Schizophrenic

Chapter One

St. Paul Avenue was now blocked off from both cars and pedestrians, yellow tape surrounding the alley where a dismembered and mutilated body lay. Police cruisers sat in the road, officers standing outside them talking back and forth.
“This is the FIFTH murder since Monday! One each day, it has to stop!!”
The officer in charge of the investigation sighed and rubbed his forehead, eyes closed and fist clenched in frustration.
“Before it can stop we have to find the person who’s doing it!” he said with a glare to the other officer.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the normally calm and collected officer of the law. At a glare, they all went back to work immediately, eyes glued to what they were investigating. Officer Jacob McCreary leaned back against his car and looked over the crime scene.
“Any evidence?”
“Just the body, sir.”
“Damn…this guy is thorough. What kind of killer leaves NO evidence at all behind? No fingerprints, DNA, not even a fucking strand of hair…”
“Maybe it’s a ghost.”
Jacob turned around, and just behind the yellow tape stood an older man, long grey hair reaching down to the middle of his back.
“Who are you? This street is off limits to all civilians, you’ll have to go.”
“My name is Lawrence. Your captain sent me over to see if I could help. I’m a psychic and he thinks I may be able to see the crime.”
“A psychic?? You really think there’s some vengeful ghost going around chopping people up? I’m pretty sure the captain isn’t stupid enough to believe that.”
Lawrence made no answer, only moved forward into the alley. He knelt beside the body and placed his hand on what was left of the woman’s arm before closing his eyes. One of the younger officers approached Jacob and leaned in.
“Who’s the nut-job?”
“Some psychic or something. Said the captain sent him over to see if he could “help” us.”
“Help us with what?”
“Said he might be able to SEE the crime.”
“Do you think the captain really sent him over?”
Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but a yell tore through the air from the alley, cutting him off before he could speak. The two officers looked at each other before taking off at a run, skidding to a halt to see Lawrence lying on the ground, body convulsing in severe pain.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
The old man didn’t speak, only sat up and leaned back against the wall of the building behind him, hand clutching his chest.
“This poor woman…..”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I saw….everything….”
Officer McCreary stared at the man before kneeling down and looking at him, trying to see if he was lying.
“If this is some sick joke, it’s not fucking funny.”
“It’s not a joke….I saw everything that happened to this woman, I felt her pain….”
“Did you see the killer?”
“No…..he was shrouded in shadow…..I couldn’t make anything out but his height, which was about six and a half feet tall.”
“Well, that narrows it down to about three-fourths of the god damn city….”
Lawrence, with the help of the two officers, stood up and made his way to one of the cruisers, seating himself on the hood while the coroner’s office took the body away.
“Let’s get back to the precinct and think this through….” McCreary said, walking to the driver’s side of his car.
“Are you coming with us, Lawrence?”
The old man nodded and got into the car before buckling his seatbelt and then Jacob drove them back to the precinct headquarters.