Gravedigger (The Rayburn Mysteries Book 1)

by Ceeree Fields

  Karma shrugged, her fair skin held a blush. “We were curious. We’d never even heard of you until the month before—”

  “Which again would have been fine, if you’d decided to follow through on actually contacting me. Instead, you three come in, leave, meet me for breakfast the next day and stay the weekend.” Jo didn’t understand what happened. What she’d done or said that had sent them away. “Then after all of you going on about wanting to stay in touch, I don’t hear shit from you. You’d think I’d have gotten a heads-up about you and Maker moving to Atlanta . . . That would have been the sisterly thing to do, but again, I heard nothing.” The anger broiling inside got the better of her. “So, this is how our temporary partnership is gonna go, we’ll work this case and then go our separate ways.”

  “Things happened. Dad was in rehab for over six months.” Karma scrubbed a hand over her face. “By the time we made it home I figured you wrote us off. I mean, with Dad not staying in touch after the kidnapping—”

  “Do not remind me.” Jo shivered as memories of her kidnapping at age five rushed to the forefront.

  Though she’d suppressed most of them, she remembered the too tight duct tape binding her hands and ankles. The terror as her kidnappers slapped a piece across her mouth because she couldn’t quit crying. And the cold.

  Even now, if she allowed herself to get chilled, the cold seeped deep into her bones taking days to feel warm again. This was why her coat was thicker than the others around her and why she wore two shirts under her black long-sleeved shirt. Yes, she reacted to the cold, but what kept her up at night were the screams. Jo’s biological father had not been gentle with her kidnappers. The deep red smeared across his dark shirt and pants as he lifted her into his arms, the blood warm and sticky. Those were what kept her up at night reliving every second of the nightmare.

  He held her long enough to get Jo to her mother and then he’d disappeared again. Her mother had been the one to explain that her birth father was a mercenary. The men who’d taken her did it because of Carl Rayburn, her mother’s fiancé.

  They wanted to force the lieutenant to recant his testimony of their boss. They’d died for their efforts. Because of the group involved, her parents hadn’t known who to trust. Instead of using Carl’s department as backup, her mother had turned to Jo’s biological father.

  “Sorry,” Karma said. “Anyway, your mother kept her pregnancy secret from him until then.”

  “For good reason, Karma. He’s a hired killer.” Was she the only one who understood that? Hell, if Jo had a shred of proof she’d arrest the man herself.

  “Supposed—”

  “Oh, and Juliette?” she asked with a sneer.

  Karma smirked. “I’ve heard rumors.”

  Frustrated, she turned back to the boulders at the corner of the fence. Answers would come easier from the damned stones than the woman next to Jo. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You all live in Georgia now and I live here. Let’s just keep to our respective cities and we’ll be just fine.”

  “Agreed.”

  Jo swore she heard Karma mutter ‘for the time being’ but refused to push the tentative peace they’d found.

  A scrap of fabric caught Jo’s eye. Tilting her head, she found where it’d been snagged in the crevice. The printed material matched the dress the body wore. Snapping her fingers, Jo directed the crime scene people to the spot. “Need pictures, and someone should check between the crevices in case he left anything of his own behind.”

  She watched as the tech poked a light into the narrow opening, but nothing else was in there. The tech took several pictures of the area, including scrape marks in the dirt, and returned to the primary scene.

  Karma crouched next to the scrapes. “Seems something surprised him, and he dragged the body here before being able to position her.”

  Her sister had good instincts and she met Karma’s gaze. “You and I have to work together on this case. I’m not promising we’ll be best friends, but maybe we can give it another go.” Jo held out her gloved hand, “Truce?”

  A quick grin flashed across Karma’s face. “Truce. I’ll get you everything we’ve accumulated.”

  “Sounds good,” Jo replied, making her way back to the paved drive where Sullivan and Maker waited. “We have everything from our state. Not sure what info we have from the others because I didn’t even know we had the case until just before we got here.”

  Maker’s closed expression spoke of frustration. “You all probably got the same info we did. They literally dumped the entire box of files on our desks. We’ve gotta sort them. Figure out which ones are pranks, and which are him.”

  “And you’re sure it’s a guy?” Sullivan asked.

  Karma came to rest next to Jo, joining the conversation. “It’s him, we’ve got a fuzzy video at one of the places in Tennessee where he lifts the body up and over the gate.”

  “Video?” Jo asked.

  “Kids kept breaking into the crypts on dares. The cemetery wanted to catch them in the act and installed cameras.” Maker pushed to his feet from where he crouched. “Thought maybe we could divide the load. You and Sullivan need to check the files and get up to speed. Me and Karma can go check the grave.”

  Karma moved to Maker’s side. “Not that we’ll find anything. He keeps them about a week, dumps the body at the entrances, and no one’s the wiser until the body turns up.” The fingers of her left hand ran over her ponytail. “Means it’s been at least a week since he was at that gravesite.”

  “Sullivan?” She met her partner’s gaze to see if he was okay with the division of labor.

  “Sounds like a good idea to me, since we’ll be grilled by all our bosses.”

  Jo did know, she hated politics. Worse, the governor’s involvement would turn the entire case into a circus. Since the captain had shown up, it also meant he’d be hovering closer than normal in this case. Giving into the inevitability of dealing with the various higher-ups, she acquiesced. “Okay, we’ll see you at the station. We can grab lunch and get updated before we all get hit.”

  “We’ll be there,” Karma said. Maker tipped his chin in agreement and turned to watch a heavyset man approach the entrance with a set of keys drawn.

  Later that afternoon, Jo dragged herself into the conference room. Fifteen faux leather chairs circled the solid cherry wood table. Nicer than the other two rooms since Captain Walker used the space for his meetings.

  Sullivan chose the chair next to Jo; Karma and Maker sat opposite them, and Captain Walker took the chair at the head of the table to Jo’s left.

  “What’ve we got?” the captain asked, meeting each of their gazes.

  She shifted in her chair, uncomfortable, frustrated, and angry. She wanted to throw her hands in the air and curse a blue streak. “Nothing, we have absolutely nothing.”

  “Explain,” the captain said.

  Her partner drew the captain’s attention, sensing how close Jo was to losing the tentative hold she had on her emotions. “The women’s ages range from nineteen to twenty-five. We don’t have anything else.”

  Sullivan pushed the folders they’d painstakingly gone through for half the day toward Captain Walker, who dragged them closer for his own examination. “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, Karma and Maker might have a lead on a flower,” She said.

  The captain’s attention shifted between Karma and Maker. “What flower?”

  “An orchid from what we can tell,” Karma answered. “I’ve got a call in to the other jurisdictions. We found one bloom with the body and another almost dead strand lying on the grave he took her from.”

  Captain Walker rubbed the back of his neck. “Were they on the other graves?”

  Karma’s icy blue gaze tangled with Jo’s and Jo took over the conversation. “We don’t know, we’re wa
iting for the other states to get back to us before we pursue it. It’s a graveyard, of course, there are flowers everywhere. As for victim type, he’s all over the board.”

  “Do you have everything? Can you see any kind of pattern?” His eyes drilled into Jo and Sullivan. “Anything I can take to this conference to show we’ve got some sort of lead besides a flower?”

  “No,” Karma snarled, jerking Captain Walker’s attention to her side of the table. “We’re still waiting on files from four other jurisdictions and they’re dragging their feet. We have a guy that’s messing with loved ones in a place they should be safe, and they won’t give us the damned information.”

  Maker patted her arm but remained silent.

  The captain jabbed a finger on the conference room table. “Get me the names of the ones holding out on us and I’ll get the information ASAP. I’m not having the governor reaming my ass because they decide they don’t want to share.” His dark gaze met Jo’s. “I know this was dropped on you two yesterday, so we have some leeway, just get us something to feed to them by next week. Otherwise, we’ll be getting visits from the chief, the mayor, and other higher-ups trying to push us.”

  Jo nodded. She had no idea how they could get anything, because there was nothing. The guy didn’t have a specific type except age and gender. Other than that, the field was open. They had a wide variety of blonds, redheads, brunettes, and even a few with black hair. He was indiscriminate about where he took them from as well. Two came from a Potter’s Field type cemetery in Mississippi, a few taken from family plots in Tennessee, and the others taken fresh from various graveyards throughout the other states.

  How he would choose his next target was a mystery.

  The orchid was the best lead they had, it was too bad Karma and Maker hadn’t seen flowers on the gravesites in Georgia. Only on the bodies. Of course, being fall, the wind blew everything around and erased evidence.

  Rubbing her temple, Jo watched their captain push to his feet, tug his suit jacket into place, and stride from the room at a fast clip.

  “Maybe we should set up a large map and track when he picked each body up, see if we can figure out a pattern. Call in a few favors to get the rest of the information on the files we matched to our guy.” Jo tossed the idea out to see what her partner thought.

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Sullivan said, and pointed at Maker. “Come help me, we have a map of the surrounding states in detail out on the floor. We can take pictures and get the copies put up in here to use.”

  The chair squeaked a sigh of relief as Maker stood. “Maybe there’s one we can just print off instead of making pictures, Sullivan.”

  She watched them leave and shook her head. If Maker could get Sullivan to actually use the computer for anything except checking his emails and writing reports, she’d pay good money to see it.

  “What other information are we lacking?” Karma asked. “We have all the victims’ descriptions, their personal stats, and where they were buried. What more is there?”

  “I don’t know, something just feels off.” Jo hauled the stack of files they attributed to their perp closer to her. The pictures weren’t a huge help, nor was the driver’s license information. “I’ll know it when I see it.”

  Karma nudged her shoulder. “Well, how about we leave the men to set the stuff up and you and I go work out in the ring? Help clear our heads a bit. Then when you cry for mercy, we can come back up here, see if anything pops out.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Narrowing her eyes, she met Karma’s piercing gaze and smiled, all sharp teeth. She allowed every bit of anger she felt to shine through.

  “Oh, sister-girl, I think it’s a great idea.” Karma’s smile razor-sharp.

  Normally, she wouldn’t take the bait. They had four other cases she should make return calls on. But anger churned in Jo’s stomach, pumped through her blood and fried her brain. Jo knew she wouldn’t be of any use typing up the reports on the Carter murder-suicide case, or calling forensics, yet again, on the slugs from the Jones case.

  Karma had her on edge. To top that off, she wanted to see how well her half-sister fought, considering Karma had been trained by their biological father. Jo doubted she’d have to pull her punches.

  Anticipation curled in her. “Just so ya’ know, I’m not the one that’ll be crying.”

  They needed to clear the air, the tension so thick Jo required a chainsaw to cut it. The hostility arcing between them clouded both of their judgments, with the captain, mayor, and governor breathing down their necks Jo needed to be on top of her game.

  Going with her instincts, she stood, leaving the stack of files on the table. “Let’s go.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Rhysian Harrison entered the police department’s gym. Packed didn’t begin to describe the area around the middle ring. Trying to dodge between the bodies, he finally gave up. Looked like he wouldn’t be getting his workout today.

  He skirted around the group and found an empty section of wall that held a good view of the ring. Two women traded blows. Sharp jabs, snarls of rage, and hard hits that would have knocked less experienced fighters to the floor.

  The fight looked brutal as the blonde heavily defended her territory while the brunette threw punch after punch. The brunette continuously pulled his attention. Not classically beautiful, something about her captivated him. Sharp cheekbones, a pointed chin, and slashing brows made her look prickly. The Haymaker she laid on her opponent, along with the feral grin as the punch landed, called forth a need in him to see her smile in happiness. Why? He had no idea.

  The blonde was typical beach bunny gorgeous. Bouncing ponytail, tanned skin, full pink lips, though the sardonic smile and ‘bring it on’ smirk detracted from the innocent image. Both seemed evenly matched.

  His brows furrowed. Something was off.

  The fight was fast and brutal, spanning across several styles. From Brazilian Jujitsu, to Muay Thai, and Judo when they landed on the mat. The bout looked like an MMA fight without any rules, and as he loved watching MMA fights he could pick apart disciplines fairly easily. But this head-to-head fight held no rhyme or reason, as if the encounter was a one-sided grudge match.

  Giving up, he yanked his cell from his pocket and recorded the women. He could dissect it in slow motion later. Maybe they’d be available to teach him some of the moves.

  With his entire focus on the ring, he didn’t pay much attention to the two behemoths closing in. He wasn’t tall, at five-foot-eleven, but he wasn’t short either. More average. However, next to these two giants, he felt pint-sized. Putting his phone back in his pocket, he slowly panned his head right, then left as each took up a position on either side of him.

  The two men didn’t intimidate him. He’d been studying Karate since he was six. His father had wanted him prepared in case he ever needed to defend himself. As he’d enjoyed the discipline, he continued training until his parents’ deaths. Nowadays, he used the gym to maintain his muscle tone, and sparring in the ring kept his reflexes honed.

  Sizing up his opponents, he tucked his hands into the pockets of his dress slacks.

  The man on the right was thin . . . almost gaunt, like a skeleton. With his long-limbed fingers and bony arms, he looked sort of like the praying mantis Rhys had seen on Discovery last night.

  The other man was massive. Not no neck, steroid huge, but well-muscled and rough. Like an older lion who’d been in a few battles. He needed to quit watching so much Discovery.

  “Shove off, Maker. I’m claiming him for Jo.” The praying mantis’s brown eyes narrowed on Maker.

  “Whatever, he’s not Karma’s type. I was just curious where ya’ were going in an all-fired hurry,” Maker replied around a yawn as he scratched his stomach through his Henley.

  Both had deep voices, and both were confusing
as hell. However, after they introduced themselves and Sullivan explained that Jo was the brunette and Sullivan’s partner on the police force, he became interested.

  “Look, we’re hitting up Will’s Watering Hole tomorrow for a pool tournament, if you think you might wanna join us,” Sullivan stated.

  He grinned and looked back at the brunette he now knew was Jo. He hadn’t felt this much interest since his ex-fiancée. Deciding he wanted to get to know the woman, he nodded. “I think I’d like that. But as I’ll not be getting my workout today, I’m off. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

  It took some squeezing between the press of bodies, a few muttered apologies before he arrived at the exit. The group seemed to have grown rather than shrunk. Turning his head back, he caught one last glimpse of the brown-haired enigma as she flipped to her feet. He couldn’t wait to meet Jo.

  Rhys just hoped she wasn’t an arrogant witch like his ex.

  Chapter 4

  “I’ve always wanted to be part of a ménage,” Tony Carmichael stated.

  Jo choked on her tea. Two reasons kept her from pulling her gun: the first, dizziness from trying to catch her breath, the second, not wanting to lose her detective’s shield. Only those two things stood between the man sitting or writhing on the sticky floor of the hamburger joint.

  Tony smiled as he dipped a French fry into his ketchup and chomped on it with his bright white teeth.

  Worst. Date. Ever.

  The guy wasn’t ugly. He had a good job as a doctor at one of the hospitals. She couldn’t remember what kind, nor which hospital, as she’d tuned her mother out after the whole ‘I’ve set you up with the nicest young man, he’s a doctor . . .’ Though he wasn’t a troll, he was not what Jo was looking for. Sullivan had been right; her family did not know what she needed and loser blind date number fifteen—or maybe it was finally twenty—proved it.