Ripped in Red (12 page)

21

“I
’m calling to keep you up-to-date on the case,” Ingram said on the phone the next morning. “We’ve had another…incident.”

“What happened?” Cassidy waved Colin over.

“The body of a young prostitute was discovered this morning.”

“Why do you think her death is related?”

“Written in the dirt next to her body were the words ‘pretty is as pretty does’. I know it isn’t exactly the same as the others, but the word pretty—”

“We’ll be right there.” Cassidy grabbed her holstered gun from a peg high on the wall out of the reach of children.

“No, we’ll do the investigating. You’re in hiding and protective service.”

“You can’t do this.” She flopped onto the sofa. “This is more my case than anyone’s. I need to be there when this guy is caught. Bill Carson is armed. If anyone comes snooping around—”

“I gave you a direct order.”

“Then call my supervisor.” She lunged to her feet and paced. “I’ll do this with or without your permission.” She waved a hand as Colin opened his mouth to speak. “You know as well as I do that Blake Russell does these things to draw me out. So, let me be there. We won’t catch him otherwise. You know it.”

Bill Carson grabbed the phone from her hand. “Sir, I would appreciate her leaving this cabin. If this maniac wants her, then having her close to my family puts us in danger.” He handed the phone back to Cassidy. “You’re welcome.” He marched into the kitchen.

“Sir?”

“The man has a point.” Ingram sighed. “As much as I hate to say this, go ahead and investigate this lead with MacKenzie. I’ll send Smith to watch over the Carsons.” He gave her the location of the body and hung up.

Cassidy grinned and fist pumped the air. She might be walking into a trap, but it was better than sitting there wondering what was going on.

She glanced at Rosie who sat looking up at her with intense eyes. The Carson’s little boy laughed and threw his arms around the dog’s neck. “Stay, Rosie. Guard.” It would leave an empty spot in her heart not having her faithful companion with her, but the child could use the protection more.

“Are you sure?” Colin glanced from her to Rosie.

“I’m sure.” She heaved a sigh and glanced at the Carson family. “If I don’t return for her, take good care of her. She’s the best protector you’ll ever need.” She knelt down and hugged her furry friend. “Be good. I’ll be back by dark.” God willing.

Rosie whined, confused, as Cassidy strolled out the front door.

Without looking back, she climbed into the jeep, grateful for the chance to search for The Dragon rather than wait for him to come to her as she hid in a cabin in the woods.

“You’re either the bravest woman I’ve ever met,” Colin said, “or the dumbest. That dog is the best warning you can have that someone is coming.”

“Which is why I left her behind. If something happened to the children because of my presence, I’d never forgive myself.” She stared at him. “You should understand about not forgiving yourself. You can’t get over something that was an accident. My staying here is not the same thing.”

“Low blow.” He started the ignition and turned the jeep around in the small yard.

“You didn’t have a nightmare last night.”

“I took a pill, and I’m still feeling the effects. They leave me grouchy, so don’t start in on me.”

“All righty then.” She fought a smile and glanced out the window. Perhaps the always grinning Colin wasn’t so perfect after all. How long would his bad mood last? She glanced at her watch.

~

Colin parked next to the yellow crime scene tape in the city’s poorest, and most crime ridden, area. Several gang members and prostitutes stood on the civilian side of the tape and craned their necks to get a look.

“Pardon me.” He lifted the tape to let Cassidy through.

Lying on the gravel strewn alley next to a dumpster was the body of a young girl. She didn’t look more than fifteen or sixteen. If she was older, she was lying. His heart sank at the loss of such a young life. Red hair fanned out from a face that was more cute than pretty. A short leather skirt barely covered what should be hidden.

He knelt next to her and looked up into the tear-filled eyes of a much older girl. “What’s her name?”

“All we know her by is Angel.”

“Who was her last trick? Did you know the man?”

She shook her head. “He wasn’t a regular.” She shuddered. “He was a monster. Handsome on one side, scarred on the other, like Two-Face, the character from the Batman movies. She was wearing jeans when she went with him.”

That cinched the fact that Blake Russell was most likely the murderer. Colin pushed to his feet, noticing a young African American man standing off to one side. The man motioned his head, calling Colin closer.

“Do you have information for me?” Colin stepped over the tape.

“That man was here before. A couple of days ago. Me and some of my homies tried to harass him. He pulled out a gun and shot one of us right between the eyes. He’s cold. Didn’t even flinch when he pulled the trigger, then just walked away.”

“Did you see him with the girl?”

“They went into that liquor store for a bottle. I don’t know where they went after that. Me and the homies been trying to find him to exact payback, but he’s like a ghost.”

“He calls himself The Dragon. Stay away from him.”

“Dude.” The man held up his hands. “We got to pay him back. Just call us the dragon slayers. We’ll send you his head.”

“Then you’ll most likely die.” Colin almost threatened to lock the guy up in order to save his life. He glanced at the man’s ‘homies’. He couldn’t lock them all up. He shook his head and headed for the liquor store while Cassidy spoke with the crime scene techs.

A bell jingled over the door when he entered. He glanced up and noted a security camera. “That thing work?”

“Yes, sir. We keep it running on a loop. It doesn’t pay to not be vigilant in this neighborhood.”

“Do you have the footage from last night?”

“Yep.” He motioned Colin to come around the counter. “You can see it all on that monitor.”

Colin backed up the video feed until he came to the approximate time Blake had entered the store. The man kept the scarred side of his face away from the camera and grinned, or grimaced, at the young girl at his side. Was it possible he’d slipped up and not noticed the camera?

“How did he seem to you?” He asked the clerk.

“Happy. The girl was giggling. They seemed to be having a good time.”

“She didn’t seem afraid of him?”

“Nope.”

Hmm. Colin glanced at the video again. What had changed? Had she said something to set Blake off? In the video her hair was dark, but outside her hair was red. Was that the trigger? He ejected the tape and slipped it into a paper bag. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Any time. Angel was well liked around here.”

Colin headed back out and joined Cassidy. “Any word on her real identity?”

“We’re checking her against missing teens. It will probably take a while. Poor thing.” She scanned the area. “Doesn’t make sense that Blake would go for one so young.”

“Look around. She was the prettiest one here. He probably thought she’d give him the least resistance. The weird thing is, the store clerk said they were laughing while making their purchase. Angel hadn’t seemed frightened of him at all.”

“She said or did something that got her killed. I guess we start knocking on doors. Not the safest thing in this neighborhood.”

“The gang members are out for revenge. I’m sure they’ll help.” If they didn’t kill him before alerting the authorities to his location. In moments like that one, Colin didn’t care if they found the man alive or dead.

“I need some coffee.”

“There’s a gas station on the corner. They’ll have some. Then we can plan our next step. Did you find any clues around the body?”

“Not a thing, just like all the others.” She glanced at her watch. “Are you still grouchy?”

“No. Why?”

“Your bad mood lasted two hours.”

“Seriously? You timed it?”

She shrugged and laughed. “It’s out of character for you.”

She was something else. He grinned and put his arm around her shoulders.

The gang members parted like the Red Sea as the two of them strolled down the sidewalk. A couple of them gave Cassidy appreciative glances, but no one said anything. Their silence gave Colin the creeps. The authorities needed to find The Dragon before the dragon slayers did.

~

Draco removed every trace of Little Maureen from the shoddy apartment. He cleaned the surfaces with bleach, vacuumed the sofa, and tossed the bedding into a pile to be laundered. Her jeans he tossed out the window after dousing them with bleach. They’d find them and link them to the girl, but he didn’t care. He’d be long gone by then.

Not that he didn’t expect Cassidy and the Scotsman to not figure out he’d killed her, but because it was what he did when he had a victim at his house. Although he hadn’t planned on killing the girl, he wanted no traces of her anywhere around.

Once he was certain he’d taken care of anything relating to her, or him, he gathered his things and closed the door. Time to find a new place to live.

He scooted out the back door of the building and headed for his rented Lincoln. Popping the trunk, he tossed his suitcase in the back.

“Hey, Dragon.”

He whirled, coming face-to-face with five gang members. “Walk away.”

“The cops are looking for you. We told them we’d bring them your head.”

“Good luck with that.” Draco re-opened the trunk and pulled out a bag. “I’ll give you one more chance to walk away.”

“Now, that ain’t going to happen, Dragon.” The leader said his name as if it were a cuss word. “We got to make amends for you killing our friend. Now, it doesn’t seem likely that you can shoot all five of us.”

Draco pulled a lighter from his pants pocket. “Perhaps not.” He set the paper bag on fire and leaped behind the dumpster.

The bag exploded.

Screams filled the air along with the stench of burning flesh.

He sighed and came out of hiding, stepping over the nearest gang member howling on the ground. “You should have listened to me.” He gave the man a kick, then climbed into the driver’s seat of his car, now showing the effects of the pipe bomb he’d set off. No matter. He’d ditch the car and get another one.

The gang members wouldn’t die. The bomb hadn’t been powerful enough. But, they would sport a few scars of their own.

He cranked up the radio. Classical music burst from the speakers as he pulled out of the alley. When would the masses learn not to mess with The Dragon? He glanced at the clock in the dashboard. He had thirty minutes before his meeting with his followers.

He spotted the detectives strolling down the sidewalk as if they were on an afternoon excursion. They stepped into the gas station store. Draco parked across the street and watched through the window as the Scotsman bought two coffees.

It would be so easy to pick them off. He thought of the gun in his glove compartment and almost reached for it. No, he had a different end in mind for them. Cassidy needed the opportunity to join him, to share his vision. If not, she would suffer the fate of her mother.

He would wait.

22

A
n explosion rattled the store window.

“That came from the alley.” Cassidy turned to the store clerk. “Where’s the back door?”

The young woman pointed. “Should I call the cops?”

“We are the cops!” Colin barged down a short hall and out the back door, Cassidy on his heels.

The five gang members they’d spoken to earlier lay writhing in agony on the ground. The leader clutched a leg missing several layers of skin.

Cassidy placed a call for an ambulance and squatted next to one young man with a stick poking out of his forehead. “Looks like y’all had a run in with The Dragon, and he was breathing fire.” She shook her head. “At least everyone here is still breathing. This one barely.” She moved the man’s hand away from his face. “Don’t pull it out. You’ll bleed to death.”

“I warned you, didn’t I?” Colin helped the leader to a sitting position and used the man’s belt as a tourniquet.

The young man cursed. “He’s bad news for sure.”

“So, it was the same guy?”

“Yep. Came out of that apartment complex behind us.”

As soon as the ambulance pulled into the alley, Cassidy followed Colin into the apartment complex. A few moments spent with a drowsy manager and they knew which apartment Blake Russell had rented.

“The man always paid cash,” the woman said, tightening a stained yellow terry cloth robe around her faded nightgown. “Kept to himself and never gave me a lick of trouble. Not like some of my other tenants.”

She led them up the stairs and into an apartment reeking of bleach. “See? The place is spotless. Just like him.”

Cassidy cast her an incredulous look. If only the woman knew. “Don’t you do background checks on your tenants?”

“I done told you he paid cash. That’s all I care about. Y’all let yourselves out.” She turned and shuffled back down the stairs.

Cassidy stepped into the sparcely furnished room, snapping gloves onto her hands. “He cleaned it in anticipation of us coming.”

“Probably to remove that poor girl’s DNA.” Colin moved to the window. “He’s got a clear view of the street and the prostitutes from here. My guess is…he’d chosen her, whether to die or for company, I don’t know.”

“He did a lot more than that.” Cassidy peered under the sleeper sofa and pulled out a slip of paper torn from a receipt. In girlish scrawl was the name Maureen. “Either she shared my mother’s name or that’s what he chose to call her.”

Blake Russell seemed to be spiralling into decline, especially if he had taken to naming his victims by Cassidy’s mother’s name. She pushed to her feet and headed to the one other room in the place. The bathroom.

She opened the medicine cabinet to find it empty. Same with the small closet on the other side of the wall. It was as if no one had lived there. Another deadend as far as clues went. Still, they’d have the crime scene investigators scope the place. They knew Blake was their man, but every clue that backed that up made putting him behind bars easier.

“Cassidy.” Colin’s voice called her from the front room.

She joined him at the front window. A dark Lincoln idled in front of the building. She knew without being able to see through the tinted windows that their killer sat in the driver’s seat. She opened the window and leaned out. “Come on up and let’s talk.”

Her cell phone rang. “Blake?”

“Hello, dear. Have you found the item I left you yet?”

“The slip of paper with my mother’s name?”

“No, I didn’t know about that. Silly little girl.” He chuckled. “She and I got along just fine until she had a slip of the tongue. Very unfortunate.”

“What’s the item, Blake?”

“I go by Draco now, dear.” He sighed. “I thought you were better than this. I hate to make things too easy for you. I need a worthy adversary.”

“Come up here and I’ll show you how worthy I am.” With a bullet in the heart.

“Tsk tsk. When the time is right.” Click. The car pulled away from the curb and drove off.

“He said he left us something.” Cassidy turned from the window. “There aren’t many hiding places here.”

“So we look closer. I’ll start at this end, you start in the bathroom.”

She’d just come from there, but anything was better than standing around guessing. She returned to the small room containing a shower, a toilet, and a pedestal sink. If someone were to hide something, where would they put it? She glanced at the vent overhead. Climbing onto the toilet seat, she removed the screw holding the cover in place. Empty, like everything else.

She jumped down and lifted the lid from the toilet tank. Bingo. Inside was a plastic bag. She pulled it out, shook off the water, then removed the contents and stared at the photos of a smiling, handsome Blake and her mother. They both looked so happy. Were these taken at the same party as the photo Cassidy carried in her pocket?

Had her mother and Blake been an item? Not according to Allison Carson. Rather Blake had wanted her mother and her mother had only tolerated him. As time went on, the more convinced Cassidy was that Blake had had an unhealthy obsession with her mother. An obsession that drove him to kill.

She turned the top photo over. Written in red ink were the words, “Join me or I kill the Scotsman.”

~

Colin leaned against the doorjamb and watched as Cassidy’s face paled. “What did you find?”

“Pictures and a warning.” She handed him the photos. “He’s coming after you.”

“I’ve been expecting him to. He won’t catch me unawares.”

Her eyes glistened. “Being my partner could get you killed.”

“Hazard of the job.” He held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s meet with Ingram, tell him what we have, and head back up the mountain. Don’t worry about me.”

He could tell his words didn’t soothe her. She would worry, because that’s who she was. She’d grown to care for him, despite her struggles to the contrary, and this note would only make her worry more.

Slipping her hand into his, she allowed him to pull her to her feet and out of the room. He gathered her in his arms, breathing deep of her scent, only for a moment, then released her. He tilted her face to his. “I’ll be fine. No dragon is going to end me.” He grinned, fighting back the urge to kiss her. With a woman as opposed to romantic entanglements as Cassidy, it was best to let her make the first move. “I’m glad you aren’t considering the contrary.”

“Which is?” Her voice shook.

“Joining the family business.”

She choked back a laugh. “This is serious.”

“We’ve known from the beginning the risks of this job.” He chucked her on the chin. “Chin up, Bull Dog. We’ve a killer to catch.”

“Don’t call me that.” She stepped back, her gaze locked on his. “If something were to happen—”

“We’ll deal with it when and if.” He moved out of the apartment, pulling the door closed after Cassidy. The crime scene techs would come here when they finished with the alley.

The message on the photo bothered him, he wouldn’t lie. Draco the dragon stayed one step ahead of them all the time. The only thing going for Colin was instincts and a desire to live. It would have to be enough.

They met Ingram in the alley. Cassidy handed him the baggie and photos. “This is why I can’t hide. The clues are for me to find.”

“You’ve made your point.” Ingram dropped the evidence into a bag. “The toilet, you say? Doubt there’s anything on it after being in the water.”

“We didn’t find a hair in the place. Just a slip of paper with the name Maureen.” Colin nodded for Cassidy to hand it over. “We’re heading back up the mountain to try and come up with another plan to draw this perp out.”

“Good luck,” Ingram said. “We’re batting zero. If you’re a praying man, tell the big guy upstairs we could use a break”

Colin nodded and placed his hand on the small of Cassidy’s back. They made their way back to the jeep, ignoring the curious looks of the bystanders. Maybe the gang’s pals would help bring The Dragon down.

“I don’t want to go back to the mountain,” Cassidy said. “Blake may not know where the cabin is, and I want him to come to me.”

“Your house? What about backup?”

“Call Ingram and tell him where we’re going. We’ve got the security system. We’ll know Blake is there the moment he steps foot on my property.”

He didn’t like it. Not a bit. “It’s too dangerous.”

“I’m not going to have a war at the cabin where a baby and innocent people are. You should understand how painful it is to be the cause of an innocent’s death.”

He knew all too well. “This is different. I pulled the trigger that killed that woman.”

“It’ll feel the same to me if one of the Carsons is hit.” She gave him a sharp look. “You can’t stay awake forever. The moment you fall asleep, I’ll be in the jeep and headed home.”

“Fine.” He whipped the steering wheel and turned the jeep around.

~

“Where are they going?” Mary whispered, narrowing her eyes as the jeep swung and drove in the opposite direction of the mountain cabin. Surely they weren’t headed back to town. Bringing down Draco’s nemesis would be much harder under the watchful eyes of nosy neighbors. She cursed and followed.

Sure enough, less than an hour later, the two cops pulled into the female’s driveway. Minus the dog, which would be a huge plus when Mary needed to break in. She needed to find a way through the security system. There were bound to be cameras and alarms.

No worries. She was a smart woman, one of the most intelligent she knew. The only thing she had over her step-sisters. She smiled. Former step-sisters.

She’d find a way in. If not, she’d simply ring the front doorbell and have them invite her in. Draco would be amazed at her prowess, her ingenuity, her bravery, her
worth
. He might even make her his second-in-command.

A thrill shot through her. She had found her new purpose. To become the most important person in Draco’s life. He would love her. After all, the man wouldn’t care that she was plain. He, himself, was scarred. No, they’d become the most formidable duo in the history of the world.

She laughed and drove past the house. Life couldn’t be better for Mary Jones.

Before returning to her motel room, she stopped for fast food burgers. The largest they had. She was celebrating her good fortune, after all.

In her room, she set the food on the round table for two and headed for the bathroom to change into a flannel nightgown and a terry robe. Once she and Draco became an item, she’d need something more…feminine. Her face heated at the thought. She’d bet he was a generous lover. Not rough and hurtful like her father had been.

Some would say the hate inside Mary was caused by life. She knew it was because she was being fashioned into someone worthy of Draco. Unless she could overcome the tragedies of her past, she couldn’t welcome the future that promised to be more than she’d ever dreamed.

She plopped across the bed and opened the food bag. After taking a bite of the greasy burger, she dialed the number to the man she loved.

“Why are you calling, Mary?” His voice sent her stomach fluttering. “I thought we discussed you moving on now.”

“I have the grandest plans, too. Oh, Draco, you’ll be so proud of me.”