Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1)

by Chastity Harris

  The news took a moment to sink in, than Shane was wide awake. “Wha…What? Are you serious? Real blood? How much?”

  She interrupted the ramblings. “It would be easier if you just came over and saw it before work.” She sounded hopeful, but he crushed that in an instant. “Devin, you know I can’t do that. I have to call this in first.”

  “I know.” She sighed deeply, staring out her screen door, already resigned to the fact that she would be trapped in her house for quite some time. “I just thought it was worth a shot.”

  “Well it wasn’t, so just sit tight and don’t touch anything. I’ll be right there.”

  “I know that!” But she was snapping at a dead line, he was already gone.

  It had been a long time since Devin had been on this side of a crime scene, and she didn’t like it one bit. Sherriff’s deputies had been crawling over her house and yard for the last hour, literally on the roof and searching the grass for any trace of evidence, and now the State Police had been called in. Sherriff Bittner and Adam had asked her every irrelevant question under the sun. As Devin stared out the living room window, watching a grim-faced Shane give two deputies instructions, she wondered if they would ask her next the color of her toothpaste.

  “Devin, just one more thing…”

  “Blue with sparkles.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  She turned around with a deep sigh to face a puzzled Adam. “Nothing. What is it?”

  Still looking confused, Adam proceeded cautiously. “Do you know the date of when the picture could have been taken at the Summit?”

  “Sure, it was the Thursday right after I got here so that would have been…” —she paused to count back in her head— “the eighth. Now do you mind if I go change? I’d like to have a little more clothing on before the entire town gathers outside.” She was still in her running clothes, even though she had yet to step off her porch today. Adam nodded wordlessly as he continued to add to his notes. When Devin trotted back down the stairs in jeans and deep purple v-neck t-shirt the two detectives and Sheriff broke up their hushed conference in the front hallway. Shane glared at her.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Walking down the stairs in my house. What do you think you’re doing?”

  There were no charming smiles today. Shane was wearing hiking boots and jeans with a department wind breaker, he hadn’t even taken time to shave in his hurry to get to her this morning. Devin couldn’t shake the thought that serious was a good look on him.

  “You’re dressed for working a case, but don’t even think about it.”

  She stopped at the bottom of the steps and leaned against the banister, cocking an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t realize there was a dress code for this sort of thing. Maybe you should make up a little pamphlet to hand out to people on the do’s and don’ts.”

  He was still glaring, but the sheriff interrupted his rebuttal. “Where do we stand on evidence, Shane?”

  “Everything was clean as far as prints go, and nothing was disturbed anywhere around the house. The knife and necklace don’t match anything that we have listed as being stolen, so I’m having Cooper and Davis drive them up to log in at the state lab in Fairfax. They’ll run them for trace and check out the blood on the necklace. We should have results in about four weeks.”

  Devin was apparently the only one affected by this news and it propelled her off the banister. “Four weeks!”

  Adam was the first to speak, gently rubbing her shoulder. “I know this is emotional for you Devin and you want answers, but you know the reality of the state forensics lab. They’re overworked and understaffed. There is a backlog of murders they’re trying to solve, and this will have to take a back burner. Truthfully we’ll be lucky to get it back in four weeks.”

  She shook his arm off her shoulder with a scowl, resisting the urge to dislocate his shoulder. Without a word, she scooped her cell phone of the hall table and flipped it open, scanning through her contacts until she found the one she wanted and waited patiently while the phone was ringing, still not looking at any of them. Suddenly she became very animated as a huge smile split her face, when the call was answered.

  “Scott! It’s Devin. How have you been?”

  “I’m great. Congratulations I just heard you’re getting another commendation from the mayor of Richmond.”

  “ Oh, thanks and thank you for the flowers when I was in the hospital. That was really sweet. I’ve got some time off this summer. We’ve got to get together again and hang out.”

  “I would love that. As long as I don’t wake up with a nose ring this time.”

  “That was hardly my fault. You were the one who wanted to go to the club call Pierced. What did you think was going to happen?”

  “All right little miss innocent. We’ll try something a little more low-key this time.”

  “I’m good with that. Listen Scott, I’ve been involved in a little commotion down here in Fenton and two deputies are driving some evidence up to you right now for trace and DNA…” Her grin came back when he interrupted.

  “Girl you can’t even take a proper break, can you?”

  “I know, I know. Even when I’m not working, I’m working. You should get me a t-shirt.” Her tracing fingers had begun to tap impatiently on the dark maple wood railing, but now her fist thumped silently in victory.

  “Let me guess, you could you use some Scott Davis magic for a fast turnaround?”

  “Scott, you are a prince! I’ll even let you buy dinner when I’m up there.” A minute later she was snapping her phone closed and spinning around to address the three lawmen she had put on hold. “And that, boys, is how it’s done. He’s going to call me this evening with his preliminary findings and fax over the report tomorrow.”

  For once someone in the room had a bigger grin than Shane, who was staring in disbelief. “That’s not possible. They process everything in the order it comes in, and the tests themselves take longer than a day.”

  “Wrong and wrong. High priority cases get bumped to the top of the list all the time, and the tests we’re asking for are fairly simplistic in comparison to what they’re capable of.”

  It was Adam’s turn to cut in. “How does this rank as a high-priority case? We’re looking at vandalism and harassment charges.”

  Devin sat down on the bottom of the steps frowning as she ran her hand over the yellowed wallpaper. At one time the cream and pink rose pattern had probably been very elegant, but now, combined with the dark wood floors of the hallway and stairs it was creating a funeral home atmosphere. Glancing back to Adam, she finally answered.

  “I know when to make friends and when to make enemies. When I really need something, my friends get it done for me.”

  Shane folded his arms across his chest, unimpressed. “You suck up for favors.”

  Her jaw tightened in frustration. “No, genius, that’s what you try to do. Believe it or not, I actually have friends.”

  Sheriff Bittner stepped in before the conversation escalated. “Regardless of how it gets done, this is fantastic news. We’ll have a lead later today. Now,” —he waved his arms herding them like a group of small children— “the state police are here, and I think we should greet them outside as a united front. So get goin’!”

  Devin had a faint idea of how things were going to go when the state boys showed up, but she wasn’t letting on to her companions. She let Shane, Adam and the Sheriff head into the yard first, but she hung back, waiting on the porch steps. There was no remaining in the shadows, though, once the first suit caught a glimpse of her. The six foot four detective towered over the Sheriff as he was getting ready to reach out his hand for introductions when he saw her and did a double-take.

  “Dushane! What in Heaven’s name are you doing out here?”

  He crossed the rest of the yard in two bounds and caught her up in a crushing bear hug.

  “How’ya been, Bill?” His inexpensive light-grey suit was hanging loosely
on his large frame. “Has Molly stopped cooking for you? You’re wasting away.”

  He sighed miserably. “No. She’s just trying to lower my cholesterol. So everything is low fat, low carb and no taste.”

  The second detective hooked an arm around her neck and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Girl, just when I think I’m rid of you, I find you again in the most unexpected places.”

  “Hi, Danny. I see your hairline has stopped retreating. It’s just running for its life now.” Devin squeezed his broad shoulders.

  “You’re just as charming as a rattlesnake, honey.” He laughed as he let her go.

  The lanky captain interjected. “Careful, Danny, one of these days I’m going to convince Devin to take my job so I can retire. You could be addressing your future commanding officer.”

  “Not a chance Bill, you know if anything I’m after a Federal job.” She patted his shoulder briskly as he hung his head in mock disappointment. “Where’s Steve? Or is the budget so tight that the captain has to work in the field now too?”

  For once Danny didn’t have a smart comment. “He’s on paternity leave, his first baby, a little boy, born last week. Means I’m stuck with the old man for a while.” Bill threw his hands up in the air in defeat and Devin gave him another pat.

  “Shall I do introductions, since I seem to know everyone?”

  Devin introduced the Fenton group to Captain Bill Ellroy and Detective Danny Markham of the Virginia State Police. Markham had the look of a state trooper—barrel-chested and thick necked pushing six feet. He still maintained a crew cut, though there was significantly less hair in the front than years before.

  Once the introductions were finished everyone stood in a semicircle at the bottom of the porch steps, staring at Devin, waiting.

  “What?”

  Bill was the first to speak, scratching his head. “What are you doing here, Devin? This is a little outside the Richmond jurisdiction.”

  “Oh!” Understanding dawning on her face and she jerked her thumb over her right shoulder. “I live here. I guess you could say I’m the victim.”

  Chapter 20

  Bill and Dan went through the entire crime scene and timeline with them again. On top of that they wanted to review in detail what Devin had been investigating and who she had been talking to about it. After several hours of this they were all wishing she had air conditioning; six people crowded into her small dining room even with windows open and a fan blowing were melting in the midday heat. Whether it was heat or exhaustion or some combination of the two, Devin burst into laughter when Danny asked if she had any enemies that might want to harm her.

  “You’re kidding, right? Do you mean just here in Fenton or in the state? Or while we’re at it, in the world? Because the list could get quite lengthy.” Shane snorted, then Bill started to chuckle. “I mean really, it’s not a list it would be more like a booklet or novella.” The entire group began to unravel. “Maybe we could start a website for people who want me dead and ask them to register. They could order t-shirts and exchange arsenic recipes!”

  Shane gave her a wink from across the table. “I bet it would be quite popular in the prison system.”

  Danny conceded. “Okay, okay! I get it! We’ll skip that.” He had already removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, but now he loosened his tie a little further. “What about the locket? Any idea what the significance of leaving jewelry might be?”

  “I don’t think it was an early Valentine’s present.”

  Adam, who had vanished during all the laughter, appeared at her elbow from the kitchen with a cold can of diet soda and flicked her ponytail. “Behave!”

  “I am way past my capacity for good behavior.” However she sighed and answered benignly. “I can only guess that it’s a reference to the Bennett murder. Laney wore a heart-shaped locket that was never recovered from the murder scene. It was something she never took off and presumably was taken by the killer as a souvenir.”

  “Any possibility this is her locket?”

  She knew he had to ask the question, but there was still a part of her that longed to smack Dan in his thick head with the legal pad he was scratching on with some illegible alien penmanship. Bo picked an excellent time to trot into the room looking for some attention. It was unacceptable for there to be this many people in the house while his ears remain unscratched. He flopped his head in Devin’s lap with a huff. Scratching his ears took the edge out of her voice.

  “None. Her locket was gold with a flowery L on the front, and was a little bit larger. I think this person was just trying to make the connection and get my attention.”

  Shane stretched his legs out in front of him, propping his arm on his chair back, but the tightness around his eyes gave away the tension his casual position belied. “They got our attention, all right. I’d say this is a threat to get you to stop digging. Looking into these old moonshine cases is opening up a lot of cans of worms and somebody doesn’t want you fishing.”

  They were interrupted by the ringing of Devin’s cell phone. She only half glanced at it as she prepared to silence the ringer, planning on calling Marcy or Carter or whoever it was back later. Doing a double take at the screen she flipped the phone open.

  “No way, are you done.”

  The eager voice on the other end of the phone didn’t want to disappoint. “For you, I work miracles, but no, I’m not done.”

  “Then what are you calling me for, Scott?”

  “I do have a tentative match for the victim the locket belonged to. When I put the description in the system I got a hit and the image is identical to your evidence. The blood types are the same, but I’ll know for sure when the DNA comes back. It was a match to an unsolved murder in Louisa County eight months ago. Victim was Haley Marshall, seventeen-year-old girl beaten and stabbed. I’m sending you the case files now.”

  Devin tucked her phone into her shoulder and opened up her laptop, warming it up to get connected. She was trying to fend off the shiver of intuition with all of the eyes on her.

  “What happened? Mugging gone bad or a sexual assault?”

  “No, nothing like that. There was no evidence of sexual assault, and the only thing taken was her locket.” Still fighting the shiver. Could all be coincidences. “She was found in the woods after a post-football game field party.”

  Crap. Full-on shiver.

  “Okay, Scott this is what I need you to do. Run a search for all females killed in their late teens by a combination beating and stabbing from 1950 until now, excluding any sexual assaults. Then narrow it by victims that had any jewelry removed.”

  The only other sound in the dining room was the occasional sigh from Bo and the muted voices of the deputies packing up outside.

  “All right I have twelve cases, but two are domestic violence and three were muggings so we can scrap those. That leaves me with seven cases.”

  “Were any of those seven found in wooded areas?” She listened to the tapping of his keyboard.

  “Four. All near large group gatherings, parties, football games, carnivals. Public places you think your kid would be safe at.”

  Devin pinched the bridge of her nose, not wanting to ask, but having to know at the same time. “What kind of jewelry was taken from them?”

  “Necklace, each and every one.”

  She closed her eyes for the briefest second and shook her head. “Thanks Scott. Go ahead and send me those files and call the FBI. Have them run the same search for the surrounding states, will you?”

  “You bet. I’ll finish running the rest of this and let you know what I get. Geez, Devin, why can’t you go to Cancun for vacation like normal people?”

  Devin closed her phone and mumbled to the tabletop. “Now what fun would that be?”

  The little conference room at the sheriff’s office had been the victim of a gruesome makeover. The ugly fake wood paneling had been wallpapered with the bloody crime scene photos of five murders spanning thirty-five years. The white board
was a spider web of red timelines dotted with words like cadaver dogs, autopsy reports and dead lead.

  It was before 7:00am, but Devin beat Sheriff Bittner to the office. She had become quite a fixture in the department. Not that it was healthy.

  “Do you think if you stare at those lines long enough, they’ll spell it out for you?”

  She continued to lean against the conference table, studying the board. Devin wouldn’t fit most people’s image of a Richmond city detective. Her hair was still damp from the shower, and she had tried to twist it up into a clip, but a few dark strands were fighting to escape. She wore just enough make-up to remind you she didn’t need any. The v-neck of her grey t-shirt exposed a small faded round scar on her collar bone, marring her tan. No jewelry, unless you counted the shield that was clipped to the belt of her jeans and the worn leather choker she never took off.

  “I’m trying to find some kind of pattern to this…a connection.” She frowned and pushed off the table to sweep her hand across the map. “The locations are all over the place, the timeline ranges from two months to ten years between murders, and there’s no resemblance in the victims at all.” She turned to look at him finally with her hands on her hips and brow knitted in a scowl. “What kind of serial killer has a routine that’s so . . . so . . .” She tossed her hands into the air “…random? Aren’t sociopaths supposed to be meticulous and all OCD about their cycles? This one is being awfully sloppy.”

  The sheriff’s bark of laughter echoed off the conference room walls, and he was lucky that the office’s ancient coffee pot was still chugging to life; otherwise he might have spent his last moments choking to death on bad coffee.

  “Miss Devin, I will be sure to pass on your disappointment in this lunatic’s work ethic when we catch him.”

  “Whose work ethic are we criticizing?”

  Adam had just joined them with a large box of fresh donuts. He looked fresh and pressed in his pink polo and khakis, but the baggage under his eyes gave him away. Yesterday had been a long one for all of them, and the tension was mounting.