Rising Darkness Read online

  Joe sat down and had another beer as he watched the party continue on, never knowing when it would stop.

  Chapter 2: Murder at the Door

  Joe’s house was dead quiet when he entered it at a little past six p.m. He had still not gotten used to the fact that his girls were no longer there watching TV or yapping on the phone or just bitching at each other about the stupidest things he had ever heard. He felt a twinge of sadness and nostalgia every time he walked through the front doors. The house didn’t even smell the same. He was used to all of the fruity lotions and body sprays the girls were constantly smothering themselves in. He missed all of those little annoying things.

  He walked into the kitchen and sat his briefcase down on the table. He was hoping that dinner would be ready, but then he forgot that Marisha, the maid, was on vacation for two weeks. He believed that she had gone home to visit family. He wondered if Tracy would do some cooking—she usually cooked something ridiculously healthy and bland—or if they would just eat out as he hoped they would. Although ordering a pizza was a great option that was always denied him by his former supermodel wife who did not eat junk of any sort.

  Speaking of Tracy, where was she? She was usually hanging out in either her office, in which case he would have heard her yapping on the phone to someone that she was chewing out for not doing their job right, or she would have been doing something active. He had not seen her on the tennis court and he did not hear her in the gym. She always blasted nineties pop music when she worked out. Joe had become much more familiar with early Britney Spears than he had ever wanted to.

  “Tracy? You home?”

  It was possible that she had asked one of the drivers to take her into town. She usually drove herself when she went into town, but Joe did not see any of the cars missing out front. Unless she had one of her friends pick her up and the two went on a spa day or something. That was something that Tracy did a few times a month, but she always sent him a text with dinner instructions and to let him know where she was going to be.

  It was weird. For some reason Joe was starting to get a strange vibe. The butterflies began to twist and turn in his stomach. He had to find out what was going on here. He tried to calm his nerves as he began to jog up the stairs. It was remotely possible that she’d had another migraine and retreated to the comfort of the bed. This happened rarely, but when it did the pain rendered her completely bedfast. She had to lie perfectly still in a pitch black room with no sound whatsoever and sleep. This usually lasted about four hours and she was often fine when she woke up again. Joe hoped that was all that was wrong, but he had that horrible feeling in his stomach again.

  “Tracy? Are you here sweetie?”

  As he opened the door to the bedroom he didn’t see what was right in front of him. His eyes would not take it in and tell him what he was seeing. It just appeared to be his ordinary bedroom, with a blurry bit of red everywhere. It took a few seconds for his eyes and the reality of what was happening to sink in.

  Tracy’s lifeless body was laid sprawled out on the bed.

  There was so much blood…

  So much blood…

  All became dark.

  ****

  “And you were gone how long?”

  The question was starting to sound very repetitive. Joe had been sitting in his living room drinking some hot tea and trying to get his body temperature back to normal after having the shock of his life. It was warm outside but it felt completely freezing inside. He did not know what to make of it. His body would not stop shivering.

  “I was gone since this morning at eight o’clock. It was just a typical workday, really,” Joe replied. He found that his voice was very monotone and it did not sound anything like him. He had to struggle to keep one word in front of the other.

  “And when did you have this party? Last night?”

  “Two nights ago. Why are you asking something like that for?” Joe asked.

  “Well, it’s possible that someone at the party was scoping out your place and figuring out the best way to get in here to attack your wife.”

  “Why would anyone want to hurt her? Everybody loved her.”

  “Well, apparently everybody didn’t love her. You have no idea who might have held a grudge against her? Anyone at all?”

  Detective Roy Andrews was staring Joe right in the eyes with every question as if he was asking him to lie to him so he could rip him a new gizzard. The guy had the most intimidating stare that Joe had ever seen; and he was pretty sure that Roy was not even aware that he was doing it. Joe liked to think that he had his own strong poker face due to his experiences in the business world, but he did not trust anyone who wanted to lock you up under any segment of the government that tried to take away some of your basic rights.

  “No. If I had any idea I would certainly tell you.”

  “It might not be so obvious. I need you to search your mind and your subconscious to pick up some details that you might not even know you have.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “You close your eyes and just try to replay the scene over and over again in your mind. It takes a bit of practice, but it has been proven to be very effective in recalling traumatic experiences.”

  Joe sighed. “I don’t have time for any mumbo jumbo. I want to find out who killed my wife!”

  He was aware that he was screaming now, which was the exact opposite of how to act cool and collected. He hated to stand out, but if he started acting that way he was going to stand out like a sore thumb. He had to breathe and just regroup. He just had to get a hold of himself.

  “Mr. Payton, we are just trying to gather the facts. This will be crucial in helping us find out who murdered your wife. Even though some of the things we are asking you to recall may seem arbitrary under the circumstances, we often find that the clues needed to solve a crime are usually found in the most minute and mundane things. So, please calm yourself down and bear with us.”

  Detective Andrews voice was very calm and steady, but not in a rehearsed way. It was as if he should have become a hypnotherapist instead of a cop. There was something in his voice that was hypnotic and otherworldly. It made you want to just fall asleep and let him probe around inside your brain for a bit.

  Joe felt like he needed a strong drink. His heart was still flying in his chest and every time he tried to put his mind on something that might be useful in helping them solve this crime he immediately felt the emotion rolling through his body at the realization that his beloved Tracy was dead. She wasn’t just dead; she had been savagely brutalized. He had never seen anything like that since…He didn’t want to remember Tori.

  But given the circumstances it was not possible to forget. He had found his first wife Tori dead in a similar fashion, but that had eventually been ruled a suicide. Although, at first the community and even members of his own family had believed him to be the murderer. As if he ever could have hurt his sweet wife. He had loved Tori deeply. She was a wonderful woman, who understood him like no one ever had up to that point and she was an excellent mother.

  He had come home from work and had found her floating in the pool. Her lifeless body had been there for a few hours at that point. Her skin had started to turn wrinkled and a bit grey, as if it was falling off of the bone. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen, until now. The pain was the same. It was sharp and stabbing in his chest but the rest of his body felt numb. It hurt to breathe because the pressure amplified the sharp stabbing that throbbed in his rapid flying heart.

  He felt nauseous as if he might barf at any moment. He wondered if he should just go ahead and let it fly; that would erase him as a suspect, right? He doubted even that would do the trick. He was both appalled and confused by the hint that he had killed his wife. He had been when he discovered Tori and he was now with Tracy’s murder. None of it made any sense. How could two of his wives die under mysterious circumstances?

  Tori’s death had eventuall
y been ruled as a suicide or even an accidental drowning by the medical examiner. He had found a bunch of sleeping pills in her system, enough to OD on. And then she had decided to go for a swim. Tory was a wonderful swimmer and she spent at least an hour a day in the pool, which was why he had thought to look for her there first. But nothing could have prepared him for what he had found.

  Now he was in the same boat, but this time it was obvious that Tracy had not killed herself or died accidentally. She had been savagely murdered. The idea that the amount of blood that was splattered everywhere was inside the human body was mind boggling to Joe.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just very upset. And answering any questions right now is just too much, but I know it has to be done. So please continue,” Joe said. He didn’t want to get a reputation as being uncooperative. That was not going to help his case at all, if he was eventually charged or investigated for this crime.

  “Ok, have you had anybody who might want to get back at you recently?” Andrews asked.

  “Me? Not any more than usual,” Joe replied.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Well, Detective in my line of work you are bound to make some enemies. There are people who feel you are taking their deals away and there are others who feel that you don’t deserve to be more successful than them. It happens. But no one that I think would want to murder my wife to get back at me.”

  “Ok. You can never rule out what might set off a disturbed mind. I’ve seen people get murdered for something as simple as a fast food worker putting tomatoes on a burger when the customer asked for none. So whatever you might think is irrational and trivial, might be the ultimate justification for murder to a psychotic.”

  “Jesus, really? Well, I can’t really say of anything that I can think of that might have given someone reason to do this, but again judging by that logic I can think of about fifty people. Hell if someone is that nuts then you could never predict who might be about to go off the deep end and do something like this.”

  Joe rubbed his eyes. They were sore and tired. He’d had a busy day and the emotion of everything that was happening right now in front of him was really starting to break him down. He just wanted to go away somewhere far away from everything. But he wanted his wife with him. He wanted his wife to comfort him. He wanted to kiss her one last time and tell her how much he loved her.

  The tears that he had been strong enough to hold back so far began to erupt and roll out of the corner of his eyes. He was not sure how much longer he could keep it together.

  “I just can’t believe she is gone. I keep thinking of what she might have gone through. How scared she would have been and how much it must have hurt.“ Joe broke down and began to sob in his hands. It was too much. He tried to will these thoughts out of his head, but every thought he had was about her.

  “Mr. Payton I have the name of an excellent grief counselor that I’d like you to speak with. We refer people to her all the time and she is really excellent at what she does,” Anderson said as he handed Joe a business card.

  This small gesture was a great minute distraction for Joe as he studied the subtleties of the card. The name read Sara Dekker, PhD.

  Joe had avoided speaking to a grief counselor after Tori died, but he really wished he had. It had been total hell going through it without the aid of someone. He was raising a daughter and doing his best to put on a face each day that said he had it all together and he was in control. That was the bullet proof syndrome he often displayed to colleagues and business associates. It had worked, or so he thought, but even today he realized that he had never really moved past it.

  He made up his mind he was going to talk to Sara Dekker.

  “Thanks, I appreciate that.”

  A forensics tech signaled to Andrews that she needed to speak with him. He excused himself and moved a few feet away. Joe could still overhear the conversation between the two of them.

  “You find any DNA or prints at all?” Andrews asked.

  “No prints. We haven’t found any foreign hair fibers or anything either. I’m saying there probably isn’t any real evidence here. We aren’t sure yet what kind of weapon exactly was used or any of the other details yet. It will take a few days in the lab to determine that.”

  Andrews thanked the tech and returned to where he had left Joe a few seconds earlier.

  “So, no evidence, huh?” Joe asked.

  Andrews seemed surprised that Joe had overheard. He tried to play it cool, but Joe saw right through him.

  “Well, nothing obvious yet. But don’t be disheartened. After a few days in the lab we will probably come up with something. The truth is, it is very difficult to do this to someone without leaving traces of yourself all over them. I’m sure we will come up with something.”

  “Thanks for acting for my sake detective, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I know that if a case is not solved within forty-eight hours then the likelihood of it being solved is almost nil.”

  Andrews sighed heavily. He looked at his partner Don Stone as if admitting defeat.

  “We will find something if there is something there to find, and we will never stop looking.”

  Joe was surprised that they were being so nice to him when he knew they had to be thinking of him as the primary suspect. He had to get prepared and get prepared in a hurry. He decided right then that he had to call his lawyer Alex Denton.

  Chapter 3: Grasping at Straws

  “Wow, I can’t believe it man. I just saw her three damn days ago.”

  Alex Denton sipped his drink and relaxed back on the couch in Joe’s living room. Joe realized how strange it felt having drinks and talking with his old friend when they were really just mere feet away from where his wife had been murdered the day before.

  He sighed deeply and stared outside the opened patio doors that led to the large deck that overlooked a big swimming pool. The house felt strange and empty since this had all happened. It was impossible for him to sleep there. He had tried the first night to sleep in his bed and when that had proved disastrous he had moved to the couch in his home office, but that wasn’t working either. He had eventually started spending a lot of his nights at the apartment he kept in the city in case he ever felt like foregoing the drive home.

  “Yea, but you see why I called you,” Joe said.

  “Well, yea. I understand why you called me. But do they really seem interested in you as the suspect?”

  “They didn’t act like it and they didn’t come out and say it, but I know enough about how cops think. They are going to be gunning for me when that medical examination turns up no evidence. They don’t like for high profile murders to go unsolved, and they especially don’t like for the public to think that a high profile person killed someone and aren’t being put away for it. I’m scared, Alex.”

  “I know how you feel. But you have to stop jumping to conclusions. Even if they do suspect you they won’t find a shred of evidence to tie you to the crime. You are innocent so that is impossible.”

  “I know, but I’m freaked out anyway. I’m afraid they might just discover something. Anything that would tie me to a crime I didn’t commit.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. My imagination’s running wild.”

  “Well, that is your first problem. If you let your imagination get too much hold of you then if the cops do hint at you then it will drive you up into a nervous wreck. That will make you look guiltier than anything. So stop that.”

  Joe had to smile. Alex and he had been best friends since college and Alex had been his foremost legal consultant on many of the deals he had put together over the years. The guy also happened to be an amazing litigator, even if he had never really tried a murder case before. Joe trusted him more with his life than anyone else in that courtroom, if it came to that.

  “I just miss her so much. I wish that people could see how torn up I am. I would never have hurt my sweet Tracy,” Joe
said. He sat down and tried to relax for a moment, but he was just too wound up. He had been ever since the cops left.

  “I know man. Now, it will take a few days for the lab to come back with the results to see if there was any DNA or anything on the body,” Alex said.

  “Yea, that is what the forensics people said the other day.”

  “Right, now if after that you haven’t heard of anything then you should assume you are in the clear.”

  “You think they will just let it go and stop considering me? I’m the husband; the husband is always the first person they suspect.”

  “The husband is always the first person they suspect because ninety percent of the time the husband did it. But there is usually a mountain of evidence that points right to the guy; in this case it is nothing but a theory.”

  Joe took a sip of his beer and tried to relax again. Alex was right; they could theorize all they wanted and hunt for any shred of evidence that they could use against him but at the end of the day he was innocent and there was nothing that could prove otherwise.

  He realized all this, but he was going to be a nervous wreck until it blew over. In the meantime he had been busy as hell with notifying relatives and with setting up funeral arrangements. Kirstie had even said she was going to fly in to attend the funeral and to comfort him. She and Tracy had always had a good friendship and she knew that in the wake of her mother’s death Tracy had been good for him and made him happy. She had helped to heal a lot of wounds, and Kirstie had been so good with it all. He had expected her to blame him for trying to replace her mother, but that was not the case at all. He couldn’t wait to see his little girl.

  And shocking was the fact that Elena said she was flying down as well. He and Elena barely spoke and to have her on her way down meant a lot. Maybe she had matured a bit at school and was finally realizing that he was not her enemy and that he was not responsible for what happened to her mom.