Eyes on The Damned

Chapter 17

September 6, 2021, 12:54am

Jim turned over in the narrow bed, trying to find a comfortable position. A police cell wasn't designed to be comfortable.

Ryan Frazer deserved every moment of pain he had endured. Jim regretted none of it.

But he remembered the look on Simon's face and he did regret that. Simon was a good friend. He had been Jim's closest friend for years. Maybe Simon would have helped him eight years ago. Maybe Jim should have told him everything then. How different everything would be now if he could have punished Frazer some other way.

Jim had to assume Simon would tell IA and probably the Feds that Jim admitted to another murder. If they could find more evidence than his confession, Jim was in serious shit.

He was not an impulsive man. He planned things, thinking through all the angles before he acted. When he killed Ryan Frazer, he expected to be caught. He knew that, at the very least, he would be a suspect. Even as he tried to cover the evidence, he did not believe he would succeed.

*

October 2013

It was easy for Jim to find out Frazer's schedule. It was even easier, so soon after Carolyn's funeral, to get some time off. Captain Banks seemed almost relieved when he requested some time. Jim wasn't sure what to make of that.

Outside the building, Jim hesitated only for a moment. He felt the weight of the gun in his shoulder holster. He had no intention of using it. He didn't want to shoot Frazer: that would be too quick. Carolyn didn't die quickly. She died slowly, in agony, her lifeblood spilling out into Jim's hands.

The locked door of Frazer's apartment was no barrier. Once inside, he snapped on a pair of latex gloves and set about searching the apartment. It was an illegal search, he knew that. If he found anything, it wouldn't be easy to do anything about it. He needed enough evidence to get a legal warrant and repeat the search. That wasn't likely to happen.

Jim found a stack of videos. He had only recently transferred out of vice and he recognised some of the titles: not things an upstanding citizen should own. This collection alone was probable cause to arrest Frazer. But not for rape or murder.

In a box beneath the bed, Jim found a collection of toys that would have shocked him had he not already seen Frazer's movie collection. Leather handcuffs and collars, probes and clamps, gags and hoods. Jim never liked Frazer but this was a surprise. He'd figured the man for an obsessive geek, not a dangerous sexual deviant. You think you know someone... Jim also found women's lingerie, red silk, drenched in Carolyn's favourite perfume. The lingerie wasn't hers, Jim was sure of that. But it told a clear story. He had hoped to find more: photographs, perhaps, or something of hers, anything that would prove Frazer's obsession with Carolyn. He was either smart enough to have burned everything or the goods were elsewhere. The lingerie was the only real evidence and that couldn't conclusively link him to Carolyn.

Through his disappointment, Jim realised that whatever he thought he had planned to do that night, he wanted to find evidence, even now. Something, anything, to get Frazer arrested.

It was then that Jim heard the key in the door. Shit! He darted into the bathroom, drawing his gun. He screwed the silencer into place quickly and held himself flat against the wall.

There was no turning back now, he realised as Frazer entered the apartment. Jim felt very calm. Every sound Frazer made was sharp and clear. Jim could almost see him as he moved about the room, oblivious to Jim's presence. Frazer stripped off his jacket and tie, throwing them across a chair. He lit a cigarette, turned the TV on and headed into the bathroom.