The Copycat Competition

The skies seem to be on fire tonight, but it could just be the flash from all the cameras around me. The crime scene investigators around me run around trying to find a shred of evidence in the front lawn, and about six cops have already ran out from inside puking their guts out. Guess it’s my turn to see what all the fuss is about. Ignoring the pleas of my lungs, I slip a cigarette between my lips and light it, feeling the swift smoke engulf my throat; now I’m ready for whatever the night has in store for me.

As soon as I take the first step inside the house, the air already feels wet with fresh blood, I still don’t see anything I haven’t seen before. I take another puff from my cigarette before I walk in the first room; the children’s room. I hold on to the door frame and gasp, but being quick enough to close my lips as to not let my precious nicotine fall to the floor.

“The boy’s head was severed and hung by the ceiling upside down, as you can see” the forensics doctor blurts out the gruesome details as if he was explaining a scene from a movie he just saw, he couldn’t be calmer. “Now, the girl was a bit different” my stomach twisted and churned as he urged me over towards what used to be a 13 year old girl; unlucky number. “Her head and body weren’t hurt in the least bit, but…” he visibly flinched and I knew it wasn’t good.

“She was raped” I finished his sentence, doing my best to hold back the increasingly tight knot in my stomach.

“More than that” he shook his head and pushed up his glasses with his index finger after they had slightly slid down his nose. “She was indeed raped, quite severely” he seemed to had regained his composure and he continued his monotonous tone of before. “But after the perpetrator was done, he killed her by ramming a knife up her vagina until she bled out” I felt myself gag and my lips let the cigarette fall to the floor, the doctor sighed and threw it out the window in a flash, it was his crime scene.

“Wait, wait” I slowly answered back, one hand on my stomach and another helping me to lean on a wall. “I’ve heard of something like that before; American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. The main character stabs a woman in her vagina while he’s having sex with her” slowly, my nausea went away and I became a detective again. “Are we dealing with a copycat here?” the doctor looked at me with a curious look and after a few seconds, he gasped and looked at me, noticeably worried.

“You haven’t seen the master bedroom yet, have you?” his tone fell flat, dead serious, I could only fear what I would find in there. And, almost reluctantly, I followed him into the master bedroom.

At first, my mind couldn’t fathom what it was observing, every police officer and detective in the room threw me a look of sadness and disgust as soon as I came into the room, none of us have seen anything like this. But, the good doctor beside me, has.

“The La Bianca murders” he spoke in a low voice as he pointed to the writings on the wall. “”Death to the pigs”, the Manson family wrote the same thing when they murdered that woman and her baby all those years ago” he walked over to the rose red bed and looked down at the mutilated woman, sighing and again looking back at me. “The man did the exact same thing the Manson cult did: slit her throat, cut open her stomach and removed the fetus” it seemed everyone in the room suddenly grew lightheaded and every step they took after the doc’s words were forced and painful.

I took a step back and leaned on the wall, it hit me like a truckload of bricks that I was leading the investigation, I had to be a goddamn leader. I hate this job.

“The fetus itself is still missing” the doctor finally added after we had all taken deep breaths.

“So, the guy just stole the unborn baby and ran off into the night?” besides being the most gruesome crime scene I had ever seen, it was also one of the weirdest. And we didn’t have a single piece of evidence, not even a small clue. Just blood and guts.

“Ok, guys, start asking the neighbors questions and ask the forensic guys if they got anything from the outside” I gave my orders as strict as I could and closed the door after they had gone, it was just me and the doc now.

“You put up quite an act” he sighed and looked at me, I could detect the annoyance in his voice. “You exaggerate very well, although you must work on your gasps” he walked over beside me and looked at the scene before us; quite impeccable work.

“Ah, well, I WAS somewhat surprised, even by your standards you went a tad too extreme. Although using the La Bianca murders as inspiration was a nice touch, every copycat uses that one” I crossed my arms across my chest, I had no idea how I was going to beat him this time. “Leave any marks behind?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. He shook his head to reassure me.

“Well, you better get to work. The Red Light district of town is in full bloom tonight, it’s Saturday” he was taunting me, he knew which artist I preferred. “Still have your tools in your car, Jonah?” knives, cutlery, surgeon’s tools. Butcher’s weapons. “I’ll say you had an urgent family matter to attend to. You better get going, hookers won’t just stand around and wait to be ripped” he grinned widely as he looked over at me before walking back besides the carefully mutilated body; his work was almost perfect.

“Just wait and see” but, mine was better. “Just wait and see”.