The Plan

Chapter 7

December 1996 (2:15am)

He ran as fast as he could until his leg muscles ached and his lungs ran out of air.

He ran and ran…

The Robinsons’ house was the nearest and he knocked on the door, wailing at the top of his lungs. He buzzed until his finger ached.

Finally, the lights went on. He knocked harder.

“Sean?” a man’s voice said when he recognized the boy through the peephole.

“Mr. Robinson! Please help me! He’s going to kill my mom and dad! The girl too! They need help! Please call the police!” he said the words in one straight sentence.

“Calm down, boy, what are you talking about? Where’s your dad? Is this another one of your pranks? It’s the middle of the night!”

“No! No! Please! You have to believe me!” His tears changed Mr. Robinson’s face from annoyance to alarm. “He’s going to kill them! Please! We need to save them!”

“Come inside,” Mr. Robinson said hurriedly. “You better be telling me the truth, son, because—”

He was not anymore listening. He was already running to the phone to dial 911.

 

March 25, 2011 (7:00am)

“Have you seen this?” Jacob threw the paper in front of him.

Sean glanced at it for a second then frowned up at his old friend, “I thought you don’t read the paper.”

“I didn’t say such thing. I said they’re just full of crimes every day. You’re looking at one now.”

He looked down and his eyes roamed the paper.

“Weren’t you at Finn’s party last night?”

He nodded slowly, his frown deepening as he read what his friend was talking about. “The green-eyed killer?” he asked.

“Yes. And since Finn is an associate of ours, I made some calls just to know what really happened. I got a friend in the authorities and I asked how they can say it was the green-eyed killer. Of course my friend denied the rumors about the killer but after some talking on my part,” he smiled mischievously then continued, “he finally gave in.” He paused for effect.

“And?” Sean asked rather impatiently, his mind reeling in memories of last night. Last night, he was standing beside Finn talking business and now he’s on the paper dead? And the green-eyed killer. He mentally shook his head. It could have been just a coincidence.

“He confirmed it’s the green-eyed killer because of the mark.”

“What mark?”

“A woman’s kiss mark on Finn’s left cheek. My friend said it is how they identify the green-eyed killer.”

“Does by any chance the green-eyed killer have green eyes?” he asked stupidly.

“Well, the name speaks for itself…it’s what witnesses say. The last two men who were killed were last seen with a green-eyed woman.”

Though he might have seen that coming, still, he froze. “So you’re saying the killer’s a woman?” he asked, disbelief coloring his tone.

“You didn’t hear it from me, okay? The authorities are trying not to give out this kind of information yet. Said they aren’t even sure about it, but the woman is at the top of their list of suspects.”

Sean did not say anything. Though his eyes were fixed on the paper, his mind was running in circles.

He has not seen her again after he took that phone call last night. He left early.

“What’s on your mind? Have you seen a green-eyed woman last night? My friend says it’s possible she was at the party last night,” Jacob asked.

He knew it’s an innocent question.

He slowly shook his head no.

“Well, that’s good,” the old man smiled, “Because if you did, you’d be a potential witness and she might want to clean up after her mess.”

He forced a smile on his lips for Jacob’s sake, “Yes, I guess I’m one lucky bastard.”

Jacob left after they talked about the talk he had with the Senator. And the moment the door closed, leaving him alone in his study, he grabbed the phone and dialed a number.

(8:00am)

“I’m telling you, this is a serial case,” Tanaka said.

“Too early to say,” Lawson answered. He was more worried about what Chief Carter would shout at them now that the killing was on paper again.

“God dammit, Sunny,” she said his name, which meant she’s really angry right now. He’s angry too because he fucking hate the name. “We have three murders already and you think it’s too early to say? What, you wanna wait for the fourth one? The fifth?”

“All I’m saying is, we should look into those files of 1996,” he said.

“You’re the one who said it’s a waste of time.”

“Not when we’ll only be looking at one file case.”

“Which by the way is missing,” she muttered.

“Don’t you know what a fucking hall of justice is?”

“We have to get a court order to look into a file which by the way is not that easy to find considering it’s a fucking one whole year of 1996,” she shot back.

“Don’t worry, I know deduction. We just freaking type ‘Halloway’ and boom, there goes the files from 1996 with Halloway’s name written over them.”

Really, he could be a pain in the ass, but she had to admit he’s quick and smart.

“What? No comeback?” he asked, lighting a cigarette.

She snatched it from his mouth, “No smoking in the office.”

(10:00am)

She didn’t mind that they knew the color of her eyes. Anyway, the paper didn’t recognize the killer as a man or a woman yet. No mention of the lipstick marks either which meant the police was keeping quiet. She has expected they’d figure it out soon.

What worried her was Sean Lightman. He talked to her long enough to know her face, her eyes, her hair color and even her voice to give a vivid description to anyone. It’s possible he had connected the dots by now if he read or watched the news.

A solution came to her mind.

She shook her head.

No, he’s got nothing to do with all this, she said to herself. If Sean Lightman talked to the authorities, she couldn’t do anything about it. Yes, it would make things difficult, but she already knew from the start that it would eventually get harder.

She put down the paper and continued on with her work.

It’s good it came out.

The others must be sweating in their pants right now.