I Don’t Need a Partner

Jimmy sat in silence for a minute watching her, urging her to leave with his eyes. "Look, don't get me wrong, it has nothing to do with you. It's just that I work alone I don't like partners."  Jimmy had left out the how and why he did not like partners. It was no secret though. Before coming here he'd been a New York City police officer.

Jimmy was handpicked to head a special task force assigned to track a serial killer the papers had dubbed The Clown Killer. The first three victims were clowns, and after that, each body was found dressed as a clown. The departments had been making strides and were getting closer to a suspect. He was sure it would only be a matter of days. Everything was pointing to a woman, although most serial killers had been men.

Sophia, his longtime partner, and Jimmy had been on a stakeout that seemed futile. New York City was being pounded by a blizzard and both partners agreed it was time to call it a night. Jimmy had driven Sophia back to her home in Huntington since he had a Blazer. The snow was already three feet deep and he struggled to keep the SUV on the road. Upon arriving at her home, they both noticed the lights and door were wrong. The lights were out, and the door was open to the blowing snow.

Sophia didn’t wait for backup; she charged the house even before Jimmy could get the car in park.  She was the first in, while Jimmy called for backup. He had only been a few seconds behind her, but it was enough to change all their lives. Jimmy found all of Sophia's family slaughtered. In the living room was the dog laying as though it was asleep. Her oldest son was placed at the kitchen table, his throat sliced, and a red nose placed on his chin. Peter, her husband was nailed to the wall in the hallway leading to the back door. His intestines had been pulled through his mouth and fixed to the ceiling. This was the same fashion as the "Clown Killer's" MO. Jimmy held back the bile building in his throat. He searched the den, hearing a thud upstairs.

He climbed the steps to the second floor with his back to the wall and his ears ringing with the sound of his heartbeat. He couldn't breathe.  His focus was on the door to his left. Peeking around the corner, he could see a pool of blood. But before he got a good look, a strange gurgling sound came from the bathroom. As he sidestepped his way to the door, he could see in the mirror a woman, not his partner, holding something just out of sight.

"Hold it right there, mother fucker," he called out kicking the door open. In a flash, the woman who he had seen seconds before was not there. Inching closer the barrel of the gun pushed the curtain back. In the shower was Sophia's baby, or what was left of the child.

A man can only handle so much shock before his mind starts to deny what he sees. Jimmy stood there looking at the running water coming from the baby's mouth. The killer had run the showerhead through the baby's head. Jimmy felt his stomach convulse. As he spun to empty it on the floor, as he did, he saw the bloody shoes step next to him. Before he could lift the gun, or see who it was, he had been struck at the base of the neck. He saw the EMS team next.

The killings had shocked the city as deep as it had shocked Jimmy. He was removed from the case, but it didn't end there for him. Sophia had not been found, and within a week from the massacre, Jimmy had started to receive body parts. Sophia was being mailed, bit by bit, back to Jimmy with notes attached. The killings had stopped with Sophia the last of the victims. Jimmy resigned from the force and relocated half a world away.

"Look go ahead and get settled in, there is a stack of cases on the cabinet. I was just heading out to deal with a witness." It was a lie. He had no witness in mind, he just needed space to recover from the memories of Sophia. He paused at the door looking back at Natalia. "If the phone rings let it ring, do not touch anything on my desk." He twisted the knob to open the door to leave.

"I do not think so," she said in English accented in thick Russian, so her words were stressed harder. "I do not like this any better than you, but we are without a choice."

"No, I have a choice, I am leaving, and you are not. Now be a good little girl and don't touch anything while I am gone."  Jimmy started to open the door to leave when he heard feet thudding on the ground.

"Look, Verspea, you don't have to be an asshole about this. We can be friends, or we can be enemies. But I am here for one year, and I think you should knock that chip off your shoulder and pull your head out of your ass. We can work together."

"You think you are so full of yourself, with your long hair and green eyes."  He touched the tips of her hair on her shoulder. "But let me paint the picture for you, I don't need a partner, and I don't need you."  He didn't give her time to retort his words, instead, he just walked out the door letting it slam hard behind him.

He heard curses in Russian and he knew his new partner was going to be taxing. He walked from the squad room and onto the street just as the sun began its nightly descent. The night was his time; he was friends with the darkness. Jimmy found his way to a corner café near Market Street and Chestnut Drive in 'old town'. He sat drinking his coffee when his cell phone rang.

"Verspea," he said, looking out the window half expecting Natalia to be standing there with some sick smug smile.

"Sir, we have a body in the alleyway behind Turner's Restaurant,"  Morris said.

"I'm on my way. Do me a favor, tell the women in my office to meet me there, and get her a map."

"Sir, she got the call before I could and is already on her way."

Jimmy replaced the phone on his hip as he downed the coffee; he dug into his front pocket for money. He tossed a ten on the table and carried the coffee cup through the cafe and finished off the last few drops before setting it on the counter. "Honey, I'll be back later, keep my table free," he called out watching the cup swirl from the force it landed.

Honey was the name of the server. Jimmy had been coming here for almost two years now, and every night the same woman greeted him. She was older, in her sixties, and she was still the best server around.  Jimmy had little trouble tipping her heavy; after all, she was his source of contacts and happenings on the street.

Turners was only ten blocks away, he had made great time getting there and as he opened his car door, he saw his new partner pulling up.  He waved to her while he placed his badge in plain sight on his hip. "Hey Mike, do me a favor," he said calling out to a young patrol officer. "You see that woman over there? Make sure she gets through." Jimmy nodded to the man as he walked down the alley.

Mike walked over to the crowd line and let the woman in with a nod. "Over there, ma'am," he said holding back an onlooker who had tried to enter with her.

Jimmy was an experienced officer; he had been on numerous crime scenes, so, he knew to start looking for clues in the area before the body. He stopped at an overturned trash can before noticing the bags were crushed. He moved further into the alley and found fresh blood. With a nod, he motioned his hand to Natalia, and then to where he had just been looking. "Start here," he pointed to the blood splattering.

Jimmy walked to the body, or what was left of it. It looked like it was a man or used to be a man. The head had been bashed in making it hard to tell the features. He walked around in a circle and side-stepped splatters of biological matter. The body was missing an arm. It looked as though it had been ripped from the socket.

"What do we have here, Curtis?" He asked.

"Well, it looks like our Mr. Doe here," he flicked his thumb to the body, "used to be: One, Franklin Carter, of 101 South Highland Way, and it appears Mister Cater was attacked by an unknown animal and one large person."  Curtis knelt and using the edge of his pen pulled back the collar and exposed what could only be called teeth prints. “And the head wound might mean Mr. Carter here had another visitor. It almost looks like he has been curbed stomped, but I won’t know until I get him on the table.

"That is one big dog to do this much damage," Jimmy commented while kneeling beside the officer. "I found imprints on those bags over there. We may have a witness,” he looked to Josh who was just arriving. “Get your boys to do the normal search. I know the street people don't like us, but if one of them saw who did this, they could be next. Let's use that to our advantage. Maybe it will loosen someone's lips.  And oh yeah, call Maggie Johnston, over at the zoo, and see if she knows what type of animal could have done this.”

Joshua gave a nod and side-stepped Natalia as she walked to Jimmy.

“Have we found the arm yet?"  He asked.

“Not yet, but I’m still looking.  She glanced at the body and then walked to the fair end of the ally. "Verspea," Natalia called. "Over here, I found the missing limb." She was crouching on one knee as she slipped on a pair of latex gloves.

Jimmy and Curtis walked the short distance to join her. Jimmy slipped on gloves before looking over the ground and noticed just off to the left of the limb was a partial track mark. It looked like a large dog print. "Natalia, make sure they get pictures of that," he nodded towards the print. "So, Curtis, do you have any ideas on what happened here?"

"Not yet, but I am working on it," Curtis said kneeling beside Natalia. Even in this position, Curtis was taller than the woman.

"You know what I think; I think Mister Carter was meeting someone down here. I think it went wrong and our mystery visitor brought along a large dog. Those teeth spacing on his shoulder are too big for an ankle bitter," he paused while looking again at the limb and gnaw marks, "that leaves what?"

"Could be almost anything from an English Mastiff to a Rottweiler, wolf, or even a bear?" Natalia offered. "The print is too large for a normal canine, and knowing the force needed to rip the arm off, I would have to think it was a very large animal."

“Get many wolves and bears around here Curtis asked very puzzledly. This was Georgia after all and maybe a coyote or two sneaks into the city but a wolf or a bear was a little farfetched.

“She is here from Russia,” Jimmy said. “And because we don’t know I’m calling Maggie in to help us.  She is a local animal expert. If she doesn’t know what it is, she will call Anthony over at the animal shelter for help.”  He stood slowly. “All right let's wrap this up. Let's get the cleanup crews in here. I want everything you find bagged, checked, and logged before daybreak."  He looked at the police line thinking the chief was going to pop Tums over the overtime they were going to pull. As he watched the crowd a thought came to him it had been his experience that killers normally came back to admire their handy work. "And let's get a muzzle on the press. I don't want tomorrow’s headline to be about this.  I can see the papers now and headlines about animal attacks. The mayor would flip and all of us will be looking for jobs."

"I'll have the full report on your desk by tomorrow night when you come on," Curtis stated with a nod. "And no way am I pissing her off again, do you remember last year, when she flipped out because of the museum fire at the height of the tourist season?"

"Yeah," Jimmy laughed, walking back over to the body.

"Jimmy," Natalia said, joining him at what was left of Mr. Cater. "I have seen things like this before back in Russia. I have a few friends who may be able to help point out what type of animal could have done this."

Jimmy didn’t answer her instead he leaned down to look at the victim's arm.  The inner lining of his shirt was ripped open. It looked like the victim's clothing had simply spilt apart. "Have you ever seen that before? He is wearing a new Gucci and it looks," he paused baffled, "shredded."

"Da I have seen things like this. I will do some checking. So where are we headed now?" Natalia said, snapping the gloves from her hands.

"Coffee," was his only answer. He started to walk away but stopped. "I think we started on the wrong foot. Care to start again?"

"Coffee I can manage, you, I'm not so sure about yet," she smirked.