Issue Two: "See No Evil"

[starlord]

[starlord]

The Question
Issue 2: See No Evil
A murder mystery
Written by: Charles HoM
Cover by: Roy Flinchum
Edited by: Brian Burchette

[starlord]

I lie on the hard bed in the motel and I think. I can’t sleep, the AC failing and the heat overwhelming me. I lie on the hard bed and sweat. I can’t do anything else, so I just lie there, and I hope that my flesh won’t melt off my bones before the night is through. It’s a childish fear, yes, an unnatural belief that anything can happen and it does, but I smile as the thought leaves me, and I begin to think of Emily. But then my eyes snap back open, and I realise that I had fallen asleep. This whole set up reminds me of Opal City about ten years back, when I was visiting an old friend who’s family had deep ties to the soul of the city. David his name was, and he introduced me to someone special. But now I just lie on the hard motel and I think. I remember. And when I forget what it’s like to dream, I sleep.

[starlord]

“Little slut.” He grabs her throat and holds her down, and then grits his teeth as she struggles to free herself from his iron grasp. “Little slut.” In one swift movement, he holds her down with one hand and swigs down the beer in his other. His eyes burn as he looked down at her, her blonde hair flicking up and down as her head tosses and turns in the heat of the moment. “Gonna’ kill. You. Gonna’ kill you.” His breaths are shallow and quick, and as he drops his bottle and it smashes on the floor below him, a knock comes at the door. He moves his hand from his belt buckle to the woman’s mouth, and then breathes in deeply, trying to catch it, but failing. “W-What?”

“Room service.” The door is kicked down, and the big man’s eyes widen as the man in the white vest, trousers and gloves steps through, his face obscured by a green mist that begins to dissipate as he enters the motel room. “Or not. I was going to see if you believed it but I’m not going to insult your intelligence.” His face comes into view and the big man gasps, his sweaty brow moistening even more as he blinks hard. “…Or the lack of.”

“You ain’t--”

The Question slams his fist hard into the man’s chubby face. As spit and blood dribbling down his mouth, he stumbles back and loses his grip on his victim. The vigilante follows through with a boot to his knee, a loud sickeningly wet snap filling the air and then is joined in its cacophony of suffering with a guttural scream from the big man’s throat. “If I was feeling a bit nicer I’d knock you out now.” He crouches down and prods the man’s exposed bone above his kneecap and then tilts his head. “But I might still! I might be a nice and happy norm and help you through your suffering.” He grabs the man’s throat with his gloved hands and pulls him up close to his masked face. “Were you or were you not going to rape and kill this woman?”

“Nuh! Nuh… Nuh… Ah… Muh… Muh leg… LEG!” The man shakes his head; sweat dripping from his face and onto the carpet, joining the blood pool that had been created by the fractured leg of his.

“No, the answer is not ‘muh leg’ idiot.” He turns to the woman, who holds the white bed sheet over her exposed body, tears falling down her face. “Are you ok, ma’am?”

“He was gonna’… Gonna’ kill me…” She shakes her head.

“Wanna kick him in the nads?”

The woman’s eyes turn into slits at the words, confusion hitting her. “EXCUSE me?”

The Question tilts his head and looks at her, shaking his head. “Sorry. Want to kick him in the crotch?”

“I got that but… But…”

The Question puts his hands up, the big man falling onto the ground with a thud as he does so, and then shakes his head. “Free shot, on me.” The woman smiles slightly, and holds the sheet over her body as she approaches the fallen attacker, and then lets loose with a powerful punt in the general direction of her would be rapists nether regions.

[starlord]

The next day is cooler, but it still causes the sweat to form on my brow as I open the motel room door and look outside. There’s a police car or two pulled up in the lot, and I see the woman from last night giving a statement to the officers. I smile as I remember the events. I pull off my vest and head for the shower. As soon as I step outside I’m going to start sweating like a dog, so I might as well wash off last night’s muck. I smile as the shower splutters on, and I turn the temperature all the way down so the water is nice and cold, then I step into the small cubicle and close the curtain. Midway City, eh? Say hello to your latest visitor. The Question has arrived… And he needs soap.

[starlord]

“We got another one.” Detective Russell turns to his partner who is chewing on a stick of gum beside him. “Same MO, beaten, raped and then murdered. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer lot of people…”

Smith turns to him and grimaces. “The eyes?”

Russell nods. “The same as the others… Jeez, even in Gotham we never got crazy like this.”

“Moses.” The man slams his fist on the desk and then grimaces. “Jesus H Christ, I mean… What is it with this sicko? He leaves no DNA…”

“Condom.”

“He is able to get close enough to these women as to kill them…”

“He paid them, Smith, they were hookers and he paid them. He was a John like any other until he… Well.” His eyes roll. “He went about his business.”

“Sure, I totally understand that, but they usually slip up, accidentally pull out a hair in the struggle, maybe a pubic hair on the mattress or whatever, but this guy…” He stands. “He just vanishes without a trace.”

“Maybe they’re… Shaved down there.”

“Oh Russ, please!”

“The ladies, love it.”

“Stop! Don’t go any farther.”

He smiles and slaps his partner on the back, laughing. “Alright, alright… So what do you want to do?”

Smith looks at the papers on his desk and then to Russell. “See if you can find a match on the salt we found at the scene. Sea salt, table salt, road salt, I want to know what kind it is, alright?” Russell nods. “And then let’s go talk to the neighbours again, see what they know.”

“You think they’re going to be any more willing to talk to us now than they were last time we went?”

“They better be.” Smith grabs his holster and ties it around his shoulder, and then grabs his jacket.

“I don’t know why you’re bothering to take that man, it’s gotta be 80 approaching 90 out there you know?”

Smith shakes his head and puts his black jacket on. “Because I’m a member of the police force, and we’ve got an image to uphold.”

“Whatever. You know… Some people believe that salt acts as a deterrent to trouble, to evil. People put rings of salt around their homes to prevent evil spirits from invading. Salt is a protective charm… Did you know that?”

Smith arches an eyebrow. “I put salt in my FOOD to salt it up. What. The. Hell. Ok, write it down, ok Russ? It’s a new option, awesome… But we still aren’t getting anywhere, are we?”

“Yet man, yet.”

“Suuure.”

[starlord]

I park up by the side of the road and put money in the meter, and then head for the closest news-stand. I pick up one of everything. Well not everything. I leave the top shelf alone and throw my selection on the surface in front of the owner of the stall. “All this?”

“Yeah man, all this.” I take thirty dollars out of my wallet and smile. “Problem?”

“No dude, no.”

He totals it all up and I pass him the money, and then carry my latest batch of newspapers to my car. I dump them all onto the backseat, then clamber back inside over the food wrappers on the floor, and then I head for somewhere quiet. I want to read everything, process it all, and then I can collate, reassess… Then continue heading for Vegas. Easy. Except… Something catches my eye.

A mystery.

People are being murdered (isn’t that always the case?). The police aren’t releasing any details to any of the major papers, but of course I’m relying on the tenacity and the conniving of the less… Reputable papers to have a source, a leak on the force maybe. I read the first page and my eyes widen, and then I realise the irony in the act. They’ve got crime scene photos. Some jerk-off in the forensics lab probably leaked them to fund his second wife in Tulsa’s antique obsession. The thing I like about Midway City is that it’s quite squeaky in its cleanness. It’s not like Hub City, where… I banish the thought. Hub was dirty, Hub was crooked, Hub was in the past.

I drive back to the motel, back to the faulty AC, and I park. I get my bearings and then head to the small café opposite the fine establishment I’m staying at. I’m glad to find somewhere real to eat for once, as my life for the past year has been sitting in motels lugging computer equipment around and collecting… Stuff. I’ll talk about it in a while, but not know. I’ve got a mystery to solve.

I place myself below a working air fan on the ceiling (thank god) and order a jug of water and a glass, and then I get back to the newspaper. I turn the page and am met by more crime scene photos. Women beaten and raped, their eyes… Something wrong with their eyes. I move my finger over their faces and down, and squint as I look at the strange substance in the close ups. Is that… Salt?

“Here’s your order, sir.” I turn and smile at the beautiful blonde woman serving me, and then she places the jug and glass on the small table I sit at. “Will that be all?”

“Yeah thanks, it’s all good. But I have a question for you. What do you know about these murders occurring in the city?”

She looks at me for a moment, processing the question, and then tilts her head, curious. “I’m worried, just like every woman is in the city when one of these freaks pops up and starts dropping us like flies.” She’s strong willed. I like that. “But you can’t let people like that rule your life. I ain’t going to let some freak with a knife stop me going about my life, you know?” I concentrate on the slip she made, and it becomes clear that she isn’t from around here. Midway residents usually talk quite well; ‘isn’t’ where ‘ain’t’ is usually, ‘Vic and I’ were ‘me an’ Vic’ would be sufficient elsewhere. She’s from the country I guess, but I don’t share my theories with her yet. Why should I, she’s a bystander in my life? A supporting character in a short scene. “Why’d you ask, sir?”

“Call me Vic…” I look at her nametag and smile. “Cassandra, beautiful name that is.” I smile and pour myself a glass of water, and toast to her. “Have a lovely day, miss.”

“Thanks, mister.” She smiles and blushes slightly, and then takes the tray from my table and heads behind the till. I then realise I’m doing that thing again, I analyse everyone I meet, take notes mentally of everyone, their demeanour, their accent, their dress sense, and I think I might know why it’s hard for me to settle down. I don’t take people as people, I take them as information. I shake my head and take out my notebook, and then begin jotting notes down about the murders.

[starlord]

The man in the alley-way removes the packet of white powder from his green trousers and then holds it one hand. He’s wearing a white tank top, and a gold medallion around his neck with six dots engraved on, in the form of a die. “Dice.” The man turned at the voice, fear in his eyes.

“What? What? Who… Who there? Come out man!” I see his hands go for the back of his belt, where I noticed his weapon before I spoke.

“No need to get trigger happy, Dice. Or do you prefer Magic Dice? I never really bothered or care about what nom-de-guerre you were going by now.”

“Who the hell are you?” I step out of the shadows behind him and quietly pull his gun out of his trousers, and then I throw it into the dumpster behind me, a loud clang alerting him to my presence. “Holy—TQ! Jesus, I didn’t know you were in the city… Christ man, you… You scared the living daylight out of me…” He laughs. “We friends yo, you don’ have to creep up on me to get my attention, you dig?”

I grab him by his suspenders and yank him towards me, slapping the powder from his grasp and then pointed my gloved finger in his face. “We’re not friends, and I don’t forget what you did for me, alright? I don’t forget the favours I lent you and the fact you betrayed me, all right? So here we are, new city, new rules. We’re gonna’ start afresh, you ‘dig’? You’re gonna’ answer my questions, give me the answers I want, and then I won’t hand you over to the cops for possession. That sound satisfactory?”

“Sounds… Sounds good man… What you want telling? I’ll tell you whatever you want…” His eyes dart around the alleyway, terror gripping him.

Magic Dice, 8-Ball, Dice, Baby Die, all nicknames he’s held in the time I’ve known him. He’s the lowest level of scum, and he used to help me get leads on crimes in the Hub. I banish the thought of my old home from my mind and then tilt my hat up a bit over my head with my free hand. “I want the truth. I hear there have been murders going on in this big city.”

“I hear things man, I hear lot a things, but I ain’t got nothing on that, you know? Big murders, weird stuff happening to the corpses. A load of ho’s if I ain’t mistaken, you know? No one gonna’ miss ‘em, a’ight?”

“Miss them?” I punch him in the chest hard and he falls to the floor, vomit dribbling from his mouth as his liver deals with the damage just dealt by my fist. “They’re human beings Dice. And that means they matter. I’ll miss them, and so will their families. So let me tell you this… You hear something you try and find me alright? I’ll be around keeping my eyes on you…”

“Blahhhh…” Vomit dribbles down from his mouth and onto the floor and he looks at me through blood shot eyes. “Hkkkk… You ain’t… hrrrrrrn! You ain’t got eyes!”

“I did…” I push him off my coat and then smile beneath my mask. “But I lost ‘em when I didn’t tell an angry man what he wanted to know.” I vanish back into the shadows, leaving Magic Dice in his predicament.

[starlord]

“I’ll be home next month mom, I promise. School’s ending and I’ll be on the first plane back, ok? Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine…” Cassie hangs up the phone and then leans against the wall.

“What’s you worry baby?” The man begins to take off his coat and places it over the wooden chair that is opposite the bed. “What’s the trouble?”

“Nothing Mr Jones, nothing at all…” She puts on a smile and strolls over to him, and helps him with his shirt. “So… What’ll it be?”

His eyes darken. “You know what I want.”

“Sure, Master, of course I know.” She removes her pink shirt and smiles as he removes his trousers. “Of course I know.” Her words seem to drift over her as her life shifts into a daze. She acts, consciously, maybe not, doing things she’d never think herself capable of. She has to, because she promised herself she’d make it here, promised she’d be a success… but she couldn’t get a scholarship, couldn’t afford to make her payments on college with a day job, a weekend job, and as her life began to fall down, down, down the drain she realised that she had to get out. Get out of this life she had placed herself into. The whys and the hows don’t matter, because as of this moment… Nothing matters.

“You’re mine. Mine.” He smiles as he massages her shoulders, and then moves them higher up, over her neck. “You like this, don’t you? Like the feeling of powerlessness… The feeling of abdicating control to someone else so your worries and woes don’t seem to… Real. So close…”

“Whatever… You… Say… Master…” HE liked that. HE liked the feeling of being in control. HE liked the feeling of power. So their little arrangement suited them perfectly, for now. “Yes………”

She needs the money, and he pays for her services. That’s what she tells herself. She wouldn’t have thought herself able to do these things two years ago, but a lot can happen in those two years, can’t they? “Yes. You like it.” She feels his grip slide from her shoulders upwards. With most of her clients they’d have slid down by now, normally they couldn’t resist a bit of a feel. It sickened her, but she had to do this, didn’t she? When his hands find her tender neck, her eyes open like lightning, but she can’t do anything, he’s on top of her, pinning her down, and his grip is so tight. “Tight. Tight.” He smiles, his eyes a maddening glint. “So tight. So tight.”

She gasps for air, and jerks up her knee, connecting with his back and causing them to separate; for him to lose his grip ever so slightly, and allowing her one breath of air, and one hell of a scream.

[starlord]

I’m heading for my motel room when I hear the scream from a room somewhere in the complex. I jerk around, and hear the echo of it, and then I clench my fist. Someone’s in trouble and I don’t know where! I head for the closest room and slam my elbow into the door, swinging it open and allowing me sudden entrance. The two men in the bed look at me for a moment, and then stop what they’re doing. I hold their gaze for a second and then leave, my face red if it were visible from behind my mask. I hurry outside again and concentrate on what I heard. It could be another one of those prostitution murders, meaning they’ll want a room close to the exit of the lot, near the shadows so they aren’t seen. I remember the layout of the complex and head for the east side, and then when I reach a suitably shadowed spot with two cars outside I knock on the door politely. And when there’s a muffled cry from inside I kick it down, and leap inside, ripping the man off of the naked woman and slamming him into the wall opposite her.
“I’ve been waiting till I’d meet up with you freak!” I knee him in the chest, and then elbow him in the back of the skull, grabbing his thinning hair and dragging him back up before I whisper in his face again, grim determination racking me. “You defile these women, murder them, and you didn’t expect justice? Consequences?” I hold him against the wall with my wrist, and then rummage through his trouser pockets; his clothing folded calmly atop the dresser next to us. I find nothing. I look around, and another piece of folded clothing catches my eye. Throwing him towards his coat on the chair opposite the bed, I quickly check those pockets too, and my eyes open wide. I don’t find what I’m looking for. Salt. “You aren’t him.” I hold him up by his neck and place my thumb underneath his chin. “I could break your jaw with so much ease, you know that? But you aren’t the guy I’m looking for. You aren’t the biggest freak out there tonight.”

“Yuh… Yuh…” He looks at me, and a smile appears on his lips. “You are.”

I freeze and drop him. What? What would prompt him to…? What? I grab him by his throat again and smile beneath my mask. He’s playing me. He’s trying to use little mind games on me. I slam his head against the wall and he slides down it, unconscious, and then I turn to the woman in bed. Why am I always saving people in these situations? I look at her for a moment and then I recognise her. It’s her. From the bar I was in earlier today, before nightfall. Ideas and questions fill my brain, curiosity and anxiety all at once, and then I put my hand out to her, and only one question leaves my lips. “Are you alright?”

“I… I’m fine now…” Her voice is raspy, red marks glowing around her neck where that bastard had her. I turn as she holds the bed sheet over herself, and then I look to the naked man who had attacked her. “You… You saved me…”

“Someone had to.”

“No… No one in this town has shown me a shred of kindness unless they had to, unless it got them somewhere. But you… Do you want something?”

I turn and am glad to realise she’s put on some clothing. “I want you to get out of the city, Cassandra. I want you to get out of here and head home. Alright?” Her green eyes glow in the darkness as a car outside pulls past, passing the small room.

“What? How did you…”

“I want you to call the police, and you can get this creep put away, ok?” She nods and I smile, wrapping the bed-clothes around the naked man’s wrists, tying him up tightly.

“Call them now, Cassandra.” She nods again and picks up the phone, dialling 9-1-1. She turns back to where I was standing but I’m gone, back to the shadows.

[starlord]

“Sounded like our kind of case, you know? So we came down, thought we might find the guy who’s killing all the whores in the city at the moment, you know Griss?” The uniform nods and looks at Russell and Smith, who observe the scene. “So what you got?”

“Woman was nearly killed by her John, but we didn’t find any salt on his body, or in his clothes.” The uniform looks at Smith for a moment, and nods. “So he’s not your guy?”

“Nope, just another poor freak who got caught with his pants down.”

Russell rolls his eyes at the joke, and then grimaces. “How’d she survive the attack? He had more than double the body weight of her. I’m guessing if he was in there solid.” He moves his body in a solid position, his fists clenched. “She wasn’t getting out from under him.”

The uniform points to his notes. “A masked man.”

Smith stares at him for a moment, and then smiles. “Batman?”

The uniform shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Green Lantern?”

“No.”

Smith pauses for a moment, thinking hard. “…Superman?”

“Doesn’t wear a mask.”

Russell looks at his partner for a moment. “Hell, we got us a vigilante?”

“Looks like it, Russ.” Smith looks around for a moment, pacing the scene. “A’ite, play down the vigilante, make it more of a lucky escape… I don’t want those DEO dogs sniffing around our city, you dig?”

The uniform nods. “I dig, sir.”

“Let’s talk to the vic, and then we’ll head back to the station.


I watch from the shadows as Cassandra is taken away by the police. At least she’ll be safe now. I remove my mask and place it back in my belt buckle compartment, and then head for my own room, and for another shower. I hate this city already. They know I’m here, in the city, and I don’t know how they’ll react to my presence, yet. I’ll wait for the morning, for the next round of papers to come out, and then I’ll see

[starlord]

“What happened?” Smith leans on the table, looking the woman in the eyes, trying to see through her tears and capture the fact of the entire matter.

“Alright…” She gathers herself, emotional. “My job, at the diner, it doesn’t get me much money. All I need, is enough for an air ticket to get… To get home…” She sobs into a handkerchief handed to her by Russell. “But the rent on my apartment… Everything… To survive you need money and I just don’t have much at the moment. My life… My life is falling apart.” She breathes in deeply. “He was a regular, regular meaning I’d seen him a couple of times before, and I knew what he wanted. I know you probably think I’m some slut or something but… I just had to do this… I couldn’t call my mom, I couldn’t! She’d… Oh hell… But the guy, Jones, He liked feeling in control, and I let him feel like he was… But this time, He… Got violent. Started strangling me… I was able to get him off of me, and scream. Then this guy, I didn’t see his face, smashed the door down and threw him into the wall. He made him stop what he was doing…”

“Didn’t see his face? Was he wearing a mask? A balaclava? Tights?” Smith writes something down. “Was he a superhero? Like Batman, Green Arrow, that kind of thing?”

“I don’t know, he just wore clothes, you know? A hat, a long coat, black mainly but I don’t think that was his costume you know?” She looks at Russell, who smiles. “It was just his clothes… And his face… I just didn’t see it. The room was dark, you know? I could barely see a thing and… I didn’t see it.” She shakes her head again, tears forming again in her eyes. “I’m sorry…”

“No, no… It’s alright. But we just have to ask these things, you know?” Smith smiles sympathetically. “Do you want to call someone, let someone know where you’re are? We’re nearly done here, so it’s up to you?”

“Sure detective, thank you.”

[starlord]

“You there?” She taps the table, impatient.

“Yes.” The voice on the end of the phone is familiar. A friendly face behind the receiver.

“I’ve… Clive… I’ve had a bad time tonight… But…” She looks around. “I’ll be in tomorrow, ok?”

“Sure thing Cassie. Sure thing.” There’s a pause. “What happened?”

“I’m at the police station, they wanted to ask me a few questions, but it’s done now, I’m gonna’ head home.” She smiles slightly.

“Are you ok?”

“I will be when I get home.” She nods and then laughs slightly. “It’s a lot of something over nothing Clive, don’t worry, alright?”

“I worry alright, love. I worry about you.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Want me to come over, make sure you’re settled?”

She looks around slowly, and then back at the wall. “No, no it’s alright Clive.”

“If you’re sure love. If you’re sure.”

“Thanks.”

Clive puts down the phone and smiles slightly. He looks at himself in the mirror and then smiles slightly more. He turns and gets back to work. He had stuff to do now and he had to get up nice and early in the morning.

“Mrs Drigenberg?” Cassandra turns at her last name, and is confronted by one of the police officers that questioned her. “I’m Russell, I’m going to give you a ride home, alright? But understand that we might want to call you in some other time for more questions, ok?”

“Sure Detective, sure.”

[starlord]

I sit in the cubicle, and lean against the wall, a newspaper in front of me a mug of steaming coffee next to my hand, ready for me to pick it up and drink from. I don’t concentrate on the bundles of papers by my side, or the one I cherry picked and placed in front of me, I concentrate on behind the bar, behind the cashier and into the kitchen, trying to see if I can spot Cassandra. But no, nothing. She’s not here. Now I understand that she’s been under an intense pressure last night, nearly raped and murdered, yes… But people like that… Through the misery and the hardships that are thrown their way… They bounce back. They might not bounce back as much as they want to but they bounce none the less, bounce back into their precious engagements, and just try… Try… Try and make it through the day. Through the next minute, hour, day, week, fortnight, month… They just struggle to survive life. I finish my drink and pick up my mug and stroll over to the woman behind the till.

“Is Cassandra in today?” I smile and she looks at me curiously.

“Who’s asking?”

Stubborn. “Just a friend from out of town, she told me she’d meet me here today… But I haven’t seen her as of yet… Wondering if she’s sick or something, you know?”

I look at her eyes, and notice her left eye lid flutter slightly. Hmm. “She was supposed to be in, sure sir. She normally calls in when she’s sick… But I dunno.”

“Hey, mister.” I turn as a young man approaches me and smiles slightly. “I’m Clive, a friend of Cass’s… An’ she called me last night saying she’d had a bad night… But she’d be in. I offered to go round and…” He shakes his head. “Something’s happened. I went round to her apartment in my lunch break…” He clenches his fist. “She wasn’t there.”

“Hell.” Vic grimaces, and scratches his stubbly chin. “What did she say?”

“She was at the police station, she was heading home. She had to answer a few questions…” He struggles for the words. “Crap… I should have gone round, made sure she was alright…”

“I’ll find her Clive, I’ll see y’all later.” Vic grabs his coat from his chair and runs out of the diner, and then heads for his car, anger overcoming him. Hell. Hell.

[starlord]

Detective Smith enters the bathroom and unzips his fly, and then proceeds to relieve himself in the urinal. He breathes in deeply, relaxed for the first time today. “Ah.”

“Roland Smith.” He turns at the voice, but sees no one. He feels his hand move over his weapon, and his other doing up his trousers.

“Who’s there?”

“The girl you brought in for questioning last night… She didn’t make it home. She’s not been to work, she’s now missing.” Smith unbuttons his holster and pulls his pistol out of it, and then glances around the sterile looking toilet. He can’t get a bead on where the voice is coming from, and now he’s getting peeved.

“We sent her home. Now show yourself.” He places his hand on the cubical door and pushes it open, but there’s no one there, the first of five empty. All the doors are closed. He looks over to the entrance of the room and he sees the dead bolt pulled. The guy sneaked in when he was taking a leak? What the hell…

“I will. But how’d you send her home? Something’s happened from A to C… There’s a missing place in B.”

“My partner called her a cab.” He pushes open the next door, and grimaces, no one in there.

“Where’s your partner now?”

“Dunno… He…” Smith’s eyes widen, then darken. “He’s around.”

“Or maybe he’s not. Maybe he…”

“Oh my God.” Smith’s eyes widen even more and then he grabs the side of the cubicle, things coming together. “Oh my God!”

“What?”

“My… Jesus…”

“You think your partner did it?” Vic twitches slightly from where he’s hiding.

“No I…” Smith shakes his head. “You’re the guy who saved that girl, ain’t you? The masked man? The vigilante… you’re trying to solve this case too, am I right?”

“You’re not wrong, officer…”

“You’re not sanctioned by the MPD. You’re not a legal officer of the law. You’re the kind of person who makes it difficult for the rest of us. But… But…”

Vic thinks it through and then emerges from behind the bin next to the door, his mask on, sealed. “We’re on the same side.”

“Holy… You ain’t gotta face!” Smith raises his weapon, panic in his eyes.

“Whoa, whoa there cowboy. I need to know what you know, because this guy might be the creep who’s killing these women. Doing horrific things to them, alright? And you don’t have enough evidence for a warrant… But I can get him. We can get him.”

“Christ… You’re…” He shakes his head, then looks up. “Tilt your fedora down, come on.” He unbolts the door and walks back to his desk, covered by the vigilante, trapped in a room full of police officers. “Russell Watkins… Russ… He’s… He’s a good cop. He’s got his opinions, but he’s a good cop.”

“You’re lying. You don’t think that.”

“No, I don’t think that. I like him as a guy, going for a beer after shifts, but his real life? I know nothing. He recently transferred in from Gotham, Gotham Vice.”

Gotham, home of the freaks. “And…”

“I pulled these records of similar crimes that occurred over the last year. When Gotham was a disaster area, after what happened with… With the zombies or whatever… Women were being raped and killed. Salt placed in their eyes… It’s the same MO and I only just cracked it… Damn…” He types something into his computer and pulls up security camera records for the night before. “I told Russell to call the girl a cab, he said ‘sure’… And this is the decider…” He pulls up a file and watches as Russell escorts Cassie to his car. “He drove her. He drove her to… God knows where.” Smith turns to Vic and grimaces. “He did it… Didn’t he? It all makes sense now… Jesus!”

“Make sense? How does it make sense?” Vic taps his finger onto the desk, impatiently. “I’m not the detective here.”

“Things he said to me when we discussed the case… Couldn’t have happened to a nicer lot of people… He had insights into what the freak… What he was doing. I thought he was just spewing new age hippy crap but… Argh.” He rubs his temple and looks up. “There was no evidence, so he suggested that the perp shaved himself down there you know? No hair to be pulled out… Shit… He was bald man, no hair… And the whole salt angle? Shit! He told me that some people believe that salt acts as a deterrent to trouble, to evil. People put rings of salt around their homes to prevent evil spirits from invading… The guy put salt in women’s eyes! When they were alive! Shit!”

Vic shakes his head, disgusted. “Salt protects from evil, he put it into the eyes of his victims to prevent them from seeing… From seeing his evil. Maybe made him feel better about what he was doing. Maybe it aroused him, God…”

Smith shakes his hand and prints off the times on the CCTV, and then turns to Vic—Who’s vanished. “Holy… No!” He grabs his coat and heads for his car, hoping that the vigilante doesn’t corner his partner before he does.

[starlord]

I made a mistake talking to him. I exposed myself to all kind of arrest warrants and opportunities to be shot. Hell. I scream down the roads, Detective Russell’s address easy to find with a quick call to directory inquiries. Thank god for the hippies and the freedom of information act, eh? My black car roars through the appearing night, the sky turning from blue to black with increasing speed. I didn’t have all the answers, I didn’t even know what question to ask, and I failed Cass. She might be dead, she might be… Oh her eyes, her pretty green eyes. Trust Gotham to be lax in their ability to weed out the psychopaths in their midst’s. My black car roars through the sudden night, the sky now black as the shadows that monsters dwell, and I vow that if Cassie is dead… I dismiss that thought from my head, and press down hard on the accelerator. I make a vow for justice.

[starlord]

“Open your eyes.”

“Nuh… Nuh…” She sobs, her eyes firmly shut, tears forming between her lids, her face a mess of bruises and blood. He’d taken more time with this one. He’d done his business earlier, showing her why he was in control, but he was angered by her lack of screams, her lack of obvious pain. Sure she was bleeding; sure those bruises were forming on her cheeks as he pummelled her, but if she doesn’t scream… He coughs, and grabs the knife from the side of the desk. She was tied down; she wasn’t getting up any time soon. Time becomes fluid and it flies by. But before, when he was showing her why he was to be feared… Her screams… Or lack of… He wasn’t able to finish up. And that didn’t make him feel quite good.

“Open your damn eyes bitch… Come on…” He holds the knife over her naked chest, and begins to cut downwards, her tears becoming sobs as blood begins to trickle down her stomach. “It’ll be over all the much faster if you open your eyes” He grabs her face and holds her head down, and whispers in her ear, a smile on his lips. “They never remember the victims anymore baby, it’s always the killer, or in my case, the redeemer. I’m going to free you of your sin. I’m going to make sure you aren’t going to hell, because we don’t want that, do we? We want you to be… Happy.”

Her eyes flutter open and he grins, his hand reaching behind him, but then she slams them shut and spits blood in his face. “Oh you…” He slaps her across the face, and she cries out, but she holds the screams in, and that means he can’t get off on it, she hopes. “I’m going to go make a sandwich. Then I’m going to kill you, you stupid bitch! I’m going to fill you full of holes and you’re gonna’ feel each and every one of them, slut. Then we’ll see how strong willed you are. You ain’t got no heroes, I’m the only one here for you.” He stands and grabs his boxers and trousers, and pulls them on, and then turns back to her as she speaks.

“D-Die…”

“You first!” He laughs and kicks her hard in the side, below her ribs, and then strolls upstairs, putting on his shirt as he does so. “Heh, women…”

[starlord]

The locks are substandard. I open them with a needle I keep in my pocket, and then I creep inside the house. I can hear footsteps coming up from the basement, and then a man whistling. It must be him. I hide in the shadows of the lounge, and then hear him prepare something on a worktop. I grimace as I see his gun next to him, but then I hear something from downstairs, cries for help. They’re muffled, I can barely hear them, but they’re there none the less, so as the creep turns his back I dive into the stairwell, avoiding his gaze.

[starlord]

Detective Russell Watkins turns for a moment. Pauses what he’s doing, holds the knife in his hand tight. He thinks he’s heard something, movement. Another person in his house. He looks at the butter beside his bread and then continues what he’s doing.

[starlord]

I reach the bottom of the stairs and my eyes adjust to the darkness slowly. Something crunches beneath my shoes as I step forward. I can make out a bed, a work surface, and no windows in sight… And tools. Lot’s of tools. I creep forward, trying my best not to fall over and cause some kind of commotion, but when my hand touches something wet and sticky on the desk where the tools are… My heart drops. Blood? Is it blood? Oh god…

“Cassie?”

“Huh… huh… Who?”

“It’s a friend; I’m going to get you out of here.” I feel my way over to the bed and find my hands on top of hers, her wrists and ankles bound to the top and bottom of the bed. I take my pocket knife out and cut her bindings, and then I help her up, her naked body barely standing against mine. I remove my coat and place it on her shoulders. “There are police coming. Good men, not like this sick creep. I’m going to get you out, and then you’re going to go to a hospital.” I begin to breathe again when she’s safe, and when I do I breathe in deeply and then taste it, even beneath my mask. The air is salty, strong salt, like the sea, but we aren’t near water. It makes me feel slightly nauseous. I pick her up and carry her over the salty ground and walk up the stairs slowly, making sure I don’t make a noise.

“Oh my, a gallant hero.” My eyes widen as Russell appears, and shoves us down the stairwell, my back crashing onto the steps that lead into the darkness below. I grit my teeth and hold Cassie hard, making sure she doesn’t get hurt by the impact. My back crunches as it hits the hard wood, and then I let out a cry as my breathe is snatched from me by the hard collision with the salty stone ground. “I’ll be back. Heh.” He closes the door and I hear him pull a lock over it. Trapped?

“A-Ah…” Cassie moves in my arm. “Are you alright?”

“Eurrrgh… I’m one card short of a full deck.” I jerk upwards, and look around for my hat. “Come on.” I try to stand but my knees buckle. It’s only then that I feel the blinding pain in my shoulder, as my left arm hangs loosely to my side. “AH!”

“What? What?”

“Arm. Dislocated… Pain!” I laugh slightly and stand, determination gripping me. “Are you ok?”

“I’m… I’ll… I’ll live. We need… we to get out.”

I lean my head against the wall and shake it. I know this bit hurts. I’ve seen Lethal Weapon a number of times, and I haven’t dislocated my arm before so… This is going to be a bit of a bitch. I slam my arm hard into the wall and I hear it crunch back into the socket. “DAMN! … I was right.” I look around and stumble back into the cellar, grab a pair of bolt cutters from the tool shelf and drag them with my good arm. “I’m going to have to go stop him, ok? You’re going to go outside and run straight for the house in front and call the police, and an ambulance. Ok?”

“Who for…?”

Vic smiles beneath his mask. “For him, obviously.”

“You really don’t have a face…” She moves her hand over my mask and I flinch slightly. “Sorry… Did… Did that hurt?”

“No. It’s a mask, Cassie.”

“You keep saying my name and… And I don’t think I’ve ever met you. No one I’ve met has ever… Been nice…”

“Sure they have.” I clamber up the stairs and slam the end of the bolt cutters through the wooden door, and smile as the panels splinter. I move my hand into the hole and unlock the door, and then kick it down. Cassie follows behind me as I open the door for her, and then I hear a noise upstairs. Good. I hold the bolt cutters in my hands, and then I walk up the stairs, the dark corridors seemingly shifting to my eyes as I step forward, one foot in front of the other. I creep past each room till I reach the master bedroom, candles illuminating the man who sits naked in the centre of it.

“What are you doing?”

The man smiles, rocking backwards and forth, and then motions around him, to the circle of white salt he’s poured around himself, protection. “You can’t touch me. I’m safe here.”

I pause, and throw the bolt cutters out of the window, glass shattering as the heavy metal tool flies into the garden outside and lands with a thud. “No. You’re not.” I approach the barrier and pause as I reach the white circle. I pause and smile beneath my mark, and then I roll up my sleeves. My black shoe moves towards the circle, and with one swift movement I drag it over the salt and then kick it to the side, cutting a swathe into the barrier Russell had hoped to create. “Because it’s now me, and you, alone. You’re not a cop here. We’re equals. Not in being but in person. And you’re now going to feel the fear that you made those women feel.”

“What are you…” He jerks back. “No! Salt. Salt. Salt’ll stop you. No, no, no!” He screams for a good long while. I make sure it lasts.

[starlord]

“COME ON!” Smith bursts through the front door, his Kevlar across his chest and his gun raised. He motions with his hands to the men and women behind him, all clad in SWAT gear. He moves up the stairs, heading to the upper floor of the house and to his target. He’d been deceived for months, this man, and this monster, hiding beneath his façade of loyalty… Or honour. But there was no honour in what he was doing: murder, rape, attempted rape. They’d found the last victim across the street. He’d raped her, or tried to. He had beat her, that was obvious; assault, more offences than he could count. He moves into the bedroom, and his eyes open wide, a man lying on the floor, sobbing into his hands. “LIE DOWN! ON THE GROUND! ON YOUR FRONT!”

“Didn’t stop him, nothing would, he passed through the shield and he… he… He spoke to me and he… Didn’t lay a finger on me… He just… spoke to me said horrible things and I see what I’ve done Smith!” His eyes jerk upwards and his stare lands firmly within Smith’s own. “Kill me I don’t deserve to live because, because of what I’ve done. You should kill me now, put two bullets in my skull! Do it Smith! Do it!” He staggers up and dives for his partner, but Smith side steps and shoots him, blood flying across the white washed wall. Russell screams and slams into the wooden flooring, his arm bleeding heavily.

Smith speaks into his radio strapped to his chest, and keeps his weapon firmly raised at his enemy. “Shots fired, suspect down. I need a paramedic up here. You screwed me Russ and I’m making sure you go down for a good long time.”

“Y-YOU’RE ALL THE SAME!” Russell sobs, tears and blood mixing on the floor of his bedroom. “All… The same…”

[starlord]

Epilogue:

Cassandra Drigenberg lay in her hospital bed, wires in her arms, drugs pumping into her veins. Her bones had been set, and she was on the road to recovery, at least physically. Mentally? The psychiatrist had yet to come in, but she was due any minute. Vic Sage sat next to her, his hand in hers.

“I should have been there.” He shakes his head. “I let another person suffer because I didn’t… Find what I was looking for. And I’m sorry for that. I should have… Should have been there, you know?”

“Y-You saved my life. And… And I’m glad you did… But now… How am I gonna’ explain this to my mom? It’s just… I wish sometimes it would end, you know? It’s not… It’s not fair…”

Vic smiles slightly, his face rough and drained of colour, bags beneath his eyes, stubble across his lower jaw running unchecked. “Who ever said life was? But life is what you make it. You can’t live it just staying the same, keeping something steady and pleasant, or even steady and unpleasant. Life is the change, the events that we take part in. You can move from event to event, birth, school, work, retirement, death. And it’s you who makes them what they are… Life is what you make it.”

He smiles, struggling to find one in her, but she does, and it quivers onto her lips as her lips part. “What did you do to… that detective?”

Vic stands, and runs his hand through her hair. “I spoke to him.”

“What did… What did you say?”

Vic’s eyes darken. “Lot’s of things.”

Cassie swallows. “L-Like?”

Vic smiles and runs his own hand through his hair, breathing in deeply as he finds the words, and then sits back in the red chair by her side. “Horrible, evil little things. Truths. Answers. But… A quote for one. A quote from one of my favourite books.” He smiles slightly, a familiar memory twanging in the back of his head.

“‘But I don’t want to go among the mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re al mad here. I’m mad you’re mad’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”

He smiles as she looks at him, and then he grabs his coat. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got to get to Gateway within a few days, and then I’m onward to Las Vegas. It seems that place is always out of my reach, you know?” He laughs. “Oh, I got you a present.” He hands her the small envelope, and then nods knowingly. “Open it when I’m gone. And be safe, miss.”

“T-Thank you.” He nods and tilts his fedora over his eyes, and then vanishes into the corridor a mere moment before Detective Smith enters the private ward.

“He’s gone.”

“Who’s gone?” Smith turns, his hand on his weapon holster. “You mean… The vigilante?!”

“A saviour.” She opens the envelope and her eyes open wide as tears begin to form. “A saviour.”

[starlord]

The End?

[mockingbird]

To let us know what you think of this issue, please visit the letters page here!