Blood Street

Blood Street Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

Mark Andrews gritted his teeth when he arrived at the murder scene and found Detective Glen Brown conducting the investigation. The last thing he needed was to deal with that cock-sucker. Brown was negligent at best and corrupt at worst. In his various dealings with the Philadelphia Police Department, he learned Internal Affairs had conducted several investigations on Brown for the use of excess force when questioning witnesses, but he always escaped punishment. Twice, they had investigated him on bribery charges, but in both cases the prosecutor's office had nothing more than circumstantial evidence. Mark saw enough corruption to discern the good from the bad. Brown wore a badge and represented the law, but he was not one of the good guys. 

Nikki Staretz's fiancée, Enrico Pineda, made the discovery. After calling her numerous times, Pineda contacted one of Staretz's co-workers, who told him she had not shown up for work or called out sick. According to Detective Brown's report, Pineda, a construction foreman, finished working and went to a pub to eat dinner. He then drove to the apartment late that evening to find her dead. He called 911, and seventeen minutes later Detective Brown and his partner arrived and took control of the crime scene. 

They questioned Pineda in addition to Staretz's neighbors, but no one could shed light on the murder. Pineda spoke incoherently during questioning. Brown claimed he was a suspect in the homicide, but Mark was certain he had no involvement. The tears he shed were genuine. 

Pineda had to be innocent based on the condition of the body. It had been drained of blood. Also, the perp sliced open her abdomen and consumed part of her heart and kidneys. Staretz had been the fourth victim killed this way in over a week. Although there were slight variances in the three crimes, Mark had no doubt the same perp did all three. There were too many glaring similarities. The earlier questioning by the detectives showed that he had no connections to the other victims, as well as solid alibis for the times of the other murders. 

Mark did not want to get involved in a serial murder investigation since it was out of his normal scope of operations, but he couldn't back out now. Initially, he only cared about Johnny Gunns. With this fourth victim, Mark had stumbled on something more important and deadly than the world of organized crime. 

Three days ago, he and Rick had investigated the murder of a young Vietnamese woman, Thuy Pham, whose body had been found in a row home in Kensington. Much like Nikki Staretz's apartment, there were no signs of forcible entrance. Her body exhibited similar drainage of blood and puncture wounds on her neck. Also like Staretz, someone or something had partially consumed her organs. 

They searched the entire house. The furniture was undisturbed, and there were no signs of a struggle. The neighbors had not heard anything unusual. The resemblance of the Thuy Pham case to Nikki Staretz was uncanny. The most peculiar thing was that both victims had smiles on their dead faces. They seemed blissful. In neither case was there signs of sexual assault. 

Mark was still trying to arrange a meeting with mob boss Enzo Salerno. He had little doubt that Salerno was conducting his own parallel investigation. With Salerno's resources and connections, he could uncover things law enforcement officials couldn't. 

Over the past few days, Mark sent feelers through his underground network to see if Salerno would accept a sit-down at a neutral territory. Salerno would probably reject a direct contact. 

He stared at the corpse. Here she was, dead and drained of blood, yet she seemed perfectly content. No sign of forced entry or a struggle indicated she knew the killer, but why would she allow the perp to puncture her neck? 

While other forensic experts and police officers milled about looking for more evidence, Mark sat in the kitchen kicking around ideas in his head. Maybe Staretz had been drugged. He wanted to see the toxicology report. They ran one on Thuy Pham, and she came up negative for drugs or alcohol.