“He did,” Nicole said with a frown.
“Well, your father is asking when you might be coming home. Apparently Logan is fussy tonight.”
Nicole took Ruben’s phone and read the text.
“If Kent isn’t home, then where is he?” Nicole asked.
That was the question of the moment, wasn’t it?
CHAPTER 14
Kent sat in the waiting area at the prison. The guards kept glancing over at him. It probably was strange for them. Seeing an inmate in the law enforcement entrance.
Yep, suckers. You probably should have been nicer to me.
“Mr. Harbinger?” a guard asked tentatively.
“That would be Special Agent Harbinger,” Kent replied even though he technically wasn’t a Special Agent anymore. He just wanted to rub it in.
“Sorry, Special Agent,” the guard stammered. “You can come this way.”
Kent followed the guard to the interview area. At this time of night, it was empty. His heels clicked on the dull tile floor. He sat down on one side, awaiting the prisoner to be delivered to him.
He tried to imagine how pissed Nicole would be once she found out what he was up to. Oh, he could see the fire in her eyes. Her jaw clenched, trying not to say things she might regret in the morning. Thinking of their child and how he needed his father.
But that was for later. Right now he just needed to get done what he needed to get done.
Everyone at the club thought it was over. He could tell by the relieved grins. The sighs they thought no one saw. But it wasn’t over. It wasn’t over at all. Not with Martin alive.
He would simply stir up another cult, then another. The man was ambitious, Kent had to give him that. And charismatic in an odd little way. Enough to convince weak-willed individuals to do his bidding. As long as Martin lived, the killing would continue.
Kent couldn’t allow that to happen.
The bars rattled as they opened.
Kent turned to watch an old black man, Reggie, the librarian trustee shuffle into the room. His wrists and ankles shackled.
Rising, Kent smiled. “Reggie. I’m going to need a favor.”
* * *
Joshua turned sharply at the sound of his name. He knew that voice. He loved that voice. It wasn’t Kent’s, but it was close. Nicole.
“Yes?” he said watching as she and Ruben trotted over to Joshua. And Jimmi, of course Jimmi was right next to him, trying to explain to ATF how they blew the ceiling. Some of that information was propriety, but the agents were kind of persistent.
“Where’s Kent?” Nicole asked.
Joshua shrugged, tossing a glance around the place. “I thought he was with you?”
Nicole shook her head. “He said he was going home, but never arrived there.”
Fear shot through Joshua’s core. Kent was missing.
“Do you think… Do you think…?”
“No, I don’t think anything bad has happened to him…yet,” Nicole responded. “I’m afraid of what he might do.”
Joshua cocked his head. What would Kent do at this point? They had killed or apprehended all of the Downers. This case was nice and buttoned up.
“Do you still have live feed of the prison?” Nicole asked.
Joshua stepped back. She couldn’t mean what she was saying. That Kent had gone back to the prison? To take on Martin? No, no, no.
“I need my laptop,” Joshua stated, indicating to the not-so-friendly ATF agent.
The man pulled the Lilo & Stitch laptop case away from Joshua.
“Give it over,” Nicole growled, glaring the guy down.
It worked. The agent handed the case over. Joshua spun Stitch’s nose to open the bag and pulled out his laptop.
He quickly cued the hack of the prison’s security system. There was something wrong, very wrong.
“Well?” Nicole demanded, giving him the same eye she’d given the ATF agent. It was not pleasant.
Joshua spun the laptop around to show a screen of static. “Somehow he’s disabled all the cameras…”
* * *
Fury burned through Nicole. That and fear, and perhaps a touch of admiration. Leave it to Kent to cover his tracks so well.
She turned to Ruben who had been on the phone with the prison.
“Kent checked in about a half an hour ago and requested to see a prisoner.”
“Martin?” Nicole asked.
Ruben shook his head. “No, some library trustee.”
Joshua’s head bobbed up and down like he was a bobble head doll. “That trustee helped Martin get coded messages out through the books.”
Nicole made a circling motion with her hand to hurry Ruben up. “And?”
Her partner, however, seemed very reluctant to answer. “And… And well, there was no one in the visitor’s area.”
“What does that mean?” Nicole pretty much knew what that meant, but she wanted for someone to say it out loud.
“Kent and the trustee are loose in the prison.”
Nicole gulped. It was more socially appropriate than screaming from the bottom of her lungs. Kent. What the hell do you think you are doing?
She pointed to Joshua. “You two try and get some feed. Something.”
Spinning on her heel, Nicole headed to the exit. Two Homeland Security agents tried to block her way. “We haven’t finished debriefing you.”
Taking a page out of her husband’s book, she simply blew past them. Determination usually overrode bureaucracy. No one drew their weapon or followed.
Ruben was right on her heel. He might be leaving for Houston, but he was going to see this case through.
They loaded into the Mustang, then had to snake their way through the myriad of emergency response vehicles. It took a good five minutes just to get a block up the street and there was no avoiding it. Or was there?
Screw it.
Nicole drove up onto the sidewalk and sped down the passage.
She had to get to the prison, because who knew what Kent was up to.
* * *
Kent waited in the dimly lit infirmary. He thought it was the most apropos location for this showdown.
Martin walked in the door. Strutting like the cock of the walk.
“I figured it was you,” Martin said.
“Your little kindergarten group has been captured or killed,” Kent explained.
That brought a smile to the serial killer’s face like a proud papa. “I’m surprised they lasted this long, to be honest.”
“And my friends are safe.”
Martin’s smile only deepened. “Can’t win them all.”
“You know why you are here?” Kent asked.
“I can only assume you wish to vent your vengeance upon me.”
It was Kent’s turn to smile. “Something like that.”
“You kill me here, in cold blood?” Martin queried. “You will really be in jail.”
The two circled one another. Martin somehow thought he had the upper hand. He was so used to being the smartest person in the room that the serial killer had forgotten how to think like a victim.
“Oh, it won’t be in cold blood,” Kent replied. He pulled out a knife.
Martin’s eyes narrowed as he backed away a step.
Kent tossed the blade to Martin.
“Your death will be in self-defense. As always.”
Martin caught the knife mid-air. “You do realize at some point that excuse really will wear thin.”
“Yes, but not in time to save you.”
Kent made his way around one of the infirmary beds. Martin did the same in reverse order, as they circled one another.
Martin’s smile returned. “You think you have this all worked out, don’t you?”
“Pretty much.”
Martin lifted the knife up by the hilt, then dropped it to the floor. “Now what are you going to do?”
Kent chuckled. “Kill you.”
* * *
Ruben had a hand on the dash, trying to ke
ep himself from slamming into the door or the gearshift. Nicole always drove like an Earnhardt on speed. But tonight? Tonight with her husband lost in a prison with a vicious serial killer?
She was a maniac. There was no other way to describe it. Once they’d gotten out of the crime scene neighborhood, Ruben didn’t think that she had let the Mustang dip under a hundred miles per hour, and that included turns.
Forget serial killers, Ruben was going to die via vehicular manslaughter.
The prison grew in the distance. Bright shiny lights on the horizon.
Kent just couldn’t let things go. He had to dive back into danger, just as he’d gotten out of it. The profiler was glutton for punishment that was for sure. Who broke into a prison?
Martin was already incarcerated. The man was neutralized. He’d be put into solitary with no privileges. He could never lead a cult like the Downers again. Yet that didn’t satisfy Kent apparently. He had to go in for the kill.
“Come on, come on,” Nicole urged the Mustang, but it felt like the car was already giving her every last bit of horsepower that it had under that hood.
Finally, they arrived at the prison parking lot.
Nicole was out of the car and charging toward the entrance faster than Ruben could get his safety belt unhooked. Or was there another reason he wasn’t quite so gung ho. Maybe this once, Kent would get what was coming to him. He’d brought this on himself. Not like before when he was getting beat down by the guards.
If he lured Martin into a fight, shouldn’t he have to finish it?
Then Nicole looked back at him, waving him in.
Ugh. There was no denying his partner.
Time to saddle up as the cavalry.
* * *
Kent closed the distance. “Dude, I will take you, armed or not.”
“Where would your self-defense claim be then?”
Kent narrowed his eyelids. “You don’t think I won’t pick up your blade and cut the crap out of myself to substantiate my claims? And that knife has your prints on it.”
Martin clearly hadn’t thought that one through. His eyes now darted nervously between the blade on the tile floor and Kent.
“Thanks for making it that much easier,” Kent said, false charging Martin.
The serial killer hopped backwards, far more skittish than he probably would have liked.
“Do you know what I had to give the prisoners and guards for arranging this?”
Martin seemed a little preoccupied to answer, his eyes now lingering on the blade.
“Nothing,” Kent answered without prompting. It got Martin’s attention.
“Nothing?”
“Well, nothing so crass as money. Nope. They just wanted one thing and one thing only,” Kent explained.
Martin glanced up. “Which was?”
“My promise that I would kill you. That’s all.”
Martin’s mouth tightened. He was trying very hard to hide his anxiety, but in front of Kent, Martin’s fear might as well have been doing a jig. Even over all of the antiseptic products, Kent could smell Martin’s fear. He reeked of it.
Good.
Kent took a loud step forward. Martin jumped a good two feet.
Kent knew this was going to be satisfying. He, however, had grossly underestimated how much fun it was going to be.
* * *
Ruben stepped between Nicole and the guard. Things had gotten a little heated.
“My husband can walk in here and commandeer the entire prison, but I can’t go look for him?”
The guard pointed to the staticky screens. “What I am telling you, detective, is that without the cameras up and operational, we are on complete lockdown. No one in or out.”
That sounded perfectly logical to Ruben, but Nicole’s cheeks were flushed an unhealthy burgundy.
“And what I am telling you, is that my husband has come here to kill someone. But don’t worry, he’ll shimmy out from under those charges. Anyone that helped will be slapped with an accessory. Guess what? There goes your pension.”
His partner certainly did know a prison guard’s weakness. Most of them had taken the job for the benefits and guaranteed pension. They wanted to help Kent, but not that much.
“You will have a two guard escort --” the guard tried to say, but was cut off by Ruben’s partner.
“We can find our way, we’ve already been there once.”
The guard’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened, then closed. Clearly the man wanted to argue, but he certainly didn’t want to argue with Nicole. Not in her mood. Not with those flaming red cheeks.
A buzz sounded.
The sound of Nicole’s victory as the door across the room unlocked.
The only thanks Nicole gave was a slight nod as they moved across the room to the inner door.
Ruben flashed a sympathetic smile to the guard. He’d done the best that he could. There was no shame in losing to Nicole when she went all Momma-bear on you. As a matter of fact, the guard should feel lucky he walked away with only injury to his ego.
As they moved through the prison hallways, Nicole certainly had a better sense of direction than Ruben. Sure he’d been there, but it was only once and someone else was leading them. Nicole had memorized the path down to every turn. Of course, the occasional sign stating “laundry” didn’t hurt either.
Here they were going after Kent, who was going after a serial killer.
At the least his last case would give him a full Harbinger experience. It would be enough to last a lifetime.
* * *
Oh, how Martin was ogling that knife with a little more desire than before.
“Seriously, you thought I wouldn’t kill you unarmed?” Kent snorted. For a serial killer, Martin wasn’t a very imaginative thinker. “I mean, I was counting on our knife duel as my exercise for the day, however, I can always go beat up some gang-bangers if need be.”
Martin simply murmured some vague response. He really wasn’t listening to Kent’s words anymore. He’d developed a fascination with the blade on the floor. This was simply too pathetic.
While a quick dispatch might be efficient, it certainly wasn’t going to give Kent the satisfaction he was looking for.
“Have it,” Kent sighed, kicking the knife across the dull tile floor to Martin.
The man was quick about picking it up this time. Kent continued his circling. Martin, a little more sure-footed, followed suit.
Cat and mouse. More like lion and mouse, but Kent understood the metaphor.
“You really are all shades of pathetic,” Kent stated. He needed to get Martin riled up.
The serial killer narrowed his eyelids, tilting his head to the side. “You really are as much of a prick as everyone says.”
“So glad to live up to the hype,” Kent said, sizing up the way Martin held the blade. You could tell so much about a person by their pre-fight stance.
“Not exactly,” Martin sneered. “I think you are starting to believe your own press.”
“Really? How so?”
Martin pushed a surgery tray out of his way. “How long do you think the ‘self-defense’ ruse will work? Landed you in jail this time.”
“Not really. DA ruled it self-defense. I came in here for you.”
The serial killer’s eyebrow went up. “So the fight in the kitchen was staged?”
“Well, not exactly staged, but I lured them there, yes.”
Martin’s eyebrow went down as he processed that information. Did the guy think Kent just showed up at his cell all willy-nilly? The serial killer had figured out Kent was there to pump him for information, but didn’t realize the entire thing was a set up?
Poor Martin. It must be hell to start losing your game.
CHAPTER 15
Joshua was more afraid now than when he was in the hands of the Downers. Because it was just he and Jimmi’s life on the line. Joshua hoped that many would miss them, but if the world lost the two techs, it could keep going on.
Without Kent, no, just no. The world truly wouldn’t be the same.
And here Kent ran full-on into danger, again. It wasn’t enough he saved Joshua and Jimmi or all those others at the club. Nope, Kent had to go be a savior and take care of Martin.
Okay, some wouldn’t see that action as saintly, but Joshua and most others in the squad did. Martin had formed a cult from inside prison. He would do it again. It had been proved over and over again that serial killers could not be rehabilitated. Forget it. Game over.
And Kent wasn’t about to let Martin get away with it. What would the prison do? Take away Martin’s Jell-O privileges?
No, Kent was going to take away the serial killer’s breathing privileges. Make sure this travesty never happened again. And what were Jimmi and Joshua doing? Nothing. Without the camera feed, they couldn’t tell what was happening inside that prison. Not at all.
They didn’t even know if Nicole and Ruben had arrived safely.
At the least he and Jimmi were back in their lab, finally released from the endless cycle of questioning at the club. Glick had sprung them.
They all knew why, but it wasn’t stated.
And now that they were out, they were being no help at all.
“Wait,” Jimmi said, holding up a hand for emphasis. Joshua would have to copy that move some time in the future. “How did Kent hack the prison cameras?”
Joshua’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. How did the profiler manage it? The guy was amazing, but tech skills? Not so much.
“He must have paid a guard or something,” Joshua replied.
“If a guard did it, a guard can undo it a lot faster than us poking around from the outside,” Jimmi said.
“So we just have to figure out which one,” Joshua answered, getting stoked once again.
* * *
Nicole nearly ran straight into the wall. Another dead end. She’d been so certain. She’d mapped it out in her mind, plus the occasional sign. They should be at the laundry room by now.
“Maybe we should go back to the guard station…if we can find it,” Ruben suggested.
“Quitters don’t get a say,” Nicole fired back, immediately regretting it. Kent you could verbally spar with. Ruben took every word that came out of her mouth seriously. Why was that such a bad thing? Nicole didn’t know, but right now with Ruben’s hurt frown staring back at her, it was.
2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series: The continuation of the #1 Hard-boiled/Police Procedural smash Plain Jane Page 32