Betrayed

by Shelly Knox

  “Did you hear me?”

  “No. My mind drifted.”

  Jon rolled his eyes and asked again, “Do we actually know both of them were murdered?”

  “Yes.”

  “Que chingados. Do you think Keri’s death has anything to do with our serial killer?”

  Jaxson sat the croissant down and wiped his hands with a napkin as he said, “I can’t believe you asked that. Because my gut says it does. But I don’t have one shred of evidence—of course, it’s not our case, either. And get this. Keri was faking her pregnancy. She matches the killer’s type perfectly—but she wasn’t really pregnant.”

  “That would piss him off. Let’s see if we can convince the Plano police to share their information so we can compare it to our serial killer.” Jon blew on his coffee and then took another sip.

  “This can’t be a coincidence, right?” Jaxson asked. “She’s his type, other than the Hispanic.”

  “I feel you, man. Maybe the Plano police department needs help and they don’t even know it.” Jon had finished his cinnamon roll, so he picked up the bear claw and stuffed a huge bite into his mouth.

  “We need to speak to the captain again and ask him to get us on Keri and Jack’s case. We need to see the evidence. Something smells here.”

  “I agree,” Jon added. “If we don’t get down to Austin, the evidence could be compromised. It’s too late for Keri’s crime scene.”

  “Wow. I think this is the first time we agreed on anything.”

  Chapter 66

  Jaxson and Jon set a meeting with Captain Lewis, their direct-line supervisor. Jon sat in the left seat and Jaxson on the right. Of course, Jon had saddled him with the chair that wobbled. Jaxson focused in on the vacation photos that graced the bookcase and hoped that one day he could take Piper on trips like that.

  Captain Lewis sat tall in his chair. He was tall even when sitting. When standing, his height was over six foot seven inches. He kept his dark-blonde hair with gray streaks cut short. Although clean-shaven, his face was mired with moles and heavily freckled. “You two called the meeting. What do you want?”

  Jaxson glanced at Jon, and Jon stared right back. They hadn’t planned on who would speak first. Jaxson knew it couldn’t be him. He was too close. If anyone had to convince the captain, it had to be Jon.

  “I’m waiting, gentlemen. Wyatt, you start.”

  “Captain, I think Jon wanted the honors, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t give a shit who talks, just start already.”

  Finally, Jon began. “Listen, Captain. I know this is a long shot, but Keri Morgan-Allen was murdered last night. She fits the serial killer’s profile. Blonde hair, she has green eyes, but that would probably be a bonus for him. She was faking her pregnancy. I’m not sure the Plano police know that tidbit of information yet. Her sister only found out at the hospital, when she learned she wasn’t pregnant at all.” Jon paused only long enough to take a breath. “Jaxson and I have a gut feeling it’s related to our case. We would like warrants for Mrs. Morgan-Allen’s cell phone and home. In case you haven’t heard, Mrs. Morgan-Allen’s husband was found dead, too. It’s just too much of a coincidence.”

  Captain Lewis stared first at Jon and then at Jaxson, as if he were watching a tennis match. “You two agree on this? Seriously. You two agree.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Jon said in unison with Jaxson.

  The captain steepled his hands together and tapped them on his chin. After a minute, he said, “I’ve never seen you two agree on anything. So, submit the paperwork. I’ll sign off on it. You both have good instincts. I trust your guts.”

  Jon and Jaxson stood and headed toward the door. They were stopped by the captain.

  “What’s up with the DNA match on our potential suspect?”

  Jaxson turned so he faced the captain again. “Still waiting, sir. We have a team sitting on him. He won’t get away.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  Only an hour later, both warrants were granted. There was a great deal of pressure on everyone in power in this community to catch this person. Getting the phone records would take a bit, so Jon and Jaxson decided to hit Keri’s house while they waited for them. On the drive down, Jaxson read the evidence reports on Keri’s murder while Jon drove. Even with the sirens blaring and Jon driving like a bat fleeing hell, it took well over two hours. The time passed quickly, though, as they discussed and analyzed Keri’s murder. Jaxson had been right. The Plano police didn’t know that Keri was faking a pregnancy, not yet. At least it hadn’t been noted in the report.

  They pulled up at the crime scene and walked inside without being stopped. Most of law enforcement respected the Texas Rangers. However, once the Austin police found out the reason they had arrived was to take over the search, they were pissed. The medical examiner had only released the crime scene five minutes prior to their arrival. Jaxson heard a drive-by shooting killing six and injuring more than a dozen held up the ME’s office.

  Now the Austin police had to support the Rangers in any way that they could. Maybe pissed wasn’t a strong enough word.

  Jon and Jaxson put on the protective shoes and gloves then entered the bedroom. There had to be something to Keri and Jack, her husband, dying on the same day. Jaxson seldom believed in coincidences. Wanting to search the bedroom first, he headed in that direction. Maybe they would find evidence that Keri faked the pregnancy—like one of those pillow baby bumps. That would strengthen their case their suspect targeted her. But who killed Jack Allen? It didn’t make sense.

  His partner searched the dressers and other furniture in the bedroom while Jaxson focused on the closet: A walk-in closet finished in melamine with an accent top shelf. Deco doors with bronze glass. Adjustable shelves. Drawers with polished, brushed brass arch handles. Deco top and bottom molding. Plenty of hanging space. An island with the same Deco drawers and a makeup station with a small cut-out to fit the antique chair look-a-like. The closet only contained female items—it didn’t contain any of Jack’s clothes or accessories. It had to belong to Keri.

  It didn’t take a genius to find what Jaxson had hoped he would find. A hidden door was tucked in the corner of the back wall. If the door hadn’t been left ajar, though, he might not have found it. A panel that matched the wall perfectly sat to the side. Once placed over the safe, it would have been totally hidden. She must have been in a hurry to do something so stupid. In the corner of his eye, he noticed an Austin police officer walk by the closet entrance.

  “Hey, Officer.”

  The officer—a young boy, really—poked his head into the doorway of the closet. “Yes, sir?”

  “Could you please bring me a stack of different-sized evidence bags and maybe just a few boxes? Oh, and some evidence tape.”

  “Yeah, sure, not like I’m busy or anything.” He moved forward.

  “Excuse me, Officer? What was that?”

  “Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought you said to a brother law enforcement member who outranks you.”

  Jaxson didn’t like to pull rank on anyone, especially officers in brother agencies, but if the person was stupid enough to disrespect him right to his face, then they were going to get it back with both barrels. What the young man didn’t know, yet, was that he would write the incident up and give it to his supervisor. What his supervisor did beyond that was up to him.

  The young officer returned with just what Jaxson had asked for.

  Jaxson took out his notebook and clicked his pen. “Name, rank, and badge number.”

  “You’re not serious, are you?”

  His eyes narrowed and his brows knitted together as his lips thinned into a disapproving look.

  “Ace Jacobson, rookie—”

  Jaxson interrupted him. “I don’t want nicknames. I want your full given name.”

  “That is my given name.”

  After scrutinizing the young man’s face for any telltale signs of deceit, Jaxson ra
ised one eyebrow and then collected the young man’s badge number. “If I find out differently, I will press for formal disciplinary action. Thanks for the bags.”

  He faced the safe and grinned, no doubt in his mind that kid wouldn’t disrespect another officer again. He started to remove items from the safe and placed them in evidence bags. The first few objects didn’t seem too important: a box of ink pens, a box of mechanical pencils, a ruler, a calculator—all of which he bagged, taped, and dated. He couldn’t figure out why she kept office supplies in the safe. Then he pulled out a heavy box.

  One thing Jaxson had noticed was that the safe was a lot larger than it appeared.

  A decorative box, bigger than a shoe box, had an askew lid that slid off as he removed it from the safe. He set it aside as he whistled a long, low note. The box was filled with money.

  Multiple piles of money. He called out, “Jon, can you come in here, please? I need you as a witness.” Jaxson noticed that each bundle contained five-hundred-dollar bills with the wraps indicating $25,000. If all the stacks were the same, Jaxson had to guess the box contained over $750,000 of wrapped bills.

  Jon entered the closet. Jaxson was still on the floor in front of the safe but held the box up when his partner turned toward him.

  “Que chingados. How much?”

  “Not sure, I didn’t want to count it until I had a witness.” Jaxson set the box on his lap and counted the bundles as he checked to see whether they were all five-hundred-dollar bills. “My guess was seven hundred fifty thousand dollars, but it’s a cool million or more. The bottom layer contains stacks of thousand-dollar bills.”

  Shaking his head, Jaxson had to wonder whether the money was all on the up-and-up. Or was it dirty? This was a big score to find on just a hunch.

  Jon glanced around the mammoth walk-in closet as Jaxson completed an evidence sheet. “This is bigger than my son’s bedroom. I’m done in the master suite. Didn’t find much of importance. You need help?”

  “I haven’t finished going through the safe. It’s in an awkward position. I’ll hand you what I retrieve as I pull it out. That will make it go faster. Then we can sit somewhere and examine the contents. My guess is this was Keri’s safe since it’s her closet. His and her closets make that easy to figure out. Did you do Jack’s closet?”

  “No, that baby Ranger is searching his closet. I also had help with the suite. I was surprised you didn’t ask for help.”

  “This is really stressing me. I don’t know how Piper is going to handle this. I don’t want to lose her again.” Jaxson pulled out two black disposable phones. He handed them to his partner.

  “You have to have faith in Piper.” Jon turned the phones over to see whether they had any distinguishing marks. “What is Keri doing with disposable phones in a safe?”

  “I don’t know. I’m shocked at what we’re finding. Wait, what’s this?” Jaxson pulled out a five-inch-by-eight-inch book with cartoon baby drawings on the outside. He opened the book. “Holy shit.”

  “What? What’d you find?’”

  Jaxson stood and moved from the closet and sat on the edge of the bed. “Come look at this,” he said to Jon. He showed his partner the book. The book was lined in a table form. Multiple columns and rows contained data. Data Jaxson hadn’t anticipated. The column titles indicated name, baby gender, a dollar sign, and finally, a narrow column indicating new parents. But that entire column only contained initials.

  “Isn’t this Piper’s sister? What the fuck.”

  Jaxson jerked his head toward Jon, surprised he cussed in English. “Yeah, but you know, I’ve never trusted her. Especially after she forced me to leave Piper. Then to find out that she orchestrated the whole break-up between us. She played both Piper and me. She told Piper a load of shit and lied to me as well. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Piper any more than she’d already been hurt. So, when Keri told me Piper never wanted to see me again, I left. She’s evil and good at deception.”

  “Lo siento, mi amigo. I didn’t know.”

  Jaxson continued turning the pages and then stopped. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  “What!”

  “Look at these names.” Jaxson angled the book so Jon could read it better.

  “Ella Graham, boy; Angela Daniels, girl; Sarah Braden, girl; Louisa (special order), boy,” Jon murmured as he read the book.

  Jaxson pointed to the line in the book next to Louisa’s name. “That’s why the serial killer changed his type. A special order. This is sick! Killing women for their babies? Then, what, selling them to the highest bidder?”

  “That can’t be,” Jon said. “There are too many names in this book.”

  “How many names are in this book? It may help us identify some of the skeletons that haven’t been identified yet.” Jaxson flipped through the book. Not all of the tables contained the same information. He’d have to have this book analyzed to examine the information and determine where it fit with the case. The ledger listed fewer women than the hundreds he had imagined. “There’s only about twenty names.”

  “If all these women were killed, first, wouldn’t we know about it? Second, that would mean Ella wasn’t first. Hell, we don’t even have enough bodies. Do we have a female serial killer? Did Keri do this?”

  “This will kill Piper. But wait—semen was found on some of the corpses. She must have been part of a team. Maybe Jack was her partner and we’re all wrong about our suspect.”

  “Why would she kill him? I checked the phones and each phone has only one number that was called.” Jon pointed to the two phones in evidence bags. “I’ll have the techs get on it right away.”

  “The other numbers are probably burner phones, too. I doubt we’ll get much. But it’s worth a shot.

  “There are just a couple of more items in the back of the safe. Let me get those and the safe is done.” Jaxson laid on the floor and reached to the rear of the safe. He grabbed several pieces of paper and maybe a small book? He wasn’t sure. When the items were free of the safe, he took a look. The slips of paper were three copies of Piper’s birth certificate. The small book was a passport, and even before he opened it, he knew who it belonged to. He opened the cover and sure enough, it was Piper’s passport. “That bitch. This explains why she couldn’t get her license here in Texas. Keri was preventing it.” He placed them in evidence bags and sealed them.

  “Did you say something? I’ve put everything in a box,” Jon yelled.

  “I didn’t tell you about Piper’s troubles getting a Texas license.” He exited the closet and waved his new find in the air. “She sent for her birth certificate three times, sent for her passport and none of it ever arrived. You know Texas law regarding the identifications necessary to get a license. She hasn’t been able to get a license. I just found three birth certificates and Piper’s passport in Keri’s safe.”

  “Why would she do that?” Jon asked.

  “Maybe she wanted to control Piper. I can’t think of another reason. The problem is now these items are evidence, so Piper will have to send for them again.”

  “Wow, she was a piece of work. After your find, I forgot to show you mine. Hidden behind a bunch of clothes in the back of a deep drawer were these.” Jon held up a bag containing three different-sized fake maternity pillows.

  “Now we have tangible evidence she faked her whole pregnancy. Help me search the rest of the closet, but I think the safe was the motherload. Then, maybe we can get this back to Plano.”

  As they searched, Jon said, “What if Keri wanted to control where Piper was by her driving her around all the time? Leaving her in Plano without a car may have been her plan.”

  “Why? What does she get out of it?”

  “Piper’s death. Think about it: she fits the killer’s type—except for being pregnant. And from the evidence, that may be a recent change to make money. Maybe she planned to have her partner kill Piper.”

  “We have to get to her! She could be in real danger now that Keri is dead and
there is no one to stop an attack on her.”

  Chapter 67

  Jaxson checked on Piper to ensure she was safe. He’d asked the captain to put a Ranger on her for protection. Thankfully, his boss hadn’t hesitated to do so. After Piper was secure, they dropped off Jack’s DNA sample at the forensic lab. Jaxson had to leave it with a night supervisor. He’d preferred to hand it off to Brittany, but it was too early in the morning for that. Finally, they arrived at the local office the Rangers used so they could analyze the evidence they’d found.

  While walking through the sparse office, he was surprised so many Rangers were already working. He guessed the captain had told them of their find. They were slapping Jaxson and Jon’s backs and murmuring congratulatory remarks. They searched for a quieter and abandoned location to analyze their find.

  Jaxson didn’t want the congratulations from the others. They hadn’t solved anything. Keri and her husband were dead. Jaxson considered the possibility they were a serial team and for some reason, it went horribly wrong. The coroner would have to determine when Jack died, but would that help? The crime lab was also running his DNA against the sample. But Keri’s husband didn’t look anything like the sketch.

  Still, he could have driven to Plano, met Keri at the rest stop, and killed her. The CSI team collected evidence once the ER had her stable on life support. While they searched for Jack so the hospital could obtain permission for organ donation, the CSI technicians went over every inch and found semen. They could compare that to Jack’s DNA, too.

  But who killed Jack? Maybe it was the baby broker? Maybe the broker killed both of them.

  A few hours into the analysis of the evidence, Brittany Walker called. She had DNA evidence. Jon agreed to stay behind and search through the data. Jaxson headed to the forensic lab.

  It only took a few minutes to walk to the crime lab. He stood outside her door and rubbed his face with both hands. Good God, he was tired. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. He knocked and walked in when she told him to come in. He sat across from Brittany while she tapped furiously on her computer keyboard. He cleared his throat and asked, “You have the results of the DNA?”