A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 2

The Captain held a hand as he attempted to explain. "No, we're not holding him as a suspect, well not any longer, more as a potential witness. In our defense, the detectives that responded to the call didn't know he was your son or that he was related to one of the victims, but he was at the scene. The victims were Sharon Beck and a Linda and James Lewis."

Sharon's face went chalk white. She'd had a feeling, but hearing it said was devastating. Captain Weatherly looked at Commander Raydor with concern Andy did too. He placed his hand at the small of her back and guided her to a chair. She sat down heavily. When she was able to regain her composure, she said in a throaty voice filled with emotion in spite of her best efforts to hold the emotion at bay, "Sharon Beck was Rusty's biological mother. He would never have killed her! He… he loved her, in spite of everything she did to him in the past. They've been rebuilding their relationship and she was doing better since she had the support of the Lewis's."

"Commander, as I said before he's more a potential witness than a suspect, but you and I both know families gone bad is what keeps the police in business. Rusty was in the vicinity of the murder and at the scene there was a note saying, 'took Bella for a ride, will be back later, Rusty.' When the uniform stopped him, and asked his name and his business, the baby started to cry and the uniform heard him refer to the baby as Bella, he realized that he was the Rusty from the note. Meaning he'd been on the premises at some point. The uniform brought him here. The baby was in need of care, she was screaming and he was too rattled to help her. We called DCFS to care for the child until we sorted things out."

"Did he have blood on him? Was he in the house after the murders?" Sharon asked, trying to determine how much emotional trauma her son had experienced.

Captain Weatherly explained, "No. As far as I know he didn't have any blood on him, nor was he in the house when they discovered him. I believe he was in his car with his baby sister, trying to find a parking space with all the police cars blocking the area. The officer said he seemed agitated and fidgety and since he was found near the scene of the murders they wanted to keep him close. Police procedure is not new to you Commander, we don't tell everything we know and nothing happens fast in a situation like this. We needed to gather more information before we make notifications."

Sharon was done with his attitude as she replied firmly, "Captain Weatherly, if I may be so bold, you are being a bit condescending to me. Of course, I'm well aware of police procedure under these circumstances, but may I also remind you that I'm here more in the capacity of Rusty's mother, than police Commander."

He shook his head as he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be condescending. You are right, you are here more as a parent than in your role as police Commander and those roles are vastly different. I will say that we obviously didn't take his phone. I mean, he was able to contact you and you're here. So, you know he wasn't considered strongly as a suspect. Tell me if he is the son of Sharon Beck, then how is he your son?"

"I adopted him three years ago. His mother abandoned Rusty at the zoo when he was fifteen, he was in and out of foster care from then on. While he was on his own, he witnessed a murderer, Phillip Stroh burying his victims. Since he was an important witness against Stroh and he had run from all his other foster homes, he became my ward then my foster son, and remained so for two years before I adopted him. He's come a long way since then." Sharon spoke proudly, "he's about to go to law school and he is interning for DDA Hobbs. She will be a reference for him if you need more than my own and those of my squad to clear him."

"Ah yes, I knew his name sounded familiar, but couldn't place it." Weatherly tried to defend his actions and attitude, "it's only been a few hours since the bodies were discovered, and I haven't had time to process all the information. Sorry Commander, I…"

Andy gently and imperceptibly nudged Sharon and with that touch she realized what he was trying to tell her. She tilted her head and studied the Captain before her and realized that she was being a bit of a vengeful mama-bear. She began to feel a little sorry for the man. She was being a bit hard on him. After all he was only doing his job. "Don't apologize, you were only saying the truth. I know… in my head that you all were following police procedure, but my heart is involved in these circumstances, not my head. Rusty is my son and he's been through a lot in his young life. I naturally feel protective of him and his baby sister. Where is she by the way? Is she on the premises?"

With a nod of acceptance, he had dealt with a lot of worried mom's over his career and police officer parents were the most protective of their children. "No, she is being taken to the doctor by the head of DCFS, Lily Thompson. Apparently, the child seemed very ill, she kept screaming and could not be consoled."

Sharon's mother's heart clenched with concern. "She's ill? Rusty did text me that she was screaming and wouldn't stop, he was planning to take her to the Minute Clinic, but he'd forgotten the paperwork he needed, that's why he went back to the house. When will she be bringing her back here? My fiancé, Lieutenant Flynn and I will be taking custody of her when we leave here, but before that I'd like to be briefed on the murders. If you please and I would rather be the one to do the... the ahhh… um the notification."

"If you'd like, you can do the notification, but as far as you taking custody of the baby, that's up to DCFS. I'm sure it won't be a problem, though. Among the papers found at the scene there were custody papers signed by a Russell Thomas Beck, Sharon O'Dwyer Raydor and Lieutenant Andrew Anthony Flynn, as well as the victims. How did that come about?"

"Yes, well they faxed them to me to sign just this morning, Andy and I signed them and faxed them back. Rusty was here in Cathedral City to baby-sit his sister, so he signed them too. Mr. Lewis is a family law attorney and since they would be out of town for the day, he wanted to make sure the baby would be cared for and not be put into foster care in case something happened. A car accident or something, I suppose. I'm sure he wasn't expecting to be murdered when he drew up those papers, however." Sharon said, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"No, I don't suppose he did," Captain Weatherly said sympathetically. "But it was prudent of him to draw up these papers, so many don't think of this and then something happens and it leaves a mess for us to sort out."

Sharon nodded, but remembered the need to know the facts of the murder. "Could you... could you tell me what happened?" Sharon asked.

Captain Weatherly picked up the report that he had on the triple murders. He adjusted his reading glasses and read, "The witness, is a Mrs. Potts, who lives in the house attached to the Lewis's. They have an end of the row Victorian style townhouse very large with a backyard that leads to the woods. She lives in a house attached to them on the inside of the row. The officer taking her statement said she was one of these older ladies that were very alert and very observant, bordering on nosy. Anyway, she says she was in her living room knitting, she was in a chair facing her front door when she saw a young man she knows as Rusty, arrive at 7:00am, an hour later she saw the Lewis's leave and Ms. Beck with them. She said nothing untoward happened for several hours. She saw Rusty walk the baby around the block in her stroller, a couple of times then about 6:00pm, Bella began screaming inconsolably, as she does lately just about every night at that time and Rusty bundled her up and put her in his car for a ride to get her to go to sleep.

At 6:30pm the Lewis's and Ms. Beck arrived home. At 6:45 a man in a uniform, Mrs. Potts said his face was in shadow so she wasn't sure if she'd ever seen him before but he seemed familiar. She said the man ran up the steps of the house and barreled his way into the house like he owned the place. There were angry shouts and the sounds of breaking glass then a succession of two shots, a beat, two more shots, and then two more and the sound of something or someone falling down the stairs. She, Mrs. Potts had hit the deck when the shots were fired and then she realized she had misplaced her cell phone, so it took awhile to call 911. As she was doing that she saw a man in camouflage and combat boots. She said he was quite pale, and had very short hair and angular features, run out the back of the house."

Sharon thought for a moment after listening to the description. Suddenly her eyes got wide, she turned to Andy who had come to the same conclusion she had and was already looking up information on prison breaks on his cell phone. At the same time, they both said, "Gary Lewis."

The Captain looked back and forth between the Commander and Lieutenant. "I take it you've had dealings with this Gary Lewis?"

"I'll say, we put him in jail for life. Just last year." Andy answered frustrated.

Captain Weatherly looked confused. "If he's in jail, what makes you think it's him?"

"Because, first of all as you said before, families gone bad is what keeps us in business. Plus, as soon as it occurred to me that it could be Gary, I started looking up prison breaks in the area. I had heard about one on the news on the radio as I was coming home, but I wasn't paying that much attention to which prison had the break, had forgotten completely until you started describing the perp that killed the Lewis's and Sharon Beck. When I looked up prison breaks it shows a list of the names of the prisoners that escaped and a description of how it was done," Andy said. "Apparently he and his cellmate took advantage of a bigger escape by other prisoners and took down some auxiliary guards put in place of the more experienced guards that were going after the other prisoners. They stole their uniforms and escaped before the alarms were reinstated. That makes sense, I mean, the guy is definitely not smart enough to have masterminded the original plan but he is cunning, so I can imagine him taking advantage of the situation," Andy mused.

Wanting to understand more fully how this prison break managed to happen and frustrated that he hadn't been informed Captain Weatherly pressed for more details. "Getting back to the means of the escape was the alarm broken or disabled?"

"Says here it was more like disrupted," Andy said turning his phone around so the captain could see the page on his phone that described the prison break. "See here, it says that one of the prisoners of the main prison break was a whiz at electronics and was somehow able to make a disrupter that disabled the alarm system and cell lock system. I imagine the guards were so busy trying to maintain order; Gary and his cellmate were able to escape without notice. Says they were gone four to six hours before they were discovered missing. Geez, what a clusterfuck that was!" Andy said shaking his head. "Sorry about the language. I just call them like I see them."

"No problem Lieutenant, I have to agree with you. Sorry Commander," he said to the woman sitting across from him, deep in thought.

Sharon looked up embarrassed to be caught being inattentive to the conversation. "Hmm, sorry for what?" Sharon asked at first slightly bewildered about the turn the conversation had taken. Then remembering what she had heard peripherally she nodded slightly and said, "oh well, I have to agree. It's quite an um …. what he said," she indicated Andy with a tilt of her head. Andy smirked. She was adorable. It tickled him to no end that she would only use the words crap or damn and those only sparingly.

Sharon noticed Andy's smirk and raised her eyebrows at him, this situation held no room for levity. He sobered quickly after her quelling look reminded him of why they were there. She was well aware that he found her reluctance to curse unless under duress amusing. She just never could quite bring herself to repeat strong curse words especially the f word or words that had the f word in them like what Andy had said. Even if she agreed wholeheartedly and she had to admit to herself that she did agree. Although she had been listening to Andy's description of the prison break with only half an ear. Her mind was on her son and how she was going to break the news of his biological mother's death and Gary's involvement, to him. Andy's use of the f word did not register at first. When it did she didn't bother to reprimand him because he was right, it was a cluster% !# of epic proportions and with devastating results. Thinking of Rusty reminded her that she needed more of the facts of the case so she could explain them to her son when she told him about his mother. "Captain, what did your officers find when they arrived at the scene?"

"Let's see. The incident Commander said they found two adults, a woman and man in their late fifties, or early sixties lying face up shoulder to shoulder dressed in day clothes. With bullet holes to the forehead, right between the eyes and in the chest and another adult female approximately middle thirties, dressed in a robe and nothing else, lying at the bottom of a large staircase neck broken with a bullet between the eyes and one in the chest. ME said the broken neck happened post mortem."

"Sooo, the suspect came in, Linda and James confronted him, he broke into their gun cabinet, shot them execution style. Sharon Beck was perhaps in the bathroom in the shower, heard the shots grabbed a robe and ran to see what was happening, got shot too died instantly, body tumbles down the rest of the stairway breaking her neck. They were shot execution style, but it definitely seems passionate and personal." Andy surmised.

"It looks that way," Captain Weatherly said nodding.

Sharon swallowed hard and blinked her eyes to keep tears at bay she didn't want to break down in front of the Captain again. "May I see my son now? I need to tell him…what's going on. I need to tell him about his other mother's death, and that of the Lewis's. Have you contacted Gary's brother? I believe his name is…um… Donald Lewis. Dr. Donald Lewis."

"No, we haven't made any notifications as yet. We were still gathering clues, which I'm sure you know is often a painstaking process. We were also trying to correlate the witness's statements and before you ask, no we haven't spoken to Rusty yet," he said not unkindly. Weatherly stood up and shook their hands. "Thank you for making our jobs easier Commander and Lieutenant, by pointing us in a direction we can sink our teeth into. I'll let you know if it pans out and we are able to find this Gary Lewis. Your reputation as being the elite squad of homicide detectives is well deserved. I'll have Torrey take you to Rusty, and I will notify DCFS and have them bring the baby here."

"Thank you, Captain. Um, if I may ask how long before we can pick up the baby's things." Sharon said quietly as she stood up.

"I'll try to get you access as soon as possible, Commander. Perhaps 48 hours?"

TBC…

Thank you to all that have taken the time to leave a review they are truly appreciated. Reviews really do help keep the motivation flowing.