“Hello, hello? And that’s not all…”
But before Thomas can continue, Cooper ends the call, his mind in a different world. While sitting in his car, in the parking lot of the East Hartford Police Department, he knows he has enough circumstantial evidence to question Jade Hughes on the murders of Austin Lee, Riley Klien, Korey Moore, and Hailey Peterson. His cell phone goes off again, showing that he has a text from James in D.C. It’s the age-enhanced photo of Jade as she would appear today. Detective David starts up his car and begins to drive toward the last-known address of Jade Hughes.
Epilogue: Jade Reflects
Brandon parks the vehicle at the reservoir. Lucy is with him. She loves to be the passenger, so she’s let Brandon drive her mother’s second car. With Brandon’s busy schedule, he wants to spend some quality time with her, even if he’s exhausted. He just got out of football practice a few hours ago.
“Baby, I’m so tired, if you don’t mind I’m going to lean back and take a nap.”
“Sure, baby, I’ll listen to some music while you rest.”
As Brandon reclines his seat, Lucy plays with the radio. Once she comes across the American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino’s “When I See U,” she stops there and turns the music down to a soft but listenable level. Lucy reclines her seat and softly sings to Brandon, who’s already fallen into a deep sleep. Lucy thinks to herself, ‘as long as we’re together, I don’t care if he’s asleep.’
A car drives up to the parking area, and Lucy pokes her head up. The car comes to a rest on the opposite side of the gravel lot. Lucy notices it’s the new car Lauren’s dad bought her, a loaded 2014 Honda Accord. Lucy thinks, probably a guilty present for not being in her life. From Lucy’s vantage point, Lauren is alone.
“Baby, I’ll be back,” says Lucy. Brandon is sound asleep and doesn’t answer.
As Lucy takes a few steps toward the parked car, she sees Chris making out with Lauren. He was hiding on the passenger’s side. From what she’s heard, Lauren and Brooklyn promised each other that neither would deal with Chris anymore so that they could repair their friendship. But apparently, only Brooklyn truly meant that promise. Lucy turns back to the car, then she walks along the trail near the water before Lauren or Chris realize that she’s there.
A few moments earlier, Lauren tells Chris that there was no one in the other car, so “it’s okay to get up now.”
“I swore to Brook on our friendship that I am done with you,” Lauren said.
“Hey, I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
Lauren giggles and says, “You are so bad.”
The smooth-talking Chris says, “It’s all about you, forget everyone else. They can kick rocks. Now give me some spit.”
Lauren breaks away from Chris’s lips. “Hold up, I hear something.”
“I don’t. Maybe it’s whoever owns that car back there.”
Chris isn’t thinking about the other vehicle; his only focus is on getting Lauren’s clothes off.
“There could be some pervert out here,” says Lauren. Chris stops his hands from groping Lauren to give the area around the car an once-over so that she will be comfortable.
“I don’t see anything, nor do I see anyone in that car. If someone’s in the car, they aren’t thinking about us. They’re doing what I’m trying to do.”
Lauren is not reassured. “I’ve got the feeling like we’re being watched.
“What’s up with you? Are you nervous being alone with me?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Okay, let’s put some music on to help you relax.”
Chris turns the radio up from the low setting. He bobs his head to the sound of Adrian Marcel’s “2 A.M.” He moves closer to Lauren to nibble on her ear lobe and whisper the chorus of the song to get her back into her playful mood.
“Said it’s 2AM, I-I-I want it girl, I know you’re horny girl, I-I-I want it girl, I want it girl, Said it’s 2AM, I-I-I want it girl.”
“You want it, baby?”
“You know I want it, girl.”
Lauren giggles. “You’re so crazy. Then come and get it.”
Lauren leans back into her seat, while using her index finger to suggest that Chris come to her.
“Now you’re talking. It’s a nice cool night; I’m going to open up the sunroof. It’s about to be a sauna in this piece in a minute.”
Chris opens the sunroof; it’s a perfect fall night. The full moon’s light is just enough to shine on them through the sunroof. They resume kissing. Lauren has her eyes closed and is enjoying the fresh mint taste on Chris’s tongue. Chris briefly opens his eyes to notice that the moon is now dark. He looks up toward the sunroof to see Rossi looking down on them from the top of the car.
“Tag, you’re it!”
Chris and Lauren scream in panic. “Start the car, start the car!” Chris yells to Lauren.
Lauren frantically gets the car started while they both are trying to avoid the sickle that Rossi is swinging at them through the sunroof. Lauren puts the car in drive, while Chris presses the sunroof button to close it on Rossi’s arm. Lauren isn’t paying attention to the direction she’s driving in. She gives the car heavy gas down the hill and Rossi jumps off the car just before it crashes into a tree. The car is a wreck, with steam coming from the engine. Lauren and Chris had been able to fasten their seat belts, but are unconscious. Their injuries need immediate attention if they want to have a fighting chance at surviving.
Rather than making sure of the death of Chris and Lauren, Rossi has more interest in the other car parked nearby. Rossi walks toward the car in which Brandon is napping, but is distracted by an approaching car. It’s Detective David, who sees Rossi and draws his weapon.
“Freeze!” Detective David says. “Police!” Rossi doesn’t say a word but turns to face the officer. With arms in the air, Rossi walks toward the detective.
“I know who you are,” says Detective David. “Things don’t have to be this way. I helped you once and I’ll be there for you now if you allow me, Jade Hughes!” Rossi nods and continues to walk forward, hands clasped behind her head. She turns around to walk backward toward the detective, who takes out his cuffs. David hears someone approaching from behind. It is a second Rossi.
“Jade?” Detective David asks.
But it’s Lucy walking up from behind. Having seen Chris and Lauren together, she’d gathered her backpack from the trunk while Brandon slept. She put on a black football jersey with the red number zero, overalls, the mask that has been in recent newspaper photos, and a red wig. It’s the exact same outfit this other individual has on.
“How did you know?” Lucy asks, pulling up her mask. With Detective David distracted, the first Rossi slides a sickle down his sleeve and into David’s abdomen. The confused and bleeding David passes out, He has been searching for the past few hours for Jade Hughes, unaware that Lucy Ramirez was born Jade Hughes. It was Lucy in the enhanced photo David’s F.B.I. friend sent him.
• • •
I always thought that it would be Dr. Buckley exposing to the world that, I, Lucy Ramirez, was born Jade Hughes. I finally had the opportunity to get Chris and Lauren in one shot, but that moment has come and gone. I’d been waiting for months for this chance to take the both of them out. To see Chris’s coward ass with low-down Lauren is like a wrapped gift on Christmas Day. I was so glad I had my backpack full of my equipment in the trunk for times like this. Everything fell into place so perfectly. While my sweetheart, Brandon, slept, I’d grab my gear and get dressed in the woods. The last thing I expected was someone else to do my job and a cop to figure out who I am.
It seems like yesterday that I started going to the psychiatrist’s office to be treated for the trauma of the assault. The best thing Mommy did was move to Hartford to live with her sister, my Aunt Lucy, shortly afterwards. For one, it helped me get in touch with my mot
her’s rich Hispanic culture. Prior to that, my Spanish was rather weak. Living in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood, I had to learn fast in order to communicate with family. Living with Aunt Lucy from the third grade up until the ninth grade helped me suppress my anger about being abandoned by everyone. Auntie and Mom filled me with the love that my father didn’t give me. My love for Daddy is long gone. When Mommy’s divorce was final, she went back to her maiden name, Ramirez. The best thing I did to distance myself from my father and to honor my mom was to be a Ramirez, as well. As far back as I could remember, everyone called me “Little Lucy,” because of my striking resemblance to Auntie. Mommy always said that if not for my red hair and Aunt Lucy’s brown hair, she would think that I was Auntie’s child instead of hers. So when Mommy changed my name from Hughes to Ramirez, she gave me her blessing to also change my first name from Jade to Lucy.
I’ll never forget the day after I completed the eighth grade, when I asked Mommy to dye my hair brown. She actually expected that request to come much sooner since she noticed that I had distanced myself from Daddy as much as possible. Shortly after that, Aunt Lucy announced that she was getting married. Mommy felt that would be a great time to move back to East Hartford, into the house we still owned but hadn’t lived in for years. I felt like a new person starting the ninth grade. New look, new name, I felt reborn. However, that damn Ida always gave me that look like she remembers Jade Hughes and Lucy Ramirez is a fraud. I guess I owe her for not opening her mouth, because no one else remembers me as Jade. As far as they were concerned, Jade Hughes had been committed to some institution for the insane. Luckily for Ida, she was nursing a broken leg the day we played that awful game. Technically, she’d never abandoned me like the others. If she had, I would’ve added her onto my list, with Austin and Riley.
• • •
Back to the Present
Brandon wakes up from his nap; Lucy pulls her mask back down. He exits the car to see two masked killers whom the newspapers call Rossi. In a panic, he yells for Lucy, worried that she’s alone, possibly hurt. He begins to run in the opposite direction, twists his ankle on a rock, falls and hits his head on a rock on the ground. Brandon is out cold. Seeing that Brandon is hurt, Lucy begins to undress from the Rossi outfit. To the other masked person, she says,
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The first Rossi removes the mask. It’s Dr. Gavin Buckley.
“I repeat, what are you doing here, Gavin?”
“I’m here for you. I killed those two, I’ll take care of the cop, then I’ll take care of Brandon,” he says.
“I’m perfectly capable of handling those two down there. As for Brandon, he’s off limits, you know that.”
“No, he has to die so that we can be together, Jade.”
“Callate! My name is Lucy, Lucy Ramirez! There is no us, Gavin. There will never be an us!”
“No, I’m not accepting that, Jade. I love you.”
“This is getting out of control. Everything needs to end,” she says, while stuffing the pieces of her Rossi outfit into the backpack. She puts several big rocks into the bag and tosses it into the water.
Gavin is so pathetic when it comes to his love for me, I guess I didn’t exactly discourage his growing feelings for me. His obsession for me is sickening. He actually thought that by killing Hailey Peterson and Korey Moore he would win my love. He has always been jealous of Brandon, but the silly man doesn’t stand a chance against my baby. He confessed to me that he followed Brandon and Dominic home with thoughts of killing Brandon. If Dominic wasn’t with him, Gavin just may have made my baby a victim. The hand print on his face after I slapped him was a warning that Brandon is off limits. I can’t believe he’s actually here trying to kill my baby, Brandon. I may give him a pass with Chris and Lauren, but he knows better when it comes to Brandon! He’s got some nerve leaving that Monkshood flower in Brandon’s car!
I’ll never forget the first day I noticed the Monkshood flower in his office. He told me that he came across it by chance at a Brooklyn florist shop while on a vacation trip. When I asked if he could take me to New York one day, I knew the answer would be yes. To keep it a secret from my mother, a simple lie that I was taking a trip with friends to New Haven solved that problem. Mom has always felt guilty for the assault, so whenever I wanted to do something, she rarely said no. Hmm, I wonder if the florist in Brooklyn got in touch with Detective David. Gavin couldn’t just walk into the florist and purchase the flowers; he had to place the order and pick them up the following week. Gavin wouldn’t dare have those flowers sent to his home, so for two weekends straight I had trips to New York! I’m sure that florist wondered what this older Caucasian man was doing with a Hispanic teenage girl.
I’ve got to admit, creating the image of Daddy into this Rossi was genius of Gavin. For the life of me I can’t figure out how the media came up with the name Rossi.
I thought that killing Austin and Riley would make me happy, but it actually made the anger grow. I hated that I let Korey Moore get away from me. Good ol’ Gavin cleaned up my mess, though. Funny, the Moore sisters were such tom-boys ten years ago. Korey turned out to be a beauty, so her identical twin sister Karen must be a looker as well. She’d just better count her blessings that she went to boarding school; otherwise, she’d be pushing up daisies like her sister is in a grave next to her. Using a slim jim to break into those cars Austin and Riley drove was cake. The idea of using the open-trunk button within the car to hide in the trunk was a perfect surprise entrance. The shock on Austin, Korey and Riley’s faces when I came from the trunk was priceless. Good Ol’ Gavin waiting in a nearby car was the perfect get-away from a murder.
While Lucy and Dr. Buckley disagree, Detective David begins to come around. Hurt from his stomach wound, he is very weak and is losing blood. He pulls out his cell phone, presses 911.
“Officer down. Reservoir,” David says.
Lucy and the doctor see David making a call. Dr. Buckley runs towards David, leaps into the air with his sickle drawn and, drives it into Detective David’s chest. Detective David is too wounded to react. All he can do is fire off two shots, which penetrate the doctor’s body. Detective David dies, with the body of a dead Dr. Gavin Buckley on top of him.
Lucy runs to Brandon and cradles his bloody head in her lap. The police and ambulance are on the scene, and the news crew gets there shortly afterward. The medics rush Chris and Lauren to the hospital. Both are badly injured, but look to survive the attack. Another team of medics treats Brandon for his ankle wound and concussion. Brandon, says no, he can’t recall seeing anyone who fit the description of Rossi.
Lucy is pulled aside by the police to be interviewed. The officer asks Lucy her name, and she states, “Lucy Ramirez.” She says that she saw the masked man attack the officer and that the officer shot him dead. “I didn’t see him attack the car; I was on a walk alone on the trail and walked into the confrontation between the two.” The officer collects Lucy’s address and thanks her for her help. Reporters swarm Lucy like bees on honey.
“What happened with the police officer and the Rossi Killer?” asks one reporter.
“The police say he’s a doctor!” says a second.
A third reporter asks Lucy, “What do you have to say about the doctor being the notorious Rossi Killer?”
Lucy says, “He was it.”
Blind Man’s Bluff
By Gene Lembrick
Gene Lembrick is a native of Hartford, Connecticut. He is a retired state of Connecticut corrections officer. He worked the majority of his twenty year career in a maximum security prison. He lives in Connecticut with his three sons.
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