THE BUTLER

by Bill WENHAM

  Chapter Seven

  “Do you want me to run it through again, Boss?” Wayne asked me.

  “No, not yet,” I said. “Better get the rest of the gang in here first. I want them all to hear this.”

  “Okay, I’ll round them up. Be right back,” he said, as he left my office.

  I had decided, and had gotten approval from the Chief, to form a small task force to track down the Butler. It would consist of Jan Langham, Ellie Todd, Wayne, Newt, Petrocelli and me – my own squad.

  One by one they came into my office, Wayne and Petrocelli dragged extra chairs in with them. Newt hadn’t got back from parking his car yet. Ellie started to pull the coffee trolley into my office, expecting another long session, but I stopped her.

  “Time enough for that, Ellie, when we are done in here,” I told her.

  She took one look at my face, shrugged and walked into my office, leaving the door open behind her.

  “Okay, Wayne, run it through again and you guys listen carefully,” I said.

  The message was just ending when Newt came over to my door.

  “Someone call me?” he asked.

  “No,” I said, “But I want you in here anyway.”

  “Okay,” he agreed amiably as he came in and shut the door behind him, “I just though I heard someone say my name as I came in that’s all.”

  I was about to say we hadn’t said his name, when I looked at the shocked looks on Jan and Wayne’s faces.

  And then it dawned on me too. It was common for us to call each other by either our first name or our surname, as the mood took us. Petrocelli was always Petrocelli to everyone. People rarely called him Ray.

  None of us had said either Newt or Winders, but the Butler’s voice on the tape had just said winds! Put that together with ‘take a look through a new glass darkly’ and you’ve gotten yourself a window. Stretch that out a bit and you’ve got Newton Winders! Add a ‘glass darkly’ and it nailed Newt right down perfectly. Cops didn’t come any darker than Newt. He was about as black as the Ace of Spades.

  Although all of the Butler’s victims so far had been women, young women, it would seem that all of them, including Sullivan, were just being murdered to get my attention for some reason.

  ‘The winds of change will most certainly be blowing’, was what the Butler had also just said on the tape. It now seemed perhaps another one of my team had been targeted by this maniac, a male one this time and possibly Ellie as well. He’d even mentioned Wayne by name too.

  He wants us to find him, yet the closer we get to him the more of my team will be apparently be eliminated. Correction, I thought, he doesn’t want us to find him. He wants me to find him!

  Finally, I said, “Okay, gang, listen up. Before we leave here, I want to make some temporary changes in our partnerships. I’m sure you’ll all agree that, until we catch this guy, we’re all extremely vulnerable.”

  Not me though, I thought as I said it, but all of you most certainly are. He’s not going to bump me off yet, he’s enjoying the game far too much.

  I continued, “Wayne, I want you to team up with Jan. Newt, you and Petrocelli can stay as you are for now and I’ll pair up with Ellie. And for God’s sake guys, watch each other’s backs. Even when you’re at home, don’t answer your door to anyone. I don’t care if your visitor says he’s Elvis, Sinatra or the second coming of Jesus Christ himself; don’t open the goddamned door to him, okay?”

  “But, Boss,” Jan said, “what if it’s Wayne or one of you guys?”

  “Jan, the only one of us that might come to your door will be your own partner. Arrange a code word between you only you both know. Whisper your code in each other’s ear but don’t do it here in the office,” I said.

  “I’ve always wanted some cute guy to whisper sweet nothings in my ear, Boss,” Jan said sweetly, and then added, “So how come I get stuck with Crawford then.”

  Wayne and I smiled at her attempt at humor but I said, “Come on, guys, be serious about this thing. I don’t want a repeat of what happened to Sullivan and I don’t want any unnecessary heroics from any of you either. I sure as hell won’t be giving out any medals, you can bet on that.”

  They all looked at their partners and the rather strange Ellie look shot at me was difficult to interpret.

  “Right, then, all of you, on your way and I’ll see you later. Use caution and remember, like it or not, we all appear to be potential targets right now. Watch out for yourselves and each other because, much as this may be hard for you to believe, I don’t want to lose any of you, so take care.”

  Ellie hung back for a moment as the others filed out of my office. Wayne and Newt took the extra chairs back out with them.

  When they were gone, Ellie said quietly, “You didn’t have to do that, Lieutenant.”

  “Do what?” I asked innocently, knowing full well what she meant.

  “Appoint yourself as my guardian. I can look after myself perfectly well, thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know I didn’t have to, Ellie. I did it because I wanted to. I just want to make sure you’re as safe as I can keep you.”

  She looked at me curiously.

  “Is this your way of coming on to me, Lieutenant?” she asked me.

  Her candor caught me completely off guard for a moment and I didn’t answer. Finally I said, “My name is Sandy, Ellie. In the office I’m Lieutenant or Boss, if you prefer, to you and everyone else in here but outside of it, I’m Sandy. I would like us to be friends if we can be.”

  She tilted her head to one side. “Just friends?” she said, “Or more than just friends, Sandy?”

  Once again her frank comment stopped me dead for a moment.

  “More than just friends would suit me real fine, Ellie,” I said, “How about you?”

  She gave me a rather cheeky and appraising look.

  “That might be a possibility, if you behave yourself,” she said.

  “And what if I don’t behave myself,” I countered.

  She gave me a broad grin and said, “That might just increase the possibilities enormously, Lieutenant.”

  She turned and left my office, leaving me to trail behind her with the silliest of grins on my face.

  The Butler frowned as he played back the listening device’s recording. He heard a mumble of background voices, none of the words being distinguishable to him at all, then Winders asking clearly “Someone call me?”

  There was a mumble of a reply, followed by the sound of a door closing. There was nothing further then until twenty five minutes later when he heard the sound of the door opening again.

  This was followed by a buzz of chatter around the coffee maker itself, and then all he heard was the usual background noises of the clerical staff. After helping themselves to coffees for the road, it seemed like Spicer and his team had left the building.

  The Butler sat and thought for a minute or two. It was obvious the bug hadn’t been discovered. If it had been, it would’ve certainly been removed and destroyed already. He’d heard the chatter round the machine quite clearly although nothing of consequence was said, so he knew the bug was still in place and operational.

  But he’d missed the content of Spicer’s briefing session today and their morning update. No matter, the Butler thought, smiling to himself, since he’d just returned from placing a second one in a most advantageous position.

  When I got outside, Ellie was already sitting inside the car. As I got in the driver’s side she said, “After your big speech inside just now, Lieutenant, I must say I’m a bit surprised.”

  “It’s Sandy,” I said, “And just what is it you’re finding so surprising then, Ellie?”

  “Okay, Sandy then. You just about talked our ears off in there about care and caution and yet you leave your own cruiser unlocked out here. I just found it was a bit surprising, that’s all. Pretty careless too, I thought.”

  I guess I did a bit of a double take at her criticism, but although Wayne and I b
oth had keys to the cruiser, Wayne had been driving it and I hadn’t expected him to leave it unlocked. Certainly not now and I would have to chew him out a bit about it later.

  Now Ellie was temporarily my partner, Wayne had handed over his set of keys to me in my office during our session. I now passed them over to her in the car.

  “Want me to drive?” she asked.

  “Next time, Ellie,” I said, “since I’m already sitting in the driver’s seat.”

  “Yes, right,” she said, “That brings up a point I want to discuss with you, that of you being in the driver’s seat. Before we leave, Lieu…Sandy, can we set a few basic ground rules here? I’m okay with what you said back there in the office and if you want us to date, I’m fine with that too. I like you a lot, but…”

  She paused and I looked over at her.

  “Ah, there’s always that dreaded ‘but’ though, isn’t there, Ellie?” I said ruefully, expecting a put down after she’d thought it over.

  “No, Sandy, please don’t get me wrong. I’d love to go out on dates with you.”

  “But,” I added.

  “But it’s working together I might have problems with. I’m a very proud and dedicated girl, Sandy. I can’t just sit back and let you take care of me while we’re out on the job. If I’m to be your partner, whether it’s on or off the job, I need you to treat me as your equal. Not in rank, of course. Naturally I know you’re in charge and I’ll never challenge your authority. But involve me completely, Sandy, please. Don’t just have me trailing along behind you. That’s all I ask. You’ve told me I’m a good cop so just give me the opportunity to prove to you I can be a good and reliable partner for you too.”

  I gave her a slow grin.

  “Man, Ellie,” I said, “I’m sure glad you got that little lot off your chest.”

  “Well?” she said.

  “Well, what?” I asked, deliberately teasing her.

  “You know damned well what. I just finished telling you,” she said.

  “I’m only joshing you, Ellie. Welcome aboard, partner,” I said, holding out my hand to her.

  Before she took it, she looked quickly out of her window, took my hand and reached over to kiss me on the cheek. It was the first time I’d actually been in contact of any kind with her.

  “That was nice, Ellie,” I said, “Thank you.”

  She sat back in her seat and smiled widely.

  “Yeah, it was a start,” she said in a matter of fact voice, “The next move is up to you, but I guess I have to tell you, Boss, if you treat me right, the possibilities appear to be endless from where I sit!”

  I reached over and patted her hand, started the car, put it in gear and drove on out of the police compound. I hadn’t yet told her where we were going, but I knew, from now on, I would keep her completely in the picture. I was beginning to really like this lady.

  I’d decided to drive us back out to Sullivan’s apartment block. Now all the excitement was over, I thought we might have a little more success than the beat cops had. People might open up to us a little more since we weren’t wearing intimidating police uniforms. And let’s face it; I thought Ellie, as another woman, might have more rapport with some of Sullivan’s female neighbors than I would..

  We finally struck it lucky after about the fifth try. The older woman we spoke to said she was being naturally nosey when she’d seen the original police car pull up outside. She said she’d continued to look out of her window, waiting for the ambulance, if there was one, to show up. And yes, she admitted, she had called the T.V. people when the ambulance had arrived, but later they declined to interview her on the air, since she hadn’t really seen anything.

  But she’d seen a man hanging around, she said. A man in a bright blue windbreaker, blue jeans and brown shoes, who had gotten out of a car after the police arrived. It was a grey Pontiac, she said, just like her sister’s, and she’d thought for a moment her sister was coming to visit. But Maureen always called first so she knew it wasn’t her sister.

  Ellie and I listened patiently while the old woman rambled on. Then she told us she’d watched him putting flyers on all the car’s windshields on both sides of the street. But she’d lost sight of him when he was directly below her at the apartment’s entrance.

  Then she said she was surprised when she saw him again a few minutes later. He’d taken the windbreaker off and he was walking all bent over as though he’d hurt himself.

  “And it was the same man?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “How do you know?” Ellie asked her.

  “He was wearing the same jeans and shoes,” she said and then added smugly, “and he got into the same car, the one just like my sister’s.”

  “You must have remarkable eyesight,” I told her.

  Her eyes strayed involuntarily to a small table beside the window. A pair of good quality military style binoculars stood on it.

  “They were my husband’s,” she said, with a trace of guilt in her voice. “He’s long gone now and I don’t have much else to keep me occupied at my age.”

  She paused for a moment and looked embarrassed.

  “I know I shouldn’t have done this, what with people’s privacy and all but…” She paused again momentarily and then blurted, “I took a picture of him. What with all the cops around and all, I thought he just looked odd and out of place to me.”

  “You what!” I gasped.

  “Well, I know I shouldn’t have, but I can easily erase it off the camera card if you think it’s illegal.”

  “Illegal, hell,” I said, “I think it’s bloody marvelous! It’s the break we’ve been looking for. Bless you, ma’am. Where is it?”

  She went away to fetch her camera. Ellie and I sat there like a pair of kids waiting to open Christmas presents. When she came back, she started to apologize and my heart sank, until I realized she was just apologizing for not having a print of it. When I looked at the shot in the playback mode, I could see she’d shot it at almost maximum digital zoom. The image was only slightly blurred though since she said she’d steadied it on the window frame.

  This wonderful old lady had caught an almost full face shot of the Butler getting into his car!

  The Butler now had a face! All we needed now was a name, and, of course, we still had to catch him.

  She agreed to let us take her camera card away with us and we both thanked her profusely for her help. If you were only a wee bit younger, I thought, I’d hire you and fire that dumb cop, a guy who was paid to be observant.

  We were ecstatic about our successful trip and the fact we’d been able to uncover the Butler’s little deception - and we even had a photo of him!

  We’d have to watch out for such things in the future, we agreed, as we rehashed our visit in detail. We even made sure we’d got her name right, so we could call on her later on as a witness. I was pleased too, I was able to keep Ellie well in the loop.

  Unfortunately for Detective Spicer and his informant, someone else was also in the loop as well. The additional bug the Butler had placed in their cruiser was busily relaying every word Spicer and Ellie Todd were saying. The Butler now knew everything that had gone on in the old woman’s apartment. He listened very carefully and very angrily as Spicer spelled out the old woman’s name for his new partner. The woman’s name was Mrs. Doris Thoreau.

  Well now, Mrs. Thoreau, you know what happens to people who talk out of turn, don’t you? They get silenced, Mrs. Thoreau, that’s what happens to them, the Butler said aloud. Officer Newton Winders, you’ll get a reprieve today. Old Mrs. Thoreau has taken over your priority!

  Later that evening, the police cruisers were once again at Sullivan’s apartment block, and once again, the ambulance crew removed a female’s dead body. Mrs. Thoreau would make it on to the T.V. screens after all. As the lead item on the 11 o’clock news!

  “I think I’ve got the connection figured, Boss,” Jan Langham said, as soon as we’d all settled ourselves down in my office for
our morning update. I’d wanted to start off the session by producing the Butler’s photo, like a rabbit out of a hat, to gasps of astonishment from my team. But Jan had preempted me a little.

  “Connection, Jan?” I asked.

  “Yeah, the one thing that links all these homicides together,” she said.

  “And that is?”

  She paused, obviously wanting her own moment in the limelight.

  “Us, Boss. It’s us. We are the connection, the common denominator.”

  We all looked at her questioningly.

  “Cops,” she explained. “I’ve been doing a bit of spare time researching and I’ve discovered all of the victims, without exception, were all related in some way to cops. Sisters, wives, girlfriends and so on, and of course, Sharon was a cop too.”

  “Why cops in particular, I wonder?” Ellie asked.

  There was a moment of silence as the rest of us did our own wondering.

  “Do you think a close relative of the Butler’s was injured, killed or put away by cops somehow?” Newt offered.

  “And this is all about revenge against cops then?” Ellie wondered aloud.

  “Hang on a minute, Jan,” I said. “Where did you get all this information from?”

  “Well, once I’d found out the victims were not all from the City, I started to check into their backgrounds. They were from all over the State, but again, out of town or not, they were all here in the City when they were murdered.”

  “That’s great, Jan, but you don’t have to do this kind of thing on your own time. Figure out how many hours you spent on it and I’ll see you’re reimbursed for it. And, now, Newt, anything more on the roses angle?” I asked.

  “Ah,” he said, shaking his head, “I knew you’d be asking that, Lieutenant, and no I haven’t got anything more yet.”

  “If you knew I’d be asking, Newt, it would’ve made sense to have had it ready, wouldn’t it? Please don’t give me the same answer tomorrow morning. And, now, Ellie, would you please tape this up on the board and tell our colleagues who it’s a picture of.”

  I handed her Mrs. Thoreau’s photo, now blown up to 8” x 10”.