THE BUTLER

by Bill WENHAM

  He’d deliberately putted a few balls into the treed area until he’d heard the ‘Wedding March’ start to play from the church. He’d then hit one more ball into the trees and had trotted in after it, dragging the golf cart along behind him.

  He’d carefully chosen this same spot the day before, whilst appearing to be aimlessly sauntering around the park. He’d gone into the trees and had checked his chosen position with the rifle’s telescopic sight, removed for the occasion. It gave him an unobstructed view of the church entrance and steps. A perfect shot, in fact.

  Just to add to the golfing illusion, as soon as he’d fired his shot he had dropped the rifle, picked up a club and began whacking the trees with it in frustration. A couple of people watching the wedding had turned at the sound of the shot, only to hear similar sounds being made by a frustrated golfer who’d lost his last ball in the woods. As they turned back to see the awful scene now unfolding in front of them, he’d picked up the rifle and slipped it into the golf bag with the clubs.

  When he reached his car, the Butler popped the trunk open, collapsed the golf cart and put the cart, the golf bag and the rifle inside. He closed the trunk lid and got into the car. Once again, he’d stolen it just for this occasion.

  He was very pleased. His mission had been accomplished very easily, and without any witnesses. Most of the walkers, joggers and parents with strollers and young children had paused long enough to watch the beautiful young bride emerge from the church. All of them were just ogling rubberneckers, but today they saw something they didn’t expect. But it was something they would never ever forget. He could still hear their screams as he put his stolen car in gear and drove slowly away.

  Chapter Eleven

  Between us we got Wayne back to our place on Saturday where we tried to comfort and look after the guy as best we could but he was inconsolable. As the weekend progressed, he wouldn’t talk to us and got more and more morose and withdrawn.

  Ellie went over to his place to get some more of his things for him, clothes and so on, but his apartment was full of Jan’s weeping relatives. She picked a few necessities and left again. Things like his toothbrush and shaving gear were at our place already since he’d stayed over with us on the night before the wedding.

  Wayne and I had left for the church from my apartment and Ellie, as Jan’s chief bridesmaid, had stayed over with Jan to help her on her wedding day. On a day that had started out so beautifully, none of us could have dreamed it would end so terribly.

  On Monday, today, we realized we couldn’t leave Wayne alone in the apartment either. Not in the state he was in. It was as though he’d been drugged. He still hadn’t said a word to either of us and he just sat or stood with this awfully vacant look in his eyes.

  We got him dressed and did the only thing we could with him really, even though we weren’t looking forward to the reaction it would create.

  We took him with us to the Precinct.

  We’d expected our guys to come forward to offer their condolences, but thankfully they all hung back as I shook my head warningly at them. As soon as they saw him, it was obvious to everyone that something was very wrong with Wayne.

  Ellie and I led him into my office and sat him down. Someone, one of the clerical girls probably, had thoughtfully wheeled the coffee maker into my office. I didn’t know which one and I didn’t ask, since they were now all openly crying.

  Two weeks ago they’d all attended a bridal shower for Jan and now, not only was she gone, but Wayne was all in pieces as well.

  Ellie went over to the machine and poured each of us a drink. She handed one to Wayne but he ignored it as if he hadn’t seen either Ellie or the coffee. She put it carefully down on the corner of my desk, within his reach, if and when he wanted it.

  There were tears in her eyes too as she looked over at me and shrugged sadly.

  Just at that moment and without knocking, the Chief poked his head into my office doorway.

  “My office, Lieutenant, now,” he said loudly and abruptly, without any preamble. “You too, Todd,” he added and then he turned and left.

  He hadn’t mentioned Wayne at all. Hadn’t even looked at him, so after Ellie had moved his coffee even closer to him, we’d have to leave him sitting there alone.

  This was going to be about the Butler. It had to be. Because we’d received another message from him last night, the first one now in two years!

  I really resented this guy insinuating we cops were all a bunch of clowns, jumping at shadows and running around chasing our tails.

  Insinuating, hell! He was making an outright statement of it. And so what if it was true, we still didn’t need this creep reminding us of it all the time.

  Since Saturday Ellie had changed again dramatically too. She has become quiet, withdrawn and her fear is obviously buried just below the surface, ready to pop out at any time.

  Here in the Precinct, she is putting on a brave and competent face, but I know she is haunted by ghastly visions of Jan and Sullivan. She’d been upset over those two in particular, although she’d cried a lot over Newt and Petrocelli as well. She’d even cried over the old woman, Mrs. Thoreau.

  Ellie felt she and I had been directly responsible for the old lady’s death, which of course we were. If we hadn’t gone back to Sullivan’s apartment block, she would still be alive. There was no doubt about that at all, in our minds, or in anyone else’s. Of course it was our fault. But it was also our job.

  We were hunting for a vicious serial killer and it was unfortunate, and perhaps callous to even think it, but the old lady had been one of the costs of doing business. It is not supposed to be that way but it happens. Murphy’s Law in a police uniform!

  “Come on, lover,” Ellie said to me wearily, “Let’s not keep the Chief waiting.”

  I looked over at Wayne once more. He was still sitting there in a daze. I shook my head sadly. I knew how I’d be feeling if it had been Ellie lying there on the church steps on Saturday. Then I mentally corrected myself.

  How the hell could I know how it felt? Nothing like that had ever happened to me. Some bad things had happened to me, sure, but nobody I loved had ever been shot to death standing beside me.

  Suddenly, Ellie’s words from when we’d first gotten together came vividly back to me.

  “It’s not about you, Sandy,” she’d said. She was right then and if she were to say the same thing again today, she’d be just as right now.

  This was about Wayne, our friend and partner, and how to best support him in this terrible time of bereavement of his. Incredibly I could even now understand the Butler’s fury at his loss too, but what I couldn’t understand was his violent actions against all those innocent people because of it.

  I followed Ellie out, closing my office door behind me.

  We received some peculiar looks from most of the other people in the duty room, cops and clerical alike. It was unusual for the Chief to go personally in search of the person or persons he wanted to talk to. Normally he just bellowed into the phone and the unfortunate recipient of his call came running. No, it was not unusual at all. It was bloody well unheard of!

  Everyone had heard his loud and terse summons in my office. The Chief doesn’t speak in normal tones like other mere mortals. If he has something to say, he feels everybody in the whole building should benefit from all his words of wisdom. And right now it seemed to everyone that someone, not themselves, thank God, was about to be hauled over the coals!

  The Chief was waiting, standing beside his desk when Ellie and I walked into his office.

  “Sit,” he said, indicating the chairs with a wave of his hand, as though he was training a pair of dogs. I shut the door behind me and we sat. The Chief went around behind his desk and lowered his bulk heavily into his own chair.

  “I guess you two know what this is going to be about?”

  I nodded.

  “The Butler and his latest message, I guess. Not to mention the fact he’s just murdered one of our be
st friends and has just about destroyed the other,” I said angrily.

  “You done?” he said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Sorry. I’ve been told before not to let off steam at you. Dangerous practice, I’m told.”

  “Could be, Sandy, if you keep it up, but not today. Of course it’s about the Butler. I want to play his latest bunch of nonsense to you, okay?”

  Thankfully, it was fairly brief. It said:

  “Greetings once again, Detective Spicer. As you can see, I’m back. I’m sure you all have missed me. But also, as I am sure you can now see, I didn’t miss you, one of you at least! On the contrary, one shot was all it took and now there are just three of you left. Please don’t feel ignored or left out though. I will certainly make sure not to miss the rest of you either when your time comes. I’ll be in touch again soon.”

  Ellie shuddered as the Butler’s words filled the room.

  “Oh, God,” she said, “Just the three of us.”

  “No, actually,” the Chief said, “It’s not the three of you any more.”

  I was about to protest, since I knew Eddie Barrett had made an almost suicidal offer to join our dwindling team, but the Chief carried on speaking.

  “It will be just the two of you. I’ve had a long discussion with the Police Commissioner about all this. We believe that you and Officer Todd here, operating a two person team can be more mobile and be the most effective. No extra backs to have to watch out for either. I’ve seen Crawford, and you know as well as I do, he’s in no fit state to continue with this. If it could be made clear somehow he was no longer a part of this, perhaps we can keep him safe and out of danger until he recovers. Your thoughts please, guys,” he finished.

  I looked over at Ellie and even with her eyes brimming with tears, she nodded her agreement. She looked back at me as though she couldn’t trust herself to speak.

  “Okay, Chief, we agree, of course, and especially if you can keep Wayne safe here,” I said.

  “That’s good, Sandy, because there’s more. We want this guy really badly and the Mayor is all over me about it again this morning. He says this Butler maniac is the City’s Public Enemy Number One.”

  I inwardly cringed at the Mayor giving that egotistical bastard a corny title like that.

  “Just so you both understand this correctly. We want this guy so badly we’ve arranged for you both to operate beyond your normal jurisdictional boundaries for the time being.”

  He looked at us both expectantly.

  “Shouldn’t the FBI doing this, Chief, instead of us?” I asked.

  The Chief frowned angrily at me.

  “Don’t muddy the waters here, Lieutenant. Just go get him. We both know it’s you this guy has a score to settle with, not the FBI. This Butler has made a personal vendetta against the police force of this City, Lieutenant. My City and my police force! And it will be my guys that take him down. We are going to get him, not the FBI. Have you both got that? Do I make myself clear?”

  We both nodded, but I had to smile to myself when he said that ‘we’ were going to get him.

  I was reminded of the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto. They’d found themselves backed up into a dead end canyon. Coming towards them were hundreds of screaming, hostile Indians.

  “What are we going to do, Tonto?” the worried Lone Ranger had asked his Indian sidekick.

  “What you mean, ‘we’, white man,” Tonto had replied.

  At this particular moment I felt very much the same. Even with Ellie alongside as my ‘Tonto’, the two of us would be very much alone.

  The Chief sat awaiting our comments.

  “Well?” he said finally and a little irritably.

  Ellie gripped my hand and gave me a nervous looking smile.

  I nodded.

  “Yeah, okay, Chief. You’re right. Ellie and I work well together and I guess it’s no secret around the Precinct we’re living together as well.”

  The Chief now gave a small smile and raised his eyebrows at us.

  “A secret, Sandy? Here in the Precinct? You’re kidding me, of course. No, Lieutenant, your little love nest is certainly no secret!”

  Ellie flushed beetroot with embarrassment but she recovered immediately.

  “As a pair, living together as we are, the jurisdictional freedom you and the Commissioner are offering us will make our job a lot easier, I think,” Ellie said.

  “I’d like to say also, that you two have an unlimited budget,” the Chief smiled and added, “That’s what I’d like to say, but of course, I can’t. I will, however, okay all of your reasonable expenses until I’m directed to do otherwise.”

  “Is that it, Chief?” I asked.

  He looked a bit flustered. Perhaps he had expected a display of our undying gratitude to him for allowing us to put our heads in the mouth of the lion.

  “Er, yes, I guess so,” he said. “Go get him, guys, and good luck. Oh, and by the way, Sandy, you don’t have to come in to the Precinct here on a daily basis while you’re on this assignment. You know, come on in as you feel you need to and just keep me informed of your progress, okay?”

  I openly smiled at that. When there had been seven of us originally, including Sullivan, we’d made no progress whatsoever. And here he was looking for it from only the two of us now. I guess that’s why he was the Chief and we were the Indians.

  He came around his desk beaming at us as though we had both just been promoted. He shook our hands and opened his office door for us, ushering us out. Ellie stared at me, puzzled, as I said, “Come on, Tonto,” and headed back to my office.

  It was up to us and only us now, to tilt at the City’s windmills and to seek out our own personal and monstrous dragon again.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ellie and I walked back in silence. Wayne was still sitting in my office, coffee untouched, just as we’d left him. I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone so severely mentally traumatized before. I rested my hand on his shoulder as I went in but he didn’t move a muscle.

  I sat down behind my desk as Ellie seated herself beside Wayne. He lifted his head and looked at me but it was as though he’d never seen me before. He was in even worse shape now than he’d been on Saturday, which I wouldn’t have believed to be possible.

  As she sat beside him, Ellie reached over and put her hand on his forearm, a gesture I’ve always thought to be most delightfully feminine, but Wayne didn’t respond at all to her touch.

  She looked over at me, shrugged helplessly and took her hand away again. Wayne’s body was in my office but it was obvious to both of us that the Wayne we knew was away off somewhere in a different world altogether.

  He didn’t need to be off the case, as the Chief had suggested. He needed to be hospitalized and fast.

  Jan’s death had affected him far more than anyone could have expected or imagined. We were all shocked and saddened, but Wayne’s mind appeared to have shut down completely. I’m sure there’s a medical term for such a condition but I wasn’t thinking of terms right now, I was thinking treatment. They could figure out exactly what was wrong with the poor guy once they got him into a hospital.

  In any case, whether he needed to be hospitalized or not, if Ellie and I were to be able to hunt down the Butler, we wouldn’t be able to care for and watch out for Wayne’s safety at the same time. I looked over at his blank face one more time and reached a decision.

  “Ellie,” I said, “Would you and Wayne mind going for a walk or something, please?”

  She gave me a questioning look until I mouthed at her, “Get him out of here!”

  She nodded, and pulled an uncomprehending Wayne to his feet. Once he was upright, she eased him out of the office and closed the door behind them. She looked back over her shoulder through the glass and nodded again. A moment later, I saw them headed towards the lunchroom.

  I immediately called the Chief.

  “Chief,” I said, “Spicer. Could I come back and have another few words with you in private, ple
ase?”

  “Is this about what we’ve just been discussing?” he asked.

  “The details of it, yes, Chief, and I also have a suggestion about Crawford.”

  “Okay, come on back then. Bringing Todd with you?”

  “No, Chief, just me. I’ll speak for both of us, if that’s okay with you?”

  “Not backing out of this, are you, Lieutenant?” he asked tightly.

  “No. Like I said, I’d just like to discuss some operational details, that’s all.”

  “Sure, Sandy,” he said, in a more relaxed tone, “See you in a minute or two then.”

  I hung up the phone, headed out of the office and passed Ellie and Wayne on the way. They hadn’t made it to the lunchroom. I guess she figured if he didn’t want coffee, there wasn’t much point taking him to eat either.

  “You can go back now, if you want,” I said to her, “I just have to sort out a few more things.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “Its okay, Ellie. Just a bit of operational stuff I need to talk to the Chief about. I’ll tell you about it later. I won’t be long.”

  “Okay,” she said, and with Wayne shuffling along beside her like a bloody Zombie, she returned to my office.

  “So, what’s on your mind, Lieutenant,” the chief asked as I walked back into his office.

  “Well, that, for starters,” I said.

  “Huh?”

  “Lieutenant, Chief. If we’re going to have any chance at all against the Butler, we need to have complete anonymity from now on, until this thing is over. We can’t use a cruiser and all the other police trappings either. We don’t a chance in hell of creeping up on him if we’ve got lights flashing and sirens blaring.”

  The Chief sat behind his desk and looked amused.

  “Park your behind, Sandy, and tell me what’s on your mind. Is this your subtle, round about way of saying you want a plain, unmarked car?” he grinned.