Vendetta

by C. M. Sutter

  “I’ll keep my lips zipped. I’m beat. I’m going to bed.” I pushed back my chair and stood.

  Jade shut down her computer. “I have the rest of the week here at home to try to find out who this Craig really is. I’ll text you tomorrow if I learn anything about him.”

  I gave Jade a hug and turned in for the night, wondering who Craig Hartman really was and why he’d decided to take up residence in our little town.

  Chapter 38

  I shot straight up in bed for the second time in less than a week. Kate’s screams were panicked and raspy. Again, Jade and I ran downstairs and barged through the bedroom door. Jade flipped on the light. Kate sobbed as she sat on the center of her bed with her knees pulled to her chest and her face buried in her hands. The blankets, pulled out from beneath the mattress, were strewn every which way.

  “Kate, it’s okay. We’re here.” I wrapped my arms around her as I climbed on the bed. “Whatever those dreams are about are too intense to keep to yourself. They may actually be premonitions. You have to get it out and tell us everything you remember.”

  Jade disappeared into the bathroom and brought out a box of tissue. She handed it to Kate and sat on the other side of the bed.

  “Here you go, hon. Try to compose yourself and then go ahead and tell us what you remember.”

  I stood and headed toward the door. “I’ll make some tea.”

  “Let’s just go upstairs,” Kate said as she wiped her eyes. “I need to write down what I remember or the details will fade away.”

  I stopped and looked back. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded as she slipped on her bathrobe and followed us to the staircase. “Uh-huh. I have to do this whether I want to or not.”

  Ten minutes later, we sat around the kitchen table, each with a cup of tea. With a legal pad and pencil in front of her, Kate squeezed her eyes as if she were thinking back. She began to jot down everything that came to mind. She went through each chilling detail aloud as she wrote the dream on paper. She was somewhere alone at night, possibly a parking lot. She remembered that the moon was full and even that she’d looked up to admire its beauty. A sound at her back made her spin with fear. Nobody had been there before, and now a man was coming up behind her and closing in.

  Kate dabbed her eyes and relived what she saw. “He was only a silhouette in the dark, nothing more than a shape, but the snap of a knife and the glint of its blade told me what was in store. I knew he was there to kill me. I saw my car in the distance, but there was too much open space between it and me—I’d never reach it in time. I began to run with everything I had. I heard his feet hitting the pavement and felt the vibration as he chased me. He was getting closer and closer.” Kate paused and buried her face in her hands. She was on the verge of hyperventilating.

  “Give yourself a minute,” Jade said. “Take a deep breath and let it out slowly then have a few sips of tea.”

  Kate did as Jade instructed then rubbed her temples with her fingertips. She nodded. “I’m ready to go on.”

  I let out a deep breath of my own. I knew reliving that dream had to be horrifying. “Then what happened?”

  “The same as always, he caught up to me, and my fate was sealed. I knew I only had seconds to live. I heard the heavy breathing behind me, and then my head jerked backward violently. He had me by the hair and pulled my head back enough to expose my neck. I had one last look at that full moon then felt the hot sting of the blade swipe across my throat.”

  I closed my eyes and shuddered at the image of the nightmares that had haunted Kate for years.

  Jade gave me a quick glance. Tears filled her eyes after listening to Kate’s torturous dreams. Not only were the dreams horrific, but also many of them had come true.

  “Did you ever see his face, Kate?” Jade asked.

  “Not that time, and I don’t know if it was the same person as in my dream Sunday night. His actions were the same, though. The man in the dream on Sunday was built differently than Robert, and his hair wasn’t the same either. It can’t be anything other than a dream since Robert is dead and Tony is locked up.”

  “Have you ever seen pictures of James, Lea’s brother, or Mark, Robert’s cousin?”

  “No, never.”

  “I’ll pull their driver’s licenses tomorrow and show you the pictures,” I said. “We have to know for sure that nobody else in the Lynch family is after you. Dreams are dreams, but premonitions are an entirely different animal. You, more than anyone, know how dangerous and deadly they can be.” I noticed a frown covering Jade’s face. “Something wrong, Sis?”

  “No, I guess not. Just split-second flashes of the crash going through my mind now and then.”

  “And you just had a flash of something?”

  “Not of something but of someone.”

  Chapter 39

  “Okay, listen up, guys.” Jack had decided to lead the Thursday morning meeting in the bull pen rather than the conference room. I took that to mean we didn’t have a whole lot to discuss. “Horbeck and Jamison interviewed every tenant from Kate’s old apartment building last night. Six of the seven men who didn’t exit the building have been accounted for as guests of the residents. Some stayed overnight, and others watched football and left later on. We do have loose time frames for when each of those six men arrived. You also said one was too old and the other too heavy. Using a process of elimination and the time stamps from the Candyman’s footage, it shouldn’t be too hard to narrow down which person is our suspect.” Jack pointed at me. “Amber, call the Candyman as soon as they open and see if they’ll email you Sunday’s footage. I have the approximate times those visitors showed up.”

  “Will do, boss.” I woke up my computer and typed in ‘Candyman on Main’ to get their store hours. According to their website, the store opened at nine o’clock. “They open in less than an hour.”

  Jack gave me a nod and returned to his office.

  I pulled up the nationwide name search database we used at the sheriff’s office and typed in Mark Lynch’s name first. Once I had a copy of his driver’s license on the screen, I motioned for Kate to roll her chair over. In a low voice, I asked her if that man was a character in any of her recent dreams.

  She shook her head. “The age is probably right, but no, he doesn’t look the least bit familiar.”

  “Okay, let’s try James Ross, Lea’s brother.” I had my doubts since James was much older than Mark, but at least they would be eliminated as suspects with a Lynch connection who might have appeared in Kate’s dream.

  Kate propped her chin against her fist and waited for his photo to come up. James Ross was a tough old codger in his mid-sixties who looked worn and rough around the edges. He looked like an older inmate with an axe to grind, even though he served only one year in a minimum-security prison. Kate backed away from the screen. “Eww… he’s scary looking but not even close to the man in Sunday night’s dream.”

  I was about to close the site when Kate stopped me.

  “Wait. Go back to his picture.”

  “Did you think of something?”

  “Maybe.”

  I typed James Ross’s name in the search bar again. His photo came up. “What is it about him?”

  “It’s not him particularly, it’s the tattoos on his neck. Images of tattoos popped into my head for a second.”

  I was hopeful. If her dreams were actually premonitions, then tattoo designs could definitely be helpful, especially if they were custom work. “Do you think you could remember what any of them looked like?”

  Kate gave me a quick grin. “I’ll sleep on it tonight.”

  The alarm I had set on my phone gave me a heads-up beep. It was time to call Candyman on Main. I closed the search site and dialed Candyman’s number.

  “Hello, Charlie, it’s Amber Monroe. Could you please send the video feed from Sunday to my email address? Yes, that would be awesome, and it’s the same email address that’s on my business card. Thank you so much. Good bye.
”

  Jack walked out of his office and said he was going to fill his coffee cup. “How soon can we expect the footage?”

  “Charlie said he’d send it over in fifteen minutes. He has to fill the candy trays first.”

  Billings stood and tipped his head at Clayton. “I have three eviction notices to serve. How about tagging along? We should be back in less than an hour.”

  Clayton grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. “Sure. We’re in a holding pattern right now, anyway.”

  Kate and I caught up with paperwork for the next few minutes until my last email check showed an attachment had come in. I clicked on the message from Candyman on Main. I asked Kate to let Jack know while I opened the attachment and prepared to watch the footage again.

  Jack slid the guest chair to my left and sat down. Kate’s chair was already on my right. She held on her lap the list of people who went in but didn’t come out. Each man’s description and time he entered the building was circled in red marker.

  “Okay, Kate, why don’t you read off the time? I’ll find that person on the video and pause it there. Boss, you can read your description and compare it to ours and to the person on the video. It’s a good way to triple-check each person and cross them off. Whoever is left will likely be Mr. Myers’s killer.”

  Jack gave me a nod. “So he either slipped out after dark, which would have been a long time to hang around, or he took the rear exit and disappeared shortly after killing Marvin.”

  One by one, Jack and Kate compared descriptions of the original seven men. I located them on the video, and we did a final comparison of how each tenant had described their guest. Thirty minutes later, we had one man left.

  “That actually worked.” I was pumped as we stared at the back of the unknown man while he walked into the building’s vestibule. I noticed how Kate didn’t seem herself, then I remembered how she seemed the same way yesterday when we saw that man on the footage. She went back and forth from the video footage to the sheet with his description.

  “Is something wrong, Kate? What is it about that man that bothers you? You were the same way yesterday.”

  “It’s the coat. Can you zoom in on it?”

  I looked to the bottom right of the monitor. The zoom bar was already maxed out. “No can do. It’s at its limit. What is it about the coat, specifically?”

  “It looks familiar but not in a dream sense. It’s more like in real life.”

  I gave her a thoughtful smile. “It’s winter, Kate, and everyone is wearing coats. That black one isn’t screaming anything unusual.”

  “Do you see red zipper tabs on the pockets?” She looked at Jack and me with a serious expression.

  I leaned in closer to the screen. “Sorry, I can’t tell.” I turned to Jack. “See any red zipper tabs?”

  “Not from this distance or angle.”

  “Do you know somebody with a jacket like that?”

  “I’ve seen those red tabs on men’s jackets in town, but if this one doesn’t have them, then—”

  Jack interrupted. “Maybe Billy or Todd can pull the image in closer with their equipment. It isn’t a bad idea, anyway. If red zipper tabs can identify the killer, then we should check all the stores in the area that sell jackets like that. They have to stand out. Meanwhile, I’ll see if Tech can give us a rough idea of the man’s height and weight too.” Jack stood. “Send that footage to Tech. I’ll explain to them what we need.”

  I forwarded the email attachment to our tech department downstairs. Hopefully they could sharpen up everything on that man and get us a clear description of the jacket as well as his height and weight. Unfortunately, without a direct facial view, we would find it difficult to prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  We were at a standstill. Marvin’s ex-wife and his adult children were money-grubbers, but that didn’t make them killers. We had nothing to prove that Shawn had anything to do with his dad’s death, but until somebody else surfaced, we’d keep our eyes on him.

  We waited for Todd’s call. With any luck, something associated with that jacket—and the reason Kate was bothered by it—would reveal itself.

  Chapter 40

  I glanced at Kate and saw the anguish on her face—something was bothering her, but she wasn’t offering any more information than she already had. She fidgeted at her desk and straightened piles of paperwork for the umpteenth time.

  I cupped my mouth and whispered since Jack’s office door was wide open. “What’s up your ass?”

  She snapped her head in my direction and gave me a long scowl. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Kate, you’ve been weird all morning. What gives?”

  My prodding was interrupted by Clayton and Billings returning to the bull pen.

  Billings tossed his jacket over his chair. “You’d think serving eviction notices would be a walk in the park, but noooo.”

  I looked at Clayton and grinned. He rolled his eyes.

  “What happened, Adam? Did a nasty little Chihuahua grab your ankle and give it a good shake?”

  He huffed. “They were much larger than that. More like a beagle, poodle, and a snippy Lhasa Apso.” He pointed at his pant cuff. “Check it out—torn from dog’s teeth.”

  Clayton scratched his head. “I’ve told him to keep dog treats with him when he serves eviction notices, but he doesn’t listen.”

  “Homeowners are supposed to control those beasts.”

  I laughed. “Adam, you were there to kick them out of their houses. I don’t think they care much anymore if their dogs go after your ankles.”

  Jack popped up from the chair and exited his office after hanging up the phone. He jerked his head at me. “Todd tweaked the video and sent it to your computer. Start that puppy up.”

  I opened my laptop and logged in to my email account. A message with an attachment had already arrived from Todd. I clicked on the message and scrolled down to the attachment then opened it. “Ready to try this again?”

  Jack nodded. “Go for it.”

  I opened the video and moved the scrubber bar to the right until it hit a few seconds before 12:47 p.m., the time the mystery man stepped into the frame. I kept one eye on the monitor and the other on Kate’s expression. Jack, Clayton, and Billings stood at my back.

  “The image does look clearer than before, and Todd said it’s the best they can do. Look closely. Does anything on that jacket stand out to you?”

  Clayton went to his desk and grabbed his reading glasses. Billings leaned in then backed up. He shrugged.

  I pointed at the only side view and exposed pocket on the man’s jacket. “Can you guys see a zipper with a red tab on the pocket?” I gave Kate a glance. “Kate, is it there or not?”

  “I can’t say for sure.”

  “Guys?” I looked at all three men.

  Jack shook his head. “I still don’t see it.”

  Clayton, with his readers perched on the bridge of his nose, brought his head in then backed away, several times. “Maybe.”

  “Really?” My optimism was restored. I opened my bottom right desk drawer and pulled out a magnifying glass. I held it a few inches from the screen.

  Kate pointed at the upper pocket area. “It would be right there if the pocket was zipped.”

  I frowned suspiciously at her then moved the magnifying glass a quarter inch higher and closer to the screen. I couldn’t say it was a tab, but I did see a definite color variation at that spot.

  Jack spoke up. “All of you get online and check out the department stores in town. See if anything like this jacket pops up. Check every men’s jacket that is black and has a hood.”

  An hour of online searches produced nothing. I pushed back my chair with frustration and filled my water glass.

  Jack groaned then rolled his neck. “Okay, everyone break for lunch.” He checked his wristwatch. “Be back here at one o’clock. I’m going downstairs to see if Todd is done with the height and weight calculations.”

&nb
sp; I left the bull pen and took the hallway that led to the lunchroom. Kate turned the opposite way. I stopped in my tracks and looked back—she was heading for the exit.

  Where the hell is she going?

  I spun on my heels, ran back to the bull pen, and grabbed my coat and purse. By the time I got outside, I saw her leaving the parking lot in one of our cruisers.

  Where you going, Kate, and what are you up to?

  I crossed the lot, jumped in my car, and peeled out of the driveway. I saw the cruiser pass through the green light. I had to step on it so I wouldn’t be left behind when it turned red. I did the same at the next set of lights and made it through in the nick of time. Kate was five car lengths ahead of me. I clicked my blinker when she turned left onto Seventh Avenue.

  Why are you going downtown?

  I wondered if she had a question for one of the residents at her old building, but why keep that from the rest of us? I fell back and watched from a distance. Kate turned in to the first available parking spot on Main Street. She got out, pulled her collar higher, and rushed into Tap and Tavern. I was torn on what my next move should be. Kate could be doing something as innocent as meeting a friend for lunch. My barging in on her would make me look like a total ass who didn’t trust anything she did. I hesitated then thought of my training and Jade’s words of wisdom—let your gut lead you. I followed Kate to the bar and pulled open the door.

  Standing just inside the entrance, I let my eyes adjust to the darkened space. I looked around and finally saw Kate at the back of the restaurant, where she was having a conversation with Tyler. Several minutes later, they entered the office together. I wasn’t quite sure what to do at that point. What I knew for sure was that Kate was there to review their surveillance feed. It was the only logical reason she’d go into the office.

  I continued to wait until I saw Tyler exit the room and return to the bar. I opened and closed the front door as if I had just entered the building. I waved at Tyler as I approached the bar and took a seat.