Killer in Sight (A Tom Lackey Mystery)

by Sandra Carrington-Smith

to trust the system or anyone who works for it after the

  system is responsible for leading me to this moment? If

  they hadn’t taken my children away, neither one of them

  would hate me for the pain that someone else caused

  them. I will never believe in the system again, and both

  of you are a part of it.”

  Before Tom could say another word, the gun went

  off and Parker’s body jolted from the floor. Blood

  spurted from his head onto Tom’s face and chest and for

  the first time in a long career dealing with death and

  criminals, Tom’s stomach gave out. He turned his head

  to the side to vomit, just as another gunshot went off. In

  his heightened state of panic, he thought he was the one

  who was hit this time; or maybe he was already dead

  and he didn’t know it – it happened, right? He had seen

  movies and psychic shows claiming that the dead

  sometimes don’t know they are dead. But he wasn’t the

  one hit. As the sound of the shot still lingered in his ears,

  Tom saw Yvonne Fowler grab her chest, before

  crumpling on the floor like a puppet with severed

  strings. Yago threw himself over her and screamed an

  agonizing howl which didn’t seem human, but his pain

  was to be short lived: One more shot exploded through

  the basement, and Yago joined his beloved on her

  journey with no return.

  Mary Townsend walked out of the shadows, the

  smoking gun still clutched angrily in her right hand. She

  stepped closer to her mother and kneeled beside her as

  the woman got ready to take her last few breaths. Tears

  were running furiously down her face, as she took her

  mother’s bloodied hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry

  Mom. I know it is not natural for a child to shoot her

  parent, but it is also not natural for a mother to abandon

  her children, and you did.”

  Yvonne tried to speak, but her voice drowned in the

  gurgling sounds coming from her throat. She tried to

  squeeze Mary’s hand back, but she could barely feel it

  any more. She locked eyes with her for one last time,

  hoping that Mary could forgive her. Mary started to pull

  away, but at the last second, she laid her head over her

  mother’s chest and sobbed. “I loved you Mother. When I

  was a little girl, and I was scared to death every time my

  foster father came into my room, I fantasized that some

  day you would come to save me. In my mind, I had

  painted a fable as to why you had left us, but as I got

  older I knew it was just my imagination. You never

  cared about me and Jack, no matter what you say now.

  You can spend your last few minutes on this Earth

  blaming everyone else for your shortcomings, but you

  know that you can only blame yourself. Thanks to you I

  have become a monster, and God is my witness that

  maybe now I will be able to let go of the anger I have

  felt trapped inside of me since you left.”

  “Fo-rgg-iiii-ve meee…..I looove you.” Yvonne did

  all she could to say those last few words.

  “I forgive you Mother, because I think your mind

  was first eaten up by drugs even if you denied it, and

  then by anger, and you weren’t thinking straight.”

  Yvonne’s mouth twisted into a pained smile, and she

  gasped for breath. Her eyes rolled back and her body

  was shaken by a powerful seizure. When her muscles

  relaxed, Yvonne Fowler was gone. Mary looked at her

  mother and Yago lying by her side, his arm still

  protectively wrapped around her shoulder, and closed

  her eyes to delete this last image of them from her

  memory. She was standing up when the door of the

  basement slammed open and three officers led by

  Quince came down the stairs with their guns drawn.

  “Freeze! Drop the gun and put your hands on your

  head where we can see them!”

  Mary looked at them with vacant eyes and did as

  she was told. One of the officers handcuffed her while

  two others ran to assist Tom. Their horrified faces when

  they looked at Parker lying on the floor in a pool of

  blood told Tom that these young fellows would not

  forget this moment any time soon.

  Mary was led upstairs and to the patrol car waiting

  outside, and Tom, finally free, took a moment to feel

  steady on his legs.

  “Jesus, Lackey…what were you and Parker doing

  over here?”

  “Pretty much the same thing you did, but you were

  surely more successful than we were.”

  “Why didn’t you call for reinforcement? That’s

  procedure, you know…”

  “Yeah…I know. I went to Little’s apartment and

  Eduardo Carlos was there, ready to ambush me. He is

  the one who took me here.”

  “Eduardo Carlos?”

  Tom pointed at the dead man on the floor. “That’s

  him. He was Yvonne Fowler’s lover.”

  Quince shook his head. “Shit! Then the Brinkley

  woman wasn’t lying!”

  “What do you mean? Did she wake up?”

  “Yeah, she did, and she asked for you; but since you

  were missing in action, they sent me to talk to her. She

  told me that Yvonne Fowler’s boyfriend tried to kill her

  by overdose.”

  Tom closed his eyes and allowed these last bits of

  news to fall into place.

  “It all makes sense now. Yvonne Fowler confessed

  to killing Tracey Newman. I guess she thought I

  wouldn’t tell a soul.”

  Quince helped Tom upstairs and as they emerged

  into the foyer, Tom could hear sirens quickly

  approaching. He sat at the kitchen table for a moment,

  waiting for the paramedics to check him out, and ran a

  hand through his hair.

  “Have you got a phone on you, Quince?”

  “I sure do, Buddy. Do you need to call someone?”

  “Yes. I need to call Kathy. I’m sure she is worried

  sick about me by now.”

  #

  Brad Johnson tried to focus on a paperback novel he

  got from the cart circulating through the cells, but his

  mind was elsewhere and he couldn’t concentrate. He

  read the same sentence several times but could hardly

  retain any of the words, so he folded an ear on the page

  and closed the book. He stared at the ceiling, and

  listened to the sound coming from the corridor. He could

  hear inmates screaming, doors clanking and guards

  laughing in the distance – same sounds, different day. It

  was like time was on hold in here; seconds merged into

  minutes and minutes into hours and days, and the only

  way to really tell the passage of time was by the pattern

  of meals being passed into the cell from the small

  window on the door. Dried eggs and wooden bacon

  meant the day was just beginning, while chili

  accompanied by brick-style corn bread could be served

  both at lunch or dinner but were more often a treat

  reserved for lunch. Dinner often consisted of an

  unidentified mess of soup that looked and smelled like

  dirty dish wa
ter, served with rolls and mixed fruit.

  A clinging sound at his own door made Brad jolt.

  The soup had already come by a long time ago, which

  meant that it was nearly bedtime. Who could want

  anything with him at this time?

  The door opened to introduce an officer who was

  almost as tall as the door frame.

  “You’re getting out of here, Johnson.”

  Brad looked at the man suspiciously. Even if he had

  never been in jail before, and nothing really bad had

  happened to him during his current stay, he heard

  enough stories in the past to make him wary of anyone

  who walked into his cell.

  “I am? Where am I going?”

  “You’re going home, I reckon.”

  “What?! What happened?”

  “I’m not sure. I was just told to come and take you

  to the processing room for discharge.”

  “But…but…can I ask anyone a few questions?”

  “Yeah. There is a lady waiting for you outside.”

  “A lady? Who’s that?”

  “I don’t know. I guess you’ll find out soon enough.”

  The guard led Brad to an office where he was

  allowed to change into civilian clothes before signing

  discharge papers; then a different man led him across a

  doorway into a neon-lit office where a policeman and

  Erin were waiting. The moment he saw her he wanted to

  cry. He didn’t know why exactly, but the emotions

  pouring from his heart were so intense and

  overwhelming that even swallowing repeatedly didn’t

  stop the tears from flowing. Erin stood up and ran into

  his arms.

  “But why, Erin?”

  “I got a phone call from your friend Shannon. I was

  scared to death, but she made me see how just how

  selfish I was being. I couldn’t allow an innocent man to

  rot in jail to save my reputation, Brad. Especially if that

  man is the man I love and hope to spend the rest of my

  life with.”

  “But what about your children?”

  “The children will go with me. Once I explain the

  type of verbal abuse and emotional withdrawal I was

  exposed to – we were all exposed to – there is no judge

  in the world that will stop me from being with my

  babies. It was time for me to finally grow up and be the

  woman and mother I know I can be.”

  Chapter 22

  Kathy stretched her legs and smiled when her foot

  touched Tom’s warm leg. She wrapped her arm around

  his chest and breathed in the cologne he splashed on his

  body last night after taking a long warm shower. Since

  the paramedics were very adamant that he should

  receive medical attention and maybe a CAT scan after

  suffering a concussion, he rode with them on the

  ambulance and Kathy picked him up from the hospital.

  She couldn’t describe her feelings when she saw him in

  the triage unit – she wanted to cry, laugh, scream, and

  most of all, she wanted to hold him and never let him

  go. She hadn’t told Tom yet, but a couple of weeks ago

  she received a job offer from a national magazine, and

  although she thought of throwing the idea out at the

  time, right now taking the job didn’t seem a bad

  decision at all – in fact, it felt like the perfect

  opportunity to start a new chapter. She wondered how

  Tom would feel about the possibility of relocating but

  was sure that after seeing his long-time partner losing

  his life in front of his eyes was probably going to help

  make up his mind; after all, Tom hinted at changing

  careers many times, and this could very well be the

  turning point. She didn’t want to discuss her plans last

  night when they finally got home, but her excitement at

  the prospect of creating a new reality for her and Tom

  was growing by the minute and she knew it wouldn’t be

  long before those fantasies came pouring out of her in

  the form of words.

  She wrapped her leg around his and tried to wake

  him up, but he didn’t even budge, so she quietly got up

  and went to brew some coffee. It was a beautiful

  morning, and although it was promising to be another

  scorcher, the temperature was still fairly mild at this

  time of day. As soon as the coffee finished brewing, she

  poured a cup and brought it outside to the patio where

  she sat under the umbrella she recently purchased. The

  air was thick with humidity already, and the light breeze

  felt like the breath of an angel riding a steamy cloud.

  The Poplar tree in the backyard was loaded with

  emerald green leaves and when Kathy looked at it, she

  almost gasped. The last time she had been out here, the

  leaves were barely beginning to sprout, their tender

  green only a promise of the majestic splendor they

  would achieve just a few weeks later. Just a few weeks

  later – to Kathy the last few weeks felt like a lifetime.

  So much happened in such a short time; so many people

  lost their lives at the hands of fear and human weakness,

  and so many others saw theirs changing forever,

  profoundly affected by the events that took place. She

  felt that she and Tom were at the verge of a change –

  their relationship had been challenged by this latest

  investigation, and she almost lost him, but the wild ride

  had finally come to a stop and they were now ready to

  walk together toward the future. She filled her lungs

  with the sweet morning air, the scent of Honey Suckle a

  luscious treat that lingered in her nose long after she

  exhaled. She loved North Carolina, but she felt that her

  time here was over – she and Tom could relocate to a

  small town somewhere, and she could support both of

  them with her photography until he found a new job,

  hopefully away from crime and danger.

  She was so taken by her thoughts that she almost

  forgot her cup of coffee. She took a large sip and held it

  in her mouth for a second before swallowing, as if the

  powerful flavor could inject her with the courage to tell

  Tom she was ready for a change.

  She was about to take another sip when she heard

  the sliding glass door open and saw Tom still wearing

  shorts and a T-shirt waving at her. She smiled and

  waved her hand back, then padded the chair beside her

  to invite him to join her outside.

  “Good morning Sweetheart! Did you sleep well?”

  Tom ran a hand through his hair and sat, and Kathy

  automatically reached out to touch his bruised cheek and

  swollen eye.

  “This looks so painful, Tom…”

  “It is painful, but it will heal. On the other hand,

  there are parts of me I doubt will ever heal.” His voice

  was tinged with the color of sadness, and from the

  intensity of his tone she could tell the color of his pain

  was blood red.

  “I know, Tom. Or actually, I don’t. I can’t imagine

  being there to see a friend die.”

  “You said it, Kathy. A friend. For a long time, I only

  saw Parker as a partner, and to tell y
ou the truth, I didn’t

  even like him very much. He was always abrupt and

  moody, but in the end, he died trying to save me. How

  can I forget that and start healing? The moment I close

  my eyes, I see his face, and then I remember the times I

  wished he wasn’t my partner, and guilt kicks in. If he

  wasn’t my partner, I would have died.”

  A single tear ran off the outer edge of Tom’s left

  eye, and he wiped it quickly, but not quickly enough;

  Kathy saw it and her heart broke for him. Losing a

  friend is hard enough without guilt getting in the way, so

  she knew Tom was in for a long healing process.

  “Tom…I’ve been thinking about something…”

  “What is it?”

  “You have mentioned leaving your job many times,

  although I know you were not ready for it and you were

  only venting out frustrations. But what do you think

  about considering that possibility now?”

  “Leaving my job?” Tom’s eyes widened as he tried

  to absorb the impact of Kathy’s words. “But what would

  I do? Police work is all I know, and to tell you the truth I

  think I would be bored without it.”

  Kathy covered his hand with her own. “Just leave it

  at that for now, Tom; just think about it. I have had a job

  offer from a big magazine and if I accept we’ll be able

  to relocate anywhere we choose – the pay they are

  offering is surely enough to support a move.”

  “Wow…that’s a huge change, Kathy. I don’t know

  what to say. I don’t want to hold you back from

  realizing your dreams, but I’ve never left North Carolina

  and I can’t even imagine what life would be like

  elsewhere.”

  “It’s not a decision I have to take right now, Tom.

  Just take your time and think about it. I promise you that

  I will not pressure you one way or the other. In fact, I

  am going to step inside to get another cup of coffee.

  Would you like one too?”

  Tom nodded, his mind still chewing the surprise

  Kathy just delivered. Kathy got up quickly and

  disappeared through the sliding glass door, and Tom was

  left there to think. He had dreamed of this day many

  times – of when he and Kathy would be financially

  stable enough to make choices for their future together –

  but he never really believed it would arrive. Now, it was

  suddenly here, and he wasn’t sure what to think of it. He

  knew that even if he remained a police officer he would

  never be the same, as not too many people can watch a