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

He couldn’t stop staring at the house. It wasn’t any different from any other house on the block, yet he knew it was. The owner of this house had survived an attack that brought her so close to death her survival was a miracle. He didn’t want to do this, but he knew he had no choice.

He walked to the front door and rang the bell.

He heard a dog bark excitedly then he heard footsteps coming toward him. This was one visit he’d been hoping he would never have to make.

She opened the door and when she saw who was there, her smile faded and became strained. “You are the last person I thought I would see on my doorstep.”

“I know Harper. I guess we didn’t keep in touch for a reason.”

“I hate that name. It’s a name you gave to me, not my real name.” Her tilted her head to one side. “Why are you here now?”

Caden hesitated. “I need to tell you something and I don’t want you to panic.”

Harper paled. “I thought the case was closed? I thought you people killed that bastard?”

“We thought so too.”

Harper swayed. “Please don’t tell me something’s changed.”

Caden sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to.”

Harper inhaled sharply, deeply. “He’s back, isn’t he? He’s here in town, and he’s coming back for me, isn’t he?”

“He’s back for all of us.”

Harper frowned. “All of us?”

“He not only wants you, but Charlie and I are on his list of things to do as well.”

Harper leaned against the doorframe. “So now what happens?”

Caden shifted on his heels. “We get him before he can get to you.” He gently nudged her aside and let himself in. He glanced around the neighborhood before he closed the rest of the world out.

~* * * *~

Caden felt hollow as he parked his car at the police station later that evening. All the strength was gone from his body and his mind felt numb. He knew it wouldn’t be long before the rage set in. He wanted to feel something and he knew it would kick up his adrenalin.

As he entered the office area of the precinct, he saw Jake on the phone. Reaching his desk, he pulled out his chair and collapsed on the seat. He reached into his shirt pocket and grabbed his pack of cigarettes. Lighting one he blew the smoke toward the ceiling.

He knew it was a smoke-free office but he needed a fix. He inhaled another quick drag and rubbed the cigarette out on the bottom of his shoe.

Jake finished his call and hung up the phone. He turned to glare at Caden. “I thought you quit smoking?”

“I thought so too.” He smiled. “But I had a taste of something unpleasant and needed to wash it away. Did you find anything?”

“I found plenty. I went on the F.B.I. exchange and got a hit almost immediately. The creep has been busy in the last five years.” He reached for a printout and handed it to Caden.

Caden scanned the paper. “So he went to Texas, huh. He does get around doesn’t he?”

The printout from the F.B.I. offices in Dallas revealed that four young women in Dallas had died in the same manner as their Jane Doe. Before then he’d been in St Louis and Billings, Montana. The killer had taken the lives of nine young women since his last visit here.

“Who was on the phone?” Caden asked, as he pulled out his desk drawer. He kept a bowl of hard candy from his days of quitting smoking. He needed a piece of candy or another cigarette, and he knew Jake would give him grief if he lit up another one in the office.

Jake picked up a legal pad. Glancing at it, he told his partner. “When I accessed the F.B.I. database, the killer’s M.O. threw up a red flag. An agent named Cole Trainer called back to inquire about our investigation. He was very helpful and wanted to come up and assist.”

“And what did you tell the ever-helpful agent?” Caden wondered.

Jake knew exactly what Caden was getting at. The last time they had been assisted by the Feds, they botched the case so bad in an effort to get the criminal they busted the wrong person and almost sent an innocent man to death row. Caden tried to tell them they had the wrong person, but the Feds didn’t want to admit their mistake. “I asked him to fax any information they wanted to share but it wasn’t necessary to travel all the way up here,” Jake offered.

Caden popped the candy into his mouth.

Jake looked at him and wanted to ask how things went at Harper’s but the phone rang before he could. As he picked up the receiver, Caden’s phone rang as well. “This is Detective Ridge speaking. Can I help you?” He identified himself and waited for the caller to say something.

“Oh good, I was hoping you would be the one to answer the phone.”

Caden frowned. “Can I help you?”

He heard a chuckle on the other end. “No, actually I’m calling to help you.” The voice on the other end was smooth and very much in control.

Caden glanced over at Jake and motioned for him to trace the call.

Jake picked up his phone and called the phone company.

Caden knew the killer was on the other end of the line. “What the hell do you want?” he growled. The rage he was waiting for finally arrived and was threatening to boil over.

“Now is that any way to talk to a concerned citizen with information about a possible murder?” he asked snidely.

“You should know. You killed her,” Caden snarled.

“Well, that’s beside the point.”

Caden had to bite his tongue to stop himself from losing it. “Did you call to gloat?”

He chuckled. “Not at all.” Then his voice changed. “I called to tell you her name was Carol Weeks.”

“Who are you talking about?” Caden wasn’t thinking straight.

“The young woman you found this morning.” His voice was calm but his manner was condescending. “You remember her, don’t you?”

Caden’s hand gripped the receiver so tightly his knuckles were white. “Yeah, you bastard, I remember her.”

“Then listen up, because I’m only going to say this once. Carol was the first, but there will be more bodies. How many more depends on how quick you and Charlie Boone can find me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Caden asked in a tight voice.

“If I’m any judge of character, I know you and Charlie have already told Harper I’m back in town and she’ll be looking for me. You probably have already checked with the Feds and know that they have knowledge of my past,” the killer spoke matter-of-factly.

“They have files on you in Texas, Missouri, and Montana.”

“I’m not trying to hide what I do, you moron,” the killer scoffed. “I enjoy what I do.” His voice dropped to almost a whisper as he continued, “I love the hunt, moving in for the kill, but what I enjoy the most is watching her as the life drains out of her body.”

Caden could hear the pleasure in his voice and wanted to throw up. He swallowed the bile in his throat and had to ask. “Why?”

“You know, I’ve thought about that for a long time, and the only conclusion I can come up with is I love the power high I get from knowing I am superior to the life I watch spill out on the ground. Every drop of blood flowing from the wounds gives me power. I like to watch her skin as it pales and turns cool to the touch. But I love watching the life fade from her eyes. They glow toward the end and they grow cold, almost like polished stones.”

“You are one sick bastard,” Caden spit out.

He laughed. “Yeah, my shrink told me too, but he only said it once.”

“What did you do, convince him he was wrong?”

“No, I sliced his throat. Now he can’t talk at all.”

“What the hell do you want?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you later but not yet. I just called to tell you Carol’s name.”

“So tell me something, why did you kill her?” Caden had to ask.

“She had the prettiest green eyes I’ve seen in a long time. Last night the hunger I had inside me, needed to be taken care of. Carol Weeks was there,” he spoke with no remorse in his voice.

“So now what’s going to happen?” Caden asked.

“Now the game begins.”

“What game?”

The killer chuckled. “The game of the cat coming after the mouse before the mouse gets to the cheese.”

“I’m going to stop you. You aren’t going to slip away from me this time.”

He chuckled again. “Oh, but can you find me before I get to Hope, or another Carol, or maybe even your own partner, Jake? No,” he paused, “Not Jake, not yet anyway. Maybe his son Ethan.”

Then before Caden could comment, the killer hung up.

Caden’s rage spilled over as flung the phone across the room.

Jake jumped and stared at him.

“The killer actually had the balls to call and tell me her name,” Caden seethed.

Jake was stunned. “Whose name?”

“Our Jane Doe from this morning,” Caden ranted.

Jake listened as Caden repeated the details of the phone call.

“He thinks he’s playing a goddamn game with us.” Caden’s tirade was interrupted when Paul Hatcher opened the door.

He could feel the tension in the room and glanced from Caden to Jake. “What the hell is going on here?”

Jake sat up in his chair. “Caden had a phone call from our killer,” he stated flatly.

Paul frowned. “He actually called you?”

Caden glared at him. “He wanted us to know the name of our murder victim and to let us know he’s playing with us.”

“He called to tell you her name?” Paul repeated.

“Her name was Carol Weeks.”

Paul shook his head. “Do we have anything we can use to find this SOB?”

Jake handed him the fax from the F.B.I. and his notes.

Paul scanned them and threw them back on the desk. Then he ran his fingers threw his short blonde hair. “What else did he say?”

“He said he likes what he’s doing.” Caden’s voice was mono-toned. Before he could say anything more, the phone on Jake’s desk rang. Jake picked up the receiver and paused for a moment then handed the receiver to Caden.

“Ridge,” he spoke, almost knowing who was on the other end.

“Caden, you’re going to have the phone company on your case if you keep throwing your phone around the room,” the killer spoke suavely. “They really don’t like their property damaged.”

Caden swore then he heard a chuckle, a slight click and the dial tone. He carefully replaced the receiver in the cradle and walked over to the window.

“Well, what did the bastard say now?” Paul questioned.

Caden hesitated and turned his back to the window. “He called to tell me I shouldn’t throw my phone across the room. He’s watching us. He knows every move we make.” He glanced over at his partner and together they both rushed outside. Caden motioned for Jake to look to the south and he turned north. He didn’t want to panic anyone so he walked along the street casually, but he was looking around for anything out of the ordinary. When he didn’t find anything out of place, he turned back. He met Jake and Paul at the police station steps. He looked at Jake, but he shook his head and they all went back to the office area.

When they entered, the phone rang again.

Jake answered and frowned. As he listened, he shook his head at Caden to let him know it wasn’t the killer.

Caden motioned Paul away from Jake. “We have another problem.”

Paul gazed at him and waited for Caden to continue.

“Apparently, he’s been watching us for a while now. He said he could get to any of us at any time. He mentioned Harper, Jake, and me, by name, but he also mentioned Jake’s kid.”

“Sweet Jesus.” Paul swore. “Now what the hell do we do? Harper is four hours away from us, we can’t spread ourselves out that thin.”

“We have to protect Harper and Ethan,” Caden said. “I will not let him get to them.”

“And how do you plan on stopping him?”

“I spoke to Harper this morning. At first, she really didn’t want anything to do with us but I managed to talk her into going into hiding. But if he’s watching us, we have to get her out of the house without him knowing. We’ll have to get Ethan and Lori out tonight, after dark.”

Jake ended his phone call and joined his partner. “That was agent Cole Trainer again. He is persistent if nothing else. He seems to think he should be in on this investigation. He’s flying up in the morning.”

Paul ran his fingers through his hair again and said, “Great. Now we have the Feds on our case.”

“Unless this works out to our advantage,” Caden interposed while thinking ahead.

“What do you mean?” Jake asked.

“Is he the same agent you talked to this morning?” Caden wanted to know.

Jake nodded. “He seemed very interested in the case. Even gave me some of the details of the other cases. He was very chatty about the murders in Dallas.”

“Good. Maybe it will throw the killer off track long enough for us to find him.” Caden was already planning his next move. “We need to get Harper and your family out of the picture.”

Jake was startled. “What does any of this have to do with my family?”

Caden hesitated; he wasn’t sure how to tell his partner what the killer said.

“He threatened them, didn’t he? The bastard had the nerve to threaten my family?” Jake growled as he clenched his hands into fists.

Caden turned to Jake. He owed him the truth. “He mentioned Ethan by name.”

“I’ll kill him with my bare hands if he hurts my son,” Jake vowed.

“We have to move them tonight, after dark. As long as we don’t know where he is, we have to assume he’s watching us at all times. We can’t afford to make any mistakes right now.”

Jake glanced at the clock on the wall. “School isn’t out yet.”

“Call Lori and have her check on Ethan,” Caden offered. Lori was a teacher in the school Ethan attended.

While Jake was busy with his phone call, Caden called Charlie to let him know what was going on. He needed to make sure Harper was safe until he could get to her.