SACRIFICES (6 page)

              "Well whatever you call it I'm damn proud to be working with you and the Fonz would be proud to." Darrin chuckles and gives him thumbs up to emulate a TV icon.

              There's another knock on the door and pretty soon half of the department is gathered outside his office. Everyone makes comments like nice going, good job boss, and way to go Brad. The other officers are proud to be associated with the well respected and smooth talking Inspector, Brad‘s a born leader and everyone around him respects and admires that.             

              Brad stands up and walks toward the door. "Thanks everyone now let’s find this
son of a bitch
." The large group gathered outside his office starts to applaud loudly as they show there reverence to a great detective and great friend. After the show of affection Brad walks to Todd Avery's office.

              Along the way he receives many high fives and claps. One of the office secretaries gives him a hug a kiss on the cheek and says. "If I wasn't married…" She smiles and winks and points her finger at him. Brad just takes it all in and knocks on the door of his long-time best friend and partner.

              "Come on in." Replies Todd to the knock and smiles. "How are you doing Wyatt Earp?"

              "Knock it off Todd. You would have handled it the same way as I did." Brad says as he takes a seat in front of his desk.

              Todd nods his head and explains with a smirk. "
Yeah
, but I would have looked better doing it."

              "That's true." Brad leans back.

              "Tell me you have found something, anything." Brad closes his eyes hoping for something to fall from the sky on this hopeless looking situation.

              "I wish I could but the truth is these girls are as different as snowflakes." Todd explains as he hands him a sheet of paper with some of his comparisons. "Now don't worry as I explain. I'm having Chamfers draw all of this up and he's making a rather large display that we can go over, and over with and mount on a board. It's going to have pictures, body stats, hair color, ext, ext you get the point...” Todd sighs and starts to explain. “...For starters let me give you the brief overview.
Victim number one, Stephanie Caruthers
, 34 years old, married for 6 years. Her maiden name is James, beautiful tall blonde. The model type, she worked at a health club downtown part time. 5’ foot 10” inches tall, 125 pounds. You could find this girl in any modeling magazine or any modeling agency, no problem.
Victim number two, Mecca Hill
, maiden name Woo, 21 years old, 5’ foot tall, 85 pounds, very petite, very tiny, she's a pretty girl, been married 6 months. She didn't work, new to her neighborhood. She didn't know too many people personally except for a few of her husband's friends from work.
Victim number three, Jessica Loomis
, maiden name, Tyler. 25 years old, very pretty, voluptuous, red hair, built like Marilyn Monroe, full figure, 5’ foot 5” inches tall, about 140 pounds. “...They’ve been married about 5 years. Worked at a bank in Peoria, she grew up there and enjoyed the social scene; her and her husband liked to kick up there heals on the weekends and hit the nightclubs. As far as
victim number 4, Kathy Howard
, maiden name, Wallace. 29 years old. Gorgeous woman, ethnic background, her father is African American and her mother is Latino, she's 5’ foot 6” inches tall, medium build, beautiful dark skin, she's a looker, married 4 years. She's a 4th grade teacher in a Bloomington grade school, her and her husband go out to dinner, don't drink or party and hang with a small click of friends." Todd shakes his head in aggravation.

              Brad skims over the list and asks as he slowly turns to the page that shows the faxed pictures. "Your right, there all beautiful women in there own right, very pretty girls,
but
not a similar look anywhere in the crowd is there?"

              "Your right, no similar backgrounds, no mutual friends, didn't go to the same schools or grow up in the same towns. As far as everything looks on paper there's no real way these girls could have ever known each other. Also we did some checking like you asked about internet connections. The truth is two of the girls never use computers and the other two only use it to buy stuff and the occasional e-mails. So the tech boys couldn’t find a link that way either." Brad sits down the paper and says with confusion in his voice.

              "How in the hell are they linked? It baffles my mind. On paper there is no way to link these girls together. So why did our boy? It’s obvious to the both of us that these aren’t just random attacks." Brad looks on hoping that his long time buddy may have some iota of a clue.

              "I don't know Brad." Reluctantly Todd answers sharing Brad’s disappointment and frustration.

              Brad inquires. "What about the husbands? Where do they work, their jobs, their careers anything there?"

              Todd starts to explain as he reaches for a sheet of paper marked,
‘HUSBANDS’.
"I’m working on that now. But for now, the only thing we know for sure is that the men are all between the ages of 34 to 36, as far as careers they vary as much as the girls themselves.
Mr. Caruthers
is a sales rep for a computer company out of New York, although the work he does for them is local, very good job, makes in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 hundred thousand a year.
Mr. Hill
is a high up in the banking business; he was just promoted to the second in charge of one of Springfield’s oldest and most respected banks, a great career. He stands to be a millionaire inside the next 5 years or so.
Mr. Loomis
is a highly respected contractor, he makes 2 to 3 hundred thousand dollars a year, Peoria is really developing and his own company that he founded and developed is leading the way with building a lot of the new towers and the new mall.
Mr. Howard
is a well respected lawyer in Bloomington, (he chuckles) if there is such a thing
.”
Brad shares in his humor and smiles as he sits down the paper and leans back in his chair. "Anyway, he's a very high roller in the law circles. He handles a lot of corporate clients; he even has his own private law firm”.

              Brad nods his head and says. "Not any similarities there are there,
except
for the fact that all of the men in there own right are extremely successful and rich and close in age. But very different careers, is this all you have on the husbands?"

              Todd shakes his head and says. "For now, I'm still digging, but I don't see it coming together at this point." Todd says as he starts to put the papers in the folder as he looks at his watch.

              Brad stands up and says as he stretches his arms above his head. "This is just a thought, and I'm sure you thought of it too, but these guys since there all in a close age group, and they all seem to have been educated to some degree, I'm curious as to their college background, hell even their high school backgrounds. It's a hunch, but who knows, right now we trying to find a needle in a haystack."

              "I've got Chamfers on it already; he should have that for me tomorrow."

              Brad puts his arm around Todd and says. "You know something; you are good, I knew there was some reason I always pick you, to be my right hand man."

              Todd grins. "Your right, I am good." He winks as he places his folder back into his briefcase.

              Brad pats him on the back and says as Todd's phone rings. "Let's say we go out have a couple beers and some pizza, my treat." Todd smiles and answers his phone.

              "Todd here," Todd covers the receiver. "You're on." Brad starts to walk to his office and hears Todd say. "You're kidding me." Todd sits down and says. "Jesus Christ."

              Brad turns around and takes a seat on the edge of Todd's desk awaiting the obvious not so good news while Todd closes his eyes and listens. Brad exhales noisily feeling that
he’s
done it again by the conversation and Todd’s facial expressions.

              "Ok, ok, I'll be right there." Todd hangs up the phone.

              "What's up?" Brad asks with an increasing anxiousness in his voice sure the news is bad.

              Todd looks up and says with an almost ghostly expression. "It looks like our boy's not done, Victim number five was just found, a young lady in Canton, Illinois. Same MO and well," he hesitates and explains. "And remember victim number one?" Brad shakes his head. "Well her husband has just found dead parked in his car in the driveway at their house."

              "How?" Brad asks quickly.

              "Two shots too the back of the head." Explains Todd as he swallows hard finding all of this almost unreal.

              Brad looks down. "Execution style."

              Todd takes a deep breath. "That's not all Brad. Mr. Hill of Springfield was found dead not to long ago. He was shot and killed in his house while he was apparently getting dressed…” Brad looks away fearing the results from his expression. “As if I needed to tell you he was also shot twice in the back of the head.” Todd stands there with no expression almost as if he’s in shock.

              "What about the time frame? Were the wives home?" Brad asks hoping that the wives are ok feeling numb by these new developments.

              Todd starts toward the door and says. "The wives are ok. They’re the ones that found the bodies. And as far as the time frame, Mr. Hills, time of death was about 6 pm, and Mr. Caruthers was at noon although his body was just found an hour ago."

              "How far are we from Springfield?" Brad asks.

              "About 4 to 5 hours. It was definitely our boy. He had plenty of time." Todd explains gritting his teeth.

              Brad makes the comment. "You better tell Chamfers to put a rush on the husbands cuz there's no doubt now that we have
our
link. What's the Canton time frame?"

              Todd explains shaking his head as he recalls the conversation. "The young lady in Canton happened last night. It just got to us, but it was last night. She was discovered this morning. But our boy had the time. He
made
the time."

              Brad makes the comment. "Our guy killed Caruthers at noon here in Chicago, made the drive all the way to Springfield, killed Mr. Hill, and then it turns out that he was in Canton last night. He's good at getting around. That's a lot of miles to cover. Do you think he‘s working alone? Or do you think our boy has help?" Brad starts to think about the huge amount of miles this guy is traveling.

              Todd explains. "I think it's only one, this all seems to be personal. I mean extremely fucking personal. I think someone is pissed about something, and they don't mind killing to pay someone back. We better warn the other husbands before there are more funerals.”

CHAPTER 5

NEXT MORNING IN THE OFFICE OF CHIEF CARLIN: 7:04 a.m.

              The media circus is in full effect outside of the fifth precinct. Reporters try desperately to get comments from anyone on the new attack as well as the two homicides. The media attention is overwhelming. Brad is doing everything in his power to not allow too many details of the attacks to get out. The headlines are big and bold. Most are blaming the police, mainly Brad and his group of investigators for not releasing much information. But he’s sticking to his guns and keeping it on the
‘down-low.’

              Brad walks into the chief’s office and can tell by his expression that he’s having a tough time with all of the negative press the precinct has been receiving. He walks to the chief’s personal coffeepot and pours himself a cup of Columbian coffee and takes a seat. When he turns to look at the bulletin board on the chief’s wall he sees that he has been updating it daily with all of the new clippings from all of the area papers.

              “What have you guys been able to dig up on the husbands?” The chief asks as he slowly spins in his chair gazing at the ceiling. He has his eyes closed as he spins holding an ink pen. It’s obvious to Brad the chief is concerned about the negative press in a way he‘s never seen the chief before in all of these years.

              “Where still digging but I’m sure we’ll find a link.” Brad explains as he sips his coffee looking at his watch knowing that Todd should be there any minute with
hopefully
some information.

              The chief stands up and walks over to the board and points to the headline from the Peoria Journal Star that says in bold print.
‘CHICAGO PD LETTING DOWN THE STATE.’

“Do you see that? Is that what we want?”

              “No sir.” Answers Brad as they hear a knock on the door.

             
“COME IN!”
The obviously upset chief bellows.

              Todd walks in and slowly looks at the chief.

“Good morning guys.” He then looks at Brad knowing the chief is noticeably upset.

              “What’s so god damned good about it? The press, the governor and every news channel are up my ass. I can’t walk to my car without reporters chasing me down sticking their fucking cameras and microphones in my face. One of them bastards was asking me questions while I was standing at the fucking urinal yesterday. I can’t even take a piss without them son’s of bitches bothering me. I know you boys are doing the best you can, but everyone knows that I’m the one that put this task force together. And word from the top is if we don’t find something or someone that there are going to be some demotions and reassignments. I’m too damn old for either. So you guys find something...” He sighs. “...Understand?”