by Tara Thomas
His phone buzzed. Of course it did. Because The Gentleman had some sort of sixth-sense ability to sniff out when he found himself in a shit storm. He gave serious thoughts about not answering it, but he knew that would only result in a bigger one.
“Hello.” The caller kept it simple and to the point. “I see our friends arrived home.”
The back of his neck grew prickly as if someone was watching, but he squeezed his eyes so he wouldn’t be tempted to look. Likewise, he shoved his free hand in his pocket so he wouldn’t reach for his neck.
“Yes, sir,” he answered. “I was just watching them arrive and stayed to see their reaction to my latest gift.”
“Would that gift happen to be the funeral arrangement littering Mr. Taylor’s front porch?”
“Yes, sir.” His stomach twisted. He was nearby. “Apparently, he and Janie didn’t think much of it.”
“I fear you’re taking this assignment far too lightly. Like you think you’re playing a game.”
“No, sir. I don’t.” At least, not anymore.
“Make no mistake about it. There will be funeral flowers needed fourteen days from now. The question is, who will they be needed for?”
* * *
Janie stepped back and looked at her work. She’d completely taken over one of Brent’s guest bedrooms. Along one wall was a time line that ran from the disappearance of the first girl, all the way to the flowers she’d received today. On another wall, she’d hanged a poster board with everything they knew about the suspect. Yet another wall was decorated with every known victim.
Brent came up beside her and gave a low whistle. “Wow. This is amazing.”
Janie looked from the time line to the list of details about the suspect. “It’s here. I know it is. The answers we’re looking for. Everything. We just have to find it.”
“Why does it feel like a needle in a haystack?”
“Because it is.” She walked to the suspect details with a pen in her hand. “I keep coming back to that moment in DC when we saw him and we both thought he looked familiar.”
“Me, too,” Brent said. “I thought if we could come up with a list of people we both knew, it’d be a good place to start.”
“I thought the same thing.” She pointed to a garbage can, so stuffed with wadded-up papers it could no longer contain them. “We know too many damn people.”
“Why don’t you take a break and we’ll relook at this over dinner?”
She stretched her arms above her head groaned. “I’m going to run by my place and start getting ready for the move. I sent Alyssa a text about fifteen minutes ago and she’s going to be here soon with Mac to take me.”
Even with her friend, who was an active law enforcement officer, and her boyfriend, Janie still felt anxious on the ride over to her place. Was her stalker following her in Alyssa’s car? She wanted to turn around and look out the back window, but on the off chance the bastard was, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“Any leads?” Janie asked Alyssa. “Off the record?”
Alyssa sighed and shook her head. “I wish I had some good news to share, but there’s nothing concrete at the moment. Every time we have a new bit of information, I think it’s the one that’s going to bust this case wide open. And every time, it goes nowhere. The DNA we have doesn’t match anyone in the system. We did find a partial print on the last batch of evidence collected, I’m sure it won’t lead anywhere. but I still hope it does.”
“I feel like we’re so close.” Janie gazed out the window.
“We are,” Alyssa said, but her hope sounded forced. “Sooner or later something has to turn up.”
* * *
Yeah, Janie thought. She was sure it would. She only hoped she was still alive to see it.
Mac pulled into the parking lot of her apartment and dread filled her belly. She knew without stepping foot into her place that there would be something waiting for her inside. What would it be? Another dead animal? More flowers? Part of her didn’t even want to go inside. But she had to, at least one more time.
If it was at all possible, this would the last time she went into the apartment. She would do everything in her power to get everything wrapped up today. God, she hoped she could do it. She closed her eyes. She could do this. She was strong.
“Are you sure you’re up to doing this?”
She looked up to see Alyssa staring at her through the rearview mirror. Her friend’s face was filled with concern.
“We can do this later, you know,” Alyssa continued.
“No.” Janie undid her seatbelt and opened the door. “We do this today.”
Alyssa looked at Mac, and Janie didn’t miss the unspoken message sent between the two of them. She wondered what that was about.
“Okay,” Alyssa said. “But I go in first.”
“Why you?” Mac asked. “Why not me?”
“You think you should go first because you’re a man?”
“I never said that,” Mac said.
“You meant it that way. I’m going first because I’m a law enforcement officer.”
“Damn it all to hell, Alyssa,” he said, and he sounded more angry than Janie had ever heard. “Does everything have to come down to showing me how badass you are? You’re a cop. I get it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mac shrugged, and Janie realized she’d been distracted from her own thoughts by the tension between Alyssa and Mac. Something was definitely going on between the two of them. She wondered if Mac was still working all the time. Didn’t it say something that he wasn’t working now?
She got out of the car and followed behind Alyssa, who was walking so fast toward her door that she was almost jogging. Mac hung back and waited for Janie. He gave her an apologetic smile. He didn’t say anything. Probably because he didn’t want to say anything about Alyssa to her best friend. However, nothing could stop the sense of unease she felt growing with each second.
She tried to put her finger on what it was that made her uneasy. Was it because she had once more witnessed an argument between Alyssa and Mac? Maybe Mac himself? Or, most likely, something not having to do with either, but something else entirely? Like she still hadn’t relayed to Alyssa her concerns about her partner? Or she just didn’t want to go into her apartment?
They walked slowly to her apartment and Janie wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Alyssa hadn’t opened her door yet. Alyssa had a key to her place; they’d exchanged them years ago.
“I didn’t want to open it without you being here,” Alyssa explained.
“I know and I appreciate that.”
Alyssa put an arm around her. “There’s going to be something inside, isn’t there?”
“I don’t know for sure, but my gut thinks so.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll open it.”
“Okay, but I’m going in first.”
As much as she’d like to pass that off to Alyssa, she knew she had to be the one who opened the door. It was her apartment and she’d be damned if she’d let some sicko keep her from it.
Alyssa smiled. “I’ll be right beside you.”
“I’ll stay out here,” Mac said. “Make sure no one’s watching or followed us.”
Just as well, Janie thought. If she totally freaked out, only Alyssa would see.
The door was unlocked and she never forgot to lock her door. Had she not already convinced herself that something would be waiting inside, that would have done it for her. She glanced at Alyssa, who had her gun in her hand.
* * *
“Ready?”
Alyssa nodded.
Janie opened the door and stepped inside, Alyssa followed close behind.
“Holy shit,” Alyssa said, speaking what Janie was thinking.
Plain white delivery boxes littered the floor, every one of them opened to reveal dead roses inside. They stepped gingerly around the boxes, not wanting to disturb anything more than necessary.
&
nbsp; Janie signaled to the bedroom and Alyssa nodded. They needed to make sure they were the only two people inside before they did anything else. A careful search showed whoever had ransacked the apartment was long gone.
Making their way to the living room, they compared observations.
“I didn’t see a note,” Janie said, trying to remain calm. The sight of the roses made her stomach flip. Damn it, they were just roses. At least he hadn’t left another dead cat.
“He probably doesn’t think he needs one,” Alyssa said. “The way he sees it, there’s little doubt you’d believe it was anyone else.”
“Possibly, but do you think it’s more? Like maybe he thought he was revealing too much in them?”
Alyssa was quite as she thought. “I don’t want to rule anything out at this point. I don’t remember anything sticking out, but it won’t hurt to look again.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll call the station and get a team out here.” Alyssa put her gun away. “You probably shouldn’t touch anything until they do.”
“Really?” Janie raised an eyebrow and took out her phone. She needed to let Brent know what was happening.
“Sorry. Old habit.”
As she waited for Brent to pick up, she heard Alyssa step outside and say something to Mac.
“Hey,” Brent said. “What’s going on?”
* * *
“He’s been busy,” she said.
Brent cursed. “How so?”
“It appears as if he’s bought damn near every white box in the city and filled them with every dead rose he could find.” Her words were light, but she knew he picked up on the slight edge in her voice.
“I’ll be right there,” he said and she almost told him it wasn’t necessary, but she desperately wanted to feel his arms around her. “After the police leave, take what you can, and make a list of everything else you want to keep. I’ll call a cleaning service and a moving company. They’ll take care of everything so when you leave today, you won’t have to go back if you don’t want to.”
“How do we know they’ll be safe? I can’t stand the thought of someone getting hurt because they were in my house if he happens to go by again.”
“Don’t worry about that. I know the owner personally. I’ll explain the situation and ensure everyone is safe.”
She closed her eyes. He was so good to her. “Thank you,” she whispered, wondering how it was possible she’d ever thought about not going to DC with this man.
CHAPTER 5
Later that night, Brent sat in the guest room with Janie. She never stopped amazing him. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she’d do something to remind him all over again how it was he’d fallen in love so fast and complete with her.
He knew the discovery at her apartment had scared her. But she refused to give into that fear and instead she’d returned back to his place with renewed vigor and determination to find the person responsible and to put a stop to them.
She was, hands down, the strongest woman he knew. And since he was raised by a strong woman, spent his summers in Greece with his strong grandmother, and had a sister with similar characteristics, that was saying a lot.
“I don’t know why he’s doing this,” she said, looking over all the evidence she had pulled together.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Brent said.
“I’ll give you a quick list. First of all, I’d be surprised if he’s working alone. I believe he’s either working with somebody, or for somebody. I’m not sure which. Secondly, he’s either with the police or he’s very close to somebody in the police department. There have just been too many instances where he seems to know information that is either confidential or hasn’t been released to the public. Like how he always knows where I’ll be and for how long, how he always seemed to get away with seconds to spare and, I’m sorry, I just think it’s strange that we only ever got that one DNA profile of him.”
Everything made sense to Brent. He had to admit, the part about the police department both made sense and scared him. Assuming the person was on the police department, where did that leave them? The perpetrator would always be at least one step ahead of them.
“Also,” she continued, “he’s made a few mistakes. He’s acting a bit irrationally. Seriously, all those boxes were overkill, and I believe he’s showing signs of extreme confidence. While it’s sometimes dangerous when they get like that, it’s also when they make mistakes. Big ones. Mistakes will allow us to catch them.”
It all seemed too much to hope for. She looked at Brent and took his hand, entwining their fingers.
“I would love to go to DC with all of this behind us,” she said. “And not have to worry about it another day.”
“Me, too.”
Janie was studying the boards. “Another thing. I think our man will turn out to be well liked in the community, the sort to fly under the radar, and generally, one of the last people you think would be possible to do this. And yet, I believe he is highly volatile, has a short temper, and has shown violent tendencies in the past. Perhaps as early as childhood.”
“Don’t tell me he’s going to blame all this on his childhood,” Brent said.
“I’m sure a defense attorney would love that line,” Janie said. “My hope is to shut him down before he gets to that point. I mean, I always prefer to have the suspects taken into custody as opposed to shooting them. But if it comes down to it, and I have no choice, I’ll shoot to kill every day as opposed to letting someone like this get away.”
* * *
“What are our next steps?” Brent asked.
“According to those flowers that were waiting when we got back from DC, he won’t make a major move for at least a week.”
She’d stopped in front of the end of the time line, but Brent walked to the beginning.
“I keep asking myself, why you? What did you see or what does he think you saw for him to be chasing you so relentlessly?” He turned to look at her. “Did you see anything? Any little thing that he might think is something?”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “I honestly can’t think of a thing.”
She started to stay something else, but her phone rang. She looked the display and smiled. “Hey, Alyssa. What do you have for me?” As Brent watched, her smile fell. “Of course. I don’t know why I expected anything else.” There was another pause and then she said, “I’m not holding out much hope, but let me know if it turns up anything.”
“What was that?” he asked when she got off the phone.
“No prints on any of the boxes.”
He nodded. That wasn’t surprising.
“But,” she added, “they’re going to run DNA to see if anything turns up.”
“Do you think it will?” He hated the hope he had at any new clue or direction that always got shattered later.
“Probably not, but at least they’re doing something.”
She looked tired and worn out. He reached out and she went silently into his arms. “Let’s think about something else for at least an hour. How does a bubble bath sound?”
“Divine,” she said with a half happy sigh.
“Come with me,” he said, taking her hand and leading her down the hall. She sighed when they entered his bathroom. It was huge and always reminded her of a spa.
“You rest here while I get everything ready.” He nodded to the plush stool sitting beside the tub.
“I can help, you know,” she said.
He kissed her cheek softly. “I know. But I don’t want you to right now. All I want you to do is sit right there and relax.”
She smiled. He always took such good care or her. She sat back and watched him moving around the bathroom, humming to himself as he pulled out the bath wash and set a few towels nearby. He turned the water on and it wasn’t long until the room was filled with the smell of summer wildflowers.
He looked over at her. “Are you ready?”
She smiled and held out her h
and. “Yes.”
“Be careful.” He took her hand and helped her step into the bathtub. “I’d hate for you to slip.”
His tub was a huge, massive number. An old antique find, with clawed feet that had been restored. The high back on one side was perfect for soaking. She dropped into it, up to her neck in warm sudsy bubbles. Her eyes drifted closed and she groaned.
“It’s so good.” She cracked one eye open. “But it’d be so much better if you joined me.”
“Oh no,” he said. “I’m enjoying sitting here, watching you way too much.”
“You can still watch me if you join me.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps. But then you wouldn’t relax very much, now would you?”
“Relaxing is highly overrated.”
“Be that as it may,” he said with a grin. “Right now it is about you.”
He didn’t say anything else, but started bathing her with warm caresses and soft strokes. He was so gentle, he treated her as if she were made of fragile glass.
She couldn’t remember the last time that she felt so cherished and cared for. By the time he finished, and he’d dried her off, and curled up in bed with her, she was completely relaxed and couldn’t keep her eyes open.
CHAPTER 6
Janie had been a nervous wreck all week. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even though she had said she didn’t expect anything, the truth was she kept waiting for something to happen. Each day that passed with nothing happening only served to drive her to look more closely the next day.
She told herself to stop and that she was only making matters worse. Each day, too, she waited for Alyssa to call with test results, but she should have known better than to expect them that fast.
Through it all, Brent was her rock. She truly didn’t know how she’d do it without him. Even now as they got ready to go to the cookout Alyssa had invited her to just hours ago.
She thought she’d been doing a good job at hiding her nerves, but when he came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and asked, “Are you sure going to this cookout is the best thing to do?” she knew she hadn’t fooled anyone.
