Book 3 - Part 6: Facing Evil - Chapter Eight
Thursday – December 29th
4137 Monroe Avenue – 7:06 a.m.
Once again, Reid was watching the Marsh home, but this time from a few houses away.
He has already watched Frankie get in his truck and head to work or wherever his construction site is.
Twenty minutes later, the garage door opened, and the purple Hummer backed out with only the driver inside. It was Frankie’s wife. Reid spotted, with the binoculars, that there was another car in the garage. A bright blue Ford Taurus, with out-of-state plates. Ohio. As the Hummer backed onto the street and left, the garage door closed.
Reid sat in the car another thirty minutes. No other movement other than the neighbors leaving for wherever they go.
He looked at his watch: 7:50.
He checked his gun. Locked and loaded.
Now is as good as time as any, he thought.
Pulling away from where he was parked, he drove up the street to the Marsh home and pulled right up onto the driveway. The rest of the neighborhood was as silent as a baby sleeping.
This was either going to be really easy, or real hard.
Lazy Rest Inn – 7:55 a.m.
Freddy was forming his own plans. Plans to snare a one-legged kid for bait. He never had any intention of killing the kid, but the threats he made had the desired effect on sweet Janis. He has a mother on a power trip as a cop, and a wanna-be daddy in Manning. How more fucked up can a kid get. But end his life, not happening. The boy will hate him, but that’s nothing new for Freddy. He can get in line with a few hundred other people.
Then there is that self-styled, macho-prick, Manning. He was so going to enjoy stripping the flesh off his bones and hear the pleading cries and shrieks rise out of his mouth, and the pleading sobs from sweet Janis to stop.
She was the main event. Doing Manning would lead to the grand finale. He would take her. Abuse her. Rape her repeatedly. When he was fully sated of his hate for her, Freddy would gently kiss her bruised and battered face, and then cut her into small pieces and leave her, and Manning on the front steps of the police department. It would be a fitting end.
He would pick up the boy at the end of the school day.
Freddy picked up his phone and called a realtor.
“Yes, is this Marie Hampton?”
“It is.”
“Miss Hampton, this is Craig Murray. We spoke some time ago about renting a house at Standing Lake, for at least a year.”
“Oh yes, I remember. My goodness, that was months ago. Honestly, I thought you gave up on the idea.”
“On the contrary. Things have changed since then, and I’ve decided to go ahead and rent it for a year after all, starting January second. It’s still $1,600 a month, correct?”
“Yes, it is. We do require $4,800 up front for the first two months and also the last month, but since you are paying for a full year ….”
“Not a problem. Do you still have my application on file?”
“I pulled your information up on the computer while we are talking, so the paper portion is still in my filing cabinet.”
“Good. I would like to go ahead and have a cashier check made out for the full amount to give to you. I can have it to you in a short amount of time.”
“Very well. Feel free to drop by any time after noonish for the keys. I’m usually in my office all day, except for Friday. Friday, I lock up by noon.”
Freddy smiled.
When a plan comes together, it makes his work that much sweeter.
Yes, sweeter than sweet, sweet Janis.
8:00 a.m.
Still no movement.
Reid decided it was time to move.
Leaving the engine running, he stepped out of his heated car into a blustery chilly morning and ran hurriedly to the front door and pressed a white button on the right-hand side of the door.
Twenty seconds later, the door swung open and there stood a small blond, shoulder-length hair, fair-skinned, green eyes, pert breasts, and overall, too skinny for his tastes; but he wasn’t here to get laid.
She looked at him and then her eyes went wide, and her body started shaking with fear when she saw the Walther P-327 in his hand.
“Back up real slow, girl.”
She couldn’t move.
“Back your ass up or your kid will be short a mother.”
That made her move when he said, kid. Her son.
Moving back, he stepped inside the house and closed the door behind him. Grabbing her by the arm, he put the pistol to her head.
“Listen up, I’m only gonna say this once, so don’t make me tell you twice. Let’s get it right the first time. Which room is your kid in and is he awake.”
Still shaking, she raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the bedroom her son was in.
“He, he’s, first room down the hall on the left, and he was asleep last I looked in on him. Please! Please don’t hurt us! My mom and dad have money. As much as you want or need! Just don’t hurt us!”
He thought for a second.
“Money? Here in the house?”
“Yes. Dad usually keeps two or three thousand in his wall safe.”
“Fuck that! Sit in the chair, girl.”
She jumped as his voice became enraged. Shaking, she sat on a dining-room chair, and Reid pulled a roll of masking tape from the inside of his coat, and began taping her arms and legs together, and placed even more over her mouth. Then he added more tape to go around her and the chair, then tipped her and the chair over on its side.
“That’ll hold you for a while.”
He turned and walked down the narrow hall and into the kid’s room. He was still sleeping. With added speed, he quickly placed tape over his mouth and as the kid woke up, he quickly bound his wrists together.
No sound came from the kid’s mouth, but if his eyes could have screamed, they would have awakened the dead.
In less than a minute, he also had the kid’s ankles bound tight, and then picked him up and put him over his shoulder and walked back to the living room where the mother, Lisa. Still lay in the same spot.
“Listen up. You tell your daddy not to call the cops. He has one day to get me fifty-grand. One day. If he don’t; your kid won’t be around. You tell him I’ll call him at five sharp tonight.”
Before he went out the front door, he peered outside from the picture-window for any signs of movement. When he felt it was safe, he went out the door to his car, opened the backseat door and dropped the kid on the seat.
Once behind the wheel, he backed out of the driveway, making certain he maintained the speed-limit. He checked the time: 8:09.
The kid was making muffled sounds and trying to curl up into himself.
Reid looked back at him.
“Don’t you worry, kid. Your people do the right thing, you’ll be home in no time.”
Reid knew something else. If things fucked up even once, he’d be back behind the walls until he died.
The Squad Room – 8:42 a.m.
“That’s pretty much it. Stanley Martin’s funeral will be this Saturday at ten in the morning. His wishes were to be buried alongside his wife and daughter. It will be an informal funeral, but for those of you who want to attend, I’m asking you to do so in full uniform. He will receive a twenty-one-gun salute. Team members are volunteering to fire rounds.
“Tomorrow night, for those who want to show up, we’ll do our private send-off at Benny’s Pub. For what it’s worth, Stan was there for every send-off, even after he retired. This is another reason I ask, out of respect, that if you attend the funeral, do so in full uniform.
“Beyond that, New Year’s is around the corner, and for those working the weekend into the new year; be extremely watchful and careful.
“We’ve gone twelve years with no fatalities this time of year, and we would like to make that, thirteen.
“So, no questions at this point, then get out there and stay safe and keep our streets safe.”
County Courthouse – 9:13 a.m.
Mayor Jean Marsh called home.
The house phone rang until the answering machine kicked in. She decided to not leave a message. Instead, she called Lisa’s cell phone. Her phone rang three times until her message of unavailable kicked in. This time, Jean did leave a message.
“Honey, I don’t know what you are doing, but I just got off the phone with your father, and he wants us all to meet him at Clancy’s, off Highway 60, for lunch at 11:30. I’ll stop by the house to pick you and Seth up. Please try to be ready by eleven. Love you.”
What Jean couldn’t hear were the muffled cries of Lisa as she tried so desperately to get out of her situation and to a phone.
It just wasn’t working for her.
Lazy Rest Inn – 10:15 a.m.
It was finished at last. Freddy certainly is a true craftsman at his art.
Before long, this face that would replace (hide) his own, would be his shining triumph. It would be this face, plus the voice he managed to replicate, that would put his plan in motion toward his perfect ending.
He gazed with an inward smile at the eyeless synthetic mask that lay on the table before him. With the over fifty photographs he had taken of Manning, he stared at his creation; the creation he would wear like a second skin. Ed Manning stared back at him without a clue.
But Freddy knew all the clues. And the answers.
Just sweet revenge, and blood.
A car pulled in, disturbing his thoughts for a moment that caused his reflexes to dart to the window and peer through the dusty, white blinds and saw his next-door neighbor again.
What is this? Someone else is in the car with him. What now?
“What in the hell! He’s got a kid in the car. A white boy all taped up. What the hell is this clown up to?
Freddy would find out soon enough.
10:55 a.m.
Jean Marsh, everyone’s favorite mayor, pulled into the driveway of her home, honked her horn to get her daughter’s attention to get her and Seth out of the house and into the Beemer so she wouldn’t have to get out of the car.
Five minutes went by. She honked again.
Another five passed, and everyone’s favorite mayor became irritated. Shutting off the engine, she practically stormed to the front door, key in hand.
She started to unlock the door only to find out it wasn’t locked. Stepping inside, she yelled for Lisa once, before she inhaled deeply as she saw Lisa on the floor, struggling desperately to get free.
In two minutes, with chafed wrists and ankles, and a set of bruised puffy lips from the tape being removed, Lisa explained what happened.
Jean started to call the police.
“Mom! No!”
“What do you mean, no. That man has Seth.”
“He knows dad from somewhere. He said he would call dad at five. He said if we call the police, he will hurt Seth. Maybe even kill him. Please, no cops!”
Jean redialed and got Frank’s answering machine.
“Frank, call me as soon as possible. You need to come home right away. It’s an emergency.”
Lisa was crying. Jean was nervous. They held each other until the phone rang three minutes later. Jean answered.
“Frank!”
“Jean, what’s going on? What emergency?”
She told him what she knew and explained everything Lisa had told her.
“I’m on my way home, and Lisa’s right, at least for now. No police.
“I’ll tell you what I know after I get home.”