by catt dahman
“Oh, okay then. That might be a while, waiting on a date. This case could take weeks. I guess you might meet someone else and wanna date him….”
“Now who am I gonna meet? Tobias? No thanks since he’s married with kids. Besides he and Kurt are as busy as we are, and I’m not sweet on either of them.”
“So you have to be sweet on a fellow to have a date with him? That must mean you’re sweet on me.” He grinned mischievously. This was as brave as he had ever been.
“I guess I am.” Vivian thought it was more than that, though.
“Well, that makes my day. So, if we’re sweet on each other….”
Vivian teased him, “You admit it!”
“I do. I am. I guess we could skip some of the dancing around and ducking and diving and just say that maybe you’re my girl.” Adrenaline surged, and he felt as if he were sixteen, but it also was like a drug that made him feel light and free talking.
“That would save time.”
“You’re a sensible sort, Vivian,” he said as he leaned close, held her hand, and whispered, “and you’re hotter than a two dollar pistol, too.”
They both laughed.
The doors of the theatre opened, and a girl in a wheelchair, a boy with crutches, a woman with leg braces, a blind man who kept a hand on his guide’s arm, and the driver came out first because their van was parked right in front of the theatre in a handicapped spot. Virgil waved at the driver as he and Vivian walked around the van and closer to the theatre while other people poured out slowly, talking about the movie and throwing away cups and papers.
The van’s driver yanked back the sliding door and promptly stumbled backwards, falling onto his rear and whining unintelligibly. It would seem the others might laugh or tease him, but the boy on crutches fell backwards, too, and half the crowd stepped backwards while the other half came toward the van, gasping, their hands to their mouths; some others screamed, some wailed, and a few jostled for a better view.
Almost in slow motion, Virgil turned to the van and took it all in, feeling ice wash over him. Vivian had her revolver out before Virgil drew his.
Over the loud voices, she shouted to the crowd, “Get back; get back. Go into the theatre, and stay there.”
“Get up, and get these people back into the theatre, too,” Virgil added as he gave orders to the driver and the rest of the lookers standing around. “I mean move it now.”
“Oh, God.”
Virgil yanked his radio out and almost screamed into it. From across the street and before he was finished calling for help, Tina, Kurt, Tobias, Nick, and Joey came running, guns drawn.
“What in the hell is this, Virgil? What is it? Why? What is this?” Tobias wailed. He dropped his gun and went to his knees with his hands to his hair, yanking. It was all still in slow motion for those watching.
Virgil called for help, and the deputies came running with their side arms drawn.
When the sliding door opened, a body fell to the ground face up. Another’s head and upper torso slid down to the asphalt. Bare, female legs hung out in sight, and a cascade of hair flopped out. Blood was everywhere. Kurt physically restrained Tobias and asked two dependable men that he knew from school, and, in fact, had helped search for the missing child and had been deputized to confine the big deputy.
The girl who fell out was the one they looked at first and was the one that Tobias saw. She was the reason he was hysterical.
Trying to see what Tobias saw, Virgil walked forward with his gun aimed at the van. All he saw were broken and bloody bodies.
It was horrific.
The girl on the ground was nude from the waist down, blood covered her legs, and her throat, bruised from being choked, was slit from ear to ear.
The two men struggled to keep Tobias from beating his head against the pavement as he wailed and screamed.
“What’s going on?” Vivian asked as she and Virgil helped the others make sure the killers were not in or around the van.
Tina told her, “That girl…oh, God, help us, but that’s Tobias’ daughter, Sally Jean. That’s his baby girl.”
Vivian squeezed her eyes closed a minute and tried to breathe. Tobias didn’t stop screaming, now roaring from deep in his soul. His friends gathered around him and kept him from running to her. He fought to bash in his head. It was if he wished to knock himself unconscious.
Luckily, an ambulance was there within seconds, and the paramedics helped the other two men get Tobias on a gurney, strap his arms and legs down, and get a few belts across his chest to hold him still. He never stopped screaming.
He cursed and fought; however, the paramedic managed to start an IV. One turned back to Virgil and asked, “Sheriff, anything you want to ask him, or can we knock him out? Come on, let us knock him out?”
“Nooooooooooooooo. That’s my girl.”
“Toby, stop screaming, and answer me so they can do something for you. Where was Sally tonight?” Desperately, Virgil yelled into his friend’s face.
Tobias’s face went from terrified and anguished to a sudden thought that he struggled with; if anything, he looked as if he saw the pits of hell, and for a second before the sight in his head formed fully, he had a moment of some clarity, “Home. Home. Home with Debbie and Charlene. Home. Sleep over. Those girls. Thhhoooooossssssse gggggiiiiiiiirrrrrrllllllllllssssss. Debbieeeeeeeeeeee. They were home.” The last word became a scream, and he only took breaths to scream again.
“Shoot him up, and keep him under. Tell the doctor to keep him under a while until I have this figured out.”
“Let me up. Sallllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”
“She’s fourteen. That’s Sally, no doubt,” Tina told Vivian.
“I’m so sorry,” Vivian stared at Tobias as they wheeled him away.
Hello, Harry,” Tina said.
“You can’t let me have a day off; I haven’t finished with the three I got yesterday morning.” He put on gloves and began using swabs and instruments. “They’ve been dead less than an hour.”
Virgil looked back at the theatre. The doors were propped open, but the patrons were barely inside because they were trying to get a good place to watch the action: some were downstairs and some in the upstairs area. Faces peered down. He felt a chill. “ Vivian, four of them, Viv, four of those people watching are the killers. They’re here.”
“Virgil….”
“I’m right. They’re watching us. They watched Toby fall apart, and they drank it up like something delicious because they’re very bad people. We’re gonna keep them here and take names. We’ll eliminate the old people and the under-twelve kids, and then we will see who we have.”
Harry shrugged, “We have photos, and you have notes? Let me give the photos to you. That’s Tobias’s daughter, Sally, age fourteen, and she died from exsanguination; her carotid artery was sliced open. Someone very strong choked her. She was raped. The preliminary shows maybe twice, once before and once after death, but I refuse to say for sure until I do a full exam, Her nipples…uh…were chewed off, and bits are missing from one buttock. The other buttock has been fully removed, and an ear is missing.”
“Harry….”
“Virgil, you better kill the son of a bitch who did this. Hey, let me have a few minutes alone with the fucker, ‘kay?”
“We’ll get them, Harry. For Toby. For the rest. Okay, get her on a gurney, cover her fully so no one can see her, and get her out of here,” Virgil said.
“You have the other photos?”
“We have to turn this one over, and I’ll snap them fast.”
Virgil and Harry turned the next body over, and both groaned; it was one of Sally’s friend who must have been at the sleep over: Caroline Janner, a tiny, thin girl who was also nude had slid down, so she was doing a headstand on her short dark hair. They moved her so she was lying flat.
“Why this van?
“Because it was close and it was like opening a curtain and showing off a stage. They have escalated again. T
his time it was to shock the public.”
Vivian nodded and said, “They could have gotten anyone. Why a cop’s family?”
“Because it shows that no one is safe,” Virgil said as he breathed hard.
Harry cursed. “Why do I need sleep anyway? Okay, looks like she was raped with an unknown object, no semen. She has been beaten badly, her hair has been chopped off, and she has multiple stab wounds, defensive wounds, so she fought back; it’ll take me a long time to count the stabs, but C.O.D is going to be exsanguination.”
“You can take her,” Virgil said.
“Ccccccarly,” cried a teen boy who pushed past those keeping everyone in the theatre and ran like the football player he was, making cutbacks and faking them out until he made it to Virgil who physically grabbed the boy.
“That’s my girlfriend.”
“Isn’t she’s too young for you, Joe?”
“Four years.”
“Statutory rape….”
“She’s…is she? Sheriff, is it Carly? Oh my, God, let me see my girl….”
Virgil grabbed for Joe, “Not like this.”
But Virgil missed, and the sheet slipped so Joe got an eye full. The beaten face, the stab wound, and the chopped hair were all bad, but when he saw the gore between her legs, he vomited and said, “She was a virgin…oh, Carly….” He slumped to the ground, crying. He was the second to collapse.
Virgil pointed and called for a few of Joe’s friends. For all he knew, they were the killers, but his gut didn’t feel it was so. “You boys take Joe home, and make sure his parents are there, or stay with him. Get him a warm shower, some cocoa or hot tea; keep him warm and calm. He isn’t to be left alone, got me?”
The boys helped take Joe away.
“That hair…that is Aria Carter, I know,” Virgil said. He saw that a Catholic priest, the Baptist preacher, and the Methodist minister had arrived and were standing to the side; it was almost a joke: A Catholic priest, the Baptist preacher, and the Methodist minister all arrived at the crime scene. Virgil yelled to ask if the Carters attended a church; they did. They were Catholic.
He asked the Father to go in the theatre and handle the Carters since he had word they were in there and were fairly crazed. “See if you can help them. She’s dead, Father; we made sure; it’s Aria.”
Harry grumbled, “Same thing. Raped. Stabbed. Ring finger sliced off, post mortem. Fourth girl is Robin Waters. She’s got a lot of cigarette burns on her; all were ante mortem; she was raped and sodomized, and her throat was sliced. That’s all preliminary though, keep in mind.”
“Same signatures, Virgil. You were right,” Vivian said.
“I want this van impounded so we can go over it for clues and evidence. I want a list name by name of who is in that theatre right now, working or seeing the show, and I want to know if they saw anyone leave or acting funny. I want to know if anyone heard anything or saw anything or if anyone saw specifically three men and a woman together.”
Vivian thought of something and said, “And if there are any places around here where people looking out a window had a clear view of the van, of us, of the people entering, and leaving the theatre. We need to know who those people are as well. Like that little ice cream place, people in that building have a good view of us.”
“That, too. Walk it and talk it. They are watching. Four of these people are our killers. We have it narrowed down, so let’s get them. I want Viv and Nick to come with me. We’re going to drive to the Porter’s house; we may have another crime scene there or a kidnapping. It was first, so I don’t expect trouble.”
Virgil and Vivian got into one car, Nick borrowed Tobias’s car, and they drove three blocks to check the house. The dispatcher had reported no one was answering at the Porter’s home.
“I don’t think anyone is here. Not alive anyway unless I am, hopefully, wrong, but don’t take chances. If someone comes at you, shoot to kill, and we’ll sort it later. Be careful.”
Nick knew the drill but listened and nodded. He had never been in this deadly of a situation. Virgil was visibly shaken as they approached the house, worried for his deputy’s wife and other child.
Virgil knocked once and then slammed the door open, “Debbie? Debbie? It’s Virgil and some other officers. I need you to answer me, Hon. Debbie? Charlene?”
Sleeping bags filled the living room. As soon as Tobias saw Sally, he knew the killers had been at his house. He knew what would be found there: he was suddenly alone in the world.
It was a modest home with a living room, sizable kitchen and eat-in dining area, laundry, tiny den, a half bath downstairs, and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs with a reading nook set in between the bedrooms at the top of the stair landing. Virgil cleared the upstairs, checking the big bedroom the girls shared, the master bedroom, and the rest of the rooms quickly as Nick and Vivian checked over the downstairs area.
No one was moving around in any of the rooms.
Unfortunately, that was because of the condition of the living room. Debbie was dead, lying on the floor with a neck injury that suggested her brain stem or something was cut from behind, maybe stabbed. Virgil felt his stomach flip as he felt a wave of compassion for his deputy. How in the hell was he going to tell Tobias that not only had his pre-teen daughter been raped and murdered, but that his wife was also dead?
And it was for a killer’s thrills.
“I count three extra sleeping bags, Virgil. The girls were playing a paper game with their names and boys’ names…a matching game that girls do. With the ones we know of, we are missing this one: Christy Drake.”
“And the other? Charlene? Is it a smaller sleeping bag?”
“Yes. The other two are both smaller. Maybe Charlene had a friend over as well? Let me see. Nina. She’s eight.”
“So we have four missing girls? This is like a nightmare.”
Vivian chewed her lip, “What worries me is how these nuts will one-up this. What will they do to top this shock?”
Virgil used his radio, “Tina, I need the mayor at the station in fifteen minutes. I need to hire some deputies because we are down two now.”
“On it, Boss. I was just about to get you on the line.”
“What ya got?” Virgil wasn’t ready over a radio to tell Tina the bad news, but he would.
“I am at the station, and Boss, I have a person of interest. No, scratch that; I have a suspect. Damnit, he had the missing teddy bear from one of those dead girl scouts in his vehicle. I think we have him.”
“Tina, I may love you. We’re on the way, and can you get the ME to Tobias’s house? I need Kurt over here, too and a photographer and anyone deputized to help with crowd control.”
“Oh, oh shit, Virgil. What about Debbie?”
“She’s dead, Tina. Keep that on a need-to-know-basis.”
“Hurry and get back, Boss.”
“Yeah, on my way.” Virgil was full of energy again and hopeful. “Nick, I’m going to offer you a job, pending the mayor’s saying okay, which he will. I hope you’ll consider the offer. I’d like to hire Joey as well and you, Viv. I know that’s a lot of family….”
“But who better to work with than family? I’d be honored, Virgil. I’ve been planning to apply. Joey may go for it; despite the trouble here, Janice likes the town.”
Virgil and Vivian got into the car and drove to the station.
She didn’t answer about the job, but she had the intense look to her eyes that she got when her mind was whirling, and Virgil was aware that the timing wasn’t perfect, but he knew she was thinking it over.
Virgil walked into the station, trying to remain calm but aware he might be facing a true monster. What would he look like?
Without saying a word, Virgil opened the cell and motioned the man to walk into a small conference room where Virgil introduced himself and Vivian, who was ready with a fresh notepad. The man didn’t look like a monster, which was a little disappointing; he was a fairly handsome man and normal looking and composed
in demeanor.
He had the bare outline of the arrest, which he preferred as opposed to having too much information that would skew his views. He didn’t know how to question a possible murderer, but he figured he could wing it. He played Litz’s Piano Sonata in B Minor because it was complex yet very structured, logical in presentation, and calming to him.
The man before him was in excellent physical shape with muscles and a lean, tight body, intelligent, aware eyes, and was in the age range Virgil had expected. He was white. He was very normal looking.
“So, Eric, let’s talk. I understand you were picked up at the theatre after some routine questioning, and if you’re innocent, then we need to get you cleared and out of here so we don’t waste your time, okay?”
“Sure, Sheriff.”
“I understand you were there at the show and afterwards were sitting alone, relaxing, while people around you were looking and rubber-necking to see the van outside. You didn’t seem interested.”
“Is that a question?”
“Sure. Why weren’t you interested?”
“Why would I be interested in some girls I don’t know?”
Virgil nodded, “Okay. I can see that, but it isn’t every day you see that kind of thing right? Everyone else was upset, right?”
The man grinned a bit, “They were screaming and yelling and running all over the place like a bunch of ants. People were crying, and a few fainted. It was wilder than the movies.”
“They were upset. They knew those girls, and that was a gruesome scene. There was a lot of blood, and people were scared.”
“Yes, they were.”
The man’s eyes sparkled. He was the one. Virgil knew he was the one.
“We had some problems out at the campgrounds, too. We had a boy shot, and then three scouts were killed, and then three girl scouts were killed and one abducted. Tonight, we had four young girls slaughtered and put out like they were the night’s entertainment. In addition, we have another crime scene as well.”
“It sounds as if you have a problem here in town. A regular crime spree. You had better get busy on that.”
“I’m busy. This is me being busy. Seems as if all of that would take someone with a lot of energy. Do you think it took a lot of energy to commit those crimes, Eric?”
