A Dallas Suite

Chapter Forty Four

I searched the apartment for anything that might help me find out where Jeff would be hiding. The man had done his research. There was a scary amount of information in the apartment about his victims and possible future victims. Addresses, phone numbers, family members, salaries, tax documents. Some of it gathered from public information, some of it gathered from government databases that he would have had to hacked to find.

But there was nothing on Jeff. Nothing that would point me to where he was going. The apartment was a shrine to these men he wanted to kill, but there was nothing personal. I found a small box of some of his Army memorabilia. The box contained some photos of him in uniform and multiple awards. He was a decorated war veteran and from the medals I would guess he had a few years total of deployment time into combat zones. If this was all I knew about him, I would think he was a war hero. It's sad what happened. Everyone had a breaking point, Jeff had sadly been one of the unlucky ones to find his.

I gathered some names of people who he had a higher amount of details from. I couldn't be sure if they were possible next targets or not, but it was a place to start. I brought the documents back to my office and started to review them.

Not long after I got another call from McGreary. "What's up McDreamy?" That was a nickname I've heard some of the female officers call him. McGreary was my age, which is younger than most of the detectives. He was tall, in great shape and about as handsome as you could get. We liked to give him a hard time about the nickname. I still wasn't completely sure he didn't start it himself.

"Hey brother, I'm working overwatch at Paul Budd's house right now. Easy overtime I was hoping, but I think our guy may be here."

"I'm on my way. Are you sure it's him?"

"I'm not sure yet. We're a pretty good ways out from the house. But a tall white guy just walked around the house and he's headed to the back now. He's got a big hoodie on and he keeps looking over his shoulder. It's either him or just the unluckiest thief ever. You want us to go grab him or wait until you get here?"

I knew the house wasn't far away. "Don't approach him unless you absolutely have to. I want to be there when we catch this asshole. I should be there in five minutes. Keep an eye on him and I'll call Moore to send us over some back up."

"Gotcha. See you soon, buddy."

Chapter Forty Six.

I turned off my headlights as soon as I turned down the street, still a few houses down from Pauls. I parked two houses down and walked as quietly up the driveway as I could. I saw McGreary on the North side of the building, peaking around the corner to the back of the house. As I was getting close to him, I heard the sound of glass shattering.

"What was that?" I whispered over his shoulder as I got right against him.

"He just busted the window on the back door. Looks like he's reaching inside to open the door now."

"Is it Jeff?"

"I don't know man, but it could be. Right height and he looks big, but he has a huge hoodie on so I can't really tell."

"Alright, you guys on me," I said as I stepped across McGreary and pat the other officer on the shoulder so he knew to get behind me.

I turned the corner, gun in hand and approached Jeff. McGreary was right; I couldn't tell for certain if it was him or not. But he was the right height, and why else would someone be breaking into this house tonight?

"Get on the ground!" I shouted at Jeff as I came around the house. All three of us had our guns drawn and pointed at him. Jeff didn't even hesitate. He stopped what he was doing and bolted away from the house, away from us.

I holstered my gun and sprinted after him. He wasn't going to get away from me again. He was quick and had a head start, but I was gaining on him. He went around the front of the house and turned on the street, running down the middle of the road. I couldn't see McGreary or his partner beside me, but I hoped they were close. My head pounded harder with every slam of my foot. Dress shoes were not the preferred footwear for a chase.

I was getting out of breath, but I was gaining on him. He couldn't have been more than ten in front of me now. I dug deep and pushed with everything I had. I got into arms reach of him and jumped forward, tackling him to the ground. I used both of my hands to shove his face into the ground from the back of his hand and held his body down with my knees. McGreary had been right behind me and he had the cuffs on him in a split second.

I didn't even need to roll him over to see his face. "It's not him," I said to McGreary as he grabbed the guy by his shoulder to sit him up.

"How'd you know that?"

"I fought Jeff. He wouldn't go down that easily," I said as I helped him pull the guy up and sat him on his rear. I was right, it wasn't him. And after tackling, I could feel that he was just skin and bones under that giant hoodie.

There was blood coming from the guys nose and he had some pretty severe road rash covering his face. I tackled with enough force to take down a Green Beret, not a stick.

"Whoa man what the fuck are y'all doing?" The guy screamed at us.

"What are we doing? What were you doing breaking into that house?"

"I wasn't even breaking in! I was just supposed to break the window and unlock the back door!" He was still screaming while he tried to twist and jerk his way out of our grasp.

"Stop fighting, you're already in cuffs. What do you mean were supposed to? Did someone tell you to break the window?"

"Yeah, man. Some big dude found me this morning and paid me 200 bucks. He gave me this address. Told me to show up right at 8:00 PM. Walk around the back, break the window and unlock the door. He said no one was home."

I looked at McGreary and he met my gaze. We both knew instantly that Jeff is the one who paid this guy. Which we both realized was a scary thing. He knew we'd be watching the house and he knew we'd call the brunt force of our officers here. This was a distraction, but a distraction from what?

McGreary chimed in, "why would he pay you to just unlock the door? What did he say do after that?"

"That was it man I swear! Break the window, unlock the door and leave. And make sure no one saw me. I just assumed the guy was going to go in and steal some stuff and didn't want his prints on the door. Unlocking the door isn't illegal is it? I wasn't going to go in I swear."

"Actually since you put your arm in the house, that's still burglary by definition. Doesn't matter if you were paid or not, you're still taking a ride with me. We'll talk more when we get to the station." We hoisted the guy up and walked him towards McGreary's car.

A few officers had already started pulling up. By the time we got back to the house there had to be at least 30 officers there, including Detective Madison and Sergeant Moore.

"Seeks we're supposed to be catching a murderer, not a homeless burglar," Moore half said half laughed as he walked up to me.

"Well we thought it was him. He ran before we were able to positively ID him. But Jeff paid this guy to come break in. He's distracting us from something."

"Well let's figure out what that is before it's too late."

My phone rang. I recognized the number from Knights file.

"This is Detective Seeks," I didn't want to talk to this prick right now, but I didn't want any complaints from him to the department for ignoring him right now.

"Detective, I lied to you earlier. I do care if I die."