Monsters (A Detective Pierce Novel Book 1)
Author: Kane, Remington
Date: 2013-11-08
Keywords: detective; mystery; thriller; suspense; Noir
Description: From REMINGTON KANE The Author of the TANNER & TAKEN! Series MONSTERS Homicide detective Ricardo Pierce suspects that many of the city's missing persons are actually victims of a serial killer. When Pierce goes on a quest to find the killer, he discovers not one, but two monsters stalking the night. Pierce is the right man to stop them, however, the detective has his own demons that he struggles against. Will Pierce stop the night predators that threaten the city, or, will he ultimately become one himself?

MONSTERS

A DETECTIVE PIERCE NOVEL – BOOK 1

By

REMINGTON KANE

Table of Contents

Title Page

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QUOTATION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

COMING SOON!

COMING SOON FROM REMINGTON KANE

A PLEA

ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE

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COPYRIGHT

Further Reading: Desolation Lake

About the Author

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REMINGTON KANE
http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact.html

QUOTATION

––––––––

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

CHAPTER 1

Dave Owens climbed into the passenger seat of Jack Murphy’s van and waved goodbye to his wife.

It was their scheduled Boys’ Night Out and both men wore wide grins, as Jack pulled the van away from the curb.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jack said.

“Did you have to work overtime again?” Dave asked.

“No, it wasn’t that, although, I did have to stay a little late, no, it was Jenny.”

Jack wore a flannel shirt with jeans and work boots. His dark hair was cut short and his green eyes looked tired.

Dave, dressed in black, was full of nervous energy, his blond hair and blue eyes seeming to sparkle in the light from the street lamps they passed.

“What’s wrong with Jenny? I hope it’s nothing serious.”

“Nah, she just had a bad dream last night and now she’s afraid to go to sleep, you know how four-year-olds are.”

Dave smiled.

“Yeah, I remember when Kathy and Sammi were that age, now they’re both teenagers. Man but the years do fly.”

As the van came to a stop at a red traffic light on Main Street, Jack asked Dave a question.

“So, what will it be tonight? Hey, how about Italian?”

Dave shook his head.

“We had Italian last time; I was thinking Chinese.”

The light changed and Jack turned right, towards Chinatown.

“What’s with you and Chinese? All the time with the Chinese.”

“So sue me, I like it. I didn’t see you turning it down last time.”

Jack grinned.

“Yeah, I gotta admit, it was good, but why don’t you try picking something different sometime? Variety is the spice of life; you know?”

“It’s my turn to pick and I want Chinese,” Dave mumbled.

“Don’t sulk, I’m just saying, look, I love Italian, it’s my favorite, but sometimes you have to mix things up. Remember that time we had the Hungarian, and oh yeah, what about that soul food?”

Dave nodded his head in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right, that soul food was damn good.”

“So what do you say? Let’s skip the Chinese and get something else?”

“Nice try Jack, but no, I want Chinese.”

“Damn, I could really go for some Italian tonight.”

They drove the next few blocks in silence. It was something they were accustomed to. They had known each other since the first grade and didn’t feel the need to keep a patter going just to fill the void.

Three blocks from Chinatown, the traffic came to a halt, as a spate of emergency construction brought everything to a standstill.

Jack rolled down his window and spoke to a passing cop. The cop looked so young that Jack wondered if he had even begun shaving yet. His nameplate had the name, J. COLLINS stamped on it.

“What’s the trouble, Officer?”

“A water main broke two blocks up, and so the traffic is down to one lane, just be patient and we’ll get you moving.”

Jack nodded. “Thanks officer.”

“What was the dream about?” Dave said.

“What?”

“You said that Jenny had a bad dream; what was it about?”

“Monsters.”

“Monsters?”

“Monsters in the closet, hungry monsters according to Jenny.”

“That’s funny, Kathy used to have the same dream, Sammi too. Hey, did I tell you that Sammi wants to go to Stanford? I don’t know how Janet and I will swing that, not on top of all our other bills.”

“You think you got it bad? My in-laws are moving in with us.”

Dave turned in his seat and stared at him.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, Linda’s old man got laid off over a year ago and next week they foreclose on the house.”

“What about Linda’s brother, Chad, is it? I thought he was worth big bucks?”

“Him and the old man don’t get along. He told Linda that he’d send her some money to help out, but I’m not holding my breath until that money comes.”

“Damn Jack, if you ever need anything, let me know, okay?”

“Thanks, but you’ve got your own troubles, don’t you?”

“You mean mom, yeah, but there’s not much I can do about that.”

“Is the Alzheimer’s getting worse?”

Dave nodded his head while wiping at his eyes.

Jack reached over and gripped his shoulder.

“You’ll get through it, brother. I know it sucks to watch her waste away like that, but you’ll get through it.”

After sighing, Dave said. “You know, there really are monsters, old age, disease, poverty, hell, even bad luck, and sooner or later, they get each and every last one of us.”

“Jesus, Dave!”

“I know, it’s depressing to think about, but am I wrong? You know Saul Myer, my neighbor on the left? His grown sons both moved back in with him this year. They’re both college graduates and neither one of them can find work, so they moved back in and took jobs stocking shelves at the supermarket. Saul also told me he doesn’t have a thing saved for retirement, and he’s already sixty.”

Jack hung his head.

“I’ve only got ten thousand in the 401K and a couple of grand in an IRA. But how the hell can I save for my future when the present is so damn expensive?”

“Monsters,” Dave said. “There really are monsters waiting to get each of us. If poverty doesn’t ruin our lives in old age, then some horrible disease will probably take us down or just make our last years miserable, like what my mom is going through right now, goddamn Alzheimer’s.”

The traffic in front of the van began moving as suddenly as it had stopped, and they continued towards Chinatown.

Jack punched Dave on the arm.

“Screw everything! It’s Boys’ Night Out and we’re going to have a great time. I’ll tell you Davey, if it weren’t for these... breaks, I mean, if I wasn’t able to let off steam once in a while like this... I think I’d go crazy.”

“What do you say we get shit-faced tonight?”

“Sounds good, I could drink a gallon whenever I think about my father-in-law moving in.”

“We’ll do it then, but first, Chinese.”

***

Jenny Liu was so engrossed in the conversation she was having with her boyfriend, on her cell phone, that she never noticed the van that eased by.

Moments later, the van, with lights off, coasted to rest against the curb under a broken street light.

As Jenny walked near the van, a shape jumped out of the shadows and pummeled her in the face. Jenny fell against the van, her unconscious form sliding towards the sidewalk, even as her phone tumbled into the gutter.

Dave Owens grabbed her before she could hit the ground and Jack opened the van’s sliding side door from inside the van. Before closing the door, Dave removed Jenny’s driver’s license and tossed her purse into the gutter beside her phone, then, Jack moved back behind the wheel and pulled away from the curb.

Dave sat on the floor in the back with eighteen-year-old Jenny Liu laying limp in his arms.

At the next red light, Jack stared into the rearview mirror and watched as Dave slapped duct tape over Jenny’s bloody mouth and cuffed her hands behind her back. The light turned green and Jack drove on, while Dave cut off Jenny’s clothing.

When it grew quiet, Jack took a glance into the rearview mirror, and watched his friend stare down at the now naked and helpless girl.

Dave leaned over and licked Jenny Liu’s face; he then looked up and smiled at Jack.

“Man, I love Chinese.”

CHAPTER 2

Detective Ricardo Pierce stared down at the evidence bag containing Jenny Liu’s cell phone and the number fourteen flashed across his mind.

“Why the hell is the phone bagged?” Bob Jerold asked. He was Pierce’s partner and a good cop, but also had a tendency to be lazy at times. Jerold was a Twenty-Year man, he was looking to put in his twenty and then retire to half pay for life. His wife had already retired from her job at city hall; both she and Jerold were only in their forties.

Despite Jerold having more years on the job, Pierce was the senior partner. Although he was younger than Jerold, Pierce had been a homicide detective for over a decade, while Jerold had only transferred in from auto theft two years earlier. To Jerold’s credit, he didn’t resent his junior position, rather, he recognized Pierce’s experience and skill at homicide investigation, and had learned much from the younger man.

Pierce pointed at the patrol car parked in front of them, and more specifically, at the young cop who called them to the scene.

“It was the kid’s idea, and a good one it was, we may just have discovered victim number fourteen.”

Jerold rolled his eyes.

“Oh not that shit again, I keep telling you, just drop it. God, the last thing the department needs is a serial killer. Those bastards are always a bitch to catch, and in the meantime, they bring nothing but bad press. Who needs us looking into that shit?”

Pierce stared at his partner.

“Who needs us looking for the killer? Future victim number fifteen, that’s who.”

Jerold looked embarrassed, then turned and pointed to a coffee shop on the corner.

“While you’re playing Sherlock, I’ll go get us some coffee.”

“Fine, and remember I want it—”

“Black, no sugar, no nothing, I remember, but I’ll be damned if I know how you can drink it that way, I mean, what’s the point?”

Pierce smiled.

“A medium coffee will be fine, and I’ll pay for lunch later.”

“It’s a deal,” Jerold said, and walked off to get the coffees.

The young cop came over with his partner, an eight-year veteran named Tubbs, who Pierce knew slightly. Tubbs was black, tall and round, but the round was a lie. Pierce had once seen him run down a teenage suspect in less than a block and not even break a sweat.

Tubbs grinned at Pierce as he slapped a friendly hand on his rookie partner’s shoulder.

“So, Pierce, what’s the verdict? Is that phone a clue or just a lost phone like I told the kid?”

The rookie sighed, his name was Jake Collins and he had been on the force for less than a year. He was blond, early twenties, and just shy of six-feet tall.

“I never said it was a clue. I just said that it reminded me of the way that other girl went missing, you know, Sue Kim? Her father found her cell phone lying in the gutter just like I found this one, and the girl who owned this one has been missing for nearly a week.”

Pierce held up the bag with the phone in it.

“I don’t know if this will help us locate Jenny Liu or not, but finding it was good work, Collins. If she was abducted, we now know where it most likely happened.”

Jake Collins grinned.

“I’ve been eyeballing gutters everywhere we went; I almost couldn’t believe it when I spotted it.”

The radios attached to the cops’ collars squawked.

Tubbs answered and listened. When he was done talking, he tapped his partner on the shoulder.

“Let’s go kid; we got a shoplifter at the ManyMart.”

Collins nodded, waved goodbye to Pierce, and sprinted back to the patrol car.

Tubbs shook his head.

“The kid’s a tiger; he treats every call like life or death.”

“I remember being that way,” Pierce said. “I couldn’t wait to put the uniform on in the morning.”

Tubbs waved goodbye.

“I better go before he leaves me; see ya around, Pierce,”

Pierce said goodbye and watched the patrol car take off. A moment later, Jerold returned with the coffees, and handed one to Pierce.

“Black, just the way you like it.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what’s the story with the cell phone?”

“I’m going to drop it off at the lab, and then I’ll speak to Lieutenant Dyer again, try to make him see what we’ve got here. These girls aren’t just running away, they’re being abducted.”

“Yeah, but Rick, there are no bodies, there’s no evidence of violence, no evidence of anything, and the lieutenant’s not going to let you run with your serial killer theory until you find something more than a few lost cell phones.”

“I still have to try and convince him, Bob. Every day we ignore this is another day that this guy gets away with it, and gets a chance to kill again.”

***

The “guy” that Pierce sought, was actually two guys, Dave Owens and Jack Murphy.

They were together at Murphy’s house in the suburbs, and were busy unloading boxes and furniture from the back of a rented truck.

Jack Murphy’s in-laws were moving in.

As the two men wrestled with a heavy china cabinet, Murphy’s father-in-law, Phil, gave them instructions on how to do it right.

“Pick your end up higher, Jack, and don’t scratch it, that thing cost a fortune,” Phil said, in a deep, raspy voice. Phil had been a heavy smoker for most of his life.

“Hey Phil, while Dave and I are doing this, why don’t you bring in a few of those boxes?”

Phil Garner looked at his son-in-law as if he had asked him to fly.

“With my back? No way, if I tried to lift even one of those things I’d be laid up for a week.”

Jack looked at Dave and rolled his eyes.

***

Three hours later, Jack’s in-laws were newly planted in his home and he and Dave were returning the rental truck.

Jack climbed into Dave’s car and let out a breath of relief.

“All right, that’s done. Now let’s go to O’Neil’s and have a beer.”

“A beer sounds good, but I can’t. My mom’s visiting hours end soon and I haven’t seen her all day. After I drop you off, I’m going by to see her.”

“How’s she doing?”

Dave let out a sigh, as he fought back tears.

“It’s not good, and the way the doctors are talking, it’s... it’s like they’re trying to prepare me... I think she could go any day.”

“Oh Christ, I’m so sorry, Dave.”

“I know, and thanks... fucking Alzheimer’s.”

***

They drove the rest of the way back to Jack’s house in silence. When Dave pulled into the driveway to let him out, he pointed at Jack’s van.

“Why don’t we get together later and have a Boys’ Night Out, hmm?”

“So soon? It’s only been a few days since the last one, and Linda’s still pissed at me for staying out as late as I did.”

“I know we just had one, but I could really use another, and hey, we’ll even have your favorite, Italian.”

Jack shook his head.

“It’s too soon. As much as I’d like to blow off some steam... it’s just too soon.”

“You’re right, I know you’re right, but think about it, I really need to have a night out soon.”

Jack patted his friend on the chest.

“Go see your mom, and give her my love.”

Dave winced.

“Give her your love? I can’t, hell, she doesn’t even remember who I am.”

CHAPTER 3

Detective Ricardo Pierce returned home that night to a house that had been in his family for generations. It was a four-story relic from another time, with real plaster walls and gold filigree on every doorframe.

The house had five bedrooms, and each bedroom had its own full bath, while three of them had working fireplaces. Four of the bedrooms were on the second floor, while the fifth bedroom, the master bedroom, comprised the entire third floor and could rightly be called an apartment, except for one thing, it had no facilities for cooking.

It did however, have a wide balcony, and Pierce walked out onto it with a bottle of beer in his hand to gaze about.

The home was surrounded by farmland, land that Pierce rented out, just as his father had, in fact, no Pierce had ever farmed the land as far as Pierce knew. At the time the home was built, the family was far too wealthy to personally soil their hands with such work, and by the time his father had nearly bankrupted them, there was no one who had the knowledge to successfully do so.

Pierce’s share of the income the crops earned wasn’t a great deal of money, but it wasn’t bad either. He received many offers over the years from land developers; they all told him that he was sitting on a goldmine, given the land’s location.

Although his home’s surroundings were bucolic, he could take a five minute drive and find himself in a land of strip malls, big box stores, and traffic.

Pierce had declined to sell his land, many of his former neighbors had not.

Suburbia seemed to creep a little closer each year. Pierce thought that he might someday find himself an old man, sitting out on his balcony, surrounded by shopping centers. It was not an image that gave him comfort.

If the image ever came to life, it would have to wait a few decades. Pierce was only in his mid-thirties, white, and a shade under six-feet tall. He never exercised if he could help it, but stayed thin due to the fact that he rarely ate more than once a day.

Ricardo Pierce was named after his maternal grandfather. His mother was Puerto Rican, and lived with her third husband in Florida, while Pierce’s only sibling, a sister, lived with her boyfriend in California.

As he sipped on his beer, he thought about the latest missing girl, Jenny Liu. While it was possible that she had run away from home, he found it extremely unlikely. He had been tipped to the case by a buddy who worked in missing persons, and had spoken to Liu’s boyfriend, who had been on the phone with her the night she vanished.

Liu’s boyfriend, a kid named Michael, said that she stopped talking in mid-sentence and that afterwards, it sounded as if the phone had been dropped. It had been, and today a keen-eyed rookie had spotted it.

After Jake Collins had given him the phone, Pierce returned to the South Ward station house he worked out of, and spoke to his lieutenant, Coke Dyer.

Coke wasn’t the lieutenant’s real name, of course, but a nickname he had gotten back in the late-eighties when he made a string of cocaine busts while working in narcotics.

Pierce hadn’t been alone; he had gone to Dyer with the detective from the missing persons squad, a cop with the unfortunate name of Al Finder. It was actually Finder who first realized that there might be a serial killer stalking the streets.

Detective Albert Finder was white, in his mid-forties, five-foot-ten, and nearly as skinny as Pierce. The two men got along well because they were both married to their jobs, and they understood the dedication and effort it took to be successful.

Finder had tracked down more missing and runaway teens than anyone and knew the streets well.

While Finder was used to teenagers and young adults running away, he often found when he investigated that there were always earlier signs that they might do so, signs such as trouble with peers, abusive parents, severe financial woes. However, lately, he was coming across missing young women with none of these stressors, and without fail, their disappearances were sudden, and final.

Over beers one night, Finder had revealed to Pierce a list of thirteen females that he thought fit a pattern. The pattern was not one of race, or even age, although all of the victims on the list were young, no, the pattern was one of circumstance and opportunity.

Each of the victims went missing as they were walking home from somewhere. Each of the victims had no reason to abandon their lives, and, none of the young women were ever seen again. It was as if they had evaporated.

Pierce told Finder that he thought he was right, that someone out there was taking these women, and he wouldn’t stop working the informal case until he caught the bastard doing it.

He took Finder’s theory to his lieutenant and found him to be unenthusiastic; the lack of physical evidence made Finder’s theory just that, a theory and nothing more.

Earlier that day, when Pierce and Finder told Dyer that they believed Jenny Liu was the latest victim of the serial killer, Dyer told them to shut the office door and take a seat.

As they sat before the lieutenant’s desk, he smiled at Finder.

Finder hung his head and sighed.

“Jesus, Coke, not this again.”

Coke held up a hand, as he began to chuckle.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it.”

Pierce looked back and forth at them.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s my name,” Finder said. “I work missing persons and my name is Al Finder. Coke thinks it’s the funniest shit he ever came across. He does this almost every time I see him.”

“It wouldn’t be so funny if you weren’t so good at it. How many runaways have you found?”

“Dozens, but not my sister, she ran away when I was only twelve, and I never saw her again.”

Coke’s face went from amused to solemn in a second.

“Jesus, Al, why haven’t you told me that before?”

Finder waved it off.

“Let’s talk about the case.”

“Right... okay, I’ve given that file you gave me a closer look, and I agree, there does seem to be a pattern to some of these disappearances, but...”

“But? But what?” Pierce had said.

“But, there is absolutely nothing to back you up. There are no bodies and no signs of violence.”  “What about the cell phones? Most of these victims are teenage girls. Teenage girls don’t just toss their phones away, hell, no one just tosses their phone in the gutter like that, and we’ve found three of them now that belong to missing women.”

Dyer shrugged.

“People lose shit all the time. And if they are runaways, even teenagers are smart enough to know that they can be tracked by their cell phones. Maybe they threw their phones away because they didn’t want to be found.”

Pierce let out an exasperated sigh.

“These girls were taken; I know it.”

The lieutenant laughed.

“What’s with you, Rick, you’re already working the Danbury case, one murder is not enough for you?”

Pierce had risen from his seat and leaned over the desk to stare into his boss’s eyes.

“There’s a creep out there yanking girls off the street and doing God knows what to them, and some poor woman out there is going to be his next target.”

Coke Dyer stared back at him, and Pierce could tell that the man was debating something within himself. After the lieutenant gave his head a little nod, he spoke.

“Bring me something, something more than a discarded cell phone and I’ll send your task force request upstairs with my full support, in the meantime, just work on the cases you’re given.”

Pierce had agreed to his terms and he and Finder left the office, but after his shift ended, Pierce returned to the scene where the rookie had found Liu’s phone.

He parked at the curb and removed a pair of black coveralls from his trunk, along with a pair of work boots. He then spent the next two hours checking out alleys and even dived into two dumpsters that looked as if they hadn’t been emptied in some time.

He found nothing.

He’d been hoping to find Liu’s pocketbook, or her wallet, or something, anything that might prove she had been taken forcefully, but the odds were good that if someone in that neighborhood found a purse, that they would keep it. The truth is, they were damn lucky to have found the phone.

Of course, there was a chance that her abductor took her purse with them, perhaps as a souvenir.

After going back to his car and stripping off the coveralls, he changed back into his shoes and began canvassing the area with one of the missing person flyers that Liu’s family had made, asking if anyone had seen Liu.

No one had seen her, and Pierce thought that no one would ever see her again.

Pierce tilted his head back and drained the last of the beer from his bottle, then said a silent prayer for Jenny Liu.

CHAPTER 4

Pierce’s house was more than just his home, it was also his hobby, and he would spend hours each week keeping it in pristine condition. The work helped to alleviate the loneliness.

While on a case recently, he had occasion to visit Vermont, and on his off hours had browsed as many antique shops as he could fit in. In one of the smallest of the shops, he came across a collection of antique cabinet hardware. There were drawer pulls, hinges, and knobs, all matching, and all exactly what he had been searching for years to find.

At home, there were albums full of photographs of the Pierce family going back well over a century, and thus, there were also albums full of photographs of the Pierce family home.

At some point during the 1970’s the cabinets had been sanded down to the wood and refinished. Whoever did the work had done a good job, but they also replaced all of the original cabinet hardware at the same time, everything, right down to the hinges.

Pierce knew what the original hardware looked like from studying old photographs of the home, and in that little Vermont shop he had finally found hardware exactly like it.

After spending a month’s pay for the hardware, he returned home and began refinishing the oak cabinets in his spare time. When he was done with that, he would replace the hardware with the vintage pieces he had bought in Vermont.

The entire project would take weeks, and had already been going on for more than a month, but Pierce was never in a hurry to complete any of the work he did around the home, for after all, he lived alone.

What was the rush?

***

The following morning, Pierce woke up a little after four and then lay there and gazed at the ceiling. He didn’t have to be at work until eight, had set the alarm for six, but sometimes sleep would elude him.

When five o’clock came and he was still awake, he got up and showered. While sipping on his first cup of coffee, he got the urge to see her.

He fought against the compulsion, went online and began reading the day’s headlines. After reading the same sentence four times, he dressed, got in the car, and drove to her house.

He parked where he always parked, in a back corner of the supermarket parking lot, the one that sat on the hill a block from her home. It was the only spot where the angle was right, the only spot where he could watch her, unseen.

He removed the binoculars from his glove compartment and waited for her to awaken.

At 6:34 a.m., the light came on in the kitchen and Pierce could see her through the window over the sink. Her name was Amy Lowe.

Amy was blonde with brilliant green eyes, shapely, and intelligent. Her IQ was north of 150 and she had made a career in academia.

She had been Pierce’s high school sweetheart, had stayed his sweetheart during college, and then had abruptly dumped him when she met Professor Arthur Lowe during their senior year.

Amy had fallen in love with Lowe, as she sat in the young professor’s poli-sci class.

Pierce had made a fool of himself for weeks as he pleaded with her to come back to him, all to no avail. A month after graduation, Amy married Lowe.

Pierce had moved on after that, or so it seemed, and had even lost track of Amy’s whereabouts for years, despite the fact that he thought of her on more days than not. During that time, he would date infrequently and always found some reason to break things off.

While at a funeral earlier in the year, a mutual acquaintance happened to mention Amy’s current address. A week later, Pierce found himself researching Amy online, and soon after that, he wound up spying on her.

He fought the urge every time, but the chance to see her, to simply look at her, often overwhelmed his good sense, and he’d find himself staring at his long-married ex-girlfriend.

He loved her, had always loved her, and, would always love her. It was his truth, and he knew he couldn’t change it.

At half past seven, he put the binoculars away and headed for the station, while feeling as if he should arrest himself for stalking.

***

THREE WEEKS LATER

––––––––

Dave climbed into Jack’s van with a wide grin on his face, despite the fact that the last few days of his life had been his worst.

His mother had succumbed to her battle with Alzheimer’s and died. Dave took it hard, but Jack was there for him all the way and had stood beside him as his mother was laid to rest.

When the funeral was over and the horrible day neared its end, Dave had walked Jack out to his van.

“Thanks for everything you did this week, Jack my man. I would have been a mess without you. Janet tries to help, you know, but hell, she hates her parents, so she really can’t relate.”

“How are you holding up? Are you going to be all right?”

“It sucks, but what can I do? She’s gone.”

Jack gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Boys’ Night Out, Saturday night, what do you say?”

“Really? I thought you wanted to wait a while, in case... in case anyone was catching on.”

“Fuck it. There’s been nothing in the papers and people go missing all the time in the city. Besides, we could both use it.”

“What’s wrong with you? Is your father-in-law driving you nuts?”

“Of course he is, he’s an asshole.”

“All right then, Saturday night it is, but what’s your pick?”

Jack smiled.

“I could really go for some Italian.”

***

Valeria Mangieri walked along the shoulder of Bayside Road while cursing her old car, which had just crapped-out and stranded her in one of the worst parts of the city.

She and a girlfriend, Ginny, had gone to a concert downtown, but the girlfriend abandoned her for a guy she met at the souvenir stand.

When the concert was over, Valeria, or Val as everyone called her, had taken a wrong turn while driving home, and before she could correct her mistake, her car had sputtered and died.

She was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and so the night air chilled her as she walked towards the familiar neon lights of a fast food restaurant that was several blocks away. While in the car, she tried calling her road service, only to learn that it had expired four weeks earlier.

When she called her brother for help, he didn’t answer and she had to leave a message on his voicemail. He had gone on a date to the movies and Val guessed that he had probably shut his phone off.

While she was sitting in the car waiting for her brother to call back, she had hugged herself to keep warm. When she also grew hungry, she decided to walk down to the fast food joint and grab something to eat while she waited for the call. After tucking her purse under the front seat, she stepped out of the car with only her wallet and phone in her pocket.

Traffic was sporadic in the area, most likely because it was populated mainly by factories that had closed hours earlier.

When Jack and Dave drove past her in the van, she didn’t even look to see who was driving, and watched with little interest as it made a right at the corner.

She had just taken out her phone to call her brother, when the van appeared again. It was backing up at a high rate of speed, but once it reached the corner it braked and blocked her path.

When Val noticed that the van’s side door was sitting open, she got a bad feeling and turned to sprint back to her car.

As she turned, a dark-clad figure wearing a ski mask hit her with a running tackle that lifted her off her feet and sent her tumbling backwards into the van, even as her cell phone dropped into the gutter.

Val was on the verge of becoming victim number 15.

CHAPTER 5

“Go! Go! Go!” Jack Murphy shouted as he leapt into the van.

In the driver’s seat, Dave Owens hit the gas pedal and shot away from the curb. Since that section of the street was on an incline, the motion caused the side door to slide shut. It made the van look like just another vehicle.

Then, Jack grunted, as the woman beneath him rammed a knee into his testicles. He shouted in rage and then brutalized the woman with four vicious blows to the face. On the final punch, he heard a crunching sound, and knew that he had just broken her nose. The woman made a cry of pain, and then closed her eyes and stopped moving.

Dave repositioned the rear view mirror in an attempt to see more.

“What the hell is going on back there?”

“It’s fine,” Jack said. “This one gave me a good smack in the balls, that’s all, just give me a second to recover and then I’ll cuff her hands toget—”

Jack didn’t finish his sentence, because the woman hit him again, and this time it was a fist to the throat. His hands flew up to his neck as he rolled off of her and let out a loud wheeze. The pain was so great that it had brought tears to his eyes, and as he struggled to take a breath, he saw the woman scramble towards the rear double doors.

Dave turned in his seat to get a good look.

“What the hell now?”

When he saw that the woman was loose and had her hand on the rear door, he braked suddenly to throw her off balance.

***

Val cried out in pain as the van braked hard and sent her flying backwards, but she didn’t go far, as she refused to loosen her grip on the rear door panel.

When the van came to a full stop, she raised herself up onto her knees and grabbed the handle. When the door opened and she felt the cool breeze on her bloody face, she smiled and crawled forward.

Her fingers had just touched the pavement when the van began moving again, and she felt the skin scrape off the palms of her hands, even as the door bounced hard against her head.

She screamed amidst panic as she feared falling out and smashing her skull open on the street, but the van made a tight right turn and she tumbled out as if she were doing a flip, and landed hard on her butt in the street. She sat there, legs splayed out, moaning, as blood ran freely from her nose and her injured palms sang with pain.

Then, she heard the van backing up and swiveled her head to see the rear bumper rushing towards her, knowing that if she didn’t move, she’d soon be dead.

Too weak to stand, she rolled over, and kept rolling until she hit the concrete curb, even as the van squealed to a stop in the space she just left.

She looked over, saw the side door of the van slide open, and then watched as the man in the ski mask jumped out.

She crawled away, fueled by fear and panic, and her bloody hands touched the cool cast iron metal of a sewer grate. She kept crawling and squeezed into the sewer head first, but then she felt hands clutching at her feet, trying to pull her back. When she gave a final lurch forward, one of her shoes stayed behind and then she dropped atop a hard, wet surface, and finally passed out.

***

Jack stared down at the shoe in his hand and cursed wildly.

She had gotten away; the damn girl had gotten away. Dave ran over and shined a flashlight down into the sewer. Unlike Jack, who was dressed in all black clothing, Dave was dressed in jeans and a green hoodie with the hood up to help obscure his face.

“I see her! She must be unconscious; she’s just lying there.”

“I’ll climb in and get her.” Jack said.

Dave pointed down at the opening.

“You’ll never fit. Look how tight the space is, I’m surprised she made it.”

“We’ll slide off that manhole cover over there and I’ll climb down.”

Bright lights lit up the night, as an SUV came up the street behind them. When it reached the corner, it put on its turn signal and then blew its horn at the van blocking its way.

Jack jumped back into the van using the open side door. He didn’t want anyone to wonder why he was wearing a ski mask when the temperature was above freezing.

Then Dave shouted, “All right, all right, I’ll move it,” and jumped back into the driver’s seat.

With the SUV right behind them, they decided to ride around the block and come back. Four quick turns later, they parked the van beside the sewer grate and prepared to climb down and get the girl.

There was just one problem—she was gone.

***

Val could hear them up there and watched as the beam of their flashlight danced about the darkness.

She had awakened to a screaming pain in her left knee, and had managed to crawl just far enough to be out of sight when the men returned for her. She lay still, praying that they would just go away, yet fearing that they would venture down to get her.

“Where the hell did she go?”

“I don’t know, but she couldn’t have gotten far. I’ll go down and look for her.”

Val began to cry as she heard those words. She was in no condition to run away, she’d be lucky if she could even stand, and there was nowhere to hide. Once the man came down into the sewer, she was dead.

“Hell, Jack, she could be anywhere by now; it’s like a maze down there, you know that, remember how we got lost in the sewers when we were kids? Besides, she’s no threat, she never saw our faces.”

The men were quiet then, and Val held her breath as she waited to see what they would do.

“Fuck it! The bitch was more trouble than she was worth.”

“Yeah, so let’s go find another one.”

“Not tonight, my throat feels like it’s on fire where she hit me and my balls still hurt.”

“Shit... well all right.”

“I’m sorry buddy; I know how much you need this. I’ll make it up to you. Next week we go for Chinese instead of Italian.”

The other man laughed.

“What’s the matter? Have you lost your taste for Italian?”

“No, but this bitch tonight gave me heartburn, now let’s go before someone wonders what we’re doing.”

The light went out and Val heard them walk away.

***

Nearly two hours later, in the parking lot of Big Burger, Luis Sanchez sat in his car and scrutinized his cheeseburger by the glow of his dome light.

“What the hell are you doing to that burger?” Diego said. He was Luis’s older brother.

“I’m checking it before I eat it.”

“Checking it for what?”

“Anything, didn’t you see that news story about the guy who found a finger in his burger?”

Diego laughed.

“They should have put it in with his fries, and then he might not have noticed.”

“Fingers!”

“Bullshit, you didn’t find any fingers.”

“No dumbass, look over there, there are fingers sticking up out of that sewer.”

Valeria Mangieri had just survived the Monsters.

CHAPTER 6

Detective Ricardo Pierce walked into the hospital room of Valeria Mangieri and inwardly winced as he took in the damage that had been done to Val’s face.

A call had come in early that morning from the Special Victims Unit about the victim of an attempted rape who had managed to escape her would-be rapists.

One of the cops who caught the case was an acquaintance of Pierce who knew that he was looking into a possible serial killer. When Val told the detective about losing her phone in the street as she was thrown into the van, it triggered a memory of something that Pierce had once said to him, and he called Pierce and told him about Val.

Pierce carried a copy of Val’s incident report in his hand, and knew from reading it that she was 28 and worked as a personal assistant to a well-known TV news anchor. He also knew that she was single.

Pierce walked over to the side of Val’s bed and smiled down at her.

“Ms. Mangieri?”

“Yes?” Val said, and the word came out a bit muffled due to her facial swelling and broken nose. She also sported two black eyes, which was a side effect of having her nose broken.

Her worst injury was her knee, which suffered damage when she fell into the sewer. Her scraped palms were bandaged, as well as the side of her head, where the van’s door had smashed into it and caused a laceration as she scrambled to safety.

Despite all of her injuries and bruising, Pierce could tell that Valeria Mangieri was normally a very good looking woman.

“My name is Detective Pierce; I’m from the homicide division.”

Val looked up at him and smiled.

“Homicide? So I guess the docs were lying about my condition, eh?”

Pierce grinned.

“No ma’am, you’ll recover fully, but I am here investigating a possible murder.”

“Sit down, Detective... Pierce?”

“Yes ma’am, it’s Pierce.”

“Ma’am? Do I look like a ma’am?”

“Actually...” Pierce began, and then consulted the SVU report. “Actually, you look very young, are you really 28?”

“I am, and I know I look younger. I get carded every time I buy a beer.”

Pierce sat down in one of the plastic visitor’s chairs.

“I want to ask you about last night. I’ve read this report and know what happened, but I’d like to ask you a few more questions, would that be all right?”

“Hell yes, whatever it takes to catch those bastards, ask away.”

Pierce nodded. He liked this woman; she was tough. It was why she was able to escape her attackers.

“First of all, has anything new occurred to you since you were last interviewed?”

“Yes! I kept going over it in my mind and I remembered two things. The two guys, when they were looking down into the sewer one of them said something about getting lost in them when they were kids, so, I guess that means they grew up together and that maybe they’re brothers.”

“Are you certain you remember that correctly?”

“Yes, and that should help catch them, right?”

“Yes, it helps a great deal, and in fact, before you told your story, I thought that I was looking for only one man.”

“No, there’s two of them, and one more thing, although I don’t know if it’s important or not, but there was a trailer hitch on the back of the van. I remember it hitting me as I fell out.”

Pierce scribbled a note in the margins of the report.

“At this point everything is important, you’ve been a big help.”

“When you came in here, you said that you were investigating a ‘possible murder’, what’s that mean?”

“I suspect that women were murdered, but as of now, they’re only considered missing. I think if you hadn’t gotten away from those men, you might have never been seen again.”

Val got a sick look on her face.

“Oh God, that would have been horrible. To be murdered is one thing, but to just, just disappear, oh God, their poor families.”

Pierce studied Val with interest. He had already decided he liked her, but now he was also impressed by her perceptiveness and sense of compassion.

“You say you heard them talking, is that when you heard one man referred to as ‘Jack?”

“Yes, not that it helps much; it’s a pretty common name.”

“No, it helps a lot, but Ms. Mangieri, can you recall anything else that they might have said?”

Val smiled.

“What?” Pierce said.

“The guy in the ski mask said that his balls still hurt from when I kneed him in the groin. I only wish I could do it again to the damn racist.”

Pierce leaned forward.

“Why do you call him a racist? Did you get a look at him?”

“All I could see were his eyes, mouth, and hands, but he was white. And... I guess the term misogynist would be a better fit than racist. It was just the way they talked about me, one of them said something like he ‘wanted to taste an Italian,’ and the other guy said something about having Chinese instead. But they weren’t talking about food, they were talking about women, they were talking about me.”

“They said Chinese? Are you certain?”

“Yes, absolutely, and they both sounded white, but I never actually got a look at the driver.”

Pierce leaned back in the cheap hospital chair as he tried to contain his excitement. He was sure now that whoever it was who tried to abduct Val were the same pair who had taken the other women. Two men meant that there were two chances to catch them, two times as many ways for them to screw up.

Pierce got up from his seat. He was eager to tell Val’s story to his lieutenant. He thought that it might just be enough to get a task force formed, but then he remembered that it was a Sunday. He would have to wait until the next day to present his case.

“Thank you for your time, Ms. Mangieri. I may talk with you again if I have any more questions.”

“Val.”

“Excuse me?”

“Call me Val, Detective, it’s actually Valeria, but I go by Val.”

“Feel better soon, Val.”

“And what’s your first name?”

“Ricardo, but only my mother calls me that, to everyone else it’s Rick.”

Val stared at him.

“Yeah, you look like a Rick.”

“Take care of yourself, Val.”

“You do the same, Detective Rick.”

He took three steps towards the door and then walked back over to her.

“There was something in your statement I found curious.”

“What’s that?”

“You stated that after you hit the guy in the groin, that he punched you in the face four times and broke your nose, you then said that you faked being unconscious so that he would stop.”

“Yeah?”

“Most women, hell, most men wouldn’t have to fake being unconscious after an assault like that, they would just be out cold, or perhaps whimpering from the pain, why weren’t you?”

Val gave him a big grin.

“I’m not most people. I’m a former Women’s Boxing Champion, Flyweight Division. I had a record of 21-0 when I retired. And oh yeah, the guy who hit me punched like a girl, believe me, I know.”

Pierce laughed and Val laughed along, he then walked out into the hallway, but turned back and gazed at her.

“I’ll see you around, Val.”

“You do that, Rick.”

Pierce sent her a smile and then went off to call his lieutenant, Coke Dyer.

***

As Val watched Pierce disappear down the hospital corridor, the phone next to her bed rang. It was her friend, Ginny.

“I’m coming by to see you; can I bring you anything?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Val, I’m so damn sorry that I left you alone last night.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I took a wrong turn going home and... well, I told you what happened.”

“Yeah, I hope the cops catch them.”

“He’ll catch them, count on it.”

“He’ll catch them? Who’s ‘He’?”

“A homicide detective named Rick Pierce.”

The line grew quiet and Val wondered if the phone had gone dead.

“Ginny, are you there?”

“I’m here, I just heard the way you said the cop’s name. You like him, don’t you?”

“He was cute, too skinny, but cute.”

“So, when will you see him again?”

“I don’t know, maybe never, but hey, listen I’ve changed my mind, bring me some chocolate.”

“Done, and I’ll see you soon.”

Val hung up and smiled. She would see Detective Rick Pierce again. She would make a point of it.

CHAPTER 7

Dave Owens was not having a good day.

He had returned to work on Monday morning after a week off for bereavement due to his mother’s death, only to find that no one had filled in for him. His work was ridiculously backed-up and he knew that he would be putting in late hours all week.

Manny Canto, the guy who worked in the cubicle across the aisle, walked over and leaned atop the four-foot high panel.

Manny was built much like Dave was, they were the same height, weight, and age, and both men had wiry builds, but in other ways, Manny was Dave’s opposite. While Dave was blond and blue-eyed, Manny had raven-dark hair and deep brown eyes. He also had an olive complexion that had only deepened as a teenager, when he worked summers as a lifeguard, while Dave’s pasty skin burned easily in direct sunlight.

When Manny saw the stack of files in Dave’s IN basket, he whistled.

“Wow, I guess I’m not the only one who will be working late. The Bitch really fucked you over, didn’t she?”

“The Bitch” was their supervisor, Karen Dunham. Dunham had been hired from outside the company and considered it her personal mission in life to make the division Dave worked in the, “greatest in the company”, and by “greatest”, she meant the greatest fiscal improvement in the shortest period of time.

Her method of getting there seemed to be the removal of personnel. In the nine weeks she’d been with the company, she’d already fired five people.

Dave thought that it was short term thinking at best and plain stupid at its worst. He had also been the odds-on favorite for Dunham’s position, until the company brought her in, and it irked him every time she gave him an order.

“I don’t understand why she didn’t have someone fill in for me. I may have to work the weekend just to catch up.”

“Fill in? Hell, who could she get to fill in? You know she fired two more while you were gone. Sandy and Kelli are history.”

“Sandy and Kelli? Shit, I liked them, plus they were easy on the eyes.”

“Yeah, I think The Bitch is trying to get rid of the competition. She’s fired every decent looking broad in the place.”

The cubicle that Dave worked in was the one closest to the aisle. Movement caught his eye and he could see Karen Dunham walking their way.

“Here she comes now, Manny.”

Manny looked up, saw Dunham, and swallowed hard. He then plucked the stapler from atop Dave’s desk.

“If she asks why we’re talking, I’ll tell her I came over to borrow your stapler.”

When Dunham arrived, she didn’t ask Manny anything, instead, she gave him an order.

“Get back to work.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Dave watched Manny scurry back across the aisle and then looked up at Dunham. Karen Dunham was 32, single, and Dave thought that under the dour business suits she always wore, that there lurked a shapely body, but even if there was, her face would render it null and void. “The Bitch” always wore a perpetual scowl, while her mean, little gray eyes bore into you and let you know without words that she thought you were beneath her, and you were, because she was the boss.

Dave knew it wouldn’t help, but he tried a smile anyway.

“What’s up?”

“It’s not ‘what’s up’ but rather, what’s down, and the answer to that is your productivity. I hope you realize that you need to be caught up by the end of the week, yes?”

“I’ll catch up, but I had to take off last week. My mom died.”

“I don’t care about your reasons; I only want results. Now, get back to work.”

When he was certain that Dunham had left, Manny walked back over,

“She’s an even bigger bitch than my wife is, and I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Are you still negotiating your divorce?”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t give a fuck about what she wants, but today she said that if I don’t give her the house, she’ll take my kids and move far away, and shit man, I was raised in that house, and so was my father. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived and I love the area.”

“So, it’s your kids or the house?”

“Yeah, but even if I let her have it, she says she’ll only let them visit me for two weeks, twice a year. Do you believe that? Two weeks twice a year? Shit, I’ll be a stranger to them in no time.”

“Wow, so what are you going to do?”

Manny’s face darkened.

“I should blow her brains out, that’s what I should do.”

Dave picked up a picture from his desk. It was a picture of his teen daughters, Kathy, age 14, and Sammi, age 16. Both girls had inherited his blond haired, blue-eyed looks.

“Shit, I can’t imagine not seeing my kids.”

Manny sighed.

“Neither can I, even if it’s just twice a year. I’ll call my lawyer tomorrow and tell him she can have the damn house.”

“Sorry about all your troubles, Manny.”

“Thanks, now we better get back to work before The Bitch returns.”

***

Pierce sat beside his partner, Bob Jerold, inside the lieutenant’s office. Ironically, the office wasn’t much bigger than a jail cell, but it did have a window, and the lieutenant could come and go as he pleased.

Coke Dyer sat in his chair and slowly swiveled back and forth as he read the report on Val’s attempted abduction, along with Pierce’s follow up interview. When he was done, he lay the folder on his desk and spoke to Pierce.

“I think you might just have something here, it’s thin, but it might just be something.”

Pierce leaned forward in his seat, as he sensed he was bringing the lieutenant over to his way of thinking.

“She said that they referred to Chinese women, nearly half of the missing women are Chinese. The first cops on the scene found her cell phone lying in the gutter where she said they attacked her. She says that there are two men, not one, that would help explain why these women were taken so easily, she also said that—”

Coke held up a hand.

“There’s zero proof that the two men who tried to abduct this... Valeria, is it? We’ll there’s just no proof that they have taken other women, although, I’ll grant you, they don’t sound like first timers. Anyway, it keeps coming back to the fact that we have no proof of death, and without that, there’s no proof of murder.”

Pierce grew angry. He was getting tired of trying to convince the lieutenant of something that seemed so obvious.

“They threw this woman into the back of a van and then attempted to pummel her into unconsciousness. Why do you think that is, do you think that they just wanted to take her for a ride around the block? They were going to rape and murder her, and then they were going to dump her somewhere where she’d never be found. Jesus, Coke, how many more women have to disappear off the streets before we do something about it?”

The lieutenant sent him a blank look.

“Whose side do you think I’m on, Pierce?”

Pierce exhaled and leaned back in his seat.

“I’m sorry. I understand that a task force is a big deal, that it’s expensive and drains resources, and... I guess I can understand why you wouldn’t want to go upstairs with this and try to sell it, but still, these guys need to be stopped.”

Coke looked over at Jerold.

“What’s your opinion about this? Do you think we have two serial killers on the loose, or a spate of runaway girls?”

Jerold didn’t even hesitate.

“I trust my partner’s instincts, and I also think this Mangieri girl would be lying in a shallow grave somewhere if she hadn’t gotten away from these dudes with the van. Just because no one’s found their bodies, it doesn’t mean that no one’s died.”

The lieutenant tapped his pen against the edge of his desk.

“Have you wrapped up the Danbury case yet?”

Pierce nodded.

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s going to trial, the D.A. will probably plea bargain.”

“What’s on your table now?”

“The Robena case, but it’s definitely a suicide, so, there’s no need to investigate.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, other than a court appearance tomorrow,”

Coke picked up the phone.

“Give me a second alone; I need to make a call.”

Pierce and Jerold nodded and walked outside the office.

“Do you think he’s calling upstairs about the task force?” Jerold said.

“No, he wouldn’t do that on the phone, it must be something else.”

Ten minutes passed. Pierce got tired of leaning on the wall and he and his partner began walking back towards their desks. They were halfway there when the lieutenant opened the door.

“Pierce, Jerold, come on in.”

They went back in, but stood this time.

“Okay,” Coke said, “It’s too early to press for a task force, but I got you the next best thing.”

“What’s that?”

“This Valeria Mangieri, she’s all yours, her case has been reclassified as an attempted murder. You say that the guys who attacked her are also killers, all right then, prove it. The case is yours.”

Pierce grinned.

“It’s really ours? What about SVU?”

“That call I made was to the lieutenant in charge, he says no problem, unfortunately sex crimes are a booming business, and they’re backed up. He was happy to pass it on.”

“Thanks, Coke, this is good, real good.”

“I’m happy that you’re happy, but you won’t be working this exclusively, when other cases come along you’ll have to work those too, understood?”

“Not a problem. We’ll work it like a normal case, but we will find these guys and then we’ll figure out where they’re dumping the bodies.”

“Whoa, I know that you’ve got a hard on for these two to be serial killers, but do not work that angle. Your only job here is to find the men that assaulted Ms. Mangieri, do that, and then we’ll see what we’ve got from there, okay?”

“Yes sir, and thanks again.”

They left the lieutenant’s office and went back to their desks. Pierce immediately opened a new file on his computer with Valeria Mangieri’s name.

Not only had her attackers picked the wrong woman to attack, but they now had the wrong cop chasing them. Pierce wouldn’t stop hunting them down until he had them. He was relentless, and in truth, he’d already been on this case for weeks. He had no doubt that Val’s attack and Jenny Liu’s disappearance were the work of the same men, and he burned with a passion to stop them.

Jerold asked a question.

“So, what’s our first move?”

Pierce stood and grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

“I want to take a look at the site of last night’s attack.”

“Makes sense,” Jerold said.

They walked out to the elevator. They were on the third floor of a six-story building. Once the doors slid closed, Jerold stared at his partner.

“You look happy,”

“I am. Hell, you know how long I’ve wanted this case.”

“Oh.”

“Oh what?”

“Nothing, I just thought that maybe you’d met somebody. Hell, how long has it been since you got laid?”

“Not nearly as long as it’s been for you.”

“I’m a married man, Rick.”

“That’s what I mean.”

The two of them laughed and got off the elevator in the underground garage.

Pierce looked at his partner sideways, surprised by his perceptiveness. He had met someone, he’d met Valeria Mangieri, and he liked what he saw.

However, she was the victim of a crime he was investigating, and therefore, off limits. Still, once he caught the men that attacked her, he’d have no reason not to see her again, socially.

It was just one more reason to be relentless in his search for them.

The Monsters were now being hunted.

CHAPTER 8

Dave and Manny worked straight through until six o’clock, when Dunham left to go home. Once they were certain she’d left, they ordered in a pizza and took an hour-long break.

“I’ve been looking around for another job,” Manny said.

“Really, but hell Manny, you’ve been here as long as I have.”

“Yeah, but I can read the writing on the wall. Dunham’s got my name on her list, and the word is that she’s planning to lay off one more person.”

“She’s crazy; the place is understaffed now. Wait until we get busy like we always do after the first of the year, then she’ll be forced to hire everyone back.”

“The Bitch? Admit she was wrong? No, if that happens she’ll just hire new people, and pay them less than we’re making.”

“So where have you looked for work?”

“Hell, everywhere, I’ve got so many résumés out that I’ve lost track of where they are. I just hope that I get a good offer before The Bitch lays me off.”

***

On Friday night at eight, Dave pulled the last file from the IN basket and sighed. It had been a rough week of late nights, but once he finished this last piece of work he would finally be caught up, and was looking forward to another “Boys’ Night Out” with Jack on Saturday.

Their last attempt with Val had been a fiasco and had even made the newspapers, but after scouring the news accounts, they realized that the police had nothing that could be traced back to them.

Dave needed the release of a night out after the last two weeks and he knew that Jack did as well. The nights out were addictive. When it was just the two of them hunting the streets, with no bosses, no wives, no family obligations or deadlines, it was as if they owned the night.

They had their pick from a city full of beautiful women who blithely walked about as if they had nothing to fear, as if a lustful beast didn’t lurk in every man’s heart, but that beast lived, lived and thrived in the Digital Age just as well as it had in the Stone Age.

Dave pulled the story up on his monitor and saw a picture of the detective handling the case, Detective Ricardo Pierce. At the end of the interview, Pierce told the reporter that “The monsters that perpetrated this crime will be caught and brought to justice, it’s only a matter of when.”

Dave nibbled at his lower lip.

Is it really just a matter of time until we get caught?

He then thought how disastrous it would have been, had a cop shown up when Val tumbled out of the rear of the van.

He picked up the picture of his daughters that he kept on his desk. Jail would be horror enough, but to be separated from his girls, his wife, that would be unbearable.

He thought seriously about ending the “Boys’ Night Out” tradition and it depressed him so much that he slumped in his seat, he then opened the last file and went back to work.

Manny leaned on the wall of Dave’s cubicle and smiled.

“I’m all done, how much more do you have to do?”

“I’m almost finished, maybe another twenty minutes or so.”

“You know The Bitch is still here. She probably wanted to make sure that we caught up. Man, a sixty-hour week and we don’t even get overtime. Weeks like this I wish I got paid by the hour instead of being on salary, but just one more week and I get to party.”

“It sounds like you’ve got plans?”

“Hell yeah, my brother and I are headed down to Florida next weekend to party with some old friends from high school.”

“I envy you; I don’t have a week off until next spring.”

“Well, I’m out of here, Dave.”

“Have a good one, Manny.”

Manny left and Dave got right to work. He finished the file, powered down his computer, and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. It had been a hell of a week, but it was finally finished.

***

Manny was still outside the building. He’d come out of his home that morning and discovered a flat tire and an empty trunk. He had never replaced his spare the last time he had a flat.

His brother had given him a lift and told him to call him whenever he was done. He had called him well before leaving work, but his brother had yet to show up.

He looked around and thought about how quiet it was. The company had recently moved into the building after they had outgrown the office space they had downtown. The new building was three times bigger for the same money, but there were trade-offs.

While they were technically still in city limits, you couldn’t tell by looking around. The building had been an old toilet bowl factory, built in the 1920’s. The toilet bowl people went bust in the eighties and the place sat vacant and decaying for over twenty years.

A savvy developer recognized the potential the site had and gutted the building right down to its concrete walls and steel beams, for although old, the building had been constructed to last, and had decades of life left in it.

A year of renovations made the building useful again and Manny’s company was one of the first to sign a lease, still, the complex was only half-occupied, and at night it was deserted.

Manny hugged the corner of the building as he tried to stay out of the wind. It was a cool night for early September; the type of night that reminded you that autumn was approaching.

He took his phone out to try his brother again and saw Dave walk out of the building. Manny was just about to walk over and start bullshitting for a few minutes, when Karen Dunham ran out of the building towards Dave.

“Mr. Owens!

Manny stayed at his corner and watched as The Bitch held out a stack of files for Dave to take.

Dave didn’t take them from her, but even from his position, Manny knew what they were.

It was more work. The Bitch actually wanted him to keep working, even though he had been working like a dog all week and was on his way home. The Bitch really was a bitch.

Manny shook his head in disgust, and then realized that he was still holding his phone. He started to put it away, but thought better of it.

Dunham was playing a power game with Dave. She was the boss and she wanted him to know it. Dave would either have to tell her to shove those files or acquiesce and slink back into the building to work until she said he could leave. Either way, it would be quite a show. Manny held up his camera, hit the VIDEO button, and began filming.

Dave pointed at Dunham.

“Where did those files come from?”

“It seems that they were misplaced, but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that you finish them tonight. I won’t have us falling behind.”

It was dark out, and the parking lot lights were off. The lights were on a timer that shut them off at six on Fridays, and turned them back on Monday night, so that no money was wasted lighting an empty lot on the weekends. The only illumination in the parking lot came from a sliver of moon and the light spilling from the front doors of the building, even so, there was more than enough light for Manny to see Dave’s face turn crimson.

“We wouldn’t be behind if not for you; you’ve fired a lot of good people.”

“No, I fired your people. You think that I don’t know that you were in line for this job before I came here?”

“Yes, I was in line for it. I’ve worked here since college, and so what if I trained those people, they were doing their jobs.”

“They had loyalty issues, and they can all be easily replaced, however, in the meantime you will handle their workload.”

Dunham held out the files once more and Dave looked at them through squinted eyes.

“Those files weren’t misplaced. You’re playing games, aren’t you? Trying to see just how far you can push me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but the fact remains that I need you to stay and work.”

“You fucking bitch.”

“What did you just call me?”

“You heard me. I called you a bitch, everyone calls you a bitch; I’m just the first to say it to your ugly face.”

Manny had to clamp his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, or shouting out in glee. Dave was giving it to Dunham in spades.

“You are fired! Do you hear that, fired! Don’t bother coming in Monday; you no longer work here.”

Manny’s shoulders slumped.

Oh shit, fuck it Dave, apologize, her bullshit isn’t worth losing your job over.

Dave hung his head. He then called out to Dunham as she was walking back into the building.

“Wait! Ms. Dunham, please come back, I have something to say.”

Manny saw the evil little smile spread across Dunham’s thin lips and it made his stomach turn. She then sauntered back over to Dave. He said nothing, but only stared at Dunham.

“I’m waiting?” Dunham said.

Manny zoomed in with his camera as much as the phone would allow. He figured he was about to see some world-class ass kissing.

Instead, he saw what Dave Owens looked like when the monster in him emerged, and he was not only there to witness it, but also captured it on video.

CHAPTER 9

In an instant, Dave had Dunham by her throat. He sent forth a steady stream of invectives and squeezed her neck as if he were trying to make his hands meet in the middle. Dunham gripped Dave’s wrists in an effort to pull his hands from her throat, but it was useless, and when Dave lifted her up high enough so that her feet dangled, the sickening sound of her neck breaking ended all resistance. The entire incident took less than fifteen seconds.

Manny kept filming, and in fact, had become oblivious to the camera; his entire being was numb from what he had just witnessed. It was the most violent act he had ever seen, and yet, it seemed so familiar, and then it hit him, he had fantasized about doing the very same thing to his wife on many occasions.

His rage spent, Dave was walking around in a circle, while running his hands through his hair.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Manny finally stopped filming. He moved back around the corner and tried to get his breathing under control. Dunham was dead and Dave had killed her, and Christ, he had the whole thing on film.

He heard a scraping sound and peeked around the corner. Dave was dragging Dunham’s body around to the rear of her car, which was parked near the front door. He then ran back into the building and Manny wondered what the hell he was doing.

Did he run inside to call for an ambulance... maybe the cops?

Dave returned holding a purse, Dunham’s purse. He dumped the contents out by the driver’s side door and looked through the pile by using the light from the doorway. Once he found the keys, he unlocked the door and hit the trunk release.

Manny brought out his camera again and filmed Dave as he lifted Dunham’s body and dumped her inside the trunk. After slamming the lid shut, Dave bent down and gathered up her belongings to place them back in the purse, which he then tossed on the front seat of the car.

Then, Dave just stood there for a moment as if thinking, but an instant later, he bent down once more and started picking up the fallen files. Luckily, the sheets had stayed inside the file folders, but then a gust of wind ripped a page from the folder Dave was holding. Dave chased it, stepped on it, and then watched as it took off again when he went to pick it up.

His pursuit was bringing him towards the corner of the building, and so Manny ducked his head behind it and kept his back against the wall. When he heard a flapping sound, he looked down and saw the sheet of paper Dave had been chasing. It was wrapped around his ankle.

As Dave’s pursuing footsteps grew closer, Manny shut his eyes and prayed.

***

Pierce was sitting out on his deck, drinking beer, his third. He had been so gung-ho to capture the men responsible for the assault on Valeria Mangieri, but after coming up with nothing new all week, he was beginning to feel as if his prey was slipping away.

He wondered if Val’s escape had sent the men into hiding. If so, it might be a good thing, because if they feared capture and incarceration enough to stop, then the streets would be that much safer, and, maybe, maybe someday their identities would come to light.

But Pierce knew that his best chance at capturing them would only occur as they hunted down another victim, the more they hunted, the greater the chance that they’d make a mistake.

Pierce shook his head. Someone had to be brutalized or killed; some other woman somewhere had to suffer so that the monsters he hunted could be brought to justice.

He reached over to a table and grabbed his laptop, to look once more through what little there was of the case. When he came upon the photo of Val, he smiled.

“Tough little cookie,” he murmured to himself, and then drained the bottle of beer.

***

Manny gave his leg a shake and the paper flew off into the night. Around the corner, Dave stood and watched as the errant sheet rode a gust of wind and traveled towards the next parking lot. Dave was so close that Manny could hear him breathing.

“Screw it!” Dave said, as he waved a dismissive hand, and then turned and walked into the building.

Manny had been holding his breath, but now he released it. He figured that he and Dave were evenly matched and that a fight could go either way, but he also knew that if they fought, and Dave won, that he might be joining Dunham inside the trunk of her car.

He peeked around the corner and saw that Dave had gone back inside. When he reached into his pocket for his car keys, he remembered. His car wasn’t parked in the back lot. His brother was coming to pick him up.

Manny started running. If Dave came out of the building he’d spot him for sure, but he didn’t have a choice.

He had to get out to the access road and flag down his brother before he pulled into the parking lot. If his brother pulled up in front of the building, there was no way that Dave wouldn’t hear the car. As far as Manny could tell, he and Dave were the only ones in the complex. It was nine o’clock on a Friday night and everyone else had left hours ago.

Manny reached the road and turned back to see if Dave had emerged from the building. He was nowhere in sight. Feeling relieved, Manny pulled out his phone and tried calling his brother.

“Hello?”

“Max, it’s Manny, where are you?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m entering the complex now.”

Manny looked ahead and saw no headlights, even though he could see out to the main road. He heard a noise behind him, and turned to see a car approaching from the other side of the complex.

“Max, is that you? Did you enter through the east gate?”

“Yeah, some dumb trucker flipped his trailer on the exit ramp and I had to take the next one, now stop nagging, I’ll be right there.”

Manny heard the call end. His brother had hung up on him.

He tried calling him back, but the phone kept ringing until the voicemail answered. His brother was ignoring him.

“Son of a...”

Manny ran towards the car as it came closer, as he passed the driveway, he looked into the parking lot and saw no sign of Dave.

He was about a hundred feet from the car when his brother drifted left, to cut across the empty parking spaces and enter his company’s lot.

“No!” Manny shouted. He opened his phone to call again, but decided against it, and instead, he activated the flashlight app on his phone and began waving it back and forth like a beacon.

Just as the car was about to turn the corner into the company lot, it slowed, and a moment later, it turned right and headed for Manny. He walked back past the driveway while waving his brother to keep driving, to get out of sight. When the car finally drove clear of the parking lot, Manny took one last look back for Dave, and luckily, he still saw nothing.

As he settled into the passenger seat, his brother pointed at his phone.

“I wouldn’t have spotted you if not for that; that thing comes in handy, eh?”

Manny smiled.

“You have no idea.”

CHAPTER 10

Dave Owens sat at the desk in his former manager’s office as he tried to decide what to do. The manager was a former manager because Dave had just strangled her to death.

He looked around and saw that Dunham’s computer was still on; the screen revealed that she had been looking at productivity reports. There was coffee on her desk and Dave touched the side of the cup and found that it was still warm. If someone else had walked into the office, they might have thought that she had just stepped out for a moment.

Dave powered down the computer, grabbed the coffee cup, and headed towards the break room. Once there, he dumped the coffee down the drain and washed the cup clean. When he returned to the office, he placed the cup back on the desk while handling it with a paper towel so that he didn’t leave his prints on it.

He took one last look around. Dunham’s laptop bag was sitting by the leg of a chair. He grabbed the bag, shut off the lights, then closed and locked the door. Whenever he touched anything, he used the tail of his shirt like a glove to do so.

He stared at the alarm pad by the front door. Before Dunham’s predecessor retired due to health reasons, and while Dave was still being groomed for the position, he was given the alarm code by the former manager and shown how to set it. That had been on his first visit to the building, before the cubicles had arrived and the office looked like a carpeted football field.

The former manager died just a month after he retired, and he was the only one who knew that Dave had been given the code.

Dave stared at the keypad, hoping that nothing had changed regarding the company’s security measures.

Security!

He punched the air with his fist, while cursing his stupidity, he had nearly forgotten.

He headed for the back of the building. When he reached the door marked, Electrical Room, he tried the knob and found the door locked. The door was made of metal and the lock was a good one. He had seen the inside of the small room only once, but remembered that it had no windows.

He was running to the receiving department to look for something heavy that he could use as a battering ram, when he remembered that he had Dunham’s keys in his pocket.

The third key unlocked the door and Dave yelped for joy, afterwards, he entered the room to retrieve what he so desperately needed.

A month ago, someone, most likely kids, had spray painted a mural on one side of the building. The security cameras inside the complex caught nothing, because much to the dismay of Dave’s employer, there were no cameras. Apparently, each tenant was responsible for supplying their own, if they chose to do so. Dave’s company did.

Cameras had recently been set-up on the corners of the building and Dave even remembered seeing a few installed around the hallways. He’d seen a picture on a brochure of the digital recorder that would be used to sync and record from all the different cameras and angles.

He remembered thinking that the thing reminded him of his old VCR, only it was a hundred times more sophisticated, and it was to be housed inside the Electrical Room.

He found the rectangular box sitting on a metal shelf that had been screwed into the wall. When he followed the cord and bent down to unplug it, he found that he couldn’t, because there was no place to plug it. Where an outlet should have been, there sat only a hole cut into the wallboard. Apparently, when the complex was built, no one had ever put an outlet inside the Electrical Room.

Dave laughed from a mixture of relief and irony. He then relocked the door and headed back to the keypad. He shut off the lights, set the alarm, and locked the front door by using Dunham’s keys.

He then stood there waiting to see if an alarm would sound, but there was nothing.

He nodded to himself. Things were going good; he was going to make it out of this.

Dave climbed behind the wheel of Dunham’s car. He planned to dump her body, along with her belongings where he and Jack had disposed of all the others, and then drive back, leave her car sitting in the lot with the door wide open, and then pray that the cops would conclude that Dunham was abducted.

Although, who in their right mind would have ever wanted the mean ugly bitch, Dave couldn’t fathom.

He started the engine while wrinkling his nose at the strong odor of perfume in the car, and the dashboard glowed to life. Dave saw the time on the digital clock, 9: 21.

He had just placed his hand on the gear shifter when he remembered, and it made him groan.

The maintenance people.

His company had contracted with a janitorial service that came in at night to clean the building and empty the trash. Dave had seen them twice this week, and it was the two times that he had worked until ten. The maintenance people came in at ten.

Dave pounded on the dash, knowing that there wasn’t enough time to dispose of Dunham and come back for his own car. He could move his car somewhere else inside the complex and then come back for it, but if a cop on patrol spotted it, he might run the tags, and there would be a record.

Dave sighed. He needed help, and he needed it now.

***

Jack Murphy stared down into the trunk, at Dunham’s body.

“Jesus, do you know how much heat this will bring on us?”

“I know, but I couldn’t help it. Hell, you’d have strangled her too if you’d known her.”

They were on the outskirts of the city’s western side. Jack had met Dave at his job and went right to work on hitching Dave’s car to his van, by using the tow bar he kept in the back. As Dave followed behind in Dunham’s car, Jack towed Dave’s car to the parking lot of a hotel six blocks away, where he unhitched it from the van at the back of the lot.

They then drove together to the parking lot of an old factory where they had both worked as teenagers and that’s when Jack got his first look at Karen Dunham’s corpse.

“What about prints?” Jack said.

“I touched the crap in her purse, but I wiped it all while I was waiting for you. Now all I have to do is wipe down the car.”

“Are you certain that you didn’t forget anything?”

Dave thought for a second, but then answered, “Yeah, I took care of everything.”

“This is still bad, very bad. No matter how you slice it, you’re still the last person to see her alive.”

“I know, but I’ll have a witness who can swear that he saw Dunham alive when I left.”

“Who’s that?” Jack said, and Dave just stared at him.

“Oh fuck! Now I’m getting dragged into this too?”

“It has to go that way; don’t you see? They’ll know by my phone records that I called you. We’ll both just have to swear that she was alive when we left.”

“What about the car?”

“I was going to leave it at work, but that was before I remembered that the cleaning crew was coming, now, I guess we just dump it, and her, by the abandoned tracks behind the building here, they’ll think it was a bungled carjacking.”

“You mean you hope they’ll think that. Goddamn it, Dave, you may have really fucked us up here.”

“I’m sorry. It was a moment of passion thing; you know? After losing my mom, then that girl getting away from us the other night, all the shit going on at work, I... I snapped. I just snapped.”

Jack sighed.

“All right, we’ll deal with it, but tell me, will anybody miss her?”

“I don’t know, maybe her parents, either way, the cops won’t do anything for a few days, and that gives us time to think.”

Jack slammed the trunk shut.

“Let’s do this.”

***

The next morning, Saturday morning, Manny was parked at a diner not far from the job.

He sat there for ten minutes going over in his mind all the things he wanted to say. What he planned to do was dangerous, but he figured the risk was worth it. If everything worked out right, he would have his life back.

He punched a number into the disposable cell phone he paid cash for, and listened as the phone rang. When a woman answered, it surprised him so much that he nearly hung up.

“Hello?”

“Yes... ah hi, can I speak with Dave, please?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, he’s still asleep, can I take a message? This is his wife.”

“No, no message, but it’s urgent that I speak with him. Could you please wake him?”

“Hmm, is it truly important? He had a really rough week at work.”

Not as bad a week as Dunham, Manny thought.

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry, it’s that important. He’ll thank you for it.”

“All right then, who should I say is calling?”

Manny had planned for this question, just in case someone else answered the phone.

“Oh, he doesn’t know me by name; just tell him that I found the piece of paper that got away from him in the parking lot last night. He’ll know what I mean.”

“Okay, but I hope that this is as important as you say it is. Hold on.”

Manny heard shuffling sounds that were followed by soft thumps. She was walking up the stairs while carrying the phone. Moments later, he heard muffled voices, this was followed by Dave saying, “Thanks Hon, I’ll be down in a little while.”

A door closed, and then Dave came on the phone.

“...Who is this?”

“Is anyone else listening?”

“No, now who is this?”

“Come to the Pannycake Diner on route 215. Once you get there, I’ll find you.”

“Manny?” Dave said.

Manny covered the phone and cursed. He’d spent an hour last night with a tape recorder, working on a phony voice, and Dave figured out who he was in ten seconds.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Shit man, you were there? Where the fuck were you hiding?”

“Forget that, just come to the diner.”

There was a long pause, and Manny wondered what Dave was thinking.

“Listen, Manny, dude I don’t have much money. If it’s blackmail you’re thinking of—”

“Just come to the diner, Dave. We need to talk.”

More silence, but then, “Give me twenty minutes.”

***

Manny didn’t spot Dave until he sat across from him at the table, and it was no wonder. Dave was wearing a pair of mirrored sunglasses with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes.

“Good morning,” Manny said.

Dave didn’t say a word. He just passed a folded slip of paper across the table. When Manny opened it, he saw three words.

ARE YOU WIRED?

A waiter came then. Manny already had a cup of coffee in front of him, and Dave pointed at it, indicating that he would have the same. Once the waiter left, Manny spoke.

“I’m not wired and I can prove it, but let’s wait until after the waiter brings your coffee.

They didn’t have to wait long, as the young man returned in seconds.

“So guys, what’ll you have to eat?”

“Nothing,” Manny said.

“Oh, okay, just let me know if you change your minds.”

“Right,” Manny said. He watched the waiter walk off and then took out his phone. “I need to show you something. Once you see it, you’ll know I’m not wearing a wire.”

He held up the phone and the video he had taken the previous night began playing. When he saw Dave’s shoulders slump in defeat, he knew he had him.

“If I had shown that to the cops they wouldn’t send me here with a wire, they’d have dragged you out of your house in cuffs.”

“All right, what is it you want?”

Manny smiled.

“Dave, it’s me, Manny. We’re buds, dude. I’m not looking to jack you up. Hell, I hated Dunham too; I just would never have had the balls to do what you did.”

“How many copies are there of that video?”

“Besides the one on the phone? There’s only one copy on a USB stick, hand to God, and if you help me, I’ll give you the stick and erase the video.”

“What is it you want me to help you do?”

“My wife, Dave, I want you to kill my wife.”

CHAPTER 11

Pierce was also at a diner, but it was the one nearest his house. At home, he had a kitchen that would be a chef’s dream, and had just finished changing all of the cabinet hardware with the vintage pieces he had bought in Vermont.

The cabinets were mostly empty, as too, were the refrigerator and freezers. Pierce didn’t know how to cook and had no desire to learn, it was one of the reasons he rarely ate.

However, on this Saturday morning he found himself unusually hungry and had just devoured a stack of pancakes, with ham, toast, and scrambled eggs. The coffee he was sipping was his third. The first cup had been purchased at a convenience store near Amy Lowe’s house at 6:17 a.m.

He had been watching her again.

After stopping for coffee, Pierce had gone to his stalking post and taken out his binoculars. To his surprise, Amy was already up and awake. She was also angry.

He watched for twenty minutes as she and Lowe went back and forth about something, until they either left the kitchen or sat down somewhere that he couldn’t see them.

Ten minutes later, he saw Amy walk over to the sink. When Lowe came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, Amy shrugged them off. Lowe then hung his head and walked out of view. It seemed the lovebirds were having problems.

Not long after that, the lights went out in the kitchen. Pierce had left there with a smile on his face and a growing hunger in his belly.

***

Pierce walked back to his car in the diner’s parking lot and sat there for a few minutes, checking his email. When he finished that, he just stared out the window, wondering what to do. He was off until late tomorrow night, when he and his partner would be on call.

Thirty-six hours with nothing to do.

God, he hated days off.

His house was in such immaculate condition that he was at the point where he had to find projects to keep him occupied, like with his search for the perfect cabinet hardware. He considered doing some yard work, but he disliked it as much as cooking, and usually hired pros to do the work.

There was a... special project.

He had worked on it for months, and nearly had it completed, but he had no intention of ever finishing it, because to do so would mean that he had crossed a dangerous line.

The truth of the matter is that the project frightened him, and he truly didn’t trust his own intentions.

While he had never been a farmer, Pierce had worked construction during the summers when he was younger, and knew basic building techniques and how to work heavy equipment.

After renting a digger, Pierce had dug a hole on his property that was ten foot by ten foot and a dozen feet deep. The rear of the hole lined up with the rear wall of his basement, and after constructing the forms and reinforcing them with rebar, he poured concrete to make the walls and floor. The ceiling consisted of thick planks of wood, which were double layered, sealed, and covered with dirt and fresh sod.

With the room completed, Pierce broke through the rear wall of his basement with a three-foot long 20lb. sledge hammer. When he placed the paneling that had covered the wall back over the opening, the room became hidden from view.

Pierce told himself that he was building a private place to store food in case of an emergency. He told himself that he was just doing a bit of wise preparation in case of a catastrophe or natural disaster. And while it was true that the room could certainly hold a goodly amount of food, he had also equipped it with a waterless composting toilet, along with a cot, and there was also a vent and a fan to circulate the air inside.

It was a safe room, or a place to hide from home invaders, or possibly even a refuge in which to wait out a nuclear event, or maybe it could become a sanctum.

But if that were true, then why did he fashion a door for it that had a section in its middle that could be slid aside or locked only from the outside, as if it were a space to send in food or water to a captive?

He could call it anything he liked but... it was a cell. Pierce had built a hidden cell in his basement, and yet, it had no lock on its door.

Pierce refused to place a lock on the steel door, because once he did that, he feared what would come next, and truly wondered if it would signal the end of his sanity, and the beginning of a living nightmare for Amy Lowe.

***

Pierce pushed the basement room from his mind, along with Amy Lowe, and forced himself to think about the case and how it had stalled. Once he did that, he came to a decision.

He would drive into the city and canvass the area where Jenny Liu went missing. He had talked to a few shopkeepers, but not all, as some storefronts had been closed on his last visit. One good thing about Saturday is that most shops were open and there would be people available to question.

He decided that he would talk to shop owners first, before going to the nearby apartment building and speaking to its residents. He was on a quest to find someone who saw something, anything, and with his mind on work, Pierce was a happy man.

CHAPTER 12

They were in Manny’s car, which was still parked at the diner.

Dave listened without speaking as Manny told him his plan. He wanted Dave to kill his wife so that he would gain sole custody of the kids and get to keep his house. While Dave was killing her, Manny would make sure that he had an airtight alibi. And yes, he knew that the cops would suspect that he hired someone to murder her, but there would be absolutely no way to prove it because no money was changing hands.

Dave stared at him.

“You hate your wife that much?”

“She’s trying to take my kids away, Dave, so yes, I hate her that much.”

“Hypothetically, and I do mean hypothetically, how would I go about doing this? I mean, I would have to know when, so that you can plan your alibi.”

“I have all the details worked out. I’ve thought of everything. The cops won’t even look your way because you don’t know her.”

Dave laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You, that’s what’s so funny, you must think I’m an idiot. A second after I kill your wife, you’ll be handing that video you made over to the cops.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you’ll claim that I killed your wife as a threat to you, to try and make you hand over the video to me. Then you’ll be a hero for turning me in and get to keep your kids, while I spend years wasting away on death row.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Hell no, Manny, you just want to use me to do your dirty work, after that, I’m expendable.”

Manny sighed.

“Buddy, you have no faith. Remember when I said that I thought of everything? Well, I did, reach down between the seats, in the cup holder.”

Dave sent Manny an odd look, but then did as he said. His hand came up holding a silver-colored object. When Dave gave it a good look, he saw that it was a micro tape recorder, and that it was running.

“You’re taping this!”

“Exactly, now turn it off.”

Dave turned off the tape, but then backed it up and listened. Manny could clearly be heard asking him to kill his wife.

Dave shut it off.

“What’s going on?”

“Don’t you get it, buddy? That’s yours. That’s your insurance against me sending the cops the video of you killing Dunham. If I give the cops the video, then you’ll just give them that tape and they’ll know that I ordered my wife’s death. It’s like what they said during the Cold War, it’s mutually assured destruction. If I rat on you, you can rat on me and we’ll both be fucked, but why would we ever do that. Get it?”

Dave gripped the recorder tightly in his hand.

“Yeah, just one thing though, I’m not killing your wife. Why should I? Now that I have this, I don’t need to fear that video, do I?”

“I’d thought you might say that, and here’s why you’re going to kill her anyway, it’s because if you don’t, I will go to the cops. Sure, they’ll have me on tape talking about having my wife murdered, but they’ll have you on video actually strangling someone to death. I like my chances better than yours, hmm?”

“Fuck!”

“Yeah, fuck, but it doesn’t have to be fuck. We can both come out of this in one piece if you’ll just kill my wife. Don’t you see, Dave? Once you kill her there’s no way I’m turning you in now that you have that tape, because they’ll be able to prove that I hired you to do it. And you’ll never use that recording against me, because then you’ll screw yourself too. Take a few minutes, think it over.”

Dave did just that, turning it over and over in his mind. When he was done, he asked a question.

“Your wife, when, where, and how?”

Manny grinned, reached into his jacket, and handed Dave an envelope.

“Typed instructions about the when and where, I’ll leave the how up to you, but I vote that you give her the same thing you gave Dunham. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreamed of strangling her myself.”

Dave opened the envelope and found a picture of a woman with dark hair and green eyes. Her features were sharp, and he was sure he’d recognize her if he ever saw her in person. He began reading the typed instructions.

“Next Sunday? Why next Sunday?”

“It’s perfect,” Manny said. “The kids are spending that weekend with Susan’s parents, that’s my wife’s name, Susan. Meanwhile, I’ll catch a flight the day before to hang out with some old friends in Florida, one of which is now a State Trooper. Not only will I be too far away to have killed her, but I’ll have a kickass witness to my whereabouts.”

“This gym she goes to, why did you pick it? Is it that secluded?”

“It is on Sunday. That gym is on the second floor, in a little strip mall, the gym opens at six a.m., while the rest of the shops don’t open until eleven on Sundays. Susan always works out early and she always parks in the back and takes the stairs. There might be a camera, so you should wear a mask, but the parking lot is surrounded by tall hedges on three sides. If you surprise her as she comes up the stairs, she won’t stand a chance.”

“What if she sleeps in?”

“Improvise, do whatever it takes.”

“Where does she live? How do I find her?”

“It’s all there on the sheet, name, address, phone number, and right now she and the kids are staying at her sister’s place. You can whack her too if you want. I never could stand her sister.”

“Shit, Manny, does it have to be that day? That’s not giving me much leeway.”

“I know, but the bitch has to die then. The timing is perfect.”

Dave folded up the instructions, sat back, and stared out the windshield.

Manny peeked over at him.

“So... do we have a deal?”

Dave just nodded.

“Good, good, and hey, believe it or not, I’m sorry about this. I always liked you Dave, you know that, and once we get past all this... well, it’ll all be good again. Hell, you’ll probably end up with Dunham’s job.”

Dave got out of the car, but Manny called to him and he leaned back in.

“What is it?”

Manny smiled.

“Before long, my wife will be in the ground and the kids will be back home with me where they belong. And shit, things at the job will be better too with Dunham gone. Hell, murder solves a lot of problems.”

Dave stared at him flatly.

“Go to Florida next week and set-up your alibi. I’ll take care of your wife.”

Then, he shut the door and walked away.

***

Manny watched Dave until he got into his car and drove off.

He tapped the steering wheel with his fist, as he talked to himself.

“This is gonna work, it’s gonna work.”

He knew that when he returned from Florida the cops would be waiting for him, but so what? He’d have an alibi, they wouldn’t be able to find evidence of a pay off, and he held no life insurance on his wife. Eventually, they would have to classify it as a random killing and move on.

Manny put his car in gear and headed home, and never once did he notice the white van that was following him.

CHAPTER 13

Pierce spent most of the morning talking to shopkeepers and their employees. As he expected, no one saw anything, and most seemed annoyed that they were being bothered. Pierce wondered how they would feel if Jenny Liu had been someone they knew, someone they loved.

He had canvassed the last of the shops and businesses and was walking towards the apartment building when he spotted a familiar face. It was Jake Collins, the rookie who had found Jenny Liu’s cell phone.

“Hey Collins, what are you doing here?”

Collins was wearing a blue sport coat with a pair of chinos. He reached into the jacket and took out one of the flyers with Jenny Liu’s face on it.

“I had some time, so I thought that I’d ask around, see if anyone remembered seeing her.”

“You’re off duty, aren’t you?”

“Yeah... why, is that a problem?”

“The department frowns on it.”

“Oh, so why are you here?”

Pierce opened the file folder he’d been carrying, inside was a picture of Jenny Liu.

Collins laughed.

“Great minds think alike; did you learn anything new?”

“Nothing, and I’ve hit every business two blocks east and west of here. What about you?”

“I didn’t find anyone who saw Liu, but I found an old man who saw the van.”

“Where?” Pierce said, as excitement entered his voice.

Collins turned and pointed at the apartment building.

“The guy lives on the third floor. He says he saw a van come to a sudden stop and then a guy jumped out and stood by that burned-out building. The old man had something heating up in the microwave, and when the buzzer went off he went in the kitchen to get his food, when he came back, the van was driving away.”

“He never saw Liu?”

“No, just the guy who got out of the van; he says he thought he was taking a leak against the building, but he never got a good look at him.”

“Do you have notes?”

Collins reached into his jacket again and took out a small notepad. Pierce noticed that it was the same type that he carried.

The kid had taken detailed notes of everything he’d done that morning. The names of the people he’d spoken with, which apartments they lived in, and the time it took place. The apartments where no one answered were noted down as well, and there were three pages of notes concerning his conversation with the old man.

When Pierce turned to the last page, Collins pointed at an entry on the bottom.

“As you can see, I did get something out of him.”

Pierce looked to where the kid was pointing.

“A 2006 Ford Econoline Cargo Van? Is he certain that’s what it was?”

“He said that he’s sure about the make and model, but not the year. He has to go for Dialysis treatments three times a week, and he said that the van they use to pick him up in is the same one he saw that night, only it was white and unmarked.”

“Damn good work, Collins, damn good, our witness said it was a white van, but she doesn’t know makes and model. Now we can narrow it down.”

“You have a witness?”

“Actually she’s a survivor, two guys in a van tried to abduct her, but she fought them off.”

Collins pointed down the street.

“How about telling me all about it over lunch, Detective? There’s a deli around the corner there that’s pretty good.”

Pierce nodded yes, and was surprised that he had an appetite after the huge breakfast he’d eaten, but it had been a good day so far. Amy Lowe’s marriage could be ending, providing him with a second chance, and the case had made some progress.

They began walking and Collins asked Pierce a question.

“Where’s your partner?”

“At home I guess, we’ve got the day off.”

“And you’re out here looking for witnesses? I thought you said that the brass frowns on that?”

Pierce looked over at the rookie and smiled.

“Fuck ‘em.”

CHAPTER 14

SIX DAYS LATER

––––––––

Pierce and Detective Albert “Al” Finder pushed their way through tall weeds and into a small clearing, where the vehicle belonging to Karen Dunham sat parked beside abandoned railroad tracks.

Pierce’s partner, Bob Jerold, was back at the station. Pierce had given him the task of finding owners of white, Ford Cargo Vans, who also had been charged with a violent crime.

If any of them were also named Jack, the name that Valeria Mangieri remembered overhearing, then they would be put on a separate list and investigated as soon as possible. It was a longshot, but it was a chance, and Pierce was hoping that it would pay off.

Finder pointed skyward.

“A traffic chopper spotted the vehicle from the air, then, a patrol car came and investigated. It belongs to my missing woman, but judging by the odor coming out of that trunk, I think this is more your case than mine now.”

Pierce signaled for the crime scene tech to force the trunk open. When the lid popped, they saw the body of Karen Dunham.

“Damn, I was just handed this case a few days ago. I had hoped that this one had just run off somewhere to chill out,” Finder said.

Pierce leaned in and studied Dunham, but didn’t touch anything. The coroner had yet to appear, and the crime scene techs still had to do their work. The odor was wicked, but Pierce had worked many homicides and, if he had not gotten used to the odor of a corpse, he at least knew what to expect, and endured it.

“It looks like she was strangled, but for what?” Pierce said. “Her car is here and so is her purse and jewelry.”

“It sounds personal, but as far as I could tell she had no lovers. It was her mother who reported her missing. She told me that all she ever did was work, but that no one at the job had seen her since Friday.”

“Have you gone there and talked to her co-workers?”

“Two days ago, and reading between the lines, the woman was not well-liked. She also recently fired a few people, but I wasn’t going to start thinking the worst until I knew for certain that she hadn’t just up and left on her own.”

“Who was the last one to see her alive?”

“A guy at work, his name is Dave Owens. He and a friend of his named Jack Murphy saw her Friday night, after that, she vanished.”

Pierce stared in at the corpse.

“The friend’s name is Jack?”

“Yeah? Why? Does it mean something?”

Pierce shrugged.

“Probably just a coincidence, the name Jack has been on my mind lately.”

“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Finder said.

“Me neither, where did she work?”

***

Dave saw Finder talking with another man and knew immediately that he was also a cop. The man was about his height, a bit skinny, but strong looking, with a set of intense eyes that seemed to take everything in at once.

The fact that there were two of them, and the grim look on their faces, also told him that Dunham’s body had been discovered and that the new cop was a homicide detective.

He slumped in his seat; he was hoping that Dunham’s body wouldn’t be discovered until after he had time to deal with Manny.

“Another cop?” Manny said. He was standing outside his cubicle.

“Yes, and this one is from homicide,” Dave said, as he suddenly recognized Pierce.

Dave knew from the news that Pierce was also investigating the case of the girl that had gotten away from them. Dave felt himself grow angry. Every time he thought about that bitch getting away it pissed him off and he would have loved to have another shot at her... for more reasons than one.

The cop from missing persons, Detective Finder, came over and introduced Pierce to Dave, and asked him to join them in the empty conference room.

As he spoke to the two cops, Dave found that he had to make a conscious effort to meet Pierce’s gaze, which he found unnerving. The other cop, Finder, had an easygoing way about him that Dave liked, but Pierce was all business.

“What time did you leave here Friday night?” Pierce said.

Dave gestured to Finder.

“I told him all this the other day.”

“I understand, but now please tell it to me.”

“All right then, it was about nine when I finally got out of here. My car wouldn’t start and I called a buddy to come out and help me. He’s a diesel mechanic.”

“Someone else was here? What’s his name, and did he see Karen Dunham?”

“His name’s Jack Murphy, and yeah, yeah, he saw her. When Karen noticed my car was still here, she stuck her head out the door to see what the problem was.”

“What happened then?” Pierce said, and Dave realized that Finder was just along for the ride now that they found the body, although he was watching him closer than he had before.

“I told her that the battery wouldn’t take a charge and that Jack was going to tow me home.”

“I see, and that’s the last time you saw her?”

“Yes, and now I wish we had stayed and waited for her to leave. What the hell happened to her?”

Pierce stared at him for a moment before answering.

“Someone murdered her, and I’m going to find out who it is.”

“Murdered? Shit... that’s, that’s... what was it, a robbery?”

“We haven’t determined that yet.”

“I hope I’ve been of help?”

“Actually, I would like you to come down to the station for a longer interview. I also want to speak to this friend of yours.”

“Right now?”

“It’s nearly five o’clock, why don’t you come down to the South Ward station house after work, say, six o’clock? I promise not to keep you long, and uh, why don’t you give me your friend’s number so that I can invite him too?”

Dave smiled. “Do you have a pen handy?”

***

Once they returned to their cars, Finder asked a question.

“What do you think?”

Pierce shook his head.

“I’m not sure yet, I think I’ll wait until we interview the friend.”

“I checked Owens and Murphy for priors and found nothing, then, I remembered that they’d both enlisted in the army right out of high school. I checked there and my contact said that they were honorably discharged, but just barely, something about civilian complaints, but he had no details.”

“Maybe they were civilian complaints involving women, that’s good work, Al.”

“Thanks, but I guess it’s all yours now, but if you want, I’ll go and inform the mother. It might go a little easier since she already knows me.”

Pierce looked relieved.

“I owe you one. That’s the part of the job I hate the most.”

“You can pay me back by catching the bastard that killed her.”

“That’s the plan,” Pierce said.

***

Dave parked in the visitor’s lot of the station house and found that Jack was already there waiting for him. When he realized that Jack had driven the van there, he shook his head in astonishment.

“Jack, what the fuck? You know they must be looking for the van, why the hell would you drive it here?”

Jack grinned.

“Relax, so the girl told them that she was in a white van, so what? There’s a million of these, and this way, it looks like I have nothing to hide, besides, I cleaned it like a fiend since then.”

Dave calmed down as he thought it over.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, now let’s go inside and get this over with.”

They walked up the stone steps at the front of the building and entered the station house.

“Fuck me,” Dave whispered, as beside him, Jack froze.

The two of them had just come face to face with Valeria Mangieri.

CHAPTER 15

Inside the South Ward station house, Val stared at the two men who had just entered the building, stared at the men who were staring at her, with looks of recognition, with looks of fear.

Both men forced their eyes from hers and then looked about in trepidation, as if they were expecting to be pounced upon. When nothing happened, their postures relaxed, and they walked past her and over to the front desk.

“We’re here to see Detective Pierce,” the blond man said.

The desk sergeant looked at the men and then down at something in front of him.

“Are you two Dave Owens and Jack Murphy?”

They nodded.

“All right, take a seat, or you can stand, the detective is on his way down.”

Jack and Dave walked past Val as if she were a coiled snake, and huddled together near a corner of the room.

The elevator opened and Val saw Pierce walk off. She thought that he was even more handsome than she remembered. After saying a brief hello to the desk sergeant, he walked over to her, smiling.

“Ms. Mangieri, it’s good to see you up and about, how are you?”

“I’m much better, but my name is Val, remember?”

“Yes, Val, and how may I help you?”

Val was a bit taken aback and disappointed by the tone of business in Pierce’s voice, she had come here to see him again, hoping that maybe he would ask her to dinner.

“I, uh, I came by to see if you’ve learned any more about the men who attacked me.”

“We’re following a lead and working the case, but no, so far no breaks; I’m sorry.”

Val looked past Pierce at Dave and Jack and saw that they were staring at them. She dropped her voice and whispered to Pierce.

“Those two men, what did they do?”

Pierce followed her gaze and turned around, until then, he hadn’t spotted Dave, who he knew, and Jack, who he’d only spoken to on the phone, but he took note that both men seemed to be deliberately staying far away from Val.

“They’re here to answer a few questions about another case.”

“They’re guilty.”

“Of what?” Pierce said.

“Of whatever you suspect, there’s something off about them, and they’ve been staring at me since they came in here.”

Very interesting, Pierce thought, but he smiled at Val, not wanting to frighten her, or tip off Jack and Dave.

“Of course they’re staring, you’re beautiful.”

Val smiled back.

“I’m glad you think so... would you like to go to dinner?”

“I would, but I can’t. You’re the victim of a crime I’m investigating; it would be against department rules.”

“What about after you solve the case, what then?”

“Once I find the men who attacked you, we could have dinner... or anything else.”

“Anything else, hmm? I like a man who’s confident. Solve the case, Rick. I want that dinner.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Val put her hand on the door.

“I’ll see you around, Detective Pierce, stay safe.”

***

Pierce watched Val walk out the door, and then he turned to speak with Dave and Jack.

“Gentlemen, thank you for coming by, and I take it that you’re Jack Murphy?”

Jack offered Pierce his hand.

“Yes, detective; it’s nice to meet you.”

“Same here, now please follow me upstairs and we’ll try to get you two out of here quickly.”

The ride up in the elevator was swift, and as they stepped off, Pierce introduced Dave to his partner, Bob Jerold.

“Detective Jerold will take your formal statement while I speak with Mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy, please follow me.”

Pierce escorted Jack to one of the nine by nine foot rooms used to interrogate suspects. Jack tensed up, while wondering if the questioning he expected was about to turn into a grilling, but when Pierce asked him if he wanted coffee, he calmed down. He also declined the offer of coffee. The quicker he answered Pierce’s questions, the sooner he was back out on the street.

“As I said on the phone, Mr. Murphy, I’m investigating the murder of Karen Dunham. How well did you know the victim?”

“Not at all, really, Friday was the only time I ever saw her, and that was just for a second or two, while I was getting ready to tow Dave’s car.”

“I see, and what was wrong with the car?”

“It needed a new battery.”

“Did you and Ms. Dunham ever speak?”

“No, I nodded at her, you know, just to be friendly, but we never exchanged words.”

“Your friend, Mr. Owens, what was his relationship to Ms. Dunham?”

Jack shrugged.

“They worked together.”

“Anything more than that?”

“You mean... sexual? No, no way, Dave’s not the type to have an affair. I would have known.”

“You two are close?”

“Yeah, like brothers, we’ve been friends forever.”

“Did you see anyone else about the property?”

“No, that place is deserted. Dave says it’s half empty, and that they’re still renovating part of it.”

“Did Ms. Dunham seem nervous or frightened?”

“No, but like I said, I only saw her for a few moments.”

“Were there any other vehicles around?”

“There was one car still in the lot when we left, but I guess that belonged to Ms. Dunham.”

“What was she wearing, do you remember?”

Jack paused before answering, finding the question odd.

“Wearing? I really don’t remember. I barely saw her.”

“Has Mr. Owens ever said anything to you about Ms. Dunham?”

It was the question Jack had been waiting for, Dave had told him that Dunham was disliked at work, and if they pretended that she wasn’t, it might raise suspicion.

“Mr. Murphy?” Pierce said.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but Dave really didn’t like her, no one did from what he says, plus, she recently fired a lot of people. Maybe this was someone getting back at her?”

Pierce stared at him, looking as if he were thinking something over, but then his phone vibrated. When he checked it, he saw that he had a text from Jerold.

“Excuse me for a second, Mr. Murphy; I have to have a word with my partner. I’ll be right back.”

Pierce put his hand on the door knob, but then turned back around.

“You said you towed Mr. Owens car, what did you tow it with?”

“I have a van with a trailer hitch; it’s right outside.”

“I see. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Pierce went out into the hallway and found Jerold staring at Jack through the one-way mirror.

“What he just said about the victim being disliked, Owens said the same thing, he also told me about the firings. I already contacted the business manager and he’s sending over a list of names.”

“Good, that’s where we’ll start tomorrow, but for now, why don’t we let these guys go.”

“His name is Jack and he drives a white van; did you notice that?”

“I certainly did.”

“Could these be the two guys that attacked Mangieri?”

Pierce rubbed a hand over his chin.

“She was downstairs when they came in, said they were acting weird when they saw her, like they recognized her, although she’s never seen them before.”

“Why don’t we go hard on them?”

“No, we’ve got nothing on them. I think we’ll cut them loose, for now.”

“Even if they didn’t attack the girl, they still might have killed Dunham,” Jerold said. “The business manager says that Owens is next in line for Dunham’s job, could be a motive.”

“I don’t know; I doubt it’s enough. I mean what’s that get him, ten grand more a year? Doesn’t seem like enough for a guy like that to kill for, and then why would his friend lie for him? I’m not saying I’m ruling them out, for either case, but I don’t want them to know we’re interested in them until I’m ready to make an arrest.”

“Okay, Rick, then we’ll cut these guys loose.”

***

As Dave and Jack walked out of the station, each man breathed a sigh of relief.

A pair of uniformed cops walked past them, and Jack tapped Dave on the arm.

“Let’s sit in the van, we need to talk.”

Once they were in the van with the windows closed, Jack got right to it.

“We have to end the Boys’ Nights Out, if we keep going, sooner or later we’ll get busted, you know it and I know it. First, that little whore escapes and then you go off the deep end and strangle your boss. There’s too much heat on us, and now we’re linked to a murder. I won’t go out with you anymore, not for that. I’ve got too much to lose.”

“Jack, buddy, I agree, and shit man, I’m sorry about dragging you into this.”

“I know, but don’t worry, we’ll get out of it. The cops will spend the next few days investigating the people Dunham fired, and while they’re doing that, they’ll leave us alone.”

“That asshole Manny thinks he can tell me what to do, that he can blackmail me into killing his wife. It pisses me off every time I think about it.”

“Manny’s not a problem. We’ll take care of Manny, you know that, but I’ll tell you what almost made my heart stop, seeing that girl in there. I thought to myself, ‘Oh shit, they know.’”

Dave laughed.

“Yeah, I almost peed myself, but then I realized she was just there to see the cop.”

Jack sighed.

“Oh I wished we’d gotten a piece of that, the bitch is hot, a pure Italian spitfire.”

“My balls still hurt from when she kneed me.”

“That cop Pierce called her Ms. Mangieri, and then he called her Val, so her name is Val Mangieri. I bet she wouldn’t be too hard to track down.”

“Jack, are you stupid or something? Didn’t you just say that we should quit?”

“I did, and we will, but it’s tempting.”

“Just think of her as the one that got away.”

***

While Dave and Jack were discussing her, Val was watching them from the front seat of her car.

After leaving the station, she sat and waited for them to come out. They had already aroused her suspicion, but when she saw them get into a white van, a van like the one she was beaten in, she decided to not only keep watching them, but to follow them as well.

She saw Dave get out of the van and climb into a car. Now she had to make a decision, which one to follow?

She decided to stick with the van, and when Jack pulled out of the lot, she followed only seconds later. As she watched the van climb up a curving highway on-ramp, she saw the sun glint off something on the back of the vehicle.

She took the ramp and dared to pull closer to get a better look. When she saw what it was, her heart skipped a beat.

It was a trailer hitch, and it was just like the one she remembered.

***

They stayed on the highway until the van took the exit for Hillside, a small bedroom community. As they drove farther from the highway, the traffic thinned, and Val had to drop back so Jack wouldn’t spot her.

When she caught a red light that Jack had made on the yellow, she thought she might lose him, but the street was straight and long and she was able to keep the van in sight from a distance.

As the light turned green, she saw the van make a right turn up ahead and drove faster to make sure she didn’t lose him. She reached the street where she thought he had turned, but when she drove down it, she found herself on a cul-de-sac, and the van was nowhere to be seen.

She thought that maybe he could have parked it in a garage, but then thought that perhaps she’d made a wrong turn. She went back out to the road and took the next right. The van was parked six houses down on the left, its driver gone.

She read the house number off the mailbox and memorized it, and for just a second she thought about parking and trying to get a look inside the van, but fear made her think better of that idea, and she drove on.

***

Pierce told the desk to send her up, and he met Val at the elevator. Behind him, the squad room was empty, as he was the last one from the day shift working on a Friday night.

Val shot out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened and shouted into Pierce’s face.

“Those men who were here earlier are the ones who attacked me!”

“Why do you say that?”

“The van, the one with the dark hair drives a white van with a trailer hitch; remember I told you about the trailer hitch?”

Pierce stared at her for a moment. He had to calm her down. It wouldn’t do her or the investigation any good if she were to go around making accusations before they could build a case. He also remembered that she worked as an assistant to a television journalist, and the last thing he needed was the press butting in.

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Follow me.”

He led Val to the end of the hallway, where a window looked down on the shopping center across the road. The parking lot was packed with vehicles whose owners were in the supermarket, stocking up on last minute weekend party and barbecue supplies.

Pierce pointed out the window.

“That’s just one parking lot; tell me how many white vans you see.”

Val looked annoyed that he wanted to play this game, but she soon realized why he had done so. She stopped counting when she reached ten, ten white vans, and two of them even had trailer hitches.

“I see your point, but those guys were still weird. When they first saw me, they both looked at me as if they knew me, and I’ve never seen either one of them before.”

“You could remind them of someone they both knew, hmm?”

“Maybe, or maybe they remember me from the night they attacked me.”

Pierce saw the fear in her eyes as she spoke.

“Let’s sit and talk.”

Val followed him into what looked like a break room and saw that she had interrupted his dinner, had she known it was also his first meal since noon of the previous day, she’d have felt even worse about it. There was corned beef on rye, with French fries, sitting in a Styrofoam carton on a table.

“Are you hungry?” Pierce asked.

Val looked down at the food, and as the aromas of meat and potatoes reached her, she felt a pang of hunger.

“I could go for some of that.”

Pierce tore the top part of the carton away and placed half of the sandwich and fries into it; he then poured soda from his can into a paper cup and slid it all towards Val.

“Bon appétit, and I want you to know that I will look into those men further. They’re already persons of interest in another case.”

“Thank you.”

“For the food? You’re welcome.”

“No, thank you for not calling me silly, or discounting my feelings.”

They ate in silence for a few moments, but then Val asked a question.

“I thought that you couldn’t have dinner with me while my case was still open.”

“I can’t.”

“Then what do you call this?”

“I call it questioning a suspect.”

“I’m a suspect? What’s the crime?”

Pierce smiled.

“I think someone’s stolen my heart.”

Val laughed.

“You’re a charmer, Detective Rick.”

Pierce gazed over at her.

“I’m not the only one, Val.”

CHAPTER 16

The following afternoon, Manny stood inside his garage with the overhead door slid up. He was staring at the suitcase in the trunk of his car, just knowing that he forgot to pack something, but he’d be damned if he could remember what it was.

He heard someone call his name and turned to see his neighbor on the left wave to him, as the man climbed into his car. The neighbor’s name was Perkins, a recent widower who suffered from insomnia. He had moved into the neighborhood six years ago, when the Smiths, Tim and Kate, had moved away.

Manny still missed the Smiths, especially Kate, who would drop by and “visit” sometimes, whenever Manny’s wife and kids were out of the house.

As Perkins drove off, Manny walked out to the curb, hoping to see his brother coming around the corner. Their flight was leaving at three, and what with the way airports were these days, it was a good idea to get there early.

He sighed and looked around. The neighborhood was quiet. It was a warm, Saturday afternoon and many people were off to the beach, on what might well be the last good day for it, or else they were partying with friends or running around doing chores.

A kid rode by on a bike and smiled at him. The boy was a friend of his son, and Manny had known the kid since the day he came home from the hospital. He also knew that the boy was adopted, and knew that the boy had yet to be told about it.

That was the nice thing about living in the same place for so many years; you knew everyone who lived there, and a great deal about what they did. However, Manny made certain that they knew little about him, or he had, until his wife decided to air their dirty laundry in public by filing for divorce.

Yes, he cheated, but so what? He was a man, damn it. Had she really expected him to go decade after decade with just her to stick it in? He took good care of her and the kids, had always done so, and would have continued to do so, but no, she finds out about the hooker in Vegas and suddenly he’s a bad guy. Then, then she goes out clubbing with that slut sister of hers and sleeps with the bartender.

Manny ground his teeth together as he remembered the glee in her voice when she told him all about it.

We’ll see who’s happy after tomorrow, bitch, yeah we’ll see then.

He bent down and ran a hand over the grass in his front yard; he then nodded to himself as he made a mental note to cut it when he got back from Florida.

As he straightened up, he remembered what it was he’d forgotten, and marveled that he had done so. It was the flash drive copy he’d made of Dunham’s murder,

He then thought of Dave and hoped that he wouldn’t be stupid, that he wouldn’t try and get out of killing his wife. If he did that, then he would be forcing Manny’s hand, and he’d have to go to the police.

Manny shook his head at the idea. No, Dave would kill her. He understood that it was the only way.

Manny had looked at all the angles, and the idea to give Dave a tape with Manny commissioning his wife’s murder was the only way to insure that neither of them could harm the other. Dave had seen it too, had understood the wisdom of it, and Manny knew that his wife would be dead within twenty-four hours.

He turned to go into the house just as his brother arrived. Max was younger than Manny by only ten months and the two of them had always been close. So close, that Manny nearly revealed his plans to him, but thought better of it in the end. Close or not, you never know how someone may react to extreme measures.

They loaded Max’s suitcase into the car and Manny went back inside the house to retrieve the memory stick.

“I’ll be right back, Max. I left something in the office.”

Manny went into the office and grabbed the flash drive from the bottom drawer of his desk. He had been gone for barely a minute, but when he returned, he found Dave standing in his living room. He was holding a gun on Max, and he was not alone.

“What the fuck, Dave?”

“Give your phone to my friend.”

“What? No! Fuck Dave, my plan is perfect, don’t you see that? It is perfect, there’s no need for this shit.”

“Hand him the goddamn phone.”

Manny made a face of disgust as he handed his phone over to Jack.

Max Canto stared with frightened eyes at the guns, as a cold sweat broke out on his face.

“Manny, who are these guys? Wh... what’s... what’s going on?”

“It’s all right, Max; it’ll be okay. Dave just wants me to give him something and then he’ll leave.”

Dave motioned with his gun.

“Both of you shut up and start walking towards the back of the house.”

Manny shook his head in irritation. Dave was going to try to scare him into giving up the copy he’d made of the video. That was never going to happen. That video of him killing Dunham was his only leverage.

Still, he did as he was told, and the party of four wound up in the kitchen. They stood two each on opposite sides of the room. Jack stood near the sink, beside Manny, his gun pointed at him, while Dave stood near Max by the breakfast nook.

“You said you put a copy on a memory stick, where is it?”

“It’s in a safety deposit box.”

Dave shook his head.

“You never went to the bank. I know you Manny. I’ve worked with you for years. Good enough is always good enough with you. I’ve never once seen you go out of your way, but I believed you when you said you made a copy and I want it, so where is it?”

Manny stared at Dave and his face screwed up, as if he were going to cry. He hung his head and put his hand to his mouth, as his shoulders shook. He hoped it looked real, as he slipped the flash drive into his mouth; he then swallowed while appearing to wipe tears away.

Pain!

The flash drive was only half an inch wide, but it was two inches long, and the damn thing hurt like a bitch going down, so much so, that when Manny looked back up at Dave, there were real tears shining in his eyes.

“I was bullshitting you, Dave, really, the only copy is on my phone.”

“Nice try, but I know you made a copy, now where is it?”

“I’m serious, the only copy of that video is on my phone, and you’ve already got that.”

Jack let out his breath in a sigh.

“He’s not going to talk.”

Dave nodded in agreement. He then stared over at Manny.

“Do you remember what you said to me at the diner last week?”

Manny shrugged. “What’s that?”

“You said that murder solves a lot of problems. You were right.”

Dave shot Manny three times in the torso, as Jack did the same to Max.

CHAPTER 17

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

––––––––

Pierce, along with his partner Jerold, and Al Finder, were gathered in Lieutenant Coke Dyer’s office.

Dyer was reading a report put together by all three of them, a report about Dave Owens and Jack Murphy. When he finished reading, Coke laid the file atop his desk and spoke to Pierce.

“I can see how you would like them for the murder of Karen Dunham, but why are you so certain that they’re also the guys who abducted Mangieri?”

“Actually, it was Val Mangieri who put me on to them. She happened to be here on Friday when they came in to give statements. She says that they looked at her like they had seen a ghost, looked at her as if they knew her, although she says that she’s never seen them before.”

“That’s it?”

“No, we know that the perps drive a white van with a trailer hitch, possibly a Ford. Murphy owns a van with a trailer hitch, a Ford van. When Mangieri overheard the men talking, she got the impression that they were very close, possibly brothers, and heard one of them referred to as Jack.”

Coke Dyer leaned forward slightly and Pierce could tell that his boss was getting interested. He continued.

“Jack Murphy and Dave Owens grew up together and even served in the same army unit. Murphy is Owens only alibi for the Dunham case, and both men were the last to see her alive. I want a search warrant for that van. I’ll tell the judge that it’s for the Dunham case, but once we have it and go over it, we’ll be able to test the findings against the Mangieri case, and also Al’s missing women.”

Coke nodded.

“All right, yeah, do it that way. A judge shouldn’t have a problem granting you a search warrant based on Dunham. As you say, they were the last ones to see her alive, but one more thing, I—”

The phone on the desk rang and Coke held up a finger, indicating for Pierce and the others to wait until after he answered the call.

Fifteen seconds later, Pierce could tell that it was no ordinary phone call, something big was going down, and by the way the lieutenant kept staring at him, Pierce knew that it must involve him somehow.

Coke grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote down what looked like an address. When the call finally ended, Coke set the phone down and shook his head.

“You’re not going to believe this, but the Maplewood Police just solved your case, both your cases, and Al, they probably solved some of yours too.”

Pierce’s face screwed up in confusion.

“What? The Maplewood cops arrested Owens and Murphy?”

“Forget Owens and Murphy, does the name Manny Canto mean anything to you?”

Pierce nodded, knowing that the name was familiar somehow, but not able to recall from where.

Finder snapped his fingers.

“I know who he is, he works at the same place as Owens, he was also there the Friday night that Dunham was killed, but he said he left work before Owens, and Owens confirmed it. Lieutenant, are you telling us that he killed Dunham?”

“Not just Dunham, it looks like we had a pair of serial killers just like Rick said, but not Owens and Murphy, it was this Manny Canto and his brother, Max.”

Pierce stood.

“I’m going to Maplewood; I have to interview them.”

Coke grimaced.

“That’s going to be a little hard to do.”

***

Maplewood was a suburb situated in the hills just north of the city.

The town was mostly upper-middle class and Pierce took note on the ride through town that many of the homes had shingles hanging in front. It was a community of doctors, dentists, and accountants, whose commute consisted of traveling to the back of their houses and entering a home office.

They arrived at Manny Canto’s residence and Finder summed up the atmosphere with one word—circus.

There were news vans everywhere, as overhead, their counterparts in the air took turns filming an aerial view of the home. People lined up eight deep at the police barricades and they murmured, cried, shouted, and even laughed at the spectacle they were a part of.

After they were cleared to enter, signed in to the scene, and had put on protective gloves and booties, Pierce, Jerold, and Finder entered the home and were walked through it by the Maplewood Chief of Police, Chris Hammond.

Hammond was an older man, nearing retirement, but still vital. He led them into the kitchen and Pierce saw the bloodstained tile floor where the bodies had lain.

“The decedents were supposed to be in Florida this week on vacation. When three days went by with no word from him, Max Canto’s wife became worried enough and gave us a shout. Officer Knox came here to check it out and after getting no answer, he walked around to the rear and peered through the curtains. That’s when he found the two brothers, dead.”

“And you say that they shot each other?” Pierce said.

“Looks that way, they each had a gun in their hands, but we’ll know for certain after the ballistics come back.”

“How were they tied to the murder, to the missing women?” Finder asked.

“As my people went about securing the home and searching for other victims or survivors, they opened the bedroom closet and found the box.”

“What box? Like a cardboard box?”

“No, it was metal and looked like an old gun box, Officer Knox opened it expecting to find another weapon, but instead he found the drivers’ licenses. When we began running them, we came across your murder victim, Detective Pierce, and a bunch of your missing women, Detective Finder. Well, we may be small town cops but we aren’t stupid enough to try and handle this mess alone. I immediately called in the FBI and they sent a forensics team. Since then, this place has been completely dusted for prints, vacuumed for trace evidence, and photographed more times than a wedding. There’s even a backhoe in the yard searching for bodies, but nothing has been found.”

“You made the smart move calling the feds in. It could take their resources to get to the bottom of this,” Pierce said.

“Well hell, we can handle the occasional murder victim, but there were a combination of seventeen licenses and ID cards, and, I assume, seventeen victims and possibly as many crime scenes and jurisdictions. Anyway, after calling the feds, I called your department, and that’s when they finally connected me with your boss.”

“Shit,” Pierce said. “I never noticed that Dunham’s license was missing. Once I saw that there was still money in her purse, I never thought to check to see if anything else might have been taken.”

“Yeah,” the chief said, “It looks like the Canto brothers took them as souvenirs of their crimes. If they hadn’t had a falling out and killed each other, God knows how many more they might have killed.”

“And you say that there were seventeen of them?” Finder asked.

“Yeah, is that more victims than you believed there were?” the chief said.

“Much more,” Finder said, and looked disgusted by the new total. It also meant that he had more parents to notify.

“Where did the feds take the bodies?” Pierce asked.

“They’re at the city morgue, but the rest of the evidence is at the state lab in Hamilton.”

Pierce nodded.

“I want to know if the autopsy finds anything that says they didn’t kill each other. I just find that a bit too handy.”

The Chief shrugged.

“I’m not a big believer in luck or coincidence, but sometimes weird shit happens. Anyway, I’ll send your office an official report later today, and if you have any more questions, call me.”

***

They thanked the Chief, and after giving the scene another look, they walked back to their vehicle.

Pierce just sat there behind the steering wheel, staring at the crowds gathered.

“This was all very fortunate for Murphy and Owens,” he said.

“You’re thinking that they framed the Canto brothers?” Jerold said.

“I don’t know. What I do know is that I would still love to have the lab go over Murphy’s van.”

“You’ll never get a warrant now, there’s no basis for one.”

“I know, Al, but I just find this all a bit too convenient, also, we still don’t know where the bodies are.”

“We don’t know anything right now,” Finder said. “And we won’t until the dust settles on all this. Until then, I guess we just wait and see.”

Pierce started the car and eased back onto the street.

“This place looks like it would normally be a quiet neighborhood, a great place to live.”

His partner, Jerold, looked out the back window at the throng, the news vans, and the police tape.

“It’s a buyer’s market now.”

CHAPTER 18

It was after working hours, and Dave and Jack sat in the van, listening to the news about Manny on the radio. When a commercial came on the air, Dave reached over and shut the radio off.

“So far, so good.”

“Yeah, Dave, but we won’t know anything for sure until the cops go over everything. It still worries me that we never found another copy of that video.”

“It’s there somewhere. I’m sure of it, but I’m also sure that the cops won’t have any better luck finding it than we did. Wherever Manny put it, it’s well hidden.”

Jack nervously tapped the steering wheel with his fist.

“What if he really did put it in a safety deposit box?”

“He didn’t, he doesn’t even own one, remember? We went through his files and there were no receipts, nothing listed but a checking account and an IRA.”

“But he had to have made a copy, a copy that’s in that house somewhere, and the police or someone else will find it someday.”

Dave turned his head and smiled at Jack.

“Then we have to make sure that they never get the chance to do that.”

***

Pierce stayed late at the station, hoping that the feds would issue a preliminary report on their investigation.

As usual, he was the last man left in the squad room from the day shift. The two teams of detectives that made up the night shift were both out on calls. Pierce’s patience was rewarded at a little after seven, when the report came in.

Manny and Max Canto were both killed from rounds fired from guns that each other had been holding. The position of the bodies was consistent with the angle of the shots. Gunshot residue was found on both men, and both men had missed once, as bullet holes were found in the walls behind them.

Pierce nodded at that last part.

Both men missed from six feet away? No, whoever shot them needed to fire off shots while the guns were in their dead hands. That way we would discover gunshot residue.

The report went on.

The various forms of ID found had the Canto brothers’ prints on them. Autopsies will be performed before the final report will be released, but the results of the preliminary findings point towards Manuel and Maxwell Canto as the cause of each other’s death.

The phone rang. It was the desk sergeant calling to say that Val had arrived. She had called Pierce earlier about the case after hearing about Manny and Max, and he told her to drop by the station.

Val walked off the elevator and, without so much as a greeting, said, “It’s not them!”

It had been a few days since he’d seen her last and he could tell that they had been kind to her. The bruising she received from the attack had finally faded away and her steps seemed normal, as the limp caused by her damaged knee had also healed. Her nose was a bit crooked, but Pierce thought the slight bend added character, rather than detracting from her beauty.

“What’s not them? Manny and Max Canto? You’re saying that they’re not the men who attacked you?”

“They can’t be. It hit me on the way over here. They keep showing their pictures on the news and you can see that they both have swarthy complexions, but the man who attacked me was pale, white.”

“You said he wore a ski mask, didn’t you?”

“He did, but I could still see his eyes, his hands, the skin around his lips, he was white, pale white, and that’s not this Manny Canto or his brother.”

“I believe you, and it fits with what I suspect.”

“Which is?”

“That Manny and Max Canto are being framed, and if so, it’s a good one.”

Val looked around the squad room. The room was filled with desks and computers and looked like any other office, in other words, totally unappealing.

“Can we go someplace else to talk?”

“Sure, where would you like to go?”

Val stepped closer to Pierce and gazed up into his eyes.

“Let’s go to my place.”

***

2:26 a.m.

––––––––

Dave parked his car on the street that ran behind Manny’s house.

The neighborhood was quiet and without traffic. He and Jack got out and started walking east. When they were a block away from where they had parked, they went left and up a wide driveway, past the house, and into the yard.

They were little more than two shadows, as both men were dressed all in black with their faces covered in ski masks. After climbing over a short fence, they passed through a second yard, down another driveway, and emerged six houses away from Manny’s, which was swathed with yellow police tape.

They ducked under the tape that warned them not to, and moved to the back door off the kitchen. They carried nothing with them, they knew from their former search of the house that everything they needed was already there. They were also aware that there was no one inside to hear them break a window to gain entry.

In a corner of the basement were shelves filled with tools and equipment. The lower shelf held paint brushes and rollers, and also a large tin can of paint thinner, highly flammable paint thinner.

Ten minutes later, they had emptied the can in strategic places, and had even augmented it with the contents of a gas can taken from the attached garage. After trailing the last of the gas out behind them, to act as a fuse, they lit the end of the stream and ran away.

They abandoned their old route and ran through Manny’s yard, headed for the fence at the back of the property.

As Dave ran along, he suddenly heard Jack let out a yelp. When he turned to look for him, he was nowhere in sight.

“Jack?” Dave said in a whisper. “Where the hell did you go?”

“Put up your hands or I’ll shoot!”

Dave spun around at the sound of the strange voice, and saw the silhouette of a man holding a shotgun.

A moment later, the blaze to his right grew in intensity and Dave could see that it was an old man wearing a bathrobe; he also noticed that the shotgun was pointed right at him.

The man’s name was Perkins. He often suffered from insomnia and it was Dave’s bad luck that this was one of those nights.

“Stay right there,” Perkins said, as he edged closer, and as he did so, he removed a phone from the pocket of his robe.

Dave wanted to run, but knew it would be a mistake. If the old man pulled the trigger on the shotgun, he’d be shredded.

Goddamn it, Jack, where the hell did you go?

Dave got his answer a second later, as he watched a hand rise up from the ground and grab the old man’s left ankle, grab it and yank hard.

Perkins went down with a thud on his right side, as the phone fell and the shotgun skittered away on the grass, then, Perkins shouted out in shock, as something dragged him down into a hole.

When Dave walked over and peered in, he saw Jack punching Perkins, who covered up his face with his forearms, as he plead Jack to stop hitting him.

Dave reached down to Jack.

“Give me your hand!”

Jack scrambled out of the hole and caught his breath. He then pointed at the yard around them.

“Watch your step; there are holes everywhere.”

Dave looked around. The house was fully ablaze and giving off plenty of light. There were so many holes dug in the yard that he marveled he hadn’t fallen into one as well.

“What the fuck is this?”

“Cops were digging for bodies, I guess.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

They made their way past the holes and reached the fence, which was higher than the one they had to climb on the way in, but adrenaline powered them to the top, where they paused and marveled at the light and heat of the fire, a fire that was still in its infancy.

They dropped down into the next yard and ran for the street. Once they reached the sidewalk, they looked about for movement, but saw none. After reaching the car, they yanked off their ski masks and stared upwards through the windshield, to watch the glow of the fire brightening the night sky.

Then, Dave put the car in gear and drove slowly away. He dropped Jack at home, by letting him off at the corner, and then returned to his house and eased his car against the curb. After slipping in the back door, he entered the downstairs bathroom and shoved the clothes he was wearing into the hamper.

Just as he was closing the lid, he smelled it, gasoline. He went quickly, but quietly to the kitchen where he grabbed a white, plastic garbage bag. He then stuffed the clothes in it and, while sneaking back outside in just his boxers, he tossed the bag of soiled clothes into a neighbor’s trashcan.

As he was climbing into bed, his wife woke and asked him a question.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just got up to get a drink of water.”

“Oh,” she said, and then faded back to sleep.

Dave lay beside her in the darkness and smiled, certain that he was safe at last.

CHAPTER 19

Pierce woke at six, as the light of a new day dawned.

His surroundings perplexed him for a long moment as his brain came fully awake, but then he remembered with a smile that he had not slept in his own bed.

He turned his head and saw Val, still sleeping. The cover had slipped down to her waist and he could see her firm breasts, and the memory of their taste and texture flickered across his mind. Her body was petite, but surprisingly strong, and she made love with quiet energy.

Their first time was quick, full of hungry need, but the second time they explored, they teased, they satisfied.

He sighed quietly. It had been a long time since he had not woken up alone, a long time since he’d been with anyone.

He rose quietly, found his clothing, and headed to the bathroom down the hall where he relieved himself before getting dressed. When he opened the door, he found Val walking towards him wearing only panties.

She gave him a peck on the lips before rushing by.

“I gotta pee, don’t leave before I come out.”

“I’ll be here.”

He walked into the living room and looked around. He hadn’t seen much the night before. They had barely entered the apartment when Val had turned and kissed him, and from there things just escalated towards the bedroom.

There was an entire wall of family photos. Pierce saw palm trees in the background of many of them. Florida, he thought. Although he knew it could just as easily be California or a dozen other locales. However, Florida was his first thought.

He strolled past a bookcase filled with bestsellers and went into her kitchen, where he thought about making coffee, but didn’t want to be too forward.

Just because she slept with him, it didn’t mean that she wanted him to make himself at home.

There was a door in the kitchen and when he walked over to it, he saw that it opened out onto a miniscule porch and a set of back steps. Her apartment was on the third floor of an old, five-story apartment house made of red brick. It was in a good section of the city and close to the main highway.

Val walked into the kitchen a few minutes later, wearing a robe. When she looked over at the coffeemaker, she pouted.

“I was hoping you had started the coffee.”

“I didn’t want to assume that you wanted me to stay long enough to have coffee.”

She went to him and fell into his arms.

“I want you to come back to bed, but only after coffee, I need coffee.”

Pierce looked at his watch.

“I wish there was time, but I have to go home and change before I go into the station.”

Val set-up the coffeemaker and when the pot had brewed, she grabbed a pair of white china mugs and filled them both to the top. Pierce stared at her as she took her first sip.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“You’re drinking it black; you’re the only woman I’ve ever seen do that.”

“I like it black, but if you want milk or sugar I can—”

“No, I drink it black too, always have.”

They sat at the kitchen table and she asked him what he was going to do that day.

“Not much I can do, your case and the murder I was investigating were seemingly solved yesterday. Right now, I’m just waiting to get a look at the autopsy report. I’m hoping they find some inconsistency that keeps the cases open.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then, I suppose the feds will tag Manny and Max Canto as the men who attacked you.”

“Did either of them own a white van?”

“No.”

“Where were they when I was being attacked?”

“Max Canto’s wife swears that her husband was home on the night of the twenty-fourth. She was on the local news last night, right before you came to the station.”

“Can she prove it?”

“No.”

“There’s something I don’t get. If those two men... what were their names again?”

“Murphy and Owens?”

“Yes, the men with the white van, Murphy and Owens, if they’re framing the Canto brothers then why not tie them to the bodies too? It seems to me that it would make the frame airtight.”

“My guess is that they’re worried about their DNA being on the bodies.”

“So... those women’s families will never know for certain what really happened to them?”

“Not until we find the bodies, or get someone to talk.”

“If the Canto brothers are named as the killers, what happens to Murphy and Owens?”

“They’ll no longer be considered suspects.”

“And so they’ll just get away with it?”

Pierce smiled.

“Not on my watch.”

***

When he returned home, he showered, and as he was dressing, he put the TV on. The first thing he saw was an aerial view of Manny Canto’s house, which was little more than a charred pit.

He sat down on the bed as his mind began to race.

Why burn down the house? There must have been something in that house that could hurt them, some evidence against them, and maybe Manny Canto wasn’t just an innocent dupe after all.

***

Once Pierce reached work, he found that he had a case. An old woman had died the night before in her home and the cause of death was unknown. He and Jerold had no sooner gotten into the car to head to the scene, when the call came in.

“It’s a suicide, Pierce,” Coke said. “The old lady’s daughter just received the suicide note by FedEx.”

“She FedExed a suicide note?”

“Of course, you know you can’t trust the mail.”

“Where’s the daughter live?”

“Wisconsin, the cops out there will verify the note.”

“All right then, we’ll just go to the scene and look around.”

They found nothing at the scene that appeared suspicious and within two hours they were back at the station. Pierce spent the next hour at his desk, outlining his case against Jack and Dave.

He really had no proof that they were guilty of anything. He did trust Val’s gut feeling about them, as well as his own, and then there was the Ford van, and also the fact that they had been friends since childhood. That van was the key. If it had been used to abduct all those women, then there would surely be some trace of DNA evidence inside it, a drop of blood, a tiny hair, a single skin cell.

He stood and grabbed his jacket.

“Let’s go for a ride, partner.”

“Where to?” Jerold asked. He had just come back to his desk after taking a bathroom break.

“I want to see a man about a van.”

***

Pierce drove to Jack’s place of business and discovered that he had called in sick. He then drove to Jack’s home and was surprised to see a police cruiser in the driveway. Jack was there as well, and he was talking to the cop from the cruiser.

The car belonged to a Hillside Township cop named Gunther Jones, who Jerold knew. They were members of the same church. Jones was a large blond man in his thirties. His uniform looked loose on him, as if he had recently lost some weight.

Jones watched them walking towards him and recognized Jerold.

“Hey, Bob, what are you doing here?”

Pierce pointed at Jack.

“We came to talk to Murphy about his van.”

“His van was stolen last night; I’m here making out the report,” Jones said.

Pierce couldn’t hide his frustration. It seemed as if Murphy and Owens were always a step ahead of him. He cursed under his breath as he stared at Jack.

“That’s very fucking convenient; your van gets stolen just as I’m coming here to talk to you about it.”

Jack just sent him a shrug.

“It’s not convenient for me. Now I have to buy another vehicle, that is, unless you find it and get it back for me.”

“That’s not going to happen though, is it, Murphy? You and your pal, Owens, probably parked that van at the bottom of a lake somewhere.”

Officer Jones stared at Pierce as he spoke to Jerold.

“Bob, what the hell is going on?”

“We believe that Murphy’s van was the van used in a series of abductions and murders.”

“What? Like the Canto brothers?”

“They were framed,” Pierce said. “I know it and Murphy here knows it too, don’t you Murphy?”

Jack looked at the faces of the cops surrounding him and then backed up to his door and stepped inside. Before closing it, he stared at Pierce.

“I have nothing to say to you, and I’m getting a lawyer.”

When the door closed, Jones crumpled up the report he’d been writing.

“Son of a bitch, the Canto’s were really framed?”

“Yeah, now all we have to do is prove it,” Pierce said.

His phone rang; it was the lieutenant.

“What’s up, Coke?”

“The feds got the coroner to move up the Canto brothers’ autopsies; word is they just started cutting.”

Pierce waved goodbye to Jones as he walked back towards his car.

“We’re on our way.”

“Where to?” Jerold asked.

“The morgue, they’re doing the cutting on the Canto’s,”

“Great, and I was just thinking of going to lunch.”

“You can stop and grab something after.”

“You know that I can never eat after watching that, oh well, I can stand to drop a few pounds anyway.”

“More like thirty,”

“Shut up,” Jerold said.

***

The morgue was in the rear basement of the old courthouse, downtown.

Pierce and Jerold entered the autopsy room. The two FBI agents looking into the serial killings were named Rogers and Abrams. Rogers was the senior agent and did all of the talking.

Rodgers was of average height, forty, balding, but seemed to be in good shape. His partner Abrams was about the same age and had reddish blond hair cut short. Unlike Rodgers, Abrams had a gut and seemed to keep his mouth parted slightly, as if he were having trouble breathing.

“The doc found something interesting in the stomach contents of Manuel Canto. It was a flash drive. The lab boys have it, and I’m waiting for a report,” Rogers said.

“He must have swallowed it right before he was killed.”

“It could be what he and his brother had a falling out over,” Rodgers said.

“If they’re the killers.” Pierce said.

Rodgers gave him an appraising look, his dark blue eyes seemed to take Pierce in and weigh him.

“You surprise me detective; I would have thought you were eager to have the Canto brothers go down for these murders. It would make your clearance rate skyrocket.”

“I don’t give a damn about the numbers; I just want to hunt down the killers.”

Rodgers nodded.

“That would explain why you already have the best clearance rate in the state.”

“You’ve been checking up on me?”

“Just on paper, and as I said before, your clearance rate is phenomenal, sometimes that’s due to expediency, but now that I’ve met you, I don’t think that that’s the case, if it were, you’d be ready to hang the Cantos out to dry, and you’re not.”

Pierce gave Rodgers his own appraising look, and then made him an offer.

“There’s a cafeteria on the second floor, let me buy you and your partner a coffee.”

Rodgers gave a slight nod.

“Yeah, I think it’s time we compared notes.”

CHAPTER 20

FBI Agent Daniel Rodgers raised up an eyebrow in enquiry.

“Dave Owens and Jack Murphy?”

Pierce leaned towards Rodgers as he spoke.

“Owens works at the same company Manny Canto worked at. In fact, their cubicles are close together. My victim, Karen Dunham, she was their boss, and Dave Owens and Jack Murphy are admittedly the last ones to see her alive.”

“That’s strike one against them, what else do you have?”

Jerold answered that one.

“Valeria Mangieri, the lone surviving victim. She says that the man she fought with was white, pale-skinned, Manny Canto had an olive complexion, so did his brother.”

“Strike two,” Rodgers said, “But, it’s a little weak. Eyewitness testimony is often wrong, especially when gathered under stress.”

“True,” Pierce said, “but Jack Murphy owns a van... correction, owned a van, one that fit the description of the van Mangieri was beaten in. What about the Canto brothers, did either of them own a van? If they did, it wasn’t listed with the DMV.”

“No, we haven’t found a van, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have access to one.”

“True.”

Rodgers looked around the cafeteria as he took a sip of his coffee; when he looked back at Pierce, he smiled.

“I guess it’s my turn to share, so here goes. Neither Manuel or Maxwell Canto had a cell phone on them, and we’ve yet to locate them. That home was equipped with Wi-Fi service, but we found no computers anywhere in the house. I also spent the morning going over the crime scene photos of that place, and I’d be willing to bet that it was tossed, very carefully tossed, but tossed nonetheless.”

Pierce squinted at Rodgers.

“You were a cop at some point, weren’t you?”

“I worked robbery/homicide in Philly for three years, spent four years in uniform before that.”

“It shows.”

Rodgers phone rang.

“It’s the lab.”

He answered the phone and listened. After saying the single word, “Thanks,” he ended the call.

“The flash drive was damaged. Apparently, one of the slugs hit it and the stomach acid did a job on the memory chip.”

“Shit, but at least we know what they were looking for, I’d also bet that was the reason they burnt down the house. When they couldn’t find the flash drive, they also couldn’t take a chance that someone else would, and so, the house had to go.”

“What about the bodies?” Agent Abrams said, and it startled Pierce. He had been around the man for nearly an hour, and they were the first words he had spoken.

“You mean the victims’ bodies? I don’t know. They must be somewhere, but only Murphy and Owens know where.”

“You have to turn them against each other.” Abrams said. “Offer a deal to the first one who leads you to the bodies.”

Pierce shrugged.

“Why should they cooperate? They’ve managed to frame the Cantos for their crimes, destroyed any evidence, and gotten rid of the van. We’ve got no leverage.”

“What about the flash drive?” Abrams said.

“You heard your partner; the lab said that it was useless.”

‘Yeah, but Murphy and Owens don’t know that.”

Pierce stared at Abrams, and then smiled at Rogers.

“I see why you keep him around.”

***

The following day, Jack and Dave sat on one side of a metal table in a windowless room. Their lawyer, Mr. Grimes, sat between them.

Pierce settled across from them with his partner, Jerold, at his left and Agent Rodgers on his right. Sitting atop the table in a plastic evidence bag was a flash drive. It wasn’t the one found in Manny’s stomach contents, but a duplicate, a prop.

Pierce held up the bag.

“This was found inside Manny Canto’s stomach. He must have swallowed it just before he was shot to death.”

Both Dave and Jack turned pale as they stared at the flash drive inside the bag, and Pierce knew for certain that it was what they had been looking for when they searched the house. And it was what they had been trying to destroy when they burned that same house to the ground.

Pierce placed the bag on the table and paused. Now it was time for guesswork and bullshit.

He stared at Dave Owens.

“You know that we have you dead to rights on Karen Dunham’s murder, this video will put you on death row.”

Dave appeared sick as he stared at the evidence bag and fell back in his seat.

Beneath the table, Rodgers bumped Pierce’s knee with his own, in a show of quiet triumph. They had guessed correctly that the flash drive had contained a video.

The lawyer pointed at the bag.

“I want to see this film.”

Pierce smiled. “No problem, it’ll be playing on every major news channel night and day; seems like there was a copy slipped to the media, we’re ah, we’re investigating the leak.”

Dave sat up straight again.

“It’s going to be on TV? My kids will see it.”

“That’s the least of your problems. That video contained a code, a digital signature that matched with a phone owned by Manny Canto. So, we figure that Canto was blackmailing you, and that’s why you killed him and tried to frame him for your crimes.”

The part about the phone was a half lie. If they actually had the phone and the video filmed on it, they could connect them, but they had neither, and so they had to bluff.

The lawyer, Grimes, held up his hands. Pierce knew that he had only been in criminal law for about a year, having come from a corporate background, he hoped that it would play in his favor.

“Just one second, are you saying that the Canto brothers weren’t abducting women, but what about all the evidence found in their home?”

“It was planted by your clients after they killed the brothers. Your clients are the men who actually killed all those women.”

Grimes looked first at Dave, and then Jack, with a stare filled with trepidation.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Jack said. “Do your job and get these cops off our asses.”

Grimes recovered and pointed at the bag again.

“I still want to see this video.”

Pierce’s partner, Bob Jerold, held up an iPad.

“I think they’re going to show it soon. Yeah, here it comes.”

He turned the tablet around so that everyone could see it, and news anchor, Maria Romo appeared. She was sitting on the set with a huge monitor behind her.

It was a video, not live TV, but they had the time displayed on the video in sync with the actual current time, and so it looked damn real. This bit of trickery they owed to Val. She was Maria Romo’s personal assistant and Romo had agreed to make the video, saying that she would do anything to help trap the men who hurt Val.

––––––––

“Breaking news about the Canto brothers’ exoneration and a shocking video that reveals the real killer of businesswoman Karen Dunham, but first, this word from our sponsor.”

Jerold laughed as he turned the sound down on the iPad and turned the screen back around.

“TV people, they make you wait for everything likes it a big deal, but they’ll be playing that video 24/7.”

Dave looked down at the table as his breathing increased and sweat popped out on his forehead.

“Oh shit.”

“The Cantos are in the clear.” Pierce said. “Max’s wife brought forth evidence that proved he was at home on the night Valeria Mangieri was abducted. They couldn’t have been the men who tried to rape her.”

Dave raised his head and Pierce stared hard at him.

“We’re not only going to charge you with the murder of Karen Dunham, but will also be bringing charges against you concerning all those other women.”

Jack spoke up.

“What am I being charged with?”

“You’re as guilty as he is, but since we don’t have actual video of you committing a murder, the D.A. is looking to make a deal.”

“What sort of deal?”

“Tell us where to find the bodies, and you’ll do thirty years in prison, otherwise, they’ll charge you as an accessory in Dunham’s murder and seek the death penalty.”

Jack swallowed hard as a sour look darkened his face.

“Thirty years?”

“That’s right,” Pierce said, and then he spoke to Dave. “Mr. Owens?”

Dave looked over at Pierce with eyes full of shock, and Pierce knew that whatever had been on that video was truly damning. Dave Owens looked as if he had no hope. It was time to give him some.

“Yes?” Dave said.

“That deal is good for either of you. The first one to tell us the location of the bodies gets to live; we’ll also make certain that you’re imprisoned nearby, so that your family can visit.”

“Gentlemen,” Grimes the lawyer said, “I would advise you to remain silent, and united.”

Pierce turned and spoke to Rogers.

“I guess we know whose lawyer he is now; Owens has more to lose than Murphy does.”

Dave looked over at Pierce.

“Thirty years, and I get to see my kids?”

“Yes.”

“I have your word on that?”

“If you take the deal, otherwise they’ll ship you across the country to a maximum security penitentiary, and someday you’ll get the needle.”

Jack reached across Grimes and grabbed Dave’s arm.

“Do like the lawyer says and shut up.”

“This is a limited time offer.” Pierce said. “We would like the families of your victims to know what happened to their loved ones, but we don’t need their bodies to prosecute you. We have you killing Dunham on film and we have her body. One murder is enough to put you away.”

It was Jerold’s turn again. He made a hissing sound and then looked over at Owens with disgust, as if he were watching the video.

“Oh, that poor woman.”

The lawyer, Grimes motioned for him to turn the iPad around again. Jerold did so, while also turning up the volume. Maria Romo was on screen again, but this time she wore a shocked expression.

––––––––

“You just watched an exclusive video that showed the murder of businesswoman Karen Dunham, and it was truly disturbing... we’ll be back.”

Bob Jerold shook his head at Dave.

“They show that to a jury and they’ll put you under the jail.”

Pierce watched as Dave Owens eyes flickered over towards Jack Murphy, and then locked with his own.

“I’ll take the deal! I’ll tell you where the bodies are.”

Pierce slapped a piece of paper in front of him.

“You’ll need to sign this. It waives your right to have an attorney present, and outlines our agreement.”

Jack turned in his seat and gaped at Dave.

“What the fuck, man! You’re hanging me out to dry?”

“I gotta see my kids, Jack. I can’t lose my kids, you know that,” Dave said, as he signed the agreement.

Jerold stood.

“Jack Murphy, you are now under arrest and charged with the murder of Karen Dunham.”

“No!” Jack shouted. “Hell, fucking, no, I did not kill that bitch, he did! You saw the damn video. I wasn’t even there.”

“Hands behind your back, Murphy,” Jerold said as he advanced on the man.

Jack was led out of the room by Jerold, as Jack’s lawyer, Grimes, followed behind them, now it was only Dave with Pierce and Agent Rodgers.

Pierce gathered up the signed form and pushed a lined, yellow pad across the table.

“Tell us where the bodies are.”

Dave wiped at tears, picked up the pen, and began writing.

***

Val sat her beer atop the coffee table and laid down atop the sofa by resting her upper half atop Pierce’s legs.

“Have another slice of pizza, you’re too skinny.”

Pierce chuckled.

“Typical woman, trying to change me already.”

Val raised her head and kissed him.

“You’ll do as you are.”

Pierce brushed back her long dark hair with his left hand as his right hand rested on her stomach.

“When do I get to see your place, Rick? This is the third time that you’ve seen mine.”

“How about next weekend? I’ll even fire up the grill.”

“You can cook?”

“No, but I can grill a burger or two.”

Val gazed up at him.

“Stay with me tonight.”

“I planned to, but I have to leave early.”

“Something to do with a case?”

“Yeah,” he lied, and then his hand moved up to her breasts, and he leaned over and kissed her.

***

The next morning at 6:34, Pierce was at his stalking post, with binoculars trained on Amy Lowe’s kitchen window.

There was a steady mist of rain that dampened the windshield and threatened to turn to ice, as the temperature had fallen sharply overnight.

When a light came on in the kitchen, he sat up straighter and readjusted the binoculars. Amy appeared by the sink. She was filling a coffee carafe with water. Three minutes passed without a sign of her husband, and Pierce felt joy, thinking that she might have finally tossed the professor to the curb. But then, Arthur Lowe appeared, and placed his arms around his wife.

Amy turned around in them and they kissed, when Pierce saw her smile seductively and guide Lowe away by the hand, he assumed that she was leading him back to bed, and a soft moan escaped him.

Pierce let the binoculars fall.

He knew watching her was wrong, wanting her was wrong. The woman had made it very plain that she no longer wanted anything to do with him, but he also knew that the feelings he had for her had only grown stronger in her absence.

He had left Valeria Mangieri’s warm, embracing bed to sit in a cold, damp parking lot and spy on a woman who treated him like dirt, a woman who once threw him away.

He thought of Murphy and Owens, and how they had brazenly driven around the city, taking any woman they wanted, doing with them as they pleased, discarding them as easily as he would discard a paper bag.

Pierce stared at Amy Lowe’s window and wondered what it must be like to do as one pleased, to simply take what one wanted, what one needed, but then he shook himself and closed his eyes.

“This is the last time I come here.”

He shoved the binoculars into the glove box, put the car in gear, and drove away.

Twenty-four hours later, he was back.

COMING SOON!

DEMONS

A DETECTIVE PIERCE NOVEL – Book 2

COMING SOON FROM REMINGTON KANE

UNLEASHED!

In the year 2033, the police don’t uphold the law, they unleash it.

A PLEA

Thank you, precious reader, for spending time with one of my books. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider writing a review. Without reviews, an author's books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. Let other readers know what you thought! You can leave a review by visiting the book's page and I will greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

—Remington Kane

ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE

The TANNER Series in order

- INEVITABLE I - A Tanner Novel - Book 1

- KILL IN PLAIN SIGHT - A Tanner Novel - Book 2

- MAKING A KILLING ON WALL STREET - A Tanner Novel - Book 3

- THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES - A Tanner Novel - Book 4

- THE LIFE & DEATH OF CODY PARKER - A Tanner Novel - Book 5

- WAR - A Tanner Novel - Book 6
- SUICIDE OR DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 7
- TWO FOR THE KILL – A Tanner Novel – Book 8
- BALLET OF DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 9

- MORE DANGEROUS THAN MAN – A Tanner Novel – Book 10

- TANNER TIMES TWO – A Tanner Novel – Book 11

- OCCUPATION: DEATH – A Tanner Novel – Book 12

- HELL FOR HIRE – A Tanner Novel – Book 13

The TAKEN! Series in order

- TAKEN! - LOVE CONQUERS ALL
- TAKEN! - SECRETS & LIES
- TAKEN! - STALKER
- TAKEN! - BREAKOUT!
- TAKEN! - THE THIRTY-NINE
- TAKEN! - KIDNAPPING THE DEVIL
- TAKEN! - HIT SQUAD
- TAKEN! - MASQUERADE
- TAKEN! - SERIOUS BUSINESS
- TAKEN! - THE COUPLE THAT SLAYS TOGETHER
- TAKEN! - PUT ASUNDER
- TAKEN! - LIKE BOND, ONLY BETTER
- TAKEN! - MEDIEVAL
- TAKEN! - RISEN!
- TAKEN! - VACATION
- TAKEN! – MICHAEL
- TAKEN! - BEDEVILED

Also

- THE CONTRACT: KILL JESSICA WHITE – A TAKEN!/TANNER NOVEL

- REDEMPTION... Someone's taken her
- DESOLATION LAKE
- SLAY BELLS
- MONSTERS

Join my Mailing List and Learn about New Releases. Also, get Exclusive Access to FREE Books and Short Stories, including The TAKEN! ALPHABET SERIES & THE FIVE STAGES OF TANNER

REMINGTON KANE
http://www.remingtonkane.com/contact.html

COPYRIGHT

MONSTERS – A Detective Pierce Novel – Book 1

Copyright © REMINGTON KANE 2013

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Did you love Monsters? Then you should read Desolation Lake by Remington Kane!

From REMINGTON KANE

DESOLATION LAKE

Career criminal Brady Ross has a problem.

He's fallen in love with the wrong woman, a nurse from the straight world named Mary Carson.

Brady's friends have warned him that he can't have a foot in both worlds. They've told him that he's either in the life all the way or must walk the straight and narrow, but Brady is determined to prove them wrong as he hides his true self from Mary while still pulling heists.

Meanwhile, while giving care to the man's dying wife, Mary has developed a friendship with Clay Richards, the local Chief of Police of Destination, Vermont, a town also known as Desolation to the locals, because the lake that once attracted visitors and prosperity dried up decades earlier.

After a robbery doesn't go as planned, Brady and his gang seek refuge in Desolation Lake, and Brady's two worlds collide, leaving him to choose between the woman he loves, or the lure of easy money.

Read more at Remington Kane’s site.

About the Author

REMINGTON KANE is the author of the wildly popular TANNER SERIES as well as the equally thrilling TAKEN! SERIES.

While The TANNER Series and The TAKEN! Series are similar in that they're both packed with action, the hit man Tanner has a little more grit to him.

Please visit www.remingtonkane.com to learn more.

Read more at Remington Kane’s site.