FINGERPRINTS

By A.L. Danger

Criminalist Aj Curtis and best buddy Detective Josh Gilmore navigate a series of tragedies presented by the city's newest serial killer...The Bridge City Butcher. Bodies are piling up at an alarming rate as they work together with
K-9s Valcor and Einstein to save the citizens of Portland from Satan's wrath. With the additional storylines of a scientist and an up-and-coming singing sensation, this story has unique, shocking revelations that will leave the reader feeling emotionally satisfied and inspired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387483143

Book preview

PREFACE

Imogene, Aj, Jade and Carson. These are the leading characters of this book. While each is very different and unique, you will eventually find that they do share a common bond.

The story picks up in the year 2010. Back when Rihanna and The Black Eyed Peas were dominating the top 40 and flip phones were still a thing. Just prior to the Facebook takeover, Myspace was the dominating social presence. The first three mentioned characters have been impacted by the impeding threat of The Bridge City Butcher. Although, not obvious to the reader in the beginning, Carson is impacted as well. Set in 2020, Carson's storyline captures realistic details of what it was like to live during the pandemic, while racing against time to create a vaccine.

CHAPTER 1

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Confessions

(February 21st, 2010)

T

he foyer of the church had emptied, yet malevolent voices still echoed sins of good intentions. Contrary to popular belief, the church was a very attractive breeding ground for immorality. Predators can smell the ignorance of a conferring heart…and this predator was ravenous.  He detested their self-righteous laughter. Their sins had gone unpunished for much too long…until now. It was time to make them pay…one by one.

⁕⁕⁕

It had been a long Sunday at St Augustine Rosary Parrish in Vancouver, Washington. As old as the town itself, the church had always been a central meeting place for people of faith in the community. The structure was not particularly large, but its presence was commanding. A tall spire in the front was eye catching and robust. Smaller twin spires cascaded down its sides, telling the story of a thirteenth century fairytale. Now, early afternoon, things were just starting to wind down from a morning of services and fellowship. The young adults ‘group had been working hard to generate funds for their upcoming mission trip in Puerto Rico. Upon arrival, they would be distributing food, water and helping to build shelters for recent hurricane victims. In turn, they hoped their humanitarianism efforts would be rewarded with conversions to Catholicism. Group members had been combing over the city for weeks, handing out gospel tracts, pamphlets for the event door to door. Many wealthy members of the church had shown up to give their support and generous donations. In total, the event had generated over one hundred thousand dollars.

Now in the aftermath, Father Daniel was settling in to look over his sermon notes for the upcoming week. He was a tired looking old man. He had dedicated all of his adult years to the church and the lines on his face showed it.

The vestibule doors remained unlocked 24/7, every day, including holidays. Sinners came to confess at all hours of the day, so he could not leave his post until he was reprieved by the other priest, Father Andrew. He heard the bell ringing inside the confessional.

Looks like someone has snuck in, he thought.

He hurried to his post and opened the screen in the wall. On the other side was the shadow of a woman that was looking away toward the door they had just entered through.

Tell me your sins, daughter he said.

A nervous and quiet voice answered.

Bless me Father for I have sinned.

In fact, it was so quiet that he would not have even recognized what she was saying if it were not for the fact that he had heard the same phrase repeated every day for the larger portion of his life.

Father, I have done something terrible. she spoke through hysterical sobbing.

The priest waited patiently while she unloaded her tears. He had heard many emotional confessions in his day, so this was not exactly alarming, just par for the course. There was something very odd about her though…he couldn’t put a finger on it yet...

As, she was about to let out another wail, the sobbing abruptly stopped, it was replaced by the sound of a male. The voice was loud and deep and very domineering. 

Imogene, stop.

Father Daniel froze in fear. The voice had a meanness to it that he had never heard before.

Leave here now, you have nothing to say. the voice commanded. He wanted to know what this raucous sounding character looked like, but he resisted the urge to peak.

The woman stood up and quickly opened the door and let herself out of the confessional. Father Daniel sat quietly there for about five minutes, wondering when the intruder was going to leave. He finally looked out through the screen. It was very apparent that there were two people in his confessional, but now it was as if both had disappeared into thin air. He walked out of the confessional with caution and did a full inspection of the church. There was no sign of either of them…or Father Andrew for that matter.

***

Her heart raced faster than it had ever before, still in shock by the terror of what had just happened. Imogene had run all the way to the truck and swiftly locked the doors. She never wanted him to find her again, but this was not the first of him and would likely not be the last. Her hands fumbled for the key and turned the ignition. She could not let him overcome her, she thought. It was time to be strong and calm. That was the only to get away. Her thoughts were poisoned with questions. The truck meandered through traffic for about an hour until she was sure she was alone again. In need of some air, she decided to pull over at the parking lot ahead. She thought she heard movement coming from the back of the truck. The side mirror to the truck ever so slowly moved as she tipped it just right to get a glance at what was behind her.

It was a large parking lot, used for tourists to park in during the day, but now at nighttime it was unattended and dark. This place was familiar; her father had taken her here before. It was the waterfall. One leg at a time, she unloaded herself from the truck and took some deep breaths, hands shaking vigorously. She looked down at them intently, as to inspect them. There were little dark red stains on them…blood stains.  Her lungs felt tight. She gasped as an overwhelming feeling of fear came over her. Then she heard the voice again.

Hello, Imogene.

CHAPTER 2

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Duty

(February 21st, 2010)

H

e counted the color specks that decorated the terrain of the Columbia Gorge. The wind was blowing vibrantly, but dedicated parasailers were still braving the cold February weather.  Traffic was at a standstill and had been now for about twenty minutes.  It was very annoying. Frustrated people around him were on their cell phones, bumper to bumper, on the crowded bridge. A collage of their voices buzzed like a silent roar through the innocent mountain air.

Aj’s gaze wandered through the halted traffic as he tried to guess what people were thinking. It was doubtful that any of them were thinking about what he was. The disturbing images that he had captured in his mind over the years would horrify just about anyone. He had spent fifteen years now with the Portland Police Department. Some days it was hard to decipher fiction from reality. For the normal person, it would be peaceful and calming to look out at the natural wonders, but not to him. He saw an endless wasteland of hidden evidence yet to be discovered.

He had braved four grueling years on the beat in the city. Never cut out to be the rough and tough cocky cop type, he welcomed the change when he was promoted to Criminalist. Better known to many as CSI, the role of the criminalist was less prestigious than Hollywood had made it to be. In the real world, the detectives were the ones that got to do all the cat and mouse stuff. Although he was not on the front line of crime fighting, Aj took great joy in the silent middle finger that he could deliver a pedophilic maggot whose DNA was scraped off a kindergartner’s underwear.  He had gotten way past the disturbing phase of his line of work. Now it was almost amusing to him when he got a hit in CODIS from a microscopic sized hair left at an otherwise spotless crime scene. They just don’t get it, he thought many times. There is no hiding anymore, the proof is EVERYWHERE. He did have to admit to himself that he enjoyed the power that he felt when he got a match. In a way it was a guilty pleasure of his.

Fortunately, there were outlets to channel all of the gruesomeness. One of those was his passion for training the K-9 unit. He had two trained K-9s that he worked with, in fact. These dogs had become much more than just police dogs to him. Valcor and Einstein seemed to have a psychic sixth sense about them. They had memorized the sound of his vehicle to the exact melody it played as it made its way down the winding road to his quiet country house. As he turned the last corner into the driveway, they would already be barreling towards the gate. He loved to look at their cute smiley little faces when they would come up to meet him after a long grueling shift. They were his comfort. He often pondered how these sweet little pets could be capable of the line of work they did. They were both highly trained weapons. While many K-9s are used primarily in cop cars as a back up to patrol officers, these two dogs had a more refined purpose. In addition to their combat skills, they were trained for evidence gathering, or as referred to in the cop world article search.. In those cases, the dog handler could decide which behavior to use. It all depended on the intelligence gathered as well as the environment and other related considerations such as time frame, weather, and contamination. In some cases, the combination of the two behaviors would allow the canine team to be successful.

The older of the two German Shepherds, Einstein had been on the force for 8 years and would be nearing retirement soon. Named appropriately, his keen senses were unmatched when it came to detecting suspicious activity.

***

He could never forget the first day Einstein showed everyone what he was a beast-cop he was. Shortly before six o'clock in the morning on a warm spring day, two teen age girls were walking down a quiet road en route to the pond inlet where a group of high school rowers were practicing. Without warning, one was accosted by a male who dragged her up a fifteen-foot incline into the woods where he sexually and physically assaulted her. The second girl ran up the path to try and get to her friend to help her, which was brave, but ultimately would end up being a fateful decision.

At the conclusion of the assault, the first girl made her way out to the gravel road. She was found by other rowers, at least one of whom entered the woods to locate the suspect. Although no one knew at the time, a serial killer had just committed his first offence in their jurisdiction. The Canine Unit was not called to the scene until 8:20 am - over two hours after the assault. The female victim could give little idea to the investigators where the attack had occurred. The second victim was still missing, and they hoped to find clues that could lead them to her. The investigators believed that some of the victim's clothing was still in the bush and hoped to be able to collect trace evidence, if a scene could be located. With over one hundred acres of bush in the