Choice

Chapter 3

“Lily Russ, 15 years old.” The captain paces back and forth in the front of the room and I can see the frustration all over his face. “That’s number four, four girls in two weeks.” I look down hearing the captain’s voice “Reynolds!” I glance up watching him point to the picture and hear him yell out to me “what do you think?” I get up from my chair and eye the girl in the picture “blonde hair, blue eyes, good student, quiet, few friends, seems the same MO, like always.” The captain sighs “the ripper strikes again?” I shake my head unsure “we can’t be sure it’s the same guy, there are plenty of creeps in this town and surrounding towns. Any of them could have something to do with it.” Another voice cuts in “Marbourne ripper?” The captain sighs shaking his head “he has been cold for 3 years. We were so close all signs pointed to this basted Edger Dorfman. He was a real psycho liked little girls but he liked them so much he never killed any. All his victims, found alive.”   

The captain sits back in a chair “the Ripper's MO goes like usual he kidnaps a girl or he gets her to go with him. After, he keeps her for as long as he can, years or days then toys with them, tortures them, mends them and repeats for days and days.” I glance over the images of the victims “sir?” He shakes his head wiping his eyes with the palm of his hand. “He was the one that got away, Scott free, never found, never detained, and never suspected. To get him we have to look back, back to his first.” I nod agreeing “yes sir, but-” The captain interrupts “the answer is in that file, the only body never found, everyone having to do with that case, his first, she was the one, the one that meant something.”

He points to the board putting up the first victims photo and points to the other girls. “All 15, when the police found the girls their hair dyed blonde, contacts put in, and some eyes were even gouged out. The girls found mutilated to the point of being barely recognizable.”  I hear his voice shift as he glances to me and hands me the file “find whoever this guy is.” I look down nodding “yes sir.” He turns walking off back into his office, shutting the door and I turn to the other officers “you heard him let’s find this son of bitch!” The rest of the team get up, walking to their desks leaving me alone in the front of the room. I turn back eyeing the picture of the first victim and sigh “Lily.”

I jump hearing my partner’s voice yell across the room “Amanda?” I turn towards him as he holds up a phone  “someone’s asking for you, says he’s a friend.” I walk over, griping the phone from my partner's hand and sit on the desk hearing the low static voice “Mandy.” I shake my head glancing to my partner who turns his head sideways reading my expression. I whisper into the phone a reply “this is her?” The voice on the phone laughs out “Mandy, oh Mandy.” I grip the phone “what kind of joke are you trying to play?” He laughs “joke? No joke, more a game. I thought I made it clear, it’s a matter of choice and chance. The more you guess right, the more you know.” I grip the phone “know what?” He laughs “Lily.” 

I turn eyeing the board and motion to my partner who glances up as I put the phone on speaker. I sigh out questioning “Lily Russ?” The voice laughs “Lily who? I never heard that name before. I am not talking about some missing person on a milk carton. I am talking about the Lily, the first, the last, the one.” I glance to my partner who gets up and runs towards the captain’s office. I sigh “what are you saying?” He laughs “you’re the detective, figure it out Mandy.” I hear the click of the phone and glance up at my Captains pale face and hear him “was it?” I shake my head “could be anyone, we have no reason to think he would go this far…” The captain sighs “but it’s our only shot, isn't it?” I shake my head “it’s just some lunatic claiming he’s the Marbourn ripper. You know how many we get a day saying they took the girls?” He nods “if he contacts you again you make a report. For some reason he wants you to find him.” I shake my head sitting down and hear my partner sigh “the captain is just a bit high strung you know the first Lily, she was his granddaughter.”

I nod skimming through the file and stop on a page eyeing the picture of Lily and lean forward whispering “Lily?” I hear my partner “something wrong?” I shake my head “no, it’s just she went to my high school I always saw her around, and she looked so alone.” I shake my head placing down the file “I just keep thinking if she had someone, just one person then-“ My partner shakes his head “I was thinking the opposite just think she found the one person and he ends up being a psycho who kidnaps her.” I look up and he laughs “It was finding that one that probably got her kidnapped. If she just kept to herself then she  wouldn't have been kidnapped by this psycho, right?” I shrug “or if she had friends, people to look out for her she may still be here.” He shrugs “either or, I guess, but what gets me is she just vanished, in daylight? How does someone, just vanish?”  I shake my head “they don’t, unless.” I sit up “a video, do we have a video from the school they had security put up right?” My partner nods getting up “I’ll go take a look in evidence.”

I sigh leaning towards my computer and look up seeing a message pop up “free for lunch?” I lean forward and look around me then back at the messenger typing “who is this?”  I see a pop up appear on my screen of a police report written yesterday and laugh typing back “I guess lunch couldn’t hurt officer?” A message appears “Dolenger’s Café, around one?” I bite my lip “see you there, officer.” The report disappears from my computer and I laugh out eyeing the clock “12:40.”