Maximum Guilt (Hidden Guilt Book 2) (20 page)

“Who said I like you?”

“Still playing hard to get, huh?”

“Just grab the door so we can get the coffee, Casanova.”

“On a serious note, how do you think David is holding up? You know he wants to be home with Miranda and the girls right now.”

“Well, you know him better than I do. I’m sure he’d rather be home with his family. But even more than that, he knows they’ll never be safe unless he catches these two,” De Luca said.

“Then let’s make sure we get the job done.”

Chapter 46

Paul and De Luca returned with the coffees and the four of us ate breakfast. I told them I’d looked online for news about the girls, but was unable to find anything.

“They sure have been quiet,” Lafitte said.

“Yeah, I know. A few days now and not a peep. Maybe they went to Mexico,” I said. I was joking, but who knows with those two?

I’d made a call to the Gulfport PD, letting them know we were in town and asking them to keep me in the loop if another murder turned up. As I downed the last drop of my coffee, my phone rang.

“Detective Porter? Captain Alstead, Gulfport PD. A pig farmer came across a couple bodies this morning. It don’t fit the MO of the girls you’re tracking, but we could use a little help getting started.”

“Send me the address. We’ll drive over and take a look.”

It wasn’t the call I was hoping for, but we really didn’t have much going on. We were waiting until midafternoon to launch Franklin’s fake profile.

I explained the situation to the others, and the four of us piled in my truck and followed my GPS to the crime scene. I wondered how often a town like this even had a murder case. The more I thought about it, the more curious I became.

“Lafitte, Google the murder and crime rate of Gulfport,” I said.

“Okay. Give me a minute.”

“What are you thinking, Porter?” De Luca asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not really sure. We’ve been here almost two days. The town seems really slow paced.”

“You aren’t going to believe this,” Paul said. “You ready? Point zero one.”

My hunch was right—Gulfport was not the murder capital of the world. In fact, the citizens of Gulfport just didn’t commit crimes, for the most part. It was too early to draw any conclusions here, but I already had a sneaking suspicion about these two newly discovered bodies.

We climbed out of my truck and headed toward the taped-off area where a group of local officers awaited.

“Detective Porter? Captain Alstead.”

I stuck out my hand, introduced myself, and asked him what they had so far.

“Well, two John Does. ME says they’ve probably been here two days or so.”

“Why John Does? No IDs?” De Luca said.

“Both men were found naked here in this field. The farmer’s dog brought back a piece of a hand, and the farmer came over to check it out.”

“You guys already questioned the farmer, I presume?” I asked.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, detective. I’ve known Clive as long as I can remember. He and his wife, Ellie, wouldn’t hurt a fly. We won’t be able to match dental records or check fingerprints, either. All gone—every tooth pulled, every print burned off.”

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” I said.

“Yes,” De Luca and Lafitte said together.

“We have to find out who these guys are. I’d bet my life the two girls we’re chasing did this. They pulled their teeth and burned off their fingertips to slow us down. Same with leaving the bodies here. They’ve gotten a two-day jump on us now, and we still have work to do here. It’ll take hours just to ID them,” I said.

Of course this was all a hunch, but my gut said it was a correct one. Folks here just weren’t killing people, much less pulling out teeth so the bodies couldn’t be easily identified.

“Did you scan the bodies for any kind of military chip?”

“No, sir, but we can once we get them down to the coroner,” Captain Alstead said.

“Let’s get them moved ASAP, captain. Give me a call when they start the autopsies.”

“Autopsies? These boys were shot in the head. Hell, even a blind woman could see that.”

“With all due respect, sir, gunshot wound to the head may not be the cause of death. Could be another ploy to slow us down and throw us off the trail. Please order the autopsies.”

The four of us climbed back into my pickup. I didn’t need the autopsy results or the names of these men to know who’d done it. But where the hell were they now?

“David, if they’re still traveling on I-10, we just have to up our hours-traveled and expand our search area some. This doesn’t take our fake profile trap out of play,” Lafitte said.

“You and De Luca start looking a hundred miles out, based on this two-day gap they’ve created. And contact Fingers. Get him working on killing those other profiles and highlighting ours. Franklin and I will go to the coroner’s office and wait on the autopsy reports.”

“Hey, Franklin, do you have a name you’d like us to use for your profile?” De Luca asked.

“Well, Franklin’s kinda stuffy, and I am a hillbilly at heart. Should’ve been named Buck or Bo or something. Hey, that’s it—Bo Brown. I go by BB.”

“Perfect,” De Luca said. “Nice to meet ya, Bo.”

I dropped the pair off at the motel so they could get busy figuring out where the girls might be. Franklin and I headed for the coroner’s office.

“You really think it’s them, sir?” Franklin said as we made our way through town.

“Yes, I believe it’s them. All the signs point to it.”

We arrived at the coroner’s office and Alstead took us back.

“So here’s what we got. I put a rush on these autopsies. Had to call in a favor. We don’t have all those fancy gadgets like you big cities. Really don’t have a reason to, I reckon. So we’ll start with cause of death. You were right; they didn’t die of a gunshot wound to the head. They were both poisoned. Their blood alcohol content was five times the legal limit,” Alstead said.

“That’s good. What else do you know?” I said.

“Well, I think we’ve identified ’em both, too. Bubba and Claude Jenkins. Brothers. Claude must have spent some time in the military; he had a chip implant. Had some of my officers’ check out his social media activity. Then we compared pics of the other vic until we found a match.”

“You didn’t recognize them? You said you knew everyone here.”

“These boys are not from Gulfport. Town nearby called Long Beach is where they’re from. But it’s them for sure.”

“Thank you, Captain Alstead. If I need anything else can I call you?”

“Sure thing, and thanks for your help today. I think we can take it from here.”

Chapter 47

When we left the coroner’s office, I called De Luca to fill her in.

“We’re about ten minutes out. Call Fingers and have him start profiling the Jenkins brothers. I want to know everything there is to know about them, starting with the obvious: are they convicted rapists? Were you and Lafitte able to zero in on a new search zone and get Franklin’s profile going?”

“Yes, yes, and yes, sir. We can go over the details when you get here.”

I drove way too fast, ignoring all the long yellow lights and a couple red ones. It looked like we’d finally gotten another break, and I wanted to jump all over it. When we reached the motel, I slammed the truck in park and we ran inside. Paul was rattling out the details before the door closed behind us.

“So, both were convicted rapists with multiple charges. Claude was actually kicked out of the military due to a rape case. We have the Franklin profile going, and we have a new search zone. De Luca and I think we should travel to Jacksonville. It’s the end of the road for I-10 unless we head north or south,” Lafitte said.

“Let’s take this operation mobile and work from the road. We all have hotspots, and Fingers can help us out with anything else we need. We need to make up some time. Good job on the intel, very good job.”

“David, let’s have Fingers pull up the Jenkins’s bank records for the last two or three days. Maybe they hit a bar or club with Stacy and Brittany, and we can get some video footage,” De Luca said.

I nodded. “I think that’s a great idea!”

We packed up everything again and headed toward Jacksonville. I felt good about what we’d learned, and even better about the trap we’d set up. Maybe we could force them into taking the bait.

Chapter 48

“Does Marci know we’re coming to see her?” Brittany said.

“Who? Her name is Kim, remember. Marci no longer exists.”

“Oh yeah.”

“No, she doesn’t know we’re coming, and it’s too risky to call her. We’re going to spend the night in Lake City. You up for another job tonight?”

Just the thought of it made Brittany tingle from head to toe. She loved the feeling of power that killing these scumbags gave her. She no longer felt like a pathetic, powerless, victim; instead, she was a mighty, fearless advocate for women’s rights.

Brittany slammed her fist on the dash. “You know, one day we’re going to give this movement the national attention it deserves. Maybe then we’ll have fewer and fewer rapes until we’ve ended it for good.”

“It won’t ever end, Brittany. There are countries where men’s dicks get cut off as a punishment and those misogynistic assholes still find ways to rape women. I love what we’re doing. I wish I could bring the bastards who raped me back to life so I could kill them again and again,” Stacy said.

The look in Stacy’s eyes scared Brittany a little.

They made it to Lake City and found a motel room for the night. They logged on to their favorite hookup website and started their search within a twenty-mile radius. Much to their dismay, there were no hits on sex offenders.

“A city this big and not one damn sex offender? That seems odd. Those creeps are literally everywhere,” Stacy said.

“Well, maybe they have two hundred of them, but none are on the hookup site. First time for everything, right?”

They expanded the search to fifty miles. Even then they only got one hit. Stacy expanded the search zone to one hundred miles. They had ten hits total.

“I think we should just take the closest one. It’s already an hour away,” Brittany said.

“Well, let’s check him out,” Stacy said.

Stacy cross-checked the name with her sex offender database. Looked to be a perfect match. And to make it all the sweeter, his fantasy involved a pair of sisters.

“Why do you think men are so stupid, Stacy?”

“It’s simple: they have a penis. It’s not a very scientific answer but, hey, if the shoe fits. Let’s send Mr. Bo a message and see if he’s free tonight.”

Hi Bo! My name is Stacy and guess what if you are free tonight I may have another girl with me . . . my sister.

Stacy waited for a few minutes but didn’t get the quick response she was hoping for.

“I think I’m gonna try someone else. Maybe Mr. Bo went somewhere and left his computer on. It showed he was online. Oh well.”

As Stacy checked out other potential matches, she received a message.

Hey Miss Stacy it’s me Bo. Sorry I was hitting the weights and I accidentally left my computer open.

“Brittany, get over here! We got a live one!”

I was starting to think you looked at my profile and didn’t like what you saw.

Oh no I’m very interested. I’d like to see a picture of that sister of yours too. I think I can make you both happy. And BTW I go by B
B
.

Gimme a second and I’ll upload a picture of her. What does BB stand for anyways? Big Boy? Big Bo? Haha

Stacy found a sexy photo of Brittany on her desktop and sent it.

Wow she’s smokin too! So what’s the plan for tonight? Its four pm now. Wanna meet around nine? My place? Big Boy is right… how’d you guess?

Sure BB we’re gonna have some fun tonight baby. Make sure you rest those muscles before then.

I’ll be ready.

Chapter 49

Stacy and Brittany felt good about losing Porter, at least for now. Leaving Bubba and Claude the way they had surely slowed him down. It was nearly four p.m. now, and Jacksonville was only an hour away. They decided to pay Marci a visit a day earlier than they’d anticipated.

Stacy pulled up her address on her GPS. She’d never been to Marci’s house before but knew she had to be pretty close.

“There it is, Brittany,” Stacy said, pointing at a one story brick house on the corner.