Chapter 13
4596words
“Cassidy,” Nina called out as she approached her desk. “We’re going to Griff’s for lunch. You coming?”
Cassidy looked up with a start and saw Nina, Officers Kate Hecht and Eileen Nugent. It was not the offer that surprised her. It was the time. She had been working too diligently to keep up with the time. Her mind was occupied with clearing the work from her desk as quickly as possible.
Cassidy had lunched with this group of women many times in the past, but she had not done so this week. Over the past four days, she considered her time too valuable to waste by going out for lunch. But that did not stop them from asking every time they went out.
“I can’t,” Cassidy professed apologetically.
“You say that every time. You’re working too hard and you’re letting them take advantage of you.”
“Nina is right,” Kate supported. “If you don’t set limits, they’re just going to keep pushing more work on you.”
Cassidy could think of no immediate response but began shaking her head in anticipation of declining the invitation.
“Come on, relax a little,” Eileen quickly said, cutting Cassidy off. “It’ll all be here when you get back. I promise.”
Cassidy could think of no good reason to say no. She would not be able to do any work on her side project until later that afternoon and could think of nothing more she could do in the precinct to unveil the mystery of Andrew Lantz. Her reluctance to accept was due to the fact that she wanted to use her lunch to go see the warehouse. But the act of leaving the precinct after declining such an invitation was a maneuver she had not considered. She was just about to reverse her position and accept the invite when a person she did not expect to see walked into the squad room.
“Uh, I’m sorry,” Cassidy stuttered. “But I have a lunch date.”
Cassidy logged off her computer and gathered her trench overcoat as she spoke, glancing intermittently at the person that had just entered the squad room. Nina, Kate and Eileen followed her glances to the stranger coming toward them. Collectively they assessed him as a medium height and exceedingly good-looking man with neatly coifed hair. He was smartly dressed in a charcoal gray suit and matching vest, a gray patterned tie and a shockingly white shirt. A folded white handkerchief peaked out from the suit breast pocket, and a visitor’s identification card was attached to his lapel. Cassidy hurried to intercept him before he could reach her desk.
“Hello,” David Burrell greeted as Cassidy hooked her arm around his and turned him back toward the entrance.
“Come on,” Cassidy encouraged as she led him back the way he came.
“Okay, well you have a nice time,” Kate called out to Cassidy with a wide smile.
Nina, Kate and Eileen watched them exit the squad room with approving stares.
Cassidy steered David out of the squad room and down the hall in a rush. David put up no resistance and was more than a little surprised by her eagerness to leave.
“What are you doing here?” Cassidy asked with a frown.
Cassidy continued to steer David toward the employees parking lot entrance.
“I’m here to invite you out to lunch,” David responded with a smile.
“You didn’t say anything about us going out to lunch today,” Cassidy whispered as she walked.
“If I had, you would have said no,” David returned with a pretense of a scowl.
“So, you just decided to come to my job and drag me out of the precinct,” Cassidy questioned.
“I gambled that you would be more inclined to say yes if I was already here,” David explained. “And it would appear that I’m right.”
Cassidy was slightly displeased with David’s attempt to manipulate her, but she was not prepared to dispute the matter. She gave his answer a look of irritation out the corners of her eyes and then led him out the door to the parking lot.
“My car is in the front,” David said as he continued to follow her lead.
“We’re taking my car,” Cassidy returned as she strode with resolve.
“Yes Ma’am,” David acquiesced as he tagged along.
Cassidy drove out of the 122nd precinct parking lot in haste and with David in the front passenger seat. She knew that travel time to and from the Brooklyn warehouse would give her little time to look it over, but that did not deter her from her plan. She was determined to get a look inside that building before the weekend started. They were five minutes into the journey when curiosity got the better of David.
“Where are we going?”
Cassidy kept her focus on the road, and the rapid pace of her driving, while she answered his question without a second thought.
“There’s a warehouse in Brooklyn that I need to check out.”
“Is the food good?” David queried back with a bit of wit.
“I need to take a look at it,” Cassidy explained without regard for his remark.
“Why?” David asked, faintly curious.
“You don’t need to know that,” Cassidy replied dismissively.
David accepted the answer without dispute. He road silently alongside Cassidy up until the moment she parked the car, twelve minutes later.
“Is that it?” David asked, pointing to a brownstone building further up the street.
Cassidy ignored his question. Instead she responded to his preparation to leave the car.
“You’re not coming,” Cassidy instructed as she pulled the key from the ignition.
“This is not what I was expecting when I said lunch date,” David commented as Cassidy opened her door.
Cassidy ignored David’s remark. Her mind was fixed on the warehouse, for the most part.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The warehouse was a two-story high building that looked as though it had been out of use for some time. There was no movement outside of the building, and the loading bay door was closed. Cassidy examined the outside of the building as she moved toward the personnel entrance. When she arrived at the door, she promptly tried it and found it locked. She shifted her focus to the small square window in the door, attempting to peer into the interior. The limited illumination inside made that difficult. There were no lights on inside, but she could make out windows along the side of the building that created small bright spots and long black shadows. She began to rap loudly on the door while continuing her search. She shortly concluded that she was wasting time and effort.
Cassidy was reluctant to give up. She backed away from the building and looked for another way in. She walked around to the rear of the warehouse not knowing what she would find there or what she was looking for. She was growing short on patience. She suspected the warehouse would be even less accessible over the weekend, and she wanted to learn something about the contents of the building if not the people who were regularly inside it.
A raggedy chain-link fence did nothing to obstruct Cassidy’s plan to circumnavigate the building. It took her little more than a minute to pass through a tear in the fence and move around to the rear of the building. She saw nothing back there to suggest that anyone was in the structure. There were no cars or trucks parked in the spaces lined out for them. After a brief scan of area, she turned her attention to the closed personnel door at the back of the building. She walked up to it expecting it to be locked. She grasped the knob, gave it a twist, and pushed. To her surprise, the door swung open.
The interior of the warehouse was pitch black. Cassidy pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her suitcoat, turned it on and stepped across the threshold. She moved carefully through the building with the beam of her flashlight illuminating the floor in front of her. She looked for signs of anyone inside. After several moments of complete silence, she elected to stop and call out.
“Is anyone here?”
The silence that followed was further support that no one was inside the warehouse. The dark interior was interrupted in places by diffused light coming in from small windows high on the wall to Cassidy’s left. In most places, the light was blocked from streaming directly onto the floor by crates and boxes stacked on metal racks about 15-feet high. Much of the floor was bathed in black shadows created by the racks and containers. The main room of the warehouse was more than 20-feet high. A second level walkway with a railing protruded out from the right wall and extended all the way down its length. Cassidy saw two large windows and four doors on the second level. She found staircases at both ends of the walkway. Cassidy slowly moved to the right, along the back wall, until she found the center aisle. She turned into it and began to walk toward the front of the warehouse.
Occasionally, Cassidy used her flashlight to examine the crates and boxes shelved at the end of a side aisle. She saw nothing suspicious about them. Halfway up the center aisle, she found the bottom of the staircase that ran parallel to the front wall of the warehouse and up to the second-floor. Cassidy continued to move in that direction at a slow pace. She directed the beam from her flashlight from side-to-side across the floor. She saw nothing interesting enough to hold her attention for more than a few seconds.
After a slow walk, Cassidy reached the front of the warehouse floor. Along the way, she saw boxes and crates that were marked as machinery parts, raw materials and retail merchandise. When she reached the end of the center aisle, she turned her attention to the stairs that led to the second level and began the climb.
At the top of the stairs, Cassidy came out onto the walkway that ran the length of the wall on the second level. The outside light coming through windows on the opposite wall did a better job of illuminating the upper level. Cassidy began to move down the walkway with her flashlight still lighting her path. At the first window, she found closed blinds and moved on to the door next to it. She tried the doorknob and found it unlocked. She opened it and stepped through, illuminating the room with her flashlight. It was a small indistinctive office with an old metal desk, metal file cabinets, and metal and vinyl chairs. The floor was linoleum and looked to be in need of cleaning. The room was utilitarian and not setup for comfort. Cassidy took one quick look around from just inside the doorway then stepped back out and moved down past the next window to the door beside it. That door was unlocked as well. Inside, she found a similar setup as the first. After another quick examination, Cassidy backed out onto the walkway and moved down to the third door. There was no window next to that door, but it too was unlocked. Inside Cassidy found a large storage closet filled with office and janitorial supplies. She took a few seconds to scan the room then backed out onto the walkway.
As Cassidy moved down to the fourth door, she wondered what she might find inside. Because it was the last room, she judged by the remaining length left on that level that the space behind the door had to be quite large. Cassidy approached the door and grasped the knob expecting it would open with the same ease as the first three. She was mildly surprised to find it locked.
The fact that it was the only locked door that Cassidy found inside the warehouse was all the incentive she needed to be curious about the interior. Her curiosity moved her to examine the lock.
Cassidy did not have a honed skill for picking locks, which was far truer when it came to locks that were seriously meant to keep people out. But her time as a uniformed patrol officer did afford her an opportunity to coax open a bathroom door in a 40-year old, two-bedroom house. After examining the lock, she concluded that the similarities between the two were greater than their differences, and with that thought in mind, she applied herself to the task of opening the door. With the use of a department store credit card, it took her a little more than a minute to jimmy the latch out of the framework. She then gave a push and the door swung open.
When Cassidy first peered into the fourth room, she could see nothing. The room was long and dark. There were no windows to allow the diffuse light in from the warehouse windows. She panned across the interior with her flashlight. The length of the room was the first thing that Cassidy took interest in. It was as large as the other three rooms combined. The décor was the next thing to take her by surprise. Her small flashlight did a poor job of illuminating the color and quality of the furnishings within the room, but the large canopy bed at the far end from the door was unmistakable.
Cassidy stepped across the threshold as soon as she saw the bed. A new sensation caught her attention the instant her foot settled onto the floor. The room was thickly carpeted. She paused momentarily on the carpeting, then she walked two steps into the room. From her position, she could see it was not an office. There was a sitting area with a four-person sofa, a coffee table and two sofa chairs stationed at the end of the room opposite the bed. Every new discovery raised Cassidy’s interest in the room. Her pocket flashlight’s limited ability suddenly became unacceptable. She turned about and searched for a light switch, finding it next to the door. When she flipped the switch, a soft yellow light filled the room. Cassidy immediately looked up at a series of decorative lamps attached at intervals along a rod that spanned much of the length of the room. Each lamp directed its light to a different area of the room. Next, Cassidy turned her attention to the decor.
The furnishings were sparse but attractive and looked expensive. The heavily ornate, intricately carved wood framed canopy bed dominated the room. Cassidy gravitated toward it with a growing look of curiosity. At first, her interest was limited to the fact that the room seemed out of place. Slowly her interest turned to the furnishings atop the bed. The abundance of decorative pillows suggested to her that the bed might not be there for sleeping. When she came to within a foot of the bed, her eyes locked in on the brown fur throw blanket that covered it. She reached down and pulled out a few strands to examine.
“Oh, my god,” Cassidy whispered to herself.
Cassidy stood there for several seconds looking at the bed in stunned silence. A new thought took hold of her. She quickly returned her flashlight to her outer suitcoat pocket and then retrieved her personal ultraviolet flashlight from her upper left inside pocket. With her new tool in hand, Cassidy hurried over to the light switch and flipped it off before turning on the ultraviolet flashlight. When she turned it toward the bed, Cassidy was surprised by what she saw from fifteen feet away. The black light illuminated a vast area of glowing speckles and splatters on and about the bed. The densest area was at the head of the bed. Cassidy moved several steps closer as she continued to examine the stains. Soon she found full and partial handprints mixed in with the stains. She gasped in realization of what she had just found.
“This is it!” She softly exclaimed.
At that moment, there was no doubt in Cassidy’s mind that she had found the sight where her nine Greenbelt victims had died. She realized that the stains she was looking at had to be the residue of their blood. She asked herself: What was happening here? With that in mind, she went back to the light switch, turned on the overhead lamps and began a more thorough examination of the room. She was looking for anything that would explain, or be a clue to, what had happened in that room. But there was nothing there besides the bed, seating and the coffee table.
It did not take Cassidy long to accept the fact that she would find nothing more in the room to advance her investigation. Now her mind was free to entertain a new question: What should she do next? She knew that the absence of a search warrant would make the discovery of the room inadmissible as evidence. She concluded that she had to get back to Lt. Graham and convince him to apply for a search warrant on the weight of the evidence that brought her there.
Cassidy quickly turned off the light and closed the door behind her as she hurried back out onto the walkway outside the room. She retrieved her flashlight as she moved and began using it to light her way back the way she came. Her movements were quicker this time; she was in a hurry. Besides wanting to get back to the precinct as soon as possible, she wanted to get out of the warehouse before anyone connected to it could arrive to find her there. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she hurried back over to the center aisle, and proceeded down it.
Cassidy had walked a quarter of the length of the center aisle when she heard the first sound that was out of place. It was a noise that sounded like something small and metallic had fallen to the floor. The sound came from behind her, off her left. She spun around and pointed her light in the direction of the sound.
“Is someone there?” Cassidy called out.
After several seconds of silence, Cassidy moved on. She dismissed the sound to a rodent or a breeze through a crack in the building. She had just turned about and taken a step when a rustle of noise ahead of her on her left, coupled with a quick shadowy movement high atop the racks, startled her into drawing her weapon. With her gun gripped in her right hand and her flashlight gripped in her left, Cassidy positioned her right gun-hand atop her left and began to examine the dark spaces on both sides above the aisles.
Cassidy was not expecting to see anything atop the 15-feet high warehouse racks. A person moving about on top of the racks was the furthest thought from her mind, plus the figure she saw moved nothing like a person. But that logic only enhanced her feeling of dread. If the shadow was not a human, then she concluded it had to be an animal of some sort. And based upon the size of the shadow, and the range and quickness of its movement, she concluded that it had to be much larger than a rodent.
Without speaking a word, Cassidy examined the area above her, to her left. It was clear to her that she was being stalked. With her gun ready, and staying vigilant and stationary, she hoped to get a good bead on it before it could make contact with her. Seconds later, the sound of movement to the rear and left of her shocked her into spinning around. Panic framed her expression. With her gun and flashlight extended out at arm’s length and a wide-eyed gaze, she saw nothing in motion. Then a loud sound to her left shocked her into spinning back around.
The crash of something heavy falling to the floor caused Cassidy to step back reflexively. In that instant, she looked and aimed her flashlight and gun down toward the floor where the noise came from. In that same moment, a figure leaped across the center aisle and landed atop a rack on the opposite side. Cassidy’s sudden fixation on the noise and floor of the aisle in front of her caused her to completely miss the leap above her. After panning her flashlight across the aisles, a new sound drew her attention behind her. She spun about and gave the location a momentary scan before moving back toward an aisle on her right. She reached the intersection of the next aisle in five steps where she paused to give the center aisle one last look, then she turned and continued her escape down the new side aisle.
The side aisles were the darkest areas of the warehouse. The boxes and crates shelved on the racks did an effective job of blocking out what little light there was. Cassidy used her flashlight to light her way. The pace of her movement was a rushed walk. Her gun remained ready atop her left flashlight hand. Fear was now a fixture on her face. After moving down the length of the aisle, a sound from behind shocked her and caused her to spin around to look back the way she came. She was a step away from the aisle’s opening. She panned her flashlight back and forth across the aisle and then up and down. She saw nothing and decided to move on. During the first backstep into her retreat, she became aware of a presence immediately behind her. Shock sent her spinning around at the best speed her reflexes could produce, but she was stopped in mid turn. A pair of hands grabbed her right arm and the collar of her jacket and wrenched her into the air. The warehouse seemed to tumble around her. Cassidy could feel herself tumbling through the air. The duration of her fall seemed longer than it should have been up until the moment her mind stopped processing time.
As Cassidy stirred to consciousness, her first thoughts were nonsensical ramblings. Her eyes opened and a vague imagery of darkness and bright lights began to fill her vision. She became aware of smoke. Her lungs were experiencing a burning irritation. Smoke was stinging her eyes and she had a severe headache. She began to cough and move as awareness slowly returned to her. She could see the glow of a large fire on the far side of the warehouse, and she realized that she was lying on the floor. Shortly, she recalled that she had been attacked. She remembered being thrown through the air and colliding hard with something that did not give. She searched behind her and saw that she was lying next to the warehouse side wall. She looked back the other way and saw her flashlight was still on and lying on the floor in the distance. She did not see her gun; it was no longer in her hand. She began to feel for it in the darkness as she started pushing herself up from the floor; and then she saw him. It was the figure of a man. He was about ten yards away. Her dazed state, the darkness and the smoke combined to make him barely visible. She could see that his back was turned to her. She began to search harder for her weapon. She froze when the figure turned in response to her movements. His eyes were luminescent like the eyes of a cat. He held his stare on her and she on him. Their exchange lasted a couple of seconds, and then a distant shout from a female voice broke the connection.
“Cristiãn!” (kris-shē-ôn)
The figure looked back toward the caller for a moment and then turned his attention back to her. Cassidy could see nothing of his face due to the smoke in her eyes and the shadows that engulfed him. She saw one side of his figure dimly outline intermittently by the growing glow of the fire in the distance. The rest of him blended into the darkness of the aisle he was standing in. The only part of him that stood out clearly was the gleam of light coming off his eyes, and Cassidy was fixated on them. He returned her gaze for a moment more before backing away into the aisle and out of her sight.
Cassidy had no time to wonder where he went. Within a few seconds of his disappearance, the smoke and fumes of the fire began to overwhelm her. With the increased strain to breathe, she began a frantic search for her gun. Cassidy crawled about in the dark feeling for her weapon. Her coughing became more frequent and pronounced with each passing second. Shortly into her efforts to breathe and find her weapon, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. The calls were repeated, and the caller was David.
“I’m over here,” Cassidy choked out at a level far below a shout.
Cassidy repeated her response several times with declining success. Despite her failing responses, David followed her calls.
“I have to find my weapon,” Cassidy protested when David took her by the arm.
David ignored her objection and tried to pull her up from the floor. Cassidy pulled free of his grasp and continued to feel about the floor.
“Do you see my gun?” Cassidy asked between coughs.
David saw her determination to find it and gave the area a quick scan but did not see it. He quickly abandoned the search and reached down for Cassidy.
“We’ve got to go,” David yelled as he grabbed Cassidy by the arm.
David pulled Cassidy up and then began to steer her toward the rear exit of the warehouse. It took them less than a minute to get out of the building. He guided Cassidy around to the front of the building and across the street. By that time, the flames had extended out the windows and up through the roof. Smoke was billowing out through every opening in the building. Cassidy and David stood watch from the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. The sound of sirens in the distance could be heard closing in on their location. After a moment of gawking, David turned a questioning look to Cassidy.
“What happened in there?”
Cassidy continued to stare at the burning warehouse and pondered his question with a look of disbelief. After contemplating an answer for several seconds, she responded with the only answer her mind could produce at that moment.
“I don’t know.”
