by Rita Ames
“Okay. If it turns up in your car you’re gonna owe me a drink, buddy” he laughed as I grimaced. It was bound to be somewhere stupid. I checked my jacket pockets again quickly, just in case.
I headed off to get us a couple of coffees while he ran the trace. I was annoyed at losing it as it meant I couldn’t send Susie a text. I smiled at the thought of last night, wishing I could turn back the clock and get a re-run.
I was knackered after our marathon lovemaking and decided I really needed to put in some gym time so that I could keep up with my little red headed tiger.
As I waited for Dave I stood looking at our killer board, wondering when we would finally have all the pieces we needed to get our man. I kept returning to Carl Dawson the more I ran through the timelines. The only thing I couldn’t work out was how he fitted in with the latest two deaths. They appeared to be way off the original MO (modus operandi) from the earlier killings, which was causing delays in confirming Carl as a suspect that we could pick up. For me, the sooner we could get him off the street, and more importantly, far away from my Susie, the better.
“Where did you say your girl lived?” Dave interrupted my thoughts.
“About 2 miles from the hospital going west” I said “Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s not at her place.” He said still looking at the screen.
“Any idea where it is?” I asked thinking that the only other place it could possibly be was my car.
“Well it flashed up about a mile from where she lives, but only briefly” he said. “However, that’s not the interesting thing” he was frowning now.
“What do you mean?” I was confused.
“We picked up the trace about a mile away from her place at about 2am and it was moving at the time” he said.
“That’s ridiculous” I answered “I know that I had it at her place. I called you as I entered the building”
“Well, unless you threw it out of the window onto a moving vehicle in the middle of the night, someone took it, and switched it on which gave us our tracker to the nearest mast” he looked at me and the meaning behind his words slowly sunk in.
“Someone was in the apartment with us” I said beginning to get extremely freaked out.
“Looks that way” Dave said “Only question now is who and why?” he continued looking at the screen.
I went to my desk phone and taking her number from my contact file I called Susie’s phone. It went straight to voice mail. I realised she would be in the middle of her shift at the hospital so it was pointless trying to call her.
Dave and I continued to try and trace the current location of my phone.
“It’s turned off now” Dave said “We can only pick up the trace when the signal bounces off a tower”
“Keep checking. I have a very bad feeling about this” I told Dave. He nodded gravely.
We had no luck for the rest of the day and reluctantly turned our attention to other jobs.
*******
At about 6.30pm, Dave called me over.
“We just picked up your phone again” he was staring at a little blip on his screen. “It’s not far from the hospital now” he said.
My blood ran cold at that, knowing how close the thief was to Susie’s workplace.
“Got it!” Dave pounded on the desk in triumph “It’s at some bar called ‘Spangles’ according to the postcode” he stated “and it’s on the move” he looked at me.
We both grabbed our things and headed out at lightning speed.
It took fifteen minutes to get to the bar. It was crowded and although we searched, there was nothing to be found. We asked the bar tender if he had seen anything out of the ordinary, although what we expected him to say was beyond me.
He said that the only interesting thing that happened in the last hour was that some girl had gotten a little tipsy at the bar and her boyfriend had had to practically carry her out.
“I think we should check on Susie” I said “I can’t help thinking this has something to do with her”.
The fact that whoever had taken my phone had obviously been able to get into her apartment was worrying me a lot. I needed to speak to her and make sure she didn’t go home yet. I decided that I would give her my key and tell her to wait at my place until we had secured her flat and possibly changed the locks.
After several attempts at calling Susie with no reply I was now seriously concerned. We had swung by her apartment and she did not appear to be there. As a last resort we went to the hospital.
On arriving at her nursing desk one of her colleagues looked up and smiled as we asked after Susie.
“You must be the mystery man we have heard so much about today” she grinned “and you come in pairs now?” she laughed, giving Dave the once over.
“We are looking for Susie, is she still at work?” I asked.
The woman frowned. “She left to meet you about an hour ago” she said.
“Meet me where?” I asked, a cold feeling of dread taking a grip on my heart.
“I’m not sure, don’t you remember? It was you who sent the text after all” the woman looked confused.
“What text?” I now knew that something bad had happened. Someone had sent Susie a text using my phone. I looked at Dave and he had gone pale.
“She said that you had sent her a text and she was meeting you straight from work for a drink, that’s all I know. She wasn’t a big talker, our Susie” her colleague was looking at us, expecting some explanation and we had none.
“Thanks, I must have got the arrangements mixed up. We’d better get going or I’ll be in the dog house” I smiled, trying to make light of the situation.
Dave and I left and headed back to the car.
“I don’t like the sound of this” Dave said “Who the hell would have a key to Susie’s apartment and have the gall to just go in and take your phone?”
We looked at each other and both answered the question at the same time “Carl”.
“We have to find her and we have to find her quickly” I said “He’s unstable and we don’t know how much of the old Carl is back. I am even more sure that he is our killer, and if that is the case then Susie is in great danger.” I ran my hands through my hair, the sting of unshed tears threatened at the thought that anyone could harm my beautiful girl.
Dave patted me on the back “We’ll get the bastard and we’ll get your girl back, mate” he said.
“Yeah, I only hope we get her back in one piece” I muttered.
“Let’s get back to the station and see if we can figure out where he might have taken her”
Susie
My head was pounding and the light hurt my eyes when I tried to open them. I tried to move and discovered that my hands and feet were bound together. I was lying on a large lumpy bed in a room that had the musty smell of long misuse.
The bedding I was laying on smelt damp and dusty. I tried to remember the night before. I had left work to meet Ben at the bar and then Carl had been there. Carl! He had bought me a drink and then I had felt dizzy.
I realised what a complete fool I had been. Carl must have slipped something into my drink. Ben had warned me not to see Carl alone until they had a chance to question him. I felt such a fool. I should have called Ben immediately and he would have come to get me. Then I realised that I had sent him a text before we left the bar so maybe he knew that something had happened.
I tested my restraints but they were so tight it just caused my wrists and ankles to begin to swell. I lay looking at the ceiling trying to work out what Carl wanted from me. I knew I was in dire straits and after the way I had treated him lately, I was definitely not Carl’s favourite person at the moment.
The door opened and Carl came into the room carrying a tray.
“Ah, I see you are awake” he smiled “I brought something to eat” he placed the tray on the bedside table and sat down on the bed”
I tried to turn away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears that I couldn’t
help from spilling down my face.
“Hey, no need for tears. It’s all going to be fine now love” he said stroking my cheek gently.
I looked up into his face. He looked like the Carl I knew as my friend but there was also something different in his eyes. A glint that wasn’t there before and it chilled me.
He undid the ties on my hands and helped me to sit. I briefly thought of trying to fight him but with my feet still tied so tightly there was no chance I would win against him. I sighed.
He placed the tray on my lap “Eat up” he said “I’ll be back in a while” he left me alone. I looked down at the plate holding a roast dinner and my stomach betrayed me by rumbling loudly.
It might be drugged, I thought, then realised that being drugged might actually be preferable to sitting here with my thoughts and fears. My hunger won out and I made swift work of the food.
Of course, after eating and drinking I then needed to use the bathroom, which brought on a whole new set of fears.
When Carl came back into the room, one look at my face told him what I was thinking.
“Bathroom?” he asked chuckling. I nodded, afraid to trust my voice at this moment.
He came forward and scooped me up. I tried to struggle. “I can’t untie your legs, sweetheart, so best get used to it” he said.
He took me out into a dark hall and across to the bathroom, depositing me back onto my feet. Before I had a chance to object he had lifted my skirt and pulled down my panties. I gasped at the embarrassment. He guided me backwards until my legs hit the toilet and I sat down unceremoniously.
“Come on, Angel, it’s not anything I haven’t seen before” he said softly.
My cheeks flamed with the shame of it as I relieved myself in front of him. At least my hands were free to wipe myself. That would have been too much to bear. When I had finished Carl pulled up my underwear, stroking his hands across my buttocks as he did so. I tried to step back but my tied ankles made me stumble. He grabbed me by the arms and pulled me in tight to his body.
He ran his nose up the side of my face into my hair and inhaled deeply. “You smell so good, Angel” he said, kissing me down the length of my neck. I tensed and held myself rigid. He stepped back and looked unhappy at my response.
“Let’s get something straight right now” he said so quietly and calmly that it scared me to death “You belong to me now and we are going to be very happy together” he smiled and scooped me up again, carrying me back into the foul smelling bedroom.
After depositing me back on the bed and securing my hands once more Carl left me alone. I lay there sobbing into the pillow, hoping that Ben would find me before it was too late.
Carl
I sat in the lounge mulling over what to do next. It had seemed like the right idea to bring Susie to my old family home. I wondered why I had not sold it before now. The memories were coming back to me at a lightening rate, and I was having serious issues with trying to process such a large amount of information. My brain was going into overload.
I did not like the man that I used to be. I wanted to stay as the man I was when I awoke from my accident. That man, Susie liked, a lot. I knew this.
The old me had fucked everything up when he had taken over my mind and forced himself on Susie, causing her to fear me now. That man delighted in her fear. The other me wanted to erase the whole incident and start again. I had thought that by bringing her here, where my parents had lived a long and relatively happy life together, we would have a chance to begin again. If I couldn’t make this work then there was no hope for me.
I looked around. The place was a mess. I wondered why I had not thought to rent it out so that it had been kept in good order. I looked around at the pictures scattered about. School photos of myself as a kid looked back at me. I studied them, not liking the cold eyes that looked back at me from them. I had been a scary looking kid, I decided.
I set about tidying up and cleaning out some of the rubbish. I wanted to bring Susie downstairs soon and if she saw this mess she would be disappointed.
I also had some metal rings to fit to the walls. I had come up with a clever way of allowing Susie to walk around freely without the risk of her running. Eventually I would be able to trust her, when she loved me as I did her. Until then I had to ensure that she stayed with me while I wooed her.
I smiled at the thought of domestic bliss with my Angel, it calmed me and I happily got stuck into my chores.
Ben
Dave and I had spent the morning looking over all the evidence and information we had. We had also done some looking into ‘Mr Carl Dawson’, who appeared to be as boring as he seemed. The most worrying thing we found out was that Carl had given notice at his job a couple of days ago and had used his holiday entitlement instead of working out his notice.
It had taken almost two hours of pleading to finally get an arrest warrant so that we could bring him in for questioning. We also applied for a court order to search Carl’s apartment and we headed straight over there.
After breaking the locks on the door we searched the place thoroughly. He had obviously packed some clothes recently, some of the drawers in his bedroom were open and it looked like the contents had been emptied. We gathered up a whole pile of paperwork along with all the unopened post and took it back to the office to sort through.
I was out of my mind with worry for Susie. We had returned to the bar with a photo of her and the bar tender had confirmed she was the drunken girl that had been carried out by her supposed boyfriend. She must have been drugged, and I just hoped that she was still alive. I didn’t think Carl wanted to hurt her but I was not so sure about the man that Carl had been before. That man had no compunctions about hurting my girl. I could feel it in my gut
*********
“You head back to the office” I told Dave “I want to head over to Susie’s apartment”.
“Okay” he said “but let me know if you find anything else. I’ll get to work sorting the stuff from Carl’s place” he patted me on the shoulder, Dave’s way of showing support, which I appreciated.
Outside Susie’s door I knocked, just in case, I thought hopefully. I could hear the monster cat Hari mewling behind the door.
Checking the corridor to ensure there were no nosey neighbours, I leaned into the door and gave it a swift shove, breaking the lock. I had picked up a new lock on my way over and would replace it before I left.
The cat rushed over and began rubbing itself around my legs. I couldn’t help but laugh. The cat hated me but it was amazing the difference it made when it was hungry. I had suddenly become Hari’s new best friend. I almost bent down to stroke it, but remembering previous scratches, thought better of it. I would have to make an effort with the little monster if Susie and I ever lived together as I hoped.
“Okay buddy, let’s get you something to eat” I emptied a whole can into the dish and placed it on the floor. Our friendship now over the cat ignored me while stuffing her face.
I wandered around the apartment to see if there was anything that might help.
It hurt to go into the bedroom as images of our last night there brought back the painful reminder that I might not see Susie alive again.
I found a cat box in the hall cupboard and after a few hisses and scratches, managed to get the monster cat into it. I threw some cat food into a bag and after replacing the lock I headed off to deposit the cat at my place before heading back to the office.
*******
I had just closed my door, nursing a newly scratched hand, after leaving a very unhappy Hari in her new temporary home, when my new phone rang.
“Ben, we are heading over to a storage facility to check out a lock-up. We found an invoice for it in Carl’s unopened post” said Dave.
“Text me the address and I’ll meet you there” Adrenaline surged through me as I ran to my car.
When I got there Dave had already secured the spare key from reception and we made our way to the unit.
Lifting the door, we moved carefully through stacks of boxes. Dave had brought some evidence bags and protective clothing so we suited up before beginning the task.
It took me all of 2 minutes to know that getting Susie back alive would be a miracle. Once we opened the wardrobe and saw the many items of ladies clothing along with the contents of the boxes I knew that we had just found the evidence we needed to tie Carl in to the killings.
“Shit!” I said sinking to my knees “Why didn’t I see it?”
“No-one could have” Dave said squatting down beside me “He was a different person after the accident and there were no signs that he had anything to do with our investigation”
I knew it was the truth but I still felt guilt for not following up after my first meeting with him. I had felt that he was nervous about something on my first impression. Maybe if I had spoken to him in more depth, then my instincts about him might have kicked in much sooner. I couldn’t help but feel that I could have stopped Susie being put into danger.
“I still should have made a point to chase him up for his statement” I said in exasperation “If I had, Susie would be safe now and not God knows where, fighting for her life”
“It’s not your fault” Dave insisted “Let’s get this stuff back to the station and get looking for some clues as to where the fucker is. We’ll get him” Dave said with certainty.
I had no doubt that the net was closing in on one Mr Carl Dawson but all I was concerned with was whether we could get to him before it was too late for Susie. If anything happened to harm my girl then a certain Mr Dawson was going to pay. I silently promised this to both Susie and my aching conscience.
Susie
It was dark and someone was in the room with me. I opened my eyes and turned to see Carl sat on the side of the bed, his face lit by the moonlight coming in from the gap in the curtains.
