Ostrowski and Harker pulled up to the curb in front of the small white house. The ebony Camaro rumbled loudly. Harker turned the key quieting the powerful engine. Ostrowski looked at her partner.
“We’re taking a bit of chance here,” she said plainly.
Harker rubbed his stubbled face wearily. “Ostrich, we’ve been over this, I’m not letting you goose chase this one alone. Even if I do think it’s…”
“Insane?” she finished his sentence with a sneer. “Harker, I know this is a stretch, I’m not a fool. But there’s just too much here to ignore…so much violence lately.
“It’s a shitty world out there,” he said flippantly. “Maybe people have had enough.”
“And that’s it? Because the world is unfair people should have the right to do anything? That’s not the world I want.”
Harker sighed heavily, “It’s not the world I want either, but there is only so much we can do. We’re not even supposed to be here.” He said, pointing at the small house.
Ostrowski nodded, but stepped out of the car. She watched her partner sigh heavily, then follow her. They approached the front door together. The house was small but quaint. Ostrowski felt that it seemed the kind of house were a perfectly normal family lived. Apparently, this was not the case.
Harker reached the door first and rapped his big fist on the frame. A moment later the door opened slowly. A kindly face of a woman in her sixties appeared. Her eyes were red rimmed and swollen but she mustered a hospitable smile. Ostrowski returned the smile.
“Good afternoon ma’am, I’m Detective Ostrowski and this is my Partner, Detective Harker. Are you Madeline Kilner?”
The woman opened the door fully, “Yes, I am.” Her voice had a quiver of grief in it. “But I’ve already spoken to the police.”
Harker grumbled softly, Ostrowski ignored her partner.
“I know ma’am, we just have a couple follow up questions.”
Mrs. Kliner let them in and sat the two detectives in her small living room. She brought them steaming coffee which both accepted gratefully. Madeline settled into an antique, cushioned chair, Harker dropped his bulk onto a small couch.
“I’m not sure how much more help I can be, I don’t really know anything, this is all so…” Her voice broke as she fought back more tears.
“We know this is difficult, ma’am, we have just a few questions,” Harker said in as gentle a tone as he could muster.
Madeline nodded, feigning a strong smile. Harker returned her smile, acknowledging her fortitude. He then glanced at Ostrowski.
“Mrs. Kliner, did Darryl ever display any violent tendencies?” Ostrwoski asked.
“The other officers already asked me. Darryl is a good man,” Madeline explained. “He never hurt anyone, he wasn’t a fighter.”
Ostrowski knew that a mother would only see the best in her child, getting Madeline to admit to Darryl’s inner demons would be a delicate undertaking.
“How about as a kid?” Harker added, sensing Ostrowki’s concern. “Did he ever behave badly when he was growing up?”
Madeline sat back in her chair and thought deeply, her eyes moved as she relived three decades of memories. Her mouth opened a few times as if to speak, but she stopped herself and returned to her thoughts. Finally, she spoke. “When he was about 8 he did have a peculiar incident, but it wasn’t very big deal. The doctors told us it wasn’t even worth worrying about.”
Ostrowski smiled gently, “what happened ma’am?”
Madeline paused again to collect her thoughts as Harker shifted uncomfortably, he barely fit on the small couch, Ostrowski laughed inwardly at her partner’s obvious discomfort.
“Darryl was always creative, he used to draw and, for his age, he was quite good,” his father was an architect and he always saw promise in Darryl’s drawings. We would hang them on the refrigerator and around the house, it always made Darryl so proud. But then his drawings changed, they became different.”
Ostrowski glanced at her partner whose interest was clearly piqued, “changed how?”
Madeline’s smile faded and was replaced by a look of concern, “The people in his pictures, they were still drawn to perfection, but they had no eyes.”
“Excuse me?” Harker interjected loudly. Ostrowski shook her head; tact wasn’t Harker’s strong suit.
“A series of his drawings were of eyeless people, it was very unsettling,” Madeline explained grimly. “Darryl’s father and I were concerned, we took him to a few psychologists, but they all said that it was just a phase.”
Ostrowski leaned forward, “what did Darryl say?”
Madeline smiled again nervously, “That was the most peculiar part”
Harker groaned audibly interrupting the older woman, Ostrowski shot the big man another sharp glance.
“Sorry, please go on,” Harker said gruffly.
Madeline graced Harker with a forgiving smile, “It’s alright, I know this all sounds odd. But when we asked Darryl why his people had no eyes all he would say is, ‘this is how we appear to you.’ He would never explain anymore and even the doctors couldn’t get more out of him. But by the time he was 12 the pictures had stopped.”
“Four years of drawing people with no eyes?” Harker did not hide his surprise.
Madeline rose from her chair and retrieved a box from a large bookcase. She opened it, and placed it on the coffee table that sat in front of the two detectives. Inside were hundreds of drawings. Everything from rudimentary crayon scrawls, to more sophisticated illustrations in pencil and pen. The pictures depicted people doing everything, fishing, playing sports, and going to war. The one commonality amongst all of young Darryl’s artwork was that none of the people had eyes.
“Well that’s just creepy,” Harker said quietly. Ostrowki’s eyes rolled as she gave her partner a jab to the ribs. Harker’s cell phone rang loudly, he glance at the screen and then excused himself to take the call. Ostrowski turned to Madeline.
“Thank you for sharing these with us, they are helpful.”
Madeline sighed, her eyes were red with glass, I don’t know how they could be helpful, I just want my boy to be OK.”
Before Ostrowski could respond Harker returned, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we just got a call, apparently there is some trouble at the high school, we need to go.”
They thanked Madeline again and left quickly. As they climbed into the car Harker said, “Apparently one of the girls just beat a boy nearly to death with a bat.”
Ostrowski stared at her partner as the car squealed away from Madeline Kliner’s house.
“Don’t even say it, Ostrich,” Harker barked. He added, “But if her locker is full of pictures of eyeless weirdos, I’m moving to Tahiti.”
****
Ostrowski set a steaming mug of coffee on her partner’s desk. They had returned t the precinct after talking to the girl and her teachers. Both agreed they needed either a nap or a gallon of black coffee. The latter was chosen. She walked over to her desk which faced Harker’s and settled into her old, worn chair. Harker had removed his blazer and rolled up his sleeves revealing a portion of a faded tattoo. It was from his time in the Marines and he wore it with pride.
Harker’s desk was fastidiously organized. Files grouped by case and date, Post-Its arranged chronologically, even his pens were arranged neatly in a holder. Her own desk was what she referred to as, “ordered chaos.” Papers were strewn across it, nearly burying her computer, wrappers and containers from take out overflowed from her waste basket onto the floor, the whole area smelled like a sewer. Harker typically sneered at her area in disgust. She adamantly insisted that there was a system to her mess. They agreed to disagree.
“Thanks,” Harker said as he took a long pull from the mug. He winced as he swallowed. “The PD coffee won’t be putting Starbucks out of business any time soon”
Ostrich chuckled, “Ya think? I was hoping to open a precinct franchise.”
The two cops laughed but the mirth quickly faded as the memory of the recent interview overcame them. Harker rubbed his eyes.
“I’ve seen some creepy shit on the job, but this took the cake.”
The boy who had been attacked was rushed to the hospital, he was alive but in critical condition. Broken bones, a concussion and internal bleeding topped the list. The doctors weren’t confident that he’d make it. The girl, was taken to juvenile detention where she was being held until the system decided how to charge her. Harker and Ostrowski spent about twenty minutes with her. Harker made it clear that is was bout 19 minutes too much.
“It was like she really didn’t understand that what she did was wrong,” Harker said as he shook his head. “She hit the kid about 50 times with a bat! I think that’s the first thing they teach you in kindergarten. Don’t hit you classmates in the face with a bat!”
“Calm down Harker,” Ostrich had seen her big partner stare down the scum of the earth, but he could never deal with kids. Kids always got to him.
“I’m glad Special Victims is taking this one over, it’s not our problem,” Haker pushed away the file on the attack as if he was divesting himself of he memory.
Ostrich shook her head, she knew what she was about to say would not make the situation any better, “I think we need to take a step back and reconsider this whole situation.”
Harker looked up at his partner with a cocked eyebrow. Ostrowski stood in an effort to emphasize the significance of what she was saying.
“Stop, before you say anything, just listen,” she raised her hand like a traffic cop hoping to curb any remarks from Harker. “You don’t see any connection with all these attacks?”
“Sick people out there doing sick things,” Harker said with resignation.
“No! Damn it no! It’s more than that. Much more!” Ostrich was nearly shouting, those in the office were used to her outbursts so it didn’t cause them to pause. “Did you see that look in her eyes when we talked to her? That vacant stare?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever erase it. That was one screwed up little girl.”
“She wasn’t just screwed up, we’ve seen that look before,” Ostrowski was teetering on the fine line between frustration and exasperation. “Remember Darryl? He had that same look. This isn’t a coincidence, something is happening here.”
“Ostrich, look, you have a great instinct for these things, but I think you’re chasing a ghost this time,” Harker was interrupted by another detective. Chuck Lowe was new to the office but he was good with computers and sharp as a tack. The young cop stood with an armful of papers waiting to be noticed.
“What do you need, Lowe?” Harker barked.
“I have what you asked for,” Lowe said to Ostrowski as he handed her the papers. Ostrowski took the stack and rifled through them, scanning the contents quickly.
“Asked for?” Harker shot at his partner. “What did you ask for?”
Ostrowski waved Lowe off, “Thanks Chuck, I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Lowe hesitated, “Um, the results are comlicated.” Harker leaned back in his chair and Ostrowski motioned for Lowe to continue.
“Detective Ostrowski asked me to compile the files on the last 20 violent crimes within a ten mile radius. I took profiles of the perps and fed them into a custom program that I wrote to look for a connection, any connection.”
Ostrowski nodded, “and?”
Lowe cleared his throat, “and I came up with nothing.”
Harker smirked as Ostrowski slumped over, deflated by the news.
“Aside from all being birthed in similar facilities, there’s no connection,” Lowe stated.
Ostrowski looked up, “Birthed? All the perps were from birthing centers?”
Lowe looked surprised, “yeah, but 70% of the births today are in birthing centers.”
Ostrowski stood up and grabbed her coat. “Where are you going?” Harker shouted.
“We’re going downtown. Eden Corp. has a offices in the business district, maybe we can talk to someone there,” she declared.
Harker shook his head as he put on his blazer and grabbed his coat, “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“Believe it partner,” Ostrowski smiled as she hit the button for the elevator. She turned to Lowe, “Get me the name of the top dog at the local Eden Corp. office, but do it discreetly. I have some questions I’d like him to answer.”
“Yes sir…ma’am,” Lowe croaked as papers fell from Ostrowski’s desk.
