by Tony Urban
He was becoming more powerful, more feral, than he ever thought possible.
The blood was still surging inside of him when he shut off the water. He looked down and saw that he was hard. Hard from the kill, hard from the hunt, and he wanted nothing more than to take his wife.
He walked out of the bathroom, water dripping from his body onto the floor beneath his feet. He was still soaked, but he didn’t care. He needed release.
He climbed into bed on all fours, just like he had when he stalked his prey in the forest. His erection was surging now as he hovered over his wife. Her mousy brown hair covered half of her face, her snoring a gentle serenade.
He pulled the comforter off of her body. She wore a black silk sleep shirt and a pair of maroon panties. The material was thin and light, the waistband nonexistent. The kind that he could slip off with ease.
He grabbed her waist, doing just that.
She stirred, awakened by his pawing at her, and started to question. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he pushed his face into her groin, feeling the heat radiate. He could smell the hormones in her wetness. He brought his mouth down, tasting what was his.
She didn’t protest, and instead spread her legs wider and moaned at the feel of his tongue. She wrapped her leg around the back of his head, locking him in against her.
Any other night and he would have continued, but that’s not what he needed. That’s not what he wanted. And what he wanted was what he was going to take.
He flipped her over, pulling her ass in the air. She went with it, presenting to him, and unleashed a groan as she buried her face in a pillow. She angled her backside upward as he knelt behind her.
He slid into her, feeling no resistance. She was ready for him, and he slipped into her silky loins. He thrust hard and gripped her waist with his hand, digging his fingers into her. He held nothing back as he plowed forward, his strength and needs taking over.
The animal inside of him was in charge, getting what it wanted. What it craved.
Gina moaned in ecstasy as he filled her, cherishing every second.
Chapter 37
Carolina’s eyes popped open at the sound of knocking against her motel room door. But she didn’t move. She stared at the ceiling, connecting the dots between the stains, making abstract shapes. The banging continued and she didn’t care.
Her head wasn’t mimicking the banging, which was a pleasant surprise. No drinking and no pills meant no hangover. But it also meant that she remembered every fucking detail from the night before.
The bodies. The rain. Hank’s crippling defeat.
And of course, her own failure.
That’s what kept her awake most of the night. Her failure. The old Carolina would have gone into those trees and followed those men. She would have fought along with them, finding the killer and stopping him one way or another.
But she wasn’t her old self anymore. She was the smart, pragmatic Carolina now. Her old self was reckless and foolhardy and put everyone around her in danger. Her new self...
Well, everyone still ended up dead.
So, was anyone better off with this supposedly new and improved version of her? Or had she lost her mojo? Maybe the pills didn’t just stave off the pain, maybe they blocked something in her mind, something that allowed her to see what others missed. Maybe without them, she was just another cop.
Of course, she wasn’t even a cop anymore. She was a fledgling PI who was fumbling the biggest case of her new career. She was ineffective, and maybe worse, incompetent. Why even get out of bed?
Yet, the knocking continued.
“What the fuck do you want, Hank?” Carolina demanded. She knew why he was there. To pay her for services rendered and send her home, tail tucked. Nice knowing ya, now scram. She’d rather slink away on her own than peer into the haunted eyes of the man she’d let down.
“It’s not Hank. It’s me. Leigh,” Leigh said through the door, her voice muffled and meek.
Carolina sighed and pushed herself into a sitting position. After showering until she ran out of hot water the night before, she’d barely had the energy to pull on a pair of underwear before collapsing into bed. Her bare feet hit the matted carpet and stepped over laundry piled on the floor.
Her jeans and clothes from last night were crusted and caked with dry mud. She wasn’t going to jump back into those, so she didn’t bother with putting anything else on and just opened the door.
Leigh stood in the doorway, uniform on, dressed to impress, but she looked tired under her eyes. She held two cups of coffee in her hands. Carolina took a step backward, but Leigh just stared at her.
“Well, come on in,” Carolina said.
Leigh finally entered the room, setting the coffee on the dresser against the wall. She turned to face Carolina, her eyes tracing up and down her body.
Carolina looked down at herself and shrugged. Hank was the sleaze that she didn’t want getting his rocks off and a memory for his personal spank bank. Leigh, on the other hand, she had no ill opinion of. And she was a woman. Though, with her eyes glued to her like they were, maybe she was into it. Either way, Carolina didn’t really care.
“Hank send you?” Carolina asked.
“I got you a coffee,” Leigh said, trying on her most chipper smile but only half-succeeding.
“I don’t drink that shit.”
“Oh.” Leigh glanced around the room, which wasn’t great to begin with and had devolved into a hovel during Carolina’s short stay. Dirty clothes were everywhere. The bed was a catastrophe. Pinned to one wall were crime scene photos, a variety of reports, and Carolina’s own notes. It was all barely organized and probably looked like something from the Unabomber’s cabin.
“I’ve never seen the inside of one of these rooms before,” Leigh said. “It’s…nice.”
“And I don’t do small talk, either,” Carolina said, pulling on a t-shirt that was many wears past due for a wash. “Why are you here?”
Leigh shrugged like a shy child. She wasn’t the spunky, attitude-filled cop that Carolina had spoken to the other day. And Carolina making her feel two inches tall wasn’t helping.
She sighed and put her hand out. “Have a seat,” she said. “It was a long night, so sorry if I’m being bitchy.”
Leigh sat gingerly on the cleanest corner of the bed, took a deep breath, then said, “Hank’s done.”
Carolina rolled her eyes, unsurprised. “I figured as much after last night. Do you know if he called the FBI?”
Leigh nodded. “Odie, he was working the night shift, he said Hank contacted them as soon as he got back to the station.”
“Considering the circumstances, they’ll be here soon,” Carolina said. “Which means I’d better fill up my gas tank. I’ve got a long drive home.”
“I still want to catch the guy,” Leigh said, determination in her eyes.
“Good. You should. And when whatever suit assigned to the case arrives, I’m sure you can learn a lot about the paperwork that goes into it.”
“No, I want to catch him with your help,” she said.
Carolina reminded herself that she liked Leigh, although now she couldn’t quite remember why. And just last night, Carolina had been equally determined to catch the killer. But waking up today, with the adrenaline worn off, it was hard to summon that same enthusiasm. Truth be told, she felt just as defeated as Hank.
But now Leigh was here, telling her that she needed her help.
“Alright, I’ll bite. How are we gonna do that?” Carolina asked.
“We can go back to the crime scene and try to find anything in the daylight.”
“Weren’t you there already?” Carolina vaguely remembered seeing Leigh standing by a long rope of yellow crime scene tape. Tape which had blocked the path leading into the woods where the latest murders had taken place.
“I was. All night. I never went to sleep actually,” Leigh said.
“Shit,” Carolina said, now understanding why Leigh looked the way
she did.
“You’re right, though. The storm did a real number on it, but I thought maybe we could find some footprints or something. You know, like a shoe print. Then we could determine the size and brand. Maybe it’s something really rare, like a mail-order kind of thing, and we could find out who bought them.”
“That’s a little movie-of-the-week, isn’t it? Besides, that rain was like God himself pissing all over Hopkins. And it went on for hours. No footprint could last through that.”
Leigh’s shoulders sank and Carolina knew she was bringing the girl’s mood down. She might be realistic, but Leigh was the only one that seemed willing to keep fighting, and Carolina felt guilty for squashing that enthusiasm.
She didn’t know what she could offer, but she wanted to toss the eager young woman a bone. “But maybe we can put our heads together and come up with something,” she said.
Leigh perked up, her eyes suddenly less tired. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Carolina said with a smile she hoped was confident and reassuring, even though she felt neither. “I’ll put some clothes on and we’ll grab breakfast. I think better with a full stomach.” She began to sort through a duffel bag for clean pants. As she bent over her shirt rode up and gave Leigh a good look at her ass.
She could feel the deputy’s eyes on her, watching her, and began to feel self-conscious. Grabbing the nearest pair of jeans, she stood and noticed Leigh’s head snap away and her gaze go to the window with its million-dollar view of the decrepit parking lot.
“How’s the deputy salary these days?” Carolina asked as she stepped into the pants.
“Enough to pay my bills and put back ten percent for savings,” Leigh volunteered.
“Good,” Carolina said. “Cause you’re buying,”
Chapter 38
Mitch had obtained Leigh Benner’s home address from her paperwork at the veterinary clinic, and had made a point of driving by the house a few times a day since then. He’d learned she was single, had no roommates or family living with her, and only the cat as a pet. She seemed to be a homebody, returning to her cozy cottage after work and spending the evenings in.
Until yesterday, of course.
The night had been long for the both of them. The fight, the running away before the sheriff and the woman could see him. Not to mention fulfilling his needs with his wife. He’d had to pry himself out of bed early enough to drive by Leigh’s home before her shift began, but when he cruised past, she was already gone.
Or she’d never come home. He assumed the latter, deducing that she’d been working in his hunting grounds all night long. Although Mitch had no personal experiences with the local police, not so much as a traffic ticket, he knew they operated with a skeleton crew. So, Leigh Benner being stuck at the crime scene made sense.
He wondered if she’d seen his work. Seen his power. Did it arouse her, terrify her, or both? Could she even comprehend the danger and horror she’d witnessed?
Soon, she would experience it in person, running for her life, becoming the prey. And part of him wondered if having been on his territory and seeing his work would offer her any advantages when it came time for him to hunt her.
He hoped so. As much as he craved her, needed to taste her meat, to feel her veins pumping life into him, he adored the challenge of a good hunt. The more difficult, the longer it went on, the better.
But he knew, no matter how many advantages her job and what she’d seen might provide, he was still the predator, and she was still the prey.
On his way to work, he’d spotted her police cruiser parked in the Best Brew parking lot. He couldn’t resist a closer look. Upon entering the coffee shop, he found her at the register, making small talk with an attractive female barista who handed her two cups.
Taking a small risk, he got in line behind her, close enough to smell her even over the bitter aroma of coffee brewing in the background. She still smelled of sweat and his land. Underlying that was a cheap deodorant, something fresh and floral, and he wondered why she’d try to mask her true aroma. Didn’t she realize how delicious she smelled naturally?
The barista handed her a few coins and a receipt, then Leigh had turned, breezing by him, unseeing with her tired eyes.
You just walked past your killer, Mitch thought, and didn’t even know it. So much for cop instincts.
He was late for work, but couldn’t pass on seeing where she went next and followed her all the way to the Budget Inn. She pulled into the lot, parking next to a white van, then headed to the room it sat in front of.
His cell phone buzzed. He ignored it. It buzzed again. He ignored it again. Then it rang. But it wasn’t his wife’s ringtone. It was a funeral dirge. It was work. He let the call go to voicemail, uncaring. He had more important matters at hand.
Was Leigh at the motel to visit a lover? That could complicate things. But she was in her uniform, driving her police car, so it seemed more probable to be something work-related.
After a short wait, Leigh reemerged, followed by another woman. The woman who’d been with the sheriff as they attempted, and failed, to save the scene from the rain. She looked different here, in the light of day.
Gone was the panic he’d seen the night prior. Missing was her shock, her doubt, replaced by arrogance. Mitch was too far away to smell her, but he suspected it would be a sour, unclean aroma and his nose twitched up in a sneer.
Before she jumped in the white van, she paused, scanning the parking lot. Mitch kept himself low and in the shadows, but her gaze lingered as she examined his sedan.
Could she feel his presence there?
Something about her felt… dangerous. He felt the hairs on his arms and neck stiffen. For the first time in a very long time, Mitch felt like the hunted rather than the hunter.
“Go away, bitch,” he seethed under his breath. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay far away from me.”
After another moment, the woman seemed to lose interest in inspecting the parking lot and took the passenger seat in Leigh’s Charger. They fled the parking lot, but he stayed hidden in his seat until they were out of sight.
Mitch didn’t know who that woman was, but he loathed her and wanted her dead.
Chapter 39
The drive-through line was long and slow. Carolina rode shotgun in Leigh’s county-issued Charger, her mind going around in circles as she tried to think of something she might have missed, some potential lead.
They'd been sitting in silence for several minutes when Leigh broke it. “I went to see Zack Eddows this morning. To inform him that his wife was deceased,” Leigh said.
“You what?” Carolina asked, remembering that Leigh had been a well-paid meter maid until a few days ago.
“Hank didn’t have it in him. In fact, he said, ‘I can’t deal with this shit’ when I asked if he was going to do it. But Zack deserved to know before the news picked it up. I got the jump on them by an hour.”
Carolina nodded, feeling sorry for the girl. Telling someone their loved one was dead was never easy. But to do it so new on the job, with no superior to guide her through the mess, was even worse.
“How’d it go?”
“How do you think?” Leigh said. Carolina knew exactly what she meant. A man like Zack getting bad news was probably bad news in itself.
“He didn’t rip into you, did he?” Carolina asked.
“Nah. He was upset, threw some shit, too. If Hank had been there, I think it might have gone worse. But, since it was just me, he mostly kept his anger in check.”
The car ahead of them drove forward a spot and Leigh did the same. “I tried to get some more information about Katie’s habits. I got the name of her hair and nail salons, plus a little diner over in Donges where he said she sometimes goes on her days off. Said she likes the rhubarb pie they make there.”
Carolina almost gagged at the thought of rhubarb pie.
“Mr. Eddows said she sometimes went for walks at the track at the school, but said she mo
stly got her exercise at the dog park, so I stopped by there this morning, too. There were a couple people around, not many ‘cause it was early, but two guys and an older lady. I asked them if they’d ever seen Katie there. Only one of them had. A guy named Doug Yardly. He said he’d seen Katie there throwing the tennis ball for her pup, but only a handful of times. Said he never talked to her, they just smiled and nodded, that kind of thing.”
“You did all of that this morning? Holy shit, you’ve been busy,” Carolina said, knowing that Leigh probably accomplished more that morning than Carolina did on a normal day.
“Told you I didn’t sleep,” Leigh said with a tired but satisfied smile. “I thought maybe we could go back there, to the dog park, this afternoon, and again in the early evening. There might be different crowds at different times of the day. Maybe someone would remember seeing something. You never know, right?”
Carolina carried two bags of fast food and a box of eclairs as she followed Leigh into the sheriff’s station. The atmosphere was crypt-like with only the steady hum of the fluorescents and whir of the air conditioner to remind her she hadn’t gone deaf.
They found Odie napping in the break room. Considering he’d been on since seven the previous evening, Carolina couldn’t blame him. The old guy was leaning across the table, one arm serving as a pillow, the other dangling at his side. His mustache fluttered with each exhalation.
“Should we wake him?” Carolina asked, a little worried that he might fall out of his chair and break a hip.
Leigh shook her head. “Let him rest. When he comes around on his own, I’ll send him home.”
“What about Hank?” Carolina asked, setting the food on the table.
“He stopped in for a few minutes after getting back from Silver Gap, but didn’t linger,” she said. “Just long enough to make that phone call and use his computer. Then he said he was going home and left me with orders not to bother him...” she put on a deeper voice, mimicking Hank, “‘Even if the A-rabs bomb the courthouse.’”