The Cleansing Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINTEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY - ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY - THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY- FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY - ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY -FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY – SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY – SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY – EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY - NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY - ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY - TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY - THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY – FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY - FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY -SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY – EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY – NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FIFTY - TWO

  CHAPTER FIFTY - THREE

  CHAPTER FIFTY -FOUR

  CHAPTER FIFTY - FIVE

  CHAPTER FIFTY - SIX

  CHAPTER FIFTY - SEVEN

  CHAPTER FIFTY - EIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  DEATH IS NEVER PRETTY

  GOCHIAN

  Trevor & Jack

  When we drove up, it was the typical crime scene; people everywhere. I don’t understand the mind of cops. Collecting evidence from a crime scene that has one hundred police and crime scene investigators walking around. It makes you wonder how we’re successful in solving any crimes.

  Jack and I opened the door of our cruiser got out and approached the medical examiner.

  “They called you out here tonight?”

  “Yep. What we got?”

  “Another body, except this one is intact. She was murdered somewhere else and dumped here. I think she was strangled, but I won’t know for sure until I get her back to my office.” He pulled the sheet off and there was no head.

  “Awww, warn a man before you do that! I thought you said she was intact? You and the jokes. How can she be strangled with no head?”

  “She is. The last body we caught we had to put the body back together. This one is as intact as she’s gonna get.”

  “See, this is why I couldn’t be a coroner because I have a damn pulse! You jokers don’t let anything bother you. I mean, dang man, she doesn’t have a head. Come on!”

  “Well, if you’re freaking out about that, let me show you this.” He pulls back the sheet more to reveal her hands are missing.

  “No hands. I get the picture. They don’t want her to be identified. To cut off someone’s hands and head that’s ruthless. You could accidentally kill someone, sure, but to dismember her like this, is deliberate.”

  “Yeah partner, we’ve been catching some live ones lately; some real crazies. The city is going to hell. It wasn’t like this when I was coming up.”

  “Me either, it was a wonderful city to live in.”

  “It still is, just a few bad apples.”

  “Okay, Doc, we’ll follow you back to the morgue.”

  Jack and I got into our car and headed back towards the morgue. Once inside our cruiser, it’s the usual banter between partners.

  “Hey kid, you still missing Doc, Tipton?”

  “Yes, I wish he’d come back tonight.”

  This stand in doc was creepy as hell to me, he reminded me of something that came straight out of a Steven King novel. And, you know there’s no telling what the hell Steven King might think up. I’m sure this guy is a rejected character of his.

  “I’m glad you can laugh at my agony.”

  “You military types can never get use to how things work in the civilian world. You’re so used to someone telling you when to eat, shit and piss you can’t stand it not having someone telling you what to do. Change just drives you crazy. My previous partner used to be in the military. He was just like you. Any time something changed he couldn’t stand it.”

  “That’s not entirely true, somewhat, but not exact. Just because you’re a dinosaur doesn’t mean you know everything.”

  “HA! Not too much us dinosaurs haven’t seen and don’t know, I betcha that. We walked the Earth long before you were even a thought in your daddy’s pants.”

  “You got me. I’ll give you that one.”

  MORGUE

  Trevor & Jack

  By the time we parked our cruiser the coroner was pulling the body out of the meat wagon as we affectionately like to call it. As the body was being pulled out of the wagon, news vehicles parked a safe distance away, but close enough to take pictures. It never ceases to amaze me how far people will sink into the sewer just to have something to talk about. After they finished removing the body, they rolled it inside. The coroner opened the doors for us and assaulted me with his creepy ass personality.

  “Hello, everyone! Come into my frozen den. We have women on the left and men on the right bring us your dead bodies and we’ll slice them up just right.”

  I looked at Jack and shook my head.

  “See, weird. “

  Jack laughed softly and shook his head in return.

  “Come right on in. We always love getting company.”

  “We?”

  “Yes all of us.”

  “You mean you and the dead bodies?”

  “I like to refer to them as the soulless. You know because their soul has gone to Heaven.”

  “Not all souls go to Heaven, Doc, sorry to inform you.”

  “Yeah, I know but I’m hopeful.”

  “Well, we’re here just to accompany the body. I know you haven’t had any time to thoroughly review it but we were hoping you could give us an idea of what happened in an unofficial capacity. No jokes this time.”

  “To answer your earlier question, they chopped off the head but as you can see the larynx has been injured, I would say from being choked unconscious before they decapitated her. How can I make this determination? Your killer was kind enough to leave his hand print, here.”

  He reaches for what I refer to as an ultraviolet light, turns it on and shines the light on her neck. Revealing an almost perfect outline of a hand.

  “See, these marks are fingers. I know this isn’t easy for you to view but see here.”

  He points to the neck of our dead body.

  “They didn’t cut the neck off down by the clavicle area. They severed the head up here right under the chin. It looks like they raised the head up to get a better angle and cut the head off. As you can see, this leaves a significant portion of the neck intact. This is the hyoid bone. It’s broken, but this could’ve been done when they decapitated her. The bruising, the amount of blood, I believe this person was decapitated while they were still alive.”

  “Why do you believe she was alive when they started to remove her head?”

  “The amount of blood, she was covered in it. I haven’t gotten the results back from her typing, but I’ll guarantee you it was h
er own blood. If she were dead before they removed her head, the blood wouldn’t be so vast. Her heart was still pumping blood as they cut off her head. Her jugular vein spewed out blood as her heart still pumped. I believe they were choking here and she passed out. They thought she was dead and started to cut off her neck. I can imagine their surprise when her body jolted upwards and she started screaming.”

  “What kind of people could decapitate someone while they’re still alive?”

  “I was going to say, you’re dealing with a monster. To remove her head from a live being is reprehensible.”

  “I’m afraid to ask. What else can you tell us?”

  “I can tell you, she hadn’t been dead long. The blood looks shiny and like a dark mass. It’s just now starting to separate. I’ll further examine and send over my report.”

  “Okay, thanks, Doc.”

  Jack and I walked back to our cruiser and engaged in our usual cruiser chit chat.

  “I have an idea.”

  “Spill.”

  “There’s a new club in town. Since they were probably in the life, I was thinking we’d go by there and ask about our murdered women.”

  “It can’t hurt. We can hit some others in the area as well.”

  “All right, let’s move.”

  I turned the car around and started toward our destination.

  CLUB HEDONIST

  GOCHIAN, ILL

  Trevor

  When we got close to the club, I knew this was one of the hottest spots in Gochian. There were cars lined up on both sides of the street. You could hear the music a mile away and people were everywhere. The closer we got to the club, it was like driving through a maze. With tortoise like speed, we navigated our cruiser through the sea of faces and bodies standing outside. Everyone was having a good time, smiles were like decorations on a Christmas tree.

  I thought this was going to be the typical club scene. Nowhere to park, a makeshift parking lot, broken down building with one way in and no way out if there’s a fire. And, the typical doors with blacked out glass that don’t close all the way. I can see from the crowd, I was wrong.

  After circling the block several times, I was lucky enough to find a place to park. We got out and started making our way to the club entrance. What I saw wasn’t the usual low rent club in the ghetto. It was a well-constructed two story building with a smooth completely paved parking lot. It wasn’t the low budget half gravel and grass parking space they usually have. The next thing that caught my eye was the landscaping surrounding the door. There was grass on both sides of the building surrounded by a little rock wall and the walkway up to the doors was concrete. The doors were stainless steel with two people outside to open the door for you. Oddly enough, the music we heard before we arrived wasn’t coming from the club. It was from the cars outside. When we got up to the doors of the club, we couldn’t hear anything coming from inside. I almost had to pinch Jack to make sure neither of us were hallucinating. When we reached the doors two well-dressed gentleman addressed us.

  “Good evening, gentlemen. How can I help you?”

  “We were going in.”

  “Uh, sorry. You’re not dressed appropriately. You need a suit jacket and tie and better shoes than those.”

  “Are you cops?”

  With smiles, we flashed our badges.

  “You got us.”

  “We’d like to speak with the manager.”

  “Oh, yeah. By speak with we mean go inside.”

  “One second, please.” We didn’t want to wait, but we didn’t have a warrant. We were surrounded by several hundred people who I was certain were accustomed to committing crimes to make a living. And, this looked like a group of people who could make you disappear and it wouldn’t even scratch their conscience, if they even have one.

  After several minutes, he came back out.

  “The manager doesn’t really have time for this, but we have nothing to hide and we’re always willing to give a little time to the boys in blue. Come this way, please.”

  We followed him inside and two more well-dressed gentlemen were waiting to escort us to meet with the manager. They made certain we took the less scenic route. They wouldn’t take us through the club. They took us what could only be described as walking behind the club. There was a wall separating the club from the entrance. One of the well-dressed gentlemen had a walkie talkie and radioed to the manager to let him know we were waiting. A few seconds later a man comes through the door and introduces himself.

  “Hello detectives. I’m Roman Volkov.”

  His Russian accent was as thick as snow showers during January in Gochian. It was difficult to understand him. He knew it too because he asked us to wait there. He cracked the door, said something in Russian and a lady walked out to greet us.

  “Hello detectives. I’m Valerie Orlov. I’ll be speaking for Mr. Volkov. How can we assist the police tonight?”

  “I’m sure you’ve heard on the news about the murdered women in the city.”

  “Yes of course.”

  “We wanted to know if you’ve had any of your girls just stop coming to work?”

  She speaks to him in Russian and he responds.

  “He doesn’t really deal with day to day activities.”

  “I have the roster for employees.” The manager says.

  “You are?”

  “Manager.”

  “I don’t see anyone suspiciously absent. Nothing to give us reason to worry.”

  “Have you seen anyone with tattoos like these? Or this lady here?”

  The professor had given me a picture of our missing Amsterdam girl and this is what I showed them. I could tell from the manager’s expression something caught his eye. He knew her.

  “Do you recognize her or the tattoos?”

  “Uh, no detective. Can’t say that I do.”

  “Hmmm, okay. Is there a reason why we can’t go inside the club?”

  “Certainly not detectives.”

  The boss interjects and his interpreter speaks to us in English.

  “We run a reputable business.”

  “Mind if we take a look around to confirm that?”

  “Why the harassment, detectives?”

  “No harassment just conducting an investigation are you unwilling to assist us with it or not?”

  “Of course, yes. Just wondering why you’re conducting it here?”

  “Is something going on illegal in there because you’re very protective of that area.”

  Jack and I turned to walk back toward the club space. They followed swiftly behind us. We got to the door and there was another we’ll dressed gentlemen standing there. The manager and owner, we assumed, gave the go ahead for him to step away and let us through.

  When we walked into this well protected area, it was another surprise. I soon realized Club Hedonist wasn’t just a strip club. It was a real gentlemen’s club. At least that’s the image it was trying to project. There weren’t any tables only booths. The floors were polished hardwood. There was a wait staff dressed in black pants and white shirts with a ties and a black apron that covered their body hung around their necks. The only thing separating this from an upscale restaurant on the magnificent mile was the stage. The stage made it a strip club. We walked around and saw nothing. It was like hearing the principal’s footsteps coming down the hall while you and your friends are taking a smoke break in the bathroom; everyone scatters to find a place to hide.

  “Hmm, a club this large and it looks expensive to maintain I’m wondering where is everyone?”

  “Some nights are busier than others.”

  “This night is desolate, I can’t believe you can stay in business long with too many more nights like this.”

  “This is an off night. I guess our customers aren’t fond of the police.” I turned to look at him.

  “I guess not.”

  “Kid, there’s nothing to see here tonight.”

  “You’re right. We’ll be going now.”
r />   “Right this way detectives.”

  We were ushered outside and the owner spoke to us in that thick Russian accent.

  “I hope this will include our business.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see.”

  We walked back to our cruiser, got in and started back to the station.

  “Kid, you know something’s going on in that club, don’t you?”

  “As sure as I know the sun is going to come up tomorrow.”

  “Any thoughts on how to find out what it is?”

  “Working on that.”

  “He knew the girls.”

  “The manager, yes, he did.”

  “They’re destroying anything to link them to those dead bodies right now.”

  “Don’t I know it. We need to get a warrant.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  “Always partner.”

  Inside the Club...

  They watch the detectives leave.

  “He’s going to be trouble.”

  “For his sake, he’d better not.”

  “Time.”

  “Yes, how much time he has to live.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  YOU’RE HIDING SOMETHING

  GOCHIAN

  Trevor

  Our visit to Club Hedonist rubbed me the wrong way. Their over protectiveness over the inside of the club didn’t sit too well with me at all. Normally when we visit businesses like those, we never have any issues with the management or owners. We ask to take a look around and they roll out the red carpet for us. I don’t mean they’re handing over their books or receipts, but they allow us entry with no problems. The only time we encounter a issue is when they’re hiding something. While I was there, I got the feeling Club Hedonist was hiding more than just a little something. I’m determined to find out exactly what.

  I got up this morning focused on getting inside that club, but before I could put my stuff down, my phone was ringing. Whenever the phone starts ringing before the day officially begins, I know it’s going to be a long one. I threw my things down, planning to sort through them latter. Out of breath, I answered the phone just in time.

  “Alvarez.”

  “Hi Lieutenant, this is Doctor Coleman, how are you?”

  “Good doc how are things in the deep freeze?”

  “Cold as Ice, how ‘bout up top?”

  “Hot as hell.”