found a young woman in Durant Park. No ID.”
Kathy arched her eyebrows and put down her coffee
cup. “Oh, dear! That’s awful, Tom…” She shook her
head lightly, thinking of her own daughter who was
away at college and whose safety she worried about
from time to time. It was normal for parents to be
concerned about their children, young and older alike,
and for a moment her heart ached for the parents of this
yet-unidentified young woman.
Tom blew a kiss her way, and Kathy smiled. Then
he was gone. She took another sip of coffee and tried to
focus on a newspaper article about the latest decisions
of the Wake County school board, but she couldn’t
concentrate. So, she took her plate and cup to the
kitchen sink and went upstairs to shower, and get ready
for work.
#
Traffic at this time of morning was a beast, and Tom
wondered about the possibilities of looking for a
different type of job that would keep him off the roads
so early in the day. He thought about his sister’s
husband, and the business he tried to convince Tom to
join. Todd drove a tow truck, and in the last few months
his business had taken off, leaving him short-handed and
slightly grouchy from lack of personal time. The money
was good, but Todd was rarely ever home, and Tom
knew he couldn’t do that to Kathy. Although he was
fairly sure Kathy would support any decision he made,
the long hours away from home would definitely affect
their relationship, and Tom didn’t want to take any
chances on losing her. Besides, traffic was what he was
hoping to get away from, so driving a tow truck at all
hours of the day and night wasn’t the answer to his
problems. And of course, there was another thing to take
into account: Even if he loved complaining about the
randomness of his working hours—and the bullshit he
and the other detectives had to sometimes put up with—
Tom loved his job. He loved being the good guy, he
loved getting the bad guys, and more than anything, he
loved a happy ending, though in his profession it wasn’t
always guaranteed.
When he pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the
entrance near the wooded area of the park, he noticed a
small group of people talking. One man was pointing his
finger toward the pathway leading into the forest; his
face appeared flushed. Tom got out of his car and began
to walk toward the group when a uniformed officer on
the other side of the yellow tape called him. Tom headed
in that direction, still studying the first man from the
corner of his eye.
“Lieutenant Lackey, right through here.” The
uniform pointed toward a small trail veering off from
the main path, which was almost hidden by
decomposing leaves.
Tom nodded, and followed the officer after taking
one last look at the group of people standing beyond the
tape, whose heads were now turned in their direction.
“One of the men standing there seemed sort of
excited. Has he seen anything?” He asked the officer, a
young fellow whose slowly fading acne betrayed his
tender age.
“No, Sir. We have kept everyone away. The two
joggers used his phone to call 911. They had left theirs
at home because they were afraid of dropping them
while running.”
“Oh, okay. As soon as you show me where to go, go
back and tell him that he can’t disclose any information
he might have heard.”
“Yes, Sir. This way.”
As they approached the area where the young
woman had been found, Tom saw several uniforms
standing around. Sergeant Gene Parker was already on
the scene.
“About time you got here, Lackey!” The sergeant
was being his usual non-charming self. “What kept
you?”
Tom let it slide. “I got here as soon as I could. My
car is fast, but it still can’t fly over other cars. Traffic is
terrible!”
Parker snorted derisively, and Tom ignored him.
The temperature was already high, even this early in the
day and, given that it was only the end of April, Tom
expected the upcoming summer to be one for the
records. A light breeze barely stirred the leaves on the
trees around them, and a faint scent of unidentified
flowers mixed subtly with the smell of decaying wood
in the distance. Under normal circumstances, Tom loved
to inhale deeply and enjoy the almost tactile earthiness
of the woods, but today the air smelled different: Death
had come to mar the beauty of nature, and it had
interrupted the flow of things. Today, the air in the
woods was repulsive.
He and Parker walked together toward the body.
Tom took one look and his heart dropped. The young
woman was crumpled on the ground like a discarded
doll, her silky blond hair spread like a fan around her
head. She appeared to be about five feet, five inches tall,
weighing around 120 pounds. A large blood stain
radiated from a single wound on her chest near the
heart. Her mouth was opened in a silent scream, and her
blue eyes were fixed on the horrors they had witnessed
before they could no longer focus on anything ever
again. What had those eyes seen? Who had done this to
her?
From the moment he first glimpsed the body, Tom
knew who the young woman was. For the last five days,
he had stared at her picture on his desk, after her family
had reported her missing. Tracey Newman was a
physician assistant at Wake Memorial, and her best
friend, Shannon Brinkley, had called Tracey’s mother
after her roommate didn’t show up for her shift at the
hospital. The family called the police and filed a missing
person report, but Tracey appeared to have vanished into
thin air…until now.
Tom kneeled beside the body, careful not to disturb
any evidence, and looked at Tracey’s beautiful face.
What could possibly motivate someone to take away
such a young and promising life? A single gunshot to the
heart suggested a premeditated killing, rather than a
crime of passion. The body didn’t appear to be injured
in any other way, aside from a few marks on the ankles
that were probably caused by the brushy, thorny ground
cover characteristic of the area.
Tom stood up and walked toward the coroner, who
was talking to a young lady busily taking notes. Dr.
Greer looked up and nodded to Tom. He said something
to the young girl; she went off still looking at her
notepad. Greer was a sight to behold—at nearly 65 years
of age he refused to retire—and he talked about his
work the same way a besotted lover would discuss the
virtues of his beloved. He was a short, round man, with
a fluffy mane of snow-white hair, a bushy white
mustache and eyebrows. The hair
on his head and face
always reminded Tom of the cotton fields he passed
when he drove over to Smithfield to visit his mother.
With a reddish complexion and benevolent blue eyes,
the doctor looked like a miniature Santa Claus, minus
the beard.
“Hey, Lackey…a clean job, this one.”
Tom nodded. “Yes, I saw that. How long has she
been dead, Doc?”
“Hard to say exactly, but I would say at least a few
days. Strange how nobody has found the body before.
Lots of people go through these woods.”
“They usually stick to the beaten path. It’s pretty
thick in here. I think I know who she is. We will have to
compare dental records and bring in the family for
identification, but I am pretty sure she is the young
woman who was reported missing last week. Her family
lives in Missouri. She was a physician assistant at one of
the local hospitals.”
Greer shook his head. “These young women never
want to believe how dangerous it is to jog alone in these
woods, until tragedies like this happen.”
Tom looked at the doctor with a surprised look on
his face. “You think she was attacked by a maniac while
she jogged? Don’t you think the gunshot wound is
inconsistent with that? She is fully dressed, so sexual
assault doesn’t seem to apply. No marks other than what
she might have inflicted on herself while trying to run.”
“Lackey!” Parker’s voice thundered from the left.
“One of the uniforms just found a print from a man’s
shoe inside a cabin on the grounds. The print looks
smeared, as if he slipped.”
“I’m coming,” Lackey turned back toward the
coroner and said, “I will call you as soon as I get back to
my desk, Doc.”
Tom rushed to meet Parker, who was already
walking toward the cabin. Parker was making irritated
noises, but this time it sounded more like the huffing
and puffing was due to the uphill trail than to his
grumpy attitude.
“It would be real good if we could nail him with the
shoe print. Hopefully it won’t be too smeared.”
Tom nodded and walked on.
#
Kathy Spencer sometimes wished she had more
than two hands: Today was one of those times. She tried
her best to balance her handbag, camera, a tote bag and
a large cup of skim latte in one hand while attempting to
turn the key to open the door of her studio. Most of the
items made it in; the cup of coffee, however, was not so
lucky. As the cup fell from her hand, splattering its hot
contents on the hardwood floor, Kathy knew this was
not going to be a good day. The morning had already
taken a turn for the worse when Tom received the call
about the young woman who was found at Durant Park,
and this latest incident only compounded Kathy’s
encroaching feeling of gloom. She wasn’t sure why
hearing about this young girl affected her so much—
living with a police detective for the greater part of the
last ten years had thickened her skin, and she didn’t
usually get involved with his work. But this case was
different, and Kathy couldn’t figure out what was
different about it. She still didn’t know what the young
girl looked like or what her story was, but she felt close
to both the girl and her family. The fact that Kathy’s
own daughter was probably nearly the same age as the
young woman may have explained why her death had
hit so close to home. She carried her armful of
possessions to the desk, then went to the utility closet to
retrieve a mop and clean up the coffee spill. After
rinsing and putting away the mop, she sat at her desk
and uploaded the photos from yesterday’s shoot to her
computer. In a few moments, the image of a smiling
young woman appeared on the screen. She was stunning
and youthful, and in the photo she smiled adoringly at
her fiancé; the young man appeared just as happy and
excited about their future together. Did Tom’s young girl
have a boyfriend? Was she happy? Here it was
happening again…she couldn’t get the dead girl off her
mind. But why?
Kathy was very open to signs. Since early childhood
she had experienced strange occurrences from time to
time; her curiosity had led her to explore the possibility
of alternate realities and the validity of little-known
systems of belief. Given her passion for photography
and anything related to cameras, it was no surprise to
her that she had instantly fallen in love with the concept
of iridology when it was presented during a discussion
with a naturopathic physician. Of course, the main
purpose of iridology was to detect illnesses in the body
through a study of the iris, but Kathy was convinced—
contrary to the tenets of current science—that the eye
bore similarities to a camera. One of her secret dreams
was to create a device that could be used to download
images recorded by the eye. She conceived of digital
cameras working along the same lines—images needed
to be transferred to a computer, but even before being
sent, they were recorded and preserved into a temporary
memory slot in the machine; without an additional
memory card, only few images could be saved in the
camera at one time, but some could certainly be
retrieved. Could the same process happen within the
human eye? Might there be a way to view the last image
captured by the eye in the moments before death? If the
eye was indeed similar to a digital camera, Kathy
reasoned, even if the main computer shut down before
the images were sent to it, it should be able to retain at
least a few impressions. Tom’s young woman saw her
killer…
Kathy’s mind snapped back to the present, and she
tried once again to focus on the photos of the girl
smiling at her from the screen, but her mind was
elsewhere. She picked up the phone and dialed her
daughter’s number, tapping her finger on the desk as she
nervously waited for Caroline to answer. When she did,
Kathy sighed in relief.
“Caroline, it’s Mom. How are you, Honey?”
“Mom? Is everything okay?”
“Of course, Sweetie!” Her excited tone betrayed her
anxiety, “Everything is great. I just wanted to say hi.”
“Oh, okay. It’s just that you never call so early in
the day. I thought something happened.”
Kathy paused long enough for Caroline to wonder.
“Mom, are you sure everything is okay?”
Again, Kathy hesitated for a moment. Her daughter
hated to be treated like a baby; at nineteen, she felt
grown up and all-knowing, and certainly able to take
care of herself. “Everything is fine, Caroline. It’s just
that the body of a young woman was found today, not
too far from here, and I was thinking of how devastating
that will
be for her family. I also thought of how lucky I
am to have you.”
“Oh Mom, you old sweet thing…you know I am the
lucky one, to have you in my life.” Caroline’s voice was
smiling; Kathy could tell. Although she didn’t like to be
babied, she did like to be the center of Kathy’s world,
and Kathy was instantly proud of herself for the way she
had handled this—conveying her affection without
sounding too smothering.
“Is Tom assigned to the case, Mom?”
“Yes, I think so. He got the call early this morning
while we were eating breakfast. For some reason I can’t
get this young girl off my mind. How awful for her, and
for her whole family!”
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I promise you that you will
have to put up with me for many years to come…at least
until the day I have to push you around in a
wheelchair!”
Caroline’s words were a balm to Kathy’s heart. “I
know that, Sweetheart. I’m just being a mom.”
“Well, I have to get ready for school; I have a class
in 45 minutes. Can I call you tonight?”
“Of course. I’ll probably be home after six.”
“Okay, Mom, I will talk to you around dinner time,
then.”
“Caroline? I love you. I really do.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
A click marked the end of the conversation, and
Kathy sat there for a moment, with the phone still close
to her ear. At least she had told Caroline she loved her—
had the other young woman’s mother had a chance to do
the same?
She tried to call Tom’s desk and then his mobile
phone, but she got voice mail both times, so she got up
from the desk and turned off the computer. She had
plenty of work to do, but she just couldn’t focus. She
decided to take the rest of the day off and go home.
Maybe she would stop by Starbucks to replace the
coffee that got spilled earlier. Right now, for reasons still
not known to her, Kathy needed something that would
bring her comfort.
#
Tom stopped by the coffee machine before going to
his desk. He was happy the department had installed one
of the new machines that brew coffee from pods. He
took a moment to decide whether he felt like Hazelnut
or French Vanilla, but ended up choosing a non-flavored
dark roast instead. Kathy had tried, over the years, to
Killer in Sight (A Tom Lackey Mystery) Page 2
