Chasing Shadows

by C Paradee

  "Ooh. They’re so cute!" All of a sudden Megan had an idea. But wonder what Tony would think about it? "Can I borrow this picture until after lunch? I want to show it to Tony."

  "Sure," David said, hoping this meant what he thought it might. "They’re really good kittens. You wouldn’t even know they were around," pausing, he added, "well… most of the time."

  Megan laughed at the look on his face. She knew that the kittens were probably a hand full. "Yeah, right," she said smiling.

  * * *

  Megan was waiting outside the building when Tony arrived. Walking over to the Buick, she opened the door and got in. Looking at Tony, she smiled and said, "Hi."

  Tony smiled back at her partner. "Hi, yourself. Where do you want to go?"

  Megan didn't really care where they went. She just wanted to enjoy some time with Tony. "How about Isabella’s? That’s close, and it’ll give us more time."

  "Ok." Tony said, maneuvering the car away from the building, and merging with the traffic on the street. A few minutes later they arrived at the restaurant.

  Following the hostess to a table, they sat down and ordered coffee before perusing the menu.

  "I’m going to have the chicken breast salad. That’s always good," Megan said, laying down the menu.

  Tony laid down her menu and said, "Then I'll have that too."

  After placing their orders, Megan looked at Tony and asked, "Is a dog the only pet you had when you were a kid?"

  Setting her coffee down, Tony wondered what prompted this question. "Yes. Why?"

  Smiling at the questioning look on Tony's face, Megan asked, "Do you like cats?"

  Playing along, Tony said, "Yes. They’re ok. I like most animals. Why? Do you want to get a cat?" She knew Megan must have some reason for asking.

  Megan grinned, and said, "Sort of." She took the picture of the kittens out of her purse and handed it to Tony. "Aren’t they cute?"

  Tony took the picture from her partner and looked at it. Glancing up, she said, "Yes, they are. Whose are they?"

  "David and Mike’s. Mike is allergic and they have to find a home for them." Megan paused, and said, "I think we could give them a good home."

  Tony quirked a half smile. "You do, huh?" Seeing the excitement on her partner's face, she thought, you can have anything you want if it makes you happy.

  Stirring her coffee, Megan said, "Well, only if you want them too."

  Winking at her, Tony said, "Are you sure we want both of them?"

  A warm smile lit up Megan's face. "David wanted to place them together, and besides, they wouldn’t be lonely when we’re at work. Are you sure you don’t mind?"

  Tony smiled at her partner. "No, I don’t mind." Like I could really mind. "It’ll be nice to have a couple of pets."

  "Oh good!" Megan said, excitedly. "I just knew you wouldn’t mind. I’ll go get them tonight." Pointing at the black and white kitten, she told Tony, "This one’s name is Velcro and this one is Huggy."

  "Velcro and Huggy?" Tony asked, amused. Those are certainly original names.

  Megan grinned back, "I thought the names were kind of cute. David said he named them that because they were both so sweet and wanted to be close to them all the time."

  Tony just shook her head. I just might have to tease David about those names.

  After they finished lunch, Tony dropped Megan off, and said, "I should be home by midnight or at the latest 12:30am, so don’t wait up. You have to get up too early."

  Nodding her head, Megan said, "Ok. See you later," not looking forward to spending the evening alone. Well, at least she'd have the kittens to keep her company.

  * * *

  "So, hey, Tony," Keith said waiting for her to look up. "How did you end up in Cleveland?"

  Glancing at the other agent, Tony said, "I requested a transfer and this is where they happened to have an opening. How about you?"

  "My family is here and I was engaged when I entered the academy. So when I heard there was an opening here, I put in for it." Pulling out his wallet Keith extracted a picture and said, "This is my wife," handing the picture to Tony.

  Tony took the picture, looking at the attractive woman. Smiling, she said, "She’s very pretty," and handed the picture back to him.

  It had been a very slow shift. There had been only one subject in the house they were conducting surveillance on all evening.

  "What about you? You married?" Keith asked.

  "No. I do have a significant other though," Tony said, not elaborating, but wishing she were at home instead of in the dingy apartment they were sitting in.

  A black Chevy Van pulled up in front the building across the street. "We have company," Tony said picking up the camera. Focusing in the wide-angle telescopic lens, she snapped off several pictures of the two men clad in jeans and T-shirts carrying briefcases. Once they entered the surveillance site, she took a few pictures of the van making sure the license plate was visible.

  Keith was monitoring the receiver and tape recorder. Coming to life, it began recording the conversation between the new arrivals and the lone occupant of the dwelling. Picking up a tablet, he began jotting down notes at strategic points in the conversation.

  Tony kept her eyes trained on the doorway across the street. She wanted to see if they left with anything other than the briefcases they entered with. During the three days of surveillance, the agents had already picked up pertinent information on the destination of the money once it was turned in.

  * * *

  Megan locked the door and walked down the hall to the elevator. She was looking forward to seeing David and Mike’s new house and she was really excited about bringing the two kittens home. Megan loved animals and had taken many strays home as a child. Her father had refused to let her keep any of them, so this would be the first time she had ever had any pets.

  Locating the address, she pulled into the driveway behind Mike’s Chevy Cavalier. The house was an attractive large white colonial with gray trim. It was set back from the street and had a large front yard. There was a two-car garage at the end of the driveway. Getting out of her car, she went to the side door. It opened before she had a chance to ring the doorbell.

  David smiled at Megan. "Hi. Welcome to our abode," he said, standing aside so she could enter.

  "This is really nice, David," Megan said.

  "Wait until you see the inside," David said. They still had some boxes to unpack, but the house was mostly in order and he was anxious for his friend to see it.

  Mike walked into the room and greeted Megan.

  "Hi," Megan smiled warmly. She didn’t see Mike often, but liked him. He was a little on the quiet side, but was perfectly matched with David who was quite gregarious.

  David and Mike gave Megan the grand tour. The house was decorated attractively and had a very relaxed, pleasant atmosphere. The curtains and blinds were color coordinated to match the area rugs that covered the hard wood floors. The windows maximized the outside light, and plants were generously scattered throughout the dining and living rooms. The kitchen was modernized with an abundance of wooden cupboards set against eggshell colored walls, offset by a bright yellow and blue border just under the ceiling.

  "The kittens are in the den," David said. "Wait until you see them. I know you’re going to love them."

  Leading the way, he opened the door just wide enough for him and Megan to squeeze in. "Every time I open the door they make a beeline for it. I don’t think they like being locked up after having run of the house," David explained.

  Megan knelt down on the floor and held out her hand to the kittens. Naturally curious Huggy walked over and sniffed her fingers. Taking a few more steps she bumped Megan’s hand with her head and a quiet rumble began. Velcro, not wanting to miss out on the attention, came bounding over and pushed her body up against Huggy’s purring loudly. When Megan lowered her other hand to Velcro, stroking her head and back, the kitten arched into it contentedly.

  David grinned, and sa
id, "Looks like you’re a hit."

  "They are just adorable," Megan said smiling up at David. "I don’t think you have to worry about finding a home for them anymore. But I should get going so they can get used to their new home."

  "Ok. It’ll just take me a minute to get their things together," David said, before leaving the room.

  Putting their food and dishes into a bag, he got their carrier and litter out of the hall closet. David took the carrier into the den and then put both kittens in it. Securing the door, Megan picked up the carrier containing the bouncing kittens and walked out of the room. David retrieved the litter box and followed her out of the den. "Just a minute and I’ll have this all ready for you."

  Walking with Megan out to the car, he put the bag of food, litter and litter box into the trunk of her car. Megan sat the kittens on the back seat and fastened the seat belt around the carrier. It didn’t hurt to be safe. If she had to stop quickly, she didn’t want the kittens on the floor.

  * * *

  Tony drove the car along the familiar route singing along with an old Carpenters song. She had only one more day on second shift and then she’d be on the graveyard shift. While the prospect didn’t thrill her, at least she would be able to spend some time with Megan. The evening had been unbearably long.

  Passing the entrance ramp at Edgewater Park, she turned on her signal preparing to merge with the oncoming traffic so she could move over to the right lane in time to exit. Moving skillfully between the two vehicles entering the expressway, she changed lanes. The car in front of her moved over into the left lane, and the one behind her followed suit.

  Slowing as she approached the exit, the vehicle that had merged behind her pulled even and swerved into her lane. Tony jerked the steering wheel to the right moving the car onto the berm while simultaneously depressing the horn and thinking, damn idiot. He never even looked. But the thoughts barely had time to cross her mind before it registered that he was continuing to crowd her, forcing her further off the road. Suddenly the truck driver jerked hard to the right, violently slamming the heavy pickup into her car before bouncing off and continuing down the street. The sound of the impact echoing in the still night.

  Tony fought to regain control of her car. The force with which the pickup hit her car propelled it through the snow fence. The wildly spinning tires of her car could not find purchase on the grass and it began slipping over the lip of the embankment.

  While fighting fiercely to keep the car to the left, Tony’s mind processed the fact that if the car slid over the incline, it would most likely flip. She instantaneously made a decision to try and stop the car against one of the two trees on a slight incline that her car was rapidly approaching.

  The wheels of the car fought against the direction she was attempting to steer the car, and with only seconds to spare, her desperate efforts were rewarded when her car impacted with one of the trees.

  Before her body had finished its momentum forward, she was thrown violently back against the seat, her head banging the headrest when the air bag deployed.

  PART 4

  SHERMAN STRUGGLED FOR a moment before regaining control of the pickup truck. He heard the loud and satisfying bang from the impact of her car against the tree. Smiling, he exited at Clifton and made his way to a nearby bar where he planned to leave the truck. It was close to a bus stop that ran all night and it was an anonymous way of traveling back to his hotel.

  Standing at the bus stop, he thought about the accident. His timing had been perfect. Sherman had selected the site the day before. It was the only stretch along her route home that had an embankment.

  Sherman smirked. He would have rather her car gone over the embankment. But her car had hit the tree with such force it was unlikely she had survived. If Viglioni was alive, she would be seriously injured, and he would just visit the hospital and finish the job.

  Getting on the bus, he walked to the back and sat down. The police scanner in his room would furnish him the information he needed.

  Back in his room, he turned on the scanner and picked up the disjointed conversation between the dispatcher and the police. There had been little traffic and it might be a while before she was discovered.

  The scanner clicked to life. "Dispatch to Unit 28 and Ambulance 1. I have a motorist on the line calling from a cellular phone relaying an accident at the Route 2, Edgewater exit. MVA versus tree. Condition of occupant unknown."

  "Unit 28 copy."

  "Ambulance 1 en route."

  Smiling, Sherman thought, so far so good.

  * * *

  The whirling sound of a siren cut through the night. The ambulance slowed at each intersection before proceeding, the driver intent on arriving at the hospital safely. Pulling into the emergency entrance to the large community hospital well known for its trauma center, he swung the ambulance around, backing up to the emergency room doors. Getting out of the ambulance, he walked quickly around to the rear and began assisting the other paramedic by helping her move the portable gurney to the edge of the ambulance, allowing the legs to drop and lock into place.

  The emergency room personnel met them at the door and the driver gave the following report while the gurney was rolled into the trauma room. "This is a 30 year old woman who was driver of MVA versus tree. C-spine precautions, vital signs stable, no obvious blunt trauma, no LOC, extraction time was 30 minutes."

  Megan woke up feeling uneasy. She opened her eyes and looked into the green eyes of a purring kitten lying contentedly on her chest. Not fully awake, her mind processed several things, and one of them was anxiety. Automatically sensing that Tony wasn’t in the bed, she looked at the clock before sitting upright alarmed. Huggy meowed in protest at the sudden movement and loss of her comfortable bed.

  It was 1:30am. Tony should have been home. She said she’d be home by midnight or 12:30 at the latest. Throwing the sheet off, Megan got up and walked into the living room and kitchen before proceeding to the bathroom wondering why Tony wasn’t home. It was possible she could have gone out with guys after work or something. People did that all the time. Yeah, but she would’ve called, her mind answered. Not if she didn’t want to wake me. Really? And she would take the chance of worrying you instead? Not likely. She is only an hour late. Maybe the report took longer than normal, or maybe they moved in on the surveillance site. That was probably it. But Megan didn’t believe that. The internal argument she was having had little impact compared to the feeling in her gut. She knew something was wrong.

  Megan thought over her options and realized there was little she could do. But she wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing either. What if Tony needed her? Trusting her instincts, she decided to call the only person she knew who might be able to find out something quickly. She knew if this turned out to be a false alarm, she might be laughed at later, but she didn’t care. The feeling that something was wrong was too strong to ignore.

  "Hello," the deep sleepy voice answered.

  "Hi, Brian. This is Megan. I’m really sorry to bother you and it may be for nothing, but Tony’s over an hour late and I have a bad feeling," Megan paused, knowing she probably sounded ridiculous.

  Brian wakened fully as he listened to Megan. He liked the young Coroner and knew she was a sensible young woman. If she thought something was wrong, then he would check it out. She was not prone to hysterics.

  "Megan, stay by the phone. I’ll make a few calls and get back to you."

  Megan paced back and forth in the kitchen. Tony, where are you? Are you ok? She was startled out of her thoughts 10 minutes later, when the phone rang.

  Wasting no words, Brian said, "I’ll pick you up in 15 minutes. Tony’s been in a car accident. She’s at Metro."

  Megan went through the motions of putting her clothes on, occupied with trying to keep terrifying images from appearing in her mind. Shutting her eyes tightly, her hands balled into fists, she finally won the battle. She would accomplish nothing by panicking.

  Megan stood in
the lobby of the apartment building waiting for Brian to arrive. What could have happened? Tony was an expert driver.

  Trying to focus her thoughts elsewhere, Megan looked at one of the pictures in the lobby. It was a portrait of a woman from the Victorian era, but the picture began transforming and in her mind’s eye she saw Tony sitting across from her, smiling the special smile that Megan knew was reserved only for her. Scenes from the last time she saw her lover continued to play through her mind in slow motion. She saw incredibly blue, mirth filled eyes, shinning out of a perfectly sculpted face, and the quirky little half smile when Tony learned the kittens’ names. She felt the strong, soft hand gently squeeze her own and heard the softly spoken words, "See you later, Love," when Tony dropped her off after lunch. Choking back a sob, Megan thought, she has to be ok. She just has to.

  The reflection of headlights against the lobby doors drew her attention from the picture, and she hurried out the doors and got into Brian’s car.

  Megan was already asking, "What did you find out?" before the door was even shut.

  Briefly glancing at the drawn face of his friend, and wishing he had something positive to tell her, Brian said, "Not much. The patrolman on the scene is still in the ER and I didn’t want to wait for him to call me."

  Megan took a deep calming breath and looked at Brian. His short hair was disheveled from sleeping, and his unshaven face showed heavy stubble. Suddenly realizing just how quickly he had arrived, she said, "Brian, thanks."

  Hearing the emotion in the young woman’s voice, Brian said, "No thanks are needed. You two are friends. I’m just glad you called me."

  Brian sped through the streets, the siren blaring and the blue and white light on his car creating strobe effects in the darkness.

  For Megan the ride lasted an eternity, her mind tormented with the thought, she would have called if she could.