Delirium

The alarm clock pounded through my head, only serving as a reminder of how exhausted I felt. So I threw my legs over the bed, holding my head in my hands. My head hurt but it was a pain that my body had become accustomed to.

A hot shower pulled me out of exhaustion a bit but it wasn’t enough to make me look forward to today. Working at the precinct had begun to take its toll on me. Seeing such grisly murders in my hometown haunted me every day. It changed you seeing the dark side of the place you’d found peace in all your life.

A small part of me told myself that I was helping preserve the peace that I’d known all my life but as the days went on I began to believe it less and less.

I picked up the golf clubs thrown haphazardly on the table. They were my latest hobby as nothing kept my interest for very long. I never understood why that was…

I located a bowl that wasn’t terribly dirty and rinsed it out before pouring myself the last of my Cap’n Crunch. After about three swallows, I threw it down the garbage disposal grabbed my wallet and badge then disappeared out my front door, almost forgetting to lock it behind me.

The station wasn’t that far away from my house but I took my car anyway, stopping at the Tim Horton’s drive-thru for some coffee and several donuts. A small smile pulled at my lips at the irony of being a cop who eats coffee and donuts. But the smile was gone when I walked through the front doors to clock in.

“Morning Ricky.” Barbara smiled from behind the glass. She looked the same as always, brown hair with bright mint green eyes sitting comfortably on high blushed cheeks surrounding a plump set of lips.

She was one of the few things that made me smile anymore. I returned her cheery smile as I headed toward my desk.

I shuffled through some papers, organizing them by priority and setting to filling them out. I was behind on them and I wanted to finish them before the chief lodged himself up my ass. He was always a stressed man but he hated when things weren’t completed, said it adds to his stress level.

“Ricky, bout time you showed up.” The Chief of Police’s raspy voice resounding in my ear.

“Sorry boss…late night, couldn’t sleep.” I said rubbing my eyes hard.

“Well I hate to tell you this but I think you’ll be having a few more late nights. We got a case we need you on. It’s pretty…grotesque.”

I sighed heavily and stood to my feet following him to our conference room. There were other officers already waiting for the meeting to start, some I’d recognized from around the precinct other’s I had never seen before.

“This is Ricky, he’s the sharpest detective that I have and he has ties deep within the community so he would be a very big asset to this case.” He said ushering me to a seat.

The large screen TV glowed to life fading in on a case. Disturbing images were plastered all over the screen, people being ripped to shreds, some with large objects shoved into terrible places. I could tell by the lump that I got in my throat that this would be one of those cases that wouldn’t let you sleep until it was solved.

“These are images of the killings done by a…just mad man. His patterns suggest sadistic tendencies because all of the injuries that you see were done while the victim was still alive. Drag marks indicate that he takes them somewhere but we have found no clues telling us exactly where just yet. On the latest victim however, we did find a sticky clear substance, our labs are analyzing it out to figure out exactly what it is.”

“Does he leave any sort of signature marks on the bodies or near them?” an unfamiliar voice inquired.

“No but we know it’s him because he always leaves something shoved into the anal cavity.”
I cringed at such a brutal calling card. “Is it the same object or a different one every time?”
“Never the same object twice.”

I ran my hands down my face, this would prove to be the toughest case that I’ve had thus far. There were so little clues for me to decode but I didn’t think the Chief would assign me to it if I couldn’t handle it. So I took the file that they had distributed to everyone and held it tight.

The chief took a deep sigh, leaning forward onto the table. “This person, whoever he or she may be, must be stopped. They’ve progressed quickly, going from two people a week to one nearly every day. This sick fucker won’t stop until we stop him by any means necessary. You talk to your moles, your past collars…whoever you have to, to find this bastard and stop this person.”

The seriousness in chief’s dark brown eyes and the creases in his dark skin, had me on the highest alert. In my mind, I made a list of all the moles that I had acquainted myself with the seven years I’ve been with the force.

“Ricky, I’m gonna have to pair you with someone on this case.”

I opened my mouth to protest but he raised his voice and said, “I know you usually work alone but this takes precedence. This is way too important and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

I gave a nod, “Yes sir, I understand.”

“Keep this away from the papers, I don’t want the press giving them a name just yet, it’ll only egg them on. Understand? You see a reporter you say no comment, nothing more!”

We all nodded and began to disperse. The chief told me to head to his office so that I could meet my new partner, I groaned in anticipation but obeyed following him to his quarters.