Cruel Water (Portland, ME, novels Book 2)

by Freya Barker

  “Actually I do. Disgusting. How did they get there?” I half expect Neil to make fun of me, but instead he looks concerned.

  “One of the sites you’ve visited has left something behind on your computer. An imprint that generates these links popping up. I want to have a look to see where it comes from.”

  “Go right ahead. I’ve gotta get back to Mrs. Winkler.” I wave my hand in his general direction, not even half understanding what he just told me.

  It isn’t until much later, when I’m lost in thought with my hands working the tension from my patient’s shoulder, that I realize Neil is going through my history with a fine tooth comb.

  Holy schnikes.

  *****

  Neil

  Oh, I’m pissed.

  No sooner had my hopes flared when Kendra agreed to let me help her move, or they deflated instantly on finding the links to the MatureDatingOnly website. She’d been busy. Fuck me. Here I am thinking I might finally be making some headway with her, convincing her that the age difference between us means fuck-all, when reality hits me in the face. I know I’m crossing a line when I check her emails for evidence of some douche nozzle trying to hook up with her, but I figure the end justifies the means. Nothing. Not a damn thing. Which probably means that she didn’t sign up with her clinic email, because beautiful, and fucking funny as she is, there’s no way she wouldn’t have had any interest. Christ.

  I just finished clearing all the crap from her history as well as cleaning up her drive, when my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out and see Gus’ number, swearing softly at the site of my boss’s name on the screen. I was about to go talk to her about accessing questionable websites. Frustrated I slide my thumb across the screen.

  “Yeah?”

  “Neil, you almost done? Meeting in my office in twenty.”

  “On my way.”

  Slipping the phone back in my jeans, I quickly finish installing the upgraded firewall and log off. With one look back at the still closed door of her treatment room, I pull her office shut and head for the front desk, where Naomi is just showing her patient out.

  “You done?”

  “Didn’t take much,” I tell her. “Yours is up and running, was just a glitch with the automatic updates, and Kendra’s is cleaned up. She’s still in with Mrs. Winkler so I’ll catch up with her later.”

  “Thanks, Neil.” She smiles at me and it hits me again how fucking lucky my colleagues at GFI are. Every last one of them has found their match and are building a future. Fuck, how I want that. I’ll admit, I’ve had fun sewing my wild oats, but I’ve been long done with that. Left that part of my life behind when I came here from Grand Junction, but every good woman that has crossed my path has been snatched up from under my nose before I had a chance to move. The one I’ve wanted since meeting her is determined to keep me at a distance. Fuck, I almost lost a good friend to this stupid hang up of hers.

  I shake my head to clear the frustrations and bend down to kiss Naomi’s cheek. “No problem, Doc. I’ve gotta run, though, duty calls.” With two-fingered wave, I step out the clinic into the warm spring sunshine. Damn, it’s gonna be good being able to get out again. Winters can be brutal and make the terrain traitorous but with this warmer weather, I can’t wait for a chance to try out my new ATV on the trails.

  I’m at Gus and Emma’s place, also the GFI main office, in about five minutes. It takes that long to get from one end of town to the other. I used to think I’d need a larger place to keep me busy, but since my first trip to Cedar Tree, it has never been boring. For a small town like this, they sure see a lot of action, which is why Gus, after our fist case here ended, moved the office from Grand Junction to here. Of course the fact that that first case netted him his wife, Emma, helped make that decision. The first years I stayed mostly in Grand Junction to run the office there with Dana, our office manager and resident mother. But she has since retired and Gus decided to close down that office. I started out in the guesthouse behind their house, but have recently moved into the apartment above the local diner, Arlene’s. She and her husband Seb have become good friends, as have all the other members of the GFI team. Two more members have been added since the office here opened. Joe Morris, Naomi’s husband and the former sheriff of Montezuma County, and Mal Whitetail, Caleb’s brother. Of course Caleb and his wife Katie have both been operatives longer than I have.

  By the looks of the cars assembled in the driveway, everyone has been called in. When I walk in the door, the unmistakable smell of baking greets me. Emma, Gus’ wife, is our resident baker and will use any damn excuse to shove a pie or some pastries in the oven, even an emergency GFI meet.

  She leans against the counter, wiping her hands on her apron and wearing a big ass smile. “Hey handsome.”

  “Hey,” I smile back. “I swear, if Gus didn’t force us to hit the gym at least twice a week to stay in shape, you’d have all of us sporting guts with your need to feed.”

  Emma flaps her hand. “Whatever, it’s just a few cinnamon rolls. You guys look like you might be in there for a while and I didn’t have time to make soup in time for lunch. Gus just got the call forty-five minutes ago. You better get in there.”

  I wrap an arm around her neck and pull her close, planting a kiss on her fiery mop of auburn curls. “You’re the best, Ems.”

  “Coffee in the boardroom,” she yells after me when I turn into the hallway attaching the kitchen to the addition in the back that holds the GFI offices.

  “Neil, good. Sit. FBI is gonna be here in fifteen and I want to get you guys up to speed.” Gus sits at the head of the massive boardroom table with my partners along the sides. I slip in a vacant chair beside Katie, giving her a wink as I sit down.

  “Damian Gomez, as you know, is now leading the field office for La Plata County. He called in asking for our help. He’s short on staff, been working almost single-handedly on the disappearance of a number of women from this general area.”

  “How general?” Joe pipes up. He’s the one with all the law-enforcement connections and I can hear the wheels turning. Gus turns to him.

  “For now, limited to La Plata County, but with feelers out further. Once he brings in copies of what he has, we can talk about what it is we’re looking for in terms of matching cases up with other jurisdictions. For now, let me tell you that there are five women missing. All are between twenty-five and forty. Four were single, one married, and as of this morning, three bodies, two who’d been there for a while and one fresh body, that would be number six, were found. A hiker who was out early this morning stumbled on the bodies when he tripped and slid off the trail and down a twelve-foot ridge. He found them at the bottom, between a pile of sizable boulders. According to Damian, they looked to have been dumped there. The latest victim appears to have been there only a few days at most. Police is looking at getting her identified. All appear to be women.” Gus stands up, turns to the window and runs his hand through his hair. “We’ve had our share of trouble in this region, but if Damian is correct, this could be the first serial killer of this caliber since fucking Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgeway made Colorado unsafe.”

  “Have mercy,” Mal breathes from the other side of the table.

  “No shit. We’ll need it,” his brother Caleb adds.

  The door opens and Emma pushes her walker in, a tray of sandwiches and the freshly baked cinnamon buns balancing on top. Behind her, FBI Special Agent Damian Gomez walks in toting a case of bottled water and a stack of files.

  “She got you working?” Gus smirks, looking at his wife appreciatively. He and Damian go back a ways and not all of it very good, but in recent months, since Damian’s taken over the Durango office, things have settled down a bit.

  Damian’s grudging smile and raised eyebrow is his only response. Mal takes the tray from Emma and sets it on the table, while Damian adds the case of water.

  “Thanks, Damian,” Emma smiles up at him, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek. Something that obvio
usly surprises him and stirs up Gus, whose low guttural growl can be heard clearly. “Oh geeze, Gus,” she turns on her husband, one hand on her walker for balance, the other resting on her hip. “Put your balls away, will ya? We all know they are exceptionally large. Now eat!” With that, she shuffles out of the room.

  “Well. Now that that’s been established, grab something to eat and let’s get this show on the road. I’ll just be one minute,” Gus says, as he pushes his chair back and stalks out the door behind Emma. Most of us have a knowing grin on our faces, except for Damian, who looks a bit confused.

  “Just go with it,” Katie tells him with a smirk, as she offers him a bottle of water. By the time Damian is done giving everyone a file folder, Gus comes walking back in, a satisfied look on his face.

  “All right,” Damian starts. “Six missing women, three bodies recovered this morning. The latest one, Cora Jennings, was a nurse at Mercy General in Durango. The report on her was only filed this morning by her supervisor at Mercy. She apparently had a date two days ago, didn’t show up the next day and when her supervisor couldn’t get hold of her, she went to check her apartment. The woman’s car was gone and no one answered the door. Durango PD is over there now waiting for the landlord to show up with the key so they can get in. We suspect the third body found on Smelter Mountain was that of Cora. It hadn’t been out there long. All bodies were partially dressed. Looks like their clothes were neatly cut open along the front. They look to have been violated and the cause of death appears to be strangulation. The coroner will make a report hopefully by the end of today on the latest victim. He’ll also be able to confirm her identity, but we’re pretty sure it’s Cora.” He sits back and gives us time to scan over the pages in the file.

  “Jesus,” Joe says. “Are we sure, aside from the bodies of course, that all six of them fell victim to the same perp? Better yet, are we sure six is all there is?”

  “That’s where I’m hoping you guys can help out. Other than the three bodies, I don’t even know for sure the others, still technically listed as missing, are connected. I need someone run a ViCAP search, see if any similar cases might be linked, and then follow up with whatever police department. Then I need sharp eyes on patterns, similarities, anything in the victims profiles that overlaps. Anything that may give us a starting point on this guy.” Damian gets up and checks his watch. “I have to run. Autopsy scheduled in an hour and a half and I want to be there. I’ll be in touch.” With that he’s gone.

  “Have a bad feeling about this one.” Mal is the first to speak.

  “Right,” Gus breaks in. “Neil, you run ViCAP.”

  “I’m on it,” I tell him, my laptop already open to the sign in page.

  “The rest of you, run through the files you have and start digging for similarities.”

  Katie is shifting in her seat beside me. “I may have found one,” she says, flipping back and forth between the profiles of the six women. All of them appear to work in the medical field in one capacity or another.”

  I grab the file and shift through the papers. Sure enough, a pharmaceutical rep, two nurses, a medical secretary at a private clinic, an anesthesiologist and an ultra-sound technician.

  Gus gets up, walks to the dry erase board up on the far wall and starts writing. “Neil, add that to your search and include all of the Four Corners region. Joe, make a note of all the reporting officers on each of these profiles and find out as much as you can about each of these victims. Mal, I want you to follow Gomez back to Durango. Get any information that comes out of that autopsy and keep us up to date. I want you to be our eyes and ears there. The rest of you, keeping going through these files with a fine tooth comb. Going just by what we have this guy has been at it for over a year. God knows how many are out there. Let’s stop that fucker now.”

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Cruel Water (a Portland, ME, novel, #2)

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  NOTE FROM AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY FREYA BARKER

  COMING SOON