Family Ties Mystery Series Box Set

by James Kipling

  Seconds turned to minutes as Kelly turned her head to look at her sister. Her vision slowly recovered as the air returned to her lungs. Each painful gasp brought a cough, and with it, blood. Ignoring the knife still twisted in her belly, she heaved herself over and crawled to Morgan. The carpet became a sticky bog of congealing blood as she reached her sister, and Kelly saw he’d slit her sister’s throat so violently that he’d nearly decapitated her. But the worst part was her lifeless eyes frozen wide open and staring in accusatory silence. If you’d come home just a few minutes sooner, they seemed to say, I might still be alive.

  Voices began to filter through the haze that threatened to overtake her. “Help is coming, hang on!” they urged, but she couldn’t tell if they were right beside her or a million miles away. In the distance she could hear sirens, but for now all that mattered was her sister. “Morgan, please don’t leave me,” she croaked hoarsely. “I need you.” Her body felt paralyzed and her lungs struggled to take in air. She reached out to grasp her sister’s hand weakly in her own, and as she heard footsteps rush into the apartment she felt everything begin to fall away.

  Strong hands grasped her and turned her over, and through her fog she heard an EMT call out that she was still alive. “Morgan,” she gasped weakly. “My sister, save my sister.”

  She couldn’t accept the truth, that Morgan was beyond saving, and even as she was loaded onto the stretcher and rushed to the hospital she wondered if any of it had been real.

  Chapter 1

  Hazel sat on the couch between her two brothers, who bickered over what to watch as if she wasn’t even there. The sight made her laugh. Despite being grown men they still acted like puffed-up little boys whenever they were around each other. Percy tried to snatch the remote from Jacob, who kept dangling it just out of his reach and taunting him. At last Percy had had enough. He jumped up and tackled Jacob, dragging him off the couch and onto the floor. In response, Jacob tried to kick his brother, but missed and hit the coffee table instead, knocking Hazel’s popcorn off in the process.

  Suddenly their mother appeared beside them, arms crossed over her chest and a warning glare in her eye. As if by magic, the fighting ceased. Percy grabbed the remote and stuck out his tongue. Jacob rolled his eye in response. “Whatever dude,” he shrugged as he began picking up the spilled popcorn.

  “You always win because you’re the baby of the family, but not this time!” Percy gloated.

  “Um no, I always win because I’m so awesome.”

  “Is that what you tell yourself? I think the only reason that gorgeous Lisa agreed to marry you was because she felt sorry for you,” Percy teased.

  Jacob punched him in the gut and Percy laughed. Hazel got up from the couch and got away from them. She knew that they were going to insult one another until they could fight again. Boys, she thought. It was difficult being the only daughter, but it had its perks.

  Walking into the kitchen, she saw her mother washing dishes. She had a dishrag over her shoulder and her auburn hair was tied back in a bun. Hazel knew her mother disapproved of the career paths her children took. All of them had gone into law enforcement, becoming the third generation of cops in the family. She had been nineteen when he was shot dead in the streets, but his murder only reinforced her desire. Her mother had nearly fallen apart after it happened, but her Dad’s partner had been a close friend and helped her mother get through it. No one was surprised when two years later they married. Hazel knew her mother had good reason to fear for their safety, but it was important to be out there stopping crazy people. The only downside was that there were so many.

  Hazel lifted herself onto the countertop and watched her mother, who always got lost in her own little world when she cleaned. Looking around the kitchen, she noticed it was gorgeous – magazine cover quality. For their anniversary last year, her stepfather decided to remodel the kitchen. He’d pretended to have forgotten the important event, and Hazel had conspired by getting her mother out of the house for the day, encouraging her to wallow in her misery while her stepfather cracked the whip over the remodeling crew.

  When they returned late that evening, her mother had nearly fainted. The broken-down brown cabinets had been replaced by gorgeous new cherry wood cabinets, and the battered linoleum countertops had given way to customized light granite and backsplashes. The old 1940s appliances were gone. Now everything was brand new, gleaming stainless steel and top-of-the-line brands to boot. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as they watched her mother gasp and giggle and cry over her beautiful new kitchen.

  At last her mother came out of her thoughts and noticed Hazel sitting quietly on the countertop. “Need any help, Mom?” she asked.

  “No dear, I think I am about done. I just want everything to be perfect when Lisa is here for Thanksgiving dinner next week.”

  “You know she already loves this family.”

  “Yes, she loves the immediate family, but your grandparents are going to be here as well.”

  “I know, but it will be fine. They aren’t that bad.”

  Her mother rolled her eyes and chuckled. Hazel nodded in agreement. Her stepfather’s parents were different. They were friendly, but how they acted was annoying. She wasn’t sure how to describe it, but there was definitely a lot of stress added to her mother whenever they visited.

  “Anyway, I’m trying to forget they’ll be here. So how have you been?”

  Shrugging, Hazel was not sure how to respond to that. She was fine, but she knew what her mother meant. She wanted to know if anyone had spiked her interest, but that had been a no. She didn’t want to be with anyone at all. “I’ve been good,” she said at long last. Her mother gave her a look but she didn’t continue down that line of questioning.

  “How has work been?”

  There was never a right answer for this question. Work was work. She caught killers and sent them to jail for as long as she could. Her mother was silent as she waited for the answer. Anything negative would drive her mother to get her to stop being a cop and go do something else, anything else.

  “Work is fine. I’m just frustrated that we haven’t caught the Slitter. It seems that every time we get close to something it falls through.”

  Her mother shook her head. “You know this job is too dangerous for you, Hazel. You are very intelligent and could do something else. You should take a profession where you don’t get shot at.”

  “You know I like my job, Mom. I send bastards away and I make the streets safer. That is what the future generation needs, a safer environment.”

  “Hazel,” her mother said disapprovingly as she began drying and putting away the dishes. “There will always be danger in the streets. Men like – well, the one you’re chasing now. They don’t just disappear. And these monsters are getting better at killing, too. I mean obviously this man who is killing these women is smart. He doesn’t leave behind any evidence and knows when they’re alone. He intends to be doing this for a long time.”

  Privately Hazel agreed. Her mother was no slouch and knew what her kids and husband were up against. Hazel had learned a lot about people and how they behaved from her volunteer work at various battered women’s shelters, but nothing she’d learned seemed to help with this particular case. It had been open for fourteen months and still there were no leads. Every day they held their breath, hoping another body wouldn’t turn up, hoping perhaps their killer had been arrested on something unrelated, or even better, had been hit by a bus. A few months would go by and they’d start to relax, only to have another body appear. Like all the others, it was always in the supposed safety of their own home.

  For the most part the media had remained in the dark. Normally they were masters of manipulating rookies into giving them the dirt, but for once they’d been unable to uncover the gory details. They’d christened him “the Slitter”, but beyond that they had little to titillate their readers with. Hazel was grateful for that. If her mother had known just how
depraved he was, Hazel suspected she might lock them all in their rooms until someone else caught the guy.

  “Sweetheart,” her mother said slowly, “you know no matter what you do, there will always be bad people and people getting killed. You’re only twenty-five and you have nothing else in your life but case files and stress. You know I’ve said the same thing to your brothers, but you kids are too damn stubborn like your stepfather. And I worry about you the most. I’ve read that women who have a bad sex life tend to do things dangerous just for a rush.”

  “MOM!” Hazel protested, blushing. “Geez, I didn’t become a cop because I don’t have a boyfriend!”

  “I’m just saying that maybe if you got involved with someone you would be happier.”

  “You should be badgering Jacob about this, not me. He’s engaged, go nag him for grandchildren.”

  “See?” her mother said sharply, throwing her dishrag in the sink. “You automatically put the attention on someone else. I want you to have kids too. You aren’t really a woman until you carry a child.”

  “Well some days I wish I was a man so I wouldn’t have you shoving maternity down my throat,” Hazel snapped as she jumped down from the counter. She was angry – not at her mother, at herself. The thought of settling down and having children was scary to her. Getting shot at is one thing ... changing diapers was another, and she wanted no part of it. If things had been different five years ago, then everything right now would be different. Hazel could feel her anger and knew she had to do something to calm down.

  Then her phone rang. It was her stepfather’s number and she wondered what was going on. “Hey Dad,” she said.

  “Hazel, we just found another body.”

  Her anger immediately evaporated and she closed her eyes. Her stepfather was Chief of Police and often called her on work-related issues, but this was one call she’d hoped she’d never get again. No matter how many murder cases she worked on, she could never come to grips with the idea that so many people could kill without even flinching. Sure, she’d killed a time or two, but it had always been in the line of duty, a life-or-death situation. She couldn’t fathom killing for sport, or for pleasure.

  He quickly relayed the details and hung up. She could feel her mother’s sharp eyes on her as she feigned composure, grabbing an apple and shoving her cell phone into her pocket as if there wasn’t a fresh murder case waiting for her. Her false nonchalance didn’t fool her mother. “What happened?” she asked in a low voice.

  “They just found another body.” Hazel didn’t need to turn around to know her mother’s face had gone ashen. “I gotta go.”

  She left the kitchen before her mother could start up again about her dangerous job. In the living room she found her brothers still squabbling and antagonizing each other. The sight made her heart ache, because the room was one short. Nate, the brother she was closest to, wasn’t there. He’d been doing some undercover work for a while and hadn’t been around in a long time. Seeing Percy and Jacob only reminded her just how much she missed him. For the millionth time she wondered where he was and how he was doing, and hoped he was OK.

  “Hey,” Jacob said as he took a break from antagonizing Percy. “Where are you off to?”

  He was the oldest of the four siblings and had the most experience in homicide. It made Hazel wonder how she’d ended up with The Slitter case instead of Jacob. “Another woman was murdered,” she said as she walked to the mud room. Grabbing her shoes, she slipped them on when Jacob appeared.

  “Would you like for me to tag along? I could give you my input.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind. Plus you could use a hand.”

  She looked down to the floor and nodded slightly. She’d lost her partner three months earlier to a car accident. He’d been a great guy and everyone missed him dearly. Every month she would stop by to see how his family was getting along.

  Together they walked outside. Their neighborhood was full of kids and it looked like every last one of them was outside running and playing, oblivious to the latest murder The Slitter had left behind. One of the parents waved for Hazel and her brother to come over for dinner but they had to decline. “Some other time,” Hazel promised. She loved her neighborhood. It had been a great place to grow up in, and she’d even met her best friend there. Mom did good in picking this place, she mused as they got into the car.

  As she started up her car, Jacob grabbed the file she kept under her seat and began skimming through it. He already knew everything there was to know about the case, but it was his nature to constantly refresh his memory and look for details he might have missed earlier. Hazel turned on the heater and rubbed her hands together toward the chill off of them. There wasn’t snow yet, but Hazel thought she could smell it in the air.

  When they pulled out to the main road, Jacob spoke. “I have to wonder if these murders are the only thing this guy has done. Just look at how he tortures them. I can’t help but think he had some practice before he got to this point.”

  “Well, none of our possible suspects have any sort of criminal history, and there’s nothing that connects any of the women to each other either. If there are other cases he’s responsible for, we sure haven’t found anything to tie them to him.”

  He pursed his lips together as he began to think. “Lisa said that the torture on all of them would take hours to do.”

  “Easily. His ritual demands adequate time. Even before he gets down to business, he has dinner with his victim. Same thing every time: chicken with a side salad and asparagus.”

  “And never any sign of forced entry.”

  “Nope. The only answer is that each victim knows the perp, because there is no possible way to get in without setting off the home alarms.”

  He nodded. “Could work for the company,” he said.

  “First thing we thought too, but nope. Each one had a different system so that theory went out the window.”

  Jacob furrowed his brows and stared out the window at the passing scenery. Lost in their own thoughts, they finished the rest of the drive in silence. Hazel was amazed at how few people were out on the road. Normally it would have taken her forty minutes to make the drive. Tonight she was there in just over ten minutes.

  They arrived on the scene to find several squad cars already there, and a slew of reporters jostling for a better view of the crime scene. They made their way into the building, flashing their badges to be allowed through. Hazel could see their stepfather talking to a balding man just ahead. She recognized the shiny scalp as FBI agent Walter Brooks, an arrogant man who made no effort to conceal his disdain for anyone who didn’t outrank him. He seemed to have a special sneer reserved just for LEOs,* 1which did nothing to endear him to her department.

  “What’s going on?” she asked her stepfather, but Brooks broke in before he could respond.

  “We are here to help you with this case,” Brooks snapped. “Four bodies and you guys haven’t turned up so much as an eyelash. Clearly you need assistance.”

  “Assistance?” she snorted sarcastically. “Is that what you call this? Homicide is doing everything with what we have. I’d like to see you do better, Brooks.”

  They glared at each other, and Hazel was dismayed to see her stepfather take a step back, clearly distancing himself from their confrontation. “We have every right to be here,” Brooks informed her haughtily. “Besides, your stepfather is the one who invited us to come and help out. At least he knows when to put aside his pride and ask for help when he’s out of his league.”

  Hazel shot her stepfather a harsh look, but he refused to meet her eyes. “This isn’t right,” she growled, unable to hide her anger at having a Fed move in on what she viewed as her territory. “We can handle this on our own just fine.”

  “Calm down,” Jacob whispered in her ear, causing her to jump. She’d forgotten all about him coming along. “You can’t win this fight.”

  �
�Listen to him,” Brooks urged with a smile. “You can’t win this fight, but don’t worry. We want this son of a bitch off the streets as much as you do.”

  Rolling her eyes, she shoved him aside and stalked into the apartment. She could hear Jacob apologizing for her and it made her fists clench. She would never apologize for speaking her mind, and she definitely didn’t want others apologizing for her. Taking out rubber gloves, she slipped them on and headed for the body.

  Dr. Lisa Kendrick had been one of the first on the scene and was already crouched over the victim’s body. While on the job she kept her long, glossy black hair tied back in a neat ponytail and wore glasses, but it did little to hide her exotic beauty. Just knowing

  *Law Enforcement Officers.

  she would be working a crime scene could cause half the department to show up. Hazel could easily see why her brother fell for her. Lisa was beautiful and brilliant, and had a lovely personality to complete the package. Looking up, she spotted Hazel and waved her over.

  “Just like the others,” she said. "Mouth stuffed full of fabric, then duct-taped shut so no one could hear their screams.”

  “No, this one is different,” Hazel observed with interest. “She’s not posed like the others. Why is that?”

  “Because,” a familiar voice said from behind her. “Her sister walked in on him and broke up the party. Looks like they fought pretty hard. Neighbors said they saw a man run out of the apartment bleeding badly from the shoulder. EMTs found the sister gutted on the floor, holding the victim’s hand and barely alive. They’ll call when she is out of surgery. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and she saw his face.”

  Hazel took a deep breath and turned to face the man she hadn’t seen in over five years. Time hadn’t changed him. He was still the same with those piercing amber-colored eyes and sandy brown hair. In that moment, she wished she’d never gotten out of bed that morning. “Why are you here?” she asked. She’d heard that Owen was working with the FBI, but hadn’t known he was a field agent.