Redemption is Here (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 9) (49 page)

In fact, he was beginning to get that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Taking a moment, he began praying. God would know what to do. All he needed to do was ask and allow his Lord to lead the way.

Keeping his eyes open, he opted to follow the Fed who was heading right to his personal space.
She had to be led by evil. It was the only way she would know the truth.

He knew then that he needed to stop her.
Once she arrived at in his domain, he’d have to take matters into his own hands.

There was no remorse for having to handle her. Granted, he
didn't know what was going on in her life, or if she was filled with sin, but God put him on the path. Now, it was a matter of following it and doing what was right.

Heading after the Fed, he
attempted to blend in. How hard could it be? After all, there were people milling around everywhere.

There appeared to be a new plan. It
looked like he was about to get another victim before the day was done.

He began planning his attack.

It was all about timing it just right…

                         *     *     *

Jax was beginning to think that maybe she had made a mistake. So far, she’d checked almost all the crypts, and nothing was standing out.

Maybe Ton
y was having a better time. Pulling out her cell, she remembered that she’d never gotten his number. Well, Jaxon would just have to keep going. Eventually, he’d wander her way to find her.

Rooting
among the rows, she found something which looked familiar. It was an angel holding a scale, balancing justice.

Glancing around, she examined the
crypt. It looked familiar. There was no name on it, but that was what had bothered her before.

Heading into the relatively small space, she dropped her phone and purse on the ledge by the one stained glass window. With
gentle fingers, she traced the pattern. Hidden in the artwork were even more angels and scales.

She’d seen something like it before on a dig. There was something hidden here. In the ancient glass, the artist was leaving a message. It was all about finding the truth, and Jaxon was up for the job.

Her eyes swept the room. This was the perfect place to judge someone. The angels, the cold marble slab, and the scales of justice weren’t coincidence.

Well, it
was now or never.

Going down
to her knees, Jaxon ran her fingers around the edge of the flat stone slab. It sat on the floor, unlike any other tomb in the cemetery.

With nimble fingers, accustomed to finding the simplest
crack in the tiniest bone, she felt along the edges. There was a draft. A slight one, but it was there.

When she couldn’t make it move, she began believing it was her imagination.
Maybe she had read one too many Nancy Drew books as a kid. That was a distinct possibility.

Jaxon stared at the stone tile flooring in frustration. Something was wrong. Either the floor was crooked, or the lid to the crypt was.
The angles were all wrong. The marble tiles didn't line up. If someone was going to build something this pricy, why wouldn’t it be perfect?

Sitting, she began pushing with
the muscles in her legs by bracing her back against the wall. When there was a little give, she got back on her knees to try and get her fingers under the lip. With all her might, she tried to make it budge.

It wasn’t working.

Looking up, she caught the reflection of someone moving behind her in the stained glass. Thinking it was Tony, she began talking, “I think this is it! I’m willing to bet that this crypt leads somewhere!”

As she moved to turn her head, the blinding pain tore through her. Suddenly, she was falling
until she could feel the kiss of cold marble beneath her.

Jaxon struggled to open her eyes as her body felt light as
a feather, floating in the air. Then, the pain hit as she tumbled down what felt like a mountain of stone. When she finally came to a stop, there was the sound of gears closing and stone scraping.

No matter how much she tried to make her mouth work, the gray was closing in. As she tried to scream,
the last thing she recalled was the scent of Christmas.

Then, there was nothing
but darkness.

                                *     *     *

Tony couldn’t find anything that Jaxon had described. Each crypt he entered was exactly the same.

Inside, he would find a few slabs of marble, a large sarcophagus made of stone, and nothing more.
Out of all the ones he searched, none resembled anything like what she had seen.

After c
hecking the last one, he decided to find her and see if she had any better luck. As he headed toward the cluster of mausoleums, which he saw her enter, he was stopped by a groundskeeper.

“Do you need any help finding anything?”  Miles Copeland asked, brushing the dirt from his pants.
“We’re just about done digging the grave.”

Tony described what they were looking for
in hopes the man could point him in the right direction.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen any built into the ground. Why not just go in a hole then? Most of the mausoleums we have are for the rich families who didn't want to be with the bugs and dirt.
I totally don’t get that since death is death,” he said, laughing.

Tony
could see the man was a dead end. Thanking him, he headed on his way. Maybe Jaxon was confused. As he approached the cluster of buildings, a few things caught his attention. There was one smaller one with angels on it.

What really piqued his interest was that there was
no name above the door.

That was odd.

Most of these older structures were paid for and named. While they may not be used for years, they were always claimed by a family. Even in death, the wealthy liked to stake their claim. It had been like that for centuries. Look at the Egyptian pyramids.

Examining it closer, it could possibly be
a small chapel for praying. Calling for Jaxon, he waited to hear her reply. The digging from the grounds crew was making it hard to hear over the noise.

Giving up, he opted to head inside. Once there, he
saw it.

There
was blood on the marble slab.

Rushing over, he touched it with his fingers. It was still wet. As Tony looked around, he saw something that made his heart pound.

Jaxon’s purse and cell phone were abandoned inside. He knew women well enough that they’d never do that.

Wher
ever she was, she was out of contact.

Suddenly, the screams of her name burst from his
mouth in desperation.

“Jax! Honey! Where are you?”

He waited, trying to hear her.

Nothing.

“Sweetheart! Can you hear me?” he yelled, staring out into the cemetery.

Yeah, this was very bad.

Pulling out his phone, he did the only thing he could do. He called Elizabeth to let her know he’d lost one of the team.

Shit! He lost
his girl.

                                *     *     *

When she received the call, Elizabeth could barely understand a word he was saying. In fact, Tony was borderline hysterical and that didn't bode well. After calming him down, the story finally came out.

It sent chills down her spine.

And she wasn’t alone.

Both men beside her had the same telltale look
on their faces. There was a good chance that the killer was escalating or striking out at the Feds. They had expected it, just not quite yet. It looked like the game was changing.

Racing to the cemetery, Elizabeth began
plotting out her contingency plan as Ethan drove like a maniac through the streets of Devil’s Lake.

When they pulled up to the gate, they noticed that the police were still there, doing their job.

Driving through, they easily found Tony’s location. He was the only one screaming and running from tomb to tomb like a madman.

As they jumped out, he rushed toward
them. “She’s nowhere to be found. Her purse and phone are inside,” he blurted, grabbing onto Elizabeth’s arm to drag her into the crypt.

“Did you touch anything?” she asked, scanning the interior of the cramped crypt.

“Just the blood on the marble slab. I wasn’t sure what it was. I was hoping it wasn’t wet, but it is.”

Elizabeth wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Okay, I need you to calm down and breath. We’ll find her,” she promised. Only, Elizabeth hoped it wasn’t
after she was already dead. From the way her calm, cool, collected anthropologist was behaving, he was obviously crazy about the doctor.

Ethan touched her arm. “This would be the perfect place for the killer. Look at the windows. Each one is blood red and depicts some sort of meaning. The one over here,” he said, pointing to the purse and phone, “has the scale of justice and one angel. The one across from it has an altar with blood on it and two swords.”

“He’s going to kill her,” Tony whispered in horror. “Oh God! You have to do that thing you do and find her!”

E
lizabeth measured her options as she tried not to think of the pressure now on her shoulders. Yeah, she solved things, but this early in the game, it wasn’t going to be easy. She still didn't have her profile yet.

“I can’t lose her. You have to help me, Lyzee,” he begged, his fingers digging into her arm.

“Tony, let me think,” she said, staring at the room. “The cemetery is guarded by cops. Right outside this door, we have the grounds crew. Callen, go out there and make them shut the machinery down. I need to think, and I can’t with all the noise.”

Tony began pacing as Elizabeth stared at the marble slab.

“She obviously figured something out,” she stated. “Tony, why did she want to search the cemetery? I know what she told us, but what did Jaxon tell you?”

He pointed at the slab. “Every other one in this place is built above the ground except this one. We’ve searched all of them. It bothered her that it wasn’t on a pedestal, but housed in the ground.”

“How long was she out of your sight?” Ethan asked.

“
She was only gone five minutes at the max. I saw her, and then went into the last tomb across the walkway. When I came out, she was gone.”

She
examined the inside of the crypt, and then the angels on the glass. Finally, she dropped to her knees and felt around the base. There was nothing there. “Jaxon!” she yelled, hoping the woman would hear her.

Only, there was no reply.

“Okay. Let’s split up and call in the rest of our team. This is a crime scene, and we’re going to work it that way.”

Tony Magnus wanted to puke.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” she said, standing. “We’ll get her back before you know it,” she offered, hoping that wasn’t a big fat lie.

Tony stood there, his heart aching in his chest.

Why did he leave her side?

God! He wished he could go back and fix this
.

All he wanted was one more chance.

             
                  *     *     *

Jaxon slowly came to. 

Her hands were behind her back, and she was hog tied. There was no way she could determine how long she’d been out, but it had to be long enough for the killer to restrain her.

Over her mouth was a gag, and she knew her only hope was to get free.

Oh God!

Why had she wandered off alone? If she got out of this, she swore she was going to rethink careless stunts like this. In fact, she was going to stick to Tony’s side the rest of this case.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on her surroundings. All around her was
total darkness. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she was in the same location. Trying to think back, she focused on what had happened.

Her head hurt, so that meant she had been struck. Then, she fell. The crypt! He’d shoved her into it. Jaxon knew she’d been right. Wiggling, she struggled to get the gag away from her mouth. Thankfully, the person who did this didn't use duct tape. By rubbing her face against her shoulder, she was able to pull it out of place.

The smell of Christmas assaulted her senses.