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Ripper Chapter 7
By Cherokeegirl
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Jim sat in the interrogation room looking at the lab reports on the fingerprints. He sought out the interrogation room to be alone with his thoughts for a moment. And his thoughts were in turmoil. This mad man who kidnapped his victims, killed them and disemboweled them had kidnapped Blair, probably because he got too close to the truth. Jim reached over and picked up the glass Goldberg drank from and thought he sat in this very room and denied knowing anything about the killings or Blair's disappearance. Now I don't know where Blair is or if he's alright. Oh, sweetheart, I have to know if you're all right; I have to have you back with me. I would die if I lost you. A small hitch in his breathing escaped Jim's lips as he stared at the pattern of swirls and indentations in the fingerprints on the glass. Then he noticed something. He studied the fingerprints more closely then looked again at the file.
"Oh dear God," Jim exclaimed. "They don't match."
~*~
Blair opened the door to his kidnapper.
"Going somewhere, Mr. Sandburg?"
Blair began to slowly back into the cabin as the kidnapper entered smacking his palm with his nightstick.
"Did you really think you could get away and if you did, where did you think you would go? You're miles from anywhere. Now sit down, Mr. Sandburg," he said as he pointed to a chair at the table.
Blair sat as the kidnapper reached over to the wood box and pulled out a coil of rope. He tied Blair's legs together then tied them to the legs of the chair. Then he pulled the rope under the seat and tied his hands, fastening the rope to the chair back.
"Why are you doing this?" Blair asked. "You can't keep me here forever."
"Because you have to pay for what you've done. Those women liked me. We could have had something special. But each time I thought I found the right one, the one that would really care about me, you turned their heads. After that they wouldn't have anything to do with me. It's all your fault and you're going to pay." With that he backhanded Blair making his lip bleed again.
~*~
As soon as Jim noticed the difference in the fingerprints he called upstairs to Simon's office.
"Simon, we have a problem. The fingerprint report has been tampered with. The prints in the report don't match the prints on the glass Goldberg drank from. I need you to authorize running the lab prints again through R and I and see who they belong to."
"Jim, hold it. What are you talking about?" Simon said into the phone.
"The prints on the glass Goldberg drank from in the interrogation room are different from the prints in the report from the lab. Whoever these prints belong to is the real killer and the one who has Blair."
"But what about the other evidence, the syringe and drugs that were found in Goldberg's home?"
"Look, I don't have all the answers. I just know that these two sets of prints are different and I have a feeling that when we find out who these prints belong to we'll find the killer and Blair."
"All right, Jim. I'll call R and I and DMV and tell them we need the results stat."
~*~
"I told you that I hardly knew those girls and I had nothing to do with them. The only relationship you had with them was in your mind." Blair said. At this point he was so frustrated and furious that he didn't care what he said to the kidnapper. "They could tell how sick and perverted you were. That's why they didn't want anything to do with you. You kidnapped them and pretended they were your lovers. When they wouldn't play along, you murdered them and mutilated their bodies. You sick bastard. How long do you think you can get away with this? They'll catch you, you know."
"What the hell would you know about a relationship with a woman, you damn faggot?" the kidnapper screamed as he closed his fist and punched Blair in the eye.
"As for them catching me, they've already arrested Goldberg."
"How long do you think you can go without killing again? Once you do, they're going to know they arrested the wrong man and they're going to intensify the search."
"Do you really think they've found the bodies of all the women? They only found the ones I wanted them to find, the ones that I wanted to make examples. You know that's what I'm going to do with you, don't you? I'm going to make an example out of you. I've never done a man before, but then again you're not really a man. Are you, faggot?"
~*~
Jim and Simon waited in Simon's office for the results from R and I and DMV on the prints. Simon grabbed the phone on the first ring.
"Banks"
"I see... Are you absolutely sure? Put out an APB on him. Tell them to use extreme caution and to assume he is armed and dangerous and has a hostage. Keep me posted."
"You're not going to believe this," Simon said hanging up the phone. "The prints belong to the security guard, George Wright. He didn't show up for work this afternoon."
"Wright? Damn it, Simon, that's a perfect cover. Those co-eds would have trusted him."
"Also, we're going to release Goldberg. We were holding him mostly because the prints matched. Now that we know they don't, we have to assume that the other evidence could have been tampered with or planted as well. I'm afraid that someone has already leaked his release to the media. I just pray that the fact that we have an APB out on Wright wasn't also leaked. I don't want to tip off this guy."
~*~
"We should be able to catch the arrest on the news," Wright said as he reached to turn on a small portable radio.
"Repeating our top news story, Professor Stanley Goldberg of Rainer University was arrested and charged this morning with the murders of several co-eds in what has been dubbed as the "Cascade Ripper Murders". But our sources at the Cascade Police Department have informed us that Professor Goldberg has been released. The source states that the fingerprints on evidence found at the scene of the murders did not match those of Professor Goldberg. The police have now issued an APB for a campus security guard named George Wright in connection with the slayings."
Blair watched all color drain from Wright's face as he listened to the news report.
"I told you that you would never get away with it. They know, now what are you going to do?" came the softly asked question.
"Just shut up and let me think," he said as he paced. "All right, I still have you as a hostage," he said as he bent and untied Blair's legs. "Come on we're taking a little trip to Canada," with that he pulled Blair to his feet.
Blair spun and kicked Wright in the crotch. He managed to get the door open and ran out into the night.
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