Slenderman Read online

  Table of Contents

  SLENDERMAN

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  SLENDERMAN

  The Rayburn Mysteries

  CEEREE FIELDS

  SOUL MATE PUBLISHING

  New York

  SLENDERMAN

  Copyright©2020

  CEEREE FIELDS

  Cover Design by Fiona Jayde

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Published in the United States of America by

  Soul Mate Publishing

  P.O. Box 24

  Macedon, New York, 14502

  ISBN: 978-1-64716-176-7

  www.SoulMatePublishing.com

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  A big thanks to my online gaming friends in

  The Tavern on RuneScape,

  whose murderous nature inspired the plot of this story.

  In the infamous words of a clanmate . . .

  “We should hunt down and kill that dude

  who left us and present their bones to our leader.”

  As we writers say, we get our inspiration

  from the unlikeliest of places.

  Acknowledgments

  This novel would not have been what it is without my amazing editor, Ericka Cooper, and the hardworking team at Soul Mate Publishing. I also want to thank Fiona Jayde who hits the nail on the head for every one of the covers in the Rayburn Mystery series. She has a canny knack for capturing not only Josephine’s likeness but her determination to catch the bad guys as well.

  Chapter 1

  Josephine ‘Jo’ Rayburn eyed the two unrepentant young adults. She hated bullies, and these two were worse than any others she’d come in contact with.

  “My dad knows the mayor. We had dinner with him last month and a round of golf at the club two weeks ago. So these charges won’t stick.” The girl leaned forward a sly grin spread across her lips. “But then again, maybe he can talk to the mayor for you, give you a leg up . . . if you’d be willing to drop all the charges.”

  Rage poured into Jo. Years of being on the job had taught her to keep her expression neutral as she allowed her lips to curl the edges of her mouth. “Well, as appealing as that bribe sounds, I can’t take it. It’d be nepotism, and that just wouldn’t fly.”

  The girl slammed back into the chair. “Yeah right, no way is the mayor related to you. He’s black, and you’re whiter than white.”

  Jo shrugged. “So? Maybe I’m adopted. But you’re right-the mayor and I aren’t directly related. His wife is my cousin. I could go get her for you, she’s next door in a meeting for a fundraiser for a youth center. Then again, it won’t do you any good.” Jo’s tone frosted as the next words fell like shards of ice from a jagged height. “Because we don’t take bribes and we don’t do favors for criminals and bullies. So you keep digging that hole deeper while your lawyer tries to pull you out of the sewage drain you’ve flushed your life down.”

  A knock at the door distracted the girl, preventing her from going off the rails. One of Jo’s detectives, Webster ‘Maker’ Schumaker, stepped into the room. The black blazer, white button-down, and dress pants looked odd on the man. Normally he wore jeans, a Henley, and a blazer. Due to his testimony today, he’d been forced into dressier attire.

  Arching her brow in question, Jo sat back from the file she’d been flipping through.

  “The attorney they requested is here,” Maker stated, coming into the interrogation room and taking up an entire corner with his massive frame.

  “Thanks, Maker.” She wanted these two nailed to the wall. As these two had targeted Arabelle’s babysitter, a girl Jo liked, she was out for blood. She was out for their freedom and any tears they felt the need to shed along the way was a bonus in her book.

  She could feel her partner’s gaze like an itch on the back of her neck. Sullivan was still pissed that Jo vetoed him coming into the interrogation with her. It was his daughter’s babysitter that’d been targeted. There was no way Jo would let Sullivan anywhere near these two if she wanted the DA to get a conviction. Knowing her partner, he’d do something that might get the entire case tossed out. None of them wanted that. Even though he wasn’t in the room with her, Sullivan was watching and listening to every piece of this interview. The overdone mirror behind Jo was too clichéd, but cheap and effective as it allowed detectives to observe this. The ‘monitoring closet,’ as all the cops affectionately called it, was nestled between the two interview rooms with big mirrors in both.

  Before Jo could give in to the urge to shoot Sullivan the bird, a well-dressed man in a suit that cost more than Jo made in a year barreled into the room as if he owned it. Detective Karma Zwart tipped her chin before closing the door to the hallway. Jo had asked Karma to stand in front of the door and make sure Sullivan didn’t barge in.

  “Thank you for joining us, Mr. . . . ” Jo trailed off, waiting for the lawyer to fill in the blank.

  “Bradley. And these two are coming with me . . . now.”

  The young man and woman stood as if to escape. Relief spread across the boy’s face, and a superior smirk appeared on the girl’s. Jo didn’t move a muscle, she didn’t stand, and gave none of them the courtesy of acknowledging them further as the lawyer attempted to open the interrogation room door. When that didn’t work, he banged on the metal barricade. “We’re done, let us out.”

  Jo didn’t worry. She knew Karma wouldn’t touch the knob until Jo had given her the all clear. When Mr. Bradley still hadn’t gotten the message, she cleared her throat. “You sir can leave anytime you want. However, your clients are staying with me.”

  “Excuse me?” he rounded on Jo, a cold mask of disdain on his face.

  “I don’t think I stuttered.” Jo looked to Maker. “Did I stutter?”

  “Nope.” His deep voice held a growl that sounded as if the hounds of hell were trapped in his chest.

  She smiled. “I didn’t think so.” The smile fell from her face as she turned back to the three at the door. “Sit.”

  Bradley met her gaze, and she arched her left brow, making him flinch. Her eyes s
eemed to terrify suspects and lawyers alike. They weren’t friendly, and nothing else about her would make them think friendly. Nor did her gaze express any warmth. Her eyes had been compared to the blue of water just under ice. So pale to be almost white. They were cold whenever someone crossed her, freezing them in place. These two had crossed so far over Jo’s boundaries she felt the need to snap a chain on them and slap them back in their place. But the captain frowned at that sort of thing, so she kept it professional.

  “Fine, we’ll listen to what you have to say, then we’re leaving.” He motioned to the chairs and waited for his clients to settle into them again before taking the end one.

  Jo turned her gaze on the couple. From her notes, she knew they’d been an item since the sixth grade. Even now their fingers were tangled together, the young man looked bored while the corners of the young woman’s lips held a self-satisfied smile, unimpressed with Jo’s authority. Their attitude didn’t matter-Jo had broken killers, rapists, and abusers worse than these two. They wouldn’t be a challenge even with the high-priced suit as their defense.

  Opening the file that rested on the table in front of her, Jo flipped through the pages again. Pretended to read certain sections. She didn’t need to read them; each word was burned into her brain. “So you’re both eighteen, correct?”

  When she received no answer, she raised her gaze and met Bradley’s.

  “Yes, they’re both eighteen,” he said.

  It always started out the same. The suspects would let the attorney answer a question or two before the feeling of being ignored ate at them and they needed to tell their side of the story. She didn’t figure the two teens would last beyond a third question. Amy was too spoiled and used to attention, she would hate not being in control. Zach was quiet, but his eyes flashed fire each time they landed on Jo.

  She lowered her eyes back to the pages. “And you both know why you were brought down here?”

  “To answer some stupid questions about pictures that are going around school,” the young man answered.

  “That would be correct, Zach.” Jo flipped to another page while stifling her need to smile. Gotcha.

  “So ask us already, I’ve got a nail appointment at four,” the girl stated.

  “You’ll need to have your attorney cancel that . . . Amy, is it?” she hummed.

  “You don’t even know my name and yet you’re bringing me in here to ask questions about half-naked pictures of a girl I don’t even know.”

  Jo raised her eyes, the predator in her coming to the forefront. “Oh, I know your name. Just wanted it verified–you know, for the official report.”

  “Can we get on with this?” Bradley cut in.

  “Sure. Here’s how this will go: we’re charging your clients with the distribution of child pornography, which is a felony—”

  “Excuse me?” Bradley snarled while Amy screeched in outraged.

  “You heard me.” Jo stabbed a finger at Zach then at Amy. “And this is not their first offense. Just the first offense since they turned eighteen.” Jo held a hand up so as not to be interrupted again. “We have evidence from Zach’s computer, cell phone, and iPad of the pictures. He took them of minors, then distributed them across the internet to multiple sites. In this instance, however, Amy went a step further and printed the pictures out. Then she hung them around not only the minor’s neighborhood but several other public locations—”

  “And you know this for a fact?” Bradley asked his eyes bounced between the two teens.

  “This isn’t my first day on the job, Mr. Bradley. We have multiple witnesses that have positively identified them from an array of photos.” She narrowed her gaze. “So we know definitively it was her, and she won’t be able to silence all the witnesses.”

  “Amy?” Zach jerked his gaze toward his girlfriend.

  “What? Laura deserved it for even thinking she had a chance with you—”

  “We agreed to only send it to the people at school—”

  “You two need to shut up. Now!” Bradley commanded. “And you can’t charge them with that, they’re considered minors as well since they’ve not graduated yet.”

  Jo smiled. It wasn’t happy, it held too many sharp edges. “That would be true. However, they screamed to high heaven how we needed to treat them as adults since they were eighteen. And as I said previously, this isn’t their first offense, which means there’s a pattern any good prosecutor will link together showing the judge and jury these two won’t change. To top that off, their latest victim is only sixteen, and just turned that age a month ago, compared to their eighteen. Which means the bullying began at fifteen. I could go on, but I think you see how my hands are tied with arresting them as minors.”

  Bradley’s face darkened with anger. “It won’t hold up.”

  “Oh, it will hold up in court. And we both know your clients will not do well in prison or after. Because it’s the same punishment as statutory rape—”

  “Rape? Puh-lease,” Amy spit out contemptuously, standing up and turning. “My man does not need to rape some flat-chested kid when he has a woman right here keeping him more than satisfied.”

  She was getting under the girl’s skin. Jo arched a brow. They all knew why Laura had been humiliated. It was because she’d thought to flirt with Zach and Zach had flirted back. The second that had happened Amy realized she’d had to show Laura who Zach really belonged to. Allowing the anger she was feeling to bubble up, Jo slammed the file closed with a snap making all three people across from her jump. “We all know your boy-toy over there has a wandering eye. The reason he stays with you isn’t because of your looks.” Jo dragged her gaze over Amy and snorted. “Definitely not that. It’s because of your money. Which makes you little more than a whore.”

  Amy slapped her hands on the table and leaned into Jo’s face. “Bullshit. My man loves me. He’d do anything for me.”

  Instead of backing away, she moved a few inches closer to Amy, calling her bluff. Sweat beaded at the girl’s hairline, making Jo want to crow in triumph. Not allowing her mask to slip even an inch, she countered, “Bullshit. He’s been checking out my detective’s ass every time she comes in here. Guess you aren’t woman enough to keep your man satisfied. Now, you better sit down, little girl, before you make me feel threatened.”

  “Amy,” the attorney hissed. “Sit down and shut up now.” He turned Jo. “I need to confer with my clients.”

  Meeting Maker’s green-eyed gaze, she tipped her head to the door. “Detectives Schumaker and Zwart will take Zach and Amy to holding until they are processed. After you’re done with them, of course.”

  She stood and rapped on the door. Karma immediately opened it.

  “They’re all yours after their attorney’s done with them.” Jo stepped into the hall, Maker trailing her.

  “Thanks, LT.” Karma’s smile was more predatory than Jo’s. “The groups in holding will love getting fresh meat.”

  She still wasn’t used to the new title. She and Sullivan had applied for the LT positions in Homicide, now Robbery-Homicide, and gotten them. Though they officially didn’t slide into the positions until Lambert and Calhoun retired in three months. The transition period, learning what new tasks they would assume and which they needed to let go of, was challenging.

  Jo waited until the door shut firmly behind her before releasing a laugh. “Have fun, Karm.”

  She clapped her half-sister on her shoulder as Maker leaned against the door, waiting for Bradley to finish with the two soon-to-be felons. Jo headed to find her partner and share a celebratory drink.

  ~ ~ ~

  The mini-mart was better than going to a chain store. Jo did not want to deal with a bunch of weirdos this late at night, especially on a full moon. Seemed all the wackadoos came out this time of year. Seeing the time on the dashboard, she
groaned. Almost five in the morning, overnights sucked and they’d only been on night shift for two days now.

  “Hey, no more complaining. This is part of the training. We need to see each shift so when we take Calhoun and Lambert’s spots there won’t be no surprises.” Sullivan said. “I didn’t complain when you wouldn’t let me into the interrogation room with those two jerks yesterday afternoon. You don’t get to complain now.”

  “Any,” Jo mumbled.

  “What?”

  “Ugh! I’ve been proofreading too many of Rhys’s papers for school. It’s not ‘no surprises’ with ‘won’t’ because that’s a double negative.”

  “So?” Sullivan slammed the car into park and turned to face Jo.

  “So? It means you’ve jinxed us because now we’ll be surprised all the time,” Jo snarked, opening the car door and stepping onto the concrete lot. Her body ached from tackling the pimp who’d snuck up on to her partner with a knife. Sometimes questioning hookers about suspects could be downright dangerous.

  “Jinx or not, I appreciate what you did when you arrested those arrogant pricks before they destroyed more lives.” Sullivan pocketed the keys. “I hope the DA doesn’t deal them out this time.”

  “First, they deserved every charge I could throw at them. Second, I didn’t do it for you. I did it for all those girls who suffered because those pricks kept getting slaps on the wrists due to being minors too. No one touched them even after complaints were filed. But they are eighteen now which brings in a whole different set of rules.” Jo grinned. “And third, I hate bullies so anytime I can take them down, I’m in. The icing on their shit cake is the DA refuses to cut them a break unless one gives the other up and neither is budging.”

  “You know that makes you a bully in certain circles.” Sullivan scuffed a rock across the lot. “How do you know there’s no deal?”