Chapter 3: The Aftermath

That was something else now ... wasn't it? Jerry's mistress asked as he began to come back to his senses. He quickly pulled himself off of her dead body, and shuddered with terror at what he had just done. He got to his knees, and then stood up. Awe come on Jerry! You should be celebrating, not feeling guilty. She died for a good reason!

"Yeah ... and what good reason is that? So I can go on existing? So I can kill even more people?" he said as he looked down on her. Her body had a shrunken look to it. He had completely drained her of her blood and you could pretty much tell that by looking at her. She had a caved in appearance, and her skin had lost its color.

We're gonna change the world Jerry. I had my doubts about you. That's why I had chosen another prince and turned him already, but I think I was right about turning you. You'll do fine.

"What if I don't want to change the world? What if I don't want to be your ... prince? HUH?"

Your attachment to the way you used to know and do things will change Jerry. Only a matter of time. You'll bring your daughter into our fold and the both of you will run that part of the world. You'll be like a King and Queen over there.

"You're out of your mind! I will never turn Misha. NOT EVER!" he screamed, and he didn't just scream it to her in his head. He screamed it out loud as if he were announcing it to the world. He took a couple of steps back from the stripper's body as if distancing himself from it would distance himself from the deed.

Quit being a pussy Jerry! You and your daughter will make an awesome team, and you can't really turn men. I mean you can, but taking in additional testosterone can drive a man insane. Better if you stick with the ho's and let Misha handle the bro's.

"I think I'm done with you. You fucking bitch! How's that sound? I think I should have just let you kill my sorry ass instead of becoming your ... your fucking puppet. I'm not a fucking puppet. And I'm definitely not gonna be your puppet."

We'll see Jerry. Anyway ... gotta run. Lots of shit to do. Oh ... by the way. Don't worry about cleaning anything up here. Just get dressed and go home.

Jerry hadn't really thought about that part of it. Despite how he was beginning to despise his mistress, and despite what he had done to the girl, he still wasn't feeling guilty enough to let himself get busted and go to prison.

"Yeah but ... what about like I dunno ... DNA?"

Do you really think your DNA is the same as it was Jerry? Not hardly. Even your prints are different enough so that if they were on file they still won't match enough to pull your name up, she said. They'll pull DNA samples all right and they'll have a great time trying to figure out just what the fuck had its dick in that girl. I almost wish I could be in that room when it happens. It would be a friggin' riot Jerry!

Jerry took another good look at the stripper's body. He took a good long look, because he did feel guilty, but at the same time he didn't feel as guilty as he thought he should have. He had drained the life out of the young woman, but he could still feel her with him. She was dead and she had no consciousness, but yet she was still in him somehow. She still existed.

Jerry turned from the corpse, put his clothes back on, and headed over to his car. He didn't look back at the body again. There was no need to. What was done was done. He might as well just move on and go home, and that's exactly what he did.

Jerry was just pulling into his driveway when the first rays of sunlight were coming over the Pennsylvania horizon. The sky was just beginning to lighten and he was glad to be back home. He realized that, despite the fact that he'd slept for two days, he was beginning to get tired again. He got out of his car and headed inside, took a shower, and went for his bedroom. By the time he was about to get into bed the sky was really brightening and the sunlight was actually hurting his eyes even though it wasn't really even that bright.

He decided to go back to the bathroom and grab two of his largest towels to cover the windows. He did just that, laid down, and drifted off to sleep.

"What's so urgent," Detective Burkett asked her partner. He had gotten a phone call while they were on lunch at their usual place and he damned near knocked his drink off the table as he scooted out of the booth.

"That was the captain," Sergeant Decker replied. "I'll fill you in on the way!" He dropped a twenty on the table and bolted for the door. She didn't ask any more questions, because if he was leaving that big of a tip whatever was going on must be a national emergency.

They both got into their unmarked sedan and the Sergeant squealed the tires as Detective Burkett flipped the switch for the lights and siren. "You mind catching me up now?" she asked him.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think we might have caught a break in our favorite case."

"The missing girls?"

"Yeah ... only this one ain't missing. A DNR officer ran across a body at Brody Peak and apparently he threatened to shoot a uni for trying to enter the scene. He wants someone that knows what the fuck time it is to be first on."

"No shit! He actually threatened to shoot a uni?"

"Apparently so," Decker said. "Captain told to break land speed records getting there." Decker was doing just that. Cars were pulling aside, as he sped down Harbrook Lane and he was doing seventy in a twenty-five. Brody peak was ten miles away and he had every intention of being there in fifteen minutes.

"What makes you think it's our favorite case."

"I guess I don't really know that. Just a gut feeling really. I put the next victim on being someone young and hot, because that's what fits the pattern I put together, and by the description of the vic that the cap'n gave me, she fits.

"Wait. You never said nothin' 'bout no pattern."

"Just came up with it the other day and we haven't really talked about that case lately. Been what? Three weeks, since the last one's gone missing? But yeah. Just the beginning of a theory really. We both agree that all the missing girls are linked despite the fact that all the girls are different right?"

"Yeah. We agree. This is a small town Brick. That many girls coming up gone don't make sense unless it's the same guy taking them."

"But the Cap disagrees because all the girls are different and he thinks that if it was the same guy that the guy would have a type. But what if it ain't just one guy ya see. What if it's a group of 'em, and they're experimenting around. Seeing what they like and don't like."

"I don't know Brick. I mean I guess it's possible," she said. "But don't you think a group of guys would even have a type? I mean one of them was fifty, two of them were black, two were under age, and so on. Whoever it is ... They're all over the place. I don't see a pattern."

"First girl was twenty three and blonde. Second girl was thirty six and brunette. Third girl was fourteen and had red hair. Fourth girl was nineteen and black, fifth girl was fifty-one but she had a full head of grey hair, sixth ... oriental and fourteen again. Seventh ... back to blonde and mid-twenties, eighth ... brunette. Ninth ... red hair. Tenth ... another black girl. Eleventh ... not natural grey hair, but a girl that had died her hair a shiny silver color just before she disappeared. Twelfth ... another oriental. And guess what color hair this one has."

"Blonde?"

"You got it. I don't know how we missed it. I think the feds might have caught it, but so far no bodies, and no real evidence, so no FBI. I mean shit ... we can't even prove that they didn't just run away. Half the girls spent most of the time fucked up on one drug or the other. That's the only pattern we've seen is that none of the girls seemed to have a real happy home life."

"You might want to slow down here Brick. The roads up ahead twist and turn like a mother," Burkett said.

"You been to Brody Peak?"

Burkett smiled at him. "Hell yeah. Busted my cherry up there. I still bring a guy there now and then to relive the experience."

"God Burk. You really are a slut ya know. And my wife see's it too. You're a little too obvious about that shit. She hates that you're my partner."

Burkett laughed. "I don't blame her. I'd let you fuck me if you wanted. And that's a compliment because I don't usually bang other cops. That shit gets too messy, but I'd do ya if you wanted. Mostly cuz I think you're wife's a bitch. No offense, but she kinda is."

"What? You don't think I know that? But to be honest it's one of the reasons I love her. I don't put up with too much of her shit so she don't give it to me," he laughed. "She saves it for everyone else though. I see that much. Especially you. She loves giving you shit."

"Holy fuck!" Burkett said. "What the fuck the Cap do? Call everyone in the damn county up here? Shit! We're gonna have to walk a half-mile to get to the Peak!"

There were cars lined up all the way to where the access road to Brody's peak cut into highway 55 which cut around to a low point in the mountain that it sat on. They parked their car on the side of 55 and headed up. All of the cars on the access road were empty which meant that everyone that had come up was already on the scene.

They made their way up and saw that the captain's car was even in the mix along with the coroner, some marked cars, and forensics. At least they'd have everything they needed to start putting pieces together when they got up there.

They were both a little surprised that the captain hadn't pushed his way onto the scene when they did finally get to where everybody was standing. The captain was leaning against the DNR truck that was parked at an angle to block anyone from getting in and he was talking to the officer that was sitting in it.

"Bout time you two showed up. Crowd's getting a little restless waiting. I thought this man was really gonna have to start shooting people to keep them from tracking up the scene."

Brick closed the rest of the gap to the truck, and was aware that, yes everyone was in fact getting impatient, and yes they were looking at him like he was the biggest prick on the planet for not letting them do their jobs. The funny thing was that he wasn't the one preventing them from going in. It wasn't his idea, but that didn't mean that he thought it was a bad idea.

"He wouldn't even let forensics' in? Their trained well enough to not fuck things up."

"His niece was one of the girls that came up missing Brick. He thinks this girl is related to the disappearances."

Brick and Burkett shared a quick and knowing glance with each other. "Oh ... Sorry for your loss, but to be honest I could almost kiss you for not letting anyone in."

The officer got out of his truck and gave him a serious look. Shook his hand and then looked at his partner. "If you try to kiss me your lips will butt into the butt of my rifle. She can though. She can kiss me all she wants," he said with a smile.

"If the Cap wasn't here with all his friends I might do more than that," she said back. The DNR officer looked at the Captain. "She serious?" he asked.

"She's got a mouth on her," he said. "That's for sure. Been trying to get her to clamp it shut for years."

"What?" Burkett said looking at him. "I think he did the right thing," she said and started to make her way around the truck right behind Brick.

Brick took about ten steps into the small parking lot, and then held his hands out, stopping the group that was following close behind him. He could see where the truck that the DNR officer was blocking the entrance with had stopped and then backed back up at an angle. He took his foot and drug a line at the edge and then waived for the forensics team to come to him.

"Start right here. I want every set of tire tracks from here in documented. The rest of you! Stay behind the forensics team! If I see anybody walk past them I'll shoot you myself! Accept you Cap and you officer..."

"Miles. Just call me Miles."

"Okay Miles. You two can follow us, but watch every step you take. Don't walk on anything that could possibly be evidence. Not a footprint, not a tire track ... nothing, got it?"

Both the captain and the officer nodded. Brick and Burkett started heading toward the body that they could clearly see lying about twenty yards ahead. She was just on the other side of the railroad ties that had been placed on the outskirts of the parking lot which separated the lot from the little open area beyond.

The forensics team immediately started their work. They began by snapping photos with their digital 3d cameras which saved them from having to take casts of any tracks they wanted. The cameras were like three different cameras in one that took snapshots of the same thing from three different angles so that a computer back at the lab could reconstruct a three dimensional image of whatever they snapped a photo of.

The four of them carefully made their way to the body and Brick stopped the Burkett, the captain and the DNR officer at the railroad ties.

"Why do you think they left this one for us to find?" the officer asked.

Brick was surveying the ground on the other side of the ties. He didn't walk more than a few steps into the area because he didn't want to disturb anything anymore than he wanted anyone else to. He couldn't believe their luck. There wasn't any grass around and the dirt had a thin layer of sand on top of it. He studied the ground and within a few minutes he thought he had a pretty good answer for the officer's question.

"I don't think they mean to," he said. "Someone interrupted them."