Killer Scents (19 page)

“Police! Everyone up and stand at the end of your bunk
s
, hands where we can see them.”

Randy’s
jaw dropped
.
Jeffery climb
ed
down from the loft, half dressed, followed closely by Jacob
,
who was also without shoes or shirt. The two obviously shared the same bed.

“Jeffery Davies?”

The man
stood still, wide
-
eyed. “Yes, I’m Jeffery Davies. What’s going on?”

Disheartened, Randy
replied,
“We’re going to need you to get dressed,
both
you and Jacob. We’d like to have a talk with you.”

It’s not him. Jeffery doesn’t have Becca
,
and it is highly improbable he’s
T
he Florist.

“What do we do now?” Randy approached the chief.

“I guess we get together with Jeffery and his father. Let’s pray they can lead us to Becca.”

Randy opted to walk back to
try and curb his mounting frustration. The mere thought of
what could be happening to Becca
at
this precise moment
made him physically ill
.

Becca
,
where are you?

Chapter Twenty One

She’d battled demons and conquered
many
fears in her f
ort
y years, but at this precise moment
she
freely admitted to being scared shitless.
There has to be a way out
.
If he uses that needle, God only knows what he’ll do to me.

The more Becca struggled, the deeper the tape burned into her flesh.
If only I could bend my elbows.

The sheen of perspiration worked in her favor, helping the tape work its way up her arm. Her eyes filled and she blinked rapidly to clear her vision.

Please stay away just a little longer. If I
can get my wrists to my mouth, I might be abl
e to chew through the tape.

S
he frantically wiggled from side to side in hopes of moving the tape
further. H
er gaze never wavered from the panel Danny
had
disappeared
behind
.
The harder she worked, the more she sweated. The
mounting tension made the
threat of being sick, very real.

Finally, the tape slid over her elbow. Despite her pain
,
she moved quickly, bringing her wrists up to start gnawing through the bloodied tape.

All too soon, the creak of the panel
forced her to stop and
lie perfectly still
. Becca
pray
ed
he didn’t notice anything amiss. She swallowed her rising frustration.
If only he’d stayed away a little longer.

Worry lines sprouted between Danny’s eyes as he crossed the distance between them.

Please, please, please, don’t figure out what I’ve been up to.

He now stood at her side and looked down on her. Suspicion darkened his eyes as his fingertips skimmed her lips and came away bloodied.

Becca held her breath, forcing a calm exterior.

“
You bit your lip?” His words
were
slurred
like he’d been drinking
drunk. Danny let go of her hair and pull
ed
at the tape wound around her wrists.

She whimpered.

“Aw, does that hurt?” He yanked at it harder, the tape digging deeper and deeper into her skin.

“
You
sick bastard
.” With every ounce of strength left in her, Becca clasped her hands and brought up her fist, connecting with
h
is nose
. B
lood spurted over her and the floor.

Danny howled, grabbing his nose and hopping about like
he was
in a tribal dance. Becca prayed for mercy
. Her plan to knock him out failed
.

He squeezed the bridge of his swelling nose
and glared at her
. “You know, for a hotshot detective, you’re not very smart. Rule number one
:
never piss off the guy holding the needle.”

Randy stepped on the gas and blazed a trail out of Danny’s driveway.

Jeffery grabbed the dashboard. “Take it easy, man. How was I supposed to know he rented out his house?”

He smacked the steering wheel. “I’m not pissed off at you
,
Jeffery
.
I’m just plain ol’ pissed off. God only knows what he’
s
doing to her right now.” Pictures of the seven victims played over and over in his mind
.

During t
he discussion between Jeffery, Jacob
,
and the professor
, they listed previous workers who might have the kind of knowledge needed to pull something of this magnitude off undetected. Once Danny’s name was mentioned everything fell into place, and before long they agreed they’d uncovered
the identity of The Florist. “I still can’t wrap my head around it being a cop. Never in a million years would any of us have suspected Danny.”

“If it’s any consolation, Danny’s a real smooth talker. I’m not surprised he never drew any suspicion.”

“So, the two of you were close at one time?”

Jeffery settled in his seat. “I couldn’t talk about this in front of my father last night
.
Danny was my first lover. We
were
best
friends, and when his mother passed away, he came to live
with us
. Soon after, he seduced me.”

“Are you saying it wasn’t consensual?”

He waved a hand. “No, no, nothing like that. Danny was the first man to love me in that way. Before then you could say I was a little confused about my sexuality.”

“Is that the reason behind you and your father
’s
estrange
ment
?”

“Not entirely. You see
,
Danny and my mother became very close, and he took on the role of her protector. As you can well imagine, we were all devastated by her sudden death, but Danny took grief to a whole new level. He wouldn’t accept
that
she simply died of a heart attack. Everybody was suspect, and some
one
was going to pay for her death. It became his mission in life to find out whom.

“My mother helped us keep our relationship from my father. Shortly after her death, he found out and went ballistic. He
told
Danny
to
move
out
, even ban
ned
him from the property. I
also
left the house that night, but continued to work and live on the
acreage
.”

Jeffery shrugged indifference. “Dear old dad actually did me a favor. I wanted to end it with Danny, but didn’t know how. A few months later, I hooked up with Jacob, and here we are now.”

Randy listened to Jeffery’s story half-heartedly. While it was all interesting and gave him a better understanding of Danny, it brought them no closer to finding Becca. He hit the steering wheel again. “We’re missing something and I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.”
Smoke came up from under the car
as he hit the brakes
and peeled
down the professor’s driveway.

His heart
sank
as the scene unfolded before them. The officers lingered outside the buildings, making it crystal clear their search
had
turned up nothing.
His tires bit into the gravel
with
the truck
’s
sudden stop
.

“The dogs. Why haven’t the
y
been called in?
Mark,
go find the chief and bring him back here. I don’t have the authority to request them.”

After thirty excruciating minutes, the K9 units arrived with two beautiful Belgian Malinois on board. Each
dog
had been
outfitted with ballistic vests for their protection. Given Danny’s state of mind and the fact he’d already poisoned and killed a dog,
he
wouldn’t think twice about shooting them.

With ears pointed upwards, one
canine
sniffed Becca’s sweater and the other Danny’s vest. Their police partners knelt beside them and uttered the
ir
command
of
search and find.

The dogs
put their black
snouts to the ground and ran off in the same direction. Their partners followed close behind until both animals jumped into a thicket of trees and bramble, obscuring the back of a sorting building.

Randy’s heart pumped so hard he
heard blood rushing in his ears. He
’
d asked Jacob earlier what
was behind that particular structure
and
the guy
assured him not even the
ir
brawny utility trucks could get through the mass of overgrown weeds and foliage
there
.

W
e can’t get to it from the front, but
maybe we can go through the back.

“Jacob, can you show us
around to
the other side of this brush? Isn’t it possible he
got in that way
?”

The foreman shrugged and slid in behind the wheel of his
M
ule. “I guess it’s possible, but I can’t see how he did it without anybody
noticing
.”

The trainers tried to bring the
dogs
back to no avail. Once the two animals started to bark incessantly, he turned to the chief. “They’ve definitely found something.”

“Can’t you just command them to come back?”
t
he chief asked.

“
They are trained to stay with their find
.
I doubt they’ll come.
” He cupped the side of his mouth and called out. “Baron
!
Regan
!
H
ome
!
”

“We’re wasting time.” Randy waved the chief over. “If anyone gets in this way
,
let us know immediately. I want a team
to
follow us as well.”

Jacob drove
down
the lane
to the main road. He travelled a short distance before turning onto a rough path through the middle of a field. He pointed to where the tree line began.

“Right about here is where they went in from the other side.”

“Can’t we get closer than this?”
Randy’s lack of patience reached a new high.

“Not without ruining the
flowers
.”

“I don’t care if we have to plow them all
under
. It’s probable Danny came this way, so take us there now.”
Randy struggled to rein in his anger.

“Let’s calm down a minute. You
’
re not doing her an
y
good making decisions half
-
cocked.
”
Chief raised his brows.”Sit
down
and take a deep breath.”

Randy glanced at the other passengers and eased back in his seat, feeling very much the scolded child. “I’m sorry, but for all we know that whack job is over there sewing Becca’s mouth shut
right now
.”