Do You Want To Play: A Detroit Police Procedural Romance
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Authors: Charlotte Raine
Do You Want To Play
A Detroit Police Procedural Romance
Charlotte Raine
Do You Want To Play
A Detroit Police Procedural Romance
Charlotte Raine
Copyright 2014 Charlotte Raine
Arrabella Publishing
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A Grace Ellery Romantic Suspense Book 1
~~~
A Grace Ellery Romantic Suspense Book 2
~~~
A Grant & Daniels Romantic Suspense Trilogy Book
1
~~~
Devil’s Dawn
A Grant & Daniels Romantic Suspense Trilogy Book 2
~~~
THE KILLER STANDS on a ladder in the gymnasium of Osborn High School. The victim is a petite woman that barely reaches five feet tall and has chestnut brown hair that sways as she swings from the basketball hoop. Her wrists are tied so tightly to the hoop that the skin has been rubbed raw.
The killer glances around the gymnasium. This is where the putrid filth of society begin to spread their disease. Children either become apex predators or prey. No one blends in during dodgeball. No one escapes judgment when they change in the locker room. This is Hell, painted red and white with the knight mascot encouraging the sports teams to
fight
. This is where children learn to obey and destroy each other for fun. There is only one way to survive in a Hell like this—become the devil.
The white gloves the killer wears contrast with the black butterfly knife. It isn’t the most efficient knife for the job, but the killer isn’t doing this for efficiency’s sake. It isn’t a job; it is a hobby. It is a simple exercise in self-control, domination, and focused rage.
The killer pulls the rag out of the woman’s mouth.
“Why are you doing this?” the woman begs. “I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t do this. I have a boyfriend. Parents. You can’t do this.”
“Pamela,” the killer says, setting the side of the knife against her cheek. A tear slides over it. “You don’t seem to get it. The point is that I can do this.”
The knife slides down to her throat. The killer slices directly on the carotid artery. Blood cascades down her dress and drips down to the floor.
~~~~~
DO YOU KNOW what the worst part about being a detective is? The public thinks that it’s being shot at, the fact that people consider all policemen corrupt, or the fact that witnesses tend to be liars or silent.
But, no. The worst part is sitting at my desk, trying to solve a series of murders by some sociopath while the patrol officers laugh, joke, and generally spread their happiness to an unacceptable perimeter—specifically, my desk.
Officer Richardson slams his mug down on my desk, splashing coffee over a few of my papers, and slaps me on the back.
“Tobias,” he says. “Why don’t you take a break? You don’t want to be the next body in the morgue. It would reflect badly on the station.”
I push a photograph toward Richardson that shows a woman tied up in a school gymnasium by her wrists with her throat slit. Blood trails down her pale pink dress. He grimaces. I show him another photograph, where a man has been shot five times—two in his chest, two on either side of his navel, and one in the center of the other bullet wounds. Richardson glances away. I push a third photograph toward him—a woman shot in the back of the head with a balloon tied to her wrist that has a skull and bones sketched onto it. Richardson scowls.
“I’ve seen them, Tobias,” he says before I pick up the fourth photograph. “You don’t need to show me again.”
“Yes, you’ve seen these photographs,” I tell him. “How can you see them and tell me to take a break? This guy…he is Ted Bundy crazy. He is out of his damn mind and he wants everyone to know it. He wants everyone to see how far his insanity goes.”
“Ted Bundy eventually got caught,” Richardson says.
“Yes, after killing thirty-five people,” I say. “Let’s try to keep this serial killer’s victims in the single digits.”
Richardson shakes his head.
“You’re going to die alone, Tobias,” he says. He picks up his coffee mug and begins to walk away.
“That would be a blessing,” I yell over the patrol officers. He raises his mug in acknowledgement of my comment but continues to walk to his own desk. I glance down at the photographs again and try to make sense of them. Two photos show a Glock 19 was used, and the other one a knife. Why? The motives with serial killers tend to be relatively flimsy, but they always choose their victims or their methods for a specific reason. However, none of the victims knew each other and the method of murder varied. I need to find a connection or a motive, but it all seems to evade me.
“Rodriguez!”
I look over my shoulder to see my captain, Ray Stewart, gesturing for me to come into his office before he disappears back into it. I think about ignoring him because Richardson is one distraction too many today, but I figure I should at least try to keep my job.
When I walk into Stewart’s office, the first thing I notice is that there is a woman that does not belong there. She’s tall for a woman, with light brown hair that reminds me of those lattes that one of my ex-girlfriends used to get, right down to the way the strands swirl up at the end. As I look at her, taking note of her black pants with a small white smudge on her thigh (Smoking ashes? A child with frosting on its fingers grabbing her leg?) and her lace blouse that seems a little too low-cut for a building full of men, she suddenly looks straight up at me. Her irises, a shade that straddles the line between black and dark brown, feel like they stab right through my chest. I have to stop myself from stepping back.
“Rodriguez, this is Lauren Williams,” Stewart says, oblivious to anything as he reads through a report. “She’s a criminal profiler and your new partner. Try to play nice with her.”
“I don’t need a new partner,” I say. Especially not one who relies on a soft science like psychology.
“Well, that’s too bad. You can’t keep investigating alone. Miss Williams happens to have a specialty in serial killers,” Stewart says. “Why don’t you brief her on what you’ve uncovered?”
I scowl and glance back at Lauren. Her eyes hit me again. I shift my gaze to a plaque Stewart has on the wall, one that was awarded to him after a car drove into a restaurant and he pulled the bartender out from under the crushed hood. I would rather be the bartender with two broken legs than be forced to have a new partner that believes every new psychology study that pops up on the news.
“There have been four murders,” I say. “Each victim has been murdered in a different way. We haven’t found a motive. That’s it.”
“So, how do you know it’s the same guy killing these victims?” she asks.
“He has a calling card,” I say. “In every murder, he writes PVP. Usually, he uses the victim’s blood.”
“What does that mean?” she asks.
“You’re the criminal profiler,” I say. “I don’t know. We have looked up names with those initials, corporations, organizations…none of them seem like they could be connected to a killer.”
“Could I see the crime scene photos?” she asks. I send a scathing look to Stewart, but he’s still not paying attention. I lead Lauren to my desk and shove the photographs to her. She flips through them until she reaches the woman shot in the back of her head. Her forehead wrinkles and her mind seems to wander away from the mundane world of my desk.
“What?” I ask. She is startled and blinks several times. She shows me the photograph of the woman. I stare at it. “Did you know her?”
“No,” she says. “But I’ve seen this scene before.”
I shake my head. “I’ve looked in the database. There hasn’t been a murder involving a balloon like that before.”
“Not in real life,” she says. “I’ve seen it in a game.”
“A game?” I repeat, skepticism thick in my voice.
“It’s called
Big Shots
,” she says. “The whole point of the game is to shoot people who get in the way of your goal—and your goal is usually to steal money or get away with some crime—but when you kill someone, this…ummm…kind of thought-bubble pops up that has a skull and crossbones in it. This photograph was taken in a good neighborhood, right? Where you wouldn’t expect a murder?”
I nod, an eyebrow raised. I don’t want to believe that this woman has cracked open a case that I’ve been working on for weeks, but if she’s right…it could lead to the killer.
“That’s part of the game. The player has to avoid all of this fancy security equipment, and then the player…” She pauses. Her fingertips touch her lips and a smile curls up behind them. I know the look. It means that she has figured something out.
“What?” I demand.
“Player,” she repeats. “P-V-P. In the gaming world, it means player versus player. I think he’s taunting the police. He thinks that he and the police are playing a game. And he’s winning.”
“Well, isn’t he a cocky son-of-a-bitch?” I say. I glance at the other photographs. “Do you think all of them could be from a video game?”
She shrugs. “I’m not a huge video game player. I only knew about
Big Shots
because I had a boyfriend that played it.”
“Does your boyfriend seem like the serial killer type?” I ask, not trying to hide my sarcasm.
She doesn’t answer, picking up the photographs. “These people died because someone wanted to bring video games to life.”
I watch her as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. I shake my head.
“The only reason motive matters is because it will lead us to the killer,” I say. “Everything should be easy to figure out from here. I mean, how many video games could there be that include the player murdering someone?”
She looks up at me, her face betraying a sliver of pity. “You don’t play video games, do you?”
~~~~~
I HAVE SPENT my life dedicated to researching serial killers. They are a fascinating breed of human—most of them don’t kill for the normal reasons—financial gain, love, or self-preservation—they kill because they enjoy it. They also don’t feel regret and tend to lack empathy. They essentially take the worst traits of humans and the worst traits of an animal to form something that strikes fear even into those who aren’t their prey.
My new partner, Tobias, seems to lack an extraordinary amount of empathy and he is, in a word, an asshole. The only reason he isn’t considered a serial killer is because he’s watching video game previews with me instead of killing strangers.
We have watched fourteen previews that have the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating of Mature or Adults Only. We have not seen a single video that includes a scene that is similar to the killer’s murders, so I have missed lunch in order to watch fourteen characters die gruesome, bloody deaths.
A character holds an AK-47 and shoots into a crowd inside a mall. The bodies drop to the vinyl floors with horrifying realism.
“This one is
Warefare
,” I say.
“Let’s hope that this killer doesn’t copy that one,” Tobias says. He’s about three inches taller than me with dark hair that is disheveled as if he forgets to comb it every morning. His eyes are moss green and, quite honestly, the only part of him that seems vibrant.
I type in the next video game in the search engine and find a link to a video.
“This is the preview video for
Primal Instinct
,” I say. The video begins with two arms sticking out from the bottom of the screen, one fist holding a combat knife. Halfway through the video, it shows the player running through the school and grabbing rope from the janitor’s closet. I glance down at the photos on Tobias’ desk.
“That could be this one,” I say, showing Tobias the photo of the woman strung up in the gym. “School setting, gym, knife…”
“It could be,” he says. His lips are pressed together so hard that they are beginning to turn white. It’s amazing that his ego hasn’t gotten him punched in the face yet.
An overweight officer with a handlebar mustache who looks like he could have stepped out of the ‘70s walks up to the two of us.
“Richardson, do you ever actually work?” Tobias asks.
“Are you guys watching cartoons about killing people?” Richardson asks. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who ignores Tobias’ snark.
“Yep,” Tobias says. “You told me to take a break and I had no interest in watching porn, so I decided on watching murders instead.”
“Funny,” Richardson says, shaking his head. “If you find your humor funny, you might also find this funny. There’s another body.”
“Another victim of the PVP killer?” Tobias asks, already standing up. I pull on my coat. I’ve only been to a couple crime scenes in my life—always as an intern—but they were both simple shootings in which the killer was found within forty-eight hours.
“Yeah,” he says. “And you’re going to want to hire a think tank for this one.”
“Why?” I ask.
“The victim was drowned,” Richardson says. Tobias raises his eyebrow.
“That happens all of the time,” Tobias says.
“He wasn’t wearing any clothes.”
“Oh.”
He turns to me.
“Are there porn video games where you kill people?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “But there is a video game where you kill strippers and steal their clothes. It’s called
Ryder’s Revenge
.”
“…Why?” he asks.
“Because it has a whole storyline about this guy who gets robbed by a couple of strippers and he spends the whole game killing strippers in revenge.”
“No, I mean why would anyone even play that game?” he asks. I shrug. He grabs his badge. “There is something wrong with the world.”
I button up my coat. He shakes his head.
“You’re not coming,” he says.
“I’m your partner,” I say.
“You’re a shrink,” he corrects. “And there is some likelihood that the killer will show up at the crime scene. So, you stay here and do your psychology thing while I go and gather evidence.”
“You don’t like psychology,” I say.
“It’s not that I don’t like it,” he says. “It’s that I put it in the same category as horoscopes and psychics. It’s all bullshit that people believe because they need to think that they understand everything that’s happening around them.”
I force a smile. “Would you just take it more seriously if I could profile you correctly?”
“No, but you can try if it makes you feel better,” he says. “But make it quick. There’s a naked, drowned body that I need to check out.”
I tilt my head as I look at his eyes, which seem to have shadows trying to hide in his irises. But I can see them as if they couldn’t run away from me.
“Your father was a policeman,” I say. “I’m guessing his father was a policeman too.”
“You could have researched that,” he says.
“You don’t like anything new and you do everything by the book.”
“Anybody could figure that out about me,” he says. “Next you’re going to tell me that I investigate murders for a living.”
I stare at the shadows in his eyes. “You’ve put up all these walls and hide inside your work so that you don’t have to look at your life and wonder if you’re happy.”
He laughs, but the shadows in his eyes become more prominent than ever.
“Well, you got the first two right,” he says. “Nice try.”
He walks toward the doors of the police station. I follow him because I have no other choice. There’s a killer who is clearly begging for more attention. Who am I to deny him exactly what he wants?
~~~~~
When people think of Detroit, they think of a city in ruins. Formerly, it was known as Motor City; now the unemployment rate is 14.5 percent, and about 70 percent of murders are unsolved. I moved here because of the latter statistic. It’s a place where serial killers could settle and kill victims without anyone realizing that there was a single murderer responsible for the deaths.
Until now.
The body is slumped in the James Scott Fountain in Belle Isle State Park. Belle Isle isn’t in the 10th precinct’s jurisdiction, but the 11th precinct contacted us because they know it was the PVP killer’s work.
In the center of the fountain, a marble lion stares down at the policemen that are swarming around the fountain and blocking visitors from coming near the body.
Tobias pulls me away from the man’s body.
“I’ve seen naked bodies,” I tell him.
“Too much information,” he says. He turns to the medical examiner. “How did this guy come to be in this fountain naked? I mean, did he walk into the park naked or did someone strip off his clothes after they killed him?”
“You’re going to have to ask someone else about the clothes,” she says. “All I can tell you is that he died around 3 a.m., and according to the bruises around the victim’s arms, the killer held him down in this fountain.”
She picks up the man’s arms.
“You see these bruises on the back of his arms?” she asks. Tobias and I nod. “These are from his arms hitting against the fountain’s edge. I thought I might find some DNA in his nails if he were fighting back…” She shows us his nails. “But there’s nothing. I would assume that most of the killer’s body was covered, so the victim couldn’t scratch against anything.”
Tobias turns to a patrol officer. “Go talk to city officials. Find out who was working here last night. Maybe they saw the killer.”
The patrol officer nods and runs toward a police car.
Pennies—maybe ones that originally visitors threw into the fountain to make their wishes come true—form the letters P-V-P in front of the memorial. I look over at the crowd, scanning each face. I try to find someone who has the facial expression of joy or pride—lips slightly curve, muscles around the eyes tighten, cheeks rise—and if the killer were looking directly at the police, he or she would have only one side of their lips curved up, which shows contempt. But there is too much chaos and the crowd keeps moving around. The first policeman came around about an hour ago, so the killer could have left by now.
“What do you think, Williams?” Tobias asks. “Is your psychology education telling you anything?”
“He’s good at remaining undetected and highly intelligent,” I say, thinking about all of the crime scenes where the murder was committed in a public place. He grits his teeth.
“Of course, he is,” he says. “How else would he know how to piss me off without me catching him?”
“I’d put him at an above-genius level,” I say, ignoring his comment. “Video games must have had a profound effect on him, so he likely has not had much of a social life…and he must still not have much of one if he has time to make these extravagant crime scenes. It’s a dangerous mixture…intelligence without anyone to show off to…”
“Are you talking about the killer or yourself?” he asks. “Because your profile isn’t helping me.”
I glare at him. “You’re an asshole.”
“It’s better to be an asshole without anyone to show off to than a genius who is busy showing off.”
I shove him. He stumbles backward over the fountain edge and falls into the fountain water. He curses up a storm but I’m already walking away. It’s no wonder that Detroit has so many unsolved murders. Their policemen are uncooperative jackasses and half the people here are begging to be killed.
~~~~~
I spread out every crime scene photo on the floor and rewrite every piece of evidence on notecards to place around them. The new crime scene photos are laid directly in front of me.
Victim: Ashley Barker
Occupation: Teacher (High school English and Drama)
Method of Murder: Throat cut—bled out
Date of Death: September 30, 2014, between 12:00 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Place of Death: Osborn High School
Video Game Emulation of:
Primal Instinct
Details: Barker had stayed at the school late because her students had just finished a production of
Twelve Angry Men
and she was cleaning up the stage.
Victim: Geoffrey Black
Occupation: Factory worker
Method of Murder: Five bullet wounds—two in his chest, two on either side of his navel, and one in the center of the other bullet wounds
Date of Death: August 17, 2014, around 4 a.m.
Place of Death: Classic Blue Factory
Video Game Emulation of:
Unknown
Victim: Aubrey Morrison
Occupation: Store owner of Check ‘n Go
Method of Murder: Shot in the back of the head
Date of Death: September 4, 2014, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Place of Death: Alley off of Albany Street, next to the Check ‘n’ Go.
Video Game Emulation of:
Land of Survival
Details: Shot execution-style (Morrison was on her knees); a balloon was tied to her wrist that had a skull and bones sketched onto it.
Victim: David King
Occupation: Unemployed/Homeless
Method of Murder: Beheaded
Date of Death: August 1, 2014, between 3:50 a.m. and 4:15 a.m.
Place of Death: Along the Detroit River near Jefferson Avenue
Video Game Emulation: Road Kill or Dangerous Intentions
Victim: Jeff Patton
Occupation: Security guard
Method of Murder: Drowned
Date of Death: October 8, 2014 around midnight
Place of Death: Belle Isle State Park (James Scott Fountain)
Video Game Emulation:
Ryder’s Revenge
~~~~~
Tobias walks up to the photos on the floor, the tip of his Oxford shoes touching the photograph of Geoffrey Black.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“I’m trying to find new connections,” I say.
“I’ve made all the connections that could be made. The victims were all killed close to where they worked except David King, and nobody knows where he came from since he was in the river. Our best bet is that they were all chosen because the killer looked at them and saw an opportunity,” he says. “You don’t think I’ve looked up every possibility?”
“I think you’re narrow-minded,” I say, the words slipping past my lips before I can think to stop them. He sneers.
“Well, you won’t find anything,” he says. “The guy doesn’t leave fingerprints, he doesn’t have witnesses, and he doesn’t stand in front of surveillance cameras. Like you said…the guy isn’t an idiot.”
“What makes you so sure that it’s a guy?” I ask. “Do you think women aren’t capable of being serial killers?”