Page 39 of Wicked Deceptions
He gathered his things and called to Officer Shark to go with him, and they left the building. The storm had already started, and there was already about six inches of snow on the ground. It was a good thing the precinct had vehicles equipped for inclement weather. In the SUV on the way to the scene, Lt. Daniels told the officer about the call he had received.
“Do you think it is the Bunny Man?” Officer Shark asked.
“You know I don’t believe in all those Bunny Man stories. Those stories are just not true.” He scoffed. “I’m sure it’s either a prank or a random murder.”
“I don’t know, Lieutenant. Strange things happen around that bridge.”
Daniels gave him a sideways glance and then returned his eyes back to the road. He was not going to grace Shark’s comment with a response. He knew there were various stories about the legend and none of them had ever been proven. He replayed a couple of those stories in his head.
One story tells of the closure of a nearby insane asylum. The story says that a busload of inmates was being transferred to another institution when two escaped. A countywide manhunt ensued for weeks, but they were never found. They only found half-eaten carcasses of rabbits in the nearby woods. Weeks later, one of the escapees was found dead, hanging from the overpass. The other, who is now known as the Bunny Man, was never found. It is believed a passing train killed him and that his ghost haunts the bridge, killing random people who pass through the tunnel.
He quickly reminded himself there was one flaw in that story. There was no record of an insane asylum in or near Clifton, Virginia.
The other story, even more far-fetched than the first, tells of a deranged teenager who dressed himself in a white bunny costume, murdered his entire family, and hanged himself from the overpass. They say it’s his spirit that haunts the bridge, chasing down visitors with his ax and disemboweling them. When not committing outright murder, it is believed he uses his ax to chase off children, attack adults in their cars, and vandalize random property.
There were many versions of these two stories. Many even said the Bunny Man had committed murders not only in Fairfax County but also in rural Maryland and the District of Columbia. It is rumored that some thirty-two people have died at the hands of the alleged Bunny Man.Bullshit!
Lt. Daniels knew these tales have been around for over forty years, and people would believe just about anything, especially if there was some form of mystery to it. But Daniels was a level-headed sort of guy, and six months on the job in Clifton had taught him not to believe everything he heard.
Lt. Daniels quickly shook away his thoughts about the legends and continued to drive toward the overpass. When he approached the tunnel, he noticed there was indeed a body lying in the road, right in the middle. When he got closer, he noticed a large, wooden-handled ax leaning against the tunnel wall. When his headlights hit the ax, he could see dried blood on the handle and a pool on the ground.
“Happy Halloween,” Lt. Daniels said as he pulled the car up on the side of the road and cut off the engine. He glanced at Officer Shark and asked, “You ready for this?”
Officer Shark nodded, and they both proceeded to get out of the car.
Officer Shark looked around curiously. “Didn’t you say you told the woman who called to remain at the scene?”
Lt. Daniels looked around and soon realized he and his officer were the only two people around—not counting the dead body, of course. “I did tell her that.” Daniels pulled out his phone and called the station. He told his office assistant, Susie, to trace the last call he received at the station. He wanted a name and a phone number as soon as possible. Daniels was convinced, by her disappearance, that the woman who called him was either involved in the murder or she knew something she didn’t convey over the phone. In either case, speaking to her would definitely help his case. He also told Susie he needed her to call the forensics team, then gave her his location and disconnected the call.
He and Officer Shark both pulled out rubber gloves from their pockets and walked toward the body. They both knew that until forensics arrived they should not touch anything, but Lt. Daniels wanted to get a look at everything before anything was disturbed. Officer Shark pulled out his cell phone too so he could take pictures if needed.
Once Daniels got into the tunnel, the sight before him was gruesome, to say the least. The body, a Caucasian female, was lying on her side with her right arm extended toward what should have been her head, which was completely severed from her body. Both Daniels and Shark looked around the tunnel, but the head was nowhere to be found. Her left arm was tucked underneath her body. Blood was splattered all over the victim and tunnel walls, probably caused by the several ax cut wounds in her abdomen and her head being severed. To add to the strangeness of the scene, there was a dead rabbit lying next to the body.
“Look at that,” Officer Shark stated, pointing at the opposite end of the tunnel. Lt. Daniels looked up and saw a row of dead rabbits leading out the other tunnel exit. Her other arm was extended outward and was pointing directly at the line of rabbits. “It’s the Bunny Man, Lieutenant. I know it,” Shark stated as he walked toward the rabbits.
“Or someone who wants us to believe in the legends has set this up for our benefit.” Daniels raked his hand through his hair. “I’m telling you those legends aren’t true. They are made up by various people who want law enforcement to feed into the legends, hoping that by hiding behind them, they won’t get caught.”
“You haven’t lived here long enough. You don’t know the strange things that happen around here,” Shark said as he walked back toward his lieutenant.
“I know enough, Shark. I don’t need to know any more.” Daniels was irritated and frankly sick and tired of hearing about the damn Bunny Man. Daniels’s phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID and saw it was Susie. Hoping she had a name for him, he answered the call. He spoke with her for several minutes, and when he ended the call, he didn’t have a name, but he did have a number.
Stepping out of the tunnel, Daniels keyed the number Susie gave him into his phone and pressed Send. Just as the phone started to ring on his end, he heard another phone ring from inside the tunnel. He looked back into the tunnel to see if Shark’s phone was ringing. Shark raised his hand with his phone as if to say “not mine” and then they both looked toward the body. It couldn’t be the same ringing, could it? Officer Shark crouched next to the body and looked back toward Daniels. He nodded, and Shark reached into the pocket of the deceased and pulled out a ringing phone.
“Answer it,” Daniels instructed, and when Shark did, the ringing on his phone stopped.Damn! Now what?“Bag it. I want that to go into evidence. Maybe we can get an ID on who owns the phone and, if we’re lucky, some DNA and fingerprints.” Daniels knew it was probably a worthless gesture. He was sure the phone was planted and was an untraceable burner phone, but it was worth a shot.
Several minutes later, the forensics team arrived at the scene to compile evidence. It took them several hours, and Lt. Daniels and Officer Shark remained, walking through the nearby woods to see if they could find anything of significance in the outlying area, like the victim’s head. As they walked, nothing seemed to spark their attention until Lt. Daniels came across a full-head mask of a rabbit.
He called to the head of forensics, “Brady, get someone over here to bag this.” He cursed under his breath once the forensics team member had the bunny mask in a bag. This was definitely not how he wanted to spend his night shift. He thought that if he worked, it would be a quiet night at the precinct.Quiet and easy.But he was wrong. He was so very wrong. He now had a mutilated, headless murder victim on his hands, a possible suspect—whom he had no idea where to find or who she was—several dead rabbits, and everyone around him speculating that the Bunny Man had committed the murder. He shook his head in frustration.
When he and Officer Shark returned to the tunnel, the forensics team was just finishing up. “Anything stand out?” Daniels asked.
Brady shook his head. “Nope, other than the similarities to the Bunny Man murders, nothing.” Daniels thought to himself,Those damn Bunny Man murders again. Don’t these people think of anything else?
“I have a feeling it was staged.”
“Yeah,” Brady replied. “I think you may be right. We get a lot of that in these parts, especially this time of year.” He patted Daniels on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”
“I remember being told when I first started to expect this Bunny Man shit on Halloween.”
