2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series: The continuation of the #1 Hard-boiled/Police Procedural smash Plain Jane

by Carolyn McCray

  Feeling slightly better about his future, Joshua turned on some Macklemore. He needed to get his hip-hop on while he could.

  * * *

  Ruben rubbed the stubble on his cheek. It was getting a little out of control. He didn’t mind a five o’clock shadow. But he had a three day forest going. Paggie hated it when he grew out his beard.

  She said it was like kissing sand paper. Good thing he hadn’t really been home for a few days. He’d have to shave before he headed to the house tonight.

  He was running out of steam. This dark net thing, even with Jimmi’s help, was a big bust. Who knew how much illegal activity occurred on the internet? He was a cop and thought he knew the extent, but that had been wishful thinking.

  Given the chance, people could be downright depraved. The dark net was seven times larger than the usual internet everyone surfed. From bootlegged DVDs to pure heroin to child sex trafficking, the dark net was booming.

  Jimmi had found at least 267 sites selling pure heroin. And did you think that these companies would comply with a warrant for their customers’ names and purchase histories?

  No, just no.

  This killer had covered her tracks extremely well.

  Dear God, he hated to admit it, but this was one of those times when he would rely on Kent to make some totally outlandish, unfounded connection that broke the case.

  Too bad the profiler was dead.

  Nicole walked into the squad room looking even more disheveled than before. Her shoulders were down. She looked weary and worn out.

  Ruben rose as she crossed the bullpen to her desk across from him.

  “You look like you should go home,” Ruben commented.

  “Thanks, and you look like a beauty queen.”

  “There’s no reason for you to be here,” Ruben continued. He knew that Nicole hated it when he mother-henned her, but he couldn’t help himself.

  “We need to organize a stake-out,” Nicole said.

  “For what conceivable purpose?” Ruben countered.

  “Joshua did a geographical profile. He thinks he knows where Kent’s killer is going to strike next.”

  “Joshua came up with this?” Ruben asked, not hiding his skepticism. The morgue attendant had grown since teaming up with Kent, but this felt like a bit of a stretch.

  * * *

  “Kent had started it before he died and Joshua just finished it,” Nicole said, fumbling for an answer.

  Her partner grunted as he usually did with information from her husband. Strike that. Late husband.

  Damn it if Kent hadn’t been right. Not that she’d ever admit it to him, but actually carrying the grief that she thought he was dead was in fact easier than faking the fact that he was dead.

  She had to keep reminding herself to act all sad.

  “You okay?” Ruben asked.

  “Yes,” Nicole stated then realized her error. “No. I mean can we just get this over with?”

  Ruben sighed, indicating for her to go on.

  “There are only so many red light districts in town and Kent thinks,” Nicole caught her mistake. “Thought…” luckily Ruben gave her a sad, compassionate smile. A “Poor Nicole still struggling to accept her husband was dead” kind of grin.

  Yep, that was it.

  “Anyway, the killer has tried to keep a random pattern, but she is running out of areas to strike.” Nicole showed Ruben the map on her smart phone. “There are only two areas she hasn’t struck yet.”

  Ruben nodded. “So we are going to split the difference. You take one and I take the other?”

  Before Nicole could nod, Glick came out of his office. “You two. I need you at the Henderson meat factory.”

  “But I thought I wasn’t officially back on duty?” Nicole asked.

  “Trust me, once you get there, you’ll see why you are officially back on starting right now.”

  Nicole frowned. This was throwing a wrench in her extra-curricular activities. “I’m going to have to swing home and nurse the baby.”

  Glick nodded. “Meet Ruben there then.”

  * * *

  Death had been refreshing. To have no responsibilities? To be free of other human entanglements? Ah, just what Kent had needed.

  And twenty years ago, no make that even ten years ago, he probably would have stayed dead. Only to pop up on another continent to continue his work. There were plenty of other ports out there that would welcome his expertise.

  But now there was Nicole and their infant, Logan.

  It was like his heart was tied by a thousand small strands to his wife and child. Not even death could break them. As much time as he’d spent in the lab with Joshua, which had made the morgue attendant’s entire decade, Kent had spent more time at home, sneaking around the house, avoiding everyone. But he still needed to be near them.

  He’d held his baby boy, rocking him when he fussed, and Nicole was trying to nap. He had the pictures to prove it.

  Now that Nicole knew, actually made missing her worse. They were back together but apart, worse than when he had been “dead.”

  He ached for her. He tried not to. He tried to keep busy enough to not think of her, but the feeling stemmed from deep in his belly rather than his head.

  Human emotions were dumb he decided, not for the first time.

  So here he sat in Joshua’s lousy car wishing he could use Nicole’s Mustang. Alas not yet. Besides Joshua’s decades-old VW bug fit in this part of town. It was inconspicuous, being all rusty and dilapidated, just like the neighborhood. The Mustang would have stuck out in this alley.

  Instead, Kent needed to blend in. To have the local’s eyes scan right over the bug and past it without stopping to linger.

  It was getting on early evening. The sun was just setting on some billowing clouds, lighting up the east like a Laserium show.

  The working girls strolled out of scummy hotels, taking up their positions on their favored corners. Just like factory workers going to their stations.

  Kent glanced around. Nicole should have been here already. He was looking forward to having some one-on-one time with his wife, even if it was on a stakeout.

  Strange, he missed just being with her, when she actually knew he was alive.

  He flipped open some random morgue worker’s phone and dialed Nicole’s number.

  “Usher,” his wife answered then stumbled. “Harbinger. Oh, you know what I mean.”

  He smiled, his wife was having as much a hard time adjusting to their new life as he was. Somehow that made him feel better.

  “Nic, where are you?”

  “Look, Dad, I told you’ve I’ve got a new case,” Nicole explained. Okay, she must be with someone, most likely Ruben. And what kind of case would make Glick pull her off maternity leave? “Once I know how late I’ll be, I’ll call. I left breast milk in the fridge in case I can’t make it home in three hours.”

  “Nic, keep the phone on, I want to hear everything.”

  “Don’t make a peep,” his wife hissed.

  Oh, this should be fun.

  CHAPTER 9

  Of course, her husband wanted to listen in. He was quite the voyeur. Kent had been “alive” for a few hours and already he was being annoying.

  Nicole pretended to cut the call and put the phone in her pocket.

  Walking up to the crime scene, Nicole realized why Glick had asked her to investigate. The area around the meat factory was surrounded by patrol cars. The red and blue lights strobed against brick walls, illuminating the early evening. And the ambulances. There had to be at least a dozen. And at least three stations full of fire engines.

  What in the hell had happened here?

  The crime scene officer lifted the yellow and black tape, higher than normal to accommodate her still bloated body.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” he said, smiling.

  “Yes, a baby boy named Logan,” Nicole answered. Funny how children changed your life in a single stroke. She and Officer…, well she
didn’t know the officer’s name, had maybe said two words to each other for what, ten years? But now that she had a baby, they were best buddies.

  Weird.

  The officer handed her a surgical mask. “You’d better take one of these.”

  Nicole glanced down at the object, then to the officer. “Really? Just because I gave birth?”

  “No, because…” the officer indicated to the factory’s door.

  There were at the least ten men puking their guts out. Some were beat cops, others were detectives, plus a few firemen.

  The beat cops she could understand, but the firemen? They saw people burnt to a crisp.

  This must be bad.

  Nicole accepted the mask and headed over to the door, when Ruben burst out, gasping, holding his hands over his mouth.

  Her partner looked a paleish green. Ruben was not known for his weak stomach. She patted him on the back until he arched back, gulping large breaths of fresh air.

  “What’s going on?” Kent asked in her ear.

  “What happened?” Nicole asked Ruben.

  “Do. Not. Go. In. There,” Ruben stated, taking another large breath.

  Nicole knew exactly what Kent wanted to know, so she didn’t even bother waiting for him to ask her.

  “What’s in there?” she asked her partner.

  Ruben gulped several times, shaking his head, holding up a finger to stop any other question.

  “Wimp,” Kent grumbled in her ear.

  Nicole turned away from him to allow her partner to get it together and went over to an EMT who was leaning against the brick wall, tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t seem nauseated any longer.

  She flashed her badge. “What’s happened?”

  He, too, shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

  Okay, she was getting a little annoyed by this “it is too much for little ole you,” routine.

  Nicole took in a deep breath, put the mask over her face and headed to the door. The EMT grabbed her by the arm. “Seriously, just look at the pictures.”

  She pulled her arm out from the man’s grip. Kent would go in. So Nicole would go in. What did Kent always say? If you wanted to catch a serial killer, you needed to follow wherever the killer went.

  The door complained, creaking as she opened it. The interior was gloomy, punctuated with bright spots illuminated by crime scene lights.

  People moved between light and dark. A heavy fog stirred at their feet.

  Her feet hesitated. Just the smell was overwhelming. Even with the mask, she could smell the blood. It was sharp and made her nose cringe involuntarily. And if fear had an odor, it permeated the factory.

  “Well, what’s going on?”

  Nicole didn’t bother to answer her husband. Instead she walked forward to a wall of blue. Some of the uniforms were light blue, others were dark blue. A cluster of CSIs, EMTs and cops. They formed a wall in front of the crime scene.

  Nicole inched her way through the bodies. She caught a glimpse of what was beyond them.

  Even the briefest glimpse could fill her with nightmares for years.

  Human bodies were laid on the stainless steel tables, hands, feet, heads had been shoved into the meat grinders. Pulverized people had spewed out of the metal blades. She turned sharply away. Too sharply, teetering, nearly falling over.

  Then Ruben’s arms were around her. Holding her up. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  * * *

  Ruben wished that Nicole had heeded his warning. He’d never been a huge believer in that saying “There are some things you can never unsee.” Usually the term was used as a joke.

  But here, now, it was a reality. He would never be able to unsee what he had seen in this meat factory. He only prayed to God that Nicole didn’t see the child at the end.

  He helped her out of the building as she retched, holding her belly and wiping her mouth with the facemask.

  “How did no one interrupt him?” Nicole asked.

  “The factory has been abandoned for a few months. The techs say the killer brought in a gas generator to fuel the machines…” Ruben really couldn’t say more without retching himself.

  He could only imagine what the noise had been like. How the victims must have felt waiting their turn. The assistant ME had already determined that each victim had been alive when the process had started.

  Again, Ruben had to turn away from Nicole, as nausea rolled over him.

  She was struggling enough, he didn’t need to add to her distress. Joshua came out of the factory. With a jaunt in his step? The morgue attendant truly was from another planet.

  “Oh great, you guys are here,” Joshua said, cocking his head like he didn’t understand why the two detectives were green in the face. “You guys okay?”

  “We will be when we know who did this,” Nicole said, standing up straighter.

  Joshua nodded, typing on his tablet. “That should be pretty easy. The guy left fingerprints everywhere along with DNA. Give me a few and I should have the ID of our perp.”

  Could it really be this easy?

  “This… this doesn’t make sense…” Joshua murmured as he typed faster and faster.

  “What doesn’t?” Nicole asked.

  “The prints…the DNA is coming up…”

  “Joshua!” Nicole barked. She seemed back to herself already.

  “The DNA and prints belong to Ruben…Detective Torres.”

  * * *

  Ruben took a step back from Nicole as if he had been punched in the gut.

  “What?” he asked, although the question seemed directed at the universe, rather than anyone in particular.

  “Oh, ho, ho,” Kent laughed in Nicole’s ear. “Finally, Ruben let his hair down.”

  And given the situation, Nicole couldn’t even chide her husband. He was taking far too much glee in the circumstance.

  “When was the TOD?” Nicole asked.

  “They are looking at late last night. The bodies could have stayed there for weeks to months, but some kids like to skateboard in there and found them this evening.”

  Nicole turned to Ruben. “Where were you last night when you weren’t with me? Did you go home to Paggie?”

  “You can’t honestly believe I would do this?” Ruben asked.

  “Of course not,” Nicole shot back. “But the sooner we rule you out, especially before the press gets a hold of this, the better. Now, where were you?”

  “I…I…I worked on the case.”

  “At the precinct?” Nicole asked.

  “No. A small diner downtown. And no, they don’t have security cameras.”

  Nicole frowned. Taped proof would be best, but she’d take an eye-witness account. “But the waitress would recognize you, right?”

  “I’m not sure. I was in the back nursing a cup of coffee and muffin for most of the night.”

  “Do you remember the waitress’s name?” Nicole asked.

  Ruben shrugged. “She was a new girl. Katie or Ashley?”

  So much for him being a seasoned detective. But then again, last night Ruben didn’t realize that he needed an alibi for mass murder.

  “Slap the cuffs on him,” Kent suggested rather forcefully.

  Nicole put a hand up. “Don’t talk to anyone Ruben. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Ruben seemed so dazed, he nodded and didn’t even ask her where she was going.

  She turned to Joshua. “I need you to hold back this info until I come back.”

  “Sure, whatever you want,” Joshua said, shrugging casually. For once, the morgue attendant’s nonchalance at the horror of their job worked in her favor.

  Her mind spun. Ruben clearly hadn’t done the audacities in that factory, but someone was doing a rather good job of framing him. Who was sick enough to commit those horrible crimes, yet smart enough to set up a cop for them?

  She feared she might have the answer to one half of that question.

  Hurrying to her car, Nicole made sure that n
o one could hear her. She spoke to Kent. “Did you do this?”

  “What? Stuff a bunch of people into meat grinders? Um, let me think about it. No.”

  “No. I was talking about setting Ruben up.”

  “While that does sound ever so tempting,” Kent said, “I have been too busy with my own serial killer to mess with Ruben.”

  “Kent…”

  Her husband sounded insulted by her questions. “I said, I didn’t do it.”

  “And your honesty is a little circumspect at the moment,” Nicole replied.

  “One little fake death and you get all hyped up,” Kent responded.

  “Kent…”

  CHAPTER 10

  Okay, maybe it was too soon to joke about the whole fake death thing.

  “Look, you know I’m far too lazy to take a prank this far. I would have had to find the crime scene, one I’m not looking for, plant all of Ruben’s fake everything, then tip off the department. Does that sound like me?”

  There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  “Nic, trust me, if I were tugging Ruben’s chain, I would be crowing about it,” Kent explained. His wife really should know him better than this. “I. Did. Not. Do. This.”

  “Fine,” Nicole said. “Meet me at the house in two hours so we can spend some time with Logan together.”

  Oh, he knew his wife’s many moods. If he didn’t make this little rendezvous, there would be hell to pay. Probably more than if he had framed Ruben.

  He wondered vaguely who would gain the most if Ruben was framed, and unfortunately, realized that it was him. He didn’t have the time or interest quite frankly to dig any deeper into the conundrum. Ruben would just have to dig himself out of this one himself, which meant it would probably take a while.

  Kent would probably have time to solve his case then loop back around to Ruben’s problem before the guy dug himself out even a foot of the hole he’d fallen into.

  Glancing to his watch, Kent realized that he didn’t have much time to get to his serial killer’s hunting ground for a few hours before he met up with Nicole.

  Tonight felt like a good night to catch a murderer.