Chapter
One ~
Jude sighed and walked out to his
car. This was a particularly gruesome crime scene, and he was weary of dealing
with them. He rubbed his hand through his short, sandy blond hair as he slid
into the driver's seat. He could feel the tension under his fingers. He choked
back a sob. Why is this happening, God?
His phone broke the silence in the
car with its ringtone playing 'Amazing Grace.' He pulled it out of his pocket
and said, "Jude Johnson here, what can I do for you?" It took great
effort not let any of the emotion he was feeling seep into his voice. He
couldn't let anyone know, or he would be off the case...
"Jude, are you gone yet?"
Lauren Estepp asked.
"I'm out front, why?” He hoped
it wasn't anything serious because he needed a break. The scene inside that
house was still fresh in his memory and he swallowed another sob.
"The victim's daughter is on
her way. She asked to talk to the man in charge. That would be you." Was that sadness he detected in her voice?
"Couldn't you cover for me just
this once?"
"I don't deal well with
distraught females, you know that."
"Lauren, you know it wasn't
your fault what happened to Ella Emerson. You need to let it go, it's been
years. You couldn't have known she would take her own life. She assured you she
was fine. Stop making yourself sick over something you couldn't control."
He made his decision then and there. He would stay and deal with the distraught
daughter of the murdered couple inside the home he now sat in front of; his old
next door neighbors.
"Will you do this for me Jude?”
"Yes, I’ll do it, but you'll
owe me one, and I fully intend to collect. It'll be steak, well done with baked
potato and a salad on the side."
There was laughter in her voice when
she said, "You got it Jude." She ended the call and Jude put his
phone away, glad one of them would be spared this difficult situation.
He sat motionless in the car for a
few more minutes, trying to decide what to say to the daughter of the murdered
couple. It's never easy to tell the survivors of a serious crime that their
relatives suffered tremendously before they died. Jude didn't feel comfortable
lying to them, either. In this case he couldn't lie, even if he wanted to. It
would be obvious by the closed caskets. The bodies had already been removed,
and the crime scene techies were just finishing their work. The cleaners sat
across the street like vultures, waiting to make their money off someone else's
loss.
Jude didn't know how his phone got
into his hand, but he was dialing a now familiar number. A voice on the other
end answered, "Jude, is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me Jackson."
"What's wrong, did something
happen?" Jackson asked worriedly. He and Amy had just returned from their
honeymoon, and he was chomping at the bit to get back to work. Maybe Jude
needed help...
"I think I need you on this
one." Jude said, his voice breaking on the last word.
"Tell me what it is."
"I'm at a crime scene."
"Okay...I'm gonna need a little
more info."
"The people who were
murdered...they're my old next door neighbors." His voice broke and he
exerted every bit of strength he had not to break down and cry.
"I take it you were close to
them?" Jackson asked gently.
"I was close to the parents
because they used to babysit me, but I was awful to their daughter. She used to
have this huge crush on me, and I made her the butt of all my jokes at school.
She was chubby, had braces, and this awful chestnut-colored hair that was more
red than brown when she was in the sun."
"You were a kid, mate. She
probably doesn't even remember you."
"Oh, I can guarantee she still remembers me. I humiliated her in front of the
whole school."
"What makes you think she would
remember it almost twenty years later?"
"I won homecoming King at the
prom my senior year. Jenny Hill won queen. We made a good couple. Justy Sue,
the daughter, drank from the spiked punch and got up enough courage to get up
on stage and pick up the microphone. She looked down at me before she spoke,
and I shook my head no, but she didn't get it. She turned the mic on and asked
me to dance with her. Instead of being polite, I laughed. I laughed so hard I
almost peed on myself. Most of the guys at my school followed my lead in
whatever I did, and this incident was no exception. Five minutes later almost
everyone in the whole gymnasium was laughing at her. She was so humiliated she
tried to run off the stage. Her heel caught on a cord and she tripped and
toppled off the stage with her dress up around her head. The picture made the
school newspaper, until the photographer got suspended, that is."
"Surely she isn't holding a
grudge after all this time?"
"It was a bad scene, man. She
was a pariah of society after that. Even her other chubby friends wouldn't have
anything to do with her. I was an awful kid."
"What's the address? I'll come
and help you through the interview."
Jude gave him the address and hung
up. He slumped behind the wheel, waiting for Justy Sue Sanders to show up. His
face heated with humiliation at the embarrassment she must’ve felt.
He shrugged his shoulders and straightened
them ramrod straight when he saw a familiar head of hair moving up the walk. He
couldn't make out her features because twilight had set in, but the hair was
unmistakable. His heart gave a lurch as he grabbed the handle of the car door
and stepped out.
The part he hadn't admitted to
Jackson was he'd actually had a big crush on her, but he hadn't wanted to ruin
his image at school so he'd spurned and humiliated her in front of them all.
After that event, there was no way he would lose his resolve to ignore his
attraction to her and ask her out.
Jude moved up behind that glorious
head of hair and stopped just behind her. She was wearing a huge neon pink ski
jacket to ward off the early December chill, and he couldn't make out her
shape. When she turned around his heart hit his feet and slammed up into his
throat so hard he had to gulp to catch a breath. She was absolutely beautiful,
even with tears pouring down her cheeks. "Oh Jude, I'm so glad you're
here! I can't believe what happened. Why are
you here?"
"I'm Special Agent in charge,
Jude Johnson, of the FBI." He held his hand out to shake hers.
Justy nudged his hand away and threw
herself into his arms. She gave him a huge hug and cried on his shoulder while
he patted her awkwardly.
"Jude, I want you to find who
did this. Promise me you will." She blubbered wetly in his ear.
Jude was having trouble breathing
with her so close. "I'll do my best, I promise." He pushed on side of
her long chestnut hair behind an ear and pulled away. "I can't be hugging
you like this out here, I'll get in trouble." He gently pushed her away.
He heard footsteps come up from behind,
turned around, and came face to face with Jackson Masters. "Jackson, I'm glad you could come. Let’s
go in and find a female officer to fill Justy in on what we know so far.” He
walked purposefully toward the house, hoping they would follow.
They ran into Jessica Messer, the
department psychologist, just inside the door, and Jude introduced her to his
high school crush. “Could you give Miss Sanders what we know so far?”
“Of
course, it’s not a problem.” She smiled and propelled Justy back outside with a
gentle hand on the shoulder.
Jude took Jackson on a walkthrough of the
house, pointing out some areas he wanted his input on.
"Why didn't you tell me,
Jude?"
"What do you mean?"
"You've got a Mount Rushmore-sized
crush on that woman." He laughed in amusement.
Jude swatted Jackson on the arm with
his fist and said, "What makes you think that?"
"A person would have to be
blind and dumb not to see, or feel, the sparks that fly between you."
"Jackson, this is a crime scene." Jude reminded him. He
cringed at the memory of the couple lying on the floor. He’d seen a lot in his
career, but this had been the worst.
"I know, and I’ll help any way
I can. I take it your interview went okay? I say this because you didn't wait
on me." He flashed a knowing grin, which show-cased his bronze-colored
skin. Jude saw a female officer look at Jackson with unveiled interest. He
ignored it, pulling his attention to the case.
He ignored Jackson’s question for a
moment and walked into the kitchen, pointing to a scraped window sill.
"This is where we think the murderer came in." As they passed into
the dining room, he pointed out some shards of broken glass on the floor.
"Mr. Sanders must have heard
the noise. He probably came downstairs to investigate, because he was attacked
right here." Jude pointed to a big spot of blood on the carpet.
"There were droplets of blood leading back toward the living room, so we
assume he was still alive and trying to get away. We think he was trying to
lead them away from his wife." Jude walked into the hallway and stopped in
front of the main door.
"You said them, why do you
believe there was more than one person?" Jackson asked.
"In the upstairs hallway there
are several different bloody shoe prints." Jude answered absently as he
pulled his notebook out and checked something written there.
"Did anyone check the deceased
man's feet? Was he wearing shoes, or slippers, or was he barefoot?"
Jackson asked.
"That's a great point."
Jude went over his notes. "He was wearing slippers. I'll need to check the
tread on them to rule his footprints out.”
"Has anyone established any kind
of motive yet?" Jackson asked.
"We haven't established a
'solid' motive." He gave quotes in the air with his fingers. "Mr.
Sanders was a divorce lawyer."
"Oh, I see..." He trailed
off. "Enough said. I don't envy
trying to go through all his clients. Do we know if any of them are aggressive?"
"I've got my partner Lauren
working on it. She's very good, and if there's someone we should look at first,
she'll be the one to find him, or her. I guess I shouldn't rule out women just
yet." Jude added quickly.
"Oh, I think we can rule out a
woman, and even two women. Bringing the bodies back down to the kitchen and
doing what they did would take someone with exceptional strength. I’m guessing there’s
at least one man involved." Jack turned the pages on a clipboard one of
the local cops had given him at Jude's request.
"Let's make our way up the
steps." Jude said. "I want to show you the scope of the perp's rage,
and his lack of restraint."
They walked up the steps, trying to
sidestep the blood along the way. When they hit the top, Jackson Masters gulped
in horror.
"Now you know why I
called." Jude said quietly. They stood there, taking in the scene. The
metallic smell of blood still hung in the air, leaving a putrid taste in the
mouths of the two very masculine men.
"It never ceases to amaze me
how inhumane humans can be to each other. What happens in a person's life to
make them turn into this kind of monster?" Jude asked, not expecting an
answer.
"All people are evil. If it
wasn't for the restraining power of God, this world would be a very different
place. What scares me is the fact every human being is capable of this kind of
vileness." Jackson said.
"I'm finding it especially hard
to accept that the people I grew up next door to are dead. They watched me all the time, Jackson."
Jude said weakly. "Mrs. Sanders even made me hot chocolate."
Jackson patted him awkwardly on the
shoulder. "When did you move away from this neighborhood?"
"It was about ten years ago. I
got a place closer to work." He knelt down on the floor, looking at
something shimmering in the light.
"What is it?" Jackson knelt down
and examined the spot, too.
"I'm not sure. It looks like
glitter." He licked his finger and ran it across the floor. His finger
came back covered in tiny pieces of red and gold glitter.
"What do you make of
that?" Jude asked curiously.
"What I make of it is this
isn't the first victims for this killer." Jackson answered. "I saw this
same glitter in Arizona."
"Are you saying you think we
have a serial killer?" Jude asked, swallowing the bile that had risen to
his throat. Could there possibly be a
monster out there not only willing to kill once, but many times?
"That's exactly what I'm
saying. We have to stop him, or them.”
