JUSTICE REBORN (A Charlie Taylor Novel Book 1) by Ivan Bering

words sounded like someone mumbling with a
mouth full of small stones; a broken jaw and multiple facial injuries will do
that. In fact, I don’t know how this last victim survived.
    “Your sound technician reconstituted each
of the four recordings to a point where most words are recognizable. At least
that is what he told me. Next, he rearranged the sentences and phrases to
develop a logical sequence. He says we now have a recording which sounds like a
victim’s statement.”
    She pushes a few buttons and the small
portable unit delivers an excellent sound quality which surprises us both. I
think we owe the FBI big time on this one.
     
    The voice is not the girl’s but some type
of computer generated sound.
    It doesn’t sound too strange; it sounds
like a young woman, under stress, and there are gaps, like she is thinking
about the next string of words. This is more than I expected.
    “ The taxi was a dark color…I think a
dark green…..he had on one of those old-fashioned cabbie hats……it was pulled
down and I couldn’t see his face…..the cabbie opened the back door …….. I was
just settling into the back seat ….I was looking down …a sharp needle or dart
hit my neck…. it felt like my head exploded ……….I don’t know how long I was
out………..when I came to it was dark …really dark...that’s all I could see………..he
was already on top of me…I couldn’t see his face ……….I was facing down in the
back seat …one door was open because my feet were outside ….…I could feel the
breeze…………he tore off my pants and held an enormous knife against my throat
……….….I could feel him enter me and then he leaned down close to my ear and
whispered very, very softly… I could barely hear him………. if you want to live
you do as I say……..when I squeeze your right shoulder you cry out, ‘Horny Harry
you are the best’……….when I squeeze your left shoulder you cry out, ‘I love
you’….and you had better be loud and convincing……then he straightened up and
started laughing and calling me names, like ‘sweetie and lover’…………..he
squeezed my shoulders and I cried out as loud as I could and used all the
phrases he wanted me to  ….he seemed to love it because he got more excited and
laughed even louder……..then he was finished and put away the knife and I
thought I had survived……………..he turned me over and start hitting me with his
fists …..….it felt like someone was hitting me with a rock….. I passed out ..”
    Karen is stunned. “Unbelievable. Goddamn
unbelievable. I thought we would be waiting a couple of weeks to get her
statement. She thought she was getting into a regular cab –––that I’d guessed,
but all the rest is new.” We play it a number of times. It’s a lot of new
information, but I’m not sure how it helps.
    There is something bothering me about the
recording, and I start my pacing routine. Karen leaves to get coffee. While I
am waiting and pacing, I hits me. I know what doesn’t fit.
     Karen gives me a coffee and sits on a
window sill; I give her me observation. “One of the weird things about this is:
he appears to be playing to an audience. Why does he bend down and whisper in
her ear?  She said she could barely hear him. Why not just tell her what he
wants her to say or do? Only the two of them are in the cab. Why not just tell
her?  Why the soft whisper? Was there someone outside the cab? Someone outside
would not hear the soft whispers, just her loud declarations of love.”
    “Charlie, you think this guy has a partner,
watching and listening, getting off on this charade of a seduction? You’re not
suggesting another couple? Or the same two as doing the hotels, are you?”
    I leave Karen without any answers. I’m
still in running mode, not the best mode for analysis. Not much is making
sense. I want to say: it feels like the world is falling apart and then it
comes to me. It is: every day the