The Chilling Spree (41 page)

“What’s wrong?”  Johnny sensed the
spike in my anxiety.  

“He’s already there, Johnny.  Don’t ask
how I know.  Shelly’s cops are either dead or simply missed
Underwood when he entered the building.”

He tossed his phone into my lap.  “Call
Finkelstein.  Get her on the line with whoever she left
outside that building.  Make sure her men are on the job.”

By the time we reached Crevan’s apartment,
the block was lit up in red and blue lights.  No
ambulance.  My heart tattooed the back of my sternum. 
God, not again.  No more dead friends.  Please. 
Let him –

“Helen, stay in the car.”

“Are you insane?  I’m armed.”

“Stay behind me.”

We dashed up the stairwell seven flights
without breaking a sweat.  The hallway was crowded with
uniforms – mostly black and gray of the state police under Johnny’s
command.  Two Darkwater uniforms lurked at the
periphery. 

The door to Crevan’s apartment stood wide
open.  Voices floated down the hall.

“Drop the knife, Underwood.  We can
talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to say!” Underwood
shrieked.  “I have a duty to God and my family, and I will not
stop until the stain on my name is washed clean.”

“Let’s talk.  Whatever this stain is
–”

The elevator doors chimed and slid
open.  Briscoe, red faced and huffing, charged out with his
gun drawn.

“Are you nuts?  Are all of you people
blind?” Underwood’s incredulity bled into the air.  “He’s a
queer!  He married my
sister
!  He’s been laughing
at me all week because I got conned by two of the same filth that
tricked me into believing they were women!”

Confession time.  Unfortunately, it
outed my friend at the same time.

Briscoe’s jaw dropped.  His gun hit his
thigh.

I pushed forward.  “Let me
through.  Let me talk to him,” I said.

Crevan’s pale face stared at the door. 
He blinked back the surreal horror when our eyes met.  I gave
him a reassuring nod, despite the fact that Underwood had a very
lethal serrated blade pressed against his throat.

“Woody,” I said.  “It’s all
right.  We understand what happened.  That thing Sunday,
it wasn’t your fault.  Kylie lied to you.  He didn’t have
the right to trick you that way.”

“You’re a liar,” he hissed.  “I know
all about people like you, Detective Eriksson.  That’s what
you do – lie.  Isn’t that what you said?”

Johnny’s rage crowded my back. 
Maverick lied to us about knowing where Underwood was hiding. 
My brain groaned at the idea that Underwood might’ve been hiding in
Maverick’s room and heard our conversation.  Accessory after
the fact my ass.  Maverick was a co-conspirator as far as I
was concerned.

“I never lied.  I know that Kyle didn’t
tell you that he was a man, Woody.  That’s what we call a
mitigating circumstance.  If you do this, if you hurt Crevan
now, in front of all these witnesses, any leverage, any
justification defense you might have in court flies out the
window,” I said.

“He killed my sister,” Underwood
rasped.  “He killed her, do you hear me?”

“Put the knife down, and we can talk about
it.  I want to hear your side of the story.”

“No way,” Underwood said.  “I drop my
weapon, and what’s to stop you from killing me right here and
now?  I know how things work in this city.  You’re all
corrupt.  That’s what the cops in this town are famous
for.”

I holstered my gun.  “Everybody, take a
deep breath,” I said.  “Put your weapons away.  We’re
just going to have a conversation here, and prove to Mr. Underwood
that things are different in this city now.”

My attention refocused on our perp the
second my peripheral vision sensed obedient motion.  “Look at
me, Fulk.  You know I’m not from this city.  Whatever
made cops do the wrong thing in the past, I’m not part of
that.  I’m former FBI.  You know that.  I want to
see justice done here.  If that means we’ve got more dirty
cops to expose, then that’s what we’ll do.  But I can’t help
you if you keep threatening Detective Conall.  It looks like
you’re the one who’s wrong if you can’t put down that knife and let
me take you someplace safe where we can talk.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I trusted you,” I said.  “I put my gun
away.  Everyone else did what I asked too.  Talk to
me.  Tell me why you think this is the answer to what happened
this week.”

“My sister was a good person, a devout
Christian before this son of a bitch tricked her!”

“All right, let’s start there,” I
said. 

Crevan’s eyes widened. 

Sorry, buddy.  Looks like we’re
gonna have to go there if you want out of this with your jugular
intact.
  “How did Crevan trick Belle?”

“He married her, didn’t he?  Doesn’t
that imply that he wanted a
wife
and not just some rube to
cover up what he really is?”

“Do you think that Crevan was unfaithful to
your sister?”

“It doesn’t matter.  
For all that is
in this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
 
The Bible says that, Detective Eriksson.  It means something
to me.”

“And you think Crevan lusted after someone
other than his wife?”

“Of course he did!”  Spit flew from
Underwood’s lips.  “Matthew 5:28 –
But I say unto you, that
whosever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart.
”

“Her,” I said softly.

“Leviticus 18:22 –
Thou shalt not lie
with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
”

“What if I were to tell you that Crevan
hasn’t done any of those things,” I said.  “He hasn’t lusted
after anyone.  He hasn’t lain with another man.”

Underwood laughed evilly.  “He’s
thought about it.  He sure as hell wasn’t interested in having
a
normal
relationship with my sister.  She told me, you
know.  She told me that she made a horrible mistake marrying
him.  She told me that he’s gay.”

“And you’re certain that she couldn’t have
made a mistake?”

“I can spot that filth from a million miles
away,” he hissed.

“Can you, Fulk?  Can you really?”

His spine stiffened.  “I can.”

“Then how did Kyle Goddard deceive
you?  If you know the difference, if you can tell just by
looking at someone who and what they really are, how did Kyle
manage to seduce you to the point where you didn’t realize that you
gave a man an orgasm until it happened?”

A terrible snarl tore from the depths of
Underwood’s soul.  “I did not know what he was!  They’re
getting better and better with the deception, with their perverted
desire to corrupt sane men into committing unspeakable acts. 
I have to stop them!  It’s what God wants me to do.”

I pulled my gun in a flash.  “Either
you drop the knife and let Crevan go right now, or I’ll drill a
hole in your head, Underwood.  Don’t think I’ll miss. 
I’m that good.”

He smirked.  “See?  I knew you
were lying.”

The same out of body experience I had the
night Rick died settled over my left hand.  No control. 
No free will.  Just the unstoppable pressure of an index
finger, squeezing harder and harder.

A crack sounded over my shoulder. 
Blood blossomed at the juncture of his right rotator cuff. 
The knife clattered to the floor.  Crevan darted away from
Underwood’s body before it crumpled.

Johnny stepped around me and holstered his
gun.  He gave me a look.  Damned man really did know me
better than perhaps I knew myself.  “Somebody call a bus to
pick up the trash.  He’s gonna survive this injury and go to
prison for his crimes.”

I rushed to Crevan.  “Are you all
right?”

He trembled in my outstretched arms. 
“Shit, Helen.  Now everybody knows.”

“He could’ve killed you, and
that’s
what you were worried about?”

Crevan pulled away from my embrace and
stared with such a stricken expression, I had no choice but look
behind me.  Briscoe.

Son of a bitch.

So much for the truce.  He looked like
he’d been betrayed on the same level Underwood felt.

“Tony –”

“Crevan, don’t worry about him.”

“Let me explain.”

Briscoe held up one hand, shook his head in
disgust and walked out of the apartment.  I grabbed Crevan’s
arm and prevented him from following.

“Give him time, Crevan.”

“Let go of me,” he hissed.  “Tony’s
been my partner for twelve years, Helen.  I owe him an
explanation.”

“Gonna have to wait, Crevan.  I need
your statement about how Underwood got in here and what happened
before I arrived,” Johnny said.

Meanwhile, Underwood bled all over Crevan’s
floor.

“Helen, go find Briscoe and calmly try to
settle him down.”

Unbelievable.  I couldn’t have asked
for a better opportunity.

Johnny’s fingers manacled my arm. 
“Peacefully, Doc.  If you care about Crevan at all, you won’t
make this worse.”

I silently cursed Johnny’s wisdom, and
followed Briscoe out the door.

Between his huffing and puffing and the slow
elevator, I caught him before he got out the front door of the
apartment building.

“Briscoe!”

“What, you gonna threaten to blow my brains
out too, Eriksson?”  The gloves came off and the vituperative
Briscoe I remembered from Christmas Eve returned.  “I ain’t
scared of you.  Johnny and… hell everybody around here’s gonna
see you for what you are sooner or later.”

“He’s your partner,” I said.  “Why
won’t you let him explain what happened up there?  Or has it
escaped your astute eye that Underwood is a raving lunatic?”

“Is that an official diagnosis?”

“When it comes to the religious bullshit he
used to justify premeditated murder?  Absolutely.  Make
no mistake, Tony.  He still knew what he was doing was against
the law.”

“Are you tellin’ me that freak was
lyin’?  Made a mistake about Puppy?”

“It’s not my story to tell.  You’ve
been his partner for twelve years, Briscoe.  Don’t you owe it
to him to at least hear what he’s got to say?”

“You already knew,” Briscoe sneered. 
“Twelve years is supposed to mean somethin’ when you, the great
stranger waltzes into town and he tells
you
before he tells
me?  Huh-uh.  I don’t think so, Eriksson.”

I gripped his arm before he could turn away
completely.  “He never told me anything, Tony.  Not until
I confronted him.”

“On account of how Belle blackmailed
him?”

I nodded.

“Je-sus tits.”

“Don’t make this worse for him, Tony. 
Please.  If he’s your friend, what difference does it make who
he loves?”

“That part don’t make a damn bit of
difference,” he muttered.  “The fact that my so-called partner
never bothered to tell me the truth for all these years, well,
that
matters.”

Chapter 38

The record company’s legal vultures did not
descend on Downey Division to bail poor Fulk Underwood out of his
current legal jam after emergency treatment patched the hole from
the expertly fired through-and-through shot that ended the threat
on Crevan’s life.  I wondered at it.  Perhaps Madden was
paranoid in his belief that the management company protected
Underwood unduly.  Either that or they had grown weary of his
penchant for firing people on the whims that history recorded in
his rather storied career and decided that it was time to exercise
their right to rein Madden in.

Whenever the lawyer did make his appearance,
I suspected that they’d go for an insanity defense.  I made
sure that my official report on Underwood’s arrest, as well as the
conversations we shared prior to that time, gave no indication that
he didn’t comprehend the consequences of breaking the law.

On the contrary, the way Fulk Underwood
tried to use Crevan as a bargaining tool told another story all
together.  He knew full well that the gig was over, that he
was caught.

I’d seen it before.  The crazy rambling
confessional when the perp was cornered.  In my opinion, it
was nothing more than the first step in claiming mental
incompetence. 

Johnny’s hands fell on my shoulders and
massaged gently.  “Relax.  He’s not wiggling out of this,
Helen.”

“Did I say anything?”

“No, but I’m not blind.  You’re
radiating tension like crazy.  Don’t worry.  There were
tons of cops who witnessed that confession, watched him use Crevan
to try to worm his way into justifying what he’d done.  It was
really stupid of him to accuse Crevan of killing Belle.”

Right.  Crevan, who had the most
ironclad of alibis for Belle’s time of death couldn’t be linked to
the crime in any way, shape or form.

“Did you talk to Zack Carpenter?”

“I did,” Johnny pulled a chair next to mine
at the desk and slid into it.  “He’s up to speed on the hate
crime.  Honestly, I can’t foresee a single problem on this
one.”

“As opposed to the other cases I’ve closed
where litigation is pending or hanging in limbo,” I muttered.

“Honey, Jerry Lowe will see his day in
court.  You know it as well as I do.  As for that meth
lab bunch, those who survived have pled out.  There won’t be a
trial.”

“But Datello –”

“He’ll take his chances with the jury. 
My money’s on Zack, and the case you, Ned and Devlin made against
him.  Stop worrying.”

“This is just another trial to hang out
there in some nebulous future, something to suck me back into this
world.”

Johnny leaned over and nibbled my
neck.  “I talked to Shelly while you were out here hammering
away at this arrest report.”

“Oh yeah?”  I held no hope for a happy
ending.  Just more of the same soul-sucking work stretching
interminably into a future I didn’t want.