WEBCAM by Jack Kilborn

up.
    “Mankowski.”
    “Detective, are you in your office? I can come up.”
    “Who is this?”
    “Firoz.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Detective Firoz Nafisi?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I’m the CPD computer guy. I did forensics on Kendal Hefferton’s laptop. You’re lead on the case?”
    “Me and Roy Lewis.”
    “Can I come up?”
    “Yeah. Sure.”
    “Be right there.”
    Tom opened up the folder containing his crime scene report of the first victim. He let himself drift back to it. The sight of her, tied to the bed, mutilated almost beyond recognition. The smell. The bloody writing on the wall. Tom was no stranger to violence. He’d seen it. He’d been the recipient of it. But this was a whole new level of psychotic. There was careful planning here. The perp had gained access to the apartment, brought along his torture tools, tape, gag, chloroform and mask. But there was so much raw rage, so much savagery, in the murder, that it looked like the work of someone severely unhinged.
    “Detective?”
    Tom was startled by someone speaking so near to him. He looked up.
    “I’m Firoz.”
    The man who extended a hand looked familiar, and Tom hid his surprise.
    He looked a lot like Maddoksim Chmerkolinivskiy, which meant he looked like the suspect Tanya Bestrafen had described leaving the second victim’s apartment.

CHAPTER 11
    The man bleeds.
    The man hurts.
    The man pulls at the chains.
    The man knows there is no escape.
    The man thinks about monsters.
    The man knows they are real.
    The man cries.
    The man cries for himself.
    The man cries for the world.
    The man knows there is no forgiveness.
    For anyone.

CHAPTER 12
    Kendal picked up her cell phone.
    “Hello?”
    At first, there was silence. Then:
    “Do you think you have suffered enough for your crimes?”
    The voice sounded weird. Far away. “Hello?”
    “Mercy. Please.”
    “Who is this?” Kendal asked.
    “Erinyes does not know mercy. Only punishment.”
    “Don’t hurt me anymore.”
    “It is your sins that have hurt you. I am here to give Penance.”
    Then there was a cracking sound, and a scream that made all the fine hairs on Kendal’s arms stand on end.
    The horrible sounds continued. Smacking and screaming, and Kendal realized she was listening to someone being beaten.
    She hung up, holding the phone at arm’s length.
    Caller Unknown.
    What the hell had just happened?
    Kendal hurried out of her bedroom, into the kitchen, brushing past Linda, grabbing a glass drying in the sink, and pouring herself some water from the tap. She sucked it down in a few gulps.
    “Thirsty much?” Linda asked, laughing.
    Kendal didn’t answer, pouring herself another glassful.
    “Hey, girl, you okay?”
    Kendal finished the water and sucked in a breath. “I just got a really weird phone call.”
    “Like obscene weird? Some guy yanking his crank and moaning? You lucky slut! I never get calls like that.”
    “I mean like someone being beaten.”
    “That’s even kinkier.”
    “Really beaten. Screaming for their lives beaten.”
    Linda raised an eyebrow. “Was it some kind of joke?”
    Kendal leaned against the counter, her shoulders slumping. “If it was, it wasn’t funny.”
    “Who was it from?”
    “It said caller unknown.”
    “You can *67 or *69 him to call him back, even if it’s unknown.”
    “I don’t want to call him back.”
    “Give me your cell.”
    Kendal hesitated, then handed Linda her phone. Linda’s thumbs were a blur on the screen.
    “When did you get the call?”
    “Just a minute or two ago.”
    “There’s no record of it.”
    “What?”
    “The last call you got was yesterday.”
    “But someone just—”
    “Could you have deleted it?”
    Kendal’s face pinched. “I don’t know.”
    “If you deleted it, we can’t call it back.”
    Linda handed the phone over. Kendal stared at it, wondering if it really happened.
    Had she been asleep?
    Dreaming?
    Hallucinating?
    Hallucinations were one of the big symptoms of schizophrenia.