He stepped back from the camera. He was dressed in a billowy black shirt so it was hard to determine his shape. A woman was tied to a ladderback chair. She was wearing a hospital gown. It was torn open; her left breast was exposed. There was blood covering the white garment, it was clear that it had dripped down from slices across her face, neck, and breast. Before Dex had a chance to brace, a whip whistled through the air and sliced through her gown. Blood danced upwards from her chest as she screamed. He took the end of the whip between his hands and walked back to the camera. As soon as his face filled the screen, he licked the blood off the leather.
“I’m doing this because I couldn’t find your mother, Austin. All I wanted to do was see her. I wouldn’t hurt her. I just like looking at her. But because she wasn’t at your house or the hospital, I had to do this.” He took another lick.
“She tastes so good.” He turned and raised the whip again. Hitting her body, her face. More shrieks. More blood. Then Dex watched stone faced as the monster raised the bullwhip and swung it sideways, wrapping it around her neck. Then he yanked hard.
“Mom, no!” Dex glanced over his shoulder. He could see shadows through the green glass door, but it didn’t open. Austin must have held Kenna back.
Dex turned his attention back to the screen. Horror and relief slid through him as he realized the man had broken the woman’s neck.
Casually the monster walked back to the camera.
“Austin, it’s your mother’s fault. It’s her fault. I just wanted to see her walking into your house last night. I like watching her walk. But she denied me even that small pleasure. What other choice did I have? I hope you were educated.”
He laughed. He picked the camera up off the stand and walked it to the body of the woman, scanning in on her feet, her legs, up and up until it reached her face.
“No. I don’t think they’ll be able to identify her. Pity.”
The camera blinked off.
“Motherfucker!” Warren yelled.
The door to the greenhouse smashed open. “What is going on?” Kenna raged.
“Mom, it’s okay.”
“Don’t ‘it’s okay’ me. I want to know what the fuck is going on.” Her hands were on her hips. She looked enraged, but Dex could see fear below the anger.
“It’s not something you need to see,” Sanchez said when her eyes lighted on the computer.
“Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining,” she stormed.
“He’s killed another one,” Warren said.
Dex whirled on the man at the same time that Kenna said, “What?!”
“The killer, he sent Austin a video of his latest kill,” Warren said grimly.
“Get the fuck out of here. Now.” Dex was ready to tear Clive Warren apart, and as soon as he said those words, it was like the man came out of a trance.
“Jesus, I’m sorry Kenna, I mean Ms. Wright, I shouldn’t have said it like that. It’s just that video. It took me by surprise.”
“My son saw a video of someone getting murdered?” Kenna all but shrieked.
Austin looked gut shot. It was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to happen.
“Austin, I’ve got this,” Dex said. Austin gave him a long look, then went to his mom and hugged her.
“Sweetheart, talk to me,” she said.
“I will soon,” he promised her.
“Go with him,” Dex said to the two cops.
“I’m so sorry,” Warren began.
“Out!” Dex roared. Sanchez grabbed his partner’s arm, and they followed Austin out of the greenhouse.
“Dex, talk to me.”
He pulled her gently into his arms. She struggled. “Let me see what’s on the computer.”
“No.”
“Yes. If Austin saw it, then I need to see it.”
“No, you don’t.” He pulled her head down to his chest.
She clutched him close, then peered up at him. “It’s that bad? My baby saw somebody being killed? How bad was it?”
“He said he didn’t watch it all.”
“Are you sure he didn’t?”
“Yes, Kenna, I’m sure.”
She shoved her face into his shirt. Her shoulders began to shake, but she didn’t make a sound. He stroked his hands down her back.
“Let it out.”
“I can’t. I need to talk to Austin.”
“Let it out. Rant. Cry. Scream. Beat on me. Do whatever you need to do, Baby. I’m here for you.”
“I need to keep it together. I need to go talk to my son.”
He understood. He admired. “But after you’re done, you’ll come back to me?”
She pushed out of his arms to look up at him. He saw steely determination in her gold-flecked hazel eyes. “I’ll come back to you, but not for fucking comfort. We’re going to talk about you going behind my back about something concerning my child.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up. God, she was gorgeous when she went mama bear.
“Don’t you fucking smile at me. I’m pissed.”
“And that’s why I’m smiling.”
“If you say I’m beautiful when I’m angry, I’ll kick you in the balls.”
Dex had to bite his tongue from laughing. She was beautiful when she was angry. “Go talk to your son. I’ll be waiting for you on the verandah.”
***
Kenna tapped on Austin’s door.
“Come in, Mom.”
He was sitting on the bed in the room that Rosalie had provided for him, his head bent, his hands clasped in front of him. She pulled over the rolling desk chair, so she was seated in front of him. She covered his hands with hers, and he immediately turned his over and grabbed hers. When had his hands gotten so big?
She looked at the top of his head for long moments, and then finally he looked up. His hazel eyes were swimming with tears.
“Mom,” he said hoarsely. His hands clenched hers tighter, and she hid her wince of pain.
“Tell me, Baby.”
He straightened, then cleared his throat. He blinked rapidly, and the tears were gone. “We need to keep you safe.”
“We are Honey,” she said firmly.
“We need to leave the state. Go someplace else. He knows Rosalie’s house. He knows our house. He knows...he knows...” his voice trailed off.
“The police will keep me safe. They’re tracking him right now. I’m sure this new video will offer clues.”
“It’s not good enough. You don’t know. I don’t want you to know.” He turned back to her, his face once again filled with anguish.
“Dex said you didn’t watch the whole thing. Did you?”
“No. He said I’d end up with enough scars on my soul eventually, and I didn’t need this one.” Austin quietly repeated Dex’s beautiful advice.
“He’s right.”
“But if it would have helped, we both agreed I would watch. And I would have.”
Her heart ached with pride for this man child in front of her. “I know you would have. I thank God you didn’t need to, but I know you would have.” She pulled up his clenched hands and kissed them.
“Can we leave, Mom?”
“I’m not sure that will work. If it will keep you safe. We’re out of here. But first, you have to answer a question for me.”
He looked up at her questioningly.
“Why did you call Dex? Why not come to me?”
His answer was swift and sure. “I knew he wouldn’t let you see it. I knew he would protect you from it, and take care of things.”
Fuck.
How did she say this? “I know Dex has inserted himself in our lives. But, Honey, he’s just a man I’m dating. He’s not my protector.”
Austin’s lips ticked upward, and he snorted. “Then you’re not paying attention.”
She dropped his hands and reared backwards. “I beg your pardon?”
“He’s got it bad for you.”
“Austin, I know this is the first time you’ve ever seen me
in a relationship, but you’ve got it wrong. Dex and I are in the get to know one another stage. I don’t know where we’re going to end up. I don’t want you to think this could end up permanent.”
Austin gave her a pitying look. “Believe what you need to believe. As a matter of fact, I don’t know why I even brought up the idea of us leaving. Your future is here. This fucker will be caught.”
She just stared at her child, wondering when she had lost control.
Chapter Eleven
It had been four days since the video had been sent to Austin. He’d talked a reluctant Kenna into requesting the entire week off. All of Austin’s homework assignments were now being sent to Clint Archer’s e-mail, then scrubbed and forwarded to Dex, scrubbed again then they came to Austin. Penny was more than happy catching up on her backlist of books on her kindle. That meant that two people in the Wright household were kept busy.
Dex was finding out a lot about Kenna’s personality, and number one was that she hated being idle. Jack and Beth’s house was neat as a pin, but it now looked brand new. Every nook and cranny sparkled. Kenna had even taken out every item from the cupboards and washed them, then she washed the interiors of the cabinets and put down new contact paper.
“Seriously, Kenna, you need to stop,” Dex admonished. “Beth is going to get a complex when she gets home. She’s going to think you thought she wasn’t clean.”
Kenna’s eyes got wide. “Oh my God, I’d never thought of that. What am I going to do? I threw away the old contact paper.”
Dex gave a tired laugh. This was not a good situation. They were all on pins and needles. Eventually, Kenna’s vacation would run out. He wasn’t worried about his time off because he had a plan...that he needed to talk to her about.
“Poppy, can you sit down for a moment?”
“I know that look. It’s not good. Has something happened? Has there been another murder?”
He cuddled her closer on the sofa. “Shit, I’m sorry. I’m going about this wrong. No, it’s nothing like that. I have to go to the base tomorrow. Hunter is coming over to help you with household chores. What do you have on the agenda, cleaning the crown molding?”
“Hunter? Why do we need anyone? Nobody knows where we are. That doesn’t make any sense.”
He pulled her closer, for a quick kiss. “Humor me.”
“No, seriously. I want to understand this. We’re safe here. Why should I need a Navy SEAL babysitting me when I wash the windows?”
He sat up straight. “This is a two-story house. You’re not planning on washing the windows, are you?”
“I was until you said that about Beth. Now stay on point, why do I need Hunter here if we’re safe? I thought you said we’re safe.” Her voice trembled just the slightest bit.
His hand caressed her bare arm, she had goosebumps, and he hated knowing they were from fear. “Poppy, you need to humor me. The world I live in, shit happens. So, I take precautions with what is mine. As a matter of fact, we need to talk about where we’re going next.”
“Jack and Beth are coming home next week,” she said softly. “I want to thank them for letting us have this place. If things were normal, I’d go and buy flowers and have champagne waiting for them in the fridge.” Her expression changed from frightened to pissed. “I am so sick of not being able to do one darn thing that is normal. You do realize you bought the wrong kind of tomato sauce for the meatloaf, don’t you? You won’t even let me go to the grocery store. I can’t depend on Hunter to pick up the right flowers for Beth,” her breath caught at the end.
“Baby―”
“No Dex, I can’t take it anymore.” She pushed up off the couch and marched into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not upset anymore, I’m mad.” She grabbed her purse and pulled out the new cell phone that he had purchased for her from the electronics store. She punched one of the keys.
“Detective Warren? This is Kenna Wright. Have you caught him yet?” Uh-oh, the poor guy better watch out.
“Put it on speaker, Baby,” Dex requested. She shook her head.
She listened to whatever Warren was saying.
“Well, have you found her body? Do you know who she is?”
She listened some more, her expression getting darker.
“For God’s sake, there was a video. Do I need to look at it and figure this out for you?” Her tone could strip paint.
She listened.
“What messages has he left on my cell phone? I want to hear them!”
Dex had enough of this shit. He held out his hand and matched her glare for glare. She didn’t hand him the phone, she put the phone on the counter and pressed the speaker button. Warren was talking.
“...point in you listening. It will just upset you.”
“Clive, this is Dex. Kenna put it on speaker.”
“Tell her she doesn’t want to hear those messages. You know they’ll just freak her out,” the detective said.
Kenna whirled. “You’ve heard them?! Goddammit, Dex! If you’ve heard them, why haven’t I? Just because you two have penises does not mean that you all are in charge. Dex is not the police so why in the hell has he heard these messages, and I haven’t, Clive?” She packed a great deal of derision in that last word.
“Kenna, calm down,” Dex said. “Clive here did not betray doctor patient privilege or whatever shit you want to call this. Clint is still listening into your calls.”
“I want to hear those tapes now.” She folded her arms over her chest.
“No,” Dex said immediately. “It serves no purpose.”
“I will not be a mushroom.”
Dex chuckled.
“What?” Clive asked.
“Kept in the dark and fed bullshit.”
“Oh.” Dex could tell that Warren didn’t know how to respond.
“Honest to God, what purpose would it serve?” Dex asked reasonably.
“I’d know what was going on. I need to know what’s going on! Don’t you understand?”
“He’s one of the men who pinged you on the dating site,” Dex answered. “I’m going through them every night. Clint and I both are. We’re eliminating as we go.”
“Wait just a damned minute, we’re taking care of this. Our techs are damn good,” Warren said. Dex could tell the man was pissed.
“We’ve seen their efforts. They’re missing things.”
There was a long pause. “You’ve hacked into our system?”
Now Dex was pissed. He leaned over the phone and said softly, “I asked to work with you. I asked nicely three different fucking times.”
“This is police business. You’re a Navy guy, go do Navy things.”
Kenna put her hand on Dex’s arm. It was nice, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to help the detective.
“Clive. I think we’re done here,” Dex said.
“Well did you and your friend find this out? We just got this information confirmed this morning. There are two missing women in the last two weeks who somewhat match who we saw in that video. One of whom was on the dating site. Betchya didn’t know that, now did you, big guy?”
He didn’t. It pissed him off.
“Did you know that there are five profiles using the same IP address? They all contacted Jean and Kenna. Did you know that this IP address was bounced to hell and back, but we finally found out it originated at a Starbucks in La Jolla?” Dex asked.
There was a long pause, then Warren sighed. “You win, we’ll share. I’ve got more. We’ve done a cross-check on our missing person database. Three months ago, there was another woman who went missing. She was on the CaliSingles dating site. Goddammit, we had a serial killer all along, and didn’t know it,” Warren said disgustedly.
“Why not?” Kenna asked.
“Her ex-husband had put her into the hospital twice. The detectives working the case have focused entirely on him, they never even noted that she was on the CaliSingles dating site in her case file. When w
e talked to them, they said they hadn’t scrubbed her files off her computer. Total negligence.”
“Are there any others? How far back have you looked? CaliSingles has been in operation for three years.” Dex looked over at Kenna she was pale and shivering. He put his arm around her.
“We’re pulling all of our missing women for the last three years and checking CaliSingles. Now tell me about the IP address. You think that our guy used five different profile names?” Warren asked.
“Yes. Clint is already putting together the time stamps so you can try to pick up any video they might have from the coffee shop. As a matter of fact, you should already have it in your e-mail,” Dex said dryly.
There was a pause. “You mean you were going to share this all along?”
Dex got pissed. “I was going to share this. This isn’t a goddamn pissing match. This is Kenna’s life for fuck’s sake.”
“Yeah, yeah. What was I thinking?”
Kenna jerked out of his arms. “Now with all of this information, can you get him?” she asked Warren.
“It’s a good start.”
“What do you mean start?” she cried. “The first woman was killed three months ago. Jean’s been dead for over three weeks. He just murdered someone on camera four days ago. How can you say you’re just starting?”
“Dammit, Kenna, you’re twisting it around. I just meant we’re in better shape at this moment than we were a half hour ago.”
“What did those text messages say? It’s because he can’t get to me, isn’t it?”
Fuck, how had she put that together, Dex wondered.
“Yes, he’s escalated since you’ve disappeared,” Warren confirmed.
“We don’t know that.” Dex glared at the phone. “Baby, he’s a psycho, he gets off on killing, he was doing it three months ago, way before you disappeared, way before you stopped taking his calls.”
“Dex,” she said softly, carefully. “When did the first e-mail come to me from this guy?”
Damn, he didn’t want to tell her. She stared him down.
“Ten months ago, you got the first one from one of his profiles.”
Her Devoted HERO (Black Dawn Book 2) Page 14