Loves Redemption (15 page)

untangled them unassisted.

With a small smile he said, “This happens all the time, ever since they switched from pin

name tags to hanging ones. There, I got it.” He placed the gold chain back inside his shirt.

“Aren’t you one of the detectives on the slayer
case?” he asked.

“Yes, Detective Halstan and I have been assigned to work it exclusively,” Jordan said, as

he put on gloves and opened the evidence bag.

“Detective Halstan. I saw him on the news with that nasty Alicia Somers. She is so

irritating; why they let her interview anyone is beyond me. She has the inquisitive skills of a flying gnat.” A look of disgust crossed the clerk’s pinched features.

“What?!” Jordan asked on a choked laugh.

“Oh nothing, I’m sorry. I don’t like that woman at all. She’s so pushy.”

“Yeah well I think they’re all like that. It’s the nature of their job,” Jordan mumbled, his mind on the contents of the bag. After he finished his perusal, he took off the plastic gloves and returned the evidence to the clerk.

“Was there something in particular you were looking for, Detective?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh nothing. I wanted to know if there was anything else I could help you with?” he

asked with a small smile.

“No, that was all, thanks.” Jordan said, and left the room.

As soon as the clerk was once again alone in the room, the smile dropped from his face,

and was replaced with a frown. He picked up the phone to make a call.

* * * *

“Our girl hit again,” Mark said to Jordan as soon as his partner returned to the squad

room. He led the way as both shouldered their weapons and left the precinct and headed toward the parking garage.

As soon as they arrived at the taped off area of the murder scene, they were immediately

met by one of the crime technicians. “Good afternoon, Detectives. We called as soon as I

confirmed it was the slayer
.
”

“This is a little soon, isn’t it? It hasn’t been quite a month from the last one. Is she

escalating?” Jordan asked. Soon after he’d voiced the question, the smell of the dead corpse hit him. The tech stopped walking and handed them both masks before they continued.

“Okay, obviously this one has been around for a while,” Mark interjected. As they

walked closer to the corpse, they could see parts of the nude man’s body had begun to

decompose.

“If I had to put a time frame on it, I’d say this one has been around for a few weeks. The

coroner can give a more approximate time, but it’ll be damn close,” Davis told the men as they drew close to the decomposing corpse.

The tech went over the scene with them pointing out the similar patterns. After the team

dug the victim out of his shallow grave, they’d been able to see the gun shot point of entry at the back of the skull.

“You can see the victim had been stripped, divested of all clothing and any means of

identification. She left the body with the dowel thrown across his face.” The tech pointed out the wooden down, bloodied, and splattered with the man’s own feces.

Mark hunched down to get a closer look, and with gloved hands, turned the body over.

Although the body was beginning to break down, he could see where the assault had taken place.

“Same shit?”

“Same shit, different day,” the tech answered in the macabre humor of one who dealt

with the more gruesome aspects of humanity, daily.

“How was it uncovered? Any witnesses?”

“No witnesses. Old man out in the park feeding the birds came across this one. Called it

in, and our guys uncovered the body.”

Jordan and Mark made notes as they catalogued the scene. “Looks like that’s it. Let us

know if you discover anything else.”

“Sure will, Detective,” the tech promised.

* * * *

As soon as they returned to the squad room, Lieutenant Hernandez shoved his head out of

his office and called out in a strident voice, “Phillips, Halstan, I need you in my office. Now.”

“Man, what is
wrong
with him?” Jordan asked, as he unfurled his body from behind his desk.

“This case man, this case. Between it, more murders, and the acting chief breathing down

his neck every other damn minute, he’s going fuckin’ nuts,” Mark answered as he followed

Jordan into the lieutenant’s office.

“Have a seat, men. Before I go into my news, what’d you uncover at the scene?”

Lieutenant Hernandez started without preamble, encompassing both men in his query, and Mark gave him a succinct retelling of their discovery.

“All right good enough, good job. The reason I called you in here was to let you know the

acting
chief has decided, over my objections, to bring in the FBI,” he told them at the close of their brief.

“Shit! What the hell for? They’re not going to uncover anything we haven’t already,”

Jordan exclaimed, running an angry hand across the back of his neck.

“Hell, we’ve been working our balls off on this case. What the hell else does the guy

want from us?” Mark demanded, just as pissed off as Jordan over the new development.

Holding up his hand for silence, the lieutenant continued. “Look, men, I know how you

feel, I feel the same way, but it’s a fact and we’re going to deal with it, and deal with it like professionals. The agent’s name is Nicolai Montgomery. His actual title is Special Agent

Montgomery. Special Agent Montgomery heads up a subunit of other specialized agents who

assist in cases such as this one.”

“He arrived from FBI headquarters this morning. In fact, he should be here any minute.”

No sooner had he finished speaking, than a knock sounded on his door. “That might be

him now. I didn’t think he’d make it in so fast.”

“Damn, that was quick.” Jordan told Mark in a low voice.

As the lieutenant opened his office door, he looked up into the silver eyes of the man who

stood there. His gaze took in the FBI identification badge hanging from his neck, and standing aside, he invited the agent in. Hernandez felt the tension rise as the agent entered the room.

“Special Agent Montgomery?” he verified.

“Yes, sir,” the agent said, as he shook his hand and abruptly released it.

“I’m glad your flight made it in safely, and I’d like to welcome you on board.” The

lieutenant’s glance then stole to his two detectives, as they each stood to extend their hand to the newcomer. As each man shook the other’s in a hard grip, he had a moment to do a quick visual of the FBI agent.

Having already taken note of his strange eyes, his gaze took in the inky blackness of his

hair. The agent’s nose was prominent in his face, hawked and crooked. His chin was squared

with a deep cleft, and a discernible shadow covered it.

Although he looked to be under 6 feet in height, he was thick, and the muscles in his

chest and legs bulged through his dark, fitted, standard-issue suit and tie. The agent’s legs were braced apart, and he’d maneuvered his body to allow his back to face the wall.

“Please Special Agent Montgomery, have a seat,” he offered, indicating the available

chair.

“I’ll stand for now, thank you, Lieutenant Hernandez. If you don’t mind, I’d very much

appreciate it if we could start. And Agent Montgomery is fine,” he said in a deep scratchy voice.

“Start what? What’s your role going to be in this case?” Jordan asked.

Turning his head toward Jordan, the agent gave Jordan his direct gaze, his head tilted to

the side as though considering his words carefully before answering.

“My role is to assist this department and give aide to this investigation. I emphasize the

word assist. I don’t know what your experience in the past has been with the FBI, Detective, whether it was positive or negative. Although judging by your hostility, I would guess it wasn’t very good,” he ventured in a direct manner, a sardonic smile creasing the corners of his hard mouth.

Taking all three men in his gaze, Montgomery continued. “I’m sure you’ve been running

this investigation with skill, experience and expertise. My intent is not to belittle what you’ve done. I’m here to give you aid, and perhaps add my particular skills, experience, and expertise to the table in the hopes of capturing the perpetrator of these murders.” He paused, his mercurial gaze sweeping over each man in the room.

“So where we start is wherever you want to start. I’d like to listen to what you have to tell me about this case and what you know about the offender, and we can go from there.”

After he’d finished speaking, he took the proffered seat and waited in quiet expectation

for their verdict. Lieutenant Hernandez knew he was waiting for them to either accept his aid or not. Either way it was clear from the agent’s demeanor he would do his job, with or without their assistance, or approval.

Over the next few hours Jordan, Mark, and Lieutenant Hernandez alternated giving the

agent information as they offered their speculations as well. When they’d completed their brief, the agent remained silent for several minutes, squinting, as though he were trying to figure out a puzzle.

“From what you’ve told me it appears the offender is displaying some of the more typical

characteristics of an organized serial killer. The murders are taking place over an average of a thirty day period, give or take a week, with no escalation.”

He took a moment to take a drink of the water at his side. “The offender is methodical

and organized, and she takes great pains to hide her victims. You believe she’s female so I’ll refer to the killer in the feminine gender. However, she doesn’t try to hide the abandoned car left at the scene. Keeping constant with her methodical nature, she brings along a rape kit which she uses post mortem on the victims.”

Agent Montgomery recanted the information from memory. He’d taken out a small black

notebook and had occasionally written a note down. However, he had paid close attention to

what each man had to say, as though the way they uttered the words were as important as the words themselves.

“She’s smart and allows the police to discover what she wants them to find. She’s

methodical and organized, and is the most difficult type of serial killer to capture, as I’m sure you men are aware. The more organized the killer, the better their ability to function in society.

What further illustrates the nature of her organization is her ability to lure the victim to a location of her choosing. This gives her infinite control. Or she’s killing them before driving to a prearranged destination. I’d like to go survey the location of where the
first
victim was discovered.”

“Any particular reason?” Lieutenant Hernandez interrupted.

“The first crime is typically committed close to where the offender lives or works. As

they become more proficient, they in turn become more confident. As their confidence grows, they venture out further. Yes, Detective?” Agent Montgomery asked, his gaze turning from the lieutenant, to Mark, although Mark hadn’t voiced a question out loud.

“You said you were interested in the psychological as well as the physical aspects to the

case. In what way do you mean? In the role of a profiler?”

“Of sorts. I belong to a subunit of FBI specialists who, at one time in their career, were

strictly profilers. I too was a profiler before moving to the unit.”

Montgomery glanced at his watch. “It’s been a long day for me, so maybe we can start

early tomorrow where we leave off here.” The agent began to unfold his thick body from the

chair and picked up the small black case he’d carried in with him.

Lieutenant Hernandez had seen Jordan look at his watch and stretch his back before he

settled further back into his chair. He’d thought he’d been the only who’d seen the move because he happened to be looking in Jordan’s direction, but when Montgomery asked to wrap things up, he realized the observant man had cataloged his movement and responded. Hernandez’s

estimation of the agent’s observational abilities went up a notch.

They set a time to meet the following day. The agent shook hands with Lieutenant

Hernandez before shaking hands with Mark and Jordan. This time, none of the men felt

compelled to use as much force as before, confident they had a measure of the other’s worth established.

After the agent left, those who remained sat down in the chairs they’d risen from. They’d

had dealings with the FBI before, and not always good ones. Agent Montgomery seemed

different from the others. Mark bluntly put a voice to what they were all feeling.

“He seemed to have a handle on what we’ve been doing in the investigation.”

“He wasn’t
too
much of an asshole. He didn’t come in telling us what
he
thought we should be doing, he listened and gave good input.” Jordan agreed, with reluctance.

“Yes I agree with you both. Agent Montgomery will make a good addition to this

investigation, and to this team,” Lieutenant Hernandez agreed with both men’s assessments.

Turning to Mark he asked, “Could you give Dr. Richardson a call and ask when it would

be convenient for her to meet with the agent? I agree it’s important for him to meet with her so she can share her knowledge.”

“No problem, sir. I’ll give her a call tonight and find out what her schedule looks like.”

“It can wait until tomorrow, Mark. It’s getting late, no need to call her tonight. When you speak with her, tell her she can either come by the station or you can take Agent Montgomery by her center and speak there.” He finished and dismissed the men back to their work.

Soon after, Mark and Jordan called it a night and left the office, walking together to the

underground parking lot. “How is everything going with you and the doc?” Jordan asked as he stashed his gym bag in the back of his jeep.