2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series Collection

by Carolyn McCray

  Officer Hadderly’s face was a study in incomprehension. “You what?”

  Another clearing of the throat. “Body parts. All the random body parts that are found anywhere in the US end up coming across my desk.” Sariah allowed herself a dark smirk. “Sometimes literally.”

  “Wow… that sounds…” Hadderly appeared to be groping for an appropriate word.

  “Low down on the totem pole? Yep. Pretty much.” Sariah pointed her thumbs into her chest. “That’s me.”

  “No, that’s not… What I was going to say was that it sounds kind of fascinating.” He made a face. “You know, and gross. But that just reminds me of my childhood. Makes me feel all warm and homey. Or something.”

  Sariah gave him a wry grin. “Thanks for that.” She gestured with her head around at the BAU team, still swarming around the garden. “But for your own sake, you might want to find a different agent to be friendly with. Talking with me isn’t going to do much for your relationship with the rest of these guys.”

  Hadderly followed her gesture, looking around the garden at the agents working there. He then slowly returned his gaze to Sariah, his face uncharacteristically solemn.

  “No thanks.”

  “What?”

  The officer sighed. “Why would I want to stop talking with the most intelligent person here?” He reached out a hand and chucked her on the shoulder. “You’ve got the goods, Coop.”

  Coop. She liked that.

  “Okay,” Hadderly continued. “We’ve established that I’m not going to go off to kiss the ass of whoever’s highest on the—what did you call it?—totem pole. So now will you tell me what’s up with you and the Humpty Dumpty killer?”

  “Well, here’s the thing. Everyone thinks I’m either crazy or just looking to climb up the ranks faster. So if you get on this train with me…”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ve been warned. Ooooooo.” He made a ghost noise and waggled his fingers back and forth.

  “Right. Well, I’ve had two random body parts show up from different parts of the US that came from the same body…”

  “Which fits in with Humpty’s M.O. Gotcha.” The officer thought for a moment, then frowned. “Two parts. Which means it’s not enough to establish a pattern in anyone’s mind. But still. Sounds significant to me.”

  “Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see if anything else is dug up here. And then there’s the DNA testing that’ll have to be done. But—”

  “But it’s probably enough that you should say something to your boss,” Hadderly concluded for her. “And you’re not positive you want to do that.”

  “That’s pretty much it. My boss seems to like me better than the rest of the BAU. Well, he doesn’t actively avoid me, at least.” Sariah wrung her hands together, taking out her nerves on her fingers. “But what I’m thinking is pretty out there.”

  “More out there than Humpty Dumpty?”

  “Yeah.” Sariah took a deep breath, and then continued. “I think he did this on purpose, to get our attention.”

  Hadderly raised his eyebrows, but refrained from making any other comment. Sariah saw why a moment later, when one of her fellow agents appeared from behind her. It was Agent Salazar. Of course, it would have to be.

  Salazar was the lead agent on this team, and one of the few that took the time to talk to her. Unfortunately, when he did, it was only to insinuate in not-so-subtle ways that Sariah was nothing but a climber. He never said anything overt, nothing she could challenge, but it was crystal clear what he thought of her.

  The agent studiously avoided looking at Sariah as he delivered his report. “We’ve finished processing the grave site. We’re down to bedrock and there’s no sign of the rest of the body.”

  “All righty, then,” Officer Hadderly stated. “Let’s get you guys set up in your new digs back at the office.” He made his hands into a steeple, winked at her and said, “And then we get to catch a bad guy… or bad girl… or whatever.”

  There’s just one problem with that, Sariah thought to herself. The case that brought us out here has nothing to do with the case we’re supposed to be solving.

  * * *

  Kyle Hadderly pulled his cruiser into a parking spot outside the precinct office. He’d given directions for the agents to follow, although only Agents Cooper and Salazar had been ready to leave the site at that point.

  This was… well, it was awesome, that’s what it was. Kyle had only ever worked a couple of homicides in his career before Mary, Mary came to town. Not all that much call for it in Ann Arbor. And of the two that he had worked, one had been over a cheating spouse, the other over a card game gone horribly wrong.

  Nothing that would ever get onto the national news. Nothing that would ever get the attention of the BAU.

  So when the killings had started, Kyle had jumped at the chance to be a part of the investigation. He had also been the one who had pushed to get the BAU involved.

  What no one in his precinct knew was that he was fascinated by that particular branch of the FBI. Ever since he had found out about its existence, he had envisioned himself as a part of that elite team.

  Maybe it was the kind of creepy part of himself that he’d inherited from his dad, but Kyle was obsessed with serial killers. Being a part of the police department in Ann Arbor, where the murder rate, up until recently, had been pretty much zero, hadn’t done anything to ameliorate that single-minded focus.

  And now? Now that there was a bona fide killer in their midst? And the vaunted BAU had gotten involved? Kyle was almost ashamed to admit it, but he was like a kid in a candy store. He was gonna take this little bone and suck the marrow out of it.

  Okay, that was a little creepy. Probably best if he kept that little analogy to himself. Yeah, definitely.

  But it was clear that he would never have a better chance to see what these guys did, up close and personal. And he had found the best of the bunch in Agent Cooper. She was a focused laser, brilliant and honed in on what mattered the most to her.

  To the exclusion of anything else, alas. Kyle took a brief moment to mourn the death of his millisecond’s attempt at flirting with the attractive agent. Had to give himself props for trying, though. The woman was a goddess.

  Flawless mocha skin, almond-shaped eyes that had just a touch of color to them, a figure that would derail a train… Even the fact that her hair was buzzed down tight to her head was a turn-on. It wasn’t a look Kyle had ever gone after before, but to be honest, he’d never seen a woman like Agent Cooper before.

  Enough of that. She’d made it clear that was out of the question. Without any bitch-slapping, either, which Kyle had appreciated. Hard enough to get shot down. Getting shot down with attitude just sucked.

  Kyle rounded the corner that led to the rooms he’d fixed up for the BAU team to use. Computers, rented for the duration of their stay, covered most of the table and desk space, together with an array of phones, scanners, even a fax machine, just in case they had to send some paperwork back to the previous millennium or something.

  Hey, only the best for the guests of Ann Arbor’s finest.

  As he shuffled around the room, tweaking this, touching up that, trying to make everything as perfect as possible, Kyle heard two voices raised in a discordant argument just outside the door leading to the repurposed space. One of the voices was Agent Cooper’s. That would make the other, male, voice Salazar’s.

  “You can’t make that assumption. There’s no body, so we can’t know for sure—”

  “Exactly my point.” Coop’s voice. “There is no body. That little detail seem a bit… oh, I don’t know… off to you?”

  “What are you saying? That there’s another killer here… in the middle of Podunk, Nowhere?” Agent Salazar’s laughter was mocking.

  “No! That’s not what I’m talking about.” There was a slight hesitation in Cooper’s voice. “I think it… might be related to another case.”

  “Oh, you are kidding. You are kidding me,” Salazar’s
tone was scathing. “You think this one’s a Humpty?”

  “I believe that a female serial killer doesn’t change her M.O.—”

  “We don’t know for sure this killer’s a woman,” Salazar barked back.

  “I know that, I—”

  “Look, whatever. Futz around with your little pet project if you want, but I’ve got real work to do here. I’m headed back over to the site. Kranz texted and said they found something.” Kyle heard the sound of footsteps fading back the way they had come.

  “Was it a body, by chance?” Agent Cooper muttered as she entered into the room. She lifted her eyes up and caught Kyle staring right at her. Oops. Busted. Man, he probably should’ve at least pretended to be doing something.

  “How much did you hear?” Cooper asked, her face wry.

  “Eh? What did you say?” Kyle yelled at her, cupping his hand around his ear. “You need to speak up.”

  The agent chuckled. “So, pretty much everything?”

  “Yeah. I would say yes. Pretty much all of it. Yep.”

  “Well,” she sighed. “I did warn you.”

  “Really?” Kyle shrugged his shoulders and grinned at her. “I guess maybe I didn’t hear that one, either. Bad ears. Old age. What can ya do?”

  “What you can do, Officer Hadderly, is keep that hearing loss going, at least for another minute or so.” Agent Cooper pulled out her cell. “I’m calling my boss.”

  “I’ll do you one better. How about you call your boss, and I go grab us some breakfast?”

  “Sounds fantastic. Thanks, Officer Hadderly.”

  “Call me Had. It’s my nom de plume around here.”

  Agent Cooper nodded, a small smile kissing her face. “And you can keep calling me Coop. I liked that one.”

  “You got it, Coop.”

  Kyle walked out of the station whistling. It was a beautiful morning.

  CHAPTER 2

  Sariah opened her cell phone, then closed it again. It was the third time she had repeated that action since Had left. It wasn’t that she was afraid to talk to her boss. Actually, her boss was the only person at the BAU that seemed to get her. It was more a concern about what kind of wasp nest this conversation could stir up.

  The last time she had made known her suspicions regarding Humpty Dumpty, her colleagues had actively shamed her. Even her boss, who seemed to like her—or at least not to hate her—had dismissed the evidence as inconclusive at that point.

  Bringing it up again could scuttle her entire career.

  On the other hand, if she did nothing, their entire team would be spinning their wheels on this crime scene that Sariah was convinced had nothing to do with the Mary, Mary killer. Knowing that her cowardice was obstructing an active investigation did not sit well with Agent Sariah Cooper.

  One way or the other, it was time to either do it or forget about it, and Sariah knew there wasn’t a chance in hell she would ever be able to do the latter. She sighed and pressed the speed-dial listing for Special Agent-in-Charge Nicholas Tanner.

  “Agent Nick Tanner here.” Sariah’s boss had a tenor voice, but the strength behind it was palpable. There was a directness in that tone that mirrored the way that Tanner handled everything. There was no obfuscation or sidestepping with him.

  Sariah found it comforting and terrifying in equal measures.

  “Sir, its Agent Cooper.”

  “Agent Cooper! What’ve you found out there?”

  “Not as much as we expected.” Sariah paused, took a deep breath, and took the plunge. “And possibly a lot more.”

  “Explain.” Her boss’s tone grew immediately more focused.

  “There was no body. Only a hand.”

  “Ah. And…?”

  There was no fooling her boss. He knew her well enough to know that she hadn’t disclosed the entire story yet. She cleared her throat and continued.

  “The hand showed signs of preservation, sir.”

  There was a long silence on the other end of the line. A silence in which Sariah could feel and hear every single one of her heartbeats.

  “I see,” Agent Tanner finally said, his tone subdued. “You’re thinking its Humpty Dumpty again.”

  “Sir, there’s no other feasible—”

  “Agent Cooper,” her boss broke in. “I’m not arguing this point with you.”

  Sariah cringed as her face flushed in embarrassment. Agent Tanner was the only person in the BAU who gave her the time of day. She couldn’t afford to have him dismiss her ideas out of hand. Especially not this one.

  “But, sir—” Sariah pleaded.

  “You misunderstand me, Agent. I’m not arguing with you because I think you might be right.”

  Oh. That was unexpected. Sariah had gotten so used to the scoffs and scorns. She had no idea what it looked like when someone was on her side.

  “Sorry. And thank you, sir.”

  “No thanks necessary,” Agent Tanner grumbled. “Besides, I’m not sure you’ll be thanking me when this is all over with. If it turns out it isn’t Humpty Dumpty, you’re digging your own grave in the department. If it is… well, that’s its own set of problems.”

  “Sir?”

  “Look, let’s just get DNA and tox back on it and see what they say. It’s too early to make any decisions based on what we’ve got. And whether or not this specific site has to do with the Mary, Mary case, you guys are already there. So work it.”

  “Yes, sir.” Sariah hesitated, then spoke again. “Do you think it is Humpty, Agent Tanner?”

  “You don’t really want to know what I think, Agent Cooper.” Her boss ended the connection, and Sariah sat there for a moment, thinking.

  It was time for her to get to work on the Mary, Mary case. And if Tanner was right, she should be hoping that it would take her a long, long time to get finished with it.

  * * *

  Kyle swept into the office, carrying bags of food. He’d picked up some traditional Polish breakfasts at Amadeus Café and was currently second-guessing himself. He thought Polish food was awesome, but now that he was here, Kyle was thinking that maybe not everyone in the US would agree.

  “So… Your choices are between sardines and tomatoes on toast with poached eggs or kielbasa and toast with soft-boiled eggs. Sorry.”

  Coop’s face brightened up. “Polish? You’re kidding. I love Polish food!”

  “Really? You’re not just trying to make me feel better?”

  “No.” She shook her head vigorously. “My roommate in college was Polish. Hated it at first, but now… I dunno. I miss her… and her food.” Coop grinned up at him took a big sniff. “It smells great!” She reached her hand out. “I’ll take the sardines, unless you care.”

  “Go ahead. I’m more of a sausage fan, myself.” Kyle stopped and ran back over what he’d just said in his head, his face heating up. “That didn’t come out quite right.”

  Coop chuckled as she dug into her food. “Wow. I’m a lot hungrier than I thought. Thanks, Had. You’re a life saver.”

  “Hey, that’s why I wear the badge, baby.” Kyle swung his leg over the chair next to the apparently starving agent, opening up his own Styrofoam container. “So, what did your boss have to say?”

  “Waiting on DNA and tox. But…” Agent Cooper paused, her face careful. “It went a lot better than I’d feared. He seemed almost… not sure… primed? Like he was already prepped to buy into the theory.”

  “That’s fantastic!” Kyle said, putting as much enthusiasm into his tone as he could muster. He almost didn’t want to ask his next question. “So what does that mean for this case?”

  “Oh, we’re still working this case, definitely.”

  Kyle breathed a huge internal sigh of relief. “Perfect. Good, good.” He picked up one of the files he’d pulled for the BAU team to look through. “I was thinking. Mary, Mary… I mean, the unsub… she uses an overdose of OxyContin to kill her victims, right?”

  “That’s my understanding, from what I’ve seen of the file.”


  Setting the file back down again, Kyle snatched another bite of kielbasa before continuing. “OxyContin is a controlled substance, so…” He paused to swallow his food.

  Coop stepped in, not missing a beat. “So we can track the killer by checking into hospital inventory discrepancies.”

  Kyle pointed at his mouth, shrugging an apology, then swallowed again. “We already ran down that lead. None showed up missing.”

  Agent Cooper raised her eyebrows. “Nice detective work, Had.”

  Making a wry face at her, Kyle muttered, “Fat lot of good it did me.” He sighed. “I don’t have tons of experience when it comes to homicides.”

  “Please. You’re doing better than most of the yahoos I’ve had to work with.” Coop made a come-here motion with her hands. “Keep the ideas coming.”

  “Well, the drugs have to be coming from somewhere. It’s possible she’s getting it on the streets, but there’s not a lot of OxyContin traffic in Ann Arbor.” Kyle thought about it for a second. “Actually, there’s not a lot of traffic in Ann Arbor period.”

  “Plus, finding the killer that way is going to take a lot more manpower than what we have at the moment. Let’s rule out whatever we can on our own.”

  Knitting his brows, Kyle looked for anything he might be overlooking. “The hospitals keep pretty close track of all the opiates they distribute to their patients. They’re locked down pretty well.”

  “Wait.” Coop snapped her fingers. “The ones they distribute. What if the nurses are skimming?”

  “Skimming?”

  “Right. Taking in the drugs to patients who are either elderly or unable to communicate well and then not actually administering them.”

  “Wow,” Kyle exclaimed. “That’s… well that’s just harsh, is what that is.”

  “Not any harsher than killing someone and burying them in a shallow grave.”

  “Point taken.”

  Coop slapped the file closed and started typing into a computer next to her, pulling a phone closer to her. “Time to start tracking down our killer.”

  Okay, maybe making calls to the local hospitals didn’t sound like an amazing time, but Kyle was enjoying every second of this.