Lethal Connections, page 10
“You must be close to a breakthrough if you’re a target. Be careful, Lance.” His grave warning was not easy to ignore.
“I plan on it. I’ve been checking through Wilcox’s phone records and credit card statements. He’s been a regular at La Villa. With a different woman almost every time.”
“So, no singular suspect at this point. What about the deputy mayor?”
“Jason Reynolds? There was a $350 bar tab two weeks ago. The bartender says he and his female friend were buying Top Shelf most of the night.” If only the bartender had been able to identify the woman Reynolds had left with. Lance was hoping to get an eye on some of the security footage from the night. The manager had warned him the lighting was not spectacular in the club, something that made slipping in and out a little too easy if you asked Lance. What was the point of security cameras if the man didn’t spend enough money to buy a system that actually did its job? Then again, some clubs were well-known for their ability to keep their clientele hidden from the world.
Captain Donovan whistled softly. “Top Shelf? Wonder what he was celebrating?”
Lance shrugged. “Reynolds lived pretty large for a man on a municipal wage.”
Captain Donovan’s lips squeezed into a thin line. “Interesting. He wouldn’t have been in any shape to fight off an attacker with that amount of booze in his system. Wonder who the female was.”
“That is the question of the hour. The bartender never got a great look at her.”
Captain Donovan asked the obvious question of the hour. “Any cameras?”
“Yes, but they aren’t very helpful.”
“Why not?”
“She seemed to know every angle as if she had scouted the bar long before she entered it. Not only that, the system was not high-end. Anyone could have come in and out without detection.”
“Always cutting the corners, aren’t they? Makes our job even harder.” The captain shook his head. “She has to be the key to it all.”
A woman? It had crossed his mind for just a moment before he had written it off. “Perhaps, but would she be capable of dragging a body?”
“Never underestimate your target, Sergeant. Even a woman. You’d be surprised at what they’re truly capable of.”
“I won’t.” A part of Lance wondered why the captain seemed to peg a woman as the culprit. How many women had he known in his lifetime capable of such a gruesome murder? Any woman unafraid of snakes? Besides Gina. She was not the typical woman at all. The thought that someone like Gina could commit these crimes was plausible, but seeing her as a murderer was not something that set right with him. Although, she would know how to cover up her tracks, considering how much experience she had with forensic sciences. But still, Gina? Nah, not even possible.
“Be careful. You’re poking the fire just a bit now. Things could heat up fast.” His words of caution were a little flat, considering how dangerous this killer could be if he or she continued down this path.
“I can take care of myself, Captain. Don’t worry.”
”See that you do. I’d hate to have to replace you.”
“I’m not planning on leaving any time soon, Captain. Nor will I let anyone else take me out. That’s a guarantee.” Lance would never go out without a fight. If the killer wanted to come after him, he would have to do more than just toss a snake into his bed.
“Good. Back to work, Sergeant.” His words were dismissive as the two of them shared a serious glance.
Lance nodded to him before turning around to walk away. As he continued to his desk, his thoughts turned to the snake that had curled in his bed. If Lexie had not been there, he might have slid into that bed without giving it a second thought. While her being there had put her at risk, in some ways, it had saved his life. That thought made a twinge of guilt grow inside him. Part of him hoped the snake would make her keep her distance, something he had been trying to foster for some time. It would probably have the opposite effect in this instance. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Lance was now tied to her for the foreseeable future. At least until he arrested the person responsible for all these deaths. Until he did, Lexie would be at risk.
All these victims and not enough to connect them together. Lance had thought the junkie from the woods would have been a good lead, but the man was afraid to talk. There was a haunted look around his eyes when Lance asked him about the body, as if he knew more than he was willing to say. Even threatening to throw him behind bars had done nothing to shake his resolve. If anything, it had seemed to make him even more determined to keep his mouth shut. Was he afraid of what would happen to him if he talked? Who was he afraid of?
Lance sat down at his desk and opened the files on his computer. He stared at each victim, shuffling them back and forth on his screen. Three men. Three cards. Enough superstition to make anyone want to bury their heads in the sand and try to forget what he’d seen. Not Lance, though. He lived in the real world, where the murderers were real flesh and blood human beings, capable of killing others without a second thought. The real monsters walked among us pretending to be normal everyday people when deep down they were capable of such monstrosities.
Lance stared at the screen, zooming in on each wound’s decayed flesh. Any man or woman capable of torturing these victims in such a fashion deserved to pay, to be locked away for life. Just thinking about the painful way these men had died made him feel sick to his stomach. The skin was the most sensitive organ in the human body, with so many intricate nerve endings that fired with every inch of pain inflicted on it. Just imagining how the flesh dissolved under the venom made his skin crawl like hundreds of ants were climbing up it. The fact that his day was filled with thoughts of the cold, slithering creatures was bad enough. Now he was dreaming about the damn things.
How could someone do something like this to any living creature? And where did they find the toxin that created this kind of reaction? Even Gina was having trouble figuring it out, and she was well-versed in venomous reptiles. Nothing like this had ever crossed her path before; in another case, he would find that fact amusing. Besting Gina in anything would have felt like a triumph. The woman was an unstoppable force of nature, intelligent enough to make most people look like primates just by standing next to her. If anyone could help him crack this case, it was Gina. He just hoped no more people had to die before they did.
Chapter 15
As the day wore on, Lance started to feel like the walls were closing in on him. His mind was like a rotating door, cycling from one victim to another. Photos were just small fragments in the crevice of his mind. It was all the unknowns that filled up the spaces between. Squeezing his eyes shut, Lance started to rub his temples. It was well past lunch at this point, but his appetite was in sloth mode right now. That happened when his focus was wrapped up in each case.
Pushing away from his desk. Lance decided it was time for a break. He fully planned to take a walk outside to clear his head, but as his feet trod down the stairs, his body went into autopilot, taking him to the one place that might provide him with more clues. It should have come as no surprise that he found himself pushing open the doors to the morgue, where Gina sat at her desk, staring at her computer screen. She didn’t hear him when he entered the room at all.
“Anything interesting?”
Gina gasped and clutched her chest slightly with her left hand. Her eyes turned to him with an angry glare. “Do you knock much?”
Lance could not help the small hint of glee that climbed up inside him. For once, he had scared her instead of the other way around. The woman walked so quietly she was like death itself, creeping up on unsuspecting people until she nearly scared the life out of people. Served her right, really.
“What? Did I scare you? I need to write this down and document it as the day Gina Goodwin got her just desserts. Should I serve it with some humble pie?”
Gina’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “You sure you want to go there?”
“What? I thought you had titanium nerves.” Lance was going to milk this for as much as he could.
“Tungsten, Sergeant. And I wouldn’t be pointing fingers if I were you. Sounds like you have a fear of snakes.”
Lance scoffed at her words. “I most certainly don’t.”
“Oh really? Then why did you shoot it?” There was a rosy glow to her cheeks as the humor of the situation overrode the adrenaline from seconds before.
Lance held a hand in front of him and shook his head. “That thing was going to eat me.”
“Eat you? Hardly. You could have called in someone to retrieve it.”
“Like you?” The thought had occurred to him after the fact. The one person he knew he could have relied on was Gina in that particular situation. Not only because of her level head but because of her vast knowledge of reptiles. Still, he was not particularly upset with his decision to take down that reptile. If it came down to him and the snake, the snake had to go, plain and simple.
Gina’s eyes locked on him, a deadpan stare that she had used on him only a handful of times before. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just because I’m interested in herpetology doesn’t mean I’m formally trained for their retrieval. I would have waited for the proper person.”
“So, what would you have done? Stared it down while you waited for help?”
Gina blinked before replying. “Precisely.”
“Likely story. So what do you have for me?”
Gina smirked at him. “Besides disdain with a side order of snark?”
Lance let out a slow, annoyed breath. He should have known Gina would give him a hard time, and the truth was he probably deserved it. He never made it a goal to make her life easier. Why should she with him? Their quirky relationship made life more interesting. “You’re on a roll today.”
She shrugged her shoulders at him. “And I’ve only had two cups of coffee. I have news for you. The lab had finally reported on the toxin that ultimately killed Thomas Wilcox. Golden lancehead venom.”
He stared blankly at her, just as clueless as he was before she even mentioned what type of venom had killed Wilcox. For all he knew, it could have been battery acid eating away at his flesh or some other kind of chemical. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“It shouldn’t, mostly because it’s not a snake we’d find around here. The golden lancehead is rare. Found off the coast of Sao Paolo, Brazil. A place called Ilha da Queimada Grande, or Snake Island.”
Snake Island? Lance shuddered just thinking about it. Images of a place lined with snakes from one end to the other popped into his head, and him with just his police revolver to keep them from tearing him to pieces. These were the things nightmares were made of. “Remind me never to visit.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it myself, either. Apparently, there are snakes everywhere there. Snakes every six feet in every direction.”
“You had to go there, didn’t you?” Lance shot her a disparaging glare, which she seemed to enjoy, as her eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Fool’s paradise.”
“It would have to be. So what’s this snake doing here?” How in the world had it been brought from there to here? Was it smuggled in? As far as he knew, all venomous reptiles had to be registered with the proper authorities.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Snakebites from these reptiles are rare because access to the area is restricted. Someone had to know what they were doing to have one.”
“Or enough money to smuggle one into our country. I don’t like this one bit.” Especially considering whoever this deranged lunatic was had left a snake in his own bed. As much as he wanted to push the trepidation aside, it crept up enough to make the noise in his head harder to ignore. Lance didn’t like the position he was in right now.
“Me either. Be careful, Lance. Someone clearly means business.”
“Don’t worry. If I see one of those coming my way, I’ll shoot it twice.” Maybe four times, as long as the splatter back didn’t eat his flesh away like the other victims. Lance fought the urge to shiver in revulsion. He had seen many gruesome things in his life, but these murders took the first place spot for things he wished he could forget.
Gina snorted at his comment. “If you see it coming.”
Lance let out an irritated breath. She was sure on a roll today. “Anything else?”
“I’ve asked the lab to put a rush in for the other samples. While examining Reynolds, I found his face was eroded from some kind of acid concoction, but there were small particles of yellow granules that were suspect.”
“None of this makes any sense to me yet. How are these three men connected? And why did they all have the same card?”
“That is a good question. One I’m sure you’ll figure out. Maybe. The chances of you solving this before the next murder are better than average, so there’s that.”
“Your confidence is shattering.” Lance knew she was egging him on, and most times, it would have rolled off his shoulders, but today it hit him like a wrecking ball. Maybe if he had more sleep, it would have been easier to shoot the breeze with Gina, but right now, he wanted to find a way to wipe that sardonic grin off her face. There were two ways to do that. One his mother had always taught him not to do, and the other was not appropriate for the workplace. The fact that his brain was considering either one told him it was time to walk away.
“Someone has to believe in you,” she teased him.
“Thank you for the update. I’ll see if it helps me turn up a lead.”
“Any time.” Gina’s eyes clouded slightly as her smile faded. “Lance?”
“Yes?” His eyebrow rose curiously. Gina rarely referred to him as anything but Sergeant.
“Be careful, will you?”
“Always.” He nodded to her before he turned to walk away. The fact that she was worried about him didn’t sit well with him, mostly because it meant there was something to worry about. Deep down, Lance knew he was getting close to figuring out something crucial in this case. That was the only reason he had become a target. Knowing that, meant he would keep his nose to the ground while continuing to dig deeper.
Chapter 16
Kurt Donovan sat at his desk, looking over the files before him. The way his fingers flipped through the papers showed his irritation to anyone who bore witness to it. He was under a lot of pressure to wrap up the mysterious homicides as soon as possible, especially considering that the deputy mayor was now involved. He had one of the best sergeants on it, and by the way things were going down here lately, he was pretty certain Lance was getting closer to finding key information on the identity of the murderer. Why else would the suspect be targeting the sergeant?
To say Donovan had seen everything any officer could have seen was putting it lightly. Having worked half his life on the streets of New York had given him enough of a glimpse at crime to last him a lifetime. Kurt had put the city streets well behind him, settling for a quieter life in New Orleans over inner-city territorial squabbles any day of the week. It was a damn shame that trouble seemed to be around every corner no matter where he worked, and St. Bernard Parrish was no different than anywhere else. For the most part, the body count around here was from natural causes if overdosing on drugs could be considered a natural cause. It was more self-inflicted than anything else. These men, though, were something else.
Kurt looked through the photos, taking in the gruesome details that would make most people lose their lunches. He had developed an iron stomach long ago. One didn’t become a captain by tossing their cookies every time a bloody, disfigured face was thrown at him. That didn’t mean he took any satisfaction from standing his ground. His dreams were haunted by the faces of deaths past, faces he would never blot from his memory no matter how hard he tried. And yet, it was worth every moment their faces revolved inside his head, knowing that he was often connected to the resolution that put their murderers behind bars.
When his desk phone rang, he closed the file and tossed it further away from him on his desk. Glancing down at the interruption, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. “That’s a number I don’t see often.” The dull pitch of the ringing phone continued once more before he picked it up. Part of him wanted to ignore the intrusion, but he knew they would keep calling. “Captain Donovan, how may I assist you?”
“Captain, this is Special Agent Nick Ranger from the FBI field office in New Orleans.”
Captain Donovan pursed his lips together as he debated his next words. “I see. How can I help you, Special Agent?”
“We were alerted by Interlab that you have a case that might interest us. Anytime hemotoxic poison is used, we have a problem.”
“Really? It’s the toxin that got you? Not the drug ring here? Nor the multiple homicides?” He sat back in his chair and let his eyes roll up to the ceiling.
“We don’t have unlimited resources like everyone assumes.”
Sure. That was what they always said. Not enough manpower to help, but they sure as hell didn’t have a problem stepping in whenever they saw fit. Hell, half the time, they came in just at the last minute so they could swoop in and be the all-conquering hero. Good thing he had never chosen this line of work for the credit. He didn’t have a white horse syndrome. “You planning to come in and help just so you can take the credit?”
“No credit. Just help, Captain. You will still be running point. It’s your case,” Nick Ranger assured him.
Captain Donovan relaxed against his chair before he answered him. Maybe hardball was not the way to go right now. Just because he was frustrated with the case didn’t mean he needed to take it out on the special agent who could genuinely want to be of help to him. “Good. We can certainly use all the help we can get on this one.”
