Krewe of Hunters, Volume 2: The Unseen ; The Unholy ; The Unspoken ; The Uninvited

by Heather Graham

  “No,” Logan agreed. “Neither is Jane.”

  “Is it fair to bring them into…whatever this is?” Kelsey asked.

  “It’s up to them. If the team works out, they’ll wind up with training, and you’ll both have to take a few courses, too, for the proper certifications in weapons and such.”

  Kelsey wondered about the documentary. Would Sean still be working on it? He was no slouch. Besides being multitalented, he was what you’d consider a “man’s man.” Football, kickboxing and mixed martial arts were hobbies for him, and he’d turned down a chance to be college all-pro because he loved film and computers more.

  “He’s got what we need,” Logan said, looking at her curiously.

  “Does he know about this?” she murmured.

  “We’ve communicated,” Jackson told her.

  “And he’s a—” Logan began.

  “Texan,” Kelsey finished for him. Logan raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. He was smiling far more easily. She wished she wasn’t so glad of that.

  “When are they meeting us at the morgue?” he asked.

  “In twenty minutes. At nine,” Jackson said.

  “What’s the first order of business?”

  “We’ll start with Kat,” Jackson said. “Most of the bodies are so decomposed that the best medical examiner in the world would have difficulty telling us much more than Gaylord did. But she has the ability to go a step further, especially now, as a member of this team.”

  Logan wasn’t surprised by that, Kelsey realized. Of course, he knew Kat Sokolov because he’d worked with her before.

  “She…speaks with corpses?” she ventured.

  Logan turned to her. If he guessed she’d been talking about him earlier and felt angry about it, he didn’t indicate that in any way. “I think Jackson means that she not only has a special ability, but she’s got the money behind her now to do the kind of testing they wouldn’t normally have done for unidentified corpses with apparent causes of death. Doing the appropriate tests, Kat can learn a great deal more. She’ll be able to give us information that could lead us in the right direction.”

  Jackson spoke up. “Kat is excellent, and she’ll be dedicated to this case.”

  He looked at them both. “We’ve already got our first report from her. We didn’t need an exceptionally talented M.E. to find out about the DNA in that finger, but as we all suspected, it was Vanessa Johnston’s.”

  “The killer seems to be speeding up,” Logan said.

  They were all quiet for a minute. Yes, they’d suspected that the finger had been the missing woman’s. Now they knew it. Yes, any adept technician could have gotten them that information. But Kelsey had the feeling that things were just beginning, that Jackson Crow knew exactly what he was doing, and Kat Sokolov was going to be an important addition to their, as yet, uncertain unit. But although Kelsey hadn’t made a formal decision, and neither had Logan, she felt as if they belonged. As if they were part of the Krewe of Hunters.

  “We should’ve been able to help her,” she murmured. Tears stung her eyes; she hadn’t known Vanessa Johnston or the others, and she’d mastered some hard lessons in law enforcement, but the human element was always there. So was the hopeless, impotent feeling that came with learning another victim was past saving.

  “We just figured this out,” Jackson reminded her. “Now it’s up to us.”

  “She’s probably beyond help, but not beyond justice,” Logan said. “Let’s head out. The longer it takes us to discover the truth, the more opportunity there’ll be for this killer to find his next victim.”

  * * *

  Kat wore a white lab jacket and her hands were gloved as she worked over the body of Tara Grissom, taking blood and tissue samples.

  Logan watched her, again studying what remained of Tara’s face. He felt anger roiling inside him—a good anger, not a destructive one. It was the kind of anger that made him want to track down the killer. A completely controlled emotion. They needed to be methodical while they worked with all possible haste. He glanced over at Jackson Crow and thought about the power the man had and what they were being offered.

  Certain tests were automatically done on corpses brought in for autopsy. In cases where cause of death seemed clear, some tests usually wouldn’t be done. They were just too expensive, especially when X-rays or physical trauma pointed to the means of death—such as broken hyoid bones or the evidence of stab wounds.

  However, in this case, they desperately needed more clues. That meant more time and money.

  Jackson had the federal funds necessary to pitch in when the local budget was used up. And, Logan knew, if he joined Crow’s unit, he’d have that same backing.

  He saw that Jackson was staring at him, and he wondered if the other man suspected what was going on in his mind.

  “I doubt I’ll be able to find needle marks if the women were injected with any substance,” Kat said apologetically. “In some of these instances we’re down to almost no soft tissue. We could find metal poisoning in the hair or bones, but…we do have a few victims who may be able to tell us something.”

  “GC-MS?” Logan asked.

  She nodded, looking at Jackson. “Yes.”

  To detect many of the possible substances that might’ve been used to subdue the women before they disappeared, GC-MS, or gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, would be needed. The state of decay meant that no other approach was likely to yield results.

  It seemed logical that the women had been influenced in some way to leave the Alamo—or wherever their location—without putting up any kind of fight or making a scene. They might’ve been persuaded to come and see something or invited to do something. What that something was Logan and the others had no clue—except for the phone call recorded between Chelsea Martin and her friend Nancy. The call was abruptly cut off. Someone had interrupted Chelsea, and she hadn’t been seen or heard from again…until her corpse was discovered. Another possibility, as Kat had mentioned, was some form of sedative.

  “I’m going to do more testing, a lot more testing,” Kat told them. “As of now, I don’t have much to give you, but I’ll look for drugs, and I’ll study the stomach contents—those tests were done, but not really followed up. I’ll do whatever I can.” She offered them a weak smile. “It’s going to be nice to have first call on all the lab techs out there, and free rein for any test I need.”

  Logan glanced across the corpse at Kelsey, who was gazing down at Tara’s face. He liked the quiet way she’d stood listening, and the empathy in her eyes. He looked at the corpse himself and wondered whether he’d lost his “talent” after Alana’s death.

  Had it diminished because he’d refused to make use of it? After all, what good was a “talent” that had failed him when he’d needed it most?

  But he still had it. He knew he did. Something was eluding him, though. He could reach out, and he could see, but he couldn’t see enough. He’d reached the young woman, but he’d felt blinded.

  He walked over to Kelsey, who started, her attention drawn from the corpse. He took her hand; she scowled at him, taut and resistant, when he urged her toward the corpse.

  “You need to see,” he told her.

  “Just like you do,” she shot back.

  He bent his head slightly, a bitter smile curving his lips. “But we’re a team, right? And your eyes might be better on this one. You have to feel the hurt, don’t you?”

  She didn’t allow him to force her hand onto the putrefying corpse, but she didn’t make a show of fighting him in front of Kat and Jackson, either. She did let him guide her, though, and he felt some emotion rip through her as she touched Tara Grissom’s arm. Her eyes flashed to his in green fury but she didn’t get a chance to speak; the door opened and they were joined by a tall, slim brunette wearing a lab coat and carrying a camera.

  “Jane,” Jackson said warmly. “Thank you for coming.”

  Logan released Kelsey’s arm.

  But he met her eyes
again and shrugged grimly. She’d gotten something, made some kind of connection. And while he was glad to welcome Jane Everett to the investigation, he was also anxious to get back on the streets with Kelsey.

  She had what he’d lost.

  Maybe it was simply the ability to give, and to love. To touch, in a way he no longer could.

  Chapter 7

  Kelsey tried to greet Jane Everett cordially, with professional courtesy, but she felt as if she were burning inside. Watching as Kat worked with the corpse had become painful. She kept wondering if Vanessa Johnston had been alive when she’d reached Texas, and though she knew the loss of a finger didn’t guarantee death, she also knew they wouldn’t find her alive. And as she’d listened to Katya Sokolov, she’d felt an almost overwhelming sadness for the young woman on the table.

  Touching her had made it worse; it was as though she’d felt her own life ebbing through her fingers as the corpse’s one good eye stared at her. Deep in her mind, she’d heard a silent cry for help.

  Where were you? Kelsey asked. What were you doing? How were you so quickly and easily taken? And why?

  “Kelsey O’Brien, Jane Everett,” Jackson said, introducing them.

  They shook gloved hands, and Kelsey tried to smile as Jackson continued. “Logan, Kat, Jane, you three know one another and you’ve worked together, so I’m actually the odd man out here, along with Kelsey, of course.”

  Jane Everett had warm amber eyes and she seemed pleased to meet Kelsey. They didn’t exchange small talk over the corpse; Jane went right to the heart of her expertise. “This isn’t going to be easy,” she said. “I can do better images when we’re working with skulls,” she told Kat.

  “Tara’s face we know.” Kat spoke gently and respectfully of the dead. “On some of the others, most of the tissue is already lost, so we can take a look and then decide on an approach.”

  “Jane,” Logan said. “I think it’ll help us immensely if we can determine the identities of the other women.”

  “Kat and I will start on the images immediately,” Jane assured him. “Then you can distribute the pictures.” She smiled. “I haven’t seen you in while. It’s good to work with you again.”

  Jane liked him, Kelsey thought. At the moment, she didn’t like him very much herself.

  But Jane had barely entered the room when the door opened again, and her cousin arrived. Sean came in, giving her a broad smile, and it was nice because…so far, she really had been an outsider. She wasn’t Texan. Sean was, but he was blood, as well, and they even bore a family resemblance. She wanted to rush over and throw her arms around him, but the gravity in the morgue forbade it. And the sense that still seemed to vibrate in her fingers, the sense that Tara Grissom was with her, made any other kind of feeling—or interaction—difficult just now.

  Jackson stripped off his gloves and shook hands with Sean, and the others greeted him as an old and esteemed acquaintance. He looked at Kelsey then, sheepish, his eyes trying to meet hers but slipping to the corpse that lay between them.

  “Hey, Kels.”

  “Hey, Sean.”

  He was tall and lean, with hair that was similar to her own but much darker, and the same green eyes that were dominant in their family. While she stood awkwardly behind the corpse, Sean kept avoiding it and trying to speak to the others, saying he was glad to be working with them again.

  “I’m not sure I’m much good in the morgue,” Sean said, addressing Jackson. “And I’m still involved with the documentary. But I’ll do my best on searches and video recreations as soon as I have something to work with.”

  “Kat?” Jane began. “How soon—”

  “This afternoon,” Kat said instantly. “I’ll get an assistant in here, and we’ll start with the photographs. I’ll see what I can do about getting down to the skulls. If we can come up with a real idea of more of the victims’ faces, Sean can start tonight.” Kat turned to Jackson, Logan and Kelsey. “I’ll do whatever I can in the tests, and get back to you.”

  “Kelsey’s named our victims,” Logan said. “I think we all believe that ‘Jodie Doe’ might have been the victim of a different killer—she was drowned. This doesn’t mean we don’t need justice for her, too. I’m just mentioning it.”

  “All right, I’ll look for differences, as well,” Kat promised. “I’ll also do anything I can to find out if a common drug, synthetic or natural, was used on any of the women.”

  “Everyone at the office tonight at eight o’clock,” Jackson said.

  They were dismissed. Kelsey pulled off her gloves and went back to the hallway. Knowing Sean was behind her, she turned around and greeted him with a hug at last. “I was hoping to see you soon,” she told him, “but this is a surprise.”

  “It was a surprise for me, too,” he said. “Well, not totally. Crow contacted me, but a lot of my time is committed to the documentary that’s being shot. The good thing is, we’ve come back to the city to do some interior shots at Branch Studios. I’m here now, so you’re welcome to stay with me. I figured you wanted to spend some time with Sandy, but if we’re working together…”

  “I’d love to come and stay with you, but right now I think it’s more important to be at the Longhorn.”

  He nodded. “We’re negotiating to shoot there, too.” He grinned wryly. “The rodeo’s in town, which is good on the one hand, since they can hire some of those guys as extras. But it’s bad in a way, too, because Sandy may not want shooting done on the premises when she has such a great clientele—thanks, of course, to the rodeo. She won’t want us closing off any areas. Then there’s sound, of course. But I’m not producing. I’m just the special-effects guy.” He glanced at his watch. They’d moved down the hall, but Jackson, Logan and Jane Everett had exited the autopsy room, as well. He looked quickly in their direction. “So, this is why you’re here?” he asked her. “What do you think?”

  My cousin! My blood, she thought. Sean was here. She felt now that she really had someone she knew, and trusted entirely.

  “I’m not sure yet,” she told him. “Jackson Crow seems to know what he’s doing. It’s a little scary. But very tempting.”

  “Yeah, it’s intriguing. Who knew the world had so many strange people in it?”

  “We’re not strange,” Kelsey said.

  “Right. We’re perfectly normal gifted people,” he said dryly. “Let’s face it, Kels, we’re strange. But working where strange is normal might be really nice for a change.”

  She studied Sean’s face. He was a few years her senior; they’d both seen and done some things that could definitely be considered strange. And they’d both learned that you didn’t talk about any of these things to others.

  She nodded. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

  “We will,” he agreed.

  “Sean, you know the history and legends here, don’t you?”

  “Born and raised in San Antonio,” he reminded her. “Any questions you have, I can answer later, okay?”

  The rest of the group was coming toward them, and he backed away from her slightly. “Going to my day job.” He raised his voice. “I’ll see you all tonight. And if anyone has anything for me…”

  He waved and headed off.

  “Let’s go, shall we?” Logan said to her.

  She didn’t ask where they were going. Kelsey knew he was anxious to search for Vanessa Johnston.

  She still felt a simmering anger against him over forcing her to touch Tara’s corpse—forcing her hand in more ways than one—but she nodded.

  They left the morgue together.

  Kelsey could still smell the mixture of chemicals that seemed to permeate the autopsy room, even as they walked into the sunlight.

  It wasn’t a smell you ever forgot.

  * * *

  They returned to the Alamo, and sat on the bench not far from the entrance to the old chapel.

  “This seems highly useful.” He could hear the sarcasm in her voice. They’d been on the bench for nearly half an hour
and nothing had happened.

  “This is where the crow dropped the finger,” Logan said patiently.

  She was cool and aloof; she’d been angry since they’d left the morgue.

  He turned to her. “Look, we’re here because we can sit on this bench and possibly…hopefully, make some discoveries.”

  Her green eyes blazed. “Yes, we know we can do things differently. But, Raintree, we’re supposed to use our gifts as we see fit to use them. I don’t force you to do anything, and you don’t force me.”

  He shook his head. “I tried. I touched Tara, and because of that, I know she was taken in darkness. You’re better than I am. You might have discovered more.”

  “I’m not better! You…made contact.”

  “So did you,” he said, turning away. “And, hey, if you don’t want to use what you have, you should just go home.”

  “I should go home?” she responded furiously. “If you can’t move beyond the past, there’s no sense in working on this. And if you’re supposed to be some kind of team captain, well, there’s been a mistake.”

  He wanted to answer her sharply, but he tensed and found himself inhaling.

  She was right. She was so right. He had to learn to find the truth again.

  He exhaled. “Team. That means we all use what we have,” he said. He turned back to her. “Did you get anything more?”

  She shook her head. “Tara Grissom can’t help us because she was taken in the dark, and she doesn’t know who killed her.”

  “She can still help us,” Logan said.

  “How?”

  “We have to find out more about her. Learn about her friends and acquaintances. Who knew she was coming here? Did she meet with anyone once she arrived? We need to discover the little personal things. I thought—”

  “You thought you could force me when I wasn’t ready,” Kelsey said.

  He smiled crookedly. “Are we ever really ready?”

  “Are you ready yet?”

  Was he?

  Looking past Kelsey, he saw Zachary Chase hovering a few feet away.

  “Zachary,” he whispered.