by Jack Parker
He went to Denver the next year and his first victim had been someone that allegedly killed his own wife. He was able to escape a criminal charge with a seemingly airtight alibi. It wasn't until the Vigilante got a hold of him that he revealed on camera that he had paid someone that looked a lot like him to establish an alibi for him. The second victim had been the convenient store thief that had killed Agent Vickers' friend in a successful effort to escape capture. He met his end with a knife to the chest.
The last murder in Denver had been a man named Coffman. He was a store owner that had killed off a competing owner in a crime of passion fueled by greed. The police originally thought that this had been a robbery gone wrong because the store had been turned over and all of the money was gone. And by the time they even came to suspect Coffman he had already gotten rid of the evidence they could have used to nail him. But the Vigilante, with the help of a baseball bat, helped get to the bottom of things as the cost of Coffman's life.
Then he came to Houston, and we already knew a lot about the details of the two murders he had committed here. There was Crayton the businessman that killed the woman that he had an affair with so she wouldn't expose him, and Forgero the serial burglar that had to kill off the owners of a house when they caught him in the act. He had one last victim that would probably be killed by the end of the week if he went by his normal pattern. But before I could even begin to think of a potential way to catch this guy, my phone rang and snapped me out of my deep thought.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hey, Mike! Haven't seen you in a while." Kari elatedly said on the other end of the line.
"It's been like two days hasn't it?" I asked semi-rhetorically.
"Well, I guess with everything that has been going on time seems to have slowed a bit." she pointed out. "I've been trying to get everything ready for the move. We really gotta have one last hurrah before I leave."
"Yeah. I've been busy trying to set up job interviews and all that. I can give you a call if I have some free time next week, but if that doesn't pan out then definitely on the weekend."
"Are you free right now?" she asked. "I actually have a few hours of free time today."
"Well, uh… actually I, uh…." I struggled to think of a reason to be busy. I'm sure she wouldn't be happy with 'actually, I'm headed off to Denver to try and solve that case we were kicked off of'. I was a terrible liar and couldn't think of anything plausible off the top of my head.
"Mr. Anderson!" Eric yelled loud enough for Kari to overhear. "The boss is ready to see you now."
"I-I, uh." I started to say.
"Oh, I'm sorry, you must be waiting to be interviewed." Kari apologized. "I bet you are wearing a nice suit too."
"Yeah, something like that." I agreed.
"You know, I've never seen you in a suit before. I'm sure you look really snappy." she teased. "Anyways, I should let you go if you have something you need to get to. Maybe we'll see each other next week. Give me a call."
The call ended, and I looked over at Eric, who had bailed me out by pretending to be someone from a business that was looking to hire me. He kind of laughed knowing that his on the fly plan had worked. I did feel bad for lying to Kari about what I was really doing, but there no way I could have told her I was still trying to find Taylor and potentially catch the Vigilante Killer. She probably would get mad that I was ditching her during the last weeks before she started her new job so that I could go help solve a case that the FBI should be working on anyway. But she just didn't understand why I had to do this.
Soon our plane arrived and we went through the normal procedure of boarding the plane, finding our seats, and getting any entertainment we brought with us set up for the five and a half hour flight to Denver. He had an mp3 player and some kind of electronic device that looked like a smart phone but I was sure somehow was capable of hacking into the Pentagon. I had my laptop that allowed me to watch the videos the Vigilante gave me.
The plane took off and I was greeted with a view of the city from above. I could see downtown Houston a little ways off. The same buildings that had towered over me on a daily basis as I drove to work everyday now looked like children's toys. I had of course flown on airplanes before, so this view wasn't a surprise to me. However, there was one thing I could never get used to and that was the endless sea of metal and concrete below me. It always amazed me that I was several miles up in the air and yet I couldn't see the edge of the greater Houston area.
In just a few weeks I would be leaving the city for good, going back to my old job in Chicago. The funny thing is… this would be the second time in my life I've left. Back when I was a teenager I ran away and never looked back. I pretended that the reason I left was that I had been awarded a full scholarship to a college in Chicago with a good computer science program, but my grades were good enough that I probably could've gone anywhere I wanted. I just never bothered applying anywhere within 750 miles of my home.
But now? Maybe I was still running away, but only because there was nothing else left for me in this town. I wished like nothing else that things could just go back to the way they were. That Taylor would just walk into the station and somehow take his resignation back, and then me and Kari would have our old jobs back and we could go back to solving crimes and throwing criminals in jail. But I knew that was impossible, you can't take back a resignation. Even if you could I somehow doubted that he would just walk through the doors of the police station anytime soon and pretend that nothing had happened.
It had to end eventually right? Nothing lasts forever right? I knew all along that something would change and my time working for the police would be over. But I never imagined it would only last a year, and that it would happen the way it did. That's the worst part about this whole thing is that even though this phase of my life was over, I didn't know why. I would never know unless we ever found out why the Chief resigned.
"Mike, are you okay?" Eric suddenly asked.
"What?" I jerked out of my daze. "Nothing is wrong, why do you ask?"
"Because you've been staring at that laptop for almost 30 minutes and haven't done anything." he pointed out. I guess I did have a lot on my mind.
"Sometimes I like to think." I trailed off.
"I think I know what this is about."
"Huh?" was my response. Did he really know what I had been thinking about or was he just guessing?
"We're headed off to Denver to find any evidence that your buddy Taylor did something bad in his past. As much as you claim that you would be able to handle it if it turns out to be true, the possibility still can't sit well with you."
His guess didn't quite hit the mark. Although it is true that I do find the idea of being involved in uncovering his past unsettling if it turns out he did do something bad. So I decided I would play along and answered him with a "Yeah, I guess so."
"I can't tell you that I understand how you feel, but I do know that this has to be hard. Sure, you've only worked together for a year, but the two of you have been through some tough times. And then you find out that maybe he's not exactly the person you thought he was…" he said.
"That's not it." I admitted, turning to face Eric. "I have all of these memories. There were a lot of times this job has been fun. But now every time I think about the good times I've had I can't help but think of how in the end he just took off."
"Have you ever heard of Tracy McGrady?" he asked out of nowhere.
"No. I'm guessing he's some kind of celebrity." I said, I thought him being a celebrity was a good guess because I usually am behind the times when it comes to pop culture. Or at least more so than the average kid his age these days.
"Something like that." he replied. "I'm a fan of the NBA, and he played basketball. He was the starting small forward for the Houston Rockets for several years. But he hit it big playing for the Orlando Magic earlier in his career. Made the All-star team multiple times, won the scoring title two years in a row, the youngest player in the history of the game to ever
do so. Then a major trade sends him over to the Rockets. All of the experts thought that pairing him with Yao Ming meant the squad would be going places fast."
"Well, I've heard of Yao Ming." I said. Yao was on the Rockets for last year's NBA 2K game. That was the only reason I knew about him. I guess that year McGrady didn't play for the team.
"Usually he's the guy people remember." he cynically responded "Drafted with the first pick by Houston in 02' and played his entire career there until recently when he retired due to injuries. But McGrady was even better. That first year after the trade I went to one of the games. I was a junior in high school and went with some buddies of mine."
"Really..." I interjected just to show that I was keeping up with his story.
"Yeah. It was against the San Antonio Spurs, our I-10 rivals." he said. I assumed the nickname came from the road that connected us to the city that was only a 5 hour drive from here. "Maybe the history wasn't there to support a rivalry compared to some of these other teams, but there was this one playoff series in the 95' postseason where their MVP center David Robinson got completely dominated by out center, Hakeem Olajuwon, who graduated from the University of Houston by the way… but that's another story altogether."
"I don't understand what you are trying to tell me." I said.
"I'm just trying to set up the story." he replied. "The point is… we were rivals. But lately the rivalry had become very one sided. I don't remember what the statistic was but we had only won maybe a quarter of the games we played against them in the last five years. I guess the thought was maybe after the trade for McGrady our luck would change."
"Did it?" I asked, having no clue where he was going with this, but I let him continue because at this point I was kind of curious what his point was.
"The game was pretty close. San Antonio and Houston were both good defensive teams back then, so it was a low scoring game. I remember at one point the game was tied in the final quarter with six or so minutes to go. And you think that we have a good chance to pull this one off being the home team in a close game. But the Spurs pulled away as the game came to its end. The nail in the coffin seemed to be when our point guard air-balled a three point attempt and with a minute to go we were down by ten."
"So you lost?"
"The crowd started to boo, a lot of them started leaving thinking this was over." he said, completely ignoring my question. "My friends wanted me to leave as well, and I almost did but then we scored two quick points to cut it to eight and almost immediately afterward we stole an inbounds pass and scored two more to cut it to six. But with under a minute left in the game it was still an uphill climb. We had to foul and hope they missed some of the foul shots or they would just run the clock out. And either way we had to keep scoring to cut into the lead."
"So what, did they miss all of their foul shots or something?" I asked. The way he was framing the story he made it sound like they won the game.
"That's the weird thing, As a team they don't shoot that well from the foul line, but they were a perfect 6 of 6 at the end of the game. But it didn't matter because McGrady scored 13 points, all on three point attempts, to close out the game in the final 35 seconds and win the game. One of the times he even got fouled AND made the shot, with the foul shot that was a four point play which is something that rarely happens in games. But the best part of the comeback was the last shot."
I could tell he enjoyed recounting this memory. He wasn't even looking at me as he was talking. He was looking to the side as if he could see the game being played on the back of the seat in front of him. He wore a content smile on his face as he used his hands along with his voice to tell a lot of the story.
"The Spurs had the ball, still up two points with maybe ten seconds left in the game. They inbound the ball and as he turns around to dribble he stumbles and falls to the ground, the ball pops of his hands and rolls right to McGrady. Suddenly the Spurs are struggling to get back on defense. The Rockets have no timeouts left so McGrady has to dribble the ball the length of the court. At this point the Spurs know he's going to take the final shot so two defenders converge on him, but he finds a spot right at the three point line and pulls up for a shot. Nothing but net. The crowd goes nuts… the opposing team is just shocked at what happened. It was like something out of a movie. Coming back from ten points down with a minute to go against one of the best defenses in the league? It just hasn't happened ever in the history of the game."
"Sounds like it was a good game. I bet you are glad you stayed." I said.
"Yeah…" he replied. "Tracy McGrady played six more years with the Rockets. Both he and Yao Ming made the All-star team every year. And they made the playoffs five times in that span but McGrady never led his team out of the first round. And then injuries started to take their toll and he became a shell of his former self."
"So… that doesn't sound like a happy ending."
"No." he said. "But that's exactly my point. I was there for the experience. I saw the game. And it was the greatest sports moment I've seen in my lifetime, and it still is in my opinion. What happened afterwards doesn't change that. And in the same way, no matter what happened in the past, it doesn't mean Dan Taylor wasn't a good boss or a good friend. And it doesn't mean you can't savor the memories even if things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to."
"That's your philosophy, not mine." I said, maybe with a little more sarcasm than I should have. "I personally find it hard to appreciate the good ol' days when you friend suddenly decides to run off to Europe."
"Wait a second… what makes you think he's in Europe?" he asked. Suddenly I realized I was thinking about Kari and not the Chief. He didn't know about Kari's new job, and I felt that there was no reason I should let him know about it now.
"Nothing, I was just making a point." I corrected myself. We ended the conversation there. He went back to his electronics and I went back to my laptop. Except… I still didn't watch the videos. I just stared blankly at the screen and let my mind wander.
Clearly you are still upset that Kari is leaving.
Clearly. And this conversation with Eric only goes to show that people are different. There are people like Kari that jump from place to place and they can just deal with it. It doesn't bug them at all when they break ties with the people they used to know to go to a new opportunity. After all, they can always keep tabs on their old friends with email or a phone. But then there are people like me that completely fall apart when there is a major change in my life.
Why don't you ask her to stay here?
Right… how do I do that? 'Hey Kari, I would like you to give up your dream job just so we can still hang out a few times a week. How does that sound?" It wouldn't be right to force that kind of decision on her. Besides, she's the type that likes to do things on the fly. Go places she's never been before and have new experiences. Being an international reporter for an online website seems right up her alley.
Meanwhile, I'm the type that tries to keep everything in order. I never try to get into anything I'm sure I can't get out of. And as a result I have my routines and I try to stick to them as much as I can. I don't like to go too far out of my comfort zone. Kari doesn't even have a comfort zone. Maybe my lifestyle is too boring for her. Maybe she had been looking for a reason to take off this entire time.
Fortunately, the plane landed and I didn't have to think about this anymore. Instead I was distracted by the whole event of exiting the plane, getting our luggage, renting a car for a few days and finding our way to the hotel. I hadn't thought about what our gameplan was now that we had landed in Denver. Eric was the guy that supposedly knew how to get the information he needed. All I could do was tag along and help him out if he needed it. When we finally got settled in it was only 1 in the afternoon, so we still had a full day ahead of us… and we planned on using it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was a team effort to get us headed in the right direction. Eric had the idea to find someone that knew Taylor from
his days in Denver. But I was able to help because I could provide a list of people he was most likely to interact with on the job. I remembered from the year I spent as his consultant he tended to stay away from the lab and tech guys. He wasn't the political type so he didn't hang out with the mayor or anyone with political power. He had a few detectives under him that he tended to trust more than others. Those would probably be the people that knew him the best.
Then Eric used that information and accessed the old employment records for the Denver Police Department. Unfortunately there was no way to tell who worked with Taylor because it just showed them as working for the police and that they were detectives. But we figured that the people that maybe got promoted or worked for a long time as a detective had the highest chance of knowing something about Taylor. Working with the Chief of Police is usually something that looks good on a resume.
We made our list and started with the first name on it. It was a lot of running around and it took us the whole day before we got anywhere. We were able to find out the current job and address of pretty much anyone and so it was nothing to locate these people. However, it wasn't until the fifth guy we got in touch with that we found someone that worked with Taylor. This guy had been promoted to Captain since those days, but he used to be a detective.
"Captain Hudson?" Eric said as he extended his hand to shake the man standing a few feet away from him.
"Yes… and who would you be?" Hudson wondered. We hadn't called him to set up a meeting. Eric had thought that if we showed up in person it made us look more trustworthy.
"My name is Eric Campos, this is Mike Anderson." Eric answered. "We want to know if you ever worked with a man named Dan Taylor when he was the Chief of Police."
"I used to work with him, yes." the captain replied cautiously. "Why, what is this about?"
"We're trying to write a book on the history of the Denver Police Department and we're looking for information on him. We didn't want to just count on the things that were said in newspapers about him. Talking with people that knew the guy and worked closely with him would probably be able to tell us who the man really was." Eric lied. I guess he thought the captain would be more open if he thought that he was just talking to someone looking for information for a book.
