Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,89
a psychopath was not something anyone wanted to do.
“Is she okay?” she gasped.
“She’s a little shaken, but okay.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No problem. I just found out recently myself. We’re happy, but the timing could have been better.”
I suddenly found myself wishing I had something stronger to drink than coffee. There was a bottle of Jack Daniels stashed around here somewhere, but I still had a few more hours of work ahead of me and I never drank while I was inking. And while Serah and I were working together, she was still a member of TAPSS. She wouldn’t let me drink while I was on the clock. TAPSS frowned on drunk tattoo artists.
Roughly rubbing my hands over my face to clear away the last of the cobwebs, I took a deep breath and turned my full attention back to Serah. The dark blue jeans and pale blue T-shirt made her look soft and approachable while keeping her professional air.
“I’m guessing that you’ve found something out,” I said, figuring that it was as good a start as any.
“A few things actually.” Her demeanor instantly brightened and I hoped that this meant that we were actually making some forward progress at last.
“Good news?”
“Good news and some bad news.”
“Give me the good news first,” I sighed, crossing my left foot over my right foot as I stretched out in the chair. “I can definitely use some good news.”
“Well, we found some similarities between the victims. I spent the morning down at the station. One of the detectives reported that two of the women went to the same obstetrician.”
“And the third?”
“She didn’t use that doctor,” Serah said with a shake of her head. “She was a phlebotomist at Low Town Mercy Hospital. But here’s the link.” Her excitement was palpable in the room as she wiggled to the edge of her seat. “The obstetrician’s office is in the tower just across the street from Mercy.”
“So you think our killer was stalking his victims at this particular obstetrician’s office and she just got lucky when she picked up the third victim as she left work?”
Serah nodded. “It fits. We haven’t found any other links besides the fact that both women were in their third trimester.” Turning, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a little notepad. She quickly flipped through it until she found the page that she was looking for. I thought it was cute that she preferred paper over the little memo-pad app that was on her phone.
“The women lived nowhere close to each other,” she continued. “They didn’t shop at the same grocery store or go to the same pharmacy. They wouldn’t have encountered each other in any other way besides the doctor’s office.”
“I’m guessing that the cops are going to stake out the office building,” I said, arching one eyebrow at her.
“That and they’ve got two detectives working undercover in the office to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”
“Are there other doctors’ offices in the building?”
“Yes, and all the offices are being checked. Every woman in the office is being checked for a tattoo. In addition, they are also checking all the businesses to see if anyone has suddenly disappeared or quit their job in case the killer might have worked in the building.”
“It looks like they’ve got all their bases covered.” Threading my fingers behind my head, I could feel myself relax a little. The cops might actually be able to catch this person without needing my interference. That would be a nice change of events for once.
“I think it’s a good start,” Serah conceded, but her happiness was already starting to fade.
“What’s the bad news?”
“Four pregnant women have disappeared.”
My hands clenched into fists and I fought the urge to pick up the phone to call Trixie. She was fine. She had to be fine. No one knew that she was pregnant. She wasn’t showing yet. No one knew. She was safe.
“How?”
Serah shook her head, tightly clutching the little note pad in both her hands. “We don’t know. They simply vanished into thin air. Three of them disappeared in the middle of the night from their own beds. The fourth disappeared after dropping off her other two kids at school.”
“Was there any kind of evidence of forced entry?”
“None. The police swept each house for DNA, but found nothing. There were no unlocked doors or windows. No evidence of a struggle. The women are just gone.”
A chill swept through me. While our Low Town killer had the benefit of a