by Gerri Hill
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Other Books by Gerri Hill
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Bella Books
Copyright © 2013 by Gerri Hill
Bella Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 10543
Tallahassee, FL 32302
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First Bella Books Edition 2013
Bella Books eBook released 2013
Editor: Medora MacDougall
Cover Designer: Judith Fellows
ISBN: 978-1-59493-386-8
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Other Bella Books by Gerri Hill
Artist’s Dream
At Seventeen
Behind the Pine Curtain
The Cottage
Coyote Sky
Dawn of Change
Devil’s Rock
Gulf Breeze
Hell’s Highway
Hunter’s Way
In the Name of the Father
Keepers of the Cave
The Killing Room
Love Waits
No Strings
One Summer Night
Partners
The Rainbow Cedar
The Scorpion
Sierra City
Snow Falls
Storms
The Target
About the Author
Gerri Hill has twenty-four published works, including the 2013 GCLS winner Snow Falls, 2011 and 2012 GCLS winners Devil’s Rock and Hell’s Highway, and the 2009 GCLS winner Partners, the last book in the popular Hunter Series, as well as the 2012 Lambda finalist Storms. Hill’s love of nature and of being outdoors usually makes its way into her stories as her characters often find themselves in beautiful natural settings. When she isn’t writing, Gerri and her longtime partner, Diane, keep busy at their log cabin in East Texas tending to their two vegetable gardens, orchard and five acres of piney woods. They share their lives with two Australian Shepherds and an assortment of furry felines.
Chapter One
“Mother, please.”
“You’ve been avoiding me for weeks now, Paige Riley. I won’t be put off any longer.”
Paige sidestepped two men in business suits hurrying down the sidewalk like she was doing. She was late. And she was never late.
“Mother, what do you want me to say?”
“I want to know who that woman was in your apartment and why she was half-naked.”
Paige stopped suddenly, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head. “First of all, she was not half-naked. She was all the way naked. And secondly…it’s none of your business.”
She ended the call quickly as she stared up into the cloudless sky.
Did I just out myself to my mother?
* * *
CJ Johnston had never been one to wear her feelings on her sleeve. But since she and Paige had returned from Hoganville—since they’d become lovers—she felt like Ice and Billy could see right through the aloof façade she tried to keep in place. While technically she was partners with Ice, not Paige, they were still all on the same team. If they went public with their affair…well, they didn’t want to take a chance that Howley—or someone higher up—would break up the team. After Hoganville, after the dust settled, their team staying intact was questionable in itself. Whenever the FBI and mass suicide is mentioned in the same sentence, people, especially politicians, quickly distance themselves and begin pointing fingers.
While she and Paige got what amounted to a slap on the wrist, Howley got demoted. He was still their squad supervisor, but someone had to answer for the forty-four people who died in a synchronized suicide, not to mention the murder of fellow agent Avery, who was posing as the school’s director, and Ella, the teacher at the school. It would still take months before DNA results were back on all the human remains found in the cave, but the fact that the senator’s daughter—what was left of her—had been identified eased some of the apprehension from the end result. As she told Howley, if she had to do it over again, she wouldn’t change a thing. Fiona had set things in motion. There was no other option. Even if CJ had known the rhyme Fiona taught her was a trigger phrase for a mass suicide, she’d still use it. After all, Belden, Ester Hogan’s bodyguard, had had his meaty hands around her neck. She had no doubt he would have snapped her in two without a second thought.
She wasn’t sure if anyone really believed their story of the “monster” or not, but she and Paige and Ice had all put the creature in their reports. For all the media coverage the raid on Hoganville garnered, though, there was never once a mention of any creature roaming the woods at night. And in the weeks since then, even with the excavation of the cave, there had been no sighting of it. Evidence that something had shredded and ripped bodies apart was there, obviously, but she had no clue as to how the medical examiners would explain it. And at this point, she didn’t care. She knew what she saw, knew from what Don and Fiona had confided to them that the creature had always been there, and she knew without a doubt that she would never go back.
So after all of that, after Hoganville and after the run-in with Paige’s mother—and Seth, Paige’s supposed fiancé—she and Paige had agreed it was best to keep their relationship a secret. Which CJ was finding harder to pull off than she’d thought. She could see the questions in Ice’s eyes sometimes, but she ignored them. She and Paige had perfected the art of flirting long before this. Their nights out for beer with the guys were just as they used to be—only now, their flirting was real. Billy didn’t have a clue, she was certain, but Ice was watching them. He seemed to be more captivated with their flirting than curious. Or so she hoped. If he came right out and asked her, she was fairly certain she wouldn’t lie to him. He was her partner, after all.
She took another inconspicuous glance at the elevator doors, t
hen checked the clock. Paige was never late. And while they didn’t see each other every night, last night was not one of them. She’d left Paige’s bed before dawn, getting home in time for a quick run before showering and heading to the office. And in the last two months, she had never once beaten Paige to work.
Howley came out of his office, a thick folder in his hand. She, Ice and Billy all started shuffling papers and tapping on their keyboards.
“Quit pretending to be working. You’ve all already submitted your last report. I know you have nothing.” His gaze went to the three of them before landing on the empty chair. “Where is Paige?” He then turned slowly to CJ, eyebrows raised. Since Hoganville, he’d treated them differently. Almost as if he knew they’d taken their undercover assignment to pose as girlfriends and made it real. And they, in turn, went out of their way to argue and tease as much as they always had. She matched his stare now, her own eyebrows arching.
“Well?”
CJ shrugged. “I don’t know.” She glanced at Billy. “Where’s your partner?”
“I haven’t heard from her,” he said.
“It’s unusual for her to be late. Someone call her. We’ve got a case,” Howley said, holding up his folder.
They all looked at CJ expectantly, and she furrowed her brow in a frown. “You want me to call her?” CJ pointed at Billy. “You’re her partner. You call her.”
“I don’t care who calls her. Find out where the hell she is.”
Billy had just picked up his cell when the elevator doors opened. Paige hurried in, looking flustered. “I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said, smiling apologetically at Howley. She slid her gaze to CJ, and CJ gave a quick, subtle raise of her eyebrows. Paige held up her phone. “My mother thought it would be a good morning for a chat,” she explained.
CJ smirked. “Well, you’re never late, Agent Riley. We thought maybe you had a hot date last night. Maybe they stayed late this morning?”
Paige leaned over her desk, a flirty smile on her lips. “Why does everything revolve around sex with you?”
CJ leaned her elbows on her desk. “Maybe I’m in a bit of a dry spell and I’m living through you.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Dry spell? You run out of bars to hit up, tiger?”
When CJ would have replied, Howley held his hand up. “We don’t have time for your bickering this morning, ladies. We got a case. Conference room. Now.”
Chapter Two
“Got a young boy, Hispanic, estimated to be about five or six years old. He was found, possibly strangled, on the grounds of an old abandoned house,” Howley said, sliding stapled papers to each of them. “Five days ago. Still unidentified. No one has reported him missing.”
“Undocumented?” Paige asked.
“That’s the assumption.”
Ice flipped through the pages, wondering why the FBI would be involved with a case like this. “Why does this fall to us?” he asked, giving voice to his question.
“Because it’s eerily similar to a case from fourteen years ago. Cold case,” Howley clarified. He picked up the remote and pointed it at the monitor on the wall. An enlarged map of the Houston area appeared. He zoomed out to the northeast. “There’s a little community here just southeast of Cleveland—Pecan Grove,” he said, pointing with the laser. “Off of Morgan Cemetery Road, we have a mobile home park. Shady Pines. All four victims lived there.”
Howley slid his gaze quickly to CJ, then away. Ice, too, glanced at her. She grew up in just such a community, although much closer to the city. It was something she never discussed. He knew about her old man, knew he used to beat her. But CJ never talked about it.
“Fourteen years ago, over a span of two months, four young boys from this community went missing. Two age seven, one age eight and one age nine,” Howley said. “Mark Poole was the first boy to disappear. He was seven. Paul Canton disappeared eight days later. He was age seven also. Butch Renkie went missing two weeks later. He was age nine. And the last boy, Bradley Simon, age eight, went missing three weeks after that. Only one body was ever found. Paul Canton, the second to disappear.” He punched the remote and a photo of an old three-story house popped up.
“Jesus, that’s like something out of a horror movie,” CJ said.
“The house has been vacant forty-some years. It’s old,” Howley said, glancing at his notes. “Built in 1915. Anyway, the house is only significant in that both bodies were found on the grounds.” He brought up another photo, this one obviously dated. “This was Paul Canton at age six. His body was found four weeks after he disappeared, one day after Butch Renkie went missing. The house has a chain-link fence around it, the windows are all boarded up on the first floor, it’s locked up tight. There are a few breaks in the fence where someone could get in,” he said. “Paul Canton was strangled. Body left on the grounds. The house was searched. Nothing. No leads. No witnesses to any of the abductions. And no subsequent boys went missing after Bradley Simon disappeared. Cold case.”
“And now another body is dumped,” Paige said.
“You think same killer?” Billy asked. “Fourteen years apart?”
“Or a copycat?” CJ offered.
“All of the forensic evidence is not back yet, but the ME’s initial report says strangulation. The condition of the body is not identical, however. Our unidentified body has bruising and contusions on his pelvis and legs. ME hasn’t posted cause of death yet.”
“So you want us to poke around?”
“The locals are still working this new case, but they don’t have jack,” Howley said bluntly. “So yeah, you go poke around. The old case file, it’s scanned. The file has been emailed to you. Read it. Get familiar with it. You’ve got two days.”
“Two days?” CJ asked.
“Two days to see if the cases are linked. Two days to determine if we can work it or not.” He shrugged. “If you find nothing, it stays a cold case. It’s been fourteen years. I don’t expect much, but you never know.”
Ice tossed his papers down. “Two days isn’t long,” he said.
“It’s long enough for me to foot your hotel bill.” He flashed a quick smile. “Of course, it’s Cleveland. Maybe we’ll find a cheap motel for you to stay in.”
“I’ve been through Cleveland before,” Billy said. “It’s a small town, sure, but it’s not like it’s just a dot on the map.”
Howley slid them all another paper. “Those are your contacts. It’s outside the city limits so the sheriff’s department is working it right now. They know you’re coming. Chuck Brady is who you need to contact.”
“So there’s not going to be a power play?”
“I think they’d hand it over to us in a second,” he said. “Take the rest of the afternoon. Tie up whatever you need to. You leave in the morning.”
They all pushed their chairs away from the table at once, Ice already making a mental list of what he had to do. They were following Howley out of the conference room when Howley stopped and turned back to them with a bit of a smirk on his face.
“By the way, with budgets as tight as they are, we’ve only booked two rooms. Buddy system.”
“Oh, come on,” Ice said. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Me and Ice?” Billy shook his head. “I’ve stayed with him before. He snores like a freight train.”
Ice looked at the others, expecting more protests. He was shocked by the look that passed between CJ and Paige. The last few weeks—hell, a month or more—they’d been acting weird. Sometimes when he watched them, he’d swear there was an intimacy in their glances, but other times they were the same old bickering fools they’d always been. The look they shared now disappeared so quickly, he wasn’t sure he’d actually seen it.
“Seriously? It hasn’t been that long since Hoganville,” CJ said. “I’m not sure I’ve recovered from that yet. She’s a neat freak,” CJ said, pointing at Paige. “She’s got all these rules.”
“Like you’re a piece of cake to live with
,” Paige countered. “You’re a slob.”
“A slob?”
“Did you or did you not leave your clothes on the floor by the bed?”
Ice watched as CJ opened her mouth to reply, then shut it just as quickly. He was again riveted by the look they shared. There was a familiarity in that look—a look he’d sworn he’d seen before with them—but maybe it was just the result of them having been through what they had in Hoganville. Dealing with everything they had, it had to have brought them closer together. But still…
Howley held up his hand. “Save your complaints. It’s just one night. Come back with what you’ve got. We’ll go from there.” He paused again. “There’s just one more thing. The old house where the body was found—the locals claim it’s haunted. You might want to keep that in mind.”
As soon as he was gone, CJ turned to them. “Is it just me or does it seem like we’re getting all the shit cases lately?”
“I don’t do haunted,” Ice said as he shook his head. “No way I’m getting near that house.”
“You think he’s taking his demotion out on us?” Billy asked.
CJ rolled her eyes. “You think?”
Chapter Three
Paige felt a wave of déjà vu as she folded clothes and placed them neatly into her large travel bag. It wasn’t too many months ago that she had been doing this very thing, about to head off into the woods of East Texas with CJ and dreading the very prospect of it. But now? So much had changed between them that she was nearly giddy with anticipation. Not that they didn’t spend most nights together anyway. Maybe it was the thrill of it. Maybe it was the fact that Ice and Billy would be there. Or maybe it was just the fact that they would be working a case together again. Since they’d been back from Hoganville, they’d worked cases together as a team, but she spent most of her time with Billy. She and CJ had taken it almost to the extreme of avoiding each other for fear the others would find out…find out that they were lovers.
She paused, closing her eyes for a second, still surprised that she and CJ had fallen into such a comfortable relationship. At first, she was afraid it was based too much on sex and that they would end up drifting apart when they ran out of things to talk about. So far, that wasn’t the case at all. The sex between them was fabulous, yes, but their attachment went so much deeper than that. At least for her. But that was one thing they had yet to talk about.
