“He won’t come at me directly,” I said, rising from my seat. “He’s going to go after everyone I care about.” My gaze shot to Grant.
“Gigi is being covered.”
“Lucy, I assigned a tail to Carl until we could get here to tell you, but I’m afraid his watchers already lost him,” Sloan said.
“He’s a slippery little sucker, but I’m sure you’ve got more important people to protect that are actually paying for your services,” I said.
“I owe you for saving my assistant,” he answered.
There was more in his heated gaze. More he wasn’t telling me. I shoved it away to deal with later. “So, you’re saying Carl is in the wind.”
“You’ve got to keep your emotions in check. That emotional line is a two-way street. You can find him, but he can also find you. I brought more of your calming meds just in case. Both Noah and Carson have some on hand, but we thought maybe you should carry them, too, in the event we aren’t always around,” Grant said, holding up a handful of capped needles containing a serum.
The cabin door opened, and Sam stuck his head out. The sound of multiple computer beeps came from inside. “Uh, guys, we have a problem.”
“Maybe you should take Lucy for a walk, so she doesn’t get worked up,” Grant said to Jack.
Jack rested his hand on my back to lead me down the stairs, and I spun away from his touch and headed inside the house, raising my disapproving brow at Grant as I passed. “What kind of problem?”
Chapter 5
“They’ve already identified two of the victims,” Sam said, returning to his computer. A few taps on the keyboard and he pulled up pictures. “That one is Drake Tines, Carson’s father.”
The other photo left me momentarily speechless. He looked just like the waitress. Were they twins?
Sam pointed to the other picture. “And that one is Cody Anderson, the sheriff’s kid.”
“Did you say sheriff’s kid?”
“Yep.” A few more taps on the keyboard and several reports, pictures, and news articles pulled up. The sheriff was younger and had only been a deputy back when his son went missing, but there was no mistaking the man crying in the picture.
I moistened my lips and stuck my hands into my pockets. This wasn’t going to end well. I could almost see the repercussions playing out in my mind. The fact that it was Carson’s dad, and Carson’s ex-girlfriend’s brother, meant there was already one connection I could see. If I could see it, that meant others could too. The Tines boys would top the suspect list.
“Noah’s trying to pull rank to get the case, even though it’s not technically FBI jurisdiction. We don’t know if the killer crossed state lines with any of the other victims.”
I could see it might be hard to walk in waving your crazy flag and telling them that we’ll take it over without showing them why we might be able to catch the killer when they couldn’t. All I needed was a dead body and a wing and a prayer that I could connect to the emotional entanglement. “They aren’t going to let us just walk in.”
“Carson is one of ours. He’ll pull whatever strings he needs to see that he’s running point. Noah is resourceful. I can promise you that.
If Carson committed the crime, I wouldn’t throw them under the bus. Noah and the others would have to beat the truth out of me.
My gaze scanned the articles and pictures. “Did Carson or his brothers go to school with that kid?”
A few keystrokes later and I had my answer. All three of them were attending the high school when the Anderson boy went missing.
I glanced at Grant and Sloan. “Am I officially free? All the I’s dotted and T’s crossed?”
“The signatures haven’t even had time to dry. But yes, you’re free.”
I nodded toward Noah. “And Agent Boy over there knows?”
Sloan’s eyes sparkled. “I took the liberty of informing him. I can’t say he’s happy about it. He’s not ready to give up his band of misfits.”
“Give up? I just assume they’d just put me on the payroll.”
Sloan grinned and met my gaze. “He can’t afford to match what I’m going to offer you when this case is over.”
“Yummy.” I winked and tossed my phone to Sam on the way to the door.
“Where you going?” he asked.
“To warn the Tines brothers that this is their only chance to disappear if any of them are responsible.”
Sam’s mouth parted, and I chuckled as I jogged out the door, not even closing it behind me.
En route to Carson’s home, I slowed. I was free. No one would be telling me what time to go to sleep, what food to eat, or medicine to take. I was really free. My heart raced with excitement seconds before it shuddered. Free. What did I have left? If I were to finish my medical degree, if the patients ever found out I’d been in a psych ward they might have a problem with me operating on them. Was my home still intact? What was waiting for me on the outside? I had money to do and become anything I wanted or to buy anything I needed thanks to my trust fund, but that wasn’t the point. I’d be forever more known as the girl who admitted to committing a crime.
I stepped through the trees to find Carson sitting on his porch swing.
“Did you forget something?” he asked as I approached and sat down on the swing.
“No, but you may have.”
His brows dipped, and with his toe, he pushed the swing sending it into motion, the way I would soon be doing with my life. “Two of the bodies have been identified. One was your dad, and the other was the sheriff’s kid. I’m sorry about your loss.” I glanced in Carson’s direction.
“Don’t be. Both of them were assholes.”
I was afraid he was going to say that. “If you or your brothers had anything to do with this, I suggest you guys take off.”
“You’d give us a head start?”
I patted his leg. “I’d do more than that. I’d be your alibi if I knew I had to cover for you.”
“No one would believe a psych patient.”
“That’s ex-psych patient to you. Seems Carl woke up and cleared my name and all of the evidence against him has disappeared. I’m off the hook, unlike you.”
“Does that mean he’s free to come after you and your family again?” Carson asked before clenching his jaw.
“You don’t need to worry about me or my family. It’s yours we need to focus on.”
Carson shook his head and crossed his arms over his body. “I didn’t kill my dad or Cody Anderson, but if my brothers did, I won’t let them go down for it.”
“I’m with you riding or walking, Irish.”
His eye twitched. “Why would you help me?”
“Because you were the only one willing to give me a weapon to defend myself on our last case. You had my back, I have yours. If there’s anything you need to tell me about these deaths, I suggest you tell me now before they put me on the case with this emotional tsunami.”
He took a moment, as if thinking about his response. His boots clicked on the wooden porch each time he rocked the swing. I knew the brothers were still in the house. Some of the floors were creaking.
“I don’t know how my father died, and I sure didn’t have anything to do with Anderson’s death, although you are going to have your hands full of suspects. There weren’t many in town that didn’t want to see him dead. He had a lot more enemies than he did friends.”
“Good to know.”
“Noah probably won’t want me on this case. Not since it’s so personal.”
“So, you want to tell me what you know?”
“You should probably review the case with fresh eyes.” He glanced down to look at me. “This town is full of conspiracies. Everyone has their own version of what happened to Anderson and my father. Figuring out which opinions are true is going to be the test.”
“Well, since we know one of the bodies is your father, I’d like to go with you when you make the identification. I want you present when I touch him so I can see w
hat happened.”
“The coroner has already made the call. Let me grab my brothers, and we’ll go.”
Carson left me sitting on the swing. He was similar to me in the way he cared about his family. He’d go to bat for them and probably do time if it turned out one of them was actually responsible. I wish he’d taken me up on my offer to give them a head start. Whoever this killer was, this wasn’t going to end well, especially not when I had five bodies to work through. Any one of them could have seen the killer’s face. Tying them together probably wouldn’t take much.
By the time the brothers stepped onto the porch, a car had pulled into the drive. Noah and Grant stepped out. Noah raised his brow, and Grant smiled.
“Well, this just got awkward,” I said beneath my breath.
Chapter 6
“Lucy, I know you’re technically free, but we’d appreciate your help in getting this sorted out,” Noah said.
I planted my hands on my hips and grinned like the cat that ate the canary. “Sure, I’ll stay, only because you asked so nicely.”
I didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“Good. Now I won’t have to arrest you for obstruction of justice, an offense you committed by forewarning Carson and his brothers that if they’d killed, they should flee.”
My gaze shot to Grant. “You’re a tattletale.”
“Yeah, because he wouldn’t have figured that one out. Lucy, you're predictable. When you care about somebody, you’re willing to break the rules.”
“Be glad I do, or Gigi wouldn’t be here.”
Grant held up his hands. “I never said it was a bad thing. But now that you’re free, you need to be a bit more careful of what you say that could get you in trouble.”
Careful of what I say. That was a joke. I hadn’t even done that before I got locked up. I jogged down the steps toward Noah’s SUV. “Let’s get this party started. Who knows, this might be our last play date.”
I liked working with these guys. They accepted me for who I was, loose screws and all. The fact that I didn’t have to work with them was enticing like chocolate cake might be to a dieter. Would I not heed the call if they came asking again? The fact that I had a choice confused me.
Noah slid into the SUV, and I got into the passenger seat. Grant climbed in the back. Carson and his brothers took the other vehicle and followed us.
“I’m not worried about you not working with us, Lucy,” Noah said.
“And why is that?”
“Because of your blatant disregard for authority. Soon enough you’ll be in the same predicament or even worse. And you’re going to need one of us to bail you out.”
I swallowed around the denial bubbling to spring free from my lips. Keeping my emotions in check might be harder than I thought. The last thing I needed was Carl figuring out where I was and turning the cards around on me. I was a sitting duck, much like he had been.
“There you go assuming again.” My gaze lolled toward Noah, and I grinned. “They have to catch me first, and with all of my nice new little skills I learned while being locked up, you can bet that I won’t be walking in their door and dropping to my knees again.”
“We should have brought Sam with us,” Grant said from the back.
“You know using the nerdy teen to play on my emotions isn’t cool, Grant.”
“He had to stay behind. I’ve got him working backgrounds on everybody. He’s already hacked into the Sheriff’s Department,” Noah said.
“Where’s Sloan?” I asked. I’d expected him to be here. Or maybe I’d hoped that he’d be here to give me a little insight into his offer. Not that I thought I could work for the man. I had a problem with authority figures, and I’d never be able to take an order from him without questioning his motives. Being a pain in the rear was programmed into my DNA.
“When we left, he was on the phone calling into his office and making arrangements for a few more rooms in town,” Grant said.
“Arrangements? Why do we need more rooms? Is there somebody else coming?” I asked.
“Our team doesn’t have anybody else coming,” Grant said with a smile. “But Sloan thinks that you might need protection in the event Carl follows your emotions.”
My mouth parted. I turned in my seat to stare daggers at Grant. “Tell me you’re joking?”
Grant grinned as if enjoying this conversation way too much. “Lucy, we all know you like to get emotionally invested. Carl will use that and find you, but we’ll be waiting for him.”
“You’re using me as bait…again.” Smart. Not that I’d admit it. Although did I really want any witnesses if he did show up? Killing him for good would land me in prison. That lake was looking more and more convenient. Would the police drag it more than once looking for fresh kills?
I turned back in my seat to stare out the window at the passing houses as we headed toward the center of town. Sloan thought I needed protection, which was kind of comical. What I needed was a weapon. “So, what’s the law about exonerated criminals carrying weapons?”
Noah glanced in my direction and raised his brow. “Maybe you should carry a pen in your pocket.”
The first time Noah showed up at the psych ward to recruit me, he had a pen in his pocket and a gun in his ankle holster. I made it a point to tell him that I’d go for the pen and jab it into his artery should I decide to make a break for it. Although being forced to use a pen on Carl would put me up close and personal, it would still do the trick.
I opened the glove box and started to root around. It was empty other than the registration.
We pulled up to the Sheriff’s Department. Three patrol cars were in the parking lot. The medical examiner’s van was backed up against the side of the building. The last time I had been in front of a police station, I’d turned myself in. Everything about this town was smaller than the town I grew up in, including the police station.
I glanced over my shoulder as we all headed toward the front door. Neighbors were out in their yards across the street talking in groups. One pointed in our direction. Once they found out what I could do, I’d probably be the talk of the town for years to come. It didn’t seem like much of anything else interesting happened in this place.
Carson stepped up beside me and matched my strides. “So, are you going to touch him?”
“That’s the plan. This is your last chance to tell me what I might see.”
“How in the hell would I know?”
His brother Bishop stepped up on the other side of me as Carson hurried to walk with the others inside. “So, what is it exactly that you do?”
“You’re about to get a firsthand peek,” I said as I stepped into the Sheriff’s Department building.
Within minutes we were greeted by the Sherriff and he led our group through the Lake Raymont Sherriff’s Department. The sheriff glanced over his shoulder at me and met my gaze, almost as if he was trying to figure out how I fit into this picture.
The last time I’d been in a place like this, the handcuff’s cold metal had bitten into my wrists. They’d left me for over an hour in an interrogation room between trying to figure out what the hell was going on and IDing the unconscious man I’d left in the middle of the lobby.
A woman wearing a police uniform stared at us as she slid a filing cabinet closed. Two more officers stood by the water cooler and spoke in hushed tones while turning down their squawking radios.
The sheriff turned down a hallway. “Anything you need at all, you just ask. You have the full support of my department backing you.”
We stopped outside the medical examiner’s door. Peeking through the glass, I could see five bodies laid out on slabs and covered with sheets.
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. I’d never done five at one time. One was draining on me when I grabbed hold of a killer’s rage. My heart rate would be five times worse than normal, and because of the anger that I’d display afterward as a side effect, they might just need to knock me out.
I met
Grant’s gaze. “Did you bring my shot?”
Grant pulled a case out of his pocket and unzipped it, showing me that he had three syringes ready to go. “We all have your back, Lucy. Should you find your emotions going off the rails, any one of us can bring you back down.”
“Does Carson have one?”
Carson glanced at the syringe and shook his head. “No, lass.”
Well, now that wasn’t going to work. I took one of the syringes from the case and handed it to him and another to Noah. I wasn’t going in here with only one savior should something go wrong. I was going in with three.
I tilted my head from side to side, easing the tension in my shoulders. “Let’s get this party started.” The Sheriff gave me a disgruntled look, and I shrugged. “Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you can have all the fun chasing the bad guys.” I shoved through the morgue’s doors, not waiting on the others.
I stopped at the first body on a metal slab. Judging by the size, it was a man. Everyone in the room was quiet except for the medical examiner.
He approached the table and grabbed the hem of the sheet. He met Carson’s gaze. “This is just a formality,” The medical examiner met the Tines brothers’ gazes. “I know it’s your daddy, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
The medical examiner pulled back the sheet, revealing Drake Tines’ swollen face. The lake water had saturated the tissues in his body, but I was surprised that the fish hadn’t used his as food.
“For Drake Tines to have been missing for so long, his body is well preserved,” I said.
“Most of the bodies are the exact same way. We believe it has to do with the fact that all of the bodies were up like mummies in some type of tarp material,” the coroner said.
“That should make identifying all five people easier,” Carson said as he nodded toward his father on the slab.
“You would think so, but it’s still hard on the families seeing them like this. It’s an image they won’t ever be able to forget.” The corner gestured at the other slabs across the room.
“How about we start with one body at a time.” I glanced at Noah. “If you don’t mind, I’d like only members from the team and Carson’s family to be in here when I’m working.”
Killing Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 2) Page 3
