SACRIFICES (10 page)

              I can now see the shadow of Josh walking into the kitchen to answer the ringing phone. If he keeps to his routine he’ll go back into the living room and sit in his chair right next to the spot where I visited with his wife.

              The engine starts and Josh walks to the living room. After watching the car turn at the corner I slowly crawl out from the under the evergreen bushes right next door to the Loomis house. I’m stiff and itchy after sweating for the past hour and a half in this overwhelming humidity and heat. The walk is short but it feels good to stretch my legs and arms.

              Carrying my duffle bag I creep closer to the home and lean against the side of the house, take out my gloves and put my thirty-eight special into the front pocket of my black sweat pants. I’m not going to enter the home the same way I did when I surprised his wife that night not to long ago. Instead I will just use the key that I acquired off of Jessica’s key ring the night I paid her a visit.             

              I begin to feel the rush knowing that in just a few short minutes I will be taking the life of the man inside.

It’s almost arousing to me. The stimulation is so powerful I can’t wait to make his brains a stain on the new carpeting. I stay snug to the house moving slowly in its shadow. Just on the off chance that a neighbor might be looking outside.

     After checking all around me I move toward the back door. My adrenalin’s pumping and I start to shiver in anxious anticipation of what I’m here for. I slowly open the back storm door and position myself in between the two doors and carefully place the key into the lock. This particular door you must pull just slightly to turn the cylinder without making a sound. I practiced opening the door the night I visited Jessica; because I knew I’d be back.

     The door’s now opened and I can hear the TV, this means that Josh won’t hear me. There are just four short steps up to the kitchen door from the landing. The floor in this home doesn’t squeak like the other two homes. This house is much newer.

              I creep up the stairs breathing as slowly as I can and moving especially deliberate. I don’t want any problems tonight. Josh is changing the channels looking for something to watch. I look at my watch and realize that I only have about two and a half minutes to remove his brains from his skull and make my escape. I’m not worried though, that’s more than
enough time, bullets travel quickly.

              I open the door from the landing and slowly move into the kitchen. I can see that there’s some light on in the living room. But with the location that he’s seated he’ll have no idea that I’m behind him.

              Slowly I creep. Making short and soft steps as I move across the floor slightly slumped. I’ve come way to far and done too much work to not complete this task. I’m just about in view of the living room. I quickly look at my watch and realize I need to hurry. The volume from the TV is growing louder with each step. I can almost see the back of his recliner as I move to the hallway.

             
Yes
, I can now see my target. He’s sitting their watching TV relaxing. I can just
barely
see the top of his head. He’s rocking back and forth slowly watching tomorrow’s weather forecast. He has no idea that there will be no weather for him after tonight, ever again. Except the intense heat he will live with in hell for the rest of eternity.

              I sigh softly as I move closer with each careful, watchful step. I reach into the pocket of my black sweat pants and retrieve my already cocked gun. I listen and observe, and I slink closer. I’m just about two feet from his head. I extend my arm and position my finger on the trigger. Closer I move, then closer. I’m so close now with my arm extended that each time Joshes’ rocks back from his recliner the hair on his head comes with in inches from my gun.

              I concentrate and smile. I am completely focused with my finger barely touching the trigger; I try hard to fight back my happiness as I apply just a teensy bit more pressure. A little more, I point the gun dead center to the back of his moving head. I move just a slight bit closer as his chair moves forward, then as his head moves back I squeeze hard.
BOOM
the sound is wonderful. I squeeze again as his body slumps forward
BOOM
. This feels so good to stand there with my gun smoking from the barrel as I watch his body fall to the floor. He starts to convulse a little as I admire my work; his body looks like a fountain as the blood shoots from the two wounds in the back of his head.

              Feeling wonderful and rejuvenated I take a breath and once again admire my work momentarily as the carpet turns dark under his body. The enjoyment is short-lived because those were just two gunshots that went off, I must hurry. I retrace my steps through the kitchen to the back door. Once I’m at the landing I place my gun into the duffle bag that I left lying on the landing. I throw it over my shoulder and open the door.

              My escape route is simple. Earlier this afternoon when no one was home I tapped the back porch motion light to assure myself a dark get away. So now I look at my watch and the clock is ticking. I move swiftly to the alley behind the house and move down to a garage three doors down. At the garage I take off my black long sleeve shirt and I step out of my sweat pants. Removing the sweat soaked clothes feels wonderful and relieving.

              Being prepared I was already wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt to avoid being seen wearing all black. I stuff my dark clothing into the bag along with my gloves and I start to nonchalantly move down the alley. My car is parked a quarter mile away in the Kroger’s parking lot. If I’m spotted casually walking down the street on my way to my car, hopefully it just looks like I’m out for a walk.

              If things go as planned the police with call Josh when they return, when there is no answer they will assume he’s in the bathroom and they’ll call back a few minutes later to give him time to finish. After the second call with no answer they’ll most likely walk to the house and knock on the door, or in this case with Mrs. Loomis due home any time now they might choose to wait. Any which way they decide, by the time they find his blood soaked corpse I’ll be driving down the road listening to my favorite CD while I relax in the air conditioning feeling proud of myself for another job well
‘executed’.

BRAD ARRIVES AT HEADQUARTERS AT THE SAME TIME AS TODD

    
Todd steps out of his late model extended-cab Ford pick-up and walks over to greet Brad as he steps out of his Jeep Cherokee. He reaches Brad and says. “Have you heard?” Todd’s slightly winded as he jogged the last half of the parking lot to meet up with Brad.

              “Yeah the chief called me this morning.” Brad walks with Todd toward the entrance.

              “Talk about a needle in a haystack. Four violations handed out to cars that match the description and...”

     Brad stops to face him and interrupts. “What? I thought you were referring to Loomis getting killed in Peoria last night.”              

     “
What
? Loomis was killed? How’d that happen I thought he had the Peoria PD watching him around the clock?” Todd puts his hands on his hips.

              Brad tilts his head. “The son of bitch got into the Loomis house last night when the cops took a coffee break; they were only gone ten minutes tops. Turns out he used the wife’s key to get in. He must have taken it the night she was raped. No need to break in when you got the key. So what are you talking about a needle in a haystack?” Brad asks while the two veteran officers stand their totally unaware to the other ones remarks.

              Todd looks around the lot and they both start to walk again to the building. He explains his findings. “Tammy crossed checked all violations during the past month like we talked about doing to see if maybe someone driving a vehicle like the one that was seen at the two sights,” Brad nods his head as they walk. “…and she only found four. That’s amazing. It might turn out to be nothing but from what she told me this morning when she called she said that one of the guys ticketed travels a lot between Chicago and Peoria. And on paper he matches the general description of a possible serial killer or rapist, white male, 30 years old. That’s all I know for now.” Todd shrugs not even sure if any of this means a thing.

              Brad smiles a little thinking that maybe just maybe there could be something there. So he pats Todd on the back and suggests. “Let’s get inside and find out what else she has.”

     Both men pick up their pace as they head into the air conditioned building known as the fifth precinct hoping to find out some good news; or any news for that matter.

              Once inside they waste no time to get to the elevator. They are particularly anxious to know if this black sports car thing is just a coincidence or is it more. Brad doesn’t share the same optimism as Todd. He hopes that it turns out to be something but with this guy showing such patience and perfection he’s a slight bit cynical at this point that this guy would be speeding. Brad also thinks that maybe this is just what Todd said it is a needle in a haystack. At least it’s something to go on.

              The guys fill up their favorite cups with coffee and decide to wait for Tammy in Brad’s office. That way they can grab her as soon as she arrives. She has to pass his office door to get to hers. Todd feels like a kid waiting for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Brad feels excited but not as much as Todd. Todd genuinely feels this could crack the case. Only time will tell.

              They relax in Brad’s office and the dinging of the elevator door makes Todd jump up. He smiles when he sees Tammy walking down the hall carrying a bunch of folders.

Todd runs to her and asks. “What do you have?”

              Tammy can see they look anxious. So she replies.

“Let me put my purse away and I’ll grab my reports and meet you in Brad’s office in just a minute.” The guys walk back into Brads’ office and wait.

              A few minutes later Tammy walks in carrying a few folders. Each one is marked and she starts to hand them out. Brad smiles as she hands him his folder marked Brad and remarks to Tammy. “You look beautiful today. That’s a pretty dress sweetheart.” He comments as Tammy shyly smiles as he notices her new sundress that’s the color of the sky.

              Tammy hands Todd his folder. “Thank you.”

Todd smiles and tells the shy little lady. “It is very pretty just like you, that color really brings out your beautiful eyes.” She grins again.

              Tammy takes a seat next to Todd as the guys start to look through the folders. “Now Todd I hope I didn’t give you a bunch of false hope when I talked to you, I was just going off of the prelims as I got them.”

              Todd smiles and shakes his head. “I know, but right now anything is better than nothing.” Todd winks at Brad feeling strongly that this could be the case breaker.

              Tammy crosses her legs and starts. “Ok guys here’s what I have so far,” The two guys start to look at the first page. “…you can see the yellow highlighted areas where the same general descriptions of the vehicles that were ticketed. Now from an immediate reaction from the descriptions of the vehicles all four fall into the general description. As a matter of fact, three match the jogger’s description exactly. The fourth one’s car I heard could be easily mistaken at night. So with the fact that the ladies description from Canton came from her seeing the car at night, well you can figure out what I mean.” Tammy touches her finger to her tongue as she turns the page and Brad and Todd intently listen to her explain. “Now all four vehicles have a temp tag in the back window. The vehicle that threw up the biggest red flags was the vehicle that belongs to the gentleman from Peoria. He travels a lot and right now it appears that off of what we are looking for he’s the strongest possible link to this case in an overview,” Tammy flips another page. “…now the locals are checking his whereabouts and his stories as to where he was during the time each and every one of the attacks and murders took place. This could obviously take some time maybe a lot of time. But the locals, like I said are working on that as we speak...” Brad interrupts and asks.

              “I see that he’s a traveling sales rep. That should be pretty easy to check his whereabouts. Shouldn’t it?” Brad inquires to his very apt assistant knowing that these reports must be outstanding if she had her hand in the research.

              Tammy smiles and places her ink pen into her mouth and explains as she chews the tip. “You’d think so. But the truth is most of his work with customers is during the daytime hours. And most of the attacks took place at night. So unfortunately even if he’s not accounted for during the nighttime hours why would he be? He lives out of a suitcase and sleeps in a different hotel five nights a week. So the bad news is, as you two know better than I do. If he was the actual guy, I mean even if he did it all. We would most likely have only circumstantial evidence on him.”

              Todd snickers and comments as he sits his folder in his lap. “Now days with all of these motels and hotels having video surveillance in the lobbies and parking lots. It might seem to me that it might be a little bit more than circumstantial if it just so happens he’s coming and going just at the times the rapes and murders are going down don’t you think?”