I want to thnk everyone again for the great reviews. And thanks to Orison for correcting my spelling...wish you'd told me sooner. lol
Chapter Eight:
"The Nightmare"
Bosco climbs into an RMP and pulls out his list. With it he also has a copy of the drawing of the suspect. The first three vans on the list belong to a delivery business called 'Post Haste'. Bosco heads over there. These three vehicles had been crossed off the list with a highlighter by the detectives working for Cruz. He can't be sure whether or not they actually investigated them or just crossed them off the list because they were 'business' vans, and he can't take the chance of not double checking.
He arrives at 'Post Haste' and only one of the vans is there being loaded. There is a large logo on the side with the company name and phone number. There was no mention by the eye-witnesses, of anything written or painted on the black van. Taking a closer look he realizes that the logo is a magnet. It can be peeled off and put back on. He feels hopeful, although he knows what the odds are, that the first place he looks will solve the case. He makes them unload the whole van and he searches for clues, blood stains in particular, but he finds nothing. He has the owner radio the other two vans and have them return so he can search them too.
Bosco searches the two vans, after making them unload their packages, and again finds nothing. And no one connected with this company looks even remotely like the picture of the perp. He can cross these three off his list and move on. He looks at the list. It is so long. Looking at his watch, he calculates that he took almost three hours to eliminate only three vans. He is going to need help if he wants to find Faith alive. He finds a phone and calls Sullivan. Sully tells Bosco he will meet him at the precinct and that he will pick up Davis on the way.
As Sully and Davis change into their uniforms, Bosco gives them both a copy of the list. Each list has a different section circled for them to investigate. Bosco explains that the detectives had already eliminated these vehicles as suspect but at the delivery company he just checked out, the owner said no cops had ever come there to look in his vans. They didn't actually check each van, they reasoned them off the list. They took this important piece of evidence and just wasted it. If it weren't for their shoddy police work, this guy could have been caught by now.
They walk out to the cars together and Bosco tells them what he learned from Cruz about the killer's profile. He tells them that the victims were already dead when they were shot and that during the night, the body of his last victim was found, so it is probable that he has Faith. He explains to them that this guy isn't really trying to kill his victims, and that is why they have to hurry. Because the victims have all died from being tortured. "If this guy has Faith, we have to find him soon. We're running out of time".
[back at the cabin]
Faith wakes up on the floor, still in the same position that she had collapsed into. She doesn't know how long she has been laying here but she can see daylight through the tiny window in the cabin. She can smell bacon and eggs, and coffee brewing. Then she spots him sitting at the table. He hasn't noticed that she is awake and she plans to keep it that way for as long as she can.
She studies the cabin. It is very small. There is a cot in the corner to her right and a fireplace in front of her. The table is in front of that to the right, almost in the middle of the floor and behind him is a small refrigerator, stove, and a sink surrounded by a few cabinets. The door is directly in front of her to the left of the fireplace.
Faith moves her feet a little to see if they are still cuffed. They are. Bolting to the door is not an option. The only thing she sees that she can use as a weapon is the fireplace poker laying on the floor about twelve feet in front of her. It seems so far away from her, but everything else in the room is behind him.
She assesses her injuries. Her chest and shoulders ache a lot, but her throat hurts the most. It feels swollen and restricted. It is very hard to swallow. Her head also hurts. Her arms are still feeling prickly from being behind her back all night. She can move them, but her motor control is bad. She moves her left arm slowly, watching him to make sure he isn't looking at her. She brings her hand up to her face and she can feel a welt on her forehead.
Then she realizes that he has not moved a muscle since she noticed him there. He is sitting perfectly still at the table. His eyes are open wide and his mouth is also open. He is staring at nothing that she can see. She would describe the look on his face as one of terror.
This guy is not crazy, he is absolutely insane. If he were crazy she could talk to him, try to reason with or confuse him, but this guy is just dangerously insane and in his own little nightmare, oblivious to what is happening around him. She decides to try and crawl over to the fireplace very slowly and grab the poker before he comes out of his trance and afflicts what ever horror he is observing, onto her.
She doesn't get very far when he suddenly snaps his head in her direction. He stands up quickly sending the chair toppling backwards to the floor. She lifts herself up to her knees and lunges towards the poker. She grabs it with her right hand, but he reaches her and steps on her arm with his full weight. She yells out in pain. He grabs the poker away from her with little effort and slams it down hard, driving the point into the back of her hand. She screams out again. He throws the poker across the room and sits down on her back pinning her shoulders with his knees. Her right hand is crushed and bleeding. The pain makes her nauseas and she vomits.
He grabs her hard by the hair with both hands, and as he stands, he draws her up with him, getting her in a choke hold around her neck, then heads towards the door. With her feet still cuffed, she is being dragged helplessly. She holds his arm with her left hand and tries to carry her weight so she can breathe. He drags her out to the tub of water on the side porch and starts scolding her about the mess she made. He is talking wildly, yelling about things she doesn't understand. Things that didn't happen. At least, things that did not happen today.
He drags her over to the edge of the tub. She realizes what he is planning to do and she struggles viciously against him. He drives her to her knees, but not before she scratches his face and bloodies his nose. He is now pressing against her back with all his weight, and bends her over the tub. She puts her hands into the bottom of the tub and stiffens her elbows to keep her head above the water.
She is fighting hard against him and he is enjoying the struggle. He reaches into the tub and grabs her broken hand, that is swollen and already oozing blood into the water, and squeezes it hard. She screams out in pain and then her elbows buckle. Her face hits the water. She pushes her head up one more time and takes a deep breath of air and then he pushes her head into the water and holds it there with both hands.
He is shaking with excitement. He lays his head onto her back so he can feel her struggling beneath him. He is breathing hard. Her hands are grabbing at the rim of the tub and grabbing at his hands to try and scratch them off of her. She places them on the bottom of the tub and tries one more time to lift her head above water. But she can't.
He feels her exhale beneath him and he watches her breath bubble up out of the tub. He feels her body convulse and quickly pulls her out and throws her backwards onto the porch. He pushes on her stomach and she violently coughs up water. He says to her casually. "And that is what it feels like to drown." He sits back exhausted and elated. He watches her struggling to breath between coughs. And he feels such relief.
[At the same time]
Bosco has only been able to eliminate two more vans off his list. He went to three other addresses where there was no one home. He is getting frustrated. He needs to be doing more. He can't even bring himself to think of what Faith may be going through. He calls Sullivan on the radio. "How's it going?"
"Slow. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I went to four addresses before I found one person at home. And that van came up clean."
"I know...this shift sucks. Everyone is working. Maybe this is a waste of time. Maybe I should just go back and look over the files. There may be a clue there that no one has noticed."
Sullivan tells him they should keep trying. What other clues can there be. If there were finger prints we would have a name and a face by now. This is the right thing to do. Tonight when their real shift starts, they can check the vans of the people that were not home earlier. He tells Bosco that he just pulled up at the next location on his list and the van is in the driveway. He will let him know if he comes up with anything.
Sullivan Walks up the driveway and looks in the back window of the van. He double checks the license plate to see that it matches the one he is looking for. He cups his hands around his face and again looks into the back window. He sees that it is packed full of band equipment. Amplifiers, sound board, a drum set, guitars, everything a band needs, including microphone stands. Sully walks to the house and knocks on the door and a young man in boxer shorts, with messy hair and a sleepy face, answers.
The young man says, "Oh man...not again."
Sully says, "Are you Mark Bruer?"
The guy answers, "Yes. What do you want now? Don't make me tear the van apart again. We played out last night and I just loaded this stuff in a few hours ago. I need some sleep dude."
Sully asks him if any other police officers had been here recently and the man tells him that just last week they made him pull everything out of the van and searched it. He also said that they asked him where he was on a certain date. He told them that his band played at a club on the night that they were asking about, and they were going to check that out. "I assumed they did and wouldn't be back to bother me. I didn't do anything wrong...in fact, I don't even know what they think I did."
That was good enough for Sully. He doesn't have time to double check every van. He thanks the guy for his cooperation and tells him that it won't be necessary to look in his van a second time.
In spite of the encouragement he just gave to Bosco, Sully feels that their task is hopeless. The number of vans they need to search is overwhelming. The guy they are looking for is killing his victims in less than a forty-eight hour period. They have only about twenty four hours left to find her. Yet...this is Faith they are trying to save. She isn't just another cop, she is one of their buddies. He looks up the next address and heads over.
[Back at the cabin]
The sun has come out and it is already drying up the water that had splashed out of the tub. They both lay there, her; struggling to clear her lungs of water, and him; struggling to hold on to his feeling of satisfaction. His thoughts are soft for the first time in so long. He feels as though he could sleep a deep, dreamless sleep, something he hasn't done in a long time. As he watches her, his finger is tracing a scar on his arm. The scar is from a burn, and it is in the pattern of a spatula. And it matches the ones on his legs and back. Daniel feels so good that he decides to treat himself to a cook out tonight.
He will have to get some groceries and he is trying to decide what he will do with
her while he is gone. He can hang her in lockup like he did at night or he can cuff her to the bed. Or...he can place her in solitary confinement like she used to do to him when ever she would go out. Daniel smiles.
He can't wait for her so see it...to experience it. She will be very proud of how he had to improvise because she would obviously not fit in his tiny oven, so he made a crate out of two by fours and plywood, three feet by two feet wide, and just under two feet high. In the bottom he placed rebarb every two inches to make it feel like an oven rack and there is a padlock on a hinged top. He stands, and leaves her there while he goes to get the key for the padlock and the second set of hand cuffs.
When he returns, she is still lying in the same position, curled up on her side, with her arms cradling her stomach and chest. He kneels down behind her and leans over her to grab her hands and apply the cuffs. She suddenly rolls over and slams her elbow hard into his face, catching him just below his right eye. He leans backwards and covers his face with his hands.
Raising up to her knees, she grabs his shoulders and throws all her weight at him, knocking him onto his back. She is on top of him. She lays her right forearm across his neck, and grabbing her wrist with her left hand, she presses with all her might. She is sobbing out loud as she holds her weight on his throat.
At first he doesn't even try to fight back. He just stares up at her in shock. Then his anger flares. He flips the key around in his hand so that it is sticking up through his fingers and he punches it into her side several times until she finally gives in to the pain and reaches back to stop him. As soon as she releases his throat, he overpowers her, throwing her off of him. He begins yelling wildly and hitting her in the face until her arms fall limp to the ground, then he rolls her over and cuffs her hands behind her back.
He drags her around to the back of the cabin where he built his crate. He opens it, and with unbelievable ease, he lifts her into it. She is on her side in the fetal position with her knees bent all the way to her chest. She starts to wake up as he closes the lid. It pleases him that he got to see the look on her face as she realized what he was doing.
[The search goes on]
Ty Davis is having better luck with his list. So far he has only one van he didn't get to check and he has four crossed off his list. As he heads to the next address, he can't help but think about what Bosco had told him. He wants to remain hopeful, but the odds of them finding the van, especially after the detectives have already ruled this list out, are close to zero. The van they are looking for may not be from New York city. It may not even be black, considering that all the eye witnesses saw the van at night.
Ty checks the time. It is almost eleven thirty. He considers breaking for lunch but decides to check one more van out first. He is almost at the location anyway. He slows down to look for the building. He has a hard time finding it because one of the numbers had fallen off the building. He is getting flustered and feeling the pressure of time running out. He finally finds the address and hurries inside and climbs up to the fourth floor.
He knocks at the door and there is no answer. He kicks the door out of frustration. Ty heads back to the entrance and on his way out he passes an apartment with a superintendent sign on the door. He pauses for a second and decides that it would be smart to check with him. He knocks on the door and an old Italian man in a white t-shirt and suspenders answers the door.
Ty explains that he needs to talk to the tenant that lives in apartment 413. The Super asks him why. Ty tells him that he may have been witness to a crime and he needs to ask him some questions.
The super says, "He still isn't back. I told the cops last week that I'd call when he comes home."
"So this guys been out of town?" Ty asks.
"He drives a truck. He's almost never here. He is a perfect tenant."
"What type of truck does he drive?"
The super answers, "He drives a big semi. He drives cross country, so he could be gone for weeks at a time."
"Does he own a black van?"
The super answers, "Yah."
"Can you show me where the van is parked?"
"No. It isn't here."
"What do you mean, someone's using it while he's away?"
"No...he parks it where he works. He leaves it in their lot."
"Do you know who he works for?"
The super is starting to get a little annoyed at the questions. "Look...I'm not his room mate, I'm just the super. They would have that information at the office."
"Ok thanks." Ty starts to leave thinking that it would really be a waste of time to go to the office and then drive to where this guy works, when the guy was out of town while all of this was happening anyway. He decides to cross this van off the list and move on.
He gets to the exit and a thought comes to him. He goes back to the super's apartment and knocks again.
"What now?" the super says impatiently.
Ty pulls a paper out of his pocket and unfolds it. It is Gussler's drawing of the cop killer. "Does this look anything like your tenant in 413?"
"That looks exactly like my tenant in 413. Is that a wanted poster? What did this guy do?"
Ty feels like he was hit with a jolt of energy. "Are you serious? This guy lives here and owns a black van? Look again. I need you to be sure."
"Yah that looks like him. I mean it isn't a photo...but that's him"
Ty grabs his radio and calls into central, that he located the suspect connected to the disappearances of the female officers. "I repeat I have located him. I am at 413 at Union. Requesting a search warrant for named address and requesting ACU to respond. " Then he starts drilling the super with questions about how long this guy has been gone and when was the last time he saw him.
Bosco, along with most of the squad, hit their sirens and race over to that location.
[Back to Faith]
Faith keeps floating in and out of consciousness. Her lungs feel heavy, and with her legs pressing against her stomach she can't draw a full breath of air. The crate is so small that her head, back and knees are pressed against the sides, and soon, each point is wrenched with pain. Her hands are cuffed behind her back and she can feel that her circulation is already being cut off to her hands.
Her right side is resting on bars and the whole design is meant to be unbearable. She can feel blood soaking through her sweater where he stabbed her with the key and it is getting more painful as well. Every time she moans, she needs to cough and every cough, sends more pain through her chest. Her legs are cramping up and she is loosing the feeling in her arms and she has never before hurt so much that it would make her pass out. She is now delirious from the pain.
She tries to shift her position but she is too constricted. Her shoulder is falling asleep. The seatbelt is too tight. As she tries to adjust it, the cruiser swerves. Bosco is yelling at her to stop. Her arms feel heavy and she can't lift them. The car swerves dangerously all over the road. The harder she tries to steer the car, the more it goes out of control. She slams on the breaks and the car screeches to a stop. Suddenly she is being pulled out of the car. She is grabbing at the door to stay in the car but Bosco slides into the drivers seat and she is now behind him watching him drive.
She is calling to him but he can't hear her. She yells louder. He just keeps driving. She yells so hard that her throat hurts and it makes her cry. Then she realizes why he can't hear her. She's not in the back seat, she's in the trunk. It's dark and she can't breathe. Her hands reach up to push the trunk open. She needs to get out. She needs air and she is panicking. She pounds hard on the trunk and finally it opens. Through her tears she sees all of the guys from her squad standing there looking into the trunk. They are standing there in silence, staring.
She keeps telling them to help her get out, but they aren't listening to her. They are all staring with this horrified look on their faces. But they are not looking at her...they are staring at something in the trunk behind her. She turns to look and she sees that there is a dead body in the trunk with her. It is bloated and rotting. She screams and tries to push it away with her feet. The torso moves away but the head pivots towards her. The harder she pushes it away, the closer it's face keeps getting to hers. Their foreheads touch and then she suddenly realizes that she is looking at her own face. The dead body is hers. She screams harder. She screams right through the pain. And when she wakes up...she is still in the crate...screaming.
Chapter Eight:
"The Nightmare"
Bosco climbs into an RMP and pulls out his list. With it he also has a copy of the drawing of the suspect. The first three vans on the list belong to a delivery business called 'Post Haste'. Bosco heads over there. These three vehicles had been crossed off the list with a highlighter by the detectives working for Cruz. He can't be sure whether or not they actually investigated them or just crossed them off the list because they were 'business' vans, and he can't take the chance of not double checking.
He arrives at 'Post Haste' and only one of the vans is there being loaded. There is a large logo on the side with the company name and phone number. There was no mention by the eye-witnesses, of anything written or painted on the black van. Taking a closer look he realizes that the logo is a magnet. It can be peeled off and put back on. He feels hopeful, although he knows what the odds are, that the first place he looks will solve the case. He makes them unload the whole van and he searches for clues, blood stains in particular, but he finds nothing. He has the owner radio the other two vans and have them return so he can search them too.
Bosco searches the two vans, after making them unload their packages, and again finds nothing. And no one connected with this company looks even remotely like the picture of the perp. He can cross these three off his list and move on. He looks at the list. It is so long. Looking at his watch, he calculates that he took almost three hours to eliminate only three vans. He is going to need help if he wants to find Faith alive. He finds a phone and calls Sullivan. Sully tells Bosco he will meet him at the precinct and that he will pick up Davis on the way.
As Sully and Davis change into their uniforms, Bosco gives them both a copy of the list. Each list has a different section circled for them to investigate. Bosco explains that the detectives had already eliminated these vehicles as suspect but at the delivery company he just checked out, the owner said no cops had ever come there to look in his vans. They didn't actually check each van, they reasoned them off the list. They took this important piece of evidence and just wasted it. If it weren't for their shoddy police work, this guy could have been caught by now.
They walk out to the cars together and Bosco tells them what he learned from Cruz about the killer's profile. He tells them that the victims were already dead when they were shot and that during the night, the body of his last victim was found, so it is probable that he has Faith. He explains to them that this guy isn't really trying to kill his victims, and that is why they have to hurry. Because the victims have all died from being tortured. "If this guy has Faith, we have to find him soon. We're running out of time".
[back at the cabin]
Faith wakes up on the floor, still in the same position that she had collapsed into. She doesn't know how long she has been laying here but she can see daylight through the tiny window in the cabin. She can smell bacon and eggs, and coffee brewing. Then she spots him sitting at the table. He hasn't noticed that she is awake and she plans to keep it that way for as long as she can.
She studies the cabin. It is very small. There is a cot in the corner to her right and a fireplace in front of her. The table is in front of that to the right, almost in the middle of the floor and behind him is a small refrigerator, stove, and a sink surrounded by a few cabinets. The door is directly in front of her to the left of the fireplace.
Faith moves her feet a little to see if they are still cuffed. They are. Bolting to the door is not an option. The only thing she sees that she can use as a weapon is the fireplace poker laying on the floor about twelve feet in front of her. It seems so far away from her, but everything else in the room is behind him.
She assesses her injuries. Her chest and shoulders ache a lot, but her throat hurts the most. It feels swollen and restricted. It is very hard to swallow. Her head also hurts. Her arms are still feeling prickly from being behind her back all night. She can move them, but her motor control is bad. She moves her left arm slowly, watching him to make sure he isn't looking at her. She brings her hand up to her face and she can feel a welt on her forehead.
Then she realizes that he has not moved a muscle since she noticed him there. He is sitting perfectly still at the table. His eyes are open wide and his mouth is also open. He is staring at nothing that she can see. She would describe the look on his face as one of terror.
This guy is not crazy, he is absolutely insane. If he were crazy she could talk to him, try to reason with or confuse him, but this guy is just dangerously insane and in his own little nightmare, oblivious to what is happening around him. She decides to try and crawl over to the fireplace very slowly and grab the poker before he comes out of his trance and afflicts what ever horror he is observing, onto her.
She doesn't get very far when he suddenly snaps his head in her direction. He stands up quickly sending the chair toppling backwards to the floor. She lifts herself up to her knees and lunges towards the poker. She grabs it with her right hand, but he reaches her and steps on her arm with his full weight. She yells out in pain. He grabs the poker away from her with little effort and slams it down hard, driving the point into the back of her hand. She screams out again. He throws the poker across the room and sits down on her back pinning her shoulders with his knees. Her right hand is crushed and bleeding. The pain makes her nauseas and she vomits.
He grabs her hard by the hair with both hands, and as he stands, he draws her up with him, getting her in a choke hold around her neck, then heads towards the door. With her feet still cuffed, she is being dragged helplessly. She holds his arm with her left hand and tries to carry her weight so she can breathe. He drags her out to the tub of water on the side porch and starts scolding her about the mess she made. He is talking wildly, yelling about things she doesn't understand. Things that didn't happen. At least, things that did not happen today.
He drags her over to the edge of the tub. She realizes what he is planning to do and she struggles viciously against him. He drives her to her knees, but not before she scratches his face and bloodies his nose. He is now pressing against her back with all his weight, and bends her over the tub. She puts her hands into the bottom of the tub and stiffens her elbows to keep her head above the water.
She is fighting hard against him and he is enjoying the struggle. He reaches into the tub and grabs her broken hand, that is swollen and already oozing blood into the water, and squeezes it hard. She screams out in pain and then her elbows buckle. Her face hits the water. She pushes her head up one more time and takes a deep breath of air and then he pushes her head into the water and holds it there with both hands.
He is shaking with excitement. He lays his head onto her back so he can feel her struggling beneath him. He is breathing hard. Her hands are grabbing at the rim of the tub and grabbing at his hands to try and scratch them off of her. She places them on the bottom of the tub and tries one more time to lift her head above water. But she can't.
He feels her exhale beneath him and he watches her breath bubble up out of the tub. He feels her body convulse and quickly pulls her out and throws her backwards onto the porch. He pushes on her stomach and she violently coughs up water. He says to her casually. "And that is what it feels like to drown." He sits back exhausted and elated. He watches her struggling to breath between coughs. And he feels such relief.
[At the same time]
Bosco has only been able to eliminate two more vans off his list. He went to three other addresses where there was no one home. He is getting frustrated. He needs to be doing more. He can't even bring himself to think of what Faith may be going through. He calls Sullivan on the radio. "How's it going?"
"Slow. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I went to four addresses before I found one person at home. And that van came up clean."
"I know...this shift sucks. Everyone is working. Maybe this is a waste of time. Maybe I should just go back and look over the files. There may be a clue there that no one has noticed."
Sullivan tells him they should keep trying. What other clues can there be. If there were finger prints we would have a name and a face by now. This is the right thing to do. Tonight when their real shift starts, they can check the vans of the people that were not home earlier. He tells Bosco that he just pulled up at the next location on his list and the van is in the driveway. He will let him know if he comes up with anything.
Sullivan Walks up the driveway and looks in the back window of the van. He double checks the license plate to see that it matches the one he is looking for. He cups his hands around his face and again looks into the back window. He sees that it is packed full of band equipment. Amplifiers, sound board, a drum set, guitars, everything a band needs, including microphone stands. Sully walks to the house and knocks on the door and a young man in boxer shorts, with messy hair and a sleepy face, answers.
The young man says, "Oh man...not again."
Sully says, "Are you Mark Bruer?"
The guy answers, "Yes. What do you want now? Don't make me tear the van apart again. We played out last night and I just loaded this stuff in a few hours ago. I need some sleep dude."
Sully asks him if any other police officers had been here recently and the man tells him that just last week they made him pull everything out of the van and searched it. He also said that they asked him where he was on a certain date. He told them that his band played at a club on the night that they were asking about, and they were going to check that out. "I assumed they did and wouldn't be back to bother me. I didn't do anything wrong...in fact, I don't even know what they think I did."
That was good enough for Sully. He doesn't have time to double check every van. He thanks the guy for his cooperation and tells him that it won't be necessary to look in his van a second time.
In spite of the encouragement he just gave to Bosco, Sully feels that their task is hopeless. The number of vans they need to search is overwhelming. The guy they are looking for is killing his victims in less than a forty-eight hour period. They have only about twenty four hours left to find her. Yet...this is Faith they are trying to save. She isn't just another cop, she is one of their buddies. He looks up the next address and heads over.
[Back at the cabin]
The sun has come out and it is already drying up the water that had splashed out of the tub. They both lay there, her; struggling to clear her lungs of water, and him; struggling to hold on to his feeling of satisfaction. His thoughts are soft for the first time in so long. He feels as though he could sleep a deep, dreamless sleep, something he hasn't done in a long time. As he watches her, his finger is tracing a scar on his arm. The scar is from a burn, and it is in the pattern of a spatula. And it matches the ones on his legs and back. Daniel feels so good that he decides to treat himself to a cook out tonight.
He will have to get some groceries and he is trying to decide what he will do with
her while he is gone. He can hang her in lockup like he did at night or he can cuff her to the bed. Or...he can place her in solitary confinement like she used to do to him when ever she would go out. Daniel smiles.
He can't wait for her so see it...to experience it. She will be very proud of how he had to improvise because she would obviously not fit in his tiny oven, so he made a crate out of two by fours and plywood, three feet by two feet wide, and just under two feet high. In the bottom he placed rebarb every two inches to make it feel like an oven rack and there is a padlock on a hinged top. He stands, and leaves her there while he goes to get the key for the padlock and the second set of hand cuffs.
When he returns, she is still lying in the same position, curled up on her side, with her arms cradling her stomach and chest. He kneels down behind her and leans over her to grab her hands and apply the cuffs. She suddenly rolls over and slams her elbow hard into his face, catching him just below his right eye. He leans backwards and covers his face with his hands.
Raising up to her knees, she grabs his shoulders and throws all her weight at him, knocking him onto his back. She is on top of him. She lays her right forearm across his neck, and grabbing her wrist with her left hand, she presses with all her might. She is sobbing out loud as she holds her weight on his throat.
At first he doesn't even try to fight back. He just stares up at her in shock. Then his anger flares. He flips the key around in his hand so that it is sticking up through his fingers and he punches it into her side several times until she finally gives in to the pain and reaches back to stop him. As soon as she releases his throat, he overpowers her, throwing her off of him. He begins yelling wildly and hitting her in the face until her arms fall limp to the ground, then he rolls her over and cuffs her hands behind her back.
He drags her around to the back of the cabin where he built his crate. He opens it, and with unbelievable ease, he lifts her into it. She is on her side in the fetal position with her knees bent all the way to her chest. She starts to wake up as he closes the lid. It pleases him that he got to see the look on her face as she realized what he was doing.
[The search goes on]
Ty Davis is having better luck with his list. So far he has only one van he didn't get to check and he has four crossed off his list. As he heads to the next address, he can't help but think about what Bosco had told him. He wants to remain hopeful, but the odds of them finding the van, especially after the detectives have already ruled this list out, are close to zero. The van they are looking for may not be from New York city. It may not even be black, considering that all the eye witnesses saw the van at night.
Ty checks the time. It is almost eleven thirty. He considers breaking for lunch but decides to check one more van out first. He is almost at the location anyway. He slows down to look for the building. He has a hard time finding it because one of the numbers had fallen off the building. He is getting flustered and feeling the pressure of time running out. He finally finds the address and hurries inside and climbs up to the fourth floor.
He knocks at the door and there is no answer. He kicks the door out of frustration. Ty heads back to the entrance and on his way out he passes an apartment with a superintendent sign on the door. He pauses for a second and decides that it would be smart to check with him. He knocks on the door and an old Italian man in a white t-shirt and suspenders answers the door.
Ty explains that he needs to talk to the tenant that lives in apartment 413. The Super asks him why. Ty tells him that he may have been witness to a crime and he needs to ask him some questions.
The super says, "He still isn't back. I told the cops last week that I'd call when he comes home."
"So this guys been out of town?" Ty asks.
"He drives a truck. He's almost never here. He is a perfect tenant."
"What type of truck does he drive?"
The super answers, "He drives a big semi. He drives cross country, so he could be gone for weeks at a time."
"Does he own a black van?"
The super answers, "Yah."
"Can you show me where the van is parked?"
"No. It isn't here."
"What do you mean, someone's using it while he's away?"
"No...he parks it where he works. He leaves it in their lot."
"Do you know who he works for?"
The super is starting to get a little annoyed at the questions. "Look...I'm not his room mate, I'm just the super. They would have that information at the office."
"Ok thanks." Ty starts to leave thinking that it would really be a waste of time to go to the office and then drive to where this guy works, when the guy was out of town while all of this was happening anyway. He decides to cross this van off the list and move on.
He gets to the exit and a thought comes to him. He goes back to the super's apartment and knocks again.
"What now?" the super says impatiently.
Ty pulls a paper out of his pocket and unfolds it. It is Gussler's drawing of the cop killer. "Does this look anything like your tenant in 413?"
"That looks exactly like my tenant in 413. Is that a wanted poster? What did this guy do?"
Ty feels like he was hit with a jolt of energy. "Are you serious? This guy lives here and owns a black van? Look again. I need you to be sure."
"Yah that looks like him. I mean it isn't a photo...but that's him"
Ty grabs his radio and calls into central, that he located the suspect connected to the disappearances of the female officers. "I repeat I have located him. I am at 413 at Union. Requesting a search warrant for named address and requesting ACU to respond. " Then he starts drilling the super with questions about how long this guy has been gone and when was the last time he saw him.
Bosco, along with most of the squad, hit their sirens and race over to that location.
[Back to Faith]
Faith keeps floating in and out of consciousness. Her lungs feel heavy, and with her legs pressing against her stomach she can't draw a full breath of air. The crate is so small that her head, back and knees are pressed against the sides, and soon, each point is wrenched with pain. Her hands are cuffed behind her back and she can feel that her circulation is already being cut off to her hands.
Her right side is resting on bars and the whole design is meant to be unbearable. She can feel blood soaking through her sweater where he stabbed her with the key and it is getting more painful as well. Every time she moans, she needs to cough and every cough, sends more pain through her chest. Her legs are cramping up and she is loosing the feeling in her arms and she has never before hurt so much that it would make her pass out. She is now delirious from the pain.
She tries to shift her position but she is too constricted. Her shoulder is falling asleep. The seatbelt is too tight. As she tries to adjust it, the cruiser swerves. Bosco is yelling at her to stop. Her arms feel heavy and she can't lift them. The car swerves dangerously all over the road. The harder she tries to steer the car, the more it goes out of control. She slams on the breaks and the car screeches to a stop. Suddenly she is being pulled out of the car. She is grabbing at the door to stay in the car but Bosco slides into the drivers seat and she is now behind him watching him drive.
She is calling to him but he can't hear her. She yells louder. He just keeps driving. She yells so hard that her throat hurts and it makes her cry. Then she realizes why he can't hear her. She's not in the back seat, she's in the trunk. It's dark and she can't breathe. Her hands reach up to push the trunk open. She needs to get out. She needs air and she is panicking. She pounds hard on the trunk and finally it opens. Through her tears she sees all of the guys from her squad standing there looking into the trunk. They are standing there in silence, staring.
She keeps telling them to help her get out, but they aren't listening to her. They are all staring with this horrified look on their faces. But they are not looking at her...they are staring at something in the trunk behind her. She turns to look and she sees that there is a dead body in the trunk with her. It is bloated and rotting. She screams and tries to push it away with her feet. The torso moves away but the head pivots towards her. The harder she pushes it away, the closer it's face keeps getting to hers. Their foreheads touch and then she suddenly realizes that she is looking at her own face. The dead body is hers. She screams harder. She screams right through the pain. And when she wakes up...she is still in the crate...screaming.
