The Aftermath

16

Wednesday Morning,  4:30AM

Homicide Detective John Roads woke from a fitful dream to the sound of his phone ringing. He shakes off the furies of his psyche and grabs the phone. It is bad news he is sure. No good news calls in at 4:30 in the morning. Doesn't take a detective to figure that one out.

Picking up his cell-phone he taps the answer button and presses it to his ear. "Yeah?"

He listens to the voice on the other end talking, grabbing only bits and pieces through his early morning brain fog. Then he realizes something after a minute -- the call is not bad news. In fact it is the news he has been waiting for, hoping for. In fact it is great news. "Tom Blake's mother?"

The voice of Oceanside Detective Robert Green said, "Yes. Found this morning by the construction security patrol. They only come by the project twice a night and check the model houses. They found her in one of the models. She's been mutilated, just like the Coroner Killer. Thought you would want to come up here and take a look."

"Yes, yes I do! Thank you for making the call. I'll be there as soon as I can." Roads tells him, his baritone voice cracking like old wood. He memorizes the address and directions the Oceanside detective gives him. Son of a bitch! His own mother! Damn but that is good. He ends the call sitting on the side of his bed, smiling like a Labrador.

Twenty minutes later, unshaved and unshowered he is in his car and heading North on Interstate 5 toward Oceanside. He has the lights going on his car. He is traveling at 90mph. He drinks coffee with one hand and smokes with the other. The police radio is on. It is always on. The radio is always on in his house, in his car, in his head. It is the sound that keeps him going. San Diego in pain. That's what he hears. Every call is someone in pain. There are hundreds of calls, every day, all day. The city's heartbeat. He loves to listen.

His own mother!

Tom Blake is a spear in Roads' side. The one that got away; the one that got away to kill again. This time he wasn't getting away. This time the charge would only be the single victim, but Detective Roads would have him. It wouldn't be his name on the file, but Roads would be there when the sentence was handed down, and he would help make it happen. One death sentence was enough.

He heard about someone taking a shot at Tom Blake on Monday. Ran him off the road and put two rounds through the windshield. Jim Stewart was wanted for questioning on that one. Detective Roads imagined the scene with the players, and Jim Stewart made sense. He remembers the old man visibly because there was something wrong with him, something vital missing. Roads had no word for what was missing, but he knew it was gone, and it was something a human being needed to have in order to keep going. Jim Stewart was the one that threw the bible at Blake during the trail. Cracked him in the head with it too. Roads smiles.

Old man Stewart was in the military back in Desert Storm. Then he did some time with the Drug Wars. Then he fell in love and moved back to the States to have a family.

Stewart became a trash truck driver. No laughing at that, those guys made good money. More than Roads made, that was for sure. Better benefits too. For Stewart it was just a job, just a pay check. His life was at home. Didn't care about anything else.

Then Stewart's wife died. A vicious breed of cancer hit her and she was gone in two months. And there was Old man Stewart with a little girl. The girl was all he had. Then the girl was taken from him by Tom Blake. Then Tom Blake was acquitted. Got away with it. Scott free. Yeah, Stewart would be the one. Of the five fathers and many brothers, Stewart stood out as a possible killer.

Roads knew killers. He could spot them in a crowd. Maybe they hadn't killed yet, but they were murderers just the same. They had it in them. Stewart had it in him. He had killed before. Many times to be sure. But he could murder as well. Shame he didn't kill Blake, because an attempted murder charge would still put him away for a long time. Ruin the rest of his life.

Roads pulled his car into the housing development area and drove to the model homes. It was easy to spot the one he would be interested in. He pulled up, flashed his badge and asked for Detective Green. Green was inside he was told, waiting for him.

TV News was already on the scene. Cameras on perfect blonds and brunettes standing in light spheres. They had no idea what was going on, but that didn't stop them from filling air time with local horror; starting the day off right, all across the county.