Playing Their Parts

“Because she didn’t even want to be tied up at first and then after she got the shot, she was begging for him to hit her?” Cassie asked.

Amelia nodded.

“She was screaming, ‘hurt me! Hurt me!’ at the top of her lungs. And then…” She bit her lip. “Then he pulled out a knife.”

“Did the girl get upset when she saw the knife?” Cassie asked softly.

Amelia shook her head.

“No, she got excited. She started begging him to cut her.” Her eyes widened. “So he did. He started cutting all up and down her arms and legs and blood was going everywhere but she just kept begging him to cut her more. Like she liked it.”

“Sounds like another effect of whatever it was he shot her up with,” Cassie said, looking up at Stone. Her partner had been mostly silent during this interrogation and she wanted his take on what Amelia was telling them.

“I do not believe it was the blood loss that killed her,” he rumbled. “None of the wounds I saw were very deep.”

“No, she was fine until…” Amelia’s face went pale. “Until he started choking her. But he didn’t start that until after he started, you know, uh, fucking her.” She whispered the word, as though she thought her parents might hear her using bad language.

“So he stopped cutting her long enough to penetrate her?” Cassie said, trying to keep things dry and clinical.

Amelia nodded.

“He was, uh, doing her and she was begging him to do it harder—to hurt her. And then he said, ‘I’ll hurt you, baby,’ and he started to…to choke her.” Amelia’s eyes started to well up, but she somehow kept talking. “And he was choking and choking her and her face was turning blue and then I heard this awful…this awful cracking sound…”

“He broke her neck,” Stone said flatly. His tone was dry, almost detached but Cassie could see the fury in his pale blue eyes. The perp had better watch out if Stone ever got his hands on him. Whether he was human or Kindred, her partner would make him pay for the atrocity in the other room.

“Y-yes. I guess he d-did.” Amelia nodded, and now tears were flowing again. Cassie sighed and put an arm around the girl’s shoulders.

“Okay and then he left?”

“Not before he…he finished.” Amelia’s face had taken on a pale, sickly hue. “He actually kept on after he…he killed her.” She put a hand over her mouth and shook her head. “I still can’t believe he did that.”

“Sick bastard.” Stone’s voice was little more than a growl and Cassie shot him a worried look. He was really angry—furious. She didn’t blame him, actually. Hearing that the perp had actually kept on having sex with his victim after she was dead was enough to make anyone angry and disgusted.

Or sick. Amelia suddenly pushed Cassie’s arm from around her shoulders and ran to the kitchen sink where she was noisily ill.

“Sorry,” she gasped, as she finished. She ran water in the sink and splashed some on her face. “I just…when I told you about it, it was like I saw it all over again.”

“It’s okay,” Cassie assured her. “We understand.” Another thought occurred to her. “Hey, you didn’t happen to catch any of this scene on your phone, did you?” she asked.

Amelia shook her head.

“No, I left it up in my bedroom or I would have called you guys sooner—I swear! I had to wait until The Beast left and I was sure he was really gone before I could go get it.”

Well, it had been worth a shot, Cassie thought.

“Okay,” she said. “So can you tell us when The Beast left, then?”

“Right after he, uh, finished, he cleaned himself up and then he stood there looking at the girl for a minute,” Amelia said. “And he said something like—‘Well, this should make Gozer happy.’”

“Gozer?” Cassie asked. “Who’s that? Maybe another business associate like Frank?”

Amelia shook her head.

“I don’t know—I never heard either of them mention the name before. It just stuck in my head because it sounded so funny. I mean, who has a name like Gozer?”

Cassie glanced at Stone, wondering if it might be a Kindred name, but her partner only shook his head. Apparently he had never heard the name either. She put it in her notes—someone else to check out.

“What happened next?” she asked Amelia. “What did The Beast do?” Clearly he hadn’t even tried to cover his tracks.

“Well…” Amelia frowned. “Then he whistled and the round silver thing with all the lights came flying over to him and then he just…he just left.”

“Guess he decided there was no point trying to take anything with him or clean up the scene,” Cassie said to Stone. “Either he wasn’t worried about being caught or he was leaving a message for someone.”