The Curse of 1977 (Book 2)

Chapter 25

With rolled up sleeves and a shirt that was halfway unbuttoned due to the exhausting heat inside the police station, David, with a manila folder in one hand, came out of his office with a tenacious, almost hateful expression on his face. To others, it appeared as if he was completely enraged, but on the inside, David was a washout of emotion.

Outside his office were officers rushing about like busy bees in a hive. Phones were alive with such vibrant energy that one who wasn't in the know would have thought an international attack had just taken place.

In David's eyes it was all a blustery commotion that he was more than accustomed to being from Chicago; but there was something else that was digging deep into his inner being. Just the simple feeling of the work place that morning seemed to collapse upon him. It was oppressive and downright stifling to where just simply standing in place seemed laborious.

Before he could even take one step to the left, David spotted Officer Fitzpatrick carrying a brown box to his desk. Ever so curious, David made it a point to recklessly bypass everyone else just to reach Alan who was steadily packing his belongings into his box.

"Good morning, Officer." David presented himself from behind.

Startled, Alan spun around. With a miniature American flag in his right hand, the man said, "Oh, I didn't see you standing there."

"I didn't mean to surprise you." David said while observing Alan packing all sorts of belongings into the box, from pictures of his family, to an autographed baseball.

Alan was wearing a plaid, button down shirt and polyester pants, while on top of his head was a Cincinnati Reds ball cap. David wasn't dull, he could very well tell just what was happening.

"Crazy morning, huh," Alan asked while carelessly stuffing more and more items into his box.

David watched before saying, "So tell me, how did the captain take your sudden departure?"

Alan suddenly stopped what he was doing before he turned around and sighed, "I told Brickman that I was getting sick and tired of this job, but apparently the old man didn't believe me. Sometimes you have to show a person just how serious you are."

"I was just wondering if you're departure would have anything to do with what took place yesterday."

Alan stood and looked at David for a second or two. "Look, life is just too short for this."

"I watched the press conference this morning on TV." David mentioned. "It sounds like we may have a pretty serious problem on our hands."

Sniggering, Alan replied, "Problem? That broad of a lieutenant Mayor understated one helluva fact if you ask me."

"Don't you think that's a bit too harsh?"

"Are you kidding? This whole town is...I gotta go." Alan hastily remarked before picking up his box and rushing away.

David made sure to follow the man off the floor and down the stairs. "I read the file on your partner, Linus Bruin!" David shouted.

Instantly, Alan stopped trotting down the steps. His face was turned in the opposite direction while he leaned against the stairs' railing

"There's a lot more to this than what I read, isn't there, Officer?"

Alan slowly turned his head. "You don't give up, do you?"

Cracking a salty grin, David said, "Not when there's a story that hasn't been told all the way."

One officer after another passed the two men in the stairwell before Alan eventually cocked his head downwards indicating that he wanted David to follow him.

They both carried on until they made it to the stuffy parking garage. David kept a close pace right behind Alan who was skulking about as though he were expecting someone or something to jump out from the parked vehicles at any moment.

Waving his hand in front of his face, David exhaled, "Is it always this miserable down here?"

Stopping beside a light blue and white Volkswagen van, Alan placed his box down onto the ground and rushed to say, "Only when someone is playing 'Deepthroat'." He bobbed his head up and down and all around before looking back at David and uttering quietly, "Look, there's only two reasons as to why I'm even talking to you. Number one, it's my last day. And two, I'd rather not have my best friend's good name dragged through the mud like it has been these past few months.

"Skimming through his folder, David exclaimed, "I can understand that, but what took place back in February could possibly have implications as to what may be happening here today."

Alan peeked over David's shoulder. "There's a very good reason that I'm packing both myself and my family and leaving this city. Something is happening, and you're right, it could have something to do with what happened months ago."

"It says on page twenty-two something about you leaving your piece inside one of the squad cars." David eluded. "Did you leave it inside the car so Bruin could use it that night?"

Rolling his eyes, Alan flippantly replied, "I had a bad habit of forgetting to log in my piece at the end of my shift. Sue me." He shrugged. "But that night...I was in such a rush to get home, it just completely skipped my mind."

"But Bruin did use your gun to kill this Isaac Mercer, did he not?"

"Yeah, he did." Alan lamented. "But something else is erroneous in all this."

"How so," David squared his eyes.Alan dropped his head for a moment before glancing at David.

"Linus was a damn good cop. Yeah, he went to a looney bin for a few months, but that was a totally unrelated event. The day after he took out Mercer, he just walked out of the interrogation room and came down here to his car. When I got down here he was holding his gun and crying."

"He was that shaken up?"

"No, no." Alan shook his head. "Linus had to take a life back in '72. Sure, we all go through the motions whenever we're forced to take someone out. But when I pulled him out of that car that morning...there was something different inside that man's eyes that I had never seen before. And I'll be damned if I didn't see the same look on Gloria Cohen's face that day we found her down in that basement."

"I'd love to know more about that whole Cummins' incident."

"Forget Cummins. He was just a nobody compared to Mercer."

"How do you mean?"

Alan looked around the garage and said, "Linus and I went to see Mercer the night before everything went down. The kid didn't look right. Linus mentioned something about Gloria being more afraid of Mercer than she was of Cummins."

"Is it possible that Mercer could have been an accomplice along with Cummins?"

Biting his lip, Alan answered, "I highly doubt it. There's no evidence that would point to collusion. But I do know for a fact that Linus saw something inside that house that night he killed Mercer. We all saw

his fiancée, and even she was all screwed up after that, both physically and emotionally. Linus never, ever mentioned to anyone what he saw, but for the love of God, I just can't imagine taking my own life over it."

David's legs were becoming unsteady at that point. He wanted to keep Alan speaking for as long as he could, even if it meant inconveniencing the man beyond his threshold of tolerance.

"Does anyone know where this fiancée is?" David queried.

"Only God knows, but I can't stick around here anymore."

"Hold on, what do you mean?" David held out his hand. "You're up and leaving right in the middle of a city-wide siege."

"Siege," Alan's eyes popped wide open. "Are you kidding me? I thought I saw everything months ago when they carried those Sanders' girls out of that house, but this is something unbelievable!"

David remained still while studying Alan's wild eyes that wouldn't cease from jittering from side to side.

"There's something else you're not telling me, Officer."

Alan slammed his back into his van. "I'm sick and tired of seeing dead kids!" He hollered. "Last night...that's all I saw. I got five kids of my own. How do I as a father explain all this to them? My wife's niece, or I should say, our niece, Meredith, she was killed last night, too. She was such a good kid. All she ever wanted to do was help people. And this is what she gets for it?" He began to weep.

David crossed his arms and scraped the cement floor with his shoe before saying, "Thank God not everyone last night was murdered."

"Sure, but Meredith was torn to bits and pieces!" Alan flailed his arms all around. "Where is this coming from all of the sudden? This city didn't have any of this before last Thanksgiving. One moment you're

tracking down a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, the next you're chasing after some Godforsaken animal! And all anyone can tell you about it is that it's big and hairy! That sure narrows it down!"

David wanted to say something to the man that would possibly console him, but it wasn't his place to do so. Rather, he just stared at Alan's sentiment like it had been the first time he had ever witnessed a man trying to conceal his tears.

"You know, I never bought into the whole notion of evil before. But when I saw Gloria and Linus' faces...that all changed." Alan wiped his eyes. "What Linus saw in that house that night stuck with him till the day he died. We all did all we could as both colleagues and friends to keep him around...but he just couldn't be comforted. Now what makes you think I want to stick around and allow myself to go up the wall like he did?"

Stepping forward to Alan, David adamantly explained, "Look, all I know is that ever since I've been here in this town I've arrived at the scene of madness. And no one seems to be able to give me any kind of rational answers."

"That's because there are no rational answers!" Alan banged his fist against the van. "Haven't you heard a word I said?" He then clapped his hands in David's face. "I'm leaving because I don't want myself or my family to be dead in the next few days! I'm taking us all as far away from this city as possible. All I want to do is watch the Reds play, drink a beer and be left alone. If this animal wants this city, it can have it."

From there, Alan picked up his box and opened the driver's side door. David impatiently watched as the man hopped inside, slammed the door and cut on the vehicle.

"I need more than that, Mr. Fitzpatrick!" He urgently insisted.

Before putting the van in gear, Alan looked over. "There are two things that I'm going to tell you. One of the two you'll carry with you for the rest of your life."

"I'm listening."

"The other day when you and Brice were having your little pow-wow, did he happen to mention anything about a recording?"

Shaking his head, David replied, "No...no, it doesn't ring a bell."

"One of the many sick things that Cummins would do before killing his victims was record himself raping them. The night he was slaughtered, he left his tape recorder on. The recorder happened to catch the beast itself killing him. That same recording is in the archive room."

"There's a recording of the thing?" David appeared stunned.

Nodding his head, Alan said, "That's right. Captain Brickman said that it sounded like it was from the mouth of hell. And believe me, he was right."

"Are you telling me that this recording could possibly be the key to finding this thing?"

Alan put the van in gear and began rolling backwards, but not before he turned to David and said out loud, "Linus Bruin was a good man! And I know for a fact that he didn't kill any man that night!"

Suddenly, David's legs became antsy. He didn't even stand long enough to watch Alan pull out of his space before he turned and raced back towards the stairwell.

As he rampaged his way up David bumped into two officers who were walking the same stairs. "Looking for the archive room," David panted.

"It's on the sixth floor." One of the officers pointed upwards.

Without as much as a "thank you" David ascended the stairwell with the vigor of a twelve year old on steroids until at last he reached the desired floor.

Sweating and out of breath, David traveled down the hallway until he saw the words Archive Room painted on the wall beside him with an arrow pointing straight ahead. He followed the arrow until he reached a door.

David stepped right in to find a quiet, compacted room full of seven tall shelves that were all stacked against one another so tightly that scooting across each row required a person to be paper thin in width.

Cataloged on each shelf were twelve inch sized, clunky audiotapes labeled in alphabetical order. Some were recordings of trial proceedings, while others were of interrogations. David sifted through until he came across the C section.

The man's eyes cycled through each and every tape until he found exactly what he had hoped to find. The very instant his eyes connected with Cummins, David hurriedly ripped the tape from out of its slot.

"Hello?" A female voice called out from around the corner.

Taken by surprise, David dropped the tape to the floor. He bent over to pick it up. The moment he raised back up he saw Officer Shirley Donaldson standing there right in front of him with an alarmed, yet amused look on her chubby face.

"Oh my," she laughed. "I knew I heard someone walk in here, but I wasn't quite sure."

"Sorry about that." David huffed. "I was just looking for something."

Extending her hand, Shirley said, "You must be the new inspector."

Wearing an impatient smile, David shook her hand. "That's me. David Ortega."

"Everyone said that you've been buzzing about the department for the past week or so. I'm glad to finally meet you."

David could sense just by her lighthearted, homely demeanor that she was possibly the one and only coherent human being that he had encountered since being at the Cypress police department.

"I, uh, I just came by to grab this here tape." David held the object up for her to see.

Shirley eyeballed the labeling on the tape before looking back at David in a strange manner and saying, "Oh...that one."

Sighing, David replied, "Don't tell me that you have a story to tell on this one, too."

Shirley's eyes took a more doleful turn before she said, "I was there that morning we found that recording."

David's stomach plunged at that second. "Oh really," he lit up. "Tell me, what was it like? Because to be perfectly honest with you, all I can get from some of the others here is just a lot of back and forth riddles."

Shaking her head from side to side, Shirley said, "It was a very sad day. That's exactly why I chose to be transferred here to Archives rather than go through any of that again."

"Do you have any clue as to what this thing is that's killing everyone?"

Blushing, Shirley responded, "I don't even like thinking about the thing. Just knowing that it could possibly be here in this city makes my skin crawl."

"But you saw what it did to that Cummins man, right?"

"Thankfully I only saw the coroners carry what was left of him out inside a plastic bag. It wasn't so much that sight that made me want to transfer, as it was seeing poor Gloria Cohen."

"Has anyone heard from her since that incident? The reason I ask is because it's a possibility that she could have seen the thing, and that she could I.D. it so we could have a pinpoint description of it."

"We all lost track of her, I'm afraid." Shirley's face began to sulk. "I just remember the way she looked that morning in that basement. I don't ever recall seeing such...fear in a person's face before."

David examined the woman before him who seemed like she was drifting far away from him in spirit. Something inside of him wanted to continue to press her for even more inquires, but he held himself back simply by reminding himself of what he was holding in his hand.

"Look, I don't want to hold you up any longer." David said. "I really need to check this out."

"Oh no, that's fine." Shirley immediately perked right back up. "You know there was another recording, don't you?"

David nearly dropped the tape to the floor all over again. "You don't say."

"Yep, the guys found it at the school the other day." Shirley said. "I guess the teachers that were there just happened to be taping themselves right before the animal attacked them."

"Where's this tape now, Shirley?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Shirley humbly answered, "Like a lot of things in life, it up and vanished."

"Vanished, you say?" David raised an eyebrow.

Whimsically rolling her eyes, Shirley said, "Yep...vanished into thin air. That's what usually happens to evidence around here sometimes."

Cracking a grin, David replied, "Believe me, coming from where I'm from, I'm all too familiar with the subject." David then turned and began for the door. "Well, Officer, thank you for your help."

Following the man, Shirley happily said, "It's no problem at all. Anytime you need to come back here I'll be sitting over there at my desk."

Looking all around at the various shelves, David marveled, "Yeah, a person could spend all day and night in here. It's like a history book come to life almost."

"Just one thing, Mr. Ortega," Shirley stopped walking.

David, too, stopped before turning around and facing the woman.

"Anytime you need anything in this room, I'd advise you to retrieve it before the sun goes down for the evening."

David stared at the lady whose once pleasant deportment had within the span of three seconds morphed into a deadpan, worried glaze.

"And why is that, Officer?" David placed his hands on his hips.

"Well, over the past few months, some of the others that have been in here after dark have experienced certain things."

"Things like what?"

"Like hearing voices, only to discover there was no one else in here besides them."

David just chuckled, "Great, not only does Cypress have wild animals running rampant in the streets, now this city is haunted."

Smiling herself, Shirley tossed up her hands, "I can't explain it, but all I know is that I make sure to scoot out of here before sunset every evening. One officer even said that he saw a pair of glowing eyes right over there in that corner." She pointed next to the door.

David only shook his head in disbelief before saying, "Officer, we're gonna get to the bottom of this whole mess before we all lose our minds."

"I sure hope so, because I'm getting far too old to be so scared anymore." Shirley laughed.

"You have a good day." David said as he walked out the door. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

"You do the same, and it was great meeting you!"

As David shut the door behind him all the man could do was just stand in place and wonder to himself. Within his right hand he had something that his ears wanted to hear more than anything else in the world, and yet, speaking to both Fitzpatrick and Donaldson in such rapid succession only made his head spin.

David looked back at the door behind him only to hear a loud thud come from the other side. The sudden noise caused the man to jump back a bit. It could have been anything, he hoped.