Blood Red Sundown: Evil Begins (24 page)

ANNE WAS FIGHTING
with
her good cop side as she headed home for the night. She was aware of the tight schedule
they were on and her good cop needed sleep to stay alert for the long days ahead
of her. The problem she had was her bad cop side had to pass by her favorite stopping-off
place and the open parking spot directly in front sealed the deal for her.

“One drink, okay maybe two, and then home to bed for
the sleep you need.”

She asked her image in the mirror if she could do that
and nodded yes. The juke box seemed extra loud as she entered. It didn’t bother
her because it was Ray Price singing, “For the Good Times.”

Waving to several people and signaling to the lady behind
the bar she sat on her favorite stool.

“Where’s Johnny?”

“He’s taking a break, should be back soon. What can I
get you madam detective?”

“Draught, make it a big one.”

Looking over her shoulder she watched three couples all
in matching cowboy clothes dancing in perfect step.

“That looks like fun” she said to Angie as she placed
the beer in front of her.

Picking up the ice cold glass she took a sip, then turned
and watched the dancers until the song ended then asked, “Why are we surrounded
by cowboys and cowgirls, Angie?”

“They apparently competed in a line dance contest. I
was informed that they won and selected this place to celebrate.”

“Hey, heeere’s Johnny,” doing her best Ed McMann impression
as he approached her from the front entrance.

“Good to see you Anne, let me check my messages and I’ll
have a beer with you.”

Meanwhile out on the highway, Terry was fuming after
an unpleasant argument with Cassandra and was heading to the bar to forget her and
the problem she had confronted him with. He had left with the understanding that
he would stay at his place for the night. Now he knew he needed a tall drink in
a fun atmosphere to calm down and forget everything about her.

“You need to get out of this messed up relationship,”
he said pounding the steering wheel.

The first thing he noticed as he approached his destination
was Anne’s car parked directly in front. The anticipation of the reaction he would
most certainly receive from her would be challenging. If he could remain calm and
except the worse she had to offer it could still possibly work out. Could he do
it, was another story.

Johnny saw Terry enter and gave Anne a heads up. She
continued talking to him ignoring the entrance where Terry was standing. She could
sense him moving toward her and decided to meet the situation head on.

“Hello there, Terry. How is life these days?”

“They’re fine detective, how is life with you?”

“Lately Terry, I don’t have a life other than searching
for the stone cold serial killer still on the loose.”

“How is your secret admirer? Has he made a pass yet?”

“You know Terry, you’re even more obnoxious than I remember.
Go away!”

He reached out and grabbed her arm and with lightning
quick reaction she threw a right-cross to his nose. He hit the floor blood flowing
from his nose and dripping off his chin. “If you leave now I will not arrest you
for assault. Do you understand?”

“I understand alright Anne, but you went way too far.”
He picked up a number of napkins and placed them over his nose. When the bleeding
was under control he leered at her, turned, and left.

They watched him exit and Anne wondered just how angry
he was and if it was the beginning of something really ugly.

“Man that was some punch, Anne, Johnny said laughing.”

“I wish I hadn’t reacted quite so fast, but that’s the
way I was trained. They grab, you react and subdue before the surprise factor is
lost.”

“CALM DOWN WILLIAM,
she is not worth fretting over this way.”

“I know Mother, but she has no right to treat me that
way.”

As he drove, he listened to the wisdom of his mother
and anticipated the closeness she would provide him at home. Her face in his mirror
had a calming effect on him and allowed his anger to pass. He now needed her arms
to comfort him as she had always done at times like this.

“I’m waiting just where you left me, waiting to comfort
you, William. Please hurry to me and let us enter in the sleep that will last and
put everyone else aside and allow us to be together forever.”

When his thoughts drifted back to Stephanie, the mothers
face became cloudy and he watched it metamorphous into Marie staring at him. He
turned quickly to the back seat, but she was not there. A swerving action of the
car brought his vision back to the front and he was on the shoulder heading for
a tree. Turning the wheel sharply, he righted the car back onto the road and looked
back into the mirror. Marie was still there leering at him with the same wide eyed
stare she had that night in the motel. His staring at her caused him to drift again
into the opposite lane and he had to swerve quickly to avoid an oncoming car. This
time he looked back and she was gone. He was at his wits end as he passed through
the gates around the drive and parked. He collapsed on to the steering wheel.

STANDING IN THE
shadows
of the shrubbery he watched Stephanie get out of her car and walk up to the front
door. He knew her routine by heart now. Next she would go up to her room, grab her
dog and bring him outside for a short walk. The dog always sensed he was near and
kept him on edge. He decided it was time to retreat to his car and finish his observations
of her routine from there.

The time frame seemed longer than usual before the door
opened and she walked out bent down and released her dog. Another change happened
to her routine when she remained on the steps and let the dog roam on its own. His
thought process was thrown off by this change and combined with the other change
he had noted he knew unless something brought the routine back on track he would
again have to redo his plans and be delayed again.

From his vantage point in his car he could hear her calling
the dog and realized his fear was coming true, she was not going to walk him like
most nights. He watched her pick up the dog and walk back into the house. He now
had to worry if she was going to mess with his mind even further and not drive to
the coast.

Taking out a pad of paper and a black felt pen, he wrote,
in large bold letters,

[YOU DID NOT WALK YOUR DOG.]

Unsure of her location in the house, he decided not to
take the risk of discovery by walking to the car, but he would wait for a safer
time to place it on her car.

“I do not like it when you change your routine, he said.”

LENNY WAS WALKING
up
to the entrance of the hospital and stopped to watch Stephanie as she pulled into
her parking spot. He waited holding the door for her and they took the elevator
down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee before checking in.

He was overly talkative this morning. So, Stephanie became
his sounding board until she finally stood and reminded him they needed to go up
and report in for the day.

In the elevator Lenny asked about her relationship with
the senator. She responded very emphatically.

“There is no relationship Len.”

Before he could follow up with the next question the
door opened and she exited, exchanging a quick wave and goodbye and walked to the
nursing station where she was welcomed by a smiling nurse.

“Good morning Dr. Wearing, how was your day off?”

“You don’t want to know Grace; and I would prefer to
forget everything about it. Let me see the patient log, please I need to get started
on my rounds.”

Several times throughout the day she encountered Len
pushing a patient or waiting to enter a patient’s room. Each time, he was almost
obnoxious in his joy of seeing her. She saw a situation building up that she was
going to have to get a handle on or it was going to end in someone getting hurt.
Maybe both of us,
she thought.

ARRIVING EARLY, LON
grabbed a coffee and selected a doughnut from the previous day’s box. It was hard,
but dipping it in his coffee softened it. That would do the job until the fresh
supply arrived.

His desk was still piled high with the files that he
had hoped would disappear overnight. A note pinned to his phone said, a Mister Ransom
returned your call and said he would talk to you. Looking at the clock he figured
it was too early to call him back. He was anxious to know what this man could remember
about the night the senator’s mother died.
That should be an interesting
conversation I can look forward to,
he thought.

He sorted files according to their priorities for the
day then stood and stared into the seven innocent faces, one after the other, he
had posted on the board. He was certain he could hear each of them pleading for
his help.

“I hear your plea and I promise I’ll get revenge for
you,” he said.

THE NEXT MORNING
the
senator was up early and met the housekeeper at the door.

“Mrs. Caruthers, I will not require your services today;
I’m going to spend the day working on constituent problems and I would prefer to
have the house to myself. Of course, I will pay you for the day since I did not
give you notice earlier. Enjoy your day off on me.”

He stood at the open door and watched her drive out of
the gate. “Now,” he thought, “I need to go and be with mother.” Closing the door
he walked to the stairway and thinking he heard muffled voices he paused at the
first step. He began ascending slowly listening when his attention was drawn to
the family photos on the wall and as hard as he tried he could not turn his eyes
away. He was certain the voices were coming from the wall. There, in the first framed
photo, was Beth standing next to his mother, who was shaking her head from side-to-side
with her arms open and calling his name. Marie suddenly appeared in the photo with
tape over her mouth staring at him with her eyes bulging causing him to back down
a step almost falling.

Beth spoke first.

“I was right wasn’t I William?”

He was struggling to maintain his balance as he took
additional steps upward and continued as if by some force to look at additional
photos. A picture of Marie began vibrating until he looked directly at her face.
She asked, “Why did you do it, William, I loved you?”

The framed photo flew off the wall and shattered on the
stairway.

Tears began to form in his eyes as he heard his name
being called from every frame louder and louder. He stared at the portrait of his
mother and Marie together. Suddenly it was not Marie with her, but his father. But,
his mother’s entire face was scared, startling him. He backed up awkwardly stumbling
and again had to grab the rail to keep from falling to the floor below.

His father was pointing at him saying, “You killed her
and you must reap what you have sown” over-and-over again in his demonic like voice.
He placed his hands over his ears and started up the stairs. His father’s face appeared
in every frame laughing.

As he reached the top he turned toward his mother’s bedroom
and she was there in the hallway holding out her arms to him. He moved quickly to
her and she enclosed him in her arms. His father’s image appeared, walking toward
them from her bedroom door, laughing grotesquely pointing to the tattoo on his arm.

William began backing up asking for his mother’s help.
Still holding on to him in a firm but loving embrace she walked with him to the
railing and telling him how much she loved him. Catching him off guard, she pulled
the two of them over the railing to the marble floor below. His head struck hard
with a sharp cracking sound causing a large red blotch to swell beneath it on the
white tile. The mother, fatally injured, managed to pull herself to him resting
her head on his arm, whispering his name over-and-over until she finally fell in
to the lasting sleep she had so often desired for them.

They were found that way the next morning by the housekeeper.

“LON GRABBED THE
message
from Mr. Ransom, owner of the bar where the senator’s mother had been drinking and
dialed the number below his name. The man answered his questions with much understanding
and Lon was surprised at the details he was able to provide surrounding the night
she died in the car accident. A very important detail he relayed while describing
her actions was that another young woman left with her when she went to meet her
son. He described Mrs. Radford sitting and talking to the lady who had been stranded
and how others had turned down her request for a ride. So, she had agreed to drop
the girl off at a busy intersection where she could catch a ride with a trucker.

When Lon asked him what he remembered about the fatal
accident, he said, “All I know is what was in the paper. Mrs. Radford, mother of
Senator Radford died in a fiery auto accident. I remember she was a very classy
and attractive woman and the papers said her body had been burned beyond recognition.
I remember thinking that she should have waited for her son.”

“How long did she wait before leaving and was she pressed
to leave because of the offered ride she made to the other woman?”

“I have no specific knowledge of that, but if I guessed,
she wanted to help the lady who was anxious to get to a ride drop-off spot.”

“In your reading of the paper’s coverage of the accident
do you recall anything mentioned in any report about the second woman?”

“No, and I always assumed that she had been dropped off
somewhere prior to the accident. However, when I read where her car left the road,
I was stumped trying to picture where the gal could have been dropped off before
arriving at the spot where Mrs. Radford left the road. That area along that road
is too isolated to drop off a person, especially a woman.”

“Wow,” Lon said, “and you say no autopsy was done. This
case gets crazier by the day. Did you ever hear a name for the woman that left with
Mrs. Radford?”

Shaking his head, he said, “No, she wasn’t a regular
and had hitched a ride with a trucker to that point. Mrs. Radford was taking her
to a truck stop closer to town to catch a ride. That accident was the topic of conversation
around this bar for quite a spell.”

“Thank you for your time. If we need to speak with
you again we’ll be in touch.”

He looked over at Anne as he hung up the phone. She had
been listening to his one-sided conversation. He blew out a long breath and sat
back in his chair.

“Let’s get a coffee and I’ll fill you in on what just
passed through the lines. When he had relayed the information, Anne waited a moment
before asking the obvious question.

“What do you suppose happened to the other woman?”