Mountaintop Murder

Chapter 5

Jessica Momsen had only been the chief of the Plattsburgh barracks for six months. In fact, she was still the interim chief. The title interim never sat very well with her, in fact she found it almost demeaning. She was the first person to be awarded the position with that qualifier. She was also the first woman to be the chief, interim or not.

While it was true that at five feet tall, she was far from intimidating, she was a damn good cop. She had shoulder length red hair and a pale complexion that was dotted with freckles. Her eyes were slightly almond shaped and a bright green. She was your typical ginger, complete with the fiery attitude. That was half of what had made her such a good cop. The other half was that she hated to lose.

She had been bugging the commissioner to remove the interim and make her the permanent chief. In fact, she had just gotten off the phone with him when Sarah Barney knocked on the glass door that led from her office to the larger area where all of the cops under her had their desks. Jessica knew that from the look on Sarah's face, this was not going to be a happy conversation.

She waved for Sarah to enter. Her office was small for someone in her position. Besides her desk and chair there was only enough room for an additional pair of chairs for visitors. Three of the walls were made of glass, so the only personalization that she had been able to give the office was a picture of her daughter that sat on the corner of the desk.

Jessica had lost both her husband and daughter on the same day, in different accidents. Her husband, Tom Momsen was also a cop. He had pulled over a BMW that was doing well over one hundred miles an hour on the Northway. As he approached the vehicle, the passenger had jumped from the car and shot him in the head.

Tom had called in the plates and it came back as being owned by an older gentleman. Unbeknownst to Tom, the car had been stolen twenty minutes prior and not yet reported stolen. The two men that had killed her husband were still out there. The only reason that they knew as much as they did was because of the cruiser's dash cam. The shooter had been just far enough away that their head had been out of the frame, so it was not possible to identify them. The car had been found three days later in a small town in Pennsylvania, burnt to a crisp. No trace of either man was found.

Her daughter, who even at eleven could almost have been Jessica's doppelganger, had been on a school field trip. Her class had gone hiking on Rattlesnake Mountain, so named because there was always a lot of timber rattlers to be found there. It was one of those foul creatures that had taken Hailey from her. Hailey had been posing for a selfie and lagged behind the group. The teacher had found her laying on the ground in the midst of an anaphylactic attack. She never made it to the hospital.

The M.E. had found what looked to be a wound that was consistent with a snake bite and they had found enough venom in her blood to take down an elephant. Some juvenile snakes have a difficult time unlatching once they bite and end up delivering far more venom than they would from a normal bite.

It had taken Jessica six months to return to work after her dual tragedies and six years to be able to place the picture of her daughter on her desk. In her grief, she had burned all of the pictures that she had of Tom, somehow blaming him for getting shot. She knew that it was not logical, but everyone grieves in their own way, and hers was to blame Tom.

Sarah entered the office and did not take a seat, and neither did she say anything. Instead, she placed a stack of pictures, all in individual bags on the desk. A look of confusion played across Jessica's face, but she picked up and leafed through the stack. As she reached the last picture Sarah spoke.

"These were all at the crime scene," she said.

This statement only served to increase the level of Jessica's consternation. "Sarah, some of those look like they are several years old," she said.

Sarah nodded. "The one where I am wearing the red hoodie is from my first high peak, five years ago."

Sarah could see that Jessica began to digest the information that she had just been given. They were very likeminded people and she was confident that her boss would come to the same conclusion as she, that the killer was making this personal. The only concern that Sarah had was that she did not want the chief to pull her off the case.

"So, this guy has been watching you for at least that long," said Jessica. "That is creepy as hell! Whoever it is that did this clearly has an odd infatuation with you. I want to send a unit over to you house and make sure that there is no one laying there in hiding."

Sarah could find no reason to object, so she simply nodded. She felt a chill run down her spine. Someone had been watching her, and watching he closely for at least the last five years. Again, Sarah found it heavily disquieting that she had failed to notice someone watching her. It was not like the peaks of mountains afforded anyone ample spot where they could hide from view.

Jessica's voice broke Sarah's reverie. "Sarah, hello?"

Sarah looked at Jessica and nodded that she was listening.

"This case is now your only case. I do not care what else you already have or what else comes across your desk. This case is where you are going to live until we catch this person."

Sarah let out a sigh of relief. Not only was she staying on the case, the chief knew the importance of solving it, and solving it fast. She got up from the chair and headed down to the office provided to the detectives. She hoped to talk things over with Brian and see if he had any thoughts.