Beyond Secrets, The Art of Murder: A Madison Hart Mystery (Madison Hart Mysteries Book 1)

by DB Jones

  Josh reached for the keys. “You can just tell us where it is. I know you have a lot to do, and we’ll get out of your hair.”

  “It’s right around the corner, down the pathway. It’s the last studio. You can tell no one is using it because it will be the one filled with boxes.”

  It was easy to find which studio it was. The others were well organized and apparently being used for classes. The last studio was off to itself. The place was so cluttered that it made it difficult to maneuver. There was a series of cubbies in the back, with large plastic tubs in each of them. Names were written on the front of some of the tubs; Aspen, Alice, Kim and several other names they didn’t recognize. Alice had mentioned other students used them to store some of their supplies.

  Josh reached up and pulled out Kim’s plastic tub. Papers and photos filled the tub along with a bag that contained some personal items. They sifted through the items and finally, at the bottom, was a brown ledger. Madison untied the leather strap that held it closed. It had dates of every event, meeting, and project that Tyler Kincaid had scheduled since the day Kim took over handling his affairs. She had become his personal assistant and had meticulously documented everything, down to the exact locations where he took his models for his paintings.

  Josh and Madison were ecstatic. They could now complete a timeline of Kincaid and match it to the timeline of the missing women. Josh put the book into his jacket, and they left the room. By the time they got back to Alice, visitors were arriving to see the exhibit. Alice stepped up to Josh, “Were you able to find anything?”

  “Maybe.” Without sounding alarmed, he pulled Alice over to the side. “Alice, has anyone heard from Kim yet?”

  “No. I don’t think so, but I have to tell you, I’m worried about her. This isn’t like Kim. She would at least call Mr. Kincaid. Her sister must be very ill.”

  “How do you know he hasn’t heard from her?” Josh asked.

  “Because I asked him.”

  “What did he say?” Madison quietly asked.

  “He just said she had a family matter and would probably call when she’s ready to come back.”

  “Well, thank you for your help, Alice,” Madison said. “I’m sure Kim appreciates your filling in for her.”

  Josh tried to hurry Madison out the door before Alice suspected something was wrong and started asking questions they were not at liberty to answer. That would have only triggered her curiosity. They had all they needed for the moment and were eager to get back to work.

  When they arrived back at Madison’s office, Josh suggested they move everything to the station in the back room before they went any further. Madison’s heart was pounding, and her adrenaline was racing. She didn’t want to squander the time moving everything when they were so close to finding the answers. “Let’s just go over Kincaid’s book and update the board. I’m sure his timeline is going to pull all this together.”

  He gave up on the idea to try and convince her otherwise. They took a seat at the table facing the board and thumbed through the pages of the book to see if they could spot where he met the first model. Madison flagged the times Kincaid began each painting for his latest exhibit and the times he finished each one. She was impressed by the detail Kim took to document every infinitesimal aspect of Kincaid’s project, right down to the paints he used. “Damn, this woman is detail-orientated. This book is going to help us nail the bastard.”

  When they finished marking the pages, Madison stepped up to the board and correlated the times against the missing women. When she finished, she stood back and stared at their findings. “Got you!”

  Josh quickly interjected. “Not so fast, tiger. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have to check out his alibi for the times the women went missing and the times of their deaths. Don’t forget; we still have two missing. It would help if we could locate them to cement the timeline.”

  “You’re right.”

  She walked back to the table, sat down, and propped her head in her hands. She continued to stare at the board, going back and forth until she almost made herself dizzy. Her head was pounding, and the pain from the accident started creeping in against her temple, but she couldn’t pull herself away. There was still something missing, and it was driving her crazy. It was right there in front of her, and she couldn't see it.

  Her face grimaced as she put her hand to her head. “Hey, there, why don’t you take one of those pain pills and lie down for awhile? I’m not going anywhere. It will give me time to read more in this ledger.

  She resisted the idea and then decided she’d split one of the pills in half. That way she wouldn’t be so loopy. She wanted to be clear-headed. There was something she wasn’t seeing, and it was eating at her, but the more she struggled, the more the pain intensified. “Yeah, I think I will. But if you find anything, you wake me immediately. I feel there is one more thing we’re missing..”

  Josh was surprised that she heeded his suggestion. Madison was a strong-willed woman and didn’t take suggestions well, at least from him. He watched as she slightly struggled back to her room behind the curtain. She was feeling the effects of the wreck more than she was letting on but he was glad she was going to rest.

  He too, felt they were over-looking the final piece of the puzzle. Maybe the answer was in Kincaid’s ledger. He started reading it from the beginning while Madison rested. As he continued to read, it read more like a diary than a ledger. It was taking on a life of its own, a chronicle of everything this man had done from the moment he started his projects. The more he read, the more uneasy he felt.

  Then he got to a section that explained the sites where Kincaid took his models to pose. These sites are eerily familiar. The hair on the back of his neck started to stand up. He glanced up at the board under the missing women, and something stuck out right away. “Shit,” he blurted out, not realizing it would wake Madison. Madison pulled the curtain back. “What did you say?” she mumbled wiping her eyes. It was too late. She had heard him and knew he had stumbled onto something. She sat at the edge of the bed until she got her composure and then walked up to the table.

  “What is it?”

  “I think I found what we’ve been missing. Look at this entry.” Josh pointed to a page in the ledger. Madison sat down hard in the chair and grabbed the book from his grip. Her eyes were still a bit blurry from the medication, but she could make out what it was saying and knew right away that it corresponded with the data on the board.

  “Do you know what this means?” Josh said, grabbing her.

  “I believe I do.”

  This time it was Josh who jumped up to the board and started scribbling down what he just read. Madison staggered, attempting to get closer to the board to see what he was writing. When he finished, he turned to her. “It was right there in front of us the whole time, but now it makes sense.”

  “I can’t believe I missed that. I vaguely remember Kim mentioning something about the landmarks of his paintings, but I never put it together until now.” Madison turned to Josh, “Do you see what I’m seeing?” She grabbed his arm.

  “I do. But are you up to checking this out now?”

  “You bet your tight ass I am.”

  “Agent Hart,” he said laughingly.

  Madison shuffled all the papers and the ledger into her bag and headed for the door. “I think we’d better check this out before we brief the chief on this.”

  “I agree.”

  They drove back to the Art Center. There was no one in the reception area, so they rushed back to the gallery. They were looking for something specific and went directly to the paintings that they believed were of the two women still missing. Josh studied them carefully. “I think I know this place.” He leaned in as close to the painting as he could. “I’m pretty sure this is an old abandoned slave gravesite near the edge of the swamp, behind the orange grove off of the Maitland Avenue exchange.”

  They dashed toward the front door, nearly knocking over Alice. “S
orry, Alice. We just got an emergency call, got to run,” Josh said as they fled through the center’s front door.

  Madison's pulse was pounding. If what they were thinking was right, they were about to bust this case wide open.

  The traffic was exceptionally heavy that time of day, but Josh didn’t want to turn on his siren and draw attention to what they were doing. The closer they got to an old dirt road that veered off the highway, the more the sweat was running down Josh’s forehead from the anticipation. Although Madison was still feeling the effects of the pain pill, she was burning with the idea of what they might find. They could barely speak as the car meandered along the old path. It was apparent not many people had traveled there in quite some time, and the mud made it difficult to maneuver through the trees.

  They finally made it to the other side of the grove. The swampy landscape near the lake came into view. Josh looked around. “I know that place is around here somewhere. It’s been so many years since I’ve been out here; I’m not quite sure where it is.”

  Josh parked the car, and they proceeded on foot to the edge of the marshy grasses along the lake, looking for any signs of the old gravesites. Since there were no tombstones, other than homemade plaques their families had placed over the graves, it made it difficult to locate them. Besides, it was only a rumor that they even existed. Madison headed in one direction, and Josh walked toward the other side of the marsh. They slowly pushed aside the tall grasses looking at the ground for anything that might resemble a plaque. Josh hollered.“Over here, Maddy!”

  She started to run in his direction and realized that was not a good idea. She grabbed her head with both hands and went down on her knees. Josh had his attention on the primitive rocks that indicated dates and names of those who died. When he looked up again, he couldn’t see her. He stood up to see what she was doing, and then he saw her. She was lying on the ground out cold with part of her body covered by the grasses. He took off towards her, buy by the time he got to her; she had raised her head. “I guess I tripped,” she said, in denial.

  “Tripped? Honey, you passed out. I think I need to take you to the hospital to make sure you’re alright. What good is finding anything if you’re going to kill yourself?”

  “Honestly, Josh, I feel okay. We’re already here, let’s see if we can find something.” Josh helped her stand. She was still unsteady for a moment and held onto his arm.

  “Okay, but when we’re finished here, I’m taking you to the hospital for x-rays. You might have hit your head again when you passed out, so don’t argue with me or we’ll leave now.”

  Madison didn’t respond but nodded her head in agreement. He led her slowly over to where he had discovered the stones used as grave markers. “I think this is the place.” She opened her cell phone to one of one of the paintings. “I believe you’re right.”

  They studied the angle of the photo in relationship to where they were standing. “I think this was painted a little bit more toward that far side,” she said. They pushed the grasses aside as they made their way to that spot. As they got closer, Josh noticed something close to the lake. He tried to walk out hoping Madison would wait, but she nearly knocked him over to get there.

  There, among the tall grasses by the lake was a decomposing body. They turned to each other. No words were necessary. They knew who the remains belonged to. Josh called the station and then the coroner. Madison just stood there shaking her head, and Josh stood there with his hands on his hips. As much as they were excited to prove their theory, it would be another confirmation that none of the missing women would be found alive. Madison was sickened by the carnage this killer had imposed on this quiet community.

  The sirens announced the squad cars arrival. The coroner wasn’t far behind them. Within moments, the team had secured the area and taped off the site. Doc Webb walked up with his team. He stopped in front of Josh and Madison. “Are you thinking this is one of the missing women you were looking for?”

  “We think so, but we won’t know until you confirm the ID for us,” Madison replied softly.

  “I’m going to put this at the top of my schedule. I can tell you it’s a female. You have your work cut out finding her killer,” Doc said, as he turned toward the corpse.

  They wrapped the body, or what was left of it, into the black bag and hoisted it onto the gurney. Doc and Jimmy struggled to wheel it through the mud to coroner’s van. Madison and Josh watched as another victim was carted off. Then they joined in combing the area for evidence with the forensic team, hoping the killer left a piece of himself. Beneath where the body had been was a mangled bullet. It was photographed tagged and bagged, but from the looks of it, Josh was sure it was from the same weapon that shot the other women. Madison was doing her best to stay alert through the sharp pain that was radiating in her head.

  Josh approached her, “I think we’ve done everything we can here, now I need to get that hard head of yours checked.”

  Madison started to say she was fine, but Josh interrupted, “I told you not to argue with me on this. You’re going if I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you myself.”

  Madison tried to hold back her laugh at the vision of him trying to do that. “Okay, I’ll go. But we’re not done; not by a long shot.”

  He took her arm and smiled. “I know, and as soon as we get the doctor’s okay, we’ll continue.”

  Josh drove her to the same hospital where Aspen was recovering. He pulled up in front of the emergency room and walked her in. He flashed his badge which expedited the processing. They came out with a wheelchair and immediately took Madison to the back. Josh waited for what seemed like hours, and then a doctor came out. He looked so serious that Josh began to sweat with fear. “She’s fine. She’ll be out in a minute, but I would recommend her taking it easy for awhile. No rough stuff.” The doctor winked at Josh. “A few of the stitches came loose, but we fixed her right up.”

  Josh was about to reply to the doctor when a nurse wheeled Madison out to the waiting room. “She’s good to go, but you might want to go a little easy on her,” the nurse said winking at Josh.

  As Josh was wheeling Madison toward the doors, she looked up at him. “I need to see how Aspen is doing before we leave. Would you mind finding out what room she’s in?”

  “No, not at all.” He walked to the information desk, he flashed his badge again and talked to the receptionist. Madison couldn’t hear what they were saying, but when Josh returned, he said, “She’s no longer here. They discharged her last night, and they don’t know where she is now. We’ll make a few calls when we get back. Now let me get you out of here.”

  He wheeled her to the car. He sat for a moment looking at Madison when he got into the car. “I wonder what all that was about? The doctor said the same thing to me the nurse did.” Josh started up the car. Madison turned to him, “I told the doctor the stitches must have come loose from our rough sex,” she said calmly, as a matter-of-fact.

  “You didn’t?”

  She turned to him and grinned. “Oh yes, I did.”

  He wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not but was glad she was feeling better and could joke.

  “I need to get you back so you can rest for awhile.” He pulled out onto Highway 17-92, heading back toward Maitland.

  “No. We need to move on this now. If the killer thinks we’re onto him, things could change quickly.”

  “Don’t worry, no one but the department and Doc Webb knows, and they’re sworn to secrecy. Nothing is going to happen the rest of the day so get some rest, please. Besides, I’ll be there with you.”

  She reluctantly agreed since the pain in her head was still throbbing, but she didn’t like the idea of having a babysitter hovering over her. She popped another pain pill and hit the bed.

  Chapter 20

  Madison bolted out of bed the next morning and was upset with herself for sleeping so long. Wasting time was not on her schedule. She had forgotten he had stayed the night. She jumped into the
shower, dressed and started for the front when she smelled the coffee. She pulled back the curtain, and Josh there with his feet propped on the table sipping coffee.

  “How did you get in here?”

  “I spent the night. Don’t you remember?” he said, grinning at her.

  “No, I don’t.”

  He casually sipped his coffee. “Best sex we’ve ever had.”

  She walked over to him and gave him a head-slap. He nearly lost his coffee. “I’d know if we had sex; I wasn’t that out of it. Nice try. You almost got me back with that one.”

  “Coffee’s ready. No need to ask you what you have planned today because I already know you’re ready to hit the road and see if our suspicions are right.”

  “The sooner, the better. I don’t want to risk Kincaid discovering what we’re up to and leaving town.”

  She filled her travel mug and grabbed at Josh’s arm. “Come on.”

  He almost lost his balance getting out of the chair. Madison was on a mission, and he couldn’t lag behind. He shuffled the files into his case and raced after her. Once in the car, they opened up the file of the last missing person. Though they hadn’t received confirmation of the body they discovered yesterday; they were pretty sure who it was. That left one more missing person and based on the clues from the ledger they had a general idea where the location was.

  There was a spot where construction crews had demolished an old turn-of-the-century home deep in the woods. Many historians had tried to save the structure but found it to be too costly, so a developer bought the land and had it torn down. Then the housing market dropped, and he lost his financing, so everything came to a halt. The old mansion was nothing but a mound of rubble on the shore of Lake Minnehaha. Josh and Madison suspected this was their site. It matched the description of the painting to a tee.

  There was a large iron gate across the entrance to the property, but someone could easily walk through it. Josh parked the car, and they proceeded by foot. They carried the photo of the last painting with them, to an area close to the edge of the water. It was overgrown and walking through the piles of debris was hazardous. Madison wasn’t stable enough to move forward, but trying to persuade her to stay behind would be like telling the sun not to come out the next day. She held onto Josh’s arm as they climbed over the broken rubble, but it didn’t take long. There it was, exactly as shown in the painting. Slumped on the other side of the demolished home were the remains of a body.