by Tyler Porter
“And he feels a couple officers match our guy better than most,” I answered not turning around.
“Psh. Captain can talk all he wants about his feelings. It’s us who’s gonna take this asshole down,” he said.
“I second that,” Perez said.
“How you gonna do that?” I asked getting the intended reaction of the three of them moving to look at me so fast I thought their necks might snap.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? We’re gonna do what we always do,” Hunt said without any attempt to hide his annoyance at my question.
“With all due respect, what we always do isn’t working, if you haven’t noticed by the rising body count,” I snorted. “We need to do things differently. Think differently. Come at this differently because this is different. It’s not some schmuck on the street. It’s a cop. It’s one of our own.”
“With all due respect to you, we are going to do things the way we think they should be done. Understood consultant?” Hunt said.
“Oh, you’re right Hunt, I’m here to consult. Let me give it a shot. In my professional opinion, you’ve been out of line and unfocused this entire case and it is probably the reason it has taken so long for us to see what has been right in front of our noses. You’re missing things that are right in front of your face,” I said finally turning toward him and squaring up to him.
“Here we go, the great Casey Norris here to honor us with his wisdom. What do you got this time oh powerful one?” I took a step closer to him.
“Why was Jim Cullen on site for the raid at Captains house?” I asked calmly.
“What? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“That’s my point Hunt. Jim Cullen was one of the officers who responded to your call, the call you were supposed to be taking the lead on, the call where you split everyone up on that property and didn’t seem to notice that Jim fucking Cullen was present, the call where Cooper got shot and the shooter disappeared into thin air. Am I making sense yet?”
He looked down at the floor thinking back to those who were there when we arrived at Captain Connors’ house. Slowly, he raised his head back up and the look in his eye told me everything I needed to know. He remembered. He remembered seeing Jim Cullen and it didn’t register that he wasn’t a field cop. It didn’t even occur to him that he was there which was completely out of character.
“That is why we have to do things differently than we have been. We have one dead cop and it could become two at any moment all because we were so set on doing things the way we always do. Now, Captain already has Cullen in the hotseat. I’ve spoken to him and I am taking the lead on questioning.”
“Over my dead body you are,” Hunt said shaking his head in objection.
“It’s out of your hands, James. It’s been decided. You and your team will stay on sight ready to make the arrest when it is time.”
I caught a glimpse of his jaw tightening. His shoulders did the same. I was confident he was preparing to hit me. It wouldn’t be the first time recently. The first time I’d let it go. I understood his frustration and I understood why he did what he did. When I was younger I probably would have done the exact same thing, but I wasn’t going to turn the other cheek a second time. I stayed facing him offering to cover to my face.
“If you’re gonna do it, I suggest you do it real fucking hard because if you don’t put me out cold I’m putting you through that fucking wall,” I said pointing to the drywall behind him.
To my surprise, he didn’t. He let his shoulders relax and loosen before he spoke to Hall and Perez as if I wasn’t there.
“You two stay ready to make the arrest if Wondercop is right,” he said.
“What about you boss?” Perez asked.
“I’m taking a personal day,” he said turning to walk out of the building.
My first instinct was to stop him, my second was to beat the hell out of him right there in the lobby for acting like a petulant child who didn’t get his ice cream cone, my third was to stay put and let him go. There was unfinished business there and we both knew it. Sooner or later, it was going to come to a head, but not today. Today, we needed to nail the son of a bitch who’d been plaguing us for months. The inevitable showdown would have to take a back seat.
I turned back toward Perez and Hall giving them a nod to do as they’d been told. From there, I began walking toward the hot seat. I stopped in the viewing area first and looked through the double-sided glass at the man who had caused so much chaos in recent months. The man who taken so many lives. The man who’d killed Shelby. Jim Cullen sat at the steel table with his hands crossed in front of him with a smirk on his face. I rounded the corner, entered the room and slammed the door shut locking it behind me.
Chapter 26: Do You See Me Now?
Cullen’s face went white when I locked the door behind me. It was very clear very quickly that this was anything but a formality. This was serious and I did nothing to hide it in my face. He’d been smiling when I’d first walked in, but now he held a worried expression and he wouldn’t stop rubbing his knuckles. I was in the room for a solid three or four minutes before making a sound and even then I was just clearing my throat.
I wanted him to sweat. Not as a figure of speech. I truly wanted to see beads of sweat working their way down the side of his temple. I wanted to see the fear. He should understand that better than anyone. He’d done all of this to get attention and to get fear. Now, I was getting both from him and he couldn’t hide his true nature. It would take more than a mental snap to change who he really was. A scared, anxious, nervous little shit and he couldn’t hide that no matter how much false bravado he’d built up over the last few months.
I hadn’t stopped looking into his eyes. He wanted me to see him, now I did, and I wanted him to know that he didn’t intimidate me. Not in the slightest. I held his stare and let my gaze go icier by the second. I opened the manilla folder that I’d brought in with me and began to lay photographs in front of him, watching his face twist and contort as he laid his eyes on each one. Melanie Green, Sophia Johnson, Tiffany Blanch, Shelby Truman, Karen Simmons, Marty Simmons, Hailey Cooper.
He leaned back in the steel chair as far as he could. If it hadn’t been bolted to the floor, he probably would have tipped it over and onto the ground. He closed his eyes tight and shook his head vehemently. The sweat was dripping from him now and, if I was honest, I was loving every second of this. I’d always like Cullen, I’d always respected the fact that he’d never given up on being a field officer, no matter how many times he failed. Now, I wanted to tear his throat out. I hadn’t moved or let my gaze drop since sitting down and I watched as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Finally, he spoke.
“I…I…what is…,” he stuttered as he slowly opened his eyes again letting the pictures come into his view.
“What’s wrong Jim?” I asked.
“Why…why are…why are you showing me these?” He finally asked.
“Why? Oh, I just thought you might like a little refresher. I find that the more bodies a killer has under his belt, the easier it is for one of them to slip his memory. I didn’t want to chance that. So much time planning and watching and finally acting. I wanted to be sure you could remember every single one,” I said.
“Me?” he asked looking back down at the photos, “these are the people The Optometrist killed,” he said.
“You know Jim, I love interrogations, I really do. Would you like to know why? It’s because they all go the exact same way. At some point or another, the person I’m questioning says something that tells me everything I need to know. I’ve been doing this a very long time and it’s not very often that I’m impressed, but damn it, you accomplished that in less than ten minutes. I’m impressed. I’m impressed at just how fast you have already begun to unravel.”
“What?” he asked his eyes going wide.
“You’re so arrogant that you’re willing to sit here and refer to the name the press gave you right in front of me. Right to my face. The Optometrist,” I said chuckling quietly. “It’s a hell of name. Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Well, you can Frank Jarmin for that one, he might be your biggest fan. He’s probably just getting settled into his new home. You know, maybe I could make a few calls, pull a few strings and see if I can’t get you two celled together. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Norris, I don’t know what is going on here…you think I killed these people?” His bottom lip began to quiver.
“I’m just a consultant now, retired, but then again you knew that. You knew it and you thought that it would be enough for you have an edge. An advantage. You thought me being away for a little while meant you could beat me, but you were wrong you cocksucker,” I said let my rage show just momentarily.
“Casey, I would never do these things! You know that! I can’t stand the sight of blood, why do you think I was puking my guts out earlier after Detective Cooper got shot! You know I could never do this!” The sweat was pouring now, and his eyes were wide with desperation.
“I thought the exact same thing. I thought there was no way you could be involved. You of all people. Then I see the truth in black and white. Not only that, you just confirmed it for me. You were there today. You should have never been there Cullen, you’re not a field officer. Now, you explain to me the coincidence of you being the only one there who shouldn’t have been and it just so happens that is where our killer somehow gets a shot off on Cooper and disappears without any of us seeing a damn thing.”
“I am a field officer Casey! I swear! Detective Hunt passed me a week after you retired! That was my first call out! I wasn’t even on the second floor when Cooper was shot, I swear to you!” The tears were welling up in the corners of his eyes as he shouted hysterically.
“What? Hunt approved your field status?”
“Yes! I promise you! Check my file! The week after you left, he retested me,” he said.
“Don’t fucking lie to me. I just spoke with Captain Connors five minutes ago and he confirmed that you are not a field officer,” I said.
“The paperwork just went through! That’s why today was my first call! I told Detective Hunt that the paperwork hadn’t been filed and he said it was just a formality, that he’d already spoke to the higher ups after he’d asked me to retest!”
“Wait…he asked you to retest?”
“Yeah! He said a few years being active and I could apply for detective status under him!”
My head started to spin. The realization hit me so hard I thought I might fall out of the chair. I was all wrong. This had nothing to do with Jim Cullen aside from the fact that he was another distraction. Another wrench thrown into the game. Just like the kid who’d tried to take the fall for Melanie Green. Just like Frank Jarmin had been. Cullen had been approved because it was clear he would be suspected after Cooper was shot. That shooting wasn’t off the cuff, it was planned far in advance.
We were right about one thing. Our killer was a cop. But we were wrong about Jim Cullen. The poor bastard was just the fall guy. Our killer had replaced me as the detective in charge of what was once my team. The man I’d trained myself. The man I’d molded to take over when I was done. The person I’d handed the reigns over to with every ounce of confidence that he would shine.
I stormed out of the hotseat without a word to Cullen and ran to Captain Connors’ office. I busted through the door making him jump in his seat behind his desk. He was ready to tell me off for doing that all the time, as he normally did, but I began speaking before he could get a single word out.
“No time Captain, Jim Cullen isn’t our guy,” I said, out of breath.
“What! How the fuck is that possible?”
“It doesn’t matter, here’s what does. Hunt is The Optometrist.”
Chapter 27: Patience is for Fools
It wouldn’t be long now. It couldn’t be. I’d left too many clues, sprinkled too much evidence throughout this whole thing for him to miss. He was going to figure it out and it was only a matter of time. Hopefully, a very short matter of time. I was getting tired of waiting. Part of me was wondering why I hadn’t just walked into the middle of the station and blown his fucking head off yet.
I could’ve taken him at any moment. Hell, it didn’t even have to be a spectacle. It didn’t have to be the end of my life. I could have gotten into his new little house in Boulder, as I had many times, and killed him in his sleep. I could have drugged him and taken him back to the house and had my fun with him. I could have disposed of him the right way and no one would ever know what became of him.
I knew exactly how to do it. To make it look like he’d simply up and disappeared in the night. I’d write a little letter on his behalf on how he just couldn’t handle the pressure of this one. This was the case that had broken him, and he’d gone off to find himself again. I’d always been good in creative writing. I could’ve made it sound perfect. No one would suspect anything different and the case would go unsolved forever. I would make sure of it.
The problem was that wasn’t the point. This whole thing had played out exactly the way I’d wanted it to. Every step of it with the exception of him taking so damn long to figure anything out on his own. I’d definitely given him too much credit going into this, but then again, that didn’t change the goal. The goal was to beat him. For everyone to know that I’d beaten him and, most importantly, for him to know that I’d beaten him.
After that, he would die. Simple as that, but it wouldn’t come a moment before his realization that after all those years he’d spend overlooking me, I was the one to bring him down. I was the one who the great Casey Norris couldn’t stop. Maybe I’d frame a picture of his lifeless body when I was done with him. Put it on a wall somewhere or keep it in my wallet. It would be a nice memento. Something to look back at fondly, remembering my time on the force. Remembering the years that I’d spent kissing his ass, making his coffee, and following his rules.
I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about all of the ways that I could hurt him. It wasn’t unusual. Ever since the urge had come back, that was how I spent most of my time when I wasn’t out playing cops and robbers. I would just lay there, listening to the silence. Playing scenarios in my head over and over again. Tweaking the scenes as they played through like a lucid dream, each getting darker and more perverse than the last.
If I was being honest with myself, I hoped it wouldn’t be long. It wasn’t so much that I was tired of the chase. I was just simply tired of waiting. Screw patience. The chase could go on forever if I wanted it to. But did I want it to? I’d managed to kill six people and the entire force had been stumbling all over themselves like it was their first day on the job. They wouldn’t be nearly as far as they were with the case if it hadn’t been for me leaving little things behind to keep them on the right heading.
The time would come, and it would be glorious. The combination of years of dealing with all the things I’d dealt with. The moment where it would all come to a head. All the snickering. All the taunting. All the people who thought I wasn’t good enough. All the people who’d overlooked me, right along with Norris, would know who I really was. All the hours watching and waiting. All the blood on my hands. All of it would crescendo into my perfect moment. My euphoria was coming and, one way or another, it was going to come now.
Chapter 28: Hunting Hunt
Perez and Hall were silent as we made our way to Hunt’s apartment. It wasn’t a long drive, but it sure felt that way. It was clear that they were torn. Not sure what to believe or what to do. This was their comrade. Someone they’d trusted and fought alongside for years. Someone they’d followed blindly through absolute loyalty. Now, here they were, on their way to raid his home and assist in arresting him for the murders of six people and attempted murde
r of a seventh. I owed them a beer when this was all said and done. I owed myself one too.
“Locked and loaded?” I asked from the driver seat.
“Mhmm,” Perez murmured from the passenger seat next to me.
Hall just nodded from the back.
“Look, I want to tell you both a couple of things before we get there…while it’s just the team,” I said looking to my right at Perez and then in the rearview mirror at Hall to ensure both were listening. “I know how hard this has been. Believe me, I know. We lost Simmons, we still might lose Cooper and after it all we find out that one of our own is responsible.”
Neither spoke, but it was clear from their eyes that they were conflicted by it all. The eyes never lie.
“For what it’s worth, I fought against this. I fought against bringing in S.W.A.T. and against this raid. I fought to go alone and end this, but Captain wasn’t having it…I know how hard it is for you two to be involved in this…to even believe any of this is true.”
“How do we know it is?” Perez asked quietly.
“You know how it is Alex…when the dots add up the dots add up,” I said.
“The dots added up with Jim Cullen too…turned out the dots were wrong. What’s to say we aren’t wrong about Hunt too?”
“I’ve been asking myself that same question…the problem is he’s making it very hard to build a case for that. He was off duty during all of the killings. He was there when Cooper was shot. He approved Cullen without saying a thing to Captain Connors. He let me question him knowing full well it wasn’t him. Now, he’s disappeared and won’t answer his phone.”
“There are other explanations for those things than being a cop by day, serial killer by night,” Hall mumbled from the back.
“Everything that you two are going through in your minds, I’m going through in mine too. You’re not alone in how you feel, but there is too much here to ignore. Our killer is a cop, we all know that. Our killer had to be present during the raid at Captain Connors’ house. We’ve verified Cullen’s alibies for the nights of the previous murders as well as the other uniforms. We don’t have one for Hunt.”
