In the Nick of Time (94 page)

“Nine years, wow. I imagine that’s an interesting job.” Nick issued a light laugh. “All those people, toothaches and route canals. We all have to go to the dentist, right? Always can find a job in the dental field… I bet you’re kept pretty busy.”

“Yes, not much down time.”

“Is it a big place? A lot of patients?” Nick slicked a piece of gum out of its foil wrapper and tossed it into his mouth.

“No, not really. It’s a small but hectic practice. The dentists there are very good, and I’ll miss work tomorrow if I don’t get out of here.” He looked about the place, then focused on the black and white clock hanging on the wall.

…Tick tock…

“No worries, if you aren’t our guy, Chris, I will let you leave. I promise.” He smiled at him. “Thanks for letting me know about the dentists you work for. It just so happens that I’ve got a wisdom tooth that’s been bothering me, and I’m looking for a new dentist, too. I might have to try where you work at, if it’s not too far. Mine retired.” He shrugged. “This tooth, boy.” He shook his head, feigning pain. “It probably needs to be extracted.” He sighed.

“…You should have someone look at it soon.” He lifted his chin and spoke with assurance. “It could get infected, if it’s not already.”

…He wants to feel important, all knowledgeable.

“I agree with you there. It’s just kind of a fear of mine though, you know?” He winced. “First, I got this pain… and that’s a bummer. Then, I have to find a new dentist. I don’t like that.” He shrugged. “I like for things to stay the same… predictable.”

They looked at one another for a moment or two, no words exchanged.

“Some people get a kick out of that, but we, I mean police officers,” he said, pointing to himself, “are afraid of some things, too. Everyone is afraid of something, don’t you think?”

“I’d imagine so.” The man sat a bit straighter in his seat. Nick leaned in closer again, until his knee brushed against the guy’s.

“And I’d imagine a man like you, that’s never been in trouble with the law before, would find this is a little scary, too? Being down here, accused of kidnapping and murder… that’s gotta be frightening.”

Christopher’s blue eyes grew larger as the two men stared at one another for what felt like a long while.

“These are serious charges, right? Multiple charges… Multiple.” He looked down at the floor and shook his head. “One after another, after another, after another…wow.” He sighed, as if the weight of the world sat on his shoulders. “So many, there is no way a person who had done these crimes, if caught, would ever get out of prison, Chris.” Nick cocked his head to the side. “Unless that person actually helped in some way with the investigation… gave the families some peace.” He shrugged. “Then there just may be a way, you know? And, I’m all ears, Chris. I have nothing but time on my hands… Nothing but time.” He grinned at the man and clasped his hands together. “Now, here is where you and I help one another.”

“How?”

“There is something called honesty that I really respect. Honesty gets people more on their side, and honesty is synonymous with order. Everything we do, say and think follows a timeline.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand what you’re implying.”

“What I’m implying, Chris, is that there is a start and an end to everything but sometimes, we don’t see the end coming until it’s far too late… But.” He raised his index finger in the air, paired it with a gentle grin. “When we’re honest, we then take back control over things that appear, well, out of our hands. Chris… you can lead the way. I
want
you to…”

The man frantically shook his head. “No, no, no!” He waved his hand. “I don’t know anything about any girls, none of that!”

“Chris, we’re past that, okay?” Nick widened his smile. “Right now, I need the timeline. Because if you don’t give it to me, then I’ll make up my own… and my own could never be as exact as yours and if I’m not exact, well, that could affect what happens to you later, down the line, in a way that is clearly not in your favor… Do we understand each other now, Chris? Do you see what I’m implying now?” Nick nodded as he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Your DNA is all over those girls… DNA doesn’t lie, Chris. You see, DNA is honest. It’s orderly.

The man didn’t reply, simply put his head down.

“I may not like what you did, but if you’re honest with me, then that means I could possibly understand you better. Don’t play games with me. We’re waaaaay past that game playin’ stage. Don’t take yourself through a lot of changes. Now, you seem like a reasonable person… Once you appear unreasonable, then, I will wash my hands of you.”

“You don’t believe me… I didn’t do this! I swear, I didn’t do this!” The man’s lips trembled as his eyes watered and tears threatened to fall.

“Now, here’s the thing, Chris.” Nick kept an even, cool tone. “You’ve told several lies in this short period of time.” He clasped his hands. “I don’t believe you have a roommate. There is no Ted, and there never was. You haven’t had a roommate in over five years and I think you are quite comfortable in Brownsville despite you being apprehensive about the level of crime that takes place here. And that’s because the benefits of you shopping for your victims in this area outweighed the possible anxieties you may have had. Now, let’s cut right to the chase.” He counted off his fingers. “We’ve got rental car records in your name, Chris.”

The man chewed his lower lip hard and steady until it reddened.

“We’ve got your work records for the past year. That’s a timeline… I know
when
you clocked in, clocked out for lunch, returned, and left for home.”

Nick slicked his tongue over his lower lip, waiting, biding his time.

Tick…Tock…

“Let me explain something to you.” Nick casually scratched the side of his nose. “There are over twenty-two missing girls that have disappeared in the last twelve months from Brownsville, Brooklyn alone. Of those twenty-two missing girls, eighteen were under the age of fourteen. The case, as I’m sure you’ve seen from the news coverage over the past few months, was originally called the Missing Brownsville Thirteen. That number stuck, but rose significantly over time. The girls found in your home are Sophia Emerson…” He placed a photo of the girl down before the man. Chris snapped his head to the side. “LOOK AT
HER
!” Nick yelled.

“Mia Harold.” He started again in a more subdued tone. “Sydney Long, Genesis Quinton, Aaliyah Jordan, Serenity Smith, Taylor Burger, Caroline Fischer, Robyn Jenkins, and the deceased one is Rebecca Jenkins. Now, Chris.” He cleared his throat. “Someone matching your description, driving what seemed to be one of your various rental cars, has been identified as the last person some of these girls were seen with. White guy… thin, tall… dark brown hair… silver car. And here we are, with seven girls who are alive, one dead, and one barely still barely hanging on, not out of the woods yet but out of that number, two are talking, and the rest are beginning to do the same…”

He let the words sit there… marinate… bring down the axe.

“And isn’t it interesting that all of them came up missing around the same area? Now that’s just uncanny, don’t you think?” Nick cocked his head to the side, clicked his tongue against his inner jaw, and smiled ever so slightly.

Chris Allen faded away, swallowed himself whole, withdrew into a shell right before his eyes.

“All of the girls removed from your home, which are part of the investigation as it stands to date, are of African ancestry.
All
of them are thin and have long hair. They are young… quite young, and from a physical stand point, they look a bit, well, like life-sized dolls, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Well, maybe I can jog your memory with a few more facts from the timeline, Chris.”

“I have no timeline! That can’t be true because I’ve never seen them so I don’t know if—”

“You
do
know, Chris.” He pointed in his face. “You know each and every one of their names! You know their height, their weight, and every blemish on their bodies!”

“No no…” the man shook his head vigorously and twisted about in his chair as if needing escape in the worst of ways.

“You have a type.
Most
people do… You’re no different.” Nick grinned. “What are we going to do, Chris? Hmmm?! What… are we… going to do?!”

The man’s face flushed red. He folded his arms up tightly and looked down, becoming paralyzed in that position.

“Now, here’s the fun part.” Nick sorted through some papers that sat before him. “You agreed to give a DNA sample earlier. You provided it to Officer Stein. I told you that your DNA was all over those girls. Would you like me to tell you what we found?”

“…Yes.” He sniffed, as if coming down with something.

“Your hair, your skin cells are all over them! One of them, Serenity, pissed you off this morning, didn’t she?! She’s got a fresh scar and your skin under her little nails! Feisty little thing, huh? Serenity wasn’t too serene, huh?! So I ask
again
, what are we going to do about this, Chris?!” he repeated, pressing, pressing, pressing. The man strained in his seat as if attempting to suppress a horrid outburst. His hands gripped the arms of the chair, his fingernails digging into the wood, threatening to splinter it, drag and claw away at the glossy finish.

“One of the girls has already picked you out of a lineup… already described you from head to toe! What are we going to do, huh?!” Nick rocked back and forth in his seat, smacking his gum. “You like little girls, Chris? You like to touch them, dress them up… abuse them…”

“Stop it!” The man pulled at his hair, shaking his head back and forth.

“Your fingerprints were on the fireplace planks that were used as a makeshift gate to keep them inside. You went through so… much… work, each and every day! It is amazing that you’ve never been late for work, not even one single day! How admirable… but,” Nick said blandly, “things get a little messy. The girls get a bit untidy… like jam on banisters. Oh!” Nick held up one finger. “Your fingerprints were on the golden key to your little secret palace, too! I get it, Chris! I understand you! Can’t you see? You placed the key under the mattress, your little secret! No one was getting close to them without that key! What in the
fuck
are we gonna do?!”

“THEY NEEDED SOMEONE TO TAKE CARE OF THEM! THEY
NEEDED
ME!” the man screamed, tears coming down his face as thick streams of spit sprayed out of his mouth.

Nick threw a glance at the two-way mirror and even though he could not see the officers, he knew those bastards were high-fiving each other almost to death!

He turned back and stared him down, long and hard.

“…You saved them?”

“YES! I took care of them… made them pretty! I cleaned them up… they were
filthy
!” His eyes grew darker as his tone morphed into something sinister. “I fed them…
loved
them! No one wanted them! They’d been thrown away!” The man jabbed his finger into his chest. “I made everything alright! They
love
me! And I love them, too!”

“…You loved them, Chris?” Nick smiled sadly. “You loved one right into the grave…”

“I needed more time, just a little more time! Everything would have been perfect… just a bit more time!”

“No, Chris…” He stood and reached for the handcuffs on the table. They clanked together, swinging apart and back against each other like chimes. Their warped reflections in the metal shined on the steel under the harsh lights. “I’m sorry, Chris. But time waits for no one…and yours is officially up…”

…Three weeks later

The sounds of
Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s ‘Collapse’ played loudly as the summery scent of freshly washed laundry filled the townhouse.

“Ahhhhaha!” Nick laughed, running his hand over the prickly stubble along his jawbone. “I love you, baby… You’re so silly… so beautiful.” The woman swayed in the sunlight that burst through the windows, a sensual shadow as the rays in back of her engulfed her slender, womanly image, blinding him so. Swaying back and forth as she held the cake on a tray, she hypnotized him with her moves.

“Don’t drop it… I want that.” His eyes moistened with mirth.

“You like my little dance?” she spoke in such a sexy, beautiful voice, her naked body mesmerizing him as it moved back and forth in slow motion.

“Come here… let me show you what I think of it.” He hooked his finger and beckoned her over, as if he had curled an invisible lasso around her waist and was tugging, jerking, bringing the little vixen closer and closer to him until she couldn’t escape. When she stood before him, he took the platter from her grasp and swiped his finger across the white frosting on top.

He plopped his sugar-covered finger into his mouth, sucked it off, then went in for seconds. She stared down at him, her brow arched just so. This time, he wrapped his free hand around her waist, making her almost lose her footing. Then, he trailed his hand down, between her thighs, creating a gap. His gaze never left hers. Taking his frosting-covered finger, he rubbed it along her pussy, up and down, then, he palmed her ass and pulled her closer to bury his mouth between her legs and suck, lick, and swallow the sweetness away.