by Unknown
“Looks like the operation is no longer off the grid,” she noted, mostly to herself. Whatever had gone down here, Dan had a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
“No kidding.” Hayes parked at the curb across the street from their destination.
Dan’s car and Harper’s SUV were farther up the block. Three ambulances were on the scene. Her pulse reacted. For the hostages.
On the lawn crime scene tape was being unreeled to warn the world that something evil had touched this place. The thick humidity in the air seemed to seep through her clothes as she emerged from the car. The Red Mountain neighborhood was eerily quiet, no matter that Birmingham’s finest were now crawling around like ants at a picnic. Jess gazed at the house Eric Spears had used as his home.
Had he been here all this time?
Like the others along this highly sought after street, the home was more in keeping with the term mansion than house. Massive and ornate, the Greek Revival architecture left no doubt that the owner had sophisticated tastes and the means to support his opulent lifestyle.
As she and Hayes crossed the street the towering front door opened and Dan came out to meet her. Relief at seeing him unharmed temporarily overrode her frustration with his decision to leave her out of the loop this morning.
“Crime scene techs are en route.” Dan glanced toward the end of the street. “Harper and a team of officers are knocking on doors. We don’t want Spears taking any other hostages or commandeering another hiding place. Units are combing the streets for any sign of him.”
“What about Gant and Black?”
Supervisory Special Agent Ralph Gant was Jess’s former boss at the Bureau and the head of the Joint Task Force assigned to the Spears investigation. As acting chief of police, Harold Black would be showing up as well. Between Spears’s efforts and those of Birmingham’s mayor, Dan’s career was sinking fast. Jess was the obvious motive. Her return to Birmingham had brought this trouble to Dan’s door. He, of course, refused to see it that way. Daniel Burnett loved her and wanted her here no matter the cost to him.
“I spoke to Gant. He’s on his way. I left a message with Sheila since Harold isn’t in the office and he’s not answering his cell.”
“I guess he’s going to miss the party. Lieutenant,” Jess turned to Hayes, “track down Sergeant Harper and give him a hand, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When Hayes was gone, Jess raised the issue that made her sick to her stomach. “Technically,” she wished there was some other way to put this, “you and Buddy aren’t supposed to be here.”
Dan was on administrative leave and Buddy Corlew was a private citizen. There could be all kinds of complications related to evidence tampering or just plain old crime scene contamination going forward. Spears had a whole team of hotshot attorneys at his beck and call. She’d been down that road with him before. Then again, this time hostages had been left behind. Let his attorneys try dismissing that glaring fact.
“You let me worry about that.” Despite the strength in his words, the defeat on Dan’s face cut like a knife.
This was so damned unfair. “All right.” She exchanged her sunglasses for the eyeglasses that were the bane of her existence. One of the fringe benefits of being over forty. “Tell me about what’s going on inside.”
“The house is clear,” Dan said as they climbed the front steps. “Aside from the hidden basement level room where the hostages were being held, the place is practically empty.”
At the door they paused and donned the necessary gloves and shoe covers before going inside. The entry hall was enormous and stark. Cold marble floors and cool white walls lent a mausoleum feel to the space. A side table was the only piece of furniture and it looked abandoned there with no rug beneath it or keys lying on its sleek top.
“Detective Wells is downstairs with the hostages and the paramedics.”
“I’d like to speak to the hostages first.” Jess needed to see with her own two eyes that the women were okay before she had a look around. Spears had left a survivor once and only then because he’d wanted her to live long enough to do one more thing for him. Amanda Brownfield had been as much his victim as his follower. Now she was dead, leaving her four-year-old daughter Maddie an orphan. Jess shivered at the memory.
The feel of Dan’s hand at the small of her back was reassuring, yet each step forward echoed with a reminder that Spears had walked this same path. Had breathed this same air. The sensation that, even now, he was somehow watching made Jess tremble inside.
After passing several rooms flanking the hall they arrived at the kitchen. The room was huge and well equipped enough to have belonged in an upscale restaurant.
“Chad Cook is having emergency surgery,” Jess had the presence of mind to say. She should have told Dan as soon as she arrived. Another indication of how shaken she was. Pull it together.
“What happened?” Dan looked as startled as Jess had felt when she’d heard the news.
“Spears or one of his followers left him for dead early this morning. Sylvia found him.”
“Jesus Christ.” Dan’s eyes clouded with concern. “Is he going to make it?”
Jess swallowed at the thick lump of emotion welling in her throat. “Hope so.”
“How’s Sylvia holding up?”
“She looked exhausted.”
Dan didn’t have to say more for Jess to know he was thinking the same thing she was—this had to end.
Beyond the kitchen’s center island an opening in a wall of gleaming white cabinetry exposed a staircase. Jess looked to Dan for an explanation.
“I think the house had a secluded wine cellar. Spears turned it into a torture chamber. We found the hostages naked and in glass cages. All three were obviously tortured.”
“Right under our noses.” Jess shook her head. How could he have been so close all this time?
Saving that infuriating question for later, she moved into the narrow space and descended the stairs. Several stainless steel tables and glass enclosures that looked a bit like freestanding showers filled the space. Next to the empty glass enclosures Lori Wells spoke quietly to three women already loaded onto gurneys and ready for transport by the half dozen paramedics crowded around them.
Dan touched Jess’s arm, drawing her attention to him. “I’m going back up to find Corlew. We’ll wait outside now that you’re here.”
Jess nodded, then watched for a moment as he walked away. Dammit, it was just so wrong for Dan to be in this position.
A worry for another time. Jess took another survey of the room, noting the drains in the tile floor and the table filled with the instruments of torture the Player liked using on his victims. Her attention settled on the women as she crossed the room. Beautiful young women with long dark hair, just the way Spears liked them.
Lori spotted Jess and made her way toward her. “Paramedics have completed their assessments and started IVs. All three show signs of moderate dehydration. Lots of minor lacerations, some healed and some new, along with numerous bruises. I noticed visible indications of sexual assault,” she said a little more quietly. “They’re a little worried about Stinnett’s BP and heart rate. She appears malnourished and isn’t as responsive as the others.”
Two of the paramedics headed for the stairs with the gurney carrying Stinnett. As much as Jess wanted to question her since she had been with Spears the longest, whatever medical attention she needed came first.
“I’d like you to oversee transport and let’s get uniforms assigned to each of these women. I don’t want them left alone for a second.”
“I’m on it,” Lori assured her.
Jess touched Lori’s arm, stopping her before she got away. “I just came from the hospital. Cook’s in surgery fighting for his life. He had an unexpected visitor this morning, but he was a lot luckier than the other victims we’ve seen this week.”
Lori paled, understanding all too well what Jess’s words meant.
In the last seve
n days three people had been murdered using the same MO as the attack on Cook. It was a miracle he had survived and Jess was immensely grateful he had. Losing a member of the team was unacceptable.
“I’ll see if I can get an update on his condition.”
Jess gave her a nod before shifting her attention to the two women she hoped would provide some clue as to where Spears might be going. “I’d like to ask a few questions, Mr. Reynolds,” she said to the nearest paramedic whose nametag was visible.
“Make it fast, Chief. We need to roll.”
“Thank you.” Jess stepped closer to the two gurneys. A few feet away were the glass boxes where the hostages had been held. Jess counted six of those peculiar glass cages. Spears had intended to finish his game right here. He always took six victims. She was supposed to have been number six this time.
This is where it began, Jess, and this is where it will end.
Spears had taunted her with how this game would end, suggesting that her life had begun here—in Alabama—and it would end here.
Now suddenly his well-planned game had taken an unexpected turn.
You will lose this time, Spears.
Jess summoned the most reassuring face she could muster for the women who had escaped certain death. “I’m Deputy Chief Harris. I know you want out of this vile place, but I need to ask you a few questions before you’re taken to the hospital.”
Monica Atmore and Lisa Knowles stared blankly at Jess. She knew all too well the horror and violence they had suffered, and still it was more than evident to Jess that Spears had not given them the full treatment. Eric Spears loved wielding control and inflicting pain. Torturing others was the way he derived pleasure. Though he always murdered his victims, it was the torture that sated his depraved sexual desires. Jess doubted these women understood how very lucky they were.
She set her bag on the floor and gathered her notepad and pencil. “Were there any other hostages here with you at anytime since your arrival?”
If not here, where else would he have taken his latest victim? The pattern was the same each time a hostage was abducted. Spears delivered a photo to Jess and the Joint Task Force was left scrambling to solve the puzzle of the victim’s identity. Jess opened the camera roll on her phone and showed the women the photo of the latest victim.
Monica Atmore nodded. “She…” Monica cleared her throat and sent a fleeting glance at Knowles. “She was here.” Her lips quivered. “Is she still alive?”
“We hope so, but we haven’t found her.” Jess noted the needle marks on Atmore’s arm. The Player drugged his victims. He kept them disabled to prevent resistance, but not enough to mask the intense pain he inflicted. “We believe he may have taken her with him. Can you tell me her name?”
“Presley Campbell,” Lisa Knowles spoke up. “She’s a grad student from Auburn. He took her out of her cage to…” She moistened her lips. “To play with her. She was crying and screaming. Then he suddenly stopped and turned out the lights. A while later when the lights came on again, the police were here and Presley was gone.”
“Thank you, Lisa. Knowing her name will help. Was Presley wearing clothes when you last saw her?”
The women shook their heads. “He took our clothes as soon as we got here,” Knowles said.
Jess studied each of the women for a moment. “What about this woman?” She showed them a photo of Nina Baron.
Both Knowles and Atmore shook their heads again.
Jess felt some sense of relief at learning Nina hadn’t been in this torture room. Hopefully, that meant she wasn’t with Spears. Still, with no ransom demand for the daughter of a wealthy United States Senator, Jess couldn’t rule out his involvement.
“Was more than one person responsible for holding you here?” Jess asked.
Again, Knowles and Atmore looked at each other, but Knowles was the one to speak. “Just the one guy. He was tall with dark hair.”
Her response prompted a new kind of tension. Jess thumbed through her camera roll again until she came to a photo of Spears. She displayed it first to Knowles and then to Atmore. “Do you recognize this man?”
Five endless seconds ticked off before Lisa spoke up. “I…” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Jess showed them the photo again. “Please look closely.”
Monica Atmore looked away. “I’ve never seen him before.”
Unwilling to give up Jess chose a different tactic. “Anything at all you can remember could save Presley’s life and help us stop the man who did this to you,” Jess reminded them. “Did you at any time see what type of vehicle he used or any other person involved with your abduction? Were you taken anywhere else before or after coming here? Maybe you overheard a conversation or saw a visitor. The slightest detail might make all the difference.”
The women stared at her as if she spoke a foreign language.
“Are you sure he isn’t coming back?” Knowles glanced at Atmore, before going on. “He said we were going to die. Will he come after us again?”
“We will protect you, Lisa. You have my word, but the only way we can stop him permanently is if you help us.”
“He’s tall with dark hair.” Knowles twisted her fingers together in her lap. “He brought us here and he hurt us.”
Jess recognized a rehearsed answer when she heard one. As desperately as she needed real answers, she couldn’t push any harder. These women were fragile and still felt vulnerable. “We almost got him today. That’s why he was in such a rush and left you here. Do you understand that you’re safe now?”
More of those endless seconds passed before one and then the other gave a negligible nod.
“I want you to think about my questions and I’ll speak to you again soon. Right now, the paramedics will take you to the hospital and we’ll notify your families that you’re safe.”
Before the paramedics could wheel her away, Atmore asked. “Are you Jess?”
Jess wasn’t surprised they had heard her name. “I am.”
“He did this to us because of you.” Atmore’s lips trembled. “All he wants is you.”
Knowles stared at Jess, the same accusation in her eyes. It was true. They had suffered unimaginable horrors and pain because Eric Spears wanted to punish Jess.
“I’ll see you again when you’re rested.” Jess gave the women a final nod before walking away. Every move Spears had made for the past two plus months had been about her, and he was still out there with at least one hostage.
Upstairs three forensic techs waited in the entry hall as Dan outlined the situation. When the group fanned out Jess moved toward the man she loved with all her heart. The urge to throw herself into his arms and let this dam of emotions pressing against her breastbone burst free was almost overwhelming.
Instead, she did what she had to do. She needed to go through this house and find some damned evidence that Eric Spears had been here. But first, she had to get Dan out of here before Black showed up. “Where’s Buddy? I thought the two of you were going to wait outside.”
“The Crime Scene Unit arrived and… there’s something in the parlor you need to see.”
Before she could question the concern in his eyes, the paramedics hurried past with Atmore and Knowles. Jess watched until they were out the front door. “They blame me, you know.”
Dan reached out and caressed her cheek, his tender touch calming. “They’ll see things differently when this is over.”
Jess wasn’t so sure. For Dan’s sake she summoned her best attempt at a smile. “Probably so.” She pushed aside the troubling thoughts for now. “What is it I need to see?”
“This way.” As they reached the French doors separating the parlor from the hall, he hesitated. “Before we go in,” worry carved deeper lines into his handsome face, “I need you to brace yourself for what Spears left behind in there.”
Uncertainty tugged at Jess. “All right.” A few minutes ago he’d basically told her there was nothing here.
&nbs
p; Unlike the entry hall the parlor room was elegantly furnished with oversized leather sofas and upholstered side chairs. Crystal decanters filled with richly colored spirits waited on the bar. Across the room Buddy stood before the fireplace staring at a painting hanging over the mantel.
Even from a distance of fifteen feet or so the painting stole her breath.
All he wants is you.
Buddy said something, but the words didn’t register. Jess could only stare as she moved closer to the fireplace. The painting was of her standing on a sidewalk. She couldn’t quite pinpoint the location. The image was like looking in the mirror.
“Whoever painted this,” Buddy said, “nailed it, kid. Damned thing is as lifelike as a photograph.”
“We missed it the first time we went through since finding Spears and his hostages were the primary objectives,” Dan explained.
“It was easy to miss,” Buddy said. “He had it covered up.” He gestured to the silky drape lying on the floor.
“As soon as the evidence techs are finished we’ll have it removed,” Dan promised.
Jess had to look away from yet another symbol of Spears’s obsession with her. “There’s nothing in the rest of the house?”
“One of the bedrooms is furnished,” Buddy explained. “Expensive men’s toiletries in the bathroom, even more expensive menswear in the closet. No personal items like jewelry, photos, or notes we could find.”
“No sign Nina was held here?”
“None we found,” Dan said, confirming what the women had stated.
“This is a big house,” Jess countered. “Could you have missed something else?”
“It’s possible,” Dan admitted.
“Definitely,” Buddy seconded.
Jess turned to Buddy, “Before we go any further, I want to know how you found this place?”
Buddy Corlew was Jess’s oldest friend. A former BPD detective turned PI, he was the last person to visit Amanda Brownfield before her escape from the hospital. Acting Chief of Police Harold Black was convinced he had something to do with her escape and possibly her murder. Jess knew better. Spears had sprung Amanda. She’d told Jess as much when she called mere hours before her death. Be that as it may, Black was determined to take Buddy down.
