Risk

by Jaime Johnesee

  “No. Has he taken the bait?” I took a long pull from the turquoise can.

  He put the file back down. “No.”

  “I hate the stalled out phase of an investigation.” I opened the behavioral analysis file of our suspect and took a look at it for the twenty-seventh time.

  Quinn grabbed another file off the stack, farther down than the first one he’d yanked.

  “Luckily, we have other things to look into besides the homicidal maniac currently hiding from us.” Quinn handed me a sheet of paper from the file and I took a peek.

  I looked at a list of names of AWFA members we had in custody. Ginger’s name was on it.

  “Hey, Q?”

  “Yeah?” He looked up from his cellphone screen.

  “Why is your girlfriend listed as an AWFA member?” I pointed to her name.

  “Okay, first of all, not cool. Secondly, I put her on the list to make sure she had protective custody. After the attempt on Danvers and the weirdness with all that, I decided better safe than sorry and got her on the list.” He crossed his arms over his chest, challenging me to say anything.

  “I think that’s really sweet of you.”

  “You’re not going to tease me?” He narrowed his eyes.

  “Not today.”

  “Okay. I’m going to go get some coffee.” He took off like a bolt of lightning.

  I thought he’d rushed so that I couldn’t tease him, but then I saw Alex coming up.

  “I’m going to do a food run and get some burgers, you want anything?”

  “To go with. I need a change of scenery.” I set the files down and grabbed my wallet from my desk drawer.

  “I have a couple more orders to get. We’ll take my car?” Al smiled and his tiger showed through.

  “Absolutely. We haven’t driven it near enough lately.” Mostly because I preferred Mopar, but I understand that nobody is perfect.

  I followed him on his mission to take food orders. I watched the way he interacted with people and smiled. Alex was a good guy. As we walked back to our desk, my phone rang out Black Cat and promptly died.

  A text message from Ben. “SOS”

  “Hey, Al?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I got a weird text from Ben.” My gut was telling me something big was wrong.

  “I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay out of your life for too long. Damnable nuisance.”

  “What?” I wasn’t fully listening, but the word nuisance doesn’t get thrown around much these days.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s how I see him.” Al held up his hands in an apology of sorts.

  “I understand why he annoys you so much, but I thought you’d be slightly more understanding.”

  “Well, I’m not. Not when it comes to him.” There would be no calm discussion about Ben.

  Not today, anyway.

  “So I see. Still, you have to admit it’s a little—” I was going to say weird when the phone rang out again and Ben sent a picture of the jaguar statue that had been hidden in the last scene. There was a message with it.

  “You found my jaguar and I found yours. I like yours better. Think I’ll keep him and play a while.”

  “No, no, no, no, no!” I handed the phone to Alex and did the exercise Dr. Everby told me to do in order to calm down and focus.

  It wasn’t working. Thinking about Ben being tortured the same way the psycho had done the others was making me hyperventilate.

  “Gerry, we need a traceback on Sam’s cell. The last text received. Send cops. The AWFA Killer messaged her from Ben’s phone. He’s been taken.”

  “Oh, God. This is my fault. He left because of me and this guy found him because of me. What the fuck do I do? Stop and breathe a moment, Sam. Separate yourself from the emotion, box it up, and deal with it later in a safe place.” I was doing what I was taught.

  It wasn’t working. I had to calm down.

  “Sam? Hey, Gerry, I’ll send her your way in a bit.” He hung up the phone and turned all his attention to me. “What can I do to help?”

  I was in the midst of a slight anxiety attack. It happened now and then. A gift left over from my days with my dear old Mom. I was lucky in that it wasn’t horrible and my neuropsychiatrist had taught me ways of coping and working through them. I love how Al took it in stride and remained calm; it helped me to calm down.

  “Just a moment.” I took deep breaths and did everything Dr. Everby had taught me and, after a few minutes, regained control over my anxiety and was unagitated enough to think clearly.

  “You okay?”

  “No, but I will be. How the hell did this guy find Ben?” I continued with the breathing, not wanting to panic again.

  “You sure Ben isn’t the….” He didn’t finish what he was going to say, but I knew him well enough to fill in the gaps.

  “Yeah, Ben doesn’t have it in him to make people eat themselves.”

  “Just looking at things from every angle.” He took the phone from me and reread the messages.

  “I understand. What I don’t understand is how he even knew about Ben.” I took the phone back when he handed it to me.

  “I’m going to guess he has access to the same information Grisly had about you.” Alex shrugged.

  “I’m going to call Alonso and see if he is any closer to finding any other AWFA hidey holes. Maybe they have a database somewhere for their psychos to pick up jobs and trade tips.” It was the only thing I could think of. I had to work this case.

  “A virtual black market for serial killers sounds horrifying. Is there anything I can do to help on that?” I could tell he felt slightly guilty for calling Ben a nuisance and insinuating he was the killer.

  “Not just yet. I’m going to Gerry’s office after I call Alonso and Birdman.”

  “Okay, you want me to come with?” His concern was sweet.

  “Nah, I’ll be okay. I’ll be better once we find Ben.” Or maybe I won’t, depending on how we find him.

  God willing, he’d be alive and whole.

  “I’m sorry he’s been abducted.” Alex didn’t seem sure on how to comfort me and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be comforted. Mostly, I just wanted to find this asshole and tear his head off.

  Quinn came walking back with coffees.

  “Thanks, Al. Hey, can you read Q in on everything?”

  “Yeah. Go on.” He grabbed a passing intern (it wasn’t just her badge that gave it away) and handed her the food orders.

  “What’s this?” She looked puzzled.

  “I was on a food run, but have to go save a kidnapping victim. Congratulations, you’re on food duty.”

  “Um, okay. Will someone tell my supervisor?”

  “Who is your supervisor?”

  “James Brady.”

  “No worries, I’ll take care of it.” I gave a polite fake smile and made my way toward Gerry’s office to find a way to find Ben. I couldn’t let him die.

  I knocked on Gerry’s door and his booming voice told me to come in. I entered into chaos. He was on the desk phone, his cellphone, and was dictating to his assistant. I listened, in a daze, as his plan to track down Ben and the AWFA Killer took shape in his orders.

  He had either Birdman or Alonso on the line and was telling them to look into the last text as well as look for any databases online that he could be using to gain info on his vics.

  He began shouting for someone to get to Ben’s apartment and go through it, as well as putting a BOLO on Ben’s car. I don’t know how his secretary realized every third or fourth sentence was directed at her but she did. She also seemed to figure out how to coordinate everything else as well.

  “Start with that and we’ll go from there.” He nodded at his assistant and she nodded back and left to do whatever he’d tasked her with.

  “Hey, Al scuppered Brady’s intern to finish a food run for him.”

  Gerry picked up his phone and dialed an extension.

  “It’s me. I had to send one of your interns on a food run
, my guys that were doing it got called away. Uh huh. Thanks, I’ll send her right back once she’s done.” He hung up the phone and turned to me.

  “Hey, boss.”

  “Having a bad week, eh, Reece? I don’t normally do this, but, would you like a tot of Scotch?” He pulled an engraved flask from his desk drawer and held it out.

  “No, thanks, Gerry. I need to be clearheaded for what’s to come. I have to find Ben. It’s my fault this psychopath has him.”

  “It’s not your fault, it’s the AWFA Killer’s. Remember that. Just do what you do best and you’ll get him.” He took a quick swig and then replaced the cap on the flask.

  “I hope so.”

  “We’re doing all we can here. I have Computer Crimes working on finding him as well as watching that account. We will get this guy. Maybe not as soon as we’d all like, but, eventually, we will find and arrest him.” He opened the drawer of his desk and tossed the flask in.

  “And he’ll probably get off with six fucking months in the nuthatch and be released back into society.”

  “Sam, come on, the system isn’t that bad.”

  “It feels that way.” I grumbled.

  “Does to me, too, sometimes.” He sat down behind his desk and motioned for me to sit as well.

  “Any news on the vamp bill?” I asked as I took my seat.

  “Yeah, it didn’t pass.”

  “Thank God for that.” At least one good thing happened today.

  “You think it would’ve been a bad thing?” Gerry didn’t know the skinny on the 1:1.3 human/vamp ratio.

  “I think it would’ve brought about war.” Honesty is my friend.

  “War? Over a little bill to register vamps?”

  “When vamps registered and humans found out how many there are, it wouldn’t have been pretty.”

  “Yeah. I can see that.” He nodded and dragged a massive hand over his face in exhaustion.

  “I’m going to head over to Ben’s place and help search. I’ve been there before and if something is off I might be able to spot it.” I wish the idea had come to me sooner, but my brain wasn’t working as well as it ought to have been.

  Understandably so.

  “You sure you can do this okay?”

  “Yeah. I have no doubt I’ll find Ben.” I smiled at Gerry; what I didn’t add was that I wasn’t sure what condition he would be in.

  Chapter 30

  AS I PULLED INTO Ben’s lot, I remembered coming here and taking his statement and ordering protection for him when I realized he had seen and could help identify Grisly. His testimony was never needed.

  I walked into the apartment and grimaced. It looked like a crime scene. There were ERT techs everywhere and my stomach immediately tied itself up in knots.

  Chill, Reece, he’s missing, not dead. I couldn’t understand why I was so scared and devastated. Unless it was part of the sire bond thing.

  Grace happened to be on scene.

  “Hey, Sam. How’re you holding up?” I would probably bare my soul to her later, but for now I needed to maintain a modicum of normalcy.

  “Not well. I have no fucking clue who this guy is and he seems to have figured out a lot about me.”

  “Any idea why he focused on you?” She pulled the hood off of her head as she walked me into the living room of Ben’s house.

  Based on the destruction, it had already been searched several times.

  “The only thing I can think of is that I’m a were working to bring down AWFA. Maybe he sees me as an ally of sorts.” I shrugged.

  “What do you plan to do?”

  “Whatever I have to. I can’t let Ben suffer just because some nutter is pissed at his psycho upbringing.”

  “Is that the theory on him?”

  “Yeah, we think he may have been raised by AWFA to hunt shifters and vamps. At some point, we believe he snapped and turned on them, instead.”

  “Yikes. That’s a lot of self-hate they’d be training him for. No wonder he started offing them.” After perusing a clipboard an agent had brought her, she signed it and he wandered off.

  “Right? Hey, are you relieved that the Vamp bill didn’t pass?”

  “Yeah, but I’m not disillusioned enough to believe there won’t be another.” She rolled her eyes.

  “That reminds me, I ran into Von Karolinas in the elevator. He said he was coming to see you.”

  “Yeah. He wants me to sit on the Council.” I was surprised.

  “Are you going to do it? You should do it.”

  “I’m thinking about it. I’d have better control over the things like when we show our true selves to humanity.”

  I didn’t blame her for being slightly bitter. The vamps hadn’t been given any warning about their coming out party.

  “I think they’d be lucky to have you.”

  “Oh, I know they’d be lucky to have me.” She winked at me. “But I’m afraid of the amount of time I will have to give to the job. Right now I’m pretty swamped with my duties at Evidence Recovery.”

  “You said duties. Heh.” I used my best Butthead voice. I could tell she was slightly stressed so I thought I’d try to make her laugh a bit.

  “Smartass.”

  “That’s what it says on my business cards.” I grinned, it was fake, sure, but the attempt was genuine.

  She hugged me.

  “I’m going to take a look around and see if I can find anything out of the ordinary.” I scanned the living room and all the stuff out everywhere as ERT and local PD looked through everything to try and find any sort of clue.

  I grimaced. It wasn’t going to be easy seeing if anything was out of place because it looked like everything was out of place.

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks, be back in a bit.” I headed down the hall to the bedroom and saw that the bed had already been tossed. It was warm in there. I turned on the ceiling fan light and the fan came on as well.

  All the better to cool the room, my dear.

  The mattress was on its end on the far side of the bed. The box springs were on the other. Sheets, blankets, and pillows were scattered about the floor. I wished I’d gotten there sooner. It was going to be damned hard to tell what ERT had done and what, if anything, was done by the AWFA Killer.

  I began moving the bedding around, trying to see if there was anything ERT had missed, when I caught sight of a little corner of a piece of paper fluttering from its spot, jutting out from under the dresser. There was barely a hairsbreadth between the dresser and the floor which is probably why ERT didn’t bother with moving it.

  “Hey, Grace? I found something here.”

  When she entered the room I pointed to the note. I stood back as she took photos of it as is and then with an evidence marker. She nodded to me to pull the paper out. I grabbed the corner with a pen and pulled the note out. It was a note in Ben’s handwriting. I read it aloud.

  “His name is James. Is he giving us the name of the AWFA Killer or is he talking about someone else?”

  I took a picture of it with my cell and left it in Grace’s most capable hands.

  “Do you have any idea what he means in this note?” Grace asked me.

  “No. Not a clue. I’m hoping it’s our psycho’s name, but it could be a note from his work.”

  “Even if it is the unsub’s name, James is pretty damn common.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a start. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a false start.” Hope could be a killer.

  “I hear that. I’m sorry he was taken.” She put a hand on my shoulder and gave a quick squeeze.

  “Me, too.” I got on my knees and looked under the nightstand to see if there were any other clues left for us.

  “See anything?” Grace asked. She would probably give her guys hell for missing the note.

  “Nope. Your guys are good. In fact, I think that if the ceiling fan hadn’t caused it to move while I was on the floor looking through the bedding, I wouldn’t have seen it.”

  I ste
pped back and she picked the note up off the floor with a gloved hand and slid it into an evidence bag she’d brought with her.

  “You should probably check out the other rooms while I go write this into evidence. Sorry you’re going through this, sweetie.” She wrote her initials and the grid search point I had found the note in.

  I didn’t get a look at her clipboard so I have no clue where they’d begun marking the grid for the going through of Ben’s things, but Grace always drew the search area up as a grid and labeled the squares. She insisted this helped a lot at trial.

  “Thanks, Grace.” My friend turned and left the room with the note.

  Jix had been strangely silent and I called to her.

  What is it?

  I’m sure you’ve heard that Ben has been kidnapped.

  I heard, and I blame you. If you hadn’t forced him away we could be together and happy.

  Can you track your mate?

  What do you mean?

  If I shift here and allow you to scent them, can you track them down?

  It was a Hail Mary, but sometimes those work.

  No, the smell isn’t strong enough here. Too much time has gone by.

  Damn. It was a worth a shot.

  You’d better find them, Sam. This is your fault.

  She growled—then hissed—at me, turned and stalked away, leaving me alone with my guilt and Ben’s stuff.

  I wandered around the apartment, but aside from a few bottles of Ensure in the icebox I didn’t see anything odd.

  I walked out into the living room and over to where Grace stood.

  “Have you guys checked his car?”

  “It wasn’t here. There’s a BOLO out for it. I heard the call a bit ago.”

  “So he wasn’t taken from here?”

  “No, this place showed no signs of struggle when we arrived.”

  “So, we need to find that car and hopefully the primary crime scene.” All of this for nothing.

  “That’s my hope. So far we haven’t found anything here that could explain how the AWFA Killer came across Ben. My two cents, watch your back; this guy has looked into you, and if he’s as good with computers as the reports say, there’s no telling what he’ll do or where he’ll appear next.”