Chapter 10 of the serial killer novel "Thorns of a Rose;" please let me know if you want the scarier chapters first.
Chapter 10 ~ ~ The Detective
On board ship unbeknownst to most of the passengers was a private detective with a very sensitive assignment. Roger Crawley received his position as a private detective by proxy of elimination from his job at the police agency of Charleston, South Carolina. Roger was unable to ride horses very well. This had been a requirement on horse patrol. People had spotted Roger at different times on Lockwood Boulevard missing a thief because he could not master the saddle. The department normally had approximately three hundred sworn police officers at a time with twenty-five reserve police officers. When Roger thought of the promotion from bicycle patrol to horse patrol, he was elated. After the promotion, he had instead of providing his usual outstanding police work, been unable to perform well. Three months later, he was demoted all the way to office the force because of his 'better than thou' attitude.
Roger's skills would have worked out well for him in San Francisco or some other large city. He was exceptionally skilled at detail. As a policeman he was a man who knew detail in every way, a policeman could. Now he was becoming the sort of private detective, who could enter a room and then an hour later be able to write down all of what he had seen without missing any detail.
Anne had learned when asking the Charleston locals that Roger Crawley was an expert at detail. She felt in order to catch her brother and put him behind bars, it was going to take someone with a skill at detail. Actually, Anne was pleased that Roger was a detective instead of still part of the Police Corps. She was afraid Crawley might learn her part in the killing of her parents if he asked too many leading questions of her. With him being a private detective, she did not actually have to go down to the police department in order to meet with him. Also, she could call directly to his office and not have to talk with other policemen.
She had called on Crawley on a Wednesday night. Anne had taken up three hours of Crawley's time. She had taken a seat on the black leather couch and placed her purse near the edge of her cushion. Crawley had made mental note, "odd that she clutches that bag like it had millions of dollars in it." It seemed as if she did not trust anyone near her purse. Funny since they were in an office the size of prison cell and no one else would be likely to grab it.
Crawley's dingy dark office in the center of downtown was near a few other shops but still on a quiet street. The jeweler shoppe was on the left and the "Quilting Bee" was on the right. Both establishments had quiet owners and patrons alike. He had wanted a peaceful unfrequented place to live and work both. Late in the evening, people usually strolled about downtown Charleston. In the quaint town of Charleston, one could always feel safe even when the rest of the world seemed dangerous. On the other hand, in the area of his establishment, people would steer clear out of a sense of leeriness. From time to time, the Frank, the jeweler got to hooting and a hollering, but normally it was an ideal place to live and work out of the same building.
At their meeting in his office, Mr. Crawley had peered into the hazel eyes of Anne. There he saw a picture of revenge. She had brought along a photograph of Stan. Stan's eyes seemed to be the same color of hazel as hers. Peering into Stan's eyes, Crawley made note of the fact he looked as if "no one was home." Roger had asked her, "what do your parents think of your brother's lifestyle?" It was then that Anne had muttered, "Ah yes, my famous parents, wherever they may be."
The hours ticked away. Steering the conversation back to her brother, Anne explained the details of why she suspected her own brother of being a murderer. She had to be very careful with her details about herself. Trouble could start if she were to let any facts slip about her parents being the Columbia "Monsters." She was sure Crawley would ask more questions about their parents than he would be about Stan if she did not use her sneaky communication skills.
"Crawley," Anne promised, "I have $5,000 to pay you to do your job and get my brother. I will give you $2,500 now and $2,500 after the capture." As the meeting continued, she treaded lightly when the conversation would turn to his asking her questions about herself or her parents. Of course, sneaky conversation was easy. Dad had been a master of disguise. Her father had not only learned how to avoid questions, he had learned how to steer people to where he wanted them at the drop of a hat. On this particular day, Anne was glad of her father's showing her how to keep her life private.
Making the reservation for the trip with the retainer was exciting to Crawley and at the same time, scary. He was not looking forward to being that many miles away from Suellen. Now here he was standing on board a ship cruising to Honolulu. Leaning over the rail of the cruise ship, he began remembering the details of their visit. Anne had given him so many details on that Wednesday night that even he had to make pages of notes to keep up. On board the ship with the cool night air, he was able to size up the situation.
Crawley had determined Stan was in Cabin 29 with young single women in the quarters on both sides of him. Evidently, Stan had not brought any attention on himself as of yet. Crawley needed the rest of the money that she was going to pay him desperately. He looked down at his wallet that he had taken out of his left pocket. His eyes misted up. Sadness began to switch over to anger. He thought about the night that his ex-wife Suellen had visited him. When he had gotten over the embarrassment he had felt at Suellen seeing his cheap moldy office, he had begun to listen intently.
"Roger," she had mentioned with a low, but affective voice, "I have been to the doctor. This doctor is a disease specialist. He says my prognosis is terminal." She had gone on with a plea. "Is it possible for you to help me with the costs that will be involved in receiving my chemotherapy? I am unable to pay for any treatment, as I have no insurance. Recently the position as a decorator just is not paying enough to afford the thousands of dollars it will take to cover all this. I have no money left, oh Roger what shall I do?" Suellen's tears had been flooding when she had made her final plea, "Roger, please don't let me die sooner because I can't pay for it. You just have to help. Please say you will."
Crawley had promised his dying ex-wife he would provide help with the finances. Sad truth was if he did not make some money soon, he was going to have to explain to Suellen that he did not have the ability to help her. Tears replaced the anger again as the sadness (of his financial condition) hit him. The hospital had called a month later to say Suellen was in intensive care with colon cancer. Prognosis was that the cancer was beyond treatment.
Leaning on the ships' railing Stan decided to go the dining hall. He realized he needed to get his mind off the pressing reality of needing to make sure a man was placed behind bars in order to help his wife in the last stages of her life.
He best get busy getting Stan off the ship and into the hands of the Charleston Police Department. The last telegram he had received confirmed Anne's suspicions and now even they were telling him to find something to make a citizen's arrest of Stan. Seems there had been a woman witness seeing him running away from a bloody dress that was found on the rocks of the Battery. Crawley needed something… anything to get him off the ship and back to Charleston. Anne had wanted Stan booked on suspicion of murder and had given him clues as to how Stan behaved. However, evidence was what Crawley needed most.
NEXT CHAPTER:
Honolulu was only hours away. Crawley grabbed his watch with the hidden camera in it. Placing the tape recorder in his coat pocket, he went for a walk with hopes of meeting Stan.
This was the first job Roger had received in the last year or two that he had considered canceling. Though his decision to do that would mean he could not help Suellen. He would just have to buck up and do the best job he could at catching Stan. Still the fear inside of him told him if Stan is indeed the killer his sister believes him to be, then the money might not end up being worth the trouble.
Taking a person like Stan Reynolds by surprise had gotten more than one detective killed in the past. Therefore, Roger was a bit timid about saying yes to Stan's twin. She had been determined to hire Roger. Within minutes of the first interview, he wondered if something in their childhood had started her being hateful towards her brother. Crawley remembered during one their first meetings that Anne's eyes became a very dark green at the mention of Stan. Her teeth seemed to grit and her mouth would look like a snarl when he mentioned Stan's name.
Back at home in the states, Anne, decided she wanted Crawley to find her brother before anyone else caught him. Her brother might actually get himself picked up for one of his own escapades before the detective she sent could find him. If the police found him first, they would not be so receptive to keeping the whole focus on Stan.
Earlier that year, she feared Stan would talk too much. One evening she had visited him and gotten him to sign an oath. Stan had been so drunk he was almost unconscious. She had kept hounding him about the night they murdered their parents. Guilt began to pour out of Stan's words.
"God, Stan. Why did you have to go off the deep end like our father? You're going to get us both caught," she had thought right before coercing Stan to clear her. Anne took advantage of the shame that Stan felt and quickly wrote on a large post-it-note, "I Stan Reynolds am solely responsible for the killing of my mother and father. My sister is not part of this crime and should be held innocent."
She had made sure the written oath maintained her innocence. Anne had held her parents down in the rocking chairs while Stan had killed them. Still it was easy to play on his guilt and get him convinced he had committed the crimes alone. Now with Stan's signature on the oath she felt she had a confession that solely implicated Stan for the actual gruesome killings. Stan racked with memories of taping up his father's mouth felt a sense of guilt that really seemed to want to admit the horror of his actions. Signing the oath had actually helped him to sleep that night. A new, greedy side began to emerge. Anne wanted the hidden money all to herself and it seemed Stan wanted more to be like 'dear old dad' than she thought reasonable.
She would have to hope that the detective she had hired would make sure to catch Stan at attempting yet another murder. "Maybe I will call Stan onboard the cruise and threaten him. I will tell him that I am thinking about revealing our parents are still in the walls of our old house. Surely if I raise his fear level he will slip and make a mistake. Crawley could see him do something and catch him."
"Surely that would make him angry enough to stop and come back here so I can get rid of him the way I really want to," Anne uttered aloud to herself as she slipped on her bathrobe. She tried without much success to listen to Bach while she sat on her back porch. Her insomnia was just bad enough nowadays to cause an every other night problem. It had been worse, but she knew that listening to Bach would help. Her heart answered back the ultimate question, "but could Stan actually stop killing any more than dad could?"
Anne had called Crawley and explained that something horrible was happening to her brother Stan. She explained she had experienced a dream making her feel intently that Stan might be losing his mind. "As twins," she had explained to Crawley, "we seem to always know when one or the other of us is not doing ok. Please see if you can't get closer to him and find out what is happening. Please Crawley, I need this insanity of mine to stop too." Her plan was being laid out in a way that the detective was being made to believe she thought her brother was insane and one of those serial killers who might be a psychopath.
If Mr. Crawley believed Anne was looking out for her brother's best interest instead of instead of out of her way, then Mr. Crawley would be more likely to at least get Stan captured alive. Near the end of the telephone call costing many hundreds of dollars, she begged Crawley, "do your civic duty and save anymore women from my brother's murderous hands. You have to stop him! When I talked to him earlier, he was telling me about a new woman on board that he has his eyes on. I do not know if he is stalking her or not. I do not even know who she is. He would not tell me her name. Stan said he did not know it yet. What I do know is he needs help and I need your help to get him to cease these horrific murders," she concluded with Roger. "Will you do it, will you go get him and stop him?"
Crawley peered at the photograph given him of Stan. Hazel, Stan's eyes were hazel just as Anne's eyes were hazel. "Her eyes also looked as if no one was home, " thought Roger. Anne, finally feeling sleepy thought, "I realize Crawley does not know enough to arrest Stan but more will be revealed by tomorrow.
She would try her best to listen to Bach while she sat on her back porch for awhile. Her insomnia was just bad enough nowadays to cause an every other night problem. It had been worse, but she knew that listening to Bach would help. Anne's heart answered back the ultimate question, "but could Stan actually stop killing any more than dad could?"
Anne had called Roger Crawley, the detective, and explained that something horrible was happening to her brother Stan. She had given Roger just enough information to cause him to want to catch her brother also. The plan to catch Stan was laid out in a way that the detective was to believe she thought her brother was insane and one of those serial killers who might be a psychopath.
If Mr. Crawley thought Anne was looking out for her brother's best interest instead of wanting her brother in prison for life, or better yet dead, then Mr. Crawley would be more likely to be clumsy and maybe kill Stan. Anne had whispered to Mr. Crawley on the telephone, "do your civic duty and please just stop him! I do not know if he is just stalking these women or not. Please find out what is going on. The one thing I do know is he needs help. These horrific murders have to stop!" she had shouted at Roger. Then pleading, she had ended her conversation with "Will you do it, will you go get him and stop him?"
Stan was playing volleyball and having the time of his life. At least it seemed that way to the other passengers. He was trying hard to be a good sport and not get angry. His mind it seemed just would not stop long enough for him to concentrate on having fun. Instead, he was thinking, "My hands on her throat would feel so justified. She caused me so many miserable hours of hate towards myself. That damn whore would never shut up about how I should get dad and mom out of the blasted wall." Stan's hands were trembling now with anger. He saw the volleyball coming at his arm and just slammed at it. The players yelled, "Way to go Stan!" Meanwhile, Stan continued his discoveries "I have got to get rid of her before she tells the authorities about the bodies. That must be why I am thinking of my wife six years after our divorce. Damn, I must be losing my mind to even be contemplating killing her too. Maybe I should keep my mind on how happy I am to be finding yet another beautiful woman on this cruise. I have to stop obsessing on that busy-body whore I was once married to."
When feeling strong vibes like the ones he was feeling for the mysterious lady in the cabin on his left, Stan always seemed to confuse interest for obsessions. His cute little flirting wink at pretty, red headed women was usually the first ploy he extended to new women. For the most part, after he killed them he would stare down at their dead bodies and give them one last wink. Stan enjoyed the negative responses the women returned after he flirted more than the positive ones. Passion was brought on by the negative responses and the more passion he felt, the more release he would feel when they were dead.
Stan called and ordered a few beers to help him sleep. While waiting for the beer, Stan began complaining, "The insomnia is forever with me. Women, why are there always so many women? I came on board to get away from women. I have to stop killing. Lord God, I killed my very own father because he was a murderer. Here I am killing as brutally as he did. This trip just has to end differently. Here I am with more insomnia… more women." Words slipping out of Stan's mouth he hollered aloud, "Why, why did I put my mother in that wall? It has only put me in a wall also. I wonder if captured, if the obsessions about killing would stop? Probably my capture is near."
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Chapter 10 ~ ~ The Detective
