Authors: Jesse Abundis
From the back rear view mirror Rita witnessed him draw his sidearm out of his holster, aimed the weapon in her direction, only to have another group of officers yelling at him to rethink his action, he listened as he placed it back to it’s rightful place.
“ I can’t trust anyone, I gotta get out of here.” Rita mumbled to herself as she sped past the red lights, with each second the onlookers of cops began to fade away until there was none. “ Fuck.” Rita pounded her fist on the dashboard. She knew this was it, her career would end, but worst, the case against Pardo would disappear in a haze. “ I’m sorry, Denise, I’m sorry.”
Chapter 66
Stepping From The Shadow
The photos, the letters, all of it was just bread crumbs to a bigger pieces of a puzzle, one that lead to this worn out abandoned church. The final hurdle in Kleckos’ journey into his new transformation. What awaited for him inside was anyone guess.
His entire body began to shiver, it wasn’t from the ominous cold air, the roaring thunder in the back , no, whatever was inside that church was veering him out of control. He could feel the darkness inside him cave into his insides like a wild animal thrashing in a cage screaming to be set free, begging to run from the unknown threat in the distant.
The streets around the church were empty, not a car parked in sight, a forgotten relic of Harlem, one that the people that lived around this forsaken ground refused to set foot in it. The church windows and door were all boarded up, there were gang symbols painted all over, yet no sign of force entry. It seemed even the thugs refused to walk inside the dark belly of the beast. “ What could ever be inside?” Klecko said as he approached the front steps. The wood creaked under him as though it would give at any second.
His eyes darted back and forth, taking in the whole view. Knowing this was holy ground to his Guardian. This was his memory, his moment in time, his past. To not admire such beauty would be an insult, but the greater insult of all, would be letting a lesser being set foot on these grounds. He was honored to be allowed to step forward.
Rain began to pour as Klecko tried to pull open the boards off the front door, but they wouldn’t budge, they were nailed shut. He walked around the church to find an entrance. It took him a few minutes until he discovered the loose board on the back door, it wouldn’t come undone, but he was capable of moving it to the side, that’s when he laid eyes on the small hole that was neatly cut off for easy access. “ Beautiful.” He grinned.
Klecko squeezed into the gap and entered the church. The board came back down, cutting off the light from outside, leaving everything pitch black. He felt the dirt and dust kick up to the air, as he lifted himself off the ground, he cursed as he fumbled to get his feet under him, wobbling side to side like a drunken teenager, it took a minute for his mind to adjust to his surroundings. His eyes on the other hand were having the most trouble, he couldn’t make out his own front hand from all the darkness. But from the corner of his eye he could see a small glaring light from afar.
His heartbeat raced as he focused on the object. “ Where does this lead?” He mumbled to himself, digging his hand into his pocket to retrieve his weapon, only to have it fall from his hands and into the dark abyss. “ Son of a bitch.” He cursed at his own stupidity, knowing that was a major rookie mistake.
He knelt on the floor to pick it up, only to feel someone’s cold hand brush the back of his neck, he swatted erratically the moment he felt fingers graze his ear. For a sheer second, he could have sworn he heard a female giggle echo in the far distant, finding amusement through his panic.
“ Get a hold of yourself!”
Klecko's inner voice shouted at him.
“ There’s nothing there, it’s just your mind playing tricks!”
Suddenly as that thought escaped his mind, he could see one dark figure standing in front of him, shaking it’s head in shame as he fumbled like a blind man on the floor. His heart raced faster and faster, he comb his hand on the floor frantically to find his weapon. The dark figure cocked its head, taking a good look at him, it mumble under its breath, with its finger pointed at him, taking small steps towards him. “Where the fuck is my weapon, come on?!”
He could feel its cold icy dead breath hitting his face inching closer. “ They can’t be real, things like that don’t exist!” The sweat beaded down his forehead, as he ran his hand down the floor, feeling his heart almost give out as he could hear its mumbles become clearer with each step.
“ Why did you kill me?”
It was the second swoop around when he felt the steel butt of his weapon graze his finger tips. He grabbed a hold of it tightly and pointed at the figure. It stared at him for one more moment, almost doubting he would shoot. “ Don’t fucking try me!” He shouted at it, that was enough to make the dark phantom vanish in a haze. “ What the fuck was that?” He whispered to himself, clutching his weapon tightly in his hands, trying to figure what had just appeared in front of him.
He set his sights back on the glaring light in the distance, he stood up slowly and began to walk towards it gradually. As he grew closer he began to notice there was more then just one glare, there were seven shining orbs of light in the distant. As he approached, the darkness began to fade and slowly the picture came into view.
There were branch pillar candle holders set around the building in a perfect circle, a few inches in front of them were dug up holes that reminded Klecko of an unmarked grave. Looking upon them was Jesus himself nailed to the cross, as though this was all for him.
Klecko inched slowly to the first open grave with his finger on the trigger, ready to take down anything that came his way, in the back of his mind he wondered if his guardian had dug this up freshly just for him. He peered into the hole and discovered a decaying body looking at him. “
Why are you doing this? Just let me go, I swear I won’t tell anyone.”
He almost jumped out of his skin, which was funny for man that had seen far worst in his days and done so recently.
“ Do you understand now ?” He heard his Guardian voice speak out to him. Klecko snapped his head around but found no one. “ I’m up here, Detective.”
Klecko stared at the balcony overlooking the open graves. He could hear his voice, but the darkness shielded his presence. “ You’re here?” Klecko stammered.
“ Do you remember everything now?” His Guardian voiced made Klecko quiver, hearing his voice up and close was a frightful thing to undertake. “ Or are you still lost?”
“ Remember what?” Klecko stammered.
He could feel his Guardian displease with the response.“ Quiet a commotion when you came in, what did you see in the darkness detective?”
The question itself made Klecko embarrassed. “ A figure, it was looking at me.” It was like a child describing his nightmare to mother and father, hoping they could make the bad things go away. “ I could feel its cold breath.”
“ Fear of what, discovery, accepting..” His Guardian yammered to himself, trying to figure Klecko’s actions.
“ What are you doing?” Klecko asked him, only to have his questioned brushed aside.
“ Detective, humor me, how did you accept this longing of becoming a killer?”
Klecko laughed at the question. “ We’re all monsters.”
“ Thus, this is enough to lead you down your path?” His guardian spat at his reasoning. “ Life is cruel, so that makes us all monsters?” He ended with a chuckle.
“ Yes.” Klecko growled at him.
“ Ah-ha, but you see, there’s many levels of insanity. Greed, lust, sex, fear, hate, paranoia and the one we’ve choosen, blood.” Klecko wasn’t expecting a lecture, not at all. “ Not a single one starts alone, no, you see, each one is caused by someone’s else actions. Do you understand where I’m going with this?”
“ Not really?” Klecko said to him truthfully.
“ We’re all born with the dark seed, Detective, but it takes someone to water that seed to see it grow. I can’t make that anymore clearer.”
Klecko ignored his crazy banter and decided to take over this conversation with a little detective work himself. After all, it was only fair to put him under the microscope as well, this was the moment when the curtains were pulled back to reveal each one’s dark secrets. “ Who did this?” He pointed to the body in the grave.
“It wasn’t me, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Klecko could hear him walking around, but he couldn’t see him or his shadow. “ The truth is in the letters and photos.”
Klecko scoffed. “ Speaking in riddles are we.” He rolled his eyes at him. “ The letters, the photos, I’m guessing the person who wrote that is the one behind it all, am I right?” There was no answer, and his footsteps had stop dead in the their tracks, which meant Klecko was hitting it on the nose. “ Some confused girl, looking for guidance from God. Just another lost animal looking to feed her dark hunger. Someone who knew you well, someone who meant a great deal to you.. I could tell right off the bat, it was in your voice the moment you called me, getting all choked up.”
“ Continue.” His Guardian said.
“ I’m guessing you come back to this location often, this place means a lot to you as it meant to her. So who was she, a girlfriend or your wife ?” Klecko stared into the darkness with the smug look of ignorance painted all over his face.
“ She wasn’t my wife. But you are right, she means a great deal to me, as she does to you as well, Detective.”
Klecko looked on with confusion. “ What the fuck are you talking about, make sense for once in your life! “ Klecko fumed with rage. “ You say you’re here to help me find some sort of God damn calling, you tell me I rescued you, then you lead me down this freaking scavenger hunt and lead me to this worn out shit hole, for what?!” Klecko raised his voice towards him. “ Now you’re telling me this bitch, whoever she is, meant something to me. Well, tell me then, what did she mean to me!?”
“ Redemption.” His Guardian voice echoed through out the room. “ That is what brought you here, Detective. Isn’t that right.” Klecko said not a word, frozen like a frightened lamb knowing where this story was going. “ He was twelve, Eric was his name, am I correct, Detective?”
“ Yeah.” He swallowed dryly.
“ He was playing outside their parents home, enjoying the nice winter weather in Dorchester, Massachusetts. No one could ever imagine such thing, a nice well knit community, everyone knows your name, paradise for all, surely nothing bad could happen. But it did. He was stolen. Parents turned to you to bring him back into their arms. You could of saved him, had him back with them, but you failed.
They found that little boy’s body buried, right in the next-door neighbor's back yard. The last person anyone would suspect. Charles Claymore, divorced father, out standing citizen, neighborhood watch captain, he was blended in well, of course if you checked deep enough, the man was suspected of three other molestation cases. Poor Eric didn‘t know that, until the end.”
Klecko gripped the gun harder in his hands, turning his his knuckles pale. “
You should of heard him scream, he was so close and you didn’t even know that.”
Klecko wanted to beat Charles Claymore to death as he sat there with that smug look in his face, laughing and what he had done. “
Guess you don’t get to hang your hat over this one, now do you?”
“ Everyone told you not to blame yourself, but you did, you took that lost to heart. Because for a man that had a keen eye into the monsters that were out there in the world, how could of you missed that one?”
“ Shut up.” Klecko mumble under his breath as he continued.
“ You begged for a transfer, you needed to start fresh. So you came to New York, and lord behold you would fine that golden chance of redemption. Missing, twenty-six year old women, perfect, clean, one of the souls that needed saving and protecting from all the bad men lurking outside her door. What was her name?” His Guardian asked.
“ What are you doing?” Klecko continued to mumble.
“ Casey Miller.” His Guardian voice rose. “ Look at what your innocent girl created behind you , Detective.”
Klecko's feet gave under him. “
Father I feel closer to you than ever.”
dropping him to his knees.
“ No, you lie.” He said to his Guardian.
“ No, detective, I do not. This is her, this is the real Casey Miller. She wasn’t the fake facade people saw every morning of everyday of her life. The real Casey is in this building, the bodies in the graves are windows into her soul.”
This was all to much to take in. Klecko worked the Casey Miller case in and out for months, he never found anything that hinted she was a serial killer, she was perfect in every way. “ Those people in the photos, are they inside these graves.”