Hudson

by Joanne Sexton

  “Can I take you home?” he whispered against her lips.

  “Yes, no-one is there. Eliza is with my parents.”

  Without pause, he brushed her lips with his tongue before turning to start the car. Following her directions they drove towards her house. His anticipation and surprise at the turn of events lifted his despondency.

  No words were exchanged as they exited the car and entered the house. She took hold of his hand and led him through her house and into her bedroom. When she slipped her dress off her shoulders to the floor and stood before him, she smiled and he groaned.

  “You’re beautiful. More so than before.”

  “I doubt that. I was seventeen, Lucas.”

  “Yes but you were a girl, now you’re a woman. A beautiful woman.”

  “Yes, with lots of womanly tricks.”

  With a flick of her hands she urged him to sit on the bed then straddled him. Her hands worked at his shirt and she smiled when she threw it onto the floor.

  “You aren’t a boy anymore either,” she said running her hands over his chest and stomach. “These muscles weren’t here before.”

  She grinned before throwing her hands around his neck and capturing his mouth with hers. The momentum pushed him back and she pressed against him. He wanted to feel her breasts against his chest so he worked at her strapless barely there bra until he was rewarded with her flesh. They felt different in his hands and he groaned at their new fullness. The need to taste them had him sending her over to her back so he could taste every part of her. Neck, nipples, breast, stomach, inner thighs, he worked his kisses down slowly, relishing the sound of her unrestrained moans. With practiced ease he tantalised her with his tongue until she cried out his name.

  After tugging off his pants and throwing them to the floor, he returned to her and without hesitation their bodies came together. Their intense movements were slow and passionate. They took their time exploring each other with unhurried hands. Their love making was fevered until they moaned out their intense pleasure in unison. Their slick bodies remained entwined and they fell into a contented sleep.

  They spent all day in bed Sunday catching up on twelve years of their life and making love. The maturity in their movements brought a newfound passion to them both and lit a tiny spark within them. Stacey needed to heal she’d told him and the weekend had been the best she’d had for some time. Regardless, she needed stability and knew he couldn’t offer her this and she was okay with it much to his relief. Their lives had come together again for a reason and their time together would help them both to take a step forward.

  When he left they kissed goodbye and wished each other well. If their paths crossed again then they would happily embrace another night together if they could. Even though he thought it would be nice to have someone like Stacey in his life, he knew it was a bad idea. He had already loved her once, how easy would it be to do it again? Lucas already felt a contented afterglow after one day so a revisit was definitely a no-no. Falling in love was not an option. Being with Stacey again renewed his vigour and showed him that life could have its moments. People could have an amazing time together with no strings. At least now he could believe that there was a way to stave off the loneliness without the fear.

  30

  Moving On

  Lucas fell into a kind of routine. Work. Gym. Food. Reading case files. Bed. In between this was Stacey. Though he fought the urge he’d phoned her and they met up every couple of weeks. Both were happy with the arrangement and Lucas would reluctantly let her go if she decided to pursue something serious with someone else. So he fell into the easy routine and lived day to day.

  For the first time in a long time Lucas felt as though he was moving on and finding his niche in life. Aside from a few cold cases, Maggie and Lucas’ arrest record continued to dominate and his sense of job satisfaction gave him purpose and focus. It may not be the happiest of lives but he was existing and sustaining and that was the most he could ask.

  Another case similar to his parent’s and the others they’d encountered over the years hadn’t reoccurred but Lucas still kept the files for each of the recent murders, in particular the one they investigated when Maggie was first assigned to him and in his spare time read the files over and over. Though he’d long ago rid himself of his parent’s file, he still hoped for a break in the other cases. He hoped by solving them he would solve his parent’s murder.

  Dawn crept through the window and as he lay staring at it spreading across the ceiling the phone rang. It was too early for anything other than work. Part of him wanted to ignore it. Another death. A senseless death. Murder. With a sigh he answered the persistent ringing.

  “Hudson.”

  “It’s me.”

  “Morning, Mags. What we got?”

  “Another one of those murder robberies, like ...”

  “Where?”

  She gave him the details as he swung his legs over the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “We haven’t had one of these for a while. Maybe this time we’ll get lucky and catch a break,” he said, getting up and pulling a suit from his ordered cupboard.

  “I have a theory.”

  “Let’s hear it.” Plodding into the bathroom, he turned on the shower as he listened.

  “I think it’s a gang ritual thing.”

  “I considered this years ago but couldn’t make it fit. The murders varied slightly in each case so I was never sure it was the same people or person. Keep going with your theory.”

  “I think it’s their initiation. This is why it’s random and not continuous. They recruit new kids and they must perform some kind of ritual to join. There could be other murders that may be part of this but don’t seem like they corroborate because they’re different. Like you said, I think this is why we’re having a hard time with evidence because each crime is committed by different people.”

  “Remember when we went to the first scene like this, when we were first partnered up? I had several case files that were similar. I’ve never talked to you about this but I have been reading these case files over and over for years. I considered the gang thing but wasn’t sure how to make it all come together. This makes a lot of sense, Maggie, the initiation thing. The murders have a similar MO but differ slightly with each one which would indicate different murderers. I’m just about to get in the shower. I’ll meet you at the scene. With this in mind we can try and approach it from more than one way.”

  “I’m wondering how many cold cases relate to this without anyone realising.”

  “I thought I found all the cases that could be relevant but there could be more. It could open up a whole new scope and its worth chasing. Well done, Detective.”

  “Why thank you, Detective.”

  They both laughed and then stopped. Their humour short lived in the wake of death.

  After attending the scene, they returned to the station to reassess. Maggie’s idea, the one mirroring his over the years, seemed a solid lead to follow and as they had little else, they decided to focus their attention in this direction. They pulled all the similar files that Lucas had and then checked on other unsolved cases that could link to theirs from different precincts. Random shootings, stabbings, robberies, anything that appeared to have no motive or reason were considered. They could all be related even if the weapon and cause of death varied. Different people with different signatures. The piles of case files grew between them and there could be a lot of pointless unrelated reading ahead of them but Lucas felt rejuvenated. The new case files could be read in his down time, something to fill in the empty hours.

  “I’ll take a pile of these home and read them,” Lucas said after a day of working through theories and possible cases to consider.

  “I will too,” Maggie said. Lucas shook his head. “What do you mean no?”

  “You have a life, Maggie. You don’t need to be reading these old files that could be a lost cause or a waste of time. The theory is a good one but we
have no idea if we are even looking at related cases.”

  “I don’t want to burden you with all the work.”

  “You’re not.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  Maggie studied him, her brow creased and her blue eyes full of her affection and concern.

  “Maggie, please, I’m fine.”

  “You know I care about you right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You can talk to me whenever you want. Just because I’m married doesn’t mean you can’t call me whenever you need to.”

  “I know.”

  She let out a big sigh and shook her head. “Still harder to crack than a walnut shell.”

  His spontaneous laugh echoed around the quiet room. A few heads lifted and inspected the source before returning to work.

  “You’re a funny gal, Maggie.”

  “And you’re impossible.”

  “But lovable.” He grinned and she reluctantly returned it. “It’s after seven. Go home, Maggie. I’m going home now too,” he said collecting a large pile of files and his keys from his desk before pushing his chair in and heading for the exit.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice.” He heard her say at his retreating back and he smiled to himself. At least one of them was happy.

  Pouring over the files was getting him closer and further away all at once. Though they seemed unrelated, he could see how the gang theory looked more and more likely yet there would be no way to prove the connection. If they were gang rituals there was no evidence to back this up. The robberies and murders he read over could all be random and unrelated but the more he read the files, the more he thought they could be onto something. The only question now was how do they find the link and to which gang.

  The way to approach this would be to find individual perp or perps of one or more of the crimes and then try and link them back to the instigators. The leaders would be the ones calling the shots. This could go all the way to the top of a gang rung and in turn could take a lot of bad elements off the streets. The outcome, if they could find the connection, could be huge. The matter at hand now was to find the evidence to get the small guys performing the rituals to ensnare the big guys.

  In his usual manner he noted down all the crimes in chronological order and then tried to see some kind of pattern. He noted down the time between each one and the cases with a similar MO or cases where there could be a connection, but the murders were different. Some shoot, some stabbed, some beaten. These new cases would account for the time missing between the murders where the victim’s throats were cut. They hadn’t been incarcerated, they just hadn’t found the connection. Their newfound lead gave him inspiration and drive. This was how he would find his solace and peace. If he could connect them all together and bring down the gang he would feel he did all he could to avenge his parents and finally get closure. He may not catch the actual killer but may be able to bring down the big guns and in turn find some retribution. It was all he had left and it may be the only way.

  Night after night Lucas searched through the files, trying to find anything to connect at least one perp to one of the files but to no avail. He became a man obsessed.

  The day they caught a break Lucas had been awake since before dawn again. When Maggie arrived at the station he’d already been there several hours and it showed. His usual neat appearance was dishevelled and his desk, usually so ordered, had files scattered across it. A few minutes after her arrival a DNA technician sought out Lucas with the news.

  “We have a hit on the case you asked us to rush,” the tech told them handing Lucas the print-out he held.

  “Thanks,” Lucas said distracted by his perusal of the report.

  “So?” Maggie prompted.

  “We could be right about the gang theory. Mikey Higgins. His brother is a known member of the Cobra’s, a gang on the east side. It seems young Mikey has a prior for drug distribution and served time in juvie. His DNA was taken when he was arrested. The blood found at the last scene matches Mikey’s DNA.”

  “How old is he now?”

  “Just turned eighteen. He was released from juvie a couple of weeks ago.”

  “So it’s possible this was an initiation?”

  “Yeah. I think it’s time we brought him in.”

  31

  Mikey

  “Where is he now?” Captain Shaw asked them several hours later.

  “In one of the interrogation rooms sweating it out,” Lucas said. “The arrest was straight forward. We were lucky he was home.”

  “Keep me updated.”

  “Will do.”

  The young suspect may be guilty of the latest murder but it would be impossible for him to be involved in earlier murders. This only compounded in Lucas’s mind that this was the work of a gang.

  “So, Mikey is it?” Lucas began when they entered the interrogation room. “You’re a member of the Cobra’s?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. I know nothing about nothing.”

  “You hand is bandaged, it looks fresh. We found blood at the scene and we tested it against your DNA and what do you know, it’s a match.” Maggie said.

  “I didn’t do nothing.”

  “The DNA says otherwise. What were you doing there?”

  “I didn’t kill no-one.”

  “But you were there?”

  “I don’t know nothing.”

  “You killed two innocent people.” Maggie joined in.

  “I didn’t kill no-one … I just robbed the joint and cut my hand.” His grimace gave away his accidental slip. They might be able to wear him down. At least they could get him on robbery to begin with.

  “You didn’t murder them?”

  “No, man, I don’t want to go to jail again.”

  “Admitting to robbery will send you back, Mikey. You may as well come clean about it all now.” Lucas continued.

  “I didn’t murder nobody.”

  “Isn’t your brother a part of the Cobra’s? Was this your initiation?” Lucas decided to change subject and draw him into another confession.

  “I didn’t kill no-one. They were dead when I got there. Their throats slashed and there was lots of blood.” He smiled like an ally cat chasing its prey.

  “So, this is the way it’s going to be? Denying the murder?” The suspect shrugged. “There have been many similar murder/robberies that have occurred over many years. You yourself wouldn’t have committed all of these crimes but we believe members of your gang have and this was your turn.” Lucas again.

  “I told you, man, I. Know. Nothing.”

  “If it wasn’t you who initially robbed the place and murdered the owners, why would the actual killer leave anything behind to be robbed?”

  “How would I know? I only robbed the joint. I know nothing about no murders.”

  “If you tell us what happened, confess to murder, tells us about other members of the group who have committed these crimes, we could offer you a deal.” Maggie played good cop well.

  “I don’t need no deal, I didn’t murder no-one. I stole a few things but that’s it.”

  During the entire interrogation their suspect squirmed in his seat, bit his nails to still his shaking hands and fidgeted constantly. All signs of guilt and coming down from a high. He needed a hit. The boy was not going to confess to murder, just small-time robbery. It wouldn’t get him a lot of time inside. He wouldn’t give himself up or other members because it would be his death sentence. Lucas had run out of patience.

  “These people were callously murdered. Had their throats cut for a few thousand dollars and some jewellery.” With one swift movement, Lucas grabbed Mikey’s shirtfront and lifted him out of his seat so they were face to face. His face felt flushed, his anger at the maximum. “How can you sit there and be so calm after what you’ve done?”

  “Let go of me, man, I didn’t do nothing but take a few t
hings! Are you deaf, copper?”

  Lucas had heard enough so he shoved the suspect against the wall. His face so close he could smell the putrid breath of their suspect.

  “Confess, scumbag!”

  “Lucas,” Maggie yelled. “Let him go.” He was deaf to her words, all he could see was red and a punk who needed to confess. “Lucas!” Her hand rest on his shoulder and he went to shake it off but instead dropped their suspect who crumbled to the floor. Mikey stood and brushed himself off.

  “Can I go now?”

  “You’re under arrest for the robbery you confessed too. You’re going to jail.” Maggie told him.

  “Then take me and get me away from this psycho.” He bobbed his head towards Lucas.

  An officer arrived to take the perp. He shuffled from the room and was led down the hall to lock-up.

  “I had him, Maggie, he was going to confess to murder.”

  “No, he wasn’t and you know it. He wouldn’t have given himself or anyone else up. He’d be a dead man if he did.”

  “Fuck! I know you’re right. We’re never going to catch these guys, are we?” Lucas said slumping into a chair.

  “I don’t know. More evidence is needed. He was there, we know that but the blood doesn’t tell us how he participated. It could be he robbed the place after the perps left but it begs the question that we asked him, if he robbed later, why was there anything left after the first robbery and the murder. You would think that they wouldn’t have left much of value so it definitely could be him. No-one in the gang will ever give up themselves or others. The only way to catch them is if they slip up somehow. This guy cut himself. Maybe next time someone else will too. Leave behind fingerprints, I don’t know, something. The next suspect we get might be easier to crack.”

  Lucas shrugged. He was too tired. His need for revenge, to catch the killer who murdered his parents was fading. He thought he had gotten over it when he destroyed their file but with the new murder it brought it all back but now it was time to let it go again.