Shadow of Perception (31 page)

“How nice of the college to hand over that information,” Hudson said with a smile, knowing Rachel likely had hacked into their computer system.

“Ah…yeah, that’s right. They were most helpful. Anyway, believe it or not, I came up empty on that route.”

“What about Elliot’s current and past places of employment?” Eden asked.

Another few clicks to the keyboard and the victim’s information filled the screen. “He’s worked at only three places. After finishing his residency at Lakeview Hospital, here in Chicago, he stayed on there for about eight years. Then he worked at Cosmetic Solutions and Med Spa, which is also in Chicago, for three years, left there and then began his private practice out of the two medical centers in Oak Park and Western Springs.”

“Maybe he worked with the other victims,” Eden suggested, then furrowed her forehead. “I still can’t see what these men did that would cause the killer to go to such extremes.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Why don’t we start with the list of dentists? I can make those calls when we’re finished here.”
 

“I’ll take care of it,” Rachel said. “I’d planned to, but didn’t have the chance yet. I just got all of this info early this morning.” She tapped the keyboard, and seconds later the printer spat out a piece of paper. “Wait here. I’m going to run to my office and call the dentists’ offices.”

When Rachel left the room, Hudson gave Eden’s hand a squeeze, then released it and rose. “According to this information,” he said as he studied the data on the screen. “Elliot began practicing breast augmentation a little over eighteen years ago. During the first DVD, I remember the killer saying he’d been planning this a long time. I’m wondering how long.”
 

Stuffing his hands into his pockets he thought back to the night he’d viewed the first DVD. At the time, he’d tried to talk Ian out of assigning him this case. He didn’t investigate. He’d always been given a name, then told to hunt and track, and bring the assignment down by any means possible.
 

Ian had told him that hunting and tracking criminals was just another side to investigating. Right now, Hudson didn’t agree. After spending years as a successful reporter, Eden probably had better investigating skills than he did, and Rachel had spent several years in Army Intelligence. Compared to these women, he felt more like the kid who used to lick the chalkboard back at his old elementary school, rather than an agent.
   

Frustrated with himself, with the inability to put a stop to the killer, he released a deep breath. “After Rachel’s done with her calls, I’ll take you to the station.”

Eden rose, then moved across the room. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Afterward, do you think we should go to Elliot’s offices in Oak Park and Western Springs?”

He rested his chin on the top of her head, and smoothed his hands over her back. “I doubt the other victims would have a connection to him through his private practice. If they knew each other, my guess is that they’d worked together at either Lakeview Hospital or Cosmetic Solutions and Med Spa.”

“Makes sense,” she said as she stepped back and studied him. “What’s bothering you?”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe watching a guy get liposuction with a Shop-Vac,” he said, and looked away.

She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. “And?” she prompted.

He looked down at her. Riveted by her penetrating, knowing eyes, he held her gaze. She’d trusted him enough to disclose her past to him. He needed to trust her enough to share his insecurities. After everything she’d told him, and all of the things he hadn’t bothered to disclose about himself, he owed her as much. He owed her the truth. “I’m worried I won’t be able to stop him before he kills his next victim.”

“
We
,” she corrected him. “This isn’t just your burden. We all have stake in this.” She cupped his cheeks. “And I believe in you. In us. We’ll find him.”

She believed in him. In them.
 

With her faith in him, in what they could accomplish together, he was no longer the chalkboard licker. He held her head, and brought his lips close to hers. “Thank you. I needed to hear that. Sorry I was having a…moment.”

“It’s called self-doubt,” she said with a small smile. “You can’t be a badass all the time, you know. You’re allowed to have a…moment.”

He stole a quick kiss, then asked, “Speaking from experience?”
   

“Me? No. I said
you
can’t be a badass all the time. I’m always a badass,” she finished with a grin.

“How could I have forgotten?” he murmured, then kissed her again.

“I can remind you later. I’m assuming you have a set of handcuffs.”

 
Before his body went into sexual overdrive, he stepped back, and held his hands in the air as if surrendering. “I do. But let’s not discuss them or what I’m
not
going to let you do to me. Well, at least not until we’re alone. The last thing I need is for—”

“Holy shit,” Rachel shouted as she burst through the door. “You’re not going to believe this. I just found our second victim.”

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Dr. Brian Westly, DDS.”
 

Chapter 17

Pudge tended to Mama. Changed her colostomy bag, cleaned her bed sores, then gave the bitch a large snack consisting of barbeque chips and chocolate chip cookies.

choke choke choke on it

Hiding a smile, Pudge ignored the voice, then said to Mama, “I need to do some shopping. The new nurse should be here any minute. Hopefully I’ll catch her before I go. I hate to leave the front door unlocked while I’m gone. You never know what kind of crazy person might walk in.”

Mama shook her head. Her cheeks jiggled as she frowned. “What new nurse?”

“The agency called and said you’d asked for Gretchen to stop by today. But Gretchen isn’t available any longer, so they’re sending you someone new.”

Mama shifted her focus to the TV. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d called and changed your scheduled appointment?”

scheming scheming mamas up to something scheming

Pudge agreed. Mama rarely changed her appointments, and when she had, she’d always made Pudge do it for her. For Mama to have taken the initiative herself led Pudge to believe the woman was up to something.

money money inheritance mama will take away the money

“Aren’t you going to answer me, Mama?” When Mama didn’t respond, Pudge slammed a couple of cans of grape soda on the bed tray. “If you don’t need anything else, I’m going to change and get ready to leave.”

Pudge left Mama to her snacks and TV show, gathered supplies from the bathroom, then once in the privacy of the bedroom, reached into the closet for the uniform they’d purchased a few days ago.

Holding the scrubs in front of the mirror, Pudge smiled. “This is going to be fun.”

yes yes hello nurse nancy hello

*

Michael Morrison dropped the hose. Water splashed his jeans and boots, then spread along the old brick pad behind the steel garage. Eyes watering, stomach churning, he used one hand to steady himself against the garage, then bent his head and retched. The whiskey he’d drunk before he’d begun rinsing out the Shop-Vac burned his throat. The wretched smell of vomit caused him to gag. He threw up again. Breathing hard, he wiped his mouth with an old bandana, then retrieved the hose. Angling the spray, and holding the bandana over his mouth and nose, he rinsed the vomit, along with the remaining contents from the Shop-Vac, into the old drain pipe.
 

Once the brick pad had been cleaned of any debris, he checked the Shop-Vac. The vacuum had cleaned up well. If anyone were to look at it, they wouldn’t see Dr. Leonard Tully’s flesh, fat, or blood. Of course a DNA test would find evidence of Tully’s body, but that didn’t matter to him. By the time they’d discover his identity, Michael would be long gone.

Gravel churned along the driveway. Surprised and half-drunk, he stumbled. He fumbled the hose, and the steady stream of water running from it soaked more of his jeans and boots. Then he remembered his neighbor, Larry Hollister, had left him a message last night about dropping off the tools he’d borrowed from Michael a few weeks ago. He relaxed, glanced down at his pants and chuckled. He looked as if he’d pissed himself. Shrugging, he moved to the faucet, then turned off the water.

He didn’t bother trying to blot the water with the bandana as he walked from behind the barn toward the driveway. Larry would probably think his soaked jeans were funny, and if he didn’t, at this point Michael didn’t care. He’d had a hell of a day, and it was barely noon. After he’d bought Eliza the doll, then made the ninety minute drive back to the old farmhouse, he’d had a couple of shots of Wild Turkey. Last night, after he’d used the Mechanic’s Creeper to roll Tully’s body into the back fields, he’d cleaned the mess he’d made in the OR. He hadn’t had time to clean the Shop-Vac, though. Knowing the contents of the vacuum, he’d needed alcohol to fortify him before he washed it. Unfortunately, no amount of alcohol could help him stomach the putrid matter that had coagulated and stuck to the inside of the vacuum. Even years of working in a hospital couldn’t have prepared him for the smell.
 

His stomach churned. After last night, and then today, he might consider becoming a vegetarian. He didn’t think he could ever look at the fat on a steak—or any piece of meat—without thinking of Tully’s repulsive belly fat.
   

As he made his way toward the driveway, he slowed and instantly sobered. Larry wasn’t alone.
 

“Hey, Larry,” he said, then nodded to the deputy rounding the front of the SUV parked behind Larry’s Ford. “Forgot you were coming by today.”

The farmer grinned as he glanced at Michael’s jeans. “I think I’d rather walk around with my fly hanging open and my Jockey’s showin’.”

Michael smiled. “Little mishap with the garden hose. I’d almost wish it was piss, water’s damn cold.”

Laughing, Larry nodded to the deputy. “This here is Deputy Darren Cooper.”

Michael shook the deputy’s hand. “Any relation to Sal Cooper?”

“He’s my dad,” the deputy said.

 
“Sal’s a good guy. He helped me with a tractor purchase, and didn’t steer me wrong. I got it up and running yesterday,” he lied. The tractor had been working for months, but Michael had remembered telling Larry, when he’d stopped by the other day, he’d been repairing it.
 

The deputy looked to the overgrown fields adjacent to the house. “That right?”

“I said I got it running.” Michael leaned against Larry’s Ford to support his legs. Having a deputy in his driveway, while the remains of his patients littered his back field, made his knees grow weak. Having stayed up most of the night didn’t help, either. “I just haven’t had time to brush hog. I’ll get to it next week.”

“Better if you’re sober, anyway,” the deputy said.

Larry laughed. “Yeah, buddy. I could smell the whiskey on you. I’m damn jealous, too. Nothing like startin’ the day with a cup of coffee and a shot of Jack Daniels. Since I retired, the wife’s up my ass all the time about my health and all that nonsense. I gotta sneak around like a kid stealing liquor from his old man.”

“What you smell is left over from last night. But I’ve got some Jack if you’re interested,” he offered Larry. Michael wouldn’t mind having a drink and BSing with the farmer. A little friendly conversation might help take his mind off of the dead men in the field, and the surgery he planned to perform tomorrow.

“Wish I could,” Larry said with a sigh. “I gotta take the wife into town for some shopping, though. I told her to take herself, but she says shopping is a great way for us to
bond
.
 
I’ve been married to the woman for nearly forty years. How much more bonding does a man need?”

Michael chuckled, then figured they’d made enough small talk—time to find out why the deputy dropped by for a visit. “So, Deputy, what brings you by? Or did Larry’s wife hire you to keep an eye on her husband and make sure he made it home in time to bond?”

The deputy laughed, then relaxed against the fence post near the house. “I could think of a few wives that might hire me to do exactly that,” he said, then his smile fell. “Larry told me he’d mentioned my dad’s coyote issues.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Michael said. “Don’t tell me they came after him again.”

The deputy nodded. “My dad was letting his dog out when about five or six coyotes came up to the house. He shot and killed one when it snatched the dog. Two others came after him, and while he struggled to fend them off, or shoot them, the rest pulled apart the dog. According to my dad, once his dog was torn to shreds, the two coyotes attacking him joined the others. He started shooting them, and when they ran off, he climbed on his four wheeler and went after them.”

Michael released a low whistle, then said, “Damn. Is Sal okay?”

“He ended up with about forty stitches on his hands, arms and legs, and had to start the rabies vaccine. With how aggressive the coyotes have been acting, there’s no point in taking any chances.”

Michael wished he would have found another way to dispose of the bodies. He hadn’t anticipated a coyote infestation, or how feeding the scavengers might have caused harm to the neighboring farmers.