If he decided to pursue it, he would be laying his life on the line. He was forced to ask himself if he cared for Chelsea enough to take such a risk. He was going to have to do some serious thinking, and didn’t have much time to do it.
Chapter 18
Finding someone named Bianca Rodriquez in Tucson was proving to be challenging. There were quite a few listed in the online directory and in Google, but none of them seemed to fit. Plus the videotape was done quite some time ago, and maybe she had died, married or moved away.
Pierce decided to take a break. Then his phone rang with a call from his wife. She rarely called him at work. He hoped nothing was wrong with the twins.
“Hey, honey, what’s up?”
“Were you expecting a package today?”
“No.”
“Well, someone rang the doorbell and he seemed like a delivery man. When I opened the door, he just said special delivery for Detective Carson. By the time I was about to ask him where to sign, he was gone. So I just dragged it inside. It’s kind of heavy although it’s not so big.”
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.
“Emma, where is the package now?”
“Near the door on the living room floor.”
“Listen to me, Emma. Grab the kids and get out of the house immediately, right now. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
“But…but…”
“Do as I say, Emma, right now!”
He slammed the phone shut and quickly went into the main work area where several officers were standing around talking.
“Get them to dispatch a bomb unit to my house, Parker. Now!”
He issued the order without breaking his stride. He dashed into the car park and jumped into his vehicle. His heart was racing at nearly a hundred beats per minute. His chest felt like it was going to explode while his breath came in quick short gasps. He turned on the siren and floored the accelerator.
He prayed that nothing would happen to his family—not to Emma, nor his twin daughters—or it would kill him. All the possible scenarios rushed through his mind as he wove his way through the traffic like a stunt driver in a movie.
When he finally pulled into the driveway, he leapt out of the car and ran past the squad car which had just arrived a few moments ahead of him.
“Emma! Emma!” He started yelling.
Then he saw her and the girls on the sidewalk down a ways from the house. Relief flooded him as he hugged them to him fiercely. She was looking pale and frightened.
“What’s going on, Pierce? What’s in the box?” she asked.
“I don’t know, honey, the bomb squad team will look and let us know. I’m just glad you and the kids are safe.”
As he spoke, the bomb squad arrived and began to set up for entry into the house.
“Looks like your work may be following you home. What’s really going on, Pierce?”
“Before I answer that, would you be able to describe the person who delivered the box?”
“Well, he was of about average height, a bit on the heavy side, and now that I think of it, he had his cap pulled down over his face, and he was wearing what looked like a delivery man’s uniform.”
“That could be anybody,” he said.
“Now, will you answer my question?”
Letting out a sigh, he knew that the less she knew the better off she would be. However, she worked in the media and would catch wind of what was happening anyway, even if he didn’t tell her. Looking over to his twin girls and then back to his wife, he took her hands in his. He looked into her eyes and knew he would have to tell her the full story—Chelsea’s story, and how it was connected to what was happening now.
At that very moment, the officer in charge of the bomb squad called him into the house. There was a strange sounding urgency in his voice.
“Just a minute, Emma. I’ll be back, and then I will tell you the whole story.”
As he entered the house, he immediately noticed how grim the bomb squad members looked. They were standing around the box, so it was obviously not a bomb.
“Take a look, Detective.”
Pierce gasped, instinctively drew back and felt like retching when he saw the contents.
It was a human heart!
Chapter 19
Running the DNA on the heart that had been delivered to Pierce’s house, Cara knew it was that of a woman. She also knew that the person was not yet dead when it had been carved out of her chest. Cara shuddered at the thought of the victim’s pain as this was being done. The people who had carried out this act had to be utter beasts and not human beings. They needed to be stopped, one way or the other.
As she ran the search through her tissue database for anything that matched the victim, she heard a beep. That meant there was a match. The name Jeanine Groves flashed on the screen. She hurried to Pierce’s office to inform him.
“I have the results for the heart,” she told him. “The victim is one Jeanine Groves.”
“Are you fucking kidding me,” he said, as he stood up. “She was brought in for questioning less than six hours ago. How in the hell would anyone know she was here, much less find her and kill her?”
He made a quick call, sending a unit to the home of Jeanine Groves. He stormed around, pacing the floor.
“I tell you, Cara, there is a mole in this office and I’m not going to stop until I find out who it is. Why would they kill her?”
“Fear,” Cara said. “This is about you, not her. This means they feel threatened, and are trying their hardest to throw you off their track by intimidating you. Don’t you see? They want you to stop investigating the case.”
“Yeah? Well, I will not be intimidated, and I will get them if it is the last thing I do. I’m more determined than ever now.”
As they continued to talk, Cara tried to settle him down, though she was still feeling unsettled herself.
“Calm down, Pierce. You need to think now about where they might have stashed the body. Maybe we can pick up some clues there.”
Pierces reply was cut short as his phone rang. He spoke briefly in one word sentences, then hung up, turning to face Cara.
“The unit we sent to her house found nothing.”
“Well, do you think they were going to make it obvious so you would find it easily? I think you have a house you might need to go rip apart inch by inch, brick by brick.”
“I think I do,” he said, getting up.
“Is there anything you need me to do,” Cara asked, as Pierce began to walk away.
“Keep yourself out of trouble and keep looking for clues.”
He was glad that his wife and kids had gone to Fort Huachuca to visit her brother on the base. At least there, they would be safe for the time being. The heart in the box had really shaken Emma up. He had never seen her looking so scared.
Then it occurred to him that he needed to alert Chelsea of what was happening, since she was not at work and had no way of knowing what was going on. He dialed her number.
“Madden,” she answered after only two rings. She was always quick to answer, almost as if she was always expecting to be called.
“Hey, I was just calling to see how you are doing.”
“I am doing perfectly fine. What about you? You sound as if something is wrong.”
“I would be lying if I said everything was okay. Listen, you should find a safer place to go. There are a few things going on and I am not sure what is going to happen next.”
“I suppose I can do that. Do you want to tell me what is going on?”
“Not right now. I will tell you later. In the meantime, I think it would be best if you disappeared for a while. I will call and update you later.”
There was a brief pause, then she said, “All right. Just be safe with whatever is going on.”
“I will,” he hung up.
He felt a headache coming on, probably because of the stress of trying to figure ou
t too many things at once. Every time the situation looked under control, something else came along and threw a spanner in the works. Now he had to deploy men to try and find Jeanine’s body. The unit that went to her home reported that it appeared she hadn’t made it home after being questioned at the police station. That meant she had to have been snatched from somewhere else after leaving the police station.
He decided to find more about Jeanine by looking her up on the social media pages. He found out that she was not a very private person. There was an endless array of pictures of her and friends mostly partying. Many of them had some kind of a police record, with quite a few having done time. As he went through her posts, he saw a picture of her in a dark alley. He could see the train tracks behind her and several buildings in a rundown area. The picture was definitely taken on the south side of town where many of the buildings were abandoned.
He knew it would be wise to take a look in that area, but he would have to get the cops in that sector involved as well. He would also be out of his jurisdiction. He decided to involve only a handful of cops to maintain the secrecy of the case, partly because he also wanted to facilitate Chelsea’s planned action.
He had mixed feelings about Chelsea’s plan, but did not want to stand in her way. She was out to get the person who had murdered her parents, someone who was still walking free and committing more murders every day. The police system had failed to give her justice. Now she had decided to take things in her own hands. If he did not know the perpetrator and his ghastly deeds, he might have felt differently about supporting her plan. Furthermore, De Leon was supposedly already dead, so if Chelsea killed him, it would be as if the killing had never happened.
The cop in him struggled with this line of thinking, but for him the last piece of resistance was swept away when he looked at Jeanine’s heart, and heard Cara say it was cut from her chest while she was still alive. De Leon was not human, he was a monster. He had been responsible for the deaths of many, most recently including his own son, his son’s girlfriend and their unborn child, and now… Jeanine.
Pierce was expected to go by the book and do things the right way, but was there truly one right way to do anything? To put an end to someone who had inflicted so much pain on others did not seem wrong—rather, it appeared justifiable, and it would be saving the lives of many others. No, De Leon had to be stopped, one way or the other. And if Chelsea was the one to do it, so be it.
Chapter 20
It was nearly six o’clock in the evening and Dean had come home early as promised. They were snuggled close to each other in bed after another session of lovemaking. Fitting herself into the curves of his body, she smiled contentedly. She had never felt happier and had no regrets about what they had shared. Cara was right. Finding the love of a good man was changing her life in a positive way. She felt as if a wonderful new chapter in her life was beginning.
“Don’t you think we ought to be getting dressed?”
“Do we have to go?” She wanted the moment to last forever.
“Yes. Remember, I’m taking you somewhere special tonight.”
She pulled his face toward her and kissed him. “Where are we going?”
“It will be a surprise.”
Kissing him once more, she said. “All right, I’ll start getting ready,”
“Good.”
He had almost panicked when she suggested they stay home. That would ruin the plan. As she disappeared into the bathroom, Dean got up quickly and pulled on a pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt. With trembling hands he reached into his brief case and pulled out a wash cloth and the bottle of chloroform. There was no turning back now. His mind was made up.
He doused the wash cloth with the chloroform as he heard Chelsea coming out of the bathroom. He held it behind his back as she came toward him.
“What is that smell?” she asked.
But her question remained unanswered as he grabbed her and placed the wash cloth against her nostrils. She struggled briefly and he could see the shock and fear in her eyes before her body sagged against him. He gently laid her on the sofa.
It was quite a challenge to get her from the apartment to the car, and to do it without being seen. Once there, he placed her on the back seat and put a blanket over her. He then quickly got in and slipped the keys into the ignition. He knew where to take her—it had been his own hideout for years. No one would be able to find her, unless he told them. That would never happen because his lips were sealed.
Chapter 21
Pierce finally made the phone call regarding Jeanine Groves to the other station on the south side of town. The police chief was very cooperative and offered to get some of his officers together right away to start searching the buildings in the area. Pierce promised to drive over to join them.
As he got into the squad car, he called his wife. The phone rang several times before she answered, and he found himself starting to panic until she came on the line.
“Hey, sweetie,” she said. It was like music to his ears.
“How are you doing, Em?”
“I’m all right, but missing you. The girls are fine and Rodger says hi. Is everything all right with you?”
“Yes.”
“Stop lying to me, Pierce. I know you’re just doing your job, but remember that you have a family, too.”
“I know that, Em. The three of you mean everything to me. Believe me when I say I’m all right. The moment I’m finished with this case, we’ll take a long vacation, okay? Why not start looking for somewhere we can go for a while?”
“I’ll start thinking about that. Call me when you get home tonight.”
“I will, Em. I love you and give the girls a kiss for me.”
“I’ll do that. Be safe babe.”
“Always.”
He hung up the phone to check on Chelsea to see how she was doing and to fill her in on what was going on. He knew she was working on a plan and it included her going underground for a while.
He called her, expecting a quick answer as usual, but none came. The phone rang several times before going to voice mail. He thought that really odd, and decided to call Dean who answered on the third ring.
“I just tried to call Chelsea and didn’t get her. Is she all right?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. I left her sleeping in the apartment, and I am getting a few things from the store.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure she was all right. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“Of course.”
As Pierce continued driving, he could not shake the feeling that something was not right, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Shortly afterwards, he arrived across town and his attention was taken up by the immediate task at hand.
Several police cars were already there and about a dozen officers were milling around, awaiting orders. Pierce recognized Lieutenant Perez immediately and headed toward him. They exchanged greetings.
“My men are ready to fan out for the search. I just thought I would wait until you got here.”
“Thanks for waiting.”
Lieutenant Perez called his men together.
“Guy’s, we are going to break up into groups and search these buildings. You need to be careful though. Some of them are in a poor condition and parts may cave in or fall down. We have only a few hours of daylight left, so be quick, yet thorough. If you find anything at all, just radio it in.”
The men dispersed and started the search. Pierce, gun in hand, headed for a building to the far left. He poked around outside, looking for any signs of freshly dug earth or of a struggle of any kind. Seeing none of these, he decided to enter through the broken door that was almost falling off its hinges.
As he stepped inside he heard the crunch of glass beneath his feet. The interior was a bit dark as the windows were blackened by dirt. He made out some old furniture and a few sleeping bags, plus some cooking and eating utensils. Apparently hobos, homeless
or druggies used the place sometimes.
Cautiously, he climbed up the stairs. He could hear rats scurrying across the floor, but no human sounds. Arriving on the second floor, he looked into the different rooms that appeared to have once been offices. When he came to the last one he saw some dried blood marks on the floor.
It looked like whoever left the trail had attempted to crawl away from their attacker. With his gun cocked, he cautiously followed the trail which led him to another room with a door ajar. He paused for a moment, wondering if it was wise to go in. He looked around and listened closely. But he neither saw nor heard anything.
With every muscle tensed and prepared for anything, he entered the room. In the far corner, he saw something wrapped up in a tarp. It was in the shape of a human body which he assumed could be Jeanine’s. Without hesitating, he immediately walked over to take a closer look.
He didn’t make it. Suddenly, the floor gave way beneath his feet and he found himself falling. He screamed as he fell and crashed onto the floor below. He felt as if every bone in his body was broken and the pain was excruciating. Then he blacked out.
He awoke to the wailing of sirens and the sound of voices around him. There was a terrible ache in his head and all over his body. He could not move and felt hands lifting him out of the rubble. He was placed on a stretcher and taken to a nearby ambulance.
He felt as if he was in a dense fog and could not clear his mind. His thoughts were in a jumble. He wanted to speak, and his while lips moved, no words came. The voices of the EMT’s were muffled and he could not quite make out what they were saying.
He remembered falling but little else. He attempted to raise himself up and felt the EMT push him back down. He was too weak to resist. The ambulance siren wailed and every bump, sharp turn or sudden braking was painful for him.
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