Rise of the Dunamy (2 page)

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fter arriving in America, Sofia’s parents found a place for them to begin their life in Dover, New Jersey, which was developing a strong Hispanic community at the time. Many of the families that were migrating to the area were coming in from Colombia, just as they had. Sofia acclimated quickly and although she started behind the other students of her age, she quickly caught up in her studies and was able to join her appropriate grade level.

Her passion for police work began when a police officer and forensic expert came to speak to her fifth grade class. She took such an immediate interest in his presentation, and asked so many questions at the end that he awarded Sofia with a plastic shield and “deputized” her. Sofia spent the following months donning her police badge on every outfit she wore and handing out tickets to other students for perceived infractions. Sofia’s ticketing became a game among the children for some time. As the novelty wore off, the other kids moved on to new games, but not Sofia.

As she progressed through school she would spend any free time that she had reading about police work. When she began reading up on the topic, she would check out children’s “detective” books like Nancy Drew, and the like. She grew bored with the simplicity of such works and began looking into criminology and crime scene inspection, and was hooked.

Her obsession was not something that her friends could ever understand, and they often teased her about it. While the other girls of the neighborhood’s interests were developing towards boys and socializing, Sofia continued to focus on law enforcement. Her friends all wondered why a girl with Sofia’s natural good looks and intelligence would ever focus on going into law enforcement for a living. Sofia never expected for them to understand her desire to fight crime; she would simply tell them it was something she was into.

After earning an academic scholarship to a number of excellent universities, Sofia enrolled at the University of Florida and earned her degree in criminal justice in only three years, graduating at the top of her class.

A business opportunity for her father brought her parents South as well, relocating them in downtown Atlanta, Ga. When she finished college, Sofia reunited with her parents and immediately joined the police force in Atlanta, just before her twenty-first birthday. Turning down a higher level office position offered to her right away, Sofia opted for an entry level beat so that she could learn things in the department from the ground floor; a decision that instantly gained her a great deal of respect from her peers.

While she was initially unconcerned about fitting in with the men of the department, Sofia was all-too-aware of their opinion of her. It was impossible for her to go any length of time without hearing some comment from a fellow officer regarding her looks. She was gorgeous and the effect her natural Latin curves had on men was obvious.

Even when she was young, the boys in her neighborhood, as well as some of the men, began hounding her relentlessly for dates. While she found the attention uncomfortable at first, she learned very quickly how to enjoy it.

During adolescence Sofia set aside her school work for a time and followed her suddenly overwhelming interest in dating. One of Sofia’s most persistent suitors was an older boy named Mateo that lived nearby. Sofia was fourteen and Mateo was eighteen and he had recently dropped out of school. He was disliked around the neighborhood and seen as a troublemaker. Everyone made it a point to tell her how shocking it was that she was running around with someone like him. She often found herself defending him as misunderstood and claiming the others didn’t know what they were talking about. During their relationship Sofia completely abandoned her study habits to make time to follow Mateo around, doing everything he told her.

Not until her parents saw one of her midterm progress report reflecting several low marks, and one particularly concerning “D”, did they sit her down. Her mother reminded her how much they had gone through in order to give her a better life. They wanted her to graduate high school and for her to follow her dreams, wherever that might take her. Sofia argued with them, but only briefly. Her immense respect for her parents and the thought of disappointing them was so great she decided to rededicate her focus to her schoolwork. She ended things with Mateo and decided to put dating on hold for a while.

Upon telling him of her plans, Mateo backhanded Sofia and knocked her to the ground angrily in the middle of a crowded room. Several people came to her rescue as she scrambled to her feet. Sofia knew Mateo was known for his aggressive demeanor, but it had never been something he had directed at her. She was shocked by his reaction and spent the next day following the incident sulking around her parents’ small apartment, dodging their concerned questions by ducking into her room. She had used their concerns with her grades as the reason she was so sullen and removed. By the end of the weekend news had gotten back to her father and when Mateo came by to talk to Sofia, her father met him at the door. Sofia sat in her room and listened as her father spoke in a hushed tone to Mateo. Sofia’s father was an average sized man of just under six feet tall, but years of hard labor in the village had given him a great deal of strength. As her father spoke, Sofia could hear Mateo squeaking in pain, never quite saying a full word. She was unsure of what was happening, but later overheard men around the community affectionately referring to him as “The old ball-buster” as they greeted him. As he spoke to Mateo, Sofia was able to hear her father mention his connections in the area and that he would be keeping an eye on Mateo. There was a brief silence, followed by the sound of the front door shutting softly. Sofia could hear whimpering in the hallway for a moment before her father came into her room. Hugging her gently, he told her everything would be alright and he kissed her softly on the side of her face where Mateo had struck her.

After that, whenever Sofia saw Mateo his eyes grew large and he made it a point to leave the area immediately. It was comical how quickly and clumsily he would exit, often knocking things, as well as people, down in order to get to the door. Another side effect of her father’s encounter with Mateo was that much of the attention to which she had grown so accustomed, stopped.

As she aged, Sofia stayed true to her dedication to her studies. Even though her naturally-voluptuous physique, now toned by her various self-defense training courses, continued to draw the attention of every eye in the room, she maintained her focus. At times, while she was away at college, she felt great loneliness and considered accepting one of the numerous outstanding dinner invitations with the young men around campus. But, those were instead the times she developed her strongest studying techniques, losing herself in her schoolwork for hours on end. Those study sessions helped form her intense work ethic she later poured into her career.

Sofia’s looks only improved as she aged. She was a constant topic of conversation whenever someone believed they were out of earshot. Conversations with male officers always included at least one reminder for them to stop staring at her breasts, which usually went unheeded. It was common for her to catch a glimpse of men with whom she had just spoken, their eyes always glued to her ass as she walked away. She had found such behavior amusing, even complimentary, throughout her younger years. Now, she thought it unprofessional and disrespectful. Sofia often wondered if she truly felt the behavior was unattractive, or if she had just forced herself to believe it to be to keep her mind on her studies. Either way, she found herself outside the limitations of her promise to focus on school instead of dating, yet still actively remaining outside of the dating world.

In the few years she had spent coming up through the APD, Sofia had done all she could do to develop a thick skin when it came to comments about her looks among her fellow officers. She tried to play along with their jokes or simply laugh off the comments, but that only seemed to encourage them. Over time, she had simply withdrawn from conversations with the worst offenders. It wasn’t until a particularly bold rookie made a huge mistake, that things began to change.

Trey Parker was young, handsome, and in incredible shape, and he was the first to point out those facts to every woman on the force. Some of the women enjoyed his advances. Sofia found him boring , shallow, and unintelligent. Every conversation she had ever heard him involved in ended up with him talking about his workout routine or his looks. Whenever he made a comment to her she simply rolled her eyes and walked away from him. As the Policeman’s Ball approached, some of the other officers she was friendly with talked Sofia into coming. Begrudgingly, she showed up late hoping everyone would have had enough to drink for her to sneak right back out without being noticed. As she arrived, she was greeted by a lively bunch of her associates, Parker being the most inebriated and aggressive of the group.

After saying her hellos to everyone in the bunch, she decided to make a quick lap around the room before leaving. Parker, having already been shot down by Sofia numerous times during the group conversation, reached out and groped her ass as she walked away, causing a combination of shocked expressions and laughter from the group and everyone nearby. Instantly reacting to the situation and the embarrassment that consumed her, Sofia took hold of his hand and pulled him down as she thrust her elbow into his nose, breaking it upon impact. Wrenching his arm behind him, she slammed his face into a nearby table, sending the various plates and drinks that sat on the other side flying into the air as the table flipped upwards. Maintaining the pressure on his arm against his back all the way to the ground, Sofia planted Parker firmly into the tile floor and held him there as he cried out in pain. Although the music continued to play across the speakers, all of the lively chatter around them stopped as Sofia held Parker firmly against the ground.

As the rage subsided, Sofia realized everyone was looking at them in shock, but no one moved to help Parker. Mortified by the amount of attention she had drawn; Sofia released him, eased to her feet and hurried out of the room.

It took months for her to get past the embarrassment she felt because of the incident, but the early weeks were softened each time she saw Parker’s blackened eyes from the broken nose she had inflicted and the huge knot that formed on the side of his forehead from smashing into the table. Everyone that had seen the entire interaction stepped forward to say Parker had been out of line and that Sofia’s reaction was warranted. Sofia decided to let things die rather than pursue further disciplinary action against him, so the matter went away. Nevertheless, her confrontation seemed to stop the unpleasant comments.

While she believed she had put an end to inappropriate comments about her, she found out she had merely managed to convince those that made them that they should do so in private. It had been two years since the incident at the Policeman’s Ball, and in that time Sofia felt that she had done a great deal to change the opinion of the men in the precinct. She had made detective and continued to put in more hours at work than any other officer. She hadn’t had to deal with the sexist comments since the event and had even noticed a substantial decrease in the number of times she had to ask the men to stop staring at her chest. She truly believed that she had done enough to earn the respect of the other officers.

Sofia had just left a conversation with a particularly harmless officer, when she realized she needed to turn back for her paperwork. Upon doing so, she overheard officer Eckersley, a husband and father of two, making a comment about “What he would do if he could get Sofia alone” to someone. Hurt, but infuriated, Sofia began to storm around the corner and confront Eckersley when she heard a familiar voice. She had only recently taken the position of homicide detective and she and Bishop hadn’t been partnered up for long. As it turned out, very few people were aware how protective he was of her.

“Oh yeah, Eckersley?” He growled. “Fill me in. Tell me what you think you would do to my partner!”

“No…. nothing, Bishop. You know… She’s just so…” Eckersley stammered out. There was a loud thud that Sofia could tell was a body being pushed up against a wall, and Bishop continued.

“You watch your goddamn mouth when you talk about my partner, understood?” Bishop said fiercely.

“Y..yeah…Sure Bishop...I just thought..You know..”

“You thought wrong.” Bishop huffed. Sofia couldn’t see what was happening, but she could tell Bishop’s blood was boiling by the tone of his voice.

“Go call your wife, you piece of shit.” Bishop called back angrily, his voice growing more feint as he walked away. Not wanting to run into Eckersley as he was undoubtedly going to be heading the opposite direction of Bishop, Sofia decided she would return for her paperwork later, and headed back towards her desk.

Sofia never mentioned that she had heard him take up for her, but overhearing Bishop’s interaction with Eckersley instantly created a powerful bond for her. Hearing him take up for her meant the world to her because it meant that after years of feeling alone among her peers, she finally had an ally.

4

“I
still have no idea how you can eat at these crime scenes.” Sofia said with a grimace as she watched Bishop gnawing on some sort of breakfast burrito.

“Ah, don’t sweat it, Sweetie. Give it some time and you’ll be doin’ the same thing.”

“I’ve told you about calling me Sweetie, and I don’t want to get to a point where I’m able to eat around dead bodies!” she proclaimed. “It’s disgusting, not to mention the risk you’re running of contaminating our crime scene.”

Bishop continued to observe the scene as he crammed the final oversized bite into his mouth and licking the remaining salsa from his fingers. She stared in dismay as he scraped the chunks of egg that had landed on his shirt onto the ground.

“Just like that! You’re intentionally dropping bits into our crime scene!”

“Calm down, Sofia! I brushed it off into the grass and I’m nowhere near anything relevant. Good Lord, I’m ten feet from anything.”

“At least you’re finished and we can focus.” As she spoke the words, Bishop pulled another silver-sleeved burrito from his pocket and began to unwrap it, crinkling the aluminum wrapper to taunt Sofia.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled to herself in disbelief.

It had been nearly a year since Sofia and Bishop had been partnered together and she had grown quite fond of him. Beginning with the conversation she had overheard between he and Eckersley, Sofia had always felt that, no matter what, Bishop had her back. The only reservations she had where he was concerned were because of his “old school” detective work.

Going into their partnership, she had heard stories about Bishop regarding planting evidence and strong-arming suspects to gain confessions. Nothing had ever been proven but she had witnessed situations where she believed she had arrived just in time to stop him from such things. He had always been regarded highly for his detective work, but everyone knew he was a bit of a wild card, willing to do whatever it took to make an arrest. While she had always seen their partnering as an attempt for her to watch over him and keep him in line, Bishop felt he was placed with her as a mentor and often treated her as his protégé rather than an equal.

Right from the beginning, Bishop became very protective of Sofia and always found it necessary to try and keep her out of harm’s way. He claimed it was just “the way he was taught”, and that you he had been raised to protect women. Sofia spent a great deal of time in their first months together explaining to him that there was no need for him to be so protective over her. Whenever he would try to step in front of her if a situation got even mildly hostile, she would explain how difficult it made it for people to take her seriously. Bishop would simply disregard her comments and continued doing exactly what he wanted to. Finally, she made her point clear when she was forced to take down a man twice her size while Bishop was attempting to hold down the man’s accomplice. After seeing a man that size writhing in pain with Sofia on his back, pinning him to the floor, Bishop accepted that Sofia was able to handle herself. From that point on he began respecting her requests and stayed out of her way when things got physical with suspects.

The difference in their styles was the source of a large number of their arguments. Bishop had been on the force for over twenty years and had entered the Academy right out of high school. Being a third generation cop, he admittedly had no real aspirations of doing anything other than being an officer. He had earned his stripes as a beat cop and had partnered with some of the oldest guys on the force, becoming very well versed in the “old way” of doing things. Bishop’s style was like a glance into how police work used to be handled. He had been surrounded by the self-proclaimed “old guard” his entire life and his actions mirrored that mentality.

His old-school, hard-nosed style was a major concern to Sofia. She saw it as a way for corruption to enter into his work and believed that if he was willing to bend the rules to the point that he was willing to bend them, then there was very little keeping him from doing whatever he felt was within reason to get a job done. Although she had never known him to have used such tactics against an innocent person, Sofia knew that his actions could all too easily land the wrong person in jail. Regardless of these facts, Sofia loved being his partner and simply made a habit of keeping an eye on him as often as possible.

“This has to be our guys. Same post-mortem mutilation as the other bodies,” Bishop said to Sofia as she observed the scene, doing little to stop the falling pieces of his burrito from landing on his shirt, much less the crime scene. His thick southern accent covered by the partially chewed remains he had tucked away in his overstretched jaw.

“The muscle has been removed down to the bone on the arms and legs. It’s a freakin’ mess,” he said, taking another large bite out of his burrito even though he hadn’t yet finished what he was chewing. “All except this guy. What’s so special about him?” Bishop indicated the body of the businessman that lay several feet from the others. “He got to keep all of his body parts. I guess we can rule out ‘hunger’ as their motivation behind chewin’ the bodies up.”

Bishop looked over at the businessman momentarily before continuing in a serious tone, “These guys are seriously screwin’ with my head, you know? Usually, with serial killers you get a pretty specific type of victim. Similar body type; hair color; facial features; something that every single victim has in common. These perps are all over the map. Different numbers of victims, all completely different looking. They’re killing in different locations; no evidence at the scene.” Bishop scratched his head anxiously, frustrated at the lack of consistency between the murders.

“And then we’ve got this guy,” he said quizzically, indicating towards the stabbed businessman once again. “I mean, what’s with him? These three get chewed to bits, and this guy gets off scot-free? I see that those guys were clearly up to no good and all, but why not go after the bonus body? Were they full?”

Bishop relaxed for a moment before interjecting one last thought. “Maybe it’s that shitty suit.” He joked quietly as a smirk crept across his lips. Seeing that Sofia was not amused by his comments, he resumed his breakfast as he continued to observe the mangled remains.

Sofia snapped on a fresh pair of latex gloves and was now ready to begin making her own sweep of the scene. She moved slowly and deliberately throughout the area, making sure to get a quick scan of each of the bodies location’s to ensure she wasn’t compromising any evidence. Squatting beside the first corpse she came to, she slowly unzipped the large black plastic body bag to reveal the victim. Preparing herself for the putrid odor that she had grown uncomfortably accustomed to, she shielded her nose and mouth with the back of her hand before peeling back the noisy material to reveal the victim’s face. The lifeless eyes of a young Hispanic male stared off into the distance down the walkway his head now rested upon. The awkward angle of his head in relation to his body allowed Sofia to easily determine that his neck, like so many of the other victims in the Cul De Sac case, had been broken. Sofia paused momentarily to prepare herself to examine the body for one of the only other similarities between the killings in this case.

Each body in the Cul De Sac Case showed very similar signs of severe blunt force trauma that had been determined to be from fighting just prior to their death. Also, each of the bodies had been mutilated in the exact same ritualistic manner. The beatings were so severe that most of the victims’ bones were broken and sometimes even shattered. This body was no different. The shattering of several bones was evident as she looked over what remained of the young man. Most of the bone in the arms and legs was now exposed due to the lack of meat and flesh that remained to cover it. Sofia removed a pen from her pocket and used it as a probe to inspect some of the smaller shards to make sure they were in fact bone and not a foreign substance.

“Some of these fragments are so tiny. It’s like they’re hitting these guys with sledge hammers.” She said quietly. “How are they doing this?”

She prodded around a while lifting and poking various bits of mangled pieces of the man’s remains before looking around for some assistance.

“Make sure you keep him pretty well covered. The crows got here early today.” Bishop was referring to the flock of reporters that had shown up, but were now corralled behind the yellow police tape and being kept at bay by patrol officers. Bishop had taken to the idea of referring to the reporters as “crows” in reference to how they showed up wherever there was a corpse. He had become more insufferable with his use of the term since Sofia pointed out the fact that a group of crows was referred to as a “murder of crows”.

“I know enough to keep them from seeing anything.” She replied sharply as she quickly pulled the plastic back over the remains.

“I know it, Kid. I didn’t mean you weren’t watchin’ yourself. It’s just those cameras they got now can sneak in places you wouldn’t believe.”

Sofia continued looking over the corpse, ignoring Bishop’s statements.

“No need to get pouty. Just hate for those scavengers to get a single picture.”