by PJ Fernor
“I would never,” Mayor Jim said. “I was just saying… you have a teenager at home. She has a boyfriend too, right? Didn’t that kid get himself into some trouble at one point?”
“What is the point of you being here?” I asked.
“Just wanted to check in,” Mayor Jim said. “We need to work closely on this parade, Allie.”
“Well, Jim, if I can’t figure out who killed those two women, there is no parade,” I said.
“Understood,” he said. “I hear you loud and clear. I’ll leave you to it.”
Mayor Jim smiled that mile wide politician smile, then saluted me, Ben, and lastly Johnny.
He left the office and we all stood there in silence.
I eventually let out a slow breath. “That’s the other disaster I’m up against. He’s demanding we have a Halloween parade and he won’t back down. He’s going into an election year and wants to make sure he stays on as mayor.”
“Wow,” Johnny said.
“Wow is right,” Ben said.
“You know, I have the urge to toss that guy out of a window,” Johnny said.
Ben pointed at Johnny. “Now there’s something we can all agree on.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Think about what you’ve done. Just think about it. It’s… remarkable.
Things feel positive for some reason.
Maybe the stress of the murders was somehow gone.
Nothing had happened yet.
Why would it?
The cops weren’t going to come kick down the doors.
He laughs.
Picturing that.
Like in the movies… some cop kicking a heavy door once and it just explodes open.
Just to be sure he walks to the door and pulls at the handle.
“Not going to move,” he says.
Do you know how heavy that door is? Come on, even a gun wouldn’t do a thing.
He rubs his hand against the heavy wood.
He nods.
Back across the room he decides to pour himself a drink.
He needs to calm himself.
Things are positive.
He needs to relax.
He deserves to relax.
“I deserve to relax,” he says.
Yes, you do.
Before pouring the drink he notices the door to the bathroom is open.
That makes him angry.
Disgusting.
An open bathroom door was simply disgusting.
He runs across the room to the bathroom, wanting to scream.
He steps into the bathroom and sees himself in the mirror.
His reflection always catches his attention.
It amazes him.
In some mind-bending way, the mirror was the only truthful thing in the world. Nobody knew what they really looked like.
Then again, what if the mirror was a lie too?
“Whoa,” he whispers. He reaches for the glass and presses his fingertips to it. “How do I know this is me? Who is this looking back at me?”
I can tell you who it is. You don’t want to hear it.
He moves from the bathroom and slams the door with force.
He then pours himself that drink and sits down in a comfortable leather chair and lets out a long breath.
“It’s not easy to be me,” he says. “Too many thoughts. Way too many thoughts.”
They’ll only get worse now. This is just the start. Sorry to be the voice of bad news.
“I know that already,” he says. “I know this won’t just go away. But it’ll fade away. Time will work its beautiful magic.”
That’s what you think.
He leans forward and puts his glass down.
He folds his hands.
The murders were the start.
The note was the next step.
He never had a choice.
The note had to be left.
In reality, the only escape from this was distraction. Confusion.
Like walking a path, taking handfuls of breadcrumbs and just throwing them out like confetti.
“Breadcrumbs,” he whispers. He laughs. “From murder to breadcrumbs, huh? I never knew my mind could work this way.”
Yes, you did. You’ve known all along. You also know what’s next.
He looks at the floor for a second.
Just to think.
Then he slowly lifts his gaze.
There’s no time for a drink now.
There’s no time for rest either.
That’s what gets people into serious trouble.
That’s what got me into trouble.
He nods. He definitely agrees with that.
He stands and grabs the glass to pour the drink out. To rinse it all away.
Replacing the booze with just plain water is a smart move.
It keeps his head clear.
Super clear.
He stands at the sink and runs everything through his mind again.
Going for a walk that night.
The two women.
Both crying.
Vulnerable.
So eager to trust someone.
Then all it took was him suggesting that being out in the dark, alone was a bad idea.
It could be unsafe out here!
He smiles.
That was the moment he truly felt it.
It.
Surging through him. Commanding him.
He shuts his eyes and relieves those moments again.
When he opens his eyes, he’s calm again.
Calm and focused.
“I’m not done yet.”
Not by a long shot. Still a long way to go here.
He nods. “So true.”
I told you this was a commitment.
It was a commitment. A definite commitment.
That doesn’t bother him.
He can commit.
He knows just what to do next.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“What are you thinking?” I asked Johnny over the phone as I walked down the steps from my office to the first floor of the station.
“I think we’re on to something, which is good and bad.”
“Good and bad?” I asked.
“Good because we agree. Bad because we have nothing.”
“You’re not thinking Drew and Greg?”
“I dug into their pasts. They both have records, like David warned us. The thing is… they’ve been quiet. In a good way.”
“Doesn’t mean life at home was good.”
“Of course not,” Johnny said. “We have nothing. Now, we can get warrants and search all we want. Which I plan on doing. I want to make sure everything is looked into.”
“But you’re assuming we will find nothing,” I said.
“Right.”
“That’s just great news.”
“I know. I can feel the sarcasm.”
I walked toward my old office on the first floor.
I saw Ben behind his desk.
He gave a quick wave and smiled.
“Let’s completely clear all three men,” I said. “David included. See if we get lucky and stumble onto something. Anything. Also, look into Candice’s life. Without the opinion of Drew and Greg. Maybe she had someone else in her life.”
“What about Claire?”
I nodded. “You’re right. Her too. The perfect couple sometimes isn’t always so perfect.”
“I agree. Maybe her best friend Candice helped her find a different guy. But, hey, the perfect couple… not so perfect, huh?”
“Yeah. Your point?”
“Makes me think of you and Ben. Not so perfect? Maybe?”
“Goodbye, Johnny,” I said.
I hung up the call and left the station.
As I approached my SUV, I saw something on my windshield.
A note under the driver’s side wiper.
I touched my gun and looked around.
A stroke of luck would have allowed me to see someone running away from t
he scene.
There wasn’t a person in sight.
I took a deep breath and approached my SUV.
Before touching the note, I sent a text message to Ben.
Get Muldavey and get out here now.
I reached for the note and began to open it when I heard someone yell my name.
I turned my head and saw Ben running toward me.
Muldavey was right behind him.
I held up the note and shook my head.
Anger washed over Ben’s face and he ran faster.
When he caught up, he touched my wrist. “What’s it say?”
“I didn’t read it yet, Ben.”
“Let me,” he said.
He swiped the note out of my hand.
Muldavey caught up. “Another note?”
“Looks that way,” I said.
Ben opened the note. He read it silently and then passed it to me.
He walked away.
I looked down at the note.
* * *
Leave a carved pumpkin on the corner of Bridge Avenue. Tonight. OR ELSE SOMEONE WILL BE MURDERED!
PS - NO COPS ALLOWED! If I see or SENSE a cop, I will make it worse than the first time.
* * *
“What is it?” Muldavey asked.
I handed the note to him.
“Ben,” I called out.
Ben turned. “What is this, Allie Down?”
“This is someone testing us,” I said. “He wants to see if we’ll listen to him.”
“And what’s our plan?”
“We can’t have anyone else murdered. Doesn’t matter if the threat is real or not.”
Ben looked at the station and nodded. “I can check the cameras again.”
“Of course,” I said. “They won’t show a thing. He knows he got away with it once before. I doubt he’d slip up now. For all we know, he’s watching us right now. Gauging our reaction to this.”
“What do we do?” Ben asked. “If we take it lightly and someone else is murdered, that’s on us. I can’t live with that.”
“Neither can I,” I said.
“What’s the end of this then? Huh? Is he going to keep leaving notes and asking for stupid things? A carved pumpkin? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ben, he put a woman’s foot in a carved pumpkin,” I said. “It’s his… thing. His way of making sure we don’t forget him.”
“How can I forget him?” Ben asked. “It’s all I think about right now.”
I nodded.
Ben looked ready to explode.
Some days the stress of the job and home life got the best of him.
Today was one of those days.
I knew part of it was because it was me being targeted with the notes.
Meaning the killer knew who I was.
That wasn’t all that big of a deal. My name had been everywhere since the entire Laura and The One saga went down. I had been in local papers, regional papers, and even national papers. I ended up being interviewed by local and national news outlets.
I had my fifteen minutes of fame and then I was forgotten a day or two later.
Knowing my name wasn’t a big deal.
Knowing my vehicle… that just meant whoever this was had watched me get into the SUV.
It also meant they knew where I lived.
“What do we do?” Muldavey asked as he stepped up next to me, handing me the note.
I looked at him. “Looks like you need to carve a pumpkin.”
Chapter Thirty
I got out of my SUV and Johnny had that smirk on his face.
Ben was not happy with me again. I took it all out of love and care.
He knew it was best for him to stay at the station with Muldavey.
As for me, I wasn’t going to stop working. Whoever was putting notes on my windshield wanted me to be afraid.
“You’re kind of driving me crazy here,” Johnny said. “But since it’s you, I’ll let it slide.”
“I had another note on my windshield,” I said. I put my hand out. “I’m not going to talk about it though. Ben is working on it. I need some final answers now.”
“From Drew and Greg,” Johnny said. “I thought we ruled them out.”
“I know,” I said. “We mostly did. I want to talk to them. One at a time. I want to hear what they have to say.”
“Okay,” Johnny said. “You know me. I’m always good for a fight.”
“No fighting,” I said. “I’m a hypocrite as it is here, Johnny. I just need to know for sure. I have a feeling it’s not these guys. I just-”
“You don’t have to justify a thing to me, Allie,” Johnny said. “You’re a grown woman. You’re great at your job. Now you’re running that little town of yours. There’s a lot going on.”
“Someone murdered Claire and Candice,” I said. “It might have been random or it might have been planned out. Now someone is leaving notes for me. Trying to scare me. Mess with me. Get into my head. If it’s one of these two guys, I’ll know and that’ll be the end of that. If it’s not, then I know it’s not and I move on.”
“I get it,” Johnny said. He gently touched my arm. “Let’s not waste another second.”
Johnny pointed to the apartment on the corner. “That’s where Drew lives.”
I nodded.
We walked to the building and up to the second floor.
Johnny knocked on the door with the crooked number three.
The door opened a little and Drew sighed. “What?”
“We have to talk,” Johnny said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Drew,” I said. “We really have to talk. We either do it here or we have to go to the station.”
Drew opened the door. “What’s there left to talk about?”
“Your past,” Johnny said.
Drew rolled his eyes. “Of course.”
“Sorry, Drew. That’s how it goes. I’m sorry about Candice. It’s obvious you still love her.”
“Obvious?” Drew asked. “What are you a love doctor or something?”
“I can see it,” I said. “Don’t be like that. You two were toxic but you loved each other. She moved on. You didn’t.”
“She didn’t move on,” Drew said. “She didn’t want to be alone. That’s all Greg was used for. So she didn’t have to be alone.”
“Why not just work things out with you?” Johnny asked.
“Maybe we were,” Drew said. “She was here last week.”
“You two…” I started to say.
“Of course,” Drew said. “Greg couldn’t take care of her the way I could.”
“Confident,” Johnny said.
“I’m heartbroken right now,” Drew said. “What do you want to ask me?”
“Your past has me thinking,” I said. “There’s some stuff there…”
“Yeah, there is,” Drew said. “I had a rough past. I used to be that way.”
“You seemed pretty angry that day at the station,” Johnny said. “Yelling…”
“We all were,” Drew said. “Greg hurt her. He’s hurt her before.”
“Hurting someone and murder are two different things,” I said.
“Yeah?” Drew asked. “You know what? Go talk to Greg. Or maybe you should talk to David.”
“David? He was happily married. A good guy,” Johnny said.
“Yeah, they had a house and a life,” I said, playing along with Johnny.
Drew laughed. “Perfect image, right? They had issues. They couldn’t have a kid. David hated me too. He hated that Claire was friends with Candice. He was jealous.”
“Of?” I asked.
“He thought Candice was going to get Claire to cheat. My thoughts? If Claire did cheat, that’s on her. That’s not Candice’s issue. Or mine.”
“Is that why you and Candice split?” Johnny asked.
“Part of it,” Drew said. “We had a lot of problems. Her friendship to Claire was one. For sure. David was overbearing. Hated that
guy.”
“And you think he murdered them?” I asked.
“What I know is that I didn’t do it,” Drew said.
“But Greg might have, right?”
Drew laughed. “Look at you two go. Cornering me. Attacking me. Listen up. I’m not who you think. Did I do dumb stuff in the past? Yeah. I did. Did Candice and I have issues? We had issues. I regret a lot about our relationship. If she were still alive, she’d say the same. We said things we didn’t mean. We did things we regretted. We both hurt each other. When it was time to stop, we stopped. She instantly found Greg. I knew it was fake. It was to make me jealous. I let her do it too. I let her call and text. I engaged in it all. When she wanted to come over, I waited for her. Believe me, I know how it all looks. I loved her. But if you want to pin this on me, it won’t work. I didn’t do it. You asked about Greg? He’s got a past too. I only know the present.”
“Which is what?” Johnny asked.
“The guy is a psycho. Mean. You can ask him about that yourselves. He’s a control freak. He hated David as much as I did. More than that, he hated Claire. He feared Claire was going to convince Candice to leave him for good.” Drew laughed. “Actually, the last time I saw Candice, she told me Claire told her she was better off with me over Greg.”
“That would probably make Greg unhappy,” I said.
“Unhappy enough to kill them both?” Johnny asked.
“I don’t know what to say to that,” Drew said. “You can look around my entire apartment if you want. You can look at my phone. My computer. I don’t care. You won’t find a thing.”
I looked at Johnny.
He gave a quick nod.
A silent way of asking if I was done with Drew.
I nodded back.
I was done with Drew.
Now it was time to find Greg.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ben called me as I drove to Greg and Candice’s apartment.
Johnny reassured me that they had already gone through the apartment twice to check for any kind of clues as to what could have happened to Candice and Claire.
He told me that knowing I was still going to show up anyway.
Just like with Drew, I needed to hear from Greg that he didn’t murder the two best friends.
Ben was worried, as always.