Nightmares - Short and Sweet before you Sleep Page 11

hour of pain-stakingly looking at every inch of the crime scene there was no evidence left behind, just a lot of blood and a gruesome sight that the Medical Examiner was finishing up their duties in removing the body, no doubt to be autopsied and then placed in the freezer next to the other six victims.

  “Come on partner lets hit PJ’s,” Lily said.

  Considering that neither James or Lily were drinkers they had developed a routine of heading to the local fast food outlet PJs where they would get the Big Breakfast that is served all day every day, and talk about the case in an attempt to see if bouncing ideas off each other would get them somewhere – although neither admitted it they knew they had nothing and the longer they took to make a breakthrough the more their killer would strike, and both were sick of turning up to crime scenes as gruesome as the one that had greeted them that morning.

  Even though PJs fast food place was on the other side of town they made the journey, they had gone there every day for the past few months ever since James had been promoted into the Homicide Division and it had become a good ritual for them.

  The plate was sat in front of the two detectives and Lily immediately started to tuck into her big breakfast, for James however it wasn’t as easy to eat this morning as it had been other mornings.

  Using his fork he pushed the burned piece of bacon that topped his eggs and sausages around the plate, feeling as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders, Lily could tell something was bugging her much younger partner who usually had a big appetite and could eat the Big Breakfast and half an hour later be hungry again.

  “What’s up partner?” she enquired as she picked up the salt and pepper shakers sitting on the table between them and shaking them over the top of her meal, probably more than her doctor would recommend but it added the extra flavour she hungered for.

  “We are no closer to catching him,” a dejected James responded, the excitement of the job promotion had long left him, and although they had had previous cases in which were straight forward and they had solved this was his first big case.

  “Are we making the right decision?” he asked his partner as she shoved another mouthful of the eggs and bacon into her mouth. After what felt an eternity she finally answered the young man.

  “The right decision about what?”

  “Withholding information from the media, I mean they know a lot but we have withheld a lot of information from them in relation to this case, maybe it could help, maybe one of the details that we aren’t telling them could be the key someone out there needs to be able to help us piece this together.” James responded as though pouring his heart out to a church clergyman.

  “I get it James, I really do, and I question that every time a new body winds up on our desk. But we need to have some cards up our sleeves in order to know that when we catch the mongrel that is doing this it is our ammunition, it is our way to know that he is the one that is doing it all, because we have this information and at the moment no one else but him does.” Lily answered her partner, seeing the obvious distress on his face as he placed his knife and fork on top of his untouched food and pushed it away from him.

  The pair sat in silence contemplating the case, the only sound coming from them that of Lily chewing more of her big breakfast and swallowing, James watched intensively. Did she always chew this loudly?

  He had never noticed it before but the more he sat there in silence hearing her chewing and swallowing sounds the more agitated he came at how loud it actually was.

  James stood from his chair across from Lily and dropped a twenty dollar note on the table, enough to cover the pair’s meal and providing a tip to the server as he walked outside. He glanced behind him as he left, back to where Lily continued to devour her meal.

  As he left the front door of PJs he reached into his top pocket and picked out his packet of Bond Street Red cigarettes, he hadn’t smoked before taking up his new job appointment but seeing just how gruesome this town really was he had taken up the bad habit to take some of the edge off.

  He lit the cigarette that hung from his mouth and took his first drag, rolling his head back as if though he had just taken a big toke from a joint, letting the nicotine and all of the other bad chemicals flow down his throat and into his lungs before exhaling.

  “Excuse me sir,” James heard a small squeaky voice come from behind him, he was startled a little as he turned around.

  In front of him stood a petite red headed lady, no taller than five-foot three, with a moon tattoo underneath her left eye.

  “Can I help you?” James said reaching into his pocket expecting to be asked for a cigarette as he normally was whenever he smoked in public.

  “She said to look in the park,” the young lady said before turning and walking away.

  What a whack-job James thought to himself as he watched her slip around the corner of PJs and disappeared. Who said to look in the park? He wondered, and what park is she talking about?

  His eyes grew big, he threw the cigarette to the ground and ran back inside the building where his partner had just finished eating her breakfast.

  “Come on,” he said grabbing her coat for her and more or less grabbing her up from her seat.

  “James where are we going?” Lily asked her all of a sudden excited partner, he was bouncing around like a little puppy waiting for the tennis ball to be thrown for him to chase.

  “We need to go back to the scene from this morning,” James said, he had no idea why he was listening to a random lady from the street, but it was too the point that both he and his partner were out of options and he was willing to try anything to get the breakthrough that the needed in the case.

  “We checked everything out this morning,” Lily started to protest before realizing the eagerness on the face of her partner and coming to the realization that he wasn’t going to back down.

  After all since they had been to the scene earlier in the day James had not been himself, Lily could tell that he was disheartened at yet another death ‘under his watch’ and thought by amusing him and going back to the scene for whatever reasons he had could help bring the spark of eagerness back into his worth ethic.

  Without another word being exchanged she rose from her seat and followed him to the car that was parked just metres from the front door of PJs. After struggling for a second or two the engine roared into life.

  Lily knew it wouldn’t be long before the starter motor completely gave out, yet another case of the budget restrictions the department were facing. After all she had put in numerous requests for the starter motor to be looked at by the in-house mechanics and nothing had been done as their hours were better spent repairing the patrol cars that were essential to crime prevention in the area, if their car broke down it would be either her or James’ car that they would have to use until the department determined that it was worth the time, effort and most importantly funds to fix it.

  James hardly spoke a word as they once again raced across the town to the crime scene they had attended earlier in the day.

  Meanwhile James wasn’t sure why he was actually listening to a complete stranger, someone he had never met, and someone who just simply came up to him off the street and said just one sentence “She said to look in the park”.

  He had no idea what she actually meant but surely it was worth trying. They were almost back at the scene when the thought crossed James’ mind ‘what if I find nothing?’, ‘is this even what she was talking about?’, but it was too late to second guess himself as his partner Lily pulled up at the crime scene and placed the car in park just a short distance from the alley-way they had earlier been called to the dismembered body.

  James stood in the exact place the young ladies body was laying, he knelt down placing one knee on the ground and closing his eyes.

  He really had no idea what he was doing but he wanted answers, this victim and the other six that remained at the morgue deserved answers and that’s when he saw it, in his head a row of bushes.<
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  James opened his eyes, had he just imagined something because he desperately wanted to believe that somewhere lay a piece of evidence that could blow this case wide open.

  He looked around but couldn’t see any sort of bushes, or even a park, it was a total bust. Or so he thought.

  As he rose back to his feet he remembered earlier in the day as they first departed the scene to head to PJs they had driven past a park on the other side of the road, it wasn’t a big part just some swings and coverings for children to play in but it was surrounded by bushes exactly like the ones he had just seen.

  But the thought crept back into his head, what if he had just imagined it, what if subconsciously his mind played the picture of the bushes but instead of it being some sort of sign it was just replaying what it had seen this morning.

  Either way he wasn’t going to leave it to chance and immediately started to walk to the small park about half a block away arriving at the playground in just a few short minutes, his partner Lily Hammond in tow.

  Lily was still confused as to what was happening. James hadn’t said a word since they had left PJs and she was not used to it, partners are meant to talk things over – however it seemed as though James was focused on something and she had decided that she would let him continue for now but would confront him later about keeping her out of the