Her Eyes

Chapter 13: SURPRISES

It had been a long morning of paperwork when Officer Lopez knocked on the sheriff's door. "Yeah," Romero yelled, rubbing his temple.

            "Sheriff, the Blair Watson case...we just caught a break," the officer said from the door. "One of the semen samples belongs to Kyle Miller."

            "All right. Let's get a team over there." Alex got up from his desk and grabbed a bulletproof vest, slipping it on. Often times he wondered what the point in wearing one was...he didn't have a family to come home to, no one was waiting for him. He grabbed his keys and drove to Kyle Miller's.

            Kyle Miller was your typical drug dealer—shady and arrogant. He lived in a shitty house in the outskirts of White Pine Bay. The officers gathered around the outside of the house, guns in hand. "Sheriff's department. We got a warrant," Officer Lopez shouted at the walls of the house.

            Alex kicked down the door and led his team inside the smoke filled house. They searched the bottom floor, but there was no one. The sound of a toilet flushing brought Alex's attention upstairs. As the team made their way up, he remained downstairs sensing what was coming. He heard a body drop behind him. He turned around to find Kyle on the ground outside. As he attempted to get up, Alex tackled him back down shoving his face in the dirt. "You're back, huh? Thought I told you to say out of town," he growled into the man's ear.

            "What'd I do?" Kyle asked as an officer handcuffed him.

            "What didn't you do?" Alex shot back, directing the men back to the vehicles.

When they got to the station, they took Miller into the interrogation room. He glared at Alex from across the table, a glare that he gladly returned. "We know you had sex with Blair Watson within thirty hours of her turning up dead," he told him.

            "Did you have a camera in there?" Kyle asked stupidly.

            Alex rolled his eyes. He hated the dirtbag. "We found a semen sample inside her. It's your DNA."

            "Was mine the only semen sample you found?" Alex stared at him. He knew the answer already...he wasted his breath asking. "That's gonna come out in court," Kyle pointed out.

            Alex decided it wasn't worth the fight. "We found two semen samples inside her," he admitted.

            "Then why are we even talking." He was getting restless, wrestling with the chair and tabletop.

            "Because you're the one that we matched. And because three people died from tainted drugs that you sold. And because I know you killed your old girlfriend." Alex grimaced recalling the case. "You remember her. You remember Carly Walters." His voice began to crack. It was one of the worst cases he had ever worked on. Carly was a sweet innocent girl, who didn't deserve to die, but Alex couldn't prove Kyle guilty—the case went cold. Alex glared at him. "I found her floating face down out in the kelp beds."

            "Well if you know I did all those things why don't you prove it?" His face formed a gruesome smile.

            Alex wanted nothing more than to pin him against the wall and strangle him the way he had strangled Carly. "Kay. I'm gonna track this with the semen sample. Mine wasn't one of them. Yours was. Why don't you tell me about that?"

            Kyle leaned in across the table. "She slept with a lot of different guys. I mean she had daddy issues or whatever. I think you'd call her troubled," he whispered. He watched the sheriff's nonresponsive expression. "So, can I go?"

            "You're not going anywhere." Alex got up from the table and opened the door. "Lock him up," he told the guard.

It was later on in the night when Alex made his decision. Kyle Miller needed to be behind bars. Even if he didn't kill Blair Watson, Alex was sure he killed Carly Walters and that was good enough for him. He downed what was left of his scotch before leaving his office. Arresting people wasn't ever easy for him.

            The guard unlocked the door and let him into the room where Miller was.

            "What?" Kyle growled from the bench.

            Alex sighed and took the seat beside him. "You know what the worst part about my job is? It's when you can't solve a crime. But there are consequences." He looked over a Kyle's confused expression. "I'm gonna charge you with the murder of Blair Watson."

            "You can't do that," the man shouted, anger quickly appearing on his face.

            "You're a shithead, Kyle. And if there were any justice, you'd been on death row a long time ago." He got up, walked towards the door, and knocked, waiting for the guard to release him.

            "But you have no proof!" the man shouted after him. Alex pretended not to hear him and walked back to his office.

He decided to go to the bar after work. Usually he'd go home and have drink but tonight he felt he needed to submerse himself in a sea of people...even if he didn't talk to anyone. He sat on the very end of the counter determined to speak to no one—that was until Norma Bates walked in. He watched as she sat down near the door and conversed with the bartender. He contemplated on approaching her, knowing that if he didn't she'd surely catch him watching her from across the room—which would be even more painful for him. So he approached her, taking the seat next to her bravely. "You're dressed up pretty nice for a crappy old bar," he greeted, downing a fourth of his scotch. He would need it for this conversation.

            "Is that the best pick up line you got," she smiled weakly.

            "Probably," he laughed. He could sense something was the matter, but he was afraid to ask.

            "I was at a 'garden party' earlier." She laughed at the thought of it.

            He eyed the way the dress fit her, the sound of her laughter filling his ears. "And you decided to come here afterwards?" She rolled her eyes at him. "What's the matter?" he asked her.

            "I don't want to—" she began.

            "It's fine. You obviously didn't come here to talk about it." She gave him a slight smile before taking a sip of her drink. He looked around the room for a while, trying to think of something to say...perhaps something that might lighten the mood. "I heard what happened the other day," he started, laughing a little.

            "I don't know what you're talking about." She smiled at his enjoyment, though she was confused.

            "The other day when I asked what was the matter and you didn't want to talk about it...the city council meeting." He gave her a playful look.

            "Oh," she blushed, a little embarrassed.

            "I think you're the first person to ever call Lee Berman a dick to his face and in front of a crowd no less," he laughed.

            "What can I say?" she smiled, proud of herself for the accomplishment. After a moment of silence she stared at him, her eyes searching his. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out catching robbers?"

            He sighed and took another sip of his drink. "Let's just say it's been a long day."

            She gave him an understanding look and clinked his glass.

Alex was glad she was there with him...even if the reason they had come wasn't so good. She made him feel a sense of purpose, a feeling that he had lost a long time ago. He was beginning to like Norma Bates.