The Lady Killer

  Copyright © 2011 Paizley Stone

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1466406674

  ISBN-13: 9781466406674

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-62345-362-6

  This book is dedicated to Beth and Frank.

  Thank you for all your love,

  friendship and encouragement.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person or situation is purely coincidental. All character names have been chosen at random.

  CONTENTS

  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

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  Detective Laura Peterson awoke in a cold sweat. It was the same nightmare she had been having since she took this latest case. Running down a dark ally from a maniacal monster with glowing, yellow eyes and sharp teeth, she trips. Just as the creature is about to devour her, she wakes up with her heart pounding and a scream in her throat. It had been five months since the first body was found. Even though she had covered many cases in her career, none of them frightened her like this one. She had never encountered a killer so cold blooded, cleaver and illusive. Every clue led them in circles, until it finally dead-ended with the next victim. Each murder was staged exactly the same, as far as the body was concerned, but contained different evidence, which ultimately proved to be inconclusive.

  As her feet hit the floor she muttered to herself, “Five in the morning. You might as well get up. Maybe something will break on the case today. Maybe something will be different, and you’ll get the one clue you need to finally put this guy away. You have to stop talking to yourself, or people will think you’re crazy. Why? No one is here to hear me.”

  She laughed at her little play on words. Thinking out loud had become a bad habit from years of living by herself between dysfunctional relationships. It wasn’t really a bad life. Sometimes it was a little depressing, but she’d rather spend life alone than end up like one of her recent five victims, tortured and murdered in an abandoned building. As she stepped into the shower, she wondered how these women had wound up like that. Had they trusted someone who turned out to be the monster of their own nightmares?

  Trust had always been an issue for her since childhood. The people who were supposed to protect her were the ones she feared the most. Did a functional family unit actually exist somewhere, other than on fictional TV shows from the sixties? Unlike her, there were people in life who loved their relatives and missed them when they were gone. In her line of work she saw it all the time, grieving spouses, mothers and fathers. It wasn’t easy being the one who had to deliver the bad news about murdered victims and question the families. Looking into their eyes and seeing the tears made her wonder even more about her own apathy toward death. Did having no emotional attachments of her own make her the perfect homicide detective? It wasn’t that she didn’t have empathy for them, or care that a life had been taken before its time. It was just that after years of seeing the same things over and over again, she became numb.

  That’s what scared her most about the sick bastard she was chasing now. He brought up a sense of vulnerability in her, which she just couldn’t shake. Most murders were predictable and solved rather quickly, even if she didn’t have the actual perpetrator in custody. The motive was usually passion, greed or revenge. Even the seemingly senseless gang killings had hatred spawned by a history similar to the Hatfields and the McCoys. But this guy seemed to kill just for the pleasure of torturing his victims and leading the police on a wild goose chase.

  She wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror and took a long look. When had she gotten all those little lines on her face? How had she become the mechanical robot that got up, went to work each morning, and then crashed after a fourteen hour day only to get up and do it all over again? It wasn’t that she had to force herself, it was just who she was. To quote John Cougar Mellencamp, “life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.” Or was it just John Mellencamp at that time? Why didn’t he shorten it to John Cougar? That sounded far more like a rock star to her; not that she knew that much about being a rock star, or anything else other than a detective. These were just things she wondered about and would probably never get answers to. Her mind worked that way. Maybe that was what made her a good detective, she always thought outside the box. Many times she had been considered insane for the theories she came up with, but no one could fault her success rate, until now.

  After getting dressed, she looked at herself in the full length mirror next to her closet. She was about medium height and slim. Her long, curly, brown hair fell gently around her face, and she had a graceful stance. People had told her that she was pretty, but she couldn’t see it herself. Her therapist said that was because of a poor self image. A long sigh came out of her as she thought about getting old. “Forty-two isn’t that old yet, maybe.” She had this deep fear of dying alone in some God forsaken nursing home, at the mercy of attendants who didn’t care. “Wow, depressing thoughts to start the day off! That’s my girl.”

  Laura arrived at the precinct deep in thought. It was one of those times when you get somewhere but can’t remember driving. This case was getting to her and that was hard to do. Normally, she had nerves of steel, but now she felt more like gelatin. As she walked through the front door, the familiar smell of a building that was old and uncared for greeted her. That was something that would never change. Each brick had been placed there decades before by someone who no doubt had passed on to a different place, but his work had stood the test of time. How many detectives had passed through that doorway over the years? Considering how unstable she felt right then, it was reassuring to touch things as solid as wood and mortar.

  She walked down the dark, musty hallway to the elevators and rode up to her office. Before she could sit down at her desk, she saw Captain Paul Rutledge coming toward her. “What are you doing in this early, Sir?”

  “They just found another one, and there’s a twist this time.”

  Her heart sank at the thought. “What now?”

  “There’s a second body at the scene. They want you down there right away. We need to catch this guy, and catch him soon. The city is in a panic, and women are afraid to go out of their homes after dark. I don’t have to tell you that I have the Commissioner breathing down my neck, do I, Detective?”

  “No, Sir, I understand. I want this guy as badly as anyone else, but we just can’t get a handle on him. Nothing about this set of murders makes any sense. We really do need a break.”

  “Detective Murphy is already down there. I told him you would be on your way as soon as you got in.”

  Laura looked puzzled. “Why didn’t you call and let me know?”

  “Because I know you so well, and it has been almost a month since the last body. He has been killing once a month, so he was due. I knew you couldn’t sleep with that kind of pressure. You might not think I see what goes on around here, but I hear all the rumors, and I know the hours you’ve been putting in. When I say we need this one, it’s not because I doubt you in any way. I hope you know that.”

  “Yes, Sir, I know it’s just concern on your part, but I think I’m beginning to doubt myself.”

  “Laura, we have known each other more years than either of us will admit, and I’ve never seen you let me down or lose f
aith in yourself. Don’t start now!”

  CHAPTER 2

  When she arrived at the crime scene, she took a brief pause to collect herself. Normal blood and guts murder scenarios didn’t bother her that much, but this guy was a real sick puppy! What he did to these women was unspeakable, but she had to face it head on if she was going to get anywhere on this case. As soon as she opened the door, she saw Detective Dan Murphy headed toward her car. At least she got to see the hunky, Irish, calendar-boy first. He was very tall and muscular with a dazzling smile that she tried hard to ignore, even though it wasn’t working.

  “Hey, it’s the same killer for certain.”

  “Good morning to you also.”

  Dan got a sheepish look on his face. The last thing he wanted was to look bad in front of her. “Sorry, Peterson, I didn’t mean to be so abrupt, but I’m unnerved by this set of murders.”

  “No, Murphy, I’m the one who should be sorry. I’m trying to keep some sense of normalcy in a world that makes absolutely no sense to me right now.”

  “Well, it’s going to make even less sense after you see this.”

  She could tell by the anguished look on his face that it was pretty bad. “Why, what have we got? The Captain said that there was a second body.”

  “Yeah, there’s a dead security guard.”

  “Show me what you have so far.”

  As they walked through the entrance of the building, she could see a dead body lying at the foot of the stairs in a pool of blood. He looked young and appeared to be unarmed. One, bare, light bulb shined dimly in the center of a huge, empty, warehouse floor.

  “I didn’t see a security vehicle outside, Murphy, was he on foot?”

  “Apparently this group of buildings is owned by the same company. The car is parked in the street on the other side of the complex. It looks like he was doing rounds on foot, when he must have surprised the killer. I’ve contacted the security company he worked for, but no one will be in the office until nine. Right now they only have a dispatch person working the phones, and she doesn’t know who the owners are.”

  “Great, we finally have a witness who might have actually seen this guy, and he’s not alive to tell us anything. The good news is that psycho boy might be getting careless. Maybe he didn’t know the building was patrolled. Everything so far has been abandoned and deserted. He has to make a mistake eventually.”

  “For everyone’s sake, let’s hope so. CSU is still working on the scene upstairs. So far, nothing is different about the body condition. There is the usual pile of cigarette butts, but this time there’s a pentagram drawn on the floor.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Last time there was a bride’s veil, the time before that a broom, and the time before that a mirror.”

  “Yeah, and the first time it was a baby doll with its eyes poked out, followed by a bible. These have to be things left to confuse us. Just like the fact that there are no prints or DNA on anything, other than the butts, and they all belong to different guys.”

  “Do we have an ID on the guard and the victim?”

  “Yes to both. The security guard still had his wallet. The woman is Sheila Lawson. I have a unit on its way over to her apartment, to see if anyone is home or knows anything about where she was last night. My guess is that we’ll find she lived alone, just like all the rest of them. Same MO. Her purse was left, but all of her clothes are missing.”

  “Good work, Murphy. For a new guy you’re amazingly thorough. I really didn’t want a newbie on our team, but Detective Burns said you were okay.”

  “I may be new to being a homicide detective, but I’ve been a cop for seven years. I always put myself in the shoes of their families. I think about what I would want to have done, if it was my loved one who was the victim. With this guy’s MO, I wouldn’t wish him on my worst enemy.”

  “Has anyone been sent to the guard’s family? He was just a kid.”

  “Yes, I took care of that also.”

  They walked toward the stairs and looked at the guard’s lifeless body. Laura noticed that his flashlight was still lit. It had rolled slightly away from his hand when he fell; leaving an eerie reflection on the boy’s face, from the side door it was illuminating. They were just bringing in the body bag to take him away. He had been shot once in the chest with a large caliber bullet, which had probably destroyed the heart instantly.

  His life was just starting, and it had ended so soon. She wondered if he had a girlfriend or a mother who was crying at that very moment. Again, she thought about her own relationship barren life and considered herself lucky. If she had been the one to walk into this guy’s path, no one would feel the pain of her passing, and it would eliminate her worries about the nursing home. Somehow she took comfort in that thought, and it made doing her job easier.

  “How was he found, Murphy? Was someone else on duty with him?”

  “No, a homeless guy found him, ran out to the street and flagged down help.”

  “Do we have the homeless guy here?”

  “No, the black and white team didn’t bother to hold him, once they saw the scene upstairs. The guy was scared to death, and he hadn’t even seen the really bad part, just the guard.”

  Her eyes rolled back, and she got an exasperated look on her face. “Please tell me that they at least questioned him as to whether he saw anyone else.”

  “Yes, he didn’t see a thing. They said he was drunk, clueless and pretty shaken up. He was just looking for a safe place to sleep, so they got him a ride to the nearest shelter.”

  “I guess we’ve put it off long enough. It’s time to look at the second body.”

  Dan cringed at the thought of going up those stairs. “You take the lead. I just can’t get used to the condition we find these women in.”

  She gave him a sideways glance. “And you think I can?”

  “For all the years that I worked drugs and robbery, I saw my share of dead bodies from overdoses and burglaries gone wrong, but I never saw anything as terrible as this. I thought maybe you were more used to it than me. How many years have you worked Homicide?”

  “Twenty. And I’ve never seen anything as horrific as this!”

  At the top of the stairs, she gazed across the floor and spotted a familiar face. Dr. Ralph Foote was the ME on duty that morning. He was a peculiar, little man with wiry, blonde hair and a dry sense of humor. She was very fond of him. Somehow he managed to make these scenes seem less gruesome with his direct, no-nonsense approach and professionalism.

  “Good morning, Ralph. We have to stop meeting like this. People will start to talk.”

  “Detective Peterson, I presume. I wish you would catch this sick bastard! These scenes are starting to give me nightmares, and that isn’t easy. I’m pretty weird, you know.”

  “I think you like to perpetrate weird rumors, but deep down I know you’re a softy at heart.”

  “You aren’t trying to spoil my reputation, are you?”

  “No, just calling it like I see it.”

  They laughed, each knowing that the playful banter they exchanged was just a sign of respect and a way of trying to ease a difficult situation. Ralph had been doing his job successfully for thirty years. She knew that there was no better person to have on this case. He had been the ME for the other five bodies, and now they were on their sixth. He was aware of the pressure she was under. “Captain Rutledge must really be on your tail about this one!”

  “You know he is! But with as much understanding as possible, considering who’s on his tail. This is a difficult time for all of us, Ralph. Everyone is on edge and anxious for it to be over. What do we have so far, anything different?”

  “No, the body’s in the same brutal condition as the others. Tied wrists to ankles behind the back and suspended naked from a rafter. The only variation is the type of rope, this time yellow nylon line was used. The mouth and nose have been glued shut with duct tape over the mouth. A large dildo was inserted in the rectum and nipples cla
mped with clothespins. He waits until they are dead from asphyxiation, presumably to watch them suffer, and then slits their throats and wrists, just to make sure he leaves no witnesses. The same predictable pile of cigarette butts was left by the body. They will probably yield a different DNA than all of the other crime scenes, which will lead us to a man who has nothing to do with these deaths. He seems to like to waste our time and effort, not to mention throw suspicion on some innocent guy.”

  “They might not be guilty of these crimes, but they’re not exactly innocent. Every one of them has a record of abuse toward women, just like the real killer. Makes me wonder what connection he has to these men. There’s a large amount of blood under the body this time. That’s something new. Usually there’s hardly any.”

  “Yes, I’m assuming that the guard interrupted the ritual, so the slitting of the throat had to happen sooner than planned. Therefore, the asphyxiation wasn’t complete, and the heart was still pumping some blood. Unfortunately, this probably angered our friend, and I suspect that he will strike again sooner because he wasn’t completely fulfilled this time.”

  “God, I hope not! No sign of sexual assault?”

  “There never is with this guy, but I won’t be sure until I get the body back to the morgue. He is either paranoid about his DNA or impotent. If he used condoms, then there would be some latex residue in the vagina and probably some tearing of the tissue.”

  Laura was so over this guy! “Maybe he stands there with a condom on and jerks off. If this crime isn’t sexual in nature, then why the dildo? It seems like classic S and M, bondage and torture to me, with very sexual overtones. Yet we never find signs of him releasing any semen. If it’s just punishment he’s after, there are less sexual ways to torture someone. I would be willing to bet that this guy owns a bunch of those sadistic, extreme-bondage videos that you find in porn stores!”