by Karen Rose
Mallory had no idea how many people JJ had killed for him. But he’d forgotten all of that at the end, judging by the way the woman had screamed.
And screamed and screamed. Either she’d finally passed out or he’d gotten what he wanted and finished her off, because the screaming had stopped at about three a.m.
It had been a warning. Cross me and this can happen to you too. Hands shaking, Mallory spooned coffee into the filter and started the machine. Could he know what she was planning? How could he know?
Would it stop her if he did?
She hung her head, shoulders bowing as she drew a deep breath. Mallory had been through hell, but the agony that he’d visited on JJ for hours? She wasn’t sure if she could endure that.
She sent a silent prayer upward. Give me courage.
Although prayers hadn’t helped JJ last night. Nor any amount of begging and pleading.
Mallory straightened resolutely and turned to get a coffee cup from the cabinet. And that was when she saw them, lined up by the back door.
Three suitcases. Hard-shell plastic. Black. One large, one small, and one medium. She’d never seen them before, but instinctively she knew what they were. She clenched her teeth, trying to forget the sounds that had followed JJ’s final silence.
An electric saw. High-pitched and whining. She’d tried to tell herself that it wasn’t a saw. That it was a vacuum cleaner or a carpet cleaner or anything but what she’d known it really was.
‘No.’ It was a whimper and it had come from her lips. Because she knew she was looking at what was left of JJ. It was another warning.
Knees wobbling, she staggered to the trash in time to throw up. Cross me and this can happen to you. ‘God. Oh God.’
Clutching the sides of the trashcan, she pushed to her feet and made her way to the sink, where she washed out her mouth and splashed water on her face. It was then that she saw the note, taped to the window overlooking the backyard. Printed on a printer. He rarely wrote notes by hand. Just in case, he’d always say with a laugh that wasn’t funny at all. Evil. It was evil.
And now he wanted Mallory to be evil too. Again. Her hands were shaking so badly that she had to try twice to grab the paper. When she finally did, she put the note on the table and sank into a chair to read it, trying not to look at those suitcases.
Good morning, Mallory! :-) I hope you slept well, my dear. I have an errand for you this morning, so get to it as quickly as possible. Take the three suitcases by the door, put them in the trunk of your car (which has been lined with a plastic tarp, just in case!), and drive them to the parking lot of the motel by the highway. The one with the tacky gorilla on its roof. I’m sure you know the one I mean. Look for a blue Honda Civic and use the key tied to the handle of the smallest suitcase to open its trunk. Transfer the contents of your trunk to the Honda’s trunk, then close it up tight. Leave the key in the Honda’s ignition. Leave all the doors unlocked and the driver’s-side window open. Then return home.
Later, when you go to the grocery store for the cream, also pick up the following items: hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, large Vidalia onions – so that you can make those onion rings you do so well – frozen French fries, ice cream, and all the toppings. You know what to do. Oh, and get a box of microwave popcorn – my guests and I will be watching movies tomorrow.
xoxoxo
Mallory swallowed hard as her eyes fell to the bottom of the page. The printer had reproduced a photograph of a child in black and white, purposely blurred so that no one would recognize the face. No one but the sister who still loved her. Her throat thick, Mallory traced the photo of Macy with a trembling finger. Her baby sister was nine. Old enough soon.
Too soon. And his guests . . . They would be the kids who’d come here last Saturday. He was showing them movies already. He wasn’t supposed to do that for another few weeks. This group was being herded through his grooming program faster than the others had been.
All the others. I can’t let it happen. Not again. But . . .
She slapped her hands to her ears so that she didn’t hear JJ’s screams, but it was no use. They were in her head. Forever. I can’t do it. I can’t. I can’t.
She would die. She would end up like JJ. Boxed in suitcases and left in the sun to rot.
But only if you get caught. So don’t get caught.
Again she read the list of items she was to buy at the grocery store, then stared at the blurry photo and knew that she couldn’t let that group of kids become the next Sunshine Suzies. She knew she had to protect Macy. Even if it meant ending up in a cheap set of hard plastic luggage.
So don’t get caught.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Friday 14 August, 7.05 A.M.
Kate jogged across the field, still wet from the rain they’d had the night before, which, dammit, would have probably washed away a lot of usable evidence. She joined the two men already at the scene, both crouched next to a body slumped against a car, their heads nearly touching. Two cousins, one dark, one bright white. Both starkly handsome.
But all she could think about was the golden man she’d left in her borrowed bed. Decker had roused slightly when her phone had rung, summoning her to the crime scene, but she’d kissed him, covered him up and ordered him back to sleep. That he’d obeyed was a sign of how much he’d exhausted himself the night before.
But boy, was she glad he had. The sight of him at the height of his pleasure would be an image she’d keep forever, even if they never had another stolen interlude. But she sure hoped they did. Just the thought of all that energy – and that beautiful body – made her shiver. And want. God, did she want.
But work came before play, especially since the man who was responsible for this scene had nearly killed Decker and was unlikely to give up. She stopped next to the two men, who were visually examining the body of a Caucasian woman in her early forties. ‘Eileen Wilkins?’ she asked.
Crouching near the body, Deacon looked up with a short nod and a vaguely uncomfortable squint. He wasn’t wearing his shades and the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. Kate crouched so that they were at eye level and caught the quick smile of appreciation.
‘In the flesh,’ Adam Kimble said grimly. He thumbed over his shoulder to the car. ‘And her boy toy Roy.’
‘Ah, shit,’ she muttered. ‘Roy too?’
‘Roy first,’ Deacon said.
Kate rose to look into the car’s open window. The seat was reclined all the way, making the victim appear asleep. He was a giant of a man, broader and more muscular than Decker, even. Had to weigh two-thirty, two-fifty, easily.
Steroids, check, she thought. His face was still caught in a grimace, but his massive shoulders had relaxed. ‘He’s been dead a while.’
‘I figure at least eighteen hours,’ Deacon said. ‘Rigor’s fading. His fingers are still stiff, but the arm and leg muscles are pliant.’
Because the larger muscles stiffened first, then relaxed first after full rigor had been achieved. She dropped back into a crouch to look at Eileen. The woman had a bullet wound to the arm and another in her throat. She was wearing a bulletproof vest and a tactical helmet. ‘She’s still stiff as a board,’ Kate noted.
Adam nodded. ‘So, maybe twelve, fifteen hours?’
Kate did the math. ‘The attempt on Decker’s life was at noon. Roy would have been dead.’
‘So this was what forced Eileen to drug Davenport?’ Deacon asked with a frown.
‘I don’t know.’ Kate worried her lower lip with her teeth. ‘According to the nurse’s assistant I talked to, Eileen really didn’t like Roy any more. I got the impression that getting rid of him would be a blessing, not something she’d risk her career to stop. Which makes me wonder why she’s here at all. If she cared about him, I can see her coming to check on him if she was told he was here. But she didn’
t care about him.’
‘She expected trouble, for sure.’ Deacon pointed at the helmet and vest. ‘But she still came.’
‘Maybe there was something else that she wanted enough to risk her life?’ Kate mused.
‘I doubt we’ll find it, whatever it was,’ Adam said. ‘She was lured here with the promise of it, so I doubt he left it here.’
‘Dammit,’ Kate muttered. ‘I haven’t had enough coffee for this. How did you find the scene?’
‘Roy’s car had a theft recovery system installed,’ Adam said. ‘I put in the request yesterday for Eileen’s car, but didn’t think about Roy’s until I talked to some of his friends at the gym this morning.’
Kate’s brows lifted. ‘What time were you at Roy’s gym this morning?’
‘Five a.m., give or take a few minutes.’
Deacon regarded his cousin with concern. ‘Did you sleep at all?’
‘Yeah,’ Adam said shortly. ‘Stop,’ he added when Deacon looked like he was going to push. ‘I’m not going to implode on you again, okay? I’m dealing.’
Deacon frowned like he wanted to say more, but he nodded anyway. ‘Okay. What did Roy’s buddies tell you?’
‘That this car was his prized possession. And that he was getting plenty of sex on the side. Eileen was his meal ticket only. His buddies were worried about him, that she’d done something to him. The guy at the front desk this morning called the guy on duty last night to see if Roy had shown up, but he hadn’t. Apparently his car was his god and the gym was his church.’
‘That she’d done something to him?’ Kate shook her head. ‘He’s twice her size.’
‘But “he had to sleep sometime” was what his friends said.’ Adam shrugged. ‘And that she was supplying him with opioids.’
‘That’s what she used to drug Decker,’ Kate said. ‘Did you find any in her house?’
‘Oh yeah. Lots of needles, too.’ Adam scowled. ‘In her kid’s room as well. He’d been filching from her stash and from Roy’s. Eileen had a dozen little vials, some nearly full, some with just a few drops.’ He took out his phone and looked through his photos. ‘Here.’ He showed Kate and Deacon the photo of a vial labeled ‘Dilaudid’. ‘I submitted everything to the lab. They’re checking it against what was in Davenport’s IV bag from yesterday. This stuff is powerful. Four times stronger than morphine. Davenport was lucky you got there when you did.’
Kate drew a breath, not wanting to consider the alternative. Shit.
‘He’s okay,’ Deacon said quietly, soothing her as he’d always been able to do. ‘Right?’
Her mouth curved before she could stop it, and Deacon gave her a look of disbelief. ‘You’ve got to be kidding, Kate. Really?’
Adam scoffed. ‘Like you weren’t on Faith like white on rice minutes after meeting her.’
Kate pursed her lips, trying not to smile. ‘Oh my God, Adam. He is actually blushing.’
‘Ah, that’s nothin’,’ Adam said. ‘I got stories that’ll—’
‘Let’s get back to the Eileen and Roy Show, shall we?’ Deacon interrupted, disgruntled.
The three of them sobered. ‘Right,’ Kate said with a nod. ‘So Roy gets here first. Lured by, I assume, this Professor character. Did you see the memo on that? Zimmerman sent it out after we met at the morgue last night.’
Both men nodded. ‘The Professor sold coke to Sidney Siler,’ Deacon said. ‘And steroids to Roy as well, apparently. Finding Sidney’s spy pen was good work, by the way. At least we know why she was killed.’
‘Even if it means that we got nothing of Alice’s to go on now,’ Adam said glumly. ‘I hate it when the bad guys don’t keep written records.’
He sounded so put-upon that Kate nearly smiled. ‘Decker had heard of the Professor,’ she said. ‘Sometimes he dealt directly and sometimes he sold to other dealers, like Alice and her father. Alice and her father didn’t like him because he cut into their profits when he sold direct.’
‘Why would they tolerate that?’ Kimble asked. ‘They killed a lot of people for a lot less.’
‘Decker said it was because the Professor’s product was so good that it was requested by name. If they killed him, they’d lose a valuable supply source. I imagine they also put up with him because they couldn’t find him to kill him,’ she added dryly. ‘On account of the disguise.’
‘Which means he’s going to be harder for us to find,’ Deacon said with a sigh. ‘Especially now that he knows we’re connecting dots.’
‘He goes under from time to time, according to Sidney’s roommate. Months can go by when he doesn’t sell anything.’
‘Which means he either invests his drug money well,’ Adam said, ‘or he has another source of income.’
Kate considered it. ‘Entirely possible. Goes along with our teacher or chemist theory. He had to have crossed paths with McCord at some point, because they partnered up. We need to figure out where.’ She stood up and studied the dead Roy. ‘He’s a huge man.’
‘A gorilla,’ Adam agreed with a grunt as he came to his feet. ‘Must’ve taken an elephant dose to down him.’
‘Exactly what I was thinking.’ Kate unclipped her flashlight. ‘Carrie Washington will be able to confirm it, but I’m thinking he died right here in this seat. I wouldn’t want to drag him here after he was dead.’ Leaning inside the open window, she flashed her light at Roy’s nostrils and saw the reflection off a few crystals that remained on the inside of his nose. ‘He’d snorted something right before he died. Just like Sidney. I wonder if this Professor made him take cyanide or ricin, like Sidney and Alice.’ Or . . . She shone the light on his exposed arms. ‘Oh yeah. There we go.’ She backed out of the window and handed the light to Deacon. ‘Take a look at his arm, right above the bend of his elbow. You see the little prick?’
Deacon gave her a wry glance over his shoulder. ‘I thought I was looking at his arm.’
Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Why did I miss you again?’
Deacon flashed her a grin. ‘Because I’m awesome,’ he said smugly, then handed the light to Adam. ‘And so are you, Kate. He was injected right as he died. The blood is caked around the needle mark.’
Kate smiled at the compliment. She had missed him. ‘Carrie will have to run blood tests, but I’m thinking . . . It could have been his steroids, but why inject him with that? An overdose of steroids wouldn’t be likely to kill him. So he was probably injected with something else. Something stronger. Maybe like Dilaudid – just like they used trying to kill Decker. And we know that Eileen was stealing Dilaudid. What if the Professor knew that too? What if that’s what he used to lure her here?’
‘Vials of the same drug she’d stolen?’ Adam asked. ‘Possible.’
‘The serial numbers would match up with the hospital’s records,’ Kate said, sure of it now. ‘That would be enough to get her to come here – and it would explain why she expected to be shot at.’
Deacon had dropped back into a crouch and was lightly patting the pockets of Eileen’s bulletproof vest. ‘Bingo. There’s vials in this one. Two from the feel of it.’ He peeled the pocket flap back, giving the Velcro a tug.
‘Careful,’ Adam cautioned. ‘Carrie’ll have your head if you disturb the body.’
‘I know, I know,’ Deacon muttered. He slid one of the vials from the pocket with the skill of a professional pickpocket. ‘Yep. Dilaudid. Eileen came to get the vials back, so that she couldn’t be linked to Roy’s death, not so that she could help him. Cold.’
‘Doesn’t sound like there was a great deal of love lost between them.’ Kate picked her way around Roy’s car slowly, so as not to contaminate the scene. ‘So how did this happen? Roy meets the Professor here and buys some coke to snort. How does this Professor guy get the Dilaudid? Did Roy bring it? Did he have any of those vials in his room?’
&nbs
p; Adam shook his head. ‘Just coke and ’roids, but he could have taken them from Eileen. She didn’t have them locked up.’
‘Which is how her son got them,’ Kate said, disgusted. ‘God, it’s not fair that some people get to be parents. So either Roy brought them or the Professor had access to her home and stole them. More likely Roy brought them, since he came here voluntarily by all accounts.’
‘He’s a big guy,’ Adam said doubtfully. ‘He wouldn’t have just agreed to be injected and I don’t see any evidence that he was restrained.’
‘Sidney took a mixture of coke and ket,’ Deacon said. ‘Ket would have immobilized her while the cyanide did its job. Roy snorted something, just like Sidney did. We’ll have Carrie check for coke, ket, any of the big hitters. Hell, I would have immobilized him before touching him at all. Next question, why not cyanide here? Or why not use Dilaudid on Sidney?’
‘We almost missed the cyanide in Sidney,’ Kate said. ‘If we hadn’t had the photo from the jail’s visitors’ file, we wouldn’t have recognized her.’
‘You wouldn’t have,’ Deacon corrected. ‘I would have missed it entirely. I’d already looked at that file before I met you at the morgue and I didn’t recognize Sidney as the woman who’d last visited Alice in jail.’
Kate shrugged away the praise. ‘My point was that we would have missed the cyanide and Carrie might have as well. The red skin side effect was masked by Sidney’s natural skin tone. Maybe he chose the cyanide because we wouldn’t notice. Or because he happened to have some left over after having Alice killed. He didn’t use the Dilaudid on Sidney because she didn’t have track marks. It would have looked fake. He wanted it to look like she’d OD’d on coke.’
‘He knew Eileen and Roy would be found,’ Adam said quietly. ‘Why wouldn’t he try to hide them?’
‘Eileen’s is a punishment killing,’ Kate said. ‘Which means he knew that she’d failed. When did the attack hit the media?’
