by Rick Murcer
Josh nodded. “I just got off the phone with Manny. They’ve had a couple of issues, but are at the hotel and have a meeting scheduled early tomorrow.”
“What kind of issues?” asked Alex.
“Nothing they can’t handle. Just more shit in the storm.”
Shaking his head slowly, Alex turned back to Josh.
“Manny is as sane as anyone I know, and no one has to tell either of us about that almost-creepy profiler deal that rules his life. But Argyle alive? Really? Do you think—”
Josh waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter what we think, at least right now. We’ve seen Manny make a few swings at the weird and hit most of them. I trust him to get to the bottom of all of this strange shit. And it is way on the wild side. I’m just hoping Argyle wasn’t that good. I like him better dead.”
“You’re probably right. But are you sure?”
Josh hesitated, looked out the window at the city lights, then back to Alex.
“I want to be. Does that count?”
“I hope so.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.” Josh shook his head and, without saying another word, walked out the door.
A minute later, the shift nurse came through the door, stopped, and stared at Alex.
His heartbeat stepped up, and his eyes grew wide “What are you doing here?”
“Whatever I want, Downs. Whatever I want,” she said, rushing the bed.
CHAPTER-29
Sophie burst through the revolving door. Dean smiled. Watching her drop her bag, raise her arms, and tell Manny that she already felt like Vegas was hers, made him laugh out loud. It must have caught Manny’s funny bone as well, because for one of the few times since they’d left Lansing, Manny laughed out loud. A good sign.
His complex friend and resident genius when it came to reading people could take too much upon himself. A trait that haunted most workaholics, no doubt; yet he’d wager a few bucks that none of them had Manny’s heart, which probably amplified his stress level times two.
“Just what part of Vegas is yours?” asked Dean.
“Damn, you’re slow, boy. The colorful lights, the sounds of slots and screaming winners, the vanilla incense smell of this place. Hell, even the sight of working girls just trying to make a buck adds to the whole shebang.”
“What about all those germs? There could millions on the chips, the slot buttons. Hell, never mind the restrooms and bars,” said Dean, that old, uncomfortable feeling returning.
“Are you kidding me?”
Sophie then turned and kissed him full on the lips. Her mouth, like always, was a place somewhere between the third and fourth heaven. He felt warmer.
“How many germs did I just give you swapping spit? I don’t hear you bitching about that, right?” she said, hands on hips.
He grinned. “Okay. Point taken. You’ll just have to keep reminding me.”
“In your dreams. Changing out of that yellow paisley shirt and hat might help.”
“Whatever. Clothes make the man. I’m that man.”
“Whatever.”
She turned toward Manny. “And don’t give me any crap. I know what time it is, and I know when we meet in the morning, and while I do care what you think, you ain’t my mama, cool?”
Manny laughed again. “You seem to know a lot. And you’re right, there are no mamas here. But I need you working on all cylinders. Plus, you need to watch who and what’s going on around you. We have a dead agent and a psycho running to and fro who is looking for us.”
“You’re an amazing buzzkill, Williams. I can take care of myself and Dean too. We’re good to go. Besides, maybe I, we, should be turning this place upside down, you know?”
Dean started to ask why, then realized the goddess he’d fallen head over heels for in San Juan those months ago was right. He didn’t care for the ramifications, like getting little or no sleep and having his head on a swivel, but they just might find something or someone of interest. Then again, something or someone could find them.
“She has a point, boss. I’d be willing to help with this task, as unpleasant as it might be,” he said, tongue firmly in cheek.
Manny’s eyes twinkled despite being obviously tired and melancholy. “You’re such a trooper, Dean.”
Sophie elbowed him. “Unpleasant? I should kick—oh wait. I get it . . . yeah, he’s right, Manny.”
Raising his hands, Manny shrugged. “Okay. Here’s the deal. Let’s check in, get to our rooms, make a little bit of a plan, and then we’ll rotate every two hours. That way we’ll get some sleep as well as getting a feel for this place. Since three of the bodies were found near here, that makes perfect—”
Dean looked away from Sophie and followed Manny’s eyes toward the concierge desk, then over to security.
Three uniformed officers, followed by three more from the resort’s yellow-clad security team, hurried through the low door-gate, moving directly toward them. Movement from the left caught his eyes, and he watched as a man and a woman, who looked like cops, also zeroed in on the three of them. Feeling like he was banking a sharp curve on the roller coaster in New York, New York, Dean’s stomach clenched and dropped to his toes. He guessed their plans for the evening were about to be scrambled.
The two plain-clothed cops got to them fast. The black-haired, attractive woman spoke first.
“Agent Williams? I’m Detective Teachout, and this is my partner Detective Lane.”
Dean recognized the names as two of LVPD that were to meet with them in the morning.
Manny did too. Dean’s guts twisted more as Williams released his infamous “oh shit” look.
Following suit, Sophie crossed her arms and shifted her weight in expectation.
“I am. This is Agent Lee and Agent Mikus.”
Looking at Teachout, her partner, then the three blues and three security officers, he noticed Manny’s slight nod as he skipped over any greeting. Full cop-mode came quicker for Manny than him, but adrenaline is a wonderful drug. Dean forgot about being mentally and physically exhausted, and was suddenly ready for what was next.
“I’d ask you what has happened, but I suppose I know. Where’s the body?” asked Manny.
Teachout raised her eyebrows. “And I’d ask how you knew that, but your reputation precedes you, and I guess you’ve got to know something’s wrong.”
“Educated guess, I suppose,” Manny answered.
“At any rate, this homicide is bizarre. Even beyond the others.”
Manny gave her a quick, humorless grin. “I’d expect nothing less.”
“Not like this. Never like this,” she said, her voice struggling to stay calm.
“If you say so. Lead the way,” said Manny.
Indulging in one more long look, Teachout shrugged and motioned for them to follow her.
Falling in line behind Sophie, Dean joined the law-enforcement entourage as they reached the security elevators and climbed in.
He found himself hoping for the best and dreading the worst. Sophie must have been thinking the same thing. She slipped her hand into his and squeezed.
She was trying to strengthen him, but it didn’t work. He liked being touched by her, no question, yet her action only confirmed that another level of hell was coming their way.
As the elevator stopped and opened on the tenth floor, he wondered briefly how many levels there could be in this crazy bastard’s world.
They walked into the room, and any sense of normal expectations was quickly, and finally, ushered from his mind.
Teachout was right.
CHAPTER-30
“Got ya working to the bone already, has he?”
Chloe looked up from the small stack of files surrounding her on the burgundy sofa, featuring Sampson snoring at the other end, and saw Haley Rose looking at her from the doorway with that familiar glint.
Her first thought was how beautiful her mum still was. Even after celebrating her fifty-fourth birthday. It wasn’t just the physical, even th
ough her red hair and fiery green eyes were hard to ignore. The mental toughness she possessed had been a source of strength during Chloe’s entire life. She wondered how she could have ever believed Argyle had any real control over this woman.
“I figured you’d gone to bed. And yes, your date has me looking at a cold case from the nineties.”
“I was ready for sleep. That Jenny girl wore out her old step-granny. I thought you could shop,” said Haley Rose, walking into the room. “But I needed to talk to ya for a wee minute.”
Closing the file in her lap, Chloe gave her mum her full attention. Something in her voice demanded nothing less.
“Fire away,” said Chloe.
She moved closer and sat on the edge of the couch. Sampson grunted, moved his legs, and returned to his version of dreamland.
“I have a couple of things on my mind. First. I know you’ve had quite a day with Manny and the others leaving for Las Vegas and all . . . and, well, with the new job. By the way, when you hung up after telling Jen and me about Gavin’s offer, we both sort of did a jig at your good fortune. Then we celebrated and ate more ice cream.”
“Where’s mine?”
“Ahh. We’ll be helping to keep you slim until that little one shows up.”
Her mum glanced away, inhaled, and turned backed to her. “I know about the call and that damned text thing.”
“Gavin told you?”
“Yeah. One kiss was all it took.”
“How’d you know something was up?”
“I asked him about you and the new job, and he just sort of talked himself into a corner. The man isn’t that great at hiding what’s on his mind. Even I know that.”
Chloe nodded. “True. Well, we hadn’t had a chance to talk about that text, and I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I know. And I don’t, so much. You’ve always been a tough one and could take care of yourself. Plus that man and his friends aren’t going to let anything happen to ya.”
“But?”
Haley Rose began to speak, looked down at her hands, clasped them into her lap, and searched Chloe’s face.
“If this has anything to do with Fredrick, then it can’t be good. Once in a while, I remember a fun thing we did together, then it dawns on me that he was going to kill me, maybe. At any rate, I’m not blind to what he was, no matter what I felt for him. So I just want you to watch yourself, okay?”
There it was again. That quirk in her mum’s voice that caused Chloe to pay closer attention. It peaked when she said Fredrick. Or was it just Chloe’s imagination?
“I will. I’ve got ya all to help, and Manny and the crew are in Las Vegas to get to the bottom of whatever is going on.”
Again, Chloe found herself not willing to share too much information. No reason for her mum to worry, right?
Standing, Haley Rose bent and kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Ya sound like ya got it covered. Especially with that man of yours. But I’m here if ya need me.”
“Deal. Now what was the second thing?”
The accompanying grin billowing over Haley Rose’s face was like a light in a darkened room. Chloe had no choice but to smile herself.
“Oh. Nothing too special. Gavin asked, well, he sort of. Well. He wanted to know if I was busy the rest of my life, and if not, would I mind spending it with him.”
Chloe sat stunned. Her mind went back to when the two of them had met. It had been less than seven months, by her count. Still, had Manny and she been far from that timeline?
“Ya can close your mouth, girl. You’ll be lettin’ the flies in.”
Tossing the file on the lampstand, she stood and hurried to her mother, taking her hands in hers.
“What did ya say to him, woman?”
“I told him it was the best offer I’d had since I can remember.”
Chloe didn’t think that was totally true. The Good Doctor had captured her imagination, if not her heart.
“And?”
She sighed. “And that I needed some time to think about it. After all, I’ve not been in the States all that long, and I have some things to do still. He never batted an eye, told me he could help with whatever I had to wrap up, but he understood. And to take all the time I needed. Then he said some other things that will be between me and my diary, don’t ya know.”
That fascinating glint was back in her mother’s eye, and Chloe hugged her fiercely. She wanted her mum to be happy. Somehow, deep inside, she was positive Gavin could help her with that.
After a minute, Haley Rose backed away, smiling. “Well. That’d be enough excitement for you and that grandbaby in one day. I’m going to bed, truly. And you should too.”
“I will mum. Just a couple more reports to read. Besides, Manny texted me and said he’d call around eleven or so our time.”
“Okay then.”
Kissing her daughter one more time, Haley Rose left for the guest room. A few seconds later Chloe heard the door close.
“I’m not the only one who had a day,” she whispered.
Walking to the kitchen, she grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and a small glass of milk and returned to her spot on the couch. Food hadn’t smelled this good in a while. But she refrained from two cookies, so that was a plus.
It took a few more minutes for her conversation with Haley Rose to sink in entirely. Eventually it did. She also realized she wouldn’t say anything to anyone, not even Manny, until her mom and Gavin worked this out, one way or the other. That was probably wise. Besides, she had a few other situations to address. She reached over and picked up the file from the lampstand and soon she was deep into the case again.
There hadn’t been a lot of forensic evidence, and even though DNA testing was just beginning to perfect the process, it wasn’t as reliable as today; she noticed there were no attempts at trying to push that science further.
She frowned.
Reaching over to another report she’d already read, she ran her finger down the yellowing page and stopped. There had been several hair samples collected and bagged. And what the ME believed was blood spatter that may have been from a source other than the victim.
She went back to the previous report to find that the investigating officer had disagreed with the ME and nixed the expensive testing. He believed it a waste of time and money.
Glancing down to the bottom of the page, she stared, slowly shaking her head.
“How in hell did that happen?” she said softly.
Her phone rang and she jumped, then reached for it, realizing it was Manny calling.
Before she slid her thumb to answer the phone, she looked at the signature on the report again.
It was impossible for her not to wonder how Gavin Crosby had become the lead investigator on this case. He was far too close to the victims and potential suspects. More puzzling was why Gavin didn’t order the DNA testing.
CHAPTER-31
Standing near the corpse, Manny felt his heart break a little more. LVPD had just removed the victim’s two vacation friends from the room. They’d burst through the blues and began screaming her name. The emotion was startling.
Grace.
He was reminded again that these victims were people with lives, friends, and family. They spoke, they danced, they cried, and enjoyed their lives, for the most part.
The unabashed horror on the faces of those women was obvious as they mourned their beloved friend. He understood both the horror and the love.
Manny gazed at the gauze-wrapped body. There were still times when he felt Louise in his arms, blood flowing from the scarlet wound in her chest, as her soul left this world. Who could ever forget something like this?
Healing would never be complete, he suspected, but Chloe Franson had walked into his life and helped turn his heart and mind in different directions. Not everyone had that kind of help. He prayed these two women would have each other to lean on until the sleepless nights and convicting nightmares evolved into something more tolerable, more sane, if tha
t were possible for them.
“What’s going on in there?” asked Sophie, pointing at Manny’s head, her voice shaking ever so slightly.
His partner was tough minded, but he knew she was questioning how many more incidents like this could she handle before reason was replaced with unreason. Calm with anger. Determination with hate. Self-control with revenge.
Hell, maybe she was spot on. In fact, she probably was, but they were called to a higher standard. He hoped they could maintain that, at least for now. All bets would be off when they met this killer. And they would meet him.
“Trying to gather my wits, like the rest of you,” he answered, exhaling slowly.
“Yeah? Well good luck with that. This isn’t just creepy and warped, but this display is for us, isn’t it?”
“Too early to say, but yeah, it could be. We need to process the room and look at everything closely before we make that jump,” said Manny.
“What the hell does that mean . . . that this was for you?” asked Detective Teachout.
“That could be a long story. One we will share in the early meeting tomorrow. But for now, we have to decide if this is something else or part of the reason we’re here,” said Manny.
The detective moved closer to Manny, followed by her partner. “You sound like you were summoned here.”
“Detective. You saw the report. You saw the phone. You saw the details of that murder up close of the young woman, Paige Madison. We didn’t have that opportunity. I can only get so much from pictures, reports, and discussion. This scene is fresh and, as sick as it is, organized in a way that makes the FBI do a double take and forces me to chow down a few antacids because this could be the work of a serial killer that you simply want no part of,” snapped Manny.
“I-I just want to know what’s going on,” she stammered, retreating the step she’d taken to get closer to Manny.
“Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
Catching his emotion on the rise to the very place he knew would do little good, he put it in one of those mental compartmental boxes that cops were supposed to have at their immediate disposal. It worked, mostly.
