Monica and I were in hot pursuit of a cop killer..A Killer who had already killed two detectives, both friends of mine..
Never before had I been so determined to catch a killer... He had nearly killed me... I was fortunate that he missed...
He was in a computerized supercar that could get up to 400 miles an hour, while we were in new Police cruiser that could only do half that much..
Our advantage was, we were in the city..
It was off peak hours, so even he had to slow down a bit...
"If he gets on the freeway, it's game over...No way we can catch him once he ramps up to 400 mph." I said to Monica..
''Well then let's keep him from doing that.. let's bring some more cars into this chase."said Monica , who got on the radio and asked all police cruisers to respond and come to this area...We were determined to keep him off the Freeway...
The Kevlar and Trauma plate protects you from gunshot wounds, but it hurts like hell getting struck by projectiles..We hit him enough times that his ribs were probably killing him...Even though he hadn't been wounded..
He badly needed some medical attention and to rest....Which he wasn't getting...The Pressure was on...His little plot to make me victim number three had failed in two ways...One, the most obvious..He had missed...and two...When he said my name out in the street,I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who he was...who we had been chasing...
More police cruisers entered the chase...He dodged them and ramped his speed up a bit...but he couldn't get to the freeway....so he headed to the river..Penns Landing...
He was an excellent driver...
But then again...So was I....
'
''What is he doing?" asked Monica.. Her beautiful hair looked so nice, blowing in the wind....
"He's heading for the riverfront...Is he crazy?....He's going to run out of highway...He might as well give it up...We got him..
"No look, he's going off the side , INTO THE RIVER!!!" said Monica..
His car flipped over three times and took flight..
And splashed right into the middle of the river...
Water went everywhere....
"Well....That's all he wrote...." said Monica..
''Think so? Don't bet on it...He's done this before.." I sighed..
"YOU KNOW HIM NOW? DON'T YOU?" said Monica , who had scanned my mind..
"Yes...When he said my name in the street and I heard his voice...I knew who he was....I thought he was dead after all these years.." I said..
II-
Back at the high rise...Lt. Cotton and Detective Kylie White were standing over a corpse....The body of the poor man who had walked in on our shooter..
CSI and Forensics Unit people were dusting for fingerprints and DNA...They found none, but they did find an empty Bleach Bottle...
'There are prints on this bottle Lieutenant." said one of the guys..
"Good, you know what to do..bag it and tag it."said Lt. Cotton... "This brings our boy's total to three murders.."he said.
"He was hit at point blank range with two shots...One between the eyes that exited out the back of his head...Probably the killshot and one in the chest, near the heart.. Death was instantaneous..From the looks of things he must have walked in accidentally on our guy while he was setting up.."said Monique..
"Good Thing too.. Looks Like Nate was his next intended victim.."said Lt. Cotton..looking at the M1 Sniper Rifle..
Detective Kylie White walked in the room just then..
''Our victim's name was Clyde Truesdale...He's the super...or rather he was.. He must have walked up on on our guy as he was setting up...He was shot with small arms fire...The bullets match the shells our guys found in the street...Nate and Mo-Mo had a terrifc gunbattle with him, but he was wearing Kevlar and a Trauma plate...They didn't stop him..He got away in a Super car he had parked in a side alley."said Kylie..
'Which is why we never caught this guy on Traffic Cam or Street Cam either coming or leaving a scene..Those cars have reflectors, which make them almost invisible to a normal traffic or street cam..."said Lt. Cotton...
"Honey, can I release the body?" said Monique, his wife..
''Yeah, we know cause of death and who more than likely caused the death....No need to keep him lying here.."said Lt. Cotton.
And so our third victim was being carted out just as Monica and I returned..
''Who is he?" I asked..
''We didn't realize anyone had been shot during our shootout." said Monica.
"He wasn't...He was probably killed before your shooter could get a bead on you and get a clear shot off."said Monique...
"Tell me he's dead!" said Lt. Cotton..
''We don't know...He flipped his car over three times at top speed and it went off the pier into the river...That's all we know..We need a team out there to pull that car up from the bottom of the river. Nate doesn't think he's dead.."said Monica..
"That means Nate knows the identity of our shooter.."said Lt. Cotton..
I sighed..
"I sure do.. Now I do." I said.
III-
I sighed...
Monica hugged me..
"Take your time baby...Take your time.."she cooed softly in my ear...
''I thought he was dead...After all these years, I thought he was dead.. His name is Jack Stone... He was in the Army, Special Forces...He was an excellent swimmer, Excellent Marksman...Superb Driver.....He was listed as having 28 kills during the war., Sniper..His military record was spotless...Until....One night, he got drunk...He forced himself sexually on his C.O.'s daughter.. They were all drinking and partying...but he was court martialed and imprisoned for a year and a half and then dishonorably discharged despite his sterling military record otherwise..
Carl Gentry and William Thompson and I all served in his unit...We didn't have anything to do with his situation, but he wanted us to lie and say he was with us, the night of the sexual assault..We refused....That began his hatred of the three of us...
Years passed and Gentry, Thompson and I all went to the academy, all became police officers ,all became detectives..and all of us wound up in Robbery-Homicide for awhile....Around this time, a series of Bank robberies occurred...
The Robber always had his getaway car stashed off in an alley on the side..Came in jumped over the counter, Stuck the bank up...made off with close to a million dollars in each case and vanished in under 15 minutes... Four bank robberies, the bank excellently cased..excellently robbed and the robber got away scott free...In each case, the robber was wearing a disguise...He was never caught on camera except once...One ATM camera caught him setting up and putting his mask on...
Now we knew who it was...
Our old Army buddy Jack...
I remember that day ...It was like a nightmare...It started out overcast...We had a tip to where he was holing up...we got there too late , we had just missed him... We rousted all of his close army buddies and told them to tell him to surrender...If he did that...We would work out a deal..He hadn't hurt anybody...We could get him 5-10, with parole in three years...This was one week before that day, May 14th.." I said.
"That Day, Thursday May 14th....That Day....We got a tip that somebody was buying a lot of explosives...and stock piling them...To this day, I don't know what he was planning, but we cornered him...at an apartment complex. He told us to back off that the place was wired ,just in case such an occasion like this arose..
I pleaded with him to give himself up...He refused...He called the three of us, sell outs...He backed into his apartment and locked the door.. We high tailed it out of there.. We figured it was a trap... It was...The place was wired with explosives..
What happened next shocked all of us...We heard a loud explosion.an EXPLOSION SO LOUD, it blew the front window of his apartment off and the entire front wall....There was a huge fire..The entire building had to be evacuated...
We figured the heat was so hot from that explosion, that his body was incinerated... We recovered most of the money, but not all... Not a trace of his body was ever found.. He is listed as dead in the files..
I thought he was dead...I did.. Suicide, rather than be captured... Until he called my name in the street and fired at me.. Then I knew....Then I knew it was him!" I said.
''All this time...and you've forgotten about this huh?"said Monica..who knew I was telling the truth.
''It was just another case.. We've had..You and I, some pretty bizzare cases ourselves since then." I said.
"We sure have partner.." laughed Monica.
"That was four or five years ago....I can't believe that date didn't ring a bell, when I saw it on the first gold plate.." I said.
"Well he made his first mistakes...One..He missed you...Two ,he left behind an empty Bleach Bottle with fingerprints on it...and now Three...he's been identified.. We at least know who we are after.. We've got to stop him...
"Lieutenant...I was just on the horn...The Marine Police unit, found that car...They're pulling it up out of the river now.."said Kylie..
"Let's all get down there right now...Honey bunch, you come too in case there is a body in it.."said Lt. Cotton to Monique...
"Okay." she said.
"There was no body in it sir."said Kylie..
''Doesn't matter. Come anyway.." he said..
IV-
They had indeed found the car and was pulling it up as we arrived...
CSI and Forensics were there..Naturally, there was no body, no prints or DNA...The Car had been submerged...
"It's just as we suspected...This car was stolen, a month ago...off the lot.."said Kylie..
"He covers his tracks well.."said Lt. Cotton.
''Look what I found...a Hockey mask.." said Monica..
''A Kevlar vest and a trauma plate...This was him alright...It's got the indentations we made when we shot him.." I said..
"He couldn't swim with all that weight...He had to let go of all of this..."said Lt. Cotton..
"Look at this..."said Kylie.. " His gun, with it's silencer.. it's empty.." she said.
placing the gun in a bag and passing it to a police officer for evidence..
"He must be an excellent swimmer to escape from all of that and master this river...but where did he go ? Was he seen?" asked Monique.
"His Military training..Now where he is...Who can know? This gun is a ballistics match for one murder and even though the guns we have are murder weapons..We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was Jack Stone...You heard his voice.."said Lt. Cotton..
"Lieutenant, I agree, but that's circumstantial at best and pretty weak...Hopefully his fingerprints are on that Bleach bottle..That ties him to one murder we can prove and an attempt murder on a cop..That's enough to put him away for life..."said Monica..
I just remembered...She told me before she entered the Academy, She had completed two years of Law school and didn't return for the third and final year...She had an Associates degree in Administration of Justice before she entered the Academy....I hoped one day my Mo-Mo would go and finish law school...I think she'd make an excellent Attorney.
She heard my thoughts on the matter and she smiled at me.. She sent a telepathic thought to me..
''Awwww I love you sooo much." she said. Now it was my turn to smile.
''He's alive...He's pulled this escape act once again...Only we know he's alive...We've got to get him...He's not through yet." I said..
''Don't worry love, we'll get him."said Monica.
I stared at Monica...I had never had a female partner before....but none of my male partners had ever been as smart and as fearless as her...She was the Bonnie to my Clyde...My ride or die...You couldn't explain in words the love I had for her... If I was going to die...She was going to be right by my side. I mused..
She could sense how I felt...She turned towards me and rubbed my hands and kissed me softly...
