[Posted by Ted H]
This year I've managed to stay on a steady track for 50K...as opposed to the year I won where I maintained a healthy lead throughout. For comparisons sake: after 12 days in 2011, I was 2 full days ahead of the pace...and wrote word #50,000 5 days ahead of schedule...
All I need is a solid couple of days to really get some words out...hopefully I get some good days in before Saturday, where the entire day will be busy with no time for writing.
Current status of my 2013 NaNoWriMo: 20,158 / 50,000 (29,842 to go!)
At this rate, my 50,000th word will come on: November 30th
Join me!
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[Demonic Investigator - First Night]
John slamming his fist onto the car
horn broke James out of his slumber. It was dark out, but street lights
illuminated everything around, including a pedestrian who wasn't in the mood to
wait before running across the street and almost hit John as he was driving by.
"Good morning," James said as he adjusted his seat up and stretched
his arms.
"So...Chicago?" he
said as John nodded. "If you make one joke about how it isn't windy right
now..." he started.
"I'll be good,"
James said with a smile "So where are we going?"
"My apartment. We'll
sleep a few hours and start fresh at the crime scene in the morning."
"Will there be more cops
now or then at this crime scene?"
"It won't matter so long
as you stick close to me at all times."
"If you don't mind, I'd
rather just start now. No use putting this off with a killer running
loose."
John nodded and soon took a
quick turn down an unintended street. James wondered if there was a little cop
light he could put on the hood or a siren to sound as John drove aggressively
through the late night Chicago streets. There was suppose to be a moon out, but
the sky was thick with clouds. Not much longer and John stopped right outside
an alleyway blocked off with police tape, a lone cops guarding the way in.
John flashed his badge as he
climbed out of the car. James climbed out of the other side and took a long
moment to stretch his legs. "What are you guys doing here so late?"
the officer asked as the two approached the alley. "Just looking over some
details," John said "And getting a fresh perspective." The
officer shook his head. "Bradford said no one else should-"
"Bradford can suck my
dick," John protested "We're going in there. I know what I'm
doing."
"I'm really not the
permission asking type," James said as he stepped under some caution tape
"So I'm just gonna take a look anyway." John took one last look at
the officer before following James through. "Who is that guy anyway?"
the officer asked.
Deeper into the alley revealed
the actual crime scene. John switched on a police flood light to illuminate the
area. There was a totaled sedan that had its driver side torn open and farther
along were two chalk outlines of people and some evidence markers indicating
where bullet casing were. The entire area around the chalk outlines, street and
buildings, were covered in blood. James studied both outlines. One figure was
drawn with its arms stretched outwards like they were mimicking Jesus on the
cross. The other figure was sprawled out in a less ritualistic way, with its
limbs positioned like someone had dropped a ragdoll. The amount of blood in the
alley made it seem like a crimson mist had come in from the river and the
pungent smell of death permeated so well that James doubted that covering his
nose and mouth would do anything.
"You said this was a
serial killer," James said as he pointed to both outlines "Did he
come back and kill in the same place?"
"Two people died here,
but only one was murdered the same way as my sister. Michael "Mickey"
Williams was the main victim," John said as he referenced to the outline
with its arms out. He pointed to the ragdoll outline. "That one was Tony
Allanson, and I believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Murdered
just because he was in the way. Mickey was the target. There was a third
person, in the car, Rickey Kenton, but he survived the crash amazingly. All
three were known associates with each other."
"What's Rickey got to say
about it?"
"We'll find out when he
wakes up. You don't honestly think he was able to walk away from that crash, do
you?"
James walked over to the car
wreck. The entire front was mangled. All the windows were shattered and the
frame bent up as if it had slammed into a brick wall. The front of the wreckage
was bent in a perfect semi-circle. "How was this thing moved?" James
asked "This thing wrapped around a pole, but there's nothing to hit right
here." He walked around and felt glass crunch under his shoes. "No
one moved the car," John said "As far as we can tell it was trashed
either before or right after the double homicide."
"This car wasn't
trashed," James said "It hit something. Something big. How is that
not worth investigating?" John shrugged. "Because as soon as Kenton
wakes up we can just ask him. It's not important. It has nothing to do with how
Williams died."
"Then why not just ask
him who did it while you're at it, why bring me in at all?"
"We don't know IF Kenton
will ever wake up again. We needed the jaws of life just to cut him out of that
wreck."
"You don't know how this
car got totaled or how it ended up down this alley, yet you'll dismiss it as
irrelevant to the murder that took place ten feet away?"
"Nothing has been adding
up for any of these murders," John protested "We already had someone
look into the car, and either we start looking for a ten foot bodybuilder, or
we focus on the dead people."
James walked away from the car
and towards the chalk outlines. "I take it someone has already run a shit
ton of forensics on this blood?" he asked. John nodded. "Odds are it
won't yield anything," he said "We found just as much blood at my
sister's house and it all belonged to her."
"Did your sister get any
shots off?" James asked as he looked over the markers for the bullet
casings.
"No. Four shots fired
here, only one miss, but no blood trail. None of the victims were shot meaning
our perp is at least wounded. We checked with every ER in the city and got
nothing. This guy must know how to deal with gunshots, or at least knows someone
private who could help him."
"How do you expect me to
find this guy?"
"Is there anything here
that can help you figure something new out?"
"Not from chalk outlines
and some blood painted pavement," James said as he looked back towards the
car. The whole situation struck him as odd. He walked back towards it while
John watched silently. He noticed it looked like it had hit a pole, but the way
the front was bent suggested something else.
"You guys didn't suspect
that car hit anyone, did you?" he asked.
"Not particularly,
why?"
James walked right into the
middle of the front and noted how it bent perfectly around where his legs and
the rest of his body was, almost as if the immovable object that it had run
into was a person. "Now I've seen everything," he said as he took
care not to catch himself on any sharp pieces of the wreck. "Hey," he
said as he stepped back and looked to John "You have any of those plastic
bag things that you put evidence in?"
"You find
something?" John asked, an excited look lighting up his face as he jogged
over. "Maybe," James said as he went to one knee and looked over the
front of the wreck. "I'll be right back," John said as he took off
back towards his car. On the off chance that the sedan did indeed run into a
person and caused the front damage, there would have to be something left
behind. James was hoping for blood or some sort of DNA left caused by a cut
from the jagged metal where the person would have been standing. He found
nothing like that, but when John returned with a bag, James had finally found
something to go on.
Caught in a protruding piece
of the wreck was a piece of dark gray fabric. James didn't know what it was
from but he knew it wasn't from the car and it couldn't have gotten there
before the mystery crash. James grabbed it and pulled it free. "This look
familiar?" he asked John "Like something a cop would accidently have
get caught while investigating?" John shook his head. "I have no idea
where that came from," he said.
James smiled as he held the
fabric up in the air to examine. A piece of fabric no larger than two of his
fingers pressed together; not a very good clue to start with, but he finally
had something to go on. "Got a knife?" he asked as John produced a
pocket knife. James used it to rip the fabric into two pieces and pocket one of
them. He placed the other piece into the plastic bag and handed it to John.
"You guys got a CSI crime lab thing back at the station?" he asked.
"Not remotely like they
show on TV," John responded. "Whatever," James said "Have
them do whatever with that piece."
"Sounds good," John
said as he pocketed the bag. "We done here?"
James stood up and looked
about one more time. "Yeah, I think so," he said "I'd like to
see where your sister died now."
"Tomorrow," John said
"It's not exactly around the corner and I need to get some sleep."
James shrugged then nodded as the two made their way out of the alley towards
Johns car. "What do you think this fabric is from?" John asked as
they stepped over the caution tape and passed the officer from before, who
wasn't paying attention to them anymore. "I have no idea," James said
"But if I'm right, it should be from something that'll point us to the
killer; either directly to him or at least point us in the direction we need to
go."
They both climbed into Johns
car. John pulled out the plastic bag and opened the glove box. "Just leave
it in here for now. We'll stop by the station on the way and drop it off,"
he said as he tossed it in next to some papers and a picture of a young girl.
James reached in and took the picture before John could close the glove box.
The girl in the picture had long brown hair that went over her shoulders,
bright blue eyes and a smile James thought he could lose himself in if he were
there in person.
"This your sister?"
he asked as John looked away and started the engine. "Yeah," John
said without looking back over. "We're gonna catch this guy, don't
worry," James said but John didn't respond. They drove all the way to
John's apartment in silence, James looking down at the picture the entire time
at the girl whose life was cut short seemingly at random by some sort of crazed
killer.
James didn't remember much
about getting to John's apartment except that he was suddenly too tired to look
around and went right for a couch. Before he fell asleep he made a mental note
to hold a gun to John's head for some damn coffee before he did any more
investigating. There was no way he was gonna catch anyone without some form of
stimulant in his system.
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