Krewe of Hunters Series, Volume 5

by Heather Graham

  “We should probably head down, then,” Brett said. “Lara can start talking to her to calm her down or even get in the water with her.”

  “Sure,” she said.

  He noticed from the corner of his eye that she didn’t look directly at him, either.

  He was eager to get out there, praying that they could find a needle in a haystack. He realized he was also anxious for the day to go by and for it to be night again.

  The Coast Guard cutter Vigilance, again with Lieutenant Gunderson captaining, arrived at precisely ten. Rick and Lara started off in the water, leading Cocoa out of the lagoon.

  Brett was grateful to the geeks once again; they’d run the calculations for the night Antoine had been buried the first time, adding in the coordinates where they’d found the other body parts and taking into consideration the different timing, the tides, the currents and the weather.

  Their first two dives proved to be futile, but on the third Cocoa chittered away at Lara, trying to lure her down. They were just off a sandbar. Seaweed and sea grasses grew around broken branches of old coral. The water here was deeper than he’d expected, because at one time the area had been dredged to allow for the passage of larger boats. Lara managed to free dive down to about twenty-five feet, but the dolphin still seemed agitated, as if she was trying to lead them farther. Lara went up for air, but Brett, with Rick and the Coast Guard divers, headed down to the area that seemed to be disturbing Cocoa.

  He wasn’t the one to find the decaying and half-eaten torso, and neither was Rick. It was one of the Coast Guard divers.

  They bagged the torso and headed up with it. Breaking the surface, Brett lifted his mask and looked over at Lara. She was treading water without any trouble, even though it was choppy, waiting for them. He could see one of Miami’s infamous almost-daily summer storms on the horizon.

  He nodded at her without smiling and told her quickly what they’d found. The nod she gave in return was equally serious. The find had been a grim one.

  Cocoa broke the surface, squealing loudly, and Lara praised her effusively.

  Back on the boat, Lieutenant Gunderson warned them that they had time for just one more dive that day, because the storm was coming in quickly. “That dolphin is amazing, like a cadaver dog,” he said.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. But dolphins are much smarter,” Rick said.

  “How much time do we have?” Brett asked Gunderson. “Another hour?”

  “About that,” Gunderson told him.

  “Good. We have one more sandbank where we think something might have gotten caught. If we move, we can make it.” He looked questioningly at Lara.

  She nodded. “I’m game.”

  They sat drinking coffee until the cutter reached the specified coordinates.

  Brett was grateful they’d had time for this last shot. Cocoa led them to an underwater ridge heavily covered with refuse. It was near an embankment popular with boaters, too many of whom threw beer cans and other garbage into the water.

  They found most of the rest of what Brett believed would prove to be Randy Nicholson’s body strewn among the debris.

  Most important, they found what remained of the head.

  * * *

  As soon as they got back on the cutter, Lieutenant Gunderson told Brett that Matt Bosworth had asked him to call when he was back aboard. After he hung up, he told the rest of them what had gone on while they’d been in the water.

  First, Pierre had given them a tentative identification on Boss Man.

  His name was Jose Acervo, and he was a known associate of Anthony Barillo. He wasn’t in the upper tier of the family business, but he wasn’t a peon, either. The way Brett explained it to Lara, Barillo himself was the king, his family were the heirs to the kingdom, the second tier were like the nobility and had real power and the third tier—which included Jose Acervo—was being groomed to become part of the aristocracy. The problem now was to find Jose.

  An all-points bulletin had already gone out; all they needed now was for someone to spot him. The scary thing was that he might have heard he was a wanted man and already be in the wind. The area was full of private planes, and it was easy to slip off to the Caribbean or even South America.

  On top of that breakthrough, Matt had received a call from a mystery woman who was trying to reach Brett, because Brett had set his phone to forward unanswered calls to Matt, in case something important happened while he was underwater. The woman had been too nervous to reveal her reason for calling when she’d realized that she wasn’t speaking to Brett, but Matt had managed to trace the call to one of the city’s few remaining pay phones.

  “It’s on Bird, near the Diaz-Douglas Mortuary Chapel,” Matt had told him.

  “I’ll be damned. Someone there means to talk,” Brett had replied.

  “I doubt it’s Mr. Diaz,” Diego said drily when Brett told the group.

  “That leaves just one person,” Brett said. “Jill Hudson, the makeup artist.”

  “And she’s scared, I’ll bet,” Diego said.

  “I hope she’ll call back, but I don’t want to count on it,” Brett said.

  “We certainly can’t go see her at the mortuary,” Diego said.

  “We’ll wait for her to leave. And it’s nearly four now. We need to get the hell down to Bird as soon as we’re back in port,” Brett said. He looked at Lara. “When you and Meg are finished at Sea Life for the day, head straight to your place. We’ll all meet there as soon as we can.”

  She nodded. His hair was still wet, his shoulders bronzed and sleek. On one hand, she was anxious for the day to end.

  On the other, she wasn’t sure he would notice her if she did a naked tango right in front of him.

  He was so focused on the case right now, so determined to solve it before things became worse.

  Before they had to go out looking for more bodies.

  “Of course,” she said. “Straight home.”

  Once they returned to Sea Life, Lara didn’t even have a chance to talk to Brett. According to Meg, he and Diego had spoken briefly to Phil Kinny, who’d been waiting to take possession of the remains, then rinsed off in the kids’ spray play zone, thrown on their clothes and left, still buttoning up their shirts.

  She and Rick had swum the last little way with Cocoa, making sure she was well rewarded for her efforts with love and fish. By the time Lara was out of the water herself and ready for a shower, Meg was waiting for her by the lockers.

  “Itching to get back on your computer?” Lara asked.

  “That obvious, huh? I need to see if there’s a connection between someone at that mortuary and someone who’s part of the Barillo family. When it comes to something petty that you think you can get away with, you’d be amazed at what people are willing to do—sometimes for money, sometimes to keep someone else safe or out of trouble, or to cover a debt they can’t pay.”

  “Who do you think it is?” Lara asked her. “I don’t know any of them, only what Brett has told me.”

  “I didn’t meet any of them, either. But as far as I’ve been able to find out so far, no one there has a criminal record. That’s why I think someone was bribed or someone close to them was threatened.”

  “Well, I’m going to hop in the shower. Then I’m going to work on some last-minute preparations for Sunday. It’s going to be a big day for us here,” Lara said.

  “I’m glad my job is to hang with you, because I’m looking forward to it. It’s impossible to really pay our soldiers back for everything they do, but what you guys are doing is really wonderful.”

  By then they’d reached the offices and headed upstairs.

  Lara wanted to head straight into the shower, but she needed to get some things first. As she walked into her office, she paused.

  There was somet
hing on her desk.

  She walked over, frowning, puzzled.

  It took a second.

  And then she realized what it was.

  Blue paper had been cut up to simulate waves.

  And strewn over the paper were the pieces of a doll, a fashion model doll. Someone had taken the doll and dismembered it, then painted it in red. Bloodred.

  The doll had once had blond hair, but now that was scarlet, as were all the joints where the head and limbs had been ripped off the torso.

  There was no note.

  There didn’t need to be.

  The message was clear.

  Back off—or wind up in pieces in Biscayne Bay.

  CHAPTER 13

  They had barely parked when Jill Hudson walked out of the back of the funeral home, heading for her car, a white Toyota.

  “So much for me bitching about endless hours of surveillance,” Diego commented from behind the wheel. “How far are we going to let her get?”

  “Far enough to make sure we’re not being followed, too,” Brett said. “We’ll stop her before she gets to her house, though. I don’t know what her family situation is, and I don’t want to put her in an awkward spot.”

  Diego kept several car lengths behind Jill as she drove toward Kendall. Eventually she turned in to one of the large malls in the area. That was good, Brett thought; he could catch up with her with dozens of people around, while Diego kept watch to make sure they weren’t being watched in turn.

  He was glad to find parking just down from her, then followed her in through the food court. He turned quickly and made sure Diego was behind him, nodded and kept pace behind Jill until she entered one of the anchor stores in the center of the mall. She paused to look at a cosmetic company’s free-with-purchase advertisement, and he caught up to her there.

  “You tried to call me,” he said quietly. “You didn’t call back.”

  Jill wasn’t schooled in subterfuge; her face turned bright red immediately, and she looked around guiltily.

  “We’re good,” he told her softly. “Want to get out of the main aisle? Will you be more comfortable?”

  She nodded and headed toward the men’s department, taking shelter behind a rack of coats.

  “I think it was Geneva,” she blurted out. Then she went silent, gnawing her lip and looking around again. “I don’t know why I’m so scared. No one is after me. But that man… His body was stolen from the funeral home. I’m sure of it. I’m terrified. I won’t even go home alone anymore. I’m here because there are people all around, and my husband meets me here when he gets out of work. He’ll probably divorce me. Who wants to be married to a paranoid freak, you know?”

  “It’s all right, you’re not paranoid. I think you’re very smart to be cautious right now,” Brett said gently.

  “But what if no one figures out what’s going on? What if dead men keep getting up and killing other people?”

  Brett felt tension tighten his jaw. It was sad but true. It often took months, even years, to catch a murderer. And some murderers were never caught.

  “We’ll find out what’s going on and we’ll catch this killer, I promise,” he said, knowing even as he spoke the words that he should never make the kind of promise he couldn’t be sure of keeping.

  But it seemed to calm her. She met his eyes and began to talk. “Okay, this is what I know. There was a strange man in the office one day. Mrs. Diaz and I were the only ones there at the time. It was too early for viewing, and both Mr. Diaz and Mr. Douglas were out and Carl wasn’t in yet. I asked her about him later—just casually, you know. I asked her if he was looking to bury a loved one. She was so strange, vague. She didn’t lie, she just said he was asking questions, but she didn’t say about what. I never saw him again. And now everyone has been on edge since you and those other agents came in. And it might not mean anything. I could be maligning a good woman—she is a good woman. I like working for her better than Mr. Diaz or Mr. Douglas, because she’s so nice. But I have little kids. I’m not going to jail for something someone else did.”

  “You won’t go to jail. Not only didn’t you do anything, you’re trying to help,” Brett said. “Do you know why Geneva Diaz might have agreed to let someone take Randy Nicholson’s body?” he asked. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “She was upset. I think the man threatened her,” Jill said, looking around nervously again. “I really don’t want anyone to see me talking to you. I—I think I would have called back. I just didn’t have a chance. On the phone… That would have been better.”

  “I’ll leave. Where do you meet your husband?”

  “At the food court.” She made a face. “Funeral directors might make a lot of money, but I’m not rolling in it, I promise you. He’s bringing the kids, and we’re going to have dinner before we go home. The food court is cheap, and you can choose things that are almost nutritious.”

  He smiled at that. “Go ahead. Go back to the food court. We’ll watch out for you until he comes.”

  She nodded, looked worried and then smiled. “Geneva really is a good person. I don’t know why she would have done it, but if someone arranged for those doors to be open, I think it was her.”

  He thanked her, and she turned and started walking. He gave her some space, but followed. Diego, he knew, was following him.

  A little while later Jill met up with her husband in front of a fast-food Chinese place. Brett thought they were a nice-looking young couple. The kids looked to be about five, seven and nine.

  He headed toward the exit, and once he was outside, Diego fell into step beside him. He filled his partner in on what he had learned.

  “Divide and conquer,” Diego said. “We’ll have to get Geneva away from her husband so we can question her. I’ll get with legal in the morning. I’m sure they can figure out a way to shut the place down if we don’t get some cooperation.”

  Brett glanced at him. “The media has had a field day with the place. Half of their customers want their loved ones dug up to make sure they’re still in their coffins. The place should call us and beg us to do something. At least we’ve got another lead.”

  His phone was ringing. Matt. Matt had been keeping an eye on Sea Life. Brett answered and listened, then said grimly, “We’re on our way.”

  As soon as he hung up, Diego asked, “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Someone threatened Lara,” Brett said. “We’re heading back to Sea Life.”

  * * *

  Lara was surprised to realize that she felt angry rather than frightened. She was supposed to be terrified, she knew. It was clearly a threat. She would be killed because she and Cocoa had found the body parts the killer had thought were gone forever. Well, too bad. She had no intention of letting this sick-minded individual get under her skin.

  She told Grady as much when he came in to see how the search had gone. She’d asked Meg and Matt, who’d hurried back as soon as Meg called him, not to tell anyone about the dismembered doll, but they had told her that was impossible. They had to let their fellow agents and the police know, the scene had to be documented and the doll tested for fingerprints and other trace evidence.

  Lara insisted that she didn’t want her coworkers to know, and she was even more vehement about not telling the press.

  They agreed, but because they couldn’t disturb the evidence, there was no way to keep it from Grady when he came by. And once he saw it, of course he was worried sick. His first question after ascertaining that she was physically unhurt was to ask if she wanted to take a leave of absence or even—and he stressed that it was the last thing he wanted—resign.

  She assured him that she had no intention of leaving, that she loved her job and everything Sea Life did.

  Her heart seemed to leap when Brett returned, along with Diego, but
she hid her feelings and made a point of staying across the room from him. She wasn’t into pretending, but she didn’t think this was the time to go flying across the room and into his arms. It was also important to her for him to realize that while she might not be Meg—trained in the law and with the skills to enforce it—she also wasn’t a hothouse flower. She was smart and strong, and she could hold her own, even in this company. She intended to be so. Not stupid—but strong. Eventually, after the agents had studied the scenario and pictures had been taken—dozens of them—Diego bagged up the doll and the paper waves, then left to take them to the crime lab.

  “Are you sure you’re all right, Lara?” Matt asked her.

  “Actually, I’m starving,” she said. “How about dinner? We can take the bridge and go to Bayside. There are a ton of great restaurants at the mall.”

  They were all silent for a long moment, staring at her.

  “I think we all thought you might just want to get home,” Meg finally said.

  “Hell, no. I’m surrounded by FBI agents. I’d like to sit down at a nice restaurant and have dinner,” Lara said.

  “If that’s what you want,” Brett said.

  “It’s exactly what I want. Whoever threatened me is a coward who slinks around. They knew that no one would be in my office. A blind man would have known that the Coast Guard was here and we were going out with them. I think this means your conspiracy theory is right. Someone was bribed—or threatened—to put that display in my office. And if we find out who that was—just like if you find out who let someone into the mortuary—we’ll be that much closer to finding whoever’s behind this.”

  Matt said, “In fact, we believe we know who we’re looking for there.”

  “Two people, one man and one woman,” Brett said. “We’ve had a report that Geneva Diaz met with someone and then began behaving very strangely. We’ll be talking to her tomorrow.”

  “Good. Then, let’s eat,” Lara said.

  She saw Brett lower his head to hide a smile. She grabbed her bag, and he smiled openly at her as he swept out his arm toward the door and said, “As you say, let’s go.”