2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series Collection

by Carolyn McCray

  Ugh. This was the hardest part. “Yes, but he was there hours before the official investigation. During the time of death window.”

  “Oh…” Glick stated, setting the paper down. Then he looked up. “I would have thought you would have gone straight to Kent with this information.”

  Joshua looked down at his feet. He should have. Kent would have done the same for him. “I just couldn’t… I just couldn’t.”

  Glick looked back the paper. “Call him in. Call everyone involved in.”

  “Sir?”

  “I want to hear it from the horse’s or in this case, the profiler’s mouth and I want Nicole and Ruben to be here when I confront Kent with this.”

  “Yes, sir,” Joshua said. “You won’t tell him who gave this to you, would you?”

  “I won’t, but we both know he’ll figure out who it was.”

  Joshua looked down at his tennis shoes again.

  Of course Kent would. There was no point in hiding the fact he’d betrayed his bestie.

  CHAPTER 3

  Kent didn’t like it when he got “summoned” to the Captain’s office even when it was for a valid reason, you know for shoplifting, stalking, stuff like that. But to be “summoned” for no valid reason whatsoever?

  Ridiculous. And there was no way the Captain knew anything about his extracurricular activities.

  Striding through the bullpen, Kent noticed that both Ruben and his wife were missing.

  Great. This was going to be some kind of intervention.

  Kent didn’t bother to knock on the Captain’s door. Everyone knew who was walking through that door next.

  He found Glick sitting behind his desk. Ruben and Nicole standing at the back of the room and a very, very guilty looking Joshua sitting in one of the two chairs in front of Glick.

  Mind spinning, trying to put together what was going on, Kent took another step into the room and closed the door behind him.

  Nicole wouldn’t look him in the eye and had that “crap, you’ve really stepped into it this time” face. One that he got to see fairly frequently. Ruben looked smug, which again was a fairly common occurrence. Although Kent had to say he looked even more smug than usual.

  And poor Joshua wrung his hands in his lap, murmuring, “I am so sorry, I am so, so sorry.”

  Glick had that disappointed father face he got when he thought Kent had stepped over some line.

  For the life of him, Kent had no idea what was everyone’s issue.

  “Have a seat,” Glick offered, indicating Kent to sit down.

  “No thanks, I think I’ll stand,” Kent answered.

  “Oh, thank God,” Nicole moaned, moving the chair so she could brace herself and lower herself into the chair.

  Kent grinned, but his amusement faded as he looked back to Glick.

  “Spit it out,” Kent urged.

  “We have some questions that only you can --”

  “I said, Spit. It. Out.”

  Glick’s jaw moved up and down as his lips opened then closed. Finally, he sighed. “We have evidence you are the Brookside Blitz killer.”

  Kent snorted then looked around. The group was serious.

  That made him laugh out loud.

  Still chuckling, Kent asked, “And what exactly made you leap to that conclusion?”

  Kent leaned against a bookcase, getting comfortable.

  Ah, this was going to be fun.

  * * *

  Nicole groaned. Part of it was Kent’s insufferable arrogance. The other part was because little baby Harbinger was kicking her so hard she was pretty sure he wanted to Bend it Like Beckham.

  Glick went through the evidence. It was pretty substantial. Many killers had been convicted on less. Yet Kent only grew more and more confident. She could see it on his face. He was enjoying himself.

  She believed that he only encouraged Glick to lay all the evidence out so that Kent would destroy it all in one fell swoop.

  Behind her, Ruben was tension incarnate. While he didn’t want a law enforcement officer to be accused of being a serialist, he certainly did want Kent off the streets for very personal reasons.

  ‘That’s it?” Kent said with a tone of amusement. “That’s what you are basing your accusations upon?”

  Glick grit his teeth, then breathed out. You could tell he was counting to ten. He didn’t want to have another Kent induced heart attack.

  “What you are saying is there is no way you could tip over to the dark side? That you couldn’t become a monster like the ones you hunt?”

  “Of course I could. As a matter of fact I’m probably eighty percent of the way there,” Kent said, waving his hand dismissively. Yep. That was her husband. Admittedly 80% of the way to a serial killer.

  “What I am saying is if I did turn the corner, you would never catch me. Your evidence is highly suspect.”

  Glick leaned forward taping a folder with a stack of paper. “Since you ‘borrowed’ Jimmi’s phone, we were able to track your movements when the phone was on.”

  “Because I’m going to go out and kill someone with someone else’s phone left on,” Kent said with a roll to his eyes. “And what exactly did this data ‘prove?’”

  “You were in the vicinity of each of the murders within the window of time of death.”

  “Of course I was,” Kent said. “I track victims to intercept killers, remember, that’s kind of my job.”

  Kent wasn’t wrong, that was how he caught serial killers. Or was she just exercising wishful thinking. It would be extremely inconvenient for her husband to be arrested just before the birth of her baby.

  Maybe so, but she knew Kent. He got his fulfillment by killing serial killers. Killing random unarmed civilians would be a buzz kill for him. Boring. Trite. And Kent was anything but trite.

  “We also have the fibers from your coat on victim number one.”

  “No kidding. This is the killer’s jacket. I tracked it down to the Goodwill where he dropped it off.”

  “We should just arrest him,” Ruben said.

  Her partner wasn’t making this any better.

  * * *

  Ruben’s patience had been sorely tested. For once, they had actual evidence of Kent’s depravity and the profiler was just waving it away as if he were the Teflon killer.

  Glick didn’t seem up to the task, more than likely protecting against another heart attack. And Nicole, well Nicole had been snookered into marrying the bastard and mothering his child. She would be no use.

  “We have you at the second crime scene hours before the body was discovered, well within the time of death window.”

  “So what?” Kent replied, not even bothering to look at Ruben. “I found a body and didn’t report it, boo hoo.”

  Ruben could feel his pulse bound against his shirt collar. He had to be careful or be the victim of a Kent-induced stroke. Wouldn’t the profiler just gloat over that.

  “We aren’t saying you didn’t report a body, Harbinger,” Ruben said, trying to keep his tone somewhat respectful. “We are saying you killed the first victim.”

  Again Kent laughed that laugh that made Ruben’s teeth grind. “We have fibers from that coat. The coat you are wearing right now on the victim one.”

  “I told you I bought it from a thrift store. The clerk will remember me.”

  Because everyone remembered Kent. The arrogant profiler made sure of that. “If you knew it was the killer’s, why are you wearing it?”

  See what bullshit answer Kent comes up with for that one.

  “Because Nicole won’t let me wear blue in the house anymore,” Kent replied with a crappy smirk on his face.

  “Nicole?” Glick asked.

  Ruben’s partner lowered her head. “It’s true. Blue makes me nauseated at home.”

  Ruben took a step forward. “That doesn’t disprove any of our theories.”

  Glick leaned back in his seat. “Ruben, we have no evidence to present to the district attorney.”

  “But -
-”

  Glick held up his hand. “Innocent until proven guilty.”

  Ruben wasn’t going to let this go. Not this easily. “But the late nights Kent was out. Nicole can verify that. The strange bruises on his body…”

  Glick raised an eyebrow. The Captain clearly wasn’t used to Ruben going against him. And normally Ruben would never think of it, however in this? With Kent, all bets were off.

  “Well?” Glick asked.

  “Fine,” Kent said. “I am guilty of doing my job.”

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Glick asked.

  “I’ve been a member of a fight club, hoping our killer would come there to work off some steam between killings,” Kent explained.

  “Oh come on!” Ruben exclaimed knowing exactly how he sounded and not really caring.

  Actually Nicole seemed more pissed than Ruben.

  * * *

  Kent couldn’t understand a word his wife was saying, she was rattling off the curses so quickly. Her voice was so high-pitched that he was sure dogs in New York City were perking up their ears.

  “Honey, this is exactly why I didn’t tell you,” he said, rubbing her arm which she jerked away from him.

  “And that is supposed to make me feel better?” Nicole demanded. “I was almost more relieved you might have been a serial killer.”

  Kent sighed. “Nic, remember when you first learned you were pregnant?”

  Her eyes narrowed as she nodded her head. You could tell she was about to get entrapped by her own words. Her glare challenged him to try.

  He was more than delighted to oblige.

  “We swore that your pregnancy wouldn’t affect my work whatsoever. That there were serial killers to take down. As long as I kept my work out of the house, you were fine with it.”

  Nicole breathed in and out rapidly, her cheeks puffing, turning red. “But that didn’t mean --”

  Kent held up a finger. “Whatsoever.”

  Like a deflated doll, Nicole’s shoulders sagged as she draped her arms over her bulging belly.

  “I didn’t tell you because I knew that you would worry. I’m just trying to keep you and the baby happy.”

  His wife wouldn’t look at him so she turned her frown toward Ruben.

  “What? You heard the exact same evidence and thought Kent should be brought in,” the tall detective stated.

  Kent put up his hands, shockingly being the mediator in this little tiff. “Water under the bridge, people.”

  Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, even Glick.

  “How about we move on from this little misunderstanding?”

  Again with the looks.

  “What? I have many faults, one of which is not holding a grudge. So can we move on and try to catch the killer?”

  Joshua was the first to recover. “You mean you forgive me?”

  Kent shrugged. “If I was a killer, I’d want to be caught by you.”

  Joshua blushed and had to look away.

  * * *

  “I take it that you have a brilliant yet irresponsible plan to catch the blitz killer?” Ruben demanded.

  Nicole grimaced. Kent might not hold a grudge, but Ruben more than made up for it.

  “So let’s hear it,” Glick said.

  Kent got that smile. All Nicole could think was how sorry she felt for Ruben. It appeared that whatever Kent was going to suggest was going to get Ruben back for the full intervention.

  Kent didn’t have to hold grunges, he believed in swift retribution.

  “This last victim pair was a gay couple.” Kent explained. “I believe the killer’s next victim will be another gay couple.”

  “Wait, that makes no sense at all,” Ruben argued. Nicole wondered when her partner would ever learn. Kent didn’t make declarative statements without good reason. “Up until now the victims have been a random sampling of victim types.”

  Kent chuckled as only Kent could. “The operative phrase in that sentence is up until now.”

  Ruben’s face flushed an unhealthy red. “So now you’re psychic?”

  “Now? When haven’t I been?” Kent retorted.

  Nicole winced. Poor Ruben.

  “Let’s speed this up,” Glick ordered.

  “You just have to look at the bodies. The single kills were brutal but swift and clean. This double murder is all kinds of messy. And overkill. I’m not sure if the killer stumbled upon some latent homosexual tendencies or he just got off on the danger, the guy really enjoyed himself this time. I think he will be looking for the same high again.”

  “And what are you going to do with that information?”

  Kent got that gleam in his eye.

  From that look, Nicole knew what Kent was going to say before he even uttered his words.

  Again, poor, poor Ruben.

  * * *

  Ruben waited not-so-patiently for Kent to spill the beans. Ruben was certain that this was going to be a doozy. He can see the profiler winding up like a big-league pitcher set to throw a 90-mile an hour fastball.

  Kent looked around all innocent. “What? Isn’t it obvious?”

  “Obviously not,” Ruben snapped back.

  Kent smiled. That bastard actually had the nerve to smile. “You and I go undercover to try and lure out the killer.”

  For a moment, Kent’s words didn’t make an impression then it hit Ruben. He couldn’t help but sputter. “You expect us to act like lovers?”

  Kent smile only grew. “Don’t think you can handle it?”

  “Captain!” Ruben complained.

  However his usual ally frowned. “It is the best idea on the table, Torres. Give me another.”

  The captain knew full well that Ruben had no other ideas. There’s no point in Ruben arguing, the captain had called him by last name which meant Glick’s mind was made up.

  “Surely Kent can find another police officer eager for the duty.”

  The profiler just chuckled. “What? Have we found some latent tendencies in you as well?”

  Ruben swallowed before he answered. He knew Kent was only baiting him. To argue any further would just give Kent all the more ammunition. “Tell me where and when.”

  “I’ll send the details,” Kent said. “But how about you make sure to wear a mesh muscle shirt and short shorts.”

  Ruben glared but didn’t argue. He knew when he was beat.

  “I assume you are going to be wearing the same?” Ruben asked.

  Kent nodded. “Something similar.”

  Why did Ruben doubt that?

  CHAPTER 4

  Nicole sat in possibly the most uncomfortable chair in the history of surveillance van chairs. She had her feet up on the console which had gotten her a few glares from Jimmi, but she glared right back. He wasn’t carrying a seven pound, extremely active baby boy in his abdomen, now was he?

  She laced her fingers together, supporting her bulging belly. Nicole was trying to avoid stretch marks, but it was probably way too late for that. Still, she felt like she had to try.

  “There they are,” Jimmi stated, pointing to the screen.

  Ah, yes. The ultimate odd couple.

  Again poor Ruben was in the clothes exactly as Kent had suggested. A painfully bright green mesh muscle shirt and extremely tight short shorts. Ruben certainly looked the part.

  Kent however was in a pair of loose basketball shorts and a nicely fitting Gold’s gym tee-shirt. Apparently he was the top in this fictional relationship. Actually it kind of reflected their real relationship.

  Nicole was certain that Ruben was not too thrilled, but what could he do?

  Glick looked over to Nicole. “You don’t have to be here for this, you know?”

  She chuckled. “And miss this?”

  She pointed at the screen where Ruben and Kent looked like the most awkward gay couple ever. Like Ruben wasn’t even out the closet yet. This really looked like it was going to be better than anything she could see at the multiplex.

  Nicole had to
shift again as the baby practiced his unilateral synchronized swimming moves. She was pretty sure that the kid was going to come out able to crawl. He was doing some serious Zumba practice inside her uterus.

  There were only three more weeks to this pregnancy. Twenty one days. She had them marked on the calendar. Her OB/GYN had warned her not to get too attached to that due date. Many first-time mothers delivered up to 1 to 2 weeks late.

  If that were the case, her little boy would be Olympic ready. Give him a few more weeks in her womb and he’d come out with a gold-medal.

  Going home to her overstuffed body pillow. She’d never had such an intimate relationship with an inanimate object before. Kent had bought her one of those double u-shaped body pillows. She’d thought it was overkill until the pillow and she spent their first night together.

  The pillow caressed her, supported her, made her feel loved throughout the night. She went from tossing and turning all night long to being able to take long draughts of sleep.

  And that pillow was calling her right now, but her husband was in danger and she felt like she needed to give at least a token try at being there for him.

  * * *

  Kent patted Ruben on the butt and gave a little squeeze. Ruben almost punched his supposed lover.

  “Come on,” Kent coaxed. “It’s fine to act like a frosty queen, but we’ve got to the sell the fact that we are a couple.”

  “And how do you propose to do that?”

  Ruben should’ve known better than to ask as Kent kissed his neck.

  Again Ruben had to stifle the impulse to throw a right hook. Kent was enjoying this way too much.

  “Maybe you did something to deserve my attitude,” Ruben retorted.

  Kent chuckled. “Oh please, if I were really gay, I’d be the best boyfriend you’d ever had.”

  “Wow, even gay you are an arrogant SOB,” Ruben commented with a smile. As much as he was loathe to, they did have to sell that they were a couple.

  Kent snaked his arm around Ruben’s waist. Even though every fiber of his being was repulsed, Ruben allowed the profiler to do so. It wasn’t that Ruben was homophobic. Give him any other guy in the precinct and he could make this work but with Kent?

  The profiler tickled him along Ruben’s ribcage. How did the man know he was ticklish there? Or was it just a lucky guess? With Kent it was most likely the former.