Cry for Me Read online

  Cry for Me

  Richard M. Awe

  Copyright © 2015 Richard M. Awe

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1507671016

  ISBN-13: 978-1507671016

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015901467

  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

  North Charleston, SC

  In memory of chloe

  This is a work of fiction. Businesses, locations, and organizations while real are used in a way that is purely fictional. Names, characters, incidents, publications, and some places are the products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my wife, Jill, my daughter, Kaitlyn, my mom, Bonnie and my sister, Robyn.

  Chapter 1

  Detective Sgt. Miller could already feel the heat of the early morning sun as small beads of sweat began to form on his brow. It was going to be hot a day with temperatures forecasted to be in the upper nineties with high humidity. Miller sipped his coffee as he looked over the crime scene. He had never seen anything like this before. Crimes of this nature are not supposed to happen in a small town like this. When Sgt. Miller received his promotion six months ago, he envisioned the rest of his career chasing down stolen vehicles, burglary suspects, and the occasional domestic violence related homicide. He never thought he would be sifting through one the most horrific crime scenes in the state of Illinois, let alone his small town.

  Where was all the blood? The crime scene was immaculate. It was obvious to him that the crime had not been committed here and the body dumped here. But that’s just it. The body was not “dumped” at all. It had been methodically placed here and in this particular way, but why? It was hard to tell the sex of the body. The genitalia had been removed with what looked to be surgical precision. The victim was lying on its back, legs closed and stretched out. The feet were touching at the heels and pointed slightly to the outside. There were no visible abrasions or bruising to feet, ankles, lower leg, knees, or upper legs. There was a neatly sutured incision in the crotch where the genitals would normally be. The size of the incision and the amount of sutures it took to close it, gave the impression it was deep. The abdomen had no apparent abrasions or bruising. The chest area was unremarkable with the exception of two sutured incisions where the breasts would be located. They were remarkably similar to the incision in the groin area. The only difference Detective Miller could see was that the breast incisions ran horizontally unlike the groin incision which ran vertically.

  The neck contained a small incision under the chin, approx. 2” long running horizontally. There was no other visible injury to the neck and shoulder area. The arms and hands contained no apparent injuries. Finger nails were neatly groomed and intact showing no signs of trauma. The arms were stretched out straight at a slight angle, palms facing down.

  The head was covered in a piece of white satin material. It started at the chin just below the lower lip and draped up over the head and onto the ground by several inches. The material covered the head so you were not able to see the top of the head or ears. There were no visible tattoos, scars or birth marks and the body contained no jewelry.

  What does all this mean? Why have all of the genitalia been so meticulously removed and neatly sewn closed? Was it to prevent identification? It couldn’t be. Just does not make sense. The fingers looked to be intact and although Detective Miller could not see the finger tips he was sure they would be able to get a set of prints. It just did not add up. More answers should be found when the head is uncovered. Then he would be able to determine the sex. Why was the face covered and the rest of the body naked? Detective Millers mind was racing with questions as he looked over the body.

  The body was lying in the grass along the river’s edge under a large oak tree. The head was at the base of the tree approx. one foot away. The feet lay approx. six feet off the rivers bank. Lions Park is a quiet park situated on the east banks of the Fox River. It is typically frequented by joggers, walkers, fishermen, and children playing in the park. The park has been there for many years and has been enjoyed by village residents for generations. The only real police contact at the park is the occasional teen lovers who park along the river and make out and some occasional vandalism on the park play equipment.

  “Has anybody touched this material?” Detective Miller yelled. “I said, did anyone touch this fuckin’ material that is laying over the head?” Detective Miller was becoming agitated. It was getting hotter and he wanted answers. The scene had been taped off with crime scene tape per protocol. There were two evidence technicians from the Kane County Sheriff’s Office busily taking pictures and writing down notes. There were a couple of patrolman working the edge of the crime scene talking to spectators and possible witnesses as well as conducting crowd control. A few residents had seen the commotion and wandered over out of curiosity.

  “No sir, Detective Miller.” “Everything you see here is just the way it was when I arrived on scene.” answered Patrolman Dan Keyes, the first officer on scene. Officer Keyes went on to explain to Detective Miller that he had been dispatched to scene at approx 0630 and had arrived at the location at approx. 0640 where he met with the complainant, Erv Golding. “I immediately placed Mr. Golding in my patrol car and advised him that he was not under arrest and that we would need further information from him and possibly evidence. I then secured the crime scene with tape sir and called in for forensics and additional personnel.”

  “Very good Keyes, sorry, I got a little snippy. Heat must be getting to me”, mumbled Detective Miller. “I’ll need to talk to Mr. Golding before we remove that material.”

  Erv Golding had been sitting in the back of the patrol car since he was placed there by Officer Keyes. He was starting to get a bit impatient. Officer Keys had all the widows rolled up and the air conditioning was on low, unable to keep up with rising morning temperatures. Golding had started to get warm and uncomfortable. He had begun to worry because his wife would have expected him home from his morning walk by now. “What in the Sam Hell is taking so long?” thought Mr. Golding. He really wanted to call his wife to let her know that he was alright and would be home in a little while, but was unable to because Officer Keyes had requested Mr. Golding to turn over his cell phone. He had assured him it was standard procedure and, would get it back, just as soon as they were able to determine what was going on.

  Detective Miller was walking towards Officer Keyes patrol car looking at Mr. Golding sitting in the back seat. He could see he was getting impatient and possibly agitated. Mr. Golding is a 64 year old retired piano tuner. He moved to the small village of South Elgin with his family in 1954. One of four children, born to German immigrants, he was the youngest. He still lives in his child hood home with his wife Margaret. His house is only two blocks away from Lions Club Park where the crime scene is located. Detective Miller reached the patrol car and Officer Keyes opened the rear driver side door. “Mr. Golding, this is Detective Sgt. Rick Miller of the South Elgin Police Department. He is the lead investigator and has a few questions for you.”

  “Fine, fine!” barked Mr. Golding.

  “Good morning Mr. Golding. Thank you for being so patient. Would you like some water or coffee?”

  “Who said I was being patient?” Snapped Golding “And yes. A bottle of cold water would be nice! I was getting pretty dam hot in this squad car and the dam A/C was on low! You would think that copper was paying the fuel bill with his own dam money!!”

  Detective Miller ordered Officer Keyes to get Mr. Golding a bottle of water and stood there for a few minutes sizing up M
r. Golding. He was about 5’6” with a thin build, white male and in fairly good physical shape for his age. His hair was stone white and balding with a neatly trimmed halo of hair around the sides. He had no facial hair and was dressed casually. It reminded Miller of how Mr. Rogers would have dressed. A light weight zipper sweater zipped halfway was pea green in color, tan slacks, brown penny loafers, and a light blue polo shirt.

  “Well what are you waiting for? An invitation?” snapped Golding.

  “Just what I need, a grumpy ass behunk to start my investigation off,” thought Miller.

  Officer Keyes returned with a bottle of water that he had acquired from the evidence technicians and gave it to Mr. Golding. “That’s better. What do you want to know Detective? My wife is waiting.” growled Golding.

  “Just start from the beginning and tell me everything that happened this morning when you left the house.” answered Detective Miller.

  “Well let’s see. I walked down to the end of my driveway and picked up the newspaper and brought it back up the garage and placed it on my work bench. Then I walked back down my driveway to the street and started walking.”

  “Can you, for the record, Mr. Golding state your name and address.” interjected Miller. “Yeah sure, it’s Ervine Thomas Golding. I live at 10 N. Cherry St. South Elgin, Illinois. I am 64 years young.”

  “Ok, that is fine. Continue with your story Mr. Golding.”, said Detective Miller.

  “Like I was saying, I put the Courier News on my work bench and walked down to the end of my driveway and tuned left on Cherry Street headed towards the park. I walked down the left side of the street and crossed over Locust Street. About 30 ft past Locust St. I crossed over to the right side of the street and stopped at Mr. Besinger’s driveway and picked up his newspaper and put it on his front step like I do every morning. The dam paper guy only knows how to throw the paper on the driveway. He’s lazy! So, anyways, I kept walking down the right side of the street until I came to South St. and turned right. I crossed over to left side of South St. and started cutting across the grass headed to that big oak tree over there to look at the river. I walked up to the oak tree and that is when I saw the body. Scared the crap out of me! I pulled out my phone and called 911.”

  “How close did you get to the body?” asked Detective Miller.

  “Oh I would say about 12 maybe 15 feet.”

  “Did you get a good enough look at the body to describe to me what you saw?”

  “Well I didn’t look at it very long. I saw it was naked and some sort a white rag over its face. That’s all I saw.”

  “Do you go for walks every morning?”

  “Yes. Same time everyday for the past 4 years, doctor’s orders.”

  “Can you tell me, Mr. Golding, did you notice anything unusual or suspicious this morning?”

  “No. I can’t say I did. Didn’t see anybody or anything out of the ordinary until I came across that poor person.”

  “Ok, Mr. Golding, that should do for now. If I have any other questions I will give you a call. Leave your number with Officer Keyes. Here is my card. If you think of anything please do not hesitate to call me.”

  “Say, Detective, do you know who it is?” asked Mr. Golding.

  “This is on going investigation and I can’t comment at this time.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah”, grumbled Golding.

  Detective Miller told Mr. Golding he was free to leave and had Officer Keyes escort him home.

  Miller returned to the body and asked the evidence technicians if they were done taking notes and pictures. They had confirmed that they were for now and that they were able to obtain a complete set of finger prints from both hands. “That’s fantastic!” exclaimed Detective Miller. “Now maybe we can start to figure what in the hell is going on here! Send everything you guys got here today over to my station ASAP and thanks for all your help! The coroner should be here any minute and then I am going to uncover the head. I will need you stick around for that.”

  At 8:15am a Kane County Coroner van pulled to the end of South Street where an assortment of police vehicles was staged. Deputy Coroner, James Schauer, exited the vehicle, grabbed a stainless steel brief case and headed over to the crime scene.

  “Hey Jim how have you been?” asked Detective Miller.

  “Well Rick I would much rather be floating in my pool sipping on a Mai Tai right now. It’s my day off. But, from what I understand, you insisted I be the Deputy Coroner on this one”

  “A little early for Mai Tai’s don’t you think, Jim?” asked Miller.

  “Depends on who you ask, Rick, depends on who you ask.”, chuckled Schauer. “I hear you got a doosey here Rick. What do you know so far?”

  “I don’t know much, I’m afraid. The head is covered with a piece of white cloth, looks like satin. The genitals have been removed and sutured shut.”

  “Good God Rick, what the hell do we have here? Have you removed the cloth yet?”

  “No I was waiting for you.”

  Detective Miller reached over the body at the head and with his pen he began to lift one side of the white cloth. “Here Rick. Use these tweezers.” said Deputy Schauer. Rick grabbed the tweezers from Schauer’s hand and slowly began to pull back the cloth that covered the victims head. He grabbed the right lower corner near the chin and began to pull upward diagonally towards the upper left corner. Once the head was revealed there was a short pause by all that seemed liked an eternity. The air was still and everything went quiet as everyone present looked on in horror. The silence was broken by the sudden noise of digital cameras and high end flash units going off as the evidence technicians starting snapping away at the gruesome sight before them.

  “My God, what the fuck?” gasped Rick.

  The scalp had been shaved clean, perfectly. Not so much as a nick. The eyebrows had been shaved as well. The face contained no facial hair. Both nostrils of the nose appeared to have been stretched out with small tares in the skin around the nostrils. The eyeballs had been removed and a couple of small sutures had been placed in each upper and lower eye lid as if to keep the eyelids in an open position. Judging by the facial features the victim looked to be a young male probably early 20’s. There was a small hole from what appeared to be a nose piercing in the left nostril. The lips were partly open exposing a small portion of the two upper front teeth of which the right tooth had been chipped. The right ear lobe contained two small holes that appeared to have been from an ear piercing.

  “Keyes! Get on the computer and check NCIC and LEADS and see if there has been a report of a missing male white, early 20’s, approx. 5”9” maybe 145lbs, no known tattoos, with a possible nose piercing in the left nostril and two piercings in the right ear lobe. And, I needed that information yesterday!!”

  “I’m on it, Detective Miller!” exclaimed Keyes.

  “We have ourselves one sick son of bitch here Rick.” stated Jim.

  “I’m aware of that Jim. I just hope this will be the only victim.”

  Chapter 2

  Detective Miller sat as his desk staring at the headlines in the morning paper. “Body found at local park has residents nervous and police baffled.” Miller could not bring himself to read the article. He set the paper aside to read it later. He was anxious to get to the coroners office and read the findings of the autopsy. He was also eager to get a hold of all of the information gathered by the evidence technicians. The crime scene seemed so clean yesterday. There had to be some clues left behind by the killer. The technicians took hundreds of photos and gathered numerous potential pieces of evidence and it all needed to be studied.

  Miller knew that this could take days for one person to do. He needed to enlist some help from inside the department. Miller is the only full time investigator at South Elgin Police. There are two other officers on the 25 man department that are certified investigators, Officer Keyes and Sgt. John Parker. Sgt. Parker left two days ago for a 2 week vacation on a cruise to Alaska leaving only Officer Keyes
available to assist with the investigation.

  Keyes was fresh out of investigator school and had not worked with Miller on any investigations yet. This is going to be a major under taking for Miller, an 18 year veteran of the department of which the last ten has been spent as Detective, let alone for Keyes who as been on the force for just 6 years.

  Miller has no other choice. He can not wait the two weeks for Sgt. Parker to return, and needs to get this case solved now. He will go to the Chief this morning to request Keyes for the case.

  Miller heard a knock at his office door. It was Lynn Phillips, the department administrative assistant. “Good morning Rick. I have a package from Kane County Sheriff investigative division you may be eager to get at.”

  “Excellent. Thank you Lynn.”

  “Rick, you know I’m here if you need anything.”

  “Thanks Lynn, but I am going to Chief Tanner today to request Dan Keyes for assistance, but I will keep that in mind.”

  “I meant, if you need someone to talk to.” replied Lynn.

  Lynn was an attractive forty year old, pale skinned, red head. She is 5’6”, 125lbs and physically fit. At just a year older then Rick, she thought of herself as a perfect match for him. Rick joined the police department when he was twenty- one, just a few months after Lynn was hired as dispatcher. Being the two “newbie’s” they became friends almost immediately. Lynn has never married and dates few men. Her mother has been trying to marry her off since she graduated college. Her professional career takes most lot of her time and ever since she has met Rick, she has sort of held out hoping some day he would notice her.

  She has never considered dating any other member of the department other then Rick. They had remained close friends for the last eighteen years and he has never once asked her out on a date. She used to think that she was not attractive enough or not Rick’s type but has learned over the years it’s not her, it’s Rick. She has often thought, over the many years, of asking him out but has never gotten up the nerve. Too afraid he will reject her and ruin their friendship. Maybe some day it will happen. She continues to hold on to hope mainly because Rick has never married. In fact, he rarely dates.