Brooklyn Bounce

by Andrew G. Nelson

  Blackshear got up and escorted Peters to the door, behind which a deputy sheriff stood waiting to take custody of him.

  “Okay, Toni, thank you,” Mitchell said to the court reporter. “Please get that drawn up as quickly as possible.”

  “Yes, sir,” the woman replied, as she gathered up her belongings.

  “So, are we good here?” Reid asked.

  “He’ll have to sign the statement, after it’s been transcribed,” Mitchell said, “but yes, we’re good here. I spoke to Judge Myers this morning and he has agreed to come in later this afternoon. We’ll do an in-chambers appearance. Your client will plead guilty to simple possession and I, in consideration for his testimony, will recommend in-patient treatment followed by one year probation.”

  Reid began gathering up his paperwork, placing them back inside the leather portfolio.

  “Just for the record, I don’t buy half that stuff he said,” Mitchell added. “He went along willingly, there’s just no one else to refute his tale of woe.”

  “Does it really matter, Paul?” Reid asked.

  “You just might want to remind him that this is the last chance he gets. He either turns his shit around or the next time he messes up in Carroll County I’ll drop the hammer on him so hard he’ll be old enough to collect social security when he gets released.

  “Let’s be real for a moment, Paul. The kid’s odds are dismal at best and you know it. He has no education to speak of and non-existent family support. Just send him down to Manchester and be done with it. When he fails, and most likely he will, he’ll be Hillsborough’s problem.”

  Nichols shook his head, motioning Blackshear to follow him outside.

  “Do you believe that shit?” Blackshear asked when they were out of earshot range.

  “Nature of the beast, Tom,” the man replied. “It’s a business, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone just wants to get the best possible deal they can before the ink dries on the paperwork. Mitchell wants to get re-elected and Reid has aspirations for the bench. It is what it is.”

  Blackshear grabbed Nichols by the arm, stopping him, and faced him.

  “No, this isn’t business, this is about people’s lives, Scott,” the man said. “We dodged a major fucking bullet here. If this little shit-bird had done the speed limit you’d be getting ready to try Alex for murder and we all would have been patting ourselves on the back if we managed to walk away with manslaughter.”

  “I don’t make the rules or the laws, Tom, and neither do you.”

  “So that makes it right?”

  “What do you want me to say? You’re right, it’s not fair, and it has never been fair. For Christ’s sake we used to string people up for being witches, was that fair? How about convicting someone just because of the color of their skin, is that fair? The system isn’t perfect, Tom, but we try.”

  “I guess this case has just gotten to me, Scott,” Blackshear replied. “I just keep thinking that it could be me in Alex’s shoes.”

  “I know it sucks and I know it all seems a bit too impersonal at times, but you know what? As bad as it is, it’s still better than anyplace else in the world.”

  “That’s a helluva consolation prize,” Blackshear said. “Hey kids, check it out, we don’t suck nearly as bad as the next guy.”

  “Listen, if it will make you feel better, go give Alex a heads up. She won’t be able to be reinstated until the ink on the judge’s signature is dry, but at least she can quit worrying.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be grateful to hear it.”

  “And then I’ll get the enjoyment of telling Sheldon Abbott; whom I am reasonably sure will not have the same enthusiastic response.”

  “Politics,” Blackshear said, as they made their way out of the court house building. “I’m so glad I’m just a cop.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Susan sat on the edge of the small wooden dock, which jutted out over a large, tree-lined stream in the northern foothills of the Nash Stream Forest area, with her feet dangling over the side, but even this beautiful scenery could do nothing to counter the rather foul mood she found herself in this morning.

  She lit another cigarette and took a drag, as her mind struggled to make sense of the new topsy-turvy direction her life had recently taken. She leaned back, closing her eyes, and felt the warmth of the sun radiating down on her face; as she listened to the cheerful sounds of nature. It took a little while, but eventually the stress began to ease from her body.

  This was how it was supposed to be, she mused.

  They’d been planning their current adventure for months now. As much as they both enjoyed the thrill of the unplanned, anonymous victim, each of them also had a thing for something a bit more familiar. There was just something about looking into the eyes of someone you knew at the last minute, seeing the immediate recognition, and then watching as they died in front of you. It was such an incredibly powerful turn on for both them; the intimate intermingling of sex and death.

  Generally they took turns selecting targets; indulging each other in their respective hunt for prey. Often they went shopping for their victims at local bars that were situated just off a highway. Those were generally like candy stores for them. They would simply walk in and find someone to their liking. The simple truth was that if you were in a bar at nine o’clock on a weekday you were probably looking to score. Much of the time it would be men, who were looking to have some extramarital fun, although women now seemed to be gaining a strong foothold in the burgeoning affair market.

  They’d walk in, make eye contact and after a few drinks invite them outside to have some fun. As they were basking in their post-coital bliss, the other would end the life of the unsuspecting victim. But they’d gotten a bit bored with their anonymous victims and decided to spice things up.

  Tatiana had been up last, taking out her victim back in New York City. Even though Susan went along for the ride on that one, she was still up next on the game board. The idea had been to come back here, find a nice secluded place in the country and then begin to stalk her old Algebra teacher, Mr. Goodridge.

  Goodridge had been one of those lecherous male teachers, the ones who were continually trying to peer down their female student’s blouses. Most girls hated it, but Susan got a perverse thrill out of it. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, but just creepy. So she decided to finally give him what he wanted. Spring was the perfect time of the year, because it allowed them to track him fairly easily due to school being in session. There was something inherently exhilarating about surveillance. It was like being a voyeur into someone’s life. Over the course of two months they’d been able to figure out his routines to the letter.

  Adam Goodridge was a creature of habit. He got up every day at the same time, including weekends, and he went to bed at the same time. He wasn’t married and there hadn’t been any hint of a girlfriend or other romantic interest. He lived just outside of town and every day before work he would hit the coffee shop on the square. If he had any hobbies they clearly didn’t include any that took place outside the home.

  He was probably jerking off to yearbook photos, she thought.

  The idea was that they would catch him after the school year had come to an end. She wanted to be able to take her time with this one, to draw it out, and make this one a bit more special. It seemed only appropriate considering all the attention he had paid to her. By waiting for school to officially end he wouldn’t be readily missed until it started back up again in September and she could have her fun. Everything was going perfectly, until the robbery.

  Why the hell did you even take that stupid gun?

  It had seemed like such a simple thing when it happened, but it had changed everything. She couldn’t understand why Tatiana seemed obsessed with snatching the cop. She’d chalked it up to her hatred for the guy back in New York, but it was almost as if the woman was one of Tatiana’s marks.

  It was even like when they had gotten back to the cabin. Once they had broug
ht the unconscious woman inside, Tatiana seemed to just zone everything else out. She’d come up with this elaborate plan to keep the cop alive, to drag out her punishment, even though that went against everything they’d ever done before.

  Susan took a final drag on the cigarette and then flicked it into the air; listening to it hiss for a moment when it hit the water.

  “Are you okay?”

  She turned around startled and looked up at Tatiana who was standing behind her.

  “Yeah,” Susan said. “I’m fine.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Tatiana replied, taking a seat next to her on the dock. “Here.”

  Susan took the offered bottle of beer and took a sip.

  “I’m just not feeling it,” she said. “I thought we were just going to have our fun with Goodridge and then get the hell out of here.”

  “I know and we still will, but we also have to be adaptable to the moment,” Tatiana replied. “After all, weren’t you the one who went looking for her?”

  “Yes, but only because she intrigued me,” Susan replied, taking a sip of her beer. “I hadn’t come to a decision on what to do about her.”

  “Sometimes the targets come to you.”

  “Did she really come to me, Tee?”

  “When an opportunity presents itself, you need to recognize it for the gift that it is,” Tatiana said. “Would you rather just eliminate the threat or would you prefer looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life; waiting for her to pop up behind you?”

  “Killing her is one thing,” Susan said. “Bringing her here is something completely different.”

  “You act like we’ve never kidnapped anyone before,” Tatiana argued. “What about that guy in Reno? As I recall that ended up being a pretty good time.”

  Susan couldn’t argue that point.

  They’d both decided they needed a guy to liven things up and had found Mitch at a roadside bar feeding a slot machine. He was a pretty good looking guy and it didn’t take much too convince him to leave with them. They were playing the mother / daughter angle with him and when they got back to the hotel found out that he was extremely well endowed. It didn’t take much convincing for him to agree to being tied up to the bed frame. Rather than kill him right away, they’d kept up the ruse for several days; literally and physically enjoying the ride.

  “That was different,” she said softly.

  “Are you getting cold feet?” Tatiana asked.

  “Oh hell no,” Susan replied, “but I just get a really bad feeling about this one.”

  “Like what? Like she’s going to break free and she’s going to take us both out of the picture?”

  “No, not like that,” Susan said.

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just different, Tee. It’s like I get this bad feeling about her. Everything inside of me is screaming ‘go inside, kill her and let’s get the heck out of here.’”

  Tatiana took a drink and stared off across the water. She felt as if she was between a rock and a hard place. She’d never shared with Susan that she’d known Alex; that she had a personal grudge with the woman that needed to be taken care of. There was no attachment with any of their other victims. They had their fun and then they killed them, but she knew this would be different. Tatiana struggled with how she could explain to the young woman how much Alex had affected her physically, without Susan becoming jealous. She’d already lied to her and that would only fuel the fire. Her only plan was to keep them apart until she got what she needed.

  “Baby, we are out in the middle of nowhere,” Tatiana said. “You’d literally have to get lost in order to find us. There’s no way to track her to here. Her phone’s in a field twenty miles away from here. Not to mention the fact that I’ve got her tied up tighter than a BDSM practitioner. Trust me, she’s not going anywhere and she’s not going to do anything to us.”

  “Then what’s the point?” Susan asked. “Why go through all this trouble?”

  “Because I have a plan,” Tatiana said.

  “Oh really?”

  “Yes,” Tatiana replied. “One thing I learned from Banning is that psychological torture can be incredibly powerful. It can unlock things in a person that give you invaluable insight into better understanding your prey.”

  “What does that have to do with her?” Susan asked. “She’s a small town cop.”

  “She is, now, but she wasn’t always. I did some research on her and I found out that she came to Penobscot by way of New York City.”

  “So?”

  “So, there might be something I can salvage from her to make my end game a lot more attainable.”

  “Maguire,” Susan replied.

  “Exactly,” Tatiana replied. “You see, if you want to learn about the king, sometimes you need to have a chat with the pawns.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Susan said, fishing out the pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket and lighting one up.

  Inwardly, Tatiana smiled. Those five simple words marked, if not outright acceptance, at least acquiescence on the part of Susan to Tatiana’s plans.

  “What would make it more to your liking?”

  “Just learning what you need to and getting the fuck out of here,” Susan replied. “I’m already done with New Hampshire.”

  “What about Goodridge? All the work we’ve done?”

  “We’ve always killed and left town, two bodies at the same time breaks the rule,” Susan said. “I say screw him. Let him keep staring at teenage titties for a little longer. We can revisit the little perv at a later date.”

  “Whatever your little heart desires, babe.”

  “My little heart desires for you to just do whatever it is you have planned for her and let’s just get out of this state.”

  “As you wish,” Tatiana replied, fighting to suppress her smile.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “We're sorry the person you are trying to reach is unavailable or has traveled outside the coverage area. Please try your call again.”

  Blackshear ended the call and laid the phone on the desk. He glanced up at the large clock that hung on the office wall; it was just after two-thirty. He had tried to call her at least a dozen times since he’d left the Carroll County Court House, but each time he had gotten the same automated reply.

  “Where the fuck are you, Alex?” he said, as he leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the desktop.

  He reached over and picked up the folder off his desk and looked inside. Then he grabbed the cellphone, dialing the number written on the inside cover and listened as it rang.

  “Penobscot Police Department, Officer Simpson speaking, how may I help you?”

  “Abby, this is Captain Blackshear from the state police.”

  “How are you, sir?”

  “I’m fine,” Blackshear replied. “I was just curious; have you seen or heard from Chief Taylor recently?”

  “I saw her Thursday afternoon, why?”

  “Because I have been trying to call her since this morning and haven’t had any luck reaching her.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “No, not at all” he replied. “I just really need to speak with her.”

  “Let me put you on hold for a minute,” she said. “I’ll try and get through to her.”

  Blackshear waited, watching the second slowly march its way around the clock.

  “Sir?” Abby said, when she came back on the line.

  “Yes?”

  “There’s no answer. I tried her cell phone and it’s saying the caller is unavailable.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I keep getting as well,” Blackshear replied.

  “I also tried the house phone, but it just keeps ringing.”

  “How was she when you saw her?”

  “Fine,” Abby said. “We actually made plans to get together this weekend.”

  “Then it’s probably nothing,” Blackshear said. “She most likely needed to just get out of th
e house.”

  “Well, I do know that cell phone reception out in that area is pretty shoddy at times,” Abby said. “It’s a nice day, so if she is outside she wouldn’t hear the house phone and she doesn’t have an answering machine.”

  “Isn’t it amazing how dependent we have become on these damn phones?” he said.

  “Well, if you’d like, I can stop by her place on my way home. I’m getting off soon and I can swing in on the way.”

  “Would you mind?” Blackshear asked.

  “No, not at all,” Abby said. “I’m going to pass by there anyway. Is there any message you want me to give her?”

  “Yeah, just have her call me. She has my number.”

  “Is it bad news?” Abby asked.

  “Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Abby said apprehensively.

  “We’ve cleared her in the shooting,” he replied.

  Abby gasped at the good news. “Seriously? How?”

  “I’d like to say that it was just good old-fashioned investigative police work,” Blackshear replied, “but the truth is we got lucky. A trooper grabbed a kid on a speeding charge down in Carroll and he had dope in the car. He was looking at a pretty big fall so he offered to make a deal. It turns out that he was the second perp inside the store when the robbery went down. He confirmed that Chase Akins did have a gun on him when they went inside.”

  “Oh my God, that is so awesome, thank you.”

  “Well, it’s not official yet, Abby,” he warned. “We are still waiting for the judge to sign off on everything. It’ll happen sometime today, but I haven’t gotten the word yet from the state’s attorney.”

  “Yeah, but still,” Abby said. “Just knowing that she wasn’t mistaken is a huge relief, but don’t worry, I won’t say anything. I’ll just have her call you back.”

  “Thanks,” Blackshear said. “It’s just that I don’t want any word getting back prematurely to Sheldon Abbott. I don’t trust that man as far as I can throw him and I don’t want him to sabotage anything.”

  “Trust me, I agree a hundred percent.”