phone, and Kathy wondered how stressed she would be
if preparing for her own daughter’s wedding.
She went back to her desk, and wasn’t happy to
discover that her perfect, hot cup of coffee was now
lukewarm and not as inviting as it was before the
delivery boy and the phone got in the way of a welldeserved break. She drank it anyway, welcoming the smooth, sultry liquid as would a baby eager to find her
mother’s breast. She placed her mug on the coaster near
the picture frame containing a photo of herself and Tom
vacationing in Boone, NC, and got ready to go back to
work on the list of adjustments, even if her head was
now pounding. She grabbed a couple of pills from her
desk drawer and downed them with another cup of
coffee before she looked for the notebook with the notes
she had taken earlier.
The list was gone! It was on top of her note pad
before all the commotion took place and now it was
gone. What could possibly have happened to it?!
It didn’t take long to solve the mystery – as Kathy
looked around her desk, the list she had prepared to go
with the packages was still where she had left it. The kid
had taken the wrong list! She burst into spontaneous
laughter the moment she thought of the puzzled face
Wanda at the shop probably made when the boy
presented her with a list of photo adjustments. That
child really needed a haircut; not only was his hair long
enough to cover his pimples, it was also long enough to
cover his eyes and suck away his better judgment. How
did the little shit not see that the list he took had nothing
to do with shipping? On top of it all, he had to literally
rip it off the notepad!
The thought of starting anew was depressing, and
she was tempted to postpone the project until the next
day, but the deadline for those photos was quickly
approaching, and no matter how many other things were
absorbing
her
attention
at
the
moment,
her
professionalism would not let her call off a due date.
By now, the storm was right over the studio.
Powerful flashes of lightning were almost simultaneous
with the thunder explosions that followed them. The sky
was very dark, and Kathy switched on the desk light. As
the lamp reflected directly on the notepad, she saw that
the first page was indented in several places, and her
heart jumped with excitement when she realized that
everything she had written on the page the boy had
taken was reproduced on the page underneath it. All she
had to do was to lightly color that page with a pencil to
bring up the notes she jotted down earlier. Electrified by
this discovery, she opened the drawer of her desk to pull
out a new pencil and started feverishly shading the page
with grey: as an unexpected miracle, the words and
codes she had previously written became visible.
She worked relentlessly for the rest of the day;
touching a nose here and a wrinkle there, until everyone
in the portraits looked perfect.
Suddenly, she heard her stomach growl, and
realized she had never really eaten anything all day, so
she shut off the computer and grabbed her purse before
heading out the door. By the time she got to her car, the
storm had passed and the sky was completely clear.
Yellow droplets of pollen-laden rain were stuck to the
windshield, so she ran the wipers to clear it. The wipers
smeared the droplets and made it completely impossible
to see, but after running for a few seconds, visibility
started improving. A few more strokes and the water and
pollen were gone, leaving behind only the paw prints of
her neighbor’s cat – Peter the cat seemed to have
claimed Kathy’s car as his latest spot of choice for naps.
She was getting ready to enter the freeway when
something clicked in her mind, something so barely
tangible and yet so potentially powerful that it almost
made her lose control of the steering wheel when she
brought one hand instinctively to her mouth. The
indentation and the paw prints…no matter how faint, a
print of what was there is still present, even if not
readily noticed…
Tracey’s eyes…could Tracey’s eyes have recorded a
print of the image that was last imposed on the retina?
Even if the image was gone, maybe it retained a print
somewhere. Her mind shot in a million directions, too
excited to focus solely on a few possibilities. She didn’t
know enough about the human eye to determine the
ratio of probability, but she knew the right person to ask:
Dr. Greer himself. It was time for Kathy to pay a visit to
the good old doctor and ask him some technical
questions. If the print was recorded somewhere, then all
she had to do was to take a few photos of the part of the
eye where the print was left and see if it could be lifted.
She was so excited by the time she got home that
she almost forgot to prepare dinner, but thankfully Tom
called to let her know he was on his way home. She
started a pot of spaghetti and let the pasta cook while
she changed into something a bit more comfortable.
When she went back to stir the spaghetti, she thought of
all the things that happened: The camera falling, the
images of the screaming woman, and now the delivery
boy picking up the wrong list. Her imagination escaped
from the no-nonsense grip of her rational left brain, and
wandered to unexplored territories. Maybe Tracey just
wanted to get her attention to the camera, and making it
fall off the table – not once but twice – was her way to
guide Kathy to a develop a new perception of things.
Tracey was dead, but her spirit was still lingering around
to help Tom and his team bring the person responsible to
justice. Now it was a matter of figuring out what type of
technology she could use, and it was definitely
necessary, at this point, to talk to Dr. Greer. She
promised herself she would call him in the next few
days.
#
On the other side of town, Alexis Howard was
finally alone. She was sure that, with her parents being
gone for a few hours, Lily would stop by to see her.
When her mother suggested looking for a baby-sitter,
Alexis insisted she was a big girl, quite capable of
staying alone for a short while, and she promised to
keep the door locked. In the end, her parents relented,
and they left to make arrangements to fly Tracey’s body
home. She missed Lily, and she missed the privacy of
her own room at home – being in a hotel room was cool
for a couple of days, but the threat of the adjoining door
being flung open at any time was gradually getting on
her nerves. She lay on the bed and closed her eyes,
waiting for Lily. She took a few deep breaths and tried
to relax as m
uch as possible, knowing it was the best
way to call upon her best friend.
Suddenly, she felt a soft breeze passing by, and
goose bumps covered her entire body. Lily always
announced her arrival that way.
“Lily, where are you?” She said opening her eyes
and scanning the room. “I can’t see you.”
“I am right here.” Lily’s voice was small and she
giggled, delighted to play hide-and-go-seek. “Look to
your left.”
Alexis looked but still couldn’t see her. “Lily, please
come out. We don’t have much time to play, since I
don’t know when Mom and Dad will be back. I need to
talk to you.”
“Okay.” Lily was suddenly beside the bed and she
ran her hand on the soft cover. “I like this! It is pretty. It
has flowers all over it, and flowers are my favorite.”
Alexis was smiling too, now. Her relief at seeing her
friend spread over her face like a blanket of lights. She
patted a spot on the bed, inviting Lily to sit down. Lily
smiled and adjusted her dress to sit.
“Aren’t you hot with that dress on? It looks heavy.”
Alexis asked, pointing a finger at her friend’s wool
dress.
“No. I don’t really get bothered by temperature
changes. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”
Alexis sighed before she spoke. “Well…it’s about
my sister Tracey. Is she okay?”
“Of course she is. It took a while for her to believe
she was dead, but she finally caught on. She was upset
because of her baby.”
Alexis arched her left brow and crunched her little
nose. “Baby? Tracey didn’t have a baby.”
“No, but she was going to.”
“Are you sure? How come Mom and Dad didn’t say
anything about it? Tracey wasn’t even married.”
Lily smiled, a light of knowing flashing in her eyes.
“They didn’t know. They still don’t know. But Tracey
was going to have a baby if she lived. You don’t have to
be married to have a baby, silly.”
“You don’t?”
“No. People usually get married first, but you can
have a baby out of wedlock.”
“But so, who is the daddy?”
Lily laughed. There were many things Alexis was
too young to know, but Lily knew that her friend was
intelligent enough to understand if she explained it in
easy words. “Well, when a man and a woman fall in
love, they sometimes love to be together. And they can
have a baby that way.”
Alexis nodded, awed by the wisdom of her young
friend who seemed to know everything.
“But who’s the daddy of Tracey’s baby?”
“He’s a tall man who’s already a daddy to other
children.”
Alexis’s eyes widened and her mouth opened in
surprise. “Really?! Where are the other children?”
“At home with their mommy. They don’t know
about Tracey’s baby.”
“WOW! Wait until I tell Mom and Dad … ”
“You can’t!” Lily’s tone changed from soft to angry.
“If you tell them they will think you’re crazy and they
will give you medications, and I will never be able to
come and see you again.”
Alexis gasped. She couldn’t bear the thought of
losing Lily. She had just lost a sister; she certainly didn’t
want to lose her best friend. “I’m sorry. I won’t say
anything, Lily. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“Okay. But let’s not talk about this any more right
now. As you said, your mom and dad will be back soon,
and we barely have any time left to play. What should
we do?”
“I guess we could play hide-and-go-seek again. This
room is full of places we can use to hide.”
A giggle was back in Lily’s voice. “Okay. You count
and I’ll hide.”
Alexis closed her eyes and counted until ten. When
she opened her eyes again, Lily was gone.
#
Donald Russet dabbed at his perspiring forehead
with a white handkerchief while he waited for files on
his computer to be permanently deleted. He made a
mistake when he decided to open an Excel file on his
work computer to keep track of his expenses. The file
contained too many entries that could be traced back to
the times he and Tracey went out together. He didn’t
think of it at first, of course, but now that a formal
investigation into Tracey’s death was underway, he had
to get rid of any and all evidence tying her to him. Helen
wouldn’t have it, and if she found out he was having an
affair, she would leave with the children, and he
couldn’t imagine living without them.
His mind wandered back to the day when he first
met Tracey. From the moment she entered his office, he
was awestruck: As the light filtering in from the window
shone upon her golden hair, Donald thought he had just
seen an angel. Tracey was kind and beautiful; she was
young and ambitious; and more than anything, Tracey
was passionate. When Tracey spoke of her love for
animals, and her career in the medical field, her cherub
eyes sparkled, and Donald found himself lost in their
blue depths. And Tracey seemed to be responsive to his
advances too, most likely because, after her own father
skipped town when she was younger, she was still
searching for a father figure. Donald was more than
happy being her father, and her friend, and her lover. He
was hurt when he found out she was still occasionally
seeing Brad Johnson, the boyfriend she frequented on
and off before starting her liaison with Don, and he
knew she was stealing medications for him. If he could
have his way, Don would have loved to get rid of Brad
and to set up Tracey in a small apartment of her own,
where he could go and see her at his convenience. But
Tracey wanted more. She wasn’t satisfied with a small
apartment and wanted to live at Donald’s big house.
When he mentioned that his wife and children were
there, she smiled and innocently said: “Well, that’s not
too hard to fix, is it? All we have to do is tell your wife
the truth. When she realizes we are in love, she will be
okay with stepping aside. After all, neither of you have
been happy together for a long time. Right? Right. Don
and Helen didn’t spark wild fires, but they had a
partnership, and Don wasn’t willing to lose everything
he had for Tracey. That’s why he thought of “catching
her” while she stuffed her bag with medications. Maybe
if she left the hospital, and he promised to not notify the
authorities, she would back off. Of course, she agreed;
the last thing Tracey wanted to do was to lose the job
she had fought so hard to have. It wasn’t until the last
night when she came by after Don called her to inform
her of his decision to let her go, that everything flipped
upside down. Tracey stormed into the office, and
accused him of using her for his own pleasure. Her last
words to him were coated in ice, as she looked at him
and told him she was going to see his wife, to share
something interesting with her. He couldn’t let that
happen: He had too much to lose.
A gentle knock on the door of his office startled him
and transported his mind back to the present. Ginger, the
accountant, stood at the door with a smile pasted on her
plump face. “We are ready for the monthly meeting,
Don. Are you coming?”
Don looked at his computer screen, and he smiled
when he saw a notification informing him that the
chosen files were permanently removed from his
computer. “I’m on my way, Ginger. We have a lot to
discuss this month.” He stood up and walked resolutely
toward the small woman waiting for him. He closed the
door to his office and headed down the hallway to the
boardroom.
Chapter 9
Tom walked up to his desk hoping to balance the
files he was carrying while he held on for dear life to the
forbidden cup of coffee he purchased on his way to the
station. He dropped the files and logged into his
computer, then took a sip of coffee while he waited for
the files to start up. He drank half the cup before he saw
Dr. Greer’s report in the inbox he kept on his desk, so he
put down the cup and opened the envelope.
Cause of death, as he already suspected, was a
gunshot wound to the chest. The bullet tore through the
muscles and perforated one of the main arteries, causing
massive internal bleeding and almost instant death.
As he scrolled down the document, Tom’s breath
caught in his lungs. Death of the embryo is estimated as
occurring no longer than an hour after the death of the
mother.
Embryo?! What embryo? Was Tracey pregnant?
Tom grabbed the phone and dialed Dr. Greer. He
was relieved when the receptionist answered and sent
his call through.
“Hello? Dr. Greer here.” Dr Greer’s voice could
hardly be mistaken – he sounded like a baritone with
laryngitis on the best of days.
“Doc, it’s Lackey. I just saw your report – Tracey
was pregnant?”
“I’m afraid so, Lackey. The embryo was only about
fourteen weeks old, so we didn’t know until we
stumbled into it during the autopsy.”
Tom closed his eyes and exhaled. “Dear God…
whoever killed Tracey killed two people…”
Killer in Sight (A Tom Lackey Mystery) Page 11
