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DETECTIVE BRETT LANDRY heard the buzz of his alarm clock and wanted to hit the snooze button just once. Instead, he forced himself to get out of bed. It was five a.m. and if he wanted to get a run in before the heat and humidity of summer became too bad, he better get moving.
He managed to stumble into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of his image in the mirror. For some reason, he had not realized how much he had aged. He would be forty this year. It never bothered him until now.
Now, he noticed a few more gray hairs showing and worse the beginnings of crow’s feet around his eyes. Where had the time gone?
At eighteen, he enlisted in the army. Being from Louisiana, he was a natural sharpshooter. An instructor realized his potential and talked him into joining the Rangers. After eight years, he returned home. His dad had been diagnosed with cancer, and he wanted to be close in case his mom needed him.
Once he moved back here, a friend convinced him to apply for the Stewart Sheriff’s Office. With his background, law enforcement seemed to be a natural decision, and he never looked back. He moved up in rank quickly, exceeding everyone’s expectations.
It had been pure luck that the house right next door to his parents’ went up for sale and he immediately jumped at the opportunity. As much as he wanted to move back home to help his mom, he did not intend to move in with them. Since he lived on base those past eight years, jumping from mission to mission, he managed to save up a nice sized nest egg. With the help of a VA loan, he obtained a decent interest rate and a house note he could afford.
As soon as he stepped outside for his run, the mugginess of the morning slapped him in the face, it would definitely be a hot day. He was ready to count down the days to fall. He put his earphones in and turned on his MP3 player and set off on his run.
The run helped to wake him up. By the time he made it back home, he was drenched in sweat, so he hopped in a warm shower before getting ready for work. While in the shower, he lathered his face and shaved away the stubble. He tossed around the idea of growing a goatee recently, it shouldn’t take too long, his facial hair grew fast. Come five o’clock he didn’t have a shadow; it was more like the beginnings of a beard.
After dressing, he stepped into the kitchen to fix himself a quick bite to eat. Thankfully, he had set the coffee pot before his run. He had to start his morning off with his coffee. His mom did not understand how he could drink it black. He was a purist at heart he guessed. He liked everything simple. As he headed out the door, his phone rang. Early morning phone calls meant a new case loomed on the horizon, “Landry.”
“Detective, the Captain wants you at The Windsor hotel A.S.A.P. We have a dead body there. The manager is already having a conniption fit.”
“I’m on my way. Have you called Benoit yet?”
The dispatcher responded, “Yes, sir. He will meet you there.”
Detective Chance Benoit had been his partner for the last year and a half. Benoit transferred from N'Awlins because his wife had grown tired of the hurricanes that always seem to hit there. No sooner than they moved here, though, a hurricane hit Stewart. When living in south Louisiana, there was no way to avoid a hurricane at some point in time.
The Windsor used to be one of the more elegant hotels in downtown Stewart, but now some of the major chains were giving it a run for its money. A murder certainly would not help its customer reviews.
No sooner than Landry got in his car, his phone rang again. It was Benoit calling, “I’m on my way mon ami.”
He heard Benoit chuckle, “If you pick up the coffee, I’ll bring the kolaches.”
Just the thought of Benoit’s wife’s kolaches had his mouth watering, “I’ve already left the house, but I’ll stop and pick us up some coffee.”
“See you there, mon ami.”
Landry parked in front of Maison Café and walked in to get their coffee before heading to the crime scene. The aroma of warm beignets and freshly brewed coffee filled his senses. The place was busy today. The hum of customers drowned out the sounds of the espresso machines in use.
Downtown traffic was heavier than he expected. By the time Landry made it out to the crime scene, the coffee was turning lukewarm.
When he arrived, the coroner was already there. Dr. Amy Renault was a statuesque brown haired beauty with eyes reminiscent of a blue sky, but they could turn a stormy gray when she became angry. He suspected that she was actually a redhead in disguise; he had never met anyone as passionate as her when it came to a case. She was a no holds barred woman. When she first started working in the coroner’s office, he considered asking her out. However, after witnessing her cut a man to the quick, he changed his mind. He hasn’t felt the need to find out if she knew just how alluring the opposite sex found her.
Detective Landry stared down at the naked man. The poor bastard, this was probably the last thing he expected.
Detective Benoit approached him, “I believe our perp cleaned up the crime scene.”
Landry grunted in acknowledgement as he inspected the crime scene once more. Someone had been meticulous about cleaning up after themselves. They also did a good job of making it impossible for the detectives to do their jobs. Hopefully, forensics would be able to find more evidence, but he had a gut feeling that wouldn’t happen.
He wondered what killed the man. Benoit asked, “Do you think it was a heart attack?”
Landry shrugged his shoulders. “It’s possible, but the guy looks as if he kept himself in shape. The sex may have been wilder than he expected, or perhaps he added some drugs that his body wasn’t used to.”
As forensics worked the room, Landry went to search for the hotel manager. Before he could get away, he heard Dr. Renault call him, “Detective Landry, you got a minute?”
“For you doctor, anything.”
“This case may be linked to a killing a few weeks back at the BestStay.”
For just a moment, as he looked into Dr. Renault’s eyes, a chill ran through his body, cutting him to the bone. There was a flicker of something cold in her eyes. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn something evil lurked behind her eyes. A tremor snaked down his spine at that very thought.
This was not something he wanted to hear, especially with summer almost here. The hotels would be packed with tourists, and they sure didn’t need to worry about a killer striking men staying in the city’s hotels. “What makes you think that, Dr. Renault?”
“I was searching for a needle mark in case our victim had died of an overdose. When I moved his head, I noticed a small needle prick behind his ear. Whoever did this was hoping it would go unnoticed.”
Curious, he asked, “And how did you connect the two cases?”
“During the other victim’s autopsy I found a pinprick on his upper arm. Whoever had poisoned him wasn’t worried about hiding it at that time.”
Now she had piqued his interest. “What was the cause of death in the BestStay case?”
“The victim was poisoned with a lethal injection of bleach.”
That was a new one for him, “Is that a painful death?”
“It can be a very painful and slow death, depending on the amount injected. I have a suspicion your victim here will also have been poisoned.”
Crap, just what he needed, a killer running loose and poisoning men. “How long before you will know?”
Dr. Renault stated, “It can take up to a week for toxicology reports. I’m going to request a rush on it, but it will still take a while.”
“Thanks doc. I’ll have to see which detectives handled the other case.”
“I think it was Stevens and Johnson.”
He wasn’t too worried if it were those two detectives. Both men were easy to work with and would have no problems combining efforts. He had worked with them in the past. Stewart Sheriff’s Office had a total of eight detectives working Robbery/Homicide. Out of those eight, there was one detective he dreaded working with, Rick Wells. Wells thought since he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, that it also meant he should be lead detective at all times. Rumor had it he was trying for Lieutenant as well as commander of Robbery/Homicide. If that did happen, Landry would have to transfer out, no matter how much he liked the job. He refused to work for that self-righteous bastard.
Landry listened as Dr. Renault went into further detail of the victim’s death, “Time of death occurred around three a.m. this morning. Like I mentioned earlier, I won’t know the cause of death until we get the toxicology reports. Upon first inspection of the body, there did not appear to be any other signs of injury. I will know more once he is on the table and I can get a better look at him.”
As she talked, he took notes in his tablet. Technology was great when it came to note taking. He no longer had to write it all down and then return to the office to write a report. Now he simply synced his tablet to his computer and everything he needed for his report was there. Some of the older cops still preferred their pen and paper, but not him. The less time he spent writing reports, meant the more time he could spend catching criminals.
Landry wanted to take his time and absorb the crime scene. Each crime scene had a story to tell, he had to be patient and let the story unfold before his eyes.
One of the techs from forensics came over to him, “Detective, we are almost done up here. Hotel rooms are a nightmare for trace evidence, but we may have found some on our victim. There were fibers found along the mouth and on one of his ankles. Your unsub wiped him down, but may have missed a few minuscule details in the rush.”
Landry instructed him, “Send me the report as soon as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
Detective Benoit went through the victim’s personal belongings, “Our victim was from Tennessee. He has a picture of what appears to be his wife and kids in his wallet.”
“Mon ami, I hate it when out of state victims die here, especially when they die in such a compromising position.”
Benoit went on to inform Landry, “I had forensics take his cell phone. Maybe we can find out if he called a local girlfriend here in town or perhaps an escort service.”
“Let’s come back tonight and talk to the bartender. He could also have met or picked someone up at the bar, since the front desk clerk didn’t recall him stepping out last night. His key shows that he checked in at three in the afternoon and stayed in his room until six thirty. She believes he went straight to the bar. He returned to his room at ten o’clock and opened his room door again at midnight. The next time the door was opened was right around four a.m., which means whoever did this stayed most of the night. Whoever did this took their time cleaning up behind them. The main areas of the room were all wiped down.”
Benoit asked, “What did Dr. Renault say?”
“She believes he was poisoned. She’s waiting on confirmation from the toxicology reports. Once she has the autopsy report complete, she will let us know. Forensics are running trace and will submit those results as soon as they can. We should also run this through the Violent Crime Apprehension Database, ‘VICAP’, to see what turns up. Dr. Renault believes this may be the second time our unsub has struck here. She worked a case at BestStay a while back with similarities. The killer injected the victim with bleach.”
Benoit asked, “You aren’t thinking a serial killer or anything are you? Maybe it’s just a terrible coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences, but it’s too early to worry about this being a serial killer.”
“Do we have enough here to work on a profile?”
“I want to look at the case file for the other victim and see for myself if there are any similarities. We don’t have enough details for a profile. My gut tells me that this man let the wrong woman into his room.”
“I can’t disagree with you there. Poisoning is usually done by a woman. Now we need to figure out what her motive is. It’s not robbery. His wallet was left on the nightstand untouched. His money and credit cards are still in it. He had also taken his wedding ring off and left it under his wallet.”
“Mais non, I don’t think robbery was the perpetrator’s intent.”
Landry surveyed the crime scene. If his suspicions were correct, everything about this crime scene was the work of a killer who had no intent on stopping. Forensics were finishing up, and the medical examiner’s office was preparing to move the body. He had no doubt that their killer was a woman. Did he pick up a hooker that had a grudge against men? Or were they looking for a street smart woman who decided to take a man’s life? It could even be a jealous mistress who became tired of sharing him with a wife and decided if she couldn’t have him then no one else could either. Either way, he was be dealing with one of the rarest breeds of killers, a female serial killer. Even though this was only the second murder, he was certain a killer was out there preying on men. He wondered if she had gotten the men off before she killed them. Damn, what kind of woman was that cold blooded?
The victim wasn’t a small man. He couldn’t picture a petite woman being able to manhandle him unless she had drugged him first. Landry called over to one of the forensic techs, “Officer Grant, let’s make sure we collect samples of the champagne. I want to find out if she drugged the victim.”
“Yes, sir, we already did. We even bagged the glasses themselves to check for saliva.”
Landry was impressed by the thoroughness of the Forensics team they have. He doubted they would get any hits off the saliva, but at least they would get a DNA profile. That was if she actually drank from the glass.
He took in the champagne and chocolates set up in the room. Their victim knew exactly what he had in mind when he left home this morning. The desserts came from one of the local bakeries, but he didn’t see a pro coming with her own deli food. The victim may have set everything up before his date. He must have planned on romancing a woman. Could their killer be a mistress? They would need to see if Mr. Gifford traveled to Louisiana alone. Maybe he refused to leave his wife for her, so she decided to exact her revenge. It would be easy enough to find out if he checked into the hotel alone. Finding out if he flew to Louisiana with someone may be a little more difficult. It depended on how cooperative the airline would be with them. More often than not, the airlines won’t offer up any information without a warrant. Obtaining the warrant wasn’t a big deal; it was just a waste of man hours.
Looking about the room, he asked Benoit, “Does this look staged to you?”
Benoit looked around, “What do you mean? It looks like a hotel room to me.”
“Yeah, but look at how the room is arranged. At first, I thought our victim arranged the romantic setting of the room, but now I’m not so sure. It has a woman’s touch to it. We know robbery wasn’t a motive, but what if she planned this murder out ahead of time? You have candles set out in the room, a variety of desserts, chocolate covered strawberries and champagne. How many men would set up a room this nice for a prostitute?”
“None that I know of. I can’t think of too many men that would go to this much trouble for a girlfriend even.”
“Exactly, maybe this wasn’t a pro. Maybe we should look into the mistress angle. I also want to get a look at the previous crime scene and see if it was set up in the same way.”
Benoit stated, “Maybe we need to have the Tennessee State Troopers not only notify the wife of her husband’s demise, but also verify that she was in the state.”
Landry watched as the medical examiner’s assistants move the body onto the gurney. “I wonder if she was one of those women that love to dominate men. Maybe he sought out a mistress that played games his wife wasn’t interested in.”
Once Landry arrived back to the office, he planned to run the victimology through VICAP to see if there were any similar matches to the M.O.
He instructed the crime scene photographer, “Make sure you get photos of the crime scene from all angles please. I don’t want anything missed.”
“Yes, sir.”
On their way out of the hotel, Detectives Landry and Benoit stopped by the front desk to speak with the manager. Landry asked him, “Would it be possible to get a copy of the security tapes from yesterday?”
“No problem. I already had security copy it over to a DVD for you.”
Landry was worried that they would be a stickler for a search warrant. He was relieved that they wouldn’t have to bother a judge with that detail. Landry asked the manager, “Were you here last night?”
“I left a little after ten o’clock. Andrea was here, though, and I asked her if she could stay until y’all left, just in case you had some questions for her.”
The manager’s efficiency impressed Landry. He asked Andrea, “Did you notice if Mr. Gifford left his room last night?”
“He came down to the bar last night and had a few drinks. I never saw him leave the hotel though.”
Landry continued, “Did you notice anything unusual?”
He saw her shift her gaze. She obviously saw something she didn’t want her boss to know about. “If you know something I would appreciate it if you told us.”
“Well, um, you see, around midnight, I noticed a call girl walk into the hotel. We are supposed to escort them out, but she didn’t look like one of those off the streets, so I decided to mind my own business.”
“Did you catch which room she was headed to?”
She responded, “No, sir. But she had something like an overnight bag with her, so I assumed she would be staying the night.”
This confirmed Landry’s suspicion that their victim had most probably called an escort service. Now to determine which one. There were more than a few here in Stewart, and none of the agencies would freely answer their questions.