"The cap is looking for you!" Shouted Ray-B's partner, Pubby Hudson. "Thanks for the heads up," mumbled Ray-B. "Thought you had the day off Cap?"
"That's what I thought, but we got another one..." "The mayor wants our very best and brightest on this one." "So you and Pubby will be leading the charge on this one!" "It's beginning to look like a serial-killer." "You got it, Cap!"
The entrance to Point Park spilled out onto the main road like an over-stuffed burrito as Ray-B and Pubby pulled up to the taped-off scene. "Who is in charge here?" Inquired Ray-B. "That would be officer Smith, just inside the men's restroom." "Thanks, officer," replied Ray-B. Officer Smith didn't give Ray-B any argument as Ray-B relinquished him his command. In fact there was an audible sound of relief.
The park's restroom was cramped and hot. Blood seemed to pool on the uneven floor, seeping through the cracks in the concrete. Blood painted the urine-stained toilet and mixed with the graffiti on the stall walls. The stench of clogged, unflushed toilets hung over him like a cloud of depression.
Outside the smell of forgotten food left to burn on the barbecue now mixed with the odor of decaying body parts. Lifting the grill cover, everyone was taken back by what they found. Unrecognizable body parts cooked well- done. Flies swarming frantically searching for a landing spot on which to dine.
"Holy shit Ray-B! Who got pissed off at the birthday boy?"
"God only knows!" Exclaimed Ray-B, in between periods of vomiting and breathing out his mouth.
Birthday hats hung a-skew on the family of six.
Bloodstained fingers crudely took the place of candles on the birthday cake, spelling out the name, "Ray-B."
"Looks like someone left you a love letter sir!" murmured Pubby.
At that moment Ray-B knew that it was the same killer as the first murders. He began looking for anything else that could be linked to him. Fingers that now decorated the cake were a disarray of sizes, some with the rings still on them, some with fingernail polish professionally designed, and some with the nail bit down to the quick.
"Pubby, do you have any evidence bags left? I'm out." "Here you go Ray-B, on the house!" "Whoa, what the hell is that?" Exclaimed Pubby, as he frantically pointed "It's a pinatas, dumbass!" Said Ray-B.
"No...not the damn pinatas, the fucking rope holding it!" "What the... "What appeared to be a rope clung limply in the hand of the now-dead birthday boy. However, upon a second glance, a shriveled piece of small intestine took its place ending inside a crude hole somewhere inside his stomach.
His other hand was tightly clenched into a fist with the edges of something sticking out of it. Prying the birthday boy's hand open, Ray-Bs heart skipped a beat as he realized what it was...a piece of a vehicle's registration. Only the number, no name, no address.
Ray-B secretly wondered if it was going to lead back to him. His stomach began to rumble, reminding him that he had forgotten to eat. Picking up a Double-Whopper, Ray-B shrugged off his self-conscious new-years resolution about losing weight. The quickly lost resolution dissolved completely upon the smell of the to-go bag being handed down to him by a doe-eyed cashier.
Ray-B looked at his watch, and slowly rewinded the hours of the day. Subconsciously and meticulously looking for a discrepancy, any at all. Missing time, missing memories. The only thing that stood out was the nightmares. The nightmares about killing, and worse yet, the dismemberment and eating each victims hearts.
He could swear that when he awoke, he was significantly more tired than when he went to bed. " "That's got to be it!" Ray-B thought. The demon was waiting for him to go to sleep, when his guard was completely down to take over. And the nightmares he was experiencing were really him witnessing the actual murders. And most ironic was the closer he came to catching the killer, the closer he came to catching himself. "What a damn pickle!"
Ray-B thought long and hard about his predicament. He needed help in the worst way. Looking around for an answer, any answer at all! His eyes finally settling on the China hutch where the family bible sat.
Blowing the dust off of it elicited a marathon of sneezing.
"Holy shit!" Ray-B screamed as the bible grew to hot to hold. He swore he could hear laughter echoing down a long empty hallway of his mind.
The smell of fresh cut grass was sharp and almost made him break out into song causing him to skip along the well-groomed pathway leading to the church. However, with each step forward his legs got heavier exhausting himself and sapping the joy and euphoria he was experiencing just a moment earlier.
The pastor was short and robust, with a fake smile that ebbed away from his face like a low-tide lurking further and further away from shore. The closer Ray-B came to grasping the outstretched hand so fervently offered.
"Welcome detective, welcome!" "Please have a seat." The pastor gently pulled the chair out as Ray-B reluctantly sat down. The chair looked like it came from the nursery, so small compared to that of the pastor's, who lorded over him. Ray-B could swear that he remembered one of his college courses in psychology mentioning that the way the chairs differed in sizes, were the result of a subconscious power struggle.
"I seem to recall you when you were just a little ankle biter! Now I see before me a man. What brings you to our neck of the woods?" "Pastor Mike, I don't even know where to start!" "It would seem that whatever is weighing on your mind is as good a place as any."
"Well pastor, it all started with me picking up a small crusifix at a multiple homicide I was called to... and well...I, I think...I'm possessed!"
"Do you have it with you now?"
"Why yes I do." Squeaked Ray-B as he struggled through each of his pockets and coming out empty except for a couple of used toothpicks and lint.
As if on que, the pastor's lights began to flicker, leaving them both bewildered as they silently sat there in the dark.
"I'm afraid we are going to have to reschedule." Said the pastor, as his voice belied his fearful state.
As soon as the door closed behind him, the lights came back on. "Damn!" Loudly exclaimed Ray-B as he found himself tiptoeing down the path towards his cruiser.