Hollywood Notorious: A Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series (A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Book 14) (18 page)

Despite my exhaustion, I spent a restless night thinking about how things had gone with Noah. I decided that we needed to have another talk and I needed to be more understanding about the trauma that he’d endured. I couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through being severely injured in war and then have his fiancée call off their marriage. I promised myself to try and be more understanding in the future.

I finally drifted off to sleep sometime after two in the morning, then was awakened just before six when my phone rang. It was Joe Dawson.

“Don’t tell me I got you out of bed, Buttercup.”

I dragged a hand through my hair and tried to clear the cobwebs. “Just getting ready for my day.” I took a breath. “What’s up?”

“You ever run across the name Joshua Brown on your case?”

Even though my head was still fuzzy, I was drawing a blank. “I don’t think so.”

“I’ve come up with something interesting on the guy. Greer’s letting me take a couple of days to look into things before contacting your administrators and involving the rest of the agency. I can meet you in Hollyweird later this morning, tell you and your boss all about it, if that works for you.”

“See you at the station.”

As I dressed, I thought about what Dawson had said. John Greer was his boss and if he was talking about bringing his agents into the case, it meant we’d eventually lose control of our investigation. I hoped he had something worthwhile to follow up on so that wouldn’t happen.

After arriving at the station, I got with Leo, Oz, Darby, and Buck, and told them about Dawson’s visit. We then decided to gather all the other players for the meeting, including Selfie, Molly, and Brie. Rose Castillo had told me yesterday to let her know about any new developments, so I called her. She said she would come to the station for the meeting and looked forward to seeing her old friend, Joe Dawson.

It was just after ten when we all sat down in the bat cave, I made introductions to those who hadn’t met Joe, and then briefed him on our case, going over the details of our crimes. Brie then discussed the autopsy results, before Rose gave him her best guess as to the profile of the killer or killers.

Dawson was about six feet, solidly built, with graying hair and the palest blue eyes I’d ever seen. He’d once told me that his pale eye color was because of the hits his soul had taken over the years while working cases, something that he called his own version of blue-eyed soul.

This morning, as he greeted his former co-worker, I was again struck by his almost translucent powder blue eyes. “So you think we might have a duo at work, Rosie?”

“I can’t say for sure,” Dr. Castillo said. “But it’s our working hypothesis and the footprints found at the latest crime scene might bear that out.”

“Let me tell you what I’ve got and let’s see what we can piece together from there.” Joe handed Selfie a flash drive. “Can you work your magic, beautiful? Put this up on one of your fancy monitors.”

Selfie blushed and did as instructed, working a remote and squinting as some information appeared on an overhead screen, along with photographs of women who I presumed were victims.

Joe explained, “What we’re looking at is a list of victims, going back about ten years. The girls were all in their late teens, early twenties, taken off the streets. Over the years, the investigators eventually went back and compared the locations of where they disappeared. They discovered that most of the girls were taken near freeways, a couple were snatched at rest stops. Their working theory was that a truck driver was at work in the killings. In time, our suspect was dubbed the Interstate Killer.

“How many girls are we talking about?” Buck asked.

“We think we can tie thirteen girls to the Interstate Killer, but there are probably more that haven’t been linked to him or whose bodies were never found.”

“How were they killed?” Brie asked.

“Early on, the girls were sexually assaulted, strangled, and their bodies were dumped by the road, but as the years passed, our guy began posing his victims. He sometimes dressed them up and painted their faces, giving them the appearance of prostitutes. Our suspect always used a condom, so there was no DNA.”

Oz was giving Bernie some attention as he asked, “Were any of the girls working as prostitutes?”

Joe shook his head. “No. Our investigators originally worked off the theory that our killer was expressing his anger toward women by dressing them up as prostitutes before assaulting and killing them. All that changed recently.”

Joe nodded at Selfie. She worked her remote and we saw photographs of a man named Joshua Brown appear on the monitor. “Mr. Brown worked as a truck driver for several years, driving the interstate highways in proximity to where our victims were found. A few weeks back, our crime analysts went back and relooked at the evidence taken on all the cases. One of the early victims fought back during the attack and DNA of our suspect was found under her fingernails. It recently came back to Mr. Brown.”

“Where is our suspect now?” Leo asked.

“About three years ago he moved to California and changed careers. He became a security guard at Berkshire State Hospital in Pasadena.”

The pictures on the monitor changed and we saw photos of Brown dressed as a state security guard. The identifying information said that he was age thirty-three, about six feet tall. He was handsome, and there was something about his appearance that made me think he was the kind of man who could easily gain the trust of women. I remembered Mo telling me word on the street was that our killer was in law enforcement. Everything seemed to fit, then something else occurred to me.

I said to Selfie, “Didn’t we have a hit on someone…”

She was ahead of me. “Quinton Macy.” Selfie brought his mug shots up on another monitor and said to Joe, “He’s a patient at the same hospital. He came up in our early database searches as committing a crime that had similarities to our first victim.”

She and Molly then took a couple of minutes, talking about the victim that led to Macy being incarcerated at Berkshire State Hospital.

“Do you think Brown and Macy could both be linked to our recent victims?” I asked Rose Castillo.

“It’s possible, but we know that Macy has been in lock-up. It could be that Brown’s been acting as his surrogate, carrying out his crimes.”

Joe nodded in agreement. “It’s time we stopped speculating and head over to the hospital. If we’re right, today is the end of the road for the Interstate Killer, and maybe the man also known as the Reaper.”

Oz made the decision to send Leo and me with Dawson to arrest Brown, while Darby and Buck were left behind to work our other murders. Darby had lodged a protest, telling the lieutenant he was tired of playing second fiddle. Oz, who lately seemed exhausted and apparently had his fill of the big-mouth detective, told him he would have him playing a clarinet on Hollywood Boulevard if he didn’t get with the program.

I was getting ready to leave the office when I walked by the break room and saw Charlie Winkler, my former partner. I remembered that Darby had said Charlie was telling everyone that I didn’t pull my own weight when we worked together. If there was any truth to what he’d said, I knew that I needed to immediately put a stop to it.

Bernie went with me and sniffed around the floor as I took a seat across from my former partner. Charlie didn’t bother looking up from whatever he was slurping up until I cleared my throat.

“Kate,” Charlie said. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and see you.”

“I heard you were back on the job.” I waited a moment while he finished with what I now realized was oatmeal. “I also heard you’ve been telling everyone that you had to carry me when we worked together.”

“What?”

“According to Darby Hall, you said I didn’t pull my own weight.”

I saw that Charlie’s eyes were bloodshot as he said, “He’s full of crap. All I said was that I covered your back a few times.”

My brows inches together. “What does that mean?”

“I just meant that I watched your back and you watched mine.” He splayed his hands. “I meant, that’s what partners do.”

I took a breath. “Maybe you should explain what you mean to Darby. He’s not helping my reputation.”

“I’ll set the little asshole straight.”

I nodded, again seeing that his eyes were red. It also looked like he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and could use a shower. “You doing okay?”

“I’m getting by. Can’t complain.”

I gave voice to something else I’d recently heard. “I hear you’re seeing Jessica again.”

He shrugged. “I needed a place to stay, and…” He smiled, but didn’t go on.

Charlie almost never smiled. When he did, it meant that he was having sex. “You’re really living with that…that woman?”

Jessica Barlow also worked as a detective at Hollywood Station. She was the bane of my existence. We’d gone to high school together and she’d never gotten over the fact that I’d dated her one-time boyfriend after they’d broken up. Despite some rocky history, Jessica and Charlie had hooked up when they’d been forced to become partners for a short period of time. She was a controlling, manipulative shrew of a woman, and those were her good qualities.

Charlie’s smile was still there. “She’s not so bad…in some ways.”

I stood up and tugged on Bernie’s leash. “Take care of yourself.” I started to walk away, but turned back to him. “And be sure you set Darby straight.”

***

Leo decided to take his own car to Pasadena, telling us he had an errand to run after finishing up at the hospital. That gave Joe and me some time to get caught up on our lives as he drove.

“I see you’re still working on your word power,” I said, referencing his passion for crossword puzzles. He had a New York
Times
puzzle on the console beside him.

He glanced at me. “What’s a nine letter word that starts with the letter
e
and means brilliant?”

I smiled. “Sorry, I’m stumped.”

“Effulgent.” Now he smiled. “You can find it in the dictionary right next to my name.”

“I see you’re still full of humility.”

He cocked his head toward me. “And you, you’re still…” He paused before continuing. “Maybe the word I’m looking for is
unsettled
.”

“You know me pretty well.”

“Problems with…I forget his name.”

“Noah.” I took a moment, trying to come up with a way to summarize what was happening between us. “We’re having a little bump in the road.”

“Tell me about it.”

Joe already knew my family situation, so I took a couple of minutes, filling him in on the latest regarding the Revelation and the Tauists, and telling him that Collin Russell had lied to me. “To make matters worse, Noah doesn’t seem to understand my determination to find who’s behind the murder of the man who raised me.”

“How long have you two been dating?”

“Just a few weeks.”

“He’ll either get it one of these days or he’ll never get it. I had an ex who never got it—I mean about police work and finding justice. That’s why she’s an ex.”

I took a moment, deciding there was a lot of truth to what he’d said. Some people never got the passion that went with police work, and if Noah didn’t get that and my personal determination to find who was behind my dad’s murder, I knew we would never make it.

We drove in silence for a couple of minutes before I said, “What about you? Anyone in Joe Dawson’s life these days?”

He took a moment before looking at me. “There is someone. We’ve been off and on for a while.” His eyes found the road again. “Sharon gets it—my job, I mean. Just not sure if she gets me.”

I laughed. “I don’t know if anyone really gets you, Joe.”

He studied me for a moment. “I think you do.”

I was surprised by what he said. “I think we both get each other. We should appreciate that.”

He smiled. “Oh, believe me, I do. There are some things I never take for granted. You’re one of them.”

I was touched by what he said and felt my eyes misting up. “I appreciate that—a lot.”

We were quiet for a minute as he turned off the freeway. I took the time to reflect on friendship, how rare it is in today’s world. I realized that, except for Leo and my brother, there was probably no one I was closer to than Joe, Natalie, and Mo. I was grateful for having them all in my life and made myself a promise to always try to do the best by them.

When we hit the surface streets, my thoughts drifted to my sister. “I don’t suppose there’s anything new with Lindsay?”

“Actually, that’s part of the reason I came to see you.”

My pulse quickened. “What’s going on?”

He glanced at me again. “Remember that guy I mentioned a while back that we took down who was involved in The Swarm?”

“I think you said he wasn’t very cooperative.”

“He’s been in solitary for a while now and I’ve spent a lot of time working him. He’s starting to talk.”

“Does he know anything about Lindsay?”

He shook his head. “No, but he said there’s some problems at the top in the organization. You remember how The Swarm was supposedly controlled by the original members?”

I nodded. “There were the seven, chosen by someone at the top, but two of them have been taken down, leaving five.”

“Yeah. Anyway, the guy told me there’s been some infighting. That’s part of the reason they’ve gone underground. I think there’s a power struggle going on.”

I released a breath. “That doesn’t sound good for my sister.”

“Maybe…”

When he didn’t go on, I said, “What is it?”

“It’s just a hunch, something that’s been gnawing at me every time I talk to this guy.”

“What kind of hunch?”

He took a moment, maybe gathering his thoughts. “Remember how your sister killed her own father to save you?”

I would never forget that Lindsay had realized her father had been stalking me. She’d shot and killed him after he’d killed my then boyfriend, Jack Bautista, and he’d shot me. Lindsay had saved my life, but that act took her having to kill her own father. It’s something that I knew had haunted her, and we’d talked about several times.

“Yes,” I said. “In some ways Lindsay made the ultimate sacrifice for me. I’ll never forget what she did.”

Joe nodded. “Someone like that…” his pale eyes fixed on me, “…I think your sister has a deep understanding about what’s right and wrong. She’s someone who saw a lot of evil, including what her own father did, and was determined to make the world a better place.”

What Joe hadn’t said was that my sister had been molested by her father. He’d taken advantage of her in the worst way imaginable. But what he’d said about making the world a better place now filled me with sudden hope.

“Do you think…” My emotions were surfacing, and I took a breath. “Could Lindsay have purposely gone with her captors to try and stop them?”

Joe studied me for a long moment. “You tell me, Kate. Your sister murdered her own father to stop his killing spree. She saved your life. And, just maybe by going with her captors, she saved your life again. I’ve been wrong a time or two, but I think maybe Lindsay is out there somewhere and, in her own way, she’s trying to stop a group of killers.”