The NightShade Forensic Files: Under Dark Skies (Book 1)

by A. J. Scudiere

  She was pointing at the building behind him even as she pushed him again. When he came through before, there had been some low-grade conversation in that house. He hadn’t been able to make it out, though he should have, but the words were too muffled—indicating this particular house was better insulated than the others. But why this one? It had made him suspicious though he hadn’t been able to check it out further at the time.

  “I saw it. He’s here.” Her voice held an urgency he recognized.

  On the verge of asking her what she meant, Donovan was cut short when she dropped suddenly to all fours. Acting on instinct, the two men immediately followed her to the ground, though they looked around for a shooter and found none. The other agents were still clearing out the remaining cult members toward Station X, heading the other direction. If all was as they believed, then the only people still in the City area were the corpses, the three of them, and JHB.

  Eleri wasn’t avoiding bullets or watching for gunners, she was grabbing at the ground. Donovan wondered if she’d lost it, wondered if maybe the doctors at that hospital hadn’t done as good a job as they thought putting her back together after that breakdown. “Eleri?”

  When she looked up, her eyes were clear as skies, though he knew she couldn’t see him as well as he could see her. She smiled. “Trap door. I dreamed of him, and I saw this.” She looked back to the dark grass, patting around, feeling for something. But Donovan and Wade joined her, the two of them periodically checking their asses though.

  “Isaac had it built here, it’s a shelter for the people. It’s a hiding place. Joseph killed all the people who knew about it. One by one, he took them out. Jonah found it or got close. He doesn’t know what he saw, but that was part of the reason Joseph turned on him. He’s here now. He’s hiding inside.”

  She was talking over herself, grabbing at the ground looking for something only she knew. “I’ve got . . . a . . . a hinge.” Frantically she crawled around, but it only took another minute to find an edge and begin to pry.

  “I’m down first.” Wade looked at her.

  “No.” She offered a smile that said she was sorry to take his chivalry away from him. “My op.”

  “What about me?” Donovan asked, but both of them just turned and shook their heads at him.

  With a resolve he’d seen in her a few times before, Eleri went into the hole the only way should could, feet first, blind, and open to whatever lay in wait below.

  50

  The narrow neck down into the underground chamber was lined with ladder rungs bolted into the wall. Eleri grabbed on, constantly looking below, constantly alert for Baxter to pop up. Her hands and feet were tasked with holding her to the wall, so her gun was nearly useless and she was a sitting duck waiting for the sighting of a man who would think no more or less of her than he would think of a paper target. He would lose no more sleep over killing her than he gave thought to the leaves that crunched under his feet.

  Her legs were visible into the tunnel that tee’d off the downspout, so she scrambled to get low and out of the way. As soon as she ducked into the four foot high area, Wade came scrabbling down the ladder after her, though he was much quieter. Donovan arrived last, crowding the low area. For once her small size was a distinct advantage, but there wasn’t time to smile about it.

  Using hand signals, she directed them down the dark way, letting Wade lead. Of course the guys could see just fine down here. She almost hated them. So she was sandwiched in the middle of the two hunched over men.

  As much as her eyes had adjusted, she could still only see Wade before her and Donovan right behind her, nothing beyond either of them. But she could see when Wade touched his nose and signaled that he had the scent. Donovan agreed and they made their way forward, the dry dirt beneath their feet absorbing the sounds of their footsteps, or so she hoped.

  The tunnel deposited them into the crawlspace under the house. Even as she came into the space, Wade’s voice carried to her as softly as a thought. “Holy shit.”

  Giving up, she brought the night vision goggles to her face. Then she said it, too. “Holy shit.”

  The area down here was beyond disturbing. Eleri had thought the ground was relatively flat as she plodded blindly behind Wade. Now she saw that the dirt had been dug out and planks put down to keep it level in spite of the hard rains that sometimes hit the area. Tables had been pushed into corners, two folding chairs rusted in the dark, and despite the muggy air down here, it was clear the area was in frequent use.

  The tables held a variety of weapons. From the looks of things, Baxter had been toying with explosives, though it appeared he spent most of his time converting standard, legal weapons into fully automatic killing machines. A brick of cocaine sat on the table, sliced open down the middle and carefully dipped into.

  Donovan saw that and immediately asked, “Shit, is he high?”

  But Eleri shook her head. “If he is, it won’t do much. Sociopaths don’t react to drugs like the rest of us. They can get a little loopy, but they always operate on the same internal logic. Baxter’s will be as screwed as it always is.” At least her college degrees and all that studying for the profiling unit were still good for something.

  They seemed to be alone down here, so the three of them scanned for an exit, how had Baxter gotten out? It looked like he must have gone up the pull-down staircase that led up into the house, but no evidence he’d gone that way. Or . . .

  She pointed. Out the front.

  The vent to the front of the house was nearly at her eye level from where she stood on the dug-out floor. But the louvered door itself appeared loose, as though it would flip easily up on its hinge.

  Just then she saw both their heads snap up; a second later, she heard it too. Overhead, footsteps. Baxter was in the house above them. He’d gone up. But what was he doing?

  Beyond the vent she could see light, and Eleri pulled the NVGs away from her eyes, careful not to blind herself. The flames danced in the windows of the other houses, reminding her that there wasn’t a lot of time.

  She motioned at the vent, which would lead them out into the center area of the City. If they stayed low, Baxter shouldn’t see them. Motioning with hand signals, trying to stay as quiet as she could while wearing enough gear to cover a horse, she let Donovan boost her out the vent. Rolling as she hit the ground, she turned back, thinking to offer a hand to Wade, who didn’t seem to need it.

  Donovan, the tallest, went last, since the final person had to boost himself up. As she crouched against the side of the house, facing the center of the small town, she scanned the area for others and saw Donovan come softly through the opening. Well, as softly as a six-foot man covered in military protective gear could fit through a three-foot-by-three-foot vent.

  As her partner tumbled to the ground next to the spot where she and Wade had crouched down against the house, she heard more noises from inside.

  The house construction, like all the houses here, was relatively bare bones. The front stoop was small, a concrete staircase leading to it, the front door opening to everything. There was no awning to cover it, no railing to prevent anyone from falling off the tiny landing. In fact, had there been a screen door, a person would have had to step back onto the concrete staircase to make room for the swinging door. The cinderblocks they leaned against were bare to the open area. The little house sported no shrubs, no decorative covering, nothing to hide in or behind.

  She heard coughing inside the house. Joseph. The sound was a hard wracking of the man’s lungs, a bodily reaction that he could not hide. The three of them, staying low, looked at each other. This was their chance.

  Eleri was tensing her muscles to leap when Wade shook his head oddly, looking to Donovan. Her partner nodded back, but had the same confused look on his face. Worried now, she was opening her mouth when Donovan opened his. He didn’t speak but counted on her to read his lips.

  “Accelerant. Gasoline. In the house. A lot of it, I think.”

&nb
sp; She turned to Wade, who had also watched what Donovan said, and he nodded in agreement. “We have to go in anyway.”

  They agreed, but it was better that they knew they would possibly be stepping into puddles of highly flammable liquid. More than that, there would be fumes everywhere. Fumes that would make them dizzy, alter their breathing, fumes that would light up and blow at the slightest spark.

  Shit.

  Eleri popped up anyway. Now or never, she was thinking even as she threw the unlocked front door open. But she hadn’t imagined what she now saw.

  Joseph sat smiling in the lone chair in the center of the room. As expected of a house dedicated to God and austerity, the chair was polished wood and none too comfortable looking. Two children sat with him. The one held tightly in his lap she recognized as Hope—seven-ish years old, or so Jonah said. The other girl sat at his feet—Angel, not much older than Hope. Both children had wet patches on the front of their shirts and odd spots on their clothing. Eleri noticed that Joseph did not.

  A ring of gasoline surrounded them, the fumes making her dizzy just standing there. The children looked at her and flinched. Angel even attached herself to Joseph’s leg, but he shook her, telling her to stay where he’d put her. He was probably concerned that she’d get some of that gasoline on him. The girls’ wary eyes bothered Eleri, and she wanted to shout, “I’m not the monster here!”

  Behind her, Wade and Donovan stood sentry, but it was Donovan who bumped her in the ribs, motioning her to look around—to see that the fumes were so overwhelming because the gasoline was everywhere. In addition to the circle around the chair, there were other trails—across the scant furniture, into the few other rooms in the house.

  Joseph must have noticed them looking. Noticed Wade lining up a shot to his head, because he held up his lighter as he spoke. “There’s a bomb in the other room. Lighting the fumes will ignite it. You can’t shoot me and get out fast enough. You sure can’t get the girls out fast enough.” Flicking his wrist casually, he looked at his watch. “Me, I have all day.”

  Eleri put her hand on Wade’s arm. Bullets weren’t the answer. Wade was an excellent marksman, but . . . She whispered, “Are you really good enough to take that shot?” To take out Joseph’s brains with certainty that he wouldn’t hit one of the girls?

  “Yes.” Wade whispered back. “I’m very good at this. It’s just physics.”

  But by the tone in his voice she could tell that his physics was thwarting him. It was no longer about trajectories and momentum but about the fact that Joseph’s thumb sat on the mechanism of the lighter. It was now an issue of flame and explosives. Wade had been a mentor as well as a friend, and some of his old words came back to her. It wasn’t enough to understand physics, it was better to understand that other people didn’t understand physics. But she couldn’t find a loophole here. Even if they shot Joseph before he got one of them or the girls, a single twitch with his lighter hand and the place would go up.

  Donovan began to move to do a sweep of the house, but Joseph pulled his own gun up, aiming it at Hope. “Don’t move. I’ll shoot her.”

  Eleri’s heart stopped. He would shoot the children. People were things to him, tools to be used for an end purpose. Most sociopaths considered other humans beneath them because they were tied by compassion and empathy while the immoral moved freely according to their own plans.

  But she stood her ground. Physics again.

  “Donovan, search the place.” She motioned him to go, imploring him to understand and having no idea if he did.

  Joseph moved the gun again, now as if to shoot the child at his feet. Of course not the one on his lap, as she was surely his protective vest.

  Eleri stayed planted where she was and didn’t react, though she wanted to. Her voice was calm, cool, undisturbed by Joseph’s disturbing statements. “If you shoot her, the spark made when you fire your gun will ignite the fumes.”

  His eyes narrowed at her and he grabbed the girl tighter as Donovan disappeared into the other room. Even in all the gear, when her partner was on his feet he was quieter than she could ever imagine being. She prayed he found something they could use. A small popping noise from the other room came to her. Joseph turned his head, too, but she pulled his attention back to her. He needed to forget he’d heard it, even as she wondered what the hell it was.

  Wade stood silently, gun at his side, inhaling slowly and Eleri wondered what he was scenting, if it was anything useful.

  She spoke to cover any more noises. “You don’t want to shoot her and have things go up, Joseph.”

  “You’re lying. You can’t start a fire with a bullet.” He grinned and the look was truly evil. In her heart, Eleri was afraid, but she didn’t let it show. She wasn’t surprised when he tightened his hand around the little girl and said, “I’ve tried it.”

  He held up the lighter, not flicking it. Not worried too much about it working, he only needed the spark, not a full flame.

  The children were struggling, but he used his leg and one arm to clamp them into place. Aside from his head, there was nothing vital she or Wade could hit that wasn’t covered by one of these girls doused in gasoline.

  Eleri didn’t hate much. She knew people got into bad things, knew that most people were either too stupid to know what they were getting into or just got tangled and struggled their way deeper and deeper into their problems. But this man in front of her? Eleri hated him.

  So she kept talking. “You’re right, the bullet itself won’t ignite anything, but the firing mechanism will. You’ve seen that light yourself when you shoot your gun. What that means is that the explosion won’t start where the bullet hits, it will start right at the gun in your hand. You’ll be the first thing to burn. You and the two little incendiary devices you’re holding.”

  Eleri tipped her head. Your move, asshole.

  Just then, she saw Donovan enter the room from the other side. These small houses, probably just four rooms, were often linked circularly. It was an old architectural trick to help the air flow in the days before air-conditioning had been invented. This was a hot place; there was no spare electricity for AC, so the house was built to their advantage. And thank God because nothing else here seemed to be in her favor.

  Donovan held a bucket—a heavy one—in his left hand, gun in the right, and he was creeping slowly toward Joseph from behind. He was far enough to one side that if the man turned his head, Joseph would see her partner in his peripheral vision. Eleri stared at him, waiting, hoping he would stare back.

  She had no idea what Donovan had planned, but she had to be ready and clearly Donovan didn’t want to be seen. Her job now was to help maintain that.

  Joseph watched her through narrowed eyes, obviously considering what she’d said, so Eleri played another card. “Send the girls over here to us, Joseph. We’ll all walk out of here.” Then she lied like a rug. “We all get out alive.”

  There was no way this asshole was leaving here in anything other than a body bag.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  She shrugged. It was a bad card to play. She was bluffing with the girls’ lives, but she had to keep him looking forward, had to give Donovan the time to get into place without being seen. But what the hell was he going to do with a bucket of what she assumed was water? Startle the man?

  She threw out her card. “Then shoot her. See what happens.”

  Pausing, Eleri watched him. The psychopath didn’t even have to decide not to shoot the girl, he just had to take long enough to decide that Donovan could do whatever he needed. He was now directly behind the chair, and Joseph hadn’t flinched. If he knew her partner was back there, he hadn’t given any indication of it.

  She spoke again, playing her game. “Go ahead, shoot her. But actually you won’t get to see what happens. The blast will blow us all back, but you’ll be burning before you can do anything about it. That’s a real nasty way to go.”

  Of course in her scenario the girls would burn too. Horri
bly. But she didn’t mention it as it would be of no concern to Joseph. The girls were only useful because the agents cared about them.

  Joseph’s eyes narrowed at Eleri again and to her he looked like a snake or a shark. She could see directly into the space where a soul should have fit. “I don’t think you’re—”

  He didn’t finish. Donovan had dropped into place, suddenly grabbing Joseph’s hand that held the lighter and, as he made the move, Eleri figured it out, a smile fighting to spread on her face.

  Grasping Joseph’s wrist and applying pressure to the nerves there, Donovan extended the man’s arm and dunked his hand, lighter and all, into the bucket. Joseph opened his fist; there was no other reaction when Donovan used his own physiology against him. Too startled by the man behind him, by the water, by the loss of his device to set them all on fire, Joseph took just a moment too long to react.

  “Wade!” It was the only thing Eleri could get out as she reacted to the suddenly changing situation herself.

  With the lighter out of the picture, they were down to guns, and hopefully Joseph still believed his would spark the room. Donovan, bucket still in hand—though Joseph had pulled his own hand back, dripping and without his lighter—tried to throw the water on the girls. He hit Joseph with the splash in the process, once again making the man stutter and pause for just a split second to regroup.

  Maybe Donovan was trying to counteract the gasoline the girls were soaked in. Maybe he was trying to startle Joseph and slow him down. Maybe he just wanted to create a ruckus so he could grab the little girl off the man’s lap.

  Snatching her from behind and firmly around the waist, Donovan dragged her off to the side, to Eleri’s right. Wade, having leapt forward at Eleri’s command, grabbed at Angel, tumbling with her to the other side, leaving Eleri and Joseph, snapping their guns up, aiming at each other.