No Ordinary Killer

by Rita Karnopp

  “You got a point, thanks,” Cooper glanced at Arnott. “The rest of the team is yours. Pull together everything we have so far from this recent crime scene. Fill them in on what’s happened here.”

  “Where do I tell them you two went?”

  “We went back to the Giant Springs crime scene to get some fresh, uncompromised evidence.”

  “I suppose that means when I’m done here in the lab, I’d better high-tail it to Giant Springs and get some evidence to back that up,” Maxwell said.

  “You’re right. Might be a good idea to mark second sample on everything you collect. Check with Weaver, see if he’s contacted Megan with that list of questions he had for her. Oh, would you let Captain Gulchinski know what’s going on?”

  “Affirmative on all requests. Now get out of here before the lab closes. I wouldn’t want to have to explain why the two of you had to stay overnight.”

  Cooper laughed and headed for the door. “You’re suddenly awfully quiet,” he said to Dallas. She walked step by step alongside him. “Something other than the obvious bothering you?”

  “Maybe we should have told them about the pen. They could have kept an eye out in case this asshole is brassy enough to use it in front of them.”

  “Damn, forgot about it. Want to go back?”

  “No, I think we’ve wasted enough time. We need to keep our eyes open and be alert as to what’s happening around us. If we’re being followed, we’ll want to know right away.”

  “My truck is over here.” Cooper led the way.

  “I don’t think we should take your truck. Swing over to the Sherriff’s Department, we’ll take an unmarked four-wheel drive and I’ll call dispatch once we’re on the road.”

  “That’s a great idea. But, if we’re being watched, it might not make a difference.”

  “Yes, but if we’re being followed by a GPS bug, then it would. I’m just saying we have a better chance to go undetected—“

  “I’m not arguing. It’s a good idea. And once we’re on the road, you can tell me what the hell’s bothering you.” Cooper didn’t miss Dallas’s jaw tighten. She knew something and wasn’t sharing.

  Thirty minutes of silence stretched the limit of Cooper’s patience. “What gives?”

  “How well do you know your brother-in-law’s partner?”

  “Weaver’s a good guy. A bit of a know-it-all, but he’s a—“

  “Good guy. Now think about him objectively. Without breaching my investigation, I find him a bit fishy.”

  “Fishy?”

  “You know, suspicious, strange, questionable, devious, shady—“

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Not in the least.”

  Cooper pressed his feet into the floorboard while Dallas swerved around a semi, taking the inside track and hugging the cement divider closer than he liked. “Weaver and Sparks have been partners for a good five years.”

  “About the same amount of years as you and Arnott, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “So?”

  “So nothing. Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Like what?”

  “Cooper, get your head out of your ass and be objective. I’m asking for your help, and that’s not something that comes easy or that I do very often.”

  “Sorry. Well, I’m not sure what we’re after here, but let me think about this for a while.” He didn’t expect her to answer, and she didn’t. What could she possibly know or want to know about Weaver. He liked the ladies, that was no secret. He was a bit loud and outspoken. That didn’t make him a killer. He … “Maybe—”

  “Maybe what?”

  “Oh, didn’t realize I said that out loud. I was thinking … and—“

  “And?”

  “Well, Weaver seems to … he steers clear of my sister.”

  “What do you mean by steers clear?”

  “Just that. Whenever we have a get-together and invite Candy and Josh, well Weaver never shows up. Once Megan had too much to drink … she often had too much to drink, but at a party she asked Candy why Weaver never showed-up when she was around. I was pissed Megan asked and so was Josh.”

  “What did Candy answer?”

  “That’s it. I don’t think she’s comfortable knowing he hasn’t forgiven her … for telling dad what happened all those years ago.”

  “I guess that makes sense. How does Sparks feel about that?”

  “He doesn’t know what happened to Weaver … we haven’t and won’t tell anyone. Sparks likes having Weaver for a partner. He’s good at what he does and always has his back. As for not socializing, I think Dennis likes it that way. Not all partners are best friends.”

  “Is Weaver’s mother … adoptive mother … alive? Maybe he has an issue with his birth parents.”

  “Aunt Linda is in a nursing home. She had a stroke shortly after my mother died. As I’ve mentioned, they were close.”

  “Does Weaver visit her?”

  “I think it’s too hard for Weaver to see her the way she is. Tina, Tucker and I make a point to visit her now and then. I know Candy does, too. Mom would have wanted us to be there for her. Aunt Linda had a sad life, if you ask me.”

  “Do Sparks and Weaver socialize without Candy?”

  “What exactly are you asking me, Dallas?”

  “Simple, do they often stop at a bar for a couple of beers after work and shoot the breeze? Do you join them for beers sometime?”

  “I suppose sometimes … what exactly do you want to know?”

  “Just searching. Wasn’t Weaver heading out of the meeting room when that package arrived for Arnott?”

  “Can’t say I noticed. I was concentrating on the box.”

  “What about Sparks?”

  “Stop talking in circles, Dallas. What do you want to know about Dennis?”

  “You friends?”

  “Yes, we’re friends.”

  “Brothers?”

  “What the f—“

  “Come on. Play fifty questions with me.”

  “Okay. Yes and no.”

  “So you’re brothers through marriage, not exactly otherwise?”

  “You might say that. We were getting close and then the first big murder took place. Arnott and I got put on lead and Sparks and Weaver were put on the team, but all the credit went to Arnott and me. That didn’t set with either of them. The second big murder made things worse and by the time we finished solving the third case … well … Arnott and I moved up the ranks and Sparks and Weaver didn’t. It was wrong and I pointed that out to Captain Gulchinski. It wasn’t up to me.”

  “Who put you and Arnott up for promotion?”

  “Gulchinski, I think.”

  “Any reason why the whole team wasn’t promoted?”

  “Gulchinski didn’t feel it was a team effort.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “I asked him. He said he observed the cases, gave direction, and made the decision they were solved by Arnott and me. Now it looks like we were wrong and sent three men to prison for something they didn’t do. The evidence was strong in each case. Now it appears these murders are somehow connected.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I’m not so sure they are tied together.”

  “I think they are … look at all the similarities.”

  “Hear me out. What if they were three separate murders committed by three separate perps … but with one mentor or doer? You and Arnott were young, anxious and gullible. Maybe you got the right victim at the time, but the killer has now slanted that evidence to look otherwise. Maybe … just maybe … the victim manipulated these men into doing the actual killings. He waits for the jury to convict them. Now he masterfully guides Megan into writing that book. It’s all a plan to settle a score with you.”

  “Whoa, that’s quite a theory. That would mean the killer has been planning this out for a long time. It would also mean it has to be someone I know.”

  “Exactly.”

  Cooper shook his head.
“It can’t be this complicated. I don’t have any enemies. Someone who has wanted to kill me—“

  “No, not kill you, Cooper. This perp wants you to pay. He wants to destroy you. He wants you to be penalized. I’d say he wants you to lose everything that you value.”

  “So Tina and Tucker are in danger, too?” He glanced at the speedometer and noticed she was going almost eighty-five.

  “To be honest, I don’t know. I would say no. I think the perp wants you to lose your right to be their father. That will hurt you more.”

  “But who? What could I have possibly done to piss someone off this much? I don’t have any enemies. I know I’ve put some guys in prison, but they deserved it. I think we should review all my cases over the past five years and—“

  “This is personal.”

  “What are you saying? Someone in my family? Come on. I don’t even think Megan could hate me that much.”

  “Could she be gullible enough to be lured or manipulated by someone without realizing the bigger picture or ramifications?”

  “No fury like a woman scorned?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t think she hated me until I caught her cheating and wouldn’t take her back.”

  “So that means the perp realizes he wants to get even with you and is using her for his purpose. Maybe if we find out who she was sleeping with, we might find our killer.”

  “You think he’s our man? Did he lure her into his bed to hurt me?”

  “Possibly. But don’t think your Megan is an innocent here. She still took the bait and cheated on you. That still doesn’t change. She still wrote that book because she knew of your aspirations and goals. No way is she a naïve victim.”

  “She’s not my Megan. I have no intention of forgetting what her cheating did to me … and to Tina and Tucker. But, I also can’t forget she is the mother of my children. If she is being manipulated by this madman, then she is in serious trouble and she most likely doesn’t even know it.”

  “You might be right. Would she believe you if you—“

  “You’re joking, right? You’ve met Megan. You really think she’d believe a word I said? She’d most likely laugh at me, then say she hopes the perp succeeds.”

  “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try and have a talk with her.”

  “I’ll give it some serious consideration. You’d better slow down or you’ll get a ticket before we get there.” Cooper stretched his legs, then swallowed hard. Could Megan be cold enough to help someone destroy or even kill him? Maybe he didn’t want to know.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Megan reached over and grabbed her cell phone. Just once she’d like to wake when she wanted to. And that wasn’t now.

  “Megan, you there?”

  “Sort of. I was writing until three this morning. What do you want, Jessica?”

  “You’re hotter than JLo’s latest single. I want your first three chapters. We’re going to do an early promotion.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just that. We’re going to release your next book in segments. We’ll pause at a cliff-hanger so the reader is dying for the next chapters. It’ll be great publicity and something new.”

  “Who the hell thought of this hair-brained idea?”

  “Try the owner of your publishing house.”

  “He have any idea the pressure he’s putting me under? Maybe if I had the entire book finished that might work. But I’m just getting started. Sometimes I need to go back and foreshadow things, or maybe I’ll go back and tighten my writing. I can’t just stop the writing and polish my first three chapters and then pick up where I left off. I just don’t work that way.”

  “That’s the beauty of this plan. You won’t have to polish a thing. We’re going to do that for you. You can keep right on writing and we’ll do all the rest.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Would an additional advance of fifty-thousand change your mind?”

  Megan sat up and leaned against the pillows. “You’re going to pay me eighty-thousand above and beyond my original contract. This thing flops and I don’t owe you a penny back. The money is mine to keep.”

  “Done deal.”

  “You know you’re crazy, right?”

  “I’m telling you, Megan, the public is craving your next book. Might I ask what the new title is?

  “Physical Evidence, if you must know.”

  “Hmm, I like it, but since Malicious Intent had such a nice ring, maybe this next one should be named something like Deadly Intent. We’ll follow it up with Murderous Intent. My God, I love it.”

  “Well I don’t.” How could she explain the title wasn’t her idea? That she was being blackmailed into writing this damn book. “It’s Physical Evidence or I’m not going along with the new release schedule. Which is what exactly?”

  “You do get testy when you’re writing, don’t you? Okay, we’ll go with Physical Evidence. You send me the first three or more chapters. Make the reader squirm in their seat for the next page. We’ll let that sell out for a month, then release the next three or four chapters. We’ll shoot for four releases before the book is finished.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. We are not doing four releases.”

  “Well, what do you suggest, Megan?”

  “There are three murder scenes in this book, just like in the first. I suggest we have three releases. We’ll keep the reader guessing; there are three murders – the work of a serial killer … or was each murder the handiwork of a separate killer? They won’t find out until the summation chapter.”

  “Megan, you’re a genius! I love it. Email me what you have.”

  “No, I’ll email you the first murder. We’ll see if you like it and then we’ll talk. I’m telling you right now, Jessica, I’m stressing. You better not let me down.”

  “You know me, Megan. I’m your biggest fan. We are all going to capitalize on our good fortune. It’s not your fault that serial killers do horrible things to their victims. Ummm—“

  “What?”

  “You have the … ummm … details for three more murders or are you making them up?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “That’s not fair. It’s an honest question, Megan. If Mr. Stilles asks me, I want to have the answers.”

  “And what answer are you hoping for, Jessica?”

  “I know it sounds bizarre—even pathetic on my part, but I’m hoping you have three more real homicides in your pocket. I can’t help but hope they’re more graphic and detailed than ever. It’s selling, Megan. We are giving the public what it wants. Knowing a crime scene truly happened … well it’s more stimulating. It’s horrifying, but exciting in a way. Fiction is fiction—but a scene that truly happened is involving. It’s like Helter Skelter. The shock value is what we’re selling.”

  “Well, I’m having second thoughts. You aren’t the one who has to appear in front of a camera with Kari Winslow firing questions at you.”

  “She’s just jealous you’re a gorgeous, successful woman. You can tell she was eating up the details of Malicious Intent. You wouldn’t have been a guest if you weren’t interesting. What you need to do now is top those murders. Give the public all the gory details.”

  “Be careful what you ask for.”

  “Don’t be careful, Megan. Give it all you’ve got. We want this ride to last.”

  “Aren’t you afraid we’ll crash and burn before we cross the finish line? This whole thing is scaring the hell out of me. I can’t stop now—even if I wanted to.”

  “Don’t know why you would want to stop now. Just think of how rich you’re going to be. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were offered a movie deal on Malicious Intent. So now do you see the value of getting Physical Evidence out there as soon as possible?”

  A slight knock on the door bolted Megan from the pillows. “Listen, I have to go. I think room service is here with my breakfast.”

 
“Send me those chapters within the hour.”

  “When that check arrives into my bank account, I’ll send the first segment.”

  “You got it.”

  Megan tossed the phone on the bed and hastily headed for the door. The sheer, black teddy barely covered her bare bottom. Hand on the doorknob, she eased the door open—no one stood waiting to get in.

  * * *

  “Thanks for taking over driving. My wrist was really getting sore.”

  “You should have said something sooner. You’ve been awfully quiet. You might as well tell me what’s on your mind, because you know I’ll get it out of you soon or later.”

  Dallas stretched her legs and leaned her head back before glancing at Cooper. “Think you know me already?”

  “Would it surprise you to know it feels like I’ve known you my whole life? Forgetting your crusty side, you feel comfortable.”

  “Oh, comfortable is it? You must be living in another world, Cooper Reynolds. There is nothing comfortable about me.”

  “Once this is all over, I hope you’ll give me a chance to prove you wrong.”

  “I’m investigating you, Cooper. That kind of talk could be misconstrued as sexual in nature. It could be misleading or an attempt to misdirect. You might consider keeping comments like that to yourself … until this thing is over.” She studied the side mirror as she spoke.

  “I’m going to say this just one more time. I did not give Megan Reynolds case information. I will also add that I wasn’t hitting on you, just merely making a statement of intent.”

  Dallas giggled and enjoyed his spontaneous laugh. “If we get serious for a moment, have you given any thought to who might want to discredit you?”

  “Working on it.”

  “Forget cases you’ve solved or not solved. Forget everyone at the station. Dig deep.”

  “Deep?”

  “Deep, Cooper. Think about when you were growing up.”

  “I’d rather not.”

  “Good, then that means there might be something there that merits our attention.”

  “Do you want to offer some possibilities?”

  “Not really.”

  “So, you’re going to be difficult.”