Broken Mirrors

Chapter 9: Frank Walker

A year had passed, and we hadn't made any headway on the search for Frank Walker. It was now early December 2001.

All his known acquaintances seemed shocked that we would suggest that he was now alive. They all claimed that they had no knowledge of his possible whereabouts. We had hit another dead end. The Salem Strangler was so close, yet so far away.

Ralph Walker had not been able to provide us with any additional information. The Chief had been forced to step down and accept retirement following the media firestorm from the Walker harassment charges. Lloyd had stepped in as the interim Chief, but he and Hanson were, by this point, drawing ever closer to retirement themselves. In the wake of everything that had happened, Parker seemed to grow more serious and colder. He felt responsible for the death of Olivia Greene.

Amber and I were together still, but there had been some growing discord and emotional strain between us. Our fights seemed to last longer and were far more intense. They never turned physical, but the emotional toll that they took was severe on both of us. Our arguments were seemingly over every little thing, but we didn't know anything different. We had been together about two years and this was the longest that either of us had ever been with anybody, we couldn't walk away. We had become psychologically dependent on one another. Our relationship had become toxic but neither of us could leave. I was so consumed by the case and I could feel the strain it was putting between us. I did still feel something for her, but every time I looked at her, I didn't see Amber, I only saw Rachel Walker. The only problem was that she wasn't.

I had become accustomed to my usual routine. It was punch in, punch out, come home, Amber would greet me at the door. She usually had dinner on the table, always tasteless. After a while though I would come home and there was nothing there on the table. Amber even stopped greeting me at the door. I kind of liked the peace.

Crime in Little Falls was very minimal, so we spent the day going over paperwork and exploring old case files of the Salem Strangler. There was no clue as to Frank Walker's whereabouts.

"Do you think Ralph Walker knew about his father?" Parker finally asked me one day.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"There's just something that's been bothering me," he said. "The last time we interviewed him, he asked, 'how could he have done it?'"

Hanson had joined the conversation.

"Probably about faking his death. He was obviously distraught at the suggestion he might still be alive," he said.

"I think he knew something," Parker said.

"You can't be serious," Hanson said. "Haven't you done enough damage to this investigation? The Chief could have lost everything because of you, and now you want to go down this road again? Who are you trying to get canned next?"

"Parker," Lloyd interrupted. "I don't want you anywhere near Ralph Walker. Is that understood? You go down this path and there's no coming back."

"Then so be it," Parker grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Down the path," he said and disappeared into the snowy, December day.

"You going to go after him?" Hanson asked.

"He'll be back," I said and buried my face into the files.

I sat there reading through case files for the next 4 hours before it was finally time to punch out and head home. As I walked home, I thought about how it had been three long years since Rachel Walker's murder. I could still vividly remember staring into her eyes and all the secrets that they held from me. Yet, after all this time, she remained a mystery.