Shadow

Chapter 2 - The Phone-Call

He went over his notes just like he did every single night for the past three years since that tragic day trying to find clues, something that would help find an answer to that murderer's madness. But it was the same every night; no matter the amount of research he would do on the internet, or check out books from the library, the end result would still point to nothing.

Not one thing about a shadow.

Jimmy sat in his chair, with a glass of JD on the rocks and his mind went back to the tragic day.

Rachel had told him that morning Richie banged on the door, and being the sympathetic person that she was, she had let him in the house. Jimmy had gone to the store for the essentials that pretty much every house had needed.

I need coke, Richie had said, wearing only a vest and worn out jeans. He hugged himself tight as if he were in a freezing climate. The Shadow wants me to have coke. It says you have some for me.

Rachel, completely startled, staggered back. Jimmy had told her about Richie's recent drug use, and that he was, well... paranoid as hell. She later told Jimmy that in the back of her mind, she wanted to help him, but seeing him like this, there truly wasn't anything she could do, except... she had told him she would ring Jimmy and that he would take care of him. She went into the kitchen and grabbed her phone.

As soon as she punched in the numbers, she felt an agonizing sharp pain in the back of her head struck her like a jolt of electricity. She found herself falling; sinking almost as if she were in the largest of oceans, and everything around her was in slow-motion. She was lying down on the kitchen floor, her head pulsating and throbbing like a well-working heart.

She said that the kitchen had twirled around in her peripheral vision, and a steel stool dropped next to her, and she wondered if that was the weapon of choice. Then someone's black shoes. Richie's shoes. The cat hissed at the mere sight of him. Richie grabbed Buttons and stuck the knife deep in its insides. It didn't matter if it was an innocent animal; it certainly didn't stop Richie from slicing the cat open from its chin and all the way down to the groin, this finally ceasing the hiss from the animal.

He bent over and picked her up. She started to scream, and he clasped his hand around her mouth, but then the front door opened, and he came face to face with his friend.

Jimmy, disturbed at the turn of events, dropped the groceries onto the floor, and the milk bottle he held in his other hand. The bottle smashed into pieces, and the milk spread fast all over the tiles like an unforgiving infection and—

Shake it out of your head, he thought. Don't go back there.

Jimmy let out a breath, cleared his throat and continued to check out the notes he had written in the trial, and the newspaper clippings he had saved. He had highlighted the following words in red: "psychotic behavior", "not in the proper state of mind", and "cocaine psychosis". That last one was something he had always been curious about. He would play back what happened in his mind, like a DVD, replaying the same scene repeatedly.

He and Rachel had taken the stand, told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the day in question. That tragic, harrowing day that brought nothing but nightmares and heartache.

Richie's lawyer, Ray Atkins, a criminal defense attorney — a scumbag attorney, Jimmy had thought at the time, due to his alleged, but not proven, dealings with the mob — was defending him in the trial.

'Your Honor,' he said, getting up and buttoning his ironed black blazer, 'the defendant acknowledges the terrible crime he has committed; the tragic killing of one-year-old Charlie Roberts. Whether the shooting was merely accidental or not, an innocent child's life was taken in the line of fire. Evidence has shown that my client is an avid cocaine user and was using by the time of the incident. However, after a professional diagnosis from Dr. Sebastian Hunter, who has had considerable experience in treating drug abusers, it was concluded that my client suffered, and still continues to suffer from cocaine psychosis. Now for those who are not familiar with that term, basically this is a temporary situation that is often caused by excessive drug use over an extended period, and as a result, the user's brain loses the ability think clearly or to function properly. The mind loses its ability to focus on reality. Symptoms of this psychosis can include hallucinations, delusions, extreme paranoia and anxiety, psychotic behaviors, and the most important of them all — homicide, or being involved in the killing of someone. My client went through extensive testing for his drug abuse, and I have official paperwork here signed by Dr. Hunter, that Richard Morgan, was not in a proper state of mind when he entered the Roberts' household. He was susceptible to the manipulation of the drug, and therefore had no intention of hurting anybody.'