Chapter 8
1814 Words
“I’ll have a whiskey on the rocks.” He hates drinking, especially since he promised his sister he would stop. It seems he just couldn’t stop disappointing her and himself.
“I only have First Watch Whiskey.” The barman replied.
Not his favourite but beats the coffee back at the precinct. “Make it a double then.” The barman nodded. He set his drink down on a napkin and slid it towards him on the slab. Byron tossed back the whiskey and pushed the empty glass. Nothing worse than the bland taste of cheap whiskey.
He pulled his phone from his jacket when it started ringing. “Detective Tait.” He answered.
The drink coiled and turned to acid in his stomach when he heard his partners voice. “We have a 10-999.” SOS alert for cop down.
“On my way.” He hung up, paid for his drink and followed the directions Terence gave him. The street was blocked by hundreds of police cars. An ambulance. Network station vans.
Byron wanted to be wrong. He stepped behind the yellow tape and up to his partner. His skin crawled with cold shudders when he slowly recognized the face of their new victim. His wife’s body wasn’t even buried yet and here he was facing the gravel of a street.
Officer Georg Matthews.
He felt sick to his stomach when Byron realized he was the last one who saw him alive. He couldn’t get that horror look of Matthews out of his head when he received that call. He was so scared and Byron should have tried harder to locate him and protect him.
Byron acknowledged his partner and the rest of the law enforcement, including his captain who also joined them at the scene. He didn’t look any happier than the rest of the cops.
“Causes?” He asked Catherine who was barely holding it together but forced everything aside for the sake of the importance of this case.
“Clean slit to her throat. Left him to bleed out.” Catherine explained.
First his wife and now this.
He looked at his captain. “You know how this works, Tait. This requires immediate attention and all available units will respond A.S.A.P. We need to find this killer before he targets another victim.” Byron nodded.
“I’m putting Rick on the case with you.” Byron frowned.
“We can handle this.” Byron protested.
“Not by the looks of things.” Rick snarled from behind him.
“You got a cop murdered in cold blood.” Rick sneered at him when he turned around to look at him. “You didn’t try hard enough to locate Evelyn’s phone and find this son-of-a-bitch.” He continued to growl at Byron.
Byron wanted to punch him in the face and charge him with being an accomplice to murder but he would break Matthew’s promise and he will be charged with withholding evidence. “It’s not what’s on her phone. It’s what she knows, dumbass.” Byron snapped at him.
“Evelyn was a journalist. She must have been planning on working on something that got her killed. Matthews could have tried to find out what she was working on and it got him killed too.” The captain gave him a questioning look.
“How do you know all of this?”
“It’s just a hunch.” Byron lied.
“How are we going to prove it?” The captain queried. Showing real interest, not like Rick who was turning redder by the minute from anger.
“Go back to the first scene. Their house. Find out what Evelyn knew. Then we can find our killer.” The captain nodded.
He then turned to everyone. “You heard men. We start from the beginning. Let’s find the primary crime scene from Evelyn Matthews. This is now our primary case. I want every cop involved in this until we find the killer.” Rick glared at Byron.
“You just signed your death wish, Tait.” Byron felt sick to his stomach but kept his face straight.
He started making his way back to his car when he saw a familiar face in the crowd. Raine. She gave him a knowing look. He motioned for the cop to let her through. “Did you know that this was going to happen?" He asked her. Gesturing for her to follow him to his car.
“Didn’t I warn you that this a bad case?” She didn’t answer his question instead she answered him with a question of her own.
“How do you know about these people and these dirty cops?” He questioned her.
“You’ve just overlooked them, detective. For a guy who has been through a lot, you trust too easily. You need to look at your colleagues as if they are guilty until proven otherwise. Matthews didn’t lie when he told you to trust no one.” He frowned at her.
“How did you know about that?” He was stunned.
“Don’t tell me that you don’t remember me when you ordered your terrible, watered-down coffee back at the Diner?” He blinked at her.
“Who are you working for?” He almost growled.
“That’s not important right now. You need to drop this case or that will be you in a few hours. These guys don’t play around, detective.” She motioned to the black body bag.
“Why not help me find them?” He tried but he knew the look too well on her face.
“I don’t think you are capable of taking them down by yourself. Even if my sister looks at you as if you are some kind of god.”
“Sister? Wait. There is two of you?”
Her smile was sad before she covered it up. “Something like that.”
“Tait!” He looked at his partner who jogged over to them. Dunn gave Raine a questioning look. “Weren’t you the witness?” He asked her.
“She’s a reporter.” Byron lied. She looked a bit surprised but masked it with a sincere smile when she shook Dunn’s hand.
“Linda Walsh.” She used a cover name.
“Terence Dunn.” She nodded at him. “Do you have some information you like to share with us?” He asked her.
“I thought the same thing.” Raine shared a knowing look with him.
“Not at this stage. I will keep you informed.” Raine acknowledged him with a curt nod before she gave Terence a smile.
“See you later, detective.” Terence watched her walk away.
“Hmm, a beautiful piece of ass. You always know how to draw the beautiful ones out.” Terence said looking back at him. Byron just shook his head in dismay.
“Was there something you want to tell me?” He asked Dunn.
“Yeah, I thought I could catch a ride with you over to Evelyn and George’s house.” Byron nodded and gestured for him to get in. They headed over to their house to see if they could find evidence that could help them out find a lead.
His phone vibrated with a message from Daisy. Dunn gave him a questioning look.
“Just Daisy asking me if I’m okay. She heard that there was an officer down.” Dunn nodded and slipped on his gloves before they entered the house.
Everything was untouched. There wasn’t a single thing out of place. It didn’t even look as if George spend last night at home. “This is not making sense at all,” Byron murmured, digging through the trash only to find it empty. Someone was covering their tracks pretty well. The killer was organized.
Byron’s shoulders stiffened when he felt a barrel of a gun pressing up against the back of his head. “You could never let things go.” He was startled when he recognized Terence Dunn’s voice.
His partner was a dirty cop.
Trust no one. Not even your partner. Matthews words echoed in the back of his mind.
“So, it was always you who covered up evidence?” Byron noted.
“You made it challenging in the beginning but I got it done.”
“Tell me. Is it worth breaking your oath of serving and protecting your city?” Byron snarled, feeling rage coiling through his veins.
“The mob pays better.”
“Why not quit then?”
“They need someone inside.”
“What about Rick?” He questioned.
“That asshole? He is FBI. Been undercover for months making everyone believe he worked with the mob. Even had Evelyn convinced. His mission was to draw me out but it seems he has lost. I will make him believe that you were the leak after he finds you dead.” Byron closed his eyes. The last time he felt this weak was the death of his parents when couldn't do anything to save them.
“Drop your weapon!” Rick’s voice echoed throughout the room.
Byron relaxed just a tiny bit. He dropped to the ground when he heard rounds of shots fired. He went for his holstered firearm, rolled over and found Rick on the ground gasping for air while Dunn stood over him. “No!” Byron fired a shot that got Dunn on the shoulder.
He went sprawling and Byron pushed himself up. He winced when he realized that he was shot in the arm. Byron neared Dunn with caution and almost didn’t see him pointing his weapon at him. The window shattered from next to him and a woman dressed in black leather jumped through the window and knocked the firearm out of Dunn’s hand. She knocked Dunn out with a punch to his face and then turned to face Byron.
“Raine?” He was stunned.
“He is not your only worries right now. There are men outside, ordered to kill you and the FBI agent, Rick.” He took in her weapons and frowned.
“What are you?” She gave him a pointed look.
“That's not important right now. We have other problems like getting out of here.” She reached for Rick when the whole room exploded around them.
- Writer
