poison in new york, dionne newman [ap literature book list .TXT] 📗

He watched, eyes gleaming with anticipation as she walked through the open apartment door. She was exactly like her Facebook picture; tall, blonde, athletic and young...very young. He breathed in deeply, imagining the smell of her hair and the feel of her chest as it stopped rising with each breath she lost. Standing up he wiped imaginary fuzz off his already immaculate trousers and stepped forward slowly, he knew the room so well, he could have ran around it blindfolded without any difficulty. two steps forward and four steps left as he tried to miss the creaky floorboard, as he stepped out the door he saw her back to him, sitting on the bed playing with her hair....waiting. He walked up slowly behind her withdrawing the cyanide soaked rag from his pocket....and then he pounced. holding the rag tightly against her nose and mouth, making sure there was no way to let oxygen in. it took seconds until her eyes rolled back and her body started convulsing, her face turned pink, the rise and fall of her chest speeding up and slowing down as her lungs started to fail....and then with one breath that wracked her whole body she became still. He waited a few more seconds and then removed the cloth from her face...her eyes were glazed and wide open in terror. He grinned, his heart beating fast, adrenaline rushing through his body. He whooped out loud....until he caught sight of something near her...ugh....she had vomited. He wrinkled his nose and stepped further away in disgust. He looked at his watch, and as if just realizing he had somewhere to be, walked over to the fire escape by the window and casually walked down the spiral, iron stairs removing his leather gloves as he went. This was his third kill of the day.
*******

Laya awoke to the ringing of her cellphone. Groaning as she read the time on her alarm clock…3:30 am… feeling nauseous she thought to herself the only person who’d call at this time would be…quickly glancing at her phone she sighed…yep, it was Robert Danforth, the head detective of the homicide unit, meaning yet again another murder had occurred. Answering the phone she heard his grim, rumbling voice, “detective we need you in, case 1059, young girl found dead in the metro hotel, no obvious sign of what happened.” Laya ended the call and wrote down the address. She got up and dressed into her usual black slacks and tank top at lightning speed, only pausing at the mirror by the front door to tie her hair back and pick up her examination bag. As she stepped out the front door and turned to lock it, she felt an ice cold breeze draft around her, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she shivered. Stepping into her black Mercedes, she turned the heating on and started the engine, all the time thinking about how young this girl was and why she was killed. For the past week young girls were being murdered here, there and everywhere. Some were poisoned, others drowned or stabbed and mutilated. Three murders a day was a lot to handle and as Laya was detective and head coroner she found she didn’t have enough time on her hands, it also didn’t help that this killer was exceptionally immaculate, leaving no trace or clue behind as he left. She came to a stop by an old, grungy hotel, crime tape encircling its perimeter. Squeezing her eyes shut she prayed that tonight the killer slipped up, left behind something, anything no matter how tiny the detail, at least it would give her some clue as to what to do. She got out of her car, ducked under the tape and made her way up to the crime scene.

*******
He stared at her corpse as she was brought out on a stretcher, he was right next to every other curious passerby; silently laughing into himself….no one knew what he had done or what he still intended to do…no one had a clue and probably didn’t think he was capable of this anyway. He gave one last look and stepped away from her, squeezing anti- bacterial sanitizer onto his hands as he walked away.


*******

Laya snapped on her latex gloves as she lifted the girl in the body bag from the weighing scales to the examination table. Unzipping the bag, she gasped as she saw the girls face again, she was beautiful, even now that rigor mortis had appeared, so angelic and innocent… why had she been at some seedy hotel, who was she meeting and was she harmed in any other way, as soon as the thought entered Laya’s head she dismissed it, none of the other girls had been raped or sexually assaulted in any way. She undressed the angelic girl and pressed the scalpel into her skin, slicing from each shoulder in an original Y shape incision bringing the tail of the cut to an end at the pubic bone, placing her scalpel in the basin of water beside her and pulling the flaps of skin over at each side and up at the top over the girls face. Suddenly Laya noticed two things at once, one there was a small strand on the girls neck and two there was a bitter smell that punctured the air, Lena thought of the sanitizer that the apartment wreaked of, but then realized that this smell wasn’t clean or fresh it was sour like bitter almonds. Gasping Laya pulled her breath in, put the strand in a plastic bag, covered the girl and rushed out of the room, whipping out her cellphone to make a very serious call indeed.

*******

He held his breath, the coroner skirt had just found a sample of DNA, he was done for, as soon as they had the results he’d be finished, he wouldn’t be rich or be able to keep his job, he could see the disappointment on their faces already as they were gathered around the table talking about the best course of action. They knew and he knew they knew. Sucking up his breath, he squeezed out some sanitizer, rubbing his hands together roughly and slowly walked out the door of the main office, coming face to face with the squad team, guns pointed in his direction. Someone grabbed his arms and slapped on handcuffs, the cold metal biting his skin as they cinched them tighter. Dave the head of all lieutenants and also his best friend stepped forward, turmoil and grief shining out of his grey eyes, and he said “Detective Robert Danforth, you are under arrest for the murder of a young girl, you are also a suspect of the other twenty girls who were murdered the same way this week alone, we hereby strip you of your title and privileges until further notice, anything you say may be used against you in the court of justice” turning his back Dave started to walk away until Roberts voice stopped him “ I did it Dave all twenty one murders, I was weak, punish me but do not hate me…please” the last word came out as a whisper. He saw the look of disgust on Dave’s face as he was dragged away. No longer head detective of the NY homicide unit, he had become what he had once hated before.

Publication Date: 01-18-2012

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