“We’ve seen our share of mixed nuts, yeah. ”
“With your experience, we hoped you might look through your old cases and see if any red flags popped up. ”
“Check the records for someone who thinks they’re Santa?” I grumbled.
“At this point we’re willing to follow up on every lead. There’s more. ” She placed another folder on the table next to the one we’d just closed, and I was hoping it wasn’t going to be worse. “We’ve been looking at this as a missing-persons issue until now, but today that all changed. Since we’re now dealing with one of the scariest mass homicides this city has seen in thirty years, we have to be prepared for the two things to be connected. ”
“What missing-persons issue?”
“Three youths are missing, all under fifteen. And with this development, especially the stocking angle and the age of some of the other victims, there’s a chance this freak has taken them. ”
“God. ” I now regretted my Santa remark. “I’ll take a look at our case files. Keaty…Keats is out of town, but I’ll see if I can get in touch with him. He knows our past cases better than anyone. But don’t get your hopes too high. I can’t remember anything we’ve dealt with remotely like that. ” I tapped the first file.
It was true I’d never known of a monster who delivered body parts in stockings before. But I knew there were monsters out there who targeted the young. Monsters the NYPD had no business dealing with. Which was probably the real reason Cedes had called me.
“Every little bit counts,” Tyler admitted. It must have pained him to be a party to asking for my help. Wounded male pride runs deep, and even a smart guy like him was no exception to that rule.
“What else can you tell me? Any connections between the kids and the other victims? Were any of the adult victims reported as MIA before their bodies showed up?” In another life, I might have made one heck of a detective. As it was, I had more than enough mysteries to solve.
Mercedes finally opened the second folder and laid three photos out in front of me. These were not at all grisly, but somehow they made me feel worse than the crime-scene snaps. A trio of smiling school photos beamed up at me. They looked to be from thirteen to fifteen, judging by the grade-level markers on each photo, and there was no trend otherwise. One was Hispanic, one East Indian and one white. The group was split between the sexes—two boys and one girl.
“They went to different schools,” Cedes explained. “Lived in different neighborhoods as far out as Queens. We don’t know for sure if they’ve been taken by this son of a bitch, but we’re running on that assumption right now. They all disappeared in the same three-day period earlier this month, and none of the families have been contacted for ransom. ”
I restacked the photos so all I was left with was the grinning face of a shy-looking brown-skinned boy, then I pushed the pile back to the detectives.
“Is that everything?”
“That’s what we know. ”
“It goes without saying we would appreciate the utmost discretion in this matter,” Tyler said, his voice loaded with warning.
Me, be anything less than subtle? What a shocking allegation.
“My name is Secret, Detective Nowakowski. ”
His mouth formed a thin line, but there was a light in his eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time. To counter the rising tide of mirth, he lowered his thick black brows into a scowl.
“We appreciate you coming,” Cedes said, and offered me her hand. We shook politely like professionals, and then Tyler and I did the same.
“Whatever I can do,” I promised. “I’ll help you find this monster. ”
Chapter Five
Back at my apartment, visions of sugarplums were no longer dancing in my head. Instead I was having a hard time shaking the images of the smiling young teens in those school photos. I’d dealt with a lot of nasty crap in my time, but it took a real monster to snatch kids.
Scratch that. Most monsters I knew were too principled to do something so despicable.
Mercedes wanted to believe this was a paranormal killing, because the only other option was to think a human being was capable of dismembering people and snatching teens for the same nasty fate. Unfortunately, in my experience, I found humans were just as able to do monstrous things as the real monsters were.
I kicked off my boots and padded around the apartment. Desmond wasn’t home. He’d called from work while I was at Keaty’s to tell me about some sort of lobby disaster in the plans for Lucas’s new hotel in Singapore. Apparently redesigning the columns was going to eat up a good chunk of his evening, which left me all alone with my dark thoughts.
On the living room floor, Rio the kitten was having a blast with a strand of tinsel. She was no longer the tiny ball of fluff Brigit had brought home. In six months she’d grown into a sinewy white rope of cat with a diamond starburst of gray on her forehead. She looked more like a little fur demon than ever and acted the part. Kicking at the tinsel with her back legs, she teased it with a menacing, “Brreow. ” Then she began to gnaw on it.
“Oh, Rio, no. ” I snatched the tinsel away from her, making a face at the slobbery wetness, then disposed of it in the kitchen trash. The last thing I needed to be festively adorned in this apartment was the cat’s poop.
With the tinsel gone, she took up her favorite hobby—attempted manslaughter. She weaved between my ankles while I walked, trying her damnedest to make me do a face plant into the Christmas tree. When I picked her up, she began to purr loudly.
“You’ve won this round. ”