I Want To Play A Game: The Game Continues
Chapter 2: Questioning
Four hours had passed since Michelle’s capture and the police computer technicians were still working on trying to access her files on the computers seized. Meanwhile Michelle herself was sitting in a cell waiting patiently to be interrogated and Officer Reynolds was having to explain himself to the commissioner:
“I know it was reckless sir, but I couldn’t let her get away; not when we’d finally managed to track her down.”
“And what about the seventeen good officers we lost today due to your inability to abort a mission when you have to.”
“But she had to be stopped sir, I couldn’t let anymore people be forced to play that woman’s twisted games.”
“And you were willing to let a lot of good officers, with families and friends, potentially live the rest of their lives as nothing more than sex crazed bimbos so that you could capture your target! Tell me why I shouldn’t make you turn in your badge right now for this.”
“Thirty five girls sir. Thirty five innocent girls with their whole lives ahead of them had their future taken away by that monster in there! That’s how many victims it took for us to finally track her down and who knows how many dozens more would have suffered the same fate if we had let her go.”
You still didn’t have the right to risk other peoples‘…”
“They all knew the risks before we entered that warehouse. I gave each and every one of those officers the choice to stand down if they wished and all were willing to potentially make that sacrifice.”
“It still wasn’t your call to make Officer, you let your emotions rule your head and now…”
“I let my emotions rule my head? You think so? Of course I let my fucking emotions rule my head! That bitch, that psychopath turned my wife into… she made her…”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bring up your…”
“Can you even imagine what it’s like to only be able visit your own wife during the visiting hours of a psychiatric clinic? To only be able to see her from the other side of a glass wall and not be allowed to touch her because all that she cares about is sex? To know that she will never truly be your wife again, but just some women that is desperate to fuck you or anybody that she can get her hands on? Do you have any idea how that feels? And you have the fucking nerve to tell me I may have let my emotions get the better of me.”
The commissioner was about to reply when the another officer entered the office with a look of horror pasted all over his face. “Sirs, I hate to interrupt but we have a serious problem.”
“What kind of problem? can’t you see I’m busy here?”
“We can’t access the hard drives from the computer’s we confiscated from the warehouse.”
“What about the woman?”
“She refuses to speak to anyone except Officer Reynolds sir?”
“Godammit!” The commissioner was becoming visually agitated by this point, “She can speak to anyone but him. Have you tried Johnson, Matthews, Rigby?”
“Yes sir, but she just closes up completely. She only wants Reynolds.”
“You’re gonna have to let me speak to her sir,” declared Reynolds, “It’s the only way she will talk.”
“You will speak when spoken to Officer and not before. You are off the case and that is the final decision.”
“You can’t take me off the case! There could be somebody else out there, another victim maybe more.”
“You are off the case Officer!”
“Give me ten minutes sir, just ten minutes to make her talk. There could be people’s futures at stake here.”
The commissioner was visibly agitated by this exchange. Officer Reynolds had demonstrated he lacked the mental disposition to handle this case and especially the suspect in custody, yet could possibly be the only person with the ability to get the information needed.
“I’m crazy for even considering this, but you’ve got ten minutes officer. If you’ve got nothing for us by then, you’re off the case completely understand?”
“Perfectly sir. Thank you.”
“Oh and Reynolds, you fuck this up and I will have your gun and badge before your ass even leaves the interview chair.”
The discussion over, Officer Reynolds left the office and made his way to the interviewing rooms where the Barbiemaker was being held. She had been expecting him.
“Officer Reynolds, so nice to finally meet you one on one.”
“Skip the pleasantries bitch, I am here to do my job and that is all. Just tell me the codes to access the computers.”
“Ah but there’s so much to talk about first,” smiled the woman. “I haven’t asked about how life is at home, how is your wife these days?”
Officer Reynolds fought to restrain himself, “We are not here to discuss that Miss…”
“Call me Michelle.” filled in the woman in a tone that sounded more like an informal job interview than a response to a serious police investigation. “I thought you would have been pleased with my work, she had cheated on you a number of times after all…”
“What are the codes?”
“And I bet you’ve been tempted at least once or twice to ask the nurses at the ward to let you spend a few hours of ’quality time’ alone with the new her haven’t you?”
“The codes PLEASE!” spat Reynolds on the verge of losing all control. “I will not ask again.”
“Oh but you will Derek, you need those codes from me much more than I need to give them to you. Me, I just want to play a game.”
“You have played your last game bitch,” Snapped Reynolds sensing an opportunity, “You’re never going to see the light of day again.”
Michelle just scoffed at the threats aimed at her, “Oh you couldn’t be more wrong Derek my dear. I still have one final game to play, the biggest game to date.” She paused just enough to watch the expression on his face fall before breaking into a smile and adding: “And you’re the star.”
“You’re a monster.” snarled Reynolds, “There’s no way I will ever be drawn into playing one of your twisted games.”
“Go back to your techno wizards outside and tell them to try the password: ‘Derek Reynolds’ Game’ and see what comes up.” suggested Michelle casually, “Then come back here and tell me you don’t want to play.”
Derek got up and made his way to the tech room where all of Michelle’s computer equipment had been set up.
“Any progress guys?” asked Reynolds tentatively.
“Nothing sir” replied one of the technicians, “Say what you want about the bitch, she knows how to work a computer. Look at this stuff, we’ve got four monitors, recording equipment, an unbreakable security system, all the hardwa…”
“I don’t give a fuck about how good her computer system is. Can you hack into it, yes or no?”
“We’re trying sir, we’ve been trying since we first plugged in the machine, nothing works.”
Reynolds hesitated for a second before deciding to take the bait Michelle had given her. “Try the password Derek Reynolds’ Game.”
“Voice code accepted!”
To the whole room’s astonishment, the computer suddenly came to life the second Reynolds finished speaking. Monitors switched on, processors kicked into life and one by one four video feeds came up on each of the screens.
The first screen was pretty innocuous. It was just a picture of a digital clock set at 4’o’clock. The second however was not so harmless, at first glance it looked like a video of a blank wall until Derek realised that he recognised that wall, it was the wall of the interrogation room. Michelle had been recording their entire conversation!
“I’m gonna kill that bitch!” screamed Reynolds and he turned to leave when one of the technicians called him back.
“Um, sir? I think you’re gonna want to see this.”
Derek turned around to see that the third screen was now live and what Officer Reynolds saw on that screen made his blood go cold. The screen was full of small windows each containing a live film of a girl or group of girls, naked, unconscious and bound to all sorts of machines, contraptions and in some cases, each other. Reynolds had studied the Barbiemaker case from day one in every detail. He knew the names, addresses and faces of every single girl Michelle had taken and he knew straight away that these girls were new.
“There must be at least twenty of them.” gasped one of the technicians.
“Is this live?” asked Officer Reynolds quietly.
“I’ve never heard of her taking this many girls at one time.” commented another.
“I said is this fucking video live or not?” snapped Reynolds.
“I don’t… well its hard to say.” stumbled the first technician. “It looks live and it would take some pretty incredible software to fake the time dates on each of these monitors. I’m ninety percent sure it’s a live feed.”
“Then we need to find those girls. Can you get a location on where the signal is coming from?”
“Maybe, but it will take time.”
“Time is something we don’t have!” Screamed Reynolds, “I want that feed tracked As soon as…”
It would have taken something along the lines of a nuclear holocaust to interrupt Reynolds at that moment. Tragically, that was what it felt like when the fourth monitor whirred into life. It was a video of one woman, blindfolded and trapped in a box that couldn’t have been more than a few inches bigger than her frame in any direction. She was bound and gagged, unable to speak or move. Reynolds just stared at the screen speechless.
“I don’t get it.” remarked one technician.
“Why the entire screen for just the one girl?” agreed another, “It can’t be any more terrible than what we have just seen on screen three. What makes her so special?”
“She’s my sister.” revealed Reynolds in a tone akin to what you would expect of someone if they had just discovered a loved one had passed away. “That’s why she gets her own screen. Because it’s the screen that will make me play her game.”
Almost as if it was in time with his voice, when Reynolds finished speaking, the clock on the first screen began to count down. It hadn’t been set at four o’clock, it was a four hour countdown.
“It’s gonna be okay.” one of the technicians replied, trying to come up with something of comfort. “Once we tell the Commissioner I’m sure everyone will be on the case immedi…”
“You are not telling anybody who that is.” declared Reynolds, his voice totally devoid of emotion. “The department find out who she is then I am off the case.”
“But surely that’s for the best…”
“Listen you little fuckface, I know more about this bitch than the rest of this whole damn station put together, It means I know what she is capable, and I know what happens when she doesn’t think you are playing the game right.” Reynolds paused for breath, “If they take me off the case now, she and everyone on that screen will end up like the others. Like it or not I have to play her little game. And if any of you even so much as whisper who that other girl is, I’ll put a bullet through your brain. Do you all understand me?”
The technicians all nodded. They could see he was one hundred percent serious, on top of that, to the man they agreed with everything he had just said.
“Good, then lets go play a game.”