Don’t go there, Jess
. “Were any additional evidentiary details released in the meeting this morning?”
“Nothing you don’t already know.”
Jess glanced at the clock on the wall. Almost noon. She’d spoken to Lily early this morning. Her sister had promised to be on the road to Pensacola by noon. With the briefing over, where the heck was Burnett? Since the briefing only included the top members of the task force, they had used his office.
“Is Burnett still in his office?”
“He was in conversation with Deputy Chief Black when I left the briefing.”
She wished he would hurry. They needed to be out there taking part in the search. What she really needed was a message from this unsub. She’d sent him one of her own. That clip of her telling him to man up had aired a million times. She’d looked a fright. And he hadn’t responded. Not a peep. Dammit.
Jess blew out a disgusted breath.
Doubt tried to shoulder its way into her head, nudging at her new-found determination.
As much as she hated to let go of the idea that she was right about Spears, years of training to formulate an unsub’s profile, based on his MO and history and backed by extensive research into the faces of evil, warned her that this unsub couldn’t be him. Humans were creatures of habit. It wasn’t natural to change those habits so abruptly without some major event. And she just didn’t see how the debacle in Richmond, particularly since he’d been cleared, had risen to that occasion.
Still, her instincts screamed at her that he was somehow involved.
“I have to get back to the search,” Harper said, tugging her from the troubling thoughts. “I’ll call you immediately when we find her.”
Jess gave him a hopeful smile. “Please do, sergeant.”
Find her, please
.
Dropping her bag to the floor, Jess blew out another big breath to dispel some of the tension. Didn’t work.
She walked over to the case board and studied the timeline and data Deputy Chief Black and Sergeant Harper had posted since Jess had been removed from that duty.
Spears peered back at her from the photo on the board. “What’re you trying to accomplish?” she muttered.
Why didn’t he send her a damned message? In addition to her televised challenge, she had sent several texts to the last number Spears used to contact her.
No response.
Fury lashed through her. “Tell me something, you bastard! Point me in the right direction!”
The door opened and Burnett rushed in.
Judging by the look on his face, the briefing had gone about like Jess’s morning. She had no sympathy. Her bad morning was his fault.
As he moved nearer she saw the worry in his eyes and she knew that whatever had happened wasn’t about Gant or the briefing.
“What?” she demanded.
“Your sister and her daughter –”
“What happened?” Fear annexed all other thought.
Strong hands settled on her shoulders. “Jess, they’re safe.”
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. She couldn’t breathe. . . couldn’t speak. Jess had brought this evil to her family. . . to the people she cared about most.
“They were at the orthodontist’s office. Agent Miller was with them.”
“Dammit, Burnett, tell me what happened!”
“He took Agent Miller.”
Chills climbed up Jess’s spine. She shook her head. “From the orthodontist’s office? In the middle of a business day?”
He nodded. “We need to get over there.”
Jess grabbed her bag. Spears or the copycat, maybe both, were growing bolder and bolder, the timeline moving faster and faster. The conversation with Miller kept playing in her head.
I know my way around the violent types
. Jess prayed she did.
She turned to the door and Burnett. The grave face he wore had fear pumping again. “What is it you’re not telling me?” Lily’s husband and son had gone to Nashville this morning. Surely they were safe.
“He gave your sister a message for you.”
The thoughts racing in her head slowed as she braced for the worst.
“He said,
Manning up just for you, Jess
.”
Lorna Road, Hoover, 1:58 p.m.
Dr. Strickland’s office had been cleared. There were no wounded on the scene. Upon first glance, not one thing appeared out of place. A simple spill in an exam room where an instrument tray had been overturned. The mess could have been made by a clumsy technician or a patient. It happened all the time.
But that wasn’t how it happened this morning. The monster taunting Jess had been here and gone.
She stood at the rear entrance of the clinic and retraced the steps the witnesses stated were taken by the intruder. He’d entered the small clinic through the rear. The door was steel with an automatic lock. Whenever the door closed it could only be opened by a key or from the inside. The door was always locked, Strickland had insisted. But one of the techs had admitted that she propped a small, common rubber stop at the threshold to prevent the door from closing and locking her out while she had a much needed hit of nicotine.
Trouble was, she’d forgotten to remove the small rubber stop when she rushed back in to attend to her waiting patient. She’d been in a hurry since one cigarette had become two while she fought with her boyfriend via her cell. She’d been distracted. She’d made a mistake.
The man, identified as looking exactly like the sandy-blond-haired devil in the photo on Jess’s cell that was, in fact, Spears, had waltzed into the clinic without the least bit of fanfare.
It was Spears but not really. How was that for getting nowhere fast?
Jess moved along the corridor from the back door toward the front where another door separated the clinic from the lobby.
He had smiled and said good morning in that charismatic voice of his to the two techs, including the smoker, employed by the orthodontist. He then walked right into the exam room where Alice’s braces were being removed and stuck a weapon in Agent Miller’s face.
In the exam room, he closed the door, ordered Alice, Lily, Dr. Strickland and his assistant down on the floor. After threatening their lives if they moved, he and the agent had exited the room, strolled out the back door – which no one considered odd – and vanished into thin air.
The techs went about their business with their patients, as did the two women working the front desk. When Dr. Strickland had gathered his wits he used the cell phone in his pocket to call the police.
Meanwhile, Spears or his twin or whoever, drove away with a federal agent as a hostage. Because Jess had pissed him off with her comment and forced him to feel the need to prove himself.
She had fucked up.
Jess closed her eyes. Whatever he did to Miller would be on her. He could have taken Lily or Alice. This whole damned mess was on her. Maybe Gant was right and she had no business on this case. Next time it could be her sister or her niece. . . or Dan.
Jess shoved the painful thoughts away and focused on the scene and what she knew. She couldn’t help anyone unless she did her job.
Lieutenant Prescott and another detective had arrived and were conducting interviews with the doctor and his employees. Agent Manning was doing the same. Wentworth was monitoring the goings-on. Mostly he was watching her, but Jess no longer cared. Two BPD officers were canvassing the neighboring suites and parking lot for anyone who might have seen the man or his vehicle.
There were no exterior security cameras to have captured anyone’s entrance or exit. The man, who no one except Jess wanted to call Spears, and the agent had simply vanished.
Burnett and Gant were interviewing Lily and Alice in Strickland’s private office. Lily and her daughter had been sequestered there, away from Jess, after much hugging and copious tears.
Jess walked back out the rear door and surveyed the alley. Wide enough for two cars headed in opposite directions to pass each other as long as no one had illegally parked in the alley that was posted for deliveries only. Signs to that effect were displayed on the wall every twenty or so feet the length of the one-story building that housed seven suites.
Trash receptacles sat next to each rear entrance.
Even if Jess had ticked him off, why would Spears or anyone else make such a bold move? There were now no less than ten witnesses who could identify him, six of them at this scene.
If this was Spears, was he planning an escape to some exotic island he’d bought with the fortune he’d made when he wasn’t playing killer? Some country where he could spend the next five years torturing and murdering women until someone got too close the way Jess had. Then he’d just move again. Another country. Another realm of prey at his disposal.
He would never stop.
What was he trying to prove? Why had he allowed Belinda Howard to live? Was that an accident or a calculated strategy? What the hell was his point? He’d gone from no witnesses and no evidence to flaunting his mug all over town and leaving evidence of his suddenly sloppy work for anyone to find.
The messages, including the one left at her house in Virginia, left no question as to his ultimate goal. Why not just come and get her? That strategy would certainly save a lot of time and energy. Anyone with the guts to abduct a federal agent in broad daylight wasn’t afraid of going straight for his target.
Three victims in thirty hours. Four counting her neighbor in Virginia who was murdered last night. No one man could accomplish so much, considering the geography involved.
Jess pushed her hair behind her ears. Braced her hands on her hips. Then crossed her arms. There was no question in her mind now. There had to be two, working together. Spears and an accomplice. There simply was no other rational explanation. Particularly considering they had no prints that matched those of Spears unless a match was found here today.
Hinges squeaked alerting Jess to the door opening. The dental tech who smoked stalked out, paused long enough to light a cigarette then walked across the pavement to the painted cinderblock wall that divided the back of this property from the next. The woman took a couple of long puffs then started to sob.
Jess considered assuring her that the man they encountered this morning would have gotten in one way or another, then she decided against it. If the experience prevented her from making that mistake again, let her carry the guilt for a while. Security was no trivial matter these days.
The door opened again. Burnett motioned her inside.
“Did you learn anything else?” she asked, hoping for something, anything.
He shook his head. “As soon as Lily’s husband and son arrive, they’re out of here. They’re not even going back to the house for their things.”
Relief stole Jess’s equilibrium for a moment. “Good.” At least she wouldn’t have to worry about whoever the hell this was getting to her family now.
Burnett ushered her toward Strickland’s office. “They want to see you.”
That awful trembling started in her limbs again as she moved past the exam rooms. Prescott flashed her a smile from the other end of the corridor where she was still interviewing the receptionist and insurance clerk. The other detective whose name Jess couldn’t remember was getting a statement from the second tech. Gant loitered at the door to Strickland’s office. He said nothing to Jess as he stepped aside. From the expression on his face, he was as horrified as she was.
Two evidence techs were milling about. It all suddenly seemed surreal. Whether it was plain old exhaustion or stress, Jess felt ready to crumple to the floor. This evil had gotten that close to her sister. . . to her niece. Lori was still out there and now Agent Miller was missing.
As soon as Jess entered the office, Lily pulled her into a group hug with Alice. The tears started anew.
Jess should never have come back here. Just look at what she had done.
Lily drew back, swiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “You have to go with us, Jess. You can’t stay here.”
Before Jess could say anything, Alice tugged at her arm. “Please, Aunt Jess. You have to listen to Mom.” She shook her head and burst into tears again.
Burnett moved up beside Jess. “They’re right, Jess. This is way out of control.”
Was he out of his mind? She stared at him, wanted to shake the hell out of him. How could he put her in this position? He knew she couldn’t go. . . not until this was done.
Grabbing her courage with both hands, she set all those logic-stealing emotions aside and did what she had to do. “I need to speak to my family alone.”
The statement pricked his pride. She saw it in his eyes. But that was too bad. His undermining carried a barb of its own.
Burnett acquiesced, closing the door behind him. She imagined he was right outside the door listening. Good. Then she wouldn’t have to say it twice.
“Let’s sit, okay?”
Lily nodded. She dropped into the nearest chair and ushered her daughter into the one next to her. Jess dragged the doctor’s chair from behind his cluttered desk and joined them.
“This man,” she got out without swearing, “who took Agent Miller falls into the category of
most
evil. He has no conscience.” She wanted them to understand she couldn’t just walk away from this case. There was too much at stake. Trying to explain the possibility that there were two, who bore the same face, involved would only confuse Lily and Alice and add to their fears. Better to keep it simple. “He knows right from wrong but he doesn’t care. Taking another person’s life is inconsequential to him.”
“Is he the worst kind of criminal you’ve ever tried to stop, Aunt Jess?”
Jess had to think about that one a moment. “No. He’s not the worst.” She had no intention of going into those details with her niece. “But he’s one of the most elusive.”
“Why does he want to hurt the people around you?” Lily asked.
There was no easy way to answer that one. “I’m not sure. I can only assume he has some sort of fixation on getting back at me for the final case I worked with the Bureau. I’m trying hard to figure that part out.” She let go a deep breath. “But the truth is, I might never know. If I can stop him, that’s all that matters.”