Slender Man

This story is part of an ongoing series.

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and

constructive

criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 21 - So Close, So Far Away

I grabbed my radio. "Goodwright! Get a defibrillator over here, stat!" I said on it. It seemed like an eternity but was just 30 seconds later that Goodwright was running up with the device, which most of our Police cruisers had in their trunks.

"Oh my God." Cindy was gasping as her friend lay prostrate on the ground. I could see she needed to be distracted.

"Stay with the girl." I told her. "We've got this." And we did. Lieutenant Irwin was well trained in first aid, as was I. We ripped off Teresa's outer layer of armor and tore open her shirt.

"Second layer of armor." I said. I reached underneath Teresa and ripped open its velcro attachments on the back sides. Irwin had the defibrillator ready to go.

"Clear!" he ordered. We moved back. Irwin applied the shock and Teresa's body jolted violently. He bent down and listened for a heartbeat.

"I've got a heartbeat." he said. He put his hand under Teresa's neck to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but she gasped and sucked in air, then began breathing again.

"Let's get her to the Hospital." Irwin said.

"No, call an ambulance." I said. "She's burned. Badly." Indeed, under the light of flashlights, we could see the red of her forearms and also her abdomen...

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

The ambulance arrived quickly, as did a large number of TCPD patrol cruisers and the Chief in his SUV (yes, he has one, but it's not as cool as mine). They put Teresa on the gurney and into the ambulance, then put the child in next to Teresa. I told Lt. Irwin to take Captain Ross to the Hospital. I knew she'd be no good to me while Teresa was in danger.

The area was surrounded, and Police Officers were going through the copse of trees in an organized line, very bright lights illuminating their way. Others were scrambling around the grounds and around the house like a bed of disturbed fire ants.

To no avail. Slender Man got away. He had defeated me, this round.

A three-hour search in an ever-widening circle yielded no one. I did get a call in on the radio from Detective McGhillie. "We have some tire tracks about 100 yards past the Point Hollow property line, right next to the River."

The River was not much more than a deep creek at that point; underground springs fed it as it meandered towards Town, including a spring near the Fire Department Range, which made it larger as it went through Town.

I sent a Crime Lab team to get the impressions and photos of the tire tracks. Then I said to the Chief: "I'll bet the bastard had some kind of breathing mask, and he just swam down the River to the car. I should've thought of that."

"I think your idea is right." said Chief Moynahan. "But you didn't have enough people to catch him, and you did the right thing taking care of Captain Croyle. Oh, and you can go to the Hospital any time you like. We'll handle things here, Mr. Crowbar."

But it would be two more hours before I left. I did get one report from J.R. Barnes. "He threw smoke, Commander." he said as he exhibited a burned out canister. "Either dark purple or black. That's why it looked like he disappeared."

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

"The girl is going to be okay." said Cindy. "Parents are in the nearest waiting room."

"Any word on Teresa?" I asked.

"She's breathing okay, her heartbeat's fine now." said Cindy. "Dr. Morgan said the burns suggested a high-amperage shock. Voltage alone isn't deadly; it's amperage that can kill you. He said Teresa got a bad enough shock to mess up her heartbeat, and the defibrillator restored it. He of course used fancy medical terms that I never learned while at University."

"And the burns?"

"The ones on her abdomen are second degree burns." Cindy said. "They'll heal up but she's going to be in some pain for a few days. Her arm burns may have come from trying to grab the perp's hands when he stuck the contacts against her sides."

"Okay, then." I said. "How are

you

doing?"

"I'm in shock, pun not intended." Cindy said. Then she raised her right hand with five fingers stretched out. "That's five." she said.

"Purple Orders." I said, understanding. "Yes." We both knew that while Teresa had earned a Purple Order for these wounds, the Board of Inquiry was going to have a heart attack (pun not intended) over her fifth such award. All jokes about desk duty aside, this could really get Teresa grounded.

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

"The girl is okay." said Dr. Morgan some minutes later when he came to see us in the waiting room. "She was injected with sedatives like the other kids were."

"We're putting a guard on her." I said. "She knows who picked her up from school, which is likely who our perp is. We'll need to interview her just as soon as she opens her eyes." Dr. Morgan nodded.

At 5:30am, Wednesday, March 15th, Teresa woke up and Cindy and I spoke to her. I said I was going to go back to the Station. Cindy stayed with Teresa, of course.

Part 22 - Slender In Puzzle Pieces

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" yelled the redheaded MILF from in front of University Hospital at 7:00am, Wednesday, March 15th. The Ides of March. And the anniversary of the day I'd had to shoot and kill someone who was trying to assassinate me.

"Channel Two News has learned that Police Captain Teresa Croyle was seriously injured in an attempt to capture the Slender Man kidnapper last night!" said Bettina. "Little Rachel Kelly, who was kidnapped by this mysterious criminal, was recovered and is safe at University Hospital. Police intercepted the kidnapper at the Point Hollow property in the northwest corner of the County. The kidnapper had the little girl he'd abducted with him, and she had no injuries when she was recovered. However, the perp had some sort of shock device, and Captain Croyle was nearly electrocuted when she attempted to apprehend the criminal at the scene. She suffered second degree burns, but is expected to fully recover."

"This is the third kidnapping by the perpetrator known as 'Slender Man'." Bettina said. "Police have no answer for why the first two children were left alone, and experts tell Channel Two News that it is likely this third kidnap victim was going to be left at Point Hollow... where a Slender Man sighting occurred just hours before."

I said "I would like to have a sighting of these so-called 'experts' Bettina and the Press keep referring to. I think these 'experts' are more mythical than Slender Man himself."

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

Chief Moynahan's formal Wednesday morning meeting began in the Main Conference Room. Of course Teresa and Cindy were not here. But Sheriff Allgood was, as were Jack Muscone and Martin Nash of the FBI.

"Where is Captain Ross?" he asked pointedly as everyone took their seats.

"Getting Captain Croyle's statement, Sheriff." I replied. "And she handling the scene at the Hospital. We need to talk to the little girl just as soon as she wakes up."

"Someone else can't take Captain Croyle's statement?" asked Allgood, who was beginning to irritate me.

"I have a general rule," I said, "that statements of Officers are taken by equivalent or higher ranking Officers unless it is just not physically possible. So if Captain Ross were not taking Captain Croyle's statement, it would be me personally doing so."

"Sheriff," asked the Chief, "is there a particular reason Captain Ross needs to be here? I excused her myself."

"Let's continue with the meeting, then." said Sheriff Allgood.

"The floor is yours, Sheriff." said the Chief.

"Thank you." said Allgood. "Everyone, I know you're working hard as hell on this Slender Man business, and you came really close to getting him last night. Having said that, 'close' is not close enough, right now. I can deal with two Council Members bothering me at all hours of the night, but when literally all ten are calling me, and often calling me several times, it's obviously something that they are hearing about from their constituents. I know, I know, you're not politicians and you're doing your jobs. But just be aware of the mood of the People... they're worried, scared even, and they need to know the Police Force is getting results."

"Officers are getting hurt trying to solve this case, Sheriff." said Della Harlow, underscoring how we really felt about the Sheriff's, and the Council's, political worries. Sheriff Allgood glared at her for a second.

"And that's another thing." said the Sheriff. "I'm already taking flak for what will be Captain Croyle's

fifth

Purple Order. I know she's brave and she was trying to save that little girl, but the question has already been asked why a Captain is out there where she could be injured like that in the first place."

Now I was mad. "Are you suggesting, Sheriff," I said loudly, "that Captains should sit in Headquarters while other Officers are out there putting their lives on the line? Are you suggesting Captain Croyle should push a string from behind and let others risk being electrocuted to save a little girl's life? Sheriff, are you suggesting that it would have been better if a Patrol Officer had been wounded instead of a Captain?"

Allgood was angry now. "Of course I'm not suggesting that, Commander, and I resent the implication. What I

am

saying is that the Board of Inquiry for this incident

will

be asking these same questions, and of you directly, Commander."

"Sheriff," said the Chief, "why don't we move forward with this mee-ting, so that our friends from the FBI don't get too bored. Agent Muscone, what do you have for us?"

"I'm here mostly to keep other FBI Agents from being here and agitating some of you." said Muscone. "I'm also here to offer the FBI's assistance in any way we can be of help to you."

"We should take the FBI up on that offer." said Sheriff Allgood, looking straight at me.

"Oh, without a doubt." I said. "Especially when Slender Man tries to cross State Lines with his victim on his next attempt."

Chief Moynahan closed the meeting fairly quickly after that.

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

Cindy arrived back from the Hospital, and she, Muscone, and Nash came into my office with me. As we sat down, she said "I'm sorry to say that Rachel woke up and has no memory of the day before. She barely remembers being taken to school, remembers nothing about the day, does not remember being picked up from school. Dr. Fredricson has ordered blood tests to see if any drugs that would affect Rachel's memory were injected into her."

"He's a sophisticated S.O.B. if he has stuff like that." said Jack Muscone.

"Dick Ferrell has stuff like that, and worse." I reminded Muscone, who misunderstood.

"Are... are you saying Ferrell is Slender Man?" he asked, his voice full of shock.

"Oh hell no. Slender Man is showing more brains than Ferrell ever hoped to possess." I said.

Then Jack peered at me and said "Don, that comment about Slender Man's next attempt... you didn't just say that idly, did you?"

"

Touché

. I am happy to see that 400 years of training have not been lost upon you, Jack." I said with a grin. Then I got serious: "You're right, I did not say that idly. Cindy and I worked it out at the Hospital last night. We think something... 'different'... will happen on the next attempt."

"And what's that?" asked Jack.

"Three times Slender Man has abducted children, but they've been found soon after. There will be a fourth and last time... and if we do not act to stop him, that child will not be found again."

"So why don't you arrest the bozo now?"

"We don't have any evidence that gives us probable cause for an arrest warrant just yet." I said. "I'm seeing the pattern on the chessboard, but we have to wait for the perpetrator to make his next move, and then catch him in the act of doing it."

"So why can't we just go get a warrant to examine his tires?" asked Martin Nash. "You guys got some tire impressions at Point Hollow, didn't you?"

"Sure, but what are we going to base the warrant upon?" I asked. "Hearsay? Innuendo? Coincidence?"

"Building blocks of circumstantial evidence?" asked Cindy. "Paulina has done that before. Layer upon layer of things, and that was for full trials. This is just to get a warrant; we don't have to meet the same standard."

"But if the tire impressions don't match," I said, "we've got less than nothing if we had to go to trial. And once we lose the element of surprise with this guy, there's no chance of putting him away."

"Why not?" asked Nash. "Because he won't do anything? Isn't that good, in reality?"

"Maybe." I said. "But what he'll do is make himself disappear, and then we'll never know when he's going to come back and strike to achieve his goal."

"Which is?" asked Muscone.

"Taking custody---- well, that's the wrong word." I said. "He wants to take possession of his child. Like I said in the meeting... he picked 'em up and put 'em down, i.e. kidnapped the kids and left them behind, three times. Setting up a pattern. But on the fourth attempt, he'll disappear with the child, and he hopes forever. I believe he hopes we'll be waiting for him to dump the next child in a field somewhere while he's getting as far away from the County and this State as he can before we realize it's different this time."

"Except the Iron Crowbar has figured him out before he's even tried his last attempt." Cindy said.

I said "I believe he's already worked out a whole new life for himself and his child somewhere else, and will disappear to that. And the bad thing is... he can disappear to that life anyway, then sneak back and take the child later, when we don't expect it at all. We can't watch for him forever, and the mom may not agree to go into Witness Protection."

"So what do we do now?" asked Cindy.

"This is where I get a little bit stuck." I said. "I am certainly not going to put a child in danger. But if we take the mother and child into some kind of protection, then he'll know we're onto him and he'll disappear. If he's gone to the Teacher, and I won't be surprised if he has, then he'll know every Police Officer that we could send to watch over the mother and child."

"What about Eddy and Callie?" asked Cindy.

"They became known after we busted Jaime Silver." I said. "The Teacher knew who Eddy was already, anyway."

It was then that I saw Cindy smile. An enigmatic smile born of a thought coming into her mind under that platinum blonde hair of hers. And I knew what she was thinking.

"Okay," I said, "Jack, Martin, is there anything else? If not, I'll call you later today when I've decided what we can do about all this."

"We'll be at the Federal Building." said Jack, taking the hint well. "We're following up on leads about Ferrell. Maybe we'll find him by the time you capture Slender Man..."

"Won't hurt my feelings if you do." I said. "You have dibs on him."

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

"No." I said, my eyes boring into Cindy's once we were alone. My bug-killer was on.

"Why not?" Cindy asked. "To this day no one but you and me have ever figured out who she is."

"The Widow Athena Jones is a figment of your overly fertile imagination, Captain." I said. "And she shall remain so."

Cindy just looked at me, knowing that I knew that she was right.

Part 22 - Slender in Golf

He watched the street from his perch in the empty house, looking for Police, for Detectives, for private investigators. The young black man with him, trained by the Teacher, was also watching.

They saw the two old ladies coming up the street, knocking on doors. Most times there was no answer, and a couple of times someone came to the door and they asked "Do you know the Lord?" as they attempted to hand off their Christian materials.

The young black man said the women were not known to him. He did not recognize Mrs. Williams of the Veasley Community Center, nor the older woman with the old shawl over her head.

Arriving at the house in question, they knocked and the door was opened unto them. Anyone watching would not have seen the note on the paper handed to the woman at the door along with the Christian materials, confirming what she'd been told on the telephone.

Once inside, the Widow Athena Jones began searching for bugs. She found two...

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

As the sun set on the Town to conclude this Wednesday, March 15th, I could feel the unease. I had authorized overtime for Day Shift officers to augment the patrols of the Evening Shift officers in the evening hours. But the call came from an unexpected place.

"Crowbar!" yelled Chief Griswold into the phone. "Get your ass to Mountain Valley Golf Course! I'm looking at that faceless bastard right now!"

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

Not just the Chief Emeritus, but Detective Roy McGhillie, whose father owned the Golf Course, Sergeant Rudistan and Sr. Patrolman Morton were at the golf course, and had seen Slender Man.

"He was in the woodline on the far side." said Rudistan. The golf course ran north and south, with houses on the east side and the mountain finger on the west side. The Cabin was one of the homes on the other side of that mountain finger. The woodline was the beginning of the forest that covered the east side of the mountain, which rose steeply from the valley floor.

"I got footage of him." said Rudistan.

"I got some, too, with my iPhone." said Chief Griswold. "I gotta say, Crowbar... I've seen a lot of things in my life and career, but seeing that figure standing there, hands against his side, and what looked like tree branches coming out his back... that was damn spooky."

"At least he wasn't looking into one of your house windows, Chief." I said. "So what happened?"

"He disappeared." said McGhillie, and Morton and Rudistan nodded as McGhillie continued: "He was there, then it was just black. It was getting dark, and that side of the course is very dark against the mountainside."

"All right." I said as I looked at the video, feeling chills running up and down my own spine. "Get some people over here and sweep the area. Look for smoke canisters or smoke-blowing firecrackers; that's probably what he used to make himself disappear."

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

"Okay," said Chief Moynahan when we got back to Headquarters, "so it's Mountain Valley Golf Course. I'll have the Precinct Captains send people to watch the place, and patrol the Nextdoor County Highway."

"Don't bother, Chief." I said. "We need to guard the State Line to the north and especially to the west. All bridges over the River, extra patrols up to Point Hollow."

"You think he's going to break with his pattern?" the Chief asked.

"Yes." I said. "I think this is the one."

Part 22 - Slender v. Crowbar

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redhead from the front gate of the Mountain Valley Golf Course at 7:00am, Thursday, March 16th. "The serial kidnapper known as 'Slender Man' has been sighted again!"

Video of Slender Man at the golf course was shown. Bettina continued "Police are not commenting on the possibility that missing children are left at places where Slender Man is seen beforehand, but they did confirm that they will be increasing patrols along Reservoir Road and in the eastern part of the County. In his first formal statement since the sightings and kidnappings began, Commander Donald Troy said that Slender Man had also been seen near the Cemetery, which would be getting extra attention as well."