The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller (17 page)

Reyna didn’t know why she was at Louis’ apartment, though when she was standing outside of his door, her fist hitting the wood, she’d been unable to force herself to leave. In the five months they’d been close with each other, he’d become a reliable source of comfort to her, especially in the wake of Abby’s move. It had never felt odd to her that she’d traded her best friend for her friend’s boyfriend’s best friend. In fact, any man that Abby deemed worthy to love had to be a good man, and good men chose the same kind of stock to run with. The logic was sound.

Louis’ face as
he looked at her as he’d opened his door was like having the ability to break through the surface of a lake and finally take that life-saving breath. Without considering how much of a jerk he thought he was, or how much of an inconsiderate two-time jackass he was, she flung herself at him and cried.

As she felt herself being pulled into his apartment,
she heard Louis whisper, “Come on, calm down. Are you hurt?”

Louis had done a good job of directing her where he wanted to go and as soon as she felt his couch touch the back of her knees, she sat down and let her entire body rest against him. She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath which she let out slowly. Once she felt calm, she said, “Mrs.
Buttleby died tonight. I got the call from Trudy half an hour ago; even though my shift had ended at five.”

Reyna felt Louis close his arms around her and squeeze her gently. He said softly, “I know how much you cared about her and I’m so sorry she’d gone, Reyna.”

Reyna nodded against him and once Louis dropped his arms, she sat up away from him and let her eyes find his. She said, “Thank you.”

“Reyna, I’m
”

Reyna sighed. She wasn’t surprised that Louis would choose an opportunity like this to talk to her about other emotional topics, and she held up a hand to
stop him. “Not tonight, okay? I know, just leave it at that. I just need to be with someone right now, and you’re the only person I have.”

Louis chuckled and placed his arm around her to then force her to lean with him backward so that they sunk into the back of the sofa. “So, do you want to watch a movie? I have popcorn. We can sit here and just be here together. Believe it or not, my day was a little tough too.”

Reyna had the chance, now that her eyes weren’t full of tears, to see how very red Louis’ eyes were. He looked as if he’d been awake for a week and then run over by a truck. She felt instantly guilty. For one thing, she knew Louis would sacrifice his own comfort for her sake; it was the kind of man he was.

“I shouldn’t stay. You look like you’ll slip into a coma at any moment, Louis. How is it fair to keep you awake;
it’s selfish.”

Louis shook his head. “I’d rather have my eyeballs battered and fried and then fed to me before I turn you out because of some trivial thing as needing to sleep.” He smiled and then ever so gently placed a
kiss on her cheek.

Reyna stiffened and moved out of Louis’ reach. It wasn’t so much the kiss, as it was that she didn’t think the way that things were between them could allow for physical contact. There was still a lot of things that they needed to sort through, things that she couldn’t bring herself to talk about at the moment.

“I really should leave, Louis.”

“Nothing happened between me and Rebecca, Reyna. She’s my partner, that’s all it is. I had a little too much to drink, I made a bad choice. It doesn’t look good, and I can see why you were so upset, but I never cheated on you.”

Reyna closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it, Louis. You know how much my patients mean to me; it’s all that my mind can deal with.”

Reyna watched as Louis ran a hand through his hair. When he lifted his eyes to hers, the grey of them seemed to be stormier than normal. If she didn’t know better, she could swear his eyes were the windows into a rainstorm.

“Reyna, what do you want me to do? Tell me what you want from me, and I’ll do my best to give it to you. You want me to comfort you, I’ll do that. You want me to say I’m sorry, I’ll do that too.” He sighed again and then added, “I am what I am, Reyna. You’re the first person I’ve met that made me want to try to be something different. I
want
to try.”

Reyna knew she was staring right at him, hearing him but not hearing him. She was thinking about how they met. It had been literally the day Abigail left, at the going away party they’d thrown. She’d see Louis before, of course, but the party had been the first time she’d ever talked to him. She’d instantly discovered that she liked him, found him charming even as he’d tried to pinch her rear and make a beeline with his eyes to her breasts. After the party, and after Abby and Travis were gone, she’d allowed Louis to cling to her and vice versa, so that a relationship could form in the place of the ones that had been altered.

She knew that she cared about him, knew that she loved him, but she didn’t know if it was enough. Louis could say that he wanted to be different, that he wanted to stop chasing women, and he might even be sincere when he said it, but there was still something in their way. They’d only come together, mentally and physically, because of the changes they’d had to absorb.

Reyna lifted herself from Louis’ sofa, offered him a sad smile, and said, “I’m going to go home now.”

“Reyna”

“Don’t Louis. Just let me go for now.”

Reyna didn’t look back as she opened Louis’ front door and walked through the frame and then out to her car. She was just about to open the driver’s side door when she felt arms wrap around her.

“Did you think I was going to let you walk away without a fight? Give me a chance, Reyna. I think I might love you.”

Reyna felt her eyes go wide and her hands fall from the car door. She knew for a fact, since he’d boasted with pride that he’d never said the ‘L’ word to a woman, that it cost Louis to confess to her.

She turned to face him. “Do you mean it, Louis?”

The storm in Louis’ eyes evolved so that lightning struck in his pupils. “Yes. I don’t know what it means, or what to do, but yes. You do too, don’t you?”

“Yes.” The admission sounded weak. She hadn’t imagined it the moment they told each other they were in love would look like this. She exhaled and then louder, “Yes, Louis. I love you too.”

Louis opened his eyes, his body the most relaxed it had been in recent memory, and as he stretched, he had to smile when his arm ran into another body that rested as equally comfortable next to his. Reyna’s hair, scattered over her bare back was a sight to behold, and as much as he’d meant what he’d told her the night before, he meant it twice as much as he stared at her now. How could it be that he was able to look at other women when he had a goddess like Reyna that wanted him for the rest of his existence?

He hadn’t lied when he said he loved her. The word was foreign to him, and he wouldn’t go overboard saying it to her, but he’d been without her and felt her absence and as he’d not been able to think about much that didn’t include her, he knew it meant only one thing
; it meant that finally, someone had come along and tamed him. It also meant that he owed Travis fifty dollars.

Louis leaned over to where Reyna’s head was turned,
and as he kissed her on the cheek, she opened her eyes. They were still a bit puffy from the night before, but unlike the night before, she was calm and looking as if she’d won the prize of a lifetime. As she smiled at him, he whispered, “I have to get into work, but before that I’m going to run out for some coffee and bagels. Is that okay for breakfast?”

“
Mmm hmm.”

Louis kissed her on the cheek again, glad that something in his life had been solved, and he said, “I won’t be gone long. Love you.”
 

********
 

Reyna wasn’t the best morning person who ever walked the face of planet Earth, even if she usually had to be at work bright and early and she should be a seasoned veteran. It took her normally a good hour or two after opening her eyes to get fully awake. When Louis had left the bed, kissing her cheek and whispering sentiments, she’d felt as if she was still asleep and dreaming. How had things changed so
quickly for them? After all, this was The Louis Kale, the horn dog of Collie she was dating. His reputation wasn’t as infamous as Travis Harper’s but it was widely known around town that the two had been indistinguishable from one another since practically having discovered the opposite sex.

She smiled to herself as she burrowed deeper into the covers of Louis’ bed. He was hers, she was his, and no matter what pain life delivered to her, that fact could make her feel like she was capable of flying high enough to reach heaven. It didn’t matter why they’d formed their relationship; the why had fallen away and become the now, and now all that mattered was that they loved each other. Sure, the love was brand new and scary as hell, but it was there and it was precious enough to try and hold on to. It wasn’t everyday a man like Louis fell in love.

Just as she had been about to drift back to sleep, possibly to be woken by Louis’ soft lips on her bare shoulder and the smell of coffee in her nose, a sharp tug to her head had her eyes flying open even as her body was following the motion and she was on the floor, struggling to breathe.

“I should rip your arms from your whore body, you bitch! How dare you sleep with
him!”

Confused, unable to recognize the voice slithering like poison into her ears, Reyna didn’t have the chance to get a look at the person that had so brutally yanked her from Louis’ bed. She didn’t even have the thought to think of how such a person was able to get inside of Louis’ house, especially since as soon as she’d recovered from the fall from the bed, a fist flew at her head and knocked stars into her vision.

She knew she was crying, whimpering and possibly begging to whoever was attacking her to stop what they were doing, but she felt a stinging sensation in the meat of her upper arm and all time stopped in its tracks. Thought was impossible for her, existence held no meaning and as her limbs began to go numb, Reyna realized that she was drooling all over the carpet that was just inches from her lips. Pain filled her body, but because she felt so numb all over, they felt as if they were padded by great bales of cotton and the words that were now stumbling out of her continued to fall on deaf ears.

“You’re going to suffer for what you’ve done. He doesn’t love you, and don’t think he’ll save you. He won’t even care that you’re gone.”

The words, even though they barely reached her, made her numb body turn to ice just as her eyes closed and darkness covered her. Her last thought was that Death had come to collect her.
 

********
 

Louis tapped his foot as he waited in line at Greg’s Coffee House. Once, while he’d been in Hadley on a day trip, he’d wandered into a Starbucks and gotten coffee; the experience had made him appreciate the local coffee haunt all the more, since there was nothing like a mega chocolate chunk coffee gulp to get the blood pumping like it should. Greg was a genius and he deserved to be given a medal, only if you didn’t get there early, you had to wait in line half an hour.

The line inched and Louis made a move to step forward when his cell phone went off. Mechanically, he picked it out of his pocket. He noted the sheriff was ringing him as he pressed his call button and mentally rolled his eyes.

“You got me,
whatchya need?”

“Why aren’t you on shift yet?”

Louis shrugged even though he knew Jon couldn’t see him. “Just grabbing some breakfast.” He frowned when he remembered the events of the day before. “Something happen?”

“We have another one. He’s in his thirties, possibly six foot judging by the length of his torso and his legs, and just like the other ones, he’s missing the third finger on his left hand. The coroner pegged some of the body parts as belonging to someone else and that whoever they belonged to has been dead for over a week a week while our freshest torso was killed last night. I trust the guy, but I’m going to get Cory to take a closer look and make sure.” Jon exhaled into his receiver. “I need you to get your ass over here before I lose my mind, got it? I had a call this morning from everyone’s favorite mayor and he’s got the Feds and the Hadley Bunch in on this one. He told me we might
have us a traveling salesman.”

Louis swore inside his head. It wasn’t a term Jon got to use often, but around the station, a ‘traveling salesman’ was any criminal wanted in another state or city. If their serial killer was a tourist, it meant that the Feds were probably already on the case and it meant they wouldn’t have a popcorn bag’s chance in a movie theater of getting rid of them.

“I have to stop off at my house, but it won’t take me but ten minutes to get to the station. Is my partner already in?” The last he added on for a sarcastic spice to his tone.

Jon scoffed which caused Louis’ brows to collide. “I thought she was with you. Knowing how you are, I had a bet going with Cory to see how long it would take you to get rejected. Though I figured she was already with you, since the rumor around the water cooler is that she’d got the
hots for you. Not like you wouldn’t notice.”

“Wait, what? You thought she was with me? Look, the girl is good looking, but she’s got the personality of a pile of leaves. No thank you. And, you’d better call her
‘cause I ain’t seen her since shift ended yesterday.”

“All right, geez lighten up man. You know I partnered her with you because you’re the best I got. It isn’t because my brother transferred out that you were promoted, Louis. I don‘t think the worst of you all the time.”

A sound as if something crashed into a pile of wine glasses while a band blew trumpets punctuated Jon’s speech and Louis had to literally pull his cell phone away from his ear to avoid permanent damage. Jon was swearing like a deranged badger before he heard the click of the call ending abruptly.

“Well, damn.”

“Son, you going to order or what?”

Louis had to blink a few times before he remembered where he was and why. Even if Jon wanted him in pronto, he wasn’t going to pass up a few minutes to nibble on some grub with Reyna. No man in his right mind who felt the way he felt when he woke up would pass up the chance to spend every second he had with the woman who made him feel that way.

“Yeah, yeah keep your panties on.”
 

********
 

Louis stepped through his front door and whistled softly as he carried his loot back to his room where he planned to serve Reyna in bed. She was a horrible hot mess in the morning, her hair thrown about her face as if she’d been electrocuted, and there was nothing more adorable to him than when he saw the sleepy confusion color her cheeks as she realized she looked like the Nessie on dry land.

“Helllooo! Wake up!” Louis called just as he popped the door open to his room and jumped through the frame as if he were hopping out of a cake. “Honey, I’m home!”

The words left his lips before he had the time to adjust them to what he was seeing. The room had been destroyed; his bedside lamp had shattered as the table it had been sitting on had been turned over, the comforter on the bed as well as the bed’s sheets had been yanked from the mattress and thrown into a
corner, and the topping on the cake was that Reyna was nowhere to be found. The only thing that was where Reyna was supposed to be was an envelope with his name written on it.

“What the hell?”

Louis set the food and coffee he had in his hands on the floor, not really giving a shit if the coffee fell over or not, and he moved to the bed and had the envelope open and the letter in his hands before he even realized he’d given his brain the command to do so.

Dear Louis,

While you were gone, I had time to think about what you said last night. I don’t think you’re capable of loving me, and I don’t love you. I think I deserve more. I’m leaving town for a few days to clear my head, so don’t bother trying to find me.

Reyna

Numbly, and because he should have known karma wasn’t going to give him a break, he crumbled the letter, threw it in whatever direction came first and forced himself to find his uniform. There was nothing he could do about Reyna he knew. But it sure as hell sucked because he hated the fact that he‘d given his heart away to her only so that she could run off with it.
 

********
 

“Just so you know, because I’m your friend, I thought I ought to tell you that you look like something ate you and then crapped you back out.”

Louis glared at Jon as if he wanted his head to dissolve on his shoulders. He wasn’t in the mood for banter. He said, “Just so you know, if it doesn’t concern the job, keep your mouth shut or I’ll punch your face to the back of your skull.”

“Geez, I guess Greg’s coffee isn’t what it used to be.”

Louis watched Jon shrug and then look to the clock on the wall in his office. He then looked out past the door and then out into the rest of the station to watch the various individuals in suits proceed to wreck the place. In zero to sixty, his expression matched the venom that he’d given him at a single comment. There were very few things that could anger Jon, Cory’s temper and people making a mess of his headquarters were the only two that could make him spit nails.

“They told me I had to keep my ass away from the crime scenes. They told me they’d keep me in the loop and that I should put my feet up and relax. However, they didn’t tell me I couldn’t go visit my wife.” Jon’s chuckle was dark enough to pass as octopus ink. He lifted and eyebrow. “Care to join me?”

Louis nodded and as Jon left his desk and headed for his door, he followed behind him. Before they could get out to the parking lot, one of the suited numbnuts stopped them.

“You going somewhere, Sheriff?”

“Yeah, out to lunch.”

“Then go on. We’ll radio you if anything develops, but know that this is a criminal we’ve been tracking for five years. If there’s a chance we’ll catch him in this town, we can’t waste time on keeping the local law
happy.”

Jon waved his hand and turned for the door. It was apparent to Louis that he didn’t care what the Feds thought they were going to do. Jon thought of Collie as his town, and there wasn’t a person alive that could tell him different.
 

********
 

“You’re not supposed to be here, Jon.”

“I’m just here to have lunch with my wife. Whatever you say, I’ll just chalk it up to pillow talk and it’ll stay between us.”

Louis wasn’t surprised when Cory eyed him and then looked back to her husband. She replied, “Then what is Louis doing here? I told you back in high school that threesomes were out.”

Jon chuckled and Louis couldn’t help but to chuckle as well. He looked around and decided that as far as restaurants went, that the one they’d chosen to have lunch in wasn’t so horrible. The fact that the man who owned the restaurant was old as dirt didn’t affect the taste of the food whatsoever.

“So tell me, Cory, what did you find on the new body? Anything we can use?”

“Well, as you know, the clothing the victims were wearing are all but nonexistent due to the method in which they were murdered, but on this guy, his pants pockets were intact. I found some items in his pockets, including something very specific and highly traceable.”

“I’m dying to know.”

Cory put her face on her chin and sighed. “I could lose my license for giving this information to you, my dear husband.”