Protective Arms (Completed)

35. Bodies

I step out of the cruiser and stretch my legs. It has been awhile since I have sat for so long in a moving vehicle, kind of pathetic that I am stiff from it some. One hour with the traffic to get to the old broke down house.

Dason's father handed this house down to him right before being moved into a retirement home. We have not even bothered going to the home because we got record of a stroke he had not to long ago that left him basically a shell of himself.

The house on the outside looks to be abandoned with a rotted look to it. Brit pops the lock on the door and we walk in, only to find it in the most lushous furniture. So the outside has been left to go but the inside has clearly been taken care of.

My guess Dason came here quite often to keep it in top shape like this. Gaperal goes through opening every door in this house and we follow just checking it is clear.

"No one is here." Gaperal sighs.

"That could be good or bad. Let's just see what we can find." I pat his back.

I go to the room that caught my attention when doing the sweep through. This one particular room has pictures the cover the entire wall and in the center is a small desk.

With a step up to the pictures I slowly look at them as I move to each wall. There has to be hundreds pinned up and all of women. A chill runs down my spine, as I walk to the desk. The top is clear of anything but there is a few drawers, opening the first one it is empty as are the others until the last one holds a single large book.

I use a glove and pull the book out, placing it on top of the desk. Sliding the glove on, I open it up to see small handwriting. It has tabs on the side and I flip to the first that has a name and skim over it.

I quickly go through all the tabs and each the same holding a new section with another womans name on it and details about the stalking and threats he done to them. The last tab is Athena's and instead of a cold chill my blood boils.

I go back to one of the other names in the book and skim over it. Only to stop dead in my reading and my eyes going back over the spot.

"Brit. Gaperal. You both need to get in here." I call out.

Brit comes in holding some clothing in his hands that makes me want to vomit. Gaperal comes in with a file folder.

"What do you got?" They ask.

"This is the only thing in this room other than the pictures. This book holds names by section and he wrote down every account he done to them. We need to call in more people and get a crew to start digging. There is going to be bodies under the porch."

Gaperal goes pale and Brit turns red.

"This file has loads of female names along with their personal addresses and numbers where he paids for the information." Gaperal lays the folder down before grabbing his phone.

My phone dings and I take it out to see it is Athena. She asks about the surviving victim from seven years ago, and I agree to give her a call because she needs to know. I leave it out for now but we may need her to come back just to testify against Dason to have another first hand account, even if it will be hard on her.

This is definitely one of the worst parts of the job.

Before I know it the others arrive and the unit sets out on digging in under the porch. It seems like it is one after another on team members calling out they got a body.

With each call out my stomach knots and drops. I have been reading over the book more and even found at the beginning of the book where Dason wrote his name and date of birth with his 'Life's Work' wrote on the very first page.

Even if he doesn't talk we have more than enough evidence not only for what he done to Athena but all of this here, he will never see the light of day again.

"Gatlin. What all do you have?" Chief pulls my attention.

I go through everything with him and he grunts at the end.

"This is one sick bastard." Chief shakes his head while I nod.

"The DA is going after the death penalty with Dason. He won't be able to play that he is crazy not with everything you boys found here today. We just have to get it all processed and filed in a detailed report. All of this is years of work and I'm willing to bet it started with that first arrest before he was eighteen."

"I can agree with you there this has been years of work. Brit and I are going to go over and see who all these others names are and if any may match to the bodies found."

"With the bodies here and all female, they didn't all come from town. So make sure your search is wide because the families will need to be notified once positive ID is made." Chief nods.

"My thing is we have to think of the women that are here a few was not in the file Gaperal found. Brit and I think he could have just picked them up while they were homeless. A few of the papers in the file holds womens names that are not in the book and I know of a few around town."

"They are lucky then and thankfully will be blessed of not knowing they could have been targets."

Chief walks out and talks with the medical examiner.

Brit walks up and we go over to start the filing and working through everything we found within this house.

Grabbing my phone, I sent Athena a quick message because the last thing I want is for her to worry, but I won't be making it back to town tonight. There is so many items here and bagging for blood items will take time along with going through reading everything to make the final report.

A/N---
Hey Hey Guys!!!

Pretty sad what was found at the house.
How many could he have hurt over the years?