Haunted in the Night

Chapter Twelve- Part Two

“Claire wake up” Bob shook her awake and she gasped in fear as she slowly came back to consciousness.
“You were crying in your sleep” he told her and she quickly reached up to wipe her eyes.
“The monster again?” he asked her, referring to the other nightmare she had before he started staying here with her.
“Another form of a monster” she replied and he nodded understanding she was referring to Sam.
“Well that monster is gone now, you needn’t worry about him” he tried to reassure her but he knew deep down she was haunted by a lot of things and her life would never be easy.
“I got a call from the station this morning, we finally have some more clues” he told her as he sat down at the table sipping at his coffee, he pointed to one he had made her.
“What is it?” she asked as she slowly made her way over, sitting down across from him and taking a sip.
“Well the ranger’s got back to me, the soil samples we found? You find those elements in caves” he told her and she quickly went and grabbed her notebook to write it down.
“Where are caves around here?” she asked curiously as she sat back down, pen and pad still in her hand.
“Up the mountains, the only way to get up there is through that trail where we found Helena’s....” he couldn’t continue, he had given her that piece of jewellery, for their six months of being together, it was just too emotional for him.
“The trail that most hunters avoid because of how rough it is? I was thinking that would be a perfect trail for the killer to be going” she told him.
“Yes but you would have to be awfully fit to get through that trail, skilled hunters even hate going up that way” he said and she thought carefully.
“Could you be small and be able to make your way up there? If you could find a way, dodge around the obstacles?” she asked him curiously and he considered it for a moment before replying.
“I suppose so, but then there is the river, if you small you would just get swept away” he told her.
“But what if one of those fallen trees made a path across? Do the rangers even go up as far as the river to know?” she asked and he looked at her surprised.
“No, they haven’t bothered to venture out that far seeming as nobody they know goes out there, so I suppose it is possible” he remarked, impressed by her innovation.
“So what are the other clues?” she asked suddenly remembering he had said clues, not just one, plural.
“The blood we found on that screwdriver, it belongs to....” he trailed off and she looked at him sadly, seeing how much he struggled to say it, fear rising in her belly, was it the blood of one of her parents? Is that why he is afraid to tell her?
“It’s Helena’s” he managed to gasp it out and he had to quickly put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from sobbing, tears entering his eyes, he had been mostly in shock when he had been told but now that he was telling Claire, it was all coming bubbling to the surface.
“Oh god” Claire felt like her heart had stopped in her chest, like the air had been sucked out of her lungs, if there was blood on that screwdriver, that means somebody was injured, and if that blood belonged to Helena, than she was the one who was injured, out there in the forest, with a psychopath who probably wouldn’t care to tend to her wound.
“But there was also fingerprints on the weapon, they matched a man named Eric Sale” he quickly said, managing to hold back the tears and calm himself down enough to tell her.
“Eric Sale?” Claire asked curiously, another name she did not recognise.
“His a bartender at the local pub, I was just about to head out to talk to him, if you want to get ready I can take you with me” he said as he finished his drink and Claire nodded before rushing to get ready, she just threw on a simple black tank top with her jacket and blue skin tight jeans, with her combat boots.
“So what can you tell me about this Eric Sale?” she asked once they were in the car driving towards where Eric must live.
“His 41 years old, single as far as anyone knows, his saving up to become a mechanic, he is working as a bartender to pay for the college courses, he has a garage that he is always seen fixing cars up in” he told Claire who nodded as she took notes.
“So he’d have access to many tools then” she stated and suddenly Bob went a bit pale, realising she was referring to the screwdriver and that if he wanted to he could use a lot of other tools to create pain if he wanted, for all they knew he could be torturing everybody that goes missing, if he is the one that is kidnapping them, so far a lot of signs were pointing to him.
“Yes” he managed to get out, he didn’t want to be thinking of torture, of Helena being in that situation, it was just too much to bare.
“We’re here” Bob said as they pulled up out front of a big wooden cabin, the porch on it was nice, it had a few seats and a coffee table, even a swinging chair.
To the left of the house was a garage, it was open and she could see what to her looked like a huge scrap of metal.
“That must be the latest car his working on, he rebuilds them” Bob explained to her as they took the few steps up the front porch and rang the doorbell.
Nothing, even after a few seconds so Bob knocked, still nothing, peeking in the windows the place looked empty, like there was no sign of life.
“Maybe his in the garage” Bob said as they started making their way over to it.
“Claire stop” Bob suddenly shouted at her as they were about to enter the garage and she froze, noticing blood splatter on the car frame and a pool of blood under it, no body though, however the dirt looked like something had been dragged out of the garage, something big, like a body.
“Oh my god” she gasped, noticing an abandoned hammer dropped carelessly on the ground, blood all over the head of it, from the looks of the scene she would have guessed that someone was blitz attacked from behind, and smacked with the hammer, judging from the small parts of brain she was spotting she was guessing it was a blow to the head.
“I’m calling the rangers and Officer Lewis” Bob told her as he quickly reached for his mobile phone, dialling up as he walked off to the car.
Claire however looked back into the garage, tools were scattered everywhere, car parts too, but then she noticed a draw, that had a massive padlock on it, instantly curious she took a pair of bolt cutters and made sort work of the lock, opening the draw and gasping at what she saw.
Pictures, of who she was guessing Eric Sale was, he had short messy light brown hair, brown eyes, slightly thin stubble with a small scar on his right eyebrow, he also had broad shoulders which made sense because you would have to have good muscles to be a mechanic.
That definitely would explain why someone would need to blitz attack him unawares, if he was strong he could easily fight back, blitz attacked he wouldn’t get the chance, if it were him who had been attacked here, for all they know this is where he could have attacked his next victim, but this kidnapper would be too smart to do something as stupid as to lure their victims to their own house before kidnapping them, someone could have seen them together.
To Claire she didn’t think that Eric was the kidnapper, she was now thinking him as the next victim.
The other person on the photo was another man, slightly shorter, blond hair and brown eyes, slightly younger than Eric, he was kissing Eric on the cheek.
“He had been gay” she whispered to herself.
“He what?” she gasped and jumped when she heard someone behind her but turned to see Bob standing there looking shocked.
“This photo, it’s of Eric with another man, they were locked in this draw here” Claire told Bob as she handed the photo to him.
“I’ll be damned” Bob said as he looked at the photo and Claire looked at him confused.
“This boy, Edmond Damien, he left town a few weeks back, pretty upset as it would seem too, his parents sent him off to some sort of boarding camp, they didn’t give him much choice, his a grown man but they hold all the strings over him, his whole life, they have management over everything of his, even his own money, putting it in a fund, for when they pass away, that’s why he couldn’t say no when they sent him away, told him they wouldn’t give him the money, my guess is to break him apart from Eric” Bob concluded.
“They didn’t accept gays?” she asked and Bob shook his head.
“Oh no, they once found him kissing a boy in high school, locked him in the basement, told him he wasn’t allowed out until he liked girls, I put a stop to it of course but there was only so much that I could do, I tried to get him to emancipate himself from them but he didn’t have the heart, too scared he wouldn’t be able to fully get away from them” Bob told her.
“Is everyone on their way?” she asked and Bob nodded as he handed her back the picture, which she placed back in the draw and closed it.
“I’ll take some pictures then we’ll get a sample of this blood” Bob said as they exited the stuffy garage, he went and grabbed the camera from the car and went off to take pictures of what they had found.
“I’m going to check inside the house” Claire said as she made her way back up the porch, she put on some gloves and tried the door, locked like she had expected it to be, next she tried the window, to her surprise it slid up easily and she climbed inside, unlocking the front door so she could get out more easily once she was done looking around.
The place was a mess, it looked like he had been ordering a lot of takeaway, food wrappers were all over the coffee bench in the lounge room, even some had dropped on the floor.
When she made her way into the kitchen she gasped, rushing over to the plastic bin she saw, scrunched up in it was a note, the same bloody one that everyone else had received before being kidnapped that night.
“God damn it” Claire exclaimed, annoyed with how no one was even bothering to go to the police anymore when they receive one, they all had it in their heads that there was nothing the police could do anyway so what was the point, it drove her mad, she knew how much it upsets Bob to think that no one believes in him.
Slowly she picked it up, grabbed an evidence bag out of her pocket, she had stuffed a few in there just in case and carefully put the note in it, her guess was there would be no fingerprints and the blood would be animal blood.
Once giving the place a thorough once over she went back outside where the rangers were now scouting out the surrounding area and Officer Lewis was helping out Bob, taking samples and pictures, the hammer had been bagged up for evidence, the blood would be tested and it would be dusted for prints.
“I found this” she told them once she approached them, holding up the letter and Bob groaned.
“Son of a....” he didn’t finish his sentence, instead his just put his head down and walked off, Claire and Officer Lewis looking after him, then they looked at each other sadly.
“I’ll take that for you Claire” he said as she handed it over and he placed it in the box they were storing the evidence until they got back to the station.
“Rangers find anything yet?” she asked hopeful but the look on his face told her they were coming up empty.
“We need to find who’s doing this” Officer Lewis said grimly and Claire nodded in agreement.
“You think” she remarked sarcastically, frustrated.