Deadly Abandon by Kallie Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

the files in his hands. “You got it, Lieutenant.”
    “Good, just as long as we understand each other. Sal Clemente is working full-time on the investigation as well, and he’ll report to you. Pull the evidence on these cold cases and have it run through forensics again. God knows, evidence processing has improved over the last thirteen years. Maybe we’ll get lucky, or at least be able to determine if these deaths were accidental, or not. Because if these cases are connected to Dubé and Greene, we’re heading into the biggest shit storm the city has ever seen, and we’re going to be smack-dab in the middle of it. I need answers and I want them yesterday.”
    “I’ll get right on it. Is it too soon to call in a profiler?”
    “Probably, until we have more information.” Circling a pencil on his blotter, Sully thought about his sister and came to a snap decision. “I have someone in mind; I’ll give her a quick heads up. I’ll tell her what we have so far and see what she has to say, off the record. We might be way off base here. I want to be sure before we sound the alarm.”
    “Sure, Loot, whatever you say.” Millette gathered up the files and exited the office.
    Sully wasn’t fooled. He knew Millette hated his guts. He had been overlooked for promotion when Sully came from the outside to head up Homicide due to his extensive military background. The grapevine also buzzed Millette was doubly pissed, because Sully still hung with the military in a reserve capacity. He cursed, switched mental gears and grabbed for the phone. Joelle. Would she even talk to him?
    His sister had been a behavioral sciences profiler with the RCMP for three years before turning her formidable talents to mystery writing. After the incident, as she liked to refer to it, the one that almost took her life.
    Now, he worried she had another incidentin the making, if the hate e-mail glimpsed by her assistant was anything to go by. But, he would not have that particular conversation with his sister. Besides, his friend Hawke was keeping an eye on her.
    Joelle answered his call on the third ring. “Hey, little sister, don’t hang up. I need your help, big time.”
    “Just as long as you aren’t trying to drag me back from Houston, Sully. I’m a big girl now. I don’t need any of you macho males trying to run my life.”
    “Hey, not me, kid. Pop told me he has already tried and it was a no go.” Sully leaned back in his chair, his voice lowering a notch. “Seriously, Joelle, I may have a serial killer working the area and I need your expertise.”
    The line was quiet for a second. “I’ll give it a shot, but I’m a little rusty. It’s been a long time since I’ve done profiling for a living. Tell me what you’ve got.”
    He brought her up to speed on the cold cases, as well as Rainey Dubé’s murder and potentially, Miranda Greene’s. There was silence again on the telephone line.
    “Well, that’s not much to go on. Do you have any communication from the creep? Notes left at the crime scenes? Phone messages or emails? Maybe some mementos left with the bodies?”
    “Nothing has turned up so far. The fire has me stymied, too,” Sully admitted. “Five of the deaths simulated drowning, if I include Dubé and Greene. I’m not even sure the fire death is connected.”
    “Motive is important here, not the killer’s methods,” his sister offered. “Serials need to satisfy their sadistic fantasies. And they will play out those fantasies to achieve some kind of sexual gratification. In the cases you’ve described, water and fire are both symbolic cleansing rituals. If you do have a serial operating in your area, and I think it’s possible, I suspect he’s justifying his kills by thinking of the women as unclean. It’s his reason for preying on them.”
    “How does he choose his victims, Joelle? None of these women were prostitutes, or had criminal records.”
    “Why does a serial killer choose one woman over another?