Frank stays calm and takes one last drag from his cigarette. He smiles, then he flicks the cigarette but at the superior officer. It flies straight into the man’s right eye. The officer screams, and clasps his hands over his face, holding his injured eye that’s burning in his grips. The man removes his hand from his face, and pulls back to strike Frank, but frank beats him to the punch with a solid upper cut to the jaw, knocking the officer down to the cobble stone drive way. The surrounding officers do not interject; they remain idle as they look on at what is unfolding in front of their eyes. Frank laughs quietly to himself and shrugs off the adrenaline. He looks up at the surprised officers who outnumber him and takes a deep breath.

‘This is my crime scene now. I am in charge of this case, appointed by the district attorney as of 25 minutes ago. Truth is I don’t want to be here just as much as you don’t want me to be here. I guess it’s hard to look into the eyes of the men who sold me down the river because of a few discrepancies. After all I did for you guys. You were all taken care of and most importantly, I got the job done at any means necessary. The costs accumulated throughout the years have not been on you but on me. I have to live with my mistakes and me only. I am only human.’ Says Frank

The on looking officers are still in shock at what they are seeing.

‘Get back to work. 15 people died here tonight. Let’s make sure we catch whoever is responsible for this.’ Frank says

He walks over the knocked out officer on the floor and up the cobblestone path into the entrance of the house. The surrounding officers make way for him; a few are attending to the man on the ground as Frank disappears into the crime scene.

Frank walks into a narrow hallway. The signs of a struggle are evident everywhere. He looks down the hallway and takes a deep breath in as he takes in the carnage he is witnessing. Blood is caked all over the walls, and pools of it contaminate the ground. Frank is careful not to step in any as he is aware that leaving your own footprints in a crime scene will confuse the attending crime lab people. He notices the excess amount of blood on the floor, but no bodies to match the mess in the vicinity. He makes his way down the bloody path. The amount of blood in the hallway suggests some one died there but not one spec of blood was anywhere else but at the entrance to the house. What he does notice though is an abundance of holes in the walls from which are the unmistakable aftermath of shotgun shells. The whole of the hallway was plastered with shotgun shrapnel. The light from the other rooms was piercing through the holes in the walls. It surprised Frank, because when he stuck his finger through one of the holes, he noticed how thick the walls were. They were at least 3 inches from one side to the other, which suggests the shooter was in close proximity of the wall when shooting. The kicker, Frank thought, there was not one body near any of the bullet holes. There was a lot of blood though. Frank pulls his finger out of one of the bullet holes; he then fixes his stare back on the hole. He has an urge to peep through and see what’s on the other side. He bends down and looks through it. He is met by an eye staring back at him, it makes him jump. He backs away from the wall, sweat starting to formulate under his brow. Frank loosens his tie a bit, thinking the room is getting hotter. He walks back over to the wall, his mind starts racing. He hears faint whispers coming from the hole in the wall. The sweat’s now trickling freely down his face, Franks breathing gets heavier. He feels the heat of the wall with his hand, the whispering becomes clearer.

‘DON’T YOU TOUCH ME’ the dark raspy voice whispers

Frank squirms at the sound of the voice; he pulls back his hand from the flaky dry wall. The sweating has become more perfuse, now his once white T shirt has become drenched in sticky sweat, Frank’s throat feels dry.

‘It’s so hot…. The wall is so hot’ He says to himself

He reaches at the wall one more time, the whispering stops. He smiles to himself, a nervous smile at best. Once again bending down to look through the Bullet hole; the eye meets his gaze yet again, staring fire into Frank’s soul, the eye burning blood shot red.

‘DIE FUCKER’ says the whispering voice.

Frank pulls away from the wall again. A man approaches Frank from behind, and taps him on the shoulder, it startles Frank. He turns around to face the man. The man looks at Frank in curiosity.

‘Are you okay Frank?’ The man asks

Frank clears his throat….Twice

‘Yeah I’m okay; it’s just really hot in here Eddie’

‘Yeah, Like a goddam Mexican whorehouse. Well heck it’s good to see you! Boy it’s been far too long, but under the circumstances I’d rather just get down to business. You know that I don’t like to come to crime scenes at all, but this one is a little too close to home. I knew a few of the victims. If this sort of shit is happening on my street then what hope have I got at making this city a safer place?’ Declares Eddie

Frank looks unsympathetic

‘Sir, with all due respect, I think we would all like to not have to come down to crime scenes like you’ Frank says with a hint of bitterness in his tone.

‘How many times have I told you Frank, We have been friends long enough for you to know that I hate you calling me sir’ Explains Eddie, trying to ignore what frank said.

‘Yes Eddie’ Frank says

‘Good. Now as I said, all I’m telling you to do is get your ass in gear, we need to nip this in the bud before anything else like this goes down. It will be a media circus when the press find out this shit when down in my own neighbourhood. Let alone that I am the victims next door neighbour!’ says the DA trying to make his intentions clear to Frank.

‘I got it Eddie, if you don’t mind can you just let me get on with what I am here to do? I’m sure you didn’t break protocol to have me here to listen to you rant.’

Eddie looks Frank up and down, disapprovingly, noticing the sweat riddled shirt that Frank is wearing.

‘Frank get your shit together! I don’t condone drugs or taking them, but man if you’re going to do your job, I need you to get your fucking shit straight! Pop a pill or whatever you do, just get me those dam results, or the only protocol that I’ll be following is the one under the Drugs ACT’ says Eddie.

Eddie walks away from Frank who is gritting his teeth trying to hold his temper. As soon as Eddie is out of sight, Frank checks to see if the coast is clear. No one is about, so Frank reaches for his pills and takes 3 to settle his nerves. He knows he is going to need the edge if he is going to catch a Psychopath.

Three

Frank had been at the crime scene now for well over 5 hours. Day was breaking through the early morning clouds into the living room through the big white bay windows that the tenant had installed. Frank playfully thought how those windows would have been worth the price in cold cash if the people who lived there decided that putting a 10 foot security wall around the garden for privacy hindered the actual likelihood of anyone witnessing a crime. Or maybe that was the whole idea.

Frank was looking around the once immaculate living room, which was well furnished and had its fair share of Persian exports. He thought about how wealthy the occupants were compared to him. He understood that they were not millionaires by any stretch of the imagination, but they could afford premium cable, as he looked at the 52 inch theatre sitting nicely in the corner.

No wall brackets he thought to himself.

At least they were not idiots, because TV’s are notoriously unstable mounted to walls.

He did notice that they had some nice paintings on the wall, but he didn’t really care for art. He started to realise that maybe he was paying attention to the mundane because of what lay in the corner of his eye. He finally decided to acknowledge the 15 neatly piled bodies in the corner of the room. Bullet holes scattered all over the corpses. He was sure that there was not one pint of blood left in them.