The Seventh Victim (Texas Rangers 1)

“Are you still there?” he said.

“Yes. I’m here.” Her voice sounded soft, fragile even. “I’m so sorry. Do you know who was killed?”

“I haven’t even been to the scene. I just wanted to touch base with you before I went.” Knowing she was safe would free his mind to think about the case.

“Be careful,” she said.

Her concern touched him. “You are coming by the office today to see Dr. Granger?”

“In a couple of hours.”

“Come in now.”

“I have the student art show to set up today and tomorrow.”

Temptation told him to ignore the investigation and haul her back to headquarters with him where she’d be safe. “Get out of that house. Surround yourself with people.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Be careful.”

He hung up and smoothed a hand over his head. As he’d dialed Lara and counted the rings, he’d not been thinking rationally like a professional. He’d reacted like a man, worried about a woman.

Beck didn’t want to analyze his feeling for Lara. He cared about her safety and that was enough for now.

He redialed, this time placing a call to Santos, who picked up on the first ring. “Santos.”

“It’s Beck. We’ve got another body.” He was scanning his desk as he spoke, triaging the active cases. All could wait until he saw the body.

“Where?”

“Thirty miles outside of Austin.” As he gave Santos the details, he shut off his computer and moved toward the door where his coat hung, all the while cradling the phone.

“I’m a good one hundred miles from there. Got a call from a local sheriff about a drug problem. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Good.”

Beck closed up his office and headed down the hallway to see his commander, Captain Ryder Penn. Beck knocked. Penn glanced up, a phone cradled under his ear. He motioned Beck inside. “You’re headed to the murder scene?”

“Bad news travels fast.”

“That was the mayor of Austin chewing on my ass. Won’t be long before the politicians come out of the woodwork looking for a pound of my flesh.”

“Santos and I are on it.”

Penn rose, shrugging his broad shoulders. “Is the body Lara Church?”

The question shot through him like a bullet. “No. I spoke to her.”

“She needs to get her ass back into these offices and speak to Dr. Granger.”

“She’s promised to be in within the hour.”

“If she’s not I’m sending a car for her.”

Beck’s hackles rose. This was his case. Lara was his witness. His. “It’s under control.”

Penn glared at him. “It better be.”

Beck arrived at the scene as the medical examiner’s inspector was photographing the body. Beck studied the rural stretch of road. A killer with a woman alone would have all the time in the world to do what he wanted to her.

He tugged his hat forward on his head, shielding the sun, and moved toward the crime scene. He stood by the site, watching as a forensic tech sketched the scene on a white pad.

As he looked at the victim he had the immediate sense that this murder was different. The blond woman wore a white dress, but the body didn’t appear so traumatized. Yes, the angry finger marks of strangulation marred her neck, but her arms and face appeared unbruised.

“What do you think?” Beck asked the technician.

The technician rose and backed away from the body. “I don’t know if he was in a hurry or what, but he doesn’t appear to have ... toyed with this one as much.”

So his impression was right. “Explain.”

“No bruising or trauma other than the strangulation marks. And the ME will have to confirm, but there appears to be no sign of sexual trauma.”

A breeze blew across the grasslands fluttering through the victim’s hair and ruffling the edges of her white dress. Why not assault her? You had plenty of time out here.

“Thanks.” He moved to the uniformed officer who had been the first responder to the scene. He shook the guy’s hand. Beck had been with DPS nearly nine years and in that time had gotten to know a lot of the local sheriffs and deputies. “Matt, good to see you. When they move you up from Waco?”

Deputy Matt Jerrod was six one, broad-shouldered with the straight back posture that hinted to his time in the marines. He wore his hair short. A dark shadow covered his square jaw, telling Beck the deputy had worked the night through. “Few months back. Already miss the place. You been back lately?”

“Wish I could. Wish I could. I stay close to Austin these days.”

“City living is going to make you soft.”

“I hear ya. I do.” Beck asked Matt about his family and the politics of the local election before he asked, “Who found the body?”

“We got a call into the sheriff’s office. A motorist spotted the body and called us.”

“Do you have the name of the caller?”

Deputy Jerrod arched a brow. “The call came in on a disposable phone. No trace. But then that’s not unheard of in these parts. We got lots of folks coming across the border who don’t want to be traced.”

That was true, but most wouldn’t have paused to call in a dead body. “You ever have an illegal or coyote call in a murder?”

Jerrod shook his head. “Doesn’t happen every day.”

“No, it does not.”

“You thinking the killer called this in?”

“It crossed my mind.”

“Why would he do such a thing? The longer that body is out here, the less evidence we’re gonna retrieve.”

Killers had motives that didn’t always make sense to anyone but themselves. “Good question.”

“He’d want to stay under the radar so he could keep doing what he’s doing.”

“He likes the attention. Did you see the news last night?”

“Missed it.”

“The national news anchors are payin

g attention to the killer now.”

Jerrod shook his head. “Shit.”

After Beck’s call, Lara’s mind buzzed with thoughts of a woman she didn’t know. She imagined the woman breathing her last breaths as the killer’s hands crushed her throat.

For the briefest instant, her throat closed and an overwhelming jolt of fear burned through her body. She tried to draw in air but couldn’t. Panic tightened her chest, and she staggered backward to the couch and sat down. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She raised her hands to her throat as if invisible fingers squeezed out her life.

“It’s taken so much planning to get you here. So much work.” He drove into her with a force that made her entire body scream with pain. “I’ve dreamed about this moment for years. And now I have your life in my hands. If you thought you’d ignore me, you were wrong.”

Sweat beaded on her brow and her hands shook as she drew in a shaky breath and released it slowly. Her head cleared and her heart slowed.

For several seconds she couldn’t move. Frozen. Unable to stand. Call for help. Cry.

“What the hell was that?” she muttered. She’d never had a panic attack before. Could that have been a memory?

She rose and found her jean jacket hanging on the back of a chair. She fished out Dr. Granger’s card and dialed the number.

The line picked up immediately. “This is Dr. Granger. I’m in a meeting now, but if you’ll leave your name and number I’ll get back to you.”

“Dr. Granger, this is Lara Church. I think I’m starting to remember. I’m headed toward your office now.” She left her cell number and then carefully hung up the phone.

Seven years of wanting these memories and now they were cracking through the blocks in her mind. And she was terrified.

Danni entered her mother and stepfather’s house just after nine. Her hope was that they were still sleeping off last night’s bender. If she was super quiet, she could grab and pack enough to last her several days.

Last night, they’d both had too much to drink and had started fighting early. When she’d pulled up in the driveway, she heard the shouting and the crashing of dishes. She’d not wanted to go into the house and so had pulled down the street and slept in her car. She’d considered asking Raines for help and had gone so far as to call his phone and let it ring once before losing her nerve and hanging up. He’d offered assistance, but it had been her experience that most people truly didn’t want to help.