Serial: Volume Two (3 page)

If you’ve ever watched a wildlife documentary, you know there comes a point where the prey just gives in. Their eyes became steely with determination and they bare their neck to the predator.

We’re no different, we’re simply animals after all.

She bared her neck to me that night, she gave up and she gave in.

The only thing I hadn’t been counting on was my inability to finish the job.

I didn’t know if it was the booze, the filthy unbeautiful state of her being, or the fact that my heart now belonged to Pet, I couldn’t get off.

I stumbled from the warehouse as the sun was dawning, bringing the hope of a new day to the sleepy city and illuminating the terrible place I was in.

I had to get home, to Pet, to something…so I left the girl strapped to the table and promised her I’d be back.

Eventually.

And then I would finish the job. One way or another, I would immortalize her.

Chapter Three

Patty Wilson

Staying clean was hard, and staying away from Jason was even harder. Patty balanced Sarah on her hip and waited for the bus home. She had at least two hours of homework tonight, Sarah was teething and cried constantly, and she was scheduled for four hours at Walmart tonight, shelf stocking and inventory control.

She was exhausted, sad, and would have killed her own mother for a bump of coke to help her through the next few hours.

Not that it really would have taken much convincing to kill her mother.

Sarah started to squawk, drawing angry looks from a couple fellow passengers waiting alongside her in the cramped bus shelter. If it weren’t raining, she could have at least stood outside or taken Sarah for a walk to calm her cries.

As it was, she was helpless against the squall that was her baby. She hated not being able to ease her pain, and she hated every single one of the judgmental asshats in the shelter with her, but most of all she hated Jason right now.

Hated to love him, more like it.

She didn’t talk to him for a week after he’d attacked her, but he’d come sniffing around and she’d opened her door and her legs for him.

But he’d been so cute, he’d brought a little white teddy bear holding a red heart for Sarah. So it said Variety Club 2012, and had a little grey tinge to the ears, but it was the thought that counted in this case. And when a thoughtless man did anything for you, you didn’t look that gift horse in the mouth.

The bus pulled up and creaked to a halt with a pneumatic hiss. Her fellow passengers pushed past her and left her to shift Sarah’s weight, pick up her backpack and pull herself up the bus stairs.

There was nowhere to sit when she got on, and the bus driver embarrassed her by standing up and refusing to move until somebody grudgingly got up and let her take their place.

He shot her a look of pure hatred as she sat down and said thank you.

She looked down at her knees and jiggled Sarah, hoping the movement would calm the crying baby down.

It didn’t, and it just got worse as the bus got more and more crowded, the heat and humidity making everyone short tempered and ill at ease.

She practically leapt from the bus when it finally hit her stop.

She made it home, opened the door and found her mother’s boyfriend, John, in his underwear, scratching his balls and watching The Price is Right.

He didn’t even look up at her, but kept yelling out the answers, all of his were wrong of course. Patty sometimes wondered if he could really read.

She stripped Sarah’s jacket off and noted the red flush on her cheeks. She felt her head and was alarmed at the heat coming off her baby.

“Do we have any Tylenol?” she asked John, kicking her own boots to the side of the entryway.

“Shit, I dunno,” he replied and pulled his hand out. He gave it a sniff and Patty shuddered at the thought of his smelly ball sack. “You gotta ask your mom. She’s gone out to the bingo hall though; tonight’s the big one. We might be rich if she wins that jackpot, ten thousand dollars, can you imagine?”

“Yeah, it’d be great,” she said and took Sarah to their room.

“I made some mac n cheese,” he called to her just before she shut the door, “you’re welcome to it. The baby might like some too.”

“Thanks,” she said and clicked the door shut. What a fucking moron, not only did she not want to inadvertently inhale one of his wiry pubes, but she didn’t think macaroni and cheese was exactly recommended eating for a five month old baby.

She finally got Sarah settled, made herself a sandwich with a single slice of bologna on Wonder Bread, and got ready for work.

She hoped her baby would be okay without medication; she’d have to pick some up at work tonight and treat her when she got home after midnight.

Her mom wasn’t home by the time she left, so she reluctantly left Sarah in John’s care.

He was a pig, and disgusting, and did she mention, a pig? But he wasn’t a pervert, and he was good with the baby. He had daughters of his own, grown now, but they still came to see him.

That had to be a good sign, she told herself and forced the thought of something bad happening far from her head before she started her shift.

Besides, her bad luck had to let up some time, and why not let it end at her daughter?

They both deserved it.

***

“Fuck, Patty, I swear sometimes you’re a fucking retard,” Marty said. Marty was her shift supervisor; he suffered from miniature Hitler syndrome. He got a tiny bit of power and went fucking nuts with it.

“I did it exactly how you said,” Patty replied, choking back a scream.

“I said I wanted the dollar ninety nine items on the top, the higher priced items on the bottom.”

“You didn’t, I swear,” Patty said, but she couldn’t really be sure. She was so tired she couldn’t guarantee she’d hear him right.

“Do it again, and you will be docked if you take a break. This is unacceptable, one more time and I’ll write you up.” He stomped away as if she’d just offended his mother, the Queen of England, with her shoddy shelf arranging skills.

What an asshole.

She got back to rearranging the items on the shelf when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Always terrified of some bad news regarding Sarah, she yanked it out and read the text.

It was Jason, he was in the neighborhood and he had a surprise.

She knew she wasn’t supposed to take her break, she couldn’t afford it, but she really wanted to see him.

She knew he probably just wanted a blowjob in the front seat of his shitty Mustang behind the store in the loading dock, but she didn’t care. He wanted a blowjob from her, and right now that made her feel like a fucking Disney Princess.

She waited for him, nervously bouncing on the balls of her feet until she heard the motor and saw his car slide around the corner.

She stepped from the shadows, unable to keep the grin off her face when she saw him.

“Hop in,” he said. She opened the passenger door and eased herself in beside him.

“What you got?” she asked and turned his music down a little. Hip-hop of some kind, she didn’t know the artist.

“I got you something nice,” he said, “but first you gotta be nice to me.”

“You know I got what you need,” she replied. She was almost giggling at him wanting her. Pathetic, but that’s just how it was.

“That’s my good girl,” he said and unzipped his jeans. He popped his cock out, an unimpressive six inches, but she loved him for it. He didn’t seem like he was trying to prove anything with his average dick.

She moved towards it, took it in her mouth and started the thing with her tongue that drove him crazy.

He wove his fingers into her hair and held her tight against his crotch. His pubes bristled against her nose and threatened to make her sneeze. She inhaled slowly, ignoring the smell of his unwashed body, and finished him off in record time.

She sat up, licked her lips and swallowed every drop of him. He smiled at her, stroked her cheek and said, “Now why can’t you be like this all the time?”

He stuffed his softened cock back in his jeans, flipped the waistband of his underwear up and zipped himself in.

“What did you bring me?” she asked, ignoring his question.

“Surprised, babe,” he replied and pulled out a little plastic bag of coke. She was disappointed but tried not to let it show.

“Oh, thanks,” she said, and reached for it.

“What, you’re not happy?”

“I like it, but you know I’m trying to quit.”

“Fuck it,” he said and went to put it back in his pocket. “You know, I try to be nice but you always gotta be such an uptight cunt about it.”

She didn’t want the coke, she didn’t know if she’d have the willpower to resist it, but she didn’t want him mad at her.

“Give it here,” she said and held out her hand, “I was just kidding, geeze. Of course I want some blow. How else can I manage working here?”

She rolled her eyes and tucked the bag in her bra when he handed it back. “You know you don’t have to work here, whatta they pay you? Six bucks an hour?”

She nodded, it was close to that.

He went on, “Come back to me, babe. None of the other girls make money like you do. You’re so pretty, and you’ve got that tight little ass that won’t quit. You’re my top earner.”

“Is that it?” she asked, trying to be coy and almost hating herself for needing his approval.

“I need you,” he said and pulled her in for a kiss. “I want you,” he said when they were done.

She glowed, she could feel red heat rising in her cheeks and she bit her lower lip. “I’ll think about it, okay?” she said and looked at her phone. “Shit, I gotta get back. I’ll call you later though, okay?”

“You do that. Call me in ten minutes when you’re sick of that dump and need to make some real cash,” he replied.

She got out and hurried back inside, hoping she could slip in without being noticed.

“I’m docking you for that,” Marty said when she swept through the doors to the store. She’d snuck around the warehouse and came through the side of the store, so she could lie and say she’d been in the bathroom.

“For taking a piss?” she asked and tried to squeeze past him.

He blocked her way and said, “We both know that’s not what you were up to,” and pantomimed cock sucking. He stuck his tongue in his cheek and pushed it out, matching the rhythm of his jerking hand.

Her face went hot red, and she sputtered a half lie, and excuse, but all she heard was his mocking laughter following her as she went back to the fucking light bulb section to shelve her wares.

***

Her shift ended just before midnight, she made sure she had the Infant Tylenol in her purse, and she checked her phone to make sure Sarah was okay. No news was good news, so she walked to the bus stop and settled in to wait.

She pushed her ear buds in and hit play on her old MP3 player. She wondered what it would be like to own an iPod, to have the kind of money to throw away on something as frivolous as that. She wished her old phone could hold a few songs at least, then she wouldn’t have to carry both items around.

Besides, with that kind of money, she would never have to work two hours just to afford medicine for her baby.

The bus turned the corner at the end of the block and she heard a sharp honk from across the street.

It was Jason. Her heart skipped a little beat when she saw him; she looked at the bus coming and knew she should go home to give Sarah her medicine…but Jason…

Fuck it, she only lived once, YOLO and all that shit.

Just as the bus pulled up, she dashed across the street to Jason. The bus driver honked and she turned back and flipped him the bird.

Jason laughed and honked his horn. She felt light hearted and free.

Patty knew this wasn’t going to end well, that she should be responsible and go home to her baby, get a good night’s sleep and wake up for school refreshed.

But she deserved this. She wanted an iPod, she wanted some extra cash, she wanted to live her life and not have to fret over her baby, and she wanted to feel loved.

She deserved it.

Chapter Four

Donovan Blake –

FBI

“We have to draw him out somehow. This guy is getting on my last fucking nerve.”

Emily eyed me as I paced the conference room awaiting the arrival of the team I’d assembled to catch the elusive predator known as CK. As usual, my clothes were pressed to a point of perfection and my aftershave wafted through the room denoting an air of refinement that was far off from the beast that existed inside me.

Emily sat perched on the corner of the one of the tables, looking up at me over the edge of her thick-rimmed glasses. A coffee cup was cradled against her palm, the ceramic handle curled over her fingers as she blew out to cool the rising steam.

She gingerly sipped from the mug before responding, “Don’t let him get to you, Donovan. We’ve chased worse predators before. It’s not his fault that your ego has been elevated by your own success. That’s why you were assigned to this case. You’ve caught so many men on their first kill that they didn’t have the opportunity to become serials. You and I both know they would have continued killing if it wasn’t for you finding them before they could.”

Her words did nothing to soothe me. Three days had passed and we were no closer to discovering the identity of the monster that was leaving a trail of bodies all over the Cascades.

“Those men were idiots.” I stopped pacing and glanced up at her. “This man, however, has not only avoided being caught, but for the past few years, he’s avoided being detected at all. The only connection the police made between any of this was that missing girls were turning up dead. We could have been called into this a long time ago had somebody put the pieces together…”

“And that’s not your fault, Donovan.” With a serene tone, she attempted to calm the rage that was burning like an inferno inside me. “Had they brought you in after the first two bodies ended up in two different states, then we’d be farther ahead of him than we are. It takes time for these states to start exchanging information, so it’s set us behind.” Crossing her legs, she took another sip from her cup, swallowed it down and added, “We’ll catch him.”