by Sutter, C M
That son of a bitch is about to ruin my plans. I can feel it already.
Robby kept his head down and his ears perked. He saw the deputy approach a couple who were seated in a booth directly to Robby’s right. He nonchalantly glanced that way and listened as the conversation began.
“Agents DeLeon and Monroe. Looks like somebody gave you a good recommendation for supper.”
The female spoke up. “Deputy Stillman. This must be a popular restaurant, and according to the sheriff, it’s one of the best in town.”
“He’s absolutely right. Have you ordered yet? The po’ boys are great.”
“We have,” the male agent said. “We’re getting a combo platter of shellfish and seafood.”
“Well, you can’t go wrong with that either. I passed the lab on my way here. Looks like the forensic van is back.”
“Good to know,” the female said, “and that’s our next stop before we call it a day.”
The deputy tipped his head. “Have a nice night, and I’ll probably see you tomorrow.” He took a seat on the other side of the women at the counter.
Robby gave the agents a long hard look before gulping down his beer and starting the second one.
Agents, huh? That has to mean the FBI, and they’d only be involved if the other dump sites were discovered. I need to find out what they know and then stay one step ahead of them. Guess I’ll be rummaging through those other spots tomorrow. If all the bones are gone, then it’s possible they’ve been scooped up by law enforcement. But with any luck, those agents will leave town, and the bones found in Louisiana will just be another case they couldn’t solve.
Disappointed that his plans for the night wouldn’t go forward, Robby had nothing but time on his hands. He guzzled a second beer, settled his tab, left a handful of change on the counter as a tip, and walked out. He climbed into his truck and watched. As luck would have it, he had a bird’s-eye view through the glass walls of the restaurant. He saw the agents sitting at their booth. They’d be done eating sooner or later, then Robby would follow them until they ended their night.
Chapter 11
We’d finished our delicious sampling of authentic creole cuisine and left the restaurant. The forensic lab and medical examiner’s office would be our final stop for the night. Tomorrow, we planned to forward what we had to our team then spend the day talking to people out and about in the areas where the bones were found to see if they had any information for us. Someone had to be familiar with a local individual known to be weird, reclusive, aggressive, and most likely mentally challenged. We would make the rounds, talk to hunters, and go from there. The killer was either seriously disturbed or an extremely dangerous man with a fetish for murdering and reducing a human to nothing but bones and chunks of tissue. The image was sickening, but with feet on the ground and by asking plenty of questions, we could get lucky.
With Renz behind the wheel, we headed to the forensic lab a few miles away and met up with Toby Cordon and Hal Petrie, the forensic techs. We thanked them for staying late to accommodate us.
“So, we realize it’s too soon to have a definitive answer on which bones go together, but can you tell us if they’re from two bodies, three bodies, or what?”
Toby nodded. “Yes, just because we found two skulls doesn’t mean there were only two bodies, but we have counted the bones and matched them the best we could by color, density, and size. We’re pretty confident that there were only two bodies at that particular dump site.”
“And the previous dump sites?” I asked.
“The first discovery was reported, and deputies checked it out, but it was assumed that the bones might have originally been from a home burial and were scattered by wild animals. They were discolored by the peat soil and badly chewed on. The only house in the area had been abandoned long before, so we had nobody to ask.”
I frowned. “What about the skull?”
“None was ever found there, ma’am.”
Renz took his turn. “And the second site?”
“Similar to the one we found today. Located by hunters and called in. That was also a one-body find—no skull there either, but it raised a red flag. We were able to determine that those bones were fresh—less than a week old. We didn’t find an entire skeleton of bones, just some here and there in a general twenty-foot-square area. We’d assumed the critters beat us to them.”
“Were there cut marks that separated the bones?”
“No, ma’am. The bones were separated at the ligaments. Some tendons remained, but most of the muscle had been cut away.”
“Hmm… are there butcher shops in the area?” Renz asked.
“There are, Agent DeLeon, but I’d concur with what those hunters said earlier today. The person you’re looking for is a hunter, yet he’s as skilled as any trained butcher. There are a few slight scrapes and nicks on the bones, likely from the knife used to remove the muscle.”
“And you can compare those markings to the bones you’ve collected from the other sites?” I asked.
“Yes, ma’am, but we won’t get to that until tomorrow.”
Renz seemed satisfied. “Okay, we’ll leave you to it, then. There’s no reason for us to hang around, but if you do find comparable marks on the bones, we’d like to see them.”
“You bet, and I’ll give you a call as soon as we know something.”
I added that we would be out and about tomorrow questioning people in the area, but if they saw similarities, we could head back immediately. “Oh, we don’t even have the locations of where the other bones were found.”
Hal spoke up. “Give me a second, Agent Monroe, and I’ll print that out for you.”
With the sheet of paper in hand and a thank-you, we headed to the door.
“Agents?”
We both turned.
“Yep?” Renz said.
“Be careful out there. Some of those bayou people are very reclusive and don’t like intruders.”
I frowned. “But—”
“It’s just a friendly warning. There are strange folks back there.”
I shivered as we walked to our vehicle.
Renz noticed. “There’s no way in hell you’re cold, are you?”
“No, just creeped out a little.”
Renz laughed. “What’s that on your hip?”
I looked down and chuckled too. “My Glock.”
“And you are?”
I played along as I pulled open the passenger door of the Explorer. “Jade Monroe, a senior special agent in the FBI’s Serial Crimes Unit.”
“And a kickass tough woman from everything I’ve heard, so don’t forget it.”
“Yes, sir, SSA Lorenzo DeLeon.”
Chapter 12
Robby finally smashed the mosquito that had been pestering him for the last few minutes. His own blood and a dead bug covered a dime-sized area on the back of his hand. He smeared it on his pant leg before rolling up the truck window. He’d heard enough, and it was exactly what he’d suspected ever since he’d seen those strangers talking to the deputy in the restaurant.
“So, you’re a special agent with the FBI, are you? Well, la-di-da. I’ll definitely show you what special treatment feels like if you get in my way. I guaran-damn-tee it.”
He remained low in his seat until the agents reached the stop sign a block ahead. Robby turned the key in the ignition and followed them through town. When the male agent clicked the blinker and turned onto Library Drive, Robby knew exactly where they were going—the HomeStay Inn. He slowed to a crawl and didn’t turn in until they had parked alongside the building and exited the vehicle. When they reached the door, he drove past them.
“Looks like your rooms are somewhere on this side of the building.” After making sure there weren’t any cameras facing the side lot, he backed into the spot next to theirs. Soon enough, he would see lights go on in one or two of those rooms. He craned his neck as he stared up at the wall of windows.
“There!” He counted the windows
from the end of the building to the room that had just lit up on the second floor—six windows.
Six rooms in.
Seconds later, the room next door came to life. “So you keep it professional, do you, or is that just for appearance’s sake? I’m sure those are adjoining rooms.” He chuckled as he pulled a scrap of paper and a pencil out of his glove box. Robby needed to write down everything before the information faded away like the chance of a refreshing breeze on a hot muggy night.
“Okay, names. SSA Jade Monroe and… what the hell was his first name?” Robby rubbed his brow in hopes that it would reboot his memory. It didn’t. “Damn it. His last name was DeLeon. That much, I remember.” He wrote it down and figured the first name would pop into his head once he stopped trying so hard to think of it. He added the color and make of their vehicle to his notes as well as the name of the hotel and the fact that they were on the second floor and likely in the fifth and sixth rooms from the end of the hall. He looked both ways down the parking lot and at the hotel’s windows before getting out of his truck. The coast was clear. He didn’t have a reason for doing what he did other than the man and woman were FBI agents. Their agenda was to find out who he was and take him down. “Sorry, but that’s not happening.” Robby crept to the passenger side of the Explorer and drove his knife deep into the back tire. “That ought to curb your enthusiasm a bit.”
He returned to the truck and drove away but would be back early tomorrow to watch their discovery of the flat tire. At home, there was a trough full of meat he needed to address, and Pete was probably hungry.
Chapter 13
It had been an extremely long day, and I couldn’t believe it was still day one of my new position. It seemed like I’d driven to the St. Francis headquarters and met the team a week ago. In reality, it was just twelve hours earlier, but I was beat, and it was about to become a short night.
After a hot shower, I dressed for bed and called Amber. I wanted to update her on the time I had been at the new facility and on what was going on in Louisiana. A half hour of conversation would be my limit since I needed sleep.
I propped up all the bed pillows behind me, grabbed my cell, and made the call. Since we were in the same time zone, it was nine o’clock in both places, and Amber would be awake. I waited as her phone rang in my ear.
“It’s about damn time you called.”
I chuckled. “How did I know you wouldn’t use the standard greeting of ‘Hi, Sis, how’s it going?’”
She huffed into the phone. “Well, it’s nine o’clock, and this is the first time I’ve heard from you.”
“Not so. I sent a text. Anyway, it’s the first chance I had to talk, and besides that, I wanted to shower first, get ready for bed, and then call you. I wouldn’t have had the energy to shower afterward.”
“Fine. You get a pass.”
I clicked the remote and channel surfed until I found a local news station. I turned the volume down and redirected my focus to what Amber said she’d made for supper. “That sounds really good.”
“It was, and Kate said she loved it too. I’m even taking some to Jack at work tomorrow.”
I laughed. “Is that a peace offering for making him feel like chopped liver at Jesse and Hanna’s wedding?”
“Yeah, I guess, but I know he was just teasing me.”
“Yes, he was, little sister. Jack would never cross that line, and as a matter of fact, he even gave me a wink before he said it.”
“Mr. Jokester, huh?”
“Yep. Anyway, my new team seems great, even though I only had a brief meeting with them. I doubt if I was at my desk for a half hour before we had to leave.”
“Crazy shit. You FBI agents are constantly on the go. So, what’s happening on the ground in Louisiana?”
I groaned as I glanced at the TV screen. The weather forecast for tomorrow showed a hot, sticky, ninety-seven-degree day.
“That bad, huh?”
“What?”
“You just groaned when I asked how it was going in Louisiana.”
“Oh, sorry. I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow, but yeah, the situation here is groanworthy too. Somebody is killing people—” I slapped my hand on the bed. “Damn it!”
“Now what?”
I grabbed the pad and pen that sat alongside the nightstand phone and jotted down a note. “I forgot to ask if they’d determined whether all the bones belonged to women or if some were male bones too.”
“Bones? As in without the bodies attached?”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean, but not entire skeletons. It appears that hunters have been finding piles of human bones while they’re out pig hunting.”
“Pig hunting? What the hell is that? Don’t even tell me they release farm animals into the wild and then hunt them down.”
I chuckled. “I won’t tell you that because it isn’t the case. Apparently, there are wild pigs—tusks and all—that live back in the woods and bayous of Louisiana. What I’ve been told is that there’s a breed of hunting dogs called Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dogs that hunt wild pigs. They track the pig, surround it, and hold it there until the hunter catches up and shoots it.”
“Catawhat?”
“It’s the name of the dog breed.”
“Humph. Poor pigs. Sounds like they don’t have a chance in hell of living through that.”
I knew I shouldn’t have opened with that since Amber was such an animal lover. “That may be true, but supposedly, if they’re wounded, they become very vicious and can attack and kill dogs and humans.”
“Good for the pig. They deserve a fighting chance, and I’d do the same thing.”
“Okay, okay. I didn’t call to talk about wild pigs. Anyway, during the outdoor excursions, the hunters discovered human remains, and the disturbing part is that there wasn’t much left, as in muscle. It’s like the person’s meat was removed and then the bones were disposed of out in the swampland areas.”
“That’s so disgusting. It’s what goes on in slaughterhouses—after the slaughter itself.”
“Exactly, like in a butcher shop when they debone meat. Tomorrow, Renz and I are—”
“Hold up. Who?”
I laughed. “I gave my partner a nickname. His full name is Lorenzo, but that’s too long. I asked if I could just call him Renz, and he agreed. Anyway, we’ll meet up with the sheriff’s office and get updates then go out and bang on doors in the areas where the bones were found.”
“Are there actually doors to bang on?”
“A few.”
“Well, keep me posted and make sure your head is on a swivel.”
“Yeah, I was told that some bayou people are odd.”
“I was talking about the pigs.”
I rolled my eyes and said goodbye. I needed to get a decent night’s sleep. With the pillows plumped exactly the way I wanted them, I snuggled in and drifted off.
My phone alarm woke me eight hours later. Even though it was just six o’clock, I felt well-rested. I slipped into the clothes I had on yesterday just to run downstairs and grab a coffee and a sweet roll. I would have breakfast with Renz when I knew for sure he was up.
Back in my room a few minutes later, I turned on the TV and listened to the news as I picked out my clothes for the day. I couldn’t bear the thought of wearing long sleeves again and remembered seeing a quick mart attached to the gas station down the street. A stop in there on our way out of town might land me a much-needed can of bug spray.
After finishing my coffee and sweet roll, I changed into clean clothes, brushed my teeth, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, and applied light makeup for the day. A knock on my door told me Renz was ready to go. Just to be sure it was him, I peeked out the peephole and saw nothing but darkness. I laughed since J.T. used to do that too. It had to be a guy thing to cover the peephole with their finger.
I pulled open the door and grinned. “Just so you know, I’m onto you. Every partner I’ve ever had did that to me, and they were
all guys.”
Renz snapped his fingers. “Shucks, and here I thought I was an original.”
“Nope, no way, no how. Ready to go have breakfast?”
“Sure am. How’d you sleep?”
“Really well. I talked to my sister, Amber, for about a half hour and then called it a night by ten o’clock. I barely remember my head hitting the pillow.”
“Same here.”
I grabbed my purse, phone, briefcase, and room key. I would put on my badge and gun after leaving the hotel. Both were safely stashed in my briefcase.
Downstairs, a chef was available to make custom omelets, which I wasn’t about to pass up. We filled our plates with choices from the Continental breakfast, along with the omelets, then found a table in the corner of the room, where we could discuss our plans for the day without people overhearing our conversation.
“You remembered the sheet of paper with the other dump site locations, right?”
I nodded then swallowed a bite of raisin toast. “Yep, it’s in my briefcase. We forgot to ask if the forensic guys determined if the bones were a mix of male and female remains. I wrote myself a note last night so I wouldn’t forget to ask.”
“That’d be pretty telling if they all turned out to be female. He could be a predator who targets women because he thinks they’re usually trusting and easy prey.”
“Uh-huh. We also have to find out if any missing persons reports came in recently for the parish—maybe even the other ones that border Terrebonne Parish too.”
“Not a bad idea. We’ll check the local area first and then look on VICAP. There could be information of similar crimes that we can track back to Louisiana. About done with that omelet?”