Chapter Three

“Luke!”The voice called.

Luke stood up and glanced around him. The woman's voice, filled with love- true, pure love, called to his soul and made him shiver. He suddenly felt in love and all he wanted to do was find her. He felt a strange urgency to get to her; he wanted to hold her in his arms.

A sigh left his lips as he turned around and around trying to get a glimpse of her. “Luke! Come find me, Luke...I love you.”

Luke was jarred awake by the peeling of his cell phone. He was having the first beautiful dream in a long time and now yanked from it causing him to feel cheated. It was as though a sweet fruit was dangled before his face only to have it snatched away when reaching out for it. Swearing, gruffly he reached over blindly to the bedside table to find the phone without even opening his eyes. When his hand caught the small phone, he flipped it open and brought it to his ear. “Yeah,” he moaned into the receiver.

He paused and listened for a second and then flew out of bed. He was in his pants before the sheets landed back on the bed. Hurrying, he got dressed and dashed out the door with one arm out of his jacket.

It was just like Edison, when you want to take your time and drive leisurely, to enjoy the scenery there was no traffic on any of the streets. But on the day you are in a rush that is when everyone and their uncles are on the street. He honked to get the attention of a car that seemed to sit there long after the light changed to green. That didn't go over well with the driver ahead of him because the man simply turned and flipped Luke the bird before driving off.

If it was any other day, Luke would have just pulled him over and let him sit there for hours waiting for the cop to come to his window but not that day. That day Luke Stanton wanted to get to the station house and fast.

It was a good twenty minutes later when he walked into the chief’s office. Chief Chen was on the phone, yelling and swearing a blue streak and puffing for air as usual. His face was beet red and Luke knew that one day the man would fall over from the lack of oxygen to his brain or a severe heart attack – not that he was calling anything bad on Chen.

A jingling sound could be heard and Luke looked down to see the resident wolf trotting toward him. Luke went down to scratch the animal behind the ear. “Morning, Declin,” he smiled. The wolf was there because one of their officers was a native Indian who trained Declin as he would a sniffing dog. In fact, Declin was even better. Narcotics often came by to borrow the animal.

Declin lifted a paw and covered his eyes and Luke hid a smile. “I know how you feel boy.”

Standing up, he turned to face his superior again. “You wanted to see me, sir?” Luke asked once Chen hung up the phone.

“There’s a woman here to see you, she said it was important that she spoke with you. She’s waiting for you in your office.”

Before Luke opened his mouth to say something the phone rang and Chen was once again yelling at the top of his lungs. Shaking his head, Luke whistled and Declin got up from his little spot on the ground and followed him out the door.

Luke’s mind was going on overdrive as he tried to figure out who this woman could be and why she requested him. When he opened the door Declin barged in before him as usual and that sent the woman sitting in his chair leaping to stand on his desk, screaming. Luke smiled at the reaction Declin received all the time until people got used to the fact he won’t maul them to death. Declin hopped onto the sofa and curled up with his head on his front paws giving them the impression they were wasting his time.

Luke grinned as he looked up at her. She was African American with a slender body, long black hair flowing over her shoulders and legs all the way to the North Pole, “That’s Declin,” Luke spoke with a smile before grabbing the woman around the waist and lifting her gently off the desk. She gripped onto his arms and he placed her into the chair.

“Th-that’s a wolf!” the woman sputtered.

“Yes, that’s a wolf,” Luke said. “He belongs to one of our officers. Don’t worry, he’s trained so he won’t harm you.”

Declin looked up with a somewhat bored expression as if to ask “Why do they always do that?”

“Have you ever seen the show When Good Animals go bad?”

“They are no bad animals,” Luke spoke still watching Declin. “Just a few morons that believe taking an animal out of its natural habitat and treating it like dirt is a good idea.” Luke turned to the woman. “What can I do for you?”

“You’re Detective Stanton?” she questioned with a hint of surprise in her voice.

“The last time I checked,” Luke said, while wondering why his temper was so extremely short today; first the traffic, now this. Maybe it was his way of showing his disapproval for having to go to the station on his day off; a day off that he hadn't asked for but was thrust into his lap because he had too many vacation days saved up.

“Was there something I could do for you?”

“I’d like to talk to you about finding someone for me,” she spoke up still eying Declin nervously.

“Did you try missing persons? I work homicides and cold cases.”

“I tried them but when I told them that she might be hurt or worse, they sent me to another officer who sent me back to missing persons who sent me to you. Look, people have been passing me off all day and to be frank this is starting to get on my damn nerves.”

Luke sighed and glanced at the mountain of work on his desk and was about to send her back to missing persons but the look in her eyes told him not to. He mentally kicked himself for what he was about to do and could think of at least a dozen ways in which he would regret his decision later, but he picked up a notepad, pulled a pen from his pocket and faced her fully. “All right, let’s start with your name.”

“Kerry-Ann Kittrich,” she spoke with a sigh of relief.

“Who do you want me to find?”

“My neighbor…Priety Roshan.”

“Er- her name is Pretty?”

“No. Prie-ty – P-r-i-e-t-y.”

Scribbling down the information he tried to run over in his head the many ways in which this could be a simple mistake. In fact, he prayed it was a mistake because he really didn’t like to have to search for someone and when they turned up dead, he was the one who had to inform the family. He hated that part of the job. Most of the time the deceased was too young to even be in the places they were found, places like strip clubs, and dark alleys. A sigh left his lips and he looked at her. “Tell me what happened.”

He wanted to smile at the shy way Kerry-Ann shifted in her seat but the situation was too serious. “Well we normally meet for coffee at her place or mine but yesterday she didn’t show up. I tried calling her but no answer, so I went over to the house but the place looked as if a tornado ran through it.”

“A tornado? Explain.”

“Drawers were overturned, the bed ransacked, broken glass on the ground…something bad happened to her. I can feel it. If you know Priety her house is always immaculate—almost obsessive compulsively clean.”

Luke thought about his options. He could hand the case off to a rookie but that could freak her out since she went out of her way to find him. Then there would be one more person who believed cops were overpaid assholes.

“Something bad has happened to her. I just know it.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions—”

“How can I not jump to conclusions? She’s missing and it’s not like her. Even more strange her house was tossed. So my question again, Detective, how can I not jump to conclusions?”

“Maybe she had a party that got outta control. I don’t know. Maybe she met someone and left with him.”

The woman chuckled. “If you knew Priety you would know that wouldn’t happen in a million years.”

Luke arched a brow. “You saying she wouldn’t have a party?”

“I’m saying,” the woman countered, “she wouldn’t leave with anyone and not tell me—especially some stranger.”

Ripping the page he had written on from the notepad, he pushed it into his pocket and stood up. “I’d like to take a look at her place, would you mind taking me there?”

She nodded, causing her hair to bounce. He reached for his jacket. Declin took that moment to hop from the sofa and left the room followed by Luke because it was obvious that Kerry was still afraid of the wolf. When he hopped up, she jumped back almost slamming into Luke's chest. Luke walked Declin back to Lt. Greystone’s office and then exited the building behind Kerry.

Following Kerry toward her friend’s house, Luke frowned. They were headed into Lipson. He didn’t see why they couldn’t get a police station but that was a whole other matter. Political mumbo-jumbo and a whole crap load of red-tape.

He pulled up behind her and looked up at the small house. It looked out of place being flanked by two rather large mansions. Stepping from his vehicle, he shrugged into his jacket and a pair of gloves and met her at the front of his car.

“Which one is it?” Luke questioned and she pointed to the smallest of the three houses.

 “That's it?”

“Yeah…”

Walking along the front he stopped and then ducked around the side. Checking windows to see if they were locked or tampered with all around the house and ended at the front again before Kerry let him into the house. “Did you touch anything?”

He got his answer when she shook her head and stood by the door clasping her purse as though she thought he would steal it. Walking by her, he unclipped the pin holding his holster closed, stepped over an over turned chair and moved through the house. Checking each room he frowned as each room was in a sorrier state than the last one. It was just as Miss Kittrich had said. Chairs were overturned, drawers pulled out and emptied on the floor, curtains and blinds were ripped down; something had happened in the house for sure. The small house looked like someone had gone through it in a hurry looking for something and from the looks of it, they didn’t find it.

“I’ll take it from here,” Luke spoke to Kerry when he walked back to the front door. “You’ll have to leave because I will have to close off the house as a crime scene so that CSI can go through it to see if they can find anything. In the mean time, here’s my card.” He stopped and dug a card from his breast pocket and handed it over. “I know it’s not going to be easy but try and get some rest. Give me a call if you need anything.”

When she didn’t answer him, he wanted to say something to make her feel better but he had nothing. He watched as she took the card, nodded and left, without saying a word. He walked out the front door and cut across the side lawn to the neighbor on the other side of Priety’s house in hopes they had seen something. He took his gloves off and put them in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“Hey, Jim, I need a forensic team,” he spoke hurriedly and stopped to listen to what was being said to him. He knocked on the front door and was about to leave when the door gently opened with a creek.

He thoughtfully closed the phone and placed it into his pocket. Something caught his nose and he tilted his head to one side while using the toe of his boot to push the door opened slowly. He had been to too many crime scenes not to recognize the putrid scent leaking from the house. There was no mistaking it. The smell got stronger and more familiar and Luke’s hand immediately went for his weapon. With his gun drawn, he pushed the door further open with his foot and cautiously made his way through the house starting with the lower floor.

What he found in the kitchen only wound him tighter. There, sitting on a plate on the table, was what looked like eye balls. As he got closer and leaned in to inspect them, his fear was confirmed.

Eyes.

Just when I thought I’d seen everything on this job.

A lump grew in his throat. He pulled himself from the scene and continued through the house. He gripped the gun with both hands willing them to stop shaking. Over the years, Luke tried his best to be strong and not show emotions at a possible crime scene. But if he was to succeed in that, what kind of heartless monster would he become?

As he got toward the bedroom, the scent got so strong Luke had to breathe through his mouth, almost tasting the bad stench. Moving in front of the open door he walked in and cleared one side, then slowly turned his body to view the whole room. When his eyes connected with the body hanging from the wall he bit down on his lower lip to avoid throwing up. Half dried blood was flowing down her face from her eyes and Luke realized she was the donor of the eyes he found in the kitchen.

He lowered his gun and quickly reached for his cell and a handkerchief to put over his nose and mouth. After the call was made he stumbled outside and greedily fought for air.

This whole thing had turned from weird to downright scary.