by Debra Webb
Harper joined her. He took a long look at the bloody trace sheet before turning to Jess. “I heard it’s bad.”
“Not a death you’d wish on your worst enemy.” He would know the details already. “Burnett said you had some promising locations to check out.”
“Yes, ma’am. I was en route to the first location but Chief Burnett suggested we should go together. I have a team prepared to meet us there.”
“Go, now,” she urged. “I’ll be a few more minutes here and I’ll catch up with you.”
“Sorry, ma’am. My orders are –”
She held up a hand to stop him. “Fine. Let’s get this done.”
Jess walked the perimeter of the parking lot, Harper right behind her. She didn’t see any exterior cameras on the office building. The unsub had likely considered exposure before choosing the location. Though he’d shown his face repeatedly, he hadn’t allowed a glimpse of the vehicle he used. That prevented the possibility of tracking him that way.
BPD would run a trace on the cell number he’d used to send the text to Jess. Probably another prepaid and sent from right here in Birmingham. Turning off the phone and removing the battery would prevent the ability to track the pings from here after he’d dumped the body. Could be that he disposed of the phone after this one use. Damned thing could be laying around here somewhere. Since the number was different, he had likely done that with the phone he’d used to contact her about dropping Howard at Lori’s apartment.
Jess couldn’t bear to consider that Lori might be dead already. But why would he reserve delivering her body if she were already dead? The notion that he might be holding Lori for when he had Jess where he wanted her gave her hope. But, if that were the case, it was only so he could torture Lori to hurt Jess. The idea gave her little comfort.
There was no comfort in any of this.
She walked in a wide circle around the drop box, moving closer to the placement of the body with each sweep. As usual, nothing had been left behind except the body. This time he hadn’t bothered even a half-assed attempt at cleaning the victim’s body. The likelihood of trace evidence was far greater this time than any other. It was a crying shame that Miller had to die to give them the potential for useful evidence.
Once the coroner and his assistant had moved the body to a gurney, Jess considered the condition. No bruising that she could see but there were a lot of blood smears and traces of what she believed might be that grimy substance they had found on Howard’s feet. There was some discoloration on the wrists and lowest portion of the calves where he may have held down each limb while he sawed off the hands and feet. The idea of how long it would have taken to accomplish this savagery made Jess sick to her stomach.
Rage threatened to steal her control. She took a step back from the body and the anger. Not even outrage was a good thing when assessing this kind of killer’s next move.
She turned to Harper. “I’m done here, sergeant.”
“I’ll call the unit en route and have them meet us at the first location.”
As they headed for Harper’s car she wondered at the decision to hit the places one at a time versus simultaneously. She had a feeling that Harper wanted to oversee each one personally to ensure – if the unsub and Lori were there – no one made a mistake.
While Harper drove, Jess reviewed the details from each scene in the case. The three abductions were vastly different. When the unsub had taken Lori he had lured her to the scene and then departed, leaving none of the dirty details he’d left behind after luring Belinda Howard to the Liberty Park Lane property. The first victim remained unaccounted for while the last two had been tortured, in Miller’s case murdered, and then dumped.
Why had the degree of his torture deviated so from Howard to Miller? Why leave Howard clinging to life with, compared to the Player’s victims, scarcely more than superficial wounds? Clearly, Howard could have died from blood loss, but in comparison with Miller’s horrendous and fatal wounds, the injuries were barely a scratch. The abrupt change not only signified an unsub whose technique was far from polished but also that there was an emotional element driving the killer. What he had done to Miller reeked of anger and determination to prove a point.
He’d manned up.
The thought constricted her throat, made a decent breath impossible. Possibly it was a combination of Jess’s smart ass message and the fact that Howard had survived, forcing him to try harder to accomplish his goal of impressing the killer he obviously idolized. And showing Jess who was boss in the process.
No matter the motives and emotions involved, every step led back to Eric Spears. Jess had been a key member of the team investigating the Player case and his connection to it. The anonymous contacts began after her interview with Spears.
What if Spears wasn’t the Player? But was somehow connected to the games he played? Exactly how many killers were behind this elusive Player?
One? Two? A whole team?
North 31st Street, 3:55 a.m.
The former car wash on Parkway East had been a bust. Though part of the building had been used for detailing cars, the entire property was clean save a few layers of dust. There was no indication anyone had been inside the building in years. The unmarred layer of dust confirmed that conclusion.
An old gas station with mechanic’s bay the other side of town certainly had the grease and oil spills on the concrete, but again, no indication of occupancy in many years.
Jess waited with Harper at his SUV as the search team checked the perimeter of the final location on his latest priority list. The building sat in the middle of a large and long neglected parking lot. A high metal fence contained the area. There was a considerable distance on all sides from surrounding buildings. Most of the windows had been boarded up. According to the realtor who had the property listed there was a large storage warehouse located in the rear portion of the building that had no windows and only one walk-through door from the rest of the building as well as an overhead door leading to the outside.
With its thick brick walls, definitely the perfect place for torturing victims.
She and Harper, sporting vests and communication links, remained on the street until they were cleared to enter the property. Standard Operating Procedure. She doubted that would have prevented Harper from being right in the middle of moving in if Burnett hadn’t ordered him to keep Jess out of danger. Forcing both her and Harper to stay back until the search team was sure there was no threat.
Once this case was closed, she intended to see that the we-must-protect-poor-Jess mentality changed.
Where the hell was Burnett? She understood his need to check on the girl who had up until a year ago been his stepdaughter. She really did. But why wasn’t he here yet? Was it a life-or-death situation? The bigger question was why hadn’t he told Jess what was going on?
When she’d first arrived back in Birmingham last Wednesday – had it only been a week? – she had immediately sensed the connection between Burnett and one of the missing young women. Andrea Denton had been his stepdaughter. Thankfully she and the other four girls had escaped uninjured for the most part from a tragically twisted couple. But after what they had been through, much counseling would be needed. Particularly Andrea. Jess wouldn’t be surprised if issues hadn’t already come up.
The girl was close to Dan. The family would certainly call upon him. But why was it taking so long in light of what was going on with this case at this very moment?
Jesus, she was repeating herself to herself.
Bad sign.
And, if she were completely honest, she might even be a little jealous. A killer appeared to be taken with her and all Burnett could talk about was protecting her then suddenly – in the middle of a homicide scene – he has to go see about his ex-stepdaughter whose mother just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous?
Jess booted out the green monster. She had no right to be jealous of anything about Burnett.
“We can move in now, ma’am.”
> Jess hauled her wayward attention back to Harper. “Excellent.”
She hitched her bag higher on her shoulder, followed Harper through the gate and across the parking lot. She checked her cell. Still nothing from Burnett. They didn’t need him for this, but the idea that he hadn’t shown in more than two hours under the circumstances felt wrong.
A Jesus Christ buzzed across the communications link.
“Sergeant Harper, you need to get in here. . . now!” echoed next.
Jess broke into a run. She had a hell of a time keeping up with Harper but she managed.
“South side. Overhead door entry,” rattled in her ear next.
The lights were blazing and the three members of the search team stood just inside the doorway.
There was blood all over the place. A couple of chairs, one overturned. And a length of chain attached to a steel post near the center of the room. Lots of wooden crates with Grimes stamped on the sides.
Harper turned to her and she nodded, dread coagulating in her stomach. “This is it.”
She dragged shoe covers and gloves for her and Harper from her bag as he ordered a crime scene unit. They were going to need more than a couple of techs.
Moving carefully so as to disturb as little as possible, she and Harper progressed through the warehouse. Near what appeared to be a mop bucket filled with water, a hand. . . and then a foot lay on the floor.
“Call Agent Gant,” Jess murmured, “tell him to get over here. We’ve found the primary scene.” This was where Agent Nora Miller had been heinously tortured and mutilated before taking her last breath.
Jess surveyed the bloody floor, then the bucket of water. Lori was terrified of drowning.
Jess prayed she was still alive.
17
5:01 a.m.
Evidence techs were crawling all over the warehouse. Jess had ensured the feet and hands had been carefully collected and tagged for Gant. She tried Burnett’s cell phone again. She’d called him at least six or seven times in the past hour. Straight to voicemail. Where the hell was he?
To her immense relief, no other body parts had been discovered in the warehouse other than Miller’s. A scrap of a yellow blouse had been found. The collar and upper part of the back of the blouse. Harper confirmed that it was Lori’s size. Lending more credence to the possibility that she had used her own blouse to attempt first aid for Belinda Howard.
The unsub had obviously gotten nervous about the mess he’d made and departed the premises.
Agent Gant hadn’t arrived yet, but Manning was here. Jess felt reasonably confident that the agent had never worked a scene quite like this one. To say he was green around the gills would be an enormous understatement.
She needed to find Burnett. He needed to know about this.
Had something happened to Andrea? Surely he would have let Jess know if the situation – whatever the situation was – had deteriorated. Were he and the Denton family at the hospital?
Jess made yet another attempt at reaching him. When that failed, too, she made a decision. No matter that it was only shortly after five in the morning she saw no other recourse. All she needed was the number for the Denton family home. If there was an ongoing issue, surely one of the two was able to answer their phone. She went in search of Harper. He’d taken a breather outside away from the smell of blood and death. He was immensely disappointed that they hadn’t found Lori. And at the same time relieved that no readily discernible evidence of her murder had been discovered either.
“You hanging in there, sergeant?”
Harper looked up as she approached. He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” Then he shook his head. “I just keep thinking that she was probably the one chained.” He exhaled a ragged breath. “It’s very difficult.”
Jess placed her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Chet. I know this is extra hard on you. I also know that Lori would want us to do all within our power to stop this from happening to anyone else.”
Another shaky breath hissed past his lips. “She would.”
“Have you kept in contact with her family?” It seemed incredible to Jess that it had been only two days since Lori disappeared. Felt like months.
“I spoke to her mother twice yesterday. Terri, her sister, calls me several times a day. What they’ll see on the news today will break their hearts.”
When they had left the scene on Riverchase the media was still being kept at bay. But Gant or Black would have made some sort of statement by now.
“Have you heard from Burnett?”
“Not yet.” He glanced at Jess. “I’m beginning to get worried. It’s not like him to just drop off the radar like this.”
“I’ve tried his cell over and over.”
“I’ve called three times in the last half hour myself.”
“Do you still have a number for the Dentons in your cell?” Until Saturday their daughter had been missing and both Jess and Harper had worked the case. Jess hadn’t had the occasion to call the family but maybe Harper had.
“I believe I have a contact number I can try.”
“See if you can get one of them and find out what’s going on. I’ll take a last look around.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jess couldn’t shake the mounting dread that something had happened with Burnett. They would have heard by now if he had been in an accident and she still couldn’t believe he wouldn’t call if something had happened to Andrea.
“Ma’am.”
Jess turned back to Harper.
“Why don’t I take that last look around with you?” He walked toward her as he spoke. “I can check with the Dentons as we go.”
“Sure, sergeant.”
Burnett had told him to keep an eye on her and other than that moment he stepped outside to get a breath, he’d followed the order to the letter – even with more than a dozen members of law enforcement all around her.
Jess walked the warehouse again, ignoring the techs and uniforms. Deputy Chief Black was overseeing the collection of evidence personally, along with the redhead, Prescott.
Agent Manning was deep in a cell phone conversation, with Gant probably.
In a twelve-hour span the unsub had abducted a federal agent in broad daylight from a public place, brought her here, tortured her, murdered her, dumped her body and then evacuated with a hostage in tow.
Where would he go? How could he have possibly had time to make all these plans and contingencies?
“Ma’am.”
Jess tuned back in to the present.
“There is no answer at either of the numbers I have listed for the Dentons. But I’m not sure if what I have is home or work or cell numbers. Lori – Detective Wells or Chief Burnett usually communicated with them.”
Apprehension coiled tighter around her ribs. “Sergeant, I think we need to make a drive by. Manning and Black are here,” Jess pointed out. “There’s no need for us to hang around.”
“I’ll let Deputy Chief Black know we’re leaving.”
Tremendous willpower was required to keep Jess waiting for Harper to cross the warehouse, give Deputy Chief Black a heads-up and to walk back to where she waited.
Move it, Harper!
“Ready, ma’am?”
“Past ready, sergeant.”
By the time they reached Harper’s SUV way across the parking lot and on the street Jess fully comprehended that Harper absolutely knew how to hurry and that she had to start running again. She was seriously out of shape.
With no traffic to speak of, the drive to Montclair Road took less than twenty minutes. Harper said nothing. She said nothing. Each second seemed to echo in the silence, a taunting reminder that her cell phone had not rung.
Burnett was not going to call.
Best case scenario, there was new trouble. Worst. . . he was in trouble.
Harper slowed as he reached the Denton residence. The downstairs lights seeped through the slits in the blinds covering the front windows. Burnett’s Mercedes was not in
the driveway. Where the hell was he?
“Ma’am,” Harper said, shattering the silence as he parked at the curb in front of the Denton home, “I’m thinking we should just go to the front door and see if anyone’s up.”
Jess moistened her lips. “I think you’re right, sergeant.”
“If it turns out the chief was called away for some personal reason, like an emergency with his parents, we’ll just be a little embarrassed showing up here like this looking for him.”
For once Jess would be thrilled to learn dear old Katherine had needed her son. She wished it would be as simple as that, but the potential for that possibility had come and gone in her estimation. Something was wrong or she would have heard from Burnett by now. “I’ve been embarrassed before.”
Harper offered her a faint smile. “Won’t kill us.”
“Definitely not.”
Harper pulled into the drive and shut off the engine. Her hand shaking, Jess reached into her bag to make sure her weapon was handy. With her other hand she tugged at the Kevlar vest she still wore. She hadn’t thought to take it off. Just as well.
Keeping an eye out for trouble, Jess joined Harper at the front of his SUV. They walked to the front door together. Her pulse rate revved faster and faster. She refused to allow any of those worst case scenarios related to Burnett to totally form in her head.
He was too smart to let this son of bitch get to him. But Lori had been smart, too. . . and Agent Miller.
If Burnett had been ambushed, why hadn’t she gotten a message of some sort?
Harper pounded on the door. The sound made Jess jump even though she knew it was coming. Brandon Denton opened the door. His expression went from worried to fearful in a heartbeat.
“Jesus Christ, what’s happened?”
“I’m Deputy Chief Harris and this is –”
“I know who you are, where’s Andrea?”
The bottom dropped out of Jess’s stomach. Before she could find her voice, Harper asked, “Sir, we were not aware that your daughter wasn’t home. We came here looking for Chief Burnett. He left to meet with you nearly three hours ago.”
Annette Denton pushed past her husband and stood trembling in the doorway. “Andrea didn’t come home last night. She said she needed some time away,” her lips quivered, “from us. She sounded so distraught I called Dan. Brandon was out driving around looking for her car.”
