Body Collector

[scotish_girl13]

i understand what you mean. and there is no such thing as bad review to me. it just lets me know what i need to work on. and that is only the prologue. in the actual chapters there is more scene setting. but i will need to post two things to get the whole first chap on here. if you want to continue to review it i will most definately appreciate it...but if you don't want to know more that is fine. and i thank you for your review.

[scotish_girl13]

Chapter One

"I hate working on these kinds of days. Too hot to do anything right." Detective Mike Ferguson mumbled to himself as he stepped out of the air conditioned car. "And too dusty." He looked at the once blue car now an organish brown. He sighed and walked to Chief Rico Fraley.
"Why did you have ME drive all the way out here? Couldn't you have gotten a detective from Cessnock or Newcastle? They're closer and they're used to this kind of........land."
"We got you because we needed the best detective that New South Wales has. And that detective happened to be you. I am sorry you had to drive all the way out here. But you will have to get over it because this is where you will be until this case is solved and the murderer behind bars."
"You really make me want to stay here Chief. Okay, where is the body?"
"Over here. If you will follow me." Rico walked to the guard rail on the opposite side of the road and pointed down over the other side. "Her name is Linsey Baker. She was last seen leaving work by her co-worker. Her co-worker did say that she saw Linsey talking to a cop in the parking lot. That's all she saw. She said she went to the back room." An officer called Rico aside. "Coming. Stay here and examine the body. I made sure no one touched it in any way. If you need my help I'll be over there." And with that Chief Rico left Mike to his thoughts.
What did this woman do to disserve this kind of death? Moreover, what kind of freak would do it? His thoughts were racing as he looked down at the mutilated body before him. The skin, and fingers was missing from it. She lay in a puddle of dried blood. There was barbed wire around her wrists, and a rope attached to the wire. The other half of the rope as hanging from a tree branch about 6 feet above the ground. So he chose a very unused road so that he could skin her. This man is insane! He groped his way over the railing to the body. When he bent down to get a closer look he saw that there were flies covering it. The detective could feel his stomach churn. He quickly made his way back over the railing.
"Chief? Chief could you come over here for a second?"
"What is it detective? I'm keeping the press at bay and I need to get back to them."
"There are CHUNKS out of her torso!" He almost lost it right then.
"Yes detective, I know that. We had to tranquilize the dingoes just to get to the body."
"Do you happen to still have the dogs? They might have evidence in their stomachs."
"Yes, the dogs are in cages in the back of an animal control truck. Just how do you plan on having the 'evidence' taken out of them?"
"Having their stomachs pumped of course. I'm not an animal hater. When that is done you can continue with whatever it was you were going to have done with them. Take some more pictures, then the body can be taken to the morgue. I will want some help with the autopsy. First thing tomorrow I will be here to examine the surrounding area." And with that, Mike waved Rico away as though he were a servant.
Rico rolled his eyes. These big city detectives, they think they rule the crime scene. I can't wait until he leaves. The chief went about his business with the press and such. "No, we have no suspects yet but hope to by the end of the day. Yes, we are going to be working on this top priority. Nothing is more important than finding this mad man. No you can NOT get a shot of the body."
Mike sighed and looked away, then headed to his car. Why do people do this to each other? Sometimes I wish I were a goldfish. At least they don't kill each other. He made is way trough the crowd of people that had accumulated around the police tape. This is the worst case I have ever been on. That poor girl couldn't have been more than 26 years old. That is way too young to die. And being skinned...that is not an honorable or pleasant way to go. I can't wait to get off this case. He looked at his watch. "Twelve forty five. Time for lunch, but after seeing that I don't think I want to eat."

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

[scotish_girl13]

"Derik? Derik Langley? Hello, I am Officer Morrison, a good friend of Linsey’s. She told me that she was to be meeting you here but wouldn't be able to make it so she sent me."
"Oh okay. Where is she? I went to the store to pick her up, and Terra said that she hadn't come in to work. I came here to see if maybe she would be here."
"She is sick. Staying at a hotel. Hey, I don't like to food here, you want to go to a different place for lunch. I don't know what Linsey wanted to meet you for, but let's just hang out until you need to go back to work."
"Okay that sounds fine. How long have you known Linsey? Long?"
"Yes very long. My whole life almost. We met in grade school, and have been friends ever since. How long have you known Linsey? She told me about you, but failed to mention when you met.”
"Can we get out of this smokey place first? I can hardly breathe. I can talk in the car. Your car or mine?"
"Can we take mine? I have this weird thing that drives me nuts about being in another person’s car." Morrison’s plan was started to come together perfectly.
"Yeah, sure, no problem."
"Thanks. So where to? I don't know where you like to eat. How about steak, I'll pay." They made their way out of the intoxicating smoke.
"Okay, steak it is." When Derik got into the car, Morrison knocked him out with the butt of his gun. He looked at his watch. Just after one-thirty. Plenty of time to do the work before he had to be at the station.
He drove for an hour and finally came to the desolate road that had been selected for Derik’s death.
"Derik wake up. We're here at long last." He had to slap him for consciousness to take over.
"Where have you taken me?"
"I have brought you south west of Sydney because I am tired of you. You have been chosen for one of my perfect murders. Now, please no more questions. I have to get to work to prepare your death.
"But why ME?"
"I said no more questions. And you because Linsey loves you or should I say loved. I meant to tell you earlier. She wasn't there for your little lunch because I killed her last night. I was going to kill you where I killed her, but the police found her body before I thought they would. Now shut up so I can get this done properly."
Officer Morrison tied Derik up to a near by tree, he didn't want to need to go and run after him.
"You know Derik; I am the guy that has been committing all the murders in New South Wales for the last 3 years. I killed my brothers’ wife. I got tired of her, like I got tired of you. Therefore, I just killed her. I was almost caught but they misidentified my fingerprints. I have no problem having someone else going to jail for what I have done. I am just deranged like that. You are the first one I have ever told this too and you won't be alive to tell anyone, pity." He smiled at his own wittiness.
"You know you will get caught sometime. You can't go on and do this forever. Killing everyone that you get tired of. They will get you."
"Oh really? They haven't caught me yet. And they only know of 3 murders out of 13. They won't catch me. I am too good, and they wouldn't think that their most dedicated officer would be a killer. Oh, how I laugh and smile behind their back when they think they have caught the murderer. If only they knew the real murderer was right behind them." Morrison was gloating now. It felt good to be able to tell someone and know that they would never be able to tell anyone.
By this time Morrison had gotten the knives out of the trunk and was sharpening them. "I don't you to be in pain until the time comes, so I am sharpening the blades. But don't worry; the death itself will be VERY painful. I promise. Oh, I love the thought that you will suffer. Only thing is, you won't be suffering like I was. It killed me to know that Lindsey loved you more than me. It killed me! Therefore, you must die. An eye for an eye, right Mr. Langley?"
Derik couldn't do anything but groan. Why had he not stayed in San Francisco like his mother wanted him too? He didn't stay because he loved Linsey and because she didn't want to move to the states, he came here, to Australia.
"No matter what you say or do I will never regret loving Linsey. We were to be wed. Did you know that?"
"No. I guess Linsey didn't talk to me like she once had." Finding out that they were to be wed made him hate Derik all the more. "You know you have made me very anger now. You will suffer a death that is more like torture. It will be very painful, and very long."
“Can I know how she died? How did you kill my Linsey?” Though he tried to sound brave, his voice wavered.
“First of all, she didn’t seem as scared as you. Now don’t you just feel lame? Well, let me see. I first tied her hands nice and tight with barbed wire. It cut into her wrists nicer than anyone else’s I had ever seen. She always did have delicate hands. I then hung her, by her wrists, up to a tree. But the branch I chose was too high for her, it was about 6 feet up. This caused her to dangle. I loved to see the pain in her eyes as the wire cut deep and deeper into her arm. And the blood. I loved the blood! An obsession some say, but I say it is just an interest. Anyway. Taking a dull knife I cut out her tongue. I didn’t want her to scream. Using the same knife I cut off each of her fingers. One, by, one. Nice and slowly so that it caused her lots of pain.” Morrison mimicked the act with his own fingers and the knife he had just finished sharpening. “But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that I skinned her; alive. But I didn’t use a dull knife for this. I had to use a nice and sharp one so that is would all come off in one nice piece. I guess I do feel somewhat sorry for her, but not enough for me to turn my self in or to stop what I do best. After skinning her, I took a red hot squire and slowly poked out each of her eyes. After a while you can really get tired of those eyes. So green it was like you were looking to a sea of green. Beautiful no doubt, but still. I stood there watching her suffer. She had the most will to live I have ever seen. She tried to yell, oh how she tried. The more she tried to louder I laughed. Before I left I made sure to let her down. She was barley alive when she fell to the ground, so she felt the dogs I released, eating her. I don’t think she did anything after that. She couldn’t.” He smiled at the thought of it all. “That was the best of all my murders. I will never forget anything about it. It will forever be in my memory. And when I think of it I will laugh and smile and no one will know why. That will make it all the better. The fact that no one will know.” Morrison tilted his head back and laughed the worst laugh that Derik had ever heard. It was a mix of pleasure, wickedness, anger, and sorrow. Somehow Morrison was been able to portray all of those emotions with one laugh.
“Why take so much time in killing someone? Why does it matter?”
“Why does it matter?! It matters greatly! If you do it too fast and too direct they will think that was just a pleasure killing. But if you take your time and make it really bad, really gory then they will know that they have a mad man on their hands. And when people think that they have a mad man on their hands they start to freak out. And to us mad men that is when it is the best time to get someone. It tells the cops that the mad man isn’t afraid to kill more than once is a singe month. That really gets them to freak. But then us mad men need to stop for a while. Let them get someone put in jail. Make them think they are safe. Then is it time to kill again. It is a kind of mind control thing, you see. That is why you take so much time in killing someone. It makes people act different and stuff. It makes it more fun than just going around randomly shooting someone. That my friend is why I take so much time and care in killing my victims. I make more of a sport out of it than anything. I am the hunter and the people around me are my deer, my bear, my rabbit. My prey. I do it for fun. I love it. And have ever since I was little. You know the first thing I ever killed was my garble. It just wouldn’t sleep at night. It only ever jogged in it’s stupid wheel. It had begun to bug me. So, late one night, I took my moms butcher knife and pop, off with it’s head. It felt, I don’t know, cool. I liked the way it made me feel. Being able to decide who lived and who died. I continued with little things. Pigs, rabbits, hamsters, mice. Then I got into bigger game. Horses would be fine one day, then suddenly the next morning they would be found dead in the field. Same with other live stock. But the first person I killed was my cousin. He…I honestly don’t remember what he did to make me kill him. But he had to have done something, or else why would I have killed him? And once I killed little Jason I just couldn’t go back to killing animals. It just didn’t have the same feel. The rush of maybe getting caught wasn’t as big with animals as it was with humans. The rush was great! But I know I will never get caught. They will never know.” Morrison seemed to get more and more excited with every word of his past.
“You are deranged! What happened to you when you were younger to make you like this?”
“Nothing. I had one of the best families I have ever known.”
Derik’s eyes got big. “What do you mean had?”

[scotish_girl13]

“Just what I said. Had. Sadly they were killed in an unfortunate accident. They were going down the hill and the car brakes failed. Not the best of my works but it had to do. They were about to turn me in. They knew it was me that killed Jason all those years ago. I just couldn’t take the chance that I would be in jail the rest of my life. Because had I been caught they would have figured out that it was I that had killed all of those people. I don’t think that they ever fingered out that I know every single one of them. That is the only thing they all have in common. They all knew me. All, that is but, you. But I will make sure to do this just the same way I did my sister-in-law. They will think that the mad man is back.”
“How did you kill your sister-in-law?”
“You think I don’t know what you are doing. I know that you just trying to delay the murder. You want to keep me busy so that I don’t know that you trying to wriggle your way out of that knot. Let me save you the trouble. That knot can not be wriggled out of. I learned how to tie it while I attended the police academy. But I like being able to tell you all of this. It lets me get some stuff off my chest. I don’t want to get caught but I do want so much to tell the world of how I do it all. And how I never get caught. Now, please, be quiet. I don’t want to have to knock you out again. I want you to see all the different things I will be using.” He set the knife on the ground. It was a big chefs knife. “I like to use a chef’s knife to cut off limbs. It works nicely to get through the bones. But for things like skinning I prefer to use a doctors scalpel. It makes a clean cut.” Morrison just stopped talking and went back to his work.

[Polwarth]

Sorry, I don't think it is a story or style of writing that would keep my interest.

BTW -Burke and Hare were 'Body Snatchers' in Edinburgh. They dug up recently interred bodies and sold them to surgeons.

[Celyn]

Originally Posted by Polwarth

...

BTW -Burke and Hare were 'Body Snatchers' in Edinburgh. They dug up recently interred bodies and sold them to surgeons.

Only until it occurred to them that murdering people would provide them with corpses without the bother and trouble of digging them up. Yep, one of our most famous/notorious examples of serial killers.

[Polwarth]

Awwww, Celyn.... I was keeping that bit for chapter 2!