Return to Murder

by John Osipowicz

  On the way back to Chicago, Nancy was still wearing Cleon’s clothes. She was not happy.

  “Nathan with all his money and resources can hide out forever. No one will ever catch him.”

  “Don’t lose hope, Nancy. It’s a step forward that you’re out of his clutches.”

  “I have to agree with that statement. There’s another thought that I had in my long hours in that damn cabin. The earlier time that Nathan had captured me and brought me to the Wisconsin cabin for the first time, I remember lamenting to him about how Ma Blessing and Walt had bad-mouthed me for getting the church treasury story wrong. I was angry and wanted revenge. Now, I swear to you, Todd, that I did not tell him to harm those people. However, Nathan being Nathan, and accustomed to dealing with the enemy by violence, might have taken it upon himself to help me out by killing those two.”

  “It’s a possibility, but why would he have done it on the same date and time each year? That still in my mind is very weird.”

  “What was that date again?”

  “May 10th at ten o’clock.”

  “Good gravy. I think that’s his mother’s birthday. I remember the ten and ten thing. Sometimes after sex, he would practically cry about the way she had treated him. He didn’t say it outwardly, but I got the feeling she had him come into her bed even when he got to be a teen-ager. The dad had left long ago, and it was just the two of them in the house. The mother has long since died, but maybe killing on that date was the only way Nathan could eventually mentally escape from his mother’s bed.”

  Todd used his Smart Phone directory to look up Brumfield’s mom’s birthdate. It turned out to be the 13th of May. Close but no cigar.

  “At least that’s what the records told you, Todd. Not always were those older records accurate because of reporting inconsistencies. My grandfather’s official birthdate was two days off from the real one, he always claimed.”

  “Yeah, Nancy, I hear what you’re saying, but it seems we’re straining that idea bit.”

  “All I know is that this time when Nathan kidnapped me, he told me he hoped I appreciated the favor he had done for me. At the time I though he meant that it would be so wonderful for me to have sex with him again. But he could have been talking about Ma and Walt.”

  “I guess it’s possible, Nancy. I just want him to pay for putting you through all the abduction torture. I am going to find him.”

  Even though Todd said this, his fervor was not that strong to capture the man. First of all Nancy was correct, Todd did not have resources to be able to pursue the man throughout the world. Secondly, he wasn’t too sold on Brumfield having killed Blessing and Fosdick. Nancy seemed to be pushing that idea wanting the man put away for good for what he had done to her.

  Todd’s fervor increased when he got back to Chicago and discovered another fact. That fact made finding Nathan Brumfield an absolute necessity.

  Before driving himself and Nancy back to Calypso, Todd stopped at Carrie’s condo to say he was leaving the city and would try to see her again in a couple of months. He also wanted to introduce Nancy to Carrie and tell her about her boss now being pursued by the authorities.

  The door to the luxury apartment was wide open, and Todd could see a broken vase near the opening. Coming in further, he saw chairs overturned plus a smashed mirror. There was a stain on the rug that could be blood. Carrie was nowhere to be found, but her computer and cell were still there. What was also still there was her purse.

  “Most women don’t go anywhere without their purse,” Nancy said.

  Todd called his sister’s office. Her secretary was all upset because the office had just been notified by the police about Brumfield. Todd asked if Carrie was there.”

  “No, she called earlier saying she didn’t feel well and was going to work from home today.”

  Todd hung up and swore for a full minute. When he was finally able to speak properly he said, “Nancy, you being kidnapped was a terrible thing. I was distraught about it, and I’m glad you’re safe. Now a worse thing has happened in my life. That monster Brumfield has captured my sister.”

  “Todd, how can that be? How would he even know her? Also how would he know it was you chasing him today?”

  “In all this chaos today, I never told you. My sister Carrie works for him. She has for six years. When I stopped to see her before I found out about your abduction, she told me that he was constantly after her to go out with him. She always refused him. He must have come back to Chicago from Rhinelander, called the office and found she was home. Then he came here and kidnapped her.”

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a serial kidnapper.”

  “You mentioned that thing about his mother. Maybe he always has to have a woman he’s controlling to wipe away the lack of control he had with his mother. Obviously it’s crazy, but before in his life Nathan could keep those desires under some control. Lately he’s simply flipped. When one woman was taken away from him, he had to have another.”

  “Todd, what can we do?”

  “At the moment I absolutely don’t know. I have to find the both of them before that maniac does something worse than kidnapping. Nancy, I’m going to drive you back to Calypso, and then I’ll probably come back to Chicago. I think Brumfield is from around this area, so I have to start at zero again and try to find out where he might have gone this time. It doesn’t matter now whether he did those Calypso killings or not. I have to get my sister back.”

  All the way back to Calypso, Todd was becoming frantic. Nancy could see it plainly in his words and demeanor.

  “Todd, you’ve just gotten finished with the ordeal of rescuing me. I’ll be forever grateful, but do me one favor. When you get back, get a good meal and some sleep. You can leave early the next morning back to Chicago. The important thing is that you be not as totally upset as you are now. You have to be able to think clearly.”

  “How can I do what you say when this very moment that monster could be raping my sister?”

  “Todd, you’re not superhuman. You can’t beam yourself to them right now in some kind of science fiction way to put an immediate stop to Nathan’s actions. I hope you can get to them as soon as possible, but unless you control yourself and eventually use your good detective powers, you will never find them. You will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I hate talking to you this way, but I can see how in bad shape you are. Take a break for a few hours, and calm yourself. Then you’ll be able to find Carrie just like you found me.”

  “You are right, Nancy. I feel so frantic at the moment. I will get back into a better state.”

  Once back in Calypso, after dropping Nancy off, he got take-out at McDonald’s. He sat on his couch with the TV off, eating and thinking. He thought of a couple avenues he could exploring looking for Brumfield. The guy just doesn’t float around in outer space. He’s lived around that Chicago area and left his footprints in various places. Todd would explore those places to see where Nathan might have gone.

  Nancy was sure correct about how tired he was because for the next five hours he fell asleep sitting up on the couch. He set his alarm for three more hours and fell into bed. Near the crack of dawn he was up and eager to drive back to Chicago. He felt refreshed. He was ready to find Nathan Brumfield.

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  Since Todd had talked with Carrie’s secretary, Mitzi, on the phone a couple of times he decided to make her his first stop at his sister’s office.

  The office was minimalist, emphasizing space and glass. Mitzi occupied the second desk, behind the receptionist. Her little face and big red glasses were almost comical looking, but Todd knew this was not the time for humor. He was correct. Mitzi told him she was ready to walk away from her job.

  “First I learn that my corporate boss is a kidnapper and rapist; then I learn that my immediate boss has been abducted to who knows where by this same philanderer. Maybe Chicken Little is correct, the sky is falling.”

  “That’s why I
’m here, Mitzi. I’m going to find Carrie and bring her back to you.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “I just rescued that other person Brumfield kidnapped. She’s back home safe. So talk to me for a minute. Who in this office was Nathan close to?”

  “No one. The man felt he was above everyone. His style was to lead from his tower, not mingle with the troops. You know, though, now that I think about it, there was one person he talked to quite a bit.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Krasner, the maintenance man.”

  “You have to be putting me on. What happened to the person looking down from his tower?”

  “Mr. Brumfield had many days where he worked late. Krasner would come in at noon and clean up the building until midnight, with an hour off for lunch. He was always around in the late evening hours when Brumfield was working on some final deal or new project. I guess they got to talking. That’s what Krasner told me, anyway. He was very surprised when a person so far above his economic status lowered himself to talk to a commoner, as he put it. Maybe Brumfield felt he could trust Krasner not to say anything because he was so apart from the regular office mainstream.”

  “Does Krasner have a first name?”

  “I don’t know what it is. It’s like Kramer and Newman on the Seinfeld show. They were always just Kramer and Newman. Krasner was just Krasner. He’ll come on duty in ten minutes. You can talk to him yourself.

  Todd wandered around the office for a few minutes, but got basically the same response from the other employees. Nathan Brumfield did not mix with the rabble who worked for him.

  Todd then took the elevator to the basement where Mitzi said Krasner would be getting ready. In a corner of that basement he saw a fellow with a goatee and long sideburns which did not seem to go together. What also didn’t seem to match anything was the fact that this little man was on the floor doing push-ups. Todd didn’t know how long the guy had been doing them before he came down, but Todd saw him do thirty.”

  “How many was that, sir?” Todd asked.

  “Forty. My work is physical; I have to say in shape and get ready for it each day. “

  “I know your last name is Krasner. What is your first?”

  “It’s Gordon. See it’s written right here on my uniform.

  His first name was on his uniform’s pocket, and no one in the office knew it? No one must have ever looked directly at the man. It might be an indication that Krasner for those people simply didn’t exist.

  “I’ve heard that you and Mr. Brumfield often had talks together.”

  “Oh, yes, Nathan and I shared much. I could tell him how my family was doing and he would tell me how stocks were doing. See, we both benefited.”

  “Were there special places that Mr. Brumfield talked about perhaps visiting or going back again to?”

  “He would always talk about how the market was doing. Most of the time I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. But I could see it gave him enjoyment to tell things to me. I had a feeling he didn’t have any friends. He had one special place that he kept talking about, and that is Paris. He said it was the most romantic place he’d ever been to, and he wished his wife appreciated it more whenever he took her there. He said when they would walk down the banks of the river all she would talk about was everything that was bothering her, instead of enjoying the beautiful scene in front of them.”

  ‘The Seine River? Is that the one?”

  “Yes, when you mention it, I remember it. When he told me, I thought some rivers can be sane, while others wild.”

  Todd decided that was an area Brumfield might take Carrie to. Brumfield had unlimited money so Todd felt he might be chasing around the world for that kidnapper. He decided right then and there to begin taking money from the lottery he had won. His police money would run out soon, and he certainly was not going to ask his dad for more funds. He was saving the money for a worthy cause, but now with his sister in the hands of a possible killer, this was a worthy enough cause.

  While he was thinking of it, he then called Chief Trimble to tell him the case had changed a lot. “My sister’s been kidnapped by one of the suspects in the case. He has enough money to go anywhere in the world. I have to visit any place where I think he might be. So I’m asking for more leave-time off.”

  “For your loyalty and effective case closing in the past, I can give you more leave-time off. Take one more month. However, after that time if you still have not returned to work here in Philly, I’ll have to think about getting someone new. We can’t continue to exist short-handed like we’ve been doing lately with your absence.”

  “I understand, Chief. I’m grateful to you for not being the hard-ass everyone says you are. Oops, that didn’t come out right.”

  Everyone leaves a footprint on this earth. Nathan Brumfield went to high school and college. Todd would walk in Brumfield’s footsteps at both places to see where they would lead him. For instance, Nathan went to Evanston Township High School. Todd saw in the on-line yearbook from the school Nathan named two off his favorite teachers, one Math, the other History. Todd called up the school website to see that both of them were teaching summer school.

  In the summer school daily schedule, Math teacher Mathias Foxworthy had an early morning class at eight. The history teacher, Isadore Plumb came in an hour later. Therefore forty minutes after he left Brumfield’s office, Todd was now waiting t the back of Foxworthy’s 204 classroom with pictures on the walls of all sorts of geometric shapes and figures. The subject was Statistics, with ten students who either had flunked it in the previous year or was taking it for extra credits to graduate early. It wouldn’t seem too easy to teach the best and the worst students in the same classroom. But again that was not Todd’s problem. He merely wanted information.

  With a name like Mathias Foxworthy, Todd had pictured an older gentleman, possibly getting ready to retire. The person who walked in to the front of the classroom didn’t look like he was much past high school himself. However, for him to have taught Brumfield, this youthful fellow had to be pushing sixty. When Todd looked closely there were wrinkles and crow’s feet. Foxworthy was wearing a simple white T-shirt, with its black lettering telling the viewer, Learn to Unlearn. Todd thought that was probably pretty good advice for himself also. He certainly had to do it with Nancy Skylar.

  Most of Foxworthy’s blond hair stood straight up. It didn’t look like his teeth fit into his mouth, and his ears were flappable. Physically he was down the list for handsomeness, but Brumfield somehow must have thought he was cool. Todd bounded up to the front to intercept the man before he could begin class. “I know I’m interrupting your class,” he said.

  “Then don’t do it.”

  “This will take only a minute.”

  “That’s what I said to my last girlfriend.” There were titters in the class. Foxworthy on purpose had spoken loud enough for his primary audience to hear.

  “Maybe we should go out into the hallway,” Foxworthy said.

  “I was going to wait there, but I didn’t know when you were going to arrive.”

  “That’s what my last girlfriend said to me. But yes out in the hallway we go.”

  Once out there, Foxworthy leaned against the wall in the slouchy way a student would.

  Todd said, “I want to ask you about a student you had maybe thirty years ago, Nathan Brumfield.”

  “Ah, yes, the now famous Nathan Brumfield. Or should I say infamous? Nathan was hard to forget mostly because he was so obnoxious. No, he didn’t misbehave. He behaved too well; he tried too hard. His hand was up all the time trying to answer every question. Now, I will say he was sharp. He knew most of the answers, but he wanted to let everyone in the class know it.”

  “How was he with the girls?”

  “The complete opposite. He didn’t talk to them, and if one of them happened to speak to him, he would get all red. Why do you want to know about him?”

  “Well, the latest is that
there’s an APB out on him for his capture. He’s kidnapped two women.”

  “Both of them at the same time?”

  “No, one was released, but not because Brumfield wanted it to happen. I’m connected to the case, and I’m trying to find out where he might have gone. As you seem to know he has a lot of money, and so he could be anywhere in the world.”

  If we’re talking about the entire world, I would pick Florence Italy.”

  “Really? Why is that?”

  “Nathan’s favorite person of all time was Leonardo da Vinci, not so much for his paintings but for his mechanical drawings. Even as a high school kid, Nathan read books on the man. Nathan felt da Vinci’s true calling was as a mathematician, with his precise calculations and measurements. He was amazed that so many years ago, da Vinci had designed a flying machine. He loved the anatomical drawing of The Vitruvian Man. Since da Vinci grew up basically in Florence and did his early work there, I think Nathan felt if he himself could live there some of that genius would rub off on him. Nathan told me he was going to become a mathematical whiz like da Vinci, and the entire world would know him.”

  “I guess the Math shifted to money numbers for Nathan.”

  “It did seem so. The dreams of youth are not often realized, I feel.”

  “So you think Nathan might have now gone to Florence to absorb some of that culture he missed.”

  “It’s possible. It was the city he most often mentioned to me that he would like to travel to.”

  “Thank you for your help. I now have another destination in which to find this man.”

  Walking away from the classroom down the hallway, Todd googled Nathan’s name and Florence Italy, but came up empty. If Brumfield had made it to Florence, at least it wasn’t that well-known.

  To meet with History teacher, Isadore Plumb, Todd went up a floor to Room 312. Plumb was already in the room at his desk looking over his notes. It was still thirty minutes before class time, but a smattering of students had entered and were quietly reading.