his plan. After all, he thought as he got in his car, third
time’s always the charm.
#
Kathy held her breath while she waited for the
images from the EyePix Handheld to be uploaded on her
computer. Her heart was pounding in anticipation and
her mouth was dry. Nothing she could do about her
heart, but she knew a good cup of coffee could take care
of the rest. The photos finished uploading just as she got
ready to stand up from her chair. A burst of color
exploded across the screen, as the photos opened, one
beside the other. Kathy could hardly believe the clarity,
especially since Tracey’s eyes appeared very cloudy to
the naked eye when she took the shots. Although a
milky film was visible over the surface of both eyes, she
could distinctly make out the colors at the outer edge of
the iris; unfortunately, the pupil was so dilated that the
predominant color Kathy could detect was faded black;
it was as if the void of death had expanded until it was
able to squeeze the light Kathy was sure had sparkled
from Tracey’s eyes when she was alive. She stared at the
two pools of blackness rimmed by a thin circle of
marine blue and tried to focus on their depths. She
noticed a color inconsistency in the center of both
pupils, but made a conscious effort to not get too
excited. She moved her magnifying glass over the pupils
and clicked to enlarge the portion that appeared lighter
than the rest – the first disturbance looked like a slingshot with a curved stem. The image in the other eye was even more abstract, and it appeared as a small, irregular
circle. Kathy stared at both images until her eyes started
burning, then she averted her gaze to the window hoping
to see something that would distract her. She didn’t see
anything interesting, but she stood up, stretched and
walked toward the window anyway. She unlatched the
lock and pulled the lower pane until she felt a warm
wave of air hitting her chest. It was hot outside but she
took a deep breath and held it in – the warm moist air
filled her lungs and made her feel alive. She looked at
the large poplar tree a few feet away from her window
and noticed leaves moving -- a small bird emerged from
the leaves and flew to a nearby branch. Kathy wondered
if the bird had a nest hidden in the tree and said a small
prayer of protection for the baby birds waiting for their
mother to come back, if indeed any were tucked in the
thick foliage. Her mind wandered to how she would feel
if she had to leave her children unattended and
vulnerable to all sorts of threats, even for a short while.
Did the mother bird worry about her babies while she
was out looking for food? Kathy was not an expert
ornithologist, but she was fairly sure she had read
somewhere that birds raise their offspring as a couple,
and when one parent is out the other one is always
nearby. The thought of a daddy bird watching over his
babies made her smile. Sometimes she wished humans
were more like animals – if something that weighed less
than two ounces could understand the importance of
having two parents, how could we be so nonchalant
about raising our children? Many American children are
lucky to have one parent…
That random comparison offset the pleasant feeling
she had felt washing over her just a few moments
before, and she suddenly felt sad. She thought of her
daughter, and of the bond they shared, and felt a strong
urge to call her just to hear her voice.
She looked at the clock on the wall and calculated
that Caroline was probably still in class, so she made a
mental note to call her later, before leaving the studio
for lunch. She returned to her desk and looked at the
magnified shots of Tracey’s eyes. She sent all of them to
the printer and poured a cup of coffee while she waited
for them to print. When the first one came out she
looked at it to see if she could notice anything different
than what she had detected on the monitor, but she
strange image still looked like a slingshot – an even
bigger slingshot now, since she had printed each of the
shots on a full page. The remaining shots from the left
eye showed more of the same, while all the ones from
the right eye showed the strange circle she had seen
before. She shook her head and laid them side by side
on her desk before she took a sip of her coffee to help
her swallow the disappointment she felt. She wasn’t sure
what to expect when she took the photos, but she had
been positive that something was going to show up.
Now she had no idea what that something should be,
and she was fairly certain that a slingshot was not the
last image Tracey had seen before leaving this world.
And what about the dot? What could that possibly be?!
She suddenly felt as if she had wasted her time, and
maybe Tom was right – along with time, she had
probably also lost her mind. No matter how long she
stared at those pictures, all she could see were a slingshot and a circle. So much for her forensic photographic skills! She cringed at the thought of Tom and Dr. Greer
laughing at her. She had secretly hoped to blow their
minds with her findings, but as it turned out, the only
mind that had cracked was her own. Her self-doubt was
working overtime right now, and she felt as if she had
let everybody down – herself, Tom, the snowy-haired
doctor, Alexis, and most of all, Tracey. There was no
image of the killer that was miraculously captured and
retained by Tracey’s eyes, and that meant two things:
She was going to look like a fool, and Tracey’s murderer
would remain at large, at least for the time being.
She clicked off the file on her computer and pinched
the bridge of her nose as she waited for the programs to
close. Her mobile phone rang the moment the screen
went dark.
“Hello”
“Kathy. It’s Tom.”
“Oh, hey Tom..”
“You sound about as excited as I am right now.
What’s happening?”
“Not much.” She didn’t want to disclose her
disappointment yet; not even to him. “Just working on a
boring project. Nothing special.”
“I thought you were going to upload those photos
you took yesterday.”
“I will do that sometime today. I was busy this
morning. What is going on with you? Why do you
sound so bummed out?”
“We have a warrant for the arrest of Jack Little, but
when we got to his place he was gone, and today
someone tried to kill Shannon Brinkley at the hospital. I
don’t think I will be home for dinner.”
“Oh God…do you think it is the same man?”
“It sure sounds like him – short and dark-haired.
The nurse couldn’t see much more since he bolted from
the room the moment she got in, and she couldn’t see
>
his face because he was wearing a surgical mask.”
“Wow…”
“Wow is right. We had a chance to get him the first
day we went to see him and we let him go. I won’t hear
the end of this.”
“You couldn’t have known, Tom.”
“You’re right, but that lack of intuition screwed us
up.”
“I’m sorry, Tom.”
“Yeah, me too. Well, look, I have to go. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Kathy hung up the phone and tried to dial Caroline’s
number but got her voice mail, so she left her a message
and gathered her things before going to lunch. She
inserted all the printed photos inside a folder which she
labeled ‘Tracey’ and placed it on her desk near the
pencil holder. She grabbed her purse and went out the
door, looking forward to getting outside in the fresh air.
When she stepped outside the building she looked up at
the branch of the poplar tree to see if she could see a
nest, and just as she did, the small bird she saw earlier
flew in and landed on the outer edge of it. As expected,
a different bird took off from the branch and she just
knew it was the father. The babies were safe, warm and
cozy near their mother while daddy went to fetch a
snack for himself. Kathy turned away from the tree and
walked toward her car. In that moment, she wished that
all human children could be just as lucky.
#
It was almost eleven o’ clock when Tom finally got
home. His feet were hurting, and his tie by now felt
more like a noose than an accessory; it was on nights
like this one that the job as a tow truck driver his sister
insisted he should take didn’t sound all that bad after all.
He peeked into the living room on his way to the
bedroom and saw Kathy stretched out on the couch
reading a novel.
“Hey Beautiful!”
Kathy lowered the book on her lap and took off her
reading glasses. “Hi! I’m not even going to ask how
your day went.”
“Good idea. My day couldn’t have been crappier.”
Kathy got up from the couch and followed him as
he walked into the bedroom. “That bad, huh? From what
you said on the phone it did sound pretty horrific.”
“Yeah…if one of the nurses hadn’t walked in,
Shannon Brinkley would be dead right now. Whoever
the perpetrator was, he tried to shoot some unidentified
substance in Shannon’s IV line. We are waiting for the
lab results, but I doubt that this guy had vitamins in that
syringe.”
“Do you think he is the same guy who was stalking
Tracey?”
“I’m not sure. From information we found at his
place, we assumed the guy is in Missouri, but who the
hell knows? He could be at the North Pole baking
poisoned cookies for the elves, and we wouldn’t know it
unless one of them turns up dead.”
“Would we actually find that out?” Kathy tried to
joke to lighten up the vibe, but one quick look at Tom’s
face told her that he was in no mood for playing around.
“Would we find what out?”
“If one of the elves was dead. Never mind, it was
just my attempt to bring a smile to your face. I failed
miserably.”
“It’s not you, Kathy. I’m just tired and a little
frustrated. I feel like I am running in circles around this
case, with no real breakthrough. Some new random fact
pops up every day, and I get excited, only to get
disappointed when nothing pans out.”
Kathy could understand that feeling today more
than ever. “I hear you. I was so hopeful about being able
to lift images from Tracey’s eyes that I didn’t realize it
was a reality only in my imagination.”
Tom could detect Kathy’s disappointment in her
voice. “You couldn’t get any images?”
Kathy shrugged. “Well, I got some images, but they
are nothing like I expected. To tell you the truth, I am
not sure what it is that I expected, but I certainly didn’t
bank on a slingshot and a dot.”
“Is that what you found?”
“Yes, and I’m pretty sure Tracey didn’t confront a
kid who was playing with a slingshot in the woods, so
I’m afraid my theory is for the birds.”
“I’m sorry Kathy. It did sound like a far shot,
though I have to admit it was an intriguing possibility.
Even Dr. Greer rooted for you.”
Kathy smiled. “He is a nice old fellow. His hair is so
white it’s almost blinding. He makes me think of Santa
Claus – I find myself waiting for a gift when I’m talking
to him.”
“Dr. Greer is a good guy. He refuses to retire, but
we are all kind of happy about that.”
“I can see why.”
The ring of Tom’s mobile phone interrupted the
conversation, and Tom rushed to the table near the door
where he had left it when he got home. “I’m sorry. I’m
just going to see who it is.”
“Of course…”
Kathy heard a muffled sound in the hallway and a
word Tom’s mother would have rewarded with a double
dose of soap in the mouth, had she heard it – Tom had
stubbed his toe in the door frame as he turned too fast on
his way to the table. He almost growled into the phone.
“Lackey!”
“Lackey, it’s Parker.”
“Yeah…”
“Look, man, I know it’s late, but I figured you
would want to know this. I was getting ready to leave
when an e-mail from the lab came in. The blood type
found on the shirt in Brad Johnson’s trunk matches
Tracey’s. It’s too early for DNA results, but at least we
know something.”
“What?! Are they sure?”
“Yeah, pretty sure…”
“Damn! He was being arraigned today on the drug
charges, right? I was going to check on that but I got
sidetracked with everything else that happened.”
“The judge denied bond. It’s kind of unusual in a
case like that, but I guess we were lucky. He is still at
the county jail.”
“Good! Do you think he is asleep right now?”
“I’m not sure, but it might be a bit late to pay a visit
tonight. Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll go
tomorrow?”
Tom could feel the weight of his eyelids, and after
having changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt, he
couldn’t even envision getting dressed into work clothes
again. “You’re right. He is not going anywhere tonight,
anyway.”
“And Lackey, the results from the lab at the hospital
just came in also…”
“And? Do we know what the substance is?”
“Yeah…arsenic. In its deadliest form.”
#
Donald Russet picked up a photo of his children
from the bedside table and tried to mentally go back to
the beautiful day they all had shared at the lake. Those
kids were nothing short
of amazing, and not a day
would go by that he didn’t thank his lucky star for the
blessing of having them in his life. Mark was smart as a
whip and he got wonderful grades in school, and Sarah
was such a lovely little girl that Donald didn’t doubt for
a moment she would become, some day, a wonderful,
compassionate doctor. Here they were – his future. He
stared at their sunny faces and felt like crying. What
happened to him? Why didn’t he stop before it was too
late? Helen was certainly not a model wife, but she was
a good mother, and Donald should have remembered
that before he made the mistake that ruined everything.
He brought the picture to his lips and kissed each
smiling little face, his tears smearing the thin layer of
dust that had collected on the glass of the picture frame.
He gently placed the frame back on his bedside table
and opened the drawer to pull out the revolver. He
placed the cold mouth of the gun between his lips and
almost gagged when his tongue tasted the cold metal.
He turned his head to look at his children one more
time, then he pulled the trigger, and all the pain he felt
until that moment left his body attached to the brains
that exploded against the bedpost.
Chapter 16
Rose Howard stirred a pot of black bean soup while
Alexis rested in her room. She wasn’t keen on black
beans herself, but since the soup was Alexis’s favorite
meal, she decided it would make a great dinner. Alexis
was doing better – after being released from the hospital
in Raleigh, she came home to a sweet surprise; knowing
that her granddaughter was crazy about cats, and aware
of what the little girl had been through, Mike’s mom had
given her a very special welcome-home gift: a tiny
orange kitten. Kathy wasn’t keen on cats either, but at
this point she would have agreed to adopt a tiger, had
she been assured that it would help her young daughter
heal. Alexis had been sitting in the living room emptyeyed when her grandmother walked in and hugged everyone, and she didn’t seem at all excited when she
was told to close her eyes so that Grandma could bring
in a special gift, but the moment she heard the first
meow, her eyes snapped open and she sucked in her
breath. Grandma put the kitten on her lap and asked her
to find a name for it. To everyone’s dismay, Alexis
Killer in Sight (A Tom Lackey Mystery) Page 22
