Rage Unleashed (3 page)

Chapter 3

Breaking the News

Lelone pulls her hand away shaking and was immediately pulled into a seat by her mother who had come back from the cafeteria and stood behind her until she finished. She had gotten used to seeing that look on her daughter’s face long time ago.

Lelone sat in the seat next to her brother’s bed and did a quick scan over his body and noticed the patch on his left shoulder; then she pulled the cover further back and noticed the patch on his left side.

Watching Lelone do her look over on her brother, Tami ached to know what she had seen in her vision and though she knew the answer she wanted to ask anyway. “What did you see?”

Lelone looked at her mother, “Mom. Why do you ask me that? Especially in a situation like this. You don’t need to know all the details about what happened and I don’t want to tell you. All you need to know is they won’t get away with it.”

Tami nodded her head. “I understand. But from the look on your face there’s more than what I was told.”

Frowning Lelone responded, “Who told you what happened and what did they tell you?”

“He was found by some fisherman. They said they had seen him get tossed off the river bridge. They didn’t see who tossed him.

They pulled him out and notice that he was severely bruised and had a hole in his shoulder. They drove him to the hospital themselves. He wasn’t awake or responding when they brought him in.”

Lelone was only half listening she was too focused on what her plan of revenge would be.

“Lee Lee are you listening to me?” “Huh. Yes Mama.”

“Are you going to tell me what you saw?” “No. You know I won’t do that.”

“Well can you tell me something?”

“Yea. He can hear you and he’s fighting to come back to us.” “You can pick up all that?”

“Yes. It’s part of his thoughts. Did they say why he’s not awake?”

“Not really just that he has a concussion and he has great brain activity so he should be up soon.”

Lelone nodded. “Okay.”

She got up from the chair kissed her mom’s check and asked, “Have you talked to Ms. Lela or Luke?”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it, no. I’ve been so consumed with everything that I hadn’t even called them to see how they’re doing. You know I haven’t seen them either which is odd.”

“Mom, don’t call. I’m going to stop by and have a talk with

Luke.”

“Okay. Please give him my condolences.”

“Okay. Mom one more thing; How did you know that LJ was dead?”

“Lucian was with him. When I got here I asked about him and they told me about a John Doe that came in around the same time. I went to view the body and sure enough it was our LJ. They wouldn’t let me sign anything because I’m not next of kin. They said there were two officers that told them to keep the body as a John Doe until they found next of kin.”

Lelone’s eyes darkened. Not only did they kill him but  they were making his family worry about him while they worked on covering their tracks.

Deep in thought Lelone said nothing as she left the room and headed to her truck and sped off toward the police station. Pulling up she parked and placed her hair in a bun and put her glasses on. She didn’t want anyone to pay too close attention to her as she walked in and waited for Lucas. As luck would have it she walked in and walked right into the officers responsible. They looked her up and down while making rude sexual remarks. She held in her rage because she didn’t want to get sidetracked from the main reason she was there. Ignoring them she walked up to the front reception and asked for Detective Luke Farmouth. She didn’t get his name out completely before he walked off the elevator. He didn’t notice her at first because he was talking to another detective. He briefly nodded at the dirty cops, who made no attempt to respond to the gesture but instead gave him a look of disdain. He never noticed while talking to  the  other  detective and  looking over some paperwork.  Luke didn’t notice Lelone until  he and  the  other detective finished their conversation.

“Hey Lelone is that you? What do I owe the pleasure of a long awaited visit from my adopted daughter?”

She didn’t smile like she usually did nor did she respond to his question, she just simply said, “We need to talk, privately.”

He frowned at her unlikely response and simply said, “O-kay”

She followed him to his office and sat down on his desk. The picture of her, LJ and Lucian caught her eye immediately. Without realizing it completely she said in a tone that was barely above a whisper, “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

She didn’t know she said it until she heard his response. “What are you talking about? Who’s gone?”

She looked up from the picture finally and said, “The information I’m going to tell you isn’t going to be easy for you to hear nor is it going to be easy for me to say. I just left the hospital.”

Cutting her off, he immediately asked, “Why? What’s going on? Who’s in the hospital?”

While responding he began to check his phone to see if there was a missed call. “Tami nor Lela called me. Is there something going on with you?”

“No, well other than the pain of a loss.” Confusion crept into Luke’s face.

“Lucian is in the hospital. He had been found shot, beaten up and floating in the creek. He’s currently in a coma.”

“How?  What happened? Lucian never does anything to anyone. I didn’t hear anything about this case or I would’ve dealt with it myself. I wonder why Tami didn’t call me to let me know. Maybe she couldn’t from the hospital. How did you find out?”

“Mama called me when she got the call, before she got to the hospital. But she wasn’t expecting the other half of the news she received when she got there.”

“What do you mean? Wait, when did all this happened? Last I spoke with LJ he said Lucian was supposed to be hanging out with him.”

“Well yea. That’s the other part. Mom didn’t find out until recently that Lucian wasn’t the worst of it. She was wondering the same thing and asked about that fact. They told her that no others were found in the creek but there was a John Doe that was brought in by officers around the same time. She went to view the body and it was LJ. She gave them his name and your contact info but the tech told her she was told by police to keep the body unmarked and call no one until they came back with proper ID. They said they wanted to make sure no one messed with their investigation. So she never wrote it down to call you. LJ is currently lying in the Hillside Hospital Morgue. Unfortunately, there’s more…”

Chapter 4

Revealed Lies

All he could think about was his only child. The child they were blessed to have in the first place. They had adopted him when he was just two weeks old. They loved him as their own immediately and he gave him more than his last name but his full name. Most people knew his son by face and name but there were a few rookie cops that had only been in the force a year or so, he hadn’t fully been acquainted with. As he began to think his rage grew as his mind wandered through all the new hires to make sure he had their names and faces implanted in his mind as he began to search for answers.

Slowly he began to refocus on Lelone who was seated quietly waiting on him to take in what she had already told him. She realized that he tuned her out after she told him about LJ and sat quietly until his eyes refocused on her.

He swayed slightly before finding his way to the desk chair. Then looked up at Lelone hoping he’d heard her wrong and began slowly; “So you’re telling me that not only is Lucian, a young boy I look at like another son and watched grow into the man that he is today, is sitting in the hospital fighting for his life, but also that my only son is dead and has been for God knows how long and is laying unclaimed in a hospital morgue.”

Not wanting to look directly at him and see the pain in his eyes she looked down at the picture sitting on his desk and simply nodded. She knew it would be hard for her to tell him and hard for

him to hear but that didn’t make it any easier. It was like looking at her own father and telling him that her brother was dead. She wasn’t there when her mom got the news about Lucian, but at least her son may live. LJ wouldn’t be waking up, he was gone and that was definitely harder to take.

The moment Lelone nodded her head, he broke, immediately he grew pale and the tears began to stream down his face. He sat there rocking slightly saying, “NO, NO, NO, Not my boy.” Over and over again.

Lelone got up from the desk and held him until he let it sink in and the questions began to flow as she knew they would. That only took 10 minutes because one thing that Lucas was besides an amazing family man was an amazing detective and he would want to know why he hadn’t heard anything. Why the situation wasn’t even brought up to him that his son might have been involved in something like that. He would want to know and he wouldn’t rest until he did.

Lucas sat back abruptly. “Lee Lee you said the police told the morgue tech not to allow anyone to identify him? Did she tell you their names?”

Lelone shook her head no. “All she said was they didn’t recognize them and both of their names started with Mc.”

“I’ll deal with that after I go ID my son.”

Grabbing his keys, they headed out of his office and again came face to face with officers McKinney and McFalley who were both standing directly in front of his office. Because he was rushing and his mind was too preoccupied with getting to his son he didn’t notice them. But Lelone did. She took mental note of their names. She would return later and hack into the system to find out all she

needed to know. Them hanging around the office meant they know what they did and who it directly affected which meant they were currently working to cover their tracks. She could tell by the confident looks on their faces that they thought they wouldn’t be caught, and they were partly right, but she had a dose of her own karma that they would taste real soon.

Luke and Lelone sped off, riding separately yet arriving at the hospital at exactly the same time. Without checking in, they walked directly to the morgue area and seeing no one at the counter they went right to LJ’s current resting place. With hands shaking Lucas opened the freezer door and slowly uncovered his son. Pulling the metal slab out completely he looked down into his son’s face and inhaled quickly. He didn’t expect him to look the way he did. LJ’s face looked just as it did the last time he saw him which was only a few days before. The only thing that was missing was the life that was supposed to be flowing through his veins. He continued to look his son over and begun to touch all the bullet wounds that he saw there. He began with the one that was in the middle of his forehead and continued to the one on the left side of his chest. He noticed immediately that those wounds looked like was shot from behind, the other two wounds were located in the right side of his rib and the middle of his stomach. He noticed that those two looked like entry wounds which means he was shot from the front.

Shaking his head he said, “This was an execution style killing. Whoever killed my son wanted to make sure he was dead.” In a voice that was barely above a whisper. He looked up at Lelone with tears in his eyes and said, “Who would want to kill me son? He never did anything to anyone. He was a good man who was in the process of being a great husband and father. Why would they choose him of all people? It just doesn’t make sense. Why would they kill my boy Lee Lee?”

Then he broke into tears again. Lelone stood there watching him grieve knowing that there was nothing she could really do for

him in that moment. He would grieve for his only son many times after that and she wouldn’t be able to comfort him through his pain. But she could give him one thing, revenge and she would make sure he would get it and it would be the sweetest revenge he’s ever tasted.

That was how Heather the morgue tech found them when she returned from her break.  She was used to seeing Luke while he was working on a case, but she didn’t know anything about his personal life because that was the way he wanted it. He never wanted anyone to have the ability to use his family against him.

When she saw him he was always very professional with an amazing poker face, making it impossible to really know what he was thinking. So she was very surprised to walk in to find him standing over the John Doe crying into his hands. Standing next to him was the woman who snuck in earlier that day and viewed the body.

She stepped further into the room and cleared her throat loudly in attempt to announce her presence. Luke shot up abruptly quickly wiping the tears from his face and turned around to face her. Clearing his throat, he said, “Hello Heather. I didn’t hear you come in. I came to identify your John Doe.”

Walking completely into the room and up to him she replied, “Hello Detective. Don’t worry I wasn’t standing here long. Were you and the officers able to find his next of kin?”

Shaking his head, he replied, “I don’t know what officers you’re referring to. But as far as the next of kin goes that would be me. This is my son, Lucas Jr.”

Unable to hide the shock on her face her mouth immediately dropped open. “Oh my. I’m so sorry detective for your loss and to have to find out like this is horrible. I’m so sorry.”

Lifting his hand, he replied, “Thank you but I’m fine. Is Dr. Ross back from his conference yet?”

“No, he returns tomorrow.”

“That’s fine. Give him my card and let him know I would like to speak with him immediately.”

“I can do better than that Detective. I can give you his personal number so you can reach him. I’m sure something of this magnitude he would want to hear about immediately, he always speaks highly of you and I know he considers you a dear friend.”

“Okay that would be great thank you.” Heather turned to leave the room to go grab something to write down the personal number when he continued, “If it’s not too much to ask I would like to ask you some questions about the officers who brought him in. I was told you can’t recall their full names.” She nodded her head yes. “Can you tell me what you do remember about them?”

“Absolutely. They were both about six feet tall, dark brown hair and brown eyes. They said they were partners and that they worked for the station. They brought him in themselves and said they found him on the side of the road. They had yelled at me for not being available when they needed a transfer which I though was weird because there weren’t any transfer calls. I would have gotten those myself because I’m the one sitting at the desk and answering the phone. I spoke with Mickey and he thought that was weird as well because he didn’t get anything on his personal line either. For the most part it’s been pretty quiet besides the bodies brought down from the hospital. I asked the officers if they were sure they called the right hospital and they insulted me and told me that they

were smart enough to know the hospital they called and told me that I needed to make sure and do my damn job. They told me that because they had to touch the body they had contaminated the scene of a crime and would have to explain what happened to the Captain because of my laziness. When I began to ask questions about the body they brought in, they told me that all I needed to know at this moment was that it was a John Doe and they were working to find the perp responsible. They said that the body was a direct link to a case they were working on and didn’t want anyone coming in to view or touch it. They said they would be back to have the body removed and sent to their experts for testing and that they didn’t want Dr. Ross touching or viewing the body. They told me they would come back personally to give me instructions on what to do next. When I asked for their names to place done on the paperwork they told me not to worry about it and walked out quickly. I tried looking at their badges as they left but they moved too quickly so all I can tell you they began with Mc K something and Mc F something. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. When I saw you and the young woman I thought I was going to get into trouble for not following orders because she was able to sneak into the morgue earlier while I was dealing with a transfer from upstairs.”

Shaking his head he replied, “Don’t worry, you’re in no trouble. I know you do a great job. Tell me, when was my son was brought in by these officers.”

“Around 12 last night, I remember because there was a lot of commotion around that time. There was a guy brought in after being rescued by fishermen. He was tossed into the river not far from where they were fishing.”

Luke nodded his head slightly, while taking the card the

Heather gave him.

“Is there anything else you need Detective?”

“No, thank you Heather you have been very helpful today. If I

have any further questions I’ll come back.”

“Okay, that’s not a problem. I’ll be here until nine tonight and back here again at eight in the morning for the rest of the week.”

“Okay great. Thanks again.”

“You’re welcome and sorry again for your loss.”

He didn’t respond as he walked away from the morgue with Lelone following close behind. Heather began to add the identity information to the file. Hoping she wouldn’t have to deal with the cops when they find out that the body was already identified without their knowledge.