Authors: Jesse Abundis
“ I won’t take up your time, I won’t take up your resource, I just need time to figure out who I can trust.” Rita turned to Klecko. “I didn’t know who else to turn to. I know you’re good at what you do, I’ve seen your rap sheet, you have a knack for catching the guilty.” She didn’t know the half of it. “ The team you command is at the top, you’re the only group I can trust right now. I need to catch the bastard that killed her.” The bastard was a few feet away from her. “ I need to know if you‘re behind me, sir.”
Being on a case that he was the prime suspect of, how divine was that. Hector Pardo was going to take the fall for the death he committed. “ Detective, you don’t have to ask twice. We’ll help you catch this bastard and hang him for you, count on it.”
Chapter 45
PROTECTING ME FROM WHAT I WANT
Klecko clocked out of work at nine, Vazquez was still pouring through the files running down leads with Harkness, who was hoping to win some brownie points with Vazquez and the commander when review time came around. As for himself he acted the most interested as he could, through out the day, but his mind was preoccupied with other matters than trying to boost his career. So he had to call it a night.
“ That's a Boston Cop for ya, feels a bit under the weather has to act like a girl on her period.” Harkness poured on as Klecko grabbed his things. Vazquez didn't seem to listen as she was huddle in her corner rifling through the papers.
He returned home to find it as he left it, no more surprises left from his blackmailer, the hello kitty phone safely tucked in a shoebox under his bed, he checked to see if anyone had called, no such luck.
He laid in his bed still in his work clothes, fumbling with everything that had happen, asking himself why would his blackmailer dump the body he promised to get rid of in front of a playground, what was the angle, was he sending him a message that he could do as he pleased, or perhaps show how easily he could end his entire life at drop of a hat. “ Is that it?” He mumbled to himself. Only to have another fact dawn upon, perhaps his blackmailer was teaching him a lesson, one of picking his pray more carefully. “ That's it, isn't it, you sick mother fucker?” Klecko shouted before he kicked his foot at the banister of his bed.“ I won’t screw up next time.” He was shocked to hear himself say that. You’d think after this scare, he would hang his shoes and just find a way out of this storm, instead deep inside he hungered for one more hunt.
The Hello Kitty cell phone began to ring from underneath his bed, he wasted no time in dropping to the floor answering the call. “ I get off work and you call, that isn‘t a coincidence is it?!” Klecko said
His blackmailer distorted voice chuckled.“ Anything interesting happen at work today ? ” His blackmailer asked him.
“ Headless girl turns up in a playground in Harlem, “ Klecko walked over to his bedroom windows and began to bring down the shades. “ a nice little poem attached to her dead cold body, nicely done. “ Klecko applauded nice and loud for him to hear.
His blackmailer chuckled once more. “ I need to make sure you got the lesson, did you?”
“ Don’t kill like a fool, learn your victims inside out?” He said.
This time it was his blackmailer to applaud. “ Bravo.” He proudly said. “ You study them inside out, carefully as can be, then you move forward.”
“ You could have gotten ridden of the body, then tell me who she was?” Klecko suggested.
“ No, then you wouldn’t have gotten the lesson. Besides, aiding in such way would only keep you from finding the answers you're looking for.”
Klecko was jolted back by that.“ What answer am I looking for ?”
“ When was the sleepless nights, detective?” Klecko refused to answer. “Speak detective.”
“ The Casey Miller investigation.” Klecko bitterly spit out.
“ That’s right,” His blackmailer’s voice seem to smooth as he heard the words come out. “ and what do you remember about that case detective?”
“ Just an endless loop of nothing, girl runs away from her family, end of story.” He could tell his words seem to upset his blackmailer, his silence was too eerie to bare.
“ Is that so.” He coldly said.
“ So, where do I go from here?” Klecko took a seat at the edge of his bed. “ What's this stupid little game we're playing?”
“ A game you say.” His blackmailer voice deepen. “ I promised to keep you safe, unharmed. If you did things the way you wanted, you wouldn’t be standing in your bedroom tonight, you’d be locked behind bars, your future down the drain, your name dragged to the mud. “ A deep sigh. “ You have a lot to learn.”
Klecko scoffed at the blackmailer, he knew what he was doing, he wanted to force feed him lies of hope, so that in some sad twisted way he would have control over him. “ I don’t need your help, I know how to stay off the radar. ”
“ Is that why you killed an informant from VICE?” Klecko was silent, the blackmailer had made his point. “ You’re too green, you’re killing anything you can find, but if you don’t watch out that will be your down fall.”
“ But, I wanted her.” Klecko spoke to the blackmailer like a child throwing a tantrum in the middle of the store. “ No one else.”
“ I was like you once, killing anything I could find, I was a wild animal looking for his next prey. Anything to silence that dark urge inside me that wouldn’t let me sleep.” Klecko fell back into the bed as his blackmailer spoke. “ No matter how many lives you take, it will never be enough, you need to find a purpose, or you risk being a wild animal that needs to be put down.” He sighed heavily. “ You were looking for answers Detective, but you don’t even remember it, you’re lost, you need to find focus back into your life.”
“ What are you?” Klecko asked.
“ Think of me as your guardian angel, Detective, I’m going to show you the road that leads to many ends, where you go it’s up to you.”
How God like those words sounded to him at that moment. “ And this Pardo thing, how do I deal with it?”
“ You won’t be alone, trust me.” His Guardian spoke calmly to him. “ Get some sleep Detective, tomorrow is another day.”
His guardian was gone, Klecko was left alone once more, he curled up into a ball, holding the phone to his ear, hoping to hear his guardian speak once more. “ What answer am I looking for?” Klecko asked himself as he slowly drifted to sleep.
Chapter 46
A Dog Without A Chain
Three Years Ago
“ I told you to keep that urge quiet, boy.” The prophet looked at his disciple with shame, as he stood there cover in blood of the poor mother he had gutted. “ You came to me, you sought a way to free yourself from that demon.”
“ It pounds in my skull, I needed to stop it.” The disciple stood over the dead woman, still slumped on top of her, refusing to stop bathing in the blood of his prey. “ All you do is talk, you give me chores, but none of it does anything.”
“ There's no doubt in my mind, brother, that you are my test.” The prophet walked closer, reaching out to his disciple. “ You enjoy what you have done tonight, but let it be the last, it's time I walked you down the path to your freedom.”
Chapter 47
STRANGER IN THE NIGHT
She was smiling, happy, at peace, one with the world. It was a satisfying feeling for Karen, the aches and pains vanished in a mere blink of an eye, a gift from God perhaps, only he and his magic fairy dust could pull off such a miracle. She wonder if she could get him to knock down the giant oak tree that was outside her window, the dead bodies were beginning to smell and ruin the moment.
She was in her bathtub soaking in thick human blood, which was a great remedy to fight aging, though she wasn’t sure who had said that, but she could fondly remember someone recommending that to her.
Her butler was a man wearing a rabbit mask, standing beside her, fanning her with the skin of a fresh dead corpse, to keep the heat and flies away. “ Whose skin is that?” She asked him.
“ Your dear friend Peewee.” His voice alternated from male, woman to child. “ That’s his blood you’re bathing in.” Karen opened her mouth to scream from the horror, only to have body parts hurl from her mouth like vomit. First came the eyes, then the liver, groin, legs, fingers and huge string of intestine that was tugging along, nestle deep her own gut. “ Now, madam, if you don’t chew your food properly you’ll never be able to grow big and strong.” Her butler insisted to her, as she was yanking intestine out from her throat, but it seemed endless. The body parts swam in the blood, like pieces of chicken in soup, she thrashed in the blood, knowing the meat she was tasting was from her friend. “ Stop…“ She managed to say through the carnage. “ Please, not him.” She eyed the Masked man who patted her back.
“ My dear, lady, this is all you. You killed him.” He said laughing hysterically. “ I saw you eat every bit of him, with a giant smile!” The bath began to bubble, she could see the hollowed out eyes of Peewee staring at him as his head poked from under the blood.
The image alone was enough to awaken Karen from the nightmare, her eyes opened to see a stranger standing near her bedside, looking at the photos on her wall. “ Nightmare?” He asked.
Karen jumped back, she wondered if she was still dreaming. The intruder was a tall man with thick rim glasses, who wore an old beaten gray dusk jacket. “ Who the hell are you ?” She said to him, while inching closer for the bat she hid under her bed for such occasions.
“ Nice collection of photos. “ He said, a bit puzzled what they all meant. He comb through his thin receding hairline as he step away from the bed. “ Karen Chernetsky, “ He wagged his finger at her. “ Out of all the names you used in the past, Angie Dillion, Linda Brooks, of course my favorite Lois Lane.” He tip his hat off to her for the comic book reference. “ who would have thought you’d use the one name, that was so obvious, we'd miss. I mean using your real first name and your mother’s Maiden name, that’s a rookie style move, but maybe you got cocky, right? I mean you dodged the best before, what's the odds they'd look for you under that, Fucking amazing. I’m sure your father is heart broken.”
Karen’s body eased up and backed away from the bat. “ Not a lot of people know that about me,” She said to him. “ Who are you ?” She asked once more, with a colder and more demanding tone.
“ An old friend of yours, “ He tug on his chin, like a bad comedian getting ready to tell a God awful joke. “ Ryan Moser.” The name sunk into Karen's chest, it must have hit her hard, because her stranger in the night was grinning with joy at her reaction. “ You remember him, don’t you?”
“ Yes, “ She swallowed deeply. “ that’s how I know he didn’t send you.”
“ Right, what did happen to Ryan Moser?” He stood against her bedroom doorway, waiting for her to explain it. “ Because for the likes of me, I can’t remember.” He thump his hand against his head.
Karen let her hand slowly reach down for the bat. “ He died, long time ago.” She said to him.
“ That’s right, “ He snapped his fingers as though everything was coming back to him. “ A strange fire lit up in the middle of the night, he was asleep, and the fire just swallowed him whole. But, he wasn’t the only victim.“
“ That’s right.” She nodded playfully, as she grasp the wooden bat, she smiled her perfect white teeth at him, wanting the smug bastard to yammer on, she wanted to prepare herself for the beating he was about to receive.
“ Yeah, “ He took off his glasses to clean them with a handkerchief he kept in his pocket. “ Accidental fire, that’s what they called it, wait, you were caught up in the fire too?”
Karen tilted her head in confusion. “ What ?”
“ That’s right, you were caught up in the fire too. In fact, you were the only one to make it out alive. They found you crying, telling people that they needed to go back in and rescue Ryan, such a good convincing act of course.” He placed his glasses back on. “ You had everyone in that town fooled, but not the Moser family, they knew for a fact you started that fire. They knew you killed their baby boy.”
Karen gripped the wooden bat harder. “ I didn’t kill anyone.”
“ For such an innocent girl, you do run away like you’re guilty. Of course, you have your parents to thank for that, don’t you.” He took a deep sigh. “ Did you really believe you could run for the rest of your life, did you?”
“ I ran because the Moser’s weren’t in their right mind.” She shouted at him.
“ Does that friend of yours know who you are, what’s his name,” He reached into his pocket to retrieve his notebook. “ Peewee, does he knew what you really are?”