Chapter 3
LOCKE
The ride to the hospital was a quiet one.
Stone’s fingers kept squeaking on the steering wheel with his grip.
“You’re going to pull the steering wheel out of the column if you keep that up.
” The additional squeak had me rolling my eyes.
“Fine, whatever.” I watched the scenery go by as we circumnavigated the more touristy parts of Salem to the typical New England style homes, which made way to the usual fast food eateries and darkened big box stores.
It was pretty amazing how quickly the cobblestone and occult-centric Salem gave way to simple small city flavor.
I could still smell the water, but it was distant.
I itched to get back to the wharf. All of this felt too familiar. Too close to that last day. It was supposed to be an easy job. I squeezed my eyes shut and stuffed it down.
Maybe knowing was the wrong call. Right now I could believe she was alive and let it be. Take the win and get back on my damn boat and head up to Maine.
Signs for the hospital flashed by and I sat up straighter.
Thatta boy.
Milligan’s voice was softer this time.
Stone pulled off the main road into the parking lot.
It was a decently sized hospital with the ER and the main building creating a Lego-style boxy set up.
He parked in one of the farthest spots then turned off the ignition, but instead of pushing open the door, he continued to abuse the steering wheel.
“We going in or what?”
He stared straight ahead, but I wasn’t entirely sure he was seeing the half empty lot that I was.
“She isn’t the first.”
I tapped my finger on my knee. I could still feel the stickiness of her blood on my skin. “Seemed like it was very practiced. I admit not to be up on the local news.”
“Living on a boat will do that.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it.”
More squeaking filled the silence. I had nothing but time and if he needed to strangle his wheel for a while longer, maybe he’d actually give me a few clues to what the hell was going on.
“I checked you out.”
“I figured you might tomorrow.” I itched to pull my phone out and see if Dom sent me a nasty text, but I waited Stone out. I’d been incommunicado, but Dom and his brother Leo, who ran operations, had to know this was the definition of extenuating circumstances.
“Your boss speaks highly of you.”
Well, that was surprising.
“Even if he said your head is fucked and I shouldn’t be letting you get near my investigation.”
That was more like it. The real question was if he talked to Dom or Leo. The brothers had very different ways of dealing with law enforcement. The fucked in the head remark sounded like Dom, who was—had been—my boss. “And yet, here I am in your car to see the victim.”
“Leo Kendrick was the only one who was available when I told the service it was an emergency. I believe you only mentioned a Dominic.”
“I work more closely with Dominic in the personal security branch of the company.”
“Mr. Kendrick mentioned you had extensive training with sensitive cases.”
And yet said I was fucked in the head? Or was that what Stone extrapolated? Leo was often the more diplomatic of the brothers which would work in my favor to get information out of Stone at the very least.
“If you talked to Leo you know I can keep my ears and mouth shut. I’ve worked for people from dignitaries to rockstars.”
Stone sighed. “I hope I don’t regret this, but I’ve been beating my head against a wall on my own, maybe a second set of professional ears would help.”
A year ago, I’d have been eager to jump in. Now, I wasn’t sure I was the right guy.
You are.
I cracked my knuckles at the familiar voice of my best friend in my head. One I hadn’t heard in so long. Why the hell was I hearing him now? Maybe I was officially losing it.
“I’ve been gathering details on a serial offender.”
At least my instincts weren’t completely dead. “How many?”
“Four in eighteen months. At least that we know of. Salem isn’t exactly a hub for sex workers, but—”
“But things aren’t the same since we can order groceries and a bottle of wine on an app?” I was more than aware of dating apps for fast hookups, as well as more underground sites for a more professional arrangement.
Stone nodded. “You are dialed in.”
I shrugged. “You did catch the dignitaries part of my resume, right?” At his raised eyebrow, I shrugged.
“Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean sex workers aren’t a reality.
I’m just paid to keep people safe, not judge.
” Mostly. The Kendrick Group was pretty particular about their clients and kept the sleezier ones off their roster.
“I can’t prove there are more victims. Interoffice reporting only works if the cop cares to write it up correctly.”
I heard the annoyance and resignation in his voice.
Cops were overworked and often understaffed.
Paperwork sometimes was rushed through with little fanfare, I’d bet.
Paperwork had been the bane of my existence, and I was paid way better.
“The marks on the bodies could literally be sex play if you weren’t looking for it. ”
Stone nodded sharply. “I was working a cold case. Salem can get a bit quiet in the winter months. Never all the way quiet of course, but you don’t know boredom until you’re snowed in for four days at the station.”
I winced. “They didn’t have you out there with everyone else for the idiots in the snow?”
He snorted. “I was too senior for that.”
I glanced at his dark uniform shirt.
“Was being the operative word.”
There was a slight hint of obsession wafting off him. Took one to know one. I cracked my knuckles with my thumb. “Let me guess, you found something in a cold file?”
“Picked up my breadcrumbs.”
“They were more like croutons.”
Stone laughed as he slumped in his seat. It was well after midnight at this point. I wondered if he got the night shift on top of being busted down to beat cop for whatever wrongs he’d committed.
“Letti, Melissa, Willow, and Joelle were four victims I’ve found so far. I admit that some of the details didn’t exactly line up, but...”
He trailed off. I’d been on enough high priority cases in my career to know that things didn’t fall as neatly into place as television liked to make it out to be. I’d worked in Boston, which held plenty of high powered people in its towering glass buildings.
My line of work dealt with stalkers and dangerous offenders—you didn’t need to be famous to become a fixation for someone.
But it took a trained eye and one of our elite cyber people to pick it out sometimes.
If a cop was juggling dozens of cases, it was easy to miss.
Somehow I didn’t think Salem was exactly a hotbed of that kind of crime.
“Do I smell a hint of ‘Let it go, Stone’?”
“You would be correct.” He sighed. ”I brought it to my captain and he told me I was reaching.”
“Were you?”
There went that squeak on the wheel again. I waited him out to push through his mental gymnastics. Either he was going to give me details or he wasn’t. When the minutes ticked by, I turned in my seat to face him.
“Lay it out like you did for your lieutenant or captain.”
More squeaking.
“Dude, you’re going to rip that wheel out of the column if you keep that up.”
He relaxed his fingers. “Sorry. Three of the women all had ligature marks on their necks. Two were beaten pretty badly, which was why my lieutenant thought I was reaching. I couldn’t figure out why the marks on the neck were so thick.
It wasn’t silk or leather, which could have been part of a death by misadventure component. ”
“The kinkier the better for some people when it comes to sex. Breath play has had a resurgence with some internet curiosities thanks to romance novels.”
Stone gave me a look.
I shrugged. “My sister-in-law is big into the reading thing. Some wild shit on TikTok these days if you do a deep dive into the romance readers. People are definitely getting ideas to try and spice things up the bedroom.”
“No one wants to just have a sweaty fuck anymore,” Stone muttered.
I grunted.
“Yeah, well you have a point there. And while my captain isn’t exactly open-minded to go down that route, I agree that experimentation has hit an all-time high especially for younger people. The ligature marks on two of the girls look a damn lot like tonight’s victim.”
“Most boats use nylon rope these days. That rope around the woman’s neck was heavy duty marine rope if I had to guess. Not exactly hard to find around the docks.”
Stone nodded. “It could have been impulsive.”
“But you don’t think so.” It wasn’t a question. I was inclined to agree based on the knots I’d seen around the woman’s ankles and wrists, let alone the intricate one around her neck that linked them all in a way that tightened with every movement.
“I didn’t have bodies to test,” Stone ground out.
“Cold files had to have at least some details for you to link them up.”
“Not enough.” His voice was tight.
And this crime scene wouldn’t help either. There might be a way to test the skin, but it was probably compromised at this point. “No, I don’t imagine so. How long have you been working on this?”
“Eight months.”
“Has he been quiet for all eight?”
Stone shook his head. “I did a search for similar crimes and found a few that could be, but the four women I mentioned are the most likely linked.”
“Have you looked for survivors?”
“Of course I have.”
“Just spitballing.”
He blew out a breath. “Sorry. I had one victim that came into the ER that I thought might match the same MO.”
“She wouldn’t cooperate?”
“No. I was going to check on her the next morning, but she checked herself out. Her body was found on the beach a few days later.”
“Shit. They didn’t think that was important?”