Serial (7 page)

Isaac shook his head. “It’s got Bane’s trademarks, but there appear to be inconsistencies. I won’t know more until the bodies are examined in detail.”

Garcia growled and rubbed at his temples. “Damn it, Grant. You need to get this guy.” His tired eyes glared at Isaac. “He killed the fucking mayor…in his house. If we can’t protect
him
, how in the hell are we supposed to convince the public we can protect
them
?”

That was the beauty of Bane’s kill. For all his rush, he had struck a blow that far exceeded Isaac’s own attempt at conquering the city. The people of El Paso weren’t going to just be afraid of going out, now they had to fear for their lives at home. Bane had brought terror with one simple kill. Isaac didn’t know if he could top it. He had no worries he could produce a more brutal showing, but there was no way he could match the value of the target Bane had chosen. The mayor was the symbol of the city. His death was the city’s death. She would crumble around them if Bane remained free to kill again.

Isaac shrugged. “He’s caught up in the game. He—”

“This isn’t a fucking game, Grant. This is murder,” the captain shouted. Every eye in the room turned and stared.

“You know what I meant,” Isaac answered, raising his hands in surrender. “He’s trying too hard, and he’s making mistakes. I’ll find him, and it will be soon.” Thoughts of Mendes flashed through his mind. For all the impact of the crime, he was taking chances. He was putting on the façade of a normal life, flirting and living it up, coming to work, but the schedule Isaac had forced on him was taking its toll.

“You better, or I’m going to have to turn the case over to someone else.” Garcia sighed as he stared at Isaac. “Don’t make me do that.” He walked away, his head down as he left through the front door.

Isaac waved to the crime techs to bring the bodies down, and cast a quick glance at them. He’d come to the end game. Garcia was looking to pull him off the case. The city couldn’t support two serial killers. It was too much stress on the populace. The economy would tank and everything else would go soon after, people and businesses fleeing the killing fields. Garcia and Bane were forcing his hand, but Isaac knew something Bane didn’t. He knew who Bane was. Isaac could end it all now.

He wandered from the foyer and made a quick search of the house as he plotted his next move. The urge to race to kill Mendes gnawed at him, but he shoved it aside. There was nothing he could do in broad daylight. He needed to settle down and do his job in the here and now, and worry about Bane tonight.

Isaac made a lap around the house, checking the doors and windows. They were locked and looked undisturbed, no broken glass or evidence of forced entry. The only things he noticed that were out of the ordinary were the bloodstains on the beds of the victims. The son and daughter’s beds were pooled with crimson, as was the mayor’s, but there was only one puddle in the big bed. Isaac glanced at the nightstands set beside the bed and saw on one a romance novel, tissues and beauty products spread around the lamp. The other nightstand had a clock, a wallet and keys, clearly showing the couple slept in the same bed and whose side was whose.

The wife had been killed in bed, but the mayor hadn’t. His side of the mattress, except for spillage from hers, was clean of blood. Mendes hadn’t broken in; he had lured the mayor to the door somehow. With no other blood visible in the house, Isaac imagined the mayor had been killed in the foyer, the majority of the blood on the floor likely his. Isaac remembered Mendes had left his house with his gun and badge. It wouldn’t have taken much to get the mayor to open the door to an officer. He’d probably been the easiest kill of Bane’s streak. Ironically, it was also the most effective.

There was no time for Isaac to retaliate and plan something more horrific to draw Mendes out further and end all doubt. Even if he could pull something off, it wouldn’t carry the same weight as murdering the mayor under the noses of the police department. No, the time for territorial challenges was over.

Mendes would die tonight.

Chapter Sixteen

Isaac turned onto Mendes’s street just before midnight. He spied the detective’s car in his driveway. A smile stretched his lips as he loosed a quiet sigh. Isaac had gambled that Mendes would stay home and wait for the Ripper’s
reply
, and it looked like the gamble had paid off. A light flickered through the blinds, but no shadows moved behind them. Isaac settled in as best he could and watched the house.

He checked his pistol for the tenth time, fingering the safety on and then back off, examining the homemade silencer he’d crafted. As much as he wanted to teach Mendes a lesson and make him suffer, he couldn’t imagine the detective making it easy. Even if he caught Mendes completely unaware, the man was still an officer. He would have weapons by his bed and would be hard to sneak up on. It was the nature of the job. Cops didn’t sleep well, paranoia inherited from the job making restful nights a wistful memory. Isaac figured he would have to shoot him and leave it at that. He couldn’t risk a mistake.

When the inside light finally shut off, Isaac felt a tremble of excitement. Mendes had led him on a wild chase, but it was coming to a close. In just a short while, Mendes would be dead and there’d only be the Ripper. Isaac would give the town time to settle down and catch its breath, and then he’d be back.

Just as Isaac reached for the door handle, the porch light flickered on. He cursed under his breath as Mendes stormed from the house and walked briskly to his car. Isaac saw the glimmer of his badge in the light, just before he hopped into the car and whipped out of the driveway. He drove off without a glance back. Isaac followed, waiting until it was safe to turn on his headlights.

His heart pounded as he tailed the detective. Wherever Mendes was going, he was in a hurry. There was none of the overt law abidance of the last time. Though, he only drove slightly above the speed limit, and he zipped in and out of traffic and seemed to use his turn signals as an afterthought, signaling only some of the time. He got on the highway and immediately shifted to the far-left lane, heading toward the east side of town. His driving made it much easier for Isaac to keep tabs on him.

The road stretched out before him as he followed, the Horizon exit zipping past before he wondered where Mendes was going. While there were a number of tiny pit stops along the way, there was pretty much nothing between there and Midland-Odessa. Isaac’s excitement grew, his hands tapping the wheel in unconscious anticipation. Mendes was leading him out into the desert.

Isaac grasped the wheel tighter to stop the shake of his hands and breathed slowly to temper his bloodlust. While trailing Mendes on the highway was simple, if he turned off into the desert things would become much more difficult. Isaac didn’t believe the detective knew he was behind him, but there was always a chance he did. Isaac had to be prepared.

Finally, at a construction turnaround, Mendes slipped off the highway and onto the narrow service road. Isaac eased onto the shoulder of the overpass and shut his lights off. He watched as Mendes continued on, suddenly turning right into the desert on a road Isaac couldn’t see. He smiled. While he couldn’t see the road, the detective’s taillights were a beacon he’d have no problem following.

Isaac watched as the car slowed and drove farther and farther into the distance. He plotted the direction and location and waited, the height of the overpass giving him a clear view. The night was moonlit and bright with stars, and he could see the swirling gray dust kicked up by Mendes. At last, the car stopped, but the lights stayed on.

While unsure of what the detective was doing, Isaac knew he would never have a better opportunity to kill Mendes. He’d isolated himself and Isaac couldn’t picture the move as a trap. He glanced at his cell phone and smiled as it scanned for a network. Mendes was cut off from the world. Now was the time.

He left the highway, driving with his lights off, and followed Mendes’s trail into the emptiness of the desert. He could see the faint glimmer of the detective’s car as he drove. When he felt he was just outside of the range of being heard by Mendes, Isaac pulled the car off to the side of the road and left it behind. He knew where the detective was, and he would find it much easier to sneak up on him without all the noise. His gun in hand, he drifted through the shrubs and made his way toward the light.

When he’d finally drawn closer, he smiled as he heard the quiet purr of Mendes’s Chrysler. It covered his approach as he moved to the side and ducked low behind a large shrub. The driver’s side door was open, and the interior light showed the vehicle to be empty. Isaac looked to where the headlights illuminated the rutted dirt road, and spied Mendes bent over something in the road. From behind the bush, Isaac couldn’t see what had the detective so occupied, but it was like fate was sending him a message.

Kill him now.

Isaac crept around the car and adjusted his path so the lights wouldn’t cast his shadow in Mendes’s direction. He wanted nothing to ruin his surprise. Isaac still held out hope he could take the detective alive and show him what a real killer did to his victims. How dare he come to Isaac’s town and challenge him. If he had to shoot Mendes, he would, but Isaac wanted him alive.

One easy step after another, he approached the detective. As he did, he suddenly realized what Mendes was looking at. It was a body bag. It looked in use, faint glimmers of the headlight reflecting off something pale inside. The faint waft of decay confirmed his thoughts. As he inched closer, he could see a misshapen, dark pool of emptiness at the left eye, so different than the other.
It had to be the toothpicks.

His smile quivered as he came up behind the detective, leveling his gun to get the drop on him. He wanted to hear him scream. The
crunch
of gravel beneath his shoe gave him away, and before he could shoot, Mendes spun. His gun was out too.

“Stay right there,” Mendes shouted with the barrel of his 9 mm aimed at Isaac’s chest. His eyes narrowed as he recognized him. “Grant?”

Isaac cursed under his breath, but there was nothing he could now but see things through. “You didn’t think you were going to get away with it, did you, Mendes?”

The detective’s hand trembled, but he kept his pistol leveled. “What are you talking about, man? I know we got off to a rough start, but put your gun down.”

“The killing, Mendes…I’m talking about the killing. Or should I call you Bane?” Isaac watched the detective’s hand and smiled. He was scared. He could only imagine it wasn’t easy having the tables turned on you.

“You are fucking crazy, you know that? I’m no killer.” Mendes’s eyes glistened in the dim light and Isaac thought he saw him tearing up. “Put your weapon away, man, you’re freaking me out.”

Isaac shook his head. “There’s no talking your way out of this one. I can see the toothpicks in the body from here.”

Mendes raised his other hand, palm up and fingers spread. “I received a call…a tip…telling me she was here. That’s all it is, man, I swear.” His voice quavered.

“Out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, someone just conveniently calls you about a body there’s no way they could have seen or stumbled across, and you just run out here without backup or telling anyone?” Isaac chuckled. He knew better. Mendes was a veteran. While Isaac had believed the detective to be a glory hound, looking to cash in on a prestigious crime, all that went out the window once he made the connection between the bodies and Mendes’s tattoo. “What about the demon image cut into the bodies, Mendes? Recognize it? Los Demonios Pequeños.”

The detective’s eyes widened and Isaac was certain he saw tears now. The shaking of his gun hand increased. “No, man, no…I mean, yeah. I thought I saw the little demon in the pictures on your desk, on the girl, you know, but there ain’t no way. I didn’t do that shit.” He pointed at the body behind him, but his eyes never left Isaac’s. “Put the gun away and we can go back to the station and clear all this up, man.”

The plaintive whine in the man’s voice made Isaac grin. He nodded. “All right, let’s do that.” Isaac started to lower his pistol.

Mendes blew out a heavy sigh and dropped his. “Damn, man. You scared the fu—”

Isaac squeezed off a round. The muffled thump of the gunshot sounded loud in the desert’s stillness. The bullet caught Mendes in the hip and sent him stumbling. He tripped over the body in the bag and fell to his back with a grunt. Isaac closed on him, firing again as the detective squirmed to get up. The shot hit him dead center of the chest. Blood spewed from Mendes’s mouth as he gasped and collapsed onto the sand.

Isaac stalked forward, peering through the shadows that obscured Mendes’s head so he could end it. A muzzle flash brightened the darkness. Isaac felt something punch him in the chest, the impact spinning him around. He fell to his knees as a searing heat screamed to life, blurring his vision. Isaac tasted blood, gurgling sounds rising from his throat. His chest rattled as he breathed, and he could feel fluid filling his lung.

The heat spread from his chest to his cheeks as he realized Bane had shot him. Fury replaced agony. He raised his gun and fired once more at the killer, another flash going off at the same time. A gargled screech sounded from the shadows just as Isaac was hit in the stomach. The bullet crumpled him. His face struck the ground, dust and sand filling his nose and mouth as he struggled to draw breath. Isaac fought to raise his head, managing only to turn it slightly so he could see the soles of Bane’s shoes as they hung lifeless over the body bag that propped his legs up.