The Snowman Chpt 4 < WildBob > A creepy christmas tale

Chapter IV

It was late afternoon by the time Detective Madison had his team back out at the site where the body was found. They established a search grid and started searching to see if the murder had occurred near here. Searching for the site of the murder should have been easy based on what the coroner’s office had said. There should have been a lot of blood. Blood on the snow would be easy to spot.

Time dragged by with no results to report. It was well past dark and the storm was starting to pummel the whole area before Madison had to call the search off and send his people home. The weather was just too brutal to keep anyone outside. They hadn’t found anything. He was sure that the Captain would have something to say about putting a crew out in the field under these conditions.

I made sure that everyone got on the road safely and started back to the precinct. The radio came to life. Attempted car jacking in progress, not far from my location. A number of units were responding. I radioed in and told them my location. I was the third car to arrive on the scene. There wasn’t much traffic. Most people had already gone home so they wouldn’t have to be out in the storm. The car was a nice BMW. The driver’s window was totally smashed out. The car lights were still on. One office had turned the BMW off. The keys were still in the ignition. Most of the glass from the smashed window was on the outside of the car. Some of it was a good distance from the car. There was a body about ten feet from the car. I could hear sirens in the distance. Probably an ambulance and more patrol units.

There was no need for the ambulance. The body was a well-dressed professional looking man. There were still pieces of glass on his clothing like he had been dragged right through the window of the car. He was laying face down on the snowy street. I felt for a pulse but couldn’t find one. I radioed in that we would be investigating a murder and to get a CSI team out here to process the scene before it was covered by snow.

The ambulance arrived and the EMTs checked for vitals. No pulse, no signs of life. They rolled the body over to attempt CPR. It didn’t do any good. I was watching the futile efforts of the EMTs when I noticed the small hole in his chest.

The lab boys had just arrived when I heard the dispatcher requesting assistance at the hotel just a little ways down the block. There was a body of a young woman in the parking lot. The EMTs were packing up their equipment so I gave one of them the address and we headed for the hotel. We were the only vehicles on the road. The snow was coming at us sideways from the wind. The visibility was so bad we just crawled along in our vehicles.

The body was a young woman, maybe in her early twenties. Attractive looking. Her purse had been thrown to the side when she was attacked. Small hole in her chest, like the others. Her wallet had slid out from her purse. It had opened to her driver’s license. Her name was Lilliana. It was such a pretty name for a corpse. There was a picture of her in a cheerleader’s outfit in her wallet. The lab guys would have to process this scene as soon as they finished with the other.

My radio cracked to life again. There was a gunfight going on in an old apartment building just a few blocks away. This building was known hangout for one of the local gangs. I left a sergeant in charge of securing the crime scene and made my way to the apartment building. Several black and whites were already there but they were waiting for the swat team before they would try to enter the building. Many frightened residents of the building were huddled outside in the storm. They had fled the building when the shooting had started. We interview some of the witnesses. Most had just heard shooting and fled. Finally I talked to a woman who lived next to the apartment where the shooting had occurred. She had heard a tremendous crash followed by shooting and screams. She fled as soon as the shooting had stopped. She hadn’t noticed anything unusual before the crash.

The swat team had arrived. They brought out a small remote controlled robot with a video camera mounted on it. Two swat members in full body armor carried the robot to the second floor. They stayed by the stairwell and gave full control to the operators of the robot. Several men were clustered around the display in the SWAT van when the robot came into position outside the apartment. The door was torn off the hinges. It looked like a battering ram had been used to smash open the door. Bodies were everywhere. Madison could see at least two bodies that had a hole in their chest. There appeared to be at least one survivor. He was a small boy maybe 10-12 years old sitting in the fetal position on the floor. He was just rocking back and forth.

The SWAT team moved in. There were seven bodies. Only one little boy had survived. The dispatcher was calling again. More bodies in the street were being reported. It was the beginning of a very long and gruesome night for the police department.

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