The Marine Next Door (3 page)

“Better make that international,” Spencer Montgomery suggested. “Our guy could have been way off the grid.”

Maggie opened up a note pad on her screen and jotted down the task. She scooted the case file with the haunting photos around the table while she typed.

Chief Taylor pulled back the front of his suit jacket and propped his hands at his waist. “I know all the scenarios to explain why he’s back in KC, doing this sick stuff to women. I want to know how we stop him.”

“Is this…” Annie set down her drink and pulled an 8 x 10 of the latest victim from the file.

“Bailey Austin.” Spencer Montgomery plucked the photo from her hand, perhaps looking at it a little longer than necessary for simple identification before picking up the folder and sliding it back inside. But he was a hard man to read, and maybe Maggie had only imagined the hesitation regarding the victim’s picture. “It doesn’t help that his first victim out of the block is the stepdaughter of one of the wealthiest men in Kansas City. Her stepdaddy, Jackson Mayweather, will do whatever it takes to protect his family. That could generate a lot of press we don’t want.”

“And makes us look bad that he’s still on the street,” his partner added. “That has to feed this perp’s power trip.”

Chief Taylor nodded. “I’ve already gotten a call this morning from Mr. Mayweather, after he talked to the commissioner. He’s agreed to use discretion and defer to us, at least until we get our investigation under way.”

“Is Miss Austin okay?” Montgomery asked.

“Look at the pictures,” Annie said. “She was brutalized.”

“I’m asking, did she survive? Is she alive? Coherent?” Maybe Maggie had only imagined an emotional reaction from Detective Montgomery because he cleared his throat and his tone became every bit as clipped and clinical as a scientist discussing his research. “I’d like to question her—as soon as Dr. Kilpatrick here thinks she can handle it. If we can’t talk to a suspect, the next best thing is talking with the vic. If we could get a grasp on what she was thinking and doing that made her pop up as a target for this bastard, that might give us a lead to track him down.”

Dr. Kilpatrick held the detective’s gaze across the table. “I’d suggest sending an interrogator with a little more tact and compassion than you, Spencer.”

“I get the job done,” he argued.

The police psychologist was unfazed by the chill in his tone. “Whoever interviews the women who were attacked needs to understand their victimology. Rape victims require an intuition, an empathy, even, to get them to communicate. You may be dealing with anger, extreme distrust, fear of reprisals. They could be shut down and unreachable. Research indicates that some women even feel they deserved the attack, and won’t cooperate with police to catch their rapist.”

Nick Fensom swore beneath his breath. “Nobody deserves what happened to her.”

Kate Kilpatrick nodded. “Unless you’ve been through that, though, it’s difficult to understand the victimology.”

The letter
k
repeated in row after row on the computer screen as Maggie’s fingers stilled on her keyboard. Chief Taylor hadn’t asked her into the meeting just to take notes after all. She was certain of it.

Detectives, a police psychologist, a crime lab liaison and a security expert. Their presence on the task force made sense. Now she understood that her presence here made sense, too.

Maggie knew what it was like to be a rape victim better than anyone else sitting at this table, as far as she was aware. She’d long ago locked down that part of her life and moved on the best she could to raise her son and provide a healthy, normal existence for them both. But if she could help Bailey Austin recover from her attack—if she could get the other victims to talk or offer some unique insight that could prevent the Rose Red Rapist from striking again…then maybe it was time to for her to unlock that terrible expertise.

Her attacker had been a free man for precisely forty-three days now. And even though a court order legally prevented Maggie from ever having to deal with her ex-husband again, she’d awakened every morning and fallen asleep each night for the past forty-three days, wondering if this was the day Danny Wheeler would return and finish what he’d started ten years earlier. The tulip this morning told her she’d been right to worry. She knew how frightened Bailey Austin was feeling right now—how wary and exposed and unable to trust she’d be until the bastard who’d raped her was put behind bars.

Maggie Wheeler understood victimology. Chief Taylor was a smarter man than he sometimes let on. He’d known exactly what he was doing when he’d asked her to join this meeting. Some favor.

“I’ll let you all work out the details.” He was wrapping up the meeting. “Montgomery’s running this show, but I want a daily report. Anything you need, don’t wait and go through channels if there’s any kind of delay. You need a warrant, you need to talk to another division, you need access to sealed records—whatever it might be—you come to me and I’ll expedite the request. As of now, this investigation is priority one.” Maggie deleted all the extra letters and saved her notes, working up the courage to raise her hand and interrupt. “I have a wife and a daughter. I want this bastard off the streets.”

The answering chorus of “Yes, sirs” told her the meeting had ended. People were breaking into smaller discussions. Pike Taylor urged his dog to its feet. The chief opened the door and was leaving the room.

Do it.
Ten years of recovery and a hard-won independence urged Maggie to rise to her feet. One gift from her ex wasn’t going to intimidate her into sitting on her hands and allowing another woman to be hurt. She had a unique skill that no one else in this room could bring to the table. She breathed in deeply and made her decision. Men like her ex-husband and the Rose Red Rapist didn’t get to terrorize the women of Kansas City. Not when she could do something to help stop them.

“Do it,” she whispered to herself, closing her laptop and hurrying after Chief Taylor. She caught up to him in the hallway just outside his executive assistant’s office. “Chief, could I talk to you a minute?”

He pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch before offering her half a smile. “I was hoping I’d pique your interest.” He nodded to the woman at the desk in his outer office as he ushered Maggie through to his office. “Brooke, hold my calls.”

“Right, Mitch.” Brooke Kincaid, probably Maggie’s best friend here at Fourth Precinct headquarters, mouthed a question to Maggie.
Are you okay?

Maggie nodded, trading a thumbs-up sign with her friend, even though she was certain she looked pale as a ghost. She had to do this. She needed to be a part of this team.

Chief Taylor closed his office door and gestured to a seat on the near side of his massive walnut desk. “I know you don’t have investigative experience yet, Maggie. But I also know how much you want to make detective. I hate to lose the efficiency you bring to running the front desk, but I think you could be an asset to the team. You’d be invaluable talking to the victims.” His leather chair creaked as it took his weight. “I don’t want to force you because I know it’s a personal subject for you, but—”

“You don’t have to give me a sales speech, sir,” Maggie assured him. “You know my history with Danny. And I know that’s why you asked me to join that meeting.”

A much younger Mitch Taylor had been the arresting officer when her ex had finally answered for his violence against her. “I didn’t want to give you too much time to think about it. I figured you might talk yourself out of helping.”

“If you want someone who understands the victimology of the women the Rose Red Rapist preys on, I’m…qualified.”

“You’re sure? This could bring up some painful memories.” He braced his elbows on the desk and leaned toward her. “And I won’t lie to you—Danny has been out of prison a couple of months now, hasn’t he? This has to be a particularly trying time for you. Nothing about this investigation will be easy.”

She should have known a cop as experienced and on-the-ball as Mitch Taylor would be aware of her ex-husband’s release from prison. Maybe he even considered her ex a person of interest because Danny Wheeler’s time locked up in Jefferson City roughly matched the gap in the Rose Red Rapist attacks. She didn’t know whether Danny would target any other woman except her, but then she hadn’t known the extent of the violence he was capable of when she’d married him either.

“I want to do this, Mitch.” This was her chance to prove to Chief Taylor that she was not only ready, but that she also deserved to make detective. It was also her chance to prove to herself that she truly had moved beyond the past that had once shadowed every aspect of her life. She was a fighter. A mother. A cop. A college graduate. She was nobody’s victim anymore. “Some things, no matter how difficult they are, are worth doing. I want to fight for these women—be their advocate if I can. I want to join your task force.”

Chapter Two

This was getting old.

John Murdock’s thick arms and thighs flexed easily as he lifted two more boxes of books from the back of his pickup and shut the tailgate. But his right knee ached, and shards of phantom pain radiated down into his ankle and foot. He’d been at this all day—long enough for the sun to go down outside—packing, carrying, unpacking, hauling some more. Even though he’d made the trip several times already without incident, habit had him checking the cars on either side of him, and behind each crumbling brick-encased support pillar as he limped across the cracked concrete of the parking garage below his building.

He wondered how long the pain that wasn’t really there would stay with him—possibly the rest of his life according to many of the doctors and therapists who’d worked on him. He wondered how long it would take before it stopped feeling like he was just going through the motions expected of him by
civilized
society, and he truly felt like he was home. He was getting used to the quizzical looks from strangers, setting him apart because they viewed him as some kind of hero or they felt sorry for him. Either option set his teeth on edge and made it hard to interact without second-guessing every word or gesture directed his way.

He wondered when he’d feel like celebrating surviving his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, when he’d feel like unpacking his Purple Heart, Silver Star and other medals and deployment ribbons. He wondered when he’d be ready for a beer with old friends or facing the job—and the woman he loved but could never have—that he’d left behind. It didn’t matter that he’d lived his whole life in Kansas City before reupping with the Corps. He felt like a stranger in his own town, with his own things, inside his own skin.

He’d left a part of himself behind on that roadside in Afghanistan. In more ways than one.

Returning to the Corps was supposed to have been a fresh start for him—coming home after his stint was up, the beginning of a brand-new chapter in his life. Yet he felt stuck, like nothing had changed. He’d loved the wrong woman, raised a sister who no longer needed him, given his spleen and a good part of his right leg, a couple of friends and half of his soul to the enemy he’d gone to fight.

Inside, he was still a long way from coming home.

Adding boxes of books and kitchen supplies, along with a few civilian clothes, to the boring beige of his furnished apartment didn’t do much to make this feel like a homecoming. But it got him out of the spare bedroom at his sister’s place so she could sell it and get on with marrying her fiancé. And, it was mindless exercise that tired him out and didn’t require much thought. Right now it was enough to feel less like a burden and to look forward to a decent night’s sleep.

John slowed when he heard footsteps ahead of him. Two sets of footfalls on the far side of that last pillar. He was a big enough man that it’d take a pretty bold mugger to come after him. But size alone wasn’t a deterrent if the perps were hyped up on some kind of drug or they took a closer look at his disability and mistook him for an easy mark—if there was a mugger at all.

Running into normal, everyday people who expected normal, everyday conversation out of him was almost more daunting than facing someone who wanted to hurt him. He’d been in survival mode for over a year now, and adjusting to
normal
was taking just as long as the psychologist who’d debriefed him when he’d mustered out had said it would.

The curve of a butt in navy blue slacks disappearing between the open doors of the garage’s elevator almost made him stop in his tracks as he rounded the last pillar and passed the wall of junction boxes and access panels and fire emergency equipment. So the challenge would be normal, everyday civility if he got on that elevator. Would the woman who owned those curves notice the empty pant leg? Or the carbon-fiber composite rod sticking out of his boot? Would there be a slew of curious questions or politely stilted silence as she avoided eye contact with him? Maybe she’d just stare at the scars on his neck, arm and hand. A vein ticked along the column of his throat as the relative tranquility of being alone warred with his common sense.

Who knew how long he’d have to stand there holding the heavy boxes before his ride returned again? The Corsican might be rich in architectural history and renovation potential, but the building had just the one elevator that ran to all ten floors. He might as well start dealing with
normal, everyday
now rather than putting it off indefinitely.

“Hold the elevator,” he called out, lengthening his stride.

The woman gasped. Maybe he’d just startled her. “Hurry up,” she muttered—to her companion.

John bristled at the whispered slight. Were they trying to get away? Maybe she’d gotten a glimpse of him as well and wasn’t thrilled about the idea of sharing the tiny space with him either. But if he could make the effort to be civil, then the woman attached to that backside could damn well do the same.

“Hold it,” he ordered in a sharper tone. He heard a
“Mom,”
and then a slender, tanned arm shot out to catch the door as he slipped inside. He looked straight into a pair of emerald-green eyes, silently telling the woman that he knew she’d tried to leave him behind. “Thanks.”