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“Just my luck, I have place all these Halloween decorations, it would just be easier to just focus on taking the kids trick or treating it as my only chore.” Deacon as he was carrying the Halloween decorations down the stairs.
“Well, you know the drill when you joined the neighborhood council, at least every month there is another neighbor that has to host a holiday party.” said Annie.
“Why don't you have someone else do it, like Hickerson, he’s always trying to brag, he’s annoying with his money, but at least it takes off the job on me.” Deacon suggested.
“That’s because it isn’t Mr. Hickerson, he did Easter.”
Deacon made a face, he really hates having to prepare for a party, he has to get the decorations, then he gotta get the food, cook the food, make the guest list and then call people to confirm their attendance. At this point, there needs to be a job for him to be an event planner because he’s an expert in all the tasks he keeps up. However, anything to make the wife happy. Happy wife, happy life.
That night the neighborhood all gathered at the Kays for the Halloween party, while Annie was inside with the guests, Deacon was handling some last minute yard work. As he was working in his yard, he noticed a child walking around the neighborhood. He examined the child closely and noticed the it was the child that hasn’t seen in the avenue before.
“Can I help you?” he called, the child turned to Deacon. “I’m lost, I’m trying to find my way home.”
“Where do you live?” Deacon asked.
“I dont know, I don’t go out much, my mom goes out alot, I just stay in the house. This is first time going out far from where I lived.”
Deacon grinned, “Come with me, I’ll help you find where you live.”
The child hesitated, sensing his hesitation Deacon showed the child his badge, “It’s okay, I am part of SWAT, I am here to help you.” learning his status, the child felt more safe, indicating offer to help, the child took Deacon’s hand and follows him.
Hours after the party ended, Annie entered into the backyard to search for Deacon.
“What happened? I didn’t see you at the end of the party?”
“I had something to do at the shed,”
“The shed?”
Deacon leads Annie to the shed, he opens the door to expose the child he picked earlier from the yard.
“Well you look at that, he looks 10 years old too. We'll get a lot of money for this one.”
“He at least looks to be 10 years old.”
“That’s perfect, one of our buyers has been pying for a 10 year old.”
“Cannibal or Slavery?”
“Cannibal, and the younger the better, the more we get in profit.”
“The young ones seem to be popular these days.”
The child struggled to be released, wiggling through the rope, he made sounds pleading through the cloth to be let go. Annie opens the cloth,
“Please, let me go! I just wanna go home!”
“Honey, you are going home,” Annie tells the child in a motherly tone, “You won’t have to deal with anymore, anymore.”
“Please, I just want my mommy!”
“You got the knife?”
Deacon hands her the knife, “You know I’m always prepared.” the child makes one last plead, “Please! Please! Mo-”
Silence.
The next day Deacon enters into work, inside he enters into the monitor room meeting the others for their ongoing.
“This is sick! Who would take a bunch of kids and do this?” said Luca in disgust.
“And these kids that are taken? These ones are ones from homes where their neglected or homeless?” asked Hondo as he searched to the data on the screen.
“The kids that aren’t going to be missed, it makes it easier for the culprit to not be caught.” Street added as he placed more information the screen. “The crazy part is that when we interviewed the homeless man yesterday, it has been going on for the last year, completely under the city radar.”
“I don’t think it’s because it was under radar, I think it was just ignored, there’s no way that kids can just go missing for an entire year and no one would notice it.” said Hondo.
“I mean if they are homeless or neglected kids, it’s possible.” said Street, “The society probably sees them as a burden, and they don’t have to deal with them.”
Deacon sip his coffee slowly studying the kids on the screen, all of them familiar faces from the past year that he and Annie encountered. The team has been obsessively looking for the last year for these kids, and none of them have a clue where they might be, driving them to brink of losing it. They needed to find the culprit before anymore children go missing, all the while the suspect is right beside them.
“Let’s just hope these kids get the chance to go home,” said Deacon,
“It’s not like they have much of home, these are kids that are deserted by society.” said Luca.
That day Deacon made his way home back from work, as he was driving he noticed a child walking down this block, upon a closer look, he saw it was the child of the Hickerson’s. The stopped his car as he came closing to the child, “Hello Charlie!” greeted Deacon.
“Hello Mr. Kay,”
Deacon examined the child, noticing his Sonic backpack, taking note of image on the bag, he began a conversation with the child.
“Hey I noticed Sonic on your backpack, you a Sonic fan?”
“Yeah,”
“Why don’t you say come by, I have Sonic materials that you may like,”
“I don’t Mr. Kay, I’m supposed to come home straight from school, my mom told me there’s a man going around grabbing kids.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, I’m a cop, any bad guy that comes to you, I’ll fight them.”
Charlie gave a small smile, “Thank you, Mr. Kay,”
“Come on, why don't you check the Sonic memorabilia I got, hey, you’ll get to keep all of it Just be sure to not Lylia know.”
“Okay!”
“Alright, let’s go!”
The two made it to the house, entering inside Charlie looking around, “Where is the Sonic memorabilia?”
“I’ll show you, keep going, I’ll lead you there.” Deacon locks the door behind them, he continues to gesture to the child to enter in the basement, “Just down here.”
Deacons the basement door wide entering inside, as Deacon made his way inside, a feeling crept in Charlie.
“I think I should go home Mr.Kay.”
“Come on were almost there, don’t you want some merchandise?”
Charlie was hesitant, “It’s alright Charlie, it’s quick I promise.” Deacon opened space to let Charile through, Charlie obliged walking down the basement. The young boy scanned around the area looking for the toys that were promised.
“Where is it Mr.Kay?”
“Just keep looking it’s under those toys,” Deacon picks up an ax nearby, “I’m not seeing it Mr.Kay-”
Before the child could inquire more information, he collapsed on the ground dying almost instantly with a head injury, blood began oozing out onto the floor. Deacon crouched down looking at the dead child intently, “You’re safe now, you’ll join the others soon.”
@@@@@@@@@@@@
“Any luck with the group home director?” asked Chris when Street and Tan walked into the station.
“Nothing, she hasn’t seen anything suspicious, she says it’s common for the kids on the streets to disappear all the time.” said Street, “It shouldn’t be normal to be honest, but that’s the life of the unfortunate.”
“Or it could be they just don’t care, it seems anyone we interview, ethier don’t notice, or don’t really seem to care. They are just government checks, nothing more.” Tan chimed
“Those poor kids,” said Deacon, “I can feel sad for them, I mean I got kids you know.”
“Yeah, these kinds of cases hit the hardest.” said Chris.
“Hey guys,” Luca interrupted, “They found a body…”
“They did? Who?”
“It’s a child.” the team faces sunk, this case just dreadful, whoever is doing has just snatched any safety that kids were supposed to feel in this world.
“Alright, Street, Tan, you dig into the information you found the directors you interview, see if there might be might in the statement. Chris, continue looking into the victims files, see if there’s something we may be missing from autopsies. I’ll go with Hondo to check out the body.”
“Roger!”
Deacon and Hondo arrived at the scene, they were greeted by Detective Burrows, “Sergeant Harrelson, Sergeant Kay,”
“Detective Burrows,” said Hondo, “Who do we have here?”
“We haven’t found the name of the victim, I’m having my men digging through the missing person’s data files, but in the meantime.”
Burrow lifted the blanket that was uncovering the small corpse, it was a child, no less than 12 years old.
“My god..” Hondo couldn’t even muster the words to describe the situation, “I know.” Burrows responded.
Deacon began gagging, rushing over to the nearest bush to empty in from his guts. Hondo went over to check on his friend, “Are you okay there Deac?”
Deacon wiped his mouth, “I’m fine, it’s just…”
Hondo placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “Hey man, I get it.”
“I don’t think this job has ever gotten any easier, no matter how long I worked at it.”
“I don't think it ever does. These kinds of things are not something people get used to overtime, it just reinforces the evil that lives among us.”
“I became a cop to keep them from happening, it just seems like it doesn’t end at all, like it’s not enough.”
“Hey, what your doing is more than enough, we just have a messed up world that creates criminals constantly, making it difficult to make it a safe world for us.”
Deacon let out a deep sigh, “I really feel sorry for whoever that kid’s parent is.”
“Are you going to be okay or do you need a minute?”
“Nah, I’m good, let’s continue.”
“Okay,” the men head over to meet with Burrows once more, “You good there Sergeant?” Burrows asked,
“I’m okay, I just reflex that’s all,”
“Well I hope you can stomach the next revelation, because I just got a call back from one of my officers who were looking through the data of the missing person report and found that the corpse goes by the name of Charlie Hickerson. The description that was given fit the exactly to the body we found”
“I thought it looked familiar,” said Deacon, “Oh yeah?”
“I knew his parents, our kids go to the same school together, they are Annie’s and I’s neighbors”
“Oh well, they are going to be crushed, because not only did their child die, it was their only child, after the mother had him, she couldn’t have anymore children.” Burrows explained. “I hate this part of the job, having to inform the next of kin of their deceased love one.”
“Maybe I should do it Burrows, I’m close to them, I think it would be better if they hear from me.”
“Alright, go for it, I don’t think I’ll be able to have the strength to tell them that their child is dead.”
Back to HQ
“We found the idenity of the victim, he was named Charlie Hickerson, 10 years old,” said Hondo, “That’s so young,” said Chris, “Life cut short before it even started.”
“That’s why we need to really catch the guy before he takes anymore kids, the more time we stall the more bodies that being piled.” said Hondo.
“Even with the witnesses, we still don’t have evidence, these are people who are unclaimed, if they don’t have anyone to claim them, they we don’t have a trace.” said Luca.
“Well the body we found has at least a clue, even though it did cost a life, now we just need to do the autopsy and we can find out how he died.” said Hondo. “I’m going to tell Hicks what we got so far, you guys continue looking into the backgrounds more, see what we might be missing.”
Luca looked at the pictures, “What do you guys think it is?”
“A killer upset about childhood trauma or just plain evil, it can go either way.” said Chris.
“Well, there’s that, but I’m talking the kid here in the pictures, there’s a big wound on his head, I have seen scars, but this one is like he wanted to wipe the kid off the earth.” said Luca
“Just because he was struck with an ax.” Deacon said without realizing he spoke his thoughts out loud , Luca looked at Deacon puzzled.
“How do you know the weapon was an ax?”
Deacon paused, realizing what he said, he backtracked, “It’s a theory, I’m thinking it could be an ax with the way the wounds looked.”
Luca studied Deacon, it didn’t know what it was but that statement gave Luca a weird feeling, that’s info the killer would know.
444444444
“Hey Hondo do you have a min?” asked Luca entering the lunchroom.
“Yeah what's up?”
“Have you noticed anything werid about Deacon?”
“Not really, why?”
“I don't know he said some that just came out of no where, something I wouldn't expect from him.”
“What did he did say?”
“Well we were talking about the pictures of the victim, and made mention of about ax being the weapon that cause the death of the victim.”
“Maybe it was theory,”
“But that's the thing, he said that after I asked him how he knew it was an ax, it's almost like he was trying to backtrack what he said. Hondo that's information only the killer would know.”
Hondo pondered, “Its not like him, maybe you could take it too seriously, since this case everyone haven't been sleeping as much.”
“I don't think that's what it is Hondo, I'm telling you there's something off about him.”
“How about this, I'll talk to him and see what's up, I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding.”
“What's a misunderstanding?”
The two men jumped as they Deacon walk in. “Oh where just talking about the case; we noticed something about the case it was noticed some werid things about it.” answered Hondo.
Deacon took a sipped his coffee, “Yeah messed up ain't it, some manaic is going around hurting kids, it really makes you think.”
Luca excused himself, “I'm going to check on Street, see if he found anything.”
Luca walked out leaving Hondo to discuss with Deacon, “Hey Deacon, I have noticed there's been a shift in you, is everything okay with you?”
Deacon looked at Hondo, “Yeah, why wouldn't I be?”
“I just thought I ask, because I was worried about you.”
“Nope, everything is good with me, if anything it's the stress from the case, but other than that. Everything is peachy.”
Hondo examined Deacon, he knows that there's something but he can't pin anything. For now he'll just have to watch from the far.
“Alright, you let know if there's something that you want to talk to me about. You know I'm all ears.”
“Of course.”
Hondo left the lunch room leaving Deacon alone with his thoughts.
One night, Luca receives a phone, looking down at his ringing phone he noticed that it was Deacon calling him.
“This is Luca.”
“Hey Luca, it's Deacon, how are you?”
“I'm fine, are you okay it's not like you to call at night you usually settling with Annie,”
“Well not tonight, Annie is with her parents tonight; so I got the house to myself.”
“I bet it's a dream come true for you.”
“Oh for sure, actually if I'm not intruding on your personal time, is it possible you could come over, I actually feel like need someone to talk to you, I feel like this case is getting to me.”
“Sure man of course, um, do you want to bring anything a beer or something?”
“No, no, just yourself, I got the stuff.”
“Alright, I'll be right over.”
Luca hangs up, he suddenly developed a werid feeling over himself. He shook it off, he thought he could be paranoid, he had no idea how right he was.
Arriving at Deacons house, Luca made his way to the door, knocked a few times and waited a few mins; again he knocked once more until Deacon opened the door.
“Hey; sorry about that, come on in.”
“Hey; everything alright? You seem stressed out on the phone.”
“Its just this case man you know, come over I'm working on something in the living room come join me.”
“Sure.”
Deacon made his way to the living with Luca following him, while following his friend, Luca noticed the basement door. Something nudging to look inside.
“You know I just realized that I'm missing a tool, I'm going to get in the car garage, can you give me a minute?”
“Oh sure; do what you need to do man,”
Deacon leaves the living room leaving Luca alone, waiting for Deacon to make his way to the garage; he took it as a signal to look into the basement.
Luca crept to the basement, looking around the basement, he started ti investigate the materials until he hit a thump of a bag hit the floor.
Startled he took a moment, then he looked closely to the bag; he shifted around the bag until he found an opening. He unzipped the bag causing a small to fall arm to fall out. He opened the bag wider revealing a small child inside the bag, shocked, fell back hitting a person behind.
“You shouldn't have done that.”
He turned over to see Annie with a gun pointed at him.
“Annie! I thought-”
“I'm at my moms, no, see that I had a feeling you would start snooping around, you have this where you don't mind your business. It's often irrating and making harder for people me to make business.”
“Business? What your doing is illegal!”
“Sure, when the government does it, it's okay but ordinary people like it's a crime.”
“Don't try to twist it! Does Deacon know about this!?”
“Know what?”
Luca turned over to see Deacon desecending down the basement stairs, “Your wife selling bodies! The murders!”
“Oh…that, hmmm, I'm starting to see why my wife thought you might be an issue.”
“What?!”
“Thats why I called you over, you started sticking your nose where it didn't belong, of course I wanted to give you a chance, but of course you just couldn't mind your own business.”
Deacon lands a punch to Lucas face, knocking him over to a pile of bags causing bodies to tumble out. “Ugh, now look what you made me do, I have to kill you and clean up a whole mess.”
“You asshole, those were fucking kids!”
“Kids that were burdening society, it's not like people cared if they went missing, less children, less money to go out.”
Luca was disgusted, he couldn't believe the person in front of him; all those moments where he felt something dark about Deacon, but he didn't want to believe it.
"What about Charlie? What was about? he didn't fit into the profile of the victims you kill?"
"Oh, him, that was because we could, no reason, I mean if the world couldn't careless about the homeless kids, what made you think they care about any child, the incompetence was making it too easy."
Luca felt his teeth grind with anger, they just mocking the lives they are destroying and the fear among the city they are creating. And for what, other the greed and just plain maliciousness.
“You're not going to get away with it.”
“Really Luca? We been at it for a year and yet know has bothered to look into it, besides 20 David squad, which I honestly wish you would all but out of it.” Said Annie with a smirk.
Luca made an attempt to grab the gun, but was knocked down by Deacon. He made another attempted, once again he was dropped kicked to the ground.
“Just make it easy for yourself Luca, you know that your not going to win this battle.”
“You right I won't but the team will bring you down.”
“They are welcome too, but if they are any smart, they would stay out of it.”
Deacon clocks his gun once more to Luca's head, “It's shame you couldn't mind your business Luca, you would have lived longer, but me and Annie can't afford to have our deception unveiled.”
From the house echoed a single shot, landing with silence that follows.
5 weeks later, at headquarters, Hondo was shifting through the paper, trying to make sense of Luca's disappearance. It wasn't like him to just vanish to thin air, not to mention, that every time a person goes missing, the longer it takes the find them, the likelyhood they would be alive. He didn't want to believe it that Luca was gone, but he did have think of the worse case scenario
“Hey Hondo, there's been discovery of body.” Street alerted Hondo.
“Who?”
Streets was silent, by the look on face, Hondo knew, he didn't want to believe it but there was chance. The Sergeant made his way to the scene, to discover Luca's body laying there which the single wound in the middle of his forehead.
Hondo felt himself choke, he had seen many bodies but this one, this one really took the cake. It wasn't just anybody, it was love one, a friend.
“Anything idea on what it might be? Any fights recently that he had?” He asked trying to keep his composure.
“No…to be honest, I think it was a hit. It wasn't usually victim profile that we had.” said Street.
“No, but whatever it maybe, he was too close and he was taken out before he got a chance.” said Hondo.
“You mean caught wind of someone's deception.”
“Exactly.”
The men stood there with mystery looming over there heads. Unaware of the deception they have among them.