by Penny Childs
“You think you had it bad? I had to lay there and listen to you fill that damn tub with a hot bubble bath and imagine you slipping in it with a glass of wine and a book. A book!”
Chuckling, she said, “Well it’s a little late for a bath tonight, but maybe I could trade in the book tomorrow for you. My tub is plenty big enough for two.”
Twelve
Renee poked Craig in the ribs with her elbow and jerked her head toward Mel and Trevor. “Check that out,” she whispered.
Craig glanced to where Mel stood, pen in hand, writing on the wall occasionally as Trevor read something to her off the sheet of paper he held. What caught Renee’s attention was Trevor coming to stand beside Mel so close they were touching. When he pointed something out on the paper he leaned in so close his chest touched her arm.
“What?” Craig asked.
“You ever see them stand that close to each other without her threatening to kill him?”
Craig shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe she took my advice.”
Renee raised her brows. “You advised her to start sleeping with him?”
“No!” he whispered harshly. “I wouldn’t tell her to do something like that. I just told her to figure out a way to get along with him so the rest of us could focus on our jobs instead of pending explosions.”
“Well, they are definitely sleeping together.”
Craig stared at them for a moment longer, then decided that even if they were, he didn’t want to know about it. He loved Mel like a big sister and did not like the thought of her getting involved with Trevor again. He had obviously hurt her once. Chances were he would do it again.
Renee saw the way Trevor was looking at Mel and sighed. She had no doubt that they had become lovers again. The question was; would it be a good thing or a bad thing? She worked in the same building and went to a lot of the same hang outs as Trevor did and she had seen him with plenty of women. And never had she seen him with that look in his eyes. He looked…utterly enchanted.
“Is there a problem, Renee?” Trevor asked, catching her staring at him.
“Huh? Oh, no, I was just thinking.” Quickly, she looked back down at the report.
“Gory murder scenes might not be her thing, but she has a good eye,” Mel observed, going to sit on the edge of the table.
“Yeah, I didn’t think we were being that obvious, but she seems to know,” he said, sitting beside her and looking at the additions they had made so far.
“I’m not looking at you like something I found stuck to the bottom of my shoe anymore. And you’re sitting so close we might as well be touching. I’d say we’re being plenty obvious.”
“Oh. Well, I guess they have to deal with it, then.”
“I guess they do.”
Daring to look at them again, Renee said, “Mel, that footprint you found in the blood? I have the preliminary finding here.”
“Let’s hear it,” she said, interested. Something about it still bothered her.
Reading off the screen of her laptop, she said, “Size six and a half women’s shoe or boot. From the pattern of the tread they’re leaning toward some type of winter boot. No brand yet.”
“Women’s boot?” Craig asked. “Are you saying this killer is a woman?”
“I’m not saying anything. I’m just reading you what the report says,” Renee said somewhat defensively.
“No woman could have hauled that guy up and hung him from that beam. That guy went at least two hundred and thirty pounds,” Craig said, shaking his head.
“Well someone, a woman from the looks of it, walked through the blood while it was still wet. That’s the only way that footprint got there. There were also two more; same print.”
Trevor was watching Mel and not listening to them argue. Her face had gone from thoughtful to horrified. “Mel, what is it?”
“I thought I’d misplaced them in the basement. Stuck them in a box when I moved or gotten rid of them by accident when I took stuff to Goodwill last time.”
“Mel, what are you talking about?” He got off the table and moved around in front of her. She was not making any sense.
“Craig,” she called.
“Yeah, boss?” He didn’t like the look of her when she turned and met his eyes.
“Have them check to see if those were Ranger Extreme boots.”
“Okay,” he said a little uncertainly.
“Mel? Why would you think that?” Renee asked.
“Because I’m missing a pair of size six and a half winter boots.” Rubbing her face, she said, “I’ve been missing them since last October, as near as I could tell. I looked all over the place and figured I must have misplaced them or gotten rid of them by accident during the move. I had to go out and buy another pair.”
Renee was already on her phone.
“You think those were your boots that made those prints?” Trevor asked.
“I’d bet you an entire year’s salary they were. I couldn’t figure out what it was that kept bothering me about those footprints. Now I know. I had seen them before. In my own back yard, when I was wearing the damn things.”
“You mean to tell me this whack job broke into your house six months ago and stole a pair of your boots to use in a crime he hadn’t even committed yet?”
“That’s what it looks like,” she said, not knowing of any other explanation.
“But why?” Renee asked, off the phone.
“Either to implicate her, to throw us off, or just to remind us of how smart he is,” Trevor offered.
“Well, someone was actually wearing those boots, folks. They checked because they thought it was odd too. There was weight in the shoes consistent with a person walking.”
Mel hopped off the table. “Trevor, I need to see you in my office.”
Ignoring the curious looks from Craig and Renee, they both walked out.
When they were alone in her office she closed the door and said, “What are the odds that we have two killers working together?”
“Two?”
“Yes. One of them is definitely male. The strength required to commit some of these murders alone tells us that. I also know one is male, I felt it when I touched that damn lamp. Male strength, power.” She shook her head. “But we now know a woman was there while David Wells was being killed, or right after he died.”
Though he didn’t like where this was going, he had to concede that. “It certainly looks that way.”
“Someone didn’t just wander through there and keep walking. Not in winter boots in the spring. Not in my winter boots.”
“For one thing, we don’t know for sure those were your boots. Or, maybe he’s already taken his next victim and he made her walk through there,” he suggested.
“If that’s the case, I think he would have had to drag her through there. She wouldn’t have been able to look at what he’d done to David Wells without coming unglued.” The footprints had been pristine. Deliberate. No drag marks.
“Okay, I buy that.”
“Trevor, Julius Becker had a female accomplice. She helped him lure his victims and she liked to watch.”
Trevor clenched his teeth together.
“You were never able to find her.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“You know what I’m suggesting. She was my size. What if she’s the one behind the killings? Maybe she found a guy willing to do them for her again so she could watch.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Mel. It’s a reach.”
“So are my footprints at the scene of that crime.”
“All right.”
“We need to know if David Wells had been seeing a woman right before he disappeared. If he was and it was her, she may have lured him to the killer.”
“I can have Renee call his sister.” The thought of this woman from their past coming back to haunt them gave him a chill. Worse than that. It gave him a sense of foreboding. Of dread.
“I also want to go to his house, Trevor. I
want to see if I can get anything.”
“You sure about that?”
“Positive.”
“Then I’ll get a hold of Bill and have him set it up.”
“I want to go today.” Time, she knew, was of the essence. She had already let one victim slip through her fingers. She didn’t want to do it again. There would be another. Soon.
Nodding, he pulled his phone out and began making his calls.
They sat in the rental car in David Wells’ driveway, looking at the house. She hadn’t made a move to get out of the car yet, so he just waited patiently in the driver’s seat. He had a feeling she was trying to get her nerve up. “His sister was a little confused when I told her that we needed to be here alone,” he remarked.
“Well, I see you charmed her into it.”
“Yeah, I’m a real charmer,” he agreed with a wry grin. “At any rate, the house should be unlocked. We just lock up when we leave.”
“What did you tell her to get her to agree, anyway?” she asked curiously.
“I told her we were bringing in a psychic and she might not want to hear some of the things that might be said.”
“You told her the truth,” Mel said with an appreciative smile.
“Sometimes it works. I couldn’t think of any other valid reason to exclude her, to be honest. I didn’t want her thinking we were going to tamper with anything.”
Grabbing the door handle, Mel pushed it open and got out of the car. “Well, let’s see just how much truth you told her.” She looked around the neighborhood. The houses were too close together for her taste and she could see into the neighbor across the street’s living room. They appeared to be watching a baseball game on the big screen. “His sister didn’t think he was seeing anyone. I’ll bet one of his neighbors would know more than her about that. I don’t think you could fart here without one of them hearing it.”
Trevor looked around and saw a young man in the house next door looking out a window, watching them. He stared openly, cell phone in hand.
Mel saw him too. “I told you to wear the FBI jacket. One of these people is going to call the cops.”
“I have that covered. Bill called the local cops to let them know we would be here.” He gave her a grin as they started for the front door. “You just wanted to see me in the jacket.”
“There are many ways I would like to see you Trevor. With more clothes on is not one of them.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her as he reached for the door knob, turned it and pushed the door open. He could tell at the moment she was avoiding touching anything. She would want as few distractions as possible.
The house was a small ranch style home. It was kept neat to the point of obsession. He wondered if David had kept it this way or if his sister had come by and cleaned it up, knowing people would be going through it.
Allowing herself to open up to the things around her slowly, she said, “He was the neat freak.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t sound surprised. You know how this works. If you have any deep dark secrets, you better not think too loudly about them right now.” Now that they had become lovers again, she could pick things up from him without much effort. She walked into the kitchen, which was by far the largest room in the house. Pots and pans hung from a rack suspended from the ceiling over a marble topped island in the middle. “He had this part of the house remodeled. He lost the dining room, making it part of the kitchen. But it was worth it to him, for the space it gave him to cook.”
“His sister said he was an amateur chef.” He couldn’t help feeling exposed at the moment. He thought he could actually feel her drawing energy from the air around herself. “Are you okay, Mel? It’s been a while since you’ve let yourself go like this.”
“I’m okay,” she said, sounding distracted. She didn’t “see” things unless she was directly connected to someone. In situations like this, she just knew things, information just came to her, sometimes so much at once she had a hard time filtering it. Since David Wells had lived here alone, she had an easier time filtering for the most part. “He invited a woman over for dinner. He was pretty excited about it. He met her jogging in the park. He jogged every morning without fail, no matter how sick he was. He even jogged when he broke his arm rock climbing.”
Trevor kept a close eye on her as she walked around the island, eyes unfocused and distant, skin pale. “Mel. Be careful.” He didn’t want her to open up too much for fear of her overloading her brain and body. She was too far out of practice.
“I will,” she told him, still walking the circle.
He remembered that about her. She seldom sat still while she was open; she seemed to need to move. He always thought it was so she could burn off the energy she was taking in. Balance. Energy in. Energy out.
“He had her park in his garage because it was supposed to rain and she had told him she didn’t like leaving her car out in the rain. It was a new BMW.” She shook her head. That detail would not matter now. The car had been stolen in the first place. It was long gone by now. “She had someone with her, hiding in her car.”
He saw Mel’s breathing starting to quicken. “Mel, you still with me?”
“Yeah. She brought a bottle of wine. It was drugged.” She stopped on the far side of the island from Trevor. “He passed out right here. The man with her came in and dragged David out. She cleaned up the glasses and took the extra setting off the table so no one would know he had been expecting company.” Gripping the edge of the counter, she squeezed her eyes shut. “Trevor.” Her voice carried a desperate quaver of fear. She was trying to shut down now and couldn’t. The years she had spent not allowing herself to fully utilize her ability was beginning to take its toll on her.
He knew what she wanted and came forward, turning her and taking her hands in his, providing her with the physical link she needed to stay grounded.
Slowly, she felt herself coming back, his touch an anchor to the here and now. Her breathing slowed, her panic diminished. Blinking, she opened her eyes and gave him a tiny smile.
“You okay?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve let it go like that. I’ll be okay in a minute.” She leaned heavily against the marble topped counter and took in deep, calming breaths.
“Could you tell if it was the same woman?”
“Not for certain this time. I’ll have to get into her head to know for sure and I don’t think I better try that right now.”
He watched her, laid out across the back seats sleeping. She had fallen asleep even before they had taken off, exhausted. He spread a blanket over her and leaned down, kissing her temple lightly. She did not stir. She looked so small and vulnerable to him that he at first could not pull himself away from her.
Finally, moving toward the front of the jet so as not to disturb her, he pulled out his phone and made a call to Bill.
“Is everything okay, Trevor?”
“Everything is fine, Bill. She’s sleeping like a baby.”
“Did she get anything?”
“Shit, Bill, I’ve never seen anything like it. She used to be strong, but this was unreal. I could feel the energy around her.” He glanced back at her. “Once she does this a couple more times I don’t think it’ll wear on her like it did this time, either.”
“What did she get?”
“There are definitely two of them working together. A male and a female. I have to believe she’s right and it’s the same woman that was working with Becker. It’s too much of a coincidence otherwise.” Women serial killers were not a common thing. And this one had seemed to be drawn toward Mel. Again.
“If that’s the case, what do you think she’s after?”
Trevor sat down in an aisle seat and looked out a window, though the sky outside was dark. He thought he caught a glimpse of lightning in some far off clouds. “That’s hard to say. I’d just be guessing.”
“That’s not a stretch for you. You have pretty solid guesses. Let’s hear ‘em.”
“Right off hand I’d say she’s the actual mind behind the killings. She tells her partner what to do and he does it. For the most part. I think she has to let him go off on his own a little, like with David Wells’ eyes. My guess is he wanted them and she let him take them, kind of as a reward for doing a good job.” He turned in his seat to look back at Mel, still lying on her side with the blanket over her, sleeping soundly. “I don’t think this is about me or Mel, I think it’s about both of us. She wants to punish Mel for getting away the first time and me for killing Julius. I’m not exactly sure what the relationship between this woman and Julius was, but I’ll have Renee start digging when we get back. Whatever it was, she didn’t like losing him.”
“Then why not come after you directly?”
“What fun is that? She wants the anticipation, on her end and ours. I think she’s been planning this for a very long time. Christ, she stole the boots out of Mel’s house six or more months ago. She’s letting us know what it is she has planned for Mel, so that she’ll be afraid.”
“Okay, but what does she have planned for you then?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Bill. It could be a number of things. Most probably she wants me to fail to save Mel this time and have to live with it. Or, she plans on killing me. In any event, I don’t intend to find out the hard way.”
“What about Mel? Can she get inside this crazy bitch’s head?”
“I believe that’s what she is going to try next, Bill.” He had thought that’s what he wanted at first, now he was not so sure he liked the idea.
“Then you must be getting along a little better if she’s going to trust you to be her anchor,” Bill ventured.
“Yes.” He thought of last night and he thought of a soft, feminine bedroom that no one would guess of her. Soft sheets, a plush comforter, bottles of scents on a dresser with a large mirror, an ornate lamp and the biggest tub he thought he’d ever laid eyes on. He smiled at her sleeping form.