The
Zombie
Chronicles

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Finished works:
   Billions
    ---
   Outbreak
    ---
   Undead
     Advantage
    ---
   Found
    ---
   About a Woman
    ---
   Short Stories

Works in Progress:
   TZC2: Discovery

Works on hold:
   Zombie Nation
    ---
   Zombieboy

Found

Chapter 16

The Roderson house was much as Brian remembered it from the morning before. He would never have imagined he would be visiting the place twice in less than twenty four hours. Outside of the house there were two cars parked, one was a blue and white police cruiser, the other Brian recognized as a department car, probably it was either Flo or Walt, or both. The butler, Jerry, met Brian at the door. His face was a tired mask of pain.

“Hello Jerry.”, Brian said nuetrally.

“Hello Mr. Nelson. Please come inside out of the cold.”

Behind Jerry Mr. Roderson stood in a short red robe and flannel pajama bottoms. He looked old and frail standing in the foyer. A uniformed officer was also standing near the bottom of the stairs. As Brian came in his face went from a mask of pain to one of anger.

“I hold you responsible detective!”, Roderson senior snarled, “If not for the pressure of your allegation Teddy would still be alive!”

Wearily Brian nodded his head to the officer, who moved over towards Roderson senior. “Please Mr. Roderson,” Brian held up a hand imploringly, “I understand all too well the pain you are going though, please do not do anything to make matters more difficult for any of us.”

“You..you son of a bitch! How do you know what I am going through? Do you have any idea of how far Teddy has come in the last year? How much he had improved? How much he had put us all through on his road to recovery?”, Roderson was screaming at Brian now, spittle flying out in a slight arc to land on the floor near Brian's feet.

“You are right, I don't know. I don't know what you went through.”, Brian said in a level tone.

“You don't know?”, Roderson screamed sarcastically, “You don't say? You have no idea what he put this house through, how much we struggled to bring him back from the edge of darkness...only so this. This! Could happen?”

“Quiet down Mr Roderson, or you will have to leave the room.”

“That's right my son wasn't enough, threaten me now too!”, he yelled.

“No one is threatening you, you need to calm down and tell me what happened, if you need time to pull yourself together, then take it, I will not tolerate you screaming at me.”, Brian could not help the menacing tone that crept into his voice.

The elder Roderson took a step back, then sputtered incoherently for a moment, and waved Brian off towards the stairs, “Go then! Just go! Look for yourself, what you have wrought.”

Brian did go, thinking to himself, Wrought? Who 'wrought's things anymore? Brian climbed the stairs heading towards Teddy's room, he waved the butler off when the man attempted to come after him. That gesture did not work and Brian turned towards Jerry when they reached the hallway to Teddy's room.

“What Jerry?”, Brian asked testily.

“Sir, I wanted you to know, I am the one who found the body.”

“Oh, sorry, I should have asked. Without seeing Teddy for myself could you describe what you found and when?”

“Last night Teddy was in a strange mood...”

“Wait,”, Brian said, looking over the landing to the foyer below, “Is there somewhere more private we can go to discuss this?”

“Certainly, if you will follow me?”

Jerry led Brian to what looked like a bedroom that had been converted to a reading room, books lined the walls on tall, custom made, dark stained shelves and there were three overstuffed chairs, each with a lamp. Two tall windows where heavily draped and dark behind the chairs. This room too had another door leading from it, it looked to Brian like it led to a private bathroom and closet. Jerry and Brian each took a seat and Brian pulled out his trusty hand held computer to take notes with.

“I had already gone to bed for the night, but was possessed with insomnia and came upstairs to grab a book from the library when I heard loud music coming from Teddy's room. After making my selection I popped into his bedroom to remind him that he would need to be downtown tomorrow and he should turn in. His room was cold, that is the first thing I noticed. The second was the motion out of the corner of my eye, turning towards it I saw Teddy hanging from a rope he had looped over one of the high beams in his bedroom.”

“Okay, were the windows open?”

“I checked they were closed, but not latched, as if he had had them open earlier in the evening.”

“What had happened earlier, was he depressed or sad about the interrogation?”

“He seemed, well, pleased with himself. He was discussing with Ted, his father, how you, detective, knew he had not committed the crime. He was optimistic that justice would prevail. He was not sad or depressed, that came a bit later. After he came down for dinner his mood had dramatically changed. He wanted to go out, his father would not hear of it, not after all the trouble today. Teddy said he had to meet some people, people who could help him make sure the trouble went away, who could collaborate what he told you. Roderson senior would not hear of it, he told Teddy to call his witnesses to the house if he had to speak with them or to merely call them on the phone. They argued over dinner, in the end Teddy stayed home, I do not think anyone else came to the house tonight.”

“You don't know?”, Brian asked, genuinely surprised.

Jerry hesitated, “No. Not for certain. I am normally 'off' at six thirty, however because the family was so late getting back I did not get dinner laid until seven thirty and was not done cleaning up until about eight thirty. I spent the time after dinner in my apartment downstairs. I did not hear anyone after that, however Teddy has managed to get people into the house without anyone finding out before. Usually women, but, well there is no harm now, I don't think, sometimes he would have more seedy characters in, drug pushers or friends who could get him drugs.”

“When was the last time that had happened?”

“Girls or drugs?”

“Both.”

“Girls it had been months, there were a few after Stacey, however none of them were as serious. Drugs? Well that is a horse of a different color. I believe one of his friends, a man named Mathew, dealt in that sort of thing. He was the only one Ted had a blind eye towards, as the Roderson's and Matt's families go back a long way. However, I was not fooled by his charming manner and he seemed to recognize that. When it was just the three of us, Teddy, Mathew and I, Mathew would let his guard down and say very obvious things about Teddy needing a fix and did Teddy have money for drugs.”

“Heroin?”

Nodding, James said, “For the most part, Matt called it riding the horse, Teddy said it was more like the horse riding him. Matthew supplied other drugs as well, I think he is the one who introduced Teddy to most of what he abused. I didn't approve of the relationship or Matt. Will you be talking to him?”

“Probably. Yes. He could have been here tonight?”

“I doubt it, I know Matt introduced Teddy to a new supplier several months ago. Teddy seemed to get in deeper with that crowd, and Matt fell marginally by the wayside as an unneeded extra. They still 'hung out', but lets face it their relationship had evolved beyond childhood games. If you talk to Matt, feel free to let him know you got this information from me.”

Brian raised his eyebrows a bit questioningly. “He was always a bad influence, if Ted wanted to lay the blame of his son's death anywhere it should be at Mathew's feet.”

“Did Teddy ever have any of his new supplier's over?”

“Delivery boys or girls only. You had asked when the last one was here, that would have been last Thursday, she came to the house, she left with Teddy, he came back hours later with more drugs and was high pretty much for two days, when you arrived here on Monday morning Teddy had been asleep for about twenty hours after coming down.”

“From what his dad said it sounded like Teddy has his drug problem licked. What happened?”

“Ted turns a blind eye to some things. So long as his son was not getting arrested or selling off the family heirlooms he felt Teddy was in control of his habit and that made things okay. These bi-monthly benders would be allowed for.”

“Had that happened? Teddy selling off family property?”

“It used to, the last few months, no. Teddy had an allowance, I assume he either invested it wisely enough to make the amount of money he needed, bought what he could afford or stole from someone else. He hadn't been arrested and he was cutting back. There was a time when we could not leave him alone unsupervised in the house without him stealing whatever he could sell on the black market.”

Looking around Brian could not see that anything of value was missing, the place was very well appointed. “It doesn't look like the place has been stripped, did Mr Roderson recover the property?”

Nodding, Jerry replied, “What he could, usually he knew right where to go, the family has made a lot of good investments and they paid off well, but Teddy's excesses were cutting in too deeply. Ted spoke with the buyers and told them not to buy from Teddy anymore and to call him if Teddy came in trying to sell things. In return Ted gave them a bounty for making the call, it was cheaper than re-buying his property all of the time. About this time he also hired a couple of body guards. They were supposed to 'protect' Teddy, in reality they were Ted's men and made no bones about the fact they were there to prevent Teddy from stealing from his family and prevent him from using drugs. After a couple of months of that the father and son appeared to come to some sort of arrangement, the bodyguards disappeared and Teddy never stole from the house again.”

“He ever quit using?”

“No. He quit stealing. He had his ups and downs, periods of greater or less use. If it was not drugs, it was alcohol, it was always, always, something.”

“Anything else you can add that might help me out? Any other names?”

Jerry smiled solemnly and shook his head, “No, detective, you have everything I can remember. If I do recall anything else I will phone you, I have your phone number from yesterday morning. May I ask you a few questions.”

“I will tell you what I can.”

“You don't believe Teddy killed that girl do you?”

“No.”, answered Brian.

“Why not?”

Brian hesitated, “Somethings I can't tell you. I do have strong evidence that Teddy did not commit that crime. However he was involved in some way I have not yet discovered.”

Jerry nodded in agreement, “Teddy didn't have it in him for that sort of thing. If not Teddy do you have any idea on who did kill that poor woman?”

“I am still investigating several leads, but a name? No, I don't have one.”

“So you think Teddy killed himself to protect who actually did the crime?”

Brian let out a dark, short laugh, “That is a question I should have asked you. I don't know, what do you think?”

It was Jerry's turn to ponder for a moment, he nodded slowly before answering, “Teddy was not a bad kid, messed up, drug addled, wanted to fit in, but bad? No. He had loyalty to his friends and family as much as he could. If the circumstances were right I could see him doing this to cover for someone else. I didn't imagine he would, just that he could. Had I thought he were capable of this I would have done...something.” Jerry shrugged his shoulders, “Perhaps it would have happened anyway.”

“I had better go take a look at the crime scene now.”

“Crime scene?”

Brian got up and headed towards the door, looking over his shoulder he said, “Yes, didn't you know? It is illegal to kill yourself.”

Walking towards Teddy's bedroom Brian saw several flashes of light from a camera flash going off. One uniformed officer was hovering outside of Teddy's door, he nodded Brian through the door upon seeing his identification.

The room was cold, not 'see your breath cold', however it had to be in the low forties. Brian walked into the room and saw Walt taking pictures of the room, he was currently by the window, photographing the floor. He looked up as Brian entered the room and motioned for him to shut the door and come over to the window. Brian did so with barely a glance at the body swaying gently from a rope tossed over one of the high beams in Teddy's room.

“Walt.”

“Brian.”

“What have you found?”

“Water. Outside, looks like tracks. Someone left via the window, made their way along an icy snow covered rooftop and to the ground and away, at least if those are indeed tracks, its more ice than snow out there now, so it is hard to tell. My gut says I am right, so I am photographing everything right now. You might want to check around the house if they fell the poor bastard could be lying outside in the cold right now.”

Brian didn't move.

“Yeah, I didn't send an officer to check either, maybe the two of us could go after we wrap up here. Want the rest of it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay look at the noose. See how high up it is? And it is tied off on his bed, right?”

Brian looked at Teddy's body, noted that it was hung up with his toes about two feet off of the top of the bed. He looked around a bit and said, “What did he stand on to get his head through the noose?”

“And they say detective's aren't smart! That is it exactly. There were no chairs on the bed or on the floor where they could have been kicked over. Check with the butler, see if he saw anything Teddy might have stood on to get his head in the noose, I don't see anything in the room he could have used. Anything else?”

Getting closer and examining the body Brian spoke again, “Blood on one arm, looks like he shot up before this happened. He's, I think he has a bruise on his face, it is hard to tell, but yeah it looks like he took a blow to the side of his face sometime since six o'clock when I last saw him. Nails appear clean, no scuffs on his knuckles, so there was probably not a struggle or not much of one.” Looking around again Brian shook his head, “And where is the needle? If I were going to hang myself I doubt I would put my syringe away.” Pulling on some cotton gloves Brian searched through Brian's headboard, then checked the bathroom, the trash cans in both rooms and carefully under the pillows, in the blankets and between the mattresses on the bed.

“No needles at all. Quit the quandary here Walt. I know I have done a very good search, we'll do that later and probably come up with his stash somewhere clever, but why conceal it all again if you are going to kill yourself. I take it there was no note either?”

“Nope, nothing.”, Walt replied.

“Damn. They always leave something, the guilt ridden ones almost always explain why. I don't think he killed himself. Not even to cover for someone else. I think someone else was here and did this. I think I can find them too.”

“Who?”

“I don't know who exactly, I have some good follow up leads, a name of Teddy's friend, the name of the club where he actually was on New Year's eve and some suspicions. You want to go for a walk around the house now?”

Walt nodded. He slung his camera around his neck by a cord, pulled out an automatic handgun, checked its working condition and followed Brian out of the bedroom, out of the house and into the night. Once outside they both went towards the car Walt had driven, Walt popped the trunk and pulled out a couple of pairs of high powered flashlights, handing one to Brian he flicked the other one on, the effect was impressive. Together they circled the house, until they arrived at the where Walt estimated the person would have climbed down off the roof.

There was nothing near the wall, flashing the light out further in slow arcs he eventually stopped the beam on some disturbed snow about fifteen feet from the base of the wall. Both men pulled out there guns and slowly eased towards the mussed up snow. When they arrived Walt looked around carefully and holstered his gun. Brian did not. Walt took up his camera and took pictures of the two foot prints in the snow, as if someone had jumped off the roof and landed here. Looking back at the roof Brian estimated the overhang was twenty feet off of the ground, quite a jump. There was blood in the snow next to the foot prints. Walt gently probed the snow with a knife, the blood was frozen in a teardrop shape.

“How much you want to bet this is Teddy's blood?”

“I would lose, we know its Teddy's, just like we know that what did this was not human anymore. This was a zombie, a super by the look of it.”

“I think so too, don't rule out a human quite yet, but a super would have been able to lift Teddy into the noose. And a couple other things about this make sense if we had a super running around too.”

“The blood in the alley.”, said Brian, still looking round with his flashlight.

“Yeah, one that had just fed on Teddy. Why though?”

“Drugs. The super supplies them with drugs it could easily get by crossing the lines into any heavy concentration of zombies, he loots the drugs, comes back, pays off his...his hosts and takes blood in payment, he eats it. Why attack the girls then?”, asked Brian.

“You are the detective, I don't know the answer to that one. Crime of passion?”

“Payment maybe, Teddy wants his ex to pay, asks the zombie to do it for him. That doesn't make any sense from what we know about Teddy. It is not his way of doing things, unless people are lying to me.”

Walt just looked at Brian incredulously, “Brian you're a cop, of course people are lying to you!”

“Well, yes, but who? And why?”

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