Chapter 9
Mike stared at the building, tingling with excitement. She wasn’t there, but he could feel that she was close by. Raven Markley…he even liked saying her name now. He’d never hunted a woman as long as he’d hunted this bitch.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Brittni asked, smacking her gum noisily. He wanted to smack her for the sound that interrupted his delightful anticipation of his upcoming…encounter. But Brittni was cute and fluffy, plus she made him look less threatening. The dim witted woman was the perfect foil for this waiting game.
The only reason he was here was because that bitch Markley had gotten too close. Somehow, she’d connected the corpses he’d left in his wake all those years ago, now Mike needed to clean up his past. He didn’t want his…hobby…to be interrupted as he evolved into future endeavors.
Maybe he’d need to change the way he killed going forward. Surely the bitch had informed the team she’d previously worked for about her suspicions.
No, that didn’t make sense. If she’d given them the information that she had, they would have found him by now. But…why wouldn’t Markley have passed along the information? And why hadn’t that occurred to him before now?
Maybe…? Maybe Markley didn’t remember him? Or perhaps she simply hadn’t made the connection between the man who had walked out of that office building and the person laying in the bathroom covered with needle marks?
“Mikey?” Brittni whined, breaking through his thoughts.
He hated that nickname. He hated the stupid voice and he seriously hated the way the stupid woman smacked her gum.
“Nothing is wrong!”
She turned, her enormous breasts barely contained by the tiny shirt she wore. “Something is wrong,” she argued, then pulled her gum out of her mouth, examined it, then popped it back in.
Mike wondered what the hell she’d seen in the blob of gum, but didn’t want to ask. Asking meant she might tell him and he knew, without a doubt, that it would be a stupid answer. He had the urge to smack her and…well, then he’d lose his “shield”.
“What’s up with this apartment building anyway? Who are you waiting for? Why can’t we just go do something…fun?”
Mike sighed. “I’m waiting for a friend.”
Brittni huffed for a moment, but at least she was quiet. Mike focused his attention back on the parking lot, surveying the vehicles, just in case he’d missed seeing Markley’s boring sedan.
“I gotta potty.”
Clenching his teeth, Mike again contemplated smacking the stupid woman. It would give him so much pleasure to just…backhand her and watch the idiot woman fly across the parking lot! Soon, he promised himself. Very soon, Brittni would be punished very thoroughly for being…stupid and annoying!
Mike noticed Brittni’s big blond hair swivel around, as if she were looking for a toilet. Where she was going to find one, he had no idea. They were in an apartment parking lot with no access to a public bathroom.
“Hold it,” he snapped.
She glared at him for a brief moment, then pulled out her cell phone. For a moment, Mike tensed. Was she going to call someone? Was he going to lose whatever camouflage she provided by storming away? But when he saw the idiot woman pull up some game, candy hell or candy poppers, he didn’t know nor did he care what the name of the game was, but it kept her quiet.
Five minutes later, her knee started bouncing. Mike figured he had another twenty minutes before the idiot woman peed in her ridiculously small shorts.
“Why don’t you pee in the woods over there?” he suggested impatiently.
She turned her head and looked over at the small grouping of trees. With a gasp, she slouched down in the seat. “I’m fine!”
But moments later, still playing that idiot candy game…nope, she’d switched over to something with a train…both of her legs started bouncing.
With a disgusted sound, Mike reached over and flipped the glove compartment open. Grabbing a handful of napkins he’d gotten from a fast food restaurant several days ago, he stuffed them into her hand. “Go pee, you idiot!” he snarled.
“Fine!” she snapped, taking the napkins, then looked around. Her eyes brightened when she spotted the trees that seemed to be a bit thicker than the group he’d originally pointed to. “I’ll just use the woods over there. Don’t peek!” she teased in that grating, high-pitched voice.
Thankfully, the woman pushed open the doors and toddled on her stupidly high heeled sandals towards the woods.
Mike watched her carefully, wishing that her pert ass and those monstrously huge breasts turned him on. Unfortunately, he preferred women with a few active brain cells. Brittni, she didn’t even spell her damn name correctly, was about as stupid as they came.
Breathing a sigh of relief at the few moments of silence, Mike shifted in the driver’s seat, trying to get more comfortable. Markley had to show up eventually.
Special Agent in Charge Brock Parrow read the message and muttered a curse.
Special Agent Dean Silter looked up from his monitor, his eyes narrowing on his boss. “You heard from Brittany?”
Brock nodded and walked over to the white board where he and his team had been posting connections during their investigation. Originally, the suspect that had been stalking Raven hadn’t even been on their radar. But after Raven had received that terse letter, they’d been able to match the fingerprints on the paper to prints found at one of the crime scenes of a man who had been punctured to death. After that connection, Brittany had discovered ten other murders with similar MOs. The pictures that were now pinned up on the white board of the victims were gruesome to describe. Well, most of the victims were on the board. Some were too grisly, so only pictures from their driver’s licenses were on the board.
“She says that Mike Hemmind is just sitting outside Raven’s apartment building, waiting for her to come home.”
“Damn it!” Dean muttered, fisting his hands on his hips. “I just got word that Raven is on her way back to Philly.”
Brock’s irritation intensified. “I thought that she was supposed to be in San Antonio for two more days!”
Dean shrugged. “That was her previous itinerary. I don’t know why she’s booked an earlier flight.”
Brock nodded and the other two members of the team stood up, looking at the board as if trying to find enlightenment in the words scrawled across it.
“Anyone know what time her flight lands in Philly?” Brock asked.
Dean nodded. “She was too late for the two o’clock flight, so she got a seat on the three forty-five flight.”
Brock relaxed ever so slightly. “That’s good,” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as frustration at the unanswered questions haunted everyone in the room. “Still, I don’t understand why this guy is after Raven. She hasn’t been on the team for two years now.”
Brock rubbed the scruff on his jaw, shaking his head. “I have no idea either. He hasn’t sent any other letters to her. Just that one that Raven mentioned a few weeks ago.”
“Boss?” Drake called out, lifting his eyes from his phone. “I don’t think that’s right.” He turned his phone around so that Brock could read the message.
Brock muttered another curse, then turned just in time to see Tim Armstrong walking into the office, escorted by another agent.
“Who are you?” Brock snapped, not interested in dealing with a visitor right now. He recognized Armstrong, of course. Everyone who read anything knew about the man who had created an additive that doubled the gas mileage for every gallon of fuel.
“I’m Tim Armstrong,” the guy explained, his blue eyes scanning the room.
Brock looked over his shoulder, grateful that one of his team members had flipped the white board around. No good came of a civilian seeing the evidence they’d gathered about a suspect.
Brock walked over, shaking the man’s hand. “We all know who you are,” he replied, a slight smile on his features. “Hell, everyone who drives a car knows who you are!”
Tim smiled slightly, but the expression quicky faded.
After shaking Brock’s hand, Tim shoved his suit jacket back, fisting his hands on his hips. “I was told that you used to work with Raven Markley. Is that correct?”
Brock’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah. Why?”
Armstrong’s demeanor didn’t change; he still looked like a muscle-bound geek, in Brock’s opinion.
Tim pulled a plastic bag containing several letters. “Because I found these stuck to her door over the past few days,” he explained. “I didn’t think anything of it until I received this one.” He added another envelope to the pile on the table.
Brock looked down at the envelopes. Three were addressed to Raven’s previous home, but the last two were addressed to her current apartment. The one they were watching now. The one that Mike Hemmind was also watching!
The letter, with the envelope stapled to it, had only a few words written on it. “Stay Away from Raven. She’s Mine!”
Brock felt his other team members gather around the desk, all of them staring at the notes.
“When did you get this?” Brock demanded, pulling a pair of tweezers out of his desk and lifting the note up to the light.
“I got that one yesterday. I drove over to Raven’s apartment, hoping to speak with her about a personal issue. That’s when I found the last note.”
“Damn,” Dean hissed beside him.