Village Heresy by Marshall Don

Author:Marshall, Don
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Jimmy had long proven exceptional talent as a homicide detective. Most that rise to such a level are forced to come to terms with their exceptionalism having a price tag attached. Jimmy’s bill was coming due, and he felt the walls closing in.

A true professional, personal baggage got left in the car when he arrived at the crime scene. He parked on the street alongside the hotel and walked towards the apparent area of commotion. The crime scene tape and crowd of colleagues left little doubt as to where the dead body was located.

The hotel lot crawled with the usual cast of characters. Fellow detectives, men wearing FBI emblazoned jackets, CSI experts, and his captain, Fred Spade, all played roles in working or guarding the scene. Jimmy dispensed greetings to fellow detectives while ducking under the crime scene tape. He pulled up beside Captain Spade, who stood just outside the epicenter.

“Nice to see you, Jimmy.” Captain Spade said.

“Good evening, captain,”

Captain Spade got right to business, “This is definitely our guy. I need everybody to be thorough on this. I’m sick of everybody coming back to me with nothing we can use. The bastard left something. I need you to get in there and find it.”

“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said as he pulled a pair of gloves and shoe coverings from his jacket pocket. He put them on and walked into the hotel room, viewing every detail through the eyes of a seasoned homicide detective.

The portrait inside the hotel room was all too familiar. The bed sheets sat folded on a chair while the victim’s purse and stacked clothes were just inside the door. The nude victim wore only a necklace containing another ancient symbol that she likely did not enter the room with—the leather straps used as restraints appeared to match those found at previous crime scenes. The hotel-provided Bible sitting on the desk had been left open to the same part of the Book of Revelation. Candles on the nightstands had long burned out and had oozed down the nightstand drawers.

The victim had probably been raped, but that would need to be confirmed. The killer, once again, used a device to drain blood from the victim’s inner thigh until she bled out. The series of cryptic messages written in the vic­tim’s blood continued. On an open space on the wall, this one read, ‘ASK TABS!’ From the looks of it, they weren’t going to make any more sense out of this message than they had the previous ones.

A cursory inspection of the room showed that the Evergreen Slayer bore responsibility for the scene and not some copycat. Some of the intricacies of past crime scenes had not been leaked to the press, and this one hit all the markers.

Jimmy examined every inch of the room, looking for any mistake the killer might have made. He studied the victim’s body, the bathroom, and every piece of furniture. He placed bits of evidence into bags along the way, though their usefulness seemed doubtful.

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