The Perfect Woman (6 page)

              Both Klecko and Peewee stared at her asking the same question. “ Suicide? “

              She laughed hysterically at them, enjoying the puzzle look on their face, the cops pushing the crowd back looked towards her direction wondering what the commotion was about. “  The gaping wound in his jaw, it’s a dead give away. The idiot killed his family successfully, but he failed to off himself. Thing I can’t figure out, why beat the wife to a pulp.”

              “ Maybe he ran out of bullets…” The detective wanted to smack himself for playing her game, that and giving the worst observation of his life.

              “ Not possible, he wasted two shots on the kids, one on himself,  one at the officer who found him, and another at your cops who were chasing him down. Judging by the gun in his hand, “ Karen made her way to the body, moving one officer aside that blocked her view of the weapon. “ It’s a 357.Magnum, how it didn’t kill him or left him in worst shape is anyone’s guess. This typical model holds around ten rounds. Plenty to kill the whole family.”

              “ How did he get a gun like that in the first place.” Peewee had to ask.

              “ Black market, it's not that hard.” Karen quickly added.

              “ Wow, she’s good.” The young black officer standing beside Karen said out loud, Klecko shook his head at the officer, the last thing he wanted was to boost her confidence.

              “ Why beat the wife ?” She seem to ask the dead man on the floor.

              “ Maybe she was cheating!” Klecko yelled at her, furious she was taking his case from under him and making a joke out of him.

              “ The jersey.” Peewee said tapping his hand on the hood of his car. “ It’s a Norte Dame jersey.” They stared at him puzzled. “ Norte Dame, the college football team, they were playing USC today!”

              It struck Karen like lightning.“ The wife went to U.S.C, who won!?” She looked among the men for an answer.

              “ USC 42-38.” The young black officer said, only to turn his face back to the crime scene as Klecko shot him a glance.

              “ He killed his wife over a football game!” Karen jumped in mid-air, hugging the young officer, who joined in their celebration.

              “ What the hell are you talking about, that makes no sense! “ Klecko grabbed a hopping Karen by the arm, opened the car door and pushed her inside. “ I want you two out of here right now, this isn’t a fucking game.”

              “ You can’t throw us out of here, we’re about to solve the case.” Karen protested, she tried to get up, but Klecko pushed her back down in her seat.

              “ I got a feeling if I look in your car I’ll find some illegal scanners, because that’s the only way you would know about the officer being shot. ” Both sleuths swallowed dryly. “ That’s what I thought, now get in the car, turn around and never come back here, got it, one more thing,” He stared at Peewee with a fiery hate in his eyes. “ Leave Maggie Donner alone, I’ve gotten two calls about you stalking her, that woman has been through enough, So drop it.”

              “ Maggie Donner, whose that ?” Karen asked, but had the door slammed right in her face. 

              Peewee got back inside his car frustrated, he cursed at the cocky detective as he began to point them out to the officers on the scene, telling them to arrest them if they failed to leave in a few seconds. “ What an asshole, but we showed him, and  now he has his panties in a knot.”

              “ Peewee,” Karen grabbed his arm. “  Whose Maggie Donner ?” The car roared to life.

CHAPTER 7

THE CHARMING MAN

“ I’m very sorry, I know how rude this must be, but I just couldn’t get you out of my head.” He wraps his fingers tightly on his coat, he’s too nervous to dare make eye contact with her. He knows he isn’t worthy of it. “ I just felt a spark when you passed me by, I know how stupid that sounds.”

              Angela Denning held her cup of coffee, listing to this sweet handsome British gentleman describe what she felt the moment she laid eyes on him on the subway as well, she was just too afraid to admit it out in the open, she never thought such a thing could exist. They didn’t say a word the moment they passed, just a long pause, lovers lost in each others gaze. “ It’s not stupid,” He blew a sigh of relief, she reached out and held his hand. “ I felt that same way about you, I didn’t say or do anything… because it just sounds..”

              “ Crazy,” He gently squeezed her hand, ending with a nervous laugh. “ I spent the whole day, trying to find you, when I saw you here at the café I wasn’t going to blow a once of a life time chance, the worst  that could happen is that you‘d just turn me down and tell me to toss off.”

              Angela giggled, she loved his accent and his touch was sending chills of excitement all over her body. “ My name is Angela.”

              He grinned widely. “ My name is David.” Both smiling and holding their gaze into each others eyes.

CHAPTER 8

THE INVISIBLE MAN

They drove past the cops and onlookers, slowly seeing Detective Klecko fade away in the distance. Karen looked at Peewee, wanting to know who Maggie Donner was. “ You’ve been keeping something from me,” Her voice was serious. “ Start talking.” She warned him.

              Peewee knew this wasn’t the time for jokes or trying to weasel his way out of it, the truth needed to be said.“ Fine, “ He took a deep breath before proceeding. “ It was over a month ago, you went ghost on me, I got out of work and I really didn’t want to spend my time sitting at home watching porn.”

              “ Bullshit.” Karen said.

              “ What?” He was confused.

              “ You computer crashed when you were downloading porn.”

              “ It did not.” Peewee defended himself.

              “ Look me in the eye and say that again.” Karen waited for him to prove her wrong.

              The words of defeat came from his mouth as he admitted the truth. “ It was over a month ago, you went ghost on me and my computer crashed after I was downloading porn from Mistress Mandy.com. ” He continued with the story. “ I went down to the precinct  to see what was new.”
              “ Jesus, Peewee.” She shook her head at him. They were forbidden to show up at any precinct  since the last time they had been caught.

              He waved his hand at her to calm down. “ I know, but  I needed some time to kill. Anyway, I walked into the police station, saying that I was a journalist looking to do a puff piece on one of the detectives, it worked like a charm.” He gloated. “ Pigs like two things, doughnuts and fame. Anyway, while I’m there this lady comes in, she starts screaming and tossing things over, she’s yelling at them
find my baby, for the love of god please find my baby.”
Peewee sighed depressingly, reliving the moment was never a pleasant one for him.

              Karen had never seen that look of sorrow on him before, she could only wonder what this was all about. “ I’m guessing this was the
Maggie Donner character ?” He just nodded his head. “ What happened?”

              “ Maggie’s daughter Lisa  went missing a month ago. She just dropped out of sight, her apartment was cleaned out, credit cards, cell phone, bills, everything just closed. She left a note in the apartment that she met a guy and wanted to be with him and she never wanted to see anyone again, with another five pages of F U to her co-workers, mother, brother and father, basically everyone in her life.”

              Karen scratched her head. “ So, she got love struck and did something incredibly stupid.” She shrugged her shoulders.

              “ No, Lisa had a strong bond with her mother, they were almost BFF’s. She had no reason to just up and leave without even trying to explain anything to her mother, that wasn‘t her style.” Peewee fired back defensively, Then again why wouldn’t he? There wasn’t anything he didn’t know about both Lisa and Maggie, this case became his life. “ Lisa always called her mother first thing in the morning from her trip to work, it doesn’t make sense she would go dark on her.” Karen didn’t try to argue, she allowed him to continue. “ Anyway,  Maggie’s mom begged the officers to check this out, they did, they came back with nothing. Even the people Lisa worked with had no clue she was dating. Bunch of assholes.” He knew what it felt to be the outcast of a group. “ They didn't even bother to check up on her when she missed worked, they just let her go.”

              “ What about the letter, did they match the hand writing.” Karen asked.

              “ Donner family, or should I say Maggie, paid for a professional to check it out.”

              “ And?” Karen leaned in closer.

              “ It was a match.”

              Karen dusted her hands off. “ Case close, Lisa Donner just ran away, maybe she and her mother weren’t as close as you thought.”

              “ That’s what I thought,” He kept his eyes focused on the road, never once glancing at Karen. “ But up to nine other girls have gone missing as well,  same style.” That was enough to grab Karen’s attention. “ Some friends or family remember them talking about how they met a charming man, then one day out of the blue they decide to live far away with him forever. Cutting off their entire past. ” He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “ Of course, the cops won’t do anything, each one leaves a letter or some form of saying goodbye forever.”

              “ If the Cops won't touch it, how do you know about the others that went missing?” She had to ask.

              “ Online, some family members went pleading for people to help and to post anything new if they ever saw their daughter or friend ever again.” Peewee shook the mental image of all the letters pleading for help.

              Karen hunched in her seat, letting everything simmer in her mind before asking the next question. “ Has anyone seen this prince charming ?”

              Peewee grinned. “ Nope, in all cases this guy was the invisible man. You couldn’t get a description on him, not from  any of the victims friends, co-workers, neighbors, or even mail men.”

              “ I’m assuming this investigation of yours is what  got you on Klecko’s  bad side?” Karen asked.

              “ He took an interest in this one, that didn‘t last long.” He rolled his eyes, hating ever fiber of Klecko’s body. “ After Maggie’s missing person case was thrown out, I decided to lend my assistants. I told her I was a private detective and that I could track down her missing daughter.”

              “ You gave her hope.” Karen said out of the blue.

              Peewee continued with his story. “ Maggie and I spent hours together going over everything, but then Maggie’s husband called regarding about me to Klecko, and I was caught red handed.”

              Karen was taken back by that. “ Maggie’s husband ratted you out, why?”

              “ He thinks that Lisa ran away from Maggie, to escape her constant mothering over her. I guess he knows I’m still in contact with Maggie, hence why Klecko called me out on it tonight.” Peewee honked his horn at an elderly driver that was trying to merge into his lane without signaling. “ Hey, father time, use your fucking signal!”

              “ Why was Klecko running point on this case?” She tap him on the shoulder to stay focus.

              “ I’m assuming he thought this could be connected to the first one, give his old case some legs.” Karen was lost. “ His first case here was another missing person, Casey Miller, sweet girl, under the thumb of two religious parents, really hard knocks . Only problem with that case, is that there was no charming man, a lot of people and eventually even the parents confirm with cops that their daughter ran from them. She got tired of doing things their way.  Klecko, the poor bastard ran at it hard, maybe too hard. I heard they were even thinking of sending him back after that mishap.” Peewee chuckled. “ Poor son of a bitch, I kinda feel sorry for him.”

              “ What‘s this guy's history?” Karen asked.

              “ He was a hot shot in Boston, got his shining moment when he tracked down some pedophile serial killer, the streak of bagging the nut jobs didn’t end there. The guy had the credentials to make the jump to the Fed’s, instead he talked to a friend of his over in the NYPD to pull some strings and get him  all set up over here. Why the NYPD over the FBI, your guess is as good as mine. Despite all his fancy rap sheet, he's still an asshole, any one can see what happened to Lisa isn’t a girl playing the Romeo and Juliet angle.”

              “ Do you have names for these other victims?”

              “ Yeah, Lucy Daniels, Barbra Vargas and Linda Rogers. Those are the only three names that really stand out for me, I got the list back at home, we can swing by real quick..” He said to Karen. 

              “ Maybe you should leave this be,” Karen hated to say that, but maybe Lisa did leave on her own freewill. Even though it was hard to ignore the other missing women. Then again, they weren’t exactly cops, they were just people who read one too many detective novels, what could they do to stop a serial killer on the loose in New York. “ We’re not adapt for this.”