Next in Line

by R. L. Wilson

  “Wow, that’s so creepy” I said looking around at all of the ships. “This area is called the graveyard” Cooper said. “Why is it called the graveyard?” Sophie asked. “Because this is place where ships come to die” Cooper said laughing at his own joke. “Look more dolphins” Logan told us. Without saying another word we all started paddling towards the dolphins when we heard Sophie yell “Ummm help me please someone.” She was heading straight towards one of the ships. “Just turn around and paddle forward this way” Logan yelled back to her. After a few more strokes with the paddle Sophie yelled out “I’m doing that but it isn’t working.” Logan and Cooper started laughing as they slowly turned their kayaks around to face Sophie’s direction. She began to scream as she desperately tried to turn her kayak around. “Help me Cooper” Sophie screamed. Cooper started to paddle towards Sophie in order to help her but before he got there, the front of Sophie’s kayak bumped into one of the ships. Sophie threw her paddle into the water as she screamed as loud as she could.

  “Sit still” Cooper called out to Sophie as she screamed and threw her arms about in the air. When Cooper came up next to her she tried to jump over into his kayak but fell and tipped Cooper’s kayak. Logan and I burst out laughing as we watched both Cooper and Sophie’s head pop out of the water. Sophie took a deep breath in and then started screaming and kicking around again which made Logan and I laugh even harder. “Why are you screaming” Cooper shouted. “Just get me out of the water” Sophie screamed back. Cooper helped Sophie back into her kayak and grabbed her paddle out of the water before turning his kayak back and getting into, the whole time Logan and I still laughing. “I think it’s time we head back now” Cooper said to Logan seeming a little annoyed. “But why? We were having so much fun” Logan replied laughing. Cooper shot Logan a glare and said “Stop laughing Logan otherwise I’ll tip you in. Then we’ll see how much you laugh.” “You have to catch me first” Logan replied as he started to paddle back as fast as he could.

  I was so happy when we arrived back at the apartments. My body was sore from all the paddling and my hair had salt in it from the water. I headed straight for my bathroom and turned the shower on. I threw my clothes on the floor and got into the shower enjoying the warm water as it hit my body. I just stood there for what felt like five minutes letting the water fall on me when there was a loud knock on the door. “How much longer are you going to be? We want some hot water too” Sophie called out to me. “We?” I asked back. “You heard the woman” I heard Cooper call back in response. “Oh well now that I know that Cooper wants a shower I’ll make sure I use up all of the hot water” I said giggling at my own joke. “I will come in there and drag you out myself if I have to missy” Cooper said. “Yeah, that’s not so funny seeing as how it’s been done before” I said back to Cooper trying not to remember the night that someone had dragged me out of my shower by my hair. There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment and then Cooper said “Oh shit. I’m sorry Holly.” It’s fine” I replied. “I’m nearly done.” I quickly washed my hair and body and the got out of the shower wrapping a towel around me and running to my room to get dressed and trying very hard to not look at Cooper and Sophie on the couch. “All yours” I called out before shutting my bedroom door.

  Chapt

  er Sixteen

  Logan

  I turned my alarm off and looked over to the other side of my bed. I was sad to see that Holly wasn’t there anymore. I guess she went into work early today. I rubbed my eyes and grunted at the thought that I needed to get up and get ready for work. My bedroom door quickly swung open and I sat up in my bed. “Where is Holly?” Sophie asked. “I don’t know. I’m assuming at work. Why are you in my bedroom so early?” “Holly’s boss just called. She is late for work and they can’t get in contact with her. I just assumed that she would be here” Sophie said. I grabbed my phone and tried to call Holly. “What’s wrong?” Sophie asked when I hung up. “It said that the phone had been disconnected.” I looked at Sophie feeling confused. I jumped out of bed and headed for the front door. I knew that Sophie was following me and saying something but I wasn’t listening.

  I stepped outside and looked into the car park. Holly’s car was still in its usual parking spot. “Put a shirt on you sexy hunk of man beef.” I looked to see that Coop was just getting back from his morning jog. “Holly’s missing” I said back. “What are you talking about? Her car is in the car park. Have you checked her apartment? She might be having a shower or something.” I felt frustrated at Coop for being so cool about the situation and being helpful. I felt like I needed to panic. I went into the girls’ apartment and searched all the rooms but there was no sign of her. “Where is all of her stuff?” I shouted out to Cooper and Sophie. I stood in Holly’s room looking around in confusion and disbelief. “What the hell” Cooper said. All of Holly’s things were gone. The bed had no sheets or blankets on it and her photos of her friends and family were missing. I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the door. “Her clothes are gone too” I said looking at Coop. “It looks like no one lives here” Sophie said as she walked into the room some more. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tried to call Holly’s number again. I grunted loudly when the recording said that the number was disconnected.

  “It’s the stalker” I said to Cooper. “What stalker?” Sophie asked us sounding confused. Coop looked at me and then back at Sophie. “Someone has been stalking Holly. There was the attack in the bathroom and in the car park. She has also been sent lingerie in the mail and creepy one word letters. We have figured out that all of those things were done by the same person” Cooper said. “I need to get down to the station. I can do more there” I said. I started heading for the door when Sophie grabbed my arm. “We will come with you. Maybe we can help.” “Fine but just stay out of my way” I snapped back at her.

  When we got to the station I opened up my bottom drawer which had all of the things that the stalker had given to Holly. I put it on my desk and Coop and Sophie started going through it all. I grabbed my keyboard and typed Holly’s name into the police data base. After the computer searching for a minute it came up saying ‘no match found.’ That can’t be right. I’ve looked her up on here before. She has had two tickets before. One for speeding and the other was a parking ticket, so why can’t the computer find her now? I typed her name in again hoping that I had just done something wrong the first time but the same result. “I can’t find her on the data base” I said to Coop. “What!?” Coop replied. Try looking up the registration number for her car.” I turned and started to type. I got about half way through when I couldn’t remember any more of it. “52J” Sophie said. “Thanks” I replied as I typed it in. “Nothing” I said when the search results came up. “What do you mean nothing?” Coop asked pushing his way past Sophie so he could look at the computer. “It’s saying that there has never been a car with that registration number before.” Coop walked around to his desk and started typing on his computer.

  I put my hands over my faced and laid my head down on my desk. “Oh no” Coop said quietly. “What’s oh no Coop?” He looked into my eyes and took a deep breath which felt like it took minutes rather than seconds. “What Coop?” I said a little louder. It seems like what is happening with Holly happened with the other girls who were killed by the construction site killer. Every detail about the girls just vanished along with all their personal belongings and them. No one hears or sees them again until we find their bodies at the construction site.” “So she’s been kidnapped by a serial killer?” Sophie asked. Cooper didn’t say anything he just nodded his head. I ran my hands through my hair before putting my face back in my hands and laying my head down on my desk. I can’t believe this is happening. I had gone to sleep right next to her last night and now she was just gone. We have no idea where this guy was taking his victims or all of what he did to them when he had them. All we knew was that he kidnapped these girls and when he did there was no trace of them until they
turned up at the construction site, with marks on their wrists and ankles from being tied up and all different kinds of cuts and stab wounds all over their bodies.

  I couldn’t handle thinking about what was happening to her. I looked up at Cooper who was typing away again. “What do I do Coop?” Cooper stopped typing and looked at me. I could see the worry on his face and it wasn’t comforting. “We will find her Logan, but you need to relax and get your head on straight, otherwise you won’t be any help.” “I’ll be back in a minute” Sophie said as she grabbed her phone out of her bag and headed outside. Before I could even ask Coop what she was doing the chief walked up to us and stood there staring at us for a minute without saying a word. I know the chief is mad at us for something but I wasn’t in the mood for him. “Before you say anything Chief you should know that Logan’s girlfriend is missing. We believe that the construction site killer has her.” The chief’s expression changed and he unfolded his arms. “Someone was in the construction site last night. One of the patrol cars caught sight of someone and chased him three blocks before he got away. Your girlfriend lives next door to you, right? Well the guy who was seen last night is the guy that took your girl. I’ll put every available officer on the case. We are closer to catching him now than we have ever been.” I watched as the chief walked away and then just stared at Coop. “See Logan. We are closer than ever. We will find her.” I knew that Coop was trying to make me feel better but he was treating me how we treat the parents or partners of the victims. We tell them what they want to hear as long as it isn’t lying to them. I am an officer too so I know that the chances of finding Holly alive was getting smaller by the minute.

  A moment later Sophie came back into the station and sat on the edge of Coop’s desk. “So I just called our landlord and somehow Holly’s name has been taken off the lease for the apartment and no one can tell me how this has happened.” I didn’t want to hear any more about what’s happening. I got up from my desk and walked into the lunch room to make myself a coffee and to take a deep breath. If I had any chance in finding Holly then I needed to try and clear my head. When I got back to my desk Sophie and Coop stopped talking. “Yeah because that’s not suspicious at all guys” I said feeling a little frustrated. I sat down and started going through all of the evidence again desperately hoping that I had missed something that would help us to find Holly.

  I was so focused, carefully going through the evidence that I didn’t notice the guy that had stopped next to mine and Cooper’s desk until I heard Cooper say “What the hell are you doing here?” I looked up to see Spencer. Cooper got to his feet and Sophie jumped off his desk to stand in front of him as if to try and stop a fight from breaking out. “I have something that you need to see” Spencer said. Cooper didn’t say a word nor did he move. He just stood there with Sophie right in front of him glaring at Spencer. I couldn’t help but feel confused and very curious so I slowly got to my feet and asked “What are you talking about?” Spencer took a few steps towards me and said “I was going through Dante’s room. He borrowed my DVD the other day so I went in there to get it back and I found these.” Spencer handed me a folder. When I opened the folder it was full of photos of all of the victims from the construction site killer. Some are of the girls alive and some weren’t. The only way Dante could have these is if he was there when the girls were being killed. At the end of the pile were some photos of Holly. Some of her getting the mail, getting into her car in the car park at the apartments, some of her going into her work and some of her walking up to the apartment with Cooper and myself. “Oh my god” I said as I sat down in my chair still staring at the photos of Holly. Cooper pushed past Sophie and Spencer and grabbed the photos gently out of my hands. He quickly flicked through them with Sophie looking at them over his shoulder. Coop then ran off with the photos yelling “Chief, Chief.” I was too shocked to say anything so I just sat in my chair. Spencer took another step towards me and said “I’m sorry. When I found them I thought that maybe he had printed them off from the internet and he just had a sick and twisted sense of humour but then I saw the pictures of Holly. I sat there with them for about half an hour trying to think of what I should do with them and then I brought them here.”

  After getting a warrant five squad cars set out to Dante’s house. Coop and I were stuck with the Chief. The only way that he was going to let me go after this guy is if I was with him the whole time. I was angry that he was treating me like a child but I need to save Holly. All that I can think about is her and that I would kill Dante if he hurt her. When we got to Dante and Spencer’s apartment the chief let one of the other officer’s break down the door. I held my gun out in front of me and ran inside. I searched everywhere but Dante and Holly weren’t in the apartment. “Where the hell are they?” I shouted out. “Don’t worry Shields. I’ll call the station and get them to give us every address that we have for him on file. His work address or any previous addresses. We will find them” Chief said. Normally I didn’t like the chief very much. He was always on mine and Coop’s case and gave us every shitty job that he could think of but he was actually making me feel better at the moment, if that was even possible. I started looking around at all of the things in Dante’s bedroom. I found a pretty gold crucifix necklace with some diamonds hanging from his dresser. It was feminine looking and very familiar.

  “Hey Coop. Can you pass me the photos of the victims” I asked him. When he passed them too me I started to flip through until I came across one of the victims after she was kidnapped. She was tied to a chair with cuts all over her and dangling from her neck was this very same necklace. “What is it?” Coop asked me. I passed him the photo and said “He collects things from his victims.” An officer came over with an evidence bag and I carefully place the necklace in it. Coop gave some photos out to other officers and asked them all to see if they could find anything in the apartment that came from the women in the photos. Surely enough they found another three things. Just then the Chief walked up to Coop and I and said “We have some more addresses and I’ve sent some officers out to check them out. We need to figure out what the connection is to Dante and the construction site.” Well who is in charge of the construction site?” I asked the Chief. “A man named Max Johnson” he replied. “Would Spencer know?” I asked looking at Coop. “He might. I left him and Sophie at the station so I would know Sophie is safe. I’ll ring her and get her to ask him.” I felt like we were getting nowhere and I couldn’t stop thinking about what could be happening to Holly right now. “Hey Soph. Look I need you to ask Spencer a question. The construction site where the bodies are being dumped belong to a man named Max Johnson. Can you ask Spencer how Dante might know him” Coop was quiet while he listened to whatever it was that Holly and Spencer were saying and then a big smile spread across his face. “Thanks babe” He said and then he hung up his phone.

  “Well it seems that Max is Dante’s stepfather and quite a nasty one. He was a drunk and abusive when Dante was younger.” We all stood there silently while we tried to think about all this. “He has been dumping the bodies at that site to get back at his step dad for what he did to him as a child. I’ll call the station and find any other addresses that Max owns and see where we are with this other warrant” The chief said. Then he grabbed out his phone and left the room. I slowly ran my hands over my face and through my hair as I tried to stay calm. All this standing around was making me feel useless. I needed to be out there searching all of the addresses. I just wanted Holly back in my arms. Just then the Chief walked back into the room. “I’ve got the addresses and they finally gave us the warrant for Dante’s phone.” Just then the Chief’s phone beeped. He stopped talking to read it. “The warrant was to track Dante’s phone and I do believe we just found him” The chief said. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go” I said back and we all ran out of the apartment and out to the car. I’m coming Holly.