Trip to Murder 5
Author's note: I did a little reading about the terms used for police officers in large cities during this period in time and they did use the terms, 'officer', 'patrolman', 'Captain', etc... Not sure if they were used in St. Louis but then again, I never promised to be totally historically accurate. For those of you, who wish for that, again, please go visit the library. (NOT the librarian, just thelibrary.)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Matt awoke to an urgent pounding on his door. "Just a minute." He called irritably, not happy being woken from sleep. Pulling himself out of bed, he got up and answered the knock before it could sound again.
Opening the door, he found a tall, younger looking man with reddish brown hair, in a St. Louis police uniform standing pensively in the hallway. "Can I help you?" He asked, a little puzzled at why a St. Louis officer would be at his door.
"Are you Marshal Matt Dillon?" The officer asked.
Matt regarded him curiously as he nodded his head. "I am. What's this all about?"
"Do you know a Miss Kitty Russell?" The officer asked in answer to Matt's question.
"Kitty? Is she alright?" He demanded, suddenly worried. "What happened to her?"
The officer raised one hand pleadingly. "Relax, Marshal. Miss Russell is just fine, physically at least."
"What does that mean?" Matt took a step closer to the uniformed messenger of potentially bad news. "And who are you?"
This time the younger looking man held both hands up. "My name is Patrolman Sean Flannery. Miss Russell is down at the police station, just a few blocks from here and she is claiming she witnessed a murder."
"Murder?" Matt immediately began reaching for his boots. "Where?"
"At a warehouse, on the south side of the city. She claims she went there for an appointment."
Matt stopped and glared at the so called officer. "She was there for an appointment and if Kitty says she saw something, she did. She doesn't just make claims."
"I'm sorry, Marshal Dillon." The officer ducked his head ruefully. "I didn't mean anything by that. It's just that, until we investigate such reports, we always consider them as nothing more than a claim."
Matt held his tongue while he finished dressing. He didn't want to say what he was thinking right then. Grabbing his gun belt, he began to put it on.
"Uh, Marshal…." Patrolman Flannery hesitated, not sure about Matt wearing a weapon in the police station.
"What?" Matt asked glared at him as he finished buckling it on.
"Well, the gun…" He didn't want to offend the big man but he didn't want him to have any trouble getting into to see Miss Russell either.
Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge, pinning it on. "This make you feel better?" He snapped at him.
Flannery merely nodded and turned back towards the door. "Let's go. I'll take you there and stay with you, to make sure you get in."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Kitty was pacing again, wondering what was taking so long. Looking at her pendant watch, she noticed she had been in this room for a little over two hours. Except for the brief visit from Patrolman Flannery, she had been left completely alone.
At one point, she had tried the door of, what she was becoming to think of as her jail, and found it locked. A fact which only served to make her angrier and more worried.
Finally the door opened and Matt stepped in, with Flannery behind him. "Matt," she sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God."
Normally not a publically demonstrative man, Matt walked in pulled Kitty tightly into his arms, holding her close and kissing her on the forehead. "You okay?" He asked.
Kitty nodded against his chest. "Uh huh, now."
Flannery cleared his throat to gain their attention. "Um, I will let you two have a few minutes alone." He said, stepping back out and closing the door behind him.
"What happened?" Matt asked leading her over to a chair to sit down. "That Flannery fella said you saw a murder?"
Kitty nodded, then shook her head. "I didn't see the actual murder take place. I came in right after it happened. I literally stumbled over it."
"What you mean?" He placed his arm protectively around her shoulders.
Kitty took a deep breath and began. "I got there a few minutes before my appointment. When I walked into the office, there was no one there. But I heard voices in the warehouse behind the office. I know I probably shouldn't have…"
She stopped and shook her head ruefully when she saw the look on his face. "Alright, I shouldn't have. But anyway, I went into the warehouse, looking for the voices I heard. They were just on the other side of a long aisle of barrels. So I went around there and stumbled over a man. He was lying on the ground with a knife stuck in his chest."
"And he was already dead?" Matt asked, clutching her even tighter to his side.
Kitty nodded. "Yeah, he was dead. Anyway, as you can imagine, it scared me pretty good. So I got back on my feet and that's when I saw this man running at me. I figured he was probably the murderer and I wasn't about to stick around and give him two bodies to bury, so I just ran. I'm not sure how, but somehow I made my way back to the entrance and got out of there. I kept running until I saw Officer Flannery and flagged him down."
"I don't suppose you know who those men were, do you?" he asked.
Kitty shook her head negatively. "The only contact I had with anyone there was by wire and mail. I've never seen either of them before and I don't care if I ever do again." Kitty laid her head back against Matt's chest. "Oh. Matt, I'm so glad you're here. I don't understand any of this. Except for Officer Flannery, they've been treating me like I was the murderer."
"We're not really sure yet, who, or what you are." A gruff sounding man said as he walked into the room.
Matt and Kitty looked up to see a middle aged, medium height man with close cropped, gray hair and a thin mustache walk into the room. His scowl was as severe as his haircut. "Perhaps, you had better tell us everything, Miss Russell."
"What do you mean?" Kitty looked up at him and then over at Matt, a confused look on her face. "I did tell you everything. Everything I know, anyway."
Matt stood up and leaned slightly over the other man. "Perhaps," he said, "you could tell us who you are and what this is all about?"
"Who are you?" The man demanded.
"I asked you first," Matt glared at him.
Seeing the man wasn't going to be intimidated by size alone, Matt pulled his jacket aside to show his badge. "My name's Matt Dillon. I'm a US Marshal out of Dodge City, Kansas. I'm here on government business and I'm a friend of Miss Russell. Now again, what is this all about?"
For several minutes, the man studied Matt before finally taking a slight step backward. With a shake of his head and a rub to the back of his neck he shrugged. "My name's Captain Gerald Owens. I'm the officer in charge here. And as for what this is about, I don't know. I was hoping Miss Russell could tell me."
"Tell you what?" She was getting the uncomfortable feeling she was being accused of something, but what, she had no idea.
"We dispatched several officers to the warehouse you told us about, Miss Russell." The man practically growled at her. "And we found nothing. No dead body, no man with a mustache, no knife, nothing. The place wasn't even open. There was nothing there. So now, will you kindly tell me why you lied?"
TBC