Debra Webb - Depraved (Faces of Evil Book 10) Read online

  DEPRAVED

  FACES OF EVIL

  Debra Webb

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 Debra Webb, Pink House Press

  Edited by Marijane Diodati

  Cover Design by Kendel Flaum

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  PINK HOUSE PRESS

  WebbWorks

  Huntsville, Alabama

  First Edition November 2014

  This book is dedicated to a very special angel, Samantha Nicole Custer. “May you always swim with the dolphins and fly with the butterflies!”

  There are so many people I need to thank. First and foremost, my relentless and fearless editor Marijane Diodati, and all the amazing members of my street team who are too numerous to mention. I absolutely do not know how I would have done this without you. You continue to be my rock and my heart. May we rock on for many years to come! Finally, I want to thank my loyal readers. You continue to make my dream of storytelling come true.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  About the Author

  “Original sin, therefore, appears to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused through all the parts of the soul...”

  John Calvin

  1

  Birmingham, Alabama

  Friday, September 10, 10:50 a.m.

  Deputy Chief Jess Harris was furious… and just a tiny bit terrified. “You can’t drive any faster, Lieutenant?”

  Clint Hayes merged into traffic on I-20 West headed toward Birmingham proper before glancing at her, frustration sparking in his dark eyes. “Since I don’t have a specific address, I can’t see how breaking the speed limit will get us there any faster.”

  Another rush of fury tilted the maddening battle of emotions tugging at Jess. Rather than argue with him, she reached for her cell and tried Dan’s number again. Chief of Police Daniel Burnett’s cell went straight to voicemail. The band of worry and fear wound a little tighter around her chest. Dan had called Hayes less than fifteen minutes ago and warned that serial killer Eric Spears had been trapped. The trouble was Dan had purposely left out the location to keep Jess away from the line of fire.

  Spears, aka the Player, had tortured and murdered dozens of women. His obsession with Jess had started months ago. For weeks he had been getting closer and closer to her, targeting people somehow related to her—some she hadn’t even known existed until they became victims.

  Was it possible Spears had finally made a mistake?

  For more than five years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had searched for the serial killer known as the Player. As a profiler at Quantico’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, Jess had studied the Player’s depraved work. She had helped build his profile. The truth was she’d gone far beyond developing the description and definition that painted a picture of the sort of monster he was. She’d crossed certain lines in a misguided attempt to find him. Imprudent or not, her efforts were the sole reason they had a name and a face to go with the profile of a serial killer who sat at the highest level of the evil scale.

  Jess squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She was also the reason he’d been released from custody after being questioned. Many more had died because of her failure to tie him to the evidence she’d discovered.

  Nearly two decades with the Bureau and she had taken a rookie risk. Spears wasn’t the only one who’d grown obsessed. Her need to stop him had prompted her to break the rules, ultimately ending her career. She’d landed back in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, as a deputy chief assigned to the new Special Problems Unit, a hybrid major crimes division.

  And Spears had followed her.

  Dammit. She stared at her unnervingly quiet cell phone. Why wasn’t someone giving her an update? Desperate to find out what was going on and where the hell it was happening, Jess tried the cells of the other three members of her team. The voicemails of Detective Lori Wells, Sergeant Chet Harper, and Officer Chad Cook echoed one after the other in her ear. Making one last ditch effort, she tried Buddy Corlew, an old friend and local PI, who apparently had located Spears. How he had managed the feat when a multi-agency task force hadn’t been able to do more than narrow down the approximate vicinity of where Spears might be was beyond Jess. Like the others, Buddy’s cell went straight to voicemail.

  She wanted to scream. “You’re certain Chief Burnett didn’t give you some idea of where they were headed?”

  Hayes kept his attention on the unhurried flow of traffic as if this were a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive. “We’ve been over this twice already.”

  “This is not the time to try my patience, Lieutenant.”

  “Chief Burnett said Corlew had Spears cornered and he needed backup,” Hayes repeated. “Wells and Harper were already en route to provide that backup. Burnett didn’t want you involved so he refused to give me the location. Since the op is off the grid, there’s no one to call for details.”

  How could Buddy keep this from her? As if she didn’t know. Along with Dan and her team, Buddy wanted to protect Jess from Spears. Another blast of outrage pumped through her veins. If Spears had been found she should be there. She had her suspicions about why Dan hadn’t called anyone else on the Joint Task Force. If there was any chance there was a leak, either in the BPD or the Bureau, Dan didn’t want Spears getting a heads up.

  This time, Dan was the one taking a huge risk. Spears had made his intentions toward Dan clear—he wanted him dead. This whole scenario could be nothing more than a way to get Dan where he wanted him. Dammit!

  Jess had to do something. “They could be walking into a trap. I should call Chief Black.”

  Hayes shot her a look of disbelief. There was no love lost between Jess and Black and everyone on her team knew it. “And tell him what?”

  Jess held her breath and counted to ten. If the man wasn’t the only member of her team handy she would fire him right this instant. “You have a better idea, Lieutenant?”

  Before Hayes could respond, the cell phone clutched in Jess’s hand clanged that old-fashioned ringtone.

  Sylvia calling.

  A frown furrowed its way across Jess’s forehead. Dr. Sylvia Baron was a good friend and the associate coroner of Jefferson County. Jess’s frown deepened. Why would she be calling? Her younger sister, Nina, had gone missing. Had she been found? Jess’s heart took a painful di
p. She hoped the news wasn’t bad.

  “You have news about Nina?” Jess asked rather than bother with a greeting.

  “No.”

  Somehow, Sylvia packed enough uncertainty and worry into that single syllable word for Jess to comprehend it was undeniably bad news. Or maybe it was the distinct sound of sirens wailing in the background.

  “You’ve heard from Dan?” Jess braced for the worst.

  “I haven’t spoken to Dan. It’s Chad, Jess. We’re headed to the ER at UAB. You need to come. You need to come now.”

  Chad Cook was the youngest member of her SPU team. Jess hadn’t been able to reach him last night or this morning, and then all hell had broken loose. Come to think of it, Hayes hadn’t mentioned him in connection with the backup being provided to Buddy either.

  A new kind of fear crawled up Jess’s spine. “What happened?”

  “He’s lost a lot of blood…”

  Jess latched on to the fact that Sylvia didn’t use the past tense. “He’s alive.”

  “Barely.”

  “I’m on my way.” She and Hayes were less than half an hour out.

  “He was damned lucky, Jess. Another two or three minutes and he would’ve bled out. It’s…” Sylvia’s voice broke. “It’s like the others. We’re at the ER. I have to go.”

  The call ended. There was no reason for Sylvia to explain further. Jess understood perfectly what she meant.

  Spears had done this.

  University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, 11:30 a.m.

  Jess paced the small waiting room. Cook had been taken into surgery before she and Hayes arrived. She wished she had been able to see him. There were things she would have liked to say, starting with I’m sorry. She had asked for Cook to be moved to her team after he helped in the first case she’d worked with the Birmingham Police Department. Now he was fighting for his life.

  She stalled in the middle of the small room and focused on calming her runaway heart. Chad Cook was twenty-three years old. He had his whole life ahead of him. He didn’t deserve to die just because this sociopath wanted to get to Jess. Too many people had died for that reason already. With every fiber of her being she wanted to stop this son of a bitch.

  She should have stopped him before now. What he wanted was no mystery. He wanted Jess. She was to be the final act in his sadistic game.

  Jess’s hand went to her belly. The situation was even more complicated now. Decisions about her personal safety were no longer just about her. The child she carried had to be protected. Her mind still reeled at the idea that she was pregnant. The concept had taken some adjusting to and, surprisingly, she had come to realize that this was what she wanted more than anything. She and Dan had waited a very long time for the wedding they were planning and to have a family.

  Her heart squeezed as her thoughts went once more to Dan and her team. Was it possible that Spears had actually been found? Could this nightmare really be nearing an end? She stared at the phone she still held in her hand and willed it to ring.

  The waiting room door opened and Sylvia walked in. The sleek lavender sheath she wore bore the crimson stains of her attempts to stop Cook from bleeding out. Their gazes met and pain twisted with a vengeance inside Jess. Please, God, don’t let him die.

  “How is he?”

  “He’s holding on.”

  Sylvia’s words were hollow. The usually unflappable ME looked ready to fall apart. The dark circles under her eyes were evidence of how little sleep she’d had. Her sister had been missing for at least twenty-four hours. No one knew better than Jess that every passing hour lessened the likelihood of her being found alive.

  Especially if Spears was involved.

  Jess took Sylvia by the arm and guided her to the small grouping of chairs in the center of the room. “I know this is difficult.” Sylvia and Cook had been intimately involved for a while now. Though Jess wasn’t sure the relationship could be called anything more than friends with benefits, the terms were irrelevant at a time like this. “I need as many of the details as you can recall from the scene.”

  “I called him several times this morning.” Sylvia’s face pinched. “I hadn’t spoken to him since Nina… since yesterday. He’d said he was coming to help.” She shook her head and batted her eyelids to hold back the emotion shining in her eyes. “He never showed up. I assumed he was needed at work.” A weary shrug lifted her shoulders. “I was too focused on the search for Nina to think about him again until this morning.”

  Jess hugged her. This was the first time she had seen the tough as nails ME so shaken. Nina was Sylvia’s only sibling and she suffered from serious mental health issues. She’d disappeared from a prestigious private facility. In Jess’s opinion, there was no question about Spears involvement. Nina was Dan’s ex-wife and that made her a target. Another of Dan’s exes had been murdered just days ago. Though they hadn’t been able to make a connection between Meredith Dority’s death and Spears, Jess sensed he was responsible. She suspected all of this, as well as the crash and burn of Dan’s career, had been orchestrated to some degree by Eric Spears.

  Sylvia inhaled a deep, bolstering breath. “I was headed to the office this morning to sign off on a couple of reports and it hit me that I hadn’t heard from Chad. I changed course and dropped by his place.”

  Sylvia lapsed into silence. The woman was no doubt running on nothing more than adrenaline. Jess knew that routine all too well.

  “I knocked several times, but he didn’t answer. His car was outside and his dogs were barking.” She shrugged. “I decided he was in the shower. When I started to unlock the door I realized it wasn’t locked. I opened the door and called his name, but he didn’t answer so I went inside.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “The smell of blood was thick in the air.”

  “Any signs of a struggle?”

  Sylvia shook her head. “None. He was just sitting on the floor, propped against the sofa as if he’d been watching television. Blood… was pooled around him.”

  Jess had made the call to secure the scene right after she’d spoken to Sylvia. Ensuring his dogs were taken some place safe was next on her list.

  “On the way here,” Sylvia went on, “I noted multiple bruises and ligature marks that were hours old.” She moistened her lips. “Apparently after beating Chad, the bastard tied a tourniquet around his right thigh. He freed Chad’s right hand so he could hold the tourniquet himself, then he sliced into the femoral artery and left Chad to die.” Sylvia cleared her throat. “I’m guessing by the sheer volume of blood on the floor that Chad struggled with the tourniquet for an extended period.” She pressed a hand to her throat. “I honestly don’t know how he’s still alive.”

  Jess gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. “You saved his life.”

  Sylvia swiped at a tear that slipped past her firm hold on her emotions. “I should have checked on him sooner.”

  “You checked on him as soon as you could,” Jess reminded her. “He’s damned lucky you did.” Dread knotted in her belly. “I should call his parents.”

  “I called his mother as soon as they took him into surgery.” Sylvia grabbed a tissue from the box on the table next to her. “His parents should be here any minute.”

  “Can I call anyone for you?” Sylvia’s family didn’t need to wonder where she was. They were overwhelmed already.

  A few feet away Hayes answered his cell. Jess hoped it was news from Dan. As soon as she learned where he was she intended to drive straight there and give him a piece of her mind. How could he leave her in the dark like this? What had he been thinking?

  That he wanted to protect their child. Still, that was no excuse to leave her out of the loop completely. Except he knows you too well, Jess.

  Sylvia managed a faint smile. “No. Thank you. I should call Daddy and see if there’s news on Nina.”

  “Let me know if you need me,” Jess urged as they both rose from their seats. With the Spears situation escalating, she felt way behind the curve
on everything else going on around her, including the search for Nina.

  “I will. Thank you.”

  Sylvia stepped away to make her call. Standing alone in the middle of the room Jess felt suddenly powerless. For nearly twenty years she had studied the faces of evil and learned that motive was the key to finding and stopping predators like Spears. Yet, all that knowledge and experience seemed utterly useless when it came to him. He was brilliant and possessed endless resources that made finding him like chasing a ghost. How did you stop a man who made no mistakes and who could disappear any time he liked?

  Hayes appeared next to her. “Chief Burnett called. We have their location.”

  Anticipation charged through Jess, daring her to hope. “Spears?”

  Hayes shook his head.

  The hope bled out of her. “What about the hostages?” Spears had abducted four women in the past month. Rory Stinnett, Monica Atmore, Lisa Knowles, and the most recent victim who had not yet been identified. Four young women who, like Chad Cook, had their entire lives ahead of them.

  “Three are in the house and they’re alive.”

  Relief rushed through Jess, and then she frowned. “What about the fourth?”

  Hayes shrugged. “She’s not there.”

  Jess scrubbed at her forehead as she analyzed this news. “He takes one and leaves three behind… alive?”

  “Why would he leave them alive?” Hayes asked the same question nagging at Jess.

  The only possible answer had a smile stretching across her lips for the first time today. “Because he wasn’t expecting company, Lieutenant.”

  Spears or someone in his close circle of followers had finally made a mistake.

  2

  669 Argyle Drive, 12:50 pm

  BPD patrol units were everywhere. Jess doubted the residents of this exclusive neighborhood had seen this many cops at once anywhere except in old television footage of riots downtown. As Hayes passed through the official barricade at the end of the block, half a dozen reporters shouted questions at Jess.