Chapter 3

Warning – this chapter contains strong violence.

*~*~*

And either way you turn

I'll be there

Open up your skull

I'll be there

Climbing up the walls

*~*~*

"She's what? Dammit," Jimmy growled into the phone. "We told her straight home. Where do you think she went, the mall?"

"Jimmy, I'm really worried," Jill said. "It's not like Kim to directly disobey us, and she should have been home hours ago."

He sighed, and tried to reassure her and himself at the same time. "I'm sure she's fine, she's probably just trying to upset us." And it's working, he thought. "I'll have Ginny tell all the units to keep an eye out for her. And when she does come home, she'll *really* be grounded."



Jill exhaled. "I can't help it, I'm still worried. I keep picturing her dead in a ditch somewhere. Oh god, I've turned into my mother!"

Jimmy tried not to laugh at his wife, knowing she wouldn't share his amusement. "Just try and relax, Jill. I'm sure she'll turn up soon. How are the boys?"

"Still making pumpkin-carving plans. I think they're making stencils of Nixon now."

This time he didn't bother to hold back his laughter. "Well, that is pretty scary." Max walked into his office, and he knew by the look her face that something was very, very wrong. She looked like she'd just been asked to shoot a puppy. "Jill, I'm going to have to call you back, okay? Just sit tight." He hung up and motioned for the deputy to come into his office. Max closed the door and approached his desk tentatively, as if she wanted more than anything to run in the other direction.

"What's wrong, deputy?" he asked, with a sinking feeling in his gut.

Max gulped and stared down at his desk. "Sir, it's...it's your daughter. Ramos and Stanzwick, they found her car by the side of Leesburg Street." She lifted tear-filled eyes to meet his. "Abandoned."

For a second Jimmy felt like the floor had literally dropped out underneath him and he was floating weightless in the air. The shock washed through him and settled; feeling came rushing back into his limbs like a sucker-punch to the gut. He fell back into his chair and stared at Max, speechless.

"I told her to go straight home from school," he said, still hoping that somehow the situation wasn't what it seemed. "This can't be happening, she was just supposed to go right from school to the house."

Max fidgeted, not knowing how to respond. "Leesburg is on the way from the school to your house, that's probably where she was going. There was, uh, they found her license and registration on the passenger seat, and her backpack. Doesn't look like anything's missing."

"Nothing MISSING?" Jimmy stood up, his anger building. "My DAUGHTER is missing, I don't care that he left her wallet!" Max took a step back; Jimmy saw her fear and backed down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you - I don't know what I'm doing. Max, what am I doing?"

She gulped. "It's only been a few hours. We'll find her, and she's going to be fine. You'll get her back."

Jimmy nodded and tried to get himself under control. "Right. Okay, let's get moving. I want a sweep in a 5 mile radius and a list of Kimberley's contacts cross-listed with Sara Cayton's. They went to the same school...her teacher's! Find out if they have any of the same teachers."

"Yes Sir." He'd thought Max would be off like a shot but she lingered, still looking uncomfortable. "Sir, there's something else. A boy from Kim's school called, asking if she'd been arrested. He said he saw her get pulled over by a cop."

*****

The car rattled along endlessly; Kim gave up counting the seconds when she reached one thousand. She started counting the turns instead, as each one sent her rolling around in the trunk. Her aches and pains were starting to blur together – her head where he'd slammed her up against the car, her hips where they'd banged against the sides of the trunk, her wrists from straining against the handcuffs, and her legs from her futile attempts to kick open the trunk. Her eyes seemed to be all out of tears, even though sobbing noises still came from her throat.

"He's going to kill me," she thought. "He's going to hurt me and kill me and I'll never see mom and dad again." The thought of her parents and her brothers learning she'd been killed overwhelmed her. They would be so sad. She kicked upwards in the dark again, her legs connecting but not budging the trunk.

Finally the car slowed to a stop. She heard him slam the car door shut and walk towards the trunk; her brain worked frantically to come up with some sort of plan. The trunk lid opened and the sudden rush of light made her blink, temporarily blinded. Kim kicked out her legs anyway as fast as she could, praying by some miracle she'd hit him. A hoarse shriek came out of her when she felt him grab her outstretched feet and pull hard, lifting her upper body out of the trunk. He let her drop to the ground and hauled her up by her hair.

"Not nice," he said. "Not smart." He grabbed her arms and began to drag her forward, towards an area she now saw was the woods.

"Please don't hurt me," she begged. "I'll be good, I promise, just please let go of me." Kim hated the pleading she heard in her voice, hated that she'd let him reduce her to this.

He laughed. "You can't be good, Kimberley, you're a whore-child. You have to pay for your sins."

"No," she moaned as she stumbled and fell, momentarily freeing herself from his grasp. He was on her before she could even consider getting away. Kim felt any hope she'd had left slipping away; she'd never be able to overpower him and he wasn't going to let her go. Her only chance was that someone would find her, before it was too late.

*****

"A *cop*? He said he saw her get pulled over by a COP?" Jimmy rose to his feet again, anger coursing through him.

Max gulped. "Yes, but he didn't get a good look at the officer or the car. He was driving past and saw Kim..." Max paused, wishing she didn't have to finish the sentence. "He saw her being held against the car, like she was being searched for a weapon. I figured you'd want to talk to him yourself so I told him to come in, right away. He should be here any minute."

Jimmy nodded, conflicting thoughts racing through his mind. Part of him wanted to fall to the floor and sob, another wanted to find the nearest person and beat the living hell out of them. Then something clicked in his mind about what Max had said – a cop. Kim had been pulled over by a cop.

Max backed out the way as Jimmy came barreling past, out of the office and into the main room of the tiny police station. The officers looked up from their desks; all activity stopped. Jimmy yelled into the silence. "If any of you are responsible for this, if it was any one of you that took my daughter, or were involved in this in any way, I will kill you. If any of you-" A hand on his back stopped him, and the distraction let his grief momentarily win out over his anger, as tears pricked at his eyes again. He let Max and Kenny lead him back into his office.

"Jimmy, it wasn't one of them," Kenny said. "There is no one out there who could do that to you."

Max agreed, "There isn't anyone here who is anything other than loyal to you."

Jimmy sank back into his chair, realizing that they were right. "I want to believe that, and I...I shouldn't have done what I just did. But we can't rule out the possibility. And the thought that someone I know, someone I trust could have Kim, I just..."

"I know," Max said softly as Jimmy trailed off. "Let me see if the witness is here yet.

The urge to collapse overtook him again, and Jimmy longed to embrace his wife. Oh god, he realized. Jill. He'd have to tell Jill what had happened, and the boys. How on earth was he supposed to do that?

Max returned, leading a boy Jimmy recognized as a friend of Kim's from school. He looked nervous, his eyes downcast as Max ushered him to a seat across the desk. "Just tell him what you saw Tim," Max urged.

Tim cleared his throat and began, not quite looking at Jimmy. "I was driving home from school, on Leesburg. I saw two cars by the side of the road, a cop car and an old Lincoln, and I saw Kim. I know her from school; we were lab partners in Chem last year." The boy paused, and Jimmy nodded at him to continue. "So I recognized her car, and I saw that is was her. There was a cop with her; he was holding her against the passenger side of her car. And that's all I saw. I was just driving by."

"It's okay Tim," Jimmy said. "There's no need to be nervous. But I want you to understand – you are the only witness to what may very well be the actions of a serial killer. So we need you to think *very* clearly about what you saw, and not leave out anything, not the slightest detail. Alright?" The boy nodded. "Good. Now, this man, the cop – did you get a good look at him?"

Tim shook his head. "I was just driving by, I'm sorry...he had on sunglasses, really big black sunglasses. That's all I saw."

"How about his race, did you see that?" Jimmy asked.

"Umm, white, I think he was white."

"Good, that's good Tim. How about his height and weight? Can you make an estimate as to those?"

Tim screwed up his face in concentration. "Well, he looked a lot taller than Kim...his head was way above hers. Like at least a foot taller. But I just saw that part of him, the top, so I don't really know about the weight."

Jimmy nodded, and moved on to the most important questions. "How about his uniform? Can you describe that?"

Tim paused for a moment before shaking his head glumly. "I wish I could sheriff, but I didn't get a look at it, I just saw his head for a second with those big sunglasses."

Jimmy sighed. "That's okay, it's not your fault. How about the car? You said you saw a cop car, what kind of markings were on it? Did it say Rome Sheriff's Department?"



Tim looked miserable. "I didn't really look at it. I just saw it was a cop car...it had the stripes, and the lights on the top, and I didn't look any closer. I just drove by."

Jimmy sank back in his chair and closed his eyes. He knew the kid's statement wouldn't get them anywhere, probably wouldn't even rule out the killer as one of their own. Max had picked up on Tim's guilty feelings and was trying to make him feel better. "You couldn't have known what you were seeing. You didn't do anything wrong."

Jimmy chipped in, "We're very grateful to you for calling it in, and coming down here to give your statement."

Tim didn't look convinced. "I called it in because I thought she got busted for something, I never thought that she..."

"Yeah," Jimmy said. "Me neither." He sighed heavily. "Okay Tim, I'm going to ask you to go with Max now, she'll take you to our sketch artist. He's going to use what you saw to make a picture of the man, and also of his car. Don't embellish anything or make anything up because you feel bad for not seeing enough, just tell him what you saw. All right?" Tim nodded. "Thanks."

Max escorted him out of the office and returned a few moments later, shutting the door behind her. "Jimmy, I know this is a horrible time for you, and I know you don't want to hear this but I feel it's my duty to ask you-"

"You want me to step down, give up the lead on this case," Jimmy cut her off. "You think I'm too close, and you're right, I probably am. But there's no way in hell I'm stepping down. So forget about it."

Max nodded. "Yes Sir."

*****

Kim realized she must have passed out at some point, as she opened her eyes and the days events flooded back to her. The last thing she could remember was falling – this must be where she had landed. She looked around, taking in what appeared to be a tiny, windowless room with cheap plywood walls and a dirt floor. An uncovered light bulb hung from a chain in the middle of the room, burning brightly and making her eyes ache along with the rest of her body.

A quick assessment of her physical condition revealed that the greatest pain was now coming from her arms. They were held above her head by the handcuffs, which were attached to the wall behind her. Her feet just barely touched the floor. Kim looked around again and realized something she'd missed the first time – the room wasn't just windowless, it was doorless.

Panic rose in her at the idea of being left to die here alone, but then she heard a door opening and saw the man drop down from a trapdoor in the ceiling. Her relief was short-lived, the fear returning as he came towards her.

Instead of sunglasses he now had a mask covering his face, an elaborate latex one like costume shops sold for Halloween. It made his face appear green and lumpy, a cartoonish monster with a tuft of raggedy black hair. He leered at her through the small eyeholes and when he spoke his voice sounded muffled and somehow distant. "Did you sleep well, Kimberley?" he asked, leaning in close against her.

She nodded, sensing he was being sarcastic but not wanting to risk upsetting him. It didn't work. He slapped her hard across the face and she gasped, the sting bringing fresh tears to her eyes. "You have to learn some respect, girl," he spat. "You answer yes Sir or no Sir, you don't stand there with that dumb look and nod your filthy little head at *me*. You understand?"

"Y-yes Sir," she stammered.

"Good. This will go a lot better once we get to understand each other." He petted her still stinging cheek with the back of his hand, almost affectionately. Kim didn't dare try to duck away – it wasn't like she could get very far anyway. It seemed best to just try and do what he wanted, to play along and not make him angry. But then his hand moved down from her face and went up under her shirt, and she couldn't help but give out a little cry.

"Now now," he said, like a doctor soothing a young patient. His hand rubbed gentle circles across her bare stomach. Kim held her breath and tried to convince herself that she was alright, that this would all be over soon if she could just get through it. His hand moved higher, rubbing her breasts through the fabric of her bra. She willed herself not to move as he began to rub harder, grabbing one of her breasts and twisting it painfully.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, the words carrying a desperate edge.

"It's for your own good," he answered. His face was only inches from hers, and she could see his lips moving through the hole in the mask. "I'm going to make you clean, Kimberley. I'm going to cleanse you of your sin. It will be painful, but you'll be better for it."

I'll be dead for it, she thought. "Is that what you did to Sara?" she asked, her voice shaking.

He sighed, and Kim worried that she might have made him angry again, but he seemed more depressed than upset. "Sara was not cooperative. She was not willing to change, to release her sins, and so I could not save her. It is my deepest hope that you will not prove similarly...disappointing. I do not want to fail again."

Kim breathed a sigh of relief as he moved his hand out from under her shirt. "Now, it's time to get started," he said. She saw the glint in his eyes behind the mask and wondered what was coming, the sick feeling growing in her stomach. "You just wait for one minute."

He jumped up and pulled his body through the trapdoor, disappearing and shutting it behind him. Kim realized that even if she could somehow get out of the handcuffs she would still be stuck in the room – there was no inner handle on the door and it was too high up for her to get to, even if she jumped. "Please," she whispered. "Please, somebody, find me."

The door swung open again and he returned, carrying a small toolkit and the front end of a garden hose with a spray nozzle attached. She could tell that the water was already running into it; the pressure hissed in the hose and a few drops leaked out around the nozzle. "Now then," he said cheerfully. "Down to business." He reached into the toolkit and brought out a sharp blade, a precision cutting tool like a giant exacto knife. The inch-long blade gleamed in the sharp light.

Kim's breath caught in her throat as he came at her with it. "Please," she begged, twisting her body against the wall. "Please..."

"Shh, hold still," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Kim squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the pain of the blade cutting into her, but all that came was the sound of tearing fabric. She looked down to see that he was cutting her shirt open, splitting it down the center. He finished and pulled it off of her, then cut the straps of her bra, nicking her shoulders. Kim tried not to feel ashamed as he pulled the bra off, watching his eyes crawling over her skin. He knelt down on the ground in front of her to pull her shoes and socks off and then stood again to unzip her pants.

After he pulled them off she waited for him to finish with her underwear, but he stopped and left them on, which she decided to count as a good thing. She started making a list of good things in her head in an effort to keep herself from completely breaking down.

She wasn't ready for it and screamed in both shock and pain when he cut her, quick and deep across her stomach. Blood welled and started to run down her body in a crimson stream, dripping down her legs and onto the floor. Kim felt lightheaded and her head dropped, hanging limply against her chest. His hand cupped her chin and lifted her head back up, locking eyes with her as he cut again. He made a slow, careful line down her chest from the tip of her collarbone to the rise of her breasts. The pain made her dizzy, her vision blurred till she saw two of the monstrous faces in front of her.

He dipped his finger into the cut, pulling the skin apart slightly and covering his finger with her blood. He thrust it at her face, accusingly. "You see? Filthy. I can see your sin in your blood, your filth, it reeks of it." He wiped the blade off and returned it to the toolkit; Kim panted with relief as it vanished from her sight.

"I can remove your sin, Kimberley, if you truly want to change. I can save you if you'll let me." He picked up the hose and pressed the handle on the nozzle; Kim screamed as she was showered with a powerful blast of icy cold water. He doused her from the top of her head down to her toes. The force of the water washed the blood off, leaving it to settle into the muddy dirt floor. But the wounds hadn't clotted yet and more blood pumped out to crawl down her wet skin.

He frowned at her, then said "We'll have to leave that be for now, I'll come back and take care of it later. Now you get some rest and do some reflecting. Think about how you want to change."

"Yes Sir," she choked out. He disappeared out the trap door and she leaned back against the wall, her body hanging as far down as the handcuffs would let her. Shivering and overwhelmed with pain, her vision faded as unconsciousness claimed her again.

*****

End Chapter 3