Nursery Rhyme Murders Collection_3-4-2017

by McCray, Carolyn

  “It’s him, Joshua. He’s Humpty.”

  “No, you just want him to be.”

  She glared at him. “Of course I do. We’ve got a guy in there who practically screams ‘reasonable doubt’. If it’s not him, the prosecuting attorney’s going to be screwed.”

  “That’s their problem. We can’t worry about that. We just follow the evidence.”

  “Which is exactly what we’re doing.” She looked at him and shook her head. “And you blew any chance we had of getting a confession.”

  Joshua stared back at her. “Are you shitting me? If he was Humpty, there was no way we were going to get a confession, period.”

  They had drifted from the interrogation room over toward the main area that they had set up for a workspace. Had and Reggie had come out of the observation room and were doing what they could to pretend like they weren’t there.

  Like Reggie could ever manage to do that.

  “I don’t know what you were doing in there, but I was going for a confession,” Agent Cooper said, continuing the argument.

  “Only because you’re inexperienced and naïve. This is the reason why you could never work this case without me.” From Coop’s sudden stillness, Joshua could see that he’d taken it too far, but he couldn’t stop himself. “If you were alone on a case like this, you would be eaten alive.”

  “And yet,” she replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “I wasn’t the one that sent four officers up to their deaths.”

  Joshua felt all of the blood rush from his face. She was right. There was no denying the reality of what Agent Cooper had presented. That was something she did so well. Correct data with no apologies.

  Turning on his heel, Joshua scooped up Bella walked away from Coop, away from Had and Reggie, away from the team and the investigation. All of it. In a matter of seconds it had gone from being an argument to being a millstone hung around his neck while he was treading water in the middle of an ocean.

  And this was going to drown him.

  Right as he was walking out the door, he heard Had call out to him, “Joshua, hold on a sec.”

  But there was no way that was happening. Joshua was heading straight to his hotel room. That was the only choice that didn’t make him want to punch someone in the face right now.

  Once he was in his room? Well, it was a new day there at the hotel, which meant that housekeeping had been through. Which meant there would be a fresh stock of mini bottles of alcohol waiting for him.

  If there was ever a time he needed a drink…

  As he walked, the faces of the four cops flashed through his mind’s eye, their expressions somehow much kinder and more benevolent than they had been in real life. To be honest, Joshua had found them all to be small-city pricks with power complexes. To a man.

  And yet…

  It was all on Joshua. He had been the one to realize the link between the gaze of the corpse and a possible message above. It had been he that had pointed the cops in that direction. He who had gone off after a puppy at the very moment the bomb erupted in volcanic fury.

  He scratched Bella’s chin absently as the thoughts rushed through his mind in rapid succession. She thrust out a wet tongue that caught him on his cheek and for a brief moment made him smile.

  A very, very brief moment.

  These black thoughts swirled around him in a dark cloud of rebuttal until, seemingly out of nowhere, the door to Joshua’s room materialized in front of him. He pulled out his key card and swiped it through the reader with shaking hands. The light turned green—a first for Joshua, who had never managed to get in to his room without swiping the damn thing at least four times.

  He pushed past the door, deposited the dog on the floor, and went right to the mini fridge. The bottles stared back at him, a row of beautiful, glistening jewels that were waiting for him to press the sweet nectar out of their glassy, hard facets.

  His entire body was trembling, and his knees felt loose and watery as he moved back and forth between the fridge and the sink, stacking all of the bottles on the counter. He stopped counting at eight.

  With hands that refused to grip with a solid purchase, Joshua opened up every one of the tiny containers in front of him, emptying the contents into the bucket that was supposed to be used for ice. He did so with no regard to what he was mixing together. The labels were all blurred, his vision crossed and dim, as if he were moments from passing out. Whatever this concoction was, it would not taste good.

  But that was the last thing on Joshua’s mind. There was a gaping hole in his stomach that was growing too big for his body to contain. It was an abyss that could only be filled with the fiery burn of the alcohol as it ran down his throat into the pit.

  That glow would save him. It would fill him. He wouldn’t have to drown in his own emptiness.

  The liquid sloshed in the bucket as Joshua held it up to his mouth with hands that could not follow his brain’s most basic commands for steady movement. The fumes from the mixture invaded his nostrils, causing the tender flesh inside his nasal passages to wrinkle back as if it could escape the punishment about to be administered.

  Tilting the container back, Joshua felt a tugging at his ankle. Bella had dragged her leash over and was now biting at his pant leg, her tail wagging with a ferocity that only the young and exuberant could muster.

  He shook his leg, dislodging the enthusiastic puppy, who then proceeded to prance in front of him, barking and wagging her tail. She wanted to play.

  “Stop it, Bella,” he snapped at her. What had gotten into her? There was nowhere for him to go to get away from the stupid dog. She was between his feet, in front of them, behind them, seemingly all at once. He moved to put the bucket down on the sink so he could move her… maybe stuff her in the bathroom for a moment… when somehow she was entwined in his legs.

  Joshua felt Bella’s soft body give against his foot as he kicked his leg out to try to catch his balance. She yelped once, a pitiful cry, as she was propelled against the corner of the king bed in the middle of the room. Her form went still as it slumped to the ground.

  Thrusting the bucket down on the counter of the sink, Joshua barely noticed as it tipped over and the amber fluid within began sloshing down the drain. Instead, his focus was on the tiny body crumpled up in a heap at the foot of the bed.

  As he got closer, he could see that her ribs were rising and falling with her breath. She wasn’t dead. And when he crouched down next to her, she stirred, looked up at him and licked his nose, making him sneeze.

  He scooped her up, her wiggling making it clear that there was no permanent damage. Bella was as happy as ever, the incident apparently forgotten as far as she was concerned. Her whimper, which before had dug into Joshua’s soul like an awl through tough leather, now caused warmth to filter down into the dark recesses of his heart.

  Moving over to the bed, Joshua cradled the puppy in his arms, surprised to find that tears were streaming down his cheeks. The idea that he had almost killed or even just hurt this little one was more than he could bear.

  His arms shook, whether from the onset of alcohol withdrawals or a residual effect from the scare he had just suffered, Joshua neither knew nor cared. What he did know was that everything was okay.

  The drink that was so necessary only moments ago was now intoxicating whatever denizens of the sewer system that might be circling the drains down below. And yet, with Bella snuggled up against his chest, radiating the kind of heat that only tiny puppies could, all was well with the world.

  Bella was safe and sound. And so, miraculously, was Joshua.

  * * *

  Sariah knew that she had messed up. No matter the provocation, speaking to Joshua in that way about the cops that had died in Cedar Rapids had not been okay. Not in the slightest.

  The problem was, she now had no idea what to do about it.

  Joshua had stalked off, probably to go back to his hotel room and down whatever his minibar might contain. She couldn’t really blame him. Aft
er the day they’d had, Sariah wanted a drink herself. Too bad she was wearing the ankle bracelet. That may not have been one of her best ideas, looking at it in retrospect.

  The hotel wasn’t far. Just on the other side of the freeway. The night air, still summery, but much cooler than the day had been, smelled of burnt rocks, gasoline and grass. It was a smell that felt like travel during summer break. Back before everything had gone bad. There were moments when it felt like she understood Joshua perfectly.

  As Sariah stretched her arms, doing what she could to convince herself that chasing down the former agent was a good idea, a voice came from behind her. At the same moment, a hand settled on her shoulder.

  “You okay?” It was Reggie.

  Turning on her heel, Sariah spun to face the part-time cop. Her face burned for some unknown reason. “Yeah.” She stopped, then reconsidered her answer. “Well, actually, no.”

  “Good.”

  Sariah did a double take. “What did you say?”

  “Sorry.” Reggie grimaced. “I seem to do that with you a lot, don’t I? I meant that… well, that it’s good that you’re worried about him.”

  “Oh, right.”

  The young cop started to speak, then seemed to think better of it, then finally asked, “Are you two…?”

  It took Sariah a bit to figure out what Reggie was talking about. When the meaning of the partial question dawned on her, she almost laughed.

  “Us? No. Hell, no.”

  “Good.” Reggie gave her another half-smile and disappeared into the night. Now what was that supposed to mean?

  Shaking off the encounter, Sariah made the trek back to the hotel. There was some residual heat that remained in her face, whether from her argument with Joshua, the encounter with Reggie, or her fear about what she would find at the hotel, she couldn’t say for sure.

  When she found herself outside Joshua’s hotel room, she sat staring at the bland, eggshell colored surface for a long while. There was a part of her that had no desire to know what was happening in there. If she didn’t find out, she could pretend. Pretend that it had just been a typical argument between two colleagues, and that she didn’t have anything to feel guilty about.

  But Sariah was never one for hiding from hard truths. They weren’t going to go away just because she decided to bury her head in the sand.

  She knocked, but there was no answer. Fantastic. This was looking to be just about as bad as she’d feared. Pulling out the key card, she swiped it through the reader and eased the door open, hoping that she wouldn’t catch Joshua coming out of the shower or something.

  She needn’t have worried. There, resting on the counter of the sink, were twelve tiny bottles of alcohol. It appeared to be the entire stock from the minibar. Moving farther into the room, Sariah could see that Joshua was passed out on the bed, with Bella resting in the crook of his arms.

  Twelve drinks. That was a lot, even for Joshua. Concerned, she took a closer look at the sleeping form and waited until she could see that he was still breathing.

  So, at least he wasn’t dead. And a night of binge drinking was probably not the worst thing that could have happened after a day like today.

  She stopped herself. Who was she kidding? That was binge drinking for a normal human being. For Joshua, it probably didn’t even crack the top one-hundred for moments of drunken excess. It wasn’t her fault. He had been like this when she found him. Worse.

  So why was it that her stomach twisted with guilt as she let herself out?

  * * *

  The ping of an alert on his laptop distracted Had from his morning toilet. Luckily, he’d just finished shaving, and he was debating the whole shower situation. He’d heard that showering too often could rob you of your body’s natural oils and masculine scent. Who knew when he might need a little extra magnetism boost from his own pheromones?

  All thoughts of a shower were thrust from his mind, however, when he saw what the alert meant. He’d set his program to activate when certain search parameters changed, or when new information popped up that was relevant to their case.

  And sure enough, it had worked. Back farther to the west, out in Tucson this time, someone had been kidnapped. And it just happened to be within ten miles of their prime suspects trucking route.

  This was big news, and it needed to get to Agent Cooper right away. He threw on some clothes, once more regretting the demise of his shrink-to-fit jeans, and ran out the door. As he hurried down the hall, he almost ran straight into Joshua’s back. The former agent was apparently headed down to breakfast as well. With Bella in tow, her service dog vest on proud display. Had thought it suited her.

  “Sorry about running into you.”

  “No problem,” Joshua answered. Had almost stopped dead in his tracks. Were his ears functioning correctly? It sounded an awful lot like Joshua being okay with an accidental jostling. Had shook his head. Must have been his imagination.

  “Hey, that vest looks awesome on Bella. Where’d you get it?”

  “Amazon. Came in this morning,” the former agent replied.

  “Gotta love them. You headed down to breakfast?”

  “Yeah.”

  Another first for Joshua, at least as far as Had could remember. Not that Joshua never ate breakfast. He just didn’t do it all that willingly. And since Coop was nowhere in sight, Had figured it must be of Joshua’s own volition.

  Good for him. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, after all. He clapped his hand on Joshua’s back, realizing belatedly that it might not have been the best idea. When there was no immediate response from the former agent, Had continued.

  “I’ve got something. I’ll wait until we’re all together to tell you, though.”

  “Whatever.” Now that was more like Joshua. Had let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

  When they got down to the dining area, Coop looked up from her English muffin and jam. She nodded to Had, and then her eyes moved to Joshua and seemed to leap out of her face. Choking on her food, she waved at them to sit down.

  “Joshua. I didn’t… I mean, I… How are you?”

  The former agent pulled Bella up into his arms and shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”

  “Well, you… Ah…” Agent Cooper visibly pulled herself together and started again. “I wanted to apologize for—”

  “Don’t.” Joshua held up a hand. “It was all true, and I needed to hear it.”

  “But I—”

  “I mean it, Coop. It’s important for me to remember that my actions have consequences, even when I can’t see what they are.” He raised an eyebrow. “I can’t promise that my behavior’s going to change all that much, but I’ll at least try to be aware of what I’m doing.”

  Something that Agent Cooper was eating didn’t seem to be going down well. She seemed to be trying to swallow, then finally held up a glass of orange juice and took a deep gulp.

  “Okay. Fine. But that explosion wasn’t your fault.”

  “I know. There are some things that we just can’t control.” He sat down at the table and rubbed his hands together. “So, let’s order, Had. I’m starving.”

  He lifted a hand, getting the attention of one of the servers who was finishing up with another table. As the woman moved over to their table, Had could see that Coop was staring at Joshua, her gaze focused. Had couldn’t say for sure, but the expression on her face seemed to be one of disbelief or shock.

  “What can I get for you two good-lookin’ men?” the server asked. She glanced down at Bella, noticing the vest. “Wow. That pup of yours seems awful young for a service dog.”

  “Long story,” Joshua mumbled, grinning up at her. She was an older woman in her late 50s, smacking gum as she held a pen over a pad of paper, ready to take their order. Had thought she looked and acted perfect. She was the epitome of a greasy spoon diner waitress.

  “Well, we don’t have much on the menu for canines, but I can get something for you two, at least,” she
said, smiling back at Joshua. She seemed fairly taken with the scruffy former agent.

  “I’ll have the chicken-fried steak and eggs, eggs over-easy, with an order of hash browns, toast and pancakes on the side. Oh, and some coffee, black, and a carafe of orange juice.”

  This time Had was right there with Coop. They both swiveled their heads and goggled at Joshua. Getting him to order even just the cup of black coffee was usually like pulling teeth. What was going on here?

  Then Had realized that the server was looking at him, waiting to take his order. He’d been just staring at Joshua, gobsmacked at the idea that Joshua was going to eat. And not just a namby-pamby little quiche or something. He was eating. A lot.

  Had cleared his throat and ordered something. What it was he couldn’t have said. But the server had nodded without any commentary, so it must have been something fairly normal. He hoped he hadn’t ended up ordering menudo or something crazy like that. Not that this was the kind of place that served menudo.

  “You said you had something you wanted to share with us, Had?” Joshua mentioned. He was filling up a bowl on the table with some water and putting it down next to Bella. His words seemed to trigger something in Coop, as her eyes seemed to refocus and she shook her head.

  “I’ve got something, too.”

  “Go ahead, Coop,” Had told her, waving at her to speak.

  “Well, I just got word from the BAU that another body part was found. It falls on the route, nothing out of the ordinary as far as the site goes… it had been there for a long time judging by the level of decomp. But there was one thing that was different.”

  “No message this time?” Joshua asked. Agent Cooper winced, probably from the reminder of what had occurred yesterday.

  “No, but the body part was one of the arms that was still missing from our body,” she said, taking another sip of her orange juice. “That only leaves its opposite now. But here’s the thing. There were ligature marks on the wrist. Pre mortem.”

  Joshua sat back and rubbed his hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “So he’s been keeping the victims tied up before he kills them. That’s new.”