Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (57 page)

They stuck
together as a team, side by side.

At mile two, they were wondering how far she was planning on running. At three, they hoped some of the anger would be dissipating.
By five, the pace was starting to get brutal. When they hit the sixth mile and were breaking their normal speed records, Ethan was prepared to step in and intervene. Not so much for her, but for them.

Suddenly, she hit stop.

Without saying a word, she walked over to the wall and slid heavily to the floor. As if to block it all out, she closed her eyes and still remained silent.

Each man joined her
and mimicked her actions as they waited for her to break or explode.

Finally, she spoke,
“Do you ever feel like you’re doing it for nothing? That it’s never going to make a difference anyway? We stop one lunatic and a new one pops up.”

Ethan took her hand in hi
s. “What if no one stopped them? What would the world be like, baby?”

Callen took her other hand. “I have to believe
that what we do matters. You’re giving those women a voice, and someone to care that they didn't died in vain.”

“What we do
matters and you can’t let one person stop you from doing your job. Yeah, she could have told us, but we found out anyway. We’re going to catch him, Elizabeth, and then we’re going to go home, see our kids, and plan for Christmas. It’s coming and we have chaos to spread.”

The storm was passing in her heart thanks to them
. “I love you both.”

Callen pulled her to her feet.

“How about showers and then we grab lunch? I’ll text Cyra. I think we need to regroup and start from there. Maybe we’re missing something.”

Ethan dropped his arm around her shoulder and Callen did the same, as they walked back to their room. People stared, and they simply didn't give a damn.

When it came down to it, they’d get it done, because the Blackhawks always finished what they started.

Cyra got the text and headed to the meeting location. She’d left Rex with Chris and promised to bring them both something to eat. Pulling up, she found the three directors already there, sitting inside at a booth. Cyra took the seat beside Elizabeth and had to ask.

“Is everything okay?”

She looked over. “Yeah, why?”

“You just look a little irritated and pissed off. That generally means bad news is coming.”

Callen told her about the stunt the police chief pulled, and how they weren’t real happy with it.

“I’d be pissed too,” she stated.
“What are we going to do about it?”

Elizabeth sipped her coffee. “We’re going to regroup, and we’re officially on our own. I don’t believe we can trust the police in this town to be effective in helping us find this killer.”

The waitress wandered up, and they ordered their food. When she was gone, they got down to business.

“Are the searches done on the properties?” she asked, waiting on her agent to give her anything at this point.

“They are. I did deed and title searches and here’s what I found.” She emailed the information to their tablets before continuing. “On property one, we have an abandoned camp. It’s owned by C & E mining. They have pretty much been out of business for a while, but they still hold rights to the land. It’s been leased to them for one hundred years.”

“Okay, next?”

“The most recent one was the easiest. The government owns it. It’s state game lands.”

Elizabeth held her coffee cup in one hand and flipped with the other. “Who knew the government would make our lives easier?”

“I know, right? Victim two was the only woman found on private property. I traced it to a woman in a nursing home. She owns about twenty acres and the family is preparing to sell it.”

Ethan looked up. “Did you run the family?”

“I did. She has one son and he’s in his seventies, so I doubt he’s the killer. So far, nothing has come up tied to this in his financials or personal life. It may all just be random.” Pulling up the map, she showed them the locations. “We have two down here, but still far enough apart and one above it up here,” she pointed on the screen. “I tried to see if they aligned and nothing popped. The FBI programs can’t link those three locations.”

“Random to a killer is like coincidences to a cop. It’s total bullshit.” Elizabeth wasn’t sure what the killer was doing, but if he was being so methodical to stalk his prey and call her out, there was likely a reason that he picked those
spots.

“I want you to stay on this
and keep tracking the locations if he gets the next two people.”

She nodded. “I will.”

“How about our two favorite witches? Did the deep searches come back on them?” Elizabeth asked.

“In fact, before you texted me, I was going to be calling you to give you an update on Artemis.” She flipped through her tablet
to find the location of her typed up notes. “We only have half the search back so far, and the reason that it’s taking so long is that they didn't legally change their names. I had to try and ferret out their names the old fashioned way. Right now, they’re running their business off a federal tax number and not their social security numbers.”

Callen was curious. “Did you find anything odd?”

“Not on her. She’s totally clean. I can tell you that she got married early, and that’s how I’m hoping to find Ares name on the marriage license. They’re from a small town in Washington state, and I had to leave a message on an actual answering machine.”

They started laughing.

“Okay, just give me what you have,” Elizabeth said.

“Her real name is Melissa Holmes.”
Cyra turned the tablet around to share the old driver’s license that she had located. “I really thought she was younger, but she’s actually thirty one years old. She got married at eighteen and then dropped off the map until five years ago.”

“Crap, at eighteen? She was just a baby,” Elizabeth said. “I couldn’t imagine being married that young.”

Ethan took her hand in his across the table. “I would have loved to see you then. We could have grown up together.”

She loved when he said romantic mush
y things to her. It made her heart flip in her chest. She kind of wished they did too. The three of them would have been amazing together even then.

“Anyway,” Cyra
said grinning. “Five years ago, she came here with Ares and started her business.”

“I still think th
at they’re the center of it all, and we just need to keep digging in order to get to the bottom of it.”

“
I’ll keep on it. I’m sure I can locate more.”

She needed to say something. “Thank you for being so good about being stuck behind a tablet. I swear on our next one out, you get to play in the field.”

Cyra remembered what Chris had said. “I’m okay with it. I know that you have your mind on other things.”

Yeah, like trying to stay alive.

“Hey, if you don’t mind, I have a question that I need to ask you.”

“Go ahead,” Cyra urged.

“How do you feel about porn?”

There was a part of her that wanted to laugh, believing that the woman was teasing her
. Then, Cyra figured that probably wasn’t the case, since no one else was laughing. “Uh, as in making it, watching it or renting it.”

Elizabeth grinned
at her agent. “I want to tell you that you and Chris are perfect together. He would have said exactly the same thing to me, only he would have grinned hopefully.”

The truth in her words made her smile
. Cyra was touched that her boss thought they fit together. It showed how astute Elizabeth was, since she believed it too.

“You and lover boy get a date night fun fest. While we’re running paperwork, you and Chris get to watch hours and hours of the vile sex acts that went down at the Church of Satan.”

She stared, hoping that her boss was kidding. “Seriously?”

“
Yep. The lab is trying to pull ID’s from the images, but you’re up to speed on the assignment and were a street cop. I’m betting you’re good with faces.”

“I am.”

“I’m hoping that if you and Chris stare at the images, you might recognize one of the men.”

As her lunch was placed in front of her, she wasn’t sure what to think. Suddenly, bitching about research didn't seem like such a good idea.

“Oh, and Cyra?”

She stared at her
boss. “Yes?”

“Make him buy you dinner first.”

After Lunch, they sent Cyra back to the morgue office to get her dog and keep looking for Ares
real name. They, on the other hand, were getting ready to interview Harmony’s boss.

As they pulled up to the little building, it wasn’t hard to find a place to park. It wasn’t really tax time, so the CPA
business was a tad bit slow.

Entering the building,
there was a man sitting at a desk that had a name plate for the deceased woman.

“Can I help you?” he asked, glancing up.

It was hard to miss that the man looked frazzled. Pulling out their badges, they handed him the spiel. When he looked confused, Elizabeth pointed at Harmony’s name plate. “Mr. Keys, we’re investigating her murder, and we need to sit and talk to you about it.”

When he finally understood why they were there, he
stood and led them into his bigger and more comfortable office. “I’m going to miss Harmony. She was the best office manager that I’ve ever seen. The woman was focused and could pretty much balance everything at one time. She’d come to work happy and leave the same way. Harmony was a gem.”

Ethan asked the first question. “Regarding her boyfriend, did she ever say anything to you that would make you believe
that she feared for her life?”

He shook his head. “No. She was crazy about him. Then she found out
that he was cheating and it all went downhill. She told me that when he betrayed her, there was no way she could still be with him. Then she dumped him, and he hurt her that one time,” he answered. “Do you think that he killed her?”

“That’s why we’re here. We need more information into the woman’s life. You worked with her every day and spent a majority of your time with her, so you may be able to give us something.”

He looked a little off balanced over it all.

“Is there something wrong, Mr. Keys?” Ethan inquired, sensing the man’s discomfort.

“I do know something, and I’m embarrassed to admit it. I don’t think it’ll help you find her killer, but it’s still in my head and keeps popping up.”

Callen gave him his mediator smile. It reassured just about everyone. “You can tell us
, Mr. Keys. We’re professionals and have heard just about everything. Besides you may think it’s nothing but it could be something that helps us catch her killer.”

That was all it took.

“She was working late one night, and I had forgotten a file and needed it to do an audit, so I came back. As I walked in, she was on the phone having a private conversation.”

“About what?” Elizabeth inquired, her curiosity piqued
at that information.

The man actually blanched.
“I can’t believe I’m even bringing this up. It is so embarrassing.”

“Go on,” Callen reassured.

“It was sex. She was having phone sex with someone at her desk,” he finally gushed and was glad to get it off his chest.

“Did you hear what she was saying?” Elizabeth asked, hopefully.

“NO! I promptly reopened the door and slammed it, hoping she would realize that she wasn’t alone anymore. By the time I came around the corner, she off the phone.”

Ethan pushed
, “So, you heard nothing?”

He thought about it. “I heard he
r making some moaning noises and that’s about it. She was all flushed and flustered when I came into the room.”

“Do you know when this happened?” Callen asked, hopefully.

The man rattled off a date and time immediately.

Elizabeth lifted a brow
at the information. “Okay, you have to be really good with numbers to pull that off. I couldn’t tell you today’s date if my life depended on it.”

He tapped his head.
“My brain is like a calendar. Would you like the phone number that she called too?” he offered. “I really want to help find her killer.”

They all stared at him
incredulously.

Could they be this lucky?

“You actually have the number in your possession?” Elizabeth was about to kiss the man herself at this point.

“Yes.” He opened his drawer
and pulled out a file. As he flipped thought the papers, he glanced back up at them. “I’ll need it back, since it’s for tax season.” The man picked up his highlighter and marked the call.