Wade and her partner Lewis drove onto the street where the victim was said to be held. They stopped a short distance away from the address provided by Bear, and scoped the house out. The unit that was sent with them followed. Wade and Lewis got out of the car and looked around for anything out of the ordinary around the street and surrounding area of the property, but everything seemed normal. Or as normal as could be expected with dozens of cops and the flashing lights from all of the patrol cars. The press soon turned up and tried to get answers and a statement about what was happening. The truth, was nobody had any idea what was happening. A perimeter was set up around the house, and the public were moved back and away from potential danger when they all came out of there homes to see what was happening.
"This does not look like a hostage situation, the place looks empty. You think we have been led up the garden path? Literally"
Lewis was scratching his head and could not work out any explanation other than this was a hoax.
"Fuck, this is bullshit, if someone was in there with a hostage then we would have had demands, or the fucker would have been shouting his mouth off that he was going to kill her. Silence, just bloody silence"
Wade was pissed off. They had gone pretty much all out, and now the press was here.
"Unless she is already dead, do we have statements from the neighbors?" Lewis asked a cop who was writing in a note pad.
"Yeah, nobody has seen or heard anything, and this house belonged to an old woman called Valery Breen, she died three days ago, no family"
"Anyone have cameras around here?" Wade pointed to the houses around the supposed hostage hold.
"No. All of the neighbors know each each other, real tight around here, they all say the same thing, no need for security, they thought it was amusing that I even asked them, like this is Brady Bunch town or something"
"Thanks" Lewis said shaking his head. "Now what?" He lit a smoke and leaned back on the car and crossed his legs knowing this was going to be a long day, and probably a huge waist of time. The cop nodded to them both and went back to writing in his pad and walking away in to the crowed of cops keeping the public out of the way.
"Call Bear, update him on this shit" Wade asked her partner before walking a little closer to the house. A rookie cop was standing close by with a pair of binoculars and she snapped her fingers at him to hand them over. She took them and had a real hard look. The curtains at the front of the house were closed, but she could make out a small crack between them. She walked a little closer and sideways to her left, trying to get a glimpse into the house through the small gap. Now a fair way down the street, looking at the window from a tight angle, she could see in to the house.
"Bear is updated, you see anything?" Lewis asked.
Wade continued to look through the binoculars without saying a word for a few moments.
"I'm not sure, but I think I can see a woman sitting on a chair, gap through the curtains" Wade handed the binoculars over to Lewis and pointed to the window.
"Yeah. A leg and a chair leg. No movement" Lewis handed them back.
Wade's phone began to vibrate in her pocket, and she took it out to see who was calling. Unknown number. She refused the call and put the phone back in her pocket.
"Go and get me a mic, if this prick is does not answer then I am going in, that girl could be seriously injured" Wade said to Lewis with gritted teeth.
"And get yourself killed? No, your not, your getting old but your not going to die today, grandma" Lewis joked in a serious voice without looking amused.
"Just fucking do it will you" Wade continued to stare through the window, willing the victim to move and show some signs of life. Lewis shook his head and retrieved a microphone for her.
"He will not answer you, he would have spoke by now" Lewis handed her the mic.
"This is the Detective Wade! Come out with your hands up, now! You have ten seconds or I am coming in!" She said down the mic. Thirty seconds went by and her phone vibrated again in her pocket.
"Who the fuck is this!" She said pulling it out of her pocket again. A text message, unknown number again. She opened the message and her eyes went wide with shock. She dropped the mic on the floor and threw her phone to Wade, before running towards the house.
"Wade! No!" Lewis shouted after her, but she did not listen. Wade kicked the garden gate open and sprinted down the path towards the front door, squashing a few daffodils that were over hanging from the grass. She did not stop or wait, she ran at the door and put her boot through it, bursting through, and in to the living room, there was no passage or hallway. The second she entered the room, she realized it was a trap. The front door was attached to ropes that pulled with force from the violent entry of Wade. The other end of the ropes were attached to the legs of the chair where the girl was sitting. The chair was ripped from under her, and she flew to her feet, attached by other ropes, like Jesus on the cross, facing away from Wade. Blood gushed out of her stomach. Hooks were in her skin that was pulled away, and also ripped her belly open, killing her in seconds. The blood gushed down into a funnel that was positioned beneath her, and was attached to pipes that were standing in a structure.
"No!" Wade screamed after a few seconds had past, and she realized she was the one who just killed the girl. If she went through the back door or a window, the girl would have lived. She walked slowly towards the horror that was in front her and walked to the side to see it fully. The pipes looked like writing in 3D, standing up and suddenly turning red. The pipes were translucent to begin with, but now blood flowed through them and out of them onto a rubber mat that lay at the feet of the dead girl. It was thick and had a stencil cut into it. It was a huge par of open lips, and the blood filled them in, colouring the picture a deep red. The blood spilled out of two gaps at the bottom of the rubber smiling mouth, making the smile bleed from either side of the lips like Dracula.
"Holy fuck" Lewis said following her in to the room "Crazy son of a bitch" he mopped his brow and put his hand over his mouth, either in shock or to stop his vomiting.
"I killed her, he rigged the room, the second I came through that door her stomach was ripped open and then this" She said pointing at the structure of pipes and smiling red mouth on the floor. She moved around carefully to see the girls face and stomach. Another stencil was ripped from her stomach as well as ripping her open, it was one big upper rose bud lip, like a cartoon drawing, and beneath it the ripped gut.
"I read the text. He said she was close to death and you had to get in here now before she bled out, but how does he have your number? It must be somebody who knows you, a vendetta"
"Maybe" She replied.
"Smile" Lewis said.
"What?" Wade said without looking.
"The pipes. It says smile"
