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Abbie Normal
"You're sure about this?" Holly asked, skeptical.
"Positive," Lorna replied. "I identified four of the girls myself. I even compared them to lab reports."
"That's gross," Holly said.
"And illegal," Lorna noted. "Besides that, we think he's been taking organs from the lab. The arrest warrant should be ready by the time we get there. I was thinking, since this involves Theresa, er, your case, that you might want to be involved in the arrest."
"All right," Holly said, shaking her head. "I'll call Tom."
"Probably a good idea."
"At least Des was perverted with live girls," said Holly, with disgust.
David's apartment was one of those not-quite-Berkeley warehouse tenements, above an actual warehouse. The elevator had a pull-down gate, the kind you only see in television shows. The hallway outside his front door was lit by a smoked window with octagonal wires embedded in the glass; the light it allowed through was heavily filtered, giving the place a gloomy, bluish air.
"David," Lorna called, knocking on the door. "David, it's Lorna."
Holly and Tom stood behind her, waiting patiently as she talked to the door. They could hear sounds from inside, but David made no attempt to respond. Lorna refused to turn around, despite the fact that she could feel their eyes burning into her back, waiting impatiently.
"David, please open up," Lorna continued. "I know about the photographs you've been taking of girls in the lab. There are two officers with me. They're here to arrest you."
Still there was no reply. Lorna was just about to knock again when she heard an annoyed sigh from behind her. Tom walked up to her and gently pushed her aside.
"Let me try," He said. "David," he called, through the door. "This is Officer Fleming. I have an arrest warrant for you and must ask that you open the door. If you don't I'll have to use force."
No sooner had he finished talking then he pulled out his gun and kicked at the door. The frame cracked a little, but the door held.
"Hey," Tom said to Lorna with a shrug, "I gave him time to respond."
He let out an overly masculine growl as he kicked the door again, this time breaking it open. The three ran into the apartment. Inside, they found a massive loft. A couch and love seat sectioned the living room off from the dining room, and a small kitchen area was notated with island counters.
But what struck them the most was the curtain that David was just pulling shut as they entered. It was blue, and hung on large, wooden rings. It looked like David had just hung it. It sectioned off at least a quarter of the room.
"All right," David said, calmly. "All right, I give up. I just took the pictures because I needed the money."
Tom walked over and started to handcuff David while reading him his rights.
"What are you doing here?" Lorna asked, approaching the curtain. She had the feeling that David was surrendering so easily because he wanted to get them out of his apartment.
"No!" David called, twisting out of Tom's grasp. "Don't go in there." He ran over, placing himself between Lorna and the curtain.
"Tom," Lorna said, looking at the handcuffs dangling from David's left wrist. The officer walked over and tried to pull David away. David fought him, but Tom twisted his arm behind his back, pulling David to the floor.
"Go ahead," Tom said, kneeling on David's back. "I've got him."
Lorna approached the curtain and pulled one corner of it aside.
"Oh my God," she gasped.
"What is it?" Holly asked.
Lorna flung the curtain aside and Tom and Holly stared, stunned by what they were seeing. Several hospital monitors stood beeping around the sectioned area. IV drips, heart monitors, and several pieces of equipment that Lorna couldn't immediately identify were positioned around a gurney. The cot was empty, but was covered with clean white sheets. What stunned them the most, however, was the tank.
Propped against the wall, behind the gurney, was a ten-foot tall, semi-circular tank, filled with a bluish liquid. Sun lamps were positioned on either side of the tank, aimed at the naked woman suspended inside.
Lorna walked over and stared into the tank. The woman was a brunette; her hair was cut short, but uneven, as if David had done it himself. The right half of her torso was a roadmap of sutures and scars, a clear sign that she'd been operated on several times. A row of sutures circled her right shoulder, and the arm didn't look as if it fit quite right. Monitor wires were affixed to various parts of her body, and a catheter tube ran from between her legs.
"Is this..." Lorna said, reaching up to touch the tank. "Is this Sandy?"
"Don't touch her," David cried. "Leave her alone! I saved her! I brought her back from the dead!"
"This is why you needed the money," Lorna said. "And this is why you stole organs from the..."
That was as far as she got before she screamed. Sandy suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her. Her face was taught with fear, and she raised her hands limply, pressing her palms agaist the inside of the glass. Her mouth was moving and it took Lorna a second to realize what she was saying.
"Help me," she mouthed, over and over.
Lorna stood in shock, trembling.
Suddenly, David pulled knife from his boot and slashed at Tom's arm. The officer leapt backwards, giving David the room he needed to jump to his feet. Knife in hand, he ran at Lorna.
Who fired the shot, Lorna would never ask, but both Tom and Holly had their weapons raised. David was standing between them and Lorna, and she realized later that the first shot was probably meant for him. It missed.
The tank cracked, and the thick blue liquid started to squirt through the bullet hole. David yelled and tried to cover the hole with his hands, but the crack was already spreading. A moment later, the crack split along the bottom, spilling the blue liquid across the floor. Sandy, no longer suspended, and too weak to support herself, slid forward, and through the cracked glass.
David caught her in his arms and eased her to the floor.
"It's all right," he whispered to her.
Sandy's mouth moved, as if she were trying to breath. She gagged, then coughed up more of the blue liquid. David smiled at her with tears in his eyes as he wiped the sticky hair from her eyes. Her body was limp, only the slightest movement of her hands and feet gave sign that she was conscious. Her head flopped backwards against David's arm and he propped it up with his hand. Before Lorna could help, Sandy's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she stopped trying to move.
David held her, crying, for almost a minute before he looked up at Lorna. He picked up the knife and stood up.
"Don't do it, David," Holly called.
Lorna could see that both Holly and Lorna had their weapons raised and realized what David was doing, it was called "suicide by cop." David turned and looked, then turned back to face Lorna. He pulled his arm back and Holly fired. A red stain spread across the front of his shirt, and he stared at it, wincing. With tears in his frightened eyes, he stepped toward Lorna again and Tom fired. David raised the knife one more time and both Tom and Holly fired. This time, he fell to his knees, the knife slipping from his hand. With his eyes fixed on Sandy, he fell forward, onto the jagged glass that lined the bottom of the tank.
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