Wicked Deceptions - Amy Cecil Page 0,52

station. He wanted a name and a phone number as soon as possible. Daniels was convinced, by her disappearance, that the woman who called him was either involved in the murder or she knew something she didn’t convey over the phone. In either case, speaking to her would definitely help his case. He also told Susie he needed her to call the forensics team, then gave her his location and disconnected the call.

He and Officer Shark both pulled out rubber gloves from their pockets and walked toward the body. They both knew that until forensics arrived they should not touch anything, but Lt. Daniels wanted to get a look at everything before anything was disturbed. Officer Shark pulled out his cell phone too so he could take pictures if needed.

Once Daniels got into the tunnel, the sight before him was gruesome, to say the least. The body, a Caucasian female, was lying on her side with her right arm extended toward what should have been her head, which was completely severed from her body. Both Daniels and Shark looked around the tunnel, but the head was nowhere to be found. Her left arm was tucked underneath her body. Blood was splattered all over the victim and tunnel walls, probably caused by the several ax cut wounds in her abdomen and her head being severed. To add to the strangeness of the scene, there was a dead rabbit lying next to the body.

“Look at that,” Officer Shark stated, pointing at the opposite end of the tunnel. Lt. Daniels looked up and saw a row of dead rabbits leading out the other tunnel exit. Her other arm was extended outward and was pointing directly at the line of rabbits. “It’s the Bunny Man, Lieutenant. I know it,” Shark stated as he walked toward the rabbits.

“Or someone who wants us to believe in the legends has set this up for our benefit.” Daniels raked his hand through his hair. “I’m telling you those legends aren’t true. They are made up by various people who want law enforcement to feed into the legends, hoping that by hiding behind them, they won’t get caught.”

“You haven’t lived here long enough. You don’t know the strange things that happen around here,” Shark said as he walked back toward his lieutenant.

“I know enough, Shark. I don’t need to know any more.” Daniels was irritated and frankly sick and tired of hearing about the damn Bunny Man. Daniels’s phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID and saw it was Susie. Hoping she had a name for him, he answered the call. He spoke with her for several minutes, and when he ended the call, he didn’t have a name, but he did have a number.

Stepping out of the tunnel, Daniels keyed the number Susie gave him into his phone and pressed Send. Just as the phone started to ring on his end, he heard another phone ring from inside the tunnel. He looked back into the tunnel to see if Shark’s phone was ringing. Shark raised his hand with his phone as if to say “not mine” and then they both looked toward the body. It couldn’t be the same ringing, could it? Officer Shark crouched next to the body and looked back toward Daniels. He nodded, and Shark reached into the pocket of the deceased and pulled out a ringing phone.

“Answer it,” Daniels instructed, and when Shark did, the ringing on his phone stopped. Damn! Now what? “Bag it. I want that to go into evidence. Maybe we can get an ID on who owns the phone and, if we’re lucky, some DNA and fingerprints.” Daniels knew it was probably a worthless gesture. He was sure the phone was planted and was an untraceable burner phone, but it was worth a shot.

Several minutes later, the forensics team arrived at the scene to compile evidence. It took them several hours, and Lt. Daniels and Officer Shark remained, walking through the nearby woods to see if they could find anything of significance in the outlying area, like the victim’s head. As they walked, nothing seemed to spark their attention until Lt. Daniels came across a full-head mask of a rabbit.

He called to the head of forensics, “Brady, get someone over here to bag this.” He cursed under his breath once the forensics team member had the bunny mask in a bag. This was definitely not how he wanted to spend his night shift. He thought that if