Worthy: The Pretty Must Die Complete Volume by Hickey Cynthia

Author:Hickey, Cynthia [Hickey, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Winged Publications
Published: 2016-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

22

An explosion rattled the store window.

“That came from the alley.” Cassidy turned to the store clerk. “Where’s the back door?”

The young woman pointed. “Should I call the cops?”

“We are the cops!” Colin barged down a short hall and out the back door, Cassidy on his heels.

The five gang members they’d spoken to earlier lay writhing in agony on the ground. The leader clutched a leg missing several layers of skin.

Cassidy placed a call for an ambulance and squatted next to one young man with a stick poking out of his forehead. “Looks like y’all had a run in with The Dragon, and he was breathing fire.” She shook her head. “At least everyone here is still breathing. This one barely.” She moved the man’s hand away from his face. “Don’t pull it out. You’ll bleed to death.”

“I warned you, didn’t I?” Colin helped the leader to a sitting position and used the man’s belt as a tourniquet.

The young man cursed. “He’s bad news for sure.”

“So, it was the same guy?”

“Yep. Came out of that apartment complex behind us.”

As soon as the ambulance pulled into the alley, Cassidy followed Colin into the apartment complex. A few moments spent with a drowsy manager and they knew which apartment Blake Russell had rented.

“The man always paid cash,” the woman said, tightening a stained yellow terry cloth robe around her faded nightgown. “Kept to himself and never gave me a lick of trouble. Not like some of my other tenants.”

She led them up the stairs and into an apartment reeking of bleach. “See? The place is spotless. Just like him.”

Cassidy cast her an incredulous look. If only the woman knew. “Don’t you do background checks on your tenants?”

“I done told you he paid cash. That’s all I care about. Y’all let yourselves out.” She turned and shuffled back down the stairs.

Cassidy stepped into the sparcely furnished room, snapping gloves onto her hands. “He cleaned it in anticipation of us coming.”

“Probably to remove that poor girl’s DNA.” Colin moved to the window. “He’s got a clear view of the street and the prostitutes from here. My guess is…he’d chosen her, whether to die or for company, I don’t know.”

“He did a lot more than that.” Cassidy peered under the sleeper sofa and pulled out a slip of paper torn from a receipt. In girlish scrawl was the name Maureen. “Either she shared my mother’s name or that’s what he chose to call her.”

Blake Russell seemed to be spiralling into decline, especially if he had taken to naming his victims by Cassidy’s mother’s name. She pushed to her feet and headed to the one other room in the place. The bathroom.

She opened the medicine cabinet to find it empty. Same with the small closet on the other side of the wall. It was as if no one had lived there. Another deadend as far as clues went. Still, they’d have the crime scene investigators scope the place. They knew Blake was their man, but every clue that backed that up made putting him behind bars easier.

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