To Satisfy His Compulsion

The city was buzzing when fourteen year old Janet Crespo was found behind the abandon factory over by State Street and Lee Avenue. She was raped and then brutally stabbed to death. Detective Laura Kimber thought about the crime and it would have been a dream come true if the guilty man would have just materialized in front of her. She would have shot him twice and asked questions later.

But as usual, poetic justice did not exist in modern day crime investigations. Kimber did everything possible to find the suspect, but in the end, she turned up empty.

When the second rape report came in, everyone in the unit knew immediately what that meant. Kimber had laid the groundwork for that, meeting with everyone in all four districts and warning them to be looking for anything sexual or anything involving a switch blade.

That second victim was an eleven year old girl from the Housing Projects who had been lured to a vacant gas station on Clinton Avenue. She was then threatened with a switch blade and raped. The rapist allowed the young girl to live, though he warned her that if she told anyone, he would come back and kill her and her family. He promised to slice them brutally, and she would watch before she got hers.

Eleven year old Tammy Torres promised not to tell, but did precisely the opposite when she returned home to her grandmother. As it happened, she knew her attacker by name and address. She went to school with the rapist’s youngest daughter. She had seen him several times at EliasHoweSchool watching little girls.

All the information that Kimber received was as good as the guilty party materializing in front of her. The crime was as stupid as it was evil. Witnesses had even seen the rapist walking with the victim just before the assault, which may have been the reason he allowed her to live. He knew there were witnesses, yet he abandoned all caution to satisfy his compulsion with another child.

After calling Chambers, and O’Brien and taking the rape’s victim’s statement, Kimber received a warrant for Mike Washington’s address on Laurel Avenue. No more than a few blocks from where Janet Crespo had been raped and murdered.

Kimber had met Detective’s Peter O’Brien and Nathan Chambers at the address and they pounded feverishly on the front door.

Washington’s wife, Lala, was strangely cooperative when questioned by Laura Kimber. She wasn’t at all surprised at the possibility of her husband being connected to the rapes and the murder.

“Where is your husband now?” O’Brien asked as he moved into the family room trying to see if there was anyone else in the apartment.

Lala just bowed her head slowly.

“Where the fuck is your husband!” Kimber shouted.

Lala pointed to the bedroom near the corner by the kitchen. Chambers reached for his revolver and rushed quickly into the bedroom. Three minutes later he came out with his weapon holstered and his left hand cupping his mouth.

“Nathan?” O’Brien said quizzically.

“Well, looks like we don’t have to question him,” he half whispered.

That day the detectives learned a little more about Lala Washington. They discovered that her own two little girls were raped, and that if Mike Washington would have lived, he would never be able to perform anymore rapes.

Nathan escorted O’Brien to the bedroom; Mike Washington was on the floor naked and still bleeding. His throat was cut and his private parts were about five feet away.

Kimber handed Lala a cigarette and lit it up for her. Lala took two strong drags and blew the smoke across the room. The detectives wanted justice, but satisfaction was clearly sticking in Laura Kimber’s throat.

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