Thaddeus

Three uniformed officers walked in with multiple tumblers of coffee and passed them to Sissy,Hazel and I, the six detectives, Sharon and three of her FBI agents..As we sat around the conference table,looking at a still photo of Thaddeus Barber on the 46 inch flat screen monitor...

Sissy looked at his photo and shook her head...

"Thaddeus...Ohh poor Thaddeus..I had so much hope for him...I tried to help him...I guess I didn't try hard enough...What has become of him?" she mused..

"Lou, If he is indeed our suspect..You had nothing to do with this...He made his own choice."said Duke..

"That's right...This isn't on you." said Sirena...

My wife,Carlotta who knew Sissy in a way that maybe none of the others in the room did knew that Sissy needed to unburden herself...She rubbed Sissy's shoulders..the same way Sissy had comforted so many of us...

"Tell your story boss lady." said Carlotta softly...

''Well guys...Duke, Rico,Keith, Jimmy,Hop...I know you guys follow Basketball...and I know you remember how a few years ago...Trevor Lee ,averaged 30 points a game and about 10 assists..and together with Tyrone "Shakes" McGlory won the All City Championship...two years in a row and then went on to challenge for the States don't you?" she asked..

"Yeah ,I remember that..If that boy ,Trevor Lee hadn't of got himself shot and killed..They would have won it all. He had the sweetest jump shot." said Tyriq...

"I saw them scrimage up at Sonny Hill leauge one year..Those two were baddd..Took grown men to the hoop.You were right about Trevor Lee's jump shot...I saw him light some college team up for 39 points in one game."said Jimmy.

"I was a youngin...but I heard about them..I watched them at Sonny Hill League a couple of summers.." said Hop...

"Sharon and I used to watch them play too...and we were years out of high school" said Carlotta...as Sharon nodded and smiled..

 "Yeah girl..We had some times back then.That was right before I left for Quantico..and you for the police academy.Last time we were together. We got so many phone numbers that one time we went.." she said..

Carlotta laughed...

"We sure did mami...They were just a little too young for us then....We were what , two or three years older than most of those guys..but we were blowing their minds.." she said...

I could certainly believe that... I thought ,looking at the two of them now...and how sexy they both still were.

"Well,I can't say anything about the rest...but as great as Trevor Lee was on the court...off the court he was equally a monster...He was a bully, he was arrogant and he was a suspected rapist...There were two girls who I tried to get to come forward and testify to that effect,even after he was dead, but neither one would do it...Such was the mystique around this guy...One girl transferred to another school.....And then there was Thaddeus Barber...."said Sissy...

Thaddeus Barber was a good kid...but the type of guy you would have called a nerd, a geek...He was short...skinny...wore thick glasses and was the team statistician...As you can imagine..He was bullied by the jocks and ignored by the popular girls...He didn't have a friend in the world...

Trevor Lee, Tyrone "Shakes McGlorin, Wally Pike and Ike Rollins and the late center Gene Reynolds...All starters on the basketball team snatched him..stripped his clothes off and tossed him naked into the girl's shower during gym....They snapped his photo ,nude and in the girls shower and posted it on My Space and Snapfish...The poor boy was publicly humiliated...I got them to take that photo down after Trevor Lee's death...but I guess the damage was already done...That was the straw that broke the camels back....

The principal and the gym teacher and the coach refused to do anything to them...

Shortly afterwords...Trevor Lee was found shot to death in the shower stall in the boys gym...I caught that case...We couldn't find the bullet..The killer had removed it! There was no fingerprints , No DNA ,No witnesses..Somebody had disabled the metal detectors that day..We took that school apart piece by piece did a locker to locker search, searched the surrounding trash bins...never turned up any weapon...

We interviewed 250 people....Friends, family,Teachers,Administrators...nothing...Then I met Thaddeus... I didn't have any evidence...but it was something about the way he talked...You have to understand...People worshipped this guy, Trevor Lee..even people he bullied, girls he assaulted or used...This was the only kid who didn't care and who actually told me he was glad that Trevor was dead...He told me about what Trevor and his buddies had done to him..He told me about the two girls Trevor alledgedly  raped...My heart went out to him...

I had no evidence against him...but he was so unemotional...so cold...so methodical that I walked away from that case with a feeling in my gut that he had killed Trevor...but I couldn't prove it and I think part of me didn't really want to know...This kid was living with his parents and his grandmother..he didn't have any other family, didn't have one friend...As much as Trevor was loved...This kid ,Thaddeus was shunned by everyone..The most unpopular kid in school...

I tried to help him...I rounded up Shakes McGlorin,Ike Rollins and Wally Pike and Gene Reynolds turned them into the Principal..His name was Arthur Lockins...A real idiot...He was busy trying to make time with me...He didn't even care about  poor Thaddeus...He refused to discipline them at all..Not even a detention...He said it was just boyish hijinks...I couldn't lock them up for anything major,so they got cut loose and didn't even get a slap on the wrist...

I called his grandmother and tried to keep up with him over the years... I was at his high school graduation..and even though I missed his college graduation..I was there when he got his Masters Degree..I had heard that he had a rough time in every college he was in...Just couldn't fit in, just couldn't get a girlfriend..Just couldn't seem to make it work socially...

After college...He tried unsuccessfully to get in the Air Force Academy and The Naval Academy, tried to get jobs at local Radio and TV stations...just couldn't make a go of it..He fell off the grid...I haven't seen him in years...Society failed this boy...I failed this boy.."said Sissy hanging her head ....Tears ran down her face...

 Hazel put her arms around Sissy...

"It's okay...and it's not your fault Sissy..You did as much as you could.." said Hazel.

II-

We broke for the day...Carlotta and I stood in the garage by my SUV...I had her up against the wall ,kissing her passionately....She giggled a little...

"Papi...You're going to keep on and ..and have an accident out here..."she laughed...

"What I feel for you is not  an accident.." I said ,kissing her neck...

"Nice to know..but we need to cool it before someone walks up on us." she said..

"Why don't you drive?" I said.

She did a double take...I never asked her to drive my SUV....

"Ughhh..it'll give me a little time to ugh...you know..calm myself down."I said..

She started laughing...

"You are getting too excited and aroused...What am I going to do with you?" she said laughing.

''Wear a potato sack..." I joked.

As we got in the car, I saw Sissy coming out of the elevator..I called to her..

"Hey Siss." I said...

She walked over..

"Heyy you two..." she said with a smile..

"Okay..I understand why he killed the cheerleaders...They represented the girls he couldn't have...and McGlorin, Pike,maybe even Trevor Lee...because they humiliated and bullied him..But Henry Shenk....How does he fit into this?" I asked.

"He was the youth counselor...He ,like me tried to help Thaddeus...I think when Henry read the papers and heard about the murders,He must have figured it out....He must have went to warn Pike....and walked in on something...That's why he was only shot and not hung,stripped naked and humiliated like the other five..." She said..

"We got a Bolo out for him Boss Lady...We are going to close this one and you're going to get married on time...Don't worry."said Carlotta..

Sissy smiled and hugged Carlotta through the window..

"Want to come and stay with us?  At least you'll have somebody to talk to until you get married...You won't have to stay in your house alone...We had a great time the last time you stayed with us." said Carlotta.

 "If it's okay with Keith...I will.." she said.

"Come on...How can I say no.....Two sexy women in my home at one time...What guy would say no?" I said.

The three of us busted out laughing...

 "I love you girl." she said ,starting to tear up looking at Carlotta.

"You know I love you too Boss Lady." said Carlotta,hugging Sissy.

III-

The next day, Carlotta, Duke and I drove up to the park...This particular park was known for prostitution.......Hop waved us over ...

''An old man...was in here  gettin his freak on and somebody just walked up and shot him...Didn't steal any money,didn't bother the girl.....It looks personal." said Hop.

As we approached...we saw a man ,in his late sixties....his pants down to his ankles as well as his boxers...a nice neat bullet hole in his head and blood everywhere...lying face down in the grass...Because of the police presence ,all of the usual inhabitants of the park were gone!

Hazel and Sharon were looking at the body...

"What a mess...Poor guy never saw this coming...It looks like his back was turned..." said Sharon..

"Looks like the same caliber bullet from the shooting the other night." said Hazel.


From a distance...Tyriq, Sirena and Jimmy were taking the statement of a young girl..She appeared to be traumatized...

 "I was giving him a blow job...I was just finishing up, when this little guy..he looked about five six or five seven...He was wearing a black hoodie, so I didn't get a good look at his face..It's dark out here...He just walked up and shot dude...for no reason...Then he walked away.." she said to Tyriq..

 "And you didn't know this guy in any way...He wasn't an old boyfriend? An old john?" asked Tyriq.

"Nah...I never saw this guy before in my life.." She said.

"You think you can describe him?  His features?" asked Sirena...

"Yeah,maybe." she said.

"We are going to take you downtown and let you give a statement to a sketch artist...And let you look at some mug shots" said Jimmy.

"And if I do...You guys will let me walk on the pandering charge?" she asked...

"We don't care about your pandering charge...We are Murder Police." said my wife Carlotta..

"This guy is way too old to even be out here....My goodness...He couldn't find a woman..He had to come out here?..in the park???People come out here to get high and to do god knows what." said Carlotta ,putting on latex gloves and kneeling and checking the body..There were needles and discarded condoms all around...

"He got preyed upon by the vultures Top! You're right..Old guy like this shouldn't have been out here.  Damn...bad enough we got a serial killer on the loose ,now we got this random killing.."said Duke..

Sissy walked up and looked at the body...She grimaced...

"This is not so random Duke, Do you know who this is?  It's Arthur Lockins..the former Principal of the high school where all of these people attended..The principal that wouldn't discipline that crew that tossed Thaddeus into the shower.This is our guy..He's getting revenge on everybody who failed him..We've got to find him before he strikes again..He's changed his pattern...but he's escalated ."said Sissy...

We had more than likely identified our killer, but finding him was a whole nother matter and aside from motive..We didn't have a lot of physical evidence...They say it's always darkest before the dawn....

It was pretty dark right now!

(CONCLUSION NEXT!)