Kaleb cut her off.
“Where were you on these dates?” he asked, reading them off.
“I was here. While I like to travel, I mostly enjoy the simple life.”
“Do you have a job?” he asked.
“I make more money for myself and others. That is my job.”
He wasn’t shocked.
“Thank you for your help.”
He grabbed Elizabeth by the arm, and pulled her out of the room. The man behind them was making incredibly lewd comments, and Kaleb was pretty sure she was going to snap.
Once outside, he tried to calm her down. “He’s a scumbag. Let it go.”
“Yeah, that’s easy for you to say. He wasn’t commenting on your dick, now was he?”
Good point.
“What do you think about him?”
“Other than he’s a creep who should be shot and put out of his misery? God forbid he spawns and leaves little douchebags all over the world.”
“So you liked him.”
She snorted. “Idiot.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot. I meant what do you think about him as a killer?”
“He’s arrogant. He’s a dick. Oh, and he doesn’t really care about anything but getting off.”
“But could he kill?”
“I don’t know. He’s kind of scrawny, but a garrote isn’t hard to use. You basically just have to use your body weight to kill someone.”
“I wish we knew if he could do it.”
“I know who we can ask.” She pulled out her phone and began dialing. On the third ring, he answered, and she put it on speaker.
“Christopher Leonard.”
“Hey, Doc! How’s tricks?”
He laughed. “They’re all dead if by tricks you mean hookers, Miss Kitty.”
She snorted. “Well, speaking of dead hookers…”
“What do you need, honey?”
“Can a man who’s about five foot seven and one hundred twenty pounds kill a hooker with a garrote?” she asked.
“I love when you call to ask me things like this.”
“I know. That’s why I call. I know you have the answer up there in your gray squishy brain matter.”
“I do. I actually know that a man can do it. In college, we had a body that was turned over to the school. It was on the body farm.”
“Okay, and?”
“She’d been garroted. The killer was caught. It was a teenage boy. He’d been lusting after his neighbor’s wife. He snuck into the house, garroted her, and then had sex with her. The sperm gave him away.”
“Okay, that’s just wrong.”
“You know, as of late, I’ve learned that condoms are important.”
She stared laughing.
So did Chris.
“Anything else, Lyzee?”
“Was your meeting okay?” she asked.
“I’m still employed. I’ll tell you about it tonight over dinner? How about it? You, me, and something to eat?”
Elizabeth was amused. “Charlie’s coming.”
“A threesome. Awesome. Are we on for tonight?” he asked.
“You bet, Newton. Text me the location. If I can get free of this madness, and we don’t have any more bodies, I’m up for it.”
“I’m up for it too.”
She snorted.
“Later, Christopher.”
She hung up.
Kaleb was staring at her.
“What?”
“You had sex with him. You’re all smiles, you’re calm, and he’s teasing you. By the way, who’s Charlie? Are you really having a threesome? Can I get in on that?”
“Uh, none of your business, I smile when I’m in a good mood, and Charlie is my father. If you ever mention threesome again, and include my father, I’ll hurt you in ways you never thought possible.”
“Point made. So our sexed up rich guy could have killed them, and he doesn’t have an alibi.”
“I want to hate him,” Elizabeth stated. “I want him to be the killer, but I doubt he would do it.”
“Why?”
“He hired women. He sits in his house all day buying and selling shit. He has a butler answer his door. He’s not going to get his hands dirty. Can you see him going somewhere and actually getting messy?”
He was with her there.
“I think we can drop him down the list. I know he had contact with the four women, three of which he had sex with, but…I don’t know. My gut says no.”
“You may be right.”
Her phone rang.
She didn’t recognize it, but she her phone caller ID tagged it as someone at the FBI. “Special Agent Elizabeth LaRue.”
“I have your name from the fingerprints,” stated the tech.
Perfect.
“Who is it?”
“Her name is Mary Louise Cather.” He read her the home address. “But...”
“But what?”
“We have multiple addresses on her.”
“Explain.”
“She has an arrest record. She’s big into fencing and theft. We have her address listed by the parole officer, and it’s not the one attached to her fingerprints on file.”
“Text me both. I’ll handle it.”
“Do I get pizza?”
She laughed. “Yes, you get pizza.”
That was all he cared about.
She hung up.
“Did you catch a lead?” he asked.
“Yeah, but on a different case. That wasn’t related to our hooker killer. I’m going to close another case later, as soon as I get a free moment.”
“Well, at least someone is closing cases. God knows I’m not,” he said.
“We’ll close this one.”
“It’s your case.”
“I told you if you help me, I’ll share the glory. I just need to clean up my reputation, and then I don’t give a shit about the notoriety.”
He got that.
Kaleb was aware of what had happened. It was all over the news for weeks. He was shocked she was still a Fed.
“The religious guy next?” he asked.
She pulled out her paper and read off the address. “We have his home and his church.”
“It’s Sunday. He’ll be at church,” Kaleb offered.
“Yeah, let’s see if we can make one hell of a spectacle.”
She was sure they would.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Heaven’s Rest
Church and Mission
Sunday Noon
He was easy to find.
The next worshiper who left the building was more than happy to point him out.
He was over by some elderly churchgoer, helping her into her vehicle.
“Watch your head, Grandma,” he said to the older woman as she ducked into the passenger seat.
“Mason Coffman?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes?” he asked standing up.
When he did, they both had to take a step back. He was a freaking house.
Elizabeth and Kaleb prepared for the worst.
“We need to talk to you,” Elizabeth offered, introducing themselves to the man.
He smiled. “Okay, what about?”
Elizabeth noticed the little old lady was looking a tad bit curious. “Can we do it alone?”
“Sure! Grandma, I’ll be right back,” he offered, walking away. “Sorry, I bring her to church. She’s too old to drive herself. Now, what’s this about?”
“Have you been down to Harper Street?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m down there feeding the homeless all the time. That part of town is a hot mess. I like to help people. I’ve made it my mission in life.”
She watched his hands in case he went for a weapon. They’d have to shoot him. There was no way they could take him down. He was a beast of a man.
“There have been some murders,” she stated.
“Oh my! That’s horrible! God says killing is a sin. I can’t imagine hurting anyone.”
Yeah, she
could see him doing it. He could snap a person in half without batting an eyelash. Still, he didn’t appear to get it. They weren’t there to tell him about the killings.
She knew she needed to approach this a different way. For some reason, she didn’t think he was the sharpest tool in the shed.
“What does he say about prostitution?”
“Oh, that’s easy. He doesn’t like it.”
“How do you feel about it?”
He thought about it. “I think that it’s a tough world out there. I think that sometimes, you have to do what you have to do to survive, but I still think it’s a sin. I wouldn’t touch a prostitute personally, but I would try to save them.”
“How?” Kaleb asked, as soon as he saw what Elizabeth was up to with her questioning.
“I’d try to get her to come to church.”
“And if she said no?” he asked.
“You can’t make a person ask for forgiveness, Detective. As much as we want to force them, they have to do it on their own.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Sad.”
“Can I ask you where you were on a few dates?” she asked. “You know, just to get a frame of reference.”
“Sure.”
She rattled them off.
“I don’t know about the one three months ago. That was a long time. I don’t go out much at night. I hang out with my grandma. She needs me.”
“What about the others?” Kaleb asked.
“I was with her.”
“Do you mind if we talk to her?” she asked.
“No, go ahead.”
So they did.
By the time they were finished, they hadn’t gotten anywhere with it. His grandmother was losing her mind. She had dementia.
So of course, she said he was with her.
She also called him Ralph, which wasn’t his name, so they weren’t offering up much hope in the matter.
“See? I told you,” he stated.
Yeah, he certainly did.
When they allowed him to drive off with the old lady, neither had a freaking clue.
“I have a headache,” she stated.
“Yeah, me too,” offered Kaleb. “I’m more confused now than ever. No one seems to be fitting these crimes. Could we be missing someone?”
She didn’t know.
She didn’t freaking know.
And that was a huge problem.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Georgetown
Ethan Blackhawk’s
Townhouse
He was still pissed, but he checked his email and saw the files that had been attached.
Gabe needed a profile.
It went against everything in him to do it. Ethan wanted to be angry with him, and the last thing he wanted to do was deal with the FBI.
He was bitter.
Torn.
A mess.
Still, he was a Fed to his core. So, in the spirit of that, he opened the attachments.
As they popped up on his screen, there was also a message attached to it.
Ethan,
I know you’re pissed, but had I warned you, it would have been worse. We’ll discuss it later. I have an agent in the field who needs a profile—desperately. Can you help her out? Don’t do it for me. She’s struggling with this one on her own, and you’re the only profiler available.
Please?
Gabriel.
He didn’t want to help.
Hell!
He wanted to tell the man to fuck off, but he couldn’t muster the hate to do it.
Why?
This wasn’t about him.
This was about the agent in the field. He’d been in that situation with no backup. It was tough enough to be out there on your own, but to not have a working profile?
Wouldn’t that be the same thing Gabe had done to him?
Yeah, he wouldn’t pass on that shittiness.
Oh, he’d do his job, but he wasn’t happy. For now, he’d do the profile, help the woman out, and call it a day.
Besides, you could only watch so much TV before your brain became mush.
Screw it.
He’d do the work.
Clicking on the files, he scanned the information. He ignored the agent’s name, and simply focused on the information.
Hookers.
Garrotes.
Missing faces?
Removing eyes?
Damn!
Some agents got all the good cases.
Well, at least he could help.
Besides, it was work, and he knew the one thing that mattered most in life.
The FBI.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Across DC
They were grabbing lunch when the call came in. It was dispatch, and there was the familiar code.
They had another dead hooker. Only this time, they were caught off guard. This couldn’t be right.
How?
It was the middle of the damn day.
Was the killer switching it up?
Again?
She texted her team and headed toward the site. Kaleb was behind the wheel, and he was driving like a maniac to get them there.
Time was of the essence.
If the killer was escalating, or switching it up, there was no time to waste.
“Maybe she was just found,” he offered, knowing what she was thinking.
Elizabeth wasn’t sure.
Something felt off.
“I really wish Gabe would get me that profile. We need it. I’m lost here,” she admitted.
He was too.
This was a strange case.
As they pulled up to the scene, the techs were just arriving too. They were pulling their cases from the van, and Chris was getting out of his ride.
“Hey, honey,” he said, pulling on a protective suit to cover his scrubs.
“Do you let all the people call you cute pet names?” Kaleb asked, “or just the ones you really, really, really like?” he teased.
She focused on Chris. “Don’t say a word. He’s fishing. If you ignore him, it’ll make him insane.”
Chris smiled and held out his hand.
Elizabeth reintroduced them.
“Doc, this, again, is Detective Kaleb Williams. He’s assisting me today. He’s actually being more of a pain in the ass than anything, but that’s the norm.”
“Ouch.”
Chris checked the man out. Like Elizabeth had said, the man was digging. He was examining him, then Elizabeth, then her breasts, and where Chris’s eyes were.
It made him want to laugh.
Why?
He looked jealous.
Even though he and Elizabeth were just beginning this new adventure, Chris enjoyed the way it was bugging the buff man. It was clear what he was thinking.
He was wondering how in the world Chris bagged a hottie. He was more than okay to let the man wonder.
It erased all the irritation that this man had been with Elizabeth too.
“What do we have?” she asked.
He grinned at her as he pulled on his clean suit. “Can you zip me, Lyzee?” he asked.
“Can you stop ignoring the questions?” she replied.
He laughed.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been in there yet. I figured we can do it together.”
Elizabeth zipped him up, satisfied with Chris’s answer.
A cop wandered over and shook the detective’s hand. “You have a freaky one up there,” he stated.
“What do you mean?” Kaleb asked.
“He killed her, took her face, left one eye, and we think raped her. Her panties were missing.”
She glanced over at Chris.
This was new.
“Were the other girls raped?”
He stared at her like she was crazy. “You want to know if hookers, who have sex repeatedly all night, were raped? Lyzee, there is going to be bruising from all that sex. That’s hard
to determine.”
“How about with Cathy? Had she had sex before she was killed?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“It wasn’t hard enough to do any tearing.”
Elizabeth knew it wasn’t going to matter. She knew for a fact that Detective Glen Sheehan had admitted that he’d had sex with Cathy after he picked her up.
It was their norm.
Well, shit.
“I’ll take a look, but I can’t promise anything. I can go back over my findings and see what pops up.”
That was the only choice she had.
“Let’s see what crazy has left us now,” she stated, grabbing a pair of gloves.
They headed upstairs.
Once at the door to the apartment, they were stopped by a cop. “It’s ugly in there. You’re going to want these,” he offered, handing them booties.
They all slipped them on.
After entering, they knew what he meant.
Before he saw the body, he knew what had happened. “He hit the external carotid artery. It arises at the bifurcation and branches off into the face.”
“What did he say?” Kaleb asked.
“The killer hit the main artery, and we have a bleeder,” she translated.
“Why didn’t he just say that?” Kaleb asked.
Chris looked confused.
Elizabeth answered, “He’s smart. To him, he did just say that.”
Kaleb grinned. “Yeah, you like smart men…”
She pointed at him. “Don’t! He’s off limits.”
Chris simply smiled to himself as he headed toward the living room. That’s where he found her on the couch.
“Lyzee?” he called.
She headed his way.
When she got there, they found her.
The victim was propped up, she was missing her face, one eye was gone, and there was blood everywhere.
“She wasn’t dead when he took her face,” Chris offered.
Elizabeth checked out her neck, but was careful not to touch her. “She was garroted like the others.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t kill her that way.”
This was getting out of hand.
“Her panties are definitely gone, and she looks like she’s in her nightshirt, or what she sleeps in,” Kaleb stated, lifting the hem of her shirt with a pen.
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