Out Of The Shadows (HADES) (Whiskey Bend MC Series, Book #4)

Hades brought Hope back and put her into his room to get some sleep. He then put Recon at her door. He was taking no chances with her safety. He then went back to the conference room to dive into the nightmare gripping them all. He needed to see what this madman was all about. The only way to get him was to get inside his head. See what all he did. Where he went. Dig as deep as you could to get to the bottom. And there was always a bottom. Hades had seen that many times in his work for the military.

He sat down and grabbed the first file then began to read the details.

The file told the story of Molly and Deirdre Stone, a mother and infant daughter. They died in a small town in Texas eleven years ago. The only surviving member of the family was the husband Elijah Stone. Both mother and daughter died from stab wounds. This was uncharacteristic from the later murders, yet the child was found holding the Ace of Hearts.

Hades frowned. Was this the beginning of Drake’s murder spree or a totally unrelated crime? Hades replaced the file and picked up the next one. The name on this file was Lucy Mae Malone. She too lived in Texas, closer to Fort Worth than Molly. She, too, was stabbed but the killer also tortured her. As he read the file, he noted the killer was already beginning to fine-tune his craft. He was getting better at the torture part.

He picked up the next file. The name on the file was Jill Ritcher. Jill lived in a small border town in Oklahoma. Hades shut down his emotions as he read the files. It was the only way he could look at them.

A few hours later, he’d read the details of twenty-five cases. He still had a dozen cases to go, but he couldn’t read anymore right now. He went over and laid on the couch. His eyes hurt and he was dammed tired. All he wanted to do was just end this idiot killer and be done with it.

Caden came in and stared at him, he looked like he’d just gotten up.

Hades squinted up at him. “I looked over it all. And don’t tell me I shouldn’t cause I don’t have a badge. This guy is after my girl.”

Caden sighed. “I won’t tell you a damn thing. Any help we can get to catch him…I’ll take it.”

Geno came in through the door. “I’ve been looking into this. Don’t ask me any questions though. I know how those badge types are.” He glanced at Caden. “You need this, so just use it.” He slapped a file down on the table. He didn’t look at the police photos and the stack of files on the table, he simply walked out of the room.

Hades reached over and glanced at the report then handed it to Caden. “Our killer’s full name is Drake Matthew Tourmel. He escaped from Danbury Hospital for the Criminally Insane at the age of twenty. After his escape, his doctor was found with his throat cut. The doctor survived but was left mute. I guess your boy didn’t like what the man had to say.”

Caden threw the report down on the table. Running his hands through his hair, he said, “That part fits with what he’s told us. He said his doctor called him something he took offense to and he slit his throat. We need to find out why he was sent to Danbury and how long he was there.”

Hades frowned. “But if he was there any length of time, those records would be sealed juvenile records, wouldn’t they?”

Caden looked impressed at his reasoning. “Good point. But if we can convince a judge we need this information for a related case, he might be willing to release them. I’ll work on that.” He looked down at the report in his hand and frowned. “How the hell did he get this information when we couldn’t find it?”

“Don’t think you want to go there brother,” Hades warned him.

Caden shook his head. “If this info was hacked we can’t use it in a court of law, we can’t even use it to get the warrant we need to get his medical records.”

Hades snorted. “You won’t need a fucking warrant. Just let our tech guy Geno do his thing. He’ll get the info you need.”

Caden wondered about Hope’s dog. “Did Chloe make it through the surgery?”

Hades sighed as he put his arm over his tired eyes. “It was close, but she’s resting. The vet wants to keep her there for a while. It took most of the night to repair the damage. He stabbed her three times.”

“But she got a piece of him too,’ Caden replied. “I was able to follow a blood trail away from the scene, but I lost the trail. One of your men picked it up again and followed it a ways further so we might also be able to pick it up again today. We might have a fix on the area he might be in. We’ll go back now that it’s daybreak outside again and see if we can pick up the trail again.”

Charlie walked through the door. His shirt was rumpled and he threw his jacket toward the couch. He went over to the coffee cart and poured himself a cup. Then he began walking down the line-up of photos. “My god, are all these women his victims?”

Caden shrugged. “In the past eleven years Drake has killed thirty-seven women and there may be more even before then.”

“These are only the killings they found out about,” Hades said from his place on the couch. Pushing Charlie’s jacket off him he sat up and rubbed his face. “There are thirty-seven women in nine different states.”

“Sorry about that. I didn’t see you were sleeping there.” Charlie sipped his coffee and stared at the faces on the board in front of him. “Are we sure Drake killed them all?” He wondered out loud.

“Yes,” Hades said determinately.

His voice held so much hatred Caden raised his eyebrows at it. “And how did you determine that fact?” he asked.

“Look at all that’s on the board! This time he won’t skip town leaving tortured bodies in his wake.” Hades glared at him

“Maybe. It all depends on a few people being cleverer than he is and him making another mistake.” Caden pointed out.

“He will make another mistake,” Hades stated.” And when he does…” he didn’t say aloud that he planned to just end the man when they found him. These men were cops they wouldn’t agree.

Charlie dug through his jacket and brought out a report. “We tested some of the debris from the site where Chloe was stabbed yesterday and we found both dog’s blood and human blood. The human blood belongs to your suspect, Drake Tourmel.” He paused then turned to Hades. “Your Tech guy forwarded the blood results to my office and I visually compared them to the ones Danbury had and they match. Our suspect is the same man that stayed at the institute.”

“Damn,” Caden swore.

Charlie held up his hand. “Wait, I’m not finished. This morning we got a report from Chicago. They found the underbrush where Ethan was held and found different blood samples there. They tested them and found samples of our killer, and at least one female, along with a trace of blood from Ethan.” Charlie paused then continued, “They also found something else.”

“And what would that be?” Caden asked.

“They found unusual pollen.”

“What does this pollen tell us?” Hades asked.

“This pollen tells us where he’s been. This is cattail pollen. There are only a few places around town where cattail live. If we start looking in those places, we might be able to pick up his trail again,” Charlie suggested.

Caden shrugged his shoulders. “Go ahead, but don’t go off on your own. Always have at least one officer with you. There’s safety in numbers. One person alone might become a victim.”

“We’ll be careful.” Charlie waved back at him.

“You’d better be. We want to catch this asshole before he kills again, not after,” Hades added.

“Well, we caught a break, didn’t we?” Caden asked.

“Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t,” Hades cautioned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“Just because they found pollen at a place he once was, doesn’t mean that it’s fresh,” Hades pointed out. “If he’s been here for a few days, he could have brought the pollen there at any time. If he’s as clever as I think he is, he’ll be moving around a lot.”

Caden nodded, again looking impressed at the knowledge Hades seemed to have. “That’s true, but he has to be somewhere. And we will find him.”