Left to Die

by Rita Herron

He searched deeper and found information about her family. Born to Mildred and Herman Jenkins, she was an only child whose father was a judge. Her mother was an interior decorator. Probably the reason she’d used a design career as her cover story.

  A reporter named Lynn Wellman had covered the couple’s murder and included family photographs of the couple together with Jade as a child. One picture showed her sitting on her father’s lap, doing the Sunday crossword puzzle just as she’d described.

  He skimmed for details of their murder. According to the investigating officer, Detective Roger Stint, the couple had been killed in what first appeared to be a home invasion. The fact that the wife’s expensive jewelry and silver hadn’t been stolen, though, indicated robbery wasn’t the motive. The judge’s safe had been opened, yet cash left inside.

  The judge’s secretary stated that Judge Jenkins often carried photocopies of important documents and files home to review, and that he kept those in a home safe. The fact that he’d sentenced numerous convicted felons to prison opened up a wide suspect pool.

  Persons of interest in the case included a gang member who’d been sentenced to life. However, police couldn’t prove gang involvement. Another suspect was the father of a convicted rapist who insisted the girl got what she deserved.

  Scumbag.

  But the father had a rock-solid alibi for the time of the double homicide.

  Later, the crime team matched a partial fingerprint lifted from the back door to a man named Otis Rigley, who was then being tried for his wife’s murder. Rigley had a list of arrests a mile long. He’d killed the Jenkins couple so the judge’s death would cause a mistrial. While awaiting a new trial, Rigley was out on bond. Then he’d suddenly disappeared.

  Finally, the following June, he was stopped on a routine traffic violation. The officer ran his name and realized he’d skipped bail. So Rigley was arrested and this time convicted.

  After serving twenty years of his life sentence, he had been paroled just a month ago.

  Fletch tensed. Rigley was the man Jade had shot. The man who’d shot him.

  Fletch drummed his fingers on the counter. As a lawyer, Halls had connections to police officers, parole officers, PIs, and inmates and ex-cons.

  What if Halls had arranged for early parole for Rigley, then hired him to kill Jane?

  Jane’s—Jade’s—face flashed in Fletch’s mind. Jade as the little girl whose parents had been brutally killed in her own home. Jade hearing the gunshots and her mother’s screams.

  Jade discovering their bodies and calling 911 the next morning.

  She’d been sent to live with her grandmother, but lost her at age nineteen.

  Then she’d been truly alone.

  A hollow ache dug at his gut.

  Now she was alone out there again. Looking for the truth. Justice. Battling a ruthless killer who wanted her dead.

  Her job as a cop explained her toughness. And her instincts that Halls couldn’t be trusted.

  But she was still vulnerable, and a serial killer was after her. A serial killer who looked normal. One who no one would suspect if they saw him with Jade.

  * * *

  FEAR TWISTED JADE’S gut inside out, but she fought its vile clutches. She would not give in to fear. And she would not die at this madman’s hands.

  He had killed Louie. Her partner. Her friend.

  Along with six other people so far.

  Seven if the vile smell emanating from the house was what she suspected.

  “So,” she said, determined to get him to spill his guts before he did hers. “You discovered your wife was cheating on you and that made you angry.” She offered him a sardonic smile. “What happened? Did your long hours get to her? Didn’t you give her enough attention? Or was she just a whore who became bored and liked to sleep around?”

  Rage flared in his eyes and he drew back his hand and slapped her across the cheek. The sting smarted, but she clenched her teeth to keep from crying out.

  The last time they’d fought, he’d won. Today the outcome was going to be different. It had to be.

  “I did not neglect that woman,” Halls said bitterly. “I gave her everything. A beautiful home, fancy clothes, expensive jewelry and elaborate vacations. But she didn’t appreciate my hard work.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Jade said, playing along. She had to stall. “She took you for granted, enjoyed the nice things you gave her. Then she was selfish and wanted more, didn’t she?”

  “Exactly,” he snarled as he waved his gun in front of her face. “Just like those other bitches. Their stupid, pathetic husbands were like me. They sacrificed their time and worked hard to provide, but their wives were spoiled and demanded more and more.”

  “After a while, nothing you did was enough,” Jade guessed. “The country club dinners and wine and parties weren’t exciting anymore. So your wife went looking for fun on the side.”

  Halls began to pace, his features lined with agitation, his movements jerky. “She did. After all I sacrificed to make her happy, she was an ungrateful bitch.” He paused and stared at her, anger oozing from his pores. “I even gave up criminal work and accepted divorce cases to have more time for her. And then she lied to me, just like all women lie.” He waved the gun toward her. “That’s one thing my job taught me. You can’t trust anyone in a skirt.”

  Jade resisted the urge to snap at him for his sexist remark. “I’m not a liar,” she said. “If I was married, I would never cheat on my husband.”

  “Hell, you’re the worst kind,” Halls shouted. “You lied about being married! I watched you play the part in front of all those other couples.” He gripped her arm, fingers digging into her skin painfully. “You’re so good at it, you fooled them all. Because that’s what you do. You lie to get what you want. You entrap people with your lies. You lie to suspects and even to the victims when you tell them everything will be okay.” He shook her. “But nothing is okay when you’re lied to.”

  Jade forced her voice to remain calm as she mentally struggled to formulate a plan. She was a detective, she knew how to do that.

  And she and Louie had narrowed the suspects down to focus on Halls.

  What else did she know about him?

  He dragged her toward the back of the house down the hallway. The stench of death grew stronger, nauseating, permeating the air.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You’ve punished your wife. She paid for her sins.”

  “And you’re going to pay for yours.”

  * * *

  FLETCH HAD BEEN pacing for over an hour, but still no word from his brothers or Jade.

  Dammit, he was about to lose his mind.

  He snatched his keys to start hunting but realized that would be foolish. He had no idea where she’d gone.

  Or where to find Halls.

  His phone buzzed, and he lurched toward the bar to answer it. Jacob.

  Please, dear God. Let it be good news. Please let his brother be calling to say they’d found Halls and arrested him. And that Jade was alive.

  His pulse hammered as he connected the call. “Jacob?”

  “Yeah. You’re on speaker with me and Liam.”

  Fletch released a ragged breath. “What did you find?”

  “Sorry, we haven’t found her yet,” Liam said. “But we may be getting closer.”

  Fletch stepped onto the back deck and stared into the thick pockets of woods. He’d met Jade in a blizzard and they’d both nearly died. But they had survived.

  She had to survive this time.

  “Go on,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Jacob spoke first. “A report just came in. Stolen pickup truck a few miles from your cabin. Gray, rusted out, nineteen eighty model.” He recited the license plate.

  “Did the owner see who stole it?” Fletch asked.


  “No, it was parked by his barn near the road. A BOLO has been issued. Truck was spotted due north about a half hour ago.”

  Fletch racked his brain. He knew the area. Countryside. Farms. Roads weaving past small towns as they snaked up the mountains.

  “Could be teenagers,” Jacob said.

  Fletch ran a hand through his hair. He had a feeling. “It’s her.”

  “Where the hell is she going?” Liam asked.

  Fear clawed at Fletch as the truth dawned. “Back to that cabin where Halls took her. She wants answers and is going after them herself.”

  Alone. With no backup.

  Dammit, he had to find her. “I’ve looked for other properties Halls owns but had no luck. Did you find something?”

  “A crime team is going over his house from top to bottom. So far, nothing about another property or anything pointing to him as the CK.”

  Jacob cut in, “Halls’s secretary has been helpful. Said Halls used to be calm, orderly, good with clients, meticulous with the details of his cases. But when he discovered his wife was cheating on him, he started acting differently.” Jacob paused. “He became enraged for his clients, sympathized with husbands claiming infidelity on their wives’ parts.”

  “Fits with the CK’s MO, the C carved on the women’s palms,” Liam said.

  “Right.” Jacob heaved a breath. “I did find a link to the PI. Odd thing is that he didn’t work for Halls. He was working for the daughter of one of Halls’s victims. He was on Halls’s scent. So Halls either killed him or had him killed.”

  Fletch filled them in on what he’d learned about the Jenkins’s double murder. “Rigley was sent to finish Jade. He probably killed the PI as well, because he was getting too close to the truth.”

  “That fits. I’m alerting all law enforcement agencies to look for Halls,” Liam said. “As of today, he’s on our Most Wanted list.”

  Jacob cleared his throat. “Now we just have to figure out where he’s going.”

  Fletch worked Search and Rescue. He knew the mountains. The trail.

  “Let me know if you find an address for a second property.”

  “Copy that. I’ll look into the wife and her family. Property might be under her name.” Jacob disconnected, and Fletch walked over to the corkboard above his desk and studied the map on the wall.

  He inserted a pushpin at his location, then another at the address where the truck was stolen, and analyzed the roads in the area.

  Halls might take Jade to a second home if he had one. Or...in desperation, he might kill her and dump her on the side of the road or off the mountain. Somewhere no one would ever find her.

  God... He pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t let that happen.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Fletch’s keys jangled in his hand as he scribbled a note to Jade telling her he was looking for her, that if she showed up, to hide in his house and call him.

  But he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. He wanted to be nearer where that truck was last spotted, in case Jacob or Liam learned a location for a second property or Jade was seen by the police.

  He spread his map on the console. He knew these mountains better than anyone and had a good idea where that truck was heading. At least the general direction. There were hundreds of cabins tucked away to the northeast of Whistler, where skiing and whitewater rafting were popular.

  That cactus-shaped formation of rocks seemed familiar.

  He relied on his built-in GPS to showcase the roads as he drove. Impatience nagged at him as he encountered traffic, and he maneuvered around a minivan and a pickup carrying farm supplies. Two teens on motor scooters sped down the shoulder of the road, weaving in and out of traffic, on a joyride.

  Once upon a time, he and his brothers had been daredevils, too. Truthfully, he still was, to a degree.

  But losing both parents so quickly had taught him how precious life could be. That a loved one could be swiped from you in a second.

  Jane’s face flashed behind his eyes. Jade—not Jane.

  Jade...a loved one?

  Hell, he knew he cared about her. And the idea of losing her terrified him.

  * * *

  JADE SWALLOWED BACK bile at the strong odor of blood and death permeating the walls of the cabin.

  Her ears were ringing where Halls had slammed her head against the hard wall.

  “She’s here, isn’t she?” Jade rasped.

  A maniacal laugh punctuated the air. “Who?”

  “Your wife,” Jade said, memories beginning to slip through her foggy mind as her vision cleared. “She cheated on you, so you killed her.”

  “She deserved it, the ungrateful bitch. I took her to Tahiti!”

  He was escalating. Jade had to keep him talking, buy some more time. “That sounds romantic,” she said. “You planned a special trip for her.”

  Another sarcastic bark of a laugh. “She used me to pay for spa treatments and massages, and then, while we were on a midnight cruise, I found texts on her phone from another man. Not just texts,” he said shrilly. “Naughty texts. She suggested kinky stuff she never wanted to do with me.”

  Ah, his ego was bruised. “That was a terrible way to learn she was unfaithful,” Jade said.

  His eyes flared with rage. “When I asked her about it, she didn’t even bother to deny it. She had the gall to tell me about him, how I didn’t satisfy her anymore, that she needed a young stud.”

  “I’m sorry that happened to you.” Jade scanned the room for something to use as a weapon. He’d set her gun on the end table in front of the fireplace, out of reach.

  “I’m sure you suggested couples counseling, didn’t you?” Jade asked. “Told her you wanted to save your marriage.”

  The whites of his eyes bulged as he glowered at her. “Hell, no, I didn’t offer to see a damn shrink. She was the one with the problem, not me!”

  “So you decided to get revenge,” Jade said quietly.

  “I decided she had to pay and she had to suffer,” he bellowed. “And she did. I held her down and sliced her neck and laughed as the blood spewed and ran down her pale white throat.”

  He was mentally ill. Jade remembered now. At one of the dinner parties with the neighbors, she’d seen this strange look in his eyes when he’d watched the women. It had been her first inkling that she and Louie were on the right track. After that, they’d started digging deeper into Woodruff Halls.

  Louie... Her heart gave a pang of regret and sadness. They’d been partners for two years, had been friends. He’d taught her how to read people, study body language and identify the little nuances that were some people’s tells.

  Woodruff had one. When he lied, his right eye twitched slightly. Subtle, but once she’d noticed it and tested him, it had been evident.

  That and his temper and underlying bitterness toward women.

  He’d passed out his business cards to the neighborhood men like candy to children. More than once she’d overheard him regaling a sordid tale about a cheating spouse.

  “I understand why you killed your wife,” Jade said calmly. “She hurt you and deserved to be punished.”

  “She did.” His voice cracked.

  “But I don’t understand why you killed the other couples. They did nothing to you.”

  He tunneled his fingers through his hair, spiking it until it stood on end. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. “Do you know what it was like listening to my clients blather on and on about their cheating spouses? It was like mine was carving the knife deep in my gut and twisting it.”

  “That’s the reason you carved the letter C in your victims’ hands.”

  “You got that right.”

  “Maybe those women lied to their husbands, but you don’t know what went on behind closed doors.”

  “You think betray
ing their vows is justified!” He lunged at her, and she pressed a hand to his chest.

  “That’s not what I mean. But those women weren’t totally bad,” Jade said. “Deidre Richter had a three-year-old child. She loved her little boy. I saw pictures of them at the park. She volunteered at his preschool. Now that sweet little boy will grow up without a mother.” She paused. “And a father. Because you stole his parents from him.” She summoned her strength, had to find a way to get that gun from him or reach her own. “That’s where I’m confused, Woodruff. I can call you by your first name, can’t I?”

  Rule number one in negotiation—get personal with the perp. Make them see you as human, and humanize them.

  She needed to defuse the situation. Give herself time to retrieve her weapon.

  “I...guess so,” he stammered, although he looked confused by the request.

  “Good, your name is so distinguished.” She slowly pushed herself up from the floor. He shot her a warning look and stepped forward, the gun wavering in his trembling hand.

  “I just needed to stand up for a minute,” she said. “For us to talk face-to-face.”

  A sneer twisted his mouth. “I watched you with your so-called husband, and I knew you were just like all the others. I could tell you didn’t really love him, that it was an act.”

  Because they hadn’t been married. They’d been working undercover.

  “Why did you kill the husbands?” she asked. “Can you explain that to me?”

  He began to pace again, gun hand flinging out in a wide arc. “Because those idiots came to me whining. Whining and wanting revenge against their wives for being so sorry. But then they started wimping out and begging the stupid whoring women to take them back.” His boots clicked on the wood floor, the old boards squeaking. “That bitch Renee slept with her husband’s best friend, and William actually wanted to forgive them. Can you believe that?”

  “Maybe he didn’t want anger to destroy his life.”

  “He wasn’t a real man. None of them were!”

  “So you shot them in the heart because their wives broke their hearts, then you killed them because they—”