NightScream Read online

  Meagan turned the knob, opening the door slowly. A man sat behind the desk, typing on the computer.

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She noticed the resemblance right away. The man appeared to be a blond version of Thomas. A warm smile spread across his face as he stood and came toward her.

  “You must be Meagan.”

  Meagan felt instantly at ease. “And you must be Cody.”

  The large man enveloped her in a bear hug.

  He pulled back. “Welcome to the family.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry if I woke you. I was trying to be quiet.”

  “No, not at all. Unfortunately, my cell phone woke me.”

  His brows creased. “Not bad news, I hope.”

  She shook her head. “Family drama.”

  He nodded in a knowing fashion. “Got it. Annie calls me in the middle of the night all the time. Poor thing. She dates the most ridiculous men and wonders why it never works out. I keep telling her I’ll set her up with someone decent, but she always says no. Then goes out and picks another loser.” He rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah. This problem has to do with my sister and a man.”

  “I hope it all sorts itself out.”

  “Thanks, me too.” Meagan smiled.

  “Look, I was just going to bed. So, if you need the office…”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to chase you out.”

  “No worries.” He looked at his watch. “As it is, I’m only going to get a couple hours of sleep anyway.”

  “Going fishing?”

  “In a way, but not the kind you mean. I caught a case.”

  “I thought you were on vacation?”

  “Yeah, me too.” He smiled.

  “Does this mean you’ll be leaving? I was hoping we’d get to hang out a bit.”

  “That could still happen. I’m helping the local PD, so I’ll be staying here. Maybe we can have dinner some night. I was sure sorry I missed your pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits, and country gravy. My brother filled me in on the entire menu. Jesse’s a real sadist.”

  Meagan chuckled. “Actually, we didn’t have them last night after all. I was planning to fix them tonight. Do you think you might be able to make it?”

  “Sorry, I can’t make any promises right now. I’ll have to see how things go. But I’m sure we’ll get some time together.”

  “Great. I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Me too.” He returned to the desk and fiddled with the computer.

  “You can leave the computer on,” Meagan said.

  He glanced her way. “Gonna check your email?”

  “Something like that.”

  He emptied the printer tray of a bunch of papers and shoved them in a manila folder. “Okay.” He started toward her with the file clenched in his hand.

  She stepped back from the doorway to let him pass, but he stopped right in front of her.

  “It was great to finally meet you, Meagan.”

  “Same here.”

  Cody went through the open door. “Later.”

  “Good night.” Meagan watched him disappear down the hall, then got behind the desk and sat down. She hoped all of Thomas’ siblings were that warm and friendly. She had met his parents. They too had welcomed her into the family with open arms.

  That had surprised Meagan, since they weren’t engaged. How did they know she would one day be a part of the family when she wasn’t certain herself? She hit the internet icon on the computer’s desktop and waited until the screen filled.

  Then she typed the name Samuel Miller and Kentucky into the search engine and hit enter. First thing that came up was Samuel Miller, Linked-In. She doubted he had a Linked-In account.

  Next came a bunch of Sam and Samuel Millers, but she didn’t know his middle name, so she had no idea if he was any of them. One was an athlete, another a boxer, she scratched those from the list. Then there were the sites that promised to find anyone for free.

  She passed them by as she scrolled down the page. Near the bottom, something jumped out at her.

  Reverend Samuel Miller Steps Down From His Pulpit.

  EIGHT

  Jilly entered her two-bedroom cabin and tossed her keys in the basket on the table next to the door. Then she shrugged out of her jacket and hung it in the coat closet nearby. She pushed the clothes aside to reveal the gun safe and set her Glock 9 inside before she locked it.

  The light over the stove in the kitchen cast the room in shadows. She flicked the switch and found her cat wrapping herself around her legs, purring.

  “Hey, Cleo, and how was your day?” She picked up the feline and kissed her on the top of the head. “Mine sucked very much. Thanks for asking.”

  She set Cleopatra back on the ground and headed into the kitchen, snagging her dish off the floor on her way. Her companion always had a fresh supply of water and dry food from automatic dispensers since Jilly never knew when she’d be home.

  She selected a can, then pulled out the opener specifically used for cat food and began twisting the knob.

  “This has got to be the worst day of my life.” She scooped the smelly mush onto the dish and set it back on the floor, stroking the cat before straightening up.

  Meow.

  “No, you’re right. Second worst day of my life. That award would go to the day I opened the supply room door at work and found slutty Sandy’s legs wrapped around a man’s waist while his bare ass smiled back at me.”

  She’d been so embarrassed that she quickly shut the door, until it dawned on her, the birthmark on that butt looked vaguely familiar. She opened the door again and stared.

  The bitch looked her right in the eye and smiled. Jilly slammed the door and stormed off. Before long, her husband was running after her. “Wait honey, it meant nothing!”

  The entire bullpen was full that day. Some men snickered while others gasped. There were plenty of expletives to go around. She had turned to confront him and found him standing there holding up his pants.

  “Oh, for god’s sake, get dressed.” She stomped out of the building. Her friend, Maureen, had jumped out of her seat and followed.

  She had held it together until she was safe within her car. While tears rained down her cheeks, she’d asked Maureen if she’d known about the affair. Her friend shook her head and promised she had no idea. That made two of them.

  Jilly dropped down on the sofa. The cat jumped onto her lap, and she began petting her. So making it a close second, she got into her first and second accident of her life in one day.

  Then disgraced herself further in front of her high school crush by throwing up, not once, but twice. She blamed the cookies she’d eaten right before arriving at the scene.

  She stared down at the cat. “Why couldn’t Cody be fat and balding, instead of even hotter than he was in high school? Way to impress a guy, huh? I bet you wouldn’t hack up a fur ball in front of a stud you had your eye on, would you, girl?

  “Of course not. You have way too much class for that. No, just your mother does that sort of thing. God, I wish I could wake up and find it had all been just a horrible dream.”

  She lifted the cat and set her on the floor. “I’m going to take a bath and try to forget this day ever happened.” Cleo meowed. “Did you say good luck with that? Good luck indeed.” Jilly turned off the living room light before she padded down the hall.

  She adjusted the temperature of the water as it ran into the tub, and then added bath salts. Next, she put on some soft music and lit a couple of candles before she stripped. She eased herself down into the hot bath, breathed in the lavender aroma and sighed.

  “Just what the doctor ordered.” Leaning back, she rested her head and closed her eyes. Just as her body began to relax, the image of the victims they’d recovered that day flashed through her mind.

  In all her years as a homicide detective, she’d never seen anything like it. The victims she’d encountered in the past had
been dead, at the most, a few days. She’d dealt mostly with gunshot wounds and the like.

  She’d never encountered someone mutilated, a floater, or a badly decomposing body. Her worst experience had been with a child who’d been found at the bottom of the stairs in his home.

  Even then, there’d been little blood.

  Just the cockeyed leg lying at a ninety-degree angle. What made the case obscene was the fact that the mother was responsible for her own son’s death. He’d refused to take out the trash. He was five. Too many people in this world should be neutered.

  She wondered if Cody understood this and that’s why he’d been so nice to her today. Or did he secretly think she wasn’t tough enough for the job? Only time would tell. With that thought in her head, she dozed off.

  A loud crash jolted Jilly awake. It sounded as if it had come from the backyard. She glanced at the wall clock. It was half-past two in the morning. She shivered; the water had turned cold.

  She stepped out of the tub and covered herself in her thick robe, cinching it tight. Slowly she cracked the door and peered out. The small light above the stove cast a dim glow. Feeling more vulnerable by the second, she knew she needed to get to her spare gun.

  She remained motionless and held her breath, listening. From where she stood at the end of the hall, she scanned the living room. No movement. Her heart pounded in her chest, her breath uneven.

  Her bedroom door to the left, stood open. She’d have to risk exposure. Silently, she slid out of the bathroom with her back to the wall and peered in. Moonlight bathed the room in soft light.

  It appeared empty.

  She ducked inside and tiptoed over the hardwood floor to the nightstand. Carefully, she eased out the drawer and grabbed the gun, checking to see if it was loaded before she flipped off the safety.

  With both hands on the pistol, she led with it down the hall. She peeked into the room on the right that she used as an office. Clear. She slipped around the wall and viewed the kitchen in its entirety, then did a one-eighty in which she took in the living room and dining area.

  The house appeared secure.

  That’s when she noticed Cleo staring through the sliding glass door, her ears back, her tail swishing. A guttural yowl escaped her throat.

  The security light was on.

  Someone was out there.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

  She stepped lightly to the front door and slid back the deadbolt. She opened it without a sound and crept out. The redwood deck was cold on her bare feet, still a drop of sweat slid between her breasts.

  She slithered along the side of the house following the wraparound porch with her back to the wall, scanning the yard in all directions. When she came to the corner of the cabin, she stopped and listened.

  Nothing. No night sounds at all.

  She hazarded a glimpse around the edge of her home, first scanning the covered patio right outside the sliding glass doors, then the rest of the yard. She came up empty. The security light shut off, startling her.

  She settled into stillness, moving only her eyes. The chill night air was apparent only by her visible breath. Her body felt anything but cold. Just to make sure, she remained in place for some time.

  Nothing moved.

  No one stepped out from behind a tree. Giving up, she walked away from the house and activated the motion detector on the light.

  She studied the deck, and then took the three steps down into the yard. She walked the entire circumference, checking behind trees, but nothing was amiss. On her way back to the house, she noticed one of her metal trashcans had been knocked over.

  Jilly put her gun in the pocket of the robe. She righted the trashcan and picked up the spilled garbage. She studied the dirt for tracks, human or otherwise. But it hadn’t rained in weeks and the ground was hard. She scanned the yard once more before she headed back inside and bolted the door.

  At seven ten the following morning, Cody walked into the Big Bear Sheriff’s Station carrying a file under his arm and two large coffees in his hands. He found Jilly and set a cup in front of her.

  Her desk faced another, head to head, so he made himself comfortable in the empty seat. “So, how ya doing today?” He waited to see if the comment would rile her.

  She glared at him.

  He plastered a smile on his face. “I got you a regular coffee. I didn’t know if you drank the frou-frou stuff or not. And it’s black if you want to put anything in it.”

  “No, this is fine. Thanks.” She pointed to the folder. “What have you got there?”

  “Robin emailed me the case files of the previous victims. I printed them out.” He glanced around the open room. “Do you have somewhere a little more private?”

  Her brows furrowed. “What did you have in mind?”

  He chuckled nervously. If she only knew. He cleared his throat and got his head out of the gutter.

  “I thought anyone walking in could see the pictures if we displayed them here. I’m not sure that’s such a good idea after that debacle yesterday.”

  Her face turned red and she stood. “We have a conference room, let’s go in there.” She removed a roll of Scotch tape from the top drawer of her desk and grabbed her coffee.

  Cody snagged his cup and followed her down the hall. “How many deputies will be on our task force?”

  “We have eight deputies that work for the city, and ten who work for the county. Bud has everyone coming in at eight for a meeting so we can fill them in. We can get the room beforehand.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The room had a floor-to-ceiling window dividing it from the bullpen, so Cody decided to use it for the murder board. That way any civilians visiting the station would not see the photos when they walked by. He spread the pictures out on the table and started taping them up.

  Jilly sat in a chair on the other side of the room and tipped it back while she sipped her coffee. After placing the first eight-by-ten photo, Cody glanced over his shoulder to see her reaction. Her face remained placid.

  “I’m fine,” she ground out. “Yesterday was a fluke. Must have been something I ate.”

  “If you say so.” He turned away and grinned. Good. He couldn’t work a case with someone who was squeamish.

  “I do,” she said emphatically.

  “All righty then,” Cody said to the wall. He continued to paste the window with bodies.

  “How many vics do you attribute to this killer?”

  “Ten that we know of.”

  When he’d finished, he stepped backward a few feet and surveyed the board. His eyes came to rest on Mary Ellen. First, her high school picture, and then her ravaged body. His jaw began to ache. That’s when he realized he’d been clenching his teeth and took a deep breath in an effort to relax.

  “You okay?” Jillian’s voice broke the spell.

  No. The truth was, he should recuse himself from the case, but no one could want this killer more. He couldn’t risk being shut out.

  So instead of answering her, he deflected the question with one of his own. “When do we get the pictures from yesterday’s crime scene?”

  “Matt should be here anytime with those.”

  “Great.”

  “What can you tell me in the meantime?”

  “This UNSUB has been killing for years. At least ten that we know of. He buried these victims in shallow graves. He could have gotten better at hiding them through the years, as in the dumpsite we came across.

  “If you think about it, the lake is seven miles long and one mile at its widest, with many coves. It’s a fluke we found the women at all. Have you heard from the coroner? Did he get a TOD on any of the victims?”

  “No. He says it’s impossible to tell the time of death because water speeds up decomp. He was just finishing the first autopsy when I called this morning. He promised to email me the results once his assistant finished typing them up.”

  “The bodies that have been discovered so far have h
ad all their bones methodically broken with, what they deduced was a hammer. That takes time. Their fingernails, as well as their toenails, had been removed. This UNSUB tortured his victims.”

  Cody pointed to a photo. “As you can see, this one is covered in cigarette burns.” He moved down to another photo. “As well as this one. It’s only supposition, but they all could have been. The rest of the bodies were far too decomposed to tell. I’d say this UNSUB is a sadist, getting off on the pain of others.”

  Jilly’s body visibly shivered. “That’s plain sick.”

  “Yes it is. Just the way some people are wired. He hates women. I’ve determined this because he mutilated their genitalia. They can tell that by the cuts on their pelvic bones. Some felt it to be done with a broken bottle. COD exsanguination.”

  Jilly gasped. “You mean this psycho shoved a broken bottle into the women’s vaginas while they were still alive?”

  “As well as removing the genitalia.”

  “Oh, God. How can you stand the horror?”

  Cody faced her. “I’ve been doing this a long time. You have to grow a thick skin. But at times, there are cases, like this one, that still get to me. To tell you the truth, it’s like playing whack-a-mole. For every sick bastard we catch, two more pop up.”

  She stared at him. “Then why do you do it?”

  “Someone has to act on behalf of the victims, to get justice for them. Why were you a homicide detective?”

  “Fair enough. Until yesterday, I’d never witnessed anything even remotely gruesome as what you’ve been obviously been dealing with. The worst case I’d ever had was the death of a child, and that was because of the emotional element.”

  Cody walked over and sat next to her. “Yeah, they’re especially hard.”

  “I’m sure you have stories that would make my hair curl, but I bet the killers you’ve caught were not related to their vics.”

  “Well, there was this one case where a man married women with children and slaughtered them all before moving on and doing it all over again.”

  She scrunched up her face. “I stand corrected.”

  “I catch your drift.” Cody smiled. “You’re just so damn fun to tease.”