Nightmares - Short and Sweet before you Sleep Read online

from the handcuffs that held her hostage to the chair.

  “Do we have an interview room available?” James asked still racking his mind as to what he was actually doing.

  “Nope, as I said this was the only spot we had left for her,” the clerk replied. Prompting James to think a little more about what he was doing, was he really going to interfere with the ongoing fraud investigation case? Did he really want to speak to the red head who looked so innocent there looking at him?

  “I will take her to the homicide office and speak to her there,” James said without fully comprehending what he was saying, however somehow coming to the decision that he was going to speak to the young lady.

  He walked over to where she sat,

  “I am Detective James Kirby,” he said as he unlocked the handcuffs, Sadie smiled, rubbing her wrists where the handcuffs had been attached.

  “I know,” she said with a smile.

  “Could you please follow me?” he asked before leading her into the homicide room where he sat her on the opposite side of his work station, while protocol says all suspects are meant to be handcuffed he looked at the young woman and determined she was no real threat, and he backed himself to be faster than her if she attempted to make a run for it – which really would be a silly thing considering she was in a police station.

  Sadie sat there just staring at James as he sat on his side of the desk, a finger from each hand combined like a triangle under his chin as he contemplated first of all what exactly he was doing, and secondly how he was going to ask the questions.

  “She spoke to me,” Sadie said in the squeaky voice that had startled James earlier in the day outside PJs Fast Food.

  The sudden noise that pierced through the silence they were both sitting in startled James and prompted him into action.

  “Who did?” James replied exquisitely.

  “Cindy, she has speaking to me all day,” Sadie replied, this was an answer James wasn’t expecting. This is what you get, he thought to himself referring to the fact that he had gone out on a limb thinking this young person could help with the case and she turns out to be either a drug addict who is high on something, a complete nut case or even worse both.

  “Okay I think we are done here,” James said as he stood up convinced that this was a bad idea, and the interview wasn’t going to go anywhere.

  “You’re investigating the serial killer aren’t you?” Sadie asked, James made the conscious decision to ignore the question and continue on his way around the work station ready to return Sadie to her chair in the lobby where she could await the investigators to speak to her about her fraud issues.

  “I know about the missing teeth,” Sadie said desperate to get James to listen to her. The missing teeth was something that he and Lily had kept from the media. They had made every excuse under the sun to not give those specific details out, and to cover for the fact that they hadn’t yet identified the victims of the serial killer.

  “How do you know about that?” James asked stopping in his tracks and sitting on the edge of his computer desk on the same side that Sadie was sitting on.

  “She told me,” Sadie replied, once again James was confused and wasn’t sure what to believe of what to do next.

  “He takes them to ensure that you can’t identify the victims, and by the time you do they are long off the news headlines and he has long disposed of the other body parts,” Sadie continued.

  “Who is he?” James asked. Sadie sat there as though thinking for a minute, she started nodding and then opened her mouth.

  “I don’t know, and Cindy doesn’t know who he was, he just attacked her in the park before dragging her to the alley-way.” Cindy answered James’ question and provided some vivid details of the assault on Cindy Barnsworth.

  “Hang on a second, are you telling me that you are talking to Cindy?” a voice from behind James asked, Sadie looked over James’ shoulder, while James was reluctant to turn around, he had heard that voice before and he knew exactly who it belonged to but he had no choice and turned around to see his partner Lily walking back in.

  Lily had walked all the way to her car before realizing something wasn’t right with James and returned to the station where the desk clerk had told her of him taking the young woman upstairs to the homicide division headquarters.

  She had been standing outside the main doors the entire time and had heard everything to date but she had heard enough and had to but in before the young red head completely sucked her partner into whatever trap she was attempting to set.

  “To be honest with you yes,” Sadie replied, James dropped his head in his hands knowing exactly where this was heading.

  “I now see why you have been arrested for fraud,” Lily said as she picked Sadie up from where she was standing and placing her handcuffs around the red heads wrists, giving them an extra click on the locking mechanism just for extra measure.

  “Wait,” James said holding his hand out to stop Lily from walking Sadie out of the office, he knew that he was going to come to regret it at a later stage, but he wanted to hear more, and the only way he was going to do that was to come clean.

  “Remember this morning when I got the idea of going back to the crime scene?” James asked before continuing without waiting for an answer.

  “I was outside PJs and this young woman came to me and told me to check the park before disappearing, that is why we went back there and that is where we found our evidence.” James attempted to explain.

  “Really?” Lily asked interested, James was excited that Lily was actually open to this and he nodded in agreement that what he had said was the truth.

  “Well in that case Sadie Williams I am placing you under arrest for suspicion of the murder of Cindy Barnsworth and six others, you have the right to remain silent…” Lily said with a smile on her face as she continued to read Sadie her rights, both James and Sadie tried to protest by Lily wasn’t letting anything stop her as she marched Sadie out of the room and back down to the front lobby where upon explaining the situation she was told an interview room was available, she marched Sadie straight to the available room.

  The room was dimly lit with just a small window covered in bars, a table with three chairs – two on one side of the table and one on the other – on the side in which there was only one chair there were bolts in the ground for the dangerous criminals to be shackled to during the interview process.

  On the far wall a two way mirror, where no doubt the supervisor would sit on the other side to listen in to this interview, the room really was something you’d expect to see on the Law and Order television show.

  “So talk,” Detective Lily Hammond said after placing Sadie into the shackle restraints, this was what anyone arrested for murder would face, but James was against this act, looking at Sadie he thought there was no way that she could carry out the acts his partner had just arrested her for.

  “I… I… I don’t know what you want me to say,” the suspect Sadie Williams said, obviously nervous and not what she expected when she was originally brought in for fraud.

  “How about you tell us everything you know,” Lily replied sharply.

  “Well I know I was arrested for fraud because I am a psychic medium and people don’t believe in what I do.” Sadie began to explain.

  “You can say that again, so what you’re telling us is that you rip people off to feed them bullshit about dead people?” Lily who was obviously not a believer said straight away.

  “You know that’s not what we are talking about, tell us what you know about the murders,” Lily said this time being more specific about what she wanted to hear.

  “I don’t know anything, all I know is about six this morning I was contacted in my sleep from someone I had never met before,” Sadie began to explain.

  “She told me that she had been murdered, she gave me a description of the person who did it and that was it,”

  “That was until later in the day where she told me I had to approa
ch the man smoking outside of PJs and tell him to check in the bushes at the park,” Sadie continued, Lily shot an evil glare the way of James, she didn’t know he smoked and now the secret was out.

  The look also doubled as her look of disapproval that James had lied to her about what prompted him to go back to the crime scene. Although she probably wouldn’t have gone back if he had told her the complete story, and that is when it struck her that it was the information from this lady that prompted them to go back and helped them find the purse that identified their victim.

  A change of tactic was needed, Lily knew this and so she changed her direct approach towards Sadie.

  “You said that she gave you a description are you able to repeat this description to us?” Lily asked.

  “I can do better, if you accompany me home I drew it as she gave it to me, she told me what to change as I was drawing it and then told me when it was ‘perfect’.” Sadie said encouraged by the turn of events.

  “Well that solves it then, let’s go,” Lily said as she unshackled Sadie and led her and James towards the car in the police parking lot. Helping Sadie into the back before shackling her in to avoid any chance the young red head had of jumping out the car during the journey.

  The trio were almost at Sadie’s residence when she broke the awkward silence and glares that were being passed between the two detectives.

  “She came to me because she believes,” Sadie said.

  “Who came, and believes in what?” Lily shot back at the silence breaking remark.

  “Cindy came to me because she believes in spirits, she believes that those who have passed have the ability to communicate with us in the living realm, she had read about me on the internet and knew that if anyone was going to believe the story that was to be told that it had to come from me,” Sadie elaborated, passing on information she had received from Cindy Barnsworth.

  Lily rolled into an available car park located near the front of Sadie’s building before putting the car into park and the two detectives exited the vehicle, before James reached in and helped unshackle and unbuckle Sadie.

  He helped her from the car and they headed towards the apartment building, strolling through the lobby of her apartment some of Sadies’ neighbours glanced at their apartment building neighbour who was handcuffed and leading police detectives to her unit on the third floor.

  They entered the apartment building and Sadie directed the detectives towards her work desk, there were a number of books on Psychics sprawled across the desk, Detective Hammond just looked and rolled her eyes as she moved them aside and then she stopped, as if frozen in time, her face one of shock, and terror. She had found the drawing.

  “Is this some sort of sick joke?” she almost screamed at the suspect.

  “No that’s the face Cindy had me draw,” Sadie replied confused as to what was happening.

  “What’s going on Lil?” James asked his partner who was still frozen in time, she had picked up the paper and was looking at it as though looking the suspect in the eyes.

  She either ignored his question or didn’t register that he had asked one as she continued to stare at the picture that was hand drawn in front of her.

  “Detective Hammond!” James said with a little more authority in his voice, breaking his partner out of her frozen stance.

  “Is this the man Cindy had you draw?” Lily asked the apparent psychic, who had a worried look on her face, not knowing what was going on.

  “Yes,” she simply replied.

  Lily immediately retrieved the two-way radio from her back pocket and radioed in for the Armed Defenders Squad to meet her at an address, she folded up the piece of paper and placed it into her pocket before heading to the door.

  “Stay here,” James instructed Sadie, who smiled and nodded, before he jogged to catch up to his partner who had already made her way out of the apartment and was making her way down the stairs.

  “Lily… Lily” he called but she wouldn’t reply. They reached the car and immediately entered, firing it to life before pulling out from the car park with a squeal of the tyres.

  It took just a matter of minutes before they were pulling up to the address Lily had radioed through to the Armed Defenders Squad moments earlier, she jumped from the vehicle, James copied, and grabbed her gun cocking it as she did.

  In situations like this the Armed Defenders Squad would enter the location first, and either clear or apprehend the suspect with the detectives following immediately behind to place the suspect under arrest and to read them their rights.

  With a loud bang the front door to the property burst open, one of the members of the Armed Defenders Squad threw in a flash-bang canister which burst to life with a bright flash accompanied by a deafening bang before the room quickly filled with smoke, this is designed to distract any occupants in the house while the squad entered the property with their guns locked and loaded.

  In teams of two they members of the Armed Defenders Squad raced from room to room clearing it, the suspect they were after to this point was nowhere to be seen, they continued their duties of clearing the house.

  A team of four broke away and climbed the stairs to clear the rooms that were situated in the upper section of the house, while the remaining four continued on the bottom level of the property clearing room by room.

  Lily stood outside, her gun drawn and looking more agitated the longer the raid went on, she knew that this was protocol but being outside while everything was happening inside wasn’t helping her mind set.

  “Lily what’s going on,” James asked his partner, sensing her tension rising he wanted to try and find out what had freaked her out at the house of the little red head who had earlier in the day tipped him off to the location of their first piece of evidence.

  Before Lily had the opportunity to answer they heard yelling from inside the property, immediately Lily looked on edge knowing that the all clear to enter the house wouldn’t be too far away.

  “Get down,” they could hear one of the Armed Defenders Squad call out, they had obviously found someone in the house and they were yelling at them to get down. They repeated this request a number of times, Lily closed her eyes and it looked as though she was praying.

  “All Clear” the call that Lily and James had been waiting for finally came, letting them know that either the house was cleared or they had the suspect in custody, Lily burst through the now busted open door and found her way to where all eight of the Armed Defenders Squad members were standing, on the ground with cable ties restraining his hands Lily came face-to-face with the serial killer they had been hunting.

  The Armed Defenders Squad team leader sat the suspect up, making him sit on his own legs to remove the danger of his attempting to run, the suspect rose his head and not for the first time looked eye to eye with Detective Lily Hammond.

  “Oh Simon,” Lily said, a look of anguish crossing her face.

  “Lily what’s going on?” James asked when he finally caught up to his partner.

  “This James is Simon Cooke, my former partner in the homicide division,” Lily said the look of disappointment obvious on her face which was slowly turning red either through embarrassment or anger.

  James began to read Simon his rights, but was cut off by Lily who took over the reading of the rights, the entire time unable to look at the man who had been her partner for the previous eighteen years before recently retiring.

  Throughout the entire routine Simon continued to talk, he spoke about spending so long seeing mongrels doing this type of thing that it made him so angry and he wanted his revenge, his story soon changed to be that he thought he could get away with it after having so much experience in the homicide division.

  “Would you just shut up and exercise your right to remain silent,” Lily snapped at her former partner after she finished reading his rights to him.

  Simon sat with his head bowed, James went to speak to Lily to try and make sense of everything that had happened while uniform
ed officers began searching the house for evidence to ensure a conviction in court.

  “Don’t move,” James and Lily heard before a gunshot rang out. They raced back into the room that Simon and members of the Armed Defenders Squad were previously in, Simon lay the floor on his back with a gunshot wound to his chest.

  Immediately Lily dropped to her knees and applied pressure to the wound, reaching into her other pocket and calling an ambulance to the location.

  It wasn’t long before paramedics were entering the property and placing Simon onto a stretcher, he was semi-conscious and all he could do was softly apologize to Lily. She had been told that while her and James were out of the room Simon had somehow escaped his zip-ties that had bound his hands together and rushed towards an Armed Defenders Squad member grabbing for his gun, in self-defence they were forced to shoot.

  “I need to go with him,” Lily said to her partner as Simon was loaded on board the waiting ambulance.

  “Are you sure?” James asked, worried about his partner and her state of mind.

  “Just pop around to my apartment later and we will debrief,” Lily replied as she climbed aboard the ambulance, the paramedics closed the back doors to the ambulance and it pulled away from the house.

  James remained at the house to catalogue the evidence he and the uniformed officers were able to find, ensuring that the chain of evidence remained intact.

  James walked into the shed located in the back yard and found a freezer that was bolted closed, he immediately had a suspicion of what he may find in there and he really didn’t want to open it but it was his job.

  James looked around and found bolt cutters that he used to cut the bolt keeping the freezer closed off, he called for the photographer to come and take photos to document any findings.

  Eerily James reached out his hands to be on top of the freezer and pulled it open, he jumped back in horror at what met him. Located inside the freezer, all in their own bags were human heads, human arms and teeth kept in separate ice trays.

  The medical examiner was called to the scene, and after what felt like an eternity finally arrived and slowly opened each bag, where under quick review he was able to link to each of the bodies that lay in the morgue.

  James attempted to look at the positive side of things, by finally having faces they would be able to look through the missing person’s database or create computer generated images to release to the media and hopefully find the families of these women who had been killed.

  As the Medical Examiner determined which human arms belonged to which head, and thus what body at the morgue, James couldn’t help but notice some distinguished tan lines on the bodies.

  One, in the place that a ring went had a tan line of the ring, it had a love heart shape, while another had a butterfly type of look to its tan line.

  Before he knew it a few hours had passed, the