The Queen of Hearts (Mountain Springs Mysteries, #1)

by J. E. Mann

  You’re laughing at me aren’t you? Remembering how it felt when you sliced my hand. You sick little…

  Breathe. Just breathe.

  Anger was not going to solve this. When you let your emotions out of the closet, they crowd the room and you can’t see clearly anymore. It wasn’t personal; they would have sliced anyone who tried to stop them.

  This brought up an interesting fact. I looked at the wall again.

  “Why didn’t you kill me?” I said.

  I was pinned, helpless. Maybe I could have fought for a while, but eventually I would tire. And they could have placed that knife against my throat and drug it across from ear to ear. I would have bleed out in under a minute.

  I wasn’t a cheater, did that save me? Maybe, but this killer didn’t know me as far as I knew. Or did he? Knew that I played fair, didn’t need a little impromptu surgery. Unless it was someone I knew for a long time before, I didn’t think it was my fine upstanding qualities when it came to relationships that saved my life.

  I walked over to the window. Something was tapping me on the back, when you can’t remember the name of a song that comes on the radio you’ve heard a hundred times. Of course you know the name, just not at that moment. I was close to something but what?

  My right hand drifted into my pocket and began playing with my box of cigarettes. I could really use one right now, but Rach would throw a fit. My one time lighting up was just that, a one time thing. Isn’t it strange how our behavior is affected by what we think another person…

  Boom. That thing I’d been searching for popped right into my brain.

  “I was innocent,” I said aloud, “but that’s not what saved my life. If you waited around to kill me, you might’ve gotten caught.”

  Serial killers always wanted to be caught. They can’t stand that they are doing all of this important work and no one knows why. They want their moment in the spotlight, to answer questions, to be studied and finally in their life to be listened to. Except, when if they got caught it would damage somebody they cared about.

  Who do you care about? Who would be devastated if you got caught?

  The husband or wife? I didn’t think so. If cheating is what got a person killed, then the killer was probably not enjoying a very happy home life. Maybe they took care of the family member? If they went to jail, who would look after them?

  This idea was close, but it still felt wrong. If the killer was someone’s caretaker, how would they go about committing and then covering up their crimes. No, we were looking for someone who needed to kill, but didn’t want the family dragged into it.

  I shook my head. Serial killer with a conscience. Wonder if Rach knew of any like that? From behind me, I heard the door open. Looks like my boss at finally decided to show up.

  “Rach, I got this idea. What if we’re looking…”

  I turned around as I spoke. But when I saw what was in the doorway, I stop speaking.

  It wasn’t Rach.

  RACHEL

  Exhausted, I lifted the phone to my ear and waited patiently for Karen to answer. She must have been expecting something because she answered after the first ring.

  "Hello?"

  "Hi Karen," I hesitated a moment unsure of how to start the conversation about James, about the case, about anything, "I'm returning your call." She laughed on the other side and I realized what I sounded like, a beaten dog.

  "Well, it's about time you got back with me. James told me what happened and I saw what happened to Jake's face." My head sunk a little in to my waiting palm, I had really embarrassed myself these past few days. For a moment I was glad that I hadn't updated my mother on this new relationship. I'm sure she would have been beside herself with my behavior and it seems like everyone else was too.

  "About that...” I trailed off, “Jake had what was coming to him." I didn't want to explain myself any further. "Oh he did? Why's that?" Great, now Karen was interrogating me. I forgot she could be nosey at times. "He made me interrogate my own boyfriend Karen! How could I not be mad at him for James being thrown in jail?" Suddenly I was beside myself going full steam ahead in to a rant of frustration. "Alright, alright, I see your point... just... calm down," Karen attempted to downplay my outburst and failed in my opinion.

  "While we're on the topic, why did we need to speak?" My temper had exposed my extremely short fuse and I felt it was the right time for Karen to get to the point so we could move on. We weren't the same giggly girls from just a few months ago. "That... yes, I wanted to ask why you thought James was the murderer you’re looking for?" The information wasn't any of her business just like it wasn't any of the public's business who we interrogated but Karen was after all, the one that had set us up together. She deserved some type of answer.

  "He fit the profile Karen, his connections matched with our suspects, he had access to the restaurant, he was even feuding with his family," I was running out of breath trying to explain the myriad of reasons why he looked, smelled, and sounded like our killer, "...he fit everything Karen. I didn't want to put him in the situation but Jake made me." A still silence sat between us and I quietly beat myself up for doubting James. Karen had me so flustered admitting to her what had happened that I thought I might cry.

  Finally I broke the silence and hoped Karen would understand. "When you introduced me to James I was a little skeptical. I didn't think it would go anywhere and Jake saw James arrive at my house that first night. Jake...," I didn't want to tell her the rest but what the hell, I was this far, "he wanted me to get closer to James to get information. I was stupid enough to do it, but then..." I ran my hand over my face trying to dodge the bullet but Karen picked it up.

  "But you ended up falling for him." I nodded to myself in the comfort of my own home, away from anyone else that could judge me.

  "If I would have known Rachel, I would have never set you up with him. This whole thing must be hell for you! To think... I could have set my friend up with a killer." I smirked at her thought process. Things would have been much better if she decided that sooner, in the middle of an active investigation with a rogue killer, that her friend didn't need a relationship, the nerve of some people. At least I wasn't as angry anymore. Finally someone was coming around to my side of things.

  "James did call me," I felt myself slipping back in to the old gossipy self I had been when I first met James but realized this was more serious, "he sounded like he had been drinking last night but he wanted to know if we were still together."

  Karen sounded like she had choked on something on her side of the phone, "He did? What did you say?" Reluctantly I told Karen what had happened during the phone call. "I just don't know Karen. I didn't think he would ever speak to me again after Ben locked him up for not answering the questions. I was sure we were over...I guess I never gave it a thought that there would be anything past this."

  "Maybe you should give this relationship a rest before giving him your answer?" Karen tried, she really did, but we were way too far down the rabbit hole for her to suggest anything logical at this point. "Thanks Karen but I can't divert everything now, we've come too far."

  "What if he does end up being the killer, or what if he's involved somehow? I can't let you get any further with things until the dust has settled a bit." Admittedly, the wheels were turning faster for her now. I was starting to believe she was just concerned for her friend but it would have been nice if a scare didn't have to happen for her to think ahead. From everything I had seen today, I was sure James wasn't our killer and I couldn't let Karen's fear become my own.

  "He can't be Karen. I have too many reasons now to believe he's not." She scoffed on the other end at being shot down. "Ok smarty pants; just be careful with the next step of this investigation. The sooner it's over the sooner we can get back to dating and life, and just being normal again?"

  "Sounds good Karen, I'll give you a ring later when I know more. Can you give me a buzz if James calls you again? Last night was... weird." We laughed a d
iscontented laugh for a moment before she agreed and we hung up.

  At least we were still on good terms. She felt bad, and I didn't feel like she had done me wrong by introducing me to James. Things might still be ok. From this point, I made an irrational decision, I had to catch the killer myself if things were finally going to come to a halt.

  My phone began to ring again after I exited my front door. I picked it out of my pocket as fast as I could get to it. Karen must have forgotten something. "Miss me already?" I laughed lightheartedly. "I guess you could say that." I let go of the key that was still hanging in the lock of my door and watched my keychain gently rock back and forth.

  “James?”

  JAKE

  “Hello killer,” I said.

  The visitor started to blush. I observed that it started at the neck and worked its way up until the entire face was beet red. Was that anger or embarrassment? I really didn’t know James Buckstone all that well to make a guess.

  “In case you didn’t hear,” James said, “they let me out.”

  “True, but you still could be it. Maybe you’re not working alone, you had an assistant who tried to kill someone for you.”

  “An assistant who kills?”

  I walked over to the desk and set down. “They’re more common than you think.”

  James looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he looked from left to right, scanning the whole office.

  “Is Rachel here?”

  I spread my arms out in a look around gesture. “Unless she’s disguised as a filing cabinet, no, she’s not. I’m looking for her too if you really want to know.”

  James nodded his head and turned around to the door. He paused, his hand on the handle.

  “Something on your mind James?”

  He didn’t answer. He just stood there with his hand on the handle. Then he turned around and walked over to the chair. He fell into it, like a man who was very tired.

  “Am I wasting my time here Jake?”

  “I don’t know. You have somewhere else you need to be?”

  He leaned forward. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. With Rachel, am I my wasting my time? Is there any chance?”

  I pointed the way he had come in. “I don’t know if you read the sign, we find stolen things, not stolen hearts. Of course that isn’t really true in this case at least.”

  James sat back. As he did I detected a very faint odor. Had the friendly neighborhood therapist been drinking?

  “Why does everything have to be a joke with you?” He asked.

  “Because I find it funny. You are very uptight today, how bad is the hangover?”

  His eyes widened momentarily.

  “How did you…”

  I waved my hand. “I’m not Sherlock Holmes if that’s what you’re thinking. I smelled it on you. And since you’re not acting drunk, I assume it’s because you drank last night.”

  James wiped his forehead. I was pretty proud of my little deduction. I’m sure Rach would have been impressed too.

  “Not too bad,” he said, “I think I called her last night.”

  I clicked my tongue. “Drunk dialed the girl who put you in jail. Not a good look James, not a good look.”

  “I should be angry at her. But I’m not. The hell does that say about me?”

  “If you were angry at her, I call you a complete moron. You have nobody to blame but yourself James. You could’ve just told her where you were during the third murder. By the way where were you? I’ve been dying to know.”

  James scratched the back of his neck. He wasn’t nervous but he sure as hell wasn’t calm either.

  “I didn’t tell her and the threat of being arrested was being hung over me. Why would I tell you?”

  I smiled. “Because everyone knows, you can tell the devil anything.”

  He thought it over. After a few minutes, the what-the-hell section of his brain took over.

  “I was looking at engagement rings.”

  I stared at him. To his credit he didn’t break my stare. He went to jail rather than tell Rach he was looking at engagement rings. Man of principle. A stupid man of principle, but there he was. I exhaled loudly.

  “Boy, did you fall hard.”

  “I wasn’t buying anything. I was just looking.”

  “James, that might be true if you were a twelve-year-old girl. Girls look at wedding rings. Men look to buy one.”

  He put his hands on his face. “I was just seeing if there were any that she would like. I didn’t have a place or time mapped out. I just didn’t want to tell her because I was afraid she would think I was obsessed.”

  “So instead, you made her think you were murderer. I’m sure it made sense at the time.”

  He dropped his hands. That last remark hadn’t made him angry or embarrassed. He looked instead like the loneliest guy on the planet.

  “It’s all okay James, really it is. If you hadn’t been locked up, Rach wouldn’t have been drinking at that bar, I wouldn’t have had to go pick her up, and we would’ve missed saving someone’s life.” I held up my right hand. “And I wouldn’t have gotten my little beauty mark here.”

  James stared at my hand. “What did that?”

  I shrugged “Knife or an X-Acto knife. The real problem is if it gets infected. Just one more thing to add to my list of what I’m going to do that son-of-a-bitch when I catch him.”

  “I thought it was the police’s job to catch criminals?”

  I smiled, “And a great job they do too.”

  James looked behind me. “What is all that?”

  I swiveled and looked at our board. “This is the whole case. We have motives, time of death, and a lovely little picture studio. The victims aren’t up there, never know who might drop in, but all of our suspects are. Your picture was up there until recently.” I turned back to him. “Don’t worry, we used a nice shot from a…”

  I stopped. James was staring at one of the pictures. I don’t even think he was listening to me. He stood and walked closer to the board.

  “Who is that?” he asked.

  I pointed at one of the pictures. “That’s…

  “No, the other one.” He tapped the picture he was looking at. “I’ve seen this person before.”

  I looked at the picture. My heart started to pick up. Why the hell would James know that person?

  “Where?”

  “Give me a second.” He thought while my heart began to pick up speed. I wanted to yell, grab James and shake him. Instead, I sat as my heart checked both mirrors and entered the freeway.

  “The restaurant,” he finally said. “Jose.”

  “Jose? That doesn’t look like a Jose.”

  He shook his head. “This person was with Jose. He works at the restaurant.”

  I shifted through the papers until I got to the one that listed all the employee names. I looked up.

  “There’s no Jose listed here.”

  James looked at the paper. “These are regular employees. Jose has a cleaning service. He cleans the restaurant.”

  I slowly stood. “You couldn’t do that during normal business hours.”

  James shook his head. “People eating don’t want to hear vacuum cleaners and smell bleach.”

  “At night, when it’s closed.”

  James nodded. I turned back to the board. “Have to get a key.”

  “Of course.”

  This moment was a very long time coming. As my brain processed it, a whole lot of others things began to make sense. The things that didn’t, Rach would get to fit. I faced James.

  “You got a phone on you?”

  “Of course,” James said.

  “Call your father. Ask him if the list of names of people with keys included Jose. I’ll bet it didn’t. Nobody thinks about the help.”

  I pulled out my own phone and began to punch in Rach’s number. Just before I hit send, I looked and saw James hadn’t moved. He was just looking at his phone.

  ”Some other
problem James?”

  James looked at me. “Jake…my father and I don’t really have the best..”

  I held up a hand. “I understand , believe me I do, but you have to let it go for right now. People are in danger and we have to stop a serial killer. Daddy issues pale in comparison to that.”

  I hit send and waited until Rach answered.

  “James?”

  “No it’s Jake. Listen, I’ve got some info you really need to hear.”

  RACHEL

  If there was one thing I would say is my biggest fault, it would be that sometimes I let my emotions get me into trouble. It was the same when I was a child. When an idea struck me, I had to see it through. Pulling James in for questioning was one of those. I hadn't thought he was the killer, but I had gotten carried away with the idea that he could be and I had to make sure. That mistake had maybe cost me a relationship. Now, with my arms raised in the cold night and looking at the real killer, my previous mistake didn't look so bad. It was a long way from how I had started the day.