Proving Grounds: A London Carter Novel (London Carter Mystery Series Book 2)

by BJ Bourg

  “Again? I didn’t tell you the first time.”

  “Well, then, can you just tell me why he left the department?”

  “His son was gunned down ten years ago, and I think it was too much for him to handle. He ended up leaving the department about a year later.”

  “Any idea why he would be in Louisiana?” Dawn asked.

  “If I were to guess? I’d say he’s still searching for the sniper who killed his son. He became so obsessed with finding the killer that he neglected the rest of his family—a wife and two little girls—and his job. He began spending every working hour chasing down leads—most of them false—and he’d neglect his other duties. He assaulted at least a dozen people whom he believed had information on his son’s killer. We had to call him in on at least three occasions to tell him to leave the case alone and let homicide handle it. We finally had to give him an ultimatum—get help, resign, or be fired.”

  “What were the circumstances surrounding the murder of his son?”

  “He was shot through the head while walking his dog in the desert behind their house. Poor kid was barely six years old.”

  Dawn gasped. “Six?”

  “Yeah…and he wasn’t the only one killed by that sniper.” Captain Ansley paused and spoke quietly to someone in the background. It sounded like he was telling them he was on the phone and for them to take a message. He continued a moment later. “Pat’s little boy was the third person killed within a twenty-mile radius and a two-week span. We really thought we had a serial killer on our hands, but Pat thought the killings were unrelated.”

  “How’s that?” Dawn asked, her pen poised over the notepad, waiting for the captain to speak. “Why didn’t he think they were connected?”

  “He was certain his son’s murder was a retaliatory execution by the family of one of the criminals he killed in the line of duty.” Ansley explained how the killings began when a man was found on a hiking trail with a bullet hole through and through his head. Six days later a woman was shot in the head while sunbathing in her back yard.

  “Since the first two victims were adults,” Ansley continued, “Pat didn’t think they were connected to his son. He claimed you had to be next level sadistic to kill a kid, so he was certain it was a crime of passion—a crime of pure hatred.”

  “He thought someone killed his child because he killed theirs, sort of an eye for an eye situation?”

  “Yeah, and he refused to accept that it might be totally unrelated to his job. I think it clouded his judgment and it cost us the investigation. He rattled too many cages and spooked too many people. Everyone started shutting down. No one would talk to us, because they’d heard about him threatening other potential witnesses.” He sighed. “It got real ugly around here for a while.”

  “Since you think he’s still out there looking for the killer, is it safe to guess y’all never caught the killer?”

  “You’d be correct. This case cost Pat his wife, his kids, and his job. A real tragedy.”

  Dawn asked a few more questions and then went back over every detail of the sniper killings with him. As they were talking, my phone rang in my pocket. I walked into the hallway and answered without looking. “This is London, how can I help you?”

  “London, oh my God, I’m so glad you answered.”

  I scowled when I heard Sally’s voice.

  “Please don’t hang up,” she said quickly. “I’m really sorry about Friday night. I was really drunk and—”

  “I don’t care about Friday night. What do you want?”

  “I need to talk to you, but we need to meet in person…and privately. Remember that place we drove to in your truck that one night? It was the first time we did it in your—”

  “Sally, please, you’ve got to stop.”

  “No, listen, this is important.”

  “Then say it.”

  “I can’t…not on the phone. We need to meet face to face.”

  “I’m sorry, Sally, but I have to go.”

  “No, don’t—”

  With a swipe of my thumb I ended the call and shoved my cell back in my pocket, wondering if Sally would ever leave me alone. I walked back into the office just as Dawn was thanking Captain Ansley and hanging up the phone.

  I glanced at the time on the computer monitor. It was already late in the afternoon and my stomach was grumbling, but I ignored it and nodded when Dawn said she thought we needed to find Patrick as soon as possible.

  “It’s no coincidence he’s down here,” I said.

  Dawn snatched up the handset of the office phone and dialed Norm’s number. When he answered, she asked if he’d mind bringing us back out to Wellman Boudreaux’s camp so we could question Patrick further. I could tell by Dawn’s end of the conversation that it didn’t look promising.

  “He’s busy and can’t come,” she said once she disconnected the call. “He said he has plans with his wife that can’t be cancelled. I’m not positive, but I think it had something to do with braiding each other’s hair.”

  I laughed and grabbed my phone, dialing Wellman’s number. “Maybe Wellman and Patrick will agree to meet us at the substation. I’ll tell them there’s been a break in the case and we need their help. If Patrick is who we think he is, he’ll bite.”

  “Good idea.”

  Just as I thought, Wellman and Patrick were willing—if not eager—to meet with us.

  “We’ll do whatever we can to help you rid our swamps of this animal so we can get back to normal business,” Wellman said.

  When I hung up, Dawn turned to leave, but hesitated. There was a look of uncertainty on her face, as though she wanted to say something.

  “What is it?” I asked. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Nothing. I’m just hungry.”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Want to grab something to eat before they meet us? It’ll take them at least an hour to get here. I’m buying.”

  “I guess so. After all, we do have to eat to stay alive.” Her eyes seemed to sparkle a little when she turned to lead the way down the hall.

  CHAPTER 32

  Two hours later…

  Wellman had eyed me suspiciously when I’d asked Patrick to follow me down the hall while Dawn waited with him in the lobby.

  “What’s going on?” I heard him ask Dawn.

  I didn’t hear her answer as the door closed behind us and I led Patrick to Dawn’s office. Once we were seated at the desk, I pulled out the photograph of him winning SEAC and slid it toward him. “That was quite impressive,” I said. “You shot the course in record time.”

  He didn’t even pick up the newspaper article, but he stared at it hard.

  Patrick and I sat in silence for a long moment, waiting for the other to break the silence. We were both patient men.

  “Yeah, well,” he finally said, “I heard my record was shattered by a young punk kid by the name of London Carter. Lucky for you, I’d already left law enforcement. Otherwise, I would’ve gone back and kicked your ass.”

  I smiled. “You would’ve tried.”

  Patrick scoffed, but the right corner of his mouth curled up in a slight grin. “I noticed y’all took my van,” he said, to which I only nodded. He continued. “It seems you’ve done your homework. What else do you know about me?”

  I was silent a moment longer, but it was okay with him. He didn’t squirm and he didn’t seem bothered.

  “I know a lot,” I said. “But not enough.”

  That caused an eyebrow to rise. “What do you want to know? We’re on the same side, so I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.”

  “Are we on the same side?”

  “Sure.”

  I studied his face, searching for the slightest hint of deceit.

  “For starters, how is it that you knew to show up here before the sniper made his first kill?” I rested my forearms on the desk and leaned forward. “It’s mighty suspicious that you roll into town and then someone suddenly dies. If our roles were reversed, wouldn�
�t you suspect me of being the killer?”

  Patrick ran a hand through his slick hair. “If I were the killer, I would’ve stopped myself before my son was murdered.”

  I studied his eyes. The man seemed to be sincere. “What about it, then? How’d you know the killer was going to strike here? Was it a hunch? Did you get a tip? Come on…how’d you know?”

  “Man Creature.”

  I scowled. “Man Creature?”

  “For about three years now I’ve been scouring the largest Man Creature websites, watching every video I could find and reading every detail of every report that came across the ‘net.” He paused. “It felt like a huge waste of time, especially when the sniper struck two years in a row in places that didn’t report a sighting, but then I came across a game camera photo Maxille Boudreaux posted on one of the sites.”

  “Wait a minute—Maxille claims he saw Man Creature here in Magnolia Parish?”

  Patrick nodded. “When I examined the photo, I knew it was a man dressed in a ghillie suit, and I knew it had to be the killer.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck, a little confused. “What on earth would possess you to look at Man Creature websites for the killer?”

  “Three years ago the Trinity Sniper—as I call him—struck in eastern Tennessee. I was there within a day of the first killing, but it wasn’t the biggest story in town.” He shook his head. “Nope, the biggest story was a Man Creature sighting that had happened a week prior to the sniper killing.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “I thought the same thing.” Patrick pulled out his phone and messed with it for a minute. When he turned the screen toward me, I saw a picture of what looked like a man in a ghillie suit walking in a clearing between patches of shrubs. “On my first night in town, this picture shows up on the news and they interviewed this young boy who claimed he saw Man Creature.”

  The photograph was light green and faded looking, so I understood how the creature might’ve been mistaken for something other than a human.

  “I did a quick search of past sniper killings that fit the MO of my boy’s killer. I found six attacks in the seven years following my son’s murder. Four of them involved Man Creature sightings, and in all four cases the creature was captured on a game camera. I did screen grabs of the pictures and studied the shit out of them. Something seemed off about the photos, and then I noticed this…” Patrick pointed to a thin line running down the figure’s leg. It was barely discernible. “I took a closer look and even put the photo under a magnifying glass. That was when I realized it was the barrel of a rifle. What kind of creature carries a rifle?”

  I whistled. “Good eye.”

  “The locals didn’t think so.” Patrick sighed. “I found that linear object in all of the Man Creature photos and I went to the police department with my evidence. I told them everything I’d learned over the years about the Trinity Sniper, and I warned them there would be two more killings in their jurisdiction, but it fell on deaf ears. As it turned out, their victim was a local meth dealer who had lots of enemies and they already had someone in custody for the murder. They shat their pants after the second killing and called in the FBI, who sent in a team to search the mountains—”

  “Wait a minute…this guy’s on the FBI’s radar?”

  Patrick nodded. “They have their own theories and profiles, and they didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. Look, I admit it, I was too close to the case early on, and I made a bunch of mistakes. For starters, I didn’t think the guy who killed my boy was the same one who killed the man and woman back home, but now I know I was wrong. I had to step back from the case in order to see things more clearly.” He shrugged. “But no one wants to believe they’re all connected.”

  I leaned back in my chair. “I have a sniper buddy from the FBI who called yesterday about the sniper attacks. He acted like he was only calling to shoot the shit and he asked about it in passing—like he was just making small talk—but I suspected there was more to it.”

  Patrick looked over his shoulder, as though trying to see through the wall. “Then you can bet they’re already here—or out there—and it won’t end well for them.”

  “What happened with the FBI agents in Tennessee?”

  “They sent in a team of eight SWAT guys…only one came back alive. Two days later, the sniper killed a small child a few miles from where he’d taken out the SWAT team. Every local, state, and federal officer from the surrounding three states converged on the area, but they never found him. He just vanished into thin air like a ghost…until now.”

  I nodded, remembering several news reports a couple of years back about a sniper attack in Tennessee. I hadn’t paid much attention to it, because I didn’t have time to waste on things that didn’t involve me and my department.

  Patrick took back his phone and flipped through the pictures, his eyes roving over the images. Finally, he turned the screen toward me again. “This is the photo Maxille posted online. The ghillie suit is a little thicker, but it’s probably because of the difference in terrain and foliage. If you look closely, you can see the rifle in this picture, too.”

  He was right. A sliver of a light green line ran down the leg of the beast-looking figure.

  “I contacted Maxille and he put me in touch with his dad. I told them what I knew about the Trinity Sniper and they invited me to bunk with them.” He frowned. “They were the first to actually listen to me—to believe me.”

  We were both quiet for a long minute, and I finally said, “I take it you didn’t encounter him in the swamps when he killed Norris.”

  “I heard the shot that morning, but I wasn’t in position to take him out. By the time I advanced on his position he was gone. He’s fast, that’s for sure.” Patrick hung his head. “It killed me to be so close yet so far.”

  “Were you out there when I arrived?”

  “No. I heard a boat crank up in the distance and figured he was gone. I made my way back to the Boudreaux camp to brief my men.”

  “Who’s running with you?”

  “I’ve a got a few ex-sniper buddies from back home in Utah with me, and a friend from Mississippi who used to run the state’s sniper team. The rest are Mr. Boudreaux’s men.”

  “Do they go out on stalks with you?”

  Patrick shook his head. “Their job is to protect the Boudreaux family—nothing else. The Trinity Sniper is mine.”

  I could tell he wanted to be the one to take out the person who killed his son, and I got it. “Where were you when the girl was killed?”

  “I was on the other side of the island, watching the spot where he parked his boat the first day. I didn’t even know about the girl until later. I saw the helicopter flying overhead and knew something bad had happened, but it wasn’t until I got back to the camp that they told me about Clayton’s girl.” He shook his head. “I told them to stay indoors and keep the curtains pulled, but that boy didn’t listen. He’s a stubborn one, that’s for sure.”

  As I was mulling over what he had said, something occurred to me. “Why do you call him the Trinity Sniper?”

  “I call him that because he targets three people. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll kill law enforcement if he’s cornered, but his primary objective is to kill a man, a woman, and a child—in that order and every damn time, without fail. If he can get in and out without confronting law enforcement, he’ll do it and stick to his three main targets.”

  I sat there staring at him for nearly a full minute, processing everything he’d said. If I understood him correctly, things were about to get really ugly. “Are you trying to say he’s going to kill a—?”

  “I’m not trying anything…I’m straight up telling you that if we don’t catch this bastard soon, you’re going to have a dead kid on your hands—shot through the brain.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Orville rubbed a stream of sweat from his forehead with his arm and flexed his sticky hands, scanning the dead leaves on the swamp’s floor. He thought he w
as close, but wasn’t positive. The last time he thought he’d found it he was wrong and Taz was growing impatient.

  That was when he spotted the scarred bark on the cypress tree. He hadn’t seen it before, but realized it must’ve been where the detectives located the bullet that had killed his brother. He dropped his gaze to the base of the tree and began searching from that point toward where the shot had been fired. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the pile of blood-stained leaves that marked the exact spot where Norris had taken his last breath. He pointed to it and turned away. “That’s where it happened. That’s where my little brother was murdered.”

  Lizard, Croc, and Grizzly fanned out in a semi-circle and raised their sniper rifles in a threatening manner, pointing them into the surrounding forest and peering through the scopes. Taz stepped forward and squatted near the dried blood. Orville nearly gagged when Taz lifted a bloody leaf and touched it with the tip of his tongue. “It’s blood, alright,” he said. “Human, too.”

  Orville took a step back. “How in the hell can you tell it’s human?”

  Taz fixed him with stern eyes. “What’d you say?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.” Orville thought about running, but quickly reconsidered it. These men scared the shit out of him and he wasn’t afraid to admit it out loud. It was hard to tell from the bulky ghillie suits they wore, but they were all covered in muscles and tattoos—he’d noticed back home when they stripped down to tank tops and shorts—and he wasn’t about to piss them off.

  Taz approached Orville and squinted, staring daggers into his eyes. “If I wanted to kill a small child, where would I go to do that?”

  Orville gulped. “Wait…you want to what?”

  “Not me.” Taz shook his head and chuckled. “If a bad guy wanted to kill a kid, where might he go in these parts?”

  Orville ran his dried tongue over his cracked lips and shook his head. “I’m not real sure. I mean, a few families out here have small children. I guess the killer would have to go to their houses?”