by J. R. Martin
“Yes, my partner and I will be right over.” Ivan quickly answered.
Walking briskly to their unmarked car, the two lawmen could hardly contain their excitement. This was the first real clue they had been able to obtain from the Insane Asylum. Ivan thought they might be a little premature with their excitement, but handwriting experts would make quick work of comparing all the employees’ handwriting with the clue. For that Ivan was genuinely thrilled. Maybe at long last they would catch a real clue.
When they entered the hospital, they met the administrator in the hall.
“Good morning, gentlemen, it’s good to see you again. How may I help you?” He inquired.
“Oh, we aren’t here to see you this morning, sir. We have an appointment with one of your employees.” Ivan answered.
Seeing the look of concern that crossed the administrators face, Ivan answered. “Mr. Homer Thrasher. I believe he’s the hospital’s chauffer and garage maintenance personnel.”
“Yes, he is, but what could you possibly want with him.” The administrator asked frowning.
“It’s police business sir, we aren’t free to share that with anyone right now.” Ivan answered, not missing the look of fear that briefly crossed the administrator’s face.
“Oh, well then, if I can be of service, please don’t hesitate to call me.” He answered and walked away.
Ivan knocked on Homer Thrasher’s office door and walked in after hearing, “come in.”
When Ivan and Walt entered, they noticed that Mr. Thrasher was very nervous. He handed them the note with a shaking hand.
“Relax, Thrasher. Relax.” Ivan reassured.
Picking up the note Ivan read: Thrasher, bring a car around as you did the other day. Leave it in front of the hospital with the key in the glove box. The note was unsigned.
“Does this look like the same handwriting?” Ivan asked.
“Yes,” Thrasher answered. “Exactly the same.”
“Thank you, Mr. Thrasher. Now do as the note requested.”
****
Ivan and Walt took up permanent residence out of sight in the hospital corridor. They watched the front entrance after Thrasher brought the car around.
“We might not need those writing experts if we can catch the suspect red handed.” Walt said.
“Yeah, that would be great.” Ivan answered.
“You said something the other day that I have thought about, but never understood.” Walt stated.
“What was that?” Ivan answered.
“You said, because of love.” Walt said.
“Yes, if the person who ordered this car is who I think it is, he and Grace are having a little-known love affair.” Ivan answered.
“Who?” Walt asked.
“Wait and see if I’m correct.” Ivan said.
The two detectives waited for two and one half hours. They were growing weary with the wait when finally a man in a dark colored suit got in the car. Before he could start the engine the two detectives were upon him. Yanking the door open they flashed their badges and said.
“What are you doing with the hospitals car, Dr. Williams? You said you rarely came here.” Ivan blurted out.
The look of shock on the doctors’ face plainly told the detectives, he was guilty of being the one who ordered the car from Thrasher, anonymously. He quietly answered,
“Yes, I do use their cars on occasion.” The doctor answered.
“When you want to go visit Grace Simmons undetected?” Ivan said.
“Yes,” he answered.
“How long has your re-kindled affair been going on?” Ivan asked.
“You know about Grace and my relationship before?”
“Yes, doctor we do. We’ve seen pictures etc. Romance is not our business, but when a murder investigation is going on and we find someone has lied, we consider it.” Ivan stated.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth in the beginning.” Dr. Williams said.
“Yeah, you even lied that you knew her brother, Garth Simmons.” Walt added.
“I know, that makes me look guilty of a lot of things.” The doctor answered.
“Yes, it does,” Ivan agreed, “but tell me, did you know her brother, Gregg Simmons?”
“Only briefly, he came a long while back, after the horrible incident with Garth. I met him then. He was in the navy.” Dr. Williams answered.
“And somehow you thought lying to us about not knowing Garth Simmons and secretly being in love with his sister and not telling us, was o.k. how?” Ivan asked.
“I don’t know why I lied. Grace and I have kept our love affair secret because we didn’t want the media to find out. They jump on everything that relates to Garth and his horrible crime. If they knew we were dating they would publish it and everyone would know.” The doctor explained. “We don’t want that right now”
“I understand.” Ivan said. “Has Grace told you about her brother, Gregg’s skull, being found in Mr. Éclair’s pig pen?”
“Yes,” Dr. Williams answered.
“What and where were you and Grace about five years ago with Gregg?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, five years ago did you and Grace know her brother was in town?” Ivan asked.
“Yes, he came for a visit. He didn’t come home for the funerals and he came to visit Grace and find out all the information, up till then, he didn’t know.” The doctor explained.
“Did he explain why he didn’t come home for the funerals?”
“The only explanation he gave was he thought he would kill Garth if he saw him and he knew they already had had enough killing. He chose instead not to see Garth and not to come home for the funerals.” Dr. Williams explained.
“Was that okay with Grace?” Walt asked.
“Oh, yes, she agreed there had been enough blood shed for anyone family.”
The doctor shared.
“I want to speak to you and Grace together.” Ivan stated.
“I’m on my way there now.” Dr. Williams said.
“Let us drive you.” Walt suggested.
Dr. Williams said that was fine with him, but he did want to call Grace. He didn’t want her to be shocked when they all arrived at her house together. Ivan assured him that he would give a call to Grace and he instructed Walt to go in and tell Homer Thrasher he could put the car up, but not to share who the driver would have been, at least not just yet.
****
Grace glared at them when they reached her house, but she did invite them in. If she was really surprised she didn’t show it. After they all got seated Ivan said,
“Okay, I want each of you to think back and tell me the last time you saw Gregg, what he said, etc.” Ivan instructed.
“Well,” Grace began, “he had lunch with us the last day we saw him. He said he was leaving the next morning, and until you told me his skull had been found I assumed he went back to the navy and just dropped out of sight. It makes my heart hurt to think he was killed right here and we didn’t know it.”
A tear rolled down her cheek and the doctor gave her a comforting pat on her arm. “Now my question to you detective is, who killed my brother?”
“Ms. Simmons, I wish I could answer that question, but I haven’t a clue. Who do you suspect it could have been? Who would have known that Mr. Éclair had a hog pen that a body could be put in and the pigs do away with it? Who would have thought just the skull would survive. I don’t have a clue who. If Garth, your other brother, had not been locked up in the Insane Asylum, I would think it was him, but he was already confined five years ago when your brother came home.” Ivan explained.
“I’ve thought about all those things.” Grace shared. “For the life of me I can think of no one, but Garth that would know Mr. Éclair’s farm and about the hogs etc. He knew everyone that lived near us. And he has proven he’s evil enough to kill anyone, but of Gregg’s killing he has to be innocent because he was locked up.”
“I’ve thought about all of that a
s well.” Ivan said. “But, I’m convinced your brother is the brains behind Gregg’s killing and I’m not so sure he’s not behind the White Chapel District killings.”
The doctor looked at Ivan and said, “How could that be possible? He’s been locked up now for over ten years.”
“I’m not sure how he does it, but I can almost promise you, when we find out the truth, Garth will be a part of it.” Ivan said, with sternness in his voice that no one cared to argue with.
“Have either of you ever been to the Brasserie Zedel in the So Ho district?” Ivan asked.
“Not in years.” The doctor answered. We did go there once or twice but that was many, many years ago.”
Changing the subject Walt asked, “How will you get home, doctor? We have to leave now?”
“Don’t worry about that. I can catch a bus back to town.” The doctor said.
Shaking hands with the doctor and with Grace the detectives excused themselves and left the couple alone. When they reached the car, Walt said, “How did you know those two had rekindled their love affair?”
“I didn’t know, but I saw the way Grace’s eyes would light up every time she spoke of the doctor in the old pictures we looked at. They were in love then, it’s just a short journey for them to be in love now.” Ivan said smiling. “Love endures for ages.”
Walt just smiled and for a brief moment he thought of the sweetness of being in love and then he thought of his home and his Gladys’s and that made his heart happy. The ugliness of the business at hand faded away, but only for a flash.
“Guess the doctor will still have to steal the moments he can be alone with Grace. His fear of the media and his reputation worries him tremendously.” Walt said.
“Yes, and besides that, Grace doesn’t want Garth to know she’s dating the good doctor again. I truly don’t know what that’s all about.” Ivan answered. “We solve one mystery and ten more pop up.”
“I know that’s true, Ivan. I’m starting to think that Garth gets out of the hospital somehow and does all this evilness.” Walt said.
“I think that warrants us placing an undercover agent in that hospital on that floor.” Ivan said.
“But, how can we do that and no one know he’s undercover? Won’t we have to get someone on the inside to help us out and place them where they need to be?” Walt asked.
“There’s no one we can trust.” Ivan said. “We’ve got to figure out a way.”
The two detectives rode in silence for the most part, back to the city. In their minds, they went over every aspect to the case trying to figure out how to accomplish the impossible feat of placing a undercover agent inside the asylum without anyone there knowing the undercover was Scotland Yard.
“It seems we almost have to have the Administrator’s co-operation.” Walt said.
“Never,” Ivan replied. “Never, I wouldn’t trust him in a chicken house with a muzzle on. No way.”
Walt didn’t answer; he just rode in silence the rest of the way back to headquarters.
Chapter Nine
The next day Ivan and Walt put their thoughts together to try and think of someone from their department that could go undercover and get work at the Insane Asylum. Hopefully, he or she would be able to be around Garth Simmons enough to learn who he was working through to accomplish the murders in the White Chapel District.
“But,” Walt said, “what if we are wrong and Garth is not the one heading up these murders, Ivan? What if it’s someone we don’t even know?”
“I would bet the last penny I have Garth is involved in these murders. We have just got to find out how he goes about getting someone to do them for him.” Ivan answered.
“But, Ivan that takes a special kind of crazy to kill people because someone you know tells you how and when.” Walt said.
“Whoever is doing this is as crazy as Garth. You can count on it. We must find out who it is and expose them.” Ivan said. Then he added,
“This is going to be hard to do, Walt. Whoever this person is right now is unknown and unsuspected. That makes it doubly hard for us.”
“Let’s go talk to the Commander. He might have someone we can use.” Walt suggested.
They walked in to their Commander’s office and he motioned for them to take a seat. Then he said, “I can see the wheels turning, what’s up?”
“Sir, we need an undercover agent to take on an extremely dangerous job. But, the both of us are of the opinion if we don’t approach it this way it may never get solved.” Ivan said.
The two detectives spent the next hour explaining to their Commander exactly who they suspected and how they thought he was accomplishing the murders.
When they finished the Commander looked at them and then he said, “Obviously, you two are convinced that Garth Simmons is behind the murders. But, the problem with that is he is confined to the Insane Asylum for the remainder of his life and he’s not even allowed access to the outside. He only goes out when the outside yard is vacant and no other inmates are out there. He has few visitors, mainly his sister and she only comes like four times a year if that much. He has no other relatives and apparently, no friends, so how could he possibly be orchestrating these murders?”
“And that sir, is exactly why we need an undercover agent.” Walt said.
“Let me think on this for a day or two detectives. No one immediately comes to mind. I’ll call around and see what I can find out.” The Commander said as he rose from his seat and escorted them out the door.
“Not sure we accomplished anything with that short visit.” Walt said.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to give him time to get up to speed. Once he looks at everything he’ll understand our need. He’ll come through.” Ivan said.
“One can only hope.” Walt agreed.
****
Two weeks passed before the Commander got back in touch with Walt and Ivan. When they came in one morning there was a note on Ivan’s desk saying, “Come to my office when you get this message.” Signed, the Commander.
Handing the note to Walt, Ivan gathered up his notes and heading toward the Commander’s office, pausing only long enough to pour himself a cup of coffee.
When they walked in the Commander was on the phone and he motioned for them to have a seat while he finished his conversation. When he hung up he looked at the two detectives and said, “I think I’ve found the man you’re looking for. Right now he’s resting up from his last assignment that landed him in the hospital for a few days. His name is Ray Roberts. Have the two of you ever heard of him?”
“I have,” Ivan said. “Walt, he’s that crazy SOB that dove off that skyscraper with a parachute to capture that killer in Paris two years ago. He landed right on top of him. Remember? Everyone says he’s crazier than the villains he pursues.”
Walt nodded his head and showed his affirmation that he knew the man. “But,” he said, “I thought he retired after that last assignment. Isn’t he getting on up in years, now?”
The Commander nodded his head and said, “He did retire. He got so bored he came back to work and said he’d rather die on the job than stay at home and die of boredom. He’s fifty-eight now.”
“Have you talked to him about this case?” Ivan asked.
“I have and he’s inclined to agree with the two of you. He knows Garth Simmons and remembers well when he murdered his parents. He said they were just the two he got caught with, there had been many others that lost their lives to that maniac, but he just wasn’t caught with them. He says Simmons is one of the worst killers he’s ever had to work with. He said what makes him so dangerous, he appears normal until it’s too late for the victims.” The Commander shared.
“Well, if he helped in the capture of Simmons, Simmons will know him. That won’t work.” Ivan stated.
“That’s what I said at first, but Ray says Simmons has never seen him. He never had to testify against him and therefore Simmons doesn’t even know who he is.” The Commander said.
&n
bsp; “Well, then, that might work.” Walt said.
“I’ve invited him here in the morning. I’d like the two of you to brief him and then we all will decide whether or not this gig’s for him.” The Commander said.
“That sounds like a winner.” Ivan said. “Come on Walt, let’s wrap up what we’re working on so we can free our minds and help Roberts if we all decide he’s the one for the job.”
The two detectives left the Commander’s office as he picked up the phone and made a call to Ray Roberts to confirm the appointment for the next day.
****
Ivan and Walt got to the office earlier than their accustomed time the next morning. They wanted to be sure they had everything the Commander needed should he ask them to communicate to Roberts why they wanted an undercover guy to help with this case.
They had their notes, their thoughts and their intents, compartmented and ready to be shared.
They didn’t recognize the man that entered headquarters at ten in the morning. In fact they had decided Roberts must not be going to show.
It was already mid-morning. They had expected him no later than eight. If this was the way he operated then----Ivan stopped mid-thought and said to himself, that’s why he works undercover you ninny. He’s not the norm detective.
Ivan watched at the desk Sargent shook hands with the stranger and then lead the way to the Commander’s office.
Damn, Walt thought, I wished that office had windows so we could see inside. Yeah, well wish on detective. The Commander will let you know when he’s ready.
Ivan glanced at Walt and then at the Commander’s closed door. He was so ready to meet this often spoke of undercover agent of renown.
Both detectives poured themselves another cup of coffee and finally after thirty minutes of waiting, Ivan’s phone rang and the Commander invited Walt and him to come to his office. They rose quickly and made the short walk back to the door. Ivan knocked softly, then entered.
The Commander said, “Detectives, Ivan Bennett and Walt Graham I’d like you to meet Ray Roberts.”