by Geri Foster
Inside The Storm
Storm Warning Series, Book 7
Geri Foster
Contents
The Storm Warning Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Author’s Note
Also by Geri Foster
About the Author
Copyright © 2018 Geri Foster
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
The Storm Warning Series
Fear the Storm
Chase the Storm
Perfect Storm
Ride the Storm
I Am the Storm
Brave the Storm
Inside the Storm
Eye of the Storm
Embrace the Storm
Chapter 1
FBI agent Lincoln Hightower walked into the satellite office near Rainwater, Texas, and approached his desk, ready for another day of doing what he loved. As an ex-detective who’d taken down the biggest gang in the area, it had become too dangerous for him to stay in Houston.
Luckily, he’d been offered a job with the FBI after finishing his training.
“Hey, Lincoln,” Director Austin Crawley called out. “You have a minute?”
Since he hadn’t had a chance to sit, he turned and walked to the back of the building and into a glassed off area used by Austin as an office. Standing outside the door, he said, “What’s up?”
Austin motioned with his hand. “Come in. I want to ask you a few questions.” Austin was a great guy, and as cool-headed as they came, but today that stark gaze in his eyes signaled bad news.
Lincoln nodded, entered the office, and sat in a chair facing the man in charge. “Is there a problem?”
Being new to the FBI, Lincoln trusted his commander to be square with him, and he’d lived up to that expectation.
Lincoln turned at the sound of booted footsteps on the wooden floor leading to Austin’s office. Police Chief Lucas Quinn, and Lincoln’s brother-in-law, David Anderson, headed their way.
The four men greeted each other, and everyone found a seat. Austin nodded toward the door. “Close that.”
Since David was closest, he reached over and kicked it shut.
“You tell him yet?” Lucas asked, his face grimmer than Austin’s. Guess there’d be no chit-chat over coffee, this morning and Lincoln didn’t smell donuts, either.
Austin shook his head. “I thought I’d wait for you and David to get here.”
Lincoln turned and stared at their visitors. “Tell me what?”
“Do you remember the Wise County Child Killer?”
Those four words hit like a sledgehammer against his chest. He hadn’t heard that reference in years. Lots of years. Lincoln swallowed forcefully. “Barely.”
“We think he may have reactivated himself,” David announced, eyes fixed on the clutched fists in his lap.
Lincoln straightened and steadied his breath, praying David was dead wrong. That he’d been fed some bad information. No one wanted that horror to revisit Rainwater. The Wise County Child Killer murdered over twenty-five young girls... that they found. The murdered and mutilated young girls had been between the ages of five and ten.
That incident had affected Lincoln personally. He could never get it out of his mind, nor was he able to reconcile with the fear that rolled through Rainwater like the black plague had Europe in the Dark Ages. Parents were so frightened their child would be next, they practically locked them up.
“Why do you say that?” Lincoln asked when he was sure he could speak without his voice cracking. “Did another body show up?”
“Yes. Located between here and Rainwater.” Lucas stroked the brim of his Stetson settled on his knee.
Damn, that was too close for comfort. Pictures of his niece, Leah, ran through his head. “Does Amelia know?” he asked David. “Are they safe?”
“Don’t worry, Lincoln. We’re not letting her out of our sight.”
Austin pulled out a manila folder thick as a man’s fist from his middle desk drawer. “This is everything on that case.”
Lucas let out a troubled breath. “I went through that two years ago when little Megan Holbrook went missing. We were lucky to find her unharmed.”
“I remember that.” Lincoln and half of Rainwater had held their breaths while the whole community searched for days. “Every lawman in the area thought the Wise County Child Killer had taken her?”
“Proved to be a false alarm. We found her safe and sound,” Austin reminded them. “But it sure scared the hell out of all of us and brought back a lot of bad memories.”
David threw up his arms and jumped to his feet in frustration. “Not so lucky this time. The body has the killer’s MO written all over it.”
Lincoln’s gut twisted like a wrung-out rag. “What’s your plan?”
“I’m putting you on the case. You’ll work closely with Lucas and David and the police force in Denton. We know the guy’s hunting ground and his habits.”
“This time we have to get him,” David stated, his index finger poking the air. “I have a little girl who I love more than life itself. I’m going to lay awake nights until that bastard’s either behind bars or dead.”
“I’m pulling in an FBI profiler to work with you, Lincoln,” Austin said in a tone that brooked no dispute from anyone. “I think that kind of training might give us a greater advantage. One we didn’t have twenty some years ago.”
Lincoln was happy to get his first big assignment, but this could prove to be a tough one. It was hard for anyone in law enforcement to deal with the murder of a child, and the Wise County Child Killer had been a crazy son of a bitch.
“When will the profiler be here?” Lincoln asked, glancing at his watch. “I’d like to get on this right away.”
Austin shoved the file at him. “Start by studying this and let me know if you think we missed anything. I expect the extra help to show up tomorrow. I want it understood, you two are to work as a team to get this done. Understand?”
“I do, and because of Leah, I want him off the streets as much as anyone else. Maybe more.”
David and Lucas departed, and Lincoln weighed the heavy file in his hand. It contained a lot of important information and, if his guess was right, from several different agencies.
In his cubicle, he dropped the report on his desk with a loud thud then slumped into his chair. It was going to be a long, tedious day, and his eyes were in for one hell of a workout. So was his brain.
As he suspected, inside, the photos were gruesome, and he knew he’d have nightmares for a long time after this case was solved, but that was the nature of his job. It was never pretty.
He read through the report
and studied the notes from all the agents. Comments about the crime scenes, the bodies and recovery. Then he listened to all the interviews they conducted with suspects, parents, even other children. Anyone who might have the smallest tidbit of information to help them solve this case.
By the end of the day, Lincoln was beyond exhausted and in serious need of an ice-cold beer. One of the other agents had brought him back a burger for lunch so he could keep working. Now his stomach was seeking revenge with the worst heartburn known to man.
He reached into his desk and unrolled three Tums, popped them in his mouth, and quickly chewed the chalky tablets. Swallowing long before they were small enough, he nearly choked. Sticking out his tongue, he nearly gagged before grabbing his watered-down Coke and sucking a few sips through the straw.
Man, he needed a better diet.
Lincoln had moved to Rainwater from Dallas after closing down Antonio Garza’s cartel and seeing the gang imprisoned for murder, drug distribution, human trafficking, and the list went on. Being in Houston was like being in the Old West. You get a name for being the fastest gun and along comes some buckaroo trying to earn their own reputation.
FBI training in Langley had proved to be a great opportunity for him. It got him out of the area and taught him how to be an FBI agent. He was new to the job, but he felt no push to prove he could be a good agent. He’d done that already by bringing down the indestructible Antonio Garza as a detective.
On the way home, Lincoln, now over his heartburn, used the drive-thru and grabbed a burger and fries for supper. He knew he’d pay later, but he had no time or interest in cooking.
He’d rented a small house not far from his sister, Amelia, and her husband, David. He’d missed being with family and wanted to change that. He made sure he had an extra bedroom where his mom could visit anytime. However, she now lived on Lake Holly near Tyler and didn’t want to change a darn thing. She loved it out there and had acquired lots of friends and things to do. He didn’t want her sitting around, lonely, but he sure missed her cooking.
Two years ago, his pregnant wife had been killed in a car accident. Only, later, he learned that wasn’t the case. Garza had them killed as a warning for him to back off.
He didn’t. After the death of his family, he couldn’t.
But it left a hole in his heart the size of a cannon ball. He missed her every day, and while he knew nothing would bring Marilyn back, how did one stop loving the most important person in their life?
Once home, he took his burger and sat at the kitchen counter. He’d gotten a beer out of the fridge to wash down the greasy food. As he ate, he opened the file and continued studying the case. He couldn’t learn anything by leaving it on his desk at work.
The killer had been methodical, meticulous, and a solid mystery. He didn’t just ditch bodies anywhere. He had a dumping site that they’d found purely by luck. There, authorities unearthed the remains of twenty or more girls. They never got an exact count. All were raped, mutilated, sodomized, and then choked to death.
It was hard, even for Lincoln, to look at the pictures. He didn’t know how the parents were able to continue with their lives after seeing their children so brutalized.
He hadn’t wanted to after his pregnant wife had been murdered. He’d fought to keep from curling up in a ball and staying there. Thankfully, his family proved to be a great support team, but they couldn’t begin to dull his pain.
He finished his supper and turned on the TV, just for the noise. He rarely watched anything but football and, sometimes, the History Channel. Never the news. His job was depressing enough without it being serialized by the media.
He’d just settled into the recliner and had papers strewn all over his lap when his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and saw his boss’s picture. Austin wanted to pass along that the profiler would be showing up tomorrow morning at eight a.m. He expressed to Lincoln how qualified the guy was and that he knew his stuff.
Lincoln didn’t know how he felt about profiling. In his mind, the child killer was a crazy son of a bitch who needed to die. He didn’t want to analyze him or figure out why he did the things he did. He wanted him where he couldn’t hurt any more children.
“I’ve read through the file and I didn’t come up with anything earth-shattering.” Lincoln tried to keep his voice matter-of-fact, but it was hard. “One thing in our favor is we now have better results with DNA and we were able to recover some on several of the girls.”
“Yeah,” Austin verified. “But no match in the system.”
“Today, all kinds of people are getting their DNA taken. Maybe we need to cross check with these companies and see if they’ll help us in some way.”
“If we’re going to do that, we’d better hurry, because they want to legally close that door. Those companies claim it’s bad for business. If a killer’s brother has his DNA done, it can lead us right to the perpetrator of the crime.”
“I’ll contact a few places tomorrow and see if they’ll co-operate.” He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. He had to know. “Which little girl was murdered this time?”
“Nancy Brier. She was grabbed on her way home from school five days ago. Her mother reported her missing and it didn’t take us long to find the remains.”
“And she was mutilated, raped, and then asphyxiated?”
“Exactly in that order, according to the ME. So, that brought us back to the Wise County Child Killer. And he had the body posed in the same manner. On her back, body straight, arms laid across her chest. Just like she was in a coffin.”
“Yeah, that was kind of telling. Do we have pictures of the victim yet?”
“They should be on your computer when you get to work in the morning,” Austin assured him. “Let me know if they aren’t.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“You know, Lincoln, you’re welcome to come by mine and Candi’s house any time for supper. We’d love to have you.”
“I know, Austin, and I have an open invitation from my sister as well, but I’d rather spend the evening going over the case. I want to catch his guy.”
“You do realize it’s a twenty-year-old case? I’m guessing that puts the killer between fifty and sixty. Not a young chicken anymore.”
“Good. Maybe he’s slower and can’t get things done as fast as he used to.”
Austin cleared his throat. “I need you to find out what started him up again.”
“You think he could’ve been in jail on another charge?” Lincoln lifted his head and narrowed his eyes. “Maybe he just moved to another locale.”
“That’s always a possibility. But I don’t think so. I feel like he stopped because of something else. Maybe he got scared.”
Lincoln scoffed. “Serial killers don’t get scared, they get bolder, and we know for a fact his crimes were escalating dangerously high.”
“Could’ve gotten sick. Suffered a bout with a serious illness?” Austin suggested, but Lincoln knew they were both drawing blanks.
“Anything might’ve happened.” Lincoln heard the tight stress in his boss’s words. “We won’t know until we catch him and hear what he has to say about the whole situation. My guess is he relocated. I’ve been tracking the deaths of young girls and they’re all over the map. Maybe he changed his MO where he doesn’t stay in one place long enough to cause suspicion.”
“That makes sense,” Lincoln said. “But what’s the guy living on? Odd jobs? He could be trained in anything.”
“Maybe our profiler will be able to tell us something.” Conviction laced Austin’s words. “I sent the file to Dallas via computer, so they can study it and get caught up on the case.”
“I’ll meet with the guy tomorrow and we’ll see what we can figure out.” Lincoln promised, hoping to put his boss’s mind at ease.
“It’s not a guy, Lincoln. I thought I told you. It’s Mia Alverez.”
“You’re kidding?” His heart betrayed him by pounding like
a jackhammer. He didn’t expect to ever see her again. Lincoln’s thoughts immediately went to how he could possibly make this work.
“No.” Austin sounded surprised. “She’s one of the best. Been with the FBI since getting out of college. Busted a few big-time cases. Got herself quite a reputation.” Austin paused. “Don’t you know her?”
“She’s from Rainwater. Born here, I think. Her younger sister was one of the Wise County Child Killer’s victims. I’m surprised they’d put her on the case because of how close she was to everything.”
“I didn’t know that,” Austin replied slowly. “But then, I left it up to Dallas to make the decision. I wonder if they’re aware of her past.”
“She was only maybe eight or nine when Anita, her sister, was taken,” Lincoln informed his boss. “They didn’t find her body for two months. It tore her family apart and Mia was never the same afterwards.”
“Oh? In what way?”
“She’d been instructed by her parents to pick up Anita when she got out of class.” Lincoln wouldn’t repeat the whole story. Just enough to give Austin a heads up. “Mia, being a little older, went with her friends to get a Coke.” Lincoln shook his head. “When she got back, Anita wasn’t there. I imagine she’s carried that guilt ever since. Afterwards, she was pretty torn up for a kid.”
“I can understand that,” Austin breathed out. “Those kinds of things tear you up inside. I wonder if she ever got over it.”
Lincoln took a sip of his beer because his throat was so dry he feared he’d lose his voice. “I haven’t seen her since her family moved away. Once Anita’s body was discovered, they moved to Dallas and I lost track. A few people from here mention her from time to time.”