Humpty Dumpty: The killer wants us to put him back together again (Book 1 of the Nursery Rhyme Murders Series) (32 page)

Sariah opened her mouth, looking for something to say. Anything. But the moment extended, passed her by, and still she had said nothing.

Her phone rang again. This time it was Had’s mother. There was no news of her son, and she couldn’t face Ms. Hadderly right now. She pushed the button to send the call through to voicemail. She’d call her back when there was something to tell her.

And then Reggie rushed in.

“I can’t find Had anywhere.”

Interesting. Now that there was news, Sariah found that she was even less capable of speaking to his mother. She had thought that she couldn’t feel any worse than she did at discovering the man she had pushed into committing suicide was innocent.

Turned out, that was just one more thing she had gotten wrong.

CHAPTER 21

Joshua stared at the murder board, Reggie at his side. Agent Cooper was still huddled in a corner with tears pouring out of her eyes, playing with her fingers, or whatever the hell she was doing over there. Something that didn’t involve helping them figure this whole mess out.

Bella was playing tug-o-war with a piece of cloth she’d found when Joshua had walked over here from the hotel. From the way she was growling and wrestling with the fabric, you’d think there was someone else on the other end of the rag.

There wasn’t.

“We need to start over,” he muttered.

“Absolutely,” Reggie agreed.

“No, I’m not sure you understand.” Joshua walked up to the board, and with one strong movement of his arms, swept off every scrap of evidence they’d accumulated working this case. “I mean
start over
.”

Reggie stood there, stunned. “But you… I… you…” She cleared her throat, tugging at a strand of her hair before tucking it behind her ear. “You just threw away a butt load of evidence.” She looked down at the pile in front of the board. “Is it wrong that I thought that was kind of hot?”

Joshua thrust that statement and the mental images that came along with them out of his head. He gazed up at the blank canvas of the whiteboard in front of him, trying to ignore the radiant heat signature of the person standing next to him. This case was what was important.

“Okay,” he murmured. “What do we know for sure?”

“Well, we know that the killer’s Humpty,” Reggie answered.

“No, we don’t,” came a voice from behind them. Coop. There were tracks on her cheeks that showed where the tears had been, but for the moment she wasn’t crying. She looked drained, like there was nothing left.

She moved up next to them, hunched over like she’d been punched in the gut, peering at the white surface of the board. Then she turned to face him. “You were right. You kept saying there was something wrong, and I ignored you.” Tears sprang up in her eyes once more.

“Whatever,” he said, gently directing her attention back to the board. “You’ve got to keep it together. What do we know?”

“We know that there’s someone out there who may or may not be Humpty,” Reggie offered, looking like she was trying to redeem herself in his eyes. Dammit. He had to be more careful about what he said and how he said it. It had been a long time since he cared enough about anyone to do that.

“We also know that this someone is a hell of a lot smarter than we gave them credit for,” Joshua added. “He set up Curtis to take the fall.”

“Which is why it looked so perfect,” Reggie said.

“I didn’t see it. I can’t believe I didn’t see it,” Joshua muttered to himself.

“Hey.” Reggie caught his attention. “Time to take your own advice. Shut up. I heard you say so many times that there was something off.”

Okay. He might have deserved that one. Still… “But I should’ve realized that a set up was a possibility, especially with all the baiting the killer was doing.”

“One more time, Joshua. Shut. Up.”

Bella came up to Joshua’s side, tossing the cloth on his shoe, and then began bouncing around him, her tongue hanging out of her mouth. She wanted to play.

“Later, Bella,” he said, flipping the cloth over to the other side of the room. Bella raced after it, distracted, at least for the moment.

“So, what did you see that was different?” Reggie asked. “What kept making you think this case was off?”

“It was the killer’s whole attitude. Our other guy was older, doing everything he could to stay out of the limelight. But this guy…”

“He practically took out ads in the paper,” Coop said, her voice cracking. It was clear her statement was a blow directed at herself.

“Right.” Joshua paced back and forth in front of the board, filling in the lines and spaces in his mind. “He was taunting us. Stringing us along. He wanted us to chase him.”

“If Had’s really been taken, it has to have been someone that’s pretty close to the investigation,” Reggie added. Bella bounced over to her, once more shaking the rag, looking for a playmate. Reggie grabbed end of the cloth and pulled for a second, before perking back up as Joshua started speaking again.

“He would have done it in a way that we wouldn’t notice it happening. Incorporating himself into the group without…” He paused, making a realization. “Wait. I’m doing it again.”

“What?” Coop asked.

“Making assumptions. I keep saying
he
.” Joshua swiveled toward Reggie. “When there’s nothing at all to say it couldn’t be a
she
.”

* * *

Sariah couldn’t take in the information. She turned her head back and forth between Reggie and Joshua. That can’t have been what Joshua meant.

“How could you think—?” she began.

But Joshua’s attention was all on Reggie. “You’ve certainly managed to insinuate yourself into our investigation pretty well.”

“Yeah, but I…” Reggie said. Her face was flushed, and beads of sweat had broken out on her brow.

“You’re young, intelligent,” Joshua continued. “You know the history behind the rail systems that could have been used. You have flexible hours at work, so you could travel.”

“But I’m not the killer,” she said. Sariah watched as her nostrils flared and her pupils contracted down to pinpoints.

“Prove it,” he shot back.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Sariah stepped in, a salient fact coming to her. “It couldn’t have been her.”

“Why not?” Joshua asked, never taking his eyes off of Reggie.

“Because she was with us the entire time Had was getting himself kidnapped.”

Reggie breathed out a sigh of what looked like relief and shot Sariah a grateful look. “It really isn’t me.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that she didn’t kidnap Had,” the former agent allowed. “At least not by herself. But she’s been close to Had and even closer to this investigation.”

“Besides, we’re looking for a loner, right?” Sariah asked. “Someone who works on his own? Doesn’t really take to other people well?” She pointed at Reggie. “Any of that sound like her?”

“Maybe not, but don’t go jetting off anytime soon,” Joshua said, his eyes glued to Reggie.

Bella, having grown tired of tossing the cloth in the air, skittered to a halt in front of Sariah. It seemed that after having tried and failed to get Joshua and Reggie to play with her, for this go-round, it was Sariah’s turn. She sighed and went to grab the piece of fabric.

Joshua’s hand reached down and pulled the cloth away from both her and the dog. Sariah found herself mildly irritated with him for that.

“I was going to play with her for a minute.”

“Hold on,” he said, spreading out the cloth. The former agent pulled the edges wide. There, on the surface of the fabric, was some lettering.

Wikipedia is Accurate (citation needed).

Where had she seen that before? There was something so familiar about it, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. It was like her brain was slogging through molasses.

And then, Joshua started running.

He was out the door almost before Sariah had even realized that he was on the move, Bella prancing along behind in his wake. She rushed after him, Reggie following along behind.

Joshua was sprinting around corners, speeding through the truck stop like someone possessed, running into a couple of customers in the process. Sariah apologized for him as they passed by.

“Sorry! FBI!” She hoped that would explain it.

Rounding a corner, Sariah nearly ran into the former agent. Just as quickly as he’d begun running, he’d stopped. They all stood in front of the counter at the truck stop museum, panting and out of breath.

“He’s not here,” Joshua stated, looking around the space.

And just like that, Sariah understood. And in her understanding, she despaired.

* * *

Had woke up to a pounding head and a mouth that was drier than the Sahara at midday. He blinked, trying to focus eyes that didn’t want to cooperate. Wherever he was right now, it was dark. Dark, hot and humid. Like a sauna with the lights turned off.

“’Bout time you woke up,” came a voice off to Had’s right somewhere. The way the voice echoed made him think that they must be in a fairly large and open space.

The sound of the voice was familiar. It was one he had heard before, but there was something different about it. Sharper, more direct. Present. Had gave the voice more of a mumble, took away some of the intelligence and came up with a surprising result.

Preston.

It was Preston.

And what was Had doing here in the dark with a throbbing head with a stoner gas station attendant? How did he get here?

He had been checking on the fertilizer.

Someone had hit him on the back of the head and then again in the front.

Someone that had known where he was.

Someone that knew he was checking to see if there was an alternate theory to the trucker being the killer.

Someone like Preston.

Preston was the killer.

Wait. What? That couldn’t be right.

“Yep. About now you’ve figured out that it’s me, and that you were wrong about… shit… pretty much everything. Oh, and I know all that because I saw your murder board,
dude
. You guys really should be more careful about who you let go into your workspace.”

Had’s mind spun, thinking back to all of the conversations he and Preston had shared. And not just stuff about the case. All of the weird things he hadn’t seemed to know about from Michigan. Pasties. The Spirit of Curling. He’d put it all up to Preston being from Detroit, but…

“It’s kind of freaky that you didn’t figure it out earlier,” the attendant continued. “When you first showed up there at the station, I almost shat myself. But you just wandered all around, questioning everyone but me.”

“You’re too young,” Had responded finally, his mouth catching up to his thoughts.

“
That’s
your issue? With everything else you could be hung up on, you picked
that
?”

“Hey! I just found out my new friend is a serial killer,” Had shot back. “I’m still trying to catch up here.”

“Don’t strain anything, bra. Seriously. You guys are lucky if you have a brain between the three of you.” Preston leaned back, turning to the right and the left with a sharp motion, cracking his back in both directions. “No, make that four. Man, that Reggie’s a hottie. I almost went for her instead of you, but then she would’ve ended up hacked to bits, and that would just be a crying shame.”

It was the last reaction Had would’ve thought to come out of him right at this point, but he started to laugh. And the more he laughed, the more he could tell it was really bugging Preston.

“What?” he asked. “What’s so funny?”

“Well, you thinking you have a shot with Reggie, for one,” Had snorted.

A scowl plastered itself all over Preston’s face. “If she’ll pay attention to that bald asshole Joshua—”

Had continued as if there had been no interruption. “And calling Agent Cooper and Joshua stupid, for two. But you’ll figure that out when they get here.”

Preston’s scowl deepened, but then it morphed into a leer. “You think your precious Joshua’s coming for you? He’s too busy flirting to do anything else. Besides, he hates you.”

“Joshua doesn’t hate me. We’re like brothers.”

“Yeah,” Preston mocked him. “Cain and Abel, maybe. Bra, he punched you for talking about monkeys.”

“That was…” Had started, then stopped. He wasn’t going to get sucked into an argument with this guy over his relationship status with Joshua. He knew where he stood with the former agent. Didn’t he?

“Doesn’t matter,” Preston said, brushing the conversation aside. “You’re going to be way too busy to worry about anything.”

“What, time to chop me into bits?” Had asked, keeping his tone light. He wasn’t going to give Preston the satisfaction of seeing him sweat.

“That’ll come sooner or later,” he said, coming in closer to Had. “But first, I think we need to get to know each other a little bit better.”

That didn’t sound too promising. And no matter what he said to Preston, he had no idea how Joshua, Coop and Reggie were going to figure out where he was. For all he knew, they still thought he was back in Cedar Rapids. Come to think of it, Had wasn’t sure that he wasn’t.

He was tied up in a dark place with a serial killer. This might be even worse than the time Mama found his stash of girlie magazines. Had thought about that for a minute. Yeah, no. This didn’t even hold a candle to that.

Maybe he’d change his mind when the body parts started coming off.

CHAPTER 22

It had taken some time for Joshua to track down Preston’s boss, but once he did, the information came pretty quickly. One look at Joshua’s face and the supervisor at Iowa 80 pulled out the attendant’s personnel file, asking if there was anything else he could do for all of the nice FBI agents. It was a mark of Coop’s deteriorated mental state that she didn’t bother correcting him.

After a brief moment of stepping back up to the plate to try to figure out who had taken Had, Agent Cooper had practically disintegrated. She burst into tears at the drop of a hat, she was three steps behind at every point, and she’d barely said a word in the last hour and a half.

At least they hadn’t gotten any more calls from Had’s mom. After the first flurry of calls, it had been almost three hours since they’d heard from her.