Bloody Bracelet

Part 12

Dany walked me down to the court room himself. I could feel the judgement from the other officers drill into me. They all had one thing in mind, that I was nothing better than a damn criminal who had to be put away. I can't blame them. I assaulted one of our own in his sleep. That was a shitty move.

"You really screwed the pooch, Tom."

"Yeah, I know."

"Come on, let's sign you in."

The lady in charge of sign ins was Latisha, an curvy African lady with big hair, who had a heart of gold. Always feeling sorry for whatever scum walked into the courtroom. Bless her. Ab was a lot like her. I almost fell over as the janitor bumped into me.

"Sorry, boss.", said the janitor as he repacked his mop cart and headed towards the elevator. Probably to mop the men's room. Now that I think of it, that's most likely my next job. Nobody is going to trust an aggresive cop in this town.

I just turned and headed towards the nice lady at the desk.

"Hey, Tom."

"Hey, Tisha."

"How are you doing?"

Dany took my handcuffs off and I lifted my wrists up as a sign of 'Fucking shitty'.

"Just hang in there, ok? Please, sign in the book."

As I put my signature into the book, I noticed my file on her desk, along with almost the whole precinct's. It was the size of a mountain.

"You got enough to do, Tisha?"

"You can say that again, honey. Chief got me updating and sorting out every employee's file. It's a nightmare."

"Sure looks it. Good luck.", I said with a smile.

"You too, Detective."

She responded with a smile, which was nice. I turned to head inside when something on her desk caught my eye. It was file, but the lastname was odd. I swear I heard it before.

"Hey, Tisha, whom does that folder belong to? The thin one?"

"We don't have time, Tom.", said Dany.

"It's the new fellow's. The janitor, a Mr. Clarke. I think you just met him.

Then it hit me.

Everything, all at once, like a sledgehammer to the knee. I turned to gaze back at the janitor.

"Matthew!"

The janitor stopped and turned to look at me.

It was him. It was his son. It was Robert Clarke's son. His father killed Jesse.

He stared blankly at me. The whole room went dead quiet. That 'You could hear a pin drop from across the street' kind of quiet.

He winked at me, and that was all I needed.

"Don't you dare run.", I mumbled to myself.

He pushed his cart over and ran towards the open elevator door.

"Don't you fucking run!", I yelled as I slammed past Dany. I ran after him as fast as my legs could carry me.

Matthew went into the elevator and hit the 'UP' button. The doors closed slowly, but fast enough for me to just miss him. I slammed, full speed, into the stainless steel doors.

"Fuck!"

I yanked out my cellphone and hit speed dial to Chief's phone. It didn't even ring twice before Chief answered it.

"Chief, it was the janitor."

"What are you talking about? Why aren't you in cou-"

"Shut the fuck up and listen! He's Robert Clarke's son, the guy that killed Jesse. His final court date was on 7th May 2012. 7-M-A-Y-1-2. It was the day his dad was sentenced for life. He ran, he's in the elevator, on his way up."

I could hear Chief drop his phone as the elevator made a 'ding'. The light stop on Chief's floor.

"Tom, what the fuck?", Dany said behind me.

"It's the bracelet killer."

I could hear Chief's voice come on through my phone again.

"Tom, he's gone. The elevator's empty."

"He went through the roof."

I ran down the stairs to where the elevator's service ladder ended. All the way down to evidence locker. There's a fire escape in there. As soon as I got there you could see officer James, who handled evidence, knocked down on the floor, bleeding from a head wound, with the fire escape door wide open.

"Motherfucker." I ran back up a flight of stair to meet Chief at reception. He walked straight to me with questions in his eyes.

"He's gone."

"Son of a bitch. Are you sure it's him, Tom?"

"Chief, I'll put my balls on it. I remember him. He spoke to me after his father's court date. He was younger, but it's definitely him."

"What did he say?"

Those words came to me like a prayer: "One day, I'll make you pay."

My phone rang in my right hand pocket. It was from an unknown number.

"Who is this?", I answered.

"You finally caught on, Detective. I have to say, you're reputation doesn't exceed you."

I put my phone on loud speaker for Chief and Dany to hear. Dany connected it to track the call.

"You killed Sarah and Dana?"

"Let's not forget poor old Aunt Ab. Boy, you should have heard the sound of her skull shattering. Ohh! It was like the first sounds of Spring."

You puny, worthless fucking son of a whore.

"I'm going rip your fucking throat out."

"Temper, temper, Detective. Let's not blow our top like we did with Officer Johnson now do we."

Dany signalled to keep him on the line for only a few more seconds.

"Why don't you just tell me where you are and we could sort the whole thing out, how about that?"

"Now see, Alice. In order to catch the mad hatter, you must first go down the rabbit hole. Come find me."

The line went silent. I looked over at Dany and he gave me a negative head shake.

"Shit!"

"Latisha, put out an ABP on Matthew Clarke. Top priority, all unit's respond."

"Yes, Chief."

Latisha buzzed away on the switchboard and called in every patrol car in the area to track and apprehend Matthew.

My phone buzzed in my hand again. This time it was a text. A picture of a tied up woman. Her make-up was smudged around her eyes from crying, a cloth put in her mouth.

It was Lt. Alice Singer. The officer who arrested Matthew's dad. Underneath the photo was typed: 'Tick Tock, Tommy. In 60 minutes, Alice hangs. Love, The Mad Hatter'

"This cocksucker! I want to know where he is, NOW!", Chief blared.

"Dany, can you play back the phone call?"

The recording tape winded back and replayed from the start. I wanted to make sure I heard what I heard.

"Wait, was that a train in the background?", asked Dany.

"It was. I know where he's going. Dany, you're with me. Chief, send everyone to central train station."

"Tom, wait!"

Chief pulled my Glock and badge from his belt. "You'll need this."

I grabbed my gear and nodded as Dany and I headed to his service car.

Time to drag Mat Hatter down.