Deserted

by E. H. Reinhard

  “Probably,” I said.

  Karen clicked her truck into reverse and pulled from the lot. “Let’s keep the stop quick. You should be at home, resting.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  I walked through the main serial-crimes unit and toward our office at the back. A number of agents stopped me as I passed through to ask how I was doing. I glanced at my watch. Karen was waiting in the parking lot, which meant I should probably keep the visit brief.

  I twisted the doorknob and entered our office. Lewis and Marcus sat with their backs to me in the tech office. I continued past, looking toward Ball’s office, which had the lights on and blinds open. Ball was sitting at his desk. His head snapped up as soon as he caught a glimpse of me, and he waved me over.

  I walked to Ball’s office and stood in the open doorway.

  Ball leaned back in his chair and ran his hand through his gray couple-inch-long hair. “I’d ask why I’m looking at you right now, seeing as how you’re on leave, but what’s the point?”

  “I just wanted to stop in. Make sure everyone knows I’m not dead.”

  “We’re aware. Remember we were at your house two days ago? Now go home,” Ball said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s a field trip from a local elementary school coming through soon, and I don’t need you scaring the children.”

  I chuckled.

  Ball stood from his desk and walked over. He stood two feet from me, staring at my face and craning his neck for a good view. “I think you looked better with the bandages.”

  “Good one,” I said.

  Ball returned to his desk and took his seat. He pointed at me and wiggled his finger around in the air. “It’s actually not too bad—the cuts. I thought, when they took those wraps off, your face would look like a quilt underneath. The way the team described it, the Levy woman sliced you up pretty good.”

  I nodded. “She did her damnedest. But the local doc said that the surgeon in Texas did a good job. Might still have to address the ear a bit, though.” I reached up and touched the divot in the edge of my left ear.

  “Hearing fine?” Ball asked.

  “Zero damage in that respect,” I said.

  “Good. Did they give you a time frame for return?” Ball asked.

  “I have a follow-up appointment scheduled next week, but the doc said I should be fine for field work within a couple weeks. I’ll be pushing for two. I’ll ask him when I go in next week if I can get back on desk duty right away. At least that way, I can get back in the office and into a normal routine.”

  “We don’t have anything pressing at the moment, so just take your time and get healed up. We’re going to probably have to run you through the concussion protocol before they’ll let you back, either way. Them’s the rules.”

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that.” I pulled my head back from Ball’s doorway and looked over toward the team members’ desks. I could see Scott’s desk, minus Scott, and a portion of my empty desk. Bill and Beth’s desks weren’t visible from my position. “Everyone here? I’d like to get filled in on a couple things from the investigation.”

  “What, you haven’t clicked on a television or read a paper?”

  “I have, but I’d probably like to know the actual details as opposed to the media’s cherry-picked bullet points.”

  “Beth is back there,” Ball said. “Bill and Scott went out this morning to go and visit Roman Levy at Huntsville Prison. The phone records from the Levy house showed regular calls. The prison recordings of the phone calls don’t incriminate him in knowing what exactly was going on with the rest of the Levy family, but it’s hard to imagine that he’s unaware.”

  “You guys didn’t really give me much while you were over at the house. Do we actually know what the hell was going on with the Levy family? Why the girls were picking up people, transporting them in the truck? What the endgame was?”

  Ball shook his head. “There’s nothing to suggest any kind of endgame other than what you guys arrived to. From what forensics said, the people in the truck were found dead on the property. The girls basically took them there to kill them.”

  “All the other bodies on scene?”

  “They were local. Some reported missing and some not. The earliest report of a missing person that was found dead on the property was, hell, I don’t know, two weeks old or something like that. We had another that was around the same time. Meaning it wasn’t the twins that picked these local people up.”

  “One of the other Levys,” I said.

  “Had to be. And the cages found in the shed were more than likely where these local people were being held.”

  “So, drive across country abducting and killing people on the way. Then, show up to a family home out in the middle of nowhere, where there are more people who have been abducted by other members of your crazy-ass family, and just have a regular murder spree.”

  Ball held up his palms. “That’s pretty close to what it looks like, unfortunately.”

  “What’s going on out at the Levy house now? I caught something in the paper about skeletal remains and excavations.”

  “Yup.” Ball tapped his fingers on the surface of his desk. “An agent found some bones in the desert around the property yesterday morning—human and been out there a while. They started doing some ground-penetrating radar passes and found a bunch of”—Ball made air quotes with his fingers—“anomalies. Forensics dug up the first of quite a few and found three complete skeletons. There were chop marks and other telltale signs of homicide on the bones. One of the skulls had a hole through the side. The whole place is going to end up getting dug up.”

  I let out a long breath. “So the story continues.”

  “That it does. I’d imagine that whatever is found will probably wrap quite a few local cold cases.”

  I bobbed my head in confirmation but said nothing.

  “Okay, I need to get back to this here.” Ball pointed at his computer monitor. “Go talk to Beth or whatever you have to do and take your ass home.”

  “Got it. Give me a call and let me know whatever new information comes in on the investigation. If I can’t work, at least I can stay informed.”

  “Will do.”

  I left his office and walked around the corner and almost square into Beth, who was approaching.

  “I thought I heard your voice over there,” she said. “Hey, no bandages!”

  “The bandages came off, and the stitches came out right before I came here,” I said.

  Beth put her hand on my chin and turned my head so she could get a look at my face. “Does it hurt?”

  “Nah, not really at the mom—”

  “Cause it’s killing me.” Beth smiled widely.

  “Everyone is a comedian today,” I said.

  “Sorry. I had to use that one. No, really though, it doesn’t look too bad, considering what it looked like when it happened.” Beth weaved her head left and right, staring at the scars. “Are they going to try to do something more with your ear?”

  “The doctor said that it was an option. I could probably live with it without caring all that much, maybe a different hairstyle or something to cover it a bit. I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll be talking with the doctor again as soon as Karen gets sick of looking at it. Which probably won’t be very long.”

  “What did the doctor say about these?” Beth touched her own face, referencing the scars on mine.

  I gave her the quick gist of the prognosis.

  “When do you come back?” she asked.

  “I’ll know more next week. Probably won’t be back to full duty for a couple weeks, though.”

  “Are you just going to sit at home?”

  “That’s the plan,” I said. “I’ll probably finish getting things organized around the house and try to take it easy. Karen has off the rest of the week. I guess my old partner Kane and Callie are going to come up with their little one for the weekend. You can shoot over if you don’t
have anything going on.”

  Beth rocked her head back and forth. “Yeah, I could probably swing that.”

  “We’ll all be there.”

  “Sure. I’ll give you a call later in the week. Tell Karen I said hey.”

  “Yup,” I said. “I should probably get a move on. Karen is out in the parking lot, waiting for me.” I glanced over at my desk to see a couple of colored cards and some kind of small cactus. “What’s all this?” I walked toward my desk.

  Beth followed. “Get-well cards. The cactus is from me. I thought it was fitting. I was actually going to drop the stuff off out at your house.”

  I picked up the small potted cactus and turned it in my hand. A small sticky note stuck to the side said Hurry Back, Partner.

  “Appreciate the thoughts.” I recalled the other agents who wouldn’t be making it back to work. “Cut up or not, I got luckier than some.”

  Beth nodded but didn’t speak.

  I scooped the cards from the desk with my left hand—the cactus in my right. “Give me a ring if you’re going to head over this weekend.”

  “Sure.” Beth headed back for her desk.

  On my way out of our division, I gave Ball a wave as I passed his office and said a few quick words to Marcus and Lewis, who were dressed identically. I found Karen in the parking lot where I’d left her, tapping away at the screen of her phone. I held the cards in my teeth and pulled open the passenger door of the truck. I leaned in and set the cactus on the floor before pulling myself up inside the cab. I closed the door and pulled the seatbelt over my shoulder. Karen set her phone in one of the truck’s cup holders and stared at me.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  She continued to look at the side of my head before squinting a bit. “We should talk to Dr. Norman and see what he thinks he can do with your ear.”

  The End

  Thank you!

  Thanks for reading Deserted, Book 6 in The Agent Hank Rawlings Series of FBI Thrillers. I hope you enjoyed it!

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  Do you know Lieutenant Kane?

  The Lieutenant Kane series follows a Tampa homicide lieutenant on and off duty over the better part of a year—though I think if most people who worked law enforcement in reality had a year like his, they would be turning in their resignations. Through the story arc of the six-book series, you see Lieutenant Kane go toe-to-toe with some of the most twisted, homicidal, and downright ruthless adversaries imaginable—all while doing his best to juggle his often turbulent personal life.

  Malevolent, the first book in the series, has been downloaded and enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide. See where it all starts today. The six books in the series (listed in order) are Malevolent, Requite, Determinant, Perilous, Progeny, and Denouement. I hope you enjoy them all!

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