“We’ve lost him. Let’s just go back to the car and…”
“Bentley, shhh!”
“What?”
“Listen…”
Bentley strained his ears. He couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary and was about to speak again until he heard it too.
“A scream.”
Without wasting time, Rose bolted towards the faint sound. She ran blindly, her ears guiding her to the ever so slowly raising sound. Suddenly the sound stopped.
“Damn it! We’re too late!”
“It’s close by though, I’ll radio our position in to headquarters. Perhaps he is still…”
Another loud scream cut Bentley off. It was close, just in the next alley within sight distance. She saw a silhouette on the ground with a figure above her covered in the shadows. Yes! It was him! She had found the Red Rose Rapist! Full of energy, she ran over and cast her flashlight over the pair.
“Police! Freeze!
There was Violet standing over a woman whose breast and pussy were exposed with a red rose in her crossed arms.
Suddenly several squad cars showed up, illuminating the no longer dark alley with their flashing blue and red lights. A news van was in the mix too. How had backup arrived so fast? And what was the news doing here in such a short time? She didn’t let that worry her and placed Violet under arrest. As the police were taping off the crime scene, she heard a cry over the crowd.
“Rose! Rose! Oh no Rose where are you? Let me through I have to see if it’s her! Rose!”
“Jim, Jim what are you doing here? And what the hell happened to your eye?”
“He...he called me...that rapist called me and said you were going to be his next victim! He said he would do it over here, oh fuck I was so worried...so worried!”
“What?”
“It’s true. Jim called us and told us of a general location about two or three hours ago. We told him we would do whatever we could but it was probably a crank call, and then Bentley called in his position. The radio transmission was fading in and out. We got the position but it sounded like you were the victim. We feared the worst and sent the closest people your way.”
“I’m glad you’re ok Rose. Oh and as for my eye, I was attempting to stop a fight between a friend and a stranger. I got in the way and got hit. The stranger had a knife but luckily it only grazed my side. I didn’t even bleed. ”
Rose shook her head. Too much was going on at once. She looked forward to getting a good long nights rest.
“I’m just glad this whole rape business is over” she said.
“No, no it’s not over” Violet shouted. “I’m not the Red Rose Rapist! He is!” Violet raised his handcuffed hands and pointed straight at Jim. “He’s the man doing this!”
****
“This is bullshit.
“Look Rose we had to bring him in even if it were not a cop who accused him. You know how tight things are.”
“I understand that but someone should at least take into consideration that Violet had just been caught red handed and was looking for someone to blame.”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Ok, I’ll interrogate your boyfriend. You do Violet.”
Rose’s interrogation of Violet made her even surer that he was the Red Rose Rapist. Violet refused to give any sample of DNA. His excuse for being there at that moment in time was that he had gotten an anonymous tip that a man was spying on women in the shadows around the area and that a rape would likely occur around that exact spot. When asked why he didn’t attempt to call anyone, he simply said that his radio didn’t work. Violet also admitted that it was possible he had mistakenly identified Jim as the Red Rose Rapist because he didn’t get a good enough look at the rapist.
Bentley’s interrogation of Jim was not very long. After he had called the police, Jim simply drove around the area in a heightened state of emotion looking for Rose. When he almost got into an accident he had decided to park the car and continue the search on foot. He was not familiar with the side of town or the area that the Red Rose Rapist said he was going to rape her, so it took him a long time to work out the location. Bentley noted that like Violet, Jim too was unseen by anyone else during the rape. Jim was also similar to Violet in that he refused to take a DNA test.
Bentley had time to look at some records as Rose was interrogating Violet. He like Rose wanted to see if a relationship existed. He breathed a heavy sigh as he printed out the results.
“First suspect Harry Red, second suspect John Violet, and third suspect Jim Blue. Neither will submit to a simple DNA test. Why? What’s the story with Harry? What’s he doing away from home so often? What about Violet? Why is he always absent or somehow not here when the rapes occur? Jim is strange too. Why is it that when Rose gets a new boyfriend all the rapes strangely happen only when she is at work? Circumstantial evidence…Not enough evidence to convict anyone…can’t really arrest when you don’t know for sure.”
“Talking to yourself again?”
“Yeah Boss. We have to let both of them go right?”
“Yes.”
“Thought so. Keep an eye on both though right?”
“Definitely.”
“Good, I think both of them have something suspicious in their asses.”
Jim was angry, very angry. Horny too. He was upset about being accused as being the Red Rose Rapist. He stood in the darkness, waiting for his anger to die down. It didn’t work. Perhaps he should take out his anger in a different way then. Jim smiled as at that moment a woman headed out the back entrance of the library. It was almost too easy!
Hm...I think for the first time the Red Rose Rapist will take two victims in one night!
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