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“Either get the fuck out of my way, or I swear to Christ, I will?—”
“Let them through!” Hansen hollered from the other end of the hall, preventing Cade from a charge of threatening a law enforcement official.
The uniformed officer who’d blocked his and Liam’s path finally stepped aside. The rest of the team had already left the office to go to their respective homes before Cade had gotten the call.
He figured he’d wait to fill them in on the details once he actually knew what the fuck to tell them. After that, they’d all go hunting.
“He’s just doing his job,” Liam reminded him as they stormed toward the morgue’s entrance.
“I know,” Cade growled, barely keeping himself in check. “But every second we waste is another second she doesn’t have.”
He couldn’t believe this was happening. He couldn’t believe that murdering son of a bitch had his Kerrigan. Sweet, funny, intelligent, Kerrigan.
The last time they’d seen each other was that morning before they’d both left for work. He’d been standing in the kitchen of his apartment, and she’d come in looking like a fucking angel in the flesh.
They’d had sex right there, in the middle of the kitchen floor. It had caused them both to run several minutes behind schedule, but it had been worth it. She was worth it. The woman was worth his last breath. And now…
“He has her, Liam. That motherfucker has her.”
The other man held his tablet in one hand while using the other to grab onto Cade’s shoulder. “We’ll get her back, brother.” Liam gave him a tight squeeze. “You just have to keep the faith.”
“Hey.” Hansen greeted them, propping open the morgue’s door with a palm.
The man’s sober expression turned Cade’s already churning gut.
“Show me,” he ordered, not giving two shits that he held no authority over the man.
Hansen had been around the block with Delta Team enough times to know when it came to the team members and their women’s safety, there wasn’t anyone on the face of the planet they’d let stand in their way.
“He’s in here.”
He and Liam followed the other man into what he’d always thought of as the morgue’s “cooler”. The room with all the metal lockers that were big enough for bodies. This one was lined with damn things on two of the four sides, along with a handful of metal gurneys pushed to the side to leave room to walk down modest room’s center.
The place was crawling with cops and techs. Bright flashes from cameras went off around him. A few plastic yellow markers had been strategically placed to keep track of possible evidence. And when Cade followed Hansen deeper into the room, he saw the carnage that had been left by a killer.
“Jesus.” Liam shook his head as they stared down at Brayden Walsh’s dead body.
The entire midsection of his shirt was stained a dark crimson red, and a huge gash had been ripped through the center of his flesh. On the floor, next to where the dead man lay, was the Greek sign for Omega.
It had been drawn in the center of a shiny white tile, in what he could only assume was Walsh’s blood.
“He wants credit for the kill,” Cade muttered low. “It’s not his usual vic—male. Still dressed. Only one stab wound that we can see. But he still wanted to make sure we knew it was him.”
“But why?” Liam asked. “You think he’s worried we wouldn’t figure it out?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He knows we would eventually. This wasn’t about worry. This was about him being fucking cocky.”
“He doesn’t think we can catch him.” Hansen surmised what Cade was thinking. “He’s taunting us.”
“Exactly.” Cade agreed.
“Is there a separate server for the cameras in the basement?” Liam looked to Hansen and waited.
Hansen eyed the tablet in the man’s right hand and blew out a slow, even breath. “If you’re doing what I think you’re doing, I’m inclined not to answer.”
“Dude.” Liam shot him a look. “Seriously?”
“My people checked the footage as soon as they arrived on the scene,” Hansen informed them both. “Dr. Rawlins’ face was clear to see, but our guy was wearing a surgical mask and a cap. Unfortunately there’s not enough there for facial rec.”
But Liam was already shaking his head. “Just need to be pointed in a direction, Detective. You don’t even have to say a word.”
Knowing Liam had just given him plausible deniability, Hansen remained tight-lipped while pointing a finger toward the office they’d passed when they first came in.
“Thanks, man.” Liam slapped Hansen on the shoulder and turned to leave. “Be back in a flash.”
With his teammate’s attention set on accessing the morgue’s security cam footage, Cade turned back to Hansen.
“Where’s the phone?”
“Over here.”
The two men walked a few steps back toward the room’s entrance. Hansen motioned to a phone on the floor next to one of the evidence markers.
Cade immediately recognized it as Kerrigan’s. The screen was smashed, the glass spiderwebbing out from the center as if someone had stomped on it with the back of their heel.
Tears welled in his eyes, and the inside of his nose burned with the urge to cry. But he blinked them away, along with the horrific images that kept threatening to overrun his worried mind.
He had to be strong. Kerrigan needed him to keep his shit together. Anything less was unacceptable. Anything less could get her killed.
If she wasn’t already?—
No!
He pushed that thought as far the fuck away as he could. He wouldn’t think like that. He couldn’t. Because the minute he started to lose hope?—
“She’s still alive.” Hansen stood beside him, shoving his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants. “If he wanted her dead, he would’ve killed her here and left her for us to find.”
That was Cade’s hope, too. He just had to force himself not to think about what she might be going through in the meantime.
Hold on, sweetheart. Please. For me. For us, just…hold on. I promise I will find you.
The ding from an incoming text tore him away from the silent plea. He reached into his back pocket to grab his phone, frowning when he saw Liam’s name.
Liam: Heads up. A Sgt. Bowen just came in. Got pissed when I told him I was Delta Team.
Cade: 10-4 thx
“Bowen’s on his way.” He shoved his cell back into his pocket.
Cursing under his breath, Hansen ran a frustrated hand over his square jaw. “Great. Just what I need.”
“Hansen!” Bowen’s angry growl echoed as the scowling man entered the room. “Why the hell am I just now hearing that this vic is related to my serial killer case, and why the fuck did you give permission to some Delta Team guy to access the hospital’s cameras?”
“With all due respect, Sergeant, I don’t answer to you. Second, you don’t come into my crime scene?—”
“—it’s mine, now.”
“—shouting at me like I’m a fucking child. And third…” Hansen continued without so much as a flinch. “That Delta Team guy may be our only chance at getting an ID on the son of a bitch we all want off the streets.”
If looks could kill, Hansen would have dropped dead where he stood. And when Bowen turned his infuriated gaze Cade’s way…
“You want to explain what you and your teammate doing here, Mr. Ellis?”
“I called them,” Hansen answered before Cade could.
“The man who killed Brayden Walsh also kidnapped Dr. Rawlins. We’re just here trying to help find her before…” His voice cracked, but he cleared it and went on. “Before it’s too late.”
Bowen took a step closer. With his hands resting on his hips, he tilted his head to the side and narrowed his gaze. “Funny you should mention the vic. Someone on the hospital staff informed one of my men that you paid him a visit yesterday evening. Bet they find your face on the security cams, too.”
“Yeah, I saw Walsh. We went into a doctor’s lounge, we had a short, private conversation, and then I left. Which, by the way, would also be on that same footage.”
You sanctimonious prick.
“What was the conversation about?”
“I just told you…it was private.”
“You know, I’ve been doing some checking of my own. Turns out, Dr. Walsh and Dr. Rawlins used to be a thing. Maybe…” He shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe you were afraid they were going to rekindle that old flame. You wanted the competition out of the way, so you kill Walsh in a fit of jealous rage. Dr. Kerrigan walks in and catches you, so of course, now you’re totally fucked. Only way out is to get rid of her, too. So you kill her, zip her up in a body bag, dress up like a doctor, and roll her right out the fucking door.”
Cade stumbled back a step, the breath in his lungs refusing to move. “B-body bag? What the hell are you saying? He put her in a…” He spun his gaze around to Hansen’s. “Did he really put Kerrigan in a fucking body bag? ”
He bent over at the waist and slapped his hands to his knees, forcing his lungs to suck in several slow, deep breaths to keep from getting sick.
Oh, God. Dear Jesus, no.
“Nice try, Mr. Ellis. Pretty good acting, too. But I think we should continue this conversation down at my precinct.”
That little comment sobered him up real fast.
“The fuck?” Cade stood tall once more, refusing to let this man think he was anything less than strong enough to kick his aging ass. “I’m not going anywhere unless it’s to find Kerrigan.”
“You were one of the last people to see this vic alive,” Bowen stated flatly. “A witness will swear she saw you storm out of that lounge looking pissed off at the world just minutes before Dr. Walsh left that same room.”
“You really going to stand there and accuse me of killing Walsh?” He stared back at the man as if he’d lost his damn mind.
“Last one to see him. Heated argument. The guy had a thing for your girl. The DA’s gotten convictions on less.”
“Try to pin this one on me.” Cade put himself right in the other man’s personal space. “But if you waste your time…the CPD’s time…and Kerrigan dies, that shit’s going to be on you. And that happens, Sergeant, I’ll have your badge so fast, it won’t matter which connections you think you have. ’Cause I can promise you, I’ll win that fight. Every fucking time.”
“You smug son of a?—”
Bowen made the mistake of putting his hand on Cade’s chest, and with that one ill-advised move…
He. Was. Done.
“The woman I love is missing, goddamn it!” He filled his fists with the front of Bowen’s shirt. “Now are you going to keep standing here trying to start a fucking pissing match, or are you going to do your job and help catch a fucking killer?”
Several officers turned and began walking their way, but Hansen raised up a hand to order them back.
“He’s right, Bowen.” The detective had Cade’s back. “We’re all on the same side here, and we want the same thing. Locating and securing Dr. Rawlins is top priority. But we’ll all do whatever we can to help bring the monster who took her to justice.”
Justice.
Cade knew exactly what kind of justice he wanted to bring to the fucker’s front door. There was only one problem…
“We don’t even know where to start,” Bowen growled out Cade’s exact thoughts. “Without a fucking clue as to who this guy is, we’re in the same damn spot we’ve been in from the start. This guy…whoever the fuck he is…he’s constantly one step ahead of us, and I don’t know why.”
“I can help with that.” Liam re-entered the morgue, tablet in hand.
His steps were purposeful, his expression more serious than usual. And when his dark eyes slid to Cade’s…
He found something.
“I know you aren’t going to want to see this, but it explains why the dump sites were always so clean.” Liam looked at Sergeant Bowen. “Your people couldn’t find a shred of forensic evidence tying anyone to any of the bodies, right?”
“So?”
Liam spun the tablet around so they could all see the screen. “So this is the reason why.”
Son of a…
One half of the screen was a still from the morgue’s security feed. The other…
Detective Vincent Morales’s official headshot for the CPD.
“The fuck you say.” Bowen shook his head, his eyes shooting away from the screen. “I don’t know what kind of game you boys are playing, but I don’t have time for?—”
“It’s not a game, Sergeant.” Cade couldn’t take his eyes off the fucking screen. “The facial rec matches.”
Still in denial, the angry man turned his fury toward Hansen. “Your people said there wasn’t enough for facial rec.”
“There wasn’t.” Hansen gave Liam a furrowed brow. “How did you?—”
“My software is designed to pinpoint smaller and fewer areas of the face with greater accuracy.”
“Bullshit.”
Cade finally looked away from the tablet to shoot Bowen an infuriated stare. “It’s not bullshit, and we’re not playing a fucking game. Your guy did this, and if we don’t find him soon, he will claim another life.”
Kerrigan’s precious, irreplaceable life.
The tablet in Liam’s hand dinged with a notification. He turned it around, tapped the screen a few times, and then…
“Oh, shit.”
“What?” Cade, Hansen, and Bowen all asked in unison.
“Holy hell, our boy’s been busy.”
“What is it?” Cade asked Liam directly.
“Sergeant, Detective Morales transferred here from Alatanta, right?”
“Atlanta, and before that, he worked in Memphis. But what does that have to do with?—”
Liam looked at Cade first before meeting Bowen’s gaze. “I cross-referenced keywords from the Omega Killer’s crime scene reports?—”
“How the fuck did you get ahold of?—”
“Does it matter?” Cade barked. Dipping his head to Liam, he silently motioned for his teammate to go on.
“Anyway,” Liam continued. “I cross-referenced several key words from both the cops notes and the M.E.’s reports. I purposely ran a broader scope, leaving out the Omega carvings in the bodies on the off chance that’s something new Morales may have picked up along the way.”
“And?” Hansen glanced at the tablet and back up to Liam.
“And…I got several hits in two different cities other than Chicago. Anyone wanna take a guess as to which ones?”
“Atlanta and Memphis,” Bowen muttered, finally accepting the truth he hadn’t wanted to see. “That lying, two-faced, psychopathic son of a fucking bitch!”
Cade and the others watched as the betrayed and angry man spun around and shoved one of the steel gurneys so hard it slammed into the wall of body lockers behind it.
“We’ll get him,” Cade assured the other man.
They had to.
“Yeah? How? You have some magic ball that’s gonna tell you where they are?”
“Nope.” He shook his head and turned his trusted gaze toward Liam. “I’ve got something better.”
“Not to toot my own horn here, Sarge, but he’s right.” Liam set the tablet down onto the nearest gurney and began typing faster than Cade could keep up. “Morales is smart, but he’s also cocky as fuck. He doesn’t think there’s any way he’s going to get caught. Can’t exactly blame him, given that he’s been doing this since at least Memphis, but things are different now.” He kept his focus on the screen. “We know it’s him. And because he believes himself to be above everyone else around him to the point he plays God with his victims’ lives. He gives them the Omega, or the ‘ultimate limit’, as it translates from Greek. But that same psychopathic arrogance is the one thing that’s going to help us catch him.” Liam paused a few seconds before a slow wide smile began spreading across his scruff-covered face. “Bingo.”
“Tell me you got him.” Cade waited with bated breath.
“It’s the oldest play in the book.” His brilliant teammate picked up the tablet to show them the electronic map. “All you have to do is follow the money.”
“You’re sure?” Bowen asked, sounding as hopeful as Cade felt. “Because the CPD hasn’t been able to find a fucking thing on this guy.”
“Yeah, well…” Cade shared a look with Liam that said it all. “The CPD doesn’t have him.”
“I’ll get a team together,” Hansen offered. “Not too many, though. Can’t risk spooking him.” He turned to Sergeant Bowen. “What do you say? A handful of my best guys with yours?”
Bowen nodded, finally proving he could be a team player. “I’ll round them up now.”
It was the first time since answering Hansen’s call that Cade felt hope. Real hope. He just prayed they weren’t already too late.
Hang in there, baby. Just a little while longer. I’ll be there before you know it.