Killer in Sight (A Tom Lackey Mystery)

by Sandra Carrington-Smith

  his plan. After all, he thought as he got in his car, third

  time’s always the charm.

  #

  Kathy held her breath while she waited for the

  images from the EyePix Handheld to be uploaded on her

  computer. Her heart was pounding in anticipation and

  her mouth was dry. Nothing she could do about her

  heart, but she knew a good cup of coffee could take care

  of the rest. The photos finished uploading just as she got

  ready to stand up from her chair. A burst of color

  exploded across the screen, as the photos opened, one

  beside the other. Kathy could hardly believe the clarity,

  especially since Tracey’s eyes appeared very cloudy to

  the naked eye when she took the shots. Although a

  milky film was visible over the surface of both eyes, she

  could distinctly make out the colors at the outer edge of

  the iris; unfortunately, the pupil was so dilated that the

  predominant color Kathy could detect was faded black;

  it was as if the void of death had expanded until it was

  able to squeeze the light Kathy was sure had sparkled

  from Tracey’s eyes when she was alive. She stared at the

  two pools of blackness rimmed by a thin circle of

  marine blue and tried to focus on their depths. She

  noticed a color inconsistency in the center of both

  pupils, but made a conscious effort to not get too

  excited. She moved her magnifying glass over the pupils

  and clicked to enlarge the portion that appeared lighter

  than the rest – the first disturbance looked like a slingshot with a curved stem. The image in the other eye was even more abstract, and it appeared as a small, irregular

  circle. Kathy stared at both images until her eyes started

  burning, then she averted her gaze to the window hoping

  to see something that would distract her. She didn’t see

  anything interesting, but she stood up, stretched and

  walked toward the window anyway. She unlatched the

  lock and pulled the lower pane until she felt a warm

  wave of air hitting her chest. It was hot outside but she

  took a deep breath and held it in – the warm moist air

  filled her lungs and made her feel alive. She looked at

  the large poplar tree a few feet away from her window

  and noticed leaves moving -- a small bird emerged from

  the leaves and flew to a nearby branch. Kathy wondered

  if the bird had a nest hidden in the tree and said a small

  prayer of protection for the baby birds waiting for their

  mother to come back, if indeed any were tucked in the

  thick foliage. Her mind wandered to how she would feel

  if she had to leave her children unattended and

  vulnerable to all sorts of threats, even for a short while.

  Did the mother bird worry about her babies while she

  was out looking for food? Kathy was not an expert

  ornithologist, but she was fairly sure she had read

  somewhere that birds raise their offspring as a couple,

  and when one parent is out the other one is always

  nearby. The thought of a daddy bird watching over his

  babies made her smile. Sometimes she wished humans

  were more like animals – if something that weighed less

  than two ounces could understand the importance of

  having two parents, how could we be so nonchalant

  about raising our children? Many American children are

  lucky to have one parent…

  That random comparison offset the pleasant feeling

  she had felt washing over her just a few moments

  before, and she suddenly felt sad. She thought of her

  daughter, and of the bond they shared, and felt a strong

  urge to call her just to hear her voice.

  She looked at the clock on the wall and calculated

  that Caroline was probably still in class, so she made a

  mental note to call her later, before leaving the studio

  for lunch. She returned to her desk and looked at the

  magnified shots of Tracey’s eyes. She sent all of them to

  the printer and poured a cup of coffee while she waited

  for them to print. When the first one came out she

  looked at it to see if she could notice anything different

  than what she had detected on the monitor, but she

  strange image still looked like a slingshot – an even

  bigger slingshot now, since she had printed each of the

  shots on a full page. The remaining shots from the left

  eye showed more of the same, while all the ones from

  the right eye showed the strange circle she had seen

  before. She shook her head and laid them side by side

  on her desk before she took a sip of her coffee to help

  her swallow the disappointment she felt. She wasn’t sure

  what to expect when she took the photos, but she had

  been positive that something was going to show up.

  Now she had no idea what that something should be,

  and she was fairly certain that a slingshot was not the

  last image Tracey had seen before leaving this world.

  And what about the dot? What could that possibly be?!

  She suddenly felt as if she had wasted her time, and

  maybe Tom was right – along with time, she had

  probably also lost her mind. No matter how long she

  stared at those pictures, all she could see were a slingshot and a circle. So much for her forensic photographic skills! She cringed at the thought of Tom and Dr. Greer

  laughing at her. She had secretly hoped to blow their

  minds with her findings, but as it turned out, the only

  mind that had cracked was her own. Her self-doubt was

  working overtime right now, and she felt as if she had

  let everybody down – herself, Tom, the snowy-haired

  doctor, Alexis, and most of all, Tracey. There was no

  image of the killer that was miraculously captured and

  retained by Tracey’s eyes, and that meant two things:

  She was going to look like a fool, and Tracey’s murderer

  would remain at large, at least for the time being.

  She clicked off the file on her computer and pinched

  the bridge of her nose as she waited for the programs to

  close. Her mobile phone rang the moment the screen

  went dark.

  “Hello”

  “Kathy. It’s Tom.”

  “Oh, hey Tom..”

  “You sound about as excited as I am right now.

  What’s happening?”

  “Not much.” She didn’t want to disclose her

  disappointment yet; not even to him. “Just working on a

  boring project. Nothing special.”

  “I thought you were going to upload those photos

  you took yesterday.”

  “I will do that sometime today. I was busy this

  morning. What is going on with you? Why do you

  sound so bummed out?”

  “We have a warrant for the arrest of Jack Little, but

  when we got to his place he was gone, and today

  someone tried to kill Shannon Brinkley at the hospital. I

  don’t think I will be home for dinner.”

  “Oh God…do you think it is the same man?”

  “It sure sounds like him – short and dark-haired.

  The nurse couldn’t see much more since he bolted from

  the room the moment she got in, and she couldn’t see
>
  his face because he was wearing a surgical mask.”

  “Wow…”

  “Wow is right. We had a chance to get him the first

  day we went to see him and we let him go. I won’t hear

  the end of this.”

  “You couldn’t have known, Tom.”

  “You’re right, but that lack of intuition screwed us

  up.”

  “I’m sorry, Tom.”

  “Yeah, me too. Well, look, I have to go. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Kathy hung up the phone and tried to dial Caroline’s

  number but got her voice mail, so she left her a message

  and gathered her things before going to lunch. She

  inserted all the printed photos inside a folder which she

  labeled ‘Tracey’ and placed it on her desk near the

  pencil holder. She grabbed her purse and went out the

  door, looking forward to getting outside in the fresh air.

  When she stepped outside the building she looked up at

  the branch of the poplar tree to see if she could see a

  nest, and just as she did, the small bird she saw earlier

  flew in and landed on the outer edge of it. As expected,

  a different bird took off from the branch and she just

  knew it was the father. The babies were safe, warm and

  cozy near their mother while daddy went to fetch a

  snack for himself. Kathy turned away from the tree and

  walked toward her car. In that moment, she wished that

  all human children could be just as lucky.

  #

  It was almost eleven o’ clock when Tom finally got

  home. His feet were hurting, and his tie by now felt

  more like a noose than an accessory; it was on nights

  like this one that the job as a tow truck driver his sister

  insisted he should take didn’t sound all that bad after all.

  He peeked into the living room on his way to the

  bedroom and saw Kathy stretched out on the couch

  reading a novel.

  “Hey Beautiful!”

  Kathy lowered the book on her lap and took off her

  reading glasses. “Hi! I’m not even going to ask how

  your day went.”

  “Good idea. My day couldn’t have been crappier.”

  Kathy got up from the couch and followed him as

  he walked into the bedroom. “That bad, huh? From what

  you said on the phone it did sound pretty horrific.”

  “Yeah…if one of the nurses hadn’t walked in,

  Shannon Brinkley would be dead right now. Whoever

  the perpetrator was, he tried to shoot some unidentified

  substance in Shannon’s IV line. We are waiting for the

  lab results, but I doubt that this guy had vitamins in that

  syringe.”

  “Do you think he is the same guy who was stalking

  Tracey?”

  “I’m not sure. From information we found at his

  place, we assumed the guy is in Missouri, but who the

  hell knows? He could be at the North Pole baking

  poisoned cookies for the elves, and we wouldn’t know it

  unless one of them turns up dead.”

  “Would we actually find that out?” Kathy tried to

  joke to lighten up the vibe, but one quick look at Tom’s

  face told her that he was in no mood for playing around.

  “Would we find what out?”

  “If one of the elves was dead. Never mind, it was

  just my attempt to bring a smile to your face. I failed

  miserably.”

  “It’s not you, Kathy. I’m just tired and a little

  frustrated. I feel like I am running in circles around this

  case, with no real breakthrough. Some new random fact

  pops up every day, and I get excited, only to get

  disappointed when nothing pans out.”

  Kathy could understand that feeling today more

  than ever. “I hear you. I was so hopeful about being able

  to lift images from Tracey’s eyes that I didn’t realize it

  was a reality only in my imagination.”

  Tom could detect Kathy’s disappointment in her

  voice. “You couldn’t get any images?”

  Kathy shrugged. “Well, I got some images, but they

  are nothing like I expected. To tell you the truth, I am

  not sure what it is that I expected, but I certainly didn’t

  bank on a slingshot and a dot.”

  “Is that what you found?”

  “Yes, and I’m pretty sure Tracey didn’t confront a

  kid who was playing with a slingshot in the woods, so

  I’m afraid my theory is for the birds.”

  “I’m sorry Kathy. It did sound like a far shot,

  though I have to admit it was an intriguing possibility.

  Even Dr. Greer rooted for you.”

  Kathy smiled. “He is a nice old fellow. His hair is so

  white it’s almost blinding. He makes me think of Santa

  Claus – I find myself waiting for a gift when I’m talking

  to him.”

  “Dr. Greer is a good guy. He refuses to retire, but

  we are all kind of happy about that.”

  “I can see why.”

  The ring of Tom’s mobile phone interrupted the

  conversation, and Tom rushed to the table near the door

  where he had left it when he got home. “I’m sorry. I’m

  just going to see who it is.”

  “Of course…”

  Kathy heard a muffled sound in the hallway and a

  word Tom’s mother would have rewarded with a double

  dose of soap in the mouth, had she heard it – Tom had

  stubbed his toe in the door frame as he turned too fast on

  his way to the table. He almost growled into the phone.

  “Lackey!”

  “Lackey, it’s Parker.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Look, man, I know it’s late, but I figured you

  would want to know this. I was getting ready to leave

  when an e-mail from the lab came in. The blood type

  found on the shirt in Brad Johnson’s trunk matches

  Tracey’s. It’s too early for DNA results, but at least we

  know something.”

  “What?! Are they sure?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure…”

  “Damn! He was being arraigned today on the drug

  charges, right? I was going to check on that but I got

  sidetracked with everything else that happened.”

  “The judge denied bond. It’s kind of unusual in a

  case like that, but I guess we were lucky. He is still at

  the county jail.”

  “Good! Do you think he is asleep right now?”

  “I’m not sure, but it might be a bit late to pay a visit

  tonight. Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll go

  tomorrow?”

  Tom could feel the weight of his eyelids, and after

  having changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt, he

  couldn’t even envision getting dressed into work clothes

  again. “You’re right. He is not going anywhere tonight,

  anyway.”

  “And Lackey, the results from the lab at the hospital

  just came in also…”

  “And? Do we know what the substance is?”

  “Yeah…arsenic. In its deadliest form.”

  #

  Donald Russet picked up a photo of his children

  from the bedside table and tried to mentally go back to

  the beautiful day they all had shared at the lake. Those

  kids were nothing short
of amazing, and not a day

  would go by that he didn’t thank his lucky star for the

  blessing of having them in his life. Mark was smart as a

  whip and he got wonderful grades in school, and Sarah

  was such a lovely little girl that Donald didn’t doubt for

  a moment she would become, some day, a wonderful,

  compassionate doctor. Here they were – his future. He

  stared at their sunny faces and felt like crying. What

  happened to him? Why didn’t he stop before it was too

  late? Helen was certainly not a model wife, but she was

  a good mother, and Donald should have remembered

  that before he made the mistake that ruined everything.

  He brought the picture to his lips and kissed each

  smiling little face, his tears smearing the thin layer of

  dust that had collected on the glass of the picture frame.

  He gently placed the frame back on his bedside table

  and opened the drawer to pull out the revolver. He

  placed the cold mouth of the gun between his lips and

  almost gagged when his tongue tasted the cold metal.

  He turned his head to look at his children one more

  time, then he pulled the trigger, and all the pain he felt

  until that moment left his body attached to the brains

  that exploded against the bedpost.

  Chapter 16

  Rose Howard stirred a pot of black bean soup while

  Alexis rested in her room. She wasn’t keen on black

  beans herself, but since the soup was Alexis’s favorite

  meal, she decided it would make a great dinner. Alexis

  was doing better – after being released from the hospital

  in Raleigh, she came home to a sweet surprise; knowing

  that her granddaughter was crazy about cats, and aware

  of what the little girl had been through, Mike’s mom had

  given her a very special welcome-home gift: a tiny

  orange kitten. Kathy wasn’t keen on cats either, but at

  this point she would have agreed to adopt a tiger, had

  she been assured that it would help her young daughter

  heal. Alexis had been sitting in the living room emptyeyed when her grandmother walked in and hugged everyone, and she didn’t seem at all excited when she

  was told to close her eyes so that Grandma could bring

  in a special gift, but the moment she heard the first

  meow, her eyes snapped open and she sucked in her

  breath. Grandma put the kitten on her lap and asked her

  to find a name for it. To everyone’s dismay, Alexis