Stolen Lives: A Detective Mystery Series SuperBoxset (48 page)

“From what we’ve seen so far, yes. What he makes them write seems to differ with each person, but they’re all written in red crayon.”

“Why?” Hemsworth asked, his face scrunched tight as if he were thinking too hard.

“I don’t know.”

“Glad I’m not the only one then,” Hemsworth said. “We’ll need access to your apartment. I understand there was writing there as well. You can inform one of our agents of any personal effects you might need, and you can retrieve them once we’ve tagged our evidence.”

“I’m fine.”

“Captain,” Hemsworth said, looking to Farnes. “I’d like to speak with the detective in private for a moment.”

“Of course. Feel free to use my office. And, Detective, when the special agent is done with you I’d like to have a word.” With all of the attention, Farnes was in a rare mood, though Cooper wasn’t sure what he expected to gain with the feds. With his mind already in retirement, it wasn’t as if he could opt for a career shift into the bureau.

Hemsworth shut the door behind him, and the bustling ruckus of the precinct dulled behind the office walls. “Like the captain mentioned earlier I could use someone that’s already familiar with the suspect’s motives and habits to help with the investigation.” He kept his posture rigid, even behind closed doors. If Cooper had ever seen a more molded sculpture of the stereotypical federal agent, she couldn’t remember. “I took a look at your file. Ninety-five percent arrest rate, with the same conviction rate once the DA takes your suspects to trial.” He tilted his head up, casting his eyes down on her. “Impressive.”

“Anything else my file tell you?” Cooper asked, annoyed with the line of questioning.

“You lost a son.”

A rush of frozen ice burst from Cooper’s heart and flowed through every vein in her body, and she stiffened. “Those records are confidential.”

“For people not in my position, perhaps.” Hemsworth took a step forward, his figure looming over her, and left only an inch of space between them. “You never married, never attempted to have any more children, perhaps due to your absent father who you never knew, and once your mother passed, your sister became your only living blood relative. If she dies, you’re alone. And in my experience when people are forced into solitude they become irrational. Unpredictable.”

Cooper clenched her jaw. “You’ve done your homework.” She pushed off the desk and paced to the front of the office. “But there’s only so much a paper trail can tell you. Sooner or later you have to get your hands dirty.” She turned around, rubbing the still-healing knuckles on her right hand. “And I haven’t washed mine in a while.”

Hemsworth remained quiet for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “You will assist my team. You will not direct them or lead them. That is my job. And just for the record I’m not keeping you on because of what your file told me.”

“Then why?”

With his hand on the door knob he looked back and his face retained the stoic expression that was the most seasoned in his repertoire. “Because the fact that he has your sister makes you angry. It makes it personal. This guy chose you for a reason. And I intend to use that to my advantage.” Hemsworth shut the door and sealed her inside alone.

Bait.
Cooper waved it off. It didn’t matter the reasons, all that mattered was she was still involved. The door opened and shut again when Farnes stepped inside, and he lingered by the door. The two stood in silence, the scene reminiscent of duels in the old west. But with the long morning she’d already had, Cooper wasn’t in the mood for another standoff. “What do you want, Farnes?”

“The investigation of Zane Marks. Drop it.” Farnes remained at the door, his large body blocking the exit. He pointed to his phone. “I just got off the phone with his probation officer, and he told me that you went to his office and harassed both him and Marks.”

“He has an affiliation with one of the drug dealers we arrested this morning. And those drug dealers were tied to a house that had a connection to our killer.” Cooper crossed her arms over her chest. “I’d say that warrants harassing.”

“You’re out of line, Detective!” Farnes stomped forward and he looked her up and down. “People die because of you, Detective. How much more blood do you want on your hands?”

Cooper leaned forward, her eyes locked on Farnes. She kept her voice low and the threat sharp. “As much as it takes.” She slammed her shoulder into the fat of his arm on her way out the door, and slammed it shut behind her.

The normal precinct foot traffic combined with the added bodies of the feds had turned the hallways into a constant congestion of rush hour traffic. Cooper collided with a few of them, her mind lost in its own thoughts.
Why would he care about Marks?
It wasn’t the first time Farnes had steered her away from traveling down that particular road. But how Marks connected to the killer she still didn’t know.

“Hey, Cooper.” Hart weaved his way through the crowd, squeezing past two federal agents. “Hey, um, your sister’s family is here.”

“
Shit.”
Cooper rubbed her temples. “I forgot they were flying in today.”

“Hemsworth is speaking to them now, they’re up front.”

Cooper pushed past Hart and steamrolled her way through the halls. It’d been a year since she’d seen her nieces, but not enough time had passed for her to deal with Tim. She spotted Hemsworth through a cluster of officers, speaking to Tim whose face was blocked from view. The youngest, Mary, was clutched to her father’s leg. She looked left and saw Sarah by the wall, earbuds in with her head down, holding her phone.

The officer blocking Tim’s face finally moved, and he noticed Cooper’s presence. Color drained from his cheeks when she approached. “Hello, Adila.” His voice was grave, and he stood with his hands in his pockets. His face was covered in stubble, and he had dressed comfortably for the long flight over.

Mary sprinted from her father’s leg and threw her little arms around Cooper’s waist, burying her face into Cooper’s stomach. Cooper kissed the top of her niece’s head and ran her fingers through Mary’s wavy locks. “It’s okay.” The young girl’s response was only a tighter squeeze, and Cooper knelt down and scooped her up in her arms.

“I was just telling your brother-in-law some of what we know,” Hemsworth said. “I’ll let the two of you talk. Tim, we’ll get together later about where you’ll be staying.”

“Right. Thank you.” Tim rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat, but couldn’t find the words to speak once they were alone. He kept his arms and legs tucked tight against his body as the busy flow of officers and agents swarmed the precinct. “Is there any place quiet we can go? I feel like I’m crammed back in that plane.”

Cooper set Mary down, and the girl returned to her father. “Yeah. Sure.”

Tim grabbed Sarah’s attention and Cooper led them to the interrogation rooms. They ran into Hart along the way, and Cooper pawned the kids off on him. What she was going to tell Tim wasn’t something she wanted the girls to hear.

Once inside the room, with the girls gone and the pleasantries done, the two wallowed in awkward silence. Finally, Cooper spoke. “The girls are getting big. Sarah has to be, what? Ten?”

“She’s twelve,” Tim answered, the tone in his voice still lacking any tenderness. “Cooper, what’s going on?”

“Why don’t you have a seat.” Cooper gestured to the chair, but Tim refused the offer. He remained in the corner of the room, his arms crossed like toddler. “Look, Tim—”

“I need to know if she’s still alive.” His voice trembled, and the stoic demeanor he held earlier disappeared. “We can sugarcoat it for the girls, but I need to know the truth.” He took a hard swallow, and for the first time since his arrival, he finally looked her in the eye and held his gaze.

“I think there’s still a good chance that she’s alive.” The moment the words left her mouth he broke down, collapsing into the chair and burying his face into his forearm, his shoulders trembling. Cooper folded her hands together on the table and waited until it was out of his system before she started again. “Whoever this guy is, he takes his time. The previous victim was with him for at least a week. I don’t know if he’ll keep the same timeline, or try something different, but statistically these people usually stick to what they know.”

Tim sniffled, wiping his nose. He cleared his throat a few times, his lips moving but the words hesitant to leave. “Is, um… Does he do anything? To the women he takes?”

“No,” Cooper answered, reading between the lines. “We don’t think he rapes them. But he is violent. Both victims had bruising and lacerations before they were killed.”

“How many times has he done this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Jesus Christ.” Tim pushed himself up from the chair, pacing the room in a ghost-like daze. “I knew she shouldn’t have come here. I knew it was a fucking mistake. She just wouldn’t listen. She never listens.” His voice grew louder, and his pacing quickened.

“I know this is a lot to take in.”

Tim smacked the back of the chair, and it hit the floor, the crash of steel and concrete ringing through the confined space. He thrust his finger at her, screaming. “You’re the fucking reason she came here. It was because of all that shit with your dad. Do you know how much time she spent on that after your mother died? She was obsessed. But then again you might have known if you just would have called.”

“I didn’t know how hard she was taking everything.” They’d both handled their mother’s death in different ways. Cooper buried herself in her work, and Beth buried herself in finding their biological father, an endeavor Cooper had given up on long ago.

“I told her you wouldn’t fucking care. I told her not to come. But she just wouldn’t listen.” Tim paced the small space, his cheeks reddening. “All you had to do was stay in touch with her. If you hadn’t been such a bitch after your mom died, then this wouldn’t have happened!” He kicked the chair, and it skidded across the floor.

Cooper leapt from her seat and had to make a conscious effort not to reach for her service pistol. “Do not put this on me, Tim! You have no fucking right. It’s not my fault.”

Tim inched closer, his face still red but his voice softer. “Then whose is it?”

Both of them stood nose to nose, the anger between them reaching a crescendo. Cooper thrust her finger in his face. “Don’t think I forgot about what you did to her, you fucking asshole. The only reason I didn’t put you behind bars was because I didn’t have the proof. But you knew what happened.” She felt spit dribble down her chin as she looked him up and down with contempt.

Tim turned away, balling his hands into fists. “It was an accident. Beth knew it, and so did I.”

“Make a lot of mistakes when you’re drunk, Tim? Funny how quickly you swept it under the rug when her bruises disappeared. Once a piece of shit, always a piece of shit.”

Tim whirled on her, his face beet red, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Fuck you, Adila! Fuck you!” He viciously kicked the chair again, and the steel scraped across the concrete. He slammed both hands against the wall, keeping his palms flush against the concrete. “It was a mistake I made a long time ago. She forgave me for what I did.” He turned around, his face still red but the anger in his voice gone. “You should too.”

Cooper closed the distance between them, her fists clenched close to her sides. “
Never.
” Resisting the urge to pull her Glock out of its holster, Cooper slammed the door shut on her way out. She lingered in the anteroom, watching Tim through the one-way glass. She flattened her back against the wall and closed her eyes.

Underneath all of the rage and frustration and opened wounds that was her family history, the truth was Cooper knew Tim was right, and that reality stung worse than any of the threats and taunts from the public, from her peers, or from him. She should have called. She should have visited. But should haves couldn’t help her now. And deepening the divide between Tim and herself wouldn’t help the girls. Right now he was the sole custodian of her nieces, and that meant he could do whatever he wanted to keep her out of their lives. She didn’t think he’d be that vindictive, but then again he beat her sister fifteen years ago in a drunken rage, so she wasn’t going to take that chance.

Cooper stepped back into the room. Tim had picked up the chair and sat down, drumming his fingers on the desk lazily. With both tempers calmer, Cooper used the opportunity to extend an olive branch. “Where are you guys staying?”

Tim kept his arms crossed and remained in the corner. “I booked a room at the Radisson downtown. Though when I was talking to that agent he said they might move us. Something about witness protection. I don’t know how long we’re going to be able to stay. I have work, and the girls need to go back to school at some point.”

Cooper reached into her pocket and pulled out a card, extending it to Tim, which he took hesitantly. “That’s the police department’s resource office. They take care of helping with expenses for people in similar situations to this. Give them a call and tell them who you are and your relationship with me. I don’t know how much they’ll be able to help, but it’ll be something.”

“Thanks.” Tim pocketed the card, and the two sat in silence until Hart returned with the girls. Both were in higher spirits than before they left, and even Sarah managed to unplug from her device. “Did you have fun with Hart?”

Mary nodded. “He let me play with the siren.” She giggled mischievously, and Sarah rolled her eyes.

Without much patience left for one another, Tim gathered up the girls, and Hemsworth escorted them out the back, shielding them from the growing number of news vans and cameras that had bloomed in front of the precinct. Once Tim and the girls were seated and buckled, Hemsworth pulled Cooper aside. “I’ll have a team of agents on them the entire time. They’ll be safe. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

Hemsworth stopped at the car. “After we drop them off we’re heading to your apartment with the forensics team. We’ll meet you over there.” The caravan of black sedans flashed their lights and dispersed into downtown.

Hart waited with Cooper outside until she couldn’t see the sedans any longer. He nudged her elbow. “Anything you want to tell me?”