Breaking Bad by Karin Tabke Read Free Book Online Page A

notes. When she searched the assault dates, they came up the same as the others. Full moons.
    “I haven’t figured out the significance of the full moon,” Stevie said thinking out loud. “What we do know is that Spoltori is a sadistic misogynist Master who kidnaps and tortures middle-aged women before he ritualistically kills them on a full moon, leaving his mark of Cain on their pubis.” Her gaze rose to the storyboard. She stood and walked to the picture of Rose Chambers, his aunt. “She has vacant eyes.”
    “I suspect it’s a common by-product when your only child is brutally murdered.”
    Stevie shook her head. “I can’t begin to imagine.”
    “What can you tell me about your three vics?”
    Stevie pointed to the first picture. “Mary Coggins, forty-eight-year-old white female, wife to Jerald Coggins local boy makes good. He owns Computec, the cooler, more cost-effective version of the Geek Squad. She was a Cal grad, no children, and by all accounts a ballbuster.” Stevie moved to the second victim. “Alicia Marquez. Forty-six-year-old Hispanic female, wife to Alex Marquez, CEO of HostaGradiant, a green industrial recycling process for fossil-based waste, mother of two girls, Juniata and Cristina. Then there is June Poland, forty-eight-year-old white female, wife of Kevin Poland who is the CFO of Gemnon, a biochemical company, mother of two boys, Mark and Jake. All three husbands are Oakland based and generous contributors to Mayor Dryer. All three were kidnapped one week prior to their tortured, sexually assaulted bodies being staged on a prominent city corner.”
    “Look a little closer, Detective. What other similarities do you see?”
    “I have noted in my report that they all have short hair, brown eyes, and are in the same age bracket.”
    “Look at his aunt, Rose Chambers.”
    “She’s a bottle blonde.”
    “What did she look like when her daughter was killed? And let’s go back further. Do you have a picture of Spoltori’s mother right before she died?”
    “No. But I can get a postmortem one from the county coroner.”
    “What was the date of his parents’ death?”
    “April twelfth, ninety-eight.”
    Jack entered the date into the search engine. He raised his green eyes to hers. “Full moon.”
    “It doesn’t make sense. He was five when his father killed his mother and then shot himself. He was too young to be killing his mother over and over via these other women.”
    “Unless his mother was brutalizing him.”
    “I didn’t get that feeling from the reports. By all accounts, Genny Arnold was a loving mother.”
    “I think we need to go back to the beginning to understand Spoltori’s motives.”
    “Rose Chambers refuses to talk.”
    Jack cracked a smile. “Maybe to you.”
    “You’re not going back there without me.”
    “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
    Just as she was about to tell him to go to hell, his phone rang.
    “Thorn,” he answered. “Okay, thanks.”
    He tapped the end icon and smiled at Stevie. “Our boy is on his way up, and he has some company.”
    They quickly pulled the chairs around and much to Stevie’s dismay, she watched Jack position the new camera setup to a freshly cut circle approximately twelve inches from hers. He shrugged his jacket off and she quickly dragged her eyes from his wide shoulders and long arms.
    For the second time that day she watched Mario act out as if he knew he had an audience. He turned on every light in the apartment. When he drew the blinds in the living room, she saw that he had a woman with him. A middle-aged woman. Not your average run-of-the-mill middle-aged woman, this woman was made up to the nines.
    “He has good taste,” Jack said. “Chic, attractive, and from the way she carries herself, confident.”
    Stevie watched him lead his guest through the apartment. When the bedroom light went on, she held her breath. When the blinds went up giving them full view of the bed, she swallowed hard. Holy hell, he was going