by Taylor Lee
He turned back to talk to Skylar, but she was already sitting at the table next to Jared. Seeing Jared’s protective arm over the back of her chair, Jude shoved at his annoyance. Nothing like his brother rubbing it in his face how he’d screwed up last night. As if he didn’t already know. Seeing the three doughnuts on her plate he almost said something, but swallowed the smart-assed remark. Hell, remembering her to-go box in the trash, he knew that she probably hadn’t had a damn thing to eat since her doughnuts yesterday. Shoving at a hard sigh, he moved to the table to begin the briefing.
Sky congratulated herself for showing up to the early morning briefing, and made it past Jude’s questioning frown without cowering. Thank God for Jared. He’d been there when she got home last night, and while he’d insisted that she tell him what was wrong, he’d let her off the hook after her three-sentence response, clear she was done talking. God, how could she tell him what a fool she’d made of herself with his brother? The memory of all the ridiculous things she’d done spewed a gush of bile up in her throat, making it impossible to do anything but stare at the maple-frosted doughnuts on her plate.
She wondered if she could plead sick and go hide in her office. She certainly felt sick. All she had to do was remember how she’d confessed to Jude that she wished she were Susan Storm and his obvious confusion as to what the hell she was talking about. And did she really have to order her usual dinner? He had to have been as horrified as that catty bitch Jerri Ross was. Although at least unlike Jerri, he’d pretended that she wasn’t a freak and even ordered the same thing. She promised herself that she would never eat another double-bacon cheeseburger as long as she lived. Or eat another doughnut. She felt her stomach heave at the sight of the sugary mounds on her plate.
She rubbed at her eyes. God, she hated feeling like this. Tired, confused. She longed to get back to the case. Her mind was teeming with ideas and what she knew were important clues. But instead of working on them, she was remembering Jude insist that she take off her glasses, staring into her eyes. He’d even felt the need to tell her that her eyes were beautiful and that her glasses hid them. Confirming that like her father, Jude thought it was his business to tell her what she should wear or not wear, right down to her psyche-protecting glasses.
Sky didn’t know when she realized that no one was speaking and worse, that all the men around the table were looking at her. Jared’s tug at her arm confirmed what Jude didn’t have to say. His frown said it all. She swallowed hard and met his gaze, “Excuse me, were you talking to me?”
When Jude merely nodded, Sky took a chance that he was going around the table asking all the team members to report in. Jared was kind enough to help her out.
“Yeah, Sky, the Big Guy wants to hear from all of us how we’ve broken the case. Given that you’re the only one who might even be close, elucidate us.”
Seeing Jude glare at his brother, Sky did her best to ignore Jude’s rigid jaw and deepening frown. She was determined not to let him intimidate her. Instead, she turned to Jared.
“I wish I could say that I’ve broken the case, Jared. I haven’t. But I did have a three-hour conversation with the Parker’s accounting firm, and reviewed the corporation’s last five years of tax filings.”
Jared laughed and said, “Only the last five years? You slacking off, short stuff?”
At the general laughter from around the table Sky felt her cheeks heat. It took seeing the twinkle in Jared’s eyes to realize that he was teasing her. Not wanting to let on that she’d thought he was criticizing her, she added gamely, “Well, they gave me the ten years of filings that I requested, but I wanted to finish interviewing Mr. Larson before he left for what he said was an important meeting.”
A knock on the door interrupted the good-natured laughter around the table. Bernice Denton, Jude’s desk sergeant, stood in the doorway.
“Sorry to interrupt, Detective, but Doc Evans called. The lab reports have arrived and he’s eager to show them to you.”
Jude guffawed. “I think the only person who would be more surprised than me at our uptight coroner being eager would be the long-suffering Mrs. Evans.”
At the hoots of laughter from the squad and Bernice wagging a “shame on you” finger at him, Jude grinned. “Okay Bernice, I’ll behave. I’m more than eager to look at the lab reports.” He glanced at his phone. “Let’s reconvene after lunch, men. If the reports are as interesting as I hope they’ll be, it’s gonna take the morning to digest them.”
He nodded to Solly and Jared. “I want you two to come with me.” Casting a glance at Skylar, he added, “You too, Skylar.”
Surprised that he’d called her by her name, Sky recovered enough to demur. She shook her head and said softly, “If you don’t mind, Detective Justice, I’d rather not. I have to review—”
Jude stopped her in mid-sentence. “Ah, but I do mind. That wasn’t a request, Squirt. I want you at that meeting. With me.”
Chapter 11
Trying to figure out what Jude had done and said that caused her stomach to flip in a gravity-defying loop, sending unwelcome shivers to her groin, Sky sucked in a gulp of air trying to breathe. She needn’t have bothered. Apparently, her lungs were as worthless as her rubbery legs. Neither seemed able to complete their autonomic assignments, the ones that allowed her to breathe and walk without thinking about it. The rush of heat she’d felt when Jude had ordered her to answer him when he asked her a question swamped her again. When Jude reached for her arm and pulled her up next to him, his quirky smile confirmed that he’d felt her near collapse and knew the effect his order had on her.
Still holding her arm, he turned to his brother. “Jared, I have my car. I’ll take the Squirt with me. You and Solly meet us at the ME’s office.”
Jared frowned. “You sure about that, bro? My car is out front and it seats four. We can all ride over together.”
Jude gave a mirthless chuckle. “Yeah, little brother, I’m more than sure about it. Skylar and I are going to have lunch after we meet with Doc Evans. We have some debriefing to do.”
When they got to the parking lot, Jude opened the passenger door for her, apparently to make sure that she got in. Closing her door, he rounded the sleek automobile and eased his long body into the custom leather seat. When he strapped himself in and punched the keyless start button, releasing a surge of mechanical might, Sky put her hand on his arm, stopping him.
Her voice was as firm as she could make it, given her trembling body. “I don’t want to ride with you, Jude. And I don’t want to have lunch with you.”
Jude heaved an audible sigh and shot her a narrow gaze. “Sorry, Skylar. Both of those don’t wants fall in the category of ‘that’s too damn bad’.” He revved up the engine, backed out of his parking space, and headed for the road. Watching for an opening in the oncoming traffic he continued, “Because as you can see, Squirt, you are riding with me, in the same way that you’ll be eating lunch with me.”
As he powered down the road, masterfully darting from lane to lane, he said without taking his eyes off the road, “Look, Skylar, I’m sorry as hell about what happened last night. I tried to catch up with you but you’d hightailed it out of there before I could catch you. And for Christ’s sake, tell me, did you honest to God take the bus? If you say yes, does that mean that Jared wasn’t blowing smoke up my ass and that you actually do have a 458 Spider?” He shook his head in mock dismay. “Jesus, woman, talk about holding out on a guy…”
Skylar didn’t answer. Rather, she closed her eyes, shocked at the moisture she felt building behind her lids. Determined to get control of her ricocheting emotions, she forced herself to take deep calming breaths. Before she knew it Jude had pulled up in front of the ME’s office. When she started to open the door, he reached over and pulled her back. “Uh-uh, Skylar. It appears that your eidetic memory has its limits. As I recall, just yesterday I told you that when I ask you a question, I expect an answer.”
Sky gasped, knowing her cheeks had to
be bright red and there wasn’t a chance that he couldn’t hear her heart banging against her chest. To her surprise, he reached over and lightly pinched her cheek.
Ignoring her startled reaction, Jude grinned. “C’mon Squirt. Out with it! Last time. Do you truly have a fucking Ferrari 458 Spider coupe, with a red and black leather interior, no less?”
Skylar wasn’t sure how she managed to do it, but she met his gaze and said coolly, “Yes, Detective Justice, it so happens that I do have a 458 Spider. And, just so you know, on the roadway? My Spider and I would leave this shiny phallic symbol of yours and you choking on my dust.”
Jude threw back his head and roared with laughter. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her next to him. “You would, huh? We’ll see about that.”
As he walked her into the office building, Jude said, “A point of clarification, Specs. Penis cars, or as you so nicely put it, ‘phallic symbols’, are cars that men with small cocks buy to make up for their unsubstantial dicks. Not to overstate the obvious, but that ain’t my problem, Squirt. And to prove it, I also have a Ford F-450, 440 horsepower truck nestled in my garage.”
Skylar hadn’t known how good it would feel until she finally stopped laughing and realized that this was the first time she’d taken a full breath since that bitch Jerri Ross had turned what could have been one of the best nights of her life into a pile of dogshit.
***
“If I’m hearing you correctly, Doc, what seems most surprising about your findings is that there isn’t much that is surprising.”
“That’s correct, Jude, with some very interesting exceptions.”
When the wizened doctor paused again, Jude prodded. “And those exceptions are, Doc?”
“Well, Jude, we weren’t surprised to find drugs in the victims’ bodies. We know that the Parkers have frequent parties and we expected to find traces of alcohol. Which we did. Because there was cocaine scattered around the room we thought we might find evidence of it in the victims. We did not. What did surprise us was that in both victims we found a combination of LSD and MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, in dosages that I’ve never seen before.”
As he spoke, Dr. Evans pointed to the description of the findings on the monitor.
Jared spoke first. “What the hell, Doc. I thought E was a date rape drug. You know, what devious assholes slip in the drinks of unsuspecting women to lessen their inhibitions. Make them easy prey for unscrupulous men. Are you telling us that the perps wanted the Parkers to enjoy the violent sex? That the murders were the result of a sex-laced party gone bad?”
Skylar interrupted. “If I may, Dr. Evans, given the dosages, can we surmise that the Parkers didn’t take the drugs willingly, rather that they were forced on them?”
When Dr. Evans nodded in agreement, Jared pressed, “Why is that important, Sky? It seems to me that with ecstasy, the more the better, at least as far as making the victims uninhibited sexually.”
Sky shook her head and explained, “You are partially correct, Jared. Most recreational drugs heighten sensations, giving the user a high that can enhance sex. But if used to excess the same drugs can deaden sensations, and if used in too high dosages, can cause extreme reactions.” She paused thoughtfully then continued, “There are two factors that changed the effect of the drugs on our victims. The first is the mixture of LSD and MDMA. The second is the extremely high dosages, as Dr. Evans found. The combination of those two factors would make sensations almost unbearable. Instead of enhancing sex, the combination of those two factors would make it excruciatingly frightening and intense.”
Doc Evans nodded in agreement. “You are exactly right Ms. Hughes. Your father would be proud of you.”
Sky murmured, “That’s unlikely.” then continued pointing at the analysis on the screen. “More to the point. You need to understand. The amount of MDMA and LSD in the victims’ bloodstreams confirms that every vicious thing that was done to them was agonizingly painful, unimaginably intense. In the dosages they were administered, another side effect of the drugs is panic attacks that would further exacerbate the trauma the victims endured.”
Doc Evans agreed. “Again, Ms. Hughes is exactly right. I am assuming that neither of the victims used MDMA, what’s known as ecstasy. And even if they did, it is highly unlikely that they combined it with LSD. What we found in both victims was MDMA and LSD in dosages so high that it is a wonder that the victims didn’t scream themselves to death.”
Jude wasn’t surprised when silence settled over the room. He rose to his feet and began pacing from one side of the room to the other, imagining the horror the Parkers had endured.
Dragging his hands through his unruly hair he faced his colleagues and said with a groan, “Jesus God. We knew that the perps were vicious. But goddammit, Doc, what you and Sky are describing is beyond my ability to comprehend. Two and likely three or more individuals, not only tortured the victims to death in horrendous ways, but they added drugs that ensured that the victims would suffer to the extreme.”
He huffed and exchanged a pained look with his brother. “Jesus Fucking Christ, Jared. You and I have both seen the unimaginable evil men can do. But for Christ’s sake that was in Somalia or Afghanistan or fuckin’ barbaric Kenya. Not the pristine Northwoods of Duluth fucking Minnesota!”
When no one responded, Skylar added, “The presence of the drugs also confirms that the murders were carefully, strategically planned, Detective Justice. This is far from a spontaneous attack. It took knowledge of the chemical properties of the drugs and understanding how the combination and extreme dosages would exacerbate the effects.”
Solly asked, “Does that mean we are looking for people who were medically trained or in some way acquainted with the effects of the drugs?”
Doc Evens and Skylar shook their heads at the same time. Jude wasn’t surprised when the coroner deferred to Sky.
“No, unfortunately the Internet has made it possible for individuals with no formal medical or pharmaceutical training to learn what these hideous individuals learned.”
Jude nodded in agreement. “Hell, thanks to the Internet, all the tweakers need is a camp stove and a Googled recipe to cook up a batch of crank in their backyard. E is available behind the bar in any decent-sized saloon. As for acid, which we used to call Instant Zen, the way the perps used it couldn’t be farther from ‘Zen-producing’.”
Jared asked with a questioning frown, “So, bro, are we looking at a bunch of crankers, liners?”
Jude shook his head. “No, Jared, too much preparation went into this attack. That and the magnitude of the evil speaks to more than a bunch of candy cane tweakers high out of their minds. I assume you agree, Sky?”
“Yes I do. This was an extraordinarily intentional attack. The personal nature of the torture indicates that the perpetrators believed that the Parkers had wronged them, damaged them in some horrible way. They believed that the Parkers deserved everything they did to them. This was a crime stoked by revenge, retribution, and most important in my mind, rage.”
Jude focused on the serious young woman for a moment then included the others in his gaze. “Skylar is right—in all respects. Which makes our job either simpler or harder than hell. We just need to find out who the Parkers wronged and who hated them enough that their chosen recourse was to barbarically torture them to death.”
Jude shoved the coroner’s reports into a folder preparing to leave, when Skylar asked Dr. Evans, “Given your assertion that the Parkers could have screamed themselves to death, were you able to determine the sequence of the tortures that were inflicted? Specifically, do you know when Mrs. Parker’s eyes were put out and her tongue removed?”
The coroner shook his head. “No, Ms. Hughes, not at this point.”
Remembering Skylar asking that question before, Jude focused on her and asked carefully, not wanting to imply that he was questioning her, “Why is that important, Squirt?”
Sky shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I’m working on it.�
�
Seeing Skylar staring intently at a blank spot on the wall, Jude concluded that the young woman was working on a hell of a lot more in that tenth-generation processor hanging out in her encyclopedic brain. Which he admitted was making the bespectacled pixie more interesting to him by the moment, ‘nerd glasses’ and all.
Chapter 12
“I told you I don’t want to have lunch with you, Jude.” Skylar pressed her lips together and glared at the grinning man beside her. “I have work to do, Detective Justice. Besides, I’m not hungry.”
Jude ignored her as he pulled into the parking lot of the Shipwreck and bounded out of the car. In seconds he was at her door. Swinging it open, he gave her an exaggerated bow and held out his hand.
“Madam, your double-bacon cheeseburger awaits you. As does mine. But this time I’m going to man up and order cheese on my fries.”
Fighting not to give into his infectious humor, Skylar called on her anger instead. How dare this arrogant man think that he could tell her when she should eat and then have the audacity to make fun of what she ate? That was bad enough, but he was brazenly returning to last night’s scene of the crime as though to rub her nose in the debacle. The memory of Jerri Ross sneering at her gargantuan burger sealed the deal. Skylar shoved at his hand and planted herself firmly against the back of the seat, determined to sit there all day if she had to.
When he reached for her hand she folded her arms firmly across her chest and held them there.
Jude was still grinning but there was a distinct edge to his voice. “Hmm. I see the little pixie really does have a problem following orders. Knowing that you didn’t eat anything last night and didn’t touch your morning fix of grease and sugar...”
Sky glared at him and spit out, “I told you, I’m not hungry. Even if I was, I do not want to have lunch with you. Moreover it is absolutely none of your business what I eat or if I eat. Now, will you please take me back to the precinct, or better yet get out of my way so I can call a cab.”