“Would you want to go Christmas shopping with me next week? I still have a few gifts I need to pick up for Rian, and I hate going alone with all the crowds.”
Jo hated shopping. Avoided the loathsome act whenever she could, but during the holidays, one or two gifts always required a trip to the dreaded mall. To be able to spend time with him would make the outing bearable. “I think I’d like that.”
With that, the conversation turned to what he still needed and what shops to visit. The trip back to her apartment passed quickly.
She hated how fast they arrived and wanted to ask him to slow down. But no matter what she wanted, the words stuck in her throat. Instead, they chatted about their schedules, when the best time would be for him to pick her up . . . nothing important. However, the feelings ricocheting inside her felt earth-shattering.
And then they were there, pulling into an empty spot next to her Mustang. Jo opened her mouth to invite him in and snapped it shut when Rian snorted. Luckily, he didn’t wake up.
“Sorry, it’s past his bedtime.”
A frown pulled across her brow. “Bedtime? He’s eighteen, Rhys.”
“Yes, but his therapist and school counselors have all told me how important a schedule is for him. He’s happier and more stable with one.” He rounded the car and opened her door.
His hand wrapped around Jo’s as he helped her from her seat. He popped the trunk and grabbed the cooler filled with empty dishes. Trying to take the cooler from him, she was stymied when he stepped away with a grunted, “Shut the trunk.”
She turned and followed him to her apartment door where he lowered the cooler to the ground. His callused fingers cupped her cheek, gently guided her head to the side and his lips slid against hers. Soft. A whisper. Before he brought them back to linger.
Jo’s bag and keys fell limply from her hands, freeing her fingers to delve into his golden hair. Groaning, she arched into him. His lips firmed, claimed. His tongue pushed for entrance and was eagerly accepted.
Christ, he tasted good. Sweet from the pecan pie, no one could turn down, with a hint of spice. Peppery. A taste she knew was his alone.
One hand held her still for his lips. The other glided down to her lower back. Clutching. As if he wanted to go lower, lift her and slam her against the wall. But was holding back.
Fuck that.
She lifted her right leg and twined it around his hip. She intended to jump and wrap both legs around him, but the blare of a car horn pierced the night air. Instead of climbing him, Jo slammed into the stucco wall of her apartment building with a startled yelp.
“Rhys?” Rian called, hesitantly. An undertone of a scared boy in the young man’s voice.
“Shazat,” he murmured. “Sorry, just meant to get a taste . . .”
“Shh. I enjoyed it.” Jo’s head thumped against the wall behind her.
“Rhys? Are you out here?” Rian asked again, nearer. Unsure shuffling sounded as he drew closer.
“Up here, buddy. Just helping Jo with her things like Mom taught us.” A groan passed his lips as he disentangled their limbs and straightened. His hand pressed against the prominent bulge in his dark jeans. “Quit looking at me like that, Jo.”
She licked her lips, dragging her eyes up his hard chest to his heat-filled eyes. “Okay, rain check.”
“Definitely.” A quick kiss to her forehead. Spinning her around, he patted her bottom. “Now, get inside and lock up, before Rian comes up here and sees you in a total disarray.”
She put a hand to her hair and felt loops of it half-in and half-out of her normal twist. Self-conscious, she bent and fumbled her keys from the concrete floor. Unlocked and opened the door, then kicked her bag inside. He lifted the cooler and placed it inside and to the left. Another kiss to Jo’s lips and the door closed between them.
“Lock the door, Jo.”
Heavy footsteps jogged down the stairs as soon as the bolt clicked into place.
Touching her tender lips with trembling fingers, Jo grinned. Oh yeah, that man was sex on a stick as her grandmother would say.
Chapter 12
Jo shoved her small backpack into the bottom of her desk drawer. Snagging her coffee cup, she meandered through the bullpen and into the break room.
The same industrial beige walls as the bullpen met her gaze. As if the department received a discount and purchased the color in bulk. Now all the precincts suffered from the boring shade. Not that the department heads used the color in their offices. Nope. Burgundies, browns, and rich blues decorated those hallowed places.
She grabbed the sludge and poured a cup, then eyeballed the pot. By her estimate enough liquid sloshed around the bottom for at least one more cup. Off the hook from needing to make another pot, Jo moved to the condiments arranged next to the coffeepot. She dumped sugar and creamer into her cup in massive quantities and dug out a stir stick from the box on the battered counter.
Within a few minutes, she had her coffee and turned to leave the depressing room. Dings and scuff marks marred the walls as much as the counter. OSHA safety poster, gun safety posters, a bulletin board that held the Most Wanted, and a few sign-up sheets for this and that covered the majority of the wall space. An ugly green refrigerator chugged behind her as she made her way into the hallway then back to her desk.
No sooner had her cup touched Jo’s desk when her cell belted out ‘Tik Tok’. What the hell? Taking it from the clip on her belt, she swiped the screen and groaned. Karma screwed with her ringtone again.
“What?” Jo growled while glancing around to see who might have heard the song.
Luckily, it was still early. Only her and a few uniforms occupied the open space, and they were on the other side of the room.
“Well, hello to you too, sis’. My Thanksgiving was great, thanks for asking. How was yours?” Karma replied in a light airy tone.
“Cut the crap.”
“Right.” Karma’s tone became serious, clipped. “We’re going to be called on a conference call within the next hour. I wanted to give you a heads-up because of that pattern we found.” Every nerve tingled in Jo’s body as her sister continued, “We were right.”
“Then why the hell didn’t they call us in?” Instead of pumping her fist in triumph, Jo dug into her desk for their files and notes.
“I don’t know all of it, but a guy who owed me gave me a call to warn me. They fucked the pooch, then set it on fire—”
“Wait. Those guys aren’t expecting us to clean up their mess, are they?”
“Don’t know.” Karma released a frustrated breath. “I’m pissed as hell no one at that burg called us since we’re lead, but I’m glad to know we’re on the right track. Oh, and get this. My guy said when the perp ran, he dropped an orchid stem as well.”
That meant the flower had been a link and it’d been missed at all the other scenes. Jo hated when those kinds of details were overlooked. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
Jo found their notes, her finger moving down the dates. Elation at finally having a way to track the guy, bounced around inside her. “Means he’ll hit us in January, if the pattern holds.”
“And maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll buy the orchid from a florist near your cemeteries,” Karma added.
She grabbed a pen and started a new list for them to dig into, her pen scratching steadily across the blank yellow pad.
“I’ll have Sullivan call Maker to get their list of florists together again.” Adrenaline pumped through her as she prepared for the hunt. Hearing her partner greet other officers in their department, Jo looked up in time to see Sullivan’s lanky form weaving between the desks. “Gotta go, Sullivan’s here.”
“Act surprised. We’ll chat later.”
She stood and headed to intercept her partner. What she knew, S
ullivan would know and vice versa. Tipping her chin to the empty break room, she trailed Sullivan and filled him in the second they were alone.
Less than an hour later Captain Walker faced the screen. The forty-two-inch flat monitor, attached to the wall, showed a split screen with the left half-filled with the Tennessee police department’s lead officers and the other side held Karma and Maker in their own office in Georgia.
No one was happy.
She couldn’t remember the Tennessee precinct’s name, not that she tried very hard. They’d moved from annoyances to her shitlist. Especially now that she knew they’d almost had the perp in their hands, gift wrapped by Jo and Karma’s early warning on which cemetery to stake out.
“And you didn’t think to call us the second you received the phone call from the cemetery’s caretaker?” Captain Walker’s voice dripped with ice.
The lead detective in Tennessee frowned. “No, sir. It’s our jurisdiction—”
Captain Walker’s scowl turned into a full-fledged arctic glare. “Excuse me, did you just say your jurisdiction?”
Oh shit. Jo rolled her lips over her teeth to keep from snickering. Little did the idiot know he just stomped all over one of Captain Walker’s hot buttons. Their captain was about unity within the departments.
“Let me explain the situation to you four.” Captain Walker leaned closer to the screen. “We are running this investigation. We have had the most bodies show up between Georgia and Alabama. And you lot were supposed to be working with us. Meaning that, as soon as you received the call stating our perp was caught on video again, your first call should have been to your superior officer.” He bit off every word. “You let the man get away. Why? To get the glory of catching him? Instead, you’re going to get written up. We’ve been more than cooperative with you in sharing our leads as well as letting you know which cemetery we thought would be hit next and now we get this mess dumped on us . . . No.” He jabbed a finger at the screen. “I’ll be talking to your captain as soon as his plane lands.”
Jo still couldn’t believe the dumbasses hadn’t cleared their actions with their superiors. However, since their captain was in Seattle, she reevaluated her opinion. With him gone, were these guys the superiors? Freaking idiots! That group had received a heads-up from the cemetery caretaker as soon as he viewed the previous night’s video. They’d seen their suspect break in and take another body. Based on that, the deputies knew the exact date the body would be returned
Instead of calling in reinforcements, these four morons tried to set a trap to catch the guy when he brought the body back. Since the department had been short-staffed, the move backfired. A week later, the suspect had carried the corpse up the hill to the entrance of the graveyard. Of course, he’d stumbled across one of the police officers hiding in the brush.
All hell had broken loose.
“There’s no need to threaten us, sir. We all work for the same people and we’re here to protect and serve. With it being Thanksgiving—”
“I’m done talking to you four.” The captain cut the connection, then grumbled when he couldn’t get Karma and Maker back. Throwing his hands up, Captain Walker stabbed a finger at her and Sullivan. “Call Zwart and Schumaker and get that damned pattern together again. Gravedigger might consider this a fluke . . . I hope he considers this a fluke because then he’ll hit one of our graveyards. Figure out the next cemetery if you can. Or at least narrow the list down to a reasonable number so we can stake them out. If we can see him take the body, then we’ll have the cemetery he’ll return to and can pour all our resources on the one graveyard when he comes back. That means, no capturing, just observing once we have a list.”
Scrambling to her feet, Sullivan not far behind, they both agreed and headed to their desk. It’d be easier to call Karma and Maker from their phones than the complicated computer system in the conference room
~ ~ ~
“Do you think the guy will come to the next cemetery on your list?” Rhys slid into an open slot in front of the Galleria.
Jo shuddered at the stream shoppers entering and exiting. Jesus, did she really want to brave that mass of bodies? It looked like a scene straight from her worst nightmare.
Then he was there, taking her elbow, acting as a buffer at the entrance. Once inside, her initial panic calmed. Not as bunched. In the distance, the steady drone of voices merged into background noise with the music of the indoor carousel.
Christmas looked to be in full swing. Decorations dripped from the ceilings, hung from the cash register stations and snuggled next to the mannequins. Gold, silver, blue, green, and red as if Santa’s elves went mad throughout the store.
“Come on, Jo. Let’s get what we need and then we can grab something to go.”
He laced their fingers together and tugged her with him into the flow of people headed into the main part of the mall.
Finally, away from most of the crowd, she focused on his question. “We think so. I mean, the Tennessee group had four guys at that cemetery. If it were me, seeing only the one guy wouldn’t trip my radar. With it being a detective, he wasn’t dressed in uniform—”
“The guy wouldn’t suspect he’d been made, maybe think that he’d stumbled across someone visiting a grave or something at night,” he finished for her.
“Exactly.”
“But what I don’t get—” He released her hand to dodge around a harried mother trying to wrangle a toddler. When he laced their fingers back together he continued the discussion, “Why did those idiots not tell their supervisor? And how did Karma find out?”
Jo shrugged. “Their captain was in Seattle on vacation for the week. Our impression is they thought they’d wrap up this case and look like heroes, even though they were severely short-staffed for the holidays.”
A group of carolers strode next to them before veering off, making conversation impossible for a few minutes.
“And Karma?” he asked again, guiding her to American Outfitters.
“Oh, the cemetery’s caretaker, he called into Nashville’s main office. They took the complaint and shipped it to the proper jurisdiction. Someone there heard about the snafu after they got back from their dinner and phoned Karma since she’d been the one to go up there originally. And you know Karma, she made an impression on the guy. The perp showing up there proves our theory. There is a pattern.”
“I hate that we weren’t able to pull more from the bodies he left in his wake.” His frown deepened the lines between his brow.
“At least he’s not having sex with them.” Jo shivered. It’d been the first question she and Karma asked. Had their perp been sick enough to desecrate the bodies to that extent. Thank God the answer had been no.
He stopped in front of the store and his slightly gapped front teeth dug into his bottom lip. Turning to face her, his gorgeous eyes held a hint of shadow. “Most people who suffer from Necrophilia don’t have sex with the dead. It’s more about the connection and fascination with the afterlife. At least that’s what I remember from the abnormal psychology classes I took. But beyond that, this person is even odder.”
Curious, she tuned out the stream of people flowing past them and focused wholly on him. “How so?”
“It’s like he plucks them from the ground and then wraps them in plastic. A week later, he returns them as if he’s only borrowing them, like a library book. Even the man in Russia who suffered from this affliction kept the bodies.”
“The profiler said the same thing, minus the library book reference.”
He clasped her hand again and headed into the store. Making his way to the hiking boots, Jo followed behind him. She enjoyed being able to talk to him about the case, but also didn’t want every date to be centered on work.
As if reading her mind, he faced her and lifted a pair of chocolate-colored hiking boots. “Okay, en
ough work talk. Time to help me find a good pair of boots for Rian. His are falling apart.”
They settled on a pair of thick-soled, fawn-colored boots that were hand sewn. Relief poured into Jo when she saw him take a list from his pocket and place a checkmark next to the item. It proved they wouldn’t spend the entire day shopping. The list also proved they were compatible in another piece of their life.
Smiling, she pulled out her own list and held it up for him to see. Four items compared to his six. They’d be out of here in a few hours.
“Chinese when we’re done?” She mentally crossed her fingers that he didn’t chime in for Sushi. The small portions never filled her up.
He wrapped the bag on his wrist and linked their fingers. “Sounds good.”
The heat of attraction simmered between them, sparking when Jo least expected it. A brush of a hand on her lower back as he guided her around the various shoppers. The flash of amusement in his golden eyes, hidden behind his glasses. Other women watched him in the stores, devouring him.
He never noticed. His attention focused wholly on her and her reactions.
~ ~ ~
Instead of the food court, they headed to Five Points and a Chinese place they both enjoyed.
They chose one of the tables in the back. Almost the second their butts hit the chair a waiter was there filling their water glasses and asking what they wanted to drink.
Choosing the iced tea, she opened her menu.
“What’re you going to have?” His eyes moved over his own menu.
“I think the Szechuan beef.” She wanted something spicy.
His gold eyes met hers over their menus. “Willing to share?”
Gravedigger (The Rayburn Mysteries Book 1) Page 11