Storymania - To Clean For Murder-Chapters 1-3 by Jason Huber

To Clean For Murder-Chapters 1-3
Jason Huber

                       Chapter 1
He awoke with a sudden jolt to the sound of his cell phone ringing beside him. It was nothing new for him to be awakening by the sound of his phone and out of reaction grabbed for it.
“Bents.”
“Mark we need you at the railroad tracks on Junction. There has been a murder that I think you would like to have.”
Without a response he hung up. He knew that the offer was actually a command and he would be expected within the hour. He worked his way out of bed and into a quick shower. The building which he had his small apartment in was old and didn’t allow that water to heat quickly. He let the cold water run on his face, slowly bringing him back to reality. He stepped out of the shower and put on his usual work wear. He worked his legs into a pair of tan slacks, then worked his torso into a white long sleeve shirt. He finished by putting a pair of cheap knock-off-brand dress shoes on and a cheap leather jacket.
Mark Bents was used to murder. He had seen it for 11 years now and every time it looked the same. The only thing that was different was the players in the game. He imagined what it would look like this time as he drove to the spot. Probably like the rest, strangulation, maybe blunt force trauma would be the c-o-d. Messy and full of evidence and just like the rest he could solve it easily, probably within a week.
When Mark pulled up to the railroad tracks, it was busy with flashing lights and uniformed people. He flashed his badge to one of the officers guarding the scene and was let past. He worked his way to the tracks and found what the commander was talking about when he said I think you would like to have.
It shocked Mark at first. In his many years looking at the dead, he had never seen anything like this. At first glance he didn’t know what it was. It looked as though it might have been hit by the train itself. As he got closer, what looked like road-kill started to look more like a human of some proportion. He pulled out a small flashlight that he carried around for occasions when the lighting wasn’t sufficient. He pointed the light over the body or what was left of it.
“What the hell is this thing I am looking at?” Mark asked.
“Well this it is a she and I have no idea what happened to her. It looks as if she was hit by the train.” Said Lauren.
Lauren was a smaller woman standing no more than five-foot-four and weighed no more than one-twenty. She had a soft delicate face with eyes that were trained to catch the smallest details. Mark was attracted to her. He loved the way she moved around a dead body, as sick as that may sound it’s what he noticed.
Bringing himself back to what was more important he started looking at the body more carefully. He started at her feet and worked his way up. Her legs, which were once probably beautiful, were now missing chunks of skin. The parts that were missing seemed like they were ripped away or even melted off of her legs. The wounds went up her body and did the most damage to where her face should have been. Her face was almost completely gone leaving only the left side of her head.
“Jesus, there was no way a train could do this to someone. It looks like something ate her skin off or something.”
“I know, I have never seen anything like this. The only thing I can do is take her back to the lab and look at her more closely, but out here there is nothing I can give you.”
“Ok, I will come by later in the afternoon and see what you can give me then.”
Mark walked away from the body and did the routine check of the surroundings. Mark didn’t have any light but the small pocket flashlight and the moonlight. One thing that scared him was the lack of evidence. There was no sign of any struggle, no blood, no weapons, nothing. With a murder like this there had to be something, but everything was to clean for a murder even if it was outside.
Back at the site where the body was he finally found blood. The only blood was were the body had been laying and it was only a small amount. He took the necessary pictures and documented the scene. It was all he could do at the time; he just didn’t have anything else to collect. It was to clean even for murder outside.

                       Chapter 2
At the lab Mark met with Lauren and the dead female body. The female was naked now and Mark could see the just how the wounds went up her body. Her naked body didn’t have much left to it. The wounds had eaten away most of her skin, all the way to the bone in most places.
“My god, it gets worse the further it goes up her body. Have you found out what did this to her?” Mark asked.
“No. At first I thought an animal had eaten most of her but there are no bite marks or anything that would suggest that it was an animal attack. She was defiantly not hit by the train or any kind of vehicle. It is weird. I have never seen anything like this before.”
“Me either. It almost looks like something just melted her skin away. And with all that skin missing I thought there would have been blood everywhere, but there was only a small amount under the body.”
“Hmm. Well I took a piece of skin near the wound and looked at it under the microscope. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was that the edge closest to the wound was still being eaten away. It was slow and I almost didn’t catch it.”
“Eaten away? By what?”
“I don’t know I couldn’t see anything under the scope. This is out of my league here.”
“Well keep looking and see what you come up with and just keep me informed.”
“Will do.”
Mark took one last good look at the body and took the image in. What surprised him the most was the lack of blood. He brushed it off and walked out of the room. He had something to solve that he had never worked with. It was different than anything else he worked with. It broke all the rules of murder. No clear motive, no weapon, no clues. The only thing that was the same in this murder as the rest was that there was a victim. At least one thing was the same, one thing that Mark had to work with.
He had to find out who the victim was. He had to know who she was in the public, if she had a family, friends, a job. It was something that he could work with while Lauren worked with the dead body.
Back at his office he locked the door and avoided his phone with the blinking message light. He figured they were from the commander wanting to know more about the crime scene. He would meet with him later when the first report was written. It was going to be a short report compared to the usual lengthy ones. There just wasn’t enough to write about.
The commander was an intimidating man, with a stone face and a brick wall body. He stood at a towering height of six-foot-seven. He had tan skin which had weathered thirty years on the streets of Belton. Mark hated talking to the commander. The commander wanted answers and nothing else. Mark didn’t have answers and that was not a good thing. He didn’t have anything in his reports. The closest thing he had to an answer was that the female was not hit by a car or a train and was not attacked by an animal before or after death.
When Mark walked into the commander’s office, the commander was sitting behind his desk looking at the computer screen.
“Mark, please sit down. Would you like coffee or some water?”
“No thanks sir.”
“Ok, suit yourself then. I have been looking at your reports that you sent me. I see that you haven’t gotten very far into your investigation.”
“Sir, there isn’t much to work with. As far as I can tell we are not dealing with an ordinary murder here. It looks for deeper than your typical murder.”
“Murder is the same Mark and I put you on this case because you know that. I think you just need to work a little harder to get your basic facts here. If I was you, I would start by finding out who the deceased is.”
“Yes sir, I have already started on that sir.”
It was a lie but he could not tell the commander that. He would be taken off the case and that was something that Mark did not want to happen. He was far too interested in this case to be taken off and on a personal level it put him closer to Lauren.
“Well you better put a rush on this. I want a better and more informative report on my desk within the next twenty-four hours or I will have you replaced with someone who is more eager to solve this crime.”
“Yes sir.”
It was the first time that he had ever been threatened by Commander Hetts and he was going to make sure it was the last. Mark didn’t like to be under pressure in an investigation, especially when the evidence wasn’t there. He would have to first find out who the deceased was and maybe that would open a few more windows.

                        Chapter 3
All afternoon was spent trying to figure out who the body was and her life. He finally had a break through when a young man called worrying about his wife. The dispatch that took the call transferred that young man to Mark.
“Detective Mark” Mark said as he answered the phone.
A young man who seemed to be very in control of himself, only letting a small amount of panic show in his voice.
“Umm, yes. I called to report that my wife has been missing for about two days now. And I was put through to you.”
“Ok. So you say your wife has been missing for about two days. Give me a description of her if you would.”
“Yea ok. She is about five-foot-six and about one hundred thirty to one hundred forty pounds. She has sandy blonde hair that falls just above her shoulders.”
“Can you tell me what she was wearing the last time you saw her?”
“She was wearing a blue windbreaker of a white blouse. Her pants? Umm, her pants where black I believe along with the shoes. I can’t remember exactly.”
That is what he needed to hear. The dead body that was with Lauren, from what Mark could tell through the missing chunks of skin, was the right person.
“What was her name?” Mark asked.
“It was Rachel, Rachel Luts”
“Ok…”
“John”
“John. We need you to come down to the station. I hate to tell you this but I am investigating a murder in which a body was found. The way you described your wife matches the body that was found. We need you to come down to see if it is your wife.”
“My god. You can’t be telling me that my wife is dead. She can’t be dead.”
“Sir, just come down and we will see. We won’t know for sure until you look. And when you do come, be prepared is all I can say.”
When John saw the body, he burst into uncontrollable tears. Mark didn’t know if it was actually seeing his wife dead or the way she looked with the missing skin all over her body. Mark let the man cry for a while before he lead him out of the room.
“I am working on finding who did this. Is there anything you can tell me that might push me in a direction on finding who did this?”
“No. No not at all. She was well like and I didn’t have any enemies that would go that far to kill her like that or kill her at all.”
“Where did she work?”
“She worked at the library down in the middle of town. Just part-time though. I made enough at the lab to support both of us. She just wanted something to take time away.”
“You work at a lab. What lab is this?”
“It is the new lab that they built in the old mine not far from here.”
“What do they do there?”
It was weird that being part of the law enforcement Mark didn’t hear about the new lab that was built. If Mark was thinking of the right mine it used to be an old gold mine but was closed due to gold running low in the mine.
“We just do research on new cures for major diseases. It is underground to protect the public from the major diseases.”
“Hmm I see. Well ok John I will be in touch with you if I get any new information about your wife’s killer.”
They shook hands and John let himself out. Mark now had a lot of different directions he could go from here. He could investigate Rachel’s work and see if she had any enemies that her husband didn’t know about. Or her he could go take a look around the new lab that John worked at.
The lab sounded like a better idea to him. He wanted to know what they were really working on down there and if Rachel’s strange death was linked to something down there. Maybe he would uncover what was eating her skin right in front of their eyes.
He walked back in and met Lauren. He was surprised at how beautiful she was even after working for a full day. He short hair was messed from hands being ran through it. He steel grey eyes had signs of fatigue showing, but still seemed to be able to catch every little detail.
“Well, long time no see Mark” She snapped him back into reality.
“Funny. So I just found out that our body here has a name. Rachel and her husband John works in a lab that has replaced the old mine up in the hills.”
“Oh they actually did put that in. I heard about it, but blew it off. I wonder what they are working on up there.”
“Yea I was wondering the same thing?”
“Do you think that something they are working on has something to do with Rachel’s death?”
“I am not sure, but I am going to look into it. It looks like the best lead that we have.”
He gave Lauren a small smile and left the building. But, before he could go look at the mine he had to write the new reports for Commander Hetts. He had what he wanted now. He knew the victim, where she worked, who she was in the public, and he found out more than he expected. He now knew that the husband worked at a lab, which could possibly explain the strange chunks of skin missing and how it happened.