Rock Harbor Series - 04 - Abomination (13 page)

Anu never locked the door and had told her not to bother knocking. Elena threw open the door and rushed inside. “Terri!” The scent of baking cookies didn’t comfort her.

Anu came from the kitchen. “What is wrong, Elena? You look distraught.”

Bree rushed in behind her. “Elena, Montgomery could assign you some protection.”

Anu’s face creased. “
Kulta
, what is going on?”

Elena looked around for the sight of a bright blonde head. “Where’s Terri?”

“She’s in the kitchen, decorating cookies.”

Elena darted past Anu into the blue-and-yellow kitchen. The sweet scent of sugar cookies permeated the air. Elena went to the children and swept the little girl into her arms.

Terri wiggled. “Down,” she commanded. “Cookie.” She pointed to a lopsided bunny cookie with more frosting than substance.

“We need to go, Terri.”
Far, far away.

Terri thrust out her lower lip, a trick that usually melted Elena. But today it only upped her frustration. She didn’t know where she could go, only that she needed to get away.

Bree and Anu were standing arm in arm and talking in low voices when she turned. “I need to get home,” Elena said. “Can you take me now?”

“Of course,” Bree said.

“Leave Davy and let him finish decorating his cookies,” Anu said.

“You sure?” Bree asked.

“I shall bring him home later,” Anu said.

“Okay.”

Elena waited by the door until Bree went to tell Davy good-bye. She wanted to scream with the need to hurry. And where could they go? There was no one she could turn to for help. As she carried Terri to the Jeep, the back of her neck prickled. Was he watching her even now from behind the blank stares of some storefront?

And more important—who was he?

Bree held open the back door, and Elena buckled Terri into her car seat in the back. Samson immediately plopped his head on the child’s lap. Terri giggled and began to stroke his ears. He gave a blissful groan.

The lighthouse at the end of the road felt like home. Elena felt a pang at the thought of leaving it. She saw it with new eyes, the slate covering its steeply pointed roof and the window mullions that gave it even more character.

Sitting on top of the bluff, she felt safe. Or at least she had until today.

BREE WIGGLED THE MOUSE, AND THE COMPUTER SCREEN CAME to life. Elena might not be able to tell her what was going on, but maybe there was some clue they’d overlooked online. She went to the Google site, typed in “geocache murder,” and clicked the search button. Something touched her shoulder, and she jumped.

She looked up into the smiling blue eyes of her husband. “You scared me to death,” she scolded. “Did you lock the door?”

“This is Rock Harbor.”

“We found a dead body today.” She told him the story. “Elena is terrified, Kade. It was all I could do to talk her into not making any decisions tonight. I thought I’d see what I can find online.”

“Snooping?” He pulled a chair up beside her.

“I’m frightened for her.” Bree shuddered, and Kade put his arm around her. She snuggled into the comfort of his embrace. The search engine brought up numerous sites.

She clicked on one and leaned forward to read it. “This one was in Bay City just last week,” she said. “It says a woman was found stabbed to death in the woods. Geocachers found her. Her hands were amputated.” She nearly gagged at the thought. “And her face was missing.”

Kade leaned over her shoulder. “Hey, the guy left clues online after the woman was found. ‘Authorities were alerted to a Web post allegedly made by the killer within hours of the body’s discovery,’” he read aloud. “‘Oh, ye! Think ye that Incal will accept the blood of innocent animals for your crimes? Whoso sayeth this doth lie! Incal, God, will never take blood of anything, nor symbol of any sort which placeth an innocent in a guilty one’s stead!’”

Bree’s eyes widened. “That’s spooky.” She shook her head. I wonder if there’s anything at the site where today’s cache was listed.”

“You should let Montgomery handle it.”

“I wish Mason were here.” Her sheriff brother-in-law was a rock. He would have known what to do.

“Montgomery isn’t a bad sort. How long will Mason and Hilary be in Finland?”

“Another week. They wanted to introduce Zoe to all the Finnish relatives.” Hilary was Anu’s daughter and part of the family, especially since she’d adopted Kade’s niece.

She navigated to the geocaching site. “There are comments posted about today’s site.” She clicked the comment link and checked the time stamp. “It was just added tonight. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’”

“That’s familiar; look it up.” He leaned toward the computer.

Bree typed in the beginning of the sentence. “It’s from Jeremiah.”

“The Bible, New Age mumbo jumbo. Our guy reads from a variety of sources. Seems odd.”

She bent over the keyboard again. “Let’s see if there are any other geo-cache murder sites in the past few years.” Before she could type in the search string, the doorbell rang, and she heard Elena in the hallway.

Bree stood and grabbed Kade’s hand to lead him out of the office. “I don’t want Elena to see this article. She’s already freaked.”

They met Elena in the hall, and all three of them went to the living room.

“I’ll get the door,” Kade said. He stepped to the foyer and returned a few moments later with a young man in tow. Bree recognized him as the man who’d seen her and Elena jogging a couple of weeks ago.

About thirty, the man wore a smile as relaxed as his jeans. His movements suggested a gracefulness she wasn’t used to seeing in a man. His gaze shot past Bree and landed on Elena. “I’m so glad I found you.”

Elena took a step backward. “Do I know you?”

His smile faltered. “It’s me. Will.” His gaze darted to Bree. “What have you done to her?”

Elena swayed and grabbed the back of a nearby chair.

“You’ve been missing for months, girl. I saw a picture in the paper. You were in the background, but I was sure it was you. I showed someone at the coffee shop your picture, and they told me you were staying here. What are you doing going under an assumed name?”

Elena swayed again, then her knees buckled. Kade leaped to catch her, but he wasn’t fast enough and she crumpled to the rug.

11

T
HE SMALL BUILDING DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A CHURCH. GIDEON got out of his car and looked around the tiny valley surrounded by a white pine forest. It had been all he could do to squeeze his vehicle through the tree trunks that choked the lane to the compound. He could hear the twang of guitars and the thump of drums.

A young woman got out of a small car and approached the weathered blue building. The fading sunlight struck her, and he realized she was pregnant. Very pregnant. He clicked his tongue. She was much too young to be anything but an unwed mother. Certainly she was no older than Odette. Immorality ran rampant in the world, even in this group he had started. What he saw in front of him proved perfection lay nowhere in this world.

He followed her inside the building. Incense burners intermingled with candles lined the walls. Folding chairs, beanbags, and webbed outdoor seating rather than pews furnished the room. Mostly young people, they wore jeans topped with T-shirts. One girl’s shirt read “Job’s Children: Accept Life’s Pain.”

He smiled as he slipped into a sagging patio chair and inhaled the thick scent of patchouli. A few saw him and waved. A hum of excited whispers rose.

Their leader had come home.

THE DISCOVERY OF YET ANOTHER BODY AFTER GIDEON’S ALLEGED death ignited a media firestorm. New theories and speculations about the serial killer, the dead women, and the cop’s missing wife—ex-wife, Nick reminded himself—dominated the local news and even made a few national headlines. A flood of sympathetic well-wishers, total strangers, sent their hope and prayers to Nick. Nasty messages from the criminal element poured in too. Taunting e-mails that twisted the knife.

He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. The past weekend’s murder looked to be a mob hit, clean and direct. Gideon tortured his victims, and he clearly preferred women. The man had been identified as Billy DeAngelo, a known drug dealer.

Gideon would make a slip sometime, and when he did, Nick would have him.

Nick flipped open the Gideon file and began to review the remarks the killer posted on the Web. They’d identified the woman found in the pond as Sophie Tallmadge, an exotic dancer known for her graceful—and sensual—moves. So far he hadn’t been able to connect her to Eve. And even though they’d kept Sophie’s identification out of the media, Gideon had fallen silent about her.

Why no new clues attached to Eve’s remains? Did Gideon think the call while Nick was at Eve’s house was enough?

His head throbbed from too much caffeine and too little sleep. He should probably eat something other than donuts and coffee.

The door to Nick’s office opened, and Fraser stepped in. He came toward the desk with a paper in his hand. “Deputies found bones at a geo-caching site in Rock Harbor.”

“You think it’s another Gideon murder?”

Fraser nodded. “Looks like our guy is taunting us.”

“That was fast. It’s been less than a week since we stumbled onto the Crandall woman.” The woman he’d found on his geocaching jaunt had been identified right away. Yvette Crandall, another blonde dancer. Nick closed the folder. “Did he leave a clue for this one?”

“Yep,” Fraser said, holding out the paper.

Nick’s muscles clenched at the somber expression on his partner’s face. He took the paper and scanned it. “‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’” He rubbed his eyes. “A verse, just like the others. This has to be him. Who is it?”

“No identification yet. According to preliminary results, the bones are about five years dead. Coroner thinks maybe the heart was dug out with a knife. There are nicks on the breastbone. No doubt about this one. It’s Gideon’s MO.”

Nick flipped open the Gideon file again. “I showed you this before, and I think it means something.” He passed over the passage from Proverbs he’d found.

Fraser took it, and Nick watched his partner read it. “What do you think?” he asked.

Fraser handed it back. “You might be right, Nick. We’ve got missing eyes, tongue, hands, and maybe heart so far. He finds some woman who he thinks committed one of these abominations and wastes her.”

Nick tossed the folder onto the desk. “For all the good it does us. And what was Eve’s sin?”

Fraser didn’t answer.

“He seems to be following the order of this passage.”

“Maybe. I don’t know about the tongue though. Eve had the same verse attached to her as to the Tallmadge woman.”

Nick opened his desk drawer and pulled out a Michigan map. “Rock Harbor. Where the heck is that?” He scanned the map and whistled softly through his teeth. “That’s in the UP.” He looked up at Fraser.

Fraser dropped into a chair. “This could be our break—a murder this old and he’s only now revealing it. He’s getting bold. Your dad thinks we should get up to Rock Harbor and check it out.”

Nick stood and grabbed his sport jacket from the back of his chair. “Let’s go now.” He stopped in the doorway. “Wait, when was this posted?”

“Saturday night, and the body was found yesterday.”

“If we could only figure out his motive. He’s a missionary killer, but what triggers him? And why blonde dancers?”

Fraser shrugged. “They all have a similar look—slim and elegant with great bone structure,” Fraser said. “Eve fit that profile. If we knew where he first saw her, we might be able to figure out who he is and why he killed her.”

Nick picked up the picture of Eve. “All the victims so far were ballerinas at some point. I think he saw Eve at the ballet.”

“In New York? You realize how hard it would be to narrow that field? Thousands of people saw her perform.”

Watching her glide across the stage as if she had wings had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Nick’s throat clenched.

He nodded, then grabbed up the files and stuffed them in his briefcase. “Do we have airline tickets?”

“I had Marge check airlines and times. There isn’t another one until middle of the afternoon, and the trip is nearly five hours with the layover in Minneapolis. So nine hours away. You might as well drive. You’d get there about the same time, and at least you’d have your car.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

Fraser shook his head. “I can’t go until later this week. My daughter has a dance recital tonight, and Gail’s got a short business trip. I’m on Dad Duty. I’ll drive up first thing I can.”

“If I’d been smart enough to put my family first, they might still be alive,” Nick said. He didn’t wait for an answer, since there was none.

He drove home in a fugue of memory. Walking to the front door of his miniscule apartment, he couldn’t help his thoughts from wandering to how it used to be. Eve greeting him at the door with a smile. Keri running to meet him. This apartment felt cold and sterile, devoid of memories or life. No plants. Eve loved plants and flowers. Their house had been filled with them.

At least the bedroom looked lived in, since he came home long enough to sleep. He dragged the suitcase off the closet shelf and began to stuff his clothes and toiletries into it. By ten, he was back in his Dodge Durango and heading out of town.

He took I-75 north, barely noticing the names of the towns he passed as the big tires on his SUV ate up the miles: West Branch, Grayling, Wolverine. Only after he crossed the Mackinac Bridge and turned onto Highway 2 at St. Ignace did he manage to tear his thoughts away from the past.

And he remembered he needed help. He pulled out his cell phone and called Oliver. “Hey, buddy, I’ve got another one.”

“Problems, Nicky?”

“Yeah. Bones found in the UP. I need them identified pronto. You free?”

“Whereabouts in the UP? I have a cabin up near Ontonagon and was planning on going up for some fishing anyway. I was just heading there today, actually.”

“Rock Harbor.”

He gave his customary
ho-ho
laugh. “Ah, about thirty miles from my fishing hole. Let me get settled, and I’ll come over and take a look. Just let me get some fishing in too.”