Ch 5 Swarm

Present Day

The image crawled into his brain and ate away at his sanity. An immediate sense of sadness overcame him and then coveted by a feeling that can only be described by the red morbidity that was Will’s face. His dead eyes a poison that infected his psyche. Uncertain of which emotion to portray; he started to jerk and to yell for help. The screams were shrill and sharp, anyone in a mile radius could hear. A few people heard the screams of terror and ran towards Will’s dorm. As soon as they came in they saw Ronnie with tears covering his cheeks. Ronnie immediately started to yell.

‘Don’t look under the bed!!! Don’t look under the bed!!!” He was shivering, and trying to rip out his hair. They looked at him and thought he went crazy. But despite Ronnie’s warnings one of them looked under the bed.

As soon as the police arrived the entire building was evacuated, the crime scene locked down. There were police cars lining up on the outside of the dormitories, yellow tape barricading the entrance, a crowd surface outside of it, whispering among themselves what had happened. Ronnie was sitting at the steps of the building with a blanket around him and a policeman watching over him, he had been hollering for a while his voice was being damaged. He sat there staring blankly at the concrete with tears still accumulating at the bottom of his eyes. He was unresponsive, unyielding, most of all he was feeling dizzy. He saw someone recognize him from behind the yellow tape. They pointed. They called out his name. It was Teddy, and next to him was Jane and Gemma and the rest of the club, they pushed their way to the front lines. Ronnie looked at them the way one looks at a stranger whom you’ve wronged, unblinking. 

Someone told them what had happened, they all placed their hand in front of their moths in shock. Then they looked back at Ronnie and he stared back with a devious squint that communicated to them that they had been wronged. 

Detective Officer David Kessler walked through the white hallways covered with policemen mumbling into their radios, the corners were on standby as Kessler entered the crowded dorm room. Immediately he saw the corpse that was under the railed bunk bed, they had removed the bed and the covers and revealed that Will was stripped naked. He almost gagged as he looked at it again, some parts of his body were unidentifiable due to the massive amount of blood covering his body parts.

“Kessler, good thing you came,” Said Alicia Petrovsky Field agent for the DA. 

“Im wishing I hadn’t now” he said forcing himself to look at Will’s corpse.

“You’re not squeamish are you? Let me tell you I’ve seen worse than this” He looked at her in disbelief. It was true Kessler was a rookie detective, what many thought his promotion was a whim of luck. Right now he was regretting it all. But the more he looked at it the more  he accepted it.

“Alright let see” He put on his rubber gloves and got closer. He touched some scratches on the wooden bunk bed rail. 

“These are fresh” He knelt down with a flashlight he illuminated Will’s hands. His fingernails were all broken and riddled with blood.

“Is that nail polish?” Asked Kessler. “It is. Our friend here is a cross dresser or a drag queen however you call it” 

“You’re kidding?” 

“Nope, he’s got his wig and all his make-up in his drawers” 

“Wow, hmm, this might be a coincidence, but I remember about a week ago there was a homicide downtown of a drag queen, it was covered up due to the nature of the scene.”

Kessler touches the carpet and blood appears on his gloves. 

“So was this a hate crime?” Asked Felicia

“No, if it was, I doubt we’d find his body under his bed, it would probably be in a dumpster or in a ditch. No, whoever did this is a huge attention seeker. They let him bleed out and kept him alive as long as possible, and this opening under the bed, theres no way you could fit a skull through there. There must have been two people; one to lift the bunk bed and one to shove him under. That or one really strong person.” Kessler looks at Will’s face.

“He’s wearing eye make-up”

“Maybe he was about to put on his costume”

“I don’t know, the more I look at this the more puzzled I am, we’ll get more information once an autopsy is performed, were there any witnesses?” 

“Just one, Ronald Abernathy, he was the one who found him. I think hes a close friend”

“Good we’ll take him and question him back at the station”

Ronnie seemed to lapse, he felt his voice returning, but he was tired of yelling, tired of crying. He saw Kessler and Alicia walk out of the building, immediately he thought they must’ve picked it Will’s corpse and labeled it a suicide and they were now going on their merry way without any resolution. Ronnie was not going to have any of it. He went berserk. 

“No! No! No! No!” Ronnie lashed out in a fit of rage at Kessler. He tried to restrain him, Ronnie was kicking and screaming until Kessler had had enough. He grabbed his wrist and arms and detained him. Ronnie had his back to Kessler. 

“I know how you must feel, but you need to calm down” He told him. Ronnie could feel his breath on his neck. It was as if Kessler had soothed his soul, his voice was so inviting, so calm, so sinfully pleasing. It did enough to make him stop fidgeting but Ronnie kept the agony on his face as Kessler dragged him to his car.

Ronnie sat in a desolate white room with what looked like an obvious two sided mirror. His eyes gaping, his face riddled with dried tears. His look was death itself. Kessler sat on the other side of the table. 

“Ronald. I know you must be in a dark place right now-“

“I know who did it. It was them, those bastards! they did it. it was a hate crime.”

“Its been ruled out of hate crime, there were no ident-“

“It was a hate crime! And I know who did it!"

“Listen, I know you’re flustered, not everyone can stomach what you saw-“

“I have proof!” Kessler looked astonished. Ronnie looked up at him for the first time and saw his face, his perfect sculptured face. He thought he was a terrible friend, he was checking out a cop while his friend lies dead in a box. He looked down again ashamed.

Kessler entered a shabby, crowded office with a grumpy looking miser sitting at his desk. 

“Got any leads?” The old man asked.

“Just one, there’s a few evidence that points to a church group within the University” 

“A church group? Tread carefully David. Follow your leads carefully; I don’t anymore dead fags you hear? The media is already printing ludicrous theories”

“You got it chief”

The next afternoon.

Megan Summers stood in the middle of the quad with a white summer dress, her hair curled and bouncy. She handed out flyers for the club. She barely had any takers. Everytime she handed someone a flyer she said “Christ Crusade Club?” and “Jesus is the way”.

Kessler approaches her wearing sun glasses and a leather jacket . 

“Megan Summers?” He asks

“Yes?” 

“Come with me” He flashed his police badge and Megan gave a little gasp. 

The biology lab was filled with chit chat as they worked on an experiment the instructor went around helping students. In came two men wearing blazers and quickly found the instructor and one of them whispered into the instructor’s ear. Then he pointed to Regina and Olivia in the back. Everyone stared as the two men flashed their badges and grabbed Regina and Olivia. They protested and fought but gave in as not to make a scene. They were escorted out of the room. 

Kessler sat in his car in the University parking lot, he was sipping his coffee as a motorcycle approached and parked in front of him. he quickly got out of the car. The guy in the motorcycle got off and took his helmet. 

“Shawn Roach?” He said as he flashed his badge. Shawn panicked and hesitated to answer.

“Um, yeah, what’s, what’s going on?” 

“You’re gonna have to come with me to the station for some questioning” Shawn immediately thought of rebelling but gave up such notions, refusing to go with him would not look good. Kessler walked behind him to his car.

Kessler made his way through student housing, a private sect of dormitories that are far more expensive than the other dorms. They were actual apartments, relatively new, and with a nice view. Kessler reached 27B and knocked on the door.

Bradley  and Jane were enveloped in each other’s naked body, he lay on top of her pressing his face against her plump breasts. They coveted and caressed each other in a wave of heat and passion. She stroked his perfectly toned back all the way down to his cheeks. They lay there on a couch.

The knock on the door made them both jump. Bradley scrambled to get his pants on and Jane quickly covered herself with one of the cushions.

“Who is it?” Jane asked as Bradley opened the door. 

Kessler was surprised to see Bradley's model six pack chest, he lost his way for a second, then found himself.

“Bradley Haynes?” 

“Yeah?”

“You’re gonna have to come with me to the station” Kessler said as he flashed his badge.

Bradley looked back at Jane and gave her an apologetic look.