The Night School Strangler
Chapter 9
Ironside was determined if the killer was on the campus at the present time, he was not going to get away. Not one student on this campus was leaving until everyone was checked. He was getting bolder. Anyone could have walked into that bathroom at any time while he was murdering the latest female student. Ironside had no doubt that he would become bolder yet. These kind always did. They thought they were invulnerable. This killer was about to find out that there was no such thing as invulnerable.
The one thing that bothered him was the killer could have gotten away when he escaped through that bathroom window. However, they would know that shortly. If any male student had left the premises, he would quickly become their number one suspect. Unfortunately, this killer wasn't stupid. He probably not only did not leave the campus, but was sitting in one of the classes calm as a cucumber. He would know that leaving the campus would have brought attention to himself.
The one important fact that would come out of this investigation would be that they would be able to narrow down the suspects. Soon they would have the killer's DNA. If he had to, he would get a court order and get blood from every single male on the campus. No serial killer was going to last very long if Robert Ironside had anything to say about it.
"Chief, I would like to help," Mark said.
"You are staying with me. I told you that you would be doing all of your investigating with me," Ironside growled.
"What investigating? We are not doing anything but sitting here waiting on others to bring us information."
The chief looked up at his aide. He fully understood Mark's frustration. Still, he had no choice but to keep him under complete control. He would have no repeat of what happened last time. Mark would get a taste of what Ironside's job consisted of. Gone are the days when he could get right in there and handle everything. His disability had seen to that. That was the reason that he had surrounded himself with two of the best detectives in the department. Hell, they were the best detectives in the department. The only one that could rival them was Lieutenant Carl Reese and he used Reese often.
Mark would realize that Ironside's job was to coordinate the investigation. Of course, sometimes he did the questioning himself, but he had to depend on his detectives to do the legwork.
"Mister Ironside?" Dean William Westerfield approached the detective.
"Yes," Ironside responded.
"We have completed the roll-call, sir. Everyone that entered classes tonight is still here."
"No one is missing? No one left during the confusion?" Ironside asked.
"No sir, all students that showed up for class tonight are still in the classrooms."
"Thank you, Dean Westerfield." Ironside turned away from him indicating the conversation was over. Westerfield quickly left the detective and went about his business.
"That means we have a very clever killer," Mark said. "He stayed so as not to draw attention to himself."
Ironside almost smiled. Mark didn't know it yet, but someday he was going to make an excellent detective. Maybe being around him, Ed and Eve was rubbing off on him. "I was afraid that would be the case."
"But chief, doesn't that narrow down the suspects?" Mark wondered.
"It certainly does, but only if the killer is one of the students. If it is someone who is just coming on the campus and killing these women, then we have a city full of suspects."
"I think it is someone on the campus," Mark offered.
"Okay, Detective Sanger, tell me why you think it is a student."
"It is obvious that someone has a grudge against women. Couldn't it be possible that something happened in his past to make him hate women?" Mark inquired.
"It is very possible," Ironside responded. "But why choose female students on this campus?"
"Possibly because it is easy to find women on the campus at all times, especially when the killer is looking to kill at night."
"Okay, Mark, I buy that. What would you do from there?" He prompted his aide.
"I would start checking into the backgrounds of some of the men on the campus, you know the ones that have been here for every killing. Find out if any of them have been treated for mental problems."
"You do know that a lot of people with mental problems go undetected until they explode, don't you?" Ironside asked.
"Of course I know that. Isn't it worth a try?"
"All right, Mark. You wanted to help with this case, so check it out."
Finally Mark felt like Ironside was actually going to trust him to work on the case instead of babysitting him to make sure he did not repeat his past performance.
"Chief, I am going to need that list of students that have been here every time a murder has taken place."
"You can work on that with Eve. She put that list together. Since officer Whitfield is extremely efficient, I have no doubt that she has already started checking it."
Sergeant Brown and Officer Whitfield came down the hall towards Ironside. When they reached him and Mark, Ed was the first to speak. "Chief, as I am sure you already know all students that came to class were present in the second roll call.
"Unfortunately the imprint on the bottom of the shoes and boots that we are looking for is a very popular brand. So far we have found 37 male students with that brand of shoe or boot, none of which had mud on their footwear."
"Have all of the male students been questioned," Ironside demanded to know.
"We are in the process of doing that," Eve said. "Did you have any luck on the classrooms that you checked?"
Ironside shook his head. "I came up with the same results you did. How many more rooms do we have?"
Ed pointed down the hall behind Ironside. "Those are the only two rooms left that have not been checked. Between Eve and me and the uniformed police officers that we have here, we have covered the rest of the rooms."
Frustrated that they did not seem to be getting the results he wanted, Ironside snarled, "Well, let's check the rest of them." He turned his chair and wheeled it towards the remaining classrooms to check.
*
The Night School Strangler sat in his seat waiting for his classroom to be checked by the cops. He wanted to shout and tell everyone how he had outsmarted the police. Here they were checking all of the night school classes and he knew what for. They were looking for his particular brand of boots. He had to hold back a smile knowing they were in for a big surprise. Everyone wore this brand. They were not going to identify him through those boots, especially since he had changed into a pair of sneakers that he bought off the shelf at Walmart.
Somehow he was not surprised to see Chief Robert Ironside on the scene. Sooner or later he would show up. He had mixed feelings about Ironside investigating his work. He would not understand why he was doing it. After all, he obviously didn't believe that women did not belong in public. They belonged at home. His own mother could not seem to understand that, and apparently neither did Ironside.
In fact, he was breaking the rules by having a female on his staff. He would think someone of the authority of Robert Ironside would understand the importance of keeping women in their place. Otherwise, they turned out like his mother.
He had watched Ironside's police woman across the hall conducting interrogations of the male students in the school. He could not believe that she had the nerve to question any of them. Didn't she realize that every one of them were better than she was? He wondered if he would be able to hide his contempt for the woman if she was the one that ended up questioning him.
Oh, how he would like to teach her a lesson. Maybe then Ironside would replace her with a man as he should have in the first place. Maybe that was exactly what he should do.
He could hear the squeak of Ironside's wheelchair coming down the hall. That meant that they were ready to question the men in this room. How dare they target the men? None of the women in the room belonged here. Yet, they were going after the men. What a screwed-up value system the police had.
He watched as Chief Ironside wheeled into the room. He was followed by his aide, who he knew had discovered Kimberly Gilmore in the back of the detective's van. He wondered if he did that to draw Ironside into the game. Maybe subconsciously he had. It didn't matter as now the detective was here anyway. He supposed he would have showed up eventually as the commissioner always sent him in when no one else could solve a case. That was probably because they hired too many women. They had no business doing a man's job to begin with.
As the city's most feared cop wheeled into the room, all of the students turned to look. The Night School Strangler could see panic on some of their faces, but there was no panic on his face. This crippled cop did not intimidate him.
He watched as Ironside's detectives started spreading out among the students and began their investigation. Ironside himself started questioning a student right next to him. He figured when Ironside was done that he would be next.
The Night School Strangler watched in great anticipation as the student the detective was questioning seemed to be scared to death. The student raised his foot to show the man the bottom of his shoe. How the man could be considered so smart was beyond him. One only had to look at the footwear to know it was Dependable Footwear. They did not have to check the bottom of the shoe. He knew he had to have left an imprint on the ground in order for the police to be able to identify the company his boots were from. It did not matter as they would never catch him anyway.
Maybe it was time to branch out beyond the college. That way he could stay a step ahead of Ironside. After all, he could still eliminate women from the school; he would just do it off campus. He could not stop himself from chuckling. He could further confuse the police by changing to another brand of boots, but he would have to pick something distinctive, something that would hold Ironside's attention for a while.
He had been so lost in thought, that he did not hear the detective wheel up to him. "What is so amusing Mister… " Ironside said, waiting for the man to give his name.
The Night School Strangler had finally come face to face with the hero cop of San Francisco. He looked into his very blue eyes. The man had a way of making one feel that he could look right through you. He had heard that many times, but had never experienced it. Now, Ironside was staring at him. The Strangler looked away from him. He had not meant to, he just could not help it. Something about the blue glare of his eyes was disturbing. He forced himself to look back at the detective and told him his name.
"You are a law student?" Ironside asked.
"Yes, sir."
He decided the best tack to take with the bully cop was to be truthful. After all, he did not kill anybody. It had to be that voice that kept him believing that he did.
"Be polite and submissive." He will never expect someone he thought was a wimp."
He wanted to tell the voice to shut up, but with Ironside right in front of him he could not.
Ironside looked at the list Eve had given him. This man's name was on it. He had been at the school every time a murder had been committed. The young man was having trouble looking him in the eye. It did not faze the chief as he had known many a criminal that seemed submissive when being questioned, but were able to commit a host of crimes.
"What time did you arrive here?" Ironside asked him.
"About seven o'clock," he answered.
"And have you left this room since you entered?"
The Strangler looked the detective in the eye and said, "No. You can check with the professor. He will tell you I have been in here all evening, except when we all went out into the hall to see what the fuss was all about."
"I have already checked with your professor," Ironside informed him.
"Then why ask me a question you already know the answer to?" The Strangler acted indignant.
"Because I wanted to hear your answer, not the professor's."
The Strangler began to take a disliking to this cop. Besides having a woman on his staff that didn't belong there, he was trying to intimidate him into making a mistake. Well, that was not going to happen.
"Do you always sit in the back of the room?" Ironside asked him.
"I like the back of the room. That way I can see and hear everything that goes on in the classroom," the Strangler answered.
"You could easily slip out of the room unnoticed since you are the only one in the row."
"Well, I didn't," the Strangler snapped.
"Stop letting this cripple get to you. He is cracking your demeanor. Stay calm."
The voice was talking to him again.
Ironside continued questioning him. The Strangler got control of himself and turned back into the submissive individual he was supposed to convey. Ironside questioned him about his past, which of course, he lied about. He asked him where he was when the other murders were committed. The damn cop kept staring him in the eye. What the hell was wrong with the man? Did he really think his intimidation was going to work on him? He looked away from him again, but quickly looked back. He was not about to allow him to get to him again.
Finally after fifteen minutes, Ironside asked to see the bottom of his shoes. He had to force himself not to show any satisfaction when he lifted his foot and showed him what he wanted. No mud and no Dependable Footwear imprint. He prided himself in keeping clothes on hand to change into in case he needed to keep the police off his scent.
There was something about the young man that bothered the chief. He would have him checked out thoroughly. He acted submissive, but when challenged turned confrontational and smug, then back to being submissive. Ironside dismissed him. Before long, all the students had been allowed to leave the school. The chief sat in his wheelchair thinking about those he had interviewed and he kept coming back to the same student.
Ed, Eve and Mark returned to him. "Well?" he asked them.
"Nothing we can use as of yet," Sergeant Brown replied. The professor claims none of them left the room except when the entire class left to check out the commotion in the hall. By that time the murder had already been committed."
Eve and Mark reported the same thing. Ironside glanced over at the chair that the man had been sitting in. "Ed, what would you say about that chair all by itself?"
Ed stepped over to the chair and sat down. "This seat would be blocked from the professor's view."
"That is what bothers me," Ironside said.
Eve walked over to the door and then approached the chair. "He could have easily slipped into the room unnoticed."
"You are forgetting about roll call," Mark reminded them. The professor said he was in the room when he took it."
"The question is when did he take it?" Eve said.
"He wasn't sure," Ed said. He could not remember how much time went by after the students came into the room and when he took the roll call."
"So in other words, the cat may not have entered the room when the other students did. He could have slipped in after he murdered the girl," Mark said, thinking aloud.
"I want this man checked out. By tomorrow, I want to know his life's history," Ironside ordered, "but don't neglect the others on that list. There is nothing else we can do here, let's call it a night."
*
The Night School Strangler listened outside of the door. The hall had been cleared of cops and students. He had hung around to see if he could find out anything from Ironside and his people. He was upset with himself. The damn cripple had not been fooled by the act that the voice had wanted him to put on. He was now Ironside's number one suspect! How did that happened? He had planned everything so well. His plans were now in danger of being stopped before he accomplished what he had set out to do. He could not let that happen. Suddenly, he could not remember what his plans were. What was he supposed to be doing? The Strangler had to find a way to put Ironside off his trail. But why did he feel that way? Why would Ironside be on his trail?
Why was he thinking this way? He did not kill those women. He couldn't kill anybody. It was that voice that was convincing him he killed the women. But he couldn't have killed them. He was not a killer. He had to stop listening to the voice.
He left his place by the classroom and headed for the back door. There was less chance he would be seen by any of Ironside's lingering police officers. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in the back of his head. As he got out the door, he stood with his back to the building wall. Grabbing both sides of his head with his hands, he said, "No! Leave me alone! Go away! I killed her as you wanted me to, so leave me alone! I didn't kill them, you did it. I am not a killer. I did what you told me to do, now leave me alone!"
"You damn fool. Now you have Ironside on your tail. You stupid smug bastard!
You have to get rid of him. You can't allow him to check into your life."
"Don't you think I know that? I will find a way to get rid of him."
"How? So far all you have done is make a suspect of yourself. How are you going to convince Ironside you are not guilty?"
"I will find a way. Just don't ask me to kill anyone else," the Strangler said. His head was pounding. He didn't want to kill anybody. But he had to kill somebody. Women were breaking the rules. His mother was always beating him. His father told him that women belong in the house. His mother needed punishing. She was breaking the rules. There were so many that needed punishing. He did not want to kill them... or did he? They must be punished.
"Yes, they must be punished. You must remove another one from the campus. But do it outside of the campus. You must not be caught. There is much work to be done."
He covered his head with his hands. "Just shut up! Shut up! I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to kill. I don't want to kill." Why wouldn't he shut up? Why couldn't he just leave him alone?
A female student walked up to him. "Are you alright?"
The Strangler dropped his hands from his head. The voice had stopped. He could no longer hear it. The headache was subsiding. He looked at the girl, he did not know her. He had to kill her, but he was not a killer.
The Strangler composed himself. He knew he had to get control. He looked at the woman and said, "I just have a terrible headache. I'll be all right. Thank you."
"Do you want me to see you to your car? I can help you if you need it."
"No, I am fine." he reached into his back pocket where the wire was hidden. Slowly he began to pull it from his pocket. He shook his head.
"Do it! There is no one around. You can punish her right under Ironside's nose. Do it! Punish her!
The Strangler had the wire almost pulled completely out of his pocket, but then he pushed it back out of sight. No, I don't care what you say. I will not kill her.
"Do it, you coward!
The headache that had been subsiding was quickly returning. He had to get out of there. He would not do it. He had to get out of there! "I am sorry, but I have to go." The Strangler pushed her aside and ran into the parking lot towards his vehicle.
Why didn't he do it? He had the time and nobody was around. He should have done it. It was the only way to get rid of the voice. But, the voice was gone. He could not hear it.
The Strangler got into his car, turn the ignition and squealed the tires as he left the parking lot.
