The Total December Experiment
heard was the wail of an infant.
Gem stood and looked down at her with love and respect in
his eyes. Tears flowed down his cheeks and tracked through
her lifeblood on his face. This act had been so much
harder than the others. His heart felt ripped from his
body. He gently rolled her to place the quilt under her.
She must have comfort. He painted, with great precision,
the tiny symbol on her ring finger. She must be adorned. He
placed a last kiss on her lips, stood, and looked over the
lake. The water of the lake was now still and dark, the
trees motionless, and the moon was hiding with shame behind
a slow moving black cloud. His gaze returned to her lovely
face. “Good-bye, Susan.” He turned and with great effort,
began to mount the gentle slope of the hill; the sobbing of
the child calling to him.
“ Gary, we’ve got another one. The good news is that we
have an ID on her.”
“ Same MO, Sam ?
“ On the button. Same everything; except quilt pattern,
pattern on fingernail and state.
Can’t get any closer than that !”
“ Where ?”
“Erin, Tennessee; close to the Kentucky border.”
“ Name ?”
“ Susan Warnock. Found last night by her husband around
10:00. According to the ME,
she hadn’t been dead long.”
“ Husband?”
“ Name’s Perry. He’s really messed up. Seems his job has
him on the road a lot. He got home last night and found his
kid screaming at the top of his lungs. Couldn’t find his
wife..went lookin’..you can figure out the rest.”
“ How’d you get the news ?”
“ The sheriff was fast on his feet. Went to the data base
and my inquiries on similar murders popped up. Called me
about 45 minutes ago. He’s faxing me all he’s got,
but I’m going to check things out myself. I’ll send you
everything I get soon’s I get it.”
“ Thanks, bud. I’ll be waiting.”
Gary replaced the phone, stood and contemplated his next
move.
“ Coffee; it’s going to be a long morning.”
With mug of coffee in hand, Gary stood before the gallery
of photos on the wall. He stared with narrowed eyes and
tightened lips at the pictures of the young women,
beautiful in life, destroyed by some madman. There was a
definite pattern followed by the killer, many similarities
between the victims and several definitive clues left at
the scenes, that grouped as a whole, made no sense, except
to the killer, of course. His job was to take the chaos of
the widely diverse clues and link them in such a way as to
give a picture of the workings of this killers mind. In
order to accomplish that, he had to attempt to perceive and
think like the maniac who did this. Not an easy task, and
certainly not a pleasant one.
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Gary sat at his desk with eyes closed....elbow on the desk
with his head propped on the palm of his hand…fingers
clenched in his hair. His headache just kept getting worse.
The aspirin just wasn’t helping. He had been poring over
the evidence so long that nothing was making any sense. He
couldn’t connect any dots at all. The longer he stared at
it the more confusing it became. He decided that in his
present state; headache, no food, and no sleep, he was
beating a dead horse. He gathered the copies of his notes
and told his cohorts and the dispatcher that he was going
home for a few hours.
He made a quick stop at a drive through fast food place,
wolfed his food while seated at his seldom used kitchen
table, set his alarm, sprawled on his bed, and passed out
almost before his eyes closed.
He awoke 2 1/2 hours later, after several vain attempts to
destroy the snooze alarm. A relentless wake up shower and
several cups of coffee later, he began to feel that he was
a living, breathing member of the human race. He realized
that his head no longer ached,
“Thank you God.”
He threw on fresh clothes and headed back to the station.
New faux reports awaiting his scrutiny lay on his desk.
With a deep sigh, he drew them toward him and began
reading.
Yep, the same mo.
He picked up and began to scan what appeared to be a copy
of guest registrations. Few signatures were there as the
small B&B was in a remote area.
His eyes widened as a familiar name leapt out at him.
“ Manda Harris; what a small world,” he muttered as he eyes
skipped to the date she had signed the registry.
If this date is right, she has an iron clad alible. She was
over 500 miles away when the woman was murdered on Ms.
Harris’s property.
Gary realized that he was very relieved but didn’t spend
any time wondering why he was so relieved.
“ Well, another visit to Ms. Harris is in order.”
Before he left, he copied the salient details from the
latest murder onto his list and added a drawing of the
symbol found on the quilt at the crime scene in Erin,
Tennessee. He now had 4 different drawings that made no
sense to him in terms of crimes having been committed. He
then called the hotel to make sure Ms. Harris was in her
room, picked his paperwork up, and left for his encounter
with her.
Manda had arrived at her hotel room just moments ago. She
had stripped off her suit and pulled on lightweight
sweatpants. She now stood in the center of the room in the
sweatpants and nothing else; her hands fumbling at the back
of her head trying to untangle her pendant from her curls.
It had been caught in her hair when she had pulled her
camisole over her head.
She was interrupted by a thundering knock at the door. She
hurriedly attempted again to release the pendant but
stopped as the pounding resumed.
“ Open the door, please. This is Detective Haworth.”
“ Just a minute, I’m coming.”
She yanked the camisole back over her head and was
desperately trying to release the stubborn jewelry when he
started banging again.
DAMMIT….JUST A DAMN MINUTE !!”
Gary stepped back when the door opened to reveal a beet
red, embarrassed and enraged spitfire with fists on hips
and a silver chain draped over her nose and looped around
her ear.
A snort of laughter escaped Gary before he could stop
himself. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as her glare
deepened.
“ What the HELL do you want and why couldn’t you have had
the decency to give me the DAMN MINUTE I ASKED FOR ?”
Her eyes narrowed even more when she realized that he was
having a great deal of trou
ble controlling his facial
expression.
She turned abruptly, reaching for the pendent obviously
snarled in her hair and began yanking on it.
“ Can....may I help you, Ms. Harris ?”
She swung to face him again , almost snarling..
“ Only if you can keep your enjoyment to a minimum,
Detective Haworth !”
He turned her around and gently began to work the necklace
loose.Several seconds later, Manda heard an uttered
expletive followed by her head being yanked backward. The
chain broke and Manda tumbled to the floor, bouncing back
up immediately with fists flying.
“What the HELL do you think you’re doing,” her voice rising
higher and louder with each word, as she advanced toward
him.
He grimly grabbed at her flailing fists…in vain. He finally
managed to twist her around and grabbing her around her
waist, lifted her off her feet.
Big mistake, he thought as her feet joined her fists in
battle.He managed to stagger to the bed where he purposely
fell on top of her, gratified to hear her breath whoosh
from her lungs.
Her thrashing stopped and he heard a muffled, “ Get off me
you imbecilic dickhead !! I can’t breathe !”
“Only if you stop trying to kill me !”
She finally nodded and he gingerly backed a few steps away
from her.She raised her head gasping for air and swung
around with fists raised, ready to do battle again.
“ STOP IT, DAMMIT, MANDA !” I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“ Ah…hell, Mandy,” he said when he spotted the rage in her
eyes accompanied by tears falling down her face.
In a low tight voice, she said,” To you, I’m MS. Harris.
Don’t forget it.”
“ I apologize, ah, Ms. Harris. Believe it or not, there’s a
reason I reacted the way I did.”
“ It had better be a damn good one, Detective, because I’m
going over your head on this one. I’ll be talking with your
superior.”
He plopped onto a chair, staring at her.
“ I’m sorry, Ms. Harris. I am the superior.”
Her eyes widened with disbelief. “ You’ve GOT to be
kidding ! Are you trying to tell me that you’re the best
there is around here ?”
“ I’m not trying, I am telling you.”
“ God, help us !”
“ Now, Ms. Harris, there’s no need to be inflammatory and
you’re raising your voice again.”
“ What academy did you graduate from? One that specialized
in police brutality ?”
“ No, I think that’s the one you graduated from, Ms.
Harris.”
They glared at each other for a moment.
Gary stood and prepared to retreat when her eyes became
slits again. Instead of attacking, however, she fell
backwards on the bed shaking with unrestrained laughter.
“ You should see your face,” she howled, clutching her
stomach as she struggled to catch her breath.
“ I don’t believe I want to at the moment,” he replied,
aware that one of his eyes was trying to swell shut.
He sat down again and waited for her to regain control.
After a moment of gulping and heavy breathing, she sat up
and grinned at him, tears of laughter spotting her sexy red
top.
“ Now, kind sir. Would you mind very much explaining this
fiasco ?”
He bent to pick the locket from the carpet and dangled it
in front of her.
“Where did you get this ?”
“ Pardon?”
He shook it at her,” Where did you get this!”
“ A gift…from a friend of mine.”
He could tell her feathers were ruffling again so he leaned
back in the chair and kept silent for a minute.
“ Ms. Harris, do you think that we can conduct this
interview in a calm and adultmanner ?”
“ I can, but I’m not so sure you can.”
“ Truce- please, Ms. Harris.
She frowned,” I’m sorry, Detective. You started this, you
know.”
“ Yes, and I deeply regret that, Man…Ms. Harris .”
“ It’s very important that you explain this necklace, Ms.
Harris. That will help my investigation.”
With surprise and amusement, she told him of the good-bye
gift from her neighbor.
“ It’s a very common piece of jewelry, Dectective. How
could this particular one have any importance ?”
“ Actually, the markings on it are what I’d like you to
explain.”
When she looked at him in consternation, he hastened to
explain.
“This same symbol on your necklace was found at a crime
scene where a woman was murdered. I saw it when I was
trying to untangle it from your hair.”
Dawn broke in her eyes,” That’s why you went ballistic!”
“Yeah…I guess you can say that. I really apologize.”
“OK, but next time ask your questions BEFORE , not after
you lose it.”
He rolled his eyes, as much as he could with one nearly
swollen shut.
“ This woman- was she the one found on my land ?”
“No, this victim was killed in Louisanna.”
“Oh.” Although somewhat confused, Manda began to explain.
“ These markings on my pendant, not necklace, are symbols
for the sign of Libra.”
When she realized he was looking at her with a blank stare,
she sighed.
“Detective Haworth, this may take a while. How about I
order coffee from room service?”
“ Sounds good.”
“ Would you like anything else…perhaps ice for your eye ?”
He glanced up, considering a retort, but simply nodded when
he saw her sober face.
While she ordered, he removed a small tape recorder from
his pocket and set it on the low table between their
chairs.
She raised her brows when she returned and saw the
recorder.
“ I hope you don’t mind, Ms. Harris. This will simplify
things.”
“ Fine with me.”
He turned the device to record and began the interview by
establishing the date, content of the tape, etc.
He described the pendant as best he could, then looked at
Manda.
“ Ms Harris, describe how you came to have this pendant in
your possession.”
Manda repeated her earlier statement.
“ Please tell me the meaning of the engraving on the
pendant.”
“ Do you know anything about Astrology, Detective
Haworth ?”
“ No, I don’t.”
“Remember some years ago, the fad was to ask others what
their birth signs were ?”
“Vaguely.”
“First of all, I’m not going to be precise right now; it