by KJ Dahlen
Lester grew angry. His pale blue eyes showed his rage and for a moment Cooper saw a different man, a man he could respect, but only for a moment. “That’s robbery any way you slice it and I won’t pay a thief.”
Cooper shrugged and squeezed the trigger. Lester had shown himself to be like all the rest, spineless, gutless and only into himself.
Lester dropped to the floor. Blood pooled around his head from the bullet Cooper managed to easily get in right between his eyes. This was one loose end taken care of, now all he had left was Luna Mathias. Before he left, he glanced at the small package on the table. Lester was mailing a package to his next place of residence. Cooper was curious about what was in the package and he ripped open the wrappings. It was a small shoe box and when Cooper opened the box, he whistled. Inside the box was stack after stack of hundred dollar bills.
Cooper smiled and replaced the cover of the box. Tucking it under his arm, he turned and left the house, closing the door behind him. On his way down the driveway, he slammed the truck of Lester’s car.
As he drove back to his own apartment, he kept glancing at the package sitting on the seat next to him. When Lester contacted him about the hit, Cooper had researched his background. Being the type of man he was Cooper knew where to uncover the most about his clients, and he liked to have something to hold over his clients. That way if they ever decided to betray him, he would be able to take them down before they could damage him.
While Lester seemed like nothing but a little worm of a man, Cooper found him to be a remarkable planner. The deeper he dug the more Cooper found out. It seemed Lester liked money and everything it could buy, but he was careful not to appear to live beyond his means. He didn’t want to draw any attention to his thievery. He lived well within his means for a used car salesman.
Cooper knew the SEC had frozen his offshore bank accounts so he wasn’t surprised at the cash. He was a little surprised Lester trusted the mail to deliver the package, but it wouldn’t have drawn any undue attention.
When he parked his car down the block from his apartment, he was surprised to see Captain Kyle Matthews coming from his apartment building. Cooper sat in his vehicle and watched as Kyle walked across the street, got into his car and took off. His apartment was on the south end of the hall.
When he got to the door, he noticed the small slip of blue paper laying on the floor in front of the door. Cooper bent over, picked up the paper and stared at it for a moment. When he left this morning, he had placed the paper on the top of his door as he always did. It had become a habit more than a necessity lately.
Cooper pressed his key in the lock and slowly opened the door. Closing it behind him, he looked carefully around the apartment. Nothing seemed out of place to his trained eye, but he had no idea why Kyle would have been inside his apartment if he weren’t looking for something. He had been very careful while he lived here and he hadn’t given anyone anything to be suspicious of, at least he hadn’t thought so, but Kyle’s visit had caught him off guard.
Cooper took the time to walk through each room, and he found nothing disturbed. He threw the package on the bed and checked his computer. He hit a few keys but couldn’t find anything had shifted on his computer either.
He went back over to his bed and opened the package he’d taken from Lester’s house. When he dumped out the money onto his bed, he sat down and began to count his haul. By the time he was done, he found he had two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
You’d think that Lester would have at least offered this to save his own sorry ass, but he wasn’t as smart as he’d thought he was.
Cooper stood up and walked to the closet. Opening the door, he reached for the dials of the full size safe he had there. A few minutes later, he began stacking the money on the shelf inside the safe. When he was finished, he closed the safe and twisted the dials to lock it again.
Then he sat down at his computer again and reached inside his pocket for a flash drive he kept on his key ring. Separating the flash drive from his key ring, he slid the drive into his laptop then he typed in a password and brought up a file. He typed in the information and saved it. When he was finished, he unplugged the drive and set it on the table.
Cooper knew if anyone ever found the drive and got his password, he’d be in real trouble. The drive held all his secrets. The information on that one drive could connect him to seventeen murders in seven different states. Cooper knew it was getting dangerous for him to stay here but he also knew he couldn’t leave just yet. He would have to act quickly and cleanly, if he wanted to escape undetected.
Cooper got up to grab the box and the wrapping paper. Crumbling it up in his hands, he walked out to the living room and over to the fireplace. Throwing the paper inside, he lit a match and watched the paper burn to ash.
He then grabbed his hat and keys then headed out the door. Replacing the blue paper on top of the door, he carefully closed it behind him.
~*~
As Cooper walked to his car and drove away, he missed seeing the two pairs of eyes watching him.
Sam turned to Molly. “What do you suppose we would find if we got into his apartment right now?”
Before Molly could answer, Sam’s cell phone rang and when he answered it, he frowned. Kyle Matthews was on the other end of the conversation and he was relaying what he’d done.
“I didn’t find anything inside his apartment,” Kyle told him.
“Why were you inside his apartment?” Sam asked. “More importantly, how did you get in to his apartment? We don’t have enough evidence for a warrant.”
“I told his superintendent Cooper got hurt at work and I needed to get into contact his next of kin. The superintendent let me in and told me he hoped Cooper would be all right. He said Cooper was one of his better tenants.” Kyle hesitated briefly then went on to say, “I needed to find some evidence that Cooper was the man described in the evidence Luna gave you. I mean I’ve known the man for three years, and I never noticed anything out of the ordinary with him. He’s well liked and does his job very efficiently.”
“That doesn’t mean he isn’t a killer,” Sam argued.
“I guess I had to find that out for myself.”
“And did you? Find anything out that is?”
“No I didn’t. And until I do find real evidence, I won’t believe it. I won’t judge him on the word of a man sitting on death row. How do we know its Cooper the man is talking about?”
“How do we know it’s not him?” Sam asked quietly. “Did he see you at his apartment?”
“I don’t think so. I was very careful not to disturb anything.”
“I really wish you would have waited until we have enough to support a search warrant. If he has any idea he’s a suspect, he could rabbit before we can stop him. If he does that, we may never find him again.” Sam closed the phone and glanced at Molly. “Our Captain has visited Cooper’s apartment already.”
“What the hell did he think he was doing?” Molly grumbled. She glanced out her window. “We need to check on Lester Kratz. If Cooper’s had time to warn him, he might possibly leave.”
Sam nodded and started his car. When he pulled up down the block from Lester Kratz’s address, they saw Lester’s car sitting outside in the driveway.
Molly opened her door and said, “I’ll be right back. I have a feeling about something.”
She walked up to the front door and rang the bell. When no one came to the door, she reached for the door knob. When the door opened, she looked inside and found Lester lying on the floor with a hole in his head. Molly saw the pool of blood growing under his head. She took a step toward him then changed her mind and took a step back out the door.
She closed the door behind her and hurried back to the car. She looked at Sam. “He won’t be answering any questions. He’s dead.”
“Are you sure?” Sam asked.
Molly nodded. “Oh yeah, I’m positive. Somebody put a bullet right between his eyes.”
“
Damn,” Sam swore under his breath.
Chapter Nine
When Cooper got back to the station, Kyle watched him from behind the glass windows in his office. Cooper caught him glancing his way several times during the afternoon and it made him more nervous than he let show.
He looked toward Kyle’s office at one point and found that Kyle had closed the blinds. Cooper tried to get through the rest of the shift. He sat down at his computer and began setting up his next identity. He reached into his pocket for his keys and that’s when he realized he left his flash drive at his apartment. Cooper broke out in a sweat.
~*~
Kyle glanced at the preliminary report in his hand. After Sam called in the Murder of his witness, he had sent the Medical Examiner to recover the body. He sat at his deck debating on whether or not to alert Cooper or arrest him. He had a decision to make and he knew he would have to move quickly. Cooper could walk out of the station after his shift and simply disappear. Kyle knew he couldn’t allow that to happen, but he didn’t know how to stop it either.
Kyle got up to check the squad room again, just to make sure Cooper was still there.
~*~
Sam pulled up outside Cooper’s apartment. Using the information Luna provided them earlier Sam had managed to secure a limited search warrant. He and Molly were going to search his apartment.
Sam led the way to his apartment. With the caretaker’s key, he opened the door. Molly saw the bit of paper flutter to the floor. She picked it up carefully and placed it back on the top of the door. Sam went from room to room looking for anything in plain sight that would help them connect Cooper to the murders this morning.
Molly wandered to the bedroom and found his laptop. Putting latex gloves on, she opened the laptop and turned it on. There was nothing on the desktop that told her anything then she noticed the flash drive. Plugging it in, she tried to bring up the files. Much to her dismay, she found everything was password protected. Sitting back in the chair for a moment, she thought about what Mike had told her about the man she met this morning as Cooper Connors.
“Did you find something?” Sam asked from the doorway.
“I found a flash drive but the files are password protected.”
“Do you have any idea what the password might be?”
“I might if I had enough time to figure it out. I’m not sure how much time we have before his shift ends. I don’t know about you but I’d rather not be here when he gets home,” Molly commented.
“Me neither. Just take it with you then. We can try and find out the password later. We need to get out of here.”
Molly unplugged the drive and slipped it into a zip lock bag. She shut down the computer and closed the lid. Before she left the room, she went over to the closet and opened the door. There stood the safe Mike had told her about. She spun the dials. When she reached for the handle, the safe opened. “My god, I didn’t think it would work.”
“You didn’t think what would work?”
“The combination Mike gave your friend. He told her the combination he used on the safe Cooper had all those years ago, and it still works!”
Sam joined her and looked at the contents of the safe. There were stacks of cash plus other items in the safe. Sam grabbed a file and found a list of names and occupations. He reached for another file and found several diplomas from online classes, each diploma had a different name on it.
“This Mike guy was right on the money with everything he told her,” Sam said. “We have to get out of here. This is enough to put him away for the rest of his life.” Sam reached for a suitcase and began loading everything from the safe into the suitcase. He didn’t want to leave anything behind that would allow Cooper to run.
“If we live that long,” Molly muttered. . “You do realize don’t you if you take his entire life’s work, he’s not going to stop until he kills you?”
“I know but if we allow him to escape, we may never find him again.”
A few minutes later, they were back in the car. She was glancing at the files and was astounded. “We need to call Kyle and let him know what we found so he can arrest Cooper before he gets away.”
Sam reached for his cell phone. A few minutes later Sam slammed the phone shut and scowled. “I got through to Kyle but Cooper was gone. He said he didn’t know he left. He’s going to meet us at the motel to have a look at what we found. He wants to see the evidence with his own eyes.”
“Great, we’d better get out of here. He might be coming back to his apartment.” Molly let out a nervous breath.
Sam started the car and drove back to the motel. At one point, he thought he was being followed. The hair on the back of his neck tingled. He even looked in the rear-view mirror but he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He drove around the block a couple of times looking for Cooper but he didn’t see him. He parked the car in the back and they went into the building. They found Kyle pacing the hall in front of their door. He looked up as they came through the door.
“It’s about time you got back. I’ve been waiting for you.” Kyle looked agitated.
“I had to get us back here safe so we drove around town for a while.” Sam unlocked the door to their room. “We stopped at Walmart to pick up a printer in case we need a hard copy of what we think is on the flash drive.” He turned and glared at him. “I thought we were being followed and since you couldn’t keep track of Cooper at the station I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“One minute he was at his desk and the next he was gone. I asked around but no one saw him leave.” Kyle shrugged. “I tried to get him on the radio but he won’t answer his page.”
“So we have no idea where he is?” Sam asked.
“He could be anywhere,” Kyle replied.
Sam went over to the window and checked the streets. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but that didn’t mean much. Cooper could be sitting out there right now waiting and watching and they wouldn’t even know it. After all, he had a lifetime to get his surveillance technique down pat. He turned to the others. “I have no idea if he’s out there or not.” Sam turned to Kyle, “Would he have any idea where we are?”
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know. He was in my office when you called to tell me where you were staying. I didn’t say it out loud but he could have looked at the address.”
“We need to find another place to stay pronto. I don’t want to take a chance that he’s sitting out there,” Sam told them.
Kyle nodded. “Before you go anywhere, I’d like to know what you found at his place. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary when I checked out his apartment.”
“If he suspects we’ve been in his apartment, he might be on his way out of town as we speak,” Sam suggested.
“Or he could be on his way here to kill us. I don’t think he’ll take off until he gets the things back we took from his apartment,” Molly concluded.
“I’ve known the man for a couple of years now and what you are suggesting just doesn’t sit well with me. I mean it doesn’t seem possible he’s the killer you think he is.” Kyle said.
“Maybe before you say anything more you should see the evidence we found.” Sam invited him to sit down. When Kyle was sitting, he handed him the file with all the certificates and diploma’s inside.
Kyle looked at the file. The degrees he found all had something to do with law enforcement and money management. The fact that each degree had a different name on them was another worry. He looked up at Sam and asked, “What is all of this?”
“We aren’t sure yet, but it fits into what Mike told Luna.” Sam glanced over at Molly and found her on the computer. “You only heard part of the tape a little while ago. Mike went on to give Luna more details and a place to verify the evidence.”
Kyle looked over at Luna. “I wonder if she was able to verify the evidence he gave her?”
“Well, he told her the combination to the safe and he’s still using it. Mike also gave her a way to track him.”
“How did he do that?” Kyle asked.
“I’d rather not say at this point,” Molly answered this question. “If it works again, I’ll let you know.”
“Why not?” Kyle asked.
“Because,” Sam broke into the conversation. “We don’t know all of it yet and before we ruin a man’s reputation, I like to have all the facts.”
Kyle glared at Molly and Sam for a moment before he said, “Just don’t shut me out because you think I might be involved. I want this psycho off the streets of my city. Do your job and let me do mine.” He got up to leave. When he was at the door, he glared at Sam, “And do it quickly before he has a chance to kill anybody else.”
Sam and Molly watched as Kyle left the room slamming the door behind him.
After a moment of silence Molly said, “Wow, he’s really pissed.”
Sam turned to look at her. “I don’t care how pissed he is. I don’t know if I can trust him completely yet, and until I do, I’m not going to lay my whole case down.”
Molly wandered over to the windows to look outside. “Did you really think we were being followed?”
“I thought I saw a blue sedan a few cars behind us at a couple of points why?” Sam asked as he joined her at the windows.
“Like that blue sedan?” Molly asked as she pointed out a car down the block with someone sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Exactly like that one,” Sam muttered as he tried to get a better look at the driver. When he found he couldn’t, he said, “Maybe it would be safer to get another room or even another motel.”
Molly agreed. “Maybe it would.”
An hour later, they were setting up in another room on the other side of the motel. From their new room, Sam could see down the hall to their old room and he had a better view of the street. He checked the blue car on the street but it hadn’t moved since they found it the first time. He began to pace in front of the windows as he became more and more frustrated. He wanted to rush outside and confront Cooper but he knew he couldn’t, not yet. He wasn’t going to risk the case by not having enough evidence to nail him. When he walked away from the window, he saw Luna was on her computer. “Are you making headway on the flash drive?”