The Spider Sat Beside Her - 2

          Readers, this is another excerpt from the novel I've been writing. Just to remind, it is a suspense, crime drama. With a touch of romance. The novel/story is finished, but I'm still working on the editing part -- to make it as perfect as possible for publishing. My Minor in college was English. Since my medical dilemma, however, most of what I had learned in high school and college has gone by the wayside. I have been very happy, though, that I have had helpful folks who have loaned their knowledge to me. I hope who reads this will be intrigued. Cheers!!!

 

Just some info about character and places --
       Travis Withers - a detective with Columbus Police Department (Columbus OH).

       Liz (Elizabeth) - the heroine in the story.       

       JD - Liz's 24 year-old son.

       Nikki's - an up-scale restaurant where Liz's son works as a bartender.
        Luke -- a local mob boss (not Italian).

        Pete Young - a patient in the same hospital as Liz and has become her nemesis.

        Scott - the Physical Therapist Intern and Liz's new love interest.

        Ms. Cox (Maureen Cox) - another patient and has become  Liz's friend.

        COSI - Center of Science and Industry, a museum in Columbus.

 

       All names are fictitious -- no one alive or deceased.

 

The Spider Sat Beside Her

Chapter XXX

 

by

B.D. Adams ©2015

 

 

          Travis had just dropped Liz’s son off at Nikki’s. JD was a polite young man, but was very concerned about his mother, which any son would be. He gave as much info as he could to the lad, but remained confidential. Travis would tell Liz her son was polite.

            He used an unmarked car to drive JD, so not to draw too much attention. There was no guarantee that Luke or Luke’s men would leave Liz’s son alone, but it was better to be cautious. Travis assigned a plain-clothes and a uniform at Nikki’s, just as a precaution. The management was agreeable without too much explanation.

The “3-C Connection” (Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland) had begun alliances with some other organizations, other mobs. One was the Russian's.

Sy Moretti, the Midwest Italian boss, had already hit some of that mob. Luke wanted to make nice with the Italians, so he loaned-out some of his soldiers.

            However, Travis had to forget that for now. He was in a hurry to get back to the Head-quarters because he had just gotten a text message from Roger, the Head Lab-tech. All Roger said was that Travis needed to return. Soon!

It had to be about that partial print on the bullet casing that old Chuck had given him. Chuck really believed that the bullet had a “real story” connected to it, which gave Travis the same uncanny notion.

            Saturdays were calmer days -- unless it was an OSU football game day. This was a regular Saturday afternoon in July. Also, he wanted to do some internet search work to scrutinize what might be going on with Pete Young.

Pete had become more active with Liz. She had had a bracelet stolen just the other day out of her room; out of a drawer. He stole it, without a doubt – he’s a known cat burglar. However, with the new material he learned about Pete, Travis never thought he would ever escalate into a hitman, a total criminal act. He never seemed the type. Even the Profilers said that. But now?

 

           Scott had called him late last night to let him know that Liz had another room intrusion by a short, skinny creep with bad teeth. He really frightened her. That sounded like Sid Borocco, one of Luke’s dependable soldiers. Another local mob untouchable. Travis would have to get a uniform for Liz, like he had for Ms. Cox. Scott was with her now, but he had done all he could. Now, the CPD would be needed. He would take care of that order after he spoke with Roger.

            Another disturbing piece of news for this morning, a Security Guard at the hospital had come up missing. He had gone to investigate the intrusion call, but that was all that was known. Probably, hung-over some place and would be found soon, so Travis hoped. He really hoped Sid didn’t do any-thing to that guard. Then, they’d be looking for the body.

            After a long straight way and a few turns, Travis was able to park quickly in the underground garage at the Headquarter. The Lab was in the basement, anyway. If Travis would stay in that huge, bright room too long, he’d get a headache. Way too bright for his tastes. He entered the Lab, nodded to a couple other techs and approached Roger.

            “Ah, good. That was quick,” Roger said. He moved on his rolling stool from his microscope to fetch some paperwork with a couple plastic evidence bags attached to hand to Withers.

            “Whatcha got?” Travis inquired.

            “I’m still waiting for all the evidence from COSI, but ... ” Roger fished out a tube with a different bullet (rather damaged nose) and continued, “ ... this was found lodged in a lamp-post in the lot. This was recent, also, but no blood on this one. A .38 caliber -- probably a revolver. They found a revolver in a near-by dumpster. It has Pete Young’s blood on the grip -- same DNA.” Roger paused as he read something, then continued, “Ballistics is testing now. I’ll let you know in an hour, or so, what’s found.”

Then, he took out the bullet and casing tubes, for which Travis was the most interested. The attached sheets of paper showed all kinds of typed forms and graphs on them. He held all of this out for Travis to survey.

            “You know partials are a lot of hard sorting for the needle through all that straw, even with the computer,” Roger stated, and then added, “These are all the ‘possibles.’” He thumbed up a sheet and pointed to a name on this page, “And then, this name printed out.”

            Travis read the name silently, and then just smiled to Roger with a wicked smile.

            “I thought that name would be of interest to you boys,” Roger said smugly.

×******Ø

           
  

         The conclusion of "The Case of the Red Painted Lips" will be put up in a couple of weeks.