Craze

x

Now:
Riley

     "I swear to God if you don't let me go my people will find you and KILL YOU!" The man screamed. I watched as Xan slowly walked in circles around the tied up man on the floor.
     "Tsk, tsk, Mr. Downy, threatening me won't do anything, although I appreciate the kind words," Xan grinned at him and came to stand beside me, leaning against the wooden table.
     "Please, kid. If you let me go I'll get you the damn money!" He pleaded again.
     "Mr. Downy, do you think I've gotten to where I am today by being lenient?" He stressed the word. "No.. No, you see it's quite the opposite really. I gave you a chance to repay me, and you, well you metaphorically and physically spat in my face," Xan shoved himself forward so he was right in front of the kneeling man.
     "I'm one of the most respected men in this town! If I die people will start talking and it'll all point to you!" The man was seething with anger at this point. Xan laughed and looked back at me.
     "That's the point, you pompous idiot. As soon as we're done with you, we'll move on to the next one," Xan spoke slowly to make sure his words sunk in. "No one will bat an eye when you're gone."
     "This town needs me! You people think you're so special because you're different! Well guess what?! You're all freaks!" Downy shouted, saliva flying everywhere. Xan grinned again, watching Mr. Downy writhe on the floor, desperately struggling to untie himself. He made his way over to me again and stood in between my dangling legs, still facing Downy.
     "Slam your head on the floor," he commanded. Mr. Downy looked at him like he was insane, but slammed his head straight onto the concrete ground. As he lifted his head up, a line of blood began to trickle down his face. "Now, stop struggling, you look pathetic." Mr. Downy immediately stopped moving, a look of absolute terror on his face.
"I lived next to you for years!" He aimed his curses at me now. "You and your insane family drove me crazy! I never once regretted giving you over! You're a freak!!" Downy cried. He shifted his tied up body towards Xan again. "You and your nasty little girl friend are freaks!"
     And that that been the point of no return. No longer was this a game to Xan, it was real. Xander shoved himself away from me and slammed his foot down onto Mr. Downy's face, an agonizing scream erupting from the old man's mouth.
     "I want you to look at her and apologize," Xan growled. Mr. Downy continued to scream in pain as blood poured out of his mouth, a few teeth falling out with it. "APOLOGIZE!" Xan screamed, the blood vessels in his neck popping out. Mr. Downy tried desperately to mouth 'Sorry' but the only thing that came out was a gargled cough. Xan turned around so quickly it startled me.
     "Ri, did you catch that?" he asked me, much more gently than he was with Mr. Downy. The old man clawed at his mouth, whimpering non-stop.
     "Xan, that's enough," I finally had to look away. I could feel him staring at me, whether it was confusion or anger, I didn't know. "I'm bored and he's grossing me out," I added. Before he could shout or do anything else, the door to the office flew open.
     "We have visitors," Manny said. Blood was splattered all across his shift and he looked quite literally worn out.
Manny was my favorite of Xan's men. He had taken care me from the start of it all.
     "I'm sorry I have to cut our meeting so short, Mr. Downy, but I have to run now," Xan nodded at the man, then held out his hand, helping me off of the table. He wrapped his arm around my waist and we stood there watching him for a moment.
     "Finish us off, Ri," Xan whispered, pulling me impossibly closer. I stared for a few more seconds before I closed my eyes, hearing the familiar gasp, then the quick snap that followed. Xan slapped a quick sloppy kiss to my cheek and quickly got us out of the room. "Manny, clean up for us, will you?"
     "'Course," Manny nodded at his boss and shut the door as we walked out. We ran down the stairs of the old warehouse, only stopping once to kiss, and out to the deserted car park where the van was waiting. We splashed into puddles and Xan threw his jacket over my head to keep the rain away. The last thing I heard before he slammed the car door behind him was the familiar song of police sirens.

*********************************
Casey

I stood in front of the doorbell for several minutes before I finally made myself push the button. It only took a few seconds before the door opened, revealing a small elderly woman with a newspaper in her hand.
"Hello," she smiled hesitantly at me.
"Hi, is this the Downy residence?" I asked and she nodded. "Mrs. Downy, my name is Casey, I work for the QPD." Her eyes widened but she stood firm in the old doorway.
"What can I help you with dear?"
"It's about your husband.." I replied awkwardly, not knowing the right words to say.
"Is Martin alright?" She asked quietly.
"May I come in?" I asked gently.
"What happened to him?" She stood up straight and glared at me, all of the sweet pretenses gone.
"Martin was... was taken from his office this morning. We him found dead this afternoon," I blurted out, my heart racing. The sweet old woman said nothing, she just stared at me, tears forming in her eyes.
  "Mrs. Downy, I'm so sorry," I sighed.
"Please," she moved aside to let me in the door. We sat across from each other in the small living room. "Tell me how it happened.."
"Well, the security tape at his office showed him walking in, but then it was cut. Someone must have tampered with it. Fortunately, there was a traffic cam set up across the street that showed him being dragged out by masked men.. Your husband was found in the old hardware warehouse on the end of 19th after a local resident called the department with a noise complaint," The words came out before I could even think of them. Was I even allowed to tell her this much? I tried to choose my worlds wisely, the woman's husband had just been brutally murdered and as of now, we had no suspects. Why couldn't they have asked an actual cop to do this?
"Have you caught his murderer?" she asked weakly, her hands shaking violently by her sides.
"Um, not exactly, but we're doing everything we can. If you could answer a few questions for me, it would be extremely helpful.. Would you be okay with that?" I asked quietly. After a moment of silence, she nodded and finally looked up at me.
"Well, I guess the first question would be if he had any enemies, or anybody he could have possibly angered."
"Martin wasn't very well liked in general, Miss..?" She stopped to look at my name tag, apparently already forgetting my name.
"Agent Moore," I told her.
"Yes, agent Moore.. His new project for the reconstruction of downtown wasn't very popular," she said as she tried to wipe away the constant stream of tears flowing down her face.
"There was no on in particular that you can think of? Did he owe money to anyone?" I prompted with the usual questions.
"Martin kept a lot of things to himself," she said finally. We sat in silence for a long time before she cleared her throat and looked up at me expectantly.
"Well, thank you. I know this is hard, Mrs. Downy, but I promise you we're going to find out who did this," I stood up and awkwardly tried to console her with a hug and left without another word.
This was the third murder in two weeks and we had no leads, no witnesses, no nothing. All rich and powerful within the city, all their secrets hidden away.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed the familiar number.
"Moore, how did it go?" Waters voice boomed through the tiny phone speaker.
"She doesn't know anything. Apparently he brought his secrets to the grave," I muttered as I climbed into the front seat of the car and turned the engine on.
"That's just great," I heard something crash in the background. "I want you to go to Mystic tonight and watch that fucking Callohan kid. I have to go deal with the press," Waters hung up the phone, leaving me to myself and the splatter of rain.