Killer Genius

by David Archer

  Sam sighed on the other end of the line. "Alright, we'll look into Danielle and see if she knows anything." He paused. "When we get back to Denver, I need to talk to you, but let's close this case first."

  Summer made a wry smile. "You bet."

  The line went dead, and Summer pulled the phone away from her ear, looking at it. That was mysterious.

  "Ms. Raines?" Eric came toward the house. "I heard you talking on the phone. I think I might be able to come up with an idea where he’s hiding.”

  Summer looked at him. “What have you got in mind?”

  Eric smiled shyly. "Let me take a look at his computer." He climbed up into the wreckage and went down the hall to Lee’s room, and Summer followed him.

  Eric was sitting on the bed, in the exact spot Summer had vacated a few moments earlier. He had Lee’s laptop sitting on his knees and was scanning the contents of numerous documents, mumbling to himself as the words scrolled rapidly up the screen. She stood quietly in the doorway, not wanting to interrupt his train of thought.

  What would it be like, she wondered, to be able to read so many words so fast? Summer loved to read, but it would take her a week to get through a typical romance novel. She couldn’t imagine trying to read any of the real epics out there, because it would take her months to get through them. If she could read like Eric, though, then it might be more feasible to try something like one of the big Stephen King books.

  Her reverie was interrupted a second later, when Eric suddenly gasped. He looked up at her just as she focused her attention on him.

  “I think I know where he is,” he said.

  Summer’s eyes went wide. “Where?”

  “There’s an abandoned water tower outside of town,” Eric said. “It’s only mentioned one time in everything I read, but it looks like Lee has been planning to use it like a personal hideout, somewhere he could go to be alone. If he’s looking for a place to hide, that’s where he would go.”

  Summer nodded. “Let’s go,” she said. “We have to get this back to Sam, now.”

  * * *

  Sam had underestimated Eric. He had no idea what was coming, even after Eric had angrily shoved his vest into Sam's arms with a mumbled, "You're going to end up shooting someone who never even had a chance. I’m not gonna be a part of that. It’ll be like nothing but target practice."

  Yes, the display had been irritating, and the comments Eric had been making all day had Sam on the verge of pulling his hair out, but Sam still didn’t have any idea what was going to happen.

  He didn't even suspect anything until they got to the water tower and Lee wasn't there. That was when Sam realized Eric had used the water tower to throw them off the actual trail, bringing them just close enough to get Eric the chance to put himself between them and their suspect.

  Lee hadn’t been in the water tower; that actually would have been impossible, because the ladder that had once run up one of the legs had long since rusted away. While Sheriff Merton, his deputies and Sam’s team were all focused on the water tower, Eric had slipped away into the woods beside it.

  Two hundred yards away, he found the entrance to the cave right where Lee’s notes had said it would be. It wasn’t until he began calling out to the boy that Sam and the others realized what was going on.

  Eric, you idiot, Sam thought, you're going to get yourself killed.

  Eric was standing in the entrance to the cave. "Lee, my name is Eric,” he called out. “I don't have a gun. I'm not a cop." Eric took a few steps, holding his hands over his head. "I just want to talk to you."

  "Yeah?” Lee yelled. “Well, I don’t want to talk to you, so stay back!"

  Denny leaned over to Sam, speaking in a harsh whisper. "Sam, the lad has no social skills, and he’s gotten himself involved in this case emotionally. He's likely to set Lee off and get himself shot."

  "I know, but there’s nothing we can do unless we can get Lee in our sights," Sam let out a breath slowly, using the adrenaline in his system to his advantage. "If we tried anything, we’ll only get Eric killed sooner. Now, let me think."

  Eric walked slowly, his voice filled with a confidence and calmness it usually lacked. "I know you were only trying to protect yourself,” he said. “I know you felt trapped, and didn’t know any other way to save yourself."

  "Stay back! I’m telling you, don’t come any closer, stay right where you are!"

  Eric kept moving forward, crouching a bit to place Lee higher than himself.

  That, at least, was smart.

  "I know you didn’t mean to kill anyone but your dad. I know the more you tried to get him to let up on you, the worse things got, and everybody just stood by and watched you suffer. Nobody but Danielle even tried to help."

  "They didn't." Lee's voice was rough, and filled with pain. "Nobody did."

  "I know that," Eric replied softly, still inching forward.

  "No. No, you don't." Lee shook his head, rising a bit so Eric could see him, see the gun in his hand. "You don't know the half of it!"

  Eric put his hands a little higher and shouted, "Lee, I’ve been there! I know what you’re feeling, I know what you’ve been through. I know what it’s like to go through hell and not have anybody seem to care even a little bit."

  It was enough to make Lee stop, and Sam let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

  Eric crept a little closer as he spoke, keeping himself small and non-threatening. "My dad didn’t want me, either. I wasn’t good enough for him, I guess, but at least I still had my mom. If I hadn’t…" He squirmed where he stood, fingers twitching above his head. "She was the only one who cared about me, but she had to work a lot. With nobody watching me, I got into some things I shouldn’t have been involved in, and I ended up in a lot of trouble. I’m like you, because if anybody had paid attention, if anybody had just taken a good look at me, they would’ve seen what was going on, but nobody did."

  "Sam, what is he doing?"

  "I don't know."

  "If he makes something up—"

  "I don't think he is. There's a reason he relates to Lee."

  "But if Lee doesn’t respond to him?"

  "I know, I know, just let me think."

  But what could they do? They were still stuck where Eric had left them, hiding behind their cars with no way to get closer to Lee.

  Eric reached over to scratch his arm above his head, a gesture Lee didn't seem to notice in the slightest. "I guess the only good thing is,” he said, “that they got me before I could really hurt anybody. I’m sure I probably would’ve done something, sooner or later, but they got me before I could."

  Lee gave him a jerky, almost frightened nod. “Nobody cared enough to stop me before this happened,” he said.

  Denny whispered again. "He’s got some kind of trust established. This could be good, Sam."

  Sam nodded. “Could be,” he said.

  Eric cleared his throat, his voice dying down somewhat. "Your dad,” he said. “He was hurting you, right?"

  “Nobody’s going to believe me,” Lee said. “Nobody cares. Jack Ramey was a hero around here, and heroes can’t do anything wrong.”

  “That’s not true,” Eric said. “He was hurting you, and sometimes he was hurting you pretty bad. He would hit you, and sometimes even beat you. Was it because of your mother? Did he blame you because she died?”

  "No." Lee shook his head, taking half a step back. "No, he blamed me because I was born. If I hadn’t been born, he could have stayed in the army. That’s all I ever heard out of him, how he had to give up everything he wanted because of me.”

  Eric nodded. “That’s why he hit you. He hit you, and he beat you, and sometimes you just wanted to make it all stop, right? You just wanted to make him stop, and so finally you made him stop the only way you knew how. That was a pretty powerful bomb you made. I saw what it did, that was pretty big. But now, now you feel like you went too far, right? You feel like the only thing standing between you and suicide is trying to fi
gure out how to protect Danielle. Am I right?”

  “It’s not like that,” Lee said. “I'm already dead. There’s no other way, now."

  "No, you're not." Eric shook his head and took a few more steps toward Lee. "You're alive, and you love Danielle, and you don't want to leave her. I know you don't. You know what it's like to be left behind, so you wouldn’t want to do that to her."

  Lee appeared to struggle with himself, looking at his gun, not putting it down but not aiming it directly at Eric anymore. "You… you bring her so I can talk to her, all right? Bring her here, outside, where you are."

  Eric shook his head. "They aren’t going to let me do that, but Danielle is at the sheriff’s office. You come on out and let them arrest you, then you can talk to her when we get there. You can tell her goodbye, at least for now. Maybe one day you can even come back and see her again, but only if you put down the gun."

  Lee looked at the gun in his hand, and for a moment it looked as if he were going to set it down. "I… I don't know, I don’t know what to do."

  "Lee, look at me. I’m standing right here between you and them. If they try to hurt you, they’re going to have to kill me first, and I don’t think they’ll do that. I’ll be right here with you, Lee, you don’t have to do this alone."

  "I don't want to do it at all." Lee shook his head and looked at Eric helplessly. "I don’t even want to do it for her." He grimaced, unable to put his feelings into words.

  "I know. I understand, you don't have to put it into words. I know how, every time you start to feel happy, you suddenly think about how bad you’re going to feel when that feeling goes away. I've been there, Lee, and I tried to escape, too. I tried three times, but things have happened since then—good things, things I was so happy to be alive for, things that were worth it. You have to believe me when I say it really can get better." Eric took a few more steps and gently placed his hands on Lee's gun. "Let's put the gun down and go outside. We can do it together."

  Lee looked at him, and then he looked at the gun that was still in his hand, the gun that was still pointed at Eric’s chest.

  "For once in your life, Lee,” Eric said, “I’m going to make sure that you come first. I promise. Just put the gun down."

  Lee slowly crouched, placing the gun on the floor of the cave and then lifting his hands over his head.

  Sam and Denny rushed forward, several deputies on their heels. Denny got to him first and cuffed Lee with Sam covering him, and Eric grabbed onto Lee's arm, glaring at Sam. If they wanted to get him off, they really would have to pry his hands away.

  "Denny, take them outside." Sam spoke evenly, staring Eric dead in the eye, relief evident in his voice. "And when this is over, Eric and I are going to have a long talk."

  Eric looked Sam in the eye, but he didn't say anything. He stayed close to Lee, and when Denny began to push them toward the car, Eric didn't fight it at all.

  Sam holstered his weapon and let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead and moving back toward the cars. They didn't need him to wrap up the case, and he needed a break.

  * * *

  Jade walked up to Denny and handed him a coffee. "They still in there?"

  Denny nodded solemnly and looked through the window to the holding cell, taking a sip from the cup. "Lee looks like he hasn't been able to cry in years. Eric is just holding him and telling him everything is going to be okay."

  Jade got a little closer and leaned to look in the window, taking in the scene for herself.

  Denny had pegged it. Lee's head was buried in Eric’s shoulder, his own shoulders heaving as he wept, and Eric had both arms wrapped around him. Every now and then, Eric would stroke Lee's hair or rub his back, but he would finally go back to a simple hug.

  "Strange. Most of the time, Eric can barely sit still for more than a few seconds, but he isn’t having any trouble just sitting there with Lee." Jade squinted a bit, confused by what she saw, and she stepped back from the door.

  Jade bit her lip briefly and cautiously pressed for talk. "Hey. You alright?"

  Denny didn't answer for a moment, but then he turned his head to look at her. "I'm glad we didn't have to shoot Lee, but what if Eric had been wrong?"

  Jade nodded, remembering how scared she had been throughout the entire negotiation. "He's so young."

  "There were a few times I honestly thought he might get himself shot." He sighed and rubbed his face. "I understand why he feels close to Lee, but it's like—it's like playing with explosive, and Eric doesn't seem to understand it."

  Jade flashed a knowing smile and bumped against him. "You can say it, you know."

  Denny frowned at her. "Say what?"

  "That you were worried about him. That you were scared something was going to happen to him."

  Denny looked back into the room and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I bloody well was."

  “Don’t feel bad,” she said. “I think my heart was in my throat the entire time.”

  Lee could have felt like things had just gone too far, or maybe Eric trying to get through to him could have made him angry. Eric could have moved too quickly and startled him, making him pull the trigger.

  With just one wrong move, that young face, framed by blond waves, might have been covered in blood as Eric lay dying, just another victim of the kid who couldn’t take any more.

  Jade shook herself, forcing the mental image out of her head, and cleared her throat.

  She left without waiting for Denny to respond, her stomach doing flip-flops. She had a few things of her own that she wanted to say about his reckless behavior, but she doubted she would ever get the chance. Besides, Eric probably already knew what he had done wrong.

  And if not, Sam would be sure to explain it to him in no uncertain detail.

  * * *

  "Did you stop to think for even a second before you walked out there? Did you give even a moment’s thought for what was likely to happen if Lee didn't listen to you? Do you have even the slightest idea how close you came to dying out there? You were irrational, irresponsible, and inconsiderate. You didn't—"

  "But it worked,” Eric said angrily. “I was sure it would.”

  It was all Sam could do not to grab Eric and throw him off the hotel roof. The time they had been away from each other had done anything to reduce either of their tempers, and after ten minutes of Eric just standing there, staring at him, Sam was ready to snap.Instead, he looked Eric in the eye and spoke slowly and clearly. "You put your own life and the lives of everyone around you at risk, just so you could make a point."

  "It was a good point," Eric shot back, fists clenched at his sides, eyes blazing. "Lee put down his gun and gave up, and nobody got hurt. That's a positive outcome."

  "It's nothing but a lucky break," Sam said. "You couldn’t possibly know how Lee was going to respond, you simply assumed it would be the way you wanted. You were completely unprepared for any other result." He paused and tried to add a softer tone to his voice. "You may feel connected to Lee, Eric, but that isn’t always enough."

  "You may be a detective, Mr. Prichard, but that doesn't mean you know anything about who I am!" Eric spat out the words, his anger intense. "I could understand Lee better than you or anybody else ever could. Don't get angry at me for doing what needed to be done."

  Sam got the urge to wring the kid’s neck again, but he stifled it. "You did a lot of good, Eric, I’m not arguing that point. The problem is that you put yourself and everybody else at risk by going about it the way you did."

  "I saved lives, Mr. Prichard. I saved Lee’s life, because the sheriff wanted to shoot him like a mad dog, and I got him to stop killing anybody else. I think I did something pretty good, here."

  Sam just stared at him for a moment. “Eric, I understand that you feel like he didn’t really have a chance, but you have to remember that he put himself in the position he was in. He’s the one who decided to take matters into his own hands, rather than reaching out for help. You keep insisting that the others around him
should have seen what was happening to him, but that doesn’t absolve him of the responsibility to speak up. If he had gone to his teachers, the school counselor, anybody, and told them the truth, somebody would have intervened. It wouldn’t have been necessary for him to take things as far as they went.”

  “And you think somebody would’ve listened? People don’t listen to people like Lee, or people like me. That’s reality, Mr. Prichard, that’s the truth, whether you like hearing it or not.”

  “Eric, do you honestly believe that?” Sam asked. “Do you honestly believe that no one would have cared that Lee was being abused?”

  Eric just glared at him. "That’s how it is, Mr. Prichard,” Eric said, vehemence in his voice. “That’s the world people like he and I have to live in. People like Lee and me? All we really want is a chance to live a normal life, but people like you exist to make sure we can’t ever have it. Your job is to protect the rest of the world from us, remember?”

  Sam stared at him, shocked. “You think that’s what I do? You think I just use my position to victimize people?”

  “Well, maybe not all the time,” Eric said. “But when you come upon a situation like this, it’s what the world expects of you. Poor little Lee, he’s been kicked around and beaten and abused all his life, and nobody ever bothered to try to get him out of that situation, but now that he’s had enough and fought back, now he’s the bad guy. Now he’s the one you have to lock up, he’s the one you have to control.” He pointed at the gun in Sam’s holster. “Or maybe he’s the one you just have to get rid of, right?”

  Sam slapped him across the face, and Eric reeled. He put a hand to his face and stared at Sam, but he made no move to fight back.

  “Do you feel better, now? I was getting out of control, right? You had to bring me back under control, right?”

  “No, I don’t feel better. I feel sick, because I let this get so out of hand. Eric, while you might think I was just trying to get rid of Lee, that isn’t the case. I was trying to think of some way to bring him in without letting him get hurt.” Sam clenched his fists for a moment, then pointed back toward the door that led down into the hotel. “You go ask anybody on my team,” he said. “I will always, always try every way I possibly can to end the situation without hurting anybody, but sometimes that is impossible. Sometimes the only way to stop the killer is by killing them, and somebody has to be willing to do that when it’s necessary. Now, I’m very glad you were able to talk Lee down today, which you haven’t considered is what I would’ve had to do if he decided to take you hostage. I would’ve had no choice but to tell Denny Cortlandt to use his skills as an SAS sniper to put a bullet through the center of Lee’s forehead. I would’ve had to do that to make sure you were safe, not because I wanted anything to happen to Lee. Until you got between us, I intended to do everything possible to get Lee to surrender peacefully.”