The Monster Catcher
Kevin and a few of his team members found themselves back at the perp’s house the next day. Yellow tape lined the perimeter with huge Crime Scene Do Not Enter signs blocking all the doors and windows. The smell had luckily dulled since the windows had been left cracked open to air the place out. The old moldy food, the dead puppy and most of the obvious evidence were all also missing.
The second visit to the crime scene always proved the most effective in Kevin’s short experience with the FBI. He managed to crack his very first case on a second visit to a crime scene when he was only 26 years old. He was a member of a team just like this one, the runt of the litter they used to call him. They tended to come up with cute little colorful nicknames for their rookies. That was his, until he managed to crack a case that the seniors ahead of him failed to do, leading to an arrest of a serial rapist.
After that his nickname changed to the monster catcher. The nickname of that rapist was the monster because he used to wear a stupid creature mask when he assaulted his victims. They looked at Kevin differently from that point on; they trusted his keen eye for detail and brought him along on cases that he wasn’t even involved in. He developed quite a reputation as the young, eager detective, the young Jody Foster of the force. He particularly didn’t enjoy that nickname at all, stupid Silence of the Lambs.
He walked over towards the fireplace once more, still a few remnants of figurines lying around the yet to be burnt logs. “You think there’s something we missed in there?” He turned to Howie, still squatting down and then quickly turned his attention back towards the fireplace.
“Not sure.”
“I’m going to go check upstairs, take a look through his closet.”
“Good idea, I’ll be down here.” Howie walked up the steps with Maria as Kevin placed a pair of rubber gloves on his hands. He picked up the small ceramic pieces and moved them out of the way, focusing his attention on the bottom under the wood. He thought he saw something shiny underneath so he took his flashlight and shined it that way.
“There’s something here.” He said to the empty room, which made the sound of footsteps walk his way. He lay on the cold and dirty carpet to get a better look, “Well I’ll be damned, get me a screw driver!” There staring at him looked to be a silver plate, under the grate that held the wood. While he was waiting for that screw driver he began to move the heavy wood from the grates.
“That’s why he never used the fireplace; he was keeping the wood here to hide something.”
“Here’s a screw driver.” He nodded and took the tool and started to unscrew the metal grates, his heart pounding in his chest as he did it.
Trying to solve crimes was almost like getting to the highest levels of a video game. You got the same rush of adrenaline, like you never thought you were going to find the hidden level and then BAM, there it was, staring at you in the face the entire time.
That’s how he felt when he was brought in on this case. One child dead, no evidence at all found at the crime scene which was a dumpster behind an Italian restaurant. Her clothes were still on, no evidence of sexual activity, her head smashed in. It was the first time he had ever come face to face with a dead child. The image stayed with him for days. He was told this was the second child found, the first one up the road behind a gas station. Nothing found near either body, both girl’s heads bashed in but no sign of struggle or anything. Not even a single scream heard.
The third victim was found about three days later, lying under a tree in a park, same exact description, no leads, and no signs of struggle but this time Kevin noticed something. He noticed stuck in the little girl’s hair, the smallest fragment of a fingernail. Now they had something to run through tests. He felt exhilarated at the time.
Finally getting somewhere, he decided after that to revisit the other crime scenes, to see if he maybe missed something. That’s when he found a black glove, lying behind the dumpster outside the restaurant. Unfortunately there were no prints on or inside of it. He must have worn rubber gloves underneath. Maybe even a cold blooded killer got cold every once in a while.
The most important clue, the one which led him to figure out the guy’s identity after finding little girl number four, was a contact lens. The fourth girl was found about a mile from where Kevin was now, lying beside a fireplace ready to crack a case wide open. She was a little different from the rest, first difference being were she was found, behind someone’s house. Kevin was positive that for whatever reason, the perp was trying to make it seem like whoever owned that house was to blame.
She was a little more messy, her head same as the others but she was also strangled and bloody. This one had actually fought back maybe throwing the guy off. Long after the forensics team had left and the yellow tape had been placed around the house, Kevin noticed the contact shining on the grass. That’s all they needed to make a match. The guy’s fingerprints were all over it.
They had their guy, Scott Wilson 45, never married, no children but also no police record to speak of. He did however issue several complaints against a man named Simon Hofstadter, the place where they found little girl number four. It all clicked together, he had found the hidden level and was ready to move in.
Kevin had contacted the place where Scott worked and asked them to tell him not to come into work, this way he was guaranteed to be home, that backfired however when they finally entered his house and found Mandy, victim number five.
Once Kevin removed the grate he was able to see the hole which that silver plate covered up. He carefully removed the plate to find little trinkets. A few hair ties, some jewelry, a couple of toys and a baby doll’s head. He carefully took each item out and looked at them, knowing that for each child lying under a tombstone, there was a souvenir of her lying here in the fireplace.
“Let’s get some prints off of these,” He said carefully placing each thing in a bag and handing it off to his crew.
He stood up and was ready to walk away when he stopped in his tracks and looked around again,
“Did you see any other type of figurines as you were searching the house?”
“None at all, why?” Howie asked, after making his way back downstairs empty handed.
“Precious Moments.”
“What about them?”
“I bet you those aren’t his, I bet you those are from the families.” He turned towards Maria, “make sure you tell the guys in the lab that I want an analysis of the Precious Moments figurines.”
“Okay.”
“Also, when you get done with that, I want you to get a hold of the families and ask them if they collected them and if any are missing from their collection.”
“You think he stole them from the families?”
“I think maybe.”
“Which means that he may have been in their houses?”
“Yes.”
By the end of the day, they had a huge pile of evidence mounting against Mr. Scott Wilson including evidence finally linking him to each of those murders, five counts in all.
“You did great work Kev…I wish I was able to pick up things the way you do.”
“Howie, you are excellent at your job.”
“I may be good, but I’m no Jody Foster!”
“Shut the hell up.” Howie laughed as he turned into Kevin’s apartment complex.
“So, I’m not going to walk in and find a naked Lisa am I? Not that that’s a bad thing mind you, but after last time…”
“No Howie, she’s actually out of town for a few days. No naked Lisa and it bothers me that you saw naked Lisa.”
“How could you NOT see naked Lisa? I mean she was waltzing around your place with no clothes on….is that AJ on your front steps?” Kevin turned to see AJ sitting there on the steps smoking a cigarette. When he saw his brother’s eyes on him he quickly threw it down on the ground and stepped on it.
“Did he actually think I missed that?”
“I can’t believe he was smoking right under your nose… that kid cracks me up.”
Kevin sighed as he made his way out of the car. AJ stood up slowly and bit his bottom lip, “What are you doing here Jay?”
“Just thought I’d drop by…hey Howie.”
“Hi AJ.”
“So you thought you’d drop by and smoke on my steps while you waited for me?”
“Damn, you saw that huh?”
“No, I’m only an FBI agent AJ, I miss things like that.”
“No reason to be a sarcastic ass.”
“Does mom know you’re here or am I going to get a frantic call in a few hours?”
“She knows. I told her you invited me over for dinner which pissed Brian off.”
They walked in and AJ jumped on the couch and put his feet on the coffee table, once again highly amusing Howie.
“Make yourself comfortable AJ, my place is yours apparently.”
“Thanks, I will…am I here for dinner on guy’s night out?”
“Yeah actually, Howie was going to hang and order a pizza with me.”
“Cool! Got any beer?” Kevin glared at AJ.
“Relax….jeez, I’m only kidding. Take a chill pill.”
Howie laughed as Kevin walked into the small kitchen, “Don’t laugh you’ll only encourage him.”
“Is he this serious all the time Howie?”
“Yeah…pretty much.”
“Too bad for you.” Once again Howie laughed.
He walked out with two beers and a Coke, handing the latter to his little brother who pouted and rolled his eyes.
“So, what are you doing here AJ? I mean besides wanting to hang out with me?”
AJ shrugged and popped open his can, “I was bored so I thought I’d drop by. You had to see Brian’s face when I told him you invited me over. He looked so distraught, what a namby pamby.”
“What a what?”
“Never mind…oh and Nick wanted me to give this to you,” He rolled a little to his side and pulled out a piece of paper.
“What is it?”
“A thesis on why Marxism is a bad thing…what the heck do you think it is?”
Howie almost spit out his beer on that one.
Kevin opened up the paper and smiled; it was a picture of a badge and on the inside it said number 1 cop and be careful please written in graffiti lettering.
“I’m impressed you actually gave it to me.”
“Yeah so am I, but he made it seem so important, you know how the kid is…give this to Kevin or I’ll die,” He said imitating his little brother’s voice.
“He wanted to come with me and I almost brought him but decided not to.”
“You almost brought him?” Kevin said sounding impressed.
“Well I’d do anything to further piss of Brian.”
“Did you guys have a fight or something?”
“Yeah I guess you can call it that.”
“What about?”
“Smoking, like I don’t get it enough from mom I need him on my ass too?”
“AJ, he’s just concerned we all are.”
“Smoking is no big deal.”
“Yeah, I know but smoking when you’re a minor plus getting a tattoo it’s a big deal. You’re too young for a tattoo.”
“It’s not real.” He said it so softly it almost sounded like he said snot rag.
“What?”
“It’s not real,” He said pulling up his sleeve and showing Kevin the tattoo. It looked real enough but after close observation he realized it was in ink.
“Well I’ll be damned, now why on earth would you let mom think it was real?”
AJ shrugged, “It’s not like I purposely did it, just that as she was yelling at me for something, I don’t even remember what it was, she saw the tattoo. I was mad so didn’t deny it.”
Kevin laughed, “You are too much kiddo.”
“I look good with a tat though don’t I?”
“You’ll look even better with one when you’re 18.”
“It’s just a tattoo, no big deal. I wish she would stop ragging on me about everything.”
“She loves you AJ, she rags on everyone.”
“Never Brian.”
“Because Brian is an angel.”
“No because Brian is sneaky.”
“Yeah that too.”
Just as AJ rolled his sleeve back down the phone rang, Kevin walked over and answered as Howie flipped on the TV and started up a conversation with his little brother.
“Kevin?”
“Hi mom.”
“Is AJ over there?” Kevin gave AJ an evil look.
“Yeah he’s here.”
“Okay good, just checking. He said he was going over there for dinner but I wanted to make sure.”
“Mom, the tattoo isn’t real,” He said walking into the kitchen away from the sounds of the TV.
“It’s not?”
“No, he was just being…well…AJ.”
“Thank God!” Kevin laughed.
“Please tell me their candy cigarettes too.”
“Sorry, those are real but we’re going to have a talk about it after dinner okay mom?”
“Okay honey…thanks and I love you. Tell AJ I love him too even though I want to wring his neck for lying to me.”
“I will.”
He hung up and walked over to the guys and sat down, they were watching a baseball game.
“Mom says she loves you.”
“Okay cool.”
“I told her about the tattoo.”
“You’re no fun Kev.”
“Sorry.”
They ordered a pizza and hung out, talking about guy things and the dangers of lung cancer to which AJ spent most of his time rolling his eyes.
I'll be back on Friday with another update on this one. Thanks for reading
