The Promise (39 page)

              Gallagher was grasping at straws now, “Any chance of examining the body. Digging it up?”

              Lackey put a chaw of tobacco in his cheek, “Not a real good chance now. He was cremated. You can put loads of gravy on that sumbitch! You want to examine the urn?”

              Disgusted, the detective turned to leave. Then, he had an idea, “Can I see the records of people he worked on? I’m working on a case and I had a question about one of your, uh, clients.”

              The director shot some of his chaw into the spittoon. “It’s fine with me, which hombre?”

              “His name was Malcom, actually, Mark Halverson. He died about a month ago. He was the assistant headmaster of the Colony school. I had talked to Mr. Sanders about this already, but I had a couple more questions I need answers to. Can you assist me here?”

              The head of the funeral home was a genial Southern good ole boy, “Sure, come with me.” He led the detective into his office and went over to a large file cabinet. He began flipping through file folders, “Haas, Hack, Haddon, Haffner,”

              “Don’t you have a computer, Mr. Lackey?” Gallagher wondered aloud.

              “Nah, this is simpler. Computers break, my files never do…”Hakim, Hall, Halverson-Mark. Here we go.” He pulled out the file folder and handed it to the detective. “Have a look.”

              The detective went over to the couch and sat down. He opened the file and began reading the specifics written by the deceased administrator. Everything looked normal until he noticed something odd.

              “Mr. Lackey, may I take this file with me? I need to investigate it a little more…”

              Unfortunately, the director knew the law, “Not unless you have a court order, detective. You know the rules, sir.”

              Gallagher laughed, “Oh, yeah, those rules. I remember now. Okay, I’ll be back. Thanks, Mr. Lackey. Again, I’m sorry about your buddy. He seemed like a nice guy.”

              The mortician smiled wanly, “Yeah, he was a good worker. He still owes me money, though, loved to gamble.”

              As the detective walked briskly to his car, he was sure of one thing. According to the mortuary report, the man who had been embalmed in that funeral home was not Malcolm Oden. The assistant headmaster had greenish gray eyes.

The man who had been examined by Al Sanders had brown eyes. It added up that Allison Taylor was not the only person who had vanished in thin air.

Chapter Seventy
-one--dr. morgan shows Up

             
As Gallagher sat in the conference room waiting the Chief and Elie, he had a little chat with his lucky leprechaun. “So, who do you think took Allison Taylor, any ideas?”

His Irish charm stared silently back at him. “Oh, you’re processing your answer, huh? That’s good deductive work, my little friend.”

Still no response.

His mascot was baiting him to reveal his hunches first. “I am going with Malcolm Oden as my primary suspect, Mick. Then in order, I like Dr. Morgan, Redding Shaw and, his goofy son. After that, I would have to go with Margaret Williams or maybe Archer Taylor on a long shot.

Finally, I think Allison disappeared voluntarily. I think Elie would reverse the order of that list. Because she thinks,”

              “I think you’re right, Gallagher. I also think you’re as nutty as a Payday bar talking to that damn toy.” Elie laughed as she entered the room. “You’re scaring me. I thought I was weird conversing with my imaginary friends as a little girl! I suggest meds, in large quantities.”

              He turned around to see his partner with a big smile on her face as she sat down. Thankfully, the chief had not appeared yet. Their little secret concerning his “mental condition” was safe from his superior.

“You need to know something, Elie. Every case I have ever solved I did so with Mick’s input. He’s a criminal genius. He’ll figure out this one, too.” Looking over at the smiling leprechaun, “Isn’t that right, little guy?”

More mute staring from the Irish mascot. Happily Gallagher was satisfied with the response.

              “So, what’s the big news about the morgue visit, Gallagher?” Elie asked.

As he began to answer, his boss walked in. “Hello, Chief, let me see your eyes today,” smiled the detective.

As the Chief frowned at him for this seemingly off the wall statement, Gallagher announced, “Yep, they’re still blue.” Looking into Elie’s eyes, he made a second observation, “And, yours are still green.”

As both Parker and Larsen looked at each other wondering if their main investigator had flipped his lid, he intoned dramatically, “And, Malcolm Oden had greenish gray eyes, right Elie?”

              She smiled knowingly, “Yes, and I’m glad they are as dead as he is, Gallagher.”

              The detective smiled back but he wasn’t happy about it, “They may not be as dead as he is.” He paused for dramatic effect, “They may be as alive as he is.”

              Elie choked out a response, “What do you mean, Gallagher?”

              The Chief looked stunned.

              Gallagher shook his head as he calmly explained what he had seen in the Mark Halverson file folder,

“The man who was embalmed after Malcolm Oden’s body was brought in had brown eyes. I saw the report. That can only mean one thing.”

              Elie didn’t even want to say the conclusive words, so Chief Parker did, “That he faked his death and he’s still alive. He must have substituted someone else for his own corpse. How and why he did it is our job to find out.”

              The police woman couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was a nightmare for her. The one guy who had not only tried to seduce her but tried to kill her was out there roaming around.

Alive.

She was furious, “I can’t believe this, Gallagher. This is incomprehensible to me! That monster is still out there?”

              Before Gallagher or the Chief could calm her, she stood up and quickly strode out of the room bumping into an officer as he spilled his coffee all over himself.

              Parker spoke first, “Understandable.”

              His detective agreed, “Yeah.”

              For a minute, neither of them spoke. Finally, Gallagher said, “Maybe we should send her back to Virginia, for her protection. I want her safety more than anything else.”

              “It’s your call, Mike. I’ll do whatever you recommend here.” Chief Parker assured him.

              As they sat there pondering Elie’s fate, the phone in the conference room rang, “Hello?” answered Gallagher. “Yes, this is Mike Gallagher. Who’s this?”

              As the detective listened, his face took on a strange expression. He never spoke another word to the party on the other end. Abruptly, he hung up. Chief Parker was naturally curious. “Who was that, Mike?”

              “That was Dr. Morgan’s executive secretary. She was hysterical. They found Theotis Morgan about an hour ago. He had been shot twice in the back of the head while sitting in his car.”

              “Where?” Parker asked.

              “In the parking lot behind the Colony school, we need to get over there right away.”

              The Chief whistled to himself. “They’re dropping like flies all around us, Mike.”

              Gallagher grimly nodded, “If all these people are ending up dead that tells us one thing…”

              Parker asked him, “That is?”

              “Allison Taylor is dead, too.”

Chapter Seventy-
two---Is it Safe?

             
Elie was berating life as she drove back to her room. “
This is unfair!”
She shouted silently to herself. “
Why is that monster still alive?”

She turned her car into the parking lot and sat for a moment inside before exiting her vehicle. Then, she checked her gun and made certain the safety latch was off before she headed upstairs.

She had to be alert and ready for any possibilities now. As she approached her room, she noticed a note on the floor partially hidden under her door. She looked around and then leaned over to pick it up. Quickly unlocking the door, she entered her room, double-locked the door and opened the note. It read,

             
Hello, Bree. Now that Verna and Allison are gone, I can PROMISE you that the chances are good you will join them soon. You are evil just like they were. Justice is coming.             

             
The police woman recoiled in horror as she read the note. She jumped off her bed and ran into the bathroom running cold water over her face between more sobs.

This was a nightmare that wouldn’t go away.

She took her time calming down and finally was able to compose herself and sat down on her bed.

Taking the note gently by one of his edges, she carefully placed it into a sandwich bag to protect it for prints. Then, she called Gallagher to tell him about this new development.

              “Mike? It’s Elie. I just got a threatening note from an unknown source. I have it here in my dorm room. I need to get over to the lab right away for prints and DNA .”

              Gallagher was in agreement, “Right. I’m actually on my way over to your school right now. They found Dr. Morgan…”

              Elie was pleased, “Great. He is back from his trip?”

              The detective’s voice was somber, “Elie, they found him with two bullet holes in the back of his head.

“Oh my god. He’s dead?”

Yes, and sitting in his car at the school. I’m almost there now. I’ll meet you back at my office in about an hour, after I do my initial investigation there.”

              She protested, “Why don’t I just wander over to where Morgan’s body is and check it out? I can act like an innocent high school girl who’s curious so I can protect my cover.”

              “Nice try, but no. We aren’t going to let anyone from that school near the crime scene. Just go to the lab and I will see you shortly. I’ll fill you in when I get there, okay? And, bring a copy of the note so I can read it.”