by Jane Blythe
“May I help you?” A middle-aged saleslady approached them, a firm smile in place. Her look of confidence gave the idea of them leaving without having made a purchase was simply out of the question.
“We’re looking for engagement rings,” Ricky shot the lady an engaging smile.
“Ahh,” the lady’s brown eyes lit up, no doubt thinking they were going to be an easy sell into buying something way more expensive than either they needed or had intended to buy. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Ricky’s eyes crinkled as his smiled deepened, and he reached for her hand.
“So any idea what you're looking for?” the lady asked.
“None at all; something sparkly, I guess,” he added with a chuckle. “We were hoping you'd be able to make some suggestions; the jewelry you're wearing is beautiful and it complements you perfectly.”
“Thank you,” the lady gushed, her cheeks tinting slightly pink. “Right this way,” she turned and began walking toward a counter on the far side of the small jewelry store.
Winking at her, Ricky hurried after the lady, engaging her in conversation and throwing compliments at her left, right, and center. Ricky was a charmer, Isabella thought to herself as she followed him. He had the lady completely snowed. Isabella could tell she was smitten by the sly glances she kept tossing at Ricky, and the way she attempted to surreptitiously gawk at his body. She didn’t have a clue that the man she was going to try and sell the most expensive ring in the store to was a serial killer.
Unlike herself, Ricky was a people person. He knew what to say and how to say it to put people at ease and get them to like him. He complemented her perfectly. Her weaknesses were his strengths.
She stared dreamily at him as he pretended to listen intently as the saleslady described different diamond cuts and the pros and cons of the different colors of gold. She was so lucky. Ricky was charming and handsome and had an awesome body, and he was an absolute gentleman with her. Even in bed. Well, in bed he was also an animal; it seemed that he was insatiable with lust for her, but he was a gentleman, too.
In short, Ricky Preston was absolutely and completely perfect.
And he was hers.
One hundred percent hers.
“Yoo-hoo, honey,” Ricky’s hand waved in front of her face.
Isabella blinked in surprise and found both Ricky and the saleslady staring at her. They had obviously said something to her, but what it was she didn’t have a clue.
“See what I have to put up with here with Ms. Dreamy?” Ricky chuckled to the saleslady, who chuckled back appreciatively. “I said,” Ricky began with exaggerated patience, “which ring do you like the best?”
She glanced down at the selection set out before her. There were six rings, all of them were gorgeous, but Isabella couldn’t care less which one ended up being hers. All she wanted was Ricky Preston. And she had him.
“They’re all so pretty. I like them all; you choose,” she shot Ricky what she knew was another look of open adoration. Isabella couldn’t help it; she felt giddy and schoolgirlish around him. When she was with him, she wasn’t completely in control of herself. The thought was scary and yet also oddly freeing. She had thought herself virtually incapable of love, but she’d proved that wrong since there was no doubt she loved Ricky Preston.
“Okeydokey,” Ricky nodded then examined each ring individually—picking it up and turning it over, taking her hand and sliding it on, then examining it on her. “All right,” he announced at last, “this is the one. It looks lovely on you. We’ll take it.”
“A wonderful choice,” the saleslady nodded approvingly. “And it suits her. You're a lucky woman,” the look she turned on Isabella smarted with jealousy. “Now, we offer a range of flexible payment plans depending on your finances.”
“I don’t think payment is going to be a problem,” Ricky’s smile changed from disarmingly sweet and charming to something a little more sinister.
“Oh?” the saleslady looked surprised, but recovered quickly. “Will you be paying in full? I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, just most people go with a payment plan.”
“You didn’t offend me,” Ricky assured her. “It’s just, I had something a little different in mind.” Before anyone could react, he had a knife in his hand and he’d reached across the glass display cabinet and slit the saleslady’s throat. The woman’s eyes grew wide as it slowly dawned on her what had happened. Her hands rose to press to the gaping wound in her neck, attempting, albeit fruitlessly, to stem the flow of blood.
Ricky was already on the move. There was an elderly couple being attended by a young salesman a few feet away and a security guard by the door. Swinging the knife as he moved, Ricky plunged it into the old woman’s chest, then grabbed the old man, using him as a human shield and angling him in between his body and the security guard.
“I'd think before you do anything stupid,” Ricky warned the guard, who had drawn his weapon and was pointing it in Ricky’s direction. “Isabella, get his gun,” he directed her. Obediently, she went to retrieve the weapon which the guard reluctantly handed over. Once she had it, she returned to Ricky’s side. “Now, down on the ground,” Ricky ordered the guard, who hesitated. He jammed the knife deep enough into his human shield’s throat to make blood flow. “Hesitate again and I’ll kill him.” This time the guard complied. “Keep the gun aimed at him,” Ricky commanded her. In swift, efficient movements he sliced the knife through the old man’s neck, then lunged over the counter to kill the shop’s other employee. Without missing a beat, Ricky crossed the room and thrust the knife four times into the security guard’s back. “Well, that was fun,” he grinned at her.
Isabella had to admit she was in shock.
Not that she had just witnessed five murders. She couldn’t care less about that. It was that Ricky had done it all so seamlessly. So smoothly. He was an expert. A real connoisseur of his craft.
When they’d walked in here, Isabella had had no idea that Ricky had been planning all of this—not that she would have objected if he’d shared his intentions. But he had obviously worked the whole thing out. He had moved seamlessly from victim to victim. And now all five people lay dead in pools of their own blood. Isabella had never been so impressed in her life.
“Surprised?” Ricky asked.
She nodded shakily, “You're so good. You planned it out so quickly and executed it without a hitch.”
“I'm a pro,” he whispered huskily in her ear, “in more than killing.” Then he pushed her up against the wall, his mouth hungrily devouring hers.
As he kissed her, everything else fled from her mind. All she could think of was Ricky. His kisses weren’t enough. She wanted more of him. She wanted his hands on her, she badly wanted him inside her. She desperately wished they were back at home.
As if he were reading her mind, “We need to get out of here,” Ricky announced as he abruptly pulled away. “I want you in bed—now.”
“How are we getting out of here? We’re covered in blood,” she reminded him. Ricky had blood from both store employees, the elderly couple, and the security guard all over him. And since he’d just had his body pressed up against hers, she was now all bloody, too.
“No problem, car’s right outside,” he tapped a finger to the tip of her nose, then grabbed her hand and headed for the door. “Wait,” he stopped abruptly, yanked the ring off her finger then knelt in front of her. “Isabella Everette, will you marry me?”
All she could do was nod and stare as he slipped the ring back onto her finger, then grab her hand again and yank her through the door. As Ricky pulled her out of the store and toward the car, all Isabella could do was giggle and go all weak-kneed over what Ricky would do to her once they got home.
* * * * *
10:49 A.M.
“Are we sure it was them?” Xavier already knew the answer to that by looking around the store.
It was Ricky Preston and Isabella Everette.
There was no doubt.<
br />
“Yeah,” Diane paused and nodded. “They left fingerprints and we brought samples from both to compare. They match. It was definitely them.”
“What were they doing here?” Xavier wondered aloud. They had been in their morning meeting when they’d received a call about a murder spree at a local jewelry store. Apparently, a witness had seen a couple matching Ricky and Isabella’s descriptions leaving the shop. The whole drive over he had maintained that it seemed unlikely that either Ricky or Isabella would hit up a jewelry store, but now that they were here, the facts were evident.
“I think they were shopping for engagement rings,” Paige announced. She was over by a glass counter on the side of the small shop farthest from the door. Paige was looking better this morning—calmer and more in control. Xavier knew that Ryan’s brother and his partner hadn't made any progress into finding out who was stalking her, but despite that, Paige seemed to have somehow come to terms with it. At least for the moment. “There are five rings in their boxes on the counter here, plus an empty box. They look to me like engagement rings.”
That was not the answer Xavier had been expecting.
Apparently, it wasn’t the answer Ryan had been expecting either. “Engagement rings,” he repeated grimly. “You think Isabella and Ricky are engaged? How am I going to break that one to Sofia?”
No one had an answer for him on that. Xavier felt guiltily pleased that he wasn’t the one who would have to inform Sofia. She was going to be shocked and appalled to learn her sister was intending to marry a wanted killer.
On the plus side, though, if Ricky and Isabella were engaged, then that would probably make Annabelle feel better knowing some of his focus must now surely be shifted off her. But Xavier knew she would feel guilty about it anyway. Annabelle had taken to Sofia; in fact, she had asked if it would be okay to spend the day with her again today. He had met Sofia briefly last night when he’d picked Annabelle up, and after just those few minutes, he already considered her a friend. She was pretty and smart and funny and very sweet; just what Annabelle needed.
It had been a weight off his mind to see Annabelle enjoying herself—happy and at peace. Whatever Sofia had said to her had obviously made a difference. And Annabelle had even been comfortable enough to open up, to talk about what was going on inside her head. She had even confessed to Sofia that she had been contemplating suicide. Sofia had made sure to get him alone to make sure he was aware of that, and that, in his mind, had been what had cemented her place in his and Annabelle’s lives. She was exactly the kind of friend that Annabelle needed.
“So they come here to buy an engagement ring and then kill everyone in the store?” Ryan’s brow furrowed.
“They’re devolving, losing control,” Paige replied. “They were extremely organized, planning everything down to the tiniest detail, but this feels like it’s the beginning of something bad, something different. It seems like they’re no longer in control, no longer organized.”
“I don’t know,” Xavier countered, scanning the scene. “This wasn’t the same as before, but it’s still pretty organized.” He walked over to where Paige was standing, “It started here. They probably looked like a normal couple. She was just going to sell them a ring like she's done probably hundreds of times before. Any defensive wounds, Frankie?”
The ME, who was kneeling over the security guard’s body, paused and looked up. “Not that I could see, just a single wound to the neck. Sliced through the carotid artery, she would have been dead in minutes,” Frankie replied.
“Then he got her by surprise,” Xavier had already figured that.
“You think Ricky committed the murders, not Isabella, or not the two of them?” Ryan looked faintly relieved.
“I'm positive,” Xavier nodded. “Isabella might not have even known what Ricky was planning when they came in here, but Ricky certainly did. He brought the knife with him.”
Paige nodded her agreement. “You're right; he definitely came in intending to do this or he wouldn’t have had a weapon with him. Once he took out the saleslady there were still four other people in here, including an armed guard. He had to have had a plan.”
“He would have gone for the elderly couple,” Xavier moved toward the other counter where the bodies of a man and woman in their eighties lay.
“Woman was killed first,” Frankie supplied.
“Then he used the man as a human shield,” Xavier continued. “That’s how he disarmed the guard, threatened to kill the old man if he didn’t relinquish his gun. Then once he had the guard under control. He killed the old man, and the salesman, then the guard on the way out.”
“It does feel like they’re devolving, though,” Ryan considered. “They don’t seem all that concerned with being caught. Before, both went to great lengths to take forensic countermeasures, but now they’re leaving fingerprints and witnesses. They don’t care anymore about getting caught. It’s like the possibility hasn’t even occurred to them. They seem to think they’re invincible. That can't be a good thing. Random people at a jewelry store. What’s next? I feel like this is the beginning of a spree. Who knows how many people are going to wind up dead before we get them.”
Agreeing with that, Xavier had the same feeling. “At least if they’re devolving, they’ll get more and more careless and that’s how we’ll catch them.”
Ryan sighed tiredly and rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, I just don’t know how much more of this Sofia can take. She needs this to be over. She needs Isabella to be stopped.”
“Yeah, Annabelle, too,” Xavier agreed grimly. “It kills her that Ricky’s still out there.” He deliberately shook away his dull mood. They were closer than ever to catching Ricky; for now, that had to be enough. “The witness who called it in still here?”
“I think so,” Paige nodded. “You want to talk to her?”
“Yeah. I was thinking maybe she could tell us what condition they were in when they left here, could help us figure out where they might go next,” Xavier explained.
“You really think it’ll make a difference?” Ryan looked defeated. And tired. Xavier had learned that Paige wasn’t the only one with a stalker; apparently, someone was stalking Sofia, as well. And last night that person had broken into Ryan and Sofia’s home for the third night in a row. The toll it was taking was evident on Ryan’s face and in his demeanor.
“Can't hurt,” Xavier replied mildly.
“I guess,” Ryan agreed reluctantly. “You guys go ahead; I'm going to call home and check on Sofia. And Annabelle,” he added before Xavier had a chance to ask.
“Thanks.” He and Paige headed back outside where a nervous woman in her early thirties was pacing up and down the sidewalk. She froze when she saw them heading straight for her. “Hi, I'm Detective Montague, and this is Detective Hood,” he made the introductions once they reached her. “Ms. Lipton, right?” The woman nodded. “We’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”
“More questions?” The woman looked positively horrified by the prospect.
“Just a couple,” Paige assured her.
“I already told the other officers everything I know,” she protested desperately.
“I know; I just wanted to ask a few more things,” Xavier soothed.
“All right,” she sighed miserably.
“Can you tell me exactly what you saw?” Xavier asked.
“Well,” she begun hesitantly, “I was going to go shopping for an anniversary gift for my parents. They’re renewing their vows for their fortieth wedding anniversary and I was getting them new rings. Their rings were stolen in a carjacking about a month ago, and . . .”
The woman was rambling. Hoping to refocus her on what they needed to know, Xavier asked, “And what did you see when you arrived?”
“Oh, uh, I saw a couple go running out the front door. They almost ran into me,” she looked shocked, like she still couldn’t believe this was all happening.
“Did you get a good look at them?”
> She nodded.
“And?” he prompted.
“And the guy was tall and dark-haired; the woman was tall, too—a redhead,” she summarized. “They were covered in blood. They went running to a car that was parked just out front of the jewelry store and took off.”
“How did they look?”
“Look?” Ms. Lipton repeated, confused.
“Happy, sad, excited, surprised, shocked,” Xavier prompted.
“Uh,” she considered this for a moment. “Excited, I guess and, I don’t know,” she shrugged, “they looked like they were anxious to be alone.”
“Why did you think that?”
“He was holding her hand, pulling her along with him, and she was staring up at him all puppy-dog like,” she explained.
So, the two were all wrapped up in their little love affair. It seemed like that had overridden both their previous plans. If they were going to find them it wasn’t going to be through newlyweds who’d honeymooned at the hotel where Ricky worked, or rich guys who were cheating on their wives and were friends with the Everette family.
“Okay, Ms. Lipton, thanks for your time,” he was ready to move on. Ryan was right; this did feel like a spree. Ricky and Isabella weren’t going to stop killing any time soon. The only way to stop them was to find them.
“That’s all you wanted to know?” Ms. Lipton looked and sounded relieved. “I can go now?”
“Yes. Again, thanks for your help.” As he watched the woman hurry away, Xavier started planning their next move. Ricky Preston was not getting away again.
* * * * *
1:24 P.M.
He watched her stare at her hand, her meal lay untouched in front of her.
Ricky was thrilled that he had made her so happy with the ring.
It had been fun. At the jewelry store. It was odd, though; he hadn't been even a little afraid that Isabella wouldn’t be pleased with what he’d planned on doing. He hadn't told her beforehand; he’d wanted it to be a surprise. And she had indeed been surprised. Impressed, too.