Lucifer's Apostles

Lucifer's Apostles Episode 17

After Louise Harrigan received the phone call she had been expecting, she told Mary she would come in immediately. “I’ll let Ned know and pick him up on the way”, she answered, lying. She did not need to pick Ned up. He had stayed the night.

When she returned to her apartment after the ceremony, she found Ned sitting at her front door. “Haven’t I given you a key yet, Pet? It must have slipped my mind”. She knew she had a spare key. She also knew she was not giving it to Ned anytime soon. If she did, she would never get rid of him.

He followed her inside, telling her he had accidently locked himself out of his apartment. He knew that Louise had his spare key, even though she had never been to his apartment. The irony of it all, she thought. She asked him if he had eaten, he said he had. She did not want to drive him home. He had to walk over to her place, which had taken ninety minutes, so she could not make him walk back. Ned had no phone, money, or cards to call or pay a cab.

Louise told him he could sleep on the floor even though she had a bed in the spare room. She went into her bedroom and undressed entirely except for her panties. She grabbed a pillow and a quilt from the spare bedroom on her way back to the living room and threw them at him. His eyes looked at her medium sized breasts and then down to the floor. His cheeks were flushed.

“Look at me, Pet”, she demanded. His eyes met her via another look at her breasts. “Eyes here”, she said, using two fingers to point to her eyes. “You can sleep here tonight but I’m tired and need some shut eye. That means no talking before I go to bed. You’ve annoyed me. I thought you were smarter than to lock yourself out. I should make you walk home”.

He could not resist the temptation. His eyes kept straying down to her body. “You had better not be looking at my boobs, Pet”, she scolded. “When you wake me up in the morning, I’ll have breakfast in bed. You know what I like. Now I’m going to bed. Get a bottle of water out of the fridge for me to drink”. He did as he was instructed before handing her the water.

She gave him a peck on his cheek. “Nighty, night my pet”, she said.

When Ned had woken her this morning, he had placed her breakfast on a serving tray. He had given her a bowl of muesli with a cut-up banana and a jug of skim milk on the side. He had also placed on the tray a bowl of mixed berries and apple juice. For her to finish, he made her a cup of green tea with a squeeze of lemon juice in it, no sugar.

When she sat up, she was still topless. Again she felt his gaze on her. This time, she did not stop him from looking. “Did you sleep well?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, he said, “I did. I slept like a baby”. Louise pushed the top sheet to the bottom of her bed, first with her hands and then with her feet. “Give me my tray and rub my feet instead of looking at my boobs, Pet”.

Ned sat at the edge of the bed and put one of her feet into his hands before starting to rub. “You can talk now, Pet”, she said.

Ned started talking incessantly while rubbing her feet. That is when her phone rang. She looked at the number and then at Ned. She put her index finger to her lips and mouthed ‘shush’ to him.

After she hung up, she told him about the phone call. Louise told Ned that she would have to shower before instructing him to get her out some clothes that she would like and lay them on the bed. Then, he could take her tray back to the kitchen and pack the dishwasher.

After showering, she walked out to the kitchen whilst still drying her hair, completely naked. Louise loved to tease Ned, to watch the colour in his face change and watch his hand go down in modesty to cover the front of his shorts. She asked if everything was okay and told him he had some clothes in the spare room. He needed to hurry and shower before putting his dirty clothes into the washing machine with hers and starting it.

While he was in the shower, she walked in and scolded him for the choice of clothes that he had picked her. “I’ll drop you to your place on my way in to get your stuff. Now hurry up, Pet, time’s a wasting”, she said when he hastily dressed.

When they had gotten to her car, she waited until Ned opened her door and shut it again when she was seated. They drove to his apartment, Ned again talking all the way. She stopped in front of his building and handed him his key. She gave him a peck on the cheek and said, “See you soon, Pet, don’t forget to return my key”.

As Ned watched her drive away, he said aloud, “God, I love that woman”.

***

Tank arrived at the schoolyard and gazed over at the playground where a tent had been erected. This was becoming bizarre, he thought to himself. A church pew, a bench overlooking the beach and now a schoolyard playground. He sat in his car with Lisa until he saw Katie’s Hyundai pull up, and then he climbed out of his Amarok before meeting her.

“So much for my grocery shopping”, she said when they met her. “This is wrong on so many counts, a school playground. Luckily, it’s school holidays, or I would be livid”. They walked together, and Tank lifted the police tape for her to go under. In their heads, they knew it was the same killer. Never assume went through Tank’s mind, although it was confirmed as soon as they entered the tent and saw the body laid out on the slippery slide.

“It’s Desiree Brady, one of the girls on Ned’s list. She’s been posed in the same position as Janelle Sommerville at the beach. There’d have to be at least thirty kilometres between where this body and the other two were found. There’s no rhyme or reason”, Tank said.

Tom Williams looked over at the three of them, “This unsub’s meticulous, you know that Tank. Hopefully, he’s made a mistake. I’ll sweep the area before it becomes too contaminated”. He looked at the trio’s feet and noticed all wore shoe covers. “The team from the local station are here. I’ll give them a hand. They should be finished shortly.

A detective from the Great Western Police Station entered the tent and introduced himself to Tank, holding out his hand. “You’re finally here. You took your time, I’m Toby Duncan. I’ve been told that this is your case, not ours”, he said. Toby came up to Tank’s chest. His hand could have been mistaken for a baby in their mother’s hand.

Tank’s huge hand encased Toby’s, and he squeezed it hard, “Detective Senior Sergeant Jon Dodge, Detective Lisa Blythe, and this is Coroner Katie Phillips”, he said nodding, towards the two women beside him, holding his tongue at the detective’s rudeness.

“It must be important to have the coroner turn up to the scene any day of the week, especially on a Saturday”, he said, ignoring Katie and undressing Lisa with his eyes. “I’m unsure if I’ve seen a naked corpse laid out like a princess in a kid’s book”.

Tank did not have time for stupid comments, but he responded anyway. “Why would a woman lay naked in any kid’s books? Yes, it’s important enough to have the coroner at the scene and thank you for coming to assist. If you have any relevant information, give it to Detective Blythe and then you can leave. Nice to have met you”.

“Tank, you were a little abrupt”, Katie chastised him as Toby and Lisa moved away.

Lisa wrote down what Toby Duncan thought might be essential and then re-joined Tank and Katie. The three of them waited patiently until Tom waved them in. Tom was a tall slender man, nearing his sixties. His ragged face had seen better days, and he would often get called the matchstick man.

“We have a boot print and a sneaker print. There was a shower of rain last night. We have taken some soil before checking if they left any trace elements behind. There was also some chewed gum on the ground. It could be anyone’s, although it’s fresh, and school’s been out for a while. We can get some DNA from it for certain. It’s better than the two previous sites”.

“Thanks, Tom”, Tank said, “buzz me as soon as you get any results”.

“I’ll be around a bit longer. I want to look around the yard and out on the road”, Tom replied and left them. “I wish I had been the first on the scene so I could have run it myself. We can’t step on any toes though”.

Tank turned to Katie. “Do you mind if Lisa and I have a look while you’re doing your thing”?

Katie was already at Destinee’s corpse. “You can come over, and I can tell you what I see. It will be the same as Janelle. I can see that already”. She moved Destinee’s arm as best she could with the rigor mortis. “Approximate time of death is ten hours, what would that be? I would say around 10:30 last night. Cause of death is a large stab wound to the chest”. She looked at Destinee’s left arm and rubbed off some makeup. “A cannula has been inserted into her pulmonary artery the same as the previous victims”. She stopped and turned to Tank, “I will do an autopsy at the lab. The Australian pennies covering the eyes, do you wonder if the years on the coins are significant”?

“I’ll get someone to check that out. It never crossed my mind. One thing I noticed is that this victim has more of an olive complexion than the previous two. He knows what colour concealer to use. Don’t you wear different coloured blush to match your skin?” he asked Katie.

Lisa answered, “A lot of women use any blush. They are not that concerned. To conceal a bruise and make it look like there is none, you would have to use the right one. Whoever did this knows what they are doing”.

“The makeup, like the hair and body wash, are made with natural ingredients. They even produce their own mayonnaise. We have someone with some sort of medical degree, a makeup artist, and an expert at stalking and k********g women. On top of that, they are making sacrifices to some unknown entity and laying them all over the city”, Katie said.