“What would the fun in that be?”
Oh God, this wasn’t going to go well.
Debbie Downer – the 2nd book of the 2nd cycle of the Harbinger series
CHAPTER 1
Orange was not a good color for Kent. No matter what anyone said the color was not the new black. Welcome to his world.
His steel restraints jangled as a siren went off and a red light flashed over and over again. The thick bars slid to the right, leaving an opening. A guard shoved Kent from the back.
Stumbling forward, his ankle chains prevented him from moving more than a few inches at a time. There was no reason for the ankle shackles. Because really when was the last time a prisoner kicked his way out of a maximum-security facility?
No, they did it to show you exactly how screwed you were. You were nothing now. Not even worthy of walking a full foot at a time.
Oh well.
You win some. You lose some. Or a lot of them.
Kent hadn’t been surprised when the judge ordered that he be remanded until trial. He was accused of murder after all. Murder One as a matter of fact. Premeditated murder. Remand was the usual decision in such a case.
Nicole however had been shocked, angry, in denial, argumentative, pissed, crying, generally disagreeable. She’d begged for a high bail, anklet monitoring, anything, but the judge had declined.
Which again hadn’t surprised Kent. After all he had just terminally embarrassed another judge and possibly brought Judge Makio’s career to a screeching halt. Word travelled fast in those hallowed courtroom halls. And judges tended to stick together.
Hence the orange.
Kent shuffled past row after row of cells. The jeering, catcalls and cursing were truly impressive. He was glad to have such a rambunctious welcome. Clearly it had been leaked that he was law enforcement.
It was like feeding candy to the criminal children.
“Are you sure you don’t want to be moved to protective custody?” Guard Levinson asked.
The man wasn’t really concerned for Kent’s safety. The guy just didn’t want to have to clean up the nasty mess that he felt was sure to be left by Kent’s murderers.
“Nah,” Kent said. “I like a challenge.”
“Your life,” Levinson said as he unlocked Kent’s chains. The bars in front of them opened. “Step inside then turn to me so we can shut the door.”
Kent did as instructed and the iron bars slammed shut as the other prisoners’ taunts filled the air.
Maybe this was going to be a bit more challenging then Kent had first anticipated.
* * *
Nicole walked through the bullpen, angling toward Glick’s office.
Ruben came in from the other direction. “Nikki.”
“Don’t, just don’t,” Nicole said pointing an accusing finger at her partner. No make that ex-partner.
“Can we just --”
Nicole clenched her teeth. She just wanted to punch Ruben’s face. He really expected her to forgive him for putting her husband, her recently alive again husband, in prison? It was like Ruben was killing him all over again.
“Don’t ever talk to me,” Nicole said as she knocked on Glick’s door.
“Come in,” her captain responded.
She was able to duck into Glick’s office and close the door behind her before Ruben got to her.
Rat bastard.
Taking a deep breath, Nicole turned to Glick. “Captain…”
Glick looked up from some paper work. “No.” Her captain then went back to work.
“I didn’t even say what I wanted,” Nicole said, sitting down in front of her captain.
“You want a transfer or exchange of partners or time off or some such nonsense.”
Okay, usually she found her captain to be fair and honest and understanding. Right now she kind of wanted to punch him too.
“You cannot expect me to work with Torres,” Nicole said, using Ruben’s last name. She didn’t want to speak his first name ever again.
“He’s grieving, Nicole,” Glick said, removing his reading glasses. “You’ve got to give him a break.”
“A break?” Nicole knew that her tone was going up. Really high up, but she didn’t care. “A break?”
“Yes,” Glick answered calmly. “You know, the kind he gave you when you put him through the ringer with Kent.”
Nicole knew that her cheeks were blotchy red. That the tips of her ears were red hot. Anger flowed through her veins. If Glick hadn’t been her captain, she would have unleashed the full extent of her rage at him. But he was her captain and, ultimately, she would like to keep her job.
“He put Kent in prison,” Nicole hissed.
“No, my dear, Kent put himself in prison when he killed Paggie once she was unarmed.”
“Kent saved Ruben,” Nicole retorted, then realized she’d called her partner by his first name. Damn it.
“Tomato. Tomahto,” Glick replied. “If Kent is truly innocent, a trial will prove it.”
Nicole tried to get her thoughts together because right now all she could think of were curse words, which would not help her cause at all.
She gulped, forcing down the anger. “Kent is remanded. For months, Captain. He is in essence already serving a sentence he has not been tried for.”
Glick shrugged. “That is our criminal justice system, Nicole. You can petition for bail, but other than that, you have a job to do. You are due to come off maternity leave tomorrow aren’t you?”
“With Kent in prison, I was hoping to take some vacation time.”
“Sorry, we’re shorthanded. I need you on deck tomorrow.”
Nicole tried very hard to hold her temper in check. “With a new partner at the least?”
“No,” Glick said, yet again. Did he want her to reach across the desk and yank him up out of his chair?
“But --”
“No,” Glick repeated. “Take it or move to another town and apply for a job there.”
Why was Glick being such a dick? She’d always considered him to be her rabbi. A mentor. Now he was just being a prick.
“I might just do that,” Nicole said as she rose.
“You know the paperwork you need to fill out to quit,” Glick said, going back to whatever was so fascinating on his desk.
Really? After all these years Glick was just going to abandon her?
One leg of her chair had already been kicked out and now Glick kicked out the second.
How could she work with Ruben?
After what he’d done to her family?
“In case you missed it,” Glick said. “You’ve been dismissed.”
Bastard.
She turned and left her captain’s office.
The bull room tried to pretend that they hadn’t been craning to listen to each and every word that had been spoken.
Ruben tried to walk up to her, but she pointed her index finger, warning him away.
Nicole took a nice long look around the room. This might be the last time she was here.
* * *
A sound alerted Kent that someone else was in this humble six by nine abode. His cellmate.
If he thought Joshua was scrawny, his cellmate made the morgue attendant look like Conan the Barbarian. Kent chuckled. He’d have to remember that one and tell Joshua about it. The kid would get a kick out of it.
“I’m… I’m…” the man said holding out his hand. “I’m Lyle Shoemaker.”
Kent took the hand and shook it. “Nice to make your acquaintance, Lyle. I am…” He decided to drop the special agent. “Kent Harbinger.”
“Oh, we all know who you are,” Lyle said, withdrawing his hand then chewing on his thumbnail. “Everybody.”
Great. Perfect. Kent had hoped for maybe a few days to settle into the routine before he had to start fighting off the inevitable inmates who wanted to make their bones by killing him.
“Which bunk is yours?” Kent asked.
Lyle’s eyes got big. “Neither. Eith
er. It’s your choice.”
Kent’s new roommate was certainly a bit squirrely.
“I’ll have top bunk if that is okay,” Kent said. In truth he feared Lyle was a little gassy and didn’t want to be within range all night.
“Yah, sure, of course. I love the lower bunk.”
An alarm went off.
“Lock down,” Lyle informed Kent, but he’d kind of figured that out already. Processing had taken way longer than Kent had anticipated.
So, this was going to be his first night in prison. At least that gave him a few hours before the gang gauntlet he’d have to pass through at breakfast.
“All right then,” Kent said, climbing up onto the top bunk. “See you in the morning.”
“Sure, sure,” Lyle said giggling.
“Something funny?” Kent asked.
Lyle shook his head, using his fingers to close his lips, yet still strangely was still giggling.
Then a piece of paper slid into their cell. Kent cautiously approached the paper as if it might bite him.
Carefully he unfolded the note.
“U. Dye. 2marow.”
Ah, such literary flare.
Kent whispered into the still air. “Bring it.”
* * *
Joshua sipped his Jolt cola. He’d learned his lesson not to chug that stuff. It usually landed you in the ER with a heart arrhythmia. So Joshua nursed his full-caffeine, full-sugar cola.
Kent would be proud.
God, he missed the profiler.
Joshua glanced up at the clock he had set up. It had been seven hours, twelve minutes, and thirty three seconds since Kent had been taken from them.
Last time Joshua had known Kent was okay. He’d had the profiler nearly to himself. Now? Now Kent was in prison and who knew how long until he would see his friend again. Joshua had already put a couple hundred bucks on Kent’s prison books. He didn’t want the profiler to go a minute with any want.
Well, then there was the selfish reason that he wanted Kent to have money enough to send emails. Okay, so Nicole would probably be the profiler’s first contact, but Joshua would bet his life-savings he would be next.
He had his email server on an every five-minute refresh, but even that felt like too long. Joshua knew that lock down had occurred, he was streaming the prison’s official feed, but still he couldn’t help but glance to his inbox every few seconds.
There was an ache he’d never felt before. It was just under his rib cage on the left. Or maybe that was just the fried Snickers he’d eaten earlier. One of the guys had gone to the county fair and brought back a bunch of food.
Ugh. Was he missing Kent a whole heck of a lot or was he having a gall bladder attack? Either way it hurt.
The door opened behind him.
Half-expecting it to be Dr. McGregor, Joshua didn’t turn around right away.
“Do you mind some company?” Nicole asked. She was carrying little Logan.
Joshua nearly fell off his stool. “Um, sure. Yes. Of course…Why?”
Nicole smiled. “I figured I didn’t want to spend the night alone and neither would you. Plus, Dad already needs a night off.”
“Right. Yes,” Joshua mumbled as he pulled a real chair over, shoving all the papers off of it. Nicole’s dad had flown in to help with the baby while Kent had his “legal” issues.
Sure Kent was in prison, but having Nicole here? That nearly made up for it.
CHAPTER 2
Ruben pulled up to the Cowboy Bar & Grill. The area glowed an unnatural white. The moonless night was pitch dark so the place stood garish in the darkness.
Despite the establishment’s name, he usually found these places were usually more bar than grill.
There were already a cluster of emergency response vehicles. Ruben was a little late to the party. Mainly because this crime wasn’t in his jurisdiction. The Sheriff of this little town had asked Glick for assistance.
Ruben was catching the new cases. Actually it should have been he and Nicole, but apparently she would rather quit than work with him. Not that he blamed her really. If their situation were reversed he would probably feel the same.
Did he really want to rehash all his decisions or was he just stalling? He’d heard the crime scene was gruesome and he’d kind of had enough gruesome for a while.
The Sheriff though must have recognized that Ruben wasn’t from around these parts and came over shoving his hand out in welcome.
“Sheriff Holland. And you are detective Ruben Torres, I expect?”
Ruben nodded and shook the Sheriff’s hand.
“I have to warn you, it’s as bad as it was reported,” Holland said.
“Let’s get it over with,” Ruben responded and headed to the bar’s front door.
There was a steady stream of EMTs, CSIs and MEs going in and out the door.
From the outside the place looked all country. The inside should have had sawdust on the floor with peanut shells mixed in just for the authenticity. Deer antlers on the wall and a mangy looking stuffed bobcat over the bar.
There used to be a mechanical bull in the corner which was gone, just gone. The lassos were no longer visible on the walls. Instead the entire interior was covered in crosses.
The poor people who had shown up for Shawresse’s country line dancing class were all positioned on their knees, their hands sewn to Bibles. Their heads were not just bent in reverence, the ligaments in their necks had been cut so that their heads were permanently bowed.
Sure, Ruben had seen far more horrific scenes, but there was something utterly disturbing about this scene that blood and gore just couldn’t create.
“Yes, this is the Debbie Downer killers.”
“Ya think?” a voice scolded from behind Ruben. He would know that voice anywhere.
Nicole.
* * *
Ruben was about to open his mouth, but Nicole raised a finger. “Don’t.”
The sheriff looked between them but clearly decided not to get into the middle of whatever was going on. A wise man. Probably a married one.
“You are going to find all the women were raped before being staged. The men have been sodomized as well.”
Ruben spoke up. “You are going to find at least five different male contributions and three females’ saliva.”
The sheriff rested his hands on his utility belt. “This is the fourth case right?”
Nicole nodded. “They have been spread out. At least months between the cases, and in the instance between case two and three, nearly a year.”
“So this is a cult?” the sheriff asked as he escorted them out of the bar.
“It must be. To have this many unsubs working together, there has to be a charismatic leader,” Nicole replied. “We’ve been working that angle since the first case.”
The sheriff looked around. “I thought an FBI profiler was working with you.”
“He is,” Nicole reassured him, then coughed through her discomfort. “He just isn’t available today.”
She glared at her partner. Ruben knew why. If any people died because Kent was behind bars, she’d make sure Ruben paid for it.
“It’s not just me, right?” the sheriff asked. “The Debbie Downers are really out there?”
Nicole nodded. “This is a case of serial mass murders. Usually MMs are work place revenge, school shootings, isolated events where either the perp dies by cop, is taken into custody, or goes on the run. To have the perps stay in the general area and keep killing in the same manner is practically unheard of.”
“So, what do we do next?” the sheriff asked.
Unfortunately, Nicole had no good idea.
* * *
Kent heard a stirring. Normally he wouldn’t be worried, but normally he wasn’t in a maximum-security prison.
“Lyle?” Kent whispered into the dark.
“I’m coming,” his cellmate said.
Unfortunately, swinging his leg over the side of the bed. Unfortunately, because his cellmate
was completely nude. Kent really didn’t need to see that.
“What are you doing?” Kent asked, sitting up in bed.
“I’m yours,” Lyle explained. “We might as well get this over with.”
Kent scooted as far back into the corner as he could, giving Lyle room to sit on his cot. Cross-legged. Seriously?
“Lyle this really isn’t necessary,” Kent implored, pulling the blanket up to his chin.
“I’ve found it is easier to volunteer than wait to be demanded.”
“Yes, I understand,” Kent stated regulating his breathing. Lyle was no danger. He was just a poor guy in an awful situation. “But I really am not interested. I’m straight.”
“So was just about everyone here,” Lyle explained. “But prison changes you.”
Kent chuckled feeling more himself. This was going to make a great story. Let Nicole know he had other options.
“I’ve been in here a sum total of eleven hours, Lyle, I think I’m good.”
Lyle frowned. “You sure? I’ll make it real sexy.”
“I am sure you would,” Kent responded. “And I’ll make you a deal. If I feel myself wanting to switch hit, you will be my first playmate.”
Lyle’s face lit up. “Really?”
Kent realized exactly how jealous Joshua would be if he actually ever lived up to the deal. Oh well. This was prison. Joshua would understand.
“Yes, Lyle, I promise.”
“Wow… Thanks.”
“No worries… Now…”
Kent indicated it was time for Lyle to go back to his bunk.
“You sure you don’t want to just spoon?” Lyle asked.
“I’m sure.”
* * *
Joshua was at the bargaining stage of his grief. If only he’d been a better morgue attendant or friend or assassin, Kent wouldn’t be in jail right now.
He really missed the profiler. So much so that Joshua was monitoring Ruben and Nicole’s new case. You know, just for fun.
And he noticed something. Something potentially important.
His finger hovered over his speed dials. Kent was number one, of course. Followed by Nicole, then Ruben, then Jimmi. With Kent out of the picture whom should he call with this information?
He was pretty dang mad at Ruben. So, he guessed Nicole.
2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series: The continuation of the #1 Hard-boiled/Police Procedural smash Plain Jane Page 21