by Tim Miller
“You pretty much said it.”
“Ok. Later.” She walked to her car and started the engine. She felt a little better after talking to Rich. Hopefully, he was right, except for the medal. She didn’t care about a medal though it would be better than getting fired. As she drove home, something was bothering her. She wished they had tried harder to get a look inside Donny’s place. Part of her thought she should drive by his house and see what he was up to.
It would be a terrible idea and would only get her into more trouble. But what if he was planning on grabbing another girl? The thought made her sick to her stomach. Who cared if the girls were strippers? They still had families, parents, and maybe even children. They had as much right to be protected as anyone else.
She turned off and headed toward Donny’s house. It wouldn’t hurt anything for her to stop by and just watch to see what he was up to. If he left, she could follow him, and if she saw anything crazy, she’d call it in. No harm in that. She didn’t feel like sitting around her apartment anyway. As she pulled up across the street from Donny Spanks’ house, it was mostly dark with a single light lit. She watched for almost an hour, and there was no movement at all.
The only light went out just before a dark colored pickup truck pulled up and parked behind her.
“Who might this be?”
She couldn’t see who was in the truck other than the outline of a cowboy hat. Whoever it was they also sat there for a long time. Finally, the door to the truck opened, and the man stepped out. He was a tall man wearing a leather duster and big cowboy boots. Claudia’s first thought was to get out of there. Something was amiss, and she wasn’t even supposed to be there as it was. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to leave.
The man reached the curb when Donny’s garage door opened up, and his car pulled out. The man ran back to the truck as Donny pulled onto the street and sped away. The man in the truck did a U-turn and followed him. At first, Claudia thought she should follow, but had another idea, a less hazardous one. She had to see what was inside his house.
Checking to make sure they were gone, she got out of the car and headed across the street. She circled around to the back of the house where there was a sliding glass door. Claudia took out her pocket knife and slid the blade into the lock. She’d done this one other time as a kid when she was locked out of her house. After jiggling it and turning the latch, the lock opened, and she slid the door open and stepped inside.
Chapter 20
Gus looked at the text his guy sent him and looked over the info. Donny Spanks? What the fuck kind of goofy ass name was that? Looking at the guy it seemed fitting. He looked weird on the security footage. His driver’s license photo was even more stupid looking. How could this guy kidnap anyone and not get his ass kicked? Maybe he had some hidden skills that weren’t obvious by looking at him. Not that it mattered. He’d be dead soon enough.
Gus started the truck and headed to the address listed. When he arrived and parked across the street, there was another car sitting across from the house. He had no idea who it was, nor did he care. Donny’s house was a quiet little place sitting in the dark. The yard was filled with trash, and there was a broken screen door hanging off the front. He sat for a little bit and double checked the address. This was it, all right.
Reaching to the floor, he picked up the sawed-off shotgun and placed it under his duster. He climbed out of the truck and headed toward the house. Once he reached the driveway, the garage door rolled up as a car backed out. Gus jumped out of the way as Donny sped down the street. It didn’t look like he’d seen Gus. His attention was focused on something else. Once he drove away, Gus ran back to the truck, hopped inside and turned around to follow.
Donny was driving fast, but Gus didn’t want to tail him too closely. He’d tailed former secret service agents in the past, following this jackhole should be simple enough. They got onto the highway and wound through town onto 410 Loop, following it along the edges of town. Gus had no idea where Donny was going. It felt like they were driving forever. Finally, he pulled off the freeway and toward a park on the southeast part of town.
Gus stayed back with his lights off while he watched Donny get out of the car and walk around. What was this weirdo up to? Donny walked through the park and hid in some bushes. Looking around, Gus noticed a few joggers out. It was getting dark, but some preferred running during the cooler temperatures of the evenings. Over the years, Gus had done his share of stalking targets but had never watched someone do it like this.
One woman jogged past the trail where Donny was hiding. He jumped out, trying to grab her. The girl was a few inches taller than Donny was. She screamed and punched him in the face, then did a roundhouse kick, nailing him on the side of the head and dropping him like a ton of bricks. She ran back the other way screaming as some of the other joggers began looking around. Donny scrambled to his feet and ran back to his car. Gus was trying to suppress his laughter at the spectacle. How had this clown managed to kidnap Christina? Maybe he’d been using the heroin he stole.
They drove back to the highway; Gus thought they might be going home, but this time, they were headed to a strip club called The Chesty Chola. Donny pulled in and got out of the car. Gus waited until he was inside and went in behind him. There was girl at the door who looked like she could pass for fifteen years old, except for the bags under her eyes and the missing teeth. Gus paid the cover and walked into the club.
The sound of 90’s techno pumped through the club. Gus would figure they could, at least, afford some current music. An overweight girl on the stage twerked to “Pour Some Sugar” on me as various girls around the club walked around while some were doing lap dances. He spotted Donny in the far corner talking to one of the dancers. This was one of the more attractive girls. She was smiling and laughing at something he’d said.
“Hey handsome. Would you like a dance?” A girl asked Gus from behind. He turned around and looked her over. She was somewhat cute, but the lights were low, too.
“No, thank you,” he answered.
“You just going to hang out here all night alone?” She looked over at Donny. “Oh, you like Sparkle I see. Maybe when she’s done with him, you can get her next. You’ll love her, but I’m not bad either.”
“I’m sure you’re both wonderful.” Gus got up and moved to another table. He heard her grunt as he stepped away. He wasn’t even trying to be rude; he just needed to stay focused. Gus watched for a few more minutes before Donny stood and headed for a side exit. The girl followed him, and they disappeared outside.
Gus walked back out the main entrance and circled around the building. The girl was getting into Donny’s car when Gus got outside. He went and sat in the truck and watched. In the car, the girl’s head was bobbing up and down in Donny’s lap as Donny leaned back with his eyes closed. Gus thought he could walk over now and take them both out and be done with it. Maybe go back later and trash his house.
He decided to wait it out and try to catch him at home. This part was just entertainment at this point. A big part of him wondered what he did with them? He’d seen him grab Christina, and there was no sign of her. Had he killed her already? Or did he have a pit in his basement? Gus smiled thinking of all the twisted things Donny might have done with her. The guy was a wiry little freak, but he had to have some kind of skills. Except for grabbing joggers.
There was a struggle inside the car, Gus couldn’t make it out other than seeing her face hit the steering wheel a few times before Donny started the car and drove off. Gus followed as they headed toward Donny’s house. Gus was anxious to see what would happen next.
Chapter 21
Claudia stepped inside the filthy house. There were dirty clothes on the floor, empty soup cans, bags of chips as well as God-knows-what-else strewn along the floor. There was a ratty old couch in the living room with a small TV. The worst part was the overpowering smell. Something smelled horrible, and she couldn’t tell what it was. It didn’t look like he had any
pets, so no way it could be animal waste. There were fast food wrappers piled up on a chair in the corner and a bowl of rotten cereal on the edge of the couch.
She walked into the kitchen which was even worse than the living room. Dishes were stacked a mile high in the sink. Some of them looked like they had food stuck on them from 2005. She peeked in the fridge, half expecting to find a human head or something, but all that was in there was some stale leftovers and a gallon of milk that was green. How did this guy live like this? Or survive at all for that matter? There were piles of trash next to the garbage can as if he hadn’t taken the trash out in ages.
She moved back through the living room afraid to even look in his bedroom. When she got down the hall, his bedroom door was standing open. His bed consisted of a small mattress with dirty magazines strewn about along with numerous wads of tissue paper. She didn’t need to guess what was in the tissue. There were beer cans lying along the floor and a bong next to the bed. Walking behind the bed and into the bathroom, she saw a huge trash bag balled up in the shower. She leaned in and looked inside the bag.
There she saw dozens of bags of heroin. She had no idea how much, but there was a lot. No idea where or how he got ahold of so much, unless one of the girls he’d grabbed had it. Talk about hitting the jackpot. Then again, if he’d stolen it from someone, it meant someone would be looking for it. Her thoughts flashed back to the big man in the cowboy hat she’d seen earlier. Hopefully, that was just a coincidence. She pushed the thought aside as she balled the bag back up and walked out of the bedroom.
Further down the hallway, there was another room. This one had a sliding lock on the outside of the door. That seemed odd. If any girls were being held here, then it had to be in this room. Her heart raced as it dawned on her what she was about to find. Part of her wondered if she shouldn’t just get out now. This entire search was illegal anyway. Nothing she found could be used. Maybe she could call in an anonymous tip later.
Without dwelling on it, she undid the latch and slowly pushed the door open. The awful smell intensified as she stepped inside; it was so bad, her eyes began to water. However, the horrible odor was not enough to prepare her for what she was about to see. Once in the room, she saw two tables covered in blood. Dead women lay on both tables. One was an older woman whose limbs had been removed. There was blood soaked into the walls, table, and floor. Her eyes were frozen in an eternal stare up at the ceiling.
The second woman was clean and nude down to her waist. Claudia put her hand over her mouth at the sight. The second woman was missing her right arm, and there were stitches around her neck, arms, and legs holding them in place. What the fuck was going on? She walked around the tables to find a large trash bin behind them. In the trash bin, there were severed arms and legs and one girl’s torso. An entire human torso. She looked inside and also saw a severed head lying at the bottom, and part of the girl’s face attached to the torso had been removed.
Claudia felt her stomach lurch, and she had to look away. Putting her hand over her mouth, she took some deep breaths so she wouldn’t barf all over the evidence. She had to get out of there, now. She’d call Rich and tell him what she found. He’d figure out a way they could get a warrant and take this guy down. She stepped out of the room and latched the door when she heard a car pulling into the garage. Fuck! He was back already.
She started down the hall but heard the side door opening along with the sound of a woman screaming. Claudia ducked into the bedroom and hid behind the small dresser in the corner. Wasn’t the best spot, but she hoped he’d be distracted. Donny walked past, dragging a girl by the hair. The girl was dressed like a stripper, likely from the Chesty Chola again. He unlocked the door to his secret room and dragged the girl inside, closing the door. The screams intensified once the woman had seen the carnage in the room.
Claudia wished more than ever she’d had a firearm with her. They’d taken her department-issued gun, but she still had a personal firearm. Since she hadn’t been expecting to come here, she hadn’t bothered to bring it. Bad idea. Best she could do now was get the hell out of there. The thought of leaving the girl with this psychopath made her sick. But she had no way to stop him right now. Or did she?
She quietly stepped out of the bedroom and headed for the kitchen. Looking around, she saw a stack of knives on the counter. All of them were rusty and dull. She slipped into the garage and looked until she found a chainsaw on one of the tables. She picked it up and held it in her hands. It had a good feel to it, was just heavy enough to have some heft, but not so heavy she couldn’t handle it. It was clean and had a new chain on it. No telling what he used it for, and she didn’t want to think about it.
She picked it up and stepped inside, making her way back to the bedroom. Walking through the kitchen, she passed through the living room when the front door burst open. Standing in the doorway was the huge man in the cowboy hat. He was holding a shotgun and pointing it right at Claudia.
Chapter 22
Donny was having trouble with the stripper. She’d woken up on the drive home and immediately began screaming. At one point she tried to open the door and jump out of the moving car; he was, at least, able to stop that much. The girl kicked, scratched and clawed the rest of the way, though. The screaming was maddening. Donny thought for a minute that he would open the door and jump out. It reached a point he thought for sure he would completely lose his mind, but he managed to hold it together. Once he got her home, she fought and screamed as he dragged her inside. Once in the lab, she really went nuts when she saw Candi and the other woman’s body.
Attaching the homeless woman’s arm hadn’t gone so well. The arm was too short for one; second thing was the skin on the homeless lady’s arm kept tearing as he tried to suture it into place. The woman’s flesh and whole arm were thin and pasty. There were needle tracks up and down the arm which bothered him. Candi Murphy would never do drugs. Even though he used heroin to drug the girls before working on them, that was for medical use.
The endless screaming made Donny want to kill her now and shut her up. He was trying to move the homeless woman off the table while keeping one hand on the stripper’s wrist. He ended up just pushing the woman’s body to the floor where it lifelessly flopped with a dull thud. Donny clenched his fist, ready to punch the girl out for good when he heard the crash toward the front of the house. It sounded like the whole front of his house was being caved in.
He went for the door to see what was going on when he heard the explosion. It sounded like a shotgun blast, but who would be shooting. And who would they be shooting at in his living room? He stepped away from the door when the stripper got loose and ran for the door herself. Whoever was out there would probably kill her too if she just ran out there screaming. She was hysterical at this point and just running on panic and adrenaline.
She burst out the door, and Donny went after her when the second shotgun blast sounded. The woman screamed and as they arrived at the living room, there was a huge man in a cowboy hat in the doorway holding a shotgun. There was a woman hiding behind the couch that was holding a chainsaw. Donny had no idea who either of these people were, let alone what they were doing in his house.
The stripper ran into the center of the living room, looked at the cowboy hat guy and screamed.
“Please! Help me!” Before he shot her in the upper chest, blowing her head and shoulders off her torso. Her tiny body fell to the ground as blood and tissue peppered the entire room and everyone in it. Donny turned and ran back to the lab, picked up Candi and threw her over his shoulder and ran toward the garage. Cowboy hat guy chased him while the woman stayed in the living room. Donny tossed Candi’s body into the car as he got in and began pulling out of the garage. Cowboy hat man fired two more shots, one shattered the headlight as he backed out. The other hit the hood.
Donny got to the street, turned the car around and headed down the road. In his mirror, he saw the cowboy hat guy was headed back inside the house. Donny stepped on th
e gas and got onto the freeway. Just before the exit ramp, he stopped at a light. He sat there tapping the steering wheel waiting on the light to change.
“Come on, come on,” he said. A car pulled up behind him closing in on him quickly as he looked in the rearview mirror. It was a blood-soaked woman sitting behind the driver’s seat. The lady cop. What was her name? Gomez or Gonzalez or something? Either way, he had no idea why she’d been in his living room unless she’d broken in. But who was the guy shooting and why? The light turned green before she came to a full stop and he accelerated.
Donny wove his way through traffic, trying to lose her as he got onto the freeway. She caught up to him and pulled up alongside him as he drove. Behind him, a large pickup truck closed in and rammed his bumper. It was cowboy hat. Donny was sure he wasn’t a cop. No cop would be shooting as wildly as he was. The truck rammed him one more time, jolting the whole car and causing him to fishtail. He was able to keep the car under control as he pressed on the gas as fast as it would go, heading to 35 North toward Austin.
He wasn’t sure where he was going but had to try and lose these two. The truck pulled up alongside his left-hand side and began ramming the side of his car. Cowboy hat was trying to force him off the road. Donny tried to hold it, but the truck was too powerful. The cop had dropped behind them as Donny slowed down and headed toward the exit ramp. He hoped the truck would miss the exit, but he managed to follow along.
Donny got off the highway and took a right at the next light, speeding to the next set of streets into a residential neighborhood. It was just after 5 a.m. and morning traffic was just starting to ramp up. He drove up and down the streets, turning the wrong way onto a one-way street and having to dodge oncoming cars. He hoped cowboy hat wouldn’t follow him, but both he and the cop woman were still behind. Donny only looked back for a split second, when he looked back forward there was a car just a dozen feet ahead. Donny jerked the wheel to his right causing the car to pitch into someone’s yard, mowing down a fence and crashing into the side of the house. He grabbed Candi and got out just as the front door of the house swung open.
