The Harbinger Collection: Hard-boiled Mysteries Not for the Faint of Heart (A McCray Crime Collection)

by Carolyn McCray

  Instead he turned to Adelene. “What exactly did he say?”

  * * *

  Nicole stepped between Adelene and Kent.

  She tried to keep her tone soothing and low. “We just really wanted to talk with the man.”

  Before Adelene could press further, a nurse walked into the waiting area. “She is waking up,” the nurse said to Lacey’s mother then turned to Nicole. “The doctor okayed you going in there, but doesn’t want her agitated.”

  “I understand,” Nicole reassured the nurse but then the nurse looked to Kent.

  “Is that clear?” the nurse asked the profiler.

  “You know it.”

  Okay, that did not seem to reassure the nurse at all, or Nicole for that matter.

  “May I have a few moments alone with my daughter first?” Adelene asked.

  “Of course,” the nurse said, glaring at Kent to contradict her.

  However Kent just went over and sat on one of the chairs. What? Nicole had never seen him obey an order in their entire time together. And now he sits and stays? What had gotten into him?

  Adelene left the waiting area and Nicole sat down next to Kent. Was it her imagination or did the waiting room really smell like Brut?

  Why had the serial killer showed up here? They knew that Lucky wasn’t Buzz Kill. He was too busy raping and murdering another woman on the far side of town during Buzz Kill’s second murder.

  Were they totally wrong about his motives and Lucky 37 was actually in league with Buzz? Kent refused to believe it, however Nicole wasn’t so sure. Otherwise his visit here made absolutely no sense.

  Kent slapped the arms of his chairs with his palms. “I think a few minutes have passed.”

  Nicole wasn’t so sure about that, but followed him out of the waiting area and down the hall. She was as eager now to interview Lacey as Kent was. Lucky’s visit had just upped the stakes considerably.

  They turned the corner and found room 535. The door was ajar and Nicole peeked into the dimly lit room. Lacey’s mother was sitting at her daughter’s bedside, holding Lacey’s hand.

  Nicole was transported back to that unpleasant time when it was she holding her mother’s hand those long, dark nights. She could empathize with Adelene. It truly was nearly as hard on the family as it was on the patient.

  “Mrs. Placket,” Kent said, bowing his head in a most unusually respectful manner.

  “If she gets the least bit upset, you’ve got to stop,” Adelene stated seeming more put together than she had been just a few minutes before.

  “Of course,” Kent said with nearly a purr in his voice.

  What had gotten into him? Normally Nicole had to practically hit him over the head during interviews to get him to stop. He must have an angle, Nicole just hadn’t found it yet.

  * * *

  God how Kent hated being nice. It physically hurt him. He could feel a muscle just under his ribcage tighten as he smiled sympathetically to the mother of the victim.

  Contrary to popular belief, Kent did realize the victim had been traumatized and that the mother’s natural instinct was to protect her progeny, however, come on, didn’t anyone want to catch the bastard who did this? And especially in this case. The mother had a run in with another serial killer just a little while ago and who knew? Would Buzz Kill try to finish what he started?

  But invariably the family would put up as many blockades as possible to keep him from interviewing the victims, and they hadn’t even met him yet. They objected to questioning in principal.

  Then if the police didn’t make progress on the case it was all “the police don’t care. They aren’t working hard enough.”

  Ugh.

  He could tell by the set to Nicole’s jaw that she was worried about how he was going to conduct this interview. He wished that she didn’t have to be, but he couldn’t give any guarantees. Kent was trying out to see if honey really did attract more bees.

  He personally was a vinegar man, but, hey, even he could learn new tricks. Especially if it kept him out of Glick’s office for their “sensitivity talks.”

  “How is she?” Nicole asked, probably genuinely. She actually cared.

  The mother wiped tear stains off her cheek, blotting them with a tissue. “They think she is remarkably lucky, considering,” Adelene stated. “They are worried about her arm though. They were able to completely reattach it, but whether her lower arm will have nerve damage they aren’t sure.”

  “What does Lacey do?” Nicole asked, again, because she probably really cared.

  “Software designer so her fingers are kind of important,” Adelene explained.

  Kent used Nicole distracting the mother to come close by the victim’s side. “Lacey,” he said, making sure to butter up his tone. “Hon, are you awake enough to talk?”

  The victim’s long lashed eyes fluttered then opened wide. “Mom?”

  “Right here, honey,” Adeline said, putting her daughter’s hand up to her chest. “Right here.”

  “What happened?”

  Kent’s heart sank. It wasn’t uncommon for victims to completely block the events of the trauma. The lapse could last minutes to years.

  “You don’t remember anything?” he asked as sweetly as he could. Seriously bees should be flocking to him right about now. Or bears, ya bears. They liked honey right? And he was as sugary as they could come.

  The girl’s eyes focused as her nose scrunched. “I was… I was walking home from the bodega with the pot roast and then someone…” Tears welled in her eyes. “Mom, am I going to be okay?”

  “Yes, honey, of course of course, the doctors are very optimistic.”

  The young woman nodded, turning back to Kent. “A man came from behind me and put a cloth over my mouth.”

  “Are you sure it was a man?” Nicole asked.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Lacey said, “but whoever it was they were taller than me and lifted me off the ground while they were pressing the cloth to my nose. They were hella strong.”

  Lacey’s voice shook with just the right amount of emotion. She seemed to be telling the truth.

  Nicole nodded. “Anything else to indicate it was a man? Aftershave? Hair? Voice?”

  Lacey shook her head, “The only thing I know for sure is that when I clawed at his arm…” she looked down at her fingernails which were clean. A concerned look crossed over her face.

  “The crime lab scraped under your nails,” Nicole stated. “You didn’t imagine it, you clawed at a leather jacket.”

  “Yes, it was so weird, instead of my life flashing before my eyes, all I could think was ‘that’s a nice jacket, I bet its Italian leather.’”

  “Don’t worry, that’s very common,” Kent explained again, trying to stay on the helpful side. “Your brain tries to focus on what makes sense rather than the unbelievable events happening around it.”

  “That must be it,” Lacey said. “Then I hit the pavement and heard a motor? An engine, then…”

  For the first time she looked around her at all the machines and tubes attached to her. “What happened?”

  The mother glared at Kent, apparently pre-warning him off as she spoke. “The doctors say not to rush anything, honey. Just take it slow. Truthfully if you never remember it, I’ll be happy.”

  Yes, retrograde amnesia might be the best thing for the victim but the worst thing for the case. Still, Kent didn’t press the issue. Honestly the information before attack was much more important than the actual hacking.

  * * *

  Nicole couldn’t believe it when Kent didn’t jump all over that “I can’t remember” claim. Usually he had people, uninjured people, crying by now. He was usually all about the rapid fire questions, probing their statement forcing them to repeat it over and over again to check for inconsistencies.

  Instead he stepped away from Lacey’s bed, appearing to give up.

  Um, not so fast.

  Nicole came forward. It was weird to step into the bad cop role wi
th Kent around. He was the natural at it.

  “Lacey, can you think of anyone in the last few weeks who has been watching you? Stalking you?”

  At first the girl shook her head, then she frowned. “Well, not really, but maybe...”

  “Anything, Lacey,” Kent added.

  Nicole took Lacey’s hand as her features scrunched up. “Even just the hairs at the back of your neck going up as you walked by someone, anything you remember could be helpful.”

  “Well, remember, mom I mentioned that cable truck down the road?” Lacey asked, turning her attention to her mother.

  “Yes, yes,” Adelene stated. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t take you more seriously.”

  “It’s okay, no one could have known.” She gave a warm smile to her mother. These two had a close bond. Too close? Was there some enmeshment going on? It was always so hard to tell with mother and daughters. It was one of the few non-sexual relationships which rivaled romantic love or so the profiler said.

  Nicole could remember a time, before her mother got sick when she felt that way. They completed each other’s sentences. They liked the same TV shows, the same food, the same clothes. Nicole remembered what it felt like to lose her best friend since birth.

  * * *

  “The truck?” Nicole prompted just before Kent was going to. Well, well, the grasshopper had beat the sensei to the punch.

  “Oh yah,” Lacey said, seeming to have spaced off for a second, but then her eyes focused. “It looked completely legit but every time I went out for my walk, the guy was always eating his lunch in the back of his truck.”

  “What did you mean, completely legit?” Nicole asked. Kent felt pride well up. His fiancée was using the clarify and confirm technique. The technique he had taught her but that she hadn’t yet embraced. That is until today. Maybe he might take the backseat a little more often.

  “He had on a uniform,” Lacey explained. “Name tag and I could see into the back of the truck and there were bunch of wires and stuff, you know all the stuff a cable guy would have.”

  If that indeed had been Buzz Kill, that was a pretty well thought out cover. Kent didn’t even have to tell Nicole what to do next. She snapped that phone right off her belt and dialed Jimmi to start pulling traffic cam footage from around Lacey’s house. His fiancée truly was a gifted investigator.

  This was why you always interviewed surviving victims as soon as you could. The cable guy was the kind of information that you could only get from a surviving victim.

  “Mom, why can’t I move my arm?”

  Adelene patted her daughter’s hand. “Don’t worry. They have it immobilized after surgery.”

  Lacey seemed to calm down again even though Kent was pretty sure her mother had just told her daughter a lie. Far be it for him to step into the middle of that family quagmire. Soon enough, Lacey would find out her arm had nearly been cut from her body and pretty much only through the grace of God was it sewn back on.

  Ya, Kent would definitely let Adelene handle that one.

  “Anything else, Lacey?” Nicole asked once she was off the phone.

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry, no. It’s all such blur.”

  * * *

  Nicole knew how the young woman felt even though Nicole’s trauma was a one hundredth of Lacey’s. Even so, she was starting to have a hard time remembering the exact sequence of events at the bar and into the alley. Who threw the first punch? When did she go down? She didn’t want to be confused up on the stand. She did not want those scum bags to walk because the GHB fuzzed her memory.

  “All right then,” Kent said walking out from the other side of the bed, angling for the door. “If you remember anything else, please let us know…And Adelene that goes for you too.”

  Both mother and daughter nodded as they left.

  “What is up with you?” Nicole asked, trotting to catch up with the profiler.

  “What?” Kent countered. “I can’t be nice just to be nice?”

  “Um, no,” Nicole responded.

  Kent sighed. “Fine, you’re going to find out anyway… There is a bet going on back at the barn that I couldn’t make it through that interview without getting kicked out of the hospital.”

  Nicole wasn’t surprised. She would have taken that bet in a heartbeat.

  “It was fifteen to one when we left,” Kent explained “I put five Jacksons down.”

  Nicole shook her head. If it took a bet to keep Kent civil, she was going to take it.

  “A little unfair, though, don’t you think since the bet was about your behavior?”

  Kent shrugged. “They didn’t think I could stay civil, period, even with five hundred bucks on the line.”

  Nicole chucked. Yah, that was true. Not even she would have guessed he could keep it under control, even for that much money.

  “What were the odds?” she asked.

  “Fifty to one.”

  Nicole whistled that was a chunk of change. “Hope you are planning to take me out to eat.”

  “Sure.”

  Nicole’s eyes narrowed. “No drive through.”

  “Not even Big T’s BBQ?”

  Nicole shook her head. “It has to, at the least, have linen napkins.”

  Kent rolled his eyes, but took her hand as they walked. “We’ll see.”

  That was about the best she could expect out of Kent.

  * * *

  Ruben walked into the tech room. Joshua and Jimmi seemed all excited until they realized it was only him. Then both of their faces fell and they turned back to their keyboards.

  So sorry, I’m not the stark raving mad lunatic you both worship.

  He’d gotten Nicole’s text. Despite the fact that Lacey couldn’t remember the attack in detail, they might have gotten a solid lead out of her with this suspicious cable guy.

  “Want to give me a preview of what’s going on?” Ruben asked.

  “Nah,” Jimmi said.

  “Don’t want to have to go over it again when Kent gets here,” Joshua elaborated.

  Ruben wanted to say, “Let’s be clear, if Kent were here and I wasn’t, you’d move ahead?” But he didn’t. What would be the point? The answer would be a unanimous yes.

  Luckily the doors opened and Kent whisked Nicole in. She looked much better than she had earlier this morning. He still thought that Glick should have sent her home, but he’d been overridden by everyone.

  Kent looked around the room. “No Wanna be Amazon Queen Investigator?”

  “Nah,” Jimmi stated. “She bailed forty-five minutes into the presentation.”

  “Imagine that,” Kent stated. The men laughed although Ruben was pretty sure that was a dig at them, not Bridget. Ruben had sat through plenty of briefings by the two “J’s.” They were usually laden with multi-media touches, which only made them run longer. Numerous times Ruben had wished he could have bailed, but as the detective he really couldn’t.

  “Well?” Kent asked the guys.

  Instead of the shoulder shrug and nearly teenage level of apathy they had given Ruben, Jimmi and Joshua started their dog and pony show.

  “First off, Lacey was right,” Jimmi said scrolling through footage. “This guy was parked there for five straight days, yet didn’t go into a single house or do a single days’ work.”

  “Did the cable company report any vans missing?”

  “No, that’s the weird part,” Joshua said. “They swear every truck is accounted for. I even made the supervisor go out and do a visual inspection of all the rigs.”

  “Maybe he stole it from another district?”

  Jimmi shook his head. “We checked across the tristate area. None missing. None.”

  “Maybe we should go nationwide.” Ruben suggested.

  “Do you have any idea how long that would take?” Jimmi asked.

  “I agree,” Kent stated. “This guy is pretty damned sophisticated. Work outward, going state by state until you have them all.”

  Jimmi frowned, but Ruben
noticed that the tech didn’t argue with their resident Svengali.

  “Anything on the necklace?” Nicole asked.

  “I’m working my way up Tanya’s family tree,” Joshua answered, “But so far no one who pops out as wanting to kill her for it.”

  “So you called me in, with nothing to show me?” Kent asked with a disapproving frown. Ruben could feel the shift in the room, both Jimmi and Joshua sat up straighter.

  “Of course not,” Jimmi said, however he didn’t exactly rush into what he did have.

  “Never,” Joshua reassured them all without changing the monitor.

  “We got Lucky 37’s license plate number from the hospital footage!” Jimmi said excitedly and brought it up on the screen.

  Nicole tilted her head. “Are you saying that it is unlike the rest? It wasn’t stolen?”

  Joshua seemed deflated. “No. It was stolen and he’s probably already changed them.”

  “So nothing, then,” Kent said. “It’s getting time for me to head out to stalk both Lucky 37 and Buzz Kill and this is all we have to go on? An antique necklace and we don’t even have the cable guy’s face?”

  Neither Jimmi nor Joshua would look at Kent. Ruben could feel their disappointment. Hell, his other three cases had been bumped back for Buzz Kill. Everyone’s focus was on the chainsaw wielding murderer.

  “You can’t track Lucky by his motorcycle like you did last night?” Nicole asked.

  Jimmi shook his head again. “That was late at night with his bike the only one on the road. During the day, there is way too much other noise to be able to pick him out of traffic.”

  “Lucky 37 is going to kill again in the next three nights and more than likely Buzz Kill will be on a tear again, literally, and this is all you have?”

  “No,” Jimmi said, “But this lead is really, really early.”

  “Too early,” Joshua jumped in.

  “Show me,” Kent said taking a step forward. His tone did not brook argument.

  Ruben watched as Jimmi spun a dial and a new piece of footage was on the main monitor. This was of a hospital hallway. It looked like somewhere down in the basement.