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  When the door was flung open, Jo thought her prayers were answered until the rookie returned. Luckily, he was followed by FBI Barbie, but it was the second FBI agent that made Jo wish she’d just broken the observation mirror and crawled through it.

  “Oh Christ, tell me you are not here to question me, Redden. Because without my coffee I’m liable to strangle you on general principle.” She pointed to the carefully coifed female agent who still looked as fresh as when she’d picked Jo up hours ago. “At least FBI Barbie came with you in case you needed backup.”

  Redden pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hello to you too, Detective Rayburn.”

  “It’s Lieutenant.”

  “I am not FBI Barbie. I have a name—”

  Jo waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah, and if you had stopped for coffee and a burger for dinner, I might have remembered it. But now I can’t be bothered.”

  Redden’s perfect brow arched. It surprised her that his bland, plastic face could make that expression. “A bit young to be a lieutenant.”

  The FBI Barbie snickered as she took a chair opposite Jo.

  Jo’s lip curled. “A bit old to get two different profiles wrong. And to think, that’s all you supposedly do with the FBI, right?”

  The female agent cleared her throat. “Okay you two, put them away.” Cool onyx eyes met Jo’s. “We need you to walk us through what you did from four yesterday afternoon until I came and picked you up this afternoon.”

  Jo was glad she wouldn’t be on nights permanently because it played havoc with her internal clock. It felt like she should be asleep. Thank God Meyers and Sims handled the night shift. Meyers because his wife, Nancy, was a nurse who preferred the night shift and Sims because he was a night owl. Instead, a quick glance at FBI Barbie’s watch showed it was just after seven in the evening. They had sweated her for three hours. Assholes. How could she be tired? But the drab walls and silence became boring after so many hours spent doing nothing.

  She wouldn’t have lasted if she’d been given the night shift with the promotion. Never to see Rhys except in passing was unacceptable and the one thing that would have made her leave the force.

  “Rayburn!” Captain Walker stated next to her ear.

  She jumped at the loud noise. “Sorry, captain.” Looking around, she grinned. “Fife’s gone?”

  This was what happened when she hadn’t had caffeine, her mind was like a hamster in one of those plastic balls running all over the place. Her gaze met the captain’s composed expression. Late into the evening and the man was still in a crisp suit. The dark gray striking against his chocolate-toned skin.

  “Lord help us Rayburn, you need to pull yourself together and answer these agents’ questions. I’ve already sent Krane to pick you two up some dinner and coffee.” Exasperation rang clear in Captain Walker’s expression.

  “Have I told you how much I really like you, Captain Walker?”

  “Great. Questions and then you can tell anyone you want until I piss you off again.” He stalked from the room snapping the door closed behind him.

  Sighing, Jo faced the two agents. “What’re your questions?”

  “We need you to walk us through until I picked you up,” FBI Barbie said.

  Jo racked her brain but drew a blank on the woman’s name. “Yesterday?”

  The agent nodded.

  “I woke up about four. Sullivan picked me up as Rian and Lisa came home from GlenCare. Then we grabbed dinner and headed downtown—”

  Jo replayed each of the events. The rain-soaked street was slick but the hookers handled it like pros, strutting down the sidewalk in the dead of night. Corner boys watching the women and answering their customers’ demand for drugs. Birmingham at night was a whole different world than during the day. Only certain areas, but Jo and Sullivan knew them all as did their brothers and sisters in blue. Which streets were safe, which held the homeless. And which streets held the lowlifes and those just trying to make a living any way they could.

  “Downtown? Not the precinct? And in Sullivan’s car, not yours?”

  “No, not the precinct. Captain Walker assigned us to help find a homeless guy who’s been attacking people on Southside. Usually he beat up the people, which is why it was another department’s case, but a few days ago he escalated before they could catch him—”

  “He hurt anyone?” the agent asked.

  “Yeah, he stabbed a man. The victim lived, but now several departments are working together to bring the vagrant in and get him some help. So Sullivan and I hit up some of our CIs and a few hookers we knew. As for my car, it’s in the shop being serviced.”

  “After dinner . . . ” Redden made a hand motion for Jo to continue.

  Jo refrained from rolling her eyes. “After dinner, Sullivan and I hit the streets and about the fifth hooker we talked to, well, her pimp got pissed, and tried to cut Sullivan. I jumped on the pimp, and we had patrol pick him up while we finished our rounds.”

  “You jumped on him? Why didn’t Krane handle the guy?” FBI Barbie asked.

  “Because Sullivan’s in his forties. Almost as old as Redden, and he doesn’t need to toss his back out. If that happens, I get assigned a temporary partner for the streets, and I don’t do well with temporary partners.”

  “What does that mean? You ‘don’t do well with temporary partners.’”

  Jo narrowed her gaze on the female agent. “It means they annoy me, kind of like you’re doing. Only with them, I stop and make them call someone else to pick them up because I don’t do well when annoyed. Or when interrogated. It pisses me off.”

  The agent’s eyes widened, and she smirked. “Got it. So, you finished questioning people—”

  “Yes, then we came in and did the paperwork for the pimp and typed up our notes on the meetings with the CIs.” Jo rubbed her face. “When we finished, Sullivan needed to stop to get cough syrup for his daughter, which was why we were at Ned’s place.”

  “Ned’s place?”

  “It’s a mini-mart slash gas station. We’d just gotten what we needed when the place was robbed—”

  “You’re joking,” FBI Barbie cut in. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

  “Nope. Rhys, that’s my fiancé, he thinks it’s a karmic alignment when it happens. Like the universe literally throws the bad guys in my way so I can take them off the street.”

  “Did you say Rice?”

  Jo pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not spelled R-I-C-E it’s spelled R-H-Y-S—”

  “That’s Reese.”

  “No, because his name is Rhysian but Rian, his brother, shortened it to Rhys. So, it’s Rhys.”

  “So, the robber was arrested—”

  “Oh no. I punched him because he shot the place up and hit Ned. Which meant an ambulance had to come and pick up Ned. Then Sullivan and I had to take the perp to the hospital since we had no idea what the guy was on at the time and it would not have been safe to transport him in an ambulance with Ned. Besides, it was where I needed to be anyway since Rhys was taking me home.”

  “So you dropped the robber off and then went home,” Redden marked something in his notebook.

  “No, something else happened.”

  Redden looked up and his trepidatious expression made Jo grin. “Do I want to ask?”

  “Well, it seems Dr. Carmichael remembers the worst date ever—”

  “If it was with you that doesn’t surprise me,” Redden quipped.

  “Ignore him.” FBI Barbie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Did this Dr. Carmichael and your fiancé have an altercation?”

  “Oh no, they work together. Dr. Carmichael asked my fiancé if he was into ménage—”

  Both agents’ jaws dropped open. It was FBI Barbie who gathered herself first. “Dr. Carmichael is gay?”
/>   “No. See.” Jo leaned forward because the whole incident was still funny as hell. “Dr. Carmichael asked me if I’d be interested in a ménage with him. I might have led the good doctor to the impression that if he wanted one, I’d be open to two men and me. But I didn’t do female-male-female, at which point he ran out of the bar as if his pants were drenched in gasoline and someone had struck a match.”

  FBI Barbie was snickering quietly but tried to hide it behind her hand as she pored over her small notebook. “I’ll have to remember that next time I’m on a horrible date.”

  Jo hummed. “Unfortunately, Dr. Carmichael asked Rhys about it, and they were overheard by a redneck. One who decided he and his friends needed to teach Rhys and Dr. Carmichael a lesson by gay bashing them in the parking lot.”

  “How’d that work out?”

  “Well, there was bashing going on but not a gay person in sight. Mostly it was handled when Rhys kicked their asses, but one had a tire iron, so I had to pull my gun. Needless to say, we arrested them, and Sullivan filled out the paperwork to transfer the case over to you all as a Hate Crime.” Jo tapped the metal table. “After that, Rhys and I went home, which our security camera would have clocked us. If that isn’t enough, the alarm code we entered to turn it off and back on should verify it. Especially since the code wasn’t entered again until Rhys left for work before you all got there. Then I entered it yet again to let you all in the house. So that would be my alibi. Now, your turn. Why are you asking me all these questions? Because every bit of this can be verified by different security feeds. I’m sure our Crime Tech Unit already has all of them.”

  “We had them pull the footage after talking to your partner, Detective Krane. It’s why it took us a while to get in here. We didn’t think you had killed the two kids, however, we have to cover every one of our bases on this new case.” FBI Barbie cleared her throat. “I need you to know, I was transferred here after Sharon, and I have a full caseload so you’ll be working with Redden from here on out. If this is a prob—”

  Jo held a hand up. “It won’t be an issue. I like giving Redden a hard time because he’s easy to bait, but his work is solid. Every other case we’ve needed him on he’s come through except for the two oddballs.”

  “Oddballs?” FBI Barbie asked.

  “She means the Skinned case and the Gravedigger case,” Redden said.

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, so his work is fine, but in the spirit of being part of the force, I reserve the right to give him shit when he screws up. And dang it, you two cost me at least fifty cents in the swear jar.” Jo sighed. “Is this why you dragged me in here, to make sure I would work with Redden?”

  “No.”

  Sprawling back in the chair, Jo opened her arms. “I showed you mine, now you show me yours. Why am I here?”

  It was Redden who caved. Three photos in rapid succession slid across the table toward Jo. All three held the image of the same person-Zach the adult teen she’d arrested two days ago. The first two were candid shots, one at a school function and another a selfie with Amy.

  The last picture made her pause. It showed him in a recliner, a blood-soaked hoodie clinging to his body with a remote in his hand. She raised her gaze. “He’s dead?”

  “Murdered last night.”

  “And you think what? It was my partner and me?” Jo flicked the edges of the pictures.

  “We didn’t know, but with how the young man bullied Laura we needed to be safe.”

  “Especially since his girlfriend lives a few blocks away from Rhys’s house,” Jo stated.

  “Exactly. Redden didn’t want to muddy the case and asked for another team of detectives be assigned. However, I asked for the best, and your captain stated that we couldn’t have it both ways.”

  Jo smirked. “That’s because my team is the best at ferreting out the real culprits.” She raised her gaze to Redden’s. “Isn’t that right, Redden?”

  He huffed, grudgingly tipping his head.

  “And after you get the information from our security company, I’ll be cleared to work it. Right?”

  “That’s our plan,” FBI Barbie said when Redden remained stubbornly silent.

  “See, what Redden probably didn’t tell you is I’m the one that discovered Sharon worked for one of the major drug cartels. My team flipped that witch for information, and if I’m not mistaken, she’s in WITSEC even now. I give her a few years before she screws up and gets her throat slit.” Jo pointed to the other agent. “You, however, don’t give me a creepy vibe. So I’ll deal with you, what’s your name?”

  The female agent arched her plucked brow. “Colbert. Melanie Colbert.”

  Jo added the name in place of FBI Barbie. However, if the woman turned out to be a stick in the mud Agent Colbert would get the nickname FBI Barbie permanently.

  “And you two came down here for this kid?” Jo pushed the photos back to Melanie. “I’d look at his girlfriend. I don’t see her wanting to spend any time in jail, so she’d be one to clean up loose ends because Karma would’ve gotten Zach to cave eventually.”

  “It’s not her.” Melanie took another picture out and slid it Jo’s way.

  Amy, the other teenage bully, was in a recliner that matched Zach’s. Instead of a hoodie, she wore a purple and white yoga outfit that showed more skin than Jo was comfortable seeing. What looked like stab wounds riddled the girl’s body. Melanie picked up the picture and stacked it with the rest into a neat pile and pushed them into the file under her elbow. It was too bad the pictures weren’t up close so Jo could see the wounds, but she could check on those later. She liked reading the facts before the photos.

  “Obviously not the girlfriend. Then who is it?”

  “A serial killer. International as we’ve received confirmed hits in Japan, Thailand, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, and England.”

  Interesting. Jo straightened in her chair. “This the first one in the States?”

  Melanie and Redden exchanged a glance laden with information before she turned her onyx gaze back to Jo. “No.”

  “Alabama?”

  “One in Georgia and these two in Alabama. Two in Canada, and one we’re still waiting on confirmation about in Michigan.”

  “That all of them?” Jo scratched the back of her neck, trying to fit the pieces together.

  “That we know of, yes.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. Serial killers stick to their geographic locations. They don’t travel all over the place killing strangers.” Jo dredged up everything she could remember in the courses she took about serial killers. They didn’t get a lot of them in Alabama.

  “You’d be correct. We want to bring you and your team on to help us get what information we can from Georgia and the family here.” Redden leaned against the wall next to the mirror.

  It made sense why Captain Walker had pushed for Jo and Sullivan to handle the case. Between Karma and her partner Maker transferring in from Georgia and Jo and Sullivan’s connection with the Alabama victims, they had their bases covered in two states.

  Decision made, Jo stood. “We’ll work with Redden, but I’ll want time to look at all the information.”

  “You have until tomorrow.” Melanie and Redden headed for the door.

  “Why tomorrow?” Jo preferred making sure she didn’t miss even the smallest of details before hunting someone with this high of a body count.

  “Because Interpol arrives and they’ll want answers,” Redden answered before closing the door.

  Chapter 4

  Jo took her filled coffee cup and headed towards the door of the break room where the walls were filled with most wanted, gun safety, and cookie sales sheets for officers who had families. She signed up for two boxes of cookies and left the break room. Meandering through the bullpen, she greeted a couple
of uniforms filling out reports, tossed a bird at Jones and Brown just for form, and smiled at the captain’s admin as she passed her to reach her goal of the nice conference room.

  A large cherrywood table took up the center with a whiteboard and fancy phone that allowed the captain to have officers here while also conferencing in whomever was in the field. Fifteen leather captain chairs surrounded the table, the darker cream on the walls and the gray carpet gave the room more of an executive look than the other conference rooms. The captain used it to meet with other division heads. He also used it when the mayor and chief of police came down to the ‘trenches.’ Under the window that captured the Birmingham City skyline was a long credenza, and at the back of the room were bookcases filled with books on law and police code. There was even a section on tort law which Jo had found while waiting for a meeting to begin.

  Being the first one in the room, she took her normal seat. Not quite the middle but with a good view of the bullpen and most important, her back to the wall.

  It wasn’t long before the room filled with Redden, Colbert, and a man dressed in a dark gray suit with a skinny tie. Jo assumed he was the Interpol agent.

  “Jo,” Sullivan greeted, as bleary-eyed as Jo was from spending what had been left of the night reading all the files.

  She didn’t get through half of them before crawling in the bed to sleep at two this morning. All so she could be on time for their nine o’clock meeting.

  “Sullivan.” Jo tipped her head at her partner as he claimed the seat next to her.

  A few seconds later, Jo nudged Sullivan, and they both watched in amusement as Karma froze on the doorway. Her gaze roved over the Interpol agent’s big strapping frame and bright copper hair.

  Ever since Abe had started dating again, Karma had become snarkier than usual. Seeing the interest in her sister’s eyes, Jo crossed her fingers this wouldn’t blow up in their faces. At least not until the case was solved.