it will help.”
He pulled into Ruby’s and shut off the engine. “Best coffee in the county is right inside. Why don’t you get us a booth and ask Ruby if the pie is fresh. I’ll call the SO and see if there’s anything new.”
“Okay. I’m going to wash up first.”
As soon as she stepped out, Justin called in to Brenda only to find out that there was no new information to share. She had nothing from any officers and she hadn’t heard from Eckerson or Foo all night as they hadn’t gone 10-8 yet.
Justin contemplated why neither officer would be in-service yet…it was way past the beginning of their shift. He scrolled down to Jeff’s number and dialed him. Jeff answered on the second ring. “Where are you?”
“We found something,” Eckerson said.
“Don’t tell me it’s another body,” Zimmer moaned.
“No. We may have found something that ties the victims together.”
“Where are you?” Justin glanced to the diner for Sanders, ready to put the car into drive the moment she could exit.
“A private residence,” Jeff answered absently. “Look, I’m with Jon and Bennie and we’re—”
“Bennie?” Justin interrupted. “Gregory?”
Eckerson sighed. “Yeah. Actually he’s the one who tied all this together. Look, give us another half hour or so and then meet us at Ruby’s.”
“I’m already at Ruby’s with Sheryn.”
Eckerson paused for a moment and Justin didn’t pick up on the silent treatment. “You’re still with her?”
Zimmer realized what Eckerson was getting at. “Relax. She’s not all that bad. She’s warming up. Just step on it and we’ll wait for you here.”
Jeff paused again. “Okay. We’ll gather what we have and meet you there.”
Justin hung up and went inside just as Sheryn was walking out of the restroom, wiping her hands on a paper towel. Justin knew he was tired, but he caught himself actually staring at the small framed woman as she walked through the small diner. He found himself enjoying the way she carried herself. He actually liked the way her gun swayed as she walked, rising and falling with the swing of her hips. Eventually his eyes flowed up her body and she caught him eyeing her.
“Anything?” She decided not to comment on his checking her out.
“Hmm?” he asked, not really understanding what she meant.
“Your phone call…anything new?”
“Oh.” He felt his face flushing. “Actually, Eckerson has something. He’s going to be meeting us here in a while.”
She nodded and he turned and led them both to a booth. “How long is a while?”
“About a half hour.” He allowed her to slide in the booth first. “We may as well get comfortable.”
“In that case, I want pie,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “And lots and lots of hot coffee.”
Zimmer actually sighed as he sat next to her, a stupid grin crossing his face.
*****
Caleb Evans pulled his truck up to the farm house with his headlights off. It was something he had done numerous times in the past and he knew his way around the front yard and driveway of the Johnson farm by memory. He shut off the engine and waited for Beth Ann to sneak out to meet him just as she had done a hundred times before. Her grandparents were much older and went to bed before dark allowing her to sneak out and into his waiting arms as soon as their snores began shaking the windows.
She texted him just ten minutes before and he was ready. He slid out of the open window of his pickup and stood in the cool night air for her. She came around the corner of the house and all but ran to him across the open yard. He stepped away from the truck to meet her and the two ran off to her grandfather’s barn.
Quiet as mice, they snuck into the loft where the loose hay would become their bed for the next few hours as they rolled around and explored each other’s bodies in ways that only teens in love can truly appreciate.
The moonlight shining through the open loft door gave a silvery glow to the loft as the two lovers slowly rolled about in the loose hay; clothes being pulled from sweaty bodies as they passionately embraced and explored the depths of their emotions.
A soft breeze blew through the barn chilling their skin and raising goose bumps across their partially naked flesh. He pulled her closer to him as they continued to kiss, feeling the heat from her body as she rubbed against him.
“I missed you so much,” she breathed into his ear. She ran her hands up his back and through his hair. “I thought I was going to die.”
“I know,” he whispered. “But I’m here now. I’m here and I’m never going anywhere.” He kissed her again, pulling her closer and kissing along her neck.
He felt her hands run back down his body and tug at his jeans. “I need you. I need you inside me.” Her voice sounded urgent.
He pulled at his pants to free himself and she stroked him, exciting him even more. He slid his hands up into her shirt and gently squeezed her breasts, bringing soft moans from the back of her throat.
“Don’t make me beg,” she said breathlessly.
“I ain’t gonna make you beg, baby.” He rolled to the side and tried to maneuver himself to a better position.
She climbed atop him and straddled his waist. His hands slid up under her skirt and he realized she wasn’t wearing panties tonight which excited him even more. He grabbed a double handful of her round bottom and squeezed tightly bringing a sharp yip from her. She raised herself up and guided him into her wet silkiness and slowly lowered herself onto him.
As she rhythmically rocked back and forth, his eyes rolled back in his head. He was hypersensitive as she leaned forward, placing her hands on his chest and rocking her hips, grinding herself on him.
He slipped his hands back up the inside of her top and rolled her pert nipples between his fingers and listened as her breath caught with each gentle twist. He could read her body as little spasms rocked her. He knew that she would soon stiffen and collapse upon him and he hoped to time his own release with hers.
The gentle breeze blowing through the open loft doors increased in intensity and a gust came through, causing the shutter style doors to flap against the barn wall. Beth Ann let the noise cover her moans as she cried out and Caleb used one hand to firmly grasp her behind and squeeze while biting gently on the tender flesh of her breast. She gasped as she increased the speed of her motion, leaning further forward on her arms.
The wind gusted again, this time bringing bits of debris and dust with it, biting across her flesh, the pain mixing with pleasure and nearly sending her over the edge. She gasped as her nails bit into his skin and she ground harder against him.
“I’m coming,” she moaned. He
increased his own thrusting, hoping to meet her.
She threw her head back, biting her lower lip, fighting to hold on as the wind gusted once more, bringing more dust and dirt with it, the debris stinging her once more and sending her over the edge. She sucked in air, ready to scream when a voice carried across them both, whispering, “Do-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n’t.”
Beth Ann suddenly stiffened in shock, fear coursing through her that they had been caught in the act. Her body, slower to react to that fear, finished the deed almost violently, her limbs shaking and trembling as she jerked her head to and fro looking for the source of the voice. She felt Caleb below her stiffen at the same time that the voice spoke, his hips freezing, but his body reacting similarly to her own.
“Did you hear that?” Caleb pushed himself up on his elbows.
“Yes.” Her voice trembled as she ducked low and glanced about. She reached for her shirt and pulled it over her head, trying in vain to cover her bare chest. Caleb couldn’t help himself; his eyes were still drawn to where her nipples pressed against the sheer material. She leaned forward and he felt himself fall out of her, their mixed fluids seeping out and onto his thigh. “It didn’t sound like my grandpa,” she whispered.
“Then who the hell was it?” He rolled over and wiped at the large smear on his leg. “Who else would know we were out here?”
“Nobody.”
She crawled to the edge of the loft and looked down. Caleb’s eyes were drawn to her bare bottom and he smiled. Seeing the wetness gleam in the moonlight he wanted to reach out and bite her ample bottom or playfully slap at a cheek. Instead, he approached her from behind and grabbed her by the hips, rubbing himself along her tender bits.
“It was probably just the wind. Let’s try it like this,” he teased playfully.
“Stop it!” She slapped at him. The look on her face showed that she was truly worried. He backed away and came around the side of her. Glancing over the side of the loft, the lower part of the barn was obviously empty, the doors still solidly secured.
“There’s nobody down there.” He sat down heavily next to her and stared at her. “I think we both imagined it, Beth Ann.” He reached out and gently pulled her to him. She resisted at first, but gave in. Settling in next to him he stroked her hair.
“We can’t get caught. My grandpa would shoot us both.”
He smiled at the thought of the wiry old man with the temper of a rattlesnake. “He probably would. But he didn’t. He’s sound asleep and we’re both safe. There’s nothing there.”
She simply nodded and he kissed her forehead, feeling his arousal start to return. He smiled again at the memory of her bent over the edge of the loft. “That was a helluva view though,” he teased. “Probably the purdiest full moon I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
She punched him in the shoulder and he laughed harder falling back and pulling her with him. “That isn’t funny, mister.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny.” He pulled her mouth to his and kissed her again. She pulled back and glared at him. “I’m serious. You wouldn’t believe what that did to me.” His eyes grew dark as he moved her hand down to grasp his arousal.
She gave him a devilish smile and sat up, pulling the shirt off again. “Let’s see if you’re telling the truth, big boy,” she purred as she turned around and bent over.
He growled as he approached her on his knees and grabbed her hips roughly. She reached under her and guided him into her once more and he took her fiercely, threatening to push her too close to the edge of the loft. She placed her hands up on the ledge of the railing to push back against him and was feeling her second orgasm begin to build up when the wind blew through the open loft door once more. This time, the dust and sand was more prominent and stung much more violently as it struck their skin.
He paused mid-stroke and used one arm to block the wind from blowing dirt in his eyes as it gusted through the loft, but Beth Ann backed into him to finish for him. She continued to rock on him and he allowed her to while he blocked the wind. As the wind died down, the voice returned, whispering directly in their ear, “Do-o-o-o-o-o-n’t!”
Caleb froze as an icy hand grasped his spine between the shoulder blades, effectively paralyzing him. He tried to inhale deeply to scream, but the best he could do was suck in tiny amounts of air as though he were about to hyperventilate.
Beth Ann turned her head to look over her shoulder, her eyes wide and saw him behind her, frozen in place, his eyes bulging in fear, his mouth moving but nothing coming out. “Caleb?” she whispered, but she knew something was wrong. She could just make out the figure behind him, the ghost like figure made of smoke or mist or…
She started to scream, her mouth opening, inhaling the dank, dusty loft air, filling her lungs to prepare to yell just as the mist, its icy hands wrapped around Caleb’s spine chose that moment to push his body forward, thrusting her out and over the edge of the loft and to the packed earth floor below. She landed on the side of her head, breaking her shoulder and knocking herself unconscious upon impact.
In the loft, Caleb felt a tear run down his cheek and a knot form in the pit of his stomach when he heard the sickening crunch and thud of Beth Ann hitting the floor of the barn below. He couldn’t control his body and he didn’t know why. He knew that something had him by the back, had paralyzed him, controlled him in such a way that it thrust him forward, pushing her…possibly to her death. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew that whatever had him must have been scary looking because of the look in her eyes when she turned to look at him. She was frightened to death. She was about to scream when he…pushed. When he thrust…he…fucked her to death.
He felt a wave of nausea hit him and he wanted to throw up so bad, but he couldn’t. He barely had time to register the thought before his body was rising, slowly moving upward. He glanced down and saw that he was literally floating, toward the edge of the rail, then up and over the edge.
Caleb glanced down and he saw her crumpled form in the floor of the barn and he wanted to weep, but his fear of what was about to happen overrode that fear. He looked up and saw his fate. He knew what was coming and so many thoughts ran through his mind at once, but the one that his mind settled on was, Thank God I can’t feel anything right now, because this is going to hurt.
The hay hook hanging from the rafter of the barn didn’t gleam or sparkle like they always do in the movies. No, this one was rusty. Probably an antique and hadn’t been used in decades. But it looked painfully pointed and not sharp enough to pierce his skin easily. He closed his eyes a moment and prayed that whatever was about to happen would happen quickly and that he wouldn’t feel much pain.
He saw the rusty hay hook and then his body was slowly spinning, the moonlit barn coming into view. He found himself face to face with his tormentor and the fiery red eyes of a demon. He trembled as he stared at the thing holding him in the air and he found himself shaking his head.
“Why are you doing this?”
A ghostly hand rose up into his face and a tendril of smoke that could only be a finger poked into his forehead, memories that weren’t his were injected and he found himself KNOWING. He didn’t like it, but he knew. When the tendril pulled back, his eyes were dead with the knowledge and his entire body shook with convulsions.
The specter raised him up and drove the back of his head down on the projecting spike of the hay hook, hanging him from the rafter so that he could see what was about to be done to Beth Ann before he died. Caleb hung from the rafter, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to scream and unable to look away as the specter turned it’s attentions on the girl that he loved…before it came back and finished him off.
20
Scott walked out of the barn feeling extremely weak in the knees, his bagel and coffee threatening to come back up on him. Guffey’s crew appeared almost as shaken as he felt as they gathered the remains and bagged them. Scott walked to the edge of the barnyard and leaned against the wooden fence, inhaling deeply of the fresh
air and doing his best to clear his mind of the images that were burned into his brain. Years ago, after she had seen him looking in the mirror and sucking in his stomach, his wife had sent him a picture of a kitten with its eyes wide and a caption that said, ‘what has been seen cannot be unseen’. Now that caption kept coming to mind.
Scott turned and spat in the dust of the yard just as Justin and Sgt. Sanders of DPS approached. “How bad is it?” Justin asked.
Scott shook his head and fought back a shudder. “They were just kids,” he answered softly, his eyes misting. He looked away and pinched up a dip of snuff, tucking it neatly into his lip. “These kids weren’t criminals.”
“So we have a break in the MO,” Sheryn said, almost excitedly. “This could be helpful.”
Scott shook his head again. “They left nothing usable behind again. We combed the entire barn.”
An ambulance pulled out and Justin hooked a thumb toward it, “Survivor?” he asked hopefully.
“Grandmother,” Scott replied. “The grandfather found them this morning and raised quite the ruckus. She came out and saw him losing it. Then her heart gave out and…” he trailed off.
“Will she be okay?” Justin asked, honestly worried.
“I think she’s stable now, but they need to keep her under observation for a while. The grandfather is with her.”
Sheryn stepped closer and tried to remain all business. “Do we have ID on the victims?”
Scott nodded. “Caleb Evans and a Beth Ann Johnson, both age seventeen.”
“Evans?” Justin turned a curious eye to Scott. “Any relation?”
“None that I’m aware of. In fact, I’d never heard of the kid before today, and Woods County is pretty damned small. I’ve got Amber running their 27s now.”
“I called Eckerson and he’s going to pick up Foo and Gregory.”
“Gregory?” Scott was obviously confused and somewhat annoyed. “Why the hell would I want him out here?”
“Yeah, about that.” Zimmer glanced at Sanders who avoided his gaze. “Bennie found some information that ties all of the previous vics together. We had a late night impromptu meeting last night at Ruby’s and went over it.”
