Tales From The Psych Ward 07 - Again a Witness
by The Technician
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It's so nice to be insane
No one asks you to explain
Radio by your side, Angie Baby
Angie Baby, you're a special lady
Living in a world of make-believe
Well, maybe...
Well, maybe...
From the song "Angie Baby" written by Alan O'Day and sung by Helen Reddy in 1974
This series of stories is inspired from my own struggle with marginal Borderline Personality Disorder, but none of the persons, incidents, or depictions are real - in everyday reality or in my own personal realities. Each story stands on its own, but uses characters and references from other stories in the series. You might understand this story better if you have read previous stories in this series.
I have posted this in Fantasy, but the over-riding theme of the series is BDSM. I am posting most of the series there..., but then, isn't the "Borderline" between bondage and fantasy rather blurred anyway?
The Technician
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Detective Antonio Mendes sat at his desk reorganizing his notes on the difficult, high-publicity case, that the papers called "The Roadside Rapist." He was trying to word things properly before he put his report into the computerized records system. When the new system first went into place he had learned the hard way that what you wrote in a notebook in your pocket and what you wrote in a report form on-line were not the same thing. None of the higher-ups ever read your personal notebook.
The buzz of the intercom interrupted his thoughts. He hated that damned, antiquated system, but the Twelfth Precinct was not intended to be a show place. It was a "downtown precinct" that dealt mainly with hookers, low-lifes, and thugs who didn't complain about the squalor that was not much different from the tenements in which they lived.
The voice of the desk clerk was barely understandable through the distortion of the ancient speaker, but Mendes had learned to decipher the garbled speech. The desk clerk spoke in her tired, monotone voice, "Two men here to see you. They asked specifically for you. They say that have information on the Roadside Rapist."
Mendes pushed the talk button. "Give them to McCarthy. I'm not the only one on the task force and I'm buried up to my ass in paperwork right now."
A muffled conversation was slightly audible through the intercom speaker and then the desk clerk replied, "I'm supposed to tell you that it's Nutbag and Wayne and if you don't want to listen to them, he has a very interesting story about steel pipes that he is sure the papers would love to hear."
Mendes considered several emphatic and vulgar responses in three different languages, but instead finally just sighed and pressed the talk button. "Send the son of a bitch up here... And make sure he has a proper escort!"
A few moments later Wayne and I were standing in front of Detective Mendes' desk. A very bored looking officer stood next to me. When the officer spoke, his voice clearly reflected the fact that he resented having to escort us up to homicide. We should have just been given a visitor's ID. It was obvious that I wasn't, after all, a dangerous criminal. Wayne, on the other hand did look somewhat dangerous, but he is not a criminal. The officer spit out his words, "Escort completed, SIR. They're all yours, SIR." With that he turned an walked - or more accurately - stomped away.
Mendes motioned me toward the chair in front of his desk. Wayne had already taken a seat in the corner. The detective's anger and distaste as he looked at me was obvious. He folded his hands with the fingers intertwined and leaned slightly across his desk, "OK, Nutbag. Do you actually have special information about this case? Or are you just here to give me more of your insane delusional drivel?"
"My insane delusional drivel gave you the Baseball Rapists, didn't it?"
Mendes didn't answer me, but stared intently at the stack of folders on his desk for several, very long, minutes. Finally he spoke, "OK. I know that there is a lot of shit here that I don't understand..., and somehow you knew things last time. Maybe you know something this time -- maybe you don't. But even if I believe you, I have to convince others that you have some inside track. So.... tell me something I don't know about this case that you couldn't have heard on the news and then maybe I'll listen."
I tried to hold back my excitement and speak slowly and normally. "First off, what you are calling the first victim is actually the fifth victim."
"No way to prove that."
"All of the victims had pulled over to fix a flat tire."
"That was in the paper."
"The flat tire was always the passenger side rear tire."
"You could have figured that out from pictures or other information in the news."
"All of the tires were punctured by being shot with a .22 caliber, long-rifle bullet."