Cusp of Crazy: Nick Stryker Series, Book One, Shallow End Gals Read online

  Through bloody eyes, Wayne saw Carl lift Nick above his head and slam him into the wall. He saw Nick dig his thumbs into Carl’s eyes. Carl screamed as they both dropped to the floor. Nick choked Carl with his thighs while still gouging his eyes. A long animal sounding howl filled the passageway. Then it was silent. Wayne raised himself to his elbows. He didn’t see any movement from down the hall. Suddenly he saw the body heap at the end of the hall move. Wayne braced himself expecting Carl to attack again.

  Jen ran back into the hall. She had her weapon pulled and pointed at Carl. She kicked him to roll him over. His neck rolled freely. It was broken. He was dead. Jen leaned down and looked into Nick’s eyes. “How you doin’, pretty boy?”

  “Just fine, doll face.”

  Jen ran down the hall until she found a place where her phone had bars. She called for backup, paramedics, and the coroner. She walked back and wiped the blood from Wayne’s forehead. “Are you okay?”

  Wayne smiled and held up Nick’s gun. “He didn’t even have a weapon.”

  Jen smiled with pride, “He is a weapon.”

  Nick stared at Eric’s lifeless face. Eric’s life had become a tangled mass of delusions. If he had lived, he surely would have gone to prison for life, or to a mental facility for the criminally insane. Nick wasn’t sure which was worse. Maybe it was a blessing that Eric had died.

  Jen squatted down next to Nick. “Paramedics are here. Let them clean you up.”

  Nick nodded and Jen helped him stand. Nick told the paramedic, “I’ve got a few cracked ribs on the right and a gash on the back of my head. Just wrap me up and give me an aspirin.”

  The paramedic shook his head, “I see two big bite marks on your neck. One of them got some meat. You need stiches and a couple of shots at a minimum.”

  Nick said, “Fine.” He looked over at Carl and noticed beetles leaving his clothing. “Hey, those are flesh eating beetles. Better kill them.”

  Jen jumped up and knocked one off from her trousers. The paramedics and patrol cops striped Carl of his clothing. They quickly bagged the clothes and brushed the feeding beetles from Carl’s flesh. He was covered and the beetles moved fast. They stomped on them as fast as they could, fully aware that any escaped beetles would breed. An infestation of flesh eating beetles in Chicago was now a possibility.

  Wayne started laughing.

  Nick asked, “What could possibly be funny?”

  Wayne answered, “Carl was afraid of bugs.”

  Jen, Nick, and Wayne made their way back to the room where Eric had held Casey prisoner. The paramedics followed them. Nick and Wayne had been advised to remain seated until they could be transported. They both insisted they had to view this room before they left.

  Nick walked to the far side of the room and pointed for everyone to see Eric’s aquarium of beetles.

  Wayne’s jaw dropped. He looked at the hydraulic lift and the harness. “Carl was dropped in there alive?”

  Nick held up a cell phone that was on Eric’s small table. When he powered it on, the ID confirmed it belonged to James. Nick looked at the mountain of bones and clothing in the beetle box. His heart sank. He now had to tell Jessie what had probably happened to James. Nick sat down, closed his eyes and said a prayer. Additional paramedics entered the room with two transport cots. Nick insisted upon walking. Wayne was carried to waiting ambulances.

  Casey and Tanner had been watching the chaos of police and ambulances out of her window. When Casey saw Wayne being carried down the steps she ran out. She saw Nick standing by an ambulance holding a cloth to his neck.

  Her voice cracked with concern, “Detective Stryker? Are you okay?”

  Nick smiled at Casey, “I’m fine. Are you alright?” Nick had never even had a chance to make sure Casey wasn’t hurt.

  Casey grabbed Tanner’s hand, “I’m okay. I’m just glad this is over.”

  The coroner’s staff carried out the first body bag. Casey looked at Jen. “Eric?”

  Jen nodded. She noticed Casey’s eyes had filled with tears.

  Casey looked at Jen. “He really thought he was protecting me.”

  Jen dialed Lacey.

  “Jen? What’s wrong? Is Nick okay?”

  Jen gave her a brief report of the evening’s events and suggested she might want to go to the hospital to make sure Nick followed doctor’s orders.

  Lacey tearfully agreed, “Of course. Are you sure he is okay?”

  “He’s a little beat up but he’s fine. He’ll be glad to see you.”

  Jen dialed John, “Hey, handsome. You were quite the crime solver today. Are you home?”

  John said, “Home and waiting on you. Are you okay?”

  Jen brushed a beetle from her sleeve and smashed it on the sidewalk with her boot, “I’m fine.”

  Two weeks later at the 107th Precinct, 8:00 am

  Nick threw a paper wad and hit the side of Jen’s face.

  Jen frowned, “Grow up, Stryker.” She went back to her reports on the computer.

  Wayne walked in waving an internal notice. “I see it’s official now. Can’t believe your Chief let you both transfer here. I can’t believe you wanted to.” Wayne set down a box of muffins from Momma’s. “You know what they’re doing at Momma’s now? They’re taking people on tunnel tours and putting all of the donations into a fund to help the community down there. The tours don’t go into the community but through the other tunnels. I think people must get a sense of what it would be like to live there though. People are pledging money to help the tunnel people find housing and jobs.” Wayne took a bite of a muffin and moaned.

  Nick walked over and got a muffin. “I talked to Mitch last night. He and Eli have really gotten into this. He says he thinks it’s his calling.”

  Jen looked at Nick, “Casey sent a note for both of us from her and Tanner. Guess we’re invited to a wedding in the spring.”

  Sam read out loud from his computer, “Hey. Official report on Carl’s kills is up to over ten confirmed. Another half dozen wrongful convictions are being reviewed by the DA. It looks like this started about three years ago. It’s hard to believe he did all of this for material for his books.”

  Nick shrugged, “That’s what it looks like. Don must have figured out it was Carl. I think Don went to IA in hopes they would figure it out and he wouldn’t have to accuse Carl directly. Carl must have panicked when Don went to IA. When Casey gave that bad review two months ago, she became a target. The notes that were in his briefcase were pretty sick. He blamed Casey for ruining his chances as an author. We’ll probably never really know the whole story. Unfortunately, by the time anyone figures out someone is insane, they’re too crazy to tell you how they got that way.”

  Nick thought about Eric and how twisted his mind had become after his military duty. Both Carl and Eric were trained state sanctioned killers; one military, one civilian. Carl and Eric both had witnessed death on a daily basis for a very long time. Nick’s real fear was that some level of crazy may be an inevitable consequence. Nick looked around the squad room and wondered if any of them would find themselves at the cusp of crazy.

  Jen leaned back, “Wayne, how long before we get busy? We had more work than this on the good side of town.”

  Just then every phone line in the squad room started ringing as if on cue.

  Nick threw another paper wad at Jen, and reached for the phone. “You had to ask that, didn’t you?”

  Cusp of Crazy List of Characters

  Cops:

  Nick Stryker Homicide Detective, 115th

  Jen Taylor Homicide Detective, 115th, Nick’s partner

  Wayne Dunfee Homicide Detective, 107th, nickname “Oink”

  Carl Harrisen Homicide Detective, 107th

  Sam Flores Homicide Detective, 107th

  Don O’Brian Homicide Detective, 107th, Murdered

  Jessie Merano Undercover Chicago cop

  David Fulton Asst. U.S. District Attorney, Chicago, Special Crimes

  Characters: />
  Lacey Star Nick’s girlfriend

  Mitch Jordan Works at his Mother’s sandwich shop, found dead cab driver

  Eli Johnson Friend of Mitch, found dead cab driver, works for city of Chicago

  Casey Thurston Owns editor business, reviews books, becomes target of crazy

  Tanner Gregory Ex-boyfriend and co-worker with Casey

  Shelly Works for Casey

  Joyce Works for Casey

  Eric Watson Lives in Casey’s building, has PTSD

  John Taylor Detective Jen Taylor’s husband

  Gary Stalker date of Lacey’s

  Sirus Corn Homeless man

  Joseph Man that works to help the homeless