Boogeyman - Chapter 3

 

Chapter 3

Chin stepped out of the car that his cousin drove and walked up to the house where his boss currently was. It was a nice looking house. Someone had obviously taken care of it. It wasn't in the best neighborhood and yet it still had a rough edge to it like the others.

Police tape surrounded the nearby trees and wrapped its way to the front porch. A small crowd had gathered on the side of the street, some taking pictures of the flashing squad cars and some snapping photos of officers walking around.

"April Hayes. 25 year old grade school teacher. Didn't show up for work so her coworker came looking for her." Steve summarized.

"She found her alright." Danny said, coming out of the house, pulling off a pair of black gloves. He handed Chin and Kono each a pair and stepped to the side so the cousins could step into the crime scene. He and Steve followed closely.

Immediately, the front room was obviously seen as a major part of the scene. A trail of blood as if something or someone had been dragged was leading from beside the couch to the kitchen which was a long hallway. A bloody handprint was on the wall opposite the staircase railing as if someone had tried to run up them while hurt. Chin stepped around the blood trail and into the kitchen. There were many more officers but they moved out of the way as 5-0 entered. The back door was open, the long white curtains billowing softly in the breeze. Steve took the lead and walked out on the back porch.

Chin wanted to be sick. The young April was lying against a swimming pool, her head tilted to the side. Her eyes were open wide, staring directly at him as if waiting for him to give her an explanation of what happened.

"Give me some news Max." Steve said, getting down on his haunches. His eyes scrunched up as he examined the body. This was the closest he had gotten. After he and Danny had arrived (having an animated conversation in the car about a boy that Danny's daughter Grace seemed to like at school – Steve didn't see anything wrong while Danny looked like he wanted to hunt the kid down and shoot him), he had met up with Max on the back porch. He had seen the woman but not up close, being called back by Duke to see a few pieces of evidence he had found. Now that he was closer, he felt a tinge in his stomach. No one should have to die like that.

"It seems as if her throat was cut pre-mortem, severing the carotid artery quite severely. There are scratches and knife wounds on her arms suggesting that she tried to fight her attacker. And then there is this." Max said, pulling up the shirt. Steve was horrified. The damage was significant.

"So all this was done before she died?" Danny asked. He stood a little farther away, content with seeing the damage from a distance.

"I believe so. Although I won't be able to tell you for certain until I have done a proper autopsy, unlike the one that seems to have already been done to her." Max said, his voice not quite as emotional as they would have expected. But that was Max. he was nerdy and quirky and didn't always say the right thing at the right time.

Steve stood up. He turned from the horror and addressed Chin.

"Go talk to the coworker. See if there is anything about April that might help us. Ex-boyfriends, angry family, anything." he said. He then turned to Kono.

"Talk to the neighbors and see what they say. See if they have seen anything, heard anything, know anything about our victim." he instructed. They nodded.

Steve sighed and glanced up at the sun. He knew questioning would take a while. He and Danny would take the inside of the house.

"Want to flip a coin for floors?" Danny asked. He walked into the house and back into the living room, observing the blood trail. There were scuff marks throughout it as if April had still been alive when drug from the living room to the kitchen. There was enough blood to be almost certain she had been cut across the torso before being dragged outside.

He moved to the other side of the living room and looked through a pile of papers on an end table. Steve headed towards the stairs, stepping around drops of blood that littered the once white carpet. The upstairs was more closed off than downstairs. The rooms were closer together and things were scattered across the floor. A basket of laundry was dumped over, clothes spilling out. A plant pot was tipped over, soil and leaves littering the carpet. Looking closer, he noticed a boot print in the soil and immediately saved it in his memory for CSU to mark as evidence.

He turned to see Danny coming up the stairs.

"No odd mail, nothing out of place in any of the downstairs rooms except for the blood. Things must have started up here before our killer finally got her at the bottom of the stairs." he noted. He followed Steve to the dirt.

"We're definitely looking for a big guy. This shoe print has to be bigger than mine." Steve told him. Danny raised an eyebrow.

"So we're looking for an even bigger neanderthal?" he asked. Steve rolled his eyes and headed into the back bedroom. The footprint was facing away from the room so Steve deduced that the fight (if there had even been a true fight as April was much smaller than the person that killed her if the boot print was any proof) had started there.

It was a bedroom. The bed was unmade and there was a pile of dirty clothes in the corner. The closet door was open. Steve approached it and pulled it away from the door.

"Whoever was in here was sure in a hurry to get out." he mentioned, showing Danny the hole in the wall where the door knob had slammed into it.

They continued looking a little longer before Chin joined them upstairs.

"Our coworker is Julie Pern, a kindergarten teacher at Hili Education Center. She says that April was never late for work. In fact, she always arrived early to be prepared. They have lunch every Wednesday and when April hadn't shown up by noon, Julie decided to come see if maybe she was sick. Knocked on the door but didn't get an answer. She has a spare key to the house and came in. did the same thing we did and followed the blood trail. She's pretty hysterical. EMS had to sedate her after she described what she had seen. They are taking her to the hospital for observation." Chin told them. Steve listened intently, nodding his head every once in a while.

"So she had to have been killed early this morning. Max will have a TOD soon enough but I think it's safe to assume she was killed before 7 this morning." Danny said. He looked at them. They were surprised that Danny had come up with the figure of 7am.

"What? Grace goes to Hili. She's had to go in early before. Students aren't allowed in until 7:30 but teachers are let in at 7." he justified, glaring at Steve who just smiled.

"Did she have a boyfriend? Husband?" Steve asked.

"Neighbors say they used to see a man show up sometimes and April would let him right in." Kono said as she joined her team.

"Did you get a description?" Chin asked.

"Yep. One of the neighbors agreed to a sketch artist. Hopefully we get something soon." she told them.

"So...who is our mysterious guy? And who did April seem to piss off?" Danny asked.

"Let's get back. I saw the coroner's van leave a little bit ago and I want to get a full background on April Hayes before he's done with the autopsy." Steve decided.

H50

A hollow knock on the immense front door drew Cody out of his scrubbing of the kitchen. He jumped slightly, dropping his scrub brush and allowing it to thump against the freshly cleaned sink. Cody took a deep breath to calm himself and gripped the edge of the sink.

He had pulled himself out of his remembrance of his mother and had immediately gotten to work cleaning. Things were piled in front of the staircase and the stairs hadn't been touched. Cody had been using the back walkway between the kitchen and the family room to get to each room, rather than going back through the front entry way. His feet had agreed with his brain that the second floor of the house was off limits.

Glancing at his phone, he noticed that quite a bit of time had passed since his arrival. In all his cleaning and organizing, he had lost track of time. He glanced at his hands. They were almost rubbed raw, a pink in color, from scrubbing without let up. He didn't know what was going through his mind while cleaning. He was emotionally dead. When he had first arrived, he had come to terms with the fact that he had to get passed this chapter in his life and the only way to do that was face his fears.

That didn't mean he had to like it or be comfortable with it.

Wiping his hands on his plain black t-shirt, he headed out of the kitchen and to the front entry way. His feet became heavier as he approached the foot of the stairs. He couldn't help it. His eyes darted up the dark passage and tried to see through the black ink above. The shadows moved with the change of light, forming eerie shapes that seemed to resemble people. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and goosebumps formed on his arms.

He spun quickly as a harsher knock sounded on the large oak door. Grabbing the door knob, he twisted it, pulling the door open as his gaze focused on the top of the stairs again.

Suddenly, strong arms grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides. Immediately he began to struggle, clenching his fists and pulling at his arms.

"Cody Ethan Lawson! You moron! Why didn't you tell me you were back in town?!" a burly voice sounded off in his ear, a light tone to it. Cody stopped struggling.

"Lucas, I can't breathe." he gasped. The grip loosened quickly and the older man let go. Lucas Beale was a tall man, a few years older than Cody. When Cody was 15, he was in the same grade as his 17 year old friend. The two had been friends for years. They knew everything about each other.

"So why didn't you tell me you were coming back?" Lucas asked, closing the front door behind him and following Cody into the dining room to the right. Cody dug his hands in his pockets and glanced around the now lit up room. He had replaced all the light bulbs in the faux chandelier above the spacious table and it now filled the room with a warm glow.

"My plane just landed today. I didn't tell anyone I was coming. Figured I would just get the house cleaned up and then sell it and be done with it. I wasn't planning on staying long. A few weeks maybe." he tried to explain.

Lucas crossed his arms over his chest after pushing his jet black hair out of his eyes.

"We've been friends for years then you disappear off the map. Everyone thought you were dead dude. They still do. Anyone sees you around town, you're gonna scare the crap outta them." he mentioned.

Cody could feel the tension coming off his friend. While they had been in the house plenty of times, the feeling of home and warmth had been replaced by fear and uncertainty. It was felt by everyone who had ever set foot in the place. Cody understood.

"I doubt anyone would remember me after eight years Luke. Even the people at Ilana's didn't." he informed his friend, pulling himself up to sit on the edge of the table, allowing his legs to kick back and forth.

Lucas let out a big whooping laugh.

"Everyone at Ilana's these days is a new school kid who just wants to earn a buck to party instead of attending their classes." he dismissed. Cody rolled his eyes and glanced around the room. His mother's old china set sat in the unused glass cabinet, dust and a few cobwebs taking residence. It had never been used, his mother preferring the old dishes just be decoration.

"As I recall, all you could ever talk about was the dorm parties you heard about when we were younger. I figured you would get your diploma in law breaking and laziness." he smarted.

"Oh ha ha." Lucas smirked. His expression then became sober.

"Have you been upstairs?" he asked in a quiet yet interested voice. Ice flowed through Cody's blood. His legs stopped swinging and dangled limply in front of him. He couldn't get any words to form in his mouth. His vocabulary became like a ball of soggy dough, caught in the middle of his throat. Instead, he just shook his head. Lucas though was determined.

"C'mon then. No time like the present. Let's go." he said, grabbing Cody by the wrist and tugging him up. Cody viciously yanked his arm out of his friend's grasp.

"Don't touch me again. You don't decide when it's time for me to go upstairs." he hissed. Lucas' face darkened.

"You talk of wanting to get this house done and over with. Well you are going to have to go upstairs some time." he said. He was speaking in reason and yet Cody felt like he was patronizing him.

"Fine. If you won't go up, I'll just have to dare you to." Lucas said. He smiled as if he had just won an argument and raised an eyebrow at Cody.

"Do you know how childish you sound?" Cody breathed with an annoyed sigh.

"I double dare you to. Unless you're chicken."

Cody was really getting annoyed.

"Stop it Luke. You aren't being funny." he growled, clenching his fists.

Lucas cocked his head to the side.

"Chicken. Bok bok bok!" he said, smiling.

"FINE! Just to shut you up, I'll...I'll do it." Cody gave in, his voice wavering. He really wanted to wipe the triumphant smirk off his friend's face. He pushed passed Lucas and headed back to the entry way. He slowed down as he came to the base of the stairs. The banister was dusty with no signs of use in years. Obviously no one had wanted to come into the house after everything with the police. It was to be expected.

He and Lucas kicked and pushed the various items away from the base and stood side by side, just looking up at the landing.

"You first." Cody said. Lucas' head snapped to face him.

"Are you kidding? It's your house." he said. Cody didn't look at him.

"It hasn't been my house in eight years my friend." he said, almost as if his mind was somewhere else. Hesitantly, he reached out and gripped the banister. He pulled his hand back as if burnt. But taking a deep breath, he grabbed it again, tightening his grip as if to lock his hand in place and keep from letting go and giving up.

He took the steps one at a time and very slowly. Each step felt as if he had climbed Mt. Everest or ran a long marathon. His heart pounded quicker and he could feel it wanting to burst out of his chest. He thought about turning and running. But Lucas had been right. He wanted to get it over with and get rid of this chapter in his life. The only way to do that was to go upstairs, empty out the rooms, and then he'd never have to face it again.

It felt like ages by the time he reached the top stair. It was much darker, the only light coming from the fading sun outside. His feet grew roots and planted themselves. He could sense Lucas behind him, not saying or doing anything. He felt the older male's hand pat his shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he continued down the hall. He remembered the first door being the bathroom. Then came the guest room. He passed by both of these without another thought.

The next door was his old bedroom. Grabbing the door knob with an iron grip, he turned it and slowly opened the door. The light still worked when he flicked the switch and an eerie glow filled the room. Everything was as it had been years ago. His bed was still covered with the striped comforter, the pillows askew with indentations from a 15 year old's head. His CD collection was exactly how he had left it, having dug through his CDs the night of the murders and left a few in front of the rack when he went to see what the commotion was in his parent's room.

Dirty clothes still littered the floor. He could see his favorite Rip Curl shirt halfway under his bed, the blue surfboard on it as bright as the day he had bought it. He didn't even want to open the tightly closed closet which was packed with many of his most prized possessions.

Taking a few steps in, he glanced around and ran his hand across the top of the dresser. Dust collected on the ends of his fingers but he paid it no mind. He was lost in the thoughts of a time long ago. Taking a deep breath, he walked back out of the room and leaned on the door frame. Lucas stood at the railing of the stairs, hands dug down deep in his pockets.

"You okay?" he asked hesitantly. Cody nodded. They stared at each other for a few seconds before both heads turned down the hall to the remaining door. It was at the end of the hall, the door half bathed in shadows.

"One door to go kid. C'mon. Let's get it over with." Lucas said quietly.

Shakily approaching the door, Cody observed. He could see the remnants of the police tape on the edges of the door frame. He felt his entire body shake. He didn't want to do this.

"I can't do it Lucas." he whispered. His hands didn't move from his sides. He was frozen. Not a word was spoken between the two of them.

"You know you don't have to." Lucas gave in.

It had already been a big step for the younger man to come up the flight of stairs and go into his own room. But it was pushing his sanity to have him open up the grim horror room. Cody gave his head one final shake and turned and headed back to the stairs. Going down them took less time than going up. He practically ran for the light of the living room. Following at a slower pace was Lucas who clomped down the stairs and followed silently into the other room.

The air was tense.

"I'm sorry I made you go up there man. I shouldn't have been so stupid." Lucas apologized. Cody shook his head quickly.

"You were just doing your job, looking out for me. It's what a good friend should do. I appreciate it. But that room..." he trailed off, not wanting to think any more about it. He closed his eyes tightly and then reopened them, looking to Lucas.

"How about a cup of coffee?" he asked.

H50

An hour later, Cody yawned and shut down his computer which he had open on the dining room table. The emails from his professors were beginning to swim in his vision. Standing up and stretching, he headed into the living room where his sleepwear and makeshift bed of couch, pillow, and blanket resided. It was time for some sleep. Or what ever sleep one could get in a house like that.

Upstairs, the closet door to his former room eased open slightly.

TBC