Evil Intent
Authors: Robert Olsen
Tags: #Romance, #Romantic Suspense, #Mystery & Suspense, #Suspense
Evil Intent
Robert Olsen
Copyright 2016 Robert Olsen
All rights reserved
ISBN: 1523878673
ISBN 13: 9781523878673
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902599
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
North Charleston, South Carolina
This book is dedicated, with love,
to Laurie, my sister and my friend
Contents
Chapter 1
K
athryn Becker briskly walked out of the Rockne Pharmaceutical building on Fifth Avenue with her best friend and coworker, Suki. Kathryn was Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the New York City office of Rockne Pharmaceuticals, a leading provider, developer and manufacturer of health care products. Suki Nikimora was a Sales Director who reported to Kathryn. It was about eleven thirty five and they had just left the offices on their way to lunch. Usually, the busy office forced them to go to the company’s cafeteria, or on occasion, have no lunch at all, only taking enough time to pick up a yogurt or energy bar to eat at their desk. But today, with all that had been happening, they both insisted on getting away and have some time alone together.
They were obsessively talking, usually at the same time, as they scooted down the avenue, as if on auto pilot, on their way to one of their favorite lunch stops. At one point, Suki turned and noticed a familiar look on her friend’s face.
“Are you ok?”
“I don’t know. I got the strangest feeling that we’re being followed.”
“It’s the stress girl. Maybe we both need to go for a liquid lunch today,” Suki said with a smile, noticing Kathryn staring at her in disbelief. “What? I’m only kidding. Come on lets go.”
At the corner, Kathryn was annoyed that she didn’t see the little white man in the crosswalk post, and with traffic moving fast through the street, she automatically turned and quickly walked down the right side of the street away from Fifth Avenue. It was almost a sin to stop moving on a New York City street, and even though Jaywalking is illegal in New York, there is an unwritten rule that the cops look the other way. Naturally, the girls only walked half way down the street, until the traffic slowed, then darted across to the north side and entered
The Cafe 63
. The cafe was one of those classic casual diners of yesteryear, stools lining the right side at the long counter. On the opposite wall, small four-seater booths flanked the left wall. Down the middle of the cafe there were additional booths on both the left and right with a short wall dividing them. The old jute boxes still sat on the table up against the wall. Of course the seats were all red leather with aluminum trim on the table.
“So, I want to know all the gory details, Kate. What the hell has been going on this week? Everything is going crazy.” Suki was one of the only people who called her friend Kate. She was Kathryn to most people.
“Oh, Suki, it’s been sheer chaos. I don’t know where to begin. Dr. Andreyushkin went ballistic the other day because someone took his computer out of the office. He was bitching about some program or files that were vital to his work and demanded they be returned immediately.”
“Hi girls, whatcha having?” a middle aged waitress said standing at their booth with her order pad in hand.
“I’ll just have a bowl of minestrone with a side salad, oil and vinegar,” said Suki. “Oh, and a cup of coffee, please.”
“I’ll take minestrone too, but just a cup please, water with lemon, and a chicken salad sandwich on white toast.”
“Who in their right mind would order that?
“Excuse me? It’s just a plain chicken salad sandwich!” Kathryn cried out giving Suki a look as if Suki had lost her marbles. “What’s wrong with that?”
“I’m not talking about your chicken salad! Who ordered the removal of the computer dummy?”
“Oh. It was just routine IT procedure, I guess. Appears like he was due for a system upgrade and didn’t realize that IT was going to take the old machine to swap it out. He probably didn’t read the email they normally send asking that all files be moved from the laptop to the server, before IT comes to pick-up t
he dev
ice. Oh Suki, you have no idea how mad he got.”
“I can just imagine, honey. He’s not exactly the friendliest guy to begin with.” Suki added.
“Well, the drama didn’t end there. Ted Duncan tells me this week that we need to double our sales quotas for the new diabetic pumps. Implied that the Corporate Office is on his ass. But, rumor has it that Corporate Headquarters told him that his performance is unacceptable, nothing to do with device sales.”
“Go figure, Kate. Why would that asshole SVP’s performance suddenly become our problem? What’s he trying to hide? You know damn well the current sales goal is impossible, let alone increasing it! Is he smoking dope? It’s going to be impossible to squeeze anymore out of the team!” Suki softly said trying to keep her voice down as she got excited.
“Wait, I’m not done. Wednesday afternoon, Donald comes storming into my office complaining about some strange Russian guy that he saw meeting with Dr. Andreyushkin, and starts going nuts on me again,” Kathryn started to say.
“What happened?”
As Kathryn explained what Donald was complaining about, she noticed a strange man standing right outside the door to the cafe, wearing a trench coat, and a wide brimmed, Waylon Jennings type hat, pulled down low over his forehead. He just stood there looking around at the street with his back to the cafe. She also couldn’t help but notice a young man sitting in the first booth, near the door. He was alone and seemed to be playing with some kind of machine - an Xbox or Play station type gadget. She continued telling Suki her story.
“And then look what happened to poor Eric? Someone in the office said he was pushed? He was damn lucky that the stupid bus didn’t kill him!”
“One bowl of delicious minestrone for you, and a chicken salad sandwich for you dear with a cup of soup,” the waitress said placing the food in front of the girls. “Is there anything else I......”
Just as the waitress placed the soup on the table, her eyes rapidly rolled back into her head, and she collapsed onto the table, gasping with arms reaching out as if desperately trying to grab hold of someone. All at once, she lost consciousness, her limp body quietly and slowly sliding to the floor.
Simultaneously, the gentleman in the trench coat, pushed the front door open, pulled an automatic revolver from his coat pocket, and fired several shots into the head of the young man with the video game, splattering blood across the table and adjacent wall as the young man slumped over, his head lying in a pool of blood on the table. People everywhere started screaming.
“Oh my God,” Suki screamed hearing the shots but seeing nothing. Total confusion raced through her mind as Kathryn dove onto the floor attempting to assist the fallen waitress.
Most folks failed to see another person, an elderly woman, in the back of the restaurant, who quietly toppled over, as if in slow motion, hitting the floor face down.
“Suki, help me, call 911 quickly,” Kathryn cried out as she straightened out the woman’s legs, turned her onto her back and began CPR to attempt to revive the unconscious waitress.
Several customers scrambled to assist the elderly woman who, lying face down, was not moving. Two other men raced out the front door in pursuit of the man who murdered the kid. Unfortunately, the killer quickly entered the crowded streets and was nowhere in sight.
In less than ten minutes the police and two ambulances arrived at
The Cafe 63
.
“Over here,” Kathryn yelled from the floor as the medics ran through the door. “Please help, I have a pulse, she’s alive!”
In lightning speed two medics were leaning over the victim assessing her vital signs. They quickly inserted an IV and soon placed her on a stretcher carrying her to the ambulance.
“You better come with us ma’am,” one medic said to Kathryn.
“Suki, we’re going to Lenox Hill. Meet me at the emergency room.”
With that, Kathryn, the two medics, and the dying waitress were on their way to Lenox Hill Hospital, on the upper east side of Manhattan.
“Blood press falling, 93 over 59,” yelled out one of the medics as the second injected something into her left arm.
Upon arrival, the medical team quickly moved the waitress into a room where a trauma team could assess her condition. Kathryn remained in the waiting room expecting to meet Suki shortly. Within minutes, the elderly woman, still alive, also arrived, and because it was suspected that she had a heart attack, she was raced to the cardiac trauma team. Lenox Hill was known for having one of the best cardiac trauma centers in NYC.
Kathryn sat down in reception and pulled her cell phone from her purse.
“Richard? Oh, Richard, I’m so glad you’re there. It was horrible! I’m downstairs in emergency...”
“Honey are you alright? What are you doing in emergency?”
“Two people are here, critically injured, a young man is dead, and I think the killer got away, I don’t know because I was trying to help the waitress....”
“Where are you Kathryn?”
“Lenox Hill emergency.”
“Stay there, I’ll be right there.”
Fortunately, in addition to his office practice, Dr. Richard Marks, a surgeon and specialist in Endocrinology, spent a great deal of time at Lennox Hill Hospital. Kathryn, knew he was not scheduled to be at the office today and most likely was at the hospital. At least she hoped so. Moments later Richard walked through the door into the emergency waiting room.
Kathryn jumped up from her seat, “Oh Richard, I can’t believe what happened. And it was all so fast I still can’t comprehend it. I’m so glad you’re here,” she said leaning into his arms.
“You’re fine,” he said, giving Kathryn a hug. “Why don’t you sit and tell me what happened?”
Kathryn sat back in the chair and calmly started explaining all that she could remember. Of course, she didn’t know the names or identity of any of the victims or for that matter, anyone present on the scene other than Suki. After she finished, Dr. Marks stood up placing his hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you stay here while I go see what I can find out? It may take a while. Do you need a drink or coffee?”
“No thanks, Suki should be here soon, I’ll wait for her.” Dr. Marks then disappeared behind one of the doors.
It was not long, before Suki showed up as Kathryn had expected. The ladies, each looking pretty shook up, hugged each other then sat down waiting for Dr. Marks to come back. Fifteen to thirty minutes passed before he returned.
“You’re back! Did you find out anything?”
“Yes, a few things. Hi Suki, you look rather tired, too.”
“I’m alright.”
“Well, as you already know, the young man is deceased. He was pronounced dead on arrival. No one seems to even know who he was. Oddly, there was no identification on him. All he had was a twenty dollar bill in his pocket.
“That’s strange. What about the game machine he was playing? Did anyone say anything about that?” Kathryn asked.
“I really don’t know. It never came up in conversation. I did hear someone say the police are here and would be on this floor any minute. Maybe they’ll get into it further.”
Dr. Marks continued with his assessment.
“Sadly, the elderly woman passed away too. The preliminary assessment is heart failure. It appears she had a heart attack. She was a local resident of the area, and they managed to reach and speak with her family. They’re on their way over here.”
“Oh no, that’s so sad,” Suki said. “Maybe the entire ordeal just frightened the poor woman so...”
“That brings me to the waitress. She is alive but in critical condition. I didn’t get to talk with the doctors, but from what I briefly heard, you may have saved her life Kathryn.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you! Your quick response may have kept her heart going.”
“When I jumped to the floor, I began CPR immediately. I didn’t give it any thought.”
“Well, she is not out of the woods yet, but at least there’s a chance.”
“Thank God.”
Just then two gentlemen approached the three of them.
“By any chance are either of you Kathryn Becker?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“We’re from homicide, ma’am. We’d like to have a word with you, if that’s alright. I’m Detective Peters, and this is Detective O’Donnell.”
“Certainly detective, that’s quite alright, I guess. Oh, this is my friend Suki. She was with me at
The Cafe 63
when all this happened, and this is a close friend of mine, Dr. Richard Marks. He works here at Lenox Hill.”
“We’ll want to talk to you too, hmmm, Ms.?” The detective paused.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m Suki Nikimora.”
“Thank you Ms. Nikimora, and please to meet you doctor,” the detective said reaching out his hand to Dr. Marks.
“You’ll have to excuse me detective,” said Dr. Marks as he took the detectives hand. “I’m sure you understand. I’ll call you tonight Kathryn,” he said turning to go back inside the emergency center.
“Would you ladies like to come with us please? Perhaps, we can go somewhere where we can be a little more private,” Detective Peters said, turning and heading out the emergency room. The four were able to find a quiet table in the hospital lobby, where they could sit and talk. After a brief conversation, the police left and were on their way.
That evening, Richard Marks called Kathryn as soon as he got home.
“Kathryn,” he started, “how are you feeling?”
“Ok, I guess.”
“Did everything go ok with the police?”
“I suppose so, but there was one thing that puzzles me. I told them the young man was playing video games, and they looked at each other then asked me if I was sure about that. Of course, I was, I saw him, I told them. They asked me where the device is. It’s missing.”
“Maybe someone picked it up in all the commotion.”
“I suppose so, but they really seemed perplexed over that. What about the hospital? Anything new develop?”
“I’m sorry Kathryn, but she didn’t make it.”
Immediately, Kathryn’s eyes filled up with tears.
“I was afraid that would happen. I can’t get the look on her face out of my head. It’s haunting, and in a strange way, I feel it was a familiar look. I don’t understand that.”
“I may understand,” Richard said speaking quite softly. “There’s something else I must tell you.”
