Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) (15 page)

“Nah,” Gary shook his head.
“That kind of fear smells one way. The scent he left behind was something else.”

Keegan waved them off.
“Okay whatever. I’m just hoping that we can get to whoever this leopard is and bring them in and hopefully wrap the case up.”

Melinda looked over at Keegan dubiously as t
he woods cleared out to roadway. “Well I hate to break it to you but when you mix the amount of cars that travel down this highway and one specific scent that has been covered over by said traveling cars, I lose my helpfulness. You got anything Gary?”

“He headed left.
” Gary answered without missing a beat. He shrugged at the incredulous look Melinda gave him as he started walking in that direction. It felt like as soon as he started walking he stopped. “And this is as good as it gets. Sorry Keegan. Not much help.”

“It
’s fine.” Keegan took a deep breath to calm herself. “I was hoping for a miracle.”

“Yeah
, not a tough order or anything.” Gary chuckled to himself and he turned back towards the woods. “I’m going to see if I can help direct that tech crew who is now bumbling through the woods and possibly destroying evidence as we speak.”

“Right well, Melinda,” Keegan didn’t even have to finish the thought out loud. Melinda was already side by side with Gary leaving Keegan to fend for her self to get back to the main scene.

Keegan had taken an unlucky trip through a briar patch but other than that she emerged from the copse of trees just fine. Matt was walking with Doctor Biggerson along the side of the gurney carrying the white body bag towards the medical examiner’s van.
As soon as Matt spotted her he waved Dr. Biggerson off and headed over. His eyes full of concern and a little bit of hope that her guys might have found something.

“Anything?” Matt asked as he placed a hand to the small of her back.

“Just a general direction before too much grime and exhaust got in the way of things.” Keegan pointed west, “He headed that way when he darted off but otherwise we’ve got nothing. Perhaps we’ll get something more conclusive, like some DNA, from a briar or something.”

“Speaking from experience?
” Matt grabbed her arm and inspected it. “You have to be more careful Keegan.”

Keegan stared into deep brown eyes and knew Matt was talking about more than just stumbling through a briar patch in the middle of the night. He was talking about facing down an enraged
shifter.

“I know,” Keegan nodded and
pulled her arm out of his hands. “Sometimes I forget to think about myself though and focus on the other people who could be getting hurt if I didn’t step in.”

“I think we’re all trained enough to handle ourselves if the situation cal
ls for it.” Matt glared at her. “What you did could have gotten you killed if whatever you pulled didn’t work. Despite what you may think, no one would be glad to see you hurting or dead. Not even Detective Cassidy. Just promise me something okay?”

“Depends on what it is.
” Keegan narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Matt when his voice grew soft.

“Be careful. Losing you,” Matt shook his head to stop the trail of thoughts that were making it past his brain
to mouth filter. “Just promise me that you’ll be careful.”

Keegan nodded slowly, “Yeah, okay. I promise to be more careful out here.”

“Good,” Matt ran a hand through his hair. “I’m going to head in and see what the Doc finds.”

“I need to re-walk the scene
.” Keegan mumbled more to her self then to Matt as he jogged down the driveway and slipped into his police cruiser. Things were getting far too complicated between the two of them.

Keegan ignored the fatigue that blanketed her as she walked into the victim’s house to see Leeroy standing as still as a statue and staring at the window. The window she had so obviously missed the first time. It was the eastern most window in the room and it was shattered from the outside in. Glass trailed a few steps before it was no longer visible to her eye. “This is the same person who killed the Barrs.”

The words were raw out of Leeroy’s lips and Keegan nodded grimly. It looked to be that way. A lot of the second scene mimicked the first crime scene and the
similarities were too eerie to just be a coincidence. “It looks to be the case.”

“And it’s one of their own.
” Leeroy shook his head and looked up at Keegan and pointed from the window and along the outer edges of the furniture. “He came in through the window and made a beeline for her. He wanted to kill her and he accomplished his goal. I also seriously doubt that he came back to the crime scene after all the cops and CSU’s were here. Whoever that other leopard was knew Elaine.”

“Mor
e than likely,” Keegan muttered. “He knew that she was in trouble. Otherwise he wouldn’t have come in his shifted form. He wanted to find her alive.”

“And when he saw what was going on he knew she was gone. The beast probably took over and wanted to protect the body or see for itself.” Leeroy licked his lips and shook his head at what he was seeing. “Why are they killing these people?”

“It doesn’t make sense.” Keegan finished his thought of out loud. “We’re going to get whoever is doing this though. This is going to be stopped.”

Leeroy checked his watch, “It’s only eight.”

Keegan shook her head already knowing what he was going to ask. “Homicide already has officers canvassing the area and speaking with neighbors. I need you guys to help me here.”

“T
here isn’t much I can do Keegan.” Leeroy let out a frustrated groan. “I’m good with the living victims but with this? All I can do is be a second pair of eyes on the scene.”

“And you’re eyes tend to be a little better than mine after I come close to being kitty chow for the
night.” Keegan squeezed his arm. “If you want to head back to the office and start running background on Elaine that would be great. Finding out the basics of who she was then you are more than welcome to do so but I figure you might actually pick a few things up from here.”

Keegan wasn’t so sure about the sudden lack of confidence from the djinn or the waves of concern that was wafting off of him but she needed her team here trying to gather as much evidence and information about Elise as they could before the crime scene was turned over to the family.

The chirping of her phone tore her away from her inspection of Leeroy as he moved around the main room of Elise’s home. Pulling the phone from its holster she dusted off the bits of grass off it before answering, “Morne.”

             
It was Matt. Dr. Biggerson hadn’t started the autopsy yet but one of his own men had learned that Elaine had filed a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend a little over a week ago. He was going to head over to the last known location of the boyfriend if she wanted in.

             
“Give me the address and I’ll meet you there.” Keegan pulled her pen from the collar of her shirt and scrawled out the address on the top of her hand. “Ten minutes and I’ll be there.”

              There were already three units waiting outside of a run down shack of a house when Keegan arrived. Matt had stepped away from the circle of men and over towards her, brandishing a photo of the man in question. He was a scrawny version of Clay Newton. He had the same piercing eyes and a heavy scar across his left eye. “The perps’ name is Ethan Newton, he’s the brother of Clay Newton and he tends towards assault and he’s registered for more than a few guns. We’ve got a warrant for his arrest and to enter the house.”

             
“That was quick,” Keegan whistled low underneath her breath. Misery courts worked that way though. A small town didn’t want criminals on the street and Judge Rawlins made sure the police had the resources they needed.

             
“We’re going in hot?” Keegan questioned as she plucked the hold on her gun holster open.

             
“A quick take down,” Matt nodded. “You ready?”

             
“Let’s get our guy and see if he had anything to do with any of this.” Keegan had moved in line with the rest of the officers. She was squished between Cassidy and a plain clothes cop she hadn’t met before but she trusted him to have her back if it came down to it.

             
Her heart jack-hammered in her chest and adrenalin pulsed through her veins as she watched the silent count to enter the house. She took a deep breath and flinched against the sound of the door cracking open and the heavy stutter of footsteps racing into the house and the yells from the occupants inside.

             
One of the plain clothes cops had a woman already in handcuffs and pulled away from the main scuffle. She searched the room for Ethan and found him as he slung a bony fist towards her face. The hit knocked her off balance and she stumbled to correct her self.

             
Fury and fire soared through her veins as she pursued him into the kitchen at a run. He darted around the counter and tossed a dirty plate at her. Keegan ducked and slid around the counter to plant a foot at the back of his knee. As soon as he slumped forwards she had her handcuffs out and struggled to get him restrained.

             
“Ethan Newton you’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer.” Keegan began to rattle off his rights as Detective Hollis moved over to aide her in getting Newton to his feet and out to the back of his police cruiser. As soon as the door was slammed shut he turned around with a grin.

             
“Want to tell me what’s so funny Hollis?” Keegan grunted out as she tenderly placed a hand on her nose to inspect the damage.

             
Matt lifted a hand a plucked a noodle from her hair and brushed something off of her shoulders. “If you were that hungry you should have told someone Morne. No need to make a mess of your self.”

             
“Oh can it,” Keegan rolled her eyes and began to run her hands through her hair for another noodle check and shook out her jacket.

             
“It’s just not your night is it?” Matt grinned, “First you get run down by a leopard and then had Newton’s dinner hurled at you.”

             
“You’re lucky I like you Hollis,” Keegan snapped out. “Otherwise you’d be sharing the backseat with him.”

             
“Awe but if you did that I wouldn’t let you in on the interrogation.” Matt snorted amused with himself as he slipped into his car. He rolled the window down. “As soon as you give your statement about this jack we’ll get started.”

             
Keegan gave him a mock salute as she sauntered off to her own cruiser. “Sure thing, boss.”

              Ethan Newton was the picture of what Keegan imagined a cold blooded killer. At least that was the first thought that crossed her mind as she stepped into interrogation two. His piercing blue eyes stared straight into Matt as if he hadn’t anything to fear from the detective.

             
“You want to tell us why Elaine Philips had a restraining order against you?” Matt started the questioning off lightly.

             
“I don’t know,” Ethan shifted back in his chair. “She filed that with your guys not with me. So why don’t you tell me.”

             
Matt’s eyes hardened in anger. “I’ll tell you why she filed a restraining order against you Newton. She filed it because you’re a no good asshole who thinks it’s acceptable to beat on someone just because they don’t follow your rules to a tee.”

             
“Ain’t nothing wrong with a little domestic discipline.” Ethan shrugged and Keegan curled her hands into fist.

             
“There is when you send her to the hospital twice in as many months.” Matt retorted and waited Ethan out.

             
“If you knew all that then why did you bring me here? Something happen to the bitch?” Ethan folded his still handcuffed hands on top of each other.

             
“Yeah, you could say something happened to her.” Keegan cut in and she tossed one of the photos across the table of her mauled body at Ethan. “She was murdered.”

             
“Looks like one of her own kind did her in. So why are you even bothering with me?” Ethan licked his lips and glanced back down at the photo. He couldn’t seem to pull away from the image of his ex-girlfriend covered in blood and her flesh gnarled and ripped.

             
Keegan shifted to mirror Ethan’s posture, “Detective Hollis might not know much about you besides the fact that you beat your girlfriends but I’m not a homicide detective Ethan.”

             
“Yeah?” Ethan sat up a little bit straighter. “If you’re not a homicide detective then why are you even in here?”

             
Keegan smirked as she dropped her own portfolio on the table and slowly flipped through it. “When you get arrested and sentenced in Misery you also have to submit to blood tests to see where to put you. You do remember going through that don’t you Ethan?”