Kenny the Making of a Serial Killer 2
Date: 2017-12-11 05:00:00+00:00

KENNY

- THE MAKING OF A SERIAL KILLER -

- A Trilogy -

Book 2

Patrick Laughy

Dedication

To the memory of Vancouver Police Service Dog, Duke III.

Acknowledgement

Without Suzy’s help, this book would never have been written.

ISBN:978-1-927965-38-2

Copyright 2017

Table of Contents

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

- September 1998 -

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

- November 1998 –

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

- December 1998 –

CHAPTER NINETEEN

- MAY 1999 -

CHAPTER TWENTY

- June 1999 –

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

- August 1999 –

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

- September 1999 -

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

- December 1999 -

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

- January 2000 -

- Y2K -

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

- April 2000 –

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

- September 1998 -

Determined not to rock the boat until his nineteenth birthday, Kenny had been, rather reluctantly, relying on the internet to provide him with the stimulation he hungered for.  But, as time passed, he was finding the ‘net wasn’t any longer quite enough to completely satisfy him.

For several weeks now, it had taken a good deal of personal resolve to repeatedly check his desires sufficiently to prevent a rising temptation to bring the fantasies to the reality of full fruition.  Although the internal pressure to do so was building, so far, he had persevered in his decision to properly prepare before making that compelling move.

Kenny got several very nice surprises on, and shortly after his birthday in nineteen ninety-eight.

Having been told in March that she would likely not live to see the end of the year, the old lady had thankfully managed to hang in until the first of September, although she was now often drugged out, almost completely bedridden, and obviously on her last legs.

Kenny had been sticking to his now adopted routine of spending time with her over the past year.  He had been pleased to find that the effort had apparently born fruit for him in a financial way when, in July, she’d surprised him with the announcement that he would now receive a fixed monthly salary from the business.

He was to get two grand a month.

Additionally, as a surprise birthday gift for Kenny, in the last week of August she had instructed Walter to take the old Ford pickup into the dealership and provided the cash for him to select a brand new full-sized pickup with all the bells and whistles.  Walter had done this during his off time and arranged for delivery of the truck early on the first of September.

After Kenny had finished his breakfast with the old lady that day, she’d presented him with a little wrapped gift box.  She’d wished him a Happy Birthday and told him to take it into the office to Walter before he opened it.

Walter was waiting for him with a big grin on his face and immediately ushered him outside onto the sun- drenched porch.  The new, fire-engine-red truck, was parked in the driveway.  Walter chin-gestured toward the gift-wrapped box and suggested Kenny open it up.  Inside were two sets of Ford keys.

And there was more.

When he’d finished looking the truck over, Walter handed him an envelope.

Kenny looked at it, noted it was from a law firm and was addressed to him.  He glanced up at Walter inquisitively.

“What’s this?”

Walter’s grin broadened.

“Open it up.  It arrived last week.  They phoned your grandmother a couple of weeks ago and said it would be coming. I think you’ll be pleased.”

Kenny sucked in a deep breath and then released it as he tore the envelope open and pulled out a single typewritten page.  It was short and to the point.

On his nineteenth birthday, he was to receive a legacy that had been set up by his grandfather on his mother’s side, before his death.  Originally the legacy had been created on a shared basis with his sister, but since she had pre-deceased him, it was now to be his in its entirety.  The amount of this legacy was not indicated; however, the letter described it as considerable.

It went on further to advise that a representative of the firm would be calling him with respect to setting up a meeting with Kenny at the house on that very afternoon.

Kenny was astonished.

He’d known from family gossip that the old fart had been loaded, but hadn’t the slightest inkling that any of it had been put aside for him.

Suddenly Kenny’s whole world had changed.  His somewhat clouded future had begun to look very bright indeed.

The call from the lawyer’s office came at just after ten and a meeting was arranged for two o’clock that afternoon.

After the call, Kenny’s mind started racing.  He was on pins and needles.

A new truck of his own.  A regular amount of cash coming in every month.  An undetermined inheritance from his grandfather.  Granny was gonna kick the bucket any day now.  No more worries.  Very soon he would be able to do whatever the hell he wanted, and he had some very definite ideas of how that would go.  Fantasies were going to be turned into reality for sure.

He couldn’t wait to get started.

With Kenny hovering around him in the room, completely hyped and impatient for two o’clock to roll around, Walter found it impossible to get any work done in the office.  After about twenty distracting minutes, he suggested to Kenny that the kid forget working for the day and instead take his new truck out for a little test run.

Kenny realized that he needed to do some serious thinking.  Big changes were ahead for him.  He needed to begin work on perfecting his plans as to exactly how to guarantee that he was properly prepared for the culmination of his fantasies.

He took up Walter’s suggestion of a ride in the truck.  It would give him something to do to fill in the time until the lawyer got to the house, as well as an opportunity to mentally isolate the steps he would have to take to be ready to safely turn those, by now well-developed, fantasies into reality.

His mind was more on anticipating the upcoming changes in his life, than on the truck as he drove.

The instant the old lady was gone he had to be ready to exercise the possibilities now provided to him by his new-found situation.  He would have to move very carefully when the time came to make that first big step.

He had managed to get away with murder once, but he fully intended to take that up far more than a notch, very soon.  If he was to be ultimately successful in achieving his end goal, he was going to have to have a solid plan in place before he acted on his fantasies to ensure he avoided the attention of the police. He had no intention of being held accountable for his acts.

To accomplish that, it was imperative that he not act on impulse, not hurry these first few, very necessary steps toward the exciting result, no matter how fervent he was about finally being able to get started.

By the time he’d pulled back up at the house at one-thirty, he’d managed to settle himself down.  He’d forced himself to rationalize his longing to get started instantly. He’d recognized and accepted the need to hold that craving in check until he was certain he was properly prepared.

He would not make the mistakes of other serial killers.  He would be ready for any eventuality that might arise.  Restraining the urge to get started was not going to be easy.  He could almost taste the excitement of that first real kill, but he was determined to compartmentalize that excitement at the back of his mind, and take a sensible, balanced approach.

He would begin his quest very gradually.

That would mean testing uncharted waters sufficiently before taking each step.

To ensure the complete achievement of his goals while not being caught by the police, it was imperative that his strategies were sufficiently perfected, before he made each step aimed at realizing his ambition.

The lawyer arrived a few minutes early for the scheduled appointment.  He was an old guy, impeccably dressed and driving a new BMW.  Once the introductions were completed, he and Kenny went into what Granny had always referred to as the parlour.  The housekeeper served them tea and once she had poured, she left the two of them alone in the room.

The lawyer set his briefcase on the table beside his chair and opened it up.  He took out some papers and settled them on his lap.

Without further preamble, he asked Kenny if he wanted him to read the documents in their entirety or would a brief summery do.  Kenny went with the second option.

In doing so, the lawyer didn’t have a great deal to add to the gist of the letter Kenny had read earlier, but he did offer a few rather tantalizing specifics.

Kenny was to get four million dollars.  There were some strings attached.  Three million was to remain in trust until he was twenty-five years old.  That amount was to be invested in trust under the auspices of the law firm, and held by them until he reached that age.

The remaining million would be his to use as he saw fit, albeit restricted to the withdrawal of amounts of less than ten thousand dollars, during any calendar month.  This restriction would remain in place until his twenty-fifth birthday.

Before leaving, the crusty old bastard presented Kenny with a chequebook on an account already made out in his name.  The balance therein was listed as one million dollars.  Kenny had never seen so many typed zeros in his life.

He was giddy with the prospect of what this would mean to him.

There was now very little left standing in the way of his being free to fully enjoy all the delights that an expanded world had on offer.  That said, he cautioned himself to be disciplined and reasonably patient about making any major changes, at least until after the old lady was gone.

That wouldn’t be easy, considering that he could envision a whole big world of pleasure out there, just waiting for him.  However, he would be an idiot to upset the applecart at this point by alienating her somehow and having her change her will at the last minute, just because of some stupid thing he did.

No…it wouldn’t be easy, but he would an idiot not to bide his time for a little longer yet.

Without doubt, this was his best birthday ever!

The renovations to the house had been completed.  Cathy, rent free, was happily ensconced, at the far end of the enlarged structure, in her own, self-contained quarters.

Cut out of the same physical mold and a younger version of her sister to all intents and purposes, Cathy was twenty-four years old.  She was single and currently undergoing her medical internship at Vancouver General Hospital.

A very pretty woman, Cathy attracted males like flies to sugar and when she wasn’t looking after Shaun or at work, she was rarely home.  She was an outgoing and upbeat individual and almost compulsively clean and neat.  Characteristics that made for very easy relationships with both Dave and Linda.

Shaun adored Auntie Cathy and surprise of all surprises, she was a cat person.  Even Murphy liked her.

On a regular basis and as necessary, Linda adjusted her work schedule to offset Cathy’s, making sure that Dave, or one of them, was always home to look after Shaun.  Both Dave and Linda were in positions that allowed them to vary their schedules if the need arose due to some sort of scheduling conflict, but in practice that necessity rarely arose.

With the new construction now out of the way, the recent weekend pace had slowed considerably for both Dave and Linda.  Often, the two of them found themselves otherwise unencumbered and during their days off spent their time puttering around the house, enjoying time with their son.

All three of the adults enjoyed cooking and whoever happened to be home at the time, tended to prepare the meals for the entire household.

Most of the housekeeping seemed to fall to the two women; however, Dave balanced that responsibility by taking on the yard and any handyman jobs that came up.

Although Dave often quipped that he was now unfairly outnumbered by females, he did so in fun, regularly entreating his young son, in front of the two women, to hurry and grow up so he could have some much-needed vocal male support in the house.

A couple of months earlier, Dave had taken his staff /sergeant exam and interview.  He’d passed with flying colours and was currently shortlisted for future promotion.

Inspector Henderson had been as good as his word.  As part of his latest departmental budget for Major Crime, he had put in a request for a new position of that rank and it was currently under consideration by the powers that be.

With a view to using their expertise in profiling to assist the detectives assigned, Dave and his little crew continued to examine all current cases under investigation by Major Crime and were now routinely coming up with some excellent results.

In addition, over the past few months, chiefly based on some of the recently successful work done by some of the larger law enforcement agencies in the States, Dave had begun toying with the idea of setting up a separate section within his squad specifically assigned to reopen some of the department’s still active, but cold and still outstanding murder and serious crime cases.

This idea of making a re-evaluation of the old cases, many of which had been collecting dust for decades, had also been recently prompted by David’s interest in the growing media coverage of the latest successes in the introduction of DNA evidence into the Canadian courts.  DNA was now being routinely used as a trusted method for positively identifying potential suspects.

That fact, coupled with the triumphs in court because of new evidence, which had been garnered using several other recent scientific advances relating to the analysis of old crime scene trace-evidence, now offered police forces a concrete opportunity to reassess old evidence.  By applying these new scientific techniques to material that had been originally gathered at the time of the initial investigation, law enforcement could now often provide conclusive, court admissible, evidence which can then lead to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.

Dave figured his department was currently missing a bet in this area.  That it should be availing itself of the opportunity to have a new set of eyes. Eyes cognisant of the recent scientific leaps achieved toward the analysis of trace evidence, to take a second look at these cold cases.

Toward this end and in his own time on the weekends, he’d begun to review some of the successes being achieved by other police forces throughout the world.  The more he read, the more excited about the possibility of using this approach in his department he became.

He’d recently discussed the concept with Linda and she had been supportive of the idea.

Convinced it should be done, Dave kicked some ideas around in his mind for a couple of days before writing up a proposal for the creation of such a project and, with Henderson’s blessing and endorsement, submitted it upstairs.

He did so, aware of the fact that any new investigative tool undertaken by the department was going to face an up-hill battle.  New initiatives were routinely catch-twenty-two situations, in that they were rarely properly resourced, until after they had proven themselves beyond question.

In the end, he decided not to ask for too much by way of manpower during the initially stages of the project.  He reckoned a single team of experienced Major Crime detectives would be sufficient, at least to get the ball rolling.

Knowing that new hires would probably be kyboshed as too costly, he again recommended that these first staffing positions be filled by a couple of recently retired guys.  Ideally, they would be retired Major Crime detectives that could be hired back, on a month-to-month contract.

Late in September he was given the go ahead to run a ninety-day trail of the project, at the end of which the department would evaluate the results and decide whether or not to continue with it.

Dave eagerly began interviewing recently retired Major Crime detectives to see if he could find a team capable of providing what he was looking for.

It only took him three days to come up with what he wanted.  By the end of the month, after the concept had been given the green light, he had found two recently retired members who were eager to take part.

Dave then rearranged the furniture to make enough space in his allotted floorplan to cram in a couple of desks in the corner of what was already a crowded squad room. The two detectives arrived and on that first day, they promptly hauled up from the basement a couple dozen dust-covered boxes containing old cases and soon had their noses buried in stacks of time-worn reports.

At this stage, these cold cases were still very much on the back burner for the rest of his staff, but Dave, not surprisingly, saw this new task as a personal challenge.  He encouraged his fresh cold-case specialist team to initially carefully cherry-pick from the cases, suggesting they look for ones that held sufficient crime scene evidence to make it likely that they would lead to successful DNA testing.

He continued to provide the new team as much of his own time as he could spare.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

- November 1998 –

The weather had turned dismal.  Grey days, with a seemingly never-ending drizzle.

It was hard for Kenny to believe that it had only been two months since his birthday.  Even though so much had changed in his life, to Kenny it seemed to be taking forever to have it all over and done with.

A terrific weight had been lifted off his shoulders when the doctors had determined that Granny could no longer remain at home and would have to enter hospital.  That had come about in late October.

It had only been a first step of course.  She was still alive, but at least she would soon be out of the house and then he could begin to make some meaningful changes.

Kenny was confident about how he would handle this eventuality.  While he’d hoped that she would just die at home and get it over with, he’d figured that it would probably not be that simple.  He’d forced himself to be patient, continuing with the daily routine, spending time and meals with her right up until the decision to hospitalize had come.

Meanwhile he’d used his free time to do research on the computer.

He’d read everything he could find on serial killers.  His main intent was to find out what mistakes they had made.  How they had been caught.  Kenny didn’t intend to fall into that trap once he started his wonderful new life.

He’d also learned everything he could about those who had never been caught.

His third research project over that period had revolved around the best way to initiate his scheme. Some stuff he’d already worked out – disposal of bodies for example.  Few investigations ever got anywhere if no bodies were ever found. He was satisfied that he already had that aspect worked out.

Witnesses to the acts themselves.  He was kicking that one around.  It seemed to him that the best idea there, was to ensure that there were no witnesses to the acts but him.

However, it also seemed sensible for him to use a ‘cut-out’ in the initial procurement stages of selecting his victims.  A single person who he could safely repeatedly use to seek out the right quarry and bring them to him.  That way, he wouldn’t need to have any direct preliminary tie to the victims.  He was still working on that one.

But he had managed to pick out the actual source of prey.  That was a no-brainer.

‘Boystown’, situated at the foot of Homer Street in Vancouver, which catered to men who were looking for sex with teenage males.  This area would obviously provide him with plenty of delightful subjects, the clear majority of whom were apparently runaways, kids.  Kids who would very likely not be seriously missed if they suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth.

All the research had left him giddy with anticipation now that the old lady was soon moving out of the house.  He could begin to set things up in preparation for putting his plans to act out on his fantasies, into action.

He was about to expand both his territory and his research.

Granny would be going into Vancouver General Hospital for assessment within the week, and he would dutifully visit her everyday.  Visiting hours started at seven in the evening and Kenny was going to be there on the dot.  After each visit, he was going to pop on down to the ‘Boy’s town’ area and surreptitiously complete his research on how to safely go about selecting specific prey.  He was very excited about the prospect of undertaking this portion of his preparatory work for victim selection.

He could hardly wait for the ambulance to transport Granny, so he could begin his provisions to rid himself of unwanted staff and have the house to himself.

When that day finally came, he rose early and had a hearty breakfast.  On the porch, surrounded by Walter, the housekeeper, and the nurse, he did his best to play the part of a somber grandson as the old woman was loaded into the ambulance.

Once the ambulance headed down the driveway, he asked Walter to join him in the office.

There he advised him about the changes he was going to make.

He told Walter he was going to give him a raise and planned on building him an office and small house across from the yard, at the front of the property.  Walter would then have the day-to-day responsibility for the running of the company.  Kenny went on to explain that he wanted to keep his hand in a little, so he would continue to do the cleaning of the equipment and the spreading of the loads of chips that came in on the trucks each day, but he would leave most everything else to Walter.

Walter, who was currently engaged to be married, was excited at the suggestion and readily agreed to the idea.  Kenny tasked him to immediately select an architect and contractor to begin work on the new buildings.

That out of the way, Kenny promptly terminated the employment of the nurse and the housekeeper, giving them both excellent reference letters and generous severance packages.

Two days later the only sharing of the house Kenny faced was temporary, that of Walter from nine to five, Monday to Friday. Plans for the office and house complex had been selected and a contractor had been hired to begin work on the projects starting in two weeks.

The estimated time for completion of the construction was roughly six months.

Kenny wished it could be less, as he was eager to begin his program to reach his fantasy goal, but once again, counselled himself to be patient and make good use of the delay by way of continuing his research, expanding what he’d already done on the computer and taking some concrete steps toward physically studying the area from which he would be selecting his potential sexual playthings.

Kenny had been sheltered from the real world for most of his life and it was time for him to spread his wings and commence educating himself on the street life of the big city.

He looked up maps and familiarized himself with the area where the teenage male stroll was centered and plotted out a route that would take him directly from the hospital to the area in question.  He planned to make his initial recon on the first night, after visiting Granny in the hospital.

Driving in the city was alien to him at the best of times and typical of November, darkness fell early, and it was raining heavily.

Relying on his memory, he found it much more difficult than he had anticipated to follow the route that he had prepared for this first trip from North Vancouver to the hospital.  He got lost several times, and had to pull over and park long enough to turn on the interior light in the pickup, find his current location on the map, and then refresh his bearings.

By the time he arrived and got parked in the massive, tiered garage adjoining the hospital, he was sweating profusely and so unnerved that he had to sit in the truck for almost half an hour before he felt capable of making his way into the hospital itself.

He’d expected the building to be large but was astounded by its actual size.  The hospital complex consisted of several buildings and it was huge!

He wandered about for some time before managing to find an information desk where a chatty, half-witted, ancient crone, with a name tag attached to her drooping bosom identifying her as ‘Mildred’, finally understood what he needed to know and gave him directions to the correct building and ward.

It seemed to take him forever to make it to the correct building and once inside he immediately found himself lost in a sea of people; a seemingly endless maze of hallways, stairs, and elevators crammed full of bodies, all in a hurry and often impeding his comfort zone and the path ahead.

Kenny was not used to having to deal with large numbers of strangers.  He found being jostled about among the throng very uncomfortable.  Uncomfortable to the extent that he was having some difficulty in breathing by the time he got to the right ward.

Once there, he had to pause for a few moments to compose himself enough to put on the proper face, displaying at least some semblance of sincerity and confidence, before he was able to enter her private room.

The trip had taken him a good half-hour longer than he had anticipated.

Thankfully, Granny was heavily medicated, and although she did appear to recognize him when he came in, she kept drifting off and was unable to hold a train of thought long enough to carry on a conversation.

Despite that, Kenny stayed for the full half-hour remaining in the visiting hours.  He did this, not to satisfy the old lady if she even noticed, but to give himself a chance to feel at least partialy back to normal before leaving.

When the end of visiting hours was announced, he braced himself for the ordeal of running the gauntlet of humanity that would be required for him to make his way back to his truck and struggle his way through the jostling crowds and back to the parking garage.

It had been hell.

He’d lost his way in the maze of buildings three times and had panicked on every occasion.  In the end, he was forced to seek assistance each time.

Once safely ensconced inside the cab of the truck, he put his window down and lit a cigarette with shaking fingers.

He immediately took several heavy drags.

He was worn out, stomach in a knot and sweating profusely.

The thought of leaving and going into the center of the city to reconnoiter the ‘boy’s town’ area rather than proceeding directly home, had completely lost its appeal.  He decided he would leave that until tomorrow night when, based on what he’d had to endure on this first visit, he would be better prepared for the effort the whole thing would require from him.

He then checked the planned route for the retutn trip on his map, carefully, closed his window, and started up the truck.

It took a great deal of determination for him to force himself to maneuver back out onto the street and from there, into the darkness and pouring rain to begin the trip back home.

Over the past two months things on the home front had been going relatively smoothly for Dave.

Having Cathy around to help with keeping an eye on Shaun on the occasions when both he and Linda were working, was a godsend.

Of late, he was, however, a little concerned that his sister-in-law seemed to be burning the candle at both ends with the result being an obvious loss in weight and an inkling of burnout.

Cathy’s workload was intense of course, but from Dave’s perspective it wasn’t her work schedule that seemed to be taking the toll, it was her excessive social activities.  Those had recently been expanding.

These days it seemed to Dave, that if she wasn’t at work or caring for her nephew, she was out on the town partying.

Dave had never been particularly judgemental when it came to Cathy.  After all she was young, single, very good looking and a definite extrovert.  Live and let live was an idiom that had served Dave well for his entire life.  That said, he did care for his sister-in-law and his concern for her well-being had reached the point where he figured he needed to talk to Linda about it, to find out if she felt he had real cause to worry or that he was simply misreading the signs.

Linda had always been ‘big-sister’ protective of Cathy.

With that fact in mind Dave knew he had to tread softly.

He bided his time and broached the subject carefully one evening when Cathy was out as she, Dave and Shaun were sitting down to dinner.

“Cathy sure looks beat lately – is she eating properly?  She seems to be losing weight and doesn’t quite seem to be herself…”

He forked in a mouthful and let the question hang so Linda could have a chance to evaluate it before responding.

Linda paused in cutting her meat and put down her knife and fork.  She then let out a little sigh and frowned across the table at him.

Dave initially took the look on her face as one of displeasure, but when Linda’s shoulders drooped, and she bowed her head, he realized that was not the case.

He kept his mouth shut and waited for her response.

“Yes...I’ve been worried about her for a few weeks now.

Her workload at the hospital is heavy, but she’s able to handle that with no problem.  It’s all the carousing and late nights that are wearing her out.  There’s more to it than that though.  She seems somewhat driven to live her free hours to the full at a time when she should be more concerned with her education and workload…

Don’t get me wrong, she’s always been one to max out socially, but of late it seems as though that aspect of her life appears to be more important to her that anything else.”

Dave nodded.

“Well I’m glad its not just me who thinks so.  What’s it all about, has she found some special guy or something?”

Linda took a sip from her wine glass and shook her head.

“No, that was my first thought, but she says not.

It’s almost like she’s seeing how many different guys she can party with.  It seems to me its not about the relationships, its all about having as much fun a she can with as many men as she can.”

Linda lifted her fork and pushed some food around on her plate and then sighed deeply again before continuing.

“However you look at it, its not healthy and she needs to take a good look at what she’s doing to herself.  If you’ve noticed the change too, I’d better have a talk with her.  Leave it with me.”

In mid-November Henderson called Dave into his office and told him that the decision had been made regarding the new staff/sergeant position for Major Crime. It had been approved.  He then told Dave that he had asked the Chief to fill the position by way of promoting Dave from within the squad.

Henderson hadn’t yet received a confirmation of that possibility, but at the time, the Chief had informed him that there were several promotions being made before the end of the month to fill new vacancies, and that Dave would be making staff/sergeant when that came to pass.

When Dave left Henderson’s office he was comfortably confident that he would be named as the new staff/sergeant for Major Crime and with that behind him, he began to think about who he would like to replace him in the position of sergeant.

He had put so much of himself into the job and with the new cold-case experiment almost two-thirds of the way through it’s trial, he didn’t want to see it fail.

By the time he got back to his own office he already had an idea of who he could rely on to fill the spot.  Someone with the same energy he’d given it.  Ed Hamilton, who he’d partnered with in the youth squad, and who had recently passed his sergeant’s exam and interview.

If promotions were coming shortly, it was likely that Ed would make the cut.  Ed was a known entity for Dave.  The two had always worked well together.

He figured if he approached Henderson to ask for Ed as his replacement (if he was successful at making the new staff/sergeant position), it was likely he would be able to get the Inspector’s support.

The real question was, could he sell Ed on the idea of moving to Major Crime?

Ed was currently working in the drug squad and seemed to be happy there.  Dave knew it was kind of early in the game, but he figured he’d sound out his old partner on the idea, sooner rather than later.

Dave gave Linda a call and discussed it with her. She suggested he invite Ed over for diner that night.

She pointed out that Ed was recently divorced, and Linda ventured to guess that he’d probably be up for a home cooked meal, which in turn would hopefully put him in a mellow frame of mind and more open to considering Dave’s proposal.

Dave laughed and agreed that after a few drinks and a good meal, Ed would indeed probably find the idea more palatable.

As soon as he’d finished speaking with Linda, he called Ed to extend the invitation and as Linda had surmised, his old partner had welcomed the idea of a home-cooked meal, with open arms.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

- December 1998 –

It had been snowing intermittently for days and there seemed to be a never-ending layer of slush covering the roads.

Despite the urgency he felt to get things rolling, try as he might for over a week Kenny had not been able to make that intended first recon trip down to ‘Boystown’ after his visits to Granny.

It had taken him that long to become conditioned enough to feel reasonably self-assured about his ability to deal with all it would entail.

The traffic congestion and stormy weather, coupled with the idea of extending his time away from home by another half-hour to accommodate the additional side trip, was more than a little daunting.

That after being subjected to the trauma of dealing with the suffocating mass of humanity afforded by attending the hospital itself seemed very intimidating.

He told himself that it was nothing to be overly concerned about.  After all, he had been insulated from this type of human congestion since birth and had come to accept that a learning curve to deal with it now was only natural.

In early December, he finally felt ready, and after carefully studying his map, he left the hospital parking lot and made his way down to the foot of Homer street.  After circling the block twice, he found a parking spot on Hornby, hallway up from the intersection.

With a sigh of accomplishment and relief, he shut the truck off and lit up a cigarette to quiet his nerves.

What the internet had told him was quickly confirmed.

Young men in small groups or on their own were irregularly spaced on the corners and along the street.  There was no way to ignore the obvious, the majority were provocatively dressed and clearly displaying their wares for the parade of slowly moving vehicles that, despite the mixed rain and snow, leisurely cruised by on the street.

Kenny let his eyes shift from individual to individual.

There was very definitely a goodly amount of prime meat on show.

He was ecstatic.

Just the sight of them gave him a hard-on.

Just like the internet said, here they were, hot little numbers.

Most of them appeared to be in their early to mid-teens, with the odd older guy thrown in.

Some unsavory lowlifes for sure, but that was OK.

It didn’t take long for the side windows in the truck to fog up as he watched.  He welcomed it as he felt safely concealed from view.

To keep the delectable smorgasbord of delicious boys being displayed, he simply had to turn on the wipers from time to time to clear the droplets and then wipe the inside of the windshield directly in front of him with his shirt-sleeve.

He felt like a kid in a candy shop.

He promptly unbuttoned his 501’s, hauled it out, and began to masturbate leisurely.

He came quickly, but completely engrossed in the eye-candy before him, continued to stroke his still-swollen member with vigour.

He had no idea how long he had been happily enjoying himself, when his concentration was abruptly interrupted by a thud on the outside of his driver’s-door window.

Incredulous, he quickly fumbled his stiff cock back into his pants as he twisted his head to see what had caused the sound.

His startled gaze was met by the glare of a flashlight beam against the fogged glass.

He managed to get a couple of buttons done up before opening the window to find himself face-to-face with a uniformed cop, who was standing in the open passenger doorway of a marked police car with its strobe lights flashing.

The cop spoke first.

“You can’t park here buddy, you’re in a loading zone.”

Scared shitless, Kenny flushed and nodded.

“Sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll move.”

Droplets of moisture were dripping from the brim of his hat as the cop glanced into the interior of the truck and moved the now, very bright flashlight beam around the cab.

“Let’s see your drivers licence, insurance and registration.”

Panic-stricken, Kenny couldn’t speak as he dug out his wallet to get his licence and then leaned across to open the glove compartment to get his insurance papers.

His hands were shaking so badly, he had a hell of a time working his licence out of the wallet. He then handed the documents over to the cop and his shoulders slumped as he turned his eyes away and listlessly studied the dashboard in front of him.

The cop took a quick look at the papers in his hand before he spoke again.

“Sit tight, I’ll be back in a moment.”

Kenny managed to nod and watched the uniformed cop climb back into the passenger seat of the patrol car.

The interior light came on in the marked unit and Kenny got a short view of the young cop’s older partner, who was sitting behind the wheel, before the passenger door of the black and white closed.

He watched as the cop he’d been talking to pulled out a notebook and began to write in it while he gave the papers Kenny had provided a second look.

Kenny closed his window partway, so the rain wouldn’t come in, then slammed both fists into the steering wheel and silently repeated the words to himself.

‘Stupid… fucking stupid…I’m so fucking stupid!

A few moments later the door of the cruiser opened again, and Kenny pressed the switch to lower the window all the way as the cop approached.  He sincerely hoped that he appeared composed enough as he turned his head to face the cop.

The constable handed him back his papers through the window and began to speak.

“Nice truck.  Seems brand new.

Looks like you’re the registered owner.

You’re kinda young to be driving around in something this nice.

Mind telling me what your doing parked here?”

Kenny’s brain raced to come up with a plausible answer.

What the hell could he say that would sound reasonable?

He realized he needed to respond quickly.

He said the first thing that came into his mind.

“It was raining so hard… I was having trouble seeing the road.  I haven’t been driving that long and I figured I’d just pull over and wait the worst of it out.”

Kenny’s brow furrowed.

Christ…that sounded so lame…

One sideways glance at the cop was enough to convince Kenny that he agreed with him.

Shit!

The cop didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds.

“If you figure you really need to sit out the rain, you’ll have to move out of here and find yourself a legal parking spot, my young friend.”

With that, he stepped back away from the side of the truck.

Kenny fumbled with the keys in his eagerness to get the hell away for the cop and after a couple of aborted tries to get them into the ignition, he got the truck going.  He put on his turn signal, carefully pulled away from the curb, and drove away.

In his mirror, he could see the cop standing in the rain beside the marked patrol unit with it’s rotating light flashing, pensively watching him drive off.

When the cop got back into the car his partner reached for the defroster and flipped it on as he spoke.

“Christ, close the fucking door before we drown.  What took you so long?”

The young cop closed the door and shook his head.

“I don’t know exactly. The guy was just weird, really nervous.”

“Around here - you find that unusual?

His partner put the cruiser into gear and switched off the rotating light as they pulled away.

“Well, what the hell. If he bothered you that much, you could always put in a check card on him.  Can’t hurt.”

“I think I will, polite enough and all, but really up-tight.  Just something weird about him I didn’t like.

Kenny didn’t look for a parking spot.  He was so unnerved at having to deal with the cop that he headed straight for home. Once safely there he poured himself a stiff drink and took the bottle with him into the office and sat down in front of his computer.

He didn’t turn it on at first; instead he continued to verbally chastise himself for what had occurred earlier.

He worked his way through the rest of the bottle before he staggered off to bed.

The next morning, Kenny was hungover, but he had regained his self-confidence to the point the he could stop beating himself up over the episode with the cop and had begun to think positively again.

Yes, it had been a stupid thing to do. But what was done was done.  He couldn’t change that now.

The cop hadn’t given him a ticket or anything, so maybe he was making a big thing out of nothing.

The incident had taught him a lesson though.

The first thing he was going to do was set himself up with a cut-out.  That couldn’t wait.

He could not risk leaving himself open to inquiry by police.  That would fuck-up everything that came after.

He had to remain anonymous to the police.

Yes, finding a cut-out had to be his first step.

He ate breakfast and felt a lot better for it, then went back into the office and sat down at his desk.

There, he closed his eyes and let his mind run back through what he had seen on the stroll.

The images of the various meat that had been on display rolled by and he briefly concentrated on each one, looking for some indication that a possible prospective cut-out was among them.

He knew what he wanted.

A loner, young subservient and malleable. Someone he could easily dominate.

There had been one possibility.

A kid who had been standing off by himself, away from the others.  The one he had been mainly concentrating on while he was jacking off.

Small, but cute.

Alone, not part of any group.

Sort of anxious, and vulnerable-looking for sure.

That night after he had made his hospital visit he drove back down to the stroll.

He didn’t risk parking, but instead circled the couple of blocks, driving slowly by the lineup of boys on offer.

He did not want to dally.

He was looking specifically for the kid he had seen the night before.

The weather had changed for the better and although the sky was overcast, at least it wasn’t raining.

On his third pass he spotted him, standing alone just like the night before, a fair distance away from the others.

Yes, it was him all right.

Kenny slowed even more to give himself time to check the kid out more closely.

Yes, he looked like a good prospect.  Beaten down for sure. A little worse for wear, could certainly use a bath and some new clothes.

Looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal in a week.  Probably living on the street.

There was promise there though, small but well-defined, cute in a boy-next-door kinda way.

More importantly he looked delightfully defenceless, susceptible, probably malleable.

The kid had taken note of Kenny’s crawling truck.

Unlike the others Kenny had watched being picked up by a cruising vehicle, those who had taken note of a probable john and immediately responded by crossing to the curb and approaching it; this kid seemed scared shitless and unable to move.

Kenny met his gaze and held it as he swung into the curb and stopped.  He put the passenger window of his truck down and used his index finger to beckon to him.

The panicked expression on the kid’s face as he hesitantly approached the truck gave Kenny an immediate woody.

Oh yes!

This could be exactly what he was looking for!

The dinner with Ed in November had gone very well from Dave’s perspective.

After several pre-dinner drinks and a homecooked meal, he and Ed had left Cathy and Linda to clean up and retired to Dave’s small home office for a cigar and a brandy.

Dave waited until they were well into enjoying both before he raised the subject of the upcoming promotions and the fact that there would be an opening coming up in Major Crime for a sergeant to replace him should he be promoted to fill the new vacancy of staff /sergeant.

He told Ed he figured he should apply for it and told him he had already spoken to Henderson about the possibility and that he had the Inspector’s support for the transfer.

If Ed was interested.

Ed had taken a few seconds to think about it and then asked Dave several questions about what the job would entail exactly. Questions answered, Dave brought him up to speed on what was going on with the profiling and the trial run involving the opening of old cold-case files.

Even though he was reasonably happy where he was, in drugs, Ed knew that the Chief was a supporter of what Dave had been able to accomplish in the Major Crime unit to date and that his work there had propelled his old partner forward into a rapid promotion cycle.

Common sense suggested that it would likely be a good path for him to follow as well.

Before they had finished their cigars, Ed had agreed to the idea, if not with unbounded enthusiasm, certainly with a fair amount of fervour.

Once that topic was out of the way, Ed had immediately shifted the conversation to Cathy.

He had been aware that Linda’s sister had moved in with Dave and Linda to help with Shaun’s care, but he had never met her before that evening.

As the banter between the two of them had progressed, it had quickly become apparent to Dave that his old partner was obviously keenly interested in the stunning and outgoing young lady with whom he’d shared dinner.

Initially Dave had been a little taken aback by Ed’s clear interest in his sister-in-law.  Cathy was a good deal younger than Ed after all, but on the other hand, there was no doubting that she was a very attractive woman and that his ex-partner was recently divorced.

When he mentally went back over the exchanges between the two of them during the earlier meal, Dave realized that Cathy had also demonstrated a great deal of interest in Ed, engaging him in conversation whenever the opportunity arose.  More so, than he would have expected.

At the time, preoccupied with his own addenda for Ed, Dave hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to the back and forth between Ed and his sister-in-law across the table.

Now that he took the time to relive it with a new set of eyes, he could easily see Ed’s interest in Cathy.  In fact, Dave realized that to anyone paying attention to their exchanges, the mutual attraction between the two should have been obvious.

Dave was intrigued by this development.  Both surprised and slightly amused by it.

He wasn’t sure if it was a good turn of events, however.  Whether it was something that should be encouraged, or not.

Ed was a good-looking guy in a rugged kind of way and basically had a good heart, but he was also on the rebound and seemed to be drinking more than he had before his breakup.

Conversely, Cathy was riding the wild side lately, so maybe a serious relationship was not what she wanted.

Dave decided to keep his eyes and ears open over the remainder of the evening before he formed any firm opinion on the possibilities of encouraging a budding relationship between the two of them.  He also intended to discuss the situation with Linda later, when the two of them were alone.

* * * * *

Since November, the Ed and Cathy thing, which he had discussed with Linda on that first night when the two had met, had taken on a life of its own and whatever concerns he and Linda may have shared on that night, were no longer an issue.

Ed seemed to be completely smitten by Cathy and in turn she had begun dating him exclusively.

Within days of that shared meal, his sister-in-law and Ed had become an item and by December Ed, who loved kids, was soon joining Cathy, whenever she looked after Shaun.

He was also spending two or three evenings a week for dinner at Dave and Linda’s.

The two couples thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.

Now almost a month old, her new relationship seemed to be having a positive effect on Cathy. She was eating better, had gained back some weight, was getting more sleep and seemed content once again.

At least outwardly, she radiated health and appeared very happy with her transition to a more stable lifestyle.  To Dave and Linda, the transformation was impressive.

By December there had been several major changes in Dave’s life, both at work and at home.

As promised, the promotions for both him and Ed had taken place toward the end of the month.

The test period for the work on cold-case files had come to a successful conclusion, with four murder charges having been laid.

Additionally, two rapes and a serious assault were nearing the charging stage.

As a result, the Chief had given the order to make the small unit permanent and there was currently an active discussion about the possibility of doubling the manpower presently allotted to it.

Ed had made the transfer from drugs to Major Crime and Dave was given a period of grace before taking up his new responsibilities as the unit’s, newly created staff/sergeant position, to facilitate the training that would be necessary to prepare Ed for assuming the responsibilities of Dave’s old job.

It would be quite a change for Ed, and Inspector Henderson had tasked Dave with ensuring that Ed would be fully prepped to take over the position before Dave relinquished it.

To this end, Dave had suggested that Ed be sent off to the FBI profiling course before coming to the unit.  Henderson agreed and on the day his transfer took place, Ed left to travel down to the States.

Dave had driven Ed to the airport for the trip.

During the drive there, both had admitted that they were inwardly slightly concerned that they might not be able to reignite the outstanding working relationship they had enjoyed several years before, primarily since there was now to be a separation in their respective ranks.

They discussed their feelings about the matter in detail on the trip.

By the time Dave had dropped Ed off, any doubts there might be a problem in that regard had been dispelled and the two of them were both confident at their ability to make the change work.  The were sure they could jointly organize their respective responsibilities while working closely together as equals on all investigations.

When Ed returned from the course, Henderson had instructed Dave to take the time necessary to bring him up to speed on both profiling and the current investigations underway by the cold case section, which had now doubled in manpower.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

- MAY 1999 -

Each day seemed to be a repeat performance of the day before.

Cloudy with sunny periods.

It had been an eventful five months for Kenny.

The old lady had finally kicked the bucket in February.

He had faithfully visited each day until she’d succumbed.  Having to do it had nearly driven him crazy, but it had served its purpose.

He had inherited the works.

Money would very definitely never be a concern for him from now on.

His full plan was still on hold of course, but sufficient progress had been made to satisfy him.

Setting up Robbie Brody, the kid he’d chosen and picked up in December, had occupied a good deal of his time and had also provided sufficient stimulation to ease his sexual demands, to the point that he found them controllable.

That, and the fact that he was getting close to being ready to make the final step toward the realization of his fantasy kept him in check.

He was pleased with the self-control he had exerted over that period.  He had taken no more risks, instead steadfastly following his predetermined plan to the letter.

The minute Robbie had agreed to go with him that December night, Kenny had immediately pulled away from the curb and driven briskly away from the stroll.

At first, he had kept the conversation to a minimum.  The kid was obviously nervous, and Kenny’s first task was to gain his confidence.

At the time, he’d wrinkled his nostrils at the smell of him.  Needed a bath all right, but he’d dismissed that small irritant and had spoken softly as he drove.

“You don’t look like you’ve been at this very long…”

The kid glanced over at him and acknowledged the comment with a nod.

“Ya, well only a couple of weeks.  Where are we going?”

Kenny liked that response.

The kid was already giving him control.

Now to slowly build confidence.

“Well you looked like you could use a bite to eat.

You hungry? I thought maybe we could get a couple burgers, then maybe find a quiet place to talk while we eat. It looks like you’re living kinda rough, and I figured I might lend you a helping hand.

I’m considering making you an offer along those lines.”

The kid didn’t respond for a few seconds then he sucked in a deep breath and retorted more loudly than he had intended.

It was bluster, and Kenny immediately recognized it as such.

“Twenty bucks for a blowjob…”

Kenny laughed.

“Right, well we can discuss that later, after we have a bite to eat.  In the meantime, I’d like to get to know you a little better.  How about we start with your name.”

The question threw the kid.

Obviously, his previous contacts had been interested in other things and hadn’t enquired as to his name.

“Ah…Robbie, Robbie Brody…and it’s one hundred bucks for the night.”

“OK Robbie, I’m Walter…and how bout I give you two hundred dollars right now, so you can stop worrying about the time and money for the rest of our spell together?”

“Okay, sure, that works.”

“Deal then.”

Kenny handed over the cash he had previously put into his jacket pocket and then stretched out his right hand in an offered shake.

The kid tucked away the bills in his jeans and then accepted the proffered hand hesitantly.  His grasp was weak, and the hand was damp.

Kenny shook it firmly and then released it.

Good, he’s unnerved and already off balance.

“How old are you Robbie?”

Don’t overload him…one question at a time, let him relax…gain his confidence.

“Nineteen.”

Kenny laughed.

“Ya right! And I’m Santa Clause.

Look Robbie, if you and I are going to become pals, we are going to have be honest and upfront with each other.

I dig that you say your nineteen.  Otherwise, you’d be jailbait and you figure that I might get upset by that.  Well, I’m not, so why don’t you just tell me your real age.

Alright?”

The kid swivelled his head and looked directly at Kenny for the first time since he’d picked him up.  It took a couple of seconds for him to respond.

“Sixteen… just turned a couple of months back”

Good, he’s loosening up.

“How come you’re selling yourself.  Are you on your own?  Don’t you have any folks?”

No response.

Shit!  I’m coming across too eager.  Just one question at a time.

“Just curious, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s okay. Like I said, if you don’t want to talk, that’s cool, I can drive you back and drop you off.  You can keep the money.”

The response came in a rush.

“No!  It’s OK.  It’s just that no one has really asked me this kind of stuff before.

I ran away from home.  My old man is a drunk and when he got locked up, my mom took off with some guy.  Moved back to Ontario with him.

I would’ve gone with them, but they didn’t want me. I didn’t know what to do.”

He was silent for a couple of seconds and then continued.

“I figured, they don’t want me, then I don’t give a shit about them either.

I got no one else to stay with.

Eventually, I had to find a way to make some cash, so I could eat.  I only been doing this for the last couple of months.”

He flushed deeply, paused and then continued.

“I’m gay and I like sex, so it’s not so bad.”

Kenny nodded.

Awesome, he’s taken the hook!

“Tuff to have to do it to survive though.

Better if you got to pick who you had sex with too, instead of the other way around.

Well let’s hit a MacDonald’s and get those burgers. Tell me what you want, you can have whatever and as much of it as you can eat.  Don’t be shy, my treat.”

They picked up the food at the drive-through and then Kenny drove to a nearby park.  One he’d mapped out earlier.

Not surprisingly when you considered the weather over the past few weeks, the parking lot at the park was empty.  Kenny shut the truck off and kept the conversation light while they ate.

Nothing personal.

Bitching about all the rain of late and drawing Robbie out very gently.  Letting the kid chill as he wolfed down his food like there was no tomorrow.

When Robbie had finished Kenny started the truck and turned up the heater.  As the truck warmed up, the kid, stomach bulging, began to unwind, his eyelids drooping.

“You look kinda tired Robbie.  What say we get ourselves a hotel room and then you can have a relaxing bath while I nip out and pick you up a change of clothes.

What you’re wearing is looking kind of shabby.

OK by you?”

“Sure.”

Kenny already had the room reserved and he left the kid in the truck while he picked up the key from the desk, then he came back and got him out of the truck and took him up to the room.

Robbie looked a little nervous once the door was closed behind them and Kenny moved to set him at ease again.

“Ok, I’ll head out and get some new stuff for you to wear.  Why don’t you just go ahead and hop into the bath and have a good soak until I get back.”

An hour and a half later, Kenny returned to the hotel room.  Once he’d locked the door behind him, he took the packages he’d purchased over to the bathroom door.

He knocked lightly.

“Are you doing alright in there Robbie?”

It was obvious by the mumbled response that the kid had nodded off and he’d wakened him.

“I’ll just put the bags down here on the floor and you can get them when you get out of the tub and change in there.”

Kenny went back into the main room, kicked off his shoes, then settled himself down on the bed and used the remote to switch on the TV.

So far so good.

About twenty minutes later Robbie came out of the bathroom carrying the bags.

“I put my old stuff in this bag.  What should I do with it?

“Just dump them into the garbage can over there.  You won’t be needing them, providing you and I can come to an agreement.

There will be a lot more clothes, and better ones for sure in your future, if things work out like I’m hoping they will.”

Robbie did as he was told.

That’s my boy.  You just keep on letting me do the thinking for both of us.

He patted the bed beside him.

“Hop up here and join me.  There’s a good movie coming on shortly.

The kid hesitated for a second before replying.

“Do you want me to take off my clothes first?

Kenny laughed.

“No Robbie.  I don’t.

For the time being, you can stop worrying about that kind of thing.

I think you and I are going to become good friends. When that happens, and if you want to do something more, we can see what else develops.

In the meantime, let’s just chill out and get to know each other a little better.  If that’s OK with you.

Oh, and I got us something to drink.  I hope you’re OK with rum and coke.”

For the first time since Kenny had picked him up, the kid actually smiled.

“Great, sounds good to me.”

Kenny rolled off the bed and crossed to the small desk where he’d left the bags containing the bottle and mixer.

“I’ll mix us up a couple then before the show comes on.”

He turned his back to the bed and poured out two healthy slugs of rum into the glasses and then slipped a small vial out of his shirt pocket and dumped about 1 milligram of liquefied Rohypnol into one of the glasses.

He had learned about the drug when it had been prescribed by Granny’s doctor a couple of years ago, to help her sleep.  Kenny had observed its affects on the old lady, liked what he saw and had then done some research on it via the ‘net.

He’d found out that it was called ‘The Date Rape Drug’ and figured a supply would come in handy in his preparations toward reaching his goal.  He’d then begun to swipe every second pill provided by the nurse to Granny daily and had built up a good supply by the time the old lady had been shipped off to the hospital.

He’d crushed and diluted these and put the resulting mixture aside for later use.

Kenny added Coke and then used a finger to stir the stuff into the kid’s drink until it had been thoroughly mixed and absorbed.  He then picked up both glasses, turned and crossed back to the bed and handed Robbie his.

He grinned broadly and raised his own glass.

“Down the hatch.  This will put hair on your chest, as my old daddy used to say.”

A half hour later, once Kenny was sure the drug had taken effect, he put his empty glass on the end table, shut the TV off and walked around to the other side of the bed were the comatose Robbie was passed out.

So malleable, and completely helpless now. I have complete control of him.

And, what a delicious sight he is!

He prodded the kid a couple of times to be sure he was out completely, then grinned and began to strip him. Once his clothes had been draped over the chair next to him, Kenny paused and happily ran his eyes over the kid’s tight body.

Awesome definition.  Robbie had obviously been working out regularly before his unhappy little home had broken up.

Kenny then quickly stripped off his own clothes and let them drop to the floor.

His prick was rock hard, and he’d begun to masturbate at a leisurely rate as he used his free hand to run his fingers over the kid’s body, eventually settling on his pert little cock.

In short order, it began to stiffen and although Kenny knew that the drug decreased blood pressure as a side effect, the kid was obviously still young and virile enough to get a delightful hard-on despite the drug.

Kenny chuckled with glee.

You are a horny little devil aren’t you kid?”

Kenny had been so excited he came quickly, letting his spurting semen pool on the surface of the kid’s flat belly.

He’d taken time to finish the softly moaning kid with a hand-job and then cleaned him up before tucking him into the bed and climbing under the covers beside him on the other side.

When the kid woke up in the morning, he was disoriented for a bit.

Kenny was just coming out the bathroom.  He was naked, using a towel to dry his hair.

“Morning sleepy head.  How you feeling, you did a good amount of drinking last night?  You hung over?”

Robbie didn’t reply.  Instead, he shook his head to clear the cobwebs as Kenny continued.

“Hope you don’t mind me stripping you and putting you to bed.  You passed out, so I figured that was the best place for you and since I sleep nude, I figured you probably would too.”

Robbie was trying to remember what had happened after they had started to watch the movie on TV.

It was all a blank to him.

His throat was dry, and he had trouble forming his words.

“No, that’s cool.  Jeez, I’m sorry I passed out.  We were going to talk.”

Kenny laughed and began to put on his clothes.

“No harm done.  I’m starved.

Why don’t you grab a shower and freshen up?

We can talk after we’ve had breakfast.”

They had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and were back in the room in just under an hour and a half.

Once the door had closed, Kenny flopped on to the bed.

“We can talk now if you like.

What did you want to talk about anyway?’

Robbie look a little confused for a second before he replied.

“You said something about making me an offer…”

Kenny raised his eyebrows.

“Oh that…right. Well let’s see now.

I want you and I to be friends, very close friends.  I like you kid, and I want to help you, and I’m financially stable and able to do that.

If you’re up for it, and want to be my friend that is, then I’m prepared to fix you up with your own place, give you a nice allowance and buy you clothes and stuff and a car.”

Robbie couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Was this guy pulling his leg or what?

He pursed his lips.

“That sounds great, and I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the help your offering me or anything, but I can’t help but wonder what is it that you want from me in return?’

Kenny put on his most sincere face.

“Just friendship is all, at least to start.  After that we’ll see what happens.

I’m guessing you’ve figured I must be gay too by now, and you’re right, I am.  And I admit that I do like you already and find you attractive in a physical way.

That said, it’s just friendship that I want from you unless you want it to be something more.  No pressure ‘dude’.

For now, let’s just take some time to find out if were compatible and see if we enjoy each other’s company.”

For the next week Kenny spent his days at the hotel and his nights at home.

During the days, he’d taken Robbie out extensively. They had gone to movies, arcades, skiing, indoor paintballing.  They’d had a ball.

Kenny never laid a finger on him.

As Kenny had anticipated, it was Robbie who had made the first move sexually.

On the seventh night at the hotel, Robbie asked if Kenny could spend the night with him.

In response Kenny shook his head.

“I don’t know man.  Are you sure that’s what you want to happen?”

The kid flushed slightly and nodded.

“Ya, I’d like to try it for sure.”

They didn’t get a lot of sleep, but Kenny kept it simple and saw to it that Robbie was well looked after.

He was also able to confirm, that as he had suspected, Robbie liked being dominated.

The kid was not only submissive.  He also enjoyed being subjugated and thoroughly welcomed the opportunity to take it a little rough.

Kenny had a definite plan in mind for the kid’s sex education but, he realized he couldn’t move ahead with it too rapidly.

One step at a time, experiment a little, but always let Robbie be the one to indicate a wish for more.

For now, Kenny would simply maintain a reasonable level of heavy activity in their sex-play, but over time, he fully intended to lead Robbie further down the path leading to the full enjoyment of a serious S&M relationship.

They checked out of the hotel the next morning and three hours later Kenny surprised the kid by showing him through the house he had recently decided to purchase in one of the better areas of East Vancouver.  It was nothing fancy, just a simple bungalow with an attached garage and fenced yard.

When they were passing through the last room he told Robbie that he was thinking of buying it for him.

The kid couldn’t believe his luck. It seemed like a castle to Robbie.

“Would it really be mine, could I live here now?”

Kenny laughed.

“Not now, but in a week or so after the deal goes though, I would be able to give you the deed.

Like I told you, now that we’re friends, things will begin to look up for you.”

Robbie grinned from ear to ear.

Six days later they were back at the house.  Robbie was clutching the deed to the place, in his name mind, in his hand.

Kenny had been busy.  The fridge and cupboards were stocked with food and there were ten one-hundred-dollar bills neatly stacked up on the kitchen counter.

Kenny tapped the pile as they passed.

“Pocket money for you.”

They spent that night together in the king-sized bed in the main bedroom at the house and Kenny kept himself in check.

He firmly dominated but was reasonably gentle with the kid.  As much as he would have liked to, he introduced no seriously rough stuff into the repeated sex-play they’d enjoyed.

The session served to confirm to Kenny that he’d made the right choice in his selection of Robbie.

The kid was at that horny age where he was always thinking about it, and while not usually the instigator, seemed eager for each new round, whenever Kenny suggested it.

The next day Kenny started Robbie taking lessons at a driving school.

Two months later the kid got his license and Kenny bought him a second-hand Mustang.

The kid was ecstatic.

After that had been accomplished, Kenny changed his daily routine.

He began staying at his own home during the day and spending his nights in the east-end Vancouver house with Robbie.

To explain the change to Walter, he’d told his manager that he was enrolling in night-school courses which were being held In Vancouver, so he’d taken an apartment in town.  That way, he wouldn’t have to be driving back and forth every night.

Walter seemed to find that reasonable.

Kenny held to his intention of eventually reaching a complete sadomasochistic relationship between him and Robbie by making slow progress in that direction.  Always carefully gauging Robbie’s readiness to expand his horizons and concentrating on keeping the sex enjoyable for the kid.

It took restraint on his part, but for the time being, it had to be enough for Kenny.  He understood that it had to be a learning experience for Robbie.

Sex aside, he also had to turn Robbie into his reliable right arm.

While that meant sticking to his plan for training and absolutely dominating the kid before taking the next step in his plan to make later use of him; he also had to nurture the kid and build a very strong rapport with him, both mentally and psychologically.

Whenever he was sorely tempted to take the sex to a rougher level than Robbie had already experienced, he had to be sure to simultaneously create an atmosphere of growing trust.

He would eventually require Robbie to be completely dependent upon him.  And trust would facilitate that.  Instilling trust would give him complete control over the kid, avoiding the likelihood of later problems.

Walter’s house and office complex, which had been under construction across from the yard at the front of the property, was finally completed toward the end May.

Walter and his new wife would soon move in, meaning Kenny’s last problem regarding personal privacy at the house, would disappear.

Once that was a reality and he had the house to himself, he would be free to do what he liked in it.

He already had some definite plans about what that would look like.

A week prior to the anticipated completion of the project, Kenny approached the contractor and asked him if he would be interested in taking on some renovations that he was contemplating in the main house.

The guy had agreed to take on the job, before leaving the property.

The next day Kenny provided him with a rough drawing of what he wanted to achieve as far as the renovation to his house went.

It was not a major job.

Kenny explained that he wanted to expand the master bedroom by removing the shared wall between his room and the bedroom next door and additionally, to construct an add-on to the house by creating a whole other room by way of an extension off that expanded space.

He then mentioned that he wanted this additional area to have soundproofing in the ceiling and all walls.

The floor was to be covered in a thick, commercial grade linoleum.

It was also to be windowless and accessible only by way of a single, secret doorway which would be concealed in a built-in bookshelf.  This was to be incorporated in a section of the separating wall between the master suite renovations and the newly expanded space.

That the construction superintendent was obviously surprised by the idea of a soundproofed room with no windows and a hidden doorway, was clear by way of the expression on guy’s face and his arched eyebrows, but he made no comment in relation to his surprise at the suggestion of such a construct.

He confirmed his willingness to take the project on as soon as the current work on Walter’s house was completed, and predicted that once under way it should take no more than a couple of weeks.

As the project neared completion, Kenny decided on what lighting he wanted for the special room addition.  He selected a large crystal chandelier to be installed in the center of the high ceiling.

Kenny explained the whole thing away by saying that the extension was to provide a private sanctuary for what he referred to as his space for meditation.

By this point, the construction superintendent was eager to get the job finished and took the suggestion of the unusual fitting in stride.

A job was a job and if the money was good, whatever the customer wanted, he was prepared to build.

This new hidden room was designed to play a central part in Kenny’s overall plan and although he was impatient to get started on the actual acts he intended to consummate upon his intended victims, he was still determined not to act impulsively. Not to act before everything was ready.

Years of planning were about to come to fruition.  It was just a matter of a little more time now. He could and would wait until all was in place, before he took that final delicious step and started on the road toward enjoying his life to the full.

While he waited for the renovations to be completed, he concentrated completely on working on the kid. By the time the room was ready, he wanted Robbie properly schooled and ready to play his part in the upcoming process.

Then it would be time for Robbie to really begin earning his keep.

Dave had been a little concerned about accepting his new staff/sergeant position.

Not because he didn’t think he could handle it, but because he knew it would mean more supervising and less time for hands-on work in his specific fields of expertise, within the Major Crimes unit.

As staff/sergeant, he would be working directly with the head of the unit, sharing the overall responsibility for the direction of all ongoing operations and their supervision.

He didn’t foresee any problem getting along with Inspector Henderson.  They seemed to have a good working relationship already, but it would mean he would have to fight for time spent directly involved in the actual daily operations of Major Crime.

Dave had been given leeway to take the time to bring Ed up to speed once he’d returned from the States.  While Ed had been away, Dave had been able to learn, prior to taking up the staff/sergeant position within the unit, exactly what Henderson was expecting from him.

His duties were to be primarily supervisory, but as he was already familiar with most sections of Major Crime there wasn’t a great deal more he needed to learn to prepare himself in that area.

As a result, Dave had been largely able to maintain his hands-on work in his special areas during the time Ed was on course.

It wasn’t until mid-May that Dave had officially taken up his new job, and settled into the small office across the hall from Henderson’s.

It seemed to Dave that for the remainder of the month, he and the Inspector seemed attached at the hip.

To his surprise, Dave quickly learned that there were a lot of politics involved in handling his new position.  Apparently, toes in the department hierarchy could be easily bruised by decisions made at the staff/sergeant level and for one’s own good, one had to always be aware of exactly what specific senior officers supported or conversely, did not support.

It was quite a learning curve for Dave and while he realized that the stuff he was picking up from his crusty, soon-to-be-retired boss, was both informative and necessary for him to handle his new position, it did occasionally give him pause to wonder if taking his promotion had been the right thing to do.

By the time the end of the month rolled around however, Henderson told him that he had absorbed sufficient knowledge about the unit to allow himself to back off a little.  He suggested Dave should now spend some time working with the individual detectives in the unit, to bring himself up to speed on all the various current investigations.

He told Dave that from that point on, the two of them would meet each morning at nine in Henderson’s office to jointly discuss the overnight incidents, and any progress made on individual cases.  For the most part, the rest of the day would be Dave’s to spend as he saw fit, baring any unusual situations that might arise.

Henderson also made it abundantly clear from the onset that he and Dave were going to be working as a team and would become interchangeable as the immediate supervisor of Major Crime.  This meant that they would need to be constantly keeping each other abreast of everything the unit was working on.

Dave raised one issue with the Inspector.

He explained that after a good deal of discussion, he and Ed had come up with the idea of making a change in how interviews and interrogations were conducted, once a suspect had been arrested by the unit.  That arrest would have to be due to a solid evidence-based determination of guilt.  Currently, the procedure was to have the detectives involved in the case make that first interview.

Based on the successes they’d had in getting written statements of guilt during their initial interviews when they had been partnered together earlier, something that normally led to an automatic conviction, they felt better results could be achieved within Major Crime, if they were also in attendance with the arresting detectives when all initial interviews for predetermined suspects by the squad were conducted.

This would provide the detectives involved with the benefit of their experience and over time, serve to introduce a set of standardized, time-tested interrogation techniques in all Major Crime arrest incidents.

If conducted when the suspect was off-balance and before he’d lawyered-up, this could improve the likelihood of getting a confession of guilt during those first interviews.

Henderson agreed to the idea, but warned Dave to tread carefully.  He pointed out that senior detectives would see it as someone looking over their shoulders and doubting their abilities.  When first introduced any change in procedure tended to create doubters.  That to succeed, any new procedure would have to be first sold to them as some sort of team project.

“I would suggest that you take some time to prepare them, and make them an important part of the planning as to how it will work.  Throw the idea out there now, when you’re spending time with the individual teams.

Toss out a trial balloon and talk it around.  Involve them in the planning.  Wait until you have most of them onboard with a few test-runs of what you have come up with.  Once that happens, you and I should make an evaluation, before we make any permanent change in the current procedure.”

Dave nodded.

“Yes, Ed and I discussed a similar type of approach. We thought at first, we would just sit in and let the detectives begin the interrogations as usual, while we observed the interviews through the two-way glass and until we had assessed how things were going. When we were ready, we would then call the detectives out to join us and leave the suspect to stew while the four of us talked it out and jointly decided how we would handle the remainder of the interview.”

Henderson smiled.

“You and Ed do realize that this means you are going to be working some very strange hours.  While most of our arrests can be made during the day, of necessity some will have to take place at night.”

Dave chuckled.

“Yes, we did consider that likelihood.  Both of us are prepared to work some weird hours until we can figure out a permanent structure for a new procedure.

It shouldn’t take us too long to reach the point where we have a system in place and all concerned have a grip on how these things need be done to produce optimum results. Once that happens, it should be smooth sailing and Ed and I will be able to supervise the process from a distance.”

For Dave, a few new developments had occurred on the home front.

He and Linda had earlier decided to try for another child and mid-month they were pleased to have her pregnancy confirmed.

Shaun had entered the ‘terrible-two’s’ and as a result now required a good deal more attention from the adults in the house.

Ed and Cathy had raised the idea of living together and had decided that they were ready to give it a try.

The four of them had then entertained the idea of Ed joining Cathy in her section of the house, rather than them finding a place together somewhere else.

They were more than willing to pay their way and there was certainly enough room. They all got on well, and as Linda succinctly pointed out, Ed was already spending most of his off time there anyway.

CHAPTER TWENTY

- June 1999 –

Warm, sunny days.

Kenny’s adrenalin level was running high.

The realization that everything was finally falling into place, that the years of planning and researching towards the successful accomplishment of his end goal were about to pay off, was almost overwhelming.

He felt emboldened, tantalized and overflowing with anticipation to the point he had to continually remind himself to keep up an outward appearance of normal behavior when around others.

By the third week of the month, the construction crew had completed the renovations to his house.  The new master bedroom had turned out exactly how he wanted it.

More importantly by far, the added room he’d envisioned behind the wall of bookshelves was going to be perfect for his purposes. His concept of a concealed doorway situated in a single panel of the bookshelves covering most of the one wall of the bedroom, had proven better than he’d hoped for.

The builders had done an awesome job.  No one would ever suspect that the extra space behind it even existed.

During the construction phase, he’d had the builders add an en-suite bathroom for his new master bedroom at one end of the same wall that contained the bookshelves and a second full bathroom on the other side of that wall and located in the adjacent safe room.

This second bathroom which was to share the wall between the two rooms, could only be accessed from within the concealed space.

Kenny had bought and installed new furniture for his own room and had also purchased a second-hand queen-sized wrought-iron bed, which he had already installed in the very centre of the hidden room.

He had bought a new mattress for the old bed and a thick rubber sheet to cover it.  He’d also installed restraints to both the headboard and footboard so that his future quarry could be fully restrained in a spread-eagled fashion on the bed.

There was to be no other furniture in the room except for a single metal chair against one wall, from which he could comfortably rest, when overtaxed by his indulgences.  There, he could take time at his leisure to enjoy the view offered by the splayed, spread-eagled body, twisting and moaning in agony before him as the crystal chandelier delivered a sparkling array of shimmering light over the scene.

This bed was to be his alter.  The place where he would be free to do as he wished, unhampered. Where he would prepare his victims for their demise. Where he would be able to enjoy, mutilate and torture each in turn in exquisite detail, before they were reluctantly, but necessarily dispatched and removed for disposal to make ready for their replacement on his alter.

His own little torture chamber!

The room was now done to his satisfaction.

Kenny shifted his attention to the piggery and the attached butchering facilities in the outbuilding behind the house.

He had definite plans in mind for this area.  An expansion of the pork production and sales started by his grandfather.

Kenny had done some more research online.  He’d decided that he was going to try his hand in setting up a commercial sausage factory.  Nothing too elaborate.  Just a small operation.

He installed a low-profile, lockable cover for the bed of his pickup truck.  With it in place to conceal his purchases from inquisitive eyes, he went shopping.

First, he replenished and upgraded the basic selection of knives and saws he had on hand.  Then, he ordered up a couple of large commercial walk-in freezers for delivery, a high-end meat grinder and the sausage-making apparatus.

With a view to pre-empting any curiosity on Walter’s part about the time he would soon be spending in the outbuilding, he dropped in to see him, ostensibly to see the new house, but in fact, to find the opportunity to mention to him that he was planning on expanding the pork operation by providing more high-grade pork for some of his current customers.

Walter was a little surprised by the suggestion.

Since Kenny was rolling in cash, he couldn’t help but wonder why the kid would want to spend his time looking after and butchering more pigs, but if that’s what he wanted to do, it was OK with him and he said as much.

Kenny went on to say that he would be buying a small tractor to help with the expansion of the pig pen and as a result wanted Walter to take on the complete responsibility for the Landscaping operation in the future.

He suggested that, barring emergencies, he and Walter should meet once a month, so Kenny could keep up to speed on everything. He stressed that he would also continue to help with the machinery cleanup by spreading the shredded material coming in daily on the trucks and keeping the equipment washed and ready for next-day service.

He also informed his manager that, as the change would mean more responsibility for him, it would also come with a healthy increase in his salary.  Walter was more than pleased with the idea of this new working relationship.

During this period, Kenny had continued to spend his days at home and his nights at the house he’d bought for Robbie.

Real progress had been made with the kid.  Robbie was coming along very nicely.

It had been mutually agreed that when Kenny arrived each evening now, he would be greeted by a completely subservient and nude Robbie, wearing only a dog’s light-weight coke-chain and a dangling six-foot leather leash.

Robbie was no longer allowed to leave the house unless Kenny had first given specific permission and guidelines as to exactly what he could and could not do.

Their sexual activities had evolved considerably.

Kenny would now take Robbie whenever he wished and during the act the kid often wore padded cuffs and was usually laid out on his stomach on the bed with his legs spread-eagled and secured to the footboard.

Robbie no longer had any say in what transpired during these sessions.  There was no doubt as to who was in charge. He not only didn’t mind, but was an eager partner in all of it.

The new regime was all-empowering for Kenny.

He had recently begun to introduce at least a touch of pain each time he coupled with the kid, beginning by squeezing his balls painfully while fondling and entering him and pulling the choke-chain tightly around the kid’s neck while he was experiencing his own climax.

Robbie was really getting into it, moaning softly and blowing his load regularly each time they coupled.  Kenny was delighted to find that Robbie was getting off on it, just as much as he was. He was taking to it, like a kid at the fair to cotton candy.

Of late, this new level of sex was intense for Kenny.

So much so that he had been very strongly tempted to finish the kid off on several occasions over the past week or so.  So far, he’d successfully managed to resist that growing compulsion to act on that fervent yearning with Robbie.  He’d been able to re-focus each time by reflecting upon his need to keep the kid alive.  He had bigger plans for Robbie. Keeping him around was paramount if he wanted to reach his final goal.

His belief that another month or so would see the Robbie fully trained and submissive enough to play his major role in the overall selection methods Kenny had painstakingly planned for picking up the likely prospects he would require, was the only thing that now stabilized the pressure to take things that far.

By the end of the month Kenny had completed the expansion of the piggery, adding a commercial shower facility, doubling the size of the inner area, as well as that of the outside pen.

He had used his new tractor and the old dump truck to remove all the old soil in the outer area and then replaced it with a foot of shredded material from the landscaping business prior to buying two dozen new animals and adding them to has current stock.

He’d also enlarged the butchering area, arranging it so it was more like a production line, at the end of which he had installed the sausage making equipment.

Having never given a second thought as to how sausages were made, he’d found his internet research on that part of the things very interesting.

He found that traditionally, the sausage casings were made from the cleaned intestines. These days, however, these natural casings were often replaced by other products. A sausage consists of meat, cut into pieces or ground, and filled into the casing along with other ingredients. In today’s marketplace, the ingredients used in addition to the meat often included a cheap starch filler such as breadcrumbs along with seasonings and flavorings such as spices, and sometimes other materials.

The meat used in sausage making may be from any animal, but is most often pork, beef, or veal. The lean meat-to-fat ratio varies, dependent upon the style and producer.

Specialty sausages, were those which used other ingredients such as apple.

That often the weight of the meat used in the mix exceeded the total weight of the sausage produced as a result.  This being due to the drying process involved, which reduced water content.

Many traditional styles of sausage from Asia and mainland Europe use no bread-based filler and include only meat (lean meat and fat) and flavorings. The finest quality sausages contain only choice cuts of meat and seasoning.

‘Fresh Sausages’ require freezing and /or refrigeration.  They also require further cooking before they can be eaten. ‘Fresh Smoked Sausages’, those that are either smoked or cured, do not. Nor do they require any further cooking prior to being eaten.

Kenny liked the sounds of these the best.

It was only after a good deal of added research on the subject, that he’d selected and ordered all the equipment needed to carry out the process of preparing this specific type of sausage, from start to finish.

Completing the update was a new set of knives, three saws and a dozen meat-hanging hooks.

He had also replaced all the doors of the area with new steel ones, installing substantial locks and added blinds to all the windows, so that he could have absolute privacy when he needed it in the future.

Several years before, his grandfather had created a separate incorporated company for the specific purpose of operating his initial pork meat sales. It was still in effect.  At the time the old man had fulfilled the necessary requirements under the health act and arranged for the government inspections of his facilities necessary to have it licenced for that purpose.

So, Kenny had a credible setup already in place for sales.  Now that he had expanded the operation to allow for a much larger product output, he decided to arrange for a new inspection of the upgraded facilities to make sure that everything about the sausage making setup was on the up and up.

All had gone well and after the resulting assessment he received the licencing to go ahead with an increase in his pork production as well as the production of sausage for the marketplace.

Kenny had then butchered over a couple of days to get himself up to speed with the new equipment and then had a refrigerated truck deliver the resulting meat to his customers.

He was now looking very much forward to running his first batch of sausage.  He would have to have all the right ingredients for that before it could happen of course.

But hopefully that wouldn’t be too long in coming.

Dave and Ed had been spending their free time working on the new procedure for conducting initial interrogations.

Over the first two weeks of the month, Dave had been rotating his time between the detective teams, with a view to becoming cognisant of the viability of each current investigation.  He listed these in order as to their abundance of garnered evidence and how near they were to an arrest and by the end of the third week, was knowledgeable enough to be able to shift manpower away from the faint hopes and over to better prospects.

While sitting down with each team for an overview of their active files, he managed to bring up the topic of interrogating techniques and the importance of garnering confessions during the initial interviews with charged suspects.

As this was discussed as casual conversation, as expected, a general agreement by all concerned resulted from most of these exchanges.

By the last week, he and Ed had put together a report explaining the reasons for the adjustments that had been made on individual case loads.  They coupled that with an overview of positive suggestions for improving overall success rates that had come out of Dave’s interaction with all the squad’s teams.

Special attention was given to the fact that everyone concerned had indicated that initial interrogations conducted with newly charged perpetrators were of primary importance and that certain techniques should come into play whenever these were held.

Dave circulated this report with all detectives along with a request for input as to exactly how these first interviews should be conducted, with the intention of having a standard procedure used on every occasion.

He hoped the request for their opinions would appeal to the individual teams and stimulate responses, which would then allow him to create a new standard policy that would be generally accepted without too much hassle.

Toward the end of the month he had received a fair stack of replies and could finally give a sigh of relief.  His consultations seemed to have worked and most of the detectives appeared to be onboard with the idea of a standard approach to the initial interrogations of newly charged suspects.

He and Ed had already decided how they would approach the idea in individual cases when an arrest was made.  They sold this to the detectives as a necessary process for the preparation of the most effective standard procedure for these interviews.  It was to be a learning process to ensure that all the best techniques available from the array of seasoned investigators could be contained in any new procedure.

To accomplish this, either Dave or Ed would have to sign-off on the question of sufficient evidence to charge prior to, and then sit in on, all such future interviews.

The detectives would then conduct the initial stage of the interview as either Ed or Dave observed through the two-way glass. Upon entering the room, the team would lay out in point form the extent of the evidence they had against the suspect.

The detectives would then leave the interview room and join the observer on the other side of the two-way glass.

As the suspect stewed in the cramped overheated room, off balance, his mind filled with the overwhelming extent of the evidence, the three of them would observe him carefully and exchange individual observations quietly.  During this period and with the goal of securing a confession when the interview continued, they would individually and collectively read the suspect for signs of stress to gauge the level of panic being reflected on the other side of the glass as they discussed the best way to proceed.

The main point of this exercise was to enable either Dave or Ed to evaluate the abilities of the various teams and to improve their overall success rate by sharing, in an non-intimidating manner, their own long-practiced techniques, not as instruction, but as part of a shared two-way discussion.

If he and Ed could demonstrate to everyone on the squad, that due to these sessions, a credible increase clearance rate had been accomplished, the adoption of a new standard procedure would be readily acceptable to all.

On the home front, Ed had moved in with Cathy in her apartment at the house and the arrangement seemed to be working out well.

Always having someone around to take care of Shaun was now less of a hassle.

This was no small matter.  The little guy was becoming quite a handful to manage for whomever happened to be providing his adult guidance at any given time.

Not that he was a bad child, but, as Dave was oft lovingly heard to say, because it seemed that ‘The little bugger is full of piss and vinegar’, 24 hours a day’.

Murphy tolerated this change in the household, but the cat now spent a good deal of his time curled up on his elevated perch whenever Shaun was anywhere near striking distance.  Up to now, this had been a safe spot, but recently there had been intrusion even at this altitude, in that Shaun had begun grasping and shaking the base of the perch.

Murphy was not amused by this incursion into his chosen refuge, and the adults in the house were quick to come to his aid whenever he complained of an attack from the little whirlwind.

And when that happened, complain he did, long and loud.

Luckily, the future living needs had been well considered prior to the earlier renovation of the house.  As a result, the new quarters had been made large enough to allow for abundant space to ensure private time for any of the adults who wanted or needed it.

The positive change in Cathy had firmed up now.  She seemed far healthier and more relaxed than she had been before Ed came into the picture.  The dark rings under her eyes had disappeared and she had regained her lost weight.  That the change had been positive was also reflected in the fact that her studies were going much better and her prospects for the future in her chosen field significantly improved.

Except for the odd time spent on the interview-standards project after hours, Dave worked steady dayshifts now with weekends off, as did Linda.  Cathy and Ed were both working nights, but were usually able to schedule the same days off each week, although these rarely fell on weekends.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

- August 1999 –

A wonderful warm and sunny month.

By mid-August, Kenny was satisfied that his training program for Robbie had reached a successful conclusion.  The kid was ready to fulfil his crucial role in the final realization of Kenny’s plan for a safe and successful introduction into his fantasy world.

Kenny was sorely tempted to immediately launch into taking the first big step.

Instead he leaned toward caution, deciding to take the remainder of the month to allow for a breather and to allow himself a safe interval to review his carefully prepared strategies, one last time.  Just to make certain that everything required was in place to allow for a smooth and unfettered rollout.

He had to be convinced that he had all bases covered.

He did not want any surprises.

He was about to begin the most important part of his life, after all.

So, he decided to do it on an auspicious day.

He would take the most fulfilling step in his life on a big day, his birthday, September the first.  And what an awesome birthday gift it would be! Beginning the path. Making his first kill driven by pleasure alone.

During the final week of August, Kenny initiated a temporary change in his and Robbie’s nightly routine.

He instructed Robbie to dress prior to his arrival at the house in the east-end. Instead of staying at home as usual, he and Robbie would get into the Mustang. Kenny would then drive them down to ‘Boys town’ at the foot of Homer street.

The first time they did this, on the way to the stroll, Kenny gave Robbie a rundown of what they were going to do once they arrived.

“Were going to do this run every night for the rest of this week.

Like tonight, I’ll do the driving each time.

When we get there, I’ll drive around the stroll a few times and I want you to take a good look at what’s on offer.

Your job will be to choose us a plaything once we get there.”

He paused to let that sink in before continuing.

“We’re going to spice things up a bit in the sex area, kinda expand our boundaries a little. We’re looking for a guy to come and join us in a little three-way sex party.  Not just any guy mind, we want someone special.

You up for that?”

Robbie nodded.

“Sure, a threesome would be fun for sure.”

Kenny grinned.

“I thought the idea would appeal to you.

Now, we’re not going to choose anyone tonight, this is just kind of a recon. We’re going to take our time picking someone out.  We’ll do this all week if we need to.  We don’t want just anyone.  Were looking for a real hot body.

Now, we won’t make the actual pickup until the night of my birthday, not until the first of September.

So, we’ve got a whole week to decide who the lucky kid is going to be.  You understand?’

Robbie nodded, and Kenny chuckled.

“Alright then, this is the type of guy I want you to be looking for.

Age-wise we want someone in their early to mid teens.  No heavy druggies.  Physically appealing for sure, a sweet boy-next-door type.  A good build and healthy looking, but not too big and muscular.  He should be a loner, not part of any group.

Kinda like you were, when I first picked you up.

Maybe a little nervous looking and new to the scene.  No old hands, if you get my meaning.”

“Ok, I know most of the regulars.   We’re looking for a new guy, young, a turn on, but not bigger than us then?”

“Right, now when we get there, I’ll be concentrating on driving, while you’re giving them the once-over. Feel free to let me know if you see something promising or have any questions.

I’m going to be moving at a reasonable speed.  I don’t want any of them to approach us tonight.  So, to give you a chance to have a good look, I’ll make several passes, probably two or three.

You just keep your eyes peeled for what we’re looking for and remember, we have several days to make our selection.  There’s no rush for us to pick someone tonight.

Our end goal is to have some kid pinpointed and selected before the night of September first.  That’s when we’ll pick him up.”

It took four nights of crawling the stroll before Robbie made his choice and had it confirmed by Kenny on the last pass.  Kenny was very pleased with the selection and they left for the east-end house early.

The first important hurdle had been completed.

They were both hyped over the prospect of an impending threesome and the sex they enjoyed that night at the house was both strenuous and exhausting.

As Kenny drove home early the next morning he found himself humming a favoured tune for seemingly no reason.

Things were going so well.

He was quite giddy by the time he pulled into the garage at home.

He was ravenous.

He made himself a humongous breakfast and then had a couple of stiff drinks, before he felt relaxed enough to climb into his bed and get some much-needed sleep.

Only one month had passed, but their involvement in the eight initial interviews conducted over that short period of time, those during which he, Ed, or both had taken to part, was already showing signs of success in the number of confessions that were being achieved.

Of the eight, four had managed to bring about a written confession from the guilty party.  Three of those had been murders, two of which were cold cases, and the other a recent rape.

It was early going yet for sure, but the statistics didn’t lie and the uptick in the number of charges resulting from those confessions was encouraging.

At the end of the month, Dave, Ed, and Henderson sat down to review the progress.

Dave began the discussion.

“The stats look good. The idea of taking a standard approach to doing initial interviews with a view to eliciting confession appears to be working well.  However, I don’t think we should get too excited, just yet.

A couple more months should give us a better idea of how well it’s working.

We know that, if investigated thoroughly, most murders and rapes should be relatively easy to solve.  The guilty party is almost always someone the victim knows.  Domestics, a member of the family, a friend or some close associate.  Very rarely is it a random act.  When we have a small number of probable suspects, it usually boils down to checking alibis to figure out the who.  It then becomes a matter of finding enough evidence to build a solid case against that individual.

Getting a confession up front on that first interview, makes the securing of follow-up evidence necessary for a conviction much easier much easier to achieve.

When we look at the eight cases we concluded by way of charges this month, four were a direct result of DNA or trace evidence.  These will likely lead to conviction, without the aid of a confession.

In the other four, it was a confession that led to supporting evidence and assisted in building a case that can be expected to result in a plea being entered by the guilty party.  In those four cases, we can probably say that there would have been no charges laid, had it not been for the confessions achieved at the time of the initial interview.”

Ed nodded his agreement.

“Yes, in most cases, I think a standardized interview procedure is going to bring about a more rapid clearance rate.  A confession goes a long way toward the laying of charges.  However, while it may be effective in the incidents that we have been dealing with involving these eight cases, it would be highly unlikely that we would be able to get a confession from the more professionally executed of the serious crimes.

We should be using a standardized a procedure for all initial interviews involving the spontaneous everyday run-of-the-mill type of serious crimes.

But it makes sense to be sure to separate those out from the ones involving professional-type crimes.  There we should be taking a different path, treating them each as unique.

I’m talking about the gang murders, serial killers and the like.  The perpetrators in those crimes are not normally going to respond to the standard interview procedure we are looking at here.  The suspects involved are not likely going to be driven by conscience to providing us with a confession under any circumstances.”

Dave interjected.

“Ed’s right on that.  The procedure we’re putting together for use in the regular investigations is not likely to be effective in those unusual types of crimes.

Gang members do not talk to police in interviews.  They keep their mouths shut.  Serial killers are even more likely to stay mute.  Especially if they are of the ‘organized’ type of serial killer.

These guys think they can always outwit the police.  They plan and execute their crimes carefully.  They leave little if any trace evidence.  They know the game and how to play it. They have no intention of giving themselves up by way of a confession.

Just identifying one of them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

And even if you do find him, good luck with building a case against him that will stick.  There is virtually no likelihood of an ‘organized’ serial killer providing a confession even if there is a massive amount of evidence against him.

Even after conviction, these types rarely confess to their crimes and if they do, it is only to gain some type of advantage for themselves.

No, while I firmly believe that a standard interview procedure will certainly improve the relatively routine cases the squad normally finds itself investigating, the unique and specifically-tailored approach we already have in place for handling a serial killer, would have to come into play when dealing with one of them.

When standardizing this new procedure, we will have to be careful to make it perfectly clear to all teams that there is a difference between the two approaches.”

Henderson leaned back in his chair and smiled.

“You know, listening to you guys, one could almost think that you are looking forward to having a serial killer come into your crosshairs.  Anyway, it sounds like this new interview concept is working out.  Keep up the good work.”

Dave glanced at Ed and then toward the Inspector.

“I wouldn’t say we were anxious to go up against a serial killer, boss, but we’re sure as hell going to be prepared to take him on, if one comes along.”

Dave’s home life turned a little hectic in August.

His father, who had beat cancer twice over the past ten years and had been in remission, was diagnosed with it again.

Both his mother and father were getting on in years and had given up their driver’s licences.  As a result, during the last two weeks of the month it had fallen to Dave and his brother to share the responsibility of getting them to and from several doctor and specialist appointments for examinations and tests.

While his father feigned the appearance of being fully confident that he would beat the big C yet again, it was obvious to Dave that both his dad and his mother were worried, and he began checking in on them more regularly than he had done previously.

They were all currently awaiting the results of the latest tests and it was tense for everyone concerned.  He tried not to dwell on it, but the situation was worrying and always floating around in the back of Dave’s mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

- September 1999 -

It was a warm and cloudless month.

Kenny arrived earlier than usual at the east-end house on the night of September the first.

Eager, but also cautious, he did not want to have any personal, direct tie-in with the stroll from this point on.  That meant sending Robbie out on his own to do the deed.

Before he despatched the kid, he planned to thoroughly coach him on exactly how to go about making the actual pickup.

Robbie was almost as excited about the impending threesome as Kenny.  That was all well and good from Kenny’s perspective.  However, he didn’t want the kid to get himself worked into a state before he sent him off to do the pickup.

He sat Robbie down.

“Ok, this is the big moment.  Now, you don’t want to screw this up, so I’m going to tell you precisely how to handle the entire thing.  First, settle yourself down.  You got to be thinking straight, before you leave here.  You understand what I’m saying?”

Robbie didn’t respond but nodded.

“Alright then, listen up.”

Kenny took what appeared to be a full micky of rye out of his jacket pocket and put it down on the coffee table between them.

A quizzical expression formed on Robbie’s face and he reached out a tentative hand to pick it up, but Kenny shook his head.

“Nope, that’s not for you.  You will be driving, remember?

So, no booze for you until you get back here to the house with the quarry.

The rye is for him.

Now listen carefully to me Robbie, once the deal is done and the kid is in the car with you, you’re going to offer him this bottle.  However, a lot comes into play, before that happens.

The first thing you do is pull into the curb, drop the window and beckon him over to the car.  Remember, you don’t want to be screwing around chatting.  You want to get him in and pull back into traffic as quickly as you can and head directly back here.

When you get him to the window, ask him how much he wants for the whole night.

Be pleasant, smile, put him at ease.  Tell him it’s going to be a small party, just you, him and your boyfriend, for a night of fun.

As you know, the going rate is a hundred for all night.  If he agrees to that, get him into the car and come straight back here.  If not, offer him two hundred.

If he still isn’t ready to get in with you at that price, then just pull away and head home.  We’re both eager for this, but we’re not going to screw it up by doing anything foolish.

If he turns you down, we’ll simply repeat the selection process again and try with someone else, later.

Now, once he’s in the car, you’ll want to chat him up a bit and try to get him relaxed.  When he settles in, pass him the bottle and tell him to help himself.

Say it will help him get into the mood, that’s there’s lots more where that came from and a choice of drugs will also be available, once he gets to the party.

Look at me Robbie, and listen carefully.

It’s extremely important that the kid takes a few good swigs from the bottle on the trip back to the house, I can’t emphasise that enough.  If he isn’t into it, at least a couple of swallows, dump him and come straight home.

If all goes to plan up to that time, then you bring him here by way of the lane and directly into the garage.  I’ll move the truck out of there, so it will be empty for you.

Kenny picked up the bottle.

I’ve dosed up the booze in this bottle.  A few sips will be enough to put him out, probably well before you get here, so don’t be surprised if he dozes off.

That’s what we want him to do.

Any questions?”

Robbie shook his head.  He had learned long ago not to be overly inquisitive, and not to ever ask ‘why’ of Kenny.  Just to do as he was told.

Kenny smiled.

“Right then, off you go, and remember to take it cool and get in an out of the stroll as quickly as possible.”

Kenny was on pins-and-needles the instant Robbie left the house.

To say he was excited for what was to come, would be a blatant understatement. This was a big day.  After all the research and planning, he was finally taking the first concrete step toward turning his fantasy into a reality.

While he was sure of himself, he couldn’t help but be worried about the part Robbie must, of necessity, play in the scheme of things.  He hated that he had to rely on anyone other than himself, when it came to something this important.

The kid was not the brightest bulb in the box for sure.  There was always a chance that he might screw up somehow.

The way he’d set this up, that was not a huge concern.  Kenny could walk away from this without a problem if the kid blew it some how. All well and good.

But if that did happen, he would have to begin selecting a replacement for Robbie all over again. And, at this point, the thought of being forced to do that was hard to accept.  He was just too close to the realization of all his dreams for that to happen now.

He poured himself a stiff drink and began to pace aimlessly.

Forty-five minuets later he heard the garage door activate and begin to open in response to the remote in Robbie’s Mustang.

Kenny gulped the remainder of his drink and set the empty glass down on the coffee table before hurrying out to the interconnecting door between the house and the garage.

When he opened it, the overhead door was descending, and Robbie was just getting out of the driver’s side of the Mustang.

One look at the kid told Kenny all had gone well.

Robbie was all smiles.

Kenny shifted his gaze from Robbie to the Mustang’s passenger window. He could just make out the outline of a figure slumped down in the passenger seat.

He felt a surge of adrenalin flow through his body and he gave a little jig as he clapped his hands and hurried over to the door.

The overhead garage door dropped down and locked into place.

Kenny pulled the passenger door open and then stood back a pace to allow himself a moment to savour the prospect of what was in front of him.

Jesus!  I’ve already got a boner.

This is going to be so good!

Robbie joined him at the open door and Kenny, grinning broadly, reached in to take the slouched kid under his arms.  His burden was heavier than he had anticipated.

The quarry had obviously lost control over his motor skills and was dead weight.   It was like trying to lift a drunk.  When Kenny awkwardly shifted him in his arms, he mumbled something unintelligible and then gave forth with a pathetic mewling sound.

Kenny loved it.

He turned to Robbie.

“I’ll drag him out, you take his feet before they slide off the seat and together we’ll carry him inside.”

The car door began to close slowly, and Robbie grabbed it and held it wide as Kenny worked the confused kid out of the seat and hauled him free of the car.

Robbie then moved in to grasp his legs with one arm.  After they’d shifted him out, he used his free hand to close the car door.  Then using both hands he took a firmer hold on the kid’s legs.

Walking backward, Kenny led the way to the interconnecting door to the house.

He paused for a second at the top of the steps to catch his breath and then, stooping slightly, he took the kid’s full weight on one arm and used his free hand to open the door to the house and push it wide.

That accomplished, he shifted the deadweight yet again, until he could bring both hands into play and stand upright.

He and Robbie then carried the kid inside, Robbie kicking the door closed behind him.

They carted the semi-conscious bulk though the kitchen, down the hall and into the master bedroom.

In preparation for the arrival, Kenny had already stripped the bed and covered it with a rubber sheet.  The two of them then unceremoniously swung the kid in an arc and released him conjointly, dumping him down onto the centre of the bed.

Kenny took a deep breath and shifted his gaze from the comatose kid to Robbie.

“I’m going to go back out and switch the car for the truck in the garage.  You strip him while I’m gone.  Play with him a bit, see if you can get him hard.  I’m curious to find out if he can do that after taking the stuff.

How much did he drink by the way?

“About a quarter of the bottle, no more.”

“It looks like it did a perfect job.

Good to know for next time.”

Kenny looked back at the kid sprawled on the bed and ran his tongue over his lips slowly, before speaking.

“If he can get it up, go ahead and get him ready for us.  Fix the restraints.  Face down mind, I want that tight little ass of his ripe for the picking when I get back.”

An impatient Kenny made the vehicle switch quickly.  By the time he got back into the bedroom, the victim was nude, on his belly, and firmly shackled hand and foot.

Robbie was kneeling on the bed, one hand moving between the quarry’s thighs.

As he heard Kenny entering the room, he turned his head and grinned.

“No problem getting it up and he seems to be digging it.”

“Good.

Ok let’s get out of our clothes and have some fun with him.  Put your chain on, Robbie.

That stuff we gave him in the booze can last for as long as 24 hours, but to play it safe, we’re gonna finish with him and get rid of him in four hours maximum.

I’ll give him an antidote and take him back to the stroll.”

Kenny wanted the passing mention of an antidote to register for Robbie, but to go unquestioned. To help that along, he quickly engaged Robbie with a question.

“How much did you have to pay him by the way?”

Robbie was eagerly undoing the belt on his jeans as he vaulted off the bed.

“Hundred bucks…no problem.  He was up for it.”

Kenny chuckled as he began to remove his clothes.

“Great, ok, you go ahead and have fun with him, I’m just going to wank and watch the action for awhile and then when I’m primed and ready. I’ll join in.”

Robbie was already hard as he slipped out of his underwear and eagerly climbed up on the bed to kneel between the quarry’s splayed legs.  Eager to get started he entered the kid roughly, and in seconds, his buttocks cheeks were tightly clenching on each stroke and he was blissfully and enthusiastically, thrusting away.

For some time, Kenny was content to gently stroke himself as he keenly watched the activity taking place on the bed.  He was happy enough to let Robbie enjoy himself to the full, after all, this, would be Robbie’s only kick at the can.

Robbie had no way of knowing it was just the preliminary for Kenny, and that Kenny’s real fun, was to come later.

This is just the warmup for the main event!

An hour later Kenny joined the other two on the bed. He slipped up behind Robbie, who, for the fourth time, was happily taking the quarry from the rear. Kenny thrust forward, entering Robbie, sandwiching him between himself and the quarry.  Robbie let out a soft whine of delight, followed by an appreciative moan and eagerly began to thrust forcefully back and forth between them.

Excited as he was with the prospect of how the evening was going to end, it didn’t take long for Kenny to reach his climax.  As he went over the top, he firmly hauled back on the chain around Robbie’s neck, bringing a shuddering Robbie to climax for one last time.

After they’d caught their breath, he and Robbie showered and returned to the bedroom. They dressed and then Kenny went over to the bed and checked out the quarry, who seemed to be sleeping uneasily.

Satisfied that he was still breathing well, Kenny nodded at Robbie.

“Get him cleaned up and dressed, then we’ll take him out to the garage and put him into the truck and I’ll drop him back at the stroll on my way home.”

An hour later, as Kenny reached the gate leading into the compound he activated the remote above his visor and fixed his gaze to the driveway on the other side of the opening gate.

The roadway, which led to his house, divided the work yard from the recently added driveway which branched off to the right, and led to Walter’s new quarters.

Kenny’s concern was for any activity that might mean that someone was up and about in the house, despite the late hour.  He did not want to be observed.

The initial portion of the branch road leading off was only dimly lit by the outer fringes of the strong glow provided by the halogen lights that illuminated the vehicle storage yard off to his left.

The house itself was shielded from the main driveway by a cedar hedge.  If anyone was up at the house, he was confident he would be able to pick up at least some indication of light.

Kenny knew that the risk of him being seen was very slight. Walter’s place was a fair distance off the main drive and somewhat sheltered by a relatively juvenile cedar hedge.

He saw no sign of any lights or activity and he gave a sigh of relief as he drove through the gate and made his way quietly up the long driveway toward his own house.

Kenny was very excited by the time he got the truck into the garage and the overhead door had dropped down into place, effectively leaving him free from any chance of outside scrutiny.

He’d done it.  All the planning, all the careful preparations.  It had gone like clockwork and now he was truly about to launch his project.

He was about to take the real first step toward experiencing his long-term goal.  He was about to reap the benefits of all that prep work.

He was humming softly to himself as he climbed out of the truck and crossed to the wall.  He lifted the recently purchased dolly down off its hooks and wheeled it over to the passenger side of the truck before laying it flat on the cement.

He bent and undid the two adjustable restraining straps and unfurled them to each side of the dolly.  Then he crossed to the truck and pulled open the passenger door.

Holding it wide open with his back, he reached in and took the limp form under the armpits and hauled the kid off the seat and laid him down on his back on the dolly.

He took one of the duel unfurled straps and then the other and fastened each tightly over the semi-comatose body.

A few minutes later he was in his master bedroom, where he released the hidden latch that opened the camouflaged bookcase panel leading into the soundproofed room.  After it had sprung open, he wheeled the dolly through the opening and leaned it against the wall while he pushed the panel back into place and effectively locked out the real world.

This was to his safe place.  A place where he had complete and absolute control of everything that happened and could not ever be interrupted.

Here, he could do whatever he pleased, to whomever he pleased, for however long he pleased.

Happy Birthday Kenny!

Over the month, Dave had spent a fair amount of time shepherding his father though various doctor’s appointments.  The resulting diagnosis, delivered toward the end of September, indicated a new tumour had been caught early and was operable.

Surgery was now scheduled for mid-October.

The cloud of immense pressure all involved had been suffering from the onset, had lifted immediately.

Things were going well for Dave at work.

The latest statistics more than confirmed the earlier indication that the new approach to the standardizing of initial interviews was resulting in the goal of achieving a much greater number of confessions.

Of the active cases that had reached the courts, all had resulted in convictions, the clear majority by way of guilty pleas.

Additionally, in relation to cold cases, the number of charges laid, versus the prior month, had doubled.  Confessions had been achieved for most of these and although none had yet come to trial, an overview indicated that all but two of them would probably lead to convictions, also primarily due to the likelihood of guilty pleas.

Henderson had approached the Chief with the stats and had received the go-ahead for Dave and Ed to write up a proposal for a new standard procedure, which would henceforth be followed in the conduct of all Major Crime initial interviews.

As the month ended, the two of them were working on the proposal draft, which they expected to have finished by mid-October.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

- December 1999 -

In October the first signs of the coming winter had settled in over the lower mainland of Vancouver, aided by the introduction of the occasional seasonable sweep of a stiff, cool and freshening, North-Easterly breeze.

By December, the cold of winter seemed to have set firmly into place.

A light skiff of snow now covered the tops of the surrounding mountains and anybody outside was well bundled up.

To many of the lower mainland dwellers, this time of year was depressing.

Not so this year for Kenny.

He felt like a new person.

A new man in every sense of the word.

It had all gone so superbly. More importantly it had given him an adrenalin rush that had reached levels he’d previously only ever dreamed of achieving.

A full three months after that wonderful birthday night, he was still riding high.

There were some minor changes he would make for the next one, now that he’d been through it once.

Not big changes.  More in relation to the timing of things.

Even now, he was a little taken-aback by the fact that he had not anticipated just how much he would enjoy the final part of the process.  Quite surprised that he had found that portion even more stimulating and satisfying than that of the initial sexual domination, coupled with the actual act of killing the target.

Surprised for sure, but not unpleasantly so.

Every day since that first ritual kill, he had excitedly and repeatedly relived the entire experience.

These delightful renditions had remarkably also replaced the repetitive reliving of the childhood accident that had, up to that point, continued to plague him with the horrible flashbacks he had suffered on a regular basis.

No more nightmares.  Just happy dreams. What a pleasantly amazing and refreshing change that was!

He could now sit with a drink in his hand and close his eyes as the images would instantly form and play out.

Stripping himself and the quarry.  Putting a blindfold on the quarry and then spread-eagling him in the centre of the rubber sheet on the bed.  Repeatedly enjoying his complete sexual domination over the semi-conscious victim and lastly; the torture and mutilation that followed, something he so relished.

Of course, the best part of that first extended activity, was the final strangulation of the victim using a choke-chain.

This first time, he had kept the kid doped up and available for three days, before finally reaching a level of excitement while having sex, that he could no longer deny.  So sublimely powerful that he’d had no choice but to commit that final act.

What he hadn’t realized it at the time, the best was yet to come.

Funny really, when he thought about it after.  He wouldn’t have believed that would be the case.

I mean, what do most serial killers find the most difficult, the most demanding part of the game?  Disposing of the body, once they’re finished with it, of course.  That’s the hardest thing to do safely, the thing that they usually don’t know how to handle, and they screw up.  It’s what causes most of them to come to the attention of the police.

Not Kenny.  He’d planned for that, planned right down to the very last detail and everything had gone like clockwork, just as he’d figured it.

During his mental reruns of that night, he often eagerly relived that final stage, step by step.

Use the dolly to take the body out to the building attached to the piggery.

Treat it just like you would any old pig.

Not much different at all.

Just butcher it.

Save the good meat and freeze it.

Cut up the big bones and the skull, and dump that and the offal into the pigpen.

As good old Grandpa had told him way back when, those pigs will eat anything.

A couple of days later, after the pigs had cleaned up any remaining tidbits, scoop out any fragments mixed into the chipped material left in the pen with the tractor.  Then replenish the pen with new buckets of landscaping tailings.

Put the material taken out of the pen through the big chipper to thoroughly shred it all and then truck what was left to a low spot on the property and dump it.  Cover that with the day’s fresh chipped tailings from the landscaping jobs and add a few more layers from loads the trucks bring in over the next week or so, and there won’t be a visible trace left.

Out of sight out of mind.

Good fucking luck finding a body after that process!

Dealing with any other traces of the quarry that remained, had been next on the list.

Burn all the clothing and personal items in the burning barrel behind the piggery.  Empty the ashes into the tractor bucket once they had cooled and then dump that into one of the low areas on the property and cover it with a good load of the shredded material from the work yard.

That left only the quarry meat that had been tucked safely away into the freezer to deal with.

No challenge there.

On the next specialty sausage run, mix the minced pork going into the machine, in a three-to-one ratio, with the meat donated by the quarry once it had been thawed and well-minced.

Job done.

The sense of general contentment Kenny felt after his birthday present to himself was a revelation.  He had never experienced anything like it before in his life.

He felt all-powerful.

All his needs were being met.

His goals achieved.

He was sleeping better.

He was eating better.

Since the experience, he had returned to his previous routine.

Nights at the house in the east end with Robbie and days at home, where he continued with the spreading of shredded material over the low spots on the property and power-washed the equipment each day.

Most of any free time he had after that was now spent supplying the needs of the expanding pig population and looking after pork sales.

It was early days, but the volume of meat that he was supplying by the end of the month was already double what it had been at the start of the month.

He was now finding it difficult to meet the demand for the new sausage mixture he was producing for his regular clients.  And by month end, he was receiving numerous enquiries about the possibility of a regular supply of the delicacy, from new clients.

He had little free time left out of each day.

Luckily, he found that he no longer needed the kick from the dark side of the internet that had previously taken up a good part of his normal routine.  The real thing had been so much better. The porn just didn’t do it for him any more.

The realization that he could do it again any time he felt like it, coupled with the nightly availability of Robbie, who was more than eager to act out whatever scenario Kenny desired, currently seemed to be sufficient to keep him sexually satisfied.

Not that he wouldn’t want to repeat the quarry situation from time to time. That went without saying.

Counterbalancing that was the fact that, having successfully done it once, he no longer felt pressed to do it again immediately.  That pressure was gone.

His earlier internet research had implied that serial killers would go through periods of hiatus from the need to kill and that seemed to be ringing true for him.

He was fully confident that whenever that itch needed to be scratched in the future, he would have no trouble satisfying the compulsion in short order and with absolutely no risk of discovery.

They say you can’t buy happiness.

Bullshit!

Money is exactly what makes this world go around.

Money had given him the freedom and means to do exactly as he wished.

Money had given him Robbie.  The kid was his cut-out, and all it took to keep him happy was the money it took to provide him with his shelter and daily entertainment needs; video games and a computer to play with.

True enough perhaps, that attaining his goal had been costly, both in the time it took to plan and prepare properly and the luck to have sufficient cash in hand necessary to do it all safely.

But, it had been so worth it!

Life was good.

For the past month, Dave and Ed had been working shifts covering the hours between nine and midnight, Monday to Friday.  Dave worked from nine to five and Ed, four to twelve.  This allowed one of them to be available during that period and provided for a one-hour overlap, which they used to keep each other apprised of any new developments within their specific areas of interest.

This schedule changed temporarily in December.

During the first couple of weeks Dave attended a ‘ViCLAS Specialist’ course at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa.

The Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS) was developed in Canada in the early 1990’s, as an effective tool to be used to apprehend offenders of multiple violent crimes.

The ten-day course is offered by the college as a tool to train experts in the effective analysis of the information contained on the computerized ViCLAS system teaching users to ask the system the right questions, and to interpret the correct results.

It accomplishes this by improving the participant’s knowledge of the behaviors of serious, serial offenders, and by providing insight into the application of the ViCLAS computer system to all active cases of homicide, sexual assault, missing persons, unidentified human remains, non-parental abductions and child luring.

Additionally, as he did every year, Henderson took the final two weeks of December as holidays.  As a result, Dave replaced him in the capacity of Acting/Inspector of Major Crime.

While he was still able to interact with Ed, who had been moved up to A/Staff Sergeant as his replacement; being responsible for the oversight of the entire section meant that Dave found he had little time to work in-depth with the two specific areas of Major Crime which held his greatest interest.

While that frustrated him somewhat, this frustration was offset by the challenges offered by the day-to-day management demands necessary to oversee the varied responsibilities of the department’s entire elite unit.

Sitting in the large corner office offered him a new perspective on the administration of the much larger group of investigators.

Only two departmental Inspectors were assigned a specific car on a full-time basis those who headed the OAS (Operational Auxiliary Section) which oversaw the specialist Marine, Mounted, and Dog squads as well as VIP security details, and Major Crime.

These two positions were deemed important enough to require the use of one, as the officers in charge had to be on call for emergencies. Both unmarked units were fully decked out with the full emergency response equipment and had permanently assigned parking spots in the underground police garage.  They were considered, within the department, as a definite perk.

As a result, while in the acting capacity, Dave’s truck sat in the driveway at home and he drove the assigned unit to and from the office.

During Henderson’s holiday, Dave had only been called out on one occasion, that of a family invasion that had gone wrong in the early hours of one morning, resulting in the gruesome deaths of the homeowners.

On the domestic front, now that his father had had the operation and was comfortably recuperating at home, things were going smoothly.

Linda, very pregnant, was going to take some time off starting in the new year to rest up at home before the baby was due to arrive.

She and Cathy spent many hours preparing the house with festive trappings in anticipation of the first Christmas Shaun would likely remember later in life.

All four of the adults had the specific holidays surrounding Christmas off, although Dave was still on call.  Everyone seemed to have picked up the holiday spirit, if not for themselves, certainly for the sake of Shaun who was bedazzled by the whole thing, and insanely spoiled by the many presents he found piled under the tree on Christmas morning.

On the twenty-sixth of the month, Ed presented Cathy with a ring and she readily accepted it.

No date was announced for the impending nuptials, but Linda and Cathy immediately put their heads together and by Christmas had already begun doing some preliminary planning.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

- January 2000 -

- Y2K -

Vancouver was in a deep freeze.

Under a cold spell that seemed likely to last for some time.

The Year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or Y2K, was a class of computer bugs related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates beginning in the year 2000.

Problems were anticipated, and arose, because twentieth-century software had often represented the four-digit year with only the final two digits—making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. The assumption of a twentieth-century date in such programs caused various errors, such as the incorrect display of dates and the inaccurate ordering of automated dated records or real-time events.

When January first of 2000 arrived, there were some problems, but because the glitches had been anticipated since 1997, numerous fixes had already been researched and put into place with the result that any problems that occurred, were generally regarded as minor.

While Kenny was aware of the dire predictions of expected problems, his new lifestyle meant that he was far less interested in going online, and he had therefore given it little concern.

He had much more important things to think about.

By mid-December, he had begun to feel the urge to select the next target for processing.

He had been sorely tempted to celebrate Christmas by way of picking up his next victim, but had eventually decided to put it off for a few days and used the time this provided to plan to start the new year with a bang instead.

Accordingly, on New Year’s Eve he arrived at the house in the east end just after five and instructed Robbie to head for the stroll to select a suitable subject for the evening’s entertainment.

Kenny took pains to instruct the kid to carefully repeat the successful process that had worked so delightfully in September.

He was to follow the same procedure with no variations, and when the two of them had had their fun with the new boy, Kenny told him that he would take the target back to the stroll, just as he had done the last time.

To ensure that Robbie understood the importance of making no variation in the process of selecting and getting the new target back to the house safely, Kenny painstakingly went over the entire procedure from start to finish and made sure Robbie understood how important that was.

As far as Robbie was concerned, it was to be just a one-night deal again.

Kenny however, had already promised himself that he was going to expand the length of the special time that followed.

This time he would spend a little longer enjoying the new target, once he got him back to his own house.  He anticipated keeping this one alive longer and taking more time to enjoy the fun once he had him secured within his safe room.

This time it was not going to be just a three-day ride for Kenny.

No, this one was going to suffer longer than that, a good deal longer, before he was put out of his misery.

Kenny was tempted to fix himself a drink once he had dispatched Robbie to the stroll, but decided against it.  He wanted to be fully alert this time, so that he could soberly register and savor the entire session.

In short order, he was reliving the last time and his blissful anticipation of what was to come made him stiff as a board.  He was tempted to masturbate, but sensed that might lessen his enjoyment of what was to come, and he held himself in check.

When Kenny heard the garage door begin to open, in response to the remote on the visor in Robbie’s Mustang, he hurried out to the interconnecting door between the house and the garage.

He flicked the light switch for the garage on and opened the interconnecting door for a quick look.

Robbie smiled through the windshield at him and gave thumbs up.

Kenny was ecstatic, and felt a rush of adrenalin surge through his body as he hurried down the steps and made his way to the passenger door of the mustang.   He pulled it open and as he had done on the previous occasion and stepped back to allow himself a moment to savour the prospect in front of him.

Robbie had done well!

Young…couldn’t be older than sixteen, more like fourteen!

Shoulder-length blonde hair.  Could use a wash, but long enough to get a good grip on it while you were riding him.  Maybe a little too muscular for his age, but too much was always better than too little.

And just look at that innocent angelic face!

Oh, this one is going to be just delightful.

Robbie had moved around the car and was standing beside him.  Kenny heard him laugh and then felt his hand press up against his stiff cock through his pants.

“Man, you’re sure as hell ready for this one.”

Kenny grinned as he turned to face him.

“Yes, you did very well this time.  This one will be delicious for sure.”

Kenny turned back toward the figure in the car, reached out and raised a limp arm and then let it drop.

“Perfect…just like the last one.  He’s out like a light.”

Robbie nodded.

“Ya, but I think he going to be a little more difficult to carry.  He looks heaver than the last one.”

Kenny grinned.

“I have a feeling that the effort is going to be worth it my friend.  I can hardly wait to get him out of his clothes.”

He was heftier, but between the two of them they easily managed to haul him out and get him inside, down the hall and into the master bedroom.  As he had done previously, Kenny had already prepared the room by stripping the bed and covering it with a rubber sheet.

They dumped the kid down onto the centre of the bed.

Impatient, Kenny started back to the doorway.

“Strip him.  I’m going out to switch the car for the truck in the garage. Once you get him tied down, you can get started if you like.  I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

By the time Kenny go back to the room, Robbie had the newbie stripped and manacled hand and foot, had stripped off his own clothes and was already blissfully pounding away against the firm, muscular orbs of the kid’s elevated ass.

Kenny began to strip and then crossed to the bed and gave Robbie his choke chain.

“Put it on.”

Kenny hauled the last of clothing off and sat down to watch.”

“How much it cost us this time?”

Robbie managed to respond huskily as he continued to hump the kid.

“Same, just a hundred.”

Kenny had already determined that he was going to take his time with this one.  He forced himself to keep his hands at his sides, well away from his pulsing cock, letting the pressure build up without added stimulation.

Robbie reached culmination twice over the next half hour and when the exhausted kid rolled off the newbie, Kenny got up and joined them on the bed.  He flipped Robbie over on his back and mounted him roughly.

Moaning softly, Robbie eagerly lifted his hips, welcoming each thrust.

When Kenny had finished in him, he got up and off the bed and caught his breath.

“I’m going for a shower.  You go ahead and have some more fun with him.  I’ll take him back to the stroll when you’ve had enough.”

Twenty minuets later Kenny and Robbie loaded the still comatose newbie into the back seat of the pickup.  Once he was inside, Kenny climbed behind the wheel and pulled out of the garage, leaving Robbie to put the Mustang back inside.

On the off chance that Robbie was watching him leave, Kenny headed back in the direction of the stroll, but two blocks away from the house he turned and headed for home.

As eager as he was to get there, he kept to the speed limit and obeyed all the rules of the road.

While he figured he could probably explain away the kid in the back seat if he had to, he had no desire to attract the attention of any cops.

The drive was uneventful and when he got to the gate to the compound at the front of the property, he activated the remote above his visor and carefully turned his attention to the driveway on the other side of the opening gate.

As he pulled through, he shifted his gaze off to the right, toward the roadway leading to Walter’s residence. He could see no sign of activity.  Satisfied that he was not being observed, he drove directly through the gate and made his way swiftly up the long driveway to his own quarters.

A couple of minutes later he was pulling the truck into the garage.

He sat there for a few seconds, waiting for the door to finish closing.

When it had, he gave a little sigh of relief and smiled.

It had gone well.  Not a hitch.

And now the real fun was about to start.

He was rock-hard by the time he climbed out of the truck and crossed to the wall to pull the dolly down off its hooks.  He wheeled it over to the passenger side of the truck before laying it flat on the floor.

He was thinking of what was ahead as he undid the two adjustable restraining straps and spread them out to each side of the dolly.  He took first one of the duel unfurled straps and then the other and fastened each tightly over the semi-comatose body.

Moments later, he was locked safely within the soundproofed room, where he had prepared for an expansion of his entertainment by earlier placing a few of his smaller knives beside the bed so he could do a little experimenting with some minor cutting while he had the kid alive.

He knew it would be messy and require more cleanup after, but felt it was worth the effort and was looking forward to how the all but unconscious quarry, would react.

Happy new year Kenny!

The newbie was even better than he had been expecting.

So good.

Kenny managed to make it last almost five days before he finally weakened and poured his seed one last time into the newbie as he blissfully choked the little blonde to death.

Then the real fun began.

Over the holiday season, demand for his new sausages had been very heavy.  He sorely needed more of the special meat for the recipe to make up another batch.

Making the preparations for same would not be onerous for him, luckily.  In fact, he was very much looking forward to it.

It wasn’t just the pigs who were going to be happy when the deed was done!

He was riding high as he anticipated this next task.

Day’s later, he used the dolly to transport the body from the house out to the mini-slaughterhouse attached to the piggery.  One inside he turned on the overhead lights and began to hum softly as he carefully checked that all the windows were well curtained.

That done, he paused for a second to rub his hands together with keenness before unstrapping the body from the dolly and lifting it up onto the drain encircled cutting table.

He stripped off his clothes and put on a heavy leather apron and enjoyed a few minutes devouring the beauty of the corpse with his eyes as he ran his hands lovingly over every inch, savouring it one last time.

He then began to talk to himself as he selected his first knife and tested it for sharpness.

Just like any old pig.

He chuckled.

I was born to butcher.

An hour and a half later the job was done.

Kenny had taken his time and enjoyed every second of it.

He began to feed the grinder with the fresh meat and then packaged it all and moved it with the dolly over to one of the big freezesrs before stacking it happily inside one the shelves in the corner.

That done, he turned to working with the saws to cut up the big bones and the skull.  He loaded those with the offal into the large barrel and fastened it to the dolly before beginning the cleanup of all the equipment he’d used in the slaughter.

When he had finished with that to his satisfaction, he removed the apron and used the commercial shower facilities to scrub both it and himself clean and then hung the apron up on a peg, dried himself, and got back into his clothes.

Tired after his endeavours, but riding the rush, he stopped long enough to smoke a cigar and have a drink before he used the dolly to move the large barrel out the door and over to the outside run of the pigpen.

He opened the gate and rolled the dolly inside, unstrapped the barrel and tipped it over then using his foot to quickly roll it across the pen, allowing the contents to sluice out across the enclosure.

The barrel then went back onto the dolly and out through the gate, which he fastened securely.

The pigs, locked inside their inner enclosure could smell what was coming and had begun to squeal with anticipation.

Leaving the dolly, he hurried around and opened the door allowing the animals out and grinned as he watched them begin to feast.

He would have liked to watch them longer, but knew he needed to get back to work and finish the job as soon as he could.

He reluctantly went back out of the building.

Barrel cleaning came next.   Once that was done, he would collect up all the kids clothing and use the burning barrel.

That would finish the night’s work.

A job well done.

He would then crawl into bed for a well-earned sleep.

When he got up later in the afternoon, he would do the next specialty sausage run.

In a couple of days, he would use the tractor to scoop out any fragments mixed into the chipped material left in the pen.  Run that through the big chipper to thoroughly shred it all and then truck what was left to a low spot on the property, dump it and cover that with the day’s fresh chipped tailings from the landscaping jobs.

All that remained to do then, was to freshen up the pen with a few buckets of landscaping tailings.

Upon Dave’s return from the ViCLAS course he had approached Inspector Hamilton and discussed with him what he had learned.

One of the problems with the system was that it required a great deal of paperwork to enter the specific amount of information required to properly complete a single entry.  Cops, famous for not being particularly stimulated by paperwork tended to avoid it when they could.

As a result, in many instances the system was simply not being used.

To circumvent this problem, Dave asked for a new data entry clerk to be assigned to Major Crime to ensure that this roadblock was removed and allowing all serious incidents falling within the guidelines of ViCLAS to be fed into the system.

Henderson agreed with the request, told Dave to put it in writing and said that he would endorse it and push it upstairs.

Y2K had been more of a concern for Dave than it had been for Kenny.

Therefore, he and Ed had both decided to work on New Years day.

It was with a sense of relief that they found the systems they were using hadn’t seemed to have suffered any problems because of the year change.

As the two of them sat down in Dave’s office afterward and drank coffee on the shift overlap, they happily discussed the current situation.

The number of charges being laid by the squad was way up over the same period last year.

Because of the number of clearances being achieved in the small unit, two additional retired detectives had been brought in on contract to add to the manpower strength of the cold-case staff.

Dave had been given the responsibility for personally picking them and he had been well pleased at the quality of the two finally selected.  He was also delighted to find that one of the three female applicants who had applied, had made it though all the hoops leading to the final selection.

He had been wanting to add more women to the make up of Major Crime for some time and it was a good start in that direction.

When Dave arrived home that night he found that it would only be him, Linda and Shaun home for dinner.  While he normally enjoyed being surrounded by the expanded household, it felt good for him and Linda to be on their own for a change, after they had settled Shaun down for the night.

Once they had him in bed they returned to the kitchen and Dave made Linda sit down and relax while he busied himself cleaning up the kitchen and depositing the dirty dishes and cutlery into the dishwasher.

That out of the way, the two of them flopped down in front of the television and watched the news.  Dave nursing a brandy and Linda settling for a mug of hot water laced with a slice of lemon.

When the program finished they began to discuss his day something they routinely did now that Linda was off work.

Dave quickly brought her up to date and when he’d finished, she frowned.

“I called in to touch base with one of my supervisors today…”

Before he could respond, she raised her hand to dismiss what she knew was coming.

“I know, I know, I’m not working…I just wanted to see how things were going.

It was just a very short call.  Anyway, I’m concerned about how effective our current polies are when it come to getting kids in need off the street quickly.

Especially the ones who have found it necessary to turn tricks to stay alive.”

Dave scowled, but kept his silence.  Linda continued.

“We seem to be doing fairly well with the girls.  At least those that aren’t too badly hooked on drugs. It’s the boys that I’m concerned about.  They tend to be harder to reach than the girls anyway, but of late its apparently getting worse.”

Dave interjected.

“Ok, well then, when you get back to work you can have a looksee at what’s happening.  But in the meantime, Mrs. Richards, its someone else’s problem, not yours.”

He reached over and gave her a soft pat on her expanded tummy.

“You’ve got enough to worry about right there.”

Linda looked down at his hand and he smiled.

“For now, let’s just get you on your feet long enough to get you to bed.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

- April 2000 –

The daily temperature had begun to rise perceptively.  Spring was in the air.

Last time around, Kenny had made it through four months before his need to kill again had overwhelmed him.  This time, the urge had become engulfing in less than three.

Over the last two weeks of March he had felt it building steadily.

On a couple of his regular nightly sessions with Robbie during that time, he’d come very close to a complete loss of control and had felt exceptionally strongly tempted to snuff the kid.

That would have been a bloody disaster.

Moreover, the demand for his special sausages had expanded yet again and he’d used up the last of his special-meat freezer supply.  He needed more of that one unique ingredient that made his sausages so exclusive.

It was time again, and he’d already picked the date for his next party.

April Fool’s day.

On the last day of March, he’d gotten home from Robbie’s just before midnight.  It had been a heavy session and he been exhausted by the time he’d driven home and had a bite to eat.

As soon as he’d finished with his meal he made his way to his bedroom and got into bed.  However, he found that he was so excited for what was to come that next night that he couldn’t find sleep, no matter how hard he tried.

He’d tossed and turned restlessly until three in the morning.  Frustrated, he’d then got a bottle and a glass and drank himself almost into a stupor before finally closing his eyes just before five in the morning.

He woke at one-thirty on the afternoon of April first.

It had turned out to be a grey, overcast and drizzly day, but Kenny, suffering from a massive hangover, was nevertheless wound up so tight with anticipation for what was coming, that he took no notice of the weather.

Feeling woozy after his bout with the bottle, he was angry with himself for getting plastered.

Once he’d showered, he took some pain-killers for his headache and then, determined to get himself back into top shape for the night to come, forced himself to eat a substantial meal.

Time dragged as he waited impatiently for the evenings entertainment to begin.

He had told Robbie to expect him at five and felt obliged to stick to that timeframe.

He kept switching his gaze between mindless TV shows and the clock, until four-thirty rolled around, and he could leave the house.

Even though he stuck to all the rules of the road, he still arrived at Robbie’s ten minuets early.

Kenny figured there was no need to run through the scenario of what the kid should do, yet again.

Robbie had it down pat.

He immediately sent him out to the stroll to select a prime subject for the evening’s fun and games.

An hour later he and Robbie were hauling yet another comatose prime specimen out of the Mustang and into the house.

By one in the morning they’d both run themselves blissfully dry and Kenny had eagerly left for home to begin the best part of the night.

He kept the kid drugged and alive for a full five days. Enjoying him sexually and using the small knives on him repeatedly.

It was a good thing the room was soundproof, because even with repeated doses of drugs there was a lot of crying, begging and screaming.

After that, he eagerly began the best part.

It was the best yet, and it had gone without a hitch.

Kenny had now crossed the accepted threshold of three or more kills.  He had truly reached his goal, and was now, a fully-fledged serial killer.

Linda and Dave welcomed their second child into the world on February sixteenth.  It was a girl and they were delighted.

They named her Malinda Colleen.

Linda had gone off on maternity leave after the birth and everyone in the house had pitched in to keep Shaun occupied and looked after while she mainly concentrated on the new addition to the clan.

By April Malinda was two months old and very much a part of the family.

A preliminary conversation between Dave and Linda about his getting a snip job had begun.

It was early times yet, and even though he knew the vasectomy was both sensible and inevitable, Dave still got the willies when the topic was raised by his other half.

His only solace in the matter from within the household, seemed to be coming from Murphy the cat who, while seemingly sympathetic when Dave consulted with him, offered little real support.

At work, Inspector Henderson, who had been suffering from debilitating headaches for several weeks, booked off the second week of the month to facilitate a battery of tests designed to see if his doctor could get to the bottom of the problem.

Once again Dave and Ed had been bumped up in the command chain to fill the void.

Dave found himself more comfortable working out of the big corner office this time round.  While he still missed the more hands-on supervision of the areas he enjoyed most, the challenge of overseeing the entire Major Crime section was challenging enough, and seemed almost routine to him now.

Although it was too early yet to seriously evaluate the effectiveness of having a data entry clerk doing the compiling and entry for the squads rough input to meet the ViCLAS systems needs, there had already been two serious cases that had been closed by way of the results of the extra effort.

It was encouraging, and had been noticed by the brass.

At the beginning of the final week of April, Henderson called Dave into his office.

When Dave entered the office, the Inspector asked him to shut the door and then waved him into a chair.

“Coffees coming.”

Although Dave had seen his boss several times from a distance over the past week, he and Henderson had not had a one-on-one, due to the demands for their attention elsewhere.

Now that Dave was sitting down across from him he realized that the Inspector was looking unusually rough around the edges.  He appeared to have lost some weight, and his skin had taken on a slight tinge of grey.

The coffee arrived and when the door was closed again Henderson, normally a man of few words, came right to the point.

“The results are in.  Apparently, I’ve got myself a rapidly growing tumour up here.”

He tapped his temple.

“Diagnosis is cancer.  They give me no more than six months.”

Dave was at a loss for words.

Before he could respond, Henderson waved his hand in the air.

“I’m not looking for sympathy.  That’s not what I called you in for.  I’ve accepted it and so has the wife.  It is what is.

Only my doctor, my wife, and now you, know about this so far, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself for now.  The Chief is next on my list and once that’s done, it will filter down from his office to the general population fairly quickly, I’m sure.”

That doesn’t apply to your wife of course.  Linda will, of necessity, be a required sounding board for you, on that we can both agree.  But please do that in a general way and play the whole thing low-key interdepartmentally, as and when the word does come down from upstairs.

If we expect this little project I’m about to suggest to you to succeed, you can’t let on that you might know any more about it than anyone else does.

Dave’s curiosity was piqued, but he stayed silent.

Henderson managed a small smile.

“So, let’s get to why I did call you in.”

Dave was still trying to deal with what he’d heard, and he reached for his mug and took a sip from it before he was able to look his boss back in the face.

Henderson gave him a second and then continued.

“I’m not going to be able to work much longer I’m afraid.  At least that’s what they tell me.

So, with that in mind, I got to thinking about my legacy and that led me to you frankly.

You will remember that we had a plan for you to take over from me, in a year or two.

Clearly, I’m going to be out of here long before we had figured.”

Dave managed to shift his mind off his shock over the diagnosis and concentrate on what had just been said. He shook his head and thought for a second before speaking.

“I’m not sure that you should be worrying about me at a time like this…”

Henderson cut him off.

“It’s exactly what I should be worrying about Dave.

I’ve been a member of this department for thirty-one years, eight of which I’ve spent in Major Crime.  That’s a helluva long time, and as quaint as it might sound, I care about its future.

Now, don’t let this go to your head my friend, but I just happen to think you are the best thing to ever happen to this squad.  I want that to continue.  I want to see you stay here.

Let’s face it, there is no way that the brass are going to be able to promote you again immediately, no matter how much the Chief may want to, and even though I’m going to push for exactly that.

The backlash from the middle ranks would be phenomenal if he did that. You and I might think you’re ready, but common sense says that is not going to be happening.”

Henderson paused and let that sink in before continuing.

“I have every intention of laying it on the line, telling it how I see it to the Chief when I meet with him.  That will be no problem for me.  I won’t be worrying about burning any bridges, because they are already collapsed for me and I don’t have any need of them now anyway.

And, lets face it, in consideration of what I’m facing, the Chief is going to be sympathetic to my cause.

The way I see it, he’ll have two choices.  He’s either going to have to replace me by way of a transfer into Major Crime of an existing Inspector from outside the squad, or else promote someone with experience who is on the promotional list, up from staff/sergeant.

I’ve given it a good deal of thought, and it seems to me that your best bet for us is to have an Inspector transferred in, rather than the bump up of someone to Inspector from the staff/sergeant list.

Subsequently I intend to share my thoughts on that specific aspect with the Chief.  Hopefully he will see it my way.

Additionally, I’m going to suggest that he select my replacement by way of a current Inspector who has had some minor experience with the detective division, but one who is of a seniority; that means he has no more than a couple of years left to put in before he pensions off.

That way you will still have a good chance to take the top spot once he goes.

I’m also going to push for someone who is already in a ‘pre-retirement’ frame of mind and more importantly, who has already been promoted past his abilities within the department.”

He paused to grin across his desk.

“Someone who the Chief considers likely to be happy with leaving you to do all the work and make all the important decisions, while he sits, happily on his duff, studying travel brochures.  In other words, in this office, in name only.

A guy who will keep out of your hair and let you run the squad your way.”

Dave was gobsmacked.

He couldn’t believe his ears.

Here was a man who had recently been told that he had only a short time to live and yet, Henderson was worrying about Dave’s future, instead of fretting about his own.

Henderson leaned back in his chair and raised his hands and cupped them behind his head.

“I’ve got an appointment with the Chief this afternoon and I wanted to run this by you first, give you a heads up before the meeting.

Well, what do you think?  Sound like its a scenario that might work out for you?”

Dave didn’t respond for a few seconds.  Moments later, he raised his arms, extended his hands out to his sides and shrugged.

“I really don’t know what to say, to tell you the truth.

I’m so very sorry to hear of your prognosis.  That goes without saying.

Other than that, I’m both surprised and appreciative of your confidence in me, and I thank you for your ongoing support.  I also sincerely hope I can live up to that faith, if I should be successful in eventually stepping into your shoes.”

Dave did discuss the situation with Linda that night over dinner.  He kept his pledge to Henderson, telling her about the Inspector’s situation but not going into detail about what his bosses leaving might mean for him.

Basically, they discussed the possibilities as to who might be stepping into the corner office once Henderson left, and how much he would miss working under Jim Henderson.

At ten the next morning, Dave received a call from the Chief’s secretary and was sitting in a chair across from him by ten-fifteen.

He had half expected to find that the two deputies would already be in the room, but when the secretary closed the door, it was just him and the Chief.

Dave had no way of knowing how the meeting had gone between Henderson and the Chief the day before and decided to play it by ear and temper his responses.

The Chief offered him a coffee, but Dave declined.

That over with, the Chief pursed his lips and let out a soft sigh.

“I understand Jim spoke with you yesterday about his situation.”

Dave nodded.

“Yes, a hell of a thing.  It always seems that we lose the good ones far too early.”

The Chief leaned forward and rested his arms on the top of his desk.

“He seems to think a lot of you.  Wanted me to promote you again and move you into his office when he goes.”

Dave didn’t respond, and the Chief continued.

“He didn’t say so, but he knew that I couldn’t do that, although, to be honest, I’d like to.

If I did do it, there would be dissention in the ranks and you’d be alienated.  Not a good position to be in for either of us.

Anyway, he’s come up with a backup proposal, one that he led me to believe he’d discussed in a general sense with you already.

I believe it’s one that I can live with, providing you and I reach an understanding that, if any word of this conversation we’re having here leaks out, we’ll find ourselves in a helluva mess.

Something neither of us needs or wants.

We won’t go into any details here.  The less we talk about it the better. Suffice to say I will play my part in this and I’ve already got somebody in mind who might just fit the bill.

Now, there are going to be a few people with raised eyebrows when the transfer is made.  Several inspectors are going to be unhappy for a start, as well as a few staff/sergeants who are currently on the promotional list, to say nothing about the Police Board.

Additionally, the two deputies are going to be nattering at me about the man I’ve chosen and trying to get me to reconsider.  I can ride that out, and if you can do your part to make the squad run smoothly, despite who is sitting in the corner office down there, I think the whole thing will blow over in time.

If all goes well, when the new guy retires in two years’ time, you’ll be a shoe-in to replace him.

He frowned and leaned back in his chair.

“I’ve told Jim he can book off as of today.

You’ll be acting until the new man arrives.

I’m sticking my neck out here Staff/Sergeant Richards.  Don’t make me regret it.”

Other books by Patrick Laughy

Murder Mysteries

The Little Black Book

Alumni

Kenny-The Making of a Serial Killer

Book 3

Historical Fiction

The 4th Reich series

Books 1-7

Fantasy

Atlantis-Ship of the Gods-a trilogy