by Andrew Hess
Fred dropped me off at my house and found my car parked in the driveway. I can only guess that either Matthew or Rodney drove it back for me. I thanked Fred and entered my house to change out of the blue scrubs he lent me. I turned on the police scanner in my living room and heard them talking about a suspect sighting at the New Paltz bus station.
“He’s mine,” I spat as I grabbed my keys, my glock and my badge as I ran out the door.
My foot slammed on the gas; propelling me forward at a speed I could only assume was clocking in at over a hundred. I didn’t have backup, but I was sure they were already heading to the same destination.
I was thankful I arrived before anyone else did and parked my car on the side street. I ran to the bus as passengers climbed inside.
“My name is Detective Ali Ryan with the Ulster County Police Department. Are you the only bus that’s pulled into the lot in the last ten minutes?” The forty something year old man shook his head yes. “Good, don’t leave this lot until I give you the okay. Someone reported seeing a suspect wanted for murder walking around the station.”
The bus driver took the keys out of the ignition and handed them to me. I searched the bus; looking at each passenger as I walked the narrow walkway to the back of the bus, but not one of them matched the description of Nick DeFalco. Shit, where was he?
I stepped off the bus and began searching the small crowd for anyone that resembled Nick or someone that refused to look at me, but then the first squad car pulled up; blocking the front of the bus.
The driver jumped out of the car and had his gun pointed at me. “Stand down Detective,” he shouted.
I took my gun out and held both hands in the air. “He’s not here.” The officer hurried to my side and stripped me of my weapon. He reached back and pulled out a shiny pair of handcuffs; snapping them around my wrists.
“Sorry Detective, Lieutenant’s orders.”
“You can restrain me all you want but we need to find out where the caller and the suspect went.”
The officer directed me to the back of his squad car and radioed back that he found me and had me in custody.
“Let her go,” the Lieutenant’s voice echoed back.
“Are you sure,” the officer asked.
“Did I stutter? I said let her go.”
The officer unlocked the metal bracelets. “Sorry for the confusion Detective Ryan. We were instructed to…”
“I know what you were ordered to do. Now let’s canvas the area for the suspect.”
We scoured the office and showed the picture of Nick DeFalco and the sketched picture of Mark Thompson to the cashier who denied seeing either of them. I was beginning to think it was a setup; a diversion to draw us away from our posts so he could escape. And then the phone rang.
“Ali, it’s me,” Rodney said. His voice was low and unlike his usual chipper self.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“There was an attack at the train station. Shawn’s dead and Amanda is missing.”
“Missing? How is she missing?”
Rodney told me how he was ordered to check out the bus terminal to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid and how Officer Spencer was led away from the others due to some purse snatcher.
“He’s keeping her hostage to get out of town,” I said. “I want all hands on deck. I want the surveillance tapes from the train station. I want…”
“We’ll find them Ali.”
“You better because if I find him first, I’ll kill him.”
Chapter 119
I drove back to the station and found the Lieutenant pacing around his office talking frantically on the phone. His eyes fixated on me as I approached and hung his call immediately.
“Ali, I’m so sorry.”
“Why did you tell Rodney to leave the train station?”
“I thought it was best. I thought you’d hear someone report seeing DeFalco getting on the bus and go after him. I figured Rodney could calm you down before you did anything stupid.”
“You mean like kill the son of a bitch that killed six people, threw a brick through my window and put me in the hospital?” I had a fire in my eyes that the Lieutenant had never seen before. “I wasn’t going hurt him, but I will now.”
“Ali, I know you want revenge, but you gotta remember you’re a cop first. We need to do everything we can to bring DeFalco in alive.”
“I can’t promise anything.” I walked back to my desk and found a large manila envelope sitting on my keyboard. “Where’d this come from?”
The Lieutenant scrambled out of his office and looked just as confused as I was. “I didn’t see anyone drop it off. What is it?”
The envelope had my name etched in red ink and quickly opened it. There was a note attached to a picture of a young dark haired woman sitting in her underwear in a small tub. I recognized the girl to be Amanda and my heart skipped a beat. I opened the note and read it.
You know who I am and now you have a choice to make. Save your sweet little sister or catch me. This is your one and only chance.
I let the picture and note fall to my desk.
“What is it? What’s wrong,” the Lieutenant asked. He reached over and pulled the picture off the desk. “I’ll get an analyst here to dust everything for prints.”
“Don’t bother. He’s been too careful and all we’d be doing is wasting time; time Amanda doesn’t have.”
I didn’t know where Amanda was or how to find DeFalco either, but I knew she was safe at least for now. The Lieutenant grabbed the desk phone to make the call I told him was unnecessary.
As I watched him make the call, I heard a low buzzing coming from my desk drawer. I opened it and found a prepaid flip phone, which I’d never seen before, sitting on top of a small notepad. I flipped it open and found two new text messages.
The first said: To find her, you must go where I have been. To find me, we need to take our relationship to new heights.
The second told me not to involve anyone else or Amanda would suffer the consequences. It was attached to a picture of a masked man holding a knife to Amanda’s wrist as she sat in the tub.
I closed the phone and tucked it into my pocket before turning to the Lieutenant. “I need you to run Nick DeFalco and Mark Thompson’s name through the system again. There’s gotta be a house or apartment he stayed in up here. Maybe check other places his landlords rent out.”
“You realize I’m your boss and not your employee?”
My eyes could burn a hole through him. “I don’t give a damn about who has a higher rank; just do what I say for once.”
He knew I wasn’t messing around and that he should have been listening to me all along. If he had, we might’ve saved a few lives and Amanda wouldn’t be at a sadistic killer’s mercy.
I watched the Lieutenant scurry off to his office to look up where DeFalco could have been hiding. I had a more difficult task. How was I supposed to know what he meant about taking our relationship to new heights? It could be anywhere. I thought about DeFalco suggesting Mohonk Mountain, but didn’t think he would risk bringing me up to one of his prior crime scenes.
The door to the precinct doors opened. Rodney entered; his face was drained and more emotional than I’d ever seen him. His eyes lifted to meet my gaze and became glassy.
“Ali, I’m so sorry. I was just doing what I was told.”
I hugged him and told him it wasn’t his fault. “I need you to help the Lieutenant. We need to find out if there were any other houses or apartments Nick rented or any other buildings that his landlords rented out that weren’t being occupied.”
“Sure thing Ali.” He saw me walking towards the door. “But where are you going?”
“I’m going to hunt down the son of a bitch and stop him before he hurts anyone else.”
“But you don’t know where to find him.”
“You just worry about finding Amanda. I’ll worry about finding DeFalco.”
Chapter 120
The Lieutenant
exited his office with a bounce in his step. It was almost as if he was a kid bringing home an A+ paper to his parents, but his smile faded when he saw Rodney standing at Detective Ryan’s desk.
“Where’s Ali,” the Lieutenant asked.
“She’s following a lead.”
“I guess she doesn’t need this then.” He crumbled up a piece of paper and threw it in the garbage.
“What was that?”
“Just some apartment listings she asked me to look up.”
Rodney grabbed the paper from the garbage and smoothed out the paper. “What the hell were you thinking? We needed that.”
“You said that she…”
“She’s got an idea where to find DeFalco and went after him.”
“She went after him alone?”
“You think she’d actually trust us after our screw ups?” Rodney scanned the paper and found an apartment DeFalco’s landlord’s owned but remembered passing the house with the windows and doors were completely boarded up. “This house; the one on Prospect Street. I think that’s what Ali was looking for.”
“Then that’s where Amanda is.” The Lieutenant grabbed the radio and called all units to the address on Prospect Street. “Let’s go Officer Johnson. I’ll drive.” He dipped his hands inside his pocket.
Rodney saw the confused expression on the Lieutenant’s face and laughed. “Everything all right Lieu?”
“My keys are missing.”
“I guess I’m driving.”
“Yeah, but where are my keys?”
“Don’t worry sir. I’m sure Ali won’t wreck it too badly.”
Chapter 121
A swarm of police cars surrounded a small grayish blue house on Prospect Street. The windows and doors were boarded up just like Rodney recalled.
“This place is sealed shut,” Officer Spencer said as he met Rodney and the Lieutenant at their car.
“Then start prying the wood off the house and make a way in,” the Lieutenant replied.
“What about checking for explosives?”
“If he knew how to rig an explosive, he would’ve used one to kill any of his victims, but he didn’t. We need to get in there and find Amanda Ryan.”
Rodney hurried to the side of the house with Officer Spencer. They used crowbars to dig into the wooden planks that sealed the house; pulling and ripping at them until they removed them.
Rodney called several officers to his side. “We’re about to go in. Keep your eyes peeled for DeFalco and for Miss Ryan. I want you guys to search every room.”
They counted to three and barged into the house; breaking the door down. Several officers followed Rodney upstairs while others checked the first floor. Several beams of light clicked on as a storm of men in blue kicked in door after door.
“She’s in here,” an officer shouted from the bathroom.
Rodney rushed towards the officer’s voice and found a petite brunette girl in her twenties lying in a white tub covered in blood.
“We need towels, sheets; anything to stop the bleeding,” Rodney shouted as he turned Amanda’s arms over and found the blood pouring from her wrists. “Amanda…Amanda it’s Rodney; are you okay? Stay with us.”
Another officer found a spare t-shirt in one of the rooms tore it in half and used to help wrap the wounds.
Officer Spencer peered into the room; nearly vomiting from the sight of blood and mumbled, “The medics are downstairs.”
“Alright let’s get her downstairs so they can work on her,” Rodney replied. The officers hoisted Amanda into the air and carefully walked down the flight of stairs to the waiting gurney.
“We’ll take it from here officer,” a medic with facial piercings said as they wheeled her to the ambulance.
“Fine, but I’m going with her,” Rodney demanded and climbed in after them. The ambulance took off as the medics worked on Amanda; hoping they weren’t too late to save her.
Chapter 122
I sped towards the Newburgh Beacon Bridge when I heard my cell buzzing in the center console. I saw Rodney’s name flash on the screen.
“Tell me you found her.”
“We’re on route to the hospital right now, but the medics said the cuts she suffered weren’t too deep or severe. They said she should be fine.” His voice sounded relieved and yet on the verge of tears.
“I don’t think he wanted to kill her. He was testing me to see what I would do.”
“What do you mean? Where are you?”
“Don’t worry about me; just stay with her and don’t leave her side no matter what.”
“You got it Ali.”
“I need one more favor. Call the Lieutenant; tell him to send a few cars to the Mid-Hudson Bridge, the Newburgh Beacon Bridge and the airport.”
“What the hell?”
“The killer told me if I wanted to find him we needed to take our relationship to new heights.”
“And you think he’s just gonna sit there and wait for you to climb a bridge for him?”
“No, I think he’s headed to the airport and hopping on a plane to get outta town. But we need to make sure he didn’t set a trap at either location.” I heard a buzzing coming from the flip phone and pulled over on the side of I-84. “Rodney, I gotta go.”
I hung up and took a deep breath. I knew the Lieutenant wanted me to bring DeFalco in; arrest him; let the families he hurt watch him waste away in a jail cell for the rest of his life. But that’s not what I wanted. I wanted to point the barrel of my gun at him; pull the trigger and watch him writher in pain; leaving him with just enough life to be saved for the jury to convict.
I flipped open the phone and looked at the text message as a black car sped past me. The message said; COME GET ME!
My instincts took over. I didn’t know if this car was the one I needed to chase; if it was Nick DeFalco or if it was some random civilian that chose to ignore the speed limit. Regardless, I was in pursuit and determined to find out who the man in the black car was.
Chapter 123
I followed the car until it pulled into the Stewart Airport parking lot. Whoever was driving; sped around frantically trying to lose me. I thought I had him. My eyes were locked on his back bumper; that was until he made a quick turn. My hands reacted without hesitation throwing the car in reverse and pulled down the same row. His car was nowhere to be found.
“Shit, I lost him.” My fists connected with the steering wheel as I searched for the black Civic. “Where is he…Come on; where’d you go?”
I pulled into the next row and found it abandoned and parked illegally. I ripped my glock from the passenger seat and bolted from the car. I stepped cautiously towards the Civic. I didn’t hear the constant hum of the engine and didn’t see anyone inside.
He’s got a head start on me. I grabbed my phone and called it in while hurrying to the entrance. “This is Detective Ali Ryan with the Ulster County Police Department. I am in pursuit of a possible homicide suspect fleeing into the Stewart Airport. I am requesting backup. Suspect is possibly armed and very dangerous.”
I ran into the building and found long lines at the security and bag checks. There’s no way he got through these lines, I thought. I held my gun tightly against my leg and scanned the crowd for any sign of Nick.
“Nick DeFalco,” I yelled. Many of the soon to be passengers turned their heads, but only one flinched and nervously turned his head back to face the security scanners. I recognized him from the pictures and turned my gun on him. “Freeze,” I shouted.
He panicked and took a small knife from his pocket. He brandished it at me as I moved in closer.
“Put the knife down or I’ll shoot.”
A part of him knew I wasn’t bluffing and pulled the nearest woman close to him and pointed the sharp tip of the knife to her carotid artery.
“I didn’t do it,” he spat.
“So you didn’t kill any of those people?”
“Yes; I mean no. I didn’t do anything to you or your sister.”
“I-I did, but I didn’t do anything to you.”
“Then who was it?”
“I- I don’t know, but I saw him. He was dressed in all black and he dragged your sister from the train station.”
“So you saw her and did nothing to help her?” I held my gun on Nick; ready to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice.
“I’m sorry, but I knew the police would be all over that place and I didn’t wanna go to jail.”
“But you thought it was better to let my sister get kidnapped?”
“It’s not that simple. Nick cowered and pulled the woman closer. He circled around and pointed his back to the front entrance.
“Why is it not simple?”
“Please Detective; just let me go. I don’t wanna hurt her.”
“Then at least tell me why you killed all those people.”
“They all treated me like crap. Every day they whispered and talked shit behind my back to Brianna until she finally listened to them and broke my heart. Rachel and Nicole were spiteful and jealous of our relationship. They didn’t have what we had and wanted Brianna all to themselves. Christina just wanted me gone from the house and for Brianna to move in. And Kevin…Kevin just wanted to fuck her which he did two weeks after we broke up.”
I wanted to ask him more questions; figuring once I had him in lock up he would keep his mouth shut. But he was a few feet from the door and was about to escape. Instead, a tall Hispanic man broke from the crowd and tackled Nick to the ground.
The woman ran away screaming as the two men fought on the floor. I couldn’t get a clear shot at either man. I lined up to fire at one man’s shoulder, but saw a familiar face staring back at me.
“Matthew,” I gasped.
Nick scrambled to get the knife and jammed it into Matthew’s shoulder. Blood spilled to the ground as it draped around the knife. Nick jumped to his feet and ran towards the doors.