United Service (4 page)

“Where am I?” Stephen asked again. He held his head as though it were spinning.

“In a house. This is where they take you before heading out to the camp.” Kekoa saw the confusion in the boy’s eyes. “This place is a staging area to make sure you’re medically all right. After this, you’re taken to a camp where the rest of the kids are. My name is Kekoa. What’s your name?”

“Stephen,” he said as he inspected the bandage on his leg even more. “A man. I remember a man in my room last night. Where’s my mom?”

Kekoa had seen many children like this one over the years, and it never got easier to tell them what happened. “You were kidnapped last night. I don’t know anything about your mom.”

A young girl, who sat quietly on the floor, stood and limped towards the two boys. Her labored, uneven walk caused her nearly to fall down several times. Dried blood stained her torn jeans, in the same spot as Stephen’s.

“Her name is Tiffany,” Kekoa said as he helped her to sit down quietly on the floor. She sat there playing with her doll, patting its long hair and staring blankly off into the distance.

Kekoa studied the two younger children. He noticed Stephen looking at Tiffany’s matching bracelet. He held up his hand and showed Stephen the third matching bracelet, which he wore. “Our bracelets are silver. If you want to live, you’ll keep the cuff on.”

Hours later, Sterling was still touching the evidence in the lab. Over 500 pieces of evidence existed, and that didn’t include any fingerprints or slimy residue that the investigators had collected. Sterling couldn’t read fingerprints by touching them since they remained secure behind plastic tape or captured on the computer, and he sure wasn’t going to touch someone’s collected mucus.

The evidence contained pieces of glass, dirt, blood and other items Sterling had his hands on all day. The most noteworthy items included necklaces and other jewelry the suspect had saved as souvenirs from his victims. Based upon the amount of treasures collected, Sterling suspected that the murders had taken place over several years. In total, the criminal admitted to killing an additional ten victims, but Sterling only gleaned information from the first nine. He examined a ring from the first victim, glass fragments from the window of the second victim’s home, blood from the two next victims, a pair of glasses from the next, a necklace, and so on. Traces of evidence from nine different victims were laid out on the table. The lives, and even the homes of the victims, were represented by the evidence. He wondered why there was nothing from the tenth victim.

As he held one of the necklaces, a young woman appeared to him in a black and green dress. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a dress in the pile of evidence that matched his mental image. The small size suggested the woman who wore the outfit must have been tiny. He touched the dress and images of its owner flooded his mind. The dress had blood on it and the victim’s name was Alicia Reece.

“
God, she wasn’t a petite woman, she was a child. At best, a teenager
,” he thought. He didn’t recognize the name, so he checked and her name was absent from the list of known victims. Since this was the first time her name had been identified, Sterling spent more time on the dress and the necklace to learn more about its owner.

His fingers touched the plain green and black dress and the necklace at the same time. The more he touched, the more information about Alicia he obtained. She had run away from home within a month of her abduction. She had saved up money for the run, but that money was almost spent.

Sterling watched Alicia, a pretty girl with blond hair, in his mind. He got an image of her surfing, so she wasn’t from around here. He sensed she had lived in California. Yeah, that felt about right. An upset seventeen–year–old on the run from her parents. Unfortunately, a classic textbook scenario.

A new image came to Sterling’s mind. This time, it showed Alicia standing by a store or a restaurant when the man the FBI now had in custody approached her. The day grew late and darkness approached with no one else around. In his mind, Sterling saw the man grab Alicia and throw her into his car. Sterling could hear Alicia’s screams in his mind. The slime ball drove her to a secluded area and raped her moments after kidnapping her, and then kept the dress as a souvenir. He heard Alicia’s screams as he tore into her body and took her virginity. Sterling felt her pain as she bled from what he had done to her and the perp’s delight as he did the heinous crimes. Sterling visibly cringed as he placed the dress back down on the evidence table.

He touched lower on the dress towards the skirt, where all the blood had been. The dress had no more images of Alicia, but the necklace did. He heard Alicia crying out to her parents to find her, and how sorry she had been for fighting with them. He also heard her praying to Jesus to save her. But rescue never came; hopefully salvation did. The man raped her again after her death, violating her body many times and taking great joy in the deed. He removed the necklace before burying Alicia’s body. “Sick bastard!” Sterling said aloud. Others in the lab turned to look at him, but he paid them no mind. He put the necklace down and wrote his findings in the report. At least her parents would know what happened to her.

Sterling sighed heavily. He had saved the murder weapons for last. His skin itched as though covered with poison ivy, and he knew the weapons would cause him more agony. The evil of the murder resonated in the weapon even more than on the victim’s clothing and other personal belongings. He gritted his teeth, not wanting to touch the packaged and labeled weapons. The feelings of the killer, as the owner of the weapons, would resonate on them – and the feelings always tore at Sterling’s soul.

He stared at the hammer lying on the table. The killer had swung the tool as a weapon. Beside the hammer, sat a knife and a shovel covered in blood and mud. Sterling started with the shovel, carefully removing the digging implement from its protected wrapping. Softly he touched the shovel, tracing his hand down the wooden handle first. He sensed a warm tingle from his hands, and then the images began to appear. He closed his eyes as the horror unfolded.

Shuddering, he sensed the adrenaline of the murderer and the excitement he had experienced as he killed victim number two with the shovel. He broke into her home, raped and strangled her. The murderer threw her in the trunk of his car and went to bury her, only to find that she had survived and was still breathing when he fetched her out of the trunk. He then struck her in the head with the shovel and ended her life. This was the same shovel he used to bury all the victims; he knew because he could detect a psychic echo of them on it. He had dug a hole for each one and then filled the shallow graves with concrete.

Sterling set down the shovel and picked up the hammer. He took a deep breath as he touched the handle. This had killed the eighth victim — Alicia. With closed eyes, he started receiving the images of the event. He sucked in a deep breath and dropped the hammer back down on to the table. He had felt the delight of the asshole as he took Alicia’s life, and her screams caused such a pain in his head.

Sterling became sick to his stomach. One weapon remained to be touched. The knife lay secured in its protective baggy, just waiting for his touch. He still had no information about the tenth victim, the one he suspected was a vampire, and he knew what needed to be done. He opened the bag.

He held the knife in his hands and heard the screams of all the other victims, felt their fear and even experienced their last breath. Concentrating, he focused on the identity of the vampire who died by this sick bastard’s hand. He could see her, but not clearly. His mind showed the murderer following a young brunette into an alley. No, wait. She had lured him into the alley. She got him alone. She was the predator. Sterling’s eyes tightened as he focused more. Why would she get this evil man alone? Sterling saw an image of her black eyes and fangs. Now the picture was clear. She was feeding off this man. They were alone in an alley and that is how he had an opportunity to kill her.

The events didn’t make sense to him. She could have compelled the bastard to stand idle as she fed. Why did she allow him to be aware enough of his surroundings to have an opportunity to kill her? After all, that was basic vampire feeding 101. Sterling received another sensation, one of fear. The suspect in custody, the one who brutally raped and murdered nine other women before entering that alley with the female vampire, was afraid. The vampire had wanted him to experience terror. She would have enjoyed it. But the man was not an ordinary man. He was a cold blooded killer and he pulled out the knife and stabbed her in the heart as she fed from him. She never saw the end coming.

Sterling dropped the knife. The weapon clanked as the metal hilt hit the table and disturbed the other detectives working in the lab. Sterling discovered a name for the female vamp, but doubted it would help identify who she was. “Mary Smith” sounded too generic to be traceable. The name sounded like an alias if he ever heard one. Perhaps if she enjoyed terrorizing others then it could be best that she too was gone.

“I’m done. Put this up for me.” Sterling compelled the detective nearest him to clean up. His migraine headache raged in his head. It was time to go.

Sterling called his usual bar buddy, Ben, to help him unwind and find some relief from his pain. Of course, Ben’s inner circle included Daniel, so he would be in attendance as well. Brandon, the token human of the group, would probably also tag along. None of the three were available for a few hours, so Sterling headed back to Fang Manor where they all lived, and would rendezvous with them later.

After driving over his Aunt Sulie’s flower garden and nearly hitting the gazebo, Sterling decided to leave his car on the lawn rather than park in the garage. Leaving his car door opened, he staggered to the front door of the mansion and pressed his thumb to the scanner. He struggled with the security code and, after an alarm sounded, he grabbed the sides of his head in pain and yelled for someone to let him in.

His father, Raymond, came to his rescue. As a purebred vampire, he stood slightly taller than Sterling with broader shoulders. He appeared to be a man in his mid–forties and he wore a pair of black jeans and a polo shirt. Sterling braced against his father and made tiny steps into the home. Once inside, Sterling noticed his stepmother sitting on the couch. She had become the newest member of their little group not too long ago. Athletic and tall as a human, but now as a turned vampire she had a warrior’s build. Her auburn hair was pulled back and she wore sweat pants. She seemed much at ease in her new home.

Looking towards the love seat, Sterling saw William and his pregnant wife Jackie sitting together – a picture–perfect vampire couple. Their love proved that opposites do attract. Jackie was well–groomed, well-manicured, and decked out in the latest trends. She reminded Sterling of Michelle Obama in many ways. Her husband wore only retro outfits, with patched jeans, and t–shirts displaying logos of products and establishments, some of which had gone out of business decades ago.

“Sulie. Where’s Sulie?” was all Sterling could muster as his father helped him lay down on the couch. William walked out the front door to see if Sulie, Sterling’s aunt, was driving up the street. Raymond stood over his son. He raked his fingers through his dark brown hair, unable to offer any real help, while the two women were quick to touch Sterling’s face and hands.

Sterling felt the healing immediately, but shrugged off their hands. Alex was his father’s wife, and Jackie the pregnant wife of another team member and friend, and Sterling didn’t feel right to have another man’s wife touching him. His Aunt Suzanne Leigh, whom everyone called Sulie, was unattached and had raised him since birth because of the absence of his mother. Her touch was morally soothing to him and the only one he allowed. The fact that she held multiple degrees in medicine was also a plus.

The pain grew worse as images of Alicia and the other victims again danced in Sterling’s mind. He heard their screams and felt their fear as their life force left their bodies. The dominant sensations were that of Alicia, yet her screams blended in with the other young murder victims Sterling had experienced in the past. Their fears and cries invaded his thoughts and tormented him.

Raymond knelt beside the couch, careful not to touch his son. “Can I get you anything?”

“A brunette.” Sterling squeaked out as he began violently scratching his chest and stomach.

“No! You’ll only make the pain worse,” his father scolded as he grabbed his son’s hands.

Sterling closed his eyes and moaned, which caused Alex to rush to the light switch and turn off the overhead light. “Is the pain always this bad?” she asked Jackie.

“I’ve only seen the pain like this a few times,” Jackie said. “Sulie better get here quick, or I’m goin’ to start touching that boy myself whether he wants me to or not.”

Alex looked out the window and watched as William talked on his cell phone to Sulie. When he began to wave his arms towards the road she smiled, obviously knowing Sulie’s car was racing down the street. “I think William sees her. She should be here …”

Before Alex could finish, Sterling’s body began thrashing on the couch and his father forcefully held him down. Sterling threw his head back and growled as he tried to sit up, but his head pounded by the movement which caused him to retch and spit up the red blood from his earlier meal from the coed. The blood splattered on his clothing while his body began convulsing.