The Man In Forest Hills Read online

  “Hello.”

  Harper responds, “Tom... are you still sleeping?”

  There are several noises in the background.

  Kent asks, “What's all that noise in the background. Where are you?”

  “You wouldn't believe it even if I told you.”

  Kent sits up in his bed and turns on the television.

  “What is it buddy?”

  Harper hears the question but is entertaining someone in the same room as him. Once he finishes up that conversation, he gets back to Kent.

  “Right now I'm at Craven's house. Marven found him dead in his basement. One to the back of the head and he is tied up to a chair. It looks like he was tortured.”

  Kent doesn’t say anything back as he continues to flip through the channels. He stops on channel five as the headline reads ‘Breaking News’ to see the captain answering questions from the media. Harper is still talking on the phone while he watches the captain talk.

  “Tom... Tom. Can you hear me buddy?”

  He sits there and watches the news on the television.

  “Yeah, yeah. Darren I’m here. What time did they find him?”

  Harper explains, “Sometime this morning. Marven went over there to pick up some stuff. He said he knocked on the door but there was no answer. He saw the car in the driveway, so he went around back and saw the back door cracked open. He walked in and later eventually found Craven downstairs, dead.”

  Kent remains silent on the phone while Harper continues to talk.

  Harper whispers, “To be honest I don’t even feel bad about this shit. I think he got what was coming to him. I never really cared for him as a person.”

  Kent gets out the bed and walks over to get closer to the TV.

  “Do they have any suspects?”

  “No suspects as of right now. I’m going to talk to some of the neighbors to see if they saw anything.”

  “Anyway how you feeling? I miss my partner buddy. Hope things are getting better with you.”

  Kent walks from his bedroom to the kitchen.

  “Thanks buddy, I think in time things will start to get better. Hopefully I will see you soon.”

  Harper sees one of the neighbors and has to rush off the phone.

  “Buddy, look, I’ll call you soon to check up on you. Gotta get back on the job. Take care of yourself.”

  “You too buddy. Talk soon.”

  He hangs up the phone and leaves it on the kitchen counter. He paces back and forth several times. He goes from the kitchen to the living room several times. Meanwhile back at the crime scene, Detective Harper is running from house to house trying to talk to the people around the neighborhood to see what’s going on. He knocks on one neighbor’s door.

  Bang, Bang, Bang.

  A man comes to the door and looks through a small window at the top of the door.

  The man asks, “Who is it?”

  Harper pulls out his badge and puts it up to the window.

  “Hello sir. My name is Detective Harper, I just want to ask you some questions about the murder that transpired a couple of doors down.”

  The man pauses for a second.

  “I didn’t see anything nor do I have anything to say.”

  Harper is clearly frustrated, but ends the conversation the way he has many times before by sliding his card under the front door.

  “Okay sir, thank you. If you have any questions here’s my card. Don’t be afraid to give me a call. Have a great day.”

  Harper leaves the front porch and stands on the sidewalk. He looks down the street at all of the police cars and people gathered around the house.

  He keeps looking around for a second and looks up at one house in particular. He can see a young boy staring at him from his bedroom window. As soon as the Harper makes eye contact with the boy he closes his curtains. Harper decides to make his way over to the house. On his way over to the house, an officer in uniform calls out to him from across the street.

  “Detective Harper we need you over her for a second.”

  “Okay, just give me a couple minutes.”

  He gets to the house and rings the doorbell. A few seconds later a lady comes to the door.

  “Hello?”

  He raises his badge for her to see and begins to speak.

  “Hello Mam. I’m Detective Harper. I’m sure you’ve heard about the homicide case from across the street. I was hoping I could ask you some questions, if you have the time.”

  “Yes, yes. I did hear about it. I never met the man, but from what I saw he seemed a little off. Other than that though, I didn’t see or hear anything detective.”

  She kept her statement short and to the point, not giving Harper much to work with. Before he could respond to her he noticed the boy from the window making his way down the stairs. As she continues to speak the boy that was looking at Harper from the upstairs window walks slowly down the stairs. Harper takes a look at him then looks back at the lady.

  “How about him, would he be able to answer any questions?”

  She looks back at the boy.

  “Who? My son? I can promise you he didn’t see anything. He’s always in bed early.”

  She turns to the boy.

  “Go back upstairs sweetie. Mommy is talking to the policeman. I will be up to check on you in a second.”

  The boy takes a long look at Harper before he turns around to walk back up the stairs. The lady turns back to Harper once her son is out of their sight.

  “I’m sorry I can’t be of any help detective. I wish I could, but I just don’t have any information for you.”

  “Okay. Thanks for your time.”

  He reaches in his pocket to grab something.

  “Here’s my card. If you or your son can remember anything just give me a call. Enjoy your day and thanks again.”

  “Your welcome. Hope you guys find whoever did this.”

  “I’m sure we will.”

  Harper leaves her standing in the doorway and back towards the crime scene. Halfway across the street, he turns around and catches the boy standing in the window again. As soon as he makes eye contact with the boy, the boy closes the curtain again.

  Under his breath Harper says, “He saw something. I just know it. I just know it.”

  The Captain walks over and starts talking to Harper.

  “Harper. You got anything from the people in the neighborhood?”

  Harper pulls out his note pad and takes a look at it, even though he knows they gave him jack shit.

  “No, not really. A couple of people said they heard who heard suspicious noises. Nothing really concrete that can help us out at this point.”

  The captain has a frustrating look on his face. Although the Captain normal face is a scowl, Harper can tell he isn’t happy with this information.

  “God damn it. This is a fucking shit show. One of our own gets tortured and executed in his own damn home. We got to get down to the bottom of this.”

  He pulls Harper to the side away from everybody.

  “Look here Harper. Now, I know Craven was a piece of shit, but at the end of the day he was a cop. We can't have people going around killing the police, especially a member from our own precinct. We have to catch this motherfucker.”

  Harper grabs the captain by the shoulder.

  “Cap, I promise you, I'm trying my best.”

  The captain looks back at Harper.

  “I don't think you’re trying hard enough.”

  The Captain walks away from Harper and all Harper could do was shake his head.

  Later on at the crime scene Harper is examining the room when Detective Maddox quietly makes his way into the room. He creeps up behind Harper.

  “Find anything?”

  He startles Harper.

  “What the fuck Maddox? You can't go creeping up on people like that. You can get hurt like that.”

  Maddox gives Harper a serious lo
ok.

  “One of my close friends gets murdered and you pick today to try to fuck with me. Let me give you a word of advice. Don't fuck with me.”

  Harper gives him back the same look.

  “I understand, but you need to let me do my job.”

  Maddox decides to leave the crime scene as the forensics crew makes their way in.

  “You better do your fucking job or I will.”

  He walks out and slams the door. Harper shakes his head as he leaves.

  “That guy is a fucking prick.”

  Maddox exits the back of the house to go around the crime scene. He gets in his car and picks up his cell phone. He scrolls through a list of names and finds Marven’s number. He holds the phone to his head waiting for Marven to answer.

  “Hey, Marven.”

  Marven asks, “How’s it going? Did you get to see the body?”

  Maddox takes a couple of seconds to answer.

  “No. I got here pretty late. I did check out the crime scene and there was blood everywhere. It hurt me to see all that. You know I looked at Mark like a little brother.”

  Marven says, “Yeah I know. Who do you think did something like this?”

  Maddox shakes his head slowly and says, “I have no idea to be honest. You know Mark was in some shit. Maybe it caught up to him and someone took him out.”

  While sitting in the car Maddox watches Harper come from the back of the house to converse with a uniform officer. Marven keeps talking and asking questions.

  “Any word on Kent?”

  Maddox says, “No. Nothing at all. No one has seen him.”

  An awkward silence takes over the phone conversation, before Marven blurts out a thought. There’s an awkward silence on the phone for a second. Then all of a sudden Marven speaks.

  “Wait. You don’t think this was Kent do you?”

  Maddox says, “Never, not even a chance. Kent is a by the book cop, he would never do something like this. Plus, I don’t think he has the balls. A cop wouldn’t be this messy anyway.”

  Marven replies, “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Maddox put the key in the ignition then starts the car.

  “Listen buddy. I will call you back later. Got a couple things I need to get taken care of.”

  He stops talking and takes a deep breath then speaks again.

  “Look Jake. Take care of yourself and watch your back. Whoever did this to Mark might be coming after us next. You never know. We are linked to him whether we want to be or not. Hopefully it was someone else he pissed off, but either way, take care of yourself.”

  Marven adds, “Okay Carl. I will make sure of that. You do the same. Talk later.”

  Later on that night Harper pulls up to his home. He opens his door and walks directly into the living room. He takes off his gun and places it on the table along with his keys. He heads to the fridge and opens it up. He takes out a beer and cracks it open. His phone rings and he immediately walks back into the living room to pick it up. He looks at the number and doesn’t recognize it. He picks it up anyway.

  “Hello.”

  On the other end of the phone is a woman.

  “Hello Detective Harper. It’s Pamela Dunn.”

  Harper takes a second to think on the name given.

  “I’m sorry, who is this again?”

  She added, “You came to my house earlier to ask me questions about the murder across the street.”

  Harper puts his beer down and quickly sits on the sofa.

  “Yes of course. Hello Ms. Dunn sorry I didn’t remember you; it’s been a long day. How can I help you?”

  “Well my son has some information that maybe you could find useful.”

  Harper quickly grabs his pen and pad.

  “Yes of course. I can come back around to your house if that’s okay or you guys can come around to the station in the morning.”

  Pamela pauses on the phone for a second. She knows the information her son gave her can’t wait till tomorrow.

  “You can come by tonight if it's not a problem.”

  Harper rushes to the door and puts his jacket on.

  “Yes Ms. Dunn, I'll be right over. Thank you.”

  About twenty minutes later Harper pulls up to the house and turns the ignition off. He makes his way up the steps an rings the doorbell. Pamela comes to the door.

  “Detective Harper good evening. How is everything? Please, come in.”

  Harper steps into the house and takes off his coat.

  “I'm doing fine Ms. Dunn.”

  “Oh please, just call me Pamela.”

  She shows him to the living room and he takes a seat on the couch.

  She asks, “Would you like something to drink? Some coffee or tea?”

  “No, that's okay. If you have water that would be great.”

  She takes off to the kitchen and comes back with a tall glass of water. She hands it to him and sits down.

  He grabs the glass and says, “Thank you.”

  He takes a sip of the water puts it down and begins to ask her some questions.

  “Pamela, I hate to cut to the chase, but you said you had some information.”

  “Oh, yes, of course. Well, it’s not me that has the information it’s my son, Walter. He's upstairs right now let me call him down.”

  She gets up off the couch and heads to the steps. She yells his name from the bottom of the steps.

  “Walter! Walter! Can you come downstairs for me?”

  He leaves his room and starts to head down the steps. Pamela heads back to the couch and waits with Harper until Walter makes his way into the living room.

  Pamela says, “Walter, this is Detective Harper and he wants to ask you some questions about some of the things you were telling me about.”

  Walter sits down next to his mother.

  Harper notes, “Hey Walter, your mom says you have some information to tell me.”

  Walter starts to fidget with his pants, not wanting to really make eye contact with Harper. Pamela notices, and jumps in to help her son get past his nerves.

  “Walter baby. Please tell Detective Harper what you told me earlier.”

  There’s a dead silence in the room for a little time. Harper and Pamela look at each other while waiting on Walter to say something. Walter takes a deep breath, and then starts to talk.

  “At night, I usually look out the window just before I go to bed. I usually get in bed and go to sleep at nine o’clock, but that night I couldn’t sleep for some reason.”

  He stops after that statement as if he was in caught in some type of deep thought. Harper urges him to continue on, so that he can get this important information.

  “Walter, you can go ahead and tell the rest of the story. You don’t have to be scared buddy. No one is going to harm you okay.”

  “That night I heard a lot of weird noises and I saw a black car drive past the house and park. It’s not a car that I have seen before either.”

  Harper asks, “A black car?”

  “Yes, a black car. It was parked a couple of houses down. It was there for about thirty minutes. Then when I looked outside the window again it was slowly driving by.”

  Harper looks confused, so he continues to ask questions.

  “Did you get a look at who was in the car? Was there anything that stood out about this car?”

  Walter adds, “No not really. It was dark outside and the car was all black so I didn’t get a chance to see anything.”

  Harper writes several notes down on his notepad. While he tries to read his notes Walter cuts him off.

  “It did have one of those weird license plates though.”

  “What do you mean weird?”

  Walter says, “I don’t know really, it just didn’t look like my mom’s license plate.”

  Harper looks at him and waits for him to keep talking and finish his explanation.

  Harper says, “Oh, it was a cus
tom license plate. So it had just letters on it?”

  “Yeah that’s it. It was like a name or something.”

  Harper gets up from the couch and walks over to Walter and puts his hand out.

  He shakes Walter’s hand and says, “Walter I would like to thank you for being so brave and telling me all of this information. With this information you might help us solve this case. Thank you guys for your time, we really appreciate it.”

  Pamela stands up and walks over to him and shakes his hand.

  “No, thank you Detective. We want to help if we can. Anything we can do to help you guys. Walter was happy to help out. Isn’t that right Walter?”

  Walter stands up and walks closer to his mother.

  She puts her arms around him.

  “Yes Mr. Harper, I just want you to catch the bad guys.”

  Harper walks to the front door to get his coat.

  He looks at Walter with a smile and says, “Okay guys if you have any other information just give me a call. I have to thank you guys again.”

  Pamela walks over and opens the door. Pamela and Walter give Harper a proper goodbye.

  “Goodbye detective Harper.”

  Harper adds, “Goodbye guys and enjoy your night.”

  He walks down the steps and into his car. He takes a look at his note pad and reads to himself the notes that he took down in the house.

  “Custom license plate huh. An all-black sedan is really what I should be looking for. Got to call the district of motor vehicles to see which black cars have custom license plates in this county. I’m sure we can catch this motherfucker.”

  He puts the key in the ignition and starts the engine. He places his notepad on the passenger seat and drives away.

  Several days later Kent wakes up in the bed to a knock at the door. He takes a look at the clock and sees its mid-afternoon.

  Bang, Bang, Bang.

  He gets out the bed and grabs his revolver. He checks if there are bullets in the gun then walks towards the front door. Instead of walking right to the door, he walks to the window first to get a good look at who is at the front door. He opens the curtain and sees it Harper at the door. He shrugs his shoulders in relief. He opens the door with the revolver in his left hand in a white robe.