The Promise

by Patrick Hurley

  As they sat there looking at all the physical evidence laid out on the table, they were amazed at how little evidentiary material they had amassed in over a month. It was discouraging;

  THE ODE, “THE RAVEN” BY EDGAR ALLEN POE

  THE RAVEN LOCKET FOUND NEAR THE LIBRARY

  THE NOTE FROM ALLISON TAYLOR TO JUSTIN SHAW

  THE 8x10 AUTOGRAPHED PICTURE OF ALLISON TAYLOR

  THE .38 SHELL CASINGS FROM THE THREE MURDERS

  THE THREATENING NOTES TO ELIE

  Gallagher spoke first, “Let’s compare our theories at this point with what we have to work with. Elie went first, “I still think Allison Taylor voluntarily disappeared to protect her father in some way. I think Raven has an idea where she is, but she is not telling.”

  Then she added, “I hope to God that Malcolm Oden is really dead.”

  Chief Parker disagreed, “I think Raven and Oden kidnapped the Taylor girl. It was for ransom, but something went terribly wrong and she either died accidentally or was murdered by Oden.

  I think Raven is with Oden and they are preparing to flee to a faraway place. I doubt we will ever find Allison’s body. I think Dr. Morgan found out what happened and he confronted Malcolm Oden and was executed before he could reveal that evidence.

  I think it is pretty obvious that the perp who murdered the unknown man behind the Stadium, was the same person who killed Morgan and Redding Shaw, but I don’t know why. The only apparent link between all these victims is the murder weapon and the method of execution.

  I think it is highly unlikely that we will bring that girl home alive to her father.”

  After his boss’s chilling conclusion, Gallagher thought for a moment and calmly proceeded to disagree with both of them.

  “First of all, I don’t believe Allison is dead, at least not yet. I believe Malcolm Oden is holding her hostage for personal reasons and possibly for personal enjoyment.”

  Upon hearing that statement, Elie stood up and went over to the window. Her body language and facial expressions let the detective know how repulsed she was at his sexual conclusion.

  Nevertheless, he continued, “I think the murders were committed by Oden and not Margaret Williams.”

  Elie turned abruptly from the window and scolded her partner, “When are you going to wake up, Gallagher? That girl’s a viper. She is crude, obnoxious and capable of anything, including murder, especially, if anyone gets in her way.

  Quit treating her like your daughter. She is not your little girl. She is a manipulative little witch who is playing you! I am sorry for being so mean to you here.”

  As he looked at his partner, he saw the pain in her eyes. She was upset for him, not at him. Elie was trying to protect him from a person she thought was potentially harmful to him. He went over and hugged her for several seconds.

  “I appreciate you, Elie. Thank you for what you are trying to do for me here.”

  The Chief agreed with Elie, “Mike, I think she’s right. You are probably cutting the Williams girl too much slack. Innocent people don’t generally escape from jail and then smile at you from a car as they drive away.

  If she was halfway honorable, she would have told her driver to stop the vehicle and gotten out to surrender herself. She is not to be trusted, Mike. In addition, her fingerprints and DNA are all over the evidence.

  Maybe we have a pair of lovers here killing people. It’s happened historically many times.”

  Gallagher moved away from Elie as he waited for his boss to finish his analysis. Then, he countered, “Margaret can be a little witch, as you said, Elie, but she is not a murderer.

  Oden is capable of killing. Raven may be with him, so it may not legally matter whether she ever pulls a trigger or not. She will go down with him.

  Whether Allison Taylor is alive or not, I can only go on my instincts. I think she is, I hope to God she is. Because I want to bring her home safely to her parents, especially, Arch. But,”

  At that point, he was interrupted by Jerry Simpson, “Mike, sorry to intrude, but we have a hysterical parent in the station…”

  “Who is it?” Gallagher asked.

  “It’s Romy of Athens. Redding Shaw’s widow.

  She hasn’t heard from her son since the funeral. She’s claiming her son disappeared and she is afraid something bad has happened to him. I think she’s just overly paranoid due to her husband’s tragic end, but will you talk to her? I’m really sorry to bother you, Gallagher.”

  The detective smiled as he turned to his boss and partner, “We’ll pick this up later. Give me ten minutes, Chief.”

  Motioning to Elie, he said, “C’mon, I may need a woman’s touch on this.”

  The two of them found their way to a private meeting room to encounter Redding Shaw’s widow screaming uncontrollably. “My beautiful boy is missing! He’s been murdered, just like his father!”

  Gallagher and Elie entered the room and as he closed the door, his partner went over to comfort the grief-stricken mother. After several minutes, Romy Redding sat down on a couch next to Elie and was coherent enough to talk sanely. “He was taking me to dinner last night. It was my birthday.

  But, he never showed up. Why?”

  “He never showed up?” Gallagher asked, “Doesn’t he already live at home with you, Mrs. Shaw?”

  The woman nodded affirmatively, “Yes, he does. But, for the past week he has been staying out at our former ranch. It’s quiet out there. Not a soul for miles around. Not even a telephone.

  He told me the day he left he would be back yesterday to make certain I had a happy birthday. With all that he has been through and with his father dying, he just needed to be alone. I had my sister here, so I told him to go. He hasn’t come back, oh my god.”

  “Did you think about going out there, Mrs. Shaw? Just to see if he is there?” Gallagher queried.

  “Yes, I did think about it. But, I am afraid. If something did happen to him out there, I don’t,”

  Elie assured her. “You don’t have to explain. We understand.”

  She glared at Gallagher for his insensitivity.

  The detective believed his question had been more investigative than insensitive. He processed the situation and then made a decision.

  Taking his partner aside he gave her instructions, “Elie, I want you and Officer Howell to drive out to the Shaw place and check it out. Call me if you find anything. I am going to reassure Mrs. Shaw and if you need me out there, I will meet you.”

  Elie nodded. “As soon as I get directions I am on my way.”

  Returning to Justin’s mom he smiled reassuringly, “Not to worry Mrs. Shaw, it’s possible Justin got his days mixed up. If the place is as desolate as you say it is, he wouldn’t know what year it was much less what day.

  Everything will work out.”

  Romy Shaw smiled weakly at him. She wanted to believe her son was safe. The power of a positive suggestion was an effective dosage for any crisis.

  Elie asked Mrs. Shaw for directions to the ranch and raced out quickly. Detective Gallagher brought Mrs. Shaw some coffee. He assigned a community service officer to sit with her while his partner completed her mission.

  As he walked back to Chief Parker’s office to finish their discussion, Gallagher mind was jolted by Romy Shaw’s words which echoed in his mind.... “It’s quiet out there. Not a soul for miles around.”

  His instincts as a detective were now quickly deducting the information, ”What a perfect place to hide Allison Taylor!”

  Was Justin Shaw keeping Allison out at the abandoned ranch, if so, voluntarily or involuntarily?

  Is that why Redding Shaw was drilled in the back of the head? Did he find out this volatile secret regarding his son and was rewarded execution-style?

  Justin had been feeling extremely guilty, as evidenced by his mental breakdown, was this because he was the one who took Allison away on that warm summer August day?

  Did she vanish or was this part of a carefully orchestrated plan b
y Justin alone or with Allison’s help? If she was taken involuntarily, then she was in danger. If Justin was ready to snap, then she wasn’t the only one in danger.

  So was Elie and Officer Howell.

  He quickly dialed Elie’s cell phone as a precaution to prevent the possibility he was right on this one. It rang and rang and rang.

  No answer.

  As he paced impatiently towards the conference room, he realized why she wasn’t answering his call.

  There on the table was Elie Larsen’s cell phone vibrating with sound as it spun in a circle aimlessly. Elie had been in such a hurry, she had forgotten to take it with her.

  Chapter Eighty-five---Answers

  With time working against him, Gallagher looked up Officer Howell’s cell phone number and called him. “Hello, Howell here!” came the cheerful greeting.

  This was unusual for Howell, normally a cynical sort of guy.

  “Jeff? It’s Michael Gallagher. I need to talk to agent Larsen.”

  “Larsen? Unless she is hiding somewhere on my houseboat here on Lake Lanier, I think you’re out of luck!”

  “You’re on vacation?”

  “Yeah, so quit bothering me, Gallagher. I’ve got fish to fry!” This was more like the Howell everyone knew.

  Gallagher reasoned quickly that Elie must have realized Howell was off duty so she decided she could handle this herself.

  The detective grabbed his gun and cuffs, poked his head in to Chief Parker’s office and told him the latest news.

  “I need to get out to the Redding Shaw ranch. His widow thinks that Justin may be in trouble out there. I sent Elie to grab Howell and check it out.

  Chief Parker interrupted, “Howell? He’s on vacation….”

  “Yeah, I know that now. After Elie left, I realized that Romy Shaw had said the place was desolate with no one around for miles.

  I have a hunch there’s a chance that Allison Taylor may be out there. It’s a long shot but, hell, solving this case has been a long shot!.”

  “Did you call Larsen and tell her all this?”

  I was going to, but, she left her cell phone in the conference room.”

  Parker was calm, “Just call her on her police phone.”

  “No can do. She has a rental car. I have no way of contacting her. I am going out to the Shaw Ranch. It’s out on Snelling Road just off Bellevue, where Snelling dead ends into dirt.”

  The Chief nodded. I was out there hunting with Redding Shaw a few years back. I know the location. I’ll call for back up.

  Want me to go with you, Mike?”

  Gallagher assured him. “Nah, you’re too old for danger. Let the young bucks handle this one!”

  As he half ran out the door of the office, he could hear his boss’s usage of certain vocabulary words that would not be allowed in a standard Scrabble game and would make a nun blush.

  Laughing, he jumped into his car and realized he forgot his lucky mascot, Mick. As he debated whether or not to race back to his office to retrieve him, he spotted him sticking out from under the right front passenger seat.

  He leaned over and noticed there was a little mud on him. Poor little guy. He suddenly felt a twinge of guilt as he started his car. He also felt more than a twinge of foolishness that he even had guilt over an inanimate object.

  Then, he started sneezing again. As one staccato burst followed another, he called his wife and asked for a favor, “Honey, can you pick up some Coldeze at the drug store today. My cold is back.”

  Alisha laughed, “Fickle sucker isn’t it! Maybe it’s not a cold. Maybe you’re allergic to me. We haven’t had sex since,”

  “Not now, sweetie. I need to go and I am in no mood to think about that beautiful body of yours. I am on my way out to the old Shaw ranch. Thanks. I’ll see you at dinner. Love you.”

  He clicked off and felt a little bad he had been so curt with his wife. But, he had to focus on the problem at hand. This may be a major development in the investigation.

  It could be what he had been waiting for since the first day of the disappearance.

  Turning down Old Bellevue Road, he drove approximately five miles to Snelling Road. He passed Henderson Park and as Snelling disintegrated into dirt he saw a homemade sign, “Bootjack Road.”

  He drove carefully along the pathway until he saw another homemade sign, this one was more broken down. It read, ”Redding’s Ranchero.”

  He had arrived. He stopped his car short of the ranch and looked at the layout before he proceeded any further.

  He was now about one hundred yards from the ranch house. He could see his partner’s rental car parked around to the right side of the house and an SUV parked near a small shack on the left hand side.

  The sport utility vehicle undoubtedly belonged to Justin Shaw. But, he quickly realized it was similar to the make and model of the one he saw Margaret Williams riding in outside the grocery store.

  Justin Shaw and Raven?

  Could they be in this together, had he missed this combination all along?

  His mind went back to briefly seeing Margaret in the SUV. Was it Justin driving the car that night?

  As he used his mind to scroll through the details of what he remembered about the utility vehicle he had to smile when he thought about sneezing on his wife’s cake and replacing it on the night his allergies had exploded everywhere.

  He picked up his little leprechaun and chided him, “You made me sneeze, Mick. If you hadn’t been so saturated with mud and hay, I would have captured Raven. You’re supposed to help me solve cases, not lose them.”

  Ahchoo!

  He started sneezing again and tossed his lucky charm in the back seat. “When we get that mud and hay off of you, you can be my good luck charm again!”

  Still he was thinking, “Justin and Raven?”

  He carefully put his car in gear and slowly made his way up to the house. He parked his car by the rental.

  He got out of his car and started walking slowly towards the house. He suddenly stopped in his tracks and realized he was taking the wrong approach to this. He needed to make one important adjustment first.

  Quickly backtracking, he went to his trunk and collected a couple of key items he had not planned on using a few minutes before.

  He checked his gun and made sure his holster was unlocked. At that point, he had a strong premonition that the mysterious disappearance of Allison Taylor was about to be solved.

  As he neared the building, he unhooked the safety on his gun. He walked cautiously from the right front of the house and peered into one of the smaller windows.

  No sign of anyone.

  He decided to walk around to the back of the building. He could feel his heart beginning to pound now.

  He turned to go back to the main door of the house when he heard his partner’s voice, “Gallagher.” It was a loud whisper. She was keeping her voice down for a reason, he theorized.

  As he ran to the sound of her voice to the back of the house, he was stunned to see his partner lying down in a pool of blood. He murmured, “Oh my god, Elie!”

  As he approached her, she had her gun drawn but her face was as white as a sheet and her breathing was ragged. He looked down and saw blood on her shirt, her pants, everywhere.

  She looked up, saw him and gently put her finger to her lips telling him to remain silent. She motioned to a cellar door about ten feet away. It was the kind of opening to the basement that families used in case of tornadoes.

  There were stairs leading downward.

  Gallagher came up and whispered to her, “Elie, what happened to you?”

  His partner whispered in a raspy voice, “I took a hit. I may have hit him, too. Someone is down there. I believe more than one person. What do we do, Mike?”

  Gallagher immediately radioed for an ambulance, “Officer down, might be in critical condition. Bullet wound.”

  He gave the directions to the ranch and signed off. “You’ll be fine, Elie; you’re a tough Chicago girl.
” He thought for a moment,

  “Where was his damn backup?”

  “I’m not so tough, Gallagher.”

  He tried to keep her strong, “Can you tell me specifically what happened when you got here, Elie?”

  She nodded weakly. “I came around the corner to go into the back part of the house and saw the storm door. I carefully proceeded to it, lifted it and looked down into the darkness.

  As I did, I heard a rustling sound of someone moving around down there, a muffled woman’s voice and then I saw the sparks of gunfire. The first shot missed me and I fired back. That’s when the second shot hit me. I stumbled backwards and waited for them to come up. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then you came.