“Right, and pirates were bad guys who went against the norms of society. They broke the laws or the rules. They used the skull and bones to represent their lifestyle. It also took on the meaning of evilness and the image of the flag on a sailing ship would put fear into their victims. It’s also still used today to identify certain poisons on various household items. Some people use it as a sign to others that they live a pirate lifestyle, or they somehow identify that way.”
Axel, Gary, and Beck didn’t say anything. They just sat quietly and listened.
“PPK believes that when he has his knife, he becomes someone else. Ideally, he becomes his alter ego in his fantasy world. He sees himself as a pirate or simply a person who doesn't have to follow the rules of society. PPK is the total opposite of who he portrays in his everyday life in front of others.”
“You’re going back to the cop thing again,” Gary said as he stood, walked over to the wall, and turned on the lights.
“Listen. A cop represents good, and a pirate represents bad if you will. I still believe PPK is someone in the law enforcement profession,” Jaxson admitted once more.
“You guys have been in this investigation for months. Have you ever really asked why you don’t have more evidence than you have? Whoever the suspect is, he’s familiar with forensics, and he knows how not to get caught or leave behind any evidence,” Jaxson added and then sat down.
“We have some DNA,” Beck added.
“Yes but no match, because he’s not in the database,” Jaxson said in response.
“I think you’re right, Jaxson. Gary, let’s get out of here and see if we can get anything else going on this. Jaxson would you like to help us find a killer?” Axel asked.
Jaxson nodded his head and smiled. The three then stood up and started to leave.
“Hey, wait. I just got this in an email,” Beck said as he walked over to Gary carrying a sheet of paper.
“The gun search you had me do on the Sharon Douglas murder just came back. It looks like a lot of people own a .38 in Colorado Springs.”
Axel walked over and looked at the email.
“Yes, but the most recent purchase of a .38 in Colorado Springs was by a woman.”
“So,” Gary remarked.
“A woman named Elaine Lambert.”
Axel and Gary looked at one another and started for the door.
“Gary! Call dispatch have them send a marked cruiser out to Richard and Elaine Lambert’s home and then get us a radio. I’ll get the car.” Axel ordered.
“What’s going on?” Jaxson shouted as his two new partners ran out the door.
“Something big, I suggest you try to keep up,” Beck said.
***
“May I go with you today, Rich?”
“Elaine, why are you calling me Rich?”
“Honey, you never complained before when I called you Rich. Remember, in college, when we were dating, you called me Elle. I miss those days,” Elaine remarked as she walked toward Richard as he sat on the edge of their bed putting on his shoes.
When she reached him, she stood over him, placed her hand on his head, and then rubbed the back of it.
“Damn it! Elaine, would you stop! I’m trying to get ready,” Richard shouted as he pushed her hand away.
Elaine stood there as her husband walked into the bathroom. She wondered where he could be going. Wherever it was, she would not be with him nor would she ever know whom it was that he was meeting with, but she knew who it wouldn’t be this time, and that was Sharon Douglas.
Elaine sat on their bed and reached into her sweater. She thought the metal in her hand felt heavy and cold. Tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes. She allowed her thoughts to drift to the past. She remembered all the happy times that they shared.
The memories of staying out late under the stars on a blanket and dreaming about their future together brought the tears down her cheek. She was no stranger to tears as there were many lonely nights that she’d lain awake in bed feeling abandoned, worthless, and wondering where he was and who he was with.
“You know that crying isn’t going to help, Elaine. I’m still leaving, but I’ll be back later. I have important matters to take care of before five o’clock,” Richard explained from the bathroom while he stood there looking at himself in the mirror.
“What will help us, Richard?”
“What’s all of this drama about Elaine?”
Elaine turned and faced her husband, who had walked back into the bedroom. Her hand was still clutching the solution to their relationship problems. The room started spinning, she began sobbing more and placed her hand over her mouth. She looked down at the floor and pulled out the .38 from her sweater pocket.
“Elaine what the…”
“Shut up, Richard! Do you know what I’ve done for you?” Elaine screamed as she pointed the gun at her husband.
Richard stood motionless for a moment and wondered what he could do or say to get Elaine to put the gun down.
“Elaine put the gun down and let’s talk about this,” Richard said as he walked toward her slowly.
She was angry and all the years of distrust had built up to this one moment. Suddenly, they poured out all at once in one violent, blood-curdling scream. Elaine’s body tensed, and unexpectedly the gun went off. The recoil surprised her. She looked down at the pistol, and the barrel was still smoking in her hand.
“Elaine! What have you done?” Richard asked as he stood there in front of her holding his left shoulder.
Blood was quickly pouring from the wound. He started to get lightheaded. He slowly sat on the floor and looked at the women he had hurt many times in the past. Now, for the first time since their wedding, he felt shame for himself, pity for her, and sadness for all that he had done to her. Now, it came down to this one moment.
Elaine stood, raised the gun one last time, and pointed it at Richard, who was now crawling on the floor toward the phone.
Chapter 25
“911 what is your emergency?”
“Yeah. I was jogging down the street near my house when I heard this woman scream, and then I think I heard a gunshot.”
“Where is this occurring, sir?”
“I think the address is 1117 Fairview Avenue in the Woodlake Estates Neighborhood Community.”
“Sir, are you in any danger right now?”
“No. Are you going to send anyone out here to check it out?”
“Yes, we are. The police are on the way. Sir, can you see the house from where you are now?”
“No, I’m at home I would’ve called sooner, but I left my cell phone at the house when I left to go running.”
***
Axel and Jaxson reached the car and quickly pulled it around to the backdoor of the building. Gary soon appeared at the door wearing his bulletproof vest over his shirt and tie and carrying a radio.
As he reached the car, he opened the front door, not knowing that Jaxson was sitting there. Any other time, he would have argued and had him get out and take the back seat, but for now, he was in a hurry, and there was no time to argue.
“We’re going to 1117 Fairview Avenue. Put the red light on the dashboard and turn on the siren with that switch under the radio,” Gary ordered from the back.
Jaxson did as he was instructed without question as Axel sped out of the police station toward 1117 Fairview.
***
“Elaine! Please! Stop it! I know you’re just not thinking right now. I’m sorry for all the things that I’ve done to you!” Richard pleaded with his wife to stop what she was doing. For the first time, he saw the strength she possessed that she was now bringing down upon him.
As she stood there, continuing to sob and holding the gun on her husband, there came a knock on the front door. At first, she didn’t hear it. She just moved closer to Richard, who now had stopped moving toward the phone. He laid there on the floor next to the bed, bleeding.
“Police department! Please come to the door,” a m
ale voice from outside yelled as he knocked louder.
“Elaine let them in…Put the gun down and let them in.”
Elaine walked over to the window and saw the police car parked a few hundred feet down the street just as another car pulled in behind it. She watched as three men got out and ran toward the house. Richard continued to lay there as his blood began pooling under him. Elaine moved from the window to his side. She then knelt beside him and started to rub his head. The gun was still in her hand with her finger on the trigger.
“So much pain, Richard. I want it all to go away, and I want the source of my pain to go away as well.”
“Elaine, please. Please stop. I love you,” Richard pleaded.
Elaine bent over and kissed his lips. Her tears fell upon his face. He closed his eyes, and for the first time in many years, he started to cry. Elaine saw the tears that were running back behind his head, and she wiped them away with the sleeve of her sweater.
“I’ve always loved you, my Richard. Those women thought that I’d share you with them. All those women. There were so many Richard. So many. They never loved you, but I did even after the first. I tried to get you to love me back, but I couldn’t. I even tried to stop it all. It was so difficult killing her the other day.”
***
The trio made it to the house quickly, beating the cover officers who were still en route. On the way over, Gary explained to Axel and Jaxson that he had called dispatch and informed them of where they were going. That’s when he was told by the dispatcher that she had just sent two officers to that address for a ‘possible shots fired’ call for service.
“Have you heard anything since you got here?” Axel asked Officer Davis, who was the first to respond to the residence after the 911 call came in.
“No. When you pulled up, I saw movement in the window there on the top floor,” Officer Davis answered as he pointed to the window with one hand and held his duty weapon in the other.
Axel looked at Gary and the other two men. He received a nod from his longtime partner. Axel tightened the bulletproof vest that he had taken from the backseat when they had arrived. He then leaned forward and tried the doorknob, and discovered that it was unlocked. In a low whisper, he began to speak.
“Davis, tell dispatch that we’re making entry into the residence, and you go around back with Agent Locke here. Gary and I’ll go in the front door and clear the house. Don’t come in unless you hear from us on the radio to do so. I don’t want any accidental cross shooting!” Axel ordered.
Jaxson and Davis moved to the back of the house. Gary watched from the front step as Jaxson jogged behind Davis.
“Are you ready?” Gary asked.
“I’m right behind you.”
The two detectives entered the front door. They stepped quietly onto the hardwood floor, being careful not to make any noise. Axel stood behind a corner wall next to a painting of Pikes Peak. Gary moved behind him, and the two paused. The sounds of someone moaning in pain came from somewhere upstairs. Gary moved from behind Axel and motioned for him to cover him from below while he walked, slowly up the stairs.
The stairs were carpeted, which helped mask the noise, which he needed to make it upstairs without being detected. When he reached the top, he could hear someone talking from what he believed to be the master bedroom. He then motioned for Axel to follow him up the stairs.
“Richard, look at me please,” Elaine said.
Richard, who was beginning to pass out, slowly opened his eyes and looked at his wife, a killer. She was now standing over him with the gun still in her hand.
“You know Sharon and her husband both had lovers other than each other. I tried to stop the affair between you two, and that’s how I found out. I went to her home and told her husband. He first acted concerned, but then he just told me that I should handle my own problems at home and to leave the two of them alone.”
“Elaine...” Richard said, trying to speak.
“Let me finish. At first, I thought it was just his way of dealing with the news of his cheating wife. So, when you continued to sneak around with her, I drove back over to their home and saw him pull into the driveway with a woman, who wasn’t Sharon. Sure, I thought that maybe she was a family friend or relative, but then I saw them embrace each other at the side door of the house. She kissed him and placed her hands down the front of his pants. They both laughed and fell through the door, still embracing each other. It made me sick, Richard. I came home and sat in the living room, waiting for you to come home from work. That’s when I realized that if he was out with another woman, then his wife was with another man. MY MAN!” Elaine yelled and then wiped more tears away.
“I bought this gun and intended to kill myself, Richard. Do you know that? I carried it in my pocket around the house. You might've noticed if you ever stopped to hug me or touch me the way you used to do when you loved me.”
Axel made his way toward his partner. Gary had taken cover behind the corner of the wall at the top of the stairs.
“The day ‘the salesman' came over, I knew who he really was. I could hear everything the two of you were saying from our bedroom window. I knew then that the things you were doing would affect everything in our lives, and in my father’s as well,” Elaine explained.
Axel stopped behind Gary and waited for his signal.
“I think if my father knew about what you were doing, he wouldn’t have been happy. So, I didn’t tell him, even though I wanted to. I needed someone to talk to. I remember the other day in the park when I walked up to her car and smiled at her like I always have done. At first, I’d just planned on asking her to keep quiet about the two of you so that we wouldn’t be ridiculed in the newspaper. And no, I didn’t want to protect you; it was my father who I was thinking about. I’ve decided that I’m done protecting the likes of you.”
Gary motioned for Axel to follow as he began to move toward the bedroom door.
“As Sharon put the window down, I remembered the days that she and I worked together. All of those fundraisers during the holidays we worked side by side. You know she smiled at me. It was like she was laughing at me. It was like she was saying how a fool like me could be so stupid not to know that I’m sleeping with her husband. I can't even recall how it happened. I just remember standing there with the gun in my hand and looking at her body slumped forward. I didn’t even hear the gun go off.”
Gary slowly peeked around the corner and saw a woman standing over Richard Lambert holding a gun.
“I just placed the gun in my purse and walked away, and no one stopped me. I continued to look behind me as I walked down the sidewalk, but no one was chasing after me. It was as if I was supposed to kill her, and now Richard, I believe that I’m supposed to kill you.”
Elaine raised the gun even with her husband’s chest and began to pull the trigger with tears falling to the floor. She closed her eyes, and a shot rang out through the house. Gary quickly entered the bedroom with his pistol focused on his target. For a moment Elaine stood there with a hole in her chest. Blood began to flow down her abdomen; she looked up at Gary and Axel who were running into the room toward her.
Everything was moving in slow motion. She could hear no sounds and feel no pain. She smiled and pulled the trigger, hitting her husband in the chest. Gary fired once more hitting her in the chest again. With the detective’s second shot, she fell to the floor, still holding the gun. Her eyes were still open when Gary stood above her with his gun still pointed at her. Axel moved to the side of her and took the gun from her hand.
Using the radio, Axel called for an ambulance and a supervisor. Gary leaned down and felt for a pulse in Elaine’s neck. There was none. He placed his pistol into his holster and then used his other hand and closed her eyes shut.
“Gary! This guy is still alive. Grab me a towel from the bathroom.”
Gary didn’t say a word. He just stood and walked into the bathroom where he retrieved a towel that was hanging from the wall. Axel was s
quatting next to Richard Lambert. He took the bath towel from Gary and placed it over the wounds as best as he could.
Jaxson and Officer Davis entered the room with pistols at the ready. Gary walked past them, into the hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door where he sat on the porch.
The sounds of sirens howled in the distance and grew increasingly louder as they neared the house. Jaxson attempted to help Axel stop the bleeding of the now unconscious Richard Lambert.
“I’ll set up a perimeter around the house and begin a roster of the people entering the scene, Detective Frost,” Officer Davis said as he walked back into the hallway.
“I don’t think this guy is going to make it, Axel,” Jaxson stated as he applied pressure to the chest wound.
“Jaxson, all we can do is what we’re doing now. Just keep applying pressure,” Axel said in response.
Chapter 26
It wasn’t long before the EMTs arrived and took over the care of Richard Lambert. Richard was placed on a gurney and rushed out of the room while the paramedics performed C.P.R. on his limp body. Jaxson and Axel walked outside and were sitting in the back of the evidence van that had just arrived when Lt. Wilson walked over.
“Are you guys, okay?” Wilson asked after observing the dried blood on the two of them.
“We’re okay. It’s not our blood,” Axel answered.
“Where’s your partner?”
“In the car over there,” Axel spoke tiredly.
“The sergeant who arrived first went ahead and took his gun and gave it to Beck to place into evidence,” Axel explained.
“How’s he doing?”
“I think he’ll be all right eventually. You know how he is. When the sergeant walked up, he didn’t have to say anything to Gary. Gary just reached into his holster and handed him his gun. He then walked over and sat in the car.”
“Get him to the station. Internal Affairs will want to speak to the two of you after they’re done here.”
Heartbeats of a Killer Page 15
