These women might look like me, but they each told me something about the killer. I changed the pictures around in order of who had been first and who’d been last.
“How did you determine the pictures weren’t in chronological order?” Sloan asked.
“He’s getting more violent with each kill,” I answered. “First one was a single stab wound. Each girl has more injuries. They were sliced and diced. The cuts are angry, not precision, and each new girl has more of them. His violence and anger toward these women are growing.” I paused when I got to Sloan’s relative. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“She was adopted into the family. Out of all of these girls, how did you come to pick this one as the one I’m related to? We don’t even look alike.” he asked.
“I could feel your sadness as I went down the list. It tripled when I got to number 3.”
“I’m sorry, he said, turning to face me. “How could you feel my sadness?”
“I’m afraid that’s classified,” Noah said, stepping between us. “Lucy, it’s time we leave. We’ve got to work out the logistics for your evening out.”
“I’ll do whatever you want, Yoda, as long as I can have a glass of wine.”
“Afraid not, this isn’t a vacation.”
“You find this bastard, and I’ll buy you a whole damn vineyard, Dr. Bray.” Sloan’s stony expression held my gaze.
“Mr. Sloan, I can assure you that I’ll use everything in my arsenal to make that happen regardless of the wine.” I nodded and turned back to Noah. “I’m going to need to go shopping.”
“Why is that?” Noah asked, and I could feel Sloan’s eyes boring into me.
I turned back to the board. “He has a fixation with red. Every one of these women was wearing red. That isn’t a coincidence. If I had to guess, it was the similarities that drew him in, and then something about the red color sealed the deal.”
She traced her fingertip over the shiny photo closet to her. These poor women were in their prime. Their futures snuffed out. Their family and friends would never know what they could have become. Anger stirred stronger in my gut. This prick was mine.”
“I’m guessing that we’re dealing with someone younger, who views me in his mind as his equal and the object of his affection. I need to portray the fantasy he’s concocted in his mind.”
Chapter 8
Heat barreled down on us from the scorching afternoon sun high in the cloudless sky. Waves crashed against the shore and lapped against the jagged rocks. The soft white sand glistened beneath my feet. Each step sank further, giving my calves a long overdue workout.
The beach was packed with gobs of partygoers on one side of the rocks, and on the state park side, it was more of a family feel. Rocks lined the park side, corralling the children into water that looked no deeper than a kiddie pool. I shielded my eyes from the sun as I glanced around. “This dumping site doesn’t make sense.”
“Shock value,” Grant said. “Families on one side, college kids on the other. More bang for his buck.”
Something struck me as just a little off. Why here? “Does the state park have security?”
“Yes,” Sloan answered. “One agent at the gate collecting entrance fees, one primarily dealing with the campgrounds, and two by the beach.”
“He’s proving how smart he is,” Ford said, appearing by my side. “Even the smartest criminals need to feed their egos.”
“Isn’t that how we caught you?” Roth said as he passed to the rocks.
My gaze lifted to Rain. “You and I are alike?”
“We’re all innocent until proven guilty, but still, I don’t leave people in comas.”
“You would if it was your family he screwed with,” I said and moved to the rocks. I wasn’t here to make friends. God knew I didn’t need any additional pressure points. I already had two, and that had landed me in a psych ward.
“Now what?” Agent Roth asked. He’d never seen me work before. He didn’t know what I needed, but Grant did.
“Now I work.” I sat in the sand and took off my shoes, and Grant did the same. He handed me the picture of where one of the bodies had been found, but he needn’t have bothered. I could see the darkened dried blood stain on one of the rocks.
He rose and offered me his hand, pulling me from the sand. We approached the rocks, and he hopped up on one before helping me. “We’re doing this nice and slow.”
I climbed up on the rocks and slowly took my time trying to get to the bloodstained one. With each step, I pulled energy from fishermen that used the rocks as their little honey spots to fish from. The rocks were a cold beneath our feet contrasting the heat on her shoulders.
“You have any idea who this maniac could be?” Grant asked, glancing over his shoulder at the others we’d left at the shoreline.
“No, but when I do, promise me that if I’m pulled from the case, you’ll stop him. This is personal, Grant, as personal as Carl.” Sweat beaded my brow and ran down my back, making my shirt stick to me. The ocean breeze did little to cool me. Not when I was already picking up the trail.
He paused and glanced back at me. “This time give me his name, and I’ll take care of it.”
I eased around him to the stone in question. I squatted, trying to keep my precarious balance.
“You remember what to do?”
I nodded and closed my eyes, resting my hand in the stain to pick up on the energies. Sorting through them like strands of spaghetti until I found the one with just enough sadistic anger. I latched hold of that feeling, taking it in and memorizing the vibration.
It thrummed through my veins. That was the worst part. I inhaled it like a drug, absorbing the evil to the point where I, too, was ready to kill. That was the price I paid. The reason I stayed connected to these maniacs until death occurred. The government kept that little side effect secret to themselves. Now I’d be bonded. I’d be able to connect to this killer with no way to turn it off.
When I quit fighting the need to protect myself, the anger absorbed into my mind, and a scene took place behind my closed eyes.
“Tell me what you see, Red,” Grant prodded.
“His anger is consuming him,” I offered, staying in his mind to watch what he did. “He tossed her on the rocks like a sack of potatoes. She doesn’t appear to be dead yet, but she’s close. I think she’s unconscious.”
My breath quickened when I saw the knife in his hands. My hand flew to my mouth. “He stabbed her in the heart and twisted the knife.”
It took everything I had not to open my eyes and break the connection. I repeated everything I was seeing.
“She’s dead, and he just sliced her throat. It’s overkill,” I whispered and continued to watch. “She wasn’t wearing the necklace identical to mine. He had it in his pocket and shoved it into her mouth. He’s wiping his blade on her cheek.”
The killer leaned down to whisper into the dead woman’s ear. “Welcome to Paradise, Lucy. I’ve been expecting you.”
My breath hitched as fear riddled my body. My eyes flew open, and I struggled to breathe.
“Lucy, are you okay?”
I shook my head. “It was almost identical to Carl. He knew I was watching. He spoke to me.”
“That’s not possible,” Grant argued. “Carl is still in his coma.”
I quickly rose from the spot. “I’m telling you, it’s identical. If it’s not him, we have a copycat that knows government secrets. How the hell do you explain that?”
“Did you view from her perspective?”
“I couldn’t. She wasn’t emitting any feelings to latch onto. I got only his,” I answered, making my way down the rocks and back into the sand.
“Well?” Agent Roth asked.
“You didn’t tell me that he shoved the necklace down their throats, but one thing is certain. He knows what I can do. He’s been expecting me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What else aren’t you guys telling me?”
“Was it Lyn
dsey you witnessed?” Sloan asked.
I dropped my arms and nodded. “She was unconscious when he stabbed her in the heart with the knife and twisted. She wouldn’t have felt it.”
The fine lines of Sloan’s face remained unchanged. If that knowledge comforted him or not, he didn’t say. “I’ll tell her parents.”
I plopped down in the sand and put my shoes on while the others talked around me. I closed my eyes as I tried, trying my best to think of something much happier.
Another scene appeared behind my eyelids. Me sitting in the sand putting on my shoes. The others standing around me. “He’s here.”
I slowly rose, keeping my eyes shut. I turned in the direction he’d be standing.
“He’s here,” I repeated, opening my eyes, locking my gaze on a man wearing a helmet sitting on a crotch rocket motorcycle.
“God damn it. He’s here watching us,” I growled before I took off in a flat-out run. My arms pumped and my calf muscles screamed as I plowed through the sand. The others followed behind me until we reached the asphalt.
Sloan had pulled a gun out and aimed at the suspect. He was so focused he didn’t see the car holding of family of three about to pull between his gun and the fleeing motorcycle. I shoved his gun down to point at the asphalt seconds before he pulled the trigger and the motorcycle was cut from our view by a minivan.
His labored breathing slowed as anger covered his face. “I had the shot.”
“Innocents were in your way.”
He shoved the gun back into its holster.
A gun that I hadn’t even noticed he had. “Who the hell are you?”
I didn’t wait around for an answer. I started running again, this time cutting through the trees.
Jumping over downed limbs, I ran without stopping, busting out through the trees just in time to see the motorcycle pop a wheelie out the gate. Damn it.
Chapter 9
I’d missed him by a hair. I rested my palms on my knees in an attempt to catch my breath. Noah stepped out of the tree line and grabbed my hand, pulling me backward two steps. He lifted my wrist, and we both watched as the light slowly quit flashing.
“I thought you said I had ten miles,” I growled.
“You are ten miles,” he answered. “The other requirement was that you stay with one of us. If you go out of bounds, all bets are off, and it’s barbeque time.”
Noah led me back to the parking lot, where the sheriff was on his phone barking orders.
Ford approached, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Well, aren’t you just full of surprises.”
“You’re obviously not a cop. Tell me why you’re here again?”
“My expertise might come in handy.”
“And what might that be?”
“I wouldn’t be a man of mystery if you knew all of my secrets,” he said with a wink while he headed back to our SUV.
I hated this place already. I hated the anger coursing through my veins and the remnants of its heady hold. I needed a punching bag. Some way to drain this thick black tar-like energy of emotions raging through my body. I’d been worried I wouldn’t get a bead on this killer. I’d been worried the energy was gone.
I’d been wrong.
****
When we arrived at the suite, Sam had his computers hooked up and was sitting idly behind them. He tapped his foot against the ground while he tossed a mixture of popcorn and M&Ms from the same bowl into his mouth.
“I already tracked the motorcycle through street cameras. I lost visual just over the bridge where the construction starts. There were no cameras operational to pick up his trail.”
Well, that explained why Sam was in our little party.
“Lucy needs her shot, Carson,” Roth said in passing.
Carson Tines was the quiet one of our little group, although I’d guess he was more deadly than the rest. As a medic and weapons expert, he wasn’t one to be trifled with.
“How do they know about the government meds?” I asked Grant.
“We know everything, Dr. Bray.” A man I hadn’t met stepped out of one of the rooms. Muscles bulged in his arms. His short military haircut did little to hide the scar on his face. His dark sunglasses hid his eyes.
“And just who are you?” I asked.
“You can call me Hunt or, as you so affectionately referred to me yesterday, the puppeteer. I’m the man running this show and pulling the strings.”
“Great,” I said with a smile and held out the killer bracelet on my arm. “Maybe you can explain to Special Agent Roth that harming inmates is against my civil rights.”
“Like the rights you took from Carl Chisolm?”
“The difference between me and Carl is that I didn’t leave him for dead. I can rectify that if you’d like.”
Hunt crossed his arms over his chest. “Is that you talking, or is that this new killer’s rage you tapped into from the crime scene?” Hunt’s jaw ticked. “Yes, Dr. Bray, I know all about you and the government experiments.”
I snapped my mouth closed. He was right, and that pissed me off just about as much as needing meds to help bring me down from my evil-induced high. “If you’re all out of meds, a punching bag will do. Any of you want to volunteer to spar?”
Just as the question left my lips, I felt the prick of a needle in my neck, and the world around me started to blur.
“Easy, Red. I’ve got you,” Grant announced, wrapping his arm around my waist and leading me to my bedroom. “Just rest a bit.”
I’d barely made it to the bed when the darkness sucked me back into its fold.
I was in the darkness like normal. Only a single light overhead pointed down on me. A cage of iron bars surrounded me. Carl was on the other side. Excitement radiated out of his eyes. Motorcycle Man was standing next to him, still wearing a helmet, as Carl laughed.
“Are you surprised, Lucy?” Carl asked.
I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. “So, you are involved?”
“I’ve got so many more surprises waiting for you, my dear. You haven’t a clue.”
I clenched my fists, ready to strike. “Who’s your unlucky friend, Carl?” I turned my gaze to Motorcycle Man. “Afraid of being original, are you? Carl tried to kill my sister once. Are you so pathetic that you have to dress others up to look like me?”
I didn’t get a response. Not even a groan.
“Patience, Lucy. He’s waited for this moment. It won’t be long now.”
I laughed and gripped the bars. “Remove the cage and we can do this here and now, unless you are spineless.”
Motorcycle Man slammed his fists on the cage, getting in my face. My own reflection stared back at me in the mirrored visor.
“You’ll get your chance.” The words were a whisper.
Chapter 10
I stared down at the red dress, running my hand down the silk that hung from my shoulders. The dress had just enough class and sexiness that I knew instantly that Grant didn’t buy it.
“Whose responsible for the threads?” I asked into the wire strapped inside my bra as I headed into the club.
“You’re welcome, Doctor,” Ford answered as he passed me, heading to the entrance with Grant beside him. Two guys going for beers wouldn’t stand out. Me in this dress was sure to do the trick.
A quick glance around the parking lot and I spotted the undercover cops. I shook my head. “You need to tell the undercovers to stand down. I made them in less than a minute. We don’t want to scare Motorcycle Man away before he even makes it to the door.”
“Damn it,” Noah growled.
“I’ll be playing God tonight. I’ve got your location, Dr. Red.” Sam, the IT guy, announced in my ear. “Stay in the safety zones where I can follow you on camera.”
“Aw. You already gave me pet name.” I glanced up at the camera near the bouncer at the door and blew a kiss. Sam had hacked the security system with a few strokes of the keyboard after Ford had broken in to hook up the connection to the feed.
Grinning at the bouncer, I handed over my ID and some money and, in return, got a stamp on my hand that only glowed in ultraviolet light.
“I’m in,” I announced, heading up the wooden ramp to the stages and drinking areas outside the doors to the main club inside.
This club had five bar areas, three dance floors, and a band playing live music outside on the deck. It was a huge place. A place where someone might get lost.
If we’d waited another two nights, the bar hosting Bar Wars would have been smaller; easier to trace and lock on our target. This was one big crapshoot, but knowing that Motorcycle Man knew I was in town, I was betting that he’d approach. His ego would require him to make contact, just to prove he could get close.
I yanked the door open to the club and the darkness where rodents liked to hang out.
The music blared with punishing beats, rattling my bones and teeth.
The stench of sweat from bodies gyrating in unison crowded every square inch of the club. With each step I took, the sticky floor tried to keep my shoe. The overbearing smell of beer and vomit brought back memories from my sorority days.
I pressed on, gyrating my body toward the people hovering near the bar.
I closed my eyes. The same pulsing beats and beachy décor hovered in my mind behind my closed lids. I took a single deep breath and opened my eyes again. A smile slid onto my face.
He was here.
“It’s time to play, people. He’s here.”
I made my way up to the bar and winked at the bartender. He slowly made his way down to me, his gaze lowering to my chest. “What can I get you, sexy?”
“Glass of white wine.”
“Lucy, you and I discussed drinking.” Roth’s voice rasped in my ear. I ignored him, just like I ignored most men in my life.
“Ease up, Noah. If the killer has his way, this might be the last thing I ever drink.”
“If you drink that, your guard will be down.” Grant’s voice drifted into my ears.
Leave it to my brother-in-law to try to make a glass of wine sound like the worst choice I could make. When the bartender returned with my glass of wine, I slid my money over to him. He slid a napkin with his name and number. I smiled as I picked up the glass and met Grant’s gaze as I sipped.
Stalked Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 1) Page 4
