The Eustice Murders (Complete)

*Chapter 37 *

Hank bolted upright as Sarah Brookes' phone rang, desperate for any updates on how Sam and the others were getting on.

"Hi Sam, how's it going?" she answered, causing Hank's eyes to widen.

"Hey Sarah, we're at the studio now; unfortunately, there's no sign of either Armand or Beverly here." Sarah closed her eyes and sighed, causing Hank to become even more agitated. "But," Sam continued, "we are now convinced that Hitzfeld is our main man. We've found two boxes of pool balls; the first of which is empty with the exception of the erm white, err cueball? Was it?" Sarah wanted to laugh at that but held back, not wanting to upset Hank who sat on tenterhooks, waiting for news on his wife.

"Yes, that's right," she told him, getting up off the sofa so she could look away from Hank.

"In each of the slots that the balls would have been there is a photograph of each of the victims glued into position," Sam continued.

"Oh my God," Sarah exclaimed, causing Hank palpitations. He could only hear one side of the conversation and it wasn't sounding good from his point of view.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what we thought," Sam told her. "I'd need to check to make certain but we're pretty sure they are in the correct order as well. The second box has ball numbers one and two missing. Now the number one position has a photograph of the delivery driver in it but the slot where the two ball would have been remains empty so hopefully, that suggests that Beverly is still alive and is being held somewhere."

"Oh, that is good. That is something to be positive about at least," she told him while looking directly towards Hank, trying to get him to relax a little.

"There is also a laptop here that we want to bring back to the station and get the I.T guys to look at so the captain and agent Masters are raising the necessary warrants for us to do that now," Sam added. "And while we're here, we're going to see if we can pick up a couple of DNA samples for the lab to run against what we have on record but otherwise that's about it for now I'm afraid."

"Ok, thanks Sam, I'll let Hank know."

Despite having hardly any sleep, Hank insisted on accompanying Sam to the office the following morning. He knew he wouldn't be at his best and he also knew that if anything did go down, then he would be left behind anyway. He also felt, though, that he would be completely useless sitting around at home. He needed to keep himself busy in order to take his mind off of things and besides, at least in the office; he could help out with research and other background kinds of jobs, even if he wasn't at his sharpest. On top of that, of course, if anything was discovered this would be the first place to know about it, so this was exactly the place he needed to be.

Dustin Moorland had arrived full of apologies for missing the previous nights' action. He explained that he had switched his phone off while accompanying his partner to the theatre for the evening and hadn't noticed the missed calls until later. Hank was trying to remain as busy as he could be continuing to look into Armand Hitzfeld's life. "Wait a second. Are you fucking kidding me?" he yelled angrily.

"What's up?" Sam asked him gently, almost afraid of what answer he may be about to get.

"Hitzfeld, it seems, was married just after victim number six was discovered, just before the case went cold."

"Ok," Sam responded, expecting a follow-up.

"And his wife filed for a divorce about three months before the killings started up again," Hank added.

"So, are you saying Hitzfeld killed the first six victims and then stopped to become a family man?" Sam asked.

"It looks that way," Hank told him, still clearly raging. "And then fifteen years later, the family breaks up. The daughter goes to live with her mother. He goes back to living alone. His urges return, and he goes back to his old ways again."

"That's pretty screwed up," Sam told him, choosing his words carefully. Hitzfeld was clearly unhinged but he was also the only man between Hank and his wife right now, something he really didn't need or want to remind him of.

Captain Beesley knocked on the door and entered the office. "Ok guys, no real surprise anymore but we have confirmation that Armand Hitzfeld is the one we're after. We just heard back from the lab. That DNA we picked up last night was a perfect match for the blood samples found under the fingernails of victim number nine."

"That's great news," Sam told him. Under normal circumstances, he would have celebrated such news as that but sadly these were anything but normal, so a simple smile would suffice for now. Hank, rather predictably, was not feeling celebratory either and barely even acknowledging the confirmation.

"Oh, and as for the laptop we collected, the I.T department is still plowing through it but they did recover a file from the hard drive containing several bits of information about you two. Including your apartment addresses here in Eustice." They both looked up in anger at that one. Concerned about what other information it may have held and more worryingly, where or how he had gotten hold of it.

The captain had only been gone for about an hour or so before he came back again, this time bursting through the door without a solitary knock. "Detective Johnson, get ready to move," he said urgently. "Hitzfeld has been spotted leaving the house. We have two officers following him so as soon as we know where he's heading, we need to get going."

"No problem," Sam responded, jumping out of his chair. "I'm ready to go right now," he added, grabbing his keys.

"Leave the keys," Beesley told him, "my car, let's go." Sam and captain Beesley virtually ran out of the office while Hank took a deep breath and embraced himself for what was about to come. Confirmation then came through over the radio that Hitzfeld had been seen entering a school premises.

"But aren't the schools off for.....holy shit let's go," Sam exclaimed realizing what this meant as the car sped off out of the parking lot.