Deadly Noel Read online

  His sister’s sobs resounded in his mind. “She wants to come home and help track down this maniac.”

  Hank squinted against the glare of the sun. “That’s Jessie for you.”

  “When I tell her we found Mary Lou’s body, I don’t know how much longer she’ll stay in Florida. All she’ll want to do is get her hands on the killer. When I talked to her last, she did tell me that Josh ended up coming back to Pinecrest two days ago.”

  “Josh?” Kira glanced at him. “I haven’t heard anything about him being here. You’d think he’d be on the police chief’s case and making a lot of noise because there’s a fourth victim.”

  “This is my cue to leave. Chief Shaffer is heading this way. We’ve exchanged a lot of uncivilized words this past year,” Hank said and mounted the gelding he’d ridden to the pond.

  Gabriel bent close to Kira’s ear. “Can we escape, too?”

  “We will, now that the body has been discovered. We have a date in Oklahoma City with Hannah. Let me do the talking with the chief.”

  “Worried he’ll haul me to jail again for saying what I think?”

  “Shh.”

  Bill planted himself in front of Gabriel. “If you didn’t have an ironclad alibi, I’d be hauling you to jail.”

  “Yeah, I’d be stupid enough to dispose of a dead body on my own land. Bill, give me more credit than that.”

  Kira poked her elbow into his side. “We’re leaving right now for Oklahoma City. We should be back late tonight. I can call the station when we return to Pinecrest. Then Wally can meet us at my house.”

  “Oklahoma City? Why?”

  “I want to talk to Hannah Waters about Marcie’s visits to see her.”

  “You think the killer was the guy who Marcie went to see in Oklahoma City? If so, why did he wait so long to murder her?” Bill peered over his shoulder as the van with the body drove away.

  “Even if he isn’t the killer, but only her former lover, he may know something. It’s worth the trip. Do you have a better lead?”

  “Not at the moment, but I’ll have Mary Lou’s body autopsied right away. Maybe there will be a clue on it. She’s only been dead a couple of days. The others were much longer before we found them.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up, Bill. The killer called me because he wanted us to find Mary Lou. He’s still in control.”

  The police chief snorted, his mouth firmed in a frown. “You can take Larry if you want.”

  Gabriel gritted his teeth together to bite back the words, “No, thanks. Larry is the newest officer on the force.”

  “No one knows where we’re going. This killer has struck in both the daytime and nighttime. Another officer out on the streets patrolling is a good use of Larry.” Kira inched closer to Gabriel as though to present a united front.

  Finally Gabriel said, “I’ll make sure no one follows us out of town. We’ll call Hannah when we arrive in the city. I won’t let anything happen to Kira.”

  As Gabriel and Kira strode toward his truck, the police chief said, “Remember the killer is in control.”

  Gabriel stopped, tensing.

  “Keep walking. That’s why Bill is so mad. He likes to be in control, and he isn’t.” Kira’s whispered words eased the anger mounting in Gabriel.

  “How have you managed to work with him all these years?”

  “Unlike some men, Bill is easy to read and, therefore, it’s easy to get him to do what I want.”

  Gabriel chuckled. “How much will you pay me to keep that to myself?”

  “I’ll buy dinner tonight.” She gave him a smile.

  “Well then we need to go to the fanciest restaurant in Oklahoma City.”

  * * *

  Sitting in Hannah’s living room, Kira shared a look with Gabriel. “Are you sure the guy she was seeing when she came to visit you lived in the Oklahoma City area?”

  “Yes, that’s what Marcie indicated to me. She said he worked long hours so she had to come to him.”

  “Did he pick her up here?” Kira hoped they could get a make of his car.

  “Never. He’d call her, and she’d leave right after that.”

  Gabriel leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “He called her on her cell phone?”

  “A cell phone but it wasn’t her regular one. That’s one of the things she loved about seeing him. Everything was secretive and a bit dangerous.”

  Kira slid a glance to Gabriel, his face like a sculpture in granite. “What do you mean dangerous?”

  “I’m not…comfortable talking about it sitting in front of her husband.” Hannah dropped her gaze to a spot on the floor between them.

  “I can leave if you want, but nothing you say will surprise me about Marcie. Our marriage had really been over for a few years before we started the divorce proceedings. I tried to keep it together for Abbey’s sake.”

  Hannah cleared her throat. “I didn’t know you well in school, but toward the end I didn’t like what Marcie was doing. I finally told her I wouldn’t be part of what she was doing.”

  “When was the last time she came to visit you?” According to the journal, her trips out of town continued until a month before she died.

  “Two years ago.” Hannah shifted her attention to Gabriel. “The reason I think the man was dangerous was I saw bruises on her that developed after she saw him. The time I told her not to come back she’d been crying in my guest bedroom. Instead of getting mad at the man, she got mad at me. I couldn’t stand by and watch her self-destruct.”

  He lowered his head and kneaded his nape. “You said the phone wasn’t her regular one. What was it?”

  “A burner phone she would toss away once she returned to Pinecrest. That was one of the things she liked about meeting him. She told me all the intrigue added spice to her dull life.”

  Gabriel winced. “She loved going for the forbidden. If she’d been told she couldn’t fly, she would have tried anyway.”

  If Marcie had come to Oklahoma City some time last year, Kira could track her movements through the GPS on her phone. Marcie’s was in the evidence room in a box where they stored the solved crimes. “Did she take her cell or the burner one with her when she went to meet him?”

  “She always left her cell phone here.”

  Although disappointed Marcie hadn’t taken her regular cell phone with her, the idea of tracking with GPS spurred another idea. She shifted toward Gabriel. “I wonder about the GPS on the new car she got last year. Maybe that could tell us where she went at least.”

  “You need to talk to Ruth about that. She bought the sports car for Marcie’s birthday as a reward for finally wanting to divorce me.”

  “If Josh is in town, I’ll go out to the estate and talk with him. He would know.” Finally a lead she could follow.

  Gabriel frowned. “Not without me. I don’t trust him.”

  Tension vibrated between them. She remembered the black eye he gave Josh. She hoped she wouldn’t have to be a referee between them. “Fine. We can go tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior,” he said as though he could read her thoughts.

  Kira turned to Hannah, sitting in a chair opposite her. “Anything else?”

  The woman chewed on her bottom lip. “Nothing I can think of, but if I come up with something that might help, I’ll give you a call.”

  Kira rose at the same time Gabriel did. “Thank you. Call me any time. That’s my cell phone number I gave you earlier.”

  Hannah showed them to the front door. “I knew Marcie was using me, but I got the feeling her lover was using her. After seeing him, she would always be so subdued. I wish I knew more.”

  Kira hugged Hannah. “Thanks for trying to help. If you ever come back to Pinecrest, let me know. We can have lunch.”

  Gabriel shook the woman’s hand then stepped out onto the porch.

  The chill in the air hinted at a possible chance of snow. “I’m glad we ate before coming here. I know the weatherman only said we had
a twenty percent possibility of bad weather, but that’s usually when we get it for sure.”

  “Yeah, we have a two hour drive.” Gabriel escorted her to the passenger side and opened the door.

  As she settled herself in the seat, he hurried around the front and climbed inside. She shivered. “Too bad you don’t have one of those vehicles you can start from the comfort of a warm house and turn on the heater.”

  “It doesn’t take long. Set it on whatever you want.” Gabriel backed out of the driveway. “Do you think Hannah is telling us everything?”

  “Yes. Why wouldn’t she?”

  “In Marcie’s journals, he appeared after Hannah told her not to come back. She was gone at least once every six or eight weeks to ‘see Hannah.’ After we separated, she was going out of town every other weekend.”

  “So she never met him in Pinecrest. What if he isn’t from our town? What if he isn’t the killer? I can’t see the lover coming all the way to Pinecrest to kill our four victims. Marcie, yes, but not the others. If he planned to murder women, wouldn’t he do it closer to home? A stranger would be noticed after a time or two.”

  Gabriel pulled onto the two-lane highway heading to Pinecrest. “Has the chief checked on similar murders in the Oklahoma City area?”

  “He did when the three women were found. No similar burials or kill method like the ones in Pinecrest have been done in the state. I’ll make sure Bill expands to other states.”

  “How about murders where the victims were disposed of in a body of water? Or unsolved serial killings?”

  “I’ll see what I can get. He started a pattern with the first three, but with Mary Lou, he changed it. I’d like to know why?”

  “Don’t know. The police did find his burial site. Maybe that was it. I’m having a hard time thinking like a sociopath. What drives a person to kill for fun?”

  “Control, the feeling of power they have over another. Sometimes the reason is hard for a normal person to grasp.”

  The oncoming headlights illuminated the hard planes of Gabriel’s face. “Having no control or power was what drove Marcie to rebel against her mother. How could she willingly go from Ruth to a man who dominated her? What Hannah said to us describes a dominant partner in the relationship. She never indicated to me…”

  Kira glanced at Gabriel. “What?”

  “I just remembered when we first married that Marcie wanted me to tie her to the bed. Then another time she taunted me, trying to get me to slap her. When I told her no, she backed off, but my answer had surprised her.”

  “Your reputation in high school and afterwards was a ‘bad boy’ one. Maybe she thought you liked playing rough.” Kira shook her head, even more shocked at how much she hadn’t known about Marcie. “She should have married my ex-husband instead.”

  “Why? Did he hit you?”

  “Not at first but he was always controlling. Again I didn’t see that while we were dating, but not long after we were married, if I didn’t comply with what he wanted to do, he would tear me down emotionally. I began to think something was really wrong with me. I could never please Jonathan. Finally when he hit me so hard, I fell down the staircase, cracking some ribs. That was the final straw. I left him so quickly, his head spun.” The memory of his anger and threats still caused her heart to race. “I’m beginning to feel I’m not good at reading people.” As a lawyer, she had thought she could read body language and discover what people felt but didn’t say. She realized she’d honed her skills over the past few years. She’d known Marcie wasn’t the same girl from high school, but that didn’t mean she was going to give up on their friendship. She married Jonathan while a senior in college. She had been starry eyed and naïve. That changed as an assistant DA in Tulsa and Pinecrest.

  “Sometimes we have to just put our trust in the Lord. I learned that the hard way. I didn’t have any control over going to prison. Nothing I said made a difference. Everyone thought I was the killer, especially since some of the evidence could be taken that way. What I said was considered a lie. I reached the bottom of a dark pit when my mother died. Finally, I gave it all to God. He was responsible for that couple hiking with their German shepherd and finding one of the graves in the woods.”

  “Do you ever question God?”

  “Yes. When I sent Abbey and Jessie away. When Mary Lou was murdered. But getting Jessie out of town might have saved her life. The killer could have taken her instead of Mary Lou. They were often together. I don’t know what the future holds, but evil will be around us as long as we’re alive. It’s part of this world. What we can control is how we deal with it.”

  “And I intend to find this man and see him answer for his crimes.”

  “Not without my help,” Gabriel said in the silence that hung in the air. “We are in this together. Promise me you won’t try to do this alone.”

  Warmth flowed through her at his fervent tone. She never had the sense they were a team with Jonathan. Although married, she’d always felt alone. Was that the way Gabriel had felt about Marcie? For years, Kira had thought she and Gabriel had nothing in common, but that had been Marcie’s conception of him, not the man Kira had been working with.

  Near the outskirts of Pinecrest, she glanced at the dashboard clock. Almost midnight. She gave the police station a call and told the dispatcher that she would be at her house in fifteen minutes so the woman would notify Wally.

  In the distance, the lights of town shone as though a beacon. Snow flurries, coming down faster, smashed against the windshield.

  “I hope we don’t get a lot of bad weather,” she said as more landed on the glass and melted.

  “Abbey loves the first snowfall of the year. She won’t be happy she missed it.”

  “Whereas, I don’t look forward to any during the winter. I have to drive on it, and I’ve never mastered the art.”

  “The key is to take it—”

  Something hit the windshield at the same time a sound like the backfire of a truck blasted the air.

  Chapter Eight

  “Get down!” Gabriel shouted as he floored the accelerator, his truck fishtailing on the slippery road.

  Adrenaline surged through him, followed by fury.

  He chanced a glance at Kira to make sure she was down and all right. Another shot pierced the back window and lodged in his dashboard, missing him by a few inches.

  “Are you okay?” His hands tightened about the steering wheel while he kept increasing his speed in the gentle snowfall.

  “Yes. You?” Her voice quavered.

  “Okay,” he said between clenched teeth as the right side of the top of his arm began to protest.

  He shut down the pain easing into his consciousness. No time for it—if he wanted to remain alive. He’d like to stay and fight, but he wouldn’t risk getting Kira killed. “My gun is in the glove compartment. Get it out and call 9-1-1.”

  A third bullet struck the cab of the truck. He prayed he was putting distance between them and the shooter. That was their only chance—making it to the lights of Pinecrest. A few, long miles away.

  “We’ve been shot at about ten miles out of town near the Baker’s ranch.” Kira paused as if listening to the person on the other end. “Three. We’re almost to the city limits.” Another pause. “Just a minute,” then Kira asked Gabriel, “Are we being followed?”

  He checked the rearview window. “No lights behind us.” Although that didn’t mean someone wasn’t following them. In the pitch dark, a car without lights could get close before he noticed it.

  “Okay. We will.” Kira disconnected. “Bill said to head for the police station. He has three patrol cars coming toward us. One will escort us the rest of the way while the other two search the area where it started.”

  After several tense minutes, headlights and flashing red lights came toward them on the opposite side of the highway. The cavalry. He finally took a decent breath since the first shot. Pain inched into his mind as the last patrol car turned and began traili
ng him. When he entered the outskirts of Pinecrest, he let up on his speed and eased the tight grip on the steering wheel.

  “I think you can get up now.” He glanced at Kira huddling on the floor in front of her seat.

  As more lights illuminated the truck interior, she gasped. “You’ve been shot. Your arm is bleeding.”

  “Just a scratch.”

  “Don’t play the macho man. I’m letting Bill know we’re heading to the hospital instead. I don’t want any arguing on your part.” Beneath the iron-soaked words there was a hint of a quaver.

  He made a right on Main Street and drove toward Pinecrest Hospital. If he didn’t, he could see Kira trying to wrestle the steering wheel from him, and in that moment, he didn’t have the energy to fight both her and the pain. Maybe his graze was a little more than he thought. He slid a look at his arm. Blood drenched his shirt.

  “Pull up to the emergency room. I’ll have the officer move your truck.” Kira placed another call to the police chief.

  Lightheaded, he spied the entrance he needed and made a slight course correction. He’d almost missed the turn. As he threw the truck into park, he sighed. Between the loss of blood and his lack of sleep, his vision blurred, and he wasn’t sure he could walk into the emergency room.

  Before he moved to open his door, Kira was out of the truck and rounding the front. She helped him out with the officer’s assistance. He heard her talking to Wally, but the words tumbled around in his mind like a tennis shoe in a dryer. An orderly met them halfway across the reception area with a wheelchair.

  Gabriel collapsed in it, slumping to the side.

  * * *

  “Thanks, Penny. I’ll see you in an hour when I get back from talking to Josh about Marcie’s car.” Kira punched the off button, slid her cell phone into her pocket, and left her bedroom.

  As she passed her guest room, she peered at the closed door. After spending hours at the hospital while Gabriel had his gunshot wound taken care of, she hoped never to see that place again. Twice in a week was over her quota for the year. But at least Gabriel would be all right—just in pain and weak from the blood loss. It hadn’t been a graze as he thought but the bullet had lodged in the fleshy part of his upper arm, having nicked a few blood vessels. It came from the same gun used on her at his ranch—the murder weapon.