by Jared Paul
She smiled to herself as she burrowed deeper into the covers of Louis’ bed. He was hers, she was his, and no matter what pain life delivered to her, that fact could make her feel like she was capable of flying high enough to reach heaven. It didn’t matter why they’d formed their relationship; the why had fallen away and become the now, and now all that mattered was that they loved each other. Sure, the love was brand new and scary as hell, but it was there and it was precious enough to try and hold on to. It wasn’t everyday a man like Louis fell in love.
Just as she had been about to drift back to sleep, possibly to be woken by Louis’ soft lips on her bare shoulder and the smell of coffee in her nose, a sharp tug to her head had her eyes flying open even as her body was following the motion and she was on the floor, struggling to breathe.
“I should rip your arms from your whore body, you bitch! How dare you sleep with him!”
Confused, unable to recognize the voice slithering like poison into her ears, Reyna didn’t have the chance to get a look at the person that had so brutally yanked her from Louis’ bed. She didn’t even have the thought to think of how such a person was able to get inside of Louis’ house, especially since as soon as she’d recovered from the fall from the bed, a fist flew at her head and knocked stars into her vision.
She knew she was crying, whimpering and possibly begging to whoever was attacking her to stop what they were doing, but she felt a stinging sensation in the meat of her upper arm and all time stopped in its tracks. Thought was impossible for her, existence held no meaning and as her limbs began to go numb, Reyna realized that she was drooling all over the carpet that was just inches from her lips. Pain filled her body, but because she felt so numb all over, they felt as if they were padded by great bales of cotton and the words that were now stumbling out of her continued to fall on deaf ears.
“You’re going to suffer for what you’ve done. He doesn’t love you, and don’t think he’ll save you. He won’t even care that you’re gone.”
The words, even though they barely reached her, made her numb body turn to ice just as her eyes closed and darkness covered her. Her last thought was that Death had come to collect her.
********
Louis tapped his foot as he waited in line at Greg’s Coffee House. Once, while he’d been in Hadley on a day trip, he’d wandered into a Starbucks and gotten coffee; the experience had made him appreciate the local coffee haunt all the more, since there was nothing like a mega chocolate chunk coffee gulp to get the blood pumping like it should. Greg was a genius and he deserved to be given a medal, only if you didn’t get there early, you had to wait in line half an hour.
The line inched and Louis made a move to step forward when his cell phone went off. Mechanically, he picked it out of his pocket. He noted the sheriff was ringing him as he pressed his call button and mentally rolled his eyes.
“You got me, whatchya need?”
“Why aren’t you on shift yet?”
Louis shrugged even though he knew Jon couldn’t see him. “Just grabbing some breakfast.” He frowned when he remembered the events of the day before. “Something happen?”
“We have another one. He’s in his thirties, possibly six foot judging by the length of his torso and his legs, and just like the other ones, he’s missing the third finger on his left hand. The coroner pegged some of the body parts as belonging to someone else and that whoever they belonged to has been dead for over a week a week while our freshest torso was killed last night. I trust the guy, but I’m going to get Cory to take a closer look and make sure.” Jon exhaled into his receiver. “I need you to get your ass over here before I lose my mind, got it? I had a call this morning from everyone’s favorite mayor and he’s got the Feds and the Hadley Bunch in on this one. He told me we might have us a traveling salesman.”
Louis swore inside his head. It wasn’t a term Jon got to use often, but around the station, a ‘traveling salesman’ was any criminal wanted in another state or city. If their serial killer was a tourist, it meant that the Feds were probably already on the case and it meant they wouldn’t have a popcorn bag’s chance in a movie theater of getting rid of them.
“I have to stop off at my house, but it won’t take me but ten minutes to get to the station. Is my partner already in?” The last he added on for a sarcastic spice to his tone.
Jon scoffed which caused Louis’ brows to collide. “I thought she was with you. Knowing how you are, I had a bet going with Cory to see how long it would take you to get rejected. Though I figured she was already with you, since the rumor around the water cooler is that she’d got the hots for you. Not like you wouldn’t notice.”
“Wait, what? You thought she was with me? Look, the girl is good looking, but she’s got the personality of a pile of leaves. No thank you. And, you’d better call her ‘cause I ain’t seen her since shift ended yesterday.”
“All right, geez lighten up man. You know I partnered her with you because you’re the best I got. It isn’t because my brother transferred out that you were promoted, Louis. I don‘t think the worst of you all the time.”
A sound as if something crashed into a pile of wine glasses while a band blew trumpets punctuated Jon’s speech and Louis had to literally pull his cell phone away from his ear to avoid permanent damage. Jon was swearing like a deranged badger before he heard the click of the call ending abruptly.
“Well, damn.”
“Son, you going to order or what?”
Louis had to blink a few times before he remembered where he was and why. Even if Jon wanted him in pronto, he wasn’t going to pass up a few minutes to nibble on some grub with Reyna. No man in his right mind who felt the way he felt when he woke up would pass up the chance to spend every second he had with the woman who made him feel that way.
“Yeah, yeah keep your panties on.”
********
Louis stepped through his front door and whistled softly as he carried his loot back to his room where he planned to serve Reyna in bed. She was a horrible hot mess in the morning, her hair thrown about her face as if she’d been electrocuted, and there was nothing more adorable to him than when he saw the sleepy confusion color her cheeks as she realized she looked like the Nessie on dry land.
“Helllooo! Wake up!” Louis called just as he popped the door open to his room and jumped through the frame as if he were hopping out of a cake. “Honey, I’m home!”
The words left his lips before he had the time to adjust them to what he was seeing. The room had been destroyed; his bedside lamp had shattered as the table it had been sitting on had been turned over, the comforter on the bed as well as the bed’s sheets had been yanked from the mattress and thrown into a corner, and the topping on the cake was that Reyna was nowhere to be found. The only thing that was where Reyna was supposed to be was an envelope with his name written on it.
“What the hell?”
Louis set the food and coffee he had in his hands on the floor, not really giving a shit if the coffee fell over or not, and he moved to the bed and had the envelope open and the letter in his hands before he even realized he’d given his brain the command to do so.
Dear Louis,
While you were gone, I had time to think about what you said last night. I don’t think you’re capable of loving me, and I don’t love you. I think I deserve more. I’m leaving town for a few days to clear my head, so don’t bother trying to find me.
Reyna
Numbly, and because he should have known karma wasn’t going to give him a break, he crumbled the letter, threw it in whatever direction came first and forced himself to find his uniform. There was nothing he could do about Reyna he knew. But it sure as hell sucked because he hated the fact that he‘d given his heart away to her only so that she could run off with it.
********
“Just so you know, because I’m your friend, I thought I ought to tell you that you look like something ate you and then crapped you back out.”
Louis
glared at Jon as if he wanted his head to dissolve on his shoulders. He wasn’t in the mood for banter. He said, “Just so you know, if it doesn’t concern the job, keep your mouth shut or I’ll punch your face to the back of your skull.”
“Geez, I guess Greg’s coffee isn’t what it used to be.”
Louis watched Jon shrug and then look to the clock on the wall in his office. He then looked out past the door and then out into the rest of the station to watch the various individuals in suits proceed to wreck the place. In zero to sixty, his expression matched the venom that he’d given him at a single comment. There were very few things that could anger Jon, Cory’s temper and people making a mess of his headquarters were the only two that could make him spit nails.
“They told me I had to keep my ass away from the crime scenes. They told me they’d keep me in the loop and that I should put my feet up and relax. However, they didn’t tell me I couldn’t go visit my wife.” Jon’s chuckle was dark enough to pass as octopus ink. He lifted and eyebrow. “Care to join me?”
Louis nodded and as Jon left his desk and headed for his door, he followed behind him. Before they could get out to the parking lot, one of the suited numbnuts stopped them.
“You going somewhere, Sheriff?”
“Yeah, out to lunch.”
“Then go on. We’ll radio you if anything develops, but know that this is a criminal we’ve been tracking for five years. If there’s a chance we’ll catch him in this town, we can’t waste time on keeping the local law happy.”
Jon waved his hand and turned for the door. It was apparent to Louis that he didn’t care what the Feds thought they were going to do. Jon thought of Collie as his town, and there wasn’t a person alive that could tell him different.
********
“You’re not supposed to be here, Jon.”
“I’m just here to have lunch with my wife. Whatever you say, I’ll just chalk it up to pillow talk and it’ll stay between us.”
Louis wasn’t surprised when Cory eyed him and then looked back to her husband. She replied, “Then what is Louis doing here? I told you back in high school that threesomes were out.”
Jon chuckled and Louis couldn’t help but to chuckle as well. He looked around and decided that as far as restaurants went, that the one they’d chosen to have lunch in wasn’t so horrible. The fact that the man who owned the restaurant was old as dirt didn’t affect the taste of the food whatsoever.
“So tell me, Cory, what did you find on the new body? Anything we can use?”
“Well, as you know, the clothing the victims were wearing are all but nonexistent due to the method in which they were murdered, but on this guy, his pants pockets were intact. I found some items in his pockets, including something very specific and highly traceable.”
“I’m dying to know.”
Cory put her face on her chin and sighed. “I could lose my license for giving this information to you, my dear husband.”
“I found a heart necklace with an inscription on it inside of a tissue.”
Louis hadn’t been paying attention to the majority of the conversation since his mind was back in his bedroom thinking about the note on his bed and how strange it was. It didn’t make sense, even though he could admit that at first he had believed the worst.
The wording of the letter was strange, and it didn’t sound at all like something Reyna would write. It didn’t have a single drop of emotion in it, and the kindness that made up the majority of Reyna’s soul was absent. The fact that his room had been destroyed made little sense either; it just wasn’t Reyna‘s style.
“The inscription said, for my daughter and my best friend, Happy Birthday.”
Even though he hadn’t been paying close attention he knew the gist of the conversation, so when Cory recited the inscription she’d discovered on the heart necklace she’d found in their newest victim’s pocket, Louis perked up his ears.
“Reyna owns a necklace with that inscription,” he offered and even as the words left his mouth, he realized that it had been in the shape of a heart. Reyna had told him once that her mother had given it to her on the last birthday she’d had before her mother had died and that she wore it wherever she went. The night she’d found him attempting to kiss Rebecca, she’d flown into a fit of anger and snagged in on something on her way out of the bar and lost it, something she’d mentioned to him sadly just before they’d fallen asleep last night.
It was rare that lightning struck his brain, but when it did, the flash was like seeing the universe in an instant and time could stop and stand still. Louis knew in his soul that he was seeing something important and possibly life changing.
Louis looked to Jon, who was staring at him as if he’d sprouted antlers. He knew something was up. Cory was doing the same thing, her brain more attuned to sudden shifts in knowledge than her husband.
“What is it Louis?”
“I think the killer is trying to frame my girlfriend and that she’s been kidnapped to make it look like she ran away.”
Even as the statement left his lips, as his brain and heart came together and knew it to be the truth, Louis tried to reject it. How could it be that he’d just found love, that the person he loved returned it to him, and that in an instant all of it could be destroyed?
Louis wanted to say something more, beg for both Cory and Jon to tell him than he’d lost his mind, but just as he would have tried, Rebecca appeared at their table, looking bright-eyed and bushy tailed.
“What in the hell are you doing here, and why the hell are you so late for your shift?”
Louis, surreally, calmly watched as Rebecca smiled and shook her car keys at Jon. “My right rear tire was flat, so I had to have it fixed. When I got to work, there were all these men wandering about excited about something. They yanked me aside and told me that they caught your killer. Isn’t that just the greatest news?”
Louis looked to Jon, who looked first to Cory and then to him and a world of words passed between them all. He was the first to stand, and then as Jon followed him, he was at his cruiser before Rebecca could have the chance to catch up with them. They now had a race on their hands against time, since if the murderer was at the station, then he wasn’t with Reyna and Reyna’s life was in danger.
Louis knew one thing, and if it was the last thought he ever had, he’d make sure his ghost had it inscribed on his grave stone; there wasn’t a force in nature that was going to prevent him from getting Reyna back.
PART 4
………………………………..
RED WIDOW KILLER
CHAPTER 24
………………………………..
Louis couldn’t turn the ignition to the cruiser quick enough, and swearing, he finally got the vehicle to kick over just as Jon barely managed to plop his rear into the passenger’s seat.
“Louis, I know what you’re thinking, but buddy, you have to calm down. If you kill us before we get to the station, we won’t be doing anyone any good.”
Louis pressed his foot down on the gas pedal and the cruiser lurched and then began to speed through the parking lot of the restaurant. He replied, “You tell me that if it was Cory, that you wouldn’t be doing the same thing.”
“This girl mean that much to you?”
“Yes.”
********
Louis didn’t have the mind to wait for Jon to get out of the cruiser, even though he was going to need him if he was to get within a foot of the Fed’s suspect, but the compulsion to look the bastard in the face and demand to know what he’d done with Reyna wasn’t he could ignore, let alone disobey.
The concept of love, the fact that he was just as susceptible to it as anyone else on the planet was a miracle in and of itself. He knew that this precious discovery was something monumental and that the person that inspired it in him couldn’t be lost to him. If he lost Reyna now, then he knew for certain that he would be the man everyone thought he was.
As expected the lead Fed
, the pompous one that had stopped them on their way out was now walking over to him as if he meant to question him again. Perhaps he wanted to know if his lunch was digesting well.
Not in the mood to particularly be gracious, and because Travis would have rooted him on, as soon as the Fed was within range, Louis pulled his arm back and slugged him square in his arrogant mug. The man went down flat on his back like a dead tree, his suit withstanding the fall without so much as a single wrinkle.
Louis could feel eyes boring into him, and before he could be caught, he made for the most direct route through the station and to the only interrogation room that they had. Inside, handcuffed to a metal chair was a man he’d b never seen before. Instinct and rage took over his body, and he was grabbing the man before his brain could reason with the rest of him, and he was screaming.
“Where the hell is she, you piece of shit?! Did you think I wouldn’t find you? If you don’t start talking, I’m going to start to tear your goddamn head from your shoulders all slow like so you feel every last second of it just before you fucking die!” To emphasize his words, he shook the man in his hands violently. The anger boiling inside of him threatened to steal his sanity, but more than that it threatened to make good on his promise of decapitation.
Louis, through the thick red haze of his wrath felt something press into the small of his back.
