I'll Protect You

Chapter 10

While Madeleine and Tom were at Oliver's house, some of the other police were searching the suspects houses. In each house, they found a collection of letters. All were found in the cabinets, and all of them were from Henry.

There weren't many letters in each stack, maybe seven or eight. It wasn't as if they were well hidden, so the officers had were suspicious that they had placed where they would be found by the authorities.

The letters weren't too long, and weren't filled with any emotions or sentiment. The only time they were was in Richard's last letter, in which Henry wrote about his appreciation that Richard had protected Oliver. The other letter were just names, dates and some background information. There were some thanks written into the letters, none too emotional, but all sincere. The names were all names of victims, some the police didn't recognise, but when they tested the DNA, it matched with the meat chunks in Oliver's house. Then the police were frantically trying to connect names to chunks of flesh.

Even today, nobody knows if those letters were placed on purpose into the cupboards, or if those places just had significance to each man. The letters were incriminating evidence, so why would the suspects place them in clear view? Were they that confident that they wouldn't get caught? Did they not think that they would be found while they were still at large?

The most likely answer is just that there were so insane and lost, and they didn't think the police could affect them. That answer is the only one that really frightened the police, because why weren't they afraid of the police? Of jail?

Why weren't they afraid of death?

——

Not even an hour after searching Oliver's house, Madeleine received a text. Not from anyone in the police department, not from any family or friends, but from Henry.

She didn't recognise the number, but she knew who it was when she saw the message. It was just an address, with the words, 'come and get me, if you want to', and for dramatic affect a picture of four masks. Three she could recognise, an eagle, crocodile and shark, and one she didn't know, a lion.

Madeleine got as many officers as she could and raced out to find the place, an abandoned house just a few kilometres north. Always some abandoned place or other, though they might be the safest to stash items of value. The officers were instructed to cover all exits, and some told to go inside. Madeleine led the assault, gun held at the ready, Tom and Jerry followed close behind. She had ordered everyone around, standing like an ancient war general ready to face off against a dragon. Everyone was ready, decked out as if facing an army, and with the assault that followed it was if they actually were.

The troop Madeleine was leading entered through the front door of the fairly modest house. The house was old, and decrepit, but it showed signs of money. Madeleine had a faint sense of deja vu as she entered, but it was locked away in a deep corner of her mind when a shot from above hit a police officer and they went down fast. Police looked up and tried to spot the sniper, and in that time three more were shot down, including Jerry, who was shot in the leg. He stayed down, but a different officer didn't, and they were shot clean through the head.

The rest of the officer, hurried down the hallway, and when they had to pass several sets of doors. The officers were on high alert when they passed the first door, and nothing much happened. The door opened into a small room, most likely an office, but the officers passed it. The next door, however, was much more dangerous. Just after Madeleine passed through, and as the next officer passed it, a knife came flying out and hit the officer in the neck. They went down, and the rest of the police scuttled back, only to face gunshots coming from behind, the sniper had moved further into the house. The police moved forward, trying to protect them selves from all sides but were picked off one by one, until only a handful were left. That's when they came across the kitchen.