Page 16 of Broken Deeds MC: Second Generation #12

I give our joined hands a squeeze. “Message Bee. She might be able to track him. Make sure Bee digs into Della’s life, her mother’s, and her father’s as well.

We have to put things in motion to save time.

Make sure Archer updates everyone about this case.

Fresh eyes and opinions might speed shit up. ”

“On it,” she states.

The rest of the ride is in silence. We finally arrive at the Broken Deeds clubhouse where Archer and Wyatt are waiting for us in the parking lot.

Archer starts to talk as soon as we get out of the car. “I’ve put every brother on the case, as you requested. Any updates?”

“Nothing yet. Did Bee track Samuel’s phone?” I fire back.

Archer holds the door to the clubhouse open. “The phone seems to be at the hotel. Ganza and Austin are in place. They arrived a little over an hour after you left. Della has been behind the front desk ever since.”

“Della has cameras up all over the damn hotel. I watched how she switched from the parking lot to a screen filled with hotel rooms. I’m pretty sure she has audio as well and heard every damn thing Lyla and I discussed before we stepped inside the hotel to question her.

I tested my theory when I told her we were there for Samuel.

She visibly relaxed her shoulders for a mere moment.

Della Hallett is our serial killer. I just fucking know it. ”

“I agree,” Bee states as she appears from behind her old man. “Come on, let me show you something I found.”

We follow her into church and surround her as she takes a seat.

Bee glances over her shoulder at me and Lyla. “You messaged me and asked to dig into Della and her folks, right? Well, check this out.”

She pulls up the website of the hotel except it looks different than the one I went through.

“This is the old website. They still have it on their server and when you check out the pictures of the owners, you’ll see this.” Bee zooms in on a photograph of Della’s mother.

“Damn,” I mutter.

Lyla leans in. “It’s the button.”

“Yes.” Bee shows some other old pictures.

“Though, in every single photograph of the mother, and of the younger Della, you can see the buttons are all the same ones. The mother used to be a seamstress before she married. She made the clothes, and clearly the buttons were the trademark for her creations.”

“Wait. The mother went missing when Della was sixteen, right? Does this mean she’s dead and Della is indeed the serial killer?

Or is mommy dearest, who is alive and living her serial killer life in the damn shadows?

Wait. Samuel’s ex-wife is missing too. That’s a lot of missing persons for a tiny circle of people. ”

“I know, right?” Bee replies with a duh tone of voice. “I can’t find recent shit about either women. No bodies or bones found, no nothing. They have simply vanished.”

“No one fucking vanishes without a trace,” Archer grunts.

Leontine walks into church, a laptop in her hands. She’s Veloz’s old lady, and the daughter of Chopper, one of the first generation. Chopper is great with computers, and so is his daughter.

“Did you check the pictures of the hotel interior after they redecorated the lobby?” Leontine places her laptop next to Bee’s. “Look.”

We all watch as she shows one picture, switches to another one, and then back again. I mutter a soft curse. Archer jams his fingers through his hair, and Bee shakes her head.

“Can someone fill me in? Because I’m not seeing it,” Lyla grumbles.

“Here.” Bee points at the screen while Leontine flips the pictures from one to the other.

Lyla leans in. “Oh, now I see it. There’s less space behind the front desk, as if they pulled the wall forward. Wait. Do you think they hid a body in there? Doesn’t it stink the whole place up?”

“We’ve had cases where they’ve wrapped the body in plastic and even if there was a distinct scent, they blamed it on the new drywall and such,” Archer tells her. “Seriously, from now on you’ll hear and see shit you can’t even begin to imagine.”

“Okay, but if you have the results about the meat pastries you had checked and it did turn out to be human flesh? Please don’t tell me.” Lyla’s gag reflex kicks in and Bee chuckles while Leontine shoots her a look of sympathy.

“Then I won’t tell you,” Archer states.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Lyla snaps. “For real? Human flesh?”

Archer turns to me. “Results just came in. They need to run some more checks but it’s human and they are fairly sure the meat belongs to Fitz Wright.”

“I’ve never been so happy to be pregnant. Holy shit. I didn’t have any morning sickness or anything until I caught wind of those horrible meat pastries.” Lyla covers her belly with both hands and whispers, “Thanks so much, little one. Mommy is so happy with your gut instinct.”

I’m grinning ear-to-ear.

“She’s already a smart cookie,” Bee states.

I reach out and sneak my arm around Lyla’s waist to pull her close.

“Like her mom,” I whisper against the top of her hair.

“More like her daddy,” Lyla murmurs in return.

“You two look exhausted. Why don’t you two take a shower, have a nap, and we’ll wake you in a few hours when we’ve done some more digging,” Bee suggests.

Archer nods. “I agree. The thicker wall doesn’t have to mean shit. The button of her mother is a direct link to the victims, but not to Della. We need more to take her down.”

My shoulders sag because I know they’re right. “Shower and some sleep sound good. I didn’t get much last night, and knowing Lyla’s room had video and sound is fucking creepy. No damn hotel room feels relaxed enough to sleep in.”

“Just when you think the eyes watching you are cut off, someone else will get their creepy-jam on and take over,” Lyla grumbles.

“Shit, that’s right,” Bee snaps. “Your neighbor watched you in your home through peephole cameras.”

Lyla snuggles closer against me. “Yeah. He wasn’t a serial killer, though. So, I guess there’s always someone out there ready to outdo another person’s madness.”

“And that’s why our workload always has a steady flow of new cases,” Archer states.

Leontine snorts. “Along with cold cases popping up, and let’s not forget the copycats.”

Lyla gives Leontine a small nod. Everyone knows she was taken by a killer earlier this year. The scars littering her face and the rest of her body are a visual reminder. That killer turned out to be a copycat. All while the real killer was one of our own.

Someone Leontine’s parents took in when he was a teenager, fucking raised him. Vigilante justice turned into violently killing people. In his eyes he was still doing his job, all while he didn’t bring people to justice; he took the role of executioner.

“In the end they will all be brought to justice,” Archer grimly states and turns to me. “Take your old lady to your room. We’re gonna do a little more digging and I’ll come find you in a few hours.”

Bee checks her phone. “Oh, and by then Lynn will be here too.”

“The fuck?” Archer grunts.

Bee shrugs. “She somehow found out Pax and Lyla are at the clubhouse.”

“Somehow?” Archer shakes his head. “I bet my mother taps into the security feed of the clubhouse and has facial recognition software set to alert her whenever people of her interest walk through the fucking door.”

The old ladies all bite their lips to prevent laughing. I don’t have their restraint and simply bark out a laugh. Archer glares at me, but it lasts a fragment of a second and then he’s laughing and shaking his head as well.