Bad Thoughts

Chapter 4

Later, he found that John Roper had committed suicide in his cell. Roper had wrapped his jail-issued blanket around his head and had asphyxiated himself. It would’ve been a painful way to kill yourself. A difficult way to kill yourself…

DiGrazia arrived at the station after six in the morning looking hung over, his eyes bloodshot, his skin pallor not quite right. He admitted with a sick grin that he had hit the scotch hard before going to bed. He asked Shannon how he knew where to find Janice Rowley. Shannon couldn’t answer him because he really didn’t know. When he woke he had a grim realization of what he was going to find, but it wasn’t until he had gotten in his car and started driving that he had any idea of where he was heading. It was as if something had taken over, as if something had delivered him to that warehouse and to Janice Rowley.

He told DiGrazia that he woke up knowing he was going to find her.

“Just something you dreamed about?” DiGrazia asked dubiously.

“I can’t remember what I dreamed about,” Shannon said.

DiGrazia gave his partner a long look. “I’m thinking of a number between one and a hundred.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Come on, you’re psychic, guess.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“But you knew where to find Janice Rowley.”

“Yeah, somehow I did.”

“Too bad you didn’t wake up a couple of hours earlier.”

Shannon didn’t say anything.

“It’s also too bad I didn’t try a little harder to beat the truth out of that piece of shit,” DiGrazia said. “Damn it. It shouldn’t have had to end this way. We had that piece of shit. He knew we had him. Why couldn’t he have just told us where he had her? Especially if he was going to check out anyways?”

Shannon shrugged. “Hell if I know. I have to get to an emergency room. My leg hurts like hell.”

“What happened to it?”

“I hurt it kicking down a door. Look, I’ve got to get going.”

“You haven’t notified the husband yet?”

“Not yet. It’s too early. I thought I’d try to let him have a decent night’s sleep.”

“I doubt he’s been sleeping too well.”

Shannon grabbed a bottle of aspirin from his desk, shook out three pills and swallowed them. He then pushed himself to his feet, grimacing. “I’ve got to get to an emergency room. Could you talk to the husband?”

DiGrazia nodded. “Sure, what the fuck. You need a ride?”

Shannon shook his head. “Just talk to the husband.”