by Gail Caban
She returned to the kitchen where she grabbed a bottle of antiseptic fluid and gloves to wipe down any traces of Martin from her car. She spent the next hour scrubbing her vehicle, feeling completely paranoid that she was missing an area. She had been around her family members long enough to know how police find evidence. Ness walked back into the house and looked at the TV. There was still no report of a dead body in downtown Chicago, and this was starting to worry her. She needed to try and ascertain what the cops knew. So, she went upstairs and showered again before getting changed into clean clothes. Once she was done, she headed for the door.
Ness pulled into the sheriff station and parked next to her dad’s Land Rover. This was a relatively small department. Being responsible for a village of a population of a little over 1,300 people, they only required around 20 deputies and one sheriff. Ness grabbed the box of fresh, powdered donuts that she purchased on her way to the department and headed inside.
“Mornin’ Nessie,” a sweet, southern voice said as she walked towards the administration desk. “Good morning, Agatha,” Ness smiled at the large, African American woman seated behind the desk. Although not a police officer, Agatha Williams was an integral part of the administration side of the department. Agatha had known both Ness and Wyatt for their entire lives and was equally as distraught when Sarah Elliott was killed.
“How are you doin’?” Agatha asked as Ness approached her desk. “Hanging in there,” Ness smiled and opened the box of donuts so Agatha could grab one before anyone else.
“Oh! Thank you darlin’! My taste buds thank you, but my waistline does not,” Agatha laughed as she grabbed one from the box. Ness smiled and headed toward the deputies’ desks. She spotted Wyatt sitting behind his, obviously tackling a mound of backlogged paperwork.
“Hey, Wyatt,” Ness said and sat down. “Ness? What are you doing here?” he asked. “Just checking up on my favorite brother,” she smiled and placed the box of donuts on his desk.
Wyatt frowned, “I’m your only brother. And, why?” “Haven’t been here in a while and I thought I’d pop in.” “Mm-hmm,” Wyatt narrowed his eyes at Ness.
“Okay fine. I wanted to find out if you heard anything about any deaths in Chicago in the past few days.”
“There have been a few cases, but nothing of interest. Besides, CPD doesn’t openly discuss cases with us unless it’s pertinent to our area. Why do you ask?” “It’s nothing, but please just forget that I asked,” Ness touched his hand.
“Ness, what’s going on?” Wyatt leaned forward. “It’s nothing, really,” she covered his hand with hers. “I’m just going to pop in to see Dad, so grab a few of those donuts before he devours the rest,” she smiled. Wyatt grabbed three donuts from the box as Ness got up from his desk and walked to the Sheriff’s office. She knocked on the door.
“Enter,” she heard a booming voice answer. “Hey, Dad,” she said as she popped her head in. “Ness! Well, this is a pleasant surprise!” he said as he rose from his desk and walked round to embrace her. “I was quite worried about you last night when you didn’t come home, but I was glad to see your car in the driveway this morning. Where were you anyway?” he asked, returning to his desk.
“Just went for a drive. I needed to clear my head.” Ness placed the box of donuts on his desk. “Don’t eat all of this by yourself. You might become a diabetic,” Ness winked at her dad. “I’ll try my best, but I’m not promising anything,” Heck laughed.
“I’m going out again tonight, Dad, so don’t wait up. The busier I stay, the less I dwell on the memories of the past,” Ness looked as sincere as she could. “All right, honey. Just be safe. And let me know if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks a lot, Dad,” Ness left the Sheriff’s office and waved goodbye to Wyatt as she left the department. Her best option was to drive back to Chicago and find out what happened to Martin’s body. After all, a dead man couldn’t just get up and walk away.
5
Ness parked her car nearby to Eddie’s Bar and sat for a few moments. It was just before lunchtime, and many people would be heading out of their offices to grab something to eat. Regardless, she had to make her way back into that alleyway. She exited her Civic and crossed the street. Eddie’s Bar was open and obviously rather busy because of the lunchtime rush, so she went around back. She walked several yards into the alley until she reached the dumpster where she found the beer bottle . . . but there was nothing on the other side of the dumpster. There was no body, no blood, and no sign of a struggle. Ness stood still, just staring at the ground, trying to find any sign of what occurred.
“How is this possible?” she whispered to herself. She knew that the rain from the previous night would have washed away a large portion of the blood, but that didn’t explain the lack of Martin’s body.
“Are you sure he was dead when you left here?” a voice popped up in Ness’ head. “Shit. He wasn’t breathing, but I didn’t check his pulse. What if he wasn’t dead and is lying in a hospital bed somewhere?” Ness could feel the increase in her heart rate as thoughts flooded her mind. Ness looked all around the alleyway. In the daylight, she could see that this place was much more secluded than she first realized. There were no CCTV cameras, and the view from the street was completely blocked. At least she had that working in her favor.
She bent down to the ground to try and see if she could spot any blood from the night before. She sniffed the air: it smelled like a freshly treated swimming pool. But she couldn’t see any blood spatter, even underneath the dumpster itself. Completely perplexed and questioning her own sanity, Ness walked into Eddie’s Bar and sat down on one of the stools. There were several more staff members working today, and Ness looked around to see if she could spot Eddie, but he was nowhere to be seen. She watched all of the patrons being served, and many of them were diving into one of the cheeseburgers that Ness had. She could see why this place was thriving the way that it was.
“What can I get you, Ness?” Eddie’s deep voice brought her out of her daze. “Oh, I wasn’t sure if you were here today,” Ness answered. “I’m here most days. I’m glad to see you again after what happened last night,” Ness gulped. “What do you mean?” she stammered.
“Those guys seemed to upset you pretty badly. I didn’t think that you’d want to come back here for a while.”
“Oh. No, it wasn’t that bad,” Ness could feel the sweat forming on her brow.
“What about the other guy that you were watching for so long? What happened with him?”
“I wasn’t watching anyone.”
Eddie smiled. “Of course not. I do see, however, that his car is still parked on the road outside. I wonder how long it will take for that to be found. Him being the son of a politician and all.” Ness’ eyes widened reflexively. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Eddie smiled sinisterly. “You and I both know that he didn’t make it to his car last night, Ness.”
Ness’ vision went blurry, and her eyes hurt against the sudden brightness of the lights in the place. She could barely hear above the drumming in her ears, but she managed to control the surge and remained seated on her stool.
“If you want to find out what happened, come to this address at 9:00 P.M. tonight, and don’t be late,” Eddie scribbled an address on the back of a business card. “How do I know that you’re not dangerous and that you’re not going to hurt me?” Eddie leaned forward across the bar and whispered, “You don’t.”
The next several hours went by at a snail’s pace. Ness had no idea what she was going to do, but if there was any chance in finding out what happened to Martin, then she needed to go for it—no matter how insane it seemed. It was still a while until Ness had to meet up with Eddie, but the address that he had written down for her was in Northbrook, which was around a 30-minute drive from Eddie’s Bar in downtown Chicago. She decided to drive toward the address and have a look around the area before nightfall.
Ness was caught in traffic on her way to Northbrook, a
nd the 30-minute drive took her three times longer than she expected since she had to pump in gas along the way. It was 7:00 P.M. when Ness pulled into the road that Eddie wrote down for her. She parked her car across the street from a very nice-looking house. Northbrook was definitely one of the nicer suburbs in the Chicago area, and Ness wondered if Eddie owned the house at this address. It was a two-story, modern A-frame house with nicely manicured rose bushes and a pristine lawn—definitely not the type of house she was expecting. Ness stayed put in her car as she waited for 9:00 P.M.
At 8:45 P.M., Ness still hadn’t noticed Eddie approach the house, and she hadn’t noticed any movement within the house. She felt as though she was walking straight into a trap, but she knew that she didn’t have any other choice. 10 minutes later, Ness exited her vehicle and walked toward the house. Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached the dark house. She went to knock on the door and could see that the door was slightly ajar, but she knocked anyway. No response.
“Hello? Eddie?” Ness called out, but still there was no response. Ness strained her ears to hear anything on the other side of the door. Nothing. Ness took a deep breath and pushed the door open gingerly. There were no lights on in the house. She took a step inside and allowed her eyes several seconds to adjust to the darkness.
“This is ridiculous,” Ness whispered to herself. “Not that ridiculous,” a voice from the doorway beside her stated loudly. Ness screamed and jumped away from the voice, and the lights in the hallway came on. Ness trembled as she tried to support her weight against the wall as she stared at Eddie standing next to her.
Eddie crossed his arms over his muscular chest, “I hope I haven’t overestimated your capabilities.” “W-W-W-What are you talking about?” Ness stuttered. “You seemed to have a real knack for killing, but there’s a lot that you need to learn and work on if you want to stay one step ahead of the police.”
“Who are you?” Ness straightened herself. “We’ll get to that later. You hungry?” Eddie started walking toward the kitchen. “What?” “Are you hungry? I figured that was a simple enough question,” Eddie frowned.
“What is going on, Eddie?” “Well, I’m hungry because I haven’t eaten. Ergo, me heading to the kitchen and offering to make you something to eat, too,” Eddie took a few more steps toward the kitchen and then turned back at Ness, “Well come along. We don’t have all night.”
Ness stood with her mouth ajar. She blinked several times and then followed Eddie in haste. They entered the kitchen, and Eddie walked straight to the fridge and started grabbing ingredients. “Have a seat at the table over there,” he said as he pointed to a small table at the kitchen window. Ness did as she was instructed and watched this very strange situation unfold.
“Is a sandwich good?” Eddie asked as he started unwrapping the packaging on a loaf of bread. Ness shrugged, “Yeah, sure.” Eddie started cutting lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sliced thin slices of Swiss cheese. He worked in complete silence. Ness was tempted several times to break the silence, but she just held her tongue. She waited for Eddie to make the first move.
“Do you like mustard?” Eddie asked. “I do.” Ness responded. Eddie nodded, and spread whole grain mustard on two of the slices of bread and piled thin slices of smoked ham on top of the mustard. He topped the sandwich with the rest of ingredients before cutting them in half and grabbed two beers from the fridge. He walked to the table and placed the sandwich and beer in front of Ness as he sat down across from her.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Ness asked without touching her food. Eddie had taken a large bite of his sandwich, and he stared at her while he chewed. He swallowed and took a large sip of his beer: “Ness, one of two things will happen tonight. Either you can walk out that door and forget about everything that’s happened, or you can choose to stay and learn how to master that underlying talent of yours.”
“What about Henry Martin?” Ness questioned. “What about him?” Eddie took another bite of his sandwich.
“Well the way that I see it, you cleaned up my mess which means that you’ve done this before. It may seem like I can just walk away from this but in reality, I can’t. You’re revealing a very dangerous part of your life to me, and you and I both know that I won’t be able to just walk away from this. You will need some insurance to ensure that I don’t go to the police,” Ness crossed her arms over her chest.
Eddie smiled. “Clever girl. But you are missing one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m not here to blackmail you. And there’s nothing that can tie me to cleaning up the scene of Henry Martin’s murder. So, even if you did turn yourself in, there’s nothing that you can say to incriminate me. You see, I’ve been doing this for a long time. The police may suspect me for a while after what you tell them, and they may even come in here and tear my home and bar apart, but they won’t find anything. There is absolutely nothing tying me to the murder.”
“Then what do you really want?” Ness asked as she opened her beer and drank half the can in two large gulps.
“I want to teach you.”
“Why? You don’t even know me.” Eddie sat back and dusted the crumbs off his hands.
“Your full name is Vanessa Anne Elliott. You are 23 years old. You are the daughter of Heck and Sarah Elliott. Your brother, father, and grandfather are police officers in North Utica. Six months ago, you and your mom were involved in a motor vehicle accident where Henry Martin collided with your vehicle. Your mother didn’t survive because of her injuries. Henry Martin wasn’t punished for his crimes, and you decided to take the law into your own hands last night when you took his life . . . and rather savagely, I might add. Shall I continue? There’s a lot more I know about you.”
Ness diverted her gaze and ran her tongue over her teeth, “So what? You’re a stalker now?”
Eddie laughed loudly, “What do you think?” Ness sighed. “I don’t know what to think.”
“Did you like it? Killing Martin?”
“I didn’t feel anything after I did it,” Ness responded flatly.
“Ness, you need to understand that you have a talent. And, unfortunately, you have crossed a dark line that you won’t be able to come back from. You may be able to hide it for a while but killing has become a part of you now. With the right training, you will be able to become one of the best,” Eddie finished his beer.
“Best of what?”
“Serial killers.”
“I’m not a serial killer,” Ness scoffed.
“Not yet you’re not. But last night when I saw you in the bar, I could see the same darkness in your eyes that I see in mine every time when I look in the mirror. I must say that darkness certainly didn’t disappoint,” Eddie smiled and rose from the table. “Come with me.”
Eddie walked out of the kitchen, and Ness followed him into his living room. In the middle of the sparsely but comfortably furnished room was a coffee table that held a large, antique wooden chess set.
“Do you play?” Eddie asked. “Somewhat,” Ness answered by taking a seat on the brown leather recliner near to the table.
“Good. Let’s see what you’ve got,” Eddie sat opposite her at the white pieces.
“Chess? You’re going to teach me to play chess?” Ness pulled a face.
“Do you know what the journalists used to call me when they wrote about me in the papers?” Ness shook her head.
“They used to call me the En Passant Killer.”
Ness’ eyes widened and she gulped drily. “You’re the En Passant Killer?”
Eddie didn’t respond. “My grandfather was looking for you for years, but he could never catch you.”
“I know. But I must say, old Wyatt Elliott Sr. definitely came closer than most. He impressed me, your grandfather. And now he’s retired and living in his dream cabin by the lake. Tell me, why didn’t he ever remarry after your grandmother passed?”
“She was the love of his life,” Ness responde
d while she touched one of the pieces on the board. Her fingers felt slightly sticky after she returned the piece.
“How did she die?”
“Heart failure.”
Eddie narrowed his eyes at Ness, “Is that right?”
“That’s what my grandfather told us.”
Eddie rose from his seat and moved the coffee table away.
“Why are you asking how my grandmother died?” Eddie didn’t respond and turned to leave. Ness started to rise from her seat—her gaze was looking downward—and then she saw it. Eddie’s leg was accelerating straight for her. She tried to move, but the sole of his boot collided with her squarely in the chest, and Ness was thrown over the back of the leather recliner.
6
Wyatt Elliott Jr. drove home after his shift, and although it was a quiet day, he was very deep in thought. His short conversation with Ness earlier on in the day was bothering him. Wyatt and Ness were very close growing up, but they seemed to drift apart after the accident. Ness seemed darker than normal, and even though he chalked up to PTSD, he wasn’t sure how to deal with the change in his sister’s behavior. It was like she had become a completely different person after the accident.
Wyatt pulled into his driveway and waited for the garage door to open. He could see that all the lights were on inside, and he wondered what Lindsay had prepared for dinner. Even though they had been married for several years, he still missed his wife terribly when he wasn’t with her.
Wyatt Elliott and Lindsay Garner started dating when they were both juniors in high school. And, just like a cliché of the star quarterback and captain of the cheerleading squad starting a relationship, so did Wyatt and Lindsay. However, unlike other football-cheerleading relationships that normally end in drama, Wyatt and Lindsay both loved each other too deeply to stray from one another. They got engaged shortly after graduating high school when Wyatt was enrolling into the police academy. They were married right after their 21st birthdays.
