Ax Murderer

Randy had been caught napping on the job. At least that was what it seemed had happened.

He couldn't understand it. One minute, he was wide alert, checking on the orders for the parts that had just come in from the mechanic's shop that took apart the cop's car, and the next minute, he had been knocked out cold.

There was a nasty cut to his chin where he'd hit the concrete pavement on his way down to the ground, and there was a large bruise on his elbows, probably from the same fall.

He had woken up some time later to find his men looking down with worried expressions on their faces. He was now taking stock of all operations to make sure nothing had been affected.

So far everything looked normal. Unless of course he counted the chick that got away. As a matter of fact, most o the men had no idea there was anything wrong.

There had been fifteen men who'd been afflicted with the same illness, whatever the hell it had been.

Sixteen if he counted the old fool Bin Dat who had come running to him after all had been said and done, crying in a distressed voice that the girl was gone.

Of course the girl was gone. He'd known about it almost as soon as it happened and had sent a group of men into the neighboring forest to look for her. Where the hell was the old man when everything was going down?

"What are you going to do?" Bin Dat snarled. "Anh Hai is going to castrate you and feed your balls to your guards for letting her escape!"

Well duh!

Randy scowled. He wanted to scream and shout, but he knew that it was not going to do anything.

Bin Dat was the most useless moron. Why can't the man tell him something he didn't already know, like how, and where, and when.

And give him the million dollar question—with whom?

He ignored Bin Dat's outburst and aimed more questions at one of the guards who had been stationed outside Jasmine's door.

"I don't know Sir. We were all standing in the same spot, like always, and then next thing I knew, I was faced down and breathing in shoe fumes. The panel was wide open and the girl was gone."

"Anybody else have anything new to add to this?" Randy queried the other men although he knew it was a futile question.

They shook their heads. He was about to dismiss them when another guard ran in.

"Sir. We found the group you sent out to search for the girl."

Randy glared. He did not even want to know what happened.

"Speak."

"Sir. They're all—all dead sir."

Randy clutched at his armrest. There were twelve men in that group. How hard was it to find one weak girl who painted her fingernails yellow and blew on them to dry?

"How did they die? Don't tell me they tripped on tree trunks and fell to their deaths on the forest floor."

"N—no Sir. They all got hacked with something. It looks like an ax but we could be wrong."

"An ax." Randy muttered.

Suddenly, he thought of the ax that had been taken from the first floor study, the one that left a ding on the exquisite hardwood floor.

He looked at Bin Dat. The old man had the same thoughts because he turned to the guard and shouted a command.

"Bring them back into the compound. I need to take a look at their wounds."

"Yes Sir."

As they ran out of the room to do his bidding, Bin Dat slammed his palms onto the table.

"Randy."

"What???"

"That girl could not possibly kill twelve strong men."

Randy rubbed his head.

"I know that Bin Dat. Let me gather the rest of the information and we can figure our next move."

He gave a gesture to his Second who nodded and opened the door, admitting three guys.

They had been working in the machine shop immediately prior to the incident. The shop doors had been wide open and they had a perfect view of the front yard.

They had better have something fresh to tell him.

The three men trooped in, looking at anywhere but at him.

"Speak!" He commanded curtly.

"Sir." One of the men spoke up. "We saw the girl and a blond man run for the gates,"

"And?"

"As soon as we saw them running, we shouted an alarm and ran after her. She slipped through the gate before we could reach her but the blond man stopped and faced us. He wasn't scared or nothing, sir."

"Go on."

The men looked at each other with unease. Randy narrowed his gaze. They did not want to tell him what was coming next.

"And?" He prompted. He was starting to run out of patience with them.

"Well, Sir. He just turned and looked at us. Me and this guy, we were the first to reach the man," he gestured at a fellow standing next to him."

"And what did you do?" Randy squeezed the area between his eyes. Why couldn't they just come out and say what they needed to say? Why did he have to constantly prompt them?

"Sir. The blond man waved at us and vanished."

"That's it?" Randy scoffed. "Just vanished? No magic tricks or nothing?"

"No Sir. I think he did the magic trick thing already. He put all of you to sleep, didn't he?"

Randy scowled, a dangerous glint coming into his eyes. The joke may have been on him, but he didn't need his boys to smear it on his face.

He leaned forward and growled ominously.

"Yes, he did. So remind me when Anh Hai gets back, to tell him about how great you did chasing after the girl. You boys were the last ones to see her, and you boys will get the honor of being the first ones to see her again. Get it?"

"You mean…"

"Get your gear together. The three of you are coming with me. We gotta find out where she went and try to get her back before Anh Hai gets home. Otherwise, we're cooked ducks in leek soup."