Where Birds Fly
By: Akkiko Lente
Authors Note: These are not real towns. I put astrics in place of initials so use your imagination.
Chapter 3: Hamlet
Sidebacker sighed as he laced his fingers in back of his head and set his feet on his desk. The killer hadn`t been killing, the kidnapper had killed three and hung them all next to eachother. Another girl was missing. Samantha hadn`t answered her phone when he called to ask her if she made it alright. With all the plane terroism, he didn`t want to take any chances.
He stared at the two bulliton boards in front of him. The unamed killer had killed three. Jester had killed far more, now it had been eight, but Sidebacker was more troubled with the unamed killer because of the brutality. Jester had snapped all his victoms neck, the other killer was content to bleed and bake his victoms. Sidebacker wished he could wrap his fingers around this guys throat.
The phone rang and he jumped to pick it up. "Sidebacker."
There was a chuckle on the other end and he sighed. Jester. This time the man seemed to have a little more humor in his voice. "Well, I think Alisa might be stayng with me for a little while longer. I like her." Sidebacker could imagine him stroking the girls face as he spoke. Jesters voice was now devoid of humor. "There is compitition."
Sidebacker sighed as he stared at the unamed bulleton board. Three women, all baked and bled then scrubbed so that they were sparkly clean, with no hint of DNA except from their skin, organs, and hair. They were still recongizable though. The families had been able to identify them. It was disterbing to him. What was more disturbing was that Jester knew about it. "Yes, do you know who it is?"
There was a laugh. "If I did do you think they would still be alive?" There was another chuckle and then a small 'click' that ended the conversation. Sidebacker sighed again and hung his phone up.
He turned when Jackson dropped an envolope on his desk. He looked up with his eyebrows raised. Jackson sighed. "Open it, we think it may be from the killer."
Sidebacker nodded and picked it up. The return address was "Hamlet, 2009 Lincoln Street, Cardnol, **. USA". He sighed as he muttered that they had found the name of the killer out. The note was done in red ink. It was typed by machine in a gothic font. "To be or not to be? Towns sometimes are but they aren`t. Look to the past and see what I mean. I`ll be headed there so very soon."
He glanced at the return address. "Find all the towns that were or still are named Cardnol. Also, get me a ride to this address." Jackson hopped into action and the note was pinned to the buliton board.
The ride there was a half an hour. Lincoln Street was a quiet street with well spaced houses. They finally came to 2009 and pulled in the driveway which seemed to go on forever. It was a dirt driveway. The car bounced along and threatened to cave in but finally they came to the end. The house was dark and looked forbidden. They all drew their guns and began to slowly enter the house. As soon as the first officer took a step in the phone rang.
Sidebacker pulled his gloves on and ran to the phone, shoving it to his ear. "Hello?"
He frowned. "This is an automated message for...." There was a pause and a slightly muffled male voice filled in the blank. "Danial Sidebacker...." The opperater continued. "To listen to this message press '1', to save it, press '2', to delete it, press '3'." He pushed '1'. The opperater continued. "Tuesday, 5:45 PM." The message that came was a computer voice. "Incorrect, try again." He slammed the phone down. Tuesday was three days ago.
"Sidebacker, you should have a look at this!" He turned and walked into the room where Jackson stood. He bit his lip. They had found Samantha. She was laying exactly like all the others, and there wasn`t a drop of blood in her. She had been beaten and there were bruises around her neck that showed she had been strangled.
The ambulance came and took her body away. The profiler said that she couldn`t get anymore information from this killing. Sidebacker sighed. As soon as they found this person, he swore he would kill them.
They went back to the office and a young woman named Andrea ran up to him. "Sidebacker, good news!" He glared at her and she shrunk away slightly. "Uh, umm, we found another town called Cardnol. At least, it used to be. In 1901 it changed from Cardnol to Winchester."
He nodded and then his eyes filled with conviction. "Get me there!"