The man flipped the photo over, revealing names written on the bottom. She tried to read the names on the back, but he quickly shoved the photo into his pocket. The woman against the wall struggled to break free of her invisible restraints. He grinned at the woman, then stepped out of the bedroom.
“What do you think?” he asked, coming back into the living room. Ciara couldn’t see anyone else in the room that he could be talking to. “Should I take her with me and have some more fun?”
“No!” Ciara whimpered, hoping he would leave her alone and leave.
“No? Okay then.” He shrugged and stepped away from the woman against the wall.
A flash of blue caught her eyes as a blue orb formed in his hands. He pushed it out at the woman, hitting her in the chest. Her body spasmed and smoke began to come from where the orb landed. Her body went limp and collapsed on the floor.
“No!” Ciara collapsed against the van. His menacing laugh pierced her ears as their connection was lost and she was plunged into darkness.
Chapter Nine
Heath was at the local trash dump when a message from Ciara came through. He immediately called her warning her, to stay away from the van. If it was the killer’s van, then there was no telling when he’d be back for it. There was nothing they could do here, now that the crime scene techs were gathering the body and any evidence. Heath wasn’t surprised when they pulled up and the victim matched the picture Gunner sent them of Everly Foxworth, the fourth woman to go missing. She was still wearing the purple tank top Ciara had described. Her necklace matched the symbol the others wore. Like the others, there wasn’t much to the dumpsite. The woman wasn’t killed here but there were drag marks leading to the body. Heath followed them backwards, leading him to a set of tire tread marks. Techs took pictures and made a mold of the marks in the dirt. If Ciara was right about the van, then they’d be able to match the tread marks.
“Come on, Heather. We need to go,” Heath told her as the crime scene techs were working the scene.
“Why? We’re not finished here.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Ciara came across the van she believes is the killer’s. I told her to leave, but I doubt that will happen.” He ushered Heather back to the SUV.
“Should we tell the sheriff?” She nodded over to where the sheriff was standing, talking with one of the techs.
“Yeah, he’ll need to know. I just want to get there before anyone else.” Heath wanted to make sure Ciara was safe before the sheriff came along threatening jail time.
“I’ll give him the heads up and buy us a little time.” Heather agreed and walked over to the sheriff.
While she talked to the sheriff, Heath got in the driver’s seat and punched the address Ciara texted him into the GPS. The GPS said they could be there in twenty minutes. He knew he could cut some of that time and make it there in less than fifteen unless he caught all the red lights. Starting the vehicle, he waited for Heather. The sheriff’s face reddened as Heather came back to the vehicle.
“You better hope she doesn’t do her own illegal search. If she does, then anything she finds will be thrown out without a warrant.” Heather jumped into the passenger seat.
“We need to hurry before she does something, or the guy leaves with it.” Heath put it in gear and drove off. “I told her not to go anywhere near the van.”
“Do you think she’ll listen?” She pulled her seat belt across her and buckled it.
“Probably not. She’s a strong-minded person.” He pulled out onto the main road and followed the GPS.
“She might be strong-minded, but she’s going to find herself in trouble if she isn’t careful.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
“That’s why you’re here. I’m here to make sure your ass doesn’t get in trouble.”
“That sounds so backwards.” He shook his head. “It’s me keeping you out of trouble.”
“Just not this time.” She smirked and pulled out her phone. “I’ll let Gunner know they found Everly Foxworth.”
“Did he send the picture of the van to your phone? We can use it to verify if it’s the same or not.”
“Yeah.” She turned her phone toward him. When he stopped at the red light, he examined the picture. “Is that a dent?” He pointed to the front panel of the van as it was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot. The camera angle was bad, and you couldn’t see the driver’s face at all.
“Looks like it.” Heather glanced at the front of her phone.
“Ciara said the van had a dent in the front.”
When the light turned green, he pressed the gas pedal down. He challenged the GPS and sped up. If he came into traffic, he would flash his blue lights and they’d ease off the road. Though when he got closer to the address, he wouldn’t turn on the lights. He didn’t want to alert the suspect to their presence, especially if Ciara was still in the area.
He turned into a small community of brick homes. Every building looked the same. Heather pointed to which streets to turn down until they came to Appleveen St. Heath immediately saw the van parked at the end of the street. Ciara was leaning against the van with her head against the van. Was she hurt? He quickly came to a stop behind the van and jumped out. He ran over to Ciara and put his hand on her shoulder to turn her around to face him. Her fear spiked. As she turned around, her fist swung out connecting with his nose. He released her shoulder and grabbed his nose. Her pupils were large, leaving no color to be seen.
“Damn it, cupcake. I like my nose.”
“Why’d you do that?” she questioned. “Never sneak up on someone who was just out of their mind.”
“You saw something? What did you see?”
“He killed her.” She sobbed and leaned against him. “There was nothing I could do.”
“Did you open the van?” he asked.
“No, I touched the handle. That’s all. I don’t know what’s in the van. I do know that he just killed someone in this neighborhood.”
“Like, present time, just now?”
“Yes, I was seeing it as it happened.”
“Killed? Not taken like the others. Was she the one from the club last night?”
“No, there was someone else. A woman in her living room. He wanted to know where the other one was, but she refused to tell him. He tortured her until he found a photo with a group of women. If I’m not mistaken, it was a picture of all the women that have gone missing over the last two weeks. I didn’t get a great look at the last one, just that she had red, wild, curly hair.”
“If we find that photo then we can use our software to have her identified.” Heath commented.
“The picture won’t be any use to you. He took it with him.”
“Damn it!” Heather cursed. “This asshole has always been a step ahead of us.”
“What about the victim’s house? Did you recognize it?” Heath asked Ciara.
“Look around you.” She waved her arms to the side. “Every house looks the same. All I can say is look for the one with a dead body in the living room. I didn’t see any stairs, so I’m assuming it was a single-story home. Oh, there were red curtains over the living room windows. Maybe that will help.”
“And you’re sure this is the van?” Heather asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Here’s the dent.” She went to the front panel and pointed. “Plus, I had the vision when I touched the door handle.”
“He has to be in one of these houses nearby. He’d want the van close by for a getaway.” He looked down the street. “Let’s get out of view and see if he comes back for it.”
Sirens went off a short way away. They all turned toward the sound only to see the sheriff turning onto the road with lights and sirens blaring. There goes any chance they had of a stakeout. Everyone currently in the neighborhood knew their presence by now. He parked beside the van blocking the road. When he got out, he slammed the door hard.
“Why is it that you keep turning up in this case?” Sheriff Loga
n asked Ciara as he stormed up to them.
Before Ciara could answer, Heath jumped in and explained what they knew so far. They were waiting on the search warrant before they looked inside the van. Heather stepped away from them to call Gunner and get him to run the van’s vin.
“Looks like I’ll need you back at the station,” The sheriff informed Ciara.
“Now, Sheriff, there’s no need for your interrogations. She’s been completely up front with us.” Heath intervened.
“Is this still my case?”
“Yes, sir.” Heath hated the jurisdictional game the sheriff was playing.
“Alright, then, what I say goes.” He grabbed Ciara by the arm and started pulling her toward his car.
“Let her go.” Heath’s eyes glowed amber as his anger rose. If the sheriff didn’t remove his hand from Ciara’s arm, Heath was going to remove it for him.
“He’s right.” Heather shoved her phone in her pocket. “This van was stolen out of Texas a month ago. Which means the killer crossed the border, making this officially our case.”
He never wanted to hug his sister more than in that moment. Ciara jerked her arm away from the sheriff and stepped behind Heath. The sheriff narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing.
“I’m going to put a rush on that warrant. I advise her not to be here when I come back.” Scrunching his face in disgust, the sheriff went back to his car and sat down on the driver side.
“Do me a favor. Go home and stay there. I’ll call you later and maybe we can get dinner.”
“You still owe me some sushi.” Her smile warmed his heart like rays of sun.
“And you’ll get sushi.” He squeezed her hand. “Now, get out of here before he tries to lock us both up.”
“I hope you find the right house. Good luck you two.”
“What? No good luck for the sheriff.” Heather smirked.
“Nah, fuck the sheriff.” Ciara winked at Heath before turning and walking away.
He watched as she made her way across the street to where she was parked. Once she got in and drove away, he turned his attention back to Heather and the van.
“You want to look for the house with the red curtains?”
“I think we should wait for the crime scene techs. Something is off with this sheriff. He’s too hell bent on seeing her behind bars.” Heath watched the sheriff as he sat in his car on his phone.
Heath pulled out his phone to message Gunner. He’d be able to run a check on the sheriff and let him know if anything was amiss.
They waited for the crime scene techs to get there. It took twenty minutes for the techs’ white van to pull in across the street. A marked cop car pulled in behind them and the deputy got out. In his hands was a folded sheet of paper Heath knew would be the warrant.
“Is that signed?” he asked as the deputy drew near.
“Yes, sir.” The deputy handed the sheriff the warrant document.
They were able to jimmy the door open, but they weren’t prepared for what they found. A woman’s lifeless body laid in the back of the van. It was the woman that was taken from the bar last night. Her hands were mangled, fingers bent in odd directions. There was a burn on her chest, just like the other victims. There was no denying it, this was the killer’s van. Blankets laid in the corner behind the passenger seat, along with a pillow. With luck, the pillow would have some DNA from the killer.
The sheriff stayed with the techs while they processed the van and waited for the medical examiner. To try and save time, Heath and Heather got in the SUV and began driving around the neighborhood, looking for red curtains. On the fourth street, Heath noticed something off.
“Heather, what do you make of that?” He nodded to the fifth house on the left. The house seemed to shimmer as if it had a spell on it. The closer they got, the more the shimmer appeared like a forcefield. It covered the entire house in a shimmering bubble.
“Definitely witchcraft.”
Heath parked in front of the shimmering house. Dark red curtains blocked their view from the inside. They got out and eased their doors shut. They didn’t want to scare him off if he was inside. As they came closer to the front door, Heath noticed it was cracked open. He drew his service weapon and Heather followed suit. He eased the door open with his foot while holding his gun in front of him. They slowly came into the living room and immediately smelt burnt flesh. A woman laid motionless across the room, just outside of the bedroom door. Stepping around the body, they cleared the rest of the house in case the suspect was still there. No one else was in the house.
“Clear,” Heath called from the bathroom.
“Clear,” Heather said from the kitchen.
He put away his gun as he came back into the living room. With a sigh, he stepped outside to call the sheriff and inform him of the deceased woman. The scene was just how Ciara said it would be. Heath turned toward the house to get the street number for the sheriff. He noticed Heather in the entryway saying something, but he couldn’t hear her words. She stepped from the stoop into the yard.
“I said, she has earrings with the same symbol as the others. Why can’t you hear me?” she asked, stepping closer to him.
“Step back by the door and say something to me again.”
“What?” she questioned but did what he wanted.
She stood in front of the door and turned around to face him. He could read her lips as she said this was ridiculous, but he couldn’t hear her. Heath gazed up at the shimmering field, it stopped at the step. Heath leaned in, popping his upper body passed the shimmer.
“What are you doing? You look absolutely ridiculous.”
“The shimmer is a sound barrier. No matter how hard our victim screamed, no one would have heard her.”
“Let me see. Trade places with me.” Heather stepped down into the yard and Heath went and stood by the door. He faced her then screamed to the top of his lungs. He was still screaming when she stepped through the shimmer. “Woah, you can stop. You proved your point, it’s a sound barrier.”
“Well, the barrier confirms that our killer knows his own bit of magic.”
“Did your girl say exactly how he called her?”
“I’ll get more answers when we meet up later. First, we need to process the scene.”
“At least we can check out the pictures. See if any of them have all our victims. I know she said he took one picture but maybe there’s another.”
“It won’t hurt to look,” Heather said as she walked over to the wall of photos. “Finally, someone who displays their friendships.”
Crime scene techs came in wearing covers on their shoes. It took hours for them to process everything and for the medical examiner to remove the woman’s body. They didn’t find any useful pictures or anything relating to the coven.
“I’m going to bring Ciara out here after dinner. Once everyone is gone. She can show us exactly what happened and what picture he took,” Heath told Heather as they were heading out the door.
Chapter Ten
Ciara had known it would take Heath a few hours before he was able to stop for dinner. She hoped they would be able to find the residence with the red curtains. Though, she knew they would be too late to help the woman. Her vision was as it happened. The killer was probably long gone by the time they got there.
Walking into her house, she locked the door behind her. Her dead bolt had to be locked with her key from the inside. The double key lock made her feel safe from the outside world. Right now, she needed to feel safe. The vision had her feeling on edge. Dropping her keys into her purse, she set it down on the kitchen counter and grabbed a chocolate bar from her refrigerator. On her way upstairs to her bathroom, she ate her chocolate bar. It helped with the headache she had gotten from her vision. She turned on the hot water and plugged the tub with a stopper. As she took the last bite out of her chocolate bar, she threw the wrapper in the trash and began emptying her pockets. She placed her phone and change by the sink. As she pulled her shirt over her
head, her phone chimed with an incoming message. Before stripping any further, she grabbed her phone. Her stomach flipped, hoping it was Heath.
We found the house and the woman. I’ll be a while, but I promise I’m coming for you.
The knots in her stomach tightened. Quickly, her thumbs typed of a message.
Take your time. I’m gonna take a bath. I may even shave my legs.
Before realizing what she had typed, her finger pressed send. Then read over her text.
“Shit!” She almost dropped her phone. “Fuck! Why did I say that? Delete, delete, delete. Damn it!”
Let me know if you need any help.
Oh shit, forget the last message.
She chuckled; her panic faded away as she typed her next message.
Not until after the first date. Lol
We need to fix that. Techs coming in, enjoy your bath.
The knots in her stomach turned to butterflies. She set her phone by the sink and stripped out of the rest of her clothes. The water was hot enough to turn her skin pink as she stepped in the tub. Sitting down, she submerged herself into the water until the water reached up to her chin. She soaked until the water started losing its heat. Then, she washed up and shaved, just in case she was to see any action.
She hadn’t realized how much energy had been drawn from her vision. Most visions were flashes, a few seconds to a minute. It was rare for her to have them for minutes at a time. She’d never had one that long before. The vision pulled her in. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t back out of the vision. It was like something had a hold of her mind, keeping her there. She closed her eyes and immediately was drawn back into the woman’s living room. The man’s voice was gruff when he asked if he should take the woman with him. Ciara wanted so badly to be able to identify who else was in the room, but she didn’t see anyone else. Who was he talking to?
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