Slenderman by CeeRee Fields (good novels to read TXT) 📗

woman’s body was half on and half off the couch, twisted as if she’d stood to run.

The stench of death and blood battled the stale cigarette smoke for dominance as Jo drew closer to the victims. No rings or watches adorned either victim. When she faced the man’s body, his killer would have been closer to the corner of the room based on the angle of his wound. Panicked, the woman would have stood to escape, fleeing away from the corner, but she was shot straight from where she’d been sitting.

It wasn’t possible. The killer would have had to shoot the man, jump the coffee table in front of the television while the woman was moving. No way could the killer have hit her at that angle.

Satisfied Brown and Jones were right, Jo headed for the porch. “The killer threw the gun, and another guy shot her while they were trying to get the television off the wall. My guess is the guys broke in. Told the homeowners as long as they didn’t make any noise they could live. The man must’ve done something.”

“We found a gun tucked into the side of his chair,” Jones said.

“Makes sense. So he was going for a gun, the killer caught him and shot him. The woman panicked and turned to run. The killer tossed his gun to the other guy.”

The tech narrowed his gaze on them. “How do you figure that?”

“Because our killer was in the corner, based on the angle of the bullet in the man. He couldn’t have raced from the corner to the front of the couch without knocking into the coffee table. And based on the angle of her wounds, she was hit from directly in front of where she’d been sitting.” Jo led the tech through it. “So he tossed the gun to his accomplice. Two shooters. One gun. It’s what was throwing you, since the wounds were the same.”

“Yes.” His eyes were round as they met hers.

“No problem. Detectives Jones and Brown are smart, you’ll learn a lot from them,” she said slapping the tech on the shoulder. She turned to the detectives. “You need to look for brothers.”

Jones’ brow lifted in surprise. “Brothers? Why?”

“Because they killed two people. One person can keep a secret. Two working together are brothers. To top that off, the first gunman trusted the second to shoot the woman. Not to wound, but to kill. It means he knew the person well. Best friends know each other. Brothers know each other on a deeper level and have trusted each other for years.”

“Damn. I didn’t think of that.” Jones rubbed the back of his neck, a dawning respect sparked in his gaze. “I’ll get with the neighbors and see if they’ve seen anyone watching the house. Then I’ll go through our database and see if we have brothers that work together on home invasions.”

“Thanks, Rayburn.” Brown tipped his chin a quirk of his lips showed Jo had impressed him. “We’ll get these reports typed up and on your desk tomorrow,” Brown said, heading back into the house.

Jones headed to the closest neighbors who had just pulled into their drive dressed in their Sunday best. Jo left him to canvas the area while two uniforms followed him for the door to door.

“Way to go, partner. I didn’t catch the brothers angle.”

Jo smiled. “See, I can teach an old dog new tricks.”

“Screw you, Rayburn. I’m not old. I’m in my prime.” He smoothed a hand over his bright blue tie with two frogs dancing the tango. “How about we go back to your place and see if Legends of Stone will give us the IP addresses Serioulias logged in from.”

“That sounds like a plan. If we can find someone willing to work with us on a Sunday.” She clicked the unlock button and slid behind the steering wheel.

Chapter 12

“No, we’ve not received any more information,” Jo stated turning onto the street that would take her to the dress shop.

“Us either. We did the right thing, Jo.” Redden sounded tired and depressed. It wasn’t a stretch he would be exhausted since his and Ian’s flight had been delayed to Friday. By the time to two arrived it was early Saturday morning, and none of them had the brainpower to discuss the case.

“I know. Telling all the potential victims was the right thing to do even if Brazil was a copycat. That murder hit home how vulnerable we left everyone.” She understood entirely.

They’d done everything to find Slenderman and kept coming up empty. Even Rhys’s idea of account sharing led to a dead end. One IP address bounced around all over the world. Yet when William Scott logged in as Serioulias, his IP address was the same one tied to his bank information. William knew the other person on the Serioulias character but declared he never shared his account with anyone. It left them at an impasse.

“Exactly. We’re digging into William’s history. Now that the cat’s out of the bag it’s freed us up to talk to William’s neighbors about any visitors and his friends.”

“Anything shake loose yet?”

“No.” His clipped reply whipped through the phone line.

It was frustrating. January had come and gone and now it was the last week of February with nothing to show. She didn’t have time to focus on the case because every spare minute was spent on the details of her wedding. Which again was frustrating as she kept fighting with Maddy about the colors. They’d settled on plain white orchids set off by dark greenery. Jo didn’t understand Italian Ruscus from regular Ruscus. She trusted her cousin with the details since she was the professional with the flower shop.

Flipping on her turn signal, she sighed. “Are you and your wife coming to the wedding?”

“Yes, we RSVP’d a week after we received the invitation.”

“Great, if nothing has shaken loose by then we can touch base.”

“We are not talking about this case at your wedding, Rayburn,” Redden growled. “That needs