Devils Among Us (Devin Dushane Series Book 1) (19 page)

Devin tilted her head back and forth weighing her answer.
“Useful…excruciatingly truthful, ehh. It’s a toss up.”

His eyes went wide, all thoughts of a jealous pout now gone,
he took a seat on the bottom step. “What was in there?”

She reiterated the story again, finding it was becoming less
painful in the telling. This time she was able to expand on her theory uninterrupted.

“I still think it was more than being in the wrong place or
seeing something she shouldn’t have. This attack was very personal. I think
someone was sending a message.”

It was after midnight before Devin finally got her cold
shower. For hours, the three detectives had sat on the front steps discussing
theories on how to proceed, but in the end decided they had to find and
interview everyone that had been arrested for moonshining the night of the
murder.

Interviews did not progress as well as Devin might have
hoped. There was no finite list of arrests from the bust. For some reason many
of the distillers and drivers had been charged separately in what appeared to
be unrelated cases in whatever jurisdiction they were arrested in. Linking
anyone back to the Summit was proving to be extremely difficult. To make
matters worse, a string of break-ins began at homes in the southern part of the
county that Shane and Adam were investigating. Devin was on her own searching
for a needle in a haystack. It had been a slow week with a lot of dead-end
phone calls.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, as Devin was getting
ready for her morning run, she was considering skipping the office and doing
something productive with her day like painting the kitchen.
Sure it’s not
solving a murder, but everybody needs to play hooky once in awhile, right?

She nearly tripped over Bo in the front hall. “Since when do
you get up this early?” Usually her temporary boarder barely cracked an eye as
she left to go running. Finally stepping clear of the dog as she swung thru the
screen door, something caught Devin’s eye that would turn her whole day upside
down. A large pocket knife was jammed into the wooden door frame just to the
left of her house number. Blade and handle protruded about seven inches all
together, with an inch of the aged dark metal blade sunk into the wood. The
knife pinned a photograph to the wall, of Devin sitting alone on the dock at
the Summit, and hanging from the worn black handle was a silver heart shaped
locket that contained a tiny diamond in the center, no more than a chip. It was
coated with dark dried blood.

She scanned the yard and street, but everything was still in
the early morning dew. Working hard to keep Bo in the house, Devin eased
backwards until she could reach her cell phone on the hall table, keeping her
eyes on the knife the whole time as if it would wrench itself free and plunge
for her heart. 

After seven rings an incoherent Shane mumbled into the
phone. “’Lo, ’tective Whitlock.”

“Shane, it’s Devin. Someone fastened bloody jewelry to my
door with a knife. Can you come do some forensics?”

The news took a moment to sink in, than Shane was wide
awake. “Wha…
What
? Are you serious? Real blood? How much?”

She interrupted the ramblings. “It would be easier if you
just came over and saw it before work.” She sounded hopeful, but he crushed
that in an instant. “Devin, you know I can’t do that. I have to call this in
first.”

“I know.” She sighed deeply, staring out her screen door,
already resigned to the fact that she would be trapped in her house for quite
some time. “I just thought it was worth a shot.”

“Well it wasn’t, so just sit tight and
don’t
touch
anything. I’ll be right there.”

“I know that!” But she was snapping at a dead line, he was
already gone.

It had been a long time since Devin had been on this side of
a crime scene, and she didn’t like it one bit. Sherriff’s deputies had been
crawling over her house and yard for the last hour, literally on the roof and
searching the grass for any trace of evidence, and now the State Police had
been called in. Sherriff Bittner and Adam had asked her every irrelevant
question under the sun. As Devin stared out the living room window, watching a
grim-faced Shane give two deputies instructions, she wondered if they would ask
her next the color of her toothpaste.

“Devin, just one more thing…”

“Blue with sparkles.”

“I’m sorry?”

She turned around with a deep sigh to face a puzzled Adam.
“Nothing. What is it?”

Still looking confused, Adam proceeded cautiously. “Do you
know the date of when the picture could have been taken at the Summit?”

“Sure, it was the Thursday right after I got here so that
would have been…” —she paused to count back in her head— “the eighth. Now do
you mind if I go change? I’d like to have a little more clothing on before the
entire town gathers outside.” She was still in her running clothes, even though
she had yet to step off her porch today. Adam nodded wordlessly as he continued
to add to his notes. When Devin trotted back down the stairs in jeans and deep
purple v-neck t-shirt the two detectives and Sheriff broke up their hushed
conference in the front hallway. Shane glared at her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Walking down the stairs in my house. What do you think
you’re doing?”

There were no charming smiles today. Shane was wearing
hiking boots and jeans with a department wind breaker, he hadn’t even taken
time to shave in his hurry to get to her this morning. Devin couldn’t shake the
thought that serious was a good look on him.

“You’re dressed for working a case, but don’t even think
about it.”

She stopped at the bottom of the steps and leaned against
the banister, cocking an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t realize there was a dress
code for this sort of thing. Maybe you should make up a little pamphlet to hand
out to people on the do’s and don’ts.”

He was still glaring, but the sheriff interrupted his
rebuttal. “Where do we stand on evidence, Shane?”

“Everything was clean as far as prints go, and nothing was
disturbed anywhere around the house. The knife and necklace don’t match
anything that we have listed as being stolen, so I’m having Cooper and Davis
drive them up to log in at the state lab in Fairfax. They’ll run them for trace
and check out the blood on the necklace. We should have results in about four
weeks.”

Devin was apparently the only one affected by this news and
it propelled her off the banister. “Four weeks!”

Adam was the first to speak, gently rubbing her shoulder. “I
know this is emotional for you Devin and you want answers, but you know the
reality of the state forensics lab. They’re overworked and understaffed. There
is a backlog of murders they’re trying to solve, and this will have to take a
back burner. Truthfully we’ll be lucky to get it back in four weeks.”

She shook his arm off her shoulder with a scowl, resisting
the urge to dislocate his shoulder. Without a word, she scooped her cell phone
of the hall table and flipped it open, scanning through her contacts until she
found the one she wanted and waited patiently while the phone was ringing,
still not looking at any of them. Suddenly she became very animated as a huge
smile split her face, when the call was answered.

“Scott! It’s Devin. How have you been?”

“I’m great.
Congratulations I just heard you’re getting another commendation from the mayor
of Richmond.”

“ Oh, thanks and thank you for the flowers when I was in the
hospital. That was really sweet. I’ve got some time off this summer. We’ve got
to get together again and hang out.”

“I would love that. As long as I don’t wake up with a nose
ring this time.”

 “That was hardly my fault. You were the one who wanted to
go to the club call
Pierced
. What did you
think
was going to
happen?”

“All right little miss innocent. We’ll try something a
little more low-key this time.”

“I’m good with that. Listen Scott, I’ve been involved in a
little commotion down here in Fenton and two deputies are driving some evidence
up to you right now for trace and DNA…” Her grin came back when he interrupted.

“Girl you can’t even take a proper break, can you?”

“I know, I know. Even when I’m not working, I’m working. You
should get me a t-shirt.” Her tracing fingers had begun to tap impatiently on
the dark maple wood railing, but now her fist thumped silently in victory.

“Let me guess, you could you use some Scott Davis magic for
a fast turnaround?”

“Scott, you are a prince! I’ll even let you buy dinner when
I’m up there.” A minute later she was snapping her phone closed and spinning
around to address the three lawmen she had put on hold. “And that, boys, is how
it’s done. He’s going to call me this evening with his preliminary findings and
fax over the report tomorrow.”

For once someone in the room had a bigger grin than Shane,
who was staring in disbelief. “That’s not possible. They process everything in
the order it comes in, and the tests themselves take longer than a day.”

“Wrong and wrong. High priority cases get bumped to the top
of the list all the time, and the tests we’re asking for are fairly simplistic
in comparison to what they’re capable of.”

It was Adam’s turn to cut in. “How does this rank as a high-priority
case? We’re looking at vandalism and harassment charges.”

Devin sat down on the bottom of the steps frowning as she
ran her hand over the yellowed wallpaper. At one time the cream and pink rose
pattern had probably been very elegant, but now, combined with the dark wood
floors of the hallway and stairs it was creating a funeral home atmosphere.
Glancing back to Adam, she finally answered.

“I know when to make friends and when to make enemies. When
I really need something, my friends get it done for me.”

Shane folded his arms across his chest, unimpressed. “You
suck up for favors.”

Her jaw tightened in frustration. “No, genius, that’s what
you try to do. Believe it or not, I actually have friends.”

Sheriff Bittner stepped in before the conversation
escalated. “Regardless of how it gets done, this is fantastic news. We’ll have
a lead later today. Now,” —he waved his arms herding them like a group of small
children— “the state police are here, and I think we should greet them outside
as a united front. So get goin’!”

Devin had a faint idea of how things were going to go when
the state boys showed up, but she wasn’t letting on to her companions. She let
Shane, Adam and the Sheriff head into the yard first, but she hung back,
waiting on the porch steps. There was no remaining in the shadows, though, once
the first suit caught a glimpse of her. The six foot four detective towered
over the Sheriff as he was getting ready to reach out his hand for
introductions when he saw her and did a double-take.

“Dushane! What in Heaven’s name are you doing out here?”

He crossed the rest of the yard in two bounds and caught her
up in a crushing bear hug.

“How’ya been, Bill?” His inexpensive light-grey suit was
hanging loosely on his large frame. “Has Molly stopped cooking for you? You’re
wasting away.”

He sighed miserably. “No. She’s just trying to lower my
cholesterol. So everything is low fat, low carb and no taste.”

The second detective hooked an arm around her neck and
planted a kiss on her cheek. “Girl, just when I think I’m rid of you, I find
you again in the most unexpected places.”

“Hi, Danny. I see your hairline has stopped retreating. It’s
just running for its life now.” Devin squeezed his broad shoulders.

“You’re just as charming as a rattlesnake, honey.” He
laughed as he let her go.

The lanky captain interjected. “Careful, Danny, one of these
days I’m going to convince Devin to take my job so I can retire. You could be
addressing your future commanding officer.”

“Not a chance Bill, you know if anything I’m after a Federal
job.” She patted his shoulder briskly as he hung his head in mock
disappointment. “Where’s Steve? Or is the budget so tight that the captain has
to work in the field now too?”

For once Danny didn’t have a smart comment. “He’s on
paternity leave, his first baby, a little boy, born last week. Means I’m stuck
with the old man for a while.” Bill threw his hands up in the air in defeat and
Devin gave him another pat.

“Shall I do introductions, since I seem to know everyone?”

Devin introduced the Fenton group to Captain Bill Ellroy and
Detective Danny Markham of the Virginia State Police. Markham had the look of a
state trooper—barrel-chested and thick necked pushing six feet. He still
maintained a crew cut, though there was significantly less hair in the front
than years before.

 Once the introductions were finished everyone stood in a
semicircle at the bottom of the porch steps, staring at Devin, waiting.

“What?”

Bill was the first to speak, scratching his head. “What are
you doing here, Devin? This is a little outside the Richmond jurisdiction.”

“Oh!” Understanding dawning on her face and she jerked her
thumb over her right shoulder. “I live here. I guess you could say I’m the
victim.”

Bill and Dan went through the entire crime scene and timeline
with them again. On top of that they wanted to review in detail what Devin had
been investigating and who she had been talking to about it. After several
hours of this they were all wishing she had air conditioning; six people
crowded into her small dining room even with windows open and a fan blowing
were melting in the midday heat. Whether it was heat or exhaustion or some
combination of the two, Devin burst into laughter when Danny asked if she had
any enemies that might want to harm her.

“You’re kidding, right? Do you mean just here in Fenton or
in the state? Or while we’re at it, in the world? Because the list could get
quite lengthy.” Shane snorted, then Bill started to chuckle. “I mean really,
it’s not a list it would be more like a booklet or novella.” The entire group
began to unravel. “Maybe we could start a website for people who want me dead
and ask them to register. They could order t-shirts and exchange arsenic
recipes!”

Shane gave her a wink from across the table. “I bet it would
be quite popular in the prison system.”

Danny conceded. “Okay, okay! I get it! We’ll skip that.” He
had already removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, but now he loosened
his tie a little further. “What about the locket? Any idea what the
significance of leaving jewelry might be?”

“I don’t think it was an early Valentine’s present.”

Adam, who had vanished during all the laughter, appeared at
her elbow from the kitchen with a cold can of diet soda and flicked her
ponytail. “Behave!”

 “I am way past my capacity for good behavior.” However she
sighed and answered benignly. “I can only guess that it’s a reference to the Bennett
murder. Laney wore a heart-shaped locket that was never recovered from the
murder scene. It was something she never took off and presumably was taken by
the killer as a souvenir.”

“Any possibility this is her locket?”

She knew he had to ask the question, but there was still a
part of her that longed to smack Dan in his thick head with the legal pad he
was scratching on with some illegible alien penmanship. Bo picked an excellent
time to trot into the room looking for some attention. It was unacceptable for
there to be this many people in the house while his ears remain unscratched. He
flopped his head in Devin’s lap with a huff. Scratching his ears took the edge
out of her voice.

“None. Her locket was gold with a flowery L on the front,
and was a little bit larger. I think this person was just trying to make the
connection and get my attention.”

Shane stretched his legs out in front of him, propping his
arm on his chair back, but the tightness around his eyes gave away the tension
his casual position belied. “They got our attention, all right. I’d say this is
a threat to get you to stop digging. Looking into these old moonshine cases is
opening up a lot of cans of worms and somebody doesn’t want you fishing.”

They were interrupted by the ringing of Devin’s cell phone.
She only half glanced at it as she prepared to silence the ringer, planning on
calling Marcy or Carter or whoever it was back later. Doing a double take at
the screen she flipped the phone open.

“No way, are you done.”

The eager voice on the other end of the phone didn’t want to
disappoint. “For you, I work miracles, but no, I’m not done.”

“Then what are you calling me for, Scott?”

“I do have a tentative match for the victim the locket
belonged to. When I put the description in the system I got a hit and the image
is identical to your evidence. The blood types are the same, but I’ll know for
sure when the DNA comes back. It was a match to an unsolved murder in Louisa County eight months ago. Victim was Haley Marshall, seventeen-year-old girl beaten
and stabbed. I’m sending you the case files now.”

Devin tucked her phone into her shoulder and opened up her
laptop, warming it up to get connected. She was trying to fend off the shiver
of intuition with all of the eyes on her.

“What happened? Mugging gone bad or a sexual assault?”

“No, nothing like that. There was no evidence of sexual
assault, and the only thing taken was her locket.” Still fighting the shiver. Could
all be coincidences. “She was found in the woods after a post-football game
field party.”

Crap. Full-on shiver.

“Okay, Scott this is what I need you to do. Run a search for
all females killed in their late teens by a combination beating and stabbing
from 1950 until now, excluding any sexual assaults. Then narrow it by victims
that had any jewelry removed.”

The only other sound in the dining room was the occasional
sigh from Bo and the muted voices of the deputies packing up outside.

“All right I have twelve cases, but two are domestic
violence and three were muggings so we can scrap those. That leaves me with
seven cases.”

“Were any of those seven found in wooded areas?” She
listened to the tapping of his keyboard.

“Four. All near large group gatherings, parties, football
games, carnivals. Public places you think your kid would be safe at.”

Devin pinched the bridge of her nose, not wanting to ask,
but having to know at the same time. “What kind of jewelry was taken from
them?”

“Necklace, each and every one.”

She closed her eyes for the briefest second and shook her
head. “Thanks Scott. Go ahead and send me those files and call the FBI. Have
them run the same search for the surrounding states, will you?”

“You bet. I’ll finish running the rest of this and let you
know what I get. Geez, Devin, why can’t you go to Cancun for vacation like
normal people?”

Devin closed her phone and mumbled to the tabletop. “Now
what fun would that be?”

The little conference room at the sheriff’s office had been
the victim of a gruesome makeover. The ugly fake wood paneling had been
wallpapered with the bloody crime scene photos of five murders spanning
thirty-five years. The white board was a spider web of red timelines dotted
with words like
cadaver dogs
,
autopsy reports
and
dead lead
.

It was before 7:00am, but Devin beat Sheriff Bittner to the
office. She had become quite a fixture in the department. Not that it was
healthy.

“Do you think if you stare at those lines long enough,
they’ll spell it out for you?”

She continued to lean against the conference table, studying
the board. Devin wouldn’t fit most people’s image of a Richmond city detective.
Her hair was still damp from the shower, and she had tried to twist it up into
a clip, but a few dark strands were fighting to escape. She wore just enough
make-up to remind you she didn’t need any. The v-neck of her grey t-shirt
exposed a small faded round scar on her collar bone, marring her tan. No
jewelry, unless you counted the shield that was clipped to the belt of her
jeans and the worn leather choker she never took off.

“I’m trying to find some kind of pattern to this…a
connection.” She frowned and pushed off the table to sweep her hand across the
map. “The locations are all over the place, the timeline ranges from two months
to ten years between murders, and there’s no resemblance in the victims at
all.” She turned to look at him finally with her hands on her hips and brow
knitted in a scowl. “What kind of serial killer has a routine that’s so . . .  so
. . .” She tossed her hands into the air “…random? Aren’t sociopaths supposed
to be meticulous and all OCD about their cycles? This one is being awfully
sloppy.”

The sheriff’s bark of laughter echoed off the conference
room walls, and he was lucky that the office’s ancient coffee pot was still
chugging to life; otherwise he might have spent his last moments choking to
death on bad coffee.

“Miss Devin, I will be sure to pass on your disappointment
in this lunatic’s work ethic when we catch him.”

“Whose work ethic are we criticizing?”

Adam had just joined them with a large box of fresh donuts.
He looked fresh and pressed in his pink polo and khakis, but the baggage under
his eyes gave him away. Yesterday had been a long one for all of them, and the
tension was mounting.

“Miss Devin thinks our killer lacks discipline.”

Devin waved the pair of them off. “Can’t a lady go on a rant
once and a while?”

Shane slid past the trio to relieve Adam of the donuts so he
could have first pick. “Sure she can. Do you know a lady?”

“Oh, you’re adorable. Why are you so perky this morning?”

He had already wolfed down his first donut in gargantuan
bites, and he winked at her as he licked the frosting and sprinkles of his
fingers. “Power of the sugar rush, baby.”

Adam took a seat at the conference table, taking his time in
selecting a donut, but being even more cautious in choosing his words. “You
know, Devin, what happened yesterday has changed things. This is now an active
investigation.” Concentrating on his task, Adam gently pulled a cinnamon twist
out of the box as if it were made of glass, tapped the excess sugar off and
placed it on a napkin in front of him. “I mean, technically you don’t have
jurisdiction here…” He shrugged his shoulders and took a bite, chewing
thoughtfully as if the topic needed grave consideration. He had yet to look in
Devin’s direction.

Shane had been shocked enough to stop eating, his latest
donut resting half-eaten in his hand. “Dude. I was gonna wait until the state
boys got here and let them kick her to the curb, but knock yourself out.” He
stole a glance at Devin from the corner of his eye, but rather than look
wrathful as he expected she merely looked bemused.

She dropped into the nearest chair at the conference table
and lounged back, picking a random donut out of the box without looking. “So
you think I shouldn’t be involved in an active case because I’m not a cop here
or because I had evidence left on my doorstep?”

Adam’s breath came out in a whoosh as he leaned across the
table and punched the air with one finger. “Yes!” His smile was huge as he bit
into his donut again, relieved that she was being so reasonable.

Shane turned his back on the whole conversation and suddenly
found a crime scene photo of trees very interesting.

Devin smiled sweetly up at the sheriff, who was trying to
add enough cream and sugar to the beverage he had brewed to make it resemble
decent coffee. “What’s your verdict, Sheriff? Do I stay, or do I go?”

Sheriff Bittner took a few moments to chew on his plastic
coffee stirrer. When he removed it, he took a sip of his coffee and could
swallow it without grimacing. He tossed the now-twisted stick in the trash and
rested his non-mug arm on the top of the filing cabinet by the door.

“Well, Miss Devin, it’s like this. Someone left evidence of
a murder staked to your door. Whoever that person is has been stalking you.”
Devin began to protest, but he lifted the fingers on his resting hand to stop
her and continued. “To some extent we know that person has been stalking you,
and by your own suggestion, could have set Henry’s house on fire.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you believe me.”

“Under the circumstances I’d like to have you under
protection and keep a patrol car outside your house.” Before she could react he
plowed ahead. “But since I know that’ll fly about as well as a boulder off the
Statue of Liberty, I won’t even ask. At least if you’re around here I know what
you’re up to and where you are.” He paused to sip out of his faded “#1 Grandpa”
mug. “I can’t promise how much access you’ll have once the state police get
here, but anything that belongs to the Fenton Sheriff’s Department is all
yours.”

There was no gloating or smirk of victory. Devin simply gave
a gracious nod and “Thank you.”

Shane and Adam, however, were scowling at the walls and not
bothering to keep their comments to themselves.

“This would never happen if the tables were turned.”

“Never get away with this in Richmond.”

“I say we put a patrol car at her house anyway.”

“I’m totally on board with that.”

“Boys! If you’re done sniping like a couple of old biddies,
I’d like you to start working the case. What’s your game plan this morning?”

His bark might have been ferocious, but Devin could spot the
twitch in the Sherriff’s silver mustache that was hiding a smile as his
detectives scrambled for their notes. Shane pulled himself together first,
smoothing the front of his bright blue button-down shirt as he spoke from his
notes. The blue was a good color on him. It looked nice with his tan and made
his eyes so bright they didn’t look real, like baby-doll eyes.

Why am I thinking about his eyes? Ugh! Actually that
shirt reminds me of the lining of a swimming pool. Ha! I’ll have to tell him
that.

“Hold up Shane, it looks like the state boys are here, no
need to repeat yourself.”

Bill and Danny were led to the back conference room by an
animated Marlene, who managed to give a lively tour of the small offices on the
way. Her normally quiet job was becoming more exciting than the paperback
novels she kept under her desk. When they refused coffee she hurried back to
the front, with high heels clicking, anxious to get on the phone and report
this latest development to her sister.

A round of handshakes was exchanged, and everyone settled
around the table. Bill slid off his windbreaker and began the conversation.

“Here’s how this works as far as jurisdiction. A piece of
evidence to a state investigation was found at your crime scene that could be
leading to an investigation of a string of murders. The burden falls on the
state to investigate these crimes.” He held his hand up to stop Adam and Shane,
who were already frowning. “However, while we are working here in Fenton, we
would very much appreciate combining our efforts.” Bill threw his arm over the
back of his chair, watching all the faces around the table for a reaction. It
seemed peaceable enough.