Professor
Douglas was right behind him.
Douglas was right behind him.
'You there! Officer! What happened here?'
'Who the hel are you? Get back behind that barricade! '
'I'm Professor John Locke and this is Dr. Martin Douglas. We're here looking for a murderer.'
'Wel, take your pick. There's about a hundred of them locked up in that hospital. Now please step back.'
'What's going on here?'
'Nothing that concerns you. Now get the hel back behind that tape!' The exasperated officer be gan forcibly pushing the two professors back into the crowd.
'I need to know what happened. Has there been a murder? Has someone been arrested?'
'If you don't step back, your ass is going to get arrested!'
'But we may know something that could help you,' Professor Douglas spoke up.
'I'm real y not interested in what you know.'
'Oh, but I am.' Detective Montgomery stepped forward, flashing his gold shield. The faces of the two professors fel in defeat.
'Is your captain around?' he asked the flabbergasted patrolman.
'Uh, yeah. Who are you again?'
'My name is Detective Montgomery of San Francisco Homicide. I'm here investigating a series of murders that I believe may involve your fair city. I also believe these professors may be material witnesses. Now, would you please do me a favor and arrest these two gentleman for withholding evidence and interfering with the course of an investigation and whatever else you can think up, then take me to see whoever's running this show?'
'I'd be happy to,' the officer said, glaring at the two professors with an everwidening grin.
'We haven't done a thing wrong! You can't detain us!'
'Yeah? Wel, we'l see about that. I want them to be available for questioning.
There's a kil er on the loose and I think they know where he is.'
Another officer took Montgomery to meet the captain in charge of the investigation. He was a stocky, middleaged man of medium height, with thick, weathered skin from too much time in the sun. His eyes were hard but jovial. He looked like an old cowboy or farmhand, like he would have been just as at home on a horse as in a squad car.
'Captain Marshal. This is Detective Montgomery of San Francisco
Homicide.'
They shook hands and leaned back against the captain's vehicle.
'So what brings you al the way up from San Francisco?'
'I'm looking for a man named Joseph Miles. He's kil ed two people that we know of and he's going to kil a lot more if we don't stop him. I have reason to believe that he might be here in your town and that he might be responsible for whatever happened here tonight. Uh
… what exactly did happen?'
'A janitor was kil ed. He had his throat ripped out. The ME says it looks like his larynx was bitten through and the bite marks look human. We've also got a dead inmate. He was carved up, vivisected. There's pieces of him al over his room.'
'Are there any pieces… uh… missing? I mean… is there any evidence of cannibalism?'
'Not as far as we can tel.' The captain's eyes narrowed in suspicion. 'Maybe you'd better tel me what you know about al this.'
'Unfortunately, I don't know a hel of a lot, but the two professors that I fol owed up here might. They're with a couple of your officers right now awaiting questioning. I have a feeling they know a lot more than they're tel ing. One of them used to be a profiler with the FBI. At the very least he may have a theory.'
'I think we'd better go talk to them then. Oh, and there's something else. You said your boy was a cannibal?'
'Yeah, his last two victims were both partial y eaten. One of them he roasted alive.'
'Wel, a woman was brought into the hospital earlier today in critical condition. The man who brought her in told the emergency room nurse that she had been attacked by pit bul s. He disappeared before he could be questioned. Both of her breasts were missing. Bitten off. The surgeon that treated her said the bite marks looked human.'
'Christ.'
'Her ID says her name is Alicia Rosales
… from San Francisco.'
'Has anyone questioned her yet?'
'She's stil in critical right now. We'l talk with her as soon as she regains consciousness.'
'Was the nurse able to give a description of the man who brought her in?'
'Yeah. That's the funny thing. She said that he looked just like-'
'Superman?' Montgomery asked knowingly.
The captain paused, staring at
Montgomery in disbelief and what looked like disappointment. 'Shit. I was hoping you were wrong about al this.
Yeah, she said he looked just like the comic book character. I guess this real y is your boy we've got here. Looks like we'd better see what those two eggheads have to say.'
The two professors were stil seated in a patrol car with the officer who'd arrested them, doing his best to ignore their whining when Captain Marshal and
Detective Montgomery approached the car.
'Get them out of there!' the captain barked.
'Now see here! You can't hold us like this! We haven't broken any laws!' Locke was yel ing almost at the top of his lungs. His face had turned a bright pink and thick blue veins pulsed in his forehead.
'Then tel us how you knew that Joseph Miles would strike here. Why you two drove al the way from San Francisco straight to the scene of your student's latest murder? You're either witnesses or accomplices. It al depends on how you answer our questions.' Montgomery stood nose to nose with Professor
Locke, glaring at him as if he were a schoolyard bul y shaking him down for lunch money.
'I don't have to answer a goddamned thing!'
'I think we'd better tel them what we know,' Professor Douglas croaked meekly, the unlit mahogany pipe dangling from his trembling lower lip.
Locke whirled on him, eyes blazing with righteous indignation. 'We don't have to tel them shit!'
Captain Marshal stepped up beside
Montgomery, almost knocking him aside in his eagerness to confront the two professors. His face was beginning to color from the effort of holding in his mounting temper. It was obvious that
Locke's self-righteous attitude was rubbing the grizzled lawman the wrong way. He shoved his finger into the professor's chest as if he were trying to stab him with it.
'Let me tel you something, Professor. There's a serial kil er loose in my townmy town! He just snuck into a hospital and tore apart an inmate and a janitor. There's a girl in there fighting for her life with her breasts eaten down to the rib cage. Eaten! By the man you two are protecting! So I don't care what laws I have to stretch or even break. I'm going to find out what you two know and you both wil rot in a jail cel until I do.'
'Put him back in the car,' Montgomery said, pointing to Locke. 'We'l talk to Dr. Douglas here.'
'Don't tel them anything. You hear? We can do this ourselves! We can stil do it!' Douglas shook his head, staring at his friend with a newfound understanding and pity. The man was desperate for his one last great act, his last chance at fame and immortality, and he was wil ing to risk lives to do it. Dr. Martin Douglas wasn't quite so desperate.
'What do you want to know?'
'How did you know Joseph Miles would show up here?'
'The patient he murdered… his name was Damon Trent, wasn't it?'
