by W L Knightly
“What? Where is he?” He couldn’t let Tad do it. No matter how horrible Tad thought things were, if he didn’t commit the murders, he deserved a chance at a better life. Not only that, but offing himself would make him look guilty.
“He’s in your hotel. Room 1208. His car is out on the side lot, not the garage, so you should see it when you get there.”
Darek didn’t want to tell him that he was already on his way. “Did you try to talk him out of it or tell him there was a better way?”
“He was talking all sorts of crazy shit about turning us in and spilling everything. So, no. I didn’t.” Bay laughed like he couldn’t believe that Darek had suggested such a thing. “Do you want to lose what little you have? This is the best way, and you know it. So, before you get too high and mighty, consider that. With him doing himself in, he’ll look guilty, and your fellow men in blue will be satisfied they have the right person.”
“Until the next murder. Then Tad will have done it for nothing. Can’t you see that this is what they wanted? I couldn’t ever let anyone do that and just be okay with it. Are you even human?”
Bay was a special kind of fucked up, and Darek knew it, but this was a different kind of low. He was supposed to actually care about his guys, wasn’t he? He knew that wasn’t true, though. Bay had always had his own agenda.
“You’d be surprised what you can do when your life is on the line; if you’re a survivor. And some of us have to survive. The weaker ones, they’ll fall away, but the strong, we’ll survive and live to figure out who this bastard is.”
“I don’t believe your balls, man. Is he armed?”
“I’m not sure, but I have a feeling he’ll get creative. I just thought you’d want to know where you can find him. He’s probably done it by now.” The line went dead, and Darek pushed the gas.
He approached the hotel, and sure enough, there was Tad’s car on the side lot. He drove past it, slowly looking to see if Tad was in his car, just in case he was about to get away. He wasn’t.
Darek went into the garage and parked in the first spot he found.
He went into the building and got into the elevator as fast as he could, where he frantically pushed the buttons. He had to get there in time. He didn’t even think about the consequences of telling Lizzy how he found him. He would simply say he had come back to his place and figured it out from there.
Run! Faster! He found himself once again running through the woods with the girl in his arms, knowing he had to hurry. Her life and his life depended on it. He wouldn’t have another person die on him.
He got to the twelfth floor and was relieved that there weren’t people out in the hallway. No one had heard any commotion coming from the room. He knocked on the door, and when there was nothing but silence on the other side, he tried the lock and found it open. He pushed the door open and was terrified of what he might see. He imagined Tad’s blood and brains turning the walls into a Jackson Pollock painting.
Instead, he found Tad on the floor, sitting in a daze with a gun in his hand. He was a shell of himself, rocking and trembling as he stared at the floor.
Darek drew his own piece. “Put the gun down, Tad.”
Tad looked up and met his eyes. He held the gun down to his side. “I couldn’t do it. They’re going to kill my sister, Darek. They killed my uncle, and now they’ll kill her, too. If anything happens to her, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
Darek wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. He could have been the killer. Maybe he had snapped and didn’t remember doing it, or maybe he just thought he could buy some time. “Show me. Prove to me that someone’s threatening you.”
Tad lifted his hand and pointed across the room. “In my wallet. There are some cards, and there are messages here on my phone.” He held it up and then dropped his hand to his side like the other. He looked like he didn’t have the energy to even hold himself up. “I didn’t do this, Darek. Someone knows. Someone is coming for us for what we’ve done.”
“Who would know? I’ve never told a soul.” Darek wondered if Tad had any theories on it.
“Bay says he hasn’t told our secrets, but someone knows everything just the same. They knew enough about me to find my uncle and kill him. They knew what he did to me.” Darek knew that anyone who had an inkling could do enough investigating and find everything they needed to know about them all. “If that’s true, Darek. It’s one of us.”
“We’ll find out who it is.”
Tad shook his head. “Not me. I’ve been thinking. I don’t want to know. Bay said things. Told me how he felt, and it was too much. I can’t take facing this person, too. Knowing what they think of me and that they’d go through all of this just to hurt me. It’s enough to know they hate me.”
“Let’s figure something out.” Darek walked in and kept his gun raised, pointed at Tad. He didn’t want to shoot him, but he would if he made a wrong move.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Darek. I’ll be fine. Bay says offing myself will make me a martyr, and I can’t help but think he’s right. I mean, my life has to be for something. Maybe this is it.”
Darek couldn’t believe what he was about to suggest. “There are other ways of helping us. You could say that this was all about the crap your uncle did to you. If you confess, the department would be happy that they found their man. You’d have a life, and time to figure out what to do with it.”
Even though Tad’s face was filled with pain, he smiled. “You don’t get it, do you? But how could you? You don’t have to live with what happened, do you?”
“I live with enough.”
“You really do blank out, don’t you? It’s not all bullshit.” He got to his feet and met Darek’s eyes. “You shouldn’t have trusted Bay with your divorce, you know? It was only a way for him to get at you. You’re the only one he can’t control, and it eats at him. Don’t think that because he helps you, that you can trust him. I learned that the hard way today.”
Darek knew better. He might trust Bay to help him out of a jam with his divorce, but it didn’t make him any more in debt to him. He was simply getting paid to do a job. “I never let the guy get to me.”
“Are you sure about that?” Tad turned looked out the windows.
“Yeah. He only has as much power as we give him, Tad. Now, don’t give him any power. Let’s go down, get a cup of coffee, and work this out. I’m sure your sister is going to want to see you.”
“Not like this. Not drunk and coked out of my head. She’s ashamed of me.” Darek had known the guy was on something, but he hadn’t thought to ask. The bottles around him were enough of a clue.
“Are you my friend, Darek?”
“Of course, I am. I mean, sure, we’ve gone our separate ways, but we went through something pretty serious in our lives. We both bear the mark, Tad.” He realized he hadn’t really been a friend to any of them.
“I wish you’d have saved her, Darek. That you could have gotten her help. I know that’s why Bay hates you. You betrayed him.”
Darek remembered the look on Bay’s face when he showed back up at the millhouse after leaving Emily in the woods. “He would say I betrayed you all.”
Tad shook his head, fresh tears streaming down his face. “Yeah, he would for sure. But promise me one thing; don’t trust him, Darek.” Tad moved toward the balcony, and there was a certain gleam in his eyes, an apologetic look, that scared Darek to death. “He admitted to me that we were all tools, you know? Tools to see just what he could accomplish, what he could orchestrate and control.” He turned to look at Darek, the wind from the balcony blowing through his hair as the wind whipped past him.
“He doesn’t matter, Tad.” Darek stood still, waiting to see what he’d do. He waited any moment for him to raise the gun, to put it to his head, and pull the trigger. “Give me the gun.” He knew things were getting down to the wire, and he needed to get control of the situation quickly.
Tad slowly lowered the gun to the floor and ki
cked it in Darek’s direction. “Here’s the proof. Read the messages. Maybe you can trace the number or something.” He tossed the phone to Darek, and he guy caught it, breathing a sigh of relief.
“If something happens to me, you’ll look after Hannah, won’t you? I asked Bay, but I don’t trust him.”
“I know it’s scary, but it will work out.” He didn’t know how, but he was going to help the guy get some help. He knew he’d need a lot, considering all he’d been through, not only with the whole uncle ordeal but with the head fuck that Bay had given him. “You’re doing the right thing, friend.”
Tad gave him a weary smile. “I know I am. And Darek, about what Bay said before. Don’t buy into it. You were awake the whole time.” With that Tad turned around and took a running leap off the balcony.
Darek screamed and raced across the room in time to see him hit his Mustang, parked below.
25
Darek
Darek hurried down the stairs, knowing he needed to get on the scene. He wasn’t going to tell a soul he’d been in the room with Tad, and he ditched the gun and the phone in his own room before heading down.
He called Lizzy and Max, who were already on their way down because someone had called. During processing, he couldn’t bear to look too closely, but Tad had smashed the hood of his car in, and he saw enough to know that certain limbs were facing the wrong direction. Even his head was smashed, and his neck was turned at an awful angle. Darek had seen jumpers before, but it was a different thing altogether when the jumper was someone he’d known since he was a kid.
It made the entire day surreal, especially when he and Lizzy got back to the office.
“I can’t believe that this guy was hiding in your building,” she said. “How crazy is that?”
“Yeah, if I had only seen that car sitting out front sooner, I could have called it in. Maybe I could have saved his life.”
“How could you know? I mean, what are the chances?” Lizzy gave him a pat on the back.
“All I know is, I’m finding a new place as soon as possible.” Darek didn’t think he could go into the hotel ever again without thinking of the look on Tad’s face just before he jumped. Darek really thought he was going to give himself up and take the fall until things could be sorted out.
Darek knew he needed to ditch the phone somewhere else in the hotel, and after he got the number from the call log, he was going to leave it somewhere it could be found without linking back to him. He’d also taken the cards out of Tad’s wallet, but left the rest of his things to be found in the room.
The office phone rang, giving Darek a start, and Max walked over and picked it up. “Dr. Cobb is ready for you.”
“Tell him we’re on our way.” Lizzy got to her feet like her ass was on fire, and Darek headed out behind her.
“I can’t wait to see what he finds. I know this asshole is our killer, but there had to be a cell phone somewhere. I’m guessing it was lost in the body somewhere when he made impact.”
“That’s horrible,” Darek said. “I know he was messed up, but do you think it’s possible?”
“Oh, sure. I’ve seen people in car accidents with beer bottles embedded in their abdomens because they were holding the bottle between their legs on impact.”
“Well, I’m sure it will turn up regardless.”
“I hope. It’s a very important link. He had to have called all of the other victims or something.”
They got in Lizzy’s car and headed down to the ME office where Dr. Cobb had finished the initial autopsy. As they arrived, Darek braced himself for what he was about to see.
“I can’t believe the guy killed himself,” Lizzy said. “I really hoped we’d find a live killer, someone to take to trial.”
“Yeah, but maybe it’s better this way. He can’t get away, and he will never kill again.”
“I know you’re right,” she said. “I just think death is too easy for people like this.”
Tad’s death had been anything but easy. The man had suffered enough. “His sister deserves better,” Darek said.
“True. It’s always the family who suffers at times like these. We’ll need to go and see her, you know? When we get out of here. I’m sure she’ll want answers.”
“I know.” He didn’t know how he was going to face her. He hadn’t ever met her before, so she wouldn’t recognize him like she would Bay. But he carried new guilt knowing he’d been the last person to see Tad and he’d asked Darek to take care of her.
They walked into the office, and Dr. Cobb’s assistant, Kari, welcomed them. “Dr. Cobb is on the phone at the moment, but he’ll be with you shortly. The body is on the far table; you might want to glove and mask up.”
“We’ll do that, thank you,” Darek said.
The woman went to the nearest table and handed them each a pair of gloves and a mask. Even though Darek knew the smell wouldn’t be anything like that of Tad’s Uncle Roddy, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
They walked over and stood near the table. Dr. Cobb finished his call and joined them.
“I have good news. It seems you’ve got your man.”
“You mean there’s definitive proof?” Darek asked.
“You tell me.” Cobb pulled back the sheet he had covering Tad’s broken body and revealed the mark that used to be on his shoulder. Tad’s skin had gotten bruised, and most of what was inside it took a different direction and shattered, but the mark was virtually unscathed, aside from being a dark purple color.
“Capricorn,” Lizzy said. “He’s our man. That’s the same mark we found on Victor’s forehead.”
Cobb nodded. “Yes, an exact match at that. I took measurements. The same branding iron was used to brand him, but this mark was done some years ago.”
“Years?” Lizzy asked. “How many?”
“It’s hard to tell, but I’d say ten to fifteen, just by the puckering. Common scars can fade, but brands like this, they pucker as the skin changes around it.” Darek was going to have to do something to his mark. He needed it removed, but wasn’t sure how.
“He would have been a kid,” Darek said. “Maybe those sick fucks did it as some kind of ownership marking. Like the collar we saw. That would explain wanting to use it as a calling card.”
“I’m not convinced,” Lizzy said. “There are still some unanswered questions, and I’m going to get to the bottom of them.”
Darek was sure she would, too, and he had to be there to divert her attention away from the Zodiacs.
“I’m sure the more we find out about him, the more it will fall into place,” Cobb said. “I didn’t find that phone you asked about. Maybe it’s somewhere in the room or the hotel. I also got the preliminary toxicology back. He had cocaine and booze in his system. I’m not sure he felt any pain when he landed, but it might be a comfort to his sister to tell her he didn’t.”
“Right, thanks, Doc.” Lizzy patted the man on the back. “Great job.”
While she was still patting him on the back, Darek’s phone rang, and he stepped aside, seeing it was Max. “What is it, man?”
“Um, before we go celebrating a job well done, Tad Halston’s sister is here, and she wants to speak to the agent in charge.”
“I’ll tell Lizzy. We’ll be there in about five.” He hung up and turned to see Lizzy was still congratulating the good doctor on his efforts.
“Who was that?” She turned and gave Darek the side eye.
“Dr. Cobb, thanks again. We’ll be in touch.” Darek shook the man’s hand and then turned to Lizzy. “We’ve got his sister waiting back at the station. From the tone of Max’s voice, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“This case is in the bag, though. How could it not be?”
Darek had hoped that the truth would take some time, and he’d have a chance to steer the attention away from him and the others, but he had a feeling that there was going to be so much coming to light.
They took the short trip back to the office where
Max led them into the room to observe Hannah through the two-way glass. “Look, she’s going to paint him as a good guy, and she has an alibi for him that we need to check out.”
Darek hoped he hadn’t told his sister anything important.
Lizzy crossed her arms. “Well, let’s just see what she has to say then.”
Darek held his breath as they walked into the room and took a seat across from Tad’s sister. She was beautiful like her brother, and her eyes were hard and determined and full of tears that flooded her cheeks.
“We’re glad to see you, Ms. Halston,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s under this circumstance, but you should know that we’ve got some news to share from the medical examiner.”
“I want this investigated. His death, I mean.”
Lizzy pulled up a chair, and Darek followed. “Tell me what you think is so important to investigate.”
“His suicide. I know there had to be something horrible going on. Tad said he was being harassed. That neither of us was safe. If that’s true, I’m going to need a bit of protection myself.”
“What are you afraid of?” Darek asked.
“Not what, but who. I don’t know what kind of drug mess he got himself into, but he had just overdosed the other day. He was in the hospital for some time.”
Darek cleared his throat. “Your brother had cocaine in his system when he died, and his alcohol levels were well above the limits. He most likely wasn’t in his right mind, and he probably didn’t feel any pain.” He waited as Hannah wailed loudly, choking on her cries. “I’m terribly sorry, about all of this.”
Lizzy glared at Darek. She didn’t want to get too caught up in sympathy. “Ms. Halston, we suspect that your brother was abused by older men for some time during his youth, and perhaps more recently. We suspect he’s tied to three separate murders. The first victim was a woman who knew Victor Barnes and worked with your brother. I can only assume at this time that he was somehow jealous or angry at the woman. When we questioned him before, he claimed not to have known her.
