Allison Brennan - Killing Fear

There were two pictures. The first was that fat slob of a cop, Detective Sturgeon, sleeping in his car while supposedly staking out Theodore’s house to make sure he didn’t leave and kill anyone.

Theodore laughed, remembering that night. He’d been prepared to kill William Hooper, but it had been Sturgeon watching him instead. Having the cop as an alibi was more fun, but he’d taken the picture spontaneously, still unsure what he would do with it.

The other picture was of William and Robin. Naked. Theodore had been standing right outside William’s sliding glass doors, contemplating killing both of them. Or tying William up and fucking Robin in front of him. Rape held no allure for Theodore, but watching the look on William’s face while he screwed Robin would have given him intense satisfaction.

Instead, he took a picture and wondered what he would do with it. Considered sending it to William’s superiors, but there wasn’t a crime in screwing a witness. Someday it would come in handy. He almost used it at the trial, but feared he would have given the police too much evidence-that he had been stalking Robin or some such nonsense. That he was obsessed with her, as William tried to get him to admit during that farce called an interview after Anna Clark died.

The photograph brought back other memories, though. It was that night he had left William and Robin having sex in the kitchen and gone to kill Brandi.

The memories were nothing like the surge of adrenaline during the hour he’d had Brandi under his blade. He couldn’t bring back the same emotions, and he squirmed in his seat, uncomfortable and irritated.

He watched Trinity Lange talk to the cameraman while he packed up. The past brought nothing but frustration.

Focus on the future.

He waited for the pretty reporter to leave in her bright little Volkswagen Beetle.

He followed.

Will hadn’t been to Frank Sturgeon’s house in years. The cover of darkness couldn’t hide the dead lawn or trash accumulating on the small porch, and he expected no better inside. Whenever they’d gotten together for lunch, Frank met him at Bob’s Burgers or another cop hangout. Occasionally, Will had seen him in the bar around the corner from the station, reliving war stories. Will didn’t go to the bar often, but he’d heard Frank was still a regular.

Frank Sturgeon had been forced to retire two years ago when he turned fifty-five. He was lucky to get that. After the Jessica Suarez homicide, he’d been put on desk duty; officially because he had a bum knee, privately because he’d been drinking on the job-seven years ago, in the middle of the Theodore Glenn investigation.

Truth was, Frank should have been put on the desk years before, his weight and his drinking a huge problem after his wife left him. It only got worse with time, and Will had inherited the problem when they’d been assigned to work together.

Frank opened the door, smiled widely at Will and Carina. “Kincaid, right?” he said, gesturing for them to enter. “How’s your brother doing? I heard he was laid up in the hospital.”

“He’s okay,” Carina lied. She glanced at Will, her face and posture telling him she didn’t quite know what to make of Frank. Will wasn’t surprised. He’d kept Frank’s problems to himself whenever he spoke to Carina about his former partner.

“Patrick’s still in a coma,” Will said, “but the doctors are optimistic.” After eight months, Will was losing his optimism, but he knew the subject was sensitive to the Kincaids and he didn’t want to talk about it in front of Carina.

Will glanced around Frank’s bachelor pad, trying to keep the disgust off his face. It was the proverbial pigsty, with empty beer and whiskey bottles, overflowing ashtrays, and a layer of filth so thick Will wasn’t certain what color the carpets were supposed to be. A foul odor saturated the furniture, drapes, and walls, indicating that the place hadn’t been cleaned in months. A police scanner sat on a cluttered desk, its volume low, lights blinking hypnotically.

Like Will, Frank had divorced years ago. Unlike Will, Frank had two children and the divorce had been brutal.

“Do you have a minute?” Will asked.

“Must be business.” Frank grabbed a half-full beer bottle from the end table. He snorted heavily, his bulbous nose twitching. He reached into his pocket for a stained handkerchief, blew his nose, and stuffed it back into his pocket without a second glance.

“Let’s go into the kitchen,” Frank said and led the way. He’d always been overweight but until being put on the desk he’d been in moderately good physical shape. Now, his beer belly sagged over his belt and he sported a solid double chin. He hadn’t shaved in at least two days.

Frank gathered bottles and empty pizza boxes off the round table and slapped them onto the counter, unmindful of anything he knocked over. The scent of grilled onions and stale bread hung heavy in the air.

Why didn’t I just call him on the phone? Will knew Frank had been resentful at forced retirement, but to sink this low?

Is this how I’m going to end up in fifteen years?

The thought angered and depressed Will. He didn’t want to be Frank, then or now. But he had no wife, no close family-his dad died of a heart attack five years ago, his mother lived in a South Florida retirement community and traveled half the year, and his brother was even more of a workaholic than he was. While he was a neat person (Carina often said bordering on obsessive), Will could picture himself sitting in a tidy version of Frank’s house, drinking Scotch, listening to the police scanner, and watching twenty-four-hour news and sports, yelling at bad football calls. Existing, not living.

He sat and said, “Frank, it’s about Theodore Glenn.”

Frank snorted. “I watch the news, got the message from some cop who sounded younger than my son. I know he escaped. Probably halfway to Costa Rica.”

“I’m taking his threats seriously. He killed his sister this afternoon.”

Frank stared at him blankly, then laughed. “You mean you’re thinking about what he said back then? At his trial?” He laughed again, drained his beer, coughed, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Shit, Will, I trained you better than that. Glenn’s not that stupid. He’s going to get out of the country as fast as he can. Staying in San Diego would be suicide. He probably had a score to settle with his sis and did her on his way out of town.”

Will clenched his teeth. “I disagree, Frank. I went to his appeal hearing last year. I looked him in the eye. He wants revenge.”

“Who wouldn’t? We put the scumbag behind bars. Now that he’s free, he’s not going to waltz around town taunting us.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

“He comes for me, I’ll take him down before he blinks.”

The idea of Frank with a loaded gun terrified Will. He’d probably shoot himself in the foot before he killed an intruder.

There was no getting through to Frank. It had been the Glenn investigation that soured Will’s relationship with his partner, and nothing had changed since.

“Fine. If you see him, call.” Will pushed back from the table. Carina followed suit.

Frank stumbled up. “Hey, you know, I can come back, help in the office. With the task force. I know this guy, you could use me.”

Will stared at him. The desperation and loneliness was clear, but all Will saw was his own future. “You know the rules, Frank.”

Frank reddened. “You know, I was a detective while you were a little brat living in Chicago. I know a thing or two about scumbags like Theodore Glenn.”

Will turned, not wanting to listen anymore. He shouldn’t have come; he should have called, but he thought Frank deserved the face-to-face.