Part 2
### Chapter 1: Chapter 1
New York Homicide Lieutenant Jack Head received a mysterious coded letter in the post, the 3rd of its type. He knows he has 48 hours to break the cipher, or just like the previous two letters, there will be a third murder victim on his conscience. But Jack quickly learns that murder victims will be the least of his problems.
Complete Chapters 37
Rating 4.7 ( 125 reviews ) Age Rating mature
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Chapter 1
It was only mid-afternoon but Lieutenant Jack Head, affectionately known as “Jobs” to his colleagues, had slumped forward onto his desk and drifted off. With his forearm cradling his head, he was barely visible among the towering files and records that occupied any available desk space.
Jack’s right hand still held the single page, typed letter on lemon yellow paper, he was reading before he nodded off. A letter of similar contents, also on lemon yellow paper, sat on the desk beside his resting head.
Hours of reviewing and revisiting evidence, countless nights lying awake replaying everything over and over in his mind, continually wondering what he had missed, had finally caught up with him and he unknowingly drifted off into a much-needed power nap.
The venetian blind on the back of Jack’s office door rattled when the door was aggressively swung open. A distressed voice alerted, ‘Jobs…you’re not going to believe it… You’ve just got another one.’
Jack’s head snapped up from his slumber. His wide eyes held a vague stare. ‘Huh…?’ he said. His senses slowly awoke, but were still numbed.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, as he scanned the office, trying to recall where he was.
‘We just got another fucking letter Jobs… Same as the others – from this “CK”,’ Doug Spencer said.
Jack’s partner had just delivered the disturbing news Jack did not want to hear.
Spence slid two clear plastic evidence bags onto Jack’s cluttered desk. Jack eyes fell heavily to the evidence bags.
A single page letter on lemon yellow colored paper was visible inside one of the bags. Jack’s bloodshot eyes lifted to Spence. Spence’s usual jovial expression, normally presenting a rosy red hue, was now ashen and etched with genuine concern.
‘I’ve only just opened it now. It arrived with the day’s mail,’ Spence announced.
Jack rolled his eyes as he fell back into his chair, causing it recline back at forty-five degrees. He exhaled long and hard.
Although the events of recent times suggested to him this letter, the 3rd of its type, was probably imminent, it was certainly not something he wanted to receive.
‘You’re fucking kidding me,’ Jack said. His eyes lifted to the ceiling, while he processed this latest news. ‘The time between letters is reducing.’ Jack interlocked his fingers behind his head.
‘What is it with this guy and these letters…?’ Spence asked, somewhat rhetorically. ‘I’ll tell you one thing, Jobs…He’s a twisted fuck who’s playing games with people’s lives.’
Jack sat forward and lifted the evidence bag with the letter. ‘OK…’ he scanned the contents. ‘Appears to be same as the others...’ Jack said. ‘Crossword clues and a heap of numbers and shit…’
Jack shook his head as he scanned the letter. Like the letters before this one, he had no idea what they meant.
‘We’ll get him Jack… He’ll fuck up, and when he does…we’ll pounce.’
Jack admired his partner’s glass-half-full confidence, but it was not an emotion he readily shared.
‘Yeah, but how many more have to die in the meantime, Spence?’
His eyes flicked to the whiteboard standing to his left. The smiling faces of two young white females stared back at him. Their eyes appeared to meet his helpless gaze from the ten-by-eight-inch photographs; enlargements from photos taken during much happier times.
The girls, both prostitutes, were found murdered five weeks apart. Considerable force had been used to snap their necks at the C2–C3 cervical vertebrae. Below each photograph was a graphic crime scene photograph, as well as known details of their murders.
Positioned below all that was a copy of a typed letter on lemon yellow paper, addressed to him and containing some sort of cryptic message, or clues. Both letters were like the one he just received.
Jack received the first mysterious cryptic letter eight weeks ago, but he had no clue as to what the letter meant, or why he received it. Forty-eight hours later, the body of the first victim, a young female prostitute from the Lower East Side, was found under the Williamsburg Bridge.
At this early stage, Jack had no reason to link his receipt of the first random letter to this brutal murder. He had no idea it was a warning that someone would die. And he certainly had no idea the letter contained a clue to where the victim’s body would be dumped.
When Jack received a second puzzling cryptic letter addressed to him, five weeks after the first, followed forty-eight hours later by the murder of another prostitute, he was able to associate the murders to the mystery letters he received from someone who signed each letter with -“CK”. But he had no idea as to the killer’s motive, or why the killer involved him.
He knew all too well from the last two murders that the time of death for each girl was estimated at around forty-eight hours after he received a letter containing cryptic clues on lemon yellow paper. The clock was ticking.
Jack’s focus returned to the letter and envelope in the evidence bag. ‘Anything on the envelope…?’ Jack said.
‘Haven’t checked, but I doubt it. It is the same as the others. Sealed with Sellotape…So there won’t be any saliva DNA,’ Spence said.
‘Every man and his dog from the mail sorting center to the postal delivery person would have handled the envelope by now,’ Jack said. ’What about the letter…? You said you opened it?’
Spence slid into the visitor’s chair opposite Jack. He exhaled as he reclined back. ‘I did. It was on my desk with all the other mail…’ Spence said. ‘When I opened the envelope and saw the lemon-yellow paper inside, I gotta tell ya Jack, my heart sank. I used the tweezers to remove it from the envelope and placed it straight into the evidence bag.’
Jack studied the envelope. ‘The envelope postage franking is the same as the others…’ he noted. ‘Dated two days ago. Sent via Central Post Office.’ Jack’s eyes lifted to Spence. ‘What time do we get the mail here?’
‘OK,’ Jack said. He reclined back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head, as he stared at the ceiling. ‘So, today is the 14th...’ His focus shifted to his partner. ‘That gives us until sometime in the evening of the 16th to work this shit out, or…’ He gestured to his left. ‘We’ll be adding another photograph to this white board.’ Jack straightened his chair. ‘You got a working copy of the letter for me?’
Spence pointed to the copy on the desk. ‘There with the evidence bags.’
Jack lifted the photocopy of the latest letter from his desk and slipped on his reading glasses. ‘This is bullshit isn’t it?’ Jack said. ‘I can read the date on a nickel from a hundred paces, but I can’t read the print on a letter right under my nose without these things. Fuck old age Spence,’ Jack said.
A wry grin emerged at the side of his younger colleague’s face.
Jack commenced to read the letter.
‘What do you think he’s trying to prove Jobs… I mean, by sending you all these coded letters, before he kills his victim?’
Jack failed to respond. He was too focused on the letter to register Spence’s question. He began to read out aloud the opening line of the letter,
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
He removed his glasses and held them in his hand. ‘What the fuck does that mean…?’ Jack blurted. ’Are we the ‘mediocre’ he refers to…? Or are we supposed to be able recognize and acknowledge him , or her as a genius…?’
‘I don’t know Jobs. But he’s got us standing around with our thumbs up our asses at the moment.’
Jack slipped his glasses back on and jiggled the mouse from his desktop computer to awaken it from its sleep mode.
He sat hunched over his computer keyboard as he tapped the quote from the latest letter into the Google web browser.
Jack drummed his fingers on the desk watching, waiting for the results.
‘OK…’ Jack scanned the search results. ‘So, he’s quoting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to us, for some reason.’
‘Why does that name sound familiar...’ Spence said. ‘Wasn’t he a writer, or something...?’
‘Yeah... he was. He’s the one who wrote those Sherlock Holmes detective stories...’
‘Ah right. That’s why the name was familiar,’ Spence scoffed. ‘Literature was never my strong point... I think I slept though most of those classes...’ A smirk filed his face.
‘It says here…’ Jack paused to read from the computer screen. ‘Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes…’ Jack extended a knowing upturned palm. ‘That much we knew...’ He continued reading. ‘Generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger…. Says he died July 1930.’
Jack lifted the copy letter and glanced at it. ‘So our letter writer is quoting literature from murder stories,’ he said. ‘We’re not dealing with an average intelligence here, Spence.’
‘Does it say what book the quote is from…?’
Jack dropped the letter and returned his focus back to his computer screen. ‘Ah…OK, according to this…’ he guided his finger over the screen, ‘it’s from his book titled, “The Valley of Fear”.’
Spence’s eye brows dipped. ‘The Valley of Fear…’ he repeated. ‘Maybe he chose that title because that is what he is trying to turn New York City into,’ Spence said.
Jack shrugged. ‘Who knows?’ Jack gestured to the evidence bags on the desk. ‘Anyway… Clock’s running,’ he said. ’Run these for prints. They’ll be clean, but run ‘em anyway, in case he’s fucked up this time. Check on the grade and quality of paper in this letter and compare it to these two letters.’ Jack jabbed his thumb at the white board.
‘Check the CCTV footage from the post office mail boxes from two days ago,’ he continued. ‘Let’s see if we can find our guy mailing these death letters in the post office security videos.’
‘You realize it was probably mailed from the suburbs and just cleared through Central, Jack.’
‘I’d say that’s exactly what happened, Spence. But until we check it out, we can’t tick it off. OK?’ Jack said.
‘Gotcha.’ Spence retrieved the evidence bags from the cluttered desk and exited the office to attend to his assigned mission.
‘I’ll let the Gnome know about this latest letter,’ Jack said to a departing Spence.
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### Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Nicknamed ‘the Gnome’ because he stood just on, some say just under, five feet tall, Captain Johnson was of slight build with a severe Napoleon Complex to overcompensate for his obvious lack of physique.
Despite being vertically challenged however. he was once tough and relentless, and like Jack, he was head strong and stubborn. The trouble was, Johnson was promoted, and as if overnight, he became strictly by the book. The swearing ceased, the drinking on duty stopped and all crooks were strictly hands off.
Jack often commented how it was like the Gnome had found religion or something. His boss had become a completely different person. As far as Jack was concerned, the new Johnson was only a façade to further his own career, and for that reason, Jack did not trust him.
Jack stared at the copy of the latest letter. He flicked the stubble up the side of his face as he studied the content. He looked for the slightest hint to jump out from the page at him. What are you telling me…?
His broad shoulders slumped slightly. He dropped the letter onto his desk. He had nothing. His eyes flicked to the desk telephone. The last thing he wanted was to report another possible victim to the Gnome.
Jack exhaled deeply then lifted the receiver and dialed the Gnome’s extension. The voice on the other end answered after one ring.
‘Chief, Jack. We just received another coded letter…Yep…No. Today’s mail… Exactly the same… Yeah, clues and numbers... Right, I’ll bring it now.’
Jack replaced the handset. He pushed himself from his chair and stood. He paused to eye the contents of the white board. Why these girls…? Why these letters and risk getting caught…? Why me…?
He scooped up the photocopy of the latest letter from his desk and made his way to the Captain’s office on the 4th floor.
Jack never enjoyed visiting the Gnome’s office, mainly because he usually did so when called to answer some complaint against him, of which there were many, or to receive a grilling over the way he handled a particular matter - never for anything positive.
The elevator dinged then jerked to a stop on the 4th floor. After exiting the elevator Jack made his way towards the Gnome’s office. His eyes scanned the empty hall as he walked.
Everything on the 4th floor seemed bigger and brighter up here. The halls were wider. The temperature was more comfortable and the air even seemed fresher.
The Captain’s office door was open when Jack arrived. Johnson sat at his desk unaware of Jack’s presence until Jack rapped on the door frame. The Gnome looked up from his reading and beckoned Jack to enter.
Jack briefly glanced around as he entered the office. Nothing intimidated Jack, especially not the Gnome, but that still didn’t stop him from feeling uneasy every time he entered this office.
Bathed in an abundance of natural light from a large window, the office was three times the size of Jack’s office. An impressive library of books lined the entire western wall of the office, complete with various legal journals, legislation, case laws and other impressive leather-bound books. Jack was certain eighty percent of the books were for show.
The Gnome’s desk, oversized like the office, was positioned in front of the large window, where he sat with his back to the limited view available from the 4th floor.
His chair was intentionally elevated to a height that enabled him to look down on anyone seated opposite him at the desk. Jack often quipped the Gnome was over compensating for something.
The Captain indicated the chair in front of his desk. ‘Sit,’ he grunted in his usual curt manner. ‘What do we know?’
Jack handed the Gnome the copy of the letter then slid into the visitor’s seat. ‘Same as the other two…’ Jack began. ‘At this stage, if the other two letters are any indication, we’ve got forty-eight hours.’
‘Prints?’ Johnson grunted while his eyes passed over the letter.
’Running ‘em.’ Jack crossed his legs and reclined back in the chair.
Johnson continued to scan the contents of the letter and its cryptic contents. ‘What do we know about this perp? What’s his profile?’ Johnson asked.
‘Not a lot. We know he’s educated. If the ciphers are any indication, he’s more than likely highly intelligent. The opening sentence there…’ He flicked a finger at the Gnome. ’Is a literary quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . Do you know who he is?’ Jack asked. He suspected the Gnome had no idea.
‘If my memory serves me correctly from my high school years.... He is an author, isn’t he?’
’He’s the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. So our guy might be well-read, particularly crime stories. Might even be where he gets his ideas for the murders.’
‘Do we know what relevance this quote has?’
’Not at this stage.’ Jack’s frustration was evident in his tone.
‘Do we know what book the quote is from?’
‘We do,’ Jack said. ‘The Valley of Fear.’
‘Have we looked at the book yet to see if there are any similarities in the book to our murders…?’ The Gnome asked. ‘There may be some clues right there in print.’
‘Not as yet…’ Jack’s response was abrupt and defensive. ‘But we will. We only received the letter ten minutes ago.’
’He’s arrogant. He signs his letters “CK”. We don’t know what these initials refer to, but we call him the Cryptic Killer… as a reference to the cryptic clues in the letters.
‘He kills his victim around forty-eight hours after we receive the letter. All letters are printed on standard lemon-yellow writing paper. The letters all have coded messages, which we haven’t been able to decipher yet. He kills young white prostitutes. He’s probably male and probably fit and athletic because he snaps their necks.’
The Captain eyes remained fixed on the letter while Jack continued with the update.
‘Both of the previous crime scenes were clean,’ Jack continued. ’We don’t know if they were the primary crime scenes, or if the victims were transported and dumped there afterwards. No DNA or trace on the bodies, or at the scenes.
‘No witnesses to the murders, or the dumping of the bodies. Toxicology reports were clean, so the victims were not drugged. No defensive wounds on the girls, which suggested surprise attacks… Lack of bruising suggested they were not abducted, but went willingly with the perp.’
‘They were companion,’ Johnson grunted, without lifting his eyes from reading the letter. ‘Of course they went willingly.’
Jack ignored the interruption. ’All our inquiries to date have got squat. No-one has seen anything. The companion don’t know anything – or if they do, they’re not talking. We don’t know how the bodies were transported, but we presume a vehicle must have been used, even though there was no sign of tracks at either of the dumpsites.
‘This guy’s a ghost. He’s too clean. It makes me wonder…’ Jack said, ‘if this guy has a strong knowledge of law enforcement.’
‘Well everything’s too clean. No DNA, no witnesses, no transfer - perfectly clean crime scenes. Someone with knowledge of the type of evidence we look for, and where we find it, would know how to avoid leaving anything.’
‘Surely you’re not suggesting our perp’s a cop…?’
Jack shrugged. ‘Not necessarily…But we can’t rule anything out yet.’
‘What about our boys from Intelligence …? They been able to come up with anything on these clues?’
‘Police Intelligence…’ Jack scoffed. ‘Oxy Moron,’ he mumbled under his breath. He slid to the front of his seat and leaned his elbows onto the desk. ’They’ve been able to answer most of the crossword clues,’ Jack said. ‘But they’re yet to relate them to all the rows of numbers in the letter. They’ve tried various combinations but –’
‘Right. Where to now?’ The Captain asked.
‘We have to keep trying to break this cipher. We’ve got no choice at this stage. We need to know the connection to the murders…’
‘What about calling in the Feds? Maybe they could help break these codes?’ Johnson said.
‘Not at this time…’ Jack was emphatic. ’This is my case,’ Jack said, sounding more like a spoiled child who did not want to share his toys, rather than a Homicide detective.
Jack was a strong, competitive man and the thought of passing the case over to the Feds would be to him like an admission of failure. He had worked too hard and was too personally involved to just hand the case off and move on to something else.
‘We don’t call them unless we absolutely have to,’ Jack said. Although deep down he knew all too well that if there was a 3rd murder, his decision not to involve the Feds may no longer be his to make.
Johnson removed his reading glasses and gently placed them on the desk in front of himself. He carefully clasped his hands together on the desk. He intentionally paused, probably for effect, before speaking.
‘We go back a long way Jack...’ He said with what was most likely feigned sincerity in his voice. ‘I’m happy to delay as long as I can, but you’re going to have to give me something — and soon, otherwise I won’t have any choice.’ Johnson held up the latest letter. ’If this letter is a prelude to another body — the 3rd in a series — we’re going to have the media screaming “serial killer” and I’m going to have the Mayor all over me like white on rice, wanting to know what we are doing about it.’
‘Understood,’ Jack said. It was hard enough for Jack to accept he had failed to date. He didn’t need the Gnome shoving his failure into his face.
‘What about the media? Anything they could do to help?’
‘I doubt it,’ Jack said. ‘They’ll just create a panic. We’ve got two in the morgue and a possible 3rd threatening. We’re just lucky they haven’t linked these first two together yet.’
‘What about the companion? How are they reacting to two of their own being killed?’
’They’re not letting on. We’ve been down to most of the red light areas spreading the word. Telling ’em to keep an eye out for one another and to take care with their Johns.
‘Understandably we weren’t well received. Hopefully someone remembers seeing something or someone unusual.’
‘Keep me posted…That’ll be all.’ Johnson arrogantly waved the back of his hand at Jack.
Jack held his disapproving glower at Johnson as he pushed himself from his seat. In a sweeping motion, he collected the letter off the desk and left the office without uttering another word.
He knew things were looking hopeless and it was not a feeling he was familiar with.
When the doors sprung open at the ground floor, Jack exited the elevator making his way back to his office. His stride was long and determined. He glanced into the small kitchen as he walked by the open doorway. He noticed Spence inside making himself a coffee, so he back-tracked to the kitchen door.
’Got anything for me Spence? Jack asked, as he entered the kitchen.
Spence checked over a shoulder. ‘Jobs. Hey. Coffee…?’
‘Nah I need something much stronger than that.’
‘You and me both, Jobs. You and me both.’
Jack watched Spence add milk and four tea spoons of sugar to his cup then take a sip from his freshly prepared brew. ‘Argh… this is shit,’ he said, while examining his cup. Why do they call this coffee?’ He asked rhetorically.
A rare half smirk briefly appeared on the side of Jack’s face, then disappeared just as quick. ‘Maybe your question should be… Why do you keep drinking it?’ Jack said.
‘Ya got anything for me?’ Jack repeated.
Spence shook his head. ‘Nothing Jobs… As expected, the letter is clean, and nada on the video footage. The letter paper is a generic quality available in over 2500 outlets across the country.’
Jack’s eyes lowered to the floor in contemplation. He flicked the stubble on his chin.
‘The boys in intelligence are looking at all three letters now, so there is not much more we can do at this stage, Jack,’ Spence said.
Jack leaned against the wall with his hands supporting his butt. ‘The gnome suggested bringing in the media… What do you think?’ Jack said.
‘Not a good idea, Jobs.’ Spence said, then sipped his coffee.
‘But what if someone recognized the type of code used, or the quotes. Or maybe someone knows someone who did this cryptic letter shit, for fun?’ Jack said.
‘Yeah, but what about the panic it could cause. Two dead, a third now threatened... Doesn’t matter that he’s killing companion… Everyone will be worried, in case they’re next.’
‘Yeah, I know… That’s what I told the Gnome,’ Jack said. ‘I don’t want them involved either… I’m just running out of ideas.’
Both men were a little disheartened as they exited the kitchen on their way back to Jack’s office to consider their next options.
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