QR Code Killer

by Shanna Hatfield

  After a simple dinner, Danny, Erik and Maddie sat around the table looking at the information, trying again to find the piece of information Maddie was convinced would be the key to unlocking Zeus’ secrets.

  Finally, Erik went to the office and Googled the word Zeus. From there, he went through a number of searches and various websites.

  Reading up on mythology, a few thoughts struck Erik, so he jotted down some notes and returned to where Maddie and Danny sat in the kitchen.

  “I don’t know if this means anything,” Erik said, “but did Tom say if they looked over the art in the gallery below Zeus’ apartment?”

  “No, he didn’t say. The gallery itself seemed legitimate enough,” Maddie said. “Why?”

  “The information I was just reading said the eagle and oak are symbols of Zeus. In theory, what if there was a piece of art in the gallery that was a symbol of Zeus. You did say some of the pieces in the gallery were for display only and not for sale. Maybe I’ve watched too many crime shows, but what if one of those pieces held the truth to Zeus’s identity.”

  “You’re a genius!” Maddie said, throwing her arms around Erik and kissing his cheek. “I’m calling Tom right now.”

  While Maddie was on the phone, Danny and Erik went over the list of information found in Zeus’ apartment. Other than the passports, there was nothing that alluded to him personally. And each passport had a fake name as well as identity. It would be hard to tell which one of the many photos was the real Zeus, if any of them were.

  Before Maddie hung up the phone, Danny signaled that he wanted to talk to the boss.

  “Tom, I’m sure you’ve already done this, but can you run all the passport photos through facial recognition again. The one thing that is consistent in all the photos is the shape of his face around his eyes. Can they focus in on that specific area and see if they find anything?”

  “We’ll run them again, thanks for thinking of it,” Tom said. “See if you can get Maddie to rest and make sure Erik has a gun. Zeus is getting more unpredictable and antsy.”

  “Will do, Tom. Goodnight.”

  Turning to Maddie, Danny shot her one of his trademark grins. “The boss said to tell you to get some rest and to listen to everything I tell you to do.”

  “Why don’t I believe you, Danny Boy?” Maddie said, her head cocked to one side.

  “I don’t know why, but I think you should bring both of us a big bowl of ice cream and then belt out a few choruses from West Side Story, or maybe Oklahoma!,” Danny teased. “Don’t you think so, Erik?”

  “Absolutely,” Erik agreed, leaning back in his chair far enough that the front legs came up off the floor. Maddie stomped over to him and shoved the chair back down.

  “There will be no manly breaking of chair legs, no singing and if you want ice cream you two can just get it yourself.”

  “I’m not sure what your opinion is Maddie. Maybe you need to speak more clearly for us,” Danny said with a roguish smile.

  “How does Aubrey put up with you?” Maddie asked, feigning annoyance. “Does she truly realize what she is getting into saddling herself with you for the rest of forever?”

  “I think she’s got a pretty good idea,” Danny said, sending Maddie a wink.

  Maddie gave him a shove along with a smile.

  “I don’t think any of us are going to sleep soundly tonight and I’m all for someone being on watch. I’ll volunteer to go first.”

  “Fine, Maddie, but I think we should all sleep down here tonight,” Erik said, standing up from the table and stretching. “Danny could stay in Lena’s room and I can sleep on the couch.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Danny said, walking down the hall. “Just wake me up when you want me to take a turn. Erik, Tom said to be sure you’ve got a gun on you. If you don’t have one, borrow one from Maddie. There are more guns than a dirty pawn shop could unload hidden around this house.”

  “That is not true,” Maddie said. “Only half that many.”

  Giving Erik Zach’s pistol and finding bedding for the couch, she gave Erik a quick kiss goodnight before returning to the kitchen.

  The echo of something from her past, some vital little nugget of memory, was growing stronger. Maddie knew it would come to her. She just hoped it would be soon. Time was not on their side and the likelihood that Zeus would come completely unhinged in the very near future was all too real.

  By one in the morning, Maddie was exhausted and could no longer keep her eyes open. She went and roused Danny out of bed and collapsed in the spot he vacated.

  When she awoke the next morning, Erik and Danny were both nursing cups of strong black coffee, looking gritty-eyed and bone-tired.

  “You both look like you got dragged through a knot-hole upside down and backward.”

  “Well, I’ve seen you looking more glamorous a time or two yourself, Miss Beauty Queen,” Danny commented, sipping his coffee. “Or is it Little Miss Maddie-Pants?”

  Her appearance was about the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. Every time she would drift off to sleep a voice, Zeus’ voice minus the accent, would trip around her mind, poking at the embers of something just out of her mental grasp. It was about to drive her mad.

  At John’s arrival, Danny accompanied him back out to yesterday’s crime scene while Erik did the few chores that needed done in the barn, fed and watered the livestock nearby, and looked with regret at the crops that needed attention. The wheat harvest should be starting any day and hay bales still stood waiting to be picked up in one field. He itched to climb in the stacker and scoop up the bales, layering them into neat stacks.

  Instead he turned and looked at the old farm house. This farm had been his home for almost four months. He’d come to love not only Maddie, but the land, and her family. He missed her dad and could only imagine the grief she had packed away so she could keep focused on the case. He had never met a woman like Maddie - so strong and determined to do what was right, no matter the personal cost to her.

  She was one of a kind.

  While he was standing in the shade of the barn, Boone wandered over to him and sat whining by his knee. The dog was usually full of pep and vigor. Today, he was oddly subdued and unsure.

  Even before Boone started to growl, Erik felt the hair on his neck stand on end. Zeus was here, close enough to smell his fear, close enough to get to Maddie if he let him. Erik might be a simple farmer, but he was also a resourceful one. Stretching out his hand, quietly and slowly, he grasped the handle of a nearby pitchfork where it stuck in a bale of hay. He left Zach’s pistol in the house, forgetting to bring it with him outside. He had a gun in his pickup, but it was parked across the yard by the machine shed. Zeus would riddle him full of holes before he took three steps in that direction.

  Feeling cold steel against his neck, Erik knew the time had come to end this nightmare.

  <><><>

  Maddie sat at the table, ready to scream. Why would the one elusive little bit of information not come to the surface of her tormented mind? Resting her head in her hands, she took deep breaths and let her thoughts tumble. Devin had once told her she needed to learn to better control her mind and she could better control what was going on around her.

  She thought of Devin, her parents, of Danny’s partner, the countless others who had died by Zeus’ tainted hand. There was no reason for it. No personal gain for him other than to watch the suffering of others.

  Suddenly, the cobwebs in Maddie’s mind cleared and she realized with perfect, absolute clarity who Zeus really was.

  Digging for her phone, she called Tom. He answered on the first ring.

  “Maddie, Erik was right,” Tom said, so excited he didn’t give her a chance to talk. “There is a huge bronze oak tree in the art gallery. The base was hollow. You’ll never guess what we found there. Zeus is really…”

  “I know, Tom. I just figured it out. The photos, the details. How did we miss this all along? He played us all for fools.”
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br />   “Well, we’ve got him now. We just need to find him. I’m sending a team out on the first flight this morning. They’ll be there soon.”

  It was then Maddie noticed a small brown envelope peeking out from the pile of papers scattered across the table.

  “He’s been in the house, Tom,” Maddie said, ripping open the envelope and finding another QR Code. Using her old phone she scanned it while keeping Tom on the other phone.

  Sucking in her breath, it was a photo of Erik with a message.

  “Goodbye, lover boy. You could do so much better than a stupid farmer.”

  “I have a feeling he isn’t going to be hard to find. I better go let Erik…” Maddie heard gunshots out at the barn and ran for the door. “Tom, he’s here. He’s here right now. I hear gunfire. Erik is out there and he doesn’t even have a gun on him. Call Danny for me.”

  Quietly opening the kitchen door, Maddie cautiously worked her way from the house, keeping an eye on the barn. As she got closer, she found their dog Rose dead, then saw Boone lying in a pool of blood by the barn’s double doors. Wanting to run to the dog as she watched his erratic breathing, she instead circled carefully around to the barn’s side door, which was open.

  Stepping inside, she willed her eyes to quickly adjust to the dim interior. The smells of hay, manure and horse wafted around her along with the smell of gun powder.

  Keeping her Glock drawn, she worked her way farther into the barn, moving slowly. Listening intently, she could hear the rasp of labored breathing coming from behind her. Turning, she made her way down the barn aisle without making a sound, terrified of what she would find. A pair of brown leather work boots stuck out in the aisle. As she got closer, she could see a trickle of blood soaking into a blue-jean clad leg. Erik’s leg.

  Wanting to cry out, Maddie continued to move with stealth and purpose. When she reached the stall, Erik sat propped against the door, holding his fist to his stomach while his life-blood poured out around him. A wound to his leg bled profusely.

  Looking up at Maddie with anguish-filled eyes, he mouthed, “Run,” before Maddie felt her feet kicked out from under her. Rolling, she brought her gun up with her as she gained her feet and turned to face Zeus head on.

  “Maddie, dear, how lovely for you to come out and join us this morning,” Zeus said, waving a semi-automatic in her face. “Beautiful day for a killing, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Yours,” Maddie said. Out of respect to everything her mother had tried to instill in her about being a lady, she refrained from spitting on the wretched man in front of her.

  “Maddie, you wound me so,” Zeus said, taking a step toward her, his brown eyes filled with lust and an odd, deranged light. “I only want…”

  “I don’t care what you want, you foul, despicable vermin,” Maddie said, taking a step back. She wanted to get Zeus away from Erik. If she could disarm him, she might have time to save Erik before he bled to death. “And you can drop the lousy accent.”

  “Fine, have it your way,” Zeus said, losing the accent and his patience, running a hand through his ebony hair. “You need to make a choice, Maddie. I’m willing to forgive your little transgressions, you’re digging into my personal life, but I can't abide the fact that you’re trying to ruin the empire I’ve created. All you have to do is promise to be mine. I’ll give you the best of everything. You’ll never want for anything at all.”

  “Yes, I would,” Maddie said, continuing to back away from Erik while Zeus followed. “I’d want for love. I’d want for real affection. I’d want for mercy and grace and truth. You are one of the most cold-hearted, manipulative, soulless animals that I’ve ever seen. You know I’ve seen a lot, don’t you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You,” Maddie said, taunting Zeus. “You think you are a God. You think you’re better than everyone else. That all people are beneath you. Isn’t that right?”

  Zeus said nothing, just smiled a demented smile.

  “You are a nobody. A nothing. You could fall off the face of the earth and not one single person would care. You know why? Because you aren’t a God, Zeus. You aren’t even a man. You are spineless coward.”

  “Shut up,” Zeus said, advancing toward her, malice settling around him like a dark cloud. “Just shut up, Maddie. You never did know when to stop talking, when to let things rest.”

  “No, I never did,” Maddie said, looking at him intently. “I never learned that lesson, did I, Devin?”

  Zeus’s head shot up in surprise.

  “Go on and deny it, but I know it’s you,” Maddie said, almost to the open barn door. Her partner and former boyfriend had been a handsome, happy-go-lucky guy with blond hair and blue eyes. The monster in front of her had dark hair, dark eyes and a dark stubble of growth on his cheeks and chin. Studying him, though, she could see a glimpse of the Devin she knew in his face. “Why, Devin? Why did you fake your death? Why did you turn into this horrid person? What did I ever do to you to create this vendetta you have against me?”

  Devin laughed, the echo reverberating off the barn walls with a sound of mad desperation. “It didn’t take long to figure out the bad guys pay really well. And when you become more masterful than all of them, there is no limit to the money, the luxury, the power that is yours for the taking. Zeus was the perfect name don’t you think? My last name, spelled backwards. I’m surprised it took you this long to figure out, but then you wouldn’t want to believe the worst of me. Zeus is who I became. Every one feared me. I could control anyone I wanted simply by telling them my name. Others fell at my feet to do my bidding. But you, Maddie, were going to mess up all my plans. You were too good of a cop. You were getting too close to figuring out who Zeus really was. So I decided killing Devin was the only way to maintain my new identity. Devin really did die that day because when I came out of the water, I was one hundred percent Zeus. There was one thing I regretted - leaving you behind. I really missed you.”

  Devin reached out a hand and ran it over Maddie’s hair, the crazed light in his eyes growing brighter. Maddie forced herself not to shudder in revulsion. How could she have once thought this sick monster was someone worthy of holding her heart?

  “We were good together, Maddie. And I loved you. Not as much as being Zeus, but enough to want you with me. If you had just listened to me, heeded my warnings, so much of this could have been avoided.”

  “You knew I couldn’t stop doing my job, Devin. You knew you couldn’t scare me off. You shouldn’t have wasted your time trying. Look what it’s gotten you.”

  A snide scowl crossed Devin’s face. “It’s gotten me riches beyond measure, influence, status, everything I’ve ever wanted. Well, nearly everything. And I’ll have it all before I kill you.”

  “No, you won’t,” Maddie said, taking another step back. She could feel the sunshine on her back, just a few more steps and she could run for cover, get some help and save Erik.

  “I will, Maddie. I must have you, once and for all, then I’ll say goodbye with a bullet to that lovely little head of yours.”

  Devin lunged forward and grabbed Maddie in a death grip. She struggled against him, but it was no use. She decided to save her strength and gathered her wits. She had a knife in her boot and the Glock was crushed between her and Devin. She could pull the trigger now, but odds were high she’d injure herself instead of him.

  Maddie let him drag her back toward Erik, knowing she would have one chance to finish this.

  “I think it would be fun for your boyfriend to watch what I’m going to do to you, provided he isn’t yet dead.”

  “You’re disgusting,” Maddie said, kicking half-heartedly against him. She wanted him to think she was weak and tired with no strength left to fight.

  “Must you continue with the degrading labels, Maddie? You used to say such nice things to me. Can’t you say them again?”

  “Like what things?” Maddie asked, wanting to distract him.

  “You mean you don’t remember?�
� Devin asked, sounding truly wounded. “I thought you loved me, Maddie. You said you did. You told me I was the most handsome man you ever met. You used to kiss me like you couldn’t get enough of me. You honestly don’t remember?”

  Maddie noticed Erik’s legs were no longer sticking out of the stall. Hoping he was hiding somewhere safe, she kept Devin occupied.

  “It’s starting to come back to me,” Maddie purred against Devin. “Maybe if you let me go, I can see about remembering.”

  Devin set her down, keeping a tight grip on one arm, grasping her Glock in the other. Maddie pulled his head down toward hers, turning his head so she could suck on his earlobe. She heard him groan and ran her lips down his jaw. Devin closed his eyes and started to sway toward her. Just when he reached out for her, Erik came from behind the stall door and slammed the back of Devin’s head with a shovel handle.

  Momentarily stunned and unable to move, Erik shoved at Maddie and yelled “Run!” while Devin regained his equilibrium. Maddie took a huge step back only to watch Devin level her Glock and aim it at Erik’s head.

  “Say goodbye to your simpleton farmer, Maddie,” Devin said before slumping to the ground, clutching his chest.

  “I always was a better shot than you,” Maddie said, firing the derringer she kept hidden in her pocket. Running to Erik as he collapsed, she cradled him to her and cried. “Hang on, baby. Please, hang on.”

  Just a few moments passed when she heard the approach of a vehicle and Danny calling her name.

  “In the barn, Danny,” Maddie yelled. “Hurry!”

  Danny ran down the barn aisle, followed by John. The blare of sirens in the distance grew louder.

  “Are you okay,” Danny asked, stopping beside her.

  “I’m fine, but I’m worried about Erik. He’s lost a lot of blood.”