Authors: Jesse Abundis
“ How did it feel, did she cry, did you jack off on her face when it was done? “ Klecko’s mistress voice illuminated with excitement as he recounted his story to her. Two people who engaged in dark fantasies of murder and torture, while never knowing what the other one looked like or who they truly were. Klecko was always tempted to run a trace on her number, find out who she was, where she lived, just to put a face behind the voice, but he wonder what would happen if he found out that his dream girl was just a fat obese woman sitting alone at home, with a few cats, just roleplaying with anyone who would talk to her. He preferred having this false image of a maniac like him out on the streets killing whoever they pleased, this way their conversations could remain as pure as could be.
“ Her eyes just bulged, she kept looking at me, like she was trying to figure out my logic to it all. It was just beautiful.” He could feel the bulge in his pants rise again, just like it did a night before. “ I was so hard when I got off her body, I wanted her to come alive again, so I could do it all over.” He shivered in his bed, feeling the urge to jack off as Denise death played back in his mind, the feeling of it all was better than sex.
“ I want you to murder me...” His mistress shyly said, as she began to breathe heavily, Klecko knew she was foundling herself, her voice would always drop nice and low when she was aroused.
“ You do ?” He stuttered from enjoyment.
“ Yeah, I want you to cut me apart, just kill me nice and slow, do things to me, worst than that whore you killed. Can we do it, please.” She begged intensely.
His heart began to race, just hearing those words come out of her mouth made him feel alive, but it was too soon. He just finished with Denise Hillshire and he still had to deal with his blackmailer, but it was good to know he had willing victim that wanted to indulge his hunger. “ I need some more time to think about it. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“ I thought you had the week off ? “ Her voice seem sadden, she was hoping to spend the entire night with him on the phone. “ I really like talking to you, baby.” She spoke to him as though they were in a relationship, but neither had felt the touch of one another.
Klecko debated with himself, wanting to be with his mistress seem like the best thing in the world, but he knew he needed to be ready for the oncoming storm that was waiting for him at the corner. “ I do too, I’m just really tired, “ That was no lie, he spent all night cleaning up the mess that had come back to him, this was his first good hour of rest. “ I promise, tomorrow, we can talk all we want.”
“ Ok, I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.” She hesitated for a moment in whether to tell him that he loved him, but decided to leave it for another night. “ Get some rest.”
He blew a sigh of relief after hanging up the phone. He laid in his bed, closing his eyes for a few moments.
“No, no, no.”
He could see that strange man in the shadows tossing something into the fire, “
it all has to burn, it all has to burn.”
He opened his eyes quickly, still hearing those same words fumble in his head, he rose from the bed looking around his room, he could of sworn that man was inside his room. He took a deep breath before laying back down, remembering to what his blackmailer told him before leaving him. “ It all goes back to those sleepless night, detective.” He knew what night that was, but it still made no sense to him. “ Who are you ?” Klecko said to himself, as he gently tilted his head to stare at the window, knowing somewhere he was out there watching him.
The phone beside him began to ring, he turned around and saw it was Harkness, probably out to bring him back into the field. “ A cop shouldn’t have a day off, we work to serve the people.” He would say day in and day out, a brainwash detective who focused on two things in his life, family and his job. No outer ambition outside that great wall of China lodge in his head.
Klecko let the phone ring a few times, wishing Harkness would hang up on his own and leave him be. Though, that didn’t seem to be working. “ Harkness ,” He made his annoyances known. “ you better have a damn good reason for calling me.” How his stomach ran cold as Harkness explained the situation.
Chapter 44
LESSON ONE: KNOW YOUR VICTIM
Was this a nightmare, had he lost his mind, it had to be, why would Denise Hillshire eyes be staring at him?
“ I have your back, you have mines.”
words out of the blackmailers mouth, all that rang false in this darkest hour. He could only imagine what bone his blackmailer had to pick with him, what wrong did he do to him to earn such attention?
His entire career was built in apprehending the worst of the worst, he was the golden boy everyone praised and thanked, but now his blackmailer held the cards of exposing to the world what he really was, just another freak, like the same ones he put away.
“ The woman on this photo is named Denise Hillshire.“ A young female Hispanic detective was the one that gather this small staff meeting, she never gave her name, she bolted off the gates with the case, what her history was and the power she wield to call such a meeting was beyond Klecko‘s comprehension. But her mere presence brought Commander Mario Angelo to her side, there was no doubt the bone she carried was a dangerous one.
Photo’s of Klecko’s victim were passed around, taken in a time when her body had yet to be abused by the drugs she poured into herself and when she still had a soul. With such attention, Klecko only wonder if Denise Hillshire wasn’t something more than she seemed, a politicians daughter, or even worst a police officers child, so many inquires ran through his mind, with so many scenarios, each one ended with him running for his life.
The detectives in the conference room had been called out of the blue, none knowing what this was all about, none of them really caring, they were getting paid one way or another, some of them were just yearning to head back into their warm beds. Klecko was the only one on edge, he was a bit curious how they came to ID the body so quickly without a head. “ Ten hours ago her body was left in a playground in Harlem, with a note pin to the body.” Vazquez seemed to choke up as she passed the copy of the letter to everyone. Klecko was the first to get his hands on it.
I LIE IN THE ROAD
SHOW MY SINS TO THE WORLD
A HEADLESS WENCH
WITH NO PROMISE OR LIFE
HOW I’VE SIN
HOW I'VE SOLD MY SOUL
THERE’S NOTHING LEFT
AMEN
“ This guy a fucking poet, or what?” Harkness muttered to Klecko as he read the note.
Klecko flinched reading every word of the letter, a letter he knew was written by the same person that was hiding in the shadows.“ Hate to erupt,” His voice crackled, the fear was seeping out of him. “ but who are you exactly?” He needed answers quickly if he wanted to stay alive.
“ My apology, how rude of me. I’m Sgt. Rita Vazquez, I work Vice.” She said to him.
“ This is why you need a home town boy.” He could hear Harkness mutter to someone behind him. Klecko felt the urge to ram his fist into Harkness skull, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shit, but he did recall them having a conversation about Rita Vazquez a while back, it was when they were running the Angela Dennings case.
“ My bad, “ Klecko smiled at her. “ But, can you tell me why we’re all here, for one dead girl, in a city like this, she can’t be the only one?”
Rita whispered something to the Commander before continuing to speak, how his body ran cold. “ Denise Hillshire was an informant in a critical case.”
“ That‘s what I thought.” Harkness joined in the conversation.
Before she proceed to say more, she closed the doors to the conference room, whatever needed to be said was for their ears only. “ Coming here today isn’t easy for me, some of my colleagues actually tried to talk me out of it. But, I can’t continue to let this happen.” She took a deep breath and proceed to confess and come clean. “ How many of you are familiar with Hector Pardo.” Every detective in that room knew the name well. Hector Pardo was the drug king of NY, a man that spat in the face of the law and continued to peddle his drugs to the youth of the city. A man with a long rap sheet that made Satan himself jealous. “ I can tell by the looks on your face that you know him well. In the past two years Hector's business has grown and expanded, he doesn’t deal with just drugs anymore. He’s reached into internet porn, credit card scams and prostitution .” The light in Klecko's head went on, it was all starting to make sense. “ While I was undercover I got word from some of the girls that Hector was peddling in some very young product into the N.Y streets.” Young Product was just a nice way of saying he was smuggling in child sex slaves.
“ Mother fucker.” Harkness said from under his breath, him being a father, this type of issue hit home.
Vazquez continued. “ Some people testified that he sold the product to the highest bidder in black market auctions, to some wealthy investors in New York, we‘re talking about wall street players, even some Senators.” Everyone in that room began to listen. “ I needed to find people who could get me close into Hector Pardo’s dealings, it took me sometime, but I did. The first one was Denise Hillshire and then four others came forward,” Her eyes seem to drift back to the days of old. “ Each one wanting to end what they were seeing, girls as young as six being sold like a piece of meat, being forced to take drugs just to get them through the day, I can go on, but it just get’s worst.”
“ You have four moles within the walls inside Hector’s kingdom and you still couldn’t bring him down?” One pissed off female detective said in the back room.
“ Someone‘s word won‘t hold up in court, not against Pardo, we need evidence and every time we came in inches from having it, it would slip through my grasp, making Pardo a free man.” She pulled out a photo of the dead body that had a note pinned on it. “ This is what happened to Denise and she isn’t the first.” Klecko's ears perked. “ Two other informants turned up dead, one in Jersey and another in Harlem. Headless and with a sadistic little poem left on them. For some of you who don’t know, Hector likes to think of himself as a true to life poet, he pretends to feel what others don't, it also works as a taunt to us, letting us know we'll never be able to touch him.”
Klecko’s mind began to race, why would his blackmailer mimic the same style left by Hector Pardo, why would he go to these lengths. It made no sense, the heat wouldn’t be directed at him, everyone would be watching Pardo. He could feel the tension slowly break away, in the mist of the dark corner he could see light, he had no time to let his mind wander, he needed to stay focus in the here and now. “ So, Hector made out your informants, that still doesn’t answer why you’re here.” Klecko said to Vazquez. “ This is Vice or DEA problem, not homicide, you want to share something with the group Detective?” He knew the reason for her showing up here so unannounced, he could see the paranoia in her eyes, but he wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth.
“ I. .” She just shook her head, it was hard for a cop to admit it out in the open, cops had to watch one another officers back, you never bad mouthed or spread rumors, It was an unspoken rule. “ I can’t trust the people I work with, I have a feeling they’ve been compromised.” Words that made any cop uneasy.
“ And you turn to us, why not go to internal affairs, Detective ?” Klecko pressed on, acting like a cop, anything to keep up appearance.
“ I convinced her not to, Lieutenant ,” Angelo said to him, protecting her at the first sign of danger, Rita was well connected. “ Ms. Vazquez is a damn good cop, she’s proven it with her record, she’s a bit like you.” Everyone exchanged stares. “ I advise her to keep her suspicions to herself, this group and no one else, let me advise anyone of you, if you dare breathe a word of Ms. Vazquez true nature of being here I will end you myself.” The tension set quickly in the room.
“ So, we’re pretending she’s not here because she can’t trust her own team and we’re not helping her with the pending Pardo case?” Klecko asked.
“ Bingo.” Said the commander. “ This is all under the table, if anyone ask, she’s lending her assistants to a new case up in the East Side of the Bronx, asked for by Klekco and Harkness themselves.” They both stared at each other. “ Your names alone is enough to stop anyone from asking questions dead in their tracks.”
“ What happens to me if everything goes to shit.” Harkness raised his voice, so quickly to protect his career from any backlash.
“ Then,” He looked over at Vazquez. “ Ms. Vazquez ass will be in hot water, with mine included.”
“ We won’t let it come to that.” Klecko spoke up. “ We’re all on the same team.” Those words alone made Klecko seem like the champion and savior people always perceived to believe, it also made Harkness seem as the narcissist type who was only looking after his own ass, he'd win no brownie points with the crew or Vazquez over it. Judging by the smiling faces around the room it worked better than he had hoped for. Harkness was crumpling the paper in his hand, losing face was a bruise to his ego.