Constable Jackson and Constable Jenny returned to Metro General Hospital.
There were too many questions that needed to be asked. To many what ifs and what nots that could not be solved instantly. However, they believe there was only one person who can answer everything in a single sitting. They were on the way through the prison ward section of the hospital to find him.
“Circles,” Jackson muttered as he tugged on his fedora. “Frank Tucker has been pulling our chains around in circles. I’ve had enough.”
Jenny rushed ahead of her partner, trying to slow his marching. “Don’t do anything rash. Even right now, we can’t jump to conclusions.”
“Look, Jenny jeans. Listen.” Jackson patted his partner on the shoulder, but she shrugged it off “This guy has taken us for a loop, making us believe he was a victim of a dead wife slayed by a sadistic serial killer. From day zero to now, he fooled us with crocodile tears.” He clenched his jaw, muscles rippling in his cheek. “What pushes my buttons the most – anyone’s buttons really – is the fact his wife was alive while he waved around another woman’s dead body to pity them. I am in no mood to pull my punches.”
“There are still too many questions we need to clear up!” Jenny retorted, pushing Jackson back to make her point. “If you rush in without a plan, he could turn the table and make him look more the victim!”
“Oh I have a plan of attack alright.” Jackson tugged on his fedora, down over his forehead with a leer. “Attack.”
“NO!”
Jenny ended up being dragged by Jackson as he marched onward, grabbing a security card from the hospital ward officer. They eventually stopped in front of Room Nr-B2. Without hesitation, Jackson swiped his card through the reader and pushed the door open.
Beep
“Frank Tucker! You better have a good lawyer cuz—SWEET JESUS!”
“Jackson what’s wron—MR. TUCKER!”
Frank Tucker dangled from the ceiling. His noose was his bed sheets and blankets tied together, hooked around an overhead railing used for machines to lift heavy weight patients. The constables stared as he swung to and from, face turning blue. A look of resign.
“Jenny here!” Jackson whipped out his Swiss Army tool and tossed it over to Jenny. It bounced in her cold hands until her fingers squeezed around the handle, ejecting the blade out.
Together, Jackson lunged over to grip and lift Frank Tucker by the legs while Jenny jumped onto the bed to start cutting the bed sheet noose. The husband gasped back to life, and started to violently thrash about. He threw a kick into Jackson’s gut and slapped Jenny with the back of his hand. After what felt like an eternity of desperate kicking and screaming, Jenny was able to cut the bed sheets!
Jackson flipped over to pin Frank Tucker onto the ground, using his weight as a restraint. “YO WHAT’S THE DEAL MAN!?”
“The warden told me...Sarah is...I...” Frank Tucker, trapped and helpless, could do nothing but cry. Thick tears drip down his face as he wailed. “Let me die. I failed to protect Sarah. She’s dead because of me. Please, just let me join heeer.”
“...Two women are dead.” Jenny climbed down the bed and knelt next to Jackson as he pinned Frank Tucker on the floor. She shook her head, rubbing one hand on her knee. “How many more will die because of how selfish you have been? This isn’t about affairs or insurance fraud. This is murder, TWO murders. Do you really believe you can easily walk away from all this?”
Jackson and Frank Tucker fell silent. They stared at Jenny, who was waving around the Swiss Army knife. She didn’t realize it, until she noticed their stares. The constable clapped the blade back inside, cleared her throat and looked at Frank Tucker right in the eyes.
“Please, tell us. Did you kill Sarah Tucker, for real?”
“NO! Never! It...it was all just an accident.”
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“It...it all started several weeks ago.” Frank Tucker was curled up in the corner of his room on the floor. He hugged his knees, tears streaming his face as he choked on his words. “I went to pick up my wife, like any other night. We argued...like any other night.”
Jackson and Jenny sat on the floor with him, surrounding him. At the same time they moved away anything that could be used as a weapon or means for suicide. They even added extra guards at the doorway with a medical team on standby. Jackson pulled off his fedora, plopping it in his crossed legs. “What exactly did you two argue about?”
Frank Tucker rubbed the tears and snot from his face with a palm, “We agreed to break off our affairs. Her with her doctor and me with Felicia. But because my business hasn’t been doing well, I didn’t have time to be serious with Felicia and call it off.” The husband made a chortled snort, eyes reddening as his throat clenched to choke aside his crying. “My wife thought I was still seeing my mistress. I kept telling her no, I just didn’t have the opportunity or mental energy. Our tempers flared up, she started hitting me. I...I wasn’t paying attention to the road, she pushed my arm then...” The husband hid his face behind his palms. “I killed her. That other woman.”
Jenny flinched. “The original corpse?”
“I didn’t know her, I swear! Purely accidental! I wasn’t paying attention to the road, it was dark, she came out of no where then...” Frank Tucker slapped a fist into his palm, tearing up more. “Sarah w-was a nurse, right? So-so immediately she went to help the woman, wh-while I was trying to look for my phone!”
“Why didn’t you call the police at the time?” Jackson asked.
“Th-that’s the thing, officers! Wh-when my wife said we couldn’t save the girl, she was already dead, I TRIED to call the police – S-Sarah wouldn’t let me!”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Jenny’s eyebrow furrowed. “...Sarah Tucker told you not to call the police?”
“Yes!” Frank Tucker nodded, eyes wide. “I-I w-was shocked myself. Sarah told me don’t call anyone. She was worried this would cause problems for me, she didn’t want the police to think I-I murdered her in cold blood or a rapist, whatever. I-I was lost myself th-then...she told me to help her toss the body off the side of the road.”
The constables stared.
“I-I’m serious! Believe me! S-Sarah said there was nothing we could do, so we tossed the woman’s body in a ditch. Sh-she even took the woman’s bag, but I couldn’t ask my questions at the time as we quickly drove away.” Frank Tucker dropped his hands across his knees, exhausted. “I found a place to hide the car, to-to clean off all the blood. I tried to convince her, to let me call the police or we’re both in trouble. D-do you know what she told me?”
“What?” Jenny asked. She then remembered to make notes and she whipped out her tablet, typing everything down. “What happened?”
Frank Tucker took in a deep breath, staring at Jenny as if she a ghost. “Sarah started mumbling to herself. Said the girl had the same blood type as herself, O negative. Sarah saw the woman’s medical ID from the bag she brought. Even mentioned the woman had the same build, height, and hair. Then she told me something I’ll never forget...” The husband rubbed his hands through his hair, staring at the floor of his hospital cell.
“Sarah said: ‘If I died, wouldn't it solve all of our problems?’”
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“My wife recalled the life insurance I prepared for her.” Frank Tucker shook his head, eyes red and puffy. “One thing led to another, and she suggested we use the woman’s body to pretend it was her. I said, it would never work, DNA and all that! B-but then she mentioned she saw something similar on a Netflix show and thought she could do that.”
Jenny typed furiously onto her tablet, getting every detail. Jackson covered his mouth, resisting the urge to throw his fists. So he ended up drumming his fingers across the top of his fedora sitting on his knee.
Frank Tucker inhaled a shuddering breath. “We drove back to where we left the body, made sure no one was looking, and brought it back with us. We took it to another wood working factory I knew of that was up for sale, completely empty of anyone so no one would ever know.”
Jenny raised her head. “What did you do after you severed the body?”
“...Officer I...I didn’t...I wasn’t the one who dismembered the woman.”
“Yo wut?” Jackson clenched gripped at his fedora, the veins in his throat bulging. “Are you saying your wife was...”
After a hesitant pause, the husband bobbed his head up and down. “Sarah was that doctor’s assistant, he does bone surgery. She knew everything there was to dismember a body. And she did it so quickly, so quietly. E-even I had goosebumps, watching Sarah remove one limb at a time with just a hack saw. Eyes, full of determination, focus, I... A-all I could do was either throw up, or wipe the sweat and blood from her eyes.” Frank Tucker couldn’t help a slight pause, clenching his eyes to block out a vivid memory. “Sarah did it. All seven pieces. W-we remembered about finger prints, so she also removed the fingers. We agreed to dispose of the chest, legs, and arms some place where people are likely to stumble upon it b-but make it look like a regular murder, not linking it back to us. S-since the Splitter was on the loose I thought...you know...”
Jenny leaned in while typing, “Where did you dispose the pieces we don’t have? The head and pelvis? The rest of the fingers?”
Frank Tucker’s cheeks bulge with a sickening sound. “Sorry I...Sarah told me to grind them up into a chipper. After I did a couple of fingers, I couldn’t stand seeing the mess. So I put the rest in a bag with some rocks and tossed it into Lake Tampa, the other end of town. Just, it made my stomach churn seeing all that gore. Afterwards, I brought my wife to my buddy’s place, a cottage at Cherry Grove. He’s out of town and he asked me to renovate it while he was away. I-I couldn’t think of anywhere else, so I took Sarah there to rest and recover from...”
Jenny dared to ask. “The thumb. Did she really...”
Frank Tucker covered his mouth with a nod. “By her own hand, all of it, for my sake. My sake. She’s dead. Gone. Th-there is nothing I can do now, to make things up for all suffering I gave her. I shouldn’t have let her go, then she wouldn’t have to force herself on that doctor, to get my attention! I was wrong, wrong to have a relationship with Felicia. It’s my fault! All my fault!” Then he started to strike at himself, punching his own face in fury and guilt.
Jackson rose to his feet. He jabbed his fedora back on his head, slanted over his forehead with a leer. “Frank Tucker. You’re under arrest for the murder of the unnamed victim and the murder of Sarah Tucker, legit. Anything you say can be and will be used against you in court. You have the right to remain--”
“W-wait. Wait officer! I told you, I didn’t kill Sarah! I swear by God! I-I just found out she died from, from the warden! I-I wanted to kill myself, I-I wouldn’t have done it to her! Not after what she did for me! She chopped off her own thumb to protect me!”
“Your wife knew your secret!” Jackson jabbed a finger into Frank Tucker’s chest, letting out his seething in a hard point. “She faked her death to get the insurance money for you. Now that everyone, even the police, believed she was dead and gone, you made sure she wouldn’t pull a magic trick and come back from the grave to spill her guts about you!”
“NO! NEVER! I seriously promised a new life for her, for us to start over! We-we just needed to wait until the payout was approved! H-how could I kill her when we’re so close to what we wanted!?”
“Then tell us,” Jenny rose up and stepped in between the constable and suspect. “Where were you last night? Can anyone account for you?”
“N-no of course no one can account for me! We had to make everyone believe Sarah was dead, I couldn’t risk someone tailing me! I-I secretly went to visit her to bring her food. Then I made sure she took her medications before she went to sleep! J-just when I got back home, y-you raided my apartment!”
Immediately, Jenny pulled up her tablet. With a few press of her finger tips, she produced an image. It showed a car racing down a street in the middle of the city, caught by a police camera. “Is this your car, Mr. Tucker?”
The suspect froze, staring at the vehicle in the photo. “Wh...what? Y-yes that’s my car but I don’t remember--”
“The coroner confirmed, Sarah Tucker died between 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM, we arrested you around 3:45 AM this morning. This dash cam was taken between her time of death and your arrest and it was coming from the direction of Cherry Grove. Not to mention, we estimate it only takes 30 minutes between the scene of the crime and your apartment.”
“No! Wait! Officer! You got it all wrong! Th-that car is mine, b-but I wasn’t there when the picture was taken! I was somewhere else, I am telling the truth! You got to believe me!”
Jenny closed the image on her tablet and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “You are allowed to contact your lawyer. If you do not have one, the court will appoint one to you. Do you understand your rights?”
“I DIDN’T KILL SARAH! I CONFESS, I RAN THE OTHER WOMAN OVER! I DON’T EVEN KNOW HER NAME! BUT I WOULD NEVER HURT SARAH! EVER! I EVEN ORDERED A BRAND NEW WEDDING BAND FOR HER, CUSTOM MADE! I WANTED TO RENEW OUR VOW! WHY WOULD I DO THAT ONLY TO KILL HER! PLEASE, CONSTABLES! BELIEVE ME! BELIEVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
== TO BE CONTINUED ==>