CHAPTER XXIV: JUST ANOTHER HO-HUM DAY AT THE MORGUE

We got home about ten minutes to Midnight and since we were all tired headed to bed...JUST AS THE PHONE RANG.

"Well, that didn't take long," Rob mused.
NOBODY LAUGHED.

Indeed. I for one was not amused and threatened to throw the phone out the window and said so, while the twins said they would get a bucket of water and we could drown the fucker...and Robbie, being the ever practical sort, answered it.

I made motions of choking him to death, while Dylan said he would go get the shovel for the burial, and...we listened.

"Ok, got it. See you soon," and he hung up.

"What, as if I want to know?" I said.
"Gotta go back downtown honey. You guys go to bed," he said to me and then the twins.
"Not on your life," Dylan piped up.
"C'mon it is late." Rob tried common sense.
"Yep, which is why you old folks should go to bed and we will go."

Needless to say, the four of us promptly gathered our wits and headed to the garage.

"Fuck I hate phones," I mused.
"Me too honey, me too."

I knew he wasn't kidding either.

I drove and we made it back to the precinct in short order. GOD I love the addition of flashing lights on the Range Rover. Damn near makes me giddy to drive that sucker with lights flashing and a siren too. WHOO HOO...and no at this time of night the siren wasn't necessary but the mood I was in I was sorely tempted, trust me.

We tore into the duty room and over to Ryan.
"Ok, what gives?" Rob asked him.
"Another body another show," he grinned back.

"FUCK," we all said as a chorus of disgruntled patrons would given the same circumstances.
"Where?" I asked.
"Behind the liquor store over on Fifth Street."
Liquor store on Fifth. Love the irony. Sounds like a blues song.

"Doug and a beat cop are there. Forensics will be there shortly," Ryan told us.
"Let's ride," Drew groused...and we damn near laughed...but not quite.

It was not a pretty scene but then none of this guy's victims crime scenes have been. The habit he has of mutilating and decapitating and castrating his victims sorta messes up the ambiance to say the least. 

Rob immediately went and found Doug Barton while I went to talk to some of the assembled and the twins went scrounging for whatever they could find. That had become our normal M.O. and so far it had worked. We hoped it would again.

I found the guy who had discovered the body standing in the alley leaning against the building and he was pretty much a weepy mess. Can't blame him. Barely 21 and a first time customer at the liquor store. He had parked out back in the alley and entered through the back door which is a fairly common practice for this store's customers.It is a wide alley with an indented parking area straight across from the store's rear entrance.

Coming back out was when he noticed the body lying behind the dumpster. I could see where he had barfed...still fairly fresh. I felt sorry for this kid. This was something one never will forget.

"Hi," and he just stood there, trying to smile and failing.
"Can we talk?" I asked him. If he had said no I would have understood. He looked completely done in.
He stood for a minute and then nodded. 
"What's your name?
"Howie. Howie Edwards."
"Hello Howie. Nice to meet you," and I got out of him how he had walked out of the store, glanced over at the space behind the dumpster getting a really good look at the bloody remains of the victim, barfed, and then ran back into the store telling the clerk to call the cops which he did.

Drew walked up as we were talking and greeted Howie by name. Never ceases to amaze me how the twins seem to know everyone in town, everything about everyone in town, and yet...they don't make a dime off of any of it.

"You know Howie?" I asked him after we walked away.
"You might say that, yes," and the look on his face told me he more than knew him...but, well...

'Nice kid."
'Damn nice. Yeh."
"Good looking too."
"Yeh, that boy is drop dead fine, really..." 
and...boy I wanted to ask how he knew and how nice and just how fine is fine and..in what way and...growl. But I had already decided I wouldn't pry and tempting as it was...

"Rob walked up and told us it would be awhile  He was helping question the duly assembled...and I said ok, and Dylan asked if he wanted help and he said no which meant I had babysitting duty. Haha.

I went inside to the now closed store and asked the clerk on duty a couple questions but then it was time for me to alert the station that we had another body on our hands and yes I had lost count and yes I would do a segment for the morning news with what I knew which wasn't much.

We didn't start for home until after 4am, and we had been tired before which was now total exhaustion. Rob filled the rest of us in on the way home, while he drove. I was pooped.

"The victim was a Brantford Worthington Casper." 
"Casper? Like in ghost Casper?" Drew asked which reduced his twin brother to giggles and snorts. Rob and I sat waiting for the meltdown to subside.
"Uh, yes. NOW," Rob tried to continue while stifling a giggle of his own.
"Brantford Worthington?" Dylan the younger asked and this time it was Drew who erupted into giggles and snorts. I do sometimes wonder if it is possible for planned parenthood to be retroactive. I suppose not.
"Uh, Yes," Rob tried to continue.
"PEE YOU," Dylan volunteered and Drew seconded that.
"Will you two PLEASE...HUSH?"
"Yes SUH," this from Dylan and I caught a look of exasperation on my Robbie's face and I damn near giggled too. Not the time I thought, so didn't.

"OK, YES, Brantford Worthington Casper. Not it seems from here but from Grand Rapids and originally from Holland. The stats are...he is/was barely 21. AS OF TODAY." 

We all groaned. Murdered on his 21st birthday. Geez, how gross."

He is/was 6'4", 180#, A student at Grand Valley State University as a junior, and we do not know why he happened to be at the liquor store alone tonight. He is survived by a mother and father, 8  brothers 2 older and the rest all younger, and assorted grandparents etc. He was an honor roll student in high school and also now at college. Athletic, he was a key basketball player at Ottawa Hills High School in Holland, He also played softball and tennis and was a Varsity swimmer and captain of the swim team. He spoke English, Italian, and Greek...and was headed to a degree in sports medicine. We knew like the others he had been decapitated and castrated and scored with some sort of projectile, what we didn't know yet. The amount of blood was copious and the current condition of the body was disturbing to say the least and like Ryan Ecworth the stab wound was from the back forward. The only two of the victims that were not stabbed from the front.

I asked Drew and Dylan if they had known him and both said no and that was a first for they had known all of the other victims. This broke a pattern for this was also the first victim who had not been a local. Mere coincidence? We had no clue but it was worth noting.
The boys after hearing it had been his birthday seemed to be especially eager to help with the solving of this particular murder and I understood or so I thought. This was getting way too personal and again, it was obvious all these murders of young gay males like now Brantford was hitting the twins hard, and Rob and I too. The truth is it was hitting the local gay community like a knife in the heart, which was actually the murder's favorite M.O. and we had no end of offers to help with the search for the killer. I was beginning to think that maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea but Rob felt it might be too dangerous. Upon mulling that over, I agreed.

All I knew at the moment was...wow. Rob and the other officers had gathered a LOT of information in a relatively short time and that is always a good thing. Hit the ground running and keep at it.
It helps as well that we have a tremendous researcher at the precinct and another at my station, which helps with gathering key demographics and other peripheral information quickly.

But so far, that was all Rob knew and said we would know more after Forensics finished and we nodded and then nodded off. Sorta.
Did stop at my station and I recorded a piece for the morning news and then we headed home.

Wasn't long and we were all tucked in for the night but I for one slept fitfully, and Rob especially so and I held him as tight as I could as he slept and I tried to.  Just before finally heading off to sleepyville, the thought had crossed my mind that maybe by gathering all the close relatives and friends of all of the victims and comparing notes and gathering whatever we could, maybe we could begin to see a thread, a connection between them that would give us a clue if not the name and address of the killer nice as that might be...and see if any of what we would ascertain might lead us closer to the person we were pretty convinced was the perp. I told myself to ask Rob in the morning, and did at breakfast.


CONTINUE TO CHAPTER XV: