Manny opened his mouth to speak when Alex strolled through the door and stopped. He stared at the plastic
,
yellow tape guarding Gavin’s office, shook his head
,
and moved to where Manny and Sophie stood.
“You two ready? We’ve got some crazy stuff going on here
,
and we need to go over all of it. This is getting weirder by the minute
,
and honestly, it’s
on the bizarre side
.”
“How can it get any stranger?” asked Manny.
“
Sparky will be
here
to confirm the other crime
-
scene
findings, but f
or starters, the small pieces of paper found in the nostril of both of last night’s victims
. E
ach had a small letter printed on them. The first victim’s note had an
‘
S
’
;
the second one had a
‘
U
.
’
”
“Up their noses? Eww,” squirmed Sophie.
Manny scratched his head. “Great. A freaking message from a serial killer. Not good.”
“That’s exactly what I thought,” said Alex.
Sophie spoke. “You didn’t mention anything like that from Morse, the first vic, right?”
Alex looked at Sophie and then back to Manny. “The body was so swollen, we didn’t notice it. I called the ME and she confirmed, after digging for nose gold, that there was indeed a note. It had the letter
‘
J
’
printed in the middle. She’s having it sent over by courier. Dollars to donuts says it’s the same handwriting.”
“J-U-S? What the hell does that mean?” swore Manny.
He felt his blood pressure rise as the shooter’s intent became clear. “This could mean that this unsub is a
m
ission
-
o
riented killer. If I’m right, and he’s spelling something here, the murders won’t stop until the message is complete.” He glanced at Alex. “We’re going to have a lot more bodies if we don’t nail this guy.”
“
I think you’re right,
”
said
Alex.
“It fits the profile
,
”
said Manny.
“There’s something else. These murders seem to be just an hour or so apart. I know a little about escalation
,
and this is one busy killer.”
Manny frowned. “But what set him off? Starting this fast doesn’t fit.
”
“Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they worked on it somewhere else. Not that unusual,” said Sophie.
“True. We’ll have
Buzzy
research for similar MOs around the state in the last year.”
Sarah Sparks rushed through
Manny’s
door. “Boss
,
you gotta see this report.”
“Slow down
,
Sparky. What report?”
“I know a guy in ballistics
.
W
e dated for a
while, until his wife found out, but anyway, I was waiting for my DNA reports to process
,
so I asked him to rush whatever he had on these shootings.” She grinned, still catching her breath. “I had to promise him a couple things, but he came through.”
“
What things?”
“You don’t want to know. Anyway, you know how the department requires every service pistol to have a ballistics profile? Well, Lansing also requires that if an officer owns a second gun, it has to be profiled too. In case the backup weapon is fired, yada, yada, yada. Look at this.”
Alex’s eyes sc
anned to where she was pointing. “
I’ll be damned. Didn’t I hear you say that Mike didn’t shoot that sick troll in his apartment complex last night?”
“Yeah. He didn’t. Why?” answered Manny.
“You need to rethink that. He was killed with Mike’s backup weapon.”
Chapter
-34
“Hey
,
Mom.”
Stella turned to see Mike standing by the elevator, turning his hat in his hands like he did when he was a little boy and knew trouble was on the horizon. There were
still
faint lines around his
nose
and eyes that reminded her of that ten
-
year-old.
Gavin had been a busy man back in those days
,
and Mike and she were on their own a great deal more than the norm. But the family of an ambitious cop knew what was required. The two of them had done their best to support Gavin and had grown close because of it. She was glad to see him.
“Hey, buddy. Come give your old mom a
squeeze
.”
“I’ve got some of those.”
They
hugged
,
and Mike whispered into her ear. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so wrapped up in my problems that nothing else seemed to matter.”
“I understand, but you’re here now.” She heard him catch his breath and felt hot tears against her che
e
k.
“How’s the Old Man doing?”
She moved away, looking down to the floor. “He’s hanging in there. His heart stopped a couple of times, but they brought him back and he seems stable, for now. They
. . .
the prognosis isn’t good, but he was always a fighter
. . .
until lately anyway.”
Mike knitted his brow together. “What do you mean?”
“Since Lexy
. . .
well, it took a huge toll on him. He’s been withdrawn, depressed, and not around much. He spends a lot of nights in his office
,
and I spend a lot of them alone.”
“I’m sorry
,
Mom
. I
didn’t know.”
Stella smiled that smile mothers use to show their children everything’s al
l
right, even when it isn’t. “No worries
.
I’ve got a strong support group
,
and I’m getting th
r
ough it. It’s amazing what you can do with the right kind of people around.” This time her grin held a double
-
meaning that Mike would never
understand
.
“
I suppose that’s true
.
” He
walked to the room where his dad lay between life and death, and disappeared inside. She waited. A few minutes later, he emerged with fresh rivulets of tears funneling to his beard. He was whiter than when he first came through the door.
“I hate all that stuff hooked up to him, it
’
s
. . .
he’d hate it,” he said in a quiet voice.
“I know
,
but all of that equipment is doing its job.” She gazed at her son and felt the anger snake its way back to her. Her son looked like hell, and worse, seemed lost. More to blame her weak, pathetic husband for. If he’d just done his job, professionally and personally, Mike wouldn’t be in this state
,
and of course, Lex would be here. The anger grew
,
and little dots of rage teased
the corners of her eyes.
You bastard, Gavin Crosby, look what you’ve done to my kid, my life
.
Stella put her hand on Mike’s, masking what she felt inside. “It’ll be over soon, one way or the other. Then life will get back to normal, at least as much as it can.”
Puzzlement shrouded Mike’s face. “What does that mean? That it’ll be over soon.”
“I only mean that he’ll pull through, or he won’t. That’s all.” She forced her eyes to moisten. “I can’t take much more of this whole thing. I just want it over.”
Her son hugged her again. “I’ll be here, for both of us.”
“Okay. Enough of the sappy crap
;
you
r
dad would have a fit,” she said, pulling away from him.
“
We
just have to hang tough and expect the best.
”
“Deal. God knows I’ve a got a few other things going on too. There was a man killed in the apartment next to mine last night.”
Stella glanced to the floor
.
“
How awful.
”
“Not really
.
H
e was a real scumbag, big
-
time pervert. I won’t miss him.”
She watched him twirl his hat around again and suddenly felt uneasy.
“Mom. I think I saw the woman who did it.”
Stella’s heart dropped to her toes. “Really?”
“Yeah. It was late. I had too much to drink. But I could have sworn
—
”
“Sworn what?” her heart threatened to pound
right
through her chest.
“Mom. Where were you last nigh
t about 2
a.m.?”
His eyes were clear, pointed, but the little
-
boy look had returned. He was afraid of her answer. The honest one. She opened her mouth to speak just as the elevator door
clanked
opened. Detectives Ross and Wymer stepped out with a big, burly
,
uniformed officer.
Kathy
Ross pulled her cuffs and moved to Mike. “Mike Crosby. You’re under arrest for the murder of Blake Harris.”
Chapter
-35
Manny pulled into his driveway, the window down on his
Explorer,
feeling the heat of the late afternoon sun
and
wondering where the last two days had gone. He felt like he’d been put through a meat grinder and was spent, physically and mentally.
Josh had called and said his plane would be in about midnight, earlier than first anticipated, but a good thing. Manny told Sophie and Alex to go home, get some sleep, and they’d meet
with
the Feds back at the station to bring them up to speed
,
then take it from there. Plus
,
they were bringing in some help from
the
Detroit FBI field office. The more the merrier on this one
, e
specially with the forensic processing. Alex and his staff were amazing, but they couldn’t be in that many places at once. The Feds seemingly
,
however, could
.
For once,
Manny
was going to follow his own advice. All he wanted was one of Louise’s famous barbequed steaks, a hug from his daughter, and a king-sized nap. As much as he hated shutting down for a few hours, even he was going to be out on his feet if he didn’t take care of business.
Every available officer was coming in to shore up patrols for the mi
dnight shift
,
and his department
would be out there too. Maybe with the stepped up patrols and the FBI involvement, they’d get lucky. Maybe not.
He’d take anything at this point.
FBI involvement. That fact brought into focus again just how many resources the FBI had
—
and Lansing didn’t. Working for
the Feds
would have serious benefits, but could he leave the Lansing life? Especially now? What if Gavin didn’t make it? And what about the Crosby family? Stella was tough, but how tough could anyone be under all of the
dire
circumstances involving her family?
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. By now, Mike would be in jail. He’d apparently blown smoke up Manny’s ass about what had really happened in the apartment next door. Odd though. He’d never know
n
Mike to lie about anything.
S
tress does odd things to people
,
and a night behind bars just might improve Mike’s memory.
His new phone rang just as he reached his front door. He did a double take. The caller ID said it was Chloe Franson.
Keeping busy had kept her
out of his thoughts
,
yet
there she was again, bigger than life and twice as beautiful. Shaking her image from his thoughts seemed to be getting tougher. He did it anyway.
The phrase
“
Out of sight, out of mind
”
had helped. Not to mention, these cases would take everything he had
. . .
and more.
Feels like a damned soap opera.
“Williams here.”
“Manny. Chloe Franson
.
I see you got another phone. I was going to leave a voice mail, but lucky me, I got the real
you
.”