by Rick Murcer
“I’ll go with you,” said Big Harv.
“I think you should stay with us,” said Bella, smiling. “You’re retired, like old people do, but you might be able to help, if you remember how to do investigations, that is.”
“Old my ass. And now you want me to help you earn your damned pay check?” answered Big Harv, a twinkle in his eye.
“That’s right,” said Bella, blowing him a kiss.
“Sugar ain’t gonna help you here, Sanchez,” said Big Harv, the twinkle getting brighter.
Ellen loved to see that sparkle, even in these circumstances.
“We just want to get this guy. Now,” said Brice, a little of that cold, get to work flavor rising in his voice. “We need your help.”
“Relax, Brice. You’re right. I’ve got a couple of angles we need to explore as well.”
Brice sighed. “Sorry for the attitude, Cap. It’s not always gone. Thanks for helping.”
He turned to Ellen. “I’ll send a couple of blues with you just in case the lunatic comes back.” Then he kissed her.
She didn’t think his lips had ever been cold when he kissed her. Kisses like that, intentional or not, held meaning. For one short moment, she thought she was going to throw him on the ground and rip his clothes off. She wondered what Big Harv would think of that.
She turned back to the young man beside The Father.
“Henry?” asked Ellen.
“Yes. It’s this way.” He raised his arm to point, but never looked at her.
She stole another look at Henry’s shirt and jacket, taking in the blood on the jacket and then noticing a thin line of blood spatter running over his right shoulder. Not much, a few drops, but consistent with what she’d seen at other crime scenes.
Did he get that running into this other man? Maybe? Doubtful? She hid her frown to mask where her mind was heading.
It could be nothing. It could have happened like he said, right?
A second later, her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. Damn it. She’d forgotten to turn the ringer on after they got to the crime scene. Aaron may have been trying to call her with the results of the DNA test and she hadn’t realized it.
In an instant, her heart began to pound. He had something. She knew it.
“Aaron?”
“Ellie?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been calling non-stop for ten minutes. I just left Brice and Bella and Big Harv messages to have you call me.”
“Why? Results from the blood test?”
“Maybe. Where are you?”
Her impatience flowered. “What difference does that make?”
“It just does.”
“I’m at part of the crime scene. Tell me why you called.”
“What? You’re processing Joel’s scene?”
“No. Not that area, Aaron. Good God, tell me why you’re calling.”
The following pregnant pause had reminded her of something that Hollywood did on its crime dramas to ramp up the tension in a revealing scene.
“Sorry. I finished the DNA processing and ran the chip through CODIS. At first, there was nothing, then it updated and we got a hit.”
“And?”
Before he could answer, three loud shots rang out in quick succession. Ellen felt Brice grab her, pulling her to the ground. But not before she saw a detective’s chest explode. Twice.
CHAPTER-40
Henry rushed toward the sound of the gunfire. Raymond said he’d get him the help he needed, but the rest was up to him. Henry knew what that meant. He’d not truly understood the first time in Sacramento. But in Detroit, he got it.
No matter to what extent he believed what he did was right and in line with the special gifts Raymond and Amanda said he possessed, the law felt otherwise. He knew they’d find him. It only made sense. That fact didn’t make their laws just and his void.
Rushing down the block, passing the source of the shots, he turned right and ran harder.
Idiot cops. Wasn’t the bible full of incidents where people didn’t obey men but chose God’s way instead? He only cared about his path. His journey. His assignment and nothing for what others deemed as the rules. That’s why he’d agreed to do what he was asked. He’d taken joy in his work before. Much joy and still did. It meant something to usher people into the next world. Yet, the undertakings he had begun in South Chicago and here on the lower west side were about to finish.
There was a sudden spike of melancholy as he dwelled on the word finish. Doing what God had wanted didn’t seem like the sort of thing that could or would ever be finished. Yet, even the Apostles had run out of time.
The Apostles.
He stopped on the third block, bending over to catch his breath, the cool air reviving his every fiber.
Could that have been his calling? An Apostle? To help blaze a path of righteousness and awareness that others would eventually embrace?
Him?
His nostrils flared as he began yelling at himself. He fell to his knees on the cold, cracked cement and slammed his fist into his temple then again, then again, rocking his mind as spasms of colored lights danced in front of his closed eyes.
After one more haymaker, he crashed to the ground.
As his mind cleared, he reminded himself that such thoughts of equality with Peter or James or even Paul himself were just the Devil’s way of sweeping him off track and away from his purpose. But he wouldn’t be deterred. He still had work to do.
Standing, he touched the blood coming from his nose and smiled.
Proper punishment for improper thoughts. He deserved it. For his times of arrogance and selfishness, there was nothing more sobering than physical pain.
In the end, he had always been about justice and punishment. The people he’d killed had earned their fate. As he did. His mother had even said so. Mothers never lie. Never.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it and answered.
“Raymond?”
“Hey little brother. We’ll talk later. Now you need to do what we talked about. Go meet who you’re supposed to meet and we’ll hook up when it’s time, got me?”
“I get you. And thanks again. They were getting close, weren’t they?”
“That’s what our friend believed. He should know. Now move it.”
“Bye Raymond.”
Henry stuffed the phone in his jeans and began a brisk walk to his next to last rendezvous in Chicago. He gave himself a reassuring smile. He could hardly wait until they reached their new destination. He heard the women were especially bad in California.
CHAPTER-41
The hail of bullets and accompanying sound of artificial thunder stopped as suddenly as they had begun. Ellen had heard that kind of gunfire at the range from time to time, even with ear protection, but nothing she’d heard had matched the total experience. Ricochets, yelling, screaming fear were unnerving, but the image of that detective’s chest being torn to shreds would stay with her. Maybe forever.
“Ellie? Are you okay?”
Brice’s words sparked her back to the present, and to the man holding her. She suddenly realized that his strong arms were around her and that, somehow, he’d positioned himself between the gunfire and her.
Someone had told her that good men were hard to find. If that were true, she’d been luckier than most.
“Yeah, I’m good. A little shaken, but okay.”
“That would be two of us.”
That very instant, she saw Big Harv’s face in her mind’s eye. He’d been standing near the detectives when the lead storm had started.
“Dad? Dad!”
“I’m fine, Ellie. So is Sanchez,” answered Big Harv, his voice getting closer.
“Oh, I see how it is. Your dad first? I can’t believe family is more important than girlfriends,” said Bella, closer still.
Her heart skipped a beat again as she watched them walk toward her. “Why are you two away from your cover? Are you sure the shooters are gone? You cou
ld get a hole in your heads real quick.”
“Relax. They or he or she or whatever, are gone. I heard a vehicle tear out of here. And besides, these hit and run cowards don’t want to wait until the cops get our wits,” said Big Harv.
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am.”
“But what about that detective?”
She broke loose from Brice’s grip, as comforting as that had been, stood, reached down to help him up, then ran immediately to where Greg Malloy lay on the ground. She was quickly joined by Brice, Bella, Big Harv, and Malloy’s partner, Joan Walker.
It wasn’t pretty.
The man’s chest and abdomen were laid to waste, organs covered in blood and greenish fluid spilling from the wounds. Detective Malloy looked as if he’d been hit with a bomb. Ellen’s gaze moved away then returned. She noticed the wedding ring on his hand and felt her insides twist like some living pretzel. Did he have kids too?
Her mind imagined what that family would experience when they heard the news. She remembered how she’d felt when her mom had been killed and her dad had broken it to her.
She fought her anger at the thought of another life lost for no conceivable reason other than he was a cop in the wrong spot. Such a waste.
Ellen bent down to him as his partner kneeled next to her. She felt Walker’s trembling hand rest on her shoulder.
Slowly reaching down, Ellen coaxed his eyelids closed over wide, dark eyes that were first-hand witnesses of the world beyond this one.
Walker swallowed. “He was an ass sometimes, but, well, he was my partner. He had good stuff too, Ellie. He did,” she said softly.
“I know he did. We all do.” Her mind danced backed to Joel. She mustered strength to fight off tears at her own words.
We all do. Even Joel. Right?
Damn. Enough of these life epiphanies for one night. She filed away her personal philosophies for the moment. They had more pressing issues. Talk about a shit storm to work through.
She stood, looked at Big Harv and Bella, and shook her head. “We have about four fronts here. Where do we start?”
“I’ll help with that. We need to get this show on the road,” said Brice. He pointed at four blues that had come out from behind their cars. “You four get your ass over to where the gunshots came from and cordon off the area. Then go get one of the forensic folks from inside that apartment to help process the area.”
He looked at the last pair of cops. “You two get into your vehicle and call for another EMS unit and find out where in hell the ME people are. Shit, we have three bodies here. Now.” The six cops raced away like they’d been scolded by an old-fashioned schoolmarm.
Brice turned to Ellen, his face tight, rugged, and full-out cop. It occurred to her most cops must be a little schizophrenic to carry the alternate personalities they seemed to possess. This man in front of her wasn’t the same man, just a few minutes ago, that made sure that any stray bullets were going to hit him before they ever got to her. Compartmentalization was a cop’s best friend.
“What do you need, Ellie?”
She stepped closer to the others. “I need to know why this happened and why now? Why here? Why in the middle of this CSU processing? Why in the middle of Henry’s story—”
She whirled around to where Henry and The Father had been standing when the bullets began to fly.
They were both gone.
Ellen reached for her cell phone. It was gone. She quickly went back to the area where she’d been when the shooting had begun. There it was, lying a few feet from where Detective Malloy lay.
She picked it up, removed two small clumps of mud, and quickly dialed Aaron.
“Ellie! What the hell was that?”
“Never mind. You need to tell me whose blood that was at the cemetery. Now.”
“Hold on. Beaux and I are in the van and I just missed getting us both killed.”
“Damn, Aaron. Be careful. Now talk.”
A second later, she felt her phone ping, alerting her to an email.
“Here’s the full file on what I could find with this guy. This Henry James Hardy.”
CHAPTER-42
The blue and white SUV screeched to a halt, sliding a degree sideways, as Aaron pulled up near the front of the apartment complex, where Ellen had instructed.
Aaron jumped out, followed quickly by Beaux. While Aaron reached back into the SUV to get his case, Beaux rushed ahead of him and in a flash was sitting in front of her, ears high, nose wet and flaring, staring at her with full expectation.
She knelt and put a hand on both sides of his head. “Hey big boy, good to see you too.”
He tilted his head, licked her wrist, then moved to her side, sitting at full attention. She’d bet he already sensed that he was going to go to work and use those unique gifts of his.
Aaron arrived, carrying two bags.
“Did you get them?”
“I did. It wasn’t easy. But when I told the ME that this had to do with Ben Castle’s case, they didn’t bat an eye.”
“Even at 8:30?”
“Hey, they work goofy hours like we do so yeah, no problem. Are we ready? I can’t wait to see Wonder Dog in action.”
She glanced at the front of the apartment building. “We’ll get Beaux going in a minute. We’re waiting for Brice and some more help. When we get this rolling, it could go quick.”
“Okay. So when do we give Beaux the goods?”
“Soon. Like I said. We need to be ready to go with him. Timing is crucial, according to what Anna says. We also have to isolate the odor, best we can, and tell Beaux what we’re looking for.”
Aaron rubbed his stubble with both hands. “So, what are we looking for, exactly?”
“Alternate crime scenes where a couple of the victims may have been murdered. Based on our findings, there could be at least two of them. Henry listed two addresses in the last three months. They’re about eight-tenths of a mile from each other and are very different kinds of apartments. We should start there.”
“I get that. I mean that’s basic, right? What I want to know is what are we really looking for, based on what you said to me.”
“Our killer.”
“Well duh. Did anyone see which way he went,” asked Aaron, glancing around the dark neighborhood.
“No. That’s where Beaux comes in. Where’s your tablet?”
Aaron opened his navy blue CPD jacket, reached inside, and pulled out the ten-inch computer from the inside pocket.
Just then, Brice walked to where she, Beaux, and Aaron stood.
She watched him with a million more thoughts running in her mind. Her ex lay dead in that building and someone else was doing her job by processing the scene, forcing her to fight off the idea that she wasn’t helping locate his killer. That she had, somehow, abandoned Joel in his time of need. True need. Even though he’d put her through the worst kind of break up.
She looked down at Beaux and dismissed the last thought. She was helping to find his killer, just not her normal route.
There was something else. Every fiber of her personal and professional lives wanted to see Joel. Not cleaned up on a stained morgue tray, but how he’d left this world.
Then again, did she really want to see him that way? People like her didn’t run from shit like this, but she felt like she was going full bore away from something she should be going full bore into. On top of all her racing thoughts was the fact that the man she was falling in love with was leaving the murder scene of the man she’d thought she grow old with.
Could this get any more screwed up?
“Ellie? What’s wrong?” Brice asked.
“Oh, everything and nothing. We’ll talk later.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. We don’t need to go down that road now, okay?” she heard the tension edge into her voice.
He raised his hands. “Okay, just asking.” Then he smiled. “You can kick my ass later.”
She looked down at
her feet. “I’m sorry. And I might. We’ll discuss that, too.”
“I’d love to see that,” said Aaron.
“It wouldn’t be pretty,” said Brice.
“Whatever. Where’s Bella and Big Harv?” asked Ellen.
“Big Harv is on the road back to the station with Bella. She’s going to tap into the street and traffic cameras within a two-mile radius of this building and see if she can figure out which way Henry and The Father may have gone. Big Harv is going to pull everything he can find relating to Henry, The Father, and similar cases.”
“You think The Father knows something about this? He seems like a straight-up man,” said Ellen.
Brice frowned. “I think you’re right. But he also seems like the kind of man who protects his own, maybe to a fault. I mean, come on, he took off too.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know how that came down. He could be chasing Henry. There could be six or seven scenarios, right?” asked Ellen.
“That’s true. It’s also the reason we’re sending out several patrol cars between here and his mission to find him. We have some questions that only he can answer.”
“So maybe he didn’t want to answer those questions just yet?”
Brice smiled again. “You could be a hell of a detective. Yeah, that’s right, I think. He’s an honest man and won’t lie. But we all have something to deal with so by not being around to face the questions, he doesn’t have to answer them.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” said Ellen.
“Who’s going with us when we turn Beaux loose?” asked Aaron.
“We’ll have six blues and another detective team going with us. They’ll be here in about five minutes,” said Brice.
Brice looked to Aaron, then over to Ellen. “When you told us what the DNA test showed, we were all a little shocked. The kid seemed legit.”
“Like Agent Williams alluded to, one never knows. Plus, Henry had been born with his right leg shorter than his left and by all accounts, had a noticeable limp,” said Ellen. “That fit with the profile.”
