Deceitful Moon (4 page)

Manny remembered the
earlier
e-mail sent from
Eric’s
address and fel
t his insides turn inside out.

What was in that attachment?

“We’re not friends. We’ll never be friends. You and I don’t think the same way. For instance, I think you should be fried in the hottest electric chair ever created or eaten alive by hungry
piranha
. I bet you don’t think that way. Right?”

The quiet was more than ominous
,
and Manny felt
the man
fighting for control. He had pissed of
f
the
G
ood
D
octor. Too bad.

“You keep saying things you’ll regret, detective, and you call
me
arrogant. I called to make sure you got my e-mail and
see
if you had any questions.”

“About what?”

“About the message or the
. . .
pictures. I so love the pictures. I fancy myself as an artist
,
and they are very good.”

“Where is Hayes?”

“Oh
,
he’s very near
, b
ut I don’t think he’ll be writing any more disparaging columns of pure bullshit about me
or anyone else
. I think he’s learned his lesson.”

What ha
s
Argyle done?

Intimacies with the bizarre and cruel were not unusual for
Argyle
;
in fact
,
it was his way of life
.
He
had invented tortures
to make
medieval
dungeons
proud.
Manny’s angst for Eric escalated to a different level
—
t
he one that said
his wife was a widow
.

“Detective Williams? The cat got your tongue? Where is that smartass mouth now?”

“I’m here. I’m going to take you
and your perverted logic down
, you know that
?
”

“I don’t think so. But we will meet again, when I decide the time is right. Meanwhile, know that you have inspired me. And I would appreciate your
critique
of my
work when you see the pictures
. Stunning
,
i
f I say so myself
.”

There was empty air as the connection went dead. Manny squeezed his phone, then smashed it on the parking lot’s surface, pieces flying in every direction like black
dirt
in the wind.

“Sophie?”

“
Yeah
,
I’m already on it. I called the paper
. A
pparently
,
there was a staff cruise set up for the
Post
’s
employees. I have the itinerary right here. They’re on the
Ocean Empress
, one of Carousel’s ships, and they’re docked in St. Thomas.”

His eyes moved to hers, and she turned away. This was too familiar, too close to home, for both of them. To take
this
ride down memory lane and focus on what had happened on the
Ocean Duchess
wasn’t where either one of them wanted to go. But psychopaths like
A
rgyle got off on his previous “accomplishments” and had no intentions of letting them forget. Why would he? It made his world go round.
Manny
could feel the
self-absorbed
bastard
laughing.

Manny flexed his shoulder and picked up what was left of his cell phone. “I think I’m going to need that new phone after all.”

Sophie smiled. “
I’ll take care of it.
Good arm, though.”

Chapter
-7

Gavin Crosby, Manny’s boss and Lansing’s
p
olice
c
hief
, stood
behind Manny’s desk, looking
over his shoulder, along with Sophie and the LPD’s computer forensic expert,
Buzzy
Dancer.
Manny
sat in front of the twenty-two
-
inch widescreen computer monitor
,
opened his e-mail account, then highlighted the message from Argyle. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for what was inside the
cyber message from
hell
,
but there was only one way to find out.

Buzzy
rolled up Sophie’s chair and sat close to Manny, flashing him a quick smile. He smiled bac
k and noticed how her red horn
-
rim
med
glasses clashed with her bright
-
blue eyes and
pink
hair. She was pretty, about twenty-five, a few pounds
under
weight, loved wearing anything pink, and would probably win the title of office drama queen
.
She had also earned a reputation for being incredibly bright
, which
translated into
incredibly useful
.

“There’s probably not anything you’ll need me for, but if Argyle got clever, I might be able to see it,” she said, snapping her gum.

“Okay. Are we ready?” asked Gavin.

Man
n
y could still hear the sadness in his old partner’s voice. Argyle had savagely murdered
Gavin’s
new daughter-in-law, Lexy, on that ill-fated cruise three months ago, and
the chief
was still living it.
His wife, Stella, seemed to be doing better tha
n
her spouse
,
but that was
n’t
saying much. Gavin said the pain of losing Lexy had invaded like a fever and simply wouldn’t leave. Manny knew it would get better, but there was no timetable. Each
death harbored a grieving
life of its own
, maybe even an agenda
. He hoped it would come sooner rather than later for the Crosbys.

The
ir
son Mike, Lexy’s widower, had
n’t
come back to work at the
police f
orce yet, and Manny was glad because he wasn’t sure if Mike would
, or should
. Who could blame him? Cop or not, getting over what he had gone through
—
especially with
losing
your wife of four days
—
wasn’t going to happen overnight
, if ever
. Seeing her like that, ravaged beyond recognition, had sent Mike nearly insane and into intense therapy with the department’s shrink
:
a
path all of the
passengers
on that cruise followed, to varying degrees. It was mandatory protocol for L
PD
staff, but that didn’t mean
the healing was
mandatory.
He knew that game, too.

“Ready. Wait,” begged
Buzzy
. “You’re sure this isn’t just a joke or porn or something?”

“How did you guess?” smiled Manny.

“Well
. . .
I’ve never really
. . .
okay, I get it. Sorry.”

“Let’s see what’s what.” Ma
n
ny clicked the e
-
mail and the JP
E
G attachment
exploded
in
to
life
.

The first picture set Manny back in his chair and
Buzzy
rolling away, covering her mouth, stifling the yell that came as an involuntary reflex.

The close
-
up of Eric’s face showed his bulging
,
brown eyes,
stained
duct tape sealing his mouth, and a jet of blood flashing to the right of his chin. The Power Point show switched to the next shot that came from f
a
rther back. Gray duc
t
tape had
Eric
bound to a chair
,
but Manny’s eye was quickly drawn to the gleam dancing off the
tip
of
the
knife protruding through the side of
Eric’s
neck. The angle of the sun reflecting off the
gleaming blade
made it impossible not to focus there. Clever
work
.
Manny was helpless not to
dwell on
Argyle’s claim of artistry.

“Shit,” swore Sophie.

But that wasn’t the worst. The slide show displayed four more pictures and ended with something conceived only in Hollywood, designed to totally shock its audience.

Eric
’s
severed head rested on the small table of the cruise ship suite
. His
body
was
still taped to the chair, sitting a few feet behind
the head
in a strategic position. The horrible look on his face t
old
a tale that Eric
took
to his grave. On the bottom of the picture, in front of
his
chin, was a two
-
word epitaph
:
“I’m
sorry
.
”
It
was
written in blood.

Gavin hadn’t moved, but Manny heard him clear his throat and felt him finally turn away.
Buzzy
was losing her lunch a couple cubicles down. Sophie swore again.

He clicked off the screen and bowed his head,
his
hands clenching a thousand thoughts.

The murders on the
Ocean Duchess
and on the islands had been bad, but Argyle had clearly taken his game up a notch. He wanted everyone to know
that
he was in control and
that
to even
out
the score, as he
had
put it, was still his number one agenda.
This
meant no one was safe. No one.

“Are you going to call him? Agent Corner, I mean?” asked Gavin.

“Yes. I don’t see a choice. You know Argyle’s
no longer on the ship
, but they’ll want to see if they can pick up his trail,” answered Manny. “They’ll need to get lucky for that to happen.”

“He’ll want you to go with him,” said Sophie.

“Maybe. But we do have a case here.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll reassign it to Wymer and Ross. We need to find that murdering son of a bitch
.
”
M
ore of that
awful
sadness cre
pt
into
Gavin’s
voice.

Buzzy
walked slowly back to Manny’s office, her skin as white as a Goth junkie. “That was real, wasn’t it? I
. . .
I’ve never
. . .
”

“As real as it gets,
Buzzy
, as real as it gets,” said Manny, reaching for the phone.

Chapter
-8

Special Agent Josh Corner looked at the clock and decided it was time to go home.
He’d been in the office for over twelve hours and had earned the day
’
s
wage
.
Besides, he had promised his boys he would read their bedtime story tonight,
My New Friends at the Zoo
, by Pops Burkett.
The very best reason to get out of
the office
.

The phone rang as he turned to pluck his navy
,
pinstriped jacket from the coat rack
,
decid
ing
to let it go to voic
email
. He’d call back tomorrow because tomorrow was soon enough. It would have to be.

“Josh. This is Manny. Pick up. I know you’re there
;
you never freaking leave
.”

Williams. He smiled. Maybe he’d changed his mind about the job offer. Fine with him. Any
day
the FBI could land a cop like Manny was a great day for the good guys
.
He rolled his eyes.
He might as well answer
.
Williams would just call him on the cell if he didn’t
.
It’s what
friends
,
and
relentless
cops
,
do.