Slenderman Read online

  “Umm . . . okay, so you’re still at the house?”

  “Yes.” He sounded almost as if he were panicking.

  Why was he still at the house? Her mother was already at the party. Jo knew because she’d been tasked with picking up drinks, ice, and more cups and plates.

  Confused, Jo swung onto the dead-end street and pulled into her parent’s driveway. Her father was caught briefly in the headlights as Jo parked the car. “Dad?”

  “Keep your voice down,” he whisper-shouted.

  Jo sighed, stepped from the car and walked to the door of the house, only to freeze in horror. “What the hell are you wearing?”

  “Oh nice, Jo. I thought you weren’t cursing anymore.” Her dad shifted from one heeled foot to the other.

  “Is that a Hooter’s shirt?” She ignored the cursing reprimand. If at any point in her life she deserved to curse . . . this would be the time. “And fishnets? Dad? What. The. Hell?”

  There was a snarl before Carl finally replied. “It was your mother’s idea. I was going as a retired Hooter’s girl, and your mom dressed up as some kind of beer-bellied customer.”

  “Ooookay.” It really wasn’t. There was way too much hairy, sagging skin for Jo to be comfortable looking at her father right now. “Umm . . . Dad? Are those nipples?”

  “Yes, Jo. Okay? Yes, those are the sagging boobs’ nipples that come out of the bottom of the shirt. When I went to lock the door, one of the damned things got caught in the door. Before I could get my keys, my purse fell over there.” He pointed towards his truck. “And of course, the keys skidded under the danged truck.”

  “You’re wearing saggy boobs?”

  “That’s where you went?” An exasperated huff passed his lips as he frowned at her.

  “I thought you were with Mom.”

  “No, she left early to help set up and now I’m running late.”

  Jo dropped to the concrete and grabbed her dad’s keys from under his truck. “Why didn’t you call Mom? She could’ve been here sooner than me.”

  “Heck no! She’d take pictures and selfies and put them on her Facebook page. So no. It’s bad enough I let her talk me into this.” He gestured with one hand down his body.

  “How did she do that?” Jo found the key to the knob, slid it in and tried to unlock the door.

  “Sex.”

  “Oh God.”

  “I’m admitting it, your mother is hot in bed. That tantric sex retreat—”

  Jo slapped a hand over her father’s mouth. “If you want me to get you out of this mess with no documented proof, you’ll stop right now.”

  A muffled hum of agreement had Jo dropping her hand and trying the door again.

  “It might be stuck.”

  She gave the knob a jiggle, her dad pressed against her side too close for comfort the way he was dressed. “I’m getting that feeling too.” The fake boob brushed her arm making her shudder. Ew.

  “See, I tried to force the handle like I saw in this movie. The guy twisted it off, but I think my boob is caught in the tongue—”

  Jo groaned. “Please stop.”

  “Hey, Mr. Rayburn. Hi ya’, Jo.”

  Hearing the neighbor’s voice, her father flinched. Jo peered around Carl’s bulk and groaned louder. Of course Mr. Phelps had to bring his two grandkids over to see what was going on. He was the biggest busybody on the street.

  “Papaw, why is Mr. Rayburn’s chest caught in the door?” One of them helpfully piped up.

  “That’s not right. Here, let’s take a better look.” Blinding light from Mr. Phelps big ass flashlight spotlighted them. “Oh dear God.”

  The light abruptly cut off and hurried footsteps raced away from them.

  “Fat lot of help they were,” Jo muttered, rubbing her eyes.

  “Great. I’m sure everyone’ll be talking about this at the next home owners’ association meeting. We’ll have a list of inappropriate Halloween costumes.”

  Jo stifled a chuckle.

  “It’s not funny. Ever since Marty let his Chihuahuas walk to the mailbox with him, we’ve had a new leash mandate. We live in the freaking country, and the only things those small rat-dogs will do is lick you to death.”

  Turning back to the door, she jiggled the handle and almost gagged at seeing the fake boob wiggle like a snake next to her. Finally the handle twisted and the door opened. “Oh, thank God.”

  She shivered as her father wrapped his boobs against his chest with one arm and bent to gather his scattered items. Helping him, Jo waited for him to get to his truck before closing and locking their house door.

  “I’ll meet you at the party.” She wanted to add, after she bleached her brain with as much alcohol as she could handle. But she’d promised Rhys not to do that again, and she was headed to this Halloween party to catch a witness. She grinned. Then again, Rhys would love to hear every bit of detail so he could share in the brain bleach moment. Good thing she’d gotten a picture without Carl noticing.

  Thirty minutes later, loaded down with everything her mother had listed, Jo walked into the party. After dropping off the sacks in the kitchen, she went to find Sullivan. As soon as they met this witness, she and Sullivan could head out to meet Rhys, Rian, Evan, and Sullivan’s family to bob for apples, enter the corn maze, and check out Franklin’s latest scary theme for his house.

  It was a good thing she’d left her gun in the car; otherwise, some of these idiots would have a few holes put in them. Who thought it was a good idea to jump out from a closet at a Halloween party hosted by a police officer and filled with even more police officers? Jo glanced around and pushed the person who’d tried to scare her back into the closet and shut the door. It’d been a reflex. She’d definitely not meant to knock the guy out.

  “Did you kill the guy, Jo?” Sullivan asked from behind her making her jump and spin around.

  “Shut up and help me get him in here.”

  Her partner shook his head but helped her muscle the door closed. “I really hope that guy’s not dead or I’m gonna have to arrest you and then you’ll have to arrest me as an accomplice.”

  Jo smacked Sullivan in the arm. “He’s not dead. The idiot thought it’d be a good idea to jump out at me from the closet. He’s lucky I wasn’t armed.”

  It was then she got a good look at her partner. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to keep from laughing. “Are you dressed as a skeleton?”

  “As if you didn’t know this would happen. Arabelle told me you helped pick the theme.” Sullivan frowned, tugging on his costume. “Arabelle wanted me to wear it now so I’d be dressed up for later. I can’t believe this guy wanted to meet us here.” He waved his hand at the packed house that smelled of sweat and Febreze.

  “I know, but he was antsy when I suggested a coffee house since he didn’t want to be seen with us. And for some reason he didn’t want to go to Kyle’s. Dressing up and coming to a Halloween party made him feel as if he could be incognito.”

  “You’re not even wearing a costume,” Sullivan growled.

  “First, I don’t have a ten-year-old who loves to dress me. Second, I’m wearing a costume.” Jo shifted her leather jacket to the left displaying her badge and an empty holster attached to her belt. “See, I’m dressed as a police officer.”

  “Unbelievable. You stole my idea.”

  She shrugged, doing nothing to hide her wide smile. “I did. What are partners for? Besides, those million and one frog ties you have stuffed in your closet shows you’d wear pretty much anything when Arabelle bats her baby blues at you.”

  “Screw you, Jo. I love those frog ties Arabelle gave me, every one of them.” He jabbed a finger at her. “Let’s find this asshole and get out of here. Maybe we’ll still have time to meet up with our families and get some candied apple . . . ”
Sullivan’s eyes bugged. “Holy shit.”

  Spinning around, Jo reached for her absent gun and cursed. “What?”

  “Your dad is dressed like a retired Hooter’s girl.” Sullivan gasped and slapped a hand over his eyes. “Oh my god! His boobs are hanging below his shirt.”

  Scrubbing a hand over her face, Jo groaned. “Don’t remind me. That was why I was late.”

  She told Sullivan about her father getting his boob tangled in the door amidst guffaws from her partner. It was then she spotted their quarry. Nudging Sullivan’s arm, she tipped her chin in the guy’s direction. Her partner continued to snicker but turned in the direction she indicated.

  The teenager looked like he was dressed up in his dad’s armor with a sword strapped to his waist that dragged the ground.

  “Let’s get this guy.”

  They separated and caged the teenager in.

  “Robyn, how much liquor did Stanley have?” Carl called from across the room. His deep voice carried easily over the music, chatter, and other overlapping sounds. Jo flinched.

  “I don’t know, he was in the kitchen for a while. Why?”

  “He’s passed out in the closet.”

  “Jesus, make sure he didn’t tear any of our coats when he went down,” Robyn replied from next to her.

  The woman was married to one of Jo’s uncles. She pushed into the crowd headed to the closet and Carl while Jo ducked her head in case Carl or Maddy looked her way. They could read her guilt from across the room.

  Laying a hand on the kid’s shoulder, she turned to the distracted young man and grinned. “Hi Allen, I’m Kyle’s friend, Jo.”

  “Oh shit.”

  “Now don’t run. I’ve already told you we wouldn’t arrest you for the pot as long as you keep this conversation between us. We just need answers regarding Legends of Stone.” Jo slipped a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and waved towards the side door. “How about you come out for a smoke?”

  Wide brown eyes met hers. Allen stammered, “I-I don’t smoke.”

  “Neither do I kid, but this way we have a reason to leave the party without drawing attention and a reason to hang around the backyard with no one suspecting you gave us anything. Isn’t that what you were worried about? And why you wanted to meet at a Halloween party in disguise?” She didn’t add that most everyone in here either was a cop or related by birth or marriage to the ones in law enforcement.

  Allen gulped before stating overly loud. “Okay, I would love a cigarette. We can smoke in the backyard.”

  His tone was over exaggerated and made Jo cringe with how bad an actor the kid was. Sullivan chuckled, clapping Allen on the shoulder he steered the teenager out of the house with Jo trailing them, trying not to laugh.

  Sullivan chose the picnic table nestled near the corner of the house and tossed the pack of cigarettes on it.

  Allen’s gaze bounced around the empty swing set, the empty grill area, and the empty yard before settling back on them. “What do you want to know?”

  Jo met Sullivan’s gaze and saw he wanted her to take the lead. “Why did you leave the social clan you were in?”

  “The Cave? Well, it was more of a social clan, and I wanted to boss.”

  “Yet you still hang out in the Cave.”

  Allen shrugged. “I did until about a year ago. Bossing clans have a lot of flamers and trolls. The Cave was nice and relaxing so when I’m leveling skills I liked to visit in there and chat about movies and music and stuff.”

  “And you couldn’t do that with your boss clan?”

  “Hell no. Those guys would shred you. They’re all about how many boss kills you had that day or what latest armor I’ve bought. There’s even a schedule on when we’re required to tank a boss. Which is a pain and costs a good chunk of gold because you get to take the majority of the damage while the clan kills the boss.”

  “So you’re the decoy.”

  “No . . . a tank,” Allen replied very slow, as if Jo were stupid.

  “But you were in the Cave for a while before you left?”

  “Oh yeah. I was in there for a few years. It’s why I was still hanging out in there, I had friends from all over the place. But the past year the admins have gone nuts about anyone visiting that used to be in the clan. So I stopped going in there.”

  Her gut clenched. If this kid had been there from the beginning, he’d know all the players. Maybe even who killed Mark. “The admins were going nuts how? In what way?”

  Sullivan’s gaze latched onto Allen.

  “Not all. Only three of them absolutely hate visitors. A few others aren’t crazy about us visiting. Maybe like seven total.” He tugged at the cuffs of his long-sleeved shirt under the plastic chest plate. “It’s why I quit going in there.”

  “Define hate? Why do they hate visitors?” Jo wanted to ask if the three would kill the guests who hung out in the chat, but that would send Allen running faster than a jackrabbit chased by dogs.

  Allen fiddled with the sword at his waist. “Well, like two of them are vocal about the chat being closed to visitors all the time. Which is done if the Cave has events, but since it’s a social chat it’s opened back up as soon as the event is over.”

  “They don’t like guests at all?”

  He tipped his head from side to side. “With them it’s weird, they like some of us but not all. The worst one is Serioulias, he says those who leave the group should never be allowed to return because they’re betrayers.”

  “Betrayers? They used that word?”

  “Yeah, he had a whole thing when the Cave’s original owner wanted to leave for a bossing clan. He tried to shut down the chat for guests. It was a verbal war zone in the game chat, in the IRC channel, and on the gaming speech software we used. I heard he tried to get the admins to shun the old leader.”

  Serioulias had to be their guy. “What happened?”

  Allen shrugged. “I don’t know. The owner left the game. Most people think it was because he got sick of the drama, but some say he went to college and got caught up in school.”

  Jo knew better. Mark was killed. “Was Serioulias always like this?”

  “Nah. It was only when Mark wanted to leave then it’s like a switch flipped.” Allen gnawed on his lip. “It was weird because Serioulias used to be one of my friends until he started spouting that stuff. I dropped him after I left because he would message me about betraying the clan and stuff.”

  It couldn’t be this easy. Jo wanted to know more about Serioulias and the others Allen said were unhappy with visitors. Sullivan scribbled in his small notebook, and she pinned Allen to his seat. “What were the names of the admins unhappy with visitors?”

  Allen shrugged. “They change their names. I can shoot Kyle a list when I get home.”

  “No, shoot it to me.” Jo passed him a card with her contact information. “This Serioulias. How close is he to the new owners of the Cave?”

  “You mean Rian and Evan? Pretty close. He’s like the fourth rank below them.”

  Holy shit, Sullivan mouthed to Jo.

  The rank caught Jo’s attention, but it wasn’t what sent stark panic through. What sent her heart racing in fear was Allen knew Rian and Evan’s names.

  Chapter 11

  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s all blurred together for Jo. She got little to no sleep because of the robberies, suicides, murders, and home invasions paired with various divisions running on skeleton crews so their officers were able to have some family time. Her schedule left no time for hunting Slenderman. Luckily, Redden and Ian continued to work on it, even though they’d gone to their respective homes to be closer to their families for the holidays.

  However, as November turned to December and the frost of January began to roll through Alabama, all the leads they
’d gathered slowly dissipated like fog to the sun.

  None of the weapon makers could remember the last time they’d made a pugio. Each had sent Jo the past five years of orders to be sure their killer hadn’t commissioned one for the first killing. They hadn’t, which left a dead end.

  Of the seven names Allen gave, none of the people behind the screen names had anything illegal tied to them. A few traffic violations. One drug possession. Nothing major, but she wasn’t taking chances and had to coordinate with different state law enforcement agencies to check up on those individuals. Jo received the last confirmation a few days ago none had traveled to Texas, Michigan, nor Alabama, though two were in Tennessee at different times but not during the time of the murder.

  From the fifty names, Jo coordinated with Redden to keep the potential victims safe without warning the killer. It was complicated and messy with so many jurisdictions, but no one wanted to tip their hand and have the killer escape.

  Even Rottensteer’s death had not produced any new leads. No security cameras. Plenty of fingerprints, but none that matched anything in any system, which frustrated Ian since in England they now collected prints with passports as did several other countries. Brazil, Norway, and Germany being a few. The new biometric security narrowed the search down to only those admins in the Cave listed outside of those countries.

  Two weeks into January and the divisions were back to operating with full staff. All of hers and Sullivan’s cases were caught up with the paperwork filed. Ian and Redden had flown back to Alabama to meet with the mayor, chief, governor, and Captain Walker to update them. Not that there was anything to share, just more bad news.

  “Slenderman isn’t Serioulias and I hate that name. We should call him William Scott.” Ian stuffed a forkful of pancake in his mouth.

  Jo poured more coffee and sat at the kitchen table while Rhys cooked raspberry pancakes behind them. Sunday was always raspberry pancakes if they were both off work. It was nice to take a break after spending only a few hours here and there together during the holidays.