Of Lights and Shadows (Book 4)

44) Loose in the Night

Mulligan's office was quiet and almost still as his team worked quietly on the murder that had been assigned to them. It wasn't a hard murder to solve; Mulligan knew who the killer was already, what the murder weapon was, where it could be found, the motive, and even where he could be found. The man was, in fact, staring Mulligan straight in the eye. He was refusing to say anything, and he certainly would not be telling a cop of his guilt.

Turning away from the mirror hanging on the wall of his office, Mulligan sat down at his desk with a small sigh. He had been absent from the court that morning, not wanting to go because there had been no point in going. He had lost. At least that was what he had thought at the time. It wasn't until it was all over did he learn the events that had taken place at the courthouse.

He was pleased to hear that Dastardious hadn't won, but now he had a dead body on his hands that was no longer needed to frame Dastardious. It would not be hard to close the case. There was no evidence because he had made sure that after killing the man he cleaned everything, and without anything to go on there was no need for the case to be open. It would be one of those unsolved ones, a mystery. Hopefully locked away to the back but ready to be used if he ever needed to frame someone.

It was probably what would happen to the Shadow case. Unsolved it would be placed in the back until some evidence came forward which would help them. Inside Mulligan was being torn apart. The only evidence he held could no longer be used because everyone was under the impression that Dastardious had made it to frame Alice Aforethought. If he brought it forth now the court would only throw the case out again. If he had gone that afternoon as a witness to Alice placing the body then she would have been locked away and the case closed. But if he had gone then he would also have had to admit that Dastardious had won, which he could not allow to happen. He refused to admit defeat.

It was true that Dastardious was now in prison and so he was free of the man, but that meant that he was right back where he started. He still had no idea how Dastardious had known that Alice would show up at the Lake and to plant cameras there to catch her when she did.

If he was ever returned to the case, which he thought unlikely considering all things that had happened, his first order would be to have Alice watched. If she made another move, they would catch her. If only he had suspected her beforehand and had been trailing her, they might have caught her earlier and it would be over and done with. He realised, thinking back, that there were quite a few 'If's, but there was no point thinking about it all now. The door to gaining the promotion was shut for the moment, and if he wanted it then he would have to find another door. However, no matter how hard he tried to take his mind off the Shadow case and make it move on to his other, the thought of leaving it unfinished wouldn't leave. It bothered him. If Alice really was the Shadow then the next time she acted he would be down on her like a sack of rocks, whether he was on the case or not.

A half hour later while he was finishing the last report to file the Frank Coldon case unsolvable due to lack of evidence, he was interrupted. Miss Jordan entered the room, a worried look etched deep in to her face that seemed to highlight the spot of fear in the centre of her eyes.

'Yes?' asked Mulligan. He finished the last flurry of his signature before pushing the paper aside.

'It's Hollow,' Jordan told him hesitantly. The news she had just received was not news that she wanted to tell Mulligan about. However, being the senior officer under him she had been elected to tell him. 'Gallapolo's released him and we've just received reports that he's on his way to Aforethought's residence right this minute,' she told him breathlessly in a rush to get it all out.

Mulligan's face remained blank for a few seconds as he digested the news, and for half of those seconds Miss Jordan thought that any trouble was passed. Then there was a flicker across the detective's eyes as the news finally penetrated his mind.