There wasn’t a single criminal record on the husband, he and his wife had been married for fifth-teen years, they could be the poster family of happiness. Karen nibbled on her lip as Peewee stared on with a smile, he always enjoyed watching her run at all the angles, her facial expressions alone were priceless. “ I’m willing to bet the farm something must have pushed the husband over the edge, it would explain why the wife was beaten, he can’t take what he did, so he takes a gun to his kids.”
“ Nice theory,” Karen was waiting for the but. “ But what would push someone like Link to lose it, guy’s never been arrested for anything, he’s Mr. Freaking Rogers.”
“ Wife was from Southern California,” Karen flipped through Mabel’s file. “ went to U.S.C, majored an English, ends up just a house wife, so much in her hands, and you end up beaten to death.” Karen ponder the why’s to all of this as she stared instantly on the file on her lap, hoping she could find something to make sense of it all.“ How much further ?” She asked as Peewee took a left turn into the residential area, there was no need for him to answer, the crime scene was staring at her from afar. The flashing lights of the paramedics, the cops all lined up on the street, keeping the onlookers at bay, she couldn't help but feel an old shiver creep behind her. But to her dismay, they weren’t driving closer to the circus. “ What’s going on, why are you parking so far away?”
Peewee turned off the ignition and pulled the police scanner from his pocket. “ I just thought, we would enjoy the view from here.” The worst bluff in his life.
“ Jesus, who did you piss off!” Karen slammed her fist on the dashboard, she knew that shameful look in his eye.
“ Hey, watch it, you’re going to hurt her.” He said rubbing the dashboard and telling the car sweet-nothings to ease the pain.
“ Who did you piss off ?” She repeated, waiting for him to come clean.
“ Some Irish Boston asshole transferee, a detective by the name of Brian Klecko, “ Karen buried her face into her hands. “ I was doing some snooping, he saw through my..”
Before he could phrase it properly, Karen stepped in. “ Your shit.”
“ More like disguise, but yeah.”
“ Damn it, Peewee. You have to be careful. You always go in with a good cover story and you never go in when you know it's too hot. These assholes weren’t kidding about putting us behind bars. If they catch you, you could be looking at jail time.” She came down on him like an angry mother catching her son tugging his dick in public for the first time.“ I’m guessing Klecko is running the show right now ?”
He mumbled with his head down to the floor. “ Yes. “
She shook her head at the situation. “ We should have come in disguise and in a different car! ”
“ What’s wrong with what we’re wearing ?” He objected.
Karen didn’t need to answer that question, she was dressed in leather pants and a leather jacket, he wore his tore jeans and the 'Have a nice day' smiley face black t-shirt, they looked like the 21 jump street rejects. “ We need to get closer, there isn‘t that many cops outside patrolling the yard , maybe we could sneak in.” she slumped forward in her seat tapping her fingers on the dashboard, thinking of a way to get closer to the crime scene, just to get a glimpse in what they were dealing with and not be seen. “Turn on the radio, let’s see what we’re picking up.” She gave him a nudge.
The radio crackled to life, they waited for a few seconds until they got some activity. “ We’ve found a new trail of blood,… it looks like it leads down to the basement… we’re checking it out…. Klecko is upstairs viewing the kids dead bodies.”
Peewee stuck his finger in his mouth as Klecko was mentioned. “ Biggest asshole…”
Karen hushed him up, she wanted to hear what they found. “ You think his wife was cheating on him,” She spoke after a few seconds of silence. “ makes sense for the killing, father didn’t want to lose the kids, lost his marbles when his perfect life around him collapsed?”
Peewee wasn’t sure if he should answer her, she had told him to hush up. “ Are you talking to me?” She flipped him the finger. “ So, you are. I doubt it. Guy doesn‘t fit the profile of a hot head or even have that side of him.”
“ When was this called in? “
“ five to six hours ago, neighbors heard gun fire, cops report to the scene, find no one alive, missing father. I dug up everything I could before picking you up, it was rushed, but I dug up what I could.” Karen patted him on the shoulder for the great hustle, he wiggled in his seat from the boost of confidences. He felt a tad emotional, here they were again, just like old times sitting inside the car, chasing down whatever they could through the midnight hours. “ I’m glad you’re here, I really did miss you.”
Karen winked at him. “ Me too, buddy.”
“ All units, report... I think I found the body, the blood leads into a back wall, there's like another fucking room in this place…….”
Gunfire exploded through the radio and the night sky. The onlookers screamed and ran away from the scene heading into near by houses like a bat out of hell, the officers guarding the scene pushed people away to find safety for their own hides. “ Holy shit! “ Peewee yelled and ducked out of instinct. “ Should we call for help ?” He stuttered, this was his first actual shootout, but he couldn’t understand how calmly Karen stood in her seat, not flinching for a second.
Seconds later a bloody drenched man came running from the front porch of the house holding his fist into a gaping wound from the bottom of his jaw. “ What the hell..?” Karen looked on amazed, tapping her foot sporadically almost dancing to the rhythm of the chaos, anyone else might pissed their pants from fear, but she couldn’t contain the look of amazement on her face.
“ The elephant man?” Peewee said like a scared child, he took a closer look at what the shooter was wearing. “ He’s wearing a jersey?”
The wounded man began to run in their direction, he had his right fist jammed into the wound and in his left hand he carried a weapon, a weapon which turned out to be a gun as he approached closer. “ I think that’s our missing father.” Pieces of his teeth scatted to the pavement floor, trickling down like broken pieces of candy corn.
A group of officers stormed out from the house, guns drawn chasing down the suspect. “ Put your hands up!” They shouted and cursed at him. Not once did the suspect look back.
Link Douglas noticed Karen and Peewee in the car, but he paid no attention to them, his eyes scanned the area looking for a way to out run the cops. He yelled in pain, which caused blood and loose teeth to fly out of his mouth with each scream.
“ This is your last warning !” The cops screamed at him.
The father turned around furious that they dare tell him what to do, he pointed his gun at the cops and fired off one round over their heads. They answered back with a volley of gunfire into his chest. They paused for a second, amazed he was still standing, only to have Link cry out like some possessed demon calling out for blood, putting the fear of God into the cops, that they answered with another round of bullets, each round that connected exploded through his body, showering droplets of blood to the wet pavement. Neighbors screamed and cried as his body finally dropped to the floor. Soon silence fell, leaving everyone staring at the each other not knowing what to say.
Both Karen and Peewee stood frozen, amazed at what they had just seen, they looked at each other, hoping for someone to break the silence. “ I lost my job at the Deli.” It seemed like the best ice breaker for Karen after the current event.
“ I can get you a job at the video store, no problem.” Peewee said, he rested his head on the steering wheel, praying quietly, never expecting to have the night end like this.
“ What the fuck!” A brown hair man, wearing a black trench coat shouted as he made his way to the dead body. “ What happened !?” He asked the officers, who relayed the last few seconds of Link‘s Douglas life to him. The man shook his head, cursing under his breath. H
e turned to scan the crowd, knowing the backlash of this night would rain down on him. “ You got to be fucking me.” It was then when his night seem to get worst as he spotted Peewee parked a few feet from him.
“ Klecko ?” Karen asked, Peewee just nodded. “ Let’s go outside and say hi.” Peewee tried holding her back, but Karen pushed him aside.
She slowly opened the door, the dead body of Link Douglas laid a few feet away from her. “ Hello, my name is..”
“ I don’t give a fuck who you are, but if you’re with him.” Klecko pointed at Peewee. “ I got a pretty good hunch on what kind of a sad loser you are, but right now is not the time, go home!” He ordered
“ That’s rude, my name is Lilly Foster,” Far from it, but she wasn’t about to use her real name. “ I have a few questions about this whole thing..”
Klecko flexed his jaw, he wasn’t in the mood for games right now, he had an officer bleeding out from a gunshot wound in the gut and a dead suspect laying in front of the street. It was going to be a long night of paperwork ahead for him. “ Listen, I’ve dealt with your friend over there in the past few weeks, I can’t handle you guys right now.”
Peewee finally exited the car, taking a deep breath before speaking. “ Hey, man, sorry. We’ll be on our way.”
The detective just shook his head at him. “ This isn‘t a game, what you people have is a sick disease, you want to play detective, join the fucking force .” There was a hint of a Boston accent each time he spoke.
Karen rolled her eyes at him, disgusted at his profiling. It was the same with every other detective they met, they only saw a group of losers, trying to be something they weren’t. “ Save it, you guys did a poor piss job. A man kills his family and you can’t find him. The guy was hiding under your noses after his botched suicide, I know kids who play hide and seek that would have found him.”
Both Klecko and Peewee stared at her asking the same question. “ Suicide? “
She laughed hysterically at them, enjoying the puzzle look on their face, the cops pushing the crowd back looked towards her direction wondering what the commotion was about. “ The gaping wound in his jaw, it’s a dead give away. The idiot killed his family successfully, but he failed to off himself. Thing I can’t figure out, why beat the wife to a pulp.”
“ Maybe he ran out of bullets…” The detective wanted to smack himself for playing her game, that and giving the worst observation of his life.
“ Not possible, he wasted two shots on the kids, one on himself, one at the officer who found him, and another at your cops who were chasing him down. Judging by the gun in his hand, “ Karen made her way to the body, moving one officer aside that blocked her view of the weapon. “ It’s a 357.Magnum, how it didn’t kill him or left him in worst shape is anyone’s guess. This typical model holds around ten rounds. Plenty to kill the whole family.”
“ How did he get a gun like that in the first place.” Peewee had to ask.
“ Black market, it's not that hard.” Karen quickly added.
“ Wow, she’s good.” The young black officer standing beside Karen said out loud, Klecko shook his head at the officer, the last thing he wanted was to boost her confidence.
“ Why beat the wife ?” She seem to ask the dead man on the floor.
“ Maybe she was cheating!” Klecko yelled at her, furious she was taking his case from under him and making a joke out of him.
“ The jersey.” Peewee said tapping his hand on the hood of his car. “ It’s a Norte Dame jersey.” They stared at him puzzled. “ Norte Dame, the college football team, they were playing USC today!”
It struck Karen like lightning.“ The wife went to U.S.C, who won!?” She looked among the men for an answer.
“ USC 42-38.” The young black officer said, only to turn his face back to the crime scene as Klecko shot him a glance.
“ He killed his wife over a football game!” Karen jumped in mid-air, hugging the young officer, who joined in their celebration.
“ What the hell are you talking about, that makes no sense! “ Klecko grabbed a hopping Karen by the arm, opened the car door and pushed her inside. “ I want you two out of here right now, this isn’t a fucking game.”
“ You can’t throw us out of here, we’re about to solve the case.” Karen protested, she tried to get up, but Klecko pushed her back down in her seat.
“ I got a feeling if I look in your car I’ll find some illegal scanners, because that’s the only way you would know about the officer being shot. ” Both sleuths swallowed dryly. “ That’s what I thought, now get in the car, turn around and never come back here, got it, one more thing,” He stared at Peewee with a fiery hate in his eyes. “ Leave Maggie Donner alone, I’ve gotten two calls about you stalking her, that woman has been through enough, So drop it.”
“ Maggie Donner, whose that ?” Karen asked, but had the door slammed right in her face.
Peewee got back inside his car frustrated, he cursed at the cocky detective as he began to point them out to the officers on the scene, telling them to arrest them if they failed to leave in a few seconds. “ What an asshole, but we showed him, and now he has his panties in a knot.”
“ Peewee,” Karen grabbed his arm. “ Whose Maggie Donner ?” The car roared to life.
CHAPTER 7
THE CHARMING MAN
“ I’m very sorry, I know how rude this must be, but I just couldn’t get you out of my head.” He wraps his fingers tightly on his coat, he’s too nervous to dare make eye contact with her. He knows he isn’t worthy of it. “ I just felt a spark when you passed me by, I know how stupid that sounds.”
Angela Denning held her cup of coffee, listing to this sweet handsome British gentleman describe what she felt the moment she laid eyes on him on the subway as well, she was just too afraid to admit it out in the open, she never thought such a thing could exist. They didn’t say a word the moment they passed, just a long pause, lovers lost in each others gaze. “ It’s not stupid,” He blew a sigh of relief, she reached out and held his hand. “ I felt that same way about you, I didn’t say or do anything… because it just sounds..”
“ Crazy,” He gently squeezed her hand, ending with a nervous laugh. “ I spent the whole day, trying to find you, when I saw you here at the café I wasn’t going to blow a once of a life time chance, the worst that could happen is that you‘d just turn me down and tell me to toss off.”
Angela giggled, she loved his accent and his touch was sending chills of excitement all over her body. “ My name is Angela.”
He grinned widely. “ My name is David.” Both smiling and holding their gaze into each others eyes.
CHAPTER 8
THE INVISIBLE MAN
They drove past the cops and onlookers, slowly seeing Detective Klecko fade away in the distance. Karen looked at Peewee, wanting to know who Maggie Donner was. “ You’ve been keeping something from me,” Her voice was serious. “ Start talking.” She warned him.
Peewee knew this wasn’t the time for jokes or trying to weasel his way out of it, the truth needed to be said.“ Fine, “ He took a deep breath before proceeding. “ It was over a month ago, you went ghost on me, I got out of work and I really didn’t want to spend my time sitting at home watching porn.”
“ Bullshit.” Karen said.
“ What?” He was confused.
“ You computer crashed when you were downloading porn.”
“ It did not.” Peewee defended himself.
“ Look me in the eye and say that again.” Karen waited for him to prove her wrong.
The words of defeat came from his mouth as he admitted the truth. “ It was over a month ago, you went ghost on me and my computer crashed after I was downloading porn from Mistress Mandy.com. ” He continued with the story. “ I went down to the precinct to see what was new.”
“ Jesus, Peewee.” She shook her head at him. They were forbidden to show up at any precinct since the last time they had been caught.
&nb
sp; He waved his hand at her to calm down. “ I know, but I needed some time to kill. Anyway, I walked into the police station, saying that I was a journalist looking to do a puff piece on one of the detectives, it worked like a charm.” He gloated. “ Pigs like two things, doughnuts and fame. Anyway, while I’m there this lady comes in, she starts screaming and tossing things over, she’s yelling at them find my baby, for the love of god please find my baby.” Peewee sighed depressingly, reliving the moment was never a pleasant one for him.
Karen had never seen that look of sorrow on him before, she could only wonder what this was all about. “ I’m guessing this was the Maggie Donner character ?” He just nodded his head. “ What happened?”
“ Maggie’s daughter Lisa went missing a month ago. She just dropped out of sight, her apartment was cleaned out, credit cards, cell phone, bills, everything just closed. She left a note in the apartment that she met a guy and wanted to be with him and she never wanted to see anyone again, with another five pages of F U to her co-workers, mother, brother and father, basically everyone in her life.”
Karen scratched her head. “ So, she got love struck and did something incredibly stupid.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“ No, Lisa had a strong bond with her mother, they were almost BFF’s. She had no reason to just up and leave without even trying to explain anything to her mother, that wasn‘t her style.” Peewee fired back defensively, Then again why wouldn’t he? There wasn’t anything he didn’t know about both Lisa and Maggie, this case became his life. “ Lisa always called her mother first thing in the morning from her trip to work, it doesn’t make sense she would go dark on her.” Karen didn’t try to argue, she allowed him to continue. “ Anyway, Maggie’s mom begged the officers to check this out, they did, they came back with nothing. Even the people Lisa worked with had no clue she was dating. Bunch of assholes.” He knew what it felt to be the outcast of a group. “ They didn't even bother to check up on her when she missed worked, they just let her go.”
The Perfect Woman Page 4