The Killing Times (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 1)) (11 page)

Ethan
dialed the phone and made the call.

                            *   *   *

The killer watched from the trees across the street.

So
it was true, the FBI had come to town to help Elizabeth LaRue. That just didn’t seem fair. She was nothing like her father. When faced with a little problem, immediately she ran to the FBI for help. Her father had at least tried to ferret out the truth on his own. Respect for the woman plummeted, as she was barely any better than the victims. Maybe she would have to meet an untimely death, much like her dear old pop.

It was time to up the ante
, giving the sheriff a few more problems to worry about. Watching the man on the phone, an idea began to form.

Why not give them a few
loose ends to chase to keep them busy?

In the meantime, it was about time to find the next victim and hit a little closer to home.

Soon, the time was coming to rattle the sheriff’s cage.

  
                            *   *   *

Elizabeth had set up a giant white board in the conference room of her office. She was posting the pictures, one by one, in the order of their death. Carefully aligning the names with faces, the details listed beneath them. She had a picture of them in life, and one in death.

“Interes
ting technique,” Blackhawk said from the doorway. Usually the white board only held pictures of the victims after they were found, and hers held both.

“It helps me stay focused
. I try to remember that they’re still human, not just a body,” she answered, not turning around. She sat on the edge of the table, taking in the method of killing. Something was bothering her about it. It was like she was missing the obvious and that irritated her. She was completely lost in thought, until there was a knock on the doorway.

“Sheriff LaRue?”

Elizabeth turned her head to find her deputy there, “Yeah, Chris?” They had a tumultuous relationship to say the least. At one time he hoped to become the sheriff of Salem, but the mayor saw different. He was biding his time, and learning the ropes. Elizabeth had no doubt that one day, he’d be an excellent leader. There was still that underlying tension between them, and sometimes it made it uncomfortable. On a day to day basis, she never knew if he was going to like her or hate her. It changed like the wind, and having a deputy that was a wild card, just didn’t set well with her. Lately, he’d been really trying, and that she had to appreciate.

“Tony said you needed me,” he strolled in, nodding at the dark haired man sitting in one of the chairs, watching the boss and waiting for her directive.

“We know from the victim’s mother, she was going out to a party with a girlfriend.”

“Yeah?”

Elizabeth nodded and asked, “Who is on with you this evening?”

“Sara is on all night, and then Tyrell comes in mid
-shift.”

“I need you and Sara to canvas the local areas. I’ll g
et you a copy of the young girl’s pictures. Take them to anyplace that a ‘
party
’ could happen. The local bars, the bowling alley and the arcade. Anywhere a nineteen year old would be looking for a hook up. Think back to when you were twenty one, where you would go and what would you do to find the ladies.” When he grinned, she held up her hand. “Please leave the details out of the report, the less I know about my deputy’s sex life the better I sleep at night.”

Christopher laughed, winking at the agent watching them
. “Okay, on it boss,” he said, closing the conference room door.

“What are you thinking, Sheriff?”
questioned Blackhawk, appreciative of how she was working through the case. She was definitely FBI trained. 

Elizabeth looked over at him and patted the spot on the table
alongside her.

Blackhawk accepted her offer to sit that close to her body. He wasn’t crazy. He’d sit shou
lder to shoulder with her any day. Taking the spot, they both stared up at the white board.

“What I see is this,” she pointed. “I see all the victims being under twenty four years old. I also see that they
’re all women, and that leads me to perp. I just wish I knew why he was choosing them.”

“So your assessment of the killer is that he
’s male?”

“I think
so. I know standard FBI profiling says women can be killers too, but in this case, I think we have a young, white male that has female issues. He’s preying on the younger, inexperienced females. I think he is picking them off with partying and light drug use. When I was in the FBI, I was more the partner that pieced it together. My strong point isn’t the profiles. It’s the details.”

“It fits the assessment I did in
flight here. What about the randomness of the way they are killed? Something about it is bothering me. What are your impressions of it?” Blackhawk wanted to hear her thought process.

“
It’s bugging me too,” Elizabeth replied, chewing on the end of her pen. “Fire, hanging, and drowning, and right now I’m not sure if it’s meant to lead us to something, or if it’s completely random. Maybe the perp is just using whatever method he can at that time. What if we’re giving him too much credit?”

“Is he just killing
, and then hiding the evidence?” he added, pointing at the two burnt bodies. “He kills them in a moment of rage, knows there’s evidence and torches the bodies. Maybe he’s watched too many TV shows, and thinks it gets rid of all the evidence that way.”

“Then you have the hangi
ng. In a fit of passion or rage he strangles her, and then decides to make it look like a suicide.”

“Again, not knowledgeable enough to know the hyoid bone would be broken in a fall from that t
ree limb at her body weight. So we know he has basic intelligence, and he isn’t a medical professional, or he would have set it up to be more accurate a suicide. Simple pressure would have snapped the bone. He could have done it after the fact, and we’d be more likely to buy the suicide angle. There are little details he consistently missed.”

“
Lastly, you have the two women left in the lake. Did he drown them in a pool and then panic?”

“Trying to hide the bodies and wash away evidence
?”

Elizabeth looked up into his eyes, “One more thing is bothering me,” she continued, pointing at the two women they found in the
water.

“Yes?” he could tell she had been a
damn good FBI agent. Elizabeth LaRue wasn’t a backwoods sheriff. Lily’s assessment of her wasn’t even close. When she said details were her thing, she wasn’t kidding.

“He hides the bodies in the lake,
so why didn’t he weigh them down?”

Ethan Blackhawk stared at the pictures, everything they discussed he had already considered. In fact, if she looked in his folder, he did an assessment and it said pretty much the same thing. Except, he missed the last point and she hadn’t. If the killer was a novice, first instinct would be to
have weighted the bodies down to keep them hidden for as long as possible.

“So I go from someone killing for shits and giggles, to someone killing with the intent to have us find the bodi
es, a more calculated approach like that of a predator.”

“That’s a big leap,” came the voice from the doorway.

Elizabeth and Blackhawk both turned. His partner stood in the doorway, watching them working through the white board.

Something about how
close she sat to Ethan, rubbed her the wrong way, especially since she knew what happened in her past. She swallowed the tension and moved toward the table. Gabe already warned her to play nice or else.

“Do yo
u disagree?” asked Elizabeth. She had moved away from Blackhawk to face the woman. There was no way in hell she was giving the agent her back. Something about her made her very wary. Lily had nothing but aggression and negativity in her eyes, even if her body looked relaxed and at ease.

“I happen to agree with you. I
f he wanted to hide the bodies and keep them missing, he could have buried them in the woods, or a swamp. Instead he chose to light them up, knowing the fire department would be called. Hang one in the center of the square in the park, and lastly drop two untethered bodies into the lake. Eventually a swimmer would find them, or they would float to the surface.” Lily hated that she and the sheriff had come to the same conclusion; she wouldn’t be giving her credit for figuring it out.

Elizabeth pondere
d, “So is our killer a murder refining his technique, or just a novice killing for the fun of it?”

Blackhawk contemplated that
very question.

“I think that
’s what we need to figure out.”

All three left the building together to get to their cars. It was late and the night was considerably cooler. Already it was past ten and into the pitch blackness of evening. All that illuminated them was the starry sky above. Elizabeth couldn’t help but look up at the twinkling heavens, and then smile at the agent beside her.

“This is one of the reasons I left the north,” she pointed to the sky. “We actually have stars. You don’t really miss them, until you come back and find them again.”

Blackhawk understood what she meant; he grew up looking at the sky, finding the constellations with his grandfather. He understood the lure of nature, since it ran through his veins.

“Where’s the hotel?” interjected Lily Sanderson
. She may have to work with the woman, but she didn’t have to like her. “I want a shower and a bed. I don’t care about the stars in this hick town.”

Blackhawk bristled and gave her a look. T
hey were going to have to discuss it on the way to their hotel. Elizabeth LaRue had been more than accommodating, and all the hostility was now one sided. It was going to get them distracted, and distractions were dangerous. “We’re booked at ‘
The Wayfarer’
.”
              Elizabeth started laughing, her arms crossed over her chest.

There must have been something he missed, so he asked, “What’s so funny, Lyzee?”

“Ethan, have you ever known the FBI to put agents up in quality places?” she teased, ignoring Lily and focusing only on the man before her. She wasn’t going to get into another pissing match with Lily; she had enough on her plate. “Now toss in your sadistic boss who is trying to punish you…”

“
Are you trying to warn me that it’s a roach coach?” he grinned, knowing she would understand the terminology and get it.

“Oh yeah
, Ethan,” she drawled, laughing again. “Mr. Blackhawk, picture the worst case scenario, and then double it.”

He laughed and was finding her southern
enunciation turned him right on. He’d noticed it when she was really angry or really entertained.

Lily let a torrent of profanity rip. She had enough of the
FBI bullshit for one day. First, Gabe had read her the riot act, and now a shitty hotel too? This day was destined to just suck from start to finish.

Elizabeth found herself feeling
sympathy for them, well for him anyway. ‘
The Wayfarer’
would be a dreadful experience. “My home is large, Agents. It has four bedrooms, and you both are more than welcome to stay with me. It’s a decent ride from town, but it’s definitely not a roach coach and it’s private.”

Blackhawk was about to accept, his pulse picking up at just the thought, but
his partner beat him to it.

“No!
We stay where assigned. Bunking with the sheriff is not professional.”

The barb
hit its target.

Elizabeth LaRue needed to get the picture.
It wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime. Blackhawk may be a menace, but he was still her partner. Lily would have his back against this man eating Piranha.

“
I gotcha Special Agent Sanderson,” acknowledged Elizabeth, ignoring her words and taking a folder from Blackhawk and pulling out a pen. She scribbled the address down for him. “If you change your mind, or wake up covered in roaches and need to escape, here’s my address,” she winked at him, making him break into laughter.

As she headed to her Jeep, one last thing popped into her head. “Oh, and Special Agent Sanderson?” Elizabeth
glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes meeting Ethan Blackhawk’s. “Just one last thing, darlin’.”

“What?” she snapped, angrily.

Her words were for the woman, but her eyes stayed connected with the man, sharing her immense pleasure at what was coming. “Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite,” she drawled with her best hick town accent, and then her laughter flooded the night. She enjoyed every damn second of it, as she climbed into her Jeep. Saluting them both, and giving him another wink as she pulled away.