The COVID Chronicles Episode 5

Catching Up

Chapter 1

When the Chief arrived at the station, he noted how lively things had become. It seemed every phone was ringing, nearly every desk and office was occupied, and there was a constant flow of voices. Those voices were speaking on phones, coming from offices in which the doors were both open and closed, and from conversations in the hallway. So much for social distancing the Chief thought. He continued down the long hallway over to Captain Horowitz’s office. Inside stood two Sergeants giving Captain Horowitz updates. The Chief popped his head in and quickly said “Stop by when you get a moment”. Captain Horowitz nodded.

The Chief entered his own office and sat down behind his large out dated desk. He had heard second hand that some of the newer recruits thought he was a dinosaur from another age. He supposed they felt that way because of both his leadership style and his lack of desire to update the furniture in his office. He had approved changes to the rest of the office allowing things to be updated, everything except his office. The new desks and furniture looked plastic and fake to him. His real oak desk and shelves were made of real wood and just seemed more authentic to him.

The Chief pressed the power button on his computer and waited for his computer to get to the logon prompt. He sat back in his chair and pulled out his notepad to review his list when his telephone rang. “Hello”

“Hi Chief Wintham this is Sheriff Jeff Hinkley from Monroe County” Sheriff Hinkley said. “I am sorry to hear about Officer Drake. He was a good man”. Huron Township was part of Wayne County but they had cooperated and done a lot of work with the Monroe County Sheriff. George, Jeff and the Chief had all been on the same golf league at River Raisin Golf Course a few years back. The three of them had spent more than a few hours drinking more than a few brews at the end of golf night during that season.

“Thanks Sheriff” Chief Wintham said solemnly. He could feel his emotions trying to make their way to the front and he pushed them away. “What can I do for you?”.

“Chief I wanted to let you know I have two units I am going to send to assist with the search, right away. A third will arrive a little later. They have to make a stop to investigate a wolf attack, but they will come right after that” Sheriff Hinkley offered.

“A wolf attack?” The Chief asked bewildered, thinking there weren’t any wolves in southern Michigan.

“That’s what was called in, probably a coyote or a large husky” Sheriff Hinkley offered.

“Well, we sure can use the help. We are short staffed due to COVID. It hit the department pretty hard and most of my team is under quarantine. We have the feds here and they are working the crime scene, right now Huron Township PD is leading the manhunt.” The Chief explained.

“Glad to help Brad, let us know if you need anything else.” Sheriff Hinkley said to Chief Wintham letting him know he understood what he was going through.

“Thanks Jeff. There is one more thing. You guys using the Doorbell system, you know with the cameras?” the Chief asked.

“Yep. It’s not as popular here, I suppose but we do have a few communities using it. Why do you ask?”

“Might be nothing but I was wondering if someone could take a look at it and see if there is any missing footage. Specifically, if they could look around two hours before yesterday’s attack and about an hour after.” Chief Wintham asked.

“We can Chief. Anything else?” Sheriff Hinkley asked

“That’s it. And a sincere thanks Jeff. I really appreciate it” Chief Wintham hung up the phone.

About 45 minutes later Captain Horowitz knocked on Chief Wintham’s open door jam. The Chief nodded for him to come in. Captain Horowitz took the chair across from Chief Wintham and sat down.

“I have some updates for you Chief” Captain Horowitz said in an official no bullshit sounding tone. It was a quality Chief Wintham looked for in people he promoted, straight shooters who got right down to business.

“Alright, let’s hear” Chief Wintham said.

“So far the search for the suspect hasn’t turned up anything. We initially focused on Willow Metro-park based on the information provided by Officer Stanton. We didn’t find the suspect so we expanded our search to the nearby neighborhoods. Wayne County Sheriff Department arrived about an hour ago with the K-9 unit. We were able to get a few of the suspect’s clothing articles from the van for the K-9 unit. It appears Officer Stanton was correct and from the last report they are again searching Willow Metro-park.” Captain Horowitz paused long enough to look up from his notepad to give Chief Wintham a look that conveyed a trust in the people they hired. The Chief looked at his watch and noticed it was already 6:30 PM.

Captain Horowitz continued “I spoke with Sergeant Wilkins who is in charge of the unit Officer Stanton is a part of. For the most part everyone in the unit gets along well with Stanton. She’s a hard worker and a fast learner. I corroborated her background check information with Sergeant Wilkins and what the team knows of her on a personal level. She grew up her until she was 14. She moved to Utah to live with her Grandma for high school, came back to Michigan for a political science degree from Wayne State University. Graduated the police academy near the top of her class then joined HTPD” Horowitz stated. The Chief wasn’t fond of using HTPD in place of Huron Township Police Department but understood it was quicker to say.

“Any connections with the suspect?” the Chief asked

“Nothing we could find” Horowitz said “Did Agent Biggs say why he thought there was a connection between the two?”

“No. He didn’t.” the Chief said wondering why Agent Biggs would infer a relationship there. “Anything else?”

“We couldn’t get into the Doorbell system. Seems the whole system is down” Captain Horowitz stated.

This seemed quite peculiar to the Chief. First missing footage and now the site was down. “Have someone give the tech support line a call”.

Roberta appeared in the doorway. “Chief, we have something. I just received a call from Officer Jenkins. The K-9 unit tracked the suspect to a farmhouse about 5 miles from the scene. They don’t know if he is inside. They believe he killed someone else.”

Both the Chief and Captain Horowitz were up in a second heading to the door. “Tell them to get a wide perimeter established. No one goes in until I get there” barked the Chief.

Roberta hurried down the hall to give the orders.

The Chief almost ran over Officer Stanton as he rounded the corner to the yard where all of the cruisers were stored.

“Chief I found it” Rachel exclaimed excitedly.

Confused for a second, then the Chief remembered the task he had given her. “We believe we have the suspect in a farm house over by Michigan Memorial Cemetery. You have your pistol?” the Chief asked. He figured it might give her some closure if she could be part of the take down.

Rachel’s eyes widened. She nodded affirmative about her pistol and trotted along behind Chief Wintham and Captain Horowitz.

Chapter 2

Frank’s head snapped up from Lisa’s neck. He was finished and was deeply enjoying the red hum when he heard the sounds of boots on gravel. There was someone outside on the driveway. Ensuring the lights were off he moved silently to the upstairs window to look at the driveway below. He could see a police officer in a squatting position over the man he had drank from on his way up to Lisa. He searched Lisa’s memories, the memories he had just consumed during their exchange. Jake? That seemed right. His name was Jake, her now completely ex-boyfriend. In his mind Frank smiled at his own joke. He watched as the police officer spoke into his radio then made hand gestures as if to someone else. Looking in the distance he could see another officer restraining a dog. The hum became louder, turning bright yellow. Brighter than the sun. Frank had felt his being becoming stronger when he had suckled on Lisa. He considered jumping from the window onto the officer and ripping his throat out. Long slivers of bloody drool leaked from the corners of his lips.

The K-9 unit had accelerated the manhunt for the suspect. Sergeant Ken Hodgins had taken point on the ground search working with the Wayne County Sheriff Department k-9 unit. He had been with Huron Township PD for almost 7 years. He made Sergeant 3 years ago shortly after solving a prominent case involving a missing girl in Monroe County, specifically in Dundee township. While much of the original investigation involved searching the area around the apartment complex where the girl allegedly disappeared. Ken worked on the case from a different angle, investigating the background of the boyfriend of the missing girl’s mother. It turned out the boyfriend was a convicted sex offender and had numerous calls in his background for spousal abuse as well. Ken had reached out to people who knew of the boyfriend and had discovered the boyfriend was an avid fisherman and liked a to fish from a couple of spots on the Raisin River. Ken cashed in a favor with a friend for a boat trip up to the secret fishing spots. At the second secret fishing spot Ken discovered fresh concrete. Below the concrete was the body of the missing girl. The Wayne County Sheriff K-9 unit was called in. The K-9 unit was able to trace the path of the killer and uncover evidence to implicate the missing girl’s mother and boyfriend. It was this reason that Captain Horowitz had selected Ken to work with the K-9 unit.

Ken kept pace with the K-9 unit as they made their way through Willow Metro park. The team was two K-9 handlers Officers Jenkins and Samuels along with the K-9s Blaze and Bane respectively. Blaze and Bane were both German Shepherds. Blaze was thinner and more aerodynamic while Bane was taller and thicker.

The killer had gone through the park the night before according to the report of Officer Stanton. Officer Stanton had possibly shot the killer as well. Ken and the K-9 team reached the Huron River and it appeared the dogs had lost the scent. Officer Samuels suggested they go over to the other side to see if they could pick up the scent. Getting to the other side would take extra time and Ken’s inner clock was telling him they needed to go faster to find this guy. The killer already had a day head start and every minute they wasted meant the suspect was that much further away. Ken and the K-9 unit sprinted across the field towards the south exit of Willow Metro park.

Breathing heavy, Ken and the K-9 unit reached the road. Ken was starting to feel his endurance slipping a bit as they crossed the Huron River. The team had to double back on the other side of the river across from where they had been. The killer must have spent some time on this side because when the dogs picked up his scent again, they circled several trees. This was good, this meant something had slowed this guy down. They were on the move again this time across the road to the Michigan Memorial cemetery fence. The dogs seemed to indicate the scent was on the other side. Ken wondered how the hell anyone could get over that wrought iron fence? The fence was at least ten feet tall with spikes on the top. It seemed like for someone running there would have been an easier path to take than over a large fence.

Again, they moved quickly north on Willow road to the cemetery entrance where they would need to double back to pick up the scent. This time, however, the two K-9 handlers split up. “I am going to take Blaze a little deeper into the cemetery to see if we can get the scent” Officer Jenkins said.

“I will take Bane and go back to the fence where we last had the scent” said Officer Samuels.

Hoping to save time Ken went with the Officer Jenkins and Blaze. “I’m with you and Blaze” Ken said to Officer Jenkins.

Blaze picked up the scent. Ken radioed Officer Samuels “Blaze has the scent on the south side of the Swan pond. We are tracking it east towards the other side of the cemetery.” Ken, Officer Jenkins and Blaze continued along with Blaze pulling Officer Jenkins into a jog.

Ken’s mind drifted as it often did when he was doing extreme physical activity, it was a mechanism that let him ignore the pain and continue on. This time, his mind took him to the death totals from COVID-19, then to the death of Captain Drake. His mind reminded him he was in a cemetery where a lot of people would end up from COVID and where Captain Drake would be soon. He thought of his own mortality and how inevitably he would end up here like everyone else. Ken forced these thoughts aside, he needed to focus.

They reached the other side of the cemetery. Here the fence was only six-foot-tall and made of chain link. Ken could see a farm house through the fence with at least one car parked in the driveway, a Prius. Ken froze. He thought he could see legs and feet at the front end of the Prius. Someone laying on the ground on the other side of the car. He reached into his belt and pulled out his phone. He swiped to the camera app and pressed the button. Using the zoom on the camera Ken was able to get a better look, there was a person laying on the ground. He couldn’t tell if the person was unconscious or dead. Ken tried to steady the camera on the person on the ground to see if he was breathing, but Ken’s heavy panting made it impossible to steady the camera enough. Ken moved the zoomed in camera to several of the windows, nothing. There was a light on in the upstairs.

“There’s someone on the ground” Ken tried to whisper through heavy breathing. “I need to check it out. Call in to dispatch.”

Before Officer Jenkins could protest Ken scaled the fence and landed with a dull thud on the other side. “Careful” Officer Jenkins said.

Ken, running on adrenaline now, moved towards the driveway where the person was laying. He moved in a low crouching position checking his surroundings using the nearby shrubbery as cover. He didn’t want to chance walking in the open in case this killer was armed. He made his way over to the front end of the Prius where the legs and feet were visible. Ken almost gasped as he slid to a stop on the gravel driveway. He had been expecting someone possibly being dead from a normal thing like a heart attack or even a gunshot wound. He was not expecting to see a guy with a chunk missing from his neck. There was very little blood on the ground near the body. He grabbed the wrist to check for a pulse. As he expected the guy was dead.

Ken squeezed the button of the radio on his left should and as quietly as he could said “This is Officer Ken Hodgins. “I have a 10–54…” Ken thought about his location “at the first house on the South side of Huron River drive near the Northeast entrance of Michigan Memorial cemetery”. Ken thumbed the volume down on his radio so any broadcasts would be a whisper in his ear. He looked to the house and noticed the side door stood open behind the storm door. Ken motioned to Officer Jenkins indicating he would go into the house. Officer Jenkins motioned that he was going towards the road to circle around the fence.

Ken reached down to his holster and with his right thumb unsnapped the clasp holding the leather strap of his service revolver in place. He wanted to be able to draw his weapon quickly. With his left hand he turned the handle of the storm door pulling it open.

In an instant Ken was slammed back out through the open door with his back crashing into the Prius. The air left Ken’s lungs as the Prius rocked sideways from the impact. His attention was focused on a man in front of him. The man, who Ken was sure was the killer, had him pinned up against the Prius. Ken realized this killer intended to bite him the same way as he had done Captain Drake and the guy who was laying on the ground only a few feet away. The killer’s mouth was open and only about a foot from Ken’s neck. Ken summoned all of his strength to push the killer back. At first it seemed he might be successful as the killer’s body seemed to move about an inch further away. Then the killer redoubled his efforts and Ken began to lose the progress he had made. In the distance the growing sound of a police siren grew louder. Ken started to feel light headed, realizing he was holding his breath as he was straining to keep the killer away. He did a controlled exhale as his Krav Maga training came to the front of his thoughts. In an instant Ken relaxed his left arm and pushed with his right sending the killer’s face into the driver’s side window of the Prius. The sound of breaking glass and an audible gasp as the top half of the killer’s body was inside the Prius. A casual onlooker might have thought the killer was just reaching inside to change the radio station.

The killer had maintained a strong grip on Ken’s shirt and vest. Ken grabbed the wrist of the killer’s left arm expecting to be able to twist it behind the killer’s back. Instead the killer pushed Ken with insane strength which sent Ken over the top of the hood of the Prius. As Ken tumbled over the hood and onto the ground, in a brief moment he could see Officer Jenkins at the far end of the fence line. Officer Jenkins was unleashing Blaze. Ken went with the momentum of the shove, as he had been taught during his martial arts training. He allowed himself to roll an additional time to give himself space from the killer. Reaching down with his right hand he found an empty holster; his service pistol had fallen out as he rolled over the hood of the Prius. Looking over the car Ken couldn’t see the killer. He thought something had to be wrong.

Ken looked to his left back up the driveway and he could see Blaze almost to him. At this moment Ken realized why they had given Blaze his name, the dog was moving fast. Further up the driveway Ken could see Officer Samuels had already released Bane, who was rounding the gate coming in his direction. Ken stood up looking to his right in time to see the killer hurdle a set of five-foot-tall hedges like an Olympic track star. Ken went to the Prius to recover his pistol from the gravel driveway.

Blaze went flying by Ken towards where the killer had gone. A moment later Bane whizzed passed him as well. Ken pressed the button on his radio “The killer is on foot heading towards Michigan Memorial Funeral home. K-9 units in pursuit.”. The Funeral home, also owned by the same group who owned the cemetery, had purchased large parcels of land in the area. About fifteen years ago they had built the funeral home less than a quarter mile from the cemetery.

Ken put his pistol back in his holster and thumbed up the volume on his radio. He watched as Blaze and then Bane sniffed around the hedges looking for an opening. Bane found it first, but Blaze quickly caught up. They were both going full speed across the open fields. Ken leaned up against the Prius to catch his breath.

Chapter 3

The Chief, Captain Horowitz and Officer Stanton piled into the Chief’s police cruiser. The Chief’s cruiser was different than the other cruisers in several ways. First it had CHIEF OF POLICE across both sides of the car. Second, it wasn’t designed for transporting criminals so it didn’t have the plexiglass and steel grating across the back, which meant it had more leg room in the back seat. The final difference, according to rumor at the police station, was the Chief’s cruiser was souped-up making it faster than any of the other cruisers. While Rachel could plainly see the differences of the first two points, she felt the final point when the Chief stomped on the gas as they left the police station. It seemed in a matter of seconds they were over one hundred miles an hour.

Rachel had slid her backpack off when she climbed into the cruiser. She had put on her shoulder harness for her service pistol and pulled the pistol from her bag into the harness. She wanted to get this guy, it had to be her.

They were two miles away, sirens blaring when they heard Sergeant Hodgins come over the radio “The killer is on foot heading towards Michigan Memorial Funeral home. K-9 units in pursuit.”.

Captain Horowitz picked up the radio mic “This is unit C-1 we are en route to Michigan Memorial Funeral Home.”

“We’ll come in from the funeral home side. There’s no way he is going to make it there being chased by dogs, they will have him pinned in the field” the Chief said. Captain Horowitz nodded in agreement.

Rachel started to tell them what she had seen on the tape, but decided not to since the Chief had instructed her to “only talk to him”.

The Chief navigated the cruiser past the cemetery, veering right to stay on Huron River Drive instead of Van Horn road. As he passed the intersection, he let off the gas pedal allowing the car to decelerate naturally. The Chief made the right into the funeral home entrance when a loud “bang-bang” noise came from the hood of the Chief’s cruiser. The noise was the sound of someone running across the hood. “What the…” the Chief said as he slammed the car to a stop.

Rachel was already out of the car in pursuit before the car had come to a complete stop. Captain Horowitz popped out the passenger side and ran in front of the cruiser. By this time the Chief had put it in park and was getting out. All three gave chase across the open field.

In the distance a train was blowing its whistle as it was making its way towards the far end of the field. This particular train ran from the Marathon refinery in Detroit all the way down to Toledo’s port where the refined by-products would be shipped out. The train was moving at nearly 25 miles per hour across Middlebelt road, then Van Horn road, and now Huron River drive.

The Chief trailing his two colleagues was sure they were going to catch him. There was no way around that train and it was moving too fast. Just then Blaze flew past the Chief followed by Bane. He watched as the dogs passed Captain Horowitz and were coming up to Rachel. The Chief’s mind was racing. He didn’t want Rachel to be the one to catch this guy. He wasn’t sure how she would react; she might just shoot the son of a bitch. The Chief pushed himself forward as fast as he could.

Rachel could hear the dogs coming up behind her. She saw HIM, the man who killed Captain Drake, as he stopped at the train. He turned around to look back at them. When he saw the dogs, his face contorted into a snarl. He turned back to the train and inexplicably reached for one of the service ladders on a rail car. At first Rachel couldn’t believe it, she was sure he would have his arm ripped off or fall from the train. Instead he dangled like a cartoon character sideways before righting himself on the ladder. He waved at her. Rachel was furious and continued running after the train. Looking over her shoulder she started counting the seconds between each time a ladder appeared. Timing her jump forward she leapt. For a brief second, she thought she had missed and was going to fall into the wheels of the track. Then her hands caught the ladder. She held on and pulled herself up to the ladder.

The Chief caught up to both Captain Horowitz and the dogs which had stopped at the moving train. Captain Horowitz was already calling in the events to dispatch “…. Officer Stanton is also on the train pursuing the suspect.”

“What in the wacky world of sports is this bullshit?” asked the Chief to no one in particular as he bent over catching his breath. “Get them to radio to the engineer to stop that fucking train” the Chief barked.

Chapter 4

Lisa was waking up. She had a deep fear that she was in danger. As she swung her feet out of bed onto the floor, she realized her neck was wet. She put her hand to her neck and pulled back a wet hand of saliva mixed with blood. She realized she was wet between her legs as well. Had Jake been there? Did he do this to her? She began to recall, there is someone here. She needed to hide. She remembered the panic room she and her Dad built in the back of her closet. Originally Lisa wanted to convert the entire small bedroom into her own personal walk-in closet like what she had seen on MTV cribs. Her Dad had convinced her to turn part of the room into a panic room. She had finally agreed.

Lisa made her way to the back of the closet and pushed the hidden lever causing a door to appear in the paneling. Lisa went in and locked the door behind her. She was tired again, dead tired. She wanted only to sleep. She laid on the small couch, pulled over a small blanket and fell into a long dreamless sleep.