The Alphas Game - Complete Set (14 page)

Chapter6

To be completely honest, I’ve had better days. I had to shower and change, but I knew that Kevin would still know what Grey and I had done. I know that I shouldn’t feel ashamed about the decisions, or lack of decisions, that I’ve made in regards to my love life and the situation that I’ve put myself in lately. I’ve been trapped between two men, but I’m finding myself closer to a decision. It is more painful to do this than I thought that it would be. If I was honest with myself, as I so rarely am, I would have to admit how much I care for both men. Maybe I should just stick it out until this case is over and take a long vacation. I could go sit on a beach by myself and figure something out.

“Let’s go.” Kevin’s mood was gruff and it was obvious that he was in a hurry. He could smell the sex between the psychic detective and the werewolf. He didn’t like being reminded of the fact that they could never be together, but he tried to keep himself from punishing everyone around him with his attitude.

Rosie wrinkled her nose in frustration. “I’m getting my shoes on, give me a minute.”  She grabbed the tennis shoes that she had worn into the hole just a few hours before. “Did they manage to get someone in there to make it a little safer?”

“They’ve got a professional in there now. As soon as he clears it we’ll be heading down. He’s saying it should only be an hour or so. He’s bringing in a team.”

“Why couldn’t they do that before?” Rosie asked. She knew that it wouldn’t take them long to get it done if they decided to do it. She was just frustrated that they had taken so long to decide to get this done.

“I don’t know. I just turn in the paperwork. They decide what to do with it afterwards.” Grey looked as upset by this as she was.

“They knew how important this case was, but they couldn’t bother themselves to let us find some clues.” Rosie walked out the door after the men. She was still talking about it as she climbed into the car and the entire drive down to the crime scene. “I know that I saw at least five different victims.”

“How do you know that?” Kevin asked as he climbed out of the car and surveyed the scene. His hand was up over his eyes and he looked like a wealthy man running his eyes over his property. He looked so silly that Rosie almost laughed, but she fought the urge and made sure to stay on topic.

“I counted right hands. So unless there was something weird about one of the bodies I can pretty much be certain.”

“We have had a lot of young women go missing lately, but it hadn’t been sent our way. Nobody thought that it had anything to do with us.” Kevin pointed to a case file sitting between the front seats. “Take a look at the pictures and tell me if anyone looks familiar.”

“I didn’t get a good look at them. All I had was a penlight.” She pulled the light out of her pocket, showing it to men. Kevin didn’t say anything but he had a smirk on his face.

“What did you think that you were going to see with a penlight?” Grey scoffed at the idea. “I’d think that you need something a little brighter than that.”

Rosie started to feel a little defensive. She tried to fight the feeling, but the words still came out a little bitter. “I didn’t want my light seen. I knew that I had to make some sacrifices to get in there and get out without being arrested.”

“Instead you contaminated the scene and caused a ton of problems. A lot of that evidence might be unusable.”

“What are you talking about? We don’t follow the same rules as the humans. We’re going to get him and lock him away.” Kevin scoffed at the rules that Grey was insisting upon.

“Let’s just get down there and check it out. I’m eager to see it with some more light.” Rosie started to make her way through a path that had been recently cleared through the rubble.

“Are you sure that’s the right path?” Grey jogged to catch up to her.

“It looks different from the others. I think this is the safe way they’ve cleared out.” Rosie was moving quickly. “Let’s go, I’m ready to see what’s down there.”

“You’ve already said that.” Kevin reminded the woman.

“Then I’m twice as eager.” Rosie shot back at him, but never stopped her forward momentum.

They made their way into the breach, using a ladder that had been carefully secured on the most stable parts of the structure. She climbed down first, but she couldn’t help the fact that her nerves were still a little rattled from her earlier encounter in the dark basement. Everyone stopped for a moment to put on gloves and booties to prevent them from destroying evidence.

There were lights stationed in the room now and there was a low level of illumination throughout the entire area. It felt a little spookier this way, shadowed and barely showing anything. The bed that she had been in was still there and it looked filthier than ever, covered in stains that could be any number of bodily fluids, up to and including faeces and blood. She felt the bile start to come up into her throat. She had been lying on that bed when she woke up. She wondered if any of those stains had come from her, but she wasn’t injured so she was pretty sure that they belonged to other people.

Rosie shuddered at the sight of the bar that she had been cuffed to. “How are you doing?” Grey walked over to her and touched her shoulder, careful not to make her jump too much.

“I’m fine.” She looked over the rest of the room. It was pretty clear in the better light,  that the staining on the toilet wasn’t rust. “I can’t believe that I sat on that.”

“That must have been bad.” Kevin wrinkled his nose at the smells coming from the toilet. “It smells awful. I don’t think that it’s ever been cleaned.”

“I’m just glad that I couldn’t see it at the time.”

“You must have been able to smell it.” Grey held his elbow in front of his face, trying to shield it from the sun.

“I was able to ignore it, pretty much, but it did bother me a little.” Rosie commented, but she remembered the scent. “I think that this might be where he kept his victims. It doesn’t look like I was the first one here.”

“From the smell of it you might not have been the last one here.” Kevin was sniffing around. His nose had elongated quite a bit. He had controlled a minor change, allowing him to increase his senses a bit.

Rosie hugged herself. “I wouldn’t wish this place on my worst enemy.” It had become very cold in here all of a sudden and she couldn’t spot a breeze or draft that had suddenly hit her. The wind seemed to be pretty still so she couldn’t identify where the sensation had come from. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to get warm.

Grey was still looking around, carefully examining the surroundings. “Is that blood on the bed?”

“I think so, but I didn’t notice it at first.” She moved a little closer, but seemed to be unwilling to go close enough to get a good look at it.

“Of course you didn’t it was dark.” Grey touched her arm again, this time sliding his arm over shoulder. Kevin took note of the motion and left them behind walking forward into the room. He was careful to ignore them, but it still grated on the man’s nerves.

Shrugging the werewolf’s arm off of her shoulder Rosie pointed across the room, noticing that Kevin was bothered by Grey’s affection toward her. “The door’s over there.” She started to walk toward the wall that she had found the secret entrance in. She felt for the hole and pulled on the lever after adjusting her gloves one more time.

The door popped open but she closed her eyes to find the courage to look upon the carnage once again. All she heard was Grey’s voice. “Are you sure this is the door you looked in?”

Rosie cracked her eyelids open. The room was completely empty. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I thought you said there were bodies down here.” Kevin pointed into the empty room. It looked completely empty.

“There were, I swear that there were. They must have moved them.” Rosie insisted.

“Let’s get the crime scene techs down here to check it out.” Grey told her. He didn’t want to accuse the woman of lying or to tell her that she had been imagining things, but it was certainly looking like it was going to end up that way.

Chapter7

To be completely honest, I’m not entirely sure that they believe me, but it doesn’t matter. They’re going to do their jobs and investigate what I’ve told them. They’re going to believe me, once they find the evidence that isn’t visible to the naked eye, they’re going to realize that I’ve been right all along. I know what I saw in that room. I saw the bodies, they were there, lying in the dark room. I know that there were at least five of them. I know what I saw. I can’t emphasize that enough, but I can’t stop the men and women who are investigating from looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind.

“Do you think that maybe this was some sort of vision?” Kevin had Rosie pulled into another part of the room, away from the technicians who were picking apart the little hidden room.

“I know when I’m having a vision.” Rosie asserted. She was tired of being told that she hadn’t seen what she was sure of.

“I’m sure you do, but it was dark and it wasn’t exactly easy to see. It might have just been a trick of the light or something like that.” The suggestion was gentle, but it wasn’t gentle enough for her comfort.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Rosie’s voice was full of offended sentiments.

“No, I don’t think you’re stupid.” Kevin looked over at Grey for support, but the werewolf just held up his hands. He wasn’t getting involved in this conversation. “I just think that you might have been confused.”

Rosie narrowed her eyes and cocked her head, observing the man in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

“Sometimes people make mistakes.” He was just digging himself in deeper. He realized what he had been saying, but didn’t see a way out of the words he had already said.

“Did you forget what I do for a living?”

“No, I didn’t.” Kevin didn’t expand on his comments, he couldn’t figure out what to say that would make her wrath any lighter.

“Then why are you treating me like some housewife that stumbled onto this scene.”

“I’m not, I’m just doing my job.” Kevin backed up a single step. He knew that he was treading on dangerous ground and with the woman’s feelings toward him already in turmoil it didn’t take long for her to lose her patience with his inability to say the right thing. He knew that she was being unreasonable, but understood the stress that she went through even being around him and how his face seemed to cause her stress that she wasn’t willing to admit.

“This is really you just doing your job? Seriously?” The question was filled with a quiet rage. She wasn’t shouting, but it was obviously taking quite a bit of effort to keep her voice to reasonable levels. It seemed silly to react that way to him, but she felt offended at the slightest things that he said.

“It’s not that. It’s just my job to be skeptical. It’s part of the investigation process.”  Kevin tried to explain, hoping to put an end to the argument before it started.

“Did you forget that I’m a trained observer?”

“I know you are.”

“Do you realize that I wouldn’t have a job very long if I made stupid mistakes like that?” Rosie tried to keep her frustration with the man under control, understanding that the problems started within her, with her own memories of her kidnapping. He had been controlled and she knew that much, but he still made her nervous.

“I know that.” Kevin was starting to stutter. Grey still didn’t speak, he was just watching the scene with a satisfied smile on his face. “I know that you don’t make mistakes like that. I just have doubts. Wouldn’t you if something like this happened. It hasn’t been that long and there have been workers all over here. It doesn’t seem like it’s possible that they would be able to clean it up that well.”

Kevin’s explanation made sense, but Rosie didn’t want to give in. “But it’s me! Why don’t you believe me?” There was a whine behind the righteous fury.

“Why don’t we just forget this conversation ever happened? They’ve pulled off what seemed to be impossible before, so what makes us so arrogant to think that they couldn’t do it again.” Grey tried to end it before it turned into a full fight.

Kevin jumped on the chance to leave this behind him. “He’s right. I’m sorry.”

“You better believe he’s right.” Rosie crossed her dark arms over her chest and turned to watch the crime scene technicians do their job. There was a lot of clamoring around, debating about where to look next and the assignment of technicians to work in various areas. She was pleased that they were looking into every part of that basement, even if the place brought painful memories back into her mind. “Can we go now? We aren’t really needed here are we?”

“No, let’s just take another look around and you can tell us if there’s anywhere specific that we need to look at a little closer and we’ll get out of here.” Kevin was brooding as he started to lead Rosie around the room one more time.

Plastering a smile on her mocha colored lips she followed the FBI agent. Grey fell into the makeshift formation behind her. Rosie paused and looked into the secret room. There was someone in the doorway, kneeling down to look closely at the carpet so she couldn’t make her way into the room. Her paper booties were making scratching sounds on the cement floor that was in the main room. They had already removed any flooring that had been there. Squinting she covered her eyes, blocking out some of the glaring lights that came from the generator powered spotlights. “What’s that over there?”

“What?” Grey moved closer to the room. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose. “It smells awful in there.”

Kevin took a deep whiff before making a small gagging noise. “Somethings rotted in there. That smell should have spread further.” He took note of the fact that the scent seemed to be trapped in that tiny little room.

“It did spread when I opened it the first time. It filled the room and it was absolutely sickening.” Rosie explained, finally feeling a little vindicated. “I don’t smell anything now, though.” She frowned.

“I can smell it, there’s something in there.” Kevin smiled at her, trying to get her mind off of the argument that they had just finished. “They’re going to find something in there.”

“I remember that most of the pile was on that side of the room.” Rosie was thoughtful, bringing back the memories as she spoke softly and pointed. “They should probably do some extra checking on that side of the room.”

The technician looked up at her. “Will do. We’ve found some evidence of the fight over there.” Pointing toward the broken stairs, she started to make a list. “Skin and hair, that we’re assuming is yours and we also found some red fabric that didn’t seem like it was from anything you had on you.”

“That sounds great.” Rosie smiled. “See, I wasn’t making this up.” She looked vindicated and it felt good to be where she was, people finally starting to believe her. She knew that she had been telling the truth, but it was nice to know that other people were starting to believe her. She took pleasure in that fact.

“We didn’t think that you were.” Grey was sucking up and Kevin shot a dirty look at the man.

Rosie took a moment to look over the room now that every corner of it was lit up. “I didn’t realize how dirty this place was.”

“Except for that room, it looks really clean.” Grey pointed into the room that he was smelling the decay from. “That’s pretty odd.”

“Let’s face it, this entire case is pretty odd.” Kevin mentioned. “Everything seems so strange, and with this basement it almost seemed like they weren’t in a hurry to investigate it.”

“I think there’s blood on this toilet.” One of the technicians shouted through the mask. “It’s hard to tell because it’s coated in faecal matter though.”

The supervisor shouted back. “Take samples of everything.”

Kevin, Grey, and Rosie made their way toward the toilet. “I can smell that all the way across the room.” The psychic detective wrinkled her nose.

“I think everyone can.” There was a smile in the technician’s voice. “I’m going to have to strip in the garage tonight. The wife isn’t going to let me in the house smelling like this.”

The supervisor joined in the conversation, moving over to join them. “That’s why we got a shower installed in ours. My husband’s a chef and he’s got a great sense of smell. Some days I have to shower in there.”

“Oh God, you can’t even get the smell out of your car, ever.” Kevin added. “The smell of death just seems to follow me.”

“That’s why people like us don’t have dogs. They all think we’re vampires.” They were all members of the special unit that dealt with supernatural creatures, so the joke was followed by a round of ‘Amen’ and nods.

“I think I might have found something!” The shout echoed through the basement, so it was easy to identify where it was coming from.

Rosie practically jumped over the toilet on her way to the secret room. “What is it?”

“There’s a fingernail here!” The technician held up her tweezers. The fingernail had obviously been ripped from the person’s finger. The end was jagged and bloody, and part of the skin was hanging off of it, part of the nail bed.

“That has a lot of skin attached.” She was getting excited and stating the obvious as she pointed to it.

“We might be able to get an identification if their DNA is in the system.” Kevin’s eyes were lighting up as well.

“Do you think that they might have finally made a mistake?” Grey asked, touching his thumb to his chin as he thought.

“I don’t know.” Rosie was brought out of her reverie by the thought.

“I was reading through the file, before we found out that you had broken into here.” Grey mentioned the detective’s mistake in an offhanded manner. “It seems like Alfi never did cover his tracks very well. If his sister is covering his tracks now, she might not be able to cover fast enough. She’s definitely the brains in this outfit.”

“But he’s a lot more deadly.” Kevin acknowledged how much time he had gone over the file as well.

“I noticed that. She generally doesn’t kill unless she sees a purpose in it. He’s a mad man that thinks he’s saving people.”

“Why would anyone want to break someone like that out?” Rosie shuddered at the reminder Grey had posed. She had heard the fairy’s rant and didn’t like to think about it.

“Did he save the bodies before?” Grey ignored Rosie’s momentary terror.

“I think that’s what finally got him put away.” Kevin pulled out his phone and accessed the information that he had saved there.