Cherry Bite

Introduction: Tape

FAX MEMO

From: Police Lieutenant Angelo Maradonna

To: Assistant Chief Gordon Calzone

Subject: Lucy Nichols case evidence

I understand that you have been investigating the disappearance of Miss Lucy Nichols, a 25 year old recently qualified psychologist. I have recently had submitted to me a dictaphone tape which we believe is a recording of Miss Nichols interviewing a client shortly before her death. You will notice that the tape had been deliberately manipulated so that the name of the client is not heard. Below I have included a transcript of the contents of the tape. The tape itself will follow by courier.

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Lucy Nichols: It's May 28th, 3:38 in the afternoon. Interview with Mr <tape overwritten for 2 seconds with white noise>. Mr <white noise> is not a registered client of mine, and I am attending on the basis of a preliminary psychlogical profiling. He is 24 years of age, has an excellent health record and is in good physical condition with no prior mental health concerns. So, Mr <white noise> ...

Unknown Male: Just call me <white noise>.

LN: Absolutely. <white noise>, why don't you tell me what it is you wanted to talk about.

UM: I wanted to tell you what's been happening to those girls who have been disappearing.

LN: Really, you know something about them?

UM: You know when a guy tells you that he feels so close to you that he feels you literally under his skin? I'm sure you heard it plenty of times. But they've never really been there have they. None of them. Not like I have.

LN: I see...what is it that you do that other men don't?

UM: My father used to tell me that women are great at flaunting what they want you to think is on offer. But women don't know how to give. Not really. My mom was like that, he told me. He said that the only way to get what you wanted from a woman was to take it.

LN: Did your father...take what he wanted from your mother? Are we talking about...?

UM: Yeah, he took what he wanted alright.

LN: And those girls...did you...take what you wanted from them?

UM: <laughs> Any guy with a little insight can get with a girl. But women, they have a barrier that guys aren't allowed through. My dad thought that forcing himself on my mom was the way to get through that barrier. Me, I discovered that that only goes skin deep. The barrier goes way deeper than that.

LN: So did you try to find a way to go deeper?

UM: At first I used water. I rigged up a cistern in a basement under my home so that I could tie up a girl, put her in it, weigh her down, and just fill it with water. I'd watch as the water ran into her clothes, flowing and swelling like a thousand hands moving over her body, and eventually, when she was submerged, I'd watch as the very life was pulled out of her, bubble by bubble.

LN: I see. You said "at first I used water". Did you use something different later?

UM: What runs thicker than water?

LN: Well I don't know <white noise>, why don't you tell me.

UM: I realised the I wasn't getting me through the barrier. The water was just a proxy. I mean I still use it sometimes, but I don't drown them. I let them think they're going to drown, but really the water's just a sideshow now. The main event is when I drink their blood.

LN: You drink their blood. So...are you a vampire?

UM: I never called myself that. Still, vampires are in fashion...and I do like to be fashionable. But vampires get their strength from drinking blood. I'm strong anyway. Drinking their blood is a symbol of my strength, not a source of it.

LN: Can you explain that to me?

UM: "Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh."

LN: Is that from the Bible?

UM: Deuteronomy 12:23.

LN: Sounds to me like the Bible's telling us that we mustn't drink blood.

UM: That passage is talking about the blood of animals; bulls, goats, pigeons. Of course God doesn't want us taking into ourselves the blood of base creatures. But woman is the companion of man, created equal to man, yet from man's own very flesh. Equal in dignity to man, yet at the same time subject to man. So the by drinking the blood of woman, you take into yourself the very life of woman. That is how I get through the barrier. That is why every man who's ever told his bimbo girlfriend that he "feels her in his veins" is so full of shit. That's how a man fulfills his mastery over the companion God gave to him, and how he excercises his ultimate strength.

LN: <long pause, sounds of scribbling on paper> Mr <white noise>, do you have any evidence that you killed these girls?

UM: You want to see evidence?

LN: You say that you rigged up a cistern in the basement of your house. This is a town house Mr <white noise>, if it even has a basement there is no way you could make those sort of modifications without drawing attention.

UM: I didn't say it was here. I said it was under my home.

LN: I'm going to tell you what I think Mr <white noise>. I think that you idolised your father, but struggled to come to terms with what he did to your mother. So to help you deal with that, you tried to idolise the things he did, as well he your father himself. And when these stories about the missing girls started appearing, you formulated a fantasy in which you both emulated and elaborated upon what you believed you admired about what your father did. I don't think you are a liar, and I don't think that you are insane. I think you are just finding a way to cope with your grief, and it is manifesting itself in these dark delusions.

UM: Maybe if you saw it for yourself.

LN: I'm afraid I must insist that we end the interview now Mr <white noise>. Please don't touch that...no, let go of me! Hel... <cuts off to continuous white noise>

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Miss Nichols has been missing for over two weeks. During that time, another girl has gone missing. It is almost certain that the man on the tape is linked to the disappearance of Miss Nichols, and probable that he is linked also in some way with at least some of the other disappearances. But at this time, we have no idea who or where this man is.

I hope that this proves useful in your investigation, and if you have any details which may aid us in ours, I would be wholly gratefully if you could supply them by return.

Sincerely,

A. Maradonna