Authors: Mike Evans
Chapter 24
Hardin hit his throat radio whispering for no reason, “Hey, Chief, I want everyone here, and I want them here now! He’s going into the house. He is armed and dangerous. He looks like he has a machete, but from the size of the son of a bitch he looks like he has a damn butter knife in his hand. Tell you what, I'm heading in. You guys just head straight towards the noise of the gunfire and that’ll be me taking this waste of existence out!”
Lambert started running with everything he could. He could remember seeing the slightest of smoke coming up in the distance and yelled, “Everyone, you follow me. You see some big son of a bitch and you fire damn it, there are no questions. We are three men down and have already found two victims. This guy has obviously lost his shit. I’m not taking any other chances. All of you men are going to see your wives tonight!”
The men said nothing, they just followed Lambert as he led the way through the woods. He yelled, trying to keep control of his breath while not slowing down. “Hardin….Hardin damn it, you wait. You hear a door open or shut in the back and you let me know. You wait outside of that house. That place probably has a million places to hide. Give us five minutes and we can be there. Just wait Hardin, I don’t need to tell anyone else’s wife that they aren’t coming back home.”
Hardin didn’t answer. He was quiet for five minutes, which seemed to be the longest five minutes of Lambert’s life. He kept trying to run through the decisions he’d made that day and asking himself what he could have done better to have not had any losses. Much like when he’d enlisted for Vietnam with Chuck, neither of them wanted to die, and both knew that there was a percentage that was far greater than they liked saying that they wouldn’t come back from war, but it didn’t make it any easier when they did lose someone.
When Lambert had convinced himself that the reason he wasn’t reaching Hardin was because he’d been killed in the line of duty, he was already thinking of having to tell his young wife what had happened. Hardin crackled over the radio. He sounded like he was out of breath. “Chief, Chief, how close are you? He just took out a victim. This blood is still fresh I don’t know where the fuck he-”
“Hardin, Hardin, what, what is it, do you have a visual on him?”
“Affirmative. He’s downstairs. He just went out the back and he has a girl in tow with him. He’s going into the woods with her.”
“You hold steady, son. We’ll be there any minute. We can get him and her together.”
“Shit sir, he just started a dirt bike. Fuck me, he just rode off with the girl riding over the seat in front of him. She looked pretty fucking banged up. Goddamn it, this sick son of a bitch is always a step ahead of us. I don’t know what to do.”
“You wait, and you don’t move, that is an official order and there are twenty men to say they heard me tell you. Don’t go anywhere, I mean anywhere at all. You aren’t going to catch up to a damn motorcycle anyways. If this is his stomping ground he must have some sort of knowledge of the place. I can only imagine the booby traps that shit could have set up. I can see the house now, come on down if you are sure the victim is gone and we will finish this correctly.”
“Sounds good, Chief. I’m sorry that this happened today, it wasn’t my intentions when I called for backup.”
“Well, if you wouldn’t have called for help there is a good chance that you already would have been done. You stay put, I can see the house now.”
Hardin met them at the front door. “They went out the back of the house. They are on some old dirt bike. I don’t know if this is his house, or the woman who was upstairs. It’s a pretty sick scene up there, sir. I think this might be his final breaking point. He’s never taken this many so quickly before. If we lose him today he might go full auto and not stop until he is caught and that could be a fucking blood bath. I can’t see him being worse, but I don’t want to present the opportunity for him to be able to.”
Hardin opened the door to the house, slowly holstering his pistol and walking out with both hands first yelling, “Don’t shoot, don't shoot. It is Detective Matt Hardin. I repeat, do not shoot.”
Lambert looked around, seeing rookies still with their pistols risen, and said, “If you don’t fucking drop that gun and let that man out I swear to god you’ll regret ever becoming a police officer.”
“Sir, I'm sorry, I just…..”
“You just what? You just don’t know how to follow orders. Are you a fucking moron, son?”
“No sir, I--”
“You can’t take orders or talk, good god we are fucked. You stay in front.”
“Sir?”
“If you are in front you can’t shoot anyone but the perp, damn it.”
The rest of the men started to laugh at his comments. He snapped around. “I’m sorry gentlemen, what part of us wasting time or you guys hiring an absolute moron is remotely funny? Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder about all of you men.”
Lambert walked off without giving any orders or looking behind him to make sure that their guns had been holstered. He knew that they would have been by now or this department really was useless. When he got up to Hardin, he patted him on the arm and said, “You stay where I can see you from now on, you hear me kid?”
Hardin nodded, pulling out his pistol again and motioned. His radio beeped and he said, “What!”
“Sir, it’s Sergeant Adair. I have good news for you, sir.”
“I doubt that with the way today is going. What is it? We are getting ready to go into the woods... again.”
“The dogs just showed up that were requested, sir. The man in charge of them payed out a few favors and was able to get a flight in here. We can be there in five minutes by car.
“Do it, we will wait. Those dogs' noses will save us any amount of time we would be willing to waste running through the woods trying to smell exhaust from a motorcycle.”
“Yes sir, I’ll radio one of the men to go get the address. We’ll be in there in absolutely no time.”
*****
Just as the men were beginning to grow impatient waiting for the police to come, a squad car came skidding into the gravel driveway and slid to a stop. The trainer opened the door quickly, giving the dogs a command that only him and the dogs could hear. They started to circle around the Chief. Lambert didn’t need a bullhorn or to cup his hands around his mouth, he could project his voice with no one’s assistance. He yelled, “I know it’s been a long and trying day and we are all tired. This is the closest that we have ever gotten to catching this son of a bitch. We are not going to come this far only to fail now. We are going to follow these dogs and catch the bastard. The girl is our first priority. We will bring her back out of these woods healthy as we find her and in one piece. She’s my goddaughter and I'm not about to lose her now. Is there anyone that doesn’t understand any of this or has any questions?”
No man raised their hands and someone handed the dog handler one of what they assumed had to have been Traci’s shirts. The dogs took one sniff on it and went to work. The Chief watched expectantly, thinking that they would have found the scent immediately but never having to work with dogs like this before, didn’t really know what to expect. He watched Hardin and said, “What do you think, is she alive?”
“Honestly sir, he or she has changed something. She statistically has already survived longer than anyone else ever has. He might be evolving into something else. I’d hate to know what a serial killer ends up changing into. I think we both know that it isn’t going to be a good thing. The only thing that ever ends their killing sprees is them being killed or caught. It’s a psychological disease that they can’t help, even medicated they still might be dangerous.”
“I'm very sorry, but are you trying to say we should fucking feel sorry for them? You think that we should try and cure them somehow?”
“Yes sir…..yes sir I am. And I got the cure right here.” He held up his pistol. “And it is prescribed as 230 grains at .45 inches across as often as needed or until the magazine is empty.”
The chief nodded at this. “Alrighty then, I guess the two of us have the same ideas. I’m not taking this bastard in though, I hope you thoroughly understand that. DeBryan, Nulty, Bynum, Christ he took half my damn staff in one day. My office is going to take years to try and recover from this.”
“Unfortunately Chief, it happens. We aren’t trained to deal with people like this. I think that we should be thankful for at least one thing th-”
“What the hell do we have to be thankful for after losing three of my men? I’d love to know what those college brains of yours are thinking.”
“Simply said, he uses a machete most of the time, or some sort of blade right?” The Chief nodded and Hardin continued, “Imagine what this monster would do if he walked around with a M-16 or an Ar-15 or, god forbid, he figured out how to get any type of automatic weapon. He could go on a killing spree with no elegance to it at all. But he is picky, and he waits. He is smart.”
“I don't know if smart is what I would call it, Hardin.”
“The person has gone months on a spree and this is the first day anyone has actually seen the suspect.”
“You seriously still think after all this that there is still a chance in hell that is it a woman?”
“You can’t rule things like that out.”
“I don’t know. I guess not, especially with all those freak cases that you know about. I’m glad that we have you around to look at both angles on it.”
“Chief, this isn’t probably the best time to say this; if we get this guy today, I mean he lives or dies somehow, I'm done. My wife has been all over my ass lately about looking for something in the private sector and moving somewhere safe where the stress of the day doesn’t follow me home like a shadow stalking my brain every night.”
The chief thought about this and remembered waking up with nightmares for the first six months when he and Chuck had done their final tour in Vietnam. He could still imagine exactly what every single man looked, smelled, and sounded like in his company. “Yeah, I can appreciate that Hardin. I just hope that between this guy and the one in Colorado that you can unsee what you are being haunted by. I can’t put up much of a fight, son. If I was you and so young, I’d probably take a different career. God knows the private jobs make more money anyways and typically you don’t have to be worried about everyone you go after trying to kill you.”
“I don’t know if it’s too late or not sir, but I'm willing to try and keep my shit straight for awhile not chasing after someone. It isn’t easy on the brain having to deal with chasing someone for so long to finally catch them and feel a nothingness afterwards.”
Lambert just nodded. He didn’t think that he was doing the man any good bringing up killings and visuals that would haunt him. Lambert could sense that he wasn’t the one that needed to be discussing this with him anyways and that there was pretty good chance if this kid wanted to totally be fixed that he was going to have to talk to someone on a couch about things. They walked for another mile, watching the two K-9’s running back and forth sniffing, finding a trail running for a bit and then running back and forth again. Lambert walked up close to the man and said, “Hey, my man saw them run off on a dirt-bike. Shouldn’t these dogs just be following a straight path?”
The man shrugged, using a clicker as he walked, and said, “You want to let them know how to do their job?”
Lambert said, “Look, this is serious shit here. Every minute is-”
The two dogs started barking insanely and sprinted into the distance. The handler left him still finishing his sentence and sprinted after the dogs. He screamed commands in German that no one but them understood and the dogs finally slowed down. He caught up to them, giving them both a treat and a back rub for doing a good job. The two dogs ignored the food. Their teeth were showing and they were ready for blood.
The rest of the men caught up within a minute and Hardin walked as close as he dared. When he made it, he saw Traci and the suspect. Lambert showed up a few minutes later not able to do the run that others did. He was panting and said, “Where….where is the motorcycle at?”
Hardin whispered, “Who gives a shit? There’s the perp.”
Lambert took off his cowboy hat, wiping at his brow, trying to think of something that he could say to Traci to make her feel better and put her at some sort of ease. Of course there was nothing he could think of that made any sense at all. He yelled, “Traci, are you okay honey?”
Traci, who felt like she’d been in a daze, tried to shake her head free to where she could even speak. She nodded slowly and then shook her head no. “Get me out here, Uncle Nick. Get me out of here, please. I just want to go home. I just want to see mom and dad.”
“Honey, where’s Isaac?”
Hardin put a hand on his shoulder. “Sir, we need to deal with the bigger picture.”
Lambert nodded, knowing the answers he was going to get would do nothing with getting this horrible standoff over. Lambert watched as the girl’s legs quivered even resting on the ground. She had a shotgun taped to her neck by the barrel and the suspect had a shotgun in his hand duct taped as well. Lambert whispered, "What the fuck does that mask mean? Is that a dolls face?”
Hardin said, “I have no clue. It could be as random as him picking it up during Halloween last year when he began these murders. The cross though on it, looks like he added it. Maybe he thinks that he is sending people to heaven? Maybe he is just a sick fuck. I’d probably think that answer number two is pretty god damn accurate.”