Bear's Baby (Bear Heat Book 4) (7 page)

These were all good, brave
people. They were no pushovers, and she was sure they would have put
up a hell of a fight to defend themselves.

Why were they targeted? They
didn't make easy targets.

And she was sure they had
been targeted by the same killer. The violence and brutality of the
murders had escalated, but the method was the same.

Lindy opened the first
victim's file and stared at the picture of the young policewoman.
Yoon Park, twenty-eight years old, newly promoted to the rank of
Sergeant. Her body had been found in a back alley, her face
mutilated, and her eyes and tongue missing. Her heart had been
ripped out, crushed and stuffed back into her ribcage. She was still
dressed in her police uniform, and there were no signs of sexual
assault.

Lindy flipped her legal pad
and looked through her scribblings. Anthony Buller's body had been
dumped on the steps of the Supreme Court building. But this time,
not only had the eyes and tongue been ripped out of the victim, his
hands had also been torn off. His mangled heart had been stuffed
into his mouth.

Eat his heart out?

Lindy frowned and scratched
out the phrase on her legal pad. No, that didn't make sense. That
wasn't the message.

She turned to Felicia
Jackson's file. Felicia's body was found on the doorstep of a
shelter for abused women and children. Her eyes, tongue, hands and
feet were missing. And this time, her heart and guts had been torn
out. Her counselor badge was left on her chest and again, there were
no signs that she had been raped.

These weren't sexual crimes.
Lindy stared at the jumble of words on her notepad and pushed her
glasses up her nose. She was wearing her spectacles this morning.
She had always felt more comfortable in glasses, but she'd always
thought they made her look nerdy and dowdy. Well, she'd decided that
she should just let her inner nerd out and be herself. Nerds were
sexy, beautiful and desirable.

Lindy glanced out the window
and watched the morning sunlight glint off the reflective surface of
the skyscrapers. Despite the troubling case she was working on, her
mind flashed back briefly to Baxter. She had known that he was
special all along. That was why she had remembered him and thought
of him all these years. He made her feel really good, so cherished
and loved. She felt good about him, about herself. Lindy caught her
reflection in the window and realized that there was a dreamy smile
on her face. She straightened up with a cough and turned back
determinedly to her work. No time to dream. It was time to focus on
the job and stop a sadistic, savage killer.

She ploughed through the
information before her. None of the victims had been raped. So it
wasn't about sex. Were these people killed for revenge, power,
pleasure? She circled all these words in red on her legal pad.

No prints had been found on
the bodies. The victims' skins had been torn, and there were
bruises, cuts and burn marks on their legs, arms and what was left of
their faces. They had been tortured before they were killed. The
killer had wanted to see their pain and suffering. Their fear, their
cries amused him, empowered him. It was horrific, harrowing and
inhumane.

“He's not human,”
Lindy muttered. “He can't be.”

But she knew too well that
monsters often wore human faces. Smiling, familiar human faces.

She shook her head. What
exactly did the killer want?

What was the motive here?
The message?

She had written down a few
possibilities last night at the diner. But now, as she re-thought
and reworked the information at hand, those theories didn't seem to
fit.

She tore out a page from her
legal pad and balled up the paper.

When nothing worked, work
from nothing.

Start from scratch, and
scratch everything that she had previously come up with.

Flipping to a fresh, blank
page, Lindy picked up her pink fountain pen and started writing.

CHAPTER
TEN

Baxter nodded once as Liam
finished briefing them. His smile had long vanished.

“I thought that we
would be able to hunt the demon down swiftly and destroy him. I
thought wrong,” Liam admitted unhappily. “James advised
me to ask for help from the Black Bears,” Liam went on,
referring to his lieutenant. James Ryker was also a dragon shifter
and the Chief Security Officer at Skyflame Casino. There were very
few dragon guards left and they were only posted to areas where
breaches were known to occur. Whenever a gateway between the demon
realms and this world was breached, the dragon guards had to act
quickly to contain the damage. It was their job to hunt down any
demons who had escaped to this realm and destroy them.

“Aw, you should have
called us sooner.” Baxter rubbed his nose. “With that
nice retainer fee you're paying us, you don't expect us to be sitting
on our pretty butts and twiddling our thumbs while you guys run
yourselves ragged. You should give us a chance to prove our worth.
And if I may say so myself, we're worth every cent.”

“So how many made it
out this time?” Dylan asked.

“Six demons jumped
through the gateway before James and I managed to seal it up. We've
destroyed five of them.”

“Five down, one to go,”
Baxter said. “Easy peasy.”

“Not easy,” Liam
cautioned. “This demon is very cunning. He is highly
elusive, and very clever at disguise and deception. Time is running
out. The longer he remains in this realm, the more powerful he
becomes.”

“I'll sniff him out,”
Baxter declared, tapping his nose.

“He can hide his demon
scent,” Liam said.

“Not from me.”
Baxter folded his arms.

“He can change his
appearance as well.”

“Ooh, a shapeshifting
demon.” Baxter made a face. “Well, let's hope he
doesn't shift into a bear. That—would be seriously insulting.”

The other Black Bears grunted
their agreement. Liam stood up and said, “We've received
reports that the demons are attempting another breach in a nearby
town. We have to fight them back before they open another gateway.
James and I will be leaving the city in an hour. If you need...”

Baxter waved a hand. “We'll
manage. Go and save the town. We'll catch your runaway demon for
you.”

Liam walked to a bookshelf
and slid the back panel open. He drew out four daggers and handed
them to the Black Bears. “These silver blades have been forged
in dragon fire. Stab the demon cleanly through the heart to destroy
him.”

They picked up the daggers
and Baxter saw Luke suck in a shaky breath. What an assignment, but
Dylan was right. No point mollycoddling him. Getting thrown in the
deep end was a great way to learn how to swim. It had worked for
him.

“Happy hunting,”
Liam said.

As they left Liam's office,
Baxter turned to Thor and asked, “Hey, which is worse? A demon
or a Mob boss?”

“Is this a riddle?”

“Not really.”
Baxter shrugged. “You've been up close and personal with those
murderous bastards. I bet some of those crime lords are as bad as
these stinking demons.”

Thor's eyes hardened.
“Worse. The Mob is worse. The damage they've done is more
widespread and far-reaching. How many of those women and children
that they've trafficked and sold will ever be recovered? How many
families and lives have they ripped apart and destroyed?” Thor
said angrily.

Baxter nodded as he jabbed
the lift button. 'You're right. You're damn right, man.”

As Luke fidgeted with his
weapons, Baxter tapped him on the shoulder and said, “You were
a cop, right? You've arrested some gang members before, haven't
you?” Luke gave a curt nod.

“And those extorting,
bullying pansies all cried for their Momma when you cuffed them,
didn't they?”

Luke let out a short laugh.
“Some of them did.”

“Well, you heard the
big guy.” Baxter jerked a thumb at Thor. “He knows what
he's talking about. And according to him, this demon is even softer
and stupider than your pansy gangsters.”

“The demon is cunning,”
Dylan warned. “Don't let your guard down.”

“Pfff!” Baxter
gave the lift button another savage jab. “He's just big and
ugly, and loves to play dirty. And he's fucking stupid to mess with
our city!”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Lindy typed like a woman
possessed. Absently, she reached out and popped a soggy fry into her
mouth. She had eaten her lunch at her desk, and while the sandwiches
were gone, she had forgotten all about her pack of fries. The cold,
soggy fries sat forlornly at the side of her desk, and she
occasionally grabbed a sad-looking fry and chewed on it while she
mulled over her theories.

She was quite sure she had
gotten it right. She checked her email and saw that her boss had
replied. “Yes!” Her boss agreed with her analysis and
told her to go ahead and release the profile to the police. Maximus
was a good boss, firm, fair and tough. But he trusted his people,
his judgment and didn't believe in spoonfeeding and micromanaging his
staff.

She got all her powerpoint
slides ready and saved it on her flash drive. Siti knocked on her
door and poked her head in. “They're all gathered in the
conference room,” Siti said. “You ready?”

“I am,” Lindy
said, grabbing her flash drive. She straightened her jacket and
strode out the door. “We'll catch the killer, Siti. He won't
get away. But it's up to us. All of us.”

Siti flashed her a grin.
“Good luck, boss. Go get 'em!”

Lindy entered the packed
conference room. She saw her boss Maximus sitting at the back of the
room. He gave her a quick nod of encouragement and sat back. This
was her case, and he would let her handle it.

The room was crowded with
police officers, homicide detectives, investigators and a couple of
her fellow profilers. She closed the conference room door and
inserted the flash drive into the laptop at the head of the table.

The room fell silent when
pictures of the victims illuminated the screen. The smiling faces of
Yoon Park, Anthony Buller and Felicia Jackson were placed side by
side. The photographs were taken from their work passes, and they
were all dressed professionally. Yoon Park was in her police
uniform, and Anthony and Felicia were decked out in smart,
neutral-colored jackets.

Lindy cleared her throat and
said, “We have all been trying to find a common thread linking
these three victims. These three people didn't seem to have anything
in common at first. Two of the victims were women, and one was male.
They varied in ages. Yoon was in her twenties, Anthony was
thirty-eight and Felicia was in her early forties. Their backgrounds
were different as well. One was from a single-parent family while
the other came from a large, extended family. Felicia Jackson
enjoyed a well-to-do, privileged upbringing. Three different people,
from different backgrounds and neighborhoods. But they all died the
same way.”

She clicked the control and
the screen displayed the pictures of the victims' mutilated bodies.
There was a ripple of unease and anger across the room. Lindy went
on stoically, “They were all tortured, and had their hearts,
eyes and tongues ripped out. The killer enjoyed inflicting pain and
suffering, and he was sending a message with these murders.”

“Eyes and tongue,”
someone spoke up. “These people saw something and the killer
wanted to shut them up?”

Lindy nodded. “Not
just shut them up. The later victims had their hands torn out.
Felicia's feet were missing. The killer wanted to shut them up, and
stop them. Stop what they were doing, stop them from walking forward
in their chosen paths. These people saw something all right. They
saw darkness and violence and wrongdoing, and they spoke up, stood up
and did their part to stop the perpetrators. Yoon Park was a police
officer. She protected and defended the city against crime. Anthony
Buller put these criminals away as a public prosecutor, and Felicia
Jackson stood up and gave voice to those who were too afraid and too
weak to speak up for themselves. These three courageous people
fought against crime and evil. What they stood for, what they did.
This is the common thread linking the three of them.”

Agitated voices erupted
around the conference room. Questions flew and Lindy tried her best
to answer every one of them.

“The killer is going
after police officers? Will we find another dead cop soon?”

“No. I don't think
they will target another officer,” Lindy said.

“You said the killer
won't target another police officer. Why not?” a young
policewoman asked. “How can you be so sure?”

“The killer isn't after
police officers, prosecutors and counselors per se. He wants to
destroy what these people stand for.” Lindy took a deep breath
and said, “Yoon, Anthony and Felicia stood for what's good and
right in all of us. The killer is the exact opposite of these three
warm and stout-hearted people. The killer is cold, and...old, not in
age, but in mind and spirit. I believe he is a master of disguise,
so he may look frail, aged or even young and vulnerable. But make no
mistake. The killer is incredibly strong, callous, cunning. He has
no mercy, no humanity.”