Highway Butcher – Chapter One

NOT EDITED

Chapter One

Sunday: June 14, 2020

8:00 AM; LOS ANGELES

Detective David Quinn stared down at a young woman’s naked corpse for the second time in just as many weeks. Two weeks, two corpses hacked at with a meat cleaver, two missing arms, and zero leads.

“Do we know who she is?” David asked.

Travis snorted, tilting his camera back against his shoulder. “Who do you think I am? Bo?”

“Not gonna lie, man, that’d be nice.”

“Well, you’re shit outta luck. Jamal never had his little inventor doodads installed station-wide, and Bo didn’t exactly leave his cell behind for us when he dipped.”

“He didn’t ‘dip’. He just needs a break.”

“Sure, if one hell of an alcoholic binge is a ‘break’.”

“Watch it.”

Travis offered a shrug before going back to photographing the deep laceration across the woman’s throat. “You know, the rest of us were solving cases long before Bo came around and made his little gizmos, and we’ve solved cases since he left us for Clinstone and then left them for booze. We’ll ID the woman and be fine. I just need more than two seconds to do it.”

David chose to do both Travis and himself a favor and ignore the booze comment. “It’s been two weeks, and we still don’t know who the hell Victim One is.”

“Which I’m sure is the dude’s goal when he’s hunting down women to kill. Probably prostitutes. Not exactly an uncommon type of victim, Quinn.”

David gestured to the woman with his coffee cup. “You think he chose this ‘prostitute’ while she was working, wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a windbreaker on a June evening in Los Angeles?”

“I said ‘probably’. Jesus, Bo’s ‘no assumption’ thing might just be the one thing he did right.”

“His ‘no assumption’ thing is because you and Kathy harassed him for daring to think his opinion was worth anything if she was on a case.”

Travis smiled for a split second—annoyed or cocky, David wasn’t quite sure. “Right.”

David took a sip of his coffee, giving himself a moment to think rather than attack. As Bo had told him many times when they had worked together, not everyone liked him, and that was okay. Bo would hate knowing David had defended him to Travis for even a second. “What do you know? Actually, genuinely know.”

Travis snorted, shaking his head. “Well, I can tell you that she’d dead, David. That’s what I genuinely know. If you want a few assumptions that won’t offend you, the hack and slashing done here looks like it came straight from the first body. If this wasn’t done with a meat cleaver by the same guy who killed the first woman, I’d be blown the fuck away.”

“And the arm, that was hacked off after she was dead?”

“Oh, yeah. She was dead.”

“So the only good thing we’ve got going for us is that the victim only has to live through the pain of being stabbed over and over again and not the pain of having her arm chopped away at.”

“That’s more a good thing for the victim.” Travis glanced up at the sky before offering a shrug. “Sort of. ‘Good’ is probably stretching it.”

“Probably,” David echoed. “Let me know when you’re able to confirm the weapon?”

“Yep.”

“Okay,” David whispered. He turned and started back toward his car, surprised to see Jamal Pitman seated in the passenger seat. He ducked under the crime scene tape and pulled open the driver’s side door. “Morning, Chief.”

“Morning.” Jamal gestured to the driver’s seat. Clearing his throat, David slid into the car and closed the door behind him. Jamal watched him a little more intently than necessary as he fitted his coffee cup into the center cup holder. “Have you spoken to Bo lately?”

“Not since last month. He usually ignores my calls.”

“Mm.”

“Have… you?”

“I don’t try. I get the impression it would make things worse.”

David scoffed.

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m just… glad you finally realized that. Hell of a late realization, but we all need to get there eventually.” It felt dangerous to blatantly state it, what with Jamal’s rumored murderous extra-curriculars and the gun holstered on the police chief’s hip, but it seemed unlikely he’d kill him right in front of a crime scene with so many witnesses scattered about, phones out and recording to see who could garner the most views on YouTube or TikTok.

“Yes,” Jamal said after a long silence. “I’m aware I heavily contributed to Bo’s state of mind. I did not open the wound, but I helped it fester. I’m aware of my responsibility there, David.”

David cleared his throat. “What do you need, Chief?”

“Do you know why he’s not staying at his house any longer?”

“He’s selling it.”

“Is he leaving California?”

“No.”

“Then… why? Is he moving back with his parents?”

David shifted in his seat, eyes scanning the crime scene he so desperately wanted to see his little blonde friend at. “No. He believes that, uh, that he’s robbing someone else of the house, someone who’s more alive than he is.”

“Jesus.” Jamal rubbed a hand over his short hair. “So he’s still actively accounting for ending his life?”

“Yes and no, I, umm, I guess. He knows he doesn’t want to be alive, but he isn’t planning out how to make it happen. He’s just passively drinking himself to death, I think.”

Jamal nodded. “I need you to show him this case.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Jamal.”

“Not for me. Not for you. For him. Working a case no one else has made progress on? You really don’t think that’ll help him?”

“I don’t know,” David admitted. “Besides, I showed him the case file when the first woman was murdered. He said he wasn’t interested.” Bo’s actual phrasing had of course been a bit more self-deprecating. ‘I can’t help you, Dave. There is no part of my soul or mind capable of helping you solve a case anymore.’

“There’s a second victim now. Try again.”

“If I got him to say yes, and that’s a damn big ‘if’, you know how that would go over? The shit Travis would put him through when he got back to the station?”

“Don’t worry about Travis. If you get Bo to come back, Travis will not be a problem. You have my word.”

David chuckled, shaking his head. “No offense, Chief, but your word doesn’t mean shit to me. You told Bo that no one would ever mistreat him at West Department the way he’d been mistreated before his relocation. And look what you did to him.”

“I know,” Jamal said, his voice soft. “I did not… handle Katherine’s departure well, and I will never be able to make up for what I did to him. But giving up on trying is allowing Bo to think he doesn’t belong here. Not just L.A., but the Earth itself. I won’t allow him to think that. I will not allow him to drink himself to death while thinking there isn’t a single place on this Earth that he deserves to live happily in.” He blew out a harsh breath. “I won’t allow Bo to die thinking he’s a worthless piece of shit.”

David drew in a long breath, releasing it as he offered a nod. “Tonight, after I have this woman’s details added to the file, I’ll show it to him and see what I can get from him. Maybe a second unidentified woman will entice him out of the dark fucking abyss he’s sitting in. I can’t promise that it will, but I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask. Let me know how it goes.”

“Sure thing, Chief.”

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