Police Captain Daniel Vega was driving through his old neighborhood. Some gang members were gathering in the alleys, smoking pot and drinking in plain view. It was only 5:30 pm.
How has it come to this? he thought.
Not many years ago, this had been a safe place to walk around. Now, anybody that passed through these streets, even in the middle of the day, was at risk of getting robbed or hurt by someone else. Only the gang members were safe as they relied on each other to stay alive. That was, of course, if there wasn’t a gang fight which always seemed to end with one or two dead guys.
Vega’s cell phone started vibrating in his jacket pocket, “Yes, Mike,” he answered.
“Captain, I’m at the scene of the multiple homicide reported in Third Street… I think you should come over,” Mike said.
“I can’t go right now. I’ve been getting home pretty late these last few days and my wife will kick my ass if I do it one more time. Can’t you handle it yourself?”
“I really think you have to see this, Captain,” Mike responded with a strange tone of voice.
Damned! Vega thought. “Ok, I’m on my way,” he finally said.
When Vega arrived at the scene, he saw one uniformed officer throwing up in a trashcan at the side of an old house. The TV stations hadn’t arrived yet but they wouldn’t take long. There were several police patrols parked outside the house.
Cap. Vega entered the house and it became pretty obvious that it had been a gathering place for drug addicts. There were syringes and other drug related devices spread around on the floor. He crossed the main hallway and when he reached the living room he could not believe his eyes. Six bodies were lying around; five men and one woman. Many bullet holes covered the walls and ceiling and there was blood everywhere. The bodies were severely damaged. One of them had been decapitated. Another one was missing an arm. It didn’t look like they were ripped apart; it looked more as if they were cut up by some sharp blade like a knife or sword. The woman’s body was almost untouched, except of course for the three bullet holes in her chest. It seemed like she was unarmed and caught in crossfire as she tried to reach the hallway. There were AK-47 rifles near the bodies and two pistols still in the dead guys’ hands.
“Talk to me, Mike,” the Captain said.
“We can’t find the head,” Mike responded, visibly shaken up by the gory scene.
“What?” Vega said.
“That guy’s head is missing, Captain. They took it! …I really have no idea what happened here. I can’t see any bullet entries in the bodies, except for the girl. I’d like to say this was drug related... a territorial fight between gangs, but I have never seen a gang that used knives instead of guns for a fight, much less when the opposite group is heavily armed like this one. I’m honestly clueless right now. And why in the hell did they take the head?!”
“Ok, calm down Mike, let’s wait for the CSI guys and see what they can find out,” Vega said.
As he left the room, he almost stumbled over the dead woman and he couldn’t avoid looking at her pale face and glassy blue eyes. She had clearly been a junkie but despite it all, she was a pretty girl. What a waste!, he thought coldly.
Day two: Morning
The following day, Captain Vega was talking in his office with Sgt. Goodman, the CSI lead man.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Goodman said. “There is not a single indication that someone else was in that room. Whoever killed those people was pretty meticulous about cleaning his tracks.”
“What else have you got?” Vega said harshly.
“We have identified the bodies, including the headless guy. He’s a gang leader known as Billy ‘The Butcher’. Do you know him?”
“Yeah,” Vega answered, “He’s been a pain in the ass for years. He is… well, he was a dangerous guy. His leadership was entirely based on fear. What else did you find out?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure that there was another woman in the room that day. We found a spot of female urine in one corner of the living room, and it doesn’t belong to the dead woman. The shooting must have scared the hell out her. We also found a picture of the dead girl with another woman. She may be the one present at the moment of the killings,” Goodman said.
“Good job. We may have a witness now. Let’s find this girl,” Vega said calmly.
* * *
Across town, a blonde girl was lying on a dusty floor inside a completely dark room. She could not remember anything after the shooting until she woke up in darkness. The sound of trucks in the distance indicated that she was still in the city. Her voice had faded a little since she had been screaming for help for a long while. Her hands were shaking, both from fear and drugs withdrawal. It had been several hours since she last ate or drank anything, and worst of all, she hadn’t had her usual hit of heroin. She felt desperate and hungry.
There was a sound in front of her and suddenly a door high up on the wall in front of her opened. Bright light poured into the room, blinding her blue eyes for a moment. She realized that she was in some sort of basement and the door that just opened was at the top of a wooden stairway. She could discern a figure walking though the door. It was a large man… or was it? She could only distinguish a wide bulk moving in a strange way into the room. Then, everything went dark again as the door was closed.