3 wise monkeys.... ( Locked for Heartofcourage )

[CoSurvivor]

Elli knew the answer to that last question before he started to open his mouth. Yea he knew the type. Supervisors who were assholes, who pushed their own agenda, and if they didn't like you, well you were fucked out of the good stuff. It had happened to him early on when he'd joined the force, his staff sergeant had been a real bruiser, possibly tougher on him than on other recruits. Why he didn't know but he just used it as motivation to do the best work he could and let his record stand for itself.

"Maybe, but let's not give him a reason. Would it help if I talked to him and let him know you've been requested to work with me? Sort of a 'see how the police work' kind of assignment? It might help... "

Elli admired her natural beauty as he sat beside her on the couch. He wasn't sure why, but he looked at her toes, her feet, and her calves as she pulled on the socks. Times like this, he felt like he was gawking at her. Times like this made it readily apparent to him that he'd not been in the company of women very much since Maria died.

When she'd put on the boots he asked, "How do they fit?" Elli wasn't quite sure why but he was nervous... Surely he wanted to make sure she liked them and subtly sought her approval, hell, if they were going to be a gift, then at least he wanted to make sure she liked them.

 

[heartofcourage]

"If we do this, I'd rather a lot of people didn't know." Joan said as she glanced over at Wake, noticing how he watched her so closely. "There would be questions and I hate answering questions."

She sat back with a sigh as he asked her how the shoes fit and she gave him a small shrug. "They fit pretty well, I suppose. Thanks."

Looking over at Wake, she saw something in his look that she wasn't sure she liked. He didn't seem put off by her at all. He seemed to actually be enjoying his time with her. That was something that Joan was not used to at all.

"well, where do we go from here?" She asked him.

 

[CoSurvivor]

Elli nodded to her comments, "Entirely up to you Joan, if you want to fly below the radar on this I'm ok with that. It won't present a problem for me either way."

He got up, helped tidy up their mess in the kitchen and moved to gather his jacket off the side of the couch. "I thought we'd go back, retrace the murders and see if we could find any additional things we hadn't thought of the first time. I'll work on getting a copy of the murder case files for tomorrow. But the important thing is that 'we' talk. just get out what you are thinking between what I know, what the voice, or voices are telling you and what we see. Sometimes revisiting the scene can bring up new ideas."

Elli offered to help her with her coat, and looked at the door to her apartment on their way out. "Have you told anyone about how shitty this lock is? I mean, you probably have, and they haven't done shit about it, but.. being as you live alone..." He was about to offer to fix it himself. But that would be overstepping. Why did he suddenly feel the necessity to fix shit for her. Joan was a capable person, she may have a mental condition, but that did not mean she was stupid, or not capable of taking care of herself. The first mistake people make about people with mental conditions is thinking they 'can't' do things. Elli would try like hell to make sure she knew he didn't think that.

Walking out of the apartment building he was met by a wave of cold. The temp must have dropped at least 10 degrees while he was inside Joan's apartment, and it began steadily snowing. Already there was a light layer of snow covering most of the grass, and the sidewalks were growing to be covered in it. The weather had been cold, so there was no way the heat of the sun would warm up the concrete enough to melt the snow. Leading the way he motioned to his truck, hit the remote to unlock the doors and went around to his side. Once they got moving, Elli broke the silence. "You've been at each one of these scenes, you've bound to have been thinking about who's been killing these people. Like you said Joan, you might be crazy, but you are not stupid... I'm sure you have your own theories.. all good journalists do.."

 

[heartofcourage]

"There's nothing to steal." Joan said with a shrug as he commented on the crappy lock on her door. "They already took my bike. That was about the only thing that I owned that was worth anything."

She was oblivious to the fact that he was offering to fix her door for her. She had reported it...once...after her sister had raised her concerns, but nothing had really been done. They had come and looked at it, installed the sliding lock, but hadn't done anything past that. She had considered the matter closed.

Walking outside, she could instantly see her breath and her hands were shoved in the pockets of her jacket. They made their way towards Wake's truck and soon he was opening it for her. Once they were both settled an on their way, she glanced over at him as he wanted to know what what her theories were.

"I don't really know." She said honestly.

 

[CoSurvivor]

"We are headed to the first crime scene, There's been three bodies so far, I thought we should visit them in order. At least that's a good place to start."

Concentrating on driving, Elli didn't talk a whole lot, it wouldn't help if they got into an accident while trying to investigate these murders. And surely the conditions were keeping some people off the road. Each turn he took carefully, keeping the massive truck in a lower gear to prevent the tires from spinning and losing traction, the low hum of the massive engine filling the void of silence between them.

Elli was a little surprised, he'd assumed she's be on the hunt for this guy since she'd showed up at every crime scene. She knew details about each one that nobody had discussed publicly, particularly the knife wound to left side of the chest. He'd have to ask her about that later. Instead, he asked her more about her writing.

"How long have you been writing for the paper? At the crime scene you'd said you were an intern, so do you have anything published?"

Elli was curious to know more about her, not about her condition or her 'crazy'. There was a woman sitting next to him who may be dealing with schizophrenia, but she had interests of her own. He'd noticed that her tablet went everywhere with her, so it must hold her personal writing. Elli followed up his earlier question, "If you've got anything published that you might be willing to let me read, I'd love to read it."

Making the final turn on to western street, he pulled in front of the darkened 2 unit condo.

"Here we are.. 510 East Western St Unit B"

It was an older building, probably 30 years old, built at the time to be moderately up to date, but now, the condo was in bad shape, and that was before the occupant of one of the units had been murdered. The paint was a dull gray, probably 'primer gray' straight off the shelf, which gave the two unit building a far more depressing look than it should. With the current weather outside, snow flurries and gray skies, the picture before them was a bit more depressing than it should be.

Turning off the Truck, Elli hoped down, his boots crunched into the soft snow that had covered the sidewalk, it had yet to be shoveled, the occupant of the Unit A, was an older woman who didn't get out much in this sort of weather due to her dependency on using a walker. Elli thought to offer to shovel the walkway, and he might just do that when they were done. Guiding Joan to the front door he looked down at the lock box which was over the door knob. He quickly punched in the five digit code and pulled on it, freeing the key. Slipping the key into both locks, the door and the dead bolt, Elli eventually swung the door open, the place smelled of cleaning solvents and pinesol.

"Do you remember that day? I remember you were standing down on the sidewalk, just as I went around the back trying to get in through the shared garage."

 

[heartofcourage]

"About a year." Joan murmured as he asked her how long she had been writing for the newspaper. "I've been a thorn in their side the entire time."

She knew that the owners of the newspaper saw it as a charity case to have her there, giving a woman with a disability the chance to write stories had been a feather in their cap. However, they hadn't thought that she might attract the attention of the police and they had given her a very serious warning when the chief had shown up, asking her questions that she couldn't really answer. Since then, she had been very quiet and minded her own business.

She was startled when he stopped the truck and motioned towards the condo. She had been there once before, the night of the murder, and she hadn't really thought that she might ever come back. Soon, she was following him to the front door, waiting patiently as he opened it and ushered her into the chilled interior.

"I remember it." She said softly, looking around the inside as if she already knew where everything was.

 

[CoSurvivor]

The place was indeed cold, Elli walked through to the dining area where the victim had been found. Turning, he looked through the kitchen, back toward the garage entrance where he'd entered the musty smell waffled through his senses again, he could remember seeing it all. The first actual murder he'd ever been called to.

"I remember coming in, seeing 'him' the victim sitting right there. The table had been set, as if he was going to be served. I thought he'd maybe fallen asleep where he was, or possibly died of a heart attack, frozen in space. Only when I got closer could I tell that his eye lids were sunk."

The memories flooded, the room smelled, and the blood had pooled into a dark stain on the massive rug that was under the table.

"I remember.. getting close and seeing that his eye lids were super glued shut, the killer had the time to prep the scene, took their time cleaning up and leaving. They had 3 days... but CSI stated the victim had only been dead for 24, to 36 hours. So they must have removed the eyes somewhere after the guy died. simply because I don't remember seeing any... "

He stopped himself in mid sentence.

"Joan, you look like I'm repeating stuff you already know...as if someone told you this? But you never came in here, this is the first time you've been in here right?"

"Did 'he' tell you what he did?"

 

[heartofcourage]

Joan stood there just staring at the scene around her. She already knew how the victim had been found, about the wounds that he had, about the gruesome scene. Wake's voice seemed to melt away into the background as the other voices came forth and she found herself questioning some of the things that she thought that she knew.

She thought the door had been closer to the victim. She thought that there had been more carpeting removed. They seemed like tiny things compared to the larger scope of the crime, but something about her memories didn't seem to add up.

"He's not the only one." She said as he asked her about the dark voice that liked to taunt and threaten. "There are others."

"And they didn't find everything here." Joan said, turning to look at Wake. "I know it looks like everything is figured out, but there are still things missing."

 

[CoSurvivor]

Elli looked about the room, tried to think of what they might've missed. He could feel an awful feeling go down his spine. Elli Spoke, with urgency and raw concern in his voice.

"We know of four victims. "

"This one, Arthur Curry, 23, eyes removed." He pointed to the spot where the body had been at the kitchen table, then walked back to within a foot of where Joan was standing. He was nervous now, as if he'd failed the victims, as if his own sight had failed to pick up some sort of clue that could reach out and slap him in the face.

"The second victim, David Bashcroft, 30, was found in his office, again he looked like this one, but his hands had been removed at the wrist. Then there was Walter Alice, we found him in a parked car, about an hour from his home. The weather had preserved his body, remember? it had been below zero for 3 days. Then we found him when the temperature reached 25 degrees and a thief tried to steal his car. I remember, when we found him, he looked like he'd fallen asleep in his car, but his tongue had been removed, his lips glued shut. Then there was Peter Daily, the guy who's crime scene we met at just yesterday. When I talked to my Lieutenant on my way to your place the Coroner said this morning that someone had ice picked his brain. Suck it right through the ear canal on both sides. All it took was one, but whoever killed him, wanted to make sure he was dead."

Elli faced her now, his eyes set, concern in his voice.

"What you are telling me is... Despite a number of people going over this room, highly skilled at finding clues, some of the best in the state, we missed something that the killer left behind. And... there could be, is another victim that we haven't found yet?"

He felt like the killer was watching them, laughing...

 

[heartofcourage]

"It's a pattern. Of course, there's more. Do you think this is the killer's first time?" Joan asked, looking over at Wake. "Look at the crime scene and look at how sophisticated everything was. There's a reason why they haven't been caught yet and why they won't be caught for a while longer."

She glanced around the house and knew that there was more to be found. There was always more to be found. "They'll always miss things. A drop of blood. A piece of fluff. There is still something here that wasn't found before."

 

[CoSurvivor]

"So you are trying to tell me that this person want's to get caught?" Elli leaned up against the wall and thought for a moment of the way each person had been killed. They'd been mutilated, then stabbed in the heart. the left side for certain. "Let's think about what else is in common between our victims."

Elli went over it in his head. then spoke out loud as he knew there was no way Joan could know what he was thinking unless he spoke to her.

"All four victims have been stabbed in the left side of the chest, a mortal wound, if they hadn't died otherwise. I'm sure our victim here could have survived the extracation of his eyes, but whoever the killer was, they'd taken the time to glue his eye shut, putting them in his hands. The hands were another thing now that I think about it, all of them were found with their hands in their lap. Our latest victim while was murdered with his hands in his pockets. Made sense in the cold but all of them were staged."

'Eyes, ears, mouth, and hands removed...What am I missing here?" Elli grew closer to her, probably not meaning to, but he was less than a foot from her, earnestly looking into her eyes...

"What are the voices telling you now? has... has 'he' said anything?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"You're missing where the next one is." Joan said bluntly, looking at Wake as he tried to piece everything together. "And somewhere in this house and probably at the rest of the crime scenes is the clue to where to go next."

She shrugged her shoulders as if it were the simplest thing in the world. He seemed so serious as he approached her, asking what the voices were saying now and if the dark one was talking to her then. She shook her head no and turned to look around the room at some of the furniture that hadn't been moved out yet.

"The voices are always there. It's always constant noise, but they don't always make sense." She said as she slowly walked towards an old easy chair and the couch. "And he's not always around."

 

[CoSurvivor]

"It's still here... The killer is sitting back, watching us from somewhere, laughing at us. Take the living room, I'll look in the kitchen, CSI turned over everything, "

Elli looked around the room kitchen opening drawers and the fridge, nothing was there, the literally everything had been pulled out by the landlord and removed. The only thing left was an old antique wooden coco clock on the wall. It had been centrally located, and was in the middle of the wall, directly across from where the kitchen table was. Eli took a few moments and took a closer look at it, At the top as was the case with all coco clocks, it had a movement, two wooden men sitting on a sea/saw. the movement didn't have either little man higher or lower, they were both at equal height. As if the game of sees/saw had been paused.

"Joan... come take a look at this."

Eli took out his knife, opened the blade and ran it along the outer edge of the clock, it was secured to the wall. Elli then tapped his knife against the sides, hollow, it didn't sound like there was anything in it, no mechanism, or anything to make the clock run. Next, he checked the face of the clock, it was set to 4 O'clock. He grit his teeth and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from an inside pocket, a clear plastic evidence bag fell out and hit the floor at the same time. "I figured we might run into something, thought best to come prepared."

Pulling the second set out he handed them to Joan. "Not your size I'm sure, but they'll work."

He examined where the 'face' of the clock fit the frame of it, and found that it was a touch ajar. Pulling out his phone, swiped across it and hit the record button. Handing it to Joan. "Keep a wide angle on me. Record everything I'm doing." He went through the process of introducing himself and Joan to the camera along with introducing what he was doing. Pulling lightly on the back of the face it came loose, Inside was a small rolled up piece of paper, maybe an inch wide.

"Shit"

His breath caught in his chest and he motioned for Joan to come forward, he stepped away while she filmed. When she was done Elli reached in and carefully picked up the rolled slip of paper. Walking carefully into the kitchen Elli placed it down on the counter and looked over at Joan. Ell slowly rolled out the paper, holding it firmly on one edge. In typed lettering, it read:

Blood and Revenge​

 

[heartofcourage]

Joan took the phone as she was told and shot the scene as he wanted it framed. She knew what he was about to find and she held her breath as he found the piece of paper tucked away in the clock. The dark voice in her head made her jump, the phone clattering from her hands to the floor at her feet. She frowned and looked up at Wake with concern and a little bit of fear in her eyes.

'He's the one doing this. He's the killer. He'll turn that knife on you.' The voice growled and Joan took a step away from Wake, her eyes turning towards the door in case she needed to run. 'He'll stab you in the heart and leave you here. No one will find you for ages.'

 

[CoSurvivor]

Looking at the paper, it seemed to be torn from a longer passage, possibly from a book or a movie? He instantly thought of the movie seven, where the detectives are in the squad room when Mills and Somerset discuss the intelligence of the killer. With a touch of anger in his voice, Elli looked at the passage then spoke.

" 'Blood and revenge'? What sick twisted fuck are we dealing with?

He then heard the clatter of his phone hitting the linoleum tile floor of the apartment. Looking back at Joan, noticed the look on her face and the darting of her eyes toward the door.

Leaving everything right where it was, Elli turned to her and spoke as calmly as he could while reaching out with his hand palm up.

"Joan...what's got you spooked. Talk to me..."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Did you do this?" Joan asked him as she took a step away. "Did you do all of this?"

'He did and you know it.' The voice growled and she reached up to cover her ears as if that would block out all of the sound.

"Stop. Please, just stop." She begged, whimpering like a child as the frightening voice just chuckled and she was soon crouching down to rock back and forth in a soothing motion. "Just stop. You're not real. You need to go away."

 

[CoSurvivor]

Elli was taken off guard, he looked at her with questioning eyes and raised his hands

"No.... No... I didn't do this... You know I couldn't have done this."

As Joan collapsed on the floor covering her ears, Elli knew he had to get her out of there, quickly turning he grabbed the passage, shoved it in his jacket pocket and retrieved his phone from where it had spun across the floor.

Getting down on his knees he reached for her and in the most calming tone, he could he spoke to her "He's not real...listen to my voice, Joan...Come back to me..."

As she kept rocking he delicately picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and headed immediately to the couch. In a confident and caring voice, Elli spoke to her. "I'm here Joan... you are safe with me..."

 

[heartofcourage]

Joan desperately clung to Wake as soon as he scooped her off the floor and walked her to the sofa. Over the dark tone of the man's laughter, she could hear him talking to her, assuring her. She tried so desperately to listen to him, shaking as it slowly started to fade. As she rested in his arms, she felt supremely embarrassed, but it seemed that Wake wouldn't hold anything against her.

"Let's get out of here." Joan muttered after about ten minutes, wanting to get away from place as quickly as possible.

 

[CoSurvivor]

Elli nodded quickly in agreement, "We got what we came here for."

Letting Joan up out of his lap he took her hand in his and lead her to the door, why did he take her hand in his? He wasn't sure, maybe a sense of protection, maybe it was a need to keep that connection between them that he'd just established, whatever it was he ushered her out the front door first, made sure the lower door was locked behind him as they both make their way out the door.

With a hard pull, Elli made sure the door was closed, re-attached the key to the lock box and escorted Joan out to his truck, walking her to the passenger side he unlocked the door for her, helped her up and shut the passenger side door. Urgently, he walked to the driver's side got in and closed the door with purpose. Pushing the ignition button he heard the massive V8 rumble to life, shifting into gear he quickly pulled away from the street and quickly put distance between them and the murder scene before he said one word.

He thought for a moment, "I can't take her back home, and I can't take her to another scene, not yet, not till she's settled down. Where can I take her that makes sense?" He thought of no other option.

"I'm taking you somewhere safe..."

He headed home.

 

[heartofcourage]

Once Wake got Joan settled in the car, she rested her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She was simply focused on calming down and nothing else mattered at the moment. She didn't care where he was taking her as he pulled away from the curb and hurried off in some unknown direction. Even if she had briefly accused him of committing the murder of the man in the town home, she knew that he wouldn't hurt her. It hadn't been her accusing him.

"I'm sorry I said that back there." Joan muttered as he continued to navigate through the streets carefully in the big truck. "I didn't mean it."

 

[CoSurvivor]

Elli looked over at Joan now that she'd taken a moment to recenter herself. "I know..." He gave her a genuine smile and focused back on traffic. "I didn't assume that was you. I assumed 'he' was making you question what you were seeing in front of you."

He drove on, made a few turns and pulled over in the driveway of a single family home, with a two car garage.

"I was thinking, I wanted to bring you somewhere safe. Your home wasn't a good idea at the time because you'd said he could find you there. I didn't want to take you to another scene, since 'he' would be waiting for us possibly. So... I thought of only one other place to go."

Shutting off the ignition, Elli looked over at Joan and nodded toward the house.

"It's been a long time since I've had company, so I apologize if the place is a mess."

Elli hadn't had company at his house since his wife and daughter's funeral. And the prospect of showing his house to someone made him concerned. Ellison was a cop, he was supposed to exude confidence, but his home was his own private place where he felt safe. In a voice that was not entirely his own, Elli spoke again before opening his door and starting to get out.

"I...I hope that's alright, bringing you here..."

 

[heartofcourage]

'He took you home.' Maria said in Joan's head and she let out a small sigh, looking over at Wake as he nervously asked if it was alright that he brought her there.

Joan shrugged her shoulders slightly and she looked down at her lap. She didn't know why he thought bringing her there was a good thing, but it seemed that he trusted her a lot if he was willing to open up to her in a way that he hadn't to anyone else.

"It's fine." She said as if it weren't a big deal, looking over at Wake. "If you're fine with me being here, I'm fine being here."

 

[CoSurvivor]

Wake simply nodded and buried his mild frustration. In his head he hated the word 'fine' it was more like telling someone that you were accepting a bullshit situation even though you didn't wanna be there. In his head, he really wanted to ask Joan NOT to use that word, but all he could do was nod his head for the moment. He felt like he needed to cut her a break, at least for the moment.

Pulling his house keys out of his jacket pocket Elli lead the way to the front door, inserted his key, turned the lock and waited for Joan to catch up. "Ok, I apologize for the mess beforehand. The Maid quit last month, I forgot to pay her a while ago."

Stepping into his house he held the door open for her, welcoming her in.

The place wasn't dirty, it was actually the opposite, sparsely decorated the house looked like someone had moved in, but hadn't really unpacked, except there were no packing boxes to speak of. The dining room was nearly just as sparse, it looked like the room was prepared for a grand table, but it was half completed. An empty display case ornate, possibly 100 years old sat against one wall. Looking further into the house, one could see a large open floor plan leading into a kitchen and further on to a living room with a couch, love seat and a big brown leather recliner. But the walls had no pictures. It was devoid of many of the things you'd guess would make a happy home.

Once Joan had stepped inside, Elli closed the door and threw the deadbolt. "Can I take your jacket Joan?"

 

[heartofcourage]

Joan was incredibly nervous as she stepped into the house, feeling like she was intruding into Wake's personal space. It was quiet in the house, the only noises from the clicking of various appliances and the heater that hummed consistently. It was very empty in there and she could only imagine it was because Wake didn't want to be haunted by memories of a family that was long gone and never coming back. She sympathized with him in that regard.

"Sure." Joan said as she allowed him to take her coat as she stood there in the middle of the entry like a crazy person. "It's....nice."

 

[CoSurvivor]

"Thanks."

Elli reached up took a hold of the collar to her coat and helped ease it off her shoulders. Joan was attractive, there was no denying that her schizophrenia made her distant, just as his own condition made him reluctant to reach out to anyone. He was hoping that their mutual issues might instill some mutual commiseration over their personal issues. He just was having a hard time switching into being so patient. But he needed to be. And it was pushing him out of his comfort zone.

Hanging up her jacket then his own he kicked off his boots, leaving them there on the tile entryway. Giving Joan a few moments to take off her boots he guided her back to the living room, which was a bit more decorated. The kitchen had a modest table for 4 and the living room, while it had limited pictures, it did have a picture of Elli after graduating from the academy, a few photos from his family, and a few photos from his time in the military. As might be typical of a man cave, a massive TV took up a good portion of one wall, and the leather recliner easily seen on the way in was front and center with the best seat in the house. Elli made his way to the fridge, opened it and pulled out a bottle of iced tea. Turning to Joan as she looked around checking out his home, he asked her:

"You're probably wondering why I brought you here instead of your place. You just had a run-in with 'him', I couldn't take you home, you've said he's been there. I couldn't rightfully subject you to going to another crime scene till I knew you were ok. I...I also couldn't take you to the station... 'He' has never been here, and at the moment I could think of nowhere safer, someplace he's got no connection to."

He'd just blurted his mind out as quickly as possible, otherwise, he'd never had a chance to say it, which was followed by silence as Elli waited for Joan to reply. It could've taken 10 seconds or 30 seconds for her to reply, but he blurted out "Can I get you anything?"