Rain Washes Away the Blood

The small TV rumbled quietly, going unheard over the roar of the water pouring from the shower in the cubicle of a bathroom. A young reporter was finishing up a story about a "shocking murder in Portland" which had been linked to a series of unsolved crimes that were believed to be the work of a serial killer.

"The police are not releasing any further information at this time. They're asking for anyone who has any information on Thomas Anderson to call this number." As the number appeared at the bottom of the television screen, a cell phone began to ring, filling the room with the soft sound of U2. The shower curtain was jerked open and a young woman's head peered out around it, brow furrowed. The phone rang a second time and the woman sighed, clambering out of the shower and throwing a towel around herself, she managed to reach the phone just in time and shoved the cell phone to her ear, not bothering to check the caller id.



"Hello, this is Katherine Baptiste speaking."

"Hey Katie."

"Oh, hey Daddy. Are you on I-5 right now? You know how Mom feels about you talking on the phone while you're on the road. By the way, can you pick up some ice cream on your way? Mom said she forgot to get some for Ellie's party." As she rambled, Katherine sat down on the edge of her hotel bed.

"Katie, I can't come." Katherine stopped, her mouth half open as she had been about to ask him something else. "I have to work."

"What? No, you said you made sure you had today off! C'mon Dad, Ellie's counting on you being there! Think about how disappointed she'll be when she finds out you aren't coming!"

"Katherine, something important has come up." Katherine pursed her lips.

"More important than your daughter's birthday party?"

"Turn on the TV. Channel 3." Katherine glanced up. Yes, the TV was tuned to channel 3.



"Dad, I don't see what's so important about a Clorox Bleach commercial."

Katherine's father snapped, "Would you wait half a second?" Katherine winced at her father's tone; James Baptiste didn't get angry very often, and when he did, people listened to him. Katherine sat on the cheap coverlet in silence, gnawing on her lip. The commercial ended and the news returned to the "story of Thomas Anderson" and the "grisly details that might bother sensitive viewers". Katherine let out a wheezy breath of shock, hardly aware that she had been holding her breath.

"Jesus...where did you find the body?"

"Outside the city, in the river. Katie, I'm needed here. The news...they're lying. We don't have any leads. Tell Ellie I'm sorry, alright? Connie understands, I already talked to her."

"Yeah Dad...I'll tell her. Don't work too late, kay?"

"See you this weekend."



The connection ended with a little click. Katherine smiled bitterly; her father was excellent at avoiding the subject of sleep. Katherine closed her phone and glanced back up at the TV. She shuddered as they showed the picture of a naked young man whose face had been neatly slit off and then replaced with the face of another victim. Katherine's stomach churned unpleasantly; she knew what happened next: his face would be neatly sewn on the next victim. This latest serial killer had been nicknamed "the Portland Jester" and "Portland's Twisted Masquerader". Katherine scowled at the picture and clicked the OFF button of the remote fiercly before throwing it on the bed.







The tires of the old Ford Taurus squealed on the wet pavement as Katherine drove down the four lane highway. It was only 11:00 in the morning, but the sky was already dark and cloudy, raining trickling down. Katherine tried to focus on the traffic, but her mind kept slipping back to the picture of the man with his face cut off. Her dad had been a cop for 10 years, but that didn't keep Katherine from hating his work. She could never manage to keep her emotions locked away when she saw the pictures of the bodies. And this one bothered her in particular. The killer was new, the murders only traced for about half a year. And the attacks had been kept far enough apart that the spree hadn't caused too much of a stir. But it had stirred something in Katherine. She was a photographer who had always had a keen eye for noticing detail; and the detail in this killer...it was so methodical, so...the killer had it down to a fine art. Her father always insisted that this was a common trait in psychopaths and that it didn't help them much. Katherine was fine with this; while it bothered her to see people hacked to bits or drowned or strangled, she had no interest in police work. Emotions were nasty little buggers.



The sign for Vancouver emerged out of the fog and Katherine sighed in relief, all too happy to get away from her own thoughts. Knowing that she still had at least 15 minutes of driving, Katherine punched the button on the stereo in an attempt to drown out her own thoughts. A sappy love song began to blare from it; a woman's voice wailing about some guy who had dumped her. Katherine didn't bother to turn it off, she was too happy to not think about anything important. She drove past the familiar sight of the Safeway and then the Costco and then she was turning into a neighborhood; it was neatly lined with upscale houses, most of them made out of brick. Half of them had pools in the back in spite of the fact that pools were hardly practical in Washington. At the end of the cul-de-sac sat a red brick house with a more modest two car garage and no swimming pool. Katherine killed the engine and smiled as the door to the house swung open. She quickly undid her seat belt and climbed out of the car in time to be bulldozed by a long slobbering tongue and a head full of pigtails.



"Katie! You came, you came!" Katherine shoved the Great Dane back with one knee as she scooped up the little girl and swung her around.

"Of course I did, Ellie." Her arms quickly began to complain from the weight of a ten year old on them and Katherine was forced to set her beaming sister down.

"Connie has the cake already! Wanna see, wanna see?"

"You bet. Lead me to it." Her hand was snatched up by a tiny hand that felt like it was covered with icing. Katherine allowed herself to be dragged into the house; the smell of chocolate wafted through the house, making her smile involuntarily.

"Connie, Connie, Katie's here! Is my cake done, is it done?" A woman poked her head out around the kitchen door, her wrinkles crinkling as she smiled warmly.

"Ellen, what did I just say?" The little girl shrugged, unabashed.

"I dunno, I wasn't paying attention."

"Ellie thinks a cake should instantly be frosted and sprinkled when it comes out of the oven." Katherine grinned. This was why she adored her little sister so much; Katherine hadn't had any patience when she was a kid either.

"Hey Ellie, why don't you go put on your party dress?"

"I don't know which one to wear!" cried Ellie, pulling on one of her braids.

"The blue one, with the sunflowers."

"The one Connie bought for my adoption day?" Katherine nodded, cheered by the nonchalant tone in Ellen's voice. "Okay!" Katherine didn't utter a word until she was certain she had heard Ellen's door shut.



"Hey Mom." She kicked off her shoes and padded into the kitchen. Her mom licked the last of the chocolate off the spatula before dropping it into the sink and embracing her daughter.

"We've missed you Katherine. Two months is just too long. I was worried half to the death that you would be eaten by black bears."

"Mom, those are grizzly bears." Connie released her daughter and quickly brushed her tears away.

"Did your father call you?" Katherine nodded grimly, hopping up to perch on the edge of the counter.

"Yeah, he did. Told me about the new murder." Connie sighed, opening the cupboard above the stove and pulling out a case of purple sprinkles.

"Sometimes I wish your father wasn't so dedicated to his work. I know Chris and Martin would be fine without him for a day." Katherine fiddled with the sun dial on the counter as she replied,

"Martin's wife just had a baby, remember?" Connie didn't reply, sprinkling the purple confection on the chocolate cake.

"I can't believe my babies are getting so old. I can still see you running around in diapers, clutching your little silk blankie." Katherine's brown eyes narrowed for a moment, her face scrunched up in annoyance.

"Yeah Mom, sure...Ellie seems to be doing great." Connie smiled for the first time since Katherine had arrived.

"Oh, she's loving this. We just celebrated her adoption day a month ago, remember? She's adoring all the attention."

"Good, I'm happy for her. It's been, what, two years?"

"Three." Katherine shook her head in amazement, hardly able to believe it had been so long since Ellie became a part of their family. She watched her mom put the cake in the fridge before she realized something was missing.



"Aw, crap, I forgot to get ice cream. I was going to have Daddy get it." Connie chuckled, shaking her head, her bob of brown and gray hair waving back and forth.

"Don't worry Katherine. James asked Tom Malone to come."

"The guy from Ben and Jerry's? The one who helps invent ice cream flavors?"

"Mhmm."

"Wow...are you sure you want Dad to be less dedicated?"

"Ha ha ha. Will you find me the candles?" Katherine went to open the cupboard before letting her arm drop.

"Mom, I have no idea where you keep them." Connie turned back towards her.

"Oh, right. I keep forgetting you graduated from high school when we still lived in Portland." Katherine slid off the counter, staring out the window at the rain streaming down the pane.

"I used to wonder why you moved away from Portland....I don't wonder anymore. Did you see the picture on the TV?"

"No, and I don't want to. Your father's job isn't my business and I wish he wouldn't share it with you."

"Mom, I've seen dead people since I was 14. Don't worry, I'm not going to suddenly become a cop and go hunt this guy."

"Well then, there's no need to discus it. Will you go see how Ellen's doing?" Katherine obeyed, rolling her eyes as she headed up the carpeted staircase.



"Don't be such a baby Katie. I think it's invigorating." The wet leaves crunched beneath their feet and Katherine's hair streamed in front of her face, forming a net which she clawed at in vain.

"Invigorating, sure Dad. Next time, let's go hiking in Texas." Her dad chuckled.

"I have to take a pit stop. You go ahead. The end of the trail should be up there." Katherine wrinkled her nose, waving her dad away.

"No problem."



She quickly trudged away from him, up the winding and slippery path. Her dad had been correct, the end of the path was right ahead. She hiked up the last several feet which stopped above the river. It ran fast today, hitting the bank over and over again as it flowed past. The water churned over a rock near the edge. Katherine frowned, eyebrows kneading together. The rock didn't look like any rock she'd ever seen before. It was spherical, covered with something that could have been moss. A stump stuck out from it; a stump that was attached to-



"Dad! Dad! There's a body down in the river! Dad!" Katherine jumped over the little guard rail and slid and slipped down the muddy slope and then into the water. She could faintly hear her father running towards her as she reached for the body. The body was limp, not anywhere near rigor yet and the person's skin was slippery from the river water. Katherine yanked it out of the water; once on the river bank she quickly went to roll the body. She turned the corpse over and reeled backwards as she was greeted with a perfectly intact face that was missing only the skin. Her stomach flipped and flopped and then Katherine found herself vomiting onto the stones, losing her bowl of mini wheats from this morning.



"Katherine, are you alright?" Her father ran down the slope, quickly reaching his daughter and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Katie?" Katherine slowly raised her head and said weakly,

"There's-it has no face! There's supposed to be a face!" James straightened up to look at the body, grimacing delicately at the skinless skull.

"It's possible this isn't the work of the same killer, Katie. This could be just a random murder." Katherine shook her head firmly, staggering to her feet.



"No...look at the indentions at the neck. It's the same cut. The same tool, the same precision..I don't understand. Why would he not follow his own pattern?" Her father was now kneeling beside the body, examining the wounds.

"I think he was interrupted."

"By what?"

"Us." The words made Katherine's blood run cold.

"You mean he heard us?"

"Mmm. You have your camera, right?" Katherine held up her bag to show him. "Good. Will you take several shots, especially of the face and neck?"

"Dad-I-I can't-!" Katherine attempted to protest.

"Katherine, it's not a zombie. I want pictures now, before the wind or rain pick up again. I have to call this in, alright?"



Katherine slowly nodded her assent, reaching for her camera with a shaking hand. Her dad was no longer watching her; he was punching a number that he could have dialed in his sleep. "Martin, I found another body...the Hood River...the edge of the Clark trail...Alright, see you soon." He ended the call and then began to dial another number. Katherine approached the body, relieved there was nothing left in her stomach to throw up. She knelt down and began to snap photos, paying particular attention to the indentions at the neck. She took around 30 pictures, trying to capture any detail. By the time she was finished the rain had begun to pour down, running over the body. Katherine now understood why her father had wanted pictures right away. He shut his phone, pocketing it as he said, "Katherine, go home. I'll be here for lord knows how long."



"Are you sure?...Dad, I don't want to leave you out here alone."

"Katie, I'll be fine." He showed her his holster where he always kept his gun. "Your mother will never speak to me again if you stay. Please, go on."