Sacred Evil (Krewe of Hunters)

by Heather Graham

  “Enough!” Jude rose, found the remote and changed channels until a National Geographic show on great blue whales appeared. Jude sank back down on the sofa, closing his eyes. Whitney set her own plate down, and took her seat by him again.

  “You’ll find the truth,” she told him. Her voice was filled with certainty.

  He took her hand and squeezed it. She remembered thinking that it would be nice to close her eyes as well.

  The next thing she knew, she woke up.

  Jude was slumped against the end of the sofa. She was slumped on top of Jude. No, she was cuddled up, curled against Jude. He felt warm and solid, vital and alive.

  Someone had put a blanket over them.

  He was still holding her hand, long, strong fingers threaded through her smaller, slimmer ones.

  As her eyes opened, so did his.

  Briefly, there was something different in the gray gaze he gave her.

  Something soft, and electric, at the same time.

  Desire.

  She knew that it had been mirrored in her own.

  And yet…

  There was wariness in his eyes as well.

  She looked away quickly. Well, he was a solid, white cop who was all hard evidence and facts; she was a woman of mixed heritage that included voodoo, and—oh—a ghost buster as well.

  No hope, no future…she thought.

  But, she realized with sadness, desire remained.

  11

  “Crosby! Hey!”

  Startled, Jude sat up, easing Whitney with him to a sitting position just as Ellis Sayer came hurrying into the room.

  “Yes, what is it, Ellis?” he asked. Whitney was trying to compose herself, smoothing down the now-wrinkled cotton blouse she wore beneath her tailored denim pantsuit.

  “I think I have something. Someone. I came here first—you didn’t pick up on the phone, and I figured you might be here.”

  Jude stood. The detective was making no sense. “Who do you have with you, and what did you find?”

  Ellis’s droopy hound-dog features actually shone for once.

  “Come to the porch,” he urged them.

  Jude stepped by him. In the hallway, Angela was still standing by the door, and Jude realized that she had opened the door to Ellis, who hadn’t said a word to her, but had surely seen him and Whitney on the sofa, and just marched right to them. Will was sitting at the bank of screens, looking as surprised as Angela.

  Angela still even had the door open. She stared at Jude, and then followed the trio out to the porch.

  Captain Tyler was standing there wearing a coat that had caped shoulders, much like the kind seen on the killer in every Jack the Ripper movie ever made.

  Captain Tyler’s eyes lit up as he saw Jude, and then Whitney.

  “Captain Tyler,” Whitney said. “You’re supposed to be at a veterans’ shelter.”

  Jude asked, “Captain Tyler, where did you get the coat?”

  Tyler looked confused, not sure who to answer first. “Do you have coffee? Food?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yes, of course,” Whitney said, taking his arm and glancing at Jude. He knew he could be too brusque, and that she had the right touch with Captain Tyler. Whitney had incredible sympathy for the downtrodden, and it seemed that her instincts were usually on the money. He nodded; he understood her silent warning. They needed to take this slowly.

  “First,” Jude said huskily, “we need that coat.”

  “We’ll find another one for you,” Whitney assured him.

  Tyler looked at them, and then shed the coat. Whitney quickly secured a garbage bag for the garment, hoping to preserve what evidence might be left.

  When it was safely sealed, Ellis Sayer let out a sigh of relief.

  “In this case,” he said quietly to Jude, “I didn’t want to drag him in, and we needed the damn coat, but he wouldn’t give it to me. I knew he meant something to you and to the case, of course, and that’s why I came straight here.”

  “Thanks, Ellis,” Jude said.

  “Of course,” Ellis told him.

  Jude set a hand on his shoulder.

  “He’s not our killer, but he may be an essential witness. And you’ll notice his condition. His mind is shot and we’ll have to handle him with kid gloves, so to speak.”

  “I figured,” Ellis said.

  Jackson was in the hallway when they entered the house. He glanced at Whitney, and then walked forward. “Welcome, sir,” he said to Captain Tyler.

  “Thank you, sir!” Captain Tyler offered a hand to Jackson. “Captain Tyler, retired, sir! And you are…?”

  “Jackson Crow. Please, we’d love to have you join us for breakfast.”

  Breakfast? They’d slept through the night? Jude wondered.

  That was bad, very bad. Except that it had been good. He could still recall his dreams. She’d been with him, and he’d been weary, but she had touched him, and in his dreams, she’d been naked, crawling over him. They’d made love passionately without a word, and he’d felt her against him, the pressure of her breasts against his arm, the softness of her body curved to his…

  The last had been true.

  The first…

  Good God, he could only pray that he hadn’t….

  What the hell was he thinking? They were as far apart in thought and belief as the sun and the moon.

  “Right this way, Captain Tyler, please!” Jackson said.

  They seated Captain Tyler at the breakfast table in the kitchen. Coffee was placed in front of him. “I’ll start the eggs,” Whitney said. “Do you like cheese in them? Ham?”

  “Oh, that would be delightful,” he said.

  Jude sat down across from the man. Ellis stood in the doorway, watching and patiently waiting. Whitney quickly went about scrambling eggs while Jackson popped bread in the toaster and Angela took a seat at the end of the table.

  “Captain Tyler, this is very important. You went to a veterans’ home, right?” Jude asked him. “The deputy chief told me that he’d make sure that you were helped there, and that someone would see to your records and a permanent shelter for you.”

  “Oh, yes, thank you. The police were wonderful,” Captain Tyler said, sounding entirely lucid.

  “So where did you get the coat?” Jude asked.

  “In a Dumpster off Broadway,” Captain Tyler said. “Of course, it’s not exactly up to standards in today’s style, but it’s warm. It’s a wonderful coat.”

  “Yes, it’s a wonderful coat,” Jude told him.

  Tyler stiffened. “Sir! It was my only coat now. I gave the pea jacket to old Harry, who hangs around the new subway station.”

  “I’m going to make sure you have a coat, maybe even a stylish new coat,” Jude told him. “But it’s very important that you tell me the exact location.”

  “In a Dumpster. About a block north of Trinity,” Captain Tyler said.

  “Thank you. Now, one more question, Captain Tyler,” Jude said. “How did you wind up back by Trinity if you were at a shelter in another borough?”

  Tyler’s white brows arched high, and then furrowed. His hands began to shake around his coffee cup.

  Jude reached out a hand and gently touched his. “Captain Tyler?”

  Tyler looked up at him. “I—I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t remember anything. I was at the home…there were very nice people there. I had a very long shower, and it was so good. I went to sleep, in a bed, with clean sheets. I…”

  “It’s all right…drink your coffee, Captain.” He looked down the table at Angela. “Jenna Duffy is an RN, right?”

  Angela nodded, rose and went into the hallway. They could hear her calling up the stairs. “Jenna? Are you awake? Could you come down, please?”

  The eggs were cooked; Jackson added toast to the plate Whitney prepared and she set it in front of Captain Tyler. “Don’t be upset. Just relax.”

  “Yes, just relax, Captain. Your memory will be better if you don’t force it.”

 
Jenna Duffy came into the kitchen. Angela indicated Captain Tyler.

  “Captain,” Jude said. “This is Agent Duffy, and she’s a nurse. She’s going to take a look at you, if she may.”

  Tyler saw Jenna and his eyes lit up with appreciation. “Yes!” he said simply.

  Jenna walked around the table to him. “I’m not going to hurt you, Captain Tyler. I just want to see your eyes, if I may?” She lifted his lids, studying the man’s bloodshot eyes.

  “Thank you,” she told him.

  “As you wish, young woman. Beautiful accent! Irish, of course,” he said.

  Jenna nodded.

  “My mother, bless her soul, was an Irishwoman!” Captain Tyler said.

  Jenna took his eggs away, and he stared at her like a child who had been slapped—through no provocation—by a parent. “He’s been drugged,” Jenna said. “I can’t tell you what is in his system, but I’d get some tests done on him before allowing him to eat anything.”

  “What?” Captain Tyler demanded.

  Jude stood. “Sir, I’m so sorry, but this is incredibly important. I have to take you to see a doctor.”

  “But I’m not sick! I’m hungry,” the man said, indignant.

  “I know, and I’ll get you food just as soon as I can.” Jude took Tyler’s arm and started out of the kitchen and along the hallway.

  “Ellis, can you drive us?” Jude said. “I’d thought we were dealing with his usual loopiness, but Jenna believes he was drugged.”

  “Of course. I go where you send me. Where to? Headquarters?”

  “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner,” Jude said.

  Captain Tyler balked. “But I’m not dead yet, young man!” he protested.

  “No, sir, of course not. They have wonderful laboratories there. And it won’t take long. And then we’ll get you something to eat.”

  “All right, all right. Just so long as you know that I’m really not dead yet,” Tyler said.

  As they walked, Jude spoke to Ellis, telling him to get his men busy on the Dumpsters that needed to be searched.

  “Jude, you know that we had Forensics all up and down the street the day that Virginia Rockford’s body was discovered. I swear, there was no Dumpster left unturned that day,” Ellis said.

  “I know. But it needs to be done again,” Jude told him.

  He got to Ellis’s unmarked simple black sedan and looked back. Whitney was at the door. He realized that they were both a mess; they hadn’t changed since they’d made the discovery in the foundations, dug into the earth, worked all day and fallen asleep on the sofa. If he was a mess, maybe she didn’t mind being a mess.

  “Agent Tremont?” he said.

  He saw Whitney look at Jackson; their team was tight. Jackson nodded, and Whitney hurried down the steps.

  “Agent Tremont will be with us. I’m getting accustomed to working with her,” Jude told Ellis.

  Jude slid into the backseat with Captain Tyler while Whitney sat up front with Ellis. It didn’t take them long to cover the distance to the Office of the Medical Examiner, only this time, Jude didn’t head for the morgue. Instead, he headed to the lab of Dr. Gil Sullivan, with whom he had worked many times before. Of course, he had usually brought him mysterious substances, rather than a living subject.

  Jude explained how Ellis had found Captain Tyler downtown, wearing the coat, and that, as Dr. Sullivan could well imagine, they needed the coat tested as well as Captain Tyler himself. The coat he would bring to One Police Plaza, but he was pretty certain Captain Tyler needed to be tested quickly.

  “Captain, how are you? I’ll be kind and quick,” Dr. Sullivan told him.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m retired navy myself, sir,” Sullivan assured Captain Tyler, leading him into one of the rooms where the captain could lie down on a white-sheeted bed.

  Jude, Whitney and Ellis were left in a small employee lounge. Jude dug in his pockets for change and found enough for three cups of watery coffee. Better than nothing at this point.

  “I should get going,” Ellis said. “I’ll get with the men on the Dumpsters.”

  “Great, thanks, Ellis. But get some rest, too. Either that,” he said ruefully, “or fall asleep on the job.”

  Ellis actually laughed. “Yeah, I’ll get some sleep somewhere along the line. Keep me posted on anything you need.”

  Whitney was surprised when he smiled at her. “Agent Tremont,” he acknowledged and nodded goodbye.

  When Ellis had gone, Jude sat next to Whitney. He had to smile. There was a large smudge of dirt on her cheek. He reached out with his thumb, rubbing it off. She watched him with her huge golden eyes as he did so. He started to speak, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but it didn’t matter, because his cell phone rang.

  It was Ellis Sayer on the line already as he was driving.

  “I’ve put a ‘Crosby needs it now!’ on the forensics for the limos,” Ellis said. “I have the drivers on alert that you’ll be talking to them. Right now, they’re making comparisons to tissue and blood samples from our Jane Does to the blood we’ve managed to extract from the foundations.”

  “The House of Spiritualism?”

  “We’ve got a twenty-four-hour watch on the property now. The bodies have all been…exhumed? Anyway, they’re at the morgue.”

  “Well, then, I’ll take a look while I’m here,” Jude told him.

  “I’m thinking that the coat probably came from the movie’s costume department. We’ve gone through every thing they had and haven’t found a thing,” Ellis said.

  “And they didn’t note that one was missing?” Jude asked.

  “All of theirs are present and accounted for—unless someone in costuming is lying,” Ellis told him.

  “Interesting. Thanks,” Jude said. He hesitated. “And no new victims yet?”

  “Not that we know about.”

  “Thanks, Ellis.” He was thoughtful a minute. “Let your men handle the Dumpsters. I need you to get to the veterans’ home where Captain Tyler was taken. I need to know exactly what he ate, if he was given any drugs, if anyone came to see him and exactly who reported to work and was in the building in the last twenty-four hours.”

  When they hung up, he knew that Whitney had heard the majority of the conversation.

  “What do you think?” he asked her.

  “About?”

  “The coat,” Jude said. “What’s the deal with costuming?”

  Whitney was thoughtful a minute. “They keep close tabs on costumes, they’re expensive. If one was missing and I were the wardrobe mistress…I have to admit, I’d think about lying. If a coat was missing and she hadn’t reported it, she—or he—could be in trouble. Trouble as in losing a job if it came up later that a costume had just disappeared and nothing was done.”

  “Could someone fix documentation?” he asked.

  She looked at him with a dry grin. “People can doctor just about anything.”

  Jude nodded thoughtfully. “This is crazy, though. I guess Ellis wasn’t supposed to have found the guy on the street that quickly.” He sighed. “With any luck, we can find out who drugged Tyler.”

  “With any luck,” Whitney agreed. They both knew that the personnel at the veterans’ hospital would be underpaid, understaffed and overwhelmed.

  Jude hoped that maybe a security camera of some kind had actually worked. As he mulled that over, Dr. Sullivan came out to speak with them.

  “You’ve something for me?” Jude asked.

  “Oh, yes, your Captain Tyler was drugged.”

  “With what, how and when?” Jude asked him.

  “GHB,” Dr. Sullivan said, “Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid. Essentially, it’s a date-rape drug.”

  “I know what it is,” Jude said softly. “Easy to mix up a batch…you don’t even have to be a chemistry major.”

  The doctor shrugged. “The government tries to control it, and it’s on the same lists as LSD and heroin. But, as you said, anyone can mix up a
batch in his or her kitchen.”

  “How did he ingest it?” Whitney asked.

  “With a cup of coffee, probably. Or a glass of water, maybe even a glass of juice.” Sullivan shook his head. “Here’s the real problem with the drug, of course. It erases memory. Sometimes, in rape cases, the women remember snatches of events, or maybe something like a one-frame picture of where they were. In some cases, the victims remember nothing at all. People have died from overdoses, so we’re lucky Captain Tyler is alive.”

  “It was planned that Captain Tyler be alive,” Jude said thoughtfully. “Dr. Sullivan, would you see that he gets some lunch and some rest? And I have to make some kind of arrangements for him. I don’t want Captain Tyler back on the streets, and I don’t want him back at the home. I—”

  “Hey, don’t fret on that,” Dr. Sullivan said. “I’ll bring him home for the night.” He grimaced. “My mother is in town. She needs someone to hover over other than me.”

  “That’s above and beyond,” Jude said. “I can find another shelter. I can even bring him in to the hospital for observation. I have a neighbor—”

  “He’ll be fine with me,” Sullivan assured him. “Honestly. I like the old codger. Who knows, maybe Mom will like him, too. She’s driving me insane, that’s for sure. I’m not expecting him to have any recall, but in case he does, I’ll know how to talk him through whatever memory may come back up, and I’ll contact you the second that I do.”

  “That’s great, then, thank you. I want to drop the coat off at my office, but I want to check up on the skeletal remains as well.”

  “Ah, yes! I heard about the find,” Dr. Sullivan said. “We’ve got bags here.”

  The remains from the House of Spiritualism were in an autopsy room, lined up one after another. The remnants of clothing had been carefully bagged and tagged.

  The bones looked lonely on the tables, sad and white, the empty-socket eyes seeming to stare out into space, like props at a movie set or a Halloween scare event. But they were real.

  Fullbright was there when they arrived. “Wouldn’t give up the supervision on this!” he assured them. “We’ve found plenty of nicks on the bones, and I’d bet a year’s pay that they were all nearly beheaded. Jack the Ripper strangled his victims. I believe that these women were awake and aware when their throats were slit. But we’ve only begun the work. We’ll know more when we’ve had more time.”