Altar (an excerpt) by Lisa Cavalear Chapter 1              The fire broke out on West Sadler St at approximately three thirty in the morning on All Hallows Eve.  At first, Sergeant Heller thought it was just another random prank, another bush fire or egg fight.  The house that caught fire was condemned for years.  As he could recall, no one has lived in it since that couple was murdered in front of their four-year-old son.  O’Connell, the name was.  He didn’t investigate the actual case itself, but he remembered being told that it was a particularly grisly case.  Both the parents were bludgeoned then their wrists were nailed to an open doorway crucifixion style.  The son was found crying hysterically, bleeding and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  The case was never solved due to the child’s young age and state of mind and the lack of leads and clues.  Ever since then the house has been vacated.  No one wanted to buy it.  It was the ‘Murder House’ living in infamy, forever cursed.  The child was sent to live with his aunt and uncle on the other side of town.         Needless to say, Sergeant Heller was dumbfounded to see two teenaged kids outside the house, badly hurt.  He noted for his report: male and female, aged 18-20, Caucasian, need of medical attention…  He stopped short when he saw the girl, bleeding and hysterically screaming, “Help me, Help me! Get me away from him!”  He wrapped a blanket around the girl’s shoulders and led her over to his squad car.  The ambulance was just around the corner as the firemen were putting out the flames, much to the horror of the boy, who seemed unhurt, but was screaming, “No, no! You can’t take her away from me!  She is all I have left.” He left the girl with his partner and tried to collect the boy, who seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown.         He looked familiar.  He remembered one other little tidbit of the O’Connell case.  The son was hysterical when the bodies of his parents were being carried out.  He screamed, “No!  You can’t take my parents!  They are all I have left.” He thought it was a little strange at first him remembering that.  Then it clicked.  Dear, God, this insane, blubbering boy laughing and sobbing before him was the O’Connell son.  Kieran O’Connell.  He then caught a glimpse of the girl being hauled into the ambulance screaming, “Keep him away from me!” as the boy continued to scream, “You can’t keep her away from me!”   He led the boy to his squad car and retrieved his wallet from his coat pocket.  Sure enough, the name read Kieran O’Connell.  He began to wonder just what the hell he got himself into as the ambulance rode away wailing through the darkness. Chapter 2       Heller got home around five thirty.  There was a matter of taking statements from various neighbors and witnesses other than the two occupants of the house.  Both Kieran O’Connell and the young girl, named Sara Rushman, were taken to the hospital for examination.  The girl looked pretty bad.  He would get the full report tomorrow morning.  For now, both were under observation.  It still looked like this guy Kieran abducted the girl and tortured her.  He didn’t like the way this was turning out.         He never had any kids in all of his forty-eight years.  He had been on the force for over twenty-five years and married his high school sweetheart upon graduation from the Academy.   He worked his way up to Sergeant and made a pretty decent living for himself and his wife.  He never understood kids.  Why hurt another?  Why get into so much trouble?  He wanted to smack that Kieran around a little for banging up the poor girl.  It looked like this kid had gone insane, however, and probably should be handled with kid gloves, lest he have a lawsuit on his hands.   That was the last thing he needed.       He locked the door to his small, attractive house and turned on the living room lights.  Small, attractively furnished, very neat.  He wondered how Kieran lived.  Was his own home so cozy, so clean?  He shook his head and sank onto the nearby couch.  He noticed that Bethy had already put out candy for Halloween.  She loved passing out candy to the neighborhood kids.  He popped a mini Snickers bar into his mouth and headed upstairs to their bedroom.       Bethy, his faithful wife of nearly thirty years, was used to the late nights of her husband, and it worried her sometimes that he came home so tired.  He shrugged it off and ignored her suggestion that he settle down, hang it up and do desk work down at the station.  I’m not being wheeled around yet, he told her, yawning.  She sighed and rested her head on his ever- widening gut.  Maybe in a few years, he told her stroking her hair.  He still had a few good years ahead of him.       As he ambled his way into the bedroom, Bethy stirred and awoke, “Hi Matt.  You’re home a little late.”  He yawned, “A little early, actually.  It is almost six in the morning.  Right before I left, a fire broke out on West Sadler St. The old O’Connell house.  There were two kids in that house.   They are currently in the hospital.  One was hurt pretty badly.  It looks like there was a kidnapping involved.  We won’t be sure until tomorrow.  One of the kids was Kieran O’Connell.  It looks like he abducted some girl and kept her in his old house for days, maybe weeks.”  Bethy sat up in shock, “Oh, my God, that is terrible.  You mean he held a girl hostage in the house where he saw his parents murdered?”  “That’s how it looks.  We’ll start on the investigation tomorrow morning, first thing.  I probably won’t get any sleep tonight.  It is almost six now.  I should probably just shower and get going.  I want to start first thing.”  Bethy shook her head in a way that Matt learned after over twenty-five years of marriage meant that she was putting her foot down, and he wasn’t going anywhere.  “You won’t do any good if you don’t get some sleep.   You don’t come into work until the afternoon.  You are not coming into work early.  In fact, you are not coming to work until you get some sleep.  No arguing!”  He smiled.  She knew just how bone tired he was.  Twenty years ago, he could go without a night’s sleep every now and then to put some extra time on his cases.  Now, his body was slowing down, failing him from time to time.   He needed to sleep.  He undressed, plopped down next to Bethy and sank into dreamless sleep. Chapter 3       Heller woke up an hour before he was scheduled to come into work.  He showered, shaved and kissed Bethy goodbye mechanically before leaving for the station.  His mind was focused on Sara Rushman right now.  An aging body controlled the rest of his day-to-day functions now on autopilot.       Upon arriving at the station house, he sank down and went over the papers recently deposited on his desk.  Sara Rushman was in stable condition.  Kieran O’Connell drugged her at a party and abducted her, keeping her at the house where his parents were murdered.  He molested her.  There were cuts, bruises and abrasions on her body that suggested torture.   There were also tears in the vaginal area, suggesting rape.  Sara will be fully conscious in a few days and will be able to testify against O’Connell.  It looked like the case was closed.  But Heller had a feeling that there was more to it. He dismissed it as a sign of his old age coming on.  He was getting paranoid.       Regardless, he decided to ask around and see what will happen with Kieran.  Will he be sent to a psychiatric facility, or end up someone’s sweetheart in County Jail?         The Lieutenant was at his desk, munching on a chocolate donut when Heller walked in.  “So far, Matt, it looks like Kieran O’Connell will be sent to a mental hospital where he will have to undergo a period of psychiatric treatment.  From the looks of things, the aunt he was living with after his parents were murdered sexually abused him.  He has been in out of the offices of guidance counselors for years, but he never received any formal treatment.  The DA dealed him down to a period of five years psychiatric evaluation.  The girl has been through hell, but she’ll be ok in a few months.  She just has to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks for treatment.”   Heller shook his head.  “But what about when Kieran gets out?  Don’t you think Sara will be scared to death that he will come back and kill her?”  Lieutenant Davis yawned and stretched back in his chair,  “He’ll be rehabilitated by then.”   “Do you really believe that?  Do you even know what this girl has been through?  She was raped repeatedly and tortured, almost killed by this maniac.  I don’t think five years in the nut house will cure him.”   Davis shook his head.  “The case is closed, Matt.  Give it a rest.  We have other cases to solve.   Look, you have vacation time coming.  Take a few days off, spend some quality time with Bethy and get some sleep.  You look terrible.  Hey, at least we got the guy.  We still have a shit load of unsolved murders on our desks as we speak.  Get out of here.  Get some R&R.  You’ve been working your ass of and you deserve a break.”         Heller left dejected and went over the facts of the case one more time before attending to the many other unsolved murders.  Davis was right.  At least the culprit was found.  God knew there were enough unsolved crimes in this town.  Maybe he needed to take a vacation.  He left the station early and used up his vacation time as suggested by Davis.       Heller discovered that a few days off did him some good.  He needed to get full nights’ sleep.  He and Bethy spent the week playing miniature golf, and going to the movies.  He did need to spend time with his wife.  He was very refreshed upon returning to work.  His color had improved.  Davis had noted, poking his gut affectionately, that he had lost a few pounds.  The case was closed.  Life went on.       However, there was more to this case.  Heller, though he went on with his other cases knew full well that catching and sentencing the culprit was only the beginning.