Page 49 of Single Mom’s Undoing (Lucky Lady Reverse Harems #1)
LUCAS
I t’s hard to get that guttural moan Tassia made when she climaxed out of my head. Persistent like a subtle echo in my ears, it has kept me company all through the night and well into the morning.
One shot of coffee later, I’m standing in the doorway of another murder scene. The echo goes away, replaced by the silence of death.
“Sheriff.” Gary, one of the CSI techs, greets me with a nod as he comes out of the townhouse. “It’s a nasty sight.”
“I heard,” I mutter, letting him go about his business.
He and the others move around the crime scene taking photographs, dusting for prints, bagging and tagging evidence, and marking blood spatter while the medical examiner, Dr. Halston, checks the body.
“Hey, Doc,” I say, standing just a few feet from the deceased. “What are we looking at here?”
“Dina Kellogg. Age twenty-six,” he replies, his grey brow furrowed. “You know, I delivered her. I delivered Tanya Burrow, too.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine how that must feel.”
Mitch joins us while Tyler walks through the house, surveying the crime scene. “I guess that’s the downside of being the town’s ME and general practitioner,” Mitch mutters. “You get a glimpse of both sides of the coin.”
“Honestly, I never had high hopes for the girls,” Halston says, shaking his head. “Their parents were so young and reckless. Hell, I never even met Tanya’s father. He was just some seasonal worker passing through, according to her mother, who was barely sixteen at the time.”
“Two victims, same MO, or am I looking at this wrong?” I ask.
Dina was a pretty girl with pale blonde hair and blue eyes—now wide open and milky, devoid of life. Her lips are purple and slightly parted as she lays in a puddle of her own blood, congealing on the linoleum floor. Halston covers her up with a white sheet.
“Multiple stab wounds, and just like Tanya before her, the first blow was to the neck. She bled out fairly quickly,” the doctor says. “At first glance, she’s got all the signs of opioid addiction as well. I’m certain the tox screen will be positive for oxy or something in the oxy family.”
“There’s been a spike in drugs and drug-related crime all over the district,” Tyler reminds us as he comes back into the living room. “But two murders in less than a month?—”
“It’s escalating,” I interject. “We need to figure out a way to get ahead of it, fast.”
“But how?” Mitch asks. “We don’t have any connections.”
“I’ve been pushing for the town council to set up a Narcotics Anonymous group for months,” Halston says. “You’re aware of how many OD’s we’ve had this year alone. It was only a matter of time before some of these people wound up dead.”
“Except Dina and Tanya were murdered in cold blood,” I contend. “Something tells me there’s a connection between the two women. We just need to find it.”
Mitch goes over his notes and shakes his head in dismay. “Tanya worked at Home Depot and lived on the other side of town. Dina had a part-time job at Walmart on the south side, a few blocks from here. Tanya moved to Claryville five years ago, so we’re not going to find any school connections?—”
“There has to be something,” I insist, then turn and walk outside.
You never get used to seeing a dead body, no matter how many times, and I’m tired of stumbling upon them in Frost Valley. This was supposed to be our safe haven. Our home. Not a new battlefield for Mitch, Tyler, and me to fight on.
Tyler follows me outside. “We need to revisit Tanya’s case and go over it with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Well, it’s still open. We have no new leads, no CCTV, no witnesses?—”
“None that were willing to come forward, anyway,” Mitch chimes in as he approaches.
He has a faraway look in his eye, and I know he’s still processing the crime scene in the back of his head.
“Whoever did this was fucking brutal, man. One stab wound to the side of the neck, then a few more to the body just to make sure she dies.”
“It’s not a rage killing,” Tyler adds. “I’ll bet Halston will confirm each of the stab wounds were deliberate, targeting vital organs.”
“The killer doesn’t appear to be some grade A hitman, either. There were no signs of forced entry at either crime scene, indicating both victims knew him. They willingly let him into their homes,” I point out. “Whatever is going on here, I think it’s just the beginning.”
“We need more information,” Tyler says.
“Tell you what, let’s dig into the victims’ histories again. Tanya’s needs another look. Maybe revisiting her case will show a connection to Dina,” Mitch offers.
“I’ll have a look at all the evidence we’ve got at the station from Tanya’s case,” I reply with a nod. “Might as well start there.”
Mitch moves to get in front of me. “Hold on, Sheriff. You’re off to see Tassia, aren’t you?”
I lift an eyebrow. “Your point being?”
My best friends and brothers in arms exchange amused glances. I know what this is about, and I shouldn’t entertain it, but we’ve always been exceptionally good at compartmentalizing, especially where our jobs are involved. Death may be present in the house behind us, but out here life still flows.
“We got close last night,” I confess as we head back to my car.
“I knew it,” Tyler says. “I could tell.”
“How?” I ask, giving him a hard look.
“From the way you both actively avoided eye contact this morning. It was almost comical,” Tyler replies, his smile fading. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”
“No, it’s a terrible idea, given the circumstances. Tassia and I agreed to not let it happen again.”
“I can’t exactly blame you,” Mitch says with a slight shrug. “I mean, she’s something else, isn’t she?”
“She’s also part of the New Beginnings program, which is how she ended up working in our police station,” I bluntly remind him.
“Spare me the holier-than-thou nonsense,” Mitch waves my concern away.
“She’s good people. Tim vouched for her, and she’s proven herself repeatedly.
Trustworthy, hardworking, attention to detail, always on time.
Whatever happened in her past, that’s where she obviously left it.
Besides, the program would’ve never selected her for a position in the evidence room if the system didn’t give her a green flag. ”
He makes a fair point. I’m just looking for reasons to justify putting distance between us and Tassia, which, thanks to the cabin fire yesterday, is going to be quite the challenge.
Once the crime scene is processed and the body is taken to the morgue, Tyler, Mitch and I head back to the station. The CSI team will scope the scene and handle the evidence transport.
Immediately after arriving at the office, I pull out Tanya’s case file.
“Any word from Paul regarding Tassia’s cabin?
” Mitch asks while Tyler helps himself to a cup of coffee from my personal espresso machine.
“They’re investigating today, now that the place has cooled down and it’s aired out.
But they suspect a shorted-out fuse is the likely cause. That cabin is old as hell.”
“True, and Tim never got around to replacing the electrical circuits,” Mitch replies.
“He must feel awful,” I grumble. “His heart was in the right place.”
“He’s also overwhelmed with a second baby on the way,” Tyler adds. “Still, I appreciate how much he’s done to help Tassia settle in to Frost Valley. Not many social workers would go the extra mile like he did.”
I nod slowly. “It’s my understanding that Tim and Tassia go back to when she was a kid in the foster system. And based on his letter of recommendation in her employment file, he thinks the world of her.”
Further proof that whatever happened in Tassia’s past could’ve just been a one-time, life-changing mistake that taught her a hard lesson.
I’ve come across my fair share of people who broke the law and ultimately never strayed from the right path again.
She’s been keeping herself quiet and out of trouble since she moved here.
“Let’s look at Dina’s case for a minute,” Tyler says, taking a seat across from my desk while I settle behind my computer.
“No obvious connection to Tanya, but there is a known history of drug abuse. I just pulled her up in the system. She was arrested last year for possession with the intent of distribution in New York City. No charges were filed, though.”
“Halston says she’s OD’d before, and so has Tanya,” Mitch adds.
“Where are we with the drug distribution system in and around Frost Valley?” I ask, pulling up a mind-map on my computer screen listing names of several known dealers in the district. I’m still missing some key details, though, enough for it to be an incomplete puzzle begging me to solve it.
“We’ve got a few Silver Stallions MC boys acting as dealers, for sure,” Tyler says. “We’ve picked them up numerous times over the years, but they’ve never had enough dope on them to warrant charges that would stick.”
“They’re careful,” I say. “That motorcycle club has been nothing but trouble since they were founded.”
“Remember when they tried to reel us in when we were kids?” Mitch chuckles as he recalls the moment. “You told them to go fuck themselves.”
“That’s right,” Tyler says, giving me a broad grin. “Their president approached us just outside Murray Park. What did he tell you, Lucas?”
I remember the moment. Vividly. “He said we could join them and ride our own hogs before we turned sixteen if we ran some errands for them across town, well aware that my father was a state cop. He was beyond audacious.”
“And what was your reply?” Tyler scratches his jaw. “I can’t remember the words, exactly, but it pissed him off pretty bad.”
“I told him I’d rather wait a few years and arrest him instead.”
Mitch laughs out loud. “That’s right. Old Vince Callaghan couldn’t believe the words coming out of your mouth.”
“It’s a shame he died of liver disease before I could keep my promise. His replacement is even worse.” I pull up his file from the system.