Chapter 13
Dean watched as the man was carried out in a body bag. “Bad?” Brock asked, coming to stand next to Dean.
“Yeah,” he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “Worse than the other bodies.”
Brock sighed. “We need a break. We know who did this, but-”
“We have DNA now,” Dean interrupted.
Brock’s mouth fell open and he turned to face his agent fully. “How the hell…?” He looked over at the table by the window where several dishes, glasses, and utensils were sitting in evidence bags. With a chuckle, Brock nodded. “Good thinking.”
Dean shook his head. “Brittany rushed back in and stopped the waitress from clearing away the dishes. If she hadn’t figured out how to get away from the guy for two minutes, the DNA evidence we need would have been lost.”
Brock nodded, respecting the agent even more for not taking the credit.
“Okay, that’s excellent news.” He looked around at the scene, seeing the paramedics and coroner, as well as five more police officers who were helping. “Even though this new victim was killed in a restaurant bathroom, and there’s probably tons of DNA from the last ten thousand people who dined here, we should still get forensics in here to find out whatever they can.”
“Already on it,” Dean replied. He nodded towards another woman. “She’s the forensic person and she found several hairs on the victim’s body. She’s taking what she finds back to the lab to analyze.”
“Good. Good!” Brock replied, nodding for emphasis. Then he tried to think of the next step.
“We need sleep,” Dean interrupted Brock’s thoughts. “I’m worried we’re missing things because we’re exhausted. According to Brittni/Brittany, this Mike guy is sleeping in a hotel room. We can assign someone to watch and alert us if he comes out during the night. But while he sleeps, we should also sleep. We gotta catch the guy before he finds Raven.”
Brock sighed, nodding his agreement. “You’re right. We need sleep.”
Raven woke up and stretched, feeling better than she had in a long time. The sunshine warmed her face and she paused, listening for movement. Was she alone?
The sudden chime of her cell phone startled her. It took her a moment to locate her phone since it had fallen under the bed. After last night’s frantic undressing, the cell phone’s placement wasn’t too much of a mystery.
Thinking it would be Tim, she answered the call without looking at the phone number. “Tim?” she gasped, pushing herself up so her elbows rested on the bed.
“Wrong,” a weird, male voice replied. “Guess again.”
Raven blinked, not sure who the caller was. “I’m sorry, but I need a hint. I don’t recognize your voice.”
She reached out and grabbed Tim’s shirt, pulling it on over her nakedness.
“Liar!” the male voice snarled. “You know exactly who I am! You’ve been hunting me for too long. Now, it’s my turn to hunt you.” He laughed, but the sound was almost a giggle. “How does it feel being the prey instead of the predator?”
A cold finger of fear slid down her spine. The man sounded delusional. Standing up, she looked around, wanting a weapon of some sort. However, she’d given up her pistol after leaving the FBI. Because she traveled so much, Raven hadn’t bothered to purchase a new weapon. It was very difficult to get a pistol through airport security without a badge.
Besides, most of her clients were looking for love. Not revenge.
“Can you give me some sort of clue as to who you are?” she asked, rushing into the kitchen to find a knife. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was something.
“If you’re too busy hunting people that you can’t even remember who is on your list, then no, I’m not giving you a clue!” he yelled, rage making him stutter.
Raven mentally sifted through the murderers and rapists that she’d helped hunt with the FBI over the years. But none of the suspects sounded like this guy.
“Okay, so…what do you want from me?” she asked, running back to the bedroom and pulling on her jeans from yesterday. She put the guy on speaker phone as she finished dressing.
“I want you to die, Raven Markley. And I want your death to be slow and painful.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” she replied, trying to ignore the shiver of fear. Her previous training kicked in and she stuffed her weight into her shoes. Unfortunately, she was wearing flats and not sneakers, but they were better than nothing.
“Perhaps this will be more enticing,” he snapped, regaining control of his temper. “Meet me at the post office on Waldrop Street in fifteen minutes, or your boy toy dies!”
Raven’s throat closed and she looked around, desperate to see Tim. “You have…?”
The door to the apartment opened and in walked Tim, looking sweaty and relaxed. He’d obviously just finished a long run, and he smiled when he saw her.
But at her expression of panic, he froze, staring at her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she put a finger over her lips, signaling for him to remain silent.
“Of course I have your man,” the caller replied, sounding confident now.
Definitely delusional, Raven thought, making a sign for a pen by scribbling in the air.
Tim moved over to a desk and tossed her a pen, then pulled a piece of paper from the printer.
“Can you tell me the address again?” she asked. “I’m not familiar with all of the post offices in the area.”
“Look it up!” the man yelled. “And you now have thirteen minutes. Get here or your lover dies!”
The call ended just as Raven started to write out a message.
She grabbed the phone and looked at the number, writing it down as she dialed Brock’s number.
“What’s going on?” Tim demanded, standing with his hands on his hips.
She lifted a finger, asking him to wait a moment. Brock answered on the first ring, but she heard the sleep in his voice.
“Brock, no time to explain much. But your guy just called me. He thinks I know who he is and he threatened to kill Tim if I didn’t show up at a post office on Waldrop Street in,” she paused, looking at the time on her phone, “twelve minutes.”
“Where’s Tim?” Brock answered, all sleep gone from his voice now.
“He’s right here with me. He’s not in danger. But do you know who this guy is? I thought that you were going to use one of your agents as a decoy. That obviously didn’t work.”
“Nope,” he grumbled. “Hemmind had already left your parking lot by the time the agent had driven over there. The man’s name is Mike Hemmind. He’s a computer science engineer that used to work for a government consulting firm out of Arlington, Virginia until about a year ago. We’ve been able to link ten killings to him so far, but there might be more and we don’t have any physical evidence on him yet. One of them was just last night.”
“Great. What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” Brock replied. “Stay hidden. We’ll handle this.”
“Not a good idea,” Raven argued, already grabbing her purse and checking for her keys. That’s when she remembered that Brock had picked her up from the airport last night. Another agent had driven her car back to her apartment. So, she didn’t have a car!
Turning, she looked up at Tim. But he appeared just as stubborn about her staying put as Brock sounded.
“Raven, you’re no longer up on your training. You’re not getting involved in this take down.”
“Brock,” she started off, mimicking his arrogant tone, “the man is seriously delusional. If I don’t show up, he’ll just leave and then you won’t be able to find him. He might kill again if he gets frustrated with me. From the sound of his voice, he’s dangerous and delusional.”
There was a long silence and Raven correctly read the unspoken message. “He killed recently, didn’t he?”
“Last night.”
Briefly, she closed her eyes. “He’s escalating, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Brock sighed, but she could hear sounds in the background indicating that he was on the move as well.
“How about this,” she offered, pulling Tim along behind her. “I’m going to get to this place as soon as possible. You get there first and stake out the guy. I will remain across the street. I won’t even get close.”
“You know that’s not going to happen.”
“Brock, if I can help you catch this guy and stop anyone else from getting hurt, I’m going to do it.”
Tim hesitated, but she looked up at him, then plucked the keys from his hand. She wasn’t sure where he parked his car, or even where he lived, now that she thought about it. But Raven knew that she had to hurry.
“If this guy sees me, he’ll want to do the killing up close and personal. If I show up, that will give you and your team a few extra moments to catch him. You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, okay. But Tim will be with you, correct?”
“Tim’s going to drive me. So, I can sit in the passenger seat and look helpless.”
Brock snorted. “You’ve never been helpless in your life.”
Any other time, Raven would have laughed at Brock’s quip. But the situation was too dire. Instead, Raven merely shoved Tim ahead of her and into the elevator. He pressed the button for the parking garage and Raven was relieved that he was finally on board.
Ten minutes later, her phone rang again. Looking at the number this time, she realized that it was unknown. “It’s him,” she whispered, then pressed the answer button.
“Hello?”
“You’re late!”
“I know,” she replied in a calm tone. “However, I’m on my way. I will be there shortly.” She held onto the door handle as Tim took a corner. “Why do you want to meet me? I separated from the FBI over two years ago.”
“Liar!” the voice bellowed. “You’ve been hunting me, trying to pin me down. You won’t leave me alone!”
The man was clearly off his rocker! “I’m sorry,” she lied. “How have my activities impacted your life?”
“You saw me coming out of a building. You knew what I’d done. I know that it’s just a matter of time before you find me, so I’m getting to you first!”
Raven glanced at Tim, wondering if he was hearing this guy. But Tim appeared to be concentrating on driving. It was early enough that the traffic wasn’t too bad, but downtown Philadelphia in the early morning wasn’t the best place to drive if one needed to hurry.
“Sir, we’re running into a lot of traffic. But I’m on the way. And once I get there, we can work something out. Could you remind me of the building? Where did I see you?”
“Doesn’t matter anymore,” he whispered.
They were approaching the post office. Immediately, she saw Brock and Dean. Where was Drake? Where was Brittany? Hopefully, they were hidden somewhere close by, ready to pounce on this nutcase.
“Right,” Raven replied, searching for Brittany and Drake. Something moved out of the corner of her eye and she spotted Brittany. “Oh my!” she whispered.
“What?” the nutcase demanded.
Raven shook herself, wiping the smile from her face. “Nothing,” she finally replied, watching as Brittany toddled over to a man pacing along the sidewalk, talking on a phone. Brittany said something to the man and Raven could hear her through the phone. “Who are you talking to?” the bombshell FBI agent asked.
Raven almost laughed out loud when Brittany twirled a lock of fake, blond hair around her finger. She looked great, Raven thought. She definitely didn’t look like an undercover agent!
“Get back!” the guy snapped.
Raven watched as Brittany frowned at the man. Suddenly, her hip swung out to the side and she plastered her other hand on the other side of her waist. “What’s going on, Mike? Why are we standing around at the post office? I’m hungry. Don’t you want some pancakes? There’s a pancake place just down the street.”
“No! I don’t want pancakes, you idiot! I’m fixing a problem. Now, if you’d just walk away, I can finish this and then I’ll get you some damn pancakes!”
Brittany shrugged and stepped back. Raven watched as Mike turned so his back was to her. “Where are you? You’re late and I won’t accept tardiness.”
“I’m here,” Raven replied in a calm tone. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brock swivel towards her, as if surprised.
But Raven didn’t have time to figure out why Brock was so shocked. Because Mike turned to look directly at her. She watched as he reached behind him. Then in slow motion, she saw the mysterious nutcase pull a gun out from his waistband and point it at her.
Raven was already moving, pulling Tim down even as he was pulling her head onto his lap. She felt something bump the back of her head, but didn’t think anything of it. She wasn’t hurt. Still, she waited for the sound of a gunshot. When nothing happened, she lifted her head an inch. Tim did the same and they both stayed well below the window level, keeping their heads protected from stray bullets.
But when there still were no gunshots, they finally peeked out.
“Woah!” she whispered, then laughed, sitting up higher in the passenger seat. She felt Tim’s hand still on her back, ready to pull her back down to safety if necessary. But instead they watched a cute, denim clad butt sitting on top of a squirming man as Agent Brittany Andrews slapped handcuffs on him.
“I’ll be damned!” Tim muttered.
Raven laughed again, slapping a hand over her mouth. “That’s Brittany and she’s amazing! She’d just started on the team when I was leaving, but I got to know her a little. She’s tougher than she looks.”
“Apparently,” Tim replied, still watching as Brittney hefted the strange man to his feet, still spewing expletives.
Now that the danger had passed, Raven stepped out, but waited until Tim came around the car. Immediately, he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her in close. She buried her face against his chest for a moment and took a deep breath. They were alive and the guy who had been after her was in custody. It was over.
“Are you okay?” Brock demanded, his eyebrows furrowed as he glared at her.
“I’m fine,” she called back to him, squeezing Tim’s waist. He reciprocated the gesture, then wrapped his other arm around her. “You okay?”
Tim blinked down at her, then shook his head. “Not yet.” He glanced around, noting more police cars arriving. “But if you would allow me to shower, then take you shopping for an engagement ring, I think I might recover.”
She laughed at that. “I think that’s an outstanding plan.” She nodded towards the others. “I don’t think that they need me anymore. They seem to have that guy well in hand.” In fact, the man was being stuffed into the back of a police car as she spoke.
“It’s over,” she whispered to Tim.
He kissed the top of her head and her heart ached with love for him. “Thank you for being here for me.”
“Every time,” he vowed. “All the time!”
She looked up at him and smiled, hoping that he understood how important those words were to her. “How about if we pick up a pregnancy test after the engagement ring?”
Obviously, Tim had forgotten about that little issue because his eyes widened. Then a slow, satisfied grin formed. He nudged his glasses higher on his nose as he nodded. “That sounds perfect.” But he glanced down at himself. “But definitely a shower first!”