Games We Play (19 page)

“I have a job to do and we have a few questions we want to ask you.” Sasha kept thinking back to all the vile things the unsub said to her and try as hard as she might she couldn’t imagine Wes saying them.

“What is it?”

Nick interrupted by pointing to Wes’ neck. “What happened there?”

There was a stark white bandage across the right side of his neck. The same side Sasha clawed at the unsub. All the doubt in her system came to a halt as cold hard facts stared at her with familiar blue eyes.

Wes touched his finger tips to the bandage. “This? There was a fight at the diner last night and a piece of glass got me. What’s going on? Do you really think I’d hurt my cousin that way?”

Nicholas continued to take lead. “She was your cousin by marriage.”

“So? She was still family and I’d never abuse a woman.” Wes turned to Sasha. “Do I need a lawyer?”

She struggled with the words. “We have a few more questions that are harmless if you have nothing to hide. My sister was taken by this guy and I have to make sure to clear every possible avenue no matter how small and right now yes you look guilty.”

“Maggie May or Sasha, it doesn’t matter to me I still like you. What do you need from me?” Wes was trying to be the bigger man when it was easier to be offended and angry.

“I don’t want to waste both our time asking question after question. We have a DNA sample of the man who killed Candice and we can test you against it and clear up any doubts. Are you willing to come with us to the crime lab and submit a sample?”

“Hell, yes. I’m not the bad guy here.” Wes spoke with a lot of conviction but Sasha would rather wait for the DNA analysis to come back before setting herself up for a fall. She knew well evil came in convincing pretty packages. Deep in her heart she wanted to believe Wes but coincidences this big couldn’t be brushed aside with blind faith.

“Come with us.”
Nick reached for Wes and escorted him out of the house.

Sasha called ahead in the car and Mrs. Katy was waiting for them at the crime lab offices located in the same plaza of the police department. Katy knew Wes from around town and didn’t treat him any differently as she took him to collect a sample, smiling and chatting him up the whole time.

Sasha ran her hands through her hair and sighed. “This day has been a nightmare and I don’t know which would be worse; if Wes is our unsub or not.” If Wes was innocent that put them back at step one in searching for the real killer and Carolyn’s abductor. She
knew time wasn’t on their side and
it was all she could think about.

Nick knew there was nothing he could say to ease her worries but his touch was another matter. He pulled her into his arms and gave her his body and silent comfort to lean on. As Sasha wrapped her arms tight around his waist she couldn’t imagine not having him there by her side during this nightmare. For so long she had gotten used to standing alone and it was nice not to have to anymore. All her doubts about how much he was willing to commit to something serious were quickly shattering.

“I don’t think we’re on the wrong track.” Sasha spoke without leaving his embrace. “The unsub has training to evade us and the military angle is the best one. The patterns match up and we should find out who else is on the list.”

“Gage is working on it. We’ve never put all our eggs in one basket before and while I don’t like the guy I have doubts too if he’s capable of committing these crimes.” Nick stroked his hand through her hair, kissed the top of her head, and pulled back. “I’m going to run over to the sheriff’s office real quick and see what else our guys have put together.”

“That sounds good. I’ll stick around here and find out from Mrs. Katy how long this process will take and keep an eye on Wes.”

Nick bent and kissed her goodbye before taking off in a jog out of the building. Sasha managed to smile at the kiss, a kiss that felt like they had been doing it for years rather than only days. It hadn’t been hard at all to transition to a real relationship, one with goodbye kisses and comfortable silence.

She walked over to the waiting chairs outside of the lab room and sat. Carolyn wasn’t far from her thoughts. Sasha had hoped the unsub was wrong and got the wrong person but after finding Caro’s car empty in the sheriff department’s parking lot and Jim not hearing from her there was no more doubt something had happened to her. That sick freak had her.

She blinked and fresh tears ran from her eyes. The 7Xs killer was a sadist of all forms, he sexually tortured his victims and cut up their bodies for his own pleasure. Sasha never understood why such people were allowed to live and exist in the world. They could catch one evil bastard and yet there were hundreds out there taking his spot. They could never catch up and make the world the safe haven it should be but that didn’t mean she was willing to stop trying. Someone had to try and balance the scales and she liked being that person most of the time. Right now she hated that her choice to take on this case put her sister in harm’s way. Carolyn wasn’t the best sister at times and she was a sucky substitute mom but she didn’t deserve this, no one did.

Sasha tucked her thoughts away when Wes sat next to her. “She doesn’t want us to go anywhere as she runs the basic stuff like blood type first.” He passed along the message with no real thought behind it.

“I know you probably feel like shit and this week has sucked pretty badly for you too but this has to be done. We can’t leave any doubt concerning any suspect.”

Slapping his hands on the chair arm rests, Wes turned to face her. “And what exactly makes me a suspect? Can you at least tell me that?”

“Yes but this has to stay between us.” Sasha made up her mind to tell him for the simple fact he might have another name they could check into. “There’s been six states including Texas that this killer has targeted and in each state he killed seven people.”

“Hence the not so clever name.”

“Hey, we don’t get to name them, it’s a public thing. Anyway, each state has an army base and being re-stationed every few years gives him the perfect cover and the skills to avoid leaving any trace evidence or making any other errors not every criminal knows or thinks about. He probably considered Maple Oaks his home, it’s the only place he’s hit twice and it being the first always holds a special spot in a serial killer’s heart. Do you know anyone that’s been to Maple Oaks in the past and just returned maybe in the last month?”

“No, I keep in contact with the local guys and none of them could be capable of this.”

“You never truly know what a person is capable of. Right now you’re the only guy fitting out profile and if you’re cleared I’m left with nothing and so is Candice’s family. I need you to think and tell me anyone who’s come back recently, he’d be around his 30s and 40s, a good home life with a long time girlfriend or wife, he would’ve been to Maryland, Hawaii, Arizona, North Carolina, Illinois, and of course Texas.”

“I’ve been to those places but not enlisted, hell I was thirteen when I lived in Maryland with my father.”

Sasha didn’t want to tell him the theory that included his late father. “I need you to focus on who else fits the bill.”

Wes’ eyes moved down to his boots and focused on the specks of dirt littering his boots. “I don’t know anyone.” This didn’t bode well for any of them.

When Mrs. Katy returned some time later she broke the news that Wes shared the same blood type of the other sample. Now it was a waiting game to see exactly how much he and that sample matched, if he was indeed their unsub or not and it wasn’t a short wait they were going to have to go through.

Sasha sank in her seat and cried. “We don’t have time to spare.” No air filled her lunges as her body refused to accept her sister wasn’t coming home alive.

She felt the warmth of his hands before anything else as they grasped her shaking ones. She opened her eyes to find Nicholas kneeling in front of her and suddenly the world wasn’t so dark anymore.

Chapter 25

It was three days later when they finally got something from all the DNA testing and in those three days Carolyn was still missing. Sasha spent each day and night strung out on coffee going over every piece of information concerning the 7Xs killer from his first cycle all the way to his current. She studied each victim to the point she knew all of their names off the top of her head and would never forget their faces.

The good news for Wes was the fact he was cleared as their lead suspect but the bad news also for Wes was his DNA sequence partly matched the sample taken from under Sasha’s nails.

Wes scoffed with defeat as he stared at the results along with Mrs. Katy, Sasha, and Nicholas. “What does this mean?”

Mrs. Katy answered. “It means both samples share DNA close to the maternal strands. Do you have any brothers or cousins in town?”

Wes paled at the question. “No.”

Sasha gripped his arm tight and forced him to face her. “That wasn’t a very convincing no. You can’t protect him and you’ll only be helping him commit murder if you stall and make us find out another way. Please help me.” She was desperate and there wasn’t a person residing in Maple Oaks that didn’t know it.

Wes stumbled back into an empty chair, leaning forward he rested his face in his hands. “I have two cousins related to me by blood. Ronnie is my uncle’s son and was Candice’s husband but there’s just no way he could do this, he’s a couch potato most of the day. Then there’s Jeffery, his mom was my dad’s sister and she died when he was a kid and he came to live with me and my dad. When I was fifteen I was getting into a lot of trouble and he shipped me back here to Maple Oaks to stay with my mom but Jeff always stayed with my dad until he was old enough to live on his own.”

Nick asked, “Where’s Jeff now?”

“Fuck, man I don’t know. He doesn’t keep in touch with the family too much after he left on his own. He always acted like he was ashamed of us. He would call my dad once a year for the holidays but when he passed three years ago Jeff was never really heard from again.”

“Could he be in Texas?”

“Yeah, I think so. Candice mentioned seeing someone who looked like him in the diner last week but I really didn’t think anything of it.”

“Just before she was taken.” Sasha realized Candice was probably killed because she had seen too much and could expose his return to the family. “Ok, we need to get back to the station and compose everything we can on Jeffery.  There are a lot more questions we need your help on.” They needed to know now Jeffery’s history with the states in question and what in his past could explain his MO.

Nick thanked Mrs. Katy for the help on behalf of the FBI and took copies of all the DNA analysis results. The sample was still being run through every possible database just in case their unsub had committed a previous crime but the chances were unlikely. He hadn’t made a mistake thus far.

They were outside crossing the lot when Sasha noticed Gage was coming right toward her with a look in his eyes that stopped her right in her tracks. “No.” uncontrollable cries racked her body as her worst nightmare came to fruition. She gripped Gage’s shirt when he finally reached her. “Please don’t say it.” She begged him not to tell her, not to flip her world upside down.

“I’m so sorry.” Gage knew she’d want to know right away. “A body was discovered in the wooded area of the rental house, they haven’t made a positive ID yet. Dr. Levy is calling in Carolyn’s husband to—”

“No. I have to see her. I need to be there with her.” Sasha pushed away from Gage and Nicholas’ hands of condolence. “I have to go.”

Nick cursed as she raced toward the car. “Tell Gage everything you told us.” He instructed Wes before racing after Sasha. This wasn’t something she should do alone.

Sasha stopped crying and walked numbly through the hallways of the hospital down to the morgue.

Dr. Levy was a man in his late sixties who never left his career of death bring him down. Sasha always remembered the man wearing a doofy smile any time they met. There was no smile now.  Dr. Levy knew Carolyn Madden, a lot of the town did but it was up to a family member to ID her body. The doctor laid his hand over the grieving sister’s shoulder. “If you need a minute—”

“I need to know now.” Sasha had already waited four days to learn her sister’s fate at the hands of the cruel bastard with a score to settle. Four days of constant searching only to come up empty of any real answers.

With a nod of understanding Dr. Levy turned and pushed open the large double doors into the main work area where the bodies were kept awaiting autopsy or transport. There were two different rooms where autopsies were performed by Dr. Levy and his partner Dr. Scott.

Carolyn was lain on the cold steel table with the thinnest of sheets covering her body from head to toe. The doctor lowered the sheet to reveal her face, her lifeless yet beautiful face. Since Carolyn discovered make-up at the age of fourteen she never went without it even to sleep. It was an odd thought but Sasha knew her sister wouldn’t like being without it even now.

Sasha turned to Dr. Levy and noticed the man’s kind brown eyes were tearful. “Tell me what happened.” She knew all of the painful facts forever committed to her memory from the previous victims but she wanted the doctor to tell her about Caro and no one else.