Into the Fire: part 1

Dark clouds are all around threatening a down pour. Lightning strikes somewhere in the distance closely followed by an earth rattling thunder clap. Rain is misting down all over the city as Beth tries to make her way into work on this dreadful Monday morning. She is stuck in traffic from what seems to be a wreck a few miles ahead involving multiple cars; all she can see is the flashing lights from an ambulance and police cars. Beth picks up her cell phone and attempts to call her boss and let him know that she is going to be running late… again; but, her phone doesn’t have a signal.

 

“That’s just fucking great”, she scowls as she throws her phone into the passenger seat. “I knew something like this would happen; it’s my first day back after an extended vacation over the holidays, and on a Monday. Well, I guess if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them…”

 

She turned up the volume on her radio and searched for a cassette tape to listen too. She fumbled through her collection, “No, no, no, umm hell no, no, ahh… now this is more like it; great rainy day music!” She said with a smile. She slid the cassette into the console of her 1972 FORD Stingray; Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid blared through the speakers. Beth leaned back and gave a beautiful smile as she sang along to “War Pigs”.  She tried to look ahead to see what all the commotion was and saw that a fire truck had now arrived at the scene; she nervously tapped her fingers on the steering wheel hoping that this mess would be taken care of very soon.

 

Beth is an extremely beautiful woman, and she knows it. Her long blonde hair flows half way down her back and it has black and red undertones that give a striking appearance. She is very athletic which keeps her in excellent shape and her face holds a high bone structure which makes her look like she should be modeling for Vogue. Her eyes are dazzling with shades of blue, green, and amber, all speckled together in an immaculate display. Her finger nails are painted a very rich turquoise which reminds her of the sea. She is wearing bright red lipstick that compliments her porcelain complexion and her thick, black framed glasses make those pretty eyes stand out.  She is wearing a vintage, form fitting black dress that is accented by lace; every single one of Beth’s tattoos are on display and that is just how she likes it.

 

After what seems like an eternity, the lines of cars finally start to inch forward. Relieved, Beth pushes the car into first gear and slowly gives it some gas. After some time she has made it to the scene of the accident, blood and mangled tissue is scattered all over the road; three bodies lay on gurneys with their faces covered.  A white SUV is laying upside down in the median while the other two cars have been pulled off to the side of the road; one of them doesn’t seem to have any damage what-so-ever which makes Beth curious. She pushes down the gas pedal to go to work as quickly as she can and tries to erase the images of the wreck from her mind. She turns up the volume loud and speeds off down the road.

 

 

 She runs through the massive glass doors at ADCOM and makes her way to her boss’s office. “Rick! I am so sorry I am late; you see there was this massive wreck and I—“

“Why didn’t you call, Beth?” Rick asked with a stony expression on his face.

“Well, I tried, Sir. See, look I can prove it, I just didn’t have any cell service.” She exclaimed while pulling out her cell phone. Rick raised his hand motioning for her to put it away. His eyes were still locked on her in that expressionless stare that she hated.

“What am I going to do with you?” He asked himself. Beth shuffled her feet while staring at the floor. Rick made her feel extremely uncomfortable and she couldn’t hide that fact. “This is the third time you have been late in two weeks. I am going to have to write you up this time; those looks of yours can only get you so far, you know.” He said coldly. “That is of course, unless you were willing to… make a deal with me?” His lips curled into a devilish grin. Beth looked up at him slowly as the words escaped his lips; she knew exactly what he meant.

“Oh, Rick… are you sure that’s the road you want to try and go down? Why don’t you check the news asshole, and you will see why I was late today. Furthermore I would never make such a “deal” with you even if you were the last piece of human trash on earth. Besides, with a deal like that it seems I would be getting the short stick no matter what I chose to do; don’t you think?” Rick’s smile faded fast and anger was growing behind his eyes. “Or do you just not get my gist?”

“You little bitch”, he stammered, “You’ll regret those words, I promise you; I am going to make your life a living he-“

“A living what, short stick? How could you possibly do that while in prison?” Beth smiled as she watched him squirm in his chair trying to figure out her meaning. She then pulled out her cell phone and pointed at a red bar that crossed the top, in the middle of the red bar were capital letters which read RECORDING. “So, how about them apples? After all of this time, and your days of abusing and raping women by forcing your power of authority on them are over because of little ol’ me!” She put the phone up to her lips and softly spoke, “Come get him, boys.” She then pulled the right side of her coat away from her body revealing her badge and gun. Rick’s eyes grew wide and he jumped from his chair trying to escape; as soon as he was close enough Beth greeted him with a powerful kick to his jaw. He collapsed to the ground and spit out a few teeth while looking at her in disbelief and horror. The team took over the building with weapons drawn; held at the low ready, they made their way towards Rick and put him in cuffs.

“Well done, lass” Sergeant Murphy coughed. He gave her a hard pat on the shoulder and followed the rest of the team who was escorting Rick out of the building. Beth looked around the room thinking about all the paperwork she was about to dive into and the next case that would follow. She smiled that perfect smile and left the building.

“I LOVE MY JOB!” she screamed while walking down the hall. She made it to her car and turned on the ignition; “Jumping Jack Flash” blared through the speakers which caught her off guard. “What the hell?” she questioned. She pulled the cassette out of the console to find it was, in fact, The Rolling Stones; she looked around and spotted a mess of film and a pencil laying on the passenger floorboard. She leaned over to pick up the mess and found her Black Sabbath tape mangled. “Oh, someone’s going to pay for this…” She said trying to stifle her anger. “Someone is definitely going to pay.”

 

 

When Beth arrived at the station she was incredibly relieved to see her desk, and that no one had messed with it. She had been on an undercover assignment for four weeks trying to pin that rapist down and she was damn glad that it was over. The uniform cops led Rick through the office and Beth gave him a sweet smile and wave; a look of disgust and rage came across him.

“You know what they do with pigs like you in prison?” The cop asked him as he escorted him down to booking. Rick lowered his head in shame and fear.

There was a stack of manila envelopes on Beth’s desk regarding the case, she grabbed the first one and skimmed through it aimlessly. She was having trouble focusing and the scene from the crash kept entering her mind. Why was there only one ambulance for three bodies? Why did the middle vehicle have no damage on it? Something just wasn’t adding up and she couldn’t let it go; and what the hell happened to that tape? Those things don’t just unravel themselves like that and it would had to have been an older person who did it; youngsters these days don’t even know what the hell a cassette tape is let alone know how to use it… unless they are hipsters I suppose…

She closed the envelope and reached for the one at the bottom of the stack. She needed to see something new to distract her thoughts and could do the usual paperwork on Rick’s case later. She unraveled the twine holding the envelope together and slowly opened it; what she saw caught her off guard. A picture of a young girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen, laying on a patch of grass with her blue glazed over eyes staring right at the camera. Her mouth had been cut in a crude, permanent smile; and her entrails had been removed and placed beside her.  Beth stared at the photograph in horror; the young girl’s eyes had entranced her in some morbid curiosity. She grabbed the folder and quickly stepped to the Chief’s office.

“When did this happen?” She demanded as she tossed the report on his desk.

“Beth, I am busy right now, read the report and figure it out!” He answered annoyed.

“I come back from a month long undercover assignment and find a report on a girl who has been sliced up Black Dahlia style on my desk? She was at the bottom of the stack Gary! When did this happen and why has no one else taken this case?”

“Alright Beth, listen good and close, because I am only going to say this once. This unfortunate young lady was found yesterday just south of the city limits. No one has taken the case because of the nature of the case. This one is right up your alley kid, and you need to look through the whole file before you come barging into my office. Not to mention this is the first murder like this, I have a feeling there will be many more to come. Now if you don’t mind, I am very busy.”

“Why was it on the bottom of the stack, Chief?” Beth asked accusingly.

“Would you really have started at the top of the stack, Detective?” Gary replied.

Beth gave a quick smirk and returned to her desk. She pushed the rest of the files to the side and started reading further into the report. The young girl’s name was Courtney Middleton; she was a sixteen years old and attended Buckley High School and was last seen two weeks ago; until yesterday that is. Beth turned the page to find another picture of Courtney; this picture was of a frontal view and told a completely different story about this murder. Five thick red candles lay strategically placed around the girl and the melted wax had been used to construct a pentagram. Courtney was lying in the center of the star and her entrails were placed at her right side. Archaic objects were placed around her as well; a ram’s skull with blood filling the mouth was placed above Courtney’s head. There were other objects but Beth was not familiar with them; something that looked like a scepter as well as a golden spear were to her right and left. Beth looked at her watch and ran out the door, something in that report didn’t sit right with her; it was 1400 hours.

 

At approximately 1420 hours Beth arrived at Buckley High School, she ran inside to speak with the principal before the school let out for the day. As she walked into the main office the student aids looked at her with what seemed to be disdain and morose hatred. The two aids looked similar in age and nothing in their behavior was odd; except for that cold stare.

“Hi ladies; my name is Beth. I am here to speak with your principal.”

“She aint here, pig.” The girl in the Victoria’s Secret hoodie blurted, not even looking up from her book.

Beth’s mouth nearly dropped, “Man they must teach you some real manners in this place, huh? I’m not a cop either, or pig, as you like to say. I am a detective with many connections in this little town and if your principal isn’t here in the office; you best be finding her.” She was showing the girls her credentials as well as making sure they saw her weapon on her hip, hoping that it would scare them. “

The girl in the PINK hoodie stumbled as she got up to run out of the office, and right before she made it out of the door Beth caught her, “And if I were you sweet cheeks, I would hurry; or everyone is going to know Victoria’s secret.” Beth was pointing to the girl’s purse that had spilled on the floor, a baggie of white powder lay amongst tampons and condoms.  “What is your name girl?” Beth asked

“My name is Tiffany, oh please don’t arrest me; I can’t have anything else bad happen this year, that will violate my probation. Just, cut me some slack, okay?” she pleaded

“I’ll think about it, Tiffany. For now go get your principal; and be fast.”

About thirty minutes later Tiffany came back into the office followed by the principal who had a very cross look on her face. She politely shook the detectives hand and showed her to the office.  “Please, have a seat detective.” She said pointing at a leather chair that sat in front of her desk.

“Thank you, and please, call me Beth. So let’s get straight to business as I know you are a very busy woman. I am here to ask you a few questions about a student that attends school here by the name of Courtney Middleton, did you know her?”

 

“I don’t think that there is anyone who is enrolled in our school who doesn’t know her! She is a very beautiful and bright student, however, she is also trouble. She is always getting herself mixed up with the wrong people and is constantly on some form of drug. Poor girl just needs some good direction in her life.”

“Well ma’am, have you sent out any missing persons notices at all on her? I see here that she has missed school for two straight weeks.” Beth looked at the principal coldly.

“I didn’t see much of a point Beth,” she explained, “It is very typical of her to run off for extended periods of time and not tell anyone. Her father does not have a relationship with her and her mother is so high on Heroine all the time; she wouldn’t know whether the poor girls was home or not.”

“What I am about to show you ma’am is disturbing.” Beth warned.

“Oh God, it can’t be!” The principal exclaimed. Beth dropped the file on the principal’s desk; she looked at the file in horror.

“Ma’am, I need to know everyone that this poor unfortunate girl hung out with. I need to know the places she liked to go. I need to know everything about her; not only to bring the killer to justice but to prevent another murder from happening. I need these things now.”

The principal nodded her head in agreement while trying to stifle the tears from pouring out. Beth left the office for a moment to allow the principal some privacy to collect the information that she needed.  Tiffany looked up at Beth nervously and nodded her head towards the front of the room. Tiffany’s friend who was sitting beside her now had quiet tears running down her cheeks; Beth looked up and saw a tall man with a hood covering his face, long strands of hair fell out of the dark opening. Beth covered her badge and gun with her jacket and grabbed a stack of papers while approaching the counter.  “Can I help you, sir” She asked politely with a smile. The man didn’t utter a word and only tilted his head in curiosity, much like a dog. “Have you signed in yet, sir? We like to keep track of everyone who visits our facility; safety precautions you know…” Beth held that perfect smile, still the dark man said nothing. He reached out and grabbed the clipboard and a pen, his hands were gigantic and covered in tattoos; he began to laugh as he wrote on the clipboard, it sounded more like he was coughing. He tossed the clipboard and the pencil down and continued that horrible laugh as he turned; he pointed one long grisly finger at Tiffany then walked out of the door. Beth looked at what he wrote on the visitors log and it read, “FUCK YOU PIG”, in all capitol letters. Beth immediately looked at Tiffany in disgust and grabber her up from her chair.

“ANSWERS. NOW!!” She shouted. At this time the principal walked out of her office and handed Beth the murder file as well as some hand written information on Courtney. “Do you get what is happening here?” Beth questioned the young girl. She pulled out the pictures of Courtney and held them in front of Tiffany’s face. “This is what is happening and before it happens to another one of your friends I need some goddamn cooperation! NOW, WHO WAS THAT MAN? He obviously knows you, and you are obviously terrified of him. Start talking girl; otherwise we can take this down to the station where you will be interrogated and charged for the drugs in your purse.” Beth said this as she held up the baggy and shook it. Tiffany lowered her head and nodded her head.

“If I talk and he finds out I am a dead woman.” She said

“If you don’t talk you are going to find yourself spending the rest of your high school career in Juvenile Detention young lady; and once you finish there you will go the penitentiary for being an accessory to murder and   disrupting a police investigation” Beth was infuriated at the young girl and by the look on her face Tiffany knew that she meant business. Tiffany slowly nodded “yes” as tears were streaming down her face.

TO BE CONTIUED