Cusp of Crazy: Nick Stryker Series, Book One, Shallow End Gals

by Vicki Graybosch

  Mitch smiled and grabbed a box from under the counter. He looked at Nick and said, “That would be the pumpkin and the cranberry.” Mitch started filling the box. “Thought you were here ‘bout last night.”

  Nick’s smile dropped. Now what?

  Mitch lowered his voice and told him about Chad getting killed after the dart game. Mitch leaned closer to Nick. “Wayne ain’t sayin’ much, but I could tell he was thinkin’ the same thing we were. It don’t take no genius to figure that knife might have been meant for him. Chad was wearin’ his coat! Said “Oink” all over it. That alley was pitch black last night, too.”

  Mitch drummed his fingers on the glass case. “Chad had no real friends. No enemies. No money. No nothin’. One of those people with absolutely nothin’ interestin’ between the pages, ya know? Can’t see nobody riskin’ life in jail for a whole bunch of nothin’. Now Wayne’s a whole different story. Somethin’s been eatin’ at him bad. That’s why Chad had his coat. Wayne lost it to him in a dart bet.” Mitch finished packing the muffins in the box while he talked. “Yeah, Wayne’s been jumpy ever since that other cop got his throat cut.”

  Nick had known Mitch long enough to know that he had good instincts. If Mitch thought Wayne was worried, he was. If Wayne had been the target, Nick’s random crazy might have a thing for cops.

  Nick asked, “Who found the body?”

  Mitch threw his hands in the air. “Who do ya think? Me and Eli! Spent the whole night at the police station doin’ reports.” Mitch rang up Nick’s bill and said, “I’m gonna stay here nights and keep an eye over Momma ‘til you catch this scum.”

  “Mitch, how long did Chad have Wayne’s jacket?”

  “Just got it last night.”

  Nick drove toward the precinct oblivious to the heavy morning traffic. His mind swarmed with new questions. The rising sun blasted through the spaces between the buildings, periodically blinding everyone that passed. A November frost sparkled on most surfaces and the grim faces of commuters confirmed that they most likely were thinking of the winter ahead. The days were getting shorter, and every cop knows that with longer nights comes more crime.

  Nick entered the squad room and found Jen busily filling up a huge case whiteboard. Carl was doing the same on another board next to her. Each of them was lost in their own world. Carl’s board was filled with circles and dotted lines. Jen had a neat column of names inside of a left border. Nick and Jen had their own method for whiteboards. Jen said it was like cooking; she laid out the ingredients and Nick decided what to cook.

  Nick placed the box of muffins on Wayne’s desk and opened the lid. “Got treats.”

  Carl, Jen and Sam, walked over and each got one. They silently returned to their tasks and waved thanks. Nick sat at Wayne’s desk and opened the precinct email account that Wayne had assigned to him. He noticed that the email Wayne had sent him earlier in the morning had two attachments. Nick hit print and read the pages as they came off from the printer. It was the report on last night’s murder of Chad.

  A second attachment was simply a photocopy of a business card. David Fulton, Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Chicago; Special Crimes and a phone number. Nick folded the papers and put them in his coat pocket and hung his coat on Wayne’s wall hook. If Wayne had been there all night, he wasn’t coming in today.

  Nick rolled his neck and stretched his shoulders as he watched Jen and Carl work on their boards. Lacey’s bed was far too soft and he felt out of joint. Nick needed to decide how to structure the board to disprove a random serial killer. He could tell from Carl’s outline that he was already working the random theory for Don, the man in the park, and even the cab driver.

  Carl glanced over and noticed Nick was watching him. “Hope you don’t mind I borrowed your cabbie over here. Just in case, you know?” Nick shrugged.

  Nick asked Jen, “Can you set up a right sided border on Casey’s mess?”

  Jen nodded, moved five feet to the right and started a list of names under the heading of Casey.

  Carl stopped writing and watched. “Who’s Casey? Is that a murder I haven’t heard about yet?”

  “No.”

  “Then what the hell is it doing on a murder board?” Carl smirked as if Nick was making a rookie mistake. Nick ignored him. Nick stood and said, “Wait. Let’s put Casey’s list right down the center.”

  Jen erased her right hand column and started over in the center. She looked at Nick and winked. She could sense that Nick’s intuition was humming.

  Nick got up, grabbed another marker and started a new right hand column. He wrote James and Chad, then drew a dividing line down the board and returned to his chair.

  Carl stopped writing and glanced over. He stood up straight and leaned back to read what Nick had on the board. “James is that missing undercover cop. Who’s Chad?”

  Nick kept his eyes on his board and flatly stated, “Guy that got his throat cut last night. Maybe because he was wearing Wayne’s jacket.”

  Carl was stunned. He laid his marker down, walked back to his desk and sat down. Nick glanced over and saw Carl staring at his monitor. He was probably reading last night’s report. Carl was obviously disturbed at what he was reading. Nick turned his attention back to his own board. He thought about the cab driver and remembered Jack’s camera footage.

  “Carl? I had a guy drop off a flash drive yesterday. He says he gave it to you.”

  Carl pointed, “I put it in that center drawer for you.”

  Nick opened the drawer and moved around a bunch of paper clips, cough drops and pens. “It’s not here. Maybe you put it in the other desk I was using yesterday?”

  Carl frowned, got up and walked over. “I know where I put it. Move over.” Carl leaned over the drawer, pushed things around and then yanked the whole drawer out of the desk. Nothing. “Maybe Wayne has it.”

  If Nick was right, Jack’s camera had the best chance of having caught the cab driver’s killer. Why would Wayne want it? Nick wrote down Wayne’s phone number to call later. He was probably sleeping and Nick had plenty to do for a few hours.

  Tanner, Casey, Shelly and Joyce arrived at their office to find two installers from the security company waiting. They had half of the main hallway filled with boxes. One of the men had been on his cell phone and ended his call. “I was just leaving you another message. Sorry we didn’t call ahead with an install time.”

  Tanner shrugged, “That’s fine. Let me unlock the door and you guys can get started.” Tanner looked at the pile of boxes trying to decide if it looked like ten grand. “I assume this is good stuff?” Tanner pointed.

  The install guy nodded. “Real good. What kind of business is this anyway?”

  Tanner opened the door and stood back to let them in. “We read books all day.”

  The installers looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Casey nearly laughed.

  Tanner went to his office and Casey followed Shelly and Joyce to their desks. “I have a favor to ask of you both.”

  Joyce raised her eyebrows, “Do we have to go to jail?”

  Casey frowned. “No. In spite of everything we’re going through, we have to finish this pile of books. Would you be willing to take home some work tonight? I’ll pay whatever overtime you turn in.”

  Shelly smiled, “Sounds like Shelly is gettin’ more new shoes.”

  Joyce nodded her head and said, “We also have to figure out what we can do about this chick, Rachael Sarrin.”

  Casey twisted a lock of her hair as she thought. “I know. I think I’m going to meet with that Detective Stryker later today. He said he would call me. The only thing I can think of is sending her a message in one of her Amazon reviews.”

  Joyce leaned back in her chair, “I’m not sold this is a woman. Tampering with Tanner’s brakes sounds like a guy thing. Bomb threats could go either way.”

  Tanner poked his head in the door, “Casey, could I speak to you in private, please?”

  Tanner closed the door behind them.
“This might not be the best timing, but I had George prepare a contract for us. Actually more a policy, I guess.”

  “George, our insurance guy?”

  “Yeah. This is a ‘Key Man’ policy. If something happens to either one of us, the other gets the benefit to keep the business going.”

  Casey was stunned. Tanner had never mentioned anything like this before. “How much do you get if this Rachel manages to kill me?”

  Tanner’s brows came forward and he snapped back, “You get two million dollars in case the next time I ditch my car in the river nobody pulls me out!”

  Casey and Tanner frowned at each other for a minute. Casey picked up the papers and saw that the date the policy was drawn up was two weeks ago. “Did you have a premonition or something?”

  “No.”

  “Does George know that someone is trying to kill you?”

  “No.”

  Casey kicked her heels to the corner and folded her legs under her as she read. “What is this thing costing us?”

  “Too much.” Tanner leaned forward, “Look, I had lunch with George and we got to talking. Either one of us would be a mess if something happened to the other one. We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I thought after last night that maybe it was a good thing I had him prepare it. No harm, no foul.” Tanner reached to take the policy back.

  Casey held it over her head. “I kind of like the idea. Especially now. Seems like George should know we might be high risk though.”

  “What am I going to tell him? Some whack job is sending us books that we think are real? So we’ve been calling cops with fake bomb threats?”

  “What about your brakes?” Casey was miffed that even Tanner was teasing her. This was serious.

  Tanner smiled, “I’m just trying to keep it light so we don’t go crazy.”

  “Too late.”

  Nick looked up to see his Chief from the 115th walking over. Carl raised his unibrow, Sam hid his head in a desk drawer and Jen started scribbling nonsense in a notebook. Nick chuckled to himself and stood.

  “Chief, nice of you to visit. I take it you were in the neighborhood?” Nick gestured for the Chief to take a seat, which he did. The Chief tossed his hat on the desk and leaned to the side to review Nick and Jen’s murder board.

  There was quite a list of names in the left column, a short list in a center column and two names on the right column.

  “Looks a little different than your normal board, Nick.”

  “Yeah. It’s a little different alright. Just started.”

  The Chief lowered his voice and leaned forward. He had palmed a card in his hand and left it lying in front of Nick. The Chief whispered, “Put that in your pocket.” Then he stood and raised his voice. “Got a couple of issues I was hoping you could clarify before I go to the end of the hall.” The Chief was referring to the 107’s Chief’s office.

  Nick saw his Chief wink; for whatever reason, this was a show.

  Nick was good at this game. “I’ll do what I can. Shoot.”

  “Two guys filed a complaint that you beat them up in an alley yesterday. You broke one guy’s arm and the other guy’s leg?”

  Nick nodded, “Yes that did happen.”

  Carl and Jen whipped their heads around to look at Nick.

  The Chief continued, “Got another guy, Gary something, says you’re harassing him and trying to break up his relationship with his girlfriend.” Nick looked like he was going to say something and the Chief held up his finger, “I’m not done. I also have a report that you downloaded a video file from a non-department issued camera and when asked about it refused to give any information to the investigator. Now you can talk.”

  “It sounds like I might have some adjustment issues.” Nick smiled, “I’ll work on it.”

  Nick’s Chief picked up his uniform hat and said, “You might have to meet with me at the end of the hall if that explanation doesn’t fly.”

  “No problem.” Nick watched the Chief leave the room. The card the Chief had given him was the same card Wayne had photo copied. The Chief wanted to talk to him without raising suspicion. Both Chiefs wanted to talk to him. Great.

  Sam let out a chuckle from across the room, “When have you had time to cause that much trouble already?”

  Nick put his palms up and smiled, “Maybe he just misses me?”

  Nick stood up and walked over to the murder board. He whispered to Jen. “Chief has something for us.”

  Carl’s phone rang, he listened a moment and hung up. He yelled over to Nick, “Stryker. You’ve been invited down the hall.”

  Nick left the room. Carl used his phone camera to take a picture of Nick and Jen’s murder board, grabbed his briefcase and left.

  Sam yelled over to Jen, “What kind of loose cannon is this guy?”

  Jen shrugged. The less they knew about Nick the better.

  Nick took a seat next to his Chief and across the desk from the 107th Chief. The 107th Chief started. “We processed your request to identify that wireless camera you found in that hallway. FBI, CIA, and every other agency claims it’s not theirs. However, we might know who put it there. Partial fingerprint matched military records of Eric Watson.”

  Nick’s Chief flipped a paper and began reading some notes. “Military medical discharge in 2009. Mental. Has been on a waiting list with VA since discharge. Only family is mother, address given for Eric is one block away from where James disappeared. CSI went over that entire secret hall, all two stories of it. Nothing. The fact that the walls are old bricks didn’t help. There is a slip lock on the bolt for the main door to the basement that, when triggered, will release or engage the bolt at will. Hidden and pretty sophisticated. Our officer may or may not have known about that bolt feature, so there is a second way out.”

  The 107th Chief said, “I can’t begin to guess why Eric put a camera in that basement. He might have put it there before the city took ownership. It doesn’t make sense, it’s an empty room. At least we have a name to tie to James’s missing case.” The 107th Chief clicked on his pen and said, “Let’s consider a worst case scenario here. Undercover cop James is missing, presumed dead, because of the blood pool. Don was murdered four days ago, and a guy wearing Wayne’s jacket got whacked last night.”

  As Nick shifted his weight in his chair, “You think all three of these are linked to Eric? I’ve talked to him. I don’t see him a cop killer. He might be nuts, but he respects authority. He seldom leaves that block according to the interviews that Jen did at those buildings.”

  Nick didn’t like the fact that Eric’s fingerprint was on that camera. Did Eric engineer that secret wall? “I want to see the old and current schematics on all four of the buildings in that block. Engineering plans, too. A deeper history on previous owner and tenants might show something. Maybe the FBI would help?”

  The 107th Chief spoke. “The U.S. Attorney called them in last night. He thinks we have a serial cop killer, maybe Eric, maybe not. Whoever it is knows how cops think.”

  Nick frowned. “Why do you think that?”

  The 107th Chief stood and began pacing, “Don contacted IA before he was murdered. He found a manuscript draft that described, in detail, the downtown murder and the guy in the park. Before they were murdered. IA was concerned enough to bring in the U.S. District Attorney Special Crimes. Don reported later to IA that someone left him manuscript notes that indicated he was next. He was murdered later that same day. We can’t find those manuscript notes.”

  Nick’s Chief asked, “You want to know the bogus author’s name?”

  Nick shrugged, “Rachel Sarrin.”

  Both Chiefs looked shocked. Nick’s Chief asked, “How the hell did you know that?”

  Nick ignored the question. “The FBI can subpoena Amazon for identification records on the real author.”

  “They already did. The FBI also has tax returns. Bogus identity, bogus social security number, bogus tax returns, bogus bank account. The books really haven’t been
selling according to Amazon. Less than a few hundred dollars have been earned in over three years. The FBI is waiting for the ‘author’ to access the Amazon account information, so the IP address can be traced. Until then, we wait.”

  Nick’s Chief looked serious. “This most likely is someone familiar with this precinct. I wanted you to know this before you started your murder board. You might want to keep some stuff close. Nick, how did you know that author’s name?”

  Nick told them both Casey’s story. He ended with, “She lives in the same building as Eric Watson.” The Chiefs exchanged worried glances and warned Nick to be careful.

  After Nick left the room the 115th Chief said, “Nick is all about the team, order and leadership. It’s who he is and was reinforced with his Seal training. This has to be killing him that a cop may be our doer.”

  Nick went back to the squad room to find Jen alone and working on the murder board. Nick sat at Wayne’s desk. “Where is everybody?”

  Jen put the marker on the whiteboard tray and sat down. “Sam left right when you did. I don’t know about Carl. He was shook up about this new kill, Chad. Maybe it doesn’t fit with his theory. He seemed to think it was quite a coincidence that Mitch and Eli were there for this one, too.”

  Nick sat twirling his Navy ring while he stared at the board. Jen had noticed this habit before and knew it meant that Nick was stuck. He looked at her, “I want to talk to you about what the Chiefs said, but not here. I also want to know if Chad has a story we don’t know and I need to talk to Casey.” Nick looked at his watch. “Can you believe its noon? If you take Chad’s family and friends and I do Casey, we could meet for lunch at Cubby’s? Might be someone there that remembers more, too.”

  Jen nodded, “Let’s make it around two? Should be fairly quiet around then.”

  Jen noticed frown lines on Nick’s forehead. “You okay, pretty boy?” Jen always called Nick pretty boy to get his mood up.

  Nick chuckled, “Just fine, doll face.” Nick’s standard answer to her. They often joked that it could become their signal to each other that something was wrong if they ever answered differently.