Flash Fiction: The Lines Are Down

Officer James, looking back on your career what would you say is the worst criminal you've come across? Well, there's been a lot of them in the past, but one stands out to me. His name was Thomas Downs and he was a cereal rapist. He was driving all over the city bringing terror to his victims. Thomas was a loner and he wasn't very good with women.


I guess that's where his rage stems from, but I'm not really sure. The police force was looking for this guy for years. He killed and raped about 80 women. This guy had to be stopped, and I wanted to catch him. One day, I got a call on a homicide. When I arrived on the scene, it was a body face down in blood. There was a bullet wound in the back of his head.

A middle-aged Caucasian woman was standing there in shock, and she was holding a revolver. I looked at the face of the body, and lo and behold it was Thomas. I guess he messed with the wrong lady. I always thought that I would have the satisfaction of sending him to prison, but someone beat me to the punch. I outlined his body in chalk, and I said to my boss, " The lines are down sarge, we finally got him."