Back to Reality
The rest of the weekend was very relaxing for Kevin. He tried his hardest not to think about the case he had been working on and despite having to sleep on the floor and the couch; he had the best night’s sleep he had in weeks. Sunday morning as the boys were getting ready to go to church, something they all had to do as long as they stayed under his mother’s roof; Jackie Richardson took her youngest son aside and talked to him in length about what had happened the day before.
She was sweet, yet stern as she warned Nick of the dangers of talking to people he didn’t know and reminded him again of his father’s death and how it resulted purely because he had talked to a stranger. Kevin of course had to bite his tongue during that lecture, wanting to interject that their father’s death had nothing to do with strangers, but it seemed to make an impact on the baby of the family so in the end, even though it was a lie, it worked.
By the afternoon, things were back to normal, Nick running around acting like his goofy self; Brian and AJ fighting over the stupidest things, while mom sat rolling her eyes as she knitted her never ending scarf and Kevin ready to venture back to his own apartment.
“Here bring these back to your place with you,” His mom said hugging him and handing him leftovers from dinner the night before.
“Thanks mom.”
“No problem honey and if you have an insect problem just come back.” She grabbed his cheeks and kissed him on the lips the way she always did when he was leaving.
“I love you baby.”
“Love you too!”
Brian had to bring Kevin home since his car was now being fixed in the shop. Of course his little brother loved this, having to be the chaperone.
“Okay Kev, whenever you’re ready man…let’s go I’ve got things to do…” Kevin rolled his eyes at Brian who couldn’t help but snicker.
“Can I come too?” Nicky asked Brian as he put on his jacket. “I promise I’ll be really good.”
“Not this time squirt, you need to go get ready for bed!” Brian said lovingly patting Nicky’s bottom.
“Mommy, can I go with Brian and Kevin?” He said totally ignoring what his older brother just told him.
“You heard Brian no, now come here I need my Nicky time.”
“Kay but I’m going to go wave to them though.”
“Okay then come here.”
As they drove away Kevin saw Nick jumping up and down on the porch waving at them and he couldn’t help but smile. He loved his family, he was lucky because a lot of families hated each other. Most of the time the people he dealt with, especially in this job were people who if given the opportunity would kill each other, siblings never talking to one another unless something terrible happened, estranged fathers and mothers, seeing their kids for the first time in years in a morgue.
He was lucky he got along so well with his family.
Once they got to the apartment complex Kevin turned to Brian and smiled.
“Thanks for the ride Brian.”
“No problem, I mean how many times did you get stuck carting my ass all over town?”
“Too many…want to come in?”
Brian thought about it for a minute… “Is your girlfriend in town?”
“Nope she’s still away.”
“Then I’ll pass.” Kevin grabbed his brother in a head lock as Brian laughed.
“Fine…have a safe drive and I’ll talk to you guys soon!”
“Later gater!” Brian said as he drove away leaving Kevin at his doorstep.
He opened the door and tried clicking on the light, quickly throwing his bag down. That’s when he remembered throwing the lamp across the room. He never bothered to clean it up.
“No time like the present I guess,” He said making his way into the kitchen to get his dust pan and broom and put his leftovers in the freezer.
That’s when he noticed he had a few messages waiting for him on his answering machine. He rolled his eyes at himself for forgetting to check before he left for his mom’s.
He walked over and pressed the button for the machine as he began to clean his mess.
The electronic voice which he nicknamed Gerty told him he had four messages.
Message number one Friday 9:14 pm...
Hello Kevin…did you get my package? I knew you’d find it. I’m sure you’d like to know where to look next.
Kevin stopped dead in his tracks, letting the debris from the lamp fall back to the floor as he ran over to the answering machine and replayed the message. After listening to it a second time there was no doubt in his mind it was the same voice. The same one that told him he missed one. He felt goose bumps form on his arms as he took a deep breath and sat in silence just staring at the machine as if it would suddenly spring to life and attack him.
He decided to let the rest of the messages play, just in case.
Message number two Friday 11:35 pm…
Hey sweetie where are you? I’m lying here naked thinking about you and…
Kevin fast forwarded Lisa to move to message number three.
Message number three Saturday 11:37 am…
Now is not the time to screen calls…I have something to tell you…
Once more it was that voice, the same one before. He sounded angry. He didn’t say anything more than that and waited patiently for Kevin to pick up the phone. When it never happened he just hung up.
“He called me twice.” Kevin said to the empty room, unbelieving anything like this would ever happen.
Message number four Saturday 10:02 pm…
I don’t like being ignored…So I left you a present…
Quickly Kevin’s eyes darted around the room, trying to find something that the guy had left for him. His eyes widened when he saw someone sitting on the couch in the darkness. He leapt up from where he was sitting and put on a light. On the couch was a white sheet stained with what looked like blood. Under that sheet, the silhouette of a person.
Kevin’s hands were shaking as he stood up and walked into the kitchen, his gun hidden under the sink.
He moved into the living room and aimed the gun at the figure sitting on his couch, “Take that sheet off and put your hands in the air!” He shouted, just in case it happened to be Scott Wilson hiding under that sheet.
Just as he thought, there was no movement. He suddenly heard a crash in his bathroom and once again his pulse raced. “If you’re in the bathroom come out with your hands up NOW!” He shouted fiercely walking towards the front door to get a better view of both the bathroom and the couch.
Still there was nothing. He decided to approach the bathroom first, his breathing heavy and shallow as if he climbed a mountain to get there. The door was cracked open so he mentally counted to three before kicking it all the way opened and aiming the gun into the room.
He was greeted with silence. His window open and the steady breeze must have knocked his can of shaving cream off the bathroom sink. He took a deep breath as he once again knew he had something to contend with in the living room.
One thing that always scared Kevin more than anything as a child was ghost stories where the thing was sitting in front of you the entire time. Or something covered under a sheet or in a box, ready to pop out at you any second.
He tried to brace himself for what he knew he was going to find under there, the body of Sheila Tamry. As he edged closer to the sheet, it was unmistakable that the outline was of a small person.
“This is your last warning. Take the sheet off your head and put your hands up!” He said just as he was standing right in front of it now.
Still no answer so Kevin mentally prepared himself for what he was about to see and pulled the sheet off, all the while aiming the gun.
Thirty minutes later, police were swarming the complex, neighbors coming out of their doors looking around trying to figure out what was going on. Kevin sat on a chair in his kitchen, visibly shaken as he told Howie what happened while his own team took pictures and collected evidence in his apartment.
“I can’t believe I was in the apartment for that long without realizing there could have been someone in here.”
“Kevin don’t be so hard on yourself, I mean that’s normal.”
“Yeah, but I just should have realized it you know?”
“Are you okay?” Howie asked placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder as he watched the few detectives who were gathered around the inflatable blow up doll that was on his couch.
Kevin was relieved when he pulled back the sheet only to see that there was no body under there but the doll with a note sticking out of its mouth. He called the office and told them to get down there ASAP before putting on a pair of rubber gloves and taking the note out to examine what it said.
Kevin,
Fooled ya!
Next time you leave me waiting; there will be a real body!
It was no longer addressed to Detective Richardson but now to Kevin as if they were close personal friends. At the end of the note there was a map from his apartment to a starred location.
It ending with … you’ll find what you’re looking for there!
“No, I’m not okay D…this guy is making this personal and I don’t know why. Good Lord Brian almost came inside with me.” Kevin said once again taking in a deep breath.
“Do you think he knows you?” Tyler another head detective asked, sitting next to Kevin as he continued to survey the place.
“I don’t know…I mean I have stared at this guy for hours… trying to get into his head. I would think if I knew him, he would look familiar.”
“There is no evidence of forced entry Kevin…”
“I know, if there was I would have noticed coming in.”
“I wonder why he chose now to do this.”
“My guess is he got pissed because I didn’t respond to his calls and decided to act out.”
“We are going to take the tape to be analyzed.” Kevin nodded at Tyler as he grabbed the answering machine and placed the entire thing in an evidence bag.
“We’re hoping his fingerprints will show up all over your place.”
“We think he got in through the bedroom window…” One of the team investigators said as they led everyone including Kevin into the bedroom.
“Was your screen always out?” Kevin shook his head.
“Then this is how he did it. He came in this way and from the back no one would have noticed him carrying the doll.”
“None of the neighbors claimed to have seen or heard anything.” Kevin said sounding suddenly as if he aged thirty years.
“Kevin, considering all that just happened, Rob thinks I should take over this case.” Tyler said matter of factly as he scribbled something down on his note pad.
“That’s bullshit!”
“Look buddy, I don’t particularly want this case, but I thought I’d just give you a heads up.”
“I worked too damn hard on this and now I’m not going to run away scared!”
Tyler placed his hand on Kevin’s back, “I know what you mean, but this guy seems to have it out for you.”
“Even more of a reason that I should stay don’t you think?” Tyler shrugged and walked away to continue investigating.
“Kevin…maybe Rob is right…maybe you shouldn’t be a part of this anymore.”
“Don’t you start with me too D! I’m not in the mood!”
“What are you going to do now? You can’t stay here anymore.”
“I don’t know Howie…maybe I’ll stay with you tonight.”
“Good idea…Kevin this is scary.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.”
Kevin watched what was going on around him, in one corner in the bedroom there were two detectives dusting for fingerprints around the window ledge. In the living room there were about five people going over every inch of his place looking for evidence and traces of Scott Wilson. Two other people were moving his couch out of the apartment and bringing it back to the lab to be examined.
“Kevin…” Tyler said walking towards the front door.
“Yeah?”
“The place that was starred on the map…there was a body.”
“Great…” Kevin said pulling on his jacket and following Tyler out the door.
They drove about three miles away from the apartment; up a hill towards a secluded field where in the middle was a sheet, almost identical to the one on Kevin’s couch. There were already five agents at the scene putting yellow tape up and taking pictures.
“It’s Sheila Tamry isn’t it?” He asked the first agent he saw.
Maria nodded, “I’m not one hundred percent sure but it looks a lot like her.”
Kevin, Howie and Tyler made their way down to the field as police sirens were heard in the distance. Kevin felt like he was watching a movie, it all felt that surreal to him. A serial killer was in his apartment, an apartment that he almost invited his little brother into. He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and wondered when this nightmare would end.
Thanks for reading! I'll be back on Sunday with chapter 12 :)
