Family Ties Mystery Series Box Set

by James Kipling

The only light was coming from the door. He saw his face twisted in a nasty snarl. He grabbed Nate by the shirt. “Where would you tell my sister to go? Our informant said she disappeared. Did you set up a safe place for her?”

  Nate was silent. He didn’t know where she would go, but he’d told her who to trust. Cecily punched him hard in the ribs and Nate groaned as the breath blew out of him. It had been very difficult to breathe lately. They had surely broken a rib or two the last time they worked him over, but he wasn’t about to give in now. He knew he could hang on and count on his family to figure out everything. That was something he could trust.

  “I will kill your entire family,” Cecily screamed.

  Snapping his fingers, someone else entered. “Do you recognize this?” the other man growled, shoving a photograph into his hand.

  Nate knew this picture well – it was back in high school and Hazel had been the one to take it. Nate watched as he flipped it over and saw his sister’s handwriting on the back of it.

  “My guy was in her apartment yesterday,” Cecily said with a sinister smile on his face. “He can get inside any home. I will make sure he kills your sister, slowly and painfully. I will make him record it for you to watch.”

  “Good luck with that. Hazel is smart enough to stay ahead of you.”

  “Keep telling yourself that. We know how to get to her and the rest of your family. We will kill them all.”

  He fell silent once more. There was no point in arguing with them. These threats were very real. He knew that they would hurt is family, but he also knew something about his family that no one else knew – they would defend their own, and they would kill anyone who was a threat.

  §

  Hazel was sitting in her old bedroom. As tired as she was, she still wanted to be out there working on the case, but knew that it was near impossible to do. Her brain felt like it had been fried. Her mother appeared in the doorway.

  “Sweetie, is everything alright?”

  “Of course, Mom. I am just not used to relaxing when I know so much still needs to be done.”

  Her mother sat down next to her and took her hand. “You do know that you need your rest. Even a few hours of sleep is better than none, and if you’d like I can make you my special brew.”

  She loved how nurturing her mother was. She had a remedy for just about everything, even sleep. There was a tea she made from her herbs that made you sleepy. Hazel never knew what was added to it, but it always did the trick.

  “I will take a cup.”

  Her mother squeezed her hand and left for the kitchen. As Hazel looked around her room, she saw one of her favorite things. It was a stuffed animal that Owen won for her a year before they started going out. She remembered Nate ditching them and Hazel had wanted the stuffed giraffe more than anything. He told her he would win it for her, and he did.

  Her mother returned with the warm cup of tea and she sipped it. She bent down to kiss her daughter goodnight and left the room. Despite being an adult, she still enjoyed being treated like a child.

  §

  Frustrated, Owen was sitting in the car with Strider. They were following David Mathis around the city. Hazel had taken an instant dislike to him, and he had to admit he shared her opinion of the man. After digging into his past, they had found he had unexplained holes in his life throughout the years. It was worth investigating, and even Brooks thought it was highly possible David Mathis was dirty.

  They followed him throughout the morning but he did nothing that alerted any suspicion. He seemed to be a normal man. “This is a waste of time,” Strider complained. Strider was new in their group and seven years younger than Owen.

  “We have to do this,” Owen said. “Every lead counts.”

  Strider rolled his eyes while Owen continued to drive. Eventually David Mathis met up with his gorgeous, much younger wife. Owen watched her closely and saw that she was afraid of him. They watched as an argument broke out and when she turned to leave, he grabbed her.

  She had broken free from his grip and went inside slamming the door shut. David attempted to open the door but it was locked. The rage he had was alarming.

  Phase Two of their plan could now be implemented. He called Braggs. Her talent was going to be useful now. Soon they would be finished with the hunt. Hopefully after that, they would have all the information they needed to bring Nate home safely.

  §

  She was engulfed in darkness and unable to move. Her hands were bound and something was taped over her face. She wasn’t able to scream. She tried to free herself but was unable to do so. She looked around the empty room trying to locate something that would help free her. Then a bright light came from above, illuminating the room in which she was captive. Someone was coming towards her with a sinister smile on his face. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to fight him.

  The glint of a blade caught her attention and she heard him speak. “You are filth, and people such as yourself deserve to die.”

  She felt the cold blade touch her fingers. She felt as pressure was applied and a pain came over her. If she could scream, she would have. She felt her fingertips being removed and wanted the pain to stop. She would give anything for it to stop. Warm tears streamed down her face.

  He grabbed something from his pocket, and it was another knife. One side of it was smooth and the other side was jagged. She felt him lean over her and stab her. It went inside her body and soon breathing was no longer an option. She felt like giving in, then he removed the bloody knife from her body. The pain she was in was agonizing. He pressed the bloodied knife to her throat and she looked into his eyes.

  She woke up staring at her mother. A look of concern was written all over her face. Hazel’s hand went to her throat, but there was nothing there. The pain she had was only a dream.

  “What happened?”

  Hazel shook her head. “It was just a bad dream, Mom.”

  “You screamed like you were being murdered. Hazel, what was it about?”

  Should she tell her mother? If she did, her stepfather would be informed. She did not want anyone else knowing about this.

  “Mom, I really don’t want to talk about it.”

  Her mother nodded and began to leave, knowing Hazel needed to be alone. Hazel walked into the hallway and felt as if she was going to be sick. She turned on the sink faucet splashing water on her face. These nightmares had started when she’d gotten this case. She’d never seen anyone mangled like that and it stuck with her.

  She opened the bathroom door to find Lisa standing there waiting for her. “Are you alright?”

  Lisa wasn’t going to dismiss this so easily. “Hazel, I have been working with you for years. What is going on?”

  “Bad dreams,” she said simply.

  Hazel shut her bedroom door and sat on the floor, pressing her knees to her chest. Warm tears streamed down her face. She wanted to be strong, but somehow she wasn’t able to.

  §

  Later the next day, her mother drove her home. She was reluctant to do so, but Hazel had won that argument. The entire car ride was in silence. Instead of just heading back home after dropping Hazel off, her mother walked upstairs with her. As they walked into her apartment, her mother shook her head in disgust.

  “What?” Hazel asked, annoyed.

  “You live in a dump,” her mother said. “You deserve so much better than this.”

  “It works,” she said. “For the price and the location, it’s fine.”

  Her mother walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “This is your version of groceries?”

  “Yeah,” she said slowly. “I’m not home often. This is all I need.”

  Her mother grabbed a jug of milk and turned it to check the expiry date. “This milk expired two weeks ago. And what is this?” she said picking up a brown bag. “Do I even want to know what’s in it?”

  “I don’t remember. But look, I have soup in the cabinet.
”

  Showing her mother her arsenal of soup, her mother’s eyebrows rose. “Hazel, ramen is not soup. It’s flavored noodles.”

  “So? It’s something edible.”

  Her mother rolled her eyes and shook her head. “We are going grocery shopping later.”

  Hazel shook her head. “I don’t need groceries, Mom. This is fine. I can function with this.”

  “Oh, since you put it like that,” she said sarcastically. “You need real groceries and I am going to make sure that you have just that.”

  After a moment of silence, her mother asked, “Now would you mind telling me what is going on?”

  “Mom, I am not able to tell you about it. All you need to know is that everything is going to be okay.”

  She finally nodded and Hazel hugged her. Her mother’s warm embrace always seemed to make everything better. It was her superpower. However, Hazel knew that this conversation was not over.

  “This is all about Nate, isn’t it? What has happened to him? Where is he?”

  Quickly Hazel looked away, but her mother knew. “What has happened to him? Where is he?”

  “Mom, we don’t know what is going on with him. At this time, we do know he is alive and the moment we know more, Dad will be the first to tell you. Until then, we cannot tell you anything.”

  Tears were streaming down her face and Hazel was ready to do the same. But her cell phone rang. The number was blocked. “Hanson,” she answered, going into the living room for privacy.

  “If you want your brother to live, you will turn over all the evidence that he gave you.”

  “Who is this?”

  “You already know who this is. Either you give me the evidence or I upload the file of what we did to your brother and send it to your mother. Do you want that?”

  “I will find you and the moment I do, I will make you die slowly.”

  “Oh come now, I thought cops were supposed to be Officer Friendly?”

  “The moment I find you I will not be a cop.”

  She heard him laugh lightly. “I have special plans for you.”

  The call ended and Hazel threw the phone across the room hitting the wall. She had to go into her office. Her mother walked in looking at her in puzzlement. “It’s nothing, Mom. I just need to go to the station.”

  They drove in silence and before she stepped out of the car, her mother spoke. “You need to promise me that you will be careful.”

  “Mom, that isn’t something I can promise.”

  “You and your brothers are everything to me. You need to promise me!”

  “I promise to be cautious.”

  Her mother bowed her head and nodded. Tears formed in her eyes again as she left. Hazel felt as if everything that had happened was her fault. She let out a sigh and walked up the stairs to the station.

  “Hanson,” she heard Brooks bark out. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Cecily Ciervo just called me with a threat. How the hell does he know we have the USB evidence?”

  Brooks went pale and she waited for his response. He ushered her into the conference room and shut the door behind her. “I didn’t tell anyone other than your stepfather and my team. The only other person outside of that is Losito. He was part of this in the beginning.”

  As Brooks said this, it registered in his head. He was finally at the same conclusion that she was and nodded. “Hanson, you know you can’t do that.”

  He’d read her mind. “Brooks, I don’t give a damn. My brother is being tortured and I am not going to stop to think about certain “procedures” that are in my way.”

  Brooks wouldn’t stop her. She walked out looking for Losito. He was not in his office so she went through his desk. His office was very dark and nearly everything was locked away. Locks weren’t a concern for her. She’d been popping them since she was eight years old.

  He had no photos of anyone. She looked for anything that would lead her to him. Finally she found what she wanted and went on her way out.

  Brooks stood there and nodded to her. “You know what to do.”

  She was no longer a cop. She was a vigilante.

  Chapter 10

  Owen was sitting in the car nearly fifty yards away from where Braggs was. She was wearing a very short dress that exposed most of her ass and her large breasts. David Mathis pulled into the neighborhood driving slowly to where Braggs stood. She began talking to him, crossing one ankle over the other coyly. They knew it was time to move in.

  Quickly Strider pulled David to the ground. David fought back but Strider, being young, was a fighter. No one could beat him, not even Owen. David, face down on the ground, shot Owen a dirty look.

  “This is harassment.”

  “I don’t give a damn what this is. You are going to answer some of my questions right now.”

  Strider handed David over to Owen, who already knew what he was going to do. Throwing him forward, he grabbed his neck and forced his skull into a wall. He was unconscious now. Owen knew when he woke up he would be in a lot of pain. He deserved to be in pain. Men like him were sick and he would be more than happy to end him.

  §

  Sitting outside a small house on the outer part of the city, Hazel saw as Losito walked up and entered. She had her hair tied back and gloves on. She was going to make this as clean as she possibly could. She got out of the car and walked quietly up to the open door. She would have the element of surprise.

  She stood in the foyer hearing him move around in the living room. Taking her gun out, she moved around the corner and saw his look of bewilderment. “What the hell is going on, Hanson?”

  “You sold my brother out. Losito wasn’t always your name, was it? You stole another identity off of one of the kids your hit man killed.”

  He snickered and lit his cigarette. “I won’t deny it. Why are you here alone?”

  “You know the answer.”

  He relaxed. “You don’t have it in you to do anything to me.”

  Aiming her gun, she pulled the trigger and watched as he fell backwards. She shot him in the shoulder and watched as he grabbed at his wound. He had an agonized expression on his face. She stood over him, smiling. “Sure about that?”

  “You crazy bitch!”

  “Tell me where my brother is!”

  “I don’t know!”

  Kneeling over him, she stuck her finger in his wound and dug out the bullet. He attempted not to scream. She slipped the bullet into her pocket. “Who is the person you have been communicating with?”

  “Cecily,” he said. “But I don’t know where he would take your brother.”

  Nodding, she stood up and shot him in the head. This time, the bullet conveniently burrowed itself in the wood floor below him. She grabbed the spent bullet and proceeded to tear through his house, looking for evidence. She took his wallet and found a safe hidden behind a painting.

  How cliché, she thought as she pried it open. She removed all of the contents and walked back outside to her car. After killing a man, she needed to shower.

  On Monday afternoon, Hazel sat outside the office of Dr. Teresa Mathis. She had all the new files with her. She was not sure if these other women had been attached to this office but she knew the answer lay somewhere inside. She entered the office through a glass door and walked to the front desk receptionist. An older woman was sitting there, her glasses too large for her face. She seemed slightly disoriented.

  “Excuse me, is Dr. Mathis in?”

  “Sign in and they’ll call you.”

  Taking out her badge, she slipped it under the glass partition. “Come in through this way,” the woman said, pointing to a side door. The short petite woman got up from her desk and slowly opened the door for her. Walking in, she saw different people bustling throughout. A few were sitting down typing information into the computer.

  “Do you need to ask more questions?” a man with a badge identifying him as ‘Keith’ ask
ed. He was wearing a lab coat and was in a small area behind the main desk.

  “No, Keith. I’m here to talk to Dr. Mathis.”

  “She’s in her office talking to someone. If you could wait a minute, I can go get her for you.”

  “That is fine,” she said, and he disappeared for a moment and returned. Behind him, Dr. Mathis looked exhausted as if she hadn’t slept in days. She motioned her towards her office. When they entered, Dr. Mathis grabbed a beverage from her small fridge in the corner. “What can I help you with?”

  “I need to know if you recognize any of these women,” Hazel said to her, sliding the photographs across her desk.

  Dr. Mathis examined them carefully and nodded her head. “These are all either mine or Dr. Osborne’s patients. He is my partner.”

  “Could you tell me why women would drive this far to come to this office?”

  “This practice is in the top ten of all in the country. We are a family practice and do virtually everything.”

  Hazel nodded and looked around the office. She saw pictures of Morgan and Kelly hanging on the wall. “How is your daughter, Kelly, doing?”

  “Kelly is home now. She’s still very upset with everything and I have no idea how to deal with her. I want to tell her everything will be okay, but I don’t even know if that is the truth.”

  “Does she remember anything else from that night?”

  “She hasn’t said anything about it. I do know she can’t sleep and her appetite is gone. I don’t know what I can do to make her heal.”

  “Just being there for her is all she needs. You will be able to get through this together.” Hazel debated whether to ask more questions but decided against it. “Thank you for your time.”

  As Hazel put the photos back in her folder, Dr. Mathis spoke. “Detective, how are you able to deal with all of this?”

  “I learned how to bury my emotions during an investigation. Once I catch the person responsible, I have satisfaction. It isn’t easy though.”