LEAKIN PARK

By A.G. DENNY

Leakin Park in Baltimore, Maryland is notorious as a dumping ground for murder victims, known to those around the city as Baltimore's Largest Unofficial Cemetery. Any cop working the west side knew the score when it came to Leakin Park.

Detective Avery Lnu is called to the scene of a high-profile "Who done it?" dump in the park, a

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.G. DENNY
• Release date: Sep 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737964018

Book preview

ONE

In a foggy haze, Kyle opened his eyes. Everything was dark. A slight trickle of moisture dripped from what must have been a cut on his head. Pain, the kind of pain that hit after a long night drinking tequila, coursed through him. Trying to touch his head, he realized he could not move his hand. His hands and feet were strapped down to a table. His chest was also strapped down. Cold air moved across his body. He knew he didn’t have any clothes on. Slowly, fear crept in, and Kyle wondered what was happening.

He had been at the Power Plant having a good time with a beautiful coed from Johns Hopkins. She was studying something to do with DNA. Kyle tried to keep up with her in not only intelligent conversation, but also in drinking. What was her name? He didn’t even get her number.

Kyle remembered staggering up the snow-covered ramp into the mostly empty parking garage. The wind blowing up the ramp at almost 2 am was bitterly cold. People walked past him as he staggered up. He remembered walking to the driver’s side door of his car, fumbling for his keys. He leaned against the car face first, laying his head on the cold metal of the roof. He remembered hearing laughter as he woke and fell back asleep for at least an hour.

His head throbbed. Had there been some sort of van next to his car?

Then everything faded, and he passed out again.

Hours or days later, Kyle woke again. He couldn’t grasp how long he was in and out of consciousness. His head still hurt. The blood was drying and cracking on the side of his temple. He panicked, screaming as he twisted his arms and legs attempting to get up from his tight restraints. It was no use.

Kyle’s heart raced as he hyperventilated. Even in the coolness of the room his sweat gathered under the leather restraints holding him down. Each time he pulled against them the dampened leather grew tighter, rubbing his skin raw. He knew he had to calm down if he was going to survive.

Kyle thought back to his childhood and playing games of cops and robbers. Being the robber, he got tied to a tree once. His friends thought it would be funny to leave him tied there in the woods. He recognized his current fear. It was the same fear he felt at nine-years-old playing that game. Only this time it was not a game. Who had he upset? Who would do something like this to him?

He was a typical student, went to Loyola University, studied economics, nothing that would upset anyone. He hadn’t dated in almost a year, so there were no crazy ex-boyfriends of lovelorn ladies lurking in his past.

Hours seemed like days. In reality, Kyle had only been tied up for nine hours.

What would happen to him? Was this a cruel joke from one of his fraternity brothers? Did the girl he was talking to have a crazy ex-boyfriend? Why was this happening to him? As each minute passed, his fear grew stronger. The room was cold and smelled damp. His eyes would not adjust to the darkness and the cold metal table and leather restraints dug into his flesh.

Just as Kyle forced himself to start to doze off again four very bright lights arranged in a circle connected to a boom hovering above him snapped on. They were like the lights found in a doctor’s office. He squinted, turning his head from side to side. The light shining on his face striking off the table caused a bright glow around him acting as a barrier to anything aside from faint images and shadows. Kyle heard footsteps coming down what sounded like a concrete stairway. He started to panic again screaming and calling for help. Just then two hands appeared in front of the light as he was screaming. Whoever it was, was standing at his head. They took advantage of his open mouth and screaming to put something long and rubbery into his mouth. The stranger strapped it around the back of Kyle’s head. He turned his head back and forth trying to spit it out with no success. Looking back at him, sitting on the floor to his right, through the glow of the bright lights, was a large dog. It was certainly from the Mastiff family. The animal was easily over 6 feet on its hind legs. It had muscles rippling beneath its short black coat. He was beautiful and intimidating at the same time. It was a dog he knew well as a Cane Corso. Even through the panic and fear he could remember sitting for hours with his mom and sister looking at dogs online. They were trying to pick a family dog, and the Cane Corso was on the short list and one his sister loved and begged and begged, only to be disappointed that her father, the tiebreaker, sided with his mother and chose an American Akita. What he would not give to be back home with his family. He had missed going to see them this Christmas in North Dakota. He just didn’t want to deal with those winters this year, and he wanted to party and have fun with the friends that stayed on campus during the holidays. He loved his family, but he grew up in a town called Linton. He remembers driving into town last summer and noticing they updated the welcome to Linton sign population 1,678. It was painful enough over the summer to visit, but in December there is always snow on the ground, and the temperatures dropped to almost zero every night. Kyle lived there his whole life but enjoyed the nightlife of Baltimore. He wished he had gone back this Christmas. Just then Kyle heard a noise to his other side and turned his head to the left and saw a second Cane Corso. They were so beautiful and well kept. He tried to calm himself and was waiting for his friends to start laughing at him for being so scared.

Kyle felt a presence near him, dread washed over him, and chills began to make goosebumps on his arms. He knew that he was not alone. He began to panic as he tried to see who was near him. Fear ran through his body as his heart began to beat faster and stronger in his chest. Kyle was startled as he saw the stranger move to stand next to him and he noticed they were wearing one of those white biohazard suits, made of paper and plastic. They were also wearing the matching hood, mask, and gloves. Kyle could not make out any facial features with the bright lights shining in his eyes, just the outline of the stranger. Kyle heard the sound of wheels rolling across the floor stopping beside the table where he was strapped down. Kyle felt a prick on his right arm, the feeling of a needle going into his arm. He had always hated needles and this time was no different. Turning to his right, Kyle saw a hose attached to a bulging, plastic bag filled with a clear liquid that was hanging off a medical pole. It looked just like the saline solution bags he had seen many times in the hospital when his grandfather passed away a few years back. Kyle watched as the person in the mask held up a needle and bottle. They extracted a large dose of solution from the vial. Even upside-down Kyle could read Epinephrine. Kyle knew from his required biology class that this was adrenaline, and he could feel his heart pounding faster in his chest. The stranger pushed the needle into the little port on the tubing connected to the bottom of the saline bag and emptied the rest of the syringe. Kyle could not understand why he was being given this. Kyle grew more afraid, and his heart started racing faster as the cold solution crept its way into his veins.

After about five minutes of silence, off to his side, Kyle could hear the rattling sound of shaky wheels on the concrete floor, along with the sound of metal clanging against metal. Through the bright light Kyle could barely make out different types of surgical tools on the metal tray rolled next to him. Kyle began thrashing about, but it was no use. He could only move his head, and his efforts did not phase the person in the biohazard suit. What did they want? Why were they doing this to him? What’s going to happen to him? Tears started to flow from the corner of his eyes as he noticed the Cane Corso sitting beside him on the floor. Why? He cried out as he felt a sharp pain to his chest, but his scream was muffled by the gag in his mouth. He could see that the person was using a scalpel to cut into him. He felt the pain, but couldn’t stop it. He screamed into his gag, but the pain continued. The cuts were not deep, but they were to Kyle’s best judgment 5 inches long and 2 inches wide in a rectangular pattern. When the cutting stopped, Kyle felt the stinging, but was happy the worst of it was over. Then he saw the person pick up what looked to be wide flat pliers. He watched as they grabbed the flesh from the fresh cut with the pliers in one hand and then using the scalpel cut the skin from the muscle as they pulled the layers away from his body. As the skin was cut from his body, the pain was too much for Kyle, and he passed out again. Kyle woke up to even more of the same pain, but with a rawness on his chest and stomach. Kyle turned his head to the side, crying in pain. As he did, he watched in horror as the person was holding the flesh from his chest to the dogs and feeding them one by one. Each dog sat patiently waiting for another piece of his flesh. Kyle could do nothing but cry and hope the pain would stop.

Just as the pain intensified, the work on his chest stopped. He heard a phone ringing outside of this room of horrors. He could not make out where the ringing originated from. The stranger took off their gloves and walked up the stairs, leaving Kyle strapped to the table in pain and bleeding. After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, they returned, and Kyle wished this nightmare was over. As the person put their gloves back on, they picked up another bottle, a clear bottle with a white and red label. Kyle could read that the bottle was labeled Fentanyl, Kyle had no idea what that drug was. The person filled a syringe and stuck the needle directly into the IV line and as soon as they started pushing the plunger on the end of the syringe Kyle’s pain diminished. Lifting the syringe up, the stranger injected the unused portion of the liquid directly into the IV bag. Kyle’s head started spinning as a tingling sensation rushed through his body. Kyle’s pain was nonexistent at this point and his eyes grew heavy, the room seemed larger and the lights more colorful. It was a state of euphoria, but the fear was still ever present in his mind. Half-awake and half asleep. He could not move or feel pain, but he was awake. He could see, but it was all a daze.

Kyle wished they would empty the rest of the painkiller into his veins and end his suffering, but this didn’t happen. Kyle watched as the person used a scalpel to do something to his thighs. He could feel pressure, but no pain. The lack of pain made him happy but scared at the same time. He watched as they stuck small, long surgical clamps in his leg. He had no idea what was happening and, as bad as the pain was, he was even more afraid because he could not see or feel what was happening to him. Kyle’s eyes widened as the person picked up a strange looking saw. The saw was only about 10 inches in length, 4 inches thick, it had a fine-tooth blade, a pistol handle and looked very old by the rust on the blade. He wanted to scream and get up. He tried his best to move and fight back, but the fight was only in his mind. He wasn’t moving an inch. He felt the pressure on his thigh as he watched the sawing motion on his leg. He watched in horror and shock for almost 15 minutes, until he could feel the bone being cut. Kyle felt no pain, only the vibration of the saw blade on his bone. He cried and shouted against the gag as best he could. He shut his eyes and tried to block out what was happening to him. All he could do was lay there horrified and watch as this evil, vile person cut off his leg. When he saw the bloody end of his leg lifted free of his body, he passed out completely.

Kyle opened his eyes and his captor was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious. All he knew was that the pain was pushing through the haze of the anesthetic. It burned. It was as if he was touching a hot flame with his hands and feet. In his mind he was wiggling his fingers and toes trying to push through. Kyle laid his head to the right for the first time in what seemed like hours, and he saw a horror show. Immediately he knew that nothing he could do would matter. He only wished the suffering would stop. He wished this person would tell him why this was happening to him. He didn’t deserve this, as he stared at the table next to the bed, Kyle saw two severed legs and two severed arms. He was confused. He could feel pain in his hands and feet but, he could also see an arm with the tattoo he got last year during Spring Break. Kyle wondered how he could feel the pain and at the same time see that his arms and legs were laying on the table near him. He was dizzy and having a hard time concentrating. He tried to stay focused on the present but thought back to South Beach when he and his friends all decided to get tattoos. While everyone else was getting their typical tattoos he wanted something different. He, in his drunken state, got a supply-and-demand curve, of all things, tattooed on his upper right bicep. It was a simple chart and being the oddball of the group, it was appropriate. He always loved the fact that when he was at the pool or beach people would ask him about it and it gave him a chance to talk about economics with a stranger. Kyle loved money and math. Looking at his arms on the table, he knew he would never use his old-fashioned chalkboard his parents had given him to draw out economics formulas. Even if he made it out of this nightmare alive, he knew that his life would never be the same. If he could only talk, his mouth was so dry, and he could feel the slight splitting of the corners of his lips where the gag cut into him. Why wouldn’t they talk to him? Why were they doing this to him? Kyle started crying again into his gag, staring in horror at his appendages laid on the table next to him. Kyle knew his life was over, he knew there was nothing more he could do and only wished he would just die as the pain