Father of Fear by Ethan Cross Page B

your idea?”
    Kaleb nodded and replied, “Unfortunately.”
    “It was a good idea. The fact that it didn’t work doesn’t diminish that.”
    “Tell that to Captain Duran.”
    “Your mother?”
    “Again, unfortunately.”
    “Has to be tough working for her.”
    “You have no idea. The only reason I’m still on the case after the fiasco at the hospital is because I’ve already been working with the two of you. And the funny thing is that I get it from both sides. She’s harder on me than any of the other guys, but they act like I get special treatment. Last Christmas, someone hung pacifiers on a miniature Christmas tree and left it on my desk. The star read Mama’s Boy. ”
    Andrew said, “It could be worse.”
    “How’s that?”
    Marcus answered, “Your parents could be serial killers.”
    From the front of the room, Captain Duran announced, “Let’s get started, people.”
    The detectives immediately quieted down. Captain Duran was a woman who commanded immediate attention. Marcus analyzed her. Not for any particular reason, just out of habit. Maria Duran seemed to him a woman of contradictions. Her demeanor was stern and all business, but her hair and make-up looked as if they had been done by a team of beauticians. Her curly black hair cascaded over her shoulders, instead of being pulled back or put up into a more professional style. She wore a conservative gray pantsuit and light purple shirt, but the top two buttons were undone, revealing some cleavage. She put out a tough image and demanded respect, but she also wanted no one to forget that she was a woman. She invoked equal parts fear and animal desire, and she seemed to get off on both.
    She said, “Normally, we wouldn’t show this type of video to everyone. But I feel that you all need to see what’s coming for this boy if you fail to find him. Plus, we need as many sets of eyes on this as possible. Let us know if you notice anything that could help.” She asked one of the detectives to turn out the lights, and a video filled one of the whiteboards from a projector mounted on the ceiling.
    The video was similar to the others that the killer had sent the police previously. Except for the location of the killing and the mask that the madman wore. This time he wore the face of a young woman in great agony.
    To Andrew, Marcus whispered, “The masks are different in every video.”
    Kaleb overheard and said, “We’re checking on that. We think they’re custom made. Detective Lazaro is questioning custom mask designers with enough skill to have made them or taught someone else how.”
    Marcus watched as his father’s brutal depravity was put on display, but he tried not to focus on what was happening in the video. Instead, he focused on the details. He examined the gurney. The plastic sheeting. The clothes his father wore. Every detail, every frame, every sound. All of it broken down to its basic components and scrutinized.
    Before he realized what he was doing, he was on his feet saying, “Hold on.”
    Captain Duran paused the video, squinted into the dark room, and said, “Who said that?”
    Fagan’s voice echoed in Marcus’s ears, but it was too late to turn back now. He said, “I recognize the house.” He walked over and flipped on the lights. Then he approached the podium. Captain Duran eyed him with confusion and suspicion as he grabbed the stack of case files from her hands and sifted through them.
    After finding the correct file, he said, “The first target was an old man named Lawrence Goodweather. He was killed in his home. His only daughter lives in California, and she put the house up for sale. But who wants to buy a house where someone was just murdered?”
    Marcus flipped through photos of the crime scene and held one up to the image that was paused on the screen. “See the woodwork, the layout of the doors, this crack in the drywall, the water damage on the ceiling here? This video was shot inside Lawrence Goodweather’s