Saw

Chapter 3

*FIVE MONTHS EARLIER*

Three detectives were walking down a flight of stairs. Their names were Tapp, Sing and Kerry. Tapp was a tall, burly black man in his early fifties; Sing was an Asian man in his mid thirties, and Kerry was a Caucasian woman also in her mid thirties. Tapp and Sing were wearing suits and Kerry was wearing a jacket.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the room was lit with a dim green light. Sing pulled out his flashlight and was horrified by what he saw in the room. There was the corpse of a man in his late forties, tangled in a huge maze of razor wire. There was blood everywhere. The three detectives cringed at the sight of it. Kerry walked a bit closer to the body.

"This one's not fresh anymore," said Kerry. "At least three weeks out."

Detective Tapp squinted and peered closer to the body.

"Victim is a 46 year old male," Kerry continued. She pointed out the deep cuts all over his body. "Died of massive blood loss. Mostly from the femoral artery."

The other two detectives were pointing their flashlights at the scene and examining it, both with looks of shock and disgust on their faces.

"He started at the back of the cage and tunnelled his way through the razor wire so fast it's amazing he got as far as he did. He cut himself so deep we found traces of stomach acid on the floor. We also found this."

She held up an evidence baggie with a cassette player inside it; similar to the one that Adam and Lawrence found. She pressed play, and Tapp and Sing brought their ears closer to listen.

It was the same raspy, distorted voice from Adam and Lawrence's tapes.

"Hello Paul. You are a perfectly healthy, sane, middle class male. Yet last month, you ran a straight razor across your wrists. Did you cut yourself because you truly wanted to die, or did you just want some attention? Tonight, you'll show me. The irony is that if you want to die, you just have to stay where you are. But if you want to live, you'll have to cut yourself again. Find the path through the razor wire to the door. But hurry, at 3:00 that door will lock, and then this room becomes your tomb. How much blood will you shed to stay alive, Paul?"

The tape ended. There were looks of shock and horror on all the detectives' faces. Tapp noticed something on Paul's body, and shined his flashlight to examine it. A piece of flesh was carved out of Paul's body, in the shape of a jigsaw piece.

"Jigsaw piece," said Tapp, sighing. "I think we're gonna be here for a while, Sing."

*BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY*

"The newspapers started calling him the Jigsaw Killer," Lawrence said. "Actually, technically speaking, he's not really a murderer, he never killed anyone. He finds ways for his victims to kill themselves."

*BACK TO FIVE MONTHS EARLIER*

The next crime scene they entered was of similar fashion. There was a dimly lit room, with numbers written in blood all over the walls, broken glass all over the floor, and a large metal safe in the middle. But most importantly, there was a completely charred corpse on the floor. This was apparently of man who had been faking illnesses to get off work.  Kerry showed them another cassette player found at the scene and pressed play:

"Hello Mark, if you're so sick, then why do I have so many photos of you up and about? Let's put your so-called illness to the test. Right now, there is a slow acting poison in your veins. The antidote is in the safe. The combination to the safe is written on the walls. Hurry up and program it in. But watch your step. And by the way, that's a flammable substance smeared on your body, so I would be careful with that candle, if I were you, or all the people you've burned with your act just might have their revenge.