The Evil One (Guess The Killer Book 3) Read online

  The Detective exhaled. “Do you have it with you?”

  “On my friend’s phone,” Ryan said holding up Justin’s cell.

  “May I see it?”

  “Sure. I’ll just…” He unlocked the phone and brought the email up. “There.” He handed the phone over.

  The Detective looked at it. Pressed his thumb on the screen to scroll down.

  He chuckled.

  “What?” Ryan asked.

  “No, it’s nothing,” the Detective said. He chuckled a second time.

  “Seriously, what –”

  “You know I’d really love to get involved. Take this son of a bitch down,” the Detective said. “Won’t be easy, mind you. He’s clearly thought ahead.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Well, it’s not going to be a crime of passion, is it? He’s on a timetable. A schedule. He’ll just keep going through his list of names until Justin’s there, right at the bottom. It’s going to be a fun chase. But like I said, I’m going home. I have … some socializing to do.”

  He handed Ryan back the phone.

  “What are you kidding me?” Ryan blurted out. “You don’t want in on this. You’re too tired or…”

  “Busy, mostly.”

  “Look – Detective –”

  “Leoncelli.”

  “Look Detective – this is your frickin’ job. Justin’s one of us. You want me bothering the Captain about this? Oh yeah. I’ll tell him you brushed me off. That you thought it was funny. You want to go down that road?”

  Leoncelli laughed. “Son, do you have any idea how inundated we are with cases at the moment? This … shit. It ain’t even real yet.”

  “I don’t care. You think it’s real. We both know it’s real. So … everyone needs to get on board.”

  Leoncelli nodded.

  Ryan nodded back.

  “Okay,” Leoncelli said. He walked past Ryan back into the precinct.

  “What – what’s okay?” Ryan said tagging along after him.

  “Come with me, Officer Dobbs.”

  Chapter 11

  Past the front desk. Through a pair of open doors and down a small set of carpeted stairs. Thirty or forty cops and plains-clothed detectives were at their stations or moving about the bullpen. Detective Leoncelli glanced back at Ryan a moment before picking up a bell off one of the desks and ringing it in the air. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Listen up! Over here! I have something to say!”

  Gradually the voices died down. Heads turned their way.

  “This here is Officer Dobbs, ladies and gentlemen. Now his partner –”

  “Officer Hodge,” Ryan added.

  “His partner Officer Hodge has been anonymously emailed by someone very threatening. Apparently, according to the letter I just read, this anonymous person plans to kill someone every hour tonight until they are caught. The thing of it is, these boys are no match for this highly elusive pen pal of theirs. What they need is someone to come forward and to help them. I would. But it’s knock off time for me and I have some drinking to do. So with that said, I leave Officer Dobbs in your hands.”

  Leoncelli turned back to Ryan, grinning.

  Ryan smiled back awkwardly.

  Leoncelli slapped him on the shoulder and exited back up over the steps.

  “Uh…” Ryan murmured. “Uh…”

  Everyone was looking at him.

  He cleared his throat.

  “Like, uh… Detective Leoncelli was saying. If anyone can help me with getting to the bottom of this email … it would be fully appreciated.”

  Eyes narrowed.

  Turned cold.

  Looked away.

  “I’m serious, I just need a few minutes of your time so we can…”

  The room was alive again. He was being ignored.

  One by one as he looked to each of the remaining faces pointing in his direction, they gradually fell away. Until no one was looking at him. Not one person.

  Deflated, his shoulders sagging inward, Ryan hesitated before finally turning back towards the steps. Thinking about what he was going to say to Justin when he got back to the apartment. Thinking about whether or not he’d have to lie.

  Two fingers pressed into his back.

  He turned around to find himself face to face with a young woman with long black hair, blonde streaks, wearing sunglasses.

  “What’s this about a scary email?” she asked.

  “Uh…” Ryan swallowed. “Yeah … Uh…”

  “Yeah, uh, what?”

  Ryan blushed. “I’m sorry. Here. It’s –”

  The woman moved by him. “Come on, we’ll go somewhere private.”

  “Okay,” Ryan said, following her.

  He joined her out in the hallway. They approached the elevator.

  “I didn’t introduce myself properly, I don’t think,” Ryan said. “I’m Ryan. Ryan Dobbs. You’re uh … You’re Taylor Shandling’s partner. The new girl.”

  “That’s right,” she said.

  She put her hand out across her body.

  Ryan took it lightly.

  “Nadine,” she said. “Nadine Shields.”

  The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside.

  “I bet all the guys have made passes at you,” Ryan said.

  Nadine’s head shifted sideways.

  “I – I just mean because –”

  “Because I’m hot and new? What gave it away.”

  Ryan chuckled. “You probably have a boyfriend and everything, don’t you? God, maybe you’re married. I shouldn’t be asking. It’s none of my business.”

  “Ryan, we’re not going to be able to work this case together properly if you’ve got a raging hard on for me.”

  “What? I don’t! I swear. I’m just nervous. I mean, not really. I’m not the type of guy who –”

  The elevator doors opened.

  Nadine stormed out.

  Ryan chased after her. “Listen, I’m sorry if I upset you.”

  “Seriously dude, put your dick away. We’re both men, we’re both women, we’re both the same freaking sex if that’s going to help you.”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t think of me as a girl, silly.”

  “I wasn’t, I mean –”

  They stopped outside one of the offices. Taylor Shandling’s name was printed on the door.

  Nadine reached into her pocket for the key and unlocked it.

  They stepped inside.

  “You don’t have your own office yet?” Ryan asked.

  “Not yet,” Nadine said switching on the light. “But Taylor’s pretty cool. She lets me use this one when I need it.”

  “Nice.”

  Nadine moved around the desk and sat in the big recliner facing the screen.

  Ryan sat down in the chair opposite. “Listen. What do you make of that guy before? Leoncelli?”

  “What about him?”

  “Was he having a go at me back there? He didn’t exactly sell my need for assistance.”

  “He sold me.”

  “How’s that?”

  “It’s just the sort of thing I’m looking for. The case no one wants. But hopefully we’ve got a fucking nutcase on our hands, am I right?”

  “Uh, no,” Ryan said. “He’ll be after my partner and people he knows then.”

  “But won’t we look fantastic for catching him.”

  Ryan glanced around. “That’s beside the point.”

  Nadine exhaled. Leaned back in the chair. “So you want to show me that email now?”

  “Uh. Yeah.” He tossed her the phone. She caught it.

  Her glasses dropped a little whilst reading it.

  When she was done she pushed them back up.

  “Well?” Ryan asked.

  Nadine placed the phone on the table. “Well, I see why you’re so involved in this now.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Well, you’re in the photo too.”

  “What photo?”

  “The class photo. You
and Justin went to school together right?”

  Ryan grabbed the phone off the desk. “Hell, no.”

  “But you’re there. You’re in it.”

  Ryan opened the photo. “Hold on.”

  “Far right. Middle row.”

  Ryan glided his finger across the screen.

  And there he was. Seventeen years old. Wearing the correct uniform.

  The light and sky hitting his face.

  “Son of a bitch!” Ryan said angrily.

  Chapter 12

  Justin was in the middle of it. Sitting on the couch, one person to his left. One person on his right. People climbing over him. The sounds echoed through his brain. Colors and lights dazzled his eyes. He was numb. He was drowning. And yet surely by now, the hour of ten had passed…

  “Juzzy,” she purred in his ear. “Juzzy, juzzy!”

  She tried to tickle his stomach.

  But he wouldn’t move.

  “Jus-tin!”

  Kellie pumped her fist into his gut.

  He turned and faced her.

  “What’s with you, babe?” she asked. “You’re acting funny.”

  Justin blinked a couple of times. Someone handed Kellie a can. She pushed the can into his hands. “Aren’t you having fun?”

  “I’m sorry,” Justin said. “It’s all just … a bit full on…”

  “Oh God,” Kellie rolled her eyes. “Lighten up.”

  He smiled. “Yeah.”

  “No. For real.”

  He nodded.

  She grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the couch. “Come on.”

  “What, where –”

  She led him across the room to the balcony door. She tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Why is this locked?”

  She fumbled with the handle, unlocking the door. Then pushed it open.

  They stepped out onto the balcony alone.

  “At least we can be heard out here,” Kellie said glancing back at him.

  Justin sighed. He looked down at the can in his hand. Cracked it open.

  Took a drink.

  “Come on. Stand next to me.”

  He moved out towards the edge of the balcony. His eyes drifted away from his fiancé to the cold sky and the skyscraper lights. The color orange flushed through the roads.

  Orange.

  And black.

  “Do you want to tell me what’s going on then?”

  Justin drank again. “Oh so you’re listening now.”

  “I’m always listening, baby. I know there’s something going on. Something to do with Amelia.”

  “It’s not to do with –”

  “But you talk to her about it. You talk to her and not me.”

  Justin passed the can over to her. “You were preoccupied.”

  Kellie had a sip. “So. I’m not now. What’s happening?”

  Justin leaned back against the railing. “It’s not even worth saying.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “It will just spoil things.”

  There was a pause.

  “Fine,” Kellie said. She tossed the can over the balcony, Justin’s gaze drifting after it.

  “Hey – what –”

  As he turned back to her the can was still floating. Floating and falling and spiraling.

  All the way down.

  The balcony door banged shut as Kellie passed through it.

  “Shit,” Justin mumbled.

  He looked at the ground a moment, before trudging back over to the door and ripping it open.

  Chapter 13

  Ryan and Nadine were back outside in Ryan’s car, with Ryan driving. Before leaving Nadine had him send the photos and email to her own account and they printed everything off in standard sized sheets. As some of the photos were pornographic in nature, Ryan had refrained from examining them properly. His colleague had no such qualms, leafing through the bundle of pages on their way back to Justin’s. Ryan wasn’t sure how his partner would feel about that.

  “So is … is any of that helping with anything?” he said glancing over at her.

  Nadine didn’t look up. “Of course it is.”

  “Well, care to fill me in?”

  “I’m not making any more deductions with this until everyone’s with us.”

  “Everyone?”

  “Officer Hodge and his fiancé to start with. Obviously we’ll have to track down the rest of the people in the class photo. And make sure none of them have been doctored in like you were.”

  Ryan pressed his lips together. His foot eased on the brake as they came to a traffic light. “Do you have any further thoughts on that?”

  “On what?” Nadine muttered.

  “On why they put me in the photo?”

  “Of course I have thoughts.”

  “Well. Do you want to … share them with me?”

  “Not really, no.”

  Ryan coughed. “Seriously. I thought we were working this thing together.”

  “You might be driving this car, Dobbs. But make no mistake. When it comes to this investigation, I’m in the driver’s seat.”

  The light flashed green.

  Ryan hit the accelerator.

  After a moment, he glanced at her again. “Are you any good at this?”

  “At what?”

  “I don’t know. Catching these nutters.”

  “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

  “I mean. Are you sure you don’t want to bring anyone else into this?”

  “You already tried that, didn’t you? With Detective Leoncelli’s great big speech so that everyone could hear.”

  “Well, that was before –”

  “Before what?”

  Ryan swallowed. “Nothing.”

  He looked out the front window and saw the apartment building drifting into the horizon. All those lights. Those figures on the balconies. It didn’t seem possible. It didn’t seem real. It was all so far away.

  He turned his head slightly.

  Nadine was looking at him.

  “What?” Ryan said.

  “I’m actually looking forward to this,” Nadine stated. “I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”

  Ryan exhaled. “Fun? Really?”

  “That’s what I said. Now watch the road.”

  He watched it.

  Chapter 14

  Ryan had failed them. Not wanting to risk the shops closing, someone else had gone for a drink run and they were already back and passing them around. This was most evidenced by Kellie who was standing on the kitchen sink with two of her friends, sharing a bottle of straight vodka between them. Tapdancing to the sound-blasting noise that filled every corner of the apartment.

  Justin was on his way to approach them, to tell them to stop, that was enough – when he noticed there were people gathered around the front door. He turned away from Kellie and made his way down the hall to where they had gathered.

  A man of Asian descent, wearing a gray suit and tie was out in the corridor speaking with the group gathered.

  “Out of the way!” Justin announced, pushing through them. “I live here, okay? This is my place.”

  Eventually he found himself on the other side of the door.

  “You live here?” the man asked him. “This is your apartment?”

  Justin pushed the others away and closed the front door. “Yeah we just moved in.”

  “Okay sir, we’ve had some complaints at the front desk. You need to turn the music and the noise right down.”

  “Well, how far down?”

  “So that the other residents aren’t disturbed. I would think about telling your friends it’s time to go home.”

  “Okay…”

  “If you haven’t complied in ten minutes we’ll have to phone the police. And it will be a breach of your lease.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Justin said. “I’ll sort them out.”

  The man turned and walked down the end of the hall.

  Justin breathed in a moment,
then pushed open the door and made his way through again.

  Kellie and her friends were still up on the bench, their tops off, bras exposed.

  “Okay everybody, listen up!” Justin tried to holler. His voice was drowned out by the music.

  He made his way over to where Kellie was.

  “Babe,” he began.

  “Honey,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “We just had a visit from downstairs.”

  “Who?”

  “They’re calling the police!”

  “You are the police!” Kellie shouted back.

  Justin tried to speak again, but someone grabbed his arm.

  He turned around to find himself face to face with Amelia.

  She was pressing a phone into his hand.

  He took it.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Justin. It’s Ryan.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m outside the back of your building. I brought one of the detectives with me. You need to get Kellie and –”

  “I’ll be down.”

  Chapter 15

  “Said he’ll be down,” Ryan said putting the phone away.

  “Kellie and Amelia –” Nadine began.

  “What?”

  “Well we need them both with us.”

  “Let’s just make sure we’ve got Justin on board first. As far as we know this could still be a hoax.”

  “Okay.”

  “But you don’t think it is?”

  “Nope.”

  “Not even – I mean you’ve got no optimism whatsoever –”

  “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was real.”

  “I understand that,” Ryan said. “But don’t you still see that as a possibility?”

  Nadine looked down at the folder on her lap. “A lot of work was put into this. They’re clearly obsessed. So no, it’s not a hoax. The person behind this is not a practical joker.”

  “Says you.”

  “You want to know something, Ryan?”

  “What?”

  “If I had to finger someone for doing this as a hoax, my first suspect would be you.”

  Ryan stared at her.

  “Don’t take that the wrong way,” Nadine said. “At least I’m not fingering you in the event an actual lunatic is behind this.”