Picture Perfect Murder

by Rusty Ellis

  The flickering of the television faded as Ransom gave in to the day. Shutting his eyes, a mixture of poker, pizza, and thoughts of Teresa blended in his head. The shallow breaths turned deep and he drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  The warm air caused a trickle of sweat to run down the side of the man’s face. The quiet of the neighborhood, interrupted by a few cars coming and going, set a serene stage. Looking at his watch, he still had time. The evening drifted on, pushing just before midnight. He needed to go but felt compelled to watch the home a little bit longer.

  A few minutes after midnight, he reached his limit and stretched to turn the ignition key. A vehicle turned the corner onto the street, the car’s headlights sweeping across the front of several homes and settling in a direct line down the middle of the street. The car slowed and pulled into Walsh’s driveway. The young girl emerged from her car, a tall soda in one hand and wearing a blue ambulance uniform. She kicked the door to her car closed and walked to the front door, inserted her key and walked into the house.

  The man smiled, looked at his watch again and started his car. Driving past the home, he glanced at the porch light illuminating the front door and turned at the corner, out of sight from the Walsh home.

  Part IV

  Thursday

  22

  Taking a three mile jog around the neighborhood had become boring lately. The repetitiveness of the route was starting to take its toll on the jogger’s motivation. And with her instinctive dislike of running, she needed any shot of motivation she could find to keep going. She only needed to make a few course corrections to add a little something new and stick with her three mile goal. She was quite proud of herself, having worked up from walking a mile to running her now three miles five days a week. And all of this in only a month.

  Given the temperatures in Vegas this time of year, she preferred to get out of the house in the morning before her kids and husband woke up, before the sun came up. This time of day was both cooler and peaceful. Less traffic. Less noise. Less hustle and bustle of another workday coming to life.

  Looking at the map on the exercise application on her phone, she could see that if she detoured through Butterfly Park and Dinosaur Park she could then catch back up to the road. Just enough change to shake things up a bit.

  She laughed at the thought of calling the two parks by their ‘local’ names. Each of the city parks earned their reputations by the toys and slides each offered. She preferred to bring her kids to the butterfly side, due to the extra shade that it provided and the bright colors of the playground.

  The two parks were kept pretty clean. At night, and first thing in the morning, the City Marshals would open and lock the gates to the parking lots. They would also patrol the parks for any “shenanigans,” according to what one Marshal had told her a few weeks back.

  Turning into the parking lot of the park, she ran by the main open pavilion which was setup with picnic style tables. She continued alongside the sunken volleyball courts and their sea of sand. Reaching the edge of Butterfly Park, she turned onto the sidewalk next to the cushioned surfaces and climbing toys.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she was surprised to see two people sitting on one of the park benches that was facing an area of the playground where younger children usually played. Slowing her pace, she strained to see through the low-light to verify what she thought she had seen. Sure enough, two people were sitting there on the bench, right next to each other.

  She looked back into the parking lot and couldn’t see a car parked anywhere. Looking back to the couple, she tried to see what they were looking at. She took a couple of quiet steps toward the couple, trying not to startle them by appearing out of the dark. In the direction of their gaze, she could see two children sitting on a set of swings. One was in a child swing, more like a highchair seat hooked to the swings’ chains above it. The other was in a regular swing.

  The child in the regular swing had their head sluffed forward, but was holding onto the chains. The younger of the two was holding onto the plastic pad at the front of their seat. Neither swing was moving. Not a sound came from either child, or the adults for that matter.

  The jogger stepped a few feet closer, watching intently for any sound or movement from the four. Nothing. No sound. No motion.

  A battle of fear and concern gripped her. Something was wrong with the children and the couple were doing nothing in response.

  Finally, in desperation, she called to the couple, “Hey! Are you okay?”

  Again, nothing. Just the echo of her voice off the small climbing wall near the play area.

  “Hey, you! Are you okay or do you need some help?”

  The same response.

  Taking her phone from the arm band she was wearing, she dialed 911 but didn’t hit send. She held her phone in her hand with her thumb poised over the green send symbol, ready to mash the button at any sign of danger.

  Taking short steps, she walked to the opposite end of the bench where the couple were sitting. Neither one of them noticed her. They continued to stare straight ahead at the children. Rounding the corner and getting a glimpse of the front of them, she could see that the man was sitting with his hands on his knees, staring straight ahead, not blinking or moving. The woman was sitting right next to him. One hand on her lap, the other hand on top of the man’s hand on his lap. She too was fixated on the children. Not blinking. Not moving.

  Turning toward the children, the jogger willed her feet to move in the direction of the two little ones. The younger child looked as if he were sleeping. Mouth closed and eyes shut. An otherwise peaceful look on his face. She turned her gaze to the other child. Her head had fallen forward, but she was still holding onto the chains of the swing next to her shoulder.

  “Hey sweetie, are you okay?” the jogger stepped closer and put her hand under the little girls chin to lift her head. The child’s head slowly raised with her guidance and met her eyes with a blank stare. The jogger started to talk again but realized that the child was not blinking and her skin was cold. Looking at the girl’s hands, she could see there was a plastic zip tie holding each hand in place on the chain, refusing to let the little girl’s hands drop down.

  The reality struck the jogger and stole her breath. She was unable to scream or move. Dropping the little girls chin, she watched as it fell back down onto her chest. A noise rang out to her left. A faint sound of chatter. She had unknowingly pushed the phone button and called 911.

  Putting the phone to her ear, she answered, “Hello.”

  “Hello, this is 911, what’s your emergency?” the voice questioned.

  “They’re dead. They’re all dead…” she stammered.

  “Who’s dead?” the voice began gathering information.

  “Everyone’s dead. All of them. Who could have done this? Why?”

  “We are sending someone to your location,” the voice tried to assure the jogger.

  “Why? Why would someone do this…” the jogger’s voice began to tremble and she dropped her arm to her side, and began to sob hysterically.

  23

  Ransom’s house phone came to life. Dazed, he looked at the alarm clock next to his bed and it glowed 5:00 a.m. His home phone rang again and he reached in the dark toward the sound next to the clock.

  Grabbing the receiver, he rolled onto his back and answered, “Yeah?”

  Leesa’s voice filled the earpiece, “I’ve been trying to call you. We have another family!”

  “Slow down, slow down, what?” Ransom was dusting off the cobwebs in his head and trying to make sense of her comments.

  “They found another family, this time at a park. A jogger found them this morning while out for a run,” she ran out of breath trying to package the events into chunks of information for Ransom to understand.

  “Which park?”

  “Northwest again. Looks like the same guy. They already identified the male as an officer.”

  Leesa’s last comment brou
ght the rest of Ransom’s faculties to life.

  “Gonzalez and Hatch are at the park, I’m headed to the officer’s house. I’m about ten minutes from you, can I pick you up?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be ready,” he hung up and swung his legs onto the floor.

  A voice behind him caught him off guard, “Is everything okay?”

  Maddie was standing in the doorway of his room.

  “I heard the phone ringing,” she continued.

  “It’s okay, babe. You can head back to bed. It was Leesa.”

  “Does it have to do with Gabe?”

  “Yeah, it has to do with that one. Go back to bed and I’ll catch you up on it later,” he encouraged her.

  “Okay, be safe. I love you,” she turned back to the hall and her room.

  “Love you too,” he called after her and reached for his shorts on the corner post of his footboard.

  24

  Leesa pulled up alongside the curb in front of Ransom’s house. Ransom was waiting outside and climbed into the dark sedan.

  Leesa rolled away from the curb and began filling Ransom in, “They’ve already locked down the street in front of the officer’s house. His name is Shane Comber. Wife Allison Comber. They had two kids. All four dead at the park. Scene was staged again. The only difference was that the bodies weren’t fresh. The medical examiner puts their time of death at least 24 to 30 hours prior.”

  “That’s outside the killer’s style.”

  “Agreed. Everything else matches though. Looks like they died the same way as the others, at least from the first reports at the park. I’m hoping their house tells us something,” she continued, “oh, and Ransom, there was another note, ‘Your turn to suffer. January 3, 2018.’”

  Leesa and Ransom pulled off the 95 freeway and dropped into a small neighborhood near the park. The scene at the park was bustling with activity as they continued by and into an adjacent neighborhood. Turning into the subdivision, several police cars came into view blocking traffic from passing through. Leesa pulled up near one of the parked police cars blocking the road and parked her car in the middle of the street.

  The CSI van pulled in behind her and Mike climbed out of the passenger side of the vehicle.

  “Not exactly the way I wanted to start my morning,” Mike stated. “You got the information on the paint I gave to Gonzalez?”

  “Yeah, thanks for getting back with that so quick,” Leesa responded.

  “Let’s go see what we’ve got,” Mike led out and walked under the yellow tape cordoning off the area.

  Leesa and Ransom followed Mike to the front of a single-story home. A lone vehicle was parked in the driveway. The front door was open and a uniformed officer was standing on the front porch. Seeing Leesa’s badge hanging off a chain around her neck, he stepped to the side and allowed the group to enter.

  The house had a very faint smell of egg in the air, much less than the previous two homes.

  “Do you smell that?” Mike asked.

  “Barely,” Ransom answered.

  “That’s what I mean. The smell is really toned down. It’s had some time to clear out. I would bet this wasn’t from last night.”

  The three went into the master bedroom and saw the same scene as the other two homes. Clothing on the floor. Dressers left open. The bed unmade. The same was found in the kids room.

  “What do you wanna bet that there’s only one car in the garage on the far-side?” Mike started through the kitchen to the door leading out to the garage.

  Inside the garage, a mid-sized SUV was parked against the far wall, with room for another vehicle closest to the door.

  “Why would he have killed them that long ago? Convenience? Wouldn’t they have been missed?” Leesa began tossing questions out.

  “I’m not sure about convenience. Maybe he knew their schedules from watching their movements and knew Comber’s days off? He had to have killed the Fords and Combers in one night, but didn’t have time to stage them both the same night.”

  “We need to talk to the neighbors and see if they saw any movement at the Comber’s at all yesterday. My gut says no,” Leesa answered her own question.

  Ransom needed to clear his head and try to put some pieces together. He’d forgotten to grab something to help with his leg on the way out of his house earlier and it was already thumping a little. Leaving Leesa to talk to Mike, Ransom walked out the front door and could see a neighbor speaking to a uniformed officer at the edge of a section of the police tape next door. The officer saw Ransom exit the house and called him over.

  Pointing to the woman, the officer told Ransom, “She knows the Combers.” Turning back to the lady, the officer told her, “Go ahead and tell him, ma’am.”

  The woman directed her attention to Ransom, “They aren’t home.”

  “What?” Ransom answered. “How do you know they aren’t home?”

  “Shane and Allison, I mean the Combers, were leaving to go on vacation early yesterday,” the woman said and folded her arms across her chest.

  “You saw them leave yesterday?” Ransom was puzzled.

  “No, I didn’t see them leave. We keep an eye on each other’s house when either one of us is out of town. Allison told me on Tuesday that they were leaving really early yesterday morning for a theme park in Northern Utah, I can’t remember the name of it.”

  “Thank you for the information. Can you give the officer your name and phone number in case we need to follow-up?” Ransom asked.

  “Absolutely. I’m just glad they’re out of town. All the police cars really scared me,” she added and wrote down her name and number on a notepad the officer pulled from his shirt pocket. The officer tore off the sheet and handed it to Ransom.

  “Thank you for your help. If you think of anything else, don’t hesitate to call. I’ll get you a card from my partner when she comes out,” he explained.

  “Okay, my husband should be home any minute, he ran to the store before all this happened.”

  Ransom returned to the house and told Leesa about the neighbor’s encounter with the Combers and gave the piece of paper with the lady’s name on it to her.

  Looking at her watch, Leesa suggested, “We can still make it to the gym in time if we hurry.”

  The two walked out the front door and were flagged down by the woman who was now accompanied by a man, “Officers, this is my husband. He remembers something from yesterday.”

  The man waited for his wife and turned to Ransom and Leesa, “I woke up about four or five in the morning yesterday, you know, my body was calling.”

  The man’s wife smacked him on the arm and rolled her eyes, “Just tell them what you saw!”

  The man shrugged and continued, “I saw the Comber’s garage door open. Shane moved his car from inside the garage to the driveway, where it is now.” The man pointed at the small car on the driveway. “He walked to the end of the driveway and pulled a big white car into the garage and shut the door.”

  “A big white car?” Leesa leaned in.

  “Not a car I guess, one of those big kind of tall station wagon sorta cars,” he answered.

  “An SUV?” Ransom tried to help him along.

  “Yeah, an SUV sorta car. But it was a little older than the newer ones. I thought it was kind of weird since they already have a pretty decent sized car. I figured they rented it for their trip to give the kids more room for the long drive up north,” the man shrugged.

  Ransom pressed the man, “Are you sure it was Shane?”

  The man scratched his head, “It had to be, who else would be in Shane’s garage. He’s a police officer, right? Who else would it be?”

  “So you aren’t positive it was him?” Leesa chimed in before Ransom could ask.

  “I’m pretty sure…” the man began before being cut-off by his wife.

  “Harold, you can’t say it was him for sure. You don’t put on your glasses when you get up at night,” the woman pointed to the thick lenses on her husband’s face.
>
  “Can you describe the man you saw?” Ransom asked.

  “Sure, I guess it was a little fuzzy. Well, he was about the same size as Shane. And the car was long and tall and white,” he offered.

  Waiting for more details, Leesa and Ransom stood quietly. Realizing the man had nothing else to offer, Leesa asked for his name and wrote it next to his wife’s on the paper Ransom had given her.

  “Thank you so much for your help folks, we will be in touch. If you think of anything else that sticks out, please let me know,” Leesa reached into her badge wallet and pulled a card from one of the compartments and handed it to the man.

  Turning away from the couple, Ransom commented, “Well, at least it’s something. And it fits the other two.”

  “White vehicle, and average sized male. Not much of a start, but something,” Leesa agreed. “We better get over to the gym and see what we’ve got there. I’ll give Gonzalez a call and fill him in on this and let him know we’re running over to the gym.”

  Ransom followed her to the car as Leesa tapped on her phone screen.

  25

  Sitting in the parking lot of Planet Vegas Gym, Leesa continued to chat with Gonzalez on the phone while Ransom watched the cars coming and going. Leesa parked several rows away from the front door. This time of the morning provided for a steady stream of people getting in their workout on the way to work or just getting off graveyard and slipping in some cardio before sleeping.

  Leesa got off the phone and looked over to Ransom, “Mike went over to the park and met up with Gonzalez and Hatch.”

  Ransom continued to scan the parking lot with an eye on the front entrance to the gym, “Anything new?”