The Silenced (9 page)

Barefoot, she moved silently down the stairs and into the lounge area, but the place was deserted. Everyone who’d been there earlier must have gone out for dinner or drinks. Guards patrolled all of Quantico; it was almost impossible to get in without providing an ID.

She checked the kitchen. No one. Finally, she gave up.

She went to the front door and carefully peered out. But her caution wasn’t needed.

There was no one around.

As she turned to head back in, she paused.

She could hear a motor gunning somewhere.

Ridiculous!
She was getting paranoid. She lived in one of the safest places in the country. Only military, physicians, cadets, agents, police and other authorized individuals could be here.

And she’d searched everywhere, found no one. She was, quite simply, paranoid. Maybe not a bad way to be out on the streets—but here?

She forced herself to go upstairs and back to bed, locking the door to her room again. She tried to sleep, but couldn’t. She was glad she’d received her regulation
real
Glock and had that to use rather than the red-handled fake they’d had during their training period.

Why would someone take on the dangerous task of stalking her here? Not that she was so dangerous, but this was Quantico.

And really, why would anyone stalk
her
?

* * *

What people didn’t know seldom hurt them, Slash thought.

But it could kill them!

What Ms. Brand-New-Agent didn’t know was that Slash McNeil was the most intelligent and organized serial killer she’d ever face. Every move he made was planned; for every step he took, he had a backup plan. He had access—anywhere he wanted to go.

He could watch her, as he had watched others. Watch, and not make a move until the time was right. He could make her disappear; he could make her reappear—whenever he chose.

Now, Lara Mayhew...

The time wasn’t right!

But this woman...

She annoyed him. She couldn’t leave well enough alone. Had to be a cop, had to be an agent. Thought she was tough.

Well, it didn’t matter how tough she was. He had strength and power. Physical strength—and the power of the right people behind him. And power, everyone knew, mattered much more than strength.

He’d watched her as she’d looked around, watched her face, and the emotion she couldn’t hide. She was an open book, especially when she didn’t know she was observed. She was beginning to doubt her own senses, her own sanity. She was afraid she was letting it all get to her, that she was paranoid.

Slash smiled. He liked paranoid. Paranoid was good.

A scowl replaced his smile. He didn’t like Bosworth. He didn’t like the “special” unit, the Krewe of Hunters. They were secretive. They had separate offices. They had more security cameras than the damned White House or the Capitol building.

But he knew about Bosworth. He knew some of his weaknesses.

And while the man might be tall and solidly muscled, that didn’t really mean anything. A single bullet could bring down a football tackle, a Hulk Hogan, a mixed-arts expert...

Slash reminded himself to stay on target.

Right now,
she
was the target, pretty, tall, lithe, with all that raven hair drawn back, indigo eyes still giving so much away.

It was going to be fun taking her down.

He smiled, revved his car and began to mentally plan the things he might do to her.

* * *

“We don’t know about the second girl yet,” Jackson said. “No prints in the system and we haven’t been able to find a missing-persons report to match up with her. But the information about Cathy Crighton is interesting. She was tentatively identified by a coworker from a police sketch, and then a DNA match was made. She grew up in foster homes in Kentucky, moved to Los Angeles, worked in a few restaurants there, then moved to New York City, and came to Georgetown about five weeks ago. A friend in Oklahoma—someone she’d met in one of her foster homes—first filed a missing-persons report. She has no known family and was just starting to make friends at the restaurant, Big Fish, where she was working. Police interviewed her old boss and they don’t think he was involved. She’d been late for work previously and he’d told her that if she failed to show up for her shift on time again, she was fired. It never occurred to him to call her in missing.”

“What was their take on the boss?” Matt asked. He was in Jackson’s office in their Alexandria facility, sitting in one of the handsome oak chairs in front of Jackson’s desk while Jackson sat in his swivel chair behind it. The office also included a sofa grouping with a number of chairs by the fire; it was a pleasant place, conducive to group discussions and brainstorming.

Matt’s own office was just down the hall. While the four-story row house wasn’t furnished with antiques, it still seemed to offer more of an at-home feel than their more modern facilities around the country. At first Matt had been surprised that the Krewe of Hunters chose to be outside the Bureau’s main offices. But their tech services here were top-notch, and so, Matt gathered, was their security.

They had access to various labs and nonagent employees, computer whizzes and experts in all kinds of fields. The special agents of the Krewe units, overseen by Adam Harrison and managed by Jackson Crow, occupied the entire second floor with offices that allowed for consultations and a large boardroom with screens and computers and everything they needed for major conferences.

Jackson passed him a file. “It’s all emailed to you, as well. But I figured you’d want your own take on the man and that you’d want to interview him right away.”

Matt raised a brow. “I thought you wanted me on the trail of our missing woman, Lara Mayhew.”

“I do.”

“But what you’re saying is that we have a bird in the hand?”

“Exactly.” Jackson hesitated. “I’m not sure yet what I feel about Lara Mayhew’s disappearance. We have nothing solid to link that to the murders of these young women and we certainly have nothing to link Congressman Walker to any of it. But sometimes our work is all about eliminating possibilities. If we can find Lara Mayhew alive, then we’ll know she was in hiding and that none of this is related.”

“We may be on a wild-goose chase,” Matt pointed out.

“We’ve been on a few. And on more than one occasion, we’ve caught the goose.”

“Meg is convinced that her friend is dead.”

“If so, the body may turn up. Until then, let’s proceed this way. Meg is due in here within the hour. Angela went over to the academy with a few agents and they’re moving Meg out of her quarters and into a town house she’s rented. Kat is at Wong’s office, and we’ve arranged to bring the first body to him, as well. You might want to go over there after you’ve met up with Harvey Legend—boss at the Big Fish—and see what Kat and Wong have to say, although I’m pretty sure we’ve got a budding serial on the rise.”

“When I get back from all of that, we can head out on Ms. Mayhew’s trail,” Matt said.

“Hey, it’s a road trip,” Jackson told him, with a smile that offered little humor. “Bring some music. That’ll pass the time.”

“I know one thing,” Matt said.

“What’s that?”

“I’m doing the driving. I like being at the wheel, in control.”

“Sure. Whatever. Cling to that power, Agent Bosworth.”

“I like driving.”

“I’m happy for you.”

* * *

Meg could hardly believe how quickly she could be packed and out of the quarters she’d called home for nearly four months. But that was because she’d had help.

She wasn’t against doing the hefting and hauling herself, but she had Angela for organization and four agents for trips to the car with her boxes and gear. When Meg had said she could just hire a moving company, Jackson Crow had shaken his head and told her they could draw on their own manpower.

Of course, it hadn’t been that difficult because she didn’t have much of anything. When she’d gone into the academy, she’d left most of her own belongings in storage in Richmond; she hadn’t arranged to have her bed, sofa, TV, books and other belongings sent to her new town house yet. It would take a phone call and a day of being there to receive them, but at the moment, she thought the place was rather sad. It was empty; it wasn’t home yet.

Her room at the academy had been home.

Saying goodbye wasn’t easy. Most of her class would be in their rooms for a few more days. The friends she was able to see were both sad and excited; some were headed off to field offices in other states, but they all had encouraging words for one another. “It’s the agency. We never know where we’ll end up, do we?” Or “It’s never goodbye in the agency. We’ll meet again somewhere.”

And they might. And some of those who’d been with her for the four months might well meet again. But then, they might not. That made every goodbye sad.

Still, everyone was curious. Fascinated that she’d been selected to join the “special” unit that held a certain mystique and seemed almost like a secret society.

Everything had happened quickly; Angela had called her that morning. Since she’d be going off for a few days with Special Agent Bosworth, it might be best to get her moved now. She shouldn’t worry about logistics, Angela had said; she’d have all the help she needed.

And she had. She’d been out in a remarkably short time.

“I put your perfume bottles on that side table,” Angela told her, looking around the parlor of her small town house. “Makes it seem a little more like home. Jackson and I combined places so we have furniture you might like,” she offered. “Do you want to come over and look at it?”

Meg understood that a number of agents in the Krewe were married or living with or seeing one another. The FBI didn’t disallow agents from having relationships, but they weren’t customarily permitted to work in the same units. Here, it seemed almost par for the course. She’d rather awkwardly mentioned the ease of fraternization within the Krewe.

“Maybe we find it hard enough to develop relationships on the outside. Most people will never really understand us. And then again, the closer we are as partners, lovers, friends, whatever, the more successfully we work together. It’s almost as if you begin to get a sense of what the other person is seeing or feeling—or even where he or she might be. We’re still exploring, of course. Our special units aren’t even a decade old. But for the moment, we’re not trying to fix what isn’t broken.”

That made Meg think about her own life.

About her own problem with relationships. She’d always told herself that her dating life suffered because of her passion for law enforcement. She was young and she had plenty of time to figure out who she was before adding another person to her life. But she’d never really believed that was true.

She might have believed that she was a bit of a freak. And every time she dated someone, it was an act because she could never really make it work. Anyone who understood the truth about her would walk away. And so, she always did so first.

“You okay?” Angela asked her.

“Yes, of course, why?”

“I asked you about needing furniture. You’re just staring at me.”

Meg flushed. “Sorry. Thanks. And I do own furniture. I have to call the storage and moving people. I’ll do that when we’re back.”

“Well, if you need anything else—or you need stuff before then, let me know,” Angela said.

She stood by one of the windows. The town house had come with drapes so she was all right as far as window coverings went.

Angela peered down at the street. “I wonder if that’s one of ours,” she said.

“One what?”

“There’s a black sedan down there...” She paused, shrugging as she turned back to Meg. “Government vehicle of some kind. They all seem pretty much identical.”

Meg went to look out the window, too. The car in question was just like the black sedans the Bureau—and other government agencies—often used.

It was parked about a block down the street in a legal parking spot, too far away to see if it had any special insignia or some kind of marking.

But before they could take another look, the sedan jerked out of the parking place.

It sped down the quiet street.

As if the driver knew he’d been seen.

“Strange. The license is covered with...”

“Mud,” Meg finished. “It looked like mud, anyway. As if the driver had spent time out in the woods or something.”

“Or as if the license plate had been purposely covered. As if someone was watching.”

“Watching what?”

“Us,” Angela said, pointing at Meg. “Or, more specifically,
you
.”

5

W
hen Matt was a college student, he’d worked at a local pub in Richmond. The owner had been an Irishman and Matt—with Irish in his own background—had been certain he’d have a great time working there.

It didn’t happen. He quickly realized that a man’s background didn’t always mean very much. Some people were good and others were jerks—no matter where they came from.

His boss had been one of the latter. The employees had called him Fat Bastard.

Harvey Legend was that kind of guy. Big, beefy and full of self-importance, he yelled at three of the servers while he was on his way to see Matt. His attitude didn’t seem to fit the tone of the place, since the restaurant was elegant—white-clothed tables, wine and water glasses, a selection of flatware at each setting. He recognized public officials at several of the tables, and various people involved with government.

A hostess had gone to get Legend for Matt; he waited in a handsome foyer with a hardwood reception stand and a plush carpeted floor.

Legend arrived, shook hands with Matt and seemed pumped up about the FBI coming to see him. Matt had the feeling that the guy thought Cathy Crighton was finally worth something because she’d brought the FBI to his door.

“When, exactly, did you see her last?” Matt asked.

“Like I told the police, it was about five weeks ago. She showed up late on her last night here and I told her not to come back if she wasn’t on time for her next shift. She didn’t show, and I figured she knew I meant it. I didn’t think about her again,” Legend explained to Matt. “I’ve said all this to the cops who came here, but I don’t mind going through it again.”

“What about her last paycheck?” Matt asked, ignoring the man’s self-righteous manner.

“Still on my desk,” he said with a shrug. He frowned, looking past Matt, and shouted at one of the young women heading toward the kitchen. “Sue! There should be water on that table by now!”

“Yes, Mr. Legend,” she said, flushing and glancing awkwardly at Matt. He offered her an understanding smile as she hurried on.

Fat Bastard, oh, yeah.

“Her paycheck?” he repeated.

Legend sniffed. “It was only for three hours. She got in late, and her last night was the first night of the pay week. Like I said, it’s on my desk.”

“It didn’t occur to check on her when she didn’t come to get it?”

“Hey, I’m not child services for adults,” Legend said defensively. “I left her a message, but she never came in. The check’s not for a lot of money. Our hourly wage is minimum. The tips here are good, though, and the waitstaff does very well.”

“Did you know anything about her personal life?” Matt asked.

“Not me. She wasn’t here that long. She was an okay waitress—not great, but okay. She was bad about showing up on schedule. And I never had her close the place. Wasn’t sure I trusted her with a bank.”

“What about customers? Did you ever see anyone watching her? Did she have any regulars?”

“I don’t encourage the same waiters or waitresses to serve the same people all the time. As you can see, we get an elite clientele here, most of ’em political. Better to keep politics out of the kitchen, I say. So, no special customers.”

“Is there anyone here who could give me some information about her personal life?”

“Sue. Sue Gaffney.” He nodded toward the smiling brunette, who was coming from the kitchen just then.

“Perhaps you’d be so good as to have someone else handle her tables for a few minutes?” Matt asked politely.

“Absolutely.” Legend went on to summon Sue and yell at other members of his staff. Maybe his yelling was considered a mark of affection.

Unlikely.

The brunette came rushing from the dining room, looking a little flustered. He realized that her eyes were moist despite the fact that she was distracted.

She offered him her hand and then drew it back, apologizing. “Hollandaise sauce. I’m sorry. And I’m so sorry about Cathy. She really was a sweetheart.”

Sue obviously meant it.

She shivered suddenly. “And what happened to her—it’s so terrible!”

“Very, and of course we want to put away the person who did this,” Matt assured her. “Listen,” he added, “I need your help. There’s no family to turn to. Was she seeing anyone? Did she say anything to you about anyone bothering her or following her or even looking at her too long?”

Sue shook her head. “Cathy was open and giving and sweet. And yet she was shuffled around like a used sweater when she was a kid. She still had faith in people, and she loved being here. She wasn’t seeing anyone. She hadn’t been here long and was just getting on her feet. She was going to take part-time college classes. She hadn’t decided what she was going to major in, but she was going to learn about government and eventually get involved in some way. She was really wonderful!”

Matt produced a business card and handed it to her. “If you think of anything at all, please call me. You never know what little thing might help. Do you know if there was anyone she waited on exclusively? Did she like any particular customers? Hate any customers?”

“She just loved it that we had lobbyists, senators, campaign heads, congressmen and congresswomen, secret service—you name it!—in here. She liked all of them. I’m telling you, there wasn’t a mean bone in her body,” Sue said. “I miss her so much!”

Her eyes filled with tears she tried to blink back, and Matt knew she couldn’t break down in the restaurant; she wanted to keep her job.

“Please,” he said. “Call me with anything.”

Sue nodded.

He gave her an encouraging smile. About to leave, he paused. “Does Congressman Walker ever dine here?”

“He’s been in once or twice. Oh! Yes! He used to come in with my favorite customer!” She looked around and lowered her voice. “I thought the world of Congressman Garth Hubbard. What a loss, too. Such an intelligent man. And so polite. He could be in the middle of a political argument and yet he never failed to thank his waiter or waitress. First his heart attack, and now Cathy—it’s dreadful. They say the good die young. Well, Hubbard wasn’t exactly young, but you know what I mean, right?”

“Absolutely. Thank you,” Matt told her.

She waved his card in the air. “You should come back here, too. The food is very good. And honestly, it’s not overpriced.”

He smiled and made his way out.

Maybe there was a connection between the murdered women and Lara Mayhew’s disappearance. What it might be he couldn’t begin to fathom.

And maybe there was something to the idea of a conspiracy.

But a conspiracy to do what?

* * *

Leaving her new not-much-of-a-home-yet town house, Meg discovered that Angela was driving them back to the OCME. The remains of their first victim had been brought there, and Wong and Kat were both going to comment on their findings.

“I don’t think there’s anything new,” Angela told her. “But we’ll meet up with Matt and talk to Dr. Wong and Kat.” There wouldn’t be much they didn’t already know, but it was a chance to see the other victim. And to touch her.

And learn if, somehow, Cathy Crighton might still be there, among them.

They didn’t expect to find ghosts, the remnants of the human spirit—whatever word you wanted to use—at the morgue. Nor did it seem that spirits liked to hang around in a cemetery. In a situation like this, they were usually seeking a way to tell others what had happened.

Some remained where great or traumatic events had taken place, while some weren’t even sure why they lingered. Some merely enjoyed their status. Others were anxious to move on—once justice was done, a loved one helped—or perhaps after seeing a beloved child grow up.

Cathy Crighton wasn’t in the morgue—other than in her raggedly damaged human form.

Water, be it from a river, a lake or an ocean, wasn’t kind. Creatures lived in water of all types and consumed tissue and flesh.

Discoloration occurred.

When life was gone, a body was an empty shell. And in circumstances like this, the body was barely recognizable as the woman she had been.

Meg would’ve had the same fear she’d had earlier—that this young woman might have been Lara, had she not died weeks before Lara had gone missing.

“We still haven’t been able to identify the young woman recovered this week,” Wong said. He glanced over at Kat Sokolov. Apparently, they’d worked together before and Wong got along well with her. “We agree she’s between twenty-five and thirty-five, but there’s one difference—she’s not a natural blonde. As far as we can tell, the murder occurred in exactly the same way. He seems to take them completely unawares. Chloroform—on a handkerchief, napkin, whatever. He knocks them out, and hits them with the stronger drug, strong enough for surgery. Then he slits their throats.”

“Would you compare him to any other well-known serial killer?” Matt asked.

Wong shook his head. “No. At least not in the obvious ways. He’s not taking pleasure in their pain. Most serial killers enjoy the victim’s terror, and sexual killers generally need the power. That’s how they get off. But this guy...he doesn’t rape them. He doesn’t need to see their fear—he almost wants to avoid it.”

“Methodical,” Matt Bosworth said.

Kat nodded. “As for the victims, they were both young. Similar in appearance.”

“When we learn this young woman’s identity, I believe we’ll find that she’s from similar circumstances,” Matt said.

“Meaning?” Kat asked.

“She’ll be someone who could disappear for a day or two without others noticing. She lives alone. She has a job where she wouldn’t necessarily be expected in every day. The killer watches them for a long time before he takes them,” Matt said.

“I think you’re right,” Kat said slowly. “Cathy wasn’t immediately missed because she was so new to the city and had no close friends or family to watch out for her on a daily basis. Our second victim isn’t going to be a homeless drug addict living on the street. But again, she’ll be someone who doesn’t have family nearby. And she’s someone who probably didn’t have a boyfriend.” Meg was silent. That description didn’t fit Lara Mayhew. Lara had an aunt not far away, an aunt who loved her. She had any number of friends.

She’d had Meg, a close friend about to graduate from the FBI.

Meg realized she’d been holding her breath when she was forced to inhale. Despite the cold in which the body had been kept, the smell of decomposition and antibacterial chemicals suddenly seemed overwhelming. She fought hard not to let her near-nausea show.

Matt stepped forward, making a pretense, she thought, of studying the bloated, patchy face. He set a hand on the corpse and looked at her. “Meg, what is this? On her eyes?”

She came closer and touched the corpse and studied the unknown woman’s face. The body was so cold and stiff she didn’t feel she’d touched a human being at all. She looked at Matt and then over at the others. “Permanent makeup,” she said. “It’s like tattoo art. She has lip liner and eyeliner.”

“Yes, we’ve noted it,” Kat agreed. Wong nodded solemnly.

“Possibly done in the area. We can check into that,” Matt said.

Angela stood quietly toward the rear of their group. “I’ll get some of our people on it right away. There’ll be a number of facilities around here doing that kind of work. We’ll also get a good likeness of her on the media. When we ask for help, we’re often surprised by where we get it.”

“Anything else here?” Kat asked.

“No,” Matt said. He gestured at Kat and Angela and then Meg. “Nothing, right?” They shook their heads in unison.

Meg couldn’t have been happier to leave. Outside, the DC sun seemed especially brilliant and the sky was a fresh, bright blue.

The air smelled so clean...

“Are you okay?” Matt asked.

“Of course,” she said. “I did just go—”

“Through the academy. Yes, we all know,” he told her. “I’ll see you at the office. We’ll be driving to Richmond tonight. I’m sure you have places for us to go?”

“Yes,” Meg said, staring back at him. She did have places for them to go, based on her history with Lara and the trail of information detailed in Lara’s journal.

They’d go to the kind of places they used to love visiting. And, of course, if they found nothing, it would be embarrassing—and she was afraid it could be the end for her with the Krewe of Hunters.

Adam believed in her. Was that going to be enough? Was she really ready to find her friend in the same condition as Cathy Crighton and their Jane Doe?

She’d accepted that Lara was dead. She’d seen her.

And yet, despite that, she was living on hope. Maybe, as Matt had suggested, their connection was strong enough that Lara might have somehow reached out to her for help. One mind connecting with another...

She didn’t think that Matt Bosworth, unlike Adam, believed in her. He didn’t say so, and certainly wouldn’t be vocal with his opinion. He’d been skeptical when she’d said she knew Lara was dead. But he was the consummate professional; he’d been told to go with her and he would.

That was all right. She’d do whatever was needed, if she could only find out the truth about Lara.

* * *

Jackson would be attending the main task force meeting later on. That meeting was intended to keep local law enforcement up to date on the information they’d obtained thus far.

They held a small meeting of Krewe agents before Matt and Meg were due to go on the road in pursuit of Lara Mayhew.

They were in one of the two large meeting rooms at Krewe headquarters. She wondered when Angela Hawkins had time to manage everything she did; she was the one who tied all the threads together. She already had a board with pictures—Cathy Crighton was pictured as she’d been alive, via photographs from her friend Sue, and as she was now, dead. Their second victim, still unidentified, also had her place on the board—with only one picture, the way she was now, on the gurney at the ME’s office.

The time patterns they knew regarding the deaths had been noted; pertinent facts about the victims had been noted as well, down to the fact that Cathy had last dined on meat loaf and potatoes, one of the specialties at the Big Fish—and their Jane Doe had consumed sushi, made with high-grade tuna.