Nursery Rhyme Murders Collection_3-4-2017

by McCray, Carolyn

  “Oh, no. No. We can’t have that,” Bailey said, and waved something pungent under Reggie’s nose.

  Smelling salts.

  Instantly, Reggie was wide awake once more.

  “You know what?” Bailey asked, grinning at her. “Your team has probably figured it out by now. They know they’re looking for me. And I did what I could to make the pathway lead right here.”

  Bailey kept speaking, her voice becoming a drone in the background. “It’s all about sacrifices. What are you willing to sacrifice for what you want? My brother’s paid his. Now it’s my turn.”

  Her face clouded over.

  “It was all part of the plan, but I had never agreed to it. I wanted for us to finish together. A blaze of glory. Taking Joshua Wright with us.”

  Her face contorted, and for a moment it appeared she might cry. But then she wrenched herself back under control.

  “It’s fine,” she muttered to herself. “Him watching as you die. As the rest of his team dies. That will serve. But not him. Not yet. He’s Humpty’s.”

  The woman had lost it. Whatever veneer she had placed over her actions to blend in had been ripped away. Probably with her brother’s death.

  Maybe Reggie could use this.

  “Why Joshua?”

  Bailey stopped, staring right at Reggie. It was like she had gone to a different place and Reggie’s voice had brought her back.

  “Maybe Joshua put away a lot of people in his day. And maybe Joshua didn’t always get it right. And maybe one of the men Joshua put away ended up getting stabbed in prison and never coming home to his kids.”

  Up to this point, the pain had kept her from focusing on anything else. But even though the pain was still there… terribly present, in fact… there was a part of her that was getting used to it.

  Her arms were bound behind her with zip ties. Not nearly as easy to break out of as they had been when they were in front of her. Her ankles were bound to the legs of the chair, which were bolted into the ground.

  The light was low to the point of being nonexistent, but Reggie’s eyes had adjusted so that she could make out Bailey’s form passing to and fro in front of her with just enough detail to make out her expressions.

  There was a chance, if Bailey would leave for just a minute…

  But that didn’t appear likely. How could Reggie get her to leave?

  An idea struck her. An image of her cell phone on the console of the van.

  “You left a trail for them, you say?” she asked. Again, Bailey froze and her attention was riveted on Reggie. “Are you aware of how wide that trail really is?”

  Bailey’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “You think that they’ll find me because of bread crumbs… maybe triangulating your phone, or the fact that we can’t be that far away from the freeway.”

  From the tense stance that Bailey was holding, it was clear that Reggie was hitting pay dirt. She kept going.

  “But my team knows exactly where I am. Exactly.” She let that sink in a moment. “Are you as ready as you need to be?”

  There was a long pause, then Bailey lashed out at her, scraping down the side of Reggie’s face with her nails. It stung, the pain even worse from the sweat that was streaming down her face. But it wasn’t anywhere close to what Bailey had done to her up to this point.

  Reggie had her scared and off balance. Now Bailey was lashing out from her fear, rather than the cold place of control from before.

  And then the false crime scene investigator was gone. Her footsteps rang out against the concrete floor, echoing off the walls. Bailey had gone to make whatever preparations she could.

  Reggie just hoped they weren’t enough. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was put her team in more danger.

  It wasn’t time to think about that, though. Now it was time for her to do what she needed to do. There was no way she could get Bailey to secure her arms in front of her. So… she’d just have to do it herself. Bracing herself, Reggie began lifting her arms up behind her back.

  This was going to hurt like hell.

  CHAPTER 14

  As they approached the structures, Sariah watched as their walls shimmered and bled in the waves of heat coming off the road. They appeared to be abandoned warehouses, still intact but with signs of neglect that pointed to non-occupancy.

  Just the kind of place you might want to take a kidnapping victim.

  The crunch of the gravel and dust under their feet sounded like the cracking of dried bones as they marched forward. They had collected all the members of Klingler’s team, so their numbers had grown to ten. There were five structures, so two were assigned to each building.

  It was possible, of course, that they would find nothing here. But the prickling of Sariah’s skin told her that they had found the place.

  She called out to the men and women around her in a harsh whisper. “This may be a trap. So be careful.”

  Nods and wary gazes returned in response. This group was well aware of the dangers. They closed the rest of the distance in silence, splitting off to their assigned structures.

  The first explosion ripped through the air as the farthest group stepped over the threshold of the structure. Two bodies flew through the blistering air, the impact of their forms on the ground making it clear that no life remained.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  Other explosions ripped through the buildings, a seeming chain-reaction to the intrusion. The trap had been well laid.

  The teams who were headed to the closest buildings had the most time to retreat, so from what Sariah could tell, six or so of their number were still safe. They continued to be so until the man who was paired up with Klingler pitched backward as a shot rang out, a bullet hole appearing where his left eye had once been.

  Sniper fire.

  Sariah ducked for cover that was nonexistent, but at least she was able to get closer to the ground. Trying to extrapolate where the fire was coming from, she did what she could to get around behind what was left of the remaining buildings. If she could use the structures against their attacker….

  Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Joshua and Bella sprinted toward the structures, one in particular. What were they doing? They were both going to end up killing themselves. But as she watched, she noticed something.

  The building toward which they were headed was the only one that hadn’t sustained damage in the explosions. While everyone else was worried about their own skin, Sariah included, Joshua was figuring out the most likely place to find Reggie.

  A wash of shame flooded through her, and Sariah picked herself up and rushed after Joshua. After a moment, she realized that Had and Leslie were both by her side.

  The sniper fire continued, and Sariah glanced over her shoulder, seeing another member of Klingler’s team twitch in response to a direct hit. The entire area was a scorched battlefield, filled with death and destruction.

  How was one woman doing all this damage?

  * * *

  Reggie felt her shoulder dislocate at the same time the explosions hit. In fact, at first she had thought that the explosions were her starting to lose consciousness from the shock of the dislocation.

  No such luck.

  Pain shot through her body. It was pain comparable to anything Bailey had done to her. Beyond what she’d experienced in the past when her shoulder had gone out. Because this time, she kept going.

  With her shoulder out of socket, she was able to force her arms up and around in front of her body. Almost as bad as the nauseating pain was the feeling of her bones working around, grinding and cracking out of the socket. She knew she wasn’t really cracking her bones, but it sure felt like it.

  She started to lose consciousness at one point, but with teeth-grinding determination, she shook her head and kept going. Her hands were now in front of her.

  That wasn’t the end of it.

  Snapping the zip tie had been hard enough before.
Doing it with her shoulder dislocated was something else entirely. With every attempt to snap the band, the searing pain would shoot through her arm.

  Sobs echoed around her in the concrete room, and it took Reggie a moment to realize that they were her own. Spittle flew from her lips as the cries were ripped from her throat. It felt like her entire life was made up of this sensation. Nothing had ever existed before. Nothing ever would again.

  Pain, pain and more pain. Nothing but pain.

  And then, the band snapped.

  It took Reggie a long moment to realize what had happened. She had even begun to raise her arms again, in preparation for the next try. Her arms came apart, and sobs racked her body for a different reason.

  She was free.

  Reaching down with her good arm, she managed to push in the locking mechanism of the zip ties that secured her legs to the chair. Once they were loosed, Reggie almost fell to the ground, her body shaking with its reaction to the pain and fear she had experienced over the last few hours.

  Standing up, Reggie faced the wall. She pressed her shoulder up against the hard surface, feeling the slightly cooler temperature of the concrete against her arm. Then she shoved, hard.

  The shoulder snapped back into place, the relief instantaneous. Reggie breathed out, her face pressed up against the wall.

  But the remembrance of explosions and the tiny pop, pop of gunfire forced her to keep going. It wasn’t enough to rescue herself.

  Now she had to do what she could for her team.

  * * *

  Joshua rushed toward the one building that had not gone up in flames. The gun he had retrieved off one of Klingler’s men weighed heavy in his hand.

  When the explosions had gone off, his heart had sunk within him. Either Reggie was in there, dead or in danger, or she wasn’t here at all, in which case they were back to square zero.

  And square zero in this case meant Reggie’s almost certain demise.

  So when he noticed that the explosions around one of the structures were more intended for show than for real damage, his heart lightened. It was possible that Bailey didn’t really want Reggie dead. At least not yet.

  It was possible that Reggie was just bait.

  Joshua had guessed it even before he’d heard Coop reading Humpty’s letter. What better way to get to him than to take Reggie? The only thing comparable would have been messing with Bella.

  Glancing down at his side to make sure his dog was still okay, Joshua reached to touch her, feel her presence beside him while he moved forward. As he did so, he noticed that the sniper fire had ended. Now all that remained was the snapping and crackling of the fires caused by the explosions.

  Joshua rounded the corner that led to the entrance of the building, when something struck him across the face. His head snapped back, and at the same moment, another blow landed on his forearms, divesting him of his gun.

  “Hello, Joshua,” Bailey said, her face stretched in a death mask’s grin. “I’ve been waiting for you to come to me.”

  Fury and pain sparked in her eyes. Joshua had never really looked at Bailey. Not close, like this.

  “My dad says ‘hi.’ Maybe you’ll get to see him in a bit.”

  Dead father. Anger toward Joshua. He knew who this was.

  One man, amongst many, who Joshua had helped put away. The only one where he wasn’t positive he had been right to do so. And the man had died in prison, the victim of a gang-related stabbing.

  This was his daughter. He could see the resemblance. He could also see something else. There was complexity there, dancing amongst the specks of grey and blue and green in her hazel eyes.

  There was insanity there.

  Even as he paid attention for the first time, his attention was broken by Bailey swinging the rifle she had been using straight at his head. He ducked, managing to avoid most of the blow, although the butt of the rifle still struck him in the shoulder.

  Grunting, his instinct was to dive to the side, to get away from the blows that were raining down on him. But there was something that he knew about Bailey.

  She kept a gun in her ankle holster.

  So instead of scuttling away, Joshua went down further, grabbing at Bailey’s leg. He managed to snake his hand down, ripping the pistol from its sheath. Springing back, he straightened and leveled the gun at Bailey’s head.

  The woman stopped for a moment, assessing the situation with cunning eyes. Then she grinned. The smile chilled Joshua, causing the gun to waver.

  “You can’t shoot me, Joshua,” she crooned. “I still have Reggie. And without me, she’ll die.” Looking into his eyes, she cocked her head to the side as she raised the muzzle of her rifle up. “So what’s it going to be, Joshua? Rescue yourself? Or protect her? What kind of a man are you?”

  The gun wavered in his hand. He knew the answer, of course. If it was a choice between Reggie’s life and his, it wasn’t even a choice. Hell, if it had been between him and someone he hated, it wouldn’t have been much of one.

  He started to lower his hand when a voice cried out to him.

  “I’m free! Shoot the bitch’s face off!”

  Reggie.

  The gun was up and he was firing before Bailey could even blink. The bullet passed into her chest, rocking the woman back on her heels. Her rifle fell to the ground with a clatter.

  She changed directions with a clear effort, lurching closer to Joshua. Reaching out, she grabbed a hold of his shoulders.

  Joshua wanted to shoot her once more, but something in her eyes stopped him. She pulled herself closer, croaking in his ear.

  What Joshua heard felt like it would stop his heart.

  * * *

  Had saw the moment when Bailey went down. Saw her lean into Joshua. Saw the former agent’s face turn white.

  The other thing he saw was when Agent Cooper ran over to embrace Reggie. There was no hesitation, no sense of embarrassment or shame in the show of affection. Just joy and relief and love shining as clear as could be from Coop’s face.

  And as far as Had could tell, the same feelings were reflected in Reggie’s.

  At first, Had was worried about Joshua’s reaction to such an overt display of the budding relationship between the two women. But Joshua didn’t even seem to notice. He was in his own world and he shuffled over to Agent Cooper.

  After waiting for the two women to break their embrace, the former agent held out the gun he had used, waiting for Coop to retrieve a latex glove from her pocket. Then he moved off, Bella trailing along beside him.

  Whatever was affecting Joshua was clearly affecting his dog as well, as Bella’s tail was tucked between her legs. As they passed by, Had was almost positive that he heard a whine escape from between the canine’s teeth.

  The two killers had been taken down, but it clearly had been at great cost.

  What on Earth could Bailey have said to Joshua to get that kind of response?

  He turned back to Reggie and Coop, who were talking over one another. Coop, in her desire to make sure Reggie was okay. Reggie to reassure the BAU agent that she would be fine.

  “Fine” wasn’t the word Had would use. Reggie’s wrists and arms were raw and bleeding, probably from being restrained. Her expression was drawn, with ragged scratches running the length of one side of her face. Had suspected that there were many more unseen wounds that were sapping her strength. But the smile that lit up her face more than compensated for that possible lack.

  There was a sound behind him, and Had spun around to see one of the Humvees start up and peel out, swiveling around to head back toward the freeway. What the hell?

  Joshua had just stolen a vehicle from the US Army.

  * * *

  The keys had been in the Humvee. Stupid rookie mistake on the part of the driver.

  The plan in Joshua’s mind was vague. He knew where he needed to go. He wasn’t so sure how to go about getting there. Right now, he just needed to start moving in the right direction.

  As the
Humvee sped toward the freeway, Joshua heard Bailey’s last words echo in his mind. She had pulled him in close, too close for any kind of normal conversation.

  And then she had spoken. “Daddy has one more thing for me to pass along.” There had been a brief pause. “You still lose.”

  Then she’d started singing.

  The song had penetrated into the depths of Joshua’s soul, opening cracks he’d thought long since sealed. This hurt him. It did damage to his very being.

  Jack and Jill went up the hill…

  She shouldn’t have been singing that song. It was an impossibility, like the kind that you found in an Escher drawing. It could not exist in the real world. And yet it did.

  How had she known that song?

  The pieces had started coming together. The fact that someone else had been the sniper. Her last cryptic statement. Her relationship with Humpty Dumpty. The song.

  The answer would not form completely in his mind. Almost like it was refusing to come to clarity, to be looked at in the light.

  But Joshua still knew exactly where he was going.

  He turned the wheel, angling toward the freeway, the first leg on his journey. And then there was a voice behind him.

  “Where are you going, Joshua?”

  Nearly leaping out of his skin, he swiveled his head around to face Leslie Sands. How had she gotten here?

  She answered his unasked question. “I could see that something happened back there with Bailey. So I followed you. When I saw where you were headed, it didn’t take much to come around the other side of the car and get in before you did.”

  Joshua stifled a groan. The last thing he needed was someone stopping him. Hounding him. Shutting him away as a threat to himself and others.

  This was something he needed to do. And no sober companion would keep him from doing it.

  As he peered at Leslie through the rear-view mirror, he could see her face soften. Whatever she was seeing in his expression clearly convinced her that this was not a whim. Not Joshua going off the deep end.

  Or at least that if it was, he was going off the deep end for a good reason.

  She cleared her throat.