Declan found the strength to get to his feet and finally assess the full situation. Richard Wright had tackled him to the ground and started to pummel him, but Rachel Sinclair was now pointing her cocked, loaded gun pressed hard against the back of Wright’s head. He wisely stopped his attack.
“Great job, partner,” Declan said giving Rachel a wink. He meant it. She was the real deal and a woman he was proud to have as his partner. Things were going to be alright.
“Baby? Baby? Are you ok?” Amy Banks was screaming hysterically now running down the stairs.
Declan decided enough was enough. He pointed his loaded weapon at her and screamed “Freeze!”
She stopped in her tracks, her mind frantic and her eyes completely glazed over with tears as she saw her man now face down on the ground being handcuffed by Rachel Sinclair.
“Don’t move a muscle,” Declan said as he walked towards her. “Turn around and face the wall.”
She did as she was told and Declan quickly cuffed her. Then he called it in to dispatch, who promptly sent a few patrol cars over to investigate the entire house properly and to take the gruesome twosome downtown to the station.
“Well, great first day,” Declan said to Rachel Sinclair as they watched the patrol car taking Richard Wright and Amy Banks away. “Are you having fun yet?”
Rachel smiled. “Oh, I’m having a blast.”
“Did you find anything in there?” Declan asked a uniformed officer who was coming out of the house.
“No, it’s wiped pretty clean. If they had anything going on something spooked them and they cleared everything out, covered their tracks well. But I’m sure that forensics will find something. We got some guys testing the air for traces. If there was anything going on here within the past week those guys will pick up something. We can use it just to get them to talk at least,” the officer said.
“Right,” Declan said.
“So, what now? We go downtown to interrogate?” Rachel asked.
“Not yet,” Declan replied. “It will take a bit of time to get them booked for the assault at least and plus I doubt they will talk for a while. And I imagine Wright is going to lawyer up pretty quick, especially if he has something to hide.”
“Right,” Sinclair replied. “So, what now?” she asked again.
“Lunch,” Declan said with a smile.
Declan finished his burger and washed it down with the remains of his soda. Normally he would have preferred a beer, but he did not want to give his new partner the wrong idea and besides they were not allowed to have a drop while on duty. He still hadn’t felt Rachel out enough to know if she was the type to squeal on such a thing.
“Wow, you were right; this is the best burger in town,” Rachel said. She was having difficulty finishing hers, and with good reason. Those burgers at The Plant were huge.
“Yep,” Declan said. “I know me some burgers,” he said.
His phone vibrated right then with an incoming call. He checked the caller ID and it said unknown. Fear hit him like a slug to the chest effectively freezing the blood in his veins. He took a deep breath trying to get a grip as he saw that God awful word on his ringing phone. It had to be someone else. It could not be that voice again. Surely not. He’d already convinced himself that it was all a joke and that the joke wasn’t even on him. Surely that person already realized their mistake and if they’d known that they had accidentally pranked a cop they would have been crapping their pants.
“Do you need to get that?” Rachel asked.
“No, it’s just a telemarketer or something. I’ll see if I can call it back later.”
“I hate it when those bastards get my cell number. I had to have my phone changed three times last year for that same reason. You know it sucks being a cop and you can’t even fix your own phone from being harassed, but those calls are usually untraceable.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean,” Declan said. “I actually worked as a telemarketer in high school.”
“No way! Really? Oh, how did you stand that?”
“I was sixteen and it was an easy job that paid more than minimum and I didn’t have to clean up anything disgusting or stand on my feet all day. I thought it was pretty sweet.”
“Well, I guess that is acceptable then,” she teased.
Declan tried to smile, but his mind was too preoccupied by that phone call.
“How about you? What crazy jobs have you had?” Declan asked just to get the focus off him.
“Well, I did fast food of course, and then I did some tutoring when I was in college. That was actually really the easiest money I ever made.”
Declan’s phone started to vibrate again. He could feel the sweat starting to pour down the side of his face. He casually wiped his brow and pretended not to be nervous. Rachel seemed too wrapped up in her story about her early employment woes that she did not seem to notice.
But he had to answer this damn thing. He had to know who was blowing up his damn phone.
“That sucks,” Declan said with a smile. “I’m going to hit the head. I’ll be right back.”
Once in the restroom he entered the handicapped toilet stall, closed the toilet seat and sat down. He picked hip his still vibrating phone.
“Who is this?” he grunted, trying to keep his voice down even though the bathroom was empty.
“Do not ever keep me waiting again,” the same voice. “When I call you I expect you to answer the phone.”
“Who is this?” Declan growled. He wanted to reach through and strangle this person in the worst possible way.
“This is someone you do not want to piss off,” the voice said in that same low, rumbling, breathy voice. It sounded like a voice you would hear in a creepy horror film when the killer was toying with someone when he was already inside their house.
“What do you want? This joke has gone on long enough. I’m a cop! I will find out who you are.”
The voice laughed just then, creepy, and without a care in the world. This person was definitely not intimidated by anything he could say.
“I’m the one in charge here,” the voice purred in his ear. “You will do exactly as I say.”
“What do you want?” Declan repeated.
“I saw what you did and I want you to do the same thing for me.”
“What does that mean? What do you think I did?” Declan asked.
“I saw what you did, but I don’t expect you to take my word for it. I took the liberty of recording it all. I’ll send it to you. Take a look for yourself.”
The call ended then.
Declan sat there breathing heavily for several moments, sweat pouring out of his body in the cool bathroom. He felt sick to his stomach, a throbbing starting in the back of his head, and his muscles were starting to twitch. It had been years since he’d experienced a panic attack, but he could feel one coming on now.
He sat back and closed his eyes trying to think about something happy and calm to stop the attack before it got started. That was the only thing he’d ever found that really worked and he’d tried pills, therapy, and everything else he could find. But self-talk was the only solution. After he started that he had ceased the panic attacks, until now.
His phone vibrated to signal an incoming text.
It was a video attachment from the unknown phone. He slowly pressed play wishing to hell that he was anyone else right then.
The video started playing on the screen. It was him standing over John’s body. He stood there for a few seconds and then he knelt down beside the body and held his fingers over John’s mouth and nose for several minutes. It even captured his giggling and the phone call afterwards to dispatch where he pretended to be upset.
It was all there. If anyone saw this his life would be over. He would go to prison; he might even fry for it. He would be in prison with people he had put there….
Somehow this fact hitting him right between the eyes like a bullet did not send him into a fit of total hys
terics, but stopped his panic attack in its tracks. The most frightening thing he had ever seen was having a sobering effect on him. His mind was eerily calm as he realized that he was so close to being in real trouble. If this person just decided on a whim to send this anonymously to any cop or journalist in the city then he would be royally screwed. His life, his marriage, his freedom, his job—everything he had worked so hard for would be completely gone.
He had no choice but to play along.
It looked like he was going to have to kill again.
He wondered who it would be.
Chapter 7
“Nightmares Come True”
“AAAGH!”
The scream filled Declan’s ears, shrill and pounding in his head. His heart leapt into his throat as his whole body tensed up. He was not ready for this. What the hell made him think this was a good idea?
“Are you ok?”
Declan looked at his wife, Maria. She looked so beautiful in the dark theatre, her form illuminated only by the light on the screen. Her face was full of genuine concern.
He smiled at her and said “Yeah,” aided by a rub of her shoulder hoping to convince her that he really was.
It was her idea to go to the movies that night and see the new Schwarzenegger picture. In this one he was trying to track down an elusive serial killer. The killer was currently torturing some poor woman to death on the screen. It was a good thriller full of twists, turns, and flat out jump scares.
It was typically the type of movie that Declan loved, but since he’d found himself starring in a real life horror movie as of late it was definitely a bad choice for him. He was not able to even pay attention to what was really happening. He just could not get that creepy voice from the phone out of his head.
This person knew him. They were there that day in the woods, hiding. Why were they there? Was it all just some random coincidence? And now they saw he had gotten away with murder and they were blackmailing him into doing the same thing for them? It made sense from their point of view; who better to commit a murder and get away with it than a cop. Or would they have done the same thing if he’d turned out to be a schoolteacher and they’d seen him kill someone? He didn’t know; all he did know was that he was in deep shit.
It was a perfect set up when he killed John. The opportunity practically fell right in his lap. To actually plan and execute a murder where there was no evidence and nothing at all for the cops to solve was next to impossible. Usually when people got away with this it was just because the vital piece of the puzzle had not been found yet; it was a bit of planning and a whole lot of luck. There was no perfect murder. No one knew that better than a cop.
The rest of the movie was basically a blur for him. When Maria would shriek or react he would pretend that he was also somewhat interested, but his mind was totally preoccupied. Declan found himself looking around everywhere wondering if this person was actually there watching him now. They were probably stalking him, watching every move he made. Did they think he might come clean and confess to someone? That was not remotely going to happen and if this psycho believed that then they were stupid as well as crazy. And so far they had thought of everything to nail him. They were not stupid.
But neither was he.
He just needed this asshole to make one mistake, just one slip up and he would find out who they were. And then he would kill them.
This was the first time he’d thought about actually killing this person. How had one murder turned into possibly three? He had to shake his head with wonder. If only he could find this person and just snuff them out before he was forced to carry out their plan, whatever it was.
Speaking of which, why hadn’t he heard the plan yet? As of right now he didn’t have any idea who he was even supposed to kill. What if it was a woman or even a child? There was no way he could do that. He would more easily face prison than the fact that he had hurt a child or a woman. That was just not in him.
But what about just some innocent guy who this person wanted to kill. What if the guy had weird demands about how it was done? Maybe he wanted to see the person tortured, or worse…
Declan felt nauseous and he almost excused himself twice from the theatre to run to the bathroom to barf, but he managed to hold it together. His mind was running away with this whole thing. He hadn’t been able to sleep or hardly eat. It was getting in the way of everything. He wished this bastard would just pull the trigger already and tell him what he wanted him to do so he could stop debating on it. He was going to have to kill some random person and that was going to be difficult, but he knew it was not impossible for him. Taking a life was pretty easy to do, but it was harder when you did not have any personal reason for it.
It had been two days since the last contact he’d had with the voice on the phone. Was this person really just doing this to torture him? Was that why this delay was going on? Or was he just toying with him all the way? Maybe there was no one that this guy wanted dead. It was possibly all a prank. Someone had been in the wrong place at the right time and got themselves some incriminating footage. Now they wanted him to sweat and stew about things. That was probably all it was.
“So, what’s wrong?” Maria asked him as they stepped out of the theatre.
“What makes you think there is something wrong?” Declan asked.
“Come on, I know you too well. You hardly enjoyed that movie at all and I know you’ve been dying to see it. It was right up your alley, lots of crazy violence and explosions. There were even a few naked women,” Maria teased. “You hardly blinked. There is something wrong with you.”
Declan smiled. “I know. I guess I’ve been a bit preoccupied at work with this new case. I don’t want to bother you with that though,” Declan said.
“It’s ok,” Maria said. “If there is something bothering you I like to hear about it, even if it is boring work stuff,” she said rubbing the back of his neck and laying her head on his shoulder.
It felt so nice. It had been a while since his wife had been this affectionate, but since John’s death and Declan’s return to form, especially in the bedroom his wife had become much friendlier than she had been in a while.
In fact, she got even hotter on the drive home.
By the time they walked through the door she was ripping her clothes off and pulling at his. Declan had not seen that type of lustful enthusiasm from Maria in quite a while. It was the perfect thing to take his mind off the madness he’d suddenly found himself in.
They somehow made it to the bedroom. Maria quickly hopped on the bed and realized that the blinds were open. And covered herself with the blanket. Declan laughed at her modesty and went to quickly close the blinds so he could go back to enjoying his naked wife.
He was just about to turn back to the task at hand when he saw him.
Standing in front of his house was a figure dressed all in black, mostly covered from the streetlamp a few feet from where he was standing. It was barely more than a shadow, but the light illuminated this person’s shoulders, their pants, and the very top of their head, which was covered by a hat. The face was still covered in shadows.
Declan immediately recognized the form though; it was the strange person he’d seen at the funeral. This person was following him. And he knew where he lived. He was right outside his house right now. Declan had to do a double take, blinking furiously to make sure that what he was seeing was in fact real. The vision remained unchained. The bastard was standing there smoking a cigarette, as calm and collected as possible.
“Son of a bitch!” Declan exclaimed.
“What?” Maria asked alarmed. “What is it?”
Declan did not respond. He was too wrapped up in what he was seeing. He could see this figure putting the cigarette out in his hand and starting to walk away.
Declan burst out the door running full speed down the stairs. He grabbed his pants from the floor in front of the couch where Maria had playfully removed them earlier and
he put them on quickly before running outside barefoot.
The suburban street was empty. There was no one anywhere to be found under the cover of night. He must have ducked into an alley between houses and ran to another street over but who could tell which way he went. Declan looked at the houses around him and saw no one at any of the windows that he might desperately ask if they’d seen anything. The neighborhood was dark.
“Shit!” Declan yelled.
He walked back into his house, slamming the door behind him.
Maria was at the top of the stairs in her bathrobe. “What the hell is going on? What did you see?”
Declan stared at her and he very nearly came clean on the spot. His mind was just so overwhelmed by everything that he didn’t know what he was doing anymore. He was on the verge of a total breakdown. He knew that he needed help, but he couldn’t turn to anyone about this. It was something he had to do on his own.
Declan had never felt as lonely as he did right then. And he really needed a drink. But that was the last thing that would do him any good here. It was imperative that he stay level headed about it all.
“I thought I saw someone out there watching us,” Declan said. “But it turned out to be nothing. I’m sorry.”
Maria sighed, exasperated. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” she yelled as she stormed off back to the bedroom.
Declan sat down on the couch. He picked up his phone and stared at it for a while. What was he going to do?
He checked the time and it was only a quarter after nine. He thought it was a little late, but he had to find some answers.
He dialed the number of Chip Spencer, one of their IT guys with the department, and also the guy they went to when they needed to trace emails, texts, phone calls, etc.
“Hey, Chip,” Declan said as he answered. “I hate to bother you this late, but I have a burning question that I need your expertise on.”
“Hey, man. No problem at all. What’s up?”
“Is it possible to trace an unknown cell phone number?”
“Well, depends on if it is unknown because the person is intentionally blocking it, like if they dial star sixty-seven before they dialed, or if the number is totally unpublished. If it’s a landline we can usually pinpoint those, but if it’s like an unregistered disposable cell phone then you are a bit out of luck on that. The only way to trace it is when the person is on the phone and you ping the closest cell tower, but again that can be tricky, especially if they are mobile or don’t stay on the phone long enough.”
False Witness Page 6