Dying Embers

by B. E. Sanderson

  As they headed toward security, she caught herself smiling at his optimism. She could almost hear Frank saying, “It’s about time. You need some of that stuff to balance out your pessimism.” Frank—damn him—would be right.

  Security was everything she expected—closed rooms with banks of monitors and men glued to every move the casino’s visitors made. One bank was devoted solely to the gaming tables, another to the slots. Their guide led them past these to the cameras trained on the lesser occupied areas of the humungous structure.

  “Matt? These are the agents I told you about. Can you help them while I check in at my station?”

  A heavyset man with a head of wavy blond hair to rival Sampson lifted his hand in greeting. His eyes never left the screen in front of him, although it showed only an empty elevator. “Have a seat. I’ll be right with you.” One finger pointed into the air, and a young woman scuttled from behind one of the monitors. “Take over here, Kim. He should be hitting the monitor soon. Watch him and let security know what floor he gets off on.”

  When Matt turned, Jace was shocked to see what appeared to be a metal-head leftover from the late eighties. “Mr. Driscoll?”

  “At your service.” He fingered one of the gold hoops in his left ear with one hand while his other twirled his pen like a drumstick. “They said you were on your way down. You need the elevator footage from over the last few nights, right?” He jerked a thumb toward a smaller room across from where they’d come in. “They’re loading it up right now. If you don’t mind my asking, what are you looking for?”

  “A man by the name of Edgar Wilson in the company of a blonde.”

  “That asshole? I thought we got rid of him last year. Hey, Kim? Didn’t the boys upstairs ban him for life or something?”

  Like her colleague, the woman’s eyes never left the screen in front of her. “Not last I heard. I know he was told to play elsewhere, but it wasn’t his gaming they were pissed about.” Holding up a hand to silence Matt’s response, she picked up a phone with the other. “Fifth floor. Looks like he turned toward the right as he got off.”

  “What’s going on here?”

  “Petty theft. We’ve been trying to catch the guy for a while now, but he keeps changing his appearance. I think we got him this time.” He nodded with satisfaction. “The guys upstairs like to think it’s all them. The way I look at it, we’re the unsung heroes of the movie.” Beside him, a feed began to play. “Here you go. Have at it. I’ve got about ten hours’ worth of my own tape to watch, but give a shout if you see anything, and I’ll shoot over here to help you out.”

  “How many hours is this?” Ben said and when Matt told him, he groaned. “Any way to fast forward?”

  “The remote’s on the table. It’ll move the timestamp forward, but watch you don’t go too fast or you’ll never see the guy.”

  Jace expected to spend hours watching the fast-forward ingress and egress of casino guests, but within thirty minutes, she nudged Ben and called for Matt. “I think that’s her.”

  The video tech came over and changed the timestamp so they could watch the scene again. The elevator doors opened, and a couple walked inside. The man was doing everything but cover his face to avoid the camera lens. The woman, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care if she was being recorded. Tall and blonde with features somewhere between Lauren Bacall and Jane Mansfield.

  “That’s her?” Ben said. “I pictured someone shorter and thinner.”

  “The camera adds ten pounds,” Matt quipped.

  Jace shook her head. “She can’t be too thin or too short. She’s muscled large men around to get what she wants. I’d lay odds those loose pants aren’t hiding cellulite. She’s been working out, probably all her life, or at least just so she could carry out her—”

  Matt leaned forward intently, breaking into Jace’s theorizing. “What’d she do? Kill someone?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say right now.” Jace hated giving the guy the old pitch, but until she had Emma in custody, she couldn’t risk their identification getting leaked to the press. One blurb on the news, and their target would run.

  “Well, if she’s hanging around with Wilson, I’d worry more about her than about anything she might do. He’s a slick customer.”

  Not anymore, she thought as she said, “Just the same, I need copies of these tapes sent to my lab in Dallas.”

  “Email okay with you?”

  “The faster the better.”

  “Give me an address, and I can send it in the next few minutes. How long it takes to get there depends on the equipment at their end.”

  She shot out Lynn’s address, and then for good measure asked him to CC Frank. One way or the other, the files would get to her team, and they’d get started making a match. If Emma’s picture was ever in the system anywhere, they’d find her.

  They had to.

  #

  “Baby, why do you want to drive all the way out here? Things are better in the city.” Owen traced a finger along one of her thighs. “Unless you know something I don’t know.”

  She smiled. Of course, she knew lots of things he didn’t, but he would never understand that. Years ago, she understood the power of having a good woman beside you, and he never got it. She understood the stability of love, but he couldn’t comprehend that either. Maybe when she lit his ultimate fire, he’d finally see what he’d missed.

  “It’s a secret spot.” She licked her lips, letting her tongue linger just long enough so he got the point. “Trust me?”

  His hand slid farther up her leg, and he squeezed. “Like you were my own mother, Baby.”

  A few more miles and they would arrive at the new spot she picked out days before. Like Studly’s perfect spot for lovemaking, it had plenty of seclusion and a ravine just the right size for Owen’s Jaguar. Thinking back to Studly’s pyre, she let her grin widen. Owen’s spot also had the most lovely underbrush. His fire would make Studly’s look like the candles on a birthday cake.

  #

  “Emma Sweet. Forty-two. Resident of Green Bay, Wisconsin.” Frank’s voice sounded like the best thing Jace ever heard. “Lynn had a little trouble with the photo, but after tweaking it, she came out plain as day.”

  “Tweaking?” Ben said. “Sounds to me like an easy way for a defense attorney to get her off.”

  “Not like that. They sent us a clear image, but when we didn’t get an immediate hit, Lynn allowed for appearance changes. Her hair is longer now, and she used to be a brunette, but Lynn’s software gave us a match with ninety-three point four percent accuracy. Unless Emma Sweet has an evil twin, she’s our gal.”

  Jace had to stop herself from whooping aloud. After months of searching, they finally caught a break. “Great. Now help me find her out here.”

  “We’ve got a crew on their way to her house.”

  That’s a start. “Any family to contend with?”

  “Well, there’s the thing. Her husband died last August. Wanna guess how?”

  “Viking funeral with a twist?” Ben said.

  “And he wasn’t alone. His mistress was seated right beside him for the festivities.”

  Jace’s eyes narrowed as she considered the new information. “Was that the trigger, or was that her first after the trigger?” she said under her breath.

  “What?” both men asked in unison.

  “Sorry. Thinking aloud.”

  “Well, don’t keep it to yourself. Out with it.”

  “I’m thinking her husband’s death beside another woman could’ve been the trigger for Emma, or those two could’ve been her first kills. What did the local authorities have to say?”

  “They took her at her word. She was home and didn’t know anything about what happened. She claimed to not even know he was cheating.” Jace could hear his keystrokes in the background. “The newspapers made her out to be the grieving and wronged widow, and it looks like she played the whole thing up. Then, from what I can see, she closed up the house and went on a
n extended vacation. Supposedly to forget the whole sordid mess.”

  No doubt existed in Jace’s mind that Emma killed those people, too. “Any glue?”

  “Nope. And no added accelerant. He had a full tank when they went off the road. Add in a fifty foot drop. Kaboom. Some logger they interviewed said it looked like the Fourth of July.”

  Still, she knew in her heart this was Emma’s handiwork. And the more she thought about it, the more she was convinced they’d found the trigger. The real pain leading to her first kill. The domino to topple all the others. “Get a crew out there to look over the crime scene. Interview the locals. Find me something to tie it together, and while you’re at it, see if you can find me the name of the next guy on her list.”

  “Come on, Jace, give me a break,” he said. “Anything else you want, Master? Maybe turn lead into gold?”

  “A girl can hope. Besides, you know you’re the best. If anyone can get me out ahead of this unsub, it’s you.” After years of watching her team work, she had more faith in them than any other agent—field or otherwise. Suddenly an idea popped into her head—so simple she should’ve thought of it a long time ago. “Hey, Frank?” she said. “Do me a favor? Handle Green Bay yourself.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Take a team up there and get me some answers.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  Drawing in a deep breath to level her nerves, she tried again. “Come on, Frank. You can’t fool me. You’ve wanted this for years, but my head was too far up my own ass to see it. Quit second guessing me and take a team up to Green Bay already. You’re ready for it. Hell, you’ve been ready.”

  “And Lynn?”

  “If you need her up there, take her. I think I can manage for a few days on my own. Just…”

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “Don’t make it too long. I might need some help and without you guys, I’m out here on my own.” Ben elbowed her at the same time Frank blurted his name. “You know what I mean. He’s out here alone as much as I am. Get up to Packer country and get back before I miss you too much. Got it?”

  “Sure thing. Only…”

  “Quit stalling already.”

  “I’m not stalling. I was just wondering what Graham’s going to say.”

  “He’s going to tell me it’s about time. Now, get.”

  The look on Ben’s face after she ended the call was amusing to say the least. Shock combined with a tinge of confusion topped with a sprinkling of something Jace couldn’t quite put her finger on. “What?” she asked.

  Ben shook his head like a dog and did a slow visual inventory of her person. “Ever see Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

  “I am not a pod person.”

  “The Agent J.C. Douglas I met a couple weeks ago would never let this case out of her hands. I don’t know who you are.”

  “Let’s just say a little bird has been helping me see the error of my ways and leave it at that.”

  #

  “Close your eyes.”

  Owen threw his head back and laughed. “You know, you sound just like someone I used to know.”

  “Oh, really? Who would that be?” If he remembered her, if he even showed the least bit of remorse, she would kill him quick. Not like Studly. Not like Will. Definitely not like Kyle had died.

  “No one important,” he said instead. “Some little thing I played around with when I was a kid. I’m not a kid anymore. Now come here and let me play with you.”

  Blood boiled behind her eyes. He would die slow. So much slower than any of the others, and with as much pain as she could provide. If only she’d known what he really thought of their love before now, she could’ve planned a more special end for him. Now she’d have to improvise with the equipment she had.

  “Not yet. I got a special something naughty for you. Close your eyes or you’ll ruin the surprise. And Owen? No peeking, or I’ll make you pay for it.”

  His throaty laugh echoed through the gorge. Both his voice and the last place it would be heard were nice and deep, just the way she liked them. “Promises, promises,” he replied with his eyelids crammed shut.

  She sidled away from him toward the Jag. “I never make promises I can’t keep.” Slipping inside the car, she grabbed a stout bottle from her cavernous purse. After a quick glance to assure herself his eyes were still closed, she deftly applied epoxy to the fine leather upholstery and the hand-crafted steering wheel. Then, after tucking her tools away, she slipped her tank top up over her head and climbed into the passenger seat.

  “I’m ready for you now, Owen.”

  His eyes flew open. Pushing himself up from the blanket where they’d spent the night fucking like rabbits afforded him an eye-full. The sun’s first light dappled across her breasts. One look at her lightly-tanned skin against the creamy white upholstery had him drooling. “Oh, Baby. Now that is a surprise.” One hand flew to his pants, and before she could cry out for him to leave them on, they were crumpled in a heap beside the blanket he laid out for their lovemaking.

  Stifling a giggle, she nodded. This might work even better than she hoped. She wanted him to suffer, and he provided her with the means to make him suffer worse than any of the others. In fact, she could kick herself for not thinking of it before. The epoxy always soaked through whatever fabric her victims wore, but skin bonded so much more easily.

  When Owen began to circle the car toward the passenger side, she clicked her tongue. “Not yet, Dear. I want you in the driver’s seat first, and then we’ll move over here.”

  His tongue flicked out and ran over pearly white teeth no natural genetics could ever provide. “Oh, Baby. You do know what I like.”

  And I know what I like. That’s what always made us such a perfect pair.

  Never letting his eyes stray from the picture she presented, he slid behind the wheel. His smile quickly changed to a look of confusion. “What the fuck did you do to my car?”

  “Motion lotion, baby. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s cleaned up when we’re done.”

  “If it isn’t, you’re paying for new seats.”

  “I’m not worried.” She looked deep into his eyes as he reached for her. “Ut-uh. Put your hands on the steering wheel. I want you to drive while I…” As she leaned toward his groin, he complied.

  “God damn it, Baby. You got that shit all over the damn place.”

  “Silly me.” She let one finger brush the inside of his thigh, and with that touch, he seemed to forget all about the damage her surprise might do to his Jag’s interior.

  Letting her fingertips walk up his thigh, she counted down. “Five… four… three… two… one… All ready.”

  As he sat there waiting, engorged beyond thought, she sat up and reached for her top.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he said. “Come on, Baby, don’t be a tease.” Owen made to reach for her—most likely trying to pull her head down onto his lap like he had so many years ago—but he couldn’t remove his hands from the wheel. “What the fuck is this?”

  “Oh, sorry. I lied. It’s not motion lotion, Owen.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Get this shit off me.” He tried to wriggle in his seat only to find his own seat wasn’t going anywhere either. “What the fuck? What did you do to me?”

  As she pulled the cotton material of her shirt over her breasts, she clicked her tongue. “Well, now, it’s not so much what I did to you, but what you did to me.”

  “I didn’t do anything to you! Get me out of here!”

  She brushed back the hair from his eyes. “You hurt me, Owen, and now it’s my turn.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t even know you!”

  “Sure you do. I’m no one important… Remember?” Grabbing him by the chin, she forced him to look at her. “Some little thing you played around with?”

  “Oh, shit,” he mumbled as realization lit his eyes. “Emma.”

  “Not so unimportant now, am I? You wanted to hav
e your fun, Owen. You didn’t want to be stuck with anyone. You wanted to be free.” She grinned at him, and he paled. “Well, you had your freedom and now you’re stuck.”

  His skin went from white to red, and she got to watch the fear turn to anger. Either way, it didn’t matter. She had him right where he deserved to be. “I get it. Throw that back in my face while I’m glued down. Funny.” The venom burned through the lighthearted man he played at being, revealing the truth beneath. “What’s next? You leave me here to suffer until someone comes along? Fine. This is a busy enough road. I won’t be here for too long.” He played the part with his typical bravado, but his act wouldn’t last long.

  “You’re so right, Owen.” Pulling down the visor mirror, she adjusted her hair and giggled. “You always were the bright guy.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t leave me here.” Relief showed on his face. “You’ve already got someone coming to find me. Let me wait an hour or two, and some friend of yours will let me out.”

  Pinching his cheek a little and then patting it hard, she said, “Well, maybe not as bright as I remembered. I just meant you won’t be here for long. Oh, you’re headed someplace all right. Someplace, I hope, where it’ll be so much hotter.” The double meaning behind her words tickled her enough to force a giggle between her gritted teeth.

  “Oh god,” he whispered.

  “Wrong direction, but you have the right idea. See you later, Owen. Much, much later.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Tonight, yet another fire rages in the mountains west of Las Vegas…”

  Jace looked at Ben, whose eyes were glued to the footage taken by the news chopper. From the fire’s trail, it was obvious where the blaze started and as the camera swooped up the ravine, the twisted husk of a car could be seen nestled under the blackened branches of a pine.

  “That bitch!” Ben said. “She didn’t even give us a week this time.”

  Suddenly a computer-enhanced image took up the entire screen. Emma Sweet gazed back at them from a frame of tweaked security footage. Instead of the mousy-brown bob Mrs. Sweet wore while her husband was alive, she now sported a platinum blonde sheath of hair sweeping down below her shoulders.