Authors: Jesse Abundis
“ Tell me everything.” He was a second away from it, but a late night call from Jeremy Harkness stopped it in it's tracks. He told her he would call her back, didn't give a reason why, but he told her to wait for his call later.
* * * * *
“ Sorry for calling you up, Lieutenant , but I thought you’d want to see this. Follow me,” Klecko was greeted by his partner Sgt. Jeremy Harkness, a born New Yorker who had the old rough and tough teachings of an old school beat cop. He’d be the only one in the precinct to admit he wasn‘t a fan of Klecko, in fact he was downright piss to know the chain command passed on his promotion just to make room for the Boston icon, if Harkness wasn’t such a cop, he’d shoot Klecko in a dark alley and blame it on the gangs, just to retake what was stolen from him. But one of old school traits was ‘cops do as they are told, no room for whiny ass bitches.’
“ Whoever did this is one sick fucker.” Despite all the suppressed anger, Harkness wasn‘t one to undersell everything Klecko had accomplished, he was quiet fond of his legacy, he just wish he had carried his weight else where.
Deep inside Klecko shared the same resentment for Harkness. Mainly because Harkness was a creature of habit, everything he said and did was out of an old school text book. He couldn’t breathe or take a shit without discussing it with the manual,
“ Page 36, when cops can take a dump?”
Klecko wasn't blind to all the angry colleagues, an outsider coming into their neck of the woods taking control, calling the shots, it didn’t sit well. A lot of them were hoping to see Harkness rise in the ranks, one of the home town boys. But when it came down to it, the higher up’s knew who was the better choice, Klecko could think and see things that weren’t there, do the outside thinking a lot of the other detectives couldn‘t, it was the reason they put him in charge, even if they refused to accept it.
“ Out of the way mother fuckers!” Harkness shouted at the onlookers blocking their path. They moved aside the moment they saw him coming down the line, with his black tie, shirt and pants. Adding to the fear was his cold look and bulky body, another of his old school traits, train tough, look tough, be tough and earn the respect of this city. Though Klecko wasn’t sure if the balding hair was helping him sell the appearance.
“ How bad is it?” Klecko wondered as he saw the reaction of the crowd trying to cover their eyes and the officers surrounding the street corner all seemed eager to be anywhere else but here.
“ Out of the way!” Harkness yelled once more, “ NYPD we need all of you to back up right now!” He barked like a rabid dog at them.
“ Jesus,” Klecko muttered under his breath as the crime scene came into his view. He ducked under the yellow tape and made his way towards the young lifeless naked body of the victim, from what he could tell, she was a female, her body was twisted and shoved into a garbage can beside an old worn out couch and bags of trash. Her eye’s were missing, swastikas were engraved into her forehead, cheeks and chin. Long needles that resemble acupuncture needles, just slightly thicker were lodge into her, as though whoever did this was playing darts with her body. “ Tell me what you got. ” He said covering his mouth from the smell.
“ What did I tell you,” Harkness patted him on the back. “ some sickos wet dream.” Harkness chuckled as he pulled out his notebook to fill Klecko in. “ A couple of hood rats found the body around seven tonight, fuckers thought it was a plastic doll or just a prank, they got a closer look and freaked out, one of them had a mild panic attack was taking to general. No one saw who dropped the body.”
“ Have we I.D her?” He asked.
“ No, we haven’t.” Harkness cleaned the sweat off his forehead. “ Fucking heat, I swear, it brings out the crazies.”
“ That and full moons.” Klecko added. “ Anything else we know about her, is she Jewish, Mexican?” He gestured at the swastikas
“ Not that we know of, but that should change in the next few hours.” Harkness scratched the top of his balding scalp. “ I should give Rita Vazquez a call, see if this isn’t one of her girls.” There he went, dropping names to Klecko, showing him when it came to his backyard he had connections, something a Boston man wouldn’t have.
Klecko ignored it and asked his question. “ Whose that?”
Harkness snickered, as though it should be common knowledge. “ Vazquez runs with Vice, uses some of the street girls to get her intel on Hector Pardo, the..”
Klecko knew who that was the moment he said Hector. “ The drug king pin, yeah, he’s on everyone's list.” They both walked over towards the dead body where a female forensics was busy collecting evidence. As they approached, they could hear the young forensics sobbing, she was having enough of a hard time trying to collect evidence and trying to ignore the sight in front of her. Klecko leaned in and saw a gooey substance dripping from the eye socket of the victim. “ What is this?” He asked the forensics.
She shivered and almost broke into tears trying to tell him. “ That’s semen. “ As the words left her mouth, she could feel her lunch crawl it’s way up her throat. She pushed her colleagues aside, before vomiting in the middle of the street.
“ Sorry, boss, she’s new. You know how rookies are.” Harkness said, shaking his head at her. “ Someone get her ass out of here.”
“ It’s ok, we’ve all been there.” All Klecko could think was how they had become accustomed to death, that a dead body like this didn’t scare them anymore. As if it were just a natural order of life. In a year or two, that young forensics would be just like them. No matter how much blood you saw, it just didn’t bother you anymore.
Chapter 12
COME BACK TO ME
A week without an Instant message, a week without an e-mail directing to a dirty website, a week without a text, a week without a phone call only meant one thing, Peewee was angry. This wasn’t the first time he had given Karen the cold shoulder, he had done this in three other separate occasions. Once because she mocked him for getting a flattop that made him look like the skinny and whiter Vanilla Ice. The second time was when she took a snap shot of him wearing Lion King underwear and posting it on a site dedicated for people with a fetish towards self taken undie pics, the photo alone received over twenty-five thousands hits and plenty of responses from some very lonely men in the middle east and Mississippi that begged to see the whole front package. The third time was when she broke his Batman action figure that he slept with in the night, while they were rough housing. The result was the same, she needed to be the one to heal the wounds and make the peace, she couldn‘t stand not hearing from him, even when she had nothing to say.
When Jamie left, he would leave a voicemail talking about his day. “
I swear, this guy was like huge, I thought that chicken nugget would be his last
.” It was all to let her know he was still thinking of her and hoping to bring her out of the dark storm. Even though he led her out on false pretense that night, she was willing to forgive and forget, she was hoping they could restart from the start again.
Karen knew trying to find Peewee at his apartment was like trying to find your soul mate online, slim. His apartment had no air conditioner and was roach ville. He spent his nights sleeping in his car, but in the day he worked in the crummy video rental store “
M&M ’s Vids”
No, it wasn’t run by the same company that made chocolate candy, this was a small video store run by two pot head brothers named James and Derrick Venture. Why name the video store M&M’s, It was abbreviated for the their masterful skill, masturbation. Which meant M&M stood for, “ Masturbation Masters.” The two fools would always laugh at the inside joke. They were the prime example of what monstrosities smoking crack while pregnant had on a child.
The video store was profitless, the only people who went to rent videos from the store were Jamie, Peewee , herself and Ralph the homeless old man who always browsed around the aisles looking for a DVD cover to jack off to. The three had made a little game out of it, each one placing bets as to what film he would land on, the winner collected the cash, while the losers had to chase the old homeless man before he got off, they all got a chuckle from that. The only way the video store manage to remain afloat was because of the brothers mother & father's bank accounts. Rich yuppies, who were glad to pay for their failing son’s as long as they managed to keep themselves out of prison, a feat that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Peewee.
The two brothers had been busted over a pot possession and were hauled into the precinct to be processed, a few years back, Peewee had been lurking in the halls one night when he ran into the two, he managed to speak to the brothers for a good thirty minutes, after they filled him in, they begged Peewee to get them out of their jam, in return they would owe him back one favor, no questions ask. Of course he wasn’t a fan of officers busting his fellow stoners, so he went to work.
A quick thinking Peewee had them convince the officers to call their doctor, Dr. Greenburg Thumbson, a.k.a Peewee. Hack off the last first four letters of the Greenburg, and you got Green, take out the last three of Thumbson and you got Cypher Hills song Doctor Green Thumb. Peewee had the habit of buying burner phones, he owned around six to seven in total, he tend to keep every personality in those numbers, Greenburg Thumbson was one of many.
The officers ringed Doctor Thumbson who had a thick Irish accent, he calmly explained to the officers about the brother’s condition and was ready to e-mail a transcript of their medical file. The officers we’re already freeing the brother’s as Peewee read off all the medical terms he could find on Wikipedia. If you were going to lie, you had to lie well.
The two brothers worshiped Peewee after that day and they saw the talent he brought to the table, so they offered him a job to run the store, with a twelve dollars an hour pay rate, with his option of closing or opening the store at anytime he damn please, Peewee wasn't a fool, he accepted the deal and the rest is history. The two brothers stilled owed him that one favor that he hadn‘t cashed in yet, then again that was Peewee, too kind hearted to take advantage of things, if he helped you, it was out of the kindness of his heart.
Karen bit on her lip piercing as she stood outside the shamble of a video store. Apologizing was exhausting to her, she always wondered why people couldn’t forgive, forget and just carry on with life, was there a need to do in over the top dramatic spectacle?
She cleared her throat before pulling open the old rusty door. The shelves of the video store contained miss placed DVD’s, porno was in the kids section, and the kid’s dvd’s were with the porn section. Everything was alphabetized by an illiterate, it was utter mayhem. In the corner of the store you had Ralph who calmly scanned each aisle, he was making his way to Westerns, Karen knew from experiencing that Westerns was a sure way to lose a bet.
At the counter was a passed out Peewee, his head rested on a stack of DVD’s of anime porn. Karen chuckled, knowing something’s never changed, which was a bit refreshing to know.
She slowly crept up on him and slammed her fist on the counter. “ I SWEAR I WASN'T JERKING OFF MOM!” He jumped from fear as the past memories of his mother scolding him came back into the light, he knocked the dvd’s to the floor from the fright. “ Karen?!” Peewee said, trying to collect himself.
“ Bondage girls II.” Karen picked up the DVD from the floor, “ I haven’t seen the first one, any good?”
“ Well, I ..” Then it came back to him, he was still not talking to her. “ What do you want?” He put on his tough guy act, it would’ve work for anyone else.
“ You still mad at me?” Karen returned the DVD.
“ What do you think ?” He said bitterly.
“ Dude, we can still hang out, I just don’t want to do the detective thing anymore.” Karen pleaded with him.
“ You want us to go shopping, watch movies, talk about the norm crap. We’re not like that!” Peewee had just notice Ralph the bum, as he lurked around the Westerns. “ That would be a first.” He muttered to himself.
“ I’m sorry, Peewee, I can’t go back doing what we did before.” She said shaking her head, it was hard for her to admit that. She couldn’t deny the rush she got from the cases, but without Jamie, it wasn’t the same.
“ Why does Jamie leaving end everything?” He asked her.
Karen sighed, “ It’s like losing a family member, it’s never the same after someone leaves.”
Peewee pulled out a police report from under the counter, it contained snap shots of a dead body that the cops had found last night. “ Cops found this girl dumped in the trash bin, body was covered in swastika signs.” He laid them for Karen to see.
Karen pushed the photos away, she wanted no part in this. “ Please don’t do this, I’m begging you to be with me, but not like this.” She said to him.
“ Look at the photos.” He waved them at her. “ Cops really believe this is a hate crime, they think this is some neo-nazi skinhead work of art, I’m not buying it for a second, call it a shot in the dark but this just jumped at me.” He tried his hardest to get her to look, to make her see what he saw, but the harder he pushed, the more he could feel her slip away.