THE EMPATH

DIGGING UP BONES(juicy secrets)

"...we are just a group of rogue guys who were deceived into thinking that we could become rich overnight. You see, before Eddy came to work at the station, we were all good cops. We didn't have high conviction rates or anything, but at least we did something that made a real difference without being selfish. But being cops comes with high expectations from everyone around. I mean, who could trust a cop who works in a city where drugs are sold in broad daylight? We at the narcotics were always looked down on because our department was slow and all. Then Eddy came and he seemed to know the right places to look for the dealers and the arrest and conviction rates started to rise. He was like this big friendly hero the department never had. Everybody wanted to work with him and we found ourselves worshiping him. There was this girl though, his partner, I can't recall her name right now but I remember she was friends with Oscar. She always doubted him and at a certain point, she started investigating him. She found out a big-time secret and was about to call Eddy out. That was when Eddy came to us. I remember we were all in the locker room changing in the morning. He told us that the only reason he knew where and when the big-time d**g lords were was that he worked undercover. He had this whole speech about how it was impossible to win the d**g fight and that the only solution was to take over the market and control it. He said he could make us rich heros. We believed him and formed a group of five members, me, Tiger, Ross, Junior, and of course, Eddy was the leader. He seemed to have had everything figured except for one thing. He wanted the girl out of the way. He however couldn't tell us the truth at the moment so he told us that she had been working with a d**g dealer. Our first choice was to take her in but like everything else, he had it all figured out and he made us see that the only way we could pull the whole thing off, was through her death. We agreed to keep our mouths shut and let him kill her. Actually, he made Ross do it.

We lived that lie for a while. The d**g business was booming and we were making some serious cash. We would then split twenty percent each and everything was turning out to be as he told us. At first, all we did was kill the d**g lords, take all their merchandise, and sell it to some other controlled d**g lords. Things however changed when the supply grew thinner and the demand grew higher. He started bringing in his own drugs stuffed in human bodies. By then, he had already made us take an oath that there was no out unless the whole group agreed to it. I kept asking myself what part I played in the group, I mean, after all, they never let me in on anything important. All I ever did was show up, watch, and get paid later. It was not until eight months into the business that I realized I was their escape route. They used me to get their business running. Since my younger brother is the big boss at the station, they used me as an advocate. I talked my brother into giving them a shoot-to-kill order so that they would get away with their crimes. I started planning my way out and I could have walked away were it not for this guy Oscar who got himself caught up in a camera showing he knew about us and our secrets. Eddy wanted him dead but I went out to advocate for him. He was allowed to join the group but he was being given only seven percent which was deducted from my share by the way. They also made him do all the dirty work.

Since then, every time I tried to get out, I would chicken out. Oscar and I had even worked out a perfect plan which would have worked but I backed down at the last minute. The first year went by and so did the second. Oscar had by then grown tired and he badly wanted out. He approached Eddy and told him that he wanted out. Eddy acted as if he had nothing against it at first and he even assured Oscar that a decision would be made within the week. I was happy as I thought I could finally find my freedom but that was not the case. After Oscar had left that day, Eddy called us and told us that Oscar had to die. He told us about his plan and sure enough, he killed Oscar. However, before Oscar died, he told us about the girl and showed us all the evidence he had against Eddy. He had kept it as a backup plan just in case. He assured us that Eddy wasn't who he said he was. I believed him of course, but the others didn't. In fact, Junior took all the evidence and showed it to Eddy. He gave him all the copies as a show of trust. I hope you understand why anyone would conclude that Eddy is the killer...he is going to kill us all," Bob finished his story and looked at me as if all he wanted was for me to assure him that I understood.

"I would say that your heart is at the right place, but what makes you think it's Eddy and not Ross. You said that Ross was the one who killed the cop girl, right?" I asked. I had just found the right moment and way to find out what I needed to know the most. "Ross? No, it can't be Ross. The guy may be a psycho, but he is not the kind that kisses and tell. That guy's life is a mystery and only me and my brother know something about him. Well, I know that he is the son of a rich guy in the government, his real name is Dennis and he had done some pretty ugly things in the past. He never even wanted to be a police officer in the first place. His father forced him so that he could keep his good name. That guy is bad business, but he is not the killer and I can prove that" He said without a doubt and I found myself believing him. All in all, he had given me what I was looking for, or rather, he had given me the key to finding what I was looking for. "If you know all that, why did you come looking for me?" I asked not sure what to expect. "I need a witness, I need you to go down to the station, and confirm that you saw the killer. You will then describe his face and the sketch guy will make one..." he went on and on. There was no way I could ever have done that, I didn't want to be involved in the case openly. "Okay, but, can I think about it for a couple of days?" I found myself asking. He went on to explain how he didn't have that much time and I explained to him that if I just went down there and said what he had told me, it would be lying and I was not good at that.

The long conversation ended with me promising that I would definitely think about it and I would give him a call. The moment he left, I went direct to my bedroom and started typing. I understood then why I could never find anything on the mysterious Ross. After typing in his name and hitting the search button, a long list of crimes, sealed records, and all sorts of stuff came up. It seemed like Ross had more than one skeleton in his closet and I thought of how fun it would be digging them up one after the other. I found myself smiling and maybe I would have laughed out loud were it not for my ringing phone. I had to move up my schedule as I had a burial to attend to in three days and I had to make sure that my job was done by then. It was time to get to work and I could not even wait for nightfall. To begin with, I opened up a file that was about a murder. My mysterious friend had killed his college lover but the lawyers worked up their "miracles" and the case was closed and sealed. It was time to unseal it. According to the case file, Dennis was believed to have buried the body of Rose Miller in his father's backyard. The police had tried to get a warrant to search the place but just as expected, they were denied. The girl was however not his only victim as there were six others. It seemed that my friend loved to bury his bones, and well, I was good at digging those up. I researched about the dead victims all day. I never had to go all around looking for them as they were only a call away. It felt nice to use my abilities to see and talk to the ghosts for good at last. Of course, that meant being haunted by eight ghosts but it felt worth it.

That night, all I needed was a shovel and a torch. I only had to drive for half an hour to the huge mansion. The place looked abandoned as no one lived there anymore. It was a private land though and that meant it was all fenced up and sealed off from the public. I had to jump up an electric fence but lucky me I had a bunch of ghosts working with me. For a smart guy like Ross, I found him too dumb to bury not one but six people in his own compound and in the same place. He however had saved himself by building a fountain right on top of his bones which I dug up in four hours. I liked it better when all I had to do was kill and stage people, digging them up was work and I didn't like work that much. I took the bones, each of them had been killed differently and all I had to do was recreate the scenes. The first one was Rose, she was killed by blows to the forehead with a blunt object which she was there to name. "You mean he repeatedly hit you with a dumbell on the head?" Alice had asked. "Yes and all the while, he was still riding me like crazy," she answered and we all looked at her in disbelief. I took her bones back to the then sports gym but it was later turned into a movie theater. I staged the bones in a way that they would tell an old story afresh before heading on to stage the next set of bones.

The second one's belonged to a guy named steve. According to him, he was supposed to be Dennis's best friend but they had an argument one night while they were enjoying themselves in a nightclub. On their way home, Dennis stabbed Steve five times in the stomach and did with his body just like he had done with Rose earlier. Back then, he was the only one living in the mansion as his dad had moved out of the country with the rest of the family. He was a young lad with an impossible temper and a lot of money so he got away with everything. Over the years, he kept on pilling the bodies. The last one was from four years before right before he joined the police force. Staging the bones took most of the night and by the time I got home, I was too tired to even watch the news. I just dropped myself on the couch and fell asleep almost immediately leaving the ghosts to roam about and have fun. While I was asleep, the police found the bones, and an investigation was opened right away. The discovery got to Ross's mind and he lost it. His temper got the best of him and he went after Bob since he was the only one who knew about him. He beat him half to death before Eddy could get to him. By then, Bob had already given up my name as the only other person who knew. Ross didn't know me all that well and it had taken him some time to track me and find out where I lived. He even prepared a special place for me in his backyard before getting ready to take care of me that night. He was an officer then, and the law was his to bend and break as he pleased. Little did he know that he was up for an unpleasant surprise.

While he was busy making plans, the ghosts were following him and they made sure to come back to me and report. They woke me up three hours prior to his visit and told me everything. I had not planned to deal with the Ross problem that night, but he kind of forced my hand. I saw him walk into the building, I even heard him take the first stair and I waited for him. I was so excited and I was already smiling by the time he slowly made his way into the house. It was dark, and I had night vision to my advantage and so he never saw me coming. All it took was a quick stab on his neck and before he could even open his mouth to speak, he was halfway down to the floor nose-first. I had to wait until the hallway and the streets below were clear before carrying him to the van and that wouldn't be for at least a couple of hours. I had enough time to fix myself a meal and enjoy it before taking thirty minutes to drive back to the mansion. I then waited for another hour for Ross to wake up and the fun part began. Like all the others, he began by threatening me and ended up bargaining. However, there was another part after bargaining where he blamed his victims. He said that the reason why he killed Rose, was because he knew that she was planning to break up with him after they had had s*x. He had a reason for killing each and every other victim. However, the reasons were too stupid that even he couldn't stand by them so he went on to blame it on his father who apparently, had "abandoned" him. That didn't work either so he blamed it on a demon he had named "Ross". In the end, he learned there was no escape and he chose death by a knife which I gladly gave him before burying him where he had buried everyone else. I then fixed the fountain just as it was before and since no one visited the place, he would be there for a really long time.