Rising Darkness

by T. S. Worthington

  Joe had been lucky to get by with just a few nasty bruises and scrapes. There had not been any broken bones. John was not so lucky. He had a fractured jaw and a broken nose with a mild concussion. Joe had put up one hell of a fight and he was proud of it. He’d wanted to kill this piece of shit, but he was glad that he had not.

  The forensics team was running the blood off the weapon that John had used and had taken more DNA from him since just for good measure. The motive that John had tried to kill Joe because he suspected that John had killed Tracy was enough for them to actually consider for a brief moment that Joe might not be the right man after all.

  Of course the chief tried to play it off as John was just jealous that Joe and Alex had gone to see Heather. They had confirmed that with Dyer. He had the whole thing documented.

  It would take a few days to test the DNA samples from John against those found at the murders of Robin and Jess Lydell. But the chief was still trying to say that the cases were all unrelated. He was damned determined to nail Joe to the wall for the murder of Tracy. But it didn’t really matter what the chief or the police thought; with this evidence in place it would drum up feelings and thoughts of doubt in the eyes of the public and in the eyes of the potential jury. That was often enough to overturn cases Alex had told him. But Joe still did not like to leave anything like that to chance.

  “He is guilty as sin. Anyone can see that if this guy would try to kill Joe then there is no telling who he would try to kill,” Alex said.

  “Enough of your stupid theories,” Chief Caulson said.

  “Wow, I have never seen a cop have it in more for an innocent man in my life,” Alex said with a big grin on his face. He loved to push Caulson’s buttons and Joe loved to see the anger flashing in the man’s stupid face.

  Caulson stepped forward and glared at Alex. “Let’s get something straight here; I am a good man. I deal with the facts and I don’t formulate opinions or conspiracy theories that are not based on solid fact and solid police work. So don’t go around saying that I am just willing to convict an innocent man for no reason.”

  Alex laughed as he and Joe stepped out of the control room. They left the police station satisfied that at least some of the negative light had been cast off of Joe for the time being.

  “He is right thought,” Joe said. “There is nothing but circumstantial stuff linking the Lydell’s case to Tracy’s.”

  “Sometimes that is all it takes in the mind of a jury.”

  “I guess it depends on the jury I get, right?” Joe said.

  “Well, most people don’t realize that but that is often the most crucial thing in any murder case. But we are going to try to keep you out of that court room all together.”

  “Well, we are running out of time. I don’t think we are going to dig up anything else that will help us. It seems like every new thing we find out just leads to another mystery that has almost nothing to do with Tracy’s death.”

  “It is all related somehow; we just have to figure out how. There is a missing piece somewhere.”

  Joe sighed as the two men drove away.

  ****

  “So, how are classes going, Elena?” Joe asked.

  Elena grabbed the plates off the dinner table and began rinsing them off in the sink before she placed them in the dish washer. She didn’t answer for a moment, and Joe stared at her intently. He was trying to see through the façade the girl had so carefully constructed on her life. He knew that losing your mother to a freak accident when you were very young was tough. He had no idea how she felt because both of his parents were still alive and well, but he had tried to sympathize and he had done his best to compensate for the fact that she didn’t have a real mother anymore. Kirsten had thrived remarkably well, but Elena just seemed to closed off to everything and everyone. He wondered how they were both able to process things in such a very different way. It was not something he would ever wish on his worst enemy to lose a parent when you were so young. To lose just one parent really rocked your world and gave you a shaky foundation. You learned quickly that there was no one in the world you could really rely on but yourself because if you started to rely on people they would eventually go away and you would not be able to lean on them anymore.

  “They are fine,” Elena finally answered grabbing some more dishes.

  The two of them had ordered in some Chinese takeout. Kirsten had gone out with some friends that she had not seen since she graduated high school and they were going to get into some stupid thing. Joe didn’t ask; he didn’t have to with her. If it had been Elena he would have seriously wondered where she was going and who she was with. When she was younger she ran with a vicious crowd of lowlifes and the more he tried to get her to ditch them the closer she clung to them. Eventually Joe had taken Tracy’s advice and ignored them completely. That was when Elena eventually decided to drop her loser friends and she became a complete loner. That was fine with Joe, because then she at least was home most of the time, even though he might go days or weeks without seeing or speaking to her.

  He had not envied Tracy’s life at this time as he was busy working most of the time. Work had been his refuge away from everything as it always was.

  “Are you still majoring in political science?” Joe asked.

  “Yea, I really like it, but I wanted to branch out and maybe do a double major.”

  “Oh, really. What did you want to add?”

  “Psychology,” Elena replied.

  “Well, those are two very different disciplines. I’m surprised that you would choose that as a second.”

  “They really are not that different. I’ve been really interested in both and reading a lot of books on both recently. The psychology of politics is a fascinating subject.”

  “Political Psychology? Is that a real thing?” Joe asked.

  Elena just rolled her eyes and started to walk away.

  “Elena?”

  She stopped and looked at him. She was still halfway through her eye roll, and she looked at him impatiently. He could not believe how much she reminded him of her mother when she did that. Tori used to do the same exact thing when she was trying to get his attention and he was focused on some other stupid thing.

  “I appreciate you being here. It means a lot to me to have your support.”

  “No big deal,” Elena said.

  “Yes it is. It is a big deal. I know that you and I have had our differences over the years, but I love you and I want you to know that this really means the world to me that you would come here when I needed a hand.”

  “You’re welcome,” Elena said starting to walk away.

  “Can you just hold still for a second? I really want to say this,” Joe said.

  Elena whirled around her face full of anger and annoyance. “What? We don’t’ have that much to say to each other.”

  “I think we have a lot to say. I know that you somehow blame me working all the time for what happened to your mother. I didn’t know she was depressed. I didn’t know that she needed help. She never mentioned anything to me that would have indicated anything like that.”

  “Like you would have noticed. You were too busy building your fortune to notice that the people in this house needed you. Mom loved you and I watched her night after night drifting further and further into loneliness. She was depressed for a few years before that night. Years! And you didn’t see a damn thing.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t realize. If she would have just reached out to me and told me the way that she felt I would have dropped everything and come to help her. I loved her so much,” Joe said.

  “I don’t believe you. You might have Kirsten and everyone else around fooled by that routine, but I don’t think you ever loved mom. I noticed when your beloved Tracy became a part of this family that you were around a hell of a lot more. What the hell is the deal with that?”

  Elena was almost yelling now. Joe had never anticipated setting h
er off, but the tension between the two of them had reached unbearable proportions. He needed to get his daughter back. He wanted to bury the hatchet and with everything else that was going on he just didn’t want this rift to continue if he went to prison for the rest of his life.

  “I didn’t want to make the same mistake. After your mom’s death I had to reevaluate my life and take stock of what I was doing. Sometimes when you get caught up in something you don’t’ realize that you are hurting the people around you until they call you on it. But if no one calls you out then you just keep doing it until the damage is too far gone.”

  “Well, I’m glad you found that out, but your timing sucks on that. Mom had to die for that to happen.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. There are only so many ways and so many times that I can say that I’m sorry, Elena. I did not want to stir up bad feelings or to anger you. I just don’t’ want you to be mad at me anymore. I want things between us to change.”

  “It’s ok. I am fine with my life. We don’t have to become besties for things to be ok. You don’t’ have to feel guilty and reach out to me that way. Just let things be the way they are.”

  “I don’t want things to be the way they are between us. I want things to be better. Don’t you understand that sweetie? I want that twinkle in your eye to be there again when I talk to you. That light that you used to have is just so far gone. I wish you could get that back.”

  “Mom’s gone. That light was her and it is never coming back,” Elena said as she stormed off practically running up the stairs.

  “Maybe that isn’t the way it has to be. You have to move on. Your mother would not want you to hold on to that much rage—“the door slammed upstairs to Elena’s room effectively cutting him off.

  “Well, that went splendidly,” Joe said to himself grabbing a beer from the fridge.

  Just then his phone began to ring. He pulled it from his pocket. It was Alex.

  “Hey, man what’s up?” Joe asked.

  “You are not going to believe this,” Alex said. He sounded more excited than he had in a long time.

  “Try me. I’ll believe a lot of weird stuff at this point. But don’t tell me that Santa isn’t real. I figured that one out a few days ago,” Joe said.

  “Remember the van that tried to kill me?”

  “I vaguely recall, yes.”

  “Well, I checked around the area to van rental companies and also mechanics that might have done service on a van like the one that tried to run me down. That van collided into the wall a few times and it had a little bit of damage done to it. So just on a whim I checked around. It turns out that a van rental company had one of their vans reported stolen from a guy who rented it from them. He was all set to work everything out to have it replaced and everything if they didn’t find it. It was discovered abandoned a few blocks away from the rental place. I reported it to the cops and I had one of my friends who works in forensics to check that out. She said they found some traces of hair in the thing. They are running analysis on it right now. So we might have a match on who was trying to kill me that day.”

  “Well, that is certainly good news.”

  “Yea, I thought you would like that, but you are going to like this even better. They found a necklace in the van. At first they thought it might belong to like the guy, who rented the van or something, but it’s a ladies necklace and the guy isn’t married and doesn’t have a girlfriend or anything. I showed up just to confirm that it was the same van that tried to kill me.”

  “How could you be sure that was the same one? All those vans kind of look alike.” Joe asked.

  “I’m glad you asked that; the van is a Chevy and the Chevy logo on the front of the van fell off in the parking garage. Now, this other van’s Chevy logo also fell off and it was damaged in all the same places. I think that is a bit more than a stinking coincidence, but you really need to listen to me about the necklace right now.”

  “Ok, what about the necklace?”

  “I recognized it. It is the necklace that you bought Tracy for your last wedding anniversary.”

  Chapter 9: Unforeseen Circumstances

  Joe almost dropped the phone. He wasn’t sure he had heard Alex just right. Surely what he said had to be a mistake. The image of the necklace that he bought for Tracy flashed in his mind. He had looked at several jewelry stores to find it. He had not even noticed that it was missing. Now that he thought about it Tracy wore the necklace all the time, but she usually wore it tucked into her shirt unless they were attending a party or some fancy event which came around occasionally. How had he missed it though? He should have thought to look for it, but it was all so much to take that he could hardly remember half of what he said or did that day after he found her body.

  “You are certain on this?” Joe asked.

  “Hell, yea. I remember you showing it to me before you gave it to her because you were so excited about it and I remember she was thrilled beyond belief when you gave it to her. That thing is sweet,” Alex said.

  “Oh, my God. This is huge. The person who attacked you is the person who killed Tracy.”

  “That’s right!” Alex said. He was beyond giddy.

  Joe realized that if the DNA in the van matched someone in the database then they would have Tracy’s killer. He might be home free on this and he could put this whole mess behind him and move forward with his life.

  He was ready. God, was he ready.

  “So, how soon will they have the results of the DNA tests from the van?”

  “Hopefully very soon. My friend is going to put a rush on it and should know within the next day.”

  Joe sat down and smiled genuinely for the first time in days. He could feel the relief washing over him.

  Alex was just starting to doze off in his easy chair when the knock at the door came. He had been so excited over the news about the case and the fact that Joe was most likely going to be cleared by the new evidence that he had been unable to sleep. It was nearing three in the morning when he felt himself getting drowsy, but he desperately wanted to finish the movie he was watching on Netflix. It was a murder mystery of all things and he wanted to find out who the killer was.

  He had finally felt himself starting to drift off when he heard the door. He was startled awake. It took him a few seconds to gain his bearings and remember what was going on. The time on the clock said it was three in the morning. He was instantly on guard. He was not used to answering the door at this time and he most definitely was not used to strange visitors in the middle of the night only a few days after he had almost been run down in a parking garage by a van.

  Alex heard the knock again and found the will to stir himself from his extremely comfortable recliner. The chair was deadly as far as being able to sit in it without just passing out. He slept in the recliner more than he did his own bed because it was so wonderful.

  Alex checked the peephole and he could see a beautiful woman standing there. It was Heather Myers. She was wearing a trench coat, but he could catch a glimpse of the beautiful, sexy legs stood below the cut off. He was instantly excited but on guard as well. It was strange that she would show up at his house in the middle of the night after her husband had just been arrested for attempted murder.

  He wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hand he had more than a few fantasies about her showing up at his door. She was one of the most exquisite and sweetest women he had ever seen. He knew that he should be cautious here but maybe she was in trouble. Why else would she be there at that moment? She did not need to be afraid of her husband. The prick was in jail and he was probably not leaving jail for a long time.

  Alex relented and opened the door. Heather smiled that sexy smile at him and his whole world got a bit brighter. She was completely covered by the trench coat on the warm night. There was no rain so he was a bit caught off guard by the disguise. Was she afraid that her husband might somehow find out that she came there?

  “Heathe
r. What is going on? Are you ok?” Alex asked.

  “I need to come in. Please,” Heather said.

  Alex let her inside, trying not to leer too intently at her sexy legs.

  He closed the door behind her and led her into the living room, where he turned off the TV. She sat down on the couch and he offered her a drink. She decided on a scotch on the rocks. Alex had the same, except he made himself a double. He didn’t consider it too early to drink according to the rules until six.

  “So, what brings you here at this hour?” Alex asked.

  “I have to talk to you about something very important,” Heather said.

  “Ok, what’s wrong?” Alex said sitting down on the couch across from her. Heather took off her coat then and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. She was wearing one of the sexiest dresses that he had ever seen. Her large breasts were barely being covered and the material clung tightly to her curvy body. He had to force himself to not stare. She was perfect.

  “I think that someone is going to try to kill me,” Heather said.

  “What? Who?”

  “Since John was locked up I’ve been receiving these phone calls. I don’t recognize the voice—it is just a scratchy whisper—but they are saying these horrible things to me. It is driving me insane.”

  “What sort of things are they saying?”

  “They are saying that I killed Tracy and that they are going to make sure I pay for the crime.”

  “What? That is crazy. You didn’t have anything to do with Tracy’s death. I’m willing to bet good money it was John.”

  Heather looked at him right then. “That’s the thing; I don’t see how it could be John. He was at work when this was happening. I have a few eye witnesses who put him there at the same time that Tracy was being killed.”

  “Ok, but I’m sure the police have talked to them all. From what I’ve been able to gather there is a gap of time where he is unaccounted for where it is possible that he could have slipped out and committed the murder and then slipped back in. The time is tight but I’ve seen it worked out to where it could have been possible.”