Silent Death: A Chilling Serial Killer Thriller (A Caine & Murphy Thriller Book 3) Read online

  Silent Death

  A Chilling Serial Killer Thriller

  Dominika Waclawiak

  Contents

  SILENT DEATH

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Letter from Dominika

  About the Author

  SILENT DEATH

  Her eyes bulge out. Her mouth is open in a silent scream. The filming begins.

  Sara Caine wants nothing to do with murder. Catching the bad guys is for people like former LAPD Detective Eva Murphy. But when Johan Luken shows up at the film set she’s working on with a snuff film in hand, he plunges her back into danger and then promptly disappears.

  Aided by Eva Murphy, Sara uncovers a series of missing actresses stretching back decades, their bodies never found. As they unravel the mystery of the film, Sara finds the film and disappearances are connected to her parents’ murder years before.

  As she struggles to keep her sanity, a killer more powerful than any they’ve encountered gets ready for a final showdown.

  Prologue

  The girl sprinted down the darkened hallway, disorientated and desperate, clutching the metal film canisters to her chest. She’d seen what he was doing with them and she would not let him get away with it. She promised herself she’d save them. Save them all and now she’d gotten out. A sob escaped from her and she whipped around, afraid he was right behind her.

  The hall was empty behind her.

  The girl outsmarted him once. Would she be able to do it again? She calmed her breathing and pushed down the panic. If he caught her, she couldn’t let him have the films. She tried the knob of the closest door. To her surprise, it opened onto a cozy room. She stepped inside without thinking.

  “Hello? Anyone home?” her voice croaked out. After all the screaming she’d done, her voice came out hoarse and weak. She must have damaged her vocal cords.

  Nobody answered.

  It was obvious a woman lived here by the throws on the sofa and the cheerful paintings that gave the place a feminine touch. The girl had to hide the films but there were no built in cabinets or closets in the main room. The tiny kitchen wouldn’t hide anything either. That left the bedroom.

  The girl tiptoed into the bedroom, worried the tenant might be sleeping. To her relief, the bed was empty. The only other door in the room was a closet. It would have to do.

  She shoved the film canisters into the corner of the closet and pulled several shirts off the hangers and threw them on top. The woman wouldn’t immediately notice they were there, she thought.

  If she lived through this, she’d go straight to the police and bring them back here for the evidence. She took a deep breath. Get out of the building first.

  After making sure the hallway was empty, she ran back to the side staircase. Her chest hurt and the tears flowed. She would survive this. She’d made it this far. Get it together, she admonished herself, and held her breath, listening for footsteps. Nobody was on the stairs.

  The girl crept down to the lobby. She remembered there was a short hallway between the stair landing and the main lobby area that led onto Fifth Street. If she could get out that door, she’d be free. She waited for the guard to leave his station and sprinted towards the doors to the street. She grabbed the door bar to push it open when her scalp exploded in pain.

  Her hair ripped out of her scalp and, before she got a scream out, powerful hands clamped across her mouth.

  He’d found her.

  The needle went into her neck and the darkness came for her.

  1

  A hush fell over the stage as Jenny, the lead actress in the film, walked onto the bedroom set wearing a fluffy white bathrobe. Leo, her lover in the film, was already in bed fiddling with the sheets. Neither of them wanted to be there, Sara Caine thought, nor could she blame them. She was uncomfortable in the room and she was just the crew.

  Sara waited for Jerry, the production designer, to give her the signal to fix up the shot before they rolled. The director and actors had choreographed the scene for the last two hours and the bed sheets kept malfunctioning. Sara was in charge of the bed sheets and her job wasn’t going well.

  As the lights dimmed, Jenny’s white robe fell around her ankles and was snatched up by the costume designer. The only thing hiding her nudity was a Merkin, a wig for her nether regions. Jenny climbed into bed with Leo and gave him a shy smile.

  The camera rolled.

  The director called out, “Ready... Set...”

  A loud banging interrupted him. Before anyone said a word, one of the many producers hanging around set signaled to the nearest security guard to make it stop.

  The guard spoke into his walkie-talkie and shook his head.

  The banging got louder.

  “We can’t shoot under these conditions. The hell is going on at the door?” the director hissed. When no one moved, he stalked to the studio door himself.

  The actors shied away from each other, as everyone else waited with bated breath for the wrath the director was about to unleash. Sara pitied the person on the receiving end of that anger. The director threw open the door, and the set fell silent.

  Instead of unleashing a vituperative stream of filth at the man disrupting the filming, the director slunk off to the side, allowing a tall man to pass by him.

  ”What are you?” the director sputtered out and Sara gasped. It was Johan Luken. His height, broad shoulders and leanness were unique enough to recognize him most anywhere. Sara hadn’t seen him in months and she simultaneously wanted to throw herself in his arms and run in the other direction.

  “I need to speak to Sara Caine. It’s an emergency and I apologize for interrupting your shoot
,” Johan Luken said. The last time she spoke to him, they had broken up during a raging fight over the search for Asmodeus. She hadn’t heard from him after that and assumed he had left town. She got at new apartment and moved on. Or at least tried to.

  He stepped into the light. She choked down the lump in her throat. Whatever he had told her was bad. Really bad.

  She willed her feet to move towards him but she stood rooted in place. A producer broke through the spell that Johan had put on the whole crew and yanked on his arm.

  “You need to leave, NOW!” the producer said as he motioned to the security guard. She would lose her job over this, she thought. A job that had taken her for months to get.

  “Come with me, sir,” the security guard said and hooked his arm around his.

  “Sara, help me.” Johan pleaded. Sara walked to the door, her face burning. The crewmembers gawked at her as she joined Johan.

  “I don’t do that anymore, Johan. Please leave. They will fire me if you don’t,” she said but seeing him up close made her reconsider. He had lost an alarming amount of weight and the dark circles under his eyes made him look skeletal. No wonder the director had stopped in mid fury. He looked like he was about to fall over. What the hell was going on with this man, she thought.

  “Who the hell are you? You’re costing us thousands of dollars right now. What are you, art department?” He glared at her and then over to her boss.

  She pointed to the landing dock outside. “We finish in an hour. If you wait outside, I’ll get you food and...” she paused and turned her desperation to the producer.

  “I need this job. Johan is leaving,” she said and pushed Johan out the door. Touching him electrified her and before she could stop him he’d taken her outside with him.

  “I don’t have time, Sara. This is life and death.” Sara checked behind her at the security guard and the producer. They were already shutting the door on her. She made her choice. She pulled away from Johan and started back towards the door. He would not drag her back into that world, not if she could help it. The hurt in his eyes killed her, but she kept on going. The guard stepped aside to let her in but the producer charged the door, closing it in her face. “You’re fired,” was the last thing she heard before the door slammed closed.

  “I need my things,” she said to the locked door. She spun at Johan but he gripped her wrists to keep her from attacking him.

  “Do you know how long it took to find that job? Why are you here? We haven’t spoken in months and you come here? To my job?” She yelled as she tried to get out of his grasp.

  “Sara, stop.” He whispered and all the fight went out of her.

  “I will never leave your world behind, will I?” she asked and he let go of her.

  “You are the only one I trust now. There is no one else,” he said and handed her a small box.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s a film with a young woman on it. We need to find out who she was.”

  “Was? Is she dead? I no longer have the ability to speak to ghosts.”

  “I don’t want you talking to ghosts. Not yet, anyway. This is about missing girls. Talk to Janice Hollebeck. She’ll fill you in.”

  “And what about you?”

  “It’s better if I keep you of it. It’s what you asked for.” He said, reminding her of their last fight.

  “You’re going after Asmodeus?”

  “Yes. But things have been happening around me I don’t understand. Things involving that film. I can’t trust anyone but you.”

  “You’re scaring me, Johan.”

  “You should be scared,” he said. She thrust the box back into his hands.

  “I don’t want to be scared. I want nothing to do with you.” She walked down the ramp. Johan came after her.

  “Don’t do it for me, do it for the girls,” he said. He was manipulating her yet she softened towards him, nonetheless. The effect he had on her still made her mind reel.

  “I know things aren’t the same between us. I’m sorry I didn’t try harder. But this fell in my lap and things have spun out of my control. Help Janice and the girl on that film. Ask Ritchie and Eva Murphy for help. She’s opened her own private investigation agency, you know.”

  “Why didn’t you take it to Eva Murphy then?” Sara asked, but he had hooked her.

  “Don’t you want her to take you on as an apprentice?” He said. Johan knew of her dream of becoming a private investigator. Johan opened the door to his truck and Sara stood in the parking lot of the studio. After all these months, he still pulled her along in his wake. She sensed darkness permeating out of the box in her hand. The day darkened.

  “I should only be gone several days. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make it back to you and we can start over?” he said and climbed in.

  “Keep your phone on,” she said, and he smiled for the first time. “For you, always.” The car sparked to life and Johan drove away before she found another excuse to give him.

  2

  “You better be careful with that. You don’t want the film to explode in your hands,” said Jeremy, the first assistant cameraman, as he came out onto the loading dock. Sara struggled against the urge to drop the discovered film canister from the box that Johan gave her.

  “Why would you say such a thing?” she asked.

  “The label says nitrate film,” he said and pointed to the yellow tag on the metal canister. Sara’s confused look kept him talking. “Nitrate film is super old. That type of film was used in the 1920s during the silent era. It’s extremely delicate, super flammable and could explode without notice,” he explained. “So, you got canned? Who was that guy anyway?”

  Sara stared at the canister and wondered what Johan had gotten her involved in this time.

  “Yes, I got fired. And here I thought I’d started up my film career again. Hey, you wouldn’t by any chance know where I could watch this? Do I need a special film projector?”

  “I would think you’d have to go to one of the silent film preservationists and ask them? Maybe at USC or at UCLA? That’s the only way you’re watching this film.” Jerry finished.

  “Thanks so much for that,” Sara said, her mind already racing. She knew whom to ask. One of her father’s former colleagues worked at UCLA. She was sure she worked at the film school there.

  “Thanks so much, Jeremy. See you again on one of these sets,” she said nodding.

  She hadn’t spoken to Madeleine Richards, one of her dad’s closest friends, in over 15 years and hoped she still remembered her. Her first stop was the storage unit with all of her parent’s belongings. She had kept all of it in hopes something there would lead to her parents’ killer and was glad she had.

  Hitting the sweet spot of LA traffic where a drive took fifteen minutes instead of an hour, she pulled up to the storage unit in record time. Fearing the film would explode the moment she touched it, she instead stared down and willed it to give her a sign of its danger. Maybe Jeremy was messing around with her about that whole combustion part?

  She glared at the canister and wished that she had never seen it. Johan hadn’t spoken to her since she had moved out of his apartment after the brutal fight they had about Asmodeus and the search for her parent’s killer.

  Johan was stubborn, and there wasn’t an explanation good enough for her supposed betrayal. She dared not tell him about the promise she had made Asmodeus to get out of Limbo. Instead, she told him she wanted to keep the past in the past and move on with her life and get back into the film business. She hadn’t heard from him until today.

  If he had broken his silence for this film, then it had to be of incredible importance to him. She needed to be brave and follow through. She took a deep breath and gently lifted the canister off of her seat. Holding the film in her palm, she opened the door and got out of the car. She dared not take her eyes off of it. Sara headed towards her unit and wondered how she would get the door open.

  After a somewhat comical fifteen minut
es of going between taking care of the film canister as if would shatter at any moment and attempting to open the roll top door, she got inside. She knew exactly where her father’s address book was and smiled when she saw Madeleine’s name. Knowing there was no reception inside the unit, she waited until she got the film canister placed back on the passenger seat before dialing Madeleine’s number.

  She held her breath while listening to it ringing hoping that the number was still the same. A woman’s voice picked up on the third ring.

  “Hello”

  “Hi, Ms. Richards? I’m not sure if you remember me but my name is Sara Caine. My father was Malcolm Caine?” Sara said.

  “Of course I remember you. Your father was a dear friend of mine. It’s been almost fifteen years, hasn’t it?” Madeleine asked and cleared her throat. Sara wondered why she was nervous.

  “You worked with my dad at UCLA. You wouldn’t by any chance be in the film department?” she asked.

  “I teach at the film school. Are you looking to apply?”

  “No, nothing like that. A friend gave me a spool of nitrate film and I need to watch it. I was leaving the film set I’ve been PAing on and one of the camera guys told me nitrate film was extremely delicate and combustible. He said I would need a film preservationist to help me watch it. Can you help me? Or maybe a colleague of yours?” Sara explained.

  “You’re in luck. I’m the cinematography teacher here and I can help you with a projector. Your camera friend was correct. The film is delicate. I must warn you, the film might have nothing on it. If the stock wasn’t handled properly or stored, the damage could be too severe to see the image.”

  “I understand. I hate to ask this on such short notice but is there anyway we could meet today? It’s... um... important.” Sara bit her lip at her lameness. She hated being pushy but the faster she found out what Johan wanted from her, the faster she could get on with her life.

  “This sounds serious, Sara. Are you in trouble?”

  “I’m not sure. My friend left this with me and he’s in trouble. I have to assume this film has something to do with his sudden disappearance. And the faster I watch it, the quicker I can store it in a safe place and not worry about in blowing up in my face.” Sara waited as she heard the sound of flipping pages on the other end.