The Fingerprint Killer                By Alex Blank              alexb2008@hotmail.com

     I never understood why some serial killers want to get caught, even if it is just subconsciously. They leave clues and patterns like some deranged riddler from a comic book. I get that they think they are accomplishing something, that their work is art to share with the world, and that they must be brilliant to stay several steps in front of the cops... I am not one of those. I don’t need the credit or the glory. My satisfaction comes from the kill itself, not having admirers. That’s why I make sure my work doesn’t leave a pattern and the cops never suspect my victims are all taken from the same person. If they don’t have reason to believe a serial killer exists, they won’t be looking for one.

     I am partial to cutting, particularly throats, but I mix it up. Again, this is to make sure the cops never see a pattern, and that way, I can just leave the body at the scene. Sometimes I leave her undamaged except her throat, and sometimes I totally mutilate her. Sometimes I leave her throat untouched, and get creative.

     I have unregistered guns, but have only killed with a gun once before – too much noise, and not nearly as personal or satisfying. But whenever I am far enough away in distance or time from my last throat cutting, that is my preference. I never use the same knife or even type of knife. I keep several different blade sized hunting knives, or steak knives or butcher knives with me so that the wounds don’t give me away either. The details are the difference between freedom and lethal injection.

     Hookers and call girls are easy prey, but I always vary locations where I find them. And just because a girl takes money for sex does not mean the cops know this is her profession.

     I don’t return to the scene of the crime and ask questions or pretend to try to help the police. Best case is you get a little info about a crime you already know everything about. Maybe you feel superior to the bumbling idiots while you boldly stand in front of them, hiding in plain sight, as they are searching for you. But worst case is they notice your interest and take a close look at you. I don’t need that.

     More common sense stuff: I don’t park illegally when I am about to kill – how retarded is that. I don’t buy gas or anything close to the crime scene with a credit card. This in itself may not be incriminating, but why place myself in the area? I don’t leave calling cards like a rose or a puzzle piece stuffed in a victim’s ass. And I don’t take NOTICABLE trophies, like jewelry or ….teeth.

     But I do like a souvenir. I take fingerprints. In the old days, I would just use any plain white paper, but several years ago, I found the actual paper that cops use, with a section for each specific finger lined out. And I keep an instant camera for ‘before death’ and ‘after death’ pictures. The fingerprints are somewhat of a compulsion that feels like building a collection which is satisfying in itself. But the pictures bring back specific memories and are sexually gratifying to me. I have no reservations about keeping these items. At the crime scene, nothing appears to have been taken, so each murder still seems unrelated. And as long as I avoid suspicion, there is no reason the cops will even want to search my house to find this collection.

     I know I will never get caught, but one day, after I have died of old age, someone will be cleaning out my place and find these fingerprints and the pictures, and the world will know of my hobby. And I expect my name will live on long after I am gone. That is a satisfying feeling, but I still have no desire to be famous while alive. I do not like the prospect of prison.

     My name is Axel Simmons. I am a locksmith - a skill that comes in very handy…

Several months in the future:

     Axel has a knife through his right temple and it is penetrating several inches into his brain. A woman he thought was dead has just stabbed him. He collapses onto the bathroom floor and has a seizure, but he does not die. As he recovers from the seizure, she is gone, and Axel is relieved to discover that he still has a penis…

Present day:

     Axel lives in Los Angeles, but this evening he has taken a road trip to Tijuana. As he expected, he has been able to procure a motel room and with a little extra cash, no ID required. It is a small dirty room with one bed, a chair and desk and a small bathroom. But the only concern Axel has is that he can virtually hear his neighbors breathing in the room next door. He knows he will have to be near silent tonight. He is far enough from home that he knows a connection to his previous victims and his next victims won’t be linked to tonight’s festivities. He opens his travel bag and stashes a dagger between the box spring and the mattress to the right side of the bed. The dagger is long and skinny. The blade is about 6 inches long, has blades on both sides and comes to a very sharp point at the tip. Axel goes looking for that special someone.

     Axel does not have to walk very long before a local man is telling him the finest women in all of Mexico are just inside this door. It is a seedy strip club, and as good of a prospect as anywhere, so the $5.00 cover seems like a bargain. Upon entering however, it is not a pretty sight … this is NOT Mexico’s finest women. The woman currently on stage is at least 50 years old, and though she does have very large tits, they are swinging at about her belly button. Another of these ‘strippers’ carrying a drink tray between sets is at least 40 pounds over-weight, and though they are healed, she has more knife wounds on her body than Axel’s last 2 victims combined. He starts to head back out and a moderately more attractive woman approaches with what must be her pimp. “Do you want to have sex with my seeester for $40.00?” he asks. But before Axel can answer, she flashes a smile. Her teeth, all 5 of them, were a shade between yellow and green and black. And he could smell her breath as she smiled which was a cross between a tequila worm left rotting in the sun for a day, and water used in a bong for a week after it was used to boil hot dogs for a month. This was completely unacceptable. So, it’s back onto the street to look for someone pleasant enough to kill.

     He asks the man who flagged him into the joint if he knows where he can really find some grade-A women and hands him a twenty. He tells Axel, “If you got a couple hundred dollars, go to the club on the next block and tell the bouncer at the door that Jose told you to ask for Pedro… But if you want a really unforgettable evening, I can get you into the donkey show at my cousin’s farm.”

     Axel heads to the club to see Pedro. Half way there, two rather hot American party girls, one blonde and one brunette, stop Axel almost like one or the other might want to hookup. “Hey cutie, wanna party with us?” holding her beer wildly in the air. These girls were very young and very pretty to be approaching Axel, and Axel was flattered for a moment. His game plan was for Mexican this evening, but spontaneity could also be part of the thrill. Then, a second later, the blonde hurled. Axel had to jump back to avoid the hurl, but some still got on his left shoe. Though he felt like killing her just for this, his prey must be conscious and lucid. Killing a sedated girl to Axel would be like fucking a dead girl for a normal guy.

     At the club, Axel approaches the bouncer, “Jose sent me, I’m looking for Pedro.” Axel is sent into the club where the music is blaring. It’s the kind of dance music that is thumping and mind numbing. He proceeds through a narrow hallway and into a large room that only muffled traces of the thumping can get to. A fat Mexican man is sitting at a desk with two, what must be, bodyguards behind him. There are about 10 women scattered about the rest of the room behind them. Most are average looking, but a couple look really sexy.

    Pedro says, “You pay $200.00 and you get your pick. You get one of the rooms above for 30 minutes. If you want multiple girls, we can talk. You get disrespectful with the girls or you fuck with me, and we’ll teabag you with your own balls!” Axel replies, “How much to take that one out of this shithole and keep her til morning?” He points to a stunning young Mexican woman who looks like she is about 20. There are young girls there, probably as young as 14, but Axel is not a pedophile. Maria is tall, about 5’9’’. She has long dark hair, relatively dark complexion and has a woman’s body, nice and curvy; she is no waif, but she is not overweight.

     Pedro summons, “Maria, get over here … you wanna go off site, overnight for this one?” She answers, “Sure, why not?” Pedro offers “Give me $700.00 now and pay Maria $300.00 in the morning.”

     Axel pays the $700.00, but realizes he made a mistake going direct to the pimp. Usually he can offer a prostitute any amount of money and never actually have to pay it. Or he can re-claim it after her untimely passing.

     They go back to his hotel. It is getting late, about 1:00 am. There is no noise coming from the neighbors rooms, so they are either asleep or out. Axel offers Maria a drink as he pulls out a bottle of tequilla he has in his bag. They both take a swig from the bottle. Axel then pulls out his camera, “You are so beautiful, can I take your picture to remember you by?” She smiles as he pulls the trigger. The picture slides out.

     Axel takes off his shirt and lies on the bed with his back up against the wall. Maria takes off her clothes and then approaches Axel on the bed so that she is lying face down on the bed between Axel’s legs. She undoes his belt and pants, and she goes down on him. She looks up to his face looking for approval as she performs. Axel says, “You’re doing good… don’t look up at me.”

     Axel’s left hand is dangling over the edge of the bed, not far from his dagger. He is considering reaching for it and driving the blade through the back of her neck as she is blowing him. Since she is not looking at his face, he is free to just stare at the back of her neck. He brushes her hair to the sides. This exposed target has him aroused much more than the superlative blowjob he is receiving. All of a sudden he feels off balance and dizzy. It only lasts a few seconds. This has never happened to him before. Maria does not notice anything wrong. His movement was not inconsistent with someone getting a blowjob. Axel shakes it off and is right back in the moment staring at her sexy vulnerable neck. He can feel that he is about to cum and whispers, “Don’t look up … swallow it and I will pay you double.” She speeds up a little and never looks up.

     In one fast motion, Axel grabs the dagger, pulls his dick from her throat to a shallower depth in her mouth, and thrusts the dagger, point first through the nape of her neck. It sinks all the way through her neck and pokes through the front of her throat, and the tip rips into the bed covers. It was quite an adrenaline rush to get the blade to penetrate so far. Axel does not know exactly how deep in her throat his dick was based on the back of her neck, but he had a sudden sense of relief that he thought to not skewer his penis deep in her throat with his own weapon. That would be one for the world’s stupidest criminals stories for sure.

     Now, for a moment, everything is still and quiet and a feeling of tranquility and peace overcomes Axel. He takes a deep breathe and soaks up the moment. He gets up, fixes his pants and belt, and grabs his camera. Maria is face down in the middle of the bed, motionless … dead. The dagger sticking out of the back of her neck is nice, but Axel wants to see her face and the tip of the blade protruding from the front for his picture. He pulls a chair over and moves her onto it. FLASH. ‘That’s a good one.’

     Axel pulls her, in the chair, across the room to the small desk. He gets out his fingerprint paper that has a space sectioned off for all ten fingers. He grabs her limp right hand and moves her right thumb onto her bloody neck wound. And then directs the thumb to the paper marked right thumb and presses down. He slowly and methodically does this for all ten fingers. Then he takes her to the bathroom sink and washes the blood from her fingertips.

     The last thing to worry about is the DNA he left in her mouth. Axel is not worried that it will lead the cops to him. They do not have a sample from him to compare against. But if he leaves his DNA on more than one victim, they will know there is a serial killer. For tonight’s cover-up, he goes into his bag and pulls out… a blowtorch. He removes the dagger from her neck. It does not come out easily. He has to lay her on the ground face down and hold his foot against the back of her head to pull it out without pulling her whole body up. He rolls her over again, so she is face up, and starts the torch. He proceeds to completely burn the inside of her mouth and deep down the inside of her throat. He had told her to swallow, but he was in her mouth when he came, and she was in no condition to swallow after that. He is sure all the semen is burned off.

     Axel puts Maria back on the bed, washes his fingerprints off the dagger and leaves it next to her. He takes a quick shower to get all the blood off himself and changes clothes.

Axel always keeps an inventory in his head of anything he touches with a hard surface. He wipes down everywhere his fingerprints could be. He puts on latex gloves and opens Maria’s purse - damn, no cash! This hobby usually makes Axel a few bucks; tonight has been a financially bust. He knows he can make up for this next time. He carefully packs up his things and it is time to head home.

     He stops at a bonfire pit on the beach before leaving Tijuana. It is the middle of the night, so nobody is around. He casually starts a fire and dumps his bloody clothes and used latex gloves in it. Confident that he destroyed all links back to him or a likely serial killer based in Los Angeles, he drives across the border and back home. No reason for anyone to believe this was anything but an isolated incident. Any investigation will only lead to people she knows. I would guess the most likely suspect is Pedro, her fat pimp - probably sending a violent message to his other girls not to take side jobs without cutting him in.

     When he arrives home, Axel is exhausted. But he is compelled to take care of his filing. He staples the two pictures of Maria to the page of her red fingerprints. He spaces them out so that neither are obstructed by the other on the page. He lifts up a floorboard in his bedroom and removes a binder full of pages. He opens the binder and adds Maria to the back. He flips through the pages. There must be well over 100 pages in there! Axel stops at the first page and remembers his first … Vicky.

     Before Vicky, Axel was a fairly normal person… or at least not so abnormal. He was not physically or sexually abused as a child. He had a relatively normal family. He was able to interact with his environment like any other human: did well in school, had a few friends and girlfriends, didn’t drink or do drugs too often, didn’t overuse pornography.

     Maybe most serial killers are normal, intelligent people, like Axel. (That is, normal except for the desire to kill people). The typical serial killer profile is based on the ones that got caught. But those psychopaths want to get caught, even if only subconsciously. Most murders are never solved. What if all those murders can be attributed to serial killers who don’t fit the serial killer profile? These guys (or gals) don’t get caught, so they don’t get analyzed and profiled. If they have evolved enough to be intentionally random, they have a decisive advantage over anyone trying to stop them. It is human nature to hide what you don’t want others to see. Is it harder to imagine a person who kills and covers it up than a person who kills and leaves a pattern for others to find?

     Back to the binder: Vicky is his only victim that Axel does not have polaroids or fingerprints of. She was almost and accident. In his binder, for her page is a drivers license and a newspaper article which has a small black and white photo of her. It is dated about 10 years ago and is from Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is not an article about a murder; it is a missing persons story.

     Axel was having a bad day. He had been seeing a girl a couple weeks. He lived in Philadelphia and she lived in Atlantic City, about an hour away. He drove over to pay her a surprise visit. When he got there, she was with another guy. This pissed Axel off, but he was not so invested in the relationship to stick around, so he just took off. He needed a drink and stopped in a casino bar.

     Axel was upset and had lots of pent up aggression. After he downed a couple shots of whiskey alone at a back table, Vicky approached him; he did not know she was a hooker. She was stunning, much hotter than the tramp he drove all this way for. She was a redhead. Axel usually was not partial to redheads. He preferred brunettes, and blondes were next, but it was a dark shade of red that worked on her. Her complexion was light-skinned, like most redheads, but not freckled at all. She had a tight dress on and she had a gorgeous body, probably a full C-cup size breasts and long legs.

     They talked for at least an hour. In this short period of time, he felt some type of connection with her. Both were buzzed and the conversation quickly became about sex (she steered it that way to gain a customer, but Axel did not get it). Vicky confided things she liked, and she liked it rough: spanking, hair pulling, choking. She invited him back to her motel room a short walk away. Once there, she made it clear that she was a prostitute. Axel and his ego were devastated, but he was at the point of no return so he agreed to pay her.

     The sex was passionate …and rough. Axel was on top of her and she was facing him. This was Axel’s first prostitute, but it was more intimate than he previously conceived it would be with somebody he was paying for sex. He frequented many prostitutes after this, but none rivaled this experience.

     Vicky was building up to an orgasm and demanded, “I’m gonna cum. Grab my throat!” She moved his hand to her neck. This excited Axel and he squeezed. Vicky was having the biggest orgasm Axel ever witnessed.

     But she had been cumming for what felt like a full minute. The combination of her orgasming and his squeezing her throat turned Axel on so much, he was about to cum too.

     He remembers vividly her pulling at his hand and her face turning red. But Axel kept squeezing harder and harder … he needed just a few more seconds. He was completely lost in the moment. And it kept building and building until she was no longer struggling, and then he exploded inside her. He did not let up on her throat for another minute later, just laying there on top of her.

     No doubt at all that she was dead now.

     Axel had to think fast. He did not plan this. He did not know what to do, but he knew he was in trouble if he did not figure it out. Still he did not panic. First and foremost, he had used a condom, so he carefully flushed it down the toilet and flushed it two more times to make sure it was gone. His saliva was on Vicky, and possibly a stray pubic hair, so he put her in the tub and washed her. He looked around the room and thought about what else could possibly lead someone to him. There would be his fingerprints, but it was a motel room, there would be lots of fingerprints around from any period of time. But he looked around the room for anything he might have touched and wiped them clean with bath towels.

     Axel thinks… how do I get rid of the body? Then he realizes… nobody knows I was here. He did not have anything to do with checking into the motel, so maybe he could just leave Vicky here and walk back to his car in the casino parking lot. Could it really be that easy?

     Out of curiosity, Axel wraps his fingers with toilet paper and goes through Vicky’s purse. He finds a little over $1500.00. He wonders how many other guys she has worked for today. Axel takes the money - she’s not gonna need it. He finds her drivers license: Miriam Jones …with black hair - technically, still not partial to redheads then. ‘I thought those jet black pubes on a redhead didn’t look quite right.’ Axel takes the drivers license, but he’s not sure why. (There are other items left in her purse that identify her by name).

     Axel watches the news and checks the newspaper every day, but there is never a report about her. He goes to a payphone and calls the police station to check on Miriam Jones, but there is never a report. After a month goes by, he catches a small newspaper story that describes Miriam Jones as a missing person. How could nobody discover the body after a month? A maid would have had to check that room within a day or two, right?

     Axel is never sure what eventually happened to Vicky’s body (he prefers to call her Vicky). His best guess is that she was affiliated with the mob - it WAS Atlantic City, and she WAS a hooker. If they set her up in that room and later found her there, they sure as hell would not want the cops involved. They could have dropped her in the ocean and nobody ever found her. That was Axel’s best guess at least.

Back in the present day Los Angeles:

     Axel puts the binder back under the floorboard and goes to sleep.

     The next several days are uneventful. Axel goes to work at a locksmith shop, does his job well. He has been there two years and is well liked by co-workers and customers. Axel for the most part could be described as quiet, a loner. When your whole life is a secret, there is not much to talk about. Most importantly, Axel does not have a creepy vibe to him that would scare people off, he genuinely seems trustworthy. He is a decent looking guy, 37 years old, tall, keeps fit, but he’s not overly good looking. He blends in.

     As far as anyone here knows, he lived in Philadelphia all his life and moved to LA two years ago when he started working there. But Axel has been a rolling stone, moving every few months to a year for the past 10 years. Can’t get too comfortable in one place when murders have to be spread out geographically.

     That dizzy feeling that happened in Mexico has happened a few more times. It is accompanied by a whispering type of sound resembling a woman’s voice, but he can’t make out anything as words that she is saying. The episodes only last a few seconds at a time.

     Axel normally spaces out his hunts to no more than once a month or so, but it has been a week since Mexico, and he is having strong cravings. He decides to browse the internet. There are several sites he knows of where call girls essentially post classified ads with pictures: the internet age, shopping for call girls has never been more convenient. He contacts Jessica by instant message and arranges to call her. The deal is struck: $500.00 for the evening’s festivities. Axel tells her to pick a hotel and check in the room. He will meet her there and pay her back for the room. Axel claims that he is married and can not have a hotel room show up on his credit card bill. The second half of that statement is very true. She has no problem with this and says to meet her at the hotel at 8:00pm.

     Axel has lots of time before he has to leave. He prepares his travel bag. First he puts on latex gloves to not get fingerprints on anything he is packing. He has never touched his fingerprint paper without gloves on, and every weapon he has is wiped clean if they ever touch his bare fingers. Axel is meticulous.

     He adds to the bag: fingerprint paper, Polaroid camera, four different sized knives, a surgical scalpel, duct tape, four pairs of handcuffs, three different kinds of rope, blindfold, four pairs of latex gloves, blowtorch, needle nose pliers, two large plastic garbage bags, acid (the type to burn through flesh), two shirts, two pairs of jeans, one pair of shoes, rags, and  a disposable phone with prepaid minutes, not registered or traceable (Axel keeps several of these and throws them out as necessary).

     He also keeps a large trunk and a large duffle bag in the trunk of his car in case a plan goes awry and he has to move a body. Everything has a purpose, but only a few items get used in an evening.

     When it is time to leave, Axel is calm yet excited. This is what he lives for. But as he is walking to his car with his bag, he gets another one of his dizzy spells that brings him to the ground this time. He hears the distorted female voice, and it sounds like she is laughing.

     Axel looks around, composes himself and gets in his car. He starts driving and gets a call from Jessica, she has arrived and is in room 204. He drives past the hotel a few blocks and looks for a place to park on the street. He does not want to have his car seen too close to the crime scene, and he does not want to park in a parking lot of a retail establishment that might have a camera on their parking lot. He takes the stairs, not the elevator; and he wears a baseball had and mostly faces his head downward so any camera should not get a good look of his face.

     Axel knocks, she answers the door … she is NOT quite what her pictures look like on the web. She is about 10 - 20 pounds heavier and looks about 10 years older. Market rate for this bitch should be about $200.00 at best. But Axel is not paying anyway, so what the hell. And he can cut off the extra weight if it really bothers him. She looks like a tweeker … how do you get an overweight tweeker? And one that knows how to use Photoshop so well?

     She greets him with, “Hi Hugh, come on in … do you have the money, the room was $120.00.”  By the way Axel uses the alias Hugh Johnson for these encounters. It’s clever, no?

     Axel sets down his bag inside and peels off $620.00 for Jessica. She has just lit a cigarette and she holds it between her lips as she counts the cash. Axel quips, “You shouldn’t smoke. Those things’ll kill ya.”

     Immediately he is hearing another female voice in the room, but he can’t understand anything she is saying. “Jessica, you’re alone here, right?”

     She answers, “Yes, it’s just us. You ready to party baby?” she starts disrobing. Axel starts coming around - she doesn’t look all THAT bad; He was expecting a 9 …she’s a do-able 7.

     He decides to play with his toy before breaking it. He puts on a condom and fucks her in several positions. She has a good work ethic if nothing else. It’s been about an hour of nonstop sex and Axel can tell she wants him to cum REALLY bad already. She gets on top and really works it … with her hips and with her (very fake) moaning. They are both sweating quite a bit. Axel enjoys it, but she can’t make him cum, not just from sex. But she is going at it full speed ahead. Then Axel sees something out of the corner of his eye in the bathroom. He did not get a good look, but it looked like a dark-haired woman.

     He pushes Jessica off him and dashes toward the bathroom. “What the fuck, I thought you said we were alone!” …But nobody is in the bathroom.

     Jessica is confused, sitting up naked on the bed, “What are you talking about, nobody IS here. Stop tripping and fuck me.”

     Axel hears a female voice, it is faint, but he hears, “What are the handcuffs for?” This freezes him up. He is realizing that Jessica is not seeing or hearing what he is. Then another dizzy spell that drops Axel to the ground.

     Jessica is now scared of him, but not scared the way he wants, she just thinks he is a wierdo. Jessica stands and starts putting her panties on, she has had enough. Axel, still on his hands and knees from the dizzy spell offers, “Wait… I’ll give you another $1000.00 to let me handcuff you to the bed.”

     Now Jessica is frozen for a moment, panties half way up her legs, “Are you ok, are you even able to have sex now?” she says looking at him (and his limp penis) on the ground.

     “Yes, you put on the handcuffs and this thing will spring right back up, I promise.” He stands up and goes to his bag.

     She takes her panties back off and says, “Let’s see the money first, and I’m gonna need something from my bag too.”

     Axel counts off the money and she goes to her bag, for some lube.

     Axel pulls out two pairs of the handcuffs and cuffs each of her wrists to the bedpost. She is face up with her arms spread almost fully extended to each side of the king size bed. He sees that flash of a dark-haired woman in the corner of his eye, but just as he turns, she is gone again. Axel is unfazed this time and goes back to his bag, this time getting out the duct tape. Jessica looks concerned, “What are you gonna do with that?” Axel coolly replies, “Do you trust me?” and grins. “Well, sure, but you should be fucking me right now not …” Axel rips a piece of duct tape off and covers her mouth. He looks down, “See, I told you it would spring right back up.” He adjusts the condom back in place.

     Axel can not see or hear the mysterious dark-haired female, but he can somehow feel her presence. He feels like he has an audience … and he likes it. It motivates him. But this fact does not fare well for Jessica.

     He pulls out the two remaining pairs of handcuffs. Jessica is kicking and muffled pissed-off yells are coming from behind the duct tape. Axel cuffs her right ankle and then attaches the other end to the bedrail, and then her left ankle. She is restrained by all four limbs to the bed, completely helpless.

     Axel removes the camera from his bag and FLASH, he has a great shot. Next, Axel chooses a paring knife from the selection in his bag. He climbs on top of her, grabs her lube bottle and applies a handful to her pussy. Then her penetrates her with his dick and puts his bodyweight completely on top of her so that she can not move. He looks her right in the eyes. He can taste her fear, and he can’t get enough. He smiles and she head-butts him, ruining the mood for the moment.

     Axel laughs a little, still on lying flat on top of her and inside her. He takes the paring knife in his right hand and jabs it all the way into her left outer thigh while keeping eye contact. It is about a 2 ½ inch blade and Jessica screams in pain but very little sound escapes the duct tape. Then Axel gives the knife a little twist and jets his cock in and out of her a few times.

     That’s enough of the romantic stuff. Axel lifts his upper body and holds himself up with his extended left arm, leaving his right arm free. He pulls the knife out of Jessica’s thigh, leaving his penis in her, and makes a sideways puncture into her left breast. It goes through the outer side traveling to the center of her tit, but the knife is not long enough to come through the other side. He removes the knife to gaze at the wound. Now there is blood covering a large portion of that side of the bed where his right hand is free. He lays the knife on the center of her chest and rubs his fingers on her breast wound, wiping up some blood and he smears it on her face and across the duct tape over her mouth. In her eyes is pain and fear and desperation, and tears are flowing. She knows she is going to die.

     Axel picks the knife back up from her chest and looks at her inviting arms spread wide apart. He jabs the knife into her left wrist about an inch deep and rips the blade all of the way down her arm to her armpit. This causes a LOT more bleeding. They are both getting soaked in it – it is glorious to Axel. Jessica is clearly in shock, she is not struggling as much as before. So Axel knows this is as good as it is going to get.

     With blood everywhere already, he thrusts his cock faster and faster into her, stabbing her in the belly every few seconds; he vowed to himself to save the throat kill for another day. She has about 8 punctures to the midsection now, but none are more than an inch or two deep, so she is not quite dying yet. But Axel feels the need to climax. So he plunges the knife one last time as deep as the blade will go into her stomach and pinches her nose. She was already breathing very heavy to stay alive while bleeding out, so it was not more than a few seconds before this snuffed the last trace of life from Jessica’s body.

     Axel mires at the red designs he painted over this hotel room canvas and pulls his cock out of lifeless Jessica.

     He flushes the condom … three times.

     Axel’s after-kill procedures and cleanup have become routine for him after so many years. It is not a chore, but it is careful and methodical. Axel takes his ‘after’ picture. He then unlocks all of the handcuffs and gets Jessica’s bloody fingerprints onto his special paper, one by one. Then he washes the blood off her fingertips. (If the cops see a string of victims with bloody fingertips, that could be a pattern alerting them to a serial killer). He does not have to worry about leaving traces of his pubic hair any more because years ago he began shaving completely down there to avoid this problem. Take a thorough shower, put on clean clothes. Wipe fingerprints from everything: from the knife to the lube to the handcuffs. Leave the knife behind but pack up everything else. Anything that touched her blood will be burned when he gets home.

     And of course, Axel takes his money back. First put on latex gloves to open her purse. Remove the $1620.00 of his money on top that he gave her. What else do we have here … white powder, she IS a tweeker. (drops it to the ground). OK, open wallet … credit card, credit card, credit card, library card(?), cash - two dollars, Fuck! I was supposed to make up for my losses in Mexico (pockets the $2.00). Looks at her ID: surprising, her name really was Jessica. Appointment card for her gynecologist … prenatal vitamins … holly shit, Jessica must have been pregnant! That explains the extra weight. A 2’fer killing … I probably did the world a favor tonight. With a tweeker prostitute for a mom, that kid would have had the upbringing of a serial killer!

     All packed up, baseball hat back on, time to go. Axel takes a look back towards Jessica and on the wall above the bed he sees ‘THANK YOU’ written in blood. In a moment, it fades away. He stops for a moment, confused. As he opens the door to leave, he hears a female whisper say, “I’m getting stronger.”

     Axel begins to question his own sanity, but it all seemed so real.

     Axel knows the smart thing to do is take some time off from killing for a while until he can get his head together. The next few days are pretty routine. Work is normal. But he still gets the dizzy spells and now they sometimes come with a sharp pain in his head. But they still only last a few seconds and then they are completely gone.

     Saturday comes a few days later, and these urges that Axel used to keep in check for months at a time if necessary are too strong to resist. He packs his bag and drives into Hollywood… the Sunset Strip.

     He spots a corner with two working girls and pulls up for a closer look. Both come over to his passenger window to chat. One is an attractive black girl and she is closer to the window. She reaches in to rub his shoulder. Axel has not killed a black girl in LA yet and considers her for a moment, just to add to his randomness. But he does not feel an attraction to her, too aggressive or something.

     The other hooker upon closer examination… looks like a dude? Axel looks in her direction and floats, “What’s up?” She replies in a deep, husky, throaty voice, “Hi Sugar, I’m Amanda. Wanna take a walk on the wild side?”

     Definitely a transsexual! Great name – Amanda… I’m  A Man… Duh.

     Though this definitely would have added to his randomness, Axel decides to pass and move on.

     A few blocks down he sees a blonde who is smoking a cigarette. She is wearing the tightest, trashiest, most revealing dress he has seen yet tonight with giant (fake) boobs just about falling out. She has the full hooker make-up on and cliché ridiculously high heels, but she still looks sexy. He pulls up next to where she is standing. Before he can speak, a BIG guy Axel did not see, who was behind her in the shadow steps up, “What the fuck are you looking at?!!!” Must not have been a hooker?

     Axel circles back to try the other side of the street. A little further up, he sees a woman on the sidewalk in front of a motel parking lot. She looks classier than the blonde from a moment ago, but he is still pretty sure she is waiting for a trick to come along. As he gets closer, he knows she is the one he wants. She resembles Vicky from Atlantic City, just a little. No doubt it was not Vicky, but they could have been sisters. She has red hair, redder than Vicky’s hair was, a similar complexion, and similar facial features. Still, Vicky was prettier in his memory.

     He pulls up and decides to lay more down on the table. “Hi darling.” She walks over to his passenger window, “Looking for some company?”

     Axel says, “I’m looking for more than company. Why don’t you get in and talk to me?”

     She says, “I’m Trixie. Turn off the engine so we can talk.” Axel turns off the engine and she opens the car door, sits down, but leaves the door all of the way open (for her safety presumably).

Trixie: “What did you have in mind? I’m an open-minded kinda girl.”

Axel: “I like that. I have a large budget for this evening, but I need to know you are willing to do what I need.”

Trixie: “I think I’m up for it. TRY to surprise me” in a challenging tone.

Axel: “I’ll start the bidding at $2000.00 if you’re prepared to be tied up, smacked around, and your ass is not off limits.”

 Trixie: “Let me see the cash.”

Axel opens his wallet…

     Just then three male cops come rushing over to the car. BUSTED! She is a cop, and Axel got stung. She was wearing a wire. They cuff Axel, read him his rights, and sit him on the curb. Trixie pulls her cop car from behind the motel over to the scene. She locks Axel in the back seat. Now that things are under control, two of the male cops walk behind the motel, get in their car and drive away. Officer Craig Carter and Officer Megan White aka Trixie do a routine search on Axel’s car. They find his bag in the trunk. Axel is sitting, watching this from the back of the cop car. He can see and hear everything they are doing. He is panicked about what will happen to him once they see the knives and ropes and handcuffs and blowtorch and pliers and latex gloves... There is nothing he can think of to explain why he has these things in his trunk.

     He decides that there is nothing there that directly links him to a crime. His planning was meticulous, no need to panic now. It looks incriminating as hell. They could say that he was about to do something awful. But American justice does not work like that: best to be quiet and ride it out.

     He watches as Craig opens the bag and first realizes the type of materials in there. He can hear everything they are saying. Megan is taking notes. Craig prepares to remove items and call the words for Megan to write. He lifts out… “fingerprint paper…” “surgical scalpel…” “1, 2, 3 …4 pairs of handcuffs …” “large hunting knife…” Craig pauses and displays the knife to Megan, “This is a fuckin’ serious knife.”

     It is an expensive fancy piece from a cutlery shop. It looks like something out of the medieval age: very long blade with crescent cutouts to create extra point along the edge and a contoured handle with cutouts to custom fit each finger. It is very sharp and has an intimidating look.

     Megan stops him, “Craig, this is serious, not a routine stop anymore. This guy could have killed somebody. I think we need to bag this stuff.”

     Axel has watched and heard all of this!

     Craig agrees with Megan, so he gets evidence bags out of his trunk and puts on his own latex gloves. They proceed to log in all of the items in Axel’s bag.

     As this goes on, both cops continually glare over at Axel in judgement over what they are finding. Craig gets into the drivers seat of their car and Megan gets in the front passenger seat. Craig calls dispatch for a tow of Axel’s car. He tells them not to take it to the usual impound lot: take it to forensics for a thorough inspection. The bag of weapons gives them probable cause to do this. They begin to work on Axel as they drive to the police station:

Craig: “Why do you have those weapons in your car Axel? What did you have planned for Trixie here?”

Axel says nothing.

Craig: “We already have you taped, and you’re gonna spend the night in jail as a John. We’re gonna go through every inch of your vehicle and they are going to examine every item in your bag. If there’s ANYTHING there, the slightest trace of blood, anything at all, we got you.”

Megan: “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Is there any reasonable explanation you care to offer.”

Axel stays silent.

     They get to the police station, Axel is booked. He considers the fingerprinting to be slightly ironic and can’t help but smile while they do it; they are using the exact same paper Axel uses. This is the first time he has been arrested for anything, so this is his first time being fingerprinted.  He can only be charged with patronizing a prostitute, so that is the pretext to keep him in jail for now. If not for the suspicious bag, he would pay a fine and already be home. But this charge is a misdemeanor so the cops know the clock is ticking. They have three days and then they have to let him go.

     Over the next three days the police search Axel’s car and find nothing. Police forensics thoroughly examine the items in Axel’s bag and find no blood or anything that implicates him in a crime. They have interrogated him for hours at a time, but they can’t break him. Still, Axel’s smug demeanor only reinforces Craig and Megan’s intuition that he is guilty of something heinous.

     They have to let Axel go in just a few hours. Craig and Megan go to their captain and look for ways they can investigate Axel. They really want to search Axel’s house. But the captain tells them that no judge will give a search warrant based on what they have. They don’t have an actual crime or victim, just the tools to commit a crime. If there is not evidence that he had DONE something, he can’t be held.

     Megan is upset and frustrated, but Craig is taking this personally. He knows in his gut Axel either has murdered someone or is going to, and POSSIBLY more than one person. Craig is disgusted that he can’t do anything about it. The system sucks!

     Axel is released. Axel is given his personal items back. Axel is given his car back.

     He puts the items, each one still in their clear plastic baggy, back into his original bag, places it all in his trunk and drives away. Craig watches him drive off, still fixated on getting him.

     The next day Axel goes into the Locksmith shop. He has missed three days of work without calling in. He explains that his grandfather in Philadelphia passed away and he had to go for the funeral. Sorry, he forgot to call in… No repercussions there.

     As he is working, he notices Craig and Megan looking in the shop. When he had to go out on a call to replace locks in a house, Craig and Megan parked by the house and watched him for a while. When he went home, they were waiting in their car in front of his house. This continued for a couple days. The message was very clear, they were watching him. Axel even noticed Craig watching him out of uniform on what must have been his off hours. And random other patrol cars seemed to be slowing around his house and his work fairly often. It might be time to relocate to another state.

     The next weekend comes and Axel knows he has to get away, even if just for a couple days for now… Las Vegas.

     Vegas is about a four hour drive across empty desert, far enough away that there will not be any cops hassling him there. He packs clothes and a new bag of killing supplies, leaving the old bag in his closet. For some reason, he doesn’t want to use those, like they were somehow tainted by the cops. But he does not want to throw them out either. Just an instinct.

     Before he drives into the city of Las Vegas he stops for gas (pays cash of course). He finds a car with Nevada plates that is parked out of anyone’s vision. He casually kneels down and unscrews the license plates and takes them. Once back on the highway, he drives a few miles, pulls over and replaces his plates with the new ones and puts his plates in his trunk. Just a precaution, lots of cameras in Vegas.

     Axel has no interest in gambling. He finds the smallest, seediest motel on the outskirts of town, far from the strip. He partly disguises himself with a fake beard and mustache, a long blonde wig and a cowboy hat, and he uses a fake Texan accent. Just enough misdirection that a guy at the desk should not remember his face if he sees him again. He checks in with a large cash bribe under his alias, Hugh Johnson.

     Axel has been to Vegas before and knows exactly how to start his hunt. There are newspaper stands with newspapers that have nothing but sex ads: lots of call girls to choose from, very convenient and discreet. He picks up a paper and makes a call to an S & M girl named Mistress Kendra. It says she’s been a bad girl and can give or receive. Axel knows she’ll be receiving today.

     Axel calls and asks if the picture in the paper is a good representation of her (he did not want a repeat of the last chick from the internet). She said it was a recent picture; she is tall, athletic and toned, medium tits. She asks if he wants her to dominate or be dominated. Axel says he wants her to be the submissive. The price is agreed at $2000.00 and she will bring plenty of extras to play with.

     Axel prepares for Mistress Kendra’s arrival. He closes the drapes tightly and opens his bag to consider his choices. He has not slit a throat in a while. He deserves a treat after all he has been through, and he is especially far from home. He hears that now familiar female voice, “Use the big knife.” He looks around the small motel room and bathroom. He opens the door to look around outside. As he expects, nobody is there. He hears, “I’ve been watching you.” For the first time, he acknowledges the voice and talks back into the air, “Who is that? …What do you want?”  He hears her whisper, “Axel” directly behind him. He turns and sees her for an instant and then her image fades away. But he saw her … it looked like a dark-haired woman. Could it be a ghost? “Are you a ghost?” No answer.

     Then Axel sees the large hunting knife levitate from his bag and tuck itself between the mattress and boxspring of the bed. He lifts the mattress to see if it is really there... It is not! He checks his bag and the knife is right where he left it. Still, that knife is a good choice.

     A knock at the door, Mistress Kendra had arrived. Axel opens the door. She is in a long trench coat and has a large bag of her own. Kendra enters and drops the trench coat. Underneath is definitely a mistress’s uniform: long black boots that go halfway up her thigh with thin 5 inch heels, short black leather mini-skirt with metal trimmings, a leather bustier that has holes for her nipples to poke through, a black leather collar with metal rings that looked like a leash could be attached or some other type of restraints, wristbands with metal studs and the same type of metal rings. She has many piercings already visible: lip, nose, navel, and both nipples.  This chick was not fooling around.

     Her first words after dropping the coat and giving Axel a moment to take it all in: “Money please.”

     Axel gives her $2000.00. As she counts it, she sets some ground rules. “I brought some restraints, some whips, a paddle, and a pony kit. That last thing is a butt plug with a pony tail on the end, so once inserted in my ass, or your ass, whatever turns you on, will look like a pony’s tail. We can do whatever you want, but the $2000 only covers the next hour. If you want to talk first, the meter is still running. This is important: If I say the word ‘DRAGON’, you have to stop what you are doing immediately. Dragon is my safe word. You can be plenty rough, but don’t push beyond my comfort level.”

     Axel promises to obey the dragon command and acts like he has never done anything like this before. He looks through her stuff. He is impressed. She has a cool set of restraints he decides to try out. Each restraint is essentially a sturdy metal rod about 3 feet long with leather cuffs at each end. As she stands, Axel fastens both cuffs to Kendra’s hands which forces her hands to remain 3 feet apart from each other separated by the rod. He did not think about taking her top off before attaching the hand restraints, so it will be staying on now. But he now unzips her mini-skirt and pulls it slowly to the ground, and then pulls her sheer black panties slowly to the ground. Hey look…another piercing!

     He takes her other restraint of the same type out of her bag, leads her to sit on the bed, and attaches it to her ankles over the boots. He knows he will have to restrain her further later on, but this is good enough while she is still a willing participant. Her hands have been to her sides with the restraint bar on her lap. Once her ankles are locked in place, she lifts her hands above her head and slides back in the bed, face up. It is an extremely sexy visual: Bottomless, spread eagle with that leather top on that has her nipples poking through, super high boots and rods holding her arms and legs apart.

     Axel asks if he can take her picture. She vehemently refuses, “Absolutely not!”

     “OK,” Axel knows he will get his picture eventually. “I’m going to have to punish you then.”

     He pulls a bullwhip out of Kendra’s bag and takes a crack on her stomach. She gives a little wince and it leaves a red mark. But she seems to be a good sport so far. He swings the whip two more times, harder than before. She gives him a lustful look. Holly shit, this is my type of girl. He pulls out a fringy lighter type of whip called a cat of 9 tales. He takes a few slashes in between her spread legs at her pussy. The first couple swipes land slightly to the right and slightly to the left, but the next couple land right on target and she flinches, but no sign of the word dragon.

     Like a kid in a sadistic candy store Axel takes out her paddle. It is a pretty thick, heavy piece of wood with a heart shape cut through. He turns Kendra over and takes a hard swing at her ass with the paddle. She lets out a quite “ah” in pain. But she seems to like it. There is a bright red mark about 5 inches wide, the width of the paddle, across her ass, with a white heart left in the area of the cutout in the wood. In Axel’s mind: ‘Cool. I’m keeping this thing’. Anyone can beat a chick with a 2 x 4, but the heart shape shows you care.

     He smacks her with the paddle a few more times hard. Her ass is getting bright red, and there is no trace of any white hearts anymore. Still no ‘dragon’. He goes back to the heavier bull whip and cracks it across her reddened ass as hard as he could. That gets a loud, “Ahh, fuck, dragon… dragon!”

     Axel stops as promised and acts concerned’ “Are you ok?”

     “Yes, just no more on my ass today. Are you wanting to fuck, or do you just want to hit me?”

     Axel replies, “I’m ready to fuck… This was some GREAT foreplay, so thank you for that… I want you to stay face down and close your eyes while I get undressed.” Axel does not want her to scream as he goes in his bag for his duct tape. He walks back to her and rips off a piece and covers her mouth before she knows what is happening.

     Axel explains, “OK, say ‘dragon’ if I go too far,” and he punches her in the face. Although her wrists are fixed 3 feet apart, she may be able to stretch her head to one of her hands to remove the tape and Axel knows to prevent this. Also, she can still move around the room, bounce off walls, or break the window if he is not careful. So he grabs the rod that holds her wrists and drags her over to his bag across the room with him. He gets out some rope, drags her back to the bed and ties the metal rods to the top and bottom of the bed. She is face down and properly restrained.

     Axel gets the camera from his bag, kneels by the bed and lifts her left wrist upward so that her face and body turn up toward him. “OK if I take your picture now?” FLASH. Got his ‘before’ picture.

     Axel picks up the large hunting knife and is considering his many options for a moment when he sees the vision of a black-haired woman in the room again out of the corner of his eye. Axel turns toward her. She is smiling; she is clearly not disgusted by what she is seeing. He approaches her, grabs her by the throat and presses her back against the wall. He can feel her so she must be real, “Who are you? How the fuck did you get in here?” 

     Axel holds the knife to her throat. He notices bruising all around her throat. She’s not scared at all, she chuckles a little. This angers Axel more. “Wait, I remember you… Vicky? …Your hair was different… I killed you 10 years ago.”

     She just chuckles some more, and almost as a reflex out of fear and confusion, Axel cuts her throat. She falls to the ground producing a large puddle of blood on the floor, apparently dead? Axel backs away from her and looks back over towards the bed to glance at Kendra: still struggling but fully restrained. He turns back to look at Vicky on the floor, but when he looks back, Vicky is gone somehow. But he sees the puddle of blood she left still there, and it slowly fades and vanishes in front of his eyes. He touches the carpet and it is completely dry. He does not know what just happened, but his adrenaline is really pumping.

     Axel turns his attention back to Kendra. First he wants a little more foreplay. He picks the paddle back up and whacks her ass several times. He can’t see her face, but he can hear her muffled screams and can tell she is crying. This must be painful! He takes his large hunting knife and cuts her top off to expose some virgin pale skin on her back. He bull whips her back at least 20 times …he loses count.

     All this foreplay has Axel fully aroused. He undresses, puts on a condom and fucks Kendra from behind as she lays restrained flat on her stomach. It only takes a minute until he is ready. He grabs a handful of her hair and pulls it back toward him. This lifts her chin up and backward exposing the front of her throat. She is still fully conscious and crying and trying to scream. Axel slowly moves this large, intimidating hunting knife in front of her face so she can gaze upon it and know what is coming. She panics and struggles more, but she can not move much.

     Axel hears the mystery woman’s voice again like a whisper into his right ear, “Please stop teasing… Cut her throat.” Axel checks to the right; nothing is there, so he dismisses it like it never happened.”

     Axel, completely focused on Kendra, moves the knife to her throat and slices deep with a fast hard motion. Blood pours out of her neck onto the wall and pillows and down her neck and chest. Her body goes limp. Axel has climaxed and is just listening for any sound that may come from Kendra as she passes.

     But the sound he hears is coming from behind him - quiet sexy moaning? He turns to look. It is Vicky at the foot of the bed. She is facing him, mostly undressed with nothing but a white blouse that is unbuttoned, and a pair of white silky panties. Her left hand is inside her blouse on her right breast, and her right hand is in her underwear with her fingers circling. Her moans get a little louder.

     Axel can’t believe what he is seeing, but he just watches as she climaxes. Vicky then looks over Kendra’s beaten bloody dead body, makes eye contact with Axel, gives him a wicked grin, and slowly fades away.

     Once again, for lack of any idea how to react to Vicky’s appearance or disappearance, Axel tends to his cleanup. Flush the condom three times, take the after picture, fingerprint Kendra with her own blood and clean her fingers (this time just with wet tissues so he does not have to take the time to get her unrestrained and to the sink), shower, get dressed, wipe down anywhere his fingerprints could be (extra careful now that he is in the system somewhere). Axel puts on his latex gloves and goes to her purse, retrieves his cash and finds an additional $856.00 - A profitable trip. Most people do not leave Vegas with more money than they arrived with. He packs up his things and takes Kendra’s paddle.

     It’s a four hour drive home, which gives Axel time to think. When normally he would be savoring the memories of his kill, he can’t get Vicky off of his mind. About an hour into the drive, Vicky just appears in the back seat and startles Axel by putting her hands over his eyes. Axel drifts left into oncoming traffic, but gets free of Vicky quickly and swerves right back into his own lane just before collision with an oncoming car. Vicky jumps into the front passenger seat.

     There is an awkward silence for about 30 long seconds as Axel looks forward at the road, and glances quickly over at Vicky a couple times, and then right back to staring at the road ahead. Vicky is staring directly at Axel’s face this whole time, patiently waiting for a reaction. She is in a playful mood and knows her silence is making Axel uncomfortable, and he will have to acknowledge her soon as the tension builds. Vicky is gorgeous, just as Axel remembered. Except now she has black hair, like her drivers license, instead of red hair.

     Axel finally speaks:

Axel: “You can’t be real.”

Vicky: “If I wasn’t real, could I do this…”

     She grabs the top of the steering wheel and pulls it slightly towards her. The car swerves onto the shoulder. Axel corrects and gets back into his lane.

Axel: “OK, stop it! You’re real.”

     There is another 20 second silence.

Axel: “Alright if I call you Vicky? I know your real name is Miriam.”

Vicky: “I introduced myself as Vicky, so that would be just fine.”

     Axel looks over at Vicky and again notices her neck is badly bruised. He knows it is his fault from ten years ago.

Axel: “Sorry about those bruises on your neck.” … “And about killing you and all back in Atlantic City.”…”Oh, and also for cutting your throat earlier tonight.”

Vicky: “Your not sorry, you liar.” (she says playfully)

Axel: “Ok… please just explain some things to me … what’s going on?”

Vicky: “What ever do you mean Axel?” she says coyly.

Axel: “Well if I killed you ten years ago, how the fuck are you here? Are you a ghost?”

     Vicky just shrugs, withholding a real answer.

Axel: “Why wait ten years? Why appear and disappear for the last couple weeks?”

Vicky: “Did you ever think that maybe you are appearing and disappearing in my reality? … Just kidding. I don’t exactly know your answers. I just am.  …I am here now… But I have been watching you for a long time.”

Axel: “Are you my conscience, like the little angel on my shoulder?”

Vicky: (laughs) “Please … you have no conscience, and I’m closer to a little devil on your shoulder.”

     Axel’s mind is moving in many directions at once. He can’t get over how sexy she is.

Axel: “I saw you can’t be killed earlier, or at least you won’t stay dead, right? Can you be fucked?”

Vicky: “Axel, if I can’t be killed, do you really even want to fuck me? Think about it.”

     Axel thinks about it.

Axel: “I must be going crazy, I don’t see any other possibility. I don’t believe in ghosts and that other crap.”

Vicky turns on the radio. Billy Joel is singing, “You may be right … I may be crazy … but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for…”

     Axel abruptly turns the station. Ozzy Ozbourne is singing, “I’m going off the rails on a crazy train…”

     Vicky turns the station. Quiet Riot is on, “Ma, Mama, we’re all crazy now... Ma ma ma ma mama we’re all crazy now…”

     Axel turns the radio off and there is silence for a few seconds as he absorbs some of this.

Axel: “So at least tell me, what do you want? Are you here for revenge? I know I deserve it… …Do you have some purpose? …Do you need my help, like to make something right?”

Vicky: “I’m just winging it and looking for some thrills. I think we are going to have some fun Axel. We are a team now, and the world is out plague-ground.”

     Vicky scoots over and puts her head on Axel’s shoulder.

     After driving a little longer, Vicky notices a sign by the side of the road. She has an idea, but does not share it with Axel.

     Later, Vicky asks Axel what he is going to do about the cops that keep hassling him in LA. Axel says he will probably have to move to another part of the county. He explains:

“I got a good two year run out of the LA area; it’s too bad I have to leave. It’s a great place to be a serial killer. With the budget deficit of the city, there are never enough police. And the police they have are busy bleeding the population for more cash with traffic citations. Add to that the enormous amount gang violence on a day to day basis, and the result is that each crime doesn’t get the kind of attention it would other places. A few months back, our locksmith shop was robbed at gunpoint. They didn’t get much, a couple hundred bucks in cash, but when we called 911, it was over five minutes before they even answered the phone. I could get into just about any house and restrain a woman with five full minutes... And then once we had someone on the phone, it took over an hour for a cop to show up at the shop … for an armed robbery! They took a report, but I don’t think they even looked for the robbers at all.”

Back in LA:

     A week passes. Axel goes to work, and gets visits from Vicky throughout his days. He also gets the dizzy spells and sharp pains in his head several times a day. Officer Craig and Officer Megan seem to be checking up on him often. Axel spots them together in uniform, but Craig makes appearances wearing street clothes on his own a lot. Craig is very persistent. Axel knows to lay low and not kill again in LA, but Vicky is pressuring him to find another victim.

     It has been two weeks since Vegas and Vicky convinces Axel to pack a special bag and take a drive. She is excited to be included in the picking of a victim. They leave Axel’s place, no sign of Officer Craig. Good! They head back to the Sunset Strip; after all, Axel did not get a victim that night, Trixie was a cop.

     They spot Amanda working again. Vicky starts to motion to her, but before she can speak, Axel cuts her off, “Absolutely Not!”

     Axel’s first order of business, drive by the motel to see if there is a sting going on. Yep, there’s Trixie (Officer Megan). Drive around back, there’s the cop cars. OK, on to business elsewhere. He drives down the street.

     What Axel and Vicky did not notice was that Officer Craig was in an unmarked car by the motel looking after his partner. When he sees Axel, he tails him.

     Vicky spots a blonde hooker. Turns out, Vicky is partial to blondes. Vicky insists that she is their target. Axel parks the car about a block up from the blonde hooker. He has learned from his last trip to the Sunset Strip... He walks completely around the block on both sides of the street looking for any cops that she may be working with. She appears to be a legitimate hooker. Axel approaches her on foot.

     Officer Craig has watched this whole thing. But there is a twist – Craig knows this prostitute; he knows her well. Her name is Brooke. Craig knows that she keeps an apartment a few blocks away that she uses just for tricks. He goes to that apartment, parks and waits on her doorstep.

     It is not long before Axel and Brooke pull up and walk towards the door. What a surprise for both of them to see Officer Craig sitting there in street clothes. Officer Craig begins, “Listen, Brooke, I know what you are thinking, but you don’t know about this guy, he’s a killer, and if you go in there with him, you…”

     Brook cuts him off mid-sentence, “Craig, you mother-fucker! You shouldn’t be here! I have a restraining order against you! You are to stay 100 yards away! I don’t believe a word you say, you dirty cop fucker!… Stop trying to scare away my friend Axel. Me and him go way back. Just fuckin’ leave … now!”

     Craig is not at all surprised by her reaction and says, “OK, I tried to warn you…” “As for you Axel, I know you are here, I KNOW you will be on your best behavior tonight.”

Craig walks to his car and drives away (9:30pm). He goes home to watch tv alone. He assumes Brooke is safe. Axel did not seem so stupid as to kill a girl when a cop knew they were together - especially a cop that is watching him so closely.

     Brooke’s apartment is just a place she takes her ‘clients.’ She lives elsewhere, so it does not look completely lived in. It is a one bedroom apartment with a small living room, small bathroom and tiny kitchen. The place is mostly empty, except for a bed in the bedroom. But the kitchen is full of stuff to cook with and eat off of, and there are plenty of hard liquor bottles across a shelf. Once inside and in the small living room, Brooke offers a confused looking Axel a drink and an explanation: “That piece of shit cop busted me for prostitution about six months ago. Instead of arresting me, he said I could give him a freebee and he would let me go. So I brought him here and did it. The problem was he thought it was a lifetime pass or something. He would show up every couple days wanting a freebee. After the third time of him bullying me, I got a pen that records audio and kept it on me. The next time he showed up, I recorded everything... I still had to fuck him that day because otherwise he would have taken the pen. But afterwards, I went straight to the police station and filed a report. I got a judge to give me the restraining order, but they didn’t prosecute the asshole. The cops look after each other in this town.”

     Axel says, “That is unbelievable. Somebody should lock that guy up!”

     Axel’s wheels are turning; He had been considering aborting his plan to kill Brooke because of Craig, but now he is developing an ingenious plan.

     Brooke walks over to the kitchen to get drinks for the two of them.

     Vicky is in the living room now too. They give each other a look like they know what the other is thinking. It is brilliant. Vicky walks out of sight into the bedroom.

     Axel calls out, “Hey Brooke, I really think it would be best if you reported that that cop was here, sitting on your doorstep, waiting for you. If you were alone… if I wasn’t here, who knows what he had planned for you... He seems like a scary guy.”

     She walks back into the living room with the drinks and responds, “I would report it, but they won’t do anything about it.”

     Axel picks up her phone, “I insist, just get it on record. I am sure he’ll be reprimanded, and that might keep him away for a while. Do it for me, please, so that I don’t worry about you later.”

     Brooke says, “You are SO sweet,” and hesitantly makes the call. It is now on record that Officer Craig was here this evening against Brooke’s wishes.

     Brooke says, “Sorry about this whole scene. You are paying for a good time, and I want you to have a good night. How can I make this up to you?” She wraps her arms around Axel’s shoulders and kisses his neck.

     Axel responds, “Well, I wasn’t going to ask, but I kinda like sex a little rough. I have a paddle in my car. I would love to spank you with it?”

     “I normally charge a lot more for that, but considering everything that’s happened tonight, just give me $500.00 and you can spank me a little …GENTLY.”

     Axel goes back to his car, and retrieves his bag that has the paddle in it. When he returns, Brook is already in the bedroom stripped down to just a light blue bra and panties. Axel puts his bag down, opens his wallet and peels off $500.00 and puts it on the window sill. Brooke does not count it, she trusts him.

     Axel opens his bag, pulls out the paddle and rests it against the bed. He approaches Brooke who is standing in the middle of the bedroom. Axel brushes her hair to the side and kisses her neck. As he does this, he undoes her bra and it drops to the ground. Axel kneels down, kisses her stomach and pulls her panties to the ground. He leads her to the bed and has her lay down on her belly so she is ass-up. He smacks her ass a couple times with the paddle. Vicky is in the room watching, she is giddy. Vicky tells Axel to fuck Brooke, doggie style. So Axel lays the paddle on the bed, takes off his clothes and puts on a condom. He mounts Brooke and starts giving it to her hard and fast. He looks down at her ass and can see traces of the white hearts left by the paddle that are surrounded by redness.

     Vicky is sadistically loving all of this. She commands we’re going to donkey punch this bitch. Axel still fucking away asks quietly, “What?” He has heard that term before but does not know what it means.

     Vicky explains,” A donkey punch is when you are fucking a chick doggie style, much like you are doing at this very moment, and you punch her in the back of the head, like you might punch a donkey you were riding – donkey punch. But since we are homicidal killers, instead of your fist, we’re going to use that thick piece of wood with a loving heart shape cut in it.”

     Axel looks at the paddle lying on the bed and looks at the back of Brooke’ head. He nods in agreement and gives a little smile to Vicky. Brooke is faced forward, holding herself up in doggie style. Axel is doing all of the work thrusting into her for now, but he says, “I want a break. You do the work for a while.” Axel holds still, and she starts bumping, back and forth and grinding, taking his cock in and out. She is good, and she seems to be really enjoying the sex.

     Axel picks up the paddle, and holds it like a baseball bat, with his hands up by his head. He is about to swing and Vicky grabs the bat to stop him for a moment. She wants her fun. She presses her chest to Axel’s back and wraps her arms around Axel’s arms so that both her hands are on the paddle also. She wants to feel the swing and the connection.

     Meanwhile, Brooke now seems to be building to an orgasm, completely unaware of what is going on behind her. Vicky whispers to let he finish, so Axle and Vicky watch and wait patiently with the paddle cocked back as a baseball bat for the next 30 seconds or so as Brooke works it faster and faster and has a rather arousing orgasm. Then as she slows down her back and forth motions, Axel and Vick pull the paddle back just a little farther and swing away at the side of Brooke’s head.

     Brooke falls to the bed. Her skull is definitely fractured, there is blood coming from the side of her head, and she is not moving. But she is still breathing. Axel says to Vicky, “I hope she stays alive for a few seconds.” He gets up and flushes the condom three times and puts on some clothes. He gets out his camera and rushes to take his ‘before’ picture before she dies. He opens his bag and asks Vicky her preference. She pulls out a piece of rope. Axel puts on latex gloves and wraps the rope around Brooke’s neck and squeezes until she is dead.

     Vicky gets an even sicker, more twisted thought, “Axel, you know CPR, right? …What if you revived her? …We could strangle her again!”

     Axel smiles at the depravity of that notion, but tells her, “It’s too much work, and we’ve got a lot to do tonight. Plus, if we revive her, she still won’t be conscious.”

     Axel takes Brooke’s fingerprints with blood from her head, takes his ‘after’ picture and cleans up any trace that he was there that evening, including cleaning her neck and belly where he kissed her – he does not usually kiss them. He takes his $500.00 back, and finds another $385.00 in her purse.

     He explains to Vicky: “Officer Craig looks SOMEWHAT guilty from Brooke’s 911 call and restraining order, but that’s not quite good enough.”

     Axel, wearing his latex gloves, goes to Brooke’s kitchen looking for something, not quite sure what … Perfect, he finds a shot glass in the cupboard. Then he finds baggies in a drawer. He goes to her bathroom and takes a couple Q-tips. He goes back to Brooke’s body and scoops up some blood into the shot glass and seals the shot glass into a baggie … thinks twice and puts that baggie into a second baggie just to be safe. Vicky watches on curiously.

     They leave Brooke’s apartment (10:20pm) and drive back to Axel’s house. He pulls out the bag that was returned to him from the police the day he got out of jail. Recall that Officer Craig handled several items before putting on latex gloves. In particular, he handled the fingerprint paper and a large hunting knife! Both items do not have Axel’s fingerprints. But they do have Craig’s fingerprints! Once Officer Craig handled the items, they were put in a bag, and when they were examined, no other bare fingers would have touched them. And Craig’s fingerprints would not have been wiped off!

     Axel only removes the fingerprint paper from his bag and leaves everything else, including the knife. Vicky inquires, “Officer Craig’s fingerprints are on the knife. Shouldn’t we plant that? If you stick that knife into Brooke and leave it, that will lead the cops right to Craig.”

     She thinks she has said something Axel did not think of, but Axel explains, “If I plant that knife, you’re right, it does have Craig’s fingerprints. But it is a very distinct looking knife, and the police processed it in my arrest a couple weeks ago. I signed their release paperwork to get it back. Someone, besides Craig, who processed the knife would remember it or maybe even have taken photos of it. This knife at the crime scene, even with Craig’s fingerprints, adds some credibility that I might be involved, especially once Craig starts accusing me. I have a better plan than that.”

     Vicky is intrigued and she watches as Axel goes to under his floorboard to his collection. He adds Brooke’s fingerprints and pictures to the binder and removes three pages of his previous victims in LA. He is saddened and hesitant to give up his possessions, but sacrifices must be made for freedom.

     He has probably touched the pages with his bare fingers, so, wearing gloves, he wipes down the fingerprint pages and pictures of these three girls with a damp cloth. He was going to plant these pages intact, but Vicky gives him a better idea:

     “Keep the ‘after’ pictures, and cut the fingerprint pages in half... You can keep one picture and the right or left hand worth of prints for your collection.”

     What a great idea! This cheers Axel up. He starts to see real value in having Vicky as a partner after all.

     Axel goes online and to a website that for $19.99 gives him a background check on Officer Craig Carter. Axel knows his full name from the arrest report he was released from jail with. He gets Craig’s  home address, home phone number, cell phone number and some background info. Part of what he learns is that Craig is never married and does not have kids. Therefore, it is likely he lives alone.

     Axel drives back to Brooke’s apartment, parks down the street and walks over. He puts back on his latex gloves before he enters, blocking anyone’s potential view of this with his body and the door. Once inside, he takes out the blank fingerprint paper that had Craig’s prints and takes a set of blood fingerprints from Brooke (right hand only). Axel leaves her fingers bloody this time.

     Axel calls Craig’s cell phone from one of his unregistered cell phones (11:05 pm). Craig has his faults, but he is not stupid.

Axel: “Hi Craig, it’s your old friend Axel.”

Craig: “What do you want Axel?”

Axel: “You were right about me Craig. I’m a BAAAD guy. But I found out, you’re not so nice either… blackmail for sex, violating a restraining order, shame on you. When you left, I took Brooke and we went for a little drive. We’ll be in Victorville in about 10 minutes.”

(Victorville is a town about 80 miles east of LA in the middle of the desert).

     “If you want to come and save Brooke, I’m sure she would give you a few more freebees… Or maybe you just want to catch me and be a hero. I know you’ve been dying to bust me for something… Either way, meet me off the first exit in Victorville. There’s a Denny’s there. I will call on the payphone in exactly 90 minutes with more instructions. That will be exactly 12:35am. I may just surrender myself to you, but you won’t know what I’m up to if you don’t show up... And Craig, this little game is just for us. I’ll be watching from a distance away. If any other cops show up, Brooke disappears into the desert, I leave the country, and you will have some explaining to do...”

     Axel hangs up before Craig can respond. He knows Craig will do what he was told. Vicky says, “Impressive… You just got Craig to voluntarily drive an hour and a half into the middle of nowhere, just so he wouldn’t be in our way.”

     Ten minutes later Axel and Vicky drive past Craig’s home, which had all the lights off, and park a block down. Nobody seemed to be there, but in case Craig has a roommate or girlfriend, Axel dials Craig’s home phone number. It rings four times and then voicemail.  Axel goes to the front door and rings the doorbell with his knuckle. He is satisfied that nobody is there.

     Axel walks around to the back door and puts on latex gloves. He looks at the lock and thinks ‘Oh my god, this guy is a cop and all he has on his door for protection is a Wellington Basic lock.’ Axel is able to pick the lock in no time with his locksmith tools and enters.

     Let’s see, where’s a good hiding place … Can’t be too obvious or he will find it before the cops investigate. Can’t be too hidden, or these dumb-ass lazy cops may not find it at all. Ah, heating duct. It is springtime, so he won’t be using the heater anytime soon.

     Axel unscrews the heating vent cover and places up there:

1)  Bloody fingerprints from Brooke

2)  The rope he used to strangle Brooke

3)  Bloody fingerprints and ‘before’ pictures of three other victims

     Axel replaces the vent cover and looks around for more nails to hammer in Craig’s proverbial coffin. He goes to the kitchen and noticed a set of knives in a wooden block. He takes one (of the six) steak knives from the block. It is a sturdy knife with a sharp point. He goes through Craig’s bedroom and closet sensing he might find one more item… Ah, a baseball bat, perfect. This should have Craig’s prints on it.

     Axel next takes out the baggies containing the shot glass and blood. The blood has spilled out of the shot glass, but is contained in the baggie. Axel dips a Q-tip into the blood and leaves just a small dab on the heating vent cover. He puts a small dab on the wall at eye level under the vent cover, and a dab on the kitchen counter by the set of knives.

     Now it’s back to Brooke’s place for the last time. He parks down a block and applies latex gloves before entering.

     Brooke’s head wound is from a flat paddle with an edge. The baseball bat would not match, so Axel decides to make it match. He strikes Brooke at the spot of her head wound …four, five, six times as hard as he can. Her skull is crushed in, badly. There are brains mixed in with the fragmented pieces of skull. There should be no definitive way to determine this bat was not the first blow to the head now.

     Axel takes Craig’s steak knife and thrusts it into Brooke’s chest, in between ribs, and into her heart.

     This trip was messy. Good thing Axel brought another change of clothes. When he leaves Brooke’s apartment, he positions the door just slightly ajar.

     Axel drives to a payphone and calls 911 (11:50pm). He knows the call will be recorded, so he talks in a high pitched tone and uses an English accent to disguise his voice. He gives Brooke’s address and says he heard a woman screaming for her life. She was calling out for help and screaming ‘Craig, don’t hurt me!’ … And Axel hung up before they asked him any questions.

     Axel heads home to start a cozy fire in his fireplace and burn the paddle and bloodstained clothes and all of the other evidence. He is truly proud of his plan and his execution (execution of the plan, not the girl … although that was good too).

     Craig should be getting to Victorville soon. I wonder if there is a Denny’s at the first offramp?

     The waiting is truly nerve-racking. This whole plan is contingent on cops following easy clues and doing their job. As long as they respond to the 911 call, they will find the body, the bat, and the knife. They surely have to realize that Brooke had a restraining order against Officer Craig, and that he broke the order that night. They will run the prints on the bat and match them to Craig, who should already be the primary suspect by now because of Brooke’s phone call to the police. This will be enough evidence to lead to a search warrant on Craig’s house. Once there, they should easily see that the knife in Brooke’s heart is part of Craig’s knife set. Looking further, they will find traces of Brooke’s blood, Brooke’s murder weapon (rope), Brooke’s blood fingerprints WITH Craig’s own fingerprints on the paper, AND enough evidence from THREE other murders in LA to convict Craig as a serial killer.

     Now if a guy this guilty says he saw me with Brooke last night at her apartment, would you believe him???

     This whole plan will come together, but Axel knows he has to go about his life like nothing ever happened. But naturally, he is anxious. Axel has trouble falling asleep that night. But he manages a couple hours sleep before his alarm clock goes off for work. As he wakes up, he smells coffee. He proceeds to the kitchen, and Vicky had prepared breakfast for the both of them: Eggs, bacon, pancakes, fresh squeezed orange juice. He asks, “Where did you get this stuff?”

     Vicky replies, “I got up early and went to the store silly …Do you think I crapped out the eggs myself?”

     He replies, “I hadn’t considered that, but you ARE full of surprises.” Axel digs in to the breakfast. It is exceptionally good! He is somewhat confused; he did not know Vicky, (a ghost, or whatever she was), could do this. But the food was real - he is stuffed.

     Axel goes to the locksmith shop. They get a call from a customer in Beverly Hills, Mrs. Smith. She needs all of the locks at her house re-keyed. Axel is dispatched in the company van, Vicky tags along. They arrive at a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood, probably worth at least five million dollars. When they get to the house, Mrs. Smith answers the door and she is holding back a rottweiler who seems friendly at first.

     Mrs. Smith is a beautiful woman: about 30, long blonde hair, and a great rack: big, but not too big for her frame (probably fake though, she has too much money for them not to be surgically enhanced). Axel is in his uniform, so she is expecting him. She says not to worry about Jake (the dog). Jake is calm as Axel puts his hand out to introduce himself; Jake sniffs and licks his hand, and Mrs. Smith says, “Now he will be your friend forever.” But the dog quickly starts growling and barking fiercely in Vicky’s direction as she tries to enter the house. Mrs. Smith apologizes and puts the dog in a separate room.

     Mrs. Smith explains to Axel as she shows him the four doors around the house, “We had been having jewelry and silverware and little things around the house disappear. The last straw though was brazen when a $25,000 painting disappeared off the living room wall. So we had to fire everyone who works in the house: the butler, the maid, the cook, and the gardener. The servant’s quarters are empty, just me and my husband in this large house for now. We’ll be re-hiring soon, but they all had keys to the house, so that’s why we need everything re-keyed… Here’s the security alarm station. If you need the code to re-do the locks, it is 87654.”

     It is amazing how trusting people are of strangers in uniforms! This was not a unique exchange. Axel is often given people’s vital information freely.

     Mrs. Smith retires to another part of the house, out of sight, and Axel starts on the locks. Vicky was immediately struck by Mrs. Smith, another blonde and just her type. Vicky: “I like her.”

Axel” “No!”

Vicky: “I want her.”

Axel” “No way!”

Vicky: “… The dog is put away. We are all alone with her in this big house. We could go have some fun with her right now… And I bet there is a safe somewhere with lots of cash.”

Axel: “No! We don’t EVER kill customers…  It would be stupid. It would make an easy pattern that would lead the cops right to me.”

     Vicky knows he is right, but she WANTS her.

Vicky: “If you kill only one customer, there is no pattern at all. No reason for the police to investigate a locksmith that only had an hours contact with the victim. I would say that a recently fired maid, cook, gardener or BUTLER would be a much more likely suspect… Think about it.”

Axel: “We definitely can’t do it now, people know I are here.”

Vicky: “That’s the spirit. Let’s come back tonight then.”

Axel: “The husband will be here, I don’t do the whole home invasion thing. It’s too risky.”

Vicky: “After what you pulled off last night… You can’t just go back to killing hookers. That’s child’s play. You need to take it to the next level. You can do this! …Do it for me.”

     Axel finishes his job at this house and goes back to the locksmith shop. He is still mulling over Vicky’s request. It seems like a challenge, but it is do-able. Before he finished the job, Axel kept an extra key for himself… just in case.

     After work, Axel is exhausted from lack of sleep and takes a nap. When he wakes, Vicky has prepared dinner. It is a feast of steak and mashed potatoes and creamed spinach and rolls that she baked herself. He thanks her for the food and says he has decided to give her … Mrs. Smith … this evening. Vicky is very excited.

     Axel packs a special bag of supplies. They wait until the middle of the night and drive to the Smith neighborhood. To be discreet, they have to park and walk for about a half mile since the houses are so far apart. Axel tells Vicky to just meet him upstairs once he is in. He does not want Jake to see her.

     Axel enters through a side door. Jake comes running over, but recognizes Axel and does not bark. Axel pets Jake and leads him to the closest door he comes to; it’s a bathroom. He closes the door, and the dog remains calm in the dark. He should go to sleep, he thinks.

     This only took maybe 10 seconds, and Axel figures he has at least 20 more seconds to disable the alarm. He gets to the alarm station … 87654 … disarmed. The house is completely quiet. They must be sound asleep. Axel puts on latex gloves and wipes off everything he has already touched. (He needed a bare hand to greet the dog).

     Axel had procured some chloroform and he takes this out and douses a rag as he walks up the spiral staircase towards the master bedroom. He slowly opens the bedroom door and sees Mrs. and Mr. Smith sleeping in their bed. He has a gun ready in his pocket in case he can’t pull this off.  If EITHER wake up before he sedates BOTH of them, this will get tricky. He covers Mr. Smith’s face first, gently holding the rag over his nose and mouth. He never opens his eyes. That was easy!

     Axel now moves over to Mrs. Smith and gently covers her nose and mouth with the rag, but her eyes open immediately and she starts to struggle! Axel holds the cloth more firmly to her face and she drifts back to sleep in a couple seconds.

     Axel has a little time to set up shop. “Vicky, it’s clear now.”

     She appears, “See, isn’t this fun?”

     Axel is enjoying this, but he doesn’t say so out loud.

     The master bedroom that he is preparing is giant sized. The bed is huge, there is a sitting area within the bedroom with a couch and chairs and a full entertainment system with giant tv. Axel brings over a chair from the sitting area puts it at the foot of the bed to the left corner. He puts Mr. Smith in the chair and uses rope to thoroughly tie his chest and waist to the back of the chair. He thoroughly ties his legs to the chair’s legs. And then he handcuffs Mr. Smith’s hands to each other in his lap. His arms are free to move up and down.

     Mr. Smith is at least 50 years old and scrawny – not much of a challenge if he somehow gets loose. Clearly, his fine, piece of ass wife married him for his money.

     Axel removes the covers from the bed. Mrs. Smith is wearing a thin silky red nightgown. It extends to about her knees and the way it drapes over her motionless body is very sexy. He leaves her lying, face-up, and uses more rope to tie her right arm to the left edge of the bedpost, and her left arm to the middle of the bedpost (it is a huge bed, if he went to the other edge of the bedpost, she would be completely stretched out). Her arms are restrained above her head. He leaves her legs free.

     He finds a small table in a hallway and brings it in. It is a fancy wood table that is just about 1 foot deep and 3 feet wide. They were using it to rest a vase on. Axel is using it to spread his tools onto.

     He lays out for them to see: six different cutting devices (from big knives to a surgical scalpel), acetylene blowtorch, needle nose pliers, a pair of gardening clippers, and an empty grogery-sized paper bag that is expanded open on the table. This last item is just because Axel finds it amusing to leave them questioning to themselves what horrible surprise could be in there… and he is sure that thought will cross their minds.

     Axel looks to Vicky, “That should do it?” Vicky does not have any suggestions, so they wait for the Smiths to awaken.

     Mr. Smith starts to lift his head a little. Axel has lit the blowtorch and is holding it. He grabs Mr. Smith’s face with his free hand and squeezes his cheeks in, looks him in the eyes and says, “If you say a word or make a sound, I burn your wife.”

     Mrs. Smith opens her eyes a moment later. Axel holds a hand over her mouth and makes the same threat to her about her husband. She is clearly scared, but stays quiet as Axel removes his hand… But her husband, upon seeing her awake and frightened blurts out in a scared voice, “We’ll be fine honey, I love you.”

     Axel gives him a dirty look, grabs his wife’s ankle that is closest to her husband (maybe 2 feet away from Mr. Smith) and swipes the blowtorch across her calf. She lets out a little high pitched scream that she does her best to squelch. It leaves an ugly burn mark about 4 inches long and it gives off a disturbing smell of burning flesh.

     Mr. Smith starts to cry a little. There are tears in the wife’s eyes too.

     Axel says to the wife, “You may now speak if you would like to address your husband’s stupidity.”

     She says, “I love you too. Please don’t talk.”

     Axel: “I’m touched. I figured you as a trophy wife that hated her husband… Back to quiet time.” Axel’s mind is churning. He’ll play with this concept later.

     First financial business, “If you both do exactly as you are told, you might live through this. If not, I will NOT kill you quickly, I will burn, cut and dismember you in front of each other…” He pauses to let it sink in, “There IS a safe in this house. Where is it, and what’s the combination?…”

     No answer.

     “You can both speak when asked a question from me… Where is it?”

     Axel approaches the wife with the blowtorch in his hand. He looks over to the husband. Axel lifts Mrs. Smith’s nightgown just a little to expose her thigh and moves the flame to a few inches from her thigh. “Mr. Smith, tell me about the safe or you’re going to smell your wife’s flesh burning again… Three … Two …”

     Mr. Smith succumbs, “Wait… It’s behind the picture of the sailboat right there.” He motions his head and hands to the picture that is very close - behind him and to his right.”

     Axel turns off the blowtorch, puts it with his other tools and removes the picture from the wall. “Excellent safe,” Axel knows from safes since he is a locksmith. “This would take me days to get into it if you didn’t give me the combination, nice selection... The combination please!…”

     Mr. Smith gives him the combination and Axel puts a rag in Mr. Smith’s mouth to gag him. “You do NOT want to remove this gag.” Axel knows Mr. Smith could lift his arms and remove it, but he won’t, he is too scared. Axel says to the wife, “No talking for you either Mrs. Smith,” but leaves her mouth free.

     He opens the safe and he turns and smiles at Vicky. There must be $50,000 in cash. He puts it all in his bag. He also sees jewelry, probably another $50,000 worth. He asks Vicky, “Do you want any of this jewelry?” He has no desire to try to sell it; that might get him caught. Vicky says she does not want it either. So they leave the jewelry in the safe.

     But there is one more item in the safe: a semi-automatic hand gun, loaded. Axel takes it out and you can almost see a light bulb appear and turn on over his head. “Vicky, I have an idea. I will let you in on it soon… But first, didn’t you want to play with Mrs. Smith?”

     Axel pulls over another chair from the sitting area and sits down next to Mr. Smith at the foot of the bed. He has intentionally tied Mr. Smith in a way so that his body is restrained and his hands are handcuffed to each other, but his arms can move freely. Axel wants to see if he will even try to resist. Axel is pretty sure that Mr. Smith won’t try anything aggressive, but if he does, Axel knows he can handle him.

     Vicky says, “Axel, I want you to cut the nightgown off of her for me.”

     Axel stands, grabs the material at both of her breasts and pulls apart. The nightgown rips in between her breasts and straight down to her waist. Her body is jolted a little and her exposed breasts jiggle for a moment on her chest. Axel grabs the material at her waist and pulls apart again and it is torn all the way down the middle. There are only thin straps of red material left on her shoulders and the rest of the nightgown is beneath her and to her sides on the bed. She still has panties on, but Axel rips them right off too. What a body! Axel returns to his seat next to the gagged Mr. Smith.

     Vicky strips down, naked, and climbs onto the bed with Mrs. Smith. She lies on top of her. Vicky starts kisses her neck. Then she makes her way to nibble on her ear and then kisses her lips. All the while she has her left hand on Mrs. Smith’s right breast, alternating between grabbing the flesh with her whole hand and squeezing her nipples with her thumb and forefinger. Mrs. Smith is just lying there, silent, being groped.

     Vicky slides down a little. The hand that was on Mrs. Smith’s breast moves to her clit, and Vicky’s mouth moves to her left nipple. She bites the nipple, hard, but does not get a reaction from Mrs. Smith. After a little of this, Vicky slides all the way down to eat her pussy. But Mrs. Smith’s knees are closed and Vicky can not spread them. Axel sees this and commands, “Spread your legs... Do it now!”

     Mrs. Smith, frightened, spreads her legs apart, and Vicky begins licking her pussy.

     Axel breaks his stare on the action for just a moment and nudges the gagged Mr. Smith with his elbow, “This is hot, right… Vicky eating out your wife, they are both so fuckin’ hot!”

     But there is no response from the confused looking man that can not speak.

     After a while of this, Vicky looks up at Mrs. Smith and says, “My turn.”

     She stands on the bed, walks forward two steps and gets on her knees over Mrs. Smith so that her pussy is in her face. But Mrs. Smith just lays there. Axel commands, “Mrs. Smith… eat Vicky’s pussy!”

     Mrs. Smith looks at Axel and says, “I don’t know how to do that?”

     Axel says, “Just stick your tongue out and lick. You’ll do fine.”

     Mrs. Smith, obviously terrified says, “I really don’t know what you mean. I want to do it, really. Please explain better.”

     Axel walks a few feet up and approaches her at the bedside, “Just stick out your tongue and lick.” He does the motion in the air himself to show her – he sticks out his tongue and moves his tongue and chin, out and up a few times. “Feel free to do circles and X’s with your tongue too…  got it?”

     Vicky’s pussy is still there waiting, and Mrs. Smith follows the instructions she was given. She licks Vicky’s pussy. Vicky loves it! She builds to several climaxes and is completely satisfied after about ten minutes. Vicky collapses on the bed next to Mrs. Smith and rests there for several seconds, breathing heavily.

     Axels says, “You can stop licking now Mrs. Smith.”

     Vicky gives Mrs. Smith a nice kiss on the lips and gets up and gets dressed and sits across the room on the couch.

     Axel announces, “I was genuinely touched with your displays of affection for each other earlier, Smiths. And I’ve been wondering, just how much you two do actually love each other. So I have thought up some games for us to test it out…”

     Axel picks up his camera and the Smith’s gun, walks over to Mrs. Smith’s bedside. He puts the camera down on the nightstand there and asks, “Mrs. Smith, would you suck my dick to stop me from shooting your husband?” He points the gun at the silenced Mr. Smith, who begins to sob again.

     He does not get an answer immediately, so he cocks the gun – ‘shick shick’. Mrs. Smith says, “Yes, I will do it.” Axel gets a knife and cuts her left arm free so that only her right arm is tied to the closest part of the bedpost. Axel tells her, “You don’t have to do this, I can just kill him… But if you decide to bite me, there is not an item in that table that won’t mutilate every inch of you body… inside and out. And I know how to keep you alive while doing it... Understand?”

     She nods ‘yes’. Then just to amuse himself, Axel addresses the gagged Mr. Smith, “You have a very loving wife here. If at any time you do not approve of what’s going on, just say ‘dragon’.”

     Vicky gets a good laugh out of that and Axel also chuckles.

      Before anything begins, Axel picks up his camera and takes a picture of Mrs. Smith on the bed, her ‘before’ picture.

     Axel takes off his shirt, undoes his jeans and whips his dick out. Mrs. Smith gets on her knees on the floor with her right hand still attached to the bedpost. She takes Axel’s cock in her mouth. Axel says, “Wait a second, look up at me,” and takes a picture looking downward with his dick in her mouth. You can see his body but not his face. He has a purpose for this.

     Axel expects she will just take it partly in her mouth and be lazy, so he is waiting to give commands like: ‘move faster’ or ‘take it deeper’. But she does it well right away, very well actually; it is a great blowjob. She obviously does not want to be reprimanded, so she is very diligent and compliant. And she has a skill for it.

     Axel just enjoys it for a few minutes, and then decides to torment the husband while the wife is still going to town on his penis. “I can see why you married this one... God that is good... Does she still suck your dick like this? …You’re married, she can’t possibly still suck your dick anymore…”

     Looking down at the wife, “Do you suck your husband’s dick?”

     She stops, frees her mouth and answers, “Yes.”

     Axel asks, “How often? Just birthdays and holidays, right?”

     She says, “Not very often, maybe every other month or so.”

     Axel says, “Ok, keep sucking.”

     She begins felating him again, and Axel speaks while she works, “If you really love the guy, a guy who provides such a nice house and all the trimmings, you should be doing this for him every night. Will you appreciate him after tonight and do this every night for him?”

     She nods ‘yes’ without stopping what she is doing. “You’re a lucky man Mr. Smith.”

     A minute later Axel again addresses Mr. Smith, who is forced to watch the back of his wife’s head bobbing at Axel’s pelvis, “Mr. Smith, the question now is… Do YOU love your wife enough to suck my dick?”

     Mr. Smith’s eyes get wide. Axel pauses and laughs, “Just kidding, I’m not gay... Gotcha!”

     After ten minutes, Axel does not cum, but he is satisfied. He tells her to lie back down on the bed, and he redoes his jeans and puts on his shirt. “Excellent, Mrs. Smith, you passed the first test, you must really love your husband. I’m gonna tie you up better for this next test.”

     He secures both wrists and both ankles to the bed with rope, again face up, and puts a rag in her mouth. Axel picks up a pen and pad of paper from the nightstand and hands them to Mr. Smith. “Write ‘My wife is…’ and finish the sentence in your own words. Then sign the paper at the VERY BOTTOM.”

     Mr. Smith begins writing. His wrists are handcuffed, but he can still awkwardly use his hands. Axel takes a mental note that he is left handed (this is important). Axel takes the pad and reads out loud, “My wife is beautiful and wonderful and I hope she knows she is the love of my life. Signed Eugene Smith” This triggers Mrs. Smith’s emotions and she begins to cry harder than she has all evening. This triggers Mr. Smith to cry more also.

     Axel says, “That is truly beautiful… Now take the pad and pen, and add to it ‘But she is a cheating whore.”

     Mr. Smith’s facial expression turns from emotional sadness to outrage and concern. He takes the paper and pen in his hand, but does not write. Axel gets impatient, “Should I light up the blowtorch again? … But…She…Is…A…Cheating…Whore!”

     Mr. Smith writes the words begrudgingly. Axel explains, that was not really the test. He takes the pen and paper and picks up the garden clippers from the table. They are the type of hand tool with the curved blade that is used for cutting tree branches up to about an inch thick. He hands the tool to the husband and pushes his chair about two feet forward so that he is at the corner of the bed next to his wife’s foot. “Mr. Smith... Would you cut off your wife’s pinky toe to save her life?”

     Axel paces the room and gives him about 30 seconds to consider. Then he picks up the gun and points it at Mrs. Smith. It is a good thing she is gagged, because in this 30 seconds she is hysterical: crying and trying to scream through her gag. But with the gun pointed at her, she knows what must be done. Though she can not talk and can not move her limbs much, with the little bit of play she has from the rope, she points her toes out toward her husband. She does not want to be executed.

     Mr. Smith has the tool in his left hand and slowly inserts the piggy toe into the cutting area of the blade. He looks to his wife who has tears streaming down her face. She is nodding up and down. Mr. Smith squeezes the handles and the piggy toe drops to the ground.

     His wife’s screams of agony are mostly absorbed by the rag. There is blood, lots of blood. Axel lights the blowtorch and swipes it by the stump to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding. But this hurts even more than the cutting, and the wife is clearly in agony.

     Vicky watches on, mesmerized at this performance by Axel.

     Axel says, “Last test… Mr. Smith, I now know that you would cut off one of your wife’s toes to save her life... Would you cut off her second toe to save your own life?”

     That cranked up the panic level in the room somehow even further.

     But Axel does not wait very long for an answer. After just a few seconds, Axel approaches Mr. Smith’s LEFT side, kneels down, holds the gun to his LEFT temple at a slight upward direction and fires. (This is what a self inflicted gunshot wound from him could look like). Blood and brains and skull pieces spray out the other side. Mr. Smith’s head falls forward, as much as the ropes will allow. Mrs. Smith is struggling as hard as she can and screaming, like a dog that has had its vocal chords removed.

     Axel verbalizes his plan retroactively to Vicky so that Mrs. Smith can enjoy it also. As he packs his bag he explains:

     “Once I saw the gun in the safe, my mind went straight to murder/suicide between husband and wife. We are leaving the jewelry locked up in the safe, and we won’t remove anything else from the house, except for the cash... I would assume nobody else but the Smith’s knows about that cash. And there’s no forced entry, so it’s not a robbery.

     The picture of Mrs. Smith sucking an anonymous dick, obviously not her husband, and his creepy note in his own handwriting gives proof that she was cheating and motive for him to kill her. Hell, it’s almost a confession to killing her. He tied her up and burnt her leg and cut off her toe, before shooting her three times - the sick bastard! I will be leaving the garden clippers and blowtorch here, both with his fingerprints.” Axel wraps Mr. Smiths LEFT hand around the blowtorch and sets it on the floor.

     Axel continues, “Mr. Smith needs to have gunshot residue on his hands in order to have killed himself and his wife so…” Axel unties the now dead Mr. Smith, lifts him up and rests most of his weight on the bed. He puts the gun in his dead LEFT hand and points it at the wife’s chest. She is well aware of her fate. Axel fires three times. She is dead. Axel leaves Mr. Smith’s gun in Mr. Smith’s LEFT hand.

     Now the clock is ticking. A neighbor surely heard the four total gunshots. Axel quickly takes his after picture of Mrs. Smith. He feels that he only has time to fingerprint one hand, so he unties her left wrist, dips her fingers in a gunshot wound and fingerprints her. Instead of cleaning up her fingers, he wipes blood all over her whole hand and leaves her hand on top of a wound – now it does not look odd that her hand is bloody.

     Axel puts on clean latex gloves and does one last check of the room to make sure he is not leaving behind anything that he has not planted. He tells Vicky to meet him at the car and heads downstairs. He opens the bathroom door to let Jake out, “Good dog… OK… Jake, I’m not sure when anyone will be by here to take care of you, but there’s water in the toilet… and feel free to eat the Smiths if you get hungry.”

     Axel re-sets the house alarm and leaves through the side door, locks the door behind him with his key, and jogs to his car with his bag, now a little heavier with cash. No cops in sight yet, but in this neighborhood, they will be along soon. As he starts the car and pulls onto the street, he hears the sirens and watches three cop cars drive past him in the other direction going toward the Smith house.

     When Axel gets home, he files away his pictures and fingerprints and counts the money. He was pretty far off in his estimate – there was $80,000 there!

     The next day after work, Axel turns on the evening news. He loves the evening news; they talk about his works all the time. He is curious about what may be reported about the Smiths AND Brooke. Nothing about Brooke tonight, but he does get…

     “Top story tonight… Police have concluded that Doctor Eugene Smith violently murdered his wife, Brenda Smith, in their Beverly Hills home late last night and then turned the gun on himself after finding out she cheated on him with an unknown man. All acquaintances we interviewed described Mr. Smith as a gentle, loving husband and are in shock that he could have done something like this… In other news…”

     So, after Brooke’s murder, the next day and a half went splendidly for Axel. But Officer Craig did not fare so well. He gets the call from Axel at 11:05pm. He grabs his gun and badge is out the door for Victorville within a few minutes. While driving Craig calls his partner, Megan, on his cell phone:

Craig: “Megan, we were right about Axel.”

Megan: “What’s going on?”

Craig: “He either kidnapped or already killed Brooke.”

Megan: “Brooke? …The hooker you were bangin’ who got the restraining order against you?”

Craig: “Yea, her... I was following Axel. He picked her up off Sunset and they went to her place. I tried to warn her, but she wouldn’t listen. That was about an hour and a half ago.”

Megan: “OK, we already knew the guy liked hookers, what else happened?”

Craig: “That bold mother-fucker just called my cell phone and said he abducted her - that they would be in Victorville and I had to go out there alone and meet him. He knows about my restraining order and thinks that he can kill her and blame it on me. He’s watched too many bad movies. It ain’t that easy.”

Megan: “What are you going to do?”

Craig: “I’m not sure yet, but I just left my house and I’m on my way out there. I know he’s got to have some kind of ridiculous trap planned to bring me all the way out to Victorville, but that’s all I know. I’ll have to play it by ear.”

Megan: “I think you should call the cops in Victorville. If Brooke’s life is in danger, they are closer and you shouldn’t be doing this without back-up.”

Craig: “He said he’ll be watching and if other cops show up, he will just kill her and take off. That part I think he’ll do. My best chance of catching him is to play along for now.”

Megan: “Alright, then I’m coming with you.”

Craig: “I’m already on my way. He gave me a deadline to make, and I think if I don’t follow his rules I won’t get a shot at him. But I do need you to help me with this…  I have one of the transmitters that we use when you are working as Trixie. I can hook it up to my cell phone, and hide it in my clothes so that you can be listening to everything I hear. If he gives me any information that will help us catch him or save Brooke, you can call it in to Victorville P.D. and get me some back-up. But I have to show up alone.”

Megan: “I’ll call them now so that they are ready. I won’t tell them everything, but I’ll make sure they have a few units ready to respond to a kidnapping and homicide suspect.”

Craig: “Good idea. The other thing you can do is do some research and see if Axel has any history around Victorville. If he has any previous addresses or known associates out there, you can have the Victorville P.D. check those locations.”

Megan: “Will do.”

Craig: “I’ll call when I get closer to Victorville to test out the transmitter.”

Megan: “Be careful.”

     About a half hour later, Megan calls back. She has alerted Victorville P.D. but there is no history for Axel around the area. They check out the transmitter; it works perfectly.

     Craig gets to the first exit in Victorville at 12:35am and has Megan on the phone, “Megan, there does not seem to be a Denny’s here. I’m going to proceed to the next off ramp. Look up where the closest Denny’s is for me.”

     She does the research on her computer and replies, “There is no Denny’s in Victorville.”

     Craig replies, “Holy shit!!! …Do you think this was just a prank phone call? Did he just get me to drive three hours round trip to fuck with me?”

     Megan: “It’s possible... It would be a pretty ingenious prank (she laughs)… He knows you have a hard-on for him and that you think he is a murderer. It’s a pretty easy leap of faith to believe that you would drive that far if he said he was going to kill someone there.”

     Craig: “OK, I’m coming home. This type of threat is illegal, especially to a police officer. I’ll have to look up the violation code tomorrow. He’ll regret this shit.”

     Megan: “You may want to let this one go Craig. If the rest of the station finds out about this colossal prank he pulled on you, they’ll never let you live it down.”

     Craig: “I’ll think about that… In the meantime, call Victorville P.D. and put out an APB on Axel’s car. Better to be safe than sorry in case it wasn’t a prank.”

     Megan: “No problem.”

     Craig: “One more thing, I know it’s late, but I would really appreciate it if you went by Brooke’s apartment to check on her. If Axel did do something to her, there would be evidence there, and if not, I would like to know she is safe from Axel.”

     Megan: “I’ll go right now and call you in 15 minutes.”

     The police had responded to Axel’s 911 call and arrived at Brooke’s apartment at 12:20am. By the time Megan arrives there at 12:50, the area is already taped off as a crime scene and there are a dozen cops collecting evidence. She knows all the cops on the scene. Megan enters the apartment and sees Brooke with her head bashed in. She nearly pukes on the spot.

     One of her jackass crime scene colleagues has a sampling device that plays back audio at the touch of a button. He approaches Megan and as cheesy as possible says, “Head bashed in, strangled and stabbed. Too bad she’s not a cat. She’d have” (removes his glasses), “SIX… LIVES…LEFT.” “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”  Roger Daulty of The Who screams from the audio device.

     He cracks himself up, but Megan is not amused. She says, “Hey, Caruso, who is in charge of the investigation?” She is taken to Detective McDowell. She knows him; he is a big, intimidating looking black guy. But he is a real friendly guy and a good cop. She asks what they have found so far. He tells her, “A 911 call came in at about 11:50pm. When the responding officers got here, the door was partly open and they found her like this. So far they collected a bloody bat and there is a knife still in the body. There’s also marks around her neck, strangled, probably rope. We won’t know which one killed her for a few days.”

     Megan tells him that Craig witnessed Axel at this apartment with Brooke earlier this evening and that Axel admitted to Craig that he abducted Brooke a few hours ago. Craig has been out searching for them. Craig did not even know that Brooke was dead or even still in LA.

     Officer McDowell informs her, “Axel will be closely looked at, but we can’t arrest him tonight just based on Craig’s word.” Detective McDowell already knows about Brooke’s 911 call tonight and knows Craig has to be a suspect.

     He says, “I know Craig is your partner, but it is just as likely that Craig may have done this and is trying to pin it on Axel. If any physical evidence places Axel in the apartment, he will be picked up and arrested, I promise. But if we question him now with no real evidence, we can’t hold him. And if he takes off, we may never find him. It will take a day to get some results back from the lab. Just be a little patient.”

     Megan tells him, “I know Craig... You know Craig. He did not kill her. I am positive Axel did. When we arrested Axel with those weapons we had to let him go and we knew he would do something like this. Don’t let him get away again… Please.”

     McDowell says, “You know I’ll do my job. I like Craig and I don’t think he did this, but we have to clear him. Have him see me tomorrow to give a statement.”

     As Megan is leaving, she hears that jackass talking to someone in the background, “This girl liked heavy metal … And somebody BANGED… HER… HEAD.”  “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” 

     Megan calls Craig and tells him that Brooke is dead and the whole situation. She tells him, “Tomorrow they will have results back. It’s just a matter of time. The crime scene was a mess. I’m sure he made a mistake and left something we can use.”

     Craig sees McDowell in the morning and tells him everything he knows.

     But a few hours later, fingerprints on the bat come back as a match to Craig. So around the time Axel is making friends with Jake the dog, Officer Craig Carter is arrested for murder. A search warrant is issued to search Craig’s vehicle and his house. The search team notices the missing knife in the cutlery set and takes the rest of the set as evidence. They take samples from the red spots on the counter and wall and vent. They open the vent and find the rope, and the pictures and bloody fingerprints of four separate women!

     When interrogated by McDowell, Craig has no answers. Craig does not even believe that they have all this evidence he says they have - it must be a lie. I know police tactics. They are treating me like a suspect to get a confession out of me. But I am innocent. I know they can’t have evidence that I am a serial killer. That is absurd. All they have is the restraining order and my admission to being on her doorstep. Why don’t they believe it was Axel like I know it was Axel. Maybe they are sweating him in another interrogation room?

     But with this much evidence against Craig, and not a trace of evidence against Axel, Detective McDowell never even questions Axel… Just as Axel planned!!!

     It took a couple days to hit the news, but one day after Axel sees the Smiths on the news he sees this on the news:

     “Today’s top story: Police have a suspect in custody this evening they believe to be a serial killer here in LA. Three separate murders previously believed to be unrelated and a new murder of a prostitute have been linked together by investigators. And what’s worse is that the suspect is someone charged with protecting us! Officer Craig Carter of the LAPD was arrested yesterday. They are dubbing him ‘The Fingerprint Killer’ because he apparently took his victims fingerprints with their own blood and kept the pages… Scaaaary!…Ok Sammy, tell us about weather…”

     Megan had been informed of all the evidence. She can’t make sense of it. She doesn’t want to believe it. She thought she knew Craig so well… but the evidence is indisputable! Not only Brooke, but he killed four women? Was Craig using me as a possible alibi when he called supposedly on his way to Victorville??? Oh my god… a serial killer had been watching my back on the job for the last four years!!! Was he going to kill ME eventually?

     Megan has to confront him, she can’t resist. She pulls some strings to get him in a room to talk. Megan enters and Craig is still not convinced that the evidence he was told about is real.

Craig: “Megan… Do you believe they arrested ME? How could they really believe I killed Brooke? Cops are supposed to stick together.”
Megan: “They didn’t tell you?”

    And Megan lists for him again all of the evidence that McDowell told him about.

Craig: “Wait, that’s all real??? I thought they were working me over.”

Megan: “It’s real… They’ve got you… Just tell me Craig, HOW could you do this? How could you kill four women? You were such a close friend… help me understand… why?” (she is misting up and almost has tears in her eyes).

Craig: “Wait… I did NOT do this! You can’t believe that I did these murders. There has to be another explanation… Help me figure it out!”

Megan: “Come on!… How could you be innocent and there be this much concrete evidence???”

Craig: “Give me the benefit of the doubt for a minute and help me figure out how this is happening... I am sure Axel is behind it somehow.”

Megan: “You know, the case against you is so strong, he is not even a suspect. It’s only you in the crosshairs now.”

Craig: “Well, let’s try to explain the evidence piece by piece.”

Megan (in a challenging tone): “Ok, at the crime scene, the bat had your fingerprints on it and the knife was from your kitchen.”

Craig: “Ok, I can’t explain that for now.”

Megan: “Brooke was also strangled. There were marks on her neck, and a rope was found hidden in your house in a heating vent.”

Craig: “OK, I have no idea how that got there. What else?”

Megan: “There was a page with Brooke’s bloody fingerprints in the same vent! …Along with similar pages and pictures of three other female victims.”
Craig: “Let’s start with that. Who were the other girls?”

     Megan gives him a brief description of the other three girls and the description of the crime scenes.

Craig: “These were planted. These were planted by Axel. They had to have been... Axel was in my house... He’s a locksmith. He could have easily gotten into my house… And he took all those items, the knife, the bat…”

Megan: “You know that sounds crazy and desperate, right?”
Craig: “But it explains it all… There’s no witnesses to any of this…” Craig realizes for himself, “That’s why he sent me to Victorsville that night!!! He needed time in my house.”
     Megan starts to see some credibility in what Craig is reasoning out.

Craig: “He was going back and forth between Brooke’s apartment and my house all night, setting me up! …And I fell for it!”

     Megan is looking through her evidence report:

Megan: “Most of this stuff COULD possibly be planted, but the paper with Brooke’s blood fingerprints on it also had your fingerprints on the paper. Axel could not have just planted that?”

     Craig thinks for a few seconds:
Craig: “Are you sure that report is right?... …Hold on, the night we arrested Axel, he had fingerprint paper in his trunk!!! I must have touched it then. My fingerprints are on there from when it was just blank paper – Axel took her prints on it later…”

     Megan is starting to believe him.

Megan: “I thought it was weird that he had fingerprint paper with him, packed with knives and latex gloves... We have it logged in from his arrest. Awfully coincidental that he has blank fingerprint paper and then a serial killer appears who takes his victim’s fingerprints…That should be enough to at least make him a suspect.”

Craig: “You’ll not find one other connection from those other three murders back to me other than those blood fingerprints that Axel planted... Megan, you’re the only one who believes me right now. You gotta get me out of here!”

     The police union assigns a great defense attorney to represent Craig; they want him to be fairly represented, and if he’s guilty, they don’t want to give him easy grounds for appeal for inadequate council in such a serious case. The attorney is Artie Walker. Artie has gone through all of the evidence and is sure Craig is guilty of all four murders. He has his first meeting with Craig at the jail. They have their introductions and then they talk alone:

Craig: “I’m not guilty of these charges. You have to believe me.”
Artie: “All of my clients are innocent Craig, and that fact is irrelevant anyway. My job is to get the best possible result for my client, and I intend to do that for you.”

     Craig tells Artie everything he hypothesized with Megan about. It sounds like an elaboration of a mad man. Artie does not buy it and KNOWS a jury would never believe it.

     Artie says, “Look, Craig, here’s what we’re dealing with: I can not say in court something I know to be a lie, so I’m going to tell you what I think might have happened, and you just listen.

     What if those first three murders were committed by three separate killers? Other than the blood fingerprints, there is no other reason to believe these murders are connected to the same killer. You, being a police officer, had access to the crime scenes before other cops showed up, or you had other time alone with the bodies. You could simply have taken the blood fingerprints when no-one was looking... That’s not murder!... Maybe evidence tampering? But that’s not as severe a charge.

     That leaves Brooke, which is not so easy to explain. I’ll be honest, they have you for her murder. There’s no way around it. But I can probably knock it down to second degree instead of first degree murder. It wasn’t premeditated, maybe a crime of passion…you have history with her… maybe she provoked you somehow… Second degree with a sympathetic remorseful defendant could have you out of jail in as little as ten years.

     Before you speak, think for a second. If they get you for more than Brooke’s murder, you will have high profile serial killer status. You will never see the outside of a maximum security prison. And you, being a former cop AND convicted serial killer, will make you a target and a trophy for the other hardened prisoners. You are aware of what happens in maximum security prisons, aren’t you? …If I can get second degree on only Brooke, I may be able to get you into a medium security facility where you will be a little safer… and it will be closer to 10 years, not life… and not the death penalty.”

     Craig is sitting with his head in his hands now. He has absorbed all of this and sees his life passing him by. He looks up at Artie and says, “But I’m innocent. Axel framed me.”

     Artie explains, “Once again, that is irrelevant, we have to face facts, and I’m not the one you need to convince. There will be twelve jurors petrified of letting a serial killer go free. If they see all this evidence and only a choice between completely guilty and completely innocent, you can kiss your life goodbye… Think about it...

     I’m going to go to the district attorney now and see if he will even deal second degree murder for Brooke and evidence tampering for the other three girls. If not, I know I can still sell it to a jury later. I’ll be back tomorrow…”

     In the meantime, Megan goes to Detective McDowell with her and Craig’s theory on how Axel framed Craig. But McDowell is not swayed; he is already convinced Craig is the killer, and the coincidence of Axel possessing fingerprint paper is not enough to go to a judge to issue a search warrant. She gets a similar response from her captain. She goes directly to a judge she is acquainted with, but the judge does not see enough to grant a search warrant.

     Megan is not a homicide detective. It is not her job, but she puts on her uniform and goes to question Axel; nobody else is going to talk to him. He answers the door at his home and steps out onto the porch so that Megan can not look inside.

Axel: “Ah, Officer TRIXIE, how can I help you today?”
Megan: “Axel, where were you the evening of April 20? The night Brooke was killed.”

Axel: “I would have to think about that. I’ll have my lawyer get back to you. Or, maybe I’ll exercise my right to remain silent.”

Megan: “I know you killed her… I know you killed those three other girls… and framed Craig.”

Axel: “Well, you’re a cop. You probably should arrest me… if you KNOW it. “

Megan: “We figured out you had blank fingerprint paper in your car when we arrested you. That was clever to use that exact paper for Brooke. You pulled off a great set-up. And sending Craig to Victorsville… Very resourceful.”

Axel: “I don’t have any idea what you are talking about… sounds like an exciting plan though. But Craig killed those poor girls... I never liked Craig, he seemed a little off, and he was a bully. … But hypothetically, if Craig isn’t the real serial killer, you may want to TELL him: it looks like the killer really didn’t NEED a patsy to take the fall. It seems this killer was getting away with his murders… But SOMEBODY got in his way… …hypothetically.”

Megan: “This isn’t over.” She walks away.

Axel: “Bye Bye, TRIXIE.”

     Megan gets in her car and drives away. She knows, it may be over, though. She is at a dead end and there is not much else she can do.

     Artie visits Craig in jail the next day and explains the district attorney will not even consider putting second degree murder on the table for only Brooke and not charge for the three other girls’ murders. Apparently, since it has made the news, and because there is so much evidence against Craig, there is pressure to not make any deal that will allow him to ever be free again. It even looks like they will be pushing for the death penalty.

     But he explains he may still be able to get a jury to see it as a single case of second degree murder at trial if Craig takes responsibility for Brooke’s murder and will take the stand to explain how he only fingerprinted the other three girls after he found them already dead by someone else.

Craig: “Absolutely not. I have thought about it, and I can’t say that I am guilty of anything that I did not do. I will take the stand and explain how Axel framed me. Megan believes in me, she will testify. She’s a cop, that will help, right?”

Artie: “She’s a cop, but she’s your partner and your friend. She has motive to lie on your behalf. The prosecution will tear her testimony up on cross examination. We don’t have enough facts to create reasonable doubt here.”

Craig: “This can’t really be happening. Is there any other way?”
Artie: “The only other defense I see that does not land you in a maximum security prison for the rest of your life, or on death row, is if you want me to go to the D.A. and say we will be using an insanity defense. She would probably agree to sign off on ‘not guilty’ on the grounds of insanity if we offered to commit you to an asylum for the rest of your life. But I wouldn’t recommend that.”

Craig: “I see no choice but to still try to convince a jury of the truth, that I am innocent. Please prepare the defense based on Axel framing me.”

Artie: “OK, this is your call. I will do my best, but I don’t think this will end well for you. We go to court tomorrow for your arraignment. We will enter your plea of ‘not guilty’.  There is no chance of bail, but I will put a motion in for it as a formality. Assuming there is no bail, I can push for a speedy trial. I usually recommend this to my clients that have a shot of walking after the trial, but I will leave it up to you.”

Craig: “Somehow, I will be walking after the trial. Please get it scheduled as soon as possible.”

     At the arraignment, bail is denied, trial is scheduled to begin in one week.

     But Craig is not holding up so well under this immense pressure. Other than Megan, nobody he knows believes he is innocent. All of his cop friends don’t believe him.

     Craig does not have much family, but he is very close with his father, George Carter. George’s wife (Craig’s mother), died five years ago from breast cancer. George, heartbroken, never tried to meet anyone else. Since then, typically, Craig and his father would spend time together about twice a week. George is a retired military man; he spent most of his life in the service, a very well respected, disciplined man with a lot of pride. George has not come to visit Craig once, and has not taken his calls. This deeply hurts Craig… even his father thinks he is guilty.

     Axel behaves himself for a few days after Megan’s visit. He does not like the fact that he so brilliantly disposed of one nosey cop only to get another one focused on him. He is still considering moving out of the area.

     Axel goes to work regularly and still gets the occasional dizzy spell and sharp head pains. Once in a while now they are accompanied by a random phantom smell. Anything from vanilla candles to cinnamon rolls to a distinct perfume his first girlfriend wore when he was sixteen. They feel like flashes of a distant memory, and then… gone.

     A little more time goes by. Craig’s upcoming trial is all over the news. ‘The Fingerprint Killer trial is set to begin in two days.’

     Axel is at work and they get a call from a stranded woman who locked her keys in her car. Axel’s coworker offers an old tired joke, “Did you hear the one about the blonde who locked her keys OUT of her car?”

     Axel is dispatched in the company van. As Axel spots Dana’s car up the road about 100 yards away, she is laying back on the hood as she waits. Even from this distance he can tell she is stacked and sexy… and blonde. Vicky immediately appears in Axel’s passenger seat and takes an interest:

Vicky: “She’s pretty Axel, isn’t she?”

Axel: “NO!”

Vicky: “No, she’s not pretty???”

Axel: “Yes, she IS pretty. But NO to what you are thinking. No more killing customers… especially with Officer Trixie on my ass.”

Vicky: “But the Smiths were a successful murder/suicide. The cops did not investigate. Your name and the locksmith company never appeared in the cop’s report. It’s like it never happened for us - it’s a do-over. We still get one customer to kill.”

Axel: “That’s brilliant… But listen close…NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  …We don’t want to draw ANY suspicion to ourselves that even may slightly impact on Craig’s trial. He will still be accusing me of the four murders. He will look desperate because they only have the coincidence over the fingerprint paper. But if they can also say a recent customer on mine is missing or found dead, it will lend some credibility to Craig’s claim that he is innocent and I am the serial killer… So just be patient.”

     Axel greets Dana and as standard procedure, gets info off her driver’s license for the work order - can’t just unlock a car door for a stranger without verifying who they are. In no time, the job is done and everyone is on their way.

     Vicky pouts over the lost opportunity the rest of the day. Axel ignores her and goes to bed about an hour earlier than normal. He wakes up in the morning and Vicky made breakfast. She apologizes for being bitchy the previous day. Vicky seems to be in an especially good mood. She is usually in a good peppy mood; she is an upbeat person, but she seems super-happy today. Vicky tells Axel she has a present for him and gives him a gift-wrapped box. She anxiously waits for him to open it, like a child giving her father what she thinks is the greatest present ever on Christmas Eve because she can’t wait until the morning. Axel opens it and can’t believe his eyes. It is the most terrifying thing he has ever seen, and he has seen a lot of terrifying things.

     In the box was about $200 cash, a sheet of bloody fingerprints and two pictures of Dana, one seemingly alive, and one definitely dead.

     Axel is enraged:

Axel: “What have you done?!!!!!  … Explain this!”

Vicky: “Calm down Axel. You would have been so proud of me. I learned my lessons well from the master. It was a perfect night - beautiful and meticulous.”

Axel: “Tell me every detail and do not gloss over anything.”

Vicky: “We had Dana’s address from her drivers license. I packed one of your special bags and I drove over there and parked… a block away. I snuck around the back of their house. It was a one story house, so I was able to listen at every window. I could hear inside and I could tell the only people home were her and a guy. They were fucking. I was getting turned on just from listening from outside and picturing Dana getting nailed.

     So I put on latex gloves and picked the lock on the back door. It was an easy one, I have watched you do these many times. I entered their bedroom with your gun drawn. They were doing it doggie-style facing the other way, so they did not even realize I was in the room... By the way, watching doggie style from behind the guy is not the most flattering angle to watch sex...

     I approached them and cocked the gun next to his head, ‘shick shick’ and said ‘freeze’. They just froze in mid-fuck, didn’t make a peep. I said ‘Do as I say and nobody dies’.  They were both very cooperative. They seemed like a nice couple. Too bad they died so young… Anyhoo…

     The husband’s name was Gerald. I knew I could not put the gun down while I tied up Gerald because I would have been left vulnerable. So I made him handcuff his hands together under the chair. Keep in mind, he is totally naked from just being interrupted having sex. I think he lost his boner before the gun made the second ‘shick’ noise though.

     I made Dana handcuff her wrists to the opposite side of the bed so she could not pull any surprises while I dealt with Gerald. Then I fully restrained Gerald to the chair with rope; he could not move his arms or legs at all. I’m a girl… I’m not taking any chances of being manhandled by a guy. And I gagged him with duct tape.

     Next I turned my attention to the lovely Dana. I kept the gun pointed at her and undid her handcuffs so she was unrestrained. Dana was not completely naked. She had some lingerie on that was pulled up while they were fucking. I pulled over a chair and sat and told her to do a striptease for me. She took off the lingerie, but I was very disappointed in the effort she showed in teasing as she stripped… but what a gorgeous body. She must work out a lot. And those huge boobs of hers… they’re real!

     Now that she’s completely naked, I get her cuffed to all four corners of the bed and tape her mouth. I grope her and taste her and have some fun with her. I looked over, and Gerald’s got his boner back. He liked watching me pleasure his wife… What a freak!

     About now I realized, I had a penis, so I…”

     Axel stops her mid-sentence, “Woe, hang on there! …Did you just say you had a penis?”

     Vicky replies casually, “Yes, I had a penis... OK… I had YOUR penis.”

     Axel is stunned, “My penis??? What the hell does that mean?” He reaches in his pants to check himself.

     Vicky tells him: “Well, silly, I don’t have a real body… so I had to BORROW yours. You were just sleeping; you weren’t using it, so I just borrowed it for a little bit.”

    Axel is dumbfounded. He was standing, but sits immediately, thinking of the potential ramifications of what he is hearing. After a minute he tells Vicky to continue with the story.

     Vicky continues, “…So I realize I have a penis, and I know it’s your penis, and I want to take care of YOUR penis... so, I put on a condom … YOU’RE WELCOME!

     …I put on the condom and start fucking Dana... Oh… My… God! What a great feeling. I am already super-excited to just be WITH her, but to actually be inside her while fucking her. I can’t describe it… Well, you know, you’ve done it before… Actually, you’ve done it to me… so again, YOUR WELCOME!... …And it’s a feeling of power. I never thought I had penis envy before, but now … I totally have penis envy … I want a penis, there, I said it…

     Anyway, looking at her tits bounce as I repeatedly thrust inside her and looking into her crying eyes, I am so excited that I cum within, like, a minute. I have no idea how you last so long. Maybe I just need some more practice... So I get up and flush the condom…three times. See I’m always thinking.

     I was still turned on though; I never lost the erection, so I put on another condom. But I feel like I want something a little different. So I did something a little risky… Don’t get mad…”

     Axel is starting to scowl so Vicky goes in a different direction.

     Vicky says “…I fucked Gerald in the ass… …(laughs)… Axel, the look on your face is priceless. I’m fucking with you. No, I never touched Gerald.

     The different thing I was GOING to say was… I just wanted to feel Dana’s arms around me while I fucked her. It’s a girl thing, more passionate, I’m sure you couldn’t relate. I know I couldn’t risk freeing both her arms, so I just unlocked her right wrist. I told her to close her eyes and pretend I was Gerald. I wanted her to give me the Dana experience more than I was getting with her unable to move.

     It was better… but… well… sorry about the scratches on your back... She’s a wildcat that one. I don’t think she was trying to hurt me - she was still pretty scared - they are just sex scratches.”

     Axel becomes alarmed. He goes to the bathroom mirror and checks his back to see if it was really true… There ARE scratches on his back! He chastises Vicky, “Do you know what this means?!!! There are my skin cells now under Dana’s fingernails!”

     Vicky continues, “Don’t worry, I took care of it. I’ll get to that soon.

     Anyway, I blew my second load… I love saying that now, so manly… I used to hate to hear guys talk crude like that… I blew my second load and flushed the condom… three times.

     Then for some reason I got really sleepy. What’s with that? …And I had no desire to play with Dana anymore.

     So I took Dana’s ‘before’ picture and I re-cuffed her free arm to the bedpost.

     I really didn’t FEEL quite like even slicing up her face with the surgical scalpel

or seeing if I could rip her nipples off with the needle nose pliers, or heating the extra large hunting knife blade with the blowtorch until it was glowing red and ramming it up her cunt… …but I did it all… and it was fun again once I started… Just needed that extra adrenaline boost.

     But I wanted more toys; your selection was boring me... In their garage, I found a circular saw… but I thought that might be too loud for nighttime. Then I found a drill. It was pretty quiet; and they had a pretty long drill bit already installed. I plugged it in to the bedroom wall and drilled through Dana’s arms and legs probably 40 or 50 times. She couldn’t talk because of the duct tape, but I am pretty sure she was pretty mad at me by now. I finished her by drilling through her chest slowly into her heart... …Then she was dead. I took her picture and her fingerprints.

     Gerald was not having a good time any more either, his dick was limp again. I drilled through his penis and into the chair. Then I drilled through the back of his head into his brain… All dead….”

     Vicky pauses as if she is done with the story. Axel inquires impatiently, “How exactly does this play out as a murder/suicide?”

     Vicky responds, “It’s not. What I left out of the beginning of the story is that as I was driving to their neighborhood, I noticed a lot of tagging by gangs. I saw one symbol about ten times. It wasn’t a very complicated scribble of red letters, so I got an idea. I made a detour to a home improvement store that was open til midnight and I bought some red spray-paint. Fast forward to the end of the night: I sprayed that symbol in Dana and Gerald’s bedroom on two walls and again on their living room wall… and then I carved the symbol with the surgical scalpel onto Dana’s dead belly… and again on Gerald’s dead forehead.

     They must have done something awful to piss off the neighborhood gang.

     Then it’s just pack up and take some cash.”

     Axel is impressed, “But what about my skin cells under her right hand fingernails?”

     Vicky points to the freezer in the kitchen. Axel opens the freezer and sees all five end digits from Dana’s hand in a baggie. Vicky had cut them off and taken the evidence.

     Vicky says, “I thought enough to not take the whole hand. Those fingertips should be easy enough to get rid of. You can clean the fingernails to your satisfaction and just flush them down a public toilet somewhere. Or keep them to plant on somebody... maybe Officer Trixie?”

     Axel has to admit, “Vicky, it sounds like you did think of everything. I am pleasantly surprised... And I am even more in awe of how truly deranged and twisted you are.” He stands and approaches her and gives her a little kiss on the lips, “... But don’t ever… EVER borrow my body again!”

     Axel sits and takes a bite of his breakfast Vicky had prepared for him. Vicky is glowing from the high praise. She responds to the other issue, “But I thought you liked when I made you breakfast… or dinner after a nap?”

     Holly shit, she has been using my body whenever I sleep. What else might she be up to? It’s an extremely sobering thought.

     The trial of Officer Craig Carter, The Fingerprint Killer, starts today. The phrase ‘media circus’ does not even begin to explain the amount of coverage this trial has attracted. It is the leading story on every news program every night across the country. There are experts giving opinions on every miniscule detail. If Craig’s lawyer takes his dog to the vet and there is video, it is considered ‘breaking news’, and these experts are discussing the ramifications a sick pet could have on his concentration level in the courtroom. There are 24 hour news stations dedicating virtually all 24 hours to this trial. There are surveys from every channel, and based on just the details released to the public over the last week, over 90 percent of the population thinks Craig is guilty of all four murders. One station tracked down O.J. for comment: “Oh yea, no doubt. That white boy’s getting’ da lethal injection.”

     Craig still has not heard from his father, but a few times on TV, he sees “reporters” staking out his father’s house and asking horrifying questions as he walks by: “Mr. Carter, do you think your son killed those four girls?” “George Carter, are you afraid of your son?” “George, do you think there was anything you could have done raising Craig that could have prevented him from becoming a serial killer?”

     George never answers the questions or even acknowledges their presence; he just walks by. But one time, the questioning brought him to tears as he was walking back to his house. Craig caught this on TV. Seeing his father crying, thinking his son was a serial killer, brought Craig to tears himself.

     After Vicky’s indiscretion with his body, Axel convinces Vicky that it is best to not murder anyone until after the verdict is handed down. Vicky is actually on board this time.

     Axel is anxiously looking forward to watching the trial on TV. To see his plan presented piece by piece to the world is very exciting. That the trial is televised is going to be a good distraction from killing for Axel.

     As much as Axel would love to sit home all day and watch trial coverage, he has to go to work. He sets his DVR to record all day, and he will watch at night. The day goes smoothly with most customers giving their unsolicited take on Craig’s guilt; it’s a great small-talk news item.

     Axel’s co-worker, Freddy, invites Axel to join him at a sports bar after work to watch the ball game on TV. He says they have the best burgers around. Axel will need to eat dinner, and he knows Vicky will not be cooking for him (he was not planning a nap), so he agrees to go – but only long enough for dinner. He’s not staying for the whole game; he has opening statements to watch.

     They get to the bar, get a table, and order a couple burgers and a couple beers. It turns out, these ARE good burgers.

     Freddy makes conversation, “I was thinking about this earlier today… How do you think the field of gynecology got started? I mean one day there was no gynecologists and the next day some dude opens a shop and says – Lay back, and throw your legs in the air… I’m going to look into your vagina… just to make sure make sure everything’s alright... Oh, and in addition, you pay me!!!… You pay me the equivalent of a hundred dollars – probably a bunch of chickens or yams or something. Does that not sound like a scam. What woman falls for that? I think it was definitely a scam, it just became legit after a while.”

     About half way through their meal, Freddy gets a call. Apparently, it is an ex-girlfriend in town for the evening - this is a booty call. Freddy apologizes for bailing, but he didn’t know she was coming, and she’ll be gone tomorrow. Axel completely understands. He stays by himself to finish his meal.

     After Freddy is gone, Vicky comes strolling in and sits with him as he finishes the burger. They sit and talk while Axel finishes his beer. Vicky notices, “Hey that woman sitting at the bar is checking us both out.”

     Axel looks over. There is a woman by herself glancing over in his direction. She has brown hair, about shoulder length. She is mid-thirties, relatively close to Axel’s age. She is cute, kind of wholesome looking, especially to be looking at a COUPLE in a bar.

     Vicky is staring down the mystery woman as seductively as she can. Axel tells her, “Don’t stare so blatantly. Glance away a little, you’ll scare her off.”

     Vicky says, “I know what I’m doing. Women can stare, it’s not so intimidating. If YOU were to stare like this, you’d come off like … a serial killer.”

     Vicky finally nods the woman over with a motion of her head, and she comes to their table. “Hi, I’m Danielle.”

     They invite her to sit and they talk; they all hit it off right away. Danielle touches both Axel’s and Vicky’s arms and shoulders while she talks, a clear sign that she is interested in … both of them. After about 30 minutes she has to go, but they exchange phone numbers.

     Once she is gone, Vicky just casually says, “She’s not my usual type… but I like her.”

     Axel says firmly, “Do NOT kill her!”

     Vicky assures him she will not kill Danielle. Axel looks at the paper, and her phone number is 555-6969. He realizes, it is a bogus phone number. The 555 prefix is only for bogus numbers; why would she do that?

     They go home to watch the trial.

Opening statements:

Representing the people, Kyle Branson:

     “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury… this is a very serious case. Four women have been murdered by a man not motivated by fear or greed or anger or revenge or jealousy or any human emotion I could explain or that you could relate to. They were murdered to satisfy his lust for blood… He did it for fun! He raped and tortured and mutilated these four girls extensively, and he must be stopped. You must stop him in this courtroom. Do not set him free.

     I am about to show you crime scene pictures of what Craig Carter did to these four girls. They will be difficult to look at, but you must know what kind of animal we are dealing with:

(picture is displayed). Stephanie was found with virtually every bone in her body broken. She was beaten relentlessly with a metal pipe. Her face was beaten so badly, her parents could not recognize pictures of her. It took DNA matching to the parents to verify it was her. Here is an earlier picture of her. She was a very pretty girl.

(picture is displayed). Wendy was found with her chest cut open, ribs broken out, and her heart badly damaged. She was still alive when the killer ripped out bones, reached into her chest and squeezed her heart until she died.

(picture is displayed). Jessica was mutilated with a paring knife. There were eleven puncture wounds on her body and a deep cut on her left arm that went from her wrist all the way up to her shoulder. She bled to death…. She was two months pregnant.

(Axel comments to Vicky, “Actually, they got that one wrong. Cause of death was suffocation.”)

(picture is displayed). And finally Brooke: Her head was bashed in with a baseball bat, brutally. And she was also choked; there were rope marks on her neck. We could not determine which of these wounds caused her death... And after she was dead, still not satisfied, he drove a steak knife into her heart.

     That Craig Carter was a trusted police officer at the time he committed these murders makes these heinous crimes even more egregious. These were brutal murders, and if this man goes free (points to Craig), there will be more victims. It could be your daughter, or someone you are close to next time.”

For the defense, Artie Walker stands:

     “This is a high profile case, and I know all of you have seen some stuff on the TV, and you may have opinions already. But in a court of law, you are directed to put aside any preconceived notions of guilt the media may have conveyed. Their objective is to get ratings, and calling a police officer a serial killer gets ratings. I ask you to keep an open mind when weighing the evidence. If you do, you will see there is another alternative.

     The prosecution is showing you these pictures to scare and outrage you, and you should be scared and outraged. But your job is not to determine IF something horrible has been done. Your job is to determine WHO did these horrible things. Don’t let your emotions lead you to convict an innocent man.”

The prosecution will call its first witness tomorrow.

     The next day starts with no surprises for Axel; he goes to work, gets a couple dizzy spells, and goes home to watch more of the trial from today’s DVR recording. Shortly after he starts watching, there is a knock at the door. Axel stands up, but Vicky answers the door… It is Danielle??? Axel naturally looks surprised… because he is surprised.  He asks, “How did you know where I live?”

     Danielle replies, “Vicky invited me to come over and watch the trial with you guys. I brought a pie.” She puts the pie on the kitchen table.

     Axel asks, “Why did you give me a fake phone number? I thought you didn’t want to see us again.” She replies, “It wasn’t a fake number. Do you still have it? Call it.”

     Axel easily remembers the number: 555-6969. He dials it on his cell phone, but he is sure it will not work... There is a ring that comes from Danielle’s purse. She answers... So it WAS her real number… Weird.

     Vicky breaks out a bottle of wine. All three of them talk and eat Danielle’s pie (get your mind out of the gutter). And they watch the prosecution present its case:

     Kyle calls witnesses that confirm Brooke obtained a restraining order against Craig. Then Kyle introduces the recording Brooke made of Craig’s voice blackmailing her for sex. Next, Kyle plays the tape of Brooke’s 911 call establishing that Craig was there against Brooke’s wishes the evening she was murdered. The defense does nothing here - no cross examinations.

      The prosecution calls a forensic scientist to the stand. He explains the bat found in Vicky’s apartment had Vicky’s blood all over it, and also had Craig’s fingerprints on it. He explains that the knife found in Vicky’s body matched a knife missing from Craig’s kitchen knife set. He explains the rope found hidden in Craig’s heating vent had Vicky’s skin cells on it, and that Vicky had rope marks on her neck from being strangled.

     In cross examination, the defense asks if it is POSSIBLE that somebody took Craig’s bat from his house, killed Brooke with it and left it behind. The expert has to admit “It’s possible.” Similar questioning followed about the knife and the rope. Again, the expert has to admit “It’s possible,” but it is obvious the likelihood is very slim.

     The trial is moving quickly, because all Artie can do is try to coax the words ‘it’s possible’ out of each witness. It really does not make a strong case for the defense, but it is hard to defend Craig against the mountain of evidence against him.

     Court is adjourned for the day.

     Axel turns off the TV. He has many more hours recorded of expert analysis, essentially journalistic masturbation, but he knows it is going well for the team he is rooting for without the expert’s help.

     Danielle is not ready to leave. She is a little tipsy from the wine (a second and third bottle came out as the trial went on, so they are all a little tipsy). Danielle scoots a little closer to Vicky, and they are looking deep into each other’s eyes. Axel has noticed what’s going on, and the room is totally quiet. Everyone knows what’s coming, but everyone is afraid to make the first move. Then Vicky steps up to the challenge and leans in for a kiss. Danielle kisses back and it is a deep passionate tongue kiss.

     Axel is not sure his place in all of this, so he just waits patiently to see if he will be invited to join in. The girls grope each other, and their tops come off. They invite Axel to participate, and they all go into the bedroom.

     In a new three-way like this, the main concern is that two of the people will be more into each other, and the third person does not get enough attention. That is not the case here. Danielle started with Vicky, but she wants them both equally.

     They end up in multiple positions as you might imagine. But it is always Danielle in the middle; meaning, Axel never penetrates Vicky…

     Vicky eats Danielle while Danielle blows Axel, Axel fucks Danielle while Danielle eats Vicky…

     They end up in a configuration where Vicky is lying on the bed face up. Danielle is licking her clit and fucking her with two fingers. Danielle is standing with her legs straight and far apart making a wide upside down V, and she is bent over at the hips at about 90 degrees to get her fingers and face to Vicky’s pussy. Danielle is completely bent over and legs spread for Axel, who first takes a taste of her pussy, and then he gets up and fucks her from behind.

     They all relish in this position for a little while, and Vicky is the first to start climaxing. As she builds, Danielle starts to cum also. They are in sync as they both hit their very peak of their orgasms. They are squirming and gyrating and moaning and are completely overwhelmed in the moment when something very unexpected happens, unexpected to Axel at least. He cums too. Axel never cums without death, or at least extreme violence. But tonight, all three of them have a simultaneous orgasm.

     When it’s all over and they are all exhausted, they pile on the bed. Axel is in the middle and both girls rest their heads on his chest. Good times… But Axel has a feeling this is going to get complicated… very soon.

     The next day after work, Vicky approaches Axel. He can feel a talk coming up. But Vicky is totally cool with everything. She explains that as long as she gets the attention she needs from Axel, and they find new victims after the trial, they can keep fucking Danielle.

     But what soon happens is Danielle is getting a little more of Axel’s attention than Vicky. Danielle is a new toy, and she actually made him cum. Vicky helped too, but he was inside Danielle when it happened, so he wanted to explore this a little more.

     They have sex as a threesome the next night and all is still good. But the following night after that, Axel takes a drive with only Danielle to the beach. They light a bonfire, and they end up skinny dipping in the ocean. It’s fuckin’ cold, but they don’t care much, it adds to the excitement. Axel fucks Danielle as they stand chest deep in the cold dark ocean. He is able to cum inside her again. What they don’t see is Vicky, off in the distance on the beach.  She is staring at them, getting jealous, getting mad…

     Nothing is ever said between Axel and Vicky about this encounter.

     The trial is proceeding and Axel watches his recordings daily:

     Kyle introduces more witnesses and presents more evidence.

     The traces of Brooke’s blood in Craig’s apartment: The prosecution proves it was there. The defense can only get the small concession that it is ‘possible’ it could have been planted.

     The pictures and blood fingerprints of the dead girls: Kyle calls a scientist to testify that they are authentic and police witnesses to testify that they were found in Craig’s heating vent. The defense can get the police witness to say ‘it’s possible’ they were planted. But this witness was tired of being bullied and adds, “It’s POSSIBLE your mother killed all these girls… it doesn’t make it at all realistic.”

     That statement stung Artie and Craig a little, but the jury was already thinking it.

     Now Kyle focuses in on what he considers his strongest piece of evidence. He has the forensic scientist back on the stand to explain:
Kyle: “Doctor, please explain what exhibit 25-D is.”

Doctor: “This red pattern is blood from Brooke. The blood was on her fingers, and then her fingers were methodically pressed to this paper. It’s Brooke’s fingerprints taken in her own blood.”

Kyle: “Is there anything else on this paper the court should know about?”

Doctor: “Yes, we lifted other fingerprints that are not visible to the naked eye from the paper... They were a match to Craig Carter.”

     It took several days to enter all of the physical evidence and have experts authenticate it.

     The prosecution calls Detective Martin McDowell to bring it all home:

Kyle: “Officer, you were in charge of the investigation of Brooke Jensen’s murder?”

McDowell: “That is correct.”

Kyle: “You are aware of all of the evidence of the case?”
McDowell: “I am thoroughly aware of every aspect of this case.”
Kyle: “What do you believe happened?”

McDowell: “Without a doubt, Craig Carter killed all four women. There is an abundance of evidence both at the crime scene and at his home to prove he killed Brooke. And the blood fingerprints we found of the other three girls make it clear that he killed them also.”

Prosecution is done with this witness. Artie stands for the defense.

Artie: “Why do you think there is so little evidence at the first three crime scenes and so much evidence against Craig at Brooke’s apartment?”
McDowell: “I can’t really say for sure. I could guess that he ran out of time, or maybe murdering Brooke was more personal to him. He had a turbulent history with her. Maybe he just snapped after this murder and didn’t clean up… Maybe he wanted to get caught this time.”

Artie: “But at least you admit, the crime scene at Brooke’s is very different in this way than the other three crime scenes?”

McDowell: “Yes, it is different.”

Artie: “And to clarify one more time, only Brooke’s crime scene had ANY evidence that points to Craig Carter?”

McDowell: “Yes.”

Artie: “Last question. Did you ever investigate Axel Simmons as a suspect in Brooke’s murder?”

McDowell: “We considered him based on Craig’s early statements, but as lab results came in all pointing to Craig, his statements were ruled out, and Craig became the focus of the investigation.”
Artie: “So you never even investigated Axel Simmons?”

McDowell: “Yes, that is correct.”

(Axel does not like the accusation in this highly publicized trial).

     The defense is done with this witness and the prosecution rests. It is a very strong case.

     Later that evening Craig is informed that his father is dead. He was found after a reporter heard a gunshot go off in his house. George Carter was found in his military uniform with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple of his head.

     Craig cried for hours. He knows it is somewhat his fault. His father killed himself over the shame that his son is serial killer.

     But I’m not a serial killer… Axel framed me!

     Meanwhile, the day after the skinny-dipping, Danielle comes over again to visit Vicky and Axel. Axel is on the couch intently watching his recording of the day’s trial, and Vicky is in the kitchen. Danielle sits in a kitchen chair to be by Vicky. She has no idea how upset Vicky is about Axel fucking her without her being part of it. Danielle is facing out towards the living room where Axel is, and she’s looking at the TV from the distance. Vicky casually walks to their knife block, pulls out the large chef’s knife and slowly approaches Danielle from behind. Vicky wraps her left arm around Danielle’s forehead to secure her head against her waist and brings the blade to Danielle’s throat with her right hand. Danielle’s head is restrained, and she can’t really move with the knife to her throat.

     Vicky call out to Axel, “Axel… you like this cunt more than me?”

     Axel turns and tries to calm her down from across the room, “Hey… Hang on there Vicky. You’re my number one girl. You know that. Danielle is just a plaything for both of us... I thought you liked her too?”

     Vicky replies, “I did like her… until you started screwing her behind my back…” (she recalls a position they all had sex in) “I mean without me knowing... You shouldn’t be keeping secrets from me Axel!”

     Axel responds, “I wasn’t keeping secrets. We went for a drive and it led to sex. I would have told you. I didn’t think you would care… Just let her go... You agreed, no more killing until after the trial… And absolutely not in our house.”    

     Vicky says morbidly, “Perfect!” and cuts Danielle’s throat. The blood streams out of the wound and Danielle drops to the floor in a pool of her own blood. Axel is stunned.

     Vicky is hysterical, out of her mind, “You made me do that! I had to do it for you... You left me no choice! …You just admitted to killing people… with her in the room. You said ‘no more killing until after the trial’. She would have gone to the police and Craig would have his reasonable doubt.”

     Vicky starts crying uncontrollably and muttering, “I did it for you… … I did it for you … … I did it for you.”

     Axel is overwhelmed by this and takes Vicky in his arms to comfort her. He pacifies her, “It’s all right… Everything’s gonna be fine... We’re gonna be just fine...” She is crying into his shoulder.

     After a few minutes of holding her, Vicky starts to pull herself together. Axel is still holding Vicky, his back is to Danielle’s dead body, and Vicky is facing her. Axel says in a calm voice, “We have to think about what to do with her body.”

     Vicky pulls back from Axel’s arms just a little so she can see his face and says with an eerie calmness, “Axel… I already took care of it.” She wipes some tears from her face with her right hand.

     Axel turns towards Danielle and starts to say, “What do you mean you took care …” And he can’t believe his eyes. In the spot that Danielle was just lying dead, was no Danielle. There was still her pool of blood though. He thinks, ‘She was dead, right?... She couldn’t have walked away?’ And as he asks these questions to himself and stares down at the pool of blood, it starts to vanish until there is no trace that Danielle was ever there.

     He looks to Vicky with a puzzled look. She just shrugs her shoulders as if to say ‘I don’t know’.

     The defense begins their case and calls to the stand Officer Megan White. Megan approaches the stand wearing her police uniform.

Artie: “In your job as a police officer, you sometimes disguise yourself as a prostitute to catch men who frequent prostitutes?”

Megan: “That is correct.”

Artie: “Did you ever arrest Axel Simmons?”

Megan: “Yes, myself and Officer Craig Carter arrested Axel when he tried to solicit me for sex. He said he wanted anal sex and to tie me up and smack me around. He gave me the creeps.”

Artie: “Did you search Axel Simmons’s car that evening.”

Megan: “Yes, we did a routine search and found a number of disturbing items.”

     Artie has pictures he hands to Megan. During Axel’s incarceration, these pictures were taken when the items were processed.

Artie: “Please identify if you found these items in Axel’s car that evening and state what the items are for the record.”

Megan: “All of these items were from his car. There is a big hunting knife, a smaller hunting knife, a utility knife, a large kitchen knife, a scalpel, a blindfold, four pairs of latex gloves, a blowtorch, needle nose pliers, acid, four pairs of handcuffs, duct tape, several lengths of rope, two garbage bags, rags, a change of clothes, a Polaroid camera, and fingerprint paper, like the kind cops use.”

     Artie hands the photos to the jury.

Artie: “What did you think when you found these items?”

Kyle stands up, “I object, her thoughts on the items are not relevant to the facts of the case.”

Artie: “Your honor, I am asking her professional opinion as a trained police officer.”

Judge: “I’ll allow it.”

Megan: “These items, taken by themselves, are completely innocent. But put them all together in a bag, and you have tools to murder and torture. I thought Axel was a murderer. But we did not have enough evidence to prosecute him.”

Artie: “You mentioned you and Craig found fingerprint paper... anything significant about that?”

Megan: “Well, at first, it was a routine search, so Craig searched the vehicle with bare hands. He did not wear latex gloves at first. That is how his fingerprints got on that fingerprint paper. Axel later used this same paper to take Brooke’s prints in her blood and plant that paper in Craig’s house.”

Artie: “Do you believe Craig Carter is guilty of these four murders?”

Megan: “I am positive he is not! Axel Simmons killed them and framed Craig.”

Artie: “Why do you believe this?”
Megan: “On the night Brooke was murdered, Craig called me and said he spotted Axel picking Brooke up on Sunset Boulevard. He went to her apartment and tried to warn Brooke that Axel was dangerous. Later that evening Axel called Craig and said he kidnapped Brooke and told Craig to come meet them in Victorville. I was on the phone to Craig as he was driving out there to SAVE Brooke. It was all a ruse to get Craig out of the city so Axel could get into his house, plant evidence and take Craig’s bat and steak knife to plant at the crime scene.”

Artie: “As a police officer, are there any other facts about this case that don’t seem quite right to you?”

Megan: “Yes. The first three girls were murdered by a very careful person. He left no trace that would lead back to himself. The Brooke Jensen crime scene was littered with evidence… all against Craig. Either the same person did not commit all four murders, or they carefully planted evidence at the last crime scene to incriminate Craig.”

Artie: “What do you think of Officer McDowell’s conclusions in this case?”

Megan: “I understand his position, but he is wrong. There is a lot of evidence against Craig, but everything can be explained away.”

Artie: “You were Craig’s partner and friend and we have heard some pretty horrible stuff about him, accused of murders, blackmailing a prostitute for sex. Tell us about the man.”
Megan: “Craig is a good man, a good cop. He isn’t perfect. He shouldn’t have treated Brooke the way he did. But I know he did not kill her. He did not kill any of those girls. He’s not a serial killer. No matter how bad it looks, he didn’t do it. Axel set him up.”

     The defense is finished with this witness. Kyle rises for the prosecution’s cross examination.

Kyle: “Ms. White, you said you were talking to Craig on the phone as he drove out to Victorville. What time did he first call you that evening?”

Megan: “It was about 11:15 pm.”

Kyle: “Are you aware of Brooke’s time of death?”
Megan: “The coroner placed it between 9:00 and 11:00.”

Kyle: “So the murder happened BEFORE Craig ever contacted you that evening?”
Megan: “Yes.”
Kyle: “So isn’t it possible that he killed Brooke. Then to make Axel look like the killer to you, he called you with this ruse of his own.”

Megan: “I don’t believe that.”
Kyle: “I understand your beliefs, but is it POSSIBLE that he killed Brooke, then called you and pulled this stunt to try to convince you that Axel killed Brooke.”

Megan: “It is physically possible … but I don’t believe it.”

Kyle: “Is it fair to say that your relationship with Craig has influenced your beliefs about this case. That is, if this was a stranger, and these same facts were presented, would you believe he was guilty?”

Megan: “I don’t know.”

Kyle: “Thank you for that honest answer. So you DO put some weight on Craig’s claim of innocence and his explanation… You trust him?”

Megan: “Yes, I trust him.”

Kyle: “Detective McDowell, the lead detective, does not have this trust in Craig. He only trusted the evidence he found… and he came to conclusion that Craig is guilty. Might your judgement of the EVIDENCE be clouded by your TRUST in your partner? … …I don’t need an answer to that one...” (Kyle pauses to let it sink in).

Kyle: “You are close with Craig. Does this give you motive to lie for your friend and partner?”

Megan: “You can say there is motive, but I am not lying.”

Kyle: “When Craig was blackmailing Brooke for sex, were you aware he was doing it?”
Megan: (getting uncomfortable) “Yes.”

Kyle: “And did you do anything about it? …It was clearly illegal. Did you tell your captain what he was doing?”

Megan: “No.”

Kyle: “So you kept your partner out of trouble for a fairly serious crime?”
Megan: “It’s not the same thing.”
Kyle: “Please answer the question.”

Megan: “Yes, I kept him out of trouble.”

     Prosecution is done with this witness. Defense has a few more questions to add.

Artie: “When you first saw all of the evidence against Craig, what did you think?”

Megan: “At first, I thought he was guilty just like everyone else.”

Artie: “So your trust in Craig was not blind and absolute as the prosecution may have had us believe... What changed your mind? Did you just start to just trust him again, or was there evidence.”

Megan: “He gained my trust back by explaining piece by piece how the evidence against him was faulty. It really could have been planned by Axel. And it all made sense. Axel created an opportunity to frame Craig, and he did a good job.”

     Court is adjourned for the weekend.

     Axel is very upset by what he has seen. The next day after Megan’s testimony, most television surveys report that about 80% of the people think Craig is guilty. That is 10% less than before. That means one out of every ten people Axel encounters now thinks he is the serial killer. This is not the low profile Axel likes to keep. He knows the television cameras will soon be following him wherever he goes. He tells Vicky they are moving… very soon. But he starts thinking, ‘Where can I go? This trial coverage is everywhere.’

     Vicky tells him, “I may have an idea. When we were driving back from Vegas, about an hour outside of Vegas I saw a sign for 15 acres of desert land for $40,000. You recently came into $80,000, and for this cheap of a price, it has to be the middle of nowhere. Think about it, no-one will know where you are, completely secluded from the media … … nobody would hear our victim’s screams.”

     Axel admits it is a great idea. Vicky tells him the phone number she memorized from the sign and Axel calls and introduces himself as Hugh Johnson. The old man who answers explains that the property is so cheap because it is so far from anything; it is already in the middle of the 15 highway far from any towns, and then you have to turn off onto a dirt road and drive about 20 minutes before you come to the near edge of the property. There is a small two room cabin at about the center of the property, but it has not been kept up. There are no utilities that far out. But there is a generator there for electricity and it will power the air conditioner. And there is a pump for underground water, but there is not great water pressure. It is completely off the grid. (Perfect). The old man used to use the land to take his sons dirt bike motorcycle riding and they had dune buggies, but the kids are grown and the land is just not being used.

     Axel tells him it sounds perfect and they set a time to meet at the cabin the next day. Axel gets directions and tells the old man to bring the deed – that if he likes the property, he will pay cash on the spot.

     Axel realizes that this old man will be the only person who knows he is there, so he disguises himself for the meeting. He wears a blonde wig and baseball cap, uses a fake blonde moustache and beard and wears large sunglasses for the meeting. He considered killing the old man, but someone might know he was coming out to the cabin and drive out to check on him once he is missing a while.

     The cabin is perfect for Axel’s needs. As you walk in, there is a main room that is fairly large. The kitchen area is part of the room to the right. As you walk straight back through the main room, there is a doorway that leads to a good-sized bedroom. There is a bathroom to the right in the bedroom. That’s the whole place, maybe 800 – 900 square feet.

     He pays the man the $40,000 cash and has him sign the deed over to Hugh Johnson. Axel has no intention of recording the deed, just using the land undisturbed.

     Axel uses most of the rest of his money to fix up the cabin, and buy supplies.

     Back in LA, Artie meets with Craig over the weekend.

Artie: “Craig, as I told you going in, we don’t have a strong case here, but Megan might have convinced one or two jurors that Axel MIGHT have killed these girls and framed you. That’s all we need. I want to rest our case here.”

Craig: “What? I have to testify. They need to hear from me that I’m innocent!”

Artie: “The problem with that is that once you are on the stand, the prosecution gets to ask you all kinds of brutal questions, and they will. Though it’s important for the jury to hear you say you’re innocent, it’s way too risky…

If they barrage you with accusation after accusation and you get emotional and show the slightest sign of anger, the jury will pick up on that.”

Craig: “I can handle it. I want to tell my side of the story.”
Artie: “Every part of your side of the story was introduced in Megan’s testimony. There are no more facts to tell. She introduced the opinion that all of the evidence could have been planted by Axel and you were framed. But if you take the stand just to say you didn’t do it, how will you handle questions like:
’Craig, why did you blackmail Brooke Jensen for sex? Was that the right thing to do?’

‘Craig, what was the purpose of fingerprinting you victims with their own blood?’

‘Craig, your father recently committed suicide. Do you think he believed you were innocent?’”

     Craig drops his head into his hands out of frustration and not knowing what to do.

Artie: “Craig, trust me. I’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t know if you will be acquitted based on what has been presented, but if you take the stand, it is more likely that they will convict you.”

Craig: “OK, I’ll trust you.”

     So on Monday, the defense rests its case, and closing arguments begin.

     Kyle, for the prosecution, runs through all of the evidence again for the jury and concludes with…

     “Every piece of physical evidence is linked to Craig Carter. We’re not talking about just one murder weapon at one location. If so, sure, maybe he could have been framed... Craig Carter is linked to the bat and the knife at the crime scene… a crime scene we KNOW he was at because Brooke told us in her own voice through a 911 call.

     At a second location, Craig’s house, there’s the rope, Brooke’s blood, pictures of three victims and blood fingerprints of all four victims.

     There is NOTHING that proves or even implies that Axel Simmons was ever at Brooke’s apartment, any of the other crime scenes, OR Craig’s house. The defense’s theory is a ridiculous explanation of what could have happened. It is a desperate story from a desperate guilty man.

     Craig Carter is an extremely dangerous man who tortured and brutally murdered four women… and he took pleasure in doing it.

     I said it at the beginning of this trial and I am saying it again… if this man goes free (points to Craig), he will kill again. It could be someone you are close to next time...

Your friend…  (flashes a bloody crime scene picture of Stephanie)

Your co-worker…  (flashes a bloody crime scene picture of Wendy)

Your wife…  (flashes a bloody crime scene picture of Jessica)

Your daughter…  (flashes a bloody crime scene picture of Brooke)”

     Artie, stands for the defense’s closing statements. He revisits each piece of evidence and explains how ‘it’s possible’ that each was planted by Axel Simmons and concludes with:

     “I will not lie to you, Craig Carter LOOKS guilty of these crimes. There is lots of evidence against him. But you can not find him guilty in a court of law unless he guilty BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT. I’m reasonable. I see that it’s possible Craig was framed. There are no eyewitnesses that saw him kill anybody.

     Ask yourself why the police did not even investigate Axel Simmons. He was arrested with a bag of torture and murder devices and let go. Then women were found tortured and murdered… A police officer saw Axel at Brooke’s apartment the night she was murdered, and as you heard from Officer Megan White, Axel clearly had the time and the locksmith skills to get into my client’s house and plant evidence.

     It’s all POSSIBLE!...

     But the police never investigated Axel Simmons because they were handed my client on a silver platter... by Axel himself… If they had looked harder at Axel, maybe I would have more evidence against him to tell you about. Then everything might not be pointing to Craig. But they stopped looking. Ask yourself why… and, what if...

     Axel may be having a big laugh at our expense right now.

     Your friend and your co-worker and your daughter and your wife won’t be any safer tonight if you convict Craig Carter and don’t even investigate Axel Simmons. Axel could have done this. IT’S POSSIBLE.”

Kyle stands for his rebuttal:

     “Sure, ‘it’s possible’, anything is possible. You can unlock every jail cell if you will believe every ridiculous theory of how something possibly happened. Aliens came down and framed Craig. Hey, it’s possible… there’s millions of other planets out there that could support life… COME ON?!!!...

     There is enough evidence for any reasonable person to conclude beyond a REASONABLE doubt that Craig Carter committed these murders.

     It was conclusive when the police closed the case... They also had not investigated Brooke’s hairdresser, should they have?... Axel was not investigated because there was no REASON to investigate him. The cop who saw Axel at Brooke’s apartment was Craig himself. Does that seem like a reliable witness in this case. You’ve seen the evidence, now please… find justice for these four women and their families.”

     The jury heads into deliberations. There is no verdict for three days. Some of the media circus is speculating this is good for the defense. Others in the circus say it is a good sign for the prosecution. Three mind numbing days of ‘experts’ blathering on throughout hundreds of TV stations. Surveys are conducted… you can bet on the verdict in Vegas.

     Then, about the time Axel has his desert cabin completed, the jury comes back with a verdict. Axel is listening by radio.

     Craig is instructed to stand for the verdict. Megan is in the audience along with every ‘journalist’ that will fit. The judge instructs that any outbursts before, during or after the verdict will lead to jail time for contempt of court. The courtroom is silent. You can feel the tension in the air.

     The jury foreman reads, “We the jury, on four counts of murder in the first degree, find Craig Carter… Guilty of all charges.”… … …

     A few days later, Craig is sentenced to the death penalty. Naturally, there will be appeals and it will be many years until he is executed, but his fate is sealed. He is on death row.

     Craig is moved to a maximum security prison with other death row inmates – the worst of the worst… and they HATE cops there. Within the first week, Craig is badly beat up by his black cell mate; he is stabbed with a shiv by a latino inmate at the cafeteria; and he is beaten and anally gang raped by four white inmates in the showers. He is a target and no gang will take him in or offer any protection. The guards see him as a serial killer and a cop gone bad, so they look the other way. Craig is all alone.

     Meanwhile, Axel has supplied his cabin with lots of creative things. Nobody knows he is there. Since his mug shot has been on the news coverage of the trial, Axel has dyed his hair from brown to blonde and cut it much shorter than it was before. He has not shaved so that he now has a mustache and beard, and he has dyed that lighter also. He picked up a pair of glasses that are just glass, no prescription. Unless someone knew him or really studied his face, they should not recognize him just from the news. After all, he was never live on TV, just a black and white mug shot.

     The trial is over and Axel has a promise to fulfill to Vicky. All they need now is their next victim.

     It’s after dark and they drive the 30 minutes down the dirt road just to get to an isolated point on the 15 highway. They head in the direction of Vegas (still an hour away). Axel has his chloroform and a gun with him. If he finds a good victim at a rest stop and he sees the opportunity, he will take her. Otherwise, he may have to get to Vegas and try to abduct a call girl. That’s the plan at least.

     Vicky and Axel have discussed how exciting it will be to not have to gag their victims, to be able to hear their screams, to be able to keep them… as long as they want … and then not have to worry about leaving a body or evidence. He can bury them anywhere and they’ll never be found. Axel already dug a couple holes while he was waiting for darkness to fall. And most importantly, since victims will never be found, Axel can cut ALL of their lovely throats without the cops ever discovering a pattern.

     About ten minutes down the 15 highway, he sees a car on the side of the road. Two girls are in the car. Axel pulls over to offer assistance.

     They are college girls who ran out of gas on their way to Vegas. Amy is the blonde, and Jenny is the brunette, both cute. Their cell phones don’t work this far into the desert. Axel turns on the country-boy charm he has learned to fake so well. It is a non-aggressive style that makes him seem extra-helpful.

     He knows that if he can get them even five minutes off the 15 highway towards his property… he owns them. He offers, “We’re far from a gas station in both directions. It’s another hour to Vegas, and at least 45 minutes back that direction before there’s a gas station. I live about 15 minutes away. I’ve got a five gallon gas can full of unleaded you can have. I keep it as a backup since I live in the middle of nowhere, but you gals need it more than I do. That would get you to Vegas from here.”

     The girls are amazed at this stranger’s generosity. But it is not at all beyond their skepticism; they are good-looking college girls – they are accustomed to guys doing extremely generous things for them (they are not completely aware the generosity is ALWAYS to get in their panties). They are gullible enough to believe people are nice.

     The girls put a bag each in Axel’s trunk – Axel told them they don’t want to leave valuables unattended in a car on the side of the road. Jenny gets in the front and Amy gets in the back of Axel’s car, and they head toward his cabin. The conversation is natural for a while. They have no idea what is coming. They are excited to be headed to Vegas for their first time and they just talk about their plans. Ten minutes down the 15 highway and fifteen minutes down the dirt road, Jenny asks, “I thought your place was only 15 minutes away?”

     Axel explains, “I meant 15 minutes off the highway. We’ll be there any minute. You girls are so much fun to be around. When you get to Vegas you have to check out the top of the Stratosphere…”

     The girls are still ok. The stratosphere suggestion leads their conversation to a few other sights they want to see. Even after running out of gas and this detour, they are still in a happy mood.

     Ten more minutes goes by and the car is much quieter. Both the girls are starting to believe something is wrong, but they don’t know what to do. Finally Amy asks, “Could you just let us off here? I think we should be going now.”

     Axel knows this is fear talking. He replies, “I can’t let you out here. It’s the middle of nowhere, it’s pitch black… the rattlesnakes would get you... Look, I know it’s a little farther that I said, but I do have a place up here. I’ll get you your gas and you’ll be on your way to Vegas in no time.”

     There is silence in the car for a few more minutes. Jenny says, “If you don’t take us back to our car NOW, I’m going to have you arrested once we get back.”

     Axel knows he is only a couple minutes to his cabin, and these girls can’t get away. He drops the nice-guy routine. He stops the car and shows them anger for the first time, “Shut up you stupid little bitch! I’m trying to do you a favor and you threaten me? What if I were to pull out my gun and shoot you in the mouth?”

     Axel pulls out his gun and points it at Jenny in the front seat. Both girls are petrified. He hits the power locks and says, “Neither of you opens the door or you both get shot.”

     Axel keeps the gun pointed at Jenny and hands her the bottle of chloroform and a rag. He commands her to wet the rag and she reluctantly obeys. The girls both start crying and begging to be returned to their car. Axel takes the rag back, grabs Jenny in the front seat, and holds the rag over her mouth. He makes sure she isn’t faking being passed out by squeezing her hand – hard. No reaction.

     Amy is freaking out in the back seat, curled up to the farthest corner of the seat by the door. Axel tucks the gun into the front of his jeans and wets the rag some more. He pulls out a hammer from under his seat and says to Amy in a relatively slow and calm, and evil voice, “You’ll be unconscious in a minute.” He lifts the hammer, “You can hold this rag over your mouth and inhale, or I can beat you unconscious  with this hammer… Your choice.”

     He tosses the rag at Amy. She is hysterical, and she is hesitant to move. Axel lifts the hammer in a threatening motion and Amy gives in. She cries “Wait!” and puts the rag to her face, and noticeably inhales. A few seconds later, she is completely sedated.

     Axel continues to his cabin with the girls knocked out. Vicky appears, “I call the blonde… you play with the brunette.” Axel grins.

     At the cabin, Axel brings the girls and their stuff inside. He has previously fashioned a dungeon in the back bedroom. The windows are boarded up. There are chains with cuffs attached to the walls for two victims. There is a bed with a sturdy metal headboard and baseboard and handcuffs already attached at all four corners. There are other items around the room designed to restrain a woman in a fixed pose.

     Vicky wants to play with Amy first, so Axel attaches Jenny to the wall with the chains. The chains extend from the very top of the wall and are about two feet long. There are cuffs to put her wrists into. She is hanging lifelessly from her arms. Her feet touch the ground where two more restraints with about 9 inches of chain are attached to her ankles. She will be able to stand on her feet when she wakes up, and will be able to more her arms and legs just a little. He puts duct tape over Jenny’s mouth.

     Vicky requests Amy on the bed on her knees, bent forward – doggie style. Axel drops Amy on the bed face down. He attaches cuffs from the bed’s corners to her ankles. He wraps rope around the bottom of the bed and over the back of her knees and ties it tight. He lifts her body up onto her knees and puts some large pillows in front of her, up to her waist, and lays her forward onto them. Then he fully extents her arms to the front corners of the bed and uses rope to tie her arms in place – there is about a foot of rope extending from her wrists to the top of the metal bedpost. She is stretching out, forward and out to the corners of the bed. Amy is tied tight enough that her arms and chest are suspended in the air over the bed from the pillows that are supporting her waist. She has little room to move at all. Since she is still unconscious, her head is dropped down, but it is does not reach the bed. Axel leaves her mouth uncovered.

     Axel has left the girls fully clothed for now. He wants their reaction as he cuts the clothes off of them. While he waits for the girls to wake, he goes through their stuff. One bag has $2600.00 and the other bag has $4200.00. Axel is pleased and makes a mental note to himself: it is better to abduct women driving towards Vegas than away from Vegas.

     Amy and Jenny wake up. Jenny is producing some very muffled screaming sounds and is kicking out with her feet as hard as she can against the chains. She has several inches play to go back and forth, but she can only hurt her ankles, those chains are very sturdy in the wall. Amy can not move, but she can scream, “HELP! Somebody Help Us! Please! He’s gonna kill us!...” (etc… the usual stuff)

     Axel takes Amy picture from the front of the bed so he can see her face. He walks over to Jenny, reaches under her shirt with a knife and cuts off her bra. He lifts her shirt up over her breasts with his left hand and takes her picture.

     Amy screams on for a few minutes. Axel just sits across the room and feeds on her fear. Finally he tells her where she is and that nobody will ever hear her. Her demeanor changes as she realizes that her calls for help are useless. She begs, “Please sir, let us go. We won’t tell anybody.” She’s crying.

     Axel takes out a large pair of heavy duty scissors. He starts at the bottom of Amy’s jeans and cuts them from the back of her right ankle up her legs, past her ass and through the other side - then the other leg. He cuts off her shirt, her panties and then her bra. Since her upper body is suspended, her breast drop down and hang in the air from her chest. They are each a good handful. Amy continues to cry and beg, but Axel is turned on by her crying and begging.

     Jenny can only watch as this is all happening to her friend.

     Amy is completely naked with her ass in the air. Axel calls out to Vicky who is not in the room, “Hey Vicky. What are you doing? …She’s ready for you.”

     Axel does not know what Vicky has planned, but he takes a seat a few feet from the bed knowing it will be fun to watch. Vicky enters the room coming out from the bathroom. She is completely naked except for a strap-on protruding from her pubic area. This in not some dainty little strop-on with a little 6 inch pink plain-looking vibrator. It is a LARGE 12 inch BLACK dong, shaped very much like a real penis with veins and balls and detail. It is very thick and has some weight to it. Axel says, “Damn Vicky, you DO have penis envy!”

     Vicky responds with, “Axel, even you should be envious of this thing.”

     Vicky approaches Amy from behind. She stops for a moment to look over her prey. Vicky spits in both hands and rubs it on the black dong. She enters Amy’s pussy and pushes this monster dong hard into her. Amy takes it all without a problem. Vicky fucks her for a while, smacking her ass as she goes and saying things like, “You like my huge cock, don’t you, you filthy whore.” Vicky is certainly enjoying herself.

     For a brief moment while this is going on, Axel gets a dizzy spell, and sharp headache. This episode is accompanied by one of those fleeting smells… It smells like… Danielle? Not just her perfume, the total smell that was Danielle – her perfume, her hair products, the scent of her skin and a trace of her pussy. After a moment it is gone. That was a weird one.

     Axel recovers and watches Vicky some more. After a while Vicky tells Axel, “Come over here and cut her while I’m fucking her… I wanna see some blood.”

     Axel picks up a large pocket knife, unfolds it and approaches. Amy was begging and crying while Vicky was just fucking her, but as Axel approaches with a knife, she gets much more hysterical.

     Axel cuts through flesh, about a quarter inch deep, from Amy’s right shoulder all the way to the right side of her ass. Blood spill out all over the place. Amy screams in pain. Jenny’s eyes get very wide with panic and she cries harder. Axel makes a similar cut down Amy’s left side. Axel sits back down to watch. Vicky fucks Amy even harder. The blood has turned her on even more.

     Vicky reaches below her black balls and rubs her own pussy while continuing to thrust in and out of Amy. With the blood, and Amy’s screams of fear and pain, it does not take long before Vicky brings herself to a very strong orgasm.

     When she has finished, Vicky says to Axel, “I’m going to give her a ‘Bloody Sanchez’.”

     (If you don’t already know what a ‘Dirty Sanchez’ is, go look it up on the internet)

     Vicky pulls out her big black dick from Amy and rubs the tip of it all over Amy’s back so it is dripping with blood. Vicky walks to Amy’s face and rubs the tip across Amy’s upper lip – a blood mustache – a Bloody Sanchez.

     Axel, still sitting, claps his hands, “Bravo!”

     Vicky takes a bow, black dong waving in the air, dripping Amy’s blood. Vicky says, “I’m done with her. Do you want to keep her, or should we kill her?”

     Axel replies, “This blonde is your toy. It’s up to you.”

     Vicky says, “…I say we kill her.”

     Axel walks back over to the left side of the bed with the large pocket knife and puts his right knee on the bed. He wraps his right arm with the knife around Amy and holds it to her throat. Vicky strattles Amy and puts her hand over Axel’s hand on the handle. Amy is crying and pleading for her life, “Please…Please, please don’t kill me.”

     Axel and Vicky together cut deep into her throat. Blood pours out of the wound and Amy’s head drops limp from her neck… She is gone.

     Axel takes his ‘after’ picture. He cuts the ropes off her wrists and unlocks the cuffs on her ankles and takes her fingerprints with her blood. Jenny is watching in disbelief of what has happened. Axel rolls Amy’s body off the right side of the bed and onto the floor.

     Axel douses a rag with chloroform and approaches Jenny. He suddenly gets an idea for a cruel game. He puts the rag down and offers, “Jenny, I’m going to make you a deal. I am going to open the front door over there and get you naked. Then I will free you. If you want to play along, I’ll give you a 30 second head start. Nod if you want to play along.” She nods up and down briskly.

     Axel enjoys the hunt as much as the kill. It’s like foreplay. Axel removes her shoes and cuts off her jeans, shirt and panties. He removes the tape over her mouth and unlocks her ankles and then her left wrist. With her right wrist, he says “Time starts …now.” There are weapons all over the place, and on her dash for the door, Jenny grabs a large sized hunting knife and runs for her life, completely naked.

     Axel walks to the front door to see where she is heading. The dumb chick got turned around and is even running the wrong way down the dirt road, away from the highway – nothing buy even more desert that way.

     After 30 seconds, Jenny is really not that far. Axel has put more chloroform on the rag and runs at a full sprint. He catches up to Jenny within 100 yards and tackles her with all of his body weight on top of her. Axel slides on top of Jenny on the gravelly road for about 5 feet. Jenny is bloodied all across her arms and legs and belly and tits from road rash, and her feet are bloody from running barefoot. Axel keeps his weight on top of her and forces the rag over her face. She tries to stab him with the knife while holding her breath, but she can’t get her arm free. Finally, Jenny passes out…

     Jenny wakes up in the same position Amy was in, on the bed: completely restrained in doggie position, arms extended and chest suspended by her arms. Her breasts are a little larger than Amy’s, and her nipples almost hang down enough to touch the bed.

     As Jenny comes to, she realizes her position, and making it even more surreal is that the bed is already covered in blood, and she sees her dead friend on the floor to her right.

     Axel has been waiting for her to wake up. The large hunting knife Jenny chose is lying on the right side of the bed. Jenny thinks she knows what she is in for and starts balling her eyes out. She knows it is futile, but she begs for her life. Axel loves this display and undresses himself. He is already aroused; no condom needed. He walks behind Jenny.

     It is Vicky’s turn to watch and she is seated about 10 feet away to the right side of the bed. She has made some popcorn. She sees Axel’s erection and chimes in, “Hey Axel, are you sure you don’t want to use the strap-on?”

     Axel points his cock, alternating up and down, between Jenny’s vagina and asshole and says, “Eenie… meenie… mienie… mo… …I tried… to let… Jenny… go… … but she… ran… way too… slow… …eenie… meenie… mienie… MO” (he landed on her ass).

     Axel shoves his dick into her ass. Jenny lets out a high pitched squeal – Axel was not gentle about it. This is not just anal sex, this is a rough ass-fucking. Jenny is screaming in pain, and the knife has not even come into play yet.

     Axel leans forward and reaches around and grabs at her swinging tits. When he pulls back his hand, it is bloody from her road rash. He likes this. Vicky is loving the show while crunching away at her popcorn across the room to his right.

     Axel continues to bang away at Jenny’s ass when he sees something in his peripheral vision to his left. He looks over, but nothing is there. But it looked like it was… Danielle.

     Axel ignores what he thinks he just saw and picks up the knife and makes a few slashes into Jenny’s back. He jabs the point of the knife into the top meaty part of her right ass cheek while he is still fucking her ass; he wants to see more of her blood. He directs some of the blood-flow with his hand down her ass crack and onto his dick. It gives the appearance that his dick is causing her ass to bleed, like it is a weapon. Axel really gets off on this image. He was going to keep Jenny for a few days, but he is overriding his previous decision. He’s about to cum. Axel keeps thrusting into her ass. He pulls Jenny’s hair, hard. Her head lifts back, and the front of her throat is fully exposed. Axel rests the blade on Jenny’s throat for a moment. She screams from the hair pulling and continues to scream as she feels the cold blade meet her throat. Axel pulls the blade back and to the right and slices her throat and cums in her ass. Jenny’s screaming stops. She goes limp. She is dead.

     Axel looks over to Vicky, and she is smiling a twisted little smile. Axel begins to slowly remove his cock from Jenny’s ass.

*As a note: sometimes when people die, their bowels relax, and whatever may be in there is released (they shit their pants… if they are wearing pants). Keep in mind, this girl not only just died, she was roughly ass fucked, and scared for her life (…and she had two Jack In The Box tacos for dinner).

     What happens next can only be described as an ASS EXPLOSION!

     As Axel removes his cock from Jenny’s ass, a spray of shit splatters Axel from his knees to the bottom of his ribcage. It is accompanied be a very rude sound… and smell. Axel is virtually paralyzed looking down at the mess. His mouth is hanging open and his eyes are wide as his brain tries to process what just happened.

     Vicky, from across the room, also is stunned for a couple seconds. She stops chewing on her popcorn as she takes in the situation. After the couple seconds though, she has an involuntary yet decisive reaction… laughter. First just a little, but it builds quickly and uncontrollably:

“ha…………… ha …………… ha …………… ha …….. ha …….. ha …… ha ……ha …ha …ha ..ha ..ha .ha,ha,ha,ha,ha”

     Axel is not amused. He was calm, but Vicky’s initial laughter starts to make him angry. His brain catches up as follows: She is laughing AT me, that is making me angry. I am covered in shit, that is making me angry. She is laughing AT me BECAUSE I am covered in shit. I am furious!

     Tears come to Vicky’s eyes. She actually doubles over and brings herself to the ground she is laughing so hard.

     Axel has turned his head to look toward Vicky, but other than that, he has not moved his body at all, just frozen in place.

     But his rage peaks and completely dissipates after a few seconds. Watching Vicky laughing so hard has actually lightened his mood. Her laughter is infectious and Axel himself slowly starts to laugh at his situation.

     Vicky tries to compose herself, still on the ground, wipes the tears from her eyes and stops laughing for a split second.

     Axel looks down and a blob of shit plops off of his still erect penis and hits the floor with a ‘splat’ sound… Vicky loses it again, laughing uncontrollably. Axel, who is laughing pretty hard now too, wipes his thigh with his hand and hurls shit across the room at Vicky who still on the floor. It splatters her, and she is disgusted, but she can’t stop laughing still.

     In about the last minute, Axel’s emotions have taken a rollercoaster ride. First he was excited and satisfied, (he just murdered his victim and had an orgasm). Then he was startled and confused (by the shit-storm). Then he was in a deep rage. And finally laughter. All this in about 60 seconds!

     And then Axel has an epiphany, a very strange realization... He has fallen in LOVE with Vicky!!!

     Axel cleans himself up, takes Jenny’s picture and fingerprints her. He drops the two college girls and their possessions in a hole he dug earlier about 20 yards from the cabin. He will fill it back up with dirt in the morning when there is daylight.

     He doesn’t say a word to Vicky about his new found feelings. He does not know how she might react to this type of information. But he does ask Vicky again what happened to Danielle. Vicky just says that she is in a better place. That does not comfort Axel… at all.

     Axel sleeps in the front main room of the cabin in a bed that does not have restraints. The back room, meant to be the bedroom, is for his guests. Axel goes to bed alone. He does not know where Vicky goes at night. But as he wakes up the next morning, Vicky is lying in his arms. She is warm, it feels nice. Does she know what Axel was thinking the night before?

     As Axel is becoming more awake and alert, he notices that he is hearing the shower water running. He nudges Vicky to the side (she does not wake) and walks into the back bedroom and into the bathroom to investigate. He is wearing only a pair of boxers. Axel opens the shower curtain with a fast motion… He sees Danielle naked, soaking wet, holding a large chef’s knife – just like the one Vicky cut her throat with! Danielle still has the large slit across her throat, and it is bloody.

     Danielle says to Axel, “Why did you kill me VICKY?!!!”

     As a confused reaction Axel says, “What?” He thinks, ‘that sounded like Vicky’s voice saying ‘WHAT’.’

     Axel glances downward at himself and sees… a woman’s form… He still has on his boxers, but he sees breasts, and a smooth, hairless, curvy woman’s body. He looks to his left at the bathroom mirror and sees Vicky staring back at him. He is stunned; it feels like he is in a dream – it is surreal. Axel continues to look in the mirror and touches his face, Vicky’s face, to corroborate what he is experiencing. As he is staring into the mirror, Danielle thrusts the knife into his right temple with the knife. It penetrates into his head several inches.

     As the knife pierces his head, Axel can not feel it, but he sees it happening in the mirror. And once it is lodged through his skull, into his brain, he sees Vicky’s face morph back into his own face. He stares in the mirror at the knife sticking out of his own head and some blood trickling from the knife down the side of his face. He touches the blood with his finger and looks at it – real blood on his fingers. After a couple seconds, Axel falls to the ground and has a seizure. It is a strong seizure that lasts about 30 seconds.

     Axel re-awakens on the bathroom floor and slowly stands. Danielle is gone. His reflection looks like his own. He carefully checks his head in the mirror and touches all around his right temple with his fingers. There is no sign his head was ever stabbed. There’s no blood on his finger or on the floor. He looks down and checks over his body. It IS his body:  hairy… (check),  no breasts…(check),  penis… (CHECK!!!).

     Did he sleepwalk? Was it a dream? Vicky is still in his bed sleeping, she was not wakened through this whole episode. Axel climbs in bed under the covers, spoons with her, and everything seems just fine. Vicky wakes as he cuddles her. She is facing away from him as the little spoon. She opens her eyes and says, “Axel… I had a dream… We were in love… It was nice… Really nice… Then Danielle came out of nowhere and killed you. She thought you were me, and she stabbed you in the head with a knife… … What do you think it means?”

     Axel is bewildered, “Did this happen in the cabin’s bathroom?”

     Vicky replies, “No… … … … I think it was in a car.”

     They lay in bed for a little while, but Vicky can not sleep. She is wide awake staring across the room. She has something on her mind. She ‘coincidentally’ realized she was in love with Axel last night too. She floats an idea, “Axel… wanna have sex?”

     Axel opens his eyes, he was not asleep, but he was drifting off. That statement got his full attention. “Is that something we can do?”

     Vicky replies, “I do have a vagina… You’ve got a penis… You can feel me against you body, right?”

     Axel: “Yes, you feel good… You smell good…  You seem real… But you’re dead.”

     Vicky replies jokingly, “Is that it? You draw the line at necrophilia?”

     Axel: “No… Yes... I mean… I didn’t mean it that way. You’re not dead like that.”

     Axel ponders the idea, “If I were a necrophiliac, I could be having a threesome in a hole with two college girls right now.”

     Vicky says, “Well I am positive I am a better lay than both of those girls combined.”

     She rolls over to face Axel and goes in for a kiss. Axel reciprocates; it is a very passionate kiss. Axel moves to nibbling her earlobes and kissing her neck. He is acutely aware that he is kissing bruises on her neck that his hands are responsible for. Their clothes quickly come off, and Vicky gets on top of Axel and puts him inside her.

     Axel is also well aware from their encounter ten years ago that Vicky likes it rough, but he now loves her and is not being aggressive. After a little while, she tells him to spank her ass. Axel is happy to comply.

     Vicky has a loud orgasm and then says she wants him on top, so they switch positions. They are going at it for about 45 minutes – Axel can’t cum. He feels love for her, but can’t cum without the violence. Vicky realizes this too.

     Vicky says seductively, “Choke me.”

     Axel is afraid to kill her again. He keeps fucking her as if she never said it. Vicky repeats a little stronger, “I want you to choke me.” And she moves his hand onto her throat.

     Axle is looking at his hand which is now exactly covering the bruises already on her neck. The difference from ten years ago is that her hair in the backdrop of his hand is black now instead of red. He wants to squeeze, but he knows he should not. Vicky starts to build to another climax and now demands, “Choke me… Squeeze... Now!”

     Axel does squeeze. He watches her face turn red and her orgasm build. This was what Axel needed – he starts to cum. He has been cutting Vicky’s air off for too long now, but he cums inside her and does not let up. Vicky pulls at his hand, but once again, Axel does not let up until long after she has stopped struggling.

     Axel looks into her still open eyes and sees she is dead. He lets his body fall flat on top of her, his forehead resting on the pillow to the side of her head. She is not breathing, she is dead. Axel could not stop himself, but he is now distraught over what he has done.

     He starts to cry a little with his face dug into the pillow. A minute has gone by and he now feels Vicky, beneath him, take a breath. He lifts his upper body up to look at her face and confirm she is alive somehow. The face he sees is Danielle. She has bruises on her neck, but she is breathing. She is alive.

     Axel jumps off the bed – fearful - as if he saw a ghost. Danielle slowly disappears right in front of his eyes. Axel spends the next several hours wondering if Vicky is really gone this time. He is extremely sad and mad at himself for choking her for so long. He is a serial killer, remorse is not something he is accustomed to.

     He files Amy and Jennifer’s pictures and fingerprints away and fills in their hole with dirt. It crosses Axel’s mind that he now has killed Vicky twice but does not have any blood fingerprints in his collection to show for it. That is just a passing observation.

     As Axel is eating dinner that evening, Vicky walks through the front door of the cabin – like some sort of twisted magician. But now, her hair is red again! Like when he met her in Atlantic City.

     She does not seem mad, but Axel watches and waits for her to talk first. Vicky sits at the table and just stares at Axel’s face. Once again, she knows how to make him uncomfortable.

     Finally Axel asks, “Are you OK? Are you pissed at me?”

     Vicky playfully says, “For what?”

     Axel replies, “Well, I didn’t make enough franks and beans for you… and also, by the way… I strangled you to death! … again!”

     Vicky finally lets him off the hook, “Axel, don’t worry about it… Really… I told you to choke me… I’m fine.”

     Axel asks, “What about your hair?”

     Vicky: “I decided to try being a redhead again. What do you think?”

     Axel: “I like it. I like it both ways, red and black… you remind me a little of Officer Trixie when you have red hair.”    

     Over the next several days, Vicky and Axel are like a typical couple in new love. They eat together, laugh, reminisce about Axel’s exploits, and have sex two or three times a day. The sex is rough, but Axel does not have to kill her to be able to cum.

     On day five, Vicky is getting her appetite for blood back. She talks Axel into abducting another victim for them to play with. They agree that there should not be a string of victims going missing along the highway, so they decide to go all the way to Vegas to grab a call girl.

     Axel packs his gun, chloroform and other supplies, and they decide to leave after the sun sets. They’re going to be in the car for a while, so Vicky asks if she can bring along Axel’s fingerprint collection to reminisce more about his victims. Axel agrees it will be a good way to pass the time on the highway. And once on the road, each turn of the page is another captivating and unique story of Axel’s brutality. He is not shy about the details. It’s like foreplay for Vicky. Her panties are completely soaked through by the time they can see the lights of Vegas in the distance.

     Once in Vegas, Axel gets a paper and together with Vicky, they select ‘Kinky Kimmy’. The ad says ‘I’m Flexible’. Axel likes her because in her picture she is standing on one leg, and her other leg is straight up so that her thigh is by her face. He can bend her and then he can break her. Vicky likes her because she has long blonde hair and big full breasts.

     Axel calls Kinky Kimmy and sees how flexible she is: “I know this is a little weird, but my fantasy is to grope a total stranger. I want you to meet me behind my motel.”

     Axel describes his car and the location and tells her:

     “Open the driver’s side door; there will be $1000.00 on the seat. I will be in the back of the car. Take the money and sit in the driver’s seat. Wear a loose shirt - no bra. If you wear something over your shirt, take it off once in the car. Do not say a word – just count the cash, look forward, and let me feel you up. When I am ready, we will go into the motel and have sex… I assume $1000.00 will cover this specific encounter.”

     Kimmy thinks to herself that this is an unusual one, but she has had much stranger requests and it seems like a fairly harmless way to start the session. She agrees and says she can be there in 45 minutes.

     When Axel sees Kimmy park and begin to approach his car, he douses a rag with chloroform and holds it very low behind the driver’s seat. Kimmy is wearing an unzipped black leather jacket over a very loose t-shirt, and obviously no bra. With each step she takes, the unzipped jacket does not confine her large boobs which are bouncing and swaying from side to side within her t-shirt.

     Kimmy opens the car door, and the interior light turns on. Kimmy takes a quick peek at Axel in the back seat, picks up the cash, sits down, counts the money, puts it in her purse, takes off her jacket and closes the car door. The interior light turns off, and it is somewhat dark inside the car. Motel lights from the other side of the building and casino lights in the distance, keep the alley from being very dark, but nobody outside of the car would be able to see inside the car. Kimmy faces forward and leans back expecting hands to start groping her chest.

     Axel looks around to make sure nobody else is around. He reaches his left hand over her shoulder, across her body onto her right tit. He gropes for a couple seconds and then he pulls his forearm back which restrains her upper body. At the same time he reaches around with his right hand and holds the rag over her face. She struggles for about 20 seconds and then she passes out.

     Axel gets out of the car and pushes Kimmy to the passenger’s seat and quickly wraps duct take around her wrists and then her ankles. He tips her seat back and puts a blanket over her and her restraints so it looks like she is napping.

     Axel proceeds to drive onto the main road. There are three lanes running each direction and Axel is stopped at a red light; he is first in line in the far left lane. After a few seconds, a motorcycle cop has split lanes from behind and stops right next to Axel’s car on the right side. The cop is just a few feet from Kimmy, and he looks down at her from his upright position. Kimmy is reclined and motionless with her eyes closed. She looks like she is either sleeping or dead. Axel sees the cop glancing into his car, and this makes Axel understandably nervous. Axel adjusts her blanket a little, just to give the impression that she is sleeping and he is tucking her in. This light seems to be taking FOREVER to turn green. Finally it turns green and the motorcycle cop speeds ahead.

     Axel continues up the highway onramp and heads towards home. He re-wets the chloroform rag so if Kimmy shows any sign of life, he can reach over and make her inhale the chemical before she knows what is happening. Axel knows he can keep her sedated the whole way home.

     Vicky is in the back seat behind Kimmy. She is reaching forward most of the drive doing what Kimmy was expecting from Axel – groping her breasts. Actually, Vicky is only groping with her right hand. She is still flipping through Axel’s binder with her left hand. She asks Axel questions about girl’s names and how he played with her and exactly how he killed her. She loves the pictures, especially the ‘after’ pictures. Vicky is seriously turned on.

     Suddenly, as Axel drives along this dark highway in the desert, Danielle materializes in the back seat next to Vicky and behind Axel. Vicky sees her right away, but Axel does not. Danielle has the familiar chef’s knife in her right hand in her lap. Danielle is focused on Axel and staring at the back of his head. Vicky says, “Axel, Pull over. Danielle has a knife!”

     Axel looks in his rear view mirror and sees Danielle behind him. He starts to slow down a little and pull over to the shoulder, but Danielle lifts the knife and lunges at Axel’s head with a sideways swing.

     Vicky tries to grab her arm, but her hand passes right through Danielle’s arm– like one of them is was ghost. Axel looks into the rear view mirror as the knife stabs him in the right temple. Axel immediately goes into a seizure.

     The car was slowing down, but he was still doing about 40 miles per hour when the seizure begins. The car is completely out of control and continues toward the shoulder and off the road. Past the shoulder is a relatively steep decline for about five feet. As the car’s right wheels drop down to follow this decline, the left wheels are still higher on the road. It causes the car to roll in a clockwise direction. The car skids on the desert ground on its side and then upside down on its roof. Finally it comes to a stop.

     Kimmy is still passed out. She was not wearing a seat belt, so she was thrown around as the car rolled and she is bloodied. But she is alive. Axel was wearing his seat belt, but he is having a very long seizure. It lasts through the car accident and several minutes after the car stops moving. Then he is passed out in a coma – upside down.

     Axel slowly regains consciousness and opens his eyes. He is lying down on his back. He sees his wrists chained to the sides of a hospital bed. There are tubes coming out of his nose and a needle in his arm. To his left there are devices monitoring his bodily functions. Axel looks to the right and sees a cop standing at the doorway, presumably stationed there to guard Axel from escaping.

     The cop sees him wake up and walks over to Axel. He explains that he is in the hospital under police custody and reads him his rights. He is being charged with kidnapping and MANY counts of murder in the first degree. The cop explains that Axel has been in the coma for three days.

     Axel is caught and he knows it. He felt safe keeping his collection because he knew he would never leave enough evidence for the cops to get a search warrant for his home. He did not foresee this bizarre encounter while driving. The ironic part is that Axel made sure the cops would never be looking for evidence, but instead, he essentially brought it to their attention himself. He was his own undoing.

     Kinky Kimmy’s abduction supports that he must have killed all of the victims in his collection - including the four women Craig was convicted of killing. For three of those girls, Axel still had half of their fingerprints and the ‘after’ pictures. And for Brooke, he had everything documented. This time when Craig tells his story, they will believe the truth… that Axel framed him.

     A doctor enters Axel’s room. Axel’s hands are restrained; he is unable to touch his head. He asks the doctor how bad the knife wound to his head is. The doctor says the bruises and cuts from the car accident were not severe – there is no knife wound. He explains that Axel was having seizures sporadically while in the coma over the last three days. They did several brain scans and found a large tumor in his brain, by his right temple. There’s no telling how long it has been there, but it is definitely growing. It could cause many symptoms including the seizures, but also dizziness, headaches and sensory hallucinations – vision, hearing, smells. It is large enough that it could kill Axel. It could take a month, but most likely it would cause death within a week or two. And the seizures will get worse as the tumor grows and cuts off blood to other parts of his brain.

     The good news for Axel is that while in police custody, they must provide medical treatment, free of charge. And the tumor is in a spot that is very operable. There is a 90% success rate of a normal life after this operation. The doctor says Axel just has to sign the consent form and he could reserve an operating room for tomorrow. He leaves to get the forms.

     Vicky walks in. Axel knows she is not real now, but he still loves her. Vicky asks, “Are you going to get the operation?”

     Axel replies, “I don’t know... I’ll die otherwise… But if I live, I’ll be in jail until all of the formalities that lead up to my lethal injection… Kind of ironic how they have to cure me before they can kill me.”

     Vicky: “You know they sterilize the needle before a lethal injection... They wouldn’t want you to get an infection….”

     After a few moments of contemplative silence Vicky adds, “You know, the operation will kill me, right?”

     Axel had not thought of that until she just said it out loud. The tumor was causing hallucinations. No more tumor, no more hallucinations, no more Vicky.

     Axel asks, “But you’re not really here... You’re not real?”

     Vicky tells him, “I’m not real to the doctor or to the cops or anyone else... But I am real to you.”

     Vicky climbs into bed with Axel and rests her head on his chest. Some tears well up in her eyes, “Axel, I love you. I understand if you get the operation. If you don’t, it sounds like we only have a few weeks left anyway.”

     Axel has considered his options and has made up his mind quickly: “If I get the operation, the rest of my life is a total hell. I’ll never be free, and I’ll never see you again. Why even live… If I don’t get the operation I may die within a few weeks, but at least I have you. I think that’s as much as I could ask for, given the situation.”

     Vicky smiles with the tears still in her eyes, and she gives Axel a kiss on the cheek. She is sad that Axel (and her) will die soon from the tumor, but she knows that he loves her.

     The next character to walk in the room is a man in a suit carrying a briefcase. He introduces himself:

     “Axel Simmons, my name is Lou Clancey. I have been assigned to represent you as your attorney. Kimberly Wells was found restrained with duct tape in your car with chloroform in her system. She is saying you kidnapped her. The police found a binder in your car that had fingerprints in blood of 135 women, all confirmed to have been murdered over the last 10 years… all except two: two college girls missing for about a week. Your binder has photos of all the girls, dead at the crime scenes, including these college girls, so these girls’ families have been notified that they were murdered.

     If you have an explanation for the contents of this binder, I will work on a defense. But the best I may be able to do based on what they have is to try to work out a deal that would have you in a mental institution for life instead of a maximum security prison… or the death penalty… Do you have and explanation?”

     Axel knows he will be dead soon from the tumor, long before any trial could convict him. He tells Lou, “Yes, I do have an explanation… Over the last ten years I tortured and murdered those women – what did you say the count was, 135? I lost count at some point… I framed Craig Carter for four of those murders, and I was going to kill Kinky Kimmy or Kimberly Wells or whatever her name is… That’s my explanation.”

     Lou is taken aback by the frank confession, “Would you like me to prepare an insanity defense and try to make a deal that would have you committed to an insane asylum? It sounds to me like you need help.”

     Axel replies, “I’ll be dead long before that. The doctor said I have at most a month.”

     Lou: “I was told that they could remove the tumor and you should fully recover.”

     Axel: “But I’m not getting that operation. Why try to live any longer? I’ll never be free.”

     Lou: “So what do you want me to do? Do you want a trial, or do you just want to plead guilty?”

     Axel: “I don’t fuckin’ care… Thanks for your services… You can go now.”

     Lou leaves, and the cop at the door walks back in. He overheard the conversation and adds, “You know, the families of the two college girls would like to give their daughters a proper burial. Would you tell us where these girls are?”

     Axel quips, “Give me immunity for my crimes and I will give you the two bodies.”

     The cop knows he will not get any cooperation and goes back to the doorway.

     The story was released to the media while Axel was still in his coma. The media circus has reformed. They report as if they knew all along that Craig was innocent when the slant was always that he had to be guilty.

     It takes a couple days, but Craig’s attorney, Artie, meets with Kyle (the prosecuting attorney), and with the new evidence, Kyle agrees that Craig was indeed framed by Axel. They have to go before the judge to get him released. After three more long days, the judge overturns the sentence and Craig is pronounced ‘not guilty’ and released from custody. Megan is there to take him home. She is the only one who believed in him, and he is grateful to her. But he walks out a badly damaged man. He was abandoned by everyone; all of his friends turned on him. His father is dead. The time in prison was brutal to him, physically and mentally.

     Megan tells him the captain has his gun and badge waiting for him if he still wants them. Megan takes him to his house. It is in complete disarray from when the police searched it. He is happy to be free, but his life will never be the same.

     Meanwhile, a bright talented young black defense attorney watches the news and hears that Axel is not having the operation and that he will be pleading guilty. He knows a good strategy to defend Axel that they are not pursuing. This attorney does not want Axel back on the streets, but if he is able to get Axel Simmons, the Real Fingerprint Killer, acquitted, it would catapult his career from a tiny little practice to superstar defense attorney. Fame and fortune would follow. This defense attorney’s name is Connie Jockren.

     Connie pays Axel a visit in the hospital to offer his services:

Connie: “Hi Axel, my name is Connie Jockren. I am told you are represented by a public defender.”

Axel: “I don’t think he’ll be defending me, but he was assigned to represent me.”

Connie: “No offense to public defenders, but I am a much better and more aggressive lawyer. I have a strategy that may very well get you acquitted. You could walk away a free man. And I will offer my services pro bono… That means free.”

Axel: “Why would you want to help me? Do you think I’m innocent?”

Connie: “No, you should probably be drawn and quartered... Maybe publicly hanged or stoned to death... But it’s my job to make sure the system works. And the system doesn’t work unless all of the accused are properly defended in court. Plus, this is a fun case for a lawyer like me. I live for the challenge.”

Axel: “So, what’s your angle?”

Connie: “Your public defender wanted you to plead insanity. That would land you in the loony bin for the rest of your life... You don’t want that… I see it as TEMPORARY insanity.”

Axel: “Temporary? I have victims going back ten years.”

Connie: “That’s right, you’ve been legally temporarily insane for ten years. The insanity will end as soon as your tumor is removed. We don’t know how long that tumor has been growing in your head. It could have been the reason you started killing in the first place ten years ago. As soon as it is removed, BAM, no more insanity, no more threat to society, no punishment because you were not legally in control of your own actions... No jail time, not even the loony bin… You are cured from the insanity with the removal of the brain tumor… And once we suggest that the tumor has been in your head for ten years, the prosecution has to prove it was not. They have the burden of proof. So as long as you don’t have any other brain scans in your medical record… Do you?...”

Axel: “No...”

Connie: “Then they can’t prove it was not there the whole time.”

Axel: “Do you believe this tumor caused me to kill all of those people.”

Connie: “Maybe, I… Don’t… Know… That’s the beauty of this defense. If they don’t KNOW that you were in control of your actions, they have to set you free.”

Axel: “Do I have to have the operation to use the defense. It may sound strange, but I want to keep my brain intact the way it is right now.”

Connie: “If you don’t get the operation, you will be seen as a continued threat to society, so they will never let you be free. That is just the insanity defense… Best case, that gets you the loony bin instead of prison or the death penalty.”

Axel: “Can I have a little while to think about this?”
Connie: “I’ll leave my card here, and I’ll stop back tomorrow. Fire the other attorney and don’t talk to anyone else… not a word.”

     Vicky was lying with Axel the whole time, so she knows the situation has changed. Besides this new defense, Axel has been having stronger and stronger seizures that last longer and longer. As Axel gets sicker and sicker, Vicky is also growing weaker. She knows they both don’t have even a week left to live without the surgery. She tells Axel to have the operation. Axel reluctantly summons the nurse to summon the doctor.

     Axel signs the forms and the surgery is scheduled for the next morning.

     As they take Axel from his hospital room to the operating room, Axel says his final goodbye to Vicky. Both are crying.

     But once the anesthesiologist puts Axel under, he dreams vivid dreams and spends what seems like days with Vicky. They relive killing dozens of Axel’s victims - ones from years ago that Vicky was not around for. But this time, each rape and murder is different because Vicky is there and can fully participate. They make love to each other, at the crime scenes, in their victim’s blood.

     At the end of the dream, Vicky gives Axel a final kiss goodbye, and Axel wakes in the recovery room. It has been twelve hours since he was put under and the operation was a complete success. The tumor was removed, and there is no apparent long term damage to his brain.

     Now it is time for Connie to work his magic.

     The prosecuting attorney is Seth Rogers. Seth realizes that Connie’s defense is absurd, but it is legally plausible – it could possibly work is a jury was gullible enough. But he can not offer a deal that lets Axel ever go free. Seth is pushing Connie for a plea of straight insanity so that Axel avoids jail, but he is committed to an asylum. But Connie wants his day in court. So the trial starts in three weeks.

     Connie prepares Axel for what is to come and coaches him thoroughly on the legal aspects of his defense.

     This trial is not about proving innocence. Axel and Connie have confessed that Axel committed all of the crimes he is charged with. They are essentially trying to get off on a technicality. The media circus has a true villain to focus on: an admitted killer of 135 women.

     Axel’s arms and legs are in shackles as he is brought into the courtroom and they remain shackled through the proceedings. Connie knows this is very prejudicial and strongly objects, but he loses this one. Axel also has a large scar on his head from the operation. That could go either way – the scar is scary looking, but it could invoke sympathy from the jury. Axel’s hair is back to his natural color of brown, and he is clean shaven. He is in a suit and looks respectable – except for the shackles.

     After opening arguments from both sides, the prosecution presents its case. Connie has stipulated that Axel killed all of these women, even the last two college girls whose bodies were never found. Axel did not want to give up his hiding spot, so he earlier told prosecutors that he dropped them in the Pacific Ocean after he was done with them.

     So since they did not have to prove that Axel killed these 135 women, their case is relatively short. But they have to adequately paint the picture to make Axel look like the monster that he is, and they have to make the jury afraid to let him go. So all of Axel’s ‘after’ pictures are blown up and shown to the jury along with his blood fingerprint collection. Lots of crime scene photos are shown to the jury to show the extent of the carnage. Several family members of victims give testimony to put real personalities to the victims. The judge limits all of this to a few days to save the court some time – this evidence could take months to present otherwise.

     Seth calls Megan White to explain how Axel framed Craig Carter for four of his murders. While she is on the stand testifying against Axel, Axel is captivated by her.

     Axel has been heartbroken over his loss of Vicky. He has been severely depressed and does not feel any motivation to go on. Even the prospect of eventually killing again does not seem as pleasing without Vicky there to share it with.

     But Megan’s resemblance to Vicky has made Axel’s fragile brain spin. He begins to equate Vicky with Megan, Megan with Vicky. He was attracted to ‘Trixie’ in the first place because of her resemblance to Vicky. Axel watches on as Megan testifies against him. Her demeanor shows her disgust and hated towars Axel. But Axel is now drawn to her – not love, but a strong obsession.

     The prosecution calls Kimberly Wells to the stand. She is a very sympathetic witness. She started crying as she recalls how she would be victim number 136 now if not for Axel’s seizure.

     The prosecution has done all that it can do. The jury knows what Axel has done in gory detail, they have sympathy for the victims, and they are afraid of Axel the monster. Every member of the jury hates Axel at this point… But the defense has not presented its case yet.

     Once the prosecution rests, Connie calls Axel’s brain surgeon to the stand. The doctor is not on the side of letting Axel go, but he has to testify about the tumor. He establishes that the tumor could have caused symptoms like seeing things that were not there and hearing voices; that Axel may not have been in control of his actions; and that the successful removal of the tumor could have completely cured Axel.

     When the prosecution crosses the surgeon, it is established that the tumor did not NECESSARILY cause him to kill; lots of people get a similar tumor and don’t hurt anyone. But the burden of proof is on the prosecution; they did not prove anything with this witness.

     Connie calls a psychiatrist to testify that Axel seems to be perfectly sane since the operation. Axel knows how to seem perfectly normal when he wants to. The prosecution establishes that the psychiatrist only spent a few hours total with Axel. This conclusion is not an exact science. He may still be dangerous. There’s no way to know for sure.

     Connie calls Axel to the stand. Axel takes small steps dragging chains as he is shackled at the arms and legs. He still has a gruesome scar on his temple from the surgery.
Connie: “Axel Simmons, you don’t deny killing 135 women, torturing and raping most of them first?”

Axel: “No, I did it all. It seems like a bad dream now, but I did everything that Seth Rogers said I did. I am so… very… sorry.”

     Axel starts to mist up a little.

Connie: “Why did you do these things?”
Axel: “I can’t explain it completely. I was hearing voices and seeing things that weren’t there. They were telling me to do these horrible things to these innocent women. It was like I was not able to control my body. I was me part of the time, but other parts of the time, I was watching from within my body as someone else did these things.”

     Axel has a few tears running down his face. He looks very remorseful.

Connie: “How long have you had these episodes?”

Axel: “It all started about ten or eleven years ago. I started hearing voices, but I was able to resist for a while. Then, one day I met a woman in Atlantic City. It turned out she was a prostitute. At some point in the evening, I completely lost control and I watched myself kill her. My hands strangled her to death. I swear, I never wanted to. It was like someone else was doing it while I watched.”

Connie: “Since your operation, how do you feel?”
Axel: “I feel terrible. I am racked with guilt and I am sick over these memories that are vivid, but still seem like a dream… But I think you were asking if I am in control… And I am in control. That operation gave me my life back. I have no doubt that I am cured and will NEVER hurt anyone again.”

     Seth Rogers stands for his cross examination:

Seth: “Axel, this seems like a very convenient story. You rape, torture and kill one hundred and thirty five women over the course of ten years. You immaculately clean up all of the crime scenes so that nothing leads the police to you. You meticulously frame a police officer for four of your murders. And once caught, you blame it all on a tumor... Tumor is gone, all better, time to get on with you life... Is that correct?”

Axel: “I would not call it convenient. I did not want any of this. The tumor was real. I was only caught because that same tumor caused me to have a seizure. But yes, I am better now.”

Seth: “How can this jury be sure the tumor caused you to kill? Maybe the tumor was just a separate phenomenon. How can they know that if they set you free that you won’t rape torture and kill another 135 women?”

Axel: “I give my word that I do not have those feelings any more. The doctor confirms that it is possible that this type of brain tumor could have done this to me. I have full control back... And it is my understanding that I don’t have to prove I am cured… You have to prove that I am still sick…”

Seth: “That’s right. I am just giving the jury some issues to think about...”

Seth: “Axel, you said part of the time you were not in control, but part of the time you were the real you. Give us an idea what the real you was like.”

Axel: “I’m just a normal guy: not violent, good worker, does the right things for the most part. A normal good citizen”

Seth: “And you are that guy now, the same normal good citizen you have been for the last ten years… but now in full control”

Axel: “Yes, I am that same guy.”

Seth: “If this version of yourself was such a good citizen, why not turn yourself in… during your lucidity. If you were in control some of the time, you could have stopped the out of control part of yourself. Why did you let the rapes and torture and murders continue… for ten years?”

     Axel is a little flustered by this question.

Axel: “…I don’t know... Maybe I am different now in that way. I didn’t feel the guilt before because it seemed like a different person doing those things. It was happening, but it did not seem real. Now I feel the tremendous guilt. I would turn myself in now.”

Seth: “You just completely changed your story. You said you were a good citizen before, but that person obviously did not have a conscience. I see no reason to believe that you grew a conscience when the tumor was removed.”

Connie stands, “OBJECTION! He’s testifying his own opinion.”

Judge: “Sustained, please ask your questions and leave your comments out, counselor.”

Seth: “Yes your honor… I’m done with this witness.”

     Seth sits back down.

     The next day, in closing arguments, Seth sums up his case and closes with:

     “135 victims dead… Tortured, raped and murdered by Axel Simmons. Kimberly Wells was almost #136, and Craig Carter, a good police officer, had his life ruined by this man, victim #137. Axel Simmons does not deny any of this. This is all fact. He IS a serial killer… This sick twisted sadist took finger prints with the girl’s own blood. This was sport for him… for ten years. You have met some of these girl’s families. Don’t make them live the rest of their lives knowing their daughter’s or sister’s or mother’s murders will go unpunished. Bring them some justice.

     Axel Simmons is a VERY dangerous man. Only you, the jury, can stop him from raping and torturing and killing many more women. I’ve shown you all the facts. It is up to you to go back into that room and stop this man from ever hurting another innocent woman.”

     Connie Jockren stands for his closing:
     “Axel Simmons WAS a serial killer. You have seen what he has done, and it’s horrifying. But just because he did it, does not mean he is responsible for it. And it does not mean that he is still a danger to society.

     This is what is responsible (Connie holds up a jar filled with liquid and at the bottom – Axel’s brain tumor).

     This is real. You can lock it up in prison or stick a lethal injection into it. This tumor created pressure on Axel’s brain causing voices and visual hallucinations. It cut off blood to parts of his brain. It caused seizures. It almost killed Axel… He is a victim here – call him victim #138. This tumor caused Axel to not be in control of his own actions… and therefore, not legally responsible for his crimes.

     Ladies and gentlemen of the jury… you do not even have to definitively believe that this tumor caused Axel to kill, so your job is easy in this case. If you even DOUBT that he was in full control of his actions, you have to find him not guilty. The judge will instruct you of this. And the doctor has told you the effect a tumor like this can have on brain function… this tumor could have taken away his control, and the prosecution has not PROVEN otherwise, not even a little, and not beyond reasonable doubt.

     Do not let your emotions for the women and the horror of theses crimes get in the way of you upholding the law. We do not take away a man’s freedom and possibly his life unless we know for sure he is legally responsible... Axel is not legally responsible.

     And don’t let the prosecution scare you. Axel is no longer a threat to society… the prosecution can not prove that he is. The tumor is out of his head. The voices and the hallucinations and the part of him that emerged to take over and kill are gone. There is no reason to believe that we are not left with a good man who needs a second chance.

     Justice does not require that someone gets punished. Sometimes it only requires that and innocent man is not further punished. If you do your job and recognize Axel Simmons was a sick man who is now cured, you will be doing justice.”

     Connie sits and Seth has the last word:

     “Don’t fall for this...

     Axel is a clever man, and his lawyer is a clever man too. You’ve heard how Axel covered up his crimes and framed a police officer. They came up with this defense that the surgery cured him, but don’t believe it. He didn’t have a conscience when he was lucid before the surgery, and he does not have a conscience now.

     The defense claims that he was TEMPORARILY insane for TEN YEARS because of a brain tumor. This is a possible but an EXTREMELY unlikely story. Many other people get similar brain tumors and have severe symptoms, but they never hurt, rape, torture, or kill anyone. Don’t let the claims that Axel is a good citizen, other than this brain tumor, have any weight. It’s their whole case because there is no real excuse for his actions. Axel Simmons is just a dangerous man that must be taken off the streets…

     Thank you…”

     The jury is sent into deliberations.

     After two days, the jury comes back with a question for the judge, and both attorneys convene in the judge’s chambers: Can they find Axel criminally insane? 

     …They can not. Their only option for each crime is guilty or innocent for reason of temporary insanity -criminally insane or a lesser crime is not an option. Both lawyers realize the jury is struggling – they do not want to let Axel go, but they see the tumor may be responsible.

     Seth wants to make a deal. He can not bear the idea that Axel might be set free. He offers 25 years in a mental facility. But Connie wants his verdict, and Axel knows he might just beat this. So they wait another day.

     On day three, court is back in session. The jury has a verdict. The judge demands silence and you could hear a pin drop, but the tension is palpable in this packed courtroom.

     “We the jury, for the charges of 135 counts of murder in the first degree, 113 counts of rape and 135 counts of aggravated assault… find Axel Simmons… NOT GUILTY for reason of temporary insanity.”

     The judge announces that Axel is free to go and bangs the gavel and leaves the courtroom. There is shock in the courtroom. Seth drops his head to the table. Several family members of the victims break down and start crying immediately. The room that was silent a moment ago is now out of control.

     Axel is relieved and smiles in the courtroom for the first time. A bailiff walks over and unlocks his shackles. Connie feels like he just won the lottery. He gives Axel a quick hug. After the embrace, a father of one of the victims approaches Axel and sucker punches him in the face. Axel falls to the ground and the father is pulled away by the bailiffs.

     Connie leads Axel out the back way of the courthouse. Axel is grateful to Connie, but Connie is even more grateful to Axel. Connie got exactly what he was after. He is a superstar defense attorney now; he has his fame and soon his fortune.

     Connie takes Axel back to his office. There is champagne and a cake waiting for them when they get there. Connie had his assistant arrange this mini-celebration. She also arranged a rental car for Axel.

     After a glass of champagne, Axel asks to use Connie’s computer and Connie gives him an office to use. Axel looks up Megan White’s personal information. He has become completely infatuated with her.

     The lead story on every news channel is about how the Real Fingerprint Killer is a free man tonight. The public is outraged. Axel knows he must stay out of sight. Everybody knows his face and everybody hates him.

     After it is dark, Axel begins driving to his cabin - all of his supplies are there. He notices two police cars following him. Axel drives the speed limit. Once he is beyond L.A. County, they turn back.

     Axel is sure nobody is following him as he turns onto the dirt road that leads to his property. He arrives at his cabin and gets some rest.

     But for the following evening, he has a new plan. The operation did change him, but not in the ways he had explained on the witness stand. With the loss of Vicky, Axel is now more desperate and more reckless.

     Axel packs a bag, and removes every sticker from the rental car that gives away that it is a rental. He removes the license plates and puts on the license plates that he stole from the car outside of Vegas. This nondescript car should not attract attention now. In court, Axle was clean shaven and his hair had been dyed back to brown. So he re-dyes his hair blonde and puts on the fake facial hair and glasses. He heads back to LA. There are two things he desires: Megan, and his fingerprint collection.

     It is dark and the lights are on at Megan’s house. She is a cop, so he has to be careful; she is not as defenseless as most of his victims, and she surely has a gun inside. Axel sneaks around the house to listen inside; the windows are open. There are two women in there. From their conversation, he learns that it is Megan and … her sister, Rachel. He can tell from listening to them that hey are very close; this makes Axel VERY happy. Axel can’t wait to get a look at the sister, but Axel remains patiently in the darkness of the backyard for them to go to sleep.

     Once all of the lights go off and about an hour more has passed, Axel quietly picks the lock on the back door. He does not know who is in which bedroom, so he enters the first door he comes to. He gets his first look and Rachel in the darkened room who is sound asleep in her bed. He approaches her with a chloroform rag and gently covers her mouth... But she wakes up. Axel holds her down with the rag tight to her face, but she struggles. She scratches Axel’s face and manages to knock the lamp off the nightstand. It makes a loud crash as it shatters. Rachel is passed out a few seconds later, but Axel knows Megan heard this. He has lost the element of surprise with her. Axel picks up a candleholder that is on the nightstand. It is solid glass and has some weight to it, at least 3 pounds or so. He stands to the right of the doorframe so that when the door swings open, the door will block Megan’s view of him. Sure enough, Megan soon opens the door with her gun drawn. She flicks on the light and says, “Rachel, are you ok?” And she walks into the room toward the bed.

     Megan sees the mess and is confused for a moment that Rachel is still asleep on the bed. Before she can spin another thought, Axel stalks forward from behind the door and clobbers her on the back of her head with the solid glass candleholder. Megan’s gun goes off on impact. The bullet goes harmlessly into a wall, and Megan drops to the ground unconscious.

     This was not clean as Axel planned. The clock is ticking. A neighbor will call the police over that gunshot and they will get here quick since Megan is a cop.

     Axel takes Megan’s gun, and duct tapes both women’s wrists and ankles. There is no time to run up the street to retrieve his own car, so Axel looks for and finds keys in a purse in the kitchen. He opens the door off the kitchen to the garage and checks that the key fits this car, and it does. He loads both sisters, still passed out, into the trunk, opens the garage door and drives out of there as quickly as possible.

     That was an adrenaline rush Axel has not experienced in a long time. He never has to improvise, and he never has to rush like this. But he calms himself down as he is on his way back to his cabin.

     Axel realizes that there will be no doubt that the police will know he is responsible. Besides the coincidence that he was just set free and has a known acquaintance with Megan, his rental car will be found up the street. But that does not matter because he will be in hiding anyway, and he just does not care about maintaining a regular life anymore. He will just have to use better disguises from now on - maybe a trip to Mexico for some plastic surgery.

     About ten minutes into his drive, Axel hears banging and muffled screaming coming from the trunk. He turns on the radio. It is pre-tuned to a country station. That won’t do. He finds a rock station. AC/DC is playing, “I’m on the highway to hell…” That seems a little more appropriate. He turns it way up.

     Axel arrives at his cabin. He opens the trunk with Megan’s gun in one hand and a chloroform rag in the other. They are both screaming for their lives, but nobody will hear them. Since they are still restrained, Axel easily holds the rag over Rachel’s mouth and them Megan’s mouth, and then carries them both inside their new home.

     When Megan wakes, she is naked hanging upside down against the wall. Her ankles are in the shackles that Jenny’s wrists had been in when she was shackled to the wall. Megan’s wrists are cuffed to the shackles on the floor. Megan can see her sister, naked, spread eagle and restrained by all four limbs with handcuffs, face-up on the bed. Rachel is not awake yet.

     Axel is across the room grinding a large knife across a sharpening stone by hand. The knife is already sharp, but it is a menacing sound and Axel is part showman for his victims. Axel walks over to Megan and says, “Vicky, I’m glad you’re awake.”
     Megan responds with malice, “Who the fuck is Vicky. I thought you get off from calling me Trixie… Trixie, not Vicky, you brain damaged stupid fuck… Let me out of here.”

     Megan is angry and struggles with the shackles from her inverted position.

     Axel informs her, “I know who you are, and you are going to play the part of Vicky from now on… I know this will take some persuading.”

     Axel picks up a bull whip and whips Megan’s naked body twice on her belly. It stings and leaves red marks. Megan realizes she is helpless and loses the attitude and quiets up. Rachel starts to wake up. She is not as tough as Megan. She recognizes Axel from the news and assesses her situation rapidly. She begins to cry and asks her sister, “Oh my god… Megan…Are we going to die?”

     Axel responds first, “Not yet… You’re not THAT lucky.”

     And he puts duct tape over Rachel’s mouth. He is only interested in communicating with Megan right now. Axel slowly walks across the room back to the knife he was sharpening and then back to the bed Rachel is on. This is a show for Megan, and of course, she starts struggling and protesting, “Don’t you hurt her. This is between us.”

     Axel holds the knife to Rachel’s throat and looks over to Megan, “What would you do to save your sister’s life?”

     Megan begins to cry. Tears are running up her face and to the ground, “What do you want... I’ll do anything… Don’t hurt her.”

     Axel rests the knife on the bed and goes to a duffle bag he has on the floor. He pulls out a large black strap-on and attaches it to Megan while she is still restrained upside down and explains, “Vicky, you’re going to fuck that little slut over there on the bed… If you don’t, I will… And I like to cut throats when I cum.”

     Axel is very persuasive when he has the proper leverage.

     Axel gets the gun and points it at Megan while he uncuffs her ankles. Her body falls to the ground and Axel gives her the key to unlock her wrists. He keeps the gun pointed at her as he takes a seat over by the bed. Megan’s face is bright red from being upside down for so long.

     Megan is disgusted by what she must now do, but she walks to the bed with the large black dong swinging at her pelvis. Rachel is gagged but she has heard everything and is clearly in distress. Both sisters are crying. Megan climbs onto the bed by her sister’s feet and says meekly, “I’m sorry Rachel, I’m so sorry for this.” And she begins to insert this large dong into her sister.

     Axel suggests, “Really, dry?... What kind of sister are you?... You should at least spit on that big thing before ripping into her.”

     Megan takes the advice and does spit on the dildo, but it is large and thick. It does not penetrate into her sister’s pussy easily. Megan pushes forward very slowly but stops after about four or five inches; she senses her sister’s pain. This is a thick dildo, and Rachel is not at all relaxed. So, besides the mental anguish of knowing that her sister is forced to rape her, it is physically very painful for Rachel.

     Axel demands, “Shove it all the way in there.”

     Megan gives him a dirty look, but knows better than to say anything. She complies as gently as she can. She pushes forward until it is all of the way in – about nine or ten inches and stops. Axel instructs, “You’re not done... Now fuck her.... In and out, in and out.”

     Megan starts pushing in and out very slowly, barely moving. Axel is getting impatient, “Vicky… I know you can do better than that. Bang her good… She’s going to be fucked hard. Either you do it right, or I will.”

     So Megan applies more spit to the large black dildo and gets a little more aggressive, in and out, in and out, all the while crying and apologizing to Rachel. Rachel can not even look at Megan. The humiliation is worse than the physical pain. Rachel’s eyes are closed tightly and her face is facing the wall. She is trying to be somewhere else in her mind, but tears are streaming from her eyes.

     Megan is acutely aware that Axel left this knife on the bed. She wants to pick it up and attack Axel, but Axel is out of reach and he has a gun pointed at them. So she waits for any opportunity.

     After a little while Axel wants more. He commands, “Vicky, you should cut her flesh... Let’s see some blood from this little bitch.”

     Megan responds desperately, “Come on, I’m doing what you asked for.”

     Axel insists, “I want to see her bleed. You can do it, or I can do it… I think I might cut deeper than you will… So pick up that knife and cut her… And don’t stop fucking her while you do it.”

     Megan picks up the knife and hesitantly drags it about an inch across Rachel’s belly. But it is barely a scratch. It makes a small white line, but almost no blood. Axel is not happy. He switches the gun to his left hand and picks up a different knife with his right hand and walks over to the bed. He points the gun at Megan and the knife toward Rachel’s chest, “This is how you make someone bleed...”

     But as the knife gets close to cutting Rachel, Megan lunges towards Axel with her knife in her right hand. Axel is able to jump back and get his face clear, but the knife still cuts across his chest, and he fires the gun. Megan is shot in her left bicep; she drops the knife from her right hand onto the bed and puts her hand to the wound. Axel’s chest is bleeding, but it is just a flesh wound. Megan is in immense pain from the gunshot. The strap-on is still about six inches inside Rachel. Axel punches Megan in the face, hard. She falls to her right and off the bed. The strap-on follows and rips out of Rachel in a quick sideways painful way.

     Axel says, “Let’s try that again.”

     He grabs Megan and forces her back onto the bed. She is bleeding from her mouth from the punch and bleeding badly from her arm from the gunshot wound. Axel presses the gun to Megan’s head, “VICKY, now you’re going to fuck her and cut her for me, right?”

     Axel remains right there with the gun to her head. Megan tries to gently insert the strap-on back into her sister, but Rachel is in a lot of pain there and flinches at the touch. But Megan now forces it in her. And this time, with the knife in her left hand, Megan cuts deep enough to draw blood into her sisters belly and makes a three inch cut.

     Axel walks around and presses the gun to Rachel’s head and commands to Megan, “MORE!”

     So Megan cuts another line about four inches long into her sister’s belly and then says, “I can’t do any more… I just can’t”

     Axel says angrily, “You see this long cut you made across my chest.” He wipes some of his blood with his hand and flicks it at Megan. “If you can do that to me, you can do it to her… Vicky… One long cut, and we’ll give her a break and let her live.”
     Megan pleads, “It’s my sister, I can’t cut her like that. Don’t make me. Please.”

     Axel has no compassion, “OK, I understand… but I will have to kill her now then...”

     Megan pressed the knife into Rachel’s left shoulder – about an eighth of an inch deep; she pulls the knife toward herself, between her sister’s breasts and down to the bottom of her ribs. It is not as deep of a cut as she did to Axel, but Axel is satisfied with this. There is lots of blood from both girls, on the girls, and on and around the bed.

     Axel holds his knife to Rachel’s throat and tells Megan, “Vicky, go lock yourself back up on the wall. You’ve been good, so you can have your feet on the ground this time.”

     He checks to make sure Megan’s restraints are tight and he ties a tunicate to her arm to stop the bleeding.

     Axel has gotten a satellite cell phone, so he makes a call to an old friend… Craig answers. He is already aware that Megan and her sister were abducted. And he knows Axel did it. In Craig’s voice is anger and urgency. Axel’s voice is slow and calculated, like a true villain.

Axel: “Hi Craig.”

Craig: “Axel…Where is she!”

Axel: “She’s right here.”

     Axel presses on Megan’s bicep on the gunshot wound and Megan screams in pain.

Craig: “Did you grow another tumor? You’re smarter than this... Let her go.”

Axel: “I just want what’s mine. I’ll let her go… Just bring me my stuff.”

Craig: “What stuff? I don’t have any of your stuff.”

Axel: “The police never returned my fingerprint collection and my photo album.”
Craig: “You’ve gotta be kidding me?”
Axel: “Just check it out from your evidence room and bring it to me… And I’ll let your partner go free. Otherwise, it’s going to be fun getting acquainted with these lovely ladies… insides and out.”

Craig: “Where do I bring it to?”

Axel: “Pick up my stuff and I’ll call you in an hour… And Craig… This is just between us. Any sign that anyone else knows about this and I’ll be mailing Megan and her sister to you in bite sized pieces for years… I may have cameras set up anywhere… Understand?”

Craig: “How do I know this isn’t another set-up?”

Axel: “You don’t”

     Axel hangs up.

     Craig goes to the station and pretends that he is looking for a victim that they may have missed. He reasons that if there is another victim that Axel was not prosecuted for, it would not be double jeopardy to re-try him. He is able to check out the evidence. But on his way out, his captain sees Craig with the binder and starts asking questions. So Craig tells him privately what is going on and why no-one else can be involved. The Captain does offer some help:

Captain: “He probably will NOT have you meet where he is keeping the girls. So here’s a tracking device. It’s small enough to plant behind a picture in the album so that Axel won’t notice it right away.”

Craig: “OK, good idea.”

Captain: “Here’s another tracking device. Put this clumsily in the bag. Axel will most likely check for a bug, so when he finds this he’ll be less likely to continue looking.”

     The Captain gives him another device from his personal stash that is not police issued along with some advice. Then the conversation continues:

Captain: “Do you know what city they are in?”
Craig: “No, he hasn’t told me anything.”
Captain: “OK, when you even know what city they’re in call me from your cell phone. I’ll get back-up ready so that once you have an exact location from the tracking device, you won’t have to go in alone.”

     Craig gets the call from Axel, “Take the 15 East. Exit anywhere in Barstow. I will call again about the time you should be there. Do not take a police car, and do not alert the cops out this way. If I see increased activity out here, I disappear and kill your partner and her sister.”

     Craig heads toward Barstow in his car. He calls the Captain and tells him the direction Axel has him headed.

     Axel later calls with his final instructions for Craig, “Drive another 20 miles past Barstow, there is a billboard for Slots Of Fun… Leave my stuff by the billboard and drive away.”

     Craig responds, “How do I know you won’t still kill the girls?”

     Axel: “You’ll just have to trust me…”

     Craig calls the Captain while still in Barstow and tells him where he is headed. But there is still nothing the Captain can do yet.

     Craig leaves the bag containing the binder by the billboard – no sign of Axel around – and he drives off.

     Axel is watching with binoculars from far off in the distance in the desert behind some brush. His car is 20 yards away from Axel, out of sight of the billboard. He watches Craig leave and watches for anyone else who might be staking out the location.

     Craig drives about a mile up the road and parks. Axel sees him, but is not worried. So Axel gets to his car (actually Megan’s car) and drives to the billboard.

     Nobody else is around the billboard. Axel opens the bag Craig left for him and lifts out his cherished binder. He thumbs through the pages quickly to confirm they are his pages. He searches the bag and finds a bug in a seam of the bag. He grins and throws the bag to the ground and takes his collection.

     Axel tries to call Craig, but it goes straight to voicemail. Craig’s phone does not work this deep in the desert. (Craig can’t call the Captain).

     Axel has to pass where Craig is parked to drive back to his cabin. He decides to pay him a visit – just in case Craig was thinking about following him. He pulls behind Craig’s car, parks and walks towards Craig. Axel is unarmed and does not feel threatened by Craig. Craig pulls his gun and aims at Axel. Both men are standing out of their cars. Axel holds his hands up:
Axel: “If you shoot me, Megan dies alone in the desert. You’ll never find her.”

Craig: “How do I know you didn’t already kill her?”

Axel: “You could ask her sister.”
Craig: “How do I do that?”

Axel: “Let’s look in my trunk.”

     They walk to the trunk and Axel opens it. Rachel is restrained and has tape over her mouth. She is clothed, but she has a lot of blood on her clothes and herself and is sweating profusely from the heat. She has tears in her eyes and is clearly terrified.

Axel (to Rachel): “Rachel… Is Megan still alive?”
     Rachel nods ‘yes’

Axel: “Might she bleed to death if we don’t get back to her soon?”

     Rachel nods ‘yes’

Axel (to Craig): “Craig, would you like to arrest me, or should I go get Megan some medical attention?”

Craig: “Fine... But Rachel stays with me.”

Axel: “No, the sisters are a set. I will return them together… Or no deal.”

Craig (to Rachel): “Rachel, you hang in there. I promise, you’ll be safe soon.”

     Axel closes the trunk.

Axel: “You will stay parked here for ten minutes. If I see you following me, I’ll take a detour and you’ll never find Megan.”

     Axel drives off, and Craig waits until the car is out of sight to turn on his tracking device. He waits long enough for Axel to have a ten minute head start and starts to follow the signal, staying far behind so that he is not seen. Craig takes the turn onto the dirt road that leads to the cabin. He tries his cell phone again to call the Captain, but still no reception.

     Axel arrives at the cabin and re-secures Rachel to the bed in the back bedroom. By the far wall in that bedroom, there is a desk and chair. Axel puts his collection on this desk.

     The layout is as follows: as you enter the cabin from the front door, you enter the main room that has the kitchen and the bed that Axel sleeps in. As you walk forward and through a doorway, you enter the back bedroom. The bed Rachel is in has the headboard against the middle of the wall to the left and her feet towards the middle of the room. The bathroom is through a doorway to the right, and Vicky is restrained against the wall just past the bathroom on the right wall. The desk with the fingerprint book is against the back wall in the center.

     Megan is still naked and chained to the wall. She is weak from the blood loss. Axel punches her a few times to the body to weaken her even more. He uncuffs her from the wall and sits her in the chair at the desk. He then cuffs her hands behind her back behind the back of the chair. Axel brings over a chair for himself and he opens his collection. He flips open a random page:

     “See Vicky, this is Claire. I met her in Texas. She was a lot of fun for several hours. See the picture while she is alive: piercing green eyes, pretty smile. She had no idea what I was planning for her yet. She was just a slut looking for a good time. I was charged with raping her, but the sex was consensual... Then this picture is after I decapitated her with a hacksaw. I sawed her neck slow. She was alive at least 15 seconds after I started cutting. But it took at least a full minute after the screams stopped to saw through the rest of her neck... And you see a beautiful set of her fingerprints.”

     Megan was woozy from her injury and the blood loss, and this picture made her vomit a little onto the floor.

     Axel flips some more pages, “And this is Allison. I met her in Colorado. We fucked standing up facing each other. The sex was great. I didn’t use any tools on her to kill her… like with you. When I was about to cum, I gently brought my hands to her face, brought her in for a kiss, and after the kiss, I twisted her head clockwise with both hands. There was a bone snapping sound and she started to fall. I caught her and held her up and pumped into her a few last times and I finished cumming inside her... I did have to use a knife to her belly to get these prints though.”

     Axel flips ahead some more pages, “And this is Naomi, one of my first victims in LA. She was only 18. I kept her for a couple days. We made love three times. Each time, she lost a hand or a foot... Very photogenic. Her father was the one who punched me in court. I probably deserved that… And again, a good set of fingerprints.”

     Axel flips to the first page, “Vicky... Ah Vicky… Here’s your drivers license, and a newspaper article with a black and white picture… I have all this documentation for all of my victims… But I don’t have fingerprints or proper photographs for you in my collection … … not yet.”

     Axel stands and pulls out his Polaroid camera and takes Megan’s picture. Megan is very weak and terrified. Rachel is crying on the bed. There is no way to reason with this madman.

     Axel gets the large knife he had been sharpening and rests it on the desk. He forcefully grabs Megan at the shoulder with one hand, and by the chain of the handcuffs with his other hand. He lifts and pushes Megan over the desk so that her upper body is lying face down on the desk, right next to his binder that is still open to Vicky’s page. Megan is bent over at the waist. Axel holds the chain of the cuffs with his left hand so that Megan’s hands are completely restrained at about the center of her back, and Axel holds her down with this hand using his weight. Axel unzips his pants and this causes a whole new panic from Megan. She can not move her upper body at all, but she starts kicking and squirming with her legs. But Axel is too close behind her, so she can not kick him. This struggling has Axel rock hard, and soon Axel is forcing himself inside her. He moves the cold knife blade against Megan’s throat as he fucks her. Megan cries and screams as she is being raped.

     Several minutes after this rape begins, Craig can see the cabin in the distance. He had followed the tracking device to within about 200 yards of the signal and hiked the rest of the way. As he gets closer to the cabin, he hears Megan’s screams and he runs faster. He knows she is being tortured or raped as he hears her cries. No time to drive back for back-up. Craig carefully approaches the front door…

     Axel is so involved in his fantasy, he is able to cum without hurting Megan further. He wants to keep her around for a while. He needs this replacement as Vicky, so he does not want to kill her now.

     Megan is weeping hard as Axel cums deep inside her pussy and hold himself inside her…

     At this same time, Craig grasps the handle of the front door of the cabin… It is unlocked.     

     Craig enters with his gun drawn, and from the front room, he sees Axel in the back bedroom through the doorway. Axel has his back to Craig as he is still inside Megan, but Axel quickly turns as he hears the front door open. Axel keeps the knife to Megan’s throat with his right hand and lifts her to a standing position with his right forearm. He is still controlling her hands with his left hand on the handcuff’s chain. This pressure on her wounded arm causes her a lot of pain; she can not fight him. Axel turns Megan so that she is between himself and Craig.

     Craig sees his partner, naked; her face and body are bloody, and he sees the gunshot wound to her arm. He knows she has been through hell. Craig also sees Rachel restrained on the bed, and Axel’s binder on the desk. Craig does not have a clear shot at Axel.

     Craig’s presence has ruined the mood for Axel and Axel Junior goes limp and falls out of Megan. Axel retains control of Megan by her cuffs and momentarily moves the knife from her throat to re-zip his pants. And then he moves the knife back to her throat.

     Axel yells, “Come any closer and I cut her throat.”

     Craig stays in the middle of the front room, about 25 feet away from Axel.

     Craig yells with his gun pointed at Axel, “Axel… It’s over… Let Megan go… Put your hands up!”

     Axel replies, “It ain’t over. This is just beginning…”

     Axel digs the point of the knife into Megan’s throat just a millimeter to bring out a tiny bit of blood to show how serious he is.

     Axel begins to taunt, “Craig, you ever tap this? Her pussy is goooood.”

     Axel uses Megan as a shield. He guides her across the room so that he can get to his gun. Craig watches but is unable to safely fire a shot without endangering Megan. Axel puts down his knife and picks up his gun and points at Craig. Axel fires twice. Craig jumps to the side and takes cover by approaching and crouching next to the right side of the doorway.

     But one of Axel’s shots hit Craig in the right shoulder – Craig is right handed. He will have to hold his gun in his left hand now.

     Craig peaks his head to look inside for a shot, but every time he does, Axel fires at him and Craig retreats behind the doorway.

     Axel wants to keep Megan as a special kill, not a gunshot wound, so he sits her back down at the desk. Her arms are still handcuffed behind her back and her face rests down on the desk. She isn’t going anywhere.

   Axel decides to draw Craig out. He takes cover behind Rachel. He kneels beside her bed so that her body is between himself and Craig. Axel removes the tape that has been covering her mouth and fires his gun into her left leg. She screams loudly in pain. Axel puts the gun to her head and says to Craig, “Throw over your gun, or I kill her.”

     Craig peaks in and sees the gun at Rachel’s head and that Axel is behind her. He does not have a shot at him. Craig replies, “If I throw over my gun, you’ll kill all three of us… How about you let the girls go and then I’ll give you my gun?”

     Axel replies, “You’re quite the hero, but once the girls are gone, why would you give up your gun? … This would be a stalemate, but I have two hostages I can kill… you have nothing I want… Throw over your gun, or I kill her now.” Axel makes the gun ‘click’ as he cocks it.

     Craig yells, “Megan, get away from the desk!”

     Megan gathers as much energy as she can and clumsily dashes the opposite direction of Axel, toward the bathroom. Her arms still handcuffed behind her back, she knocks over the chair and she falls to the ground before she can get inside the bathroom. She is still in direct fire if Axel decides to shoot her from across the other side of the room.

     Craig takes a couple shots toward Axel’s prized fingerprint collection on the desk. He misses a little high. Axel is clearly disturbed by this, and it gives Megan a chance to get the rest of the way into the bathroom. She hides behind the wall that is between herself and Axel, but she does not close the door. She can still see the doorway where Craig is.

     Craig says, “You have hostages, but I think I can destroy something you want…”

     Craig takes another couple shots at the binder, but on the third shot, there is no fire, just a click… click. Craig’s gun is jammed. He does not have another gun.

     Axel stands with his gun pointed at the doorway that Craig is hiding behind. Axel walks to the desk to retrieve his binder and picks it up with his left hand and holds it to his waist.

     Axel keeps the gun pointed at the doorway and calls out, “Craig! I kill Rachel in three… two…”

     Craig steps into plain sight at the doorway with his hands out at his sides about a foot from his hips and says, “Axel, you win… I surrender.”

     Craig tosses his jammed gun to the floor. His shoulder is bleeding and Craig appears to not have any fight left in him.

     Axel keeps his gun aimed at Craig, but does not shoot. He has to gloat first, “Don’t feel bad Craig. Not everyone is cut out to be a hero.”

     Then Axel sees that Craig has a small device in his other hand… Craig presses the detonator with his thumb and the binder at Axel’s waist goes ‘BOOM’.

     Craig recalls part of his earlier conversation with the Captain after he had given him the tracking devices:

Captain: “And here’s a tiny explosive, also small enough to plant within the pages of the binder. It’s small, but if you detonate it while he’s in his car, it is powerful enough to blow up the entire car. The detonator will work up to a mile away, but you can’t blow Axel up until you find out where the girls are.”

     A quarter of the room is completely destroyed. The desk is in pieces and there is a gaping hole in the wall above the desk. Axel is splattered about the room. His legs are to the right of where he was standing. His arm, with the gun still in his hand, is by the bathroom door. His upper torso and head landed clear across the room by Craig at the front doorway. The middle of his body is indiscernible. There are pieces of pages of pictures and blood fingerprints all over the room and still in the air, falling to the floor.

     Megan crawls out of the bathroom, now with tears of relief. She and Craig go to Rachel on the bed. Rachel is in a state of shock from her injury. The explosion ripped apart the bottom left portion of the bed, and her foot was blown off above her ankle.

     Craig unlocks Rachel’s three remaining restraints and applies a tourniquet to Rachel’s leg. All three of them are badly wounded, but they live another day.

     They get into Megan’s car that Axel had parked just outside, and Craig drives to the closest hospital – about an hour away. A team of police are dispatched to the cabin to sort out the mess. Forensics bag up everything, including the pieces of Axel’s body. They find the grave and retrieve Amy and Jenny’s bodies. They find and analyze many blood stains. The blood matches Axel and Craig and Amy and Jenny and Megan and Rachel… and a woman that has been missing for ten years, last seen in Atlantic City New Jersey.

     One last thing you should know about Megan… She is pro-life… She does not believe in abortions…