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TwilightEyes
Asst Adminastrator
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 92
Location: South Africa
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 Posted:
Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:11 am |
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Detective Cassandra Beckett felt a sudden cold shiver run the length of her spine. She wasn't one to feel queasy at crime scenes, but this latest spat of murders had every detective in the force losing sleep. Turning to have another look at the body of the latest victim, she froze.
“Okay, who moved the head!”
All eyes in the room automatically focused on the body. The victim's head, which had been partially attached when they'd arrived a short while ago, was gone.
Silence reigned king until Cassandra lost her temper.
“Is this a joke to you lot? Do you think it's funny to play around with dead bodies?” she virtually spat at her colleagues.
More silence as each of the other three officers in the room studied his colleagues with suspicion.
“Right. So this is just one big joke. I can't believe this! Do you realise that we haven't taken pictures or looked for clues on the body yet? Whoever you are, you've quite possibly screwed our chances of gaining any clues off this body!” Cassandra glared at each person in turn.
Nervously clearing his throat, one finally spoke up, “I've been standing next to Darren since I last saw the head. So I know that it wasn't him messing around now.”
Darren nodded in confirmation.
Cassandra raised her eyebrows at John, who shook his head, “I just got here, Beckett.”
Quickly thinking back through the last few minutes, she realised that she'd heard John enter the room for the first time just as she'd discovered that the head was missing.
“Darren ... Carl ... I'd better not find out that the two of you are lying to me. Find it.”
As the other three began to search the small flat for the missing head, Cassandra studied each in turn. She had worked with these men for almost two years now, and none of them had ever displayed the kind of sick sense of humour you'd have to have to do this sort of thing. They were also all very serious about their jobs. A low-pitched feminine giggle filled the room for a few seconds and then was gone.
The others turned to look at Cassandra, the looks on their faces clearly saying that they thought she was mad to be laughing at a time like this.
A moment of realisation.
“The murderer's still here.” Cassandra mouthed, silently motioning each officer to a different room in the flat, as she started towards the outside door.
###
Cassandra let herself into Leonie's large flat and shouted a greeting to the other woman before depositing her backpack on the floor next to the door and dropping in an exhausted heap onto the couch. A minute or two went by before Leonie appeared from the spare room, which she used as her studio. The paint-covered body didn't appeal to Cassandra tonight nearly as much as it usually did.
Bending down and quickly brushing her lips against Cassandra's, Leonie asked, “Wine?”
“Definitely.”
Cassandra closed her eyes while the other woman poured two glasses of wine.
“Here you go. Hey, what's wrong?”
Cassandra swirled the dark red liquid in her glass, staring into it for a few moments before replying, “Ag, it's nothing. Work stuff.”
“I'm a good listener, you know.”
“You know I can't talk about my work.”
Leonie rolled her eyes, “Oh c'mmon Cass, who am I going to tell? I have no friends, remember?”
“I can't, Leonie.”
“Fine.” Leonie sat down on the floor next to Cassandra, rested her head against Cassandra's legs and drank her wine a little too fast.
“How was your day?” Cassandra unconsciously matched Leonie gulp for gulp.
“I spoke to my Internet friend again today. She's given me a fantastic idea for a new painting. That's what I was working on before you arrived.”
Leonie's enthusiasm would have been catchy had Cassandra not been so engrossed in thoughts of headless corpses.
“Show me.”
“Not until it's done.” Leonie smiled coyly, “Anyway, you don't like dark, morbid stuff like I paint.”
“I 'spose.” She ran her right hand through Leonie's long, black hair.
Leonie brought the bottle of wine to the couch and resumed her position on the floor by Cassandra's feet. She gazed up into Cassandra's eyes for a few moments before pouring them each another glass. She looked up with an innocent smile that Cassandra knew wasn't so innocent and asked, “So, what are we doing tonight?”
“Let's just talk for a bit and then go to sleep.”
Leonie frowned, “Just sleep?”
Noticing that her glass was almost halfway empty already, Cassandra shrugged.
“Okay, that's it. Tell me what happened at work today. If it's bothering you so much that you just want to sleep then it's worth breaking one stupid rule over. Anyway, nobody will ever know that you told me.”
Cassandra considered this. It was true, nobody would ever know that she had broken the department rules and told Leonie about the case. Leonie was trustworthy, and what she had said earlier about having no friends to tell was true.
“We have a serial killer on our hands. She's murdered five men already.”
“She?”
Draining her glass, Cassandra thoughtfully reached for the bottle before continuing, “Yes. It's a woman. Can you believe that?”
“How do you know it's a woman?”
“Well, she has sex with her victims before killing them. And she, erm ... she removes their heads after, and sometimes during, sexual intercourse.”
Leonie covered her mouth with her right hand, “Oh, that's awful!”
“If that isn't bad enough, she takes the heads with her when she leaves. Today we found the first head still at the murder scene, but it was only attached by a few muscle fibres.”
Shuddering, Leonie said, “But you weren't this upset last night. Was it finding the head that upset you so much today?”
“No, it was losing the head that's upset me!” Cassandra finished her third glass of wine, noticing that she'd already had one more glass than Leonie had had. She stood up and began pacing in front of the couch.
“Losing it? How on earth did you do that?” Leonie was incredulous.
“The bitch was still there when we arrived. We obviously got there sooner than she'd expected and she hadn't had time to remove the head properly. She took it right from under our noses! Leonie, there were three of us in the room at the time and not one of us saw or heard her!”
“Wow ... this sounds like something out of a horror movie.”
“Tell me about it! Mantis seems almost supernatural after today.” A tremor ran through Cassandra's body, causing goose-bumps to pop up on her bare arms.
“Mantis?” Leonie cast her gaze downwards, taking a slow, deliberate sip of her wine.
“Yes, that's the name we've given her. Because of the way she removes her victims' heads. It's what the Preying Mantis insect does.”
“I see.”
“And we can't figure out how she does it, either.” Cassandra's shoulders slumped forwards.
“How she does what? Rips the heads off?”
Not noticing Leonie's usage of the word “rips” and what it implied, Cassandra answered her, “Yes. The coroner says that it looks as if the heads have simply been ripped off the bodies. But that's impossible. Especially for a woman to do! The coroner also says that there are puncture wounds on the bodies, made while the men were still alive. And ... the heads were removed while they were alive, too.” Cassandra continued to pace, “If we knew what she was using to remove the heads, then we'd have something to go on.”
Leonie was silent and Cassandra continued, “We've been researching the insect, trying to find some clues. There are a few things that could be vaguely helpful, but I think we've really we've come up with a whole lot of nothing.”
“And what are those few things?”
Feeling light-headed, Cassandra sat down again, “Well, the Preying Mantis is a predatory hunter, for one. Secondly, if the male Mantis fails to approach the female in an appropriate manner, then there's a good chance that she'll eat him instead of mating with him.” she sighed, “But, the female only rips the male's head off about five to thirty-one percent of the time. Most of the time she'll only eat him if she's hungry and there's a lack of other food.”
Cassandra picked up the wine bottle and brought it to her lips, finally noticing the contemplative look on Leonie's face as she took a swig.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
A slight hesitation, then “Just that I can see why you're so tired. You've been thinking too hard about these murders. Maybe you need to rest your brain a bit? Some time-out?”
“Maybe, yes. I'm stumped, though. I've never seen this MO before.” Cassandra stood up again, unsteady on her feet.
“Let's go sleep.”
“Okay.”
###
Unable to sleep, Cassandra tried to figure out what it was that bothered her so much about her conversation with Leonie earlier. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she suspected that she finally had a clue staring her right in the face.
Tossing and turning appealed to Cassandra even less than it does to most people, and the thought popped into her head to go sneak a look at Leonie's mystery paintings while the woman slept. She knew that she'd never be forgiven if she was caught, but the more she thought about it the more badly she wanted to see those paintings.
Slowly easing herself out of Leonie's sleeping grasp, she quietly slipped out of the bed and looked over her shoulder to make sure that Leonie was still in dreamland.
Tip-toeing into the spare bedroom, Leonie's studio, Cassandra pulled the door closed behind her before walking to the window and opening the blinds to allow light from the street lamp outside into the room. Four canvases were propped up against the far wall, each covered in a thin sheet. A fifth canvas was still on the easel, and Cassandra could could see that this was the one which Leonie was still busy painting. Excited to see what Leonie had been working on, she moved closer for a better look.
In utter shock and horror Cassandra took an involuntary step backwards.
###
The ringing of her cell phone woke Cassandra before the alarm did the next morning. She answered with a groggy, “Yes?”
The voice on the other end belonged to Darren, “We have another body.”
“Shit. So soon? Same MO?”
“Same MO.”
Cassandra listened to the details as she quickly dressed, then scribbled a short note for Leonie and stuck it on the front door as she left.
###
“It's about time you got here.”
“Whatever.” Cassandra massaged her pounding temple.
“Rough night?” asked Daren.
“Where's the body?”
“In the bedroom, of course.”
“Which is where?”
“Oh.” Darren pointed to a door on their left, and Cassandra marched towards it.
As she entered the bedroom and laid eyes on the naked body sprawled over blood-stained white satin sheets, she heard a mumbled “Sheesh, what's up with her?” from the lounge area. Ignoring Darren and covering her mouth and nose to mask some of the stench, she moved closer to the bed to get a better look at the headless corpse.
John spared her a quick glance, before continuing to snap pictures of the scene.
Staring at the body, vivid images of Leonie's paintings forced their way into her mind. She hunched over and dry-heaved, only realising what she was doing when she felt John's hand on her shoulder and heard him ask, “Beckett?”
“I'm fine.” she gasped.
“You don't look fine.” came Darren's voice from behind her, “What's going on in here?”
“A crime scene investigation! Now, what have you got so far?”
“Don't change the subject, Beckett. You were about to puke your breakfast up.” Darren was not going to let this go.
“I didn't have breakfast. Are we going to discuss menial things or are we going to try to catch this woman?”
“You're the hardest ass among us, Beckett. It's worrying to see you this way.” John said softly.
“I'm human.”
“No. It's more than that. Spit it out.” said Darren
“He shat himself when he died, Darren! Don't tell me that doesn't make you queasy? I said I'm fine, dammit!”
“The other victims did the same, Beckett.”
“Yes, but not in such a small, closed-up place!”
“Okay then, but if you feel that you can't handle this case anymore...” Darren's voice trailed off.
“This is my case. You even think about taking it away from me and I'll make you pray to be Mantis' next victim. I hope we understand each other.”
Darren glared at her, but nodded in comprehension.
###
Leonie answered the door for Cassandra that evening with a questioning look on her petite face.
“I left my key here this morning.” Cassandra explained.
“Oh, okay then. Let me just get this paint off my hands. I finished my painting already!”
“So soon? That must be the fastest that you've ever finished one!”
“I know,” Leonie called over her shoulder from her position at the sink in the open-plan kitchen, “My Internet friend said that if I could show it to her on camera first thing tomorrow morning that she'd give me another idea!”
“What's your friend's name, by the way?”
“Hold on a minute.”
Cassandra poured them each a glass of wine and then sat down at the kitchen counter to watch Leonie dish them each a plate of pasta and green salads. Leonie was stalling, she could sense it.
“I ordered take-out. I hope you don't mind? I didn't have time to cook and paint today.”
Cassandra mumbled through a mouthful of pasta, “It's good.”
They ate in silence for a while, Cassandra wondering if she should broach the topic of Leonie's painting, or rather snoop a bit further when Leonie fell asleep later. Keeping in mind that Leonie had avoided mentioning her Internet friends' name, she decided to drop it for the moment.
“I'm really tired. I think I'm going to take a shower then head off to bed. Can I crash here again?”
“Sure.”
###
The Land of Nod called to Cassandra that night, but she resisted the urge to sleep. Exhausted, she dragged herself out of bed as soon as she was certain that Leonie was asleep.
She closed the studio door softly, leaving the blinds closed this time. Waiting for the computer to boot up, she turned to face the covered paintings. The latest addition was still on the easel, probably drying. Cassandra had a ridiculous notion that turning her back on the painting would be a bad thing to do.
Sitting sideways on the chair, she stretched for the mouse and double clicked on Leonie's private messenger program. She was in luck; Leonie had set the program up to automatically log her in when she opened it. Going through the list of contacts that Leonie had saved would take a while; the woman spent half her life on the Internet, when she wasn't painting.
Cassandra was still scrolling down through the list when a private message popped up on the screen; someone was trying to talk to her. Well, they were trying to talk to Leonie, at any rate. This was really bad. Leonie's friend would probably ask her why she'd not replied to their messages, and then she'd know that Cassandra had been snooping in the forbidden studio.
She clicked on the message and it popped up so that she could read it. The first thing that she noticed was the person's avatar; it was a picture of a female Preying Mantis in the process of ripping her mate's head off. It was all Cassandra could do not to gasp out loud. The user-name was “Mantisss”.
“Oh my ... am I in luck or am I in luck.” she whispered to herself.
The message said: You're up late. Did you finish the painting like I asked?
She typed in a reply: Yes, I did.
The response came quickly: Good girl. I'll describe today's one now then.
Cassandra head spun; she typed: Wait.
Mantisss: Yes?
Leonie aka Cassandra: I have a feeling that you're really committing these murders. Give me a preview of the next one. Describe the setting and the man, so that I can paint it before you do it. I want to see how close I get it.
Mantisss: A feeling, you say? I told you that the first time we spoke.
“Oh krap.” Cassandra mumbled to herself, “Let's see how well I know Leonie.”
Cassandra: I remember. But now I believe you.
Mantisss: It took you long enough. Ok, I'll do as you ask. But I want that painting for free, then.
Cassandra: Deal
###
Cassandra was already on her third cup of coffee for the day when John appeared at her desk.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Let's go grab some coffee.”
“You already have coffee.”
“John, “ Cassandra looked up on at him, her delicate features almost panic-stricken, “We can't talk here.” She looked around to make sure that nobody else had heard her almost frantic whisper.
“Is this about yesterday?”
“Yes. Can we go now?”
John nodded, and Cassandra quickly snatched up the papers she'd been pouring over.
They walked in silence to the coffee shop on the corner, and when they arrived Cassandra chose a table in the far corner.
“I did something really bad.” she whispered.
Before John could answer, a waitress came to take their orders.
“Two filter coffee's please. Cold milk.” John turned back to Cassandra.
“Okay, Beckett, what's going on. What did you do?”
Cassandra's pleading eyes looked directly into John's, and she suddenly wondered if confiding in the man was such a good idea. He met her gaze in silence, waiting.
“I broke a rule,” she let out a huge sigh, “but I think that my breaking that rule might lead us to Mantis.” she leaned back, her eyes not leaving his face.
“What? Why is that a secret?”
Cassandra handed her notes to John in silence, dropping one of the pages onto the table as she reached over. John scanned through her scrawled notes in silence, and laid the papers face down on the table as the waitress brought their coffee.
“Do you understand now?” Cassandra messed sugar over the table as she asked.
His jaw set in a grim line, he responded, “Yes.” Stirring his coffee he added, “Why me?”
“You know I don't have any friends at work, John. I can't make the same mistake again and speak to another person I shouldn't; I'm in enough trouble as it is. You're the one I trust the most out of everyone at work.”
“You realise you're making me an accessory to this?”
“Not if we catch Mantis.”
“And do you also realise that we'll have to hold Leonie for questioning? She'll probably be arrested.”
“I know. I'm sure she thinks it's not real.”
“That might not make a difference, and you know it.”
“Yes.”
John turned one of the pages over again and gazed at the rough sketch which Cassandra had drawn, then read the notes underneath again.
“So this is the next victim, you say?”
“I think so, yes.”
“And you're sure that this woman has no idea that it wasn't Leonie she was speaking to?”
“I'm sure. I wriggled the computer plug out of the wall, too, so it's not likely that Leonie will be able to speak to her again before we find her.”
“I don't know, Beckett. This is basically taking the law into our own hands. I really think that we should tell the others and work on this together.”
Cassandra's lower lip quivered, “I was hoping to arrest her before telling them. To help Leonie's chances, you know?”
“It's too dangerous, Beckett. Don't worry, I'll cover for you as much as I can, okay?”
John dropped some change onto the table to pay for both coffees, and stood up with an air of finality; he'd made his decision.
###
Cassandra and John waited in their superior's office for the others to arrive. Darren was the first, casting a suspicious glance Cassandra's way. Carl arrived a few minutes later.
“Right, so what's this all about?” the gray-haired man sitting behind the desk asked.
John stood up, “We have a lead on the Mantis case.”
The stunned silence in the room was almost deafening, and the exclamations which came after even more so.
The police captain held his hand up for silence, “Let him speak.”
John continued, “It's thanks to Beckett, actually. She discovered paintings that a friend of hers had painted. All depicting our Mantis murder scenes in a way that tells us that she was either present herself, or it was described to her in graphic detail.”
All eyes were now on Cassandra, and she was grateful that John had not mentioned her confiding in Leonie. That would be discovered soon enough, when they brought her in for questioning. “I don't think she knows it's real.”
“Anyway, our very own Sherlock Holmes here,” he winked at Cassandra, “went snooping further and logged onto this same friend's private messenger service. Beckett, would you like to take it from here?”
“I spoke to the killer over the Internet.” Cassandra paused as her colleagues gasped, “She described the next murder to me.”
“Wait,” Darren interrupted, “She described the next murder to a cop? That makes no sense to me.”
“She thought she was talking to my friend.”
Cassandra passed copies of her notes around to each person, and waited as they studied her crude sketch.
“It looks as if the next victim is going to be a small-built man. He's also a poor man, I think; the room Mantis described to Beckett has nothing in it other than a single bed and a small table, and the floors are described as being cement.”
“And she's given 'Leonie' two days to paint this. So we have two days before the next murder will take place.” Cassandra added.
“I'm sending someone to bring your friend in for questioning. I don't think that you should be present when she's questioned, Beckett.” the captain said matter-of-factly.
###
Two hours later, Darren informed them that he'd made the decision to hold Leonie until Mantis had been caught.
“What? You can't do that!”
“Oh yes I can. I suspect that there will be no 'next murder' with her locked in a jail cell.”
“You're wrong! We can't just sit back and do nothing!” Cassandra had the urge to hit him.
“What did she tell you?” interrupted Carl.
“According to her, the killer insists that she bites her victim's heads off.” Darren raised his eyebrows, “She says that she didn't believe this 'friend' but made the paintings because she needed the money and the woman had offered to buy them from her. They're supposed to be meeting up at some stage to arrange the sale.”
“Did she say when” John asked
“No, she says that the woman said 'When the time is right.'”
###
The others were trying to find a list of buildings which had cement floors, but Cassandra needed to speak to Leonie. She had lost her as both friend and lover, of this she had no doubt.
Cassandra stood in front of the cell, and Leonie didn't look up from her position on the bed. Cassandra guessed that she had seen who her visitor was from the corner of her eye, and was rightfully angry.
“I had no choice.”
Leonie said nothing.
“I couldn't ignore this, Leonie!”
Still not looking at Cassandra, Leonie spat out, “You were snooping in my private things!”
“I know, and I was wrong to do that. But I could not ignore what I saw and you know it!”
“Go away.” Leonie turned her back to Cassandra and refused to say another word.
Ten minutes later Cassandra left with a heavy feeling in her chest weighing her down.
She had barely left the section of the building where the holding cells were, when she heard Leonie scream in what sounded like terror. Drawing her gun and rushing back the way she'd just come, Cassandra saw someone hunched over Leonie. Seeing as Leonie was the only prisoner at the moment, she risked firing a warning shot. The figure seemed to vanish instantly, and Cassandra rushed over to Leonie's cell, only to find her ex-friend and lover sprawled on the bed minus her head. Her head lay in a bloody mess on the floor beside the bed, and blood spurted out of her neck.
Cassandra dropped her weapon and screamed. The next thing she knew, her colleagues were dragging her out of the cell section and trying to quiet her down, and eventually her screams turned to whimpers. A police-woman gave her a small blue pill and a glass of water, saying, “These work for me.”
Swallowing the pill, Cassandra muttered, “The head, her head ... her ... head ... gone ... the head ... how ... locked cell ... nobody but me .... how ... the head ... so much blood .... her head ....”
###
Cassandra awoke from a dream of pea-green mandibles closing over her head. A harsh light filtered in through the partially open door. She wasn't in her own bed. Looking around, she came to the quick realisation that she was in hospital. Recent memories of Leonie's still warm corpse came flooding back, and she struggled with the instant nausea. She had no idea what day of the week it was, nor how long she had been unconscious. She presumed that it was the night of the same day, but could not be sure of it.
Still groggy, she eventually noticed the dark humanoid shape in the corner to the left of her bed. She squinted through sleep-filled eyes, aware that she should be panicking and wondering if she was still caught up in a dream. The shape moved ever so slightly, and Cassandra's body jerked in the bed.
“Shhh,” said the whispered male voice, “I'm not here to hurt you.”
She tried to sit up, but the spinning in her head threatened to render her unconscious.
“You ... killed ... her.” she finally managed.
“No.”
The shape shifted again, and Cassandra caught a glimpse of what appeared to be gigantic feelers. She let out a strangled moan, shrinking back against the pillows in fear.
“The one you call 'Mantis' has moved on. You won't find her, no matter how hard you look.”
The idea of talking to what she could only perceive as a giant insect was ludicrous, but Cassandra could not help asking, “How?”
“With her mandibles.”
She closed her eyes for a second, and then screamed when she heard the insect-thing moving. Loud footsteps rushed to her side, and she opened her eyes in terror. A nurse hovered over her. A glance around the room told her that the insect-thing was gone.
Cassandra contemplated madness. |
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Chance favours the prepared mind. |
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Adorablevil
Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 125
Location: Winder, GA
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:38 pm |
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Short story? What the f' are you trying to do to me? Trying to make me loco are ya? Well, it was a cool story nonetheless. Are you the only person on here or what? So far I ain't run across no one else yet.
Much Love, David A. |
_________________
Poeta Nascitur, Non Fit!
www.lulu.com/adorable |
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TwilightEyes
Asst Adminastrator
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 92
Location: South Africa
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:45 pm |
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Hey, You're back!!!!!!!!!
So you read it all the way to the end huh ?
Guess what?
It's going to be published in the December issue of Something Wicked horror magazine  |
_________________
Chance favours the prepared mind. |
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Adorablevil
Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 125
Location: Winder, GA
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Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:50 am |
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Hey, congratulations on that! I am proud of you lass.
Much Love, David A. |
_________________
Poeta Nascitur, Non Fit!
www.lulu.com/adorable |
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TwilightEyes
Asst Adminastrator
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 92
Location: South Africa
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Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:33 am |
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Thank yoooooooooooooo |
_________________
Chance favours the prepared mind. |
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TwilightEyes
Asst Adminastrator
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 92
Location: South Africa
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| Posted:
Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:29 am |
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You twit you read this but just now you asked if it's on the boards!!! ROFL @ the Adorable One !!! |
_________________
Chance favours the prepared mind. |
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Adorablevil
Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 125
Location: Winder, GA
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Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:50 am |
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Oh yea, I forgot, I do that sometimes.
DWA |
_________________
Poeta Nascitur, Non Fit!
www.lulu.com/adorable |
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TwilightEyes
Asst Adminastrator
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 92
Location: South Africa
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Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:52 pm |
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ROFL funny boy! |
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