by Mia Sheridan
Anger clouded his expression, answering for him. “If I lowballed her, it’s only because she manipulated my mother into leaving that property to her in the first place. A vulnerable old woman with dementia. How’s that for benevolent?”
“So the way you see it, that property should be yours?”
“Damn straight.” He adjusted in his seat. “I told Josie I was considering getting the courts involved, and I meant it.”
“I see.” Zach paused, leaning forward. “But if she decides she doesn’t feel safe there, decides to take you up on your offer after all and head out of town, it would save you the hassle, and the lawyer’s fees for a case that you’re not likely to win.” Zach held up his hand when Archibald opened his mouth. “That’s okay, it was a rhetorical question.” Zach leaned forward. “Do you still have a key to Josie’s house?”
“No.” Archibald schooled his expression quickly, but Zach had seen the flash of something in his face that made Zach believe he was lying. Archibald glanced pointedly at the large watch on his wrist. “Will that be all, Detective? I have a call with a client in ten minutes.”
Zach sat back slowly. “How’s business, Mr. Phillips? I couldn’t help noticing your reception area was empty.”
Anger simmered just behind Archibald Phillip’s eyes but his thick lips turned upward in the semblance of a smile. “I do the majority of my business on the phone and on the computer, Detective. I see clients when need be, of course, but the office is often quiet. It’s a nice perk, honestly.”
“So if I checked into your financials, I’d find that everything was fine and dandy?”
Archibald’s face darkened. “My business ebbs and flows,” he gritted. “Just like many businesses. Now”—he stood—“I’m going to have to ask again if that’ll be all. I’m a busy man.”
Zach took his time coming to his feet and as Archibald began to pass him, he stuck his foot out so the big man tripped. Zach swung his arm out as if he might steady him, but pushed him backward instead. Archibald slammed against his desk with a whumf, papers flying out around him. Zach leaned over him. “Oops.” His lips turned upward in the mockery of a smile. “I’d suggest staying away from your cousin, Mr. Phillips. Because if I find out you’ve done anything to even so much as annoy her, I’ll nail your ass to the wall.” He grabbed the front of the man’s suit and yanked him to his feet. “Try to be more careful where you step.” He smiled, a real one, as he headed for the door.
**********
What a prick.
Zach got into his car and pulled out of the parking lot where Cousin Archie’s office was located. A nice area of town, rent was probably high. And Zach suspected business wasn’t great. He probably needed cash, was bitter that his mother hadn’t left a property worth half a million dollars to him, instead of his cousin. He figured he’d lowball her, turn it for a good profit, and use the cash to bail himself out of whatever financial fix he was in.
Was it possible that in believing Josie to be emotionally fragile and mentally unstable, he’d set out to spook her by leaving a dead rat in her kitchen so she’d change her mind about selling to him? As angry as the suspected scenario made him, it also brought relief. It seemed likely her cousin had either used his key to enter Josie’s house the night before, or hired someone to do it. It wasn’t the dangerous copycat who had been in her home, but a disgruntled relative. Or at least there was a very good chance that was the case.
Which was good, because he and Jimmy had some leads to follow up on after Zach’s meeting with the roommate. A secret boyfriend . . . a possible pregnancy that Aria had terminated. Daisy. The flower possibly symbolized her unborn child, and she’d tattooed it on her ankle? Something about that . . . left a sort of sour taste in his mouth. It wasn’t his job to judge Aria’s alleged actions though, it was up to him to bring her justice. And frankly, for whatever poor choices Aria may have made, she suffered greatly for them.
They needed to find out who this secret boyfriend had been, why they’d broken up, and where that man had been when she disappeared, even if it had ended six to eight months before. It was a lead, somewhere to go.
Zach dialed Jimmy using the hands-free option. Jimmy’s voice boomed into the interior of the car. “Yo.”
“How’s it going there?”
“Not bad. Put on a garage sale, loaded some furniture. You know, all in a day’s work.”
Despite the stab at humor, Jimmy’s tone was serious, tinged with something Zach wasn’t sure what to call. But before he could ask about it, Jimmy said, “Give me the update from your end.”
Zach did, telling him about the interview with Aria’s roommate Tessa. Jimmy whistled. “That’s something. You think this ex could have held a grudge all that time that she’d aborted his baby and then abducted and tortured her?”
“Either that, or he was angry that she broke up with him. I don’t know, but it’s more than we had before.”
Zach described his meeting with Archibald Phillips, his bitterness at Josie, the likelihood of financial issues.
“Sounds like he very well could be the one who left that rat. He wouldn’t have even had to break in.”
“My thoughts too. Hey Jimmy, the boss is calling in. I’m headed your way. Be there soon.”
“See ya.”
Zach clicked over to the other line, greeting his sergeant. “Where are you, Copeland?” His boss’s voice was low, tone dead serious.
“I’m headed to Oxford. It looks likely that Josie Stratton’s cousin—”
“Turn around. We got another DOA. Girl, chained, starved to death, carving in leg.”
Ice hit Zach’s core. He muttered a curse, swerving to the side of the road to a bevy of horn blasts. He swung his vehicle around. “On my way.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Before
Josie woke with a start, a scream rising to her lips as something crawled over her ankle. She jerked her legs up, using her unshackled arm to push up on the mattress and quickly bring herself to a sitting position. Oh God! A rat. Josie screamed and kicked at it, her heart hammering in her chest, bile moving up her throat as she began to shake. The large rat let out an angry shriek but didn’t move from the place where it was digging at her mattress. Josie jolted as another one scampered across the floor, joining the first one.
The food. They’d smelled the food she was keeping hidden under the mattress, the food she was rationing. She’d thought she heard mice—she’d told herself they were mice—in the walls a couple of times, but they’d never come out before. But now they would because they’d been drawn by the smell of the food, and they’d keep coming back for it. Why now though? She’d been hiding the food for months, serving herself small, but regular meals. Had they smelled the food before and just now figured out a way into the room? That had to be it. They’d used their sharp teeth to gnaw through the wall. Sharp teeth. Oh GodGodGod. This couldn’t be happening. Couldn’t be getting worse than it already was.
Hell, apparently, had even lower levels.
She kicked at them again and as she did so, her chains rattled loudly, the sound apparently scaring the ugly creatures so that they retreated backward, turning, and disappearing into the dark corner from which they’d come. Josie’s body shook all over as she drew her limbs as close to her body as possible. Her baby kicked, a gentle tap, that served to slow her heart rate. She ran her hand over her expanding bump. “It’s okay. We’re okay. They can’t hurt us,” she whispered, voice soothing. Not while she was alive anyway. If she had to dispose of the food by eating it all, she would, but already, the small, daily portions were making her feel stronger, not just of body, but of spirit. It was another thing that she controlled now, and she was loathe to give it up to a couple of greedy rats. She’d stay awake at night and sleep during the day. Rats came out in the cover of darkness, didn’t they? Or would they care?
She stayed awake that night and they came again, their beady eyes shining in the low light as they moved toward her. Her breath
came quickly, heart leaping with fear. She rattled her chains loudly, yelling as she shook her body back and forth. They retreated, scampering backward. Tears rolled down Josie’s cheeks. How many times could she scare them before they grew bold enough to test her again? To move closer? Attack her maybe? She didn’t know anything about rats, or how aggressive they might be.
With the sunrise, she slept, unable to keep her eyes open. A sharp pain roused her and she moaned, something scratching at her foot, and moving near her shoulder. She screamed, sitting bolt upright as one rat scurried away and the other one dug at her mattress near where her foot had been hanging off the side.
She screamed, rattling her chains hysterically, kicking at the creatures. She heard footsteps and the door opened. Marshall stood there in his mask, his chest rising and falling as his gaze fell to the rats scurrying back to the corner in reaction to his arrival.
He took a surprised step backward, the bag he held in his hand falling to the floor, his head jerking slightly. He looked to where Josie sat, her limbs pulled in to her body, visibly shaking. After a very brief hesitation, he walked over to her, squatting next to the mattress and running his fingers over her ankles. Her eyes followed the movement and she saw that there were red marks marring her skin. They looked like bites, though Josie didn’t remember being bitten, just scratched. Had she slept that deeply? Another shiver wracked her body. Marshall stood, walking to the corner where the rats had disappeared into the wall. He stared at it for a moment before returning to Josie’s side. “They must have just f-figured out a way in here.” He looked away as if in thought. “They probably s-smell you. Or the food that I b-bring.”
“Please let me go,” she begged, her voice a hoarse whisper. “This isn’t right. Please.” She’d asked him over and over, begged, cajoled, but he’d always ignored her before this. This time, he paused, staring at her, tilting his head as if in thought. She held her breath. But he simply turned, walking to the doorway where he’d dropped the fast food bag, picking it up and tossing it at her. It landed on the floor next to her mattress. Marshall closed the door behind him. Josie let out a slow breath.
She ate some of the older food under her mattress and saved the fresh food as part of her rations, surprised when she heard Marshall returning a little while later.
He came into the room with a bag in his hand, walking directly to the place the rats had come from. He placed something down on the floor and then went to each corner, placing the same black boxes down there as well. “B-bait stations,” he said. “They’ll eat the p-poison and go back to their nests and die.” He turned toward Josie. “Did you know that a p-pair of r-rats can produce twenty-f-four to s-seventy-two offspring in a year? I know about r-rats,” he finished quietly.
Josie swallowed, shaking her head. He continued to stare at her. His eyes roamed her body, lingering on her large belly. Her blood grew cold. He hadn’t touched her since he’d felt the baby move and she’d dared to hope he wouldn’t touch her again. Her body was no longer only hers. It housed her child and the thought of being used—abused—right then was particularly horrifying. “I hate r-rats,” he said, his eyes lifting to hers. And then he turned and he left the room.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Zach felt like he was experiencing a horrific déjà vu. The girl in front of him lay on the floor, her hands shackled in chains behind her back, body in a state of decomposition. He resisted the urge to flinch at the awful stench that met his nose. This one had died more recently than the last.
“Despite your many good qualities, I was really hoping we wouldn’t be seeing each other again for a while,” Dolores said, putting what looked like a thread held with tweezers into a small plastic container.
“Likewise.”
Zach heard his name behind him and turned to see Jimmy stepping through the doorway to the basement room they were in, the one that had once been dark and now was flooded with bright LED light, criminalists working in various areas.
“Dolores,” Jimmy greeted, and she nodded up at him before focusing back on her work. He squatted next to Zach, taking in the victim in front of them. “Straight out of a horror movie,” he muttered. “Who found her?”
“A vagrant looking for a place to sleep. Says he smelled her the minute he walked in. He’s a Vietnam vet and he told the operator that once you’ve been around a dead body, you know the smell anywhere.”
“Can’t argue there.” Of course, Jimmy and Zach knew that better than anyone. Death had an odor unlike anything else. “Did the vagrant come down here to check it out or call the cops?”
“Called.”
“Good man.” Zach nodded. They all appreciated the fact that the homeless man hadn’t compromised the crime scene. Made their job a little easier anyway.
Zach looked over at Jimmy who was leaning around the body to get a better look at the shackles. “Josie good when you left her?”
Jimmy glanced at Zach, but Zach looked back to the body before he could try to read anything into his expression. “Yeah, she was fine. Horton and Vogel are both hanging out until you can get there.”
“Good.”
“Looks like the same exact MO from the previous crime scene photos I looked at,” Jimmy said. “What’s your take having personally been at both scenes?”
“Same guy,” Zach said. “I’d bet on it. This girl is also young like Aria Glazer.”
“Any way to tell how long she’s been here?” Jimmy asked Dolores.
“Long enough to starve to death.”
They were both quiet for a moment, letting that settle.
“And this is what Josie Stratton experienced too,” Jimmy murmured, voice tight. Zach glanced at him and noticed a small tic in his jaw.
“Similar,” Zach answered. “At one point he unchained one of her hands. That’s not the case with this victim, or Aria Glazer. At least not at the time he left them to die. And of course, there was the pregnancy. That’s different too.”
“Prophylactic residue on this one,” Dolores said, obviously listening to their conversation though she looked laser-focused on her work. “Signs of sexual assault.”
“The same as Aria Glazer.”
“This guy learned from his predecessor as far as the importance of protection.”
“Either that or he’s just smarter in general.”
They were both silent for a moment, looking at the extinguished life in front of them, the obviously young woman who’d had her future stolen by a demented monster.
There was a metal pan off to the side with some congealed sludge at the bottom and Zach gestured to it. “Something like that was taken into evidence at the first crime scene too,” he said. “And Josie was supplied with a similar makeshift toilet by Marshall Landish.”
Jimmy made a rough noise in the back of his throat. “Why bother with the small bit of dignity?” he muttered. Zach didn’t answer. He didn’t have one.
“The carving in the leg?” Zach asked after a minute. “Can we see it?”
Dolores lifted up the girl’s skirt, showing the top of her thigh where the words casus belli were carved. “Premortem?” Jimmy asked.
“Definitely,” Dolores answered. “It appears as if the wounds were just beginning to heal over at the time of death.”
Zach nodded, standing, Jimmy following suit. “I’m sure Cathlyn will expedite the exam on this one. I’ll give her a call and tell her to let us know as soon as she has anything.”
They said goodbye to Dolores who gave them a small wave, not lifting her head from her work, and walked up the wooden stairs. Outside the house, the night was cool and clear. Rainswept. It felt like an entirely different world than where they’d just been. He wondered if Josie had experienced that sensation too when she’d fled the warehouse room where she’d been held captive and emerged into that crisp winter day, but he pushed that particular thought away. He needed to focus on the girl they’d just found.
“One of the missing persons I pulled when we were looking t
o ID Aria Glazer was that UC student who was reported missing six weeks ago.”
“The one all over the news last month. Harley and Aymes are on that investigation, right?” Zach nodded and Jimmy ran a hand over his jaw, pulling out his phone. He stepped off the path that led from the house to the curb, turning so no one coming or going from the house could see what he was doing. Zach followed. After typing something into what looked like a browser, Jimmy stared at the screen, his lips thinning as he turned it toward Zach. The body in the basement was in the beginning stages of decomposition, but damn if the girl he was looking at didn’t appear to be the same as the one they’d just left with criminalists. “Yeah, this could very well be her. Fuck me. Isn’t her father some city council member or something?”
“Yeah. We need to let Sergeant Woods know about the possibility.” Zach thought back to Aria’s roommate Tessa telling him about Aria taking classes at UC. Fuck, if this was in fact the UC student, it’d be the second one found in the same manner in less than a week that had ties to the university. Aria Glazer hadn’t been a full-time student. She’d been taking night classes. But she’d still been at the campus regularly.
Plus, Josie had been a UC student when she’d been abducted. Did that tie in too?
Shit. People were going to freak. This would have to be managed very carefully.
Jimmy and Zach got in their vehicles just as a news van rounded the corner.
**********
Sergeant Woods sat back in his chair, digesting the news that Zach had just delivered. The daughter of the city council member, twenty-year-old Miriam Bellanger, could very well be the girl that had just been found in the basement of an abandoned house in Clifton, shackled, sexually assaulted, tortured, and starved.
“Cathlyn’s at the lab now, waiting for the body. Miriam’s parents have been notified of the possibility that this is their daughter. They’re having dental records forwarded in the morning.” Jimmy blew out a breath. “Can’t imagine anyone in that house will sleep tonight. We wanted to spare them the purgatory, but the news arrived as we were leaving, and we didn’t want them to hear about this on TV either.”