The Executioner

Ninety-Nine

No one spoke for an entire minute. Captain Blake shifted from foot to foot. Garcia’s suggestion that Darnell Douglas was scared of needles struck a chord on her. She didn’t like them either.

‘If he was scared of needles, what the hell is that tube coming out of his mouth?’ Captain Blake finally asked pointing at Darnell. ‘Did the killer force-feed him something?’

Doctor Winston rubbed his face, taking his time. ‘I won’t know for sure until I get the victim into my autopsy room, but I don’t think so. This is an intubation tube.’

A new shiver kissed the back of the captain’s neck. ‘The killer intubated the victim? Why?’

‘Look closely. What’s missing?’ The doctor’s keen eyes challenged them.

Their stare moved back to the grotesque image of a man adorned with two hundred and fifty blood-filled syringes.

‘I give up and I’m in no mood to play games, Jonathan,’ the captain said firmly. ‘What is missing?’

‘Restraints,’ Hunter said, moving closer. ‘The victim ain’t tied to the chair. He’s just sitting there as if of his own free will.’

‘Bingo.’ Doctor Winston acknowledged it. ‘Restraints wouldn’t serve the purpose of this murder.’

‘I don’t get it.’ Captain Blake shook her head. ‘What do restraints have to do with the victim being intubated?’

‘A tied-down victim wouldn’t be able to move, but he’d certainly be able to wiggle his body about,’ the doctor explained.

‘Yeah, well, that ain’t much of a fight, is it?’ the captain countered, still looking puzzled.

‘It is if you’re trying to prick a vein,’ Hunter offered.

‘Correct again,’ the doctor confirmed. ‘All Mr. Douglas would’ve needed was a quick body wiggle and the killer’s plan to catch a venipuncture site with a needle would’ve been fumbled. Knocking the victim unconscious would’ve given the killer no satisfaction either. He wanted the victim to be awake.’

‘So the killer would’ve needed to completely immobilize the victim?’ Garcia asked.

Doctor Winston took a deep breath. ‘The killer would’ve needed to paralyze the victim.’

‘Drugged?’ Captain Blake asked.

‘Most probably,’ the doctor agreed. ‘I’ll need the lab results to confirm it, though.’

‘A paralyzing agent that would’ve kept the subject conscious?’ Hunter glanced at the doctor meaningfully.

‘Not only conscious. I’m sure the killer wanted the victim to also retain feeling.’

‘Oh man!’ Garcia folded his arms tightly, as if the doctor’s words had intensified the cold inside the room. ‘Is there such a drug? A paralyzing agent that allows the subject to still feel everything?’

‘Oh yes.’ A quick nod. ‘Quite a few, actually. And with the internet and the hundreds of clandestine drug sites, very easy to obtain.’

‘Still-’ Captain Blake cut in, shaking her head ‘-why intu-bate him?’

‘Because whatever the killer used probably also paralyzed his diaphragm,’ Hunter deducted. ‘He would’ve suffocated because he wouldn’t have been able to breathe. The killer needed him alive.’

‘That’s exactly what I was thinking,’ Doctor Winston concurred. ‘The tube fed him oxygen and kept him alive while the killer inflicted as much pain as anybody could possibly take.’

Captain Blake’s cell phone rang and they all tensed. She moved to a corner of the room, and her conversation didn’t last longer than a few seconds.

‘You’re in,’ she said to Hunter as she rejoined the group. ‘Clayton pulled a few strings and got you a prisoner’s interview with Peter Elder in CCI first thing tomorrow morning, seven o’clock.’ Her gaze returned to Darnell Douglas’s body. ‘We’ve gotta find the motherfucker who did this, and fast.’

After spending most of the night at the new crime scene with Doctor Winston, Hunter left for the California Correctional Institution State Prison in Tehachapi at 4:30 a.m. Garcia, on the other hand, had headed back to Parker Center at around 10:00 p.m. Hunter had asked him to come up with everything he could on Darnell Douglas, their new victim.

The information Garcia had gathered was patchy, but good enough to supply Hunter with what he was looking for.

Darnell hadn’t gone to Compton or Gardena High, but as a teenager he’d lived just two streets away from Brett Stewart Nichols. That information flooded Hunter with excitement. His street gang theory was starting to come together.

Hunter had watched as Doctor Winston and two other crime-lab agents went through the laborious and painstaking process of extracting the two hundred and fifty blood-filled syringes from Darnell’s body. Even though he wasn’t expecting any results, Hunter knew that each syringe had to be tested for fingerprints. The doctor told him that he’d have the autopsy results by the time Hunter was done with his interview in CCI.