Scene Of
The Crime
Reed’s
Realm
As Reed
made his way across town, his thoughts were not really about the lights and
sounds around him. He was instead
totally focused once more on the case that not ten minutes ago, he was trying
his hardest to block out of his mind completely. He approached
Reed was
always surprised at the amount of people that walked the streets, especially at
night. He watched as they moved in front
of his unmarked car. There were people
from all different walks of life that mixed and mingled together as they
crossed from one side of the intersection to the other.
Not
knowing that his eyes were tracking them, Reed thought about how naïve they all
were. None of their glances moved his
way. It was like they had tunnel vision,
only focusing on what was ahead. Their
lives were filled with more ups than downs, as they only saw the lighter side
of life. They thought that the true dark
side of evil was in the movies. Little
did they understand that it was really all around them all the time, always
watching their every move from the shadows. None of the passersby knew that a prime
example of the reality of evil was only a few blocks away in an abandon
warehouse surrounded by police officers, waiting for the arrival of the lead
detective who was behind the wheel of the car they passed.
Reed had
come to accept over the years that people were not going to give him a moments
thought. He often wondered if they knew
who he was, if they might give him a glance, wave, or maybe even a thank you
for being the person whose job was to face the aftermath of those who did the
unimaginable. Would he get a smile for
being the person who was in charge of trying to stop their number from being
called by those who prey on the innocent?
Would they care even if they knew?
The crowd cleared
as the light turned green and Reed again continued his journey to the old
warehouse. He shifted his thoughts to
the task that faced him. There were two
main questions that swirled around his mind like fallen leaves, blowing around
in circles. What was he going to see
where he got there, and was it really related to the Kerigan
murder?
As he made
the final turn onto a road that ran alongside the river in the heart of the
As Reed
pulled up, Martin walked over to his car.
Reed stepped out of his Crown Victoria and closed the door.
“Reed—” Martin paused and
took a deep breath, looking at Reed.
Reed could
tell that there was something very different and very wrong. He had never seen the haunted look on his
friends face.
“What is
it, Martin?” Reed asked.
“All I can
say is that this is messed up bad, Reed.
I don’t know what all went down here and what is happening, but I have
never ever seen anything like this before,” Martin said, shaking his head.
“Well,
let’s go have a look,” Reed said.
They both
started walking toward the front door.
“So, give
me the details,” Reed said to Martin.
“Just
about all we know at this point is that there was a call that came in about a
dead body. The call was placed by a
security officer for a working warehouse just a few buildings away. He saw the flicker of a fire in the warehouse
window. As you know, these warehouses
are filled with street people and drug users.
When he looked through the window, he could not believe what he was
seeing, and called 911. Here we are,”
Martin stated.
Reed and
Martin reached the door to the warehouse where the crime lab unit was
waiting.
“You ready
for us to go in, Detective?” a member of the crime lab asked.
“Just give
us a few minutes,” Reed returned.
Reed
walked through the door first. The fire
had burned out and it was very dark inside.
The only light was from the flashing red and blue lights that rushed in
from the opened door and dirty windows that lined the outer walls of the
warehouse. There was an eerie feel
inside. The air was heavy with smoke and
there was a stillness that made the hair on the back of Reed’s neck stand up.
Martin
flipped on his flash light and pointed to the far section of the warehouse.
“Over
here, Reed,” Martin said as he started walking to his left.
When they
reached about half way into the warehouse, Reed thought he could see something
in the outer halo of Martin’s flashlight.
“What the hell is that?” Reed
whispered.
As they
walked closer, the increased light started to add more and more detail to the
figure that was hanging in front of them.
“Mary
Mother of God!” Reed spoke as they finally arrived at the
body that was suspended. “Let me see
that,” Reed said as he reached for the flashlight.
Martin
handed it over and Reed moved closer to get a better look.
The body
was hanging upside down, tied at the feet with a rag, and hanging by a chain over
one of the steel girders that ran lower than the remainder of the upper
structure. It was the body of a black
man.
The first
thing that Reed noticed was that the hanging man had his neck ripped out much
like the injuries that Peter Kerigan had suffered. There were no clean cuts to the wound. It was all tears. Blood had run out of the wound in his neck
and soaked his medium long afro, and then dripped a pool of blood underneath
his hanging body. There was also a lot
of blood around his mouth. Reed noticed
that the blood around his mouth and lower face had been smeared around as if
someone was painting a sick picture on a canvas.
“Something
is up with his mouth.” Reed said as he
walked closer to the body, being careful not to step into the pool of blood
beneath it. Reed flashed his light into
the bloody orifice.
“Jesus,
his tongue has been cut out!” Reed said as he took a few steps back from the
body. “Martin, I think we can bring in
the crime lab now.”
As Martin
went to summon the crime lab team, Reed walked around to the back side of the
victim. Reed immediately noticed that
there was a silver chain that led up to a fat wallet that was stuck into the
back pocket of the man’s jeans.
Martin
arrived back with the crime lab team.
Two of the team members were setting up light stands to finally get some
good light into the building.
One of the
lab team, a middle aged man with thinning gray hair, stared at the body in
shock for several moments. “What could
ever possess any human walking on this Earth to do this to another person?” he
asked no in particular.
“Forget
walking the Earth, this person is walking the streets of our city,” Martin
added.
“Look
guys, I want you all to get this guy taken down and everything checked
out. However, I want the body to be left
in its current condition as much as we can,” Reed told the crime team.
The
portable lights came on, sending a rush of much needed light throughout the
warehouse. Reed noticed that the blood
from the hanging body had run back behind the body because the floor was not
level. The blood ran about five feet
away into what had just been pure darkness.
Reed hadn’t been able to see that in that blood was one partial foot
print.
Reed
walked over and took a closer look at the print left in the blood. He could also see three partial foot prints
that walked away from the body heading in the direction of the back corner of
the warehouse.
“We got
partial foot prints over here. I want as
many pictures of this as needed so we can try to figure out what kind of shoe
left these prints.” Reed said to the team.
He hoped that the prints hadn’t been made by an officer unable to see
the blood.
“Detectives,
you should come and have a look at this,” the graying crimelab
member said to Reed and Martin.
The crimelab officer had pulled the blood soaked wallet out the back pocket of the hanging man. It was a large black leather model, about seven inches long with four silver buttons that fastened it closed that would look at home in a biker’s back pocket. On the front side stamped into the leather were the words, Bad Mother Fucker.
“That goes
to show you that there is always someone badder than
you. I guess this fella
met that person tonight,” Martin said.
Blood was
starting to stick on the white gloves that were on the hand of the crimelab member as he slowly unbuttoned the silver
buttons. Once all the buttons had been
unfastened, he pulled back the flap.
There was a fine black zipper that closed the inner pocket. He slowly pulled the zipper back so the
contents could be seen. Inside was an
unnaturally large wad of money that was covered in blood.
The
officer walked over to a folding table that had been set up for evidence
collection and pulled out a sterile dish.
He had another lab tech snap a picture of the wallet with the money
inside. He then pulled the wrapped money
out of the wallet and placed it on the dish.
Another flash filled the warehouse as another picture was taken of the
money in the dish.
It was
evident that there was something inside the money. The crimelab
officer began to unwrap it slowly, pulling away the 20 and 50 dollar bills,
finally starting to expose the red and purple looking tissue inside.
“What the
hell is that?” Martin asked.
The
officer pulled back the last of the money and looked up at Martin and said,
“It’s his tongue.”
“Holy
shit. What’s up with that?” Martin asked.
“I don’t
know, Martin,” Reed said. “The only
thing I know for sure is that this isn’t just murder. It is a message.” Reed turned back to look at the body.
“But a
message for who?” Martin asked.
“That’s
what I intend to find out,” Reed said, turning back to Martin and the crime lab
officer. “I want to know who this is
ASAP. I want prints taken right now. Then I want you to take them and run them
tonight,” Reed said looking at Martin.
“I’ll do
prints right now,” the crimelab officer returned.
“Then I
want the body taken down and bagged, then taken to the coroner’s office. Make sure that it’s received by Dr. Dana Fox
only. She will be expecting you.”
“You got
it,” Martin said.
Reed then
walked in the direction that the partial bloody foot prints were going. He finally made it to the far corner of the
warehouse where a piece of sheet iron in the corner had been pulled back.
“Looks
like I found the back door,” Reed said.
Reed
turned on the flashlight and looked outside, hoping to find tracks in the
dirt. Instead of dirt, he found nothing
but concrete and no signs of tracks.
Reed pushed the sheet iron back further and stepped outside. He was now at the back of the warehouse
facing the river. He walked across the
road that separated the warehouse from the loading dock. He moved over to the railing and placed his
hands on the rail and looked out at the river.
He was
still trying to absorb everything that he had just witnessed. There was a part of him that wanted this case
related to the Kerigan murder because he knew if it
were it would give him a definite trail to follow. There was also a part of him that didn’t want
them to have anything at all to do with one another at all, for he knew that if
they were, this was a lot bigger than he ever imagined.
Reed
pulled out his cell phone and reached inside the interior pocket from his suit
coat to remove the business card that had been given to him by Dr. Fox. Reed flipped open
his phone and dialed the number on the card.
The line
rang until voicemail picked up. “You
have reached the office of Dr. Dana Fox.
I am away from my desk at the moment.
Please leave me a message and I will return your call at my earliest
convenience.”
Reed
sighed and waited for the beep. “Dr.
Fox, this is Detective Reed Hackman. I wish I were calling to tell you that I was
giving you that break we talked about.
Unfortunately, I am about to send you more business. The crimelab team
is going to be bringing you another body.
It’s a black male. I would like
for you to handle this case. As you are
investigating, try to see if you can rule in or rule out that this case and the
Kerigan case are linked in anyway. I am going to try and ID this man and get
some background. I’ll be in touch. Call me if you find anything in the mean time. Thank you, doctor.”
Reed
closed his phone and put the business card back inside the pocket of his
coat. He looked back out over the water
and wondered again what might be in store.