When the Night Calls Page 12

  Shaking off his skepticism, he rifled through his closet searching for his coat. Monica normally moved things around and now she wasn’t there to find them. Frustrated, Daniel slammed the closet door and rushed out of the house without one.

  Thirty minutes later he pulled into the nearly condemned parking garage. As he stepped out of his car he felt an eerie feeling run up his spine. The last time he was there the place was swarming with cops and Sherri’s body lay crumpled in his lobby. He shook off the vibe and headed into the elevator.

  The rickety cart creaked as it pulled him up towards the fourth floor. With a ding the door opened and he stepped out into the hallway. It was a cave of blackness and a deafening silence closed in. Daniel turned and marched towards the glass doors ahead of him. He glided silently, his footsteps muffled by the carpet.

  He stopped at the door and slowly unlocked it. He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Then, swallowing hard, he stepped inside.

  Flicking the light switch on the wall, Daniel glanced around the office. The lobby was still covered with yellow police tape and a few candy wrappers were left on the floor.

  “Lazy ass cops,” Daniel mumbled to himself as he started to clean up.

  He grabbed a bag from behind the counter and rolled all the caution tape into it. Since Barbara still hadn’t returned, no one had vacuumed in a while, so he took to that as well.

  He had just finished straightening the lobby when Victor walked in. He stopped at the door and stared into the office.

  “You okay?” Daniel eyed him.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Victor stuttered. He walked inside and started moving boxes near the lobby that hadn’t been put away.

  They didn’t have any appointments scheduled so they spent the next few hours trying to make the office look presentable. It wouldn’t be long before their calendar was fully booked again and Victor was offering private sessions.

  Trying to move past what had occurred in their lobby wasn’t going to be easy though. Victor continually stopped and looked at the corner where Sherri had been found. He seemed disheveled the entire night.

  “Vic, I think we’re good. Let’s just get out of here. We can pick up tomorrow,” Daniel said as he sat the last box down.

  “What? Nah, we’ve gotta get this done. We need this place looking nice for the ladies.” Victor smiled awkwardly, like a POW reading a confession at gun point.

  “You sure everything’s alright? Lawson still bugging you?” Daniel asked and squinted at him.

  Victor huffed and started moving boxes again. Daniel stared at him a minute longer and then went back to cleaning. Victor didn’t say anything else, but started slamming the boxes down as he moved them. He grunted abruptly then kicked over a stack of supplies.

  “Ahh!” Victor yelled, shaking his fist in the air.

  “He’s not God you know. He’s just a dick with a badge. You don’t have to take his shit,” Daniel stammered as he glanced in Victor’s direction.

  Victor considered him for a moment then smiled. “Yeah, he is a dick.”

  Daniel grinned at him then they both started to laugh. The phone rang in the distance and Daniel turned around and took off down the hall. Victor giggled a moment longer and plopped into a chair.

  “Hello, hello?” Daniel grabbed the phone. Monica’s voice blared through the other end.

  “Honey, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah, sorry I missed your call earlier. I called you back, you must’ve been out.”

  “Sandra took me out to the shops. I just wanted to check in and let you know it’s going great up here.”

  “That’s awesome. Can I go ahead and close my practice down? Not sure if we’ll ever get any business back anyway,” Daniel laughed.

  “Sure, you can quit babe, I’ll be your sugar mama,” Monica responded as Sandra yelled in the distance. “Just make sure I get my cut first.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes.

  “Psst.” Victor was standing in the doorway. “I’m taking off,” he waved.

  Daniel nodded. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Everything okay?” Monica asked.

  “Yeah, Victor was just heading home. So anyway, make sure you come back…alone.”

  “I’ll try. Oh, gotta run. Love you.”

  Daniel could hear Sandra rushing her off the phone before he was left with a dial tone.

  He sat there for a minute with the receiver in his hand. He couldn’t help but think how much he disliked Sandra. Something about that lady rubbed him the wrong way.

  Sighing, he hung up the phone. He looked around his office and thought of the last time he’d sat in his chair. The image of the murky Mississippi River came to mind. The thick, dark water churning wildly, the mud soiled wind blowing on his face. He longed for the peaceful solace the riverbank provided.

  Jumping up, Daniel grabbed his keys and locked the office. He rode the rickety elevator back down to the garage where he hopped into his car and sped off towards the riverbank.

  As he drove down the highway he considered calling Ned and rescheduling his appointment. He’d been sleeping better lately, but the dreams were more frequent than ever. Flashbacks from a time in his life he tried hard to forget.

  All that seemed to fade away as the clearing came into focus. The river did more for him than Ned ever could. Daniel stopped his car and stepped out into the cool, evening air.

  The smell of the river was intoxicating. It was like a drug that Daniel had become addicted to. It put his mind at peace and erased all the evils around him.

  The calming swoon of the river was the only sound he could hear. He gazed into the blackness, the moon gleaming off the surface like a mirror. It ran like a train taking his stress down the stream with it.

  Daniel closed his eyes and soaked in the moment. But it was short lived as the snap of a bullet jarred him back to some form of reality.

  “Get the fuck down!” Tom screamed.

  Daniel opened his eyes to a horrific scene. Bodies and body parts littered the ground. An unexploded mortar lay half buried in the mud less than five feet away. Tom was hunkered behind a burning jeep screaming obscenities, firing blindly into the night.

  A bullet whizzed by Daniel’s head with a snap. He quickly dove into the mud and covered his head. Army crawling, he headed towards the jeep that Tom had taken cover behind.

  “What the hell is this?”

  “Damn Viet Cong and their cease fires. Guess we’re the only ones that got the memo,” Tom screamed as he tossed Daniel a rifle.

  The clatter of gunfire rattled against the smoldering jeep. It looked more like melted Swiss cheese than a vehicle. Daniel leaned over the hood and left off a few shots then darted towards a tent in the back.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” Tom yelled after him.

  “To get a bigger fucking gun!”

  Daniel dodged bullets as he zigzagged back and forth. He was almost at the tent when a mortar landed a few yards away and exploded sending shrapnel into the night. The force of the explosion blew Daniel off his feet and he landed head first in a puddle.

  He rolled over, his ears ringing like a demented siren. He groaned and gripped his head as he reeled in pain. Bullets flew over him and cracked into a stack of chicken crates.

  The ringing in his ears grew louder and louder until it was all that he could hear. He rolled over and cupped his hands over them.

  With a thud, Daniel hit the floor as he fell off the bed. The phone was ringing loudly and rays from the sun were blazing through the window.

  “What the hell?’ Daniel looked around trying to figure out how he ended up at home.

  He stood up and shook his head. The phone continued to ring like the sirens for a bombing raid. Daniel grunted then reached up and snagged the receiver.

  “Hello?”

  “Danny, shit where have you been? Never mind, I need you to head over to Whistling Joe’s,” Tom’s frantic voice boomed on the other end of the line.

&n
bsp; “Tom, what the hell are you talking about? What time is it?”

  “It’s three o’clock.”

  “In the morning?”

  “No, it’s Friday afternoon. Forget about that. Danny, Lawson’s dead.”

  I SHOT THE SHERIFF

  Daniel pulled his car into a parking lot three blocks away from Whistling Joe’s. He hadn’t walked more than twenty feet before he noticed the cops swarming all over the streets. Blue and red lights flashed like fireworks as uniformed patrols canvassed the area.

  Daniel stopped on the opposite side of the road and stared. He considered if he should even head in that direction. Lawson had been on his ass lately and he was sure the deputies would’ve picked up on that.

  Up ahead he saw Tom standing next to one of the officers. He seemed to be having an intense conversation. Daniel turned to walk back to his car, but Tom saw him and flagged him over.

  “Fuck me,” Daniel mumbled. He reluctantly crossed the street and made his way over to Tom.

  “That was all I saw,” Tom finished as Daniel approached.

  “Okay, thanks. Hang around for a few we may have a couple more questions,” the officer said.

  “What the hell is going on?” Daniel asked Tom as the officer stepped away.

  Tom shook his head and looked at the ground. He bit his bottom lip and huffed then checked to see where the deputy had gone. As the officer rounded the corner Tom looked up at Daniel.

  “I came down here to grab a drink with Victor. On the way to the bar I saw Lawson outside sitting in his car,” Tom lowered his voice. “Figured I go have a word with him, you know for Victor’s sake.”

  Daniel’s face lit up like he’d seen a ghost. He knew Tom too well and most of his words with people ended badly.

  As if he could read Daniel’s mind Tom quickly corrected him. “No, no, no! I didn’t touch that fucker,” he raised his voice pointing his finger at Daniel.

  Daniel crooked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, so what happened?”

  “I walked over to his car and went to knock on the window. I looked in and his damn throat was slit. I mean damn near all the way, like someone was gonna take his head for a fucking trophy and got interrupted,” Tom finished.

  “Where the hell was Victor?”

  “Not here that’s for sure. They cleared the bar out half an hour ago. I never did see him.” Tom scratched his head. “Besides give me a fucking break. Victor couldn’t have pulled that off on his best day.”

  Daniel considered what Tom was saying. He knew Victor and he knew Tom. This wasn’t like either of them. Victor lacked the skill and the testosterone and Tom would’ve certainly taken the credit.

  “The damn police are going crazy I can tell you that,” Tom said as he lit up a cigarette and took a drag. “Lawson was the fucking lead on the murder case. And get this, that deputy slipped, he said every person they’ve found had their throat slashed. I think they’re gonna bring the feds in,” Tom was talking more to himself now. “You know what’s next right? There’ll be some kind of city-wide lockdown.”

  Daniel looked at Tom then stared down the street. He began to feel weak and his legs buckled a little. Tom’s voice grew more and more distant.

  “Danny…you okay man? You look like shit,” Tom said, almost in a whisper.

  Daniel suddenly felt light headed and couldn’t make out where he was. He closed his eyes trying to clear his head. When he opened them again he found himself in a ragged bamboo hut in the middle of the jungle.

  Gunfire could be heard in the distance, along with the sounds of children crying. Daniel gripped his M-16 tightly and made his way out of the hut. He stared up to the sky, looking at the canopy of trees overhead. Hesitantly, he crept towards the crying. There was another hut a few yards away that seemed to be where the noises were coming from.

  As he neared it, Daniel could see two men standing inside and what looked like the bodies of five small children. Another man was kneeling near the bodies, his face obscured by the wall. Daniel made his way around the back and peeked through a small hole where the bamboo was pieced together with rope.

  He quickly turned away and fell to his knees. With a grunting sound, he spit up bits of soup and bread as he vomited onto the jungle floor. He dropped his gun and fell onto all fours.

  In the hut lay the burned, naked bodies of Vietnamese children. Three of them were still alive, but barely as they all suffered from multiple stab wounds with what looked like a shovel. They’d been tortured and mutilated beyond the point of recovery.

  Dead children in Vietnam were not a new occurrence, but in front of the children stood two U.S. soldiers. They’d been driven mad by their time in the jungle. As Daniel watched they pulled their pants down and urinated on the bodies of the children as they lay dying.

  The man that was kneeling on the ground next to them was laughing insanely. Every few seconds he’d turn away and chew on something and then turn back. Daniel inched closer. The man turned again and Daniel saw him tear a piece of flesh from the severed hand he was holding.

  Fuming, Daniel recomposed himself and grabbed his rifle. He slowly stood to his feet and switched his M-16 to fully automatic. He took a deep breath and rounded the doorway of the hut. The two men saw Daniel and began to laugh as they spread piss all over the floor.

  “Gook soup,” the man kneeling on the ground chuckled. “Get it…Gook soup.”

  Daniel was suddenly overcome with rage. He squeezed the trigger on his weapon and held it down until he heard a dry click. He had never felt such anger, never wanted to kill more than he did at that moment.

  He dropped his rifle and ran over to the bleeding men and began stomping on them until the bodies became indistinguishable from one another. The hut was filled with smoke and wreaked with the smell of piss and death.

  Daniel looked down at the dying children. Three kids not more than five years old lay there in unimaginable pain. They were burned so badly you could no longer tell their eyes from their nose.

  In an act of mercy Daniel pulled out his service pistol and let off three shots. The sound of the gunfire echoed through the jungle. He wiped the spattered blood from his forehead then looked back towards the bodies, but it was Tom’s face that came into view.

  “You okay?” Tom asked. “Lost you for a bit there.”

  “Yeah…yeah I’m alright,” Daniel staggered.

  He bit at his lower lip and ran his fingers through his hair. “You ever think about the things we did…back in the war?” he reluctantly asked Tom.

  “I try not to. Don’t think I’d be able to sleep at night if I did. Why?” Tom gave him a strange look.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. I better go find Victor, huh?” Daniel changed the subject.

  Tom eyed him momentarily then cleared his throat. “Go ahead and track down the meatball. I’ve gotta stay here for a bit anyway. We can meet up later.”

  “Yeah, how about back at my office in about an hour.”

  Tom nodded then they shook hands. Daniel headed back towards his car. He still felt a little groggy as he walked down the empty sidewalk. He racked his brain trying to remember how he got home last night and he was starting to think he needed to see Ned sooner than later. His blackouts or daydreams were occurring more regularly and with everything going on he needed to be fully aware at all times.

  Once he made it to his car he drove straight for Victor’s house, hoping he’d find him safe and sound. The murder count was now close to the Rocky Hill killings and he feared that Victor may be among the victims.

  As he approached Victor’s house he immediately knew something was off. All the lights were on and he could hear music blasting. He slowly pulled into the driveway and stepped out of the car. Sweeping side to side, he checked the yard and the surrounding houses.

  Daniel crept up to the porch and peered through the window. The television was on along with every light in the house. The stereo was playing what sounded like Aerosmith’s greatest hits
.

  Daniel scanned the living room like a laser. Chinese food boxes and empty beer cans littered the floor. As he looked towards the kitchen he saw the unmistakable hump of Victor’s body lying lifeless halfway between the dinner table and a sofa chair.

  Daniel ran to the door and kicked it open. He darted inside and tripped over a twelve pack of beer. He crashed to the ground with a thud, sliding across the trash in the living room.

  “Victor! Victor!” he shouted as he jumped back to his feet and ran towards the kitchen.

  Victor was lying face down with his hands at his sides. He wasn’t moving and as far as Daniel could tell he wasn’t breathing either. Daniel rolled him over, smacking him in the face as he yelled to him.

  “Wake up buddy, come on!”

  Daniel quickly glanced over him. Nothing seemed wrong with him, but he could’ve easily had a heart attack. Daniel grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse. Victor’s weak heart was still putting along, sluggishly like usual.

  Daniel sighed. He looked around at all the empty liquor bottles and slapped Victor again in the face. Shaking his head, he scampered to his feet.

  “Get up, you fat fuck,” Daniel griped and kicked Victor.

  This time Victor squinted and started to open his eyes. He groaned and turned his head.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Daniel grilled him.

  Victor sat up and started to look around his house. His eyes were bloodshot and vomit was dried around his mouth.

  “Ah shit Tom. Tom was gonna take me drinking. I said…I said hell why don’t I drink here,” Victor stuttered and staggered to his feet.

  Daniel grabbed his arm and helped him into a chair. He eyed him skeptically then cleared his throat.

  “Have you been here all night?” Daniel stared at him.

  “Yeah…of course. I’m kinda scared to leave right now, after what Lawson did to you and all. I’m pretty sure he’ll kill me.”

  “Lawson is dead,” Daniel said dismissively as he grabbed a beer from the kitchen.

  “What!” Victor said sharply.

  “Yeah, they found him dead in his car tonight. Near the bar you were supposed to meet Tom at.”