Betrayed

by Shelly Knox

  She stopped typing and hit her Enter button. “Sort of.” She gave Jaxson her full attention. “We have the results of the first DNA sample you turned in to me. But the one you dropped off first thing this morning isn’t complete. However, I doubt it will match, because your original sample was a match.”

  “Oh, my God. I thought we had had this all wrong. Now you’ve proved Luke St. Joseph is our serial killer.”

  Brittany motioned her right hand like Vanna White does when presenting a puzzle. “Finally, a name.”

  “I have to insist that you don’t tell anyone.”

  “That’s insulting. I may work in forensics, but I am still a sworn officer.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I haven’t slept in a while.” He shook her hand as she remained seated and then exited her office, closing the door behind him. He had to catch this monster before Luke left town.

  Chapter 68

  The hospital business had been brutal, but she managed to donate Keri’s organs as her only living relative. Then she arranged for a funeral home in Austin to pick up her sister. She needed to recharge her batteries. She laid on her bed in the hotel with Tazz at her feet. She’d drawn the blackout curtains and turned off all of the lights. She required sleep. But her sister’s lies about the baby haunted her. She ached for her niece. How could she miss a child that never was? After closing her eyes, her body let go and her mind finally allowed her to drift into nothingness.

  The ring of her cell phone startled her and eliminated any relaxation she had achieved. She sat and then swung her legs off the side of the bed. The phone continued trilling. She stomped to the credenza, chiding herself for not turning her phone off. She grabbed the irritating nuisance to turn off her ringer. When she picked up the phone, she recognized the caller. She gave a heavy sigh and answered, placing it on speaker.

  “Hi, Tami. What’s up?”

  “First, I’m so sorry to hear about your sister.”

  “How did you hear about that?”

  “Honey, it’s all over the news.”

  Piper’s head dropped to her chest. That was the last thing she wanted to deal with.

  Tami-Sue continued, “My contact found out some other information about her that I don’t think you know yet. I had to tell Wyndon, sorry. He overheard me on the phone.”

  “I know she wasn’t pregnant.”

  “No, not that. Keri masterminded the sale of the murdered women’s babies.”

  Piper’s legs turned into capellini spaghetti noodles and she collapsed to the floor. The phone slid a foot away from her. A wail escaped her strangled throat. It screeched and whined and howled like a wild animal. Tazz jumped off the bed and nudged her master, then laid her body next to Piper’s.

  The Sheltie barked once and continued to prod her master with her nose.

  Tami’s voice echoed from the phone. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I knew we shouldn’t tell you this over the phone. I only called because Wyndon’s on his way to his office and is going to call you. Piper? Piper, are you okay?”

  With her service dog next to her, Piper got her emotions under control. She whispered, “Yes, I’m okay.”

  “It doesn’t sound like it, honey.”

  Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to ignore the pain in her heart, an agony so great it didn’t come close to the pain Jax had inflicted on her when he left her. A second betrayal from him was something she couldn’t ignore. He should have told her. He should have been here for her. He shouldn’t have let her hear about it like this.

  “Tell Wyndon I’m on my way to Austin. I’ll speak with him then, in person. Not on the telephone.” Piper sat on the rug, disconnected from Tami-Sue, and punched in Jax’s number. She tried to do her deep breathing exercises while she waited, but she couldn’t. She pounded her fist on her thigh. She stood and paced the small area. Muscles rippled over her jaw and her throat grew tight. When he finally answered, she spit out the words. “How could you?”

  “Piper, is that you? What’s wrong?”

  The fingers that held her phone turned white as skeletal bones. “You should have told me.”

  “Uh, told you what?”

  “How could you? How could you betray me again?” Jax tried to answer, but Piper cut him off. “But you have. I heard about Keri from a colleague at my paper. Do you know how humiliating and torturous that was for me?” She didn’t give him time to answer. She disconnected and then opened the Uber app. Scheduling a car to drive her to Austin only took a few minutes, but the cost would break her.

  Grabbing everything that was hers in the room, she stuffed the belongings into her backpack. She didn’t have much—Tazz had more stuff than she did. The two made it to the front of the hotel in record time. The wait for the Uber took longer than she liked. Glancing from side to side, she half expected Jax to pull into the drop-off area. But he didn’t; her Uber car did. After verifying it was the right driver, she sent Tazz in first and climbed in after her.

  This time she was leaving—and she’d never look back.

  Chapter 69

  In their borrowed office, Jaxson stared at his phone.

  “What’s her problem now?” Jon asked.

  Jaxson sliced the air with his hand. “Stop. Just stop. How—how did she find out?”

  “Find out what?”

  Jaxson paced around the small space. “She knows about Keri. I know that’s what she meant.”

  “No way. Only a few of us are privy to that info.”

  Stopping in front of his partner, he rubbed both hands over his face. He didn’t know how to make sense of this. Who could have leaked the information? How could he fix this? “Someone else knows. I’ve got to go talk to her.”

  Jon grabbed him by the arm. “You can’t. We have a killer to arrest. We need to call him straightaway.”

  He pleaded with Jon. “I can’t lose her again.”

  “You’ll fix it later. We have to make the call now.”

  Slumping into the seat at the table, he rested his head in his hands. He understood they had to get Luke before anyone else was hurt. He couldn’t focus on his needs right now—he had to think of the big picture. It had taken Jaxson twenty minutes to convince Jon his idea was the way to go. Jaxson didn’t want a scene. He wanted this to go down easy. They needed information. He needed to see this through. He punched in Luke’s phone number.

  The prime suspect answered on the second ring. “Speak.”

  “This is Texas Ranger Jaxson Wyatt, with good news. We caught the people responsible for your girlfriend’s death.”

  A silence resonated at the other end. Finally, he said, “Really?”

  “Yes. It was a husband-and-wife team. We think they were in the black-market baby business. Gruesome way to get babies. We might be able to track down your baby. Can we talk?”

  “Uh…yeah...”

  “I can come to you. I have some photos to show you. Perhaps you noticed one or both of them hanging around.”

  “Uh…why don’t we meet at Natalie’s home? She can look at the photos, too. I’m sure she will be thrilled to hear she might get the baby back. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

  “That’s perfect, Luke. See you then.”

  It only took ten minutes for Jaxson and Jon to arrive at Natalie’s home. They beat Luke to the scene, which had been the plan, and filled Natalie in on the situation.

  “Mrs. Daniels, I know this may be hard to believe, but Luke killed your daughter and all of the other women. We have him dead to rights through his own DNA.”

  She dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief. “I’m not all that surprised. I never liked him.”

  “We will try our damndest to find your granddaughter. Now, if you will go with this officer to your bedroom, he’ll keep you safe until we have Luke in custody.”

  The officer followed her to the back of the house. The doorbell rang only five minutes after they arrived. Luke had wanted to beat them here as well.

  Jon whispered, “I’ll cover you. Answer
the door.”

  Jaxson nodded and eased the door open.

  Luke’s muscles tightened and his head jerked back when he saw Jaxson.

  He moved a step backward. “Hey, Luke. Good to see you. Come on in.” Jaxson was prepared to grab him, but Luke moved forward. Jaxson proffered his hand to the serial killer. Luke took it and Jaxson whipped him around and slapped cuffs on him before his suspect knew what had happened.

  “What the hell? Why are you cuffing me?”

  “Chingado. You don’t really think you got away with this, do you?” Jon interrupted while he holstered his gun.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Got away with what?”

  Jaxson cinched the cuffs as tight as they would go and relished Luke’s expletives of pain. “You’re a serial killer. We matched your DNA to your first victim and your last. Keri Morgan-Allen.”

  “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  “That I believe. She probably didn’t give her real name.”

  Luke’s shoulders sagged in resignation. “Trust me. You have no idea who my first victim was.”

  “Is that a confession?”

  “No.”

  “Let’s get him to lock-up.”

  Jon grabbed an arm and they escorted him to the waiting police vehicle.

  Chapter 70

  Eight hours later, Jaxson headed into the hotel lobby. The blast of frigid air was a refreshing metamorphosis from the unbearable heat outside. Dashing past the registration desk, he maintained his focus on the elevators and reaching Piper forthwith. He needed to tell her everything. It took too long for him to get back to the hotel, and he was worried she wouldn’t listen. Her anger and hurt reverberated over the phone when they spoke.

  Punching the up button over and over, he had no choice but to wait. He had done what he had to do—to not only arrest a serial killer, but to apprehend her sister’s killer. Keri had killed her husband. How much did Piper’s informant tell her? Did she learn everything, bits and pieces, the worst? Had she realized Keri was a psychopath? Did she survive the news?

  Surely, she would understand his job forbade him from hinting at what the team had uncovered. It might take time to link all the murders, but he had the fiend who wreaked havoc on this area of Texas. They had worked toward catching him together—she was instrumental in unveiling the monster.

  His eyes squeezed closed as he whispered, “Please Lord, I can’t lose her again.”

  Jaxson swiped the keycard across the hotel lock until the green light lit. He opened the door, stepped inside, and headed down the short hallway. As he took in the situation, he stopped dead in his tracks.

  An empty room propelled his betrayal to his viscera, and he heaved, barely reaching the trashcan. He hurled what little he had in his stomach, and then proceeded to dry-heave. He wiped his mouth and used the credenza to right himself.

  His mind scattered and roiled and disintegrated. “This can’t be happening.”

  She’d left.

  Chapter 71

  The Uber car service dropped Piper off at her home almost four hours after they left Plano. Traffic had been murderous, and to top it off, because his car was overheating, he had to turn the air conditioner off. Her clothes were drenched in sweat and poor Tazzie was near heat stroke.

  As she neared the door, Tazz barked at the package on the step. Piper unlocked her door to a pleasant blast of an air-conditioned breeze, then bent to retrieve the large padded envelope. Her dog ran inside and skidded to a stop at the floor vent, flopping on top of her frigid spot. She lay there panting but giving her best doggie smile at the same time.

  Closing the door with her foot, she headed inside and released everything, letting it fall to the floor. When she turned the unexpected package over in her hand, she recognized the return address. Keri had sent the envelope.

  Slumping to a stool at the kitchen bar that separated her living room with the kitchen, she picked up the scissors she kept in the cup with her pens and pencils. She cut the top off and emptied the contents on the granite top.

  A garden flag with a beautiful Sheltie surprised her. Keri didn’t normally get her gifts like this. They were usually more practical, if she got a gift from her sister at all. A notecard peeked beneath the flag and she slid it out. After opening the envelope, she read the short note.

  I hope you like the gift. It’s the least I could do after hurting you. You’re right, I shouldn’t have read your journal. After I thought about it, I realized I had stuff in my life I didn’t want to share with anyone. I hope once you receive this, and read my apology, you will find a way to forgive me. ~ Keri

  Her eyes didn’t tear. Sadness didn’t smother her. She only wanted to distance herself from the mess her sister created. The evil. The horrific acts. It was in that moment Piper realized what she had to do. She had to leave Texas. She couldn’t stay here. She needed to go back to where her friends lived.

  She needed to return to Georgia.

  Chapter 72

  Jaxson wasn’t able to get permission to leave the area for twenty-four hours. He’d called Piper over and over and over. The phone went straight to voicemail every time. Finally arriving in Austin, he hightailed it to her address. Once there, he sprinted to her entrance and noticed a tiny tremor in his hand as he reached for the doorbell. His nerves had him wrapped like a trussed-up turkey.

  She had to forgive him. Right after he rang the doorbell, a small moving truck pulled in front of her house. “What the hell?”

  The front door opened. Piper stood in the entrance. Her blonde hair had a halo of light glinting off the silky strands like starlight. Her eyes were bright, not puffy and red as he had imagined. He glanced from her to the truck.

  “I thought you were the movers. I have nothing to say to you.” She pushed past him and headed to the truck.

  Frozen where he stood, he couldn’t speak. His heart cracked and splintered and then shattered in hundreds of pieces. The only way he could repair the damaged organ was for Piper to return to him. To love him. To stay with him. His gaze never left her as she spoke to the young man who had parked the truck in her driveway. When she began to return to the house, a run-down brown- and rust-colored Ford truck pulled to the curb and the young man hopped inside.

  When she neared where he waited, he finally said, “I don’t understand. Are you moving? What’s going on?” The world he knew had flipped upside down and he had to lean against the house before his knees betrayed him. Merely the thought of being apart from her, losing her, not having her in his life turned his world over and over until he didn’t know which way to turn. His phone rang and he ignored it.

  She didn’t answer him. As she passed, she said, “Answer your phone.” Then she closed the door in his face.

  He punched the green button and sniped, “Wyatt.”

  Jon said, “In a pissy mood, are you? Things not going well with Piper? I only called to tell you Luke hung himself in lock-up. He’s dead.”

  Rubbing his face with his free hand, he asked himself, What else could go wrong? “Shit. We’ll never get the answers we need.”

  “Not true, partner.”

  That was the first time Jon had ever called Jaxson partner. He didn’t know how to respond.

  “We searched his long-haul truck and found a ledger with baby sales to Keri. We also found a journal Jack Allen kept documenting Keri’s crimes. We think he took these items from Keri’s vehicle. Evidently, the Plano police department found her car ditched just outside the Plano border. There was a red wig in the trunk and a gun hidden under the driver’s seat. Ballistics matched it with the bullet that killed Keri’s husband. Her prints were the only ones on the gun. We have everything tied up in a nice, neat bow.”

  “We don’t have the other burial sites. We can’t forget what he said at the house. He said ,we had no idea who was his first kill. However many families there are those families will never have closure.”

  “Is the glass always half empty with you? Tak
e the win.”

  “Right now, it’s damned empty.” Jaxson clicked off his phone and shoved it into his back pocket. He didn’t bother knocking; he just walked into her house. “We have to talk.”

  “No, we don’t,” she called out as Tazz barked at the intruder. Then the Sheltie caught Jax’s scent and she ran to him with her tail wagging. He petted her as he continued toward Piper’s voice. He found her packing dishes in the kitchen.

  “Where are you going? Are you moving so the press can’t find you?”

  “I’m going back to Georgia. I resigned at the Austin Statesman this morning.”

  “What? No, you’re not. No. You can’t leave me.”

  For the first time, she turned and made eye contact. The taut muscles in her face and tight, thin lips surprised him. “I can do what the hell I want to.”

  Jaxson couldn’t speak. His heart had lodged in his throat like a dry piece of bread. All he could do was stand in place, dumbstruck. Not believing what she was doing. Not believing she would really leave.

  This can’t be happening again.

  A single tear trailed down his cheek, catching on the day’s stubble. He rushed toward her and grabbed her by each shoulder. “Don’t. Let me explain to you what we’ve uncovered. Luke St. Joseph is the serial killer. Your sister killed her husband. Don’t blame yourself.”

  She pulled out of his grasp. “I know, Jaxson. I have contacts, too. You left out the part where she’s the mastermind of murdering pregnant women and stealing the women’s babies.”

  He closed his eyes and didn’t move. How could she know that? The Rangers didn’t share that bit of information. He didn’t know what to say. So few people knew that particular piece of the puzzle. “Who told you that?”