Chapter 55
The call came in at 6:00 p.m. Sean and Andrew had gone to their rooms about fifteen minutes earlier when the inspector got a call. It was from Sergeant Patterson over at the jail. He wouldn't give any details over the phone but just said that it was urgent that O'Reilly and Miller get over to the jail ASAP.
Sean hung up and went and banged on Miller's door and told him they had to get over to the prison cell right away.
"Okay boss. What's up?"
"No idea but Sergeant Patterson sounded pretty shaken up. It didn't sound good."
They left the Shady Rest and raced across to the Sheriff's office. When they got there, the first thing that Sean saw was Cindy sitting in a corner, with the mayor beside her. She looked white as a ghost and it looked like she might pass out at any moment.
"What's going on?" Sean asked the mayor but looking concerned for Cindy.
"Miss Stevens has had quite a shock. She had gone in to get Higgins his dinner when she saw him. It was quite a shock for her."
"What has happened mayor?"
"You better come with me." He didn't look in much better shape than Cindy did.
When they got to the holding cell, Sergeant Patterson met them. He was covered in blood. After a moment, they saw Higgins, laying on his cot but there was blood everywhere. He wasn't moving and it was obvious that he was dead. There were gashes in both of his wrists. They were quite deep cuts, deep enough to cause him to bleed out in a few seconds. There was also blood splatters on the walls beside the bed. He must have cut himself, and flailed around, spraying his blood as he did.
Sean had seen victims before covered in blood but it never seemed to get any easier. You tried to harden yourself against the grizzly side of the job, but it was always disturbing. It was no wonder that Miss Stevens and the mayor were both upset by what had happened.
"Sergeant Patterson, what happened?"
"At about 4:50, Miss Stevens went to give Higgins his supper. She had no sooner gone in, than she started to scream. I rushed in to see what was going on, and then I saw Higgins. He was laying on the bed thrashing about. His wrists had been slit, and the blood was gushing out and splattering the walls as well. I rushed into his cell and tried applying pressure to the wounds but he had already lost too much blood. That is how I got covered with it.
"I phoned the mayor right away and tended to Miss Stevens until he got here. He told me to give you a call and so I did. I came back down again, but like I said, there was nothing I could do for him."
"What did he use to cut himself?"
"He used a switch blade. It is on the bed beside him, covered with blood. He was searched before being put in the cell, but the knife must have been inside his boot. No one suspected that the sheriff would be carrying a blade on him, especially there."
"From what I have heard about Higgins, it doesn't surprise me in the least. He may have been the sheriff in your town, but he was not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. When the full story is made public about Higgins' sordid past,a lot of people aren't going to be too upset by this outcome. They will say that he got what he deserved. I for one, am one of them."
"I should have found the weapon and taken it from him. This is my fault." Patterson said, glancing back at the body and the carnage within the cell. He shook his head and stood there not saying any more.
It was Sergeant Miller who spoke next. "Sergeant Patterson, you may have overlooked it, but you had worked with Higgins for a long time. You had grown to trust him, just as everyone else in town did. No one will fault you for this. Your former boss was not what he appeared to be. He was a sheriff and supposedly a keeper of the peace, but in fact, he was nothing more than a low-life and monster who preyed on people's weaknesses, Jake Caulder's mother and Miss Stevens to name two. He has done the county a favour by saving the tax payers a lot of time and money. No one will fault you, you'll see."
"Well I hope you are right. I just can't get over the fact that this could have been avoided."
"Believe me, son, we all make mistakes in this job but you have to learn to just get on and learn from past events." This was inspector O'Reilly who spoke. He felt bad for the young sergeant, but he figured that he would get over it, and that he would make a fine sheriff if the mayor saw fit to promote him. "Just be glad that he decided to kill himself instead of sticking you. As far as I'm concerned, this proves his guilt. He would most surely be convicted of past murder and rape and been sent away. He knew that cops don't live long in jail, and so, regardless of how much time he was sentenced to, he wouldn't have lasted more than a month or two. He took the easy way out. Good riddance is what I say."
"Thank you sir. It will be tough to get my head around all this but you are correct. I'll be okay as time wears on."
"Yeah, you'll be fine."
Just then, Miss Stevens came in, telling Sergeant Patterson, that there was a phone call from constable Cooke from the hospital.
Patterson took the call and he went white in the face and had to sit down.
"What is it, Sergeant?" O'Reilly asked.
Patterson sat there for a moment and when he spoke, his hands were shaking. "Constable Cooke just phoned with tragic news. Caulder has escaped, and officer Hawkins has been murdered. He went to get the two of them some coffee, and when he returned, Hawkins was dead and Caulder was gone. Cooke was pretty shook up. He said that Hawkins had been slaughtered. He had been stabbed in the eye and also in the throat with a pen. There was a lot of blood. He said it was like a war zone with all the blood."
"Have Cooke lock down the hospital. Sergeant Miller and I will go to the hospital to see what can be done. You stay here and call in an APB for Caulder. You have to stay here and deal with the Higgins situation."
With that, O'Reilly ran for the door and headed to their car. As they ran, the inspector let go with a string of profanities that would make a nun blush. "That stupid fucker Cooke is responsible for this, not directly of course, but I told them to both keep an eye on Caulder. The little prick didn't want to listen, just gave me lip, and now a good officer is dead. Shit-head!" With that out of his system, he seemed to calm down somewhat as they reached their car.
Andrew knew enough not to interrupt O'Reilly when he got like this. After he got it out of his system, he would be good to go. He got in the car, put the siren on,revved the engine and sped away, laying a strip of rubber and fish tailing for a moment and then straightened it out. Moments later, they pulled into the lot and raced inside. When they got to the room, they saw that it was worse than what they had been told. Not only had Caulder stabbed Hawkins twice, but he also bashed the left side of his face in. If there had been any doubt that Caulder had done the other murders, there was no doubt now. The M.O. was the same here.
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