by K. J. Dahlen
“How? I mean how would we do that?” India asked. “I can’t go to all these cities and dig up information that’s ten years old. We would never get our hands on police reports and ME exams. Besides, this killer could be anywhere by now, including right here in this city or anywhere.”
Briar shook his head. “I’m not suggesting you go anywhere, except to see my brothers. Cade and Elliot along with our youngest brother have established a foundation that works with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to track down desperate and dangerous criminals. I think you should tell them your story. This guy needs to be found and stopped and that’s exactly what they do. They can contact the police departments and get their hands on Medical Examiners’ reports.”
“Then you believe me?” India had to ask. She’d been nervous about coming to Briar in the first place. She hadn’t thought about the first murder in so long she had almost convinced herself it had all been just a bad dream. It wasn’t until she read about the latest murder that the memory came back to her.
He nodded his head looking somber. “I think you are very lucky to be alive. Whoever murdered that woman fifteen years ago in Boston could have just as easily murdered both you and your friend TK that night.”
“I realize that. Believe me I do. I lived in fear for days after the murder. I didn’t see TK for a few days and then when I did I was going through a very hard time. My Mom had just been the victim of a robbery gone wrong and she was gone. The junkie that tried to rob the place ended up shooting her in order to get away. I don’t remember even talking about that night again with her.”
“I’m sorry about your Mom. It must have been a dark time for you.”
India nodded. “It was. She was all I had. After her parents threw her out, she made her own way. She got a job and a small apartment. She finished school and after I was born she was always there for me, no matter what.”
“What about your grandparents? After her death, you could have gone to live with them. Why didn’t you?”
India took a deep breath and said, “My grandparents wanted nothing to do with me before I was born, I didn’t want anything to do with them after my Mom died. I watched her struggle to make ends meet but I never heard her complain. There were nights when she gave me all the food she had to make sure I didn’t go hungry. She always said she wasn’t hungry or that she ate at her job but I know she gave what little we had to me. I would lay there at night and listen to her cry herself to sleep but the next morning she had a smile on her face when she woke me up for school.” India paused and shrugged. “When they rejected me again after she died, I guess I had enough of my Mom inside me that I didn’t want to live with someone who didn’t want me. Besides, the county had contacted them and they didn’t want me anyway. I went into the foster system and by the time I was seventeen, I’d moved around to seven different foster homes.”
“Did you ever have any contact with your grandparents?”
India nodded. “I was seventeen when I heard from my grandmother. She told me my grandfather was dying and he wanted to make amends for the past. She had felt so bad all these years but because of who he was she couldn’t make contact before then.”
“Who was your grandfather?” Briar looked curious.
India shifted in her seat before she answered, “He is Retired Judge John Carsten. It seems he wasn’t dying after all. His doctor found a tumor and it scared them. When they were able to do surgery and take care of his cancer through chemo and radiation therapy, he wasn’t very happy that she contacted me.”
“What a bastard,” Briar muttered under his breath.
“Oh, that wasn’t the worst part.”
“What do you mean?”
“I found out that John had gone through the courts and my father had been paying child support all the years I had been alive. He banked the money Jared had paid him.” India shook her head. “If my Mom had known about that she wouldn’t have had to work so hard, or gone hungry, and maybe she wouldn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She might not have been murdered.”
Briar sat there thinking about what she’d told him. He looked angry. “Did he ever turn the money over to you?”
India shook her head. “He tried to but by then it was too late. I didn’t want it then. It was too late. I didn’t want anything to do with either of them. My mother made her own way in the world and so would I. So I worked my way through college and now I’m a third year law student.” She raised her head and stared at him. “I can honestly say that I did it on my own without any help from them.”
“They had no right to keep the child support from you and your mom. The fact that they did constitutes a crime,” Briar told her.
“When I was a kid, I used to sneak into my grandfather’s courtroom and watch him at work. He was a mean spirited man with little compassion for the people in front of his bench. I made up my mind I could never be like him. Over the years, I tried very hard not to hate the man he was. My Mom wouldn’t have wanted that but it was very hard at times. At best, I can say I despise him a lot.”
Briar sat quietly for a long moment as if absorbing what she said. Then he leaned forward and checked his calendar. “It’s Thursday now, can you be ready to go on Saturday?”
“Sure. Where are we going? Where do your brothers live?”
“They live in Edenton. It’s about a two and a half hour trip from here. I’ll call and let them know we’re coming. You might want to pack a bag for the weekend.”
India stood up and nodded. “I can do that. Should I get a motel or something?”
Briar grinned. “You won’t have to. The foundation has plenty of room. We’ll stay there.”
India got to her feet. “Do you think that even at this late date, we can catch this man?”
“This guy hasn’t stopped killing. You may have caught him in the beginnings of his madness when he first started fifteen years ago. If we can fill in the gaps between then and now, we might be able to find his trail. The cases you found already can tell us where he’s been. If we can trace his timeline, we might be able to find out where he is now. Can you leave your files with me for a day or so? I’d like to read through what you found and maybe fax them to my brothers so they can get started on them.”
India nodded as she walked toward the door. “I’ll leave them here. I hope your family can find this monster.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder at Briar, “When I saw what he was doing to her that night I should have screamed and run away, but I couldn’t. I sat there and watched him dismember another human being. If he is a monster, what does that make me?”
Briar got up and came over to her side. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he stared at her. “What he did that night would have scared the shit out of anyone. The fact that you didn’t run screaming probably saved your life that night. You were probably in a state of shock. The human brain can protect itself by allowing you to repress certain memories. Your brain repressed this memory for a reason. You were too young to deal with the horror you were seeing. Now you’re old enough to deal with it, so the article brought back the memory. No one even bothered connecting the cases until now. You need to bring the details of the murder you witnessed to the authorities, so they can work the case and stop the killer.”
“What if I bring the focus of the killer to me?” She laughed nervously. “Guess I should’ve thought about that before, huh?”
Briar shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. My brothers will protect you. You did the right thing India. I don’t blame you for being afraid. This is the stuff nightmares are made of.”
Chapter Two
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear. India had been up since four a.m. As they got closer to Edenton, she glanced over at Briar. Seeing him every day in a suit and tie in no way prepared her for what she saw this morning. In a dark blue cotton shirt and blue jeans, he looked better than she realized. She could see clearly just how fit his body truly was and she liked what she saw.
She sighed and had quite a struggle to get her emotions back in line.
“I called my brothers about your case yesterday,” Briar told her.
“Oh? And what did they think?”
“They can’t wait for you to get there.” Briar chuckled. “My brothers are not very subtle at times and they love a good mystery. This case intrigued them almost as soon as I told them about it.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
“There are five of us. Aaron is a judge in the district court while Cade, Elliot and Quinn run the Foundation.”
“You said your brother’s work with other law enforcement offices to hunt down criminals. How do they do that?”
“My father set up the River’s Foundation before he retired. My brothers Cade and Elliot were damn fine cops on their own. Then my brother Quinn was injured in an accident. He pulled through but was left paralyzed from the waist down. For a while he was lost, he was so used to being able to do what he wanted whenever he wanted. It took him a while to relearn his limitations but Quinn’s special gift had always been the techy side of stuff. He found his own skill was in researching on a computer. My dad formed the Foundation mostly to accommodate Quinn. When Cade and Elliot joined in, the Foundation was born. They use private resources to track down and stop dangerous criminals the police can’t.”
“Are they successful at it?” India asked.
“They are the best at what they do,” Briar told her proudly. “They have a team of other people and once they get a case, they work every angle they can find.”
“And you said they wanted this case?”
Briar threw his head back and laughed. “Oh yeah, they want this case. When I told them what you told me, they just about jumped through the phone to get their hands on the files you left with me. Especially, when I told them you found a pattern of other cases similar to the first one.”
“I’m still not sure about this,” India admitted. “It all still seems like a bad dream.”
“And if it’s not? A bad dream I mean,” Briar asked quietly as he drove. “If what you saw was real, and I’m convinced it is, you were one very lucky kid. You and your friend were lucky to make it out of that warehouse.”
India shrugged. “Like I said, you don’t think about stuff like death when you’re ten years old.”
Briar turned his blinker on as they reached Edenton. Driving through the city, they found their way to West Queen Street and followed it over a bridge. Then they turned on a private drive and made their way through a gate Briar opened with a remote control. The road led them down toward the water of Edenton Bay. Coming over the slight incline, India saw several buildings, the biggest one was where he brought the car to a stop.
Briar turned and looked at her. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Her tummy was suddenly filled with butterflies and her hands shook as she reached for the door handle. What lay ahead she didn’t know but this was a new beginning for her.
As they walked up to the front door, it opened and two men stood there waiting for them to reach them. India looked at them and then turned to look at Briar. They all had the same dark hair brushed away from their faces and all three had the same type of build. They were tall with slender but muscular builds and their facial features looked similar but she could see each man had his own differences. Where Briar’s hair was starting to silver around the temples, the other two men didn’t share his color change. One of the brothers greeted Briar warmly by shaking his hand and patting him on the back. The other brother stood off to the side and simply went through the motions.
India caught the exchange but didn’t know what to think.
Briar turned to her after greeting his brothers. He motioned for her to join them and introduced his brothers, “India, I’d like you to meet my brothers, Cade and Elliot.” He gestured to indicate each as he said their names.
Cade had his brother’s same dark hair but his had a curl to it that Briar’s didn’t. His eyes were dark brown where Briar had blue eyes. Both men had clean shaven faces but Cade had a dimple in his chin where Briar didn’t. Glancing over at Elliot, she saw he had the dark hair of his brothers and his eyes were blue like Briar’s. He too, was clean shaven like his brothers.
Elliot reached for her hand and pulled her inside. “My brother tells me you have a story to tell.”
India took a deep breath and said, “I think I do anyway.”
They came into a huge common room where five other people were waiting for them. One of them was sitting in a wheelchair and India could tell he was a Rivers brother. He had the same dark hair and blue eyes as Briar and Elliot. His upper body looked strong and if he could stand, India thought if he could stand, he’d be as tall as his brothers.
She looked at the others in the room as Elliot introduced her to his team. “India, I’d like you to meet everyone.” He waved his hand at the only black man in the room. “This is Kanan Dasher, one of the best investigators in the world.”
Kanan nodded and held out his hand to shake hers.
India smiled warmly and shook his hand.
Elliot went down the line, “This is Faith Craigen,” He nodded at the small blonde “Fallon Parker, and Jerah Cummings.” Fallon was blonde like Faith and Jerah had long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. “This my dear…” Brian paused as he looked at the whole group. “Is the best investigative team in the world. Why don’t we all sit down and talk about what brings you here today.”
Quinn wheeled forward and came to a stop in front of India. He smiled. “My brothers often forget about introducing me to new people. Hi I’m Quinn.”
India laughed. “I knew that without being introduced. Who else would you be but one of them?” She held out her hand to him.
Quinn took it and raised it to his lips.
When Quinn let go of her hand he began to wheel away, then he stopped and turned back to her to ask, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“That my friend, only time will tell,” India said solemnly.
Elliot clapped his hand together. “Ok people let’s review what we have so far on the case.”
India sat down at one of the small tables.
Jerah picked up a blue file. Putting on her reading glasses, she began to speak, “I checked everything Briar sent us the other day and found three additional cases similar to those India found.” She walked over to a board and with colored push pins marked each of the cases. “Thanks to the information she provided, we were able to connect the cases to our unsub.” She paused as she began putting the pins into the map. “Jenna Kramer, Boston, fifteen years ago; Tandy Allen, New Haven Connecticut, thirteen years ago; Alice Baker, Providence Rhode Island, twelve years ago. Maggie Winger, Portland, Maine, ten years ago. Jessica Mann, Calais, Maine, nine years ago. Michelle Blaine, Concord Maine, eight years ago. Rachel Cortland, Allenton, PA, seven years ago. Lynn Macken, Trenton New Jersey, six years ago. Then Rebecca London, Winchester, Virginia , four years ago. Lorna Briggs, Charlestown, North Carolina, two years ago and finally, Callie Sexton, Savannah, Georgia, six months ago.” Taking off her glasses, she threw them on the table. “In each case, the body was found but the heads and internal organs were missing. As the killings got further in time from the first one fifteen years ago, they were more pronounced.”
“Excuse me,” India broke in. “But what does that mean?”
Jerah looked at her and smiled. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m so used to talking to these eggheads I forgot you were here. Let me explain.” She pointed to the map. “We think your murder was the first one. The killer was new to his craft and while he took care, he wasn’t as well versed, as he would become in the next few years. Jenna’s body was found six years after she was buried. Her body wasn’t in as good a condition as was, say Maggie’s. The killer had gotten better at the whole process of anointing the oils to persevere the body and wrapping her in the linen by then. The later bodies were mummified better than the fir
st few.”
“Oh okay, that I can understand.” India thought for a moment then said, “It stands to reason he would become better at his craft the more times he did it. I wonder why the Egyptian angle though? Is that a simple interest or a ritual?”
“That’s a very good point.” Fallon nodded at her. “I checked several places on the web and they give step by step instruction on how to mummify a body. It’s something he’s done with all the victims we’ve found so far, so we have to assume it’s a personal choice. The real question is what does it mean to our killer?”
“So what’s with the bright orange linen wrappings?” India asked.
“That’s due to the combination of herbs and oils he’s using,” Fallon explained. “I’ve had the original reports sent to us and the toxicology confirms the combination of herbs turns the linen a bright orange color. The original herb and oil combination isn’t known. It was a highly regarded secret by the priests who tended the dead Pharaohs centuries ago.”
India nodded. “The jar I took had Egyptian symbols on it. I didn’t know it at the time but later, I looked up hieroglyphics and recognized several of them.”
“What jar are you talking about?” Cade asked. He stood and they could see his body stiffen as if on alert.
“Oh yeah,” Briar sheepishly admitted. “I forgot to tell you, on her way out of the warehouse, she swiped one of the four jars the killer filled with body parts from Jenna Kramer.”
Cade snapped his head toward Briar and growled, “And just when were you going to mention that little fact to us? Didn’t you think we needed to know something as important as that?”
“I’m sorry but it slipped my mind. I was a little distracted by the seven murder cases I just had dumped on my desk. I thought it was more important to get started on finding the killer.”