Deadly Obsession

by Jack Parker

  "They were meeting secretly, but that doesn't automatically mean they were having an affair. From what we know about the situation, it looks more like they were trying to hide something from their employers. If they had used their work accounts to communicate, their bosses could legally look in on the emails. They couldn't send messages in person at work because of the possibility that someone would overhear. That's why they used personal accounts that weren't tied to the job. There would be no way that someone from work would be able to figure out what they were doing." I explained.

  "And what are they doing?" he asked inquisitively.

  "Maybe their boss or someone high up in the firm is into something bad and they are trying to get the proof to take him down." I answered back. Suddenly I had an idea. "You know, you could end this right now by going up there with your camera clipped to your belt and pretend to be a detective hired by his employers. If he looks like he's clueless as to why his employers hired a detective then I was wrong, but maybe you get some footage of the two of them together while you are up there. On the other hand, if I'm right he'll probably get defensive or looked shocked that you were able to find him."

  "I'll give it a shot. It would be nice to end this job and get paid for the work even if it turned out I was wrong about the affair." he said.

  And he took off for Hank Edelman's room. From my vantage point I could see as he went up the elevator, walked the short distance around to the door of the room and knocked. After a few moments someone from inside let him in. I was almost certain I was right about what was really going on, and it would be nice to finish this thing up so I could present him with my case. I took a sip of my drink as I waited for Eric to get back.

  I was glad I had been able to convince him. Usually it was easy enough to come up with a solution to these cases, but it was always the fact that I had to explain my work that was trouble for me. When I was still working with Taylor as a consultant for the HPD, that was probably the hardest part of my job. And explaining my logic to Eric was even worse because I barely knew him. I'm glad he finally came around because if he had stayed in denial any longer I might've just given up and let him go on thinking he was wrong.

  "Well… I went up there." Eric said when he came back down. He looked like he was still in shock.

  "And?" I curiously asked.

  "He's not having an affair."

  "I assume he sounded defensive when you told him you were hired by his boss then?"

  "Well, the 'mystery woman' he had been with turned around and pulled a gun on me demanding to know what I knew." he explained. "And then I could see that this 'woman' was in fact a man. When I explained why I was really there, he told me he was a detective from the white collar unit at HPD and was trying to get Hank's boss on embezzlement charges. Hank was helping him out. That's why they were meeting every week at the hotel."

  "Well, I was mostly right." I laughed a bit at the idea that he had a gun pulled on him and that the person he thought was a woman was really a man. I guess a detective with the police made more sense than someone he worked with. If a cop had been hanging around where Hank worked for too long, his bosses would've picked up on that eventually.

  "I'm just glad it's over. So… tell me about this case you have for me." he said.

  I told Eric everything, starting from the very beginning. I explained how I stumbled upon the information about him resigning mysteriously from the Chief of Police position in Denver, and then again yesterday. I mentioned the photo I found in his office that led me to believe his wife ran off with his son around the same time. I briefly went over the details of the Vigilante Killer case, even throwing in the stuff about the bomb and me being in the hospital for nearly two weeks. I mentioned that the last thing Taylor did before resigning was match a tape of his with a database audio clip of the Vigilante. I told him about the phone conversation I had earlier today with the Vigilante giving me the video of all of his murders, which I now kept with me in my flash drive.

  The only thing I didn't mention was the fact that I knew what the Vigilante looked like, even though no one else did. Everything else I told him was somewhat public information. If someone looked hard enough they could find out everything I had told him. But other than Kari, I was the only person that knew what he looked like. And with the possibility that the Vigilante was somehow listening in on this conversation, I wanted to keep that information to myself. Since I didn't know how I knew what he looked like, it wasn't going to help solve the case if I told him anyway.

  "Wow, that's a lot of information. I've never seen you in action before today, but I can tell you are good at this." he said, almost shaking his head in disbelief.

  "Would you believe you are the second person that has told me that exact thing today?" I said with a laugh.

  "I can't believe this is the same guy a year ago that couldn't get a word out to save his life. I mean… you were always a smart guy, but a year working with the police has turned you into a pro. You mentioned getting fired… if you are looking for a job I'd be glad to add you to the team. With you around we could probably plow through cases twice as fast."

  "Thank you, but I think this is going to be my last hurrah before I go back to my old job. I feel like I owe it to Taylor to figure out what happened to him if he's in any danger." I said.

  "Well that's too bad. Do you have any theories about what happened to him?" asked Eric.

  "I'm thinking it has something to do with the current Vigilante case. Maybe the guy found out where Taylor's wife and son are hiding and he used that to bait him into getting off the case. It's a weak theory, but I don't really have much else to work on." I mentioned.

  "I actually have a theory. But before I lay it out, I want to ask you something." he looked at me with a newfound seriousness on his face. What could he possibly want to ask at this point in the conversation?

  "Okay…" I said cautiously.

  "Your theory is basically that he's in trouble and that we need to find him before something bad happens." he began to say. "What if he isn't running to someone's rescue? What if he is running from something he did in his past?"

  "I'm not sure I follow." I said. But I think on some level I knew exactly where he was headed with this. I just didn't want to think about that possibility.

  "All I know is, the Vigilante usually goes after people that have killed innocent people. Usually it's the type that the court system didn't put away too. Suddenly former Chief of Police Dan Taylor leaves his post and takes off without explaining why, and his final action was to match a voice on tape with the Vigilante-"

  "There's no evidence to suggest anything like that is true." I interrupted, not even letting him say what he was about to say.

  "I'm not saying it is true, but it could be. And what I want to know is: do you really want to start this investigation knowing what you might uncover? Maybe he's the victim here and we jump in and save the day, but I need to know if you can handle the possibility that he's just as guilty."

  I thought about it for awhile. I think deep down I had already considered that this might be possible. It made me think once again why the Vigilante had given me those videos to jumpstart my own investigation into him. Maybe he knew it might lead me to things Taylor did a long time ago. Maybe the 'I'm sorry' note he left on his desk was an apology for something in his past. But if that was the case, the Vigilante might be planning to make Taylor his last victim if I didn't find him first.

  If this were all true, could I handle knowing that the person I put my trust in for over a year had potentially done some very bad things in the past? I didn't know how I would react if I found out that these things were true. I didn't think he was capable of anything like that. I had to believe that it just wasn't possible for him to be mixed up in anything bad. But one thing I did know is that if he was the victim in all of this, I had the opportunity to prove it by trying to find him. I owed him that much.

  "I can handle it." I said finally. "So what's our first
move?"

  "Well, we could look into Taylor's past in Denver. The Vigilante had made a stop there last year so we might be able to grab a lead or two there. I say we should fly to Denver for a few days and see what we can find out."

  "What, you can't just hack onto their servers from here?" I joked.

  "I could if I knew what I was looking for, but questioning people is more effective in person." he explained.

  "Ok… so our next stop is Denver. I should start packing." I said.

  "I'll buy the tickets tonight."

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Vigilante watched in the darkness at the man lying in his bed… alone and without a care in the world. Sound asleep in a house he owned in the suburbs. That's usually how people tend to sleep when they think they have gotten away with murder. Sure, there are a few out there that become riddled with guilt and so they toss and turn at night as they try to make peace with what they've done. But for most criminals, they wouldn't have gotten into the game if they were capable of feeling guilt.

  It's what sets me apart from scumbags like him, thought the Vigilante as he fiddled with his charm necklace before the action was about to start, I can't stop thinking about that night… the things I could have done differently. But it didn't change anything because I did what I did and as a result my life had been torn apart. At least I had been granted the chance to take this guy off the streets. He would never rob an innocent person again.

  And as if right on cue, the man that was previously asleep had started to wake up. He realized that his body was in a weird position and started to panic as he found that he couldn't move his arms due to the fact that they were handcuffed to the sides of his bed. At first it had been a gentle tug on his restraints to confirm that he was stuck to something, but then his movements soon became more erratic.

  "What the hell? Who's there?" the man said in fear. He tried to think of anyone he might have pissed off enough to do this to him, ironically that list didn't even include any of his victims but that was because he had thought they had never gotten a look at his face. He was always careful, he wore a ski mask and colored contact lenses to disguise the true color of his eyes.

  "Oh, I'm sure you don't know me." said the Vigilante. "But I know all about you."

  "What do you know about me?" the criminal asked, trying to regain his confidence.

  "I know that you are responsible for a bunch of small time robberies all around New York City, ending with the jewelry store heist you pulled months ago where someone ended up dead because of you."

  The man cuffed to the bed was Aubrey Westfall, a man that according to NYPD was allegedly the mind behind a few small time robberies. He was always careful and clever enough to always get away at the end. The police never had any solid evidence to put him away for good until recently when they had him for a major jewel store robbery where one of the store clerks had been killed in a getaway attempt. But in the end the jury thought there was enough reasonable doubt and found him not guilty.

  "I don't know if you've picked up a paper recently, but they tried me for that robbery and the murder and I was found innocent."

  "I could care less about what some court said. I know what really happened." the Vigilante said.

  "Do you?" asked Westfall, "Because I remember hearing them say that the man that robbed that store wore gloves and a ski-mask and no one was able to identify him. The only reason I got involved was because I happened to be nearby with gloves on."

  That wasn't all they had on him. There was the description of a man with his skin color and his height and a witness that matched the voice. But his team of expensive defense attorneys discredited the witness that claimed she had heard his voice and focused on the fact that he didn't have any stolen goods or the gun on him. That along with a few police missteps along the way was enough to convince a jury that he was innocent.

  "I found the gun you know." said the Vigilante as he pulled it out of his bag and set it on the table nearby. "How much do you want to bet it will forensically match the one that killed that clerk in the jewelry store? I'm sure these bits of cloth caught inside match the gloves they already have too."

  "Too bad they didn't find that before the trial." Westfall replied. "Do you think you'll be able to get a conviction after you brought that over here, broke into my house and threw it on my table like that?

  "You think I'm with the police? That's funny." he said, but he wasn't laughing at all. He still had the same intense look that he always did. "But what's even funnier is that you think I'm going to let you live."

  Westfall's eyes went wide as he heard that last part. And in a split second the Vigilante pulled a knife out of his pocked and was in Westfall's face. He struggled to defend himself but there was nothing he could do about it with his arms and legs restrained and virtually no slack to allow him to move.

  "You are going to kill me?" the criminal said in a panic, realizing now that his time on this world might be coming to an end soon. "If you really want me dead, then fight me like a man, damnit! Anyone can just prance around in the darkness while his opponent is cuffed to a bed!"

  Westfall didn't know who he was up against. Maybe that line about fighting like a man would have worked if the Vigilante had been a former cop with a chip on his shoulder, or maybe a hit man hired by someone that wanted revenge. Usually those are the types of people that have an ego and care about their reputation. But the Vigilante didn't care about any of that. He just wanted justice.

  "Did you give that chance to Sharona?" he said as he brought the knife to Westfall's neck and pressed the flat side of the blade into him really hard, almost rendering him unable to speak.

  "I… I-" he tried to say, gasping for air.

  "You didn't!" he cried out, "You just killed her without a thought as to what you were doing! She had a family… she had people that loved her! I bet you never thought of that as you took her life!"

  He took the knife away from the thief's neck just enough so that he could speak, but he turned it around so the sharp side of the blade was gently pressed against his neck so that he wouldn't struggle. It was enough to draw just a little blood, but any more movement and he would slice his own jugular vein. He was only able to move his eyes safely, and they showed the panic that he was experiencing at this moment.

  "You probably remember this don't you? That moment that you have them pinned, completely immobilized… even if they could move they would probably be paralyzed with fear. The moment right before you end their life." the Vigilante said coldly.

  "You are crazy!" Westfall spat.

  "I may be a lot of things, but crazy isn't one of them." said the Vigilante, and then just as suddenly he stabbed the man twice in quick succession, right in the chest.

  As the man died in his bed, the tension seemed to drain from the Vigilante's body… as if he were relieved to have finally accomplished a long time goal. He took one final deep breath and then got up. He dug something out of his pocket. It seemed to be some kind of remote. After pushing a button the video went blank.

  "What are you watching?" Eric asked.

  "Just the videos of the eight Vigilante murders; I just started over with the first victim in New York." I explained.

  "Started over? So you have watched all of them already?" he said with somewhat of a surprised tone.

  "Several times, yes. I had some free time last night." I stated, then sensing his shocked voice I added. "Is this a problem?"

  "It's not that it's a problem. Just… you are going to burn yourself out working this hard. You worked on this last night, and then now in the morning you are still at it."

  "I'll be fine. Besides, what else am I going to do while we wait for our flight?"

  We were at Bush Intercontinental Airport waiting in the relatively empty terminal for the morning flight to Denver that we had purchased tickets for to arrive. We drove to the airport in my car and arrived early. They always suggest that you show up an hour ahead of schedule just in case there are
complications with checking bags or getting through security. Fortunately for us we didn't have such issues, but that also meant we had an hour to kill before our flight left.

  I had watched all of the videos last night, and decided to pull out my laptop and start over since we had the time. Not that I expected to learn anything new watching the videos one more time, but I knew that the more times I watched them the better chance I had to catch something that I hadn't noticed before that may be the key to solving this thing. The Vigilante had given me information and I planned on using it to the fullest extent I could.

  "I remember you being a big video game fanatic. Are you telling me there isn't a game on that thing you could play to wind down?" he wondered.

  "Eh… don't really feel like games right now." I said as I watched the screen, moving onto the second video.

  I knew from memory the major details of all of the murders. The second one that I was about to watch was a major drug dealer from New York that had been responsible for the death of a college student. At first the police thought it had been just a textbook drug overdose, but after further investigation they begun to strongly suspect a dealer named Sandoval. Sadly they just didn't have the evidence to charge him with anything, and he would've gotten away with murder if the Vigilante hadn't stepped in and killed him with his own needle.

  The third murder was the leader of a gang that killed a young teenager that had been seen talking to cops in broad daylight to send a message to the neighborhood. It was an open and shut case, but as most gang related investigations go there was only one witness that would step up, his mother, and she had too big of a rap sheet herself to be credible. But eventually the Vigilante got to him and one shot to the forehead ended the gang leader's life.