Stolen Lives: A Detective Mystery Series SuperBoxset

by James Hunt

  The doctor nodded. “It’s wedged inside tightly, but it’s best to retrieve it quickly before it results in any infections. We’ll get her prepped for operation immediately.”

  Once the doctor left, Cooper and Hart returned to the waiting room, and if Cooper felt anxious before, then now it felt as if her head were going to explode. She paced the hall outside the operating room. Time stood still, and the more she paced, the more it slowed.

  When the door finally opened, Cooper sprinted to it before the doctor could even step into the hall. She looked down to his hands, which were empty. And bloody. “Where is it?”

  The doctor looked back inside to the nurses, and Cooper tried to lean in to get a better look, but he blocked her view. “We were able to retrieve the object, but something happened.” The color drained from his face, and that’s when Cooper noticed the amount of blood on his shirt. “There was something else hidden behind the object’s mass that we missed. A wire inside the patient’s body that ran through her small intestines was connected to the object we retrieved. When it was pulled out it triggered tears inside the body that caused her to bleed internally. With her previous injuries still healing the overall blood loss was just too much. We lost her.”

  Cooper remained quiet for a moment, peering into the surgical room, and watched as one of the nurses pulled the sheet over the young woman’s face. The world slowed, and she nodded and stepped back. Hart mouthed a few words, but all Cooper heard was the thump of her own heart. Even when she saved someone, even when she played by his rules, followed the law, he could still kill who he wanted. “The note.” Her words felt slurred and dull on her tongue. “Give it to me.”

  The doctor nodded, and Cooper and Hart followed him into the surgical room, where the doctor washed the blood from the small plastic case the note was placed. Cooper unfolded the paper and exposed the familiar scribbles in red crayon.

  When she read the first few lines she couldn’t stop her hands from trembling. It was Hart who stepped in to make sure she was all right. But when he asked what was wrong Cooper merely handed him the paper and walked over to Dalia’s body. She placed her hand on the woman’s arm, the body still warm though the blood that kept it alive had stopped flowing. She thought of the boyfriend she had, the one that had spoken to her that very morning. Whatever happiness the two of them had found ended with her last breath.

  “Christ.” The note dangled from Hart’s fingertips. “Cooper… I had no idea.”

  The grief she’d buried over twenty years ago resurfaced, and it was just as paralyzing, just as powerful as she remembered. That same feeling of hopelessness, of doubt and evil crept back into her mind. “It still feels like it happened yesterday.” Hart extended the note back to Cooper, and she read it one more time.

  Dear Addy,

  I know how hard this is for you, trying to find me. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to not know where I am, how I’m doing. I know you’re hoping that you’ll save me, but you have to be careful of that hope. You have to make sure that it doesn’t consume you, because I know you’ve had that hope taken away from you before. Like in college.

  I know we haven’t talked about it in a long time, but grief never truly leaves us, no matter how deep you try and bury it. So why don’t you let yourself finally feel it? It’s easier to just face it head on and let it happen.

  I still remember the dream you told me you had about him. How you chased him along the beach, his little legs carrying him as fast as they could and his red curls bouncing in the sunlight? The laughs and smiles. You were happy then. It was the only time I’d ever seen you really happy in your entire life, even after his father left you weren’t scared.

  But after the miscarriage, that piece of you died with your unborn child. But it wasn’t your fault. You were nineteen. And we both know there was a part of your soul that was glad to be relieved of the burden, it’s okay to admit that. Because you knew what it would have been like to grow up without a father, and now there wouldn’t be another child in this world that would have to go through that pain.

  You were desperate then, just like you are now. Don’t lose me like you lost your child, and all of the lives that have slipped through your hands by the murderers you couldn’t catch. Stop him, Addy. For me.

  Love,

  Beth

  A tear landed over Beth’s name, and Cooper quickly wiped its successor away. She took in a sharp breath and tightened her hand, crumpling a portion of the paper. When she did she noticed writing on the back. There was an address scribbled hastily. Cooper pulled out her phone and entered the address into her GPS.

  “Where is it?” Hart asked.

  The map application narrowed the search to South Baltimore, and when the software matched the address with the name of the business, the phone slipped from her hand. “Oh my god.”

  Hart scooped the phone off the floor, and he quickly dialed Hemsworth. “We know the killer’s next location.” He paused, taking a moment for the panicked thoughts to form coherent words. “He’s targeting Southside Day Care.”

  Chapter 10

  A heightened sense of fear gripped the Baltimore police officers and federal agents that were called to the day care. It lingered in the air like a haze, and though the boots on the ground numbered close to one hundred, Cooper wasn’t sure if that was enough. She navigated the chaotic clusters of crowds, Hart close behind, that had gathered around the day care, along with the chaos of the news crews that had stationed themselves on the street. There wasn’t a reporter in the city that wasn’t on scene.

  The moment one of them caught wind of Cooper’s scent questions were hurled in her direction, but when she stepped under the police line she managed to put some distance between herself and the press. She found Hemsworth near the day care’s entrance, speaking to a few of his agents.

  “Detectives.” Hemsworth gave a weary nod, and Cooper noticed the beads of sweat that dotted his face, accompanied by a slight twitch in the corner of his left eye. He was nervous. Everyone was. “I have a team ready to sweep the place. Is there anything in particular we should be looking for?”

  “Where are the children?” Cooper asked.

  “We have them stationed in a room inside with some agents guarding them. I didn’t want to bring them out in case it would trigger something.” Hemsworth shook his head. “I don’t know what this psycho has planned.”

  “Then his plan is working.” The buzz of helicopter blades sounded overhead as two birds circled the day care. “I need to speak with the children inside.”

  “I’ll take you in.”

  Cooper’s stomach summersaulted. She had an idea of what she was looking for, and for the first time in her career she was afraid of being right. The room where the children were held was small, and all of the kids were huddled together, sitting with their legs crossed on the carpet, their eyes wide at the team of SWAT officers dressed in all black that guarded their perimeter.

  “What are we looking for, Cooper?” Hart asked.

  But she remained silent as she scanned the small bodies sitting on the carpet, the walls beyond the day care buzzing with sirens, people shouting, and the drum of the helicopter blades.

  “Cooper—”

  “There.” She pointed and circled to the rear of the pack, her eyes glued to the curly top of a redheaded boy. He kept his head down and picked at the sticker on the side of his shoe. Cooper knelt, a few of the kids scooting closer at her presence.

  “What’s going on?” The girl wore pigtails and rocked back and forth on the floor with her legs crossed. “Are we going home?”

  “Your parents are coming to get you soon.” Cooper nudged the girl in the pigtails. “Do you know his name?”

  The little girl looked over and nodded. “That’s Ronnie.”

  “Hey, Ronnie.” Cooper kept her voice an octave higher, doing her best to mask the frenzied panic wanting to take hold of her. When the boy didn’t look up she motioned for Hart to come over. “I ne
ed you to get everyone out of the room except for him.”

  “You want me to move them outside?”

  “No, keep them in the building.” Hart complied with the request, and with the help of the officers and teacher they moved the kids into the main play room. The teacher stopped Ronnie at the door and once it was just the three of them, Cooper motioned for the teacher to leave, and the two were left alone. Ronnie fiddled with his tiny fingers, his chin pressed to his chest as he continued to stare at his feet. She approached slowly. “Ronnie, my name is Detective Cooper.” The boy didn’t look up, and Cooper dropped to her knees so she could meet him at eye level. “Ronnie, did someone you don’t know try and talk to you today?” The boy shifted his weight from side to side. After a few seconds he finally nodded his head. Cooper gently grasped Ronnie’s shoulders and lowered her head, trying to look him in the eye. “Was this person a man or a woman?”

  “A man.”

  Cooper smiled. “That’s good. You’re doing a good job, Ronnie. Now, can you tell me what he told you?” The boy paused longer this time and swung his arms as he turned his torso. “It’s okay to tell me,” Cooper encouraged him. “I want to make sure that you and your friends here are safe. Do you think you could help me do that? Help me keep them safe?” Ronnie nodded then finally looked up. Freckles dotted his nose and cheeks, and the blue eyes staring back at her were as clear as an afternoon summer sky. “What did he tell you?”

  “He said I needed to make sure I don’t let anyone touch my backpack.”

  Cooper’s heart rate spiked and she kept hold of Ronnie’s shoulders. “What does your backpack look like?”

  “It has a monster truck on it, with really big wheels.”

  Cooper kissed Ronnie’s forehead. “You did great.” She led him out to the playroom with the rest of the kids and found Hart with one of the officers. “There’s something in his backpack. I need all of these kids out of here now. And call in the bomb squad.”

  In ordered fashion the officers and teacher corralled the kids into the parking lot, and the growing chaos had only worsened outside. Applause erupted at the sight of the children leaving, and they were quickly engirded by a team of SWAT officers and kept away from the crowds.

  The bomb squad headed inside, and Cooper waited with Hart near the police line. She scanned the faces, looking for anyone that looked out of place. “I think he’s here,” Cooper said.

  “What?”

  “I think he’s here, and I think he’s watching.” Cooper walked up and down the police line, Hart mirroring her moves. The shifting crowd had reached the hundreds, and it was impossible to single out anyone suspicious. If the killer was in that madness, she wouldn’t know who he was until he revealed himself.

  A hand pulled Cooper around, and her face nearly slammed into Hemsworth’s chest. “There’s nothing in the kid’s pack.”

  “What?” She watched the bomb squad exit the building.

  One of the choppers passed directly overhead, and the hum of the blades dwarfed Hemsworth’s voice. “We didn’t any traces of explosives in the pack! It’s clean!”

  “I need to see it.” Cooper followed Hemsworth back inside along with one of the bomb experts that had examined the boy’s pack personally. She knelt down and rummaged through the opened back. She pushed aside pencils, crayons, papers, coloring books, and a few toys but found nothing but the bottom of the backpack. “This can’t be right. He said someone he didn’t know spoke to him.” She turned over a few of the books, looking through the pages to see if there was anything written down, any messages left behind, but came up blank. Cooper snapped the book shut and shook her head. “I need to talk to the boy again.”

  With the children safely removed from the building a large portion of the spectators had disappeared, the drama worn off. However, some of the parents had arrived, and their panicked screams had replaced the murmur of the large crowd. Cooper motioned for a few of their people to regain control, then turned her attention to Hart. “Get the parents out of the crowds. Have the teacher confirm who they are along with their photo ID before they’re allowed to see their children. And I don’t want any of them leaving before I speak to them.”

  Hart nodded and jogged over to assist. Cooper pushed her way through the SWAT officers toward the kids, and looked for the bright-red beacon that was Ronnie’s hair, but at first glance he was gone. And after a second sweep with the same result she clawed into the arm of one of the officers on watch. “There’s a kid missing.”

  “What?” he asked.

  Cooper shoved him hard then found the teacher. “Where’s Ronnie?” She clutched the teacher with both hands and shook her. “Did his parents come?”

  “I-I-I don’t know,” the teacher said. She looked around to the police officers, and she had to shout over the sirens, the crowd, the helicopters, and traffic. “I just saw him a moment ago in the circle. He was right there!” She pointed to an empty spot on the pavement next to the little girl with pigtails.

  “I know where he went!” The little girl raised her hand, stretching it high into the air. “One of the policemen took him.”

  Cooper released the teacher and sprinted to the police tape. She scanned the fleeing crowds for the carrot top but saw nothing. She penetrated the crowd, pulling her radio. “I need all officers to locate a boy, aged three, red hair, last seen wearing a blue shirt and green shorts.” She shoved the masses from her path toward the back of the horde. “Baltimore PD, make way! Baltimore PD, move!” The last few obstacles removed themselves from her path, and Cooper was alone in the middle of the street. She spun in circles, her mind processing every image that filtered through her eyes. She stopped on one of her sweeps to the left, and took a double-take at a fleeing squad car with Ronnie’s crying face visible in the back windshield.

  Cooper sprinted to her squad car and jumped inside. She cranked the engine to life and reached for the radio as she flipped on her lights. Tires squealed and drifted clouds of smoke and burnt rubber into the crowds. “This is Detective Cooper. I am in pursuit of suspect heading north on Hampton Street. He is driving a Baltimore Police vehicle, and he has a child hostage. Age three, male.” She turned the wheel hard right onto the main street where the killer had fled, still clutching the radio in her hands. “I need air support to track the suspect’s movements, and I need all units to assist.”

  The radio spewed affirmative responses, and Cooper watched the taillights of the killer’s cop car turn into a residential neighborhood. Oncoming traffic stopped as Cooper sped in hot pursuit into the gated community.

  The killer’s vehicle swerved violently down the narrow streets, and Cooper struggled to keep pace as she sideswiped a few of the cars parked street-side. She white knuckled the steering wheel, the car jerking from side to side. Her body tensed. Sweat beaded on her face. She floored the accelerator, her heartbeat revving in time with the engine. Lights flashed in her rearview mirror from the approaching cavalry, and the thump of helicopter blades erupted overhead, radioing their view of the scene from above. “Suspect is now heading east, and— Wait, he’s pulled into the front yard of a house, and he’s exiting the vehicle.”

  The seatbelt pulled tight against Cooper’s body as she turned a sharp left where the killer had fled. She watched the killer, still dressed in full SWAT gear, pull Ronnie from the backseat with a pistol to his head then sprint inside the house.

  The front of Cooper’s squad car lifted off the ground and over the curb as it landed into the home’s front yard. With the car still running, she jumped out, her gun aimed at the open front door the killer had disappeared into. She approached wearily, methodically scanning the inside of the house. She checked both sides of the door before she entered as police cars screeched to a stop out front.

  Family pictures lined the hallway, and she squinted into the darker recesses of the house. She slowed the closer she inched to the end of the hall, and peered around the corner, her fingers curled over the pistol’s grip like a vice.
Fueled on adrenaline, Cooper stepped into the living room, where she saw Ronnie in the arms of the killer, a gun to his head and being used as a human shield. “Let him go!”

  But the killer only pressed the end of the pistol harder into the boy’s skull. The black cloth of the mask covered everything except his eyes. “Put your gun down, or I put a bullet through the kid’s head.” His finger was placed over the trigger. “You wouldn’t want to be the cause of another child’s death, would you?”

  Cooper snarled and took a step forward, refusing to lower her weapon, but the killer only pressed the barrel harder into Ronnie’s head, and the boy screamed. Her rage boiled over at the sound. “You fucking prick!” She spit the words through gritted teeth, and her knuckles cracked from the increased pressure. “I swear to God, if you hurt him—”

  “You’ll what? You’ve let four die so far, Detective. Why do you think your luck will change now? You won’t be able to save Beth.”

  The man’s voice differed slightly from the one she heard on the phone call, but with the mask muffling his voice, she couldn’t be sure if the two were the same. “If you need a hostage, then take me.”

  “Hostage? I don’t need a hostage for this. I don’t even need a gun. All I need is you, Detective. You’re going to get me out of this.”

  Cooper tilted her head to the side. Something was wrong. The gun in the killer’s hand shook, and his voice lacked the sophistication she remembered over the phone. He sounded nervous, and her killer never portrayed weakness. “Who are you?”

  “The man you’ve been looking for,” the killer said meekly. “And right now every single FBI agent has surrounded the house, waiting for the signal to move in and take me out.” He rotated the arm that held Ronnie, and the boy trembled. “Every eye is on us.”

  Cooper slowly lowered her weapon. “Where is she?” She took a careful step forward. “Where’s Beth?”

  The killer continued to tremble and took a step back, which landed him flush against the wall. “You still haven’t put all of the pieces of the puzzle together?” He offered a weak laugh. “It’s all right in front of you, Detective, but be careful, because if you get too close, you might miss what’s right underneath your nose.”