Homicidal Horrors

Chapter One: Fledgling of the Fingers

Detective Floman looks down at the mangled corpse with an unexpected face of solemn indifference while the blocked off civilians looked upon the victim's corpse with disgust. Besides the distant, panicked murmurs of the civilians, Floman was the first to break the silence. "Looks as if victim's fingers were severed and inserted into multiple orifices of the body; the mouth, nose, and eye sockets. Take note of strangulation markings on the neck. Severing of the fingers seems to be postmortem." Floman then looked at her partner, Detective Davens and said, "Lets call this in and head back to the precinct." Davens agreed and they got in the squad car then drove to the precinct to figure out the next move. Floman and Davens were assigned to the case, but it seemed Davens was much more interested in investigating it than Floman. Davens soon found a lead on someone to bring in for questioning. The partners got in their car and drove to an apartment complex in their town. They arrived to their destination and knocked on the door of the person they want to bring in. A tallish but skinny man slightly cracked open the door, the man seemed stressed despite the fact the officers had only identified themselves, particularly when Floman did so. The man opened up the encounter with, "Hello Detectives, I am Vincent Ructers how may I help you?" Davens asked Vincent if him and Floman could come inside, Vincent opened the door completely and let them in. Davens continued with, "Hi Mr. Ructers, would you mind coming down to the precinct with us and answering some questions for us? You're not in trouble, we think you could help us with a case." Vincent seemed more nervous than before. "Uh, sure let me just get my shoes." Vincent grabbed his shoes and the three went to the precinct.

Vincent sat in the small boxed room for what felt like 30 minutes to him. Davens and Floman came into the room and shut the door behind them, then sat down across from the anxious looking Mr. Ructers. Davens smiled and said, "So, Mr. Ructers, last night a corpse was found with things done to it that might interest you, would you like to see?" Vincent nodded his head and Davens promptly slid a photograph on the table towards Vincent and he picked it up. Vincent had a look on his face when he saw it, not of astonishment, but more of a look of recognition. Davens proceeded as Vincent looked at the photo, "We have on file that long before you moved here, your wife was murdered correct?" Vincent nodded. "Your wife was killed by someone who severed all of her fingers, but the killer was never found, so you moved far from that town and somewhere along there your daughter, Tori Ructers disappeared." Vincent nodded again and said, "Yes Davens and FLOman, Amber, my wife was killed, but my daughter ISN'T gone, she came of age and moved away, a mutual agreement, my lovely FLOwer would never run away. Sorry I couldn't HELP you." Vincent was suddenly talking in an odd fashion, random words he would say at a louder volume with a different tone of voice, Davens just told himself he was just talking odd because he was extremely nervous. Davens asked, "You seem jittery Mr. Ructers, are you okay?" Vincent nodded again and said, "I am okay, am I not acting NOrmal?" Davens continued, "Sorry sir, just thought you were a bit out of it, do you have anything that could help us further into this case? Any names or something we could go off of to find the person who did this?" Floman came out of her state of indifference and glared at Vincent and Vincent stared nervously back then replied, "No sir, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help." Davens assured Vincent it was okay and thanked him. Vincent was then taken home and the two detectives talked about the questioning. "Well, you were very quiet, would've been helpful if you at least were paying attention." Davens said. Floman replied with, "Sorry, this case just is stressing me out, plus Mr. Ructers was bothering me with how he was acting so I wasn't really paying attention." Davens was disappointed but didn't press on, he asked if Floman thought anything of how Vincent was speaking. Floman replied, "It is most likely nothing, probably a speech impediment." Davens although was very intrigued, and decided to himself he was going to investigate further, and played back the interrogation tape of Vincent's questioning by himself. Davens was perplexed by the fact that Vincent was nervous for a long time, but never was troubled by his "speech impediment" before. Davens played back Vincent's reply to the question about his wife again and again. Davens was suddenly struck with an idea, and got out a pen and pad and wrote down every emphasized sound. "Flo" was the first one, then "isn't" was the second, and the third one was "Flo" again, and lastly "Help" as the fourth. Davens wrote them all down, and read it back to himself. "Flo isn't Flo Help." Davens then marked down the fifth one, from Vincent saying that he was okay. Vincent said he was okay, but then emphasized "No" from "Normal" and stopped doing it there. Vincent actually meant no. Davens was confused at first then thought of Floman's apathy towards the case and Vincent. Davens was being given a secret message by Vincent. Davens remembered Floman tried to get him to not investigate the "speech impediment" and left quickly. A look of horrific realization went over Davens' entire face and ran out of the room, hurried to his car and drove towards the house at high speeds. Davens radioed in, "Send someone to the apartment of Vincent Ructers immediately!" and felt a sense of panicked adrenaline go through his body.

End of part one.