The Chilling Spree (7 page)

“I wanted to know why you handed this one
off so fast.  My gut tells me your particular skills are
needed.”

“And I can only assume that since you’re
here that somebody found the victim.”

“Oh yeah,” she gestured toward the body
folded into the trunk at her feet.  “Hot skinny tall
chick.  I thought you were the rare breed of that ilk out
here, Helen.”  She paused and winked at Devlin.  “You
might want to stick close, Mackenzie, just in case the target
happens to be the willowy supermodel types of Darkwater Bay.”

“Not all murders in this city are part of a
series,” I muttered under my breath.

Orion piped up from over my right
shoulder.  “Yet since you arrived in town, it seems to be the
case more often than not, Doc.”

Icy plasma shards stabbed through my
veins.  Maya’s face echoed my shock until we realized he
wasn’t talking to me.

“Me?” she echoed.  “Oh, hell no,
Orion.  You’re not laying the very longstanding corruption in
this city on my doorstep.”

I on the other hand, cringed and retreated
into Devlin’s side.  “We’re out of here, Maya.  Like I
said.  We’re off duty this week, well deserved if you ask
me.”

“Still basking in the glow of bringing down
the city’s most notorious criminal, eh?” she grinned.  “All
right.  Give me a call in the morning.  I only wanted to
wish you a happy new year anyway, my friend.  Don’t do
anything I wouldn’t do.”

I chuckled.  “So I pretty much have
your blessing for anything, eh?”

She winked at Devlin again. 
“Uh-huh.”

“I’d suggest you lay off the booze,” Orion
growled.  “You never know.  This case might need a
profiler at some point.”

I felt Devlin tense.  “You shouldn’t
need her on this one, Commander.  It looks pretty cut and
dried to me.  Talk to Chris.  He can explain who the
likely culprit is.”

Johnny muttered a curse and stomped
off.  Maya had my free hand and jerked me in the opposite
direction before I could protest.

“Wait right there, Devlin,” she said. 
“Helen and I need a girl moment.”

We were barely alone when she started
speaking.  “I don’t know if you were planning to make Johnny
insane with jealousy, but that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

“Maya –”

“That’s the aside.  While I hate to see
OSI yanking jurisdiction away from Downey in particular, I suspect
that when I get this victim on the table and can strip off the
clothes, they’re gonna be beating a path straight to your door,
buttercup.”

“Don’t call me buttercup.  Why will
they want my input on this case?  Johnny already made his
preference perfectly clear.”

Her eyebrows arched.  “Oh did he
now?”

“Either I accept him watching me like a hawk
and take his orders, or I’m off the case.”

She laughed softly.  “Helen ... you can
be so obtuse.  I don’t suppose it occurred to you that he
wanted you working with him.”

“Well he sure didn’t make it sound that
way.  And you still haven’t told me why someone will
eventually ask for my opinion on this case.”

“Our vic in the trunk over there?  Tall
willowy blond?”

“Yeah.”

Maya lowered her voice.  “I suspect
that I’m gonna find some candy tucked away when the clothes come
off.  She’s got a prominent Adam’s apple.”

My eyes widened, and Devlin’s history lesson
on Fulk Underwood’s military record echoed in my head.  “She’s
a he?”

“If not in the true physical sense, I’d lay
odds I’ll that there’s evidence of surgical alteration.  The
Adam’s apple is something that generally doesn’t change,
Helen.”

My voice dipped low.  “Does Crevan know
what you suspect?”

Maya snorted.  “I haven’t told these
guys anything yet.  It’s pointless until I’ve got the facts in
front of them.  I doubt any of them could conceive of why a
man would want to either become a woman or at minimum look like
one.  That’s the other reason I figured you’d be the perfect
investigator to lead the charge.  I’m afraid that their fire
to close the case will sputter out and die once they realize what
we’re dealing with.”

“You think it could be a hate crime.”

“I think it would be reckless to dismiss the
possibility, Helen.  Don’t you agree?”

Crevan’s secret gnawed at my gut.  I
didn’t disagree with Maya, even though my heart believed that
Crevan would want justice for this type of victim in
particular.  My fear was that his cretin partner would
pressure him into behaving with pack mentality instead of doing the
right thing.  “Shit,” I muttered.

“You see the problem here, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” my eyes wandered to Underwood who
had joined the fray of onlookers outside the crime scene
tape.  What did he know about Darkwater Bay?  Would
someone with a history of bias like his choose a city he knew
shared the sentiment to take out someone he found offensive? 
I wasn’t sure where Johnny would fall on the issue, particularly
since he seemed to be sharing a hive mind with Tony Briscoe, all
around bigot and troublemaker.

“Still eager for your time off this
week?”

“I haven’t been cleared for active
duty.  Technically, at least,” I said.  Devlin and Ned
separated from the detectives and had their heads together.  I
wondered what they were talking about, maybe even the same concerns
Maya expressed to me. 

“That active duty stuff didn’t stop you from
going after Danny Datello with the gusto we all know and love,
Helen.  If I need you, can I at least call?”

“I wish it were up to me,” I said
softly.  “But I have a sinking feeling that even if my insight
would help, nobody will ask for it.”

“I picked up on that too,” she said. 
“Orion already laid down the law.  Everything goes through him
first.  Like that would stop me from talking to you.  He
can threaten me all he likes, Helen.  I won’t look the other
way if I think they’re ignoring where the forensic evidence leads
them.”

“Don’t put yourself in the middle of
this.  Please, Maya.  Orion wields more power out here
than you can possibly imagine.  I suspect that since he’s over
me, I’m as much fair game as anybody else.”

“He’s not over a damn thing, Helen.”

I disagreed.  Maya didn’t hear our
conversation earlier.  In fact, Johnny directed that
endearment that used to belong to me at her tonight. 
Doc
.  Hated nickname.  Now it was a knife in the
heart, hearing him use it on someone else.

Devlin tapped my shoulder.  “Ned’s
gonna drive us home,” he said.  “He’ll bring me back to my car
after we drop you off.  You good with that?”

I wasn’t.  Being alone right now was
the last thing I wanted. 

“Or he can pick me up from your place in the
morning.”

“Do you mind?”

He pressed his lips to my forehead. 
“You don’t have to ask.”

As it turned out, Devlin’s kiss to my
forehead was my one and only kiss at midnight.  The new year
arrived with more agony from the old than promise for the
new.  It was my goal to think about the future as little as
possible from now on.  Too much uncertainty floated out there
with those thoughts.  Best to leave the past buried as
well.  With that kind of mindset, the here and now takes on a
whole new degree of importance.

Devlin yanked me out of my silent
thoughts.  “So, about this reprise tomorrow night…”

“Yeah,” I nodded slowly.  So much for
ignoring the future.  “I guess you’d like to show up and try
again without dead bodies, yes?”

“We don’t have to, I mean, what happened
tonight seems to have left a pall over the whole date experience
for you.”

“No, Dev, that’s not it at all.  Were
you joking about digging for information at the after party to help
Crevan close his case?”

“Sort of.  Not that I’d withhold
anything if we did learn something that might help close the
case.  I seriously doubt that anybody in the band would murder
some poor woman,” he said.  “Underwood on the other hand…”

His bias was firmly entrenched.  “But
what if Underwood really had nothing to do with it?  Do you
really expect me to believe that this guy is guilty of murder
without anything more than our circumstantial case so far? 
The guy readily admitted to handling the equipment, Dev.”

“He’s cocky enough to believe he’s so
goddamned smart that the cops couldn’t possibly ever amass any real
evidence against him too.  Remember, Helen, you don’t know
this guy.  I do.  Too well.”

“But that was a long time ago,” it’s too
easy to slide into the role of Devil’s advocate for me
sometimes.  Now was no different.  I felt Devlin’s eyes
impale me in the darkness.

“Please tell me that you weren’t taken by
his disgusting charm.  God, it makes me sick to think I left
you alone with that creep for a second, Helen.”

“So he’s always fancied himself as suave
with women, eh?”

He grunted.  “Suave, that’s a good word
for his highly inflated opinion of himself.  Underpants
attracts a certain type of woman, Helen.  She’s usually not
particularly bright, though he claims he can’t stand stupid women,
good looking, but with serious esteem issues.  He hit on you,
didn’t he?”

“Uh, I believe the gist of it was that he
could have me on my knees in a matter of minutes if he was really
interested in me.”

“That son of a… I ought to go back over
there and knock out a couple more of his teeth.”

“I don’t think I want to know the back story
on that one, Dev.  But in case you were curious, I discouraged
his interest.”

“Of course he hit on you,” Dev muttered more
to himself than speaking directly to me.  “After Madden showed
interest, he had no choice.”

“Excuse me?”

“Huh?”  Devlin glanced at me.

“You were actually speaking those thoughts,
my friend.  Why would…?”  Underwood’s own words echoed
through my mind – he loved snatching women out from under Madden,
enough to make it the primary reason he worked for the man.  I
shook my head.  “Never mind.  I get it now.  Sadly,
neither one of them would get very far with me.”

“Because of Johnny?”  Dev uttered the
question with a sort of tentative reverence for territory I
expressly did not want to discuss earlier.

“No,” I admitted.  “Not because of
Johnny.  Basically it boils down to one thing.  That sort
of bravado has never interested me as a woman, Devlin.  I
prefer a man who doesn’t have to come on like a bulldozer to
communicate his interest.”

“But I heard Orion was pretty aggressive in
his pursuit.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, “and look how well that
turned out.”

“Hey, that wasn’t because of you.”

“Wasn’t it?  If I hadn’t sneaked off to
execute a search warrant at Dunhaven alone, I wouldn’t have been
detained by three psychos.  Johnny wouldn’t have needed to
come rushing to my rescue again.  He wouldn’t have lost the
last year of his memory.  Maybe it happened because I needed
it.”

“You needed him to forget about you? 
No way, Helen.  I don’t buy that.”

“Not consciously,” I said. 
“Subconsciously, maybe even a little more than that, maybe I felt
like Johnny got too close, that he understood too much, knew things
that part of me couldn’t stand that he –”

“Bullshit,” he said softly.  “He hurt
you tonight, Helen.  That’s what he did, isn’t it?  He
blamed you for what happened to him.”

“Yeah,” I cleared the whispery rasp out of
my throat.  “Life goes on, right?”

Devlin reached for my hand.  “Now there
are two reasons I wanna go back to the amphitheater.  One to
kick Underwood’s teeth in, and treat Orion to a bit of the
same.”

“Don’t do or say anything, Devlin. 
He’s angry and probably more confused than he wants anyone to
realize.  Talk about a huge hit to self-esteem.  I
suspect that Johnny is questioning his ability to do the job right
now, based on the fact that he cannot remember a lot of important
events alone.”

“Maybe, but he doesn’t have to take his
frustration out on you.”

“Then again,” I admitted, “he made a valid
point.”

“Which was?”

“I could’ve been there for him no matter
what, Devlin.  I wasn’t.  I poured all of my fear and
anxiety into closing a stupid case.”

“Arresting Datello was a coup, not a stupid
case.  Orion’s probably feeling sour grapes that he wasn’t
there for the moment you put him in cuffs.”

“I highly doubt that’s a motivating factor
in his anger toward me,” I stared out the passenger window of
Devlin’s car.  In the end, we decided not to tear Ned away
from the crime scene, particularly after what Maya told me about
the suspected gender of the victim.  One voice of reason
needed to prevail, to provide Crevan with the fortitude he’d need
once Briscoe heard the news.

“With that much, I can agree.  The
attitude tonight was based on the fact that you were out for a
night on the town with me.  Last time I checked, Southerby
didn’t break Johnny’s fingers.  If he wanted to be with you,
he could’ve damn well picked up the phone and called.”

“Maya thinks the victim could be
transgendered,” I quickly changed the subject to safer territory,
or so I hoped. 

Devlin slammed on the brakes and skidded to
a stop alongside the street.  “And you’ve got a shred of doubt
that Underpants is guilty?  Jesus, Helen! Did you forget what
I told you about this guy?”

“You know better than to jump to conclusions
like that.  We need more than your severe dislike of the man
to arrest him for murder.  Even his official military record
doesn’t provide proof that he might be at the top of a suspect list
for a hate crime.”

He thumped one fist against the steering
wheel in a slow rhythm.  “Dammit.  Why couldn’t the corps
just call it what it was?”