Serial Volume Three (6 page)

Donovan Blake

FBI

The bastard wasn’t going to give up any useful information easily and I paced the floor of the visitor’s office attempting in vain to come up with a way to trick him into revealing the whereabouts of the other victims.

There was a chance that Patricia Wilson was still alive and being held somewhere and I needed to locate her before it was too late to save her life.

Jude was too smart.

But not Veronica Lapierre.

If she was involved, she could be manipulated into revealing everything I needed to know.

Striding out of the office like a man on a mission, I located Reynolds by the vending machines. He’d already inserted his money and his finger was hovering over the button that would select something extraordinarily unhealthy.

“Reynolds.”

He pressed the button before swinging his head in my direction. “Yes, sir?”

“Where is Ms. Lapierre being held?”

Retrieving his candy bar from the bottom drawer of the machine, he shrugged a shoulder and answered, “Agent Chase remained with her at the home as the Portland PD searched it for evidence. It didn’t take long, we weren’t able to find anything without another warrant.”

Annoyance tightened my spine. Why hadn’t they brought her into the station for questioning? “Fine. I’m heading back out to the house. I’ll be sending Ms. Chase back to continue interrogating CK. Perhaps with some feminine charm; she might convince the asshole to give up just enough information for us to locate the rest of the victims.

***

“Agent Chase, I’ll be taking over the questioning of Ms. Lapierre from here. I need you back at the station.”

Emily’s eyes looked up, they were rimmed red with distrust and anger. Whatever her problem was this time, I didn’t have time for it.

“I’d like to speak with you alone, agent, before you leave.”

“Yes, sir.” She spit out, putting on a mask of subordination for the benefit of the remaining police officers and the witness she had seated at the dining room table.

Taking Emily aside, I moved in close to her and spoke low. Lying to the bitch would get her moving faster – the idea that there was a chance she could walk out of this investigation a hero for having tricked CK into divulging his secrets.

“I haven’t been able to get anything out of our suspect. No matter how I went about the questioning, he wouldn’t talk. He’s a vile son of a bitch, but a smart one.”

Emily smirked, her superior mind already believing that her experience in psychology could possibly get the bastard to talk.

“Maybe I can do something. A man like him? He likes women – fucking them, killing them and dumping their cold, carved up corpses outside to rot. Perhaps if I talk to him, I can pull the information out of him that we need.”

I had to goad her a bit more, but so far, she was already walking the line I needed to get her out of the house. “Are you sure you can do that? He’s got walls, Emily.”

Her eyes widened at my use of her first name and I knew she assumed it was because I was flustered. I’d done that on purpose. Sometimes it was too easy to get what I wanted out of people.

Her delicate hand came up to rest on my shoulder, victory and making a name in the agency a glowing light in her eyes. She wanted to one up me and I’d let her believe this was the way to accomplish just that.

“I can do this, Donovan. And then when I’m done, we can have our own personal celebration. I’d love to be fucked in a bed for once. This case has been stretching us far too thin, if you know what I mean.”

Continuing to play along, I agreed. “I do know what you mean and I’m hoping that we can put all this tension behind us and explore what it would be like to have a relationship that wasn’t strained by the stress of this investigation. Make him talk, Emily. If anybody can do it, you can.”

Her eyes lit impossibly brighter. “I’m on it, boss.” Her tongue peeked out to lick along her glossed lip. “That bastard will be eating out of my well-manicured hand within an hour.”

“We’re all done in the house and we haven’t found one thing that will connect Mr. Hollister to the crimes.” A uniformed cop interrupted us. “If you want us to have access to the locked room and his personal space, really tear it apart, you’ve got to get more than a preliminary warrant. As it stands, that’s all we can do, sorry.”

Looking at the man like I was actually annoyed by his intrusion, I said, “Then pack up your equipment, we’ve got the car back at the station, go check it out. There’s nothing left here to do but continue interviewing Ms. Lapierre. By the looks of her, I don’t think there’s much she’ll be able to offer.”

Emily laughed softly at my feigned insult of the witness – smug superiority apparent in her expression.

In truth, Veronica probably knew very little, but that wasn’t the only reason for my visit.

“Oh, Donovan, the girl is an idiot. After this little stint playing rich housewife to a serial killer, she’ll have to return to that dump of a restaurant where she worked. Poor thing. She really has the IQ of dirt. Have fun talking to her as I play with our real criminal.”

Emily strode out of the house with wiggling hips, slowly trailed behind by the Portland PD as they removed their equipment. Once alone, I turned to look around the house and marveled at the immaculate beauty of the space. Fucker had way too much cash than any one person should have.

Weaving my way out of the living room and down a hall, I located Veronica where she was still sitting hunched over the table. The image of her chained up and dripping in the shower flashed in my mind and my cock twitched with anticipation. Her body was magnificent. Full and supple. I wondered if her cunt was still tight after the pounding I’m sure it took from CK’s cock on a daily basis. A question ran through my head as I looked at her.

Why hadn’t he killed this one? What was so special about the bitch that he resisted the urge to flay her open like he had all the others?

“Ms. Lapierre?”

She looked up, the skin around her eyes hot and swollen from her tears. As soon as she recognized me, she startled and wrapped her arms tighter around her frame. “Detective.” She answered.

“Actually, my name is Agent Blake. Detectives are the police. I work for the FBI.”

“Oh,” she said, unimpressed by my credentials. “Well, whoever you are, I’ve already told that woman who was here earlier all I know about Jude. I just want to be left alone.”

Taking a seat at the table, I forced my tone of voice into a sympathetic caress. “I understand that, Ms. Lapierre, but I was hoping you would be able to help Jude. If you can give me more information…”

“He didn’t do anything. If this is about Billy, then you need to understand that I only just heard about his death now. Jude saved me the night he brought me home from the diner, without him I surely would have died at Billy’s hand by now.”

Her words connected the dots in my head and confirmed what I’d suspected all along. There was a connection between the deaths of the prostitutes and Billy’s, there had to be.

“Veronica…” I started, “…May I call you Veronica?”

“Yes.”

I smiled kindly. “Veronica, I need to tell you what Mr. Hollister has been accused of. We’re not here about Billy. We’re here about the deaths of several prostitutes in the Portland and Seattle area. Additionally, two waitresses have disappeared.”

“Two?” She asked.

Realizing she was one of those waitresses, I backpedaled. “Including you, yes. Two. However, I believe you are now nothing more than a closed and solved missing persons case.”

Her eyes sharpened, the desire to protect her man a molten heat in her expression. “I’m not missing, so obviously you have the wrong man. Jude has nothing to do with those other women. He’s been here with me the entire time. He rescued me and nursed me back to health. Why would he do that if he was only interested in killing women?”

Sitting back, I crossed one leg over the other at the knee and steepled my fingers to my chin. “Have you heard of the Cascades Killer?”

“Yes,” she admitted softly. “I saw something about it on the news.

“Then you know that a man has been abducting women, carving them up and leaving them out like trash on the side of roads or abandoning their bodies in fields to be picked apart by animals.”

“Jude wouldn’t do that.”

“How can you be so sure?”

She steeled her expression, her eyes burning angrily into mine. “Because he’s been here the entire time fucking me. When would he have time for those other women.”

It was time I broke her confidence. Emily was right about one thing. Veronica was not the brightest bulb in the pack.

“I know you’re lying, Veronica.”

She glared at me and I held my hands up in feigned surrender.

“I understand your desire to protect him. I’m sure you love him and that he loves you, but we already know he hasn’t been here the entire time that these murders have been committed. He’s gone to work. He’s gone out to restaurants. I’ve seen him personally out and about.”

It hadn’t been until we’d walked into the house to serve the warrant that I’d recognized him from the night Emily and I had eaten at the dive restaurant where Veronica had previously worked. As soon as I spotted the asshole, I’d realized my instincts had been well honed that night. We could have solved this case weeks before if I’d just ignored Emily and followed the son of a bitch home.

“He didn’t do what you are accusing him of doing. He goes to work. Who doesn’t?” There was the hint of rebellion in her voice, but when I narrowed my gaze on her, she shrunk into herself, hugging her arms around her abdomen even tighter.

My cock twitched again to see the submissive slut inside her shine through. Perhaps this is the reason Jude chose to keep her alive.

What I did next was wrong. It went against every damn protocol in the Bureau and for that reason alone, it excited me even more. I was tired of the façade…tired of being a good guy in a world where the bad guys had all the fun. If this investigation had taught me anything, it was the fact that I needed control. I craved it like a desert traveller craves water. The need was born deep in my body and it set every nerve ending I had on high alert.

And this girl was exactly what my body was craving.

“Would you like to help your boyfriend, Veronica?” I asked the question lazily, pretending like her answer held no more importance to me than a stranger’s choice in bread type for their sandwich.

She startled again, her body flinching with the discomfort of knowing that a predator lurked in her vicinity. Having been with Jude, she must have been aware of something being
off
with a man like me. She’d not only experienced it before, but fell in love with it.

“Yes.” She finally answered the question on a whisper.

“Do you know what you can do to help him?”

Her eyes locked to mine as she stood up from her chair. “Are you like him?” She asked.

I nodded my head; not feeling the need to put into words something that we both knew already.

Her body was covered by nothing more than a thin t-shirt and black yoga pants. Moving around the edge of the table, she leaned against it, finally lifting her body enough so that she could sit on the edge next to me.

“Spread your legs, beautiful.”

I sat back in my chair and watched, my cock coming to life with the brilliance of her submission. Her arms moved as her hands gripped the bottom of her shirt. Within seconds, she pulled the cloth from her body and tossed it to the floor.

Looking at me with soft eyes, she asked, “If I do this, will you let him go?”

“Yes,” I lied. In truth, there was nothing I could do for the man if the State or the Bureau found something connecting him to the crimes. But she didn’t know that.

Her head nodded in understanding. “How do you want me, then? Here on the table?” Her bare breasts bounced as she scooted closer to where I sat. “Or somewhere else? Jude has all sorts of toys we can play with in my bedroom. You may like some of them. You remind me of him.”

It was scary that she was able to so easily see the predator inside me. It made me wonder if she recognized it because it frightened her, or because like can always recognize like.

“We can start here. Take off your pants, bitch.”

Her eyes came alive when I called her that and I thanked the poor bastard being interrogated at the station for having trained her so well.

Sliding down from the edge of the table, she pushed the thin material of her pants from her hips, allowing it to puddle on the floor. Now completely naked, she looked like the girl I’d found a few hours before in the shower.

She was magnificent.

“Bend over the table, Ms. Lapierre.”

She complied, but moved when I reached to touch her. Looking back at me from over her shoulder she asked, “How did you know it was Jude? Why do you think he could have killed those women?”

I smiled. “Because Mr. Hollister is the only man in the Portland area driving the type of car that was used to pick up the last victim. He was spotted by a mechanic in the area who saw him with Noreen Hamilton before she disappeared. Now shut the fuck up and bend over the table.”