Shadows May Fall (36 page)

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” Dillon groaned.

Lou grabbed the collar of the nearest deputy and glared at him. “What happened?!”

“I don’t know!” He stammered, his face blank and clueless. Lou let go of his collar with a shove and looked around at the other faces. “Who’s custody?” She demanded.

“Me!” Deputy Deidre Crenshaw stepped towards her as she made herself known. Her face damp with nervous sweat but she stood at attention as soon as she reached Lou and Dillon.

“Explain!” Lou barked.

Deputy Crenshaw recounted every minute detail of events from the moment Vanessa Sturn had come into her custody in holding. She described every movement and every word that passed including Vanessa’s grin upon her learning of the officer’s first name. Crenshaw told them that she kept eyes on the woman through the window in the door after she stepped out because of the weird exchange. Crenshaw had observed the woman sitting there fidgeting with the collar of her blouse for several minutes but then Vanessa finally laid down on the bench. The woman appeared to be sleeping but after looking a few more times over the course of twenty minutes, Crenshaw noticed something seeping from the woman’s mouth and down the side of her face. She knew immediately something was wrong and ran inside to check.

“I knew right away when she didn’t flinch at my charging in here that she was unconscious.” Crenshaw told them.

A familiar voice yelling for people to move shifted Lou and Dillon’s attention from Deputy Crenshaw momentarily. Lou watched as Pierce and Hopper barreled through the crowd and got to work on Sturn. He took a brief second to glance up at Lou, and she could instantly see that he held out little hope of them reviving her.

“Commander.” Lou called out to parks who had moved away from Vanessa’s body. “Get your people out of here, please?”

“You heard the lady, everybody out!” parks ordered. “Get back to work! What the hell is wrong with you people? This isn’t a show! Crenshaw, you stay!” Deputy Crenshaw nodded and plastered her spine to the back wall of the holding area. Both Lou and Dillon could see she was utterly distraught. Commander parks took a stance beside Lou and blew out a breath. “Shit, Lou.”

“The bag her lawyer brought in was checked carefully?” Dillon questioned. “His stuff was all checked?”

“I personally saw to it that everything was double checked by two different guys!” parks informed them. “Oh crap that reminds me! He brought in her murder kit!”

Dillon and Lou’s heads nearly spun off their necks at his words. “What?” Lou asked.

“Yeah!” parks scrubbed the fuzz of his freshly shaved Burr cut. “We’ve got it locked up in evidence for you. Her attorney came in stating that his client requested he surrender it for her. He even had a hand written note from her attesting to the contents, and its use!” parks’ voice squeaked during the last part of his statement as if he couldn’t believe what had transpired himself.

Lou’s eyes went wide. “What kind of paper was it written on?”

“Nice stuff.” parks cocked his head. “How’d you know that?”

“Don’t let anyone touch it!” Dillon almost shouted. “Get it to the lab. We believe it’s poisoned.”

“No one handled it without gloves.” parks assured them. “It’s sealed up. I read it through the plastic, but I had gloves on just in case the guys needed me to help them search.”

“Thank God.” Lou sighed with relief.

“She poisoned the paper?” He wanted to be sure he understood them correctly.

“We’re pretty positive she soaked the pages in aconite.” Dillon tried to explain, but the fact that they hadn’t logged in the letters from the safe in Vanessa’s closet would not go over well with the department if they found out. It couldn’t be helped. The fact that the letters were from Albert meant there was a more than strong chance they contained Sanguinostri business. That took precedence.

Lou noticed Pierce sit back on his heels and wipe his brow with the back of his gloved hand. The paramedics were giving up. Vanessa Sturn was most certainly dead. The new question to add to their list was how the hell it could have happened.

“Detectives.” Pierce looked over his shoulder at them. “I’m pretty positive this was potassium cyanide poisoning. Suicide. You might want to come and take a look.”

As they prepared themselves to treat the holding cell as a crime scene, Lou thought about what Deputy Crenshaw had told her, specifically at least the last twenty minutes or so. From Lou’s limited knowledge of potassium cyanide, she knew that it acted relatively quickly upon ingestion. Depending upon the amount ingested, Vanessa would have lost consciousness within a minute or so and died pretty damn quick after that. So that last few minutes before Vanessa laid down was their window.

Before Lou knelt down, she turned to Crenshaw. “Did you give her anything to eat or drink since she got here?”

“She said she had low blood sugar and was light headed.” Crenshaw recalled. “Asked for juice so I got her some orange juice from the vending machine. It was sealed, and I opened it for her.”

“Yes, but that increases stomach acid.” Pierce frowned. “Ensures maximum efficacy for the cyanide.

“She totally planned this.” Dillon muttered.

Lou knelt down next to the body. “You said she was fiddling with her buttons?” She asked Crenshaw again.

“Yeah.” The deputy replied.

Lou flipped the flap of the blouse that covered the buttons to confirm her suspicion. The top three buttons of the blouse had been ripped off. “Clever girl.”

Dillon noticed the absence of buttons too. “Poison buttons instead of a poison pill?”

“That would do it.” Pierce said as he examined one of the other buttons. “These are probably spiked too. It would be interesting to see inside these puppies.”

“Please don’t go all science geek on me right now.” Lou requested just as her phone rang. “Get this place taped off and call the Coroner.” She ordered but then looked at Commander parks and remembered he was her superior and in charge of the station. “Sorry, Commander.” Lou stepped back then looked at the caller I.D. On her cell. “Shit.” She grumbled as soon as she saw it was Captain Davidson, her boss’s boss.

Despite the fact that Captain Davidson was Lou, Dillon and Vinny’s commanding officer, he was Sanguinostri, which put Lou in a strange position of being his boss in those matters. Lou didn’t think she would ever understand that dynamic and chose to behave as it had always been. She wasn’t about to complain that he was far nicer and accommodating to her now even though it was totally weird. Little did she know this conversation was about to be a mixed bag.

Davidson was livid at the fact that their mass murder suspect was now dead herself. But he also knew that Lou had no control over that or any of it for that matter. His primary reason for calling was to give her a heads up that the top brass was meeting to figure out how to deal with the media fallout that was inevitable. On the Sanguinostri side of the mess that meant she needed to get the evidence they still had cleaned up and in custody as fast as humanly possible before things escalated given it was looking like the Feds would be getting involved. It was no longer just about three men that had their brains bashed in. There were serious kidnapping charges, possible human trafficking, and God knew what else. Davidson let her know that he had spoken with Max before calling her so that their agents in the FBI would be in a position to intercept the case as soon as jurisdiction was taken over. The good news was that as far as Lou, Dillon, and the Sheriff’s Department was concerned, the written confession that came in with Vanessa Sturn’s murder bag would pretty much wrap up things on their end. The bad news was Lou was the Principate, and her involvement went beyond her Sheriff’s badge.

After ending the call with her captain, Lou and Dillon headed to the evidence locker and went through the bag first. Inside the black duffel was the black plastic baseball bat used to pop the heads of Medina, Griffen, and Rawlings. There was also a black catsuit that looked to be made out of some slick wetsuit material, more patent leather than neoprene. There was a pair of black latex gloves, thin but not disposable along with a pair of matching booties. They also found a spray bottle that contained industrial disinfectant and a roll of paper towels still in the wrapper. The last piece of compelling evidence was a plastic baggie that contained a beautiful silver poison ring that was left open. It was much larger than ones Lou had seen before, and the lid was adorned with a large flat black stone of some sort. Along with the ring in the bag was a half empty glass bottle, exactly like the vials they had found in the tea caddy. Everything was bagged and tagged separately, prepped and ready for the Crime Lab to test it all to make sure everything was used on all three of their victims. Dillon ran and grabbed them both another cup of coffee before they sat down to read the poisoned letter.

There were six pages to Vanessa Sturn’s confession letter, the first of which explained in no uncertain terms that she did not apologize for anything she had done. In fact, she stated that the only thing she would do differently was not get caught. The next few pages told the story of how at the age of six, Vanessa’s mother had made a big deal out of taking her shopping for little princess pajamas since she was no longer a baby girl. Vanessa recalled feeling so special and excited not only about getting something new but the fact that her mother was taking her out and was actually paying attention to her. The little girl had no idea when she modeled the beautiful nightgown for her mother’s new friend that night that she was about to be violated in the most horrible ways. It took her a week before the sickness and pain passed and even then her body never worked right again. The only thing the young Vanessa knew for sure is that only pain came when her mother made her put on her nightgown and one day she would be the one in control. She would be the one to inflict the pain. No one would ever touch her without her permission again. Vanessa’s mother had pimped her baby girl out to the highest bidder from the time she was six years old. That explained a lot more than the dominatrix angle for them.

The final pages of the letter were devoted to explaining why she murdered the men. Vanessa was very clear on the manner and means for which the men were killed but not specific details. She only mentioned Marcus Medina and Gerald Griffen by name, but she did reference ‘
the others
’. Lou and Dillon supposed the letter was crafted very deliberately in case she didn’t get all of the men before she was discovered, which was fortunately the case. Unfortunately, that meant they probably would never know who the other two men on her hit list were. For all they knew, there were far more than two on that list. What Vanessa Sturn was precise and detailed about was her utter disdain for Medina, Griffen and ‘
the others
’. She described them as being the same as her biological father. They were mentally wired to see women as nothing more than something to be used in whatever manner they wished. Laws, morals, ethics were not in their genetic makeup and Lou found that to be completely ironic given how Vanessa treated the girls she had tortured and murdered. It was only a few paragraphs later that Vanessa qualified her actions regarding the girls, at least to her psychotic mind. She stated that some women, like her mother, were worse than the men that used and abused them based solely on the fact that they allowed themselves to be put in that position. Vanessa concluded her letter by stating that she didn’t expect anyone but a few to understand her actions but that she didn’t really care what anyone thought. The entire purpose of the letter was simply for respect. Vanessa Sturn’s closing sentence was that if there was someone out there smart enough to catch her, then they had earned an explanation. She signed the letter with ‘
congratulations
’ which just made Lou’s headache.

“So that’s it?” Dillon scowled. “This buttons up our three dead guys and the Feds rip the rest of this right out of out hands? No pun intended.”

“Is that really so bad?” Lou was so damned tired. “You and I won’t truly be done with it.” She whispered. “You’re pretty much deputy Principate, after all.”

Dillon laughed. “I don’t think that’s a thing, Lou.”

Lou grinned at him as she forced herself to get up. “I know a guy. I’ll make it a thing.”

Before they put everything back, Dillon took pictures of each page of the letter with his phone just in case something happened to it during processing. They took care of everything that could be taken care of at that point and were able to make it out of the station just as the first light of dawn started creeping in from the east. Dillon didn’t even get to pull out of the parking lot before Lou fell asleep. He made sure she stayed asleep for the drive home, even for the quick stop to drop off the boxes to Connor and Niko. He knew she was totally sleepwalking when he got her out of the car and to her door. He walked Lou into her room and made her drop straight on the bed so he could be sure she wouldn’t hurt herself after he left. He would leave the rest to her mother or Abby as soon as they realized she was home. The fact was that she was home in one piece, and asleep, that was all that mattered.

Lou could hear humming, but everything was pitch black. At first
she thought it was a bird but she knew better. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t move her arms or legs and she wasn’t entirely sure her eyes were even open. Panic started to rise from the pit of her stomach as she tried again to move her limbs and there was nothing. She thought she opened her mouth, but she couldn’t be sure so she yelled as loud as she could.

“Lou!” the humming voice shouted and suddenly Lou detected light. “Lou! What’s wrong? Are you alright?!” The voice that Lou now recognized to be Caroline’s asked.

“Tallulah?” Her mother’s voice called out in the distance. “Is she okay?” Lou heard Abby’s voice now.

“What’s going on?” Shevaun asked.

“I have no idea!” Caroline told her.

Lou groaned as she tried to make out the different shapes against the light, finally managing to blink. She attempted to move her limbs once again and succeeded in lifting her arms. Caroline felt her neck as if checking for a pulse then stretched each of Lou’s eyes open and examined them carefully.

“Mother Mary what is wrong with her?” Shevaun was growing more and more upset.

“Her heart rate is a tad high, but her pupils are reactive, I don’t know what’s wrong! She was sound asleep just a minute ago!”Caroline was exasperated.

“What?” Shevaun asked.

“She was just sound asleep!” Caroline repeated herself. “She just yelled! Out of nowhere!”

“Oh, good heavens.” Shevaun’s voice was much calmer. “Wake your ass up, Tallulah. I am not in the mood for one of your episodes!” Lou groaned again, things starting to come into focus. “It’s just her sleep issue. She’s probably stuck in sleep paralysis. She’ll snap out of it in a few minutes.” Lou’s mother walked out of the room.

“This is part of her sleep disorder?” Abby watched Lou flop around on her bed like a fish out of water.

“Utterly incredible for such a badass, huh?” Caroline snickered. “This is a new one, even for me. You wanna make her coffee while I finish packing for her?”

“You bet!” Abby headed for the coffee pot. “Hey, make sure you...”

“Shush!” Caroline stopped her and pointed at Lou, then her own ears, suggesting Lou could hear them despite her current state. “Yes I got it all covered, I promise.”

“I sure wish she would sleep more.” Abby grumbled but prepared the cup of coffee anyway. “That’s what? Ten hours she has had in a whole week?”

“Niko has her booked for like a three hour massage tomorrow so she just has to get through to the morning. She can sleep the rest of the weekend away if she wants.” Caroline zipped up Lou’s suitcase and set it in the doorway. “Anything I should know about this dinner thing tonight?”

“No, that’s after the meeting so it’s all very friendly.” Abby assured her.

“Still not sure why Max wants me there but I will never turn down a chance to hit Vegas!” Caroline flashed Abby that bright smile of hers.

“I got us reservations at that club for Saturday night.” Abby flashed a smile right back at her.

“Oh very nice!” Caroline approved. “Glad I packed extra sparkly!” Both girls giggled.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Lou finally managed to sit up and ask.

“You all here now?” Caroline looked at her friend dubiously. Lou paused to check. “I can’t feel my toes yet, but I think I’m good. What time is it?”

“Five after eight.” Abby read the clock while handing Lou her mug. “Use two hands.” She recommended.

“What are you doing, Caroline?” Lou asked as she watched her carrying shoes out of her closet then stuff them into her duffel bag.

“Getting you packed since I don’t trust your taste.” Caroline winked at her.

“Packed, for?” Lou steadied her hands to take a sip, moaning at the deliciousness that hit her lips.

“Las Vegas, you dork.” Abby answered then headed into Lou’s bathroom when she was secure that Lou could hold the mug without assistance. “I’ll get all your make-up and toiletries, blah blah blah stuff.”

“I can’t go to Vegas!” Lou shouted as if they were both insane. Caroline paused to grimace at Lou. “Well you are going so I guess you are wrong again.”

“How can I go with everything that’s going on?” Lou looked at the clock herself to make sure Abby wasn’t lying. “I’ve only been asleep a few hours? Why the hell are you two so damn perky this early? Caroline, what are you doing here instead of the morgue?”

“Whoa, miss inquisitive!” Frank made fun of her as she noticed him walk in the room.

“Holy crap do I have any privacy anymore in my own room?” Lou was wide awake now as she listened to them all laugh at her.

“Dillon is already headed into the office. Captain Davidson only needs him for a little bit so he’s going to meet us at the hangar when he’s done.” Frank started to explain as he sat down on the bed next to her and dropped the morning newspaper on her lap. “Union rules dictate Doctor Devereaux here has to take three days since she’s been on the clock for four days straight, kinda like you and Dillon.”

“It’s all good!” Lou’s mother returned, still in her pajamas. She plopped down on the bed next to her daughter, Frank on the other side. “And privacy is totally overrated, sweetie.”

Lou looked at the front page of the newspaper to read ‘
LASD Detectives end Mistress of Death
’ as the headline. She shoved her mug into her mother’s hands then flipped the paper open to read the entire story. There in black and white was the carefully crafted, although extremely accurate, news article that clearly had been fed to the news agency. Though Lou and Dillon’s names were left out, for security purposes and because the investigation was ongoing, Lou was satisfied with the accuracy of the article.

“How did this happen?” Lou looked at Frank for answers.

“I think you call it us working our magic?” Frank squinted. “The important thing is that as far as you and Dillon are concerned, the case is done. Thus, you are going to Las Vegas as planned.”

Lou still couldn’t believe it was that simple after everything. “Max approved this? It’s all straight with the Department?”

Frank nodded. “Dillon just has to handle some paperwork.”

“I couldn’t even fit into the morgue if I wanted to, there are so many people working in there.” Caroline tried to help reassure her.

“The FBI will be taking jurisdiction of the kidnapping and trafficking part first thing Monday morning so your off the hook there.” Abby added.

“And by then we will have everything in place to answer on the bloodmobile to make it look like it was a one-off. A black market medical scam that Sturn was into with her little Australian manservant.” Niko’s voice popped up from off the balcony.

“Christ on a Kayak!” Lou jerked when she noticed he had been laying on the chaise lounge for who knew how long. “Where the hell did you come from?!”

Niko ignored her and continued. “Did you know he was a doctor?” He asked.

“That little bastard is a doctor?” Lou squeaked. “The Asian houseboy?

“How lucky is that shit?” Niko chortled. “He’s clammed up tighter than a...” Niko scanned the faces of the ladies in the room and ended his sentence there.”

“That’s way too convenient for my liking.” Lou gave him a disapproving look.

“I swear to God! He really is! Connor nearly kissed me when the info popped up when we ran his prints.” Niko raised his hand as if to swear an oath.

Lou’s cell phone rang and when she looked at the display she put her hands up as if to surrender then answered, putting it directly on speaker. “Hi!” She squeaked again.

“Ladies?” Max’s voice asked.

“Yes?” Caroline, Abby, and Shevaun answered in unison. “Caroline and Abby, I mean.” Max qualified. “Not that you are not ladies, Lou and Shevaun, forgive me!”

“What did we do now?” Abby asked.

“Nothing. Are you finished packing for Lou?” He asked them.

“Yes.” They answered in unison again.

“Then would you be so kind as to drag Niko and Frank out of there and give Lou some peace before she needs to get moving?”

“You bet.” Abby told him as she stuffed Lou’s toiletry bag in the duffel with her shoes. “Go bring her bags downstairs.” She pointed to Frank.

“Aye aye, capt’n!” Frank messed Lou’s hair up like she was a little kid then bounced off the bed to follow Abby’s orders.

“Help me get my stuff out of my car and into yours.” Caroline walked out onto the balcony and dragged Niko off the chaise by his arm.

“As you wish, my lady.” Niko replied in his best British accent. “I’ll get you some breakfast.” Shevaun kissed her daughter on the forehead then headed downstairs.

It had taken Max only thirty seconds to get Lou some peace and she nearly forgot he was on the phone still. “Better?” He asked and she couldn’t help but smile.

“Much.” She replied.

“I’m sure it will take a bit for you to digest where events currently stand, but I hope you will try and de-stress a little before this afternoon’s meeting.” Max really wished she could let the case go long enough to really be comfortable with what was to come.

“You’ll go over things with me during the flight?” She was feeling very insecure.

Max sensed her trepidation. “One of the advantages of having our own plane is that we have complete privacy.”

Lou snorted. “We. Our. Your plane, big guy. I just work here. Barely.”

Max grinned. “I expect an adjustment period, but you will learn. It’s
we
. Anything you need before then?”

Lou thought for a moment. “So everything is really in its place as far as my case is concerned?”

“How would I know anything about that, Detective?” Max teased. “You’re the cop. See you in a few hours.” He hung up before she could protest.

Lou grumbled when she realized he had disconnected the call then grumbled again when she realized she didn’t know where her coffee had gone. After spotting it on the nightstand, she grabbed it and took a few gulps before dialing Dillon.

“Why are you up?” He asked her when he picked up.

“Good morning to you too, sunshine.” She mocked. “Is everything these invaders here are telling me true?”

“You mean about everything being wrapped up tighter than a...”

Dillon stopped before he could say something inappropriate. “You are hanging out with Niko way too much!” Lou scolded.

“Yeah, is this all true and you are just finishing paperwork for me?” Dillon laughed. “Just finished the last page.”

“What about all the hard drives and everything?” She asked him. “We’ll talk about that on the plane.” Dillon clearly didn’t want to go there over the phone.

“Got it.” Lou understood and should have thought about that before she asked. “When is that exactly?”

“I’m meeting you guys at the Aegis hanger in Van Nuys at noon.” He told her.

Lou felt a little better. “Once again, really glad one of us knows what the hell they’re doing!”

Dillon laughed. “Go take a shower and eat something. Sorry about just dumping you in your dirty clothes but you were out cold.”

“Huh?” Lou looked down and realized that not only was she still in the clothes she had been wearing for over twenty-four hours but she had her shoes on too. “Aw gross!”

“See ya later, partner.” Dillon continued to laugh as he hung up.

Lou set her phone on the charging pad then got up and stripped her bed immediately. She made a mental note to ask Marta to soak the mattress in disinfectant while she was gone. Lou wondered if her clothes would ever get clean or if she would ever want to wear them again. Not wishing to make any hasty decisions, she tossed them to the side and climbed in the shower as directed and tried to wash the death and destruction off her body. She spent far longer in there than she planned, but the hot water just felt so good on her bones that she couldn’t help it. After wrapping herself up in her robe that was easily two sizes too big, she wandered back into her room to fix herself another cup of coffee but was distracted when she heard something out in the yard. Lou snuck up to the window and peeked out to see what was going on. Off in the distance, near the edge where her parent’s property ended and her namesake park began, Lou saw Max lying on his back in the grass being attacked by her two puppies. They were still so new to her that she hadn’t thought to miss them, but they were clearly being well taken care of as she watched Max laughing and playing like a little boy. He had purposely moved to the back of the yard to avoid being spotted and Lou knew she was witnessing a rare moment. The pure joy as she watched the white puffs leaping onto his chest and licking his face while he squirmed in pure delight literally filled her eyes to overflowing. If she hadn’t known for sure before, she knew in that instant she was in deep trouble. She was in love.

There were serious
advantages to owning your own sixty-five million dollar luxury jet. Being able to drive right up to the Aegis International hangar then stroll right up the airstairs without having to wait in any lines, show your identification fifty times or take off your shoes was truly decadent. Despite Lou’s stepfather being filthy rich, their lifestyle had been very middle America, save for the current family home, that is. Lou had only ever flown budget coach despite Joe’s numerous offers to pay, or at least spring for an upgrade. Lou would have none of it. She made her own way and earned her keep, always. Today, however, was ultra decadence and Lou was very grateful that Caroline had vetoed what she had planned on wearing. Lou usually wore sweats, a t-shirt or sweatshirt and easy on and off shoes to file through security and squeeze into her cramped coach seat. Caroline wouldn’t allow such a fashion disaster. Instead, she made Lou wear a caramel colored cashmere pantsuit that she didn’t even know she owned.