B00CCYP714 EBOK (6 page)

Angeline continued to warn her mother. “What’s going to stop them from coming in here and shooting you, if we all leave?”

Maybelline smiled at her daughter and held out the baby for her to take. “That’s al’right, Angeline. Go on. Take Jacquie’s baby and little Tara and go on outside. I got me a FBI agent for a hostage now. Ain’t nobody gonna come in here guns a-blazin’.”

Rainey nodded her head. “She’s right, all except I’m not an agent anymore, but I’m still worth a good couple of hours of hostage negotiation before they finally figure out who they’ll blame if they get me killed.”

Wiley’s voice came through the earbud. “Tell her you’ll send paramedics.”

Rainey chuckled. “You better send big ones.”

“What?” Angeline asked.

Rainey pointed at her ear. “They are talking to me from outside. They can hear us too. They want to know if paramedics would be more acceptable than the SWAT guys? Really, no one wants this to go any further. Let’s get you all outside and let me talk to your mother. I promise no harm will come to her.”

Maybelline moved toward the kitchen, dangling the gun at her side. Rainey took that as a sign her suggested course of action had been approved.

She spoke clearly so everyone, including Wiley, could hear and understand. “Stand down. Send in only the paramedics. A woman, a baby, and a toddler are exiting the house. I’m going to stay here with Maybelline for a bit. I’ll let you know when we’re coming out. Did you get all that, Wiley?”

“Yeah, I got it. Sending in the paramedics now. I’m sending four, if that’s okay?”

Rainey looked down at Mackie and then toward the kitchen, watching as Maybelline placed the gun on the table and sat down, defeated, and at the same time victorious.

“Send them on in,” she said into the lapel microphone under the edge of her vest. She leaned down and patted Mackie’s shoulder. “They’re coming to get you now. Don’t give them too much shit, all right?” She reached to squeeze his hand. “I love you, you know. Named a kid after you. So, you hang in there. I’ll be at the hospital as soon as I can.”

He tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. “Tell Thelma—”

“She’s already on her way to the hospital,” Rainey said, answering what she thought was his request.

Mackie shook his head a little from side to side, and with difficulty said, “Bring pajamas—no hospital—gown.”

Rainey chuckled. “Okay, no gown. You hear that, Wiley? Tell Junior he better have some PJs for the big man or there will be hell to pay.”

She heard Wiley laugh in her ear. “Will do, Rainey. Send Angeline and the kids out.”

Rainey motioned to Angeline to move on out the door. She hesitated, looking toward the kitchen at her mother.

Rainey said softly, “Go on now. Get those kids out of here. I’ll take care of your mother.”

“You know, she’s not a bad woman, Rainey. She just had a hard life. Jacquie was her hope. She cleaned up after she got pregnant with Halle.” Angeline indicated the baby in her arms. “Jacquie was smart, going to college, going to break the cycle of poverty she said. She didn’t walk off and leave her baby. Momma just wants somebody to look for her.”

Rainey knew better than to promise results, but she could make one pledge. “I will use every resource at my disposal to find out what happened to your sister. I will be honest with you and your mother. If she’s been gone this long, the chances of Jacquie being alive are very slim.”

A tear fell down Angeline’s cheek. She kissed the baby on the forehead, before saying, “We knew that when she didn’t come home. If Jacquie was alive, she would have come back for Halle. She was a good momma.”

Rainey looked down at the child, knowing that she would spend her very last breath attempting to get back to her own. She reached out to twine one of the baby’s fine curls around the end of her finger.

“I’ll find out what happened, Angeline.”

She let the curl drop and started toward the kitchen as Angeline and the children exited. The paramedics entered the door and went to work on Mackie.

As Rainey stepped into the kitchen, she said into the microphone, “Wiley, leave the recorder going. I want this interview on tape.”

“Interview?” A voice other than Wiley’s said. “She’s got a gun. How is this an interview?”

Wiley interrupted. “Quiet the chatter. We’re rolling, Rainey. Anything else?”

“Can you get me Jacquie’s missing person file and her record? I don’t need it right now, but I’d like to have it soon.” She paused a second and then asked, “And Wiley, could you tell Junior to call Katie and let her know everything is okay?”

“Is everything okay?” Wiley hesitated to be as optimistic as Rainey.

“Yes, everything is going to be just fine,” Rainey answered, as she pulled out a chair across from Maybelline and sat down.

Without asking and with great confidence that her assessment was correct, Rainey picked up the pistol from the table, took out the clip, and cleared the chamber. A single bullet bounced off the tabletop onto the floor and rolled away, as Rainey spoke to Maybelline.

“We’re not going to be needing this weapon, so I’m just going to put it over here.” Rainey slid the pistol away from both of them, but put the clip in the back pocket of her jeans. She was confident, not stupid. She refocused on Maybelline. “When we’re done talking, you and I are walking out of here with no further problems, right?”

Maybelline leaned her elbows on the table and looked Rainey in the eye. “Your daddy done right by me. You say you’re going to do right by me, too. I’ll take you at your word. I’ll come on when we’re done.”

Wiley understood the exchange and replied, “Okay, weapon secured. The two SWAT guys by the front door, you stay put. The rest of you stand down. This is no longer a hostage situation.”

Rainey smiled at Maybelline. “Now, tell me about Jacquie.”

When Rainey stepped out of the house with Maybelline handcuffed and walking beside her, they were bathed in the glare of the camera lights. The cordoned-off area had been reduced, allowing the reporters to get closer to the scene. Cameras flashed and questions were being shouted, but Rainey paid no attention. That is, until one voice rang out above all the others.

“Rainey! Rainey Bell! Is Jacquie Upshaw one of the victims of the serial killer terrorizing the Triangle? Was her mother justified in seeking attention for her disappearance?”

Cookie Kutter. Somehow, she had managed to survive her fall from grace, after being arrested for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, which occurred in the parking lot of a well-known lesbian bar. She had hounded Rainey and Katie for three years. Katie had even slugged her once, on camera, which made the news and was captured on countless digital recorders around the Triangle. Rainey had her own copy of the video, which she secretly played for a laugh now and then, but always when Katie was not around.

During a live press conference, Rainey created her own popular Cookie Kutter sound bite. She accused Cookie of being a little too interested in her personal life, hinting the reporter might be covering for her own attraction to women. Rainey had called that one correctly. Cookie suffered a very public outing and arrest not long afterward. Still, she had risen from the ashes, wrangling a reporting job with a local cable and web news organization, covering the crime beat in the greater Triangle area. They even gave her an hour-long crime show. Her brand of journalism played to the public’s taste for high drama and was regrettably quite popular.

Rainey suspected Cookie was heavily involved in The Triangle Lesbians blog, the one that called her “Agent Sexy,” and followed her family everywhere. The blog posted pictures of the triplets, which crossed the line as far as Rainey was concerned. Molly had been trying to shut the page down legally for a while. The successful defense attorney was also a target, dubbed the “Triangle Tryster” by the author of the blog, referencing her former penchant for one-night stands. Her trysting ways mended, the blog continued to recount her every public appearance. Molly, however, had no legal standing to shut down the page. All of the photos of her were taken in public settings, but Rainey’s situation was quite different.

As a former FBI agent, Rainey had ample reasons not to want her image on the Internet, and she stated so before a judge. Her old teammate in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, Danny McNally, testified on her behalf as well. The release of personal information and pictures of her comings and goings put Rainey’s life, and those of the people she cared about, in much more danger than the average citizen. Some of the photos of Rainey and her family were taken with long-range lenses and showed them in the yard of their highly secured home. The judge agreed the photos crossed the “expectation of privacy” line, ordering the website to cease publishing those types of images and personal information about Rainey and her family.

The shell corporation set up to mask the identity of the website owners did shut down the page. Only to have it reappear, republished by a different entity, and with the focus now squarely on Rainey and her family. Rainey had her good friend Melatiah Brooks, a computer analyst assigned to her old FBI unit, hunting the origin of the site. So far, Brooks had no luck tracking down the source, as the page jumped from server to server around the world. Whoever was behind the blog had extensive computer experience and an unhealthy interest in all things Rainey Bell, which made her very nervous. She glared at Cookie Kutter, somehow knowing she was involved.

“Rainey, will you make a statement? Are you actively involved in the hunt for a serial killer and rapist in the Triangle?”

Rainey handed Maybelline off, telling her, “These officers will take care of you now. I’ll be in touch with you soon.” She turned to the uniformed men. “Don’t manhandle her. She’ll cooperate.” She looked up at the woman with whom she just spent the last half-hour, holding her hand while she cried over her lost child. “Isn’t that right, Maybelline?”

“All the fight done gone out of me. I’ll be good.” Maybelline suddenly put her head down on Rainey’s shoulder and whispered, “Bless you, Rainey. Your daddy raised a good girl.”

Rainey patted the huge woman’s back. “I’ll find out what happened to Jacquie, I promise.”

The officers escorted Maybelline to a waiting police cruiser, while Rainey turned her attention to Cookie. She could hear Molly and Katie in her head, begging her to walk away, but the temptation to approach Cookie was overwhelming. Other reporters were shouting questions, but Rainey concentrated on one voice, Cookie’s.

“Rainey, how do feel about bonding out the woman who may have killed your partner, Miles McKinney?”

That was it. Mackie wasn’t dead or dying. Wiley had come over the earbud to tell Rainey so, while she was still talking to Maybelline. He had broken ribs and some bleeding between the chest wall and his lung, but he was in stable condition. The vest had done its job. Cookie’s wording was exactly what Rainey hated about the media. Suggesting a thing was true with a carefully worded question, a “may have” here and an “allegedly” there, was sensationalism at its core. Cookie and her ilk had turned the noble mission of the fourth estate into a melodramatic reality show.

Rainey quickly crossed the ten feet that separated them, moving right up to Cookie’s microphone, and forcing a smile. “Since members of Mr. McKinney’s family may be watching, you insensitive tart, I’m happy to report he is in stable condition and resting comfortably.”

Cookie was an old pro at taking insults. She moved on to her next question without batting an eye. “As a consultant with the multi-county task force formed to investigate the disappearances of nine women in the Triangle area, are you ready to tell the public there is a serial killer among us, raping and killing at will?”

The other reporters had begun to gather around Rainey and Cookie, shoving microphones between them to catch the exchange. Rainey decided this was not the time or place to settle her old scores with Cookie. She stepped back, so that all of the cameras had a good angle and made a short statement.

“I am merely a consultant and cannot speak for the various law enforcement agencies involved. Since a statement has already been made about the sexual assaults, I am willing to comment on that. There is a serial rapist in the Triangle area. He is focusing on college-age and young professional women. He is entering their homes when he knows they will be alone. Precautions should be taken. Double check window and door locks, and report any strange activity around your home, no matter how trivial it may seem. This rapist is watching his victims prior to the assaults. If you find a window screen loose, notice a stranger watching your house, or feel like you are being followed, get to a safe place and call 911. I encourage all young women to listen to your instincts and stay vigilant. If it feels wrong, it usually is.”

“What about the serial killer the task force is investigating?” Cookie shouted. “Are he and the rapist the same person?”

She elbowed another reporter out of the way, in order to move her CKCB logo encased microphone closer to Rainey. The logo was for the Cookie Kutter Crime Beat show. She closed the show each day with, “CKCB. See a crime, come see me.” Rainey saw a crime every time Cookie opened her mouth.

“Before a serial killer is declared present, there must be evidence, Ms. Kutter. The task force is investigating missing women. I will only say the rape cases do not appear to be related to these disappearances.”

Another reporter asked, “Are you going to release a profile of the serial rapist, Agent Bell?”

“I am no longer an agent, guys. We’ve been through this,” Rainey answered, dodging the question.

If Cookie could not entice Rainey into saying there was a serial killer on the loose, she certainly was not going to let her get away with evading the profile inquiry. “You didn’t answer the question. Can you give us a profile? The public has a right to know what to watch out for.”

Oddly enough, Rainey partially agreed with Cookie. Rainey thought portions of the profile she compiled should have been made public, but as a hired consultant, how the various departments handled the investigation was not her call. The unknown subject, or UNSUB, in this case probably lived near Raleigh, and had committed multiple rapes in all twelve counties within a forty-five mile radius of the capital city. The assaults were spaced out every forty-five to ninety days and were never in the same county back to back. The resulting confusion of jurisdictional lines complicated the investigation, something Rainey thought was intentional. After various departments engaged her to interview several of the rape survivors, Rainey found there were similarities in victim selection, parallel precipitating events, and evidence that the rapes were the work of a single, very deviant, dedicated criminal. Some of the information Rainey gave the investigators might help prevent another rape, but there was no guarantee, and that was why one other element of the profile kept it from being released.