Issue #84

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is the second installment in a six part story. If you have not already done so, please click here to read the first part.
Kim walked out onto the balcony and looked out over the city. She could hear the sirens filtering up between the buildings. It wasn’t an unusual sound by any means but it was hard to imagine it being for anything other than the killer she knew was stalking the streets, every new flare of volume from the sirens giving her the idiotic hope that somewhere, a break in the case was underway. She kept glancing over at the phone but it had yet to ring in order to pass along the good news.

The most recent victim had been found with some kind of foreign substance clutched in his hands, translucent and looking like he had torn it off of something in the course of the struggle. After complaining endlessly about the proper chain of custody for the evidence not being followed properly, the medical examiner had found the material consistent with that of insect wings. The problem was that the size of the sample suggested that if it was an insect doing this, it would have to be of enormous size. This theory regarding the killer was quickly case aside.

She felt the vibration in her pocket and within a heartbeat, grabbed the phone and answered.

“What?”

“You should head down to the garment district,” the voice answered, “There’s been a 911 call - came in from the factory for Duvall Paper.”

“What did the caller report?” Kim asked as she grabbed her keys from the hook on the wall, picking up her coat before heading for the door.

“Assault in progress,” the voice answered. “Dispatch says he heard something strange in the background, like an animal screaming.”

Kim felt a shiver run up her back as she ended the call and headed down the elevator to the parking garage. The drive wasn’t long but still felt like it dragged on forever. When she arrived, she could see the uniformed officers huddled around the entrance to one of the larger buildings. She saw Richard, hovering near enough for his presence to be known, but still out of sight of course. Her off duty piece was already in her hand and she drew back the slide as she approached.

Someone was screaming inside. It sounded like words and even though they were alien to her, the tone of pleading was clear enough.

“What the Christ are you all waiting for?” Kim hissed as she brushed past the officers. She pushed the door open and clicked on her flashlight,shining it down the barrel of the revolver as she crept down the darkened hallway. The sound of her fellow law enforcement professionals reluctantly following along filtered in to her awareness.

At the end of the hall, there was a set of swinging doors which led out onto what looked like the main work floor. Kim shouldered her way through the doors and clicked off her light, not wanting to create a target in the middle of this huge room. The screaming had dwindled down to a muffled moaning as she walked towards the center of the room, cradling the revolver close to her chest in case someone was waiting to jump out at her.

There was an explosion of sound to her right as a stack of cardboard boxes suddenly toppled over. She caught a blur of movement and something streaked up towards the window, two stories up, shattering the glass as it passed through. Flown through? The officers ran up behind her as she remained fixed where she stood, aiming at the window. What had she just seen?

“Detective?” one of the officers asked her, sounding nervous. “What is it?”

Kim shook her head, not sure she could some up with an answer that made sense, that wouldn’t end up with her back at the house waiting for a psych consult and rubber bullets for her gun. “Nothing,” she said, “I just heard the glass break.”

She was interrupted by one of the other officers. “Christ!” he yelled out as he ran to their left, where the latest victim was laying prone underneath some equipment, or rather, whatever was left of the victim. Both arms and a leg had been crudely ripped from the body and the face had been beaten far beyond the point of being recognizable.

Kim knelt down in front of the person and couldn’t even say for sure what the gender was. Her forensic experience was limited, but even she could see that there didn’t appear to be any sign of cutting, rather that the limbs had been plucked off. She looked at the body and her eyes then climbed back up towards the window. Had it really been flying?

The absurdity of the thought was not lost on her as her train of thought was interrupted by loud cries as a man was dragged into the room from outside by an officer.

“This guy was trying to get away,” the kid said, “No idea what he’s babbling on about, though.”

Kim couldn’t understand the man either but he was clearly terrified. He grabbed fistfuls of his wet, matted hair, gesturing up towards the sky as he spoke. She had studied Spanish at some point but it was currently coming at here too quickly for her to bring her pathetically small vocabulary to bear.

“Get an interpreter in here,” she said. The man was crying now, fallen to his knees and in the fevered pitch of his hysterics, Kim was able to pick out one word which she did recognize, a word repeated again and again.

El Diablo.


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