(SSSC) The Kindest Cut

October 31, 2007

Detective Burleson leaned heavily against the courthouse columns and took a deep drag of his unfiltered Camel while he surveyed the scene before him through squinted eyes. The satellite link towers that extended from the news trucks surrounded the small country judicial building. Anchors from every conceivable country primped their hair and adjusted their outfits in anticipation for the verdict presumably just moments away. Some of them had approached him for a comment only to receive a puff of his smoke and a stare cumulative of his mood.
And then there was the cheering section…..men, women and children adorning t-shirts, pins, signs, face paint, and balloons. All bearing her striking image and giving rise to her infamy. She had told him this would happen but he did not believe her at the time.
He had even heard that her groups were now forming in Europe.
He could only look incredulously over the changed landscape of his town and brace himself for the night ahead. His precinct had doubled their forces tonight….as had others all over the country. A real, live revolution was in swing and, sadly, he was on the opposite end.


Halloween….One Year Earlier

The detective suppressed a belch and shifted uncomfortably against the steel folding chair reserved for the interrogation room. He proffered his sternest stare at the dainty, strikingly beautiful woman before him chained to the opposite chair. He had long since decided that the cuffs wringing her delicate wrists looked so foreign on her. Along with the cheap, over-the-top French maid costume and the blood spatter adorning her cleavage. Real blood. She seemed totally oblivious and calm given the circumstances she now found herself.

Detective Burleson had almost turned in a request for this particular Halloween night off but changed his mind given the alternative to working. An empty house, barren refrigerator except for condiments and whiskey. His movie rental account was seriously delinquent at this point and, as ordained by God Almighty for eternity, his beloved Cubbies were not in the playoffs. Alas, he decided to pull his shift and allude the embrace of loneliness for another evening.

And on this hallowed eve, teetering on her black stilettos, Ms. Ivy Robicheaux was brought into the precinct for questioning.

“Ms. Robicheaux…I’m going to turn the recorder on at this point…do you understand?”

“Certainly sir.”

“Allright…now, Officer Dunn advised you of your Miranda rights this evening when he pulled you over…correct?”

“Yes sir.”
“Now, you are aware that you are entitled to speak with an attorney before this questioning commences?”

“Of course, that won’t be necessary.”

Detective Burleson paused and turned the recorder off with a heavy sigh. “Are you positive that you don’t want an attorney, Ms. Robicheaux. We have a set of circumstances here that…ummm..could be rather detrimental to you given what we found in your vehicle. Particuarly the …umm…the cooler.”

“I totally understand. You may proceed, Detetective.”

He depressed the record button again. “Ms. Robicheaux…what can you tell me about the contents of the red cooler found in your car this evening and how did it come to be in your possession?”

“Well, assuming that you’ve seen it…I put them there…on ice, of course.”

“I see. Who do they belong to?”

Ivy Robicheaux looked at him blankly through crystal blue eyes framed by a mass of flaming red hair and gave a little smile of sympathy. She glanced tentatively at the clock and said, “Well, I can’t tell you at this exact time per se.”

“…and why, per se, can’t you tell me at this exact time?”

“Because they need time to properly die first. Shouldn’t be too much longer now.” She said this so matter of fact that Detective Burleson could have sworn she would have recited a peach pie recipe with the same monotone intensity.

“Ok then….your waiting for them to die. So, who are “they”? No wait…let’s get back to the cooler.”

“Certainly.”

The detective reached into his shirt pocket and pulled his wrinkled cigarette pack out. “Do you mind if I…?”

“No, go ahead…”

The detective found he always lit a cigarette when he felt the song and dance session part of an interrogation was over.

“Ms. Robicheaux, apparently normal, civilized, educated ladies such as yourself with no criminal history to speak of are not usually found with a cooler possessing two severed penises and one testical…on ice…on Halloween night. Can you please enlighten me here and explain this one because it’s not really adding up. I’ve been doing this a long time and I will have to say, ma’am, that this is probably the oddest thing to come across my precinct so…let’s give a shot, shall we? An honest answer here….”

“I never had any intention of not telling you what’s going on. I just won’t give you the names of the men until they are stone cold, graveyard dead. Understand? From the medical advice I’ve been given…it shouldn’t be too long now since I severed their femoral arteries too. Hence, all the mess all over me.”

“Uh-huh, I see…well, I have no control over what or when you tell me. I just want you to tell me.”

Ivy Robicheaux squared her shoulders and sat upright in her chair. She met the gaze of Detective Burleson and seemed to steel herself for the following statement,
“Once upon a time Detective, in a land far, far away… I had a happy life with a beautiful, content family….the all American dream. And then one day detective, my blissful ignorant existence was scattered to the four winds of the earth by a man that decided to sexually molest my four-year old daughter at her daycare. Of course, we went through the whole judicial process that culminated in the thing being offered a plea agreement with only three months time served. My family moved to another state and tried to resume our lives and piece together some sort of normality for my child. I entered a support group for rape and molestation victims and found by talking to these other victims that these idiotic plea and bond deals happen everyday. The group was quite pathetic…myself included….afraid of our shadows…our shades pulled down all day and a pall of fear cast over our every action Constantly questioning the randomness of evil in the world and how it dared to brush up against us.”

“I see.”

“So, disgusted at my own apathy and weakness, I decided to start my own….group…so to speak. Our numbers are quite large….”

“You did? A group?”

“Yes….we chose tonight…Halloween to break out of our cocoon of pervasive fear and take something back for ourselves and our children.”

“Wait…back the truck up…you said “we”….meaning plural? Are you telling me that there are other woman out and about tonight in alluring attire wielding knives randomly and severing the genitalia of rapists and paedophiles? Is that what you’re telling me, Ms. Robicheaux?

“Certainly”

“And…umm…how many woman would you suspect are executing this vigilante massacre..hmmmm? One, Two…five?”

“Well, we’ve been planning this for approximately five years so our numbers have gained strength….I would say that about 200 woman are participating…roundabout….all over the country.”

He crushed his cigarette out hastily, snapped off the recorder and ran down the hallway to alert his colleagues.

It was going to be a busy night………

Good story. Is there more?

reply to post by Wildbob77


No..sorry.

I tried to edit in a "The End" but I'm having some type of glitch doing that....won't let me.

Apart from saying what a terrific little story sdp, all i can add is, Ouch. Your story gave me the shivers!!

Now that is a story that really should be true!!

Excellent work.

MonKey

Oh my gosh, that was a riveting tale and you had me from the first sentence. Now I can understand why you have earned the respect levels you have here at ATS... I will be reading more of your work. Are you a guy or gal? I think woman? I have only one critique, it ended!

Happy Halloween!

First and foremost: How cool a name is Ms. Ivy Robicheaux? Awesome.

Secondly: The detective runs away with Ivy in the end, doesn't he? Admit it!!

Great stuff, as always.

Wicked story, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, definitely one of my faves.