10-16 in progress East 17th Street, any unit can deal?
Unit 12 responding...
The police radio chattered in the background as the two officers walked towards the warehouse. They were on a mission to prove that the Commander was right when she said the informant was a delusional but, as Susan had insisted that they check out her claims, they approached with the usual detached professionalism that marked the LCPD.
All seemed quiet but the side-door had been forced, fairly recently too, and this was enough to make them draw their weapons as they entered the darkness.
"Police Officers, is anyone in there?"
Only the echo replied to question. Their eyes became accustomed to the gloom and revealed the grisly secrets of the interior, two corpses, which had been brutally mutilated. Most importantly for their mission one of them had indeed been burned and then had strips of flesh removed.
"Jesus Jerry... "
"I know... call it in Lou, I am going to look around a bit more"
"Unit 50 to control, I have an urgent message for the Commander. Tell her that woman is right and then get scenes-of-crime down here. We're gonna need some extra hands as well or the media will be all over this place in an hour"
"Roger Unit 50, additional units and SOC will be dispatched. Your message will be relayed to Commander Williams"
Mary Williams returned to her office with a stunned look on her face, so Susan knew that the officers had managed to match her description to the warehouse when Sam had killed Gary. A quiet sense of relief washed over her as she began to believe she may get some police help now.
"They found the bodies, just as you said they would Mrs Summers. I am sorry to have doubted you but your story is, to be blunt, incredible."
"I know and I don't expect you to believe it all right now. I've lived through all the events I have described and even I am having trouble in believing how completely he violated me."
"I'm a believer in physic-powers, Mrs Summers, to an extent at any rate. I've controversially used a physic myself on a few cases in the past, with mixed but overall positive results. Perhaps you had a physic premonition and have confused it with reality... "
The Commander was interrupted by a knock on her door.
"Come in"
A detective entered holding a folder, which he promptly spread on the captain's desk
"Sorry to interrupt but central records have completed their check against the description provided by Mrs Summers. Without physical evidence to cross-check they cannot be certain but they are pretty sure they have a match out of New York"
Another mental blow hit Mary as she realised that a simple premonition could not have provided the description.
"Go on John, what have you got for me?"
"Samuel Rose, born and bred in NYC and a juvenile delinquent since he was 9. Petty offences, mainly violent, until he was 17 and then he disappears from the arrest record for 5 years"
"He reformed?"
"Nope, just looks like he stopped getting arrested because he came back with a vengeance. Multiple warrants were issued against him last year after an investigation into a serial-rapist and murder that had plagued Central Park. Each crime left a very traumatised victim, or so the reports indicate because they all said that the man never approached them despite raping them... "
His voice trailed off as everyone made the mental connection.
"... And no physical evidence was present either on any of the victims or at the scene. For months they were passed off as attention-seekers until a Lieutenant Paul Walker began to investigate them in his spare time, intrigued by the similarities of the accounts, and managed to locate an eye-witness to one of the crimes. The witness saw a man concealed in bushes next to the victim, apparently having sexual intercourse with the grass whilst the woman screamed as if she was being raped.
Walker convinced his captain to put out an APB, based on the witness description, to try to find the man and eliminate him. We skip forward a week to when a patrol car reports that it is approaching a car containing a man who fits the description, then radios it is under automatic gunfire from the man and is fleeing for safety. The car details lead the NYPD to send a SWAT team to the address of the registered keeper and that's the last anyone hears of him or them.
Follow-up units find the apartment riddled with shots and witnesses who report that the SWAT unit entered as normal. They also find the men dead inside, killed by what forensics proves are their own weapons, and no trace of Rose. He's still on their 20 most wanted list"
Susan had listened in morbid disbelief as the record was read whilst Mary, her mind always agile, had planned her response carefully.
"Ok. There is a lot about this case that is way off the scale of normality but that does not mean we need to be reactive. John, if Sam Rose is in Lexington it means he's crossed state-lines and that opens it to the Feds. Contact Agent Massy and tell him we want federal protection for Mrs Summers but, and empathise this, she must stay within the city in order to be available for further questioning. Also tell him that this is a LCPD matter until we say otherwise, he's a good man and he'll not press us unless he feels we are out of our depth.
I want an APB out for Sam Rose and I want the media bringing in to help on this one. They'll dig but for the moment we will brand him as a dangerous fugitive that we need to remove from the streets. Get someone to find Lieutenant Walker at the NYPD and have him brief them on any further developments and, if possible, get his local commander to authorise him to come here and liase with our investigation.
Mrs Summers, if you are willing I want you to stay here until the Feds can arrange transport for you to a safe house. We will need you again once Rose is in custody but until then you must remain our of sight"
