Stalked by the Past: An FBI Flashback Novel. (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 17)

by Morgan Kelley

  As she began walking faster, her arms braced around her body as if she was cold, he followed.

  She was wearing Kevlar, and had a gun strapped to her chest beneath Becca’s sweater.

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t get too close and be able to detect it. If he did…

  Then again, he was bat shit insane. He probably wouldn’t notice anyway.

  This had to work.

  “Petal!”

  She didn’t turn around.

  “You slut! Get over here or I swear I’ll make you bleed,” he hissed into the night.

  That only made her move faster.

  “Come back to Daddy!”

  Yeah, they caught their crazy.

  Elizabeth headed toward a building. She prayed it was open. She needed to get a better vantage point. She needed to loop around so she could face him.

  “He’s following me into the building at the end of the block,” she whispered into her com. “I need backup, boys. Here’s where you show me how awesome you Vice cops are at covering your partners.”

  “We’re on our way,” came Kaleb’s voice in her earpiece.

  It gave her some calm.

  It was set.

  She raced into the building and headed for the one corner where it was dark. She’d see him, but he wouldn’t see her.

  “PETAL!” he wailed, when he entered the building. “Get out here. I’m going to hurt you in ways you’ve never imagined. You betrayed me. You’re a worthless whore!”

  “She’s not here,” Elizabeth stated, getting ready to snag herself a killer.

  “Who’s that?” he asked, looking around.

  She hit the lights.

  They went on, and she had to blink to focus, but then again, so did he.

  “Clayton, Clayton, Clayton. You’re a very bad pimp. Here you are, killing your own girls. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking. You’re crazy.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Safely tucked away where you can’t find her. Why did you do it, Clayton, or should I call you James?”

  He flinched. “He’s dead. He’s not here anymore,” Clayton said, grabbing his head. “Stop talking to him!”

  Yeah, he was cuckoo.

  Score one for her profiler. He deserved a shiny gold star. If she ever got to meet him, she’d give him one.

  He screamed again.

  There wasn’t going to be a court in the world that would convict him. At least he’d spend his life in a padded cell on meds.

  “You killed them all. Why?”

  “They were whores. You can’t trust them. I needed to make them suffer. They had to pay for their sins. I had to do it.”

  She could hear Glen over her earpiece, and she knew he was going to hurt the man.

  “You killed a cop.”

  “I know! I followed her. She was always so secretive. I followed her to the police station. I saw that other cop with her. She was a whore and lied. She was trying to stop me from doing God’s work. I had to kill her. I loved every second of it. I wiped the smug look off her face. I was coming for you too.”

  Well, she dodged that bullet.

  “I want you to put up your hands, turn around, and let me cuff you.”

  He pulled out a knife.

  “I have to kill you. You are just like them. You’re bad, Petal.”

  Yeah, he’d flipped. He couldn’t even tell she wasn’t Becca. This was bad.

  She pulled off her wig.

  He recognized her.

  Sort of…

  “Miss Kitty, you’re playing games. I don’t like games. I’m going to cut your face right off. I don’t want you seeing me. I don’t want you to know what I’m doing.”

  Well, that explained that.

  “I have to cuff you.”

  He charged at her.

  Fortunately, she was in sneakers. She was able to sidestep him, and then elbow him in the face when he tried to come up behind her.

  Then she took him to his knees.

  Finally, she punched him hard enough in the face to hurt her hand.

  But he went out.

  Like a light.

  The door burst open, and Glen headed his way with a gun already trained on him. Elizabeth stepped between them. “You can’t kill him, Glen. No matter what he did, you can’t kill him.”

  “He killed Cathy. I loved her. He won’t see jail. He’s crazy. Let me put him down.”

  The man was on the edge. They were likely being recorded. She had to save a crazy and a decent cop’s life.

  It was on her.

  “Glen. If you end his life in cold blood, you’ll never be the same. You’ll never be able to face life the same way. Trust me. Let me bring him in so she gets justice. Let Cathy have her peace. Don’t throw away your career. She’d hate that. She was a good cop, and she loved you too.”

  Kaleb slowly took his partner’s gun away from him when he lowered it.

  They all breathed a sigh of relief.

  Glen headed toward the door. At it, he stopped, turned, and looked right at her. “Cathy can rest in peace even if I can’t. I’ll never forgive anyone who was involved in this.”

  Elizabeth got the scope of his words.

  He meant her.

  Yeah, being a Fed had this kind of ramification.

  She wanted to tell him she understood, but it didn’t matter. He’d have to work his way through it, like she was doing—one day at a time.

  For now, it was over.

  “Elizabeth, you did good,” Kaleb said, smiling at her. “You were right.”

  She knew how she did it. “That profiler…I hope I get to meet him one day. He’s a genius. He pointed me right at Clayton or James, or whoever he wants to be.”

  “Maybe we’ll track him down and take him out for a beer. God knows, he has to play in the minds of lunatics. The man deserves that, and probably a burger too.”

  “I have his cell number. I think I’ll call him. If that was my job, I’d like to hear how it turned out once in a while.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief.

  It was done.

  Elizabeth was back on her game. She’d closed a big one. She’d redeemed her name, and she’d proven she could pull this shit off when it was time.

  She wanted to celebrate.

  He patted her on the back. “Go for it. Keep in touch, LaRue. You’re a kick ass Fed. You have a great career ahead of you.”

  “I still owe you one, Kaleb. When you need an FBI favor…”

  He grinned. “Babe, I’ll be the first one to call. Bet on it.”

  She hoped so.

  He was a damn good cop.

  Pulling out her cell, she opted to text the profiler. It was getting late, and he was probably settled in at his home. She tried to picture him.

  He was probably white, married, and in his late fifties. That seemed to be the common traits for the FBI.

  She hoped one day she got to thank him in person.

  She wrote up the text, and reread it before she hit send.

  EB—

  Thank you for the profile. We caught our guy, and it was spot on. I couldn’t have done it without you. I appreciate your hard work. I owe you a beer. One day, I’ll get to buy you one.

  —EL

  She closed her phone and it beeped. Opening it back up, she read it.

  EL—

  No need to thank me. If we ever meet, I’ll take you up on that beer. Keep fighting the good fight. I’ll do the same.

  —EB

  She smiled.

  Yeah, she would keep fighting the good fight.

  She was born to be a Fed.

  Elizabeth LaRue wasn’t done. Maybe she did have a big, bright future ahead of her after all.

  Only time would tell.

  Epilogue

  Monday Morning

  Six A.M

  Y eah, it was early, but she had one more thing to do. It was all about taking care of business, protecting her family, and making
someone pay. When that line was crossed, someone had to make it right.

  Elizabeth was paying Madeline or Mary Louise Cather back for the stunt she’d pulled with Chris. Oh, she was going to get that watch back. She was going to scare the woman and balance the scales of justice in one fell swoop.

  Ringing the bell, she waited.

  When the door opened, there stood a woman just waking up. She could see why Chris would have picked her. She was pretty, had lovely pert lips, and didn’t mind showing off her body.

  Yeah, this was the one.

  “What the hell? I was sleeping, bitch. Who wakes people up this early in the morning?”

  Elizabeth didn’t answer. Instead, she punched Mary Louise in the face.

  The thief hit the floor.

  “My nose!” she cried, as she held her hands over her bleeding face.

  Elizabeth kicked the door closed.

  “Who are you?” she asked, trying to slip away as Elizabeth put on leather gloves and locked the door behind her.

  She said nothing.

  The woman looked scared. “Please…”

  “Oh, you don’t like people invading your personal space? Well, here’s who I am, you two-bit, conning hussy. You paid my best friend a little visit,” she said, cracking her knuckles.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered. “I don’t know…”

  Elizabeth cleared off an entire shelf with her hand. It all crashed to the floor, making one hell of a mess.

  The woman crab-walked backward away from her.

  “Oh, I think you know who I’m talking about. How about a Doctor Christopher Leonard?”

  “Oh.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Oh? You cuffed him to a bed, you humiliated him, and you stole his shit. You have no idea what I’m going to do to you.”

  She tried to get away.

  Elizabeth kicked her in the stomach, knocking the air from her lungs.

  “Where I come from, sugar, when you mess with someone’s family, or their man, you get fucked up.”

  The woman began crying.

  “I’ve come for his stuff. Where is it?” she asked. “If you fenced it, I’ll break every bone in that pretty face of yours. Then I’m going to make sure I leave blood trails down the street to the river.”

  She started blubbering and begging for her life.

  Wow!

  This woman was gullible. Elizabeth must make a convincing crazy person.

  Who knew?

  “It’s on the shelf in a box.”

  Elizabeth pulled her blazer back. There, on her hip, was her gun. She’d tucked her badge into her back pocket. This was about scaring this girl to death, and clearly, it was working.

  It was payback for Chris’s humiliation.

  “Oh my God! Please don’t shoot me.”

  “You messed with the United States Government,” she said, moving closer. “You knew he was a Fed, and we take care of our own. No one is ever going to find you.”

  She wanted to laugh. Elizabeth wasn’t going to toss her career for this woman.

  But she didn’t know that.

  “I’ll never do it again.”

  “Did you have sex with him?” she asked.

  Okay, that wasn’t really her business, but Elizabeth…she was a tad bit territorial.

  And she and Chris had sex…bare.

  Elizabeth was making sure she didn’t need an inoculation for whatever this skank had.

  “No! I swear. I just made out with him. I wouldn’t have sex with him! He’s a nerd!”

  That was the wrong thing to say.

  Elizabeth grabbed her by the hair and dragged the crying woman to the stairs.

  “Get up there now!”

  The woman crawled up them on her knees.

  When she reached the top, Elizabeth was right behind her, and she hoped Mary Louise was scared shitless.

  “Please don’t do this.”

  She was ignored.

  In the woman’s room, she noticed it was furnished with high price things. She’d been stealing from a lot of people.

  Yeah, not anymore.

  “Strip.”

  She started begging. “Don’t rape me!”

  Elizabeth would rather have sex with a blender than touch that trash bag.

  She backhanded her hard, knocking the woman onto the bed. “If I pull my gun, you’re in trouble.”

  She’d never actually do it.

  Still…let her think she would.

  The girl began stripping. She was begging and pleading for her life. Elizabeth found that amusing.

  “Get on the bed.”

  She listened.

  Elizabeth pulled a brand-new pair of handcuffs from her other pocket.

  “Please don’t do this.”

  She ignored her and cuffed her.

  The girl wept.

  When she was secure, she took a black Sharpie marker and began writing on her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m telling the cops exactly who you are, Mary Louise, and then I’m going to make sure they find you.”

  “Please don’t!”

  “Isn’t this how you left my friend?” she asked, writing ‘slut’ on her forehead. It was over the top, but she was pissed.

  “You wouldn’t. Please. I didn’t hurt him.”

  She laughed.

  Oh, yes, she would.

  “Did you put his gun to his head?” she asked, whispering it softly to frighten her.

  “Yes.”

  Elizabeth pulled her gun.

  It was empty. She’d never do this with a live round in the chamber. This was about paying Madeline the dick-teasing robber back.

  The girl sobbed.

  Elizabeth put it to her head.

  Mary Louise should get out of the crime business.

  How did she know?

  She pissed herself on her bed.

  Served her right.

  “Please don’t kill me.”

  “You’re right. I have something else planned.” Pulling out her phone, she called Metro.

  “I caught a robbery suspect. She’s wanted for theft. She’s at one-oh-four Homestead. She’s in her bedroom, handcuffed to the bed. You can call me a concerned citizen, and for the record, the house is full of stolen merchandise.”

  She hung up.

  The woman started fighting. “They’ll see me naked.”

  Elizabeth started laughing. “Now you know how all those men felt. I doubt Chris is the only one you humiliated. If you did it to one, I’m sure you did it to all of them. Lesson to be learned, Mary Louise—you know, for when you get out of jail.”

  She turned and walked away.

  “You’re really not leaving, are you?”

  She laughed.

  “HELP! HELP!”

  Elizabeth grabbed Chris’s things and headed out.

  At the end of the block, she waited. She pulled out her cell and made a call.

  “Hey, Daddy! I’m sorry I missed you. I wrapped my case.”

  She listened to her father talk to her as he drove toward Boston.

  “Yeah, I’m about to head in now. I love you, Daddy,” she said, as two cruisers slammed to a stop.

  She smiled when the cops circled Mary Louise’s place.

  “Yes, Daddy, I’m being good. I was just tying up a few loose ends. Call me when you get home. I’ll tell you all about it.”

  And she would.

  For now, she’d just enjoy the justice.

  There were days she loved being a Fed.

  Today…yeah, today was that day.

  * * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *

  Christopher Leonard’s

  Brownstone

  When she showed up, he’d just gotten out of the shower. She’d let herself in, much like he did at her place.

  “Jesus! Lyzee! You scared me,” he said, walking into the kitchen with a towel around his waist. “I didn’t think you’d be here yet.”

&nbs
p; “Sorry, Christopher. I forgot breakfast, but I did get you something to make up for having to have cereal.”

  She slid him the box.

  He stared at it. “What is it?”

  “Open it.”

  He did.

  “What the hell? It’s my badge, my gun, my watch, and all of my bank statements Madeline stole.”

  She told him her real name and that she was a professional thief.

  “Did they catch her?”

  She laughed. “Oh yeah.”

  Immediately, he was suspicious. Elizabeth only laughed like that when she’d been up to something.

  “What did you do?”

  She told him.

  “You did not.”

  Elizabeth simply smiled. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”

  She tossed the sharpie onto the counter.

  Chris couldn’t believe it. “What do I say?”

  “That you’ll make me some cereal? I’m starving. I had a busy morning.”

  He laughed. “I tell you what. Let’s go grab breakfast. I have an hour before work. You do too.”

  “I’m off today.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “The director told me to take the day off.”

  Chris got serious. “Are you in trouble? Did he give you shit?” he asked. “If they fired you, I’ll quit too. We’ll be unemployed together.”

  While that sounded pretty good, she still had her job. Instead of telling him, she pulled the rolled-up newspaper out of her back pocket and handed it to him.

  He read the headline.

  ‘LaRue offers vindication by taking down serial hooker killer. FBI offers commendation.’

  He looked up.

  “Holy shit, honey. They don’t hand out commendations to just anyone.”

  She was aware.

  “The director asked as a personal favor if I would lay low a day or two. I have forty-eight hours off until the media dies down. He doesn’t want them all over the Hoover building.”

  “Hold on,” he said, picking up his cell.