Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,22
killed him. Stripped and cleaned him. Redressed him and set him here. Why?”
“In my experience most murders have one of three motives. Greed. Money or power. Taking something you want or feel you deserve or need from someone else,” Aaron said, holding up one finger. He added a second. “Passion. Could be love or hate.” Then he held up one more finger. “Revenge.”
“Which do you think this is?”
“This.” He paused, still studying the macabre scene before him, the tightness in his chest spreading like frost on a windowpane. “This is something altogether different.”
The way Aaron proclaimed Art’s death something other than ordinary, sent a chill through Brianna, as if something sinister had entered the room. She wrapped one arm around her middle in an effort to stay warm, keeping her flashlight on the area across the room. At her feet Stanley stood poised to strike and growled softly, as if warning the rats not to return.
“What do you mean this murder is different?”
“This looks planned and staged. As if someone wanted to show off what he’d done.”
“And?” she asked, knowing he wasn’t quite telling her everything.
“Like he’s done it before.”
Fear swept over her and she couldn’t help scanning the room as if she thought the killer might be hiding in the shadows. She moved a little closer and lowered her voice. “You think this is a serial killing?”
“Shit,” he muttered, rubbing one hand over his face then he turned to look straight into her eyes and gently squeezed her forearm. “I don’t know. As far as I know Art is the first person found like this. So, for now we’ll just call it suspicious. We don’t like to call anything a serial killing, even to each other until we have substantial proof.”
Ah, she understood. He was telling her not to say it out loud. “Because if the press or some bystander hears that, the word might get out and people will panic.”
He gave her a nod.
A low wail came out of Stanley just as flashing blue lights strobed through the broken windows and onto the walls. Voices and footsteps sounded at the far end of the factory room.
“Back here,” Aaron called.
Stanley turned and barked at the people coming towards them.
“Sit,” Aaron ordered, and the pup did just that and ceased his barking.
“Damn, Jeffers, that’s one ugly little dog,” a mid-twenties man of about Aaron’s height of six-feet said as he stepped into the room. “Where’d you get him? Or does he belong to you, miss?” the man said, his eyes widening with interest as he looked Brianna up and down.
She pressed her lips together and glared at him. “No, he does not,” she said in her iciest tone, completely ignoring the attempt to gain her name in his last question.
“Stanley belongs to the deceased and is our only witness,” Aaron said, nodding in the direction of Art’s body. “And the lady is a friend of mine. Brianna Matthews. Brianna, this inappropriate asshole is my partner, Jaylon Halloway.”
“Glad to meet you, Ms. Matthews. You must be very special,” The younger man grinned, but this time it was less suggestive. “Didn’t know old Aaron had any female friends.”
Before Brianna could do more than nod at the young man, he shifted to watch a team of police carrying equipment into the area. “Bout time you got up here, Ramos,” he said to the petite brunette woman leading the group. “Thought I was going to have to come get you.”
“I hung back in case there was a perp on the scene,” she said setting down a box and giving Jaylon a sardonic look. “Figured I’d let you take any bullets.”
“I’d gladly take a bullet for you,” Jaylon grinned her way.
Brianna fought the urge to roll her eyes his direction. Obviously, Jaylon flirted with every woman. Pretty typical of a young man just out of college. She suspected he wasn’t much older than Kirk F.
“If I could only be that lucky,” the pretty technician shook her head, then looked down at Stanley, still seated at Aaron’s feet. “Is he going to be a problem when we go work on his owner? We’re going to need a lot of equipment to get lights going. Don’t want him getting hurt or contaminating the scene or biting someone—unless of course, it’s Halloway.” She smirked Jaylon’s way and he chuckled.
“Don’t know how he’s going to react, Anita. So far, the only thing he’s been aggressive about is the rats,” Aaron said, lifted Stanley and tucked him in the crook