Part I-CHAPTER 6: SCENE OF THE CRIME(S)

Chapter 6

Scene of the Crime(s)

(Ó 2007)

It was just past 9:00 AM, both David and Noel were running on five hours of sleep and two venti coffees of the day from the Starbucks just down the street where Stephanie Morris was heard screaming the evening before. Both were in the alleyway, standing next to the dumpster where just over twelve hours ago, the teenage girl was raped, and her two assailants paralyzed. The media circus that David was expecting, the evening before, wasn’t as bad as he anticipated. The members of the media were told the minimum amount of information, that there was a sixteenth victim, but it appeared that the serial rapists were in custody and undergoing emergency surgery at Cook County Hospital. The extents of the injuries were as yet unknown.

However, there were those who kept persisting on certain answers, even though the answers they were receiving was “No Comment”. There came a moment when David Todd had to ask them in return, “Excuse me, but what part of ‘no comment’ don’t you understand”? Captain Michael Xiang, “The Big Boss”, as David and Noel called him, referring to an old Bruce Lee movie, gave him a quick scowling glance, but understood. 

 

David and Noel both got to their respective homes at around 2:30 AM, got into bed by 3:00, awoke at 7:00, and returned to the scene of the young girls assault by 8:30. Now after over a half an hour, David was in the middle of his second search down the adjoining alleyway, in the direction where Stephanie had told Noel that the “dark man” had gone.

Noel was going over the area where “it” happened. In crimes of this nature, one cannot help but keep looking at the spot where “it” happened. This place always will now be known for what happened there the evening before. With vile crimes such as rape and murder, the places where they take place sort of have their own place in history with an invisible monument placed on them which read: “On this spot, on such and such a date, ‘it’ happened right here.”

However, this place was different, for this place had two “its”. Noel was studying the dumpster first. There was a small dent with a dried bloodspot where Billy’s head was driven into it. On the ground were some bloodstains from Stephanie, when she was being struck about her face. Then Noel looked over to the side of the building where there was another dried bloodstain, along with a minute amount of leftover hair and skin from Raul’s scalp. Samples of all were already taken into evidence.

Noel then stood and walked to the area where Billy was thrown to the ground and had his spine broken, there was still some dried blood on the spot where his face was driven into the pavement. His front teeth that were left there were also taken into evidence. He pondered over this spot for a few more minutes, then stood and walked to the area where Raul was found lying. Again, there was blood residue at this spot, only the difference here was that a couple of his molars that were found and taken as evidence.

Noel now stood back to survey the whole area, the dumpster, and the two spots where Raul and Billy were found. He took some more steps backwards where the alleyways back entrance was. His eyes went from the spot where he was standing, to the dumpster, to the wall, to the area where Billy was lying, back to the dumpster, and ending where Raul was lying naked from the waist down and with his pants still around his ankles. Noel had Stephanie’s words going around in his head, “about a half a minute,” she said.

“Nothing,” he heard David say to him, “I can’t find anything. No footprints, blood, torn clothing, nothing.”

“I can’t get over what she said;” he answered back, “telling me that the ‘dark man’ was here for only half a minute. You have a second hand on your watch?”

“Yeah, sure, why?”

“I want to try something and I want you to time me,” Noel said, then he put himself in a position as if he were going to run a race, “Ready, go!”

Noel then ran to the dumpster, made two mime kicks, then pretended to push someone to the ground, kicked downward, went back to the dumpster, then did a mime of pulling then throwing to the ground another person, kicking downward again, he returned to the first area, knelt down, then to the second area, knelt down, walked to the cross section of the alley where he first started, stopped for a couple of seconds, and then walked down the direction where David just came from.

“Time!” He shouted.

David looking at his watch smirked and said, “I clocked you at one minute and twenty-two seconds partner”.

“Ah hell,” he said, “She said about a half a minute, she kept telling me how fast he was. It couldn’t have been no thirty seconds”.

David paused for a few seconds then responded, “Unless this guy has been trained in this sort of thing, maybe even has done it before”.

“What do you mean?” Noel asked.

“I mean, there are guys out there who could do something like this as fast as the girl said, just ask Captain X,” David answered, referring to “The Big Boss” by his other nickname. Captain Michael Xiang was an American of Chinese decent. “He could tell you that a guy, even a girl for that matter, properly trained could pull something like that off with that type of speed. Captain X is a master black belt in Kung-Fu himself. He could tell you, anyone trained in the martial arts, or in the arts of war, could pull off an attack like this”.

“You mean like a ninja or Shaolin monk?” Noel asked.

“Sure, or even a guy whose in special forces, you know, the Green Berets or Navy SEALS,” David continued, “they could pull off a stunt like this”.

“That is some scary shit man”.

“But,” David said, standing up straight, “I’m going to take one more look down here, one step at a time. The uniforms are looking for anyone in the buildings who may have seen or heard anything. I got them checking the buildings on both sides here,” he said pointing down the alleyway, “my concern isn’t for any ‘dark man’ right now. I want to get all these blood and tooth samples checked out, then I want to call the other victims and arrange for them all to look at those two bozos. My gut feeling? We’re going to be batting a thousand when the other victims see their faces”.

“Plus the DNA matches,” Noel added, “with the samples we have here, and from the girl, compared with all the others? Well, it looks like it may be over”.

David nodded in agreement, “Back in a few,” he said as he started to make his third trip down the alley where the “dark man” had made his escape. He did just as he said he would, one-step at a time, looking for anything that may have been left behind by the “dark man.” Looking at the asphalt, the walls of the buildings, and the windows where someone who lived in buildings down the alleyway may have caught a glimpse of him as he strolled calmly away.

He thought to himself of why he was even looking anyway. This “dark man” had done him, his partner, the victims, and the entire female population of Chicago and the surrounding areas a huge justice. For over three years, those two dirt bags lying in Cook County Hospital terrorized them all, and what of the victims themselves? Especially those who were attacked first. All this time living the way they have, in fear, feeling humiliated, violated, scared, having their comfort and security destroyed. Some even had their marriages end, or their boyfriends walk out on them. Now that they have been caught, can they put finally find some way to put their lives back together?

David reached the end of the alley and was on the sidewalk. He looked both right and left to the apartments, homes, and tri-level homes. He looked straight ahead across the street to see the alleyway there continue for blocks. Whomever the “dark man’ was, he had a thousand ways to go after he came to this point. Therefore, David turned around and began to make his way back to the initial area. He now thought of all of the evidence that he was able to pile onto to the two men lying in the hospital. “Yes,” he thought to himself, “with all we got, quick trail, life sentences for both, move on to the next case.” He now seemed to feel some gratitude towards the mysterious “dark man”, for helping to finally bring an end to this all.

As he made his way back to Noel, He planned on going over the area one last time, check out notes, and see if the uniforms had any information to add from the people of the neighborhood. When he came up to Noel he said, “Still nothing. Anyways let’s get back to the real bad guys here”.

“Seems like we forgot about them,” Noel said, agreeing with him, “The ‘dark man’ is another case for someone else. I say we secure this area, get back to the office, call the other victims, and arrange for them to identify these two fucks.”

“Yeah, get the DNA evidence all together from the other victims along with the girl last night, and if things work out as well as I think they may, we’re gonna be the icing on the cake for those two jag offs. If they think they’re fucked up now, wait ‘til all this is over”.

They both spent the next forty minutes going over everything again in the area. They met with all of the uniform officers to collect their interviews with the people from the neighborhood. David then asked Noel, “Why don’t you get in touch with Cook County and see how our two sweethearts are doing?”

“I got my flip phone in the car; I’ll give them a quick buzz over there.” Noel said, and then left the alley to go to where their car was parked, at the entranceway where Stephanie Morris collapsed the night before. David spent a couple more minutes surveying the area, the alleyways, and then back to the dumpster where “it” happened. Satisfied that both their jobs were finished there, he then to began to leave the alley towards the car. 

As he came to the entrance, he looked to see Noel inside the car behind the steering wheel, speaking into the gray Motorola flip phone that began to become standard issue among police officers. Noel seemed a little agitated as he was speaking to whoever it was on the other end. David went to the driver’s side of the car, tapped on the window and motioned to Noel to roll it down. He wanted to hear what the conversation was all about. As the window came down he heard Noel say, “But I’m one of the arresting officers!”

There was a pause, Noel looked up to David and gave a shrug of his shoulders, then said into the phone, “I know, I know miss. Tell you what; we’ll both be down there ourselves to take care of this, OK? No, I understand. It’s not your fault. Don’t worry. Thank you very much.” He then flipped the phone shut and disconnected.

“What’s going on?” David asked.

“You are not going to believe who decided to get involved in this”.

“Who?”

“Leon Robbins.”

“Leon Robbins!” David exclaimed. “What the hell does he want with these guys? Wait a minute! That . . . was a stupid question”.

Leon Robbins is an activist lawyer. People said of him that he leaned so far to the left that he was lying down. That he was so radical, that even the American Civil Liberties Union themselves thought he was out of touch. However, Leon Robbins was always out for Leon Robbins. While people made jokes about lawyers chasing ambulances, they made them on how Leon chased news trucks and their cameras. With Leon, it didn’t matter if they were guilty or not, it was the police and society in general that was at fault. And, as long as there was a microphone, TV camera, or a journalist ready to print his statements, and more important, to spell his name correctly, he was there to let the people of the world know how much they were liable for the actions of his clients. Leon loved to hear himself speak, which was great considering what his real ambition was, - - - a future in politics.

“The nurse on the floor told me that he’s been there since seven this morning,” Noel said, “and that he is going to represent our two buddies there. He threatened the whole medical staff with lawsuits if they released any information about ‘his clients’ condition to anyone, including us”.

“So, he bullied them a little huh?” David said, “If I know Leon, he’ll have already called for a news conference there at the hospital. Let’s see, the police are at fault, these ‘poor men’ are victims of an evil capitalist society, oh, then there’s my favorite about that they had a bad childhood”.

“Who didn’t?” Noel asked sarcastically.

“Well, let’s get down there and save the medical staff. He’s probably demanding that all the other patients be moved because they are all undercover cops”. David then went to the passenger side of the car, opened the door and sat down hard. “I shouldn’t have done it,” he said as he slammed the door shut.

“Done what?” Noel asked as he started the engine.

“I shouldn’t have started thinking how easy this was now all going to be.” He said. As the car pulled away from the curb, David looked down the alley once more where “it” happened. He felt now how this placed would be marked forever. They both sat in the car quietly as they traveled towards the expressway. Soon they were both taking the onramp and on their way to Cook County Hospital. David then picked up the flip phone from the recharging rack.

“I’m gonna call the Big Boss,” He said, and began dialing, after dialing he placed the phone to his ear, “I’m gonna ask him to get something started for us before we get there.”