Authors: Dianne Yetman
Alexis took one look at her friend’s shocked face and began to speak in a soft but firm voice.
“
Take your cell out of your purse, Susan.
Kate’s home number
is on
speed dial
.”
Susan
stared across the street at the slow moving vehicles.
“Listen carefully, Susan. I want you to take your cell out of your purse and pass it to me.
Susan turned towards her friend, nodded and reached into her purse.
***
Across town,
lights were blazin
g in the incident room, Shirley, along with half of the incident team were working overtime. S
he hadn’t checked her e-mail since she started her shift at 4:00pm. It could be such a waste of time -- meet you at the bar, feel good blurbs, crime stats, retirements, baby showers and the like
but something niggled
. She minimized her research page and opened the e-mai
l.
The desk phone rang. It was Kate, an agitated, upset Kate.
“Shirley, I’m on my way in
, Roger’s in danger. Call
Gordon and Withers and tell them to meet me at the
precinct. Roger and the homeless woman, Hazel have been taken hostage.”
The dial tone rang in her ears.
Stunned, Shirley grabbed the emergency list of phone numbers and began to make the calls. Ten minutes later, Withers and Gordon on their way
. She had started to make coffee when she heard Kate’s voice. Turning, she looked at
the bed tossed detective, her hair all over her head, swelling on the eyelids, torn jeans, plaid blouse and ballet-like flats on her feet.
“
Did you get reach Gordon and Withers yet?”
“
Yes, they’re on the way in.”
”
Five minutes later,
the two men walked through the door. Kate ceased pacing and began to fill them in on what Alexis had told her.
“
Did you try Roger at home? The women are liable to be mistaken. It might not be him”, Gordon asked.
“
Yes, I did. No answer
.
He’s not home. It has to be him they saw. We can
’t
stand around here Gordon.
Let’s go.”
“Okay
, first, I want you to calm down and listen to reason
”, Gordon said. “
How do we know he hasn’t tripped on the carpet and is lying injured in the townhouse?”
“I radioed the nearest squad car and asked them to get the key from the caretaker who lives in the unit next to Roger. They did a walk through.
He’s not at home.”
“So maybe his mother or
a member
of his family
is sick or something.”
“No sir”, Shirley said. “I called his mother to see if Roger had dropped by. Tried not to alarm
her
,
said I was going off shift in a couple of hours and needed to run something by him. Apparently she talked with him on the phone for ten minutes or so around 9
o’clock.
”
“I
want to go downtown in
an
unmarked
vehicle
,
Gordon
”, Kate said
.
“
Traffic is heavy, so it’s slow going but we have to move now.”
Withers knew Kate was on her way, permission or not.
“
Okay, take Shirley with you. Make sure to keep in radio contact. We’ll send back up
if necessary
.”
The two women were out the door before Gordon took another sip of his coffee.
Shirley got in the passenger seat of
the Ford
sedan
; Kate left the lot, tires squealing.
Chapter
2
1
Roger
glanced in the rear
view mirror
and
saw
the
gloved hand holding the gun to Hazel’s head. He couldn’t see the woman’s face; it was lowered and shrouded
by the
large dark hood. There was something about the voice though. He had heard that measured cadence of speech before.
Keep talking, I’ll place you.
“I’m going to lower the gun now
and t
rust the two of you
will behave. If you don’t, it only takes two seconds to lift it again and
bang, her head’s gone
!”
Hazel
let out a sigh
as the
pressure of the gun on her head disappeared.
“We’re going to take a little ride to Point Pleasant Park. I expect you to drive without raising the concern of any police in patrol cars
or
the good citizens of Halifax.”
Roger nodded. He knew the importance of silence and hoped Hazel would follow his lead.
He looked at the line of cars in front of him.
If
t
he
y
took
their
time
in moving, it might take them a half an hour to reach the park. He needed to buy time. Ten minutes later, h
e drove past the Citadel, down the hill towards Barrington,
and his
heart
leapt at the sight of all the cars.
I’m not
sure why the traffic is so bad, but I could kiss every
one
of the bumpers
ahead of me
.
“Theatre goers. Thought they would be home long ago now but I guess drinks and conversation are de rigueur after the play”, the woman said. “And a very successful opening night it was too. Should have been there to see it you two, but then again, I’m glad you weren’t. Wouldn’t have
had
the pleasure of your company right now, would I?”
The theatre, of course, that’s it. That’s where I heard your voice. I know who you are now.
Stay cool, he told himself, don’t give her the satisfaction of seeing fear.
It took him ten minutes to go twenty feet. Good, very good.
He glanced over at
Hazel
who
sat quietly staring straight ahead at the line of cars.
Love you girl, you’re a smart, savvy woman.
He made a promise to himself that
h
e would try to get her out of this somehow. He
tried not to
think about what lay in store for the two of them in the park.
The killer had obviously given a lot of thought as to where she would do the deed
. N
o better place than the park, especially this time of night. Dark, heavily wooded, isolated
.
The patrol car runs through twice at night, usually between 10:00pm and 7:00am, and one would have made its rounds already.
The movie
,
The Onion Field
,
a true story about two cops who were cruelly executed flashed in his mind. Best not to go there.
A sound interrupted his thoughts
. It took him a few minutes to realize the killer was
drumming fingers on the back leather seat
. It’s time to start a conversation and keep her occupied. It will bring her stress level down.
“Got a question for you?”
“And what would that be Roger?”
“What have I done to piss you off
?
Why do you have it in for me?”
“You know, I first saw you at the theatre the night Jeffrey left
this
cruel world, I knew you were an intelligent man; it was in your face, the way you handled yourself, your eyes missing nothing. Except one thing – the resemblance, you never picked it up, did you? You don’t even get it now, do you?”
He could hear her voice
rising
in anger. Not a place he wanted her
to
be. He thought fast and hard
as he
moved through the next set of lights. The bottle neck was beginning to ease.
I owe you such an apology Kate. I only hope I live to give it.
“
It was your daughter I drove home that night
, wasn’t it Eleanor. She was into the drugs wasn’t she?”
“You
’re lying. I
know the difference. Sybil told me how you treated her.
You got her high on drugs
, raped her and walked her up to the front door, whispering threats in her ear. I saw you.”
Good God, the daughter
must have been
as crazy as the mother.
“She killed herself you know
.
Drove her car over the cliff, it was no accident. I found the note she left behind
.
I didn’t share it with the authorities who investigated the accident
or her
father.
Donald’s a u
seless bastard, good for bringing money in, that was it.
He never spent any time with Sybil. It was left to me, the same as everything else.
I protected her good name
and I
made a vow I
to
revenge her death.
I took my time, two years, planned carefully. You’re the last one to go Roger.
”
“I’m sorry
, Eleanor.
Losing a daughter must have been very painful.”
“Don’t waste your breath patronizing me, and don’t think she committed suicide over a loser like you, no, what you did was put the first notch in her despair that led her to hurtle off that cliff.”
Roger drove through the last set of lights and
turned onto
the street that led to the park. There were fewer street lights now to penetrate the darkness
.
He
looked over at Hazel.
She extended her hand and gave his thigh a squeeze.
Then he heard the
sound of
drumming fingers resumed.
“Why did
Jeffrey have to die, Eleanor?
”
“Jeffrey.
T
he male slut
seduced
Sybil. She was
only 16
years old, and he was 55.
You bruised her heart; he broke it. She was carrying his little bastard
. I knew she was pregnant, running to the bathroom in the morning, missing school because she was sick. Her father behaved like an old woman, pacing and pleading with her to go for tests to find out why she was so sick.
Stupid man
, he never could see anything past the profit sign.
I arranged for the abortion.
”
“And Catherine
, why did she have to die
?”
“She knew
Jeffrey seduced Sybil and did nothing.
Sybil told me
Catherine
came home earlier than expected from a trip
and walked
in on the two of them.
She stood in the doorway staring at
Sybil
,
said she was going to drive across town and expected her to be gone when she came back. That’s it. Not a word to the degenerate.
Not a word to me. The
moral slag
could have saved my daughter but she didn’t. She
deserved to die.
The stupid bitch called and invited me over. She let me in, never asked about the hospital mask I removed from my face in her urgency to apologize for not taking action. It was hard to listen to her shit and wait for the opportune moment to inject her. It was worth the wait though.”