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

by Carolyn McCray

  Um, not.

  Instead as she fell against the wall then slid down it, Kent squatted next to her. “Not so fun when you are on the receiving side of the blade, eh?”

  No, it didn’t seem so. He could of course have stabbed her again, but he felt like that would have been overkill and honestly he felt like she deserved a long slow death like all of her victims had.

  * * *

  Once the EMT declared the producer dead at the scene, Nicole popped up, grabbed her gun and flew out the door. Ruben was hot on her heels. She trotted down the hallway, looking into each glassed in room that they passed. It wasn’t until they were nearly at the end of the hallway that she found them.

  She should have guessed the scene. Filled with blood and one of them on the floor. Of course it wasn’t Kent. Ruben looked just a little disappointed. Nicole feared that her partner had maybe hoped that Bridget might be triumphant.

  The door was locked so Nicole banged on the glass.

  Kent was slow to rise from Bridget’s side. The woman was still alive. Nicole could tell by the weak spurting of blood from her neck, but she certainly didn’t have long.

  “Guys, down here!” she called for the paramedics.

  Sanguine, Kent sauntered over and unlocked the door. She didn’t even check on him, even though he had a streak of blood down his neck. He had proven over and over again that he could take care of himself.

  Instead she rushed over to Bridget and put pressure across the wound even though she knew it was futile. The woman’s hands lay limp at her side. Her palms were blood stained so at some point she had tried to stop the bleeding but was now too weak.

  Bridget opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

  “Don’t waste your energy,” Nicole urged, though she wasn’t quite sure at this point what difference it would make.

  “Tell him…” the TV host couldn’t finish her sentence.

  And what was it today? Why was she the official messenger of the dying? She already had to break some difficult news to the producer’s family. What was she supposed to pass along for Bridget?

  “Tell him it was worth it,” Bridget sputtered then sagged into Nicole.

  The EMTs burst into the room, pulling Nicole out of the way. She had no doubt who “he” was, yet Nicole didn’t say anything to Kent. Like he needed another ego boost. The profiler was looking pretty happy with himself.

  “I suppose you are going to try and pass this off as self-defense?” Ruben questioned Kent.

  “You guys saw,” Kent said. Nicole felt that the profiler was feigning being hurt. “She dragged me away at knife point. What else was I supposed to do?”

  “Um, I don’t know. Just disarm her until we arrived. Go for a superficial wound? Hobble her? Something other than kill her.”

  “I guess I couldn’t,” Kent said with a shrug. “You know how it is in the heat of battle, you simply react.”

  Nicole couldn’t help but snort. Right. Kent simply reacting. The guy had a plan seven steps ahead when ordering breakfast, let alone during a knife fight. She’d seen him in action at knife fight club. There was nothing reactionary about his technique.

  No, they all knew that Kent had taken the kill shot on purpose. He’d probably set Bridget up from the get go, all in anticipation of that last slice. She also knew why Kent had done it. It wasn’t some sick revenge scenario or even twisted pleasure. The profiler was of the hardened belief that serial killers couldn’t be rehabilitated. They were forever a threat. They killed in prison or they got acolytes to kill for them outside of the prison walls.

  Kent believed that if you had a chance to kill a serialist, you took it. Period. End of statement.

  And here they were…again.

  Kent walked past her to the hallway. “What are we waiting for?” he asked. “We still have two serial killers to catch.”

  * * *

  Ruben wanted to punch Kent again, but he felt like socking the profiler twice in the same week might reflect poorly on his record. Instead he let the profiler and Nicole leave the room so that he didn’t have to listen to Kent’s insufferable excuses.

  Noticing the camera on the table that was still rolling, Ruben went over and turned it off. Like they needed anything else on tape. Although Ruben was looking forward to reviewing the film so that he could see exactly what Kent had done. Maybe, just maybe he could catch Kent in a not exactly “self-defense” moment.

  “She’s gone,” one of the EMTs announced.

  No great surprise there. Kent was as efficient as any serial killer. The only reason the man still walked around free was that his favorite victims were serial killers. No one to weep for them. Or sue Kent or demand he be arrested.

  Glick burst into the room, glanced around as horror filled his face. “What the hell happened here? Damn I knew he didn’t like the reporter, but did he have to kill her?”

  Ruben sighed. This was going to be a long explanation. He tried to keep it as brief as possible, knowing exactly how much paperwork he was going to have to fill out for this little debacle.

  “It turns out Bridget was a serial killer.”

  “Buzz Kill?” Glick asked, confusion still reigning on his face.

  Ruben shook his head. “No, just a random serial killer who thought she could go up against Kent.”

  “Don’t they ever learn?” Glick sighed.

  “And we’ve got two more bodies in the other lab,” Ruben informed his Captain.

  “Her crew?” Glick asked.

  “Yes.”

  Glick shrugged. “Kent did warn them.”

  Yes, he had.

  “Thank goodness he had them sign those extra release forms,” Glick stated.

  Even the Captain was intermittently impressed with the profiler. Ruben didn’t see how anyone could sign Kent’s “you are probably going to die” release form. Didn’t it just confirm how little the profiler regarded anyone else’s safety?

  Or was Ruben just pissed because of his own guilt. He’d just stood there as Bridget killed two people. He kept running the scenario over and over again in his head. Beyond breaking about a dozen laws himself, he didn’t know how he could have stopped the slaughter.

  Until Bridget drew those knives, they didn’t have any proof of Kent’s allegations. They didn’t have enough to arrest her. Hell, they didn’t even have enough to force her to come into the station to give a statement. Until she’d killed, she had appeared to be a law-abiding citizen. With three knives in her belt.

  Ruben looked down at the body as the EMTs loaded Bridget onto the gurney. Ultimately the TV host had paid the price though, hadn’t she?

  And of course, they had Kent to thank for that.

  Glick patted Ruben on the back. “Guess you know what comes next.”

  An avalanche of paperwork. He knew what he’d be doing for the next six hours. He might as well call Paggie and let her know.

  And the night was just getting started. Who knew what other trouble Kent would get them all into?

  All Ruben knew was that his hopes of ever getting the upper brass’ attention was probably never going to happen.

  “This all eventually matters, right?” Ruben asked his captain.

  Glick smiled. “Don’t worry, Torres, one day you will have your very own rock garden.”

  Ruben wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

  CHAPTER 15

  Kent walked back into the two J’s lab. The bodies were gone, but the huge blood pools were not. There were already five different CSIs taking pictures and blood samples. Why Kent wasn’t really sure. This had all been pretty straight forward and oh ya, the suspect was dead, so no trial.

  But when a crime happened in a crime lab, it was all hands on deck, immediately.

  Joshua and Jimmi were over in the corner chatting up their compatriots.

  “What are you doing?” Kent asked.

  Joshua turned around, a smile spreading across his face. “Explaining your exploits.”

  “Wel
l, get back to work.”

  Jimmi frowned. “But it’s a crime scene.”

  “Like I care,” Kent continued. “We’ve got two serial killers to catch.”

  Joshua patted Kent on the back. “Hey, man, you are already two for two tonight.”

  Kent shrugged off the praise. “But the wrong damned two. Now get to work.”

  Nicole walked in. “Now what?”

  “We go back to square one,” Kent admitted. He hated these side adventures even if they ended in the arrest of two murderers. He only had a very short window to take advantage of this adrenaline high before he crashed back down. When you had greatly increased blood flow to your brain, you had to take advantage of it.

  Jimmi and Joshua got set up at their computers.

  “Square one,” Jimmi asked. “What exactly does that mean?”

  “It means we throw out everything we know and start at the beginning.”

  “You mean Tanya’s death?” Joshua asked.

  Kent just nodded. What else did square one mean?

  Nicole put a hand on his arm. He didn’t even realize that his fingers were tapping on the table. That was adrenaline for you. He needed to harness it, instead of it ruling him.

  * * *

  Joshua dutifully brought up the file, but really didn’t see the point. They had been through this all before…ad nauseam. But this was how Kent worked. If he ever got stuck, he would wipe the board clean and start over.

  Frustrating but effective. Usually.

  Could Kent’s mojo ever give out? Sure he was on a roll, but even as he said, he hadn’t caught the serial killers that he really wanted to catch. Most people would sit on their laurels, but not Kent.

  That was why Joshua wasn’t ashamed to say that he worshipped the man. Why wouldn’t you?

  Kent paced behind them. “Alright, let’s look at this as if someone had actually believed Nathan and we had investigated Tanya’s death from the start.”

  Joshua scrolled back as Nicole stepped up.

  “We would have found the necklace and known she was killed for it.”

  “So,” Joshua jumped in before Jimmi could get his wily little hands on his part of the case. They might be BFFs but that didn’t mean that they weren’t competitive. “We would have looked up the genealogy way earlier and found the link to Lacey and Adelene.”

  “And Bridget,” Kent added. “So we might have saved how many deaths and dismemberments?”

  “Stupid doctors,” Jimmi commented. “Nicole, at the least are you going to slap them with an obstruction of justice charge?”

  Joshua was glad to see that Nicole waved off his competitor. “We’ll deal with them once we have Buzz Kill in custody.”

  Joshua’s eyes slid over to study Kent. He didn’t think the profiler had any intention of putting handcuffs on the serial killer, but Joshua didn’t say anything. He’d let Nicole and Kent hash that out amongst themselves.

  “Alright so Buzz Kill started out killing for money,” Kent said.

  “So really, we never may have gotten this case,” Joshua said.

  Nicole shrugged. “Due to the value of the necklace, Kent might have been brought in to consult.”

  The detective turned to her fiancée. “So would you have picked up that this was a serial killer in the making?”

  “No,” Kent stated bluntly.

  Okay, mark that on your calendar. Kent admitting to a mistake. This really was a banner night.

  Nicole frowned. “Really? You are going to totally fess up to that?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” Kent responded. “Buzz Kill wasn’t Buzz Kill yet. He wasn’t even a serial killer yet. He hadn’t formed yet, so I couldn’t detect him.”

  “Isn’t poisoning a woman’s choice of weapon?” Nicole asked. “Wouldn’t we have profiled Tanya’s killer as a woman under this theoretical investigation?”

  “Yes, or an omega male. Someone really, really passive.”

  Nicole stared at the screen. “So what in the hell happened between Tanya and Buzz Kill’s first kill?”

  “Grew his balls?” Jimmi suggested.

  Kent actually chuckled at Jimmi’s comment. Joshua’s ear tips started to burn.

  “Something like that,” Kent said. “It was pretty major. Glick’s right. You just don’t see stealth killers transform into attention seekers.”

  “What if Tanya wasn’t Buzz Kill’s first kill though,” Nicole said as everyone turned to her. “Aren’t we treating Tanya as victim zero? What if she wasn’t?”

  Kent’s pacing stopped as he turned on his heel toward Nicole.

  Joshua could feel by the shift in the air, this was going to be good.

  * * *

  Kent grabbed Nicole by the back of the head and laid a lip lock on her. She was brilliant simply brilliant.

  At first she resisted the kiss, but then melted into it. His fiancée knew with their lifestyle she better take it where she could get it.

  When their lips finally parted he simply said, “Thank you.”

  She smiled back, licking her lips.

  Kent turned back to the two J’s. “Okay, pull up all unsolved murders for six months before Tanya. She might have been a functional kill. An aberration. Perhaps there is an evolving signature that we simply haven’t picked up yet.”

  Even though this was technically Jimmi’s area, Joshua typed frantically. He knew the morgue data base like the back of his hand.

  “Parameters?” Jimmi asked.

  Joshua was already way ahead of that. Look at what Buzz Kill had become so you just had to ask yourself what would Buzz Kill Jr do? He liked blood, a lot. And violence. Like video game level violence.

  “I’ve got one,” Joshua said as Jimmi gave him a glare. “I remembered how gory the crime scene was.”

  Nicole squinted reading the report. “A car accident?”

  “It was ruled a hit and run,” Joshua explained. “We proved the car was pushed off the side of the road.”

  “No suspects?” Kent asked joining the group in front of the monitors.

  Joshua shook his head. “This was out in the backwoods roads so no traffic cams and we got some paint transfer, however it was a common Chevy color.”

  “I want every registered vehicle with that color brought up.”

  “But, that’s like thousands,” Joshua complained before he thought about it.

  * * *

  Kent glared at Joshua. “And what about my demeanor makes you think I care?”

  He had to give Joshua credit. The kid dug right in without another peep. Jimmi was usually the whiner.

  “Okay, so a possible early Buzz Kill murder. What else?”

  It was Jimmi’s turn apparently to try to impress. “I’ve got two unsolved about a month apart.”

  “MO,” Nicole asked.

  “One looked like an accidental drowning and the other was a supposed suicide until forensics ruled that the victim had been pushed off the roof.”

  Kent turned to Nicole. “Well, developing any theories?”

  His fiancée frowned, biting the edge of her thumb nail.

  “You’re the one that started this wagon train. Where is it leading us?”

  “The kills are all over the map, though,” Nicole stated.

  “And that is a bad thing?” he asked. He really needed her to not only think outside the box, but live outside of it. She needed to be about three zip codes away from the box.

  “He was experimenting?” Nicole said, although she didn’t exactly sound sure of herself. Still, he’d give it to her.

  “Testing out his psychopathy. Seeing what fulfilled his need and what didn’t.”

  “So all three of these killings were before Tanya?”

  “Go back further,” Kent instructed. “We need to find victim zero.”

  The two J’s worked their skinny little fingers to the bone.

  “Got one. Two years ago,” Joshua said. “It was initially ruled an accidental death. A drunk fell and hit their head on
a dumpster.”

  “What made it ruled a homicide?” Nicole asked.

  “Sub-dermal bruising on the upper arms and neck. Someone slammed her head into that dumpster.”

  “And another one five years ago,” Jimmi chimed in. God, Kent loved it when the two J’s went head to head.

  “Five years?” Nicole commented.

  That was a long time for a serial killer to simmer then explode, but Kent had to throw out any suppositions. Buzz Kill was as unique as they came.

  “MO?” Kent prompted.

  “Another accident turned murder.”

  “A woman?” Kent asked.

  Jimmi nodded.

  “Bring their pictures all up on the screen,” Kent ordered.

  The women’s phenotype were all over the map. One was Hispanic. Another black. Yet another dirty blonde. This didn’t feel like the killer was trying to use forensic countermeasures.

  He turned to Nicole. Time for her to put her thinking cap on.

  “Ugh,” his fiancée said. “You already have a theory, don’t you?”

  Kent just smiled and urged her to look at the murders with a fresh eye.

  “Okay,” Nicole said, rubbing her hands together. “I’m a psychopath. I have this urge to kill, but what to do with it.”

  “What type of victims do these feel like?” Kent prodded her.

  * * *

  “Opportunity?” Nicole suggested wishing she felt more confident.

  “What changed?” Kent asked.

  Nicole took in a deep breath. In some ways it encouraged her when Kent had a theory. It meant an answer was out there. However it equally frustrated her since the answer was always just out of reach of her fingertips.

  “Tanya,” Joshua jumped in. “Sorry.”

  “No,” Nicole stated. “I can use any help I can get.”

  And Joshua was right. Tanya had been a turning point.

  “Buzz Kill’s archetype,” Kent stated. “Buzz Kill found a singular point for his rage.”

  “Which is why the next two victims were so bloody and brunettes?” Nicole knew that she should be stating that as fact rather than putting a question mark on the end of that sentence but she couldn’t help it. She just didn’t feel definitive about it. She felt she was more groping around in the dark.