Stacey

  "My name is Brenda Booker..."

  "Can you please speak up, I can barely hear you."

  "That girl from the news, the one that blew up the precinct, is living in my basement. She's down there right now..."

  Chapter 64

  BY THE TIME IRIS, TONI, and Agent Cannon had reached 147-53 Shore Ave., the whole block was swarming with New York's finest. Shiny black SUV's were also parked on the block; fire and rescue were at the ready. Iris stared at the bus shelter that she Toni stood under just yesterday. "I knew she was around here," she said to Toni.

  The house was in the middle of the block. At one time, it seemed like the old house had had a balcony. There was a door on the second floor that, if opened, a person would fall twenty-five feet straight down.

  AGENT CANNON CONGREGATED with his comrades from the Bureau. He had everyone he could get at the scene. He'd called the Deputy Director and told him that he had Stacey McHill trapped in a basement apartment in Queens. Iris spoke with the woman who'd made the call. Ms. Brenda Booker had told the detective at first she had no idea that the woman she'd rented the basement apartment to was the killer. " She was so sweet. But today I saw her after she came out of the shower, and she had this funny looking mark that ran across her mouth. The Eyewitness News team said that the bomber of the precinct had a mark on her face like that. That's when I knew." Iris asked the woman if her tenant was still in the basement apartment. The landlady told Iris that she was; she also told Iris that the woman was a lesbian. "She sleeps with the woman who lives in the attic. I rented her an apartment, too."

  Iris and Toni approached Cannon. "O.K., Cannon, I want some of your men at the side of the house—" The way Cannon stared at Iris made her stop in mid-sentence. "Why are you lookin' at me like that?"

  `"I'm in charge of this investigation. In fact." Cannon waved over a couple of his men. "...I don't want you or your partner near that house." Cannon's men were standing by his side, glaring at the detectives.

  "You sonofabitch!" Iris shouted. You can't do that." Cannon's men stood between him and the raging detective; both men loomed over Iris. "You fuckin' bastard!"

  Cannon said, "I know what you did to me back at the unit. I already filed a complaint.” Iris was just about to take a swing at Cannon, but Toni sensed it and grabbed her by the arm. She whispered something in Iris’ ear. Iris pulled her arm from Toni's grip. "Fuckk!" She threw a left, then a right hook at the air.

  Chapter 65

  A HELICOPTER FLEW OVERHEAD shining a white-hot light on the chaotic scene. Iris watched as men and women dressed in FBI windbreakers walked toward the side and back of the house. Cannon led two men and a woman through the side entrance.

  Three minutes later, two gunshots rang out. Every man and woman at the scene, who was carrying a gun, removed their weapon from their holster before they all ducked behind the nearest vehicle. The shots came from inside the house. A few seconds after the shots were fired someone from inside the house shouted all clear.

  Iris’ heart was hammering.

  Toni stretched her neck to see what she could see. Ten minutes later, Cannon exited the house; he was on his cell phone with the Deputy Director. "Yes sir, I got her." Cannon closed his cell phone when he saw Iris. "That's how you get things done, Detective Williams," he said with a smug look on his face.

  Forensics came and did their jobs.

  Agent Cannon was reveling in the glow of his triumph in front of the T.V. cameras. When the boys from the morgue brought out the body, Iris stopped them.

  "What do you think you're doing," Cannon asked her.

  "I want to see the body."

  "See the body, for what?"

  Iris glared at the FBI agent.

  "She has the mark, Detective, if that's what you want to see."

  Iris made a hand motion to one of the men that was rolling the body out. He unzipped the body bag. Iris stared at the face; it was that of an African-American woman in her mid-thirties; a bullet hole stamped on her forehead. Iris noticed the red mark on the sides of the dead woman's cheeks. "Give me a handkerchief, Toni."

  Toni dug her hand into her back pocket and removed a powder blue handkerchief. "Here." Iris took the handkerchief and began rubbing the dead woman's face.

  "What the fuck are you doin'?" Cannon asked. The red mark came off. Iris looked at Cannon. Toni moved in for a closer look. "She smells funny." Toni held the dead woman by the sides of her head and turned it to the left, then the right; all the while sniffing the body. "She's been poisoned...Potassium Cyanide from the smell of it. Recently, too."

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Cannon barked.

  Toni showed Cannon two needle pricks that were on the back of the woman's neck. "Somebody shot her up with Potassium Cyanide. She was mostly likely dead when you and your team burst into her room."

  "What the hell are you talkin' about?" Cannon asked again. "She was sitting up in her bed with a gun in her hand when we entered the room." He pushed Iris out of the way and stared at the needle marks.

  "Potassium Cyanide is hard to detect if you don't know what it smells like. Here, do you smell almonds? That's the chemical property KCN: Potassium Cyanide." Toni looked at Cannon. "You shot a dead woman."

  Cannon's jaw dropped. “You're shittin' me—" The sound of his cell phone made him jump. He looked at the screen; it was his boss. Cannon did not answer it. Instead, he just stared at the dead woman's face.

  Iris called the landlady over. "Is that the woman you rented the basement too?"

  The landlady tilted her head so that she could get a better look at the dead woman's face. "No... that's the cop that lives upstairs in the attic, her lesbian girlfriend."

  "You shot a dead police officer, Agent Cannon," Iris said, glaring at the FBI agent. "I..." Cannon looked around; his team of FBI agents were all staring at him. Cannon felt the heat from their collective eyeballs. His cell phone rang again. It was his boss. Cannon turned his back to Iris, Toni, and his team members and slowly walked toward his car.

  "Cannon! Where the hell are you goin'?" Iris called out.

  Special Agent Cannon mumbled something that was incoherent as he walked away. When he reached to his ride, Agent Cannon opened the passenger's side door and stepped in. He closed the door. Cannon leaned his head back.

  Snap open.

  The flash of light from the muzzle of Cannon's weapon and the gunshot were almost simultaneous.

  Chapter 66

  THREE DAYS AFTER SPECIAL Agent Thomas Cannon had taken his life, Detectives Iris Williams and Annette Toni walked out of the Walter T. Jones Funeral Home in the East New York section of Brooklyn where Cannon grew up. Iris’ heart went out to Cannon's family. And although her feelings for the agent leaned toward the negative, Detective Iris Williams did not believe that the FBI agent should've died the way he did. Too much pressure, she thought. The pressure was getting to her also. Iris found it hard to sleep ever since the murderous teenager had escaped from Tanawan Correctional Facility for the Criminally three weeks ago, and her appetite had been on the decline.

  On the driver over to Iris’ apartment, Iris reflected on the past three weeks and the toll it has taken on her. Sixteen-year-old Stacey McHill had eluded—at every turn of the investigation—the N.Y.P.D. and the FBI. Ever since Agent Cannon’s suicide, Iris’ demeanor had changed. The persona that she'd displayed, the hard as rock image, had melted away. Something replaced it that Iris didn't like...fear. The same fear she’d seen in Casper’s eyes when she and Toni had visited him now ran through her veins, the feeling chilled her to the bone.

  Iris stared at the faces on the street as Toni drove. She thought about the unholy, ungodly abuse that Stacey McHill and her twin sister, Jannifer had suffered at the hands of two brutal home invaders three years ago. Two monsters who, unbeknownst to them, created two additional monsters that horrific night.

  Iris remembered feeling sympathetic toward Stacey and Jannifer McHill when Dr. Patterson explained the etiology of
the twins’ disorder. But that was then; Iris felt no pity for the teenager now. She thought about the horrific crime scene photos of the once beautiful Anaya Hayes, the female detective that Stacey McHill had murdered then successfully impersonated before she blew up the Double 0 precinct killing scores of important police officials. Stacey McHill's impersonations were masterful: Anaya Hayes, a thirty-something-year-old African American; a forty-something-year-old Cuban construction worker; a Chinese delivery boy who was a deaf mute; a blind girl. The accents, the body language... She also thought about how the petite teenager took down her giant of a friend, Casper. Iris shook her head.

  The technicians, who'd bagged the evidence at the crime scene in Jamaica, Queens where Special Agent Cannon had shot a dead police officer, had found Detective Hayes' shield and gun in the basement apartment. Iris wondered what else the murderer had taken from Hayes’ apartment after she'd killed her. They'd also found a professional Hollywood makeup kit and a box of Peanut M&M's.

  Secretly, Iris had hoped that the FBI would apprehend Stacey McHill so that this nightmare would be over with, but that didn't happen, Stacey was still out there. Iris removed her hearing-aid from her left ear and dug her finger into her ear canal.

  When Toni turned Iris’ truck onto 138th Street, Iris noticed her little gang of misfits. They were playing dice in front of her building. The leader ran to the curb and removed the no parking sign that the landlady had placed there. The detectives looked at one another. Toni took Iris’ hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Are you going to be o.k.?"

  Iris nodded her head. "I'll be fine." As soon as Iris and Toni exited from the Durango, the little gang of misfits shouted, "No Thugs, No Drugs, and No Creeps on 138th Street.”

  Iris nodded in their direction as she and her partner made their way toward the building. "And pull your damn pants up!" Iris shouted at the leader.

  Chapter 67

  IRIS UNLOCKED THE DOOR to her apartment and walked in. Toni followed and closed the door behind her, the door self-locked. "I'm gonna jump in the shower first," Iris said. "You don't mind, do you?" Iris and Toni walked into the bedroom and kicked off their shoes. Iris removed her Sig Sauer and placed it under her pillow. Then she placed her holster on a coat rack that stood next to her night table. Toni removed her Glock and placed it underneath her pillow also.

  Toni, who was lying on the bed, stared at Iris. "Are you sure you're o.k.?"

  Iris shot Toni a look. "I wish you would stop asking me that, Toni, I'm fine." Iris paused, "Look, Cannon was under a tremendous amount of pressure to solve this thing." Iris sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed her feet. "That's not gonna happen to me; I'll catch this chick." Iris stood up and unzipped her jeans. "How much time do we have? You know how my niece gets when we're late."

  Toni looked at her smartphone. "About an hour."

  Iris walked out of the bedroom; she ambled toward the bathroom.

  "Do you think I should call her?" Toni shouted, but Iris had already closed the door and turned on the shower.

  Toni removed her jeans and blouse. She stood in front of the mirror for a moment, then she walked over toward the window. She looked down at the street below. The late afternoon was beautiful. Toni watched Iris’ little gang of misfits argue over a dice throw. Across the street two teenage boys, who were riding their bikes, braked as two girls walked past them. The girl's’ eyes were glued to their cell phones. The boy's’ eyes were glued to the girls’ butts.

  One of Iris’ gang of misfits looked up at Toni and waved. Toni took a step back from the window. She didn't want him to see her in her bra and panties. She laid on Iris’ queen size bed, locked her fingers behind her head, and stared at the ceiling. Toni thought about Iris, this case is really starting to get to her. Just then the sound of someone trying to enter the apartment made Toni sit up straight. She quickly reached under her pillow for her weapon. The front door opened, then closed. Toni jumped off the bed.

  "Iris, Toni, it's me. Mrs. Green."

  Toni exhaled, then she placed the gun back under her pillow. "I'm in the bedroom, Mrs. Green." Mrs. Green walked into the bedroom carrying a silver tray. A teapot sat on top of the tray. "Hi, sweetie," Mrs. Green placed the tray on top of the bureau. "Where's Iris?"

  "She's in the shower."

  "Well, I brought you girls some of my delicious tea." Mrs. Green was wearing a brown sweat suit that was too big for her.

  "We just came in not too long ago," Toni said as she put on her robe. "We went to a funeral."

  "That poor FBI agent." Mrs. Green began pouring the tea. The brew smelled heavenly. "Well, maybe this will make you feel better."

  "Mmm, how do you get your teas to smell so good, Mrs. Green? And, by the way, that suit looks good on you." Toni had changed the password up just a little; she waited for the response. "Mrs. Green..." Toni repeated the password.

  "What is it, dearie?" Mrs. Green passed Toni a cup of tea.

  That's when Toni saw it, and her blood quickly drained from her face.

  When Mrs. Green reached out her hand to pass Toni the cup of tea, Toni noticed a gold and diamond bracelet on the old lady's wrist. There was also a discoloration on Mrs. Green’s wrist. Toni took the cup of tea from Mrs. Green; her hand shook violently.

  “Are you o.k., baby? You're shaking.”

  A lump had formed in Toni's throat. “That's a lovely bracelet, Mrs. Green where did you get?"

  "Oh, this old thing..." Mrs. Green looked at it as she rubbed the right side of her face. "...My mother gave it to me on my thirteenth birthday." The way Mrs. Green stared at Toni made the detective's blood run cold. The old woman's face was twisting into a mask of fury right before Toni’s eyes.

  Toni screamed Iris’ name as Stacey McHill lunged in her direction.

  Chapter 68

  THE BANSHEE-LIKE SCREAM that Iris heard over the shower made her jump. She pulled the shower curtain back and listened. The sound of someone scuffling in her bedroom made the detective run—butt naked—out of the bathroom. When Iris got to the bedroom, her mouth dropped open. Mrs. Green held Toni high over her head; Toni was unconscious. Iris dove for her pillow and pulled out her weapon. "Freeze, dammit!" The sweat that poured from Iris’ body mixed with the shower water that saturated her. Her hands were shaking. Stacey turned and glared at the detective. Terror seized Iris when Stacey turned toward the window and threw Toni's lifeless body toward it.

  Helplessness, horror, and dread overwhelmed Iris’ senses as she watched Toni's body slam into the drapes, then into the windowpane, and finally out into the open air; all of this seemed to happen in slow motion. Stacey turned toward the petrified detective. A scream escaped from the teenager’s throat.

  "Noooooo," Iris shouted. Iris didn't hear the sound of her Sig Sauer going off—twice. Nor was she fully in her right mind when Stacey's body slammed in to the wall. All the detective's mental energy was focused on the window. "Nooo, God, please, nooo!" she shouted as she ran across her bed toward the window. She stepped on a broken piece of glass as she stuck her head through the shattered windowpane and stared at the street two stories below.

  All five of her little gang of misfits were lying on the ground; two of them were unconscious. Toni's body lay on top of the misfits. One of the gang members gave Iris the thumbs up. "We caught her Iris! We caught her!”

  "Thank you, sweet Jesus! I'm coming, Toni." Iris grabbed the blouse that she was wearing earlier that day, covered her nude body, and ran out of her apartment.

  Outside, Toni's body writhed over the gang of misfits as she regained consciousness. Iris, who was kneeling next to her partner said, "Are you o.k.?"

  Toni smiled at her girlfriend and nodded her head. "I think I am.”

  "Thank God." Iris thanked her little gang.

  "Is she dead?" Toni asked her partner.

  "Yeah, she's dead.”

  Toni let out a breath of relief. Three minute later, the block was swarming with police cars. An ambulance doubled parked in front o
f Iris’ apartment Building. A medical technician went to work on Toni while Iris spoke with a couple of her comrades. She told them to follow her to apartment 1c, Mrs. Green's apartment. A medical tech tailed behind. Five minutes later, two police officers escorted Mrs. Green out of her building. Apparently, Stacey had slipped into Mrs. Green's first-floor apartment. Mrs. Green had been found tied to a chair in her kitchen; a disguise kit was also found. She was unharmed.

  Two medical techs placed Toni inside of the emergency vehicle. Iris told the driver to wait for her; she had to put on some clothes. When Iris returned to her apartment, she let out a loud scream. Stacey McHill was gone....

  Don't miss out!

  Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever R.G. Miller publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.

  https://books2read.com/r/B-A-DHVC-ZYDJ

  Connecting independent readers to independent writers.

  Did you love Stacey:The Twin A Psychological Thriller? Then you should read I.Williams by R.G. Miller!

  Multiple personality disorder had never been so terrifying...Three months after the biggest blunder of her career, Detective Iris Williams is still severely depressed over the escape of the youngest serial killer she's ever encountered, 17-year-old Stacey McHill.The acting captain of the Double 0 has placed Isis and Toni on desk duty, calling Isis an embarrassment to the department.Meanwhile, babies are being snatched from their strollers in broad daylight, and they're being replaced by life-like dolls. Back on the streets, Isis can't shake the feeling of paranoia. Stacey is out there somewhere, waiting. And for Isis, anyone could be Stacey McHill...anyone.After Isis' great niece is abducted by Stacey, the case become personal. Isis has to keep her emotions under control if she wants to stay on the case and save her great niece.