Authors: Jesse Abundis
The world’s view on right and wrong is blurred and up for much debate. I know how it feels to hide the true desire we have inside us. We‘re forced to play the part, just to fit in. I can unleash that demon inside of you, Juliet, only if you unleash mines as well.
My cell is 716-555-9990
My name is Jacob, let’s meet when you have the time.
She could feel the wet spot between her legs, and the sweat running down her forehead as she read the message over again. Caroline couldn’t believe it, she found the one person who knew the hunger that was inside her. “ Thank you.” She muttered quietly to herself.
Chapter 26
Play Karen, For Me
“ I’m warning you, he’s going to get stabbed with a fork in the eye.” Karen again reiterated to Peewee as she looked for something to wear, walking undressed through her apartment, letting the next door neighbors see every inch of her, Peewee not once glanced at her exposed body, he‘d seen it so many times, frankly there were times when he forgot Karen was a woman. “ In the end, you‘ll have no one else to blame but yourself.”
Peewee was far too busy glancing at himself in the mirror to even notice Karen discontent for the dinner, he couldn’t help but stare at the dashing devil looking back at him in the mirror, he was seconds away from having a love affair with himself. “ If I weren’t taken, I’d be so over you.”
“ Hey, delusional, has Carl gotten back with anything?” Even though she promised herself a few hours to forget about the case, her mind still gnawed over the two different descriptions they had been given of their serial killer.
“ Carl?” Peewee slicked back his hair, trying to get the Elvis Presley look. “ Oh, yeah, he emailed me everything he could just a few minutes ago, haven‘t read it yet, should I do it now?”
Karen slipped into her usual leather pants on and dyed shirt. “ Just read what you can.” She walked into the living room.
“ Well,” He grabbed his laptop pulling up the file as he followed right behind her. “ Out of the list we gave him, we got some hits and miss, Bridget Ramirez came back clean, it turns out she‘s been found just a few days ago, went on a drug binge.” Karen step into the bathroom, leaving the door half open as she brushed her teeth, Peewee spoke louder over the running faucet. “ Alexis Smith abusive boyfriend, no family in these states, she‘s a Russian immigrant, she was flagged for coming to the states with fake papers.”
Karen lurched her head out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. “ What was your take on the girl?”
“ I knew she was having immigration problems, the running on the lamb thing makes sense, but that seemed too easy.”
Karen spat into the sink. “ You said Lisa had a letter explaining everything, did she?”
“ No, she didn’t.” He admitted. “ But maybe she was that easy of a target. Made things less difficult, whose going to come after a girl who has no family whatsoever?”
“ Peewee, who are the girls that claimed to leave on their own will.” She gargled the water in her mouth.
“ Sarah Fairfield, Wendy Copper and Cindy Hall .” He scanned through the names, each one popping out like a sore thumb. “ Sarah Fairfield, sexually abused by her father, Wendy Copper was admitted to the psych ward as a child for anti-social behavior, Cindy Hall had an open pending rape case years back, but the accused walked free, Martin Dupree… fuck.” Peewee shouted out, Karen came out of the bathroom wondering what he had stumble on, he turn the screen over to show Karen the gruesome photos of Martin Dupree battered and mangled body. “ The bastard ended up good and dead four months ago, cop’s ruled it as a home invasion gone wrong, but I’ve never seen a home invasion like that.”
Karen closed the laptop for Peewee and grabbed her keys, they left the apartment without speaking a word, it wasn’t until they made their way down the hallway that the conversation continued. “ He’s protective.” Karen uttered. “ He has a type, it’s girls with broken lives.”
“ So, what, he gets off to their weakness?” Peewee fired back, getting madder each time he thought about the killer.
“ No,” Karen waved away his outburst. “ that’s not his game, he feels for them, Peewee.”
He snorted, hoping Karen was joking. “ I’m sure he really cares, must be why he kills them.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “ You want to know how to catch this guy, you need to get into his shoes.” They made their way into the stairwell. “ And I’m telling you right now, this guy connects with his victims, it’s the only way he gets so close to them, he’s not acting when he talks to them, he’s opening up who he is, he has the looks, the charms and the smarts but that can get you so far. No, he has to be like them, he has to understand what they're going through. I’m willing to bet in his eyes, he’s actually in love with them.” They walked side by side, nearing the second floor. “ Cindy Hall must have bared her soul with him on that night, told him about the rape, he got so angry, like anyone’s lover would and he murder the guy in the most violent way, I’m willing to bet Cindy knew.”
Peewee almost stumble back down the steps. “ What made you say that?”
“ Call it a hunch,” Karen said to him. “ A girl like Cindy wouldn’t have trusted anyone, especially not the killer, but he does something to prove to her that he’s the one, killing the man who took everything from you, the man you wish you could burn alive yourself, Cindy would have gone to hell and back with our charming man.” They entered the second floor making their way to apartment 206. “ We’re not dealing with someone who picks people at random, he knows his type.”
“ Will shouldn’t be too hard,” Karen wondered if Peewee was dropped on the head or was he really that bad of a comedian.
“ How do you figure?” She asked.
“ He’s hunting only in New York, so I mean, that narrows it down.”
“ There’s millions of people here.” Karen stated. “ Plus, women with issues, that makes things a hundred times harder.”
“ I’m just trying to spin a positive on things.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“ No, don’t do that.” She massaged her temples. “ Narrows it down my ass.”
They reached Scott’s door, both looking at each other as though who would be the one to knock at the forbidden temple of doom. “ Rock, paper, scissors?” Peewee grinned like a child at the compromise, it‘s was the same method to solve any problems with the team as who would buy lunch, but their game was cut half way, as the door swung wide open, with Scott standing there, wearing a pink apron with a smiling kitty saying “ It‘s purrfect,“
“ Hey, you guys made it.” He stared in confusion as their hands were fisted in mid flight. “ What are you guys doing?”
Peewee chimed in with an excellent alibi. “ Showing her a masturbation exercise, wanna join?” Karen slammed her rock into his chest.
“ Hey you, we‘re just so glad to be here.” Karen welcomed him with a fake hug , they needed a way out of that awkward moment. “ Oh my god,” How she felt the urge to slam her finger against the door as her valley girl accent poured out of her mouth. “ What a cute apron, like where did you get it, oh my God.” Every word out of Karen’s mouth was a lie. Her first instinct when seeing Scott standing at the door with his pink apron and stupid friendly grin, was to stab him repeatedly with a sharp object until he cried and apologized for ruining her morning sleep. Even that seemed very lenient for his crime. “ Wished I had one.” And the lies piled on.
“ Thanks, it was a gift from my mom. Come in, make yourselves at home.” He ran into the kitchen, hoping the lasagna he was cooking for this grand occasion hadn’t burnt, he was making a four cheese vegetarian lasagna with a nice Cesar salad and home made pudding for desert. It was a peace offering to his down stairs neighbor.
Karen walked around his living room, examining the photos of his family and friends, the stupid friendly grin was on every frame, how she wanted to bludgeon him to death. Scott wasn’t quite unpacked, yet. Some boxes with clothes were in the corner of the room, with a few of his personal possessions. Peewee was like a rat scavenging over his record collection in the corner of the room. “ Where did you live before?” Karen asked.
“ I’m originally from Los Angeles, just moved here a month ago, I was living with a friend of mine until I found a place of my own.” He stuck his head out from the kitchen, seeing Peewee stumbling around his records. “ Go ahead and play something, man, don’t be shy.”
Karen eyes loomed around the place noticing they both had the same worn out green peeling paint, for a moment she thought Mr. Chan the super of the apartment was cheating her and the other low paying tenants, but it just seemed the outside was different, inside was the same, a good kick would knock a hole through this cockroach infested walls. “ Did you need help? “ She had no attention to help, she was just being polite.
“ No, I’ve got it.” He smiled at her, before sticking his back into the kitchen.
Karen notice a copy of James Harris “ Whisper Of The Dead “ on Scott’s dinner table. She glanced at the pages, remembering how many countless times Jamie had talked about this book to her, sometimes putting her to sleep in the middle of night as she read her favorite parts of it. From the bits and details Karen could remember, she recalled Jamie calling it one of the greatest book ever written, despite the constant bashing it received from critics. It was called the perfect book to help suicidal people take the last step they needed to off themselves. That was one of the more positive reviews.
Thinking of Jamie was painful, it shamed her to admit it, she hope she would be over her by now, but she was wrong. The pain was still there. Hidden in the back of her mind, only to be set off with a small remembrance of her.
“ You a fan of his?” Scott turned his attention to Karen as held the book.
“ Oh,” She snapped out of her daze. “ No, not a big reader. A friend of mine loved this author.”
“ Neither am I, his books are too fictional.” That made Karen laugh. “ It’s true.” He said to her.
“ Isn’t that why they call it fiction, it’s suppose to take the sting out of reality.” She passed through each page, trying to get to the end of it.
“ There should be some truth to fiction.” He told her.
“ Wow, this is just writing gold.” She cleared her throat and began to read a passage. “ Danny ran his hand down his girlfriend balloons, and began to stick his fingers down her kitty cat, getting it nice and wet.” She grabbed her heart like a girl in love. “ If any man molested my pussy that way, he would win the key to my heart, hopefully he would fuck me when he got done satisfying my cat.” They both broke into laughter.
“ He’s a real bad author, sadly to say.” Scott said.
“ Then why have his novel?” Karen placed the book on the table.
“ I will give Harris this, his keen eye to the human psyche is spot on, some psychologist professors will vouch for that. ” He said modestly.
Karen was taken back at his answer. “ Do we have ourselves a psychologist in our little asylum, have to admit, I‘m impressed.” The first honest words to come out of her mouth. “ You have your degree, yet?”
“ Heavens no,” He took a peek at the lasagna inside the oven. “ I came to New York to attended CUNY, try to get my Bachelors , it’s been a dream of mines. I did two years in USC, but father told me New York was the place to go, so here I am trying to make it in the big city.”
Karen applauded him. “ That‘s amazing, out of the entire people in this building I do believe you‘re the only one who has a dream of becoming something, the rest are just waiting to die.” Her mind wander for a second, wondering where Peewee was, he had gone quiet, which only meant the worst. “ You doing ok, buddy?”
On hearing the oncoming footsteps, Peewee quickly jumped back like a child who just broken something valuable. “ What are you up to?” She said quietly, knowing he had destroyed something, the guilt was written all over his face.
“ Nothing, ” Peewee was nervous. “ I‘m good, I‘m good.” She could see the broken record behind his back.
“ You’re paying for that. ” She silently argued with him.
“ I’ll put it back, he won’t even notice, he’ll think he broke it.” Peewee said to her as he tried to paste together the broken album.
“ Dinner is ready.” Scott shouted from the kitchen. “ Come and get it.” Karen blocked Scott’s view as he passed by, giving Peewee a chance to hide the crime scene and put it back into it’s place.“Before it gets cold.”
Peewee tapped her shoulder, giving her the all clear “ Oh man, I‘m so hungry.” Peewee said, trying to act nonchalant. “ Hey Scott, those records look real old, I bet some of them don‘t even work.” He winked at her, as though his smooth talking would get them out of this jam.