When she moved back up to Samantha’s lips, she whispered, “Think any more on living together?”
Samantha jerked and stiffened. “I haven’t. It’s not something I’m interested in.”
Lollie clenched her jaw as anger surged in her chest. She held it back enough. She didn’t want this night to end too soon. This time, instead of pressing kisses to Samantha’s body, she bit her. Not too hard, but hard enough to leave welts in the morning. Samantha hissed when Lollie bit down particularly hard at the top of her hip just on her side, but when Lollie moved her hand between Samantha’s legs, she knew Samantha was enjoying their play time.
“Let me go grab something real quick.” Lollie slipped from the bed and from the room. She headed into the kitchen and pulled open the silverware drawer. She’d already chosen that morning. The orange one. It was sharp, she’d made sure of that earlier in the day. But it was the odd knife out, the one that didn’t match the rest of the set, which was very much like their relationship. She also set the timer on the stove for ninety minutes.
With the timer set, there was no going back. Her heart raced as Lollie headed into the bedroom and settled the knife toward the bottom of the bed. She kissed Samantha’s lips and smiled against her. Lollie turned her body so her nose brushed the apex of Samantha’s legs, and Samantha could reach her with her tongue through the open bottoms of her lingerie. She lowered her hips, and they moved together. Guilt almost ripped through her because they were so good at this, but if Samantha didn’t want a relationship, then there was no other way. They were going to have to break up.
Blinking, Lollie moved her hips back and forth as they continued to pleasure each other. Samantha tugged her arms in the confines of the cuffs. The thought made Lollie snort. She’d made it far too easy. Her orgasm built as she thought about what she was going to do, her hands around Samantha’s throat, the light as it would fade from her eyes, the pallor of her skin paling as her lips turned blue and would have that slight part to them.
Lollie moaned when Samantha’s teeth brushed against her. She pushed back, liking the feel of it. The knife was within easy grasp. It would all happen so fast, Samantha would be none the wiser. Then she could go on her way, find someone new, and settle down with them. Her orgasm caught her by surprise, and Lollie stopped, curling her body in on itself as she rode out her pleasure.
Not one to leave her partner unsatisfied, she finished Samantha off before she moved, grabbing the knife and bringing it closer to Samantha’s head. Samantha caught sight of it, and her chest jerked up and down as her breathing increased.
“What’s that?” Samantha asked, nodding toward the metal weapon.
“A knife,” Lollie answered, straight forward.
With her jaw set, she slid her hands up Samantha’s chest, running her fingers over her breasts and her nipples, twisting them with enough pain to cause pleasure to ripple.
“Wh—what are you going to do with it?”
“Stab you.”
“Lollie.”
Chuckling, Lollie shook her head and shushed Samantha. “Don’t worry, baby. It’ll be okay.”
With her hands around Samantha’s neck, Lollie tightened her grip. Samantha jerked her knees up to try and throw Lollie off, but Lollie clenched her thighs together to keep Samantha in place, pleasure coursing through her body and to her core as Samantha’s belly writhed against her. It gave her so much pleasure, more than anything else they had done. She rocked her hips back and forth as she kept her hands in place at Samantha’s neck, but it was all over too soon.
Not satisfied, Lollie grunted and grabbed the knife, anger surging through her. She pursed her lips and jammed the knife into Samantha’s chest once, twice, three then four times and finally a fifth and final blow. Blood spattered on her face, the warm liquid running down her cheek to her chin to drop onto Samantha’s pale and unscathed belly.
Releasing a breath, Lollie pushed off Samantha’s prone form and leaned against the wall, the knife held loosely between her fingers. She finished herself off since Samantha had failed to give her that good grace. After showering, she made herself some dinner and sat at the kitchen table to eat. She’d have to go somewhere new, find somewhere else to start over. St. Louis had been a bad idea. It was far too similar to Chicago. She needed somewhere new, somewhere completely different.
Opening up the iPad, she searched top places for people to move. Texas, Oregon, Arizona, Washington. There. Seattle. She’d been there once as a child, ages before. She had loved what she remembered of it. The streets were filled with people, friendly people. Booking herself a flight, Lollie finished her dinner and made plans for her next big move. It wouldn’t be long until she found her new life and was able to truly start over.
Chapter Fourteen
Morgan had arrived early that morning, but she had to wait for the local PD to let her in before she could go to the crime scene. She’d walked the apartment complex twice before the detective arrived, well past nine in the morning. The murder had been discovered the night before, the car Morgan had been searching for parked by the apartment had only pissed her off even more.
When it had been run, an alert had popped up on her end, and she had immediately called Taylor and told him she was leaving in the morning. He readily agreed. She clenched her jaw and glared at the detective in charge. If the St. Louis Police Department had only taken her inquiries seriously, then perhaps they would have one less dead body on their hands.
Morgan stomped straight toward the detective’s vehicle. Pax’s rental SUV stopped her short, and the window rolled down. Pax gave her a grin, and Morgan sneered at him. “You better brighten up, buttercup, if you want any information from them. Going in there like that will get you nowhere.”
“Shove it. You got the good stuff.”
“Always, love.” Pax handed her the cup of coffee out the window, and she breathed in the aroma before taking a sip and hissing. “It’s hot.”
“No shit,” she muttered but took another sip anyway.
Pax drove ahead and parked next to the detective’s vehicle. There were still uniformed officers on the property. Morgan walked to meet up with Pax, but he was already talking to the detective in charge. She raised her eyebrow at him and waited for introductions to be made.
He nodded at her. “This is my partner, Special Agent Stone. This is Detective Hadley.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Morgan put her hand out for him to shake, but he stared at her and turned back to Pax. Inwardly groaning, Morgan listened and drank her coffee, absorbing anything he said. She worked it into her already-built profile.
When Hadley offered to let them in the apartment, he turned to her with a hand on his hip and a smirk on his lips. “It’s a bloody mess in there, forewarning you.”
“Why? Because you think that I’m a lowly woman who is going to faint at the sight of blood or because you just think I might be interested in the fact that this murder is a lot more violent than the others?”
Hadley’s lips thinned.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Morgan pushed her way around him and walked up the awkward cement steps to the building. She made it to the top floor before Pax and Hadley were even at the second floor. She was pissed, and the anger running through her veins was not going to do her well. She flashed her badge at the uniform and went inside after putting on her booties to cover her shoes, not wanting to wait one more minute for the asshole behind her.
No one was in the apartment but her. Taking in a deep breath, she caught the scent of flowers and bacon. Someone had cooked recently. Walking into the kitchen, Morgan found the dishes done and no sign that anyone had eaten there, much like the other crime scenes. Whoever was committing these murders was meticulous before they left about making sure the house or apartment was in complete order.
Morgan moved to the dining room. Nothing looked amiss there either. The chairs were tucked under the table, pushed in and out of the way. The living room had the throw blanket fo
lded and tossed over the arm of the couch. Pax walked in, his breath slightly heavy from the climb up the stairs. She’d tease him about it later but really didn’t want to open any opportunity for the asshat to talk more than necessary. “Body found in the bed?”
“Yeah, this way.” Detective Hadley led the way into the back bedroom, past the bathroom. It was a small apartment. No more than five hundred square feet. It wasn’t spotlessly clean, but it was tidy. Everything was in place, just as she had requested it, except for the body. They had already taken that to the morgue, she knew. She and Pax would make that stop next, but first she’d wanted to get into the mind of her murderer.
The bedroom was a completely different story. The bedsheets were bloody, but the vague outline of where the body had been was imprinted into the pattern of blood. Splatters of red littered the ceiling, the headboard, and two walls, like the killer had shifted position in the middle of stabbing the victim. Unlike Andrea’s murder, this one was violent. If Morgan didn’t know better, she’d say her killer was angry.
“She’s getting more violent,” Morgan commented to Pax, bypassing Hadley.
“She?” Hadley asked.
Morgan refused to answer and let Pax do the talking for her. If she didn’t have a direct question to ask Hadley, she wasn’t about to talk to him, and she might even be of mind to complain to his supervisor if she could find the energy and the time.
“Theory is our killer is a woman.”
“Not theory. She is a woman. Your tests will come back, undoubtedly, that the victim had sex with a woman before she was killed. There has never been a sign of a male in the homes of our victims.”
“Jesus,” Hadley muttered.
Morgan spun on him with a grin on her face. “Want to make another snarky comment about women now or afraid one of us might kill you?”
Hadley blanched but wisely kept his trap shut. Morgan took her own photos on her phone, knowing she’d get copies of everything anyway but wanting access to it sooner rather than later. She looked through the stuff on the dresser, finding one of the small decorative boxes opened.
“Do we know what was in here?”
Hadley shook his head. “Our bet is nothing.”
“Something was in here. Probably jewelry. It’s missing. Make a note of that, Pax, would you?”
“She your boss?” Hadley whispered to Pax but loud enough Morgan heard him.
She shook her head as her back stiffened. Some people were just assholes. She knew Pax would have her back. She watched him in the reflection of the mirror over the dresser as Pax rolled his eyes and shook his head at Hadley.
“She is the behavior analyst, the smart one of the partnership, and she is the lead on the case, not me. I’m not her lackey, but we work together. Seriously, are all detectives in your departments such sexist pigs? If you want someone solving this case, you want her on it. Not me. Not you. Her.”
Grinning, Morgan looked down at the floor so Hadley wouldn’t see her. Pax always had her back, no matter what. Locking her lips, Morgan turned to the two men. “Which knife is missing?”
“No knife.”
“Then where is it?”
Hadley gave her a look of bewilderment.
Morgan turned her head to the side and stared him down with a raised eyebrow. “If there is no knife missing, where is the knife that stabbed the victim? Or do you think our killer just ripped the nice clean lines into her heart with her bare fingers?”
Putting his hands up, Hadley stepped back. “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
“About time you figured that out. The knife. Which one is missing?”
“There’s no knife missing from what we can tell. There is one set in the kitchen, and it is all there.”
“Our killer takes the knives with her, she always uses one from the residence of her victims. She took a knife. She clearly took jewelry, too. Are all of you inept or just you?”
Pax shot Morgan a look, but she ignored him. She wanted an answer, and she wanted to shut Hadley up for good, but she knew she was toeing the line to not having a willing partner in him. She almost didn’t care. Almost.
“Look, I just got this case last night. You have clearly had more information for some time now. Why don’t you tell me what you know so we can get an APB out for this killer.”
“There’s been one out,” Morgan answered, fire in her tone. “For a rental car that is conveniently parked outside this exact apartment. I’ll have that sent to the bureau here so we can have our team go through it instead of yours, since clearly you keep missing things.”
Morgan stalked out of the room and into the living area. She needed a breather. Pax would finish up. She’d seen just about all she wanted in there, anyway. The body would tell her more. Morgan waited for Pax down at the car. He took another thirty minutes with Hadley, and when they got into the vehicle, he sent her a glare.
“You could have played nicer.”
“He could have not been a dick.”
Pax snorted. “True. To the morgue?”
“Yes, please. Drive on!”
###
After they spent an hour going over the preliminary report since the autopsy hadn’t even been started, they went to the field office off Market Street and checked in with the agents who had been doing a bit more investigating than the local police department had. She was glad they’d taken over the case shortly after they’d been made aware of the murder, but still, working with Hadley in any capacity had been trying on her patience.
Morgan plopped down in an empty conference room and pulled up her laptop. She went through her emails, double-checked the credit reports and set up alerts for all of Samantha’s information. As much as she hoped her killer was still in the area, she had a sinking feeling she’d already fled somewhere else. The violence in this crime over the others was unlike she had anticipated. Something about Samantha Gideon hit a nerve with their killer.
Morgan had the rental car towed and checked it over before letting the crime scene guys have a go at it. They’d pull fingerprints. She wanted more a feel for what her killer was thinking. She walked around the car three times before it hit her. If the rental was at the apartment, and the victim’s vehicle was at the apartment, how on earth did her killer leave?
Spinning on her heel, Morgan called Pax on her cell. “Hey, set up a search for taxis and Ubers and whatever. She had to leave somehow, right? There’s not exactly a bus route nearby there, so find out who had a pickup in that area sometime between last night and this morning.”
“Got it. Also, we got a hit on Mr. Jimmy.”
“You’re kidding.” Morgan rubbed her lips together as she walked toward the elevator.
“No. We gotta get back tonight. Turns out, he’s in Chicago.”
“Well, damn.” Morgan let out a breath. “These guys here can finish this up easily enough, but I was hoping to stay for the autopsy at least.”
“I know, but Mr. Jimmy—”
“Yeah, I get it.” Her thoughts immediately turned to Dimitri. If they were able to take Mr. Jimmy into custody, the battle Dimitri would be fighting would just begin. She’d be seeing his name pop up for years to come. Morgan stepped into the elevator. “I’m coming up. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She hung up the phone, sliding it into her pocket and hit the button for the floor she wanted. If they had to get back, her time to work the murder was severely limited. Perhaps it hadn’t been wise to take on another case just as their trafficking one picked up steam.
Finally at her floor, Morgan stepped out into the hallway and went down to the conference room she and Pax were holed up in. He was waiting for her, and she put her hands out in surprise as she walked in. “What did they find?”
“They’re pretty sure Mr. Jimmy is Jonathon Lockland.”
“Crap.” Morgan paused. “You sure?”
“No. We have to verify some information first, but Dimitri’s information and my kids’ match up.”
&nbs
p; “I thought we were looking at someone in DC?”
“We were, but it didn’t pan out. Lockland seems to be a better fit.”
Morgan narrowed her eyes. “Let me see the profile again.”
He handed it over. She skimmed it and took the second file he offered, which was a brief introduction to Jonathon Lockland, CEO of Lockland Divisions. It seemed to be a company that did…not a whole lot. His finances, however, told a completely different story.
“This could be him. I’d need to see an interview with him and have some more information before I can confirm if he matches the profile or not.”
“We’re working on it.”
“The taxi search?”
“It’s up and running, but Morgan…”
“What?”
“She did a couple searches on the victim’s iPad. One of which was a search of top ten places to live.”
Morgan plopped down into the chair by her computer, waiting for Pax to continue. She breathed shallowly as she clung on to her patience. “Well? You gonna share or not?”
“Seattle. They think she went to Seattle.”
“I’m checking flight manifests.”
“They’re already running them.”
“Well, I’ll do them, too. It can’t hurt.”
“Morgan, don’t you think, maybe, you’re becoming a little obsessed with this case?”
“No.” She turned her chair to face him. “It’s new. It’s different. It’s rare to find a female serial killer. I much prefer murder to sex crimes, you know that.”
“Yeah.” He popped his head to the side and sat in his own chair. “That’s true.”
“Uh huh.” Morgan looked at her computer, pulling out the annoying reading glasses she knew she needed in order to see better. Aging was not fun. Snorting at the thought, Morgan started her searches to run and notify her if anything matched up what she was looking for. She pulled Samantha’s financials and bit her lip as she lost herself in the research that would eventually catch her a murderer.
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