“Yeah, and brutally. Sodomized and raped.”
Okay, there were three things that matched up with her case.
“Where is her boyfriend?” Gabe asked the two cops standing there.
“Outside in our patrol car. We locked him down the second we saw a strangled girl.”
He pointed at Noah and Alex.
“Get his official statement, check his alibi, and make sure he didn’t do this and then called the police.”
They took off.
She tugged on his suit sleeve, trying to get his attention. Clearly, Gabe was in the zone.
“Yes?” he asked as he looked over at her.
“Remember me? She who is running this case, not you who are taking over?”
He laughed.
“Sorry. The last time I was out on a case…”
Well, she knew.
It had been ‘The Butcher’.
Despite his lack of time in the field, she liked working with Gabe. He was her mentor.
“Christopher, what else can you tell me before I question the boyfriend?”
“Not a lot, Elizabeth. The techs aren’t even done yet with photographs.”
“Well, give the woman something,” Gabe stated.
“There’s procedure, and that’s going to come first. I don’t care if the big man is here glaring at me.”
“Did he just sass me?” Gabe asked.
She laughed.
“No. I harass the shit out of them like you taught me. He’s going to stand his ground and do what he needs to do.”
Well, that said it all.
“Let’s look around.”
They did.
Pulling on gloves, they didn’t find anything that would give them a clue as to if this was their serial killer or someone else. Nothing was out of place—and that matched.
“How did he get in?” Elizabeth asked.
One of the techs answered her, “The boyfriend told the police the back door was open.”
Well, that matched their killer. He liked a window or door.
“I can give you something more,” Chris stated from beside the body as they cut the bindings on her arms and legs.
“What?” she asked.
Gabe was so close, he almost knocked her over.
“Uh, you need to go out in the field more often. You’re up in my space.”
He moved back.
“Again, what?” she asked Chris.
“I can’t give you COD, but if you look at her throat, you can see it’s pretty bruised up.”
“Uh, Doc, I can assume that she was strangled.”
“By hands. Look at the bruising. The other victims were killed with cording, but this time, it looks like he strangled her a few times.”
Chris pointed.
“There’s one set here, higher up on her throat. He may have wanted her out cold so he could bind her. She has no broken nails or debris beneath them.”
That was interesting.
“So he strangles her with his hands not to kill her but slow her down.”
“You’re the investigator. I can tell he did it one more time. Look here.”
They did.
Sure enough, there were marks around the lower part of her neck where the hyoid was found.
“And the tie,” she asked.
“It would leave a thinner more compressed bruise. This time, he used his hands and left the tie behind.”
She didn’t get that, but she kept focused on the woman.
“And her arms?”
“Bed sheets,” he said, picking up the destroyed sheet beside his feet on the floor.
“So he didn’t plan it. It was spur of the moment.”
Gabe agreed.
“So the killer came silently in the night, around the same time he killed all the other women, choked her out so he could restrain her, and then used her.”
“I’d say multiple times,” Chris stated. “The bruising on her thighs is extensive, and the damage is pretty bad. He was angry, he was fueled by rage, and he wanted to hurt her.”
“An ME who speculates,” Gabe said. “Interesting.”
Chris went red.
“Actually, we’ve discussed this case, since I was here without a partner,” Elizabeth stated. “He knows where I’m taking it. He’s more or less just reiterating what I’ve told him.”
Gabe was watching the two of them.
If they were a couple, he couldn’t tell. Elizabeth was being professional, and Christopher Leonard was too.
So far, he was at ease with them working together.
So far…
She had to know.
“What’s with the tie?” Elizabeth asked.
One of the techs spoke up, “Guys like when their girls show up with just a tie on. It means you’re getting laid.”
Elizabeth stared at the woman.
Was the killer telling them something?
“Is that really a thing?” she asked.
All the men conferred.
Clearly, it was.
“So he put a tie on her because he’s claiming her. That’s…weird.”
“Agent LaRue, you’ve never shown up at a guy’s place in just a tie and a smile?” the tech asked, busting her ass.
Gabe cleared his throat.
Everyone looked at him.
“Uh, boss man, you do realize that you just gave them all the impression I’ve done that with you.”
He went red.
That was NOT what he was doing.
“Jesus! What is wrong with your team?”
She laughed.
“Well, that they’re my team should say it all.”
“While that may be a man’s fantasy, I will equivocally state that if you ever showed up at my place like that, after I laughed my ass off, my wife would kill you.”
She snorted.
“Duly noted,” Elizabeth offered. “I guess I won’t be sporting ties around town.”
Glancing over at her boyfriend, Chris wouldn’t look at her, and that clued her in.
Well, that and the fact he was flushed.
Someone was thinking about her in just a tie, and that gave her that warm fuzzy feeling. It was a good thing the man wore them often.
Count her in.
“Elizabeth,” Alex called from the doorway. “You may want to hear this.”
She and Gabe headed outside to where the two agents were with the two cops and the victim’s boyfriend.
“What?”
There was a teary-eyed man, and she knew exactly who it was going to be.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she stated.
He nodded.
The two agents took over, beginning with Noah.
“This is her boyfriend, Ned, and he found her a little while ago.”
“What happened, son?” Gabe asked, earning a look from Elizabeth.
He gave her the look and waved toward the man.
“Like my boss asked, Ned, what happened?”
“I went away with some of my friends to go hiking and camping. It’s a yearly trip we take. When I called yesterday, she didn’t answer. Then she didn’t answer the whole day. I called about twenty times, and it began freaking me out.”
She made notes.
“I told the guys I had to go home, so we wrapped it up and hiked out. We didn’t hit the road until about one this morning, and when I got here, around three, I found her. I can’t believe this. We just started dating seriously a couple days ago.”
“Again, I’m sorry for your loss,” she stated. “Do you live with her?”
“No, we met on campus at a party.”
“Are you a college student?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“No, I work for my dad’s garage. I’m a mechanic. I really liked her. I think she was the one, and now this.”
She got that pain.
It had to suck.
She looked over at Noah, and he was calling and making alibi checks. He gave her the thum
bs up.
“She was found with a tie around her neck. Is that your tie?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“I don’t own one.”
Yeah, that’s what she thought.
Know who owned a tie?
A professor.
“What was she going to school for?” Gabe asked.
“She was working on her master’s degree. She worked for some professor teaching his classes when he didn’t want to be bothered. She taught a lot.”
That had her attention, not because of the teaching part. She knew why this woman looked familiar.
SHIT!
She’d interviewed her!
To be sure, she stayed calm and let the man continue to give her information while he could.
“What professor?” Elizabeth asked, already willing to give it a guess.
“Professor Price, or Prince, or…”
She pulled her phone out and pulled up the photo.
“Is this him?”
“Yeah, I met him once when I picked her up at school. He’s a fucking pig. He ogles women. I told Franie to watch her ass around him. He looked like the molester type.”
Then it hit him.
“Did he do this to her? Did he hurt my girl?”
They didn’t know.
“Noah, take Ned home. Talk to his parents. Do you live alone? Or…?”
“I live at home.”
Noah escorted him out of there.
“That’s definitely going to be Francesca Jackson. The reason the name sounds familiar is because I interviewed her with Max on campus. She was in Daryl Prince’s office grading papers. She may have had a boyfriend, but when she was telling us about how he was shacking up with Professor McGowan, she looked all kinds of jealous.”
“Really?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, and I find it hard to believe that my number one suspect is MIA, and now his TA is killed the day he goes missing.”
He was with her on that.
When Chris rolled the body bag out on the stretcher, they met him halfway.
“I have confirmed ID,” Chris stated. “She has a tattoo, and I could see it in her pictures. I compared those to her driver’s license in her wallet. We have Francesca Jackson.”
Well, it looked like she was right.
“I told you I knew a face when I saw it—even all bloated.”
They didn’t doubt it now.
“You knew her?”
She told him.
“Well, that’s an odd little coincidence—and one I know you won’t believe.”
He could say that again.
“Let’s get her back to the morgue,” Gabe stated.
She agreed.
Together, they all walked toward the van.
That’s when she saw him.
“We have company at two o’clock.”
There was a black limo, and standing beside it was Michael O’Banion, and he had a cocky-ass smile on his face.
She wanted to wipe it off in the worst way.
He slowly lifted his hand and made the shape of a gun with his fingers. He put it to his head.
Oh, she got it.
He was a cop killer.
She pulled her cuffs and held them out.
It didn’t deter him at all. He grabbed his dick and made an obscene gesture with his tongue.
Oh, two could play that game.
“Oh look! Michael ‘I killed a cop’ O’Banion is outside the home of a serial killer’s victim,” she said so loud that the media would catch it on their sound byte. “Someone should go ask him what he’s doing on a crime scene.”
That was enough to stir the pot.
The reporters took off, and he jumped into his limo and escaped before they could reach him.
“He’s got balls,” Chris said, irritated that he’d made those gestures. Over his dead body would any of that shit be happening. He didn’t care if he was a mob man or not. Chris would pay for security for her if need be.
He wasn’t losing his best friend and girlfriend to that asshole.
“Yeah, and I’m going to neuter him,” she offered.
Gabe laughed at her way of getting him out of there. That was a play out of his old book, and he couldn’t be prouder.
She’d become a good agent.
“Hey! One more thing,” Alex said, heading her way. “We found out who owns the house.”
“Who?
“The same landlord as Debbie Helton. Israel Shields. Coincidence?”
Yeah, she didn’t think so.
“Gabe, are you riding shotgun?” she asked. “I need to talk to a man who owns two houses where two girls were raped and murdered.”
“You know it. I’ll meet you at the car. I need to make one call.”
She headed off to help Chris load up the girl. Meanwhile, he pulled out his phone and called the justice department.
“I want O’Banion handled. He’s gunning for Feds. Make him disappear. It’s time. Plan it.”
“On it.”
The line went dead.
Yeah, it was time to pull him from circulation. Michael O’Banion was in for one hell of a rude awakening.
Someone was about to go under.
Unwillingly.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Israel Shields
Home
He lived alone, well, him and a giant dog that was barking at them like they were trespassers.
“I like dogs, but not big ones,” Gabe said, as he eyed up the dog at the fence.
“Uh, that’s a puppy. Are you afraid of it?” she asked.
It was barking, drooling, and baring its teeth.
“Maybe.”
She laughed.
“Some scary Fed you are. I like big dogs. You just have to know how to talk to them,” she said. “I had a dog when I lived at home with Charlie. My shrew of a stepmother made him get rid of it when my brother was born. Thus, our hate-hate relationship was born. I wish he would have kept the dog and ditched the second family.”
“Are you saying you can relate to that dog?” he asked.
She laughed.
“I bet you twenty bucks and a weekend off I can get to the man’s door without shooting that dog.”
“Deal, because it won’t happen. Meanwhile, you will have your weekend off from work, so you can babysit. Livy and I will go away.”
“Deal. Watch and learn, boss man.”
She headed for the gate and the snarling puppy. The second she approached, she whistled and pointed down.
“SIT!”
The dog actually listened.
When she opened the gate, Gabe put his hand on his gun, just in case. Elizabeth was batshit insane.
Clearly.
Inside the fence, she put her hand out and stared the dog down. He sniffed her and then licked her. Immediately, his tail began wagging, and she headed for the door.
“I win,” she said, as the dog ran around her as if she was his new best friend.
“What the hell?”
Gabe couldn’t believe it.
Elizabeth ignored him and knocked on the door.
The man came out, and he didn’t look happy that his guard puppy was not guarding.
He went to kick the dog.
“If you touch that dog, I’ll shoot you,” she stated. “If you think I’m kidding, I’m not.”
“What do you want?”
“Are you Israel Shields?” she asked.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?” he asked, sipping his coffee. “It’s freaking early in the morning.”
“I need to ask you about some of the properties you own.”
The man stared at her.
When the dog went to lick her hand, he kicked it and the dog whimpered in pain as it limped away.
“You worthless puppy!” he stated. “What the hell kind of dog are you? You protect me!”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she said, glaring at him. “You’re going to make him mean!�
�
“I’m not talking to you about jack shit,” he stated. “You need to get your ass off my property. I don’t talk to cops! He’s my dog, and I’ll beat him if I want to!”
She didn’t move.
Oh, she’d like to see that happen.
When the man moved toward her and took a swing at her, the puppy growled. The man dumped his hot coffee on the white mop of a dog.
It yelped.
That was it.
She had enough.
“You’re under arrest for animal abuse,” she said, grabbing him, spinning him, and tossing him to the ground.
And she wasn’t gentle.
When he fought, she slammed his head on the ground and he stopped.
“Do you need my help?” Gabe asked as he called for someone to come get the man.
“No, but he’s going to need some. He just hurt that puppy twice, and I’m done with it.”
Gabe watched as she sat on the man and tried to soothe the dog.
She looked at his tags.
Killer?
This dude was an asshole.
“You can’t be more than nine months old, you sweet little thing.”
The dog gave her kisses as she cuddled it.
Gabe moved toward the gate, and when he touched it, the dog looked at him.
“Is he going to bite me?” he asked.
“Gabe, he’s a puppy. The dog is harmless. The asshole I’m sitting on needs this dog taken away from him.”
Gabe looked at her.
“Uh, okay. We can file charges.”
The mop of hair and fur headed right toward Gabe, and he stared down at him.
“Good doggie?”
She laughed. “I’m taking him with me.”
“WHAT?” he asked.
“He’s abusing this dog, and one day it’s going to hurt someone. Then they’ll shoot it or put him down and blame the dog when it’s the asshole’s fault. He needs a home. This douchebag named him Killer.”
Gabe patted the moppy dog on the head. The dog sniffed him but didn’t seem to mind him.
“Elizabeth.”
The man beneath her moaned.
“Where were you Saturday night at eleven?” she asked when he was coherent. Elizabeth stayed sitting on him.
Just in case.
“I want my lawyer. I have nothing to say to you! Bitch!”
She smacked his head on the ground again.
Gabe laughed.
“You heard him. He wants a lawyer. We can have one of the agents question him about why two victims of a serial killer rented from him. If I stay anywhere near him, I’m going to take out his teeth and embed them in his damn face backward!”
Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback Page 39