When I rolled up to the property, I could already see the door was propped open and several officers stood outside the door in a tight circle, one of them making exaggerated gestures with his hands before pausing and causing the others to erupt in a fit of laughter. I shifted my focus to the driveway, a single car was there, its windows smashed.
I parked my car and headed to the end of the driveway where an officer stood, his arms folded, I could tell right away he was a rookie, his hard expression and the way he puffed his chest out told me he took his job much too seriously. He looked over at me and I cleared my throat, covering my mouth with my hand to conceal my smirk.
“Murphy,” I said, holding out my badge.
He looked hard, studying the image on my card before looking closely at my face. Seeming to be satisfied he lifted the tape and nodded his head letting me onto the scene, the guy who had been shooting the shit at the door caught my eye and nodded,
“Got a strange one for you Murph,”
It wasn’t the first time I had heard that line before, still this guy looked seasoned so it piqued my curiosity.
“Got a messy one, do we?” I asked as I worked my way up the steps.
“No, nothing like that it was … well, just let me show you.” He replied before disappearing into the house.
This can’t be good.
I followed behind him but as soon as I stepped through the door frame I stopped at once and was hit by the smell. Now I know what you’re thinking, and no this wasn’t the smell of something rotting. In my line of work that’s just the cost of doing the job. No this was something… different. It was vile, a pungent somewhat earthy smell but much worse. I immediately wretched and put my shirt over my nose.
“Terrible, isn’t it” the guy I’d seen earlier had come back. I tried to regain my composure but this smell wasn’t the kinda thing you ignored. It was more like the kind of thing that shoves itself up your nose and makes itself at home at your expense. He handed me a mask, one of those cloth ones that were everywhere in 2020. The kind that held onto your breath and made your face sweat but not much else. He must have sensed my confusion cause he smiled and nodded his head “it’s got peppermint oil,” he said. “The corner got me on it.”
I was still skeptical but I figured anything was better than the assault on my nose that was whatever awaited me in the other room. I slipped the mask over and immediately the scent was gone, replaced by what smelled like mouth wash.
“Better?” he asked,
I nodded my head and we quickly headed down the hallway toward an open doorway. I followed him inside, and there on the bed was a woman not more than 20 years old. She was entirely unremarkable as far as bodies go, except for how she had been bound. Her hands and legs had been bound behind her by some kind of thick brown rope, while another had been shoved in her mouth and yet another had been wrapped around her nose and eyes.
“Ever seen anything like this before?” he asked,
“Someone tied up?” I asked
He’d told me this was unusual, and I guess a small town like Angus doesn’t see a lot of crime but he had to be at least 40, there is no way he made it this far as a beat copy without encountering something at least once.
“Take a closer look,” he said.
“Closer?”
“At the bindings.”
Ok, now I’m worried
I took a couple more steps into the room and knelt down beside her, the first thing I noticed was the smell. Even through the mask it tore into my senses. I swallowed hard, suppressing the need to vomit and looked closely at the bindings. They were fabric, some kind of shirt maybe? No, it hit me … socks, not brown but white socks so caked in soil they were almost black, and they were moving, crawling with hundreds of maggots. I gagged and tore myself away from the body rushing out the door and back outside into the merciful fresh air. I tore my mask off and wretched into the grass.
“You ok, Murph?” I held up my hand, still knelt over and breathed heavily, my eyes closed.
“I’m fine,” I said. I stood up and looked back at him, his mouth expression somewhere between concern and amusement.
“What the fuck was that?” I yelled,
That’s what we’re trying to figure out. That’s not the only mystery either. Look in the car.
Do I have to?
I slowly walked over to the car but before I could get within 5 feet of it, the same smell hit my senses. I peered in the window, and there in the seat another sock, this one bulged in the end, presumably from a rock or some other heavy object the killer had used to smash the window.
“Any idea who did this? Or why?”
“There was one more thing that you should see,” he said.
“Let me guess, another sock?” I rolled my eyes.
He laughed, “No, nothing like that Murph, have a look at this.”, handing me a small evidence bag with a note inside.
“You took my life, job, my dignity, and the very cloths from my back leaving me nothing but the socks on my feet. Let me return the favour bitch – T.G”
I’d seen notes before, but nothing quite like this, it was angry, passionate.
“Angry Ex?” I asked,
“That was my first thought too. Problem is she’s a widow. Husband died last year. Terminal cancer.”
“Poor woman.” I said, looking at it closely, “Where did you find it?”
“Mailbox,” he replied.
“Prints?”
“Clean as a whistle.”
I flipped the note around, it has been written on an old dry cleaning receipt, the date June 1st 4 days ago.
“You see this?” I said, holding the bag up to him,
“Yeah,” he replied, “you’d think a guy who did his dry cleaning would have clean socks” he shrugged.
I rolled my eyes, that was weak, even for this job.
“I’ll run this down” I said, pulling out my phone and snapping a photo before handing him the bag and heading back to my car.
The placed was still open when I arrived, and I swung open the door. Behind the counter was an older woman, probably pushing 60. she wore a beater with an apron over it and an expression that said I had no business there.
“can I help you?” she asked, eyeing me up and down.
I dug for my badge, “Look hun, cut the formalities, I can see the uniform. What do you want?”
Fair enough.
“You keep a record of your customers?” I asked.
She smirked and put a hand on her hip, “Does it look like the kind of place that keeps records?”
I looked around, the joint looked like it forgot what decade it was in. yellowing wallpaper with floral patterns barely clung to the dusty walls. On the counter a till old enough to vote sat on the desk.
I guess I’ll take a different approach.
“Do you remember a customer that came in 4 days ago, here is the receipt.” I said holding out my phone for her to look. She didn’t budge, just stared me in the eye.
“Look hun, I don’t know what you’re looking into I just work here alright, now if you’ll excuse me I got shit to do.”
and with that she disappeared into the back.
Real charmer that one.
I headed back to my car and turned the key halfway in the ignition before something caught my attention in the rear view. The woman had made her way out the back and was hastily throwing bags in her car.
Shit to do huh?
I slunk down in my seat as she sped past me and watched her pull onto the street before turning the key the rest of the way, the engine springing to life.
I took off behind her, keeping some space so as not to give myself away, turned down a dead end street into an old abandoned factory, its parking lot turned into a tent city of sorts. I’d been there numerous times, vagrancy, fights, fires the list goes on.
She pulled into the parking lot and unloaded the bag from her trunk. and disappearing among the tents.
shit
I pulled out my radio and called into dispatch
“I’m in foot pursuit of a Caucasian female, late 50s, heavy set. Just entered the old Mill Creek factory off Belmont requesting backup.”
I didn’t wait for that response, knew dispatch would tell me to hold my position. I grabbed my service pistol from the glove box and loaded it before flicking off the safety. and made my way into the parking lot holding the gun out in front of me.
I knelt low between rows of tents looking for any sign of her, several of the residents giving me dirty looks as I went, one of them, a scruff many probably 40 years of age went so far as to spit at me “fucking Pig” he cursed.
I made my way deeper and out the corner of my eye saw movement, her, disappearing into a doorway into the factory.
I paused, staring at the building, its windows shattered revealing pitch blackness within. If I went in there, dispatch was going to ring my neck for sure.
What choice do I have, by the time backup shows up she’ll be gone.
I jogged to the entrance and pulled out my flashlight holding it next to my gun shining it into the room. A scurry caught my attention and I whipped the flashlight over to see a rat scurrying into the darkness. letting out a sigh I brought the beam back up, and there she was, her expression cold, empty. I screamed but before the sound could leave my lips she stuffed my mouth with a sock.
The taste was putrid and I immediately vomited which only served to saturate the sock and rinse it’s putrid cocktail of dirt and oils into my throat causing me to choke.
“Stupid girl, couldn’t leave well enough alone,” she said in a cold voice
I tried to aim my gun but she grabbed it out of my hand with alarming speed, “You think that’s the first time I’ve been on the business end of one of those” and she whipped me across the head with it knocking me to the ground, stars filling my vision.
“and now you’ll end up just like the other one.”
I screamed through the sock as hard as I could to try to regain my footing but she pressed the barrel of the gun to my temple.
“Now, now, don’t you fucking move.”
“I’ve been dealing with this lot for years now, bringing them unclaimed clothes, cleaning up their laundry. Then one day, don’t find my son had moved here.” she stood up, gun still trained on me grabbing a sock from the bag. “Put your hands behind your back” she said waving the gun, I complied and she bound them with practised efficiency.
“Turns out that good for nothing wife of his had divorced him, taken him to court for alimony and then called up his school and told him he’d been doing drugs. Turns out the administration didn’t look too hard into those kinds of things, and told me they have an ‘image’ to uphold. Bastards.”
She grabbed another sock and pulled it tight around my feet.
“So, I decided to pay her a little visit, figured maybe she’d hear sense if it came from her mother in law. Well doesn’t she slam the door in my face. and after all I had done for her. Still had the ring on her finger too, the one I had helped Jason buy her.”
she knelt down, running the gun over my cheek, “so I came here and collected the laundry like I always did but this time I decided I’d show her up close what she’d done to my boy.” she smiled, “I put the rock through her car window first, and she came to investigate … well you saw what happened. bitch just kept screaming till I choked her out, and now you’re going to join her.”
I screamed through my gag as hard as I could, eyes wide, she came back and covered my eyes.
Please god, I know I’ve fucked up and literally never prayed before but if you could just spare me this one time I swear I’ll go to chu…
A loud bang echoed through the facility
“DON’T MO…”
Gun shots rang out, then silence.
I sat there, crying, my ears ringing so loud I could swear I could hear echos.
“Murph? You ok” a hand grabbed at the blindfold, and I jerked away instinctively but as it was removed I could see his face, Carl my partner.
“MMM” I yelled and he ripped out the gag in my mouth I wretched right there on the floor before looking up at him
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
Thank you.
“You need an ambulance?”
“No, just get these off of me”
Carl undid the bindings, and helped me to my feet, “You sure you’re ok?”
“Look, I’m fine just… process the scene.”
Look buddy, I know you just saved me an all but I wasn’t serious about the church thing
A crack of thunder reverberated from outside and the sound of rain pounded against the roof.
“Alright. Alright, how about the soup kitchen instead?” I yelled.
“What’s that murph?” Carl asked.
“Nothing. Just process the scene.”
I walked over to the bag of clothes she’d left there and picked them up, tossing them in my car and heading back to the cleaners.
For Jason.
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