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We were in Adrik’s office at the end of the day, waiting for someone from the police department to show up, so I could give them a description of what the doctor looked like. Adrik had called the commissioner after lunch. He knew about the doctor and said they’d been trying to catch the guy for a decade. He said the same thing as Dr. Williams; no one could remember what he looked like. Adrik told him that I could remember and the commissioner said he would send someone out that night. He also told Adrik that they could have all the information the police had on the guy.
“He told me that we had free rein to find this guy. He said his people have been looking for him for a decade and they’d only run into dead ends. He was still operating in the city, as they met new victims regularly. Apparently, he’s gotten worse as the years have progressed. He’s moved on to even darker things,” Adrik said as we were waiting.
“How could you get worse?” Misha asked.
“He’s into organ harvesting now. The hospitals are reporting people showing up with missing organs, with no memory of how it happened,” Adrik said.
“For real? I thought that was just an urban legend,” I said.
“According to the police commissioner, it’s real. He hasn’t released that info to the public yet, but he said it’s been happening more frequently lately,” he said.
“Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse,” I said, mostly to myself.
Viktor’s phone rang. He got up, walking out of the office. He returned a moment later with one uniformed police officer, one plain clothes officer, and a third with a sketch pad in his hands. Adrik stood, walking toward them. He extended his hand to all three. “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he said. He motioned for them to sit.
“We should be thanking you, sir. We’ve been chasing this guy for years and never found anyone that can remember what he looks like. We still haven’t been able to figure out what drugs he uses to wipe memories. They’re out of the victims’ systems quickly, which makes it impossible for us to test them,” the plain clothes officer said, taking a seat across from the couch I was on.
When Adrik got up to greet them, I moved closer to Andrei, who was on the other side of me on the couch. I was scared. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders while I curled up next to him, wanting to hide. He held me against him tightly. “You’ll be okay, spider monkey. We’ll protect you,” he whispered to me.
The plain clothes officer looked at me. “You must be Sephie,” he said. I nodded. Adrik sat back down on the couch, but sat closer to me so I wouldn’t have to move from Andrei. The officer glanced at Andrei and at Adrik, then back to me. “I’m Jason,” he said. He looked at the uniformed officer. “That’s Ryan. And that’s Will,” he said, pointing to the guy with the sketch pad. “We’re really grateful to have found you, you know. You seem to be the only one that can remember what this guy looks like. Can you tell us what happened?”
I looked up at Andrei, who gave my shoulders one last squeeze before I moved, so I was sitting between him and Adrik. I had my hands pulled inside my sleeves, so the officers couldn’t see my bruised knuckles. I didn’t need them asking questions about anything else today. Adrik stretched his arm across my lap as I started to recount the story of my uncle and what had happened the night he took me to this doctor.
I gave the sketch artist, Will, as complete a description as I could of what the doctor looked like. He would ask me questions as I described the guy, trying to get a better idea of what he looked like. He was working on his sketch pad the entire time we were talking. Finally, he said, “Okay, tell me if this looks like him. We can change anything that might be off.” He turned his sketch pad and I saw the face of the doctor that had taken my uterus. I stared at it for a moment, then felt like I was going to vomit. I jumped off the couch, racing to the bathroom, which was across the floor from Adrik’s office, not wanting to use his private bathroom to spare everyone from having to listen to me vomit.
I wasn’t going to make it. Thankfully, everyone had gone home for the day and I spotted a trash can. I grabbed it and emptied what was left of the burrito I had for lunch that day into the can. I felt Adrik’s warm hands on my back. I was still bent over, not sure if I was going to vomit again or not. I groaned. I hated vomiting and I hated it worse when it happened in front of people. He didn’t say anything, he just gently rubbed my back until I stood up. When I did, he ushered me toward the bathroom. When he came into the bathroom with me, I couldn’t help myself. I looked at him, saying, “Under any other circumstances, this would be kinda hot.”
He smirked at me. “I’ll remember that,” he said as I turned on the water in the sink. I washed my hands, then splashed water over my face. He handed me a paper towel when I was done. I glanced at myself in the mirror. I could plainly see the fear on my face. I knew everyone else would be able to as well. I caught sight of my hands as I was drying my face. I quickly pulled my sleeves back over my hands to hide them. Adrik noticed. I just looked at him and said, “I should’ve worn gloves and told them I was a germophobe or something.”
“It will be fine, solnishko. Don’t worry,” he said as he pulled me to him.
When we walked out of the bathroom, all five of the guys were lined up outside the office, waiting to make sure I was fine. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. “They worry almost as much as you do,” I said.
He clicked his tongue. “More, I think. Which is saying a lot.”
I smiled at them as we walked closer, watching them relax knowing I was okay. “Hope you guys didn’t want burritos again anytime soon. It’s going to be a while before I’m okay with that idea,” I said as we walked back into the office.
This time, Adrik sat on the couch and I sat in between his legs, his arms wrapped around me. Jason looked sympathetic when he said, “I hate vomiting. Hate it worse than anything in the world. But I’m guessing by that reaction, we nailed what he looks like?”
I nodded my head. “That’s him. He’s probably older now, though. It was eight years ago when it happened.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Will said. “We’ve got software that can digitally age a person. We’ll make a few variations of how he might be aging to see if people recognize him.”
Jason looked at me, a serious look on his face. “Sephie, where is your uncle now? You know you can press charges against him, right?”
I froze. I felt Adrik hold me tighter. Jason noticed, adding, “You said he used to beat you. He needs to be brought to justice, Sephie. He shouldn’t get away with that.”
“He didn’t,” I said, matter-of-factly. Jason looked at me, somewhat confused. “He’s dead. I killed him,” I said as I stood up. I lifted my shirt over my head, turning my back to them. “I had to, or he would’ve killed me.”
I heard all three of them curse as they looked at my back. Ryan, who hadn’t said a word the entire time, finally quietly said, “Charges brought.”
I couldn’t help but laugh quietly as I pulled my shirt back on, careful to keep my hands covered. I turned and sat back in Adrik’s lap, his arms once again holding me tightly. Jason, who was still somewhat speechless, was trying to find words. Ivan spoke up, asking, “The commissioner said you would share the information you had on this doctor?”
Jason was once again snapped back to reality. He looked to Ivan, nodding his head. “We brought a few boxes with us, but there’s more at the station. Ten years’ worth of information on this guy, to be exact. You can look through all of it. The commissioner made it clear we were to cooperate fully with you guys.” He looked at Adrik, leaning forward in his chair. “Look, I know you guys can operate outside the law where we can’t. I don’t care anymore. I want to see this guy in jail, but if he ends up dead, I won’t shed a tear over it.”
Will said, “There are countless other stories, just like yours and some that are worse. He has to be stopped.”
Adrik simply nodded. Ivan stood up and asked to make a copy of the sketch, so he could get it out to his people right away. Will readily handed it over. “We’ll send the aged version to you, as soon as we have it. I’ll get this to the IT department as soon as we get back. They’ll age him and we can send over that one.”
