Detective Vincent DeTello
MORON! Dropping down on Esther’s bed, I smacked myself on the face. What the hell was I thinking? Could she have run faster from the room? Then again she didn’t totally reject me, just mostly. Resigning the fact I hadn’t totally blown it I sat up and looked around her room. Totally in order without even an errant sock on the floor. Her bed was a full, but with a handmade quilt. Had that been from her previous life? She’d committed suicide. I’m sure she wouldn’t have had access to her bedroom.
Looking out into the hallway I listened for movement since I didn’t see anyone. Returning to the bed I let my finger pull ever so slightly on the handle of her nightstand. A Bible, not surprising, pens, notepaper with scribbling, but nothing showing more about her…until I shifted the Bible and noticed a bump. Flipping the book open I found the sucker I’d given her. Most people pop the Dum-Dums I pass out in their mouth, but not Esther. She’d placed it with what to her must be a prized possession. The Bible had a soft leather jacket that was worn smooth. Parts of the text were highlighted with hand-scribbled notes in the margins.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. First Peter four, living for God. Esther had highlighted the passage. Returning the book, I felt dirty as if I’d rummaged through her underwear drawer and not flipped open a Bible. I needed to know more and the only way I’d know it would be to look through her private items, but for the first time I didn’t want to. She’d never known privacy in the commune. Here, she had a semblance of self that she wouldn’t have been allowed to explore growing up. Now as a woman of…she must be close to seventy. Her flawless complexion mixed with the innocent look she had when dressed in a rough muslin wouldn’t place her age over twenty-two. Even when clad in leather and dressed to kill I couldn’t put her past twenty-six.
She was two women trying to become one.
“Find what you were looking for?” Kiriana’s voice made me jump. “When has a woman ever liked to have her diary read?”
“I wasn’t reading a diary, I was just thumbing through the Bible.”
“To Esther, that is her diary.” Kiriana pushed the drawer shut and crossed her arms. “Are we going to see my dad or what?”
“You’re going too?”
“He might be more willing to talk with me there.”
“How’s your relationship?”
“It was great when I was twelve.”
Kiriana turned on her heel and left the room. Resigned to give up my search of the room I followed the loud voices in the foyer. It appeared Nye wasn’t too happy about Kiriana’s decision to join us.
“Over my dead body,” he barked.
“That would kill me too,” she stated plainly. “Thus defeating the purpose of protecting me.”
“Kiri, if you leave this compound—”
Kiriana pulled his face to hers and kissed the living hell out of him. At first he fought it, then he fell in line. In the archway to the living room Esther shifted uncomfortably at the public display. When she caught me watching her from the staircase she nodded slightly and a pink blush broke out across her cheeks.
“I’ll be careful,” Kiriana said when the embrace broke. “And Vince won’t let me get hurt.”
“We’ll keep her close,” Esther assured as she fidgeted with the handle of a knife strapped into a sheath on her hip. It looked strange against her gray pleated pants, white and red striped button-up shirt, and charcoal-colored V-neck shirt. Her heeled boots made me smile and think someone had helped her dress based on what TV cops wore, not real ones. But that was okay because it did make her ass look tasty.
I tamped down my hormones and went to stand next to her. Instead she headed for a door and placed her hand on a panel. A loud click was followed by the door opening into a cold structure. A dozen cars of various styles were parked where traditionally horse stalls would be. Kiriana squeezed in behind the wheel of a cross-over SUV from Audi. Esther took a seat in the back and kept her head low as I buckled into the passenger seat.
When we pulled out of the barn next to Bruce’s trailer I was floored.
“Wait…how?” I struggled to figure out how a house over ten thousand square feet at least was hidden in a barn.
“It’s easier to not think about it,” Kiriana said. “I’ve been living there for almost six months and new rooms pop up all over the place in there.”
“You weren’t lying when you said his farm was bigger than I thought.” I looked over my shoulder to see Esther giving me a meek smile. “Are we okay?”
“We?”
“Yeah, I thought…never mind.”
Discussing strategy took all of three minutes for the ride. Kiriana had yet to decide if she could face her father. It seemed her mother had gone into hyper-ninja-mode when her dad had been arrested. Training her to fight and shoot. Everyone was to be mistrusted, according to her mother, but now she knew it was because her mother feared the influence of demons.
“I still don’t know if what my father did was really him or a demon influencing him.” Kiriana turned into the parking lot for the medium security facility at the edge of town. “I’m not sure how I’d react to learning it wasn’t him, but a demon.”
“Why?” Esther asked. “It should bring you comfort.”
“The last decade I’ve spent ashamed, embarrassed, and afraid of my father. I can’t even process how nasty I might have been to him…if he was innocent—”
Kiriana shook from head to toe, then gripped the steering wheel tightly.
“I can’t go in,” she declared. “I thought I could, but not until I know for sure.”
“We shall return shortly,” Esther declared with confidence.
When we got out I noticed she still hadn’t removed the knife she’d sheathed on her hip.
“You know you can’t go in with that,” I said as my finger touched the handle. A purple light exploded from what I thought was a solid dark stone handle. Instead it was glass. “Wow, that’s bright.”
“Why can’t I carry it in?” Esther’s voice trembled as she fumbled to pull out a wallet holding a very good forged badge. “I’m a police officer.”
“Right,” I responded, biting back my frustration as I reviewed the fake ID. “But they don’t let anyone take weapons in. It’s a safety issue. What if an inmate grabbed it?”
“I will catch his wrist and twist his arm until it snapped.”
Her plain explanation and matter of fact voice tickled me as I tamped down a smirk.
“Leave the knife.”
“My claustranima is not just a sharp way to spread butter. It kills demons. It’s the only way to truly send them to their maker. You saw what happened when I shot a bantling.” A tremble worked its way up my spine from the memory of the charging animal. “All I did was slow it down to a gallop from an all-out blitz attack.”
“You’re wearing your guns, aren’t you?” I asked as I instinctively pinned her against the car and felt her torso.
My hands patted along her sides and she bit her bottom lip. I tried to stay focused on the situation and not the fact I wanted to strip her shirt down and fully check her body. The thought of tasting her soft skin wasn’t helping me move on as I was caught in the shimmering violet of her eyes. From her hips to right below her chest I felt along her side. When I moved in I felt the small lumps on her belly where her Rugers were.
“They have metal detectors,” I scolded. “Leave the weapons.”
“I can’t…” she gasped as her hands moved onto my chest. Heat burst from them, scorching my pecs. “You don’t understand.”
“It contains her soul,” Kiriana said as she rounded the car. “She could take or leave the guns, but it’s not the fear of attack.”
“Your soul?” Esther’s eyes turn downward and I bent down so I could catch her eyes without letting go of her. “Your soul is held in a knife?”
She released the snap holding the knife in place and slowly removed it. Holding it horizontally she rested it on her palms and I stepped back. The six-sided blade, beyond being highly illegal, was luminous. Seven inches from tip to hilt caught the light of mid-day. The handle had a small glowing orb bouncing around the etchings with a light that alternated between blinding to dull.
“That’s me. All of me. My body is but a shell.”
“A beautiful one,” I replied and cradled her head in my hands. “Your soul will be safe in the car.”
“I’ll protect it with my life,” Kiriana added. “I know its importance.”
Esther sheathed the knife and trembled as she passed it on to Kiriana along with her guns. Holding her hand we walked up the long driveway. She curled against my arm and held on for dear life. When we approached the double doors, I stopped.
“If we’re partners we can’t walk in holding hands.”
“I’ve never had it out of my possession unless it was locked away in my room.” Esther wasn’t ready to let go of me so I pulled her in close. “Not outside a compound.”
My heart raced as she clung to me as if she feared even breathing. The fierce warrior who, when clad in leather, wouldn’t flinch from a fight, now trembled in my arms because a weapon containing her soul was fifty feet away.
“You can go back to the car.”
“No, I can’t. You need one of us there. If a demon is possessing or near Warren Brown I’ll know. We need to do this together.”
“All right,” I said as I turned her head up and leaned down, placing a small peck on her lips. “You ready, Officer Benson?”
“It’s Special Agent.” She smiled at me. “I out rank you.”
“In so many ways.”
We separated and she smoothed out her shirt, then dug in her jacket pocket for her ID. Visiting hours weren’t a major issue when law enforcement came knocking in a prison. Those on the outside gave those who worked on the inside their due. Unlike me, these officers weren’t given the luxury of weapons to protect themselves from rapists and murders. They had to use their wits and confinement to keep the peace.
The single meeting room was bare except for two chairs and a table. Esther stood at the edge of the room as we waited for Warren Brown. When he came in the room shackled in four points I tried to see Kiriana in him, but she was absent. The shorn hair only showed the age of a graying man. His face was drawn and gaunt. Although he was a large man the last thing he brought to the table was fear.
He eyed me with the look of the incarcerated. It never went away. The look of the imprisoned might as well of been imprinted deep in the soul. The next night he’d spend outside of these walls not shackled would be on the mortician’s slab.
“He send you?” his voice grumbled.
“Who?” I replied, not giving away anything.
“I’ve been locked up for too many years for the police to care.” His fingers fiddled with two links of the shackles. “I haven’t heard of anyone being killed in here lately, so I’m not sure why you’d be here.”
“We found another body,” Esther chimed in with a sure voice. “We think it’s one of yours. Just trying to clean up the last of the paperwork.”
“Toss it on the pile. At this point you might as well add Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and the Lindberg baby on me too.”
“Jimmy’s not a blond,” Esther said as she walked over and leaned against the table. “That’s what you like, blondes, right? Your wife was blonde, wasn’t she?”
Warren turned his head down and slumped.
“And your daughter? She was a blonde too?”
“Was?” Warren’s head shot up. “What happened to Kiriana? I’ve been in here, but he said he sees her every day. Did he touch her?”
“Who?” I repeated as Esther opened a folder and flipped through blank pages. “Who’s your partner?”
“I didn’t have a partner,” he replied with certainty.
“Then why are you shaking?”
“You’re acting like my daughter has been one of my victims. I’m in here which means someone killed my daughter.”
“I never said she was dead.” Esther snapped the folder shut.
“You said she was a blonde,” he snapped. “Emphasis on the ‘was.’“
“My bad, she is a blonde, but you are afraid of him touching her? Pinning her down against her will. Jamming himself and random objects into her while she flails begging for him to stop. You know where he is, don’t you? He’s stayed close to make sure you didn’t talk. What you did to those women couldn’t have been done by one man. Not unless you’re the biggest sadist this side of Manson. Something tells me you couldn’t take down fifteen women without a pal.”
Esther slapped a picture of Warren and Kiriana on the table from her third birthday. He smiled as he carried her on his shoulders to a table with a cake. Kiriana’s deep brown eyes sparkled while her lopsided pigtails displayed blonde hair shining in the sunlight.
“She’s having twins, did you know that?”
“No.” Warren’s voice was soft as his finger slid the picture closer. He didn’t look up. Instead his gaze stayed trained on Kiriana.
“Your baby is having babies now. Will they have the soft blonde hair she had? Will they be girls? The type you like to rape.”
“I never raped them, you whore,” Warren bellowed at Esther, and she stepped back.
“You’ve been charged with multiple counts of rape,” I said as I took on the good cop role. Esther had played Warren the way I wanted her to: as a woman challenging him as a man. “How could you have been charged without evidence? It’s pretty clear in every state what you did.”
“I never did it. I don’t know what happened. I’d find them dead in the bed the next morning. He helped me bury them. I got high, I admit that. I had a problem. I’d lost my job and I couldn’t face her. Not as a failure. So I went to a bar. The next six months are blurs until Des Moines. I told my stupid lawyer, but he was useless.”
“Who was with you?”
Warren rocked a bit and looked over his shoulder to the small opening in the door. Resigned, he acquiesced.
“Damarion Juarez.”
* * * *
Esther Benson
Lies smelled on a normal. The sweat leached from their skin, poisoning the air to the point I found it hard to breathe. Damarion wasn’t the demon who influenced Warren. That much I knew to be true. The dates of the women’s deaths and disappearances had occurred during Damarion’s confinement. Vince hadn’t turned his head from Warren. When he scooted his chair back, my hand went to it and stopped him.
“We’re not done here.”
“He gave us the name,” Vince said. “We have to follow up on the lead.”
“Damarion Juarez has been dead for months. And I have nothing better to do with my time then to sit in here silently until Mr. Brown tells us the real name.”
Warren eyed me and the reflection of a man not Vince shone in his irises. He had a vision of the one who was doing this…all of it. The room chilled as we sat in silence. The figure was shrouded and I couldn’t make out features.
“The demons within us come to the surface when pushed. They cannot fight if you bring God into your heart. Bring me into your heart if you cannot guide Him there and I shall vanquish the demons.”
Vince could not see the demon swirling inside this man fighting to be freed. He was not possessed. Not by a long shot, but the demon had laid a trap inside him and in this room I was the only one who could save him.
“Detective DeTello, I’ll need a moment alone with Mr. Brown.”
“Esther,” he warned under his breath.
“My world.”
“Together,” he reminded me. “Your words. You said this needed to be done together.”
“Fine,” I surrendered to his logic. “I’ll take the chair.”
Sitting across from Warren Brown, I knew the struggle of truly having a demon inside one’s self. The angst as you no longer had control of your world or the world around you. Even the movement of your hand could cause you to question every action. Was it you or the monster inside you?
“Mr. Brown, I spoke with your daughter recently.” His lips twitched. “She has feared you for years, but now she’s not sure if the fear was founded. Her memories of you when she was younger don’t match the man you are today. Could you describe the man you met in the bar that night?”
“He wasn’t a man, he was a devil or a god.”
“What made him that way?” Vince asked as he leaned over me, resting his hand on the table. Warmth and safety enveloped me and I tried to maintain my distance from him.
“People were drawn to him like a siren, only he was male. When he walked by he seemed unassuming, but still everyone turned. I turned.” Warren shook his head. “I’m not attracted to men, but I couldn’t look away. When he sat by me I felt blessed.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
“I told you I wasn’t a damn fudge packer. Even in here I don’t…sex is the last thing on my mind. Unless it was Kalista I never wanted it. Once I met her…I’d be surprised if I even got hard around another woman.”
“You must have,” I suggested.
“I didn’t. Not ever. Kalista is the love of my life.”
“Was,” I corrected. “She was the love of your life. She passed away about a year ago.”
“Doesn’t make her not still the love of my life,” he choked out. “Was she alone when it happened? Did she have someone?”
“Kiriana was with her.”
“Tell us about the man.” Vince got us back on track. “You said he sees her every day. Your daughter could be in danger.”
“That’s what he told me when he came by.” Warren’s eyes swirled and I could see the demon trying to silence him.
“He was here? When? How long ago?”
“He’ll kill her and you can’t protect her.”
“She’s in witness protection,” Vince said. “Locked away where he can’t get to her. We picked her up this morning when Special Agent Benson told us of the threat. He can’t get her.”
In his irises I saw a woman crumpling to the ground and Warren shook his head and turned away from us.
“No. I don’t believe you. Maybe a decade ago, but not now. I’ve seen how evil men are and I wouldn’t trust any of you if he truly wanted her.”
“He’s busy right now.” Vince smashed his fist on the table. “Two women are missing. A doctor who works here disappeared last night. Blonde.”
“Dr. Pound?” he asked. “She’s missing?”
“You know her?” Vince asked. “Maybe we should do a full search here. Her car’s still in the lot. Did you have flashbacks?”
“I’d never hurt her. She’s nice. A good doctor. She listened when I went to her.”
“How often do you go to her?” Vince snarled. “Daily? Hourly?”
“No, just a few times. If he has her…she’ll be gone soon.”
“Tell us a name,” Vince yelled. “Give us a description.”
“When I knew him he called himself Vain. It seemed so appropriate for him.” Warren sighed. “When he came by the other day he had shoulder-length black hair. An angular face…Can I see her?” he asked. “Kiriana? Just once.”
“Let us find this killer before we promise anything,” I said.
“Was he tall, short, white, black, Hispanic?” Vince stayed focused on the case.
“Taller…tanned skin, I’m not sure of his ethnic make up.” Warren played with the picture of him and Kiriana. “Can I keep this?”
“When was he here?”
“I don’t know, about a week ago. He’s my last visitor, check with the COs.”
Warren proved uncooperative beyond that. We left him with the picture. “It won’t be in the log,” I said as we retrieved my cell phone at the checkout.
“Why not?” Vince asked. “Never mind…demon thing.”
“I’m sure any record of Vain left with him.”
“Just like the bartender.”
“What bartender?”
“Downtown, the bartender was telling me about this guy and suddenly his memory was gone.”
“Whoever he is, he left a large imprint on Warren. I could see him in his eyes.”
“Possessed? Warren’s possessed?” Vince asked as we stepped outside and were hit by a bitter cold.
“No…it was different.” Being next to Vince felt safe as we walked toward the car.
Suddenly I was spun around by an animal cutting across the parking lot. Behind it came a group of Frozen hunting the beast as Vince held me tight. The animal cut across a field. The members of the Frozen didn’t even stop. Tires screeched as Kiriana skidded to a stop right by our legs.
“Here,” she tossed my claustranima out the window and Vince caught it. I was still in shock at the emergence when a second bantling crashed into us.
Tumbling to the ground Vince kept a tight hold to me as we rolled. The animal, a cat this time, hissed in warning. I scrambled to find where Vince held my knife when the world above me exploded in black ash.