Rage Unleashed (8 page)

“I don’t think a young woman like you should be running out here so late at night by yourself. Do you have anyone running with you?”

“No just me. Did you want to run with me and make sure nothing happens to me?”

“Sure. Why not?” Grateful that he had changed into sweats and sneakers before heading to the hospital, Officer McKinney accepted Lelone’s offer.

They jogged quickly down the street and headed toward the trail. He didn’t pause to consider whether this was a good idea or not because he had plans of his own. He looked up at the full moon that lit the path and up at the young woman jogging in front of him. He watched the way her body moved so fluidly without seeming to strain. Then as they got deeper into the wooded path Lelone cut away from the path toward the flowing river in the middle of the woods. Again he followed unsuspectingly.

For a moment he lost her until he saw her stretching her shapely legs against a tree that seemed a little close to the running river.

“That tree is a little close isn’t it?”

Shaking her head she replied, “No, I don’t think so.” Then she began to take off her t shirt and shorts leaving nothing on but her panties and sports bra and she slowly entered the creek. Steven stood there watching her in aroused amazement.

Laughing she said, “Aren’t you going to join me? I thought you were making sure that I didn’t get hurt while I was out tonight.”

He didn’t stop to think about it as he began to snatch his clothes off and entered the water with her. She continued to laugh at his eagerness and splashed him playfully as he entered the water.

“I can see you didn’t need much convincing,” she laughed. “I love taking late swims in this river, that way no one can see me if I decide to take off more clothes. I don’t need anyone to get the wrong idea, you know what I mean.”

He nodded his head without responding and she quickly ducked and disappeared in the water. He briefly swam around looking for her before she popped up deeper in the river where the current was much stronger. He struggled to swim over to her and then she disappeared under the water again.

He laughed nervously at her little game until he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his groin area. She popped up out of the water smiling him. “Why don’t you come under water with me?”

He told her the pain he was having and she looked at him seductively while asking, “Do you want me to take a look?”

He nodded his head as his eyes closed in arousal as she caressed him slowly. She ducked her head under water for the last time and dragged him under by attaching weighted ropes at his waist. She stabbed him making him struggle for air while trying to fight off her attacks. He quickly began to lose blood while asking why and trying to scream for help.

She smiled evilly. “Next time be careful who you kill. You never know who you’ll have to deal with. Oh that’s right there won’t be a next time. You’ll pay for his death with your own.”

The attack was swift. She got out of the water taking the ropes with her. She dropped the knife that she got from his house on the way to the bank. When they found him they would assume that he died of self-inflicted wounds after what he did to his wife. They would have no reason to suspect anything else. This was exactly what she wanted.

Chapter 9

Sweeter Payback

By the time Detective Luke Farmouth returned to the hospital he was exhausted. He’d spent majority of his time trying to find out more information on the two police officers that took his son to the morgue. From the long hours of digging he found that his son’s car was sitting at the police impound lot and that Officer McKinney had brought it in, saying that it had been abandoned. He rubbed his hands through his hair and walked toward the elevator just before he got on he got a call on his cell phone.

He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Dr. Ross, the medical examiner from the morgue. Heather had called him and told him what was going on and he’d come back earlier than expected. He’d briefly taken a look at LJ and found something that he wanted to bring to Luke’s attention.

Luke exited the elevator and went to the morgue. He passed by a dark haired man in sweats standing by reception and went directly to Dr. Ross. When he got there Dr. Ross said, “Hello Detective. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. I extend my condolences. I took a look at the body the moment I got into town. I wanted to make this my first priority especially in this particular case where there are people trying to make sure that I don’t look too closely. From what Heather told me, the people responsible are supposed to be on the force as well. Which is another reason why I called you here. I wanted to let you know what I found before I sent this information over to the Chief.”

Detective Farmouth’s brows grew together as he listened to what Dr. Ross was telling him. This was a doctor that worked very closely with the bureau. So if there was something that piqued his curiosity enough to make him want to speak to the Chief himself then it was serious and it was something that would make this particular situation even harder on him.

“What is it Doc?  What did you find that made you want to take a closer look and contact the chief directly?” Luke questioned urgently. “I’ve known and worked with you a long time and you only do that when it’s something that could be valuable to the case. What did my son’s body tell you that he couldn’t tell me?”

Dr. Ross rubbed his brow before placing a fresh pair of gloves on his hands. “Well, let me show you.”

He walked over to the autopsy table where LJ lay and called Heather into the room. When she got there he told her in a very hushed voice, “Heather, make sure that we’re not disturbed please. This is something that I want to make sure is kept as private as possible. In fact, I want you to close and lock the doors and come assist me.

She nodded her head while holding this odd expression on her face as if she wanted to say something she just didn’t want to say it out loud. Dr. Ross noticed her hesitation and followed by saying a little louder, “Heather.  I’m going to walk Detective Farmouth over to security then I’m going to lunch. Lock up the morgue until I get back. I don’t want to be disturbed.”

She quickly nodded and walked back to the front to let the hooded guest know that he would have to wait until after lunch to have Dr. Ross sign off on the body that he was waiting for. They heard him mumble something slightly obscene before saying that he would sit and wait since no one seemed to have a sense of time.

She mumbled her apologies before quickly coming back into the morgue and bolt locking the door as instructed. It was only then that she explained why she looked as she had before.

“Sorry Dr. Ross, Detective. The guy that has been waiting is one of the officers that brought the body in and told me that I needed to make sure that Dr. Ross wouldn’t touch it.”

Dr. Ross nodded his head. “I figured that was him when I overheard him asking about the body being transferred.” He turned his attention to Luke. “That is why I called you so urgently.”

But Luke wasn’t fully focused, all he could think about was that one of the officers that killed his son was currently standing outside and didn’t seem to recognize him enough to hide his intention. Which told him that he didn’t know him first hand and it also made him want to go out and confront him face to face.

Dr. Ross noticed how tense he was and said, “Detective. I know you may want to go see who he is but you might want to hear this before you do, that may give you a clearer understanding of what you’re dealing with.”

This made Luke pause and fight to give Dr. Ross his full attention. Glancing at him Dr. Ross continued, “I’ve worked with you and your department on many cases before. What I found in this case made me take pause because I found identifiable bullets in your son as well as fingerprints.”

Now giving Dr. Ross his full attention he responded. “What do you mean identifiable bullets?”

“Well I know the force has had markings on their bullets for quite a while. This information isn’t given to the public so no outsider would know enough about them to be able to duplicate

those markings. So that tells me that someone one the force is responsible for the death of Lucas Jr.”

“Where did you find the bullets?”

“I found one lodged in his skull and pieces of the other bullet in his chest. There was also one lodged in his spine. However, that one had a different angle of entry than the other two. The others entered from the front and this one entered from behind.”

“Do you have the bullets?”

“I figured you would ask that.”

Dr. Ross picked up the petri dish holding the bullets and handed him some gloves. “Here put these on. I don’t want you to touch these.”

Luke slowly placed the gloves on and took the petri dish from Dr. Ross. He picked up the bullets and there in his hand was the physical evidence that he was dreading to see. The proof that someone he worked with to remove crime from the streets was using his position to hide his own crime.

Dr. Ross continued, “From the evidence found it’s not a surprise that they didn’t want me to examine the body. Another coroner who’s not used to working with you guys wouldn’t know what the markings were. From the look of the body he was killed around seven yesterday afternoon.” Looking at Heather he said, “You say he was brought in around twelve last night?” She nodded her head. He looked back to Detective Farmouth whose eyes were small intense slits. “Detective have you spoken to the Chief about your suspicions?”

“Yes we spoke right before I came here. We are trying to find the cops that brought him here.”

“Okay good. At least we know that this will get handled, Chief

McCoy has always been a straight shooter.”

“Yea he has. But I’m also not really sure how he’s going to handle this. He believes in the pledge to protect and serve as well as the brotherhood of the force.”

“It shouldn’t be a hard choice to make. This is a breach of both. Why would you think that he wouldn’t do right by you, especially when he’s known you and your son for years? This is something that affects the entire police department.”

Shaking his head he said, “I don’t know. I’m just not sure how he’s going to handle this especially when we don’t know who it is or what happened.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Go ahead and make the call, but keep records of everything for me just in case.”

Dr. Ross nodded, “Okay I’ll do that. I hope things go as they should. Your boy was a good kid. He didn’t deserve anything like this. This was an execution style killing. They wanted to make sure he was dead. He was in no way shot in self-defense, especially when he was shot from behind. I sure hope you find out who did this. If they are able to get away with this, this will open up a can of worms that will be impossible to close. I don’t think anyone wants to deal with the backlash from Pandora’s Box.”

Detective Farmouth stood there thinking about all the possibilities. Dr. Ross was right. There were a lot of things that could happen. He could only hope that things would go as they should. That way he wouldn’t have to allow his anger to surface and

take over. Because once something like that is released it’s hard to try to put it back into its closed box.

~~~

Lelone pulled into Della and LJ’s driveway and used her key to enter the house. She had called Della to let her know that she was on her way there to drop off her bags and bring her what she needed from  the  store.  When she  entered  the  house,  she immediately noticed how eerily quiet it was. She found Della in the girls’ room sitting close to their cribs watching them sleep. It looked as if she’d been there for hours.

“Della. You Okay?”

She nodded her head and slowly turned around to face her. With her eyes red and swollen and tears rolling down her face she said, “I can’t believe he’s gone. He was just here with me.”

Lelone stood quietly in the doorway, because she didn’t know how to respond when she was feeling the exact same way. Della continued, “This is my fault you know.”

Confused at what she meant Lelone’s face scrunched up. “What do you mean?”

“I’m the one who told them to leave the house. LJ has been wonderful with the girls. He had done nothing but go to work and come straight home to help me. I just thought that he deserved to get out the house with his best friend and go relieve some stress. I was also trying to get him out of my way. I was planning a surprise for him which I finished last night while waiting on him to return.”

She got out of her chair and led the way to the kitchen and pulled out the small cake with blue and pink fondant on it.

“I went to the doctor yesterday morning for my six-week checkup and it seems that I’m expecting another set of twins. I was going to tell him when he got home last night but he never returned and he never will. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him. He was not just the father of my children but he was also the love of my life. I can’t imagine life without him.”

Della began to weep again. Lelone could see why she was feeling that way. She was getting ready to have four children under the age of two by herself. On top of that she was going to have to bury the love of her life.

“Della go ahead and lay down. I’m going to take care of the girls for you while I’m here. You should get some sleep.”

She nodded and headed to her room without making any sort of fuss.

~~~

Officer McFalley sat outside of the morgue for over an hour before he realized what was going on. They were discussing what happened to the boy. He would have to think of something quickly to give them something more to think about. He was going to have to go and take care of the boy’s family. He would need his partner to cover for him while he got the job done so they wouldn’t be considered suspects.

He immediately called Officer McKinney, when he didn’t answer he called his house phone to speak with his wife. When there was no answer there either he decided to take matters into his own hands. From the information that he pulled up on Detective Farmouth’s computer he knew where they stayed and that his wife would be at home by herself with their children. He would go and take care of them and make it look like an intruder broke in and killed them all. Once they put the pieces together they would think it was the same person who killed the husband.