Storm clouds are slowly moving in from the south as everyone gathers around the casket of eighteen-year-old Samantha. All of her friends and family have gathered to pay their last respects. As the preacher finishes the sermon and everyone departs, Sam’s mother walks over to her daughters’ casket and lays a single tea-colored rose on top in remembrance.
“I should have put the green dress on her. Green was her favorite color you know.” She says as she turns to face the detective.
Detective Kelly looks into the grieving mothers' eyes and feels her pain.
“I will find the one responsible for this Mrs. Manning. I promise you that. He will not get away with this. I will not rest until he is found.”
Mrs. Manning nods wearily and turns her attention back to the casket.
Kelly takes this as his cue to leave and turns towards the parking lot in the direction of his red Chevy pickup. It is parked in the last row next to the iron fence overgrown with weeds. Looks like rain he thinks as he gets behind the wheel and peers out the windshield.
It is getting late, but he doesn’t feel much like going home so he decides to head back to the station and see if there are any leads on a suspect. Feeling a little frustrated at having hit a brick wall after a week of searching.
Thoughts of the young woman send chills down his spine. How could someone do that to her? he thinks as he pulls into the parking lot of the police station. Detective Kelly is deep in thought as he quickly makes his way inside. He barely makes it through the station door before he hears the Captain yelling for him to get into his office.
“Do you have any leads on this maniac yet? We need to find him now before he strikes again Detective!”
“I just came from the funeral sir. I had hoped the family might have some ideas about who would want to harm their daughter, but no one had a clue as to a possible suspect. She was just getting ready to go off to college next week. She was so happy her mother told me. They just don’t understand. She had her whole life ahead of her.”
“Just find him Kelly.” says the Captain. With that, he waves Kelly out and turns back to his computer.
Detective Kelly heads for his desk piled high with unfinished paperwork from last week. He sits down to reflect on what he has found out so far. Suddenly his phone startles him out of his reverie. It rings several times before he reaches over and grabs the receiver.
“Detective Kelly,” He says to the person on the other end of the phone.
“She was a beauty, wasn’t she? Just like the others.” A man’s voice on the other end of the phone says mockingly.
“Who is this?” asks Kelly.
“Now why would I tell you that? You have to find that out for yourself. I have given you a clue and you still don’t get it!” The voice on the other end becomes very agitated.
“What clue? Where?” Kelly asks, trying to keep the man on the phone long enough to get something out of him.
“It won’t stop!” The agitated voice on the other end of the phone booms and then hangs up.
“No! Wait!” Yells Kelly but realizes it is too late.
The office suddenly becomes very quiet; everyone is looking in Kelly’s direction. He is too wrapped up in his thoughts to care. Everyone slowly goes back to what they were doing. After about ten minutes of pondering the new information, he decides to go check out the crime scene once more to see if he might have overlooked something the first time around. He stands up and heads for the door.
Outside Kelly looks up at the setting sun and realizes that it is getting dark fast. He decides to at least give the crime scene a once over quickly and go back first thing in the morning. He doesn’t want the incoming storm to wash any evidence away if he can help it.
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Kelly pulls up next to the railroad tracks where the body was found seven days earlier and gets out of his truck. He begins doing a wider sweep of the area where the body had been laying. After about twenty-five minutes of searching, he is about to give up when he spots something white lying between the tracks under the train. He picks it up and at first, it appears to be just an old discarded piece of paper, but on closer examination, he notices it is a typed out note made from one of those old typewriters. It reads, 2991 - Find this on a calendar and you will be one step closer.
Detective Kelly thinks hard about the numbers and words that are typed on the paper, but he has no clue what they might mean.
Could this be the clue the man on the phone is referring to?
The next morning, as Kelly stumbles out of bed the numbers from the note, come rushing back to him.
“2991… could it be? Could he be back after fifteen years of hiding?” The man on the phone yesterday said, “Samantha was beautiful just like the others. The only difference is that Samantha’s heart was cut out with precision unlike the five young women in 1992. How could I have not seen this before?”
Kelly soon realizes that he is running late for work. He would have run out the door without his holster if he hadn’t caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the way to the front door. After grabbing his holster and double-checking he has everything this time he makes his way to his truck. The drive to work is slow due to morning traffic. As he pulls into the parking lot as close to the police station as he can, he notices that the Captain hasn’t arrived yet. He breathes a sigh of relief. Good, he thinks. I will have time to look through the old unsolved murder files before he arrives.
The first thing Detective Kelly notices after entering the station is how cold it is compared to outside. He can already feel the cold seeping into his bones.
“The heat must be on the fritz again”. He says to the man standing next to the front door. The man nods in agreement as he walks over and plugs in the portable heater next to his desk.
Kelly makes his way to his desk and lays down some paperwork not related to the current case. He makes one last stop before going to the file room to grab a cup of coffee. All the while thinking to himself, I need to start bringing coffee. I can’t take too much more of this mud.
Heading downstairs, he flips on the overhead lights and stands there in the doorway of the room for a minute until his eyes adjust to the dim light.
Where to start, he thinks and how far back should he go?
Reaching for the file cabinet marked nineteen ninety-two he starts flipping through each unsolved murder. Nothing seems to fit the M.O. of the current case. Feeling a bit frustrated he looks over to the clock next to the bookshelf and it reads nine-forty. He grabs the next file in the drawer and reads aloud.
“Reason for death… victims’ heart was cut out with a jagged-edged object. Never found the heart or weapon used.”
Realizing that he has been down there for almost two hours he replaces all of the files except for the last one and heads back upstairs.
“Has anyone seen Detective Kelly this morning?” yells the Captain.
Everyone moans a no and goes back to what they are doing. Kelly hopes that the Captain will be happy with what he has to say this morning. He is closer to a possible lead than he has been in the past week. He also believes that he might even have an idea of where to look next.
Slowly he makes his way to the Captain’s small-enclosed office. After knocking he opens the door and enters expecting the worst.
“Ah... Detective Kelly, please take a seat. What do you have for me this morning?” the Captain asks.
“Well, Sir… Last night I went back to the crime scene and found this note.” Kelly hands him the note sealed in a clear plastic bag.
Kelly waits for the Captain to look over the note before speaking. When the captain looks up, he adds, “I think we might have a suspect resurfaced. Do you remember the murders of `92? The case we are working on now has the same M.O., but with slight differences. The heart of the young girl Samantha was cut out with precision as if done by a surgeon. The other victims’ hearts were cut out as if done by an amateur.”
“Yes, I remember those particular cases and we never found closure for any of those poor young women and their families. Do you have any ideas on who this person might be Kelly?”
“I have my theories, but not definite. I think we need to check out the most recent graduates of the med school and hospitals in the last 20 years. What do you think?” asks Detective Kelly.
“It’s worth a try. Get to work on the graduate's and I will have someone call the local hospitals and get the names of recent hires for surgeons.”
Kelly stands and heads for the door.
After five hours of calling around, he has only one possible suspect to bring in for questioning. He is a thirty-five-year-old man, a recent med graduate who works at the Manhattan Memorial Hospital.
The Captain quickly orders the SWAT team to close in and within the hour the man gives himself up.
Kelly calls the family of the recent victim to inform them of the capture and confession. After hanging up the phone he leans back in his chair and says,
"Two cases solved in one day." Not bad at all, He thinks. Not bad at all.
E. A. Justice © 2020