The Slasher

Drip! Drip! Blood dripped onto the ground below the fire escape, five flights up Ruby Thompson lay motionless, blood pouring from the deep cut across her throat, eyes staring wide open and dead as Ruby was. In the distance the first siren blasted through the night air, soon other sirens chimed in, all in route to East 63^rd Street the apartment of Ruby Thompson, 305 –E. Rudy had lived in a shady part of town, drug dealers, pimps and drive-bys were common place on East 63^rd. Ruby had lived in the area most of her 25 years, a waitress by trade, a good girl for the part of town she called home.

Detective Betty Martin was the first to reach the body, eleven years on the force and five in homicide. Betty was a hard girl from the same background Ruby was from, only difference was Betty had married a cop and got out of the dirt and filth of the street. Here she was right back in the seedy part of the city but this time she wore the badge and she asked the questions. Betty’s partner Tony Loomis was a new comer to Homicide, only three months as a detective. Tony learned quick and the first lesson was Detective Martin was all business, she wasn’t looking for a easy walk and she never, never took crap from anyone and the included the other officers.

Betty pulled back the neckline of Ruby’s blouse, the cut was deep, clear to the bone, one quick slash and Ruby was history.

Loomis looked at the cut but not too closely, “same as the others?”

“This cut is deeper and it was one quick cut, our man is getting bolder, more sure of himself.”

“But the body wasn’t on the roof like the others.”

“Maybe Ruby got wise and decide not to go to the roof, so the perp had to shut her up quickly. This was as far as he was able to get her, so he had to change his MO a little.”

Betty shook her head; “No I think he was forced to act before he could get her to the roof so he was forced to change his M.O.”

Moments later the fire escape was crawling with cops and coroners, Betty and Tony stepped back and started assigning uniform officers to canvas Ruby’s building and the one across the ally. Betty and Tony headed for Ruby’s apartment to see if there had been a struggle there or not. May pickup information to connect Ruby to the other victims, there had three other murders in the same general area over the last two weeks. Each victim had had their necks slashed and all three had been females lured to the roof of their apartment building. This was why the media had labeled the killer, “The Roof Top Slasher.” The media had, had a field day with the brutal manner the killer choose to kill his victims.

Once Detective Martin and Loomis entered the apartment of Rudy Thompson their hopes of finding evidence to connect Rudy to the other homicides began. Rudy fit the age group twenty-five to thirty-five, lived alone, worked near her home and the apartment was in order and spotless, no signs of a struggle just like the other three victims.

The uniform officers arrived at 305-E to report the same thing, nobody saw or heard a thing, and even the officers from the next building over had the lucky. Betty looked over the apartment one more time and before leaving, “I guess Ms. Thompson is just another unlucky lady in this city full of whacked out people prey on people like Ms Thompson.

Back at the station Betty and her partner were met with a flock of newspaper and TV reports on the front step. Betty pushed through them muttering, “No comment, no comment.”

Once inside the station Betty and Tony only made a few steps before heard their Captain’s voice could be heard as she yelled across the squad room, “Martin and Loomis in my office now!” Betty and Tony quickly made their way to the Captain’s office. Captain Sara Taylor was a hard-nosed cop that had just made Captain two weeks before the Roof Top Slasher killings started, she had been under a lot of pressure from the media, the Chief you name it they were coming down on her and exchange she had been coming down hard on detectives Martin and Loomis as well as the other officers working the case.

Captain Taylor, “Tell me something good detectives!”

Martin and Loomis glanced at each other quickly but it was Martin who spoke up being the senior partner, “This last murder is pretty much like the others except the killer didn’t get the victim to the roof, he killed her on the fire escape.”
”No witnesses to the killing? Nobody saw a thing?”

Martin answered, “No we had uniforms cover the building the victim lived in the one across the ally but nobody is talking.”

The Captain paced back forth behind her desk, “We need leads detectives. Some body had to have heard or saw something. The media is breathing down my neck and the pressure from upstairs is demanding an arrest, we don’t even have any suspects.”

Loomis piped up, “The victims don’t seem to have any common traits other then they live alone and worked near homes. They all have short dark hair and fit into a age group of 25 to 35 years old.”

Captain Taylor still pacing, “And they all live in the same twenty square block area. Yes, detective I know all that.” Captain stopped pacing and stared at Detective Loomis, “What I don’t know is why these ladies are getting killed in my city, and who is responsible.”

The look on Captain Taylor’s face made Loomis want to crawl under the nearest piece of furnisher.

Martin wanting to defuse the look and the tension in the room added, “Despite the small geographical area of the murders there is no evidence that the victims knew each other, but we’re still looking in to the background and travel patterns of each victim to see if the shared hairdressers, laundries, or shopping locations.”

There was a silence in the office, the captain was still staring at Loomis, and finally the silence was broken by the captain’s phone ringing. The captain looked at the phone. Before picking up the phone she waved the detectives to leave her office. Both detectives were more then glad to make a quick exit.

As Betty walked to her desk in the squad room she couldn’t help but give a small smile to her self at the fact that the captain was feeling the pressure of the job, after all that job should have been her job but Taylor beat her out for the position and now she was in the hot seat. It was fitting that Taylor was showing she wasn’t ready for the job and the department should have made her captain instead of Taylor.

Two nights later Detective Martin knocks on the door of Rhonda Wright. A moment later Rhonda a 30 year old secretary answers the door, “Can I help you?”

Martin shows Rhonda her badge, “Detective Betty Martin, are you Rhonda Wright?”

“Yes, what is it detective?”

“I need you to come with me to the roof there’s been an incident and I need you to identify someone.”

Rhonda looks confused, “Identify someone. I don’t understand?”

“Please Ms. Wright come with me this will only take a minute of your time.”

Rhonda exits her apartment and closes the door behind her, “I sorry I don’t understand, who am I suppose to identify?”

Betty responded, “A neighbor of yours, Sara Burk.” Betty stepped back in a jester to encourage Rhonda to move forward.

Rhonda’s facial expression turned from confusion to concern, “What happened to her?”

“I’m afraid she was killed.”

Rhonda froze in her steps, “Killed, you want me to look at a dead body?”

“If this is Sara she was a friend of yours and the faster we identify her the quicker we can move ahead with the investigation into what happened to her.”

Rhonda began walking along with the detective to the elevator. Then once they were on the top floor they accessed the stairwell and took the steps to the roof.

When they passed through the door and stepped onto the roof Rhonda stopped, “Shouldn’t there be other cops up here and stuff?”

“I was the first to arrive”, Betty said as she took hold of Rhonda’s right arm, “The body is right over here. Betty gently but firmly began guiding Rhonda pass the apartment building’s heating unit.

Once they were pass the heating unit Betty let go of Rhonda’s arm and allowed her to take several steps forward while she pulled a hunting knife from her inner pocket of her jacket. Betty stepped forward quickly grabbed Rhonda from behind and placed her hand over Rhonda’s mouth with the left hand and with the right hand wheeling the knife she quickly drew the knife across Rhonda’s neck from esophagus to the right side slicing through the jugular vein, the blood flowed from the opening, Rhonda made gurgling sound as she slide to the roof top.

As Betty turned to leave she found herself looking down the barrel of Tony Loomis’s department issued 45-caliber revolver. “Freeze detective.”

Betty froze in her steps while she gripped the hunting knife dripping with blood, “You were following me?”

Tony slowly nodded, “Yes, I followed you but I see I got here too late”, looking down at the body of Rhonda Wright.

Betty squeezed the knife tighter, “You don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t understand you are a cop, not a cold blooded killer.”

“I had too I deserved the job, I wanted to be captain more then she did.”

Tony slowly shook his head, “These women are the captain they did nothing against you.”

Betty dropped the knife at the instance she reached for her revolver; she cleared her holster as two bullets from Detective Loomis’s revolver tore through her shoulder and left chest. Betty froze for a second, her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped just before she fell to the top of the roof.

The sound of sirens filled the air as Detective Loomis stood there looking at his former partner.