Perfect Reflection (2 page)

She married her high school sweetheart, Josh
Campbell. They weren’t true mates, but they loved each other so
much they decided that they were soul mates, then a drunk driver
killed Josh two years ago. The pain was still fresh and right on
the surface when she worked. She had lost so much, her parents, her
best friend and mate, it sucked.

Josh had been a shifter, too, as well as her best
friend and confidant; sometimes she wondered why wolves searched so
hard for their true mate. It was crazy, finding the one who was
destined for you would seem to be a perfect thing; however, being a
cop she had seen some of what a true mate could do to you. Women
who refused to leave their abusive true mate until they killed them
because that was the way it was supposed to be. Well not her, she
picked her mate, Josh had been everything she wanted in a mate. He
listened to her, took care of the things she forgot, and knew all
of her little idiosyncrasies. Besides, she had felt a pull toward
him, at first convincing herself he was her true mate. However,
when he died, she knew he wasn’t and kept the secret to herself.
According to their ancestors, when you lost a true mate, it was
devastating and debilitating, to the point where some wolves would
waste away. Most of her pack realized when she didn’t react a
certain way that Josh wasn’t her true mate, although they never
said anything to her.

Josh would have healed if they could have gotten to
him in time and stopped the bleeding. Jewel refused to date anyone
since Josh died. Not wanting to go through that pain again, she
shut herself off. Dating was a huge no no, but sex, well that was
another story, although lately that had dried up, too. Jewel was
thinking about investing in another Big Boy to help her out. Hers
had just about outlived its purpose, and replacing batteries so
fast was a pain in the ass.

Josh would tell Jewel to take more time off so they
could go to her farm, approximately twenty minutes outside of
Atlanta, to run as her wolf, it relaxed her. She felt like the farm
was her true home and hoped that when she retired, she would move
to the farm and leave the city life behind her. Jewel loved the
silence and the ability to run through the woods without anyone
coming across her. Jewel’s wolf always let her know when she was
itching to get out. She never missed a weekend in honor of Josh,
which cut down on her sex life. Since the murders happened, Jewel
hadn’t been to the farm in a month. Most of her time was taken
investigating the murders. Her wolf was getting impatient. Jewel
really was going to have to make some time, even if it was just an
hour or two. Not shifting for long periods could be dangerous.
Jewel often had to take down shifters who refused to accept their
other half; they turned bat shit crazy and required someone to kill
them. It sucked but was a fact of life. And Jewel had enough
problems—going bat shit crazy wasn’t an option. Her partner
wouldn’t let that happen.

He was with her through the death of her husband and
the subsequent stages of grief. Vander was a true friend and would
do anything for her, and her wolf loved him. For ten years, they
had been through thick and thin. They joined the force at the same
time and went through the academy together; though he was human,
Jewel had been drawn to him. It surprised her about as much as him.
They found each other on the first day of the Academy, Jewel had a
bit of a chip on her shoulder and was a hardcore bitch, they met
when she was chewing out another cadet for something or other—she
had forgotten what. Vander had stood back and watched, then clapped
when she was done, they formed an instant bond.

Vander knew that Jewel was one hundred percent in
love with Josh, he respected that about her. Jewel respected Vander
and would do anything for him, but they were very clear with each
other on the line between friendship and anything else. He was her
best friend, her confidant, and her partner, in some ways he was
closer to her than anyone else was. However, he also respected the
friendship. Vander once said fucking her would be like incest.
Jewel had agreed, and then they had gotten drunk together and
laughed about the thought.

She teased him that he was good looking, but he knew
it. Vander had short hair that was dark-brown with brown eyes. He
was built pretty well, too, with muscles in the all the right
places. He never had a problem finding the women. They flocked to
him.

She would never forget the day Vander discovered she
was a shifter. Jewel and Vander were pinned down in a gunfight. A
bullet ricocheted off the wall and hit Jewel in the leg. It was
just a flesh wound but enough blood to let Vander know that she had
been shot. He pulled her pant leg up to try to stop the bleeding
and the wound had already healed. Vander was shocked. So she
invited Vander to the farm that night and she and Josh told Vander
that they were shifters, then Josh showed him. They still laugh
about that today and how Vander just about passed out.

Jewel looked down at the car radio and saw it was
six-thirty a.m. on the dot when she pulled into the construction
site. Vander was walking up with a cup of coffee in one hand and a
can of diet coke in the other, handing her the unopened can. Before
she took another step, she popped the top on the can and took a
long drink, needing the caffeine.

“Okay, tell me what you’ve got?” Jewel said after
taking in enough of the drink.

Vander smiled at her then looked out toward the site.
“The Superintendent of the site got to work this morning at around
four forty-five a.m. He had an early shipment coming in, so he had
come in earlier than normal. When he got to the site, he went to
his office. It’s that trailer over there.” Vander pointed to a
small trailer in front of the construction site. “He waited for his
shipment and when they pulled into the site, he walked over to that
door and waited for them to park the truck. The guys driving the
truck walked into the site to see where he wanted the steel put.
Sams, the Superintendent, noticed a light on in one of the rooms
and went in to shut it off. The guys followed him thinking that was
where he wanted the steel put. When they entered the room, he found
the victim. He immediately got the guys out of there, went outside,
and called the police. The Victim is strapped to a table just like
the other VIC. It’s the same M.O. as before, too.”

Jewel looked up at Vander. “Don’t say it.”

“I think we have a serial killer,” Vander whispered,
knowing Jewel could hear him. She glared at him and then lifted her
head and sniffed the air, the stench of death was present, but she
could scent something else, something that was bothering her, it
was the same scent from before.

Jewel walked into the construction site with Vander.
Nobody was allowed to go into the room until Jewel gave her
permission. This was her case, her baby. The Captain knew that
Jewel was diligent at her job. The FBI called her in sometimes to
consult on their homicides. She could tell them things that their
Profiler couldn’t. Jewel could see things about the crime, things
no one else could.

She thought it was because she was a shifter, but
there were a lot of other cops that were shifters and they didn’t
have that talent. Josh told her that it was a gift, but he also
told her that sometimes with a gift comes a price. He worried about
her because she let the cases consume her sometimes.

When she slept, she got visions of the victims. Josh
would wake her up, because she would be crying or screaming in her
sleep for them to run. Now that he was gone, no one was there to
wake her up. She loved her job, but sometimes the visions took
their toll and she would look ragged and worn out. She didn’t give
a shit if it found the scumbag she was looking for, but it was
still draining.

She hadn’t really confided in anyone about her gift.
Jewel looked at it as a curse, too, and wasn’t so sure she would
find out something was wrong with her. Hell, for all she knew it
could be some freaking genetic thing passed down from her birth
parents. The ones who didn’t stay around long enough to see how she
turned out. Jewel really had gotten over her parents’ death, but
she was a little bitter that they were taken from her while she had
been so young, it made her the bitch cop she had become. Her
strength came from the fact that she was helping innocent victims
who needed it.

Jewel kicked into detective mode when she stopped at
the doorway, and looked at the crime scene without stepping inside.
With her camera out, she took pictures of things nobody else did.
Most of the time, crime scene techs didn’t look at the scene in 3D,
but Jewel did. This was her gift, her thing that made her special,
although no one knew it but her partner, and even he didn’t
understand how she did it.

Because of her visions, Jewel was responsible for
catching a lot of people; she was so meticulous at her job. She
bent down and looked at the crime scene then started taking
pictures from below. Vander knew not to get in her way when she
walked into the crime scene. He didn’t ask her any questions or
stand behind her. He always said that Jewel was in a trance when
she walked into a crime scene. She transported herself back to when
the crime started, or at least that is what she told Vander. He
never understood it, but he never questioned it either. She was
good, very good, and you never mess with something if it is
working. Jewel had a digital recorder with her. She didn’t take
notes much, but she spoke into the recorder as she walked through
the scene.

Vander stood at the doorway while Jewel did her mojo.
He would take notes of things he saw and they would compare notes
later when they would type their summaries. Vander learned so much
from Jewel that he was making a name for himself dealing with crime
scenes, too. Jewel told him her theories and Vander told his, then
they were able to come up with several scenarios that most cops
wouldn’t recognize because of their different styles.

Jewel walked in a circle around the crime scene
talking into her recorder. She came to the table where the Victim
was tied up. “She was scared, she knew what was going to happen,
only if she could talk him out of it,” Jewel said into the
recorder.

“He talked to her, made her think she had a chance if
she did something,” Jewel muttered and then frowned because the
image would not come to her; she had no idea why he was doing what
he was. It was pissing her off, as if someone was blocking her,
impossible of course, but still frustrating.

The M.O. was the same. He put tape over her mouth and
used thin rope to tie her hands and legs to the table. She was nude
and appeared to be raped just like the other victims. “Teaching her
a lesson, she should never have gone out to the bar with such a
sexy outfit. She was asking for trouble,” Jewel said into her
recorder—it was the same thing she felt before. Somehow, the perp
felt like he was justified in killing them, as if it was his
job.

The Victim was pretty and usually came from money.
Looking at where the malicious perp had tortured the girl made her
blood boil. This was the third victim in Atlanta. Captain John
Marks informed her after the second one that he had received a call
from Captain Lex Doyle from the New York Police Department asking
about their murders. Captain Doyle informed her captain that they
had two murders with the same M.O.

That meant he was traveling from one city to another
killing, leaving his own brand of destruction in his path. His
killing zone was specific though, all at construction sites. Jewel
made a note to see if there was a connection there.

Captain Marks wanted Jewel and Vander to go to New
York, meet with Captain Doyle, and see if the crimes were
connected. They would work together in trying to solve this if it
was connected. Jewel wasn’t happy about this development; she was
comfortable in her own territory. A wolf traveling out of her
territory would need to make sure she didn’t piss another pack off.
That’s all she would need. Then there was her fear of flying, being
in a small tube that is lofted into the air was not natural.
Besides the fact, the cute little flight attendants that inevitably
flirted with Vander got on her nerves. She didn’t care about the
flirting so much as the hair flipping and disgusting odor of
perfume that would always make her want to gag. Then there was her
wolf; she hated being enclosed for a long period of time. Only
shifters knew how much pain their wolf could cause if they were
pissed, the clawing on the inside was painful, so Jewel usually
drank to help with the pain.

However, since Captain Doyle believed that this was a
serial killer moving from New York to Atlanta, she had to go. Now
with this third murder here in Atlanta, the press would be all over
it. And she was going to have to be front and center
, damn
it
, she thought. They were going to make her cut her hair and
wear something business-like instead of her standard jeans and
t-shirt.

Shaking off her thoughts, Jewel walked over to the
table with the victim and started taking pictures. She reached out
and touched the arm of the victim. It was only a light touch to the
arm. She was trying to see if you could get a vision.

It was as if she went back in time. She could see
the victim lying on the table. She was talking to somebody. It
looked like she said, “We had a good time, but this is going too
far” but Jewel had a hard time reading the girls lips. She couldn’t
hear the other voice, it was muffled, but she could feel the
woman’s fear from whatever he said.

Jewel watched as the tape went over the victim’s
mouth. She made a note to see if the tape was left behind. Fuck,
she was terrified, the woman felt confused and scared,
why was
he doing this?

Then the women struggled, trying to get loose. This
could not be happening to her, she had just been out for a little
bit of fun and ended up here. What the hell was going on?