I sit in a dirty, banged up, old taxi, where there is barely any leather on the seats and what little amount left is worn down to its last days. My shoes are slowly sticking to the carpet flooring, and the smell is a mixture of pungent mould, alcohol, and gas station aftershave. Honestly, I thought I could deal with this horrible form of transport if it wasn’t for the heat. Arizona was going to be hot, but I was still woefully unprepared.
I have only been out of state three times, and every time I leave, I am completely unprepared and consistently in a state of confusion. However, every time I have left the state in the past it has been a special and exciting occasion that I looked forward to, one I could look back on fondly. This occasion will be special but I am not looking forward to it, I will not look back at this with any feeling but disdain but I will be happy to put it behind me.
This investigation began in Kamas, Utah and I am determined to end it 553 miles south in Sedona, Arizona. I have made the trip for one reason and one reason only; to sit across an interrogation table from The Wooden Faced Man or how his birth certificate reads, Marvin Dresdan.
Processing all the information that Laura Laney put forward to us during our questioning of her took me some time, and more than a few bourbons, but eventually I was able to accept her words as the truth, partially because we had no other leads and partially because we were desperately out of our depth. However, there were parts of the story we could easily prove, there is a bar called The Painted Whistle in Sedona and after a call to the Sedona Police Department we were able to confirm that Laura Laney both works there, and was reported missing. Our break in finding Marvin came after one part of Laura's story kept standing out to me;
“I did scratch his neck hard enough that he let out a shout.”
A scratch that hard would have to break the skin and possibly even draw blood, so we immediately checked under Laura's nails and bingo we found skin particles and dried blood. DNA testing was undergone by Salt Lake City PD and a profile was sent back to us within a day. As expected, it didn't match with anyone in Utah, so we sent the profile to Sedona and a match was found for a Marvin Dresdan.
Marvin was born on 4/30/1982 in Mesa, Arizona. His current residence in a trailer park just outside Sedona. His appearance was described as 6ft5, large build, Caucasian with a shaved head and no facial hair, blue eyes, no tattoos or piercings. He has one large scar, that of a circle with arrows pointing outwards on his left pectoral muscle, most likely from a branding. He has five previous convictions for petty arson and vandalism. The kidnapping and murder of seven people, six successful ones, sure is an escalation from lighting some fires.
There are numerous missing persons cases in Arizona and thankfully with the help our our small police department in Kamas, they have been able to close seven of them. It was astonishing to see the massive differences and lack of similarities between his victims. Some rich, some poor, some old, some young, some have squeaky clean records while others like a G.Linehan have multiple convictions (his were for public masturbation and indecent exposure). Male, female, black, asian, caucasian, people in their mid 50s, others in their early 20s, Marvin's attacks seemed to be as random and as chaotic as they could be.
He may have never been caught, a suspect profile would have been hard to create with the vast differences in his victims. Thankfully, like all serial killers, he got cocky, he slipped up, and thanks to the brave actions of Laura Laney we nailed the bastard. The officers of Sedona raided Marvin's home yesterday where they apprehended him and found massive amounts of incriminating evidence including: weapons, rope, tape, trophies of his victims, and last but not least, a wooden mask. I'm told that when he was arrested he didn't speak a word, and has continued to not speak. Hopefully I can change that when I get there, we have enough to put this guy away for the rest of our lives but I need answers, I need to know how bodies from Arizona showed up growing from a tree in Utah, and how The Children of Chaotic Freedom are tied into all of it.
When I entered the Police Station I immediately saw what an actual station, with an actual budget looks like. The Sedona Police Department blew our little office building out of the water with a sheen and pristine that just reeked of professionalism and respectability. Once I got into the building I was met by Detective Gerard Grabowski who brought me up to speed on any new developments; of which there were basically none. Upon entering the interrogation room, I finally got to look that psycho in the eye, but that took some time as when I entered he had his head down, staring at the sparkling clean, white tiles beneath him. He was a large man, absolutely, but he was not intimidating or threatening. When I sat down and finally locked eyes with those steely blue eyes, all I saw was a coward. The type of coward that lay in wait in the dark of night and attacks defenseless people from behind, the type of coward who would murder a single mother of two and toss her body down a hole like they were nothing but trash.
“Hello, Marvin. I’m Chief Johnny Carson of the Kamas Police Department in Utah. Seems you’ve been busy, and the fruits of your labor are growing from a tree in my town.” I say without taking my eyes off him for one moment.
“Now I don’t care too much for why you killed those people, or even how you killed those people, because the fact of the matter is you are going to be convicted of these murders and you will be given the death penalty. No, what matters to me is how the fuck does a monster like you can slaughter six people and fail to kill one more, toss them down a hole, and they then turn up in a tree outside my town over 500 miles away?”
He sits but does not say a word, time goes by and the only noise to witness is some light breathing.
“Well?” I ask again.
“What do you have to hide, you are caught, you are going down for this. Jesus Christ, your only chance to actually beat the death penalty is to give us some answers”
This falls on deaf ears once more, and I become frustrated due to a mixture of my lack of real interrogation experience, and the stress in which this investigation has put me under.
“ANSWER ME!!!” I scream while pounding my fists into the metallic table creating a deafening twang sound which echoes through the room, but even my sudden eruption fails to move him.
Detective Grabowski put his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me. I took a few moments to gain my composure, and considered leaving the room. But before I did that I asked one more question...the one that finally brought his eyes to meet mine.
“Look, just tell me this Marvin, if nothing else, what do The Children of Chaotic Freedom have to do with this?” I asked but he ignored me once more.
“Is Sidney Savage involved in anyway?”
After that name left my tongue Marvin immediately raised his head to look me in the eyes and smile, a wide smile, one that bared all his teeth to me.
“So, you do know Sidney Savage? I figured so, now tell me how he ties into all of this”
Marvin continued to smile but leaned forward across the table and stuck his tongue out at me. Initially I thought this to be a sign of disrespect but it was much worse. He flung his head backwards and then immediately forwards with immense force, smashing his chin into the table decapitating his tongue between his teeth. Blood began to pour from his mouth profusely as he spat some at my face. He began to laugh maniacally as Detective Grabowski and two other officers dragged him from the interrogation room off to a cell down the corridor. I could hear his laughter the whole time as I cleaned his blood off my face.
A moment later and Grabowski returned. His pale, bald head now a shade of red from sheer anger.
“You okay man?” he asked me
“Yeah, I’ll be fine but it seems this trip was a fucking waste of time.” I responded, in a tone as angry as his complexion.
“It didn’t go to plan that’s for sure but hey look, let me take you for a beer and we can try and forget the bullshit we just experienced” he suggested to me.
I considered just getting the next flight back to Salt Lake City, staying in a cheap hotel and travelling back to Kamas tomorrow, but I had travelled here and Detective Grabowski had been amazingly helpful to the investigation so I decided why not?
“Sure, Grabowski. You lead the way”
We went to a sports bar just around the corner from the station called Hamill’s Sporting Star, the Cardinals were playing the Steelers and Grabowski didn’t want to miss any more of the game than he already had. He grabbed us two ice cold bottles of beer, the perfect counter to the blistering heat. We sat at the bar as it had the best view of the 100 inch tv.
“So Grabowski, how’d you end up working as a cop in Arizona? With a Boston accent that strong I find it hard to believe you were always here.” I asked cheekily
“Haha you got me there. Boston born and bred, I end up down here due to a woma-” his sentence stopped abruptly as a wall of ice-cold air blew through the bar and shot up my spine.
The room seemed to turn to complete ice, with a hue of pale blue consuming the light in the room as everyone present in it was frozen in place. Time seemed to stop for everyone but me, as the door to the bar flung open and a silhouette walked through the blindingly crisp sunlight, eventually revealing themselves to be a man and one I knew well...Sidney Savage.
He approached me dressed in the same impeccable ivory suit he wore when we first met, the only change to his attire being the addition of golden, circular shaped sunglasses with a large rim around the lenses. The moment I saw him I became overwhelmed by anger. A powerful anger for what this bastard had done to me, to my town, to my Pops, and to everyone in that tree. I instinctively reached for my .357 and shot all six shots towards him, but instead of hitting the fucker they just passed right through him and hit the door behind as he seemed to modify his density on the fly. Panic instantly set in as I became increasingly aware of my impending doom, my fight and flight kicked in and I flicked out the revolver magazine in an attempt to attempt and reload until an icy cool hand gently pushed the gun downwards.
“I think we can both ascertain that don’t won’t work, John.” Sidney said to me as I looked up at him, the reflection of my helpless face looking back at me through his pitch-black lenses.
“Now please, sit” he gestured to me whilst removing his glasses and placing them in his suit breast pocket.
We both sat on a stool at the bar, the remaining patrons still fixed to their positions. I sat staring forward, trembling from anger and unable to turn my head, unable to look the man whom I hated so much in the eyes.
“I can smell your anger from here, John” he said, his voice carrying a low drawl, whilst sipping from a whiskey he took from the hands of a customer.
“I would be prepared to dodge your incoming attack but I would hope you have gotten over any misconceptions about being able to hurt me. But don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. I’m just here to talk.”
“Why do you hate me so much? Is it because of those damn security guards? They lived didn’t they? And I dealt with them troublemakers accordingly” he said feigning ignorance to all the evil acts he had a direct hand in.
I swallowed my pride and turned to look at him. Prepared for whatever he threw at me.
“Fuck you. You know exactly why I hate you. You brought violence to my town, you hurt two good men.” I said while grimacing towards him. “You hung seven people from a fucking tree like some sort of twisted art piece and…”
“...and you fucking ruined my father’s life”
He took another swig from the whiskey glass before heading behind the bar to grab a skull shaped bottle, one with an oddly motionless black liquid in it. He poured some into his glass and left the rest of the bottle beside him on the bar, as he began to walk back to his seat beside me he spoke.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” For the first time, it seemed like there was almost emotion behind these words.
“You know that is what I hate about you humans the most, you spineless cowards are always afraid to take ownership of your own actions with some pride. ‘Oh she made me do it, he said to do it, God told me, it was the Devil not me, the voices said so’. Don’t give me that crap John, you are better than that. The fact of the matter is this, those three members of my group did what they did because they wanted to, because deep down their primal instincts begged to be fed with blood, Marvin Dresdan always had that darkness in him, he just needed a little suggestion, a little push in the right direction to achieve his true potential. Even your dear Pops had this deep in him. I know you want to think I controlled your father’s mind and made him partake in the actions that led to his downfall. You want to believe that because it gives you closure, and it doesn’t sully the memory and image you have of your father but the truth is John, I did nothing more than free those thoughts in your father’s mind, I only made suggestions and showed him his true self. He was the one who partook in the actions, I couldn’t make him do it.”
“No...no that’s a lie. You have always been a lying bastard and you still lie even now!” I screamed back at him, shaking from anger from the bullshit he fed me.
“I am many things, John but two things I am not are a mind-controller or a liar” he quickly responded to me as he drank from the mysterious black elixir.
“All living entities are bound to rules, John. That is the way of the universe, we cannot change that no matter how much we try. I am, myself, immeasurably powerful but even I must abide to the universe's rules for me. There is no point in swimming against the cosmic current, it will not work. I will tell you my two rules, mostly because knowing this information will not make you any more dangerous to me, and partly because you have somewhat impressed me in your crusade to answer the questions this investigation has brought up.” he proclaimed while he placed his hand on my shoulder
“I cannot kill a human and I cannot control the minds of humans. These are the rules I must follow to enjoy my existence, they were created in a hope to nullify my power but honestly it has just made my existence far more enjoyable, it has given me a true love and obsession with chaos. Laws exist, this is true, but what is just as true is that laws are malleable and can be molded to fit your purpose. Loopholes are the enemy of laws and they are always umpteen steps ahead.”
“So if I cannot kill a human, nor can I control the mind of one human to kill another, what I can do is give someone their greatest desire. I can use this as a bargaining chip to have them do as I please, such as, oh, I don’t know pushing an old lady in front of a bus, or throwing a live grenade into a crowd. Now, as we both know, those are both pretty boring acts but I’m just spitballing here. Humans are sheep, this is something you know as well as I do, they like to be led by more charismatic and confident beings which of course has led to me having many followers across the globe, such as the cult that invaded your town, Mr. Dresdan and even...your ‘Pops.’”
I quickly swung a left hook towards him but like my bullets I fell through him and landed flat on my face, while still discombobulated on the dirty floor I felt Sidney grab the back of my collar and effortlessly toss me across the room. Before I hit the wall behind me I was stopped in mid-air by Sidney with an outstretched hand. Just as I got my wits about me, Sidney closed his left-hand into a fist and I was hurled forward projected as if I was in a high-speed vehicle that suddenly stopped, I travelled right into Sidney’s right-hand and he began to choke me.
“Y...You...can’t kill...me” I muttered out while I struggled to breathe, as this tiny man crushed my windpipe with one hand like it was paper.
“Correct, but I can hurt you. I can hurt you in so many different ways that you will wish you were dead” he replied with a smug grin, before slamming me back down into my seat.
“Now sit.”
I began to cough uncontrollably as my ability to breathe was handed back to me. I took a quick swig of my beer in an attempt to hydrate my sandpaper feeling throat before asking Sidney the question I needed answered most.
“So, assuming everything you just said is true, what about the tree?”
He smirked at me before taking another drink and stroking his beardless chin. He took his time either to consider his words or to fuck with me. Probably both.
“Well, as you know, I enjoy loopholes and my growth tree in your backyard was my little science experiment to gain the greatest loophole I could think of. I cannot kill humans or mind control humans but what if I can create something almost human myself? The rules would surely not apply to them as they are not human, so in theory I could control them” he explained to me as simply as if he was explaining the frozen game on the screen in front of us
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I angrily responded to him.
“I’m talking about clones, copies, hybrids. I am talking about creating my own followers who will always follow my orders and never take things into their own hands. I’m talking about nullifying risks, John! That was the theory anyway. The tree was like the womb of my machine and it would grow my minions as fruit. The basic idea was to sacrifice a human in the mouth of the machine, it would then consume them completely right down to the last atom. Once the digestion had happened it would birth a copy of the original human except it wouldn’t be a human...it would be mine.” he proclaimed to me while closing his fist and staring into my eyes with a look of pure determination.
“The good thing about a tree is there’s no need for a live mother, just some good soil and time.”
“You are actually fucking insane.” I forced out at a loss for words, every word stammering harder than the last.
“No, John, you humans are insane. You never shut up about freedom yet are no more free than a lion in a cage. But even a lion in a cage can rebel and attack the zookeeper. So, I took out any possibility for that and decided to create my own followers. However like all great ideas there was some issues, a few kinks to iron out. Like the mouth opening up 500 miles away from the tree and the fact all the clones grew out of the tree and they were already fucking dead.” he said while laughing with his hands over his face, leaning into the table with a whimsical exasperation, almost in disbelief that it didn’t work
“Now thankfully I had Mr. Dresdan down in Arizona to help me, a true agent of chaos it seems like fate opened the mouth near him to fulfill his potential, but he is no use to me as long as the clones are stillborn.”
He stood silently staring forward for a moment before clapping his hands loudly and rigorously rubbing them together.
“Ah, nevermind. I think messing with humans minds and creating chaos from a distance may be more fun anyway. All great inventors have failed inventions and the growth tree is my first. Maybe, I’ll come back to it another time but for now I think I’m going to keep twisting all your weak minds until you snap.” he said while patting me on the back.
I finished off my beer and attempted to process everything this lunatic had just explained to me, deciding to focus on one point he made.
“Yeah, except it wasn’t really a failure” I exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?” Sidney responded, taken aback.
“Laura Laney.” I smiled
“She survived. She is in the hospital in Utah.” I continued to explain, feeling a sense of pride in the shocked face he was now brandishing.
“Are you serious? You must be joking?”
“You don’t lie and neither do I, scouts honour. I was speaking to her only a few days ago.” I said to him as he began to laugh.
“Well, that is surprising and, might I add not the best news for you. I can’t control her or else I’d have known she was alive. Which means, oh fuck it does mean that!” he said while rolling his eyes upwards to look at the roof.
“It means what?” I quickly responded.
“It means something else is in control, and it means if I was you I’d get the next flight home and put a bullet between her eyes.” he suggested to me with a facial expression of complete seriousness.
I could sense his seriousness, I could feel that whatever he was speaking about was as dangerous as he seemed to think and I felt sick to my stomach thinking about what it could be if Sidney was suggesting these extreme actions. There was a moment of complete silence before Sidney clapped his hands together once again.
“Well best of luck with that. I’m out of here.” he exclaimed while placing his sunglasses back over his eyes and turning around to walk towards the door, Sidney began to chuckle quietly.
“What? Where are you going?” I asked.
“Not sure really, I haven’t been to the Philippines in awhile. I might go there and check on an old friend who owes me a favor.”
“”What about Laura?” I confusingly asked, somewhat surprised at his response.
“Shoot her in the head. I literally just told you that.” he responded before flicking something towards me and walking out the door. Taking a small leap and kicking his heels together as the door flung shut behind him.
I caught what it was that he threw towards me and looked at it. The same coin that he flicked through his fingers when we first met. He had a penchant for the dramatic. The noise of the bar began flooding back in as I stared down at the coin, the patrons unaware of what had just transpired in the same room as them while they stood frozen, everyone going right back to what they were doing the moment Sindey entered - bar one customer who seemed completely perplexed that his whiskey was now gone from his hand and the bartender quickly placing the skull shaped bottle back upon the top shelf. Grabowski continued on answering the question I had asked him but I was not listening to him, I was too focused on what Sidney had just told me, was he telling the truth or was this another one of his sick games in the name of chaos? I had my gut feeling, but I couldn’t tell, and therefore I couldn’t wait around and find out. I cut Grabowski off mid-sentence and told him I needed to go due to an emergency, I took the next taxi to the airport and the next flight back to Utah.
I arrived back in Utah before the days end and drove right to the hospital. That is where I sit now, my revolver in my hand loaded with two .357 slugs, one for her, one for me. I know this is insanity to trust a man;or a thing, like Sidney but I have no choice. Worst case scenario if he is lying, is that an innocent woman loses her life and I am labeled a lunatic just like my father. Worst case scenario if he is telling the truth, is many more people could be hurt or even worse. Anyway you paint it, I’ve got to do this... and I am going to do it.
It is night now, but the hospital is still busy as always, sickness doesn’t sleep. I walk through the blistering rain which hops off the tarmac of the parking lot, and in through the sliding front door entrance, I tipped my hat towards the lady at reception and took a quick left through the waiting room and down the hallway towards Laura’s room. As I walked down the hallway I was trembling, my hand was sweating profusely on the grip of my gun. I stopped to steady myself for a moment, taking three deep breaths in and out. Once I regained my composure, I pulled out my revolver and turned quickly into the room pointing it towards the hospital bed but...it was empty.
She was gone.
Submitted November 27, 2019 at 01:14AM by midniteauth0r https://ift.tt/2rvwcCI
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