The Profilers

by Suzanne Steele

  She hadn’t counted on the coyote who brought her over hooking her up with a money hungry pimp. Granted, he wasn’t the typical pimp who set out to market flesh on the downtown Louisville streets, but his addiction to meth had turned him into a man who bartered the use her body in exchange for his next high.

  She had managed to avoid him for the last week in an attempt to put some money away, hoping to start a new life for her and her baby. Having her mother here to watch her son, Juan, covered childcare but she still had the dangers of working the stroll to consider. Not only did Juan depend on her financially, her mother did now as well. She forced down the panic she always felt before heading out to work. Being paranoid wasn’t going to work in her favor. She understood why the other girls got high just to get past the fear and loathing of sleeping with strangers, but she had managed to stay away from drugs by keeping the welfare of her son in the forefront of her mind. She made her way out to the living room after making sure to square her shoulders and put on a brave face. She wanted to appear calm and confident, knowing she would have to deal with the scrutiny of her mother.

  “Louisa, why do you do this? Sleeping with strange men is not a job. It’s so dangerous, mija.”

  “The bills aren’t going to pay themselves, mother. Juan needs diapers and formula, not to mention they are threatening to turn off the electricity if the bill isn’t paid this week. It isn’t just about the bills either. If social services finds out Juan is in a house with no water or electricity, they’ll take him away from me and put him in foster care.”

  The gravity of their situation must have hit her mother hard. She could see the moment when her mother’s concern and disapproval turned into acceptance, though her eyes were still full of worry. Her mother gently touched her cheek and nodded, signifying that she understood. “Please be safe, mija.”

  Louisa headed for the door and made her way out before she could change her mind about working tonight. The family was depending on her. She was their only means of support and she couldn’t allow fear to override logic. The fact remained that the bills were due and she needed to make the money to pay them. She listened outside the door to assure herself that her mother had locked it and then made her way down the street to start yet another night of turning tricks.

  Rene studied her partner as he sat in the driver’s seat, nursing his umpteenth cup of coffee for the day. His dark brown hair fell in long layers yet didn’t obscure his serious, deep brown eyes. He had a beard and mustache but it was so close-cut that it could almost be mistaken for a five-o-clock shadow; it only added to his boyish good looks. His dark suit jacket had been thrown in the backseat and he wore suspenders with a crisp, white shirt. At some point, he had rolled up the sleeves, revealing strong, masculine forearms. Though he was slim, he was also sinewy. She had studied his background and knew he was a trained killer. He might look like the innocent boy next door but nothing could be further from the truth.

  She’d done her homework on him as soon as she had learned he would be her partner. Looking at him, you would think he was a pretty easygoing guy and, for the most part, he was. That was, of course, until he needed to use his training for survival. The FBI had spent a lot of money on this agent. He was a sharpshooter, a black belt in mixed martial arts, trained in hand-to-hand combat, and he was deadly with a knife.

  “Are you finished checking me out, Agent?”

  “When I check you out, Agent Turner, you won’t have to ask me about it. There’ll be no doubt as to what I’m doing.”

  He turned and looked her full in the face as if he was studying her intent. She was shocked to see a look of amusement cross his face for the first time since she had met him. Stoic that he normally was, he usually never let her see any emotion. Right now, however, his expression was clearly letting her know he was intrigued with her boldness.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s your story, Agent Murphy?”

  “Are you sure you want an answer to that, Mr. I’m All Business at Work?”

  “We’re not working right now. We’re just two adults enjoying a cup of coffee.”

  He jumped, startled when she fisted his tie and brought his face close to hers. “I may work for you but if you were in my bedroom, boy, you’d be knelt down in front of me and licking my boots. That is, if I didn’t have your face buried deep into my pussy, running your tongue up and down my sweet slit.”

  She looked down to see his cock rock hard and tenting his trousers. She ran her hand over it and eyed him as she purred, “I thought so. When you decide you’re ready to let go of the reins and get rid of all that stress you’re carrying from your job, you just let me know.”

  It was just what she had already picked up on about her partner from only one day of working with him. Her partner was kinky as fuck—just like her.

  Chapter Five

  Louisa tugged on the light sweater she had worn, wrapping it around her body tightly in an attempt to ward off the chilly night air. She hadn’t had a single date yet and her feet were killing her from walking all night in shoes that were too tight and too high.

  She groaned as she saw her boyfriend’s car making its way down the street slow enough to spot her. Sure enough, he made a quick U-turn after he passed and then pulled up beside her.

  “I thought so, bitch,” he yelled at her through the window before he got out of the car and made his way over to her. His friend sat in the passenger seat, leering at her in a way that brought back memories of the last time her boyfriend and he had used her for their sick pleasure. It had been a night of hell as they smoked meth and took turns fucking her over and over again. She had managed to get away after her boyfriend had threatened her with calling five of his friends over to run a train on her. She had left him with the promise that she would go make some money for him so he could score more meth and he had let her go. That was the last time she had seen him until tonight.

  “You been out here fucking working and taking all the damn money for yourself. You owe me some fucking money, whore. The last time I saw you, you told me you were going to work for me and that was a fucking week ago.”

  She never saw the slap coming. It landed hard on her mouth, splitting her lip. She screamed as he grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling her closer to repeatedly slap her.

  “That’s right! Hit that bitch for lying to you, Reginald.” His friend cackled from his seat in the car. She used the opportunity to run when Reginald looked over to answer his friend who was egging on the abuse.

  Her feet couldn’t travel fast enough as she ran down a one-way street that she hoped would ensure a successful escape. She wiped the blood from her mouth and tried to smooth her hair down but she knew she would have to head home now. Nobody was going to pick her up looking like this.

  “Hey, what the hell happened to you? Sweetie, get in the car and let me take you to the hospital.”

  “No, I don’t want to go to the hospital but I would appreciate the ride if you could take me home.”

  She jumped in the good samaritan’s car and ducked down just as she caught a glimpse of her boyfriend headed down the cross street. If she didn’t take this ride, she was looking at another night of abuse with Reginald and his flunkie friend. Anything had to be better than that.

  Agent Turner made his way through his mansion’s gates, trying to push away his regret at not inviting his partner over to check out the chat room site the librarian had told them about. At least, that’s what he was telling himself.

  He stripped out of his clothes and stood under the showerhead, allowing the water to wash away not only the grime of the streets, but the stress of the day as well.

  He allowed his mind to drift back to his partner’s show of aggression. When she had grabbed his tie and yanked him towards her, his cock had immediately hardened. The last relationship he had been in, he had been the aggressor but he had always been intrigued with the idea of having a Mistress.

  He lathered the soap up in his hand and pumped his well-en
dowed cock as he daydreamed about being at Rene’s feet. What was it she had said? Kissing her boots and running his tongue up and down her sweet slit. His knees shook and his seed spewed out of him with such force, he felt he might collapse in the shower.

  He decided he would wait until tomorrow to go to the site so that he could have Rene set up a fake profile as an abuse victim. As for this Mistress business, he’d never had any kind of personal relationship with a colleague before and he wasn’t sure he should start now. Then again, he had never had a partner like Rene and she was bringing out a side of him he had kept hidden from the general public. His family money kept him from trusting the average woman and his preference for kink only compounded the issue. Truth be told, he was tired of being lonely. He was a profiler at heart and after one day of being with his new partner, he knew two things: she was interested in him sexually, and it wasn’t because of his money.

  Yes, he would get a feel for her tomorrow and if he still felt a green light, he would invite her back to his place to set up a profile on the chat site. Again, that’s what he told himself. He made his way to bed and for the first time in a long time, he had something on his mind other the job.

  Chapter Six

  Rene sat in her partner’s office on the opposite of his desk, eyeing him as he handed her a specialty coffee and blueberry muffin. She leaned over the desk and purposely taunted him. “Such a good boy, paying attention to your Mistress’ likes and dislikes. You would do well to continue doing so.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “I’d be willing to bet that you went home and masturbated while you thought about me choking you with that uptight black tie you wore yesterday. If you ever come without my permission again, I’ll beat your ass. Now would be the time to say, yes ma’am. After we do that, you can slip into your role of being my boss… at work.” She made certain to emphasize the at work aspect.

  She chuckled as she noted him squirming in his seat, no doubt due to the hard cock he now had from the way she was reading him the riot act.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Such a good boy,” she crooned.

  “You guys got a body,” their boss’ voice interrupted their interaction with one another.

  “Our boy is escalating,” her partner noted.

  “Not good, not good at all,” she replied. They jumped in the car and made their way to yet another unexplained death.

  Agent Turner and Rene made their way down a backstreet that had been nicknamed blowjob alley by the locals for the antics that went on there night after night. The location, in and of itself, led him to believe that they were going to be dealing with the death of a hooker. No suburban housewife would be caught dead in this area of the west end, much less this particular alley. Eighteenth and Wilson was an area well known for being a stroll. This girl had clearly been working the night before.

  In sync, both agents pulled back their jackets, revealing their badges to the officer on duty.

  “I keep telling y’all that you don’t need to do that. Hey, Agent Murphy,” Officer Billy Bob McGee spoke to Rene, ignoring Agent Turner until he turned and scowled at him, feeling an emotion he wasn’t at all familiar with—jealousy.

  “I told you no flirting at work, Agent Murphy,” Agent Turner barked out at her. She only smiled, well aware that his ire spurred from jealousy. She had no interest in the officer or any other man except for her boss and partner.

  “Coroner didn’t make it today. He’s backed up with bodies,” the CSI agent informed them and then went back to work. “You know this guy is all over the map as far as the type of women he’s targeted to kill. The last one was a socialite and this one’s a hooker. It doesn’t get much more polar opposite than that.”

  “Well, let’s focus on the things that the cases do have in common.”

  “He fucking killed her! He did it. I know her pimp did this!” They all looked up to see Officer McGee restraining a woman who was trying to make her way past the police crime tape and over to the body.

  Agent Turner got up and made his way towards the woman with Rene in tow. “You know the victim?” Agent Turner asked, pulling his notebook and pen from his jacket’s inside pocket.

  “Yeah, I know her and I know that worthless bastard who killed her too. His name’s Reginald and the last time he beat her ass for nothing, he and his buddy raped her all night until she finally got away from them.”

  “Do you know Reginald’s last name?”

  “Nah, I don’t know his last name but he stays up around the corner,” she moved further out of the alley and pointed to a white house that could be seen from where they were standing. “They’re sitting out there right now and I don’t give a shit if you tell them I was the one who sent you. He needs to pay for killing that poor girl. She gotta baby.” Agent Turner watched as tears welled up in the woman’s eyes before she spoke again, “She had a baby.”

  Agent Turner wasted no time catching his partner’s eye and nodding his head in the direction of the house the woman indicated. There were a couple of young men sitting on the porch, clearly watching what was going on, that the agent wanted to question.

  As they approached, Agent Turner saw the men shove the joint they had been smoking down into a potted plant. They were waving their hands but it did nothing to clear the smell of weed still wafting through the air. Agent Turner was the first to speak, asking both men what they knew.

  “Man, I don’t know nothin’ about that bitch dying.”

  “You sound like you’re really torn up about it, Reginald.” Rene’s sarcasm was palpable.

  “Damn, baby, now you look good. I ain’t never seen no po-po as fine as you are.”

  “Hey! Eyes in this direction, buddy. We’re talking murder here and you were the last one to see that girl alive.”

  “Hell nah I wasn’t. That bitch got in some white boy’s car when she ran off from me last night.”

  “What kind of car?”

  “Some top of the line black Cadillac.”

  “Do you have a better description besides white boy?”

  “Fuck, I don’t know, some white boy in a baseball cap. Had it pulled so far over his eyes I couldn’t get a good look at him. I figured he was a john and the bitch was making my money back she stole from me.” At that point, Reginald looked at his friend, “bitch tells you she’s going to work and don’t come back… that’s the same as stealing as far as I’m concerned.”

  His friend just bobbed his head up and down, “Yep, that’s right, Reginald.”

  Agent Turner flicked a business card between two fingers and held it out in Reginald’s direction. “Don’t go anywhere. I may have more questions.”

  “Ain’t got nowhere to go.”

  Agent Turner pulled the card away just as Reginald reached out to grab it and stared him down.

  “I ain’t going nowhere, man.”

  “The next time you address my partner, have the respect to address her as Agent Murphy.”

  He stared and waited until Reginald said, “Will do,” before he let go of the card.

  The two friends wasted no time, grabbing and relighting the joint they had been smoking, as the agents walked away.

  “You’re not going to take him in for questioning?” Rene asked her partner.

  “No, he didn’t kill her. An accidental killing if they had been in a fight, I could believe, but that dimwit having the skills to pull off organized serial kills is not even remotely feasible.”

  “Yes, I can see what you’re saying. He doesn’t strike me as a mastermind criminal either.”

  They both chuckled as they made their way back over to where the CSIs were loading up the body to take down to the coroner. “Let’s follow these boys down to the coroner’s office. I’ve got a few questions for Herb.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be expecting you. You never can wait until he’s done with an examination.”

  He turned and smiled at his new partner. “You’re learning me quick.”

  “That’s becaus
e I care enough to study you, David.”

  “Agent Turner at work!”

  She just chuckled, obviously trying to get a rise out him.

  “Oh, chill out and let’s go see what Herb has to say about this body.”

  “Mr. Foster at work!”

  She just laughed at him again as they got into the car to head back downtown. Hopefully the coroner wouldn’t give him too hard a time about his lack of patience.

  Chapter Seven

  Agent Turner circled the autopsy table, watching as the coroner patiently went through the examination of yet another victim of abuse. Wasn’t it enough that they had been subjected to abuse in their short lives? Did their deaths have to come in such a way that demanded they pay penance for not leaving their abusers? Whoever was doing this was clearly very angry that the women hadn’t had the strength to leave their tormentors.

  “We have the signature plastic bag tied over her head with duct tape as well as the duct tape in an X pattern over her mouth. Our killer knows what he’s doing. He’s smart enough to not leave finger prints and I found traces of cornstarch.”

  “Cornstarch?” Rene replied inquisitively.

  Herb smiled as he looked up at her, “Yes, it replaced talc on gloves—less of an irritant.” He continued on another path of discovery, “There’s something else I’ve noticed but I didn’t want to say anything before I confirmed it. These last two victims have been tasered. Do you see these two prong marks on her neck?”

  Both Rene and Agent Turner leaned down to get a closer look. Upon being that close, they both turned, looking at each other for a just a second too long, and each acknowledging that they felt the energy flowing between them. There was no doubt there was a mutual attraction but they would be careful not to let it interfere with their professionalism.