by Debra Webb
The air in her lungs felt abruptly too thick to exhale. “You sent the message?”
He nodded. “The response came maybe twenty minutes ago.”
Jess hated to ask this next question but it was essential. “Did you tell anyone else?”
He shook his head, regret on his face and in his posture. Jess understood she was asking a lot. Keeping this from Lori was difficult for him. For Jess, too. Detective Lori Wells had become a very close friend.
“What’d you tell her?” Lori was no fool. She would understand something was up with him coming over here at this hour.
“She went to see that new chick flick everyone’s talking about with her mom and sister. They missed the seven o’clock showing, since we were at the office late, so she won’t be home for a while. Today’s her mom’s birthday. They decided on a girls’ night out.”
Jess nodded. “I see.” She imagined Harper did as well. Her mom’s birthday or no, Lori obviously needed girl time with the two women closest to her, probably to discuss her relationship with the man closest to her.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the two were moving a little fast, in Jess’s opinion. Like she had any room to talk. Just last week she and Dan had confessed their love for each other. They’d both known it was there, but somehow it was different saying it out loud, face-to-face.
As life-altering as that moment had been, there was no place for the distraction just now. Spears had responded to the message she’d had Harper send.
Three more seconds elapsed before Jess had the nerve to hold out her hand for the phone. The hesitation made her all the more furious at herself, but she was flat out worried. No point kidding herself. She was damned worried about what Spears would do next… and about this other monster who’d latched onto her recent infamy.
More than anything else she was terrified for three young women who might very well have no idea that one of them was about to become the main character in a terrifying and lethal game.
Holding her breath, Jess tapped the necessary functions and read the two text messages.
Why waste your time with more games, Eric? Let’s do this.
Since Jess had been stuck with Dan and Black until she’d come home two hours ago, she’d asked Harper to send the text to the only contact number she had for Spears. Her detective hadn’t liked it one bit, but he’d known she would find a way to do it herself if he refused her request.
Truth was, Harper had his own reasons for wanting the Player. Spears’s protégé, Matthew Reed, had almost killed Lori. Harper had a big stake in this game, too.
Braced for another disturbing layer to this nightmare, she read the response from Spears:
Your impatience intrigues me, but this game is for you, Jess. Hold on, it’s going to be a thrilling ride!
“Son of a bitch.” Jess struggled not to lose it in front of Harper. If she’d ever wanted to kill another human being in cold blood she had no recall of the time. She wanted to kill Spears. She wanted to watch him die, a slow merciless death by her hand.
“What now?” Harper’s voice was strained with a fury he visibly struggled to conquer.
Anything she did carried some amount of risk. But she had to do something. “I can taunt him with this new interest from the Man in the Moon in hopes he’ll get jealous and make a move to take me out of this other perp’s reach.”
That fury flattening his lips now, Harper shook his head. “This is wrong, ma’am. You’re taking too big a risk.”
“What should I do then, Sergeant? Tell me.” She almost sloshed coffee before she remembered the mug in her hand. The anxiety crushing her rib cage prohibited an adequate breath. “How do I get his attention? Divert his path? Because if I don’t figure out a way to intercept his plan one of those women”—she pointed to the duplicate case board she’d created on her apartment wall—“is going to pay for my lack of ingenuity.”
Harper took the coffee from her and carried it to the sink. Jess tore off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She fought for the calm that had totally evaded her since the arrival of that damned package containing the photos.
As if he understood she needed a moment to pull it together, Harper steered her to the sofa and ushered her down. He sat beside her and waited a minute or two before he spoke. “So what do we do?”
Jess stared at the prepaid phone in her hand and struggled to find the right words. Slowly she tapped the impotent letters into the text box. “How about this?”
I’m a little busy with a new case. You aren’t the only admirer of my work.
Harper read the warning. “What if instead of coming after you, he just speeds up the game he’s already set in motion?”
Pointing out the rest wasn’t necessary. Jess glanced back at the photos on her wall. Three beautiful young women who had done nothing to deserve this. God knew this sort of push-the-killer strategy she was contemplating had backfired on her before.
“Thank you, Sergeant.” She deleted the words. “You’re right. You can’t second-guess a psychopath. You’ll lose every time.” She typed in a new message and then hit Send. “Okay.” She handed the phone back to Harper. “You can dispose of that. I won’t need it anymore.”
Harper read the message she’d sent. Simple and to the point:
I can’t wait to watch you die, Eric. See you soon.
“Ma’am, I really am concerned about how this is going to end. What if we can’t protect you? Or anyone else in his path?”
Jess mustered up a smile for him. “I’m going to end this, Sergeant. The only variable is whether or not I can get the job done before he kills again.” If she accomplished nothing else before she took her last breath, she would get this done. She understood part of Harper’s fear was for Lori. Being Jess’s friend could be hazardous.
According to Agent Gant, her former boss at the Bureau and the man in charge of the Spears investigation, there was evidence the Player had slipped back into the country. He could be anywhere… right outside watching the cop who was watching her, for that matter.
Dear God, what if she was pregnant? That was another life she needed to protect.
Don’t borrow trouble, Jess.
Harper gestured to the stacks of files on the floor. “How you coming with this one?”
Jess took her place on the floor once more and picked up the file she’d reviewed last. “The idea that this perp was able to get his hands on each child without obvious breaking and entering, without confrontation, and without anyone seeing him makes me believe he’s a familiar.”
Harper joined her on the floor. Jess resisted the urge to grin at how totally uncomfortable he looked sitting there in that suit with one leg curled under him and the other bent for an arm prop. “None of the families are connected—at least not in any way that was discovered in previous investigations. Different neighborhoods, schools, churches. Nothing in common at all was found.”
“The investigative work was relatively thorough.” She couldn’t deny Black and his predecessor had done a pretty damned good job. “But there will be something, Sergeant. We just haven’t found it yet.”
“Like the girls, Andrea and the others, who were abducted by the Murphys?”
That was the case that had brought Jess back to Alabama—back to Dan. “Yes, exactly like that. This unknown perp saw these children somewhere. Watched them. Maybe even interacted with them. Typically, a hunter has a preferred territory—a comfort zone. The Man in the Moon will have had a place he felt confident doing his hunting. That’s the connection. All we have to do is find it.”
“Before September nineteenth,” he suggested.
“Preferably.” If his past record was any indication, once he’d taken the child there was little hope of stopping him or saving the child. Then again, they had only one set of remains. There was no way to be certain what had become of the other children. So far the remains, presumed to be Dorie Myers, had told them nothing as to manner of death. However the little girl died, she h
adn’t suffered any broken bones. Still, there was a whole array of other ways to die that included tremendous suffering.
Not to mention the fear the child must have felt.
Jess shuddered inside.
She felt bad for Dan that he’d had to face those parents only to tell them basically nothing. And then to do the same in the press conference. But it was the truth. They had nothing, and until those remains were officially identified there was nothing to tell other than that some freak had decided to play with the department’s newest deputy chief.
Sucked to be popular.
“Why reach out to you, Chief?” Harper thumbed through a file. “After all these years of silence, why now? Why you?”
She considered his questions. They’d talked about this in the briefing, but Harper wanted her gut instinct. Problem was, she didn’t have much of one yet.
Jess hunched her shoulders, let them drop. “I wish I could answer those questions, but I don’t have enough information to create an accurate assessment. Burnett could be right in that the perp is ill and wants to be caught. Sometimes they want someone to stop them but this guy appears to have stopped himself. The one thing I can say with real accuracy at this point is that there’s been some sort of change, more than once, in his life. First, there was a major change that prompted him to stop killing, assuming he has. Something else has occurred more recently to prompt his coming out like this.”
“Maybe he was in prison? Or maybe he lived somewhere else for a while.”
“Prison is a possibility,” Jess agreed. “But if he lived somewhere else and continued his same pattern of abductions, we’d likely know about it. There’d be something in one database or another.”
“Yeah, I did a search on similar cases,” Harper said, sounding as dejected as Jess felt. “I didn’t find anything relevant.”
“Changing an MO isn’t entirely unheard of.” But Jess knew the stats. “It’s highly unlikely unless there’s a compelling reason. An injury or abrupt change in circumstances can put a killer off his game. Sometimes the change is calculated, more often it’s not.”
“So he didn’t go anywhere, he just went dormant for some reason,” Harper proposed.
“Yes, I believe he’s here.” Jess thought of all the evils she had studied in the past. It never got easier, and she never ceased to be amazed by their relentlessness and their resourcefulness. “He’s always been here. Something just awakened that old urge, that’s all. He may have reached out because he doesn’t want to kill again. But there would have to be a very compelling reason he finds himself in this quandary.”
“A .38 slug to the brain would take care of the problem.”
Jess laughed, though the sound was a little weak and a lot dry. “It takes a certain level of courage to put a muzzle to your head and to pull the trigger to save someone else, Sergeant. The one thing I can guarantee you this very sick individual does not have is that kind of courage. Some of the most evil are the most self-absorbed and the biggest cowards when it comes to personal sacrifice. Their own self-value is far too overinflated to consider harming themselves.”
“Even if he doesn’t want to keep killing, he wouldn’t end it that way?”
“Probably not.”
Harper pushed to his feet. “I’ll never get that.”
Jess wished she could just spring up like that. She was feeling every day of her forty-two years tonight. Thankfully she didn’t have to shame herself since Harper offered his hand. “Don’t bother trying to get it, Sergeant. You’re one of the good guys. Self-sacrifice is in your DNA.”
“I should get back before Lori comes home and wonders where I am.”
Jess stopped him at the door. “Thanks, Chet.” She rarely used his first name, just didn’t feel right. At the moment, it felt exactly right. “It means a lot to me that you were willing to indulge my desperation.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
The outside alarm sounded again. “Maybe Lori’s already looking for you.”
Harper made a face. “Hope not. She won’t like that we’re keeping secrets from her.”
Something else for Jess to feel guilty about. The less Lori knew the better. Jess didn’t want her dragged back into this any deeper than she already was by just being a part of Jess’s life.
The monitor showed Dan approaching. Irritation niggled Jess. “My surveillance detail must have told him you were here. Dropping off a file I forgot,” Jess added with a hitch of her head toward the piles in the floor.
One quick rap on the door later, she went through the paces, unlocking first one then the next lock. As she opened the door, it occurred to her that there could be a new development. Spears may have struck… or Lily could be in the hospital again. Renewed fear had Jess’s heart ramming against her sternum.
She was definitely putting the wear and tear on the old ticker. Just one more thing to worry about. Her sister’s sudden health issues had been a major wake-up call about mortality for both of them.
“Has there been a breakthrough in your investigation?” Dan asked, looking first at Jess then Harper.
Jess made a frustrated sound and rolled her eyes. “Harper dropped by the file I left in his car, since he has to drive me everywhere I go.” She heaved a breath. “Thank you again, Sergeant.”
“Any time, ma’am. I’ll see you in the morning.” He gave another nod to Dan. “Chief.”
Still visibly unconvinced, Dan stepped aside. “G’night, Sergeant.”
Jess headed back to her work. Dan’s relentless hovering was making her crazy. She’d thought she could deal with it, because she knew his compulsion came from the heart, but the last couple of days had been too much. But what really bugged her was the idea that he was immediately notified when a member of her own team stopped by.
“Did you have dinner?”
“Didn’t your spy tell you I ordered pizza?” Not that she’d been able to get more than a few bites down. The rest had gone into the fridge. She had no appetite.
“What’re you talking about, Jess?”
“Obviously the cop watching me called to tell you I had company.” She snatched open a folder and stared at the photo of the innocent young girl inside. God, how could she be worrying about Dan and his overprotectiveness when there were nineteen more little girls out there whose families wanted desperately to bring them home again?
Dan peeled off his suit jacket and joined her on the floor. She realized then that he’d apparently just left the office. “You haven’t been home yet?”
“No. I’ve been at the morgue.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” If there was news he should have called. Damn it. Those frustrating feelings of desperation and helplessness warred with her determination to stay focused and strong. How was she supposed to do this if he kept treating her like she was a porcelain doll instead of a cop?
“That’s what I’m here to do, Jess. Somehow I thought it was important to tell the parents first.”
“Oh my God.” The few bites of pizza did a somersault in her belly, and she felt like a total ass for feeling sorry for herself. “Then it is Dorie Myers?”
He nodded. “It was pretty simple. We already have dental records on file for all the missing children in that case. Over the years when we had unidentified remains we checked for these kids.” He stared at the piles of folders. “Sylvia stayed late to do the confirmation.”
Sylvia Baron was a new and unexpected friend… sort of. She was also the associate coroner. And Dan’s ex-sister-in-law. More small-town coincidences.
“I’m sorry. I know that was difficult.” No one wanted to have to tell a parent their child was dead.
He shrugged those broad shoulders of his. “It’s been thirteen years. This outcome was what they were expecting. They just want to bring her home.”
Somehow Jess had to make sure this Man in the Moon never got the chance to take another child ever again. “Did you figure out how word got out to the parents who showed up at
your office?” The last they spoke about it he was still furious with Gina Coleman.
“The receptionist at Channel Six. She went to school with the mother of one of the missing kids. She made the call.” He heaved a weary breath. “I had to apologize to Gina.”
A hint of jealousy pricked Jess. Gina and Dan’s sort of relationship had never been a big deal, he insisted, just recreational sex between two consenting adults. Still… she was another of his exes. The man seemed to have one on every corner. God, Jess, get over it.
Men who looked like Dan Burnett and had the kind of financial and public power he wielded were always highly sought after. Not to mention he was kind and a gentleman and sweet… and charming as hell.
Unlike frumpy ex–special agents who were persnickety and grouchy and thought they knew everything.
“She wants to be more closely involved in this case,” Dan said. “Maybe do a special on the Man in the Moon mystery.”
Jess’s hackles rose hard and fast. “Who?” He’d better not say what she thought he was going to say.
“Gina.” He shrugged, trying to play it off. “She could be a useful resource, Jess.”
Jess opened her mouth to lower the boom but quickly snapped it shut. Allowing any trickle of jealousy to get between her and a possible resource was just dumb. She was tired. She needed to sleep. Otherwise she would never be slipping down such a petty path. And she wouldn’t be half as mad about him showing up when Harper was here if she hadn’t felt guilty. He would blow a fuse if he found out she’d sent those texts to Spears.
“Gina seems to be okay after what happened with her sister,” Jess ventured, feeling contrite. Last week’s big case revolving around a tight-knit little group of Birmingham elitists who called themselves the Five had left the city’s upper crust a little ragged around the edges. The best part was that an old case involving bullying and murder had been solved.
What was happening to this world? Where were all the normal people?
Never mind. Considering she was a little south of normal herself, she wasn’t about to start throwing any stones.
